[center][size=20]Eckara[/size][/center]
[center][ECK][/center]
[center]250 cards[/center]
[center]Designed for drafting alone.[/center]
I originally posted this set over a year ago, and it was quite honestly a broken mess. It had numerous parasitic and silly mechanics as well as a total lack of real design goals. Since then, I've scrapped the entire thing and have been slowly working on rebuilding it from the ground up with a more coherent theme and playable mechanics.
Eckara. Endless miles of broken machines stretch towards the horizon. Pools of caustic fluids simmer and hiss in the suffocating summer heat. Great banks of smoggy gray clouds float slowly past overhead, bloated and sluggish in the still air. Countless artifacts draw your gaze, each more fascinatingly cryptic than the last, and all in various stages of decay. Awed by this surreal landscape, a thousand questions spring to your mind; where did the plains of rusted metal come from? Could life exist in this harsh and barren world? If so, what strange and savage forms would it take?
Some answers are more forthcoming than others.
Eckara is a world at the intersection between countless others, a place where detritus and debris seems to seep, depositing in drifts that cover the landscape. Life exists here, but it is a savage struggle for survival. In the endless, hostile Rustplains, food is scarce and awakening machinery and nomadic tribes alike pose deadly threats. The people of this realm must survive through a combination of ruthless self interest and canny intuition, salvaging what they can from the endless junkyard around them. Some areas of the Rustplains are avoided even by these hardy folk; the domains of the legion, the reawakening machinery of the scrapyard. Individually, a single legion machine is nothing more than a raging steel animal, shredding anything in its path. But as their numbers grow, so does their intelligence, and in masses they form unified armies and industrial centers, endlessly reproducing and sending out fearsome warbands to destroy the living. Plant life can grow here, amazingly, in hardy trees, shrubs and countless other forms adapted to break down the carpet of tarnished metal. In the past, only tiny oases of green broke the monotony of the Rustplains, but in more recent times, a wave of foliage has begun to spread. This is Eckara's first jungle, the Amari, and while its steaming fecund interior provides ample supplies of food, shelter and materials, its inhabitants are loath to share.
[spoiler=Basic Design Goals][list]
[*]Design a world that evokes a strong feeling of decay and mystery through use of strong artifact and graveyard-related themes.
[/list][list]
[*]Create a fun and interesting limited environment with a moderate power level and numerous interactive decisions during drafting and play.
[/list][list]
[*]Create viable archetypes for limited play within all two-color combinations.
[/list][list]
[*]Evoke strong flavor through use of some original artwork and flavor text.
[/spoiler]
Mechanical Flavor
Eckara is a world in a constant state of falling apart. The only thing staving off total collapse is the continuous input of materials and people from other worlds, brought into Eckara by unknown means. The sun is pale and weak, giving little energy. Life feeds off of the breakdown of material, both living and otherwise, that finds its way onto Eckara. Because of this, the mechanics should give a feeling of continual decay, destruction and entropy.
Mechanics Overview
This is a -1/-1 counters set. No cards will utilize +1/+1 counters.
Graveyard and sacrifice effects will be everywhere, at higher densities than in most sets.
Colored artifacts return. Artifacts will play very important roles in some strategies.
Specific Mechanics:
Decompose ([i]Decompose --[/i]When this card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, you may pay COST. If you do, EFFECT.)
This mechanic functions in numerous ways. On creatures, it provides a death-triggered effect. On instants and sorceries, it works rather like kicker. On all cards, it provides extra value from discard and self-mill. So far this mechanic seems to fit best in BUG but I may expand it into all colors.
Scrap (As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may sacrifice an artifact.)
A kicker-like mechanic, scrap provides extra power to a spell at the cost of sacrificing an artifact. It is found on creature and noncreature spells. It is primarily in R but also found in B and potentially W. This is the only returning mechanic from the original set design.
Collective ([i]Collective--[/i]Do X EFFECT, where X is the number of artifact creatures you control.)
This mechanic is found only in W and obviously promotes playing large numbers of artifact creatures. To help with this, all of white's creatures in the set are artifact creatures.
List tags are malformed.
Excavate a [CARDTYPE]. (Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a card of the named type. Put that card into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in random order.)
This is very dangerous as it can be used as a direct tutor if a combo piece is the only card of that type in your deck. You should probably cost this ability higher than on the cards this appears on.
Relay. (Auras you control enchanting this creature effect other artifact creatures you control as if they were enchanting those creatures.)
This mechanic is problematic, to say the least. What does "affect other artifact creatures" mean? I enchant a creature with Mark of the Vampire, so all my creatures get +2/+2 and have lifelink - that works. But what happens when I put Ordeal of Purphoros onto a creature with relay? Do you sacrifice it when the creature it isn't enchanting gets the third counter? When a creature other than the creature enchanted with Angelic Destiny dies, do I have to return it to my hand? There are hundreds of cards that have rules issues with this ability.
Survey X. (Look at the top X cards of your library, then put them back in any order.)
I don't like that this is strictly worse than scry. Being able to put bad cards on the bottom is the best thing about rearranging the top of your deck. I wouldn't take that away. It's very frustrating when all cards are bad and you can't do anything.
Thanks for the response! First off I will remind you that this set is intended to be drafted alone; balance is really only considered as far as it applies to other cards within the set. That may seem a bit odd but I really don't see anyone in my playgroup wanting to play with these cards outside of an Eckara-only limited situation.
The issue with excavate pulling out necessary combo pieces is definitely something I've considered. I don't really see it being a big issue so far though, as the cards they excavate are generally a type that should be plentiful in a deck running those specific excavate spells. For example, black or red cards that excavate artifacts will be run in decks that have quite a few artifacts, and I can't think of an artifact that could be a guaranteed win if excavated. Same principle seems to apply to creatures and instants/sorceries (and obviously lands). Not saying it isn't possible, though, as I've yet to do any playtesting or searching for infinite/degenerate combos. Definitely let me know if you see any specific instances that this could cause problems, though!
Relay is definitely a problem. One suggestion I've had is to change it to a text-changing effect: "Change the text of all Auras you control enchanting this creature by replacing all instances of "enchanted creature" with "artifact creatures you control." This seems like a good solution, though it does cause a few minor grammar errors ("Enchanted creature gets +1/+1" becomes "artifact creatures you control gets +1/+1").
I've had a few people now say they don't like survey because it's a weaker scry, but that's actually a reason I like it. I personally find scry to be a rather blue mechanic, and putting it in every color has always seemed iffy to me. I like the idea of being able to see what is coming, but being ultimately unable to change it; this seems like a better fit with other colors. Also keep in mind that when combined with excavate, you can essentially scry by putting unwanted cards on top of the card you will excavate, sending them to the bottom of your library.
I'll also say right now that rust counters are getting the axe as a green mechanic and being replaced by spells/effects creating 0/1 Plant creature tokens, often keying off of artifacts. I will have a post up soon with the revised cards.
Relay is definitely a problem. One suggestion I've had is to change it to a text-changing effect: "Change the text of all Auras you control enchanting this creature by replacing all instances of "enchanted creature" with "artifact creatures you control." This seems like a good solution, though it does cause a few minor grammar errors ("Enchanted creature gets +1/+1" becomes "artifact creatures you control gets +1/+1").
"Each artifact creature you control" works better. Still, there are a multitude of cards with which you would get a nonsensical wording, for example Ordeal of Purphoros again. If you really want to keep this keyword, I would suggest using copies of the auras attached to each other artifact creature you control.
Actually, Ordeal of Purphoros would work. Basically it becomes whenever an artifact creature you control attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature, then if that creature has 3 or more +!/+1 counters on it, sacrifice ~
it still works if it is a bit oddly worded. I mean, just look at overload.
I mostly play limited, so I'm going to look at the commons first.
Null drone and Scannermite feel somewhat awkward being both 1/1s for W, and the whole relay mechanic is very awkward when there's only a single common enchantment in white.
Scatter into Mist doesn't really seem to do very much in this set.
Awakening Array doesn't work since the thing it's enchanting will become a creature which invalidates the enchant condition.
Overwhelm feels very awkward, since how often will it not be "counter target spell"? That's quite a few complexity points spent on something that doesn't add much to the gameplay. I get that the GU faction has that as their mechanic, but this card doesn't seem to support that very well.
Also, I'd recommend using some ability words for things like X=lands.
Scour the Land becomes very unfun with all the Survey running around- you'll have cards you don't want stuck on top of your library for a long time.
Junkheap Slave has no p/t. Excavate with this precise of a term (noncreature artifact) has the potential to become "tutor for a card" in some decks. Do you have any numbers on the expected count of noncreature artifacts per-draft?
Thorough Search has the same issue with tutoring, but also what are the chances you'll find one in the top 4? It feels like you need a lot more noncreature artifacts to make the set work.
Explosive Surprise costs way too much: it will rarely hit 3 damage, and the opponent can use their artifact sacrificing in response to you casting the spell.
Forking Bolt reads very awkwardly.
Insatiable Industry seems very overpowered in this artifact-heavy set. Excavating an artifact is effectively better than "draw a card".
Manic Vandal is way too overpowered for common if there's supposed to be a large number of artifacts- and it's horrible color hate against white.
Seismic Charge is really annoying since you want to shuffle your own library more than make your opponent shuffle theirs.
Having three different 2/1s in red is very awkward when they're all in the 1-2 mana range.
What is the purpose of Amari Bear's ability in your set? It's pretty complex for common for apparently no significant gameplay benefit. Same ability with Kthan Tracker, it doesn't seem to interact with anything else in the set.
Rust counters in general feel very wrong. It's super-parasitic, and if a new player gets a booster pack with only one or the other they feel really bad that they can't use some of their cards. Not to mention only a few commons care at all about those counters. I await your replacements.
Putting so many common multicolored cards in the set almost forces the players to play one of those four color pairs in limited. This substantially reduces the viability of new strategies and deck variance.
Entomb doesn't work since the ability goes on the stack but then the static ability happens and the enchantment goes away before the ability resolves. And the name is already used but you probably know that already.
Feverish Insight is very powerful- probably too powerful given that it's a 3-for-1 when you've got one of those artifacts that wants to die.
Salvage Mission- making the player choose the order is very nonintuitive since the don't get to see what's coming until after they've chosen (unless they get lucky on a survey)
Bladesurge- how often is this different from "creatures you control get +3/+0 until EOT"?
Peer into Earth- it is unclear if I excavate a land if I excavate an instant/sorcery. Why not excavate the land before the choose section?
Metamorphic Trophen is very powerful when you have lots of survey cards- at the very worst it's still a solid ramp spell even if it can't color fix you reliably. It is very awkward that the land goes into your hand before entering the battlefield.
You have a lot of equipment which doesn't interact very well with the fact that your guys want to sacrifice a lot of artifacts. Perhaps add some low-CMC equipments with high equip costs to better facilitate the Scrap mechanic?
The "doesn't untap" land cycle is very annoying- it has some minor memory issues but more importantly it's just not a fun land to play with.
It's an interesting idea with some very good backstory, but the commons at least have some major issues in staying aligned with that theme. It feels like you want to make a Mirrodin 2.0 but then you have Relay which needs auras as well and Unstable which really only works with Relay.
Also, the lack of a W/G faction has negative consequences in draft- even that may not be enough, since not allowing the other color pairs may make drafts extremely repetitive very fast (RTR had 3+ color decks quite frequently and GTC was both not drafted too long and wasn't hugely liked)
I've glanced through the uncommons, and don't really see anything to make me radically change my assessment, but I have not done a thorough analysis of it or the rares/mythics. I have tried not to repeat comments that others have posted, but I agree with must of
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[center][ECK][/center]
[center]250 cards[/center]
[center]Designed for drafting alone.[/center]
I originally posted this set over a year ago, and it was quite honestly a broken mess. It had numerous parasitic and silly mechanics as well as a total lack of real design goals. Since then, I've scrapped the entire thing and have been slowly working on rebuilding it from the ground up with a more coherent theme and playable mechanics.
Eckara. Endless miles of broken machines stretch towards the horizon. Pools of caustic fluids simmer and hiss in the suffocating summer heat. Great banks of smoggy gray clouds float slowly past overhead, bloated and sluggish in the still air. Countless artifacts draw your gaze, each more fascinatingly cryptic than the last, and all in various stages of decay. Awed by this surreal landscape, a thousand questions spring to your mind; where did the plains of rusted metal come from? Could life exist in this harsh and barren world? If so, what strange and savage forms would it take?
Some answers are more forthcoming than others.
Eckara is a world at the intersection between countless others, a place where detritus and debris seems to seep, depositing in drifts that cover the landscape. Life exists here, but it is a savage struggle for survival. In the endless, hostile Rustplains, food is scarce and awakening machinery and nomadic tribes alike pose deadly threats. The people of this realm must survive through a combination of ruthless self interest and canny intuition, salvaging what they can from the endless junkyard around them. Some areas of the Rustplains are avoided even by these hardy folk; the domains of the legion, the reawakening machinery of the scrapyard. Individually, a single legion machine is nothing more than a raging steel animal, shredding anything in its path. But as their numbers grow, so does their intelligence, and in masses they form unified armies and industrial centers, endlessly reproducing and sending out fearsome warbands to destroy the living. Plant life can grow here, amazingly, in hardy trees, shrubs and countless other forms adapted to break down the carpet of tarnished metal. In the past, only tiny oases of green broke the monotony of the Rustplains, but in more recent times, a wave of foliage has begun to spread. This is Eckara's first jungle, the Amari, and while its steaming fecund interior provides ample supplies of food, shelter and materials, its inhabitants are loath to share.
[spoiler=Basic Design Goals][list]
[*]Design a world that evokes a strong feeling of decay and mystery through use of strong artifact and graveyard-related themes.
[/list][list]
[*]Create a fun and interesting limited environment with a moderate power level and numerous interactive decisions during drafting and play.
[/list][list]
[*]Create viable archetypes for limited play within all two-color combinations.
[/list][list]
[*]Evoke strong flavor through use of some original artwork and flavor text.
[/spoiler]
Mechanical Flavor
Eckara is a world in a constant state of falling apart. The only thing staving off total collapse is the continuous input of materials and people from other worlds, brought into Eckara by unknown means. The sun is pale and weak, giving little energy. Life feeds off of the breakdown of material, both living and otherwise, that finds its way onto Eckara. Because of this, the mechanics should give a feeling of continual decay, destruction and entropy.
Mechanics Overview
This is a -1/-1 counters set. No cards will utilize +1/+1 counters.
Graveyard and sacrifice effects will be everywhere, at higher densities than in most sets.
Colored artifacts return. Artifacts will play very important roles in some strategies.
Specific Mechanics:
Decompose ([i]Decompose --[/i]When this card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, you may pay COST. If you do, EFFECT.)
This mechanic functions in numerous ways. On creatures, it provides a death-triggered effect. On instants and sorceries, it works rather like kicker. On all cards, it provides extra value from discard and self-mill. So far this mechanic seems to fit best in BUG but I may expand it into all colors.
Scrap (As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may sacrifice an artifact.)
A kicker-like mechanic, scrap provides extra power to a spell at the cost of sacrificing an artifact. It is found on creature and noncreature spells. It is primarily in R but also found in B and potentially W. This is the only returning mechanic from the original set design.
Collective ([i]Collective--[/i]Do X EFFECT, where X is the number of artifact creatures you control.)
This mechanic is found only in W and obviously promotes playing large numbers of artifact creatures. To help with this, all of white's creatures in the set are artifact creatures.
List tags are malformed.
This is very dangerous as it can be used as a direct tutor if a combo piece is the only card of that type in your deck. You should probably cost this ability higher than on the cards this appears on.
This mechanic is problematic, to say the least. What does "affect other artifact creatures" mean? I enchant a creature with Mark of the Vampire, so all my creatures get +2/+2 and have lifelink - that works. But what happens when I put Ordeal of Purphoros onto a creature with relay? Do you sacrifice it when the creature it isn't enchanting gets the third counter? When a creature other than the creature enchanted with Angelic Destiny dies, do I have to return it to my hand? There are hundreds of cards that have rules issues with this ability.
I don't like that this is strictly worse than scry. Being able to put bad cards on the bottom is the best thing about rearranging the top of your deck. I wouldn't take that away. It's very frustrating when all cards are bad and you can't do anything.
No issues with Scrap and Unstable.
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!
The issue with excavate pulling out necessary combo pieces is definitely something I've considered. I don't really see it being a big issue so far though, as the cards they excavate are generally a type that should be plentiful in a deck running those specific excavate spells. For example, black or red cards that excavate artifacts will be run in decks that have quite a few artifacts, and I can't think of an artifact that could be a guaranteed win if excavated. Same principle seems to apply to creatures and instants/sorceries (and obviously lands). Not saying it isn't possible, though, as I've yet to do any playtesting or searching for infinite/degenerate combos. Definitely let me know if you see any specific instances that this could cause problems, though!
Relay is definitely a problem. One suggestion I've had is to change it to a text-changing effect: "Change the text of all Auras you control enchanting this creature by replacing all instances of "enchanted creature" with "artifact creatures you control." This seems like a good solution, though it does cause a few minor grammar errors ("Enchanted creature gets +1/+1" becomes "artifact creatures you control gets +1/+1").
I've had a few people now say they don't like survey because it's a weaker scry, but that's actually a reason I like it. I personally find scry to be a rather blue mechanic, and putting it in every color has always seemed iffy to me. I like the idea of being able to see what is coming, but being ultimately unable to change it; this seems like a better fit with other colors. Also keep in mind that when combined with excavate, you can essentially scry by putting unwanted cards on top of the card you will excavate, sending them to the bottom of your library.
I'll also say right now that rust counters are getting the axe as a green mechanic and being replaced by spells/effects creating 0/1 Plant creature tokens, often keying off of artifacts. I will have a post up soon with the revised cards.
"Each artifact creature you control" works better. Still, there are a multitude of cards with which you would get a nonsensical wording, for example Ordeal of Purphoros again. If you really want to keep this keyword, I would suggest using copies of the auras attached to each other artifact 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!
it still works if it is a bit oddly worded. I mean, just look at overload.
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http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/creativity/custom-card-creation/custom-set-creation-and/530273-krevan-the-first-set-in-a-tribal-block
Null drone and Scannermite feel somewhat awkward being both 1/1s for W, and the whole relay mechanic is very awkward when there's only a single common enchantment in white.
Scatter into Mist doesn't really seem to do very much in this set.
Awakening Array doesn't work since the thing it's enchanting will become a creature which invalidates the enchant condition.
Overwhelm feels very awkward, since how often will it not be "counter target spell"? That's quite a few complexity points spent on something that doesn't add much to the gameplay. I get that the GU faction has that as their mechanic, but this card doesn't seem to support that very well.
Also, I'd recommend using some ability words for things like X=lands.
Scour the Land becomes very unfun with all the Survey running around- you'll have cards you don't want stuck on top of your library for a long time.
Junkheap Slave has no p/t. Excavate with this precise of a term (noncreature artifact) has the potential to become "tutor for a card" in some decks. Do you have any numbers on the expected count of noncreature artifacts per-draft?
Thorough Search has the same issue with tutoring, but also what are the chances you'll find one in the top 4? It feels like you need a lot more noncreature artifacts to make the set work.
Explosive Surprise costs way too much: it will rarely hit 3 damage, and the opponent can use their artifact sacrificing in response to you casting the spell.
Forking Bolt reads very awkwardly.
Insatiable Industry seems very overpowered in this artifact-heavy set. Excavating an artifact is effectively better than "draw a card".
Manic Vandal is way too overpowered for common if there's supposed to be a large number of artifacts- and it's horrible color hate against white.
Seismic Charge is really annoying since you want to shuffle your own library more than make your opponent shuffle theirs.
Having three different 2/1s in red is very awkward when they're all in the 1-2 mana range.
What is the purpose of Amari Bear's ability in your set? It's pretty complex for common for apparently no significant gameplay benefit. Same ability with Kthan Tracker, it doesn't seem to interact with anything else in the set.
Rust counters in general feel very wrong. It's super-parasitic, and if a new player gets a booster pack with only one or the other they feel really bad that they can't use some of their cards. Not to mention only a few commons care at all about those counters. I await your replacements.
Putting so many common multicolored cards in the set almost forces the players to play one of those four color pairs in limited. This substantially reduces the viability of new strategies and deck variance.
Entomb doesn't work since the ability goes on the stack but then the static ability happens and the enchantment goes away before the ability resolves. And the name is already used but you probably know that already.
Feverish Insight is very powerful- probably too powerful given that it's a 3-for-1 when you've got one of those artifacts that wants to die.
Salvage Mission- making the player choose the order is very nonintuitive since the don't get to see what's coming until after they've chosen (unless they get lucky on a survey)
Bladesurge- how often is this different from "creatures you control get +3/+0 until EOT"?
Peer into Earth- it is unclear if I excavate a land if I excavate an instant/sorcery. Why not excavate the land before the choose section?
Metamorphic Trophen is very powerful when you have lots of survey cards- at the very worst it's still a solid ramp spell even if it can't color fix you reliably. It is very awkward that the land goes into your hand before entering the battlefield.
You have a lot of equipment which doesn't interact very well with the fact that your guys want to sacrifice a lot of artifacts. Perhaps add some low-CMC equipments with high equip costs to better facilitate the Scrap mechanic?
The "doesn't untap" land cycle is very annoying- it has some minor memory issues but more importantly it's just not a fun land to play with.
It's an interesting idea with some very good backstory, but the commons at least have some major issues in staying aligned with that theme. It feels like you want to make a Mirrodin 2.0 but then you have Relay which needs auras as well and Unstable which really only works with Relay.
Also, the lack of a W/G faction has negative consequences in draft- even that may not be enough, since not allowing the other color pairs may make drafts extremely repetitive very fast (RTR had 3+ color decks quite frequently and GTC was both not drafted too long and wasn't hugely liked)
I've glanced through the uncommons, and don't really see anything to make me radically change my assessment, but I have not done a thorough analysis of it or the rares/mythics. I have tried not to repeat comments that others have posted, but I agree with must of