A while back, my brother and I set out to design a top-down Magic set using Final Fantasy's flavor as the base. For a while we tried adapting the games directly, particularly the first, but as so often happens with these attempted adaptations, the fact that such games are not designed with Magic's system in mind became painfully clear, and so I suggested instead crafting a setting from the ground up that draws inspiration from Final Fantasy without being beholden to existing entries. Thus Crystals of Gerra was born. In the following spoiler sections I discuss various tropes of classic Final Fantasy and how to adapt them to a Magic set.
Final Fantasy traditionally features four Elemental Crystals, but the presence of five colors in Magic really wants there to be five Crystals, one for each color. Since Magic has featured mana-conducting gems and stones in the past, it was an easy leap to conceive a world where Crystals are regularly used to direct the flow of mana. Thus there are two major kinds of Crystal on Gerra: Lesser Crystals that are used in everyday life from being set in Equipment to powering Magitek-like Golems and armor suits to even making public facilities work; and five legendary Greater Crystals that direct a far greater portion of the mana on the plane.
This of course warrants a Crystal subtype for artifacts along with cards that care about them. Parasitic, sure, but necessary for the set's theme. It is called "Crystals of Gerra" after all.
Humans, Merfolk, Dwarves, and Elves are among the more peaceful inhabitants of Gerra. Most of the "heroic" creatures are among these races. Other helpful creatures include Boko birds, based on Final Fantasy's Chocobos, as well as some variant of Moogles (Cat Faeries?).
This wouldn't be a Final Fantasy-inspired set if it didn't have monsters for the adventurers to battle. You have staples like Goblins, Giants, Ogres, Skeletons, Vampires, and Zombies as well as more original creatures like the Cactuar and Tonberry. Goblins are often featured as a race in their own right, so they might provide an overlap between "hero" and "monster" creatures, in so far as having classes.
Whenever a Final Fantasy game features the Crystals, it also usually has a boss monster guarding each, most famously the Four Fiends of the original. In CoG, the five fiends could be individuals who sought the five Great Crystals out only to be transformed into terrible monsters. They are thus the biggest bad guys of the set.
To counterbalance the Fiends, there exist Guardians based on the summons of Final Fantasy fame. Where the Fiends represent the negatives of each color, the Guardians represent the positives. There are also lesser summons which can include some of the monster races like Goblins.
There's a lot to talk about regarding classes, so I've split the subject into two sections.
Another trope common to Final Fantasy is the class or job system, which defines a party member's combat capabilities. Magic has made use of a Race/Class system for a while now, and Crystals of Gerra seems like the ideal place to make use of Classes as a basis for tribal themes, not unlike Morningtide but with a more Innistrad-like approach. When determining which classes to use, I like to start with the original six in the original Final Fantasy:
Warrior - Melee-oriented class that can equip heavy weapons and armor
Thief - Speedy class with a good escape rate; later games grant it the signature Steal command
Monk - Melee-oriented class that eschews most weapons and heavy armor in exchange for good strength, speed, and hit points; later games grant it some form of martial arts-based special skills, often including a Counter attack ability
White Mage - Uses magic that heals damage and bestows positive status effects, along with some offense magic that targets specific subgroups of enemies
Black Mage - Uses magic that deals damage or inflicts negative status effects
Red Mage - A jack-of-all-trades between Warrior, White Mage, and Black Mage, with access to many of their respective assets but not the best of them
Each of these classes was also able to upgrade to a higher level class, a couple of which later became distinct classes in their own right:
Warrior Knight - Better Equipment, gains access to low-level white magic; later games grant it the Cover command which allows it to take damage for allies; sometimes called Paladin, especially when it has Cover and/or white magic
Thief Ninja - Better Equipment, gains access to low-level black magic; later games grant it the Throw command which turns items into damaging projectiles
Monk Master - Stronger Monk
White Mage White Wizard - Gains access to the highest-level white magic
Black Mage Black Wizard - Gains access to the highest-level black magic
Red Mage Red Wizard - Gains access to better Equipment, white magic, and black magic
Knight and Warrior can be separated to give different colors flavorfully appropriate combat creatures: Knights are common in white/black and Warriors in red/green. Warriors also tend to focus more on offense while Knights focus more on defense, which works for their respective colors. Thieves easily translate to Rogues, which are most often blue/black. Monks in FF feel mostly red/white.
Mages require a bit more attention. White Mages are largely spot on, but Black Mages would be a bit restricted by name as red also wants offense-based magic. The kind most often used by Black Mages, damaging magic, would in fact be most approrpiate in red, while the elemental selection, including the famous fire, ice, and lightning trio, all fit into either blue or red. Red Mages present an even greater dilemma: How to adapt Mages that can heal as well as deal damage both physically and magically, and in a color that absolutely does not get exclusive lifegain?
Well, let's consider the Magic side of the equation. The two most common mage classes in Magic are by far Wizard and Shaman, with Wizards most often appearing in white, blue, and black and Shamans most often appearing in black, red, and green. Clerics and Druids appear sometimes, most often in white and green respectively, but are nowhere near as prolific.
My suggested reconciliation is to divide the Mages by class and function: Most Mages are either Wizards or Shamans and provide effects that are either beneficial for you or harmful for your opponent, with perhaps a few managing both at once. This means every color gets both "White Mages" and "Black Mages", obviously by different names, with the effects staying in-color. A red "White Mage" for example might boost an ally's power while a red "Black Mage" instead deals damage.
Generally, Mages in CoG should be distinguished as utility-focused in contrast to the combat-oriented Warriors, Knights, and Monks, which we can refer to collectively as "Fighters". Rogues can occupy a sort of middle ground where they have some utility and some combat abilities, but whereas the Mages can be spell-focused utility, the Rogues could focus on other areas like tap abilities or combat damage triggers, and whereas Fighters are designed to be capable in direct combat, the Rogues focus instead on sneaky, evasive combat.
However, I'm not 100% satisfied with this class arrangement, as it's uneven in favor of black getting the most classes and green and blue the fewest. Martial artist-style Monks are also a bit odd flavorwise in a world that would probably feel more European. I'm also looking at what each color pair wants to do in limited, and red/white Equipment looks like a highly appealing archtype. So, I'm probably going to try cutting Monk from the tribe list, leaving us with:
Black still gets the most tribes, but it might get fewer of any one tribe than the other colors, plus it will have more monster-type creatures as well.
Later games would introduce a myraid of other classes and with them the ability to start changing classes more freely, which came to be known as the Job System. Some of the more notable additions include:
Archer/Ranger - Uses Bows to attack from a distance
Berserker - A melee fighter that attacks each turn
Dancer - Uses Dances with random effects
Dark Knight - Uses various offense-oriented skills that cost hit points
Dragon Knight - Able to Jump, removing itself from combat for one turn, then returning on the next with an attack that deals increased damage to an enemy.
Geomancer - Uses magic based on the land
Samurai - Often has the Gil Toss ability, which turns money into a projectile; sometimes has various sword-related skills
Summoner - Able to call upon mighty magical beings in battle
Blue Mage - Can learn enemy skills and use them itself
Mimic - Can copy the moves of allies and enemies
Obviously, not all of these can receive tribal support in CoG, but there should be room for some one-offs at higher rarities to help add variety to the set. Knights can include Dark and Dragon Knights, with Dark Knights providing the black half at common while Dragon Knights are a more special RW concept. Druid could be brought in as the Geomancer class, as Druids tend to have more land-related effects than Shamans.
Like Monks, Samurai and Ninja might feel a little weird in this set, so they might be left out as well, or kept to higher rarities at reduced numbers.
Spells are of course a staple of Final Fantasy games. You have damage dealing elemental spells like Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder, as well as status-inducing spells like Haste, Slow, Sleep, and Poison. In CoG, these kinds of spells are represented through enchantments, instants, and sorceries. Enchantments and especially Auras are used for long-term status effects like Haste and Slow while Instants and Sorceries are for things like damage and lifegain.
Many FF games feature spells with multiple levels of strength, like Fire-Fire 2-Fire 3 or the more modern Fire-Fira-Firaga. In CoG, certain instants and sorceries feature multiple levels at which they can be cast, with higher levels costing more in exchange for a bigger effect.
Equipment is another staple of RPGs like Final Fantasy. Melee classes like Knights and Warriors tend to get the best and most verstaile Equipment as a way of balancing them against the already versatile Mages.
Besides Equipment, you also have common items like Potions, Ethers, and Antidotes used to help replenish your party's HP and MP as well as remove negative status effects like poison. You also occasionally get items that can bestow a positive effect on an ally.
Another concept worth mentioning here is the Airship, which can be imagined either as a large artifact creature or as a noncreature artifact with utility effects, most likely involving flying.
With all the above covered, here are the current mechanics and themes I've come up with for Crystals of Gerra so far:
Crystals - Subgroup of artifacts generally associated with mana production
Class Tribal - Focusing on Knights, Rogues, and Warriors, with Shamans and Wizards receiving some support as well
Encounter N - Upon casting the spell, generally a creature spell, you get to look at the top N cards of your library, cast any number of creature cards from among them for their mana costs, then put the rest back on top in any order.
Evoke - Returning mechanic used to represent Summons flavorfully
Focus - Ability word that triggers whenever you cast a spell with a single target
Leveled Spells - Spells that can be cast at multiple levels of strength
Melee - Keyword that triggers whenever the creature deals combat damage and puts a +1/+1 counter on it at the end of combat
Equipment matters - Certain cards care about Equipment
These are the current limited archtypes I've thought of for CoG:
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Well, it's meant to be more of a Mage creature ability word as I'm looking for a mechanic Mages can use, along with one for Fighters. That said, I'm interested to hear other possible interpretations of Focus. It's based on an ability Black Mages sometimes get where they can Focus to increase the strength of their next spell.
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
For a Final Fantasy magic set, these are some things I would expect to see:
Leveling up- It would be fun to see the level up mechanic with a twist. Perhaps instead of paying mana to level your creatures they could level by tapping or attacking? There could be different triggers for each class.
Items--Perhaps a cylce of instants that help your team out. (white healing potion that prevents damage, green pump up, red damage grenade, etc)
Weapons--definitely want some cool equipment.
Boss enemies - All the heroic classes need big bad enemies to fight. A cycle of rares at the very least.
So yeah I guess I would want to focus on the RPG aspect of final fantasy
Dark Mage 1B
Creature
Uncommon 3B: Any number of creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn. Focus:If you choose exactly one creature, destroy that creature instead.
1/1
For a Final Fantasy magic set, these are some things I would expect to see:
Leveling up- It would be fun to see the level up mechanic with a twist. Perhaps instead of paying mana to level your creatures they could level by tapping or attacking? There could be different triggers for each class.
Items--Perhaps a cylce of instants that help your team out. (white healing potion that prevents damage, green pump up, red damage grenade, etc)
Weapons--definitely want some cool equipment.
Boss enemies - All the heroic classes need big bad enemies to fight. A cycle of rares at the very least.
So yeah I guess I would want to focus on the RPG aspect of final fantasy
It's not 100% off the table, but Level up has complexity issues, moreso than, say, Leveled spells. If we use one, we likely can't use the other because of how similar they would be a la Flashback and Unearth. At common Level up needs uniformity between creatures; i.e., can't use a wide variety of different costs or triggers.
Items like Potions should be artifacts. Since there's a cycle of Crystals that each tap for a different color of mana, a cycle of Potion-like items is a possibility, but probably not at common.
Naturally the set will have a good number of Equipment, most of which will have tribal bonuses. Expect some rather notable FF tropes.
The plan is for the set to sport at least the Fiend cycle plus some rare Legendaries in different color alignments.
UPDATE: New mechanic idea.
GoblinR
Creature - Goblin
Encounter 4 (When you cast this spell, look at the top four cards of your library. You may cast any number of creature cards from among them for their mana costs. Then put the rest back in any order.)
1/1
Encounter is meant to be the primary monster mechanic for CoG. In Final Fantasy, monsters have a habit of attacking in groups, and of course as random encounters. The encounter mechanic is based on these two concepts. It mostly wants to be used on cheaper, smaller creatures as then it's easier to actually use the mechanic early on. Two changes from the original idea:
The mechanic originally triggered upon the creature ETB but I felt it was more flavorful to trigger upon casting plus it's better against permission.
The mechanic had you put the rest of the cards on the bottom of your library, but I realized that meant either speedy digging or low encounter numbers, so I opted instead for putting the cards back on top Index-style. You still get some say in how your next few card draws play out.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Encounter is a very interesting and flavorful mechanic. It needs to be balanced very well or else it will generate disproportionate CA or being useless when tacked on a too big creature. Ideally I think the mechanics does not need a N parameter, it should always encounter for the same amount of cards, for simplicity sake.
Encounter should "weight" more on smaller creatures, were the low cost makes it easier for high CA moves. Your 'Goblin' card is probably Legacy playable along side Burning-Tree Emissaries, Goblin Guides and others. That's not a bad thing, just trying to show case the power of the mechanic.
On bigger creatures, like a cmc 5 wurm, it is far less threatening but also less interesting because it's going to be used less.
The perfect balance for enconter creatures in my opinion is CMC 2~4, so maybe mos Encounter monsters should be at this cost range.
---------------------------
Level-Up should definitely be on creatures in my opinion. You could make the whole 'Hero' faction based on Level Up creatures. Leveling Up heroes is like the number 1 trope you should be emulating in cards !
The spells that 'levels up' can easily be covered by vertical cycles - something R&D doesn't do anymore but it's well justified here. One or two cycles could be enough to cover this trope.
Learn (Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand, you may exile it as it resolves.)
This mechanic is generally meant for Shamans and Wizards but can also be used by other creature types as well as noncreature cards. Whatever card exiles the instant or sorcery then defines what it can do with the exiled card. In most cases, you get one extra casting, whether that be as part of an activated ability or as an attack trigger. At higher rarities, Learn can even allow you to cast copies of the exiled card.
Apprentice Mage1U
Creature - Human Wizard
Learn (Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand, you may exile it as it resolves.)
: You may cast one instant or sorcery card exiled with ~. (You must pay that card's mana cost to cast it.)
1/1
Spellblade Sword2
Artifact - Equipment
Learn (Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand, you may exile it as it resolves.)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1.
Whenever this creature attacks, you may cast one instant or sorcery card exiled with ~. (You must pay that card's mana cost to cast it.)
Equip 2
I think I still prefer Focus a bit more as it plays with a larger range of spells than Learn, but it may not a bad idea to save Learn for the small set, seeing as it can interact positively with both Focus and Leveled Spells.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Not a big fan of Learn. The mechanic itself indicates nothing positive, so it just feels odd seeing the keyword isolated. I feel like yo uwant to narrow down what it does if you're going to go with it. Definitely a good start to a mechanic, though.
Encounter seems like a fun mechanic, but could be swingy - playtesting will ensure it appears at the right number, or verify whether it's doable at all.
Focus - a bonus for choosing a single target - is genius. What a lovely mechanic idea! I'll have to keep it in mind for inspiration in the future!
I think you might want to adjust your class support from Rogues Warriors and Knights, to Rogues Wizards and Knights. That seems to cover the 'European classes' a bit better, you know? Wizards could be the WUB 'control' archetype, with creatures that reward you for playing on your opponent's turn or casting instants or whatever.
Evoke is a great idea for a returning mechanic. Very nice.
I'd like to see some examples of "Leveled spells" and "Crystals", if you have any?
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The take on Learn I like most is that of a Rebound or Flashback variant that uses creature tapping to recast the spell once. It hits the same basic idea and avoids being too repetitive like Buyback and Retrace.
Shamans are necessary as red and green's counterpart to white and blue's Wizards. Black in theory can get either class, but the flavor leans towards Wizards in CoG's case. Warriors and Knights are similar but still different enough in flavor and, if in different colors, function, thus WB Knights and RG Warriors. Although, since Wizards are largely pushing Shamans out of black, perhaps Warriors will be the BRG tribe with Shamans in RG instead.
The reason why Knights, Rogues, and Warriors get more tribal than Wizards and Shamans is because their strategies generally encourage playing more creatures whereas Wizards and Shamans want to focus on noncreature spells (with the exception of Summoners). That said, the tribes are also designed such that the Mages can support the Fighters thanks to color overlaps.
The Leveled Spells template is a WIP, but the current idea is for it to look like this:
Fire
Instant
Lv1 ~ deals 2 damage to target creature. R
Lv2 ~ deals 3 damage to target creature. 2R
Lv3 ~ deals 5 damage to target creature. 4R
The template is inspired by the Level up creatures from Rise of the Eldrazi. There could also be spells with just two levels, perhaps like this:
Fire
Instant
Lv 1 ~ deals 1 damage to target creature. R
Lv 2 ~ deals 1 damage to each creature target player controls. 1R
I also have a template for common Crystals, each a mana rock for a single color. Their template is based on the Borderposts from Alara Reborn, but because they only tap for a single color of mana the Crystals get to enter untapped.
White Crystal3
Artifact - Crystal
You may pay 1 and return a land you control to its owner's hand instead of paying ~'s mana cost.
: Add to your mana pool.
Of course the plan is for CoG to include at least twenty Crystals, a cycle at each rarity. Whichever rarity gets the dual color Crystals probably gets an additional five so each pair is covered, adding up to at least twenty five total. Either CoG or the follow up set could include some additional one-offs like variants of Mana Cylix, Mind Stone, or Manalith. I'm also looking at Crystal Equipment, perhaps as a set 2 feature, a nice way to tie the Crystal theme in with the RW Equipment theme.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Twenty five mana rocks in one set is INSANE. How much mana flood do you want players to experience? Five to fifteen is plenty, twenty is pushing it but not unreasonable provided the different cycles have different uses.
I didn't say they'd just be mana rocks, but I neglected to mention ideas for utility Crystals at uncommon or rare, like this:
White Utility Crystal3
Artifact - Crystal
: Add to your mana pool. W, : Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
Or even this:
Anthem Crystal2
Artifact - Crystal 1W: Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
Basically, most any artifact utility can also be done with Crystals.
And of course, the whole reason behind introducing the subtype is to include cards that interact with Crystals. There's quite a few options, though of course one has to take care not to make the theme too parasitic. For cycles, I have the following ideas:
Crystal Seekers - Common 3C creatures that provide a bonus upon ETB if you Control a Crystal, inspired by the Gatekeepers of Dragon's Maze. Coincidentally the set also has a different creature known simply as Crystal Seeker, a Construct inspired by the likes of Pilgrim's Eye, Sylvan Ranger, and Gatecreeper Vine that fetches you either a basic land or a Crystal.
Crystal Bearers - Uncommon creatures that get or provide some kind of bonus as long as you control a Crystal.
Number of Crystals - Rares that care about the number of Crystals you control. Not necessarily all creatures.
UPDATE: Following a suggestion from my brother, encounter has been changed from a keyword to an action word, in order to allow a greater variety of uses. Creature cards bearing the Encounter keyword now say "When you cast ~, encounter N".
UPDATE 2: And now I have another keyword idea.
Paladin2W
Creature - Human Knight
Lifelink
Melee (Whenever this creature deals combat damage, put a +1/+1 counter on it at the end of combat.)
1/2
Melee is a simple, straightforward keyword designed for the Warrior, Knight, and perhaps Rogue classes. The +1/+1 counters represent growth earned after a battle.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
I wanted to update on CoG with some card cycles and other stuff:
For starters, the Crystals of course. Currently, I have the common cycle of monocolor Crystals plus the uncommon cycle of dual color Crystals.
Light Crystal 3
Artifact - Crystal {C}
You may pay and return a land you control to its owner's hand rather than pay ~'s mana cost.
: Add to your mana pool.
Water Crystal, Dark Crystal, Fire Crystal, and Forest Crystal are the counterparts for the other colors. Their alternate cost is inspired by the Borderposts of Alara Reborn, though here the basic land and ETBT restrictions are removed to account for the single colors.
Sky Crystal 3
Artifact - Crystal {U}
: Add or to your mana pool. WU: Target creature gains flying until end of turn.
I thought it would be neat if each Crystal in this cycle had an activated ability using both colors in the same fashion as the Keyrunes and Cluestones of RTR block. The Crystals shouldn't have sac effects since the set wants to encourage players to play Crystals and have cards that care about controlling Crystals, and it would be kinda weird flavor if the Crystals turned into creatures like the Keyrunes, so for now I'm opting for effects that grant creatures abilities. The current counterparts by name, pair, and ability are:
Marsh - UB - Creatures with power greater than this creature's power can't block it
Cavern - BR - Menace
Valley - RG - Trample
Grove - GW - Vigilance or +2/+2
Spirit - WB - Lifelink
Storm - UR - Prowess
Mire - BG - Deathtouch
Earth - RW - First strike
Sea - GU - May draw a card whenever this deals combat damage to a player
The monocolor commons are still in the set while the dual color uncommons have been split between Crystals of Gera and the followup set, Guardians of Gera. The default plan is to put the ally Crystals in CoG and the enemy crystals in Guardians, however I would like for the tribes to have mana support within the first set which means putting Spirit Crystal in COG for Knights along with Marsh for Rogues and Valley for Warriors. This means Cavern and Sky have to be moved to Guardians while Storm joins Spirit in CoG, which works well enough as UR has Level Spells as its current focus.
I have not yet finalized Crystals at rare; I would be interested in tricolor rocks to build on the dual colors at uncommon, but I also like the idea of monocolor rares with splashier abilities. I'd also like to include a cycle of legendary Crystals in the set, but I don't know whether they should be rare or mythic.
In Guardians of Gera, I'm considering including at least one Crystal Equipment, though I'm still figuring out how exactly the added subtype should matter.
I'd also like to include at least one simple Manalith-style color fixer, though I'm also open to the option of a higher-rarity card like Chromatic Lantern.
These are the initial big bad guys of CoG block, based of course on the Fiends of Final Fantasy. These are the criteria I'm trying to meet with each Fiend:
Legendary, Monocolor, and Mythic rare
Has an ability that negatively affects creatures your opponents control
Has an ability that negatively affects opponents
Has a power and toughness of at least 5/5
Making them mythic rare monocolor legends helps identify them as some of the set's most important characters, the negative abilities really sells the notion that they're in some way harmful to the world, and the high power and toughness fits their nature as the primary boss characters. These are the main bad guys of the set, they need to be splashy and impactful.
Here are the current Fiends themselves by working name:
Archon, Fiend of the Sky3WWW
Legendary Creature - Archon Fiend
Flying
Creatures without flying can't attack you.
Each opponent who attacked with a creature this turn can't cast spells.
5/5
Since there was no Fiend of Light in traditional Final Fantasy, I had to be creative here. Since the Fiend of Wind title wasn't going to fit the green Fiend very well, I moved the sky focus to the white Fiend, making them naturally lean towards Flying. The first ability is a mixture of Moat and Blazing Archon. The second ability is inspired by Angelic Arbiter, and connects nicely to the first ability.
When choosing the white Fiend's type, the primary choices were Angel and Archon as either could represent white's negative qualities personified. Ultimately I settled on Archon as we've seen monowhite Angelvillains before.
Kraken, Fiend of the Sea3UUU
Legendary Creature - Kraken Fiend
Creatures your opponents control have "At the beginning of your upkeep, tap this creature unless you pay ."
Whenever an opponent taps a land for mana, that player puts the top two cards of his or her library into his or her mana pool.
6/6
Originally Kraken was going to be an 8/8 based on his squidlike appearance but that would have warranted pushing Tiamat up to a 9/9 to ensure the green Fiend was the largest of the cycle as would feel right, and would have pushed the mana costs up, so I'm settling for a 6/6 Kraken instead. The two abilities in tandem are meant to represent Kraken causing floods, with the first inspired by Stasis and the second by Chronic Flooding. Like Archon's abilities, these connect up nicely.
Lich, Fiend of Death3BBB
Legendary Creature - Zombie Fiend
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, you may put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.
Whenever an opponent taps a land for mana, he or she loses 2 life.
5/5
Lich's first ability was originally giving all your opponents' creatures -2/-2 a la Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, however I felt this was a little bit harsh so I reduced it to -1/-1. Since I'm considering a creature death subtheme for BR or BG, I considering changing the ability over to one that rewards you for creature death rather than making it easier to kill creatures in the first place, though the token-making ability feels a bit too beneficial. Perhaps I could switch it over to an effect that drains the player of 2 life whenever one of their creatures die a la Massacre Wurm?
The second ability is based on the flavor of Lich draining life from the land, and is mechanically inspired by Contaminated Ground. Unfortunately, Lich's abilities don't presently connect.
Marilith, Fiend of Fire3RRR
Legendary Creature - Lamia Fiend
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent's control during your turn, ~ deals 6 damage to that creature.
Whenever an opponent casts a spell during your turn, ~ deals 6 damage to that player.
6/6
Marilith is known for having six arms, so her counterpart here reflects that in her power and abilities. Along with Archon, Marilith was one of the trickier Fiends to design. Since she was the Fiend of Fire, she obviously wanted at least one burn ability. I got the idea that she could punish control players in a manner similar to Mindsparker and Ruric Thar, the Unbowed by dealing 6 whenever they cast a spell during your turn.
For the second ability, I considered a wide variety of ideas some of which tapped into the charming flavor common to Lamias. In the end, I settled on another burn ability as Marilith is the Fiend of Fire, not the Fiend of Stealing Creatures for a Turn. Since the anti-opponent ability reacted to casting spells during your turn, the anti-creature ability could mirror that by punishing creatures entering the battlefield during your turn, resulting in a double-whammy for opponents playing creatures with flash.
Like with Archon and Kraken, the two abilities can easily be connected.
Originally Lich and Marilith were going to be a Zombie Wizard and Lamia Warrior respectively which could have played nicely with the set's tribal themes, however I'm trying to avoid using classes on the monster races to better distinguish them from the adventurers. This helped inspire the use of the Fiend subtype as a unifier for the cycle much like the Incarnations of Odyssey and Lorwyn, the Praetors of New Phyrexia, or even arguably the Gods of Theros.
Tiamat, Fiend of Nature3GGG
Legendary Creature - Hydra Fiend
Whenever a creature attacks you, you may have ~ fight that creature.
Whenever an artifact an opponent controls becomes tapped, destroy that artifact.
7/7
Tiamat was probably the hardest to design. I knew one of her abilities should hate on artifacts as green is the anti-artifact color and in story Tiamat helped destroy ancient civilization along with Kraken. I'm a fan of the idea of green getting a Brink of Disaster-like effect that hits artifacts instead of creatures, and so Tiamat's anti-player effect punishes the use of artifacts. It doesn't prevent the use of artifacts, but turns most of them into single-use tools.
The anti-creature effect was a lot harder as green doesn't get a lot of anti-creature effects, mostly luring, and I'm still not settled on the fight effect. The ability could hate on creatures with flying somehow, but I'm trying to avoid giving the Fiends any outright beneficial effects such as what Bower Passage would bestow.
Over time, I'll continue updating with more cards.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
New mechanic idea! This one is for Fighters as Focus is for Mages.
Critical hit -cost- (If this creature would deal damage, you may pay -cost-. If you do, it's a critical hit.)
Knight1W
Creature - Human Knight
Critical hit W(If this creature would deal damage, you may pay W. If you do, it's a critical hit.)
Whenever ~ deals damage, if it's a critical hit, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
1/2
Critical hit basically applies a special condition to any kind of damage dealt by a creature. This includes noncombat damage dealt by fighting or by activated or triggered abilities as well as combat damage.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
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This of course warrants a Crystal subtype for artifacts along with cards that care about them. Parasitic, sure, but necessary for the set's theme. It is called "Crystals of Gerra" after all.
This wouldn't be a Final Fantasy-inspired set if it didn't have monsters for the adventurers to battle. You have staples like Goblins, Giants, Ogres, Skeletons, Vampires, and Zombies as well as more original creatures like the Cactuar and Tonberry. Goblins are often featured as a race in their own right, so they might provide an overlap between "hero" and "monster" creatures, in so far as having classes.
Whenever a Final Fantasy game features the Crystals, it also usually has a boss monster guarding each, most famously the Four Fiends of the original. In CoG, the five fiends could be individuals who sought the five Great Crystals out only to be transformed into terrible monsters. They are thus the biggest bad guys of the set.
To counterbalance the Fiends, there exist Guardians based on the summons of Final Fantasy fame. Where the Fiends represent the negatives of each color, the Guardians represent the positives. There are also lesser summons which can include some of the monster races like Goblins.
Another trope common to Final Fantasy is the class or job system, which defines a party member's combat capabilities. Magic has made use of a Race/Class system for a while now, and Crystals of Gerra seems like the ideal place to make use of Classes as a basis for tribal themes, not unlike Morningtide but with a more Innistrad-like approach. When determining which classes to use, I like to start with the original six in the original Final Fantasy:
Warrior - Melee-oriented class that can equip heavy weapons and armor
Thief - Speedy class with a good escape rate; later games grant it the signature Steal command
Monk - Melee-oriented class that eschews most weapons and heavy armor in exchange for good strength, speed, and hit points; later games grant it some form of martial arts-based special skills, often including a Counter attack ability
White Mage - Uses magic that heals damage and bestows positive status effects, along with some offense magic that targets specific subgroups of enemies
Black Mage - Uses magic that deals damage or inflicts negative status effects
Red Mage - A jack-of-all-trades between Warrior, White Mage, and Black Mage, with access to many of their respective assets but not the best of them
Each of these classes was also able to upgrade to a higher level class, a couple of which later became distinct classes in their own right:
Warrior Knight - Better Equipment, gains access to low-level white magic; later games grant it the Cover command which allows it to take damage for allies; sometimes called Paladin, especially when it has Cover and/or white magic
Thief Ninja - Better Equipment, gains access to low-level black magic; later games grant it the Throw command which turns items into damaging projectiles
Monk Master - Stronger Monk
White Mage White Wizard - Gains access to the highest-level white magic
Black Mage Black Wizard - Gains access to the highest-level black magic
Red Mage Red Wizard - Gains access to better Equipment, white magic, and black magic
Knight and Warrior can be separated to give different colors flavorfully appropriate combat creatures: Knights are common in white/black and Warriors in red/green. Warriors also tend to focus more on offense while Knights focus more on defense, which works for their respective colors. Thieves easily translate to Rogues, which are most often blue/black. Monks in FF feel mostly red/white.
Mages require a bit more attention. White Mages are largely spot on, but Black Mages would be a bit restricted by name as red also wants offense-based magic. The kind most often used by Black Mages, damaging magic, would in fact be most approrpiate in red, while the elemental selection, including the famous fire, ice, and lightning trio, all fit into either blue or red. Red Mages present an even greater dilemma: How to adapt Mages that can heal as well as deal damage both physically and magically, and in a color that absolutely does not get exclusive lifegain?
Well, let's consider the Magic side of the equation. The two most common mage classes in Magic are by far Wizard and Shaman, with Wizards most often appearing in white, blue, and black and Shamans most often appearing in black, red, and green. Clerics and Druids appear sometimes, most often in white and green respectively, but are nowhere near as prolific.
My suggested reconciliation is to divide the Mages by class and function: Most Mages are either Wizards or Shamans and provide effects that are either beneficial for you or harmful for your opponent, with perhaps a few managing both at once. This means every color gets both "White Mages" and "Black Mages", obviously by different names, with the effects staying in-color. A red "White Mage" for example might boost an ally's power while a red "Black Mage" instead deals damage.
Generally, Mages in CoG should be distinguished as utility-focused in contrast to the combat-oriented Warriors, Knights, and Monks, which we can refer to collectively as "Fighters". Rogues can occupy a sort of middle ground where they have some utility and some combat abilities, but whereas the Mages can be spell-focused utility, the Rogues could focus on other areas like tap abilities or combat damage triggers, and whereas Fighters are designed to be capable in direct combat, the Rogues focus instead on sneaky, evasive combat.
So far we have six major classes:
WB Knights
UB Rogues
RG Warriors
RW Monks
WUB Wizards
BRG Shamans
However, I'm not 100% satisfied with this class arrangement, as it's uneven in favor of black getting the most classes and green and blue the fewest. Martial artist-style Monks are also a bit odd flavorwise in a world that would probably feel more European. I'm also looking at what each color pair wants to do in limited, and red/white Equipment looks like a highly appealing archtype. So, I'm probably going to try cutting Monk from the tribe list, leaving us with:
WB Knights
UB Rogues
RG Warriors
WUB Wizards
BRG Shamans
Black still gets the most tribes, but it might get fewer of any one tribe than the other colors, plus it will have more monster-type creatures as well.
Archer/Ranger - Uses Bows to attack from a distance
Berserker - A melee fighter that attacks each turn
Dancer - Uses Dances with random effects
Dark Knight - Uses various offense-oriented skills that cost hit points
Dragon Knight - Able to Jump, removing itself from combat for one turn, then returning on the next with an attack that deals increased damage to an enemy.
Geomancer - Uses magic based on the land
Samurai - Often has the Gil Toss ability, which turns money into a projectile; sometimes has various sword-related skills
Summoner - Able to call upon mighty magical beings in battle
Blue Mage - Can learn enemy skills and use them itself
Mimic - Can copy the moves of allies and enemies
Obviously, not all of these can receive tribal support in CoG, but there should be room for some one-offs at higher rarities to help add variety to the set. Knights can include Dark and Dragon Knights, with Dark Knights providing the black half at common while Dragon Knights are a more special RW concept. Druid could be brought in as the Geomancer class, as Druids tend to have more land-related effects than Shamans.
Like Monks, Samurai and Ninja might feel a little weird in this set, so they might be left out as well, or kept to higher rarities at reduced numbers.
Many FF games feature spells with multiple levels of strength, like Fire-Fire 2-Fire 3 or the more modern Fire-Fira-Firaga. In CoG, certain instants and sorceries feature multiple levels at which they can be cast, with higher levels costing more in exchange for a bigger effect.
Besides Equipment, you also have common items like Potions, Ethers, and Antidotes used to help replenish your party's HP and MP as well as remove negative status effects like poison. You also occasionally get items that can bestow a positive effect on an ally.
Another concept worth mentioning here is the Airship, which can be imagined either as a large artifact creature or as a noncreature artifact with utility effects, most likely involving flying.
Crystals - Subgroup of artifacts generally associated with mana production
Class Tribal - Focusing on Knights, Rogues, and Warriors, with Shamans and Wizards receiving some support as well
Encounter N - Upon casting the spell, generally a creature spell, you get to look at the top N cards of your library, cast any number of creature cards from among them for their mana costs, then put the rest back on top in any order.
Evoke - Returning mechanic used to represent Summons flavorfully
Focus - Ability word that triggers whenever you cast a spell with a single target
Leveled Spells - Spells that can be cast at multiple levels of strength
Melee - Keyword that triggers whenever the creature deals combat damage and puts a +1/+1 counter on it at the end of combat
Equipment matters - Certain cards care about Equipment
WU Flying matters
UB Rogues
BR Death matters
RG Warriors
GW Auras
WB Knights
UR Level Spells
BG Encounter
RW Equipment matters
GU Focus
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Broad Dispel
2W
Instant
Uncommon
Destroy any number of target enchantments.
Focus - If you choose exactly one target for CARDNAME, you gain 4 life.
Custom Card / Set Reviewer
When reviewing custom cards / sets, I look for (a) flavour, (b) function, and (c) cohesiveness, generally through a risk focus.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Leveling up- It would be fun to see the level up mechanic with a twist. Perhaps instead of paying mana to level your creatures they could level by tapping or attacking? There could be different triggers for each class.
Items--Perhaps a cylce of instants that help your team out. (white healing potion that prevents damage, green pump up, red damage grenade, etc)
Weapons--definitely want some cool equipment.
Boss enemies - All the heroic classes need big bad enemies to fight. A cycle of rares at the very least.
So yeah I guess I would want to focus on the RPG aspect of final fantasy
1B
Creature
Uncommon
3B: Any number of creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn.
Focus:If you choose exactly one creature, destroy that creature instead.
1/1
It's not 100% off the table, but Level up has complexity issues, moreso than, say, Leveled spells. If we use one, we likely can't use the other because of how similar they would be a la Flashback and Unearth. At common Level up needs uniformity between creatures; i.e., can't use a wide variety of different costs or triggers.
Items like Potions should be artifacts. Since there's a cycle of Crystals that each tap for a different color of mana, a cycle of Potion-like items is a possibility, but probably not at common.
Naturally the set will have a good number of Equipment, most of which will have tribal bonuses. Expect some rather notable FF tropes.
The plan is for the set to sport at least the Fiend cycle plus some rare Legendaries in different color alignments.
UPDATE: New mechanic idea.
Goblin R
Creature - Goblin
Encounter 4 (When you cast this spell, look at the top four cards of your library. You may cast any number of creature cards from among them for their mana costs. Then put the rest back in any order.)
1/1
Encounter is meant to be the primary monster mechanic for CoG. In Final Fantasy, monsters have a habit of attacking in groups, and of course as random encounters. The encounter mechanic is based on these two concepts. It mostly wants to be used on cheaper, smaller creatures as then it's easier to actually use the mechanic early on. Two changes from the original idea:
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Encounter should "weight" more on smaller creatures, were the low cost makes it easier for high CA moves. Your 'Goblin' card is probably Legacy playable along side Burning-Tree Emissaries, Goblin Guides and others. That's not a bad thing, just trying to show case the power of the mechanic.
On bigger creatures, like a cmc 5 wurm, it is far less threatening but also less interesting because it's going to be used less.
The perfect balance for enconter creatures in my opinion is CMC 2~4, so maybe mos Encounter monsters should be at this cost range.
---------------------------
Level-Up should definitely be on creatures in my opinion. You could make the whole 'Hero' faction based on Level Up creatures. Leveling Up heroes is like the number 1 trope you should be emulating in cards !
The spells that 'levels up' can easily be covered by vertical cycles - something R&D doesn't do anymore but it's well justified here. One or two cycles could be enough to cover this trope.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
Learn (Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand, you may exile it as it resolves.)
This mechanic is generally meant for Shamans and Wizards but can also be used by other creature types as well as noncreature cards. Whatever card exiles the instant or sorcery then defines what it can do with the exiled card. In most cases, you get one extra casting, whether that be as part of an activated ability or as an attack trigger. At higher rarities, Learn can even allow you to cast copies of the exiled card.
Apprentice Mage 1U
Creature - Human Wizard
Learn (Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand, you may exile it as it resolves.)
: You may cast one instant or sorcery card exiled with ~. (You must pay that card's mana cost to cast it.)
1/1
Spellblade Sword 2
Artifact - Equipment
Learn (Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand, you may exile it as it resolves.)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1.
Whenever this creature attacks, you may cast one instant or sorcery card exiled with ~. (You must pay that card's mana cost to cast it.)
Equip 2
I think I still prefer Focus a bit more as it plays with a larger range of spells than Learn, but it may not a bad idea to save Learn for the small set, seeing as it can interact positively with both Focus and Leveled Spells.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Encounter seems like a fun mechanic, but could be swingy - playtesting will ensure it appears at the right number, or verify whether it's doable at all.
Focus - a bonus for choosing a single target - is genius. What a lovely mechanic idea! I'll have to keep it in mind for inspiration in the future!
I think you might want to adjust your class support from Rogues Warriors and Knights, to Rogues Wizards and Knights. That seems to cover the 'European classes' a bit better, you know? Wizards could be the WUB 'control' archetype, with creatures that reward you for playing on your opponent's turn or casting instants or whatever.
Evoke is a great idea for a returning mechanic. Very nice.
I'd like to see some examples of "Leveled spells" and "Crystals", if you have any?
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
Shamans are necessary as red and green's counterpart to white and blue's Wizards. Black in theory can get either class, but the flavor leans towards Wizards in CoG's case. Warriors and Knights are similar but still different enough in flavor and, if in different colors, function, thus WB Knights and RG Warriors. Although, since Wizards are largely pushing Shamans out of black, perhaps Warriors will be the BRG tribe with Shamans in RG instead.
The reason why Knights, Rogues, and Warriors get more tribal than Wizards and Shamans is because their strategies generally encourage playing more creatures whereas Wizards and Shamans want to focus on noncreature spells (with the exception of Summoners). That said, the tribes are also designed such that the Mages can support the Fighters thanks to color overlaps.
The Leveled Spells template is a WIP, but the current idea is for it to look like this:
Fire
Instant
Lv1 ~ deals 2 damage to target creature. R
Lv2 ~ deals 3 damage to target creature. 2R
Lv3 ~ deals 5 damage to target creature. 4R
The template is inspired by the Level up creatures from Rise of the Eldrazi. There could also be spells with just two levels, perhaps like this:
Fire
Instant
Lv 1 ~ deals 1 damage to target creature. R
Lv 2 ~ deals 1 damage to each creature target player controls. 1R
I also have a template for common Crystals, each a mana rock for a single color. Their template is based on the Borderposts from Alara Reborn, but because they only tap for a single color of mana the Crystals get to enter untapped.
White Crystal 3
Artifact - Crystal
You may pay 1 and return a land you control to its owner's hand instead of paying ~'s mana cost.
: Add to your mana pool.
Of course the plan is for CoG to include at least twenty Crystals, a cycle at each rarity. Whichever rarity gets the dual color Crystals probably gets an additional five so each pair is covered, adding up to at least twenty five total. Either CoG or the follow up set could include some additional one-offs like variants of Mana Cylix, Mind Stone, or Manalith. I'm also looking at Crystal Equipment, perhaps as a set 2 feature, a nice way to tie the Crystal theme in with the RW Equipment theme.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
White Utility Crystal 3
Artifact - Crystal
: Add to your mana pool.
W, : Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
Or even this:
Anthem Crystal 2
Artifact - Crystal
1W: Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
Basically, most any artifact utility can also be done with Crystals.
And of course, the whole reason behind introducing the subtype is to include cards that interact with Crystals. There's quite a few options, though of course one has to take care not to make the theme too parasitic. For cycles, I have the following ideas:
Crystal Seekers - Common 3C creatures that provide a bonus upon ETB if you Control a Crystal, inspired by the Gatekeepers of Dragon's Maze. Coincidentally the set also has a different creature known simply as Crystal Seeker, a Construct inspired by the likes of Pilgrim's Eye, Sylvan Ranger, and Gatecreeper Vine that fetches you either a basic land or a Crystal.
Crystal Bearers - Uncommon creatures that get or provide some kind of bonus as long as you control a Crystal.
Number of Crystals - Rares that care about the number of Crystals you control. Not necessarily all creatures.
UPDATE: Following a suggestion from my brother, encounter has been changed from a keyword to an action word, in order to allow a greater variety of uses. Creature cards bearing the Encounter keyword now say "When you cast ~, encounter N".
UPDATE 2: And now I have another keyword idea.
Paladin 2W
Creature - Human Knight
Lifelink
Melee (Whenever this creature deals combat damage, put a +1/+1 counter on it at the end of combat.)
1/2
Melee is a simple, straightforward keyword designed for the Warrior, Knight, and perhaps Rogue classes. The +1/+1 counters represent growth earned after a battle.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Light Crystal 3
Artifact - Crystal {C}
You may pay and return a land you control to its owner's hand rather than pay ~'s mana cost.
: Add to your mana pool.
Water Crystal, Dark Crystal, Fire Crystal, and Forest Crystal are the counterparts for the other colors. Their alternate cost is inspired by the Borderposts of Alara Reborn, though here the basic land and ETBT restrictions are removed to account for the single colors.
Sky Crystal 3
Artifact - Crystal {U}
: Add or to your mana pool.
WU: Target creature gains flying until end of turn.
I thought it would be neat if each Crystal in this cycle had an activated ability using both colors in the same fashion as the Keyrunes and Cluestones of RTR block. The Crystals shouldn't have sac effects since the set wants to encourage players to play Crystals and have cards that care about controlling Crystals, and it would be kinda weird flavor if the Crystals turned into creatures like the Keyrunes, so for now I'm opting for effects that grant creatures abilities. The current counterparts by name, pair, and ability are:
Marsh - UB - Creatures with power greater than this creature's power can't block it
Cavern - BR - Menace
Valley - RG - Trample
Grove - GW - Vigilance or +2/+2
Spirit - WB - Lifelink
Storm - UR - Prowess
Mire - BG - Deathtouch
Earth - RW - First strike
Sea - GU - May draw a card whenever this deals combat damage to a player
The monocolor commons are still in the set while the dual color uncommons have been split between Crystals of Gera and the followup set, Guardians of Gera. The default plan is to put the ally Crystals in CoG and the enemy crystals in Guardians, however I would like for the tribes to have mana support within the first set which means putting Spirit Crystal in COG for Knights along with Marsh for Rogues and Valley for Warriors. This means Cavern and Sky have to be moved to Guardians while Storm joins Spirit in CoG, which works well enough as UR has Level Spells as its current focus.
I have not yet finalized Crystals at rare; I would be interested in tricolor rocks to build on the dual colors at uncommon, but I also like the idea of monocolor rares with splashier abilities. I'd also like to include a cycle of legendary Crystals in the set, but I don't know whether they should be rare or mythic.
In Guardians of Gera, I'm considering including at least one Crystal Equipment, though I'm still figuring out how exactly the added subtype should matter.
Crystal Bracers 2
Artifact - Crystal Equipment
Equipped creature gets +1/+2.
Equip 2
I'd also like to include at least one simple Manalith-style color fixer, though I'm also open to the option of a higher-rarity card like Chromatic Lantern.
Making them mythic rare monocolor legends helps identify them as some of the set's most important characters, the negative abilities really sells the notion that they're in some way harmful to the world, and the high power and toughness fits their nature as the primary boss characters. These are the main bad guys of the set, they need to be splashy and impactful.
Here are the current Fiends themselves by working name:
Archon, Fiend of the Sky 3WWW
Legendary Creature - Archon Fiend
Flying
Creatures without flying can't attack you.
Each opponent who attacked with a creature this turn can't cast spells.
5/5
Since there was no Fiend of Light in traditional Final Fantasy, I had to be creative here. Since the Fiend of Wind title wasn't going to fit the green Fiend very well, I moved the sky focus to the white Fiend, making them naturally lean towards Flying. The first ability is a mixture of Moat and Blazing Archon. The second ability is inspired by Angelic Arbiter, and connects nicely to the first ability.
When choosing the white Fiend's type, the primary choices were Angel and Archon as either could represent white's negative qualities personified. Ultimately I settled on Archon as we've seen monowhite Angel villains before.
Kraken, Fiend of the Sea 3UUU
Legendary Creature - Kraken Fiend
Creatures your opponents control have "At the beginning of your upkeep, tap this creature unless you pay ."
Whenever an opponent taps a land for mana, that player puts the top two cards of his or her library into his or her mana pool.
6/6
Originally Kraken was going to be an 8/8 based on his squidlike appearance but that would have warranted pushing Tiamat up to a 9/9 to ensure the green Fiend was the largest of the cycle as would feel right, and would have pushed the mana costs up, so I'm settling for a 6/6 Kraken instead. The two abilities in tandem are meant to represent Kraken causing floods, with the first inspired by Stasis and the second by Chronic Flooding. Like Archon's abilities, these connect up nicely.
Lich, Fiend of Death 3BBB
Legendary Creature - Zombie Fiend
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, you may put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.
Whenever an opponent taps a land for mana, he or she loses 2 life.
5/5
Lich's first ability was originally giving all your opponents' creatures -2/-2 a la Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, however I felt this was a little bit harsh so I reduced it to -1/-1. Since I'm considering a creature death subtheme for BR or BG, I considering changing the ability over to one that rewards you for creature death rather than making it easier to kill creatures in the first place, though the token-making ability feels a bit too beneficial. Perhaps I could switch it over to an effect that drains the player of 2 life whenever one of their creatures die a la Massacre Wurm?
The second ability is based on the flavor of Lich draining life from the land, and is mechanically inspired by Contaminated Ground. Unfortunately, Lich's abilities don't presently connect.
Marilith, Fiend of Fire 3RRR
Legendary Creature - Lamia Fiend
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent's control during your turn, ~ deals 6 damage to that creature.
Whenever an opponent casts a spell during your turn, ~ deals 6 damage to that player.
6/6
Marilith is known for having six arms, so her counterpart here reflects that in her power and abilities. Along with Archon, Marilith was one of the trickier Fiends to design. Since she was the Fiend of Fire, she obviously wanted at least one burn ability. I got the idea that she could punish control players in a manner similar to Mindsparker and Ruric Thar, the Unbowed by dealing 6 whenever they cast a spell during your turn.
For the second ability, I considered a wide variety of ideas some of which tapped into the charming flavor common to Lamias. In the end, I settled on another burn ability as Marilith is the Fiend of Fire, not the Fiend of Stealing Creatures for a Turn. Since the anti-opponent ability reacted to casting spells during your turn, the anti-creature ability could mirror that by punishing creatures entering the battlefield during your turn, resulting in a double-whammy for opponents playing creatures with flash.
Like with Archon and Kraken, the two abilities can easily be connected.
Originally Lich and Marilith were going to be a Zombie Wizard and Lamia Warrior respectively which could have played nicely with the set's tribal themes, however I'm trying to avoid using classes on the monster races to better distinguish them from the adventurers. This helped inspire the use of the Fiend subtype as a unifier for the cycle much like the Incarnations of Odyssey and Lorwyn, the Praetors of New Phyrexia, or even arguably the Gods of Theros.
Tiamat, Fiend of Nature 3GGG
Legendary Creature - Hydra Fiend
Whenever a creature attacks you, you may have ~ fight that creature.
Whenever an artifact an opponent controls becomes tapped, destroy that artifact.
7/7
Tiamat was probably the hardest to design. I knew one of her abilities should hate on artifacts as green is the anti-artifact color and in story Tiamat helped destroy ancient civilization along with Kraken. I'm a fan of the idea of green getting a Brink of Disaster-like effect that hits artifacts instead of creatures, and so Tiamat's anti-player effect punishes the use of artifacts. It doesn't prevent the use of artifacts, but turns most of them into single-use tools.
The anti-creature effect was a lot harder as green doesn't get a lot of anti-creature effects, mostly luring, and I'm still not settled on the fight effect. The ability could hate on creatures with flying somehow, but I'm trying to avoid giving the Fiends any outright beneficial effects such as what Bower Passage would bestow.
Over time, I'll continue updating with more cards.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Critical hit -cost- (If this creature would deal damage, you may pay -cost-. If you do, it's a critical hit.)
Knight 1W
Creature - Human Knight
Critical hit W (If this creature would deal damage, you may pay W. If you do, it's a critical hit.)
Whenever ~ deals damage, if it's a critical hit, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
1/2
Critical hit basically applies a special condition to any kind of damage dealt by a creature. This includes noncombat damage dealt by fighting or by activated or triggered abilities as well as combat damage.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.