Everyone who votes will receive 2 Bonus Points for CCL September.
Challenge
Choose a “bad” or “boring” mechanic in Magic’s history and create four cards of different rarities with your new and exciting mechanic.
doomfish
Original mechanic: Banding
New mechanic: Formation
Formation (At the beginning of combat, you may group up to two other ungrouped creatures you control with this creature to form a troop.)
Banding is a bad mechanic in the sense that the reminder text could pass for a novel and even when it's on the card players don't understand it.
Even though it's rather simple once you got it. But I got the chance to play with it in a draft once and it mostly helps your opponent chump blocking.
I mean he got to block my flyer by blocking one of my walking guys, because I thought it'd be fun to put it into a band. Laaaaame.
So here comes LeadershipFormation: (At the beginning of combat, you may group up to two other ungrouped creatures you control with this creature to form a troop.)
While it doesn't share most of bandings mechanical aspects, it shares the flavor, a group of creatures getting together for joint combat.
It doesn't do anything on its own, but every card would come with an ability that makes it matter of course. Note that these abilities don't require the troop to have been formed by the creature with Formation, but work as long as it is in any troop. There's even troop abilities without Formation to support the keyword.
Fun fact: Formation started out as Captain and would form a crew as a pirate-flavored mechanic. (Mmh, pirate flavor.) But since Crew is an actual mechanic now that has been thwarted.
Patron of the Ranks started out as a top-down Rlease the Kraken!
Banding General2W
Creature - Human Soldier (R)
Formation (At the beginning of combat, you may group up to two other ungrouped creatures you control with this creature to form a troop.)
Whenever combat damage would be dealt to a creature in the same troop as Banding General, you may have it dealt divided as you choose among any number of creatures in the same troop as Banding General instead.
2/3
Battlefield Brawler3G
Creature - Human Soldier Berserker (C)
Formation (At the beginning of combat, you may group up to two other ungrouped creatures you control with this creature to form a troop.)
Creatures in the same troop as Battlefield Brawler have trample. "Never mind his temper, I'll stick with him throughout this war. I've seen him lose his sword and that's when things got real nasty for the enemy."
—Cienn, Soldier of the king's army
3/3
Scouting Jays1U
Creature - Bird Scout (U)
Flying
Whenever a creature in the same troop as Scouting Jays deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card. "So fragile, yet so useful. They somehow remind me of you."
—Liliana Vess, to Jace Beleren
1/2
Patron of the Ranks6WW
Creature - Angel (M)
Flash
Each untapped creature you control that is in a troop you tap while casting Patron of the Ranks pays for 2.
Flying
Whenever Patron of the Ranks enters the battlefield or attacks, creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn.
4/4
Blydden
Original mechanic: Radiance
New mechanic: Prisma
Prisma — Whenever you cast a [ COLOR ] spell, X. Prisma — {COST}: X. Activate this ability only if you have cast another [ COLOR ] spell this turn.
Hello! Thank you for taking the time to read this. So, about radiance...
Radiance is originally from Ravnica: City of Guilds. It was the Boros mechanic then and is currently a 9 on the Storm Scale for its playability issues. It has since been 'replaced' with Battalion starting with Gatecrash as the Boros mechanic. While Radiance is flavorful and interesting, it is unfortunately a mechanical design failure. The main problem with Radiance is that it affects the whole of the board state in an unintuitive way.
Enter Prisma as a solution. By 'evolving' Radiance to become self-contained, it naturally becomes a lot more intuitive, easier to design and develop, and more playable.
Firstly, Prisma will only ever function alongside the colors in the mana cost of the card itself. Secondly, Prisma effects are intended to be more self-oriented rather than board-oriented in order to promote understandability. Thirdly, Prisma can be a universal mechanic, since every color cares about its own colors intrinsically, unlike Radiance.
Lastly, as a bit of trivia, I designed Kristel as a tribute to Boros, that which bequeathed the original mechanic of Radiance.
Elvish Seer1G
Creature - Elf Shaman (C) T: Add G to your mana pool. Prisma — T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if you have cast another green spell this turn. The vividness of nature is ubiquitous.
1/2
Aethereal Library1U
Enchantment (U)
When Aethereal Library enters the battlefield, scry 3. Prisma — Whenever you cast a blue spell, you may pay 1U. If you do, draw a card. Knowledge is ultimately its own reward.
Horde of Rats4BB
Creature - Rat (R)
Rats you control have menace. Prisma — Whenever you cast a black spell, create X 1/1 black Rat creature tokens, where X is the number of Rats you control. It is paltry for one to look down upon vermin until their plague brings one down with them.
3/3
Kristel, Archangel of Glory5RW
Legendary Creature - Angel (M)
Flying
Attacking creatures you control have indestructible. Prisma — RW: Creatures you control gain double strike until end of turn. Activate this ability only if you have cast another red or white spell this turn.
5/5
Voting will remain open until the end of CCL September, Round 2.
Always weird to vote for oneself, but I want these juicy 2 points for september.
I like how both our mythics are angels that grant indestructible.
Also that mana elf is a lot better than the first iteration I saw in your workshop Blydden, it makes for a really nice card now
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
—Eli Shiffrin, Rules Manager, on a design stacking lifelink instances
I know, it is kind of weird to vote for myself as well, but fair's fair, yes?
To be honest, while we are complimenting each other, you literally took on iterating on Banding, a mechanic that I would rather not touch even with a ten and a half meter pole. The mechanic that I believe is the third worst mechanic ever printed on an official Magic: The Gathering card, behind only Storm and Ante. It is a little similar to both Crew and Battalion and other official iterations of Banding, but it is also a new iteration that uses up a tidy design space, enough so to build a set or two with in my opinion.
I also actually really like the reference to banding in Banding General.
To be honest, I kind of wish people could vote on individual cards for each rarity rather than having to vote on the designs as a whole but Que Serra Serra.
“Renewing Touch”
This is the final poll for August’s CCL.
You have won August’s CCL!
Thanks to everyone who participated!
Everyone who votes will receive 2 Bonus Points for CCL September.
Challenge
Choose a “bad” or “boring” mechanic in Magic’s history and create four cards of different rarities with your new and exciting mechanic.
doomfish
Original mechanic: Banding
New mechanic: Formation
Even though it's rather simple once you got it. But I got the chance to play with it in a draft once and it mostly helps your opponent chump blocking.
I mean he got to block my flyer by blocking one of my walking guys, because I thought it'd be fun to put it into a band. Laaaaame.
So here comes
LeadershipFormation: (At the beginning of combat, you may group up to two other ungrouped creatures you control with this creature to form a troop.)While it doesn't share most of bandings mechanical aspects, it shares the flavor, a group of creatures getting together for joint combat.
It doesn't do anything on its own, but every card would come with an ability that makes it matter of course. Note that these abilities don't require the troop to have been formed by the creature with Formation, but work as long as it is in any troop. There's even troop abilities without Formation to support the keyword.
Fun fact: Formation started out as Captain and would form a crew as a pirate-flavored mechanic. (Mmh, pirate flavor.) But since Crew is an actual mechanic now that has been thwarted.
Patron of the Ranks started out as a top-down Rlease the Kraken!
Creature - Human Soldier (R)
Formation (At the beginning of combat, you may group up to two other ungrouped creatures you control with this creature to form a troop.)
Whenever combat damage would be dealt to a creature in the same troop as Banding General, you may have it dealt divided as you choose among any number of creatures in the same troop as Banding General instead.
2/3
Battlefield Brawler 3G
Creature - Human Soldier Berserker (C)
Formation (At the beginning of combat, you may group up to two other ungrouped creatures you control with this creature to form a troop.)
Creatures in the same troop as Battlefield Brawler have trample.
"Never mind his temper, I'll stick with him throughout this war. I've seen him lose his sword and that's when things got real nasty for the enemy."
—Cienn, Soldier of the king's army
3/3
Scouting Jays 1U
Creature - Bird Scout (U)
Flying
Whenever a creature in the same troop as Scouting Jays deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.
"So fragile, yet so useful. They somehow remind me of you."
—Liliana Vess, to Jace Beleren
1/2
Patron of the Ranks 6WW
Creature - Angel (M)
Flash
Each untapped creature you control that is in a troop you tap while casting Patron of the Ranks pays for 2.
Flying
Whenever Patron of the Ranks enters the battlefield or attacks, creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn.
4/4
Blydden
Original mechanic: Radiance
New mechanic: Prisma
Radiance is originally from Ravnica: City of Guilds. It was the Boros mechanic then and is currently a 9 on the Storm Scale for its playability issues. It has since been 'replaced' with Battalion starting with Gatecrash as the Boros mechanic. While Radiance is flavorful and interesting, it is unfortunately a mechanical design failure. The main problem with Radiance is that it affects the whole of the board state in an unintuitive way.
Enter Prisma as a solution. By 'evolving' Radiance to become self-contained, it naturally becomes a lot more intuitive, easier to design and develop, and more playable.
Firstly, Prisma will only ever function alongside the colors in the mana cost of the card itself. Secondly, Prisma effects are intended to be more self-oriented rather than board-oriented in order to promote understandability. Thirdly, Prisma can be a universal mechanic, since every color cares about its own colors intrinsically, unlike Radiance.
Lastly, as a bit of trivia, I designed Kristel as a tribute to Boros, that which bequeathed the original mechanic of Radiance.
Creature - Elf Shaman (C)
T: Add G to your mana pool.
Prisma — T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if you have cast another green spell this turn.
The vividness of nature is ubiquitous.
1/2
Aethereal Library 1U
Enchantment (U)
When Aethereal Library enters the battlefield, scry 3.
Prisma — Whenever you cast a blue spell, you may pay 1U. If you do, draw a card.
Knowledge is ultimately its own reward.
Horde of Rats 4BB
Creature - Rat (R)
Rats you control have menace.
Prisma — Whenever you cast a black spell, create X 1/1 black Rat creature tokens, where X is the number of Rats you control.
It is paltry for one to look down upon vermin until their plague brings one down with them.
3/3
Kristel, Archangel of Glory 5RW
Legendary Creature - Angel (M)
Flying
Attacking creatures you control have indestructible.
Prisma — RW: Creatures you control gain double strike until end of turn. Activate this ability only if you have cast another red or white spell this turn.
5/5
Voting will remain open until the end of CCL September, Round 2.
( ancestral on Custom Magic Discord server )
( mproud on reddit )
I like how both our mythics are angels that grant indestructible.
Also that mana elf is a lot better than the first iteration I saw in your workshop Blydden, it makes for a really nice card now
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
—Eli Shiffrin, Rules Manager, on a design stacking lifelink instances
To be honest, while we are complimenting each other, you literally took on iterating on Banding, a mechanic that I would rather not touch even with a ten and a half meter pole. The mechanic that I believe is the third worst mechanic ever printed on an official Magic: The Gathering card, behind only Storm and Ante. It is a little similar to both Crew and Battalion and other official iterations of Banding, but it is also a new iteration that uses up a tidy design space, enough so to build a set or two with in my opinion.
I also actually really like the reference to banding in Banding General.
To be honest, I kind of wish people could vote on individual cards for each rarity rather than having to vote on the designs as a whole but Que Serra Serra.
( ancestral on Custom Magic Discord server )
( mproud on reddit )
Update: Forgot which day it actually is.
( ancestral on Custom Magic Discord server )
( mproud on reddit )
You have won August’s CCL!
Thanks to everyone who participated!
( ancestral on Custom Magic Discord server )
( mproud on reddit )