Valiant Fylgja1W
Snow Creature — Spirit [U] W: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Whenever you activate an ability of Valiant Fylgja, if it’s the third time that ability has been activated this turn, Valiant Fylgja gains double strike and lifelink until end of turn.
[1/2]
Misty Fylgja1U
Snow Creature — Spirit [U] U: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Whenever you activate an ability of Misty Fylgja, if it’s the third time that ability has been activated this turn, Misty Fylgja gains hexproof until end of turn and can’t be blocked this turn.
[1/2]
Cruel Fylgja1B
Snow Creature — Spirit [U] B: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Whenever you activate an ability of Cruel Fylgja, if it’s the third time that ability has been activated this turn, regenerate Cruel Fylgja and it gains deathtouch until end of turn.
[1/2]
Impetuous Fylgja1R
Snow Creature — Spirit [U] R: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Whenever you activate an ability of Impetuous Fylgja, if it’s the third time that ability has been activated this turn, exile the top card of your library. You may play it this turn.
[1/2]
Primal Fylgja1G
Snow Creature — Spirit [U] G: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Whenever you activate an ability of Primal Fylgja, if it’s the third time that ability has been activated this turn, Primal Fylgja gets +4/+4 until end of turn.
[1/2]
I revised this cycle because, since creating the originals, I locked in dire for the set, and the first draft Fylgjur were treading in too-similar a design space as dire. I'm still planning on having snow mana generators at common in all colors, they will just be a very different design than either the original Fylgjur or these new ones.
Flavor-wise, although Magic has kind of established the precedent that fylgjur are depicted as animalspirits, that's not necessarily the case in the nordic source material where the concept comes from. Since I already have tons of woodland critters on the Kaldarjar side (thanks again, dire) I decided to go with the female guiding spirit flavor instead. Think of them as less-vengeful rusalki, if that helps.
EDIT: Changed Impetuous Fylgja's ability from Shock to a mini Act on Impulse.
The filtering stuff is fine, but does the cycle have to be so tight? I'd prefer more varied bodies.
Not as a matter of set structure, they don't.
But when I was costing these out in every color, it became clear that 1C is where these want to be. I guess I can tweak the bodies within that range, but I was enjoying the 2 toughness because they make these cards a little more robust to incidental removal. If you think it really does improve the cycle, I could throw some 2/1, 2/2, 1/3, or maybe even 3/1 bodies in there.
In keeping them 1/2, though, I tried to force myself to really make each of their "third time" triggers interesting and different. So maybe, if they're feeling too similar to you, my first step might be to revise one or two of the abilities to make it feel really different. For the white one in particular, I was thinking of changing the trigger to a Disenchant effect or similar.
These are a nice monoC incentive because you need to hit CCC to get them active. The red one especially, because it gets much better when you hit RRRRRR.
B should clearly be 1/2, and I think red is also good there. White and Blue feel pretty weak right now, so I might bump them to 2/1 or 2/2 and 1/3, respectively. Green could be a 2/2 or stay a 1/2 in my opinion.
Depending on how these play, what sort of a role you want them to fill, and how happy you are with the current abilities, I might consider making the rest more similar to the red member (in that they highly reward you for CCCCCC).
The problem with using that template here is how it kind of muddies the distinction between mana abilities and nonmana abilities. If none of the abilities targeted, I might feel better about it. But since they do, I feel like I'd need to amend some section of the comp rules to make it clear how they work. So I separated the two pieces out so the first ability can just be a mana ability unambiguously.
RRR: Shock a thing is excellent (compare to Spikeshot Elder) and if you actually have 6 mana, you can still split it across 2 turns.
GGG: Make a 5/6 ueot is also quite good.
BBB: The Abyss's utility depends a lot on how few evasive dudes your opponent has, since it's not even worth blocking as a 1/2 on the attack.
UUU: Invisible Stalker for a turn is...a finisher of sorts, I guess?
Finally, WWW: Barely better than a vanilla Bear is just garbage, and actually a pretty strong incentive to play any color that isn't white if I'm going snow.
Come to think of it, now that W's Jotun got its cmc bumped up a notch, W and U are looking like the "bad snow colors" in the set judging by these two cycles while R and G are looking like the "good snow colors." W/U get the worst Fylgjur and the only Jotnar with higher toughness than power, in a cycle where if you're not attacking your creature is just a vanilla. G and R get the best mana "fixers" along with the most aggressive Jotnar -- I'd argue that green's is the best, since it ties for first in both p/t ratio and raw clock.
Also, not sure if intentional, but both W/U Fylgjur play a lot better with Savaean Heretics than with the mechanics of the faction they're supposed to be in.
WWW: Barely better than a vanilla Bear is just garbage, and actually a pretty strong incentive to play any color that isn't white if I'm going snow.
Come to think of it, now that W's Jotun got its cmc bumped up a notch, W and U are looking like the "bad snow colors" in the set judging by these two cycles
Also, not sure if intentional, but both W/U Fylgjur play a lot better with Savaean Heretics than with the mechanics of the faction they're supposed to be in.
Yeah, I'm not super happy with the white one. Collectively speaking, I'm not super happy with the white, blue, and black ones when considered altogether. I designed the black one, liked it, and did two more that were similar. Honestly, any or all of those three could change.
I wouldn't judge the two colors based on these cycles alone. Snow white already has what I imagine will be one of the better commons in the set. Plus there's a lot more still to come.
Any interaction with Savaean Heretics was unintentional. That said, I'm not trying to prevent interactions like that. I guess if something shows up during testing that really consistently rewards an unintuitive combo across faction lines, I might kill it, but for the most part I expect there to be a little bit of overlap.
Ah, that makes sense. The intervening if wording feels really ugly though, and I like the focus on resolution rather than activation. Would
"Whenever one of ~'s abilities resolves for the third time this turn, X."
work?
Funny! That was actually my original wording.
I killed it because no matter how many times I read it, I couldn't decide whether the clause was referencing the creature itself or its ability. The functionality is different for either interpretation. So I reworded it to the current wording so there would be no ambiguity. I agree that it's wordier, but I think it's less confusing and more clear.
Should this be a concern with Mycosynth Lattice? It can only trigger once each turn, and Lattice costs {6} to set that up, but it might be worth being aware of the interaction.
Should it be worded to allow a second trigger if another player Threatens it?
When you activate CARDNAME's ability, if it's the third time you've activated it this turn, ...
The red and the green are the only two that would benefit from that, but if the other abilities are still in flux, then it might be a worthwhile consideration. The Lorwyn cycle did not care about control changing situations though. Probably not really an issue.
As a two-card combo, I feel like this is a fair and non-broken. Sure, it allows you to activate the ability an arbitrarily-large number of times, but you'd still need a third card to turn that into "I win." Getting a Shock per turn sounds really great, but you do have to get the combo going to do that.
I'm thoroughly neutral about the Threaten interaction. I don't really expect these to be top Threaten targets because of the monocolor requirement. There's also a certain interesting interactivity with filtering mana through one of these in response to a Threaten, so an opponent can't use it. But if you think it would play better one way vs. the other, I can consider that.
Set 1 of 3 in Dominaria block
Valiant Fylgja 1W
Snow Creature — Spirit [U]
W: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Whenever you activate an ability of Valiant Fylgja, if it’s the third time that ability has been activated this turn, Valiant Fylgja gains double strike and lifelink until end of turn.
[1/2]
Misty Fylgja 1U
Snow Creature — Spirit [U]
U: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Whenever you activate an ability of Misty Fylgja, if it’s the third time that ability has been activated this turn, Misty Fylgja gains hexproof until end of turn and can’t be blocked this turn.
[1/2]
Cruel Fylgja 1B
Snow Creature — Spirit [U]
B: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Whenever you activate an ability of Cruel Fylgja, if it’s the third time that ability has been activated this turn, regenerate Cruel Fylgja and it gains deathtouch until end of turn.
[1/2]
Impetuous Fylgja 1R
Snow Creature — Spirit [U]
R: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Whenever you activate an ability of Impetuous Fylgja, if it’s the third time that ability has been activated this turn, exile the top card of your library. You may play it this turn.
[1/2]
Primal Fylgja 1G
Snow Creature — Spirit [U]
G: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Whenever you activate an ability of Primal Fylgja, if it’s the third time that ability has been activated this turn, Primal Fylgja gets +4/+4 until end of turn.
[1/2]
-----------------------------------------------------------
I revised this cycle because, since creating the originals, I locked in dire for the set, and the first draft Fylgjur were treading in too-similar a design space as dire. I'm still planning on having snow mana generators at common in all colors, they will just be a very different design than either the original Fylgjur or these new ones.
Flavor-wise, although Magic has kind of established the precedent that fylgjur are depicted as animal spirits, that's not necessarily the case in the nordic source material where the concept comes from. Since I already have tons of woodland critters on the Kaldarjar side (thanks again, dire) I decided to go with the female guiding spirit flavor instead. Think of them as less-vengeful rusalki, if that helps.
EDIT: Changed Impetuous Fylgja's ability from Shock to a mini Act on Impulse.
The filtering stuff is fine, but does the cycle have to be so tight? I'd prefer more varied bodies.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
But when I was costing these out in every color, it became clear that 1C is where these want to be. I guess I can tweak the bodies within that range, but I was enjoying the 2 toughness because they make these cards a little more robust to incidental removal. If you think it really does improve the cycle, I could throw some 2/1, 2/2, 1/3, or maybe even 3/1 bodies in there.
In keeping them 1/2, though, I tried to force myself to really make each of their "third time" triggers interesting and different. So maybe, if they're feeling too similar to you, my first step might be to revise one or two of the abilities to make it feel really different. For the white one in particular, I was thinking of changing the trigger to a Disenchant effect or similar.
B should clearly be 1/2, and I think red is also good there. White and Blue feel pretty weak right now, so I might bump them to 2/1 or 2/2 and 1/3, respectively. Green could be a 2/2 or stay a 1/2 in my opinion.
Depending on how these play, what sort of a role you want them to fill, and how happy you are with the current abilities, I might consider making the rest more similar to the red member (in that they highly reward you for CCCCCC).
I believe the accepted template for these is the Soulbright Flamekin/Inner-Flame Igniter/Ashling the Pilgrim version, although I'm not sure exactly what the pros and cons are.
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The problem with using that template here is how it kind of muddies the distinction between mana abilities and nonmana abilities. If none of the abilities targeted, I might feel better about it. But since they do, I feel like I'd need to amend some section of the comp rules to make it clear how they work. So I separated the two pieces out so the first ability can just be a mana ability unambiguously.
RRR: Shock a thing is excellent (compare to Spikeshot Elder) and if you actually have 6 mana, you can still split it across 2 turns.
GGG: Make a 5/6 ueot is also quite good.
BBB: The Abyss's utility depends a lot on how few evasive dudes your opponent has, since it's not even worth blocking as a 1/2 on the attack.
UUU: Invisible Stalker for a turn is...a finisher of sorts, I guess?
Finally, WWW: Barely better than a vanilla Bear is just garbage, and actually a pretty strong incentive to play any color that isn't white if I'm going snow.
Come to think of it, now that W's Jotun got its cmc bumped up a notch, W and U are looking like the "bad snow colors" in the set judging by these two cycles while R and G are looking like the "good snow colors." W/U get the worst Fylgjur and the only Jotnar with higher toughness than power, in a cycle where if you're not attacking your creature is just a vanilla. G and R get the best mana "fixers" along with the most aggressive Jotnar -- I'd argue that green's is the best, since it ties for first in both p/t ratio and raw clock.
Also, not sure if intentional, but both W/U Fylgjur play a lot better with Savaean Heretics than with the mechanics of the faction they're supposed to be in.
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"Whenever one of ~'s abilities resolves for the third time this turn, X."
work?
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
I wouldn't judge the two colors based on these cycles alone. Snow white already has what I imagine will be one of the better commons in the set. Plus there's a lot more still to come.
Any interaction with Savaean Heretics was unintentional. That said, I'm not trying to prevent interactions like that. I guess if something shows up during testing that really consistently rewards an unintuitive combo across faction lines, I might kill it, but for the most part I expect there to be a little bit of overlap.
Funny! That was actually my original wording.
I killed it because no matter how many times I read it, I couldn't decide whether the clause was referencing the creature itself or its ability. The functionality is different for either interpretation. So I reworded it to the current wording so there would be no ambiguity. I agree that it's wordier, but I think it's less confusing and more clear.
I see the ambiguity with that wording, I'll keep thinking on it.
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
Should it be worded to allow a second trigger if another player Threatens it?
The red and the green are the only two that would benefit from that, but if the other abilities are still in flux, then it might be a worthwhile consideration. The Lorwyn cycle did not care about control changing situations though. Probably not really an issue.
I'm thoroughly neutral about the Threaten interaction. I don't really expect these to be top Threaten targets because of the monocolor requirement. There's also a certain interesting interactivity with filtering mana through one of these in response to a Threaten, so an opponent can't use it. But if you think it would play better one way vs. the other, I can consider that.