I have created a series of mechanics for my own custom set and I was wondering how balanced they are in comparison to mechanics that already exist. The block is heavily tribal themed, similar to Lorwyn/Shadowmoor but with only 5 tribes as of right now, each taking up one of the allied color pairs.
Two of the tribes are using returning mechanics. The BR tribe of Demonic Soldiers use Bloodthirst, and have a very "Suicide Black" sub-theme going on. And the UB tribe of Faeries, primarily based on the "Unseelie Court" have Evoke as their mechanic, while mainly being focused on more of a library depletion subtheme.
The other 3 tribes each have their own mechanic, as follows:
GW a tribe of Human soldiers and knights, themed after the Riders of Rohan in LotR. Their mechanic is Mount.
Mount (Whenever this creature enters the battlefield, put a 0/1 colorless Horse creature token onto the battlefield attached to it. As long as it remains attached, CARDNAME is considered Mounted.)
There are several rules governing the tokens abilities while attached to its rider, but the basic gist of it, is that while attached, it cannot be declared as an attacker or blocker separately, in all respects it is basically an Aura/Equipment, but within the rules of MtG I cant think of a presedence on how to show that on a card without needing 2 extra paragraphs. The Horse since it is a creature can be targeted via kill spells, and suffer from sweepers like Anger of the Gods or Drown in Sorrow. Also, whenever the Rider is killed, the Horse is exiled, since usually in reality whenever a Cavalry soldier was killed in battle, his horse usually doesnt pick up his weapon and charge across the battlefield in vengeance.
Eloth's Royal Guard 2GW
Creature - Human Knight
Mount
Other Mounted creatures you control get +1/+1.
3/3
Horse-lord Eloth 4GW
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
Mount
Mounted Creatures you control have Double Strike.
4/4
Next up, we have the UW tribe of Bird people, similar to the Aven of previous sets. Basically Humanoid Birdfolk of same rough size as Humans, that live along the ocean cliffs, and mostly have a monastic culture. Their Mechanic is Flock.
Flock (Whenever this creature attacks or blocks it gets +1/+1 for each other attacking or blocking creature with Pack you control.)
It is basically a reverse of Exalted, which originally was my intended mechanic, but I wanted something that matched the "Birds" theme. As printed, I am not sure how powerful this ability is, and it might need some tweaking, but I would like to stick with the "strength in numbers" aspect of Flock.
Feather Knight Falcos 1UW
Legendary Creature - Bird Soldier
Flock
Flying
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to an opponent, put that many 1/1 Blue and White Bird creature tokens with flying into play.
2/2
Last, we have the RG tribe of barbaric Humanoids. At the moment they are Human Barbarians, Berserkers, and Shaman, however I have thought several times of swapping them to either Ogres or Orcs to match the setting. But for the purposes of this thread Ill leave them at Human. Their mechanic is Might.
Might <cost> (Whenever this creature deals damage, you may pay <cost>, if you do, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Functionally, it is a variant of Level Up, that can be done only after dealing damage, whether from combat or via other means. The cost for the most part is kept low--1-2 mana at most--but there is a few I have thought of having the Might cost being somewhat high, either for mechanical reasons (double strike), or as the Junk Common slot that only sees play in Limited.
Drakahn Fireblood R
Creature - Human Barbarian
Might R
2/1
Khan Drakanni 4RG
Legendary Creature - Human Berserker
Might RG
First Strike, Trample, Haste
Whenever a +1/+1 counter is put onto ~, you may put a +1/+1 counter onto each other creature you control.
6/3
Whelp, thats the mechanics I would like your input on. Since I teased a few cards of each tribes, I may as well give you a few examples of stuff from the other 2 tribes.
BR Demon tribe with Bloodthirst.
Skarrophage B
Creature - Demon Zombie
At the beginning of your upkeep, tap Skarrophage unless you pay 1 life.
Bloodthirst 1
2/1
Skar, the Lifetaker 3BR
Legendary Creature - Demon Soldier
Other creatures spells you control have Bloodthirst 2.
TAP: ~ deals two damage to target creature or player.
5/5
UB tribe of "Unseelie Fey" focusing on library depletion with the Evoke mechanic.
Thought Stealer UB
Creature - Faerie Mystic
Flying
Whenever ~ enters the battlefield or dies, target player puts the top two cards of their library into their graveyard.
Evoke U
1/2
Unseelie Torturer 3UBB
Creature - Faerie Wizard
Flying
Whenever Unseelie Torturer enters the battlefield, each other creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of cards in target opponents graveyard.
Evoke 1UBB
3/3
Mount has been thrown around a lot of times here and I don't think I've ever seen an elegant solution that works within the rules. The biggest reason is that creatures can't be attached to things. Your reminder text definitely doesn't cover the exiling of the horse when the rider dies, and there's nothing in your explanation about attacking or blocking, since this seems to be a top down design.
Mounts are an age old riddle that's never really been solved (bestow might be the closest IMO). As such, I'm not touching that one.
Flock is pretty parasitic (it only works with this one set that has flock). Is there a reason this couldn't, say, look for other creatures that share a creature type? Or if you wanted to make it very narrow, just look for birds? That way it could at least play with other cards.
Might is a decent ability. You'll have to do a little work to make it seem appealing though, as this ability without a bonus is usually free. (Sliths, Innistrad vampires, etc.)
However, Might and Bloodthirst seem like a bit of a non-bo in this set. I mean, they both want your creatures to connect, but they fight over how your mana is going to be spent once you do.
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It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
Grim DestrierG
Creature - Horse Spirit
Mount (Whenever this creature attacks or blocks, you may choose another attacking or blocking creature you control to ride it until end of combat. Any creature that blocks or is blocked by either mount or rider blocks or is blocked by both.)
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to Grim Destrier when it has a rider.
1/1
Aesa, Steed of the Thousand Leagues2UW
Legendary Creature - Horse
Mount (Whenever this creature attacks or blocks, you may choose another attacking or blocking creature you control to ride it until end of combat. Any creature that blocks or is blocked by either mount or rider blocks or is blocked by both.)
~ and its rider have flying and vigilance.
3/3
Mount (Whenever this creature attacks or blocks, you may choose another attacking or blocking creature you control to ride it until end of combat. Any creature that blocks or is blocked by either mount or rider blocks or is blocked by both.)
It's alright, I suppose, but it plays rather unintuitively when exactly one of either the mount or the rider has an evasion ability. You'd just block the one without the evasion ability, and the mount ability states something that's true about the blocker that blocks the guy without the evasion ability, making it block the one that has the evasion ability as well (even though it couldn't block it in the first place).
Speaking of evasion abilities, some evasion abilities should take precedence on the rider, and others on the mount. For example, it shouldn't matter if the rider has flying, as it's riding on something that doesn't have flying, so the two as a unit can't fly even though the rider individually can.
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[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format Minimum deck size: 60 Maximum number of identical cards: 4 Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
Mount is not bad at all. You just need to find some wording that's clear and concise enough. I'd also make the tokens 1/1s (or maybe 0/2s) so they are a little more useful. Here is a similar idea, for what it's worth...
Armed (This creature enters play with an equipment artifact token attached to it. It has "Equip 1" and "Equipped creature gets +1/+1.")
Flock is obviously parasitic in nature, which is not necessarily a problem, but it seems out of place since none of the other abilities in your set are like that. It also seems like a stretch for blue. I like the name, though.
I would have Might trigger on damage to creatures only, to make it more distinct and different from Bloodthirst. In that case, you could possibly remove the mana cost, or have different effects (for example, "Might — Whenever this deals combat damage to a creature, you may pay 3R. If you do, that creature's controller sacrifices a land").
Two of the tribes are using returning mechanics. The BR tribe of Demonic Soldiers use Bloodthirst, and have a very "Suicide Black" sub-theme going on. And the UB tribe of Faeries, primarily based on the "Unseelie Court" have Evoke as their mechanic, while mainly being focused on more of a library depletion subtheme.
The other 3 tribes each have their own mechanic, as follows:
GW a tribe of Human soldiers and knights, themed after the Riders of Rohan in LotR. Their mechanic is Mount.
Mount (Whenever this creature enters the battlefield, put a 0/1 colorless Horse creature token onto the battlefield attached to it. As long as it remains attached, CARDNAME is considered Mounted.)
There are several rules governing the tokens abilities while attached to its rider, but the basic gist of it, is that while attached, it cannot be declared as an attacker or blocker separately, in all respects it is basically an Aura/Equipment, but within the rules of MtG I cant think of a presedence on how to show that on a card without needing 2 extra paragraphs. The Horse since it is a creature can be targeted via kill spells, and suffer from sweepers like Anger of the Gods or Drown in Sorrow. Also, whenever the Rider is killed, the Horse is exiled, since usually in reality whenever a Cavalry soldier was killed in battle, his horse usually doesnt pick up his weapon and charge across the battlefield in vengeance.
Creature - Human Knight
Mount
Other Mounted creatures you control get +1/+1.
3/3
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
Mount
Mounted Creatures you control have Double Strike.
4/4
Next up, we have the UW tribe of Bird people, similar to the Aven of previous sets. Basically Humanoid Birdfolk of same rough size as Humans, that live along the ocean cliffs, and mostly have a monastic culture. Their Mechanic is Flock.
Flock (Whenever this creature attacks or blocks it gets +1/+1 for each other attacking or blocking creature with Pack you control.)
It is basically a reverse of Exalted, which originally was my intended mechanic, but I wanted something that matched the "Birds" theme. As printed, I am not sure how powerful this ability is, and it might need some tweaking, but I would like to stick with the "strength in numbers" aspect of Flock.
Legendary Creature - Bird Soldier
Flock
Flying
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to an opponent, put that many 1/1 Blue and White Bird creature tokens with flying into play.
2/2
Last, we have the RG tribe of barbaric Humanoids. At the moment they are Human Barbarians, Berserkers, and Shaman, however I have thought several times of swapping them to either Ogres or Orcs to match the setting. But for the purposes of this thread Ill leave them at Human. Their mechanic is Might.
Might <cost> (Whenever this creature deals damage, you may pay <cost>, if you do, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Functionally, it is a variant of Level Up, that can be done only after dealing damage, whether from combat or via other means. The cost for the most part is kept low--1-2 mana at most--but there is a few I have thought of having the Might cost being somewhat high, either for mechanical reasons (double strike), or as the Junk Common slot that only sees play in Limited.
Creature - Human Barbarian
Might R
2/1
Legendary Creature - Human Berserker
Might RG
First Strike, Trample, Haste
Whenever a +1/+1 counter is put onto ~, you may put a +1/+1 counter onto each other creature you control.
6/3
Whelp, thats the mechanics I would like your input on. Since I teased a few cards of each tribes, I may as well give you a few examples of stuff from the other 2 tribes.
BR Demon tribe with Bloodthirst.
Creature - Demon Zombie
At the beginning of your upkeep, tap Skarrophage unless you pay 1 life.
Bloodthirst 1
2/1
Legendary Creature - Demon Soldier
Other creatures spells you control have Bloodthirst 2.
TAP: ~ deals two damage to target creature or player.
5/5
UB tribe of "Unseelie Fey" focusing on library depletion with the Evoke mechanic.
Creature - Faerie Mystic
Flying
Whenever ~ enters the battlefield or dies, target player puts the top two cards of their library into their graveyard.
Evoke U
1/2
Unseelie Torturer 3UBB
Creature - Faerie Wizard
Flying
Whenever Unseelie Torturer enters the battlefield, each other creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of cards in target opponents graveyard.
Evoke 1UBB
3/3
Flock is pretty parasitic (it only works with this one set that has flock). Is there a reason this couldn't, say, look for other creatures that share a creature type? Or if you wanted to make it very narrow, just look for birds? That way it could at least play with other cards.
Might is a decent ability. You'll have to do a little work to make it seem appealing though, as this ability without a bonus is usually free. (Sliths, Innistrad vampires, etc.)
However, Might and Bloodthirst seem like a bit of a non-bo in this set. I mean, they both want your creatures to connect, but they fight over how your mana is going to be spent once you do.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
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Grim Destrier G
Creature - Horse Spirit
Mount (Whenever this creature attacks or blocks, you may choose another attacking or blocking creature you control to ride it until end of combat. Any creature that blocks or is blocked by either mount or rider blocks or is blocked by both.)
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to Grim Destrier when it has a rider.
1/1
Aesa, Steed of the Thousand Leagues 2UW
Legendary Creature - Horse
Mount (Whenever this creature attacks or blocks, you may choose another attacking or blocking creature you control to ride it until end of combat. Any creature that blocks or is blocked by either mount or rider blocks or is blocked by both.)
~ and its rider have flying and vigilance.
3/3
It's alright, I suppose, but it plays rather unintuitively when exactly one of either the mount or the rider has an evasion ability. You'd just block the one without the evasion ability, and the mount ability states something that's true about the blocker that blocks the guy without the evasion ability, making it block the one that has the evasion ability as well (even though it couldn't block it in the first place).
Speaking of evasion abilities, some evasion abilities should take precedence on the rider, and others on the mount. For example, it shouldn't matter if the rider has flying, as it's riding on something that doesn't have flying, so the two as a unit can't fly even though the rider individually can.
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format
Minimum deck size: 60
Maximum number of identical cards: 4
Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
Armed (This creature enters play with an equipment artifact token attached to it. It has "Equip 1" and "Equipped creature gets +1/+1.")
Flock is obviously parasitic in nature, which is not necessarily a problem, but it seems out of place since none of the other abilities in your set are like that. It also seems like a stretch for blue. I like the name, though.
I would have Might trigger on damage to creatures only, to make it more distinct and different from Bloodthirst. In that case, you could possibly remove the mana cost, or have different effects (for example, "Might — Whenever this deals combat damage to a creature, you may pay 3R. If you do, that creature's controller sacrifices a land").
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