I’ll preface this thought experiment with a statement: I know, and am very much aware, that free spells are broken and poorly designed 99% of the time.
That said, I had thought of this mechanic/concept and I am kind of shocked by how much design space it has, and would love to hear thoughts.
Freeplay X (You may cast this card without paying its mana cost, if any combination of lands you control could add X to your mana pool.)
<Complex Multicolor Dude> 2WU
Creature – Human Wizard (R)
When Complex Multicolor Dude enters the battlefield, draw a card for each basic land type among lands you control.
Freeplay WUBRG
2/4
Anyway, these cards are kind of terribly designed in terms of their place on the curve/relative to showing off the effect. I had just wanted to get some thoughts down and ask what people saw in this mechanic if anything. If nothing else, hopefully this leads to an interesting discussion. Thanks for looking!
I think this mechanic is obviously super abusable, but also, it should be worded so that it counts nonland mana. Ideally it would be a time'travel mechanic a la:
Freeplay X (If you cast this for X, return the game state to how it was prior to casting this, then put this onto the stack.)
That said, I had thought of this mechanic/concept and I am kind of shocked by how much design space it has, and would love to hear thoughts.
Freeplay X (You may cast this card without paying its mana cost, if any combination of lands you control could add X to your mana pool.)
Freeplay V1
<Freebear>
Creature – Bear (C)
Freeplay 1G
2/2
<FreeCounter>
Instant (R)
Freeplay 1UU
Counter target spell.
Freeplay V2
<FreeBear> 1G
Creature – Bear (C)
Freeplay 2GG
2/2
Freeplay V3
<Multicolor Dude> 1WW
Creature – Soldier (U)
Exalted
Freeplay 1B
3/3
<Complex Multicolor Dude> 2WU
Creature – Human Wizard (R)
When Complex Multicolor Dude enters the battlefield, draw a card for each basic land type among lands you control.
Freeplay WUBRG
2/4
Anyway, these cards are kind of terribly designed in terms of their place on the curve/relative to showing off the effect. I had just wanted to get some thoughts down and ask what people saw in this mechanic if anything. If nothing else, hopefully this leads to an interesting discussion. Thanks for looking!
Art is life itself.
All of the other freeplay cards range from OP to flat out busted.
- Rabid Wombat
Freeplay X (If you cast this for X, return the game state to how it was prior to casting this, then put this onto the stack.)