I've had this idea on here before, and I believe it's been proposed many times in the past, but I thought it was a good time to show it off again considering the return of Cycling for Amonkhet.
Chorus of the Wild1G
Sorcery (Common)
Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a creature or a land card from among them and put it into your hand, then put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
Recycle 3(Put this card from your graveyard onto the bottom of your library, then draw a card.)
Tideshaper2U
Creature - Elemental (Uncommon)
Flash
When Tideshaper enters the battlefield, you may tap or untap target permanent.
Recycle 2U(Put this card from your graveyard onto the bottom of your library, then draw a card.)
Whenever you Recycle Tideshaper, you may tap or untap target permanent.
2/2
Recycle aims to do a few things:
- Return cards from your graveyard to your library.
- Promotes more card advantage and the use of the graveyard.
- Avoids exiling in favor of returning cards to the bottom of the library; another "hard to reach" zone.
A few notes on Recycle:
- Recycling costs will usually be a little more than cycling; considering you've already used the spell and getting more from it as opposed to discarding the card for cycling.
- I considered making Recycle only "Sorcery Speed", but I felt it lost a lot of its usefulness. It's still up for debate.
Really smooth mechanic. I don't think you have to be locked into 3 for the recycle cost and I think having variable recycling cost would help adjust the power level of your cards.
Mechanically, this has much more in common with Investigate than with cycling. Cycling is, first and foremost, a means to "trade in" cards that can't be used effectively, while both Investigate and Recycle are more like delayed cantrips for an extra cost. Unlike cycling, Recycle isn't an alternative so much as reward for using or discarding the card in question. A sorcery timing restriction is unnecessary, though keep in mind that Recycle gets a lot stronger as your library shrinks.
The problem with this mechanic is that putting the card on the bottom of your library rarely matters. It could just as easily be "exile" for Wizards.
I think you could use the "Put X from the top" language to make a mechanic that "restocked" your deck, but you'd want to kill the "draw a card" part, as the mechanic would be a means of stacking future draws.
Restock Soldier W
Human Soldier - C
Vigilance
First Strike
Restock 1 - W (W: Put this card on top of your library. Use this ability only if this is in your graveyard.).
1/1
Restocked Dismissal 1UU
Instant - U
Counter target spell
Restock 3 -1UU (1UU: Put this card 3rd from the top of your library. Use this ability only if this is in your graveyard.)
Restocked Hydra XG
Creature - Hydra Snake - R
This creature enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters.
Restock X -XX (XX: Put this card Xth from the top of your library. Use this ability only if this is in your graveyard.)
When you play ~'s Restock cost, create X 1/1 green snake creature tokens.
0/0
Restock actually lets you stack your deck - and that could be quite interesting. If nothing else, it's very good in limited, as you can keep "dredging" back creatures or spells... for a cost.
Really smooth mechanic. I don't think you have to be locked into 3 for the recycle cost and I think having variable recycling cost would help adjust the power level of your cards.
Oh yeah I agree; what I meant was that most commons or I guess the standard cost would be 3. It's too easy to just dump cards in your graveyard and then use it for advantage which is stronger than discarding a card and trading it for another one. Recycle assumes you've already used the card. But anyhow I agree; there will definitely be some variance in the costs.
I also do agree that putting the card on the bottom of the library seems like it hardly matters, and I'm trying to design a few Cellar Door type cards to make it work. I also figured I'd have A decent number of cards that let you shuffle the library despite the negativity that shuffling gets. After all, it's only a custom set.
I also considered a weird Scry that let you look at the bottom cards and put any number of them on the top or bottom of your library in any order.
I like the idea of Restock but it seems like you could easily make that into the new Dredge. Sure it doesn't put cards into your graveyard, but the recursion might be too strong.
With Cellar Door cards, this would be a lot of fun.
Re: Dredge - Dredge is a great mechanic. The only real problem with it is the fact that it's degenerate with all those other "in graveyard matters" cards. But by "degenerate" I mean in Wizard's eyes. I happen to think it's fine - it's not like they don't print 0 drop graveyard hate or anything.
Re: Restock - This is actually an uncomfortably slow dredge. If it was sorcery speed it would be quite bad, all else being equal. Even so, anything but "Restock 1" is going to be hard to play reliably in standard. But in limited, it's a lot of fun - as it allows you to stack your deck quite nicely.
Restock also makes shuffling offensive in a real sense; making shuffling good (ie, repeatable tutor effects, or brainstorm/top + shuffle engine) is a problem because it slows down gameplay. But if you print relatively few self-shufflers, and the occasional "opponent shuffles their library" effect (with a card or life drawback to make it not used to slow down the game, but only to nix restock), it could really shake up limited I think.
If there are enough "reveal the bottom card of your library" effects in limited, recycle could be similarly fun.
One final thought: I'd change the name on recycle to something else... it's not clear whether this is a cycling variant; and given landcycling/etc., you want to be clear.
Honestly, I'd prefer the "Cost, Exile this from your graveyard: Draw a card" version. It's clean, it's simple, and it wouldn't take very much to make it shine in a set.
Honestly, I'd prefer the "Cost, Exile this from your graveyard: Draw a card" version. It's clean, it's simple, and it wouldn't take very much to make it shine in a set.
Although simple, I feel like that variant leaves a lot out to the imagination of what the potential uses are for putting it back into your deck.
Chorus of the Wild 1G
Sorcery (Common)
Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a creature or a land card from among them and put it into your hand, then put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
Recycle 3 (Put this card from your graveyard onto the bottom of your library, then draw a card.)
Tideshaper 2U
Creature - Elemental (Uncommon)
Flash
When Tideshaper enters the battlefield, you may tap or untap target permanent.
Recycle 2U (Put this card from your graveyard onto the bottom of your library, then draw a card.)
Whenever you Recycle Tideshaper, you may tap or untap target permanent.
2/2
Recycle aims to do a few things:
- Return cards from your graveyard to your library.
- Promotes more card advantage and the use of the graveyard.
- Avoids exiling in favor of returning cards to the bottom of the library; another "hard to reach" zone.
A few notes on Recycle:
- Recycling costs will usually be a little more than cycling; considering you've already used the spell and getting more from it as opposed to discarding the card for cycling.
- I considered making Recycle only "Sorcery Speed", but I felt it lost a lot of its usefulness. It's still up for debate.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Funny fact: in portuguese they translated cycling to what is recycle in english.
BGStandard Green AggroGB
UWRGModern Saheeli CobraGRWU
UBRGLegacy StormGRBU
Wizards Certified Rules Advisor
I think you could use the "Put X from the top" language to make a mechanic that "restocked" your deck, but you'd want to kill the "draw a card" part, as the mechanic would be a means of stacking future draws.
Restock Soldier W
Human Soldier - C
Vigilance
First Strike
Restock 1 - W (W: Put this card on top of your library. Use this ability only if this is in your graveyard.).
1/1
Restocked Dismissal 1UU
Instant - U
Counter target spell
Restock 3 -1UU (1UU: Put this card 3rd from the top of your library. Use this ability only if this is in your graveyard.)
Restocked Hydra XG
Creature - Hydra Snake - R
This creature enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters.
Restock X -XX (XX: Put this card Xth from the top of your library. Use this ability only if this is in your graveyard.)
When you play ~'s Restock cost, create X 1/1 green snake creature tokens.
0/0
Restock actually lets you stack your deck - and that could be quite interesting. If nothing else, it's very good in limited, as you can keep "dredging" back creatures or spells... for a cost.
Oh yeah I agree; what I meant was that most commons or I guess the standard cost would be 3. It's too easy to just dump cards in your graveyard and then use it for advantage which is stronger than discarding a card and trading it for another one. Recycle assumes you've already used the card. But anyhow I agree; there will definitely be some variance in the costs.
I also do agree that putting the card on the bottom of the library seems like it hardly matters, and I'm trying to design a few Cellar Door type cards to make it work. I also figured I'd have A decent number of cards that let you shuffle the library despite the negativity that shuffling gets. After all, it's only a custom set.
I also considered a weird Scry that let you look at the bottom cards and put any number of them on the top or bottom of your library in any order.
I like the idea of Restock but it seems like you could easily make that into the new Dredge. Sure it doesn't put cards into your graveyard, but the recursion might be too strong.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Re: Dredge - Dredge is a great mechanic. The only real problem with it is the fact that it's degenerate with all those other "in graveyard matters" cards. But by "degenerate" I mean in Wizard's eyes. I happen to think it's fine - it's not like they don't print 0 drop graveyard hate or anything.
Re: Restock - This is actually an uncomfortably slow dredge. If it was sorcery speed it would be quite bad, all else being equal. Even so, anything but "Restock 1" is going to be hard to play reliably in standard. But in limited, it's a lot of fun - as it allows you to stack your deck quite nicely.
Restock also makes shuffling offensive in a real sense; making shuffling good (ie, repeatable tutor effects, or brainstorm/top + shuffle engine) is a problem because it slows down gameplay. But if you print relatively few self-shufflers, and the occasional "opponent shuffles their library" effect (with a card or life drawback to make it not used to slow down the game, but only to nix restock), it could really shake up limited I think.
If there are enough "reveal the bottom card of your library" effects in limited, recycle could be similarly fun.
One final thought: I'd change the name on recycle to something else... it's not clear whether this is a cycling variant; and given landcycling/etc., you want to be clear.
Although simple, I feel like that variant leaves a lot out to the imagination of what the potential uses are for putting it back into your deck.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries