"509.1a The defending player chooses which creatures that he or she controls, if any, will block. The chosen creatures must be untapped. For each of the chosen creatures, the defending player chooses UP TO one creature for it to block that’s attacking him, her, or a planeswalker he or she controls."
What are the ramifications of the above, bolded addition? Anything game-breaking?
I'm working on a custom mechanic with an unintuitive interaction that I could probably fix with the above rules change.
"509.1a The defending player chooses which creatures that he or she controls, if any, will block. The chosen creatures must be untapped. For each of the chosen creatures, the defending player chooses UP TO one creature for it to block that’s attacking him, her, or a planeswalker he or she controls."
What are the ramifications of the above, bolded addition? Anything game-breaking?
Abilities that care about whenever creatures block would be much easier to trigger, and so any abilities with that trigger condition would likely have to be toned down in power a bit to compensate. Creatures would be able to become blocking creatures without having to block anything, so abilities that care about whenever creatures become blocked become slightly harder to trigger.
I can't think of too many scenarios where the change would be too powerful. Most interactions that come to mind actually work on the attacking side (ninjutsu, Master of Cruelties, Quietus Spike, etc.) rather than the blocking side. There may be some interactions I'm missing, though.
I'm working on a custom mechanic with an unintuitive interaction that I could probably fix with the above rules change.
I'm curious to see what the mechanic is. I'm wondering if it can be solved without the "up to" change in the relevant rules entry.
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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
The mechanic in question is a heavy modification of the Laccolith mechanic:
Range (You may assign this creature's combat damage to any attacking or blocking creature an opponent controls.)
Basically, the idea is that my creature can hit your creatures at a distance.
The unintuitive aspect came regarding blocking creatures with evasion abilities. Like, if you attack with a flyer and a non-flyer, I can block the non-flyer and assign my combat damage to the flyer. But if you just attack with the flyer, I can't assign any combat damage. That doesn't make sense. So I wanted you to be able to assign a "free" blocker so you could still make use of the ability.
However, I'm still wrestling with the problem of the range creature being untouchable on defense if "free" blockers are allowed, because I never have to put them in front of your attacker to get the benefit of their ability. It might not be that big of an issue (if they don't block a creature, that creature will still deal damage to me as a player, so there's a tradeoff of hanging back as a "free" blocker) but I'm not really sure.
Any reason not to just make it like Crossbow Infantry? Or more complicated, if it needs restrictions...
T: CARDNAME deals damage equal to its power to target attacking creature an opponent controls. Activate this ability only during the end of combat step and only if CARDNAME didn't block this combat.
T: Target attacking creature an opponent controls becomes blocked by CARDNAME. Activate this ability only during the declare blockers step. (This ability works on creatures that can't be blocked.)
Any reason not to just make it like Crossbow Infantry? Or more complicated, if it needs restrictions...
A couple. The first being that I'd like to have the damage be combat damage, because of how combat damage interacts with some other abilities I'm developing. The second being that I'm trying to design an evergreen keyword, and I don't know if an activated ability like that on Crossbow Infantry mechanic is the best fit for one.
I acknowledge that, as worded, it's really no less complex than Crossbow Infantry, and hits the same NWO snags, but what can I say... trying to have my cake and eat it too, with this one. I'd like to see how else I can massage it rather than settle for an imperfect solution.
Is interacting with combat damage triggered abilities really necessary? What you are describing is not combat damage. Every few years a custom card designer has the "brilliant new idea" of making an ability like "T: ~ deals 1 damage to target creature or player. This damage is treated as combat damage. Activate this ability only during the combat damage step." Bleh. Combat damage is something that happens as a result of game rules when creatures attack and block. Abilities that trigger specifically off of combat damage are supposed to be harder to trigger than abilities that can trigger off of Prodigal Pyromancer. Post-M10 combat rules change, Butcher Orgg is a horrible design that can not be done again because it no longer allows the opponent the appropriate window to respond to how damage is assigned. Trying to make an ability like that is the main source of the problem.
Whatevs.
If you are not worried about an arms-race of abilities, you could do an anti-evasion ability like Street Savvy:
Attentive (This creature can block creatures with evasion abilities as though they didn't have those abilities.)
Not a very good solution because it is pushing back against a huge area of design that is trying to push the game to a conclusion.
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What are the ramifications of the above, bolded addition? Anything game-breaking?
I'm working on a custom mechanic with an unintuitive interaction that I could probably fix with the above rules change.
Abilities that care about whenever creatures block would be much easier to trigger, and so any abilities with that trigger condition would likely have to be toned down in power a bit to compensate. Creatures would be able to become blocking creatures without having to block anything, so abilities that care about whenever creatures become blocked become slightly harder to trigger.
I can't think of too many scenarios where the change would be too powerful. Most interactions that come to mind actually work on the attacking side (ninjutsu, Master of Cruelties, Quietus Spike, etc.) rather than the blocking side. There may be some interactions I'm missing, though.
I'm curious to see what the mechanic is. I'm wondering if it can be solved without the "up to" change in the relevant rules entry.
[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
Range (You may assign this creature's combat damage to any attacking or blocking creature an opponent controls.)
Basically, the idea is that my creature can hit your creatures at a distance.
The unintuitive aspect came regarding blocking creatures with evasion abilities. Like, if you attack with a flyer and a non-flyer, I can block the non-flyer and assign my combat damage to the flyer. But if you just attack with the flyer, I can't assign any combat damage. That doesn't make sense. So I wanted you to be able to assign a "free" blocker so you could still make use of the ability.
However, I'm still wrestling with the problem of the range creature being untouchable on defense if "free" blockers are allowed, because I never have to put them in front of your attacker to get the benefit of their ability. It might not be that big of an issue (if they don't block a creature, that creature will still deal damage to me as a player, so there's a tradeoff of hanging back as a "free" blocker) but I'm not really sure.
T: CARDNAME deals damage equal to its power to target attacking creature an opponent controls. Activate this ability only during the end of combat step and only if CARDNAME didn't block this combat.
T: Target attacking creature an opponent controls becomes blocked by CARDNAME. Activate this ability only during the declare blockers step. (This ability works on creatures that can't be blocked.)
I acknowledge that, as worded, it's really no less complex than Crossbow Infantry, and hits the same NWO snags, but what can I say... trying to have my cake and eat it too, with this one. I'd like to see how else I can massage it rather than settle for an imperfect solution.
Whatevs.
If you are not worried about an arms-race of abilities, you could do an anti-evasion ability like Street Savvy:
Attentive (This creature can block creatures with evasion abilities as though they didn't have those abilities.)
Not a very good solution because it is pushing back against a huge area of design that is trying to push the game to a conclusion.