If you've been following blogatog, blue needs a creature ability for cycles (flying is very strong, see Soul of Ravnica.)
Here are some of my ideas:
Adapt (Whenever this creature becomes blocked, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Blur 2 (Spells your opponents cast that target this creature cost 2 more.)
Caster (This creature can help you cast instant or sorcery spells. Tap it while casting an instant or sorcery to pay for 1.)
Dive (If defending player controls an Island, this creature can't be blocked except by creatures with Dive or Defender.)
3U: Evade target spell an opponent controls (it can't damage or destroy this creature this turn.)
Flash Setup (You may cast this creature anytime you can cast an instant. If you cast this creature during an opponent's turn, it enters the battlefield tapped.)
Adapt - I like the mechanic, but it feels more green to me than blue.
Blur X - I like it as a less annoying hexproof. Plus a similar effect has shown up on blue creatues already (Frost Titan). I would probably just word it as Blur 2, since the cost should probably only ever be colorless. The problem with this being evergreen is that evergreen keywords typically don't have variable values associated with them.
Caster - Essentially the same as tapping for colorless that can only used for instants and sorceries. Also not something that fits very well in a cycle.
Dive - Similar to islandwalk, plus MaRo stated that he wants a non-evasion ability for blue.
Evade - Similar to blur in that I like this mechanic, but I'm not sure it's appropriate for an evergreen cycle. Also feels more white than blue.
Flash Setup - Way too similar to flash.
Of these, the only one I see with the potential to be evergreen is Blur, and even that would have to be tinkered with quite a bit.
Probably the best thing I can think of would be making the freeze-type ability (like on Frost Lynx) evergreen:
Freeze (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, tap that creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.)
This clearly isn't an easy problem to solve, since this is an issue that design has been having for years now.
Ideally, what blue needs is a non-evasion Combat keyword, which would be comparable to Trample, Vigilance, Reach, Deathtouch, and First Strike.
Here are a few options:
Ensnare (Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a creature an opponent controls, tap that creature and it doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step)
Cunning (You choose how damage is divided among creatures blocking this creature)
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Cunning (You choose how damage is divided among creatures blocking this creature)
Can you explain in what ways this is different from normal? Is it M10 deathtouch minus the destruction? The times when that would be useful is when your creature is blocked by multiple creatures and you have a sweeper like Pyroclasm or Nausea that you can cast after combat. It is not really useful in a monoblue deck, and not as useful as a trick as it was pre-M10 if the option to spread out damage has to be sitting on a permanent shouting out "Watch out for post-combat sweepers!"
Yeah, I don't know, it was really just a brainstorm. What if it worked on defense, letting you choose how the attacker assigns his damage among multiple blockers, kind of like Banding used to?
Another ability could be something like this:
Dispel (Creatures blocking or blocked by this creature use only their base power and toughness this combat)
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My only idea was simply taking the Gustcloak Sentinel ability and making it a keyword, as it would be simple enough to be a keyword, but give some extra versatility beyond just "yet another evasion keyword". Something like:
Scouting (Whenever this creature becomes blocked, you may untap it and remove it from combat.)
Ensnare (Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a creature an opponent controls, tap that creature and it doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step)
This is pretty much along the lines of what I suggested, although your wording is better.
Scouting (Whenever this creature becomes blocked, you may untap it and remove it from combat.)
This doesn't seem that bad, although I'm not sure I'm convinced this shouldn't be in white.
Theoretically, I'd probably argue for this to be Blue primary, white secondary or tertiary. The main argument for this not being in white is basically the same as the argument for vigilance not being blue, namely that you'd end up with a lot of the same creatures with the ability in white and blue.
As far as flavor justification goes, Military Intelligence shows that scouting and tactical planning are moving more into blue, or at least getting shared between the two. That said, this ability has historically been in white, so I'm sure there'd be complaining if it was implemented.
I will keep posting this mechanic in every blue creature-related thread until I am banned or I die.
Backstab(Whenever this creature attacks a player and isn't blocked, you may have it assign its combat damage to target creature that player controls.)
Blatantly out of pie? Maybe. I just want blue to have more weird indirect removal via messing with combat.
Hey, speaking of messing with combat, could blue maybe get some kind of reverse-provoke ability? It occasionally gets forced attacking with cards like Alluring Siren and Courtly Provocateur. Could it get more? It'd be a really good overlap.
Taunt(At the beginning of combat on each opponent's turn, you may untap this creature and target creature that player controls. The targeted creature attacks you if able and this creature blocks it if able.)
The untapping and forced blocking are to make it a proper reverse-provoke. It doesn't make much sense for a creature to taunt another into attacking if it's impossible for it to actually block. Of course, it doesn't have to block first, so it can tell another creature its father smelt of elderberries from the safety of the ramparts of a Steel Wall... or something bigger...
I will keep posting this mechanic in every blue creature-related thread until I am banned or I die.
Backstab(Whenever this creature attacks a player and isn't blocked, you may have it assign its combat damage to target creature that player controls.)
Blatantly out of pie? Maybe. I just want blue to have more weird indirect removal via messing with combat.
And I will keep saying for that ability, no mater what color it is, the choice should be made as you declare attackers (or triggered when the creature attacks) so that it functions more intuitively like declaring the creature as attacking a player or planeswalker. If that means that it needs a different name to make the flavor broader, then so be it. The ability would make sense on green creatures too (if not more sense) so it shouldn't be so narrowly flavored as an assassin ability anyway. cunning, assault, maneuver, ploy, intrigue, ...
Hey, speaking of messing with combat, could blue maybe get some kind of reverse-provoke ability? It occasionally gets forced attacking with cards like Alluring Siren and Courtly Provocateur. Could it get more? It'd be a really good overlap.
Taunt(At the beginning of combat on each opponent's turn, you may untap this creature and target creature that player controls. The targeted creature attacks you if able and this creature blocks it if able.)
The untapping and forced blocking are to make it a proper reverse-provoke. It doesn't make much sense for a creature to taunt another into attacking if it's impossible for it to actually block. Of course, it doesn't have to block first, so it can tell another creature its father smelt of elderberries from the safety of the ramparts of a Steel Wall... or something bigger...
Alluring Siren and Courtly Provocateur both tap for their abilities. You need another creature if you want to block and kill the attacker. That is a big difference between red and blue uses of this mechanic. I don't think a monoblue creature should be able to both taunt and block like Heckling Fiends.
Ensnare is the best choice in my opinion. Tacked on a high toughness / low power creature it's always going to be useful and even in balanced creature it has some utility in disabling big defenders. The real issue is that, like death touch, it doesn't do much in a large 6/6 cycle creature.
The other issue is that, ideally, this new keyword for blue should also be secondary in red so UR shares a keyword for multicolor cards.
Backstab sounds good on paper, I feel like testing it. Some people feel it is out of pie but that's what I like about it. Blue being the color that have the least creature removal is the perfect place for the creature removal keyword. About it fitting green I disagree. The similarity to fight is a reason to keep it away from green. Nobody wants a bunch of overlapping effects in the same color. Also a crucial point of green removal is that the fighting creature have to suffer the power of the opponent's creature as well, which is not the case with backstab.
The biggest problem with backstab (aside from my timing complaint) is that it is a rather strong repeated removal ability, so it can't be used at common and can't be used on too many cards or it would become really oppressive. That means at best it might be okay as an non-keyworded ability on a few uncommons and rares and doesn't fit the need here.
"blue doesn't get creature removal" is not a good reason to give blue repeatable creature removal. Having said that, what if backstab just did 1 damage regardless of power? (If Aurelia's Fury proved anything, is that creatures are tougher nowadays) mmm, how about:
Backstab (Whenever this deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals 1 damage to target creature. You may have this deal damage to creatures in the form of having that creature's base toughness become 1 until end of turn.)
this is a bit of the 'freezing' effect in blue / 'turn to frog' effect as well: not enough to destroy a creature on its own, but always enough coupled with something else. It also captures the 'flanking' flavor well: I block with 2 creatures, your creature gets flanked and dies. Your creature blocks my creature but this passes? flanked again!
JuanCu: I think you tried to squeeze two ideas into one execution, and it fell flat as a result. The second ability in your keyword is interesting, but most likely too complicated for common.
Ensnare is going to be seen as a weaker deathtouch, and I'm not sure blue's new mechanic wants to be easily compared unfavorably to another. It should tread somewhere nothing else has.
The Gustcloak ability is neat but I'm not sure how it'd be differentiated from white. The mechanic isn't exactly exciting on anything with defensive stats, since the creature would likely survive combat anyway - so the sole variation in white versus blue (white's higher propensity for aggressive creatures like Oreskos Swiftclaw) is made moot by the ability itself. I don't see a compelling argument for it existing beyond a block keyword, because I just can't imagine enough interesting designs for it.
The difficulty is that blue's creatures, spells, and flavor are all about avoiding combat and conflict - so finding a flavorful design space that reflects blue philosophically and mechanically while being a combat keyword is difficult, since 'combat' is so contrary to blue's nature. Perhaps working with this difficulty in mind can help us... what would a non-combatant thrust into battle do? How does the scholar triumph over the soldier in the duel? Luckily, there is a large body of media that serve as powerful inspirations and sources of reference for climactic battles - action movies! And, perhaps surprisingly, many action movie stars have some very blue aspects to them: guile, tactics, and flexibility. Three points to work off of.
Guile - This is mostly going to be evasion, but let's skip past all that design space. Let's pretend that the tricky action star has been cornered. Think of the clever but outmatched heroes of action movies, like Indiana Jones - how do they win a fight? Improvised weapons, underhanded tactics, and sheer cunning.
Tactics - The man with the plan is another stand-by of action movies. The tactician doesn't enter a battle until they already know how to win it. They're often characterized by elaborately seeing ahead and by planning stunning ambushes and gambits - think Sherlock Holmes as played by Robert Downey Jr.
Flexibility - Many action movie stars are able to quickly formulate strategies and improvise weapons using the scenery around them. Their ability to always find a way to fight back, to always think of a way out, is again a blue characteristic. Jackie Chan, for example, is famous for his improvised weapons.
Guile - Tactics - Flexibility. How can we make mechanics inspired by these?
Guile (Prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature by creatures with greater power or toughness than it.)
Capturing the trope of the 'outmatched action hero', this is a pretty potent ability that - weirdly enough - actually almost gets better the weaker the creature is. That feels pretty blue! Right now it's a bit strong, so an argument could be made to remove either power or toughness from the equation. Only looking at power probably makes more sense for blue. This ability works well in white, and luckily, it allows for some good variations across the aggressive/defensive spectrum. Blue would usually get smaller defensive creatures, while white would get aggressive creatures confident that reprisal is more difficult. By giving a new keyword for white and blue to share, it allows blue and black to focus more on sharing flying.
Tactics Advantage (This creature must be blocked if able.)
Understanding the difficulties of blue's design space lead me to an obvious conclusion - just design the exact opposite of an evasion ability! In this case, I thought of a creature that would only attack when it knew the time was right - and it would know the time was right because it would have engineered to fight precisely who it would want to. A handy bonus for this keyword is that it's also a perfect fit in red - so we also could perhaps solve the blue/red overlap problem, too! Its problem, of course, is that it's unprecedented territory for blue. But again, I feel it makes perfect sense - in blue it'd be on defensively oriented creatures, ones who can snipe away without fear of dying in the cross-counter, and that would make it more difficult to block your other creatures. But red Tactics creatures would have nasty power so that when they attack, they know they're at the very least taking something down with them.
Flexibility (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, you may switch its power and toughness until end of turn.)
Now, this is an ability often recommended by designers, so I'll not talk too much about it. Suffice to say that it feels perfectly fitting of the blue flavor of flexibility and adaptability, and that its problems are obvious - layers. And of course it's a possible solution for the red/blue overlap problem, but one with far more precedent.
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I adore Guile, but I think it would be primarily in Blue and secondarily in Black, which is somewhat problematic as and already share flying. Tactics, on the other hand, feels like it could be URG, which would be a "new distribution" for the evergreen colour pie, although the justifications for Tactics in red and green are completely different from the justification for them in blue (red and green would need a different name for the ability, or there would need to be one "flavour-neutral" name for it).
You're right though, being named Tactics does limit the kind of 'characters' it can appear on. A more flavor-neutral name could be "Pursuit" or "Advantage" ("Target creature gains advantage until end of turn" does sound nice!), which can be suitably interpreted as 'predatory' for green flavor.
And I did notice it fit well in the blue-wedge. It would probably have a similar distribution as flying, but inversed from the blue shard to the blue wedge. Fancy that!
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Advantage has a pretty nice ring to it. Primarily in blue, secondarily in red, and teriarily (by a small margin) in green? This is clever. I'd use this as the "blue evergreen combat keyword" until R&D gets their act together (which may well be in KTK, for all we know).
I will keep posting this mechanic in every blue creature-related thread until I am banned or I die.
Backstab(Whenever this creature attacks a player and isn't blocked, you may have it assign its combat damage to target creature that player controls.)
Blatantly out of pie? Maybe. I just want blue to have more weird indirect removal via messing with combat.
And I will keep saying for that ability, no mater what color it is, the choice should be made as you declare attackers (or triggered when the creature attacks) so that it functions more intuitively like declaring the creature as attacking a player or planeswalker. If that means that it needs a different name to make the flavor broader, then so be it. The ability would make sense on green creatures too (if not more sense) so it shouldn't be so narrowly flavored as an assassin ability anyway. cunning, assault, maneuver, ploy, intrigue, ...
The ability only does anything if the creature is unblocked, so that's the most logical time for the ability to trigger. How are you supposed to word it if it triggers on attacking? (Also, do you really have to suck the last remaining bit of intrigue out of the ability? I feel like this is analogous to suggesting everyone should be able to look at face-down morph creatures.)
Hey, speaking of messing with combat, could blue maybe get some kind of reverse-provoke ability? It occasionally gets forced attacking with cards like Alluring Siren and Courtly Provocateur. Could it get more? It'd be a really good overlap.
Taunt(At the beginning of combat on each opponent's turn, you may untap this creature and target creature that player controls. The targeted creature attacks you if able and this creature blocks it if able.)
The untapping and forced blocking are to make it a proper reverse-provoke. It doesn't make much sense for a creature to taunt another into attacking if it's impossible for it to actually block. Of course, it doesn't have to block first, so it can tell another creature its father smelt of elderberries from the safety of the ramparts of a Steel Wall... or something bigger...
Alluring Siren and Courtly Provocateur both tap for their abilities. You need another creature if you want to block and kill the attacker. That is a big difference between red and blue uses of this mechanic. I don't think a monoblue creature should be able to both taunt and block like Heckling Fiends.
True, it's a bit of a bleed in blue's direction, but I think it's an acceptable one. They could be differentiated in the implementation; blue would get more defensive taunters with low power and high toughness (or maybe the Fog Bank, mostly focusing on drawing attackers into stalemates and tapping them down so they can't block during your next turn, while red would get more high power ones that focus on outright killing attackers (and being far more likely to die in the process).
The biggest problem with backstab (aside from my timing complaint) is that it is a rather strong repeated removal ability, so it can't be used at common and can't be used on too many cards or it would become really oppressive. That means at best it might be okay as an non-keyworded ability on a few uncommons and rares and doesn't fit the need here.
I think you're overestimating the ability. It has the potential to generate massive card advantage and dominate the board, but only if it never gets blocked, which is easier said than done. (Keep in mind, at common, these guys probably wouldn't have any built-in evasion, except maybe as an ETB or activated thing.) Scroll Thief and Stealer of Secrets can generate unlimited card advantage the same way, and they're fine at common. The only reason we don't see more Curiosity creatures per set is because having a bunch of them would be degenerate, and that's just because you never really reach a saturation point where the ability becomes less effective. With backstab, you do; once you've cleared the board, you're just left with a bunch of mediocre guys. And keep in mind you haven't been dealing damage to the opponent in the process.
I adore Guile, but I think it would be primarily in Blue and secondarily in Black, which is somewhat problematic as and already share flying. Tactics, on the other hand, feels like it could be URG, which would be a "new distribution" for the evergreen colour pie, although the justifications for Tactics in red and green are completely different from the justification for them in blue (red and green would need a different name for the ability, or there would need to be one "flavour-neutral" name for it).
UB is actually one of the problematic pairs, actually. Blue is primary in flying and black is tertiary, and this is the only keyword ability they share. It's compounded by the fact that white is secondary in flying, so flying is almost always going to go to WU instead.
Guile is really nice, though I might change the wording to something more like:
Guile(Prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature by creatures with power greater than its toughness.)
...I thought that was just one specific intersection of its two clauses, but actually it isn't a part of either. But I think it captures the feel without including silly things like "My Armored Cancrix will never yield to your Catacomb Slug!" It might even fit into white as well, actually.
Wicked Souls: I had forgotten that UB had difficulties too. If I recall, UB is even worse off than UR, since they also are lacking in hybrid spell effects too. I could definitely see Advantage (I'm really liking that name) in pretty much any color, but of course it has the most precedence in red and green. It'd probably be a broad ability like Intimidate, sprinkled in multiple colors every once in a while but mostly focused in a smaller subset of colors.
Wicked Souls, your rewording of Guile is pretty unclear. Whose toughness - the Guile creature, or the creature dealing damage? Mine was intended to be worded like Evolve - it protects your creature from a creature that's "bigger" than it. On second thought, protecting your creature from a creature with a bigger backside makes no sense, so dropping the toughness both clears up the wording, lowers the power level, and increases the intuitive flavor:
Guile (Prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature by creatures with more power than it.)
That's much clearer, and I think the flavor is clear - the underdog wins!
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Guide reminds me of the fog creatures have been an older part of magic that seem to have faded into obscurity. I'd like to see them return with their ability turned evergreen. I don't think it needs to be as complex as guile:
Ethereal(Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to this creature)
Of course you can't print too many of these, and scarcely with high if any power.
I really like the illusion ability and I think they could keyword it, but I don't think they would want to make an evergreen ability that is a drawback. They could add to it to make it a cool thing though. Perhaps that when you sacrifice it you also draw a card. Or maybe the illusion ability is given to blocking or blocked creatures during combat?
Nominating Ophidian's original ability but expanded:
Deviousness - Whenever this creature attacks and isn't blocked, [DO X]. If you do, this creature assigns no combat damage this turn.
Blue is the "expert player" color - give the player difficult choices, making so that a good blue player is much better at being blue than bad blue players compared to good other color players are to their respective counterparts.
Evergreening Ophidian's keyword doesn't work because all other evergreens are actual keywords, and not pseudo abilities. Granting them an ability that makes damage = card draw is also too narrow.
Backstab doesn't work because blue has enough removal already. You forget it's ability to return creatures to hands and/or libraries, and combined with its plethora of counter spells, it doesn't need any more.
The problem with Guile is it makes most blue creatures invincible. If immune to higher power than it, hello invincible walls as soon as an Aura is printed with it. If immune to higher power than its toughness, it is invicible unless the opponent draws that single 4 power card in their deck, or is a token deck. If immune to both power OR toughness higher than it, it'll either have to be 3/3 and have the same problems anyway, or it'll have the same problems anyway just in even more situations. I really can't see this being viable in its current state.
Tactics, and being blocked if able at all, has always been green, and even then in quite small amounts. Blue has had provoking into attacking you, and always at the cost of tapping. This simply does not fit well with the color pie, and would not have enough design space to be keyworded.
Flexibility is probably the most likely here. Its something thats occurred quite a bit before and fits extremely well with blue's 'toughness > power' theme that also gives them more combat presence, without giving anymore damage versus players. It also splashes into red well onto creatures with higher power than their toughness.
This doesn't solve the issue of black/blue of course, but neither does any other in a good manner.
Here are some of my ideas:
Adapt (Whenever this creature becomes blocked, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Blur 2 (Spells your opponents cast that target this creature cost 2 more.)
Caster (This creature can help you cast instant or sorcery spells. Tap it while casting an instant or sorcery to pay for 1.)
Dive (If defending player controls an Island, this creature can't be blocked except by creatures with Dive or Defender.)
3U: Evade target spell an opponent controls (it can't damage or destroy this creature this turn.)
Flash Setup (You may cast this creature anytime you can cast an instant. If you cast this creature during an opponent's turn, it enters the battlefield tapped.)
Probably the best thing I can think of would be making the freeze-type ability (like on Frost Lynx) evergreen:
Freeze (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, tap that creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.)
This clearly isn't an easy problem to solve, since this is an issue that design has been having for years now.
Combat charmer (Spells cost you 1 less to cast as long as this is attacking or blocking.)
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Here are a few options:
Ensnare (Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a creature an opponent controls, tap that creature and it doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step)
Cunning (You choose how damage is divided among creatures blocking this creature)
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Another ability could be something like this:
Dispel (Creatures blocking or blocked by this creature use only their base power and toughness this combat)
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Scouting (Whenever this creature becomes blocked, you may untap it and remove it from combat.)
As far as flavor justification goes, Military Intelligence shows that scouting and tactical planning are moving more into blue, or at least getting shared between the two. That said, this ability has historically been in white, so I'm sure there'd be complaining if it was implemented.
Backstab (Whenever this creature attacks a player and isn't blocked, you may have it assign its combat damage to target creature that player controls.)
Blatantly out of pie? Maybe. I just want blue to have more weird indirect removal via messing with combat.
Hey, speaking of messing with combat, could blue maybe get some kind of reverse-provoke ability? It occasionally gets forced attacking with cards like Alluring Siren and Courtly Provocateur. Could it get more? It'd be a really good overlap.
Taunt (At the beginning of combat on each opponent's turn, you may untap this creature and target creature that player controls. The targeted creature attacks you if able and this creature blocks it if able.)
The untapping and forced blocking are to make it a proper reverse-provoke. It doesn't make much sense for a creature to taunt another into attacking if it's impossible for it to actually block. Of course, it doesn't have to block first, so it can tell another creature its father smelt of elderberries from the safety of the ramparts of a Steel Wall... or something bigger...
And I will keep saying for that ability, no mater what color it is, the choice should be made as you declare attackers (or triggered when the creature attacks) so that it functions more intuitively like declaring the creature as attacking a player or planeswalker. If that means that it needs a different name to make the flavor broader, then so be it. The ability would make sense on green creatures too (if not more sense) so it shouldn't be so narrowly flavored as an assassin ability anyway. cunning, assault, maneuver, ploy, intrigue, ...
Alluring Siren and Courtly Provocateur both tap for their abilities. You need another creature if you want to block and kill the attacker. That is a big difference between red and blue uses of this mechanic. I don't think a monoblue creature should be able to both taunt and block like Heckling Fiends.
The other issue is that, ideally, this new keyword for blue should also be secondary in red so UR shares a keyword for multicolor cards.
Backstab sounds good on paper, I feel like testing it. Some people feel it is out of pie but that's what I like about it. Blue being the color that have the least creature removal is the perfect place for the creature removal keyword. About it fitting green I disagree. The similarity to fight is a reason to keep it away from green. Nobody wants a bunch of overlapping effects in the same color. Also a crucial point of green removal is that the fighting creature have to suffer the power of the opponent's creature as well, which is not the case with backstab.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
Backstab (Whenever this deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals 1 damage to target creature. You may have this deal damage to creatures in the form of having that creature's base toughness become 1 until end of turn.)
this is a bit of the 'freezing' effect in blue / 'turn to frog' effect as well: not enough to destroy a creature on its own, but always enough coupled with something else. It also captures the 'flanking' flavor well: I block with 2 creatures, your creature gets flanked and dies. Your creature blocks my creature but this passes? flanked again!
Ensnare is going to be seen as a weaker deathtouch, and I'm not sure blue's new mechanic wants to be easily compared unfavorably to another. It should tread somewhere nothing else has.
The Gustcloak ability is neat but I'm not sure how it'd be differentiated from white. The mechanic isn't exactly exciting on anything with defensive stats, since the creature would likely survive combat anyway - so the sole variation in white versus blue (white's higher propensity for aggressive creatures like Oreskos Swiftclaw) is made moot by the ability itself. I don't see a compelling argument for it existing beyond a block keyword, because I just can't imagine enough interesting designs for it.
The difficulty is that blue's creatures, spells, and flavor are all about avoiding combat and conflict - so finding a flavorful design space that reflects blue philosophically and mechanically while being a combat keyword is difficult, since 'combat' is so contrary to blue's nature. Perhaps working with this difficulty in mind can help us... what would a non-combatant thrust into battle do? How does the scholar triumph over the soldier in the duel? Luckily, there is a large body of media that serve as powerful inspirations and sources of reference for climactic battles - action movies! And, perhaps surprisingly, many action movie stars have some very blue aspects to them: guile, tactics, and flexibility. Three points to work off of.
Guile - This is mostly going to be evasion, but let's skip past all that design space. Let's pretend that the tricky action star has been cornered. Think of the clever but outmatched heroes of action movies, like Indiana Jones - how do they win a fight? Improvised weapons, underhanded tactics, and sheer cunning.
Tactics - The man with the plan is another stand-by of action movies. The tactician doesn't enter a battle until they already know how to win it. They're often characterized by elaborately seeing ahead and by planning stunning ambushes and gambits - think Sherlock Holmes as played by Robert Downey Jr.
Flexibility - Many action movie stars are able to quickly formulate strategies and improvise weapons using the scenery around them. Their ability to always find a way to fight back, to always think of a way out, is again a blue characteristic. Jackie Chan, for example, is famous for his improvised weapons.
Guile - Tactics - Flexibility. How can we make mechanics inspired by these?
Guile (Prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature by creatures with greater power
or toughnessthan it.)Capturing the trope of the 'outmatched action hero', this is a pretty potent ability that - weirdly enough - actually almost gets better the weaker the creature is. That feels pretty blue! Right now it's a bit strong, so an argument could be made to remove either power or toughness from the equation. Only looking at power probably makes more sense for blue. This ability works well in white, and luckily, it allows for some good variations across the aggressive/defensive spectrum. Blue would usually get smaller defensive creatures, while white would get aggressive creatures confident that reprisal is more difficult. By giving a new keyword for white and blue to share, it allows blue and black to focus more on sharing flying.
TacticsAdvantage (This creature must be blocked if able.)Understanding the difficulties of blue's design space lead me to an obvious conclusion - just design the exact opposite of an evasion ability! In this case, I thought of a creature that would only attack when it knew the time was right - and it would know the time was right because it would have engineered to fight precisely who it would want to. A handy bonus for this keyword is that it's also a perfect fit in red - so we also could perhaps solve the blue/red overlap problem, too! Its problem, of course, is that it's unprecedented territory for blue. But again, I feel it makes perfect sense - in blue it'd be on defensively oriented creatures, ones who can snipe away without fear of dying in the cross-counter, and that would make it more difficult to block your other creatures. But red Tactics creatures would have nasty power so that when they attack, they know they're at the very least taking something down with them.
Flexibility (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, you may switch its power and toughness until end of turn.)
Now, this is an ability often recommended by designers, so I'll not talk too much about it. Suffice to say that it feels perfectly fitting of the blue flavor of flexibility and adaptability, and that its problems are obvious - layers. And of course it's a possible solution for the red/blue overlap problem, but one with far more precedent.
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Modern-
RWG"Frigga" (Allies)GWR
Standard-
"Kendra" (RabbleRed)
EDH-
WUR Zedruu ControlRUW
RUG Riku GUR
BGW Ghave WBG
RWB Kaalia BWR
CUBE-
Khans of Tarkir Procedural Cube
You're right though, being named Tactics does limit the kind of 'characters' it can appear on. A more flavor-neutral name could be "Pursuit" or "Advantage" ("Target creature gains advantage until end of turn" does sound nice!), which can be suitably interpreted as 'predatory' for green flavor.
And I did notice it fit well in the blue-wedge. It would probably have a similar distribution as flying, but inversed from the blue shard to the blue wedge. Fancy that!
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My pet, really super tentantive, in development, 40-man format- Star Team!
Modern-
RWG"Frigga" (Allies)GWR
Standard-
"Kendra" (RabbleRed)
EDH-
WUR Zedruu ControlRUW
RUG Riku GUR
BGW Ghave WBG
RWB Kaalia BWR
CUBE-
Khans of Tarkir Procedural Cube
The ability only does anything if the creature is unblocked, so that's the most logical time for the ability to trigger. How are you supposed to word it if it triggers on attacking? (Also, do you really have to suck the last remaining bit of intrigue out of the ability? I feel like this is analogous to suggesting everyone should be able to look at face-down morph creatures.)
True, it's a bit of a bleed in blue's direction, but I think it's an acceptable one. They could be differentiated in the implementation; blue would get more defensive taunters with low power and high toughness (or maybe the Fog Bank, mostly focusing on drawing attackers into stalemates and tapping them down so they can't block during your next turn, while red would get more high power ones that focus on outright killing attackers (and being far more likely to die in the process).
I think you're overestimating the ability. It has the potential to generate massive card advantage and dominate the board, but only if it never gets blocked, which is easier said than done. (Keep in mind, at common, these guys probably wouldn't have any built-in evasion, except maybe as an ETB or activated thing.) Scroll Thief and Stealer of Secrets can generate unlimited card advantage the same way, and they're fine at common. The only reason we don't see more Curiosity creatures per set is because having a bunch of them would be degenerate, and that's just because you never really reach a saturation point where the ability becomes less effective. With backstab, you do; once you've cleared the board, you're just left with a bunch of mediocre guys. And keep in mind you haven't been dealing damage to the opponent in the process.
UB is actually one of the problematic pairs, actually. Blue is primary in flying and black is tertiary, and this is the only keyword ability they share. It's compounded by the fact that white is secondary in flying, so flying is almost always going to go to WU instead.
Guile is really nice, though I might change the wording to something more like:
Guile (Prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature by creatures with power greater than its toughness.)
...I thought that was just one specific intersection of its two clauses, but actually it isn't a part of either. But I think it captures the feel without including silly things like "My Armored Cancrix will never yield to your Catacomb Slug!" It might even fit into white as well, actually.
Wicked Souls, your rewording of Guile is pretty unclear. Whose toughness - the Guile creature, or the creature dealing damage? Mine was intended to be worded like Evolve - it protects your creature from a creature that's "bigger" than it. On second thought, protecting your creature from a creature with a bigger backside makes no sense, so dropping the toughness both clears up the wording, lowers the power level, and increases the intuitive flavor:
Guile (Prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature by creatures with more power than it.)
That's much clearer, and I think the flavor is clear - the underdog wins!
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Ethereal(Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to this creature)
Of course you can't print too many of these, and scarcely with high if any power.
I really like the illusion ability and I think they could keyword it, but I don't think they would want to make an evergreen ability that is a drawback. They could add to it to make it a cool thing though. Perhaps that when you sacrifice it you also draw a card. Or maybe the illusion ability is given to blocking or blocked creatures during combat?
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Modern-
RWG"Frigga" (Allies)GWR
Standard-
"Kendra" (RabbleRed)
EDH-
WUR Zedruu ControlRUW
RUG Riku GUR
BGW Ghave WBG
RWB Kaalia BWR
CUBE-
Khans of Tarkir Procedural Cube
Deviousness - Whenever this creature attacks and isn't blocked, [DO X]. If you do, this creature assigns no combat damage this turn.
Blue is the "expert player" color - give the player difficult choices, making so that a good blue player is much better at being blue than bad blue players compared to good other color players are to their respective counterparts.
My pet, really super tentantive, in development, 40-man format- Star Team!
Modern-
RWG"Frigga" (Allies)GWR
Standard-
"Kendra" (RabbleRed)
EDH-
WUR Zedruu ControlRUW
RUG Riku GUR
BGW Ghave WBG
RWB Kaalia BWR
CUBE-
Khans of Tarkir Procedural Cube
Backstab doesn't work because blue has enough removal already. You forget it's ability to return creatures to hands and/or libraries, and combined with its plethora of counter spells, it doesn't need any more.
The problem with Guile is it makes most blue creatures invincible. If immune to higher power than it, hello invincible walls as soon as an Aura is printed with it. If immune to higher power than its toughness, it is invicible unless the opponent draws that single 4 power card in their deck, or is a token deck. If immune to both power OR toughness higher than it, it'll either have to be 3/3 and have the same problems anyway, or it'll have the same problems anyway just in even more situations. I really can't see this being viable in its current state.
Tactics, and being blocked if able at all, has always been green, and even then in quite small amounts. Blue has had provoking into attacking you, and always at the cost of tapping. This simply does not fit well with the color pie, and would not have enough design space to be keyworded.
Flexibility is probably the most likely here. Its something thats occurred quite a bit before and fits extremely well with blue's 'toughness > power' theme that also gives them more combat presence, without giving anymore damage versus players. It also splashes into red well onto creatures with higher power than their toughness.
This doesn't solve the issue of black/blue of course, but neither does any other in a good manner.
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