Does this point towards having a separate side deck?
Surely there is some kind of mechanical significance to engine/gear/sprocket/whatever else.
I wonder if they start face down and you have to turn them face up... with riggers?
Actually it seems more likely to me that "Assemble" will be some action done by creatures like crew that riggers will just sometimes be better at like pilots were.
Long ago, and of course I have no evidence, I was doing set design with my brother (because we are nerds), and did contraptions as a side-deck of cards, basically undefined tokens you could drop in on the fly. Think "Assemble a Contraption" as "choose from the Fireweaver's Puzzleknot, Nihil Spellbomb, or Lotus Petal you brought on the side". We dismissed the idea as too insane and hard for the rules to handle...but it looks like Unstable may not be far off, and taking it a step further!
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Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
I am pretty sure we are focusing on the wrong thing. What if the cards themselves are jigsaw puzzles. You get a full card that is a jigsaw puzzle and you can swap out part of the jigsaw with other contraptions somehow (like they all are interchangeable). This would let you make cool combos etc.
It could also be that you actually draft a jigsaw piece and have to combine it with other pieces that you draft...
I think the key is the jigsaw nature of the clue... I am pretty confident that contraptions are interchangeable jigsaw puzzles. If they can make them all work together that would be pretty amazing.
Interchangeable BFM parts is an idea. I suppose it could work like meld and use checklist cards which is why they don't have backs. Interchangeable pieces is certainly a reasonable idea to make meld work in draft easier.
It seems weird for the Magic logo to appear on one of the sides when it still doesn't have a normal back. Though it doesn't look like the backs are all uniform so I guess it's probably not that even if it would have been a useful area to explore.
So... interchangeable meld. Sounds plausible to me.
Actually, with the orientation of the fronts/backs, meld or some weird sideways front/back seems very likely. The back of Gathering Magic's piece is clearly at a 90-degree rotation from the front.
"Start the game..." has strong mechanical implications. Seems to preclude normal meld if meld at all since any state at the beginning of the game would mean that they aren't in your deck. Maybe some/all start in the command zone.
You are missing I think that they spoiled the mechanic possibly. We all think that it is a slow way to spoil the card. If you had jigsaw cards - wouldn't you spoil it by giving out a piece here and a piece there. Imagine you could assemble contraptions by making a jigsaw puzzle card where different pieces fit together in different ways. If they do this it will blow people's minds.
Not interchangeable meld. Instead Each card is a jigsaw puzzle that you draft as a put together card that perferates/seperates in some way. They are jigsaw pieces are uniform across cards so you can pop in one to another card before casting. They have been engineered so they all work together (which is the insanely hard part). You play it face down because maybe you only get to lay one piece a turn (so you actually assemble it). I am not sure that this is right but the idea of a jigsaw card is just so perfect and in keeping with Rosewater's game background.
Note that there is no casting cost in the one we saw - assembling it piece by piece is the casting cost - or maybe I am way off base.
The pieces revealed so far very clearly fit together to make one card with two sides. It looks like a card that starts the game in play and has to be activated after the fact. It also doesn't look like they are modular, the text doesn't break off in nice clean places that mix and matching would work with.
I don't for a second believe that WotC greenlit a third UnSet and thought it would be good idea to make cards that are only useful if you collect half a dozen of them in order to have one usable card.
No you are missing the idea. Each card is a completed jigsaw puzzle that perforates in some way. You draft the card. It is playable as is. But you can combine it with other cards you draft to swap out a piece here and there to make a different card. You are not drafting a piece you are drafting a completed puzzle (but one with interchangeable pieces).
In order for cards to be modular like that, the effect on the cards would have do be incredibly dull for the naming, templating and even aesthetics to match up at all. The splits on the card we have pieces of also aren't laid out in a way that supports that idea at all.
The card is being spoiled like this so that the community can Assemble the Contraption. Its a neat idea for a spoiler, I think you're reading far too much into it.
What if the splitting of this card is not how cards are actually split - so the spoiler is a card but also a hint at the mechanic.
It would be hard to balance to make it neat and not boring - but if they did it can you imagine how cool it was. Like imagine they split a word in half and it could mean two different things (like bl ue into bl ack) or "return target creature/ to owner's hand" vs. "return target creature/ from graveyard to play".
They wanted to make contraptions splashy right - and you assembly them - what do you assemble - a jigsaw puzzle.
That actually sounds like needless fiddling to me, but to each their own, I guess.
Looks like contraptions are going to be cards that start the game either in play or in some other zone, waiting to be assembled by moving/adding tokens to sprockets? Sounds weird and fun.
Yeah I guess that is probably more likely - just seems a little normal in some way (like a non time based suspend mixed with conspiracy more than anything)
What if the splitting of this card is not how cards are actually split - so the spoiler is a card but also a hint at the mechanic.
It would be hard to balance to make it neat and not boring - but if they did it can you imagine how cool it was. Like imagine they split a word in half and it could mean two different things (like bl ue into bl ack) or "return target creature/ to owner's hand" vs. "return target creature/ from graveyard to play".
They wanted to make contraptions splashy right - and you assembly them - what do you assemble - a jigsaw puzzle.
I hope it's like this! That would be a really fun and diverse mechanic that would be perfect for this set.
Dogsnail Engine
Artifact - Contraption
Whenever you assemble Dogsnail
Engine, target player gains life
equal to the creature types
amoung creatures they control.
(Crossbreed Labs)
Hm. It seems notable that "Dogsnail Engine" is not a creature / doesn't have a power/toughness box.
It does have a symbol box though and while that may indicate that it has a faction assigned to it, they could have easily done this with a watermark. Maybe that symbol indicates a condition for it to turn face down again (and therefore let you start the minigame all over to get another trigger)?
Silver-bordered wouldn't need any extra scaffolding in order to reference a card's watermark, so I doubt that it's there for other cards to reference.
https://twitter.com/loadingreadyrun/status/929063429825892352
https://twitter.com/Card_Kingdom/status/929058095828836353
and other social media
Surely there is some kind of mechanical significance to engine/gear/sprocket/whatever else.
I wonder if they start face down and you have to turn them face up... with riggers?
Actually it seems more likely to me that "Assemble" will be some action done by creatures like crew that riggers will just sometimes be better at like pilots were.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
It could also be that you actually draft a jigsaw piece and have to combine it with other pieces that you draft...
I think the key is the jigsaw nature of the clue... I am pretty confident that contraptions are interchangeable jigsaw puzzles. If they can make them all work together that would be pretty amazing.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
Another piece. This looks like one card that starts face down and has conditions to assemble the contraption.
At the beginning of your upkeep if you control a Rigger move your something counter to the next sprocket.
Looks like they come into play with their counter on a certain sprocket. Hopefully its nice and intuitive as a whole card.
It seems weird for the Magic logo to appear on one of the sides when it still doesn't have a normal back. Though it doesn't look like the backs are all uniform so I guess it's probably not that even if it would have been a useful area to explore.
So... interchangeable meld. Sounds plausible to me.
Actually, with the orientation of the fronts/backs, meld or some weird sideways front/back seems very likely. The back of Gathering Magic's piece is clearly at a 90-degree rotation from the front.
"Start the game..." has strong mechanical implications. Seems to preclude normal meld if meld at all since any state at the beginning of the game would mean that they aren't in your deck. Maybe some/all start in the command zone.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
Note that there is no casting cost in the one we saw - assembling it piece by piece is the casting cost - or maybe I am way off base.
I don't for a second believe that WotC greenlit a third UnSet and thought it would be good idea to make cards that are only useful if you collect half a dozen of them in order to have one usable card.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control a Rigger
move a counter to your next sprocket...
...et's Contraptions. (sprocket
//
Dogsnail Engine
Whenever ... Dogsnail
Engine, target ...
equal to the ...
amoung creatures ...
Sounds like part of the Crossbreed Labs faction.
It may be farfetched - but it would be cool.
The card is being spoiled like this so that the community can Assemble the Contraption. Its a neat idea for a spoiler, I think you're reading far too much into it.
https://twitter.com/mangledpixel/status/929084989362393088
Dogsnail Engine
Looks like the text is coming together on both sides. Still missing probably four pieces?
It would be hard to balance to make it neat and not boring - but if they did it can you imagine how cool it was. Like imagine they split a word in half and it could mean two different things (like bl ue into bl ack) or "return target creature/ to owner's hand" vs. "return target creature/ from graveyard to play".
They wanted to make contraptions splashy right - and you assembly them - what do you assemble - a jigsaw puzzle.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
Looks like contraptions are going to be cards that start the game either in play or in some other zone, waiting to be assembled by moving/adding tokens to sprockets? Sounds weird and fun.
I hope it's like this! That would be a really fun and diverse mechanic that would be perfect for this set.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Dogsnail Engine
Artifact - Contraption
Whenever you assemble Dogsnail
Engine, target player gains life
equal to the creature types
amoung creatures they control.
(Crossbreed Labs)
Because that would make it almost impossible to get one dang contraption for one deck.
It does have a symbol box though and while that may indicate that it has a faction assigned to it, they could have easily done this with a watermark. Maybe that symbol indicates a condition for it to turn face down again (and therefore let you start the minigame all over to get another trigger)?
Silver-bordered wouldn't need any extra scaffolding in order to reference a card's watermark, so I doubt that it's there for other cards to reference.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill