Weekend Art ChallengeClick through to see this weekend's art and the design requirements for your single card submission, due
If you choose, you may use that feedback to revise your submission any number of times. I will post and review the most recent submission from each designer some time on Monday, life permitting. To help ensure I recreate your design accurately, please use CARDNAME instead of ~ in your submissions.
Design a card with a new smoothing mechanic (or a new twist on an old one): Something that helps players avoid losing games by drawing too much or too little of one card type. Bonus points for making a keyword or ability word that can be used on commons. You can also make an exciting/unique card that happens to smooth.
I'll be at Dreamation this weekend, so I won't be giving much feedback before Monday. I hope you will all give more feedback in my absence, and I'm extending the final deadline to Tuesday.
Sunlit Summons 2W
ReplyDeleteSorcery (Common)
Put two 1/1 white Bird creature tokens with flying onto the battlefield.
Evanescent (You may exile this card when you draw it if it's the first card you drew this turn. If you do, draw another card.)
Oooh. I like that.
DeleteThis mechanic might be a little too powerful to go on this card at 2W. Template is based on Miracle, but it's interesting to compare with Cycling. How would people feel about lands with this mechanic?
DeleteEvanescent Plains
Land
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add W to your mana pool.
Evanescent
I would change the name to something like "Miraculous wish" so that it's understood as a variant of the miracle ability.
DeleteThe mechanic is certainly very good. Apart from in your opening hand, it's close to Cycling {0}. Just like miracle, you have to choose whether to let it disappear at the moment you draw it.
DeleteI'm not sure this card is an ideal choice for an evanescent one, though. If you're on 2 land, you're only 1 mana shy of casting this. If you're able to cast it, you'll normally be fairly happy to have it: if you're the beatdown it's two power of evasion, and if you're not then it's two chump blockers.
It's like why Swat was a bad choice to make a cycling card: it's too generally useful. Cycling cards are better if they're clearly good-late-game-bad-early-game or vice versa (including lands).
Of course, I understand that you're also constrained by the artwork...
Good point about the choice of effect. The art isn't super-flexible, but I could see it as a Disenchant or lifegain effect, both of which make good sideboard / cycling cards. I also might go with that land as my design. Hmm...
DeleteOK, this may be a bit overpowered, but for the sake of discussion, here's my current proposal:
DeleteSunlit Shrine
Land
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add W to your mana pool.
Evanescent (You may exile this card when you draw it if it's the first card you drew this turn. If you do, draw another card.)
This mechanic allows you to run cards that you don't intend to play just to sidestep the 60-card limit. I guess you run the danger of Evanescing into another Evanescent card, which will be stuck in your hand, but I'm not sure that small risk is enough of a drawback.
DeleteAlso, the logistic strain that Miracle had on the game may have been worth it because of the dramatic moments it created, but a utility smoothing mechanic might not be worth it.
I do think it's ok in these virtual challenges to push forth and explore anyways, as it's just a mental experiment.
I feel similarly to Chah. Miracle caused endless headaches during tournament play, and I'm not sure this mechanic will ever be important enough to a set's design to justify that. On top of that issue, Miracle only appeared in 4 colors and not at common, so this mechanic would come up to cause issues much more frequently.
DeleteThat said, when everything's working I do like the gameplay.
In Limited, it may be that players get used to checking their first draw because evanescence is common, perhaps even better than in Avacyn Restored. Or maybe they don't because it only matters when they're losing. Or maybe, like miracle, they forget about it while winning but not when they really need it. Def would need testing, but not w/o promise.
DeleteThanks for the feedback! At the very least, you've convinced me that a land is not the best representative for this mechanic. The problem is that a card has to be "worse than usual" to have evanescence, which makes it more likely to be exiled, to the point where the mechanic is mostly deck-thinning. So I think I want a card that varies more in value-- that way it can be "worse" while still being actually cast some of the time.
DeleteScatter in Sunlight 1W
Instant (Common)
Exile target enchantment.
Evanescent (You may exile this card as you draw it if it's the first card you drew this turn. If you do, draw another card.)
As far as the logistical issues go, I get the sense that Miracles were difficult for players because (1) the keyword only showed up on a few cards, and (2) the way it cared about the draw step was unfamiliar. In the hypothetical world where this keyword gets used, neither of those is true, so I'm not overly concerned on that front.
What does "if it's the first card you drew this turn" do for Evanescent? Prevent us from chaining multiple of them?
DeleteWithout it there's bound to be some deck that cycles through a million of them. Now given that they don't end up in the graveyard, the deck thinning alone might not be busted, but it FEELS more unfair than R&D generally allows in Standard.
DeleteWishing Statue [1]
ReplyDeleteArtifact [rare]
T, Discard a land card: Put a charge counter on CARDNAME.
T, Remove a charge counter from CARDNAME: Draw a card.
T: Add (1) to your mana pool for each charge counter on CARDNAME.
Ipaulsen's miracle-variant warped my mind and I can't think of a better common smoothing mechanic right now. CURSE YOU IPAULSEN! *shakes fist* LOOK AT MY CLUNKY JANK RARE I HATE! LOOK AT WHAT YOU MADE ME DO! *cocks shotgun*
Had another idea:
DeleteChurch
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
T, Put CARDNAME on the bottom of your library: Draw a card.
I dunno.
Church is a very nice design. I wonder about sacrifice vs. bottom of library; there are good arguments for either.
DeleteWishing Statue isn't super clunky, but it does make me wonder why you want to discard lands *and* ramp colorless mana, I like the basic idea; the 2nd and 3rd abilities could just use some tweaking.
Something tells me Church is a lot stronger than it looks. Maybe this isn't too powerful in Modern+ where Knight can fetch it to draw turn after turn, and maybe the draw it provokes isn't too easy to trigger dredge or anything else off of. I'd put a 1 on the card draw trigger just to stay on the safe side, though.
DeleteI don't get how the third ability on Wishing Statue has anything to do with "smoothing."
DeleteChurch is a very clean design that I like a lot. Even in combination with KotR, you're sacrificing a Forest or a Plains each time you want the draw. Horizon Canopy is basically the same effect that trades an additional 1 mana activation cost for the ability to mana-fix, and IIRC it's run as a 1 or 2 of at most.
Adding a {1} to Church's last ability barely touches its elegance, and makes it a bit less broken. Adding {2} makes it safe. Depends on rarity?
DeleteAgreed. {1} makes this comparable with Horizon Canopy, and most likely uncommon for Limited smoothing. {2} makes it common.
Deletewhile you could say you want it to match up with horizon canopy you are aware that that is a 30$ card that is played in mono white decks, in legacy. its like actually one of the best lands ever printed.
DeleteI had no idea Church would draw this kind of attention or fear. I'm sure you're all right about it.
DeleteRegarding the Wishing Statue – the idea is it lets you chuck land cards from your hand and either keep them as lands or turn them into cards later. So the third ability is 'smoothing' in the sense that you chuck the land now and you have the mana until you want the card. So you can't really stone rain yourself by accident (granted, artifact destruction could get you, but it's not so much your mistake for using the card). It might just be poop.
Hope's Sanctum 1
ReplyDeleteArtifact
At the beginning of your end step, if you haven't played any cards this turn, draw a card. (Playing a land and casting a spell both count as playing cards.)
I really want to break this somehow, and I'm finding it difficult, which is a very good sign. What rarity?
DeleteIs it crazy that I want it to be uncommon?
DeleteI don't think that's too crazy. Smoothing is typically designed for limited anyway, and while the design is innovative it isn't super complicated, especially after you include the reminder text. If it were in an environment with, say, suspend or cycling (which make it a source of repeatable card advantage) it might make more sense as a build-around-me rare.
Delete@Ipaulsen - I think the only mildly "broken" use for this would be in some sort of Reanimator deck that wants to discard a fattie. But that sort of deck doesn't actually need this card to do that, so no, I don't think it's breakable.
DeleteI don't think this is broken, but I think it is a very powerful straight card advantage engine and should probably cost more than a single colorless. Standard UW Control, for example, plays 16+ instants and has planeswalker activated abilities to continue to do relevant things during its own turn without technically "playing" any cards.
DeleteI'm pretty sure there are no decks, least of all 27+ land control decks, that want to trade mana development for card draw. Hope's Sanctum might work as a late-game Phyrexian Arena is some Midrange Control decks with only 24 or 25 lands, and in that case it's okay that it's cheap since it doesn't get active until way after it's cast.
DeleteI'm not replacing my submission, but a different angle might look like:
Hopeful Premonition WU (R)
Enchantment
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, draw a card.
At the beginning of your end step, if you haven't played any cards this turn, draw a card. (Playing a land and casting a spell both count as playing cards.)
This wouldn't do anything in Dredge would it?
It costs WU. No Dredge deck that I know of would be able to cast it.
DeleteFor what it's worth, I think your original angle is the better design. Jenesis makes a good point about control, but it's hardly the end of the world if the card has to cost {2}.
The Legacy Dredge deck plays rainbow lands (and LED) for Faithless Looting, Careful Study, Breakthrough, and/or Putrid Imp (formerly Tireless Tribe). So a Dredge deck *could* cast it, but would it want to? I say no.
DeleteIdeally Dredge wants to dump its entire hand turn 1 and do nothing but dredge and resolve triggered abilities afterward, with the option of flashing back Dread Return if it hits one. A Dredge deck with Hopeful Premonition in it would have to have two lands in its opening hand (not the easiest thing to do in a 12-13 land deck), play them both, hope to hell HP resolves, and hope to hit more dredgers off the initial dredge because HP doesn't have a built-in way of putting the returned card back into the graveyard from the hand. All in all, seems not worth it compared to the currently played options.
My dredge question was, somewhat, confusingly, referring to Hope's Sanctum. I think Dredge *might* want this effect, but I suspect it isn't better than what it's already running.
DeleteI totally agree, Hope's Sanctum is my submission and I very much prefer it.
DeleteIn a UW deck, 1 might still be too cheap even if it's being played in the late game, because you can leave a lot of mana up on the turn that you play it. But I don't know how exactly to weigh this.
DeleteI wonder if effects that increase your land count on the opponent's turn such as Harrow or Walking Atlas could make this too good?
We generally want to avoid effects that encourage players to skip their turns, but on a single card it might be okay. Definitely seems strong in WU Draw-Go, but dunno that it's too strong.
DeleteSunlit Cathedral 1WW
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you gain 2 life.
Sacrifice Sunlit Cathedral: Requisition a Plains. (To requisition, reveal your hand. If you have no land cards in hand, search your library for a Plains card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)
I like this mechanic, but it really does not want to be on something that has a CC mana cost. Consider 2W, or searching for a basic land instead of a specific type.
DeleteAs worded, Requisition requires you to show your hand, even if you do have land cards in it. This makes the prospect of playing a card that has a requisition effect on it less appealing if you're not getting anything out of it. I'd toss a "may" on the hand-reveal clause.
DeleteI'm wondering if there's a way you can reword Requisition to make it more general-purpose, too. ("Requisition a creature," maybe?)
The text could be much shorter if it didn't make it into a keyword action.
DeleteThis mechanic could easily lead to games with a whole lot of shuffling. That's all well and good on MTGO, but it's adding a lot of downtime to paper games.
DeleteGiven how rare it is that you would tutor up a card you already have in your hand, I'm not convinced keywording Requisition is worthwhile. In particular, putting it on a sack effect means you just wait until it works, which largely undoes that small restriction.
DeleteThe intent behind the mechanic was to undo the feel-bads of missing land drop N when you have a card of CMC N in hand. If you have the 3 mana to afford the Cathedral, you're guaranteed your fourth land drop if your deck doesn't cooperate (though you'll have to raze the Cathedral to do it); whereas if you do draw lands, you can continue to enjoy the benefits of the Cathedral's upkeep trigger. Experienced players (who probably don't have as many feel-bads) will want to consider if the informational disadvantage is worth it.
Delete@ zefferal: It's not meant as an easy way to do mana-fixing, so I prefer only being able to get Plains instead of any basic land. That said, the card would probably play better without the WW, and I can't really think of a compelling reason to keep it.
@ Evan Jones: Jay hit on the reason I chose to keep the reveal clause mandatory, namely that you wouldn't bother to activate it unless you met the condition. Looking at Land Grant, I have found a wording I like better that happens to incorporate "may".
There's nothing inherent in requisition's design that would bar the introduction of other card types, though it would probably include some convoluted section in the Comp. Rules explaining how exactly the quality being requisitioned relates to the quality being checked in hand ("Requisition a Plains", for example, doesn't require you to have zero Plains in hand, but zero lands).
Updated rules text:
Sunlit Cathedral 2W
Enchantment (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you gain 2 life.
Sacrifice Sunlit Cathedral: Requisition a Plains. (If you have no land cards in hand, you may reveal your hand. If you do, search your library for a Plains card, reveal it, and put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.)
@ Chah: The text box is 7 lines long in MSE. The first ability is a line and a word long. The bulk of the bottom four lines is requisition's reminder text, which I can't think of any way to shorten if it were regular rules text.
@ Jules: Noted. Ideally this format wouldn't include a lot of potential follow-up plays that manipulate the library, like cantrips.
@Jay: This mechanic doesn't let you tutor up a card you already have in your hand, so I'm not sure what the critique is here.
Sorry, I skipped some reasoning:
DeleteRequisition is Tutor-unless-you-already-have-a-copy-of-what-you're-tutoring-for. If you've already cast Sunlit Cathedral and have a Plains in hand, getting another Plains will almost never be something you care about. Similarly, if I've already got my Path to Exile or my Sun Titan, getting a second copy—while not terrible—is very much not a priority.
My point is that the nature of tutoring makes the difference between a straight Tutor effect and Requisition largely meaningless.
Basically, I'm not sure "If you have no land cards in hand" is worth including.
Gah! I had the exact same idea with Ipaulsen! Seems to be an obvious and good design.
ReplyDeleteTherefore time to be a bit more creative:
Divine Resanctification 2WW
Instant - Common
Put an number of enchantments from your graveyard on top of your library in any order.
Cycling: Discard an enchantment card and CARDNAME from your hand: draw two cards.
Cool! A couple suggestions:
Delete-If printed, this probably wouldn't be templated as (normal) cycling. Maybe "Extra-cycling" or "Buddy-cycling" or something like that. But it's different enough that I'd consider giving it its own keyword.
-For a common, the base effect is rather weird, and it takes a bit of head-scratching to figure out whether/how it interacts with the cycling. It also seems rather weak for 4 mana. What about just Regrow-ing an enchantment (probably for 2-3 mana)?
-Consider whether extracycling (as currently printed) provides too much easy deck manipulation-- it allows for a lot of free, instant-speed digging.
I was not really satisfied with it too. I first had the name based on the image, then an idea for a mechanic. Here is a second take:
DeleteDivine Resanctification 2WW
Instant - Uncommon
Return target enchantment from the graveyard to the battlefield.
Cardshift 1: Discard CARDNAME and another card from your hand: draw a card.
When you cardshift, you can put target enchantment from your graveyard on the top of your library
Does Cardshift "1" refer to the number of additional cards you need to discard, the number of cards you draw afterward, or something else?
DeleteI was initially thinking it would refer to only the number of cards you have to discard in addition to CARDNAME, but perhaps it could be more of a Izzet charm thing
DeleteI like the way the new card's triggered ability works, but double-free-cycling doesn't also need partial-cycling.
DeleteDivine Resanctification 2WW
DeleteInstant - Uncommon
Return target enchantment from the graveyard to the battlefield.
Cardshift 1: Discard CARDNAME and one other card from your hand: draw a card.
Then?
When would we use Cardshift 2? Ditch the number?
DeleteNow that I'm reading Cardshift instead of the original implementation, I realize it's not double-free-cycling, it's 1:2-free-cycling, and that makes the partial-cycling perfect. Which means your last version was better. My bad.
I was thinking that cardshift X would be:
DeleteCARDSHIFT X: discard CARDNAME and X other cards, draw X cards.
White and Green would stay at cardshift 1, but blue red and black could get higher values. Anyhow, I am glad you concur that the previous implementation is better.
Alternativelly we could ditch the number.
DeleteHowever the more I think of it the better I like having it as CARDSHIFT X. If we do not print cardshoft 2 and 3 very often the higher values force you to throw away 5 cards to draw 4. It almost is like a muligan early on, but better because you do not have to shuffle your library and are therfore assured not to get the cards you threw out.
DeleteAmesha's Prayer (common)
ReplyDelete1WU
Sorcery
Gain 2 life and draw two cards.
Soulfilter (1, exile CARDNAME: Add W or U to your mana pool. Return this card to your hand at the beginning of the end step.)
The intent is to exile the card from your hand, right? If so, it should say so. This is a very neat way to do color-fixing!
DeleteAlso, given the new Banisher Priest template, you could probably say "exile CARDNAME from your hand until end of turn" to prevent timing weirdness. But all this is just fiddly templating stuff.
DeleteThanks Ipaulsen. Retemplating:
DeleteAmesha's Prayer (common)
1WU
Sorcery
Gain 2 life and draw two cards.
Soulfilter (1, exile CARDNAME from your hand until end of turn: Add W or U to your mana pool.)
This is a cool way to enable a multicolor set!
DeleteOoh, this is cool! In it's current form I think it makes things a bit too easy because you would rarely play more than one spell of the same color anyway, so you can cast all the rest of your splashed cards as well as if this were a land, but never flood out with sources of a splashed color. The only clean solution I could come up with is the Unknown Shores approach of making it {2} to activate, which I think might be the sweet spot.
DeleteThat sound reasonable.
DeleteI wanted to find a way that you could avoid exiling it, like just revealing it, but we probably don't want it helping to cast itself.
DeleteI don't fully understand Jules' point. If the concern is that I can splash this in my blue deck without plains by splashing several of them, is the cost of not being able to cast the last one (particularly when "the last one" is usually subjective) significant?
If you play a white deck splashing blue you need to hit a minimum number of blue sources to cast your blue cards with any measure of consistency. Once you have one Island each further one is a terrible draw: even if you're short on mana it's unlikely to significantly improve your spellcasting ability.
DeleteWith a Soulfilter card, whether you draw a second one or an actual land, your old Soulfilter card turns back into a spell, thus getting rid of one of the huge costs of splashing.
Having Soulfilter cost 1 is like printing a bunch of versions of Horizon Canopy at common.
Thanks, Jules. Got it now.
DeleteI'd be fine with Soulfilter always costing {2}. Another option is to have it cost {2} (or even {3}) on already-good-cards like Amesha's Prayer, but cost {1} on bad cards.
Soulfilter is intended for a 3-color set, in order to alleviate the problems R&D had with color fixing in Alara draft. With Soulfilter, you no longer have to choose between taking a relevant spell in your colors and taking the fixing you need for those colors. In a 3-color set, fixing should be really good and readily available. With that in mind, I think it should still cost {1}.
DeleteHowever, Amesha's Prayer is almost a strictly better Divination, and thus is already a really good card. Maybe Soulfilter should only show up on multicolored cards at uncommon?
A Bird in Hand 3W
ReplyDeleteSorcery
If you control a plains, you may put a 1/1 white Bird token with flying onto the battlefield under an opponent's control rather than pay ~'s mana cost.
Put two 1/1 white Bird tokens with flying onto the battlefield.
This is cool, but free spells are VERY dangerous. On top of that, it's not great at smoothing since you still can't play it if you're color screwed.
DeleteHmm. How good is this theoretical card?
DeleteBirds! {0}
You get two Birds and opponent's get one.
It's slightly better than
Bird! {0}
You get a Bird.
Which is slightly better than Memnite. Right?
A new approach on the mechanic:
DeleteAerie Congregation {3}{W}
Sorcery
If you control a plains, you may put 2 1/1 white Bird tokens with flying onto the battlefield under an opponent's control rather than pay ~'s mana cost.
Gain 1 life for each creature on the battlefield.
The problem I have is that as cute as this is, it's not really that helpful for smoothing.
Olive Branch Accord {1}{W}
Instant
If you control a plains, you may put 4 1/1 white Bird tokens with flying onto the battlefield under an opponent's control rather than pay ~'s mana cost.
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn.
the problem here is that you need things that don't get insta countered by your opponent just doing x with his creatures next turn. you need to use a mechanic that ties to creatures but doesn't have to do with creature to make this work.
DeleteI believe there's potential in this path, but right now these cards are terrible. Push this idea to the point where a serious Spike would consider playing it at least half the time, to prove its possible.
DeleteOne more try:
DeleteOlive Branch Accord 2WW
Instant
If you control a plains, you may put 4 1/1 white Bird tokens with flying onto the battlefield under an opponent's control rather than pay ~'s mana cost.
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn. Gain 2 life for each creature on the battlefield.
Watering Hole 3G
Enchantment
If you control a forest, you may put a 3/3 Elephant token onto the battlefield under an opponent's control rather than pay ~'s mana cost.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may gain life equal to the toughness of target creature.
Avalanche Ambush 2R
Instant
If you control a mountain, you may put three 1/1 Goblin tokens onto the battlefield under an opponent's control rather than pay ~'s mana cost.
CARDNAME deals three damage to target creature or player.
All three of these could work. They're hard to evaluate, but that's a good thing.
DeleteBenediction 1WW
ReplyDeleteSorcery (U)
Choose a card type. Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a card of that type. Put that card into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in random order.
The art is pretty unquestionably white, but I think this card is probably, in the abstract, black. Certainly could be any color in the right context, though, and white's as good as any.
DeleteBlack would get this effect with a drawback. Everyone gets tutors (except red), and this feels more like "pray for a card you need" than find what you need guaranteed.
DeleteI agree that the flavor's good, but I'm still not convinced that this effect is really in mono white's slice of the color pie. Yes, every color gets tutors, but not every color gets tutors for everything. White simply cannot tutor for instants or sorceries. It can tutor for Enchantments (especially Auras), Equipment (but no longer other artifacts), and Creatures that are "meek" (in terms of power or converted mana cost). This is simply too broad to be mono white.
DeleteVigean Intuition is somewhat similar to this, and it's blue-green. But the effect is unusual enough that I think some color-bleeding is OK.
DeleteHere's what's clever about this design: This effect is too good to be a common keyword, but as a single spell it's perfect.
DeleteI'd be fine with the flavor if the name were "Pray for Help" or "Desperate Prayer" but Benediction is something else. But regardless, I agree that white shouldn't get this effect. I'd expect it in black, blue or maybe green first (but blue's not good at getting creatures and green's not good at getting anything other than creatures or lands). There is an argument for giving this to white, because it's the most versatile color, but that's the exact reason I don't want white to have it. I hate how few weaknesses white has relative to everyone else.
It's possible that white shouldn't get this effect, I'm still a fan. That said, I'll keep thinking.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSince being white is a problem
DeleteShrine of Deliverance 2
Artifact (U)
1, T, sacrifice Shrine of Deliverance: Choose a card type. Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a card of that type. Put that card into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in random order.
Shrine of Deliverance 2
DeleteArtifact (U)
2, T, sacrifice Shrine of Deliverance: Choose a card type. Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a card of that type. Put that card into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in random order.
I'll make it a bit worse, but it still gets you your third land drop in a worst case scenario. This is now more in the tradition of Armillary Sphere or Burnished Hart in that this is an area that artifacts can do, but this is just doing it a bit differently. It also falls under the "artifacts that cantrip" aspect of the pie, and the artifacts that tutor (Ring of Three WIshes, Planar Portal) slice that they visit upon occasion. Hopefully this offends fewer color pie sensibilities.
Indeed it does. I'm less concerned about decks gaining access to this effect and more about it blurring lines, so artifacts works for me.
DeleteThe artifact or "colorless" area of the color pie is actually a very good spot for this, in my opinion. It merges effects from several different colors, utilizes randomness, intrigues Johnny, and doesn't produce card advantage-- all typical qualities of artifacts.
DeleteDidn't see the crop, trying this again:
ReplyDeleteSpirit Vessel 6WW
Creature-Bird (U)
Lore (CARDNAME costs 1 less to cast for each card in your hand.)
Flying
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, exile target creature an opponent controls until CARDNAME leaves the battlefield. (That creature returns under its owner’s control.)
Further reflection has convinced me that this mechanic is undevelopable. I wanted to just put it on effects that were very situational or much better in the late game to avoid early game brokeness, but that still leaves every card looking horrifically unappealing at first glance. New submission below.
DeleteI can crop the art differently by request.
DeleteI do agree with your criticism, though.
New submission:
ReplyDeleteFaith's Bounty W
Instant (C)
You gain 4 life. Blossom. (Look at the top card of your library, if it’s a land you may reveal it and put it into your hand.)
Many prototype keywords have complexity problems at common, and this definitely isn't that. I'm curious, though - how can you make an exciting rare or mythic card that showcases Blossom?
DeleteI'm sure there are tons of ways. Repeat Blossom + discard a land to do something, etc.
DeleteNot to mention a Johnny build around that starts with "Whenever you blossom..."
DeleteThere probably isn't room for many exciting rares/mythics, but we only need a few. I'm thinking things like:
DeleteHeartwood Elemental 4GG
Creature-Elemental (R)
Trample
~'s power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control.
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, blossom.
*/*
Eternal Bounty 1GG
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, blossom.
I don't think there's many issues about creating splashy rares with Blossom. Blossom is the kind of incremental advantage mechanic where it's a nice bonus for already powerful spells, like scry. Replace Scry on any of Theros rares with Blossom and you probably won't be unhappy with the results.
DeleteThat said, as a smoothing mechanic this is super swingy. Is there going to be a worse feeling when you're looking for a land than blossoming and missing? For a mechanic that reads like it's going to get you lands, it's really a TRGR mechanic for those that are flooding than something for people that are coming up short.
That's certainly an issue. I was considering something strictly better than scry 1.
DeleteBlossom (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library. If it's a land, you may reveal it and put it into your hand.)
which solves the feel bad, but could be hard to develop because of its power. That said, I guess we should leave plausibly solvable development problems to the developers and start with the best design, so I'll go with that version for now.
Faith's Bounty W
Instant (C)
You gain 3 life. Blossom. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library. If it's a land, you may reveal it and put it into your hand.)
It's a shame the new Blossom is so much wordier than the first, but I do think making the fail state at least Scry 1 is important.
DeleteHealing Salve was never great, but Faith's Bounty is so much better it hurts me. Sorcery?
I agree it's not hard to make tournament-playable rares with blossom and the comparison to scry 1 (which again, this is strictly better than) is apt.
The damage prevention mode is actually the stronger part of Healing Salve most of the time, but this is still strong, so Sorcery's fine by me.
DeleteA few other twists on blossom:
Delete(Look at the top card of your library. You may play that card it it's a land. If you don't, you may put it on the bottom of your library.)
(Reveal the top card of your library. You may play that card it it's a land. If you don't, you may put it on the bottom of your library.)
(Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library. If it's a land, you may reveal it and put it into your hand.)
Both of those would at least make them a bit different than scry 1, and not strictly better. Or a combination there in.
I don't like the playing version because on instants it doesn't play well and is confusing (which limits our design space) with very marginal change otherwise.
DeleteThe last version seems like a much cleaner way to word the current implementation. Thanks!
Birdcalling 2W
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has "1W, T: Put a 1/1 white Bird creature token with flying onto the battlefield."
Channel - 1W, Discard this card: Put a 1/1 white Bird creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
This is like teaching the spell to the creature... it might be nice to have a naming convention for these spells (like "Art of..." or "Gift of..." etc.)
DeleteThis suffers a similar dilemma as Bloodrush. The option to burn it up for temporary gain makes it seem like an exercise in Spikey resource management. But the same mechanic, reframed as a Giant Growth that turns into a Centaur, suddenly looks more like an all-upside Timmy mechanic, although the strategic choice you're making is the same. Just like with Bloodrush, there is the dilemma that it fits a card way better and more visually if the one-shot version is the optional half of the card.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteBoth good points. How about this version?
DeleteOrnithomancy (1W)
Instant (U)
Put a 1/1 white Bird creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
Imbue 2W (2W: Exile this card from your hand imbued on a creature you control. That creature gains "T: You may cast a copy of the imbued card." Imbue only as a sorcery.)
I like that version a lot. My one gripe is that players are liable to get confused about whether they're supposed to pay the imbue cost or the normal cost when they cast a copy.
DeleteIf imbuing targeted the creature like an aura we might be able to balance them to have just one cost.
The other issue is that imbued cards will add a lot of board complexity. As far as I see our options are:
1. Keep imbue out of common.
2. Limit imbue at common to abilities that don't directly impact the board (like the Born of the Gods tap auras). http://magiccards.info/query?q=e%3Abng+t%3Aaura+o%3A%7BT%7D+r%3Acommon&v=card&s=cname
3. Make activating the imbued creature Sorcery speed rather than the imbuing itself.
I suppose the costs could be the same at common or during the first set, but I think that forcing them to always be the same would cut out a lot of design space. I've heard that most players assume cards work in the way that most benefits them, so as long as the casting cost is lower they'd probably guess correctly.
DeleteThat said, there's probably a better way to handle the cost issue. I considered adding "without paying its mana cost" to the imbue effect, but I feel like that takes away some of the flavor.
As for the board complexity issue, the second option should work just fine. Even some abilities that do have board impact - tapping creatures, granting flying, forcing blocks, etc. - have been shown to work as repeatable effects at common under NWO.
Just for comparison:
DeleteOrnithomancy {W}
Sorcery (Unc)
Put a 1/1 white Bird creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
Buyback {2}, Tap an untapped creature you control.
Interesting and weird to think of buyback as a smoothing mechanic, since in this case the "normal" (un-bought-back) mode is actually the smoothing mode! Much as I like the idea of imbue, I have to admit that buyback accomplishes basically the same thing more cleanly.
DeleteTapping-Buyback is interesting, and it brings up a lot of possibilities I hadn't considered. How would Tapping-Flashback work out? Or some sort of Tapping-Retrace?
DeleteOn the one hand, all of these possibilities lose some of the flavor that the creature is the one casting the spell, and (except with Tapping-Flashback) there are more repetitive play issues since you can't just kill the creature.
On the other hand, any of these would solve the cost-confusion problem and probably also be much more versatile as a mechanic. In all, I feel like Imbue and Tapping-Buyback (and maybe Tapping-Retrace, depending on how exactly it functions) all have their merits, but belong in different kinds of sets.
Bring New Seeds {1G}
ReplyDeleteSorcery
Reveal the top 4 cards of your library, you may put a land from among them onto the battlefield tapped. Put the rest of the revealed cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Collect {3} (If you would draw a card, instead you may pay {3}. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, draw a card.)
because I didn't want to make a life gain card. because dredge would have been fun if it wasn't broken.
So Collect is Dredge 0 with drawback?
DeleteDredge 0 on its own leads to ultra-repetitive gameplay. Adding a cost doesn't fix the issue, but it certainly makes it less appealing to collect the same card every turn, or at least delays it so that it happens fewer times. Might I recommend "Recollect" as a more fitting ability name?
DeleteWhat Dredge did right was cap the number of times you could bring it back. I'd like to try something like:
Cobble N (If you would draw a card, instead you may exile N other cards from your graveyard. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, draw a card.)
Wasn't half the power of Dredge from the fact that it quickly and easily filled your graveyard?
DeleteFilling your graveyard was 90% of the power of Dredge, but the ability to reuse card effects is no slouch, either. Life from the Loam and Darkblast have both seen play outside of the Legacy "Dredge deck" for their ability to re-use utility lands' sacrifice effects and neutralize every X/1 creature the opponent plays, respectively.
DeleteI would be very wary of what effects Collect is about to be on, for the reason Jules stated. A game state where the right play ends up being to cast the same spell over and over again leads to boring gameplay.
what collect (recollect is a card name) brings to the table [u]is[/u] repetitive gameplay. this is something that a smoothing mechanic strives for, at least sometimes, a fall back plan. collect needs to be costed such that the fall back isn't the auto go to plan but I feel that is quite doable. another big problem with dredge that this fixes is the freeness of it. the advantage of being able to play the same thing should not be free and having a exile clone of dredge does not solve this problem.
DeleteDredge is a card name too, for what it's worth.
Deletenow I remember why I choose collect over recollect! it was because It didn't sound color specific like recollect does. I wanted a mechanic that could actually be in every color rather than just g/b
DeleteWhen would I collect Bring New Seeds?
DeleteSuppose I cast it on turn 2, ramping to my third land. I could then use those three lands to draw it on turn 3, but then I couldn't cast it until turn 4. I'd much rather be casting the spells I was ramping for, or any other ramp spell. I would only do that if all the cards in my hand cost 5 or more (because if I had something that cost 4, I'd rather try to draw my fourth land so I can cast it this turn).
If I'm in the mid- or late-game, I wouldn't collect Bring New Seeds because it's no better than drawing a land card, and I'd rather draw a non-land card.
While we do want to be careful with recursion mechanics, my concern is getting this card playable before ensuring all cards with the keyword aren't broken. I don't think players reusing this card is a danger, I think them never reusing it is, because the backup plan is so rare.
sometimes a card isn't good. nor does it have to be.
DeleteThe game needs weak cards but it's hard to justify a proposed mechanic with a card where players would never want to use that mechanic.
DeleteActually, Bring New Seeds isn't a bad card. Remove Collect and it's a faster Rampant Growth. It's collect that's weak on the card. And that's why I wanted to give you the opportunity to show it in better light.
DeleteAuspicious Augury {3U}
ReplyDeleteSorcery
Draw two cards.
Manifest Bird — {3U}, discard this card: Put a 2/2 blue bird creature token with flying onto the battlefield. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
BTW, what site does Nightsong put their art? I tried searching DA, but I could only find pieces with nightsong in their name and I don't know how to search by artist there.
DeleteThe creature feels pretty disconnected from the spell here, and for most effects that's going to be hard to avoid. If I was considering this mechanic for a set I'd just as soon bring back Evoke.
DeleteWhy is this not just a modal spell ("Choose one--")? How does it smooth your draws?
Delete@ Sensual Coalition:
DeleteAll user's profiles are formatted as: (Username).deviantart.com
The artwork is from runtimedna.com > Store > Vendors > Nightsong.
@ Jules It's connected by flavor. Auspicy is divination by way of interpreting bird flight. The set Manifest is in required an instant/sorcery mechanic and a returning mechanic wouldn't fit there besides.
Delete@ Ipaulsen It isn't modal because the cost isn't always going to be the same. Manifest Bird will always cost [3U], but it might not always be paired with an effect that would need to cost [3U] to share a card with it.
As to how it smooths draws, Manifest will go on situational cards like Mending Hands or Negate where sometimes you want the effect, and sometimes you want a warm body. It's a little less pronounced with Divination, but sometimes you need a 2/2 flier to stabilize more than you need two cards to cast next turn.
@ Jenesis Thank you
Welcome, SCM.
DeleteFascinating to learn what Auspicy means. Given how archaic the word is, and how much the connection between these two effects depends on it, I wouldn't obscure it by using a word that people do know, when they 'know' it has nothing to do with birds or divination. (And it would seem auspicy is redundant with augury).
I don't doubt that this card fit some specific parameters for the set it's from, but in a vacuum, most every player that sees this will wonder "Why not modal?" or "Why not a split card?" That there is a design-side reason will not answer the players' questions.
One thing that would help is to differentiate the costs, which you could do by tweaking one of the effects, or by replacing one of the two costs with {1}{U}{U} or something.
Humble Offering (Common)
ReplyDelete3W
Instant
Creatures you control gain lifelink until end of turn. Untap those creatures.
Conjure a basic Plains W (W, Discard this card: You may play a basic Plains card you own from outside the game this turn.)
Note: Conjuring doesn't let you play a land during your opponent's turn. It also doesn't let you play an additional land during your turn. In casual, you can grab a Plains from your collection, in limited, you can grab one from all the cards you drafted in your sideboard. In tournament play, you can grab a land from your 15 card sideboard.
Originally I was playing with a keyword that made a land token. But then I was thinking about limited where players would open a pack with a Plains land AND and Plains token. So I looked for a keyword that could just use the land from the pack like a token. It costs less to conjure than landcycling because land cycling sets you up for next turn, where conjuring is cast the same turn it's used. This leads to different execution of the mechanic too.
PS - holy cow, Manifest is similar to what I did!
Saves shuffling time!
DeleteBut I would hate to use up a sideboard slot..
I've been pretty wary of "outside the game" card grabbing in general, but I think it could work here. The major distinction for me is that whereas something like an Evolving Wilds would eat up a ton of sideboard slots in constructed, Conjure will often just eat one because you're generally going to want most of them as spells.
DeleteI also love that cycling mechanics lend themselves to narrow cards, which in Constructed means when you bring in your narrow sideboard cards you can cut a land and then have it available to Conjure.
This is a very nice design-- in my opinion substantially better than landcycling (which is basically this using the library rather than the sideboard). You might consider making Conjure cost {2}, so that it lines up with cycling and can actually fix your mana. Also, just to make sure-- playing the Plains uses up your land drop, correct? The current wording isn't entirely clear.
Delete@lpaulsen: I don't know if the mechanic wants to fix mana as well as hit land drops, but if it did, I would much rather make the cost 1 than 2. It does cost a land drop, so it really needs to cost less than landcycling. Compare this to a card like Noble Templar, which has Plainscycling 2. You can use that ability on your second turn to find your third land, and cast a three mana spell. If Humble Offering's conjure cost were also 2, you'd need to wait until turn three to use it to play your Plains, and then only have the mana left for a 1-cmc spell. At conjure cost W or 1, you can conjure turn two, and play your three mana spell.
DeleteI love how conjure avoids the library. My one concern is that players will often forget to remove the conjured cards when the game ends (different sleeves could help, but not for the sleeveless).
DeleteI'm really glad you spelled out that last scenario, Nich, because even though I understood the keyword, I hadn't fully grokked the play ramifications. It's rather unfortunate (and not as painfully obvious as one might expect) that it's useless on the same turn you've already played a land. What if Conjure instead put the land card in your hand?
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteForgetting to remove the Plains when the game ends isn't something I thought of. What's the closest thing we can compare it to? Shuffling a DFC card into your deck along with the checklist card? In an unsleeved situation, those can at least be spotted. My gut says the levels of play where this is most impactful are also the ones where players will most be aware of the risk.
DeleteThere are benefits to Conjure only letting you play a thing this turn, rather than tutoring a thing from outside the game. Play a thing this turn doesn't have the instant speed baggage of cycling. It doesn't need a speed clause or require development. If you want to play a land, you can only do so at a certain time. (Which means less reminder text.) Next, play a thing this turn doesn't have a clear color pie identity. Landcycling already feels like it messes with the color pie. Next, play a thing can be costed cheaply. A conjure effect like "You may play a Goblin card you own from outside the game this turn" only needs to cost 1 or 2 mana since players need the mana available to cast the goblin too. Last, related to the goblin example. I think play a thing this turn is easier for new players than straight up tutor, because it happens all at once. Rather than deciding when to tutor a thing into their hand and then when to cast it, they can cast it as a single action. They're only making one play decision, not two.
Maybe if Conjuring required you exile Humble Offering rather than discard it, players would be more likely to remember to remove the added basic Plains card when a game ends?
DeleteIt would be hilarious (and is conceivable) if the act of accidentally leaving conjured lands in your deck taught players the importance of playing with more land.
DeleteSo you're thinking a subsequent set would use conjure on other things:
Conjure a Goblin {R} would let us wish a Goblin from our sideboard into our hand?
I like that you're thinking ahead to expanded functionality, but that makes me a bit nervous.
Anyhow, I like your reasoning.
Exiling the conjuring card is a great idea. It will help some players remember. And then, worst case is an inadvertently sideboarded deck, rather than a potentially illegal deck.
Conveniently, the types of event where leaving a conjured card in your deck is a Game Loss-able offense are also the types of event where everyone is likely to be playing sleeves.
DeleteSince players technically have unlimited basic lands in their deck, it does potentially create time issues though. Either the player or a judge would have to pause the game for as long as it takes to walk back and forth to the land station to retrieve the desired basic land.
Meant to say unlimited basic lands in their *sideboard*, in a Limited event.
DeleteWho do I have to bribe to make Blogspot grow an edit comment function?
Keeper of the Sanctuary 1W
ReplyDeleteCreature - Human Cleric (Common)
Monetize 1 (1, Exile this card from your hand: Put a colorless artifact token named Gold onto the battlefield. It has “Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.” Monetize only as a sorcery.)
I thought in similar areas to Nich Grayson, but I thought the outside-the-game solution isn't very viable in some cases, so I went with Gold token, to provide fixing. In the right environment (where fixing is required and Gold token fit flavorwise) this solution should be good.
the p/t is obviously 2/2. It's a bear :)
DeleteThis is a pretty clean implementation! My one gripe is that I wouldn't want this mechanic on a bear because you're at most one turn away from wanting to cast your bear. Give me six drops!
DeleteCool idea. This isn't a deal-breaker, but be aware that a deck with lots of monetize 1 cards will reliably hit 6 mana on turn 3.
Delete@Jules. You're totally right, I just wanted to show a simple implementation of the mechanic, but the art doesn't pull me to six drops. I'll address that.
Delete@Ipaulsen, yeah, I probably overlooked the possibility of going all in with monetize. Monetize 2 should be far more balanced.
Two more things that should be considered:
- Changing the cost from exile to discard, would of course be more powerful, but it would be more interesting and Johnny-able; it is to determine if it'd be broken.
- The sorcery speed clause, again it can be made more powerful if it can be done at instant speed; it is certainly to prefer the option that leads to more fun gameplay.
Anyway, here's my new submission:
Song of the Sanctuary 5W
Sorcery (Common)
Put five 1/1 white Bird creature tokens with flying onto the battlefield.
Monetize 2 (2, Exile this card from your hand: Put a colorless artifact token named Gold onto the battlefield. It has “Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.” Monetize only as a sorcery.)
Monetize 2 reads badly. "I lose my spell and pay two mana for one?" which is unfortunate because it could often be a decent fixer, and sometimes be quite nutty (exiling instead of discarding helps avoid degenerate combos, as does the higher cost).
DeleteIs there a way to get this fixing tokens without cycling?
If that path doesn't interest you, also consider replacing sorcery speed with a delay: Get the gold token at EOT.
Birth of Deity
ReplyDelete{2}{W}{G}
Enchantment - Uncommon
When CARDNAME enter the battlefield choose a type.
When you draw a card, if it's not of the chosen type, you may discard it and search your library for a card of the chosen type, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
I have 2 doubts...
Deleteif you should choose a CREATURE type instead of a general type
and
if you should exile the card instead of discard it...
suggestions?
If original intention is to play with creature type (tribal), then Creature is mandatory. As written I read Card type (land, creature, sorcery, artifact, etc...)
Deletethe repetitive tutor scares me. this also puts a lot of shuffles even for uncommon.
DeleteWhat's weird about this is that I would rather draw a non-creature than a creature because if I draw an actual creature I'm stuck with whatever it is, whereas if I draw a non-creature I can get /any/ creature. I would expect either:
Delete"Whenever you draw a card of that type, you may search your library for any card of that type instead"
or:
"Whenever you draw a card not of that type, you may redraw until you draw a card of that type."
(Also note this card introduces the Miracle draw-reveal problem, and so better be worth it.)
I'll go fornitori this ...
DeleteBirth of Deity
{2}{W}{G}
Enchantment - Uncommon
When CARDNAME enter the battlefield choose a creature type.
When you draw a card, if it's not of the chosen type, you may discard it and search your library for a creature card of the chosen type, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.Reply
My entry:
ReplyDeleteSanctum of Form
Land
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
{T}: Add {W} to your mana pool.
Critterform 1 ({1}, discard ~: put a 1/1 white soldier creature token onto the battlefield.)
Notes:
- critterform is an OK name but needs a better one.
- All cards in the first set will be "critterform 1", we've yet to decide if there will be any variants or what they would do
- critterform is intended to fulfil a similar role to cycling and morph, of giving you something to do with a card you can't cast or isn't useful. At worst in the late game it's a chump blocker.
- there's less design space than morph, but hopefully some
- I considered lots of variants, but made the simplest possible.
- even as a 1/1 development need to check (a) is it too good at common in non-creature colours (b) is it too good on lands (c) is it too useless in the late game?
- if necessary, we can add a sorcery-speed-only restriction to the reminder text.
Delete- this works better now than it did a few years ago, because many more players have common token cards available. (I decided to assume each colour could have a 1/1 type, though if the set needs other tokens, all critterform cards could make colourless 1/1 spirits)
I quite like this actually. I would standardize the token with the colorless one (not necessarily spirit) but I would add the sorcery clause to reduce the amount of "surprise I had an extra blocker!" that will be appearing at common.
DeleteSimple is good! If it's going to go across colors, colorless is good. Call them citizens or humans or something universal (spirit is fine for me).
DeleteIt's unfortunate that a 1/1 is pretty marginal in the late game when you least want the land. Rally might be better suited on conditional cards and/or expensive cards than on lands for that reason.
Maybe the instant speed is a big part of what makes this interesting / worthwhile.
Thank you.
DeleteI assumed it was obvious that each colour would have its own type 1/1 soldier, 1/1 elf, 1/1 zombie, 1/1 goblin. I'm not suggesting every colour make white soldiers, just that the reminder text doesn't have to spell out all the other colours! It seemed that would be easy to do when so many sets have tokens in all colours anyway, and it helps make the colour of the original card less irrelevant. Five tokens that can be used by other cards is actually easier than 1/1 spirits which .since colorless 1/1s are only really used by Kamigawa, Mirrodin and Lorwyn, but any set can use more soldiers, goblins, etc.
Marginal late game: yes, although often a chump blocker is enough to give you another turn. I think it's fine it goes on mostly expensive and niche spells -- if lands are too good at cycling, you lose the balance of needing lands in the first place.
Not sure about instant vs sorcery. I'd have to playtest it.
I think I'd prefer colorless tokens. It would standardize the ability wording which is nice and it would open up space for some narrow support cards like a Critter lord or an equipment that cares about Critters.
DeleteThe most important reason is because the colors shouldn't have uniformity in their creature quality. If every color is making 1/1s that just makes them seem similar in a way that they really aren't.
This is not my submission, because I think everything about it has already been said in discussions about magic design, but I thought it was appropriate here. Anyone else, if you were thinking of something similar or are inspired by this, feel free to submit something similar.
ReplyDeleteVibrancy
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2, can attack as though it didn't have defender. Whenever enchanted creature attacks, put a 1/1 white bird creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
Landforming ({2}: Reveal this from your hand, put it onto the battlefield facedown and tapped as a land card with "{T}: Add {1} to your mana pool.")
Notes
- people have always considered ways to play cards facedown as lands in magic, I think it's right not to try to make that the default now, lands have been part of the game for so long, but I think it's possible to have *some* cards that do that
- it's on an aura because auras are especially likely to be redundant in your opening hand
- I also considered "exile this enhancing a land you control, whenever you tap that land for mana, you may add an additional {1}" (or additional mana of that type) which would have a similar effect and could be visualy represented the same way. But the only advantage would be representing coloured mana, and I don't think that's necessary -- if you're short of coloured mana, you should fix that with deckbuilding, but if you're manascrewed, you can use this.
- this needs to be distinguished from morph without being confusing, but I think that's possible.
- inuitively, all players separate creatures and lands. I think it's obvious to everyone facedown cards with creatures are morphs and ones with lands are landforms.
- revealing the card before playing it allows everyone to check it's legal, and allows the rules to override the morph rules. cards referring to morph creatures may need to be updated to say "facedown creature" not just "facedown card".
this would require some rules finagling as currently (regardless of what is intuitive to understand) all face down cards however they got turned facedown are 2/2 creatures. there was no other way for morph to work in the rules.
DeleteUnfortunately, multiple Rules Managers have made it clear that face-down cards on the battlefield are always 2/2 creatures, and it seems like there's very little room to budge on that. Sometimes these opinions do get over-turned, but never for something less than the star mechanic of a set, or something that will improve all Magic going forward. I expect land tokens or pulling land cards from outside the game to fulfill this end before they revise morph.
DeleteChapel Garden
ReplyDeleteLand
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped
T: Add G or W to your mana pool.
T: Pray 2 (Exile the top 2 cards of your library. You may play those cards as if they are in your hand until the beginning of the next phase.)
"Draw two cards. You may play them. if you can't, discard them." seems a bit strong. I might consider "4, T: Pray 1", if you were making a cycle at rare.
DeleteGood catch, I actually intended the card to have to be discarded, not tap. Thanks!
DeleteChapel Garden
Land
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped
T: Add G or W to your mana pool.
1, Discard CARDNAME: Pray 2 (Exile the top 2 cards of your library. You may play those cards as if they are in your hand until the beginning of the next phase.)
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThe easiest way to do this would probably be to model after the scry lands, but I wanted to try something a little different.
DeleteChapel Garden
Land
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped
T: Add G or W to your mana pool.
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, Pray 1 (Exile the top card of your library. You may play that card as if it was in your hand until the beginning of the next phase.)
This version leads players to feel bad when they either mana screw themselves waiting to play a land until they can afford the spell, or they exile their cool spell and can't cast it.
Deletethats a very valid point. Lets try this again:
DeleteChapel Doves 1W
Creature - Bird
Flying
Essence (If you would draw a card, you may discard cardname instead. If you do, search you library for a land that produces mana of any color in CARDNAME's mana cost and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library)
not my best design. I had a tough time with this challenge.
its a 1/1
DeleteIs it important that Chapel Doves can get Savannah, Vivid Crag, Kjeldoran Outpost and City of Brass?
DeleteWould we rather play this or discard when we're at two mana? At six?
This is basically just wants to be some form of basic land cycling instead I think. how about:
DeleteChapel Garden 1GW
Enchantment
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, gain 5 life.
Creatures you control get +1/+1
Pray (To pray, you may reveal this card from your hand to add one mana of any color in this cards mana cost. Praying takes the place of your land drop for the turn, and may only be done once each turn.)
The wording needs work but basically what happens is instead of your land drop for the turn, you may reveal a card with pray from your hand instead. this gains you temporary mana and would obviously only be used if you did not already have a land in your hand, becasue in almost every case, if you do have a land it is better to just play it.
Feed the Birds
ReplyDelete3GW
Sorcery - Uncommon
Choose one - put three 1/1 white Bird creature tokens with flying onto the battlefield, or put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
Desperation (Choose both if you have the least life among players.)
Went so far with my idea that it doesn't fit the challenge but I like the ability word. Hm. I'll try to come up with something better.
Delete