After a long hiatus from Magic in general, I recently got back into it, and I decided to try to create an entire block as a personal challenge. Story-wise, the first set takes place on a crowded, well explored, well understood continent with few remaining un-exploited resources. The second set would take place on a newly discovered frontier continent. The following are test commons for two of the mechanics I've devised; one for the base set, and one for the expansion.
[b]Mechanic I:[/b] Exhaust [COST] (You may cast this spell by exiling the top four cards of your library and paying its exhaust cost.)
This is meant to evoke the fact that in one the two settings in this plane, resources are scarce, so things are inefficient unless you steal resources from elsewhere. I'm not sure if 4 cards is anappropriate number, but it seemed deep enough that with repeated use you could easily deck yourself in limited/eat up all your outs in constructed. This is easy to balance given it has a mana cost, so the number is easily mutable.
[b]Ruinous Blaze[/b] 3R
Instant [b]{C}[/b]
Exhaust 1R(You may cast this spell by exiling the top four cards of your library and paying its exhaust cost.)
~ deals 4 damage to target creature.
[b]Gluttonous Fiend[/b] 2B
Creature - Horror [b]{C}[/b]
Exhaust 1B(You may cast this spell by exiling the top four cards of your library and paying its exhaust cost.)
If Gluttonous Fiend’s exhaust cost was paid, exile the top two cards of your library.
[b]2/3[/b]
[b]Tiresome Rebuttal[/b] 2UU
Instant [b]{C}[/b]
Exhaust UU(You may cast this spell by exiling the top four cards of your library and paying its exhaust cost.)
Counter target spell.
[b]Rejuvenation[/b] 4G
Encahntment [b]{C}[/b]
Exhaust 2G(You may cast this spell by exiling the top four cards of your library and paying its exhaust cost.)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a card you own in exile on the bottom of your library.
[b]Mechanic II:[/b] Uncharted (When you cast this spell, reveal the top four cards of your library, then put them on the bottom of your library in any order.)
This mechanic comes in two parts: the above rider, and the unacharted qualifier, which describes the cards revealed in the process (like the "monstrous" or "reknown" qualifiers). Cards with uncharted have effects that depend on the number of lands "uncharted" as you cast them. It's meant to give the feeling of an unexplored frontier, and is specifically intended to contrast with Exhaust thematically and mechanically since the cards aren't actually "used up." I would really like to keep it to 4 revealed cards to makethe Uncharted/Exhaust contrast abundantly clear, but I'm unsure if 4 cards is enough to reveal at least one land in a consistent fashion. This can be remedied by wording cards like Galvanic Bombardment, but I'm not a fan of how complex that actually is at common, so I'm still trying to find ways to improve on this.
[b]Wandering Apothecary[/b] 1W
Creature - Human Cleric [b]{C}[/b]
Uncharted (When you cast this spell, reveal the top four cards of your library, then put them on the bottom in any order.)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you gain 2 life for each land card uncharted.
[b]1/3[/b]
[b]Mapmaker's Insight[/b] 1U
Sorcery [b]{C}[/b]
Uncharted (When you cast this spell, reveal the top four cards of your library, then put them on the bottom in any order.)
Draw a card, then draw an additional card for each land card uncharted.
[b]Windborne Miasma[/b] 1BB
Instant [b]{C}[/b]
Uncharted (When you cast this spell, reveal the top four cards of your library, then put them on the bottom in any order.)
Creatures your opponents control get -1/-1 until end of turn, where X is 1 plus the number of uncharted land cards.
[b]Grazing Lumberhoof[b] 2G
Creature - Beast [b]{C}[/b]
Uncharted (When you cast this spell, reveal the top four cards of your library, then put them on the bottom in any order.)
~ enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter for each land card uncharted.
[b]3/2[/b]
I'm mostly looking for thoughts on existing mechanics that could somehow interact with Exhaust, as well as critiques/suggestions on how to improve upon Uncharted.
EDIT - For some reason, it's displaying my bold tags instead of bold text... Is anyone else seeing this?
The problem with exhaust is limited. When your deck is very thin, exhaust costs are unfeasible especially on commons. A mechanic that you're loathe to use in limited is not going to sell a set. Experienced players will handle it well enough, but the newbies wont. See arc slogger, which many players refused to play despite how powerful it was for the time. Reducing costs will, in turn, mess up constructed.
Rejuvination -- no way this is common.
Uncharted is annoyingly time consuming. Every time a player casts an uncharted spell, he'll look and rearrange the library.
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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
The problem with exhaust is limited. When your deck is very thin, exhaust costs are unfeasible especially on commons. A mechanic that you're loathe to use in limited is not going to sell a set. Experienced players will handle it well enough, but the newbies wont. See arc slogger, which many players refused to play despite how powerful it was for the time. Reducing costs will, in turn, mess up constructed.
Rejuvination -- no way this is common.
I had sort hand-waved this away using Crow of Dark Tidings as my basis, but I suppose that's the legitimate concern if all exhaust spells are too inefficient to function without paying the exhaust cost.
Uncharted is annoyingly time consuming. Every time a player casts an uncharted spell, he'll look and rearrange the library.
I mean, my intention was to have it show up about as often as Cascade did, and that was far more time consuming in that you might have to reveal plenty more cards to get the trigger, so I'm not entirely sure that this will be a problem, but I'll take note of it.
Would both of these perhaps be better if I changed it to exiling/revealing (land) cards from your hand?
[b]Mechanic I:[/b] Exhaust [COST] (You may cast this spell by exiling the top four cards of your library and paying its exhaust cost.)
This is meant to evoke the fact that in one the two settings in this plane, resources are scarce, so things are inefficient unless you steal resources from elsewhere. I'm not sure if 4 cards is anappropriate number, but it seemed deep enough that with repeated use you could easily deck yourself in limited/eat up all your outs in constructed. This is easy to balance given it has a mana cost, so the number is easily mutable.
[b]Ruinous Blaze[/b] 3R
Instant [b]{C}[/b]
Exhaust 1R (You may cast this spell by exiling the top four cards of your library and paying its exhaust cost.)
~ deals 4 damage to target creature.
[b]Gluttonous Fiend[/b] 2B
Creature - Horror [b]{C}[/b]
Exhaust 1B (You may cast this spell by exiling the top four cards of your library and paying its exhaust cost.)
If Gluttonous Fiend’s exhaust cost was paid, exile the top two cards of your library.
[b]2/3[/b]
[b]Tiresome Rebuttal[/b] 2UU
Instant [b]{C}[/b]
Exhaust UU (You may cast this spell by exiling the top four cards of your library and paying its exhaust cost.)
Counter target spell.
[b]Rejuvenation[/b] 4G
Encahntment [b]{C}[/b]
Exhaust 2G (You may cast this spell by exiling the top four cards of your library and paying its exhaust cost.)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a card you own in exile on the bottom of your library.
[b]Mechanic II:[/b] Uncharted (When you cast this spell, reveal the top four cards of your library, then put them on the bottom of your library in any order.)
This mechanic comes in two parts: the above rider, and the unacharted qualifier, which describes the cards revealed in the process (like the "monstrous" or "reknown" qualifiers). Cards with uncharted have effects that depend on the number of lands "uncharted" as you cast them. It's meant to give the feeling of an unexplored frontier, and is specifically intended to contrast with Exhaust thematically and mechanically since the cards aren't actually "used up." I would really like to keep it to 4 revealed cards to makethe Uncharted/Exhaust contrast abundantly clear, but I'm unsure if 4 cards is enough to reveal at least one land in a consistent fashion. This can be remedied by wording cards like Galvanic Bombardment, but I'm not a fan of how complex that actually is at common, so I'm still trying to find ways to improve on this.
[b]Wandering Apothecary[/b] 1W
Creature - Human Cleric [b]{C}[/b]
Uncharted (When you cast this spell, reveal the top four cards of your library, then put them on the bottom in any order.)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you gain 2 life for each land card uncharted.
[b]1/3[/b]
[b]Mapmaker's Insight[/b] 1U
Sorcery [b]{C}[/b]
Uncharted (When you cast this spell, reveal the top four cards of your library, then put them on the bottom in any order.)
Draw a card, then draw an additional card for each land card uncharted.
[b]Windborne Miasma[/b] 1BB
Instant [b]{C}[/b]
Uncharted (When you cast this spell, reveal the top four cards of your library, then put them on the bottom in any order.)
Creatures your opponents control get -1/-1 until end of turn, where X is 1 plus the number of uncharted land cards.
[b]Grazing Lumberhoof[b] 2G
Creature - Beast [b]{C}[/b]
Uncharted (When you cast this spell, reveal the top four cards of your library, then put them on the bottom in any order.)
~ enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter for each land card uncharted.
[b]3/2[/b]
I'm mostly looking for thoughts on existing mechanics that could somehow interact with Exhaust, as well as critiques/suggestions on how to improve upon Uncharted.
EDIT - For some reason, it's displaying my bold tags instead of bold text... Is anyone else seeing this?
Rejuvination -- no way this is common.
Uncharted is annoyingly time consuming. Every time a player casts an uncharted spell, he'll look and rearrange the library.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
I mean, my intention was to have it show up about as often as Cascade did, and that was far more time consuming in that you might have to reveal plenty more cards to get the trigger, so I'm not entirely sure that this will be a problem, but I'll take note of it.
Would both of these perhaps be better if I changed it to exiling/revealing (land) cards from your hand?