Click
through to see the design requirements for your
single card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants
feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of
times. I will aim to review the most recent submission from each
designer.Design a land aura that doesn't suck.
Bonus points if it hints at a cycle or other cards.
Good luck.
Foresight Beacon U
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - aura - U
Enchant land you control. If that land is an island draw a card.
Enchant land has U(tap): scry 2
Certainly this amount of fixing would be huge for a control deck. Not very interactive though.
DeleteForesight Beacon's purpose is to give you scry 2 every round. You can cast it on turn 1, to draw a card, and then have the option of activating it in future turns where you have the enchanted island and a second island free. Or you can cast it on a non-island, to keep the {U} you'll need from your islands free to activate it. But then you won't draw a card. Also, you're not allowed to cast this on an opponent's land, or your 2HG ally's.
DeleteWe can simplify this card:
Foresight Beacon {U}
Enchantment - aura - Unc
Enchant land
Enchanted land has {U}, {T}: Scry 2.
or:
Foresight Beacon {1}{U}
Enchantment - aura - Unc
Enchant land
When ~ ETB, draw a card.
Enchanted land has {T}: Scry 1.
Getting to scry 1 or 2 every turn is quite significant, but dedicating a land to that is too—at least early.
I designed this with a cycle in mind. Useful ability, backed up by additional value for prioritizing deck building in that color. So the "you control" clause is there to make the card "not rare". But maybe the restriction is enough to warrant a single land scry effect? How about:
DeleteForesight beacon U
Enchantment - aura - Unc
Enchant land you control. If that land is an island, draw a card.
Enchanted land has {tap} scry 1
The 'if' clause is wasted text because it will never not fire. This card costs U. It will be cast from an Island. It will be cast on the same Island when it's your only Island, because drawing a card is strictly better than scrying 1.
DeleteI see what you're saying now.
DeleteSame as last revision then except cmc 1U
Flatland Surge
ReplyDelete2WW
Enchantment - Aura - Uncommon
Enchant Plains
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, creatures you control get +2/+1 until end of turn.
Enchanted land has "T: Add WW to your mana pool."
This is cool, although there's a question about whether mono white should get ramp, even at four mana.
DeleteMake it WG and I'd be a fan.
Ideally there would be one in each color - the idea being that all colors get ramping via colorless artifacts, so it's not too big of a bleed.
DeleteThat said I think there's an argument to be made that it IS too big of a bleed and shouldn't be printed.
This is definitely playable in the right deck as a weak Ethereal Guidance that accelerates you from 4 to 5 mana.
DeleteOn its own, I'm not seeing a mechanical or thematic through line on these two abilities. That said, I can imagine the set where a cycle of these makes sense because the set also needs late-game acceleration (so, it's a battlecruiser set) and enchantments or auras (so it's a battlecruiser enchantment set… which is believable.)
Still, I might rather see:
Flatland Surge
{W}
Enchantment - Aura - Uncommon
Enchant Land
Enchanted land has "{2}{W}{W}, {T}: Creatures you control get +2/+1 until end of turn. Activate this ability only as a sorcery."
Mire of Madness B
ReplyDeleteEnchant land
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, name a nonland card. Target player reveals his or her hand and discards all cards with that name.
B, Sacrifice enchanted land: Put CARDNAME on the top of your library.
Spicy! I like the feel of this, but castings after the first are pretty brutal. "You can't draw cards. At the end of your turn, pay BB, sacrifice a land: choose and discard a nonland card from target player's hand" is hard for me to evaluate.
DeleteI *think* I figured out how to make this work:
DeleteMire of Madness B
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant land you control
When CARDNAME enters or leaves the battlefield, name a nonland card. Target player reveals his or her hand and discards all cards with that name.
B: Put enchanted land on top of its owner's library.
I think ETB+LTB+put-on-top could probably be the basis for a cycle; and/or hint at lands with their own ETB or sac triggers.
This is a neat effect and I like this as a landfall enabler. Perhaps a bit too powerful to have another copy of a cabal therapy effect in Legacy?
DeleteThis is quite strong alongside Daze or Fetchlands, and the latter exist in Modern as well. I wonder if there's a costing cast that keeps this guessing game playable but not tormenting alongside ubiquitous Gitaxian Probe? What if it we just went the Thoughtseize route and said "Pay 2 life and name a nonland card."?
DeleteCabal Therapy swaps its flashback cost from "sack a creature" to "{B} and put a land on top of your library," where you choose to re-draw the first time you cast it, but that doesn't matter because you'll most often be re-casting it the same turn.
DeleteI'm not sufficiently convinced this should be an aura rather than a sorcery. Maybe:
Mire of Madness B
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant land you control
When CARDNAME becomes attached or unattached, name a nonland card. Target player reveals his or her hand and discards all cards with that name.
The difference is subtle, but it's focused on the land and your ability to bounce or sack your own land yourself.
Not sure if this sucks or not, but:
ReplyDeleteHazoret's Oasis {R}
Enchantment - Aura - Common
Enchant Desert
Enchanted Desert has "{t}: Add {R}{R} to your mana pool."
When Hazoret's Oasis enters the battlefield, it deals damage to target creature or player equal to the number of Auras you control.
Au contrare, a Wild Growth that pings an opponent's mana dork might be too good!
DeleteAh! "Sucks" = "not good enough to play".
DeleteI agree -- do you think it'd be worth playing if it just made the desert capable of {R} (fixing) instead of {R}{R} (ramping)? I'm fine w/ it mostly being playable if you have a few other auras (maybe other oases, maybe not).
Yes - I love that idea, it reminds me a little of the Magemark cycle from Guildpact where if you got a lot of them alongside cards like Fists of the Ironwood and Galvanic Arc they stacked into pretty powerful effects.
DeleteCool, thanks for the help. Official card, then:
DeleteHazoret's Oasis {R}
Enchantment -- Aura (Common)
Enchant Desert
Enchanted Desert has "{t}: Add {R} to your mana pool."
When Hazoret's Oasis enters the battlefield, it deal s damage to target creature or player equal to the number of Auras you control.
You can upgrade one of your deserts to be able to produce red mana, provided you have the red mana to cast it, and need that mana more than the desert's {T} ability.
DeleteMore importantly, this rewards you for playing a lot of auras with damage. I'm just not sure why it cares about both deserts and auras. Why not…
Stinging Mirage
Sorcery (common)
~ deals damage to target creature or player equal to the number of Deserts you control.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDid this a while back.
DeleteI'll base my submission on the red design out of that cycle:
DeleteLand Feud 2R
Enchantment- Aura (Uncommon)
Enchant land
Whenever enchanted land becomes tapped, CARDNAME deals 3 damage to that land's controller and 2 damage to each other player.
A red I'll-gladly-hurt-myself-to-hurt-you-a-little-more Contaminated Ground. Seems fine, given red's loss of space in land destruction. I could see this in a supplemental multiplayer set, or one with a mechanic where red likes dealing itself damage.
DeleteSplintered Terrain (RG)
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant land
Whenever enchanted land becomes tapped, put a token that's a copy of it onto the battlefield. Exile that token at the beginning of the next end step.
Now this is awesome. What a cool concept, great card!
DeleteWow, yes, nice!
DeleteMuch approve. Land tokens in general are a great idea.
DeleteAt face-value, this just lets our basic or dual land tap to make an extra mana, but Jenny will find more interesting things to enchant, utility lands that you'd love to get more copies of.
DeleteAlso combos with the set mechanic of "whenever a land you control LTB…"
My only wish is that we find a template that allows man-lands enchanted with this to double attack.
Plains Harvest W
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant Plains
Enchant land has "T, Sacrifice Plains Harvest: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control."
Is this too powerful an effect for (essentially) a WW sorcery? Does being able to activate this at instant speed make combat math too convoluted? I think this is probably borderline on both counts.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAt rare, White already gets Collective Effort for 3. The fact that it's an on the board trick also helps prevent it from being too big a blowout, but it could be annoying to constantly calculate if they're going to use it.
DeleteThat said, I could see "Enchant Basic Plains" or "W, t, sac" to activate. Or activate only at sorcery speed.
Mountain Eruption R
Enchantment-Aura (r)
Enchant Basic Mountain
Enchanted land has "T, Sacrifice Mountain Eruption: Add RRR to your mana pool."
The rest of the cycle is Island Erosion, Forest Trail, and Swamp Dredging
DeleteForest Logging?
DeleteI really like the flavor of both cards by the way; I neglected to mention it up above but the name and the effect really tie together nicely.
Forest Logging was 100% a first draft of the name, but I couldn't think of a good effect that didn't involve also sacrificing the forest.
DeleteForest Trail G
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant Basic Forest
Enchanted Land has "T, Sacrifice Forest Trail: Search through your library for a land card and put it onto the battlefield. Shuffle your library"
Island Erosion U
Enchantment Aura (R)
Enchant Basic Island
Enchanted Land has "t, sacrifice Island Erosion: Return target permanent to its owner's hand."
So the idea with this mechanic is that you pay (most of) the cost up-front, ideally on turn 1, and then you can just tap the one land when you need the effect? That's pretty neat.
DeleteI think all the cards in the cycle show your idea off well, except for the green one. First of all, the green design isn't reactive or contextual; it's meant to be cracked on turn 2 in almost every case. Second, it ramps too well. With just 2 of these and 3 forests in hand, it's easy to ramp to 5 mana on turn 3. (An ETBT clause would help but the effect still strikes me as very pushed.)
I mean, 5 mana by turn 3 is true of having 2x one mana elfs or birds, and those don't have "echo". I could see the land entering the battlefield tapped though, that makes more of a trade off. It's also reactive and contextual in a set with landfall, which is probably where a rare land Aura cycle wants to be.
DeleteThese are effectively seals, but with the aura subtype. And they all effectively cost one mana to sacrifice, which lets you split up the cost puzzleknot- implement- or spellbomb-style.
DeleteI can't begin to imagine why these are rare. Like some are too good, but just make them weaker.
It doesn't matter that they require a specific land type to enchant, because you need that land's mana to cast them—except obv that it requires a minimum of basic land in Constructed.
I imagine the set that wants these counting auras for other reasons (rather than global enchantments, in which case they'd use seals). Fair.
I think the problem with land auras (or fortifications) is making it matter what land they go on, rather than just basically being an enchantment with an extra cost of "1" to activate. One solution is to affect the mana produced, but once you've *got* a land, you don't need mana fixing so much. So I'm trying an aura that uses that in a different way.
ReplyDeleteNaya Genju
2G
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Land
If enchanted land could produce green mana, it's a 3/3 green elemental creature with trample. The same is true for white and lifelink, and blue and flying.
I'm not sure this is balanced right, it's too fiddly, but I wanted something where you might genuinely hesitate over which land to put it on in different situations. Which basic land gives the best effect? Which do you need less? Is it worth using your dual or tri land when you can't use it for mana as easily?
Do the rules work? I think "could produce" is defined, and the idea is, any of those conditions makes it into a creature, but it gets the ability word from all the ones that apply.
Cool idea! I really like this, and your analysis seems correct.
DeleteMy only nitpick with this is the templating (and the name-- this looks like a Bant Genju to me). What about...
DeleteEnchanted land is a 3/3 Elemental creature. It's still a land.
Enchanted land has trample if it could produce green mana, lifelink if it could produce white mana, and flying if it could produce blue mana.
"Could produce" is definitely a well-defined game term-- see e.g. Reflecting Pool. Just be aware that e.g. Shimmering Grotto and Cavern of Souls count as producing all colors of mana.
Love this, Jack (and Ipaulsen's templating)!
DeleteYou also got me thinking that effects like we see on Boseiju, Who Shelters All could make for relevant land auras. In fact, I'd say the space of effects that make sense to put on lands but are generally too expensive or too much value is where we need to look for our next generation of land auras.
Thank you!
DeleteYes, I agree with IPaulsen's suggestion.
I don't know how much you gain turning effects like Boseju into an aura though. I agree, I'd like riders of that size. But most spells have some generic mana, and that means that land auras with "if you spend this mana on blah, then blah" are not much different to a non-aura with a tap effect "target blah, has blah".
Even if it only counted spells you spend mana on the coloured cost, you just slap the aura on your most common land, or your best dual, there's no trade-off to consider, and little worry about "should I wait for another land".
Home Turf 2WG
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant Land
Creatures you control get +1/+1 while the enchanted land is untapped.
2WG, Tap enchanted land: Draw a card for each creature you control. You may activate this ability only during your precombat main phase.
So this is an Anthem effect for 1 mana more, and you can pay and turn it off for a turn to draw loads of cards. I was expecting to find something wrong with this, but it seems surprisingly well-balanced and could be a lot of fun. I'd definitely enjoy playing it in Commander decks that generate a lot of board presence.
DeleteI'm a bit leery of the templating on the second ability, but I see why it had to be that way. Nice work.
I'll grant this card is vulnerable to both land and enchantment destruction, but those are commonly ignored lanes of removal for something that can draw you multiple cards every turn.
DeleteCompare to this:
Home Turf {2}{W}{G}
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant Land
{2}{W}{G}, Tap enchanted land: Draw two cards. You may activate this ability only during your precombat main phase and only if you control two or more creatures.
That seems printable, since it's a rare that costs {5} for two cards each turn, and then only after a {4} investment. Comparable to Emmessi Tome. Yours can and often will draw many more cards.
And when you're not drawing cards, it's pumping your team. Why? Why make the player choose between the pump and the card advantage?
This could be a card:
Home Turf {W}{G}
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant Land
Enchanted land has "{T}: Creatures you control get +1/+1 until EOT."
But I don't see much benefit from cramming those two together.
Nesting grounds 1G
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant Forest
Whenever mana produced by enchanted land is used to cast a creature spell, that creature enters the battlefield with an extra +1/+1 counter.
Throwback in a later set that uses this as a punisher mechanic:
DeleteLead Poisoning BB
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant Land
Whenever mana produced by enchanted land is used to cast a creature spell, that creature enters the battlefield with an extra -1/-1 counter.
Other riffs:
DeleteMystic Academy U
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant Island
Whenever mana produced by enchanted land is used to cast an instant or sorcery spell, Scry 1.
This trigger is a great idea :)
DeleteNice job finding underexplored design space. These are cool effects that create interesting decisions.
DeleteMirror Magic 2UURR
DeleteEnchantment - Aura (M)
Enchant Land
Whenever mana produced by enchanted land is used to cast an instant or sorcery spell, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
Mirror Magic is sweet.
DeleteThese are good examples of the design space I was thinking about when I mentioned Boseiju, Who Shelters All above.
First Bank of Ravnica W/B
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Aura
Enchant Basic land
Enchanted land is a Plains and a Swamp in addition to its other types.
Enchanted land has "Whenever a creature attacks you or a planeswalker you control, as long as this land is untapped, create a colorless Gold artifact token with "Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.""
I would use "Whenever a creature attacks you or a planeswalker you control, as long as enchanted land is untapped," just to make the template a little easier to read.
DeleteIs the basic land restriction just to limit the power in general, or is there a specific interaction you're trying to avoid? Would it be ugly to say "Enchant Basic land or Gate"?
Strike the first ability and the 'basic' requirement. This is a neat alternative way for a land to produce mana.
DeleteRiffing:
DeleteFirst Bank of Ravnica {W}{B}
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant land
Tap enchanted land: Create a colorless Gold artifact token with "Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."
Basic Land restriction because Ravnica is a city plane, so it needs undeveloped land to build a new bank. Easily gotten rid of.
DeleteAs far as Jay's riff, I like that, but I put this in Orzhov strictly for flavor reasons (I've been developing Rav3 in my head for six weeks now). Strictly mechanically, that makes sense centered in U, and as a gold card in pretty much any color other than white.
Er, late but anyhow:
ReplyDeleteActive Peaks 1R
Aura - Enchant Land
Enchanted land is a Mountain.
When ~ enters the battlefield, it deals 2 damage to Target creature or player.
Continuing off Spreading Seas.
I think this effect should exist in blue red and black.
Hmm. Yeah. Cool. Instead of drawing you a card, it gives you a more red one-mana bonus in the form of a Shock.
DeleteChanging land types might seem to illusory for red, but the precedent in Blood Moon combined with red's need for alternatives to land destruction provide a lot of justification.
I'm seeing a theme where the design's main effect could go on an enchantment, and so we add "if enchanted land is untapped" and/or something to modify the land's mana production abilities to justify that effect appearing on a land aura.
ReplyDeleteBut the choice between using a land for mana or an effect isn't a terribly interesting one. It adds tension—and a game does need tension—but Magic is loaded with tension even when you're just playing commons from a core set, just the way cards interact. It doesn't need much more, and it doesn't need the kind of weak tension where the choice is pretty clear 90% of the time, and the player just feels bad they can't have both sides.
I'm really pleased with this challenge. I asked you to tackle a very hard challenge, and as a group I think you did a lot of good exploration on the subject, helping us better understand the limits of land auras, as well as finding some promising design space. Well done, Artisans!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the good challenge and feedback, as usual!
DeleteMaybe someday the necessary templating for auras will be less incredibly, incredibly unwieldy. For many interesting and relatively-straightforward effects, the amount of text it takes is enough to push towards a sorcery, which is just unfortunate, in my opinion.
ReplyDelete