So… the second Commander Legends deck is going to be themed around DND and Balder’s Gate in particular. When one thinks about it, however, one has to wonder how another Commander Legends set would even work.
For better or worse, partners were a necessary piece of glue for the first commander legends, letting players guide what colors they play without needing to luck out into drawing the 1 uncommon or 1 rare commander in the color pair that seems most open. The set ballooned the possible number of commander pairs astronomically, however, and the task of creating new partners that do not break with old ones would become more and more difficult each time as a result.
While I don’t think Balder’s Gate will come with actual partners, I do think that the inclusion of the “Friends Forever” mechanic on the Stranger Things Secret Lair signals WotC’s willingness to create sectioned-off “pools” of partners that can only be mixed with each other. What I post here today is a mixture of various mechanics (party, bestow/mutate, and amass most prominently) to show what sort of thing I think wizards could use.
Adventuring Band (If you control an adventuring band with no more than three members, this card joins that adventuring band. Otherwise, this card starts an adventuring band. You may have up to two cards with adventuring band as your commander).
General Rules Information:
An adventuring band has the names, card types, subtypes, colors, mana cost, and mana value of all of its constituent members.
An adventuring band is treated as a single creature. While the first creature in an adventuring band is treated as an independent creature, any further cards entering that band are treated close to mutate.
An adventuring band is “full” when it has four members, allowing you to start a new adventuring band.
If an adventuring band is blinked, if you have a another (incomplete) adventuring band, some of your blinked adventuring band (your choice which) joins that band until it is full.
If more than four cards with adventuring band enter the battlefield simultaneously, you choose how they form bands (after completing any incomplete bands already on the battlefield)
Some Examples for Adventuring Band Members:
Tellis, Stalwart Defender
Legendary Creature- Dwarf Knight
Adventuring Band (If you control an adventuring band with fewer than four members, this card joins that adventuring band. Otherwise, this card starts an adventuring band. You may have up to two cards with adventuring band as your commander).
Thus adventuring band gets +2/+2 and has vigilance.
, : Each creature you control gets +1/+0 and gains indestructible until end of turn. This ability costs less to activate for each member in this adventuring band. Activate this ability only as a sorcery.
0/0
Venarra, Canny Artificer
Legendary Creature- Elf Artificer
Adventuring Band (If you control an adventuring band with fewer than four members, this card joins that adventuring band. Otherwise, this card starts an adventuring band. You may have up to two cards with adventuring band as your commander).
This adventuring band gets +0/+4 and has Ward
Whenever an artifact enters the battlefield, you ay discard a card. If you do, untap this adventuring band and draw a card.
0/0
Camille Slyfoot
Legendary Creature- Halfling Rogue
Adventuring Band (If you control an adventuring band with fewer than four members, this card joins that adventuring band. Otherwise, this card starts an adventuring band. You may have up to two cards with adventuring band as your commander).
This adventuring band gets +1/+1 and has menace.
Whenever your adventuring band deals damage to an opponent, exile the top card of that player’s deck. Then, if there are two or fewer members in this band, exile a card from your hand.
You may play cards exiled by your adventuring band.
0/0
Tarnok, the Fierce
Legendary Creature- Dragon Barbarian
Adventuring Band (If you control an adventuring band with fewer than four members, this card joins that adventuring band. Otherwise, this card starts an adventuring band. You may have up to two cards with adventuring band as your commander).
This adventuring band gets +2/+1 and has trample.
If this adventuring band is full, it gains doublestrike
0/0
Allonis, Greenseeker
Legendary Creature- Human Ranger
Adventuring Band (If you control an adventuring band with fewer than four members, this card joins that adventuring band. Otherwise, this card starts an adventuring band. You may have up to two cards with adventuring band as your commander).
This adventuring band gets +1/+1 for each basic land you control and has reach.
You may play an additional land each turn for each member in this adventuring band.
0/0
This is a neat concept. A few changes for clarity. Each card needs "This adventuring band" as opposed to "your adventuring band" unless you meant them to power up all adventuring bands in which case it should be "all adventuring bands you control".
The reminder text confuses me even after reading it over and over. This is possibly more subjective than I realize but I believe "Fewer than four" is more easily understood than "No more than three".
This mechanic falls into the category of, makes sense to play at the table but will likely be a nightmare to work into the actual rules. Its also taking up a lot of rules text with your "This adventuring band has..." on each card, where you could just make the adventure band rules total the power/toughness of all the creatures together and have all the abilities of the creatures (mutate does the latter already).
This mechanic falls into the category of, makes sense to play at the table but will likely be a nightmare to work into the actual rules. Its also taking up a lot of rules text with your "This adventuring band has..." on each card, where you could just make the adventure band rules total the power/toughness of all the creatures together and have all the abilities of the creatures (mutate does the latter already).
I get the opinion on the odd templating but I personally think that the way it works is a bit more streamlined than Bestow (which needs to have all of its abilities AND grant each of its abilities in separate lines of text), which was admittedly one of my biggest mechanical inspirations. Just adding all of the power and toughness together makes things look like grusilda, monster masher.
This mechanic falls into the category of, makes sense to play at the table but will likely be a nightmare to work into the actual rules. Its also taking up a lot of rules text with your "This adventuring band has..." on each card, where you could just make the adventure band rules total the power/toughness of all the creatures together and have all the abilities of the creatures (mutate does the latter already).
I get the opinion on the odd templating but I personally think that the way it works is a bit more streamlined than Bestow (which needs to have all of its abilities AND grant each of its abilities in separate lines of text), which was admittedly one of my biggest mechanical inspirations. Just adding all of the power and toughness together makes things look like grusilda, monster masher.
The difference there is the effect you're creating, because Bestow is an Aura placed on a permanent where your ability is two-four permanents mashed together. If nothing else, the visual of a bunch of 0/0 creatures will push the appeal of these cards down because players tend to process what they perceive as downsides negatively even when its not really a downside.
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For better or worse, partners were a necessary piece of glue for the first commander legends, letting players guide what colors they play without needing to luck out into drawing the 1 uncommon or 1 rare commander in the color pair that seems most open. The set ballooned the possible number of commander pairs astronomically, however, and the task of creating new partners that do not break with old ones would become more and more difficult each time as a result.
While I don’t think Balder’s Gate will come with actual partners, I do think that the inclusion of the “Friends Forever” mechanic on the Stranger Things Secret Lair signals WotC’s willingness to create sectioned-off “pools” of partners that can only be mixed with each other. What I post here today is a mixture of various mechanics (party, bestow/mutate, and amass most prominently) to show what sort of thing I think wizards could use.
Adventuring Band (If you control an adventuring band with no more than three members, this card joins that adventuring band. Otherwise, this card starts an adventuring band. You may have up to two cards with adventuring band as your commander).
General Rules Information:
Some Examples for Adventuring Band Members:
Tellis, Stalwart Defender
Legendary Creature- Dwarf Knight
Adventuring Band (If you control an adventuring band with fewer than four members, this card joins that adventuring band. Otherwise, this card starts an adventuring band. You may have up to two cards with adventuring band as your commander).
Thus adventuring band gets +2/+2 and has vigilance.
, : Each creature you control gets +1/+0 and gains indestructible until end of turn. This ability costs less to activate for each member in this adventuring band. Activate this ability only as a sorcery.
0/0
Venarra, Canny Artificer
Legendary Creature- Elf Artificer
Adventuring Band (If you control an adventuring band with fewer than four members, this card joins that adventuring band. Otherwise, this card starts an adventuring band. You may have up to two cards with adventuring band as your commander).
This adventuring band gets +0/+4 and has Ward
Whenever an artifact enters the battlefield, you ay discard a card. If you do, untap this adventuring band and draw a card.
0/0
Camille Slyfoot
Legendary Creature- Halfling Rogue
Adventuring Band (If you control an adventuring band with fewer than four members, this card joins that adventuring band. Otherwise, this card starts an adventuring band. You may have up to two cards with adventuring band as your commander).
This adventuring band gets +1/+1 and has menace.
Whenever your adventuring band deals damage to an opponent, exile the top card of that player’s deck. Then, if there are two or fewer members in this band, exile a card from your hand.
You may play cards exiled by your adventuring band.
0/0
Tarnok, the Fierce
Legendary Creature- Dragon Barbarian
Adventuring Band (If you control an adventuring band with fewer than four members, this card joins that adventuring band. Otherwise, this card starts an adventuring band. You may have up to two cards with adventuring band as your commander).
This adventuring band gets +2/+1 and has trample.
If this adventuring band is full, it gains doublestrike
0/0
Allonis, Greenseeker
Legendary Creature- Human Ranger
Adventuring Band (If you control an adventuring band with fewer than four members, this card joins that adventuring band. Otherwise, this card starts an adventuring band. You may have up to two cards with adventuring band as your commander).
This adventuring band gets +1/+1 for each basic land you control and has reach.
You may play an additional land each turn for each member in this adventuring band.
0/0
The reminder text confuses me even after reading it over and over. This is possibly more subjective than I realize but I believe "Fewer than four" is more easily understood than "No more than three".
I get the opinion on the odd templating but I personally think that the way it works is a bit more streamlined than Bestow (which needs to have all of its abilities AND grant each of its abilities in separate lines of text), which was admittedly one of my biggest mechanical inspirations. Just adding all of the power and toughness together makes things look like grusilda, monster masher.
The difference there is the effect you're creating, because Bestow is an Aura placed on a permanent where your ability is two-four permanents mashed together. If nothing else, the visual of a bunch of 0/0 creatures will push the appeal of these cards down because players tend to process what they perceive as downsides negatively even when its not really a downside.