Enough is Enough with Baral

Something tells me I should stick to the silver tier for as long as I can. I haven't seen this at all where I am.

Agreed, he's such an annoying card to play against or with. (and I own him)

It's been suggested multiple times; change him to charge spells by 3 at the start of your turn instead of when drawn. This prevents the endless looping while opening up the strategy of charging expensive spells over multiple turns.

He would still be very strong but not ridiculous infinite loop annoying.

3 solutions to fix Baral:

reduce the mana gained from entering the battlefield and drawing a spell from 3 to 2
OR
if a spell is at full mana as a result of mana gained from Baral, that spell loses 1 mana
OR
increase the cost of the 10 or so problematic spells of cost 3 or less to 4 or more

Option 3 is the best option as it does not touch Baral and thus people wont be demanding refunds. To implement that and curb the endless loops
the following cards need to have their cost adjusted to 4:

natural connection
costal discovery
stratus walk
negate
scatter to the winds
imprisoned in the moon (this card needs its cost to be increased to at least 6 and up to 9)
transgress the mind
whispers of emrakul

imprisoned in the moon - what were they thinking when they made this cost 3? This is by far the most obsurd card cost translation in the game.
Black has a few good removal spells at 5 (which is color appropriate), there are a few conditional ones at 6, most other colored removal is 8 or 9, and colorless at 12...so what made the dev team think that 3 was good for a blue spell?! It MUST be increased to 8 or 9, considering turn to frog is 9 and this is arguably better as it is, and some PWs can get up to 8 in a single gem match.

Another possible way to nerf this guy is to make it so he can ONLY load blue spells.

No colourless, no red, no black, no white, definitely no green, JUST blue.

MTG_Mage wrote:

3 solutions to fix Baral:

reduce the mana gained from entering the battlefield and drawing a spell from 3 to 2
OR
if a spell is at full mana as a result of mana gained from Baral, that spell loses 1 mana
OR
increase the cost of the 10 or so problematic spells of cost 3 or less to 4 or more

Option 3 is the best option as it does not touch Baral and thus people wont be demanding refunds. To implement that and curb the endless loops
the following cards need to have their cost adjusted to 4:

natural connection
costal discovery
stratus walk
negate
scatter to the winds
imprisoned in the moon (this card needs its cost to be increased to at least 6 and up to 9)
transgress the mind
whispers of emrakul

imprisoned in the moon - what were they thinking when they made this cost 3? This is by far the most obsurd card cost translation in the game.
Black has a few good removal spells at 5 (which is color appropriate), there are a few conditional ones at 6, most other colored removal is 8 or 9, and colorless at 12...so what made the dev team think that 3 was good for a blue spell?! It MUST be increased to 8 or 9, considering turn to frog is 9 and this is arguably better as it is, and some PWs can get up to 8 in a single gem match.

People haven't had much to say about it, but the solution I, personally, prefer for him is simply to change his second ability from drawing a card whenever you cast a spell to drawing a card whenever you discard a card. I think people don't see the benefit immediately, but here are a couple of instances where this is handy:

Mad Prophet, Sphinx's Tutelage and cards like them now are discard a card, draw two cards.
Cathartic Reunion is discard two cards, draw 5 cards
Skeleton Key would give unblockable and discard a card then draw a card
Lightning Axe would deal 6 damage to a creature for the cost of discarding a card then drawing a card
Wharf Infiltrator and Smuggler's Copter would discard then draw 2 cards when they attack
Crow of Dark Tidings would discard a card when it dies, convert 3 gems to black, then you draw a card
Wolf of Devil's Breach would discard a card, deal 5 damage to your opponent and each of your opponent's creatures, then draw

That's just some of what you can trigger on your own, not to mention the benefit you get when your opponent casts a card like Transgress the Mind/Whispers of Emrakul/Infinite Obliteration, of if you're playing against Origins Liliana where the AI spams her first ability whenever possible.

AresOmega wrote:

Oh my Lord, no. Olivia would have no drawbacks to casting her. Saheeli + Baral + Olivia *shudder*

Eew, true.... I don't own Olivia so didn't think of that interaction. I rescind my previous suggestion, unless they also take my Olivia nerfs as well (she doesn't buff herself, gives a smaller buff, and doesn't grant flying or lifelink)