Keywords: WB: Undying, to enable a sacrifice-for-value strategy. Works in tandem with RW's tokens and BG's graveyard value.
UR: Improvise, to reward an artifact-based strategy. Works well with GU's big CMC keyword and with RW's tokens, which are all artifact creatures in this set.
BG: Decompose (Exile this card from your graveyard: Add C.), to fuel a grindy, late-game strategy. Yeah, it's basically reverse Delve, which I think is more balanced. Works well with WB's sacrifice-for-value effects and GU's ramp rewards.
Currently workshopping this one.
RW: "Collect — If you created one or more tokens this turn..." to reward a token strategy. Rewards effects that fuel WB's sacrifice-for-value strategy and UR's improvise spells. Open to suggestions for a better name.
GU: "Revere — Whenever you cast a spell with converted mana cost 4 or greater..." to reward a midrange/ramp strategy. Uses BG's slow grindiness to prolong the game and its decompose cards to ramp, and triggers off of casting UR's big improvise spells.
This set will primarily focus on enemy color pairs, but will feature a few cycles of tricolor cards, one of which is a cycle of cards which feature both keywords of their composite color pairs. These cards are meant to signal what sort of strategy can thrive when two color pairs unite. It was a bit harder to find satisfying designs that illustrate the synergy between color pairs with their keywords than I originally thought, and ended up having to split the cycle between rare and mythic. Here the designs:
Mechanical Phoenix1URW
Artifact Creature - Phoenix R
3/3
Improvise
Flying, haste Collect — At the beginning of each end step, if you created one or more tokens, return ~ from your graveyard to your hand.
Leader of the Charge1RWB
Creature - Human Soldier M
3/3
Undying Collect — When ~ enters the battlefield, if you created one or more tokens this turn, creatures you control gain haste and vigilance until end of turn. After this main phase, there is an additional combat phase, followed by an additional main phase.
Resentful RevenantWBG
Creature - Spirit R
2/2
Undying, flying
Whenever ~ leaves your graveyard, it deals 2 damage to each opponent.
Decompose (Exile this card from your graveyard: Add C)
Blight GhoulBGU
Creature - Zombie R
3/1
Menace Revere — Whenever you cast a spell with converted mana cost 4 or greater, if you own four or more cards named ~ in exile, you win the game.
Decompose (Exile this card from your graveyard: Add C.)
Metaphysitron3GUR
Artifact M
Improvise Revere — Whenever you cast a spell for the first time each turn, if it had converted mana cost 4 or greater, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. Until end of turn, you may play land cards exiled this way and cast nonland cards exiled this way without paying their mana cost.
What do you all think? Any suggestions? Concerns? One of the things I want to avoid is encouraging any two of these cards to be played in the same deck in constructed, so as to avoid 4c and 5c decks, so if you guys think there's any danger of that, let me know.
I'm not sure about decompose at all. It really strikes me as dangerous simply because it's free ramp. It has many of the dangers of delve with greater flexibility; I'm not sure if a strategy wherein you need to get any cards in hand and specific cards in 'yard is any less prone to abuse than one that's the opposite.
Collect is neat but only makes sense in this context if there's a lot of artifact token creation. Also might need a bit of ingenious flavor justification because tokens have very little separate flavor anyhow.
I'm not sure about decompose at all. It really strikes me as dangerous simply because it's free ramp. It has many of the dangers of delve with greater flexibility; I'm not sure if a strategy wherein you need to get any cards in hand and specific cards in 'yard is any less prone to abuse than one that's the opposite.
Collect is neat but only makes sense in this context if there's a lot of artifact token creation. Also might need a bit of ingenious flavor justification because tokens have very little separate flavor anyhow.
Thanks for the formatting help! Not sure what happened with those.
On Decompose, I see where you're coming from. I was thinking of how to address this and came up with this solution:
Decompose — 2, Exile this card from your graveyard: Add CCC.
This is a lot uglier and makes for a lot more math, but the idea is that it gates the ramp behind large numbers. The cost and mana produced would vary from card to card, but the second number will always one more than you paid. Decompose abilities can also be chained this way, so I'm not sure how much it helps.
For Collect, all of the tokens made in RW will be artifact creatures. It's a bit of a cop-out, but it does the job it needs to do and does it extremely well. As for flavor, I have a loose idea, but nothing solid.
All I really know is that RW has sort of a professional relationship with UR in which UR, who prefers wild experimentation, iteration, and permutation in their mechanical designs, begrudgingly agrees to supply RW with a mass-production of a standardized, efficent robots in exchange for occasional use of those same robots for their labor efficiency. RW uses these robots for industrial labor and in place of people as their main supply of infantry.
On Decompose, I see where you're coming from. I was thinking of how to address this and came up with this solution:
Decompose — 2, Exile this card from your graveyard: Add CCC.
This is a lot uglier and makes for a lot more math, but the idea is that it gates the ramp behind large numbers. The cost and mana produced would vary from card to card, but the second number will always one more than you paid. Decompose abilities can also be chained this way, so I'm not sure how much it helps.
If I learned anything from Modern Storm's usage of Past in Flames, it's that casting rituals out of one's graveyard is terrifying. Putting a cost on the mechanic moves if from being frighteningly broken to "just" broken.
Also, a mechanic that functions in the graveyard feels like a nonbo with a mechanic like undying designed to keep creatures out of the graveyard, no matter how you split it.
If I learned anything from Modern Storm's usage of Past in Flames, it's that casting rituals out of one's graveyard is terrifying. Putting a cost on the mechanic moves if from being frighteningly broken to "just" broken.
Also, a mechanic that functions in the graveyard feels like a nonbo with a mechanic like undying designed to keep creatures out of the graveyard, no matter how you split it.
It's more that Decompose enjoys sacrifice effects just as much as Undying creatures, not that Decompose synergizes with Undying.
Anyway, based on feedback, I'm going back to the drawing board to find a new mechanic for BG. If anyone has suggestions, I'm happy to consider them.
The mechanic will need to have synergy with WB and with GU in some way. WB makes use of sacrifice effects coupled with Undying to out-value the opponent. GU uses a lot of ramp and board-stalling effects to prolong the game enough to power out large threats, which are rewarded by its Revere triggers. BG doesn't need to have anything to do with the graveyard or anything like that. It should just focus on resilience or resourcefulness. While WB focuses on aggressive or attrition-style value, BG just shrugs off short term setbacks while it slowly tilts the game state in its favor. It should not use tokens, as that's RW's domain.
Actually, now that I think about it, Emerge from EMN seems like the perfect fit for BG. What do you guys think?
I loved emerge but it feels maybe... too tied to Emrakul's Eldrazi? Maybe a simpler "You may cast this spell for its N cost by sacrificing a creature in addition to its other costs".
I loved emerge but it feels maybe... too tied to Emrakul's Eldrazi? Maybe a simpler "You may cast this spell for its N cost by sacrificing a creature in addition to its other costs".
Yeah I had the same thought. Maybe that or a variant of Offering minus the colored cost reduction?
"You may sacrifice a creature to pay for up to X of this spell's mana cost, where X is the sacrificed creature's converted mana cost."
I loved emerge but it feels maybe... too tied to Emrakul's Eldrazi? Maybe a simpler "You may cast this spell for its N cost by sacrificing a creature in addition to its other costs".
Yeah I had the same thought. Maybe that or a variant of Offering minus the colored cost reduction?
"You may sacrifice a creature to pay for up to X of this spell's mana cost, where X is the sacrificed creature's mana cost."
Not reducing colored costs means you would say "converted mana cost" in that ability, but I think that's the right track unless you want the token theme to also fit with this.
Not reducing colored costs means you would say "converted mana cost" in that ability, but I think that's the right track unless you want the token theme to also fit with this.
Yeah I caught that error. and no, I don't want this to work well with tokens. I don't want to encourage any crossplay with RW or create any 4c decks.
Not reducing colored costs means you would say "converted mana cost" in that ability, but I think that's the right track unless you want the token theme to also fit with this.
Yeah I caught that error. and no, I don't want this to work well with tokens. I don't want to encourage any crossplay with RW or create any 4c decks.
Then I think you've hit on something. I would suggest using it reasonably heavy on noncreature cards to distinguish it from the previous variants.
Just having one color pair care about artifacts is problematic. There's a reason they didn't have the Izzet care about artifacts. Esper works as an artifact theme, but that's because its connective tissue is that the shard's thing is being artifacts. The shard didn't have a keyword for a reason (and if you were to mention it now; no Naya did not have a keyword either, but they basically had an ability word that wasn't mentioned on the cards).
Improvise worked in Kaladesh because it was an artifacts set; improvise as an artifact mechanic then allowed a subset of the cards to play into a specific kind of artifact strategy. Esper, being all artifacts, had a massive roster of different artifacts matter-mechanics, which caused a much less pronounced strain on design and development.
As such, I would not use Improvise here. I wouldn't use artifacts at all, actually. It's a mechanic that both necessiates a very high as-fan of artifacts as well as requiring those artifacts to play into a very narrow deckbuilding pattern, numbers mattering.
Just having one color pair care about artifacts is problematic. There's a reason they didn't have the Izzet care about artifacts. Esper works as an artifact theme, but that's because its connective tissue is that the shard's thing is being artifacts. The shard didn't have a keyword for a reason (and if you were to mention it now; no Naya did not have a keyword either, but they basically had an ability word that wasn't mentioned on the cards).
Improvise worked in Kaladesh because it was an artifacts set; improvise as an artifact mechanic then allowed a subset of the cards to play into a specific kind of artifact strategy. Esper, being all artifacts, had a massive roster of different artifacts matter-mechanics, which caused a much less pronounced strain on design and development.
As such, I would not use Improvise here. I wouldn't use artifacts at all, actually. It's a mechanic that both necessiates a very high as-fan of artifacts as well as requiring those artifacts to play into a very narrow deckbuilding pattern, numbers mattering.
I address this concern in my CSC thread about the set. The tl;dr is that I'll be using primarily colored artifacts, many of them being creatures, as well as planting artifacts into adjacent color pairs (RW and GU) to bump up the as-fan as much as possible. I also anticipate having generally slightly lower Improvise costs.
Also, how’s about Collect be renamed to Forge and reword as “If you created a token this turn...”
But now that I think about it, 3/5 of these mechanics are parasitic.
For RW, how’s about:
Forge 1 (Create a colorless artifact Equipment token with “Equip 1” and “Equipped creature gets +1/+1.”)
Forge 2 (Create two colorless artifact Equipment tokens with “Equip 1” and “Equipped creature gets +1/+1.”)
Forge 3 (Create three colorless artifact Equipment tokens with “Equip 1” and “Equipped creature gets +1/+1.”)
Etc.
Goes nicely with Improvise.
Forge would work well as a name for an artifact token mechanic, but it's a bit niche for an effect that cares about tokens of any kind.
Creating equipment tokens is a neat idea, and I might go that rout, but I have concerns about it. I wanted to steer RW away from combat-specific strategies. Creature tokens are much more open-ended. I suppose I could use an action keyword like yours, except that it creates artifact creature tokens, but I'm not sure how to do so elegantly.
There's also the fact that I need to reassess how RW and WB interact. If I go with an Offering/Emerge variant in BG, which I'm increasingly inclined to do, that would shift the bulk of the sacrifice effects in the set from WB to BG, which messes with the synergy between WB and RW.
I think Emerge/Offering consideration is throwing the whole suite out of whack.
What do you think of the MorbidFlashback mechanic proposal for BG?
It's just causing a few pieces to readjust, but I think that's a good thing for the set.
Your proposal is interesting, but I could see it resulting in quite a lot of repetitive gameplay. I could see people chaining things with that ability just to stall the board for many turns in a row, as with a pair of Gravediggers, which is a red flag for common. I just don't think it would be terribly interesting. Emerge/Offering, or what I'll probably just call Recompose for now, fits squarely into what WB and GU each want to do better even than Decompose did.
As for RW, what do you think of this:
"Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if it wasn't cast..."
That way, RW can still safely care about creating tokens and still synergize with WB's Undying. The only design flaw I can see is that designing with Undying in mind pushes toward effects that are only relevant after combat damage, as that's when Undying triggers will usually happen, and that's pretty limited design space at common. It also mandates a large amount of token creation at lower rarities.
Edit: Alternatively, Vehicles are another possible point of synergy with both UR and WB as they are artifacts and care about the power among creatures you control, which increases with Undying. The only problem with that is that both Vehicles and Undying creatures want to be participating in combat, so they sort of fight for their turn to attack. I suppose it would push players into a pattern of attacking/blocking with their early Undying creatures first, then using those creatures to crew Vehicles in the late game. It's interesting to consider...
Edit 2: I could also see Fabricate working out here too. Both in that it creates artifact creature tokens to help Improvise, and puts +1/+1 counters on creatures, giving us the possibility to have a RWB strategy that cares about +1/+1 counters. The problem there is that having them both on the same card creates problems. The counter mode is sort of a nonbo with Undying, which pretty much always means that it's more correct to create tokens first, and then choose counters when it comes back with Undying. That makes designing the RWB mashup card a right pain in the bum.
So many possibilities for returning mechanics! So many potential problems!
There's already two returning mechanics, one of which is from the same set as Fabricate so I'd resuggest Forge over Fabricate if you want this to feel like an original idea / custom set. The rewording of Collect looks really nice. It's much more broad than OP Collect. You could even go a little further:
Ability - Whenever a nonland permanent enters the battlefield under your control, if it wasn't cast...
I don't think post combat timing is a problem whatsoever (see Enrage). And you can set up precombat triggers with Undying and sacrifice abilities, instant speed token creators, and Shallow Grave things.
I still think an Offering/Devour/Emerge riff will be a mistake. Devour is pure garbage and the other two were spread out through all colors. A feel bad mechanic that is difficult to manage into a color pair just disappoints players that identify with that color pair and even discourage people from drafting it. How about Exploit instead or a riff thereof?
There's already two returning mechanics, one of which is from the same set as Fabricate so I'd resuggest Forge over Fabricate if you want this to feel like an original idea / custom set. The rewording of Collect looks really nice. It's much more broad than OP Collect. You could even go a little further:
Ability - Whenever a nonland permanent enters the battlefield under your control, if it wasn't cast...
I don't think post combat timing is a problem whatsoever (see Enrage). And you can set up precombat triggers with Undying and sacrifice abilities, instant speed token creators, and Shallow Grave things.
I still think an Offering/Devour/Emerge riff will be a mistake. Devour is pure garbage and the other two were spread out through all colors. A feel bad mechanic that is difficult to manage into a color pair just disappoints players that identify with that color pair and even discourage people from drafting it. How about Exploit instead or a riff thereof?
The biggest issue with these ideas is just design space. I think a single set will be doable for sure, just maybe a bit stretched. That's talking about both BG's new mechanic and RW's new mechanic.
Another thing I'm becoming increasingly conscious of is the amount of complexity behind these mechanics and how wordy they are. I'm trying to keep it generally concise. I'll try to update the OP later with my latest ideas.
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WB: Undying, to enable a sacrifice-for-value strategy. Works in tandem with RW's tokens and BG's graveyard value.
UR: Improvise, to reward an artifact-based strategy. Works well with GU's big CMC keyword and with RW's tokens, which are all artifact creatures in this set.
BG:
Decompose (Exile this card from your graveyard: Add C.), to fuel a grindy, late-game strategy. Yeah, it's basically reverse Delve, which I think is more balanced. Works well with WB's sacrifice-for-value effects and GU's ramp rewards.Currently workshopping this one.
RW: "Collect — If you created one or more tokens this turn..." to reward a token strategy. Rewards effects that fuel WB's sacrifice-for-value strategy and UR's improvise spells. Open to suggestions for a better name.
GU: "Revere — Whenever you cast a spell with converted mana cost 4 or greater..." to reward a midrange/ramp strategy. Uses BG's slow grindiness to prolong the game and its decompose cards to ramp, and triggers off of casting UR's big improvise spells.
This set will primarily focus on enemy color pairs, but will feature a few cycles of tricolor cards, one of which is a cycle of cards which feature both keywords of their composite color pairs. These cards are meant to signal what sort of strategy can thrive when two color pairs unite. It was a bit harder to find satisfying designs that illustrate the synergy between color pairs with their keywords than I originally thought, and ended up having to split the cycle between rare and mythic. Here the designs:
Mechanical Phoenix 1URW
Artifact Creature - Phoenix R
3/3
Improvise
Flying, haste
Collect — At the beginning of each end step, if you created one or more tokens, return ~ from your graveyard to your hand.
Leader of the Charge 1RWB
Creature - Human Soldier M
3/3
Undying
Collect — When ~ enters the battlefield, if you created one or more tokens this turn, creatures you control gain haste and vigilance until end of turn. After this main phase, there is an additional combat phase, followed by an additional main phase.
Resentful Revenant WBGCreature - Spirit R
2/2
Undying, flying
Whenever ~ leaves your graveyard, it deals 2 damage to each opponent.
Decompose (Exile this card from your graveyard: Add C)
Blight Ghoul BGUCreature - Zombie R
3/1
Menace
Revere — Whenever you cast a spell with converted mana cost 4 or greater, if you own four or more cards named ~ in exile, you win the game.
Decompose (Exile this card from your graveyard: Add C.)
Metaphysitron 3GUR
Artifact M
Improvise
Revere — Whenever you cast a spell for the first time each turn, if it had converted mana cost 4 or greater, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. Until end of turn, you may play land cards exiled this way and cast nonland cards exiled this way without paying their mana cost.
What do you all think? Any suggestions? Concerns? One of the things I want to avoid is encouraging any two of these cards to be played in the same deck in constructed, so as to avoid 4c and 5c decks, so if you guys think there's any danger of that, let me know.
I'm not sure about decompose at all. It really strikes me as dangerous simply because it's free ramp. It has many of the dangers of delve with greater flexibility; I'm not sure if a strategy wherein you need to get any cards in hand and specific cards in 'yard is any less prone to abuse than one that's the opposite.
Collect is neat but only makes sense in this context if there's a lot of artifact token creation. Also might need a bit of ingenious flavor justification because tokens have very little separate flavor anyhow.
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On Decompose, I see where you're coming from. I was thinking of how to address this and came up with this solution:
Decompose — 2, Exile this card from your graveyard: Add CCC.
This is a lot uglier and makes for a lot more math, but the idea is that it gates the ramp behind large numbers. The cost and mana produced would vary from card to card, but the second number will always one more than you paid. Decompose abilities can also be chained this way, so I'm not sure how much it helps.
For Collect, all of the tokens made in RW will be artifact creatures. It's a bit of a cop-out, but it does the job it needs to do and does it extremely well. As for flavor, I have a loose idea, but nothing solid.
All I really know is that RW has sort of a professional relationship with UR in which UR, who prefers wild experimentation, iteration, and permutation in their mechanical designs, begrudgingly agrees to supply RW with a mass-production of a standardized, efficent robots in exchange for occasional use of those same robots for their labor efficiency. RW uses these robots for industrial labor and in place of people as their main supply of infantry.
If I learned anything from Modern Storm's usage of Past in Flames, it's that casting rituals out of one's graveyard is terrifying. Putting a cost on the mechanic moves if from being frighteningly broken to "just" broken.
Also, a mechanic that functions in the graveyard feels like a nonbo with a mechanic like undying designed to keep creatures out of the graveyard, no matter how you split it.
Anyway, based on feedback, I'm going back to the drawing board to find a new mechanic for BG. If anyone has suggestions, I'm happy to consider them.
The mechanic will need to have synergy with WB and with GU in some way. WB makes use of sacrifice effects coupled with Undying to out-value the opponent. GU uses a lot of ramp and board-stalling effects to prolong the game enough to power out large threats, which are rewarded by its Revere triggers. BG doesn't need to have anything to do with the graveyard or anything like that. It should just focus on resilience or resourcefulness. While WB focuses on aggressive or attrition-style value, BG just shrugs off short term setbacks while it slowly tilts the game state in its favor. It should not use tokens, as that's RW's domain.
Actually, now that I think about it, Emerge from EMN seems like the perfect fit for BG. What do you guys think?
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
"You may sacrifice a creature to pay for up to X of this spell's mana cost, where X is the sacrificed creature's converted mana cost."
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Decompose (Exile this card and another card from your graveyard: Add C.)
or
Decompose (Pay 1 life, Exile this card from your graveyard: Add C.)
or tweak it:
Decompose (Whenever a creature you control dies, you may cast this card from your graveyard.)
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Improvise worked in Kaladesh because it was an artifacts set; improvise as an artifact mechanic then allowed a subset of the cards to play into a specific kind of artifact strategy. Esper, being all artifacts, had a massive roster of different artifacts matter-mechanics, which caused a much less pronounced strain on design and development.
As such, I would not use Improvise here. I wouldn't use artifacts at all, actually. It's a mechanic that both necessiates a very high as-fan of artifacts as well as requiring those artifacts to play into a very narrow deckbuilding pattern, numbers mattering.
Edit: Here's that thread btw.
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/custom-card-creation/custom-set-creation-and/801902-enemy-color-set
But now that I think about it, 3/5 of these mechanics are parasitic.
For RW, how’s about:
Forge 1 (Create a colorless artifact Equipment token with “Equip 1” and “Equipped creature gets +1/+1.”)
Forge 2 (Create two colorless artifact Equipment tokens with “Equip 1” and “Equipped creature gets +1/+1.”)
Forge 3 (Create three colorless artifact Equipment tokens with “Equip 1” and “Equipped creature gets +1/+1.”)
Etc.
Goes nicely with Improvise.
Creating equipment tokens is a neat idea, and I might go that rout, but I have concerns about it. I wanted to steer RW away from combat-specific strategies. Creature tokens are much more open-ended. I suppose I could use an action keyword like yours, except that it creates artifact creature tokens, but I'm not sure how to do so elegantly.
There's also the fact that I need to reassess how RW and WB interact. If I go with an Offering/Emerge variant in BG, which I'm increasingly inclined to do, that would shift the bulk of the sacrifice effects in the set from WB to BG, which messes with the synergy between WB and RW.
What do you think of the MorbidFlashback mechanic proposal for BG?
Your proposal is interesting, but I could see it resulting in quite a lot of repetitive gameplay. I could see people chaining things with that ability just to stall the board for many turns in a row, as with a pair of Gravediggers, which is a red flag for common. I just don't think it would be terribly interesting. Emerge/Offering, or what I'll probably just call Recompose for now, fits squarely into what WB and GU each want to do better even than Decompose did.
As for RW, what do you think of this:
"Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if it wasn't cast..."
That way, RW can still safely care about creating tokens and still synergize with WB's Undying. The only design flaw I can see is that designing with Undying in mind pushes toward effects that are only relevant after combat damage, as that's when Undying triggers will usually happen, and that's pretty limited design space at common. It also mandates a large amount of token creation at lower rarities.
Edit: Alternatively, Vehicles are another possible point of synergy with both UR and WB as they are artifacts and care about the power among creatures you control, which increases with Undying. The only problem with that is that both Vehicles and Undying creatures want to be participating in combat, so they sort of fight for their turn to attack. I suppose it would push players into a pattern of attacking/blocking with their early Undying creatures first, then using those creatures to crew Vehicles in the late game. It's interesting to consider...
Edit 2: I could also see Fabricate working out here too. Both in that it creates artifact creature tokens to help Improvise, and puts +1/+1 counters on creatures, giving us the possibility to have a RWB strategy that cares about +1/+1 counters. The problem there is that having them both on the same card creates problems. The counter mode is sort of a nonbo with Undying, which pretty much always means that it's more correct to create tokens first, and then choose counters when it comes back with Undying. That makes designing the RWB mashup card a right pain in the bum.
So many possibilities for returning mechanics! So many potential problems!
Ability - Whenever a nonland permanent enters the battlefield under your control, if it wasn't cast...
I don't think post combat timing is a problem whatsoever (see Enrage). And you can set up precombat triggers with Undying and sacrifice abilities, instant speed token creators, and Shallow Grave things.
I still think an Offering/Devour/Emerge riff will be a mistake. Devour is pure garbage and the other two were spread out through all colors. A feel bad mechanic that is difficult to manage into a color pair just disappoints players that identify with that color pair and even discourage people from drafting it. How about Exploit instead or a riff thereof?
Another thing I'm becoming increasingly conscious of is the amount of complexity behind these mechanics and how wordy they are. I'm trying to keep it generally concise. I'll try to update the OP later with my latest ideas.