I am an avid 2HG player. I love playing Magic with friends, and it's even better to be on the same team as your buddy. When I heard Oath of the Gatewatch was designed with 2HG in mind, I was excited. However, the main 2HG mechanic, Surge, left something to be desired. Surge is a "nice to have" mechanic, and doesn't create new play dynamics or interesting choices generally. So I think there's a ton of design space for 2HG that's unexplored, and probably will stay unexplored officially just because, while cool, 2HG isn't frequently played.
So that's where we come in. I'd like to design a custom cube made exclusively for playing 2HG. Ideally it could be played sealed or drafted. In the 2HG draft format, teams would either pick two cards per pack or draft separately and build together. The complexity and power levels are higher than what is typically seen in a set these days. The aim is for the set to be around a Peasant Cube (commons and uncommons only) in terms of complexity and power.
Unify - Ability word. Generally, an effect that applies to your teammate, sometimes conditionally. Examples:
Balancing Paths 2G Sorcery
Search your library for a basic land and then put it into play tapped. Unify - If your teammate controls fewer lands than an opponent, they may search their library for a basic land and put into play tapped.
Haruspicy XBB Sorcery Unify - You and your teammate each draw X cards. Then for each card draw this way, a player from your team discards a card unless your team sacrifices a permanent.
In 2HG card advantage is really important. Like in Commander, the higher starting life total makes it harder for purely aggressive decks to overwhelm the opponent, and so it's generally a good idea to pack a lot of removal, card drawing, and evasive/giant/resilient threats. Card advantage helps win the inevitable war of attrition. Therefore, each color has a mechanic designed to help build up real card or virtual card advantage. These were chosen to try to be flavorful within the color-pie.
Additionally, it's important that each color have some overlap with other colors, but not too much. So each four color pair will have a defined synergy.
WUBR: Rebels
UBRG: Level Up
BRGW: Dredge, sacrificing your own/team's permanents
RGWU: Cycling, Flashback, Elkin-Bottle
GWUB: +1/+1 Counters
The goal is for each 4-color set to have enough cards for the deck to come together, but not so many dedicated cards that the draft feels on rails. My thinking is that is somewhere around 15 cards in the primary color, and 5 in each support color, for about 30 cards per synergy. So for Rebels, that would be ~15 in white, 5 blue, 5 black, and 5 red.
I also want to work in artifact synergies. I really liked the artifact synergies in Origins, but unfortunately too many of the cards were quite powerful on their own, and so synergistic decks never really came together. The flavor of the world (see below) is based on some people who think using artifacts is a good idea, and some people who don't. The artifact mechanic is going to be based on the Kindle mechanic where having multiple copies of the same artifact helps/hurts all players to capture the flavor of civil war. Mechanically, I also think the challenge of breaking symmetrical effects is interesting and I'd like to explore it. For example, a card like Myr Servator.
I'm not quite sure how to layer the artifact themes with the above, or if that's trying to do too much. I'm ok with the set being quite difficult to draft/play. I expect to play this cube almost exclusively with experienced Magic players. The concern about complexity is more of an aesthetic one. Too much stuff going on makes it hard to "tell a story" with the cards.
Where now stand ruins, there were mighty cities. Where stone and metal are scattered in the dirt, great armies clashed. Now, all that remains are fragments of the past. History tells of a great war, a war the world of Carthis lost. The victors were not content to simply destroy the cities and machines of warfare, but they also cursed the Carthinians themselves, erasing their memories, their knowledge and culture. Then the victors vanished as well, leaving the surviving Carthinians to make a new life from the wreckage.
The world based on the story of Catharage, a rival of the Romans, but who were ultimately defeated. When the Romans sacked Carthage, they salted the fields so that no grains could grow, attempting to prevent the city from ever rising again. There is also a Planet of the Apes style twist, which may just be reflected in flavor text or other subtle ways. In this re-telling the war that destroyed the fictional Carthis, was a civil war. On the brink of destruction, the leaders regretted what had befallen their civilization and attempted to undo all that had happened, to allow a generation to start anew. Unfortunately, they were not able to completely accomplish this, and their ancestors, not knowing that they are their own enemy, uncover ancient weapons and war machines.
W, Creature - Human Rebel
If an instant or sorcery would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
2/1
W, Creature - Human Rebel
~ can't attack unless you control another Rebel.
2/1
W, Creature - Human Rebel W, T: Target creature you or your teammate controls gains hexproof until end of turn.
0/1
[not formatted properly]
1W - 2/2. 4, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 3 or less.
1W - 2/2. When ~ enters the battlefield, you may return a creature you or your teammate control to it's owner's hand.
1W - 2/2. When ~ enters the battlefield, gain 3 life.
1W - 1/1. Flying. 4, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 3 or less.
1W - 1/3. 4, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 3 or less.
2W - 2/1. When ~ enters the battlefield, put a 1/1 white rebel token onto the battlefield.
2W - 2/1. When ~ enters the battlefield, exile target creature until ~ leaves the battlefield.
2W - 2/2. When ~ attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn. 5, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 4 or less.
2W - 2/2. Flying. 5, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 4 or less.
2WW - 3/3. When ~ attacks, put a 1/1 white rebel onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.
3W - 3/2. When ~ enters the battlefield, you may destroy target artifact or enchantment.
3W - 2/2. When ~ enters the battlefield, target player shuffles his or her graveyard into his or her library. X, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc X or less.
Balancing Hopes
3W - Sorcery
Put three 1/1 white rebel tokens into play.
Unify - If your teammate controls fewer creatures than an opponent, they may put two 1/1 white rebel tokens into play.
4W - Sorcery. Unify - You and your teammate may search your libraries for a rebel permanent card with converted mana cost 3 or less and put them on the battlefield, and then shuffle your libraries.
2WW - Rebel Enchantment. Creatures you and your teammate control get +1/+1.
1WW - Rebel Enchantment. When ~ enters the battlefield, exile target creature an opponent controls until ~ leaves the battlefield.
1U - 2/1. 4, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 3 or less. 4U: Target creature can't be blocked this turn.
1U - 1/1. Whenever ~ deals combat damage to an opponent, draw a card, then discard a card.
1U - 1/1. 2, T: Tap target creature.
2U - 2/1. T: You and your teammate draw a card, then discard a card.
3U - 2/2. When ~ enters the battlefield, return target creature to its owner's hand.
1B - 1/1. T: Target player loses 1 life. 4, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 3 or less.
1B - 1/1. When ~ enters the battlefield, each player discards a card.
1BB - 2/1. Flying. When ~ enters the battlefield, target player discards a card.
2B - 2/2. Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
3B - 3/3. T, Sacrifice ~: Target creature gets +3/-3 until end of turn.
1R - 2/1. 1: Target creature gains haste until end of turn. 4, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 3 or less.
1R - 1/1. When ~ enters the battlefield, creatures you and your teammate control get +1/+1 and haste until end of turn.
1RR - 2/1. When ~ enters the battlefield, you and your teammate each exile the top card of your libraries. Until end of turn, you and your teammate may play cards you own exiled by ~.
2R - 3/1. When ~ enters the battlefield, destroy target artifact.
3R - 2/2. When ~ enters the battlefield, it deals 2 damage to target creature an opponent controls.
Having trouble seeing what cool new design space there might be with level up. Thinking about changing UBRG to care about artifacts. Then it solves the problem of how to make artifacts matter and also eliminates potential confusion with +1/+1 counters.
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I am an avid 2HG player. I love playing Magic with friends, and it's even better to be on the same team as your buddy. When I heard Oath of the Gatewatch was designed with 2HG in mind, I was excited. However, the main 2HG mechanic, Surge, left something to be desired. Surge is a "nice to have" mechanic, and doesn't create new play dynamics or interesting choices generally. So I think there's a ton of design space for 2HG that's unexplored, and probably will stay unexplored officially just because, while cool, 2HG isn't frequently played.
So that's where we come in. I'd like to design a custom cube made exclusively for playing 2HG. Ideally it could be played sealed or drafted. In the 2HG draft format, teams would either pick two cards per pack or draft separately and build together. The complexity and power levels are higher than what is typically seen in a set these days. The aim is for the set to be around a Peasant Cube (commons and uncommons only) in terms of complexity and power.
Unify - Ability word. Generally, an effect that applies to your teammate, sometimes conditionally. Examples:
Balancing Paths
2G Sorcery
Search your library for a basic land and then put it into play tapped.
Unify - If your teammate controls fewer lands than an opponent, they may search their library for a basic land and put into play tapped.
Haruspicy
XBB Sorcery
Unify - You and your teammate each draw X cards. Then for each card draw this way, a player from your team discards a card unless your team sacrifices a permanent.
In 2HG card advantage is really important. Like in Commander, the higher starting life total makes it harder for purely aggressive decks to overwhelm the opponent, and so it's generally a good idea to pack a lot of removal, card drawing, and evasive/giant/resilient threats. Card advantage helps win the inevitable war of attrition. Therefore, each color has a mechanic designed to help build up real card or virtual card advantage. These were chosen to try to be flavorful within the color-pie.
White: Rebel searching
Blue: Level up
Black: Dredge/graveyard synergies
Red: Flashback/Elkin Bottle-type effects
Green: +1/+1 counters
Additionally, it's important that each color have some overlap with other colors, but not too much. So each four color pair will have a defined synergy.
WUBR: Rebels
UBRG: Level Up
BRGW: Dredge, sacrificing your own/team's permanents
RGWU: Cycling, Flashback, Elkin-Bottle
GWUB: +1/+1 Counters
The goal is for each 4-color set to have enough cards for the deck to come together, but not so many dedicated cards that the draft feels on rails. My thinking is that is somewhere around 15 cards in the primary color, and 5 in each support color, for about 30 cards per synergy. So for Rebels, that would be ~15 in white, 5 blue, 5 black, and 5 red.
I also want to work in artifact synergies. I really liked the artifact synergies in Origins, but unfortunately too many of the cards were quite powerful on their own, and so synergistic decks never really came together. The flavor of the world (see below) is based on some people who think using artifacts is a good idea, and some people who don't. The artifact mechanic is going to be based on the Kindle mechanic where having multiple copies of the same artifact helps/hurts all players to capture the flavor of civil war. Mechanically, I also think the challenge of breaking symmetrical effects is interesting and I'd like to explore it. For example, a card like Myr Servator.
I'm not quite sure how to layer the artifact themes with the above, or if that's trying to do too much. I'm ok with the set being quite difficult to draft/play. I expect to play this cube almost exclusively with experienced Magic players. The concern about complexity is more of an aesthetic one. Too much stuff going on makes it hard to "tell a story" with the cards.
Where now stand ruins, there were mighty cities. Where stone and metal are scattered in the dirt, great armies clashed. Now, all that remains are fragments of the past. History tells of a great war, a war the world of Carthis lost. The victors were not content to simply destroy the cities and machines of warfare, but they also cursed the Carthinians themselves, erasing their memories, their knowledge and culture. Then the victors vanished as well, leaving the surviving Carthinians to make a new life from the wreckage.
The world based on the story of Catharage, a rival of the Romans, but who were ultimately defeated. When the Romans sacked Carthage, they salted the fields so that no grains could grow, attempting to prevent the city from ever rising again. There is also a Planet of the Apes style twist, which may just be reflected in flavor text or other subtle ways. In this re-telling the war that destroyed the fictional Carthis, was a civil war. On the brink of destruction, the leaders regretted what had befallen their civilization and attempted to undo all that had happened, to allow a generation to start anew. Unfortunately, they were not able to completely accomplish this, and their ancestors, not knowing that they are their own enemy, uncover ancient weapons and war machines.
W, Creature - Human Rebel
If an instant or sorcery would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
2/1
W, Creature - Human Rebel
~ can't attack unless you control another Rebel.
2/1
W, Creature - Human Rebel
W, T: Target creature you or your teammate controls gains hexproof until end of turn.
0/1
[not formatted properly]
1W - 2/2. 4, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 3 or less.
1W - 2/2. When ~ enters the battlefield, you may return a creature you or your teammate control to it's owner's hand.
1W - 2/2. When ~ enters the battlefield, gain 3 life.
1W - 1/1. Flying. 4, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 3 or less.
1W - 1/3. 4, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 3 or less.
2W - 2/1. When ~ enters the battlefield, put a 1/1 white rebel token onto the battlefield.
2W - 2/1. When ~ enters the battlefield, exile target creature until ~ leaves the battlefield.
2W - 2/2. When ~ attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn. 5, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 4 or less.
2W - 2/2. Flying. 5, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 4 or less.
2WW - 3/3. When ~ attacks, put a 1/1 white rebel onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.
3W - 3/2. When ~ enters the battlefield, you may destroy target artifact or enchantment.
3W - 2/2. When ~ enters the battlefield, target player shuffles his or her graveyard into his or her library. X, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc X or less.
Balancing Hopes
3W - Sorcery
Put three 1/1 white rebel tokens into play.
Unify - If your teammate controls fewer creatures than an opponent, they may put two 1/1 white rebel tokens into play.
4W - Sorcery. Unify - You and your teammate may search your libraries for a rebel permanent card with converted mana cost 3 or less and put them on the battlefield, and then shuffle your libraries.
2WW - Rebel Enchantment. Creatures you and your teammate control get +1/+1.
1WW - Rebel Enchantment. When ~ enters the battlefield, exile target creature an opponent controls until ~ leaves the battlefield.
1U - 2/1. 4, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 3 or less. 4U: Target creature can't be blocked this turn.
1U - 1/1. Whenever ~ deals combat damage to an opponent, draw a card, then discard a card.
1U - 1/1. 2, T: Tap target creature.
2U - 2/1. T: You and your teammate draw a card, then discard a card.
3U - 2/2. When ~ enters the battlefield, return target creature to its owner's hand.
1B - 1/1. T: Target player loses 1 life. 4, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 3 or less.
1B - 1/1. When ~ enters the battlefield, each player discards a card.
1BB - 2/1. Flying. When ~ enters the battlefield, target player discards a card.
2B - 2/2. Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
3B - 3/3. T, Sacrifice ~: Target creature gets +3/-3 until end of turn.
1R - 2/1. 1: Target creature gains haste until end of turn. 4, T: Search your library for a rebel with cmc 3 or less.
1R - 1/1. When ~ enters the battlefield, creatures you and your teammate control get +1/+1 and haste until end of turn.
1RR - 2/1. When ~ enters the battlefield, you and your teammate each exile the top card of your libraries. Until end of turn, you and your teammate may play cards you own exiled by ~.
2R - 3/1. When ~ enters the battlefield, destroy target artifact.
3R - 2/2. When ~ enters the battlefield, it deals 2 damage to target creature an opponent controls.