I think that a Necropotence land can be done, given that this is in a controlled environment. There won't be moxes or even dark rituals. Also the format will basically be sealed deck.
Let's say that I go with the second version, where you lose life based on how many cards you have in your hand.
So let's say that you drop this thing first turn and second turn you drop a swamp and go for broke. I'm having people start at 8 and draw at the end of the turn, so the player has 7 when he activates the necro land. He wants to end with 1 life so he draws 12 cards. Now he is at 1 life and has 19 cards in hand. He has a great hand but he only has one mana-producing land on the table. Meanwhile his opponent has two mana-producing lands and maybe a creature. I could see this game going either way. The necro player is holding half of his deck (no maximum hand size) but he has to get lucky to survive. A direct damage spell or haste creature and he dies. He's going to struggle.
Ok now let's say that the game has been back and forth, pretty even up until this point. The player drops the necro land and next turn he untaps and grabs a half dozen cards. Now he has a huge advantage but he is low on life and he isn't drawing cards anymore. With Necropotence he could decide that he wants to pay for a few more cards. With this necro land he could do the same but he has to pay life for all of the cards that he still has in his hand. So yes, it is repeatable but it is generally unwise to repeat using it too soon.
Hmm.... what I like about Necropotence is that every turn you make a choice on how many cards you want/need. With this card you're probably drawing a lot more up front and not refilling as often.
I'm making a simplified version of Magic and I'm trying to keep the comprehensive rules to about 10 pages. One thing that I've done is to eliminate the Enchantment and Artifact cards types (partially replaced by the new Rules type).
I tried searching for Necropotence in land form but couldn't find any threads.
Here is what I have so far:
Name: Necropolis
Type: Land
Speed: Start of turn.
Initial Counters: 0
Power|Toughness: n/a
Enters the battlefield: Tapped
Cost: n/a
Unmorph: n/a
Text line 1: do not draw cards between turns.
Text line 2: B,T, pay x life->draw x cards.
Obviously that is waaaay too powerful.
I can think of one modification, doubling the life payment. However that doesn't fix the problem of it being a one-time thing. People will just spend a bunch of life and be done with it, then it just sits around for a few turns while the game ends.
Here's another idea for the draw ability:
B, T -> draw any number of cards, then lose life equal to the number of cards in your hand.
That seems... ok? What I like about this is that you aren't going to want play this card in the early game.
Notice that my new card frames have an initial counters indicator, so having this card start with counters would be easy.
Halimar Wavewatch is a very good card. Blue is played in a lot of good decks and so it is usually unblockable. It also synergizes well with all of the cards in the leveler deck. For example Time of Heroes turns it into a 2/8 early. A Venerable Teacher plus a quick level activation or two is enough to make a 6/6 come out of nowhere.
nice! Though the white and green ones don't work due to layering. This is the reason that Mosstodon has an activated ability rather than simply granting trample. There was a magicthegathering.com article on it.
The deck he is talking about isn't really Esper. It is just U/B/w aggro. It doesn't focus on artifacts at all. Brackwater and Kathari Screecher play a major role (in addition to obvious cards such as Tidehollow Strix)
I had an idea but it looks like you guys are pretty far along already:
Shards of Alara (shards)
Conflux (coming together, 5 color/domain subtheme)
Alara Reborn (together, all gold)
Resundering (breaking apart, colorless subtheme)
Alara Rebroken (wedges)
What happens when the Nactal end up in the rWb shard? They become leonin and wage war upon goblins while angels fly overhead.
What happens when the Rhox end up on the wBg shard? They become a cruel order of monks serving the demon lord of New Vithia
What happens when the Dragons of Jund and the Aven of Bant are forced to coexist on the uRw shard? What enchantments will they weave into their nests to gaurd off egg-stealing viashino?
During the Resundering, what happens to the elf druid caught in the uRw shard when he is cut off from green mana? He becomes a colorless, non-artifact creature that taps for :1mana:.
The Resundering set would be more about how the creatures of Alara Reborn attempt to survive. Alara Rebroken would be about the new equilibrium, complete with Panoramas and Obelisks. It would basically be the block in reverse, with Alara Reborn being the first set in the block.
Garrison: no rules issues, though this is quite powerful and can get out of hand. If you have three Garrison creatures and each blocks a different attacker, each gets +3/+3. This would make you essentially unattackable. I don't think that this ability would make the game more fun in large amounts. How about not keywording it and just putting in on 2-3 different cards?
Landcasting: This ability seems pretty complicated. How about: Landcast :2mana::symg: (You may play this as a spell for :2mana::symg:. If you do it does not count as playing a land for the turn).
I'd look at the rules for morph as a guide here.
Digging: If I send my digging guy after your guy, your guy can still block my non-digging guy. However your non-digging guy can't deal damage to the guy he is blocking. What if the guy flys? Can you dig after him?
Maybe you can only dig after tapped creatures, or maybe when you go digging it taps the guy you dig after. That way he won't be able to block another creature. If he does manage to untap then he escapes the digger...
You will have to do a lot of work on this one.
Don't have time to comment much on the others.
Linking seems interesting but the rules on that are probable tricky.
Prominence should be an ability word, in the same way that Threshold is now.
this would make more sense, because searching and cycling have nothing to do with each other except that they both interact with a select few cards (such as Astral Slide and Lightning Rift)
you can use "remove from the game" to get around the memory issues. Then you would put the rfg'd land under the token to show what landwalks it would have. You can either remove from game directly, or put it on a goes to graveyard trigger.
"What memory issue are you talking about? The creature becomes a Bearer of the Mark. It only has the one ability"
What happens if Bearer of the Mark gets shuffled into its owner's library? Then how will we know the stats, including exact mana cost and creature types. You are putting a bit of a memory burden on someone, and worse, it isn't you. Your opponent shouldn't have to memorize a card in your deck.
Deep Water Knight :1mana::symw:
Creature - Human Knight “And on the eve of the ninth day of third month of spring into the lake shall be thrown seven spears of pure copper, head and haft both”
-Ancient pact of unknown origin
2/2
Divine Destrier :3mana::symw:
Enchantment Creature - Aura Horse
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2
Divine Destrier can enchant despite being a creature.
2/2
Enlistment Drive :2mana::symw::symw:
Sorcery
Search your library for up to two creature cards with a total converted mana cost of 3 or less.
Exclusive Occasion
Enchantment
Morph costs of face down creatures that opponents control cost an additional 2.
Cycling 2(2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
For the Fallen:1mana::symw:
Instant
As an additional cost to play For the Fallen sacrifice a creature. Creatures that share a creature type with the sacrificed creature get +1/+2 until end of turn.
Idle Leisure :1mana::symw:
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature’s activated abilities can’t be played and it gains defender. With wealth one can do more, but one often does less.
Inquisitor :1mana::symw:
Creature - Human Cleric Soldier
Vigilance
When Inquisitor comes into play, turn target face down creature face up.
1/2
Inspiring Eagle :1mana::symw::symw:
Creature - Bird
Flying
When Inspiring Eagle comes into play, creatures that you control gain lifelink until end of turn
2/2
Medicine Runner :2mana::symw:
Creature - Human Cleric Scout
Whenever a creature that you control attacks alone, that creature gains lifelink until the end of turn.
2/3
Old Blowhard :2mana::symw:
Creature - Frog Soldier
First Strike
Morph :4mana::symw: (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for :3mana:. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
When Old Blowhard is turned face up, it gets +2/+0 until the end of turn.
2/2
Quick Cut
Kicker :1mana::symw: (You may pay an additional :1mana::symw: as you play this spell.)
Target creature gets first strike until the end of turn. If the kicker cost was paid, instead it gets double strike until the end of turn.
Solar Drake :4mana::symw::symw:
Creature - Drake
Flying
Morph :2mana::symw::symw: (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for :3mana:. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
3/4
Sudden Reinforcements :2mana::symw:
Creature - Human Soldier
Flash (You may play this spell any time you could play an instant.)
Morph :symw::symw: (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for :3mana:. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
1/4
Summer Holiday :1mana::symw::symw:
Instant
Remove target creature from the game. Return that creature to play under its owner’s control at end of turn.
Draw a card.
Wide-eyed Warden :4mana::symw:
Creature - Cyclops Soldier Fierce—At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, if you control no untapped lands, untap Wide-eyed Warden and Wide-eyed Warden may block an additional creature this turn.
3/3
so if you had :symw::symw: and wanted :symu::symu: you'd have to find a way to untap it, such as by turning into :symb:. You'd also have to add something do deal with the asymmetry, such as having it not untap during your untap, and a choice of having it come into play tapped or untapped
"Once it falls off [foo] you will have an aura with enchant [foo] sitting in play not attached to anything."
420.5d will put it into its owner's graveyard. No where on my card does it even hint that it causes 420.5d to be ignored. It has enchant creature, and thus if it falls off, kit would be in a situation where it is not attached to an object or player. Thus it would be put into its owner's graveyard.420.5d An Aura attached to an illegal object or player, or not attached to an object or player, is put into its owner’s graveyard.
The line that allows it to enchant despite being a creature modifies 212.4g which is a poorly written and probably useless rule. For reference here it is:
212.4g An Aura can’t enchant itself, and an Aura that’s also a creature can’t enchant anything. If this occurs somehow, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard. (This is a state-based effect. See rule 420.)
The purple part would still apply, because I am not modifying it. The blue part would not apply because that is what my line is overriding. The red part does not make sense because there is no such state-based effect to be found anywhere in the rules. They seem to be indirectly referring to 420.5d, along the lines of: if A or B happens, your Aura isn't attached, and if it isn't attached 420.5d puts it in the graveyard. So what my card is doing is taking away B. It isn't taking away 420.5d
"which means that if you have this creature in play not attached to something (like you say you want to), SBEs will constantly want to put it into the graveyard. It doesn't only happen when it falls off"
I never said that I wanted it to outlive the creature that it enchants. It will simply be an enchant creature that can also attack and block. Nothing more, nothing less. It is really a simple card. There is no question that this card will work intuitively (the only issue is if it enchanted a creature with a different controller, I'll just be careful to not design any pacifisms like this). I only posted this to work out the exact wording of the rule ignoring ability which no one has even responded to.
Horseshoe_Hermit: I'm not sure what you are getting at? You mean what would it be attached to? Well an enchantment with multiple enchant abilities would come into play attached to all of its targets, unless those targets had become invalid. Basically just extrapolate from the rules for spells with multiple targets. If this was used a lot it would become confusing due to memory issues and the layout of cards in play, but it would be manageable on a small scale.
I think that a Necropotence land can be done, given that this is in a controlled environment. There won't be moxes or even dark rituals. Also the format will basically be sealed deck.
Let's say that I go with the second version, where you lose life based on how many cards you have in your hand.
So let's say that you drop this thing first turn and second turn you drop a swamp and go for broke. I'm having people start at 8 and draw at the end of the turn, so the player has 7 when he activates the necro land. He wants to end with 1 life so he draws 12 cards. Now he is at 1 life and has 19 cards in hand. He has a great hand but he only has one mana-producing land on the table. Meanwhile his opponent has two mana-producing lands and maybe a creature. I could see this game going either way. The necro player is holding half of his deck (no maximum hand size) but he has to get lucky to survive. A direct damage spell or haste creature and he dies. He's going to struggle.
Ok now let's say that the game has been back and forth, pretty even up until this point. The player drops the necro land and next turn he untaps and grabs a half dozen cards. Now he has a huge advantage but he is low on life and he isn't drawing cards anymore. With Necropotence he could decide that he wants to pay for a few more cards. With this necro land he could do the same but he has to pay life for all of the cards that he still has in his hand. So yes, it is repeatable but it is generally unwise to repeat using it too soon.
Hmm.... what I like about Necropotence is that every turn you make a choice on how many cards you want/need. With this card you're probably drawing a lot more up front and not refilling as often.
So I'm not sure where to go with this next.
I tried searching for Necropotence in land form but couldn't find any threads.
Here is what I have so far:
Name: Necropolis
Type: Land
Speed: Start of turn.
Initial Counters: 0
Power|Toughness: n/a
Enters the battlefield: Tapped
Cost: n/a
Unmorph: n/a
Text line 1: do not draw cards between turns.
Text line 2: B,T, pay x life->draw x cards.
Obviously that is waaaay too powerful.
I can think of one modification, doubling the life payment. However that doesn't fix the problem of it being a one-time thing. People will just spend a bunch of life and be done with it, then it just sits around for a few turns while the game ends.
Here's another idea for the draw ability:
B, T -> draw any number of cards, then lose life equal to the number of cards in your hand.
That seems... ok? What I like about this is that you aren't going to want play this card in the early game.
Notice that my new card frames have an initial counters indicator, so having this card start with counters would be easy.
I had an idea but it looks like you guys are pretty far along already:
Shards of Alara (shards)
Conflux (coming together, 5 color/domain subtheme)
Alara Reborn (together, all gold)
Resundering (breaking apart, colorless subtheme)
Alara Rebroken (wedges)
What happens when the Nactal end up in the rWb shard? They become leonin and wage war upon goblins while angels fly overhead.
What happens when the Rhox end up on the wBg shard? They become a cruel order of monks serving the demon lord of New Vithia
What happens when the Dragons of Jund and the Aven of Bant are forced to coexist on the uRw shard? What enchantments will they weave into their nests to gaurd off egg-stealing viashino?
During the Resundering, what happens to the elf druid caught in the uRw shard when he is cut off from green mana? He becomes a colorless, non-artifact creature that taps for :1mana:.
The Resundering set would be more about how the creatures of Alara Reborn attempt to survive. Alara Rebroken would be about the new equilibrium, complete with Panoramas and Obelisks. It would basically be the block in reverse, with Alara Reborn being the first set in the block.
Landcasting: This ability seems pretty complicated. How about: Landcast :2mana::symg: (You may play this as a spell for :2mana::symg:. If you do it does not count as playing a land for the turn).
I'd look at the rules for morph as a guide here.
Digging: If I send my digging guy after your guy, your guy can still block my non-digging guy. However your non-digging guy can't deal damage to the guy he is blocking. What if the guy flys? Can you dig after him?
Maybe you can only dig after tapped creatures, or maybe when you go digging it taps the guy you dig after. That way he won't be able to block another creature. If he does manage to untap then he escapes the digger...
You will have to do a lot of work on this one.
Don't have time to comment much on the others.
Linking seems interesting but the rules on that are probable tricky.
Prominence should be an ability word, in the same way that Threshold is now.
Fiery Fall :5mana::symr:
Instant
blah blah blah
:1mana::symr:: Basic Landsearch (blah blah blah)
this would make more sense, because searching and cycling have nothing to do with each other except that they both interact with a select few cards (such as Astral Slide and Lightning Rift)
What happens if Bearer of the Mark gets shuffled into its owner's library? Then how will we know the stats, including exact mana cost and creature types. You are putting a bit of a memory burden on someone, and worse, it isn't you. Your opponent shouldn't have to memorize a card in your deck.
Deep Water Knight :1mana::symw:
Creature - Human Knight
“And on the eve of the ninth day of third month of spring into the lake shall be thrown seven spears of pure copper, head and haft both”
-Ancient pact of unknown origin
2/2
Divine Destrier :3mana::symw:
Enchantment Creature - Aura Horse
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2
Divine Destrier can enchant despite being a creature.
2/2
Enlistment Drive :2mana::symw::symw:
Sorcery
Search your library for up to two creature cards with a total converted mana cost of 3 or less.
Exclusive Occasion
Enchantment
Morph costs of face down creatures that opponents control cost an additional 2.
Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
For the Fallen:1mana::symw:
Instant
As an additional cost to play For the Fallen sacrifice a creature. Creatures that share a creature type with the sacrificed creature get +1/+2 until end of turn.
Idle Leisure :1mana::symw:
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature’s activated abilities can’t be played and it gains defender.
With wealth one can do more, but one often does less.
Inquisitor :1mana::symw:
Creature - Human Cleric Soldier
Vigilance
When Inquisitor comes into play, turn target face down creature face up.
1/2
Inspiring Eagle :1mana::symw::symw:
Creature - Bird
Flying
When Inspiring Eagle comes into play, creatures that you control gain lifelink until end of turn
2/2
Medicine Runner :2mana::symw:
Creature - Human Cleric Scout
Whenever a creature that you control attacks alone, that creature gains lifelink until the end of turn.
2/3
Old Blowhard :2mana::symw:
Creature - Frog Soldier
First Strike
Morph :4mana::symw: (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for :3mana:. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
When Old Blowhard is turned face up, it gets +2/+0 until the end of turn.
2/2
Quick Cut
Kicker :1mana::symw: (You may pay an additional :1mana::symw: as you play this spell.)
Target creature gets first strike until the end of turn. If the kicker cost was paid, instead it gets double strike until the end of turn.
Solar Drake :4mana::symw::symw:
Creature - Drake
Flying
Morph :2mana::symw::symw: (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for :3mana:. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
3/4
Sudden Reinforcements :2mana::symw:
Creature - Human Soldier
Flash (You may play this spell any time you could play an instant.)
Morph :symw::symw: (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for :3mana:. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
1/4
Summer Holiday :1mana::symw::symw:
Instant
Remove target creature from the game. Return that creature to play under its owner’s control at end of turn.
Draw a card.
Wide-eyed Warden :4mana::symw:
Creature - Cyclops Soldier
Fierce—At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, if you control no untapped lands, untap Wide-eyed Warden and Wide-eyed Warden may block an additional creature this turn.
3/3
Comments?
:symw::symtap:: Add
:symu::symtap:: Add
etc...
:symw::symq:: Add
:symu::symq:: Add
etc...
so if you had :symw::symw: and wanted :symu::symu: you'd have to find a way to untap it, such as by turning
420.5d will put it into its owner's graveyard. No where on my card does it even hint that it causes 420.5d to be ignored. It has enchant creature, and thus if it falls off, kit would be in a situation where it is not attached to an object or player. Thus it would be put into its owner's graveyard.420.5d An Aura attached to an illegal object or player, or not attached to an object or player, is put into its owner’s graveyard.
The line that allows it to enchant despite being a creature modifies 212.4g which is a poorly written and probably useless rule. For reference here it is:
212.4g An Aura can’t enchant itself, and an Aura that’s also a creature can’t enchant anything. If this occurs somehow, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard. (This is a state-based effect. See rule 420.)
The purple part would still apply, because I am not modifying it. The blue part would not apply because that is what my line is overriding. The red part does not make sense because there is no such state-based effect to be found anywhere in the rules. They seem to be indirectly referring to 420.5d, along the lines of: if A or B happens, your Aura isn't attached, and if it isn't attached 420.5d puts it in the graveyard. So what my card is doing is taking away B. It isn't taking away 420.5d
I never said that I wanted it to outlive the creature that it enchants. It will simply be an enchant creature that can also attack and block. Nothing more, nothing less. It is really a simple card. There is no question that this card will work intuitively (the only issue is if it enchanted a creature with a different controller, I'll just be careful to not design any pacifisms like this). I only posted this to work out the exact wording of the rule ignoring ability which no one has even responded to.
Horseshoe_Hermit: I'm not sure what you are getting at? You mean what would it be attached to? Well an enchantment with multiple enchant abilities would come into play attached to all of its targets, unless those targets had become invalid. Basically just extrapolate from the rules for spells with multiple targets. If this was used a lot it would become confusing due to memory issues and the layout of cards in play, but it would be manageable on a small scale.