For those who don't know, I am and have been working on a custom Ravnica block for about two years now (the origin, evolution, and destiny of which is another story). For now please be content to know in short that Creedmoor commissioned it, you all (64 of you know who you are) collaborated about and contributed to it, and I have "completed" it - well, sort of. I have at least finally assembled (with your help) ten custom guild mechanics that are all suitable for play testing. It has been no small task. Sure, it's easy to assemble ten mechanics, but this group of ten had so many requirements to meet (not the least of which was quality) that it literally took two years to assemble them! Here's just a few of the more difficult criteria that caused this endeavor to take so long:
1. I wanted a fairly balanced ratio of activated abilities and triggered abilities.
2. I wanted a fairly balanced ratio of keyword abilities, keyword actions, and ability words.
3. I wanted a fairly balance ratio of mechanics that could appear on any card type vs. those that could only appear on creature cards. (There's plenty of fantastic custom "creature only" mechanics I could have used to finish a year ago.)
The two sets of the block are titled Lords of Ravnica and Guild Wars. Each set will highlight five of the ten guilds. Each of the following spoilers contains two commons of each guild's mechanic under the header of the set that they will appear in. Note that the sample designs have not gone through development. So, while it would be nice to receive feedback on the individual cards, it would be nicer to receive feedback on the individual mechanics and especially the suite of mechanics as a whole. Thank you and enjoy!
LORDS OF RAVNICA
Rules of Engagement (Common) 1(W/U)
Enchantment Law – It’s against the law to cast spells during combat. Justice – At the beginning of each upkeep, if an opponent broke the law last turn, tap target creature that player controls.
Judge's Apprentice (Common) 1U
Creature - Human Advisor
1/3 Law – It’s against the law to block Judge's Apprentice. Justice – At the beginning of each upkeep, if an opponent broke the law last turn, draw a card.
Golgari Swarm-Warden (Common) 1(B/G)
Creature - Insect
1/2
Deathtouch
Swarm BG(BG, Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of 1/1 black and green Insect creature tokens equal to this card's toughness onto the battlefield. Swarm only as a sorcery.)
Dreg Roach (Common) 2B
Creature - Insect
3/2
Swarm 2B(2B, Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of 1/1 black and green Insect creature tokens equal to this card's toughness onto the battlefield. Swarm only as a sorcery.)
Dragonbat (Common) 2B
Creature - Bat Dragon
1/2
Flying Malicious - As long as a player has 10 or less life, Dragonbat has "R: Dragonbat gets +1/+0 until end of turn."
Depths of Despair (Common) 1B
Instant
Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn. Malicious - If a player has 10 or less life, that creature gets -4/-4 instead.
Scar-Clan Initiate (Common) (R/G)
Creature - Human Warrior
1/1
Berserk RG(Double this creature’s base power. Sacrifice it at end of turn.)
Gruul Savage (Common) 2R
Creature - Orc Berserker
2/2
Haste
Berserk 4R(Double this creature’s base power. Sacrifice it at end of turn.)
Simic Biomancer (Common) 2(G/U)
Creature - Vedalken Wizard
2/2
Refresh (Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, untap up to one basic land.)
Squirtle (Common) 1G
Creature - Squirrel
1/1
Refresh (Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, untap up to one basic land.) U: Squirtle becomes a 1/4 blue Turtle until end of turn.
GUILD WARS
Gather Intelligence (Common) (U/B)
Instant
Spy on each player. (Look at the top card of each player's library.)
Draw a card.
Paranoia (Common) 1U
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
When Paranoia enters the battlefield, spy on enchanted creature's controller. (Look at the top card of his or her library.)
Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
Loxodon Brute (Common) 3G
Creature – Elephant Warrior
3/2
Trample
Thrive (When this creature enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control with power or toughness less than this creature’s power or toughness.)
Swans of Dawn (Common) 2W
Creature – Bird
1/3
Flying
Thrive (When this creature enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control with power or toughness less than this creature’s power or toughness.)
Moonlight Mortician (Common) (W/B)
Creature – Spirit
1/1
Martyr (T: Sacrifice a creature. Martyr only as a sorcery.)
Whenever a creature you control dies, you gain 1 life.
Unholy Disciple (Common) 1B
Creature – Vampire
2/1
Martyr (T: Sacrifice a creature. Martyr only as a sorcery.)
Whenever a creature you control dies, target creature you control gets +2/+1 until end of turn.
Frantic Research (Common) (U/R)
Draw two cards, then discard two cards.
Duplicate UR(UR, Discard this card: Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copy.)
Ancient Arcana (Rare) 2UURR
Sorcery
Return each instant and sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
Duplicate UR(UR, Discard this card: Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copy.)
Lead the Charge (Common) (R/W)
Instant Assault - Until end of turn, target creature gets +1/+0 for each creature that attacked this turn and gains first strike.
Card Name (Rare) RW
Sorcery Assault - EFFECT for each creature that attacked this turn.
SIMIC Slithery Blob (Common) 2(G/U)
Creature - Ooze
2/1
Mutate 2 - 4GU(You may cast this for its mutate cost. If you do, it enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it.)
Slithery Blob can't be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach.
Skyweaver Adapt (Common) 1G
Creature - Spider Drake
1/3
Mutate 1 - 3U(You may cast this for its mutate cost. If you do it enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Reach
Skyweaver Adapt has flying as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it.
SELESNYA Lightender Dryad (Common) (G/W)
Creature - Dryad
1/2
Thrive 2 — 1(G/W)(1(G/W), Discard this card: Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two target creatures.)
Swans of Dawn (Common) 1WW
Creature - Bird
2/3
Flying
Thrive 3 — 3WW(3WW, Discard this card: Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to three target creatures.)
IZZET Thaumaturgy (Common) (U/R)
Instant
Reload 2UR(You may cast this for its reload cost. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
Switch target creature's power and toughness until end of turn.
Glimpse (Common) U
Sorcery
Reload 1U(You may cast this for its reload cost. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
Scry 1.
Quicken: A little boring and doesn't seem particularly Azorius. Maybe.
Swarm: So... token scavenge? Okay, I guess
Malicious: Solid
Bloodrite: Should be either reducing cost or adding counters, both is more easily confusing and inelegant. This should be an N variable keyword, to accommodate for the fact that not every creature is of similar value, making the mechanic much harder to develop. The alternative is to remove the sacrifice, but either way I recommend the first change.
Mutate: Seems forced. I like was this trying to do, but the pieces don't come together well.
Spy: I don't see this working out as a whole keyword, even for a Ravnica guild which has less space. The biggest problem is that this effect doesn't work well in multiples.
Thrive: Doesn't really match the Selesyna. It's not un-Selesnya, but it's not particularly Selesyna either.
Worship: ETBing tapped is a minima; cost that brings with it minimal rewards. The decision needs to be meaningful for an open option mechanic like this, and that's hard to do with such a weak cost.
Spellbound: Buyback, is that you? What's new about this?
Assault: Similar problems as Spy, I don't se much space in this. It's quite familiar in general as well, and that contributes to the issue.
Some mechanics in here would gain from being shifted around.
Quicken? That's a shoo-in for Izzet (and Banish is probably pie breaking. White is not supposed to such good unrestricted creature removal. Yes I believe Angelic Edict is pie breaking too.)
Unlike DJK, I think Thrive is okay for Selesnya, but you can do better. It looks like a Simic mechanics, though.
Speaking of Simic, I'm on board with DJK. It's awkward and you're pretty much trying to make double-sided cards without having the cards be double-sided. Both of these cards are far too complex for common IMO. I do like that you made sure to come up with a mechanic that uses +1/+1 counters, though.
I'm not a huge fan of the malicious cards shown (the creature seem terrible in the early game and barely win-more when you get to the threshold), but it's a fairly flavorful mechanic.
Spellbound indeed is essentially buyback, and that is a bad thing.
Agree that spy is a problem, at least for the cards you're showing us (I'd have to be REALLY impressed by the rest of the spy cards). Looks like a secondary theme if anything.
Worship is fine, but I also think the rewards could be more varied or outright better. My first reflex would be for a drain effect (make sure you have a gating uncommon!). It would also make Worship work well with Malicious.
I actually like assault. I'd be disappointed if there is not creature that ETB with coutners on it equal to the number of creatures that attacked, though.
Not much to add about Swarm and Bloodrite
Summary: I like Boros and Golgari, I think Orzhov, Gruul and Rakdos still need some tweaks, but you got a good base. Simic and Izzet are your problem children, but you already have the mechanics elsewhere. Dimir needs reworking.
Quicken: Complete flavour dud. The Azorious are many things, but quick is not one of them. That said, I think this has a surprising amount of play to it. I'd try to make sure that you can't just sandbag Quicken cards and play draw-go. That's no fun. Swarm: Basically scavenge with the numbers moved around and mostly much better. You can make this interesting with creative use of power and toughness, but it's never going to be that interesting. I suppose it's flavourful though? Malicious: This is actually really cute. It's the Zendikar "bloody" mechanic with the added bonus of letting suicide aggro get in on the action. As a self-confessed cultist, I would play it and I would be happy about it. Bloodrite: This is a lot of hoops to jump through for what is honestly a very small upside. This is win-more at best, and asking to be blown out at worst. I'm not a fun. It also doesn't hit the flavour of the Gruul Clans. In fact, it feels almost Rakdos/Golgari. Mutate: This has memory issues. Creatures with alt. costs are fine, but this is too clever for its own good. Template it like this: Mutate [Cost] (You may cast this for its mutate cost. If you do, it enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter.) If this has a +1/+1 counter, do a barrel roll. Flavour hit. Spy: This does not affect the board (or even the game) at all and requires a lot of support to even do anything. I don't even dislike it, I actively hate it. You've managed to top Cipher as "Most Disappointing Dimir Mechanic". It's flavourful, but much too literal. Thrive: This is mostly just reinforce except without any value as a trick. I don't hate it, although I don't think this is the best fit for Selesnya. Worship: Okay this is cute. I would hazard against making this just ETB effects with a downside tacked on, though. That won't feel good for anybody. It also doesn't hit the flavour of The Church of Deals; remind yourself that Orzhov play for the long game and kill you in tiny little taxes. Spellbound: This is just buyback. Buyback either leads to stagnant games or appears on bad cards exclusively. Wizards doesn't like it. I don't like it. Consider Quicken. Assault: Remember that newbies may not know that you can cast spells post-declare attackers pre-damage, or that this will count creatures you are attacking with, as opposed to ones you have attacked with. Boros are all about small creatures working as a team and next level combat tactics. This is not that. It's also pretty awkward on creatures, which is important since RW are very much creature colours.
In general, remember that Guild mechanics are allowed to be fairly shallow - you only need to get ten or so cards out of them - but they must be flavour home runs and they must play "like the guild". It's possible to make a good mechanic that is just not right for a guild!
I actually like assault. I'd be disappointed if there is not creature that ETB with coutners on it equal to the number of creatures that attacked, though.
Quicken: Complete flavour dud. The Azorious are many things, but quick is not one of them. That said, I think this has a surprising amount of play to it. I'd try to make sure that you can't just sandbag Quicken cards and play draw-go. That's no fun.
Draw-Go relies on counterspells. I suppose a Draw-Go deck could emerge in Constructed, but that's not a concern because I'm almost completely focused on Limited due to a lack of resources to play-test a full-fledged Constructed environment. I agree that it's basically a flavor dud in relation to Azorius. (Not any more than Forecast was though.) I'd rather tease out the guild's bureaucratic side, but everything I've come up with would most certainly bog down games.
Mutate: This has memory issues. Creatures with alt. costs are fine, but this is too clever for its own good. Template it like this: Mutate [Cost] (You may cast this for its mutate cost. If you do, it enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter.) If this has a +1/+1 counter, do a barrel roll. Flavour hit.
Spellbound: This is just buyback. Buyback either leads to stagnant games or appears on bad cards exclusively. Wizards doesn't like it. I don't like it. Consider Quicken.
Buyback hasn't been seen in 18 years. Magic is certainly ready for it again. You're probably thinking - "We haven't seen it in 18 years because it's not a good mechanic." I would disagree. I remember the days of Buyback in Limited and Standard. The mechanic itself was not the problem. The problem wasn't the design it was the development, implementation, and saturation of the mechanic. Handled properly, it has alot of good fun to offer.
Draw-Go relies on counterspells. I suppose a Draw-Go deck could emerge in constructed, but that's not a concern because I'm almost completely focused on Limited due to a lack of resources to play-test a full-fledged Constructed environment.
I'm referring to a playstyle where a player simply holds back all of their spells to cast reactively, causing the other players to hesitate to play anything. This might seem fun in theory - this happens in high level constructed all the time - but in practice you will find that games are more fun when players do things.
There's a reason for that. It's not a bad mechanic in as much as it's incredibly powerful. If the cards are good, you'll end up with a situation where a player casts the same spell every turn. If you neuter it in development, you end up with Cipher. And I'm sure you know how that was received.
Also relevant: If you give only one guild what is essentially a returning mechanic, its fans are going to be pretty upset.
Hey Legend! Glad to see some finalized ideas here. Time for comments.
Quicken: I feel like I should defend Quicken in Azorious, because it was one of my suggestions for the guild, after all.
Quicken's two best fits, mechanically, are WU or GU. As 'give this flash', it obviously fits best with GU, in theory; blue would get it on noncreatures, and green on creatures, right? The problem is, Simic doesn't really fit with a mechanic like this... so WU it is. I suggested it simply because it does fit with Azorious control and tempo strategies, and because the flavor - as I originally suggested it, "Speedy Trial" - made sense.
Specifically, I'm going to address the argument that this could be UR. Simply put - instants aren't really a R concept. The idea of Quicken / Speedy Trial is waiting for the right time to cast it, whether it's your turn or theirs. R doesn't like instants because they require waiting to cast the spell, which isn't really a red idea. Red wants to cast spells as soon as possible, which is typically your turn, so its a sorcery.
Anyway, on to other mechanics.
Swarm: I've always been a huge fan of this mechanic. It's lovely.
Malicious: Perfect.
Bloodrite: I think you can remove the sacrifice and just focus on one of these ideas - reducing the cost or adding a counter. That'd be a lot cooler, like a reverse Bloodthirst, or an extension of Hardened Berserker.
Mutate: I don't get why this does color-changing. The rest of the mechanic is a cool idea, though.
Spy: I still love this mechanic, but you'll definitely want to make it clear why repeatedly spying is worth it, or construct the set so repeatedly spying doesn't happen often.
Also, it having a small design space is a plus, not a minus. Guild mechanics are okay with having smaller design space.
Thrive: Like a divisible Reinforce. I like it, and it's a new approach to Selesnya. I think it feels perfectly fitting to their flavor, but it's a new way of approaching their mass-monster / token themes, so it's understandable to see why it's gonna rub people the wrong way at first.
Worship: You have to make the being-tapped MATTER. That's not easy, but it's doable. If the format is aggressive / fast enough, being off a blocker can be significant. It's gonna be tough, though. If you can't make it matter, this mechanic is not a choice, which means it's not fun.
Spellbound: This doesn't feel Izzet. Neither did Replicate or Overload, to be honest. Izzet's a tough nut to crack. Also, they tried to bring back Buyback in Journey into Nyx, and they couldn't fix the development issues. If WotC can't fix those issues, I don't think we can.
Assault: A small design space is exactly what you want for a guild mechanic. I like this.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Known as Inanimate at Goblin Artisans, and TyrRev at /r/custommagic!
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
Quicken - Rename to 'arbitrate' or 'Adjudicate.' The only shred of flavor here is that the spell somehow represents the decisions of the court.
Swarm - Sure.
Malicious - Excelent.
Bloodrite - Sure. I prefer the old Beserk ability myself.
Mutate - I suppose simic was bound to get a kicker variant eventually. I don't love this, but it's serviceable. The name doesn't seem to fit though. Mutate is a verb, an action. It's something a player should be able to do to a monster. The current implementation never shows the creature mutate, it just enters play already a mutant. Possible alternatives...
Mutate K (Whenever you draw a card outside your draw step, if ~ is not mutated, put K +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes mutated) --- Use like renown. Uncommons and rares would get extra abilities carring about mutant status.
Cytoplastic (Whenever another creature you control dies, you may exile it. If you do, put a number of +1/+1 counters on this equal to the exiled creatures toughness)
Amalgamate (Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may exile it until this leaves the battlefield. If you do, put a number of +1/+1 counters on this equal to the exiled creatures toughness.)
Spy - Sure, gets redundant fast though.
Thrive - Sure. I don't love it.
Worship - I feel like this will almost neve be an interesting decision.
Spellbound - This is literally buyback. If you want buyback, use buyback. Renaming an ability isn't making a new one. Also, buyback is a problematic keyword. It can be done well, but it's difficult. You may be better off creating a new mechanic that plays in a similar design space. Maybe something like...
Gravecast (You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a card in addition to its other costs.)
Assault - I really like this mechanic. I'm not the biggest fan of the name though. Could just be me, but assault sounds bland. What would you think of 'Charge' or 'Blitz'?
In summary, Assault and malicious seem excellent, Spellbound and Worship seem suspect, the rest are varying degrees of good enough. (IMO)
EDIT:I totally forgot that retrace was a thing. Gravecast is just strictly better retrace, and isn't appropriate. New idea....
{v2} Spellbond [cost] (then you may exile this bound to a creature you control. That creature gains "[cost] , t : You may cast a copy of the bound card without paying its mana cost.")
...You get a spell mechanic, that lets you repeatedly cast spells as if you were using buyback, but your opponents can actually interact with this and prevent you from casting the same spell over and over again forever.
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.
- Manite
Quicken is fine mechanically but really has nothing to do with Azorius flavorfully.
Swarm is scavenge with tokens. It's strong, and very flavorful for Golgari. I'm not sure how interesting it is to actually play with, it probably leads to pretty repetitive game states. Scavenge had a lot of variation in play because you always scavenge onto different creatures, leading to many different sized creatures. With Swarm it's just "how many 1/1s did I make this game." A possible solution would be to make 0/1s and then give you things to do with them (sack them for profit, etc.)? It would also let you cost Swarm a bit more aggressively. Swarm could also possibly be an activated ability that sacks the creature to get 1/1s or 0/1s, letting you do fun tricks with pump spells.
Malicious is cool and I like it. Fine threshold mechanic, a slight variation on the vampires from Zendikar, but those were barely explored and it's very flavorful for Rakdos.
Bloodrite is interesting. It doesn't actually get more complex with multiple triggers, I think they all make 1 spell cost less. I'm not sure how strong the mechanic is, it might be terrible or broken, but I'm not sure without testing it. This makes me like it more. Perhaps it could scale up: Could Bloodrite X be a thing?
Mutate is just an unnecessarily worded kicker. I might bring back Evolve, that was one of the best guild mechanic in RTR block (though I'm not sure how much design space is left).
Spy seems useless. Maybe you could Spy X to look at X cards in a player's hand (possibly at random), or the top X cards of someone's library? Spying on yourself seems like a huge flavor fail. Spy could also just be "look at target player's hand (and maybe the top card of their library. This might be too much though)" It could be something added on to normal cards, which you did and I like that. I like the idea of the U/B guild gaining an edge by having better information than the opponent. Maybe something like UB instant or U sorcery: Return target creature to its owners hand, then spy on that player. It's good early and you can keep doing it throughout the game because the opponents keep getting new cards in hand.
Thrive is fine I guess but super boring, just reinforce with multiple targets. I'm not sure how to improve on it without changing it completely. I would love to see a selesnya mechanic that has something to do with life gain. Maybe an ability word that does different things when you gain life? A threshold mechanic that cares about whether you gained life this turn, or about the amount of life? Usually Selesnya/Golgari has a lot of synergy, but it would be very novel to see Selesnya/Orzhov synergies.
I really like Worship, I think it has a lot of space for design. I agree that it doesn't seem to play out the way that Orzhov likes to play. Usually you want to have your creatures back to block. Also flavorfully, what is being worshipped? You? Here is how I would try out Worship:
Worship (when this creature enters the battlefield (or at the beginning of your upkeep not sure which would be better, maybe both?), you may tap any number of other untapped creatures you control. You may choose not to untap those creatures during your untap step as long as you control both creatures.)
Note that this allows for creatures that want multiple creature worshipping it and creatures that only want one worshipper.
Then you could have abilities like:
(cardname) gets +2/2 as long as a creature is worshipping it.
(cardname) has indestructible (deathtouch, lifelink, etc.) as long as a creature is worshipping it.
If damage would be dealt to you, prevent X of that damage, where X is the number of creatures worshipping (cardname)
(cardname) gets +1/+1 for each creature worshipping it.
sacrifice a creature worshipping (cardname): destroy target creature blocking or blocked by (cardname).
At the beginning of your end step, you gain X life, where X is the number of creatures worshipping (cardname).
The rules wording is a little complicated for Worship but I think it groks pretty well.
Spellbound is obviously just buyback, not exactly new design space.
I don't know about Assault, I have to think about it more
EDIT:I totally forgot that retrace was a thing. Gravecast is just strictly better retrace, and isn't appropriate. New idea....
I dunno. As far as I knot, retrace hasn't exactly been a massive flavor success, but I wouldn't see a graveyard mechanic in UR anyway.
{v2} Spellbond [cost] (then you may exile this bound to a creature you control. That creature gains "[cost] , t : You may cast a copy of the bound card without paying its mana cost.")
...You get a spell mechanic, that lets you repeatedly cast spells as if you were using buyback, but your opponents can actually interact with this and prevent you from casting the same spell over and over again forever.
Variants of this have been independently designed so often on these boards I expect them to inevitably appear in a WotC set. I'll throw a two-cent reversed version which might fit either UB or UR (depending how you pick up the spells):
Spellstore Null 3U
Creature -- Zombie
When ~ ETBs, target player puts the top four cards of their library into their graveyard. You may exile an instant or sorcery card put into a graveyard this way.
Spellstore ( : Cast a copy of a card exiled by ~ without paying its mana cost.)
2/2
Spellstore Bat 1BB
Creature -- Bat
When ~ ETBs, you may exile target instant or sorcery card from a graveyard.
Spellstore ( : Cast a copy of a card exiled by ~ without paying its mana cost.)
Flying
1/3
You should make Provoke the Boros keyword. I like the flavor idea of overzealous cops picking a fight so they can "mete out some justice."
Provoke has two issues:
Firstly, it would be a returning mechanic and using returning mechanics as faction mechanics is unfair to the people who want something new for that particular faction.
The second issue is that with fight now evergreen, provoke is less useful and less interesting.
You should make Provoke the Boros keyword. I like the flavor idea of overzealous cops picking a fight so they can "mete out some justice."
Tinkering with mechanics led me to Provoke more often than once. But this is a set for custom guild mechanics, not returning mechanics. (Reload notwithstanding. Reload is an alternate cost, not an additional cost like Buyback. I'm splitting hairs to justify it, but I'm okay with that for just one mechanic.) If I were going to have a returning mechanic, it would be Exploit for Orzhov. It's just too perfect.
You should make Provoke the Boros keyword. I like the flavor idea of overzealous cops picking a fight so they can "mete out some justice."
The second issue is that with fight now evergreen, provoke is less useful and less interesting.
Funny you mention Fight. At my third or fourth time of wandering into Provoke territory, I remembered Fight and came up with Bloodlust. For now it's a contender mechanic that will get tested along with Bloodrite. Whichever one plays better will be the Gruul guild mechanic.
Orc Savant (Common) 3R
Creature - Orc Shaman
2/2
Bloodlust (You may have this creature enter the battlefield tapped. If you do, it fights target creature when it enters the battlefield.)
Whenever a creature fights, scry 1.
Stalking Wolf (Common) 1(R/G)
Creature - Wolf
3/1
Bloodlust (You may have this creature enter the battlefield tapped. If you do, it fights target creature when it enters the battlefield.)
etc.
That's quite a bit of fighting even if I lowball the design count to three at each rarity for a total of 9 (Forecast has 9), but who knows, it might play well. Testing will tell. Oh, and if Gruul winds up with Bloodlust, the Orzhov will lose it's current etbt mechanic (which wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings, including mine).
Hmm, I haven't looked at Bloodlust in a while. It actually looks super exciting to me as a player and more developable than Bloodrite as a designer.
Just as a note on Bloodlust, Stalking Wolf is the perfect example of what you shouldn't do with it - give green straight up burn. I like the mechanic, and feel it could play very well, but only if it is handled extremely carefully. As is, Stalking Wolf more or less is "1G Sorcery - Deal 3 damage to target creature." which is a lot worse than Hornet Sting in terms of breaking the pie, as its more efficient.
Despite that example, I would encourage using it as a mechanic. Just make sure to keep the green creatures as utility-based (eg. Orc Savant should be green) and high-toughness, low power, and leave the pseudo-Shocks to cards that require red mana.
Bloodlust was tested for Gatecrash - or rather, something very similar was. They found out it's really not acceptable.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Known as Inanimate at Goblin Artisans, and TyrRev at /r/custommagic!
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
Their playtest mechanic "Kickboxing". Pay the kicker cost and it could fight something when it ETB. Since it turned everything with it into a potential 2 for 1, it wasn't suitable at common under NWO.
Their playtest mechanic "Kickboxing". Pay the kicker cost and it could fight something when it ETB. Since it turned everything with it into a potential 2 for 1, it wasn't suitable at common under NWO.
But wouldn't they just be red-flagged under NWO as opposed to unprintable?
@Legend
That would be too many redflag to fill a mechanic slot.
Three cards? I'm seriously asking because I don't know.
Is there an official limit to the number of cards per color or mechanic that can be red-flagged?
I don't know of any. The commonly cited rule is that absolutely no more than 20% of your commons should be red flagged. If you are creating 100 commons, and all of your commons for a mechanic are red flagged, you would basically have to build the rest of your set with only half the amount of complexity available. It seems easier to just design a mechanic that isn't red flagged.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
- Manite
If you are creating 100 commons, and all of your commons for a mechanic are red flagged, you would basically have to build the rest of your set with only half the amount of complexity available. It seems easier to just design a mechanic that isn't red flagged.
A fair share would be (up to) 4 red-flagged cards per color pair (five guilds per set). Wouldn't it just mean Gruul wouldn't be able to have any more red-flagged commons?
A fair share would be (up to) 4 red-flagged cards per color pair (five guilds per set). Wouldn't it just mean Gruul wouldn't be able to have any more red-flagged commons?
Going back to gatecrash, it looks like you want at least 5 commons per mechanic. So, I guess its doable. I still think you would be better off designing a mechanic that didn't generate CA
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
- Manite
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
1. I wanted a fairly balanced ratio of activated abilities and triggered abilities.
2. I wanted a fairly balanced ratio of keyword abilities, keyword actions, and ability words.
3. I wanted a fairly balance ratio of mechanics that could appear on any card type vs. those that could only appear on creature cards. (There's plenty of fantastic custom "creature only" mechanics I could have used to finish a year ago.)
The two sets of the block are titled Lords of Ravnica and Guild Wars. Each set will highlight five of the ten guilds. Each of the following spoilers contains two commons of each guild's mechanic under the header of the set that they will appear in. Note that the sample designs have not gone through development. So, while it would be nice to receive feedback on the individual cards, it would be nicer to receive feedback on the individual mechanics and especially the suite of mechanics as a whole. Thank you and enjoy!
LORDS OF RAVNICA
Rules of Engagement (Common)
1(W/U)
Enchantment
Law – It’s against the law to cast spells during combat.
Justice – At the beginning of each upkeep, if an opponent broke the law last turn, tap target creature that player controls.
Judge's Apprentice (Common)
1U
Creature - Human Advisor
1/3
Law – It’s against the law to block Judge's Apprentice.
Justice – At the beginning of each upkeep, if an opponent broke the law last turn, draw a card.
Golgari Swarm-Warden (Common)
1(B/G)
Creature - Insect
1/2
Deathtouch
Swarm BG (BG, Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of 1/1 black and green Insect creature tokens equal to this card's toughness onto the battlefield. Swarm only as a sorcery.)
Dreg Roach (Common)
2B
Creature - Insect
3/2
Swarm 2B (2B, Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of 1/1 black and green Insect creature tokens equal to this card's toughness onto the battlefield. Swarm only as a sorcery.)
2B
Creature - Bat Dragon
1/2
Flying
Malicious - As long as a player has 10 or less life, Dragonbat has "R: Dragonbat gets +1/+0 until end of turn."
Depths of Despair (Common)
1B
Instant
Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Malicious - If a player has 10 or less life, that creature gets -4/-4 instead.
Scar-Clan Initiate (Common)
(R/G)
Creature - Human Warrior
1/1
Berserk RG (Double this creature’s base power. Sacrifice it at end of turn.)
Gruul Savage (Common)
2R
Creature - Orc Berserker
2/2
Haste
Berserk 4R (Double this creature’s base power. Sacrifice it at end of turn.)
Simic Biomancer (Common)
2(G/U)
Creature - Vedalken Wizard
2/2
Refresh (Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, untap up to one basic land.)
Squirtle (Common)
1G
Creature - Squirrel
1/1
Refresh (Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, untap up to one basic land.)
U: Squirtle becomes a 1/4 blue Turtle until end of turn.
GUILD WARS
Gather Intelligence (Common)
(U/B)
Instant
Spy on each player. (Look at the top card of each player's library.)
Draw a card.
Paranoia (Common)
1U
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
When Paranoia enters the battlefield, spy on enchanted creature's controller. (Look at the top card of his or her library.)
Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
Loxodon Brute (Common)
3G
Creature – Elephant Warrior
3/2
Trample
Thrive (When this creature enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control with power or toughness less than this creature’s power or toughness.)
Swans of Dawn (Common)
2W
Creature – Bird
1/3
Flying
Thrive (When this creature enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control with power or toughness less than this creature’s power or toughness.)
Moonlight Mortician (Common)
(W/B)
Creature – Spirit
1/1
Martyr (T: Sacrifice a creature. Martyr only as a sorcery.)
Whenever a creature you control dies, you gain 1 life.
Unholy Disciple (Common)
1B
Creature – Vampire
2/1
Martyr (T: Sacrifice a creature. Martyr only as a sorcery.)
Whenever a creature you control dies, target creature you control gets +2/+1 until end of turn.
Frantic Research (Common)
(U/R)
Draw two cards, then discard two cards.
Duplicate UR (UR, Discard this card: Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copy.)
Ancient Arcana (Rare)
2UURR
Sorcery
Return each instant and sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
Duplicate UR (UR, Discard this card: Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copy.)
Lead the Charge (Common)
(R/W)
Instant
Assault - Until end of turn, target creature gets +1/+0 for each creature that attacked this turn and gains first strike.
Card Name (Rare)
RW
Sorcery
Assault - EFFECT for each creature that attacked this turn.
SIMIC
Slithery Blob (Common)
2(G/U)
Creature - Ooze
2/1
Mutate 2 - 4GU (You may cast this for its mutate cost. If you do, it enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it.)
Slithery Blob can't be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach.
Skyweaver Adapt (Common)
1G
Creature - Spider Drake
1/3
Mutate 1 - 3U (You may cast this for its mutate cost. If you do it enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Reach
Skyweaver Adapt has flying as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it.
SELESNYA
Lightender Dryad (Common)
(G/W)
Creature - Dryad
1/2
Thrive 2 — 1(G/W) (1(G/W), Discard this card: Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two target creatures.)
Swans of Dawn (Common)
1WW
Creature - Bird
2/3
Flying
Thrive 3 — 3WW (3WW, Discard this card: Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to three target creatures.)
IZZET
Thaumaturgy (Common)
(U/R)
Instant
Reload 2UR (You may cast this for its reload cost. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
Switch target creature's power and toughness until end of turn.
Glimpse (Common)
U
Sorcery
Reload 1U (You may cast this for its reload cost. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
Scry 1.
Swarm: So... token scavenge? Okay, I guess
Malicious: Solid
Bloodrite: Should be either reducing cost or adding counters, both is more easily confusing and inelegant. This should be an N variable keyword, to accommodate for the fact that not every creature is of similar value, making the mechanic much harder to develop. The alternative is to remove the sacrifice, but either way I recommend the first change.
Mutate: Seems forced. I like was this trying to do, but the pieces don't come together well.
Spy: I don't see this working out as a whole keyword, even for a Ravnica guild which has less space. The biggest problem is that this effect doesn't work well in multiples.
Thrive: Doesn't really match the Selesyna. It's not un-Selesnya, but it's not particularly Selesyna either.
Worship: ETBing tapped is a minima; cost that brings with it minimal rewards. The decision needs to be meaningful for an open option mechanic like this, and that's hard to do with such a weak cost.
Spellbound: Buyback, is that you? What's new about this?
Assault: Similar problems as Spy, I don't se much space in this. It's quite familiar in general as well, and that contributes to the issue.
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
Summary: I like Boros and Golgari, I think Orzhov, Gruul and Rakdos still need some tweaks, but you got a good base. Simic and Izzet are your problem children, but you already have the mechanics elsewhere. Dimir needs reworking.
Swarm: Basically scavenge with the numbers moved around and mostly much better. You can make this interesting with creative use of power and toughness, but it's never going to be that interesting. I suppose it's flavourful though?
Malicious: This is actually really cute. It's the Zendikar "bloody" mechanic with the added bonus of letting suicide aggro get in on the action. As a self-confessed cultist, I would play it and I would be happy about it.
Bloodrite: This is a lot of hoops to jump through for what is honestly a very small upside. This is win-more at best, and asking to be blown out at worst. I'm not a fun. It also doesn't hit the flavour of the Gruul Clans. In fact, it feels almost Rakdos/Golgari.
Mutate: This has memory issues. Creatures with alt. costs are fine, but this is too clever for its own good. Template it like this: Mutate [Cost] (You may cast this for its mutate cost. If you do, it enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter.) If this has a +1/+1 counter, do a barrel roll. Flavour hit.
Spy: This does not affect the board (or even the game) at all and requires a lot of support to even do anything. I don't even dislike it, I actively hate it. You've managed to top Cipher as "Most Disappointing Dimir Mechanic". It's flavourful, but much too literal.
Thrive: This is mostly just reinforce except without any value as a trick. I don't hate it, although I don't think this is the best fit for Selesnya.
Worship: Okay this is cute. I would hazard against making this just ETB effects with a downside tacked on, though. That won't feel good for anybody. It also doesn't hit the flavour of The Church of Deals; remind yourself that Orzhov play for the long game and kill you in tiny little taxes.
Spellbound: This is just buyback. Buyback either leads to stagnant games or appears on bad cards exclusively. Wizards doesn't like it. I don't like it. Consider Quicken.
Assault: Remember that newbies may not know that you can cast spells post-declare attackers pre-damage, or that this will count creatures you are attacking with, as opposed to ones you have attacked with. Boros are all about small creatures working as a team and next level combat tactics. This is not that. It's also pretty awkward on creatures, which is important since RW are very much creature colours.
In general, remember that Guild mechanics are allowed to be fairly shallow - you only need to get ten or so cards out of them - but they must be flavour home runs and they must play "like the guild". It's possible to make a good mechanic that is just not right for a guild!
You're probably right. Development will tell.
I might give Spellbound to Azorius for flavor reasons, but I don't think Quicken fits Izzet piechanically.
You won't be disappointed.
Draw-Go relies on counterspells. I suppose a Draw-Go deck could emerge in Constructed, but that's not a concern because I'm almost completely focused on Limited due to a lack of resources to play-test a full-fledged Constructed environment. I agree that it's basically a flavor dud in relation to Azorius. (Not any more than Forecast was though.) I'd rather tease out the guild's bureaucratic side, but everything I've come up with would most certainly bog down games.
Fixed. Thank you!
I'll drop the sorcery clause. I can always put it back if development shows it needs it.
Buyback hasn't been seen in 18 years. Magic is certainly ready for it again. You're probably thinking - "We haven't seen it in 18 years because it's not a good mechanic." I would disagree. I remember the days of Buyback in Limited and Standard. The mechanic itself was not the problem. The problem wasn't the design it was the development, implementation, and saturation of the mechanic. Handled properly, it has alot of good fun to offer.
There's a reason for that. It's not a bad mechanic in as much as it's incredibly powerful. If the cards are good, you'll end up with a situation where a player casts the same spell every turn. If you neuter it in development, you end up with Cipher. And I'm sure you know how that was received.
Also relevant: If you give only one guild what is essentially a returning mechanic, its fans are going to be pretty upset.
Quicken: I feel like I should defend Quicken in Azorious, because it was one of my suggestions for the guild, after all.
Quicken's two best fits, mechanically, are WU or GU. As 'give this flash', it obviously fits best with GU, in theory; blue would get it on noncreatures, and green on creatures, right? The problem is, Simic doesn't really fit with a mechanic like this... so WU it is. I suggested it simply because it does fit with Azorious control and tempo strategies, and because the flavor - as I originally suggested it, "Speedy Trial" - made sense.
Specifically, I'm going to address the argument that this could be UR. Simply put - instants aren't really a R concept. The idea of Quicken / Speedy Trial is waiting for the right time to cast it, whether it's your turn or theirs. R doesn't like instants because they require waiting to cast the spell, which isn't really a red idea. Red wants to cast spells as soon as possible, which is typically your turn, so its a sorcery.
Anyway, on to other mechanics.
Swarm: I've always been a huge fan of this mechanic. It's lovely.
Malicious: Perfect.
Bloodrite: I think you can remove the sacrifice and just focus on one of these ideas - reducing the cost or adding a counter. That'd be a lot cooler, like a reverse Bloodthirst, or an extension of Hardened Berserker.
Mutate: I don't get why this does color-changing. The rest of the mechanic is a cool idea, though.
Spy: I still love this mechanic, but you'll definitely want to make it clear why repeatedly spying is worth it, or construct the set so repeatedly spying doesn't happen often.
Also, it having a small design space is a plus, not a minus. Guild mechanics are okay with having smaller design space.
Thrive: Like a divisible Reinforce. I like it, and it's a new approach to Selesnya. I think it feels perfectly fitting to their flavor, but it's a new way of approaching their mass-monster / token themes, so it's understandable to see why it's gonna rub people the wrong way at first.
Worship: You have to make the being-tapped MATTER. That's not easy, but it's doable. If the format is aggressive / fast enough, being off a blocker can be significant. It's gonna be tough, though. If you can't make it matter, this mechanic is not a choice, which means it's not fun.
Spellbound: This doesn't feel Izzet. Neither did Replicate or Overload, to be honest. Izzet's a tough nut to crack. Also, they tried to bring back Buyback in Journey into Nyx, and they couldn't fix the development issues. If WotC can't fix those issues, I don't think we can.
Assault: A small design space is exactly what you want for a guild mechanic. I like this.
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
Quicken - Rename to 'arbitrate' or 'Adjudicate.' The only shred of flavor here is that the spell somehow represents the decisions of the court.
Swarm - Sure.
Malicious - Excelent.
Bloodrite - Sure. I prefer the old Beserk ability myself.
Mutate - I suppose simic was bound to get a kicker variant eventually. I don't love this, but it's serviceable. The name doesn't seem to fit though. Mutate is a verb, an action. It's something a player should be able to do to a monster. The current implementation never shows the creature mutate, it just enters play already a mutant. Possible alternatives...
Thrive - Sure. I don't love it.
Worship - I feel like this will almost neve be an interesting decision.
Spellbound - This is literally buyback. If you want buyback, use buyback. Renaming an ability isn't making a new one. Also, buyback is a problematic keyword. It can be done well, but it's difficult. You may be better off creating a new mechanic that plays in a similar design space. Maybe something like...
Gravecast (You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a card in addition to its other costs.)
Assault - I really like this mechanic. I'm not the biggest fan of the name though. Could just be me, but assault sounds bland. What would you think of 'Charge' or 'Blitz'?
In summary, Assault and malicious seem excellent, Spellbound and Worship seem suspect, the rest are varying degrees of good enough. (IMO)
EDIT:I totally forgot that retrace was a thing. Gravecast is just strictly better retrace, and isn't appropriate. New idea....
{v2} Spellbond [cost] (then you may exile this bound to a creature you control. That creature gains "[cost] , t : You may cast a copy of the bound card without paying its mana cost.")
...You get a spell mechanic, that lets you repeatedly cast spells as if you were using buyback, but your opponents can actually interact with this and prevent you from casting the same spell over and over again forever.
- Manite
Swarm is scavenge with tokens. It's strong, and very flavorful for Golgari. I'm not sure how interesting it is to actually play with, it probably leads to pretty repetitive game states. Scavenge had a lot of variation in play because you always scavenge onto different creatures, leading to many different sized creatures. With Swarm it's just "how many 1/1s did I make this game." A possible solution would be to make 0/1s and then give you things to do with them (sack them for profit, etc.)? It would also let you cost Swarm a bit more aggressively. Swarm could also possibly be an activated ability that sacks the creature to get 1/1s or 0/1s, letting you do fun tricks with pump spells.
Malicious is cool and I like it. Fine threshold mechanic, a slight variation on the vampires from Zendikar, but those were barely explored and it's very flavorful for Rakdos.
Bloodrite is interesting. It doesn't actually get more complex with multiple triggers, I think they all make 1 spell cost less. I'm not sure how strong the mechanic is, it might be terrible or broken, but I'm not sure without testing it. This makes me like it more. Perhaps it could scale up: Could Bloodrite X be a thing?
Mutate is just an unnecessarily worded kicker. I might bring back Evolve, that was one of the best guild mechanic in RTR block (though I'm not sure how much design space is left).
Spy seems useless. Maybe you could Spy X to look at X cards in a player's hand (possibly at random), or the top X cards of someone's library? Spying on yourself seems like a huge flavor fail. Spy could also just be "look at target player's hand (and maybe the top card of their library. This might be too much though)" It could be something added on to normal cards, which you did and I like that. I like the idea of the U/B guild gaining an edge by having better information than the opponent. Maybe something like UB instant or U sorcery: Return target creature to its owners hand, then spy on that player. It's good early and you can keep doing it throughout the game because the opponents keep getting new cards in hand.
Thrive is fine I guess but super boring, just reinforce with multiple targets. I'm not sure how to improve on it without changing it completely. I would love to see a selesnya mechanic that has something to do with life gain. Maybe an ability word that does different things when you gain life? A threshold mechanic that cares about whether you gained life this turn, or about the amount of life? Usually Selesnya/Golgari has a lot of synergy, but it would be very novel to see Selesnya/Orzhov synergies.
I really like Worship, I think it has a lot of space for design. I agree that it doesn't seem to play out the way that Orzhov likes to play. Usually you want to have your creatures back to block. Also flavorfully, what is being worshipped? You? Here is how I would try out Worship:
Worship (when this creature enters the battlefield (or at the beginning of your upkeep not sure which would be better, maybe both?), you may tap any number of other untapped creatures you control. You may choose not to untap those creatures during your untap step as long as you control both creatures.)
Note that this allows for creatures that want multiple creature worshipping it and creatures that only want one worshipper.
Then you could have abilities like:
(cardname) gets +2/2 as long as a creature is worshipping it.
(cardname) has indestructible (deathtouch, lifelink, etc.) as long as a creature is worshipping it.
If damage would be dealt to you, prevent X of that damage, where X is the number of creatures worshipping (cardname)
(cardname) gets +1/+1 for each creature worshipping it.
sacrifice a creature worshipping (cardname): destroy target creature blocking or blocked by (cardname).
At the beginning of your end step, you gain X life, where X is the number of creatures worshipping (cardname).
The rules wording is a little complicated for Worship but I think it groks pretty well.
Spellbound is obviously just buyback, not exactly new design space.
I don't know about Assault, I have to think about it more
I dunno. As far as I knot, retrace hasn't exactly been a massive flavor success, but I wouldn't see a graveyard mechanic in UR anyway.
Variants of this have been independently designed so often on these boards I expect them to inevitably appear in a WotC set. I'll throw a two-cent reversed version which might fit either UB or UR (depending how you pick up the spells):
Spellstore Null 3U
Creature -- Zombie
When ~ ETBs, target player puts the top four cards of their library into their graveyard. You may exile an instant or sorcery card put into a graveyard this way.
Spellstore ( : Cast a copy of a card exiled by ~ without paying its mana cost.)
2/2
Spellstore Bat 1BB
Creature -- Bat
When ~ ETBs, you may exile target instant or sorcery card from a graveyard.
Spellstore ( : Cast a copy of a card exiled by ~ without paying its mana cost.)
Flying
1/3
Provoke has two issues:
Firstly, it would be a returning mechanic and using returning mechanics as faction mechanics is unfair to the people who want something new for that particular faction.
The second issue is that with fight now evergreen, provoke is less useful and less interesting.
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
Tinkering with mechanics led me to Provoke more often than once. But this is a set for custom guild mechanics, not returning mechanics. (Reload notwithstanding. Reload is an alternate cost, not an additional cost like Buyback. I'm splitting hairs to justify it, but I'm okay with that for just one mechanic.) If I were going to have a returning mechanic, it would be Exploit for Orzhov. It's just too perfect.
Funny you mention Fight. At my third or fourth time of wandering into Provoke territory, I remembered Fight and came up with Bloodlust. For now it's a contender mechanic that will get tested along with Bloodrite. Whichever one plays better will be the Gruul guild mechanic.
Orc Savant (Common)
3R
Creature - Orc Shaman
2/2
Bloodlust (You may have this creature enter the battlefield tapped. If you do, it fights target creature when it enters the battlefield.)
Whenever a creature fights, scry 1.
Stalking Wolf (Common)
1(R/G)
Creature - Wolf
3/1
Bloodlust (You may have this creature enter the battlefield tapped. If you do, it fights target creature when it enters the battlefield.)
etc.
That's quite a bit of fighting even if I lowball the design count to three at each rarity for a total of 9 (Forecast has 9), but who knows, it might play well. Testing will tell. Oh, and if Gruul winds up with Bloodlust, the Orzhov will lose it's current etbt mechanic (which wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings, including mine).
Hmm, I haven't looked at Bloodlust in a while. It actually looks super exciting to me as a player and more developable than Bloodrite as a designer.
Despite that example, I would encourage using it as a mechanic. Just make sure to keep the green creatures as utility-based (eg. Orc Savant should be green) and high-toughness, low power, and leave the pseudo-Shocks to cards that require red mana.
Avant Block: Avant -- Stormfront
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
Not that I doubt you, but where did you read/hear that? I ask because I'd like to learn about it.
Also, would Provoke be acceptable these days?
Their playtest mechanic "Kickboxing". Pay the kicker cost and it could fight something when it ETB. Since it turned everything with it into a potential 2 for 1, it wasn't suitable at common under NWO.
But wouldn't they just be red-flagged under NWO as opposed to unprintable?
That would be too many redflag to fill a mechanic slot.
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
Three cards? I'm seriously asking because I don't know.
Is there an official limit to the number of cards per color or mechanic that can be red-flagged?
I don't know of any. The commonly cited rule is that absolutely no more than 20% of your commons should be red flagged. If you are creating 100 commons, and all of your commons for a mechanic are red flagged, you would basically have to build the rest of your set with only half the amount of complexity available. It seems easier to just design a mechanic that isn't red flagged.
- Manite
A fair share would be (up to) 4 red-flagged cards per color pair (five guilds per set). Wouldn't it just mean Gruul wouldn't be able to have any more red-flagged commons?
Going back to gatecrash, it looks like you want at least 5 commons per mechanic. So, I guess its doable. I still think you would be better off designing a mechanic that didn't generate CA
- Manite