This is a mechanic for the Mad Potion-brewing Chemists of Formulei (the BR school of Viperdale.)
Batwing Fumes1B
Sorcery
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
Brew 3B (Then if you cast this card from your hand for 3B, exile it brewing. Cast it later for 3B. Reduce that cost by 2 if you cast it paired with another brewing card.)
Brewing is kinda a kicker flashback. You may get a simple edict for 1B, or a flashback edict for 3B + 3B later.
However, two ingredients may mix together for a more efficient effect!
Devilblood Olio2R
Sorcery
Create two 1/1 red Devil creature tokens.
Brew 3R (Then if you cast this card from your hand for 3R, exile it brewing. Cast it later for 3R. Reduce that cost by 2 if you cast it paired with another brewing card.)
Mix Batwing Fumes and Devilblood Olio in a cauldron, and you get a 2RB sorcery for both effects combined!
But how does 'paired' casting work, you ask? Easy, you follow the same steps for casting a card, except for both cards at the same time! Then they are put in the stack in the order you choose. They are two spells at all times.
So, that's Brew, a parasitic ability, but the flashback option also works perfectly fine alone. Sure, 4 less may sound like a lot, but you'd have to work to set that up anyways, and telegraph it in advance.
Btw, I know paired is already a concept with creatures, but I think both meanings could coexist (like Counter and Counter.) It may alternatively use the 'Splice onto' mechanic, but I feel like this is more natural, as that mechanic can splice multiple spells, not only pairs.
First, you really need to get reminder text that tells you everything. I shouldn't have to go look up what it means to pair a spell to play these. This may seem nitpicky but there is nothing on those cards that leads me to believe I can or have to pair it with another brewed card.
My suggestion is make it more splice less flashback. BrewX(If you cast this for its Brew cost you may choose a Brewed card you own in exile. If you do, add that cards effects to this spell. Then exile this card brewed.)
It makes the first card brewed a strict downside. But adds versatility as you get more brews. Also I think you'll end up having to increase the cost if you have that cost reduction built into the flashback.
I agree with user about the reminder text, because the first time I read this I thought it was a really bad foretell variant.
From the gameplay standpoint, there's a couple different directions you can go with this.
First, you can just make it so that each card you brew is automatically added to the brew that are cast afterwards. The downside of this is it will snowball A LOT as the game goes on.
A better option is having a choice of effects to add, but in either case there needs to be a cost to add each effect onto the newly cast spell to mitigate that snowball.
Batwing Fumes3B
Sorcery
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
Brew 2BB (You may card this card from your graveyard for its Brew cost if you control an instant or sorcery spell. Then exile it. Halve this cost to 1B if you control an spell with Brew.)
Kzari, Cauldron Enthusiast1RB
Legendary Creature - Human Witch (R)
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, mill 1.
At the beginning of each end step, if you cast two or more spells from your graveyard this turn, put an Indestructible counter on Kzari and Kzari can't block.
3/3
If that's the route you're going you definitely want brew to be a subtype or have an associated subtype to reference.
Halve this cost to... reads very clunky. It also implies a heavy design restriction. The inability to make an odd cost or even an odd color requirement let alone multicolor restrictions feels too limiting.
User is right that the halving thing is clunky, limiting, and hard to grok (what if the spell's cost is BBR?). Also, as written, " (You may card this card from your graveyard for its Brew cost if you control an instant or sorcery spell. " I assume means you have to have an instant or sorcery spell on the stack to cast this "Brew", but since its a sorcery you cannot cast it while another spell is on the stack.
Splice functionality is a good fit here, and having a consistent subtype will make balance and design easier (though it does create a parasitic issue of only having cards from this one set to interact with).
There's a couple of ways to go with costing. I think the best way would be a flat additional cost on casting to "start brewing" and then a variable "Brew cost" dependent on the spell effect you are adding to the other spells.
Batwing Fumes 1B
Sorcery - Reagent
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
Brew 2BB (You may pay an additional 2 as you cast this spell. If you do, exile it as it resolves. As you cast a Reagent spell while this card is exiled, you may pay its brew cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.)
Its wordy and the mana knobs would need tuning, but it lets you build up a cluster of "Brewed" spells you can add to later casting in intricate ways so it hits the flavor note you were going for. In fact, this would have enough design space it should probably be a 5 color mechanic instead of limited to one pair.
Thanks for all you help guys! I have a version I'm happier with:
Batwing Fumes4B
Ingredient Sorcery
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
Brew 2B (Exile X Ingredient cards from your graveyard and pay their Brew costs to add their effects to an instant or sorcery spell you control. If that spell was also an Ingredient, add Scry X as well.)
I like that this version feels more like putting a bunch of stuff in a cauldron and stirring. The bonus for mixing two Ingredients this time is a simple Scry 1 (or better for more ingredients) but a lesser effect makes it less parasitic, so that's ok. On the rulings aspect, this would be a 'anytime' ability like morphs. I don't think that would cause too much trouble (casting an instant is already 'anytime'), but it could also be an activated ability if you put < : > in there, it just reads better this way, I feel.
Also, mix in some Ingredient Creatures into the pot!
Devilweed Imp2R
Ingredient Creature - Imp
When Devilweed Imp resolves, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
Brew R (Exile X Ingredient cards from your graveyard and pay their Brew costs to add their effects to an instant or sorcery spell you control. If that spell was also an Ingredient, add Scry X as well.)
2/1
A bit less standard than 'enters the battlefield', but the Ingredient supertype marks this as a special kind of effect.
This would still need to be templated as an effect of an additional cost, because things like targets have to be chosen when a spell is cast and if you add an ability like "deal 2 damage to any target" to a spell already on the stack you won't be able to choose a target for that part of the ability.
Also, the reminder text should just refer to that card specifically, not "X ingredient cards" because if I brew three cards this implies that I scry X (3) for each of those cards and I think your intention is that it should only scry once per added ingredient. Honestly, I think the scry isn't necessary as the utility of brew is enough to incentivize playing them in your deck.
Devilweed Imp 2R
Ingredient Creature - Imp
When Devilweed Imp resolves, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
Brew R (As an additional cost to cast and instant or sorcery spell, you may exile this card from your graveyard and pay its brew cost to add this card's effects to that spell. If that spell was also an Ingredient, also add Scry 1.)
2/1
The challenge of this mechanic is that it is basically Flashback with more restrictions, because you have to add it to another spell instead of just casting it whenever, so you'll want spell effects that can interact differently when brewed on different spells like:
1R
Ingredient Instant
CARDNAME deals damage to target player or planeswalker equal to its mana value.
Brew 1R
Good observations, again! I had intended for Ingredients to have no targets, but that's quite restrictive, especially for a RB mechanic. Those colors love to target!
So, here is a revision with that in mind. Now the scry is always the effect of an Ingredient Instant or Ingredient Sorcery, and the main (brew) effects are triggered abilities (using 'opponent' or 'up to one', so they can't be fizzled into being detrimental). Also, renamed Brew into infuse, because it has more conjugations.
Devilweed Imp2R
Ingredient Creature - Imp
When Devilweed Imp or its infused spell resolves, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
Infuse R (R, Exile this card from your graveyard: Infuse this on target instant or sorcery spell you control.)
2/2
Batwing Fumes4B
Ingredient Sorcery
Scry X, where X is the number of cards infused on Batwing Fumes.
When Batwing Fumes or its infused spell resolves, each opponent sacrifices a creature.
Infuse 2B (2B, Exile this card from your graveyard: Infuse this on target instant or sorcery spell you control.)
Sparkpowder Pinch4R
Ingredient Instant
Scry X, where X is the number of cards infused on Sparkpowder Blast.
When Sparkpowder Pinch or its infused spell resolves, it deals 3 damage to target creature or planeswalker an opponent controls.
Infuse 3R (3R, Exile this card from your graveyard: Infuse this on target instant or sorcery spell you control.)
So if you don't have targets or modal choices, you can get around the timing issues of this being an activated ability, though you are right that it restricts a lot of options for what the spell effects cant do. However, since you re planning to limit this to one color pair, that is a good use for a mechanic with limited design space.
Your reminder text would still need to explain what infuse means, because its just self referential right now (It basically says, "To infuse this card, pay the cost to infuse it"). The game will still recognize that it was Infused due to the keyword itself, so you don't need it again in the italics.
Devilweed Imp 2R
Ingredient Creature - Imp
When Devilweed Imp or its infusion resolves, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
Infuse R (R, Exile this card from your graveyard: Add this card's effects to target instant or sorcery spell you control.)
2/2
Also, when you add card text to another card or copy a card, all instances of the original card's name automatically update to the name of the new card. For instance, if I were to Splice Glacial Ray onto Eye of Nowhere, the Eye would read.
Return target permanent to its owner's hand.
Eye of Nowhere deals 2 damage to any target.
That means the text about "or its infusion" isn't needed.
It's really really not friendly to new or younger players. I've been playing the game since it's inception and it took a second to figure out what you are trying to do here. It is very cool but ugly my guy. There has to be a better way. Let me suggest this.
Batwing Fumes 1B
Sorcery - Brew
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
You may pay an additional 1B as you cast Batwing Fumes. If you do exile target instant or sorcery card with Brew from your graveyard then add the exiled card's effects to Batwing Fumes.
Devilblood Olio 2R
Sorcery - Brew
Create 2 1/1 devil creature tokens with menace.
You may pay an additional 1R as you cast Devilblood Olio. If you do exile target instant or sorcery card with Brew from your graveyard then add the exiled card's effects to Devilblood Olio. This pretty much gets the desired effects. BUT it can get better and also allow more powerful spells if you change it up. Right now with my current design you don't want to make powerful brews since for just 2 Mana you can get the effect copied. So a better way should be....
Batwing Fumes 1B
Sorcery - Brew
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
When you cast an instant or sorcery card with Brew you may pay an additional 1B as you cast it. If you do exile Batwing Fumes from your graveyard then add Batwing Fume's effect to that spell.
The reason you would want to go this route is because you could have a spell such as
Bearcaller's Sarumit 3GGG
Instant - Brew
Put 4 2/2 bear creature tokens onto the battlefield.
You may pay an additional 1G as you cast Bearcaller's Sarumit. If you do exile target instant or sorcery card with Brew from your graveyard then add the exiled card's effects to Bearcaller's Sarumit.
While that effect isn't broken imagine if you cast a cheap Brew spell and paid an extra 2 Mana and got 4 2/2 bears. Not balanced at all. So the better way would be...
Bearcaller's Sarumit 3GGG
Instant - Brew
Put 4 2/2 bear creature tokens onto the battlefield.
When you cast an instant or sorcery card with Brew you may pay an additional 3G as you cast it. If you do exile Bearcaller's Sarumit from your graveyard then add Bearcaller's Sarumit's effect to that spell.
This design allows you to make the Brew cost different for balance purposes.
Batwing Fumes 1B
Sorcery
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
Brew 3B (Then if you cast this card from your hand for 3B, exile it brewing. Cast it later for 3B. Reduce that cost by 2 if you cast it paired with another brewing card.)
Brewing is kinda a kicker flashback. You may get a simple edict for 1B, or a flashback edict for 3B + 3B later.
However, two ingredients may mix together for a more efficient effect!
Devilblood Olio 2R
Sorcery
Create two 1/1 red Devil creature tokens.
Brew 3R (Then if you cast this card from your hand for 3R, exile it brewing. Cast it later for 3R. Reduce that cost by 2 if you cast it paired with another brewing card.)
Mix Batwing Fumes and Devilblood Olio in a cauldron, and you get a 2RB sorcery for both effects combined!
But how does 'paired' casting work, you ask? Easy, you follow the same steps for casting a card, except for both cards at the same time! Then they are put in the stack in the order you choose. They are two spells at all times.
So, that's Brew, a parasitic ability, but the flashback option also works perfectly fine alone. Sure, 4 less may sound like a lot, but you'd have to work to set that up anyways, and telegraph it in advance.
Btw, I know paired is already a concept with creatures, but I think both meanings could coexist (like Counter and Counter.) It may alternatively use the 'Splice onto' mechanic, but I feel like this is more natural, as that mechanic can splice multiple spells, not only pairs.
My suggestion is make it more splice less flashback. BrewX(If you cast this for its Brew cost you may choose a Brewed card you own in exile. If you do, add that cards effects to this spell. Then exile this card brewed.)
It makes the first card brewed a strict downside. But adds versatility as you get more brews. Also I think you'll end up having to increase the cost if you have that cost reduction built into the flashback.
From the gameplay standpoint, there's a couple different directions you can go with this.
First, you can just make it so that each card you brew is automatically added to the brew that are cast afterwards. The downside of this is it will snowball A LOT as the game goes on.
A better option is having a choice of effects to add, but in either case there needs to be a cost to add each effect onto the newly cast spell to mitigate that snowball.
Batwing Fumes 3B
Sorcery
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
Brew 2BB (You may card this card from your graveyard for its Brew cost if you control an instant or sorcery spell. Then exile it. Halve this cost to 1B if you control an spell with Brew.)
Kzari, Cauldron Enthusiast 1RB
Legendary Creature - Human Witch (R)
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, mill 1.
At the beginning of each end step, if you cast two or more spells from your graveyard this turn, put an Indestructible counter on Kzari and Kzari can't block.
3/3
Halve this cost to... reads very clunky. It also implies a heavy design restriction. The inability to make an odd cost or even an odd color requirement let alone multicolor restrictions feels too limiting.
Splice functionality is a good fit here, and having a consistent subtype will make balance and design easier (though it does create a parasitic issue of only having cards from this one set to interact with).
There's a couple of ways to go with costing. I think the best way would be a flat additional cost on casting to "start brewing" and then a variable "Brew cost" dependent on the spell effect you are adding to the other spells.
Batwing Fumes 1B
Sorcery - Reagent
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
Brew 2BB (You may pay an additional 2 as you cast this spell. If you do, exile it as it resolves. As you cast a Reagent spell while this card is exiled, you may pay its brew cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.)
Its wordy and the mana knobs would need tuning, but it lets you build up a cluster of "Brewed" spells you can add to later casting in intricate ways so it hits the flavor note you were going for. In fact, this would have enough design space it should probably be a 5 color mechanic instead of limited to one pair.
Batwing Fumes 4B
Ingredient Sorcery
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
Brew 2B (Exile X Ingredient cards from your graveyard and pay their Brew costs to add their effects to an instant or sorcery spell you control. If that spell was also an Ingredient, add Scry X as well.)
I like that this version feels more like putting a bunch of stuff in a cauldron and stirring. The bonus for mixing two Ingredients this time is a simple Scry 1 (or better for more ingredients) but a lesser effect makes it less parasitic, so that's ok. On the rulings aspect, this would be a 'anytime' ability like morphs. I don't think that would cause too much trouble (casting an instant is already 'anytime'), but it could also be an activated ability if you put < : > in there, it just reads better this way, I feel.
Also, mix in some Ingredient Creatures into the pot!
Devilweed Imp 2R
Ingredient Creature - Imp
When Devilweed Imp resolves, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
Brew R (Exile X Ingredient cards from your graveyard and pay their Brew costs to add their effects to an instant or sorcery spell you control. If that spell was also an Ingredient, add Scry X as well.)
2/1
A bit less standard than 'enters the battlefield', but the Ingredient supertype marks this as a special kind of effect.
Also, the reminder text should just refer to that card specifically, not "X ingredient cards" because if I brew three cards this implies that I scry X (3) for each of those cards and I think your intention is that it should only scry once per added ingredient. Honestly, I think the scry isn't necessary as the utility of brew is enough to incentivize playing them in your deck.
Devilweed Imp 2R
Ingredient Creature - Imp
When Devilweed Imp resolves, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
Brew R (As an additional cost to cast and instant or sorcery spell, you may exile this card from your graveyard and pay its brew cost to add this card's effects to that spell. If that spell was also an Ingredient, also add Scry 1.)
2/1
The challenge of this mechanic is that it is basically Flashback with more restrictions, because you have to add it to another spell instead of just casting it whenever, so you'll want spell effects that can interact differently when brewed on different spells like:
1R
Ingredient Instant
CARDNAME deals damage to target player or planeswalker equal to its mana value.
Brew 1R
So, here is a revision with that in mind. Now the scry is always the effect of an Ingredient Instant or Ingredient Sorcery, and the main (brew) effects are triggered abilities (using 'opponent' or 'up to one', so they can't be fizzled into being detrimental). Also, renamed Brew into infuse, because it has more conjugations.
Devilweed Imp 2R
Ingredient Creature - Imp
When Devilweed Imp or its infused spell resolves, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
Infuse R (R, Exile this card from your graveyard: Infuse this on target instant or sorcery spell you control.)
2/2
Batwing Fumes 4B
Ingredient Sorcery
Scry X, where X is the number of cards infused on Batwing Fumes.
When Batwing Fumes or its infused spell resolves, each opponent sacrifices a creature.
Infuse 2B (2B, Exile this card from your graveyard: Infuse this on target instant or sorcery spell you control.)
Sparkpowder Pinch 4R
Ingredient Instant
Scry X, where X is the number of cards infused on Sparkpowder Blast.
When Sparkpowder Pinch or its infused spell resolves, it deals 3 damage to target creature or planeswalker an opponent controls.
Infuse 3R (3R, Exile this card from your graveyard: Infuse this on target instant or sorcery spell you control.)
Your reminder text would still need to explain what infuse means, because its just self referential right now (It basically says, "To infuse this card, pay the cost to infuse it"). The game will still recognize that it was Infused due to the keyword itself, so you don't need it again in the italics.
Devilweed Imp 2R
Ingredient Creature - Imp
When Devilweed Imp
or its infusion resolves, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.Infuse R (R, Exile this card from your graveyard: Add this card's effects to target instant or sorcery spell you control.)
2/2
Also, when you add card text to another card or copy a card, all instances of the original card's name automatically update to the name of the new card. For instance, if I were to Splice Glacial Ray onto Eye of Nowhere, the Eye would read.
Return target permanent to its owner's hand.
Eye of Nowhere deals 2 damage to any target.
That means the text about "or its infusion" isn't needed.
Batwing Fumes 1B
Sorcery - Brew
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
You may pay an additional 1B as you cast Batwing Fumes. If you do exile target instant or sorcery card with Brew from your graveyard then add the exiled card's effects to Batwing Fumes.
Devilblood Olio 2R
Sorcery - Brew
Create 2 1/1 devil creature tokens with menace.
You may pay an additional 1R as you cast Devilblood Olio. If you do exile target instant or sorcery card with Brew from your graveyard then add the exiled card's effects to Devilblood Olio. This pretty much gets the desired effects. BUT it can get better and also allow more powerful spells if you change it up. Right now with my current design you don't want to make powerful brews since for just 2 Mana you can get the effect copied. So a better way should be....
Batwing Fumes 1B
Sorcery - Brew
Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
When you cast an instant or sorcery card with Brew you may pay an additional 1B as you cast it. If you do exile Batwing Fumes from your graveyard then add Batwing Fume's effect to that spell.
The reason you would want to go this route is because you could have a spell such as
Bearcaller's Sarumit 3GGG
Instant - Brew
Put 4 2/2 bear creature tokens onto the battlefield.
You may pay an additional 1G as you cast Bearcaller's Sarumit. If you do exile target instant or sorcery card with Brew from your graveyard then add the exiled card's effects to Bearcaller's Sarumit.
While that effect isn't broken imagine if you cast a cheap Brew spell and paid an extra 2 Mana and got 4 2/2 bears. Not balanced at all. So the better way would be...
Bearcaller's Sarumit 3GGG
Instant - Brew
Put 4 2/2 bear creature tokens onto the battlefield.
When you cast an instant or sorcery card with Brew you may pay an additional 3G as you cast it. If you do exile Bearcaller's Sarumit from your graveyard then add Bearcaller's Sarumit's effect to that spell.
This design allows you to make the Brew cost different for balance purposes.