I have an idea for a set/block. Not 100% sure how to execute on it.
[box=flavor]Flavor
Essai is a plane defined by intense social stratification. Although the plane isn't technically a monarchy, it is controlled by a wealthy business class and an authoritarian judicial system called the Lekhotla. Nearly all of the money is owned by the business class. Everyone else, the lower classes, is basically a labourer and very poor. Their conditions have gradually gotten worse leading them to rebellion. A secretive but somewhat disorganized group called the "Equalizers" has been formed who aims to overthrow the Lekhotla. The block is basically "Equalizers vs. Lekhotla." [box]
[box]The Plane
Essai is primarily an agrarian plane. The majority of people live on farms
[box]Lekhotlans
Although Equalizers may refer to anyone who doesn't support the uprising as a Lekhotlan, officially, a Lekhotlan is someone who works for the judicial system. For example, judges, lawyers, police, collectors. There aren't any politicians or lawmakers, since on Essai, laws are (literally) set in stone and cannot change. The Lekhotlans are generally not hugely rich, but they are well-educated and therefore well-payed. They're the weapons of the upper-class, both against other members of the upper-class, as well as against the lower classes. If one business is suing another, both will hire Lekhotlan lawyers, and a Lekhotlan judge will preside. If someone isn't paying their debts to you, you hire a Lekhotlan collector to force them to pay you. If your laborers aren't working, you hire a Lekhotlan enforcer to make them start working again. Most Lekhotlans therefore have lots of income, even though they might not save much. Instead, they spend their money on products produced by businesses. Lekhotlans are the primary consumers on the plane, and they like their stuff. Some Lekhotlans spend so much money they've even gotten hugely in debt. So far, that's not really a problem though, as there are plenty of people willing to lend to them.[/box]
[box]Business Class
The business class of Essai is pretty obsessed with money. They're competitive and cutthroat. It's composed of the people that own the plane's companies and banks. Its actually pretty tough being a member of the business class, since other members of the class will always be gunning for you. A couple of bad investments and you'll lose most your money, and probably end up working as a Lekhotlan, or in a managerial position in some company. Sometimes, Likhotlans save up enough money and make enough good investments and eventually join the business class. To the business class, Lekhotlans are consumers to sell stuff to, and laborers are just numbers and units of production. Most of the business class' population is concentrated in The City.[/box]
[box]Lower Classes
Everyone else is a peasant, factory worker, or the like. Most live and work on farms, far from The City, and have a share of their crops collected by the company serving as their landlord. Those who live on farms have nothing but a share of the food they farm, and must themselves make anything else they need to survive. If not enough food is farmed one year, they could starve. Those closer to the city work in factories. Although their work may be more gloomy, they are given slightly more, and never go hungry during times of drought.
If you're born into the lower class, and you're "successful", you might obtain a managerial position in your factory and earn enough money to send your children to go to school and perhaps join the judicial class. Otherwise, you're pretty much stuck. This social stratification has caused the formation of a fairly disorganized group called the Equalizers, who plan on violent rebellion, and who primarily blame the Lekhotlans for their problems. The Equalizers are considered by Lekhotlans to be a criminal group. The business class doesn't care about the Equalizers, unless they somehow hurt their company's profitability. It would be pretty hard for Equalizers to get anywhere near The City at this point, so they don't need to worry for their own safety. Its considered the Lekhotlan's job to deal with the Equalizers.[/box]
[box=theme]Themes
Converted Mana Cost Matters (Generally, higher mana cost cards are associated with the bourgeois, why lower mana cost is prole).
Multicolor: I want to differentiate this block from other blocks with clans/guilds/wedges/tribes & the like, by making each class have at least some of all 5 of the colors in it.[/box]
[box=Mechanics]Mechanics
Bourgeois Mechanic: Debate (Each debating player chooses a card in his or her hand, then those cards are revealed at the same time. A player wins if his or her card has the highest converted mana cost.)
Prole Mechanic: Oppressed - If you control no permanents with a higher converted mana cost, do X.
Returning Mechanic: Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)[/box]
Not super happy with oppressed. What do you think? I'm hoping, in draft, for there to be decks focused around each class if you happen to get good picks for that, but for many draft decks to be a combination of each class joined together by cascade.
I think Debate is workable, and while Cascade is a very strong mechanic and is hard to balance, it can be balanced. I agree that Oppressed is lacking. Here's a question: What's your cutoff between prole and bourgeois? If prole cut off at cmc 3, and bourge starts at say 5, what does that mean for 4? Your boundaries might be different than those, that was just a guess. You could either have a mechanic that (a) cares about a very specific cmc, or (b) cares about it being under a specific cmc. EG
Prole Contraptor1R
Creature - Rigger (C) SameAsMe - Whenever you cast a spell with converted mana cost two, assemble a contraption.
2/1
Prole Rigger1R
Creature - Rigger (C) Part of the Prole - Whenever you cast a spell with converted mana cost three or less, assemble a contraption.
2/1
Also, I'll donate a card idea you may have already had.
Common ThieveryB
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent reveals his or her hand. Choose a card with the highest converted mana cost revealed this way. That player discards that card.
Wow, I was just think of a marie antoinette and class warfare set. My division of classes is in rarity rather than casting costs, though. That is, rarer = higher castes, so rarity matters. Rares and mythics will be powerful, but commmons have bonuses when played together as well as cards that actively punish higher rarity. Absolutely no reprints, to avoid confusion regarding which cards are rare are which aren't (ie cards from other sets have different rarities; older sets are all black symbols).
For example, a "peasant" mechanic/keyword/creature type, which appears in common creatures. "If a permanent with the same name as ~ is in the battlefield, [do x]".
Disgruntled MobR (c)
creature -- human
1/1
Peasant -- when ~ enters the battlefield, for every ~ in the battlefield draw a card and discard a card.
monument to hubris5 (u)
artifact
Rare and mythic spells cost 2 more to cast.
Peasant -- as you cast this, you may tap any number of untapped common creatures you control. Each creature tapped this way reduces ~'s cost by 1.
Bourgeois Mechanic: Debate (Each debating player chooses a card in his or her hand, then those cards are revealed at the same time. A player wins if his or her card has the highest converted mana cost.)
Debate should probably be like clash -- cast a spell, then win additional effects if you win the debate (and you have to get rid of the winner's revealed cars somehow, otherwise he keeps winning the debate). Flavor can be passing laws.
Flat Tax2WW (r)
Sorcery
For each land each player controls, that player sacrifices it unless he or she pays 1 or taps am untapped creature.
Debate with an opponent. If you win, each player pays [/mana]2[/mana] or taps 2 creatures instead per land instead.
(Each debating player reveals a cards from his or her hand, then puts it on the bottom of his library and draws a card. A player wins if his or her card had a higher converted mana cost.)
Gerrymander1UU (r)
Sorcery
The player with the most number of creatures returns a creature to his or her hand. Repeat this process until all players have the same number of creatures.
Debate with an opponent. If you win, that player returns a creature to the top of that player's library instead and repeats the process until all players have the same number of creatures.
(Each debating player reveals a cards from his or her hand, then puts it on the bottom of his library and draws a card. A player wins if his or her card had a higher converted mana cost.)
I think mana cost has more design space than rarity. Also, drafting around rarity would be weird as ****.
I don't want debate to have a discard or discard-like ability, because I'm afraid it will substitute for instant-speed discard to form incredibly unfun lockdown decks. I could make debating optional (you automatically lose if you don't reveal a card) to avoid that problem, but then it becomes logistically difficult, as there would be the problem of showing who is going to put the card up for debate "first", etc...
But that was exactly what I was going for with debate, passing of laws, or courtroom like:
Prosecutor General 2WB
Creature - Human Advisor
Whenever a creature deals combat damage, you may debate that creature’s controller. If you win, destroy that creature. (Each debating player chooses a card in his or her hand, then those cards are revealed at the same time. A player wins if his or her card has the highest converted mana cost.)
2/5
Also, I wasn't planning for there to be a real mana "cut off", more like a range, of around 3-4 mana. Anything 5 mana and above is pretty much guaranteed to be bourgeois, while anything 2 mana and under, (at least creatures), is pretty much guaranteed to be a prole. The nonpermanents don't have the mana-tiers, they don't care as much about the CMC.
Life Arbitrage WB
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Life Arbitrage, sacrifice a creature.
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield and gain life equal to its converted mana cost. Life isn't fungible.
^ obviously a bourgeois card, plays well with high CMC, but isn't high CMC itself. High CMC is for creatures.
Also, I think maybe I might like oppressed more than I previously did. There are some interesting uses, for example:
Sabotage-Themed Counterspell XU
Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays X.
Oppressed — If you control no permanent with a converted mana cost higher than this card’s, counter that spell instead.
I think proles might get some X-spell mana sinks to make up for the fact that all their creatures have to be low costed. If this makes the difference between elites/peasants not clear enough, I might make their creatures even smaller.
Whoa! As long as i have no permanents on board that is a one cmc hard counter, i would avoid that. The idea is fine but that card is an example of a dangerous falw. Prole decks might end up being permanent-free control decks, not the feel i think youre going for.
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"People with needs have trivial purchasing power while people with purchasing power have trivial needs." -Steve Randy Waldman, Interfludity
Masses - As long as you control more creatures than your opponents, Freedom Seekers has first strike and haste.
2/2
"Masses" plays off the idea that the proles have much larger numbers than the wealthy oppressors, and potentially strength in numbers can help them overcome injustices.
Would the restriction on having no permanents out still make a 1 CMC counter worth it? I feel like going permanentless for 4 copies of a 1 CMC counter isn't worth it. I'm not one for playing those super gimmicky control decks though, so I wouldn't know.
Yeah, masses is a possibility, and its definitely flavorful. The only thing is, I was kinda hoping to allow both mechanics to help make a comeback, at least on some cards. Debate can be good early game when you've got dead high CMC cards in hand playing a bourgeois deck, and oppressed can be good when you've got nothing out because they just used End Hostilities or something, which would be terrible in a proles deck that dumps lots of low CMC cards on the board.
The problem with Oppressed, to me, is that it feels like a flavor fail. It rewards you for playing with few-to-no permanents, pushing for a control strategy, and that feels like it would fit the wealthy more, though even there issues arise.
Would the restriction on having no permanents out still make a 1 CMC counter worth it? I feel like going permanentless for 4 copies of a 1 CMC counter isn't worth it. I'm not one for playing those super gimmicky control decks though, so I wouldn't know.
Just last week at my local FNM two guys were running a BU control variant - literally the only creatures run in the deck are 4x Prognostic Sphinx and 2x Clever Impersonator. It relies on counters/Bile Blight effects to grind the game to a halt, then slowly win with amazing deck fixing from sphinx + Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time.
While its obviously not a largely prominent deck type, that counter spell (and the mechanic in general) just show how relevant this mechanic is to control decks like that one - its incredibly powerful, and by the time you don't get the bonus, it doesn't matter anymore. Meanwhile, in weenie strategies like you would want it to perform well in, 1cmc-3 cards with the mechanic would be near useless, and 4+ cmc permanents would completely disable it for you.
Masses isn't a bad mechanic, although its pretty lame compared to Battalion. I'll throw in an idea: Dethrone. Represents the fight against the 'wealthy' really well in my opinion.
Oppressed - 2 (This creature enters the battlefield with two -1/-1 counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a -1/-1 counter from this creature)
This mechanic would fit naturally on permanents with lower converted mana costs.
Example 1W
Oppressed 3 (This creature enters the battlefield with three -1/-1 counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a -1/-1 counter from this creature)
3/5
Example 2 2W
Oppressed 2 (This creature enters the battlefield with two -1/-1 counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a -1/-1 counter from this creature)
Whenever a -1/-1 counter is removed from ~, put a 1/1 white citizen creature token onto the battlefield.
2/3
I think Gleng's idea above is good, i also think we dont need to stretch that far away from the original vision, we want CMC to matter after all.
I think Debate is workable, and while Cascade is a very strong mechanic and is hard to balance, it can be balanced. I agree that Oppressed is lacking. Here's a question: What's your cutoff between prole and bourgeois? If prole cut off at cmc 3, and bourge starts at say 5, what does that mean for 4? Your boundaries might be different than those, that was just a guess. You could either have a mechanic that (a) cares about a very specific cmc, or (b) cares about it being under a specific cmc. EG
Prole Contraptor 1R
Creature - Rigger (C)
SameAsMe - Whenever you cast a spell with converted mana cost two, assemble a contraption.
2/1
Prole Rigger 1R
Creature - Rigger (C)
Part of the Prole - Whenever you cast a spell with converted mana cost three or less, assemble a contraption.
2/1
This seems good, especially since the two versions offer different design benefits. "Sameasme" wants you build your deck in weird ways that probably help guide new players to consistency revelations (ALL my cards are 2 or 3 except this one drop thats good!). "PartoftheProle" is super linear and will make for some great tribal feeling decks that are neverthelss not actually tribal (plus if you print a goblin with it he automatically becomes legacy relevant if he isnt horrible).
Overall I like "Part of the Prole" more, the prole deck is about being low cmc meaning poor and scrappy, this lends itself to aggro and tempo startegies best. That's fine since they are the aggressors here, so i think creatures like this one is where you should be looking:
LA RESISTANCE2R
Creature - Human Rebel (R)
Haste PartoftheProle - Whenever you cast a spell with cmc 3 or less you can return CARDNAME from your graveyard to the battlefield, if you do, sacrifice it at the end of turn.
3/2
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"People with needs have trivial purchasing power while people with purchasing power have trivial needs." -Steve Randy Waldman, Interfludity
The big flavor win (or fail, depending from where you stand) here is that low mana cost prole cards means their deck will be aggro/tempo and high mana costs on burgoise cards means they will play towards control.
However in MTG control tends to win the more the game drags on, which is the opposite of marx's prediction and theory (which is, the prole wins in the long run). For me this is a epic flavor win because the only way class uprising works (prole deck winning) is by striking when nobody is ready. Give any society enough time to think things through the other side "wins".
You might be from a different point of view through. IF that's the case, be sure to give the prole some sick late game tools in order to represent Marx's (failed) prediction.
So I really actually like the idea of Oppressed X as shown by Gleng. There's two issues, however. First, it is a downside keyword. Some people have a problem with this, although I don't care as much. Second, it makes proles benefit from the passing of time, which slightly contradicts the flavor as proposed by italofoca, which is what I was originally trying to go for. Still, they will all have low CMCs, so that might contradict any time-based bonus. Finally, it doesn't play directly to CMC, at least not as directly as my oppressed.
I really like the idea, just not sure if it fits within this block. I think "Part of the Prole" or my oppressed are both bit more direct about it.
The thing that's weird about (the original) oppressed is that it wants to be on high-CMC cards but your flavor setup puts it on low CMC. On permanents, it will tend to set up one permanent who's the "leader," who suppresses the abilities of other oppressed permanents, and that feels like exactly the structure you don't want.
I would consider maybe something suggesting the vibe of working together, like Allies or Convoke or whatever; after all, you don't always need a new mechanic. Low-CMC spells with convoke are especially appealing to me because it allows you to scrape together little things from what appeared to be no resources.
I like the metaphor you have going where CMC is associated with wealth, but I think to drive the message home, you need a prole mechanic that celebrates the faction's lack of wealth and allows them to win despite that weakness, instead of one that suggests that wealth is the way to win, but they just don't have it.
I would ideally like a new ability for the bourgeois and another for the proles.
But I do have another idea. I noticed that your proposed mechanic, convoke, rewards having lots of stuff out. To come up with another mechanic that likes having a lot of stuff out, there's mass buffs. What if we were to come up with mass buffs that care about CMC, like Radiance?
Prole Growth G
Instant Keyword - Target creature and all other creatures with the same converted mana cost get +1/+1 until end of turn.
Draw a card.
Could also be "all other creatures you control."
Is it an improvement? And if so, what should I call it?
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[mana][card]G[/card][/mana]
[CaRd]203982G[/aRd]
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[box=flavor]Flavor
Essai is a plane defined by intense social stratification. Although the plane isn't technically a monarchy, it is controlled by a wealthy business class and an authoritarian judicial system called the Lekhotla. Nearly all of the money is owned by the business class. Everyone else, the lower classes, is basically a labourer and very poor. Their conditions have gradually gotten worse leading them to rebellion. A secretive but somewhat disorganized group called the "Equalizers" has been formed who aims to overthrow the Lekhotla. The block is basically "Equalizers vs. Lekhotla." [box]
[box]The Plane
Essai is primarily an agrarian plane. The majority of people live on farms
[box]Lekhotlans
Although Equalizers may refer to anyone who doesn't support the uprising as a Lekhotlan, officially, a Lekhotlan is someone who works for the judicial system. For example, judges, lawyers, police, collectors. There aren't any politicians or lawmakers, since on Essai, laws are (literally) set in stone and cannot change. The Lekhotlans are generally not hugely rich, but they are well-educated and therefore well-payed. They're the weapons of the upper-class, both against other members of the upper-class, as well as against the lower classes. If one business is suing another, both will hire Lekhotlan lawyers, and a Lekhotlan judge will preside. If someone isn't paying their debts to you, you hire a Lekhotlan collector to force them to pay you. If your laborers aren't working, you hire a Lekhotlan enforcer to make them start working again. Most Lekhotlans therefore have lots of income, even though they might not save much. Instead, they spend their money on products produced by businesses. Lekhotlans are the primary consumers on the plane, and they like their stuff. Some Lekhotlans spend so much money they've even gotten hugely in debt. So far, that's not really a problem though, as there are plenty of people willing to lend to them.[/box]
[box]Business Class
The business class of Essai is pretty obsessed with money. They're competitive and cutthroat. It's composed of the people that own the plane's companies and banks. Its actually pretty tough being a member of the business class, since other members of the class will always be gunning for you. A couple of bad investments and you'll lose most your money, and probably end up working as a Lekhotlan, or in a managerial position in some company. Sometimes, Likhotlans save up enough money and make enough good investments and eventually join the business class. To the business class, Lekhotlans are consumers to sell stuff to, and laborers are just numbers and units of production. Most of the business class' population is concentrated in The City.[/box]
[box]Lower Classes
Everyone else is a peasant, factory worker, or the like. Most live and work on farms, far from The City, and have a share of their crops collected by the company serving as their landlord. Those who live on farms have nothing but a share of the food they farm, and must themselves make anything else they need to survive. If not enough food is farmed one year, they could starve. Those closer to the city work in factories. Although their work may be more gloomy, they are given slightly more, and never go hungry during times of drought.
If you're born into the lower class, and you're "successful", you might obtain a managerial position in your factory and earn enough money to send your children to go to school and perhaps join the judicial class. Otherwise, you're pretty much stuck. This social stratification has caused the formation of a fairly disorganized group called the Equalizers, who plan on violent rebellion, and who primarily blame the Lekhotlans for their problems. The Equalizers are considered by Lekhotlans to be a criminal group. The business class doesn't care about the Equalizers, unless they somehow hurt their company's profitability. It would be pretty hard for Equalizers to get anywhere near The City at this point, so they don't need to worry for their own safety. Its considered the Lekhotlan's job to deal with the Equalizers.[/box]
[box=theme]Themes
Converted Mana Cost Matters (Generally, higher mana cost cards are associated with the bourgeois, why lower mana cost is prole).
Multicolor: I want to differentiate this block from other blocks with clans/guilds/wedges/tribes & the like, by making each class have at least some of all 5 of the colors in it.[/box]
[box=Mechanics]Mechanics
Bourgeois Mechanic: Debate (Each debating player chooses a card in his or her hand, then those cards are revealed at the same time. A player wins if his or her card has the highest converted mana cost.)
Prole Mechanic: Oppressed - If you control no permanents with a higher converted mana cost, do X.
Returning Mechanic: Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)[/box]
Not super happy with oppressed. What do you think? I'm hoping, in draft, for there to be decks focused around each class if you happen to get good picks for that, but for many draft decks to be a combination of each class joined together by cascade.
Sample cards inc.
Prole Contraptor 1R
Creature - Rigger (C)
SameAsMe - Whenever you cast a spell with converted mana cost two, assemble a contraption.
2/1
Prole Rigger 1R
Creature - Rigger (C)
Part of the Prole - Whenever you cast a spell with converted mana cost three or less, assemble a contraption.
2/1
Also, I'll donate a card idea you may have already had.
Common Thievery B
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent reveals his or her hand. Choose a card with the highest converted mana cost revealed this way. That player discards that card.
For example, a "peasant" mechanic/keyword/creature type, which appears in common creatures. "If a permanent with the same name as ~ is in the battlefield, [do x]".
Disgruntled Mob R (c)
creature -- human
1/1
Peasant -- when ~ enters the battlefield, for every ~ in the battlefield draw a card and discard a card.
monument to hubris 5 (u)
artifact
Rare and mythic spells cost 2 more to cast.
Peasant -- as you cast this, you may tap any number of untapped common creatures you control. Each creature tapped this way reduces ~'s cost by 1.
Debate should probably be like clash -- cast a spell, then win additional effects if you win the debate (and you have to get rid of the winner's revealed cars somehow, otherwise he keeps winning the debate). Flavor can be passing laws.
Flat Tax 2WW (r)
Sorcery
For each land each player controls, that player sacrifices it unless he or she pays 1 or taps am untapped creature.
Debate with an opponent. If you win, each player pays [/mana]2[/mana] or taps 2 creatures instead per land instead.
(Each debating player reveals a cards from his or her hand, then puts it on the bottom of his library and draws a card. A player wins if his or her card had a higher converted mana cost.)
Gerrymander 1UU (r)
Sorcery
The player with the most number of creatures returns a creature to his or her hand. Repeat this process until all players have the same number of creatures.
Debate with an opponent. If you win, that player returns a creature to the top of that player's library instead and repeats the process until all players have the same number of creatures.
(Each debating player reveals a cards from his or her hand, then puts it on the bottom of his library and draws a card. A player wins if his or her card had a higher converted mana cost.)
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
I don't want debate to have a discard or discard-like ability, because I'm afraid it will substitute for instant-speed discard to form incredibly unfun lockdown decks. I could make debating optional (you automatically lose if you don't reveal a card) to avoid that problem, but then it becomes logistically difficult, as there would be the problem of showing who is going to put the card up for debate "first", etc...
But that was exactly what I was going for with debate, passing of laws, or courtroom like:
Creature - Human Advisor
Whenever a creature deals combat damage, you may debate that creature’s controller. If you win, destroy that creature. (Each debating player chooses a card in his or her hand, then those cards are revealed at the same time. A player wins if his or her card has the highest converted mana cost.)
2/5
Also, I wasn't planning for there to be a real mana "cut off", more like a range, of around 3-4 mana. Anything 5 mana and above is pretty much guaranteed to be bourgeois, while anything 2 mana and under, (at least creatures), is pretty much guaranteed to be a prole. The nonpermanents don't have the mana-tiers, they don't care as much about the CMC.
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Life Arbitrage, sacrifice a creature.
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield and gain life equal to its converted mana cost.
Life isn't fungible.
^ obviously a bourgeois card, plays well with high CMC, but isn't high CMC itself. High CMC is for creatures.
Also, I think maybe I might like oppressed more than I previously did. There are some interesting uses, for example:
Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays X.
Oppressed — If you control no permanent with a converted mana cost higher than this card’s, counter that spell instead.
I think proles might get some X-spell mana sinks to make up for the fact that all their creatures have to be low costed. If this makes the difference between elites/peasants not clear enough, I might make their creatures even smaller.
I'm a proud member of the Online Campaign for Real English. If you believe in capital letters, correct spelling, and good sentence structure, then copy this into your signature.
"People with needs have trivial purchasing power while people with purchasing power have trivial needs."
-Steve Randy Waldman, Interfludity
Freedom Seekers 2R
Creature - Human Rogue (C)
Masses - As long as you control more creatures than your opponents, Freedom Seekers has first strike and haste.
2/2
"Masses" plays off the idea that the proles have much larger numbers than the wealthy oppressors, and potentially strength in numbers can help them overcome injustices.
- Main Cube
- No Brains, All Feelings Cube
Yeah, masses is a possibility, and its definitely flavorful. The only thing is, I was kinda hoping to allow both mechanics to help make a comeback, at least on some cards. Debate can be good early game when you've got dead high CMC cards in hand playing a bourgeois deck, and oppressed can be good when you've got nothing out because they just used End Hostilities or something, which would be terrible in a proles deck that dumps lots of low CMC cards on the board.
Which mechanic is better, do you think?
- Main Cube
- No Brains, All Feelings Cube
Just last week at my local FNM two guys were running a BU control variant - literally the only creatures run in the deck are 4x Prognostic Sphinx and 2x Clever Impersonator. It relies on counters/Bile Blight effects to grind the game to a halt, then slowly win with amazing deck fixing from sphinx + Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time.
While its obviously not a largely prominent deck type, that counter spell (and the mechanic in general) just show how relevant this mechanic is to control decks like that one - its incredibly powerful, and by the time you don't get the bonus, it doesn't matter anymore. Meanwhile, in weenie strategies like you would want it to perform well in, 1cmc-3 cards with the mechanic would be near useless, and 4+ cmc permanents would completely disable it for you.
Masses isn't a bad mechanic, although its pretty lame compared to Battalion. I'll throw in an idea: Dethrone. Represents the fight against the 'wealthy' really well in my opinion.
Avant Block: Avant -- Stormfront
Oppressed - 2 (This creature enters the battlefield with two -1/-1 counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a -1/-1 counter from this creature)
This mechanic would fit naturally on permanents with lower converted mana costs.
Example
1W
Oppressed 3 (This creature enters the battlefield with three -1/-1 counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a -1/-1 counter from this creature)
3/5
Example 2
2W
Oppressed 2 (This creature enters the battlefield with two -1/-1 counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a -1/-1 counter from this creature)
Whenever a -1/-1 counter is removed from ~, put a 1/1 white citizen creature token onto the battlefield.
2/3
This seems good, especially since the two versions offer different design benefits. "Sameasme" wants you build your deck in weird ways that probably help guide new players to consistency revelations (ALL my cards are 2 or 3 except this one drop thats good!). "PartoftheProle" is super linear and will make for some great tribal feeling decks that are neverthelss not actually tribal (plus if you print a goblin with it he automatically becomes legacy relevant if he isnt horrible).
Overall I like "Part of the Prole" more, the prole deck is about being low cmc meaning poor and scrappy, this lends itself to aggro and tempo startegies best. That's fine since they are the aggressors here, so i think creatures like this one is where you should be looking:
LA RESISTANCE 2R
Creature - Human Rebel (R)
Haste
PartoftheProle - Whenever you cast a spell with cmc 3 or less you can return CARDNAME from your graveyard to the battlefield, if you do, sacrifice it at the end of turn.
3/2
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However in MTG control tends to win the more the game drags on, which is the opposite of marx's prediction and theory (which is, the prole wins in the long run). For me this is a epic flavor win because the only way class uprising works (prole deck winning) is by striking when nobody is ready. Give any society enough time to think things through the other side "wins".
You might be from a different point of view through. IF that's the case, be sure to give the prole some sick late game tools in order to represent Marx's (failed) prediction.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
I really like the idea, just not sure if it fits within this block. I think "Part of the Prole" or my oppressed are both bit more direct about it.
I would consider maybe something suggesting the vibe of working together, like Allies or Convoke or whatever; after all, you don't always need a new mechanic. Low-CMC spells with convoke are especially appealing to me because it allows you to scrape together little things from what appeared to be no resources.
I like the metaphor you have going where CMC is associated with wealth, but I think to drive the message home, you need a prole mechanic that celebrates the faction's lack of wealth and allows them to win despite that weakness, instead of one that suggests that wealth is the way to win, but they just don't have it.
But I do have another idea. I noticed that your proposed mechanic, convoke, rewards having lots of stuff out. To come up with another mechanic that likes having a lot of stuff out, there's mass buffs. What if we were to come up with mass buffs that care about CMC, like Radiance?
Prole Growth G
Instant
Keyword - Target creature and all other creatures with the same converted mana cost get +1/+1 until end of turn.
Draw a card.
Could also be "all other creatures you control."
Is it an improvement? And if so, what should I call it?