This came to me while looking at Boggart Ram-Gang and wanting a "more damage to creatures" mechanic replacement for wither (don't want -1/-1 counters in my cube environment).
Raze (Damage this deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
Example cards:
Boggart Farmers1R
Creature - Goblin [Common]
When Boggart Farmers enters the battlefield, sacrifice a land.
Raze (Damage this deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
2/2
Deadwood Dryad1G
Creature - Dryad [Common]
Raze (Damage this deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.) G, Sacrifice a Forest: Deadwood Dryad gains indestructible until end of turn.
2/2
Valley Raiders2R
Creature - Human Warrior [Common]
Raze (Damage this deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
Whenever Valley Raiders attacks, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
1/3
Slash and Burn2(R/G)
Instant [Common]
Slash and Burn costs 2 less to cast if you sacrifice a land as you cast it.
Target creature gains raze until end of turn. (Damage it deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
Emberslide Gamin3R
Creature - Elemental [Uncommon]
Raze (Damage this deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
Discard a land card: Emberslide Gamin gains haste until end of turn.
3/3
Hewer of Pines2RG
Creature - Giant [Rare]
First strike, raze (Damage this deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.) 1G, T, Discard a land card: Hewer of Pines fights target creature.
3/5
Bonfire Revelry3RG
Enchantment [Rare]
Creatures you control have raze. (Damage they deal to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
When Bonfire Revelry enters the battlefield, reveal the top six cards of your library, put up to two creature cards from among them into your hand, and the rest into your graveyard.
Other than the mechanic being pretty parasitic, it's also incredibly feel bad. I would go so far as to compare to sweep, perhaps the most maligned mechanic in all of Kamigawa block. I feel like you're underestimating the crushing loss of tempo that land sacrifice represents, and, frankly, raze doesn't even come close to justifying it. The mechanic would work fine with discard and cycling like with Amonkhet block's deserts, but it simply isn't worth sacrifice.
Why does no one know what parasitic means? Being one of the least parasitic mechanics imaginable it baffles the mind that someone would start their critique by calling it parasitic.
Encouraging you to put lands anywhere other than the battlefield is dangerous because it will lead players so screwing themselves either by denying themselves the advantage of the cards or by over commiting to the mechanic leading to a shortage of resources. It is also very strong without this type if support but rather simple fetchlands. Even one or two lands in the graveyard swings combat in your favor which can lead to both board stalls and tramplings. Overall it's dangerous, so probably not worth a keyword.
Why does no one know what parasitic means? Being one of the least parasitic mechanics imaginable it baffles the mind that someone would start their critique by calling it parasitic.
Encouraging you to put lands anywhere other than the battlefield is dangerous because it will lead players so screwing themselves either by denying themselves the advantage of the cards or by over commiting to the mechanic leading to a shortage of resources. It is also very strong without this type if support but rather simple fetchlands. Even one or two lands in the graveyard swings combat in your favor which can lead to both board stalls and tramplings. Overall it's dangerous, so probably not worth a keyword.
It's parasitic because it needs to be paired with some means to put lands in the graveyard, whether that be sacrifice (via fetch or otherwise), discard, or self-mill. Raze does absolutely nothing without such effects, therefore making it parasitic regardless of the fact that it mentions lands. Unlike creatures, instants, sorceries, and planeswalkers, lands do not have an organic means to enter the graveyard, so they require outside help or their own special abilities. Ergo, parasitism.
Why does no one know what parasitic means? Being one of the least parasitic mechanics imaginable it baffles the mind that someone would start their critique by calling it parasitic.
It's parasitic because it needs to be paired with some means to put lands in the graveyard, whether that be sacrifice (via fetch or otherwise), discard, or self-mill. Raze does absolutely nothing without such effects, therefore making it parasitic regardless of the fact that it mentions lands. Unlike creatures, instants, sorceries, and planeswalkers, lands do not have an organic means to enter the graveyard, so they require outside help or their own special abilities. Ergo, parasitism.
This is what I mean by not knowing what parasitic means. You are describing an A/B mechanic, not a parasitic mechanic. An A/B mechanic would be parasitic if the B A needed to work only showed up in the new set or was an incredibly limited existing item. You described multiple existing methods of B so it can't be parasitic, not to mention B is some of the most played cards in the entire game (fetchlands).
Madness is an A/B mechanic that also isn't parasitic. A(cards with madness) need B(ways to be discarded). While Splice onto Arcane is a parasitic A/B mechanic. A(cards with splice) need B(arcane cards). If it was splice onto instant it wouldn't be parasitic, and if more arcane cards would be printed then it would become less parasitic.
Going back to discussing the mechanic, I think that a cleaner implementation would be just to give the creature a power boost based on blocking/becoming blocked. This isn't quite the same thing mechanically, but it keeps the mechanic a little cleaner since you don't have to worry about replacement effects, and it also cleans up certain interactions like Trample (I think with the current interaction, if a 2/2 with trample is blocked by an 0/2, and you have 2 lands in your graveyard, this would deal 4 damage to the creature and zero would trample over). So essentially something like this:
Raze (as long as this creature is blocked or blocking, it gets +1/+0 for each land in your graveyard). I choose to steal the wording from Adanto Vanguard to avoid having to deal with a large number of triggers during combat.
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Raze (Damage this deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
Example cards:
Boggart Farmers 1R
Creature - Goblin [Common]
When Boggart Farmers enters the battlefield, sacrifice a land.
Raze (Damage this deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
2/2
Deadwood Dryad 1G
Creature - Dryad [Common]
Raze (Damage this deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
G, Sacrifice a Forest: Deadwood Dryad gains indestructible until end of turn.
2/2
Valley Raiders 2R
Creature - Human Warrior [Common]
Raze (Damage this deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
Whenever Valley Raiders attacks, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
1/3
Slash and Burn 2(R/G)
Instant [Common]
Slash and Burn costs 2 less to cast if you sacrifice a land as you cast it.
Target creature gains raze until end of turn. (Damage it deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
Emberslide Gamin 3R
Creature - Elemental [Uncommon]
Raze (Damage this deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
Discard a land card: Emberslide Gamin gains haste until end of turn.
3/3
Hewer of Pines 2RG
Creature - Giant [Rare]
First strike, raze (Damage this deals to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
1G, T, Discard a land card: Hewer of Pines fights target creature.
3/5
Bonfire Revelry 3RG
Enchantment [Rare]
Creatures you control have raze. (Damage they deal to creatures is increased by 1 for each land card in your graveyard.)
When Bonfire Revelry enters the battlefield, reveal the top six cards of your library, put up to two creature cards from among them into your hand, and the rest into your graveyard.
Encouraging you to put lands anywhere other than the battlefield is dangerous because it will lead players so screwing themselves either by denying themselves the advantage of the cards or by over commiting to the mechanic leading to a shortage of resources. It is also very strong without this type if support but rather simple fetchlands. Even one or two lands in the graveyard swings combat in your favor which can lead to both board stalls and tramplings. Overall it's dangerous, so probably not worth a keyword.
It's parasitic because it needs to be paired with some means to put lands in the graveyard, whether that be sacrifice (via fetch or otherwise), discard, or self-mill. Raze does absolutely nothing without such effects, therefore making it parasitic regardless of the fact that it mentions lands. Unlike creatures, instants, sorceries, and planeswalkers, lands do not have an organic means to enter the graveyard, so they require outside help or their own special abilities. Ergo, parasitism.
Madness is an A/B mechanic that also isn't parasitic. A(cards with madness) need B(ways to be discarded). While Splice onto Arcane is a parasitic A/B mechanic. A(cards with splice) need B(arcane cards). If it was splice onto instant it wouldn't be parasitic, and if more arcane cards would be printed then it would become less parasitic.
Raze (as long as this creature is blocked or blocking, it gets +1/+0 for each land in your graveyard). I choose to steal the wording from Adanto Vanguard to avoid having to deal with a large number of triggers during combat.