Weekend Art ChallengeClick through to see this weekend's art and the design requirements for your card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which I will try to provide, and which everyone is welcome to provide as well.
If you choose, you may use that feedback to revise your submission any number of times. I will post and review the most recent submission from each designer some time on Monday, life permitting. To help ensure I recreate your design accurately, please use CARDNAME instead of ~ and don't use the {} symbol images in your submissions.
This weekend, your challenge is to imagine that Ravnica hasn't been created and that you have been tasked with finding the mechanical heart for a city-plane. Your design must effuse "city" and the more you can make your card feel perfect for a bustling city plane and/or make the fact that the plane is one giant city salient to the set, the better.
Glimpse of the City (R)
ReplyDeleteInstant
1U
Put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield, then return it to your hand.
Sometimes you just need a quick peek.
This card is in reference to the small yellow area in the bottom left quadrant of the picture. It looks like maybe a pair of wizards are blinking in to see what's happening in town.
Hmm, I suppose that's less broken than Flash since it doesn't work with Protean Hulk, but it is still pretty good with Thragtusk.
DeleteIf it's printable, I like it.
Does this effect feel red to anyone else?
DeleteThis could be argued blue or red. I lean toward red.
DeleteBazaar of Wonders (R)
ReplyDeleteLand
T: add 1 to your mana pool
6, T, discard a card: choose a card you own from outside the game that has the same type as the discarded card and put it into your hand.
Making it a 1:1 exchange was smart. Otherwise, it would have been a 'free,' repeatable tutor. I wonder if matching on type is safer/funner than matching on CMC.
DeleteCathedral Square (uncommon)
ReplyDeleteLand - District
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add W to your mana pool.
Community (Whenever you cast a spell, put a 0/1 white Citizen creature token onto the battlefield. It has "This creature can't attack or block.")
Feedback welcome.
The district land type is intriguing.
DeleteDoes Cathedral Square need to produce white and does the token need to be white? Could they both be colorless? This card is Very Strong even colorless.
Is Community something we'd want to put on enough cards to justify keywording? It might be, if the set has some way to use large populations, but it also implies a slower Limited format. Maybe this city set wants to be slow and reward quantity over quality.
It's also worth asking if the "can't attack or block" rider is worth it. It saves us from making large creatures without trample irrelevant, but it also makes Citizens strictly worse than Spawn on multiple axes. Citizen token serve no apparent purpose on their own. Sacrifice effects and Chorus of Might can give them value, but I'm actively sad that Glorious Anthem can't.
Cathedral Square (uncommon)
DeleteLand - District
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add W to your mana pool.
Community (Whenever you cast a white spell, put a 0/1 colorless Citizen creature token onto the battlefield with It has "This creature can't block.")
This solves the gumming up the board/ easy chump block problem, and still keeps the flavor that I believe evan was going for here:
when a creature attacks, the normal citizens would run for the hills.
But i agree with Jay that with a glorious anthem, the citizens should be able to rise up and attack. Best of both worlds here?
I like that this taps for white as it makes you think that its a cycle. my slight change normalizes the citizen token to make it able to be put on cards through the whole block in all colors.
Community would be an ability word here i guess, and we could change it to match the color? thoughts?? could lead to cards like this:
Popular Vote 3W
Sorcery
Exile target creature your opponent controls as long as you control more citizens then that player.
In my 5-minute brainstorm for this hypothetical set, I tried to think of city flavor that Ravnica didn't do well. One was different parts of town, which the district tech is trying to hint at. I honestly haven't given a lot of thought on how districts interact or what cares about districts.
DeleteThe other is huge crowds of people. The most notable thing about a city is that it's a very densely populated area. Ravnica didn't really get this feeling across. Even populate doesn't really work well for this flavor, despite the name, because you're usually generating birds and rhinos and oozes and horrors instead of *people*.
What cities need are civilians - people who aren't interested in getting involved in conflicts but can be useful or get in the way, depending on your purposes. Since civilians are noncombatants, why let them fight?
You're right that these are strictly worse than Eldrazi Spawn, and that's by design. We want players to get to big populations fairly quickly so they can do things with their huge numbers of creatures. If all it takes is a Glorious Anthem to turn them into a board-crushing army, that requires their numbers to be toned down significantly. And then it's just not a giant crowd of people anymore, eh? However, I could totally see an effect like this:
Army Conscription (uncommon)
2WW
Sorcery
Exile any number of target creatures you control. Put that many 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens into play.
Districts being colorless might be interesting and flavorful. I'll think on that.
I would argue that if a creature does none of the things that creatures do (attack, block, use abilities), that it's not a creature and you're better off concepting the masses as something else.
DeleteCrowded Streets 3U
Enchantment-Aura (cmn)
~ ETB with a citizen counter on it.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a citizen counter on ~.
1, Remove X citizen counters from ~: Target creature gets -X/-0 until EOT.
Sometimes the thing that creatures "do" is just "be a creature." Cards like Darksteel Relic exist just to be an artifact, why can't citizens exist just to be creatures?
DeleteYou get lots of interaction for free:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&text=|[%22number%20of%20creatures%22]|[%22more%20creatures%22]
Darksteel Relic exists purely to interact with metalcraft (and affinity, and the Nim). In the same way, it would be fine to have a spell that exists purely to interact with a major creature-counting mechanic in this set. That said, one uncommon is very different from an entire keyword.
DeleteDo you think the same set could support a creature-counting mechanic and a creature-generating mechanic? Neither would be parasitic.
DeleteI do think that. RtR had populate and Chorus of Might.
DeleteMaking the Citizen colorless seems like a smart idea. Tapping for colorless, weirdly, makes it feel like it belongs in more decks, so I'll remove the ETB tapped restriction to compensate. Maybe colorless mana generation is just a thing Districts do.
DeleteCathedral Square (uncommon)
Land - District
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Community (Whenever you cast a spell, put a 0/1 colorless Citizen creature token onto the battlefield. It has "This creature can't attack or block.")
Oratorial Forum
ReplyDeleteLand
tap: add 1 to your mana pool
tap, Sacrifice a creature with power 0, sacrifice Oratorial Forum: prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn.
Intentional combo with Community?
DeleteNot really. I believe that 0 powered creatures however should represent citizens in the plane, and I imagined this place like the center of all political turmoil in Ravnica.
DeleteBut it is cool that it combines.
Oh by the way, kuddos on the ymtc3 sorting!
Market Day 1U
ReplyDeleteSorcery - Uncommon
Exchange control of target non-land permanent you control with target non-land permanent an opponent controls, as long as those permanents each have the same number of colored mana symbols in their mana cost.
"Oooh, that looks nice."
Probably severely undercosted, but plays well in sets with mono-color or hybrid themes (see chroma).
DeleteNice Eldrazi. Here, have an Ornithopter.
DeleteEvan's point needs to be addressed.
DeleteWill new/casual players know {RG} counts as one mana symbol, not two?
I'm not worried about the Eldrazi/Ornithopter switch, because switcheroo. As far as the mana symbol, you can throw some reminder text onto the card itself, assuming the mechanic is not prevalent enough in the set to show up at common.
DeletePriest's Promenade 4W
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (U)
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, put three white 1/1 Citizen creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Citizen creatures you control have "T: prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn."
Part of a cycle, obviously. Feedback?
I think that's stronger than you think.
DeleteAt first this didn't seem too strong, but "Creature- W- 1/1- T: Prevent 1 damage" is a completely reasonable card in its own right. Typically an extra card is worth between 1.5 and 2 colorless mana. We get 3 of the creatures and only have to spend 1 card, so we could probably cost this at something like 3WWW (or a little more generously, 4WW). There are a lot of situations where this thing would make it impossible for opponents to attack you effectively.
DeleteThat said, I like the idea. Maybe "Sacrifice this creature:" abilities would be a more balanced way to execute it. The flavor for that version is a lot worse, though.
I feel like you're exaggerating the power-level of this... It's probably worse than Debtor's Pulpit, definitely slower. At the end of the day, you are paying 5 mana for three 1/1s (even if they can be relevant defensively, they are not very aggressive in and of themselves). I really want to keep it at this cost but if the person judging the contest thinks it's too strong, that seems like a poor choice.
DeleteHow about adding another mana but making it not care if the tokens have summoning sickness? Like this:
Priest's Promenade 5W
Enchantment (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, put three white 1/1 citizen creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Tap an untapped citizen you control: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn.
For fun, I'm gonna add in the rest of the cycle:
Thieves' Treadway 3U
Enchantment (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, put two white 1/1 citizen creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Whenever a citizen creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.
Assassin's Archway 4B
Enchantment (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, put two white 1/1 citizen creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Citizen creatures you control have deathtouch.
Brawler's Back Alley 2R
Enchantment (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, put two white 1/1 citizen creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Citizen creatures you control have haste.
Tracker's Trail 6G
Enchantment (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, put two white 1/1 citizen creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Citizen creatures you control get +1/+1.
The green one should say "three" tokens, not two.
DeleteAfter seeing the rest of the cycle, I'm wondering why the white card doesn't just grant lifelink. That said, I would also like a version that takes the design in the other direction-- give the all the citizens {T} abilities and make them 0/1's. Then 4W, prevent 3 damage each turn is much fairer since the opponent is less scared to attack.
DeleteThe rest of the cycle could be:
Blue- T: Draw a card, then discard a card
Black- T: Target player loses 1 life, you gain 1 life
Red- T: Grant +1/+0 and haste
Green- T: Untap target land
Priest's Promenade reminds me of a Barrenton Medic that you can max out every turn, and makes it so hard to block or attack into any of your creatures. I'd prefer it to give out just one token and cost less, letting you feel clever about combining it with other cards in the cycle.
DeleteA theoretical card:
DeleteGiant Healer 4W
3/3 Priest
T: Prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt to target c/p.
By itself, it's effectively a 3/3 attacker or a 3/6 defender—Neither side is amazing, but the combo compares well with Siege Mastodon. Add a couple other creatures, however, and suddenly attacking and blocking is very difficult for your opponent.
Priest's Promenade is better. Is it too strong to print? Not at all. Is it NWO-friendly. Not at all.
I like James' suggestion. Letting the player combine these to make awesome citizens will be more fun for the player.
Bustling Promenade (2W)
ReplyDeleteArtifact - Building (rare)
Build 2 (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may tap two untapped creatures you control. If you do, put a level counter on this.)
Level 1-3 > 3, Tap: Put a 1/1 white Citizen creature token onto the battlefield.
Level 4+ > 3, Tap: Put four 1/1 white Citizen creature tokens onto the battlefield.
In this hypothetical set, Buildings would be spread around all five colors, largely at uncommon and rare. There would be token making themes at common in white and at least one other color. I'm not sure if Citizens should be colorless, but all currently existing cards that produce Citizen tokens make white ones so I'm sticking with that for now.
Feedback welcome.
I love how new this feels while using existing technology. It also feels perfect for a city-plane.
DeleteMaking building an upkeep trigger is interesting; It's less text than a sorcery-speed activated ability, but it also forces you to decide before you draw for the turn and doesn't combo with vigilance. It also prevents you from leveling your building the same turn you cast it, which may have been your intention.
There are only three cards that make citizen tokens and the two that don't produce 5 colors of tokens are white themselves.
But now I notice that your artifact is white too. So there's that.
Could this be an end of turn trigger instead of upkeep? I like how well this ties into constructing a building.
DeleteThat's two votes for an end step trigger, and upon further reflection, I think it would play better (since you can cast a building, cast a creature, and level it on the same turn). Part of the intention of this card (in addition to city-plane flavor, grokkability, and having a satisfying top-level payoff) was to force the player to make a choice between using their creature to level a Building and using it to attack/block; the Citizen token sub-theme supplements this by giving you low-power "civilians" as builders so your Soldiers, Wizards, etc. can carry on fighting. Vigilance kinda breaks this, but it already breaks the rule of "attack or block, not both" so I think being able to attack and build is not a serious concern.
DeleteRevised version:
Bustling Promenade (2W)
Artifact - Building (rare)
Build 2 (At the beginning of your end step, you may tap two untapped creatures you control. If you do, put a level counter on this.)
Level 1-3 > 3, Tap: Put a 1/1 white Citizen creature token onto the battlefield.
Level 4+ > 3, Tap: Put four 1/1 white Citizen creature tokens onto the battlefield.
[[Non-submission Design]]
ReplyDeleteWith all the citizens populating this thread, we should do something fun with them. Citizens are the new gold counter.
Golden Age 2WWW
Enchantment (Rare)
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, put a citizen token OtB. Then, if you have thirty or more citizens, you win the game.
Tax Collector 1BB
Creature - Ogre Knight (Uncommon)
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, the defending player pays 2 for each Citizen he or she controls or sacrifices that creature.
Group Think 4UU
Instant (Common)
Draw a card for each citizen you control.
These all feel like the could say 'creature' in place of 'citizen,' but are parasitic instead.
DeleteI may or may not have time to try other things later this weekend, but here's where I got by iterating my first idea:
ReplyDeleteConcealing Throng 3GG
Creature-Human (R)
Spells your opponents cast that target creatures you control cost 1 more to cast for each creature you control.
5/5
Nice top-down; I like this a lot. Perhaps template as:
Delete"Whenever an opponent casts a spell that targets one or more creatures you control, counter it unless its controller pays X, where X is the number of creatures you control."
I keep trying to find a less awkward way to word that ability and failing. What trips me up is that it both counts and works for all your creatures.
DeleteThen I noticed that this wasn't an enchantment, but a creature. First, that makes me think the ability should only count or affect that creature. Second, the fact that this creature's P/T is understood to be the combination of 5+ smaller creatures hurts the flavor even more since those theoretical creatures only count once toward this ability.
Can you make this jive more?
Thanks for the feedback. I don't think this is a perfect fix to the issues you raised, but it's an improvement:
DeleteImpenetrable Throng 3GG
Creature-Human (R)
CARDNAME’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of creatures you control.
Spells your opponents cast that target CARDNAME cost 1 more to cast for each creature you control.
*/*
Festival of the Guildpact!
ReplyDelete...Alright, I'll stop suggesting reprints.
Here's what I think fits the art the best:
Bustling Market
Land (R)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
UU, T, Tap two untapped Citizens you control: Exchange control of two target nonland permanents.
"You’d be surprised what you can get for a decent goat.”
I'm still looking for "the mechanical heart for a city-plane," but this is my submission for now.
Feedback highly appreciated.
I can trade a Citizen token for your best creature... every turn? Unless its /really/ hard to get citizens, this seems pretty busted right now. Switcheroo costs 4U to do that /once/ with only creatures.
Delete...How do you trade a token every turn? The mana could be bumped up. I originally had it at five creatures, but that felt way too hard.
DeleteAnyway, here's my better attempt at city-flavor:
Market Fair
2WW
Instant (C)
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn.
Populism — If you control at least three creatures, you gain 1 life for each creature you control.
“Disruptin’ where I get my meals? Naw, that wouldn’t be fair.”—Gorko, One-Armed Bandit
I love this Citizen theme that everyone seems to have latched onto. I think it speaks to what makes a city a city, and what I've tried to hit with this card: the people. This works out really well in a game focused on creatures. Populism is my attempt at getting a bustling population in the city. It feels really close to Riot Control which annoys me, but I think these are the numbers that work.
More feedback please!
Populism does seem like a solid contender. I'm a little confused why Market Fair is so much worse than Riot Control.
DeleteI'm not good at making well-balanced cards; just interesting ones. xP
DeleteI fiddled with the numbers a lot. It originally gained some life and then Populism - gained life per creature you control, but I couldn't get it to look good and get the right cost. Maybe 1WW, maybe 1W. I'm more focused on the rules text than the power level. Let dev fix that.
Fair
DeleteFinal submission:
DeleteMarket Fair
1W
Instant (C)
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to creatures this turn.
Populism — If you control at least three creatures, you gain 1 life for each creature you control.
“Disruptin’ where I get my meals? Naw, that wouldn’t be fair.”—Gorko, One-Armed Bandit
Creaturescreaturescreatures
It feels weird to me to have an effect that's conditional on having three creatures, but also scales based on the number of creatures. I prefer one of the following:
DeletePopulism -- If you control at least three creatures, you gain 5 life.
or
Populism -- Gain 1 life for each creature you control.
Why? Doesn't it make more sense to have something that's conditional on having creatures work better with more creatures? My card does have "Populism -- Gain 1 life for each creature you control."
DeleteOr do you mean don't have any other effect?
Threshold effects and scaling effects are (or should be, in my opinion) two different things. There are no cards with Battalion that count your attacking creatures, nor cards with Metalcraft that count your artifacts.
DeleteThat's because scaling effects and threshold effects require the player to consider two different questions. One of them asks, "What is N?" The other asks, "Is N at least three?" It's easier to only have to think about one of these questions instead of both. (This may sound bizarre, but how often do you actually count whether you have seven or eight artifacts with a Metalcraft card in play?)
But perhaps the more important reason is this: giving a lower cutoff to a scaling effect doesn't make a card more fun to play with. There is no harm in letting the player gain 1 or 2 life; the card is still providing the correct incentives.
Ah! I was misreading your interpretation. I understand the concern. Makes sense.
DeleteI wonder then if Populism does work better as scaling off of your creatures. I think for now, it'll stay at three.
So! Final final:
Market Fair
1W
Instant (C)
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to you this turn.
Populism — If you control at least three creatures, you gain 5 life.
“Disruptin’ where I get my meals? Naw, that wouldn’t be fair.”—Gorko, One-Armed Bandit
Thanks all!
Agreed. Threshold+scaling was redundant. The newest version is the best yet.
DeleteWhat if you flipped the two? (Not saying it's better, just posing a question)
Gain 1 life for each creature you control.
Populism — If you control at least three creatures, prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to you this turn.
Hall of Negotiation UW
ReplyDeleteRealm- Commerce U
(You may declare any of your creature as attacking through a realm.)
Whenever a creature you control attacks through a Hall of Negotiation, both players draw a card.
So the city is divided into realms, through which your creatures can attack. You may assign your creatures to attack through different realms, but a creature can only attack through one realm at a time. The creatures can still be blocked by any opposing creature. Other cards (Artifact buildings, Creature agents) may be more powerful in specific Realms types. I thought about making this an enchantment, but I didn't like the flavor.
Feedback, obv
DeleteOh, interesting idea. I proposed something similar at: http://multiverse.heroku.com/cards/13968 for non-city terrains. It's the closest I've come to suggestings a new card type that I felt might actually deserve being a separate type.
DeleteBut it actually works very very well in a city context.
A new card type? Bold.
DeleteBoldness is one of my favorite of Wobbles' traits.
My primary concern with a new card type is that nothing interacts with it (other than "target permanent"). It took them a while to make enough cards that foil Planeswalkers, but at least you could attack them.
That forces us to make Realms weak. Wobbles has recognized that and made the card draw global (assuming he means "each" in place of "both") on Hall of Negotiation, but I don't know that it's worth making a new card type if all the cards of that type have to be 'meh'.
If instead realm were a subtype of enchantments (or artifacts or lands), then we wouldn't have to nerf them for that reason and could make them more compelling.
Mechanically, this could also be implemented like Battle-Rattle Shaman. It loses some of the passageway feel though.
DeleteHoly Hall 1W
Enchantment (C)
At the beginning of combat, you may have target creature gain lifelink until end of turn.
Maybe. I don't think there's the hesitation with printing cards to specifically hose Realms as there was with Planeswalkers. 1R Instant Destroy target Realm would be fine. This card was powered down more for common concerns than power level of the type. After all, most cards of this type (coastal piracy, orcish oraflame) are pretty weak, and realms are even pretty hard to stack, because you have to split up your attackers.
DeleteMaybe. I don't think there's the hesitation with printing cards to specifically hose Realms as there was with Planeswalkers. 1R Instant Destroy target Realm would be fine. This card was powered down more for common concerns than power level of the type. After all, most cards of this type (coastal piracy, orcish oraflame) are pretty weak, and realms are even pretty hard to stack, because you have to split up your attackers.
DeleteOne of the defining traits of cities is the diversity that comes from the mixing of different ideas and cultures in a concentrated setting. I'm finding it tricky to translate that idea to Magic cards though:
ReplyDeleteCity Priest 2W (assuming a crop closer in on the two bright figures)
Creature - Human Cleric (C)
Lifelink
Diversity - CARDNAME gets +1/+1 as long as Human is not the most common creature type among creatures you control.
2/2
(or, 'tied for most common creature type')
Alternatively, the set could emphasize mostly monocolor decks that rely on off-color mana:
Rousing Church 1W
Enchantment (U)
(!W can be paid with any color of mana except W)
!W!W: White creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn
I'd appreciate feedback on whether either of these ideas resemble city-life, or whether I've gone too far astray.
The first seems a little too messy in terms of wording for common. Better templating might solve this, but I'm not sure the hoop is difficult enough to jump through. In other words, the effects Diversity gives you would have to be relatively small. Unless the plan is to only put Diversity on Humans? In which case it makes for interesting deck-building.
DeleteBut the second one I think is fascinating.
Consider:
DeleteCity Priest 2W
Creature - Human Cleric (C)
Lifelink
Diversity - Nonhuman creatures you control have lifelink.
2/2
I think there's an argument for using !W in the city-plane, but I don't get why a white card has an explicitly non-white activation to help other white cards.
I've been considering the idea of "not-C" mana for a while, as part of a set that would have a mono-color theme. I'm honestly not sure whether it would be better there, or in a multicolor set like this one. The argument for not using it in a multicolor set is that we already are doing interesting things with mana symbols and "not-C" adds too much complexity. The argument for using it here is that it it's more likely to actually matter in a multicolor environment. (The diversity flavor is also a pretty strong match.)
DeleteRousing Church was me going pretty deep on what the city is like to me: Groups that keep to themselves but are enriched by the diversity of the city. That's what I imagined with an environment of mostly-monocolor decks that play a mix of all five basic lands.
DeleteI'll change my submission to this:
City Priest 1W
Creature - Human Cleric (C)
Nonhuman creatures you control have lifelink.
2/2
I don't think there's actually a lot of good design space for Diversity, and would instead restrict it to a five card cycle (e.g. Nongoblins have haste, Nonelves have trample).
I also focused on the figure in the spotlight.
ReplyDeleteTraveling Weaponsmith (Uncommon)
2R
Creature - Human Warrior
1/1
Commerce — (2/R), T: Attacking creatures get +1/+0 until end of turn. They get +2/+0 until end of turn instead if only nonred mana was spent to activate this ability. ((2/R) can be paid with any two mana or with R.)
A Journeyman must visit many workshops before becoming a Master.
So I can have +1/+0 for R or +2/+0 for !R!R?
DeleteWould it be simpler and involve less negative tension to make it this?
Commerce — (2/R), T: Attacking creatures get +1/+0 until end of turn for each mana spent activating this ability. ((2/R) can be paid with any two mana or with R.)
Neither version feels like it belongs in a monored deck, despite twobrid traditionally being a mechanic that rewards monocolored decks.
DeleteIt's not designed for a monocolor set, but a gold set in the style of Invasion block where all you're asked to do is play as many colors as you can. It rewards you for playing multiple colors, like domain, with focusing on land types, just mana. It also works well with artifact mana. I was trying to recreate the diversity of Sunburst. Diversity seems very metropolitan.
Delete"withOUT focusing on land types..."
Delete"X, T: Attacking creatures get +X/+0 until end of turn. X can't be greater than 2."
Deleteor even:
"Domain - 2, T: Attacking creatures get +1/+0 until end of turn for each basic land type among lands you control."
In your original version, monored decks can't take full advantage of the power of the ability. In Jay's version, if you're running monored it feels like you don't get to take advantage of the flexibility of being able to pay in colorless mana.
I intend for it to reward you for playing either three colors, or red plus artifact mana colorless mana. I didn't want to redo Domain. I wanted to make something new.
DeleteI'm always a fan of sunburst :) Maybe you could just use that in activated ability form?
Delete3, T: Attacking creatures get +1/+0 until end of turn for each different color of mana spent to activate this ability
James, don't forget that your version cuts off using Sol Ring mana.
DeleteFestival Colonnade (Uncommon)
ReplyDelete1W
Enchantment- Aura
Enchant land
Whenever an enchanted land you control becomes tapped, you gain 1 life.
The idea here is based on the Magemarks from original Ravnica-- the more lands you enchant (i.e. "build on"), the more effects you get. This is exactly how real cities work: as more and more people come together, they become more productive because each one benefits from the presence of all the others.
Clearly we would want other cards of this type (enchant lands that care about other lands being enchanted). I'm not sure how to best convey the fact that these cards are related, though. Should it be a subtype (like Curse), a keyword (like landfall), or a common naming convention (like the Magemark cycle)?
Feedback welcome and appreciated.
This is definitely my favorite. It's clear, elegant, and provides deckbuilding direction without being parasitic. I think it should work like the Magemarks.
DeleteI like this too, though I misread it the first time as "Whenever enchanted land becomes tapped..." so someway to unify these with a name or type like you say is a must.
DeleteHow many simple effects are there to use on land-magemarks? Even this innocuous looking card can get out of hand in multiples. Maybe they could give tap abilities to all of your enchanted lands, so they don't scale out of control.
I also like what you're going for here and how it supports the city theme. My only concern is that land auras are a bit of a pain, but they just did them in Gatecrash so that's clearly not a deal-breaker.
DeleteIf there's going to be a single cycle, then a naming convention like the Magemark's should suffice. If there's going to be a lot, or if there are going to be cards that care about these auras, then giving them a common subtype like the curses makes sense.
My first submission to one of these! (sorry it's a twofer - I couldn't pick!)
ReplyDeleteBustling Bazaar (Mythic)
Legendary Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
WUBRG T: Put a commerce counter on CARDNAME.
Whenever you tap a basic land for mana, if CARDNAME has a commerce counter on it, add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
These might be strong but I think it's printable.
1)Wizards has been toning back land destruction. (So there's less of a chance of feel-bad when this gets blown up.)
2)It only adds extra mana when your basics tap, which makes it harder to both activate and reap huge rewards from. You either have an easy time activating it by using duals or you reap a huge reward from it by running all basics.
3) The flavor here, like my other submission below, is that when different people get together they are able to produce more than they could before. In the same way, the very location has a stronger access to mana when it has access to all colors of mana.
Second submission:
New Acquaintances (Rare)
2WW
Enchantment
Each creature you control gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control that doesn't share a creature type with it.
This is supposed to capture the ability of a cities to draw strength from its diversity. The people who interact with different types of creatures live the more fulfilled life (and are therefore stronger).
I'd love some feedback and sorry again for posting two! I didn't read anyone else's before posting so I hope I didn't do a repeat design.
Both seem like good concepts. Bazaar doesn't strike me as overpowered: it's basically a Boundless Realms that costs 1WUBRG and goes in a land slot, which seems reasonable. I like the idea behind New Acquantances but it's a lot of math. If you have a Human, a Human Warrior, a Zombie Warrior, a Goblin Warrior, and a Zombie Goblin, what bonus does each of them get? (Answer: +3/+3, +1/+1, +1/+1, +1/+1, +2/+2.) A better approach might be to use +1/+1 counters (when a creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control that doesn't share a creature type with it). Comparing this to Cathars' Crusade, you could probably cost it at 1WW.
DeleteAt first, I really liked the idea behind Bustling Bazaar. It's a land you can upgrade. And it fits the city-theme via a rainbow-colored path. It definitely shouldn't be legendary because we don't want to build in extra feel-bad losing this after you upgrade it just because your opponent also has one. The big problem that I finally saw:
DeleteBustling Bazaar sends a mixed message. It rewards your for playing as many basic lands as possible, but is much much harder to use without nonbasic lands. It's definitely a solvable problem for an enterprising Johnny, but I'm not sure Timmy will realize this card is a trap. If there were a way to either remove the mixed message, or make it clear this is just for Johnny, that would be great.
Ipaulsen is right that New Acquaintances is too much work as is. Consider:
Creatures you control get +X/+X where X is the number of creature types among creatures you control.
That's crazy strong, and would have to be costed/limited as such, but it's so much simpler.
Tourist Attraction (Uncommon)
ReplyDeleteLand
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, tap any number of untapped Buildings you control. For each land tapped this way, put a 1/1 colorless Citizen creature token onto the battlefield.
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Er, forgot the Building type on the card. Here, updated:
DeleteTourist Attraction (Uncommon)
Land - Building
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, tap any number of untapped Buildings you control. For each land tapped this way, put a 1/1 colorless Citizen creature token onto the battlefield.
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Intentional that you can tap it for its own effect when you play it?
DeleteVery interesting idea-- "Ally lands" of a sort. Definitely fits the city theme. My main concern would be whether this kind of land is inherently too powerful. A 1/1 for 1 that goes in a land slot and doesn't cost a card compares quite favorably to Dryad Arbor and Elvish Visionary, both of which are strong cards in their own right. And you can't balance the card by making it enter the battlefield tapped, because it would then become very parasitic. The best solution I can see is to let this tap for {W} and have it make you lose 1 life every time it becomes tapped. Maybe that could reflect the fact that buildings require repairs and don't last forever?
Delete