First question: is this method of managing Landbound better than "exile this card from your hand to fetch the appropriate basic land from outside the game"?
Second question: do you think any of these cards are underpowered or overpowered?
I didn't make an enchantment based off the card Filth, because Swampwalk is no longer used as a keyword ability.
Boon of Valor
Enchantment - Aura W
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has first strike.
You may cast Boon of Valor from your graveyard.
Landbound (You may play this card as a land. If you do, it enters the battlefield transformed and tapped.)
Boon of Wonder
Enchantment - Aura U
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has flying.
You may cast Boon of Wonder from your graveyard.
Landbound (You may play this card as a land. If you do, it enters the battlefield transformed and tapped.)
Boon of Dread
Enchantment - Aura B
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has deathtouch.
You may cast Boon of Dread from your graveyard.
Landbound (You may play this card as a land. If you do, it enters the battlefield transformed and tapped.)
Boon of Anger
Enchantment - Aura R
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has haste.
You may cast Boon of Anger from your graveyard.
Landbound (You may play this card as a land. If you do, it enters the battlefield transformed and tapped.)
Boon of Brawn
Enchantment - Aura G
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has trample.
You may cast Boon of Brawn from your graveyard.
Landbound (You may play this card as a land. If you do, it enters the battlefield transformed and tapped.)
My landbound cards don't involve the use of tokens, so that's not a problem. But what about the potential problem of players shuffling exchanged landbound cards AND the basic lands they have fetched into their decks after games?
If this is an issue, I could make any one of the following changes:
1. Landbound cards replace the word "Exile" with "Reveal this card and put it outside the game", which indicates putting it into your sideboard.
2. The Landbound ability reads as: "If you could play a land, you may reveal this card from your hand. If you do, play a basic {land type} from your library tapped, then shuffle this card into your library." (Unfortunately, this mandates shuffling, which I wanted to avoid.)
3. Landbound cards are two-sided cards with the back side being a basic land, and the landbound ability reads as: "If you could play a land, you may play this card as a land. If you do, it enters the battlefield transformed and tapped."
Urza's Factory didn't see much use, but you are probably right that sorcery speed and discarding a land is not equal to 6. I suppose Highland Base will still be plenty good with an activation cost of 2, or perhaps even 3.
"If the goal is to help agro you want useable lands that can be sacrificed for value once you no longer need lands."
Like this, for example? This card allows aggro to at least exchange excess lands for 2/2 token creatures. It also increases the probability of essentially casting a 2-drop on turn 2 if you don't actually draw a 2-drop creature.
Highland Base
Land
Highland Base enters the battlefield tapped if you don’t control a Mountain.
T: Add R.
1, T, Discard a land card: Create a 2/2 red Scout creature token. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
I suppose this need for land-based-land destruction isn't really necessary for my goals.
The reason I made this card is because I am working on a small set, and the cards in this set will enable players to hit land drops more reliably, just as is the case with landcyclers from Scourge and Conflux. My fear is that making mana more reliably accessible will favor midrange and control decks, and hurt aggro decks. Hence, a land destruction tool that is easily accessible to all colors is warranted.
Yet, on further reflection, I indeed regard this card as ugly. There are some situations in which, if you are on the offensive, you can put it to good use, such as when you are swarming your opponent and you use it to prevent them from casting a board sweeper on their 4th or 5th turn. The biggest problem is that while this card would occasionally be terrific when you get to play first, it would be bad when you don't play first. Whoever gets to play first already has enough advantage, and there is no need to make this advantage even greater. So this is bad card design. Except for the card name and artwork.
But I don't want to give up on the concept of a land-that-destroys-lands just yet. How about this:
Lunar Desolation
T: Add one colorless mana.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a phase counter on Lunar Desolation. Then if there are two or more phase counters on it, you may sacrifice it. If you do, each other player sacrifices a land.
The intent of this card is to create a land with free land destruction. I thought up an interesting alternative:
Lunar Desolation
Land
T: Add one colorless mana.
T, Sacrifice Lunar Desolation: Target opponent sacrifices an untapped land.
Therefore the opponent can tap all their lands, thereby probably be unable to cast spells for a turn, to circumvent the free land destruction. I have a hunch that this alteration makes this card relatively weak. But it's still an interesting variation of Strip Mine.
These were created first and foremost for draft, and secondarily for Standard. They might be abused in legacy, but then again they might not. I don't play Legacy, but do know Legacy is blazing fast. Since the likelihood that these spells actually get cast (instead of exchanged) in Legacy is probably at most 10%, then the question becomes this: is it worth putting a land into play tapped (instead of untapped) on up to three turns worth being able to cut my land count down to like 3 or 4 lands? I don't know if these cards would out-compete the other available options.
Your suggestion is very much like another card I designed a little while ago:
Mana Scales
Artifact
Mana Cost: 0
T: Reveal the top three cards of your library. Put a revealed land card on top of your library if able and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. Activate this ability only if you control fewer lands than an opponent.
1, T, Sacrifice Mana Scales: Draw a card.
Wishing is indeed a much less common occurrence than searching the library, due to cards like Evolving Wilds, landcyclers, and those annoying big $$$ fetchlands. But I think that even though searching the library is more traditional, wishing is better for three reasons:
1. No need to shuffle your library, which saves time.
2. Because you don't shuffle, you can't abuse this mechanic with stuff like Jace the Mind Sculptor, Brainstorm, Scroll Rack.
3. The whole process is one action, whereas landcycling is two -- searching your library, then playing a land.
Using landbound gives you the basic land tapped, so there are situations in which you would rather just have the appropriate basic land in hand instead of one of these creatures. These creatures are slightly below par for their mana cost, but the inherent flexibility of being able to exchange them for lands makes them very solid cards, at least for limited.
Lunar Desolation
Land
Lunar Desolation enters the battlefield tapped if you control more lands than an opponent.
T: Add 1.
T, Exile Lunar Desolation: Destroy target land. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
Perhaps some of them were whisked off to Dominaria in the distant past. Stranger things have happened there, so why not?
Mtenda Megaloceros 4W
Creature - Elk 3/4
Whenever Mtenda Megaloceros becomes blocked, you may untap it and remove it from combat.
Plainsbound (Exile this card from your hand: You may play a basic Plains you own from outside the game. It enters the battlefield tapped. Use this ability only if you could play a land.)
Benthic Archelon 4U
Creature - Turtle 2/3
Benthic Archelon gets +0/+3 as long as it’s untapped.
Islandbound (Exile this card from your hand: You may play a basic Island you own from outside the game. It enters the battlefield tapped. Use this ability only if you could play a land.)
Nakaya Titanoboa 4B
Creature - Snake 4/3
Whenever a creature dealt combat damage by Nakaya Titanoboa this turn dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Nakaya Titanoboa.
Swampbound (Exile this card from your hand: You may play a basic Swamp you own from outside the game. It enters the battlefield tapped. Use this ability only if you could play a land.)
Zerapa Entelodont 4R
Creature - Beast 4/3
Whenever Zerapa Entelodont attacks, you may have it fight target creature defending player controls. If it fights, it deals no combat damage to creatures blocking it this turn.
Mountainbound (Exile this card from your hand: You may play a basic Mountain you own from outside the game. It enters the battlefield tapped. Use this ability only if you could play a land.)
Argothian Sasquatch 4G
Creature - Yeti 4/3
Whenever Argothian Sasquatch blocks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Forestbound (Exile this card from your hand: You may play a basic Forest you own from outside the game. It enters the battlefield tapped. Use this ability only if you could play a land.)
Because Mountainbound uses the word "play", you use this instead of playing a land from your hand. Hence, it can't be used for mana acceleration.
Note that the Mountain you fetch enters the battlefield tapped. If it entered untapped, basic lands would be made utterly obsolete, and furthermore, most nonbasic lands would become just plain bad.
I am designing a supplemental set of 54 cards with "Landbound" abilities. My intention is to try them first in draft and Standard. I'm not really taking super-powered formats like Legacy and Vintage into consideration while designing this supplemental set.
Thunderstruck
Sorcery -- 3RR
Deal 3 damage to any target. A target damaged by Thunderstruck can’t attack, block, activate abilities, or cast spells this turn.
Mountainbound (Exile this card from your hand: You may play a Mountain card you own from outside the game. It enters the battlefield tapped. Use this ability only if you could play a land.)
As a 2/1 with flash and haste, it's at least good enough to be considered filler in limited decks.
The incentives for this card are cards like Karn, Scarab God, Rekindling Phoenix, and Lyra.
I really like this game, but miss the good old pre-planeswalker days. Since you bring up Choke, one of the most memorable days I had playing MtG was the Tempest prerelease. Back then, none of the cards were spoiled before prerelease, and Tempest had an artistic appeal that was totally alien and weird.
Slayer of Immortals
Human Assassin -- 2/1
Flash, haste
T: Exile target Angel, Avatar, God, Incarnation, Phoenix, or Planeswalker. If you do, counter all abilities on the stack from that source.
First question: is this method of managing Landbound better than "exile this card from your hand to fetch the appropriate basic land from outside the game"?
Second question: do you think any of these cards are underpowered or overpowered?
I didn't make an enchantment based off the card Filth, because Swampwalk is no longer used as a keyword ability.
Boon of Valor
Enchantment - Aura W
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has first strike.
You may cast Boon of Valor from your graveyard.
Landbound (You may play this card as a land. If you do, it enters the battlefield transformed and tapped.)
Boon of Wonder
Enchantment - Aura U
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has flying.
You may cast Boon of Wonder from your graveyard.
Landbound (You may play this card as a land. If you do, it enters the battlefield transformed and tapped.)
Boon of Dread
Enchantment - Aura B
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has deathtouch.
You may cast Boon of Dread from your graveyard.
Landbound (You may play this card as a land. If you do, it enters the battlefield transformed and tapped.)
Boon of Anger
Enchantment - Aura R
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has haste.
You may cast Boon of Anger from your graveyard.
Landbound (You may play this card as a land. If you do, it enters the battlefield transformed and tapped.)
Boon of Brawn
Enchantment - Aura G
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has trample.
You may cast Boon of Brawn from your graveyard.
Landbound (You may play this card as a land. If you do, it enters the battlefield transformed and tapped.)
My landbound cards don't involve the use of tokens, so that's not a problem. But what about the potential problem of players shuffling exchanged landbound cards AND the basic lands they have fetched into their decks after games?
If this is an issue, I could make any one of the following changes:
1. Landbound cards replace the word "Exile" with "Reveal this card and put it outside the game", which indicates putting it into your sideboard.
2. The Landbound ability reads as: "If you could play a land, you may reveal this card from your hand. If you do, play a basic {land type} from your library tapped, then shuffle this card into your library." (Unfortunately, this mandates shuffling, which I wanted to avoid.)
3. Landbound cards are two-sided cards with the back side being a basic land, and the landbound ability reads as: "If you could play a land, you may play this card as a land. If you do, it enters the battlefield transformed and tapped."
Like this, for example? This card allows aggro to at least exchange excess lands for 2/2 token creatures. It also increases the probability of essentially casting a 2-drop on turn 2 if you don't actually draw a 2-drop creature.
Highland Base
Land
Highland Base enters the battlefield tapped if you don’t control a Mountain.
T: Add R.
1, T, Discard a land card: Create a 2/2 red Scout creature token. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
I suppose this need for land-based-land destruction isn't really necessary for my goals.
Yet, on further reflection, I indeed regard this card as ugly. There are some situations in which, if you are on the offensive, you can put it to good use, such as when you are swarming your opponent and you use it to prevent them from casting a board sweeper on their 4th or 5th turn. The biggest problem is that while this card would occasionally be terrific when you get to play first, it would be bad when you don't play first. Whoever gets to play first already has enough advantage, and there is no need to make this advantage even greater. So this is bad card design. Except for the card name and artwork.
But I don't want to give up on the concept of a land-that-destroys-lands just yet. How about this:
Lunar Desolation
T: Add one colorless mana.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a phase counter on Lunar Desolation. Then if there are two or more phase counters on it, you may sacrifice it. If you do, each other player sacrifices a land.
Lunar Desolation
Land
T: Add one colorless mana.
T, Sacrifice Lunar Desolation: Target opponent sacrifices an untapped land.
Therefore the opponent can tap all their lands, thereby probably be unable to cast spells for a turn, to circumvent the free land destruction. I have a hunch that this alteration makes this card relatively weak. But it's still an interesting variation of Strip Mine.
Your suggestion is very much like another card I designed a little while ago:
Mana Scales
Artifact
Mana Cost: 0
T: Reveal the top three cards of your library. Put a revealed land card on top of your library if able and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. Activate this ability only if you control fewer lands than an opponent.
1, T, Sacrifice Mana Scales: Draw a card.
1. No need to shuffle your library, which saves time.
2. Because you don't shuffle, you can't abuse this mechanic with stuff like Jace the Mind Sculptor, Brainstorm, Scroll Rack.
3. The whole process is one action, whereas landcycling is two -- searching your library, then playing a land.
Land
Lunar Desolation enters the battlefield tapped if you control more lands than an opponent.
T: Add 1.
T, Exile Lunar Desolation: Destroy target land. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
Mtenda Megaloceros 4W
Creature - Elk 3/4
Whenever Mtenda Megaloceros becomes blocked, you may untap it and remove it from combat.
Plainsbound (Exile this card from your hand: You may play a basic Plains you own from outside the game. It enters the battlefield tapped. Use this ability only if you could play a land.)
Benthic Archelon 4U
Creature - Turtle 2/3
Benthic Archelon gets +0/+3 as long as it’s untapped.
Islandbound (Exile this card from your hand: You may play a basic Island you own from outside the game. It enters the battlefield tapped. Use this ability only if you could play a land.)
Nakaya Titanoboa 4B
Creature - Snake 4/3
Whenever a creature dealt combat damage by Nakaya Titanoboa this turn dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Nakaya Titanoboa.
Swampbound (Exile this card from your hand: You may play a basic Swamp you own from outside the game. It enters the battlefield tapped. Use this ability only if you could play a land.)
Zerapa Entelodont 4R
Creature - Beast 4/3
Whenever Zerapa Entelodont attacks, you may have it fight target creature defending player controls. If it fights, it deals no combat damage to creatures blocking it this turn.
Mountainbound (Exile this card from your hand: You may play a basic Mountain you own from outside the game. It enters the battlefield tapped. Use this ability only if you could play a land.)
Argothian Sasquatch 4G
Creature - Yeti 4/3
Whenever Argothian Sasquatch blocks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Forestbound (Exile this card from your hand: You may play a basic Forest you own from outside the game. It enters the battlefield tapped. Use this ability only if you could play a land.)
Note that the Mountain you fetch enters the battlefield tapped. If it entered untapped, basic lands would be made utterly obsolete, and furthermore, most nonbasic lands would become just plain bad.
I am designing a supplemental set of 54 cards with "Landbound" abilities. My intention is to try them first in draft and Standard. I'm not really taking super-powered formats like Legacy and Vintage into consideration while designing this supplemental set.
Sorcery -- 3RR
Deal 3 damage to any target. A target damaged by Thunderstruck can’t attack, block, activate abilities, or cast spells this turn.
Mountainbound (Exile this card from your hand: You may play a Mountain card you own from outside the game. It enters the battlefield tapped. Use this ability only if you could play a land.)
The incentives for this card are cards like Karn, Scarab God, Rekindling Phoenix, and Lyra.
I really like this game, but miss the good old pre-planeswalker days. Since you bring up Choke, one of the most memorable days I had playing MtG was the Tempest prerelease. Back then, none of the cards were spoiled before prerelease, and Tempest had an artistic appeal that was totally alien and weird.
Human Assassin -- 2/1
Flash, haste
T: Exile target Angel, Avatar, God, Incarnation, Phoenix, or Planeswalker. If you do, counter all abilities on the stack from that source.