So by now MtG has done a number of different noncreature artifact tokens like Treasure, Clues, and, most recently, Blood. One of the obvious next thoughts that come from this is why not try doing a version of this with enchantment tokens? This could be especially interesting as a way to help make enchantment themes work without copying Theros's approach, which could help make a new enchantment heavy plane in the same way multiple planes have a significant artifact theme (Mirrodin, Kaladesh, Alara, Dominaria, Fiora kind of, potentially new future Kamigawa).
It just so happens that I've had an idea for a potential new set I've experimented with different mechanics for for a while and I think enchantment tokens could fit in pretty well.
(Scroll down if you want to skip to the executions I came up with and attached renders)
The two obvious questions about enchantment tokens is what do they represent in lore and how do they work in game? For the first quetsion, the answer was obvious here and the answer I came up with was the reason I started exploring this, and that answer is Dream tokens. Noncreature artifact tokens have represented various useful physical objects, but enchantments represent things that are a little more indefinite in what they are or what they look like besides being magic. The set idea I have is for a 'weird world' which includes a blending of thoughts and dreams and reality, and a dream given form of mystical essence sounds like both a good way to explain what enchantment tokens represent and a cool way to represent the flavour mechanically.
I have considered the possibility of enchantment tokens that are auras, say that give a nice flat +1/+1. This would be an interesting way to differentiate enchantment tokens from artifact tokens and it would also be a neat way of producing auras without card disadvantage, but there's two problems with that idea. One being that they would function a lot like +1/+1 counters, but potentially more annoying to keep track of while trying not to confuse them with +1/+1 counters that might also be flying about, and the other being that it doesn't work very well for capturing the dream flavour.
There are two categories of effects I think could represent dreams well- interacting with the hand and library, which is associated with the mind and memory, or with tapping and untapping, which has been connected with sleeping and dreams before.
Some kind of filtering effect would be an easy fit, but I think there are again two key problems: the fact that Clues and Blood already exist and whether there's an effect for these that would feel different enough to be exciting, and how well that compares to Clues and Blood without feeling like it's basically just a better Blood token or worse Clue. Since we want these to have a relatively cheap cost and be useable in a number of colours, there's not a great range of options.
Here's what I came up with.
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Draw a card, then put a card from your hand on the top of your library.)
Solid. But not very good in multiples and pretty close to blood.
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Draw a card, then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library.)
Better in multiples but still pretty similar to blood. Might be a little strong compared to blood? Doesn't have discard or graveyard synergy but the extra
card selection info and options is pretty useful.
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Scry 2.)
Might be a little bland and nesting mechanics like that is a little awkward. Not sure about the balance.
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
The surveil effect. Avoids the nesting issue and might be a little more interesting. Seems like it might be kind of strong though. Probably my favourite
choice though.
Tapping and untapping is an interesting option as nothing like it has been done with artifact tokens and it does fit very nicely with the dream flavour. The main issues I see are with tapping it could promote board stalls and be generally frustrating if it's readily available with dream tokens, and with untapping could lead to people forgetting about them, misplaying, and getting surprised when the opponent untaps their blockers. For the former, I could address this by making sure dream tokens cost enough to activate and aren't easy enough to produce repeatedly that you could easily lockdown your opponent with them, but I think it might be best to just not include tapping as an option. For the second, I think it does help that dream tokens all do the same effect and are on board, compared to flashback instants, for example, which both do different things from each other and require the opponent to track the graveyard.
There is always a question about whether they should just effects creatures or all permanents. Creatures fit best flavourfully- something like 'pleasant dream helps the creature wake up and feel refreshed', or if tapping 'put creature to sleep', and is generally clean and simple, but perhaps I should let it target any permanent for flexibility in game and in deckbuilding?
So, options,
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Tap or untap target permanent.)
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Tap or untap target creature.)
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Untap target permanent.)
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Untap target creature.)
My top three versions are, in order:
1. Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Untap target creature.)
2. Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
3. Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Draw a card, then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library.)
And here some card designs with dream tokens for a sense of how it would be used:
Lamplighter Nomad
Creature- Incarnation (C)
When Lamplighter Nomad enters the battlefield, create a Dream token.
Whenever you sacrifice an enchantment, you gain 1 life.
1/1
Secret Path
Instant (C)
Draw two cards.
Create two Dream tokens.
Hazetide Shifter
Creature- Merfolk Wizard (U)
Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player and/or planeswalker, create a Dream token.
, Sacrifice two Dream tokens: Draw two cards.
2/3
Malacol Dreamcaller
Creature- Elf Druid (R)
, : Create a Dream token.
, Sacrifice two Dream tokens: Put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.
2/1
I think 3 to tap or untap a permanent and 1 to scry 2 are the best options considering the existing items.
For the flavor of dreams scrying fits better. Though exclusivly tapping creatures is an equal match. Though I also find exclusivly tapping creatures to be one of the worst options as its most likely to only stall out games.
Of the three final options above, only the 3rd is close to Blood power-level on its own, and still not close to a clue. Repeated on-board tapping and untapping would likely lead to stalled game states, and #2 is either super strong in a graveyard centric set or underpowered if the set isn't.
The challenge is that Clue/treasure/food are very optimized for their activation costs. Blood is a special case because, on its own, a Blood Token isn't very good, and it depends on the other synergies in the environment to increase its power level. The gameplay questions you need to answer are (a) do you want to encourage Dreams to be used as quickly as possible, or saved until you have nothing better to do and (b) do you want them make very frequently or very occasionally. Both answers will direct you towards appropriate costs andeffects
I think 3 to tap or untap a permanent and 1 to scry 2 are the best options considering the existing items.
For the flavor of dreams scrying fits better. Though exclusivly tapping creatures is an equal match. Though I also find exclusivly tapping creatures to be one of the worst options as its most likely to only stall out games.
When you say scrying fits better, you mean fits better than the surveil effect or the brainstorm-esque one? I could see doing scry but again I do wonder whether people will find it interesting or exciting enough and I do have to work out how to template the reminder text for it because it could be a little awkward.
I agree that exclusively tapping creatures is a bad choice for the same reason as you.
Of the three final options above, only the 3rd is close to Blood power-level on its own, and still not close to a clue.
By close to blood power level, you mean on the weaker end?
I don't mind being weaker than Clues. One of the goals with the design of Blood was to be weaker than Clues so it was easier to get players to trade them in for other effects than the base and I think that philosophy works for me as well as while I want the effect strong enough that they aren't too parasitic, I do want some cards with give you other effects for your dream tokens as it gives fun design space, variety in gameplay and fits with the diverse nature of dreams. One of the other reasons to play dream tokens will be enchantment synergy too.
Repeated on-board tapping and untapping would likely lead to stalled game states,
I think untapping by itself isn't going to be too much of an issue because with untapping you are encouraged to attack so you can then untap. It might make players a little scared to attack an opponent with dream tokens up but it does also decrease the risk of attacking for you if you have them. You will alao likely not always have the mana up for them which provides a shields down moment for your opponent to attack.
Cards that provide other uses for your dream tokens might also lead you to use them all up so your opponent doesn't have to worry about you untapping to block.
The challenge is that Clue/treasure/food are very optimized for their activation costs. Blood is a special case because, on its own, a Blood Token isn't very good, and it depends on the other synergies in the environment to increase its power level. The gameplay questions you need to answer are (a) do you want to encourage Dreams to be used as quickly as possible, or saved until you have nothing better to do and (b) do you want them make very frequently or very occasionally. Both answers will direct you towards appropriate costs andeffects
I think Food were pretty commonly played just for other effects than the base too, for relevance.
I'm inclined more toward Food and Blood than Clues for reasons I explained above.
I think Food were pretty commonly played just for other effects than the base too, for relevance.
I'm inclined more toward Food and Blood than Clues for reasons I explained above.
Food tokens were only specifically relevant, aside of their sac to gain life ability, on two cards in throne of eldraine: Feasting Troll King and Giant Opportunity. Conversely, in Crimson Vow, I count six cards that specifically either sac blood for other effects or card about the number of blood you have, plus a couple more that care about you saccing blood for any effect. At the same time, paying two to gain 3 life is far more generally useful than paying 1 and discarding to draw (especially without graveyard/madness relevance).
The problem with the untapping is that, if both players have access to such tokens, you're pushing both player's defensive abilities and, therefore, discouraging both from attacking. Tap target nonland permanent would be better because it at least encourages aggressive play, and putting a creature to sleep seems more on flavor for a "Dream", but you'd want to cost it higher so that you can't tap down their whole board with dream tokens too easily, and a sorcery speed restriction so you cannot tap down attackers on their turn.
I think Food were pretty commonly played just for other effects than the base too, for relevance.
I'm inclined more toward Food and Blood than Clues for reasons I explained above.
Food tokens were only specifically relevant, aside of their sac to gain life ability, on two cards in throne of eldraine: Feasting Troll King and Giant Opportunity. Conversely, in Crimson Vow, I count six cards that specifically either sac blood for other effects or card about the number of blood you have, plus a couple more that care about you saccing blood for any effect. At the same time, paying two to gain 3 life is far more generally useful than paying 1 and discarding to draw (especially without graveyard/madness relevance).
This is kind of a tricky matter to quantify, I think
1. I seem to recall decks from Eldraine using Trail of Crumbs for card selection on Arena, though that may not have been too common.
2. Cat Oven decks repeatedly sacrificed food to great effects, though that says more about that specific combo than the food tokens that technically entered the battlefield every time.
3. Gilded Goose is also a kind of edge case where it "technically" uses food to add mana, though it's a self-contained card that was generaly good in its own right.
4. Oko, Thief of Crowns can also be counted as a card that uses food because while it was a busted card literally everywhere, it would exchange food for creatures or turn food it produced into 3/3 creatures a non-zero amount of the time.
The relevance of food tokens is hard to measure when a couple of food cards were worthless, 2 or 3 were decent "build-arounds", and 4 were format defining (because Eldraine was a trashfire of power) even in the absence of any other food producers... but still technically "used" food
You're right, I searched food tokens, not food so "Sacrifice a food" (without token) didn't pop up in my list, so I forgot the Cat and the Goose, and a few other draft chaff type cards like Bog Naughty, so the uses were more prevalent than I remembered.
However, Oko doesn't actually care about food for its effect: It exchanges any artifact. While food was typically the accessible artifact used, it doesn't need food specifically for the effect. That type of indirect vs direct reference is something to pay attention to in building your formats, since your Dream tokens will, for example, trigger Constellation if its in your set.
I think Food were pretty commonly played just for other effects than the base too, for relevance.
I'm inclined more toward Food and Blood than Clues for reasons I explained above.
Food tokens were only specifically relevant, aside of their sac to gain life ability, on two cards in throne of eldraine: Feasting Troll King and Giant Opportunity.
Conversely, in Crimson Vow, I count six cards that specifically either sac blood for other effects or card about the number of blood you have, plus a couple more that care about you saccing blood for any effect.
Compares pretty closely to Food as above.
At the same time, paying two to gain 3 life is far more generally useful than paying 1 and discarding to draw (especially without graveyard/madness relevance).
Debatable but may well be true. Either way I think Food are at least a little bit weaker than Clues at base and were successfully used to power other effects so no a bad point of comparison for our purposes here.
The problem with the untapping is that, if both players have access to such tokens, you're pushing both player's defensive abilities and, therefore, discouraging both from attacking. Tap target nonland permanent would be better because it at least encourages aggressive play, and putting a creature to sleep seems more on flavor for a "Dream", but you'd want to cost it higher so that you can't tap down their whole board with dream tokens too easily, and a sorcery speed restriction so you cannot tap down attackers on their turn.
I was actually just considering tap or untap at sorcery speed might work. I don't want to just tap even if you remove the option to tap down attackers because I feel like it would be a bit unfun and the usefulness is depending on your opponent having creatures you want to tap down. And if untap is limited to sorcery speed it means you have to commit to using it defensively in advance rather than just keeping them around threatening to use them at any point.
I think this might be my preferred version now.
I'm not sure about doing nonland permanent though either. All that really means is noncreature artifacts and noncreature artifacts aren't going to be a big part of the set at all (especially with an enchantment theme helping push them out), and dreams affecting noncreature artifacts isn't very flavourful either. It also means the mechanic would have to be balanced around the kind of shenanigans you can do with untapping artifacts.
An other option I came up with that I think works flavourfully and might be interesting mechanically: self bounce.
Something like
Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Return target permanent you control to its owner's hand. Activate only as a sorcery.)
This is a nicely flexible effect strategically speaking, which is good for a mechanic I want to splash around with probably. My major concern with it is that it's an effect that differs a lot in power circumstantially. If you don't have the right cards on board it's pretty useless, but if you do, you could do some pretty powerful things with these little tokens.
Maybe...
An other option I came up with that I think works flavourfully and might be interesting mechanically: self bounce.
Something like
Dream token (It's an enchantment with :2mana:, Sacrifice this enchantment: Return target permanent you control to its owner's hand. Activate only as a sorcery.)
This is a nicely flexible effect strategically speaking, which is good for a mechanic I want to splash around with probably. My major concern with it is that it's an effect that differs a lot in power circumstantially. If you don't have the right cards on board it's pretty useless, but if you do, you could do some pretty powerful things with these little tokens.
Maybe...
Self bounce is interesting but 2 is way too high a cost for sorcery speed self bounce. Outside of specific degenerate combos, I'm wary of how valuable it would be at 1 mana and sorcery speed. Though it's not so bad as to warrant an additional upside.
Bumping it to instant speed I think 2 might be too generous.
I think an interesting direction to take this would be:
2, Sacrifice Dream Token: Tap target untapped creature. Scry 1. Activate only as a sorcery.
It feels like putting something to sleep, has semi-card advantage in the form of scry, and has different utility than other printed types of tokens.
Interesting idea. I am a little hesitant, though, about the idea of putting two largely unrelated effects together. Feels a little artificial, not as elegant, potentially harder to remember.
I still feel like the tap or untap at sorcery is my first choice.
An other option I came up with that I think works flavourfully and might be interesting mechanically: self bounce.
Something like
Dream token (It's an enchantment with :2mana:, Sacrifice this enchantment: Return target permanent you control to its owner's hand. Activate only as a sorcery.)
This is a nicely flexible effect strategically speaking, which is good for a mechanic I want to splash around with probably. My major concern with it is that it's an effect that differs a lot in power circumstantially. If you don't have the right cards on board it's pretty useless, but if you do, you could do some pretty powerful things with these little tokens.
Maybe...
Self bounce is interesting but 2 is way too high a cost for sorcery speed self bounce. Outside of specific degenerate combos, I'm wary of how valuable it would be at 1 mana and sorcery speed. Though it's not so bad as to warrant an additional upside.
Bumping it to instant speed I think 2 might be too generous.
My inclination is not to use instant speed here because it introduces potential feel-bad moments when someone either your opponent forgets its there and wastes a removal spell or something or if you forget you have it and miss the chance to retrieve something. Wouldn't be an issue except this mechanic will have a decently high as-fan and is liable to show up all over the place.
I do kind of like the idea of using the effect to save your permanents though as it gives the mechanic a little more flexibility and doesn't invest too much of its power specifically around recurring powerful ETB effects, even with cards that do provide other uses.
It just so happens that I've had an idea for a potential new set I've experimented with different mechanics for for a while and I think enchantment tokens could fit in pretty well.
(Scroll down if you want to skip to the executions I came up with and attached renders)
The two obvious questions about enchantment tokens is what do they represent in lore and how do they work in game? For the first quetsion, the answer was obvious here and the answer I came up with was the reason I started exploring this, and that answer is Dream tokens. Noncreature artifact tokens have represented various useful physical objects, but enchantments represent things that are a little more indefinite in what they are or what they look like besides being magic. The set idea I have is for a 'weird world' which includes a blending of thoughts and dreams and reality, and a dream given form of mystical essence sounds like both a good way to explain what enchantment tokens represent and a cool way to represent the flavour mechanically.
I have considered the possibility of enchantment tokens that are auras, say that give a nice flat +1/+1. This would be an interesting way to differentiate enchantment tokens from artifact tokens and it would also be a neat way of producing auras without card disadvantage, but there's two problems with that idea. One being that they would function a lot like +1/+1 counters, but potentially more annoying to keep track of while trying not to confuse them with +1/+1 counters that might also be flying about, and the other being that it doesn't work very well for capturing the dream flavour.
There are two categories of effects I think could represent dreams well- interacting with the hand and library, which is associated with the mind and memory, or with tapping and untapping, which has been connected with sleeping and dreams before.
Some kind of filtering effect would be an easy fit, but I think there are again two key problems: the fact that Clues and Blood already exist and whether there's an effect for these that would feel different enough to be exciting, and how well that compares to Clues and Blood without feeling like it's basically just a better Blood token or worse Clue. Since we want these to have a relatively cheap cost and be useable in a number of colours, there's not a great range of options.
Here's what I came up with.
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Draw a card, then put a card from your hand on the top of your library.)
Solid. But not very good in multiples and pretty close to blood.
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Draw a card, then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library.)
Better in multiples but still pretty similar to blood. Might be a little strong compared to blood? Doesn't have discard or graveyard synergy but the extra
card selection info and options is pretty useful.
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Scry 2.)
Might be a little bland and nesting mechanics like that is a little awkward. Not sure about the balance.
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
The surveil effect. Avoids the nesting issue and might be a little more interesting. Seems like it might be kind of strong though. Probably my favourite
choice though.
Tapping and untapping is an interesting option as nothing like it has been done with artifact tokens and it does fit very nicely with the dream flavour. The main issues I see are with tapping it could promote board stalls and be generally frustrating if it's readily available with dream tokens, and with untapping could lead to people forgetting about them, misplaying, and getting surprised when the opponent untaps their blockers. For the former, I could address this by making sure dream tokens cost enough to activate and aren't easy enough to produce repeatedly that you could easily lockdown your opponent with them, but I think it might be best to just not include tapping as an option. For the second, I think it does help that dream tokens all do the same effect and are on board, compared to flashback instants, for example, which both do different things from each other and require the opponent to track the graveyard.
There is always a question about whether they should just effects creatures or all permanents. Creatures fit best flavourfully- something like 'pleasant dream helps the creature wake up and feel refreshed', or if tapping 'put creature to sleep', and is generally clean and simple, but perhaps I should let it target any permanent for flexibility in game and in deckbuilding?
So, options,
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Tap or untap target permanent.)
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Tap or untap target creature.)
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Untap target permanent.)
-Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Untap target creature.)
My top three versions are, in order:
1. Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Untap target creature.)
2. Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
3. Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Draw a card, then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library.)
I attached some renders for how the token cards might look.
Artist credit:
https://www.juliedillonart.com/
http://www.jorgejacinto.com/
And here some card designs with dream tokens for a sense of how it would be used:
Lamplighter Nomad
Creature- Incarnation (C)
When Lamplighter Nomad enters the battlefield, create a Dream token.
Whenever you sacrifice an enchantment, you gain 1 life.
1/1
Secret Path
Instant (C)
Draw two cards.
Create two Dream tokens.
Hazetide Shifter
Creature- Merfolk Wizard (U)
Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player and/or planeswalker, create a Dream token.
, Sacrifice two Dream tokens: Draw two cards.
2/3
Malacol Dreamcaller
Creature- Elf Druid (R)
, : Create a Dream token.
, Sacrifice two Dream tokens: Put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.
2/1
-
Thanks for reading!
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
For the flavor of dreams scrying fits better. Though exclusivly tapping creatures is an equal match. Though I also find exclusivly tapping creatures to be one of the worst options as its most likely to only stall out games.
The challenge is that Clue/treasure/food are very optimized for their activation costs. Blood is a special case because, on its own, a Blood Token isn't very good, and it depends on the other synergies in the environment to increase its power level. The gameplay questions you need to answer are (a) do you want to encourage Dreams to be used as quickly as possible, or saved until you have nothing better to do and (b) do you want them make very frequently or very occasionally. Both answers will direct you towards appropriate costs andeffects
When you say scrying fits better, you mean fits better than the surveil effect or the brainstorm-esque one? I could see doing scry but again I do wonder whether people will find it interesting or exciting enough and I do have to work out how to template the reminder text for it because it could be a little awkward.
I agree that exclusively tapping creatures is a bad choice for the same reason as you.
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
By close to blood power level, you mean on the weaker end?
I don't mind being weaker than Clues. One of the goals with the design of Blood was to be weaker than Clues so it was easier to get players to trade them in for other effects than the base and I think that philosophy works for me as well as while I want the effect strong enough that they aren't too parasitic, I do want some cards with give you other effects for your dream tokens as it gives fun design space, variety in gameplay and fits with the diverse nature of dreams. One of the other reasons to play dream tokens will be enchantment synergy too.
I think untapping by itself isn't going to be too much of an issue because with untapping you are encouraged to attack so you can then untap. It might make players a little scared to attack an opponent with dream tokens up but it does also decrease the risk of attacking for you if you have them. You will alao likely not always have the mana up for them which provides a shields down moment for your opponent to attack.
Cards that provide other uses for your dream tokens might also lead you to use them all up so your opponent doesn't have to worry about you untapping to block.
I'm thinking the set will probably have a mild graveyard theme, so I think it might work.
I think Food were pretty commonly played just for other effects than the base too, for relevance.
I'm inclined more toward Food and Blood than Clues for reasons I explained above.
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
Food tokens were only specifically relevant, aside of their sac to gain life ability, on two cards in throne of eldraine: Feasting Troll King and Giant Opportunity. Conversely, in Crimson Vow, I count six cards that specifically either sac blood for other effects or card about the number of blood you have, plus a couple more that care about you saccing blood for any effect. At the same time, paying two to gain 3 life is far more generally useful than paying 1 and discarding to draw (especially without graveyard/madness relevance).
The problem with the untapping is that, if both players have access to such tokens, you're pushing both player's defensive abilities and, therefore, discouraging both from attacking. Tap target nonland permanent would be better because it at least encourages aggressive play, and putting a creature to sleep seems more on flavor for a "Dream", but you'd want to cost it higher so that you can't tap down their whole board with dream tokens too easily, and a sorcery speed restriction so you cannot tap down attackers on their turn.
This is kind of a tricky matter to quantify, I think
1. I seem to recall decks from Eldraine using Trail of Crumbs for card selection on Arena, though that may not have been too common.
2. Cat Oven decks repeatedly sacrificed food to great effects, though that says more about that specific combo than the food tokens that technically entered the battlefield every time.
3. Gilded Goose is also a kind of edge case where it "technically" uses food to add mana, though it's a self-contained card that was generaly good in its own right.
4. Oko, Thief of Crowns can also be counted as a card that uses food because while it was a busted card literally everywhere, it would exchange food for creatures or turn food it produced into 3/3 creatures a non-zero amount of the time.
The relevance of food tokens is hard to measure when a couple of food cards were worthless, 2 or 3 were decent "build-arounds", and 4 were format defining (because Eldraine was a trashfire of power) even in the absence of any other food producers... but still technically "used" food
However, Oko doesn't actually care about food for its effect: It exchanges any artifact. While food was typically the accessible artifact used, it doesn't need food specifically for the effect. That type of indirect vs direct reference is something to pay attention to in building your formats, since your Dream tokens will, for example, trigger Constellation if its in your set.
Except also Wicked Wolf, Gilded Goose, and Cauldron Familiar for competitive cards but then for limited, casual or commander there was additionally Bog Naughty, Insatiable Appetite, Gluttonous Troll (kind of), Maraleaf Rider, Savy Hunter and Tempting Witch.
Compares pretty closely to Food as above.
Debatable but may well be true. Either way I think Food are at least a little bit weaker than Clues at base and were successfully used to power other effects so no a bad point of comparison for our purposes here.
I was actually just considering tap or untap at sorcery speed might work. I don't want to just tap even if you remove the option to tap down attackers because I feel like it would be a bit unfun and the usefulness is depending on your opponent having creatures you want to tap down. And if untap is limited to sorcery speed it means you have to commit to using it defensively in advance rather than just keeping them around threatening to use them at any point.
I think this might be my preferred version now.
I'm not sure about doing nonland permanent though either. All that really means is noncreature artifacts and noncreature artifacts aren't going to be a big part of the set at all (especially with an enchantment theme helping push them out), and dreams affecting noncreature artifacts isn't very flavourful either. It also means the mechanic would have to be balanced around the kind of shenanigans you can do with untapping artifacts.
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
Something like
Dream token (It's an enchantment with , Sacrifice this enchantment: Return target permanent you control to its owner's hand. Activate only as a sorcery.)
This is a nicely flexible effect strategically speaking, which is good for a mechanic I want to splash around with probably. My major concern with it is that it's an effect that differs a lot in power circumstantially. If you don't have the right cards on board it's pretty useless, but if you do, you could do some pretty powerful things with these little tokens.
Maybe...
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
Bumping it to instant speed I think 2 might be too generous.
2, Sacrifice Dream Token: Tap target untapped creature. Scry 1. Activate only as a sorcery.
It feels like putting something to sleep, has semi-card advantage in the form of scry, and has different utility than other printed types of tokens.
Interesting idea. I am a little hesitant, though, about the idea of putting two largely unrelated effects together. Feels a little artificial, not as elegant, potentially harder to remember.
I still feel like the tap or untap at sorcery is my first choice.
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
My inclination is not to use instant speed here because it introduces potential feel-bad moments when someone either your opponent forgets its there and wastes a removal spell or something or if you forget you have it and miss the chance to retrieve something. Wouldn't be an issue except this mechanic will have a decently high as-fan and is liable to show up all over the place.
I do kind of like the idea of using the effect to save your permanents though as it gives the mechanic a little more flexibility and doesn't invest too much of its power specifically around recurring powerful ETB effects, even with cards that do provide other uses.
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