MTG Salvation

I've seen a few threads here and there about specific mechanics in Eldritch Moon and I thought it would be nice to have a single thread to speculate what stays, what goes and what comes back.

Here are my thoughts:

Staying
- Double-faced Cards. Those things are fun and getting a possible 2nd (or even 3rd) rare/mythic is always a nice way to sell packs. I don't think Wiards will make the same mistake as the original Innistrad block.
- Delirium. There's a lot of design space left for it and it can easily be tacked on any spell. I can live without it however and would not be sad to see it go.
- Skulk. Which I think Wizards is trying to make into an evergreen ability, like Prowess. However, it needs better cards: I don't think there's a single creature with Skulk that is played in constructed right now (a couple have potential, but there needs to be more).

Leaving
- Madness. The big one. It's a great ability and fun to play, but it needs Madness cards AND Madness enablers, which would be troublesome in a small set.
- Investigate. Simply will not fit the flavor after the big revelation.

Returning
- Hellbent. I am betting this is coming back for Vampire tribal. After the Unmaking of Avacyn, the Vampires will be running rampant on Innistrad, killing and drinking every human in sight. This would work very well with the discard and Madness themes in SOI, and the name fits Innistrad.

If some form of "demons" or eldritch horrors get "unleashed" , that could also be a mechanic to replace madness in black/red.

The +1/+1 counter is simplistic enough that it works on any card.

Blue/Green has investigate, maybe they simply shift Delirium harder into these colors.


While hellbent works aswell, its such a garbage mechanic i never want to see again.

Skulk i wouldnt say is a "mechanic" , its more of an ability thats a pretty crappy evasion mechanic (as it only really works on small creatures, anything with 3+ power and skulk becomes kinda stupid, which makes it a pretty bad mechanic in my eye, as it limits itself quite hard, but its clearly worse than "unblockable" which you normally see in blue together with flying, which is also a better evasion mechanic).


Double Faced cards will stay, theres just no doubt about that, as that is the "selling mechanic" of the entire set, that is hard-wired to Innistrad and cannot leave (would be like removing artifacts from mirrodin).

I personally see a case for all of them coming back. DFCs are a lock and need no discussion, so I will think about the others.
Delirium - As has been said, there's plenty of design space for both payoffs and enablers. Also, this contributes to the unique draft environment in SOI, so it should stay around for the sake of interesting Limit.ed
Skulk - I don't personally like this much but I think it'll probably go evergreen, as it's super simple.
Madness - This mechanic leads to interesting deck construction in both Standard and Limited (IMO), and could help contribute to a "new standard experience," which is apparently what Wizards wanted the new rotation to bring. I can see this one sticking.
Investigate - I concede that it might not be on-flavour if the mystery gets solved, but it's a very elegant way of adding a small upside to cards without having to overcost them. I would want this to stay for gameplay reasons (ideally I;d like it evergreen actually).

Devoid

I think madness is likely to stay and delierium to leave for flavor reasons. Delierium seems to be a kind of 'going mad' mechanic, while madness is an 'already nuts' mechanic, flavor-wise, so it feels like now that whatever plot has been prepared by Nahiri has been unleashed by the unmaking of Avacyn, all the crazy is going to go out of control, and things will stop being slightly delerious and jump to full lunatics.

Investigate is probably gone as well, flavor-wise, as it was the mechanic for Jace's search for clues as to what is going on as a theme, but at this point, I suspect we'll just get some big reveals instead, with enemies no longer working in the background, but acting more openly or having their plots and rituals and such go off.

Skulk seems like an experiment for a new evergreen mechanic in blue/black, and they probably finished design of this set long before they could have gotten feedback from SOI, so they'll probably have some more of it in Moon in order to play around with it a bit more and see more player reactions to it, perhaps including some more pushed low cmc tests of it?

Double-faced cards are almost certainly remaining, if only because we still don't have a legendary werewolf, and it's pretty certain they know players really want one.

I could see Hellbent, as the OP notes, but I could also see the OP's reasons as a reason _not_ to put it in, potentially due to balance reasons of having the discarding your stuff game becoming too powerful for Standard with both Hellbent and Madness in the same standard alongside strong graveyard stuff.

I could see hybrid mana, due to the dual color identities of the werewolves (red/green), and vampires (red/black) and perhaps the flavor idea that mana energies are doing crazy things and getting blurred due to whatever is going on with all the cryptoliths.

I could see a return of flashback, if only because it was so popular in the original Innistrad block and fits with general Innistrad grave themes.

I could see a return of Morbid, if only as a returning Innistrad block mechanic, although I find it unlikely, given the themes they seem to be going for for Eldritch Moon.

I could see detain as a mechanic for the Thalia/Odric group as they try to track down sources of the corruption that has infested the church while trying to prepare a new one now that Avacyn is gone, letting them arrest old corrupt Lunarchs and various cultists such to hold for deeper investigations and later trials, since they want to avoid a repeat of the cruel and uncontrolled inquisition that the Lunarchs were doing as they can't fully be sure to trust all their own troops, so would have to apply stricter rules against killing and such. They could perhaps be supported by Sigarda?

I could see unleash due to some on Innistrad giving up all semblance of self-control or teamwork and embracing the craziness and violence and such, although it would be kinda boring.

I could see Bloodthirst on both werewolves and vampires and perhaps some other things as restraint is lost and things get more wild due to lack of fear of Avacyn by dark forces now that she is gone.

I could see Bloodrush as a sort of 'madness lite' used to keep similar themes but avoid balance issues of too much madness in Standard.

I could see Haunt if they up the spirits theme and perhaps have spirits be involved in the story arc's resolution, what with St. Traft and such.

I could also see them developing a new mechanic, perhaps involving 'Eldritch' aspect or 'Moon' aspect or both somehow.

Quote from AvalonAurora »

Skulk seems like an experiment for a new evergreen mechanic in blue/black, and they probably finished design of this set long before they could have gotten feedback from SOI, so they'll probably have some more of it in Moon in order to play around with it a bit more and see more player reactions to it, perhaps including some more pushed low cmc tests of it?

Yeah this how I feel too about skulk.

It feels generic enough that it could be included into any type of environment without messing the flavor of a set.

My guesses for mechanics staying:
- Double-Faced Cards: Easily one of the most popular and beloved mechanics in Innistrad, it wouldn't be Innistrad without DFCs. With the speculated revelation that living beings are being slowly transformed into eldritch Horrors (Scourge Wolf), it's a new and interesting way of tackling the DFC flavor. Definitely a stay.
- Skulk: Let me tell a little story: My opponent had a Ghoulcaller's Accomplice and a Paranoid Parish-Blade on the battlefield, and I had Uninvited Geist. I topped a Welcome to the Fold, then sat there thinking for about a solid minute wether I stole the Parish-Blade to get the stronger creature or the Accomplice so I could transform the Geist. I ended up stealing the weaker creature, and that probably earned me the game as Unimpeded Trespasser carried the game singlehandedly. At that moment, I knew Skulk was here to stay.

My guesses for mechanics that could go either way:
- Madness: The strike out against this mechanic is that it's so hard to develop for and how it warps the set around it. What points for this mechanic's stay is that it's so hard to develop for and how it warps the set around it. Madness needed a LOT of support to work in an environment... and it worked well in Shadows over Innistrad. They learned their lesson with Avacyn Restored and Rise of the Eldrazi - don't change too much between sets in the same block. Removing Madness would definitely be a huge change. The catch is, do they take the risk to remove the difficult to develop mechanic or do they play it safe and lose a huge chunk of the identity of the first set? They could go either way.
- Delirium: This is on the opposite side of the Madness spectrum. It's easy to work with, but it's just as easily replaceable. I like the deck building implications of delirium, but I could see them ditching it and making a new graveyard mechanic instead.

My guesses for not returning:
- Investigate: It's an amazing mechanic, don't get me wrong, and it has its place in what SoI was trying to do, but it's just generic enough that it can fit in any future set without many issues, while Madness and Delirium pretty much require a very specific environment to work and tie in perfectly with Innistrad's flavor and gameplay. Investigate will probably go, but will probably return soon too.

Agree with all Ritokure's points for the same reasons. I'll add that cutting Madness out diminishes the ability to use Madness cards and enablers from SOI once the draft format switches over.

I think we'll see a few skulkers, too. Probably gonna be a couple in each block from now on since its an easy-to-design-around alternate evasion with very low complexity.

Did Jace find what he was looking for in SOI? I feel like Investigate could come back but only on a few cards showing that Jace finally figured out whats up.

I really hope Madness returns, it´s such a nice mechanic.

Quote from krisdaschwab912 »

There is absolutely no reason that Tamiyo wouldn't get an Investigate ability a la Press For Answers on her card next set. It should come back; not everything is solved.

I agree. More cards that support Investigate would be nice too