Suvnica Week 14 Review, Part 2: Peacemaker (Sorba Keywords)

Our last set of reviews covers the vigilante guild. There were a number of really cool keywords thrown out there for this one. Here's some of the ways we can protect those that can't protect themselves.

Devin E. Green's Fated One

Devin initially pitched a mechanic that was very similar to something lpaulsen threw out there for the Sahleen a few weeks back. (I changed the name since I already have a Chosen One keyword floating around the file.) I don't have too much to add to what I said then, other than, from a flavor perspective (though not necessarily mechanical), this probably does belong more in Sahleen than Sorba. Also, each of these cards need to be bumped up a rarity. Those commons are too complex under NWO and/or good.

Jay Treat offered a modification to the mechanic:

This vision uses the more traditional POPOCs as a marker. It's a little unclear, but if none of your creatures have the counters, you get to choose any of your creatures to be your hero.

Devin liked the tweak to the idea and updated a few of his ideas. (He also pitched Vigilante as an alternate name for the keyword, but I had already done the mockups).

Jules Retribution

Retribution has a lot of potential. I do worry that, if not well developed, it is going to lead to board stalemates and non-combat situations, but that's something we can check in playtesting. Incidentally, I have a R/W Pyrohemia deck that would love to see this keyword developed, so I may be biased.

hubatish's Serve the Meek

Serve the meek captures Sorba's protection of the little guy and play's right into {R}{W}'s affinity for weenies. I like the keyword, and although I think it would be better served if we were able to limit it to single-target bonus effects like in the first two examples, there might not be enough space available there to fill in fifteen cards. I definitely like that hubatish kept the ability off of creatures - we need some more spell keywords in the file.

lpaulsen's Fervor

When I first read fervor's trigger I really didn't like it, but then I realized it isn't limited to damage done to players. Combat damage done to creature's is just fine too. That's a cool idea, and plays right into Red's propensity for damage and white's high toughness blockers. Development would have to find the right balance for the numbers here, as I suspect 7 might be a pretty high threshold to trigger the effects.

lpaulsen's Humble

Humble is an interesting take on the "protector of the masses" theme. Instead of protecting weenies, tokens take the role of the disenfranchised people in need of protectors. That's a unique spin, and I really like it. There has been some discussion about having a colorless creature theme that would serve to connect some of the more disparate pieces of the set, and maybe making tokens colorless could play into that if we decide to pursue it.