Exemplify (You may have each token you control enter the battlefield as a copy of this creature, except it doesn't have exemplify.)
*Designed for a commander environment, not a limited environment.
EmmaraGW
Legendary Creature - Elf Shaman
*/*
Exemplify
Tokens you control have ward 1 and aren't legendary.
~'s power and toughness are each equal to the number of creatures you control.
Selesnya Avatar6WW
Creature - Avatar
*/*
Exemplify
~'s power and toughness are each equal to your life total.
Cavalry Wurm4GG
Creature - Wurm
3/3
Exemplify
Haste
When ~ enters the battlefield, other creatures you control get +2/+2 and gain trample until end of turn.
Shining Example1W
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature you control
When ~ enters the battlefield, draw a card.
Whenever enchanted creature becomes tapped, it gains exemplify until end of turn.
Garden Caretaker1G
Creature - Dryad
1/2
Exemplify T: Add G or W.
It bothers me that we're back at Ravnica and it's just a sherlock costume party instead of a proper Ravnica set. I get that people are kind of tired of Ravnica as a 2-color draft set these days, so instead I at least expected the commander decks to be build around the guilds. Alas, the closest thing we got to that was CLUE edition. So I thought I'd make some guild designs myself.
The premise is that each guild gets a commander deck that delivers on as many of the cycles and guild tropes we would expect from a Ravnica premier set. Each deck will contain:
A primary commander (a guild leader) that features a new guild keyword.
A secondary commander (a guild champion, loosely speaking).
At least one gold creature rare.
At least one gold noncreature rare.
At least one hybrid rare.
At least one monocolor rare with the new keyword in each of the guild's colors.
And all of the reprints one would expect from a Ravnica commander product. Obviously I'm not going to go into that here.
I don't have designs for all of the above categories and all of the guilds, but I do have a few proof of concept designs that demonstrate what kinds of keywords and themes the decks will be built around. Note that these designs and mechanics are designed a bit more for commander than other formats. It's actually easier this way since you don't have to think about how the keywords would synergize with each other in a draft set or worry too much about power level compared to standard sets.
The theme for Gruul is lands, ramp, and stompy. The keyword, kindle, and individual designs will reward playing a higher number of lands in your deck than usual.
Ruric Thar3RG
Legendary Creature - Ogre Warrior
4/6
Menace, vigilance
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, kindle 2. (Exile the top two cards of your library. Add R or G for each land card among them. You may cast the rest this turn.) 1R: ~ gains double strike until end of turn. 1G: ~ gains hexproof until end of turn.
Avatar of the Old Gods4RRRGGG
Legendary Creature - Avatar
15/15 Eminence - Whenever a land creature you control dies, if ~ is in the command zone or on the battlefield, return that land to the battlefield under its owner's control.
When ~ enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to ten target lands. Untap those lands. They become 0/0 Elemental creatures with haste that are still lands.
Stomping Ground Elemental2RG
Creature - Elemental
2/2 Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, double ~'s power and toughness until end of turn.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, exile up to one target land you own, then return it to the battlefield under your control.
The theme for Orzhov is death, reanimator, and lifegain. The new keyword, promise of (keyword) is a tweak on undying that uses keyword counters instead of +1/+1 counters. I think this is flavorful, since it reflects the kind of soul bargaining that Orzhov is known for. "Devote your life to the Orzhov and you'll be rewarded in death."
Teysa, Ghostly Guild Leader1WB
Legendary Creature - Spirit Advisor
2/3
Pay 5 life: Another target creature you control gains promise of lifelink until end of turn. (When that creature dies this turn, if it didn't have lifelink, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a lifelink counter on it.)
Larria, Soul Binder3WB
Legendary Creature - Angel
5/5
Flying
Whenever an opponent loses life, if they were attacked this turn, the player whose turn it is gains that much life.
At the beginning of each end step, if an opponent gained life this turn, draw a card.
Archon of Penitence4WB
Creature - Archon
5/7
Flying
When ~ dies, your life total becomes equal to half your starting life total rounded up. Then, if you lost life this way, draw a card plus an additional card for each 5 life you lost this way.
The theme for Izzet is casting multiple instants/sorceries in a turn. The keyword, react, rewards this by giving a bonus to spells if you've already cast an instant or sorcery this turn. It was tricky to implement because it's a spell mechanic, so it can't actually go on a commander, but Melek makes it work.
Melek, Experimental Magus3UR
Legendary Creature - Weird Wizard
3/3
When ~ enters the battlefield, search your library for a card named Melek's Experiment, reveal that card, shuffle your library, then put that card into your library third from the top.
You may look at the top card of your library at any time.
You may cast instant and sorcery spells from the top of your library.
Melek's Experiment2UR
Instant
Copy target noncreature spell. You may choose new targets for the copy. If that spell has two or more modes, you may choose new modes for the copy. React - If you've cast another instant or sorcery spell this turn, you may put ~ into your library third from the top instead of your graveyard as it resolves.
Mizzix, Paradox Engineer2UR
Legendary Creature - Goblin Wizard
1/4
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, untap up to X target nonland permanents, where X is the number of instant and/or sorcery spells you've cast this turn. T: Add C. This mana can't be spent to cast creature spells.
Unstable Stormkin2UR
Creature - Elemental
3/3
Haste
At the beginning of your end step, if you haven't cast an instant or sorcery spell this turn, return ~ to its owner's hand.
At the beginning of your upkeep, create a token that's a copy of ~.
The Palantiri 7
Legendary Artifact 7, T: Look at the top card of your library. If it’s not a card named ~, you may exile it face down and repeat this process. Otherwise, you may reveal it. If you do, put one of the exiled cards into your hand. Then shuffle the rest into your library.
The Seeing-Stones from LOTR are used to communicate across any distance. This seemed like a neat way to show one stone sharing information with another.
Not sure about the mana costs, but 7 seems safe for what could be a repeatable tutor effect.
Just a fun design inspired by the borderless art for Elesh Norn.
Elesh Norn, Planeswalker 3WW
Legendary Planeswalker - Norn
Loyalty - 5
+1: Draw a card. Phyrexian spells you cast this turn cost WUBRG less to cast. This effect reduces only amount of colored mana you pay.
-2: Transform any number of permanents you control.
-3: Exile target creature you don't control, then incubate X, where X is that creature's power.
~ can be your commander.
The ramp ability is probably the biggest bend on this card, followed by the card draw, but I think both are acceptable because the ramp supports a tribal theme and white is allowed effects that draw one extra card each turn. Transforming other permanents is probably more blue than white, but I don't think it's ever been explicitly assigned to a color.
I had this crazy idea while brainstorming how a Magic reboot could improve over the existing game, and I realized it may actually be possible to implement this idea in the current game. Basically, the idea is to give creature cards a third stat alongside power and toughness: resistance. This would involve a simple visual change from p/t to p/t/r. The rules and gameplay implications are a lot more complex though.
First, what does resistance mean? And how does it interact with power and toughness?
1. Power is the amount of physical damage a creature deals when it attacks, blocks, or fights.
2. Toughness is the amount of physical damage required to destroy a creature.
3. Resistance is the amount of arcane damage required to destroy a creature. A creature dies when it has either 0 toughness or 0 resistance, either from damage or effects that set or change p/t/r.
4. All damage a source deals is considered physical damage unless it is specified as arcane damage.
5. There’s no difference between physical and arcane damage when it comes to players, planeswalkers, and battles. If damage is dealt to something other than a creature, it’s additive. For example, if a player is dealt 3 physical damage and 2 arcane damage, they lose 5 life in total.
Okay but why? Basically this creates a whole new form of interaction. It opens up a lot of design space and allows certain colors to gain new strengths and weaknesses. For example, white and blue would have better resistance in general than other colors, whereas blue and black would be better at exploiting creatures with lower resistance than other colors. Red and green would excel in dealing physical damage, and black and read would excel at dealing arcane damage. Green and white would have the best toughness stats, and black would be the most flexible color when it comes to defensive stats. Also, spells and abilities could affect creatures based on their resistance the same way they could base their effect on power, toughness, mana value, etc.
Here are some examples:
Tough Bear 2G
Creature - Bear
3/3/1
(This means 3 power, 3 toughness, 1 resistance)
Psychic Assassin 1(U/B)(U/B)
Creature - Assassin
3/1/2
Protean (Damage this creature deals is both physical and arcane.)
Dominate Mind 2UU
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature with resistance 3 or less.
You control enchanted creature.
Corrosive Hate (B/R)
Sorcery
~ deals 3 arcane damage to target creature.
But how could this possibly be implemented in the game without giving errata to every creature card ever printed? That’s the biggest problem with the idea. With arcane and physical damage, it’s easy to just say that only new cards are able to deal arcane damage, but resistance is a new stat that all creatures implicitly have, so how is that conveyed on old cards? My solution is to add a rule that says “If a creature card has no printed resistance value, its base resistance is equal to 1 or its base toughness, whichever is greater (modifiers that change toughness like +1/+1 counters don’t change resistance).” Reprints of older cards would just have their new stats printed on the card like so:
Tarmogoyf 1G
Creature - Lhurgoyf
*/1+*/1+*
~’s power is equal to the number of card types among cards in all graveyards and its toughness and resistance are each equal to that number plus 1.
Alternatively, it’s possible that creatures could just not have resistance values, in which case any arcane damage dealt to that creature would be treated as physical damage instead.
So, what do you all think? Am I crazy to think this might be feasible? Do you think it’s even worth it at this point in Magic’s life?
My guess for the BGU team up legend slot based on story, artwork, and process of elimination is Dina and Zimone teaming up. Here’s my attempt at creating a card that merges their abilities:
Dina and Zimone 3BGU
Legendary Creature - Dryad Human Druid Wizard
2/2
When ~ enters the battlefield, create X 1/1 black and green Pest creature tokens with “When this creature dies, you gain 1 life,” where X is the number of lands you control. 1, Sacrifice another creature: Draw a card.
I meant to point out that the battle card type inherently asks the player to contribute more of their resources or jump through more hoops than other card types. Planeswalkers, for example, often grant value just by sitting on the battlefield. But you're correct. They can be designed in any number of ways that make them just as broken or unplayable as any other card.
Titles are an alternate win condition that's constructive rather than destructive. Basically, they have two gameplay elements: a condition, and a notoriety value. For example:
Caller of Beasts
Title
Play ~ only if two or more creatures with power 3 or greater entered the battlefield under your control this turn.
Notoriety: 1
Titles are pretty simple. Basically, you can play a title during any turn you've met its condition. You can't play more than one of the same title in a single turn, so if you want to have another Caller of Beasts title, you have to meet the condition again on a different turn. However, you can play any number of different titles in a turn. So you can play Caller of Beasts and:
Gigantomancer
Title
Play ~ only if you control a creature with power 10 or greater.
Notoriety: 3
Titles are not spells and don't go to the battlefield. Instead, they go to the command zone when they're played. They can be played on any player's turn at any time as long as you have met the condition, which opens up space for designs like:
Too Fast To See
Title
Play ~ only during an opponent's turn and only if you've cast two or more spells this turn.
Notoriety: 1
Titles are basically challenges for the player to try and complete while they play. At the beginning of a player's upkeep, if they have a certain amount of notoriety, they win the game. The number required to win can vary from format to format, but for 60 card constructed, I imagine 10 notoriety being a good place to start.
The flavor is basically the player, a planeswalker, performing feats worthy of notoriety, making them intimidating and formidable. Once a player has so many deeds to their name, their foes won't even try to fight.
I can also see cards that have bonus effects that reward you for having a certain amount of notoriety. I could also see titles having additional abilities, but I would be careful about designing them with too much versatility. They're supposed to reward very specific game plans, not be universally useful.
I have mixed feelings about battles. I think a card that forces both players to strategically divide their resources in combat is interesting, and the way it mirrors how planeswalkers work seems like it could lead to more interesting and balanced gameplay. I think there's a lot of design space for it and it makes sense why it needs its own card type.
On the other hand, I don't see any advantage to having the layout be horizontal. Landscape art is a neat idea but it doesn't work super well with the size of the text box, and it doesn't seem any more intuitive than having the layout in profile like usual. Actually it raises a couple of questions, like for example how are players supposed to know when a battle is tapped (not that that situation is likely to come up with any frequency)? Can they even be tapped? I know that doesn't really matter, but at the very least the horizontal layout causes players to have to tilt their head or hand in order to read the card, so unless you know the card by heart or can read sideways without tilting, you could be giving your opponent info about what's in your hand. Split cards have the same problem but they're horizontal by necessity. Kind of a nitpick, so whatever.
I also see battles and proliferate interacting awkwardly. Normally, you'd want to proliferate the counters on permanents you control, but proliferating counters on your own battles is counter-productive (haha get it?). They could, however, be fun with cards that remove counters as a resource like Power Conduit.
I'm also a little disappointed that battles seem to all be DFCs (unless it's only Siege battles that transform?), because that means they'll be deciduous at best, and only appear in sets that either really need battle cards or already have DFCs and also make sense to include battles. When I hear "new card type," I kinda hope for a new staple element that will appear in every set going forward, because that represents a significant innovation and change is exciting, but it seems like battles are just on the same level as Sagas or Vehicles, which calls into question whether it needed to be a new card type. I know it's safer that way, but still disappointing.
Overall based on this one single card, battles seem a little underpowered if anything, which is probably a good thing. Better to give players a fun challenge than a game-breaking new power tool. I say underpowered because devoting attack power to flipping a battle AND giving your opponent the opportunity to stop you is asking kind of a lot. Still, there are plenty of ways to interact with battles and they can put the opponent in an awkward position if you split your attackers and they don't have enough blockers to protect your battle, their planeswalkers, and their life total. If you're careful and strategic enough, I'm sure you can squeeze a lot of value out of battles that way.
Either way I'm interested to see previews tomorrow
I assume you mean like a time travel reset where Phyrexia never invades and the multiverse lives happily ever after. I don’t think that’ll happen, but the scale of the damage across every plane is pretty staggering. I don’t really have any idea what’s gonna happen, but things are getting so dire in the story that at this point it’ll take some kind of deus ex machina (lol pun) for the good guys to come out on top. In order to win, they need to figure out a to either eradicate every trace of the glistening oil as well as everything it’s corrupted, or immunize everything and reverse the effects of the oil. Either way though, based on the Aftermath spoiler, it looks like at least some of the casualties will be permanent.
This is the art OP is referring to. I don’t think this actually means anything for Thalia though. Non-planeswalker characters have appeared in several key arts in the past year alone. Also, Thalia already got a creature card and there’s a good chance Elspeth will get a mono-white planeswalker card this set. It’s not impossible that Thalia gets a pw card too, just not likely.
Jeskai Uncommon Legend URW
Legendary Creature - Human Monk (Uncommon)
2/2
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may reveal a card you own named Open The First Gate from outside the game and put that card into your hand.
Noncreature spells you cast can't be countered.
Open The First Gate R
Enchantment - Aura (Common)
Enchant creature
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may reveal a card you own named Open The Second Gate from outside the game and put that card into your hand.
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has haste.
Open The Second Gate 2W
Enchantment - Aura (Common)
Enchant creature
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may reveal a card you own named Open The Third Gate from outside the game and put that card into your hand.
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has lifelink.
Open The Third Gate 1U
Enchantment - Aura (Common)
Enchant creature
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may reveal a card you own named Open The Final Gate from outside the game and put that card into your hand.
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has flying.
Open The Final Gate URW
Sorcery (Uncommon)
Search your library for a noncreature, nonland card, reveal that card, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Observe 1U
Instant (Common)
Enlighten 1-2U(You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create a 1/1 blue Student creature token.)
Surveil 2
Draw a card.
Pupil of the Dragon's Eye URW
Creature - Human Student (Rare)
3/3
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, if ~ isn't a Monk, put a vigilance counter on it and it becomes a Human Monk with base power and toughness 4/4. If it's a non-Dragon Monk, instead put a flying counter on it and it becomes a Dragon Monk with base power and toughness 5/5. If it's a Dragon, instead put a +1/+1 counter on it and draw a card.
Snake Strike Technique 3UU
Enchantment (Rare)
Flash
Enlighten 2-5UU(You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create two 1/1 blue Student creature tokens.)
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.
Fortify The Spirit 1W
Enchantment (Uncommon)
Enlighten 3-3WW(You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create three 1/1 blue Student creature tokens.)
Token creatures you control get +1/+1.
Flight Of The Dragon 4RR
Sorcery (Rare)
Enlighten 2-6RR(You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create two 1/1 blue Student creature tokens.)
Until end of turn, creatures you control become 4/4 Dragon creatures, lose all abilities, and gain flying and haste.
Narset, Forbidden Teacher 2U
Legendary Planeswalker - Narset (Mythic)
Loyalty - 3
+1: Until your next turn, whenever you cast a noncreature spell, creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
-1: Until your next turn, whenever you cast a noncreature spell, create a 1/1 blue Student creature token.
-3: Until your next turn, whenever you cast a noncreature spell, draw a card.
When you cast with enlighten, do you just get the tokens or do you also get the other effect?
It isn't clear at first glance.
It's a triggered ability that happens on cast, so you get both as separate effects. You would cast it with enlighten, then the enlighten trigger goes on the stack. The token trigger resolves first, then the spell.
I think a simpler solution to not creating flash blockers would be to create the tokens tapped rather than forcing sorcery speed.
Structurally, this is a good fit to solve the spells matter problem you brought up. That said, I don't think the interesting design space is huge for this, especially at common, so it could only really be part of the solution in a set.
Having the tokens enter tapped would save text and solve the "flashing in a blocker" problem, but I don't think it would play quite as well. There wouldn't be any tradeoff for just holding up your mana with an instant Enlighten card in hand and just flashing it in at end step. That may not matter a huge percent of the time, but I think the times when it does make a difference are more worth it. Also makes the mechanic a little less good since you can't use the tokens as blockers when they come down.
I do have a couple of tweaks to the text though:
"You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create N 1/1 blue Student creature tokens."
This way, it reads as an upside rather than a downside, and allows for a little bit of instant-speed shenanigans during your turn.
As for the mana cost stuff, I mostly just eyeball it based on the individual effect rather than sticking to a set ratio. I just assume the numbers would change during playtesting so I'm not really bothered about that.
Enlighten N—[cost] (You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create N 1/1 blue Student creature tokens.)
"Cast this spell for its enlighten cost only as a sorcery. When you do, create N 1/1 blue Student creature tokens."
Came up with this while brainstorming mechanics for Jeskai and realized it could work well for Strixhaven too. It’s basically a simple kicker mechanic that goes only on noncreature spells. The idea is this allows a set to have a larger number of noncreature spells without actually lowering the number of cards that can function as creatures.
The flavor is obvious, you’re using spells to pass on knowledge to your students.
The sorcery speed bit is for two reasons:
1. To balance the mechanic for limited so it can go on more instants without loading up the set with a bunch of flashy creatures.
2. To make gameplay more interesting by having the player choose when to cast their instants for different amounts of value and utility, sorta like Addendum.
Here are some examples:
Forbidden Dragon Arts URW
Instant (Rare)
Enlighten 2—1URW(You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create two 1/1 blue Student creature tokens.)
Until end of turn, creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain flying, haste, hexproof, indestructible, and vigilance.
Learning Curve 2G
Sorcery (Uncommon)
Enlighten 1—3GG(You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create a 1/1 blue Student creature token.)
Draw X cards, where X is the difference between the highest power among creatures you control and the lowest power among creatures you control.
*Designed for a commander environment, not a limited environment.
Emmara GW
Legendary Creature - Elf Shaman
*/*
Exemplify
Tokens you control have ward 1 and aren't legendary.
~'s power and toughness are each equal to the number of creatures you control.
Selesnya Avatar 6WW
Creature - Avatar
*/*
Exemplify
~'s power and toughness are each equal to your life total.
Cavalry Wurm 4GG
Creature - Wurm
3/3
Exemplify
Haste
When ~ enters the battlefield, other creatures you control get +2/+2 and gain trample until end of turn.
Shining Example 1W
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature you control
When ~ enters the battlefield, draw a card.
Whenever enchanted creature becomes tapped, it gains exemplify until end of turn.
Garden Caretaker 1G
Creature - Dryad
1/2
Exemplify
T: Add G or W.
The premise is that each guild gets a commander deck that delivers on as many of the cycles and guild tropes we would expect from a Ravnica premier set. Each deck will contain:
- A primary commander (a guild leader) that features a new guild keyword.
- A secondary commander (a guild champion, loosely speaking).
- At least one gold creature rare.
- At least one gold noncreature rare.
- At least one hybrid rare.
- At least one monocolor rare with the new keyword in each of the guild's colors.
And all of the reprints one would expect from a Ravnica commander product. Obviously I'm not going to go into that here.I don't have designs for all of the above categories and all of the guilds, but I do have a few proof of concept designs that demonstrate what kinds of keywords and themes the decks will be built around. Note that these designs and mechanics are designed a bit more for commander than other formats. It's actually easier this way since you don't have to think about how the keywords would synergize with each other in a draft set or worry too much about power level compared to standard sets.
Ruric Thar 3RG
Legendary Creature - Ogre Warrior
4/6
Menace, vigilance
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, kindle 2. (Exile the top two cards of your library. Add R or G for each land card among them. You may cast the rest this turn.)
1R: ~ gains double strike until end of turn.
1G: ~ gains hexproof until end of turn.
Avatar of the Old Gods 4RRRGGG
Legendary Creature - Avatar
15/15
Eminence - Whenever a land creature you control dies, if ~ is in the command zone or on the battlefield, return that land to the battlefield under its owner's control.
When ~ enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to ten target lands. Untap those lands. They become 0/0 Elemental creatures with haste that are still lands.
Stomping Ground Elemental 2RG
Creature - Elemental
2/2
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, double ~'s power and toughness until end of turn.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, exile up to one target land you own, then return it to the battlefield under your control.
Teysa, Ghostly Guild Leader 1WB
Legendary Creature - Spirit Advisor
2/3
Pay 5 life: Another target creature you control gains promise of lifelink until end of turn. (When that creature dies this turn, if it didn't have lifelink, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a lifelink counter on it.)
Larria, Soul Binder 3WB
Legendary Creature - Angel
5/5
Flying
Whenever an opponent loses life, if they were attacked this turn, the player whose turn it is gains that much life.
At the beginning of each end step, if an opponent gained life this turn, draw a card.
Archon of Penitence 4WB
Creature - Archon
5/7
Flying
When ~ dies, your life total becomes equal to half your starting life total rounded up. Then, if you lost life this way, draw a card plus an additional card for each 5 life you lost this way.
Melek, Experimental Magus 3UR
Legendary Creature - Weird Wizard
3/3
When ~ enters the battlefield, search your library for a card named Melek's Experiment, reveal that card, shuffle your library, then put that card into your library third from the top.
You may look at the top card of your library at any time.
You may cast instant and sorcery spells from the top of your library.
Melek's Experiment 2UR
Instant
Copy target noncreature spell. You may choose new targets for the copy. If that spell has two or more modes, you may choose new modes for the copy.
React - If you've cast another instant or sorcery spell this turn, you may put ~ into your library third from the top instead of your graveyard as it resolves.
Mizzix, Paradox Engineer 2UR
Legendary Creature - Goblin Wizard
1/4
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, untap up to X target nonland permanents, where X is the number of instant and/or sorcery spells you've cast this turn.
T: Add C. This mana can't be spent to cast creature spells.
Unstable Stormkin 2UR
Creature - Elemental
3/3
Haste
At the beginning of your end step, if you haven't cast an instant or sorcery spell this turn, return ~ to its owner's hand.
At the beginning of your upkeep, create a token that's a copy of ~.
Legendary Artifact
7, T: Look at the top card of your library. If it’s not a card named ~, you may exile it face down and repeat this process. Otherwise, you may reveal it. If you do, put one of the exiled cards into your hand. Then shuffle the rest into your library.
The Seeing-Stones from LOTR are used to communicate across any distance. This seemed like a neat way to show one stone sharing information with another.
Not sure about the mana costs, but 7 seems safe for what could be a repeatable tutor effect.
Elesh Norn, Planeswalker 3WW
Legendary Planeswalker - Norn
Loyalty - 5
+1: Draw a card. Phyrexian spells you cast this turn cost WUBRG less to cast. This effect reduces only amount of colored mana you pay.
-2: Transform any number of permanents you control.
-3: Exile target creature you don't control, then incubate X, where X is that creature's power.
~ can be your commander.
The ramp ability is probably the biggest bend on this card, followed by the card draw, but I think both are acceptable because the ramp supports a tribal theme and white is allowed effects that draw one extra card each turn. Transforming other permanents is probably more blue than white, but I don't think it's ever been explicitly assigned to a color.
First, what does resistance mean? And how does it interact with power and toughness?
1. Power is the amount of physical damage a creature deals when it attacks, blocks, or fights.
2. Toughness is the amount of physical damage required to destroy a creature.
3. Resistance is the amount of arcane damage required to destroy a creature. A creature dies when it has either 0 toughness or 0 resistance, either from damage or effects that set or change p/t/r.
4. All damage a source deals is considered physical damage unless it is specified as arcane damage.
5. There’s no difference between physical and arcane damage when it comes to players, planeswalkers, and battles. If damage is dealt to something other than a creature, it’s additive. For example, if a player is dealt 3 physical damage and 2 arcane damage, they lose 5 life in total.
Okay but why? Basically this creates a whole new form of interaction. It opens up a lot of design space and allows certain colors to gain new strengths and weaknesses. For example, white and blue would have better resistance in general than other colors, whereas blue and black would be better at exploiting creatures with lower resistance than other colors. Red and green would excel in dealing physical damage, and black and read would excel at dealing arcane damage. Green and white would have the best toughness stats, and black would be the most flexible color when it comes to defensive stats. Also, spells and abilities could affect creatures based on their resistance the same way they could base their effect on power, toughness, mana value, etc.
Here are some examples:
Tough Bear 2G
Creature - Bear
3/3/1
(This means 3 power, 3 toughness, 1 resistance)
Psychic Assassin 1(U/B)(U/B)
Creature - Assassin
3/1/2
Protean (Damage this creature deals is both physical and arcane.)
Dominate Mind 2UU
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature with resistance 3 or less.
You control enchanted creature.
Corrosive Hate (B/R)
Sorcery
~ deals 3 arcane damage to target creature.
But how could this possibly be implemented in the game without giving errata to every creature card ever printed? That’s the biggest problem with the idea. With arcane and physical damage, it’s easy to just say that only new cards are able to deal arcane damage, but resistance is a new stat that all creatures implicitly have, so how is that conveyed on old cards? My solution is to add a rule that says “If a creature card has no printed resistance value, its base resistance is equal to 1 or its base toughness, whichever is greater (modifiers that change toughness like +1/+1 counters don’t change resistance).” Reprints of older cards would just have their new stats printed on the card like so:
Tarmogoyf 1G
Creature - Lhurgoyf
*/1+*/1+*
~’s power is equal to the number of card types among cards in all graveyards and its toughness and resistance are each equal to that number plus 1.
Alternatively, it’s possible that creatures could just not have resistance values, in which case any arcane damage dealt to that creature would be treated as physical damage instead.
So, what do you all think? Am I crazy to think this might be feasible? Do you think it’s even worth it at this point in Magic’s life?
Dina and Zimone 3BGU
Legendary Creature - Dryad Human Druid Wizard
2/2
When ~ enters the battlefield, create X 1/1 black and green Pest creature tokens with “When this creature dies, you gain 1 life,” where X is the number of lands you control.
1, Sacrifice another creature: Draw a card.
Caller of Beasts
Title
Play ~ only if two or more creatures with power 3 or greater entered the battlefield under your control this turn.
Notoriety: 1
Titles are pretty simple. Basically, you can play a title during any turn you've met its condition. You can't play more than one of the same title in a single turn, so if you want to have another Caller of Beasts title, you have to meet the condition again on a different turn. However, you can play any number of different titles in a turn. So you can play Caller of Beasts and:
Gigantomancer
Title
Play ~ only if you control a creature with power 10 or greater.
Notoriety: 3
Titles are not spells and don't go to the battlefield. Instead, they go to the command zone when they're played. They can be played on any player's turn at any time as long as you have met the condition, which opens up space for designs like:
Too Fast To See
Title
Play ~ only during an opponent's turn and only if you've cast two or more spells this turn.
Notoriety: 1
Titles are basically challenges for the player to try and complete while they play. At the beginning of a player's upkeep, if they have a certain amount of notoriety, they win the game. The number required to win can vary from format to format, but for 60 card constructed, I imagine 10 notoriety being a good place to start.
The flavor is basically the player, a planeswalker, performing feats worthy of notoriety, making them intimidating and formidable. Once a player has so many deeds to their name, their foes won't even try to fight.
I can also see cards that have bonus effects that reward you for having a certain amount of notoriety. I could also see titles having additional abilities, but I would be careful about designing them with too much versatility. They're supposed to reward very specific game plans, not be universally useful.
On the other hand, I don't see any advantage to having the layout be horizontal. Landscape art is a neat idea but it doesn't work super well with the size of the text box, and it doesn't seem any more intuitive than having the layout in profile like usual. Actually it raises a couple of questions, like for example how are players supposed to know when a battle is tapped (not that that situation is likely to come up with any frequency)? Can they even be tapped? I know that doesn't really matter, but at the very least the horizontal layout causes players to have to tilt their head or hand in order to read the card, so unless you know the card by heart or can read sideways without tilting, you could be giving your opponent info about what's in your hand. Split cards have the same problem but they're horizontal by necessity. Kind of a nitpick, so whatever.
I also see battles and proliferate interacting awkwardly. Normally, you'd want to proliferate the counters on permanents you control, but proliferating counters on your own battles is counter-productive (haha get it?). They could, however, be fun with cards that remove counters as a resource like Power Conduit.
I'm also a little disappointed that battles seem to all be DFCs (unless it's only Siege battles that transform?), because that means they'll be deciduous at best, and only appear in sets that either really need battle cards or already have DFCs and also make sense to include battles. When I hear "new card type," I kinda hope for a new staple element that will appear in every set going forward, because that represents a significant innovation and change is exciting, but it seems like battles are just on the same level as Sagas or Vehicles, which calls into question whether it needed to be a new card type. I know it's safer that way, but still disappointing.
Overall based on this one single card, battles seem a little underpowered if anything, which is probably a good thing. Better to give players a fun challenge than a game-breaking new power tool. I say underpowered because devoting attack power to flipping a battle AND giving your opponent the opportunity to stop you is asking kind of a lot. Still, there are plenty of ways to interact with battles and they can put the opponent in an awkward position if you split your attackers and they don't have enough blockers to protect your battle, their planeswalkers, and their life total. If you're careful and strategic enough, I'm sure you can squeeze a lot of value out of battles that way.
Either way I'm interested to see previews tomorrow
Legendary Creature - Human Monk (Uncommon)
2/2
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may reveal a card you own named Open The First Gate from outside the game and put that card into your hand.
Noncreature spells you cast can't be countered.
Open The First Gate R
Enchantment - Aura (Common)
Enchant creature
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may reveal a card you own named Open The Second Gate from outside the game and put that card into your hand.
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has haste.
Open The Second Gate 2W
Enchantment - Aura (Common)
Enchant creature
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may reveal a card you own named Open The Third Gate from outside the game and put that card into your hand.
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has lifelink.
Open The Third Gate 1U
Enchantment - Aura (Common)
Enchant creature
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may reveal a card you own named Open The Final Gate from outside the game and put that card into your hand.
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has flying.
Open The Final Gate URW
Sorcery (Uncommon)
Search your library for a noncreature, nonland card, reveal that card, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Observe 1U
Instant (Common)
Enlighten 1-2U (You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create a 1/1 blue Student creature token.)
Surveil 2
Draw a card.
Pupil of the Dragon's Eye URW
Creature - Human Student (Rare)
3/3
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, if ~ isn't a Monk, put a vigilance counter on it and it becomes a Human Monk with base power and toughness 4/4. If it's a non-Dragon Monk, instead put a flying counter on it and it becomes a Dragon Monk with base power and toughness 5/5. If it's a Dragon, instead put a +1/+1 counter on it and draw a card.
Snake Strike Technique 3UU
Enchantment (Rare)
Flash
Enlighten 2-5UU (You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create two 1/1 blue Student creature tokens.)
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.
Fortify The Spirit 1W
Enchantment (Uncommon)
Enlighten 3-3WW (You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create three 1/1 blue Student creature tokens.)
Token creatures you control get +1/+1.
Flight Of The Dragon 4RR
Sorcery (Rare)
Enlighten 2-6RR (You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create two 1/1 blue Student creature tokens.)
Until end of turn, creatures you control become 4/4 Dragon creatures, lose all abilities, and gain flying and haste.
Narset, Forbidden Teacher 2U
Legendary Planeswalker - Narset (Mythic)
Loyalty - 3
+1: Until your next turn, whenever you cast a noncreature spell, creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
-1: Until your next turn, whenever you cast a noncreature spell, create a 1/1 blue Student creature token.
-3: Until your next turn, whenever you cast a noncreature spell, draw a card.
Having the tokens enter tapped would save text and solve the "flashing in a blocker" problem, but I don't think it would play quite as well. There wouldn't be any tradeoff for just holding up your mana with an instant Enlighten card in hand and just flashing it in at end step. That may not matter a huge percent of the time, but I think the times when it does make a difference are more worth it. Also makes the mechanic a little less good since you can't use the tokens as blockers when they come down.
I do have a couple of tweaks to the text though:
"You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create N 1/1 blue Student creature tokens."
This way, it reads as an upside rather than a downside, and allows for a little bit of instant-speed shenanigans during your turn.
As for the mana cost stuff, I mostly just eyeball it based on the individual effect rather than sticking to a set ratio. I just assume the numbers would change during playtesting so I'm not really bothered about that.
Came up with this while brainstorming mechanics for Jeskai and realized it could work well for Strixhaven too. It’s basically a simple kicker mechanic that goes only on noncreature spells. The idea is this allows a set to have a larger number of noncreature spells without actually lowering the number of cards that can function as creatures.
The flavor is obvious, you’re using spells to pass on knowledge to your students.
The sorcery speed bit is for two reasons:
1. To balance the mechanic for limited so it can go on more instants without loading up the set with a bunch of flashy creatures.
2. To make gameplay more interesting by having the player choose when to cast their instants for different amounts of value and utility, sorta like Addendum.
Here are some examples:
Forbidden Dragon Arts URW
Instant (Rare)
Enlighten 2—1URW (You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create two 1/1 blue Student creature tokens.)
Until end of turn, creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain flying, haste, hexproof, indestructible, and vigilance.
Learning Curve 2G
Sorcery (Uncommon)
Enlighten 1—3GG (You may cast this spell for its enlighten cost during your main phase. When you do, create a 1/1 blue Student creature token.)
Draw X cards, where X is the difference between the highest power among creatures you control and the lowest power among creatures you control.