Hey, I'm making a new set that I hope lasts long enough before Wizards steals all my ideas. Seriously, I was making a set where Elementals where a tribe in all colors and, lookie, they make Lorwyn. Anyway, this is still very preliminary, very early in set concepting and stuff. Any ideas are extremely welcome, so bring in those comments.
This idea spawned from complaints I've seen about Lorwyn. "Wizards is building our decks for us" was very prevalent, especially since Lorwyn is a tribal set. Then, I thought of something: why was Lorwyn considered a "tribal" set when Kamigawa was not? Kamigawa has tribes, and it had one tribe that extended over many colors. But yet, it wasn't really a tribal set in player's eyes; it was more like the "Japanese lore/Spirit" set. Odd, isn't it?
So I set out to make a set more like Kamigawa and Time Spiral than Lorwyn. None of this building your decks for your nonsense, but still having some tribal fun. But what makes it so that tribal doesn't build your own decks for you? Of course, spreading them across more colors, give people more choices.
And this is what I'm doing. I'm doing several tribes that all are spread across three colors. Each tribe will have small synergetic connections with other tribes, akin to those in Lorwyn that count both tribes instead of one and the Ogre/Demon thing in Kamigawa. But guess what? Behind that, I'm having many smaller themes as well that intertwine with the tribes. That's my ultimate goal, but any help from you commenters would be great.
The Tribes:
Spiders :symb::symg::symw:
So, sentient spiders are prevalent on this world. Green is traditionally the color of predatory giant spiders, but as they grow in intelligence, their color would obviously change a bit more. Though they are spread across three colors, the connections tend to be between green and white, and green and black, usually not black and white (yet). So I'm making a guild-like organization for this. No, it won't be as rigid as Lorwyn or Ravnica, it just makes sense to organize it like this flavorwise because a few of the cards will be multicolor, but not much.
The Aruna Empire :symg::symw:
The idea for this spider empire stemmed from a simple Future Sight card and its flavortext: Lumithread Field. The center of the empire is the Bastion of Suns. To spread their vision of light throughout the world, the spiders constantly weave paths of Lumithread throughout the world (represented by enchantments in game, which have a connection with the spiders). But not all is peaceful, as the Aruna Empire is constantly under siege by mysterious illusions (I'll discuss them in a later section). Remember that when I'm talking about this that it is just flavor. You don't need to play Lumithread enchantments with spiders and you can play other enchantments with the spiders.
?????? :symb::symg:
I don't have any flavor for this group yet. All I know is that they are more primitive than their white counterparts. Perhaps deathtouch will be important or the theme of capturing things in their webs to eat will be important, but I'm not so sure yet.
Here are the cards that I have currently for the spiders:
Lumithread Lattice 3WW
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control get +1/+2.
Morph 2WW (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)Light is drained into the Maze, nullifying and inhibiting the vitality of its foes. Having forged the Bastion of Suns, the Aruna were granted its light in return for eternal service.
Note that it has morph. Lumithread Field has morph so I though it was natural to give this morph too. It's represented flavorwise by the spiders weaving artificial constructs (shaped like spiders, lol) in which to hide their Lumithread magic. When needed, the construct will release its magic but sacrifice itself.
The Bastion of Suns
Land (R)
T: Add to your mana pool.
:symw:, T: Creatures you control get +0/+1 until end of turn. Light emanates from the Bastion, enveloping and amplifying the natural luminescence of its servants.
Luminescent Matriarch 2W
Creature- Spider Wizard (R)
Other Spiders you control get +1/+1.
Whenever you play a Spider spell, you may pay :2mana:. If you do, search your library for an enchantment card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
2/2
Light-Weaver Apprentice :1mana::symw:
Creature- Spider Wizard (C)
When Light-Weaver Apprentice comes into play, search your library for an enchantment card, reveal it, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.
1/1
Lumithread Lockdown :1mana::symw:
Enchantment- Aura (U)
Enchant creature (Target a creature as you play this. This card comes into play attached to that creature.)
Enchanted creature can’t attack or block.
:symw:: If you control a spider, enchanted creature’s activated abilities can’t be played until end of turn.
Webstrider Guardian :1mana::symg::symw:
Creature- Spider Warrior Archer (U)
Reach
Vigilance
2/3 Forever do they watch the skies, searching for their eternal enemies.
Illusions :symu::symb::symr:
So, illusions. Yay. Anyway, this is gonna be split into red and blue, and black and blue.
The Ota :symu::symb:
These are essentially the aliens of this world, manipulating the other tribes into war. Their ultimate goal is to conquer through infiltration and manipulation the Bastion of Suns. To do this, they have built their own opposite of the Bastion, the Maze of Moons. Their more chaotic counterparts are the ones directly engaged in the war with the Aruna Empire. They don't really have a mechanical theme, besides the traditional dodging removal and damage bounce technique that many Illusions traditionally have.
????? :symu::symr:
I have no names for these guys, but I do have their flavor themes. Chaos. They want to instill chaos upon the world. They're at war with the Aruna Empire, manipulated by their counterparts the Ota. Their single mechanical theme is probably redirection or maybe coinflipping somehow.
Here are my Illusion cards:
Ota Prowler :symu::symb:
Creature- Illusion Scout (C)
Flying
Discard a card: Ota Prowler gains shadow until end of turn.
1/1
Nebuleum Shifter :1mana::symu:
Creature- Illusion Rogue (R)
Nebuleum Shifter is unblockable.
:1mana::symu:: Remove Nebuleum Shifter from the game.
As long as Nebuleum Shifter is removed from the game, you may play it by paying its mana cost.
1/1
The Maze of Moons
Land (R)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
:symu:, T: Creatures you don’t control get -1/-0 until end of turn. Light is drained into the Maze, nullifying and inhibiting the vitality of its foes.
Ethereal Spawn
Creature- Illusion Spy
Flash (C)
Ethereal Spawn can’t block or be blocked by creatures with power 3 or greater. Unbeknowst to the Aruna, their empire has been infiltrated many times over by the smallest of spies.
1/1
AEther Shred :1mana::symu::symb:
Instant (U)
Counter target spell. Its controller reveals his or her hand. If any cards revealed shares its converted mana cost with the countered spell, that player discards those cards. The Ota command the threads of reality behind any existence. Any spell may be unraveled at any time.
Phantasmic Sovereign :2mana::symu:
Creature- Illusion Warrior
Other Illusions you control get +1/+1.
:2mana::symu:, T: Return target Illusion you control to its owner’s hand.
2/2
Now we're getting into unknown territory. I have little to no ideas for these tribes and no cards yet. This is where help may be needed, especially for flavor and mechanics.
Scorpions?? :symw::symb::symr:
Scorpions have very little former representation in Magic. To this end, I'm placing them where they live pretty much. White and red for deserts, and red and black for swamps. Red is just my fantasy depiction of them. In my mind, I've imagined sentient scorpions for a long time. Combat damage triggers will be major with them, representing poisons. Deathtouch, probably. Maybe tapping and not untapping in next upkeep.
Turtles?? :symg::symw::symu:
This is very distant lands. I don't know which colors to divide the multicolor cards into (green and blue, white and blue possibly). High toughness, low power defensive creatures for white and blue, green maybe stronger tortoises(slow but steady). Besides that, I got nothing.
Elementals?? :symu::symr::symg:
Hmm, this will probably be more focused than Lorwyn. Um, I'm thinking maybe Earthkin, Airkin, and Flamekin. Green and blue, red and green probably. Besides that, no ideas.
That's it for tribes. I'm thinking that humans should be here, but not as a tribe. Other types might fill in, but again not as tribes. Also, I'm thinking that Scorpions and Spiders would have a mechanical connection on a few of the cards somehow, as they are both arachnids, so they're probably friends. For the others, possibly Illusions and Elementals. I'm also on the fence for including Drakes as well as the counterpart for Turtles.
I need mechanic ideas. Probably a morph theme, due to Lumithread Field. Maybe I could reuse old mechanics that fit. White has an enchantment theme that ties into the Aruna Empire, and also a combat and tapping theme from the white scorpions. Blue, I have no idea for overall themes. Black, poison in the form of deathtouch. Red, redirection, coinflipping, chaos. Green, no idea. So mechanics would tie into the colors and overlap into the tribes. But I don't want the tribal themes to devolve into solely focusing on the tribes themselves.
Wow, that's a mouthful. Or rather, a stomachful. Anyway, please toss out ideas and/or comments about anything you wish. Oh, and I do need a name for this, so throw out names too. I'll be constantly making new cards and ideas. Thanks!
This idea spawned from complaints I've seen about Lorwyn. "Wizards is building our decks for us" was very prevalent, especially since Lorwyn is a tribal set. Then, I thought of something: why was Lorwyn considered a "tribal" set when Kamigawa was not? Kamigawa has tribes, and it had one tribe that extended over many colors. But yet, it wasn't really a tribal set in player's eyes; it was more like the "Japanese lore/Spirit" set. Odd, isn't it?
So I set out to make a set more like Kamigawa and Time Spiral than Lorwyn. None of this building your decks for your nonsense, but still having some tribal fun. But what makes it so that tribal doesn't build your own decks for you? Of course, spreading them across more colors, give people more choices.
And this is what I'm doing. I'm doing several tribes that all are spread across three colors. Each tribe will have small synergetic connections with other tribes, akin to those in Lorwyn that count both tribes instead of one and the Ogre/Demon thing in Kamigawa. But guess what? Behind that, I'm having many smaller themes as well that intertwine with the tribes. That's my ultimate goal, but any help from you commenters would be great.
The Tribes:
Spiders :symb::symg::symw:
So, sentient spiders are prevalent on this world. Green is traditionally the color of predatory giant spiders, but as they grow in intelligence, their color would obviously change a bit more. Though they are spread across three colors, the connections tend to be between green and white, and green and black, usually not black and white (yet). So I'm making a guild-like organization for this. No, it won't be as rigid as Lorwyn or Ravnica, it just makes sense to organize it like this flavorwise because a few of the cards will be multicolor, but not much.
The Aruna Empire :symg::symw:
The idea for this spider empire stemmed from a simple Future Sight card and its flavortext: Lumithread Field. The center of the empire is the Bastion of Suns. To spread their vision of light throughout the world, the spiders constantly weave paths of Lumithread throughout the world (represented by enchantments in game, which have a connection with the spiders). But not all is peaceful, as the Aruna Empire is constantly under siege by mysterious illusions (I'll discuss them in a later section). Remember that when I'm talking about this that it is just flavor. You don't need to play Lumithread enchantments with spiders and you can play other enchantments with the spiders.
?????? :symb::symg:
I don't have any flavor for this group yet. All I know is that they are more primitive than their white counterparts. Perhaps deathtouch will be important or the theme of capturing things in their webs to eat will be important, but I'm not so sure yet.
Here are the cards that I have currently for the spiders:
Lumithread Lattice 3WW
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control get +1/+2.
Morph 2WW (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)Light is drained into the Maze, nullifying and inhibiting the vitality of its foes.
Having forged the Bastion of Suns, the Aruna were granted its light in return for eternal service.
Note that it has morph. Lumithread Field has morph so I though it was natural to give this morph too. It's represented flavorwise by the spiders weaving artificial constructs (shaped like spiders, lol) in which to hide their Lumithread magic. When needed, the construct will release its magic but sacrifice itself.
The Bastion of Suns
Land (R)
T: Add to your mana pool.
:symw:, T: Creatures you control get +0/+1 until end of turn.
Light emanates from the Bastion, enveloping and amplifying the natural luminescence of its servants.
Luminescent Matriarch 2W
Creature- Spider Wizard (R)
Other Spiders you control get +1/+1.
Whenever you play a Spider spell, you may pay :2mana:. If you do, search your library for an enchantment card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
2/2
Light-Weaver Apprentice :1mana::symw:
Creature- Spider Wizard (C)
When Light-Weaver Apprentice comes into play, search your library for an enchantment card, reveal it, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.
1/1
Lumithread Lockdown :1mana::symw:
Enchantment- Aura (U)
Enchant creature (Target a creature as you play this. This card comes into play attached to that creature.)
Enchanted creature can’t attack or block.
:symw:: If you control a spider, enchanted creature’s activated abilities can’t be played until end of turn.
Webstrider Guardian :1mana::symg::symw:
Creature- Spider Warrior Archer (U)
Reach
Vigilance
2/3
Forever do they watch the skies, searching for their eternal enemies.
Illusions :symu::symb::symr:
So, illusions. Yay. Anyway, this is gonna be split into red and blue, and black and blue.
The Ota :symu::symb:
These are essentially the aliens of this world, manipulating the other tribes into war. Their ultimate goal is to conquer through infiltration and manipulation the Bastion of Suns. To do this, they have built their own opposite of the Bastion, the Maze of Moons. Their more chaotic counterparts are the ones directly engaged in the war with the Aruna Empire. They don't really have a mechanical theme, besides the traditional dodging removal and damage bounce technique that many Illusions traditionally have.
????? :symu::symr:
I have no names for these guys, but I do have their flavor themes. Chaos. They want to instill chaos upon the world. They're at war with the Aruna Empire, manipulated by their counterparts the Ota. Their single mechanical theme is probably redirection or maybe coinflipping somehow.
Here are my Illusion cards:
Ota Prowler :symu::symb:
Creature- Illusion Scout (C)
Flying
Discard a card: Ota Prowler gains shadow until end of turn.
1/1
Nebuleum Shifter :1mana::symu:
Creature- Illusion Rogue (R)
Nebuleum Shifter is unblockable.
:1mana::symu:: Remove Nebuleum Shifter from the game.
As long as Nebuleum Shifter is removed from the game, you may play it by paying its mana cost.
1/1
The Maze of Moons
Land (R)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
:symu:, T: Creatures you don’t control get -1/-0 until end of turn.
Light is drained into the Maze, nullifying and inhibiting the vitality of its foes.
Ethereal Spawn
Creature- Illusion Spy
Flash (C)
Ethereal Spawn can’t block or be blocked by creatures with power 3 or greater.
Unbeknowst to the Aruna, their empire has been infiltrated many times over by the smallest of spies.
1/1
AEther Shred :1mana::symu::symb:
Instant (U)
Counter target spell. Its controller reveals his or her hand. If any cards revealed shares its converted mana cost with the countered spell, that player discards those cards.
The Ota command the threads of reality behind any existence. Any spell may be unraveled at any time.
Phantasmic Sovereign :2mana::symu:
Creature- Illusion Warrior
Other Illusions you control get +1/+1.
:2mana::symu:, T: Return target Illusion you control to its owner’s hand.
2/2
Now we're getting into unknown territory. I have little to no ideas for these tribes and no cards yet. This is where help may be needed, especially for flavor and mechanics.
Scorpions?? :symw::symb::symr:
Scorpions have very little former representation in Magic. To this end, I'm placing them where they live pretty much. White and red for deserts, and red and black for swamps. Red is just my fantasy depiction of them. In my mind, I've imagined sentient scorpions for a long time. Combat damage triggers will be major with them, representing poisons. Deathtouch, probably. Maybe tapping and not untapping in next upkeep.
Turtles?? :symg::symw::symu:
This is very distant lands. I don't know which colors to divide the multicolor cards into (green and blue, white and blue possibly). High toughness, low power defensive creatures for white and blue, green maybe stronger tortoises(slow but steady). Besides that, I got nothing.
Elementals?? :symu::symr::symg:
Hmm, this will probably be more focused than Lorwyn. Um, I'm thinking maybe Earthkin, Airkin, and Flamekin. Green and blue, red and green probably. Besides that, no ideas.
That's it for tribes. I'm thinking that humans should be here, but not as a tribe. Other types might fill in, but again not as tribes. Also, I'm thinking that Scorpions and Spiders would have a mechanical connection on a few of the cards somehow, as they are both arachnids, so they're probably friends. For the others, possibly Illusions and Elementals. I'm also on the fence for including Drakes as well as the counterpart for Turtles.
I need mechanic ideas. Probably a morph theme, due to Lumithread Field. Maybe I could reuse old mechanics that fit. White has an enchantment theme that ties into the Aruna Empire, and also a combat and tapping theme from the white scorpions. Blue, I have no idea for overall themes. Black, poison in the form of deathtouch. Red, redirection, coinflipping, chaos. Green, no idea. So mechanics would tie into the colors and overlap into the tribes. But I don't want the tribal themes to devolve into solely focusing on the tribes themselves.
Wow, that's a mouthful. Or rather, a stomachful. Anyway, please toss out ideas and/or comments about anything you wish. Oh, and I do need a name for this, so throw out names too. I'll be constantly making new cards and ideas. Thanks!
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