Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is scheming again, looking to rebuild his power after the mending. This time he has found a way to transport large swaths of land, people and beasts from multiple planes onto one mana rich world. Their purpose is to fight, not only for Bolas' own amusement, but so that he may also harvest the energy released from the chaotic fighting as well as gather more knowledge on the different tactics mages use.
I have been debating on how I wanted to do this block, and I decided to just make it a straight multicolor block using the shard colors. Until I can think of other names for them for the block, I will just be calling them by their original names.
Here are the mechanics I plan on using
Split second for jund
Conspire for esper
New mechanics for shards
Returning mechanics
Split second for Jund
This was to show how savage this color group is and how little time to think you have when you have massive beasts and surprise attacks coming at you
Conspire for Esper
I went with conspire to show blue's planning, as well as the deceitfullness of u/b and w/b
New mechanics
Grixis - Integrate x - when [artifact creature] enters the battlefield you may sacrifice x artifacts, if [artifact creature] integrated artifacts, [effect]
I wanted to use r/u for artifacts since wizards mostly prints ins/sorc stuff for u/r, so grixis was the only choice, I know grixis is black based, but flavor wise for this block black is using artifacts to further it's own goals
Naya - interlace - pay x: do y for each enchantment you control
Interlace will be used only on enchantments, as the idea is that the caster is interlacing their enchantments for offense/defense
Bant - mirage - pay x and return ~ to it's owners hand, if you do, [effect]
The idea behind mirage is that the creature is simply an illusion to hide the true effect the caster wants and the way I was hoping mirage would play as is kind of a turbo fog/control deck
Here's some examples for the new mechanics
Example creature #1 7
Artifact creature - Golem (C)
Integrate 2 (when ~ enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice two artifacts)
When ~ enters the battlefield, if it integrated artifacts, place a +1/+1 counter on it and it gains trample
3/4
Example enchantment 3GW
Enchantment (u)
Interlace 2WG: put a 2/2 green and white elemntal creature token on the battlefield for each enchantment you control
Example creature #2 1U
Creature - elemental (c)
Mirage - return a land you control to it's owner's hand
When you pay ~ mirage cost target creature gets -3/-0 until end of turn
0/2
These are the first mechanics I've tried to design and as well as the first custom block so any feedback is appreciated.
Welcome to this part of the forum! I'll write up a bit about your mechanics:
Split Second - personally, I don't think this represents savagery at all - instead, it displays either a control over time (an extremely blue concept to deal with), or precise control over magics, both your own, and others (also blue). While it could work (green is the color of uncounterable spells after all), it feels very narrow for a shard mechanic, because there are very few applications for it, and it doesn't give the player a direction to build towards at all - it doesn't reward you for playing more enchantments or running combat tricks, but just by playing the game. I feel something more focused would be a lot more appropriate.
Conspire - This I can see returning, although the biggest issue I had with this, and Grixis's mechanic, was that they felt extremely reversed. If a shard is going to be artifact based, why not Esper? Even with reasoning, players will be very confused by the swap. Not to mention, Conspire fits the Grixis shard much better than Esper.
Integrate - Currently, I do not see a benefit of forcing players to sacrifice more than one artifact - it increases the ability's complexity for not much purpose, not to mention your example being particularly unplayable. You should word it like Exploit - "When this artifact enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice an artifact." and "When ~ integrates an artifact, do X." I've been using this mechanic myself (as an ability word) and its quickly become one of my favorites, although you will need support for it.
Interlace - Not a bad mechanic, but it will be very difficult to balance - players will only be able to use one or two per turn if they don't want to cast a spell, but if you make it highly repeatable, it'll be way too good - and on top of all of that, its scaling, which means it needs support. I would suggest you take a look at Formidable cards to see how wizards handled something slightly similar, and perhaps it could give you ideas on how you could change it if you choose to do so.
Mirage - Definitely one of the more out there mechanics I've seen recently, although it needs to be returned to its owner's hand, not your own. I'll suggest you make it a bit more open by making it so the creature doesn't need to block - making keywords that are only useful defensively is a bad idea. Something like:
Mirage Creature 1UU
Creature - Illusion
Flying Mirage - 1U, Return ~ to its owner's hand: Target creature gets -4/-0 until end of turn.
2/2
Would make a good balance between slowing down your own tempo and slowing down your opponent's tempo.
I see what you mean about mirage, I'll change that.
As for integrate, I was trying to make it a mix of devour and exploit. But making it an exploit derivitave would just make it cleaner to work with. And I could switch conspire and integrate, and give grixis a token zombie theme with some u/r artifact support. U/r to me feels like it should be more artifact based than u/w as most of whites artifact usage outside of the original esper is equipment. Where as the izzet use machines in their experiments and would make for a good artifact theme with sacrificing your artifacts to make better artifact creatures.
While I still think split second works, maybe evoke would work just as well. It gives the primal feeling through using elementals and the word itself.
Interlace is kind of how I think theros should have been, on top of constellation. I was planning on costing the enchantments a little higher, but throw in lords tobdecrease the cost of the activations and casting cost of the enchantments to kind of push the enchantment deck.
I realized I left out some set details. This is going to be a 2 set block per wizards new structure, Colisum will be a large set with 270 cards and
I was debating if I wanted the second set to be a large set as well. Another thing was I am unsure if I just want to use gold cards or hybrids, my preference is hybrids because I love their flexibility, but gold cards are generally allowed to be more powerful due to the stricter requirements.
Also, here are some changes to integrate and mirage
Integrate golem 6
Artifact creature - Golem (c)
Integrate (when ~ enters the battlefield you may sacrifice an artifact)
If ~ integrated an artifact when it entered the battlefield, place two +1/+1 counters on it
3/3
Mirage Creature 1UG
Creature - Illusion Snake (c)
Mirage - 2UG, return ~ to it's owners hand: target creatre gets -3/-0 until end of turn and another target creature gains deathtouch until end of turn
2/1
I think changing Interlace to a set bonus and making it check for a set number of enchantments in order to get an additional bonus would work better. And with it set this way, it's possible to give some of them an upkeep effct as well
Interlace enchantment 3R
Enchantment (c)
Creatures you control get +2/+0
Interlace - if you control 3 or more enchantments creatures you control get an additional +1/+0
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Major thanks to Traprootkami for the signature.
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I have been debating on how I wanted to do this block, and I decided to just make it a straight multicolor block using the shard colors. Until I can think of other names for them for the block, I will just be calling them by their original names.
Here are the mechanics I plan on using
Split second for jund
Conspire for esper
New mechanics for shards
Returning mechanics
Split second for Jund
This was to show how savage this color group is and how little time to think you have when you have massive beasts and surprise attacks coming at you
Conspire for Esper
I went with conspire to show blue's planning, as well as the deceitfullness of u/b and w/b
New mechanics
Grixis - Integrate x - when [artifact creature] enters the battlefield you may sacrifice x artifacts, if [artifact creature] integrated artifacts, [effect]
I wanted to use r/u for artifacts since wizards mostly prints ins/sorc stuff for u/r, so grixis was the only choice, I know grixis is black based, but flavor wise for this block black is using artifacts to further it's own goals
Naya - interlace - pay x: do y for each enchantment you control
Interlace will be used only on enchantments, as the idea is that the caster is interlacing their enchantments for offense/defense
Bant - mirage - pay x and return ~ to it's owners hand, if you do, [effect]
The idea behind mirage is that the creature is simply an illusion to hide the true effect the caster wants and the way I was hoping mirage would play as is kind of a turbo fog/control deck
Here's some examples for the new mechanics
Example creature #1 7
Artifact creature - Golem (C)
Integrate 2 (when ~ enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice two artifacts)
When ~ enters the battlefield, if it integrated artifacts, place a +1/+1 counter on it and it gains trample
3/4
Example enchantment 3GW
Enchantment (u)
Interlace 2WG: put a 2/2 green and white elemntal creature token on the battlefield for each enchantment you control
Example creature #2 1U
Creature - elemental (c)
Mirage - return a land you control to it's owner's hand
When you pay ~ mirage cost target creature gets -3/-0 until end of turn
0/2
These are the first mechanics I've tried to design and as well as the first custom block so any feedback is appreciated.
Major thanks to Traprootkami for the signature.
Split Second - personally, I don't think this represents savagery at all - instead, it displays either a control over time (an extremely blue concept to deal with), or precise control over magics, both your own, and others (also blue). While it could work (green is the color of uncounterable spells after all), it feels very narrow for a shard mechanic, because there are very few applications for it, and it doesn't give the player a direction to build towards at all - it doesn't reward you for playing more enchantments or running combat tricks, but just by playing the game. I feel something more focused would be a lot more appropriate.
Conspire - This I can see returning, although the biggest issue I had with this, and Grixis's mechanic, was that they felt extremely reversed. If a shard is going to be artifact based, why not Esper? Even with reasoning, players will be very confused by the swap. Not to mention, Conspire fits the Grixis shard much better than Esper.
Integrate - Currently, I do not see a benefit of forcing players to sacrifice more than one artifact - it increases the ability's complexity for not much purpose, not to mention your example being particularly unplayable. You should word it like Exploit - "When this artifact enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice an artifact." and "When ~ integrates an artifact, do X." I've been using this mechanic myself (as an ability word) and its quickly become one of my favorites, although you will need support for it.
Interlace - Not a bad mechanic, but it will be very difficult to balance - players will only be able to use one or two per turn if they don't want to cast a spell, but if you make it highly repeatable, it'll be way too good - and on top of all of that, its scaling, which means it needs support. I would suggest you take a look at Formidable cards to see how wizards handled something slightly similar, and perhaps it could give you ideas on how you could change it if you choose to do so.
Mirage - Definitely one of the more out there mechanics I've seen recently, although it needs to be returned to its owner's hand, not your own. I'll suggest you make it a bit more open by making it so the creature doesn't need to block - making keywords that are only useful defensively is a bad idea. Something like:
Mirage Creature 1UU
Creature - Illusion
Flying
Mirage - 1U, Return ~ to its owner's hand: Target creature gets -4/-0 until end of turn.
2/2
Would make a good balance between slowing down your own tempo and slowing down your opponent's tempo.
Hope this helps!
Avant Block: Avant -- Stormfront
As for integrate, I was trying to make it a mix of devour and exploit. But making it an exploit derivitave would just make it cleaner to work with. And I could switch conspire and integrate, and give grixis a token zombie theme with some u/r artifact support. U/r to me feels like it should be more artifact based than u/w as most of whites artifact usage outside of the original esper is equipment. Where as the izzet use machines in their experiments and would make for a good artifact theme with sacrificing your artifacts to make better artifact creatures.
While I still think split second works, maybe evoke would work just as well. It gives the primal feeling through using elementals and the word itself.
Interlace is kind of how I think theros should have been, on top of constellation. I was planning on costing the enchantments a little higher, but throw in lords tobdecrease the cost of the activations and casting cost of the enchantments to kind of push the enchantment deck.
Major thanks to Traprootkami for the signature.
I was debating if I wanted the second set to be a large set as well. Another thing was I am unsure if I just want to use gold cards or hybrids, my preference is hybrids because I love their flexibility, but gold cards are generally allowed to be more powerful due to the stricter requirements.
Also, here are some changes to integrate and mirage
Integrate golem 6
Artifact creature - Golem (c)
Integrate (when ~ enters the battlefield you may sacrifice an artifact)
If ~ integrated an artifact when it entered the battlefield, place two +1/+1 counters on it
3/3
Mirage Creature 1UG
Creature - Illusion Snake (c)
Mirage - 2UG, return ~ to it's owners hand: target creatre gets -3/-0 until end of turn and another target creature gains deathtouch until end of turn
2/1
I think changing Interlace to a set bonus and making it check for a set number of enchantments in order to get an additional bonus would work better. And with it set this way, it's possible to give some of them an upkeep effct as well
Interlace enchantment 3R
Enchantment (c)
Creatures you control get +2/+0
Interlace - if you control 3 or more enchantments creatures you control get an additional +1/+0
Major thanks to Traprootkami for the signature.