I've finally decided to take the plunge and use some of the things I've learned as a designer to restart a pet project of mine - Carnage. Carnage is a set designed to be drafted with a dedicated playgroup who already has a firm understanding of the game and incorporates mechanics associated with combat, death, and pain of all kinds. To be clear, this is not a Custom Set thread, but rather I am just dumping as much as I can here in order to contextualize some of the cards I am posting.
Set on a world where gladiatorial combat determines the social order, people are born into a life where they live, breathe, and eat battle - competing in daily competitions for everything from food to plain glory. There is no internal logic to this world. The strong survive. The weak fall. It's a simple world, but a brutal one nonetheless. There are no Gods here. There are only the sounds of steel on steel, screams, and cheers.
You may ask yourself, what kind of a being would find themselves here - never-mind declare themselves Emperor? How truly sick of an individual they must be.
Tibalt, Sadistic Emperor1BR
Planeswalker - Tibalt (M)
+1: Shuffle your library, then reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost.
-2: Deal 1 damage to target creature. It gets +2/+0 and has haste until end of turn.
-8: Target opponent gets an emblem with “Whenever you cast a spell, take damage equal to that spell’s converted mana cost.”
[3]
Of course you probably saw that coming. What you will not see coming is the individual who Tibalt is using as both his champion and favorite target for torment.
Garruk, Gladiator Champion5BG
Planeswalker - Garruk (M)
Whenever a creature dies, put a loyalty counter on Garruk, Gladiator Champion.
-2: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn. If it dies this turn, create a 2/2 green and black Wolf creature token.
-X: Garruk, Gladiator Champion becomes an X/X Human Barbarian creature that’s still a planeswalker. It fights each creature target opponent controls.
[4]
I can't promise this set uses a lot of new design space, but I like to think there are a few cool things here. I mostly centered the set to have emphasis on Exalted(WUb):
Malignia, the Lone Blade4WB
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
First strike
Exalted
Whenever a creature your opponent controls attacks, if it was not attacking alone, that creature gets -X/-X where X is the number of attacking creatures that player controls.
3/3
Morbid:
Soulstitcher GlinaGU
Legendary Creature - Elf Shaman (M)
When Soulstitcher Glina enters the battlefield, search your library for up to three creature cards and exile them. Then shuffle your library.
Morbid — 1GU, T, Return a creature card from exile to your graveyard: Create a token that’s a copy of it. Activate this ability only if a creature died this turn.
1/4
And Bloodthirst, though I don't have any particularly cool multicolored mythics to show that mechanic off. But let me assure you that this is a very combat-centric set, with a ton of equipments, and a lot of reasons to rush into battle and get some creatures in your graveyard:
Artilius, the Battle-Mad2RW
Legendary Creature - Human Barbarian (M)
Haste, menace
Whenever Artilius, the Battle-Mad deals combat damage to an opponent, put the top card of your library into your graveyard. If a creature card is put into your graveyard this way, untap this creature and after this phase, there is an additional combat phase followed by an additional main phase.
3/2
Other, sub-mechanics will include Equipments, and a Morbid variant that is unnamed, which triggers abilities only if you've lost life this turn. But, finally, for my UR friends I don't want you to feel left out from the enemy color legendary brigade. For you, I did something a little different.
Stormcaller Shinzan1UR
Legendary Creature - Djinn Wizard (M)
Flash
Prowess
When Stormcaller Shinzan enters the battlefield, create a 0/1 red and blue Elemental creature token with prowess for each noncreature spell you own on the stack.
1/2
Anyway, I know this is getting long, and is kind of a lot of information. I'd love any suggestions or comments below - maybe some things you'd like to see from these legends, and possibly stuff regarding my mechanic choices or even any cool reprints that you think should make the cut! This was only an hour's worth of journaling at work today, so things are pretty rough. Hope you enjoyed!
There's a lot here, so I'll mention what jumps out to me:
Tibalt's -2 is super weak, even for a 3 mana planeswalker. Is enrage supposed to be a draft archetype in your set?
Garruk's -X ability is decidedly bad. Without a type change or damage prevention mechanism designed to prevent both damage and loyalty loss from occurring, he'll just die immediately. You might as well have players just sacrifice the planeswalker and deal damage equal to its loyalty to each of your opponent's creatures. Mathematically speaking, your opponent needs to have zero or a very weak board presence for Garruk not to die.
Glina is cool, but I don't get why her ability is so roundabout. Why not just put the exiled creature onto the battlefield?
Shinzan is a nonbo with himself. Flash and prowess encourage you to cast your creature and then combat tricks/removal to get value out of him, but the ETB requires you to blow your load and then somehow have even more spells to cast. Super clunky.
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Set on a world where gladiatorial combat determines the social order, people are born into a life where they live, breathe, and eat battle - competing in daily competitions for everything from food to plain glory. There is no internal logic to this world. The strong survive. The weak fall. It's a simple world, but a brutal one nonetheless. There are no Gods here. There are only the sounds of steel on steel, screams, and cheers.
You may ask yourself, what kind of a being would find themselves here - never-mind declare themselves Emperor? How truly sick of an individual they must be.
Planeswalker - Tibalt (M)
+1: Shuffle your library, then reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost.
-2: Deal 1 damage to target creature. It gets +2/+0 and has haste until end of turn.
-8: Target opponent gets an emblem with “Whenever you cast a spell, take damage equal to that spell’s converted mana cost.”
[3]
Of course you probably saw that coming. What you will not see coming is the individual who Tibalt is using as both his champion and favorite target for torment.
Planeswalker - Garruk (M)
Whenever a creature dies, put a loyalty counter on Garruk, Gladiator Champion.
-2: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn. If it dies this turn, create a 2/2 green and black Wolf creature token.
-X: Garruk, Gladiator Champion becomes an X/X Human Barbarian creature that’s still a planeswalker. It fights each creature target opponent controls.
[4]
I can't promise this set uses a lot of new design space, but I like to think there are a few cool things here. I mostly centered the set to have emphasis on Exalted(WUb):
Malignia, the Lone Blade 4WB
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
First strike
Exalted
Whenever a creature your opponent controls attacks, if it was not attacking alone, that creature gets -X/-X where X is the number of attacking creatures that player controls.
3/3
Morbid:
Legendary Creature - Elf Shaman (M)
When Soulstitcher Glina enters the battlefield, search your library for up to three creature cards and exile them. Then shuffle your library.
Morbid — 1GU, T, Return a creature card from exile to your graveyard: Create a token that’s a copy of it. Activate this ability only if a creature died this turn.
1/4
And Bloodthirst, though I don't have any particularly cool multicolored mythics to show that mechanic off. But let me assure you that this is a very combat-centric set, with a ton of equipments, and a lot of reasons to rush into battle and get some creatures in your graveyard:
Legendary Creature - Human Barbarian (M)
Haste, menace
Whenever Artilius, the Battle-Mad deals combat damage to an opponent, put the top card of your library into your graveyard. If a creature card is put into your graveyard this way, untap this creature and after this phase, there is an additional combat phase followed by an additional main phase.
3/2
Other, sub-mechanics will include Equipments, and a Morbid variant that is unnamed, which triggers abilities only if you've lost life this turn. But, finally, for my UR friends I don't want you to feel left out from the enemy color legendary brigade. For you, I did something a little different.
Legendary Creature - Djinn Wizard (M)
Flash
Prowess
When Stormcaller Shinzan enters the battlefield, create a 0/1 red and blue Elemental creature token with prowess for each noncreature spell you own on the stack.
1/2
Anyway, I know this is getting long, and is kind of a lot of information. I'd love any suggestions or comments below - maybe some things you'd like to see from these legends, and possibly stuff regarding my mechanic choices or even any cool reprints that you think should make the cut! This was only an hour's worth of journaling at work today, so things are pretty rough. Hope you enjoyed!
Tibalt's -2 is super weak, even for a 3 mana planeswalker. Is enrage supposed to be a draft archetype in your set?
Garruk's -X ability is decidedly bad. Without a type change or damage prevention mechanism designed to prevent both damage and loyalty loss from occurring, he'll just die immediately. You might as well have players just sacrifice the planeswalker and deal damage equal to its loyalty to each of your opponent's creatures. Mathematically speaking, your opponent needs to have zero or a very weak board presence for Garruk not to die.
Glina is cool, but I don't get why her ability is so roundabout. Why not just put the exiled creature onto the battlefield?
Shinzan is a nonbo with himself. Flash and prowess encourage you to cast your creature and then combat tricks/removal to get value out of him, but the ETB requires you to blow your load and then somehow have even more spells to cast. Super clunky.