I've been working on a few mechanics riffing off of the Access the Machine mechanic.
This mechanic shows the starting of a revolution from a crowd of discontent creatures.
It has both Linear and Modular parts which is great and also has the great flavor in that killing all the revolutionaries will stop the revolution.
Here are a range of commons and uncommons, nothing too splashy but more showing how it would work in a limited environment
Repressed Worker
Creature — Human Citizen (C)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
1/1
---Flip--- Marie’s Militant
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
Vigilance (Attacking doesn’t cause this creature to tap.)
2/2
Back-Street Tinkerer
Creature — Human Artificer (C)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.) “Blah, short sighted state. How dare they cut my funding.”
2/2
---Flip--- Aeronautic Genius
Creature — Human Artificer (C)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
Flying
3/2
Alley Scoundrel
Creature — Human Rogue (C)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.) “My quick tongue and my sharp knife are the only friends I’ll ever need.”
3/2
---Flip--- Parliamentary Officer
Creature — Human Advisor (C)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
: Each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. In the upheaval of the new age, many found a way to benefit themselves. Not always for society’s benefit.
3/4
Smogbound Druid
Creature — Elf Druid (C)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
: Add 1 to your mana pool. "The nobles have no compassion for nature, paying no heed to the plight of the leylines."
1/2
---Flip--- Druid of Reclamation
Creature — Elf Druid (C)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
: Add two mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool. “Let the majesty of nature be known to all in this new age.”
2/2
Underground Researcher
Creature — Human Wizard (U)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
, : Draw a card then discard a card.
1/1
---Flip--- Scholar of the New Age
Creature — Human Wizard (U)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
, : Draw a card.
2/2
This is me experimenting with color changing uncommons Mercenary Enforcer
Creature — Human Warrior (U)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
At the beginning of your upkeep you lose 2 life.
3/2
---Flip--- Police Captain
[WHITE] Creature — Human Soldier (U)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
Lifelink “My past has never been perfect, but I’ve now seen that the law should benefit all, not just myself.”
3/3
Peaceful Protestor
Creature — Human Citizen (U)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
Defender
0/6
---Flip--- Riotous Mob
[RED] Creature — Human Berserker (U)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
Riotous Mob attacks each turn if able.
6/6
I think the flavor is a home run. I like how if your opponent wants to stop the revolution, they have to get rid of all the dissenters, because even one around will keep the revolution going. However, if they do manage to do that, then it will take a bit of work to get it going again, especially that late in the game.
I'm very curious about the logistical issues with the Transform mechanic, however. The biggest knock against the mechanic is that once you have revolted, provided you are playing with sleeved cards, there are going to be a bunch of cards in your hand that you don't actually know what they do, since the face you see is not the face they'll be coming in as. While this is partially true with every DFC, since there has yet to be a card that comes into the battlefield pre-flipped, you at least know what your card will do immediately upon playing it. And yes, you could pull the card out of the sleeve and flip it over and read it, but you are giving away a lot of information doing so, even if they fail to notice what specific card it is.
In general, even if this is found to be an issue, most are pretty strict upgrades from their front side, so there aren't many circumstances where you would be unhappy with the flipped side. The biggest offender is probably Peaceful Protester // Rioting Mob, since there are times when you just need a body to block, and being forced to attack could really mess with your plans. Since there is no indication you will be locked into attacking on the front side, unless you have simply memorized the card you could very well be caught off guard by the creature you played to gum up the ground being forced into the red zone. I could foresee that giving players less familiar with the cards very feel bad moments where they feel they have made quite a fool of themselves.
All that being said, it could turn out to just not be much of an issue and everything be fine. I do think that is something to keep in mind though.
I'm very curious about the logistical issues with the Transform mechanic, however. The biggest knock against the mechanic is that once you have revolted, provided you are playing with sleeved cards, there are going to be a bunch of cards in your hand that you don't actually know what they do, since the face you see is not the face they'll be coming in as. While this is partially true with every DFC, since there has yet to be a card that comes into the battlefield pre-flipped, you at least know what your card will do immediately upon playing it. And yes, you could pull the card out of the sleeve and flip it over and read it, but you are giving away a lot of information doing so, even if they fail to notice what specific card it is.
One thing to remember is that in limited, most players will be using checklist cards in their deck, not the transform cards themselves. This means they can freely look through and flip over the revolt cards they haven't played yet as they activate the ability. For constructed, if Innistrad block is anything to go off, only so many transform cards will be printed (so that they can all fit on the checklist card), so it should be easy enough for players to remember what their transform cards do (and they have the P/T reminder to help them remember).
My one concern is how easy this could be to activate - if there is a Dragon Fodder and/or Raise the Alarm in the set/standard environment, then your rebellion can start on your second turn, and you can easily snowball from there with the right cards. I also don't particularly like the thought of "Lets start a rebellion... by not attacking and preventing ourselves from taking action!" I get that the flavor can easily be interpreted differently (such as forming a plot, then next turn it starts), but it gives off a bad first impression to me.
I'm not so sure that is true. Especially if you have valuable cards in your pull, why wouldn't you sleeve them and put them in your deck? And besides, it seems unwise to just assume people wouldn't want to sleeve them and put them in their decks. If people want to play with their cards and not placeholders, and have gotten the appropriate sleeves and such to do so, they shouldn't be punished because they didn't memorize the back of the card.
Still, it's a relatively small complaint, and it's a good mechanic overall, but I think it should be taken into account.
RE: Logistical Concerns
Innistrad and its DFCs have shown us that this is a non-issue for a proper magic set so that isn't a concern.
As for how I would handle it in my paper playtesting sessions, I'd most likely have each of the DFC be two back to back cards in clear sleeves and then after the draft use a premade custom checklist cards to compliment them.
For online testing it is zero issue as DFC's are now better supported by Cockatrice as of a few weeks ago.
Logistical was not the right word, I apologize. I meant more that the nature of this particular usage of transform can risk leading to some feel bad moments if you aren't cognizant of the problems. Because revolutionaries will often come into play transformed, if for whatever reason the transformed side does something different than what the front side does that can be situationally worse than the front side, then there is the chance someone will play the card, not realize the back side was worse for them than the front (since they couldn't read it due to it being sleeved,) and then feel like a dummy for playing a card that looked fine in the situation, but instantly becoming a poor play.
This is what differs this mechanic from other transform cards. Every other transform card always at least enters the battlefield face up, and most give you some level of control of when they flip. This allows players not intimately familiar with the card to look at the backside of the card and remind themselves what the other side does. This mechanic has you put into play a creature different from what you have been looking at in your hand.so if the back card serves a completely different purpose than the front of the card, then people could easily play the creature and have it not seeve the role they thought it was going to serve, which is a feel bad.
I share concerns about how easy it is to start a revolution with random tokens. I also think that aspect is a slight flavor glitch for one revolutionary to meet with other guys that don't really end up joining the revolution.
Revolutionary
"Fellow taverners, we must form a revolution! This meeting forms the basis of our hopes, our dreams, our brightest future. Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men, singing the wisdom of a people who will NOT be mana-screwed again?! Come! Fight! The revolution has begun!"
*Revlutionary runs off*
Taverners at Meeting
"... So still on for brunch on sunday fred?"
This mechanic shows the starting of a revolution from a crowd of discontent creatures.
It has both Linear and Modular parts which is great and also has the great flavor in that killing all the revolutionaries will stop the revolution.
Here are a range of commons and uncommons, nothing too splashy but more showing how it would work in a limited environment
Here is an imgur gallery and here
Feedback appreciated..
Repressed Worker
Creature — Human Citizen (C)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
1/1
---Flip---
Marie’s Militant
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
Vigilance (Attacking doesn’t cause this creature to tap.)
2/2
Back-Street Tinkerer
Creature — Human Artificer (C)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
“Blah, short sighted state. How dare they cut my funding.”
2/2
---Flip---
Aeronautic Genius
Creature — Human Artificer (C)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
Flying
3/2
Alley Scoundrel
Creature — Human Rogue (C)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
“My quick tongue and my sharp knife are the only friends I’ll ever need.”
3/2
---Flip---
Parliamentary Officer
Creature — Human Advisor (C)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
: Each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
In the upheaval of the new age, many found a way to benefit themselves. Not always for society’s benefit.
3/4
Smogbound Druid
Creature — Elf Druid (C)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
: Add 1 to your mana pool.
"The nobles have no compassion for nature, paying no heed to the plight of the leylines."
1/2
---Flip---
Druid of Reclamation
Creature — Elf Druid (C)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
: Add two mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool.
“Let the majesty of nature be known to all in this new age.”
2/2
Underground Researcher
Creature — Human Wizard (U)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
, : Draw a card then discard a card.
1/1
---Flip---
Scholar of the New Age
Creature — Human Wizard (U)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
, : Draw a card.
2/2
This is me experimenting with color changing uncommons
Mercenary Enforcer
Creature — Human Warrior (U)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
At the beginning of your upkeep you lose 2 life.
3/2
---Flip---
Police Captain
[WHITE] Creature — Human Soldier (U)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
Lifelink
“My past has never been perfect, but I’ve now seen that the law should benefit all, not just myself.”
3/3
Peaceful Protestor
Creature — Human Citizen (U)
Revolution ( , Tap two other untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
Defender
0/6
---Flip---
Riotous Mob
[RED] Creature — Human Berserker (U)
Creatures with revolution you control enter the battlefield transformed.
Riotous Mob attacks each turn if able.
6/6
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
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
It'll be interesting to see/hear how they play test.
Dunno whenever I get time.
Any initial thoughts? Does the flavor all make sense?
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
I'm very curious about the logistical issues with the Transform mechanic, however. The biggest knock against the mechanic is that once you have revolted, provided you are playing with sleeved cards, there are going to be a bunch of cards in your hand that you don't actually know what they do, since the face you see is not the face they'll be coming in as. While this is partially true with every DFC, since there has yet to be a card that comes into the battlefield pre-flipped, you at least know what your card will do immediately upon playing it. And yes, you could pull the card out of the sleeve and flip it over and read it, but you are giving away a lot of information doing so, even if they fail to notice what specific card it is.
In general, even if this is found to be an issue, most are pretty strict upgrades from their front side, so there aren't many circumstances where you would be unhappy with the flipped side. The biggest offender is probably Peaceful Protester // Rioting Mob, since there are times when you just need a body to block, and being forced to attack could really mess with your plans. Since there is no indication you will be locked into attacking on the front side, unless you have simply memorized the card you could very well be caught off guard by the creature you played to gum up the ground being forced into the red zone. I could foresee that giving players less familiar with the cards very feel bad moments where they feel they have made quite a fool of themselves.
All that being said, it could turn out to just not be much of an issue and everything be fine. I do think that is something to keep in mind though.
One thing to remember is that in limited, most players will be using checklist cards in their deck, not the transform cards themselves. This means they can freely look through and flip over the revolt cards they haven't played yet as they activate the ability. For constructed, if Innistrad block is anything to go off, only so many transform cards will be printed (so that they can all fit on the checklist card), so it should be easy enough for players to remember what their transform cards do (and they have the P/T reminder to help them remember).
My one concern is how easy this could be to activate - if there is a Dragon Fodder and/or Raise the Alarm in the set/standard environment, then your rebellion can start on your second turn, and you can easily snowball from there with the right cards. I also don't particularly like the thought of "Lets start a rebellion... by not attacking and preventing ourselves from taking action!" I get that the flavor can easily be interpreted differently (such as forming a plot, then next turn it starts), but it gives off a bad first impression to me.
Avant Block: Avant -- Stormfront
Still, it's a relatively small complaint, and it's a good mechanic overall, but I think it should be taken into account.
Innistrad and its DFCs have shown us that this is a non-issue for a proper magic set so that isn't a concern.
As for how I would handle it in my paper playtesting sessions, I'd most likely have each of the DFC be two back to back cards in clear sleeves and then after the draft use a premade custom checklist cards to compliment them.
For online testing it is zero issue as DFC's are now better supported by Cockatrice as of a few weeks ago.
You can read about how innistrad handled DFCs here
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
This is what differs this mechanic from other transform cards. Every other transform card always at least enters the battlefield face up, and most give you some level of control of when they flip. This allows players not intimately familiar with the card to look at the backside of the card and remind themselves what the other side does. This mechanic has you put into play a creature different from what you have been looking at in your hand.so if the back card serves a completely different purpose than the front of the card, then people could easily play the creature and have it not seeve the role they thought it was going to serve, which is a feel bad.
Revolutionary
"Fellow taverners, we must form a revolution! This meeting forms the basis of our hopes, our dreams, our brightest future. Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men, singing the wisdom of a people who will NOT be mana-screwed again?! Come! Fight! The revolution has begun!"
*Revlutionary runs off*
Taverners at Meeting
"... So still on for brunch on sunday fred?"
"You know it. Love that panini sandwich. "
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