Back when WotC was doing their challenges for their new R&D person, I followed along and did the challenges myself. One of the challenges was to create a new keyword effect, and I came up with "showcase". Simple example:
Boast (Common) G
Sorcery
Showcase target non-showcased creature you control, until another permanent or player becomes showcased. Put two +1/+1 counters on it. (When choosing targets for a spell or ability, players must choose a showcased permanent or player, if able.)
It's sort of the opposite of shroud: instead of being unable to be targeted, everything has to target it. I included the "must target it first" caveat because I wasn't sure how else to handle spells / abilities that target multiple things simultaneously.
Here are the rest:
Gossip (Uncommon) B
Instant
Showcase target non-showcased creature an opponent controls, until another permanent or player becomes showcased. (When choosing targets for a spell or ability, players must choose a showcased permanent or player, if able.) 2B: Return CARDNAME from your graveyard to your hand. Target showcased creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Proud Mama (Common) 4G
Creature - Bear
4/3 2G: Create a 2/2 green Bear creature token, then showcase it, until another permanent or player becomes showcased. (When choosing targets for a spell or ability, players must choose a showcased permanent or player, if able.)
Showcased creatures you control have trample and must be blocked if able.
Innovative Tinkerer (Uncommon) 2U
Creature - Human Artificer
1/3 U, T: Showcase target non-showcased artifact you control, until another permanent or player becomes showcased. (When choosing targets for a spell or ability, players must choose a showcased permanent or player, if able.)
Showcased artifacts you control have "T: Add C."
Display Pedestal (Rare) 4
Artifact
Showcased permanents you control have hexproof and haste. 1, T: Tap or untap all showcased permanents.
Wandering Spotlight (Rare) 3R
Enchantment
At the beginning of each upkeep, showcase target non-showcased permanent at random, until another permanent or player becomes showcased. (When choosing targets for a spell or ability, players must choose a showcased permanent or player, if able.)
Bainum, Storied Ringmaster (Mythic Rare) WUBRG
Legendary Creature - Human Performer
Convoke
At beginning of combat, you may showcase target non-showcased creature, until another permanent or player becomes showcased.
Showcased creatures must be blocked, if able.
Other Performer creatures get +1/+1.
*NOTE: One of the earlier challenges was a top-down design centered around a new circus-themed plane called Bigtopia. Showcasing seemed to work well thematically with a circus spectacle, so I mixed the two.
Glory of Ego 5WR
Enchantment 5: Showcase target non-showcased player, until another permanent or player becomes showcased. Any player may activate this ability.
While a player is showcased, all permanents they control are also showcased, creatures must attack that player if they attack, and creatures must block attackers controlled by that player if able.
Should totally work within the rules. It's like an updated version of Flagbearer, and I would phrase it like that:
"Showcase target (object) until another permanent or player becomes showcased. (When choosing targets for a spell or ability, players must choose a showcased permanent or player, if able.)"
Having showcase be a temporary property rather than linked to a creature type solves most of the awkward issues with the Flagbearers.
It seems kind of wordy (especially the "until something else becomes showcased" part), but see Standard Bearer for an example of something very similar.
Display Pedestal seems odd since it seems that everything only allows 1 Showcased object at a time. Hexproof also seems odd since now it is showcased but does nothing except mess up your own spells since you still have to target it. It just doesn't look like it would play well. On that note, why not make it so only your *opponent* must target it? As it is now, your own showcased object means your Lightning Bolt is pretty bad.
Also, it doesn't seem to limit it to just its controller which means there could be easy "feels-bad" moments when you do showcase something but don't get to do anything with because your opponent showcases something right away.
...I'm not sure why it would be outside the rules? Can you elaborate?
EDIT: Ninja'd.
I like the reworded version much better; thank you. I'll update the cards in a bit.
I worded Display Pedestal's effect the way that I did to avoid the word "target".
In regards to showcase + hexproof: Remember that showcasing only affects a targeting effect if that effect could target the thing being showcased. If a noncreature artifact is currently being showcased, Lightning Bolt will work just fine since it can't target that anyways.
Also, "feels-bad" is in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I would find the situation you described fun and clever (yes, even if I was on the losing side of it).
In regards to showcase + hexproof: Remember that showcasing only affects a targeting effect if that effect could target the thing being showcased. If a noncreature artifact is currently being showcased, Lightning Bolt will work just fine since it can't target that anyways.
I don't think I was clear with my criticism. So, let me elaborate:
Say you end up with a Showcased creature. Now, anything you or your opponent casts must target that creature if able. The power of Showcase seems to be the idea that it is a "shield" of sorts for yourself or your other stuff. By making the showcased creature be a target, players have to deal with it first before they can target anything else. Like a Spellskite.
Now, you decide to cast Display Pedestal. So, your opponent casts Lightning Bolt. Since they cannot target the Showcased creature, they are free to target you or your other creatures without hindrance. But, you cannot cast your own Lightning Bolt targeting the opponent because you now must target your own Showcased creature. Hexproof does not prevent you from targeting your own stuff.
Essentially, Showcase offers a benefit by making it more difficult for "more important" things to be targeted. Display Pedestal now just makes it so Showcase means little in this regard and still hoses your own spells.
In your example, Display Pedestal is irrelevant since, as you said, Bolt cannot target a noncreature, nonplaneswalker permanent anyway. My concern is that when you do Showcase a creature, and then give it Hexproof, the main appeal (to me anyway) of Showcase is now null since it can't be targeted. It might as well not be Showcased anymore.
Let's change tactics, then. Instead of a pedestal, maybe a case?
Display Case 4
Artifact
CARDNAME can't be showcased.
Showcased permanents lose all abilities, can't attack or block, and gain indestructible.
Showcased players can't cast spells and can't lose the game, and their opponents can't win the game.
Also, I was thinking of a way to "calm the chaos" of showcasing constantly shifting around?
Fixed Spotlight 1
Artifact
While a permanent or player is showcased, players cannot activate spells or abilities that would showcase a permanent or player. Any player may pay 4 to have this permanent lose this ability until end of turn.
I would be using that "CARDNAME can't be showcased" a bit more often, it's a decent way out for things that would become broken when showcased, and is a flavor fix for things that would make no sense to be on showcase, like the Spotlight.
Display Case is a strange combination. For permanents, it's a Darksteel Mutation, but for players it's a Platinum Angel. That's not necessarily bad, but I question the flavor of wanting to put yourself into a display case. I think you want the nature of the effects to be similar to each other for creatures and players. If a creature in the display case can't get hurt but also can't do anything, a player in the case should be the same. Something like "Showcased players can't cast spells and their life totals can't change." But if you do something like that, you need to put an release onto the card so a player caught unprepared has a chance to escape the case. Like "6: Showcase target nonland permanent you control until another permanent or player becomes showcased. Any player may activate this ability, but only any time they could cast a sorcery." That gets a player out of the case, but at the cost of most of their turn, and at the cost of locking something they control into the case. It's not foolproof, they still need something to replace them in the case, but it helps.
Fixed Spotlight has some issues. I'm not certain that the rules allow you to preempt a spell or ability based on a possible outcome of its resolution. Furthermore, it doesn't stop triggered abilities from changing the showcase, such as Wandering Spotlight. It's also too cheap at 1 for a card that effectively hoses your entire set mechanic, showcase decks won't get off the ground with a card like this in the set. It's good to have a tool to protect the showcase from shifting around too much, but it also blocks a showcase strategy from putting the showcase where it wants it to be. Finally, I don't think it's wise to make the removal of the ability a special action, it would be simpler to just make it an activated ability "4: Fixed Spotlight loses all abilities until end of turn. Any player may activate this ability."
I don't think you have to say "non-showcased" for your application of showcase. They way it's structured, there's nothing meaningful about being "double showcased," it's a property that is redundant, like color.
"Non-showcased" is included out of necessity. Effects that showcase are targeting effects, so if I were to just say "Showcase target _____", and the _____ in question shared a quality with something that was already showcased, the rules of showcase would require me to target the thing that's already showcased. I.e. if an artifact creature was currently showcased, I would be unable to use a showcase effect targeting any other "artifact", "creature", or "permanent".
You understood the premise behind Display Case. I could add a showcasing effect as a third effect to the card, but I'm concerned about text space; the explanation of the showcase effect does take up a fair bit of real estate. I could take off the player effect, but then that would kind of invalidate the need for the third effect to begin with. Hmm.
I don't understand your sentence "I'm not certain that the rules allow you to preempt a spell or ability based on a possible outcome of its resolution."; can you elaborate?
Wandering Spotlight + Fixed Spotlight is a weird combination, I'll admit. Maybe I should combine the two, and add a "unless you pay ___" effect to Wandering that effectively "turns off" showcasing for the turn?
You mentioned this in passing, but I think it bears discussion: "showcase deck". I'm not sure there ever would be such a thing, because I don't think showcasing lends itself to that. Showcasing isn't, by itself, a win condition, much like heroic, renown, and monstrous aren't win conditions. I think showcasing is more of a playstyle and support mechanic than anything else.
I don't understand your sentence "I'm not certain that the rules allow you to preempt a spell or ability based on a possible outcome of its resolution."; can you elaborate?
All abilities that prevent something from happening do so based on a defined property of that thing. For example Iona, Shield of Emeria prevents spells of a color from being cast. The color of that spell is a property of the card and is known at the moment you attempt to cast it, and the spell can't be put onto the stack, it just remains where it was and nothing else happens. Fixed Spotlight does something that has never existed on a real card, it is trying to prevent an action based not on an immediately known property or feature, but based on what might happen if that spell or ability is allowed to resolve. I wouldn't say its impossible for the rules to allow this, but there is no precedent.
Imagine a card that said the following:
"Players can't cast spells that would destroy a creature."
That's structured the same way that you have Fixed Spotlight, caring about the outcome of the spell rather than a property of it, in this case the outcome of a creature being destroyed. On the most basic level, it makes sense, I wouldn't be allowed to cast my Wrath of God to clear the board. But what if I wanted to cast it when there were no creatures on the battlefield? Now the projected outcome wouldn't destroy any creatures, can I cast my Wrath of God or not? Let's go one deeper, what if there is an indestructible creature? That creature wouldn't actually be destroyed by my Wrath of God, but the spell would still attempt to destroy it, does it still get stopped by our imagined card? Austere Command has modes, two of which destroy creatures, would I be allowed to cast Austere Command at all, or would I just not be allowed to choose the modes that destroy creatures. Think about it from a different angle: Nullstone Gargoyle counters noncreature spells. Attempting to cast Murder on Nullstone Gargoyle wouldn't destroy it, since the gargoyle would just counter the spell, would our imaginary card still stop murder from being cast? Going still deeper, what if I splice Horobi's Whisper onto Reach Through Mists? That would destroy a creature if it resolves, and I only cast one spell to cause it, does our imaginary card care?
It may seem like I went off on a tangent there, but that's the rules hole you've opened up with Fixed Spotlight, interacting with spells based on their possible future outcomes rather than fixed properties like type, color, CMC, etc.
I don't understand your sentence "I'm not certain that the rules allow you to preempt a spell or ability based on a possible outcome of its resolution."; can you elaborate?
All abilities that prevent something from happening do so based on a defined property of that thing. For example Iona, Shield of Emeria prevents spells of a color from being cast. The color of that spell is a property of the card and is known at the moment you attempt to cast it, and the spell can't be put onto the stack, it just remains where it was and nothing else happens. Fixed Spotlight does something that has never existed on a real card, it is trying to prevent an action based not on an immediately known property or feature, but based on what might happen if that spell or ability is allowed to resolve. I wouldn't say its impossible for the rules to allow this, but there is no precedent.
Imagine a card that said the following:
"Players can't cast spells that would destroy a creature."
That's structured the same way that you have Fixed Spotlight, caring about the outcome of the spell rather than a property of it, in this case the outcome of a creature being destroyed. On the most basic level, it makes sense, I wouldn't be allowed to cast my Wrath of God to clear the board. But what if I wanted to cast it when there were no creatures on the battlefield? Now the projected outcome wouldn't destroy any creatures, can I cast my Wrath of God or not? Let's go one deeper, what if there is an indestructible creature? That creature wouldn't actually be destroyed by my Wrath of God, but the spell would still attempt to destroy it, does it still get stopped by our imagined card? Austere Command has modes, two of which destroy creatures, would I be allowed to cast Austere Command at all, or would I just not be allowed to choose the modes that destroy creatures. Think about it from a different angle: Nullstone Gargoyle counters noncreature spells. Attempting to cast Murder on Nullstone Gargoyle wouldn't destroy it, since the gargoyle would just counter the spell, would our imaginary card still stop murder from being cast? Going still deeper, what if I splice Horobi's Whisper onto Reach Through Mists? That would destroy a creature if it resolves, and I only cast one spell to cause it, does our imaginary card care?
It may seem like I went off on a tangent there, but that's the rules hole you've opened up with Fixed Spotlight, interacting with spells based on their possible future outcomes rather than fixed properties like type, color, CMC, etc.
It isn't exact, but Equinox is a card that does do something on a potential future. Now, this is based on what would happen if that spell would resolve *right now* and does not prevent something from being activated or cast. Maybe the OP's card could be worded like Equinox to just counter the spell or ability in that case.
Maybe, instead, if it said "While a permanent or player is showcased, other permanents and players cannot become showcased"?
Fixed Spotlight 3
Artifact
While a permanent or player is showcased, other permanents and players cannot become showcased. 3: CARDNAME loses all abilities until end of turn. Any player may activate this ability.
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Boast (Common)
G
Sorcery
Showcase target non-showcased creature you control, until another permanent or player becomes showcased. Put two +1/+1 counters on it. (When choosing targets for a spell or ability, players must choose a showcased permanent or player, if able.)
It's sort of the opposite of shroud: instead of being unable to be targeted, everything has to target it. I included the "must target it first" caveat because I wasn't sure how else to handle spells / abilities that target multiple things simultaneously.
Here are the rest:
Gossip (Uncommon)
B
Instant
Showcase target non-showcased creature an opponent controls, until another permanent or player becomes showcased. (When choosing targets for a spell or ability, players must choose a showcased permanent or player, if able.)
2B: Return CARDNAME from your graveyard to your hand. Target showcased creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Proud Mama (Common)
4G
Creature - Bear
4/3
2G: Create a 2/2 green Bear creature token, then showcase it, until another permanent or player becomes showcased. (When choosing targets for a spell or ability, players must choose a showcased permanent or player, if able.)
Showcased creatures you control have trample and must be blocked if able.
Innovative Tinkerer (Uncommon)
2U
Creature - Human Artificer
1/3
U, T: Showcase target non-showcased artifact you control, until another permanent or player becomes showcased. (When choosing targets for a spell or ability, players must choose a showcased permanent or player, if able.)
Showcased artifacts you control have "T: Add C."
Display Pedestal (Rare)
4
Artifact
Showcased permanents you control have hexproof and haste.
1, T: Tap or untap all showcased permanents.
Wandering Spotlight (Rare)
3R
Enchantment
At the beginning of each upkeep, showcase target non-showcased permanent at random, until another permanent or player becomes showcased. (When choosing targets for a spell or ability, players must choose a showcased permanent or player, if able.)
Bainum, Storied Ringmaster (Mythic Rare)
WUBRG
Legendary Creature - Human Performer
Convoke
At beginning of combat, you may showcase target non-showcased creature, until another permanent or player becomes showcased.
Showcased creatures must be blocked, if able.
Other Performer creatures get +1/+1.
*NOTE: One of the earlier challenges was a top-down design centered around a new circus-themed plane called Bigtopia. Showcasing seemed to work well thematically with a circus spectacle, so I mixed the two.
Glory of Ego
5WR
Enchantment
5: Showcase target non-showcased player, until another permanent or player becomes showcased. Any player may activate this ability.
While a player is showcased, all permanents they control are also showcased, creatures must attack that player if they attack, and creatures must block attackers controlled by that player if able.
Art is life itself.
"Showcase target (object) until another permanent or player becomes showcased. (When choosing targets for a spell or ability, players must choose a showcased permanent or player, if able.)"
Having showcase be a temporary property rather than linked to a creature type solves most of the awkward issues with the Flagbearers.
Display Pedestal seems odd since it seems that everything only allows 1 Showcased object at a time. Hexproof also seems odd since now it is showcased but does nothing except mess up your own spells since you still have to target it. It just doesn't look like it would play well. On that note, why not make it so only your *opponent* must target it? As it is now, your own showcased object means your Lightning Bolt is pretty bad.
Also, it doesn't seem to limit it to just its controller which means there could be easy "feels-bad" moments when you do showcase something but don't get to do anything with because your opponent showcases something right away.
EDIT: Ninja'd.
I like the reworded version much better; thank you. I'll update the cards in a bit.
I worded Display Pedestal's effect the way that I did to avoid the word "target".
In regards to showcase + hexproof: Remember that showcasing only affects a targeting effect if that effect could target the thing being showcased. If a noncreature artifact is currently being showcased, Lightning Bolt will work just fine since it can't target that anyways.
Also, "feels-bad" is in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I would find the situation you described fun and clever (yes, even if I was on the losing side of it).
Art is life itself.
Say you end up with a Showcased creature. Now, anything you or your opponent casts must target that creature if able. The power of Showcase seems to be the idea that it is a "shield" of sorts for yourself or your other stuff. By making the showcased creature be a target, players have to deal with it first before they can target anything else. Like a Spellskite.
Now, you decide to cast Display Pedestal. So, your opponent casts Lightning Bolt. Since they cannot target the Showcased creature, they are free to target you or your other creatures without hindrance. But, you cannot cast your own Lightning Bolt targeting the opponent because you now must target your own Showcased creature. Hexproof does not prevent you from targeting your own stuff.
Essentially, Showcase offers a benefit by making it more difficult for "more important" things to be targeted. Display Pedestal now just makes it so Showcase means little in this regard and still hoses your own spells.
In your example, Display Pedestal is irrelevant since, as you said, Bolt cannot target a noncreature, nonplaneswalker permanent anyway. My concern is that when you do Showcase a creature, and then give it Hexproof, the main appeal (to me anyway) of Showcase is now null since it can't be targeted. It might as well not be Showcased anymore.
Let's change tactics, then. Instead of a pedestal, maybe a case?
Display Case
4
Artifact
CARDNAME can't be showcased.
Showcased permanents lose all abilities, can't attack or block, and gain indestructible.
Showcased players can't cast spells and can't lose the game, and their opponents can't win the game.
Also, I was thinking of a way to "calm the chaos" of showcasing constantly shifting around?
Fixed Spotlight
1
Artifact
While a permanent or player is showcased, players cannot activate spells or abilities that would showcase a permanent or player. Any player may pay 4 to have this permanent lose this ability until end of turn.
Display Case is a strange combination. For permanents, it's a Darksteel Mutation, but for players it's a Platinum Angel. That's not necessarily bad, but I question the flavor of wanting to put yourself into a display case. I think you want the nature of the effects to be similar to each other for creatures and players. If a creature in the display case can't get hurt but also can't do anything, a player in the case should be the same. Something like "Showcased players can't cast spells and their life totals can't change." But if you do something like that, you need to put an release onto the card so a player caught unprepared has a chance to escape the case. Like "6: Showcase target nonland permanent you control until another permanent or player becomes showcased. Any player may activate this ability, but only any time they could cast a sorcery." That gets a player out of the case, but at the cost of most of their turn, and at the cost of locking something they control into the case. It's not foolproof, they still need something to replace them in the case, but it helps.
Fixed Spotlight has some issues. I'm not certain that the rules allow you to preempt a spell or ability based on a possible outcome of its resolution. Furthermore, it doesn't stop triggered abilities from changing the showcase, such as Wandering Spotlight. It's also too cheap at 1 for a card that effectively hoses your entire set mechanic, showcase decks won't get off the ground with a card like this in the set. It's good to have a tool to protect the showcase from shifting around too much, but it also blocks a showcase strategy from putting the showcase where it wants it to be. Finally, I don't think it's wise to make the removal of the ability a special action, it would be simpler to just make it an activated ability "4: Fixed Spotlight loses all abilities until end of turn. Any player may activate this ability."
I don't think you have to say "non-showcased" for your application of showcase. They way it's structured, there's nothing meaningful about being "double showcased," it's a property that is redundant, like color.
You understood the premise behind Display Case. I could add a showcasing effect as a third effect to the card, but I'm concerned about text space; the explanation of the showcase effect does take up a fair bit of real estate. I could take off the player effect, but then that would kind of invalidate the need for the third effect to begin with. Hmm.
I don't understand your sentence "I'm not certain that the rules allow you to preempt a spell or ability based on a possible outcome of its resolution."; can you elaborate?
Wandering Spotlight + Fixed Spotlight is a weird combination, I'll admit. Maybe I should combine the two, and add a "unless you pay ___" effect to Wandering that effectively "turns off" showcasing for the turn?
You mentioned this in passing, but I think it bears discussion: "showcase deck". I'm not sure there ever would be such a thing, because I don't think showcasing lends itself to that. Showcasing isn't, by itself, a win condition, much like heroic, renown, and monstrous aren't win conditions. I think showcasing is more of a playstyle and support mechanic than anything else.
All abilities that prevent something from happening do so based on a defined property of that thing. For example Iona, Shield of Emeria prevents spells of a color from being cast. The color of that spell is a property of the card and is known at the moment you attempt to cast it, and the spell can't be put onto the stack, it just remains where it was and nothing else happens. Fixed Spotlight does something that has never existed on a real card, it is trying to prevent an action based not on an immediately known property or feature, but based on what might happen if that spell or ability is allowed to resolve. I wouldn't say its impossible for the rules to allow this, but there is no precedent.
Imagine a card that said the following:
"Players can't cast spells that would destroy a creature."
That's structured the same way that you have Fixed Spotlight, caring about the outcome of the spell rather than a property of it, in this case the outcome of a creature being destroyed. On the most basic level, it makes sense, I wouldn't be allowed to cast my Wrath of God to clear the board. But what if I wanted to cast it when there were no creatures on the battlefield? Now the projected outcome wouldn't destroy any creatures, can I cast my Wrath of God or not? Let's go one deeper, what if there is an indestructible creature? That creature wouldn't actually be destroyed by my Wrath of God, but the spell would still attempt to destroy it, does it still get stopped by our imagined card? Austere Command has modes, two of which destroy creatures, would I be allowed to cast Austere Command at all, or would I just not be allowed to choose the modes that destroy creatures. Think about it from a different angle: Nullstone Gargoyle counters noncreature spells. Attempting to cast Murder on Nullstone Gargoyle wouldn't destroy it, since the gargoyle would just counter the spell, would our imaginary card still stop murder from being cast? Going still deeper, what if I splice Horobi's Whisper onto Reach Through Mists? That would destroy a creature if it resolves, and I only cast one spell to cause it, does our imaginary card care?
It may seem like I went off on a tangent there, but that's the rules hole you've opened up with Fixed Spotlight, interacting with spells based on their possible future outcomes rather than fixed properties like type, color, CMC, etc.
Maybe, instead, if it said "While a permanent or player is showcased, other permanents and players cannot become showcased"?
Fixed Spotlight
3
Artifact
While a permanent or player is showcased, other permanents and players cannot become showcased.
3: CARDNAME loses all abilities until end of turn. Any player may activate this ability.