Guards of New Benalia – The wording on Ogre Jailbreaker suggests “can attack as though it didn’t have defender”, instead of “loses defender”. This is probably better for your set as well, since there’s a Defender-matters subtheme.
I like the mix of colors on this card, as the base creature feels white, and the ability feels green.
Onean Crusader – This card feels it could be mono-white or mono-red, so I don’t like it as much as a multicolor card.
Bioengineered Advantage – A blue ability and a green ability mixed well. It goes well as an enabler for your UG theme of card draw based on creature’s power (I assume draw when deals damage is also here).
Vodalian Blinkmage – Probably could be mono-white, but blue and white share the same creature stats, so it would be difficult to a power/toughness that is blue and not white.
Dakmor Reaver - This card feels it could be mono-white or mono-black, so I don’t like it as much as a multicolor card. I like the idea of a black lifelink creature with toughness pumping from white.
Painful Visions – Feels mono-color, but I think it’s more okay here. Mark Rosewater mentioned blue-black as a difficult color pairing to make cards for, and I agree with that thought.
Blackfire Ritualist – I like this card since the ability feels both black and red. The activation cost is black, but the creature is red, allowing the ability to be both colors. Good fit for your sacrifice subtheme too.
Surging Agility – A nice clean mix of two abilities that is better together.
Keldon Charger – Nothing new, but it is a solid mix, so why mess with it?
Nantuko Boghunter – I like this card if the creature was black, and the ability was green. Or is this to evoke the shade ability, with a mix of green? I think +3/+3 and the name makes the ability feel not like a shade. If it is a call to the shade ability, maybe +2/+2 at a lower activation cost, and a name change?
10/17 of your white commons are creatures (counting Clone Assault as a creature). In Theros, 13/19 of the white commons are creatures. You could add one or two more creatures, bringing you to a similar ratio. So you have room for those flying creatures that are missing.
I like how Defense Turret acts as a shield stripper. Take that, Kel-Rac Apprentice!
I think Federation Pilot should have flying, mostly because it is named Pilot.
A Marine with a jetpack as a flier also sounds neat.
Flame Trooper is simple, but I like it a lot. Definitely white power/toughness, definitely a red ability, mixes together potently.
How do you feel about having Clone Assault cost more, but generate three tokens? I like the idea of delving for a whole bunch late game, and two mana seems small to me. The card is fine, I just like bigger delve numbers, and wondered if you shared the same thought. It can also give you a white common with converted mana cost five or higher.
I thought of a “disenchant” variant that makes me smile, but it probably kills Raise Shields as a card, and causes you to miss life gain:
Makeshift Shielding 2W
Sorcery (C)
Destroy target artifact or enchantment. Put a shield counter on target creature. (If a creature with a shield counter would be dealt damage, remove a shield counter from it instead.)
Some other common cards you may want: life gain, an aura that goes on your creatures, a +2/+2 single target pump spell, a first strike pump spell (Though blast is kind of first-strike-ish. Blast pump spell?)
1) The distribution of CMC on the creatures seems too stacked at 4, and can probably use some evening. As you have it now (the number in the parenthesis indicates number of creatures at that CMC):
Blue usually also gets a 3-power flier at CMC 5 or higher, so I'm thinking one of the CMC 4 creatures can be modified to a 3-power flier.
2) In your thread on the CMC set, you made two comments:
- My returning mechanic is coming back to provide some faster aggro strategies compared to the midrangy Glorious cards.
- Vanishing is Primary in Blue, Red and Secondary in Green
It sounds to me that blue/red should be the "vanishing aggro" deck. I think the following cards would help the theme more, though some of these may go into red instead:
- a vanishing 2 creature (this allows for more power at the cost of lower vanishing, and feels more powerful when you land reshape)
- bounce/evasion spell with reshape (a spell to let the vanishing creature live one more turn than expected, and let it through blockers)
- a creature with 2-3 power, CMC 2-4 that has "when ~ enters the battlefield, reshape". (this would curve after the vanishing creature)
There's been plenty of comments on the draft itself, so I'll comment on the decks.
I'll echo the other posters in saying that more creatures would probably help. In your games, you mention you keep getting bowled over by aggressive decks. I also like to aim for ~16 creatures, with a decent curve. Spells are good for killing creatures, but there will probably be more creatures than you have spells.
A concern I have with your decks is the lack of synergy. In the first draft, you have Garruk's Packmaster, but just 5 other creatures that trigger it (this is exacerbated by your low creature count and lack of 4 drops). In the second draft, exalted seems to be the goal, but there are so few creatures that it seems difficult to get exalted going. Griffin is great to combine evasion with exalted, but that's all you really have. Tormented Soul is nice, but it is a slow clock without exalted, and with your low tray count, you are not guaranteed to hit a large exalted count to close out early.
I like to compare common designs to commons legal in Modern. As you have noted, power at common has shifted, and I find that the cards in Modern are fairly consistent.
The "right" power level of a common depends on the context of the set. Sometimes, you'll see a common that is really closer to uncommon, but makes sense in the theme of the set. A recent example is Seraph of Dawn in Avacyn Restored, where angels at common illustrate the theme.
A 2/1 with landwalk has been printed a few times: Marsh Threader, Cliff Threader, Canyon Wildcat. So what you propose is not out of the ordinary. My concern would be that a 2-mana vanilla 2/1 is usually a playable card in Limited. Adding the ability to become unblockable against certain colors just speeds up the format that much more. Before you add it to your set, I would ask yourself if you need this efficient source of evasion against a certain color.
I think Haarka Fugitive's ability works better on a creature with a higher casting cost. I feel a bit cheated, seeing a 1-mana 2-power creature that can't come down on turn one. With at least a 2-mana creature, I can pay the first CU cost and have a mana left over to put the aura on.
As currently worded, you can use Shambling Horde to sacrifice the token you make, providing a death trigger for each black mana available. It seems like a potentially nasty engine.
I like the white flavor, but I don't quite see the mechanic showing this flavor. How do you feel about "When ~ is sacrificed, [effect]"? To me, this shows the white creature accepting the inevitable of cumulative upkeep, but turning it to a blessing.
I also agree with cutting white. The red base (I assume Furnace Whelp and Fire Elemental are in the sideboard due to playing three colors; cutting down to two makes them available):
I personally prefer black's creatures, and attempt a splash for Rancor. With Rummaging Goblin, maybe you can be extra greedy and "splash" Predatory Rampage in a slow game? Though in a slow game, green might be a bit better than black.
Congrats on putting a full set together. There's always some substantial work in putting this many cards together.
Here's the common creatures, minus the legendary creatures labelled as common. I assume the legendary creatures are not intended to be common:
1W 1/2 lifelink, ETB life = creatures
1W 2/2 W: regen
2W 2/3 lifelink, ETB life = creatures
2W 3/3 first strike
3W 4/3 W: regen
4W 5/4 vig
1U 2/1 haste, U: +0/+3 until EOT
1U 3/1 U: regen
3U 3/3 vig, U: +0/+3 until EOT
3U 3/4 first strike, U: +0/+3 until EOT
3U 4/4 U: regen
4U 4/4 first strike, U: +0/+4 until EOT
1B 2/1 first strike, BT: draw top creature card
1B 3/1 deathtouch
2B 3/2 B: regen
2B 3/7 ETB draw 1, BT: draw top creature card
3B 3/4 deathtouch, BT: draw top creature card
3B 3/5 vigilance, ETB draw 1
1R 2/1 haste, ETB deal 2 to creature/player
1R 2/2 first strike
2R 2/3 R: regen, ETB deal 2 to creature/player
2R 3/3 first strike
3R 4/3 R: regen, ETB deal 3 to creature/player
3R 5/3 haste
5R 6/5 haste, ETB draw 1
1G 1/2 first strike, land from deck to hand
1G 2/2 G: regen
2G 2/3 first strike, land from deck to hand
2G 3/3 haste
3G 3/4 G: regen, ETB draw 1
3G 3/5 first strike
Creature Comments:
A lot of your common creatures seem to be duplicates across colors. I don't see a need for this, and it diminishes the identity of each color.
A lot of your common creatures also have the same set of abilities, but with minor power/toughness differences. It is interesting to see how an ability behaves different with a different power/toughness. However, the creatures here seem to behave identical, regardless of the power/toughness.
Where did all the evasion go? No flying, no intimidate, not even trample. All the defensive abilties are out in force, though. Regenerate, first strike, and +0/+3 for blue. With this combination, combat seems extremely iffy. It almost goes against your idea of involved combat. If I attack, it is almost guaranteed that I am packing combat tricks, since it seems extremely difficult to fight through the defense.
Other Comments:
I did not see a "destroy target enchantment" effect at common.
I don't see a reason for the Arcane subtype in this set. I didn't see anything that references the Arcane subtype. Kamigawa had the "splice onto Arcane" mechanic, which references Arcane.
Power level of cards is significantly different from most Magic sets. As this is a stand-alone, I assume this is intended, so I won't make comparisons to existing cards.
I don't think these need a special border, as searching the deck is a more leisurely event, and a more uncommon event that players would remember to look for these cards. In contrast, miracles occur in a narrow timing window, and occurs in a common event that players usually do without thinking.
One possible fix could be limiting one Surge spell per turn. Surge spells would have a Surge subtype:
Guardian’s Call :1mana::symw:
Instant - Surge (C)
Put two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Surge :2mana::symw::symw: (While you're searching your library, you may cast this card from your library for its surge cost. You can only cast one Surge spell per turn.)
I will echo the previous posters' comments about the power level of this mechanic. You might need to limit this mechanic to uncommon/rare, like the offering or epic mechanics.
More stabs at the “slow” mechanic. All upside, stackable slow mechanic. Stab stab stab.
Dawdle is just a placeholder name. Feel free to suggest a new name!
Red Common 3R
Creature - ?? (C)
Dawdle (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this has less than three +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
2/2
So:
- The turn it is played, it is undersized.
- The first turn it can attack, it is a size that is in line with a typical Limited cost (Hill Giant).
- One more turn, it is bigger than usual.
- It ends at +2/+2, a bonus I think is substantial.
There are knobs that can be added, like the number of maximum counters, or adding a mana cost. But I think this is a good place to start.
Variants:
Green Static Common 2GG
Creature - ?? (C)
Dawdle (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this has less than three +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
2/2
~ gets +2/+2 if ~ has three +1/+1 counters on it.
Black Trigger Common 1BB
Creature - ?? (C)
Dawdle (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this has less than three +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
1/1
When a +1/+1 counter is put on ~, if it is the third +1/+1 counter, target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Note: The wording of this is probably wrong, but I think it is clear.
White Rare 4WW
Creature - ?? (R)
Flying
Dawdle (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this has less than three +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
4/4
When a +1/+1 counter is put on ~, name a card. Until your next turn, the named card can't be played.
With big rare creatures, the opponent may die before all three counters land. So rares will probably get a trigger with each +1/+1 counter.
@ MOON-E:
I was not overly concerned about the loss of +1/+1 or -1/-1 counters, as Kamigawa managed to work without these counters.
The concern of still not having an advantageous attack after build-up is legit. However, I was thinking that the build-up bonus would take the creature to a pretty large size (4/4? 4/5?). The size would be large enough such that common creatures would need at least a 2-for-1 to block it.
Building counters, especially +1/+1 counters, doesn't usually fit into all colors. However, I think some bleeding of the pie can be allowed for the sake of following a theme. An example would be green artifacts in Mirrodin.
@ Londondart:
I don't quite see the argument with large creatures with tap abilities applying to build-up. Large creatures can almost always attack safely, so you want to do that often. If the large creature has a tap ability, there is a feeling of loss when you need to give up a bonus. I don't think you get this feeling if the creature is small, which cannot necessarily attack safely at all times. So you would make the creature big with build-up. One of the nice things with the non-stackable build-up abilities would be once the creature is big, there is little incentive to build-up further. There is no bonus to give up, because only one mode is actually appealing at one time.
Balancing with provoke is clever, but I don't like the idea of bringing in a whole keyword simply to counter a different keyword. There are, as you said, other effects that slow counter growth.
We actually have two sets dealing with counter manipulation: Shadowmoor and Rise of the Eldrazi.
Personally, I am not as concerned with the inability to block, with the following reasons:
1) The block would include more untap spells/abilities, to showcase its unusual utility in a block like this.
2) Having less blockers is not necessarily crippling. One 2/3 can keep multiple 2/2s from attacking.
3) I don't particularly care for stalemates. If the mechanic makes stalemates less often via less blocking, it's a plus to me.
That said, apparently the tapping effect appears to be an overwhelmingly negative effect, based on the first impressions of readers. I had hoped that a sufficiently large bonus would present a worthwhile trade-off, and that the flavor shone through. The responses seem to suggest otherwise. Also, the ability to stack-up on build-up seems to be an expected benefit.
Instead, here is the next revision:
The Common Cycle That Uses +1/+1 Counters1W
Creature - ?? (C)
Lifelink
Prepare 1W – Put a +1/+1 counter on ~. (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay the prepare cost. If you do, this creature can't attack this turn, and gets the prepare bonus.)
2/1
A Creature Not In That Cycle 2G
Creature - ?? (C)
Prepare 2G – Reveal the top card of your library. If it's a land, put it into your hand. (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay the prepare cost. If you do, this creature can't attack this turn, and gets the prepare bonus.)
3/1
Now, the loss is only the attack. I think that losing the attack is seen as less painful, since the board state you would attack into would be close to the state you see in your upkeep. So it's a drawback that feels more manageable.
I did not want every single creature with this keyword to be a growing monster. As such, my idea was some creatures would provide a different bonus instead of +1/+1 counters. This doesn't have the appeal of stacking, but I think “bash or get a bonus” is still appealing.
Then again, prepare is just a wordy form of:
Streamlined +1/+1 Counters1W
Creature - ?? (C)
Lifelink 1W, T – Put a +1/+1 counter on ~. (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay the prepare cost. If you do, this creature can't attack this turn, and gets the prepare bonus.)
2/1
Streamlined Creature 2G
Creature - ?? (C) 2G, T – Reveal the top card of your library. If it's a land, put it into your hand.
3/1
I feel like I'm finished with exploring this mechanic, and will be looking for a different way to convey "slowness". Thanks for commenting, all.
@OhDaisy!: Good catch on the untapped clause on the mechanic. Your reference of Lead Golem wasn't one I thought of, but it is an excellent way to describe it. A variant of that mechanic, made slightly less painful, but imparting the same feeling of "slow".
@mondu_the_fat: Fair enough on the cost.
@Londondart:
Thanks for your comments. The points you make are interesting, but I don't quite agree with them.
I disagree that the mechanic encourages you not to attack. In my mind, if the attack is advantageous, you attack instead of building-up. If the attack is not advantageous, you build-up, and hopefully the bonus is big enough that you can then attack next turn.
Not needing to spend the buildup was something I started with, but decided to discard. I wanted a mechanic for common, and I could not find a buildup ability that could accumulate and be appropriate at common. Building up a +1/+1 counter each turn seems too much for common (my reference is Chronomaton).
Looking at the training mechanic, it can probably be simplified further:
Relentless - At the beginning of your end step, put a charge counter on ~ if it did not attack this turn.
For me, this removes the feeling of "slowness" I wanted in the mechanic. I think the tapping mechanism is helpful for flavor, and not too burdensome. If I find that the tapping is too onerous, then your thoughts certainly provide a good alternative.
My last mechanic attempt, synchronize, seemed to suffer from being unclear, and looking too negative. I've tried to clean it up a little, and remove some negatives to make it look more positive.
The goal is to make a keyword for a block based on the plane of Belanon, which I have interpreted as a plane where things move slowly. The idea behind the mechanic is the creature is slow and predictable, but much more powerful than usual.
White Common 2W
Creature - ?? (C)
Vigilance
Buildup (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may tap this permanent. If you do, put a charge counter on it.)
When ~ attacks, remove a charge counter on ~. If you do, ~ gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
2/2
To allow for a buildup deck, creatures at uncommon or higher will give bonuses to all attacking creatures, which can entice a big buildup turn.
Green Uncommon 4G
Creature - ?? (U)
Buildup (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may tap this permanent. If you do, put a charge counter on it.)
When ~ attacks, remove a charge counter on ~. If you do, attacking creatures you control get +2/+2 until end of turn.
2/2
Picking which creatures to buildup, as well as when, will hopefully be an interesting decision in Limited. For support, there can be cards like so:
Sole Defender 3W
Creature - ?? (C)
If ~ is the only untapped creature you control, ~ gets +2/+4 and can block an additional creature.
2/4
Is this mechanic clear? Fun? Can be made varied enough for a block?
Looks like I flubbed up the wording a little. To clarify the idea, at the beginning of your upkeep, you may tap the Synchronize creature and any other untapped creatures you have. When you untap (usually next turn), the Synchronize creature and the creatures you tapped with it get the bonus.
If you have two Synchronize creatures, you can tap both together. Then when they untap, the bonus of each Synchronize creature would trigger. So there is a benefit to playing lots of Synchronize creatures together.
TurboJustice, MOON-E:
Thanks for commenting on your opinion on if the mechanic is fun. The mechanic sounded interesting in my head for the reason TurboJustice mentioned: it alters usual combat a little. I definitely wanted to see if it would resonate with others, and it is nice to hear thoughts on that matter.
Looking at the two Planechase cards featuring Belanon, I imagined Belanon as a plane where time moved oddly, and its inhabitants would move slowly, but be especially destructive. Attacks are slow and predictable, but also devastating when they did occur.
I tried to make a mechanic out of this, and this is what I came up with:
Example White Common 3W
Creature - ??? (C)
Synchronize (During your upkeep, you may tap this creature, along with any number of untapped creatures you control. Creatures tapped this way are synchronized until untapped.)
When ~ untaps, synchronized creatures get +2/+4 until end of turn.
2/4
The idea is your creatures would attack every other turn. There would be a "shields-down" turn, and then a powerful attack next turn. Slow, yet powerful. You can also put synchronize creatures together, and each will add its bonus when they all untap.
Besides general critique, I was wondering if this mechanic was appealing. Also, if it could carry a block.
I like the mix of colors on this card, as the base creature feels white, and the ability feels green.
Onean Crusader – This card feels it could be mono-white or mono-red, so I don’t like it as much as a multicolor card.
Bioengineered Advantage – A blue ability and a green ability mixed well. It goes well as an enabler for your UG theme of card draw based on creature’s power (I assume draw when deals damage is also here).
Vodalian Blinkmage – Probably could be mono-white, but blue and white share the same creature stats, so it would be difficult to a power/toughness that is blue and not white.
Dakmor Reaver - This card feels it could be mono-white or mono-black, so I don’t like it as much as a multicolor card. I like the idea of a black lifelink creature with toughness pumping from white.
Painful Visions – Feels mono-color, but I think it’s more okay here. Mark Rosewater mentioned blue-black as a difficult color pairing to make cards for, and I agree with that thought.
Blackfire Ritualist – I like this card since the ability feels both black and red. The activation cost is black, but the creature is red, allowing the ability to be both colors. Good fit for your sacrifice subtheme too.
Surging Agility – A nice clean mix of two abilities that is better together.
Keldon Charger – Nothing new, but it is a solid mix, so why mess with it?
Nantuko Boghunter – I like this card if the creature was black, and the ability was green. Or is this to evoke the shade ability, with a mix of green? I think +3/+3 and the name makes the ability feel not like a shade. If it is a call to the shade ability, maybe +2/+2 at a lower activation cost, and a name change?
I like how Defense Turret acts as a shield stripper. Take that, Kel-Rac Apprentice!
I think Federation Pilot should have flying, mostly because it is named Pilot.
A Marine with a jetpack as a flier also sounds neat.
Flame Trooper is simple, but I like it a lot. Definitely white power/toughness, definitely a red ability, mixes together potently.
How do you feel about having Clone Assault cost more, but generate three tokens? I like the idea of delving for a whole bunch late game, and two mana seems small to me. The card is fine, I just like bigger delve numbers, and wondered if you shared the same thought. It can also give you a white common with converted mana cost five or higher.
I thought of a “disenchant” variant that makes me smile, but it probably kills Raise Shields as a card, and causes you to miss life gain:
Makeshift Shielding 2W
Sorcery (C)
Destroy target artifact or enchantment. Put a shield counter on target creature. (If a creature with a shield counter would be dealt damage, remove a shield counter from it instead.)
Some other common cards you may want: life gain, an aura that goes on your creatures, a +2/+2 single target pump spell, a first strike pump spell (Though blast is kind of first-strike-ish. Blast pump spell?)
CMC 1 (1): Windwisp Sentry
CMC 2 (2): Winged Notion, Seer of Lucid Depths
CMC 3 (2): Liquidous Sprite, Vaporshard Entity
CMC 4 (5): Irrigation Wanderer, Laresai Attendants, Lighthouse Keeper, Riptide Plunderer, Whisperweave Trader
CMC 5 (1): Tidal Ambassador
Blue usually also gets a 3-power flier at CMC 5 or higher, so I'm thinking one of the CMC 4 creatures can be modified to a 3-power flier.
2) In your thread on the CMC set, you made two comments:
- My returning mechanic is coming back to provide some faster aggro strategies compared to the midrangy Glorious cards.
- Vanishing is Primary in Blue, Red and Secondary in Green
It sounds to me that blue/red should be the "vanishing aggro" deck. I think the following cards would help the theme more, though some of these may go into red instead:
- a vanishing 2 creature (this allows for more power at the cost of lower vanishing, and feels more powerful when you land reshape)
- bounce/evasion spell with reshape (a spell to let the vanishing creature live one more turn than expected, and let it through blockers)
- a creature with 2-3 power, CMC 2-4 that has "when ~ enters the battlefield, reshape". (this would curve after the vanishing creature)
I'll echo the other posters in saying that more creatures would probably help. In your games, you mention you keep getting bowled over by aggressive decks. I also like to aim for ~16 creatures, with a decent curve. Spells are good for killing creatures, but there will probably be more creatures than you have spells.
A concern I have with your decks is the lack of synergy. In the first draft, you have Garruk's Packmaster, but just 5 other creatures that trigger it (this is exacerbated by your low creature count and lack of 4 drops). In the second draft, exalted seems to be the goal, but there are so few creatures that it seems difficult to get exalted going. Griffin is great to combine evasion with exalted, but that's all you really have. Tormented Soul is nice, but it is a slow clock without exalted, and with your low tray count, you are not guaranteed to hit a large exalted count to close out early.
The "right" power level of a common depends on the context of the set. Sometimes, you'll see a common that is really closer to uncommon, but makes sense in the theme of the set. A recent example is Seraph of Dawn in Avacyn Restored, where angels at common illustrate the theme.
For Flaring Salamander, the closest creatures I see are Flamekin Brawler, Fire-Belly Changeling and Dragon Hatchling. Salamander seems consistent with these cards.
A 2/1 with landwalk has been printed a few times: Marsh Threader, Cliff Threader, Canyon Wildcat. So what you propose is not out of the ordinary. My concern would be that a 2-mana vanilla 2/1 is usually a playable card in Limited. Adding the ability to become unblockable against certain colors just speeds up the format that much more. Before you add it to your set, I would ask yourself if you need this efficient source of evasion against a certain color.
As currently worded, you can use Shambling Horde to sacrifice the token you make, providing a death trigger for each black mana available. It seems like a potentially nasty engine.
I like the white flavor, but I don't quite see the mechanic showing this flavor. How do you feel about "When ~ is sacrificed, [effect]"? To me, this shows the white creature accepting the inevitable of cumulative upkeep, but turning it to a blessing.
1x Mogg Flunkies
1x Crimson Muckwader
1x Arms Dealer
1x Rummaging Goblin
1x Bladetusk Boar
1x Primal Clay
1x Furnace Whelp
1x Fire Elemental
1x Hamletback Goliath
1x Ring of Xathrid
I think Ring of Xathrid is useful, regardless of color. Comparing the black with the green:
1x Walking Corpse
1x Servant of Nefarox
1x Bloodhunter Bat
1x Bloodhunter Bat
1x Liliana's Shade
1x Sign in Blood
1x Mind Rot
1x Rise from the Grave
1x Timberpack Wolf
1x Deadly Recluse
1x Primal Huntbeast
1x Garruk's Packleader
1x Duskdale Wurm
1x Plummet
1x Ranger's Path
1x Ranger's Path
1x Predatory Rampage
I personally prefer black's creatures, and attempt a splash for Rancor. With Rummaging Goblin, maybe you can be extra greedy and "splash" Predatory Rampage in a slow game? Though in a slow game, green might be a bit better than black.
Here's the common creatures, minus the legendary creatures labelled as common. I assume the legendary creatures are not intended to be common:
1W 1/2 lifelink, ETB life = creatures
1W 2/2 W: regen
2W 2/3 lifelink, ETB life = creatures
2W 3/3 first strike
3W 4/3 W: regen
4W 5/4 vig
1U 2/1 haste, U: +0/+3 until EOT
1U 3/1 U: regen
3U 3/3 vig, U: +0/+3 until EOT
3U 3/4 first strike, U: +0/+3 until EOT
3U 4/4 U: regen
4U 4/4 first strike, U: +0/+4 until EOT
1B 2/1 first strike, BT: draw top creature card
1B 3/1 deathtouch
2B 3/2 B: regen
2B 3/7 ETB draw 1, BT: draw top creature card
3B 3/4 deathtouch, BT: draw top creature card
3B 3/5 vigilance, ETB draw 1
1R 2/1 haste, ETB deal 2 to creature/player
1R 2/2 first strike
2R 2/3 R: regen, ETB deal 2 to creature/player
2R 3/3 first strike
3R 4/3 R: regen, ETB deal 3 to creature/player
3R 5/3 haste
5R 6/5 haste, ETB draw 1
1G 1/2 first strike, land from deck to hand
1G 2/2 G: regen
2G 2/3 first strike, land from deck to hand
2G 3/3 haste
3G 3/4 G: regen, ETB draw 1
3G 3/5 first strike
Creature Comments:
A lot of your common creatures seem to be duplicates across colors. I don't see a need for this, and it diminishes the identity of each color.
A lot of your common creatures also have the same set of abilities, but with minor power/toughness differences. It is interesting to see how an ability behaves different with a different power/toughness. However, the creatures here seem to behave identical, regardless of the power/toughness.
Where did all the evasion go? No flying, no intimidate, not even trample. All the defensive abilties are out in force, though. Regenerate, first strike, and +0/+3 for blue. With this combination, combat seems extremely iffy. It almost goes against your idea of involved combat. If I attack, it is almost guaranteed that I am packing combat tricks, since it seems extremely difficult to fight through the defense.
Other Comments:
I did not see a "destroy target enchantment" effect at common.
I don't see a reason for the Arcane subtype in this set. I didn't see anything that references the Arcane subtype. Kamigawa had the "splice onto Arcane" mechanic, which references Arcane.
Power level of cards is significantly different from most Magic sets. As this is a stand-alone, I assume this is intended, so I won't make comparisons to existing cards.
One possible fix could be limiting one Surge spell per turn. Surge spells would have a Surge subtype:
Guardian’s Call :1mana::symw:
Instant - Surge (C)
Put two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Surge :2mana::symw::symw: (While you're searching your library, you may cast this card from your library for its surge cost. You can only cast one Surge spell per turn.)
I will echo the previous posters' comments about the power level of this mechanic. You might need to limit this mechanic to uncommon/rare, like the offering or epic mechanics.
Dawdle is just a placeholder name. Feel free to suggest a new name!
Red Common 3R
Creature - ?? (C)
Dawdle (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this has less than three +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
2/2
So:
- The turn it is played, it is undersized.
- The first turn it can attack, it is a size that is in line with a typical Limited cost (Hill Giant).
- One more turn, it is bigger than usual.
- It ends at +2/+2, a bonus I think is substantial.
There are knobs that can be added, like the number of maximum counters, or adding a mana cost. But I think this is a good place to start.
Variants:
Green Static Common 2GG
Creature - ?? (C)
Dawdle (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this has less than three +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
2/2
~ gets +2/+2 if ~ has three +1/+1 counters on it.
Black Trigger Common 1BB
Creature - ?? (C)
Dawdle (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this has less than three +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
1/1
When a +1/+1 counter is put on ~, if it is the third +1/+1 counter, target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Note: The wording of this is probably wrong, but I think it is clear.
White Rare 4WW
Creature - ?? (R)
Flying
Dawdle (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this has less than three +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
4/4
When a +1/+1 counter is put on ~, name a card. Until your next turn, the named card can't be played.
With big rare creatures, the opponent may die before all three counters land. So rares will probably get a trigger with each +1/+1 counter.
I was not overly concerned about the loss of +1/+1 or -1/-1 counters, as Kamigawa managed to work without these counters.
The concern of still not having an advantageous attack after build-up is legit. However, I was thinking that the build-up bonus would take the creature to a pretty large size (4/4? 4/5?). The size would be large enough such that common creatures would need at least a 2-for-1 to block it.
Building counters, especially +1/+1 counters, doesn't usually fit into all colors. However, I think some bleeding of the pie can be allowed for the sake of following a theme. An example would be green artifacts in Mirrodin.
@ Londondart:
I don't quite see the argument with large creatures with tap abilities applying to build-up. Large creatures can almost always attack safely, so you want to do that often. If the large creature has a tap ability, there is a feeling of loss when you need to give up a bonus. I don't think you get this feeling if the creature is small, which cannot necessarily attack safely at all times. So you would make the creature big with build-up. One of the nice things with the non-stackable build-up abilities would be once the creature is big, there is little incentive to build-up further. There is no bonus to give up, because only one mode is actually appealing at one time.
Balancing with provoke is clever, but I don't like the idea of bringing in a whole keyword simply to counter a different keyword. There are, as you said, other effects that slow counter growth.
We actually have two sets dealing with counter manipulation: Shadowmoor and Rise of the Eldrazi.
Personally, I am not as concerned with the inability to block, with the following reasons:
1) The block would include more untap spells/abilities, to showcase its unusual utility in a block like this.
2) Having less blockers is not necessarily crippling. One 2/3 can keep multiple 2/2s from attacking.
3) I don't particularly care for stalemates. If the mechanic makes stalemates less often via less blocking, it's a plus to me.
That said, apparently the tapping effect appears to be an overwhelmingly negative effect, based on the first impressions of readers. I had hoped that a sufficiently large bonus would present a worthwhile trade-off, and that the flavor shone through. The responses seem to suggest otherwise. Also, the ability to stack-up on build-up seems to be an expected benefit.
Instead, here is the next revision:
The Common Cycle That Uses +1/+1 Counters1W
Creature - ?? (C)
Lifelink
Prepare 1W – Put a +1/+1 counter on ~. (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay the prepare cost. If you do, this creature can't attack this turn, and gets the prepare bonus.)
2/1
A Creature Not In That Cycle 2G
Creature - ?? (C)
Prepare 2G – Reveal the top card of your library. If it's a land, put it into your hand. (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay the prepare cost. If you do, this creature can't attack this turn, and gets the prepare bonus.)
3/1
Now, the loss is only the attack. I think that losing the attack is seen as less painful, since the board state you would attack into would be close to the state you see in your upkeep. So it's a drawback that feels more manageable.
I did not want every single creature with this keyword to be a growing monster. As such, my idea was some creatures would provide a different bonus instead of +1/+1 counters. This doesn't have the appeal of stacking, but I think “bash or get a bonus” is still appealing.
Then again, prepare is just a wordy form of:
Streamlined +1/+1 Counters1W
Creature - ?? (C)
Lifelink
1W, T – Put a +1/+1 counter on ~. (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay the prepare cost. If you do, this creature can't attack this turn, and gets the prepare bonus.)
2/1
Streamlined Creature 2G
Creature - ?? (C)
2G, T – Reveal the top card of your library. If it's a land, put it into your hand.
3/1
I feel like I'm finished with exploring this mechanic, and will be looking for a different way to convey "slowness". Thanks for commenting, all.
@OhDaisy!: Good catch on the untapped clause on the mechanic. Your reference of Lead Golem wasn't one I thought of, but it is an excellent way to describe it. A variant of that mechanic, made slightly less painful, but imparting the same feeling of "slow".
@mondu_the_fat: Fair enough on the cost.
@Londondart:
Thanks for your comments. The points you make are interesting, but I don't quite agree with them.
I disagree that the mechanic encourages you not to attack. In my mind, if the attack is advantageous, you attack instead of building-up. If the attack is not advantageous, you build-up, and hopefully the bonus is big enough that you can then attack next turn.
Not needing to spend the buildup was something I started with, but decided to discard. I wanted a mechanic for common, and I could not find a buildup ability that could accumulate and be appropriate at common. Building up a +1/+1 counter each turn seems too much for common (my reference is Chronomaton).
Looking at the training mechanic, it can probably be simplified further:
Relentless - At the beginning of your end step, put a charge counter on ~ if it did not attack this turn.
For me, this removes the feeling of "slowness" I wanted in the mechanic. I think the tapping mechanism is helpful for flavor, and not too burdensome. If I find that the tapping is too onerous, then your thoughts certainly provide a good alternative.
The goal is to make a keyword for a block based on the plane of Belanon, which I have interpreted as a plane where things move slowly. The idea behind the mechanic is the creature is slow and predictable, but much more powerful than usual.
White Common 2W
Creature - ?? (C)
Vigilance
Buildup (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may tap this permanent. If you do, put a charge counter on it.)
When ~ attacks, remove a charge counter on ~. If you do, ~ gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
2/2
To allow for a buildup deck, creatures at uncommon or higher will give bonuses to all attacking creatures, which can entice a big buildup turn.
Green Uncommon 4G
Creature - ?? (U)
Buildup (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may tap this permanent. If you do, put a charge counter on it.)
When ~ attacks, remove a charge counter on ~. If you do, attacking creatures you control get +2/+2 until end of turn.
2/2
Picking which creatures to buildup, as well as when, will hopefully be an interesting decision in Limited. For support, there can be cards like so:
Sole Defender 3W
Creature - ?? (C)
If ~ is the only untapped creature you control, ~ gets +2/+4 and can block an additional creature.
2/4
Is this mechanic clear? Fun? Can be made varied enough for a block?
Felllix:
Looks like I flubbed up the wording a little. To clarify the idea, at the beginning of your upkeep, you may tap the Synchronize creature and any other untapped creatures you have. When you untap (usually next turn), the Synchronize creature and the creatures you tapped with it get the bonus.
If you have two Synchronize creatures, you can tap both together. Then when they untap, the bonus of each Synchronize creature would trigger. So there is a benefit to playing lots of Synchronize creatures together.
TurboJustice, MOON-E:
Thanks for commenting on your opinion on if the mechanic is fun. The mechanic sounded interesting in my head for the reason TurboJustice mentioned: it alters usual combat a little. I definitely wanted to see if it would resonate with others, and it is nice to hear thoughts on that matter.
I tried to make a mechanic out of this, and this is what I came up with:
Example White Common 3W
Creature - ??? (C)
Synchronize (During your upkeep, you may tap this creature, along with any number of untapped creatures you control. Creatures tapped this way are synchronized until untapped.)
When ~ untaps, synchronized creatures get +2/+4 until end of turn.
2/4
The idea is your creatures would attack every other turn. There would be a "shields-down" turn, and then a powerful attack next turn. Slow, yet powerful. You can also put synchronize creatures together, and each will add its bonus when they all untap.
Besides general critique, I was wondering if this mechanic was appealing. Also, if it could carry a block.