GDS3 Discussions: Scott Wilson's Challenge 3 Submission

(These posts are being backdated for administrative purposes. They were not disclosed to nor published on this site prior to their publication on the mothership. You can read the judge commentary on Scott's submission on his official GDS page)



CONTESTANT COMMENTS

Creatures with ancestry can be exiled from the graveyard to become an "ancestor" to a "descendant" on the battlefield, boosting their power/toughness and granting abilities. It's a fun way to get value out of creatures in your graveyard, and odd ancestor/descendant pairings are part of the mechanic's charm.

Ancestry feels like a mixture between scavenge and bestow. Like scavenge, it lets you get value out of creatures in the early and late game, but ancestry also grants abilities in addition to power/toughness boosts. Like bestow it grants abilities, but ancestry eliminates the bad feeling of holding a card in hand until you can get full value.

There are several ways ancestry can grant abilities. I want to show many different possibilities on these eight cards, so I utilized static abilities, ETB triggers, death triggers, the unique "becomes an ancestor" trigger, and more.

Ancestry's power/toughness and ability boost is about the same complexity as Equipment/Auras, and all common/uncommon creatures with ancestry have square stats to make math easier. The reminder text is written to avoid using Xs and Ys.

Ancestry is very flexible and open ended—all it requires is a creature with ancestry in your graveyard and a creature on the battlefield.

The common Legacy Protector is intended to help you reach the late game to hit higher ancestry costs, Lineage Historian digs for cards and dumps bonus ancestry cards in the graveyard, and Mausoleum Caretaker can grab back some of those self-milled creatures.

Let's make some crazy family trees!

1) Heritage Guardian (common)
4G
Creature — Elf Warrior Spirit
4/4
Heritage Guardian and its descendant have trample.
Ancestry 6G (You may pay 6G and exile this card from your graveyard as the ancestor of target creature you control. Add this card's power and toughness to its descendant's. Ancestry only as a sorcery.)

2) Legacy Protector (common)
2W
Creature — Human Spirit
2/2
When Legacy Protector enters the battlefield or becomes an ancestor, you gain 2 life.
Ancestry 4W (You may pay 4W and exile this card from your graveyard as the ancestor of target creature you control. Add this card's power and toughness to its descendant's. Ancestry only as a sorcery.)

3) Destructive Relative (common)
R
Creature — Goblin Spirit
1/1
When Destructive Relative or its descendant dies, it deals damage equal to its power to target player.
Ancestry 3R (You may pay 3R and exile this card from your graveyard as the ancestor of target creature you control. Add this card's power and toughness to its descendant's. Ancestry only as a sorcery.)

4) Lineage Historian (uncommon)
3U
Creature — Merfolk Spirit
2/2
When Lineage Historian enters the battlefield or becomes an ancestor, look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.
Ancestry 3UU (You may pay 3UU and exile this card from your graveyard as the ancestor of target creature you control. Add this card's power and toughness to its descendant's. Ancestry only as a sorcery.)

5) Mausoleum Caretaker (uncommon)
2B
Creature — Vampire Spirit
1/1
When Mausoleum Caretaker or its descendant dies, you may return another target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
Ancestry 1BB (You may pay 1BB and exile this card from your graveyard as the ancestor of target creature you control. Add this card's power and toughness to its descendant's. Ancestry only as a sorcery.)

6) Brushfire Witch (rare)
1RG
Creature — Goblin Shaman Spirit
1/1
Brushfire Witch and its descendant have "1RG: This creature deals X damage to any target and this creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is its power."
Ancestry 4RG (You may pay 4RG and exile this card from your graveyard as the ancestor of target creature you control. Add this card's power and toughness to its descendant's. Ancestry only as a sorcery.)

7) Tidal Waveshaper (rare)
3WU
Creature — Merfolk Wizard Spirit
3/1
Whenever Tidal Waveshaper or its descendant attacks, create a token that's a copy of another target attacking creature and that's tapped and attacking.
Ancestry 4WU (You may pay 4WU and exile this card from your graveyard as the ancestor of target creature you control. Add this card's power and toughness to its descendant's. Ancestry only as a sorcery.)

8) Spirit of the Eternal Wood (mythic rare)
1GG
Creature — Elemental Spirit
3/3
When Spirit of the Eternal Wood's descendant dies, return Spirit of the Eternal Wood from exile to the battlefield.
Ancestry 3GG (You may pay 3GG and exile this card from your graveyard as the ancestor of target creature you control. Add this card's power and toughness to its descendant's. Ancestry only as a sorcery.)