While untappers are useful, the real trick is getting them tapped without getting them killed. Some of them don't seem particularly strong in combat, though
Are there any other good ways to tap your creatures? I guess strong evasion, or making your creature more combat ready with auras (especially ones that give him a big butt).
I think the Identity cards would be confusing to a new player. If I haven't played the game before Xenolis Ravager is not going to make any sense to me. The only one that makes any sense is Reality Sculptoring, but even that feels like a rare card and not an uncommon.
The bleach abilities seem overcosted if it's supposed to be a target creature. Currently, they just won't be played except in a deck that has the correct colored creatures.
Holy Claws is a green spell.
I don't think the leeches were popular at all in Invasion
I don't think color changing as a block mechanic is a strong idea, as only blue is able to mess around with the design space
It's difficult to gauge the power level or fun level of these cards, so you might want to playtest to be certain.
1) you might try to figure out other color combinations this could fit in, because you can only fit in so many RW cards into a set. Maybe blue can also moderate?
2) Spike players tend not to like coin-flips, but perhaps the moderate mechanic will alleviate that. If they still don't like it, keep the power levels low so Timmy's can play with them, but Spike's don't have to deal with Frenetic Efreet again in tournaments again
3) The Johnny side of me likes cards like Skyflayer, where sometimes you want to main effect, but sometimes you want the side effect. Cards like Sword of the Fallen Ideal seem mostly like they would just cause frustration when the coin flips didn't go your way.
4) Diebuor seems like it is going in too many directions. a 1/1 with "whenever you flip a coin, add WWW to your mana pool" and a lower cost would create a much more memorable legend with these cards.
I think most of the time, I would rather just have another creature. The only time I think I would use this ability is right before I use a sweeper, but even then, the ability seems like it would be too slow.
Perhaps you should make the ability free and take place when the creature enters the battelfield. A bit like Champion, except it can get multiple creatures.
Thanks, I appreciate most of the comments you guys've left.
Drumbeater
Thinking through it, I'd assume he'd be in a creature-based midrange deck. 50+% of the deck is creatures, so you would be getting 2 or 3 creatures, and they'd probably be 4/4s with ETB abilities. So, yeah, I guess 5 is too many for a 3 mana creature.
Perhaps the he'd would be better as 2/1 for RG that exiles 1 or 2 cards
After-Party
I don't think this is a common ability in any color. Would it be more appropriate if you had to pay life to use black mana as any color for this?
Lockup Gate
I agree that it is parasitically linear. The hope is that the line it draws can be woven into other decks without completely taking them over. You'll notice it's 4 mana for an arrest: the idea is that most of the time if you're loading up on these cards, your hand will be full, but full of expensive cards that you can really only play once per turn, and will get punished by tempo based decks. I don't know how difficult it would be to balance that.
Makeshift Wings
In the long run, I don't think "card advantage" is what this generates, as it is only searching up auras, and auras tend to be card disadvantage. A deck that loads up on these cards will tend to make itself weak to removal. I guess I'd have to test it out to see how powerful/fun it is.
Early Harvester
Hmm, going back and looking at the closest comparisons, Masked Admirers, as a 3/2 that cantrips, is probably the closest comparison, but I don't think that really tore up too many tournament scenes. (But I guess he *was* competing against Faeries) Maybe this guy'd be better at 4 mana.
(These would probably not all come from the same block)
Khor Drumbeater1RG
Creature - Beast Warrior - Rare
Haste
Whenever Khor Drumbeater attacks, you may exile the top 5 cards of your library, and put all creatures exiled by ~ into play tapped and attacking.
If you do, then at the end of combat, put each of these creatures and all other cards exiled by ~ at the bottom of your library
2/3
- a R/G Geist of Saint Traft. I figure Hexproof is better than Haste, but this card plays better with other ETB creatures
After-Party3B
Enchantment - Rare
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile a random dead creature.
You may play creature cards exiled by ~ as though they were in your hand, except you may use black mana as though it were mana of any color to do so.
- The flavor of this card is meant to be a party for the undead
Lockup Gate3W
Enchantment - Aura - Uncommon
Enchant Creature
Chain 5 - When you play this spell, you may look at the top 5 cards of your library, reveal a card with Chain and put it in your hand, and put the rest on the bottom of your library
Enchanted creature can't attack or block
- I think this mechanic plays out well. During deck building, if you have a few good Chain cards in your deck, then there's a tension between putting in a few mediocre Chain cards (which clog up your regular draws, but help continue your Chain), or some good non-Chain cards (which give you powerful ways to affect the board, but might stop your Chain)
Makeshift Wings1U
Enchantment - Aura - Common
Enchant Creature
Assemble - When you play this spell, you may search your library for an aura card, put it into your hand, and then shuffle your library
Enchanted creature has flying
- I'm trying to find a few mechanics to make auras more playable. I figure auras that find more auras could be useful, and give a bit of a 'mad scientist' kind of feel
Early Harvester1GG
Creature - Elf Shaman - Uncommon
When ~ enters the battlefield, untap all basic lands you control and draw a card
3/2
I put in the types, just because almost every card seems to have one, and it seemed weird to leave it out. Would be easy to drop them as well, I guess most artifacts and enchantments don't actually have a subtype
Yes, when any player attacks into a zone, any opponent may block (I haven't completely thought out the rules for multiplayer yet)
@willows
Are you suggesting merging rule 2 into rule 1, or removing the "summoning sickness" portion of the zones?
Yeah, "being defeated" primarily prevents you from gaining the conquer trigger, although, some cards might have defeated triggers too. In fact, my biggest worry with this card type is that it would become a strictly "win more" kind of card, where you only play it when you're ahead on the board. Having a consolation prize if you're defeated might make it more interesting
Traveler's Lantern - works. Feels like a common Maester's Chain - I don't get what hexproof has to do with untapping? Baratheon Warhammer - Remove the "activated abilities...", drop the cost to 4, and make it uncommon Damaged Warship - Are you bringing back the clash mechanic into your set? I don't think it was one of the more popular mechanics. And winning doesn't really feel like winning here, so it ends up being kind of a letdown of a clash Harlaw Warship - this feels incredibly weak. I can't see anybody putting it into their deck, even if it were built around islandwalk. I get that you're trying to combo it with War Galley, but it's usually more interesting when the individual pieces are useful on their own Iron Fleet Dromond - by the time you have 6 mana, the ability to cast spells for less becomes less important. Although it could be used to fuel some kind of fireball, usually those decks are not also packing a swarm of creatures to gather gold counters. Is this card intended to be weak? War Galley - this one works, although is a bit unexciting. Would be worded "gets +1/+0 and gains islandwalk" Iron Victory - I think you're trying to do too much with this one. Remove the first ability, and take the mana costs away from the other abilities.
I would think about turning the ships into artifact creatures, so they can also be used to directly attack the opponent
Zone is a new card type. Creatively, they are meant to represent major conflicts, plots, schemes or warzones going on in the story. Mechanically, players send creatures attacking into it in order to sway the course of the battle there.
Example Cards
Death Fields - 1BB
Zone - Grixis
All creatures in ~ have deathtouch
When you conquer ~, return up to 3 creature cards from any graveyards to play under your control
Victory Points: 5/10
Mad Scientist's Laboratory - 3UR
Zone - Ravnica
Whenever a creature becomes blocked in ~, exchange control of those creatures
When you conquer ~, gain control of all creatures
Victory Points: 2/7
Rules:
An opponent's zone may be attacked just as a player or planeswalker would.
You may (and probably should) also attack your own zone, as long as it has been under your control since the beginning of the turn, or the attacking creature has haste.
Unblocked creatures you control attacking zones you control deal damage in the form of adding victory counters
Unblocked creatures your opponents control attacking into zones you control deal damage in the form of removing victory counters
When your zone has a number of victory counters equal to it's max, it is put into it's owner's graveyard as a state based effect, and you are considered to have "conquered" that zone
When your zone has 0 victory counters, it is put into it's owner's graveyard as a state based effect, and you are considered to have "been defeated" in that zone
During combat, all creatures attacking the zone, and all creatures blocking those creatures are considered to be "in" that zone
I think design is starting to get to the point where Planeswalkers are well known enough that some cards are allowed to mention them as long as they're not completely useless when no Planeswalkers are actually involved
Sparked One1U
Creature - Human Wizard
When ~ dies, you may exile him, search your library for a planeswalker card and play it. If you do, shuffle your library
2/1
Maddening Wasteland- Could work. I'd have to play around with it to see if it's one of those fun sucking cards or a legitimate prison deck inclusion. If you reveal a weak permanent, can you choose not to sacrifice anything and put the weak permanent into your graveyard? I think this card is the best of the crop here.
Demon's Head- 5 mana with heavy commitment to potentially give your opponent free spells? I don't think too many people would play with this card
Torturer's Whisper- This will tend to be "target player discards a card at random, draw a card" with some occasional random upside. Given that, it seems difficult to cast.
Goblin's Mind Game- This will tend to be "you discard a card at random" with some occasional random upside. Given that, it seems even harder to cast.
Planeswalker's Lifework- I can't tell if you're joking with this (it seems worse than The Ultimate Nightmare of Wizards of the Coast® Customer Service). It is *way* too confusing to ever be printed. A colorless sorcery has never been printed, and this doesn't seem special enough to warrant it. Legendary Sorcery doesn't have any rules meaning attached to it, and is likely to confuse. I don't get why only colored mana is used to pay for it. Split Second doesn't seem to add much to this card that "Can't be countered" wouldn't. Most of the abilities require more math than is typically suitable for a game that is meant to be played for fun.
Yeah, the ability was inspired by the new planeswalker rules, but doesn't rely on it, because he keeps his type.
Now that I think about it, I think the planeswalker cloning ability is actually kind of weak. Theoretically, it could be a very powerful ability if you're copying Karn Liberated or Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, in practice, it would run into a few limits. If you have one of the aforementioned planeswalkers in play, you're probably winning anyways without a copy. And if you're copying your opponent's, they will probably just use their planeswalker to immediately remove him from the board on their next turn. If you're copying any of the planeswalkers that ever see play, then he's only particularly strong when he has sufficient loyalty, which he takes him a while.
Creating a clone every turn, on the other hand, costs at least 6 mana (See: Progenitor Mimic
Since I'm in the "messing around with planeswalkers" space, perhaps this would be an appropriately powerful card:
Phibious the Absorber2UB
Planeswalker - Phibious
~ has all activated abilities of all Planeswalker cards exiled with ~ +1: Target opponent reveals 3 cards from his or her hand and you choose one of them. Exile that card 0: Exile target Planeswalker -3: Look at target players library, and exile 3 cards from it. Then shuffle that library
Starting Loyalty: 2
Phibious the Shapeshifter2U
Planeswalker - Phibious +1 - Draw a card, discard a card, then put a card from your graveyard on the bottom of your library 0 - ~ becomes a copy of target planeswalker, except his type is still ~, and he gains this ability -2 - Put a token copy of target creature into play Starting Loyalty: 1
Witches' Eye
Springleaf Drum
Epiphany Storm
Ephara's Warden
Are there any other good ways to tap your creatures? I guess strong evasion, or making your creature more combat ready with auras (especially ones that give him a big butt).
The bleach abilities seem overcosted if it's supposed to be a target creature. Currently, they just won't be played except in a deck that has the correct colored creatures.
Holy Claws is a green spell.
I don't think the leeches were popular at all in Invasion
I don't think color changing as a block mechanic is a strong idea, as only blue is able to mess around with the design space
1) you might try to figure out other color combinations this could fit in, because you can only fit in so many RW cards into a set. Maybe blue can also moderate?
2) Spike players tend not to like coin-flips, but perhaps the moderate mechanic will alleviate that. If they still don't like it, keep the power levels low so Timmy's can play with them, but Spike's don't have to deal with Frenetic Efreet again in tournaments again
3) The Johnny side of me likes cards like Skyflayer, where sometimes you want to main effect, but sometimes you want the side effect. Cards like Sword of the Fallen Ideal seem mostly like they would just cause frustration when the coin flips didn't go your way.
4) Diebuor seems like it is going in too many directions. a 1/1 with "whenever you flip a coin, add WWW to your mana pool" and a lower cost would create a much more memorable legend with these cards.
Perhaps you should make the ability free and take place when the creature enters the battelfield. A bit like Champion, except it can get multiple creatures.
Drumbeater
Thinking through it, I'd assume he'd be in a creature-based midrange deck. 50+% of the deck is creatures, so you would be getting 2 or 3 creatures, and they'd probably be 4/4s with ETB abilities. So, yeah, I guess 5 is too many for a 3 mana creature.
Perhaps the he'd would be better as 2/1 for RG that exiles 1 or 2 cards
After-Party
I don't think this is a common ability in any color. Would it be more appropriate if you had to pay life to use black mana as any color for this?
Lockup Gate
I agree that it is parasitically linear. The hope is that the line it draws can be woven into other decks without completely taking them over. You'll notice it's 4 mana for an arrest: the idea is that most of the time if you're loading up on these cards, your hand will be full, but full of expensive cards that you can really only play once per turn, and will get punished by tempo based decks. I don't know how difficult it would be to balance that.
Makeshift Wings
In the long run, I don't think "card advantage" is what this generates, as it is only searching up auras, and auras tend to be card disadvantage. A deck that loads up on these cards will tend to make itself weak to removal. I guess I'd have to test it out to see how powerful/fun it is.
Early Harvester
Hmm, going back and looking at the closest comparisons,
Masked Admirers, as a 3/2 that cantrips, is probably the closest comparison, but I don't think that really tore up too many tournament scenes. (But I guess he *was* competing against Faeries) Maybe this guy'd be better at 4 mana.
Khor Drumbeater 1RG
Creature - Beast Warrior - Rare
Haste
Whenever Khor Drumbeater attacks, you may exile the top 5 cards of your library, and put all creatures exiled by ~ into play tapped and attacking.
If you do, then at the end of combat, put each of these creatures and all other cards exiled by ~ at the bottom of your library
2/3
- a R/G Geist of Saint Traft. I figure Hexproof is better than Haste, but this card plays better with other ETB creatures
After-Party 3B
Enchantment - Rare
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile a random dead creature.
You may play creature cards exiled by ~ as though they were in your hand, except you may use black mana as though it were mana of any color to do so.
- The flavor of this card is meant to be a party for the undead
Lockup Gate 3W
Enchantment - Aura - Uncommon
Enchant Creature
Chain 5 - When you play this spell, you may look at the top 5 cards of your library, reveal a card with Chain and put it in your hand, and put the rest on the bottom of your library
Enchanted creature can't attack or block
- I think this mechanic plays out well. During deck building, if you have a few good Chain cards in your deck, then there's a tension between putting in a few mediocre Chain cards (which clog up your regular draws, but help continue your Chain), or some good non-Chain cards (which give you powerful ways to affect the board, but might stop your Chain)
Makeshift Wings 1U
Enchantment - Aura - Common
Enchant Creature
Assemble - When you play this spell, you may search your library for an aura card, put it into your hand, and then shuffle your library
Enchanted creature has flying
- I'm trying to find a few mechanics to make auras more playable. I figure auras that find more auras could be useful, and give a bit of a 'mad scientist' kind of feel
Early Harvester 1GG
Creature - Elf Shaman - Uncommon
When ~ enters the battlefield, untap all basic lands you control and draw a card
3/2
- Yeah, I know Early Harvest was rare
I put in the types, just because almost every card seems to have one, and it seemed weird to leave it out. Would be easy to drop them as well, I guess most artifacts and enchantments don't actually have a subtype
Yes, when any player attacks into a zone, any opponent may block (I haven't completely thought out the rules for multiplayer yet)
@willows
Are you suggesting merging rule 2 into rule 1, or removing the "summoning sickness" portion of the zones?
Yeah, "being defeated" primarily prevents you from gaining the conquer trigger, although, some cards might have defeated triggers too. In fact, my biggest worry with this card type is that it would become a strictly "win more" kind of card, where you only play it when you're ahead on the board. Having a consolation prize if you're defeated might make it more interesting
Maester's Chain - I don't get what hexproof has to do with untapping?
Baratheon Warhammer - Remove the "activated abilities...", drop the cost to 4, and make it uncommon
Damaged Warship - Are you bringing back the clash mechanic into your set? I don't think it was one of the more popular mechanics. And winning doesn't really feel like winning here, so it ends up being kind of a letdown of a clash
Harlaw Warship - this feels incredibly weak. I can't see anybody putting it into their deck, even if it were built around islandwalk. I get that you're trying to combo it with War Galley, but it's usually more interesting when the individual pieces are useful on their own
Iron Fleet Dromond - by the time you have 6 mana, the ability to cast spells for less becomes less important. Although it could be used to fuel some kind of fireball, usually those decks are not also packing a swarm of creatures to gather gold counters. Is this card intended to be weak?
War Galley - this one works, although is a bit unexciting. Would be worded "gets +1/+0 and gains islandwalk"
Iron Victory - I think you're trying to do too much with this one. Remove the first ability, and take the mana costs away from the other abilities.
I would think about turning the ships into artifact creatures, so they can also be used to directly attack the opponent
Zone is a new card type. Creatively, they are meant to represent major conflicts, plots, schemes or warzones going on in the story. Mechanically, players send creatures attacking into it in order to sway the course of the battle there.
Example Cards
Death Fields - 1BB
Zone - Grixis
All creatures in ~ have deathtouch
When you conquer ~, return up to 3 creature cards from any graveyards to play under your control
Victory Points: 5/10
Mad Scientist's Laboratory - 3UR
Zone - Ravnica
Whenever a creature becomes blocked in ~, exchange control of those creatures
When you conquer ~, gain control of all creatures
Victory Points: 2/7
Rules:
Sparked One 1U
Creature - Human Wizard
When ~ dies, you may exile him, search your library for a planeswalker card and play it. If you do, shuffle your library
2/1
Demon's Head- 5 mana with heavy commitment to potentially give your opponent free spells? I don't think too many people would play with this card
Torturer's Whisper- This will tend to be "target player discards a card at random, draw a card" with some occasional random upside. Given that, it seems difficult to cast.
Goblin's Mind Game- This will tend to be "you discard a card at random" with some occasional random upside. Given that, it seems even harder to cast.
Planeswalker's Lifework- I can't tell if you're joking with this (it seems worse than The Ultimate Nightmare of Wizards of the Coast® Customer Service). It is *way* too confusing to ever be printed. A colorless sorcery has never been printed, and this doesn't seem special enough to warrant it. Legendary Sorcery doesn't have any rules meaning attached to it, and is likely to confuse. I don't get why only colored mana is used to pay for it. Split Second doesn't seem to add much to this card that "Can't be countered" wouldn't. Most of the abilities require more math than is typically suitable for a game that is meant to be played for fun.
Now that I think about it, I think the planeswalker cloning ability is actually kind of weak. Theoretically, it could be a very powerful ability if you're copying Karn Liberated or Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, in practice, it would run into a few limits. If you have one of the aforementioned planeswalkers in play, you're probably winning anyways without a copy. And if you're copying your opponent's, they will probably just use their planeswalker to immediately remove him from the board on their next turn. If you're copying any of the planeswalkers that ever see play, then he's only particularly strong when he has sufficient loyalty, which he takes him a while.
Creating a clone every turn, on the other hand, costs at least 6 mana (See: Progenitor Mimic
Since I'm in the "messing around with planeswalkers" space, perhaps this would be an appropriately powerful card:
Phibious the Absorber 2UB
Planeswalker - Phibious
~ has all activated abilities of all Planeswalker cards exiled with ~
+1: Target opponent reveals 3 cards from his or her hand and you choose one of them. Exile that card
0: Exile target Planeswalker
-3: Look at target players library, and exile 3 cards from it. Then shuffle that library
Starting Loyalty: 2
Planeswalker - Phibious
+1 - Draw a card, discard a card, then put a card from your graveyard on the bottom of your library
0 - ~ becomes a copy of target planeswalker, except his type is still ~, and he gains this ability
-2 - Put a token copy of target creature into play
Starting Loyalty: 1