Cool Card Design of the Day5/21/2015 - I'm wondering about exploration mechanics Zefrikar could use. Something that doesn't directly affect combat and that feels like a discovery or expedition. Maybe like Search the Catacombs. I'm sure this one needs work (it's pretty long), but I do like it as a jumping off point.
EDIT: An easier and simpler version:
This has memory issues if you shuffle cards into your library or mill your library, but thanks to the arbitrary difference between grammar for "cards in your graveyard" and "permanents you control," it's too texty to say "If it doesn't share a name with a card in your graveyard or a permanent you control…"
Maybe we should change Magic grammar so that this is valid: "If it doesn’t share a name with a card in your graveyard or battlefield…"
Love the scornful tribute to the Egotist.
ReplyDeleteGiven the unpopularity of Clash, I don't expect other "check the CMC of the top card of your library" mechanics to be successful.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Clash wasn't that aspect, it was two other things:
Delete1.) It was gambling on a dimension you couldn't control much. The mechanics behind the gambling were the way you built your deck - and you have no control over how your opponent builds their deck, so you couldn't really 'game' the system very easily. It felt bad when you were just like, "welp, I am never winning a Clash against this deck."
2.) The cards were often far too dependent on the results of the Clash. It wasn't a nice little bonus if you won - it was a make-or-break moment. Explore is different because it's just a cantrip bonus.
"Just a cantrip bonus" is really underselling how swingy this is. This is absolutely make or break. My initial take is that this is way too swingy, though I know Jay loves players seeing way more cards than "normal" Magic.
DeleteI do think there is potential, but I think drawing a too strong a reward. Maybe a +1/+1 counter instead?
DeleteExplore (Draw a card. You may play an additional land card this turn.)
ReplyDeleteThe problem with keywording green mechanics is that then they get put on blue cards.
DeleteNot every mechanic goes on every color. But is bleeding this effect in a land set okay? If so, which color(s) should get it?
DeleteI'm not actually sure. This could get the M11/scry treatment, and really only appear on a few cards - maybe two green sorceries, a green creature, an artifact, and a red enchantment with "Sac a land"? I really don't think I'd be comfortable with it in white or blue, and only red or black with sufficiently in-color costs.
DeleteHm.... This is interesting. It has a lot of dimensions to it that I like.
ReplyDelete1, it's got a fun 'gambling' element, but you can easily manipulate the odds to your advantage by just tapping different creatures.
2, it rewards you for tapping down your bigger (and likely better) creatures. That's a nice touch!
3, it plays 'smart'. More experienced players get more mileage out of this and realize it's a lot less random than it appears.
Now, what I don't like about it:
1, isn't this just a worse cantrip? That's not super exciting or splashy.
2, this is a lot of words for a really underwhelming effect.
3, this still feels a little too random.
Yeah. This was seeming really cool and interesting until I realised that it was just worse-than-cantrip. Worse both because you need to tap down a creature, normally at sorcery speed; and also because the cantrip isn't reliable (or at least you need to work to make it reliable).
DeleteNonetheless, "worse than cantrip" can still be a fine spot for a smoothing mechanic with good gameplay and fitting flavour. But the prices need to make it attractive (or the cards be otherwise playable without the explore). If you have a creature big enough to guarantee hitting the explore, Wander Dark Passages can be... Twitch at sorcery speed. It's probably better used as a sorcery-speed Repel the Darkness where the cantrip is unreliable and needs you to tap something of your own, but, well, that description makes it clear how bad it is. (And possibly clarifies that just changing the costs or speed might not help.)
I'm not too sure that there's enough fun in this mechanic to justify the lingual contortions it seems to require.
ReplyDeleteExactly my feelings.
DeleteWe have disagreement whether "draw a card" is too much effect or too little, but that's all relative to how it's used. What I think we all agree on is that it's too much text. We can remove the tap, making the ability easier and slightly shorter:
ReplyDeleteExplore (Look at the top card of your library. If its converted mana cost is less than the highest among creatures you control, you may reveal it and put it into your hand.)
What else can we do to shorten it? CMC takes more text than 3 words.
Explore (Look at the top card of your library. If no cards with its name has been played this game, you may reveal it and put it into your hand.)
Are there more interesting effects than drawing the card? That feel like discovery? Casting it for free would be hard to balance.
I wasn't saying that being a pseudo-cantrip is bad. I was saying that being a pseudo-cantrip is not worth all the words it takes to explain it.
DeleteThe sad part about your proposed 'fix' is that it removes all the actual decision-making from the mechanic. I wish there was a way to keep that.
The disagreement is interesting. I actually think "Draw a card" is both too strong and too weak, in different senses.
DeleteIt is too weak in that it is hard to get excited about except for very Spike-y players. I'm constantly shaving conditional cantrips from my game because there is just something more interesting/captivating/splashy that can go in that space.
On the other hand, as I've said many times, card advantage is probably the most insidious force in the game. Certainly fewer than half of Magic players understand it at all, and even fewer can actually do the card advantage math for all of the basic effects.
And card advantage isn't just insidious because its power is hidden from new players, but also because it leads to so many games where newer players get just absolutely annihilated and it isn't clear why they're losing. Card advantage isn't something people learn naturally, which is why the Pros didn't even understand it until surprisingly late into the game.
(Do note: I'm certainly not advocating getting rid of card advantage. I've said before I think the tempo/card advantage balance is at least as important as any other part of the trifecta to the game's success. I just advocate using it very carefully. I think that time they printed cantrip lands and everyone had to learn to first pick them was a bit of a disaster.)
I had something between cantrip and scrying.
ReplyDeleteAugur N (Look at the top N cards of your library. You may pay {2} or 2 life to put one of them into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library.)
I was thinking about the part of this mechanic that I really liked - the choice between tapping down a valuable creature to explore, or keeping them available for other purposes. I really like the mechanical implementation of 'exploration' here - you're sending the creature on a mission, so they can't do anything else.
ReplyDeleteIs there another way to represent that? I think there is. Inspired by
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/creativity/custom-card-creation/562182-horizon-stride
I present to you:
Trailblazer {2}{G}
Creature - Elf Scout (C)
Explorer (This creature can attack the unknown. If it does, any opponent's creatures may block this creature as though they were the defending player.)
When Trailblazer hits the unknown, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
1/3
Interesting?
I've included the "any opponent's creatures" as I think it's an interesting addition and solves the problem of "who can block it?", but it does feel a bit weird since it gets worse the more players you include in the game.
DeleteVery interesting. Since planeswalkers introduced the idea of attacking things other than players, this could be a good way of doing Ophidian-style effects. I might try the reminder text trimmed down to "This creature can attack the unknown. If it does, any player's creatures may block it." and maybe hold out for alternative concepts to "the unknown" - something more branded to Magic, perhaps.
DeleteTrailblazer 2G
DeleteCreature - Elf Scout (C)
Explorer — If Trailblazer would deal combat damage to a player, you may instead search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
1/3
Jay: That implementation works perfectly fine, but it completely loses the flavor. :P Also, there's a lot of stuff you can do interacting with "the unknown".
Delete"Whenever a creature you control hits the unknown" on an Explorer, for example. Or, "Creatures you control attacking the unknown get +2/+2". Etc.
"Instead"? Any particular reason for bringing out the old Ophidian template?
DeleteOnly that I was preserving Inanimate's originally functionality.
DeleteI think Scornful Explorer should cost UU with Kicker 4 (yea, I know, Kicker sucks, you could also make it a triggered ability) and if you paid the kicker cost, Explore. Yes, NWO only affects commons, but the way this is worded it still could be confusing, especially for new players.
ReplyDeleteBut then it can only hit things with a CMC of 2 or less, not 6 or less.
DeleteHow about Explore as a reverse Cascade? "Exile the top card of your library until your reveal a land card. Put that card onto the battlefield tapped and the other exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order."
ReplyDeleteThat drastically changes this mechanic, in multiple ways. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with an entire mechanic of Rampant Growths, for example.
DeleteIt's completely different, but it is a solid smoothing mechanic (provided we always have a use for land), does feel like exploration, and could work nicely with some triggers:
DeleteG
Whenever you reveal cards from your library, ~ gets +1/+1 until EOT for each card revealed.
W
Whenever you reveal cards from your library, gain 1 life for each card revealed.
R
Whenever you reveal cards from your library, you may cast one of them.
U
Whenever you reveal cards from your library, you may pay {U} to put one of them into your hand.
B
Whenever you reveal cards from your library, you may put any of them into your graveyard.
It also desperately would love to be in a set with Landfall...
Delete