A little while ago, I decided to play with the idea of a more sci-fi based MtG rather than the high fantasy it currently is. From that, the Synew were born. These were robots and cyborgs, all with a hive mind. As such, they're all artifact creatures, and many have effects similar to Allies or Slivers, which care about the number of Synews you have in your synch (synch is the group noun for Synew, like murder is for crows, or pride is for lions).
Their unique ability is Sync N--[COST] ([COST]: The next N damage that would be dealt to this creature is dealt to target Synew creature you control instead.)
Quick flavor: The Synew began with Jorel, a brilliant artificer who had created the Synchmother, an organic machine designed to reproduce. But something went wrong (or so the artificer thought), and instead the Synchmother began creating her own children. She created new Synew, unlike herself; she resurrected dead creatures and fitted them with Synew technology; and worst of all, she assimilated living beings, both sapient and non, into her synch. She did this of her own will, which had unintentionally been granted to her by her creator. In fear, Jorel tried to destroy his machine and its children, but the Synchmother defended her new family. Jorel was struck down, unable to deal with the distribution of pain among the synch. Angered at what the man had tried to do, the Synchmother declared her hatred of the Organics, and uploaded that hatred into all her children. They vowed to convert all Organics into Synew, to rid the world of the Organic Evils, and never to rest until their family was complete. Until the world was their synch.
Spoiler list is below. Ignore the rarities, as I never got around to deciding those. And some of the costs might not be perfect, either...but whatever. Note: Techlings are a rank of Synew, though I haven't yet decided what determines whether you're a Techling or not.
Synew
Synch Guardian
Artifact Creature — Synew Knight (C)
Sync 5— ( : The next 5 damage that would be dealt to this creature is dealt to target Synew creature you control instead.)
5/5
Techling Diviner
Artifact Creature — Synew (C)
Whenever you draw a card for the first time each turn, you may draw an additional card.
1/2
Master of the Techblade
Artifact Creature — Synew Warrior (C)
Deathtouch
Whenever a creature dealt damage by Master of the Techblade this turn dies, its controller loses 1 life.
2/2
The Resurrected
Artifact Creature — Synew Zombie (C)
Synew creatures you control have “ , sacrifice another creature: Regenerate this creature.”
2/2
Synew Resurrectionist
Artifact Creature — Synew Skeleton (C)
When Synew Resurrectionist dies, return another target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
2/1
Techling Flamethrower
Artifact Creature — Synew (U)
Double strike
, : Techling Flamethrower deals damage to target creature or player equal to the number of Synew creatures you control.
4/3
Elven Techling
Artifact Creature — Synew Elf (C)
Sync 3— ( : The next 3 damage that would be dealt to this creature is dealt to target Synew creature you control instead.)
: Add to your mana pool.
1/1
Wielder of the Piercing Blade
Artifact Creature — Synew (C)
Trample
2/4
Component Amalgamation
Artifact Creature — Synew Skeleton (C)
Sacrifice Component Amalgamation: Regenerate another Synew creature you control.
1/1
Synew Recruit
Artifact Creature — Synew Human (C)
3/3
Synew SynchmotherX
Artifact Creature — Synew (C)
When Synew Synchmother enters the battlefield, put X 1/1 colorless Synew artifact creature token onto the battlefield with “Sync 1— ”
4/4
Sync is parasitic. It does absolutely nothing if you don't control a synew creatures. Fine if you're playing limited or block constructed. Not so fine if you're playing any other format.
It also has memory problems and likely needs an "until end of turn" clause.
in spoiler, since you noted that the costs and rarities aren't finalized:
A lot of these cards have absolutely no business being common. Techling diviner? Absolutely nuts at common. Synew resurectionist? Yeah, I can see limited games going into time because you have multiple copies of it. Syncmother, even if it weren't a sync, is undercosted. Being a sync just makes it just plain abusive, especially with the resssurected (which is also a common). All of these, at the very _least_ should be uncommons, and likely cost 1 to 2 more. Resurrectionist just plain shouldn't exist, or be a rare (ditto diviner), because it steps on the toes of what makes slivers unique.
"Sync is parasitic. It does absolutely nothing if you don't control a synew creatures." The same can be said of 99% of Sliver abilities...yet Slivers exist.
Hm. That... that is true... I wonder if there's a way to fix Sync in a similar manner? Would it be too inelegant to add creature-specific abilities similar to this?:
Sync N--[COST]
As long as you control no other Synew creatures, this creature has [ability].
I mean... I thought of that version, but as you mentioned, it seems like it might just be broken. Also, how does that make it less parasitic than the current version?
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Their unique ability is Sync N--[COST] ([COST]: The next N damage that would be dealt to this creature is dealt to target Synew creature you control instead.)
Quick flavor: The Synew began with Jorel, a brilliant artificer who had created the Synchmother, an organic machine designed to reproduce. But something went wrong (or so the artificer thought), and instead the Synchmother began creating her own children. She created new Synew, unlike herself; she resurrected dead creatures and fitted them with Synew technology; and worst of all, she assimilated living beings, both sapient and non, into her synch. She did this of her own will, which had unintentionally been granted to her by her creator. In fear, Jorel tried to destroy his machine and its children, but the Synchmother defended her new family. Jorel was struck down, unable to deal with the distribution of pain among the synch. Angered at what the man had tried to do, the Synchmother declared her hatred of the Organics, and uploaded that hatred into all her children. They vowed to convert all Organics into Synew, to rid the world of the Organic Evils, and never to rest until their family was complete. Until the world was their synch.
Spoiler list is below. Ignore the rarities, as I never got around to deciding those. And some of the costs might not be perfect, either...but whatever. Note: Techlings are a rank of Synew, though I haven't yet decided what determines whether you're a Techling or not.
Synew
Artifact Creature — Synew Knight (C)
Sync 5— ( : The next 5 damage that would be dealt to this creature is dealt to target Synew creature you control instead.)
5/5
Techling Diviner
Artifact Creature — Synew (C)
Whenever you draw a card for the first time each turn, you may draw an additional card.
1/2
Master of the Techblade
Artifact Creature — Synew Warrior (C)
Deathtouch
Whenever a creature dealt damage by Master of the Techblade this turn dies, its controller loses 1 life.
2/2
The Resurrected
Artifact Creature — Synew Zombie (C)
Synew creatures you control have “ , sacrifice another creature: Regenerate this creature.”
2/2
Synew Resurrectionist
Artifact Creature — Synew Skeleton (C)
When Synew Resurrectionist dies, return another target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
2/1
Techling Flamethrower
Artifact Creature — Synew (U)
Double strike
, : Techling Flamethrower deals damage to target creature or player equal to the number of Synew creatures you control.
4/3
Elven Techling
Artifact Creature — Synew Elf (C)
Sync 3— ( : The next 3 damage that would be dealt to this creature is dealt to target Synew creature you control instead.)
: Add to your mana pool.
1/1
Wielder of the Piercing Blade
Artifact Creature — Synew (C)
Trample
2/4
Component Amalgamation
Artifact Creature — Synew Skeleton (C)
Sacrifice Component Amalgamation: Regenerate another Synew creature you control.
1/1
Synew Recruit
Artifact Creature — Synew Human (C)
3/3
Synew Synchmother X
Artifact Creature — Synew (C)
When Synew Synchmother enters the battlefield, put X 1/1 colorless Synew artifact creature token onto the battlefield with “Sync 1— ”
4/4
It also has memory problems and likely needs an "until end of turn" clause.
in spoiler, since you noted that the costs and rarities aren't finalized:
A lot of these cards have absolutely no business being common. Techling diviner? Absolutely nuts at common. Synew resurectionist? Yeah, I can see limited games going into time because you have multiple copies of it. Syncmother, even if it weren't a sync, is undercosted. Being a sync just makes it just plain abusive, especially with the resssurected (which is also a common). All of these, at the very _least_ should be uncommons, and likely cost 1 to 2 more. Resurrectionist just plain shouldn't exist, or be a rare (ditto diviner), because it steps on the toes of what makes slivers unique.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn