Synthesis — Exile 2 permanents with Synthesis. You may put an equipment with a converted mana cost equal to the exiled permanents’ combined mana cost from your library or sideboard onto the battlefield. If the equipment is put onto the battlefield from your library, shuffle your library afterwards.
The aim of this mechanic is to interpret the synthesis item crafting system of FFIX as a magic mechanic. Synthesis in FFIX takes two items, usually equipment, and allows you to combine them into a single stronger equipment.
There are a lot of traps with building a mechanic around this idea - most of them having to do with requiring too many hoops or the mechanic becoming parasitic. I aimed to implement the mechanic in such a way that synthesis isn't dependent on specific individual cards in order to synthesize, but rather any combination of cards with synthesis can be used. I also chose not to limit synthesis "outcomes" which you can grab to specific cards so as to keep the mechanic from being parasitic. There will be cards you can grab from within the set though that have additional effects if they enter the battlefield as a result of synthesis.
Example Cards:
Mage Masher2
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1.
Noncreature spells cost 1 more to cast.
Equip 1
Synthesis — Exile 2 permanents with Synthesis. You may put an equipment with a converted mana cost equal to the exiled permanents’ combined mana cost from your library or sideboard onto the battlefield. If the equipment is put onto the battlefield from your library, shuffle your library afterwards.
The Ogre4
Artifact - Equipment (R)
If The Ogre was synthesized, attach it to target creature you control when it enters the battlefield.
Equipped creature gets +3/+3 and trample.
Non-creature spells cost 2 more to cast.
Equip 4
Kindling R
Instant (R)
Kindling deals 2 damage to any target. Grant Permanence - End Step3RR: Kindling enters the battlefield as an enchantment. Add "At the beginning of your end step" to the beginning of the card's rules text." You may only cast Kindling with this alternate cost during your turn.
The idea of this mechanic is to be able to cast instants and sorceries with an alternative cost as enchantments which grant the same effect but repeatedly each turn. The mechanic goes a little bit into Cleave territory by altering the text of the card when cast for an alternate cost, but it will always just add "At the beginning of your [insert step here] to the beginning of the effect which probably makes it a bit more intuitive than cleave. Of note, the applicable step can vary by card (upkeep, draw, combat, etc.).
Basri, Sword of Amonkhet2WW
Legendary Creature - Human Knight (M)
Battle cry
When Basri, Sword of Amonkhet enters the battlefield create three 1/1 white Solider tokens.
1W, Exile Basri Sword of Amonkhet from your graveyard: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
2/1
Wanted to make a top-tier go wide pay off card. Basri pairs token production with battle-cry and a post-death anthem effect. Good chance I pushed this one too much, but I'd love one for the cube.
Appreciate the feedback! I love seeing the appreciation for this mechanic's ability to work in 1 v 1 and multiplayer formats. Will respond to points individually.
@user I agree that most pick cards in a set with this mechanic would need to utilize smaller pick #'s since with larger numbers the result of pick cards after the first or second will become predictable which is indeed less interesting. I've never heard of Blackmail in any conversation surrounding strong discard effect options or even middle tier options. Blackmail can hit lands, is an uncommon, and was last printed in 9th edition. I think upping the effect to four cards at rare, limiting to non-land, and being able to split the revealed cards from among multiple opponents is reasonable.
@Reap Telepathy effectively means every peek is guaranteed the best possible outcome based on the cards in your opponent's hands. Doesn't break peek necessarily, but when designing cards with peek you have to be aware that people can take the chance out of it with Telepathy and factor this into designs with this mechanic. Whether the ability to split the effect also necessitates a tax on the cost depends on the card -- I suspect for some peek cards this could be true. I definitely wouldn't expand peek to include the ability to reveal from your own hand for several reasons. A) It's a flavor failure B) It removes chance from the mechanic and guarantees your outcomes. In the right decks the ability to potentially generate WUBRG on turn 2 or 3 is very powerful -- even as a one shot effect.
@Rowan I could see how the effect appears red - but at mythic in green this is also feasible. Agree that peek generally needs to employ lower peek #s but don't think low values will be too swingy if paired with the right attributes and effects. One key is not making peek effects that do nothing if you don't hit, most peek effects need an acceptable base line that goes up to a very strong effect when you do hit. Here's an example of the effect at lower rarities.
Terrain Survey1GG
Sorcery (U)
Peek 2 (select and reveal 2 cards from among opponents' hands).
Search your library for two up to two basic land cards and reveal those cards. For each land card revealed when you peeked, put one of those land cards onto the battlefield tapped, put the rest into your hand, then shuffle.
Then one I thought of for fun.
Smoldering Wheel3RR
Sorcery (M)
Each player discards his or her hand and draws seven cards. Then Peek 7(select and reveal 7 cards from among opponents' hands). For each nonland card revealed when peeking, Smoldering Wheel deals 1 damage to the card's owner.
Prismatic Cultivator2G
Creature - Elf Druid (M)
When Prismatic Cultivator enters the battlefield, peek 5 (select and reveal 5 cards from among opponents' hands). Add one mana of each color among the revealed cards.
(2/1)
ThoughtpickB
Sorcery (R)
Peek 4 (select and reveal 4 cards from among opponents' hands). You choose a nonland card from among them. That player discards that card.
Peek is a custom mechanic designed to work for both 1 v 1 and multiplayer formats. It allows you to select up to the peek # of cards from among a single opponent or multiple opponents' hands, reveals those cards, and then ties different effects to different aspects of the revealed cards. The mechanic is a mixture of chance and skill.
The first example card for this mechanic takes the idea of creatures that effectively replace their casting cost e.g. Priest of Urabrask and potentially "ramps" it up to 11, giving you the possibility to hit WUBRG if you manage to reveal all 5 colors among just 5 selected opponents' cards. The mechanic gets extra spicy in commander where you can select different opponents to increase your odds. The second example card is a Thoughtseize variant that limits you to selecting a non-land card for discard from among 4 of your opponents cards while removing any life loss and also having some added multiplayer flexibility being able to reveal up to four total cards from among all players' hands and bin one. Get your Telepathy's now!
I'll watch this one, has some solid upsides over other edicts, but I don't know that these upsides will be enough to overcome the times you'll wish you just had targeted removal.
Pestilent PikerB
Creature - Zombie Soldier (U)
Kicker 1B
Pestilent Piker enters the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter. If Pestilent Piker was kicked put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature an opponent controls instead.
3/2
Erratic Boltcrafter1R
Creature - Dwarf Artificer (U)
Kicker 1R
When Erratic Boltcrafter enters the battlefield it deals 3 damage to you. If Erratic Boltcrafter was kicked it deals 3 damage to target creature or player instead.
3/3
Huge thank you for this! Recently moved to a new area and want to be able to cube with people but my regular cube is not proxied and I don't want to worry about theft. So, I just started building a peasant cube. Figure it could be a stepping stone that allows me to find a playgroup I can trust with the regular cube -- also just something I could take anywhere with less concern.
My process for building my peasant cube started by extracting commons/uncommons from my regular cube. Unsurprisingly, they pretty much all translate to peasant. Then I self identified some powerhouse uncommons that fell just short of my regular cube list, those also are in most peasant lists. Next, I looked at peasant archetypes from existing lists, identified the key role players for the archetypes I would also want. Next, I used this list to identify my outliers. I identified outliers as the cards I am running which appeared in less than 15 other lists or the cards I'm not running which appeared in 15 or more lists. My last steps are looking at 2022 peasant threads for inclusions from this year that and then filling in a few gaps to complete the list.
Personal opinion is at cube sizes of 450 on down - there isn't sufficient space to adequately support green ramp and green aggro. Of the two, ramp is the stronger package. I'd keep all of these and swap out a lot of the aggro pieces.
I'd cut Braids and Custodi Lich from the black creatures listed.
The aim of this mechanic is to interpret the synthesis item crafting system of FFIX as a magic mechanic. Synthesis in FFIX takes two items, usually equipment, and allows you to combine them into a single stronger equipment.
There are a lot of traps with building a mechanic around this idea - most of them having to do with requiring too many hoops or the mechanic becoming parasitic. I aimed to implement the mechanic in such a way that synthesis isn't dependent on specific individual cards in order to synthesize, but rather any combination of cards with synthesis can be used. I also chose not to limit synthesis "outcomes" which you can grab to specific cards so as to keep the mechanic from being parasitic. There will be cards you can grab from within the set though that have additional effects if they enter the battlefield as a result of synthesis.
Example Cards:
Mage Masher 2
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1.
Noncreature spells cost 1 more to cast.
Equip 1
Synthesis — Exile 2 permanents with Synthesis. You may put an equipment with a converted mana cost equal to the exiled permanents’ combined mana cost from your library or sideboard onto the battlefield. If the equipment is put onto the battlefield from your library, shuffle your library afterwards.
The Ogre 4
Artifact - Equipment (R)
If The Ogre was synthesized, attach it to target creature you control when it enters the battlefield.
Equipped creature gets +3/+3 and trample.
Non-creature spells cost 2 more to cast.
Equip 4
Instant (R)
Kindling deals 2 damage to any target.
Grant Permanence - End Step 3RR: Kindling enters the battlefield as an enchantment. Add "At the beginning of your end step" to the beginning of the card's rules text." You may only cast Kindling with this alternate cost during your turn.
The idea of this mechanic is to be able to cast instants and sorceries with an alternative cost as enchantments which grant the same effect but repeatedly each turn. The mechanic goes a little bit into Cleave territory by altering the text of the card when cast for an alternate cost, but it will always just add "At the beginning of your [insert step here] to the beginning of the effect which probably makes it a bit more intuitive than cleave. Of note, the applicable step can vary by card (upkeep, draw, combat, etc.).
Legendary Creature - Human Knight (M)
Battle cry
When Basri, Sword of Amonkhet enters the battlefield create three 1/1 white Solider tokens.
1W, Exile Basri Sword of Amonkhet from your graveyard: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
2/1
Wanted to make a top-tier go wide pay off card. Basri pairs token production with battle-cry and a post-death anthem effect. Good chance I pushed this one too much, but I'd love one for the cube.
@user I agree that most pick cards in a set with this mechanic would need to utilize smaller pick #'s since with larger numbers the result of pick cards after the first or second will become predictable which is indeed less interesting. I've never heard of Blackmail in any conversation surrounding strong discard effect options or even middle tier options. Blackmail can hit lands, is an uncommon, and was last printed in 9th edition. I think upping the effect to four cards at rare, limiting to non-land, and being able to split the revealed cards from among multiple opponents is reasonable.
@Reap Telepathy effectively means every peek is guaranteed the best possible outcome based on the cards in your opponent's hands. Doesn't break peek necessarily, but when designing cards with peek you have to be aware that people can take the chance out of it with Telepathy and factor this into designs with this mechanic. Whether the ability to split the effect also necessitates a tax on the cost depends on the card -- I suspect for some peek cards this could be true. I definitely wouldn't expand peek to include the ability to reveal from your own hand for several reasons. A) It's a flavor failure B) It removes chance from the mechanic and guarantees your outcomes. In the right decks the ability to potentially generate WUBRG on turn 2 or 3 is very powerful -- even as a one shot effect.
@Rowan I could see how the effect appears red - but at mythic in green this is also feasible. Agree that peek generally needs to employ lower peek #s but don't think low values will be too swingy if paired with the right attributes and effects. One key is not making peek effects that do nothing if you don't hit, most peek effects need an acceptable base line that goes up to a very strong effect when you do hit. Here's an example of the effect at lower rarities.
Terrain Survey 1GG
Sorcery (U)
Peek 2 (select and reveal 2 cards from among opponents' hands).
Search your library for two up to two basic land cards and reveal those cards. For each land card revealed when you peeked, put one of those land cards onto the battlefield tapped, put the rest into your hand, then shuffle.
Then one I thought of for fun.
Smoldering Wheel 3RR
Sorcery (M)
Each player discards his or her hand and draws seven cards. Then Peek 7(select and reveal 7 cards from among opponents' hands). For each nonland card revealed when peeking, Smoldering Wheel deals 1 damage to the card's owner.
Thanks all for the comments.
Creature - Elf Druid (M)
When Prismatic Cultivator enters the battlefield, peek 5 (select and reveal 5 cards from among opponents' hands). Add one mana of each color among the revealed cards.
(2/1)
Thoughtpick B
Sorcery (R)
Peek 4 (select and reveal 4 cards from among opponents' hands). You choose a nonland card from among them. That player discards that card.
Peek is a custom mechanic designed to work for both 1 v 1 and multiplayer formats. It allows you to select up to the peek # of cards from among a single opponent or multiple opponents' hands, reveals those cards, and then ties different effects to different aspects of the revealed cards. The mechanic is a mixture of chance and skill.
The first example card for this mechanic takes the idea of creatures that effectively replace their casting cost e.g. Priest of Urabrask and potentially "ramps" it up to 11, giving you the possibility to hit WUBRG if you manage to reveal all 5 colors among just 5 selected opponents' cards. The mechanic gets extra spicy in commander where you can select different opponents to increase your odds. The second example card is a Thoughtseize variant that limits you to selecting a non-land card for discard from among 4 of your opponents cards while removing any life loss and also having some added multiplayer flexibility being able to reveal up to four total cards from among all players' hands and bin one. Get your Telepathy's now!
None
Testing
Planar Disruption
Nissa, Ascended Animist
The Eternal Wanderer
Watching
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Pestilent Piker B
Creature - Zombie Soldier (U)
Kicker 1B
Pestilent Piker enters the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter. If Pestilent Piker was kicked put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature an opponent controls instead.
3/2
Erratic Boltcrafter 1R
Creature - Dwarf Artificer (U)
Kicker 1R
When Erratic Boltcrafter enters the battlefield it deals 3 damage to you. If Erratic Boltcrafter was kicked it deals 3 damage to target creature or player instead.
3/3
My process for building my peasant cube started by extracting commons/uncommons from my regular cube. Unsurprisingly, they pretty much all translate to peasant. Then I self identified some powerhouse uncommons that fell just short of my regular cube list, those also are in most peasant lists. Next, I looked at peasant archetypes from existing lists, identified the key role players for the archetypes I would also want. Next, I used this list to identify my outliers. I identified outliers as the cards I am running which appeared in less than 15 other lists or the cards I'm not running which appeared in 15 or more lists. My last steps are looking at 2022 peasant threads for inclusions from this year that and then filling in a few gaps to complete the list.
Loran of the Third Path
Recruitment Officer
Third Path Iconoclast
Arcane Proxy
Testing
Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim
Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
Phyrexian Fleshgorger
Watching
Misery's Shadow
Legions to Ashes
Surge Engine
Razorlash Transmogrant
Phyrexian Dragon Engine
I'd cut Braids and Custodi Lich from the black creatures listed.