There seem to be a few wording errors (amoung other things.) If you'll allow me, I'd like to edit the set and send it back to you, both with small wording changes and comments written in the notes section. (I can also change all the treasures into Pichoro's treasure value versions.)
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
There seem to be a few wording errors (amoung other things.) If you'll allow me, I'd like to edit the set and send it back to you, both with small wording changes and comments written in the notes section. (I can also change all the treasures into Pichoro's treasure value versions.)
Sure, knock yourself out. I have a habit of swapping back and forth between new and older wordings (I use exile and not remove from the game, but into play rather than onto the battlefield, for example), but it's honestly not a high priority for me. As long as card concepts are understandable and use some level of Magic-ese, I've never been too concerned.
As far as the Treasure frames go, I questioned the positioning of the TV for a long time. In the end, I felt that the bottom-right corner of a card is a high-profile spot for important information (power/toughness for creatures, loyalty for planeswalkers) that it felt 'right' to have this important value in the same location.
Meh, alright, probably too much of time sink anyway. My main comment is that the set is way too big. Most (big) sets have 249 cards including 20 basic lands. Your set has 285 cards without basic lands. I say you put those 56 cuts to good use, and cut out the extraneous mechanics. (Remember, its always better to have leftover space for those terrible "2/1 for 2"'s than to have every card have a keyword.)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
Meh, alright, probably too much of time sink anyway. My main comment is that the set is way too big. Most (big) sets have 249 cards including 20 basic lands. Your set has 285 cards without basic lands. I say you put those 56 cuts to good use, and cut out the extraneous mechanics. (Remember, its always better to have leftover space for those terrible "2/1 for 2"'s than to have every card have a keyword.)
Mirrodin 306
Odyssey 350
Invasion 350
Champions of Kamigawa 307
Ravnica 306
10th Edition 383
Lorwyn 301
Point being? Yes, Excellion has more cards than very recent big sets. Yet it's on par with big sets from 2003-2007 and far smaller than big sets prior to that. My intent here (once I decided against just a single big set) was to create a two-set block of around 475 cards (which is only 25 cards larger than Lorwyn-Morningtide) which is still quite smaller than the typical block, even recent blocks. I could stretch the block out into three sets a push even more cards out of Excellion and into set 2 or 3, but I don't think that's doing things any favors.
Ablative Armor: Why isn't this just worded like Urza's Armor? Or, if you really really hate damage prevention prevention effects, Lashknife Barrier: "If a source would deal damage to you, it deals that much damage minus 2 to you instead."
Crest of Am Bongor is an interesting Not Glorious Anthem.
Gjoan Soothsayer is fine, though I don't like that kind of text compression at common. There's a fine art to deciding what flavor bits go on the cards, and which chunks are better left in the Planeswalker's guide.
Shallow Comfort: Don't know if I've commented on this before, but it basically says "win the game" against poison or non-alt-win decks. I assume maindeck Naturalize is good in this block?
Does Unarm work? If a trap triggers when it's turned face up, then it doesn't matter if it loses that triggered ability a split-second later.
Nice internal synergies with Wandering Dreamwalker.
Appraise and Devalue = memory issues. It could be flavored as a glamer-type Aura; killing the Aura dispels the glamer and reveals the Treasure's true value.
Benthic Delver: I find it amusing that retrace has no reminder text but scry does.
What is a "Bill of Quandra'Sun"? A beak? A collector's fee? A guy named "Bill"?
"Judge-Sal" as opposed to just a "Judge"?
When is Inquiry of Cura-Sect supposed to trigger? Only off Divination, or something like Howling Mine as well? What if I control two Howling Mines - does it trigger twice? Also, this is basically "I win the game" if you've stabilized and can turn it on, and it's only an uncommon.
For Repentant Thief, you have the innervate text above the activated ability, but for Sage of Unseen Vistas, it's the reverse. Which is it supposed to be?
Search for Lost Secrets just feels like a really bad Brainstorm. Even if you retrace it you still get -1 CA, and if you have one other card in hand you can't gain value off it at all. Even as a way to counter mill strategies it feels really loose.
For Bellique, "as though it were in your hand" wordings have been phased out entirely. See the current Oracle text of Yawgmoth's Will.
I like Crypt Disturbance - though couldn't it have been "symmetrical"? Something like "Put the top four cards of target library into their owner's graveyard. Then exile up to four [non-targeted] cards from a single graveyard."
Wow, does the black one in the cycle suck. Unless you're running some kind of token swarm archetype, it'll be hard to get it to trigger, and even if it does your gain is a measly life boost in this world of I-don't-care-about-your-life wincons.
Inscribed Slab doesn't work as written - should say "if" (non-triggered) if I read your intent correctly. Same with Golden Phiale.
Touch of Evil feels a bit off-color for black. Perhaps black mana only as a nod to Consume Spirit? It also fits well with retrace as it scales with your land count.
Conquering of Taranduil: Splicing things is weird and not common. Mass LD is probably not common either. How much worse would it be if it said "When you cast an IOS spell, if 4 counters, that spell does 1 damage to target"? Is there even a single common counterspell in this set?
Why do the 'walkers use the creature card frame?
Pirate's Justice: Too many "its." Vague. Should say "that artifact's controller".
Drampeak Summit is kind of nuts - my Boros Swiftblade deals 16 damage on turn 6?
Trash for Treasure: I like how it can randomly turn on peril artifacts.
Elderwood Bowl: Interesting mana ramp artifact.
Forsaken Hunt: Bashing with Grizzly Bears feels rather underwhelming compared to all these exotic alt-win-cons, but I'll bite.
Rulah: "Put a legendary X/X green Avatar creature token with trample named Masari onto the battlefield, where X is the number of lands on the battlefield." Is she supposed to be the "token beats archetype" representative?
Tolling of Ancient Bells: This is sicker than both Natural Order and Dramatic Entrance, and it retraces. Turn 3 Proggy from the bottom of the library anyone?
Stelmarria Jonell: There's some extraneous rules text about the number six in her second ability.
Infessurian Syrix could just say "You lose a PC. Target opponent gets that many PCs." or even "If you have a PC, you lose a PC and target opponent gets a PC." Is there a card that prevents poison counter loss?
Mercurial Amphora just seems to punish players for doing something they usually don't like doing anyway - how is this fun?
Would Refractor Spellbomb be broken if it was just a hard bounce? None of the other Spellbombs have that irritating "does nothing if opponent has tons of mana" restriction, and bounce is weaker than damage or -X/-X because the creature can come back and trigger etb abilities.
Venerated Idol = so, so good. It's easily better than Bloodhowl Dagger and Horn of Opportunity combined, and it draws you a card when it etb! At uncommon!
Common land cycle: Like the innovation along with retrace.
Uncommon land cycle: Scraphoard is the worst, because it requires an actual cost. Sheltered Cove is also basically a storage/colorfilter, but since the bounced trap can be replayed as a normal spell it's marginally better. Muckpit is probably the best, because adding poison counters to yourself can be a benefit, while milling yourself is almost never a benefit in UB.
Rare land cycle: The red one sucks and Polestar is just a Mosswort Bridge knock-off that's harder to turn on. The rest are fine, but not my favorite design of yours.
Mythic rare land cycle: Is Gabran Tor intended to enter the battlefield untapped if you control no creatures? Naloa Tor gives Treasure decks with creatures an interesting other way to win. Umbra Tor giving creatures retrace is interesting. Yuvira Tor's drawback can be a benefit with its ability; all the same, I'd prefer it to be a "may" so it's strictly a benefit. This card is a Mythic after all.
I still feel that all of the nonland cards that interact with Ruins, and some of the nonland cards that interact with Peril, could be cut. Notably, even though Treasure is the biggest mechanic in the set, I felt there was a dearth of cards that fetch Treasures, increase Treasure values, and do stuff when you have more Treasures on the battlefield. It seems the way to build this archetype is to go for a deck with lots of battlefield control, card draw, and possibly Feldon's Cane - mill in particular punishes this archetype because you might get to the point where literally every card in your deck doesn't add up to 20 TV. I would have also liked to see a card with variable TV.
Also, where's the mill lord? There's a treasure PW, a treasure legend, a poison PW, an innervate PW, and an innervate legend, but no character that cares about milling as far as I can see.
Ablative Armor: Why isn't this just worded like Urza's Armor? Or, if you really really hate damage prevention prevention effects, Lashknife Barrier: "If a source would deal damage to you, it deals that much damage minus 2 to you instead."
Fixed the wording (to the Lashknife Barrier version). Thanks.
Crest of Am Bongor is an interesting Not Glorious Anthem.
I thought it could be interesting to give Treasure decks relying on creatures for defense a bit of juice. This ought to put all your guys outside burn range, making them formidable defenders though still not potent attackers.
Gjoan Soothsayer is fine, though I don't like that kind of text compression at common. There's a fine art to deciding what flavor bits go on the cards, and which chunks are better left in the Planeswalker's guide.
Yeah, that's a remnant of the old set where the flavor text was a reference to most of the other Kithkin in the set. Only Braver of the Kithwash survived the Great Culling. The flavor text was just a forgotten holdover from the old version and can likely be dropped or at least trimmed.
Shallow Comfort: Don't know if I've commented on this before, but it basically says "win the game" against poison or non-alt-win decks. I assume maindeck Naturalize is good in this block?
Given the rampant artifacts (traps and treasures) and enchantments (quests and high-power guys like this), yes, Naturalize is amazing here.
The key with Shallow Comfort is that it suppresses the deck type the block discourages (creature-based aggro) while really not doing much against the strategies the block is pushing, the alt-win-cons. Treasure, Milling and Innervate don't really care about damage prevention and even poison can work around it (poisonous is a major way to inflict poison counters, but not the only way and smart poison players will avoid over-reliance on creatures with this block).
Also note the fantastic synergy with the Voyage of Chryst Kings. A very unorthodox win condition for an otherwise creature-free Wx Control deck.
Does Unarm work? If a trap triggers when it's turned face up, then it doesn't matter if it loses that triggered ability a split-second later.
The wording was based on a prior wording for peril, so I'm not sure it works now. Maybe reversing the wording so it loses all abilities then gets turned up?
Appraise and Devalue = memory issues. It could be flavored as a glamer-type Aura; killing the Aura dispels the glamer and reveals the Treasure's true value.
Duly noted.
Benthic Delver: I find it amusing that retrace has no reminder text but scry does.
Which cards have no Retrace reminder text? I know the cards that trigger of retracing don't, but I based that off of the recent trend of Wizards using keywords as verbs in triggers like this and not using reminder text to explain what a retraced spell is.
What is a "Bill of Quandra'Sun"? A beak? A collector's fee? A guy named "Bill"?
Number four. I'm using it in the same sort of context as FFXII did (you may notice that that game inspires a lot of my world-building in subtle ways.
"Judge-Sal" as opposed to just a "Judge"?
Another subtle reference to FFXII and a sort of title referencing a particular order of archaic mage-knight from one of Excellion's fallen old kingdoms (the blue-aligned Solna for the record).
When is Inquiry of Cura-Sect supposed to trigger? Only off Divination, or something like Howling Mine as well? What if I control two Howling Mines - does it trigger twice? Also, this is basically "I win the game" if you've stabilized and can turn it on, and it's only an uncommon.
"At end of turn, if you drew two or more cards this turn, put a quest counter on Inquiry of Cura Sect." - clearer?
I'm aware that late-game after a bit of time, it can be a bit of a soft lock all by itself, but I think it's balanced somewhat by the amount of time an work it'll take to get it online. You're looking at turn 5-6ish at least before you can expect to have this going and by then, Miscalculation loses a bit of value, even repeatedly.
Which isn't to say it's not potent, just that I think it requires enough time and investment to be not exceptionally overpowered.
For Repentant Thief, you have the innervate text above the activated ability, but for Sage of Unseen Vistas, it's the reverse. Which is it supposed to be?
I'm not sure. Which is typically 'right' in this situation?
Search for Lost Secrets just feels like a really bad Brainstorm. Even if you retrace it you still get -1 CA, and if you have one other card in hand you can't gain value off it at all. Even as a way to counter mill strategies it feels really loose.
I'm comfortable with that. Every set has underpowered commons and if at worst this one sees a bit of Limited play and/or time in a block Retrace deck, I'm happy.
For Bellique, "as though it were in your hand" wordings have been phased out entirely. See the current Oracle text of Yawgmoth's Will.
Noted.
And much love to those that get the Indiana Jones reference.
I like Crypt Disturbance - though couldn't it have been "symmetrical"? Something like "Put the top four cards of target library into their owner's graveyard. Then exile up to four [non-targeted] cards from a single graveyard."
Yes, actually that is satisfying on some level as a symmetrical effect, numbers-wise.
Wow, does the black one in the cycle suck. Unless you're running some kind of token swarm archetype, it'll be hard to get it to trigger, and even if it does your gain is a measly life boost in this world of I-don't-care-about-your-life wincons.
True, it's not the best of the cycle by any means. But black is, oddly enough, the color in this set most dependent on real creatures anyway. Green and white can fall back on efficient tokens, blue and red can go creatureless and still generate a lot of treats, but black's main alt-win-con in poison does to a larger degree than the rest (innervate aside) requires investment in real creatures. So black's no-creature enchantment had that going against it to start off with. I decided it ought to be the one to make with outside the set in mind. I think, ironically, this card that is pretty weak in-set is the best of the five outside the set where a really strong BR deck light on creatures may be able to use this in conjunction with burn, tokens and planeswalkers to keep its head above water as it eats away at opponents.
It's also deceptively sick in multiplayer (an opponent attacks another opponent and you gain that much life), though going creature-free can be tricky in that format. But tokens can save your ass in that regard (hence that clause on this cycle). Promise of Power, Bitterblossom, Quest for the Gravelord and Zombie Infestation are a few black options for that. But a BW or GB decks with tokens and such could be fun for casual/multiplayer settings.
Inscribed Slab doesn't work as written - should say "if" (non-triggered) if I read your intent correctly. Same with Golden Phiale.
My way of making poison matter in small ways. This card is almost always useful in Limited and gets a small bonus should you get poisoned.
Touch of Evil feels a bit off-color for black. Perhaps black mana only as a nod to Consume Spirit? It also fits well with retrace as it scales with your land count.
Conquering of Taranduil: Splicing things is weird and not common. Mass LD is probably not common either. How much worse would it be if it said "When you cast an IOS spell, if 4 counters, that spell does 1 damage to target"?
Not very.
Is there even a single common counterspell in this set?
Not anymore. There was a retrace-able Mana Leak variant, but it got pushed out.
Why do the 'walkers use the creature card frame?
Laziness, mostly. Plus, I don't think they export to Apprentice quite right in the real Planeswalker frame. I recall having issues with that once upon a time.
Pirate's Justice: Too many "its." Vague. Should say "that artifact's controller".
Cool.
Drampeak Summit is kind of nuts - my Boros Swiftblade deals 16 damage on turn 6?
Doesn't that work similarly with Furnace of Rath? Perhaps not as bombtastically, but probably more reliably.
This card runs a bad line. In an aggro creature deck, it's really just win more since by the time you get it online, you ought to have won anyway. We're talking turn 6-7 with you getting through on a swing every turn between 3 and there, why haven't you won already if you're getting through like that?
Where the Race shines more is in a Counter-Burn style deck, where it can give you a lot of extra mileage out of your spells. Again, particularly in multiplayer where such decks can typically be weaker in that environment.
The hard thing about Treasures in certain colors (particularly red) is that you sort of want the treasure value to be the game-winning aspect and the textbox effect be something interesting and/or useful but not necessarily game-winning (since that would divert win-condition attention away from the card's treasure-ness - fine down the road but probably not ideal for the introduction to the type). That was a little tougher for red, which typically only has aggressive enchantments (which Treasure textbox abilities wanted to emulate). Finding suitably effective/passive/interesting red effects was tougher than for, say, white and blue.
This particular effect was one that felt red while also not being completely game-winning in and of itself. And as a fun bonus, it shuts down Hideaway.
Trash for Treasure: I like how it can randomly turn on peril artifacts.
A very neat, tricky interaction. It's especially fun in tricking an off-color trap into play, especially from white and blue.
What started out as a fun, if obvious, reprint turned out to be a very great tool for many decks and strategies.
Elderwood Bowl: Interesting mana ramp artifact.
Green had more treasure-friendly effects to fill out textboxes, but this one, I felt, could potentially help a variety of decks. Ramp to bigger/more creatures, ramp to more treasures, etc.
Forsaken Hunt: Bashing with Grizzly Bears feels rather underwhelming compared to all these exotic alt-win-cons, but I'll bite.
The one creature-attacking archetype I allowed myself to indulge in (more or less) was that of tokens. They allowed decks to put up a solid fight against creatures without necessarily playing with creature cards.
This card was meant to play a bit more defensively, until of course you stabilize and then start swinging.
Rulah: "Put a legendary X/X green Avatar creature token with trample named Masari onto the battlefield, where X is the number of lands on the battlefield." Is she supposed to be the "token beats archetype" representative?
Not really, though she does help a little with that. Her main role was to aid retrace and even when retrace's presence in the set was diminished, Rulah managed to hang in there. In part because she was just a fun card for green-based control and in part because she has a strong connection to the story along with the other three 'walkers.
Tolling of Ancient Bells: This is sicker than both Natural Order and Dramatic Entrance, and it retraces. Turn 3 Proggy from the bottom of the library anyone?
Too true. Changed it to tutor to the hand, which is probably a safer version.
Stelmarria Jonell: There's some extraneous rules text about the number six in her second ability.
Swapped to five, to match with the other innervate cards. The additional text was to explain innervate counters on creatures without the keyword, as per the advice of this thread.
Infessurian Syrix could just say "You lose a PC. Target opponent gets that many PCs." or even "If you have a PC, you lose a PC and target opponent gets a PC." Is there a card that prevents poison counter loss?
Not yet, but there could be.
Mercurial Amphora just seems to punish players for doing something they usually don't like doing anyway - how is this fun?
I was looking for a general cost increasing effect to gum up big, bomby spells. Do you have a suggestion for a suitable replacement?
Would Refractor Spellbomb be broken if it was just a hard bounce? None of the other Spellbombs have that irritating "does nothing if opponent has tons of mana" restriction, and bounce is weaker than damage or -X/-X because the creature can come back and trigger etb abilities.
I wanted it to feel different than the common blue bounce card (Wash Away) since it would be triggering in combat. It would typically be just a smaller version of another spell at that rarity in that color, which struck me as a poor design choice. The original version redirected a spell, but that was before the peril redesign that rendered that version of the card non-functional. I figured a riff on the original blue Spellbomb would fit.
Alternate suggestions?
Venerated Idol = so, so good. It's easily better than Bloodhowl Dagger and Horn of Opportunity combined, and it draws you a card when it etb! At uncommon!
I added the cantrip because the card felt like too much downside without it. This card is a serious risk on some levels, a game-winning treasure in others and a crafty way to ice opposing utility creatures.
The cantrip could quite conceivably turn into a lifetrip and still be what I was looking for.
Uncommon land cycle: Scraphoard is the worst, because it requires an actual cost. Sheltered Cove is also basically a storage/colorfilter, but since the bounced trap can be replayed as a normal spell it's marginally better. Muckpit is probably the best, because adding poison counters to yourself can be a benefit, while milling yourself is almost never a benefit in UB.
Balancing that cycle was a pain. If they're even moderately balanced, I consider it an accomplishment.
Rare land cycle: The red one sucks and Polestar is just a Mosswort Bridge knock-off that's harder to turn on. The rest are fine, but not my favorite design of yours.
Oddly enough, I felt the red one was the easiest to activate with the right deck with the Tabernacle and Gravesite not far behind. I was aware that the green one was subpar, but I was pretty okay with that. Green in this set has enough tools to cast its spells the usual way, hideaway trickery felt extraneous for green.
I still feel that all of the nonland cards that interact with Ruins, and some of the nonland cards that interact with Peril, could be cut. Notably, even though Treasure is the biggest mechanic in the set, I felt there was a dearth of cards that fetch Treasures, increase Treasure values, and do stuff when you have more Treasures on the battlefield.
When Equipment were first introduced in Mirrodin, only a few cards really interacted with them beyond the usual. I think it's typical, especially now, for design to explore a concept slowly with the basics first and then eventually flesh out the design space. This set features 18 cards by my count that interact with treasure is some specific way. I feel that's plenty for the introductory set.
Aside from treasure value play, there are numerous cards from the game's history that can interact with treasures in the ways you brought up by virtue of them being artifacts. In that way, I thought it would be wasteful to use card slots in the set to essentially do what other cards already did in less focused ways.
It seems the way to build this archetype is to go for a deck with lots of battlefield control, card draw, and possibly Feldon's Cane - mill in particular punishes this archetype because you might get to the point where literally every card in your deck doesn't add up to 20 TV.
The game itself (or at least the basic archetypes) is balanced via a rock-paper-scissors setup. I think it's okay if the alt-win-cons balance each other similarly. That would be ideal, come to think of it.
I would have also liked to see a card with variable TV.
Ha! There was one, it's TV was based on the number of creatures you controlled. It got bounced when I started trimming cards. I think variable TVs is a twist on the mechanic better left for the next set.
Also, where's the mill lord? There's a treasure PW, a treasure legend, a poison PW, an innervate PW, and an innervate legend, but no character that cares about milling as far as I can see.
Mill was always something of a minor seasoning in the set. It was never on an abundance of cards and it really sort of just existed quietly on its own without too much fanfare as a moderate subtheme for blue and a minor one for black. As the most-supported alt-win-con historically, I didn't think it needed a lot of attention. Enough to remind everyone that it has been a viable win condition for a long time before these newbies, but not so much as to draw attention away from the debuting mechanics. It was always going to have the most support from outside the set anyway, so a lot of support from within was never a priority. Shoehorning a character in to highlight milling seemed like it'd go against the stealth mechanic vibe milling was going with here. I think in set 2, after the new alt-win-cons have been introduced and settled in, it could be a better time for milling to pipe up a bit more.
Unarm: That wouldn't work either because the artifact doesn't have any abilities until it's turned face up. What you'd need is to flip the peril card face up, then counter its triggered ability. I'm not quite sure how to word that. An alternate but extremely clunky wording is "If a triggered ability of that artifact would go on the stack this turn, instead it doesn't."
Per Rumbling Aftershocks, leaving off the reminder text on "retrace matters" cards is probably fine - you couldn't use the ability if you didn't already have a retrace card, which presumably does have reminder text on it.
I've never played Final Fantasy XII so I wouldn't understand any of the references (save that "Gis Bangou" bears a certain resemblance to "Bangaa", though I don't know if that's intentional or not - the "Chryst-Kings" thing wasn't either).
Inquiry of Cura Sect: Sure, that wording works.
For innervate, personally I'd put the giant chunk of reminder text at the top.
For Race to Drampeak Summit, yeah, just the bombtasticness of the card. In R/x you can plink them with a 1/1 flier for 4 turns, then quadruple or even octuple it for several turns after. Also, unlike Furnace of Rath, it's not symmetrical.
No suggestions on the Amphora. Generally being expensive is only a minor speedbump if you have a bomb in hand.
Why not kill Wash Away and turn it into a spell redirect, then use Spellbomb for the blue bounce slot?
Venerated Idol doesn't seem like much of a downside at all. Either your opponent wanted to swing at you (so they would have, regardless), or they didn't want to swing at you (and they're forced to, which is bad for them), or their utility guys wanted to use tap abilities (so they would have, regardless), or their utility guys wanted to use tap abilities at some other time (but are being forced to use them at an inopportune time). The only way I could see this being a severe drawback is in multiplayer, where you'll have multiple opponents ganging up on you and some guy might decide to blow some removal spells on your creatures, just so he can kill you and be able to attack someone else. Otherwise, with Idol's cantrip, lower rarity, and not losing a permanent every turn, I can't see why anyone would play Bloodhowl Dagger given the choice.
Sure the red hideaway is easy enough to activate, but in a deck that wants to go hellbent and not play creatures what are you tapping two lands to cast "for free"? Ball Lightning?
Equipment felt innovative even if you only had one in your deck. The thing with treasure is that, when you're between 1-19 TV, the treasure cards don't do anything new. True, there are plenty of cards that can go tutor up artifacts, which helps the wincon in gameplay. I feel that this set has a lot of "explor[ing] a concept slowly with the basics first" - Ruins, Traps, Life Matters, Quests, Allies - and though I guess it fits the flavor, I would have liked to see the main features more on the "fleshed out" side. You do a good job of this with poison IMO.
I guess I just noticed a preponderance of mill in the blue cards and cycles. Looking back over the set as a whole, it's not a big slice.
Unarm: That wouldn't work either because the artifact doesn't have any abilities until it's turned face up. What you'd need is to flip the peril card face up, then counter its triggered ability. I'm not quite sure how to word that. An alternate but extremely clunky wording is "If a triggered ability of that artifact would go on the stack this turn, instead it doesn't."
It could probably just destroy face down artifacts anyway, right? I mean, it accomplishes the same goal (better, actually, in the case of the traps with persistent effects or repeated triggers) with far less fuss.
Per Rumbling Aftershocks, leaving off the reminder text on "retrace matters" cards is probably fine - you couldn't use the ability if you didn't already have a retrace card, which presumably does have reminder text on it.
As far as I know, no retrace card goes without reminder text. Even the mythic land that gives creature cards the ability.
I've never played Final Fantasy XII so I wouldn't understand any of the references (save that "Gis Bangou" bears a certain resemblance to "Bangaa", though I don't know if that's intentional or not - the "Chryst-Kings" thing wasn't either).
Judge-Sal comes from Exodus, a summon from FFXII. His backstory involves his role as the judge of value of all things, a silent observer who qualifies everything in existence, but who became too detached from the world and egotistical as a result.
The Judge-Sals of Excellion occupy a much similar role. The ancient kingdom of Solna was the major Vedalken kingdom and they tasked themselves with observing all the world, studying and scrutinizing until they understood every last detail of the plane. But they grew to become judges more than researchers, making passing judgments on the value of the things they were sent to study. In time, the order of Judge-Sals became a feared entity in the ancient Excellion world. Their gaze meant scrutiny and their condemnations were crippling. Of course, after the fall, the order fell into disarray but a few contemporary scholars (both human and vedalken) choose this ancient path of criticism over understanding.
For innervate, personally I'd put the giant chunk of reminder text at the top.
Righty-o. Makes sense to have the new ability be the first thing players see in the textbox.
For Race to Drampeak Summit, yeah, just the bombtasticness of the card. In R/x you can plink them with a 1/1 flier for 4 turns, then quadruple or even octuple it for several turns after. Also, unlike Furnace of Rath, it's not symmetrical.
No suggestions on the Amphora. Generally being expensive is only a minor speedbump if you have a bomb in hand.
Perhaps a cheaper version that slows down cheap spells?
Why not kill Wash Away and turn it into a spell redirect, then use Spellbomb for the blue bounce slot?
Sensible. Though I do have a fondness for Wash Away. Not to mention I find it a bit weird that a staple blue effect like bouncing would be in the set twice at common, but neither card be strictly blue (an artifact and a land).
Venerated Idol doesn't seem like much of a downside at all. Either your opponent wanted to swing at you (so they would have, regardless), or they didn't want to swing at you (and they're forced to, which is bad for them), or their utility guys wanted to use tap abilities (so they would have, regardless), or their utility guys wanted to use tap abilities at some other time (but are being forced to use them at an inopportune time). The only way I could see this being a severe drawback is in multiplayer, where you'll have multiple opponents ganging up on you and some guy might decide to blow some removal spells on your creatures, just so he can kill you and be able to attack someone else.
Hrrmmmm. Perhaps if it provided a +n/+n boost as well since that still fits the flavor and makes the drawback that much more painful (particularly in multiples, where the Idol has no drawback as of now). Not to mention, it decreases the ease at which you can kill utility creatures by blocking.
I think if it gave opposing creatures +2/+2 and gained you 5-6 life as a lifetrip, it would be more in line with the Bloodhowl Dagger. Of course, it also makes it combo better with Warding Stone (the treasure Ensnaring Bridge riff), so I dunno.
Sure the red hideaway is easy enough to activate, but in a deck that wants to go hellbent and not play creatures what are you tapping two lands to cast "for free"? Ball Lightning?
A game-winning Cruel Ultimatum? Emrakul (hell, even a Kozilek or Ulamog)? etc? For a deck in the style of the old Ponza deck (mana denial and great burn), any decent finisher would do. Or imagine a WUR control deck (ironically a bit of a powerhouse right now) with few to no creatures, a lot of control and a few bomby spells to win the game. I don't know, I see the potential in that card.
Equipment felt innovative even if you only had one in your deck. The thing with treasure is that, when you're between 1-19 TV, the treasure cards don't do anything new.
Sadly, that's currently a problem for all the new concepts here, they don't do anything radically new by themselves (though innervate counters matter in set 2, so that's something). Which is unfortunate, but I think the set does well enough to make these concepts matter that players won't need to be flooded with treasures-matter cards. At least not up front.
True, there are plenty of cards that can go tutor up artifacts, which helps the wincon in gameplay.
Not to mention protecting artifacts, rescuing artifacts from graveyards, making them cheaper, caring about how many you control, etc. That was another big reason I tried to make the textbox of treasures worthwhile on their own, so even if you didn't have enough to win, the cards still helped you in some way.
You do a good job of this with poison IMO.
Thank you.
I guess I just noticed a preponderance of mill in the blue cards and cycles. Looking back over the set as a whole, it's not a big slice.
Good, I didn't want it to be. Milling isn't a particularly interactive mechanic, I don't think it would be fun as a major theme.
It could probably just destroy face down artifacts anyway, right? I mean, it accomplishes the same goal (better, actually, in the case of the traps with persistent effects or repeated triggers) with far less fuss.
Yeah, probably.
Perhaps a cheaper version that slows down cheap spells?
Like Trinisphere?
Sensible. Though I do have a fondness for Wash Away. Not to mention I find it a bit weird that a staple blue effect like bouncing would be in the set twice at common, but neither card be strictly blue (an artifact and a land).
Alternatively you could bump Wash Away to the "common bounce slot" in the next set, or even the entire "Peril only" spellbomb cycle to the "Traps matter" set.
I think if it gave opposing creatures +2/+2 and gained you 5-6 life as a lifetrip, it would be more in line with the Bloodhowl Dagger. Of course, it also makes it combo better with Warding Stone (the treasure Ensnaring Bridge riff), so I dunno.
That could work, though I think +1/+1 is still reasonable. The Warding Stone combo is enough hoops-jumping that I don't really mind it.
Sadly, that's currently a problem for all the new concepts here, they don't do anything radically new by themselves (though innervate counters matter in set 2, so that's something). Which is unfortunate, but I think the set does well enough to make these concepts matter that players won't need to be flooded with treasures-matter cards. At least not up front.
For poison, I felt you had good innovation with not only poisonous creatures, but spells that poison the opponent directly, cards that poison yourself as a drawback, cards that poison yourself as a benefit, and cards that remove poison counters. A lot of the "artifact matters" cards seemed to be sharing space with caring about peril in my mind for some reason. eh.
Another thing is that poison, especially the poison mirror-matchup, feels very interactive, whereas the treasure matchup feels noninteractive, like both players are just trying to "combo off" by getting as much TV onto their board as possible, and ignoring the opponent save for defensive measures. Yes, I know there are treasures that play a support role in a "traditional" aggro or control deck, but those will probably win by combat damage more often than via Treasure; creatures decrease your opponent's life (hopefully) every turn, while Treasures increase your TV once and then just sit there.
Compared to Innervates, each Innervate creature is like "Treasure value 4", so while it takes a long time to set up, you don't need to draw ten of them, and you can still swing for the win if it's more expedient. In the Treasure deck, adding cards that don't increase TV directly seems it would dilute the consistency of the wincon, but I haven't played with these cards so it may not be as bad as I think.
A cycle of "If you have 5/10/15 TV, {effect}" would have been interesting.
I'll look back over the "artifacts matter" cards in the set sometime. Any in particular you're proud of as far as innovation?
A cycle of "If you have 5/10/15 TV, {effect}" would have been interesting.
You're right. I bounced the Spellbombs, which made room for a cycle of commons. They all 'turn on' with 10TV (I figured it best to play with that design space further with different numbers later). The white one is a Leonin Abunas, blue gets no maximum hand size, black gives all your guys +1/+0 and intimidate, red gives itself haste and first strike and green gives all your guys reach and vigilance.
I'll look back over the "artifacts matter" cards in the set sometime. Any in particular you're proud of as far as innovation?
Honestly, no. My small number of artifacts matters cards aren't really innovative in that they don't do anything really new or exciting, they're mostly utility and glue to connect to both traps and treasures.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Sure, knock yourself out. I have a habit of swapping back and forth between new and older wordings (I use exile and not remove from the game, but into play rather than onto the battlefield, for example), but it's honestly not a high priority for me. As long as card concepts are understandable and use some level of Magic-ese, I've never been too concerned.
As far as the Treasure frames go, I questioned the positioning of the TV for a long time. In the end, I felt that the bottom-right corner of a card is a high-profile spot for important information (power/toughness for creatures, loyalty for planeswalkers) that it felt 'right' to have this important value in the same location.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Mirrodin 306
Odyssey 350
Invasion 350
Champions of Kamigawa 307
Ravnica 306
10th Edition 383
Lorwyn 301
Point being? Yes, Excellion has more cards than very recent big sets. Yet it's on par with big sets from 2003-2007 and far smaller than big sets prior to that. My intent here (once I decided against just a single big set) was to create a two-set block of around 475 cards (which is only 25 cards larger than Lorwyn-Morningtide) which is still quite smaller than the typical block, even recent blocks. I could stretch the block out into three sets a push even more cards out of Excellion and into set 2 or 3, but I don't think that's doing things any favors.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
Crest of Am Bongor is an interesting Not Glorious Anthem.
Gjoan Soothsayer is fine, though I don't like that kind of text compression at common. There's a fine art to deciding what flavor bits go on the cards, and which chunks are better left in the Planeswalker's guide.
Shallow Comfort: Don't know if I've commented on this before, but it basically says "win the game" against poison or non-alt-win decks. I assume maindeck Naturalize is good in this block?
Does Unarm work? If a trap triggers when it's turned face up, then it doesn't matter if it loses that triggered ability a split-second later.
Nice internal synergies with Wandering Dreamwalker.
Appraise and Devalue = memory issues. It could be flavored as a glamer-type Aura; killing the Aura dispels the glamer and reveals the Treasure's true value.
Benthic Delver: I find it amusing that retrace has no reminder text but scry does.
What is a "Bill of Quandra'Sun"? A beak? A collector's fee? A guy named "Bill"?
"Judge-Sal" as opposed to just a "Judge"?
When is Inquiry of Cura-Sect supposed to trigger? Only off Divination, or something like Howling Mine as well? What if I control two Howling Mines - does it trigger twice? Also, this is basically "I win the game" if you've stabilized and can turn it on, and it's only an uncommon.
For Repentant Thief, you have the innervate text above the activated ability, but for Sage of Unseen Vistas, it's the reverse. Which is it supposed to be?
Search for Lost Secrets just feels like a really bad Brainstorm. Even if you retrace it you still get -1 CA, and if you have one other card in hand you can't gain value off it at all. Even as a way to counter mill strategies it feels really loose.
For Bellique, "as though it were in your hand" wordings have been phased out entirely. See the current Oracle text of Yawgmoth's Will.
I like Crypt Disturbance - though couldn't it have been "symmetrical"? Something like "Put the top four cards of target library into their owner's graveyard. Then exile up to four [non-targeted] cards from a single graveyard."
Wow, does the black one in the cycle suck. Unless you're running some kind of token swarm archetype, it'll be hard to get it to trigger, and even if it does your gain is a measly life boost in this world of I-don't-care-about-your-life wincons.
Inscribed Slab doesn't work as written - should say "if" (non-triggered) if I read your intent correctly. Same with Golden Phiale.
N'Longo's Emissary: Interesting Spineless Thug variant.
Touch of Evil feels a bit off-color for black. Perhaps black mana only as a nod to Consume Spirit? It also fits well with retrace as it scales with your land count.
Conquering of Taranduil: Splicing things is weird and not common. Mass LD is probably not common either. How much worse would it be if it said "When you cast an IOS spell, if 4 counters, that spell does 1 damage to target"? Is there even a single common counterspell in this set?
Why do the 'walkers use the creature card frame?
Pirate's Justice: Too many "its." Vague. Should say "that artifact's controller".
Drampeak Summit is kind of nuts - my Boros Swiftblade deals 16 damage on turn 6?
Rockthrummer Drum: OMG It's Back To Basics!!
Trash for Treasure: I like how it can randomly turn on peril artifacts.
Elderwood Bowl: Interesting mana ramp artifact.
Forsaken Hunt: Bashing with Grizzly Bears feels rather underwhelming compared to all these exotic alt-win-cons, but I'll bite.
Rulah: "Put a legendary X/X green Avatar creature token with trample named Masari onto the battlefield, where X is the number of lands on the battlefield." Is she supposed to be the "token beats archetype" representative?
Tolling of Ancient Bells: This is sicker than both Natural Order and Dramatic Entrance, and it retraces. Turn 3 Proggy from the bottom of the library anyone?
Stelmarria Jonell: There's some extraneous rules text about the number six in her second ability.
Bloodhowl Dagger: Interesting "high-risk high-reward" card.
Infessurian Syrix could just say "You lose a PC. Target opponent gets that many PCs." or even "If you have a PC, you lose a PC and target opponent gets a PC." Is there a card that prevents poison counter loss?
Mercurial Amphora just seems to punish players for doing something they usually don't like doing anyway - how is this fun?
Would Refractor Spellbomb be broken if it was just a hard bounce? None of the other Spellbombs have that irritating "does nothing if opponent has tons of mana" restriction, and bounce is weaker than damage or -X/-X because the creature can come back and trigger etb abilities.
Venerated Idol = so, so good. It's easily better than Bloodhowl Dagger and Horn of Opportunity combined, and it draws you a card when it etb! At uncommon!
Common land cycle: Like the innovation along with retrace.
Uncommon land cycle: Scraphoard is the worst, because it requires an actual cost. Sheltered Cove is also basically a storage/colorfilter, but since the bounced trap can be replayed as a normal spell it's marginally better. Muckpit is probably the best, because adding poison counters to yourself can be a benefit, while milling yourself is almost never a benefit in UB.
Rare land cycle: The red one sucks and Polestar is just a Mosswort Bridge knock-off that's harder to turn on. The rest are fine, but not my favorite design of yours.
Mythic rare land cycle: Is Gabran Tor intended to enter the battlefield untapped if you control no creatures? Naloa Tor gives Treasure decks with creatures an interesting other way to win. Umbra Tor giving creatures retrace is interesting. Yuvira Tor's drawback can be a benefit with its ability; all the same, I'd prefer it to be a "may" so it's strictly a benefit. This card is a Mythic after all.
I still feel that all of the nonland cards that interact with Ruins, and some of the nonland cards that interact with Peril, could be cut. Notably, even though Treasure is the biggest mechanic in the set, I felt there was a dearth of cards that fetch Treasures, increase Treasure values, and do stuff when you have more Treasures on the battlefield. It seems the way to build this archetype is to go for a deck with lots of battlefield control, card draw, and possibly Feldon's Cane - mill in particular punishes this archetype because you might get to the point where literally every card in your deck doesn't add up to 20 TV. I would have also liked to see a card with variable TV.
Also, where's the mill lord? There's a treasure PW, a treasure legend, a poison PW, an innervate PW, and an innervate legend, but no character that cares about milling as far as I can see.
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Fixed the wording (to the Lashknife Barrier version). Thanks.
I thought it could be interesting to give Treasure decks relying on creatures for defense a bit of juice. This ought to put all your guys outside burn range, making them formidable defenders though still not potent attackers.
Yeah, that's a remnant of the old set where the flavor text was a reference to most of the other Kithkin in the set. Only Braver of the Kithwash survived the Great Culling. The flavor text was just a forgotten holdover from the old version and can likely be dropped or at least trimmed.
Given the rampant artifacts (traps and treasures) and enchantments (quests and high-power guys like this), yes, Naturalize is amazing here.
The key with Shallow Comfort is that it suppresses the deck type the block discourages (creature-based aggro) while really not doing much against the strategies the block is pushing, the alt-win-cons. Treasure, Milling and Innervate don't really care about damage prevention and even poison can work around it (poisonous is a major way to inflict poison counters, but not the only way and smart poison players will avoid over-reliance on creatures with this block).
Also note the fantastic synergy with the Voyage of Chryst Kings. A very unorthodox win condition for an otherwise creature-free Wx Control deck.
The wording was based on a prior wording for peril, so I'm not sure it works now. Maybe reversing the wording so it loses all abilities then gets turned up?
Duly noted.
Which cards have no Retrace reminder text? I know the cards that trigger of retracing don't, but I based that off of the recent trend of Wizards using keywords as verbs in triggers like this and not using reminder text to explain what a retraced spell is.
Number four. I'm using it in the same sort of context as FFXII did (you may notice that that game inspires a lot of my world-building in subtle ways.
Another subtle reference to FFXII and a sort of title referencing a particular order of archaic mage-knight from one of Excellion's fallen old kingdoms (the blue-aligned Solna for the record).
"At end of turn, if you drew two or more cards this turn, put a quest counter on Inquiry of Cura Sect." - clearer?
I'm aware that late-game after a bit of time, it can be a bit of a soft lock all by itself, but I think it's balanced somewhat by the amount of time an work it'll take to get it online. You're looking at turn 5-6ish at least before you can expect to have this going and by then, Miscalculation loses a bit of value, even repeatedly.
Which isn't to say it's not potent, just that I think it requires enough time and investment to be not exceptionally overpowered.
I'm not sure. Which is typically 'right' in this situation?
I'm comfortable with that. Every set has underpowered commons and if at worst this one sees a bit of Limited play and/or time in a block Retrace deck, I'm happy.
Noted.
And much love to those that get the Indiana Jones reference.
Yes, actually that is satisfying on some level as a symmetrical effect, numbers-wise.
True, it's not the best of the cycle by any means. But black is, oddly enough, the color in this set most dependent on real creatures anyway. Green and white can fall back on efficient tokens, blue and red can go creatureless and still generate a lot of treats, but black's main alt-win-con in poison does to a larger degree than the rest (innervate aside) requires investment in real creatures. So black's no-creature enchantment had that going against it to start off with. I decided it ought to be the one to make with outside the set in mind. I think, ironically, this card that is pretty weak in-set is the best of the five outside the set where a really strong BR deck light on creatures may be able to use this in conjunction with burn, tokens and planeswalkers to keep its head above water as it eats away at opponents.
It's also deceptively sick in multiplayer (an opponent attacks another opponent and you gain that much life), though going creature-free can be tricky in that format. But tokens can save your ass in that regard (hence that clause on this cycle). Promise of Power, Bitterblossom, Quest for the Gravelord and Zombie Infestation are a few black options for that. But a BW or GB decks with tokens and such could be fun for casual/multiplayer settings.
Fixed.
My way of making poison matter in small ways. This card is almost always useful in Limited and gets a small bonus should you get poisoned.
I felt it wasn't a huge departure from cards like Vicious Hunger and Douse in Gloom. Or a Consume Spirit that trades being able to hit players for being recursive.
Not very.
Not anymore. There was a retrace-able Mana Leak variant, but it got pushed out.
Laziness, mostly. Plus, I don't think they export to Apprentice quite right in the real Planeswalker frame. I recall having issues with that once upon a time.
Cool.
Doesn't that work similarly with Furnace of Rath? Perhaps not as bombtastically, but probably more reliably.
This card runs a bad line. In an aggro creature deck, it's really just win more since by the time you get it online, you ought to have won anyway. We're talking turn 6-7 with you getting through on a swing every turn between 3 and there, why haven't you won already if you're getting through like that?
Where the Race shines more is in a Counter-Burn style deck, where it can give you a lot of extra mileage out of your spells. Again, particularly in multiplayer where such decks can typically be weaker in that environment.
The hard thing about Treasures in certain colors (particularly red) is that you sort of want the treasure value to be the game-winning aspect and the textbox effect be something interesting and/or useful but not necessarily game-winning (since that would divert win-condition attention away from the card's treasure-ness - fine down the road but probably not ideal for the introduction to the type). That was a little tougher for red, which typically only has aggressive enchantments (which Treasure textbox abilities wanted to emulate). Finding suitably effective/passive/interesting red effects was tougher than for, say, white and blue.
This particular effect was one that felt red while also not being completely game-winning in and of itself. And as a fun bonus, it shuts down Hideaway.
A very neat, tricky interaction. It's especially fun in tricking an off-color trap into play, especially from white and blue.
What started out as a fun, if obvious, reprint turned out to be a very great tool for many decks and strategies.
Green had more treasure-friendly effects to fill out textboxes, but this one, I felt, could potentially help a variety of decks. Ramp to bigger/more creatures, ramp to more treasures, etc.
The one creature-attacking archetype I allowed myself to indulge in (more or less) was that of tokens. They allowed decks to put up a solid fight against creatures without necessarily playing with creature cards.
This card was meant to play a bit more defensively, until of course you stabilize and then start swinging.
Not really, though she does help a little with that. Her main role was to aid retrace and even when retrace's presence in the set was diminished, Rulah managed to hang in there. In part because she was just a fun card for green-based control and in part because she has a strong connection to the story along with the other three 'walkers.
Too true. Changed it to tutor to the hand, which is probably a safer version.
Swapped to five, to match with the other innervate cards. The additional text was to explain innervate counters on creatures without the keyword, as per the advice of this thread.
Not yet, but there could be.
I was looking for a general cost increasing effect to gum up big, bomby spells. Do you have a suggestion for a suitable replacement?
I wanted it to feel different than the common blue bounce card (Wash Away) since it would be triggering in combat. It would typically be just a smaller version of another spell at that rarity in that color, which struck me as a poor design choice. The original version redirected a spell, but that was before the peril redesign that rendered that version of the card non-functional. I figured a riff on the original blue Spellbomb would fit.
Alternate suggestions?
I added the cantrip because the card felt like too much downside without it. This card is a serious risk on some levels, a game-winning treasure in others and a crafty way to ice opposing utility creatures.
The cantrip could quite conceivably turn into a lifetrip and still be what I was looking for.
Balancing that cycle was a pain. If they're even moderately balanced, I consider it an accomplishment.
Oddly enough, I felt the red one was the easiest to activate with the right deck with the Tabernacle and Gravesite not far behind. I was aware that the green one was subpar, but I was pretty okay with that. Green in this set has enough tools to cast its spells the usual way, hideaway trickery felt extraneous for green.
When Equipment were first introduced in Mirrodin, only a few cards really interacted with them beyond the usual. I think it's typical, especially now, for design to explore a concept slowly with the basics first and then eventually flesh out the design space. This set features 18 cards by my count that interact with treasure is some specific way. I feel that's plenty for the introductory set.
Aside from treasure value play, there are numerous cards from the game's history that can interact with treasures in the ways you brought up by virtue of them being artifacts. In that way, I thought it would be wasteful to use card slots in the set to essentially do what other cards already did in less focused ways.
The game itself (or at least the basic archetypes) is balanced via a rock-paper-scissors setup. I think it's okay if the alt-win-cons balance each other similarly. That would be ideal, come to think of it.
Ha! There was one, it's TV was based on the number of creatures you controlled. It got bounced when I started trimming cards. I think variable TVs is a twist on the mechanic better left for the next set.
Mill was always something of a minor seasoning in the set. It was never on an abundance of cards and it really sort of just existed quietly on its own without too much fanfare as a moderate subtheme for blue and a minor one for black. As the most-supported alt-win-con historically, I didn't think it needed a lot of attention. Enough to remind everyone that it has been a viable win condition for a long time before these newbies, but not so much as to draw attention away from the debuting mechanics. It was always going to have the most support from outside the set anyway, so a lot of support from within was never a priority. Shoehorning a character in to highlight milling seemed like it'd go against the stealth mechanic vibe milling was going with here. I think in set 2, after the new alt-win-cons have been introduced and settled in, it could be a better time for milling to pipe up a bit more.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
Per Rumbling Aftershocks, leaving off the reminder text on "retrace matters" cards is probably fine - you couldn't use the ability if you didn't already have a retrace card, which presumably does have reminder text on it.
I've never played Final Fantasy XII so I wouldn't understand any of the references (save that "Gis Bangou" bears a certain resemblance to "Bangaa", though I don't know if that's intentional or not - the "Chryst-Kings" thing wasn't either).
Inquiry of Cura Sect: Sure, that wording works.
For innervate, personally I'd put the giant chunk of reminder text at the top.
For Race to Drampeak Summit, yeah, just the bombtasticness of the card. In R/x you can plink them with a 1/1 flier for 4 turns, then quadruple or even octuple it for several turns after. Also, unlike Furnace of Rath, it's not symmetrical.
No suggestions on the Amphora. Generally being expensive is only a minor speedbump if you have a bomb in hand.
Why not kill Wash Away and turn it into a spell redirect, then use Spellbomb for the blue bounce slot?
Venerated Idol doesn't seem like much of a downside at all. Either your opponent wanted to swing at you (so they would have, regardless), or they didn't want to swing at you (and they're forced to, which is bad for them), or their utility guys wanted to use tap abilities (so they would have, regardless), or their utility guys wanted to use tap abilities at some other time (but are being forced to use them at an inopportune time). The only way I could see this being a severe drawback is in multiplayer, where you'll have multiple opponents ganging up on you and some guy might decide to blow some removal spells on your creatures, just so he can kill you and be able to attack someone else. Otherwise, with Idol's cantrip, lower rarity, and not losing a permanent every turn, I can't see why anyone would play Bloodhowl Dagger given the choice.
Sure the red hideaway is easy enough to activate, but in a deck that wants to go hellbent and not play creatures what are you tapping two lands to cast "for free"? Ball Lightning?
Equipment felt innovative even if you only had one in your deck. The thing with treasure is that, when you're between 1-19 TV, the treasure cards don't do anything new. True, there are plenty of cards that can go tutor up artifacts, which helps the wincon in gameplay. I feel that this set has a lot of "explor[ing] a concept slowly with the basics first" - Ruins, Traps, Life Matters, Quests, Allies - and though I guess it fits the flavor, I would have liked to see the main features more on the "fleshed out" side. You do a good job of this with poison IMO.
I guess I just noticed a preponderance of mill in the blue cards and cycles. Looking back over the set as a whole, it's not a big slice.
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It could probably just destroy face down artifacts anyway, right? I mean, it accomplishes the same goal (better, actually, in the case of the traps with persistent effects or repeated triggers) with far less fuss.
As far as I know, no retrace card goes without reminder text. Even the mythic land that gives creature cards the ability.
Judge-Sal comes from Exodus, a summon from FFXII. His backstory involves his role as the judge of value of all things, a silent observer who qualifies everything in existence, but who became too detached from the world and egotistical as a result.
The Judge-Sals of Excellion occupy a much similar role. The ancient kingdom of Solna was the major Vedalken kingdom and they tasked themselves with observing all the world, studying and scrutinizing until they understood every last detail of the plane. But they grew to become judges more than researchers, making passing judgments on the value of the things they were sent to study. In time, the order of Judge-Sals became a feared entity in the ancient Excellion world. Their gaze meant scrutiny and their condemnations were crippling. Of course, after the fall, the order fell into disarray but a few contemporary scholars (both human and vedalken) choose this ancient path of criticism over understanding.
Righty-o. Makes sense to have the new ability be the first thing players see in the textbox.
Perhaps a cheaper version that slows down cheap spells?
Sensible. Though I do have a fondness for Wash Away. Not to mention I find it a bit weird that a staple blue effect like bouncing would be in the set twice at common, but neither card be strictly blue (an artifact and a land).
Hrrmmmm. Perhaps if it provided a +n/+n boost as well since that still fits the flavor and makes the drawback that much more painful (particularly in multiples, where the Idol has no drawback as of now). Not to mention, it decreases the ease at which you can kill utility creatures by blocking.
I think if it gave opposing creatures +2/+2 and gained you 5-6 life as a lifetrip, it would be more in line with the Bloodhowl Dagger. Of course, it also makes it combo better with Warding Stone (the treasure Ensnaring Bridge riff), so I dunno.
A game-winning Cruel Ultimatum? Emrakul (hell, even a Kozilek or Ulamog)? etc? For a deck in the style of the old Ponza deck (mana denial and great burn), any decent finisher would do. Or imagine a WUR control deck (ironically a bit of a powerhouse right now) with few to no creatures, a lot of control and a few bomby spells to win the game. I don't know, I see the potential in that card.
Sadly, that's currently a problem for all the new concepts here, they don't do anything radically new by themselves (though innervate counters matter in set 2, so that's something). Which is unfortunate, but I think the set does well enough to make these concepts matter that players won't need to be flooded with treasures-matter cards. At least not up front.
Not to mention protecting artifacts, rescuing artifacts from graveyards, making them cheaper, caring about how many you control, etc. That was another big reason I tried to make the textbox of treasures worthwhile on their own, so even if you didn't have enough to win, the cards still helped you in some way.
Thank you.
Good, I didn't want it to be. Milling isn't a particularly interactive mechanic, I don't think it would be fun as a major theme.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
Yeah, probably.
Like Trinisphere?
Alternatively you could bump Wash Away to the "common bounce slot" in the next set, or even the entire "Peril only" spellbomb cycle to the "Traps matter" set.
That could work, though I think +1/+1 is still reasonable. The Warding Stone combo is enough hoops-jumping that I don't really mind it.
For poison, I felt you had good innovation with not only poisonous creatures, but spells that poison the opponent directly, cards that poison yourself as a drawback, cards that poison yourself as a benefit, and cards that remove poison counters. A lot of the "artifact matters" cards seemed to be sharing space with caring about peril in my mind for some reason. eh.
Another thing is that poison, especially the poison mirror-matchup, feels very interactive, whereas the treasure matchup feels noninteractive, like both players are just trying to "combo off" by getting as much TV onto their board as possible, and ignoring the opponent save for defensive measures. Yes, I know there are treasures that play a support role in a "traditional" aggro or control deck, but those will probably win by combat damage more often than via Treasure; creatures decrease your opponent's life (hopefully) every turn, while Treasures increase your TV once and then just sit there.
Compared to Innervates, each Innervate creature is like "Treasure value 4", so while it takes a long time to set up, you don't need to draw ten of them, and you can still swing for the win if it's more expedient. In the Treasure deck, adding cards that don't increase TV directly seems it would dilute the consistency of the wincon, but I haven't played with these cards so it may not be as bad as I think.
A cycle of "If you have 5/10/15 TV, {effect}" would have been interesting.
I'll look back over the "artifacts matter" cards in the set sometime. Any in particular you're proud of as far as innovation?
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You're right. I bounced the Spellbombs, which made room for a cycle of commons. They all 'turn on' with 10TV (I figured it best to play with that design space further with different numbers later). The white one is a Leonin Abunas, blue gets no maximum hand size, black gives all your guys +1/+0 and intimidate, red gives itself haste and first strike and green gives all your guys reach and vigilance.
Honestly, no. My small number of artifacts matters cards aren't really innovative in that they don't do anything really new or exciting, they're mostly utility and glue to connect to both traps and treasures.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains