For a faction flavored as vigilante justiciars, I created the following mechanic:
Dauntless — If you control the creature with the least power, [effect].
That is, they defend the small guys. I'm realizing, though, that as much as I like the deckbuilding challenges this creates (one of the card I expect to be key for the mechanic is a -2/+2 aura), the level of potential manipulations on the stack are somewhat troublesome. This even though the issue can be alleviated somewhat by making most of the effects triggered abilities instead of continuous ones.
I am now considering a reworking of the mechanic so that instead it is worded as
Dauntless — If an opponent controls the creature with the greatest power, [effect].
This mechanics puts a different spin since manipulations must now be applied to another player's creature to negate the effect, and they reinforce the "level the field" aspect of it. However, they also make designs with power higher than 2 a lot harder to make work, leaving these two commons a lot less appealing:
Prison Smasher
Creature – [TBD]
Trample Dauntless — Whenever Prison Smasher attacks, if you control the creature with the least power, target creature can't block Prison Smasher this turn.
3/3
Gentle Giant
Creature – Giant
Defender Dauntless — Gentle Giant can attack as though it didn't have defender as long as you control the creature with the least power.
4/4
Currently I'm not clear when, if ever I'll have a chance to playtest either versions, so I would like some thoughts on this issue from the designing community.
Wouldn't this say 'if you control the creature with the lowest power among creatures on the battlefield'? For example, Topple or Triumph of Ferocity. I guess this ability makes Char-Rumbler good?
Wouldn't this say 'if you control the creature with the lowest power among creatures on the battlefield'?
While a few recent cards have used "on the battlefield", I can't say I see the need for it, and they haven't applied it retroactively either, so I'll stick with the simpler template. It's not like it's easy to misunderstand.
Wouldn't this say 'if you control the creature with the lowest power among creatures on the battlefield'? For example, Topple or Triumph of Ferocity. I guess this ability makes Char-Rumbler good?
Triumph of Ferocity doesn't use the "among creatures on the battlefield" phrase. So because they both are using the "you control" wording they should use Triumph's wording. Also you probably want to add "tied for lowest power" aswell.
Due to problems that can come up with layers using static abilities this should always be a trigger though the timing can change on each card. That said I'm not sure this is that good of a mechanic. It wants you to have the weakest creature, meaning you will need a number of 1 or 0 power creatures in your deck which isn't what an aggressive deck wants. Then in constructed there are decks with almost no creatures so this will always be on because you control the only creatures. This is the type of swingy mechanic that is frowned upon due to the high variance(not under your control) of playing it both against other mechanics and a mirror which would be awful
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Dauntless — If you control the creature with the least power, [effect].
That is, they defend the small guys. I'm realizing, though, that as much as I like the deckbuilding challenges this creates (one of the card I expect to be key for the mechanic is a -2/+2 aura), the level of potential manipulations on the stack are somewhat troublesome. This even though the issue can be alleviated somewhat by making most of the effects triggered abilities instead of continuous ones.
I am now considering a reworking of the mechanic so that instead it is worded as
Dauntless — If an opponent controls the creature with the greatest power, [effect].
This mechanics puts a different spin since manipulations must now be applied to another player's creature to negate the effect, and they reinforce the "level the field" aspect of it. However, they also make designs with power higher than 2 a lot harder to make work, leaving these two commons a lot less appealing:
Prison Smasher
Creature – [TBD]
Trample
Dauntless — Whenever Prison Smasher attacks, if you control the creature with the least power, target creature can't block Prison Smasher this turn.
3/3
Gentle Giant
Creature – Giant
Defender
Dauntless — Gentle Giant can attack as though it didn't have defender as long as you control the creature with the least power.
4/4
Currently I'm not clear when, if ever I'll have a chance to playtest either versions, so I would like some thoughts on this issue from the designing community.
Servien
Chaos' Realm
Escalation of Chaos
Tales of Cahdaria
Enigmatic Distrubance
Celestial Unveiling
While a few recent cards have used "on the battlefield", I can't say I see the need for it, and they haven't applied it retroactively either, so I'll stick with the simpler template. It's not like it's easy to misunderstand.
Due to problems that can come up with layers using static abilities this should always be a trigger though the timing can change on each card. That said I'm not sure this is that good of a mechanic. It wants you to have the weakest creature, meaning you will need a number of 1 or 0 power creatures in your deck which isn't what an aggressive deck wants. Then in constructed there are decks with almost no creatures so this will always be on because you control the only creatures. This is the type of swingy mechanic that is frowned upon due to the high variance(not under your control) of playing it both against other mechanics and a mirror which would be awful