Howdy all. We're taking a break from our series on playtest design - so I can gather some more feedback from playtesting - and during this break I'd like to have a design challenge! One thing I noticed while gathering mechanics a while back, and especially while putting together the playtest, is that we could use a few more options for noncreature mechanics for Tesla.And there's where you come in!
Your challenge: propose a noncreature mechanic for Tesla! This can be a new design of your own, a revisit of an older Tesla mechanic, or a suggested returning mechanic.
I look forward to seeing your guys' proposals!
Forget is a cycling mechanic.
ReplyDeleteA parasitic thing (engineer cost would be equal to mana cost, at least at common):
ReplyDeleteTurn The Glass to the Heavens {3}{U}
Sorcery
Engineer {3}{U} (Pay {3}{U}, discard this card, and exile an instant or sorcery card with Engineer that costs less from your graveyard: Copy the exiled spell twice and cast the copies.)
Draw two cards.
Harness the Furnace Guns {1}{R}
Instant
Engineer {1}{R} (Pay {1}{R}, discard this card, and exile an instant or sorcery card with Engineer that costs less from your graveyard: Copy the exiled spell twice and cast the copies.)
Deal 2 damage to target creature or player.
This creates some anticipation and allows a feeling of having made progress.
Or a less card-advantageous but more flexible one:
Shielding Steam {2}{G}
Instant
Accelerate (Discard this card and pay its mana cost: Cast an instant or sorcery from your hand that costs less without paying its mana cost, then copy that spell.)
Prevent all damage that would be dealt by face-up creatures this turn.
Vent Lubricant {3}{B}{B}
Sorcery
Accelerate (Discard this card and pay its mana cost: Cast an instant or sorcery from your hand that costs less without paying its mana cost, then copy that spell.)
Creatures get -3/-3 until end of turn
The same basic concept, but more flexible in terms of what effects it can go on. For both, I have some concerns about color pie breaking, which would take even more words to fix. They're also potentially developmentally problematic.
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DeleteI take it back, it really just needs one word of reminder text to 90% solve the color pie issues, on Accelerate at least. Make it (Discard this card and pay its mana cost: Cast a colorname instant or sorcery from your hand that costs less without paying its mana cost, then copy that spell.)
DeleteThis still lets you get off-color multicolor, effectively getting you multicolor effects for a hybrid price, but the hoops are narrow enough that I'm OK with that.
There's an interesting nugget of design here. My concern is that most of the choice happens during deck-building not during gameplay*: If I have an accelerate card in my hand and a legal target in my graveyard, I almost always prefer the two-for-one.
Delete*Hmm, that seems to apply nearly as much to Forget. Maybe it's fine? Maybe my real concern is "How do you develop cast-two-Ncc-spells-for-N+1-mana?"
I think the cast two of N for N+1 mana is less concerning than it might seem. For one thing, Accelerate still uses two cards from your hand, precisely to mitigate that problem. For Engineer, having the potential targets limited, and all overcosted, makes it easier, but I think there's probably enough parasitism already.
DeleteFor another, 2 for 2x1 is obviously fine, 3 for 2x2 is a setup cost to get a ~1 mana discount. 4 for 2x3 and 5 for 2x4 are the most dangerous spot, clearly, but then it starts dropping off because you're getting into the region where it's significantly harder to get your N+1th land than the Nth, and the power curve goes up more or less quadratically.
I like engineer if we make it not parasitic. I'm a little concerned about a card only being used for engineer and never being cast for its own effect. What if instead of doing the GY card twice, it does itself and the GY card? I am toying with trying to make one cost that lets you flashback another card for free but it feels either wordy or abusable.
DeleteWhat if it as simple as "When you cast this, an instant or sorcery in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn" We could make the player cast the flashback immediately or even splice the spell onto the one being cast.
I missed that Engineer casts a card from your hand and not your graveyard.
DeleteCarry on.
Jason, what's the difference in your mind between Accelerate and non-parasitic Engineer?
DeleteAccelerate was me making Engineer non-parasitic and then iterating slightly to make it also not overpowered. Your version would also work, but I don't think it's conveying progress or any kind of steampunkiness.
I like being able to cast something from the graveyard a second time instead of casting it from the hand twice. To me that is showing progress by learning from your past spells. First you build a foundation by casting a spell and then you can cast a better version of that spell (by doubling it or by adding the effect of another spell)
DeleteAgreed with Jason. It certainly feels more like an upgrade.
DeleteNote that Mana sink mechanics are especially required!
ReplyDeleteReplicate probably couldn't have a better Industrial Revolution-themed name if it tried.
DeleteMhm, true Czynski! I think that's an Izzet thing, since Overload could be good, too. :)
DeleteBoost (You may choose an additional option for each additional you spend while casting this spell)
ReplyDeleteBoost Red Spell 1R
Instant
Choose one --
* Target creature can't block this turn
* Target creature gets +2/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn.
Boost RR
Totally Not Cryptic Command 1UU
Choose one --
* Counter target spell
* Tap target creature, it doesn't untap during it's controller's next next untap step
* Draw a card
Boost 1U
Boost White Spell 1WW
Choose one -
* Target creature gets +2/+2 and gains flying until end of turn
* Destroy target creature with power 4 or greater
Boost 1W
(Note you can only choose each option once)
I am sure we can template that better, but I think it's a decent mana sink mechanic
This seems interesting, but too complex to show up at common.
DeleteEntwine was pretty sweet.
DeleteI do quite like how we can scale the power up on rarer cards just by adding more options.
Delete"Fundamentals - Target opponent looses 4 life, you gain life equal to the number of instants and sorceries in your graveyard with different costs that cost less than this"
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of building up based on the spells you have previously cast. Again this ha a lot to do with deck building over gameplay and it probably wants to get simplified until it is spell mastery.
Yes, I think this is basically a more narrow spell mastery - and seeing as spell mastery was a failure, I'm worried about this one.
DeleteWas it? I liked Spell Mastery, what made it a failure?
DeleteI haven't looked into it much - keep meaning to - but I'm pretty sure a few members of R&D publicly noted it didn't do as well as they were hoping. I'll try to gather some sources soon.
DeleteAs an additional cost to cast ~, you may sacrifice a canister.
ReplyDeleteIf you sacrificed a canister as you cast this spell...
As an additional cost to cast ~, you may sacrifice a canister.
ReplyDeleteIf you sacrificed a canister as you cast this spell...
This isn't a mechanic as much as it is a cycle. I do like the idea here for a card or cycle, though.
DeleteAnother weird flashback type effect. We could do more with it if the remnant only effected one of the targets but I think I like it more comboing with spells with lots of targets.
ReplyDeleteAfterburner
Deal 3 damage to target creature.
Remnant - When you cast a spell that targets one or more creatures you may exile CARDNAME from your graveyard, if you do CARDNAME deals 1 damage to each of those creatures.
Interesting. I like the basic ideas behind this, but not sure it really justifies its existence compared to Flashback, you know? It's tough to make flashback riffs...
DeleteJason, this is a neat idea. It might not have a place in Tesla, but I'd invite you to explore further.
DeleteSome possible ideas:
ReplyDeleteVenture, but reworked to care about tapped creatures rather than creatures that attacked;
A kicker version of Cipher, as suggested by CasualR and Reuben Covington (though I think this is too aggressive with Renown in the format as well);
A version of Prowl;
and a mechanic called Decipher I saw on MTGS, where it has a kicker-cost that copies it for each instant and sorcery in your yard, which can capture a sense of progress and be more rewarding than Spell mastery.
How do you balance decipher? Especially since it sounds potentially easier to build up than storm?
DeleteNeed more details on the other ideas
Yeah, balancing Decipher was the hard part. You either exile a spell cast for its Decipher cost, exile all inst/sorc in the yard after casting for its Decipher cost, or something. Potentially it could be "As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may exile any number of other instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard. For each you exile this way, copy this spell."
DeleteStill, it's very dangerous. :/
-
More details, for sure. Here you are:
Snoop (You may cast this for its prowl cost if a creature you control dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn.)
Encipher COST (You may cast this spell for its encipher cost. If you do, when it resolves, exile it encoded onto target creature you control. Whenever that creature deals combat damage to an opponent, you may cast a copy of this spell from exile without paying its mana cost.)
Venture 2.0 (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each tapped creature you control.)
Cost-reduction-bloodthirst aka snoop aka prowl-that-ignores-types seems decent.
DeleteOhhh. Now I see what you meant by kicker-cipher. Not a bad idea, but I'm not sure we need a wordier cipher.
Venture could work. It's a stronger than convoke, so start from there. I really want to get double-value out of my Elvish Mystic now.
Yes, I'm pretty sure that Encipher's wordiness is precisely why they didn't go with it over the version of Cipher we got.
DeleteProwl-that-ignores-types seems decent to me as well, but it overlaps with Renown a bit much, which worries me.
Venture is the one that seems most promising, but it's not a mana-sink mechanic except in very broad terms.