Let's talk about Madness. I love it.
So much so that I was thinking about a way to do a twist on it. I thought "What if you got twice the spell?", leading to this mechanic;
Double Madness [cost] (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its double madness cost and copy it or put it into your graveyard. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Nice, simple, fun. This is not unlike the cycling triggers that give you more-than or less-than the cycled card's effect when you cycle. But Double-Madness just gives you a 2nd copy of the card. Standard Fork wording; no muss.
But then it occurred to me that I like Replicate as a mechanic. Unfortunately Replicate suffered from the obvious "This is difficult to balance" costing issues, and wizards erred on the side of caution. Today about the only replicate spell anyone knows or cares about is Shattering Spree, with Gigadrowse being a distant second.
So I thought "Why not combine them?" By making a mechanic that let you replicate the spell only if you've discarded, you make it so you have to jump through hoops to replicate. And so was born...
Spreading DementiaB
Sorcery (C)
Target player discards a card. Escalating MadnessB(If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Cons:
1. Possibility for abuse is high.
2. Unlike Madness, this cannot be on permanent cards; so it's stuck on instants and sorceries.
Pros:
1. Escalating Madness seems like a nice UBR keyword.
2. It's fun.
More cards:
Grave DesertsB
Instant (U)
You may exile up one card from target player's graveyard. If the exiled card is a creature card, create a tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature token. Escalating MadnessB(If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Careless Discovery1U
Sorcery (C)
Put the top card of target player's library into his or her graveyard. If a creature card was put into the graveyard in this way, create a tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature token. Otherwise, draw a card. Escalating MadnessB, Pay 2 life (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Web of ThoughtsU
Instant (C)
Target player draws a card. Escalating Madness1U(If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
For the Birds2U
Sorcery (U)
Create a 1/1 blue bird creature token with flying. Draw a card. Escalating Madness - Return two islands you control to their owners' hands. (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
SnickerR
Sorcery (U)
Each opponent loses 1 life. Escalating Madness - Discard a card (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Cloud Strings1UR
Sorcery (U)
Untap target creature and gain control of it until end of turn. It gains haste and flying until end of turn. Escalating Madness - UR(If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Think Right2U
Sorcery (R)
Target player draws two cards. Escalating Madness - U, Discard a card. (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
To the Face1RR
Sorcery (R)
~ deals 3 damage to each opponent. Escalating Madness - R, Sacrifice a creature. (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Tarnation3BB
Sorcery (R)
Choose 1 -
- Destroy all creatures.
- Draw two cards, then lose 2 life. Escalating Madness - 1BB. (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Regarding your first version, double madness, why not just bring back madness and add a trigger or conditional effects to relevant cards that you want to make escalating?
Spreading Dementia V0.9 B
Sorcery (U)
Target player discards a card.
When you cast Spreading Dementia, copy it if it's madness cost was paid.
Madness B (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its madness cost or put it into your graveyard.)
Spreading Dementia V0.91 B
Sorcery (U)
Target player discards a card. If Spreading Dementia's madness cost was paid, that player discards two cards instead.
Madness B (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its madness cost or put it into your graveyard.)
Replicated madness is more interesting by comparison, but seems just as hard to balance as replicate. It's going to be really hard to get them to a point where they are playable in standard without being busted in standard. You gain a single development knob over replicate in that you can control the power level of discard effects in the format. Thing is, this isn't a precise knob and turning it requires changing the design of many cards (potentially every discard outlet) and affects the power level of many cards (basically every escalating madness card). It seems to me like replicated madness has all the same developmental difficulties as replicate originally did.
(I'm not trying to comment on your individual designs but it's worth noting that Tarnation doesn't really work. If you copy a modal spell, you have to choose the same modes and there is basically never going to reason to want to copy a damnation effect.)
EDIT: Actually, replicating madness seems to have even worse developmental problems than replicate as you lose the ability to cost a single instance of the effect at a different rate from multiple instances of the effect. Consider the following replicate design which doesn't really have a clean escalating madness variant...
Replicated Madness B
sorcery
Target player discards a card
Replicate 1B
...Of course, the develpmental problem gets much easier if you just overcost the escalating madness ability and leave the cards pushed at normal casting cost, but doing so feels really boring and lame. And the same is true of replicate...
Replicated Insight 2UU
Sorcery
Draw three cards.
Replicate 7UU
...Replicated Insight is developmentally pushed and likely balanced, but it isn't interesting as a replicate design at all
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
- Manite
Re: Double Madness. Keywording Double Madness offers design constraints (you can't make them discard 3 instead of 2, for example), but it does let you quickly evaluate cards. All cards with Double Madness work the same. Amonkhet block's cycle + effect? They work vaguely the same, but the rare from Hour of Devestation? Doesn't work the same. At all.
Double Madness is fun and useful. It's familiar (as madness is; you could even print cards w/ normal madness in the same block if you wanted to). And if you want to print cards that your have to spend time reading to evaluate... well, that's easy, since one of your block's mechanics is easily grokable.
You mention how escalating madness loses the ability to have a different replicate cost than "1st copy" cost. You are correct. Thus there are different design constraints on it. Are these bad? It depends; can you crap out a half dozen dozen, simple cards like Shattering Spree? If so, you're better than Wizards' for Replicate.
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So much so that I was thinking about a way to do a twist on it. I thought "What if you got twice the spell?", leading to this mechanic;
Double Madness [cost] (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its double madness cost and copy it or put it into your graveyard. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Nice, simple, fun. This is not unlike the cycling triggers that give you more-than or less-than the cycled card's effect when you cycle. But Double-Madness just gives you a 2nd copy of the card. Standard Fork wording; no muss.
But then it occurred to me that I like Replicate as a mechanic. Unfortunately Replicate suffered from the obvious "This is difficult to balance" costing issues, and wizards erred on the side of caution. Today about the only replicate spell anyone knows or cares about is Shattering Spree, with Gigadrowse being a distant second.
So I thought "Why not combine them?" By making a mechanic that let you replicate the spell only if you've discarded, you make it so you have to jump through hoops to replicate. And so was born...
Cons:
1. Possibility for abuse is high.
2. Unlike Madness, this cannot be on permanent cards; so it's stuck on instants and sorceries.
Pros:
1. Escalating Madness seems like a nice UBR keyword.
2. It's fun.
More cards:
Grave Deserts B
Instant (U)
You may exile up one card from target player's graveyard. If the exiled card is a creature card, create a tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
Escalating Madness B (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Careless Discovery 1U
Sorcery (C)
Put the top card of target player's library into his or her graveyard. If a creature card was put into the graveyard in this way, create a tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature token. Otherwise, draw a card.
Escalating Madness B, Pay 2 life (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Web of Thoughts U
Instant (C)
Target player draws a card.
Escalating Madness 1U (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
For the Birds 2U
Sorcery (U)
Create a 1/1 blue bird creature token with flying. Draw a card.
Escalating Madness - Return two islands you control to their owners' hands. (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Snicker R
Sorcery (U)
Each opponent loses 1 life.
Escalating Madness - Discard a card (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Cloud Strings 1UR
Sorcery (U)
Untap target creature and gain control of it until end of turn. It gains haste and flying until end of turn.
Escalating Madness - UR (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Think Right 2U
Sorcery (R)
Target player draws two cards.
Escalating Madness - U, Discard a card. (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
To the Face 1RR
Sorcery (R)
~ deals 3 damage to each opponent.
Escalating Madness - R, Sacrifice a creature. (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Tarnation 3BB
Sorcery (R)
Choose 1 -
- Destroy all creatures.
- Draw two cards, then lose 2 life.
Escalating Madness - 1BB. (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its escalating madness cost or put it into your graveyard. Copy this spell for each time you paid its escalating madness cost beyond the first. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Spreading Dementia V0.9 B
Sorcery (U)
Target player discards a card.
When you cast Spreading Dementia, copy it if it's madness cost was paid.
Madness B (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its madness cost or put it into your graveyard.)
Spreading Dementia V0.91 B
Sorcery (U)
Target player discards a card. If Spreading Dementia's madness cost was paid, that player discards two cards instead.
Madness B (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its madness cost or put it into your graveyard.)
Replicated madness is more interesting by comparison, but seems just as hard to balance as replicate. It's going to be really hard to get them to a point where they are playable in standard without being busted in standard. You gain a single development knob over replicate in that you can control the power level of discard effects in the format. Thing is, this isn't a precise knob and turning it requires changing the design of many cards (potentially every discard outlet) and affects the power level of many cards (basically every escalating madness card). It seems to me like replicated madness has all the same developmental difficulties as replicate originally did.
(I'm not trying to comment on your individual designs but it's worth noting that Tarnation doesn't really work. If you copy a modal spell, you have to choose the same modes and there is basically never going to reason to want to copy a damnation effect.)
EDIT: Actually, replicating madness seems to have even worse developmental problems than replicate as you lose the ability to cost a single instance of the effect at a different rate from multiple instances of the effect. Consider the following replicate design which doesn't really have a clean escalating madness variant...
Replicated Madness B
sorcery
Target player discards a card
Replicate 1B
...Of course, the develpmental problem gets much easier if you just overcost the escalating madness ability and leave the cards pushed at normal casting cost, but doing so feels really boring and lame. And the same is true of replicate...
Replicated Insight 2UU
Sorcery
Draw three cards.
Replicate 7UU
...Replicated Insight is developmentally pushed and likely balanced, but it isn't interesting as a replicate design at all
- Manite
Double Madness is fun and useful. It's familiar (as madness is; you could even print cards w/ normal madness in the same block if you wanted to). And if you want to print cards that your have to spend time reading to evaluate... well, that's easy, since one of your block's mechanics is easily grokable.
You mention how escalating madness loses the ability to have a different replicate cost than "1st copy" cost. You are correct. Thus there are different design constraints on it. Are these bad? It depends; can you crap out a half dozen dozen, simple cards like Shattering Spree? If so, you're better than Wizards' for Replicate.