Biomancy is an ability word that triggers whenever you cast a creature spell. Worth noting is that Biomancy can be used on cards that are not themselves creatures, but obviously will be most efficient when printed on a creature card.
Hyperscale Krasis1G
Creature — Lizard Mutant Biomancy — Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
2/2
Mitosis Experiment3UU
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature Biomancy — Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may put a token that's a copy of enchanted creature onto the battlefield.
Projections of Progress2U
Enchantment Biomancy — Whenever you cast a creature spell, scry 1.
Mind Clade Biologist1GU
Creature — Merfolk Wizard Biomancy — Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may draw a card.
2/2
Now that I think about it, I would also be interested in trying this mechanic in my custom Crystals of Gerra block as a summon-themed mechanic named, appropriately enough, Summoning. As Gerra's Summoners are mostly Shamans, the Summoning mechanic would be found mostly on Shamans and related cards. It would play well with Evoke, an existing mechanic which I include in COG.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
It's a pretty powerful ability, because it's simple. But simple is good, and because of that I enjoy this. It feels like it's 90% green though... Idk how you could make it feel more blue. I suppose it's okay.
In a different set, I would probably put creature spells matter in a different second color, like white. But Simic's flavor puts a heavy focus on biology and thus creatures. Just remember that Simic's blue cards always have a slight green feel to them, just as its green cards always have a slight blue feel to them. Simic isn't just about nature or science but nature science.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
On one hand, this reads really boring. On the other hand, I probably would have said the same about Landfall.
I want to give this the benefit of the doubt, but it really does seem kind of dull. Landfall is interesting because it creates decisions where there are usually very few. Most of the time you don't have to worry about when and how you play lands, so adding meaning to that decision allows for new avenues of play. Prowess similarly allows for cards that normally don't affect the board directly to have an impact in combat. Both of these simple effects require interesting deckbuilding decisions.
This doesn't seem to have as much potential. Most decks (in limited) are already mostly creatures, and creatures already have a lot of importance in sequencing. I think you'd have to prove why this plays well.
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():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
I think this is a perfectly fine mechanic for something. I just want to point out the difference between the green-blue Simic and monogreen summoners lies in their added emphasis in nurturing. The green-blue conflict is generally described as "Nature vs. Nurture", i. e. green accepts things as they are created while blue thinks of everything as mutable. Combining these two in Simic is interpreted as nurtuting nature i. e. using the existing template and improving it. That's not the one way blue can be done, but that is the Simic way.
Looking at the existing mechanics for Simic through that lense you see that they have two things in common (a) caring about creatures coming into existence (entering the battlefield) (b) changing the way creatures are (in both cases this is realized by putting +1/+1 counters on creatures). By not inherently "changing" a creature your proposed ability word feels not as strongly like a Simic mechanic as it could.
This is a wide open mechanic like kicker, but only half-way there when it comes to capturing Simic flavor. Food for thought.
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
Hey, I've also been thinking about new guild mechanics. My mechanics is really complicated, so be ready.
Fuse is an activated ability of a creature. For some cost (which differs) it says- this permanent becomes an Aura in addition to its other types. Attach it to target creature. Enchanted creature has +X/+Y, where X is this cards power and Y is this card's toughness and gains all static, triggered, and activated abilities of this creature.
I think this is a perfectly fine mechanic for something. I just want to point out the difference between the green-blue Simic and monogreen summoners lies in their added emphasis in nurturing. The green-blue conflict is generally described as "Nature vs. Nurture", i. e. green accepts things as they are created while blue thinks of everything as mutable. Combining these two in Simic is interpreted as nurtuting nature i. e. using the existing template and improving it. That's not the one way blue can be done, but that is the Simic way.
Looking at the existing mechanics for Simic through that lense you see that they have two things in common (a) caring about creatures coming into existence (entering the battlefield) (b) changing the way creatures are (in both cases this is realized by putting +1/+1 counters on creatures). By not inherently "changing" a creature your proposed ability word feels not as strongly like a Simic mechanic as it could.
This is a wide open mechanic like kicker, but only half-way there when it comes to capturing Simic flavor. Food for thought.
With Biomancy, Simic is effectively harnessing bioenergy to fuel abilities. But in hindsight, I feel my Merge mechanic does a better job of capturing Simic's "tinkering with nature" flavor. I've been looking for something that isn't just another +1/+1 counter mechanic.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
With Biomancy, Simic is effectively harnessing bioenergy to fuel abilities. But in hindsight, I feel my Merge mechanic does a better job of capturing Simic's "tinkering with nature" flavor. I've been looking for something that isn't just another +1/+1 counter mechanic.
I'm all in favor for Simic getting to "tinker with nature" without using +1/+1 counters. Merge and similar bestow variants feel quite fitting towards the thing Simic wants to do.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
On one hand, this reads really boring. On the other hand, I probably would have said the same about Landfall.
I want to give this the benefit of the doubt, but it really does seem kind of dull. Landfall is interesting because it creates decisions where there are usually very few. Most of the time you don't have to worry about when and how you play lands, so adding meaning to that decision allows for new avenues of play. Prowess similarly allows for cards that normally don't affect the board directly to have an impact in combat. Both of these simple effects require interesting deckbuilding decisions.
This doesn't seem to have as much potential. Most decks (in limited) are already mostly creatures, and creatures already have a lot of importance in sequencing. I think you'd have to prove why this plays well.
I think there's more decision points than you're giving it credit for. The decision points typically don't branch over multiple turns like with Landfall, but there are a lot of time where you really don't want to cast a creature pre-combat since it opens you up to combat tricks. Biomancy encourages players to cast their creatures before combat, with is a slight change to "normal play." Especially if Simic is in a format with Boros/Gruul/another combat-trick oriented guild, there are very meaningful tradeoffs between pre- and post-combat sequencing of creatures. Most limited decks will have a creature spell at about the same rate as landfall has lands, so I do think it's a rather apt comparison.
Playtesting rules over theorycrafting, of course, but I think this would play somewhat similar to Landfall - at least in limited.
Playing your creatures post combat is something that players have to learn, so I'm not sure if that's really useful. Like, newer players who are just jamming stuff get rewarded for playing their creatures normally and don't learn much, while experienced players just revert to main phase one. This is the opposite of Raid for example, which teaches newer players how to use their second main phase (which seems more useful to me).
I'm sure there's some amount of play to it, what I'm saying is that there are only a few "basic game actions" left to utilize and this seems like the most boring one.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
Hyperscale Krasis 1G
Creature — Lizard Mutant
Biomancy — Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
2/2
Mitosis Experiment 3UU
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Biomancy — Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may put a token that's a copy of enchanted creature onto the battlefield.
Projections of Progress 2U
Enchantment
Biomancy — Whenever you cast a creature spell, scry 1.
Mind Clade Biologist 1GU
Creature — Merfolk Wizard
Biomancy — Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may draw a card.
2/2
Now that I think about it, I would also be interested in trying this mechanic in my custom Crystals of Gerra block as a summon-themed mechanic named, appropriately enough, Summoning. As Gerra's Summoners are mostly Shamans, the Summoning mechanic would be found mostly on Shamans and related cards. It would play well with Evoke, an existing mechanic which I include in COG.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
I want to give this the benefit of the doubt, but it really does seem kind of dull. Landfall is interesting because it creates decisions where there are usually very few. Most of the time you don't have to worry about when and how you play lands, so adding meaning to that decision allows for new avenues of play. Prowess similarly allows for cards that normally don't affect the board directly to have an impact in combat. Both of these simple effects require interesting deckbuilding decisions.
This doesn't seem to have as much potential. Most decks (in limited) are already mostly creatures, and creatures already have a lot of importance in sequencing. I think you'd have to prove why this plays well.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Looking at the existing mechanics for Simic through that lense you see that they have two things in common (a) caring about creatures coming into existence (entering the battlefield) (b) changing the way creatures are (in both cases this is realized by putting +1/+1 counters on creatures). By not inherently "changing" a creature your proposed ability word feels not as strongly like a Simic mechanic as it could.
This is a wide open mechanic like kicker, but only half-way there when it comes to capturing Simic flavor. Food for thought.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
Fuse is an activated ability of a creature. For some cost (which differs) it says- this permanent becomes an Aura in addition to its other types. Attach it to target creature. Enchanted creature has +X/+Y, where X is this cards power and Y is this card's toughness and gains all static, triggered, and activated abilities of this creature.
With Biomancy, Simic is effectively harnessing bioenergy to fuel abilities. But in hindsight, I feel my Merge mechanic does a better job of capturing Simic's "tinkering with nature" flavor. I've been looking for something that isn't just another +1/+1 counter mechanic.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
I'm all in favor for Simic getting to "tinker with nature" without using +1/+1 counters. Merge and similar bestow variants feel quite fitting towards the thing Simic wants to do.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
Playtesting rules over theorycrafting, of course, but I think this would play somewhat similar to Landfall - at least in limited.
I'm sure there's some amount of play to it, what I'm saying is that there are only a few "basic game actions" left to utilize and this seems like the most boring one.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing