Today we continue our look at how Tesla can mechanically convey its progress theme. Talking about Iteration got a few balls in the air and after discussing Experience last week I wanted to take a look at the other side of the coin: Nich Grayson's Engineer.
Engineer riffs off of Extort by giving your spells a Kicker effect. Given how good even weak-looking Extort cards were in limited, +1/+1 counters sound pretty scary, but even with a fairly substantial artifact density this should only be triggering half as often in limited.
There's some room for debate over where exactly Engineer should go. It's a growth mechanic, which falls squarely into green's slice of pie, but green generally isn't a big fan of artifacts. Then again, if it's a major enough theme, everyone gets to play with a Carapace Forger or two.
As for what to do with the individual cards, the above mana dork is kind of cute, but the majority of the interaction lies with our numerous keywords which improve drastically with size: Trample, Lifelink, First strike, Vigilance, and evasion.
Unless we make a lot of artifact creatures with the ability, it's going to require the same balancing act as Metalcraft, Heroic, and Prowess from deck builders, but with an additional twist in that players will run out of mana with too even a balance between Engineers and artifacts. That's probably fine for limited, but we'd want to enable a theme deck for casual constructed.
Engineer suffers from Kicker's problem of encouraging players to hold off on spellcasting until they can get full value, and the issue can become especially pronounced when a player is color screwed but won't use their artifacts to smooth out the draw because they're holding them until they can cast an Engineer of the missing color. Then again, both of those issues can be greatly mitigated by lowering as-fan and spreading the mechanic across multiple colors so that players don't have more than one or two on the board at any given time.
You need some glue:
ReplyDeleteWannabe Bear 2
Artifact Creature
Mechanize v2 (Whenever you cast an artifact spell, you may pay 1 for each +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME).
1/1
I imagine mechanize cards are pretty bad with no counters, ok with 1, good with 2 and bonkers with 3+. This version tries to mitigate the number of huge creatures and instead get your creatures to a base line quickly (you can pay 0).
That's a clever way to balance it! Assuming we can make the paying 0 intuitive with short reminder text, I'm all for it.
DeleteThis is pretty good. I like Zach's wording better, but a clearer alternative:
DeleteMachination (Whenever you cast an artifact spell, you may pay {X}, where X is the number of +1/+1 counters on CARDNAME. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on it).
'Machination' means something entirely different, but humor for the sake of distinct mechanic names.
DeleteX would be a problem for commons. The other version would be clearer.
DeleteI'm not sure though that this restriction is needed. Mechanize already has a built-in 'off-switch' similar to Evolve's.
This isn't Mechanize + restriction, it's Engineer mirroring Mechanize's inherent cap.
DeleteEngineer seems really easy to design for limited. Mechanically, because it’s tied in with artifacts, so it could be any color or colorless. Artifact Sets push color pie boundaries, so every color cares about playing artifact/equipment spells, not just the usual colors of White, Blue and Red. As you said, normally Green doesn’t reward casting artifacts, but Green still had Lifesmith and Carapace Forger in Scars of Mirrodin. Where to put Engineer just depends on what else is going on in the set and where the mechanic is needed. For example, if Green and Red are already using the battery token mechanic, and Blue’s doing some version of Invent, then maybe this becomes a White and Black (and artifact) mechanic. I think we could design Engineer cards at Common, Uncommon and Rare in any color without much trouble.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think Engieer’s will play like kicker if there are a good amount of creatures with Engineer at low mana costs and artifacts at mid to high mana costs. Set things up so that at common, players can cast creatures with Engineer at 1, 2, and 3 CMC, and artifacts at 3, 4, and 5 CMC. This way the play experience matches the mechanic’s conceit. Even low mana cost artifacts are good in the late game as you can afford to pay for multiple engineer costs off one spell.
I’m not sure where the color screw problem comes in. Wouldn’t we be designing Limited for a one or two color decks in an artifact rich set? Plus, there could certainly be a few colorless artifact creatures with engineer at common to make the deck tick (like Myr Enforcer and Frogmite were in Mirrodin.)
Actually, artifact sets generally encourage players to splash because:
Delete1. You have more spells you can cast in the early game if you draw the wrong colors, like Morph in KTK.
2. In an effort to make colors matter, lots of artifacts end up with colored activations, which means there are more reasons to splash and players can do so with less fixing because the cards still have some utility without the splash color. This is the impetus for Sunburst in Fifth Dawn.
As for Kicker gameplay, I could be wrong, but I think a large portion of players in your example casting Engineers on turns 1 through 3 with artifacts costing 4, 5, and 6 in hand will play NOTHING on 4, 5, or 6 mana and instead wait to cast the artifacts for 7, 8, and 9 to get full value.
There's more than one way to design an artifact set. Artifact sets don't promote multicolor play unless designed to do so, and if you look back, Scars Block did this waaay less than the original Mirrodin Block. WotC didn't know what they were doing during Mirrodin design (it was their first time) and Fifth Dawn was just the third set pivot they always used to do in blocks. They knew artifact blocks COULD support multicolor play, but that doesn't mean they're best when they do so. I don't think they are...
DeleteLooking at only commons.
The original Mirrodin had 3 cycles of artifacts with colored activated abilities (Golems, Replicas, and Spellombs), but it also had 2 cycles or artifacts that add colored mana and were good on their own (mana Myr and artifact lands). These were incidentally good at helping splash extra colors, but were attractive as artifact mana sources. The correct choice was to draft a few mana Myr or artifact lands regardless of what colors they provided.
Darksteel only had the Affinity-for-basics cycle, which actually pulls players towards single color decks.
Sunburst didn't reward you for playing multicolor. It rewarded drafting a lot of random artifact lands and mana Myr. I don't remember anyone adding 1-of Swamps and Mountains to their WU Sunburst deck. And I can't imagine WotC would have designed to that end. The best Fifth Dawn common to help the sunburst deck was Pentad Prism, which gets a two color deck to sunburst 4 or 5.
The equipment cycle in Fifth Dawn all had double colored mana costs. Cranial Plating wouldn't have activated for BB if WotC wants to promote multicolor play, right?
Scars Block remade the Replica cycle and Spellbomb cycle from the original Mirrodin block, but again, the mana Myr were reprinted and went a long way towards making those cycles function. The fact that the Replicas and Spellbombs all have one time effects also don't seem like attractive splashes. color. Would I really want to add Plains to my RG deck for a one time use of an Origin Spellbomb?
Scars has one more cycle of creatures with activated abilities, as does Mirrodin Besieged (its only cycle of artifacts with a colored component.) But Glint Hawk Idol, Bladed Sentinel and friends are not splash worthy, especially with only the mana Myr to support them.
Finally, New Phyrexia had two cycles of artifacts with phyrexian mana, but I wouldn't really count PM as colored mana. You pay the life on a splash, you don't add mana sources.
After all that, my point is that artifact sets don't promote multicolor just by having a lot of artifacts. They make two color decks more solid since you can't get cut out of a color as easily during the draft. And colored activations don't make splashing any better, they are meant to support first and second colors. Mana Myr and artifacts that tap for colored mana are what really make multicolor play possible, but only if you have mechanics that don't care what specific color they add.
I don't know, did I even manage to make a point with all that? I guess my point is, we can make an artifact set that promotes splashing a bunch of colors. Or we can design an artifact set that promotes playing a single color. Or we can design an artifact set that promotes playing one of ten two color combos. Artifacts are able to do any of those three options, but there's nothing inherent in them that makes them better at doing one over the others.
DeleteI'd argue (with my original points) that they do inherently push towards multicolor play (and I've certainly splashed for my fair share of Sylvok Replicas), but your point still stands that we can certainly make an artifact set that pushes towards just two colors if we want so we don't need to worry ourselves about the splashing issue with Engineer. Thanks for pointing that out!
DeleteI often drafted Cdef decks in old Mirrodin. Splashing one land of each type for Sunburst was often reasonable in my group, but mostly we leaned on Pentad Prism.
DeleteA set with a lot of solid, cheap artifacts naturally enables multicolor play in the same way that the morph creatures in Tarkir did. The ability to play some of your deck regardless of the types of lands you draw gives you more time to get the colors you do need.
But I totally agree an artifact set can enable multicolor play (which Mirrodin did), ignore it (which Scars did), or even reward monocolor play. The latter is so unusual, I'd love to see what we can do with it… though it's likely a dead-end since it allows so many fewer deck archetypes.
Jay, you really think morph creatures in Khans enables multicolor? I'd say it's the 3-color morph commons and 10 common dual lands. By comparison, no one was splashing a third or 4th color in Onslaught Block, which featured morph.
DeleteRegardless, it's fun to have options and I look forward to whatever play environment we decide on.
Yes, I think that presence of morph in Khans makes a vast difference in supporting 3+ color decks. I'm obviously not saying morph is the only thing enabling multicolor in Khans.
DeleteUnraveling Disc {2}
ReplyDeleteArtifact (rare)
{X}, {T}, Return CARDNAME to its owner's hand: Return target nonland permanent with CMC X to its owner's hand.
Scrap Golem {3}
Artifact Creature—Golem (unc)
Whenever another artifact goes to your graveyard from the battlefield, you may cast CARDNAME from your graveyard.
2/2
Divining Boomerang {2}
Artifact (cmn)
{T}: Search your library for a basic land card, Reveal it and put it into your hand. Put CARDNAME on top of your library.
These are all safe for Mechanize or Machinate, less so for Engineer.
Divining Boomerang is A LOT of shuffling, Unraveling Disk might run into some Capsize problems, and Scrap Golem may confuse players about whether or not it triggers itself, but I like the space you're exploring.
DeleteScrap Golem specifies "another artifact" but otherwise I agree completely.
DeleteI can't read, apparently. In that case I'm a big fan of that one.
DeleteComposite Colossus {8}
ReplyDeleteArtifact Creature—Golem (unc)
Jury-Rig {2} (You may cast ~ for {2} less for each +1/+1 counter you remove from permanents you control.)
6/6
Scrap Golem {3}
Artifact Creature—Golem (rare)
Jury-Rig {1} (You may cast ~ for {1} less for each +1/+1 counter you remove from permanents you control.)
~ ETB with a +1/+1 counter on it for each counter you removed to cast it.
1/1
Molten Javelin {R}{R}{R}{R}
Instant (cmn)
Jury-Rig {R} (You may cast ~ for {R} less for each +1/+1 counter you remove from permanents you control.)
~ deals 5 damage to target c/p.
Jury-Rig doesn't help us get +1/+1 counters, but it does work well with Engineer et al.
Do we need to allow different cost reductions? I'd just as soon model this after Delve and always use {1}.
DeleteShrinking your creatures forever feels like a bigger cost than Convoke or Delve and it certainly makes for more linear decks (despite playing well with Modular), but I wouldn't be opposed to trying it out.
Jury-Rig {1} with nothing else is definitely expensive and seems like it will be used rarely. That's why all three cards add value: Colossus gives you {2}, Scrappy grows, and Javelin helps you reach a high color requirement.
DeleteI support the instinct to start with a single variety, but I don't think Jury-Rig {1} will cut the mustard.
The +1/+1 counter thing is going to break. I can just see it being way too powerful.
ReplyDeleteHow about making it like Prowess?
Ingenuity (Whenever you cast an artifact spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
That's rather more disappointing than prowess because so few artifacts have flash. Unless there's another big theme in the set that makes us want to have a bunch of artifacts with flash.
DeleteAnd if we tried to go for +2/+2 or something to compensate then we end up with the Zendikar problem where blocking is a terrible strategy because all of your cards are better on your own turn.
DeleteSalvage explicitly limits creature growth, and only does so when artifacts die:
DeleteJunkheap Survivor {1}{R}
Creature-Human Rogue {cmn}
Salvage 1 (Whenever an artifact card goes to your graveyard from anywhere, if CARDNAME isn't an artifact, you may exile that card to put a +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME. It becomes an artifact creature.)
2/1
But it's way too wordy. A simpler version without the explicit limit:
Junkheap Survivor {2}{G}
Creature-Human Rogue {cmn}
Simple Salvage 2 (Whenever an artifact card goes to your graveyard from the battlefield, you may exile that card to put two +1/+1 counters on CARDNAME.)
2/2
Reverse modular—A less linear mechanic in the same vein:
Arms Preserver {1}{W}
Creature-Human Cleric {cmn}
Modulee 1 (Whenever a creature you control dies, you may move up to one +1/+1 counter from it to CARDNAME.)
2/2
I'm a little bit wary of people being confused about whether Salvage can save a creature in combat. We could use Leyline Phantom reminder text, or just make it trigger at a different time (like the version of Salvage we had back in August: http://goblinartisans.blogspot.com/2014/08/tesla-scrapheap.html )
DeleteI like Modulee a lot, though the restricted number feels weird as a metaphor for taking parts. It feels more like rising in a hierarchy when your superior kicks the bucket.
How about this for Salvage?
DeleteSalvage [cost] ([cost], Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to this card's converted mana cost on target creature. Salvage only as a sorcery.)
It's Scavenge for artifacts.
It's going to be hard to have as many interesting decisions about killing artifacts as creatures, which is where most of Scavenge's gameplay comes from. I don't think Scavenge was enough of a home run to get me excited about this version of Salvage, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
DeleteWhy not have this Salvage put a set number of counters on (my guess would be 1)? CMC is going to make it hard to have commons with this mechanic. Higher rarities could have "When you salvage this..." and the set could have counters matters like the outlast lords. Just a thought.
DeleteNot a bad notion. I'd be willing to give that a shot.
DeleteAnother option that could play nicely is Reinvent (http://goblinartisans.blogspot.com/2014/12/tesla-momma-didnt-raise-no-rube.html),
ReplyDeletethough either the Engineer implementation would need to look at entering the battlefield or Reinvent would need to cast the spell.
Woespewer {2}
Artifact (C)
Reinvent (When ~ taps, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal an artifact that costs one more. Put it onto the battlefield tapped, then put this and the rest on the bottom in a random order.)
{T}: Target player loses 2 life.
Indeed.
DeleteI suspect reinvent would be best un-keyworded on a vertical cycle or two.
I do not have a clue of how far your project is, and what disicions you made
ReplyDeleteYou could click on the tag that says Tesla at the bottom of the main post. That takes you to a list of all the Tesla posts.
DeleteOr better, you could click on the very first time Jules mentioned Tesla, right in the first sentence of the post. That takes you to an index of all the Tesla posts categorised and ordered.
Thanks AlexC! That said, it's a lot to look through. We're presently nearing the tail end of Exploratory Design. We have a themed picked: the feeling of making progress. We've been looking at a ton of different mechanical areas to play to that theme and playtested a few of them. Right now we know that Tesla is going to be pretty artifact heavy, but how much mechanical emphasis we put on them is still up in the air. Creative is far from locked down, but leaning towards a Steampunk setting as we're concerned about Magic getting more technologically advanced than that.
Delete