Hello there,
I play with some friends at my place and we usually play free for all, so I tried to find a way to make it more fun.
So I googled, and found out about Vanguard,I guess not many of you heard that in 1997 Vanguard was introduced here some info:
"The VanguardTM supplements consist of oversized cards that modify the game. A Vanguard card is selected before the game begins, adjusting a player's starting and maximum hand size and starting life total. Any abilities printed on a Vanguard card are played exactly like those of an in-play Magic card; however, these abilities have no color, and damage from them isn't damage from a permanent of any type or a source of any color. A Vanguard card isn't a Magic card, so it can't be affected by spells or abilities.
Your starting life may be higher or lower than 20, depending on the card.
Your starting and maximum hand size may be higher or lower than seven, depending on the card.
Here's the fun part: Each Vanguard card gives you some benefit that might be considered "ba-roken" in normal Magic play. For example, your creatures are unaffected by summoning sickness, or you draw an extra card each turn."
Source: Vanguard
But those cards are old and hard to get, so I decided to create my own. Note: I didn't draw the images, nor the borders, I just altered them for personal non profit use.
I would like you guys to let me know what do you think in mater of balance and if you have any other ideas please share,
I will share them all here in high quality for your personal non profit use.
Here are those I've created so far the left number represent the starting HP modifier and the right is the starting hand size and max size.
As I said, I altered them those are custom vanguards I've made for myself and friends, I have some knowledge of Photoshop so it is quite easy for me,
I'm looking for some help with balancing them and ideas for new vanguards.
I will share here what I'll create so everyone will be able to use the,
Thanks for the comment Pcaoren, glad you like the template, win condition abilities hmm didn't think about it,
interesting although maybe it will be too much if it will be just added to the effects they do now,
so maybe indeed as the only thing they do it will be ok.. hmm will need to think about.
Well your first step is to ban "Uzerh". That ability is blatantly unfair and would lead to very easy turn 1 wins (including winning on your opponent's first turn, it is just that broken).
Will take a lot of group play testing to ensure the characters are balanced.
I'm in an EDH group with a guy that owns all 4 sets of Vanguard. We don't use them much but when we do it's been fun. We've also added in Planechase which was interesting. We usually each draw three Vanguard cards then pick one of them to use.
One thing I've noticed using them in EDH is that the +/- life doesn't really matter much with life being at 40. It's usually worth taking a big hit on your life for a great ability.
<These Vanguards are so cringeworthy. I can't even read them all.>
"Return target creature from your graveyard." should be "Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield." Magic cards that move cards to another zone always specify the zone.
The second one would be worded "Pay 2 life: Put a card in your hand on the bottom of your library. Exile the top two cards of your library. Put one into your hand." Seriously, Magic doesn't even use the word deck. At least learn the game first.
Rules lawyering impulses aside, <I don't feel like there was any serious attempt made to balance these. Try building decks around them and playtesting them. Or better familiarize yourself with the game first.> I mean, I can put Basking Rootwalla from my hand onto the battlefield to Fog with one of those Vanguards. I would win consistently against anything that can't combo kill me in a way that doesn't deal damage with the right deck. Lol at using Squee, Goblin Nabob to just win against almost anything without graveyard hate. Not okay.
Also worth noting Vanguards are the hardest card type to balance (harder than planeswalkers) because you're adjusting two very crucial numbers, hand size and life, and handing players an emblem at the start of the game. Emblems, because they can never be removed or dealt with, are extremely powerful. A three mana enchantment, like Fervor, as an emblem could break the game in half. Even two mana enchantments like Bitterblossom or Mastery of the Unseen would be insane. The Vanguard ability either needs to scale over the course of the game, become active later possibly after mana is paid, or be the equivalent of a 1 mana enchantment to not warp the game completely around unanswerable threats, which is the least fun way to play Magic.
Something like Phyrexian Reclamation or Hardened Scales would probably be sweet Vanguards, so 1 mana enchantments sound about right for power level. Still, balancing them around the card pool is extremely difficult. Adjusting life total doesn't help much since starting life can easily not even matter in a lot of matchups and starting at 5 life wouldn't stop some of your Vanguards from being insane, it just makes specific matches overly swingy. Adjusting hand size is a terrible mechanic. Just miserable. One less or one more card make such a big difference, +1 hand size could be the only thing a Vanguard does and its already being amazing.
I play with some friends at my place and we usually play free for all, so I tried to find a way to make it more fun.
So I googled, and found out about Vanguard,I guess not many of you heard that in 1997 Vanguard was introduced here some info:
"The VanguardTM supplements consist of oversized cards that modify the game. A Vanguard card is selected before the game begins, adjusting a player's starting and maximum hand size and starting life total. Any abilities printed on a Vanguard card are played exactly like those of an in-play Magic card; however, these abilities have no color, and damage from them isn't damage from a permanent of any type or a source of any color. A Vanguard card isn't a Magic card, so it can't be affected by spells or abilities.
Your starting life may be higher or lower than 20, depending on the card.
Your starting and maximum hand size may be higher or lower than seven, depending on the card.
Here's the fun part: Each Vanguard card gives you some benefit that might be considered "ba-roken" in normal Magic play. For example, your creatures are unaffected by summoning sickness, or you draw an extra card each turn."
Source: Vanguard
But those cards are old and hard to get, so I decided to create my own.
Note: I didn't draw the images, nor the borders, I just altered them for personal non profit use.
I would like you guys to let me know what do you think in mater of balance and if you have any other ideas please share,
I will share them all here in high quality for your personal non profit use.
Here are those I've created so far the left number represent the starting HP modifier and the right is the starting hand size and max size.
I'm looking for some help with balancing them and ideas for new vanguards.
I will share here what I'll create so everyone will be able to use the,
interesting although maybe it will be too much if it will be just added to the effects they do now,
so maybe indeed as the only thing they do it will be ok.. hmm will need to think about.
Will take a lot of group play testing to ensure the characters are balanced.
One thing I've noticed using them in EDH is that the +/- life doesn't really matter much with life being at 40. It's usually worth taking a big hit on your life for a great ability.
Also, here are the cards: http://archive.wizards.com/magic/tcg/productarticle.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/vanguard/productinfo
I didn't notice an Uzerh as shown above but I could have missed it.
"Return target creature from your graveyard." should be "Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield." Magic cards that move cards to another zone always specify the zone.
The second one would be worded "Pay 2 life: Put a card in your hand on the bottom of your library. Exile the top two cards of your library. Put one into your hand." Seriously, Magic doesn't even use the word deck. At least learn the game first.
Rules lawyering impulses aside, <I don't feel like there was any serious attempt made to balance these. Try building decks around them and playtesting them. Or better familiarize yourself with the game first.> I mean, I can put Basking Rootwalla from my hand onto the battlefield to Fog with one of those Vanguards. I would win consistently against anything that can't combo kill me in a way that doesn't deal damage with the right deck. Lol at using Squee, Goblin Nabob to just win against almost anything without graveyard hate. Not okay.
Also worth noting Vanguards are the hardest card type to balance (harder than planeswalkers) because you're adjusting two very crucial numbers, hand size and life, and handing players an emblem at the start of the game. Emblems, because they can never be removed or dealt with, are extremely powerful. A three mana enchantment, like Fervor, as an emblem could break the game in half. Even two mana enchantments like Bitterblossom or Mastery of the Unseen would be insane. The Vanguard ability either needs to scale over the course of the game, become active later possibly after mana is paid, or be the equivalent of a 1 mana enchantment to not warp the game completely around unanswerable threats, which is the least fun way to play Magic.
Something like Phyrexian Reclamation or Hardened Scales would probably be sweet Vanguards, so 1 mana enchantments sound about right for power level. Still, balancing them around the card pool is extremely difficult. Adjusting life total doesn't help much since starting life can easily not even matter in a lot of matchups and starting at 5 life wouldn't stop some of your Vanguards from being insane, it just makes specific matches overly swingy. Adjusting hand size is a terrible mechanic. Just miserable. One less or one more card make such a big difference, +1 hand size could be the only thing a Vanguard does and its already being amazing.
Warning for Trolling
-ThatRedwood
I'm for sure not going to share anything else here.