Anastase's been busy. I'm running this weekend's challenge. I'll be traveling next weekend, if anyone else wants to volunteer (before Wednesday).Click through to see this weekend's 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.
You may use that feedback to revise your submission any number of times. I will review the most recent submission from each designer some time on Monday, life permitting, in the comments below (so no renders).
An A-B mechanic is one that requires fuel to function. It must be supported/enabled by other cards in the set. Madness needs discard; Populate needs tokens; Metalcraft needs artifacts. It's usually terrible to have more dependent cards than you can support, and often suboptimal to have too many dedicated enablers without the cards they enable.
Design two cards showing both sides of an A-B mechanic. Bonus points for each side that is fun or relevant without the other.
From an old set I scrapped as probably too A/B (and C/D) to work:
ReplyDeleteStoker's Union 2R
Basic Creature - Goblin Worker
~ can't block.
Solidarity -- ~ gets +2/+1 for each other creature you control with the same name.
2/1
Slum Healer 3W
Creature - Human Cleric
Solidarity -- T: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature and each other creature with the same name this turn.
1/4
Those are a common and an uncommon, respectively.
DeleteThe Union was a cycle, one in each color and each appearing twice on the common sheet. The theme of the set was "Old Guard Nobles vs. New Wave Commoners", which was represented mainly by commons and some of the uncommons pushing you toward playing many copies of the same thing, and rares and most of the uncommons pushing you toward playing singleton, with some 'legendary tribal' etc. It was very cool conceptually but had inherent implementation problems with theme visibility and/or complexity at common.)
I don't see how this is an A-B mechanic.
DeleteI can run a deck with just Mountains and Stoker's Unions, right? We're defining an A-B mechanic as one that requires another kind of card to function, creating a tension between running enough of the mechanic and running enough of the enablers.
DeleteREVIEW
DeleteSolidarity is not an A-B mechanic.
Do we want a set full of Relentless Rats?
Slum Healer punishes solidarity. We generally don't want that tension in the same set/block.
I'll volunteer to do the challenge/review for next weekend!
ReplyDeletePromontory Piker 1R
Creature - Goblin Warrior
Barricade — CARDNAME gets +2/+1 and has reach as long as you control a creature with defender.
2/1
Makeshift Mound 2B
Creature - Wall
Defender
Whenever an artifact enters a graveyard from the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME.
Add it to the pile!
1/4
Thanks, Pasteur.
DeleteCan't say Mound is exciting out of context.
Yeah, definitely a case of "what defender cards are sitting in my recent file". The third part that connects both of these would be an environment with a surplus of 1/1 Thopters/other artifact tokens, but a wall that just... grows bigger isn't all that great. I'll see if I can't come up with something more interesting.
DeleteI thought mound was great! Not every card is a powerhouse, but I'm already imagining a limited deck where I play it as "one more defender" and then it just keeps growing, never quite worth removal...
DeleteMaybe it could use an end game though, maybe like crumbling colossus it can attack once and then sac?
Or maybe something like this-set's-fling?
DeleteTopple 1B
Instant
Sacrifice a creature. Topple deals damage equal to that creature's toughness to target creature or player.
(with any color/cost/set's-spell-mechanic, really. Rite of Consumption and Grim Contest imply this could be Black but the important thing is that it's just available for the Limited combo.)
Topple in place of Piker?
DeleteMakeshift Mound looks like a red card. Other than that, I quite like this submission.
DeleteAnd yeah, I quite like the idea of non-defender cards that synergise with defender, as defenders are naturally creatures you don't want too many of.
DeleteREVIEW
DeleteBarricade will make players feel better about playing defenders. Like Rise of the Eldrazi, defender-matters could be a welcome change of pace. It's a bit dangerous, though, because if make defenders too strong, games will go much longer and draw more often, which is undesirable. We'd want more evasion for sure.
Topple doesn't play great with Piker, but it should be as good as Fling with your high-toughness walls. Even with Piker, it's at least a bad Shock.
Promontory Piker, won't be a high-pick, but is certainly playable… in the abstract. Trouble is, it's most relevant to aggro decks—the kind that least want to play defenders. And it's also going to be worst in a format with a lot of walls.
I have been thinking about an equipmentset. Equipment also has a bit A-B problem on it's own, but to a lesser extend. But if you just want more, your machenics needs to support it.
ReplyDelete1RR dual Wielder
commen
creature - human soldier
[cardname] enters the battlefield with 2 weapon tokens (artifact - equipment +1/+0 equip 2) atached to him
1/1
2R blade runner
commen
creature - human beserker
haste
Whenever [cardname] enters the battlefield, you may attach an equipment card you control to him
2/1
and bonus rare
2RRR weapon elemental
rare
creature - elemental
haste
Whenever [CARDNAME] enters the battlefield, attach all equipmentcard you control to him.
Sacrifice [cardname] at the beginning of your endstep
Depending on the P/T, Weapon Elemental has a forebear in Vulshok Battlemaster. I would say in many cases the difference between "attach one equipment for free" and "attach all your equipment for free" is negligible, but maybe this is a setting where it's not? If that's the case, I'm not sure I /want/ all my equipment moving to one creature where I'd have to re-equip it once the creature dies.
DeleteI would probably move Blade Runner up to uncommon at least, and give Weapon Elemental either trample or a "re-attach all equipment to your other creatures" clause to be more impressive.
Did you want to design an equipment card, or is Dual Wielder the B-side of the A-B?
Equipment is totally A-B.
DeleteWhy does Dual Wielder makes equipment that Blade Runner can't equip?
pasteur
DeleteThis is chalange is about a A-B machanic that is meant for a whole set. Like mandness and discard. For this hypthipical set, one of the themes is equipment as I showed with the equipment tokens.
I do not get what your problem is with the elemental. Red burn is full of throw away spells. (i do say, I forgot to give it trample)
and bonus rare
2RRR weapon elemental
rare
creature - elemental
haste, trample
Whenever [CARDNAME] enters the battlefield, attach all equipmentcard you control to him.
4/1
@ Jay: Ow, I said card xD
2R blade runner
commen
creature - human beserker
haste
Whenever [cardname] enters the battlefield, you may attach an equipment you control to him
2/1
1RR dual Wielder
commen
creature - human soldier
[cardname] enters the battlefield with 2 weapon tokens (artifact - equipment +1/+0 equip 2) atached to him
1/1
REVIEW
DeleteBlade Runner is a solid card on its own, rewarding equipment (especially with high equip costs) more than usual. I wouldn't be surprised to see that exact card printed some day. In line with Kor Outfitter.
I can't imagine Dual Wielder at common, because it would make So Much equipment to the environment, but at uncommon, sure. While +1/+0 for {2} isn't maximally intuitive, it could easily be the best configuration of equipment tokens for good gameplay.
If we push equipment-matters too hard in a set, the equipment will have to be terrible because the card type is inherently powerful. But in small numbers like the Kor of Zendikar or the Humans of Innistrad, equipment-matters allows us to print slightly weak looking equipment without disappointing players, and that's good because equipment is always better than it looks.
Scrollforged Adept 1R
ReplyDeleteCreature-Human Monk
Spellpower(When ~ enter the battlefield, you may exile a sorcery from your hand.)
If you exiled a card with ~, it gets +2/+0.
1'2"
You can use either this submission or Verdant Inferno below. (I prefer Verdant Inferno)
DeleteCommon
ReplyDeleteDajiir Refinery
ReplyDeleteLand (uncommon)
T: add <> to your mana pool.
Steampowered- T: add U or R to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if you have any steam.
Dajiir Foreman 2R
Creature- human assembly-worker (common)
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you get +1 steam until end of turn.
<>: CARDNAME gains haste until end of turn.
3/2
Do you foresee Steam being spent throughout the turn, or does it just accrue, get checked, and dissipate?
DeleteAccrue, be checked, and dissipate seems better to me.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOfficial change (card #2)
DeleteDajiir foreman. 1R
Creature- human assembly-worker (common)
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you get +1 steam until end of turn.
2/1
Very A-B.
DeleteREVIEW
DeleteDajir Foreman is a Goblin Piker when you don't have any steam-powered cards. Dajir Refinery is a colorless land when you don't have any steam.
While off, the former might be weak or just-playable depending your deck, while the latter is actively bad. When you have both, attacking with the Foreman turns on your Refinery and any number of other steam-powered cards you have. That's the part that makes steam feel sufficiently distinct from mana, and worth considering.
The 2R Foreman is much more attractive, but your instinct that it'll be drafted by players who don't care about steam is right. The 1R version supports the archetype more directly (but less so, because it's weaker).
Refinery likely needs to be stronger. Steam won't be available on a huge number of cards, and if most of them have to risk combat to produce steam, the bonus should be bigger. Any color of mana, in this case. Maybe even {2}.
Thanks for the review. My "vision" of steam/steampowered is as a major block mehanic found in most (possibly all?) colors.
DeleteThe land "turns on" with +1 steam, as a consession to actually being a dual land. I imagine other Steampowered cards would like to have a higher threshold of steam to turn on. I kind of like "T: add C. Steampowered-T: Add CC", but duals are important (and easier for the artisans to swallow than lands that tap for more than one mana).
The goblin piker is indented more as a sigiled skink. Cheap, aggressive enabler without much fan fair or payoff.
Each color would have to rely on the color pie to dictate how (and how much) it generates steam. I haven't really fleshed it out but attacking doesn't seem like it should be the only way to generate steam.
Cannister bomb R
Inst (c)
Deals 2 damage to a creature, you get +1 steam until end of turn.
Pipe Burst. 4R
Sor (u)
Deals 4 damage to target creature.
Steam powered- deals an additional 4 damage to that creatures control of you have 3 or more steam.
Pressurizer 2
Art (u)
T: add <>.
T, sac: you get +2 steam until end of turn.
Forge Stoker 2R
Cre- human assembly-worker (r)
Whenever an effect gives you steam, it gives you that much steam +1 instead.
CARDNAME's power is equal to your steam.
*/4
Dajiir Assembly line
Land (r)
T: add <>
2, T: you get a cannister artifact token. It has "sac: +1 steam until end of turn"
Thanks again. I dislike A-B mechanics in limited, but this seems to have a lot of design space.
It's fairly likely we'll only ever want steam to be a boolean, but we'd certainly test it both ways.
DeleteSteam Juggernaut {4}
DeleteArtifact Creature—Juggernaut (unc)
~ doesn't untap during your untap step.
At EOT, if you have steam, untap ~.
5/4
Thopter Assembly line
Land (r)
{T}: Add {C}
{1}, {T}: Put a 1/1 flying Thopter token OTB. Activate this ability only if you have steam.
Goblin Mentor
ReplyDelete1R (Uncommon)
Creature -- Goblin Warrior
When ~ ETBs, put a 1/1 red goblin creature token with haste OTB. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
"Charge as hard as you can at the elves and humans, then report back. OK?"
Cliffside Charge
4R (Uncommon)
Sorcery
Affinity for Tribal (Choose a creature type. ~ costs 1 less for each creature you control of that type beyond the first.)
Target creature gets +5/+0 and gains haste and trample. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
I started asking myself, the difficulty with A/B mechanics is having enough enablers without making it feel forced. What cards do most decks already have some of? Creatures! But that's too broad, people will already draft creatures. What next? Land! But we already have land-based A/B mechanics, mana cost (and landfall). OK, what's next most common? Creatures of a particular type. OK, can we combine affinity and tribal?
Originally it was going to be "for goblins", but I couldn't see any reason not to throw a bone to other tribal decks. Allowing tribal with more mix-and-match makes it less of an auto-build (if you splash this in an elf deck), and gives more love to niche minotaurphiles.
I don't think this works within the given rules for Affinity-specifically, but I like your templating. Sadly "kinship" and "tribal" both have pre-existing rules - maybe:
DeleteRapport (Choose a creature type. ~ costs 1 less for each creature you control of that type beyond the first.)
I could really see this being balanced enough to be fun and encourage tribal decks without mandating them or having to be Delve-ly costed.
Interesting.
DeleteGoblin Mentor could be 2/2 or make a 2/2.
Should the token be a warrior too, so you can choose goblins or warriors?
Oops, I completely forgot P/T. I originally matched stats to cards like Goblin Fodder (two 1/1 for 2). But at uncommon it should probably be slightly bigger. 2/2+1/1 for 1R seems very aggressive even at uncommon though (evaluating a 1/1 haste sac as about equivalent to a vanilla 1/1). I wanted to keep it cheap to maximize the chance of casting another spell in the same turn. But for 2R might be ok? And it fits the flavour.
DeleteAnd good Q about warrior token. I think wizards usually avoid extra creature types on tokens for flexibility and concision. Even in a tribal set, they usually pick one type and stick to it. But yes, one of the good points about "affinity for tribal" is that the set could potentially support race AND class tribal at the same time. So it makes sense to give that the best chance, let's do that as well.
Let's update that to
Goblin Mentor
2R (Uncommon)
Creature -- Goblin Warrior
2/2
When ~ ETBs, put a 1/1 red goblin warrior creature token with haste OTB. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
"Charge as hard as you can at the elves and humans, then report back. OK?"
In the abstract, a 1/1 haste sac is much worse than a vanilla 1/1, being worth 1 damage in the best case and nothing in many many cases. Obviously, raid, battalion, exploit all change that a bit.
DeleteOh yes, I think I'd got muddled with non-sac tokens. But I think I'll leave it as-is for now, it's reasonable for red. And if it's too attractive it'll never make it to the tribal player.
DeleteREVIEW
DeleteAffinity for Tribal almost certainly doesn't work as templated, but I'm sure there's a simple template for the effect, so we can focus on how it rewards you for going tribal, without pre-sorting itself into specific tribes. Affinity is tricky to balance, and making it open-ended like that may prove un-developable, but I still love "choose a tribe" and think we'll see a ton of that in the next tribal set.
Are we okay with Cliffside Charge for {R} enabled entirely by Goblin Rally or Siege-Gang Commander? On a Warren Instigator? I'm not. But if the spell just cost 1 or 2 less when you have 3+ of any tribe, or if it gave more of a boost (perhaps not killing its target) when you meet that threshold, then it could cost less to start and still be pretty attractive.
Goblin Mentor could be common, since it's so hard to make use of a one-turn 1/1. Without Goblin Grenade, it's worse than Goblin Chariot. This way, it reduces the cost of Charge by {2} instead of {1} but only the turn you play it, so you still need {2}{R}+{2}{R} to do both. For enabling goblin-affinity, I'd rather have Dragon Fodder's permanent boost.
Rapport (This costs {2} less to cast if you control three or more creatures that share a type.)
Delete{2}{R} cmn Instant
Rapport
Deal 3 damage.
{4}{U} unc Sorcery
Rapport
Draw three cards.
{3}{G} unc Sorcery
Rapport
Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
{2}{W} cmn Instant
Rapport
Untap each creature you control. They get +1/+1 until EOT.
{3}{W} cmn Instant
Rapport
Gain 6 life. If you have rapport, draw a card.
{4}{W}{W} rare Instant
Rapport
Put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token OTB for each non-Soldier creature you control.
{4} unc Artifact Creature
Rapport
3/3
{G}{G}{G} unc Creature
Rapport
When ~ ETB from your hand, if you have rapport, put a copy of it OTB.
3/3
{2}{W}{W} rare Enchantment
Rapport
Creatures you control get +1/+1.
{3}{B}{B} rare Instant
Rapport
Destroy target creature that doesn't share a type with any creatures you control.
Draw a card.
Oh cool. Yeah, that seems like a good version of the mechanic.
DeleteOvercharged Drone (3)
ReplyDeleteArtifact Creature - Drone (C)
Overcharge (This creature is dealt noncombat damage in the form of charge counters)
Remove a charge counter from CARDNAME: CARDNAME gets +1/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn.
3/1
Storm Surger (3R)
Creature - Elemental (U)
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to each other creature and each player.
3/2
This is really clever - I'm a fan!
Deletebut still wierd and counter intuitive
DeleteWould any color other than red work as an overcharge enabler?
DeleteBlack probably could. It has plenty of targeted damage spells, and I think the Pestilence mechanic is still more or less in color.
DeleteWhite is a bit more of a stretch, but it has several cards that damage creatures in combat (where cards like Overcharged Drone would most benefit from suddenly gaining charge counters anyway). And with all its mass removal, it can probably do mass damage as well if given the right restrictions. Plus I think the flavor's better here than in black.
If I were to put this mechanic in a set I would probably make the enablers red-white.
Storm Surger seems risky.
DeleteI really like the idea here, I love the feeling of the overcharge counters.
DeleteI worry it will be hard to have enough "deal damage to your own creatures" spells people will actually want to play. (I mean, you can just use normal burn spells, but it's hard to make that more attractive than aiming them at the opponent's creatures without making it too good.)
It may end up just functioning as "red hexproof".
But maybe some tweaks would make it work? Or maybe it should be an ability that triggers on non-combat damage to OPPOSING triggers. Like landfall or bloodthirst etc, it's something you want to do anyway, but you want to do MORE of when you're rewarded for it.
This plays really well with fighting, right? RG Bees was a pretty awesome deck.
DeleteOh good point, I didn't think of that. Yeah, if it's really good fight-fodder. Really good.
DeleteOvercharge says it's about charge counters, but being immune to non-combat damage is what it's really about. It's okay for a keyword to serve multiple functions, but we also want first impressions to be sufficiently valid.
DeleteOvercharged Drone is passively immune to all of red's and green's removal, and a fraction of white's and black's. Your opponent won't be putting any charge counters on it (shy of a Pyroclasm that nets advantage despite Drone). That means if you care about powering up your overcharge creatures, you're going to have to damage them yourself.
You're rarely going to spend a Lightning Strike just to put charge counters on your Drone, but Pyroclasm effects become three times as good in a deck full of overchargers.
Storm Surger illustrates the issue well. Suppose you've got 3 or 6 or however many overcharges in your deck. You play Surger to enable them. But you draw when you only have other X/1s at and can't cast it. Then you side all those creatures out to avoid that problem, but now your deck is lopsided.
Overcharge is also nuts with fight.
What if overcharge didn't prevent damage? "Whenever ~ is dealt damage, put that many charge counters on it." You still have an incentive to hurt your own creatures, but now there's a threshold (their toughness) to how much you can charge them each turn. They do exactly what they say they do, without a distinction between combat and non-combat damage, and they change the value of your and your opponent's cards by a factor closer to 2 than 3. Because combat damage now matters, they still affect gameplay considerably—more actually. That's very different, so it's hard to say whether it's better or not (and impossible without context) but it has some important advantages.
Goblin Sociopath 3R
ReplyDeleteCreature - Goblin Assassin (Uncommon)
Ambition 2 (As this creature enters the battlefield, put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard. This creature enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each creature card put into your graveyard this way.)
When Goblin Sociopath enters the battlefield, it deals damage equal to its power to target creature or player.
1/1
Burning Recollection 2R
Instant (Common)
Burning Recollection deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
Reminisce (You may exile this card from your hand and pay its mana cost. If you do, cast a card with the same converted mana cost as this card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. Reminisce only as a sorcery.)
That's a lot of text.
DeleteI don't get it
DeleteREVIEW
DeleteAmbition rewards you for having a lot of creatures in your deck, and risks milling you out. It's a swingy mechanic with a lot of luck. I would play it (in the right deck), but the milling will turn off many a Tammy who would enjoy the variance, and the luck will turn off many a Spike who would enjoy the cost.
Goblin Sociopath will sometimes be a Sparkmage Apprentice and sometimes a Hill Giant with a free Lightning Bolt.
Reminisce is transmute for your graveyard, except it also casts the card (regardless of color or type). I can reminisce Burning Recollection for Jace Beleren or Brimaz, King of Oreskos. Red shouldn't be able to do that.
I can also reminisce for the same card over and over again, allowing me to build a deck with 8 or 12 copies of my best sorcery. That's not great for tournament variety.
Ambition require anything but creatures (which Burning Recollection doesn't provide). Reminisce does require targets in the GY, though, and ambition helps with that. That's a soft A-B relationship, but valid.
Goblin Sociopath is an 8-line uncommon and Burning Recollection is a 8-line common (just barely). A couple of those are fine in a set, but you could never make an NWO set with two keywords so wordy.
Verdant Inferno 5R
ReplyDeleteCreature - Elemental (Uncommon)
Summoning Circle GGR (You may cast Verdant Inferno for its summoning circle cost if all the mana spent on verdant inferno comes from creature cards)
Haste, Trample
6/1
Archmage of the Circle 3G
Creature - Human Shaman (Rare)
Creatures you control have T: Add one mana of any one color to your mana pool.
0/1
You can use either this submission or Scrollforged Adept above, whichever you think is better.
DeleteThe big problem with supporting Summoning Circle is that if Green gets super "big mana" combined with cards that reduce cost if creatures were used to cast them, Green will dominate by producing threats faster and larger than everybody else.
DeleteThis can be offset like so:
Initiate of the Circle G
Creature - Human Shaman (Common)
As an additional cost to cast Initiate of the Circle, return a basic land you control to its owner's hand.
T, Add G to your mana pool.
1/1
Part of the challenge is evaluating which of your ideas is strongest.
DeleteHard to imagine a set having enough myr/elves to support a keyword like that. But I could see it on a rare.
A keyword that gives a bonus for spending mana from a creature seems like it could be interesting. But frankly, I don't think cost reduction is the best way to go here.
DeleteFirst, the point of mana elves is already to get creatures out faster. Cost reduction as a further bonus makes the mechanic more powerful but doesn't really add anything new to it. Note that Battalion never makes tokens, Ferocious never gives a power boost (except Savage Punch, and only then because P/T boosts go really well with fighting), etc.
Second, this particular implementation seems hard to support in Limited. Unless most Summoning Circle costs are only one mana, you'll usually need more than one elf out before you can use them.
I really like this idea, but I agree with Taresivon about the problems, it may need to take a different form.
DeleteREVIEW
DeleteIt's not a great sign for a mechanic when the marquee enabler for it is a rare. How do we build a set with enough mana-generating creatures to give players any hope of enjoying summoning circle? How does the format play out that has so much mana available? And with all that mana acceleration, is further cost reduction the reward players would appreciate most?
The obvious comparison is convoke, which is simpler and easier to use, nailing the same theme.
Verdant Inferno's {G}{G}{R} cost means I can't even cast it with a Coalstoker. For answering that challenge, I'd expect a creature less fragile.
Archmage of the Circle will probably be a card one day, but since it's more fragile than Cryptolith Rite, I'd expect it to be cheaper or larger.
Verdant Inferno 1R
DeleteCreature - Elemental (Common)
Haste
Summoning Circle (As an additional cost to cast ~, you may tap two creatures)
If you paid its summoning circle cost, Verdant Inferno gains trample.
5/1
No longer an A/B mechanic, but I like the flavor still.
Nice! And if you swap haste and trample there are no memory concerns.
DeletePolar Champion
ReplyDelete2(2/W)
Artifact Creature - Positive Knight - Uncommon
First Strike
Negative creatures you control get +1/+1
2/2
Momentum Bomber
(2/R)
Artifact Creature - Negative Soldier
CARDNAME can't attack unless a Positive creature is also attacking.
CARDNAME can't block unless a Positive creature is blocking the same creature.
2/2
Is that a creature type or a supertype?
DeleteI like the idea. I wonder where it's going. Do all polar creatures have a bonus for the opposite creature? Are those often the same (either across the polarity, or within in?)
DeletePolar creatures need to take up a fair proportion of the set to give people a chance to draft them together, but not so much that everyone just gets the creatures by default. I wonder where the best balance is, it may be hard to find one.
Momentum Bomber is *really* nerfed, if it can't attack or block at all without the corresponding card. Most A/B cards have *some* effect. Could it be less absolute and still fill the same niche? Or is that the idea?
REVIEW
DeletePositive/Negative definitely qualifies as an A-B mechanic, though its the most parasitic we've seen in a long while. It's not that A needs B but B just needs to exist, B needs A just as bad. Each set does want a linear mechanic, though, so if the gameplay is really great, this could work. At least in Limited and Standard. Parasitic mechanics powerful enough to appear in Modern tend to be simply too powerful for those two formats.
Polar Champion is playable at {2}{W} if a bit underwhelming for uncommon (and generally weak at {4}), but if you've got a couple negative creatures at the same time, you'll be quite glad to have it.
Momentum Bomber can't do anything without positive creatures, which is pretty bad for {2} and not great for {R}, but pair it with Polar Champion and suddenly it's a 3/3 that can attack. It still can't block in any satisfying way, and that's an uneccessary complication we'll definitely want to remove.
As twobrid creatures, you can draft a five-color deck of all positive and negative creatures, trying to maximise your synergy at the expense of casting things on curve. I'd be curious to see how that plays out in practice. It might be really nice, or it might be so nice that too many players draft it and its horrible. IDK and I'd be curious to find out. Being so parasitic, the risk of drafting a completely terrible deck because you only got half the polarized cards you wanted is very real.
On reflection, maybe A and B could be creature types where in THIS set, all elves need treefolk and vice versa, but outside the set, they can be paired with existing cards of the other type (that don't get the benefit but may be stronger-than-average rather than weaker-than-average).
DeleteIn fact, more so than most challenges, this one has thrown up several mechanic ideas which, if not perfect, I'd be interested to see more of.
Lorwyn had some good inter-tribal cards like that. Probably important not to overdo it.
DeleteOh yes. I liked that they tried for more variety. But a lot of tribal was normal within-tribe, it's just there was a bunch of cards that wanted something else too. I always felt frustrated that X wanted Y and Y wanted something else, and it's not like the cross-tribal rewards were large enough to encourage it over tribal if you had a choice.
DeleteIf the focus of the set was elves-want-treefolk and treefolk-want-elves (and the same for some other tribes), it would feel like a different design to me.
Momentum Bomber is a common, fwiw
ReplyDelete