We've been looking for a way for Tesla to let players build their own machines. At the end of our last discussion Tommy Occhipinti proposed a tweak to the Artifactfall model where the machine does more every time you add a piece.This latest take requires a few more words, but actually simplifies the base concept. Instead of a machine with a bunch of moving parts which double up when we add a new component, we get a machine that turns on every time we improve it.
Geared
Geared starts off with a major hurdle: it reads like a downside. Okay, it is a downside. Only in constructed will you be consistently getting more activations via geared than if it weren't on the card.
But that’s actually a good thing. By making the activations hard to
repeat, we can offer much better rewards with each untap trigger and thereby
let players dream bigger than they could with Cogwork.
Additionally, by allowing players to get full value from Geared cards without having to activate them right before casting an artifact, Geared overcomes two more of Cogwork's issues. It can work with high activation costs:
Or abilities that are best used at instant speed:
Toppling Hammerhead can sit back and dissuade large attackers while letting small ones through, but when used offensively it presents the opponent with an interesting dilemma about whether to trade off a smaller creature for something which may never attack again.
I'm not yet convinced that this is the correct approach to our machine building (I currently favor Batteries), but if we want something like Cogwork, Geared offers a lot of advantages for gameplay.
Your task for this week: design a common that either uses Geared or a similar mechanic, or interacts with it in a lenticular manner.
If you make Batteries not themselves artifacts, say, by making them counters instead, then they actually play quite nicely with Geared.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest problem with Batteries (which have a lot of good stuff going for them) is that it every card they go on is automatically super texty. One would think Eldrazi Spawn, which have similar baggage, would mean this is okay, but remember that ROE was the last non-NWO expert set.
Looking at the renders of all the commons on the Battery page, my brain automatically assumes they're mythics because of the textbox. I'm not sure how much can be done to tighten this up.
I note that Poison Counters don't receive reminder text, so perhaps Battery Counters could be the same.
The textiness is a major concern. A keyword action (like the last render) helps once you've got the hang of it, but the initial parsing would still eat up a lot of complexity points
DeleteHey-Thinking about color pairings. (I know - I ignored the topic.) So is Tesla somewhere between industrial revolution and dystopia?
ReplyDeleteWB - Token theme. 0/1 rigger tokens hired by our evil Orzhovian overlords.
UR - ? theme. Industrial inventors who can't stop inventing.
BG - Scrap metal. Artifact unearth?
WR - Army/Artifact destruction. The resistance which fights against the evil distopian overlords
UG - Scientists making new leads and discoveries. Equipment theme.
Unless color is a specific theme modern Design and Development try to give some cohesion to each of the ten color pairs. These are interesting starting points; any ideas for the other five?
DeleteSpeaking of colors, geared cards work a lot like sorceries with flashback: they do their thing once initially, but can be reused. (Potentially many times.)
ReplyDeleteIt might be pretty refreshing to see what we can do in that space with colorless cards, but we might also find ourselves bleeding the whole color pie, in which case colored artifacts might be the solution. We can also justify a higher quantity of artifacts if they're colored.
These are both good points. Nevertheless, as I mentioned in the discussion a few months ago about what makes an artifact an artifact, I think colored artifacts were a mistake because they threw out the only thing that defined the card type. If I get my way, they'll become an antiquated oddity like blue Pingers.
DeleteGeared Key {2}
ReplyDeleteArtifact (cmn)
Geared (CARDNAME doesn’t untap during your untap step. Whenever another artifact enters the battlefield under your control, untap CARDNAME.)
{T}: Untap another target artifact.
Possible this is too strong to be common, or to board-complex.
This does highlight one of my concerns about this mechanic, which is that it is going to accidentally create combos that scar legacy/vintage (and this card seems like it could fit in there).
DeleteI'm not sure, but this might be avoided by putting a mana cost on every ability that could win the game on its own.
Completely going against everything I just said, I think a self bounce artifact creature would be neat.
Whether Geared Key is printable at common or not, it's the worst design for representing the mechanic. Something more self-contained:
DeleteGeared Sextant {2}
Artifact (cmn)
Geared (CARDNAME doesn’t untap during your untap step. Whenever another artifact enters the battlefield under your control, untap CARDNAME.)
{T}: Search your library for a land card and reveal it. Shuffle your library and put that card on top.
@Tommy: as the Development of Delve demonstrates, Wizards' current policy is to balance Standard and Limited and use bannings to regulate older formats.
Delete@Jay: I wonder what percentage of LSPs will activate Geared Sextant even when they're not short on lands because it feels Iike a reward. Assuming the number is small, it's got potential.
Going a bit off-task here:
ReplyDeleteThe Gear Factory
Legendary Artifact Land (Rare)
Geared
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Probably broken, despite being worse than basics in 3 different ways.
Incidentally, I think a better approach to Geared would be to drop the first sentence of reminder text (and maybe add "doesn't untap" back in on some uncommon / rare cards). That reduces swinginess and it still works very well, especially on artifacts that are creatures and/or have cheap {T} abilities.
Overall, though, I think the design space of Geared is problematic (too narrow, and hard to put on non-artifacts for flavor reasons). I'm a fan of Batteries (in some form) as well.
Would still be quite good as a 1-mana non-land artifact (and good in the right deck for {2}).
DeleteI think removing the first sentence significantly decreases the design space (well development space). The effects that you're able to make an artifact that does every turn is just very narrow, especially at lower rarities. Even making a measly 1/1 every turn is far too much for common.
DeleteAnother option (that might end up quite texty) is to use charge counters, and have playing an artifact add charge counters. That way it is all upside, but I'm pretty sure that template pushes it out of common.
I'm with Tommy here. The whole point in adding the "doesn't untap" clause on the commons is that it opens up a much wider range of common-suitable effects because the cards don't have to be balanced to allow them to happen every turn (and sometimes more than once a turn).
DeleteWhat about a version of cogwork that instead triggered if at least one of your artifact creatures attacked? That way we don't need to worry about scaling for tons of effects each turn, just doubling.
ReplyDeleteFor example:
Cogwork Sparker
2
Artifact - Common
1, T: CARDNAME deals 1 damage to target player
Energize (Whenever you attack with at least one artifact creature, untap CARDNAME)
Myr Energizer
5
Artifact - Rare
T: Put a 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token onto the battlefield
Energize
And the flavor isn't great but isn't terrible with colored cards:
Slinger Batterymate
WW
Creature - Human Scout - Uncommon
WW, T: Tap target creature
Energize
1/2
Wearing my developer hat, I think the trigger should probably be "Whenever you cast an artifact spell" to avoid easy infinite loops.
ReplyDeleteThat is an easy way around making Batteries not trigger it, if those are still artifacts.
DeleteYes, though there's always potential for confusion with LSPs who aren't yet sure precisely what any given wording means.
DeleteTezz's Library 1
ReplyDeleteArtifact - (C)
Geared
4, T: Draw a card.
Nissa's Vineyard 4
Artifact - Common
Geared
T: Add 2 to your mana pool.
I like these. The library will often provide more card advantage than we usually see at common, but that can be okay in an environment like Theros (Thassa's Bounty) where players are looking for synergy or Khans (Treasure Cruise) with lots of high-impact commons.
DeleteTezzeret's Library is pretty similar to Serum Tank, which I think was correctly placed at uncommon. Very similar indeed, in fact.
DeleteYeah, it is definitely in the zone where it could go either way. If we want a Geared deck to exist, I think it gets pushed to common to give the deck the late game inevitability it needs.
DeleteBarring a very specific deck, the card is, how do we say, terribad, but as a developer I want a bad version at common that floats instead of a pushed version at uncommon that gets people into the deck (for this effect).
Even though the trigger resembles Landfall and Constellation, I agree with HavelokV that Geared should trigger off casting artifact spells rather than you putting an artifact onto the battlefield. It's really easy to dump them into play in multiples because there are so many artifact creature token making effects in the history of the game.
ReplyDeleteGeared (This artifact doesn't untap during your untap step. Whenever you cast an artifact spell, untap this.)
Other than a few obvious ideas like mill effects, life gain, etc, I think the common Geared artifacts should have creature boosting effects. These are the simplest effects and with the use of the HOURGASS symbol (meaning the abilities are sorcery speed only) they shouldn't create a lot of board complexity.
Diorama of Kern's Defense
Artifact
Geared (Reminder text.)
HOURGLASS - (2/W), T: Target creature gains vigilance until end of turn.
Diorama of Captain Alsio's Ascent
Artifact
Geared (Reminder text.)
HOURGLASS - (2/U), T: Target creature gains flying until end of turn.
Diorama of Hermian Beggars
Artifact
Geared (Reminder text.)
HOURGLASS - (2/B), T: Target creature gains lifelink until end of turn.
Diorama of the Lowtown Riots
Artifact
Geared (Reminder text.)
HOURGLASS - (2/R), T: Target creature gains haste until end of turn.
Diorama of Marlin's Might
Artifact
Geared (Reminder text.)
HOURGLASS - (2/G), T: Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
The difficulty with this common cycle is making them feel significantly different than equipment. I don't think equipment and these things can sit side by side unless the Creative concept for them is significantly effective. I went for diorama's because they could be animatronic and are room sized rather than personal wear. But you know, just for example purposes.
I agree that the flavor overlap needs addressing, but I like these a lot.
Delete