On a wintry plane rich with elemental magics, the goodly planeswalker King Nikolai has long been beloved by his subjects. Rather than hoard the powerful magic of his domain to strengthen his own powers, each year the planeswalker and his elves craft them into tiny wonders and work to distribute them to his own subjects and even other planes with the use of his planeswalking abilities. Jolly, wise and driven by his powerful emotions and love of bringing joy to others King Nikolai exemplifies the colors of the Naya shard though in a way many may not be used to (red rarely gets this kind of emotion in a spokesperson).
However, King Nikolai's sister Tatiana long grew jealous of her younger sibling's glory. Tatiana was a scholar devoted to personal power and thought her brother's foolish dispensation of the plane's magical riches a hideous waste. Finding his foolishness met with adoration from their parents and the kingdom alike, she seethed and plotted her ascension over her brother. The cold calculation and twisted urge for power met with the emotional core of rage... And Tatiana became aligned with the colors of Grixis.
Using her research and access to a portion of the plane's rich mana, Tatiana reached into the dreaming realm corrupted by Shadowmoor and bound the essence of its darkest emotions into an army of her own creation. Dubbing her Grixis-aligned army as the Nightmare Legions, Tatiana is determined to wrest control of the kingdom from her brother before he uses up all the plane's power on childrens' trifles.
Ill equipped for war in a peaceful plane, King Nikolai rushed across the planes seeking aid - offering the treasures and knowledge of his personal vault to any he could find. He found two willing to answer his call.
Can Jace and Chandra save Christmas?
Let's Get Cracking
With a fun theme and a carol in our hearts, it's time to make preliminary mechanics for the set. Once we have several mechanics ready, we can begin the design of the set's skeleton and then design commons for an all-commons playtest.
What We Want
1) The Pro-Christmas faction (Nikolai's Subjects - RGW) and the Anti-Christmas faction (The Nightmare Legions - UBR) will each need 1 or 2 distinct mechanics. A good comparison is Infect for the phyrexians and Metalcraft for the mirrans.
2) A mechanic based in Red that plays well with both factions. A good comparison is Proliferate, which played well with the many charge-counter cards of the mirrans and, of course, with the counters caused by infect. This mechanic must be based in red, because this is the color both factions dip into.
3) Many mechanic submissions. In professional design, many ideas are tried before one is locked in. Don't try to make one perfect mechanic, submit a bunch of ideas (including ones that might seem crazy at first). Multiple mechanics will likely go through playtesting, and it's possible the best ideas of more than one mechanic will inspire the final one.
Guidelines
1) This set has a funny name, but that doesn't make it an UN set. Don't feel a need to do silly things for the sake of silly things.
2) The mechanics must lead to good gameplay. Don't make a mechanic that is just funny to read, or leads to unfun game states - like locking down lands.
4) King Nikolai's Subjects should have a mechanic that communicates the holiday spirit. Giving, cooperation, family... All these are acceptable. Try to evoke the sense of generosity and joy, or the unexpected delight of opening a present. You don't need to be literal, but playing this faction should evoke these warm and fuzzy feelings. For example, the phyrexians' main flavor is that they infect other things with their oil and turn those things into phyrexians. The infect keyword doesn't involve gaining control of anything, but it sure makes the phyrexians feel like an infection - and that you don't want to touch them. Evoking the feeling is key, not a literal translation of the idea of gift-giving. If you can do literal with good gameplay though, all the better. Of course, the mechanic must be primarily based in White and Green with the possibility of being included in red.
5) The Nightmare Legions should have a mechanic that communicates the antithesis of the holiday spirit. There are many ways this could be executed. A mechanic that evokes the feelings of Selfishness, Spite or Terror-to-play-against would all be functional. The point is, they're a mean one Mr. Grinch. Make sure their mechanic looks wicked and makes you feel wicked in the best possible way for playing it. Do not make a mechanic that will ruin the fun of others though. -1/-1 counters, for example, feel very nasty but aren't going to ruin anyone's fun. Land destruction feels nasty but WILL ruin someone's fun.
Submission Guidelines
1) Post your mechanics below. If you get more ideas later and no one else has posted yet, feel free to edit them into your previous post.
2) Include at least 2 example cards with each posted mechanic (at least one of which must be common rarity). The cards don't have to be balanced, so don't worry about costing them appropriately, we just want to see how the mechanic could work on a card.
Selection Information
1) All else being equal, the simpler the mechanic is; the better. Anyone can build a cool mechanic with a dozen lines of text. Building a mechanic that feels good but doesn't require huge explanations is much harder.
2) Mechanics must have good gameplay. We might accept something that's only loosely tied to the flavor we want if it has good gameplay, but if something has perfect flavor and only mediocre gameplay it isn't getting in.
Due Date
Mechanics require iteration. The deadline for the first submissions is Thursday 11:59pm, October 30th. However, this won't be when we lock down our mechanics. After the initial submissions due on the 30th, we'll select a subsection of mechanics and get people designing a bunch of sample cards around them. We'll figure out which of these mechanics we want to put in the playtest and go on from there.
Family Ties: When [cardname] enters the battlefield...for each creature you control
Example: Jolly DelivererWGR
Creature- Elf{u}
Family Ties: When Jolly Deliverer enters the battlefield copy it once for each creature you control More joy can be spread when more are willing to help.
1/1
Filled Stocking2W
Artifact{c}
Family Ties: When Filled Stocking enters the battlefield target player gains 1 life for each creature you control
Creatures you control have t: You gain 1 life
Interesting choice. In general, I want to stay away from multicolor designs (because they're much harder to manage in creating a set with multiple contributors), but the Family Ties mechanic itself is a nice submission. White, Green and Red are the primary creature-token generation colors too, so it plays right into the strengths of the color combination. Nicely done. Don't forget to include at least 2 example cards though - not just 1.
Christmas: Gifts[cost] (whenever another creature ETB under your control, you may pay [cost], if you do, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature)
Not the most inventive but works well and can be combined with a +1/+1 counter matter theme like the abzan for the Christmas faction.
Festive Sky-Sleigh 4
Artifact-Equipment U
Equipped creature has +3/+3, flying and Gifts 2(whenever another creature ETB under your control, you may pay 2, if you do, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature)
Equip 4
Elvish Toysmith G
Creature-Elf Artificer
Gifts G(whenever another creature ETB under your control, you may pay G, if you do, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature)
1/1
Miracle [cost] (You may cast this card for its miracle cost when you draw it if it's the first card you drew this turn.)
This seemed like too good of a fit not to include and sets should have a returning mechanic. Also a lot of design space was left unused by AVR such as off-color costs, nonmana costs, miracle permanents etc.
Sudden Flurry 3G
Snow Instant C
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you this turn
Miracle W (You may cast this card for its miracle cost when you draw it if it's the first card you drew this turn.)
Joyous Zeal 2R
Sorcery C
Creatures you control gain haste.
Miracle R (You may cast this card for its miracle cost when you draw it if it's the first card you drew this turn.)
Nightmare: Dread N (creatures blocking or blocked by this creature get -N/-N)
-x/-x just seemed like a good way to represent fear and can be combined with saboteur abilities to balance out its uselessness against players. It seems close enough to downsize effects for blue and has a strong enough emotion manipulation feel for red (the same reason red gets intimidate)
Present Thief 1B
Creature-Horror Rogue U
When Present Thief attacks and is not blocked, remove a +1/+1 counter from target creature.
Dread 1(Creatures blocking or blocked by this creature get -1/-1)
0/1
Sneering Boogeyman 3B
Creature-Horror C
Dread 3(Creatures blocking or blocked by this creature get -3/-3)
2/2
Neutral-Snowfall
Basically constellation for snow. It represents how on this wintry world, both sides have adapted to frequent snowstorms and controlling the element of frost. Nikolai uses it on cards that represent the beauty of heavy snow while the Nightmare Legions uses it to represent the hazards of icy conditions. A possible unaligned native group could use it for animals that are simply well suited for cold as well. Icy flavor being red has history in Kamigawa and Ice Age 'block'. In addition the supertype is unobtrusive an can be put on each factions cards, without conflicting with their other effects.
Ensorcelled Snowman 2R
Snow Creature-Elemental U
Snowfall-Ensorcelled Snowman can't attack or block unless you cast a snow spell this turn
4/4
Frostbiter 1R
Snow Creature-Elemental Horror C
Snowfall-Whenever you cast a snow spell, Frostbiter deals 1 damage to target player
2/1
Gifts - I like the idea here, and it scales interestingly (a 1/1 you play when you have 5 gifts creatures out wont take up much mana, so you can afford to pay for lots of gifts, while a 5/5 will cost a lot more mana and so you can't afford as many gifts). On theme, simple and worth testing for gameplay. I like the concept.
Miracle - As a returning mechanic, we've seen it before. It could definitely be on-theme here, so it's worth exploring. Christmas Miracles are certainly a thing. I don't relish trying to develop for it though, that kind of restricted cost is very wonky.
Dread - I like the concept behind reverse-bushido, it definitely makes it feel like other creatures don't want to block them. It's also a simple mechanic, which is great. However, Dread would probably have to go on small creatures most of the time if it's going to even be feasible for other creatures to block them (unless dread 1 is the name of the game, and frankly that might be best). This means the dread creatures are probably going to spend most of their time sitting back on defense, because they block really well, and won't be very good at attacking (because their bodies will be small). For example, a 2/2 with dread 2 against a 4/4. If the dread creature attacks, the other player takes it then crashes back in with a 4/4. He's winning the race. So the dread player leaves his guy back for blocking... Which really isn't the type of terror we probably want.
Dread 1, occasionally 2 is what I had planned, with variations based on color with red having the lowest dread, black in between and blue having low power high dread. The added saboteur abilities I plan to put on many dread creatures incentivize attacking although again there should be variation between colors, red being most offensive with several must attack creatures and blue being most defensive of the three; black is again in the middle with some saboteurs, some can't block guys and a few defensive nightmares.
To plunder, exile the top card of an opponent's library. You may play that card as long as it remains in exile.
There's really no good way to word this (plunder target player creates rules explosions as far as I can work) that lets you choose a player. Blue, black, and sometimes red could do this. Fits the theme, I think? Depending on how 'all in' you wanted to go, this could replace draw effects for the UBR clan. It's not quite as good as drawing cards, so it doesn't have to be costed as +2 to a spell.
Zombie Looter1B
Creature - Zombie (C)
When Zombie Looter enters the battlefield, plunder and lose 1 life.
1/1
Steal Dreams2B
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent discards a card. Plunder.
DreamseizeUU
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant opponent
At the beginning of enchanted player's upkeep, you may plunder.
Elvish Ransacker1RR
Creature - Elf Rogue (U)
Intimidate
Whenever Elvish Ransacker deals combat damage to a player, plunder. Elvish Ransacker deals damage to you equal to the converted mana cost of the plundered card.
3/1
Plunder is rather interesting. Because you can plunder your opponent's lands, it can let you cast their spells too. It's also stealing things from the opponent, which I like. It's a very powerful mechanic though and I'm not sure how many we could put on commons. The sheer card advantage is insane. In general, almost any card that creates card advantage at common is red flagged. I do like the idea a lot though. But I love cards like Muse Vessel and Villainous Wealth.
EDIT - Even if it doesn't work for a faction mechanic, I'd like to see at least one card in the set use the mechanic.
Is Plunder that powerful? It seems to me like it's worse than drawing cards. Drawing cards is indeed amazeballs, though, true enough.
Another "greedy" mechanic idea:
Ability word: Wealth.
Threshold ability for having the most cards in hand.
Burn the PoorR
Sorcery (U)
Burn the Poor deals 2 damage to target creature or player. Wealth - Burn the Poor deals 2 damage to another target creature or player if you have the most cards in hand.
Indulgent Sphinx2UU
Creature - Sphinx (U)
Flying, Defender Wealth - Indulgent Sphinx can attack as though it didn't have defender if you have the most cards in hand.
4/2
Deem Unfit1BB
Instant (C)
Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn. Wealth - Destroy that creature instead if you have the most cards in hand.
Silver Barrier1U
Creature - Wall (C)
Defender Wealth - U, T: Creatures target player controls get -1/-0 until end of turn. Activate this ability only if you have the most cards in hand.
0/4
Greedy Demon3BB
Creature - Demon (R)
Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature. Wealth - At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, that player sacrifices a creature if you have the most cards in hand.
6/5
It doesn't really matter how powerful plunder is, it does something commons aren't allowed to do (create solid card advantage) in most circumstances. It's definitely worse than drawing cards, but not *that* much worse - especially in limited. You're still getting access to cards you need.
As for Wealth, I like the elegance of your designs, and wealth is definitely evocative - so awesome job there. However, it won't play that well in practice. As Saviors of Kamigawa figured out, players like playing their cards. Having to keep cards in hand to keep wealth up or deny your opponent their wealth benefits can feel really bad. =(
Charity: Deals with boosting opponent for your own good
Dying DonnerRW2
Creature- Human
Charity- At the beginning of your upkeep, target opponent gains 1 life
Whenever an opponent gains life, you gain twice as much life
1/1
Repay with KindnessWWB
Enchantment
Charity- At the beginning of your upkeep, discard a card, opponents can pay that card for its mana cost.
Whenever you discard a card, draw two cards.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic."
Charity fits the theme, but drawback mechanics (like Echo and Vanishing) are very poorly received by players despite having lots of great design space that leads to awesome gameplay. Unfortunately, these designs don't really sell me on Charity enough to want to violate that well-tested rule of no drawback mechanics. Also, it's worth noting that putting the RGW mechanic on a card with black mana symbols is definitely a negative sign. There's also nothing red about Dying Donner. Don't feel the need to force multicolor, if you can keep it in one color that's actually better.
Late Addition
A few weird ideas of my own, bouncing around various themes. I'm including some ideas I think are bad too, because I've found a lot of creative stuff comes out of seemingly terrible ideas.
Gift – When [cardname] enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
Nice Elf – 2G
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nice Elf enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
2/3
Nourishing Elf – 3W
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nice Elf enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control. T, Gain 1 life for each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it.
2/4
Pros: Simple, captures the flavor of creatures giving gifts to one another, can easily be put on a lot of cards and works with +1/+1 counter-matters themes.
Cons: Having too many creatures with Gift out will make playing the first one, when you have an empty board, feel bad. This could be fixed by having an alternate benefit to playing the creature – though this would make the mechanic more complicated. But, for example…
Gift – When [cardname] enters the battlefield, you may gain 2 life or put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
A problem with that iteration is that, while it fits in white and green, Gift couldn’t be put on a red card (as red doesn’t gain life). Gift could be kept in only white and green, but that’s still worth noting.
Gift – When [cardname] enters the battlefield, put a colorless artifact token named Gift onto the battlefield. It has, “Sacrifice this artifact: Add R,[ mana] G[/mana] or W to your mana pool”.
Nikolai’s Ranger - 1G
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nikolai’s Ranger enters the battlefield, put a colorless artifact token named Gift onto the battlefield. It has, “Sacrifice this artifact: Add R,[ mana] G[/mana] or W to your mana pool”.
2/1
Orphan’s Caretaker - 2W
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Orphan’s Caretaker enters the battlefield, put a colorless artifact token named Gift onto the battlefield. It has, “Sacrifice this artifact: Add R,[ mana] G[/mana] or W to your mana pool”.
You may gain 1 life whenever you sacrifice a Gift token.
1/3
Ungrateful Child - 1R
Creature – Human Brat T, Sacrifice a Gift token: Deal 2 damage to target creature or player.
0/1
Not crazy about this one, but wanted to get this one out there. Yes, this is a twist on turning the gold tokens from Gild into a mechanic. It works really well as a mechanic and R&D has played around with it before. There’s some neat space in using those tokens to fuel other effects and they’re inherently valuable themselves. Unfortunately, the mechanic is fundamentally a color-fixing one so it fits best in a multicolor set. We haven’t formally decided this isn’t one yet, but I’d rather it not be. Multicolor sets are much harder to design and develop, especially in non-standard structures (which the story would force us into). However, as the mechanic only provides color-fixing for King Nikolai’s own colors, it wouldn’t create faction-bleed in the way pure Gold tokens, as Gild makes, would.
However, putting the mechanic on cards takes a ton of text if you don’t just accept the keyword and it’s rather painful to mess with. Not a huge fan.
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
Nightmare Wurm – 4BB
Creature – Nightmare Wurm
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
5/5
Nightmare’s Blade – 4B
Instant
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
Destroy target creature.
Tatiana’s Ambition – 4UU
Sorcery
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
Draw 4 cards
Pros: Simple and selfish. The nightmares are devouring one another to grow stronger, which is the exact opposite of creatures helping one another (which is what Nikolai’s faction is probably going to end up being about). It’s also super flavorful as an evil ritual.
Cons: This mechanic loves token production, which exists in red but sure isn’t popular in blue or black compared to the other colors. This might help control it, and could end up being paired with a returning mechanic like Unearth (unearth creatures don’t mind being sacrified as much, because they can come back, and they can be sacrificed for massacre after being unearthed), but it’s worth noting that it would likely end up being paired with token-generation in constructed environments (creating some faction bleed). There are costing restrictions as well though, because costs truly should end with an even number of colorless mana symbols to take advantage of the mechanic.
Spirit – [benefit] As long as you control 3 or more creatures.
Elven Ardent - W
Creature - Elf Helper
Spirit - Elven Ardent gets +2/+2 while you control 3 or more creatures.
1/1
Reindeer-Game Master - 4G
Creature - Elf Helper
Spirit - At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control 3 or more creatures, put a 2/2 white and green reindeer token with flying onto the battlefield.
4/4
Prose - Simple and community based in flavor. It also fits snuggly into the colors that make lots of tokens the easiest. Additionally, if it was paired with massacre or a similar mechanic for the Nightmares that can make use of token-generation, that would create some beautiful parity.
Cons – The flavor of community spirit isn’t the first thing you think of when you think of Christmas. Gift giving and charity tend to come first. Also, Unlike Metalcraft, the thing it cares about (creatures) are pretty much always relevant anyway. Additionally, it can create some complexity because losing one of your creatures can turn off the benefits on all your other creatures.
Whew, okay that’s it for now. Anyone want to share thoughts?
Malignant- When this [cardname] enters the battlefield ... [disadvantage to other player or creature]
Icemelt WurmRR4
Creature- Wurm
Malignant- When Icemelt Wurm enters the battlefield chose a creature. At the beginning of your upkeep put a -1/-1 counter on that creature.
5/5
Tatina's MinionBBB
Creature- Human
Malignant- When Tatina's Minion enters the battlefield chose a player. At the beginning of your upkeep that player loses 1 life.
3/1
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic."
Greed: When this creature enters the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on it. If you do, [EFFECT]
Naughty Gremlin1B
Creature - Goblin
Greed: When this creature enters the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on it. If you do, destroy target nonblack creature
2/1
Taunting Devil3R
Creature - Devil
Greed: When this creature enters the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on it. If you do, gain control of target creature until the end of the turn. Untap it, and it gains haste until the end of the turn.
2/3
Thoughtful Criminal1U
Creature - Human Rogue
Greed: When this creature enters the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on it. If you do, draw a card
1/2
EDIT: Also, an idea for the Nightmare leader.
Goveth, the Depressarch3URB
Legendary Creature - Horror
First-Strike, Flying
When Goveth enters the battlefield, put 3 -1/-1 counters on up to two target creatures.
When Goveth dies, return another creature from your graveyard to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it. That creature is legendary, and has flying and first-strike.
4/4
Malignant- When this [cardname] enters the battlefield ... [disadvantage to other player or creature]
Icemelt WurmRR4
Creature- Wurm
Malignant- When Icemelt Wurm enters the battlefield chose a creature. At the beginning of your upkeep put a -1/-1 counter on that creature.
5/5
Tatina's MinionBBB
Creature- Human
Malignant- When Tatina's Minion enters the battlefield chose a player. At the beginning of your upkeep that player loses 1 life.
3/1
Thanks. I'm interested to see how Massacre plays in practice. I like it in principle, but I have a hunch that it might not play well without the right support. Technically Devour worked, but that let you sacrifice creatures to get bigger - which is more fun than just reducing the costs of cards. Also, it was in Jund, rather than Grixis, which gave it green's token support.
As for Malignant, it definitely makes sense as an idea. However, it's kind of the textbook definition of a memory issue. Having to remember which creature or player each Malignant thing chose every upkeep is definitely a problem. However, I do rather like the idea of a negative twist on Soulbond. It wouldn't work as well as soulbond because you can't keep the creatures next to one another on the table, but it's pretty cool in principle.
Hmm... Soulbond might be another returning mechanic that could fit for the christmas side of things. It's probably too complex without enough design space to matter, but worth thinking about.
Greed: When this creature enters the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on it. If you do, [EFFECT]
Naughty Gremlin1B
Creature - Goblin
Greed: When this creature enters the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on it. If you do, destroy target nonblack creature
2/1
Taunting Devil3R
Creature - Devil
Greed: When this creature enters the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on it. If you do, gain control of target creature until the end of the turn. Untap it, and it gains haste until the end of the turn.
2/3
Thoughtful Criminal1U
Creature - Human Rogue
Greed: When this creature enters the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on it. If you do, draw a card
1/2
Greed the mechanic! I like that idea. The Naughty Gremlin design is also quite clever - giving you a 2/1 or a Doom Blade effect. My issue is with the implementation. Putting a -1/-1 counter on the creature with Greed is a bit odd, since the creature is effectively weakening itself to give you an advantage. That's almost generous, and most players associate the creature's ability with something the creature does (for example, Outlast gets a lot of flack these days for not being a flavorful name because the creature isn't Outlasting... When the name really is referring to the player's ability to outlast while its creatures build up).
What if the opposite was true? What if playing the spell with Greed gave the creature or spell itself a bonus at the cost of your own life - the way the card Greed itself works? For example...
Scroogeling - 2B
Creature - Nightmare Duck
Greed - When Scroogeling enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you do, draw a card.
3/2
Tatiana's Thirst - 2U
Sorcery
Draw 3 cards, then discard 2 cards.
Greed - When you cast Tatiana's Thirst, you may pay 2 life. If you do, draw 3 cards and discard 1 card instead.
Vicious Nightscalper - 1R
Creature
Greed - When you cast Tatiana's Thirst, you may pay 2 life. If you do, Vicious Nightscalper gets Haste.
2/1
Greedy Drake - 3U
Creature - Nightmare Duck
Flying
Greed - When Greedy Drake enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on Greedy Drake.
2/3
Thoughts?
EDIT: Also, an idea for the Nightmare leader.
Goveth, the Depressarch3URB
Legendary Creature - Horror
First-Strike, Flying
When Goveth enters the battlefield, put 3 -1/-1 counters on up to two target creatures.
When Goveth dies, return another creature from your graveyard to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it. That creature is legendary, and has flying and first-strike.
4/4
I like the core idea, but it feels like it has a few too many ideas on it. Each card only needs one cool idea, and the other can be saved for another awesome card. That way the cool ideas don't distract from one another. Here the ETB and Death triggers don't work together, so there's no reason for them to be on the same card. Try to figure out the core of what you want this guy to feel like, and focus entirely on that. You can also make several drafts of the same legendary creature, of course - each one trying out a different idea. =)
For example, you've already given me an idea.
Goveth, the Nightmare Rider3UBR
Legendary Creature - Nightmare
Flying, Haste
When Goveth, the Nightmere Rider attacks you may return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped and attacking. Exile that creature at the beginning of the next end step.
4/4
Taking your focus on ressurecting creatures and pairing it with the aggressive body. Or...
Goveth, the Terror to Come -3UBR
Legendary Creature - Nightmare
Flying, Haste
When Goveth, the Nightmere Rider attacks you may put the top 4 cards of your library into your discard pile, then return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped and attacking. Exile that creature at the beginning of the next end step.
4/4
Just fun to play around some more, and makes the design a bit more unique. Of course, no need to focus on designs for specific cards yet, we're still focused on mechanics, but it's fun to think about.
Speaking of which! Two more mechanics.
Maraud - If a creature you control dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn, [benefit].
Salt the Wound - 1R
Sorcery
Deal 3 damage to target creature or player.
Maraud - If a creature you control dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn, deal 4 damage to target creature or player instead.
Marauding Nightmare - 3B
Creature - Nightmare
Maraud - If a creature you control dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn, marauding Nightmare enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counters and gets flying.
3/3
Part Raid, part Bloodlust, all awesome (hopefully). Maraud creates a sense of fear in the opponent that makes them not want to get hit by your creatures. Unfortunately it doesn't have the flexibilty of raid (can't give a creature a mid-combat pump) or the different ways to trigger it that bloodlust does. I'm unsure as to how much design space there is here. Thoughts?
Nightmare X - When [cardname] attacks, the defending player puts the top X cards of his library into his graveyard.
I'm running out the door in a few minutes, so I don't have time to make sample cards right now - I'll do so later. I also don't love the implementation (a number after Nightmare seems bizarre but I guess it worked for Bloodthirst). Anyway, the idea is that Nightmares will mill the opponent when they do things - probably attack. Then, the faction will have lots of ways to benefit based on the number of cards in the opponent's discard pile. There are lots of options, we just change the Innistrad/Odyssey-stuff from caring about your own graveyard and wanting you to mill yourself to caring about the opponent's graveyard and wanting to fill it with things (which is also good for the colors most focused on killing, countering, milling and discarding the opponent's stuff).
Goodwill- When a creature your opponent controls would be dealt damage from this creature [effect]
Kept PromiseWWW
Enchantment
Enchant Creature
Enchanted Creature has Goodwill- When a creature you control would be dealt damage from this creature, you may chose to gain 2 life instead.
Heartwarming TaletellerWG
Creature- Elf Storyteller{c}
Goodwill- When a creature you control would be dealt damage by Heartwarming Taleteller, you may chose to sacrafice Heartwarming Taleteller and gain 1 life instead.
When Heatrwarming Taleteller enters the battlefield, you may put a creature card from your graveyard onto the battlefield.
2/1 The glorious lies found in words are a million times more dangerous than the bliss of a sharpened sword.
Edit: Heartwarming Storyteller could also have a deck built around it. Maybe one that discards massive creatures and uses it to get them out for free.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic."
I'm confused. How does a creature you control get dealt damage by creatures with goodwill? Did you mean to write...
Goodwill - When [cardname] would deal damage to another creature, you may [benefit] instead.
Or...
Goodwill - When [cardname] would deal damage to a player, you may [benefit] instead.
Or...
Goodwill - When [cardname] would deal damage, you may [benefit] instead.
Or a version focused on combat damage.
Was one of those you meant? I find them rather interesting.
Celebration - If you cast 2 or more other spells this turn, [benefit].
Elven Reveler - 1G
Creature
Celebration - When Elven Reveler enters the battlefield, if you cast 2 or more other spells this turn, put a 3/3 green elemental token onto the battlefield.
2/2
Celebration of Birth - 4G
Sorcery
Put a 4/4 green elemental token onto the battlefield.
Celebration - If you cast 2 or more other spells this turn, draw a number of cards equal to the highest power among creatures you control.
Pros: It's a non-broken version of storm! It fixes storm the way metalcraft fixed affinity. Sure, the proposed versions might not be balanced (and just casting a single other spell for the requirement with a lesser benefit is probably better) but there are a lot of cool version that could work. For examples...
Celebration - If you cast another spell this turn, [effect].
Celebration - If you cast another creature spell this turn, [effect].
Celebration - If another creature entered the battlefield under your control this turn, [effect].
Celebration - If two or more creatures have entered the battlefield under your control this turn, [effect].
You could even have permanents with activated or triggered abilities that can be used when you play your second spell in a turn, summoned the right number of creatures and so on.
However, if it's the "Cast spells" version - that fits much better in a faction that cares about blue due to card drawing. The creatures version could definitely fit like a glove in a white/green/red faction. They can make a LOT of tokens.
Okay, after thinking about this for awhile and considering the feedback I've gotten already, I've got a couple of more mechanics to look at.
Keyword - Collector - VARIABLE (This creature gets +1/+1 for each VARIABLE.)
(this could also be called Hoarder)
This has something approaching Kicker levels of design space.
examples:
Greedy Imp1BB
Creature - Imp (C)
Flying
Collector - Artifact (This creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.)
0/1
Materialist Dragon3RR
Creature - Dragon (R)
Flying, protection from white, protection from green
Collector - Artifact (This creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.)
2/2
Doll-Army Militant2B
Creature - Human Soldier (C)
Collector - Token (This creature gets +1/+1 for each token you control.)
0/2
Exotic MageU
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Defender
Collector - Nonbasic land (This creature gets +1/+1 for each nonbasic land you control.)
Exotic Mage can attack as if it does not have defender if it has 5 or greater power.
1/1
Hoarder of Knowledge2UU
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Hexproof
Collector - Cards in hand (This creature gets +1/+1 for each card in your hand.)
1/2
Goblin SycophantR
Creature - Goblin (R)
Haste
Collector - Creatures with power 3 or greater (This creature gets +1/+1 for each creature you control with power 3 or greater.)
1/1
Second idea:
Ability word: Wealth
Morbid for nonland permanent entering the battlefield under your control this turn.
To go along with a permanent friendly keyword, here's an instant/sorcery friendly ability word.
Reject Outright1U
Instant (C)
Return target creature to its owner's hand. Wealth - Draw a card, then discard a card if a nonland permanent entered the battlefield under your control this turn.
What's Yours Is Mine1R
Instant (R)
Copy target instant or sorcery spell you don't control. You may choose new targets for the copy. Wealth - Copy target sorcery or instant spell you don't control if a nonland permanent entered the battlefield under your control this turn. You may choose new targets for the copy.
Know Your Place1B
Sorcery (U)
Target player discards a card. Wealth - Target player loses 2 life and you gain 2 life if a nonland permanent entered the battlefield under your control this turn.
It's awesome to see your designs evolving. You're doing a great job taking feedback and putting it to use. Here's some more.
Collector - The comparison to Kicker is apt, you actually just designed a million mechanics and put them all under the same name. Kicker is actually considered a mistake by R&D, because it puts so many different mechanics under the same name. Buyback, Strive and more are really all just more-restrictive Kickers under different names. By making Kicker such a broad mechanic, they actually reduced the overall design space of the game. That's why Scavenge only does a single, specific thing - rather than putting an ability on creatures to be exiled from the grave for any effect. We need to conserve the design space of the game as a whole, and choosing a more narrow execution of the idea gives it a tighter identity. So, you'd want to pick one thing for Collector and have all cards count the same thing.
It's also worth noting that multiple creatures counting a variable can really add complexity to those cards, since you have to look at the whole board every time you want to know what your card can do. This means that the mechanic is difficult to put on common cards, which is where the bread-and-butter mechanics need to do most of their work. It's also harder to balance such things, because they're so variable. That's why a safe design is often to do a "threshold" mechanic - which just asks if you have a specific number of something or not (Threshold and Metalcraft are both good examples of this idea).
Wealth - Simple and nice gameplay, but also too broad. Making it any non-land permanent really messes with the flavor - because so many things can count. But if Wealth only cared if a creature had entered the battlefield this turn, for example, that would work great. You could also do the same thing for artifacts in an artifact set or enchantments in an enchantment set. Or, for that matter, lands in a landfall set.
All in all, great improvement. Try narrowing your focus to some laser-tight designs. Feel free to do more than one variation (I find doing 3 variations on each idea helps a lot in the final process), and you've got a ton of great options here you could narrow down in different ways.
I think this mechanic got overlooked in my original post.
Neutral-Snowfall
Basically constellation for snow. It represents how on this wintry world, both sides have adapted to frequent snowstorms and controlling the element of frost. Nikolai uses it on cards that represent the beauty of heavy snow while the Nightmare Legions uses it to represent the hazards of icy conditions. A possible unaligned native group could use it for animals that are simply well suited for cold as well. Icy flavor being red has history in Kamigawa and Ice Age 'block'. In addition the supertype is unobtrusive an can be put on each factions cards, without conflicting with their other effects.
Ensorcelled Snowman 2R
Snow Creature-Elemental U
Snowfall-Ensorcelled Snowman can't attack or block unless you cast a snow spell this turn
4/4
Frostbiter 1R
Snow Creature-Elemental Horror C
Snowfall-Whenever you cast a snow spell, Frostbiter deals 1 damage to target player
2/1
Ice is in blue's color pie, red getting ice was very controversial in R&D and was primarily done due to the lore of the world requiring it.
As for Snowfall, I'm just not enamored of "snow matters" in general. It just seems like an arbitrary version of tribal. The Snow mana is rather interesting,but pushes snow-covered basic lands (which I despise, as it's just a tax on the player's mana base for no adequately explained reason). I'd be much friendlier to snow mana itself though if snow-covered basics were not included.
But, personal bias aside, let's look at the proposal. Your argument that the supertype can unobtrusively be placed in both factions and thus have a snow-matters mechanic that plays well with both factions is compelling. It also gives us an excuse to put the snow supertype on lots of things, which communicates the setting and is probably what players expect in a wintry setting in any case.
However, putting "snow-matters" in red is just bizarre. Ice and snow is squarely in blue's color pie and only Cold Snap, which was throwing back to nostalgia and the way things used to work, has put anything snowy in red (mainly out of necessity, since it was a snow setting).Having red be he real snow-matters color seems... Odd. Very, very odd. I really don't like that flavor.
Thoughts? Also, do any of the mechanics proposed for the factions jump out at you as being particularly cool? I'd like to know your thoughts on my spin to Greed in particular.
Thanks for continuing to comment on my stuff. I've been designing stand alone cards forever but have never really taken the plunge into a coherent set of anything, so this is a great learning experience.
I was thinking about your ideas regarding both Collector and Wealth, and was wondering - what if it's made into a Santa-Faction ability?
I was worried that a simple (This creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control) would be unprintable in anything approaching large numbers. So I headed this direction:
Cooperation (This creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control that shares a color or type with it.)
This unfortunately suffers from some of the same problems you pointed out with Collector. Board states would require constant counting and recounting of stuff. It also devolves the entire clan into a sort of pseudo-tribal. Ultimately, I feel that only the simplest iteration of this (This creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control) is worth pursuing. A couple of cards actually make it look better than it does in theory, though:
Cooperation (This creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control.)
Town Smithy1W
Creature - Human Artificer (C)
Town Smithy has cooperation if you control an equipment. (If you control an equipment, this creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control.)
1/2
Elvish Rite-Speaker1G
Creature - Elf Shaman (R)
Cooperation, defender T: Add WGR to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if Elvish Rite-Speaker's power is 3 or greater.
0/3
I like the direction of your thought process, but the complexity is definitely going to be overpowering. You're going to have to count all your creatures and mentally adjust each creature's power and toughness all the time... And if some of those creatures die in combat, your other guys get weaker and can die as well. For example, imagine if I have two simple 2/2 creatures with cooperation. Both are 3/3s right now. I attack and you block one with a 3/3 and one with a 2/1. I actually lose both creatures, since my other 3/3 shrinks to a 2/2 again once the first dies. Changing power and toughness, each creature affecting all the others, complexity issues... And you're right, it would be very hard to balance this. A whole set of Pack Rats probably isn't going to be possible, even if the gameplay didn't have all these issues.
Keep the ideas coming though, you're definitely on a good path.
However, King Nikolai's sister Tatiana long grew jealous of her younger sibling's glory. Tatiana was a scholar devoted to personal power and thought her brother's foolish dispensation of the plane's magical riches a hideous waste. Finding his foolishness met with adoration from their parents and the kingdom alike, she seethed and plotted her ascension over her brother. The cold calculation and twisted urge for power met with the emotional core of rage... And Tatiana became aligned with the colors of Grixis.
Using her research and access to a portion of the plane's rich mana, Tatiana reached into the dreaming realm corrupted by Shadowmoor and bound the essence of its darkest emotions into an army of her own creation. Dubbing her Grixis-aligned army as the Nightmare Legions, Tatiana is determined to wrest control of the kingdom from her brother before he uses up all the plane's power on childrens' trifles.
Ill equipped for war in a peaceful plane, King Nikolai rushed across the planes seeking aid - offering the treasures and knowledge of his personal vault to any he could find. He found two willing to answer his call.
Can Jace and Chandra save Christmas?
Let's Get Cracking
With a fun theme and a carol in our hearts, it's time to make preliminary mechanics for the set. Once we have several mechanics ready, we can begin the design of the set's skeleton and then design commons for an all-commons playtest.
What We Want
1) The Pro-Christmas faction (Nikolai's Subjects - RGW) and the Anti-Christmas faction (The Nightmare Legions - UBR) will each need 1 or 2 distinct mechanics. A good comparison is Infect for the phyrexians and Metalcraft for the mirrans.
2) A mechanic based in Red that plays well with both factions. A good comparison is Proliferate, which played well with the many charge-counter cards of the mirrans and, of course, with the counters caused by infect. This mechanic must be based in red, because this is the color both factions dip into.
3) Many mechanic submissions. In professional design, many ideas are tried before one is locked in. Don't try to make one perfect mechanic, submit a bunch of ideas (including ones that might seem crazy at first). Multiple mechanics will likely go through playtesting, and it's possible the best ideas of more than one mechanic will inspire the final one.
Guidelines
1) This set has a funny name, but that doesn't make it an UN set. Don't feel a need to do silly things for the sake of silly things.
2) The mechanics must lead to good gameplay. Don't make a mechanic that is just funny to read, or leads to unfun game states - like locking down lands.
3) The mechanic must be simple and diverse enough to populate many cards at common rarity. Mark Rosewater has an article on the subject.
4) King Nikolai's Subjects should have a mechanic that communicates the holiday spirit. Giving, cooperation, family... All these are acceptable. Try to evoke the sense of generosity and joy, or the unexpected delight of opening a present. You don't need to be literal, but playing this faction should evoke these warm and fuzzy feelings. For example, the phyrexians' main flavor is that they infect other things with their oil and turn those things into phyrexians. The infect keyword doesn't involve gaining control of anything, but it sure makes the phyrexians feel like an infection - and that you don't want to touch them. Evoking the feeling is key, not a literal translation of the idea of gift-giving. If you can do literal with good gameplay though, all the better. Of course, the mechanic must be primarily based in White and Green with the possibility of being included in red.
5) The Nightmare Legions should have a mechanic that communicates the antithesis of the holiday spirit. There are many ways this could be executed. A mechanic that evokes the feelings of Selfishness, Spite or Terror-to-play-against would all be functional. The point is, they're a mean one Mr. Grinch. Make sure their mechanic looks wicked and makes you feel wicked in the best possible way for playing it. Do not make a mechanic that will ruin the fun of others though. -1/-1 counters, for example, feel very nasty but aren't going to ruin anyone's fun. Land destruction feels nasty but WILL ruin someone's fun.
Submission Guidelines
1) Post your mechanics below. If you get more ideas later and no one else has posted yet, feel free to edit them into your previous post.
2) Include at least 2 example cards with each posted mechanic (at least one of which must be common rarity). The cards don't have to be balanced, so don't worry about costing them appropriately, we just want to see how the mechanic could work on a card.
Selection Information
1) All else being equal, the simpler the mechanic is; the better. Anyone can build a cool mechanic with a dozen lines of text. Building a mechanic that feels good but doesn't require huge explanations is much harder.
2) Mechanics must have good gameplay. We might accept something that's only loosely tied to the flavor we want if it has good gameplay, but if something has perfect flavor and only mediocre gameplay it isn't getting in.
Due Date
Mechanics require iteration. The deadline for the first submissions is Thursday 11:59pm, October 30th. However, this won't be when we lock down our mechanics. After the initial submissions due on the 30th, we'll select a subsection of mechanics and get people designing a bunch of sample cards around them. We'll figure out which of these mechanics we want to put in the playtest and go on from there.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Example:
Jolly DelivererWGR
Creature- Elf{u}
Family Ties: When Jolly Deliverer enters the battlefield copy it once for each creature you control
More joy can be spread when more are willing to help.
1/1
Filled Stocking2W
Artifact{c}
Family Ties: When Filled Stocking enters the battlefield target player gains 1 life for each creature you control
Creatures you control have t: You gain 1 life
Looking forward to more.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Not the most inventive but works well and can be combined with a +1/+1 counter matter theme like the abzan for the Christmas faction.
Festive Sky-Sleigh 4
Artifact-Equipment U
Equipped creature has +3/+3, flying and Gifts 2(whenever another creature ETB under your control, you may pay 2, if you do, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature)
Equip 4
Elvish Toysmith G
Creature-Elf Artificer
Gifts G(whenever another creature ETB under your control, you may pay G, if you do, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature)
1/1
Miracle [cost] (You may cast this card for its miracle cost when you draw it if it's the first card you drew this turn.)
This seemed like too good of a fit not to include and sets should have a returning mechanic. Also a lot of design space was left unused by AVR such as off-color costs, nonmana costs, miracle permanents etc.
Sudden Flurry 3G
Snow Instant C
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you this turn
Miracle W (You may cast this card for its miracle cost when you draw it if it's the first card you drew this turn.)
Joyous Zeal 2R
Sorcery C
Creatures you control gain haste.
Miracle R (You may cast this card for its miracle cost when you draw it if it's the first card you drew this turn.)
Nightmare: Dread N (creatures blocking or blocked by this creature get -N/-N)
-x/-x just seemed like a good way to represent fear and can be combined with saboteur abilities to balance out its uselessness against players. It seems close enough to downsize effects for blue and has a strong enough emotion manipulation feel for red (the same reason red gets intimidate)
Present Thief 1B
Creature-Horror Rogue U
When Present Thief attacks and is not blocked, remove a +1/+1 counter from target creature.
Dread 1(Creatures blocking or blocked by this creature get -1/-1)
0/1
Sneering Boogeyman 3B
Creature-Horror C
Dread 3(Creatures blocking or blocked by this creature get -3/-3)
2/2
Neutral-Snowfall
Basically constellation for snow. It represents how on this wintry world, both sides have adapted to frequent snowstorms and controlling the element of frost. Nikolai uses it on cards that represent the beauty of heavy snow while the Nightmare Legions uses it to represent the hazards of icy conditions. A possible unaligned native group could use it for animals that are simply well suited for cold as well. Icy flavor being red has history in Kamigawa and Ice Age 'block'. In addition the supertype is unobtrusive an can be put on each factions cards, without conflicting with their other effects.
Ensorcelled Snowman 2R
Snow Creature-Elemental U
Snowfall-Ensorcelled Snowman can't attack or block unless you cast a snow spell this turn
4/4
Frostbiter 1R
Snow Creature-Elemental Horror C
Snowfall-Whenever you cast a snow spell, Frostbiter deals 1 damage to target player
2/1
Miracle - As a returning mechanic, we've seen it before. It could definitely be on-theme here, so it's worth exploring. Christmas Miracles are certainly a thing. I don't relish trying to develop for it though, that kind of restricted cost is very wonky.
Dread - I like the concept behind reverse-bushido, it definitely makes it feel like other creatures don't want to block them. It's also a simple mechanic, which is great. However, Dread would probably have to go on small creatures most of the time if it's going to even be feasible for other creatures to block them (unless dread 1 is the name of the game, and frankly that might be best). This means the dread creatures are probably going to spend most of their time sitting back on defense, because they block really well, and won't be very good at attacking (because their bodies will be small). For example, a 2/2 with dread 2 against a 4/4. If the dread creature attacks, the other player takes it then crashes back in with a 4/4. He's winning the race. So the dread player leaves his guy back for blocking... Which really isn't the type of terror we probably want.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Keyword Action: Plunder.
To plunder, exile the top card of an opponent's library. You may play that card as long as it remains in exile.
There's really no good way to word this (plunder target player creates rules explosions as far as I can work) that lets you choose a player. Blue, black, and sometimes red could do this. Fits the theme, I think? Depending on how 'all in' you wanted to go, this could replace draw effects for the UBR clan. It's not quite as good as drawing cards, so it doesn't have to be costed as +2 to a spell.
Zombie Looter 1B
Creature - Zombie (C)
When Zombie Looter enters the battlefield, plunder and lose 1 life.
1/1
Steal Dreams 2B
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent discards a card. Plunder.
Dreamseize UU
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant opponent
At the beginning of enchanted player's upkeep, you may plunder.
Elvish Ransacker 1RR
Creature - Elf Rogue (U)
Intimidate
Whenever Elvish Ransacker deals combat damage to a player, plunder. Elvish Ransacker deals damage to you equal to the converted mana cost of the plundered card.
3/1
Irate Toymaker 1R
Creature - Goblin Artificer (C)
R, Discard a card, T: Plunder.
2/1
GWU Bant Manifest - The Future Is Here. Or it will be at the end of turn. GWU
EDIT - Even if it doesn't work for a faction mechanic, I'd like to see at least one card in the set use the mechanic.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Another "greedy" mechanic idea:
Ability word: Wealth.
Threshold ability for having the most cards in hand.
Burn the Poor R
Sorcery (U)
Burn the Poor deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Wealth - Burn the Poor deals 2 damage to another target creature or player if you have the most cards in hand.
Indulgent Sphinx 2UU
Creature - Sphinx (U)
Flying, Defender
Wealth - Indulgent Sphinx can attack as though it didn't have defender if you have the most cards in hand.
4/2
Deem Unfit 1BB
Instant (C)
Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn.
Wealth - Destroy that creature instead if you have the most cards in hand.
Silver Barrier 1U
Creature - Wall (C)
Defender
Wealth - U, T: Creatures target player controls get -1/-0 until end of turn. Activate this ability only if you have the most cards in hand.
0/4
Greedy Demon 3BB
Creature - Demon (R)
Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature.
Wealth - At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, that player sacrifices a creature if you have the most cards in hand.
6/5
GWU Bant Manifest - The Future Is Here. Or it will be at the end of turn. GWU
As for Wealth, I like the elegance of your designs, and wealth is definitely evocative - so awesome job there. However, it won't play that well in practice. As Saviors of Kamigawa figured out, players like playing their cards. Having to keep cards in hand to keep wealth up or deny your opponent their wealth benefits can feel really bad. =(
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Dying DonnerRW2
Creature- Human
Charity- At the beginning of your upkeep, target opponent gains 1 life
Whenever an opponent gains life, you gain twice as much life
1/1
Repay with KindnessWWB
Enchantment
Charity- At the beginning of your upkeep, discard a card, opponents can pay that card for its mana cost.
Whenever you discard a card, draw two cards.
Late Addition
A few weird ideas of my own, bouncing around various themes. I'm including some ideas I think are bad too, because I've found a lot of creative stuff comes out of seemingly terrible ideas.
Nice Elf – 2G
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nice Elf enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
2/3
Nourishing Elf – 3W
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nice Elf enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
T, Gain 1 life for each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it.
2/4
Pros: Simple, captures the flavor of creatures giving gifts to one another, can easily be put on a lot of cards and works with +1/+1 counter-matters themes.
Cons: Having too many creatures with Gift out will make playing the first one, when you have an empty board, feel bad. This could be fixed by having an alternate benefit to playing the creature – though this would make the mechanic more complicated. But, for example…
Gift – When [cardname] enters the battlefield, you may gain 2 life or put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
A problem with that iteration is that, while it fits in white and green, Gift couldn’t be put on a red card (as red doesn’t gain life). Gift could be kept in only white and green, but that’s still worth noting.
Nikolai’s Ranger - 1G
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nikolai’s Ranger enters the battlefield, put a colorless artifact token named Gift onto the battlefield. It has, “Sacrifice this artifact: Add R,[ mana] G[/mana] or W to your mana pool”.
2/1
Orphan’s Caretaker - 2W
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Orphan’s Caretaker enters the battlefield, put a colorless artifact token named Gift onto the battlefield. It has, “Sacrifice this artifact: Add R,[ mana] G[/mana] or W to your mana pool”.
You may gain 1 life whenever you sacrifice a Gift token.
1/3
Ungrateful Child - 1R
Creature – Human Brat
T, Sacrifice a Gift token: Deal 2 damage to target creature or player.
0/1
Not crazy about this one, but wanted to get this one out there. Yes, this is a twist on turning the gold tokens from Gild into a mechanic. It works really well as a mechanic and R&D has played around with it before. There’s some neat space in using those tokens to fuel other effects and they’re inherently valuable themselves. Unfortunately, the mechanic is fundamentally a color-fixing one so it fits best in a multicolor set. We haven’t formally decided this isn’t one yet, but I’d rather it not be. Multicolor sets are much harder to design and develop, especially in non-standard structures (which the story would force us into). However, as the mechanic only provides color-fixing for King Nikolai’s own colors, it wouldn’t create faction-bleed in the way pure Gold tokens, as Gild makes, would.
However, putting the mechanic on cards takes a ton of text if you don’t just accept the keyword and it’s rather painful to mess with. Not a huge fan.
Nightmare Wurm – 4BB
Creature – Nightmare Wurm
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
5/5
Nightmare’s Blade – 4B
Instant
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
Destroy target creature.
Tatiana’s Ambition – 4UU
Sorcery
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
Draw 4 cards
Pros: Simple and selfish. The nightmares are devouring one another to grow stronger, which is the exact opposite of creatures helping one another (which is what Nikolai’s faction is probably going to end up being about). It’s also super flavorful as an evil ritual.
Cons: This mechanic loves token production, which exists in red but sure isn’t popular in blue or black compared to the other colors. This might help control it, and could end up being paired with a returning mechanic like Unearth (unearth creatures don’t mind being sacrified as much, because they can come back, and they can be sacrificed for massacre after being unearthed), but it’s worth noting that it would likely end up being paired with token-generation in constructed environments (creating some faction bleed). There are costing restrictions as well though, because costs truly should end with an even number of colorless mana symbols to take advantage of the mechanic.
Elven Ardent - W
Creature - Elf Helper
Spirit - Elven Ardent gets +2/+2 while you control 3 or more creatures.
1/1
Reindeer-Game Master - 4G
Creature - Elf Helper
Spirit - At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control 3 or more creatures, put a 2/2 white and green reindeer token with flying onto the battlefield.
4/4
Prose - Simple and community based in flavor. It also fits snuggly into the colors that make lots of tokens the easiest. Additionally, if it was paired with massacre or a similar mechanic for the Nightmares that can make use of token-generation, that would create some beautiful parity.
Cons – The flavor of community spirit isn’t the first thing you think of when you think of Christmas. Gift giving and charity tend to come first. Also, Unlike Metalcraft, the thing it cares about (creatures) are pretty much always relevant anyway. Additionally, it can create some complexity because losing one of your creatures can turn off the benefits on all your other creatures.
Whew, okay that’s it for now. Anyone want to share thoughts?
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
EDIT: It would also allow for some good multicolored decks so you can generate cheap 1/1 tokens and sac them.
Icemelt WurmRR4
Creature- Wurm
Malignant- When Icemelt Wurm enters the battlefield chose a creature. At the beginning of your upkeep put a -1/-1 counter on that creature.
5/5
Tatina's MinionBBB
Creature- Human
Malignant- When Tatina's Minion enters the battlefield chose a player. At the beginning of your upkeep that player loses 1 life.
3/1
Greed: When this creature enters the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on it. If you do, [EFFECT]
Naughty Gremlin 1B
Creature - Goblin
Greed: When this creature enters the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on it. If you do, destroy target nonblack creature
2/1
Taunting Devil 3R
Creature - Devil
Greed: When this creature enters the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on it. If you do, gain control of target creature until the end of the turn. Untap it, and it gains haste until the end of the turn.
2/3
Thoughtful Criminal 1U
Creature - Human Rogue
Greed: When this creature enters the battlefield, you may put a -1/-1 counter on it. If you do, draw a card
1/2
EDIT: Also, an idea for the Nightmare leader.
Goveth, the Depressarch 3URB
Legendary Creature - Horror
First-Strike, Flying
When Goveth enters the battlefield, put 3 -1/-1 counters on up to two target creatures.
When Goveth dies, return another creature from your graveyard to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it. That creature is legendary, and has flying and first-strike.
4/4
CHECK OUT MY TRIBAL CUSTOM SET KREVAN
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/creativity/custom-card-creation/custom-set-creation-and/530273-krevan-the-first-set-in-a-tribal-block
Thanks. I'm interested to see how Massacre plays in practice. I like it in principle, but I have a hunch that it might not play well without the right support. Technically Devour worked, but that let you sacrifice creatures to get bigger - which is more fun than just reducing the costs of cards. Also, it was in Jund, rather than Grixis, which gave it green's token support.
As for Malignant, it definitely makes sense as an idea. However, it's kind of the textbook definition of a memory issue. Having to remember which creature or player each Malignant thing chose every upkeep is definitely a problem. However, I do rather like the idea of a negative twist on Soulbond. It wouldn't work as well as soulbond because you can't keep the creatures next to one another on the table, but it's pretty cool in principle.
Hmm... Soulbond might be another returning mechanic that could fit for the christmas side of things. It's probably too complex without enough design space to matter, but worth thinking about.
Greed the mechanic! I like that idea. The Naughty Gremlin design is also quite clever - giving you a 2/1 or a Doom Blade effect. My issue is with the implementation. Putting a -1/-1 counter on the creature with Greed is a bit odd, since the creature is effectively weakening itself to give you an advantage. That's almost generous, and most players associate the creature's ability with something the creature does (for example, Outlast gets a lot of flack these days for not being a flavorful name because the creature isn't Outlasting... When the name really is referring to the player's ability to outlast while its creatures build up).
What if the opposite was true? What if playing the spell with Greed gave the creature or spell itself a bonus at the cost of your own life - the way the card Greed itself works? For example...
Scroogeling - 2B
Creature - Nightmare Duck
Greed - When Scroogeling enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you do, draw a card.
3/2
Tatiana's Thirst - 2U
Sorcery
Draw 3 cards, then discard 2 cards.
Greed - When you cast Tatiana's Thirst, you may pay 2 life. If you do, draw 3 cards and discard 1 card instead.
Vicious Nightscalper - 1R
Creature
Greed - When you cast Tatiana's Thirst, you may pay 2 life. If you do, Vicious Nightscalper gets Haste.
2/1
Greedy Drake - 3U
Creature - Nightmare Duck
Flying
Greed - When Greedy Drake enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on Greedy Drake.
2/3
Thoughts?
I like the core idea, but it feels like it has a few too many ideas on it. Each card only needs one cool idea, and the other can be saved for another awesome card. That way the cool ideas don't distract from one another. Here the ETB and Death triggers don't work together, so there's no reason for them to be on the same card. Try to figure out the core of what you want this guy to feel like, and focus entirely on that. You can also make several drafts of the same legendary creature, of course - each one trying out a different idea. =)
For example, you've already given me an idea.
Goveth, the Nightmare Rider 3UBR
Legendary Creature - Nightmare
Flying, Haste
When Goveth, the Nightmere Rider attacks you may return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped and attacking. Exile that creature at the beginning of the next end step.
4/4
Taking your focus on ressurecting creatures and pairing it with the aggressive body. Or...
Goveth, the Terror to Come -3UBR
Legendary Creature - Nightmare
Flying, Haste
When Goveth, the Nightmere Rider attacks you may put the top 4 cards of your library into your discard pile, then return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped and attacking. Exile that creature at the beginning of the next end step.
4/4
Just fun to play around some more, and makes the design a bit more unique. Of course, no need to focus on designs for specific cards yet, we're still focused on mechanics, but it's fun to think about.
Speaking of which! Two more mechanics.
Salt the Wound - 1R
Sorcery
Deal 3 damage to target creature or player.
Maraud - If a creature you control dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn, deal 4 damage to target creature or player instead.
Marauding Nightmare - 3B
Creature - Nightmare
Maraud - If a creature you control dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn, marauding Nightmare enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counters and gets flying.
3/3
Part Raid, part Bloodlust, all awesome (hopefully). Maraud creates a sense of fear in the opponent that makes them not want to get hit by your creatures. Unfortunately it doesn't have the flexibilty of raid (can't give a creature a mid-combat pump) or the different ways to trigger it that bloodlust does. I'm unsure as to how much design space there is here. Thoughts?
I'm running out the door in a few minutes, so I don't have time to make sample cards right now - I'll do so later. I also don't love the implementation (a number after Nightmare seems bizarre but I guess it worked for Bloodthirst). Anyway, the idea is that Nightmares will mill the opponent when they do things - probably attack. Then, the faction will have lots of ways to benefit based on the number of cards in the opponent's discard pile. There are lots of options, we just change the Innistrad/Odyssey-stuff from caring about your own graveyard and wanting you to mill yourself to caring about the opponent's graveyard and wanting to fill it with things (which is also good for the colors most focused on killing, countering, milling and discarding the opponent's stuff).
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Kept PromiseWWW
Enchantment
Enchant Creature
Enchanted Creature has Goodwill- When a creature you control would be dealt damage from this creature, you may chose to gain 2 life instead.
Heartwarming TaletellerWG
Creature- Elf Storyteller{c}
Goodwill- When a creature you control would be dealt damage by Heartwarming Taleteller, you may chose to sacrafice Heartwarming Taleteller and gain 1 life instead.
When Heatrwarming Taleteller enters the battlefield, you may put a creature card from your graveyard onto the battlefield.
2/1
The glorious lies found in words are a million times more dangerous than the bliss of a sharpened sword.
Goodwill - When [cardname] would deal damage to another creature, you may [benefit] instead.
Or...
Goodwill - When [cardname] would deal damage to a player, you may [benefit] instead.
Or...
Goodwill - When [cardname] would deal damage, you may [benefit] instead.
Or a version focused on combat damage.
Was one of those you meant? I find them rather interesting.
Elven Reveler - 1G
Creature
Celebration - When Elven Reveler enters the battlefield, if you cast 2 or more other spells this turn, put a 3/3 green elemental token onto the battlefield.
2/2
Celebration of Birth - 4G
Sorcery
Put a 4/4 green elemental token onto the battlefield.
Celebration - If you cast 2 or more other spells this turn, draw a number of cards equal to the highest power among creatures you control.
Pros: It's a non-broken version of storm! It fixes storm the way metalcraft fixed affinity. Sure, the proposed versions might not be balanced (and just casting a single other spell for the requirement with a lesser benefit is probably better) but there are a lot of cool version that could work. For examples...
Celebration - If you cast another spell this turn, [effect].
Celebration - If you cast another creature spell this turn, [effect].
Celebration - If another creature entered the battlefield under your control this turn, [effect].
Celebration - If two or more creatures have entered the battlefield under your control this turn, [effect].
You could even have permanents with activated or triggered abilities that can be used when you play your second spell in a turn, summoned the right number of creatures and so on.
However, if it's the "Cast spells" version - that fits much better in a faction that cares about blue due to card drawing. The creatures version could definitely fit like a glove in a white/green/red faction. They can make a LOT of tokens.
Thoughts?
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Keyword - Collector - VARIABLE (This creature gets +1/+1 for each VARIABLE.)
(this could also be called Hoarder)
This has something approaching Kicker levels of design space.
examples:
Greedy Imp 1BB
Creature - Imp (C)
Flying
Collector - Artifact (This creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.)
0/1
Materialist Dragon 3RR
Creature - Dragon (R)
Flying, protection from white, protection from green
Collector - Artifact (This creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.)
2/2
Doll-Army Militant 2B
Creature - Human Soldier (C)
Collector - Token (This creature gets +1/+1 for each token you control.)
0/2
Exotic Mage U
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Defender
Collector - Nonbasic land (This creature gets +1/+1 for each nonbasic land you control.)
Exotic Mage can attack as if it does not have defender if it has 5 or greater power.
1/1
Hoarder of Knowledge 2UU
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Hexproof
Collector - Cards in hand (This creature gets +1/+1 for each card in your hand.)
1/2
Goblin Sycophant R
Creature - Goblin (R)
Haste
Collector - Creatures with power 3 or greater (This creature gets +1/+1 for each creature you control with power 3 or greater.)
1/1
Second idea:
Ability word: Wealth
Morbid for nonland permanent entering the battlefield under your control this turn.
To go along with a permanent friendly keyword, here's an instant/sorcery friendly ability word.
Reject Outright 1U
Instant (C)
Return target creature to its owner's hand.
Wealth - Draw a card, then discard a card if a nonland permanent entered the battlefield under your control this turn.
What's Yours Is Mine 1R
Instant (R)
Copy target instant or sorcery spell you don't control. You may choose new targets for the copy.
Wealth - Copy target sorcery or instant spell you don't control if a nonland permanent entered the battlefield under your control this turn. You may choose new targets for the copy.
Know Your Place 1B
Sorcery (U)
Target player discards a card.
Wealth - Target player loses 2 life and you gain 2 life if a nonland permanent entered the battlefield under your control this turn.
GWU Bant Manifest - The Future Is Here. Or it will be at the end of turn. GWU
Collector - The comparison to Kicker is apt, you actually just designed a million mechanics and put them all under the same name. Kicker is actually considered a mistake by R&D, because it puts so many different mechanics under the same name. Buyback, Strive and more are really all just more-restrictive Kickers under different names. By making Kicker such a broad mechanic, they actually reduced the overall design space of the game. That's why Scavenge only does a single, specific thing - rather than putting an ability on creatures to be exiled from the grave for any effect. We need to conserve the design space of the game as a whole, and choosing a more narrow execution of the idea gives it a tighter identity. So, you'd want to pick one thing for Collector and have all cards count the same thing.
It's also worth noting that multiple creatures counting a variable can really add complexity to those cards, since you have to look at the whole board every time you want to know what your card can do. This means that the mechanic is difficult to put on common cards, which is where the bread-and-butter mechanics need to do most of their work. It's also harder to balance such things, because they're so variable. That's why a safe design is often to do a "threshold" mechanic - which just asks if you have a specific number of something or not (Threshold and Metalcraft are both good examples of this idea).
Wealth - Simple and nice gameplay, but also too broad. Making it any non-land permanent really messes with the flavor - because so many things can count. But if Wealth only cared if a creature had entered the battlefield this turn, for example, that would work great. You could also do the same thing for artifacts in an artifact set or enchantments in an enchantment set. Or, for that matter, lands in a landfall set.
All in all, great improvement. Try narrowing your focus to some laser-tight designs. Feel free to do more than one variation (I find doing 3 variations on each idea helps a lot in the final process), and you've got a ton of great options here you could narrow down in different ways.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
This is the one I meant. I couldn't find a way to phrase it.
Neutral-Snowfall
Basically constellation for snow. It represents how on this wintry world, both sides have adapted to frequent snowstorms and controlling the element of frost. Nikolai uses it on cards that represent the beauty of heavy snow while the Nightmare Legions uses it to represent the hazards of icy conditions. A possible unaligned native group could use it for animals that are simply well suited for cold as well. Icy flavor being red has history in Kamigawa and Ice Age 'block'. In addition the supertype is unobtrusive an can be put on each factions cards, without conflicting with their other effects.
Ensorcelled Snowman 2R
Snow Creature-Elemental U
Snowfall-Ensorcelled Snowman can't attack or block unless you cast a snow spell this turn
4/4
Frostbiter 1R
Snow Creature-Elemental Horror C
Snowfall-Whenever you cast a snow spell, Frostbiter deals 1 damage to target player
2/1
As for Snowfall, I'm just not enamored of "snow matters" in general. It just seems like an arbitrary version of tribal. The Snow mana is rather interesting,but pushes snow-covered basic lands (which I despise, as it's just a tax on the player's mana base for no adequately explained reason). I'd be much friendlier to snow mana itself though if snow-covered basics were not included.
But, personal bias aside, let's look at the proposal. Your argument that the supertype can unobtrusively be placed in both factions and thus have a snow-matters mechanic that plays well with both factions is compelling. It also gives us an excuse to put the snow supertype on lots of things, which communicates the setting and is probably what players expect in a wintry setting in any case.
However, putting "snow-matters" in red is just bizarre. Ice and snow is squarely in blue's color pie and only Cold Snap, which was throwing back to nostalgia and the way things used to work, has put anything snowy in red (mainly out of necessity, since it was a snow setting).Having red be he real snow-matters color seems... Odd. Very, very odd. I really don't like that flavor.
Thoughts? Also, do any of the mechanics proposed for the factions jump out at you as being particularly cool? I'd like to know your thoughts on my spin to Greed in particular.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
I was thinking about your ideas regarding both Collector and Wealth, and was wondering - what if it's made into a Santa-Faction ability?
I was worried that a simple (This creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control) would be unprintable in anything approaching large numbers. So I headed this direction:
Cooperation (This creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control that shares a color or type with it.)
This unfortunately suffers from some of the same problems you pointed out with Collector. Board states would require constant counting and recounting of stuff. It also devolves the entire clan into a sort of pseudo-tribal. Ultimately, I feel that only the simplest iteration of this (This creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control) is worth pursuing. A couple of cards actually make it look better than it does in theory, though:
Cooperation (This creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control.)
Town Smithy 1W
Creature - Human Artificer (C)
Town Smithy has cooperation if you control an equipment. (If you control an equipment, this creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control.)
1/2
Dwarf Rabblerouser 2R
Creature - Dwarf Warrior (U)
Cooperation, haste
1/1
Elvish Rite-Speaker 1G
Creature - Elf Shaman (R)
Cooperation, defender
T: Add WGR to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if Elvish Rite-Speaker's power is 3 or greater.
0/3
GWU Bant Manifest - The Future Is Here. Or it will be at the end of turn. GWU
Keep the ideas coming though, you're definitely on a good path.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane