A mechanic for a vaguely surrealist/mystery/dreamworld themed set. There is a library focus, hence this mechanic.
[Cost]: Travel (Put this creature on the top or bottom of your library.)
The notion of this mechanic is to trade your creatures in for value when you need it, and combine with library manipulation and draw to help reduce the downside. There will be a specific focus on the bottom of the library, encouraging players to actually put travel creatures on the bottom because they will be able to hold them there and then retrieve them when they want them again.
This pairs well with another library related mechanic of the set that likes draw and filtering, allowing them to share synergy cards.
One potential problem is people regularly travelling their creatures only when they're about to die anyway, which could get frustrating, make things complex, and potentially hurt newer players who don't fully realise you can do this. I have intentionally designed some of the travel creatures to have effects you want at a specific time not basic value whenever, and some that only travel at sorcery speed, so that not all the travel creatures encourage this.
Cloudchaser Valuum
Creature- Worm Beast (C)
Flying
: Travel (Put this creature on the top or bottom of your library.)
When Cloudchaser Valuum travels, target creature gains flying until end of turn.
3/4
Malacol Fist
Creature- Elemental (C)
: Travel. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery. (Put this creature on the top or bottom of your library.)
When Malacol Fist travels, target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
3/4
Unbound Keeper
Creature- Elemental (U)
: Add one mana of any color.
: Travel (Put this creature on the top or bottom of your library.)
When Unbound Keeper travels, you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.
1/2
Reef Titan
Creature- Leviathan (M)
Reef Titan has hexproof as long as it’s untapped.
: Travel (Put this creature on the top or bottom of your library.)
When Reef Titan travels, return all creatures to their owners’ hands except for Merfolk, Krakens, Leviathans, Octopuses, and Serpents.
6/7
(Mock-ups attached)
I am somewhat concerned this mechanic will end up being repetitive, with people travelling the same couple creatures, then drawing them from the top, then travelling them again, and so on. Another potential problem is players, especially newer/more casual players, might be quite reluctant to travel their creatures because they might not find it very fun.
Your concern about repetitiveness seems spot-on. Reef Titan, in particular, is just going to win the game on its own every time. The repeatable mass-bounce is super strong anyways, and the hexproof pushes it way too far.
What I'm more worried about here is time. Players will never deck out, ever, so a game one deadlock is just going to end the whole match in a draw. It's like chess, except only the part where players force stalemates every game, like in the recent big chess tournament. The idea of playing around with the top and bottom of a library is really cool, but a mechanic that repeatedly sends creatures to those locations takes all of the problems caused by Teferi, Hero of Dominaria's self-tuck and magnifies them by the number of traveling creatures in each deck.
Your concern about repetitiveness seems spot-on. Reef Titan, in particular, is just going to win the game on its own every time. The repeatable mass-bounce is super strong anyways, and the hexproof pushes it way too far.
You're right that Reef Titan could be very annoying. I might change that one to an ability that is less punishing when used repeatedly.
Or increase the travel cost to at least. That way it's harder and more costly to spam.
I did originally have a version of this that put creatures only on the bottom, which would make things less repetitive as it takes work to get them back, but that might be a little close to just sacrifice.
What I'm more worried about here is time. Players will never deck out, ever, so a game one deadlock is just going to end the whole match in a draw. It's like chess, except only the part where players force stalemates every game, like in the recent big chess tournament. The idea of playing around with the top and bottom of a library is really cool, but a mechanic that repeatedly sends creatures to those locations takes all of the problems caused by Teferi, Hero of Dominaria's self-tuck and magnifies them by the number of traveling creatures in each deck.
Cards that exist to put cards back into your library have existed before, many of which can shuffle in a lot of cards. I don't know if one mechanic that slowly puts cards back in one at a time is going to be that bad. Any small amount of mill or removal (especially counterspells which you can't travel in response to) could stop it, and constantly travelling will often not be great value and you could just get beat down.
Maybe I'm not seeing things right, but this seems like a manageable problem to me.
Cards that exist to put cards back into your library have existed before, many of which can shuffle in a lot of cards. I don't know if one mechanic that slowly puts cards back in one at a time is going to be that bad. Any small amount of mill or removal (especially counterspells which you can't travel in response to) could stop it, and constantly travelling will often not be great value and you could just get beat down.
Maybe I'm not seeing things right, but this seems like a manageable problem to me.
Maybe if the mechanic only put creatures on the bottom of the library. If they can go back on top, there could possibly be a situation where both players are in a position where they have to keep re-using certain travel abilities to not lose. If both players are forced to either loop travel creatures or lose, then the game becomes an unbreakable stalemate.
Keep in mind that most cards that put cards back in one's library shuffle, which prevents repetition much of the time. If anything, the closest cousin to travel is dredge.
Cards that exist to put cards back into your library have existed before, many of which can shuffle in a lot of cards. I don't know if one mechanic that slowly puts cards back in one at a time is going to be that bad. Any small amount of mill or removal (especially counterspells which you can't travel in response to) could stop it, and constantly travelling will often not be great value and you could just get beat down.
Maybe I'm not seeing things right, but this seems like a manageable problem to me.
Maybe if the mechanic only put creatures on the bottom of the library.
Do you think that would be too close to sacrifice, given without certain other card effects, you will very likely not get the creature back?
Keep in mind that most cards that put cards back in one's library shuffle, which prevents repetition much of the time. If anything, the closest cousin to travel is dredge.
True, but those shuffle effects are usually more potent (put more cards back in), which makes it harder to mill through it and can allow you to cycle through all your cards over and over. Elixir of Immortality seems better than Travel at preventing you from ever losing, and I don't think that card was that bad.
True, but those shuffle effects are usually more potent (put more cards back in), which makes it harder to mill through it and can allow you to cycle through all your cards over and over. Elixir of Immortality seems better than Travel at preventing you from ever losing, and I don't think that card was that bad.
You're narrowing in on this too much. I'm not concerned about single cards that prevent milling. There has never been anything wrong with the concept of individual cards that protect one from decking out. My problem is that you're turning off the game's safety valve set-wide as a side-effect to a mechanic that already goes on creatures that already do positive and sometimes powerful things at the same time as just casually preventing deckouts.
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[Cost]: Travel (Put this creature on the top or bottom of your library.)
The notion of this mechanic is to trade your creatures in for value when you need it, and combine with library manipulation and draw to help reduce the downside. There will be a specific focus on the bottom of the library, encouraging players to actually put travel creatures on the bottom because they will be able to hold them there and then retrieve them when they want them again.
This pairs well with another library related mechanic of the set that likes draw and filtering, allowing them to share synergy cards.
One potential problem is people regularly travelling their creatures only when they're about to die anyway, which could get frustrating, make things complex, and potentially hurt newer players who don't fully realise you can do this. I have intentionally designed some of the travel creatures to have effects you want at a specific time not basic value whenever, and some that only travel at sorcery speed, so that not all the travel creatures encourage this.
Cloudchaser Valuum
Creature- Worm Beast (C)
Flying
: Travel (Put this creature on the top or bottom of your library.)
When Cloudchaser Valuum travels, target creature gains flying until end of turn.
3/4
Malacol Fist
Creature- Elemental (C)
: Travel. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery. (Put this creature on the top or bottom of your library.)
When Malacol Fist travels, target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
3/4
Unbound Keeper
Creature- Elemental (U)
: Add one mana of any color.
: Travel (Put this creature on the top or bottom of your library.)
When Unbound Keeper travels, you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.
1/2
Reef Titan
Creature- Leviathan (M)
Reef Titan has hexproof as long as it’s untapped.
: Travel (Put this creature on the top or bottom of your library.)
When Reef Titan travels, return all creatures to their owners’ hands except for Merfolk, Krakens, Leviathans, Octopuses, and Serpents.
6/7
(Mock-ups attached)
I am somewhat concerned this mechanic will end up being repetitive, with people travelling the same couple creatures, then drawing them from the top, then travelling them again, and so on. Another potential problem is players, especially newer/more casual players, might be quite reluctant to travel their creatures because they might not find it very fun.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks for reading!
Artist Credit:
https://www.artstation.com/davemelvin
https://www.artstation.com/denikina
https://www.artstation.com/noahbradley
https://www.deviantart.com/levelten
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
What I'm more worried about here is time. Players will never deck out, ever, so a game one deadlock is just going to end the whole match in a draw. It's like chess, except only the part where players force stalemates every game, like in the recent big chess tournament. The idea of playing around with the top and bottom of a library is really cool, but a mechanic that repeatedly sends creatures to those locations takes all of the problems caused by Teferi, Hero of Dominaria's self-tuck and magnifies them by the number of traveling creatures in each deck.
You're right that Reef Titan could be very annoying. I might change that one to an ability that is less punishing when used repeatedly.
Or increase the travel cost to at least. That way it's harder and more costly to spam.
I did originally have a version of this that put creatures only on the bottom, which would make things less repetitive as it takes work to get them back, but that might be a little close to just sacrifice.
Cards that exist to put cards back into your library have existed before, many of which can shuffle in a lot of cards. I don't know if one mechanic that slowly puts cards back in one at a time is going to be that bad. Any small amount of mill or removal (especially counterspells which you can't travel in response to) could stop it, and constantly travelling will often not be great value and you could just get beat down.
Maybe I'm not seeing things right, but this seems like a manageable problem to me.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
Maybe if the mechanic only put creatures on the bottom of the library. If they can go back on top, there could possibly be a situation where both players are in a position where they have to keep re-using certain travel abilities to not lose. If both players are forced to either loop travel creatures or lose, then the game becomes an unbreakable stalemate.
Keep in mind that most cards that put cards back in one's library shuffle, which prevents repetition much of the time. If anything, the closest cousin to travel is dredge.
Do you think that would be too close to sacrifice, given without certain other card effects, you will very likely not get the creature back?
True, but those shuffle effects are usually more potent (put more cards back in), which makes it harder to mill through it and can allow you to cycle through all your cards over and over.
Elixir of Immortality seems better than Travel at preventing you from ever losing, and I don't think that card was that bad.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
You're narrowing in on this too much. I'm not concerned about single cards that prevent milling. There has never been anything wrong with the concept of individual cards that protect one from decking out. My problem is that you're turning off the game's safety valve set-wide as a side-effect to a mechanic that already goes on creatures that already do positive and sometimes powerful things at the same time as just casually preventing deckouts.