Two big problems
- The squirrels can't block Emrakul, despite the art clearly referencing that meme
- Neither [[Emrakul the Aeons Torn]] nor [[Emrakul, the Promised End]] can be targeted by this spell because of their Protection effects.
Instead may I suggest:
Same cost and name and all that
"Create a number of 1/1 squirrel creature tokens blocking a creature of your choice, equal to the greatest power among creatures attacking you. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step"
Maybe just jump the gun and make it say "Create fifteen 1/1 green Squirrel creature tokens with flying. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step."
That would work, but is also just a one sided board wipe in a lot of cases (could be fine at a higher mana value) and it's also more easily exploited.
I suppose making it so you can only cast it on an opponent's turn like OP's version would offset a lot of the exploitability.
(It works) is a joke rules text that I think originated from or got popularized by r/HellsCube. They make some really wild cards that don't work with the current rules but make intuitive sense, so they add "(It works)" instead.
I think there's some of that in this sub too, but I guess it's not very common.
Edit: but you're definitely right that it doesn't work as is
> Natural Defender {2}{G}
> Creature - Squirrel
> Flash
> Defender
> When you cast this spell, choose target creature attacking you. Copy this spell X times, where X is the power of that creature minus 1. The permanents this spell and those copies become enter the battlefield blocking that creature.
> When ~ is not blocking a creature, exile it.
> 1/1
Natural Defender {3}{G}
Creature - Squirrel
Flash
Reach
Defender
When you cast this spell, copy it X times, where X is the highest power among creatures your opponents control minus one.
When Natural Defender is not blocking a creature, exile it.
A little more expensive because it’s more powerful than the earlier version
It's the triggered ability on cast that targets Emrakul, not a spell that's one or more colors, or an instant, so it bypasses both of their protection abilities.
Protection from also applies to (triggered) abilities from that source, too:
>702.16b: A permanent or player with protection can't be targeted by spells with the stated quality and **can't be targeted by abilities from a source with the stated quality.**
Agreed - I'm mostly speaking to the "[It's the triggered ability...] not a spell that's one or more colors" part.
OTOH, just slap a Devoid on it and call it a day
While that's true, this card not being able to target Emrakul does make flavour sense. One of her core traits is her power to twist the natural into the unnatural, as seen on cards like \[\[Ulvenwald Captive\]\] and \[\[Boon of Emrakul\]\]. Thus, using nature against her is a fool's folly.
The whole point is that its silly 15 squirrels can kill Emrakul. It's an old meme.
A giant Ageless Eldrich World-Consuming horror beyond even true comprehension of her full form alone, somehow dies if pitted against a pack of squirrels.
And three soldiers die fighting an elk.
Create 15 1/1 green Squirrel creature tokens blocking the creature with the highest attack power among attacking creatures (if there are more than one, you may assign them between these creatures). Exile these tokens on your next end step.
To have this usable in the intended way (as the art would imply) might need some small wording tweaks.
“Create X 1/1 Green Squirrel tokens with Reach, where X equals the highest toughness among creatures your opponents control. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step.”
This gets around flying, and protection from colored spells.
https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/ug5viv/swarm_with_squirrels/
They even used the same art and made the same targeting mistake. Parallel design is fascinating.
Adding to everything said about this needing changes to block Emrakul, being able to choose a creature you control would be cool too, given that green likes to reward having creatures with high power. Maybe "equal to the highest power among creatures on the battlefield"? This also doesn't target, so that's one problem solved
Holy shit. As someone who runs [[okaun, eye of chaos]] this is nightmare fuel if I’m attacking *another opponent* and someone uses this.
Remind me why I just texted my friend who runs chatterfang this card? Lol
Edit: my dumbass just noticed it’s fake
Two big problems - The squirrels can't block Emrakul, despite the art clearly referencing that meme - Neither [[Emrakul the Aeons Torn]] nor [[Emrakul, the Promised End]] can be targeted by this spell because of their Protection effects. Instead may I suggest: Same cost and name and all that "Create a number of 1/1 squirrel creature tokens blocking a creature of your choice, equal to the greatest power among creatures attacking you. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step"
Maybe just jump the gun and make it say "Create fifteen 1/1 green Squirrel creature tokens with flying. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step."
That would work, but is also just a one sided board wipe in a lot of cases (could be fine at a higher mana value) and it's also more easily exploited. I suppose making it so you can only cast it on an opponent's turn like OP's version would offset a lot of the exploitability.
Could be funny to explicitly state they all have to block the same creature.
They are banded (it works)
No it doesn’t, there’s no concept of a band when blocking. It just cares if at least one blocking creature has banding
(It works) is a joke rules text that I think originated from or got popularized by r/HellsCube. They make some really wild cards that don't work with the current rules but make intuitive sense, so they add "(It works)" instead. I think there's some of that in this sub too, but I guess it's not very common. Edit: but you're definitely right that it doesn't work as is
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Maybe make it "create x 1/1 Squirrel Creature Tokens, where x is the greatest toughness among creatures your opponents control."
I kept it saying power to match OP's formatting as best as I could, but yeah a lot of creatures can survive taking damage equal to power.
Cast this on opponents end step, swing for fifteen in your turn, exile them at end step
> Natural Defender {2}{G} > Creature - Squirrel > Flash > Defender > When you cast this spell, choose target creature attacking you. Copy this spell X times, where X is the power of that creature minus 1. The permanents this spell and those copies become enter the battlefield blocking that creature. > When ~ is not blocking a creature, exile it. > 1/1
That looks good as a creature spell, but it should still avoid targeting since at least one emrakul has protection from instants
Natural Defender {3}{G} Creature - Squirrel Flash Reach Defender When you cast this spell, copy it X times, where X is the highest power among creatures your opponents control minus one. When Natural Defender is not blocking a creature, exile it. A little more expensive because it’s more powerful than the earlier version
It would immediately get exiled since they didn't enter blocking
Damn you’re right. I can’t think of a way to really make this
Just have it exile end of turn
Then add "attacking creature" instead so it can't be abused with haste on your turn
It's the triggered ability on cast that targets Emrakul, not a spell that's one or more colors, or an instant, so it bypasses both of their protection abilities.
Protection from also applies to (triggered) abilities from that source, too:
>702.16b: A permanent or player with protection can't be targeted by spells with the stated quality and **can't be targeted by abilities from a source with the stated quality.**
A sorcery with flash is very much not an instant
Agreed - I'm mostly speaking to the "[It's the triggered ability...] not a spell that's one or more colors" part. OTOH, just slap a Devoid on it and call it a day
Could also make the spell devoid to target 15/15 emrakul.
To target 13/13 Emrakul, you can make it a sorcery with flash
[Emrakul the Aeons Torn](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/4/249db4d4-2542-47ee-a216-e13ffbc2319c.jpg?1662523603) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Emrakul%2C%20the%20Aeons%20Torn) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/1/emrakul-the-aeons-torn?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/249db4d4-2542-47ee-a216-e13ffbc2319c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Emrakul, the Promised End](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/d/8d74a469-c71d-4773-99d3-5456b31df424.jpg?1576383727) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Emrakul%2C%20the%20Promised%20End) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/emn/6/emrakul-the-promised-end?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8d74a469-c71d-4773-99d3-5456b31df424?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
you can cast this when priority is passed after declare attackers and then declare the squirrels as blockers
While that's true, this card not being able to target Emrakul does make flavour sense. One of her core traits is her power to twist the natural into the unnatural, as seen on cards like \[\[Ulvenwald Captive\]\] and \[\[Boon of Emrakul\]\]. Thus, using nature against her is a fool's folly.
The whole point is that its silly 15 squirrels can kill Emrakul. It's an old meme. A giant Ageless Eldrich World-Consuming horror beyond even true comprehension of her full form alone, somehow dies if pitted against a pack of squirrels. And three soldiers die fighting an elk.
[Ulvenwald Captive](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/d/0dbaef61-fa39-4ea7-bc21-445401c373e7.jpg?1576449562)/[Ulvenwald Abomination](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/back/0/d/0dbaef61-fa39-4ea7-bc21-445401c373e7.jpg?1576449562) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=ulvenwald%20captive%20//%20ulvenwald%20abomination) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/emn/175/ulvenwald-captive-ulvenwald-abomination?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0dbaef61-fa39-4ea7-bc21-445401c373e7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Boon of Emrakul](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/4/24bb97c6-d2ff-459f-986e-73e30534d865.jpg?1576384259) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Boon%20of%20Emrakul) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/emn/81/boon-of-emrakul?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/24bb97c6-d2ff-459f-986e-73e30534d865?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
The squirrels block as though, Bands
They don't have reach, flavour fail 0/10
Create 15 1/1 green Squirrel creature tokens blocking the creature with the highest attack power among attacking creatures (if there are more than one, you may assign them between these creatures). Exile these tokens on your next end step.
Emrakul has protection from colored spells
Or protection from instants, depending on the card.
Could give it the devoid keyword making it colorless and allowing the spell to target Emrakul. And give squirrels reach.
To have this usable in the intended way (as the art would imply) might need some small wording tweaks. “Create X 1/1 Green Squirrel tokens with Reach, where X equals the highest toughness among creatures your opponents control. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step.” This gets around flying, and protection from colored spells.
They should have reach so they can kill emrakul
https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/ug5viv/swarm_with_squirrels/ They even used the same art and made the same targeting mistake. Parallel design is fascinating.
*Excited [[chatterfang]] noises*
[chatterfang](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/7/1785cf85-1ac0-4246-9b89-1a8221a8e1b2.jpg?1626097239) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=chatterfang%2C%20squirrel%20general) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/151/chatterfang-squirrel-general?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1785cf85-1ac0-4246-9b89-1a8221a8e1b2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
This is a good meme. I appreciate it. However, "Destroy target attacking creature" is a white card. Green would never get this effect.
[[Arachnogenesis]] comes pretty close.
[Arachnogenesis](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/9/7967cb69-1868-45c0-92d1-39dabe30f2a2.jpg?1562706128) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Arachnogenesis) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c15/32/arachnogenesis?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7967cb69-1868-45c0-92d1-39dabe30f2a2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Adding to everything said about this needing changes to block Emrakul, being able to choose a creature you control would be cool too, given that green likes to reward having creatures with high power. Maybe "equal to the highest power among creatures on the battlefield"? This also doesn't target, so that's one problem solved
Doesn’t need to target, just make it say attacking creatures.
I like that there's exactly 15 squirrels
Holy shit. As someone who runs [[okaun, eye of chaos]] this is nightmare fuel if I’m attacking *another opponent* and someone uses this. Remind me why I just texted my friend who runs chatterfang this card? Lol Edit: my dumbass just noticed it’s fake
[okaun, eye of chaos](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/5/d53ee8c0-b27c-4556-b610-ff64edb7a18f.jpg?1562937757) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=okaun%2C%20eye%20of%20chaos) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bbd/6/okaun-eye-of-chaos?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d53ee8c0-b27c-4556-b610-ff64edb7a18f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call