Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty has me so hyped for a cyberpunk MtG set. It's something I never thought we'd see, and it can go amazingly or very badly depending on execution. When I first heard about it, I started immediately thinking about how hacking -- a staple of cyberpunk -- could even work in MtG, both mechanically and thematically. Eventually, I came up with these! Let me post the cards, and then I'll explain the mechanics below them.
Backdoor Infotheft2UU
Enchantment — Aura Hack (C)
Enchant artifact you don’t control
Whenever enchanted permanent becomes tapped, draw a card for each Hack attached to it. One breach tells me who you are. Two breaches tells me where you are. Three breaches? Now I AM you.
Theft of Body Mass1GG
Enchantment — Aura Hack (C)
Enchant artifact creature you don’t control
Whenever enchanted creature is dealt damage, create a 1/1 green Beast creature token for each Hack attached to it. “Hey, the cloning vats need to get their mass from SOMEWHERE.”
Aetherwisp Antivirus
Artifact — Network (C)
Connect ( : Put this artifact over or under target Network artifact you own. They connect into a single Network with all abilities of artifacts connected to it.)
Hack enchantments that target this Network cost 1 more to cast. Sometimes, the cheap solution is secure enough.
Aetherwisp Armory
Artifact — Network (C)
Connect ( : Put this artifact over or under target Network artifact you own. They connect into a single Network with all abilities of artifacts connected to it.)
Creatures you control have +1/+1 for each artifact connected to this Network. With our armor and weapons powered by the grid, our defenses are impenetrable!
Aetherwisp World Node
Artifact — Network (C)
Connect ( : Put this artifact over or under target Network artifact you own. They connect into a single Network with all abilities of artifacts connected to it.)
, : Scry X, where X is the number of artifacts connected to this Network. Just because you’ve found the information doesn’t mean you yet understand how to use it.
Extraction Core
Artifact — Network (U)
Connect ( : Put this artifact over or under target Network artifact you own. They connect into a single Network with all abilities of artifacts connected to it.)
: Add to your mana pool for each artifact connected to this Network. If there are 5 or more artifacts connected to this Network, instead add that much mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool. Who digs by hand anymore?
Mechanics
"Hack" is a subtype of Aura enchantments. Hacks will always enchant artifacts you don't control, sometimes specific subtypes of artifact (creatures, equipment, etc.) Their effects almost always scale with the "number of times that artifact has been hacked", i.e. the number of hacks attached to that artifact, to represent security getting weaker and weaker with each hack.
I figure a cyberpunk set like Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is going to need lots of artifacts, especially if they have a Hack mechanic like that. I wanted to try and represent a connected electronic world, but using MtG flavor and mechanics. I came up with Networks.
Networks are a slightly different variation on Mutate, but for artifacts. The flavor is that they are powered by Aetherwisp, a sort of aerosolized version of Kaladesh's aether that's used like electricity through "aetheronics" (or "aethertronics"?), i.e. electronic circuit analogues.
You play a Network almost like an equipment. It comes into play like a normal artifact. You can then pay its Connect cost at sorcery speed to connect it to other Network artifacts. Multiple connected Network artifacts are called a Network, and have all the abilities of every connected artifact. Generally, Network artifact abilities will scale with the number of connected artifacts in the Network (though sometimes they simply refer to their Network and don't scale). You may pay the Connect cost of a connected Network artifact at sorcery speed (like Equip), to "reconnect" it (i.e. move it) to a different Network if you want.
Some rules clarification:
A "Network artifact" is a single artifact permanent with the Network subtype. A "Network", without any other qualifiers, is the set of all Network artifacts connected to each other.
A Network artifact's Connect ability only moves the single artifact permanent it references. You cannot use it to attach a multi-artifact connected Network to another Network.
The wording "targets a Network" means "targets any artifact connected to [the] Network" (and other variations on that wording are interpreted similarly).
Because Connect creates a "single Network with all abilities of artifacts connected to it", that means if one artifact in a Network becomes tapped, they all tap together. Likewise, if one artifact in a Network becomes untapped, they all untap together. So if you connect multiple Network artifacts with tap abilities into one Network, you cannot use one tap ability and then another without untapping the Network first.
A Network artifact that is not connected to a Network is considered to be "connected" to a Network containing only itself, i.e. the number of artifacts connected to its Network is 1, targeting itself is targeting its Network, etc.
I think you are going to be disapinted as I don't suspect Neon Dynasty to have a significant artifact theme at all.
As for your designs. Network is overly complicated it its wordings and functions. A simple example you said a "Network" is the set of connected artifacts yet "target network" refers to a single artifact that is part of a network. This is a huge problem.
Hack looks interesting but the name sounds wierd. Compromising the opponents resources is a well explored trope but I don't think it functions as a pillar of a set. The problem is this is strictly worse than flat out removing the target.
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Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty has me so hyped for a cyberpunk MtG set. It's something I never thought we'd see, and it can go amazingly or very badly depending on execution. When I first heard about it, I started immediately thinking about how hacking -- a staple of cyberpunk -- could even work in MtG, both mechanically and thematically. Eventually, I came up with these! Let me post the cards, and then I'll explain the mechanics below them.
Renders: https://imgur.com/a/FHLRfJD
Text Versions
Backdoor Infotheft 2UU
Enchantment — Aura Hack (C)
Enchant artifact you don’t control
Whenever enchanted permanent becomes tapped, draw a card for each Hack attached to it.
One breach tells me who you are. Two breaches tells me where you are. Three breaches? Now I AM you.
Theft of Body Mass 1GG
Enchantment — Aura Hack (C)
Enchant artifact creature you don’t control
Whenever enchanted creature is dealt damage, create a 1/1 green Beast creature token for each Hack attached to it.
“Hey, the cloning vats need to get their mass from SOMEWHERE.”
Aetherwisp Antivirus
Artifact — Network (C)
Connect ( : Put this artifact over or under target Network artifact you own. They connect into a single Network with all abilities of artifacts connected to it.)
Hack enchantments that target this Network cost 1 more to cast.
Sometimes, the cheap solution is secure enough.
Aetherwisp Armory
Artifact — Network (C)
Connect ( : Put this artifact over or under target Network artifact you own. They connect into a single Network with all abilities of artifacts connected to it.)
Creatures you control have +1/+1 for each artifact connected to this Network.
With our armor and weapons powered by the grid, our defenses are impenetrable!
Aetherwisp World Node
Artifact — Network (C)
Connect ( : Put this artifact over or under target Network artifact you own. They connect into a single Network with all abilities of artifacts connected to it.)
, : Scry X, where X is the number of artifacts connected to this Network.
Just because you’ve found the information doesn’t mean you yet understand how to use it.
Extraction Core
Artifact — Network (U)
Connect ( : Put this artifact over or under target Network artifact you own. They connect into a single Network with all abilities of artifacts connected to it.)
: Add to your mana pool for each artifact connected to this Network. If there are 5 or more artifacts connected to this Network, instead add that much mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool.
Who digs by hand anymore?
Mechanics
"Hack" is a subtype of Aura enchantments. Hacks will always enchant artifacts you don't control, sometimes specific subtypes of artifact (creatures, equipment, etc.) Their effects almost always scale with the "number of times that artifact has been hacked", i.e. the number of hacks attached to that artifact, to represent security getting weaker and weaker with each hack.
I figure a cyberpunk set like Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is going to need lots of artifacts, especially if they have a Hack mechanic like that. I wanted to try and represent a connected electronic world, but using MtG flavor and mechanics. I came up with Networks.
Networks are a slightly different variation on Mutate, but for artifacts. The flavor is that they are powered by Aetherwisp, a sort of aerosolized version of Kaladesh's aether that's used like electricity through "aetheronics" (or "aethertronics"?), i.e. electronic circuit analogues.
You play a Network almost like an equipment. It comes into play like a normal artifact. You can then pay its Connect cost at sorcery speed to connect it to other Network artifacts. Multiple connected Network artifacts are called a Network, and have all the abilities of every connected artifact. Generally, Network artifact abilities will scale with the number of connected artifacts in the Network (though sometimes they simply refer to their Network and don't scale). You may pay the Connect cost of a connected Network artifact at sorcery speed (like Equip), to "reconnect" it (i.e. move it) to a different Network if you want.
Some rules clarification:
As for your designs. Network is overly complicated it its wordings and functions. A simple example you said a "Network" is the set of connected artifacts yet "target network" refers to a single artifact that is part of a network. This is a huge problem.
Hack looks interesting but the name sounds wierd. Compromising the opponents resources is a well explored trope but I don't think it functions as a pillar of a set. The problem is this is strictly worse than flat out removing the target.