Transposable Engine is a rare, so it doesn't need reminder text. Let me take a look if your flavour text fits.
It's not too bad, if put into a single paragraph, but borders on wordy. What say we cut out the "and the people" line, leaving it with "And the prophet replied "What do you want it to be?" -The Brass Scriptures
I still like mizzium morpher personally, but i'd be fine with relegating that to flavor text material instead of the card name itself.
Like "One of the Prophet's greatest gifts was this strange device. It seems to take the form of anything it needs to." as a hint towards Mizzium Transreliquat.
Mercurial Gear... Hmm... What about Transposable Engine?
What we want colorless to do in this set:
-Clockwork
-Flash (Guard-in-a-Box)
-Deal damage to attacker/blocker (Weldbot)
-Regenerate Artifacts (Weldbot)
-Looting/Card Draw (Merchant Airship, A Grand Experiment, Bookkeeper's Messenger, Corporate Machine, Scrapyard Looter)
-Lazy/Does not untap during controller's untap step. (Shabby Automaton)
-Stealing (Magnet Elemental)
-Own Life Loss (Hired Gun, Corporate Machine)
-Land Sac (Darge Steamship, Corrupted Machinery)
-Land Destruction (Helldozer)
-Resurrection (Desert Gearbones)
-Creature Boosting (Steam Fiend)
-Artifact Donation (Airdrop Airship)
-Permanent Destruction (Swallowed By Nature)
-Mana Production (A lot of artifact cards)
Right, are there any mechanics there that cannot be colorless, under any circumstances?
I'm pretty sure we have a duplicate Spellslinger at both Common and Rare in Black. It's the "Destroy target creature" one with Rise from the Grave bonus.
Frontier Bounty Hunter does the 'destroy target creature/if artifact rtb under your control". The closest thing I can find in B at common is Casket Constructor: "Return target creature to your hand/if artifact, return two creatures."
We have two resurrecting spellslingers, but one is only resurrect and one is more stealing then anything else.
And personally, I'm going to be coming up with art descriptions for all the cards we've got. I'll post them as I complete a section.
Well, look at it this way: we'll have Allester Marshall as a R mythic legend in [steam], so we can make him as red as a cherry dipped in blood-based paint.
So onto development then? What exactly is the next step?
Willar Waston, Frontiersman3RG Art Description: A grizzled human in thick leather with bandoliers and pouches filled with assorted devices stands on a outcropping with a hiking stick in his hand. The sun is shining on his face, and a tall tower can be distantly seen in the background. Mood: With the proper tools, you can get anywhere.
Legendary Creature - Human Scout (M)
When ~ enters the battlefield, put two artifact tokens onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice an artifact: Regenerate targer creature. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature. "The untamed wilds are too dangerous to brave alone. Take this, and this, and this."
4/3
Big Horn, Taurox Missionary 3RG Art Description: A minotaur dressed in frontier garb holds a device of some sort in one hand, while the other is placed on a bowed canid. The device is slowly cracking apart, and green energy flows along the minotaur's arms to the canid. Mood: The power trapped within is now released.
Legendary Creature - Minotaur Druid (M)
When ~ enters the battlefield, put two artifact tokens onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice an artifact: Regenerate targer creature. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature. "There is a force in this world that the Easterners have trapped. I seek to free it."
5/4
Or being able to exchange an opponent's artifacts with your permanents..
That was the original idea. It didn't work out, hence the new 'sacrifice artifacts' plan.
As for the Minotaur, I think we should replace entirely rather than just converting it to "Sacrifice an artifact". It looks really bad next to that new 3/3 Vanilla Common in M14. We should scrap it entirely and create something new to replace it.
Hammerfist Taurox 1GG Art Description: A Minotaur charges through a line of assembly-workers with a broken handle in his hand, the remnants of his weapon. Metal shards are flying everywhere. An assembly-worker falls away from the minotaur's swinging fist. Mood: You think that would stop me?
Creature - Minotaur Scout (C)
Sacrifice an artifact: ~ gets +3/+3 and trample until end of turn. "True strength comes from within, not the metals of the Easterners." - Big Horn, Taurox Missionary
3/3
So that changes Explosive Delivery and Taurox Emptyhand. They're easily altered to:
Explosive Delivery 2R
Sorcery (c)
As an additional cost to play ~, sacrifice an artifact.
~ deals 5 damage to target creature or player. "Let's have a blast!" - Package Inscription
and
Taurox Emptyhand 1G
Creature - Minotaur Scout (C)
As an additional cost to cast ~, sacrifice an artifact. "True strength comes from within, not the metals of the Easterners." - Big Horn, Taurox Missionary
3/3
I can get behind a sacrifice artifacts theme for RG. It'll play into a flavour of 'use it while it helps, then if it doesn't work use it for something else'. Like a gun that can't fire gets a flat piece of metal welded on and becomes a spade.
So, what are we going to do with the :symrg:? Are we going to completely scrap their mechanical identity, like Moon-E suggested? Are we going to rework them into land manipulation like I suggested, or are we going to strip it down to basics?
I say we stop caring about artifacts altogether and go for 'Basic Land Matters'-mechanics, to contrast with the UB faction's industry counters. The frontiersmen want to farm in peace, but the robber barons of Darge keep creeping forwards, industrialising more and more of the Flatlands. That conflict could be represented very well by giving the RG faction some unsummon/flicker land effects, to get the industry counters off both their and their opponents' lands, some strong monocolour nonsteampowered spells, and basic landwalk.
The other 'enemy' faction, the WU, is countered by the inclusion of flyer hate and artifact destructuon.
RG can best serve its allied factions by including reclaim effects: return target card from your graveyard to your hand. (upscaled cost) return this card to the battlefield instead.
The flavour is fine. it's the mechanical translation we've had a problem with.
The RG are frontiersmen, people who've moved away from Brass City because they're tired of artifice 'ruling' their lives, much like luddites in our world dislike technology ruling our lives. For that reason, they're determined to make a living without it. However, despite their distaste for the city they left behind, they still trade with them, exchanging food for the few simple machines that their ancestors used, and cash to keep the robber barons of Darge from stealing their land. They are countered by the U splinter of airship pirates.
Mechanically, this translates into Imperiosaur 'Basic land matters' mechanics, and perhaps a slight tendency towards low-cost artifacts. Flyer hate should be a big thing, as they're constantly warring against those aerial bullies.
No. Vas is fine. Fanservice is all well and good, but that really isn't worth it.
It's not too bad, if put into a single paragraph, but borders on wordy. What say we cut out the "and the people" line, leaving it with "And the prophet replied "What do you want it to be?" -The Brass Scriptures
Like "One of the Prophet's greatest gifts was this strange device. It seems to take the form of anything it needs to." as a hint towards Mizzium Transreliquat.
Mercurial Gear... Hmm... What about Transposable Engine?
And Whoo! Our first design problem is solved!
Shall we move on to what to call Mizzium Morpher besides Mizzium Morpher?
What we want colorless to do in this set:
-Clockwork
-Flash (Guard-in-a-Box)
-Deal damage to attacker/blocker (Weldbot)
-Regenerate Artifacts (Weldbot)
-Looting/Card Draw (Merchant Airship, A Grand Experiment, Bookkeeper's Messenger, Corporate Machine, Scrapyard Looter)
-Lazy/Does not untap during controller's untap step. (Shabby Automaton)
-Stealing (Magnet Elemental)
-Own Life Loss (Hired Gun, Corporate Machine)
-Land Sac (Darge Steamship, Corrupted Machinery)
-Land Destruction (Helldozer)
-Resurrection (Desert Gearbones)
-Creature Boosting (Steam Fiend)
-Artifact Donation (Airdrop Airship)
-Permanent Destruction (Swallowed By Nature)
-Mana Production (A lot of artifact cards)
Right, are there any mechanics there that cannot be colorless, under any circumstances?
Frontier Bounty Hunter does the 'destroy target creature/if artifact rtb under your control". The closest thing I can find in B at common is Casket Constructor: "Return target creature to your hand/if artifact, return two creatures."
We have two resurrecting spellslingers, but one is only resurrect and one is more stealing then anything else.
And personally, I'm going to be coming up with art descriptions for all the cards we've got. I'll post them as I complete a section.
So onto development then? What exactly is the next step?
Art Description: A grizzled human in thick leather with bandoliers and pouches filled with assorted devices stands on a outcropping with a hiking stick in his hand. The sun is shining on his face, and a tall tower can be distantly seen in the background.
Mood: With the proper tools, you can get anywhere.
Legendary Creature - Human Scout (M)
When ~ enters the battlefield, put two artifact tokens onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice an artifact: Regenerate targer creature. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
"The untamed wilds are too dangerous to brave alone. Take this, and this, and this."
4/3
Art Description: A minotaur dressed in frontier garb holds a device of some sort in one hand, while the other is placed on a bowed canid. The device is slowly cracking apart, and green energy flows along the minotaur's arms to the canid.
Mood: The power trapped within is now released.
Legendary Creature - Minotaur Druid (M)
When ~ enters the battlefield, put two artifact tokens onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice an artifact: Regenerate targer creature. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
"There is a force in this world that the Easterners have trapped. I seek to free it."
5/4
That was the original idea. It didn't work out, hence the new 'sacrifice artifacts' plan.
Art Description: A Minotaur charges through a line of assembly-workers with a broken handle in his hand, the remnants of his weapon. Metal shards are flying everywhere. An assembly-worker falls away from the minotaur's swinging fist.
Mood: You think that would stop me?
Creature - Minotaur Scout (C)
Sacrifice an artifact: ~ gets +3/+3 and trample until end of turn.
"True strength comes from within, not the metals of the Easterners." - Big Horn, Taurox Missionary
3/3
How's that?
So that changes Explosive Delivery and Taurox Emptyhand. They're easily altered to:
Sorcery (c)
As an additional cost to play ~, sacrifice an artifact.
~ deals 5 damage to target creature or player.
"Let's have a blast!" - Package Inscription
and
Creature - Minotaur Scout (C)
As an additional cost to cast ~, sacrifice an artifact.
"True strength comes from within, not the metals of the Easterners." - Big Horn, Taurox Missionary
3/3
The other 'enemy' faction, the WU, is countered by the inclusion of flyer hate and artifact destructuon.
RG can best serve its allied factions by including reclaim effects: return target card from your graveyard to your hand. (upscaled cost) return this card to the battlefield instead.
The RG are frontiersmen, people who've moved away from Brass City because they're tired of artifice 'ruling' their lives, much like luddites in our world dislike technology ruling our lives. For that reason, they're determined to make a living without it. However, despite their distaste for the city they left behind, they still trade with them, exchanging food for the few simple machines that their ancestors used, and cash to keep the robber barons of Darge from stealing their land. They are countered by the U splinter of airship pirates.
Mechanically, this translates into Imperiosaur 'Basic land matters' mechanics, and perhaps a slight tendency towards low-cost artifacts. Flyer hate should be a big thing, as they're constantly warring against those aerial bullies.