I'm working on a mechanic called Imitate and this is the general templating I have for the mechanic thus far.
Imitate (Cost) - You may pay the imitate cost and reveal this card from your hand. If you do, target creature gains any single ability from this card until end of turn.
This mechanic has a lot of similarities with Forecast, but a few key differences which I want to note:
- Activation is not restricted to upkeep, or once per turn, or to your turn period.
- The current iteration is a creature only mechanic (I am considering expanding this to include other permanent types)
- The targeted creature can gain any one ability from the creature you reveal. That can mean one keyword, one activated ability, or one triggered ability per Imitate activation.
Here are a few sample cards with Imitate.
Pit Asp3B
Creature - Snake (C)
Deathtouch
Imitate 4B: Reveal Pit Asp from your hand. Target creature gains any one ability of Pit Asp until end of turn.
3/2
Notes: Functions like forecast with a single ability and many commons will look like this though the abilities won't always be keywords.
Accursed Bones2B
First Strike
At the beginning of your end step you lose 2 life.
Imitate 3B: Reveal Accursed Bones from your hand. Target creature gains any one ability of Accursed Bones until end of turn.
3/3
Notes: Accursed Bones is a swiss army knife! It can give your creature first strike, it can be an aggressive threat with a costly drawback, or it can target your opponent's creature and drain them for two life.
Inspiring CadetW
Creature - Human Soldier (R) 2W: Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each turn.
Imitate 0: Reveal Inspiring Cadet from your hand. Target creature gains any one ability of Inspiring Cadet until end of turn.
2/1
Notes: Anthem on a stick attached to an aggro body. Imitate is absolutely free, but the only ability you can imitate is giving the anthem activated ability to a creature you control. If you have at least two creatures and 4WW you could give the team +2/+2. Great late game utility for a 1 drop.
Bloodtoll Specter1BB
Creature - Spectre (M)
Flying
Whenever Bloodtoll Specter attacks, the defending player discards a card at random. You lose life equal to half of that cards converted mana cost rounded down.
Imitate 1BB: Reveal Bloodtoll Specter from your hand. Target creature gains any one ability of Bloodtoll Specter until end of turn.
2/3
Notes: Hypnotic Specter got an upgrade. Specter gains an additional toughness and forces random discard on attack. Also, you can turn any creature into a specter (or give it flying) for 1BB. All the upgrades come at the price of life loss that is usually minimal, but you have to be careful against their Ghalta, or Emmrakul.
Would appreciate constructive thoughts on the mechanic idea!
Three of your four examples are black, and the other is white. In which colors do you expect this ability to appear? Just black and white, or others?
The "once per turn" limitation on Inspiring Cadet makes the card less useful when played compared to being Imitated from your hand. This limitation prevents the Cadet from using its ability more than once, but since it's Imitate ability costs 0, you can apply the ability any number of times to your creatures. Since each activation of Imitate adds a new instance of the ability to the target, one creature can host as many copies of the ability as you can afford and activate all of them. So the card is a much worse Gerrard's Battle Cry if you cast it, but a better one if you don't.
Overall, the issue I see is that these are effectively spell effects that are delivered through an activated ability from a non-permanent source, that also remains in the hand. That makes these extremely difficult to stop in any way. The upkeep limitation of Forecast is an important check on the sheer power of a nearly uncounterable spell-like effect that doesn't consume a card. You have put the costs on the Imitate ability fairly high, which is good considering what I've just pointed out, but it's a danger you need to be very aware of when designing cards with Imitate.
Granting first strike is out of color for black.
Bloodtoll Specter is very powerful. Making the ability attack-tiggered rather than damage-triggered is a massive upgrade. The fact that you can instantly apply that ability to your creatures with few ways to stop it is probably over the line.
This mechanic is all colors. I just found these were the examples that represented the mechanic in the most clean way for introductory purposes for each rarity.
That is exactly how I intended the Cadet design to work. A 1 CC 2/1 with a reasonably affordable anthem effect, even a one shot effect, is rather desirable and is generally (though not always) better than Gerrard's Battle Cry as it is also applying pressure on the board. The imitate ability is meant to make the cadet a decent late game draw as well as he can be used to give the anthem ability to different creatures.
Noted. I find the upkeep limitation to be overly burdensome and limiting for a player. Costs will continue to reflect the potential power of this ability though.
I think First Strike is supposed to be tertiary for Black so this is more of a bend then a break. At uncommon, this doesn't seem unreasonable.
It is true that the discard effect is stronger, but there is also guaranteed life loss paired with it. A deck using the specter has to mitigate this loss and consider the potential that an opponent may be holding a large CC threat when swinging.
Thank you for the detailed feedback. It's very well thought out and will definitely help as I continue to develop this mechanic.
It should just give all abilities, you lose a bit of design space, open a bit with linked abilities and make it far cleaner. Especially in digital where players would endlessly Muslim giving the Imitate ability.
Allowing this at instant speed is too much. Being combat tricks that don't take up cards makes it far too brutal. Limiting to sorcery will make the use of these abilities an actual choice as opposed to, "well you blocked so now I have deathtouch/first strike".
Being tertiary in an ability means that it can get it when needed but it doesn't grant it, especially at low rarities.
Generally, you want to avoid making cards that are repeatable while being hidden for players to see. Even more so with cards that affect combat in some way. As is, Imitate is highly likely to cause memory issues and combat complexity, especially at lower levels of play.
I like this ability and could see it being used. You mentioned forecast, but it also reminds me of bestow. Would this be instant or sorcery level speed? I like it as instant, but that would require higher activation costs in general.
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Imitate (Cost) - You may pay the imitate cost and reveal this card from your hand. If you do, target creature gains any single ability from this card until end of turn.
This mechanic has a lot of similarities with Forecast, but a few key differences which I want to note:
- Activation is not restricted to upkeep, or once per turn, or to your turn period.
- The current iteration is a creature only mechanic (I am considering expanding this to include other permanent types)
- The targeted creature can gain any one ability from the creature you reveal. That can mean one keyword, one activated ability, or one triggered ability per Imitate activation.
Here are a few sample cards with Imitate.
Pit Asp 3B
Creature - Snake (C)
Deathtouch
Imitate 4B: Reveal Pit Asp from your hand. Target creature gains any one ability of Pit Asp until end of turn.
3/2
Notes: Functions like forecast with a single ability and many commons will look like this though the abilities won't always be keywords.
Accursed Bones 2B
First Strike
At the beginning of your end step you lose 2 life.
Imitate 3B: Reveal Accursed Bones from your hand. Target creature gains any one ability of Accursed Bones until end of turn.
3/3
Notes: Accursed Bones is a swiss army knife! It can give your creature first strike, it can be an aggressive threat with a costly drawback, or it can target your opponent's creature and drain them for two life.
Inspiring Cadet W
Creature - Human Soldier (R)
2W: Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each turn.
Imitate 0: Reveal Inspiring Cadet from your hand. Target creature gains any one ability of Inspiring Cadet until end of turn.
2/1
Notes: Anthem on a stick attached to an aggro body. Imitate is absolutely free, but the only ability you can imitate is giving the anthem activated ability to a creature you control. If you have at least two creatures and 4WW you could give the team +2/+2. Great late game utility for a 1 drop.
Bloodtoll Specter 1BB
Creature - Spectre (M)
Flying
Whenever Bloodtoll Specter attacks, the defending player discards a card at random. You lose life equal to half of that cards converted mana cost rounded down.
Imitate 1BB: Reveal Bloodtoll Specter from your hand. Target creature gains any one ability of Bloodtoll Specter until end of turn.
2/3
Notes: Hypnotic Specter got an upgrade. Specter gains an additional toughness and forces random discard on attack. Also, you can turn any creature into a specter (or give it flying) for 1BB. All the upgrades come at the price of life loss that is usually minimal, but you have to be careful against their Ghalta, or Emmrakul.
Would appreciate constructive thoughts on the mechanic idea!
The "once per turn" limitation on Inspiring Cadet makes the card less useful when played compared to being Imitated from your hand. This limitation prevents the Cadet from using its ability more than once, but since it's Imitate ability costs 0, you can apply the ability any number of times to your creatures. Since each activation of Imitate adds a new instance of the ability to the target, one creature can host as many copies of the ability as you can afford and activate all of them. So the card is a much worse Gerrard's Battle Cry if you cast it, but a better one if you don't.
Overall, the issue I see is that these are effectively spell effects that are delivered through an activated ability from a non-permanent source, that also remains in the hand. That makes these extremely difficult to stop in any way. The upkeep limitation of Forecast is an important check on the sheer power of a nearly uncounterable spell-like effect that doesn't consume a card. You have put the costs on the Imitate ability fairly high, which is good considering what I've just pointed out, but it's a danger you need to be very aware of when designing cards with Imitate.
Granting first strike is out of color for black.
Bloodtoll Specter is very powerful. Making the ability attack-tiggered rather than damage-triggered is a massive upgrade. The fact that you can instantly apply that ability to your creatures with few ways to stop it is probably over the line.
That is exactly how I intended the Cadet design to work. A 1 CC 2/1 with a reasonably affordable anthem effect, even a one shot effect, is rather desirable and is generally (though not always) better than Gerrard's Battle Cry as it is also applying pressure on the board. The imitate ability is meant to make the cadet a decent late game draw as well as he can be used to give the anthem ability to different creatures.
Noted. I find the upkeep limitation to be overly burdensome and limiting for a player. Costs will continue to reflect the potential power of this ability though.
I think First Strike is supposed to be tertiary for Black so this is more of a bend then a break. At uncommon, this doesn't seem unreasonable.
It is true that the discard effect is stronger, but there is also guaranteed life loss paired with it. A deck using the specter has to mitigate this loss and consider the potential that an opponent may be holding a large CC threat when swinging.
Thank you for the detailed feedback. It's very well thought out and will definitely help as I continue to develop this mechanic.
Allowing this at instant speed is too much. Being combat tricks that don't take up cards makes it far too brutal. Limiting to sorcery will make the use of these abilities an actual choice as opposed to, "well you blocked so now I have deathtouch/first strike".
Being tertiary in an ability means that it can get it when needed but it doesn't grant it, especially at low rarities.