Hello all! I'm trying to play around with a druidic flavor-based mechanic in RG, where the druids and forest creatures care about the land. The land is being abused for its resources, so they're all about letting the land rest whenever possible. My take on this is an ability word, Fallow - As long as you control four or more untapped lands, bonus. See examples below. Mechanically, the idea is that the cards will be fine at their rarity when they do not pass the fallow check, and good to slightly better than average when they do meet said check. In theory, I want fallow to make decent cards in the early game not completely dead in the late game. Thoughts? Is this too much to track (a la Threshold)? Thoughts always welcomed.
Edit: The rare is almost definitely undercosted, as untapping on turn 6 with a 9/9 trample/menace critter is a bit much. I'll definitely be adjusting this one down the line.
Each of your designs exemplify the problem with this mechanic. Its too easy to have the bonus for half your turn and then give it up after it wouldn't matter.
As long as you tap the mana dork first you will always gain its benefit, as long as you have 4 lands. Both creatures want to be attacking with their enlarged body and have little downside to shrinking in the second main phase.
For this mehcanic to actually be interesting there have to be real decisions made. The easiest way to get the same flavor is to check at the end of your turn, this obviously encourages instant and flash cards as you can gain the benefit while still using mana, but at least you have introduced a limitation that is more than 'play the way most people play' and as long as its kept out of the more instant heavy colors it should be fine.
This reminds me of the "standard bans" thread in general. Basically "if we had cheap land destruction, then we would have to worry about this!" and "if wizards wants to push a mechanic, then we won't see hate cards for it."
This mechanic practically screams "no way will there be land destruction in the set". Which means the design for lands in that set will be be lackluster overall, otherwise it will overwhelm the format.
Incidentally, you mentioned threshold, and during the time of thresh (and psychatog), cards like tormod's cryt weren't around.
To put it another way. I'm fine with this ability. As long as armageddon or stone rain and ice storm are in the set, too.
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Each of your designs exemplify the problem with this mechanic. Its too easy to have the bonus for half your turn and then give it up after it wouldn't matter.
As long as you tap the mana dork first you will always gain its benefit, as long as you have 4 lands. Both creatures want to be attacking with their enlarged body and have little downside to shrinking in the second main phase.
For this mechanic to actually be interesting there have to be real decisions made. The easiest way to get the same flavor is to check at the end of your turn, this obviously encourages instant and flash cards as you can gain the benefit while still using mana, but at least you have introduced a limitation that is more than 'play the way most people play' and as long as its kept out of the more instant heavy colors it should be fine.
In general, having a mechanic that required making real decisions is my goal. The problem is, checking for fallow at the end of your/every/opponent's turn is either makes the ability entirely defensive (checking only on your turn) or requires a slight memory issue. Just playing with that idea:
Fallow - As long as you control four untapped lands, effect.
shifted to check only at your end step becomes: Fallow - If you control four untapped lands at the beginning of your end step, effect.
or shifted to check each end step becomes: Fallow - If you control four untapped lands at the beginning of each end step, effect next turn.
My thought is that checking at the end of each end step is probably the best, and really isn't any more memory intensive than the transforming werewolves of Innistrad. Thoughts?
To put it another way. I'm fine with this ability. As long as armageddon or stone rain and ice storm are in the set, too.
Yes, I definitely want to avoid a format where land destruction becomes a necessity. I would probably want to see some cards like Chandra's Revolution/Reduce // Rubble to interact with the mechanic a bit, to be sure. I also want to avoid swinging too far in the other direction and end up with a Fateful Hour situation.
Toughness boosts on this ability are problematic, since they'll effectively prevent you from playing the game to a greater or lesser extent. I'm not sure how excited I am about a mechanic that silences the players using it!
I'm looking at Fallow in the same light as the werewolf transform mechanic, though hopefully not as slow. That is, there's a choice to be made. Fill your board, or let the board you have be at its best. I'm still playing around with this in my head, I definitely want to keep it simple, but make the choice a compelling one.
I see what you mean about the werewolf trigger being structurally similar to fallow, but I feel like it's important to point out that werewolf is a thing that might occur naturally in the game (i.e. there's a turn when you don't have a spell in hand you want to cast) and then, once it happens, you don't necessarily have to do the same next turn, which permits you to continue participating,
whereas fallow is a constant incentive to nonplay and it suppresses both spell casting and ability activation
So that's something to take into account when you design and test.
I like that the mechanic encourages players to use their second main phase which is a concept I find novice players struggle with. I do think the mechanic needs to provide some tension though. Right now it's a little too obvious and there's little reason to keep your lands untapped for the duration of the turn.
I think Fallow needs to stick to triggered and activated abilities, and the timing of them should be implemented in a way that doesn't create memory issues or inaction. For example:
Burnwillow GuardianRG
Creature - Treefolk Warrior (U) Fallow - Whenever Burnwillow Guardian attacks, if you control four or more untapped lands, it gets +2/+0 and has menance until end of turn.
2/2
Corpse Tender1G
Creature - Human Druid (C) Fallow - T: Add G to your mana pool. Then if you control four or more untapped lands, you gain 3 life.
1/3
Admittedly the distinction here becomes tapped and untapped lands becomes a little irrelevant in a vacuum outside of teaching players better timing of abilities. Threshold for lands without caring if there tapped or not wouldn't be a bad direction. Otherwise if it cares about untapped it would need to be in an environment where you can mess with you opponents lands to matter, and the sounds potentially unfun. Using this version of the mechanic, it might be better to print something like:
Burnwillow GuardianRG
Creature - Treefolk Warrior (U) Fallow - When Burnwillow Guardian enters the battlefield, if you control four or more untapped lands, put a +1/+1 counter on it and it gains menace.
3/2
Another direction that is closer to your original timing, make it check at the end of turn and stick to things you can mark. It Kinda makes it an outlast varient.
Burnwillow GuardianRG
Creature - Treefolk Warrior (U)
Menace Fallow - At the end of your turn, if you control four or more untapped lands, put a +1/+1 counter on Burnwillow Guardian.
2/2
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Edit: The rare is almost definitely undercosted, as untapping on turn 6 with a 9/9 trample/menace critter is a bit much. I'll definitely be adjusting this one down the line.
Archenemy: Nicol Bolas Upgrades
As long as you tap the mana dork first you will always gain its benefit, as long as you have 4 lands. Both creatures want to be attacking with their enlarged body and have little downside to shrinking in the second main phase.
For this mehcanic to actually be interesting there have to be real decisions made. The easiest way to get the same flavor is to check at the end of your turn, this obviously encourages instant and flash cards as you can gain the benefit while still using mana, but at least you have introduced a limitation that is more than 'play the way most people play' and as long as its kept out of the more instant heavy colors it should be fine.
This mechanic practically screams "no way will there be land destruction in the set". Which means the design for lands in that set will be be lackluster overall, otherwise it will overwhelm the format.
Incidentally, you mentioned threshold, and during the time of thresh (and psychatog), cards like tormod's cryt weren't around.
To put it another way. I'm fine with this ability. As long as armageddon or stone rain and ice storm are in the set, too.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Fallow - As long as you control four untapped lands, effect.
shifted to check only at your end step becomes:
Fallow - If you control four untapped lands at the beginning of your end step, effect.
or shifted to check each end step becomes:
Fallow - If you control four untapped lands at the beginning of each end step, effect next turn.
My thought is that checking at the end of each end step is probably the best, and really isn't any more memory intensive than the transforming werewolves of Innistrad. Thoughts?
Yes, I definitely want to avoid a format where land destruction becomes a necessity. I would probably want to see some cards like Chandra's Revolution/Reduce // Rubble to interact with the mechanic a bit, to be sure. I also want to avoid swinging too far in the other direction and end up with a Fateful Hour situation.
Archenemy: Nicol Bolas Upgrades
Here is the current iteration of the uncommon:
Archenemy: Nicol Bolas Upgrades
whereas fallow is a constant incentive to nonplay and it suppresses both spell casting and ability activation
So that's something to take into account when you design and test.
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
Burnwillow Guardian RG
Creature - Treefolk Warrior (U)
Fallow - Whenever Burnwillow Guardian attacks, if you control four or more untapped lands, it gets +2/+0 and has menance until end of turn.
2/2
Corpse Tender 1G
Creature - Human Druid (C)
Fallow - T: Add G to your mana pool. Then if you control four or more untapped lands, you gain 3 life.
1/3
Admittedly the distinction here becomes tapped and untapped lands becomes a little irrelevant in a vacuum outside of teaching players better timing of abilities. Threshold for lands without caring if there tapped or not wouldn't be a bad direction. Otherwise if it cares about untapped it would need to be in an environment where you can mess with you opponents lands to matter, and the sounds potentially unfun. Using this version of the mechanic, it might be better to print something like:
Burnwillow Guardian RG
Creature - Treefolk Warrior (U)
Fallow - When Burnwillow Guardian enters the battlefield, if you control four or more untapped lands, put a +1/+1 counter on it and it gains menace.
3/2
Another direction that is closer to your original timing, make it check at the end of turn and stick to things you can mark. It Kinda makes it an outlast varient.
Burnwillow Guardian RG
Creature - Treefolk Warrior (U)
Menace
Fallow - At the end of your turn, if you control four or more untapped lands, put a +1/+1 counter on Burnwillow Guardian.
2/2