I've fiddled around with card for a Lovecraft/Arkham Horror themed set for a little while, and one thing I wanted was to capture the feel of the Elder Gods in a new way compared to how gods were done in Theros/Amonkhet.
These Gods all have the Slumber Keyword, which can exile them from any zone (where they are visible: hand, play, graveyard, already in exile) and can be cast and affects the battlefield while it is exiled. This is the equivalent of how Cthulu and other Lovecraftian gods would lay dormant but still manipulate the world as they slept.
Yeshyana, the Burdening Yoke 5WW
Legendary Creature - Elder God
Slumber 2WW (2WW, Exile Yeshyana, The Burdening Yoke from anywhere: You may cast it as long as it slumbers. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
Creatures you control have vigilance.
At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, while Yeshyana slumbers or is on the battlefield, that player taps an untapped creature he or she controls.
5/7
Kreskal, The Maddening Deep 5UU
Legendary Creature - Elder God
Slumber 2UU (2UU, Exile Kreskal, The Maddening Deep from anywhere: You may cast it as long as it slumbers. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
Creatures you control have prowess.
While Kreskal slumbers or is on the battlefield, the first instant or sorcery spell you cast each turn costs 1 less to cast.
4/8
Stroggoth, The Unending Void 5BB
Legendary Creature - Elder God
Slumber 2BB (2BB, Exile Stroggoth, The Unending Void from anywhere: You may cast it as long as it slumbers. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
Creatures you control have trample
Whenever an opponent is dealt combat damage, while Stroggoth slumbers or is on the battlefield, that player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
6/6
Lasraxx, The Untempered Rage
Legendary Creature - Elder God
Slumber 2RR (2RR, Exile Lasraxx, The Untempered Rage from anywhere: You may cast it as long as it slumbers. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
Creatures you control have haste.
Whenever a creature you control attacks, while Lasraxx slumbers or is on the battlefield, that creature get +1/+0 until the end of turn.
7/5
Na’Tak’La, The Limitless Swarm
Legendary Creature - Elder God
Slumber 2GG (2GG, Exile Na’Tak’La, The Limitless Swarm from anywhere: You may cast it as long as it slumbers. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
Creatures you control have menace.
At the beginning of each upkeep, while Na’Tak’La slumbers or is on the battlefield, create a 1/1 green Insect creature token.
6/6
I'm interested to hear thoughts about costing, or abilities to put on different Gods. The challenge is that, because yoyu could Slumber multiple copies of a God, individual effects need to be interesting but not overpowering if multiplied.
I like the general concept. There are a lot of smaller issues that I think require tuning around the keyword e. g. I don't think it should be usable at instant speed, and I think there might be some merrit towards having a build-in delay in casting it (like "<cost>, Exile this from anywhere [you can see it?]: You may cast it it as long as it slumbers starting with your next turn."), though neither of the two are certain improvements and just guesses.
I really think there is a good chance your slumber costs are too cheap since this basically makes them enchantments that cannot be interacted with with the usual tools.
Again though: The concept is something I'd consider playtesting as-is and check whether it can be tuned into something that is (a) fair and (b) really selling the slumbering theme.
I also like how you try to create a synergy between the keyword and the slumbering ability since it helps drive home the point that you want to wake it up to get the full benefit - similar to the commanders with eminence.
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
You're right about the spell speed. I meant to put "Slumber as a sorcery." in the reminder text, but I forgot to.
If this turned into a full set, there would probably be cards at lesser rarity with Slumber, that would get a ETB trigger if cast from slumbering. Also, there would likely be cards that interacted with Slumbering cards (Riftsweeper and Pull from Eternity could be straight reprints infact)
I like the Slumbering mechanic. Makes them feel godlike since they're repeatable but it takes some investment to do so. Slumbering as a sorcery is a good move.
Great mechanic with great flavor (despite Eldrazi already being Lovecraftian). At sorcery speed (and perhaps after a little development) it's perfectly printable, and I think it/they would be very well received by players.
I'm not sure why we're suddenly on board with completely uninteractable enchantment effects when that has never been the case before? And this ability in particular is extra resilient because if it gets stifled or whatever, it's still lying around in exile where you can just activate the slumber ability again at your leisure? What am I missing?
I'm not sure why we're suddenly on board with completely uninteractable enchantment effects when that has never been the case before? And this ability in particular is extra resilient because if it gets stifled or whatever, it's still lying around in exile where you can just activate the slumber ability again at your leisure? What am I missing?
It's a cycle of mythics, not a full blown set mechanic like Suspend - of which this is a riff.
Besides, all enchantments are completely uninteractable to red. Now the rest of the colors can join the fun!
I'm not sure why we're suddenly on board with completely uninteractable enchantment effects when that has never been the case before? And this ability in particular is extra resilient because if it gets stifled or whatever, it's still lying around in exile where you can just activate the slumber ability again at your leisure? What am I missing?
That's a fair concern. My thought is that only the mythic with slumber would have the enchantment like effects, and that there be cards like the aforementioned Riftsweeper that can get cards out of exile, shuffle them into libraries, or exile them facedown so that they have no abilities.
Does slumber allow you to exile them from your library? I haven't seen the words "from anywhere" on a whole lot of cards and just wanted to check.
Also, it appears that multiple copies of these legendary creatures can offer their slumber effects at once, which could cause some problems. Exiling a few copies of Yeshyana would lock down most creature-based decks, for example.
You may want to:
1) State battlefield, hand, or graveyard instead of saying "anywhere"
2) Make sorcery speed so it can't "dodge" exile effects by slumbering.
Does slumber allow you to exile them from your library? I haven't seen the words "from anywhere" on a whole lot of cards and just wanted to check.
Also, it appears that multiple copies of these legendary creatures can offer their slumber effects at once, which could cause some problems. Exiling a few copies of Yeshyana would lock down most creature-based decks, for example.
You may want to:
1) State battlefield, hand, or graveyard instead of saying "anywhere"
2) Make sorcery speed so it can't "dodge" exile effects by slumbering.
You're only scratching the surface of the weirdness of an ability that can activate from any zone. While cards that do what they do from the deck are common in digital card games, Magic's hidden/public zone division makes these kinds of effects useless on a card that its owner can't see. For a card to do anything from a library, it would have to either work like Panglacial Wurm, work while you look at the top card of the deck with scry or the like, or work while revealed with a Future Sight variant. All very confusing.
It gets even weirder when you consider that the ability would work from the stack, from which activated abilities aren't typically used, or even from exile. That's right, the rules actually allow exiled cards to be exiled as a new object. Basically, the only way to get rid of the things would be to exile them face-down.
Does slumber allow you to exile them from your library? I haven't seen the words "from anywhere" on a whole lot of cards and just wanted to check.
Also, it appears that multiple copies of these legendary creatures can offer their slumber effects at once, which could cause some problems. Exiling a few copies of Yeshyana would lock down most creature-based decks, for example.
You may want to:
1) State battlefield, hand, or graveyard instead of saying "anywhere"
2) Make sorcery speed so it can't "dodge" exile effects by slumbering.
You're only scratching the surface of the weirdness of an ability that can activate from any zone. While cards that do what they do from the deck are common in digital card games, Magic's hidden/public zone division makes these kinds of effects useless on a card that its owner can't see. For a card to do anything from a library, it would have to either work like Panglacial Wurm, work while you look at the top card of the deck with scry or the like, or work while revealed with a Future Sight variant. All very confusing.
It gets even weirder when you consider that the ability would work from the stack, from which activated abilities aren't typically used, or even from exile. That's right, the rules actually allow exiled cards to be exiled as a new object. Basically, the only way to get rid of the things would be to exile them face-down.
The effect would be sorcery speed, I just have not updated the main post yet. Since a card isn't "visible" in the library, it couldn't be slumbered from there, or if it is face down on the battlefield or in exile.
Revealed top of library cards are an interesting corner case. I'd have to think how the rules might handle it.
Slumber <COST> (<COST>, Exile this card from your graveyard or hand. You may cast this card from exile. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
As long as ~ is exiled, EFFECT.
Acually, I really like slumber, I would leave it at instant speed, but you can only slumber them from play.
<Slumber Cost>: Exile and put a slumber counter on it. You may cast ~ from exile as long as it has a slumber counter on it.
As long ~ is in play, or exiled with a slumber counter on it, <Effect/ability>
Just my 2cents. I think this is a good mix of making them annoying to deal with, but not to busted. (I don't think there would be a major problem of slumbering them from the grave and/or hand as well.
Acually, I really like slumber, I would leave it at instant speed, but you can only slumber them from play.
<Slumber Cost>: Exile and put a slumber counter on it. You may cast ~ from exile as long as it has a slumber counter on it.
As long ~ is in play, or exiled with a slumber counter on it, <Effect/ability>
Just my 2cents. I think this is a good mix of making them annoying to deal with, but not to busted. (I don't think there would be a major problem of slumbering them from the grave and/or hand as well.
Slumber started as a from hand effect, kind of like Infernal Spawn of Evil to build tension that a big thing was coming. I added the ability to slumber from grave/play/exile to mimic how all the other gods in print have indestructible or recursion abilities.
I think slumber works just fine from any zone, I always loved infernal Spawn of Evil. Now that you mention it, I can see the similarities, lets just leave it as a from hand effect then. hmm....
What about
Slumber (At the begining of your upkeep, you may exile ~ from your hand, or return ~ to your hand. As long as ~ is in exile it's slumbering.
Here is my tweaked version of your God design:
Cthulhu, God of Madness4UUBB
Legendary Creature - Elder God (Mythic)
Slumber 2UB(2UB, Exile ~ from your Hand or Graveyard: You may cast it as long as its in Exile. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
Menace
As long as ~ is on the battlefield or Slumbering, at the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, that player puts the top card of his or her library into their graveyard.
Whenever Cthulhu attacks, you may cast target card from an opponent's graveyard without paying its mana cost.
8/8
The Slumbering effect is tied into the big effect, when Cthluhu emerges or swings at someone. I think this is how I would do it for your Gods.
These Gods all have the Slumber Keyword, which can exile them from any zone (where they are visible: hand, play, graveyard, already in exile) and can be cast and affects the battlefield while it is exiled. This is the equivalent of how Cthulu and other Lovecraftian gods would lay dormant but still manipulate the world as they slept.
Yeshyana, the Burdening Yoke 5WW
Legendary Creature - Elder God
Slumber 2WW (2WW, Exile Yeshyana, The Burdening Yoke from anywhere: You may cast it as long as it slumbers. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
Creatures you control have vigilance.
At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, while Yeshyana slumbers or is on the battlefield, that player taps an untapped creature he or she controls.
5/7
Kreskal, The Maddening Deep 5UU
Legendary Creature - Elder God
Slumber 2UU (2UU, Exile Kreskal, The Maddening Deep from anywhere: You may cast it as long as it slumbers. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
Creatures you control have prowess.
While Kreskal slumbers or is on the battlefield, the first instant or sorcery spell you cast each turn costs 1 less to cast.
4/8
Stroggoth, The Unending Void 5BB
Legendary Creature - Elder God
Slumber 2BB (2BB, Exile Stroggoth, The Unending Void from anywhere: You may cast it as long as it slumbers. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
Creatures you control have trample
Whenever an opponent is dealt combat damage, while Stroggoth slumbers or is on the battlefield, that player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
6/6
Lasraxx, The Untempered Rage
Legendary Creature - Elder God
Slumber 2RR (2RR, Exile Lasraxx, The Untempered Rage from anywhere: You may cast it as long as it slumbers. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
Creatures you control have haste.
Whenever a creature you control attacks, while Lasraxx slumbers or is on the battlefield, that creature get +1/+0 until the end of turn.
7/5
Na’Tak’La, The Limitless Swarm
Legendary Creature - Elder God
Slumber 2GG (2GG, Exile Na’Tak’La, The Limitless Swarm from anywhere: You may cast it as long as it slumbers. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
Creatures you control have menace.
At the beginning of each upkeep, while Na’Tak’La slumbers or is on the battlefield, create a 1/1 green Insect creature token.
6/6
I'm interested to hear thoughts about costing, or abilities to put on different Gods. The challenge is that, because yoyu could Slumber multiple copies of a God, individual effects need to be interesting but not overpowering if multiplied.
I really think there is a good chance your slumber costs are too cheap since this basically makes them enchantments that cannot be interacted with with the usual tools.
Again though: The concept is something I'd consider playtesting as-is and check whether it can be tuned into something that is (a) fair and (b) really selling the slumbering theme.
I also like how you try to create a synergy between the keyword and the slumbering ability since it helps drive home the point that you want to wake it up to get the full benefit - similar to the commanders with eminence.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
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If this turned into a full set, there would probably be cards at lesser rarity with Slumber, that would get a ETB trigger if cast from slumbering. Also, there would likely be cards that interacted with Slumbering cards (Riftsweeper and Pull from Eternity could be straight reprints infact)
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Innistrad - The Darkest Night
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A Community Set
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It's a cycle of mythics, not a full blown set mechanic like Suspend - of which this is a riff.
Besides, all enchantments are completely uninteractable to red. Now the rest of the colors can join the fun!
That's a fair concern. My thought is that only the mythic with slumber would have the enchantment like effects, and that there be cards like the aforementioned Riftsweeper that can get cards out of exile, shuffle them into libraries, or exile them facedown so that they have no abilities.
Also, it appears that multiple copies of these legendary creatures can offer their slumber effects at once, which could cause some problems. Exiling a few copies of Yeshyana would lock down most creature-based decks, for example.
You may want to:
1) State battlefield, hand, or graveyard instead of saying "anywhere"
2) Make sorcery speed so it can't "dodge" exile effects by slumbering.
You're only scratching the surface of the weirdness of an ability that can activate from any zone. While cards that do what they do from the deck are common in digital card games, Magic's hidden/public zone division makes these kinds of effects useless on a card that its owner can't see. For a card to do anything from a library, it would have to either work like Panglacial Wurm, work while you look at the top card of the deck with scry or the like, or work while revealed with a Future Sight variant. All very confusing.
It gets even weirder when you consider that the ability would work from the stack, from which activated abilities aren't typically used, or even from exile. That's right, the rules actually allow exiled cards to be exiled as a new object. Basically, the only way to get rid of the things would be to exile them face-down.
The effect would be sorcery speed, I just have not updated the main post yet. Since a card isn't "visible" in the library, it couldn't be slumbered from there, or if it is face down on the battlefield or in exile.
Revealed top of library cards are an interesting corner case. I'd have to think how the rules might handle it.
Slumber <COST> (<COST>, Exile this card from your graveyard or hand. You may cast this card from exile. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
As long as ~ is exiled, EFFECT.
<Slumber Cost>: Exile and put a slumber counter on it. You may cast ~ from exile as long as it has a slumber counter on it.
As long ~ is in play, or exiled with a slumber counter on it, <Effect/ability>
Just my 2cents. I think this is a good mix of making them annoying to deal with, but not to busted. (I don't think there would be a major problem of slumbering them from the grave and/or hand as well.
Behind the eyes of truth, is a world of illustions.
Dragon Riderof a Mist Dragonn anyway with the Dragon Riders Clan.
Slumber started as a from hand effect, kind of like Infernal Spawn of Evil to build tension that a big thing was coming. I added the ability to slumber from grave/play/exile to mimic how all the other gods in print have indestructible or recursion abilities.
What about
Slumber (At the begining of your upkeep, you may exile ~ from your hand, or return ~ to your hand. As long as ~ is in exile it's slumbering.
Behind the eyes of truth, is a world of illustions.
Dragon Riderof a Mist Dragonn anyway with the Dragon Riders Clan.
Cthulhu, God of Madness 4UUBB
Legendary Creature - Elder God (Mythic)
Slumber 2UB (2UB, Exile ~ from your Hand or Graveyard: You may cast it as long as its in Exile. Slumber only as a sorcery.)
Menace
As long as ~ is on the battlefield or Slumbering, at the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, that player puts the top card of his or her library into their graveyard.
Whenever Cthulhu attacks, you may cast target card from an opponent's graveyard without paying its mana cost.
8/8
The Slumbering effect is tied into the big effect, when Cthluhu emerges or swings at someone. I think this is how I would do it for your Gods.
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Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries