I am still taking suggestions. I have just been very busy lately with school. Within a week I will be finished and update with what I have, including a design skeleton for the commons and some preliminary mechanics.
You absolutely want five faction mechanics, but I don't think you can easily return more than one mechanic, unless that mechanic really didn't have much to shine (i.e. Delve in the original Tarkir, "Chroma" in Theros) or was unnamed previously (Rally in BFZ).
Don't worry too much if the flavor is good, but cause some weird mismatches on monocolored cards. Wizards does it all the time in this type of set (monoblue evolve or ferocious and monowhite extort come to mind). The flavor must be a very good fit though!
You absolutely want five faction mechanics, but I don't think you can easily return more than one mechanic, unless that mechanic really didn't have much to shine (i.e. Delve in the original Tarkir, "Chroma" in Theros) or was unnamed previously (Rally in BFZ).
Don't worry too much if the flavor is good, but cause some weird mismatches on monocolored cards. Wizards does it all the time in this type of set (monoblue evolve or ferocious and monowhite extort come to mind). The flavor must be a very good fit though!
I intend to go 5 faction mechanics, there is no other real way to do it with the factions. Dragon matters/hate doesn't need to be keyworded. I intend to have 5 mechanics plus morph in the first set, then have a few new mechanics in the second replacing a few of the 5. I will flavour this as some clans just having small changes like Temur, verses an overhaul like Abzan where they return to necromancy. I may also either add manifest with morph, or have a new morph variant.
I have mechanics for most of the factions except for Temur/Atarka. They are really weird to design for. I am thinking similar to ferocious except you can reveal cards from your hand as well.
I intend to go 5 faction mechanics, there is no other real way to do it with the factions. Dragon matters/hate doesn't need to be keyworded. I intend to have 5 mechanics plus morph in the first set, then have a few new mechanics in the second replacing a few of the 5. I will flavour this as some clans just having small changes like Temur, verses an overhaul like Abzan where they return to necromancy. I may also either add manifest with morph, or have a new morph variant.
I have mechanics for most of the factions except for Temur/Atarka. They are really weird to design for. I am thinking similar to ferocious except you can reveal cards from your hand as well.
Ah, okay. It sounded at the beginning of the thread like you were entertaining the idea of returning more than one mechanic.
I wouldn't call the whole ancestor magic thing "necromancy" at any point, though. It doesn't jive with the actual Abzan flavor (it was always referred to as ancestor worship) and it was heavily implied in the stories that the dead wanted very much to keep having a say. It was only ever Dromoka that called it that way.
For Temur if you don't have too many ability words, maybe you could borrow Invigorate from my Suvnica set:
Atarka Cliffrush
Creature -- Goblin Scout (C)
Haste
Invigorate -- Whenever Atarka Cliffrush's power or toughness increases, target creature can't block this turn.
1/2
Hi, I'm new here, this is my first post. I was recently thinking about creating my own Return the Tarkir set, and then came across yours and thought that it might be cool to add some of my ideas to yours.
I'll start flavor wise. I do like your idea of centering the whole set on the rebellion of the clans from their dragon overlords. Giving it a reason to start, I feel would be most important. Now obviously each Clan would have their own reasons from wanting to break away from the Dragonlords, but I feel like there should be one centralized theme to push the whole story through. Not just they are all rebelling at the same time. I propose making Bolas the key to this. How would he do this you ask? Well, considering Bolas had a reason for wanting the Dragonlords all dead in the past. Having him find out about Tarkir's new timeline and the resurgence of the dragons would push him to taking a more direct approach to putting an end to the Dragons on the plane. But I feel the best way to fight fire, is with fire. So he would use the dragon tempests to his own advantage to create five new enemy colored Dragons who would serve as his dragonlords over Tarkir to try and strip away some of the power that Ugin has on this plane. Now obviously they wouldn't be his only servants, this is Bolas we're talking about. So he should also recruit some non-dragon characters who would work hand and hand with his dragonlords to fracture the existing Clans and make new clans.
So now we have 10 Dragonlords, but obviously not all of them would side with Bolas, just like not all the current Dragonlords wouldn't all side with Ugin. So instead of just having all the new Dragonlords be Bolas's agents a few would rebel against him, like the R/W Dragonlord, who would most deffinately want to work with Ugin for the greater good along with Ojutai and Dromoka. While Old Dragonlords like Silumgar, Kolaghan, and Atarka wouldn't be opposed to working with Bolas if it means that they gain more power in the end. So in the beginning the split would look something like, Ugin's dragons(Ojutai, Dromoka, the R/W, U/R, and U/G dragons) and Bolas's Dragons(Silumgar, Kolaghan, Atarka, and the new B/G, and W/B dragons.)
Now before we get any further, I'm going to address the elephant in the room, of what's Ugin doing if Bolas is on his plane and causing so much distortion. Well quite simple, Ugin has left Tarkir, he's gone to another plane to help the gatewatch deal with the threat of Emmy and her Eldrazi brood on some other plane. He would leave Tarkir in the hands of Sarkhan who he trusts the protection of the plane to since he knows he could trust Sarkhan with anything, including Ugin's life. But instead of Sarkhan paying attention to the unrest that's been gathering on the plane, he's been off with Narset trying to uncover more of his own past and how he still exists. Their storyline in Blood would end with a direct confrontation with Bolas, who Narset has heard of from Sarkhan as being the most evil thing in all of existence. But Bolas would drop the bombshell that Sarkhan was working for Bolas in the past, and that while he may seem different now Bolas's mind control is still there in him, and would cause Narset to distrust Sarkhan completely from here onward. She would end up walking away from the plane to try and find Ugin, leaving Sarkhan to have to face Bolas on his own.
Another storyline that would happen sometime in Blood would be Bola's forces besieging the capital city of one of the original Dragonlords. I'm in favor of having one of the new dragonlords, like the W/B one attack one of the old ones, like Dromoka. Dromoka being the most defensive of the dragonlords who don't work for Bolas, I would set this up as while there is a siege happening outside the city, inside the city the people are also starting to rebel against Dromoka. Which would end with alot of infighting between the people who want to rise up from underneath the dragonlord, and the dragon supporters. The siege officially gets ended when Dromoka herself enters the battlefield, only to be opposed by not just the new W/B dragon, but also the new B/G dragon, and also Atarka, who have all come here to burn the old world and make a new one from its ashes.
Fire would open with Bolas's Dragon broods in power, but each leading new clans with Khans who are the 3 color wedges. Characters like Taigam, and Zurgo would come back into the fold being the Khans of their respective clans, Jeskai and Mardu respectively. While Silumgar would be working with a new Rakshasa Khan. While Atarka and the new dragonlords would need new characters for them. Surrak isn't there anymore beause he has gone to find out what happened to the dragonlords of old. After the death of Dromoka; Ojutai, and the U/G dragon went into hiding, fearing that they too would soon be fed to the new dragonlords. The R/W dragonlord would obviously try and fight back with her brood for better or for worst. Surrak would first find Chianul, who has been getting visions of an imprisoned Sarkhan. Surrak would then be enlisted to go release a weakened Sarkhan from Bolas's prison. And upon trying to make their escape they get cornered by Bolas's new keeper of his plane, a new planeswalker character who is working directly under Bolas like Tezzert and Sarkhan used to do. Surrak fears he is outmatched, but then dust would rise up all around them, and Anafenza would reveal herself as working with Chianul and seeing as she's already dead there's nothing that the planeswalker can do to hurt her, giving Surrak and Sarkhan plenty of time to escape. Our group would meet back up with Chianul who gets a vision from Ugin, who has returned to the plane with Narset, and they are told to meet up with them. Sarkhan, Chianul, Surrak, and Anafenza, would reach the new hiding spot of Ugin, who also has with him Ojutai and the U/G dragon. Narset upon seeing Sarkhan in his weakened state feels sorry for him, but still distrusts him, and refuses to work with Sarkhan until they can be sure he won't betray them to Bolas. At this point I'm unsure of whether have Sarkhan under new mind control from Bolas, or if Ugin can somehow break it, or something. But, I have Fire ending with our heroes in hiding, while Bolas personally arrives at the R/W Dragon's nest, and in a display of his new power he is receiving just from the mana of the plane, he destorys the dragon and her brood single-handedly.
Whew, this has clearly gone on far too long. So I will sum up my ideas for mechanics in a new post that's not as long winded since those will be easier to explain than ideas for a whole two part story, which as you can see isn't even the end of the story but just a middle chapter in a war over a single plane between two planeswalker dragons. Any feedback would be awesome, as well as you can use any parts of my story for your own story. Thanks for reading and letting my contribute!
I am leaning away from Bolas. He didn't have any issue with the Dragonlords, only Ugin. We do not know their exact relationship, but Bolas set the trap specifically for Ugin. I think the story would focus more on Narset vs Sarkhan. They exemplify the Dragons vs Khans theme well.
Update: I am still working on the faction mechanics and building identity. I have been busy, but will hopefully have something soon.
You absolutely want five faction mechanics, but I don't think you can easily return more than one mechanic, unless that mechanic really didn't have much to shine (i.e. Delve in the original Tarkir, "Chroma" in Theros) or was unnamed previously (Rally in BFZ).
Don't worry too much if the flavor is good, but cause some weird mismatches on monocolored cards. Wizards does it all the time in this type of set (monoblue evolve or ferocious and monowhite extort come to mind). The flavor must be a very good fit though!
I intend to go 5 faction mechanics, there is no other real way to do it with the factions. Dragon matters/hate doesn't need to be keyworded. I intend to have 5 mechanics plus morph in the first set, then have a few new mechanics in the second replacing a few of the 5. I will flavour this as some clans just having small changes like Temur, verses an overhaul like Abzan where they return to necromancy. I may also either add manifest with morph, or have a new morph variant.
I have mechanics for most of the factions except for Temur/Atarka. They are really weird to design for. I am thinking similar to ferocious except you can reveal cards from your hand as well.
Ah, okay. It sounded at the beginning of the thread like you were entertaining the idea of returning more than one mechanic.
I wouldn't call the whole ancestor magic thing "necromancy" at any point, though. It doesn't jive with the actual Abzan flavor (it was always referred to as ancestor worship) and it was heavily implied in the stories that the dead wanted very much to keep having a say. It was only ever Dromoka that called it that way.
For Temur if you don't have too many ability words, maybe you could borrow Invigorate from my Suvnica set:
Creature -- Goblin Scout (C)
Haste
Invigorate -- Whenever Atarka Cliffrush's power or toughness increases, target creature can't block this turn.
1/2
I'll start flavor wise. I do like your idea of centering the whole set on the rebellion of the clans from their dragon overlords. Giving it a reason to start, I feel would be most important. Now obviously each Clan would have their own reasons from wanting to break away from the Dragonlords, but I feel like there should be one centralized theme to push the whole story through. Not just they are all rebelling at the same time. I propose making Bolas the key to this. How would he do this you ask? Well, considering Bolas had a reason for wanting the Dragonlords all dead in the past. Having him find out about Tarkir's new timeline and the resurgence of the dragons would push him to taking a more direct approach to putting an end to the Dragons on the plane. But I feel the best way to fight fire, is with fire. So he would use the dragon tempests to his own advantage to create five new enemy colored Dragons who would serve as his dragonlords over Tarkir to try and strip away some of the power that Ugin has on this plane. Now obviously they wouldn't be his only servants, this is Bolas we're talking about. So he should also recruit some non-dragon characters who would work hand and hand with his dragonlords to fracture the existing Clans and make new clans.
So now we have 10 Dragonlords, but obviously not all of them would side with Bolas, just like not all the current Dragonlords wouldn't all side with Ugin. So instead of just having all the new Dragonlords be Bolas's agents a few would rebel against him, like the R/W Dragonlord, who would most deffinately want to work with Ugin for the greater good along with Ojutai and Dromoka. While Old Dragonlords like Silumgar, Kolaghan, and Atarka wouldn't be opposed to working with Bolas if it means that they gain more power in the end. So in the beginning the split would look something like, Ugin's dragons(Ojutai, Dromoka, the R/W, U/R, and U/G dragons) and Bolas's Dragons(Silumgar, Kolaghan, Atarka, and the new B/G, and W/B dragons.)
Now before we get any further, I'm going to address the elephant in the room, of what's Ugin doing if Bolas is on his plane and causing so much distortion. Well quite simple, Ugin has left Tarkir, he's gone to another plane to help the gatewatch deal with the threat of Emmy and her Eldrazi brood on some other plane. He would leave Tarkir in the hands of Sarkhan who he trusts the protection of the plane to since he knows he could trust Sarkhan with anything, including Ugin's life. But instead of Sarkhan paying attention to the unrest that's been gathering on the plane, he's been off with Narset trying to uncover more of his own past and how he still exists. Their storyline in Blood would end with a direct confrontation with Bolas, who Narset has heard of from Sarkhan as being the most evil thing in all of existence. But Bolas would drop the bombshell that Sarkhan was working for Bolas in the past, and that while he may seem different now Bolas's mind control is still there in him, and would cause Narset to distrust Sarkhan completely from here onward. She would end up walking away from the plane to try and find Ugin, leaving Sarkhan to have to face Bolas on his own.
Another storyline that would happen sometime in Blood would be Bola's forces besieging the capital city of one of the original Dragonlords. I'm in favor of having one of the new dragonlords, like the W/B one attack one of the old ones, like Dromoka. Dromoka being the most defensive of the dragonlords who don't work for Bolas, I would set this up as while there is a siege happening outside the city, inside the city the people are also starting to rebel against Dromoka. Which would end with alot of infighting between the people who want to rise up from underneath the dragonlord, and the dragon supporters. The siege officially gets ended when Dromoka herself enters the battlefield, only to be opposed by not just the new W/B dragon, but also the new B/G dragon, and also Atarka, who have all come here to burn the old world and make a new one from its ashes.
Fire would open with Bolas's Dragon broods in power, but each leading new clans with Khans who are the 3 color wedges. Characters like Taigam, and Zurgo would come back into the fold being the Khans of their respective clans, Jeskai and Mardu respectively. While Silumgar would be working with a new Rakshasa Khan. While Atarka and the new dragonlords would need new characters for them. Surrak isn't there anymore beause he has gone to find out what happened to the dragonlords of old. After the death of Dromoka; Ojutai, and the U/G dragon went into hiding, fearing that they too would soon be fed to the new dragonlords. The R/W dragonlord would obviously try and fight back with her brood for better or for worst. Surrak would first find Chianul, who has been getting visions of an imprisoned Sarkhan. Surrak would then be enlisted to go release a weakened Sarkhan from Bolas's prison. And upon trying to make their escape they get cornered by Bolas's new keeper of his plane, a new planeswalker character who is working directly under Bolas like Tezzert and Sarkhan used to do. Surrak fears he is outmatched, but then dust would rise up all around them, and Anafenza would reveal herself as working with Chianul and seeing as she's already dead there's nothing that the planeswalker can do to hurt her, giving Surrak and Sarkhan plenty of time to escape. Our group would meet back up with Chianul who gets a vision from Ugin, who has returned to the plane with Narset, and they are told to meet up with them. Sarkhan, Chianul, Surrak, and Anafenza, would reach the new hiding spot of Ugin, who also has with him Ojutai and the U/G dragon. Narset upon seeing Sarkhan in his weakened state feels sorry for him, but still distrusts him, and refuses to work with Sarkhan until they can be sure he won't betray them to Bolas. At this point I'm unsure of whether have Sarkhan under new mind control from Bolas, or if Ugin can somehow break it, or something. But, I have Fire ending with our heroes in hiding, while Bolas personally arrives at the R/W Dragon's nest, and in a display of his new power he is receiving just from the mana of the plane, he destorys the dragon and her brood single-handedly.
Whew, this has clearly gone on far too long. So I will sum up my ideas for mechanics in a new post that's not as long winded since those will be easier to explain than ideas for a whole two part story, which as you can see isn't even the end of the story but just a middle chapter in a war over a single plane between two planeswalker dragons. Any feedback would be awesome, as well as you can use any parts of my story for your own story. Thanks for reading and letting my contribute!
Update: I am still working on the faction mechanics and building identity. I have been busy, but will hopefully have something soon.