(This is a revision of the original post, which takes into consideration some of the prior critiques I have received.)
I have created a new series of cards called Bond cards. They function very much like Conspiracies, but are designed for use in both Limited AND Constructed formats. The exact rules (as they would be written in the comprehensive rules) are at the very end of this opening post.
My primary intention in creating the Bond (Focus) cards was to increase consistency and provide a virtual vaccination against mana flood and mana screw. In my opinion, far too many games are dictated by an aberrant distribution of lands and spells, especially in limited formats like sealed deck and draft. Each Bond (Focus) card I have created protects against mana flood by allowing you to cycle your basic land cards for 2 mana. A smart player will also use this ability to safeguard against mana screw, because it makes it safer to include a few more lands in your deck.
I also created a series of Bond - Familiar cards, which allow players to summon relatively powerful 1-drop creatures. The drawback is that if your Familiar leaves play, you essentially re-topdeck it, and topdecking a 1/1 in the mid-to-late game is generally ugly.
Overall, these cards are intended to be just strong enough to use in Constructed formats. But they are also intended to never feel oppressively overpowered. I am hoping to get feedback as to whether my intention has been met.
Ankh Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
Your starting life total is increased by five.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Crystal Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
If you could play a land, you may instead add 1. If you do, you can’t play a land this turn.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Orb Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
You may look at an opponent’s hand at any time.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Staff Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
If you would lose the game during an opponent's turn, remove Staff Focus from your command zone instead. Then you may either set your life total at 1 or remove any number of counters from you.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Stone Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
Instead of drawing a card during your draw step as a turn-based action, you may look at exactly the top four cards of your library, reveal up to one basic land card from among them and put it into your hand, then put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Totem Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
Instead of drawing a card during your draw step as a turn-based action, you may look at the top three cards of your library, put one of them into your hand, and the rest on top of your library in any order.
Whenever your library is shuffled, discard a card at random.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Wand Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
If you would draw a card, you may put the bottom card of your library into your hand instead.
If you would discard a card, you may put that card on the bottom of your library instead.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Cat Familiar
Mana cost: W
Bond Creature - Cat 1/1
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
You may cast this from your command zone once each turn.
While Cat Familiar is on the battlefield, prevent the first 2 damage that would be dealt to you each turn.
If Cat Familiar would leave your control or be put into your library, hand, graveyard, or exile from anywhere, instead put it into your command zone and skip your next draw step.
Owl Familiar
Mana cost: U
Bond Creature - Bird 1/1
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
You may cast this from your command zone once each turn.
Flying
While Owl Familiar is on the battlefield, your have no maximum hand size.
If Owl Familiar would leave your control or be put into your library, hand, graveyard, or exile from anywhere, instead put it into your command zone and skip your next draw step.
Raven Familiar
Mana cost: B
Bond Creature - Bird 1/1
You may cast this from your command zone once each turn.
Flying
While Raven Familiar is on the battlefield, your opponents’ maximum hand sizes are decreased by one.
If Raven Familiar would leave your control or be put into your library, hand, graveyard, or exile from anywhere, instead put it into your command zone and skip your next draw step.
Weasel Familiar
Mana cost: R
Bond Creature - Weasel 1/1
You may cast this from your command zone once each turn.
While Weasel Familiar is on the battlefield, it has “T: Deal 1 damage to any target that was dealt damage this turn.”
If Weasel Familiar would leave your control or be put into your library, hand, graveyard, or exile from anywhere, instead put it into your command zone and skip your next draw step.
Frog Familiar
Mana cost: G
Bond Creature - Frog 1/1
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
You may cast this from your command zone once each turn.
When Frog Familiar enters the battlefield, gain 3 life.
If Frog Familiar would leave your control or be put into your library, hand, graveyard, or exile from anywhere, instead put it into your command zone and skip your next draw step.
Questions for your assessment:
1. Is starting the game with one less card in hand worth the abilities these Bonds grant?
2. Are any of these bonds necessarily better than the others practically all of the time?
BOND RULES
1. At the start of a game, before decks are shuffled but after sideboarding, each player may put one bond card from their sideboard into their command zone. If they do, their starting hand size is reduced by one card.
2. While in the command zone, Bond cards are considered outside the game and aren't considered permanents. Thus, they can't be targeted or affected by spells or abilities.
3. Bond cards can't leave the command zone unless that card specifies otherwise or that it can be cast from the command zone.
4. As long as a Bond card is in the command zone, its activated abilities may be used as if it were a permanent controlled by its owner, its static abilities affect the game, and its triggered abilities may trigger.
Would these be the first emblems to tap? Outside of cards not covered in the comprehensive rules I don't recall anything being able to tap that is not a permanent on the battlefield.
I see no inherent benefit to making these emblems over e. g. artifacts. Make them resilient enough (indestructible/shroud?) and they are virtually free from interaction and don't need to violate the rules of giving emblems names, making emblems draftable or tapping nonpermanents.
The trade-off would be... easier ascend? Nontargeted artifact animation? Seemingly within reason compared to othe known quantities like 0-mana artifacts.
So, I'm going to pretend that emblem part is fixable...
The repeated scrying-like effects seem like a potential nuisance since they are time-consuming.
You may want to define "spell card".
Each of them needs to be weaker in effect than an artifact with cost , since they are just as easily played in addition to allowing you to gurantee that they are in your starting hand. Do these satisfy that?
The random coin flipping is something annoying to add this way.
p. s.: Wouldn't vanguards be better for this than emblems anyway?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
I looked into the rules for Conspiracy cards, and YES these cards should be modeled after Conspiracy cards, not made into new Emblems. I am going to edit my opening post to reflect this.
No, I changed the cards so they don't involve tapping.
Do you think these cards are more intuitive as pseudo-Conspiracies?
I absolutely agree that these cards should collectively be weaker than 0-cost artifacts. Orb Focus is strictly better than Glasses of Urza, but Glasses of Urza never saw tournament play, so I think that's acceptable.
I got rid of the coin flipping Banana Focus.
I looked at Vanguards, and Vanguards make decks better. The goal here is to create balanced cards that may or may not be desirable for constructed formats.
I have created a new series of cards called Bond cards. They function very much like Conspiracies, but are designed for use in both Limited AND Constructed formats. The exact rules (as they would be written in the comprehensive rules) are at the very end of this opening post.
My primary intention in creating the Bond (Focus) cards was to increase consistency and provide a virtual vaccination against mana flood and mana screw. In my opinion, far too many games are dictated by an aberrant distribution of lands and spells, especially in limited formats like sealed deck and draft. Each Bond (Focus) card I have created protects against mana flood by allowing you to cycle your basic land cards for 2 mana. A smart player will also use this ability to safeguard against mana screw, because it makes it safer to include a few more lands in your deck.
I also created a series of Bond - Familiar cards, which allow players to summon relatively powerful 1-drop creatures. The drawback is that if your Familiar leaves play, you essentially re-topdeck it, and topdecking a 1/1 in the mid-to-late game is generally ugly.
Overall, these cards are intended to be just strong enough to use in Constructed formats. But they are also intended to never feel oppressively overpowered. I am hoping to get feedback as to whether my intention has been met.
Ankh Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
Your starting life total is increased by five.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Crystal Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
If you could play a land, you may instead add 1. If you do, you can’t play a land this turn.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Orb Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
You may look at an opponent’s hand at any time.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Staff Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
If you would lose the game during an opponent's turn, remove Staff Focus from your command zone instead. Then you may either set your life total at 1 or remove any number of counters from you.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Stone Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
Instead of drawing a card during your draw step as a turn-based action, you may look at exactly the top four cards of your library, reveal up to one basic land card from among them and put it into your hand, then put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Totem Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
Instead of drawing a card during your draw step as a turn-based action, you may look at the top three cards of your library, put one of them into your hand, and the rest on top of your library in any order.
Whenever your library is shuffled, discard a card at random.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Wand Focus
Bond
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
If you would draw a card, you may put the bottom card of your library into your hand instead.
If you would discard a card, you may put that card on the bottom of your library instead.
Your basic land cards have cycling 2.
Cat Familiar
Mana cost: W
Bond Creature - Cat 1/1
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
You may cast this from your command zone once each turn.
While Cat Familiar is on the battlefield, prevent the first 2 damage that would be dealt to you each turn.
If Cat Familiar would leave your control or be put into your library, hand, graveyard, or exile from anywhere, instead put it into your command zone and skip your next draw step.
Owl Familiar
Mana cost: U
Bond Creature - Bird 1/1
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
You may cast this from your command zone once each turn.
Flying
While Owl Familiar is on the battlefield, your have no maximum hand size.
If Owl Familiar would leave your control or be put into your library, hand, graveyard, or exile from anywhere, instead put it into your command zone and skip your next draw step.
Raven Familiar
Mana cost: B
Bond Creature - Bird 1/1
You may cast this from your command zone once each turn.
Flying
While Raven Familiar is on the battlefield, your opponents’ maximum hand sizes are decreased by one.
If Raven Familiar would leave your control or be put into your library, hand, graveyard, or exile from anywhere, instead put it into your command zone and skip your next draw step.
Weasel Familiar
Mana cost: R
Bond Creature - Weasel 1/1
You may cast this from your command zone once each turn.
While Weasel Familiar is on the battlefield, it has “T: Deal 1 damage to any target that was dealt damage this turn.”
If Weasel Familiar would leave your control or be put into your library, hand, graveyard, or exile from anywhere, instead put it into your command zone and skip your next draw step.
Frog Familiar
Mana cost: G
Bond Creature - Frog 1/1
(You may start the game with one bond card in your command zone. If you do, your starting hand size is reduced by one.)
You may cast this from your command zone once each turn.
When Frog Familiar enters the battlefield, gain 3 life.
If Frog Familiar would leave your control or be put into your library, hand, graveyard, or exile from anywhere, instead put it into your command zone and skip your next draw step.
Questions for your assessment:
1. Is starting the game with one less card in hand worth the abilities these Bonds grant?
2. Are any of these bonds necessarily better than the others practically all of the time?
BOND RULES
1. At the start of a game, before decks are shuffled but after sideboarding, each player may put one bond card from their sideboard into their command zone. If they do, their starting hand size is reduced by one card.
2. While in the command zone, Bond cards are considered outside the game and aren't considered permanents. Thus, they can't be targeted or affected by spells or abilities.
3. Bond cards can't leave the command zone unless that card specifies otherwise or that it can be cast from the command zone.
4. As long as a Bond card is in the command zone, its activated abilities may be used as if it were a permanent controlled by its owner, its static abilities affect the game, and its triggered abilities may trigger.
I see no inherent benefit to making these emblems over e. g. artifacts. Make them resilient enough (indestructible/shroud?) and they are virtually free from interaction and don't need to violate the rules of giving emblems names, making emblems draftable or tapping nonpermanents.
The trade-off would be... easier ascend? Nontargeted artifact animation? Seemingly within reason compared to othe known quantities like 0-mana artifacts.
So, I'm going to pretend that emblem part is fixable...
The repeated scrying-like effects seem like a potential nuisance since they are time-consuming.
You may want to define "spell card".
Each of them needs to be weaker in effect than an artifact with cost , since they are just as easily played in addition to allowing you to gurantee that they are in your starting hand. Do these satisfy that?
The random coin flipping is something annoying to add this way.
p. s.: Wouldn't vanguards be better for this than emblems anyway?
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
Do you think these cards are more intuitive as pseudo-Conspiracies?
I absolutely agree that these cards should collectively be weaker than 0-cost artifacts. Orb Focus is strictly better than Glasses of Urza, but Glasses of Urza never saw tournament play, so I think that's acceptable.
I got rid of the coin flipping Banana Focus.
I looked at Vanguards, and Vanguards make decks better. The goal here is to create balanced cards that may or may not be desirable for constructed formats.