"Why is it that every time someone proposed Converge in the past it received the "this is Suburst" treatment along with comments such as "WotC would never do this yadda yadda", but now that WotC has done it, it's subtle genius?"
Because Sunburst and Converge have enough differences to feel like different mechanics: Sunburst went only on creatures, had narrower design space (You need Charge Counters in the set for the rules text to make sense) and only gave counters. Converge is an ability word which may go on nonpermanents and is an ability word, giving it different effects. This is why Devotion also didn't feel like a rehash: Devotion solved problems with a previously iffy idea while bringing new gameplay. Note that Devotion was met with skepticism at the start precisely because it was treading on Chroma's heels and suceeded solely because it fixed problems with it (as Chroma isn't a bad idea) and brought new gameplay.
By comparison, Evoke already triggers both ETB and death triggers, so having it be death triggers only or ETB + death triggers only doesn't give it a functional difference. Note that right now Evoke is literally the same text on Oracle as Ability ( http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=397746 ), except it says Evoke cost instead of Ability cost.
"AS far as the state of Worship... I love Worship's flavor. It's perfect. But "Kicker - Tap a creature" just so boring. I'm not sure what to do about Worship, which is why I'm looking at other mechanics."
I think this is a bit of a large worry. Ravnica has a lot of mechanics that don't necessarily read amazingly but end up liked: for example Unleash.
In the sense of your Ravnica block, this seems worse than Worship flavor-wise: Since when does Orzhov throw away its assets for a one-time effect? It's got a life and death feel, but not in the way the Orzhov trade it as a commodity. What was wrong with old Worship?
Outside of the sense of that, this is too similiar to Evoke to be a Guild mechanic. Yes, it is not exactly the same as Evoke, but Evoke already used death triggers and your average player is not going to think about the subtle difference and will feel like it is just Evoke. It also doesn't offer many gameplay differences from Evoke, so it feels like it is just a cop out.
Aphotic Wretch is not common, death triggers already are iffy at common, then you're giving every W/B guild a chance to draft strong removal (1W/B and you can still block with it for the effect or whatnot), and it also gives pure White decks a way to just exile something with no recourse. Removal like this would be in the Uncommon slot. Pathetic Crawler probably gains too much life for the mana cost and stat-line, especially at Common for limited play.
I do not really recommend this mechanic as a Guild mechanic.
Flesh Tinkerer2UG
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Whenever a +1/+1 counter is placed on a creature, instead place two +1/+1 counters on it. 1UG, T: Remove a +1/+1 counter from a target creature you control, then place a +1/+1 counter on another target creature you control. The Simic fiddle with the flesh as much as the Izzet tinker with their machines.
I can test on untap. It's free, it dosen't require downloading that I know of and it has a way to test custom cards. I had problems with cockatrice in the past, so I would prefer to use this. maybe some of us can test on cockatrice and some there.
Looks pretty confusing, though I'm willing to try it.
Cockatrice is indeed a program, but AFAIK it is very low spec, so your PC may still be able to run it.
EDIT: Also, I'd enjoy playtesting with you guys if you want. I'd be a decent rep for a player without a lot of rules knowledge because I don't play Magic a lot and don't know the rules especially well.
Burn Through Time5RR
Instant (R)
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for 1.)
Look at the top seven cards of your library. Exile two of them and put the rest into the Graveyard. Until the end of your next turn, you may play cards exiled this way.
Votes: Bravelion83 (But a missed chance to call it "Crash Landing"), Groovelord
Honorable Mention: IlGreven (I had to spend a few minutes deciding between you and Groovelord), GameWorldLeader, acheron_xi
Master of Preparations2BU
Creature - Human Rogue (U) Combo -- If a nonland card was played before Master of Preparations entered the Battlefield, it has your choice of flying, deathtouch, haste, first strike, lifelink, trample or prowess. You may choose an additional time for each additional nonland card you played this turn. A little time...I just need a little more time!
3/3
Honorable Mention: Bravelion83, Flatline, TriceDefied (Many good entries!)
Twisted TreantGGGG
Creature - Treefolk (R)
Whenever your opponent casts a noncreature spell, choose one of the following:
- Gain 4 Life.
- Summon two 1/1 Green Saproling tokens into the Battlefield.
- Prevent the next 2 damage all creatures you control would take.
- Twisted Treant fights target creature.
4/4
Votes: Indighost (I'm not the only Hearthstone fan, I see :P), GameWorldLeader
Honorable Mention: Flatline (Like the "If you spent X life or less" on Phyrexian Mana, not all that big of a fan of the card.), acheron_xi
Bloodborn Champion2BR
Creature - Demon (U)
Devour 1 (As this enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature enters the battlefield with that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
When Bloodborne Champion enters the battlefield, place a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control for each creature it devoured. "Let us feast on flesh and soul."
2/1
Blood Well
Land (U)
When a creature you control dies, put a Blood Counter on this card. T: Add 1 to your mana pool. T: Remove one Blood Counter from this card. Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
Honorable Mention: Bravelion83 (Is it ineradicable or uneradicable?)
Startling Assassination1BB
Sorcery
Destroy target tapped creature. Combo -- If you played another nonland card this turn, destroy target creature instead.
Yes. Just imagine how something as simple as your P/T switcher getting copied makes a combat phase, especially for new players. The kind of complexity your simple Arcane Trickery causes would probably put it at Uncommon. Lets not even consider, say, Simic using P/T boosters with this and creating potentially highly complex board states (Will this Giant Growth make osomething a +3/+3, or will it go +6/+6, but it can also give +3/+3 to two people, and if you have enough mana to do it multiple times...). Consider most spells that Red, Blue, or any partially R/B Guild can make, then mark down how many of them could get complex with an entire mechanic dedicated to copying them. The answer is: A lot of them.
Duplicate would need to show up in another block, at Uncommon+, and even then IMO would be iffy because of the fact that inherently having a large number of Sorcery and Instant copiers creates issues design-wise (You must plot every single sorcery/instant you make around this if you have it show up with any frequency) and developement-wise.
Warping other Guilds is a design issue because it warps how you must design their cards, not necessarily their power levels. Not so complex effects can become a lot more complex when you have cheap, Common copying of it!
"Yes you did, when you stated "any Sorcery or Instant can be copied"."
My bad, I meant to say any Sorcery or Instant you play, apparently I missed adding that in. That's my mistake.
"Also, I can't tell whether or not your realize that Duplicate can't copy other players' spells. It seems as though you think it can copy other players' spells. It can't. You also seem to think that Duplicate generates card advantage. It doesn't. Unless you're talking about card quality (as opposed to quantity)."
No, I do not think it can copy other spells, nor did I imply that. Copying all of your own spells is insane complexity. It is too complex at common for a mechanic which MUST exist at Common. I did not take MaRo's comment out of context because I am saying Duplicate cannot exist at Common, but as a Guild mechanic it must exist at Common. So it fits the criteria of "If your mechanic is intended to exist at common, but it can't exist at common, it doesn't work". That was the entire point of my paragraphs of text. Not to mention how it warps other Guilds.
Duplicate does not work as a Guild mechanic.
The card advantage was part of how you mentioned Feelbad for the mechanic. Both versions of Duplicate have discard Feelbads in them as both of them require you to discard a card, same card advantage, except one lets you choose what to pitch and the other can only pitch the card it is printed on.
Because Sunburst and Converge have enough differences to feel like different mechanics: Sunburst went only on creatures, had narrower design space (You need Charge Counters in the set for the rules text to make sense) and only gave counters. Converge is an ability word which may go on nonpermanents and is an ability word, giving it different effects. This is why Devotion also didn't feel like a rehash: Devotion solved problems with a previously iffy idea while bringing new gameplay. Note that Devotion was met with skepticism at the start precisely because it was treading on Chroma's heels and suceeded solely because it fixed problems with it (as Chroma isn't a bad idea) and brought new gameplay.
By comparison, Evoke already triggers both ETB and death triggers, so having it be death triggers only or ETB + death triggers only doesn't give it a functional difference. Note that right now Evoke is literally the same text on Oracle as Ability ( http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=397746 ), except it says Evoke cost instead of Ability cost.
"AS far as the state of Worship... I love Worship's flavor. It's perfect. But "Kicker - Tap a creature" just so boring. I'm not sure what to do about Worship, which is why I'm looking at other mechanics."
I think this is a bit of a large worry. Ravnica has a lot of mechanics that don't necessarily read amazingly but end up liked: for example Unleash.
Outside of the sense of that, this is too similiar to Evoke to be a Guild mechanic. Yes, it is not exactly the same as Evoke, but Evoke already used death triggers and your average player is not going to think about the subtle difference and will feel like it is just Evoke. It also doesn't offer many gameplay differences from Evoke, so it feels like it is just a cop out.
Aphotic Wretch is not common, death triggers already are iffy at common, then you're giving every W/B guild a chance to draft strong removal (1W/B and you can still block with it for the effect or whatnot), and it also gives pure White decks a way to just exile something with no recourse. Removal like this would be in the Uncommon slot. Pathetic Crawler probably gains too much life for the mana cost and stat-line, especially at Common for limited play.
I do not really recommend this mechanic as a Guild mechanic.
Flesh Tinkerer 2UG
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Whenever a +1/+1 counter is placed on a creature, instead place two +1/+1 counters on it.
1UG, T: Remove a +1/+1 counter from a target creature you control, then place a +1/+1 counter on another target creature you control.
The Simic fiddle with the flesh as much as the Izzet tinker with their machines.
(Not sure if I should make this U/G or just U.)
Looks pretty confusing, though I'm willing to try it.
EDIT: Also, I'd enjoy playtesting with you guys if you want. I'd be a decent rep for a player without a lot of rules knowledge because I don't play Magic a lot and don't know the rules especially well.
Honorable Mention: Hemlock, Groovelord
Burn Through Time 5RR
Instant (R)
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for 1.)
Look at the top seven cards of your library. Exile two of them and put the rest into the Graveyard. Until the end of your next turn, you may play cards exiled this way.
Honorable Mention: IlGreven (I had to spend a few minutes deciding between you and Groovelord), GameWorldLeader, acheron_xi
Master of Preparations 2BU
Creature - Human Rogue (U)
Combo -- If a nonland card was played before Master of Preparations entered the Battlefield, it has your choice of flying, deathtouch, haste, first strike, lifelink, trample or prowess. You may choose an additional time for each additional nonland card you played this turn.
A little time...I just need a little more time!
3/3
Honorable Mention: Bravelion83, Flatline, TriceDefied (Many good entries!)
Twisted Treant GGGG
Creature - Treefolk (R)
Whenever your opponent casts a noncreature spell, choose one of the following:
- Gain 4 Life.
- Summon two 1/1 Green Saproling tokens into the Battlefield.
- Prevent the next 2 damage all creatures you control would take.
- Twisted Treant fights target creature.
4/4
Honorable Mention: Flatline (Like the "If you spent X life or less" on Phyrexian Mana, not all that big of a fan of the card.), acheron_xi
Bloodborn Champion 2BR
Creature - Demon (U)
Devour 1 (As this enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature enters the battlefield with that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
When Bloodborne Champion enters the battlefield, place a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control for each creature it devoured.
"Let us feast on flesh and soul."
2/1
Blood Well
Land (U)
When a creature you control dies, put a Blood Counter on this card.
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
T: Remove one Blood Counter from this card. Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
Alright, cool to know. That's a new word to add to my vocab!
Honorable Mention: Bravelion83 (Is it ineradicable or uneradicable?)
Startling Assassination 1BB
Sorcery
Destroy target tapped creature.
Combo -- If you played another nonland card this turn, destroy target creature instead.
Make sure to find some people who do not play MTG often or are new to playtest them as well.
Yes. Just imagine how something as simple as your P/T switcher getting copied makes a combat phase, especially for new players. The kind of complexity your simple Arcane Trickery causes would probably put it at Uncommon. Lets not even consider, say, Simic using P/T boosters with this and creating potentially highly complex board states (Will this Giant Growth make osomething a +3/+3, or will it go +6/+6, but it can also give +3/+3 to two people, and if you have enough mana to do it multiple times...). Consider most spells that Red, Blue, or any partially R/B Guild can make, then mark down how many of them could get complex with an entire mechanic dedicated to copying them. The answer is: A lot of them.
Duplicate would need to show up in another block, at Uncommon+, and even then IMO would be iffy because of the fact that inherently having a large number of Sorcery and Instant copiers creates issues design-wise (You must plot every single sorcery/instant you make around this if you have it show up with any frequency) and developement-wise.
Warping other Guilds is a design issue because it warps how you must design their cards, not necessarily their power levels. Not so complex effects can become a lot more complex when you have cheap, Common copying of it!
"Yes you did, when you stated "any Sorcery or Instant can be copied"."
My bad, I meant to say any Sorcery or Instant you play, apparently I missed adding that in. That's my mistake.
No, I do not think it can copy other spells, nor did I imply that. Copying all of your own spells is insane complexity. It is too complex at common for a mechanic which MUST exist at Common. I did not take MaRo's comment out of context because I am saying Duplicate cannot exist at Common, but as a Guild mechanic it must exist at Common. So it fits the criteria of "If your mechanic is intended to exist at common, but it can't exist at common, it doesn't work". That was the entire point of my paragraphs of text. Not to mention how it warps other Guilds.
Duplicate does not work as a Guild mechanic.
The card advantage was part of how you mentioned Feelbad for the mechanic. Both versions of Duplicate have discard Feelbads in them as both of them require you to discard a card, same card advantage, except one lets you choose what to pitch and the other can only pitch the card it is printed on.