Today's the last day to submit initial ideas for the first wave of mechanics. If anyone would like to call out specific mechanics proposed here that they like or think have potential, that would also be invaluable.
Tomorrow I'll pull out a list of mechanics that seem to have potential and we can start making playtest cards.
Scorch- When [cardname] enters the battlefield...target creature that does not share colors with [cardname]...
This could be a big Tatiana ablility.
Tatiana's WurmRR2
Creature- Wurm
Scorch- When Tatiana's Wurm enters the battlefield destroy target creature that does not share colors with Tatiana's Wurm
3/3
Underworld PyrocrafterBR1
Creature- Shade
Scorch- When Underworld Pyrocrafter enters the battleffield, gain control of target creature that does not share colors with Underworld Pyrocrafter
1/1
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic."
Greedy Ritual 1B
Sorcery U
Put a gold token into play under your control. It has "Sacrifice this artifact: add one mana of any color to your mana pool"
Goldhoarder Dragon 5RR
Creature-Dragon R
When Goldhoarder Dragon enters the battlefield put 3 gold tokens into play under your control. They have "Sacrifice this artifact: add one mana of any color to your mana pool"
Flying
4/4
Tatania's faction is 3 color and so needs some mana fixing just to be played by itself
Being a three-color faction doesn't mean that its core mechanic needs to be about mana fixing that works in all colors. Mana fixing is something the set needs in a supporting roll, if there's an emphasis on multicolor (I doubt there will be, I want to stick to mono color - just give her faction most of the cards in those colors to fit her flavor). The core mechanic is the place to show off the faction's idenity, not
It scorches tatiana's non-red cards equally well and doesn't support the rest of the core yet. Also, colors-matter rarely works unless it's the main theme of the set.
Spotlight on Mechanics
I've gone through and plucked out the mechanics that seem to have the most potential. I'd like to narrow them to 3 options for King Nikolai's faction and 2 mechanics for Queen Tatiana's faction (because Nikolai got a lot more submissions). Post below and comment on mechanics that interest you. Shout out any mechanics you'd like to see moved to the next phase and explain why. You can also shout out mechanics you particularly dislike and explain why.
If there are any mechanics you think got overlooked and would like to bring up again for consideration, you can post them here and I'll either add them (might have missed them) or explain where I think the issues are.
After Tuesday, I'll go over the discussion and pull out the final cut of mechanics that we start designing cards around.
Enjoy!
Significant Mechanic Possibilities
Gift – Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, (effect).
(only effects that do not benefit the creature with Gift).
Forest Singer – W
Creature
Gift – Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under you control, gain 1 life.
1/1
Reindeer Trainer – 2G
Creature
Gift – Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under you control, you may pay G. If you do, you may put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
2/3
Sleigh Driver – 1R
Creature
Gift – Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under you control, you may pay R. If you do, you that creature gets Haste.
2/1
Pros: Reasonable amount of design space, creates a sense of community and liking creatures.
Cons: Makes all your spells more complex. Ironically you won’t have the spells to pay for most of those gifts (unless many don’t cost mana). It’s also not a focused mechanic, it’s kind of like kicker… Could be many separate mechanics.
Gift – When [cardname] enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
Nice Elf – 2G
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nice Elf enters the battlefield, you may gain 2 life or put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
2/3
Nourishing Elf – 3W
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nice Elf enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
T, Gain 1 life for each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it.
2/4
Pros: Simple, captures the flavor of creatures giving gifts to one another, can easily be put on a lot of cards and works with +1/+1 counter-matters themes.
Cons: Having too many creatures with Gift out will make playing the first one, when you have an empty board, feel bad. This could be fixed by having an alternate benefit to playing the creature – though this would make the mechanic more complicated.
Gift – When [cardname] enters the battlefield, you may gain 1 life put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
Nice Elf – 2G
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nice Elf enters the battlefield, you may gain 2 life or put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
2/3
Nourishing Elf – 3W
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nice Elf enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
T, Gain 1 life for each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it.
2/4
Pros: Like Gift 2, only it doesn’t feel as bad to play a creature on an empty board.
Cons: More complicated than Gift 2, and it can’t be put on red cards (red cards don’t gain you life).
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
Nightmare Wurm – 4BB
Creature – Nightmare Wurm
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
5/5
Nightmare’s Blade – 4B
Instant
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
Destroy target creature.
Tatiana’s Ambition – 4UU
Sorcery
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
Draw 4 cards
Pros: Simple and selfish. The nightmares are devouring one another to grow stronger, which is the exact opposite of creatures helping one another (which is what Nikolai’s faction is probably going to end up being about). It’s also super flavorful as an evil ritual.
Cons: This mechanic loves token production, which exists in red but sure isn’t popular in blue or black compared to the other colors. This might help control it, and could end up being paired with a returning mechanic like Unearth (unearth creatures don’t mind being sacrified as much, because they can come back, and they can be sacrificed for massacre after being unearthed), but it’s worth noting that it would likely end up being paired with token-generation in constructed environments (creating some faction bleed). There are costing restrictions as well though, because costs truly should end with an even number of colorless mana symbols to take advantage of the mechanic.
Spirit – [benefit] while long as you control 3 or more creatures.
Elven Ardent - W
Creature - Elf Helper
Spirit - Elven Ardent gets +2/+2 while you control 3 or more creatures.
1/1
Reindeer-Game Master - 4G
Creature - Elf Helper
Spirit - At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control 3 or more creatures, put a 2/2 white and green reindeer token with flying onto the battlefield.
4/4
Pros - Simple and community based in flavor. It also fits snuggly into the colors that make lots of tokens the easiest. Additionally, if it was paired with massacre or a similar mechanic for the Nightmares that can make use of token-generation, that would create some beautiful parity.
Cons – The flavor of community spirit isn’t the first thing you think of when you think of Christmas. Gift giving and charity tend to come first. Also, Unlike Metalcraft, the thing it cares about (creatures) are pretty much always relevant anyway. Additionally, it can create some complexity because losing one of your creatures can turn off the benefits on all your other creatures.
Greed – You may pay 2 life. If you do, [benefit].
Scroogeling - 2B
Creature - Nightmare Duck
Greed - When Scroogeling enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you do, draw a card.
3/2
Tatiana's Thirst - 2U
Sorcery
Draw 3 cards, then discard 2 cards.
Greed - When you cast Tatiana's Thirst, you may pay 2 life. If you do, draw 3 cards and discard 1 card instead.
Vicious Nightscalper - 1R
Creature
Greed - When you cast Tatiana's Thirst, you may pay 2 life. If you do, Vicious Nightscalper gets Haste.
2/1
Greedy Drake - 3U
Creature - Nightmare Duck
Flying
Greed - When Greedy Drake enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on Greedy Drake.
2/3
Pros – Very flavorful, simple, tight, fits the colors well and pretty easy to develop.
Cons – Most players probably don’t think paying life is fun. The mechanic should be fun to play, not just hit the other buttons.
Goodwill - When [cardname] would deal combat damage , you may [benefit] instead.
Generous Soul – 1W
Creature
Goodwill – When Generous Soul would deal combat damage, you may prevent that damage. If you do, gain 2 life.
2/2
Merry Friar – 3G
Creature
Goodwill – When Generous Soul would deal combat damage, you may prevent that damage. If you do, you may put two +1/+1 counters on another creature you control
3/3
Pros: Pretty thematic and relatively unexplored space in the game. Tons of design space.
Cons: Might not be fun to prevent your own combat damage (probably isn’t, but then again Outlast is absolutely awesome and this isn’t that different). Might create stalls and encouraging non-interactivity though. Could prove difficult to balance and extend games as well if damage keeps getting prevented.
Verdict: This should be tested. The mechanic has too many conflating variables to predict how fun it is accurately via theorycrafting. It needs testing to figure out if it’s good or not.
Bloodrite – You may sacrifice a creature. If you do, [effect].
It’s kicker restricted to, “Sacrifice a creature”. This is focused enough to create a mechanic and has a lot of design space. Unfortunately, sacrificing creatures isn’t super fun in general, but it totally could be.
Devouring Soul – 1B
Creature
Bloodrite – When Devouring Soul enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice a creature. If you do, draw a card.
2/1
Corpse Pyre – 1R
Instant
Deal 2 damage to target creature or player.
Bloodrite – When you cast Corpse Pyre, you may sacrifice a creature If you do, deal 5 damage to target creature or player instead.
Returning Mechanic Possibilities
Wither – Perfect for making the nightmares feel mean, and can let us play with -1/-1 coutners in many ways. Unfortunately, it means we can’t put +1/+1 counters in the set as well (due to wizards’ rules about set design). If we don’t need +1/+1 counters, Wither is amazing.
Unearth – Fits perfectly into Grixis shard and works very well with Massacre and Blood Rite, if we go in that direction. A bit oddly themed for Nightmares compared to the tortured dead, but it could still fit well.
Miracle – Christmas Miracles are awesome, though I don’t know if this kind of top-of-the-deck anticipation is essential to the theme. It’s a bit of a controversial mechanic too.
I'd definitely like to narrow it. My issue is that it can't just be "Pay C, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature" because that won't play very well with multiple gifts creatures out - if you're casting already-big things. The abilities can feel redundant. Sure, it's awesome to cast a 1/1 for G and be able to tap a bunch of mana to make it huge... Which is genuinely awesome, but aside from encouraging taking lots of small creatures (good for white, solid for red, opposite of what green wants to do and fits blue better) I have my doubts. I'd much rather be able to use multiple effects - perhaps restricted by color (red gives haste and +1/+0 until end of turn, green gives a +1/+1 counter and white gains you life?).
TLDR - I'd definitely like to narrow the mechanic, and there aren't many things you can do that fit in the flavor space anyways. I have concerns with the single +1/+1 counter version though, and feel it is probably too narrow to work for so many cards. Also, in pure selfishness, I would love to design a card with Gift 1 that lets you pay X when a creature comes into play to put X +1/+1 counters on it and gain life equal to its toughness (or other similarly silly things).
NOTE: I don't think Gifts 1 would be a keyword like Outlast, but rather a term like Raid... Meant to unify the effects in peoples' minds but not necessarily work the same way each time.
I like gift because it goes with Santa and his creatures gifting others.
I also like massacre because it goes with Tatiana uses her magic and the magic of others for evil.
I am against greed because if it is actually greed, there would not be a drawback. You just are greedy, you don't need to lose two life.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic."
My issue with Gift 1 is that it breaks New World Order. It affects other permanents on the battlefield. This means it eats up our complexity budget at common and we're probably going to need that.
My issue with Gift 2 is that it's no fun to play on an empty board.
My issue with Gift 3 is that it can't be designed in red - restricting it to white/green.
However, I no longer have a problem with red not having the mechanic. Red is very emotional, but emotion isn't the domain of red alone. Santa in popular culture really is mono-white, and our lore doesn't push him to red. Our version pushes him to white/green at most.
I think Gift 3 is the best of the above mechanics. "When [cardname] enters the battlefield, you may gain 2 life or put a +1/+1 counter no another creature you control". 2 life might be too powerful, so it might be better as 1 life, but that could work.
Additionally, the following might be less flavorful but simpler: "When[cardname] enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control". Combine it with some nice +1/+1 counter matters mechanics and it could be very cool.
As for the Nightmare faction, Massacre is clever but I think Bloodrite offers a lot more flexibility while still being a very strong core identity.
So, I'm sold on Bloodrite for now and one of the above versions of gifts. Frankly, I think we might as well make both versions of the above gift versions and try them both out.
Tomorrow I'll pull out a list of mechanics that seem to have potential and we can start making playtest cards.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
This could be a big Tatiana ablility.
Tatiana's WurmRR2
Creature- Wurm
Scorch- When Tatiana's Wurm enters the battlefield destroy target creature that does not share colors with Tatiana's Wurm
3/3
Underworld PyrocrafterBR1
Creature- Shade
Scorch- When Underworld Pyrocrafter enters the battleffield, gain control of target creature that does not share colors with Underworld Pyrocrafter
1/1
Greedy Ritual 1B
Sorcery U
Put a gold token into play under your control. It has "Sacrifice this artifact: add one mana of any color to your mana pool"
Goldhoarder Dragon 5RR
Creature-Dragon R
When Goldhoarder Dragon enters the battlefield put 3 gold tokens into play under your control. They have "Sacrifice this artifact: add one mana of any color to your mana pool"
Flying
4/4
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Being a three-color faction doesn't mean that its core mechanic needs to be about mana fixing that works in all colors. Mana fixing is something the set needs in a supporting roll, if there's an emphasis on multicolor (I doubt there will be, I want to stick to mono color - just give her faction most of the cards in those colors to fit her flavor). The core mechanic is the place to show off the faction's idenity, not
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
I've gone through and plucked out the mechanics that seem to have the most potential. I'd like to narrow them to 3 options for King Nikolai's faction and 2 mechanics for Queen Tatiana's faction (because Nikolai got a lot more submissions). Post below and comment on mechanics that interest you. Shout out any mechanics you'd like to see moved to the next phase and explain why. You can also shout out mechanics you particularly dislike and explain why.
If there are any mechanics you think got overlooked and would like to bring up again for consideration, you can post them here and I'll either add them (might have missed them) or explain where I think the issues are.
After Tuesday, I'll go over the discussion and pull out the final cut of mechanics that we start designing cards around.
Enjoy!
Significant Mechanic Possibilities
(only effects that do not benefit the creature with Gift).
Forest Singer – W
Creature
Gift – Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under you control, gain 1 life.
1/1
Reindeer Trainer – 2G
Creature
Gift – Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under you control, you may pay G. If you do, you may put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
2/3
Sleigh Driver – 1R
Creature
Gift – Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under you control, you may pay R. If you do, you that creature gets Haste.
2/1
Pros: Reasonable amount of design space, creates a sense of community and liking creatures.
Cons: Makes all your spells more complex. Ironically you won’t have the spells to pay for most of those gifts (unless many don’t cost mana). It’s also not a focused mechanic, it’s kind of like kicker… Could be many separate mechanics.
Nice Elf – 2G
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nice Elf enters the battlefield, you may gain 2 life or put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
2/3
Nourishing Elf – 3W
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nice Elf enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
T, Gain 1 life for each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it.
2/4
Pros: Simple, captures the flavor of creatures giving gifts to one another, can easily be put on a lot of cards and works with +1/+1 counter-matters themes.
Cons: Having too many creatures with Gift out will make playing the first one, when you have an empty board, feel bad. This could be fixed by having an alternate benefit to playing the creature – though this would make the mechanic more complicated.
Nice Elf – 2G
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nice Elf enters the battlefield, you may gain 2 life or put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
2/3
Nourishing Elf – 3W
Creature – Elf Helper
Gift – When Nice Elf enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control.
T, Gain 1 life for each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it.
2/4
Pros: Like Gift 2, only it doesn’t feel as bad to play a creature on an empty board.
Cons: More complicated than Gift 2, and it can’t be put on red cards (red cards don’t gain you life).
Nightmare Wurm – 4BB
Creature – Nightmare Wurm
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
5/5
Nightmare’s Blade – 4B
Instant
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
Destroy target creature.
Tatiana’s Ambition – 4UU
Sorcery
Massacre - Each creature you sacrifice while casting this spell pays for 2.
Draw 4 cards
Pros: Simple and selfish. The nightmares are devouring one another to grow stronger, which is the exact opposite of creatures helping one another (which is what Nikolai’s faction is probably going to end up being about). It’s also super flavorful as an evil ritual.
Cons: This mechanic loves token production, which exists in red but sure isn’t popular in blue or black compared to the other colors. This might help control it, and could end up being paired with a returning mechanic like Unearth (unearth creatures don’t mind being sacrified as much, because they can come back, and they can be sacrificed for massacre after being unearthed), but it’s worth noting that it would likely end up being paired with token-generation in constructed environments (creating some faction bleed). There are costing restrictions as well though, because costs truly should end with an even number of colorless mana symbols to take advantage of the mechanic.
Elven Ardent - W
Creature - Elf Helper
Spirit - Elven Ardent gets +2/+2 while you control 3 or more creatures.
1/1
Reindeer-Game Master - 4G
Creature - Elf Helper
Spirit - At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control 3 or more creatures, put a 2/2 white and green reindeer token with flying onto the battlefield.
4/4
Pros - Simple and community based in flavor. It also fits snuggly into the colors that make lots of tokens the easiest. Additionally, if it was paired with massacre or a similar mechanic for the Nightmares that can make use of token-generation, that would create some beautiful parity.
Cons – The flavor of community spirit isn’t the first thing you think of when you think of Christmas. Gift giving and charity tend to come first. Also, Unlike Metalcraft, the thing it cares about (creatures) are pretty much always relevant anyway. Additionally, it can create some complexity because losing one of your creatures can turn off the benefits on all your other creatures.
Greed – You may pay 2 life. If you do, [benefit].
Scroogeling - 2B
Creature - Nightmare Duck
Greed - When Scroogeling enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you do, draw a card.
3/2
Tatiana's Thirst - 2U
Sorcery
Draw 3 cards, then discard 2 cards.
Greed - When you cast Tatiana's Thirst, you may pay 2 life. If you do, draw 3 cards and discard 1 card instead.
Vicious Nightscalper - 1R
Creature
Greed - When you cast Tatiana's Thirst, you may pay 2 life. If you do, Vicious Nightscalper gets Haste.
2/1
Greedy Drake - 3U
Creature - Nightmare Duck
Flying
Greed - When Greedy Drake enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on Greedy Drake.
2/3
Pros – Very flavorful, simple, tight, fits the colors well and pretty easy to develop.
Cons – Most players probably don’t think paying life is fun. The mechanic should be fun to play, not just hit the other buttons.
Generous Soul – 1W
Creature
Goodwill – When Generous Soul would deal combat damage, you may prevent that damage. If you do, gain 2 life.
2/2
Merry Friar – 3G
Creature
Goodwill – When Generous Soul would deal combat damage, you may prevent that damage. If you do, you may put two +1/+1 counters on another creature you control
3/3
Pros: Pretty thematic and relatively unexplored space in the game. Tons of design space.
Cons: Might not be fun to prevent your own combat damage (probably isn’t, but then again Outlast is absolutely awesome and this isn’t that different). Might create stalls and encouraging non-interactivity though. Could prove difficult to balance and extend games as well if damage keeps getting prevented.
Verdict: This should be tested. The mechanic has too many conflating variables to predict how fun it is accurately via theorycrafting. It needs testing to figure out if it’s good or not.
Bloodrite – You may sacrifice a creature. If you do, [effect].
It’s kicker restricted to, “Sacrifice a creature”. This is focused enough to create a mechanic and has a lot of design space. Unfortunately, sacrificing creatures isn’t super fun in general, but it totally could be.
Devouring Soul – 1B
Creature
Bloodrite – When Devouring Soul enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice a creature. If you do, draw a card.
2/1
Corpse Pyre – 1R
Instant
Deal 2 damage to target creature or player.
Bloodrite – When you cast Corpse Pyre, you may sacrifice a creature If you do, deal 5 damage to target creature or player instead.
Returning Mechanic Possibilities
Wither – Perfect for making the nightmares feel mean, and can let us play with -1/-1 coutners in many ways. Unfortunately, it means we can’t put +1/+1 counters in the set as well (due to wizards’ rules about set design). If we don’t need +1/+1 counters, Wither is amazing.
Unearth – Fits perfectly into Grixis shard and works very well with Massacre and Blood Rite, if we go in that direction. A bit oddly themed for Nightmares compared to the tortured dead, but it could still fit well.
Miracle – Christmas Miracles are awesome, though I don’t know if this kind of top-of-the-deck anticipation is essential to the theme. It’s a bit of a controversial mechanic too.
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TLDR - I'd definitely like to narrow the mechanic, and there aren't many things you can do that fit in the flavor space anyways. I have concerns with the single +1/+1 counter version though, and feel it is probably too narrow to work for so many cards. Also, in pure selfishness, I would love to design a card with Gift 1 that lets you pay X when a creature comes into play to put X +1/+1 counters on it and gain life equal to its toughness (or other similarly silly things).
NOTE: I don't think Gifts 1 would be a keyword like Outlast, but rather a term like Raid... Meant to unify the effects in peoples' minds but not necessarily work the same way each time.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
I also like massacre because it goes with Tatiana uses her magic and the magic of others for evil.
I am against greed because if it is actually greed, there would not be a drawback. You just are greedy, you don't need to lose two life.
My issue with Gift 2 is that it's no fun to play on an empty board.
My issue with Gift 3 is that it can't be designed in red - restricting it to white/green.
However, I no longer have a problem with red not having the mechanic. Red is very emotional, but emotion isn't the domain of red alone. Santa in popular culture really is mono-white, and our lore doesn't push him to red. Our version pushes him to white/green at most.
I think Gift 3 is the best of the above mechanics. "When [cardname] enters the battlefield, you may gain 2 life or put a +1/+1 counter no another creature you control". 2 life might be too powerful, so it might be better as 1 life, but that could work.
Additionally, the following might be less flavorful but simpler: "When[cardname] enters the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control". Combine it with some nice +1/+1 counter matters mechanics and it could be very cool.
As for the Nightmare faction, Massacre is clever but I think Bloodrite offers a lot more flexibility while still being a very strong core identity.
So, I'm sold on Bloodrite for now and one of the above versions of gifts. Frankly, I think we might as well make both versions of the above gift versions and try them both out.
Thoughts?
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