Abilities that use the exile zone always only work if the card is exiled with the mechanic, see Rebound for example. I don't think it has to be stated in the reminder text.
Again, the rules additions are not that hard to make. But you can argue that it's still not worth it, which I think is a very valid point. The Pacifism interaction is also very unintuitive.
Well, it is not necessary on a card with Rebound, since Rebound creates a replacement effect that only triggers if it was cast from your hand and resolves. I have no idea how a card can fulfill all of these requirements while being exiled by some other effect at the same time. That is not the case with Dive as I see it, which is more similar to Flickerform, which has all those caveats in the text.
We might have a different understanding what is "hard to make", to me most of the information for the regular use of a mechanic, especially if it includes already established plays in a different way, have to be in the reminder text. Like the "enters the battlefield tapped" clause if you declare it as an attacker. That's really unintuitive and counter to the established enters-the-battlefield way of playing, and something you need to know by playing just that one mechanic.
Also, when exactly does the creature emerge? Since it is a triggered ability, it should go onto the stack when you declare it as an attacker, right? That would mean that diving creatures should be immune to "when this creature becomes blocked by a creature, it deals X damage to that creature." since they aren't creatures yet when they are declared as blockers/are not on the battlefield when the ability gets triggered if they somehow still count already.
I will show Dive to someone tomorrow at our Commander session. Whether or not he understands what it is supposed to do will determine whether or not I will keep the mechanic.
Escorted by Turtles1G
Instant (C)
Up to two target creatures each gain indestructible until end of turn. With such a faithful protector by her side, Kayisha felt confident to venture further out into the sea - much further.
Ship Graveyard
Land (R) T: Add C to your mana pool. 4, T, Sacrifice Ship Graveyard: Put a 2/2 black Zombie Pirate creature token onto the battlefield tapped for each artifact card in your graveyard. "Why are we drawn to this place? Is it the treasure or the curse? Are they the same after all?"
-Kayisha
Price of Neglect1B
Instant (U)
Destroy target creature that entered the battlefield this turn. In that moment, Kayisha knew that her journey had come to an end. But in reality, it was just about to begin.
Journey's End1BB
Sorcery (R)
Exile target creature or planeswalker. Kayisha traversed the barrier that separates her realm from the Overworld, only to wither and die in the heat of the undamped sun.
Romantic RescueW
Instant (C)
Return target creature you control to its owner's hand. You gain life equal to its toughness. "Well, Kayisha, you are quite an unlikely catch!"
Mastery of the Sea1(G/U)
Sorcery (C)
Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a land and/or a Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent creature card from among them and put those cards into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. "You revere the gods of the deep? Do you not know of all the fear and anguish they have caused?"
-Kayisha
Kayisha, the Land-Dweller2GG
Planeswalker — Kayisha (M)
+1: Look at the top card of your library. You may put it on the bottom of your library. If it's a land card, you may put it onto the battlefield tapped.
-2: Put two 1/1 green Nymph Druid creature tokens onto the battlefield. They have “T: Add R, G, or W to your mana pool.”
-6: You get an emblem with "Creature spells you cast can’t be countered" and "Creatures you control have vigilance and indestructible."
{3}
Journey's End 's flavor text seems pretty misleading, since Kayisha clearly didn't die.
Is the use of a gerund form more ambiguous? "Kayisha traversed the barrier that separates her realm from the Overworld, only to end up withering and dying in the heat of the undamped sun." I don't want to take away from the flavor of the card when it stands on its own.
Also, did you get any feedback on dive? I've been curious about that.
Our Commander round was a bit overshadowed by rants that we're actually playing Archenemy instead of Commander, so it fell a bit flat. But I still presented someone with an adjusted wording:
Dive {cost} ({cost}, T: Exile this creature and all permanents attached to it. They return to the battlefield as you attack or block with this creature from exile. Dive only as a sorcery.)
He needed some time to wrap his head around the idea that you can block with a creature from exile. He declared a diver as an attacker correctly when I presented him with a simple scenario, and also managed to block correctly. When I asked him whether or not he thinks that you can block with a dive creature that's under an Oblivion Ring, he answered no. He noted that he liked the flavor, but appeared to be still somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of attacking or blocking from exile.
I wanted to ask more people on Tuesday, but I was lazy and forgot.
Journey's End 's flavor text seems pretty misleading, since Kayisha clearly didn't die.
Is the use of a gerund form more ambiguous? "Kayisha traversed the barrier that separates her realm from the Overworld, only to end up withering and dying in the heat of the undamped sun." I don't want to take away from the flavor of the card when it stands on its own.
Assuming you mean the fact that she found the sun's ray to be very dangerous, how about this: "The barrier between her realm and Overworld crossed, Kayisha found the undamped sun's rays more lethal than she could have ever imagined." The dangerousness is still clear, but we drop any straight statement that she died--there's basically no way to read either versions you've proposed without it being a statement of her death.
Again, I want to have the flavor text stand on its own. Someone reading the card shouldn't say "Oh, exile a creature or planeswalker. That's a pretty powerful effect. What's the flavor? Someone got a sunburn, that's all?"
I think as long as it says that she was dying, not that she actually did, it's fine.
So, I changed it to: "[...] only to face death, withering in the heat of the undamped sun."
Another thing I'd like your input on:
Gemseeker2U
Creature - Merfolk Scout (C)
Whenever an artifact enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on Gemseeker.
2/2
Exported this card one-to-one from original Iamur. Is this card fine in blue or are the +1/+1 counters too unblue?
Gemseeker2U
Creature - Merfolk Scout (C)
Whenever an artifact enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on Gemseeker.
2/2
Exported this card one-to-one from original Iamur. Is this card fine in blue or are the +1/+1 counters too unblue?
I think the card is fine as far as the color pie is concerned. Not sure if it wants to be an uncommon draft-around, though it can most likely go just fine at either rarity. Also unsure if you can put enough artifacts to justify it (it's not like Iamur is conducive to artifact tokens...).
Clearly you intend to have an artifact matter theme in some colors. W/U seems a very strange place to do so if the intended approach is graveyard recursion (instead of using effects along the lines of Esperzoa, Retract, Ghostly Flicker and Kor Skyfisher). In fact, if you're going to put an artifact recursion effect in the set, I think it'd work better as a monoblue or multicolor-only effect:
Blast into the Future2U
Sorcery (C)
Choose one or both —
* Return target creature to its owner's hand.
* Return target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand.
Merfolk Archeodweller3WU
Creature — Merfolk Wizard (U)
Vigilance
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may return target artifact, sorcery or instant card from your graveyard to your hand.
2/2
A UW artifact theme centering around recursion still feels strange, though. Having a blue general artifact angle go hand-in-hand with a white equipment angle would feel a lot more natural (and you could still have a little recursion).
ETA: How about self-recursion instead? Something like...
Kick Booster
Artifact — Equipment (C/U)
Sacrifice ~: Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and gains flying UEOT.
Whenever a creature you control becomes equipped, you may return ~ fro your graveyard to your hand.
Equip
Amnesia Extractor
Artifact (U) 1U, , Sacrifice ~: Target oayer puts the top two cards of their library into their graveyard.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent has more than <number> cards in their graveyard, you may return ~ from your graveyard to your hand.
I think the card is fine as far as the color pie is concerned. Not sure if it wants to be an uncommon draft-around, though it can most likely go just fine at either rarity. Also unsure if you can put enough artifacts to justify it (it's not like Iamur is conducive to artifact tokens...).
Uncommon build-around cards tend to give you a higher pay-off, so I think common is appropriate. The archetype I'm trying to push is an Equipment-based WU deck. Since the Equipments sacrifice themselves through Talisman, I think a recursion theme makes a lot of sense.
The "whenever an artifact enters the battlefield" clause doesn't fit that well though. You'll probably still never draft more than 5 Equipments, so the effect is very weak.
Clearly you intend to have an artifact matter theme in some colors. W/U seems a very strange place to do so if the intended approach is graveyard recursion (instead of using effects along the lines of Esperzoa, Retract, Ghostly Flicker and Kor Skyfisher).
Why do you think white doesn't fit for graveyard recursion? Isn't white the primary color that gets to recur artifacts? I can't think of a mono-blue card that returns artifacts from the graveyard. When I think about it more, it doesn't make much sense that blue is the second color for this theme. You need some beefy creatures so that the Talisman Equipments can do some work, so green would be the better color to pair it with.
Merfolk Archeodweller3WU
Creature — Merfolk Wizard (U)
Vigilance
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may return target artifact, sorcery or instant card from your graveyard to your hand.
2/2
I like this card, but I'm not planning to have multicolor cards at common or uncommon (hybrid cards instead). Maybe it could be blue/red hybrid because both colors can recur those things, for artifacts at least tertiary.
Kick Booster
Artifact — Equipment (C/U)
Sacrifice ~: Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and gains flying UEOT.
Whenever a creature you control becomes equipped, you may return ~ fro your graveyard to your hand.
Equip
An Equipment that gets better if you play even more Equipments sounds interesting. There's no flying in the set, though.
Amnesia Extractor
Artifact (U) 1U, , Sacrifice ~: Target oayer puts the top two cards of their library into their graveyard.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent has more than <number> cards in their graveyard, you may return ~ from your graveyard to your hand.
I have just a very basic card in the file, that also enables the recursion theme:
Chest of Wonders
Artifact (C) 1, T, Sacrifice Chest of Wonders: Scry 2, then draw a card.
[quote from="Circeus »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/creativity/custom-card-creation/custom-set-creation-and/736499-imr-iamur-reimagined-125-250-in-design?comment=34"]Clearly you intend to have an artifact matter theme in some colors. W/U seems a very strange place to do so if the intended approach is graveyard recursion (instead of using effects along the lines of Esperzoa, Retract, Ghostly Flicker and Kor Skyfisher).
Why do you think white doesn't fit for graveyard recursion? Isn't white the primary color that gets to recur artifacts? I can't think of a mono-blue card that returns artifacts from the graveyard. When I think about it more, it doesn't make much sense that blue is the second color for this theme. You need some beefy creatures so that the Talisman Equipments can do some work, so green would be the better color to pair it with.
If Remember the Fallen was multicolor or a version that could recur an equipment, I wouldn't have said anything. But Remember the Fallen feels clearly out-of-place in this set because it's a card which to me says "artifact set", not "equipment theme". Not to mention that it is unusually good recursion in general for white common: prior to Remember and Sanctum Gargoyle (who probably returned a lot of creatures), I believe the last card at common that specifically recurred creatures was Torii Watchward, the only white soulshift card in Saviors of Kamigawa.
I don't understand why you would say that artifact recursion doesn't fit the Equipment theme when that theme is about Equipments sacrificing themselves with Talisman. Equipments don't stay on the board for very long, so cards like Militant Inquisitor are very anti-synergistic with them. Graveyard recursion encourages a proactive playstyle and to play the Equipments in the way they are meant to be played.
It seems to me like a lot of discussions I have, or discussion on the CCC forum that I read, are of the form:
"X doesn't get Y very often."
"Yes, but here, here, and here, X got Y."
"These are exceptions. They had a very good reason to do it."
"I have a very good reason to do it."
"Your reason isn't valid."
(read with or without the grayed-out part.) For example, long after I established that Iamur is a waterworld, my playgroup complain when I show them non-blue Merfolk, or demand that every sea creature gets Islandwalk, failing to realize that in a waterworld, not everything that's associated with water can just automatically be blue. Yet, no one expressed those complaints when Wizards moved traditionally black creature types away from black for the horror-setting of Innistrad.
I'm maybe more liberal with design constraints than the average designer here, but I don't feel like I'm ever moving into completely unreasonable territory. Discussing the amount of artifact theme you need before white can get artifact recursion is splitting hairs to me. I think that Remember the Fallen would play very well in the set, and is, in my book, still on the verge of white's color pie. Putting it at uncommon is a different story. I can see the argument here, and it's probably something that I will do.
-------------
The question remains, which color combination should get the Equipment theme. Before that's decided, mapping out the archetypes by color combination would be useful:
Regrowing artifacts is perfectly within white's color pie. Note that in this article, Maro specifically said red only regrows sorceries when the set has a gaveyard theme, but he makes no such distinction (i.e., only in artifact-themed sets) for white regrowing artifacts. I believe they just don't use it a lot because most sets don't need the effect.
And I've stated that white basically gets this stuff either not at common (it has MULTIPLE "regrow a permanent" in standard right now!) or if the set is an artifact set. Which Iamur clearly is not.
@Apoquallyp
I want to make one thing clear: I have no issue with U/W having an equipment theme in general. I just think this is not quite the correct set or theme to justify reprinting Remember the Fallen at common specifically. I've explained my reasons for that, and as it happens I have very few issues with it being at uncommon. Regardless of my disagreement, this is still your set and that means you can put whatever you want in it no matter what I say, and if it turns out Remember the Fallen truly is the best common for it, then all the better for you.
Let's make Remember the Fallen an uncommon then and introduce another synergy card, something similar to Ironclad Slayer, at common.
Sorry for the slow response. Please don't think that I don't appreciate your feedback. I'm currently finishing the last bits of my studies, and then I'll have some more content updates.
And please don't think I just wanted things to go my way. I like to argue about the color pie all day, but I would hate to sound like I'm trying to wrestle some sort of creative control from you. I wouldn't have argued the point any further even if you had decided to keep Remember as a common (or should you find out later that you'd rather have it a common anyway).
Some general comments on archetype and bits of the design I hadn't really looked at before:
Like other before, I'm not a fan of lightless, but mostly because it causes the existence of three very similar mechanics in magic. I agree luminous somewhat helps preventing it from being just intimidate, however I'm also not sure why it absolutely cannot be just Intimidate. Lightless is not particularly aquatic and doesn't seem like it can be flavored to be so overwhelmingly specific to Iamur that it couldn't possibly be Intimidate. If you are going to keep it, something alluding to camouflage or mimicry would probably be a better name.
I'm glad, however, that you realized having no flying meant you had to introduce some sort of new (or at least replacement) evasion mechanic.
I'm pretty sure Luminous cannot work without a keyword of some sort.
I'm somewhat stumped as to why you insist on having two mana-producing mechanics (let's no fool ourselves: Melody's cost reduction amounts to that). Feed in particular is annoying since currently there is no proper mana sink to use it for. Honestly, I'd expect at least half of all cards with Feed to provide their own mana sinks! The fact this leads you to list four likely archetype that involve ramp should make it clear something troublesome is going on there.
Maybe the melody archetypes can play around by tapping creatures that want to stay tapped?
Honestly, I want more mechanics that reflect the aquatic nature of the environment. It's such a unique aspect of Iamur as a set that I think it should be reflected in its mechanics more. At this stage Lightless is probably the biggest offender, and Talisman comes in second as its flavor doesn't seem to work too well as a "lost treasure" mechanic (which is the only reason you could justify an artifact-related mechanic in an otherwise not artifact-focused set).
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Well, it is not necessary on a card with Rebound, since Rebound creates a replacement effect that only triggers if it was cast from your hand and resolves. I have no idea how a card can fulfill all of these requirements while being exiled by some other effect at the same time. That is not the case with Dive as I see it, which is more similar to Flickerform, which has all those caveats in the text.
We might have a different understanding what is "hard to make", to me most of the information for the regular use of a mechanic, especially if it includes already established plays in a different way, have to be in the reminder text. Like the "enters the battlefield tapped" clause if you declare it as an attacker. That's really unintuitive and counter to the established enters-the-battlefield way of playing, and something you need to know by playing just that one mechanic.
Also, when exactly does the creature emerge? Since it is a triggered ability, it should go onto the stack when you declare it as an attacker, right? That would mean that diving creatures should be immune to "when this creature becomes blocked by a creature, it deals X damage to that creature." since they aren't creatures yet when they are declared as blockers/are not on the battlefield when the ability gets triggered if they somehow still count already.
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
Escorted by Turtles 1G
Instant (C)
Up to two target creatures each gain indestructible until end of turn.
With such a faithful protector by her side, Kayisha felt confident to venture further out into the sea - much further.
Ship Graveyard
Land (R)
T: Add C to your mana pool.
4, T, Sacrifice Ship Graveyard: Put a 2/2 black Zombie Pirate creature token onto the battlefield tapped for each artifact card in your graveyard.
"Why are we drawn to this place? Is it the treasure or the curse? Are they the same after all?"
-Kayisha
Price of Neglect 1B
Instant (U)
Destroy target creature that entered the battlefield this turn.
In that moment, Kayisha knew that her journey had come to an end. But in reality, it was just about to begin.
Journey's End 1BB
Sorcery (R)
Exile target creature or planeswalker.
Kayisha traversed the barrier that separates her realm from the Overworld, only to wither and die in the heat of the undamped sun.
Romantic Rescue W
Instant (C)
Return target creature you control to its owner's hand. You gain life equal to its toughness.
"Well, Kayisha, you are quite an unlikely catch!"
Mastery of the Sea 1(G/U)
Sorcery (C)
Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a land and/or a Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent creature card from among them and put those cards into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
"You revere the gods of the deep? Do you not know of all the fear and anguish they have caused?"
-Kayisha
Kayisha, the Land-Dweller 2GG
Planeswalker — Kayisha (M)
+1: Look at the top card of your library. You may put it on the bottom of your library. If it's a land card, you may put it onto the battlefield tapped.
-2: Put two 1/1 green Nymph Druid creature tokens onto the battlefield. They have “T: Add R, G, or W to your mana pool.”
-6: You get an emblem with "Creature spells you cast can’t be countered" and "Creatures you control have vigilance and indestructible."
{3}
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
Also, did you get any feedback on dive? I've been curious about that.
I agree.
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
Is the use of a gerund form more ambiguous? "Kayisha traversed the barrier that separates her realm from the Overworld, only to end up withering and dying in the heat of the undamped sun." I don't want to take away from the flavor of the card when it stands on its own.
Our Commander round was a bit overshadowed by rants that we're actually playing Archenemy instead of Commander, so it fell a bit flat. But I still presented someone with an adjusted wording:
Dive {cost} ({cost}, T: Exile this creature and all permanents attached to it. They return to the battlefield as you attack or block with this creature from exile. Dive only as a sorcery.)
He needed some time to wrap his head around the idea that you can block with a creature from exile. He declared a diver as an attacker correctly when I presented him with a simple scenario, and also managed to block correctly. When I asked him whether or not he thinks that you can block with a dive creature that's under an Oblivion Ring, he answered no. He noted that he liked the flavor, but appeared to be still somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of attacking or blocking from exile.
I wanted to ask more people on Tuesday, but I was lazy and forgot.
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
Assuming you mean the fact that she found the sun's ray to be very dangerous, how about this: "The barrier between her realm and Overworld crossed, Kayisha found the undamped sun's rays more lethal than she could have ever imagined." The dangerousness is still clear, but we drop any straight statement that she died--there's basically no way to read either versions you've proposed without it being a statement of her death.
I think as long as it says that she was dying, not that she actually did, it's fine.
So, I changed it to: "[...] only to face death, withering in the heat of the undamped sun."
Another thing I'd like your input on:
Gemseeker 2U
Creature - Merfolk Scout (C)
Whenever an artifact enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on Gemseeker.
2/2
Exported this card one-to-one from original Iamur. Is this card fine in blue or are the +1/+1 counters too unblue?
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
I think the card is fine as far as the color pie is concerned. Not sure if it wants to be an uncommon draft-around, though it can most likely go just fine at either rarity. Also unsure if you can put enough artifacts to justify it (it's not like Iamur is conducive to artifact tokens...).
Clearly you intend to have an artifact matter theme in some colors. W/U seems a very strange place to do so if the intended approach is graveyard recursion (instead of using effects along the lines of Esperzoa, Retract, Ghostly Flicker and Kor Skyfisher). In fact, if you're going to put an artifact recursion effect in the set, I think it'd work better as a monoblue or multicolor-only effect:
Blast into the Future 2U
Sorcery (C)
Choose one or both —
* Return target creature to its owner's hand.
* Return target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand.
Merfolk Archeodweller 3WU
Creature — Merfolk Wizard (U)
Vigilance
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may return target artifact, sorcery or instant card from your graveyard to your hand.
2/2
A UW artifact theme centering around recursion still feels strange, though. Having a blue general artifact angle go hand-in-hand with a white equipment angle would feel a lot more natural (and you could still have a little recursion).
ETA: How about self-recursion instead? Something like...
Kick Booster
Artifact — Equipment (C/U)
Sacrifice ~: Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and gains flying UEOT.
Whenever a creature you control becomes equipped, you may return ~ fro your graveyard to your hand.
Equip
Amnesia Extractor
Artifact (U)
1U, , Sacrifice ~: Target oayer puts the top two cards of their library into their graveyard.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent has more than <number> cards in their graveyard, you may return ~ from your graveyard to your hand.
Uncommon build-around cards tend to give you a higher pay-off, so I think common is appropriate. The archetype I'm trying to push is an Equipment-based WU deck. Since the Equipments sacrifice themselves through Talisman, I think a recursion theme makes a lot of sense.
The "whenever an artifact enters the battlefield" clause doesn't fit that well though. You'll probably still never draft more than 5 Equipments, so the effect is very weak.
Why do you think white doesn't fit for graveyard recursion? Isn't white the primary color that gets to recur artifacts? I can't think of a mono-blue card that returns artifacts from the graveyard. When I think about it more, it doesn't make much sense that blue is the second color for this theme. You need some beefy creatures so that the Talisman Equipments can do some work, so green would be the better color to pair it with.
I like this card, but I'm not planning to have multicolor cards at common or uncommon (hybrid cards instead). Maybe it could be blue/red hybrid because both colors can recur those things, for artifacts at least tertiary.
An Equipment that gets better if you play even more Equipments sounds interesting. There's no flying in the set, though.
I have just a very basic card in the file, that also enables the recursion theme:
Chest of Wonders
Artifact (C)
1, T, Sacrifice Chest of Wonders: Scry 2, then draw a card.
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
Because white does not get artifacte recursion at common unless the block itself has an artifact theme (Custodi Squire, Razor Hippogriff, Sanctum Gargoyle, Salvage Scout, Remember the Fallen, Leonin Squire, Ritual of Restoration). Mine Excavation was printed while white was still an artifact-loving color. Nothing like it ever appeared at common, e.g. in a core set.
White equipment theme outside of artifact sets involve cards like Militant Inquisitor, Strength of Arms, Ironclad Slayer, Stoneforge Acolyte, Weapons Trainer, Sunspear Shikari, Kor Duelist, Auriok Survivors, Kemba's Legion etc.
If Remember the Fallen was multicolor or a version that could recur an equipment, I wouldn't have said anything. But Remember the Fallen feels clearly out-of-place in this set because it's a card which to me says "artifact set", not "equipment theme". Not to mention that it is unusually good recursion in general for white common: prior to Remember and Sanctum Gargoyle (who probably returned a lot of creatures), I believe the last card at common that specifically recurred creatures was Torii Watchward, the only white soulshift card in Saviors of Kamigawa.
It seems to me like a lot of discussions I have, or discussion on the CCC forum that I read, are of the form:
"X doesn't get Y very often."
"Yes, but here, here, and here, X got Y."
"These are exceptions. They had a very good reason to do it."
"I have a very good reason to do it."
"Your reason isn't valid."
(read with or without the grayed-out part.) For example, long after I established that Iamur is a waterworld, my playgroup complain when I show them non-blue Merfolk, or demand that every sea creature gets Islandwalk, failing to realize that in a waterworld, not everything that's associated with water can just automatically be blue. Yet, no one expressed those complaints when Wizards moved traditionally black creature types away from black for the horror-setting of Innistrad.
I'm maybe more liberal with design constraints than the average designer here, but I don't feel like I'm ever moving into completely unreasonable territory. Discussing the amount of artifact theme you need before white can get artifact recursion is splitting hairs to me. I think that Remember the Fallen would play very well in the set, and is, in my book, still on the verge of white's color pie. Putting it at uncommon is a different story. I can see the argument here, and it's probably something that I will do.
-------------
The question remains, which color combination should get the Equipment theme. Before that's decided, mapping out the archetypes by color combination would be useful:
(W/U) Equipments?
(U/B) Feed Ramp
(B/R) Color-Change Lightless
(R/G) "Death Metal" (aggressive Melody)
(G/W) Seahorses?
(W/B) Color-Change Lightless?
(U/R) Dive
(B/G) Melody/Feed Ramp
(R/W) Tokens
(G/U) Melody Ramp
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
And I've stated that white basically gets this stuff either not at common (it has MULTIPLE "regrow a permanent" in standard right now!) or if the set is an artifact set. Which Iamur clearly is not.
@Apoquallyp
I want to make one thing clear: I have no issue with U/W having an equipment theme in general. I just think this is not quite the correct set or theme to justify reprinting Remember the Fallen at common specifically. I've explained my reasons for that, and as it happens I have very few issues with it being at uncommon. Regardless of my disagreement, this is still your set and that means you can put whatever you want in it no matter what I say, and if it turns out Remember the Fallen truly is the best common for it, then all the better for you.
Sorry for the slow response. Please don't think that I don't appreciate your feedback. I'm currently finishing the last bits of my studies, and then I'll have some more content updates.
Completed sets:
Iamur — The Underwater Set
Overworld — Pirates vs. Octopuses
Esparand — The Sands of Time
Unfinished Sets:
Siege of Ravnica — Eldrazi in Ravnica
Shandalar — The Mana Set
Iamur Reimagined — Iamur v2
You can find more creative projects on my page Antaresdesigns!
Some general comments on archetype and bits of the design I hadn't really looked at before: