MTG Salvation

Exploratory design got us to the latest age of design, so I'm trying to get in that mindset. The plane is Somenhall, a take on Wonderland / Oz / Neverland / Halloween. So I'll try to take tropes, design for them, then choose a group of mechanics that play well with each other. Like in Kaladesh, the goal is to make you feel something (playing with Fabricate / Energy / Vehicles makes you feel like an inventor.)

The ideal mechanics of Somenhall would make you feel:

- Like you are getting lost, deeper and deeper in an unknown place
- You are meeting some really weird beings in a distorted version of reality
- Like these weirdos could actually be nice companions for a party
- You are entering a scary place, but the fun kind of scary. (No gore or eldritch horror here thanks!)

Mechanic 1 -- Perorate

When Alice meets someone in wonderland, there is usually a long-winded absurd conversation. This mechanic allows characters you meet to really hammer on if you pay extra mana.

Smoking Caterpillar 2G
Creature - Insect
When Smoking Caterpillar enters the battlefield, gain 3 life.
Perorate 4G (When you cast this card for its perorate cost, create a token copy of it, then sacrifice that token.)
3/2

I went for a cast trigger just because I think it reads better ('enter the battlefield' twice is kinda ugly.) Perorate creatures have enter the battlefield triggers, dying triggers, or morbid triggers:

Egg On A Wall 2B
Creature - Egg
When Egg On A Wall enters the battlefield, if a creature died this turn, draw a card and lose 1 life.
Perorate 2BB
2/2

With perorate you go from 0 to 1 morbid triggers, to 1-guaranteed / 2-maybe.
(Yes, I really liked Panharmonicon, why do you ask?)

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Mechanic 2 -- Uncanny

This seems familiar... but something is amiss, you can't quite put your finger on it. Uncanny is a take on monstrosity, except as a sorcery to avoid combat annoyance (which allows bigger stats.)

Glotonous Boar 1G
Creature - Eerie Boar
Uncanny 2 - 1G (1G: If this creature is monocolor, put two +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes all colors. Uncanny only as a sorcery.)
2/2

You'll see that I used the creature's colors instead of a keyword that does nothing (becomes monstrous.) The flavor is that a an uncanny creature gets a lot weirder than immediately meets the eye. Uncanny allows for a colors-matter component... but I do think that color-matter mechanics have fallen very flat before. And our color matter evergreens, Intimidate and Protection, died out because their hosing felt so random. So no hosing, but multicolor bonuses could work well here -

Uncanny Strength 1G
Instant
Target creature you control gets +2/+2 until end of turn. If that creature is multicolor, draw a card.

Going even deeper, you'll see that I added the Eerie subtype with the intent of making it a full tribe:

Marbel Knight 3W
Creature - Eerie Knight
If you control two or more red creatures, creatures you control have +1/+1.
Uncanny 1 - 1W (1W: If this creature is monocolor, put a +1/+1 counter on it and it becomes all colors. Uncanny only as a sorcery.)
3/3

Marbel Knight is not fully parasitic, because it's a perfect 1-of inclusion in a White/Red deck, with a bonus that is easy to get. But you can also play it in a deck that is Eerie tribal, no matter if it's UW, BW, GW, or even mono-white. For example, the UW eerie deck can combo Marbel Knight with -

Mentor Owl 2UU
Creature - Eerie Bird
Flying
Whenever two or more green creatures you control attack, draw a card.
Uncanny 1 - 1U (1U: If this creature is monocolor, put a +1/+1 counter on it and it becomes all colors. Uncanny only as a sorcery.)
3/2

even if they both supposedly care about other colors! or add Marbel Knight to your WB deck to play with:

Hexstink Giant 4B
Creature - Eerie Giant
Whenever two or more blue creatures you control attack, creatures your opponents control get -1/-1 until end of turn.
Uncanny 1 - 1B (1B: If this creature is monocolor, put a +1/+1 counter on it and it becomes all colors. Uncanny only as a sorcery.)
3/4

Just mix and match eerie creatures without a care in the world, it'll all work out somehow.



Mechanic 3 -- Requiem

Somenhall also needs noncreature mechanics. Tying in with the 'creepy fun' side of Somenhall, Requiem allows you to sing a last song with your dead creatures.

Stanza of Genius 1U
Instant
Draw a card.
Requiem U (If you cast this spell from your hand and then exile it with a creature card from your graveyard, you may cast this card from exile for U.)

Requiem is a mixture of flashback and delve. Since it's a lot harder than just flashback it can be cheaper (you need the correct window for the first cast, requiem cards fight for that resource, and while mill can give you fodder for it, it doesn't allow for the second casting of a milled card.)
The flavor of requiem is that the dead return for a last performance (either theirs or yours.)


Mechanic 4 -- Carnivale

Carnivale is another take on a party with the dead, using double faced cards. The flavor is a 'day of the dead' parade that spirits, monsters, and regular masked people can join (you don't want the dead to recognize you and decide to take you along!). I think this one captures the "creepy but fun" flavor of Halloween better.

Stern Predicator 1WW
Creature - Human Cleric
Carnivale 3W (3W: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield transformed with 2 parade counters on it. Carnivale only as a sorcery.)
3/3
--
Dance of Release
Enchantment
If Dance of Release would leave the battlefield, exile it instead.
Whenever you attack with two or more creatures, you may remove a parade counter from Dance of Release.
When you remove the last parade counter on Dance of Release, gain 5 life.


Any type of card can have carnivale, turning into either an enchantment or a creature.

Eaten by a Walrus 3BB
Sorcery
Destroy target creature.
Carnivale 4B (4B: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield transformed with 2 parade counters on it. Carnivale only as a sorcery.)
--
Merry Walrus
Creature - Walrus
If Merry Walrus would leave the battlefield, exile it instead.
Whenever you attack with two or more creatures, you may remove a parade counter from Merry Walrus.
Merry Walrus has +1/+1 and Deathtouch if it has no parade counters on it.
2/2

All carnivale cards would have the same first two abilities (you need to complete the parade before you get the good stuff.) And here is another idea - what if all double faced were carnivale cards? I think an as-fan of 1 is a good number for a mechanic like this, so exactly 1 doesn't seem like it'd break anything (assuming Innistrad's as-fan of 1 for DFC.)


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Finally, I love both Requiem and Carnivale, but I think the latter has a better flavor resonance and has deeper space in flavor and mechanically. (I admit it uses a lot of the complexity allocation of the set. I think carnivale is a bit more complex than werewolves, but it's also made easier to learn when all behave the same way. Plus you get the complexity in two separate installments: the living part and the dead part never interact with each other.)

So, let's assume our mechanics are Perorate, Uncanny and Carnivale, how would the ten archetypes look for limited?

WU : Blink and return to hand effects with enter-the-battlefield triggers of perorate.
WG : Enchantments matter (the enchantment carnivales just sit around after the parade, so give them use)
GB : Creatures dying synergy (morbid perorate and carnivale.)
WR : Go wide (Uncanny and carnivale love 2-attack triggers. If you have bonuses for creatures entering the battlefield, perorate becomes better too.)
UR : Evasion. You can get the 2-attack triggers easily this way, for carnivale, or for the repeatable triggers of the eerie tribe.
UG : Multicolor bonuses. This is the combination that has the most creatures with uncanny (but like I said all 10 color combinations can do eerie tribal.)
UB : Mill yourself for carnivale card advantage.
WB : Carnivale regular advantage. As the spirit deck, these two colors have the most carnivale. Very strong late game.
RG : +1/+1 counters synergy. Like theros, you can't have external +1/+1 counter effects (they would be confusing since they mark an uncanny creature's activation.) But RG can have creatures of all sizes that also get +1/+1 outside of uncanny and bonuses for them (but of course, uncanny is great here too.)
RB : Aggro (hey not everything must care!) - but you can also sprinkle the typical threaten/sacrifice combo at uncommon, and a few sacrifice triggers. Now you like perorate too.

Thanks for reading, critiques are very welcome.

I love this set so far, with eerie being my favorite mechanic (something about turning your creatures gold seems fun, as does the 2 attackers triggers). I like perorate too. Carnivale is cool, but it is towards the upper limits of complexity.

It's good to see an evocative, experience-based design project in our forum. Keep up the good work.

EDIT-

If you do go with Requiem, I'd recommend this wording for clarity:

Requiem N (When you cast this spell, you may exile a creature card from your graveyard and pay N. If you do, copy this spell.)

This changes the functionality slightly, but it mostly does the same thing and it's a lot easier to parse. (This does, of course, assume that I understood your original wording correctly. )

The flavor of the world is great. A few thoughts...

Perorate: Seems too complex and confusing (especially for new players) to create tokens that simply die right away. Why not just have the ETB ability trigger twice if you pay the Perorate cost? I get the flavor, but I would be scratching my head and wondering what is the point of all the "ghost tokens."

Uncanny: In practice, I would also say too confusing. I would get a headache from keeping track of creatures' colors.

Requiem: I like Astrolabe's wording for this. Although BFZ broke the taboo of interacting with cards in exile on a large scale, I would say that in general it should be done minimally, since the flavor of the exile zone is that the cards are gone and can't be retrieved.

Carnivale: This is cool. Complex but fun.