All right, this is an idea for a Film Noir set. Please give Good, Constructive comments! The theme is maximum hand size.
Mechanics:
Retuning mechanic: Forecast-<cost>: Reveal ~ from your hand: <effect>((W/U))
Interrogate-As long as an opponent has more cards in hand than you, <effect>.((R/B))
Bloodlust # (You may discard any number of nonland cards as you cast this creature. It enters the battlefield with # +1/+1 for each card discarded in this way.)((R/G))
Stalwart Loxodon 3W
Creature-Elephant Cleric
Defender
As long as you have seven or more cards in hand, other creatures you control get +0/+2
1/5
Cunning Rookie 2W
Creature-Human Soldier
First strike
^ has double strike as long as you have seven or more cards in hand.
1/2
Unommons 2/7
Police Officer WW
Creature-Human Soldier
Vigilance
When ~ enters the battlefield, put a 1/1 white soldier creature token onto the battlefield.
2/1
Policeman's Reflexes 1W
Enchantment-Aura
Flash
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has first strike.
Rares 4/6
Police Enforcer 1WW
Creature-Human Soldier
Vigilance
When ~ enters the battlefield, put two 1/1 white soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Whenever ~ attacks or blocks, other soldier creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
2/2
Annual All-You-Can-Eat Contest Champion1WW
Instant
Put two +1/+1 on target creature with a +1/+1 counter on it.
Forecast-1WWW, reveal ~ from your hand: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
Grand Duty 1W
Enchantment
Whenever a creature token enters the battlefield under your control, you may draw a card.
Mayor of Trest 2WW
Legendary Creature-Human Advisor
Vigilance
Other creatures you control get +1/+2.
Forecast-W, Reveal ^ from your hand: Creatures you control get +1/+2 and gain vigilance until end of turn.
1/2
Mythic 2/2
Chief of Police 2WWWW
Legendary Creature-Human Soldier
Vigilance
When ~ enters the battlefield, put two 1/1 white soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Other soldier creatures you control get +1/+1 for each other soldier creature you control and have vigilance.
3/3
Armored Gargoyle 2WWW
Artifact Creature-Gargoyle
Defender, flying
At the end of each turn, return all cards you discarded this turn to your hand.
5/7
Commons 2/15
Investigating U
Instant
Draw a card.
Looting Duo 2U
Creature-Human Rogue
When ^ enters the battlefield, if it's not a token, put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of it. t: Draw a card, then discard a card.
1/1
Biscuit, Incredibly Fierce Mutt 1RB
Legendary Creature-Hound Beast
Haste, intimidate
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Whenever a creature dealt damage by ~ dies this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on ~. "Biscuit! Devour that man messily and you'll get a treat!"
-Georgus Trenn, gangster
3/2
Alexanter Flankenson, Planar Inquisitor 2WU
Planeswalker - Alexanter
Starting Loyalty: 4
+2: Tap target creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step. Its controller draws a card.
-X: Each player may draw up to X cards.
-7: You get an emblem with "Creatures can't attack you as long as you have more cards in hand then their controller."
Cool theme. Noir seems hard to pull off as it's not very fantastical, but hand size seems like a good place to start.
I don't really like evidence. It's like cycling that you can't activate, or madness that only cantrips. Most importantly, it doesn't feel white or blue, since black is the color that most often gets discard outlets. I guess you could say that white and blue could stock up their hands, but then discarding the cards at EOT would just draw you more. If anything, I would switch this with forecast; give all colors evidence but make forecast only white and blue.
Interrogate is a mixed bag for me. On one hand, it's better than hellbent because it makes you play the same way but doesn't force you all the way into topdeck mode, so i like it for that. However, that might make it too easy, especially against a deck that wants to have a full hand all the time, you won't even have to put any effort in. It's also a bit conter productive with black, who has the most opponent discard effects.
I don't think it can't work, but it'll depend heavily on what cards it appears on and what support it gets. It would be helpful to see more cards, since right now you've only got 1 card that actually cares about hand size.
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
I'm scared ****less of Chief of Police. Maybe my instincts are way off, but even with WWW in the cost it's still a 3/3 and three 4/4 for CMC 4, and that doesn't seem very white. And that's not even counting the other soldier guys coming with even more tokens of their own along for the ride. Also you'll want to not give too many Soldiers vigilance lest Chief granting it loses interest (even with all the tokens flying about.)
Regarding Interrogate, maybe it could scale? i.e. "as long as opponent has X more cards than you". This would give extra design space for scaling the effects too.
Generally with ability words you want to keep it at a static number. For instance, metalcraft is always 3 so that it's easier to keep track of. Since the size of hands fluctuate so constantly, maybe it would be better to just choose one number? But I can't imagine anything above 1 being realistic, and at that point we're back to just "less".
Maybe effects like this?
"~ gets +x/+X where X is how many more cards in an opponent's hand than yours"
ok, that sounded really bad, but worded correctly it could work.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
At sorcery speed, Investigating needs a bit of extra oomph: it's a strictly worse Reach Through Mists, and there are so many instants (every single cantrip, for starters) or other sorceries (ignoring the banned/restricted ones: Serum Visions, Gitaxian Probe, Careful Study) that are strictly better it's not even funny.
2: You should develop the lore of plane more closely before making many cards. Is the plane on the Ravnica level magitec-wise? If not, how developed it is ? What kind of societies (or gameplay-related tribes) fall into colours (ALL Colours) and what differents them from another. I mention this because the two red commons are a Devil and a Goblin (I recall reading a column in the Main MTG site that Devils were used on Innistrad because Goblins didn't "fit"). So why are there devils in the plane if you can use goblins?
I agree with this. You can adjust your flavor to mechanical aspects (that's how i ended up with a Dwarf/Elf conflict in my own set), but adjusting a poorly-developed creative to cards is much harder than the other way around, and weakens both flavor and coherence.
This is especially important since the apparent concept of your set obviously involves some sort of factions, and this alignment can affect many things, such what races are what colors, and what colors get which mechanics. If noir-style police work is a theme, I expect police mechanics in white/blue/black, not Red (red is more misguided vigilante justice than investigation). If political agitation is involved, I expect the related mechanics mostly in black/red/green etc. What does bloodlust represent?
As a side note, Time Spiral aside it's unusual for a block, much less a single expert expansion, to return more than one named ability (Domain was not returned so much as named in Conflux, but that makes it the only case outside Time Spiral in posy-8th ed).
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Banner thanks to rivenor:)
All right, this is an idea for a Film Noir set. Please give Good, Constructive comments! The theme is maximum hand size.
Mechanics:
Retuning mechanic: Forecast-<cost>: Reveal ~ from your hand: <effect>((W/U))
Interrogate-As long as an opponent has more cards in hand than you, <effect>.((R/B))
Bloodlust # (You may discard any number of nonland cards as you cast this creature. It enters the battlefield with # +1/+1 for each card discarded in this way.)((R/G))
Cards to Reprint:
Edric
Steeling Stance
Vow of Flight
Dangerous Wager
Commons 4/15
Creature-Human Soldier
Vigilance
1/1
Steeling Stance
Stalwart Loxodon 3W
Creature-Elephant Cleric
Defender
As long as you have seven or more cards in hand, other creatures you control get +0/+2
1/5
Cunning Rookie 2W
Creature-Human Soldier
First strike
^ has double strike as long as you have seven or more cards in hand.
1/2
Police Officer WW
Creature-Human Soldier
Vigilance
When ~ enters the battlefield, put a 1/1 white soldier creature token onto the battlefield.
2/1
Policeman's Reflexes 1W
Enchantment-Aura
Flash
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has first strike.
Police Enforcer 1WW
Creature-Human Soldier
Vigilance
When ~ enters the battlefield, put two 1/1 white soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Whenever ~ attacks or blocks, other soldier creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
2/2
Annual All-You-Can-Eat Contest Champion1WW
Instant
Put two +1/+1 on target creature with a +1/+1 counter on it.
Forecast-1WWW, reveal ~ from your hand: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
Grand Duty 1W
Enchantment
Whenever a creature token enters the battlefield under your control, you may draw a card.
Mayor of Trest 2WW
Legendary Creature-Human Advisor
Vigilance
Other creatures you control get +1/+2.
Forecast-W, Reveal ^ from your hand: Creatures you control get +1/+2 and gain vigilance until end of turn.
1/2
Mythic 2/2
Chief of Police 2WWWW
Legendary Creature-Human Soldier
Vigilance
When ~ enters the battlefield, put two 1/1 white soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Other soldier creatures you control get +1/+1 for each other soldier creature you control and have vigilance.
3/3
Armored Gargoyle 2WWW
Artifact Creature-Gargoyle
Defender, flying
At the end of each turn, return all cards you discarded this turn to your hand.
5/7
Investigating U
Instant
Draw a card.
Looting Duo 2U
Creature-Human Rogue
When ^ enters the battlefield, if it's not a token, put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of it.
t: Draw a card, then discard a card.
1/1
Vow of Flight
Curiosity
Commons 1/15
Hired Brute B
Creature-Human Mercenary
Interrogate - ^ gets +2/+1 as long as you have less cards in hand than an opponent.
1/1
Commons 3/15
Dangerous Wager
Carnage Devil 1RR
Creature-Devil
Bloodlust 2
1/1
Backstreet Ruffian RR
Creature-Goblin Warrior
Haste, bloodlust 1
1/1
Common 1/15
Elf Informant
Creature-Elf Rogue
Rare 2/3
Biscuit, Incredibly Fierce Mutt 1RB
Legendary Creature-Hound Beast
Haste, intimidate
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Whenever a creature dealt damage by ~ dies this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
"Biscuit! Devour that man messily and you'll get a treat!"
-Georgus Trenn, gangster
3/2
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Alexanter Flankenson, Planar Inquisitor 2WU
Planeswalker - Alexanter
Starting Loyalty: 4
+2: Tap target creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step. Its controller draws a card.
-X: Each player may draw up to X cards.
-7: You get an emblem with "Creatures can't attack you as long as you have more cards in hand then their controller."
You cannot outrun the beast within.
I don't really like evidence. It's like cycling that you can't activate, or madness that only cantrips. Most importantly, it doesn't feel white or blue, since black is the color that most often gets discard outlets. I guess you could say that white and blue could stock up their hands, but then discarding the cards at EOT would just draw you more. If anything, I would switch this with forecast; give all colors evidence but make forecast only white and blue.
Interrogate is a mixed bag for me. On one hand, it's better than hellbent because it makes you play the same way but doesn't force you all the way into topdeck mode, so i like it for that. However, that might make it too easy, especially against a deck that wants to have a full hand all the time, you won't even have to put any effort in. It's also a bit conter productive with black, who has the most opponent discard effects.
I don't think it can't work, but it'll depend heavily on what cards it appears on and what support it gets. It would be helpful to see more cards, since right now you've only got 1 card that actually cares about hand size.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Regarding Interrogate, maybe it could scale? i.e. "as long as opponent has X more cards than you". This would give extra design space for scaling the effects too.
Maybe effects like this?
"~ gets +x/+X where X is how many more cards in an opponent's hand than yours"
ok, that sounded really bad, but worded correctly it could work.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Chief of Police will be moved to 2WWWW and make only 2 tokens
I agree with this. You can adjust your flavor to mechanical aspects (that's how i ended up with a Dwarf/Elf conflict in my own set), but adjusting a poorly-developed creative to cards is much harder than the other way around, and weakens both flavor and coherence.
This is especially important since the apparent concept of your set obviously involves some sort of factions, and this alignment can affect many things, such what races are what colors, and what colors get which mechanics. If noir-style police work is a theme, I expect police mechanics in white/blue/black, not Red (red is more misguided vigilante justice than investigation). If political agitation is involved, I expect the related mechanics mostly in black/red/green etc. What does bloodlust represent?
As a side note, Time Spiral aside it's unusual for a block, much less a single expert expansion, to return more than one named ability (Domain was not returned so much as named in Conflux, but that makes it the only case outside Time Spiral in posy-8th ed).