The Frontier settlers have travelled too far and dug too deep. Giant buried sandwurms sense the disturbances, and emerge to find a world of tasty morsels. Knowing that the wurms could strike at any time, the settlers hope to strike it rich and leave as quickly as they came. Mechanics include Wurmfood: the high-end monster mechanic, Gold and Dig: to build up your mana for Wurmfood, and Bounty: to highlight those who work outside the law in a dangerous world.
Unassuming Buffalo 3G
Creature - Ox (C)
Wurmfood 8 (8, sacrifice this: put an 8/8 colorless wurm creature token onto the battlefield.)
2/4
Dwarven Milita 4WW
Creature - Dwarf Warrior (C)
Flash
Dig 2 (2, Discard this card: Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a land card. Put that card into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.)
3/6
Bank Robber 3R
Creature - Viashino Rogue (C)
Haste
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, gain a gold counter. (Gold counters may be spent as colorless mana.)
2/3
Dust Storm 4RR
Sorcery (C)
Creatures target player controls can't block this turn.
Dig 2 (2, Discard this card: Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a land card. Put that card into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.)
Shake Down 2U
Instant (C)
Return target creature to its owner's hand. You gain two gold counters. (Gold counters may be spent as colorless mana.)
Saguaro Striker 1GG
Creature - Treefolk Warrior (C)
Whenever ~ deals damage to a creature, ~ deals that much damage to that creature's controller.
3/2
Magpie Spellslinger 3U
Creature - Bird Wizard (C)
Flying
Whenever ~ attacks, you may have target creature get -2/-0 until end of turn.
1/2
Coin Snatcher 2B
Creature - Devil Rogue (C)
Deathtouch
Whenever a creature dealt damage by ~ this turn dies, gain a gold counter. (Gold counters may be spent as colorless mana.)
1/3
Sheriff's Deputy 1W
Creature - Human Scout (C)
Bounty - When ~ enters the battlefield, you may place a bounty token on target creature. Whenever a creature an opponent controls with a bounty counter on it dies, you may gain 2 life.
2/2
Hitman 2B
Creature - Human Warrior (C)
When ~ enters the battlefield, target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn
2/1
Hired Outlaw 3B
Creature - Devil Rogue (U)
Bounty - When ~ enters the battlefield, you may place a bounty token on target creature. Whenever a creature an opponent controls with a bounty counter on it dies, you may have target player discard a card.
Pay 1 gold: Put a bounty counter on target creature.
2/2
Master Spellslinger 3WW
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Whenever a creature you control attacks, you may pay 2. If you do, tap target creature.
3/4
Coyote Pack XGG
Creature - Wolf (U)
Trample
~ enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.
0/0
Greater Sand Wurm 5RG
Creature - Wurm (R)
Trample
Other wurm creatures you control get +2/+2 and have trample.
Non-wurm creatures you control have Wurmfood 8 (8, sacrifice this creature: put an 8/8 colorless wurm creature token onto the battlefield.)
8/8
This pitch really brought out the "battlecruiser magic" potential that we saw in round three. The themes came through loud and clear! On the flip side, although all of these mechanics are interesting and support the main mode of play well, many also seemed to want some tweaking.
We've talked about Dig on the blog plenty. I'm still a fan on this mechanic as a fixer and to make it easier to hit big drops.
Wurmfood is fine in terms of gameplay, but the flavor is bizarre. Why is "tastiness" a creature ability? Why is having your buffalo eaten by wurms a positive thing? Wurms are great as a main thematic element, and the wurm lord is excellent, but there needs to be a mechanical realization that makes more flavor sense.
Gold counters are solid, of course, but I'm in favor of a version that does something other than sac for colorless. Otherwise, they're just anemic Eldrazi Spawn. Devon's original "life payments" version might not be the best fit here; is there anything else which would make more sense? (Jay suggested letting them produce any color of mana, but I think we want ramp, not fixing, to support the battlecruiser theme.)
Reviews were mixed on Bounty. It's moderately parasitic, but has enough out-of-set synergies that it's still viable. I'm not convinced that it's fun enough to preclude using +1/+1 or -1/-1 counters. And again, the flavor fit is pretty good, but not ideal; why do you get effects like lifegain or discard as bounty instead of gold?
All in all, I think this pitch has lots of mechanically solid ideas, and would like to see them developed into better flavor matches. We liked the way it evoked a world of big monsters, big riches, and lawlessness.
I also suggested having gold produce mana of any color in the project forum. While I'm not absolutely sure it should be that way, if we do go that way I think it would help a new style of play where you begin with 2-color in the early game but have lots of good things you can optionally do in the late game if you have access to different colors.
ReplyDeleteHere's some ideas for using multicolor gold.
DeleteReveal cards like this:
Warning Condor 4R
2/2
Flying, first strike
Revelation - W, Permanently Reveal ~ from you hand: Target creature gains first strike until end of turn.
"When I was wandering the wasteland, the condor appeared in my vision. It told me of the battle to come, what I must do."
Unless you are a WR deck, you need gold counters (or a splash land) to make use of both parts of the card. Gold counters can be a reward worth hunting for during the game.
There could be a lot of legendary gunslingers like this, to form a contrast with whatever huge monsters we have. Decks can build up to Wurms/Eldrazi, these cowboys, or both.
Lone Ranger 4GWU (Rare)
Legendary Angel Soldier
5/5
First strike, lifelink
Revelation - 3W, Permanently reveal ~ from your hand: ~ deals 5 damage to target attacking creature. (Lifelink applies)
"The drifter saved us in that instant, then rode away. But I know I'll meet him again some day."
You could conceive playing the above in a White deck without all those colors, because it's like a spell card just with the revelation effect. But if you gain gold counters (probably through combat damage triggers) then you can cast it. Getting gold becomes a challenge with a reward.
If we go the Wurm route, and presuming the Wurms aren't colorless like Eldrazi, it would actually help the drafting logistics of battlecruiser magic if the gold counters can fix colors as well. There could be a common cycle of huge-ass Wurms in every color; that ensures that everyone who wants to ramp with gold have something to ramp into.
Ivory Dunewurm 8W
Creature - Wurm
9/14
Landnom (Sacrifice two lands you control: Return ~ from the graveyard to your hand.)
Exile a land card from your graveyard: gain 3 life.
Primal Dunewurm 8G
Creature - Wurm
12/10
Landnom (Sacrifice two lands you control: Return ~ from the graveyard to your hand.)
Exile two land cards from your graveyard: ~ gains trample until end of turn.
Landnom is a Commander mechanic/Jarad rip-off, of course.
It's pretty awesome that Chah has a mechanical justification for gold counters producing any color of mana, because mine was purely taxonomic: "Gold" means multicolored in Magic and it feels wrong to me that Gold counters wouldn't produce multiple colors of mana. Chah's idea not only gives that change a purpose, but also gives Frontier a huge distinction from Rise of the Eldrazi. Instead of less colors, our battlecruisers are more colors. Nice.
DeleteHere's some possible places to go with bounty:
ReplyDeleteBounty Hunter 4BB
Creature - Human Assassin
2B, Permanently reveal Bounty Hunter from your hand: Put a bounty counter on target creature.
When Bounty Hunter enters the battlefield, destroy target creature with a bounty counter on it.
Expert Tracker 3G
Creature - Human Scout
2/3
T: Target creature with a bounty counter on it must block target creature this turn if able.
Warden 2W
Creature - Human Soldier
Whenever a creature deals damage to you, put a bounty counter on it.
Whenever a creature with a bounty counter on it dies, you gain 2 life.
Smoke out the Bandits 1R
Instant
Put a bounty counter on up to three target creatures. This turn, each creature with a bounty counter on it must attack if able.
It would also be possible to tie the bounty mechanic with gold counters.
Corrupt Mayor 2B
Creature - Vampire Advisor
Bounty - When ~ enters the battlefield, put a bounty counter on target tapped creature. (When it dies with a bounty counter on it, you gain a gold counter with "sacrifice this: add 1 mana of any color to your mana pool.")
Country Sheriff 3W
Delete2/2 Human Knight
When ~ or a creature it's exiled under dies, put two 1/1 white Citizen tokens OTB.
Bounty (When ~ dies, exile it under target creature.)
I'm tempted to pretend I'm kidding because this is so similar to haunt, but I can't. I'm serious. I would also consider:
The Dooly Brothers 2B
2/2 Goblin Rogue
Bounty (When ~ dies, exile it under a creature you don't control.)
When a creature ~ is exiled under dies, its controller discards a card.
I also like Chah's bounty supporters. Reconfigured:
Bounty Hunter 2BB
Creature - Human Assassin U
When Bounty Hunter enters the battlefield, destroy target creature with a bounty on it.
2/2
Expert Tracker 3G
Creature - Human Scout R
2/3
T: ~ fights target tapped creature. If it dies and triggers a Bounty effect, copy that effect.
And you can have a spell version:
Outlaw's Path 2G
Sorcery
Search your library for a land card and put it OTB.
Bounty (Exile ~ under a creature you don't control. When it dies, play a copy of ~)
I agree, Wurmfood seems a bit off, but absolutely worth working on. What if, instead of having the creature sacrifice itself and get eaten, the wurms were attracted to the sounds the creature makes?
ReplyDeleteUnassuming Buffalo 3G
Creature - Ox (C)
WurmbaitA 4 (Whenever another nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a bait counter on ~. When ~ has 4 or more bait counters, sacrifice it and put an 8/8 colorless Wurm creature token onto the battlefield.)
Now, instead of having the power of tastiness, the creature's ability is that it attracts the wurm away from the villagers. And, because the wurm comes from fulfilling a condition i.e. enough noise, it feels less like an ability the creature has, and more like an environmental effect of the setting.
However, this implementation requires counters, and the setting is already using bounty counters, so perhaps instead of hearing enough noise to attract the wurm, the wurm simply appears when there are enough creatures making noise.
Unassuming Buffalo 3G
Creature - Ox (C)
WurmbaitB 4 (Whenever you control 4 or more nontoken creatures, sacrifice ~ and put an 8/8 colorless Wurm creature token onto the battlefield.)
This version, I think, has less space to work with, since it's involuntary and relatively costless. It can also cascade in a way I don't like, with you dropping your 4th Ox and getting 4 wurms. The one thing it has going for it is the concise wording, which would let you put Wurmbait on creatures with other abilities.
Another version, with a cost, would be better in most ways.
Unassuming Buffalo 3G
Creature - Ox (C)
WurmbaitC {3G} - Sacrifice ~, put an 8/8 colorless Wurm creature token onto the battlefield. Use this ability only if you control 4 or more nontoken-creatures.
The reason I made the mana cost 3G, is just to make it clear that the number of creatures necessary to make the ability active doesn't have to be the same as the cost to activate it. One or the other should probably be constant though, probably the minimum number of creatures.
The non-token clause is there to make sure wurms are not attracted to the sound of other wurms. That would be silly. Everyone knows wurms are very territorial.
I like Wurmfood because it realistically lets you put lots of potential 8/8s in your deck without worrying about being stuck with uncastable cards.
DeleteBut at the same time, it is very funky. Also, people would probably want to see their awesome fatties on an actual card, not just a token or token card, which is the biggest strike against it in my opinion.
Based on Jay's Gamble mechanic there could be a mechanic like:
Unassuming Wurm Bait 3G
Creature - Ox
2/4
When this dies, you may prospect for Wurms. (To prospect for Wurms, pay X. If you do, look at the top X cards of your library. You may reveal a Wurm card from those cards and put it into your hand. Put the remaining cards on the bottom of your library at random.)
We need a more suiting word, but the reason I suggest prospect is this:
Land Prospector 2R
Creature - Human Scout
2/3
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to an opponent, you may prospect for a Mountain. (To prospect for a Mountain, pay X. If you do, look at the top X cards of your library. You may reveal a Mountain card from those cards and put it into your hand. Put the remaining cards on the bottom of your library at random.)
Wurmfood 4BB
DeleteSorcery (unc)
Destroy target creature with power and toughness each 3 or less. Put a 6/6 black wurm creature token OTB.
I would like to put forth the idea of Hellions instead of Wurms. I think they make more sense as "creatures that live in the sand, waiting to pop up and eat things".
DeleteWe should definitely consider Hellions too.
DeleteHowever, these Wurms are meant to be like the ones in Dune, and I think the fact that they're not like conventional Magic Wurms would be a plus. Having a different definition of things (Wurms in this world are majestic, colossal sand-dwellers) might help make this world feel more distinct.
Pretty sure we just use both. Por que no?
DeleteIt depends on what we want out of these giant monsters.
DeleteIf we want the Wurms (or the Hellions) to be the face of the set, we would want to find our own spin on Wurms (or the Hellions) and make them really different from Wurms in other sets. They would be like awe-inspiring, living symbols of the desert environment. We could work out their distinctive look, and what they mean to this plane. They would represent the set.
If we go that route, we should do only Wurms or only Hellions. Otherwise, it would be like doing the Titan cycle in Rise of the Eldrazi; we don't want two similar things blurring the focus of the set. Another example would be a set about a world dominated by warring Dragon Wizard-kings - we don't want to blur that theme by also having Drake Overlords.
Another direction would be to use Wurms just to show that this is a dangerous plane, filled with all sort of giant crazy hostile monsters. In that case, it could make sense to do both.
However, I suspect that we will be working to figure out a mechanic for the fatties to make Battlecruiser Magic play well. That mechanic is probably going to turn into a distinctive trademark of the race that it's put on, like Annihilator. (Although it might not.) If it turns out to be that way, I'm for putting the focus on that particular race (like Sandwurms) and making them feel special, and I would avoid putting similar things like Hellions in the same set.
If wurms are mountains, hellions are volcanos. Hellions burst out of the ground, destroying an entire area and then disappearing again. Not only does that quality feel non-majestic, but their association with fire and explosions feels out of place in a Western setting.
DeleteI vote Wurm.
Burrowing Greatwurm 6GG
Creature - Wurm (R)
Trample
{8}: Shuffle ~ into your library. At the beginning of your next upkeep reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal ~, then put it onto the battlefield. It gains haste and gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each land card revealed in this way. Then put the rest of the cards revealed this way on the bottom of your library in any order.
5/7
Good call, Chah. I agree.
DeleteI would argue, Devin, that Hellions are more terrifying and thus a better villain. That said, I Love your Burrowing Greatwurm (as a single rare).
Re: Gold counters. It's super parasitic, but if combined with a "Wealth" supertype (see Snow), and you allow Gold counters to be treated as a Wealth source, it gives a different design space than Eldrazi Spawn.
ReplyDeleteShade Thief 2BB
Creature - Shade Rogue
1/1
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, gain that many Gold counters (Gold counters may be spent as colorless mana from a Wealth source)
1$: ~ gets +2/+2 until end of turn. ($ is one mana from a Wealth source)
Yes, these kinds of mechanics that parasitically reference Gold counters (like Devon Rule's Hire mechanic from GDS2) could make Gold feel different from Eldrazi Spawn.
DeleteUsing a new mana symbol based off of the dollar sign is a neat idea!
As for Devon Rule's Hire, there were Mercenary cards with a Hireling mechanic (as well as all sorts of other ways to reference Gold counters):
Callous Enforcer (Uncommon)
2BB
Creature - Vampire Mercenary
2/2
Hireling (This creature enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter for each gold counter spent to cast it.)
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you may destroy target creature with less power than CARDNAME's power.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/129d
Maybe there could be a "hire a mercenary" strategy that makes use of Gold counters in an aggro way. It would provide an alternative path to ramp decks that use Gold for fatties.
This submission is a perfect example of what I said before about a "something else set with a frontier world backdrop." it's not at all a top down Wild West concept so I'm happy to ignore its lack of trains, guns, native americans and saloons. it's a boomtown setting with gold and land wurms. It translates well to Magic. Onto the specific designs, I love the Wurmfood 8 mechancic and Dig's okay if unexciting. I don't like Bounty or Gold counters at all in this submission. I also don't like seeing a common bounce effect or "creatures target player can't block this turn" in the same set as 8/8 tokens. Also, where are the walls? Why are there Dwarves and Devils in Frontier land? And Where are the play strategies for the set? That's my first impression.
ReplyDeleteWurmcall (X, Sacrifice this permanent: Put an X/X green Wurm creature token onto the battlefield. X can't be less than 6.)
Here's an idea to tweak Wurmfood 8 so that it's a more streamlined effect with less "tasty" flavor. This implementation does two things I think are better than the original. It makes the wurmcaller a conspirator with the Wurm, an adherent, worshipper, etc. Sacrifice still makes sense without "tastiness" if the wurmcaller would gladly die to summon its deity. I like that X can't be less than 6 because it removes the variable from the Keyword and it also has no upper limit. The one-upmanship of this choice could make for a very exciting set. "Do I make a 6/6. or try to hold off a bit to trump his 7/7?" A bunch of 8/8's on the battlefield might create board stalls, but 6/6's, 7/7's and 10/10's don't create so many stalls. Wurmcalling (Time Spiral) which is the namesake of the keyword, and Baru, Fist of Krosa (Future Sight) both also make X/X green Wurms, btw.
As much as I like the idea of farm animals getting consumed by giant wurms, not having the Monsters show up on cards, and just tokens, does seem less enjoyable. I've been thinking of other ways to represent buried Monsterns/Riches, and wanted to run this idea past you all:
ReplyDeleteBuried Sandwurm 5GG
Creature - Wurm
Buried 4G (Exile this face down from your hand underneath target creature [you control?]. When that creature dies, you may cast this for its buried cost)
7/7
Buried Gold R
Sorcery
Buried R (Exile this face down from your hand underneath target creature [you control?]. When that creature dies, you may cast this for its buried cost.)
Gain one gold. If you cast this from exile, gain three gold instead.
Buried Gold could be concepted to be reminiscent of Black Lotus to excite people.
ReplyDeleteThis could also be used to represent Bounties. If you play Buried Gold card under an opponents creature, then kill it to get the gold, it would feel like a reward for doing something.
Overall, I'm not sure how flavorful putting a Wurm under a creature card is. I suggested something similar for Bradley Rose's set, and the concept for that was a Shadow creature that lurks under a person, impersonating that person's shadow. It could also feel like a Xenomorph from the Alien series. But it doesn't feel so much like something buried to me.
I'm not sold on my version of Buried either. I looked up at the other comments and saw that Buried was actually quite similar to Jay's version of Bounty. It probably works better with that sort of flavor. 'Shadow' creatures that lurk unseen until their targets die actually sounds pretty cool in the right setting.
DeleteAnother possibility: Buried Treasure
DeleteI think it needs more things to make it feel different from Zendikar + Rise of the Eldrazi.
ReplyDeleteRampage, Bushido, First Strike, these mechanics all scream "I'm good at fighting other creatures." But their known quantities, there isn't any variance.
ReplyDeleteThe Frontier isn't just ripe with natural resources like gold and land, there are rich, nearly-untapped mana sources. Wizards use specially designed wands to help channel large amounts of mana in powerful, precise bursts.
Twinwand Crackshot 1RR
Creature - Human Wizard (C)
Firefight (When this creature blocks or is blocked, you may reveal a card from your hand. If you do, ~ gains +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is that cards converted mana cost.)
1/2
This ability might be too strong without a cost. A simple difference could be:
Twinwand Crackshot 1RR
Creature - Human Wizard (C)
First strike
Firefight (When this creature blocks or is blocked, you may discard a card from your hand. If you do, ~ gains +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is that cards converted mana cost.)
1/2
I added first strike to this version both because it's sweet, and because it allows Firefight to make trades rather than one-for-twos.
Interesting, Devin. Other variations to consider:
DeleteFirefight (Whenever you cast a spell, ~ gets +X/+0 until EOT, where X is that spell's CMC)
Firefight (Whenever you cast a spell, ~ gets +X/+0 until EOT, where X is the number of colored mana symbols in its mana cost)
Firefight (Whenever you cast a spell, ~ gets +X/+0 until EOT, where X is the number of colored mana symbols in its mana cost that match ~'s colors.)
Firefight 2 (When this creature blocks or becomes blocked, you may permanently reveal an unrevealed card from your hand. If you do, ~ gains +2/+0 until end of turn.
Here's a version that includes a mana cost and keeps a single spell from tiggering every creature with Firefight you control.
DeleteSpellshot X (X: This creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X equals the converted mana cost of target spell you control.)