MTG Salvation

I like the red barbarian war machine. So what, then, is the theory re: mechanics? Assuming that there are maybe six in total slots overall to play with for a large set, following the example of Khans. A 3/3 overlords/serfs split? One for each color and flavor it differently for the ruling elite and not? Thematically, for mechanical space, it looks like blue and green are very passive, red and black are anything but, and white takes on the middle ground.

The world being a lush place is a good way to have more mechanical ways in, as not everything has to be flavored as revolt/extorting a populace. I agree with extort's return.

For the above story, I'd still back Imperious as an Abzan mechanic.

Also, how does each solid color establish a ruling aristocracy?

W: Most similar to 1984, I'd imagine, with a strict codex of laws and propaganda designed to make a ~more perfect society~.
U: Some sort of magocracy perhaps? I'm picturing an ancient sphinx similar to Alhammarret from Origins, rewriting history to make all the available information indicate he is in some way god-like. (Slightly different from W's propaganda because it's rewriting the history books.)
B: Stereotypical despot. Some powerful shaman has amassed a bigger power resource than everyone else and is killing everyone who stands in his way.
R: Not quite sure...government is really antithetical to R. "Total anarchy" doesn't quite allow people to oppress people as it were, but it allows for people in these fiefdoms to hurt and kill each other sort of at whim.
G: Gerontocracy, feat. druids that claim to have been around since the world was created, and have predicted its end. If U leads by Intelligence, G leads by wisdom. Could feature all sorts of kidnappings or whatever, justified by a "higher plan". (These guys are the ones that might know about/try to sedate the Ur-Kraken?)

And I love the implications of an angel leading the revolt, because that indicates that an angel was a member of the oppressed class...

And can you elaborate more on this "canny mortal sorcerer" and his role in the three-person team that starts deposing kings? I think I understand the charismatic Angel as a leader and the Ur-Kraken as a powerful hammer. But what does this sorcerer do?

I like those archetypes, but how exactly are we going to do black ramp? Black rituals aren't a thing anymore, and any color can search for it's corresponding basic land, so that is not something that is unique to black. an example of black ramp woul be Liliana's Shade, but then again, we have Knight of the White Orchid and landcycling.

While colors are allowed to search for their own basic lands, black and green care the most about their respective basic lands. In addition to cards like Crypt Ghast mentioned above, earching gatherer for "each <land type> you control" yields far more results for BG than any other color pair. In particular, black and green are the colors that have creatures with abilities that set their stats to the number of their particular lands you control (Dungrove Elder, Kalonian Twingrove, Nightmare, Squelching Leeches).

Also, the original reason I suggested BG ramp is because of black's top end; black, to me, has cool options for excess mana at uncommon in the form of its X spells. Things like Consume Spirit, Exsanguinate, and Postmortem Lunge (and at rare, Mind Shatter and X-costed wraths like Black Sun's Zenith), combined with green's large creatures at the top of the curve, give a ramp player options for how to end a game after he's gotten to absurd amounts of mana.

I mean, that feels like based on your block plan that mechanic set is getting ahead of itself a little bit. For the first set, we want a) absolute monarchy, b) people down on their luck, c) the revolutionists-to-be finding their role and deposing the king. The actual socialist republic isn't a matter of this set.

For those ends, in no real order:
-Inspired returns for the populace? Flavored less as BNG's divine inspiration or whatever but as a means of rising above ordinary life and doing something amazing. Works in all colors pretty well.

-Imperious (When this enters the battlefield, you may move all counters on permanents you control onto this card.) Or a more specific version thereof. On members of the monarchy in G/W/B maybe? Obviously necessitates a +1/+1 counter block.

-Exploit could also return with the flavor perfectly intact, but that's a pretty recent mechanic. Something to think about.

-Terrorize X (When this creature deals lethal combat damage to a creature, you may tap another target X creatures target players controls). A U/W monarchy mechanic, representing instilling fear in the masses.

-Union -- <effect> if you control at least three creatures with different creature types. Another mechanic for the proletariat, coming together for the common good.

Oh, OK. Drawing board idle brainstorming number two.

High fantasy sort of world, closer to Lorwyn tonally. Maybe Lorywn meets Panem, geographically. Human (WUBRG) monarchy, generally oppressive, generally dismissive of minority races on the world (I'm thinking stereotypical fantasy smattering, Elf (G)/Dwarf (W)/Faerie (U)/Orc (R)/Vampire? (B sentient races are hard), that are deposed by a crack squad consisting of one champion of each of the five fantasy races, breaking into the human capital and killing the king. To fill the power vacuum, the five legendary revolutionists divide their vast lands into five production zones (ex: dwarfland has a massive mining community, faeries gather dew or mana or something) and collect all the resources centrally and redistribute them for ~prosperity~. (End of block 1)


It's the Faerie's generosity that fails first. Prideful and spiteful that while four regions are contributing natural resources the faeries are contributing magical something something, she begins siphoning. Just a little bit, at first, but eventually the faerie is magically adept beyond her years and is starting to go slightly power crazy. Dwarf finds out, Faerie puts a glamer on him, dwarf turns the mining regions into the Gulag. Faerie goes totally crazy, tries to mind control all the people, but the Orc resists the the control magic and brains the Faerie, killing her instantly. (End of set 3)

The control magic has permanently bricked the dwarf's brain, however, and he insists on maintaining a tight grasp of power, hoarding natural resources and training vast armies for the good of the populace (monowhite villains yay). Orc leads military campaign to destroy the dwarf and rid the land of his scourge forever. (End of block 2)

Or, "explain why dwarves and orcs hate each other: the block"

IDLE BRAINSTORMING
[I suck at names, sorry] is a world of vast, deep subterranean cave systems, with society having sprung up in the tunnels because the surface of the world is inhospitable to people. However, there are precious few natural resources underground, so a ruling elite of Dwarf society controls the population and rations most things to an extreme extent, which the general public is bitter about.

(Set 1) So bitter, in fact, that a few members of the Cartography Guild (people dedicated to mapping out the network of tunnels), upon discovering some sort of weapon or artifact in the far recesses of a cave, decide to violently depose the dwarf elite. In the fighting that ensues, one side busts through to the surface, and the people realize that the cavern lifestyle was just another move by the dwarves to subjugate the people! There is natural light and plentiful water and other good stuff to be had on the surface!

(Set 2) Society transitions to the surface in part, except for select groups that would prefer to live underground, along with some members of the old dwarf classes that are exiled underground. The Cartography Guild instills themselves as a benevolent dictator, still focused on mapping out the plane, and though they are generally unsuited to authority moreso than the dwarves, the world is at peace for a moment. The Guild sends more members out--quietly--to the place where they found the weapon, to discover it was a very old laboratory of Yawgmoth's from when he was exiled, and running experiments on humans and plotting the downfall of Dominaria, and it's chock full of sinister stuff, as an insane evil Oldwalker's private stash might be.

(Set 3) The Guild, seeing only faint echoes of the distant past in Yawgmoth's work, believe there is some higher good purpose of it all. Meanwhile, resources of the surface have depleted to almost nonexistent far faster than anyone could have predicted--it turned out the dwarves had good reason to ration everything and keep everyone underground; it was the only way to ensure the survival of as many people as the world contains. Desperate to find some sort of solution, the Guild begins clandestinely dragging crops and people into Yawgmoth's lab and trying to figure out how to save their suddenly dying planet. The dwarves, meanwhile, have quietly returned from exile into the old underground cities, where the few remaining members grudgingly accept their presence as a means to survive.

(Set 4) People are starving and dying, and the Guild is generally blind and deaf to the people's cries as they slowly die off. The Cartography guild begins desperately researching how to create matter out of nothing when they discover a Planeswalker. They hatch a kidnap plot, but accidentally kidnap just an ordinary person in broad daylight. The public finds out, and the Cartography Guild can no longer prevent active revolt. The elite of the Guild flee deep, deep into the tunnels, and into Yawgmoth's lab, blocking the path of their pursuers and successfully escaping to continue their depraved work. The old dwarf rulers, meanwhile, welcome back the starving and dying populace with loving arms, and the old order more or less returns, but with a small surface outpost or two as a reminder of the scars the Guild left.

I picture the Cartography Guild as Selesnya, maybe Bant (I want some Selesnya villains dammit) and the dwarf empire as Mardu but mostly Rakdos in the first two sets until people realize their higher benevolence.

tl;dr like Urinetown but with dwarves and Yawgmoth! And less, y'know, urine.

Sign me up! I'm a longtime forum lurker here just starting to post with ~3 years of toying around with custom design work? Mostly independently, I'd absolutely love to be a part of a full-fledged team. I don't know how large of a team you're looking for or if more slots have filled outside this topic, but I'd like to be here.

Votes: Rudyard, SkyBoundFencer

Angel of Contemplative Awe 4WWWW
Creature - Angel (M)
Flying, protection from black and red
As long as you control 3 or more creatures, damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.
2/5

Soil-Stomach Wurm 3GGG
Creature - Wurm (U)
Usurp 2GG (You may cast this for its usurp cost if you control exactly one creature. Sacrifice that creature as this enters the battlefield.)
When Soil-Stomach Wurm dies, if it usurped a creature, you may return the usurped creature from your graveyard to your hand.
Devourer of today. Protector of tomorrow.
5/5

Votes: Groovelord, SkyBoundFencer

Elucidate 1GWU
Sorcery (U)
Convoke
Scry X, then draw two cards, where X is the number of creatures you control.
"It's more than just tactical advantage. Together we can construct meaning."
-Rafiq of the Many

Lurker, vorthos, and huge fan of the set concept here. If you still don't mind the occasional outside voice, I have a thought or two:

-Could BG be the ramp archetype? It's less common than RG, but black has the same number of medium creatures and more creatures overall; plus, black has some nice top-end cards in limited (I'm thinking Drain Life-y effects and regenerating flyers) that work well with excess mana. Flavorfully the black side of the archetype could be "enforcers" or some such inside the Ministry of Guilt helping to keep the criminal populace in line.

-The problem I see with GW being aggro tokens is that they're not terribly resilient to brainwashing (or indeed -1/-1 counter-heavy Limiteds), which it looks like will be a stumbling block. I like the idea of them being about the good of religion, since a faction of the rebel force that still believes in religion will set up an interesting moral choice in the second set, I feel like, when the Rebellion is starting to beat back Dahl. The protective nature is good; is "self-sacrifice" a workable archetype? Sort of like WB in Innistrad limited but perhaps less twisted? Especailly since GW is a fully rebel color pair, there can be all sorts of martyrdom for the cause within it.

Vote indighost and acheron_xl

Ethereal Grasp 1WW
Enchantment -- Aura (U)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can't attack or block, and its activated abilities can't be activated.
If enchanted creature would die, exile it instead.
"Worthless in one world, worthless in the next."
--Orzhov maxim

Seen through the Prism of Kuapai, the conventional understanding of magic looks very different. Blue mages work with fire, divining a logical course of the future through the flicker of a flame. Wielders of green mana dwell on the ocean's floor, conjuring monsters from the kelp forests. To them, it is the rest of the multiverse's use of magic that is unnatural and strange...


Rare 1 of 1:
Everfall Recluse 1UUU
Creature - Spider (R)
Aberrant - When Everfall Recluse enters the battlefield, if you control one or fewer Islands, draw three cards.
2/2

Groundbreaker GGG
Creature - Elemental (R)
Trample, haste
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice Groundbreaker.
When druidic magic wanders too far ashore, the results can be disastrous.
6/1

Hrodes, Council Tactician 4WW
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top card of your library and put a strategy counter on Hrodes, Council Tactician.
When Hrodes dies, put each creature with converted mana cost less than the number of strategy counters on Hrodes exiled by him onto the battlefield.
The Council of Ezprica has learned to give him the space to just think.
5/6

Ritual Cleansing 2GGG
Sorcery (R)
Destroy five target nonbasic lands.

IIW: Build-around-me uncommons.

Frassau, Fell Artificer 3UB
Legendary Creature - Human Artificer
When an artifact enters the battlefield under your control, you gain life equal to its converted mana cost.
T: Untap all artifacts. You lose 1 life for each artifact that becomes untapped in this way.
4/4