I've had a few people that I've shown this to questions the rules issues with Vanguard. Of course, any set that introduces new mechanics and interactions will have new rules entries to justify and clarify the new cards, but Vanguard is tricky enough that I went ahead and spelled out the rules entry. I'm no rules guru, so I'm welcome to any suggested changes here. I took the templating from the rules for first strike.
509.1xIf at least one attacking creature has vanguard as the declare blockers step begins, the only creatures that assign as blockers in that step are those assigned to block attacking creatures with vanguard. After that step, instead of proceeding to the combat damage step, the phase gets a second declare blockers step. The only creatures that assign as blockers in that step are the remaining creatures not assigned to block attacking creatures with vanguard as the first declare blockers step began, and creatures can only block during that step if all attacking creatures with vanguard that could be blocked were blocked during the first declare blockers step. After the second declare blockers step, the phase proceeds to the combat damage step.
With that ruling, you removed the "if able" part from the reminder text. When I have an unblockable creature with vanguard, my entire team would be unblockable. What happens with evasion creatures with vanguard wasn't very clear anyway from the reminder text wording, so you should think about corner case scenarios.
Looking through the cards, I did not see a convincing reason for Dominance to exist. I expected that these effects would be combat relevant, but most of them could just as easily be on a "Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player"-trigger without it making a difference.
With that ruling, you removed the "if able" part from the reminder text. When I have an unblockable creature with vanguard, my entire team would be unblockable. What happens with evasion creatures with vanguard wasn't very clear anyway from the reminder text wording, so you should think about corner case scenarios.
Looking through the cards, I did not see a convincing reason for Dominance to exist. I expected that these effects would be combat relevant, but most of them could just as easily be on a "Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player"-trigger without it making a difference.
Right you are! I edited the wording on the ruling to accommodate the 'if able' clause.
On Dominance - the decision to make most of these "attacks and isn't blocked" and not "deals combat damage to a player" was mostly thematic, not functional. I'm still not completely convinced it needs to be an ability word, but then again the trigger occurs so often that I think having it as an ability word is a good idea. Gives a sense of familiarity to the player. Which, at the end of the day, is the whole reason for ability words (since ability words are superfluous anyway)
On Dominance - the decision to make most of these "attacks and isn't blocked" and not "deals combat damage to a player" was mostly thematic, not functional.
What is the concrete advantage of using Dominance over the conventional "deals combat damage to a player" trigger?
On Dominance - the decision to make most of these "attacks and isn't blocked" and not "deals combat damage to a player" was mostly thematic, not functional.
What is the concrete advantage of using Dominance over the conventional "deals combat damage to a player" trigger?
It gets around fogs, it plays into the 'blocking matters' theme. It can also get around cards that remove attackers from combat so long as that happens after the declare blockers step.
These are very, very minor things, though. The Dominance wording looks very weird from today's standpoint, and you need a much better reason to justify using it. Many new players won't even know when these abilities are supposed to trigger. Besides, removing fogs and "Remove attackers from combat" effects as an option to interact with these cards sounds more like you're taking something interesting away than adding it. If you want to keep the "Whenever ~ attacks and isn't blocked" wording, all of the effects should be combat-relevant, such as "Whenever ~ attacks and isn't blocked, creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn." If you want to keep the effects as is, put them onto a combat-damage to player trigger, then you can cut the mechanic and have more room for others.
These are very, very minor things, though. The Dominance wording looks very weird from today's standpoint, and you need a much better reason to justify using it. Many new players won't even know when these abilities are supposed to trigger. Besides, removing fogs and "Remove attackers from combat" effects as an option to interact with these cards sounds more like you're taking something interesting away than adding it. If you want to keep the "Whenever ~ attacks and isn't blocked" wording, all of the effects should be combat-relevant, such as "Whenever ~ attacks and isn't blocked, creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn." If you want to keep the effects as is, put them onto a combat-damage to player trigger, then you can cut the mechanic and have more room for others.
I think you're right that the effects need to be tweaked a bit to be justified. I'll keep an eye on it and, as the set develops, either redesign the triggers so that they are more combat relevant or change them over to triggering on combat damage.
EDIT: After thinking about it more, I want to keep the "attacks and isn't blocked" triggers. The straw that broke the camel's back, for me, was while playtesting the cards with "deals combat damage" as the trigger, it was easy to just give them trample and go to town. In the end, I like that these effects can be chump blocked. I removed the "dominance" trigger from Threat Dissolution Ward because it didn't make sense, but after looking through the others I don't see any other cards with dominance that don't really make sense. Would love some input on the other dominance triggers.
I've done a bit of playtesting and, as a result, have update a ton of cards. The cards list in the OP hasn't been updated yet because, frankly, that's fairly tedious, but I thought I'd give a link to a full PDF spoiler of where the set currently is, if anyone is interested. Also, if anyone is interested on playtesting this in cockatrice please let me know! I've got a cockatrice plugin that includes this set, my custom core set, and my first custom block (all of which are still going through changes based on playtesting) which you can find here.
There's one card that's proven to be much more powerful than I expected and I wanted to get people's thoughts on it.
Minotaur Advance Guard2B
Creature - Minotaur Warrior (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
Minotaur Advance Guard gets +1/+1 for each attacking creature you control.
1/1
This guy is a powerhouse. I'm not entirely sure if it needs changed though - I really like the card overall. There are a few changes I could make, of course. I could give him +1/+0 (which would feel more black anyway). I could make him cost 2BB. I could make his trigger not count himself. But at the end of the day, I just don't know. At the moment, he's an auto-include for a black aggro deck, but I'm not sure he's format-warping. Thoughts?
If playtesting showed that he's too good, then you should nerf it obviously. Otherwise, I would suggest increasing his cost and stats. 3BB for a 3/3 for example. The ability is conventionally worded "Whenever ~ attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each attacking creature you control."
My suggestion: 3B
2/2
Whenever ~ attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each other attacking creature you control.
If playtesting showed that he's too good, then you should nerf it obviously. Otherwise, I would suggest increasing his cost and stats. 3BB for a 3/3 for example. The ability is conventionally worded "Whenever ~ attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each attacking creature you control."
My suggestion: 3B
2/2
Whenever ~ attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each other attacking creature you control.
I think I'll definitely make the change that it doesn't trigger off of itself, but I'm tempted to keep it at 3cmc and 1/1. That makes it still very strong, but I'm not sure that it's toostrong. Maybe make it 1BB instead of 2B so it's less splashable.
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One of the bad things about how I designed this set was that by the time I started posting again the set had already been mostly designed, so every update came in very large chunks which I know are hard to review and provide feedback on. As playtesting progresses, the posts I'll be putting will be more focused - specific cards or combos that I'm looking for feedback on. (Of course, any feedback on the set is welcome - don't restrict yourself to the specific cards I post if you're not interested.)
Additionally, if you're interested in playtesting on Cockatrice please let me know either via PM or via reply in this thread.
I've gotten the opportunity to do a bit of playtesting with this set and, for the most part, it's been a blast to play. I've made small changes here and there to this set, as well as a few small changes to my previous block (which is supposed to play alongside this set as my own 'custom standard').
One of the things that became very clear was that the RW General, Ilyria, was not a good fit for this set. Ilyria is a character I've had in the wings for quite some time, but first of all she's really WBR and squeezing her into a RW frame caused me to have to change some things I wasn't a fan of. Second, she really didn't fit flavorfully with the Dwarven theme that the RW cards have kind of evolved in to.
So, Ilyria has been cut, replaced by my first attempt at a Hybrid Walker.
Chalas Kyrgwhyn 2
Planeswalker - Chalas (M)
+1: Put a 1/1 red and white Dwarf creature token with "Equipment costs 1 less to attach to this creature" onto the battlefield.
-X: Put X colorless Sword artifact Equipment tokens onto the battlefield. They have "Equipped creature gets +1/+1" and "Equip 0".
-6: You get an emblem with "Whenever an equipped creature you control attacks and isn't blocked, it gets +2/+0 and gains double strike until end of turn."
Starting Loyalty: 3
I've always been a fan of equipment interaction in red and white. When WotC decides to bring Dwarves back, I firmly believe that this is how it should be done. I feel like this is an acceptable hybrid design, as each ability could be mono-white or mono-red (though some lean more one way than the other, they both work). Power level will need to be developed upon based on the needs of the environment, but as an initial iteration I'm a fan.
After some more playtesting in Cockatrice last night, more changes made. Recent changes are -
Capacitance Golem 3
Artifact Creature - Golem (R) Dominance — When Capacitance Golem attacks and isn’t blocked, you may pay 2. If you do, any number of target permanents with counters on them gain an additional counter of a type already there.
3/3
//Previous effect for this simply triggered when the creature attacked, and it had no cost associated. For obvious reasons, this was far too good and ended up as an auto-included in any deck that featured a planeswalker. The new effect I think is still very powerful, but not overly so.
Temporal Storm 4UU
Sorcery (M)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
Take an extra turn after this one.
//I lowered the CMC on this card by 1. At 7 cmc, it was hard to play and there wasn't much it reverberated off of. Now it should trigger off of more, but still be balanced.
Minotaur Advance Guard 2B
Creature - Minotaur Warrior (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
Minotaur Advance Guard gets +1/+1 for each other attacking creature you control.
1/1
//Still very powerful and likely format-defining, I think keeping this card from triggering off of itself is enough of a nerf to make sure it's not overpowered. Still something I plan on keeping an eye out for in regards to black/green aggro.
Soulstrip 2BB
Sorcery (R)
Remove all counters from all permanents. Target player loses 1 life for each counter removed this way.
//Lowered CMC by 1 and changed from instant to sorcery speed. When combined with the Caiea block and my custom core set, the two dominant decks have both been planeswalker-centric. While I'm more-or-less happy with the power level of my walkers, there needs to be a balance to them. Pushing this to a 4-drop may be a bit too punishing for walkers, and the life loss from the wipe is pretty powerful as well, but I want to see what having it with a cmc of 4 will do to the environment.
Pyretic Feedback 2RR
Instant - (U)
As an additional cost to cast Pyretic Feedback, sacrifice an island.
Counter target spell. Pyretic Feedback deals damage to that spell's controller equal to that spell's converted mana cost.
//Raises CMC by 1. This is a card that may not make the cut at the end of the day, at ay cost, just because it breaks the pie too much even at the cost of saccing an island. For now, limiting it by raising its CMC, we'll see what that does.
Blight the Insolent 2WB
Instant - (U)
Put a -1/-1 counter on each attacking creature
//Lowered effect to one -1/-1 counter, down from two. at 4 cmc, two counters was a pseudo board wipe at uncommon for 4, which was just too good. Even still it's powerful enough for some constructed decks.
Chalas Kyrgwhyn 2
Planeswalker - Chalas (M)
+1: Put a 1/1 red and white Soldier creature token with "This creature has first strike so long as it's equipped." onto the battlefield.
-X: Put X colorless Sword artifact Equipment tokens onto the battlefield. They have "Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and Equip 0".
-6: You get an emblem with "Whenever an equipped creature you control attacks and isn't blocked, it gets +2/+0 and gains double strike until end of turn."
Starting Loyalty: 3
//Previewed in my above post from yesterday, this card has been continually tweaked in several small ways. No longer creates a 'dwarf' token, and the token it does create synergizes better with its -X. Also, costs 1 more, as 3cmc walkers are too powerful if they also create creature tokens. I'm still sold on this being hybrid - although its abilities are more favorable in one color or the other, I still argue that it is completely acceptable as both mono-white and mono-red. A few folks on reddit recommended changing the -X, which I'm keeping in the back of my mind. For now, it'll stay as-is until it can be further tested.
Hopefully these smaller updates are a bit easier to digest - as mentioned previously, I understand this is a hard set to provide feedback on since design is already more-or less done and feedback is more focused on development. That said, if you find the set interesting or have any thoughts, please share them. And if you're interested in playing over Cockatrice you find the plugin for this set here.
All of the playtesting done with the set at this point has been for constructed - I'm looking for people who would be interesting in playtesting sealed on cockatrice over the next week. If you're interested, let me know.
The concept of Chalas is very cool, but it needs to be cleaned up. You should try to express the synergy between the first and second abilities without being so obvious. The ultimate is too cluttered. Just write "Creatures you control are awesome. Period." for once without any when and ifs .
My suggestions:
Just give the tokens first strike without any condition.
Why does it have to be X Equipment tokens? That's very weird. Make it one token that's a bit more powerful and works better with the first strike.
Make the emblem unconditional.
Chalas Kyrgwhyn2(R/W)(R/W)
Planeswalker — Chalas
+1: Put a red and white Soldier creature token with first strike onto the battlefield.
-2: Put a colorless artifact Equipment token with "Equipped creature gets +3/+0" and "Equip 1" onto the battlefield.
-7: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control get +2/+0 and have double strike."
{3}
The concept of Chalas is very cool, but it needs to be cleaned up. You should try to express the synergy between the first and second abilities without being so obvious. The ultimate is too cluttered. Just write "Creatures you control are awesome. Period." for once without any when and ifs .
My suggestions:
Just give the tokens first strike without any condition.
Why does it have to be X Equipment tokens? That's very weird. Make it one token that's a bit more powerful and works better with the first strike.
Make the emblem unconditional.
Chalas Kyrgwhyn2(R/W)(R/W)
Planeswalker — Chalas
+1: Put a red and white Soldier creature token with first strike onto the battlefield.
-2: Put a colorless artifact Equipment token with "Equipped creature gets +3/+0" and "Equip 1" onto the battlefield.
-7: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control get +2/+0 and have double strike."
{3}
Regarding Chalas, I just had a game where I used his -X to pop five tokens out, played another chalas to pump out three more tokens, and swung out for lethal with a squadron hawk holding 8 swords. The -X is far too powerful.
I'm going to try it as a 0 and have it just put one token out - but for now I'm gonna keep the token the same, as its the same token several other cards create.
At some point I'm going to ditch one of the rare land cycles and put in 5 more equipment at common, I'm just not sure which cycle to dump.
I've made what I hope are some fairly thorough balance and wording passes to the set, as assisted by users from /r/custommagic. I'll be updating the OP as I go but today I thought I'd start with white, as it currently stands.
Arbiter of Attrition5WW
Creature — Angel (R)
Flying, lifelink
Your opponents can’t cast spells during combat. War isn’t fair.
5/5
Blessing of Redemption2WW
Enchantment — Aura (R)
Enchant Creature
Dominance — Whenever enchanted creature attacks and isn’t blocked, return target creature or planeswalker card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Captain of the Lost Legion3WW
Creature — Human Soldier (R) 1W, T: Put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield.
Creature tokens you control get +2/+2 and have vigilance.
2/4
Chance for Glory1W
Instant (C)
Target creature you control gets +1/+1 for each blocked creature you control and gains lifelink until end of turn. Clanging steel and flashing armor, she was a glorious paragon alone in the fray.
Cleansing Ritual1W
Instant (C)
Destroy target enchantment. If you control a Mountain, you may also destroy target noncreature artifact. Strip away the armor, strip away the magic, and this becomes much simpler.
Darethan Sentinel2W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Vigilance (Attacking doesn’t cause this creature to tap.)
Dominance — Whenever Darethan Sentinel attacks and isn’t blocked, you may tap target creature.
2/2
Darethan Stoutheart1W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of another creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
1/1
Dwarf Guardsman1W
Creature — Dwarf Soldier (U)
Defender (This creature can’t attack.)
When Dwarf Guardsman blocks a creature, you may pay 1W. If you do, draw a card.
0/4
Dwarven Onslaught1W
Instant (U)
Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. If you control a Mountain, those creatures gain haste until end of turn. Since Ilyria’s arrival, the dwarves of Dareth haven’t suffered a defeat.
Elite Reinforcements4WWW
Instant (R)
Put three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens with unity onto the battlefield, tapped and attacking. Cast this spell only during your declare attackers step on your turn.
Fearless Foe-Slayer2WW
Creature — Dwarf Warrior (U) 2WW, T: Exile target attacking or blocking creature, then sacrifice Fearless Foe-Slayer.
Whenever a player casts a blue or green spell, you may return Fearless Foe-Slayer from the graveyard to your hand.
1/3
Fearlessness2W
Enchantment — Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +0/+4 and has vanguard. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
Fiercebeard Warrior3W
Creature — Dwarf Warrior (C) 2R: Target attacking creature gains double strike until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
2/2
Frontline Infantry1W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.) Every soldier in Tyrus’ host is highly trained and well-armed, even down to the rank and file.
2/1
Frontline Warbeast4WW
Creature — Beast (C)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
When Frontline Warbeast becomes blocked, untap it.
3/5
Griffin Skyguard2WW
Creature — Griffin Soldier (C)
Flying 1W, Exile Griffin Skyguard: Target unblocked attacking creature becomes blocked. (This ability works on creatures that can’t be blocked.) “Take to the skies. Not one of them will penetrate our lines.”
2/1
Harrying Warpriest2W
Creature — Human Cleric (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of another creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.) 1W, T: Tap target creature.
1/1
Healer’s Insight1W
Instant (U)
Choose One — You gain 1 life for each attacking creature you control; or you gain 1 life for each blocking creature an opponent controls.
Cycling W(W, Discard this card: Draw a card.) A cleric in the camp can turn the tide of any battle.
Impeding Terrain1W
Instant (C)
Tap target creature. If you control a swamp, put a -1/-1 counter on it. “Unfavorable terrain can be more valuable than valor. Make your enemies strive just to reach you.”
— On War, Arx Tyrus
Imposing Paladin2W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
As long as you control a swamp, Imposing Paladin has intimidate. (It can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.)
3/2
Inspirational Valiant3W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of another creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.) 2W, T: Target creature gains vigilance until end of turn.
2/4
Lethal Templar2W
Creature — Human Knight (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.) 3B: Lethal Templar gains deathtouch until end of turn.
2/2
Lost Legion Paragon2WW
Creature — Rhino Warrior (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
Exile Lost Legion Paragon from your graveyard: Put two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
2/2
Martial Superiority2WW
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control have lifelink as long as you control two or more attacking creatures.
Creatures you control have first strike as long as you control three or more attacking creatures.
Creatures you control have double strike as long as you control four or more attacking creatures.
Merciless Cavalry3W
Creature — Human Soldier (C) 1B: Put a -1/-1 counter on target blocking creature. Activate this ability only once each combat. “Run them down.”
1/3
Momentary RespiteW
Instant (C)
Exile target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
Cycling W(W, Discard this card: Draw a card.) Only one heartless would find rest among the dead.
Niveus, the Golden Wind4WWW
Legendary Creature — Dragon (M)
Flying, lifelink
Dominance — Whenever Niveus, the Golden Wind attacks and isn’t blocked, redistribute any number of players’ life totals.” (Each of those players gets one life total back.)
4/4
Parley1WW
Instant (R)
Creatures can’t attack this turn. We wish to discuss terms.
Piety’s BoonW
Enchantment — Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+1 as long as you control it. Otherwise, its activated abilities can’t be activated. A reward for the righteous. A doom for the unworthy.
Radiant Seraph4WW
Creature — Angel (M)
Flying
If another player would gain life, you may gain that much life instead.
If you would gain life, you gain twice that much life instead.
4/4
Seasoned Warrior2W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Intimidate, first strike “Experience is a great asset. A seasoned warrior has proven he knows how to fight and win.”
— On War, Arx Tyrus
2/1
Sudden BoldnessW
Instant (U)
Target creature gains vanguard until end of turn. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.) At that moment, Brosi forgot he was a squire and charged their lines with such bravery he had never before known.
Throne of Tyrus2WW
Enchantment (U)
As Throne of Tyrus enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Creatures you control are the chosen type and have unity. (When a creature with unity enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
Vanguard Commandant1WW
Creature — Human Soldier (R)
Whenever Vanguard Commandant attacks, target creature gains vanguard until end of turn. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
Creatures with vanguard have first strike and lifelink.
2/2
Wrath of the Persecuted4WWW
Instant (M)
Exile all attacking creatures. “This far, no farther!”
An indicator what was changed on each card would be helpful. The cards look solid overall, definitely improved a lot.
One thing: Darethan Sentinel: "Whenever Darethan Sentinel attacks and isn’t blocked, you may tap target creature." That doesn't do anything at all. What's the intention here?
An indicator what was changed on each card would be helpful. The cards look solid overall, definitely improved a lot.
One thing: Darethan Sentinel: "Whenever Darethan Sentinel attacks and isn’t blocked, you may tap target creature." That doesn't do anything at all. What's the intention here?
You know, I honestly don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure this should say it doesn't untap during its next untap step. You're right it is kinda pointless at the moment.
EDIT: As far as a changelog goes, yeah having one would make it so much easier. At this point, there have been so many changes made to the set that this has been hard, but I'm going to try and establish a new baseline with this new wave of updates and document changes more meticulously after this.
While I had planned on going in WUBRG order with the updates, I thought I'd skip ahead to artifacts as this is where some of the bigger changes are.
I've removed my own dual land cycle so that there is only one rare dual land cycle in the set (the Zendikar fetches). I needed the fetches to be in for numerous reasons and mana fixing in constructed was far too good - not to mention that the two cycles were, by definition, redundant - so I think this should be a good change.
Replacing the dual lands is a cycle of common artifacts. These artifacts (the Elixir cycle shown below) are meant to be fairly playable in limited, but not so much for constructed. They feel a bit core set-ish, but I can live with that I think. Numbers will be tweaked as testing demands - currently the effect costs the same on each card in the cycle but I'm more than open to altering that as tested proceeds, as the effects are a bit lop-sided.
Battle Tempered Armor4
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Whenever equipped creature deals or is dealt combat damage, put a charge counter on Battle Tempered Armor.
Equipped creature has vigilance and gets +1/+1 for each charge counter on Battle Tempered Armor.
Equip—Tap an untapped creature you control. (Tap an untapped creature you control: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Capacitance Golem3
Artifact Creature — Golem (R) Dominance — When Capacitance Golem attacks and isn’t blocked, you may pay 2. If you do, any number of target permanents with counters on them gain an additional counter of a type already there.
3/3
(NOTE: This card might be one of the most powerful in the set. Contemplating raising the cost (It's already good at 3/3 for 3, plus the super-swingy effect makes it a steal) or bumping to mythic.)
Direforged Partisan3
Artifact — Equipment (R)
Equipped creature gets +2/+0 and has intimidate.
Dominance — Whenever equipped creature attacks and isn’t blocked, you may put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
Equip 3(3: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Elixir of Alacrity2
Artifact — Equipment (C)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 1R: Equipped creature gains first strike until end of turn. Shuffle Elixir of Alacrity into its owner’s library.
Equip 1(1: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Elixir of Anonymity2
Artifact — Equipment (C)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 1U: Equipped creature gains hexproof until end of turn. Shuffle Elixir of Anonymity into its owner’s library.
Equip 1(1: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Elixir of Ferocity2
Artifact — Equipment (C)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 1G: Equipped creature gains trample until end of turn. Shuffle Elixir of Ferocity into its owner’s library.
Equip 1(1: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Elixir of Malignity2
Artifact — Equipment (C)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 1B: Equipped creature gains deathtouch until end of turn. Shuffle Elixir of Malignity into its owner’s library.
Equip 1(1: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Elixir of Vivacity2
Artifact — Equipment (C)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 1W: Equipped creature gains lifelink until end of turn. Shuffle Elixir of Vivacity into its owner’s library.
Equip 1(1: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Proliferous Stone2
Artifact (U) 1, T: Choose a permanent with counters on it. Put a counter of a kind on the chosen permanent on another target permanent.
Scimitars of the Writhing Grave5
Artifact — Equipment (R)
Equipped creature gets -1/-1 and is a black Zombie in addition to its other colors and types.
Whenever Scimitars of the Writhing Grave becomes unattached from a permanent, exile that permanent.
Return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield: Lose life equal to that creature’s converted mana cost and attach Scimitars of the Writhing Grave to it.
Shrine of the Arcane3
Artifact (U)
When Shrine of the Arcane enters the battlefield, draw a card. T: Add to your mana pool. (:symur: can be either U or R.)
(NOTE: I understand this controversial templating, and the reminder text can be misleading on how the rules actually work on hybrid mana added to your pool. For now, I'm keeping this as-is but I am considering either going back to a more traditional templating, or at least revising the reminder text so it is more clear.)
Shrine of the Bold3
Artifact (U)
When Shrine of the Bold enters the battlefield, draw a card. T: Add to your mana pool. (:symrw: can be either R or W.)
Shrine of the Curious3
Artifact (U)
When Shrine of the Curious enters the battlefield, draw a card. T: Add to your mana pool. (:symug: can be either G or U.)
Shrine of the Malevolent3
Artifact (U)
When Shrine of the Malevolent enters the battlefield, draw a card. T: Add to your mana pool. (:symbg: can be either B or G.)
Shrine of the Zealous3
Artifact (U)
When Shrine of the Zealous enters the battlefield, draw a card. T: Add to your mana pool. (:symwb: can be either W or B.)
Templar Shield3
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+2 and can block any number of creatures.
If equipped creature would deal damage while blocking, it deals double that damage instead.
Equip 2(2: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Vanguard’s Armor3
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has vanguard. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Equip 2(2: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Whirlwind Blade4
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +2/+0 and has trample.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may pay 5. If you do, you may have it deal that much damage to each creature that player controls.
Equip 5(5: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Elixirs: I very much like the idea of elixirs that you drink to get a temporary boost, but these boosts are a bit too weak. The activated ability of these are only minor upsides. In most situations, the elixirs are pretty much interchangeable. This means you will have five almost identical Equipments at common that all grant +1/+1. I would vary the stat boosts of these or put them at uncommon. I would also increase the effect of the activated ability by granting a stat boost, at least the stat boost you lose from shuffling the Equipment back into your library.
Shrines: I'm a sucker for ramp with built-in card advantage, but these are far too good. They are better than Cultivate and are colorless. At 4 mana, these would still be reasonable.
Elixirs - I'm torn on the elixirs, but for different reasons. I'm fine with the expensive ability for low cost because these aren't supposed to be anything you'd consider for constructed, nor a high pick for limited - they're meant to be limited playable and meant to provide access to equipment at common. What I don't like is that each one is essentially "Equipped creature gets +1/+1" no matter what color you're actually in. Those things in mind, any ideas on how to tweak this design to work in this way?
Shrines - Ugh. I hate these shrines. Throughout the development of the set they've swung back and forth from being unplayable garbage to being overpowered, undercosted beasts. I'd cut them right now if I didn't need them. What if I made them cost 2 and made the ability cost "1, T" so that it's pure fixing with no ramp?
Whirlwind Blade - Yeah this was a rare and got pushed down to common last minute - I raised all the costs but that wasn't enough. I'll play around with it more - I may just ditch it in favor of another, dwarf-related design I've grown rather fond of.
---------
All of the above in mind, I've made some updates to the set. This time, I actually kept a changelog so it should be easier to see the changes.
* The Shrines cycle now cost 2, down from 3, but have an activation cost of 1 on their mana ability, thus no longer providing ramp while still providing fixing.
* Updated all card images - in addition to being rendered in the new M15 frame, cards now use the new font, Beleren. (Tokens are not, as of yet, included in this change as I've not found an M15 token template yet)
*As part of the template update, the proportions on all card art has been slightly changed. As a result, the art for each card became skewed in the transition. While I hope I got all or at least most, many may have fallen through the cracks and, as a result, look pretty bad.
* All tokens now have 'token' as a supertype, per the new templating from M15.
* Chalas' ultimate now affects all unblocked attacking creatures, not just the ones that are equipped.
* Whirlwind Blade, previously a rare that had been moved down to common, has been cut and replaced with Adventurer's Gear, a top-down design that previously had been intended for a future block set on Zendikar.
* The Elixir cycle gets a pass this time, but is likely to get some changes in the future.
* Added flavor text to many cards previously lacking this.
* Viridus, Essence of Awakening now has reach instead of flying. The bleed was completely acceptable for flavor reasons on a mythic dragon, but I still ultimately preferred to stick closer to the pie.
* Robius, Destruction Embodied was, by far, the weakest of the dragon cycle. While his ability does provide some card filtering, it does not provide any card advantage and can whiff. Changed his ability so that it hits each creature defending player controls rather than hitting the defending player. This can be very powerful, but for a 7cmc mythic, I'm ok with it.
The set file, .pdf spoiler, and cockatrice files have been updated to reflect these changes. Also, I've updated my cockatrice plugins to function with the newest version of Cockatrice, 'summer magic'. You will need to update to that version to use the plugin.
Splitting the declare blocker step first-strike style seems like unnecessary complexity when you could work the ability like a proper evasion one. A reminder text like "Creatures without vanguard can't be blocked unless all creatures with vanguard are also blocked." Seems to do much of the same work.
Entire mechanics based on converted mana cost are a dubious idea if they are supposed to be at common. At the very least they are exceedingly un-NWO. Even if doesn't look sexy, I'd at least test a mechanic that asks for spells with the same mana cost (which has the advantage of shortening the reminder text, too)
Unity is free mana AND can bypass extra costs (i.e. tapping), that screams "broken mechanic" to me. 'Nuff said. Plus it requires a high amount of activated abilities even at common to gel, and that is also known to exponentially increase board complexity (it turns general activated abilities into free ETB ones, talk about mental gymnastics!).
Dominance is cool, but Threat Dissolution Ward is entirely disconnected from the other cards (and is probably overpowered too). Similarly for Warmongering. Stick to having these be quasi-saboteur effects, possibly one or two mass ones later on (but making a mass one that isn't overpowered is likely to be a challenge).
Traditionally there is one set mechanic that interacts with the counter type for the set (heroic, scavenge/evolve, undying/vampires, allies/kicker, devour, persist, reinforce...), you might want to look into that to help making sure counters are not a strictly black thing.
Card feels (this is my main WHAT, since I got pulled halfway into looking at white):
Dwarf Guardsman is an uncommon card draw engine on the level of Mentor of the Meek, which was too good already. White is NOT supposed to get such efficient card draw engines, and certainly not at uncommon.
Splitting the declare blocker step first-strike style seems like unnecessary complexity when you could work the ability like a proper evasion one. A reminder text like "Creatures without vanguard can't be blocked unless all creatures with vanguard are also blocked." Seems to do much of the same work.
Entire mechanics based on converted mana cost are a dubious idea if they are supposed to be at common. At the very least they are exceedingly un-NWO. Even if doesn't look sexy, I'd at least test a mechanic that asks for spells with the same mana cost (which has the advantage of shortening the reminder text, too)
Unity is free mana AND can bypass extra costs (i.e. tapping), that screams "broken mechanic" to me. 'Nuff said. Plus it requires a high amount of activated abilities even at common to gel, and that is also known to exponentially increase board complexity (it turns general activated abilities into free ETB ones, talk about mental gymnastics!).
Dominance is cool, but Threat Dissolution Ward is entirely disconnected from the other cards (and is probably overpowered too). Similarly for Warmongering. Stick to having these be quasi-saboteur effects, possibly one or two mass ones later on (but making a mass one that isn't overpowered is likely to be a challenge).
Traditionally there is one set mechanic that interacts with the counter type for the set (heroic, scavenge/evolve, undying/vampires, allies/kicker, devour, persist, reinforce...), you might want to look into that to help making sure counters are not a strictly black thing.
Card feels (this is my main WHAT, since I got pulled halfway into looking at white):
Dwarf Guardsman is an uncommon card draw engine on the level of Mentor of the Meek, which was too good already. White is NOT supposed to get such efficient card draw engines, and certainly not at uncommon.
First off, thanks for the feedback! A few responses...
1) I think the main reason I spelled out the rules blurb is that the mechanic has been problematic with more experienced players, when I show it to them. Their first response is 'this doesn't work because blockers are declared simultaneously', so I spelled it out in the rules for this reason.
2) You're absolutely right with this one. Reverberate breaks the NWO by mentioning converted mana cost. I looked at a few ways to avoid doing this (triggering off of exact mana cost, as you suggested, was one of the things I looked at), but ultimately I felt that, while restrictions breed creativity, in this case I was ok with breaking the rules. That isn't to say the mechanic is perfect - it still needs quite a few changes - but I think I'm ok with having it relate to converted mana cost and ignoring the NWO in this circumstance.
3) While Unity is free mana and can bypass extra costs, there are a few things that balance it out in some way. First, every card within the block that grants unity is being looked at very closely, and while it's not being balanced around modern/legacy, it is being balanced around my own custom format. The costs may need some tweaking, and it may be fairly powerful, but so far it's played fairly well in playtesting without screaming 'overpowered'. (as opposed to reverberate, which is problematic and begging for a redesign).
4) I may not have updated my file correctly - Threat Dissolution Ward was redesigned a few updates back for precisely these reasons. It no longer has the Dominance mechanic, and works a little differently in general. Warmongering has not, however, been changed - I'll look at it.
5) There is a counter-manipulation mechanic that got pushed to set 2 of the block, for various reasons.
Dwarf Guardsman - you'e absolutely right, white shouldn't be getting that kind of draw. This will be fixed.
----
EDIT: I talked a bit in those responses about reverberated and how it is a difficult mechanic. I'm going to try this is a new version of the mechanic and see how it works:
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell that costs more than this, you may cast this from your graveyard without paying its mana cost, then exile it as it resolves. Reverberate only once per turn.)
I would get rid of the "only once per turn" clause. It feels unnecessary. Now that the spectrum of spells which trigger this ability is much larger, how about restricting it to instant and sorcery spells? Currently, you basically get to cast each reverberate spell twice no matter what, there's not much work required, which as a core mechanic doesn't excite me.
OK Advent, just by looking at some of the individual designs I think you have some major work to do here.
First, I think the entire premise of a "creature combat" set, while it's not backbreaking, is flawed because every single set is a creature combat set. Look at Limited for every recent set - it's filled with creatures fighting. To use a recent example, Theros block was all about combat tricks and it had strive, and it had choices whether you could go tall (with bestow) or wide (with heroic and weenies). Those two mechanics even complemented each other. Magic isn't about spells being 100 times more powerful than creatures - Wizards has over the past decade brought up creatures to the same power level as spells. If you're making a set about "creature combat", you should make it interesting and different as a big selling point. Theros is "the enchantment block". Ravnica is "multicolored guilds". Innistrad is "horror". Those are all things that we don't see on a regular basis. Creature combat? We see that every day.
While I can see where you're trying to go with the mechanics, they are overcomplicated and lack subtlety. While I haven't played with Vanguard yet (soon), it seems a bit ho-hum and not that splashy or exciting. A better way of wording it would probably be
Creatures without vanguard cannot be blocked unless all attacking creatures with vanguard are blocked.
It changes up creature combat a /bit/, but it's not interesting. Vanguard basically just says "this creature must be blocked this turn if able" unless you have evasion on your Vanguard creature, which in that case it's too strong. It's a lot of thought for a pretty unexciting mechanic - I can't see a huge splashy rare creature be promoted with vanguard.
Again, I haven't played with the set, but that's my gut call.
Unity is just plain weird - why are you caring about tribal and activating abilities in a combat set? Moreover, I think you're shoehorning bad abilities and bad creatures just to make unity work. As an example, look at Stampede Caller. It's a Grey Ogre in green - green gets Grizzly Bears. To activate it's ability, you have to have a Shaman with Unity enter the battlefield, and for that, you get trample for free. Trample is normally worth just G, and I wouldn't put Stampede Caller in a good limited deck just so that I can give my big guys trample.
For Unity to be interesting, you have to strike a balance between expensive effects that are worth paying for (2G for trample? No way!) and abilities that aren't broken with one free activation. But I question why it's in the set - it seems wholly out of place. Without Unity these cards are unplayable, and with it they're bad but playable. You would just grab creatures from other sets with broken abilities to use instead (not relevant for your Standard environment, I hope, but).
If you want to keep Unity, I think you need to really streamline it and make it a triggered ability.
Reverberate, again, I question why it's in the set. The set purports to be a creature combat block, but having something that cares about instants and sorceries in the graveyard and function like mini flashback feels extremely out of place. Reverberate has memory issues similar to recover (a mechanic that many people haven't heard of) - are you really going to flip through your entire graveyard every time you cast a spell? The mechanic certainly functions fine but it's out of place. The fact that none of the instant and sorcery keywords interact with combat is a hint that it isn't a good set theme - I think Strive would be far more applicable in this set.
I think you would have to power down cards with Reverberate on them greatly because you have the potential to cast them for free, and that's always very dangerous.
I think you should template Dominance more like Scott Van Essen's breakout, because that's what it is reminding me of and I think breakout is more exciting than dominance. Removing blockers from combat doesn't let dominance trigger by the rules. Why isn't dominance triggering off of combat damage to players? It fixes all of your ruling issues and makes the card simpler.
Finally, I think your card designs reek of trying to do cool things rather than things that serve your set. I don't want to get into card by card reviews since that would take a long time, but you have no vanillas in the set, and some of your cards break the color pie in half (General Arx Tyrus isn't white, Pyretic Feedback should not be red, Warmongering is firmly blue). Your Scimitars of the Writing Grave is a complete mess (too wordy and complex for not enough payoff) and why in the world is Spiritstoked Forge a common when he only combos with rares?
This is more of a foreshadowing, but I opened up a Sealed Deck and tried to build a deck and the best creatures I could play with are Hill Giants and 4/3s for 5. This is not how modern Limited Magic is played. I appreciate cycling but I have no idea what purpose it's trying to serve in this set.
I wouldn't tell you to scrap all this and start anew, but you have to rework your mechanics and really think about this set. If you want to create a "creature combat set" I'd recommend you look at Theros block and see how they did it - combat in Theros had a ton of tension because every single color had playable combat tricks. I'm not sure how much I can salvage. I think you need a more focused theme and mechanics that synergize well with each other, not playing in it's own little space (vanguard and dominance kind of do, but the rest are way off).
I think one problem is that I present this is a 'combat matters' block when that isn't quite it. It's more about tactics - not just in combat, but in spellcasting too. Vanguard is a tactical ability that is deeper than it seems, and adds another layer of tactical complexity to combat when it appears. Unity is a creature-centric, but not combat centric, ability that is going to require some fairly tactical gameplay to utilize to its fullest. And reverberate is... well, it's problematic. It's meant to be a fun mechanic but it has a long, long way to go.
Things are still in a rough state, the set is by no means finished, but I am happy with where it's headed I think - I just need to start to make some bigger refinements to make that more clear here. I'll be playtesting quite a bit over the weekend, with prophylaxis, some friends here locally, and anyone else who is interested in playtest (if you're interested let me know in this thread!). Prior to this weekend's playtest (hopefully thursday or friday) I'll release one more update that will hopefully hone things a little more before beginning the playtest (at which point I expect things to change quite drastically on several cards)
Thoughts?
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Looking through the cards, I did not see a convincing reason for Dominance to exist. I expected that these effects would be combat relevant, but most of them could just as easily be on a "Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player"-trigger without it making a difference.
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
Right you are! I edited the wording on the ruling to accommodate the 'if able' clause.
On Dominance - the decision to make most of these "attacks and isn't blocked" and not "deals combat damage to a player" was mostly thematic, not functional. I'm still not completely convinced it needs to be an ability word, but then again the trigger occurs so often that I think having it as an ability word is a good idea. Gives a sense of familiarity to the player. Which, at the end of the day, is the whole reason for ability words (since ability words are superfluous anyway)
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
What is the concrete advantage of using Dominance over the conventional "deals combat damage to a player" trigger?
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
It gets around fogs, it plays into the 'blocking matters' theme. It can also get around cards that remove attackers from combat so long as that happens after the declare blockers step.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
I think you're right that the effects need to be tweaked a bit to be justified. I'll keep an eye on it and, as the set develops, either redesign the triggers so that they are more combat relevant or change them over to triggering on combat damage.
EDIT: After thinking about it more, I want to keep the "attacks and isn't blocked" triggers. The straw that broke the camel's back, for me, was while playtesting the cards with "deals combat damage" as the trigger, it was easy to just give them trample and go to town. In the end, I like that these effects can be chump blocked. I removed the "dominance" trigger from Threat Dissolution Ward because it didn't make sense, but after looking through the others I don't see any other cards with dominance that don't really make sense. Would love some input on the other dominance triggers.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
There's one card that's proven to be much more powerful than I expected and I wanted to get people's thoughts on it.
This guy is a powerhouse. I'm not entirely sure if it needs changed though - I really like the card overall. There are a few changes I could make, of course. I could give him +1/+0 (which would feel more black anyway). I could make him cost 2BB. I could make his trigger not count himself. But at the end of the day, I just don't know. At the moment, he's an auto-include for a black aggro deck, but I'm not sure he's format-warping. Thoughts?
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
My suggestion:
3B
2/2
Whenever ~ attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each other attacking creature you control.
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
I think I'll definitely make the change that it doesn't trigger off of itself, but I'm tempted to keep it at 3cmc and 1/1. That makes it still very strong, but I'm not sure that it's toostrong. Maybe make it 1BB instead of 2B so it's less splashable.
One of the bad things about how I designed this set was that by the time I started posting again the set had already been mostly designed, so every update came in very large chunks which I know are hard to review and provide feedback on. As playtesting progresses, the posts I'll be putting will be more focused - specific cards or combos that I'm looking for feedback on. (Of course, any feedback on the set is welcome - don't restrict yourself to the specific cards I post if you're not interested.)
Additionally, if you're interested in playtesting on Cockatrice please let me know either via PM or via reply in this thread.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
One of the things that became very clear was that the RW General, Ilyria, was not a good fit for this set. Ilyria is a character I've had in the wings for quite some time, but first of all she's really WBR and squeezing her into a RW frame caused me to have to change some things I wasn't a fan of. Second, she really didn't fit flavorfully with the Dwarven theme that the RW cards have kind of evolved in to.
So, Ilyria has been cut, replaced by my first attempt at a Hybrid Walker.
Chalas Kyrgwhyn 2
Planeswalker - Chalas (M)
+1: Put a 1/1 red and white Dwarf creature token with "Equipment costs 1 less to attach to this creature" onto the battlefield.
-X: Put X colorless Sword artifact Equipment tokens onto the battlefield. They have "Equipped creature gets +1/+1" and "Equip 0".
-6: You get an emblem with "Whenever an equipped creature you control attacks and isn't blocked, it gets +2/+0 and gains double strike until end of turn."
Starting Loyalty: 3
I've always been a fan of equipment interaction in red and white. When WotC decides to bring Dwarves back, I firmly believe that this is how it should be done. I feel like this is an acceptable hybrid design, as each ability could be mono-white or mono-red (though some lean more one way than the other, they both work). Power level will need to be developed upon based on the needs of the environment, but as an initial iteration I'm a fan.
What do you guys think?
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Capacitance Golem 3
Artifact Creature - Golem (R)
Dominance — When Capacitance Golem attacks and isn’t blocked, you may pay 2. If you do, any number of target permanents with counters on them gain an additional counter of a type already there.
3/3
//Previous effect for this simply triggered when the creature attacked, and it had no cost associated. For obvious reasons, this was far too good and ended up as an auto-included in any deck that featured a planeswalker. The new effect I think is still very powerful, but not overly so.
Temporal Storm 4UU
Sorcery (M)
Reverberate (Whenever you cast a spell with the same converted mana cost as this card, you may cast this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Then exile it.)
Take an extra turn after this one.
//I lowered the CMC on this card by 1. At 7 cmc, it was hard to play and there wasn't much it reverberated off of. Now it should trigger off of more, but still be balanced.
Minotaur Advance Guard 2B
Creature - Minotaur Warrior (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
Minotaur Advance Guard gets +1/+1 for each other attacking creature you control.
1/1
//Still very powerful and likely format-defining, I think keeping this card from triggering off of itself is enough of a nerf to make sure it's not overpowered. Still something I plan on keeping an eye out for in regards to black/green aggro.
Soulstrip 2BB
Sorcery (R)
Remove all counters from all permanents. Target player loses 1 life for each counter removed this way.
//Lowered CMC by 1 and changed from instant to sorcery speed. When combined with the Caiea block and my custom core set, the two dominant decks have both been planeswalker-centric. While I'm more-or-less happy with the power level of my walkers, there needs to be a balance to them. Pushing this to a 4-drop may be a bit too punishing for walkers, and the life loss from the wipe is pretty powerful as well, but I want to see what having it with a cmc of 4 will do to the environment.
Pyretic Feedback 2RR
Instant - (U)
As an additional cost to cast Pyretic Feedback, sacrifice an island.
Counter target spell. Pyretic Feedback deals damage to that spell's controller equal to that spell's converted mana cost.
//Raises CMC by 1. This is a card that may not make the cut at the end of the day, at ay cost, just because it breaks the pie too much even at the cost of saccing an island. For now, limiting it by raising its CMC, we'll see what that does.
Blight the Insolent 2WB
Instant - (U)
Put a -1/-1 counter on each attacking creature
//Lowered effect to one -1/-1 counter, down from two. at 4 cmc, two counters was a pseudo board wipe at uncommon for 4, which was just too good. Even still it's powerful enough for some constructed decks.
Chalas Kyrgwhyn 2
Planeswalker - Chalas (M)
+1: Put a 1/1 red and white Soldier creature token with "This creature has first strike so long as it's equipped." onto the battlefield.
-X: Put X colorless Sword artifact Equipment tokens onto the battlefield. They have "Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and Equip 0".
-6: You get an emblem with "Whenever an equipped creature you control attacks and isn't blocked, it gets +2/+0 and gains double strike until end of turn."
Starting Loyalty: 3
//Previewed in my above post from yesterday, this card has been continually tweaked in several small ways. No longer creates a 'dwarf' token, and the token it does create synergizes better with its -X. Also, costs 1 more, as 3cmc walkers are too powerful if they also create creature tokens. I'm still sold on this being hybrid - although its abilities are more favorable in one color or the other, I still argue that it is completely acceptable as both mono-white and mono-red. A few folks on reddit recommended changing the -X, which I'm keeping in the back of my mind. For now, it'll stay as-is until it can be further tested.
Hopefully these smaller updates are a bit easier to digest - as mentioned previously, I understand this is a hard set to provide feedback on since design is already more-or less done and feedback is more focused on development. That said, if you find the set interesting or have any thoughts, please share them. And if you're interested in playing over Cockatrice you find the plugin for this set here.
All of the playtesting done with the set at this point has been for constructed - I'm looking for people who would be interesting in playtesting sealed on cockatrice over the next week. If you're interested, let me know.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
My suggestions:
Chalas Kyrgwhyn 2(R/W)(R/W)
Planeswalker — Chalas
+1: Put a red and white Soldier creature token with first strike onto the battlefield.
-2: Put a colorless artifact Equipment token with "Equipped creature gets +3/+0" and "Equip 1" onto the battlefield.
-7: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control get +2/+0 and have double strike."
{3}
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
Regarding Chalas, I just had a game where I used his -X to pop five tokens out, played another chalas to pump out three more tokens, and swung out for lethal with a squadron hawk holding 8 swords. The -X is far too powerful.
I'm going to try it as a 0 and have it just put one token out - but for now I'm gonna keep the token the same, as its the same token several other cards create.
At some point I'm going to ditch one of the rare land cycles and put in 5 more equipment at common, I'm just not sure which cycle to dump.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Arbiter of Attrition 5WW
Creature — Angel (R)
Flying, lifelink
Your opponents can’t cast spells during combat.
War isn’t fair.
5/5
Blessing of Redemption 2WW
Enchantment — Aura (R)
Enchant Creature
Dominance — Whenever enchanted creature attacks and isn’t blocked, return target creature or planeswalker card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Captain of the Lost Legion 3WW
Creature — Human Soldier (R)
1W, T: Put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield.
Creature tokens you control get +2/+2 and have vigilance.
2/4
Chance for Glory 1W
Instant (C)
Target creature you control gets +1/+1 for each blocked creature you control and gains lifelink until end of turn.
Clanging steel and flashing armor, she was a glorious paragon alone in the fray.
Cleansing Ritual 1W
Instant (C)
Destroy target enchantment. If you control a Mountain, you may also destroy target noncreature artifact.
Strip away the armor, strip away the magic, and this becomes much simpler.
Darethan Sentinel 2W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Vigilance (Attacking doesn’t cause this creature to tap.)
Dominance — Whenever Darethan Sentinel attacks and isn’t blocked, you may tap target creature.
2/2
Darethan Stoutheart 1W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of another creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
1/1
Dwarf Guardsman 1W
Creature — Dwarf Soldier (U)
Defender (This creature can’t attack.)
When Dwarf Guardsman blocks a creature, you may pay 1W. If you do, draw a card.
0/4
Dwarven Onslaught 1W
Instant (U)
Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. If you control a Mountain, those creatures gain haste until end of turn.
Since Ilyria’s arrival, the dwarves of Dareth haven’t suffered a defeat.
Elite Reinforcements 4WWW
Instant (R)
Put three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens with unity onto the battlefield, tapped and attacking. Cast this spell only during your declare attackers step on your turn.
Fearless Foe-Slayer 2WW
Creature — Dwarf Warrior (U)
2WW, T: Exile target attacking or blocking creature, then sacrifice Fearless Foe-Slayer.
Whenever a player casts a blue or green spell, you may return Fearless Foe-Slayer from the graveyard to your hand.
1/3
Fearlessness 2W
Enchantment — Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +0/+4 and has vanguard. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
Fiercebeard Warrior 3W
Creature — Dwarf Warrior (C)
2R: Target attacking creature gains double strike until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each combat.
2/2
Frontline Infantry 1W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
Every soldier in Tyrus’ host is highly trained and well-armed, even down to the rank and file.
2/1
Frontline Warbeast 4WW
Creature — Beast (C)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
When Frontline Warbeast becomes blocked, untap it.
3/5
Griffin Skyguard 2WW
Creature — Griffin Soldier (C)
Flying
1W, Exile Griffin Skyguard: Target unblocked attacking creature becomes blocked. (This ability works on creatures that can’t be blocked.)
“Take to the skies. Not one of them will penetrate our lines.”
2/1
Harrying Warpriest 2W
Creature — Human Cleric (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of another creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
1W, T: Tap target creature.
1/1
Healer’s Insight 1W
Instant (U)
Choose One — You gain 1 life for each attacking creature you control; or you gain 1 life for each blocking creature an opponent controls.
Cycling W (W, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
A cleric in the camp can turn the tide of any battle.
Impeding Terrain 1W
Instant (C)
Tap target creature. If you control a swamp, put a -1/-1 counter on it.
“Unfavorable terrain can be more valuable than valor. Make your enemies strive just to reach you.”
— On War, Arx Tyrus
Imposing Paladin 2W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
As long as you control a swamp, Imposing Paladin has intimidate. (It can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.)
3/2
Inspirational Valiant 3W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Unity (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of another creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
2W, T: Target creature gains vigilance until end of turn.
2/4
Lethal Templar 2W
Creature — Human Knight (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
3B: Lethal Templar gains deathtouch until end of turn.
2/2
Lost Legion Paragon 2WW
Creature — Rhino Warrior (U)
Vanguard (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
Exile Lost Legion Paragon from your graveyard: Put two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
2/2
Martial Superiority 2WW
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control have lifelink as long as you control two or more attacking creatures.
Creatures you control have first strike as long as you control three or more attacking creatures.
Creatures you control have double strike as long as you control four or more attacking creatures.
Merciless Cavalry 3W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
1B: Put a -1/-1 counter on target blocking creature. Activate this ability only once each combat.
“Run them down.”
1/3
Momentary Respite W
Instant (C)
Exile target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
Cycling W (W, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
Only one heartless would find rest among the dead.
Niveus, the Golden Wind 4WWW
Legendary Creature — Dragon (M)
Flying, lifelink
Dominance — Whenever Niveus, the Golden Wind attacks and isn’t blocked, redistribute any number of players’ life totals.” (Each of those players gets one life total back.)
4/4
Parley 1WW
Instant (R)
Creatures can’t attack this turn.
We wish to discuss terms.
Piety’s Boon W
Enchantment — Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+1 as long as you control it. Otherwise, its activated abilities can’t be activated.
A reward for the righteous. A doom for the unworthy.
Radiant Seraph 4WW
Creature — Angel (M)
Flying
If another player would gain life, you may gain that much life instead.
If you would gain life, you gain twice that much life instead.
4/4
Seasoned Warrior 2W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Intimidate, first strike
“Experience is a great asset. A seasoned warrior has proven he knows how to fight and win.”
— On War, Arx Tyrus
2/1
Sudden Boldness W
Instant (U)
Target creature gains vanguard until end of turn. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
At that moment, Brosi forgot he was a squire and charged their lines with such bravery he had never before known.
Throne of Tyrus 2WW
Enchantment (U)
As Throne of Tyrus enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Creatures you control are the chosen type and have unity. (When a creature with unity enters the battlefield, you may activate an ability of a creature you control that shares a creature type with it without paying that ability’s activation cost.)
Vanguard Commandant 1WW
Creature — Human Soldier (R)
Whenever Vanguard Commandant attacks, target creature gains vanguard until end of turn. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard can be blocked.)
Creatures with vanguard have first strike and lifelink.
2/2
Wrath of the Persecuted 4WWW
Instant (M)
Exile all attacking creatures.
“This far, no farther!”
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
One thing:
Darethan Sentinel: "Whenever Darethan Sentinel attacks and isn’t blocked, you may tap target creature." That doesn't do anything at all. What's the intention here?
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
You know, I honestly don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure this should say it doesn't untap during its next untap step. You're right it is kinda pointless at the moment.
EDIT: As far as a changelog goes, yeah having one would make it so much easier. At this point, there have been so many changes made to the set that this has been hard, but I'm going to try and establish a new baseline with this new wave of updates and document changes more meticulously after this.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
I've removed my own dual land cycle so that there is only one rare dual land cycle in the set (the Zendikar fetches). I needed the fetches to be in for numerous reasons and mana fixing in constructed was far too good - not to mention that the two cycles were, by definition, redundant - so I think this should be a good change.
Replacing the dual lands is a cycle of common artifacts. These artifacts (the Elixir cycle shown below) are meant to be fairly playable in limited, but not so much for constructed. They feel a bit core set-ish, but I can live with that I think. Numbers will be tweaked as testing demands - currently the effect costs the same on each card in the cycle but I'm more than open to altering that as tested proceeds, as the effects are a bit lop-sided.
Battle Tempered Armor 4
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Whenever equipped creature deals or is dealt combat damage, put a charge counter on Battle Tempered Armor.
Equipped creature has vigilance and gets +1/+1 for each charge counter on Battle Tempered Armor.
Equip—Tap an untapped creature you control. (Tap an untapped creature you control: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Capacitance Golem 3
Artifact Creature — Golem (R)
Dominance — When Capacitance Golem attacks and isn’t blocked, you may pay 2. If you do, any number of target permanents with counters on them gain an additional counter of a type already there.
3/3
(NOTE: This card might be one of the most powerful in the set. Contemplating raising the cost (It's already good at 3/3 for 3, plus the super-swingy effect makes it a steal) or bumping to mythic.)
Direforged Partisan 3
Artifact — Equipment (R)
Equipped creature gets +2/+0 and has intimidate.
Dominance — Whenever equipped creature attacks and isn’t blocked, you may put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
Equip 3 (3: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Elixir of Alacrity 2
Artifact — Equipment (C)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1
1R: Equipped creature gains first strike until end of turn. Shuffle Elixir of Alacrity into its owner’s library.
Equip 1 (1: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Elixir of Anonymity 2
Artifact — Equipment (C)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1
1U: Equipped creature gains hexproof until end of turn. Shuffle Elixir of Anonymity into its owner’s library.
Equip 1 (1: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Elixir of Ferocity 2
Artifact — Equipment (C)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1
1G: Equipped creature gains trample until end of turn. Shuffle Elixir of Ferocity into its owner’s library.
Equip 1 (1: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Elixir of Malignity 2
Artifact — Equipment (C)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1
1B: Equipped creature gains deathtouch until end of turn. Shuffle Elixir of Malignity into its owner’s library.
Equip 1 (1: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Elixir of Vivacity 2
Artifact — Equipment (C)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1
1W: Equipped creature gains lifelink until end of turn. Shuffle Elixir of Vivacity into its owner’s library.
Equip 1 (1: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Proliferous Stone 2
Artifact (U)
1, T: Choose a permanent with counters on it. Put a counter of a kind on the chosen permanent on another target permanent.
Scimitars of the Writhing Grave 5
Artifact — Equipment (R)
Equipped creature gets -1/-1 and is a black Zombie in addition to its other colors and types.
Whenever Scimitars of the Writhing Grave becomes unattached from a permanent, exile that permanent.
Return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield: Lose life equal to that creature’s converted mana cost and attach Scimitars of the Writhing Grave to it.
Shrine of the Arcane 3
Artifact (U)
When Shrine of the Arcane enters the battlefield, draw a card.
T: Add to your mana pool. (:symur: can be either U or R.)
(NOTE: I understand this controversial templating, and the reminder text can be misleading on how the rules actually work on hybrid mana added to your pool. For now, I'm keeping this as-is but I am considering either going back to a more traditional templating, or at least revising the reminder text so it is more clear.)
Shrine of the Bold 3
Artifact (U)
When Shrine of the Bold enters the battlefield, draw a card.
T: Add to your mana pool. (:symrw: can be either R or W.)
Shrine of the Curious 3
Artifact (U)
When Shrine of the Curious enters the battlefield, draw a card.
T: Add to your mana pool. (:symug: can be either G or U.)
Shrine of the Malevolent 3
Artifact (U)
When Shrine of the Malevolent enters the battlefield, draw a card.
T: Add to your mana pool. (:symbg: can be either B or G.)
Shrine of the Zealous 3
Artifact (U)
When Shrine of the Zealous enters the battlefield, draw a card.
T: Add to your mana pool. (:symwb: can be either W or B.)
Templar Shield 3
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+2 and can block any number of creatures.
If equipped creature would deal damage while blocking, it deals double that damage instead.
Equip 2 (2: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Vanguard’s Armor 3
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has vanguard. (Attacking creatures with vanguard must be blocked, if able, before attacking creatures without vanguard.)
Equip 2 (2: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Whirlwind Blade 4
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +2/+0 and has trample.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may pay 5. If you do, you may have it deal that much damage to each creature that player controls.
Equip 5 (5: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Shrines: I'm a sucker for ramp with built-in card advantage, but these are far too good. They are better than Cultivate and are colorless. At 4 mana, these would still be reasonable.
Whirlwind Blade: This should be a rare.
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
Shrines - Ugh. I hate these shrines. Throughout the development of the set they've swung back and forth from being unplayable garbage to being overpowered, undercosted beasts. I'd cut them right now if I didn't need them. What if I made them cost 2 and made the ability cost "1, T" so that it's pure fixing with no ramp?
Whirlwind Blade - Yeah this was a rare and got pushed down to common last minute - I raised all the costs but that wasn't enough. I'll play around with it more - I may just ditch it in favor of another, dwarf-related design I've grown rather fond of.
All of the above in mind, I've made some updates to the set. This time, I actually kept a changelog so it should be easier to see the changes.
* The Shrines cycle now cost 2, down from 3, but have an activation cost of 1 on their mana ability, thus no longer providing ramp while still providing fixing.
* Updated all card images - in addition to being rendered in the new M15 frame, cards now use the new font, Beleren. (Tokens are not, as of yet, included in this change as I've not found an M15 token template yet)
*As part of the template update, the proportions on all card art has been slightly changed. As a result, the art for each card became skewed in the transition. While I hope I got all or at least most, many may have fallen through the cracks and, as a result, look pretty bad.
* All tokens now have 'token' as a supertype, per the new templating from M15.
* Chalas' ultimate now affects all unblocked attacking creatures, not just the ones that are equipped.
* Whirlwind Blade, previously a rare that had been moved down to common, has been cut and replaced with Adventurer's Gear, a top-down design that previously had been intended for a future block set on Zendikar.
* The Elixir cycle gets a pass this time, but is likely to get some changes in the future.
* Added flavor text to many cards previously lacking this.
* Viridus, Essence of Awakening now has reach instead of flying. The bleed was completely acceptable for flavor reasons on a mythic dragon, but I still ultimately preferred to stick closer to the pie.
* Robius, Destruction Embodied was, by far, the weakest of the dragon cycle. While his ability does provide some card filtering, it does not provide any card advantage and can whiff. Changed his ability so that it hits each creature defending player controls rather than hitting the defending player. This can be very powerful, but for a 7cmc mythic, I'm ok with it.
The set file, .pdf spoiler, and cockatrice files have been updated to reflect these changes. Also, I've updated my cockatrice plugins to function with the newest version of Cockatrice, 'summer magic'. You will need to update to that version to use the plugin.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Card feels (this is my main WHAT, since I got pulled halfway into looking at white):
First off, thanks for the feedback! A few responses...
1) I think the main reason I spelled out the rules blurb is that the mechanic has been problematic with more experienced players, when I show it to them. Their first response is 'this doesn't work because blockers are declared simultaneously', so I spelled it out in the rules for this reason.
2) You're absolutely right with this one. Reverberate breaks the NWO by mentioning converted mana cost. I looked at a few ways to avoid doing this (triggering off of exact mana cost, as you suggested, was one of the things I looked at), but ultimately I felt that, while restrictions breed creativity, in this case I was ok with breaking the rules. That isn't to say the mechanic is perfect - it still needs quite a few changes - but I think I'm ok with having it relate to converted mana cost and ignoring the NWO in this circumstance.
3) While Unity is free mana and can bypass extra costs, there are a few things that balance it out in some way. First, every card within the block that grants unity is being looked at very closely, and while it's not being balanced around modern/legacy, it is being balanced around my own custom format. The costs may need some tweaking, and it may be fairly powerful, but so far it's played fairly well in playtesting without screaming 'overpowered'. (as opposed to reverberate, which is problematic and begging for a redesign).
4) I may not have updated my file correctly - Threat Dissolution Ward was redesigned a few updates back for precisely these reasons. It no longer has the Dominance mechanic, and works a little differently in general. Warmongering has not, however, been changed - I'll look at it.
5) There is a counter-manipulation mechanic that got pushed to set 2 of the block, for various reasons.
Dwarf Guardsman - you'e absolutely right, white shouldn't be getting that kind of draw. This will be fixed.
EDIT: I talked a bit in those responses about reverberated and how it is a difficult mechanic. I'm going to try this is a new version of the mechanic and see how it works:
Interested to hear feedback on that
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
First, I think the entire premise of a "creature combat" set, while it's not backbreaking, is flawed because every single set is a creature combat set. Look at Limited for every recent set - it's filled with creatures fighting. To use a recent example, Theros block was all about combat tricks and it had strive, and it had choices whether you could go tall (with bestow) or wide (with heroic and weenies). Those two mechanics even complemented each other. Magic isn't about spells being 100 times more powerful than creatures - Wizards has over the past decade brought up creatures to the same power level as spells. If you're making a set about "creature combat", you should make it interesting and different as a big selling point. Theros is "the enchantment block". Ravnica is "multicolored guilds". Innistrad is "horror". Those are all things that we don't see on a regular basis. Creature combat? We see that every day.
While I can see where you're trying to go with the mechanics, they are overcomplicated and lack subtlety. While I haven't played with Vanguard yet (soon), it seems a bit ho-hum and not that splashy or exciting. A better way of wording it would probably be
It changes up creature combat a /bit/, but it's not interesting. Vanguard basically just says "this creature must be blocked this turn if able" unless you have evasion on your Vanguard creature, which in that case it's too strong. It's a lot of thought for a pretty unexciting mechanic - I can't see a huge splashy rare creature be promoted with vanguard.
Again, I haven't played with the set, but that's my gut call.
Unity is just plain weird - why are you caring about tribal and activating abilities in a combat set? Moreover, I think you're shoehorning bad abilities and bad creatures just to make unity work. As an example, look at Stampede Caller. It's a Grey Ogre in green - green gets Grizzly Bears. To activate it's ability, you have to have a Shaman with Unity enter the battlefield, and for that, you get trample for free. Trample is normally worth just G, and I wouldn't put Stampede Caller in a good limited deck just so that I can give my big guys trample.
For Unity to be interesting, you have to strike a balance between expensive effects that are worth paying for (2G for trample? No way!) and abilities that aren't broken with one free activation. But I question why it's in the set - it seems wholly out of place. Without Unity these cards are unplayable, and with it they're bad but playable. You would just grab creatures from other sets with broken abilities to use instead (not relevant for your Standard environment, I hope, but).
If you want to keep Unity, I think you need to really streamline it and make it a triggered ability.
Reverberate, again, I question why it's in the set. The set purports to be a creature combat block, but having something that cares about instants and sorceries in the graveyard and function like mini flashback feels extremely out of place. Reverberate has memory issues similar to recover (a mechanic that many people haven't heard of) - are you really going to flip through your entire graveyard every time you cast a spell? The mechanic certainly functions fine but it's out of place. The fact that none of the instant and sorcery keywords interact with combat is a hint that it isn't a good set theme - I think Strive would be far more applicable in this set.
I think you would have to power down cards with Reverberate on them greatly because you have the potential to cast them for free, and that's always very dangerous.
I think you should template Dominance more like Scott Van Essen's breakout, because that's what it is reminding me of and I think breakout is more exciting than dominance. Removing blockers from combat doesn't let dominance trigger by the rules. Why isn't dominance triggering off of combat damage to players? It fixes all of your ruling issues and makes the card simpler.
Finally, I think your card designs reek of trying to do cool things rather than things that serve your set. I don't want to get into card by card reviews since that would take a long time, but you have no vanillas in the set, and some of your cards break the color pie in half (General Arx Tyrus isn't white, Pyretic Feedback should not be red, Warmongering is firmly blue). Your Scimitars of the Writing Grave is a complete mess (too wordy and complex for not enough payoff) and why in the world is Spiritstoked Forge a common when he only combos with rares?
This is more of a foreshadowing, but I opened up a Sealed Deck and tried to build a deck and the best creatures I could play with are Hill Giants and 4/3s for 5. This is not how modern Limited Magic is played. I appreciate cycling but I have no idea what purpose it's trying to serve in this set.
I wouldn't tell you to scrap all this and start anew, but you have to rework your mechanics and really think about this set. If you want to create a "creature combat set" I'd recommend you look at Theros block and see how they did it - combat in Theros had a ton of tension because every single color had playable combat tricks. I'm not sure how much I can salvage. I think you need a more focused theme and mechanics that synergize well with each other, not playing in it's own little space (vanguard and dominance kind of do, but the rest are way off).
Things are still in a rough state, the set is by no means finished, but I am happy with where it's headed I think - I just need to start to make some bigger refinements to make that more clear here. I'll be playtesting quite a bit over the weekend, with prophylaxis, some friends here locally, and anyone else who is interested in playtest (if you're interested let me know in this thread!). Prior to this weekend's playtest (hopefully thursday or friday) I'll release one more update that will hopefully hone things a little more before beginning the playtest (at which point I expect things to change quite drastically on several cards)
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)