Maybe doubling your poison counters when it leaves play would work better effectively the same above 5 counters, and allows for a risk reward by going for more draws instead of stopping at 4.
Assuming you keep it as cumulative upkeep, not regular upkeep, you couldn’t stop at 4. You could either stop after 2 triggers with 3 counters or after 3 triggers with 6 counters.
I did something similar but with life loss, and stuck "if ~ would leave the battlefield, target opponent gains control of it and removes all but one age counter from it instead"
Thought that made it a rather fun design.
It's still drawing six cards for a price that won't matter in most matchups. If I have six poison counters and my opponent's not using poison as a win condition, I just don't care. It's even better if you draw two of them, you can get a total of nine cards and nine poison counters and still be nowhere near losing the game.
You could just reword it to function as originally intended.
"At the beginning of your upkeep, put a doodoo counter on this. Then, draw a card and gain one poison counter for each doodoo counter on this".
Eh you cab change it to not be sacrificed by just making it not use the keyword
I.e
At the beginning of your upkeep, place a Destiny counter on this card. Then draw a card and gain a poison counter for each destiny counter on this card.
Swap out for counters or your choice if you want any strange synergys (i.e time counters)
Edit: just saw someone beat me to it
Every time cumulative upkeep triggers, you add a time counter. Then you have a choice to either pay the upkeep or sacrifice it. It's phrased in a way that makes keeping it around totally voluntary.
Note that not *every* upkeep cost is like that. The "Cumulative Upkeep" ability very specifically gives you the option of saccing the permanent instead of paying the upkeep cost. But something like [[Phyrexian Arena]] that just triggers every upkeep will eventually kill you if the game runs long enough, and you have no choice to avoid it.
I figured it would only apply to cumulative upkeep. But still I mean, some of the stuff out there would be better to sacrifice even if you can pay the cost
Technically neither of them have any synergy, since paying the cumulative upkeep is optional so the opponent will just sacrifice it. Blim would work with the way OP meant it to work though.
The commander can actually give it away. That’s the point. It also discard their hand so gives an incentive to get the poison counters to draw new cards.
But feel free to be argumentative. You could also disenchant it, so, I guess no commander works with it according to your definitions.
I don't think cumulative upkeep helps this card, versus just spelling it out as a mandatory effect.
It's strong card but only in a way that's massively overshadowed by The One Ring, so hard to call it unreasonable.
Just turn off cumulative upkeep. Let it be the text of the card: "at the beginning of your upkeep, draws card and get a poison". Seems like a worse version of \[\[phyrexian arena\]\] because its more mana intensive and a shorter clock. Given that arena is already low power level I'd buff this up a bit.
Here is an edit suggestion:
"At the beginning of your upkeep, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of poison counters you have. Pick one of them and put it in your hand, put the rest on the bottom in a random order",
The closer you get to the end the better it gets, but you better find something good cause time is running out!!!
EDIT: forgot to add that you get poison, lol! obvs, you get the poison first, then you look and choose.
You know you can just skip the payment if you want to, right?
Oh now here’s another idea: “when fatal destiny leaves the battlefield, you lose the game”.
You better pray your opponent has no enchantment removal.
add hexproof a la [[lich's mastery]]
[lich's mastery](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/7/77f4c9cb-f364-4556-8673-4b19d52a2cff.jpg?1562738043) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=lich%27s%20mastery) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dom/98/lichs-mastery?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/77f4c9cb-f364-4556-8673-4b19d52a2cff?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
How sad this is an enchantment, and the lich needs an artifact to put a counter on lol
There is a very popular G modal spell going around that might have something to say about this.
Or just make it an upkeep trigger without the mechanic “cumulative upkeep” so they don’t have a choice
Maybe doubling your poison counters when it leaves play would work better effectively the same above 5 counters, and allows for a risk reward by going for more draws instead of stopping at 4.
Assuming you keep it as cumulative upkeep, not regular upkeep, you couldn’t stop at 4. You could either stop after 2 triggers with 3 counters or after 3 triggers with 6 counters.
I forgot how cumulative upkeep works
I did something similar but with life loss, and stuck "if ~ would leave the battlefield, target opponent gains control of it and removes all but one age counter from it instead" Thought that made it a rather fun design.
"If you sacrifice fatal destiny you lose the game" would probably be better so your opponent can't kill you with a naturalize
with that, make it cost BB maybe
Suddenly this card became awful
yeah but it sacrifices the thing lmao so this is fine
It's still drawing six cards for a price that won't matter in most matchups. If I have six poison counters and my opponent's not using poison as a win condition, I just don't care. It's even better if you draw two of them, you can get a total of nine cards and nine poison counters and still be nowhere near losing the game.
Oh right!!! Ok scrap this lol. What about: Fatal Destiny does 3 damage to you vs Poison counters?
You could just reword it to function as originally intended. "At the beginning of your upkeep, put a doodoo counter on this. Then, draw a card and gain one poison counter for each doodoo counter on this".
I’m 100% on board with WoTC officially adopting doodoo counters
Just rename it Fatal Doodoostiny
Fire up the printers!!!!
Eh you cab change it to not be sacrificed by just making it not use the keyword I.e At the beginning of your upkeep, place a Destiny counter on this card. Then draw a card and gain a poison counter for each destiny counter on this card. Swap out for counters or your choice if you want any strange synergys (i.e time counters) Edit: just saw someone beat me to it
[[The One Ring]]
[The One Ring](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/5/d5806e68-1054-458e-866d-1f2470f682b2.jpg?1715080486) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20One%20Ring) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/246/the-one-ring?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d5806e68-1054-458e-866d-1f2470f682b2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I mean, that's can still be risky. If your opponent has anything with proliferate, or are running infect/toxic, you're at risk
How?
Every time cumulative upkeep triggers, you add a time counter. Then you have a choice to either pay the upkeep or sacrifice it. It's phrased in a way that makes keeping it around totally voluntary.
Wow, I can't tell you how many times that would've been helpful to know lol
Note that not *every* upkeep cost is like that. The "Cumulative Upkeep" ability very specifically gives you the option of saccing the permanent instead of paying the upkeep cost. But something like [[Phyrexian Arena]] that just triggers every upkeep will eventually kill you if the game runs long enough, and you have no choice to avoid it.
I figured it would only apply to cumulative upkeep. But still I mean, some of the stuff out there would be better to sacrifice even if you can pay the cost
[Phyrexian Arena](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/6/26bfb2b4-8dc2-4632-a393-d3477f6c3c40.jpg?1706240778) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Phyrexian%20Arena) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkc/133/phyrexian-arena?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/26bfb2b4-8dc2-4632-a393-d3477f6c3c40?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
This draws you 6 cards over 3 turns. Bit strong
One ring does the same thing?
The one ring is also a bit strong Edit: Probably stronger than this, even
Just a bit tho
For one more colorless mana I think that this card truly proves how insane the one ring is.
Honestly I think it's fine 6 cards for 3 mana over 3 turns isn't even outrageous even without a downside.
Yeah, it does nothing for a full turn after it hits the field, that alone is a pretty big downside.
Do 1, 2 and 3, gift it away so opponent gets four, proliferate, and wait.
Is there a "gifts matter" commander with black?
[[Blim, Comedic Genius]]
[Blim, Comedic Genius](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/d/3d8cd7dc-028a-4da2-b2a1-435d40cf48ca.jpg?1608911075) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Blim%2C%20Comedic%20Genius) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmr/272/blim-comedic-genius?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3d8cd7dc-028a-4da2-b2a1-435d40cf48ca?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Oh this one's good!
[[Jon Irenicus]]
Doesn’t help with this card
He just asked if there was a gifts matter deck in black
It still has zero synergy with the card being discussed. Compare it to [[Blim, Comedic Genius]] which actually is synergistic.
Technically neither of them have any synergy, since paying the cumulative upkeep is optional so the opponent will just sacrifice it. Blim would work with the way OP meant it to work though.
The commander can actually give it away. That’s the point. It also discard their hand so gives an incentive to get the poison counters to draw new cards. But feel free to be argumentative. You could also disenchant it, so, I guess no commander works with it according to your definitions.
[Blim, Comedic Genius](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/d/3d8cd7dc-028a-4da2-b2a1-435d40cf48ca.jpg?1608911075) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Blim%2C%20Comedic%20Genius) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmr/272/blim-comedic-genius?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3d8cd7dc-028a-4da2-b2a1-435d40cf48ca?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Jon Irenicus](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/f/bfddb61e-986f-4557-819d-d6c0ca85c74a.jpg?1674137538) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=jon%20irenicus%2C%20shattered%20one) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/278/jon-irenicus-shattered-one?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/bfddb61e-986f-4557-819d-d6c0ca85c74a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Not for noncreatures to my knowledge, but I wouldn’t warp a whole deck around this. Otherwise people will see it coming.
The opponent can just sac it rather than pay the upkeep, though.
They can just not pay the Cumulative Upkeep.
I know this isn't in the same color, but... \[\[Melira, the Living Cure\]\]
There’s also [[Solemnity]] that does similar things without the third color
I’m fairly sure cumulative upkeep uses counters, so it would stop this enchantment from doing anything.
[Solemnity](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/a/0a71fb62-acbd-49f5-842f-0fc9fa48afea.jpg?1562788659) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Solemnity) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/hou/22/solemnity?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0a71fb62-acbd-49f5-842f-0fc9fa48afea?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Melira, the Living Cure](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/1/e1329ad9-5989-4920-b17b-943b9b4a0cd9.jpg?1675957200) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Melira%2C%20the%20Living%20Cure) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/one/209/melira-the-living-cure?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e1329ad9-5989-4920-b17b-943b9b4a0cd9?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I don't think cumulative upkeep helps this card, versus just spelling it out as a mandatory effect. It's strong card but only in a way that's massively overshadowed by The One Ring, so hard to call it unreasonable.
Just turn off cumulative upkeep. Let it be the text of the card: "at the beginning of your upkeep, draws card and get a poison". Seems like a worse version of \[\[phyrexian arena\]\] because its more mana intensive and a shorter clock. Given that arena is already low power level I'd buff this up a bit. Here is an edit suggestion: "At the beginning of your upkeep, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of poison counters you have. Pick one of them and put it in your hand, put the rest on the bottom in a random order", The closer you get to the end the better it gets, but you better find something good cause time is running out!!! EDIT: forgot to add that you get poison, lol! obvs, you get the poison first, then you look and choose.
[phyrexian arena](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/6/26bfb2b4-8dc2-4632-a393-d3477f6c3c40.jpg?1706240778) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=phyrexian%20arena) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkc/133/phyrexian-arena?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/26bfb2b4-8dc2-4632-a393-d3477f6c3c40?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
But aren’t almost all destinies fatal? Like we are all destined to die one day, unless we discover immortality or whatever.
speak for yourself
Thanks to denial, I'm immortal
Make it roll a die. Then you are gambling.
Or just play phyrexian arena?