I've been testing out my creativity for the past few days, and I've come up with a few mechanics that I'm satisfied with, as far as uniqueness goes. Of course, some of them don't work within the rules, but some can with a little bit of rules changing.
One of the latter mechanics is congeal.
Only instants and sorceries have congeal. However, all cards with congeal also have some sort of nonland permanent type on them, such as creature. All cards with congeal have two partitions in their text box, the top of which is the nonpermanent part, and the bottom of which is the permanent part.
As the very first step in the resolution of a spell, if that spell has congeal, its controller can choose to have the spell enter the battlefield as its permanent type. If it enters the battlefield this way, the effects in the top partition will not happen. Of course, if this choice is not made, the spell will resolve as an instant as usual.
A card with congeal always has the characteristics of both its top partition and its bottom partition, as well as both its permanent type and its nonpermanent type*^.
- On the stack, an instant creature spell with congeal can be countered by either Negate or Essence Scatter. Of course, it can still be countered by a spell like Cancel.
- A sorcery creature card with congeal can be returned from your graveyard to your hand via a card such as Archaeomancer.
- If an instant creature spell with congeal is on the stack and has two targets, and one of them gains protection from creatures, then if that spell is not congealed (in other words, if you choose to let it resolve as an instant), the target that gained protection from creatures will not be affected.#
- Because the choice of congealing is checked before checking for target legality, an instant creature spell with no legal target can either be congealed (put onto the battlefield as a creature) or can "fizzle" and be put into its owner's graveyard for having illegal targets. This means that sometimes, it may be unwise to render a spell's targets illegal if that spell has congeal.
- An effect that can put a creature card directly onto the battlefield can put a sorcery creature card with congeal onto the battlefield.
- If, somehow, an instant creature card with congeal loses congeal, and an effect attempts to put it onto the battlefield, it will remain in its previous zone. If an instant creature spell on the stack with congeal loses congeal, its controller won't be able to choose to put it onto the battlefield as a creature.
* Assuming I haven't overlooked any rules interactions yet.
^ This, of course, means that the rule restricting instants and sorceries from being on the battlefield will be changed to refer only to those without congeal.
# This can change, depending on opinion.
Examples of congeal:
Vivid Wings1U Instant Creature - Bird {C}
Congeal (This can be put onto the battlefield as a creature rather than resolve as an instant.)
Target creature gets +1/+1 and gains flying until end of turn.
<--->
Flying
1/1
Angel's Gleam4WW Sorcery Creature - Angel {U}
Congeal (This can be put onto the battlefield as a creature rather than resolve as a sorcery.)
Exile target creature with power 4 or greater. You gain life equal to that creature's power.
<--->
Flying, vigilance
4/4
Mindpry2R Sorcery Creature - Goblin {U}
Congeal (This can be put onto the battlefield as a creature rather than resolve as a sorcery.)
Exile the top three cards of your library. You may play them this turn.
<--->
Haste T: Target creature with power 3 or less can't be blocked this turn.
2/2
Gardenstar Nectar1GG Instant Creature - Faerie {C}
Congeal (This can be put onto the battlefield as a creature rather than resolve as an instant.)
You gain 9 life.
<--->
Flying
When ~ enters the battlefield, you gain 3 life.
1/3 (toughness can be lowered if needed)
Then, of course, there's...
Jace, the Congealed1UU Sorcery Planeswalker - Jace {M, Un-set}
Congeal (This can be put onto the battlefield as a planeswalker rather than resolve as a sorcery.)
Target player draws three cards.
<--->
/+1\ Each player draws a card.
\-10/ Target player puts the top twenty cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
3
...and...
Instant Ramen1 Instant Artifact - Food {S, Un-set}
Congeal (This can be put onto the battlefield as an artifact rather than resolve as an instant.)
You gain 3 life.
<--->
When ~ enters the battlefield, if you haven't eaten anything yet today, go make yourself some ramen. If you can't, you lose the game (for not having emergency food in the house.)
You have protection from players who haven't eaten yet today.
As usual, there might be a more elegant way to do what I'm trying to do, but I may be overlooking it.
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How to use card tags (please use them for everybody's sanity)
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format Minimum deck size: 60 Maximum number of identical cards: 4 Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
Is there a reason you need more mechanics that allow you to choose different options upon resolution? This reminds me of your choosing targets on resolution rather than casting design, only even more drastic. It makes it very difficult to play correctly against and protective spells like Brave the Elements or Ranger's Guile are terrible against it due to the fact you can just choose to get a creature instead.
I also think having both permanent and non permanent types at the same time is a terrible idea.
Evoke, or something like channel, or a model spell with a token as one choice, or a creature with a sacrifice ability, or several other options would all be a lot cleaner.
...
But if you really want to continue with this for some reason, there are some of your goals that I think are wrong. The biggest is that it always has both its permanent and nonpermanent types, yet can be countered by both Negate and Essence Scatter. By definition, if it is always a creature in addition to being an instant or sorcery, then it is not a noncreature spell and can definitely not be countered by Negate.
The rule against instant and sorcery cards on the battlefield would just be changed as a broadened version of the rules for the tribal card type. This change doesn't need to mention the congeal keyword at all. (Which is better anyway in the event that the creature loses it abilities.) Simply: A card without a permanent type can not be on the battlefield.
I feel like the direction of congeal should probably be flipped to make the creature be the default (and change the names so that they match creatures) and allow it the option of becoming an instant/sorcery effect. Then I would make all of the instant and sorcery effects be targeted and take away the last minute waffling. So: If it has a target, then it functions as an instant/sorcery; however, if you cast it without a target or all its targets are illegal, then it resolves as a creature similar to bestow.
Congeal (You may cast this spell with or without its targets. It resolves as [an instant/a sorcery] if it has a target.)
Another good thing to do would be to make sure that all of the spell effects are related to the creature.
Vivid Wings - Good solid relation between effect and the creature.
Angel's Gleam - This might fit better if you swapped vigilance with lifelink and locked the Reprisal life gain at 4. Then the Reprisal would feel more like it is the Angel taking out the creature.
Mindpry - The two effects are completely unrelated. Maybe if the sorcery effect was something like Panic Attack?
- Bumping Goblin Tunneler up to making 3 powered creatures unblockable is a big change. Power 2 or less has been the standard number for this mechanic. Minamo Sightbender is the only card like this with a different number than 2. I'm just saying.
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One of the latter mechanics is congeal.
Only instants and sorceries have congeal. However, all cards with congeal also have some sort of nonland permanent type on them, such as creature. All cards with congeal have two partitions in their text box, the top of which is the nonpermanent part, and the bottom of which is the permanent part.
As the very first step in the resolution of a spell, if that spell has congeal, its controller can choose to have the spell enter the battlefield as its permanent type. If it enters the battlefield this way, the effects in the top partition will not happen. Of course, if this choice is not made, the spell will resolve as an instant as usual.
A card with congeal always has the characteristics of both its top partition and its bottom partition, as well as both its permanent type and its nonpermanent type*^.
- On the stack, an instant creature spell with congeal can be countered by either Negate or Essence Scatter. Of course, it can still be countered by a spell like Cancel.
- A sorcery creature card with congeal can be returned from your graveyard to your hand via a card such as Archaeomancer.
- If an instant creature spell with congeal is on the stack and has two targets, and one of them gains protection from creatures, then if that spell is not congealed (in other words, if you choose to let it resolve as an instant), the target that gained protection from creatures will not be affected.#
- Because the choice of congealing is checked before checking for target legality, an instant creature spell with no legal target can either be congealed (put onto the battlefield as a creature) or can "fizzle" and be put into its owner's graveyard for having illegal targets. This means that sometimes, it may be unwise to render a spell's targets illegal if that spell has congeal.
- An effect that can put a creature card directly onto the battlefield can put a sorcery creature card with congeal onto the battlefield.
- If, somehow, an instant creature card with congeal loses congeal, and an effect attempts to put it onto the battlefield, it will remain in its previous zone. If an instant creature spell on the stack with congeal loses congeal, its controller won't be able to choose to put it onto the battlefield as a creature.
* Assuming I haven't overlooked any rules interactions yet.
^ This, of course, means that the rule restricting instants and sorceries from being on the battlefield will be changed to refer only to those without congeal.
# This can change, depending on opinion.
Examples of congeal:
Vivid Wings 1U
Instant Creature - Bird {C}
Congeal (This can be put onto the battlefield as a creature rather than resolve as an instant.)
Target creature gets +1/+1 and gains flying until end of turn.
<--->
Flying
1/1
Angel's Gleam 4WW
Sorcery Creature - Angel {U}
Congeal (This can be put onto the battlefield as a creature rather than resolve as a sorcery.)
Exile target creature with power 4 or greater. You gain life equal to that creature's power.
<--->
Flying, vigilance
4/4
Mindpry 2R
Sorcery Creature - Goblin {U}
Congeal (This can be put onto the battlefield as a creature rather than resolve as a sorcery.)
Exile the top three cards of your library. You may play them this turn.
<--->
Haste
T: Target creature with power 3 or less can't be blocked this turn.
2/2
Gardenstar Nectar 1GG
Instant Creature - Faerie {C}
Congeal (This can be put onto the battlefield as a creature rather than resolve as an instant.)
You gain 9 life.
<--->
Flying
When ~ enters the battlefield, you gain 3 life.
1/3 (toughness can be lowered if needed)
Then, of course, there's...
Jace, the Congealed 1UU
Sorcery Planeswalker - Jace {M, Un-set}
Congeal (This can be put onto the battlefield as a planeswalker rather than resolve as a sorcery.)
Target player draws three cards.
<--->
/+1\ Each player draws a card.
\-10/ Target player puts the top twenty cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
3
...and...
Instant Ramen 1
Instant Artifact - Food {S, Un-set}
Congeal (This can be put onto the battlefield as an artifact rather than resolve as an instant.)
You gain 3 life.
<--->
When ~ enters the battlefield, if you haven't eaten anything yet today, go make yourself some ramen. If you can't, you lose the game (for not having emergency food in the house.)
You have protection from players who haven't eaten yet today.
As usual, there might be a more elegant way to do what I'm trying to do, but I may be overlooking it.
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format
Minimum deck size: 60
Maximum number of identical cards: 4
Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
I also think having both permanent and non permanent types at the same time is a terrible idea.
...
But if you really want to continue with this for some reason, there are some of your goals that I think are wrong. The biggest is that it always has both its permanent and nonpermanent types, yet can be countered by both Negate and Essence Scatter. By definition, if it is always a creature in addition to being an instant or sorcery, then it is not a noncreature spell and can definitely not be countered by Negate.
The rule against instant and sorcery cards on the battlefield would just be changed as a broadened version of the rules for the tribal card type. This change doesn't need to mention the congeal keyword at all. (Which is better anyway in the event that the creature loses it abilities.) Simply: A card without a permanent type can not be on the battlefield.
I feel like the direction of congeal should probably be flipped to make the creature be the default (and change the names so that they match creatures) and allow it the option of becoming an instant/sorcery effect. Then I would make all of the instant and sorcery effects be targeted and take away the last minute waffling. So: If it has a target, then it functions as an instant/sorcery; however, if you cast it without a target or all its targets are illegal, then it resolves as a creature similar to bestow.
Congeal (You may cast this spell with or without its targets. It resolves as [an instant/a sorcery] if it has a target.)
Another good thing to do would be to make sure that all of the spell effects are related to the creature.
Vivid Wings - Good solid relation between effect and the creature.
Angel's Gleam - This might fit better if you swapped vigilance with lifelink and locked the Reprisal life gain at 4. Then the Reprisal would feel more like it is the Angel taking out the creature.
Mindpry - The two effects are completely unrelated. Maybe if the sorcery effect was something like Panic Attack?
- Bumping Goblin Tunneler up to making 3 powered creatures unblockable is a big change. Power 2 or less has been the standard number for this mechanic. Minamo Sightbender is the only card like this with a different number than 2. I'm just saying.