MTG Salvation

Languisher Demon 3BR
Creature - Demon (M)
Flying
Sacrifice another creature: ~ deals 2 damage to any target that hasn't been dealt damage this turn. Draw a card.
5/5

A mechanic that was exactly amass with a different creature type was made by somebody many years ago. Still looking for who though.

So much for the color pie. Sure, let me just repeatably draw cards in green by winning coin flips, and get it past design just by squeezing the word "land" in there somewhere, even though it has already been established that lands are not a suitable condition for drawing multiple cards in green.

Quote from Manite »

The Fourth Sister 5WWB
Legendary Creature - Angel
Flying, deathtouch
Whenever a creature deals damage to you, destroy it. You gain life equal to that creature's toughness.
Whenever another creature dies, return it to the battlefield under your control unless any player pays 5 life.
5/5

I don't like that because Avacyn is 8 mana.

The Fourth Sister 1WWB
Legendary Creature - Angel
Flying, lifelink
1: Reveal the top card of your library and put it into your hand. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost. Only an opponent may activate this ability.
5/5

Quote from willows »

Tbh ascend handles all the issues with this mechanic just fine, simply use that implementation with a different trigger and you're done.

Except it doesn't work for instants and sorceries. This has already been mentioned.

Why is it considered such a big issue if the mechanic telegraphs your deck(some of the time)? Any other version turns it from a milestone mechanic into something completely different.

I think I figured out a solution:
If you've noted yourself casting a spell with converted mana cost 5 or greater, <effect>.

A player may note any action as it happens, or note the current game state at any time. Notes are kept for the rest of the game.

Preparation Leader 1W
Creature - Human Soldier
Vigilance
Reckoning — At the beginning of your end step, if you've cast a spell with converted mana cost 5 or greater this game, create a 1/1 white Human creature token.
2/2

Ominous Signs 1RR
Enchantment
Nonpermanent spells you cast cost 1 less to cast.
Reckoning — 1R, Sacrifice ~: Discard your hand, then draw three cards. Activate this ability only if you've cast a spell with converted mana cost 5 or greater this game.

Witnesses of the End 2GG
Sorcery
Create a 1/1 white Human creature token for each creature you control.
Reckoning — If you've cast a spell with converted mana cost 5 or greater this game, you may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.

Mox Quartz 0
Legendary Artifact
When ~ enters the battlefield, you gain 2 life.
Reckoning — T: Add one mana of any color. Activate this ability only if you’ve cast a spell with converted mana cost 5 or greater this game.

Prophecy Stones
Land
T: Add C.
Reckoning — 4: ~ becomes a 5/5 Giant land creature until end of turn. Activate this ability only if you’ve cast a spell with converted mana cost 5 or greater this game.

Quote from SecretInfiltrator »

I actually like the subtle aspect that each card will always let you discard a land plus an additional copy of the card - which is often just something you are fine with to dig two cards deeper into your deck.

The ability to cycle redundant copies was present in all previous versions of this mechanic. It used to be discard cards of certain types, and those types always included the cycler's own type. The wording was kind of weird on the old versions of cards like Raging Storm(Discard two instant, sorcery, and/or enchantment cards:), so I moved to converted mana cost instead. I did have "converted mana cost N or less" in another previous version, but "exact CMC" has the notable advantage of making it so multiple "mixer" permanents don't draw from the exact same pool(assuming you cycle redundant ones away), and they can in fact help each other out. It's always good when a mechanic plays nice with itself.

One of the aims is to create naturally self-limiting deck construction for the digsite so it doesn't end up requiring too many additional rules. Requiring too many additional rules is the biggest challenge, in my opinion, when trying to create a mechanic like this. I said that having more cards in your digsite has the upside of providing you with more "ammo", but that's only an upside if you can actually reliable burn through all of them. Now this poses a problem if I just increase the mana costs on the cards, because that would make it even harder to burn through them all. That leaves two other options: additional costs and cast conditions.

A simple, wide-reaching solution would be to make most cards have "As an additional cost to cast this spell, discard a card." So now it's not free cards, it's just spellshaping. I could even make it "discard a waste card" to push the power up a little and bolster the waste theme. I could also throw out the whole idea of waste mana if I do that, because this makes you use Wastes in a different way. They are now colorless lands that also act as spells. I actually don't even need to print it on the cards now that I think; I just need to tweak the rules a bit:

You may look at the top card of your digsite and you may cast the top card of your digsite by discarding a card named Wastes in addition to its other costs.

This is also good because it means they don't carry that additional cost around wherever they go, so digsite cards aren't a bad Regrowth target and stuff.

Edit: Now the question is, how much more should digsite variants of cards cost than their normal counterparts with the "discard a card named Wastes" version? A card fulfilling the role of both a spell and a land is said to be quite powerful afterall, but the nature of the digsite sets some restrictions on that power.

The drawback is having to use Wastes. Also, I need to rethink the costs on these.

Each player has a "buried deck" that can contain any number of buried cards. Buried cards are denoted by a special card back. At the start of each game, a player's buried deck is shuffled and becomes their "digsite". Players may look at and play the top card of their digsite. If a buried card would be put into a library, it's put on the bottom of its owner's digsite instead.

Each buried card contains at least one "waste mana" in its mana cost. This is a cost that can be paid with any mana produced by a permanent with the "waste" supertype, which would be eratta'd unto Wastes. So all this essentially gives your Wastes the ability to cast spells. Using more buried cards means more ammo for your Wastes, but less consistency and vice-versa.

High Gravity W
Instant
( can be paid with one mana produced by a waste permanent.)
Tap target creature.

Recovered Texts 1U
Sorcery
Draw a card.

Hot Salt R
Instant
~ deals 1 damage to target creature or player that was dealt damage this turn.
Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

Volcanic Alchemist 1R
Creature - Human Wizard (C)
2R, Discard two cards with total converted mana cost 2: ~ gets +4/+2 until end of turn. Draw two cards.
2/2

Calcified Giant 1RR
Creature - Giant (U)
Menace
Whenever ~ attacks, you may discard two cards with total converted mana cost 3. If you do, ~ gets +2/+0 until end of turn and you draw two cards.
2/4

Raging Storm 3RR
Enchantment (R)
R, Discard two cards with total converted mana cost 5: ~ deals 3 damage to any target. Draw two cards.

There are three things I have been wondering:
1. Red can get out of color effects if it offers an opponent the choice to take damage in order to prevent that effect, but what exactly are all the extra effects red is allowed to get this way?
Devil Growth
Land
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add R to your mana pool.
R, Exile ~ from your hand: Put ~ onto the battlefield unless target opponent has it deal 4 damage to them.

2. Aside from damage, what else can be used as the "punishment" part of punisher effects?
Land Denial 1R
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant land an opponent controls
Whenever enchanted land becomes tapped, you may draw a card.

3. How big can the punishment from one of these effects be before it's considered a cheaty pie break?
Visible Stalker 1R
Creature - Human Rogue
Whenever ~ becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, ~ deals 20 damage to that player.
Whenever ~ becomes blocked, it deals 20 damage to defending player.
1/1

Terrain Shaper R
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Prowess
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, each opponent gets a vulnerability counter. (The next 1 point of damage dealt each of those players is doubled.)
Some groundbreaking discoveries are literal.
1/1

Vantage Point
Land (C)
When ~ enters the battlefield, target opponent gets two vulnerability counters. (The next 2 points of damage dealt to that player are doubled.)
T: Add C to your mana pool.