I don't think it's a good idea to make spending a gold counter an activation cost because it's just a parasitic way of paying 1. However, I think it's a great idea to have triggered abilities that are triggered when a given player spends a gold counter.
I think one of the best ways to manage gold counter mana is to provide plenty of tempting bonus mana sinks, expensive spells, and huge bombs. The set doesn't have kicker, but Rudyard presented an interesting mechanic that might make for a decent mana sink - Bribe.
Salamancer (Rare) 4U
Legendary Creature - Salamander Adviser
3/5 U,T: Exchange control of two target creatures. If politics was a game of cards, I would be the dealer. - Salamancer
Immortality (Rare) 2W
Enchantment
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can’t die. (It can't be sacrificed and is unaffected by effects that would cause it to be put into
a graveyard from the battlefield, such as lethal damage, "destroy", the "legend rule", and toughness 0 or less.)
Malamancer (Mythic) 4B
Legendary Creature - Salamander Shaman
2/6 B,T: Exchange your life total with target creature's power. If life was a game of cards, I would be holding all the cards. - Malamancer
Grave Circumstances (Rare) 4BB
Enchantment
When Grave Circumstances enters the battlefield, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control from a graveyard, it gains haste until end of turn.
Both Landfall and Metalcraft appeared on about 10% of the cards in the primary sets of their blocks, that's about 22 cards each, but they are very flexible mechanics that can appear on any cardtype and are therefore far more suited for set filler.
Civilize falls more along the lines of Totem Armor, which appeared only on Auras, only in three colors GWU, and only on about 5% of the cards in its premier set RoE, yet it is a well known and well liked mechanic.
A civilization themed set is a great idea. Realize that you have hundreds of cards with which to tease that flavor out, you don't need to cram all the flavor onto 20ish cards with the use of an unnecessary keyword. And remember, your adapting Civ to Mag, not the other way around. Fortifications with Fortify 0 will work wonderfully.
What do yall think about titling the prison Dungeonfel to provide a unique descriptor for card names - i.e. Dungeonfel Bats, Dungeonfel Warden, Dungeonfel Rats, Dungeonfel Flower Shop, etc?
Absolutely should not be done! Mana fixing shouldn't be easy and in all colours.
*shrugs* Maybe. But there's quite a few existing colorless sources of mana of any color.
Alloy Myr
Barbed Sextant
Black Lotus
Celestial Prism
Chromatic Lantern
Chromatic Sphere
Chromatic Star
Coalition Relic
Darksteel Ingot
Diamond Kaleidoscope
Fellwar Stone
Gemstone Array
Gilded Lotus
Lotus Bloom
Lotus Blossom
Lotus Guardian
Lotus Petal
Mana Cylix
Mana Prism
Manalith
Mox Diamond
Mox Opal
Mycosynth Lattice
North Star
Paradise Mantle
Pentad Prism
Phyrexian Altar
Phyrexian Lens
Pili-Pala
Prismatic Lens
Prophetic Prism
Scuttlemutt
Spectral Searchlight
Sphere of the Suns
Springleaf Drum
Standing Stones
Star Compass
Vessel of Endless Rest
And this doesn't even begin to count artifacts that produce various combinations of W,U,B,R, and/or G.
Either way, I don't really see Aurafication presenting an actual problem of rules or flavor. If there was a problem it would have been brought up in the GDS2. Furthermore, Aurafication's flavor is really bad and gold counters could use a face lift in that regard.
In that cast I'll delete my other post and repost it here.
Dungeonfel Prison:
A microcosm with its own subculture
Gritty
Sooty
Shadowy
Bleak
Underworld
Industrialized
Steampunk
Blood Money (Common) B
Instant
You get a gold counter for each creature that died this turn. (Spend a gold counter: Add 1 to your mana pool.)
Crowd Control (Common) 1W
Instant
Destroy target creature if its controller controls more creatures than any other player.
Death Sentence (Common) 1B
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has wither. (It deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
At the beginning of each upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on enchanted creature.
Gambit (Common) R
Sorcery
Flip a coin until you lose a flip. Add 1 to your mana pool for each flip you win.
Prison Guard (Common) W
Creature - Human Soldier
0/4
Vigilance
Reforge (Common) 1R
Instant
Destroy target artifact. You get a number of gold counters equal to its converted mana cost. (Spend a gold counter: Add 1 to your mana pool.)
Skeleton Key (Common) 3
Artifact T: Untap target permanent. You lose 1 life. Now that you can unlock death's door, do you dare to open it?
Street Urchin (Common W
Creature - Human
1/1
Protection from black
Blast Mining (Uncommon)
2RR
Sorcery
Destroy target land. You get a gold counter for each color of mana that land could produce. (Spend a gold counter: Add 1 to your mana pool.)
Prison Break (Uncommon) 1WW
Instant
Destroy all permanents attached to target permanent.
Prison Riot (Uncommon) 2RR
Instant
Creatures you control get +1/+0 and trample until end of turn.
If four or more creatures attacked this turn, destroy target artifact, creature, or land defending player controls.
Prison Term (Uncommon) 2UU
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step and its activated abilities can't be activated.
When enchanted creature dies, attach Prison Term to target creature.
Prison Walls (Uncommon) 4
Artifact
Creatures with power less than the number of artifacts on the battlefield can't attack.
Prisoner of War (Uncommon) 3UU
Instant
Gain control of target attacking creature.
Sewer System (Uncommon) 3
Artifact 5, T: Put a 1/1 black Rat creature token onto the battlefield. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
Charnel House (Rare)
Land T: Add B or R to your mana pool. Charnel House deals 1 damage to you. (B/R),T, Sacrifice a creature: Add X mana in any combination of B and/or R to your mana pool, where X is the sacrificed creature's converted mana cost.
Life Sentence (Rare) 3BB
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant player
When enchanted player has 40 or more life, he or she loses the game.
Prison Gate (Rare) 5
Artifact
Prison Gate is indestructible.
Each creature you control can block any number of creatures.
Prison Warden (Rare) 2UU
Creature - Human Advisor
2/4 U,T: Tap target creature and all creatures that share a creature type with it.
I think one of the best ways to manage gold counter mana is to provide plenty of tempting bonus mana sinks, expensive spells, and huge bombs. The set doesn't have kicker, but Rudyard presented an interesting mechanic that might make for a decent mana sink - Bribe.
2G
Creature – Ooze
3/3
2G: Put a token that's a copy of Replicator Ooze onto the battlefield.
Salamancer (Rare)
4U
Legendary Creature - Salamander Adviser
3/5
U,T: Exchange control of two target creatures.
If politics was a game of cards, I would be the dealer. - Salamancer
Immortality (Rare)
2W
Enchantment
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can’t die. (It can't be sacrificed and is unaffected by effects that would cause it to be put into
a graveyard from the battlefield, such as lethal damage, "destroy", the "legend rule", and toughness 0 or less.)
Malamancer (Mythic)
4B
Legendary Creature - Salamander Shaman
2/6
B,T: Exchange your life total with target creature's power.
If life was a game of cards, I would be holding all the cards. - Malamancer
4BB
Enchantment
When Grave Circumstances enters the battlefield, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control from a graveyard, it gains haste until end of turn.
Civilize falls more along the lines of Totem Armor, which appeared only on Auras, only in three colors GWU, and only on about 5% of the cards in its premier set RoE, yet it is a well known and well liked mechanic.
*shrugs* Maybe. But there's quite a few existing colorless sources of mana of any color.
Alloy Myr
Barbed Sextant
Black Lotus
Celestial Prism
Chromatic Lantern
Chromatic Sphere
Chromatic Star
Coalition Relic
Darksteel Ingot
Diamond Kaleidoscope
Fellwar Stone
Gemstone Array
Gilded Lotus
Lotus Bloom
Lotus Blossom
Lotus Guardian
Lotus Petal
Mana Cylix
Mana Prism
Manalith
Mox Diamond
Mox Opal
Mycosynth Lattice
North Star
Paradise Mantle
Pentad Prism
Phyrexian Altar
Phyrexian Lens
Pili-Pala
Prismatic Lens
Prophetic Prism
Scuttlemutt
Spectral Searchlight
Sphere of the Suns
Springleaf Drum
Standing Stones
Star Compass
Vessel of Endless Rest
And this doesn't even begin to count artifacts that produce various combinations of W,U,B,R, and/or G.
Either way, I don't really see Aurafication presenting an actual problem of rules or flavor. If there was a problem it would have been brought up in the GDS2. Furthermore, Aurafication's flavor is really bad and gold counters could use a face lift in that regard.
3UUU
Sorcery
Gain control of target creature. Put a token that's a copy of that creature onto the battlefield.
Viathic Moneychanger (Uncommon)
W
Creature - Human
0/2
T, Remove a gold counter from a permanent you control: Gain 2 life.
Dwarven Mercenary (Common)
1R
Creature - Dwarf Mercenary
1/1
Dwarven Mercenary gets +1/+1 for each gold counter on it.
EDIT: Except dang, we already have neg counters from wither. Hmm, how about gold counters only on noncreature permanents? Or drop wither.
Coin Purse (Common)
4
Artifact
T: Put a gold counter on target noncreature, nonplaneswalker permanent or player.
Dungeonfel Prison:
A microcosm with its own subculture
Gritty
Sooty
Shadowy
Bleak
Underworld
Industrialized
Steampunk
Blood Money (Common)
B
Instant
You get a gold counter for each creature that died this turn. (Spend a gold counter: Add 1 to your mana pool.)
Crowd Control (Common)
1W
Instant
Destroy target creature if its controller controls more creatures than any other player.
Death Sentence (Common)
1B
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has wither. (It deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
At the beginning of each upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on enchanted creature.
Gambit (Common)
R
Sorcery
Flip a coin until you lose a flip. Add 1 to your mana pool for each flip you win.
Jail Bird (Common)
3U
Creature - Bird Rogue
3/1
Shroud
Prison Bars (Common)
2
Artifact
4, T: Target creature can't attack this turn.
Prison Guard (Common)
W
Creature - Human Soldier
0/4
Vigilance
Reforge (Common)
1R
Instant
Destroy target artifact. You get a number of gold counters equal to its converted mana cost. (Spend a gold counter: Add 1 to your mana pool.)
Skeleton Key (Common)
3
Artifact
T: Untap target permanent. You lose 1 life.
Now that you can unlock death's door, do you dare to open it?
Street Urchin (Common
W
Creature - Human
1/1
Protection from black
Blast Mining (Uncommon)
2RR
Sorcery
Destroy target land. You get a gold counter for each color of mana that land could produce. (Spend a gold counter: Add 1 to your mana pool.)
Prison Break (Uncommon)
1WW
Instant
Destroy all permanents attached to target permanent.
Prison Riot (Uncommon)
2RR
Instant
Creatures you control get +1/+0 and trample until end of turn.
If four or more creatures attacked this turn, destroy target artifact, creature, or land defending player controls.
Prison Term (Uncommon)
2UU
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step and its activated abilities can't be activated.
When enchanted creature dies, attach Prison Term to target creature.
Prison Walls (Uncommon)
4
Artifact
Creatures with power less than the number of artifacts on the battlefield can't attack.
Prisoner of War (Uncommon)
3UU
Instant
Gain control of target attacking creature.
Sewer System (Uncommon)
3
Artifact
5, T: Put a 1/1 black Rat creature token onto the battlefield. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
Charnel House (Rare)
Land
T: Add B or R to your mana pool. Charnel House deals 1 damage to you.
(B/R),T, Sacrifice a creature: Add X mana in any combination of B and/or R to your mana pool, where X is the sacrificed creature's converted mana cost.
Life Sentence (Rare)
3BB
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant player
When enchanted player has 40 or more life, he or she loses the game.
Prison Gate (Rare)
5
Artifact
Prison Gate is indestructible.
Each creature you control can block any number of creatures.
Prison Warden (Rare)
2UU
Creature - Human Advisor
2/4
U,T: Tap target creature and all creatures that share a creature type with it.
Avis (Mythic)
GGUU
Planeswalker - Avis
[-10]: Gain control of all lands.