Hey, all. Making a custom set with my friends, that includes (at this moment, very early in the process) a mechanic called 'Bounty', that goes on creatures. Bounty reads:
Bounty - Whenever this creature dies, any opponent may pay 1. If they do, {A thing happens}.
That isn't what I am worried about (though criticisms are welcome!). Someone suggested a bounty hunter creature that reduces all bounty costs to zero. Thinking a little out of the set, I thought about wording it differently. Here's a sample of the creature I came up with:
Judge's Brother
2BB
Creature - Human Rogue
Whenever a creature dies, add 1 to your mana pool.
2/2
My friends believe this is unprintable, opening up too much room for overall brokenness (we are pretending that this is a real set, or rather, that it could interact with other cards). I, chuckling with glee, see this as a perfect interaction.
What do you think, MTGS? If it is broken, would adding 'an opponent controls' make it less so?
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Abilties are hard to break. Its the sample cards that have to be judged as such.
Bounty as a keyword sounds like a purely negative one, though -- an ability that only the opponent can use. Wizards tends to stay away from things like that.
Judge's brother is fine, even with the bounty mechanic.
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I actually misrepresented Bounty a bit. While it does appear on some creatures (and some doozy's - it is definitely a drawback that allows us to play with power levels) it will appear on more enchantment-aura's, allowing you to 'place a bounty' on another creature.
Thanks for the feedback on Judge's Brother! I now just need to show overwhelming support/opposition...
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I say compare it to Pawn of Ulamog. It's similar in a sense, but I do think you should consider sticking with a nontoken clause to avoid infinites. That seems to be pretty popular these days (Soul of the Harvest, Harvester of Souls). I like that it pays you for killing oppnents' creatures, though it's a little odd that you get paid bounties on your own guys, you know?
So here are my two suggestions:
Whenever a nontoken creature dies, add 1 to your mana pool.
OR
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, add 1 to your mana pool.
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It's a bit more complex, but you might try what I did. I've had about two dozen or so cards waiting in the wings for an old-west themed set, and bounty was the name of one of the mechanics I used. I templated it like so:
Bounty - [ACTION] (Whenever a creature with a Death Mark dies, you may [ACTION]. Collect this bounty only once per turn.)
'Collect this bounty' being defined in the rules as performing the [ACTION] from this card. The inspiration for me doing it this way was partially from the Star Wars TCG. As for Death Marks, I had many cards that put Death Marks (represented by tokens) on creatures.
I've never worked in earnest on the set but I did a 'Cowboys vs. Indians' playtest using decks made of cards that supported this mechanic, and cards that supported another mechanic/tribe in the set, and it was fairly fun.
So, basically, no I don't think it's broken. I think it's got a lot of design space. Maybe what I did will help you, maybe it won't. I will say that I would recommend against trying to balance your custom set with WotC's cards. Not only is that a monumental task, but it's one that will have to be performed with every WotC release, unless you want your set to become obsolete.
Yeah, this is a Wild West set, too. No official name yet, but the block codename is Good/Bad/Ugly.
That was the codename I used! Though with the work I've put into it so far, it looks like it would be split into two sets instead of three, so I was planning on going with The Quick/The Dead
Great minds, eh? Post up more of what you end up with, I'd be anxious to see it. I've always thought a block with an american old-west setting would be awesome, I'm a bit sad you're beating me to the punch
We're still fairly early in the process, but we've got a team of about 8 who have been throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks.
Here's the Flavor (we have no name for the plane, so it's not complete yet)
The plane of ~~ has seen better days. The strong mana that once flowed through the plane has been cut off for reasons unknown, and now the inhabitants of ~~ have begun spreading out in search of new sources of power and new opportunities. This destabilization has made people desperate, with crime and corruption running amok in the new, lawless frontier. Judges and bounty hunters do what they can to keep the criminal element in check, but on the edge of civilization, it is every man for himself.
We *are* trying to make it compatible with other sets, mostly because we don't want to get into insular design patterns.
The general thought is to get across a sense of desperation. We are, admittedly, playing with fire, but we like what we've done so far and are willing to scrap the whole concept if it doesn't play well.
Our first mechanic was "Scarcity". It reads:
Scarcity {Cost} - You may cast this card for it’s scarcity cost. If you do, sacrifice a land.
Wording could probably be cleaned up, and a new name (Pioneer?) could be used. Here are some examples:
Noble Savage - 2GG
Scarcity: G
t: add GG to your mana pool.
1/1 - Uncommon
Burn the Harvest 2RR
Sorcery
Scarcity - R
Destroy target land. -Uncommon
Here is a card that definitely helps with scarcity
Fertile Soil
Land
T: Add {1} to your mana pool.
When ~ would go to the graveyard, you may search your library for a basic land
card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Shuffle your Library.
Uncommon
Then we have Bounty, here are some a few cards for that.
Blue Bandito - 1U
Creature - Human Rouge
~ is Unblockable
Bounty - When this creature dies, any opponent may pay
1. If they do, they Draw a card
2/2 Uncommon
Goblin Bandit 2R
Creature - Goblin Rouge
Bounty - When this creature dies, any opponent may pay
1. If they do, they may deal 2 damage to target creature or player.
4/3 Common
Here is a shiny mythic, with weird templating issues.
J'on, Geist born 1BBB
Legendary- Spirit Assassin
BB: exile target creature
DeathTouch
Bounty - When ~ dies any opponent may pay 1. If they do, they may take a creature exiled with ~, and then repeat this process until all creatures are gone.
4/3 - Mythic Rare
And then we have the most under-developed mechanic so far, Scrap. The idea here is that they have to reuse what they have. It reads:
Scrap X - when this card goes to the graveyard, you may pay X. If you do, put X 1/1 Artifact Creature scrap tokens into play with "Sacrifice this creature: add {1} to your mana pool.
Prospectors Axe - 3
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/ +0
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player you may
search your library for a basic land card and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library.
Equip 1
Scrap 1
Uncommon
Here's a card that is meant to interact with scrap tokens.
Assembled Contraption {4}
Artifact creature - Horror
When ~ ETB, ~ gets a -1/-1 counter for each tapped land you control.
6/6 uncommon
And here is just a cool creature that I designed that I like.
Field-Swarm Beetle - 2BB
Creature - Insect
Flying
~ power/toughness are equal to the number of insects you control
Sacrifice a land, T : Put two tokens onto the battlefield tapped that are a copy of
Field-Swarm Beetle.
*/* - Rare
The whole "Sacrifice Land" thing is definitely playing with fire, but we intend on exploring that space and seeing if there is any meat on that bone.
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Behold: I teach you the Ubermensch! He is this lightning!
He is this Madness!
Burn the harvest is strictly better than raze. That makes it too good, given that raze was printed during a time when wasteland was acceptable. Today, it is not, and definitely not a strictly better version.
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
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Bounty - Whenever this creature dies, any opponent may pay 1. If they do, {A thing happens}.
That isn't what I am worried about (though criticisms are welcome!). Someone suggested a bounty hunter creature that reduces all bounty costs to zero. Thinking a little out of the set, I thought about wording it differently. Here's a sample of the creature I came up with:
Judge's Brother
2BB
Creature - Human Rogue
Whenever a creature dies, add 1 to your mana pool.
2/2
My friends believe this is unprintable, opening up too much room for overall brokenness (we are pretending that this is a real set, or rather, that it could interact with other cards). I, chuckling with glee, see this as a perfect interaction.
What do you think, MTGS? If it is broken, would adding 'an opponent controls' make it less so?
Bounty as a keyword sounds like a purely negative one, though -- an ability that only the opponent can use. Wizards tends to stay away from things like that.
Judge's brother is fine, even with the bounty mechanic.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
I actually misrepresented Bounty a bit. While it does appear on some creatures (and some doozy's - it is definitely a drawback that allows us to play with power levels) it will appear on more enchantment-aura's, allowing you to 'place a bounty' on another creature.
Thanks for the feedback on Judge's Brother! I now just need to show overwhelming support/opposition...
So here are my two suggestions:
Whenever a nontoken creature dies, add 1 to your mana pool.
OR
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, add 1 to your mana pool.
Bounty - [ACTION] (Whenever a creature with a Death Mark dies, you may [ACTION]. Collect this bounty only once per turn.)
'Collect this bounty' being defined in the rules as performing the [ACTION] from this card. The inspiration for me doing it this way was partially from the Star Wars TCG. As for Death Marks, I had many cards that put Death Marks (represented by tokens) on creatures.
I've never worked in earnest on the set but I did a 'Cowboys vs. Indians' playtest using decks made of cards that supported this mechanic, and cards that supported another mechanic/tribe in the set, and it was fairly fun.
So, basically, no I don't think it's broken. I think it's got a lot of design space. Maybe what I did will help you, maybe it won't. I will say that I would recommend against trying to balance your custom set with WotC's cards. Not only is that a monumental task, but it's one that will have to be performed with every WotC release, unless you want your set to become obsolete.
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
That was the codename I used! Though with the work I've put into it so far, it looks like it would be split into two sets instead of three, so I was planning on going with The Quick/The Dead
Great minds, eh? Post up more of what you end up with, I'd be anxious to see it. I've always thought a block with an american old-west setting would be awesome, I'm a bit sad you're beating me to the punch
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
We're still fairly early in the process, but we've got a team of about 8 who have been throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks.
Here's the Flavor (we have no name for the plane, so it's not complete yet)
The plane of ~~ has seen better days. The strong mana that once flowed through the plane has been cut off for reasons unknown, and now the inhabitants of ~~ have begun spreading out in search of new sources of power and new opportunities. This destabilization has made people desperate, with crime and corruption running amok in the new, lawless frontier. Judges and bounty hunters do what they can to keep the criminal element in check, but on the edge of civilization, it is every man for himself.
We *are* trying to make it compatible with other sets, mostly because we don't want to get into insular design patterns.
The general thought is to get across a sense of desperation. We are, admittedly, playing with fire, but we like what we've done so far and are willing to scrap the whole concept if it doesn't play well.
Our first mechanic was "Scarcity". It reads:
Scarcity {Cost} - You may cast this card for it’s scarcity cost. If you do, sacrifice a land.
Wording could probably be cleaned up, and a new name (Pioneer?) could be used. Here are some examples:
Stop that! - 2UU
Instant
Scarcity 1U
Counter Target spell - Common
Noble Savage - 2GG
Scarcity: G
t: add GG to your mana pool.
1/1 - Uncommon
Burn the Harvest 2RR
Sorcery
Scarcity - R
Destroy target land. -Uncommon
Here is a card that definitely helps with scarcity
Fertile Soil
Land
T: Add {1} to your mana pool.
When ~ would go to the graveyard, you may search your library for a basic land
card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Shuffle your Library.
Uncommon
Then we have Bounty, here are some a few cards for that.
Blue Bandito - 1U
Creature - Human Rouge
~ is Unblockable
Bounty - When this creature dies, any opponent may pay
1. If they do, they Draw a card
2/2 Uncommon
Goblin Bandit 2R
Creature - Goblin Rouge
Bounty - When this creature dies, any opponent may pay
1. If they do, they may deal 2 damage to target creature or player.
4/3 Common
Here is a shiny mythic, with weird templating issues.
J'on, Geist born 1BBB
Legendary- Spirit Assassin
BB: exile target creature
DeathTouch
Bounty - When ~ dies any opponent may pay 1. If they do, they may take a creature exiled with ~, and then repeat this process until all creatures are gone.
4/3 - Mythic Rare
And then we have the most under-developed mechanic so far, Scrap. The idea here is that they have to reuse what they have. It reads:
Scrap X - when this card goes to the graveyard, you may pay X. If you do, put X 1/1 Artifact Creature scrap tokens into play with "Sacrifice this creature: add {1} to your mana pool.
Here are a few.
Special Hoe - 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+0
Equip 3
Scrap 2
Prospectors Axe - 3
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/ +0
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player you may
search your library for a basic land card and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library.
Equip 1
Scrap 1
Uncommon
Worker Golem 6
Artifact Creature - Golem
Trample
Scrap 4
5/4
Common
Here's a card that is meant to interact with scrap tokens.
Assembled Contraption {4}
Artifact creature - Horror
When ~ ETB, ~ gets a -1/-1 counter for each tapped land you control.
6/6 uncommon
And here is just a cool creature that I designed that I like.
Field-Swarm Beetle - 2BB
Creature - Insect
Flying
~ power/toughness are equal to the number of insects you control
Sacrifice a land, T : Put two tokens onto the battlefield tapped that are a copy of
Field-Swarm Beetle.
*/* - Rare
The whole "Sacrifice Land" thing is definitely playing with fire, but we intend on exploring that space and seeing if there is any meat on that bone.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn