MTG Salvation

Not exactly WUBRG order but here are the green commons.

Beast-Rider Hussars 4G
Creature - Hound Knight
Trample
If Beast-Rider Hussars becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, create a 2/2 green bear creature token.
“We were trained to take out their riders first. In hindsight, that felt like a mistake.”
4/4

Border Skirmish 2G
Sorcery
Target creature you control fights target creature you don’t control.
Stalemate - If you have not been attacked since your last turn, put a +1/+1 counter on the creature you control before it fights.

Consolidate Ground 2G
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Land
Stalemate - When Consolidate Ground enters the battlefield, if you have not been attacked since your last turn, draw a card.
Enchanted land has “T: Add two of any one colour to your mana pool.

Court Magician G
Creature - Human Wizard
Defender
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
“Help soldiers at the front? There’s no caviar at the front!”
1/2

Craterborn Trapdoor 1GG
Creaure - Spider
Flash
When retreating, many armies booby-trapped surrendered ground. For the Noskans, it was easier to let nature take it’s course.
2/4

Creeper Mage 1G
Creature - Human Wizard
Reach
“First rule of flying, boy: if you see a Noskan in a fancy robe, pull up.”
2/2

Gluttonous Gala 2G
Instant
As an additional cost to play Gluttonous Gala, sacrifice a noncreature permenant.
Search your library for two basic land cards and put them into play tapped.
“Please give generously to the war effort, my lords and ladies. Our soldiers are short of food and need your assistance. You will find the donation box between the bowl of punch and the roasted mastadon.”

Forgebane Luddites 2G
Creature - Human
When Forgebane Luddites enters the battlefield, destroy target artifact.
“They’ve taken our livelihoods! They’ve taken our lives! What good have machines ever done us?”
2/2

Holiday Truce 1G
Instant
You gain 1 life for each creature on the battlefield. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to creatures this turn.
“I think the Uscal were as surprised as we were when the singing started.”

Hardy Serfs 1G
Creature - Human
Defender
When Hardy Serfs enters the battlefield, untap target land you control.
“You want shovels? Nature blessed you with hands and fingers. That should be sufficient!”
2/2

Hurried Reserves 3G
Creature - Human Soldier
When Hurried Reserves enters the battlefield, choose one:
- Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.
- Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature with defender you control.
“We have more troops than any nation. And yet... I fear it will not be enough.”
2/2

Niskar’s Boon 1G
Instant
Target non-token creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. Up to one target creature token gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
“His majesty, in his infinite generosity, has provided our village with food and wine for the winter. You may drink and eat your fill but only once your betters have done so first.”

Noskan Stalwarts 3G
Creature - Hound Soldier
Defender
Noskan Stalwarts loses defender if you control the creature on the battlefield with the hghest toughness.
For soldiers entering Noska, the biting cold became their worst enemy. For the defenders, it became their closest ally.
4/5

Impatient Mastodon 5G
Creature - Elephant
Stalemate - At the beginning of combat, if you have not been attacked since your last turn, Plated Mastodon gets +1/+1 and trample until end of turn.
“Any lull in the fighting set the beasts on edge. They knew there was still work to do.”
6/6

Noskan Beastwrangler 2G
Creature - Hound Druid
When Noskan Beastwrangler enters the battlefield, create a 2/2 green Bear creature token.
“This land is their home too. Why should we deny them the right to defend it?”
1/1

Spirited Draftees 1G
Creature - Human Soldier
Spirited Draftees gets +1/+1 if you control the creature on the battlefield with the greatest toughness.
2/1

Swept Away 2G
Instant
Destroy target creature or vehicle with flying.
“No pilot wanted to fly on the Eastern Front. Between the artillery and the mages, we were sometimes lucky to get off the ground.”

Trench Ravager 6G
Creature - Wurm
Nothing ruins a meticulously planned advance like a wurm emerging from No Man’s Land.
8/8

Thanks for the feedback and I see what I mean.

I've had a think and I've come up with two ideas.

Infantry Rifle 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +1/+0.
Mass Produce - At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control an unequipped creature, create a token that is a copy of Infantry Rifle and attach it to that creature.
Equip 2

Or perhaps this?

Prototype Rifle 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +1/+0.
Equip 2

Mass Produce - If equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, transform Infantry Rifle.

//

Battalion's Cache
Artifact
Creatures you control get +1/+0.

First attempt at blue commons.

Communication Failure U
Instant
Untap target attacking creature and remove it from combat.
Draw a card.
“The orders were never received. It appears a barrage severed the telephone wires, wounded your runner and killed all the pigeons...”

Design Flaw 2U
Instant
Return target nonland permenant and all other permanants with the same name as that permanents to their owners’ hands.
“We must congratulate the 8th Artillery for a hasty and accurate barrage. Perhaps next time we could issue them with something other than dud shells.”

Emperor’s Seadrake 3UU
Creature - Drake
Flying
When Emperor’s Seadrake enters the battlefield, return target creature or artifact with converted mana cost 3 or less to its owner’s hand.
“There was a time when the screech of a sea drake was the only sound that terrified me. Now it’s one of many.”
2/3

Intercept 1UU
Instant
Counter target spell. Scry 1.
“Sir, it seems our Noscan friends have failed to encrypt their radio transmissions. Fancy a bit of eavesdropping?”

Imperial Wardens 1U
Creature - Human Soldier
During an opponent’s turn, Wardens of Estea has defender and gets +0/+2.
Many Estean troops began their careers policing the colonies. In those early days, few could have imagined the war that was to come.
1/2

Meroc Hydroplane 1U
Artifact - Vehicle
Flying
Crew 1
Whenever Meroc Hydroplane attacks or blocks, you may scry 1.
“I’d have never thought to land a plane on the ocean. Trust the Meroc to find a way...”
3/3

Meroc Map-Thief 2U
Creature - Merfolk Scout
When Merfolk Map-Thief deals combat damage to an opponent, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card unless you control a creature with defender.
“Has someone been at my papers?”
2/3

Mistcrafter Brigade 3U
Creature - Merfolk Artificer
When Fogspitter Squad enters the battlefield, target creature can’t be blocked this turn.
The Emperor’s alchemists worked tirelessly to perfect new gas weapons for his armies. Not every concoction was deadly but all were feared.
3/3

Observation Nest 1U
Creature - Bird Scout
Defender, flying
Rather than sleep in the trenches, many aven built quarters for themselves among the recon balloons.
0/4

Recon Photographer 2U
Creature - Human Pilot
If a vehicle crewed by Recon Photographer deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.
“Say cheese!”
2/1

Seascale Trenchraiders 3U
Creature - Merfolk Soldier
Prowess
Whenever Seascale Trench Raiders deals combat damage to a opponent, tap target creature that opponent controls. It doesn’t untap during it’s controller’s next untap step.
In the colder months, craters on the battlefield filled with rainwater. An obstacle for most; handy concealment for merfolk.
2/3

Seize Contraband 1U
Instant
Counter target artifact spell.
Draw a card
The Estean Empire had long controlled trade across Mortthal and their dominance continued into the war.

Scheming Bureaucrat 1U
Creature - Human Wizard Advisor
When Scheming Bureaucrat enters the battlefield, scry 1.
“At least they don’t throw fireballs at the poor anymore.”
2/1

Shell Shock 1U
Enchantment - Aura
When Shell Shock enters the battlefield, tap enchanted creature if you control a creature with defender.
Enchanted creature doesn’t untap during it’s controller’s untap step.
“The guns, the guns, why don’t they ever stop?”

Stuck in the Mud 3UU
Instant
Attacking creatures get -2/-0 until end of turn. If this would reduce a creature’s power to less than 1, that creature doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
It’s hard to feel like a hero when the ground itself betrays you.

Supply Shipment 2U
Sorcery
Draw two cards, then discard a card.
Stalemate - If an opponent didn’t attack last turn, draw three cards then discard a card instead.
“Lots of wonderful poetry written during that time. For me though, the most beautiful stanza of them all was ‘Cargo ship has arrived; extra rum rations all ‘round.’”

Tethered Leviathan 4UU
Creature - Fish Beast
Defender
U: Tethered Leviathan loses defender until end of turn. Play this ability only if you control an artifact or a creature with defender.
The mighty sea creatures of Mortthal, once only spoken of in sailors’ tales, now follow merchant ships from port to port like loyal hounds. Their senses are perfect for detecting enemy craft beneath the waves.
6/6

UPDATED: Some tweaks and a couple new cards.

Finally had some time to work on this...

Here's a first attempt at white commons including the "cheap and nasty" artifact theme and "defender matters" cards.

Ammunition Cart 1W
Creature - Horse
When Ammunition Cart enters the battlefield, the next artifact spell you cast this turn costs 1 less to play.
With fuel in short supply, each army continued to rely on men and their horses.
2/1

Armoured Battlewagon 2W
Vehicle
Crew 3
After encountering Estean armour at the Battle of Deynahm, Uscalan engineers hurried to produce tanks of their own.
5/5

Budding Officer 1WW
Creature - Human Soldier
When Budding Officer attacks, target creature you control gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
“We lose so many officers at the front. As time goes by, they get younger and younger.”
3/2

Companions’ Battalion 2W
Creature - Human Soldier
Stalemate - At the beginning of your upkeep, if you were not attacked by an opponent last turn, put a +1/+1 counter on Companions’ Battalion.
“More fresh, young faces arrived in the trenches every day. After a while, we stopped asking for their names.”
1/1

Covering Fire 2W
Instant
Tap up to two target creatures.
Draw a card.
“As technology advances, so must our tactics.”

Dashing Pilot 1W
Creature - Human Pilot
Whenever Dashing Pilot enters the battlefield or crews a vehicle, you gain 2 life.
As the heroes of old faded into obscurity, the masses turned to pilots for tales of courage and adventure.
2/2

Entrenched Riflemen 3WW
Creature - Human Soldier
Defender
2: Entrenched Riflemen loses defender until end of turn.
Reserves 2
“If they come, we’ll be waiting for them.”
4/4

Guard Duty W (reprint)
Enchantment - Aura
Enchanted creature has defender.
For some, it isn’t the fighting that eats away at them. It’s the endless, endless waiting.

Hail of Bullets W
Instant
Hail of Bullets deals 3 damage to target attacking creature.
“I watched in horror as our first wave were cut to pieces by enemy fire...”

Obsolescence 1W
Instant
Destroy target artifact or enchantment. If it had a converted mana cost of 4 or more, you gain 3 life.
“He brought so many talismans and wards to protect himself. The shelling ripped them to shreds like everything else.”

Smogchaser Griffin 2WW
Creature - Griffin
Flying
“Saw one collide with an enemy spotter once. Gave the sentry a fright when they crashed down in No Man’s Land.”
3/2

Solemn Veteran W
Creature - Human Soldier
Reserves 1
“I’ve seen many lands and fought many battles. None of it prepared me for the horrors I’ve seen here.”
1/1

Steadfast Sentry W
Creature - Hound Scout
If you control a creature with defender, Steadfast Sentry has vigilance.
“We wait for the enemy. Through wind and rain, we wait.”
1/2

Swiftwing Pioneer 2W
Creature - Bird Scout
Flying
If you control an artifact with converted mana cost 3 or less, Swiftwing Pioneer has first strike.
No longer the undisputed lords of the sky, the aven found new roles as scouts and navigators.
2/2

Too Large a Target 2W
Instant
Destroy target creature with toughness 4 or greater.
“A beast the size of a mountain, you say? That makes my job a lot easier.”
- Estean Artillery Captain

Usclan Mechanic WW
Creature - Human Artificer
Whenever you cast an artifact spell, gain 1 life.
“Our machines fail, yes. But I’d rather suffer a hundred breakdowns than a mage’s arrogance.”
2/2

Wide-Eyed Recruits 1W
Creature - Human Soldier
Defender
“Minimum age is eighteen. But you want to fight for your king, don’t you boys? So I’m going to ask your age again...”
1/4

Updated the mechanics in the OP, added some flavour for Tin Men and changed some of the cards. Should get a chance to work on this properly again soon.

Thanks everyone.

void_nothing & Apoquallyp, will get to work on a better name.

DJK3654, I really like that idea for Mass Produce.
So, something like:

CARD 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +1/+1.
Equip 1
Mass-produce 2 3 (You may pay 3 as you cast CARD. If you do, when it enters the battlefield, create two tokens that are copies of it.)

For entrench, here are a couple simpler ideas:


But I was wondering if this would work as a way of enabling a defenders matter theme.

Entrench - Tap a creature you control with defender: This creature gets +1/+1. (Results could differ from card to card.)

And there'd be defender creatures like this:

Crocian Artillery
Creature - Human Soldier
Defender
Whenever Crocian Artillery becomes tapped, it deals 1 damage to target creature.

Thematically represents covering fire, supply chains, artillery, etc. Can be used defensively and on the attack. Maybe too close to vehicles? :/

Thoughts?

I was following the pattern of Kamigawa/Amonkhet/Kaladesh. I do quite like how it sounds but you're right, it's perhaps too obvious. May come up with a separate name for the plane itself. It'll do as a placeholder for now.

void_nothing.
Oh, the Tin Man idea is perfect. I'll change that to artifact creatures and write up a bit of fluff explaining their place in the setting soon.

Yeah, Entrench X sounds good. It might even be simpler as Entrench (Can block an additional creature each combat)?

For Mass Produce, I was wondering if this would work:

Mass Produce - You may pay CARD's mana cost. If you do, create a token that's a copy of CARD. Mass Produce only as a sorcery.

Much, much simpler and gives players' the choice of when to mass produce.

Thanks, Legend!
You're right, trenches were not just defensive positions. I'd still quite like the ability to feel defensive though and focusing on blocking seems the most obvious way. Not that the set will be full of cards only good at blocking. I'd like those creatures with entrench to be useful attackers when needed. I'm looking to Trueheart Duelist as a guide rather than Palace Guard.
I do really like that ability though.

Second attempt at mechanics. Feedback would be much appreciated.

The intention is to make Kriegswelt an "artifacts matter" set but with an emphasis on quantity. In the past, the people of Kriegswelt were used to small-scale conflict between mages, knights and other heroic individuals. The war sees that replaced by mass production and conscription.

Reserves X (When this creature dies, create X 1/1 colourless conscript tokens.)

Entrench (Creature has 2: This creature may block an additional creature this combat.)

Mass Produce. (At the beginning of your end step, you may pay CARD's casting cost. If you do, create a token of CARD and put it into play tapped.)
Mass Produce will be on equipment, vehicles and the occasional other artifact. Represents prototypes being tested on the field and then being moved to mass production.

Coloured vehicles and equipment.

Thanks.

Okay, the aspect of WW1 I'd like to really focus on is the sheer scale of it. Mass-produced non-magical weaponry and enormous armies of conscripts proving too much for the wizards and magical beasts of the old world. So perhaps this needs to be a more overtly "artifacts matter" set but more focused on cheap-and-nasty quantity rather than Kaladesh's beautiful inventions.

Perhaps a mechanic to show this:

CARD 3
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +1/+1.
Equip 1
Mass-produce 2 (This card enters play with two tokens that are a copies of CARD.)

That would mean large battlefields with many creatures and token artifacts. Perhaps then "entrench" could be a keyword for "may block any number of creatures"? That would, flavour-wise, fit with the WW1 idea of defence being stronger but not reduce every match to a waiting game?

I think you're right about patriotic. Considering what you've said and looking at the cards I've made, I don't think it's as interesting as I thought it'd be. It's also a really loaded term that's difficult to pin down.

Thanks for the feedback!

Those are really good points. I've changed skirmish back to clash and removed entrench until I can rethink it. Perhaps Abzan's outlast mechanic would work in its place?
I'm still umming and ahhhing about patriotic and reserves as they were intended to be anti-synergy. Showing that, as armies are forced to replace their best troops with hastily recruited conscripts, they struggle to maintain morale. A solution could be to change reserves to coloured tokens but I don't want sacrificing your own troops to be an easy way of triggering patriotic. I'll have a think.

UPDATE Thank you so much for all the feedback. I've redesigned the mechanics so that (hopefully) they will supprt the set's themes more clearly. The mechanics should now be more synergistic. Defender and stalemate should complement each other; tokens from reserves can crew vehicles and help prevent your opponent's stalemate triggers; and mass produce should allow for larger armies of tokens to be equipped with token equipment and vehicles.

“As we advanced, I passed the body of a paladin. The silly fool had tried to charge our lines and got himself tangled in razor wire. So many dead and they still don’t get it. No amount of magic gets you through No Man’s Land.”

Warfare has changed. Machine guns, artillery and barbed wire now dominate the battlefield. Mages find themselves easy targets for enemy rifles; courageous knights die en masse to artillery and poison gas; and hordes of primitive aircraft have swept aside the dragons and griffins who once ruled the skies.

As casualties continue to rise and victory seems nowhere in sight, once patriotic troops begin to break and morale collapses. Rulers struggles to maintain power on the homefront as the old ways are replaced by new ideas. Will one side achieve total victory? Or will each nation be consumed by revolution?

My attempt at a top-down set based on the First World War.



Mechanics & Themes

Cheap & Nasty Artifacts
Unlike the mechanical marvels seen on Kaladesh, a desperate need to equip large armies has led to a greater reliance on crude mass production. Coloured equipment and vehicles will make an appearance and it will be possible to "mass produce" certain artifacts.

Mass Produce - When this artifact enters the battlefield, you may pay its mass produce cost X times. Put X tokens that are copies of this permanent onto the battlefield.

Defender Matters
On many fronts, a bitter stalemate has emerged as grand offensives have become too costly to justify militarily. Heavily fortified positions guarded by machine guns, artillery and barbed wire are now a staple of warfare. Included in the set will be creatures with conditional defender and spells that reward you for controlling creatures with defender.

Stalemate
As the war continues, each side attempts to bolster their army with additional defences, weaponry and manpower. Allow your opponent any respite and they will use the time to strengthen their force. Cards with stalemate receive a small bonus if you were not attacked by an opponent last turn. It will mostly appear on creatures and sorceries.


Reserves X - When this creature dies, create X colourless 1/1 soldier artifact creature tokens.