I just wanted to share another world concept that I came up with at about the same time as Knuxtxdxth. This set takes place in a well-developed, aristocratic world. The primary struggle in the world is a battle between honor and merit and vice and debauchery. The world's heritage is deeply rooted in the principals of virtue. Handed-down by the instruction of the Divine Soul, who said that it is only through what is true and pure that conscious life may see any meaning. And without these (or in opposite of them), a chaos will consume all and gravely threaten the balance, so that no conscious existence will go unadulterated.
The world was formed during a war in heaven, in which the Divine Soul sought to shelter the world created to be a victim as its own. But the uprising of intense battle battle forced separation of the Divine Soul for a long period of time since. In this time passed, the inhabits of the world have been left to fend for themselves, with only the seemingly ancient instructions of the Divine Soul left behind to guide them. In modern days since this time, the world has fallen into a very downward spiral forewarned of by the Divine Soul. The decline of moral, left unchampioned, now haunts every dark corner of the world. Legions of aristocrats have taken to ways of vice and debauchery, existing like such as a blood-splatter, upon the stained glass of the Church windows; muddying the vision and vibrancy of all hope and faith; all that is pure and true.
With hearts becoming heavy and the tension almost too much to bare, a noble aristocrat suddenly declares war on the corruptees, and a group of other noble aristocrats (who become known as the Corsair [a name meaning 'exemplar/envoy, or privateer authority of the Divine Soul']); begin taking the fight to the Imperial Occulte; who think of themselves as pimps, and have begun to engage in all kinds of unspeakable practices. Supporters of the Imperial Occulte are often called Musketeers by the Corsair (a name meaning 'dirty rat' or 'stench—of tears'; correlating to the reaction instigated by the sight of their vice, debauchery—and hubris [extreme pride or arrogance in regard to their wrong-standing or wrong-doings]).
The Imperial Occulte have attracted some very powerful allies, who seek to exist as kings among the debaucherous party, and excessively indulge themselves with the fruits of unspeakable practices. One of such is known as the Moorish Chief, who is revealed by the leader of the Corsair to be actually be an incredibly powerful planeswalker, from the genesis of mankind. He abandoned his destine love, the Divine Soul, and all the faithful to what is pure and true to take up the way of the devil (Hedonism—the obsessive indulgence of oneself without any consideration for the well-being of others; disrespecting free will and well-being.) The oversoul of this very spirit of vice and debauchery that threatens the noble world.
However, despite the overhead, the Corsair are determined to exorcise this threatening spirit of vice and debauchery from the world. And their noble leader blazes a path for them—onwards to victory.
Mechanics
This is mostly a combat based set revolving around sword-fighting, so the nature of the mechanics should be obvious. However, the mechanics are pretty pretty adaptable, so that they could easily see use outside of the block as well. I thought to provide enough functionality so that this is adaptable by both form and flavor. As a side-note, I was also thinking about making Disarm reset power and toughness. I've included that version in the Full Form variant.
Pierce (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, put a -1/-1 counter on that creature at the end of combat.)
Disarm (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, detach all cards attached to that creature. It permanently loses up to one of its colors and/or all instances of a keyword of your choice.)
Indomitable (This creature can't be destroyed by creatures with a combined power and toughness less than or equal to its own.)
En Garde (Whenever this creature attacks or taps to activate an ability, challenge your opponent. If you win, you may have any creature block it this turn if able or have any creature lose all abilities until end of turn.)
Currently, this function is modal, meaning you can challenge your opponent using any of the means below. I think this is great because it provides lots of interactivity to keep the aspect fun, while enabling players to take different paths if their energy is high or low. Statistically, the 20-sided dice challenge has the best odds, but there's obviously some psychological factor in the others, especially the last one, which puts all the pressure on the opponent. The concept is based on a challenge of luck—and below is the original design I made to embody the concept as a whole.
To challenge your opponent, each player flips a coin and calls it until one player calls it right and the other player calls it wrong.
To challenge your opponent, each player rolls a twenty sided die. Then, the player that rolls the higher number wins.
To challenge your opponent, have that player call high or low, then that player rolls a 20 sided dice. If the result of the roll is 11~20, then it's high. If the result of the roll is 1~10, then it's low. If that player called it right, then he or she wins the challenge.
This is thought to be a double-sided card. All the effects are printed on the reverse-side. For whimsical people with gambling problems this is a killer.
Test Your Luck2 Instant
Challenge your opponent. Then, apply the following effects based on the color(s) of mana that was spent to cast Test Your Luck.
//
W — If you win, gain 10 life. If you lose, sacrifice all lands you control.
U — If you win, draw two cards. If you lose, discard your hand.
G — If you win, return a card from your graveyard to your hand. If you lose, exile all cards in your graveyard.
R — If you win, you deal 4 damage to any source. If you lose, skip your next turn.
B — If you win, add BBBBB your mana pool. If you lose, you lose half your life, rounded down.
Occulte PoliceB Creature — Human Minion
Nuisance (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with power 3 or greater.) "They're notorious for staging crimes. Most often the worst of what's seen in a day's work. A scoundrel among servants—a treachery upon the innocent world."
1/1
Just a simple evasive alternative I thought would be interesting. A neat concept for corrupt authorities and the suite of other such problematic characters that you can't directly address without jumping through hoops—or by approaching them from some greater social high ground. I had a haunting power-creep tendency that tempted for a moment thinking this should be a 2/1. Just something about it wanting to appeal strongly in the "modernvision". I didn't really like the notion though, because as a 1/1, then you play something like Unholy Strength—and oh yeah‒this guy's a real d[]|. He's definitely going to be a problem. Other quick plays (like Bad Moon) stack with it so that if you can't respond within a few turns, that's going to be the end of the game. Ultimately decided to dismiss the notion. And then I changed my mind.
And then I changed my mind again. To the integrity of the set, the color critically needs this to remain a common, and act as filler especially for draft and block play. In either case, it remains vulnerable to the likes of Underworld Fires/Pyroclasm, so this choice might only be aesthetic.
Corrupt Inspector Clouseau1B Legendary Creature — Human Minion
As Corrupt Inspector Clouseau enters the battlefield, name up to two cards.
Whenever you draw the named card, you may reveal it. If you do, search your library for a copy of that card, reveal it, then put that card into your hand. Shuffle your library. You lose 1 life for each card put into your hand this way.
Nuisance (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with power 3 or greater.)
3/2
Here's a concept that I thought up last night, conceiving a way to combine/implement/optimize elements of Dark Confidant and Vampiric Tutor together, beginning to etch out the power scale for black. It's somewhat of a palette swap/mirror-universe/doppelganger of Judgeman. As a corrupt inspector, he's got to be very aggressive, ruthless; but putting himself off on the corruptee side comes with immense vulnerability. I had a few variant ideas for this effect. One such was making this design legendary, with the name Corrupt Inspector Clouseau. Another was limiting the function to a single named card, but enabling you to search for any number of copies when you do draw it (for the same amount of life). It's a really tough call to make, when you know you only get one shot, and you need the design to be seeing its apex potential in its final form. That being said, I am still considering those options, so don't put this down as the final version. In either case, would probably be really neat in a deck based around Relentless Rats.
I did decide to increase the power-scale a bit here on this one. Despite the need to reflect vulnerability on putting oneself off on the corruptee side, I felt that it's imperative to reflect some measure of resistance that an experienced individual should have. He always wears a vest, and takes some fundamental precautions that make him more of a hard target. I think that's good to the design being legendary, although this one doesn't exactly beckon for it with an effect such as it has (that would act as a benefit in multiple copies—enabling a player to change the named cards).
I also decided to blend down the life cost for the effect, and change the wording composure for better coherence. Nothing prevents a player from naming the same card twice, and then being able to retrieve two copies of it in a single instance. The life cost was blended down because although powerful, the effect isn't exactly as self-sufficient (relying on the draw) as to require such a heavy life cost. At paying 2 life a card, it kind of bends the design into potentially less than playable territories. And that's definitely not something that should be done here. It's a waste of potential. Potential that I believe the design crucially needs for who it is/who it is supposed to be. Just a mortal man—but still an incredible danger for what one is capable of—especially one with such authorities.
Diary of a Madman0 Artifact 2, Pay 1 life, : Look at the top three cards of your library, put one of them into your hand and exile the rest. "It is now October 1st, 4:33AM. Henrietta is dead. I could not bring myself to dismember her corpse. But I dragged her down the steps...and I buried her. I buried her in the cellar."
Here'a a design from a suggestion I gave sainthyacinth in another thread. I decided to put it into a form for myself that I felt wouldn't be thought of—but is the alpha potential available to it. I contrasted the costs with Sensei's Divining Top, as it's almost on odds with it. The fact that you have to exile two cards is a far greater drawback than Sensei's Divining Top, as they both can essentially accomplish the same thing, but at the cost of no precious resources there. Missing your next draw just isn't really a big deal, especially since the Top lets you infinitely work off the top 3 cards of your deck. Dairy of a Madman drops for free, but costs you some life to read it. I don't feel that any more than 1 life is necessary, since it begins to quickly threaten grinding the game down to a sudden end. I actually even questioned if the effect should cost 2, but seeing as how it lets you reach into your library for that one crucial card, I literally can't shake the impact that has, and measure of influence over card advantage and board advantage in the game. I think it really does exactly what it wants to do—exactly as graceful as it needs to be done.
Church Bells1W Enchantment — Saga
|: You may play an additional Plains this turn.
||: White spells you cast with a converted mana cost 6 or greater cost 3 less to cast.
|||: White creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
Here's a design I came up with based on an intention chelovek (a fellow poster) might have had. Originally, I didn't want to do this as a saga, because sagas represent lapses of time, and I felt like the lapse of time for this concept was too short for it to fit the saga concept. Ultimately, seeing no other way it could be done, I quickly decided by a stretch of the imagination that it would have to be done this way. It's a very evocative concept for me. Where I live there are a bunch of churches all around me. I can hear the church bells all the time—ringing out from the distance playing the most beautiful melodies. It opens your heart to the world. Makes you feel like you can accomplish great things. Leaves you feeling so empowered. And that pretty much explains the course of the abilities. So you drop this—and then here comes the bride.
Puritan PoliceW Creature — Human Soldier
Lifelink "Self-aware to the world and its every strife—relentlessly honoring all that is pure and true. An embodiment of patriotism in the fathoms strength that it takes to remain devoted in the face of every crushing danger and desire."
2/1
JudgemanWW Legendary Creature — Avatar
As Judgeman enters the battlefield, name up to three cards and choose a color.
The named cards are the chosen color in addition to their other colors.
Indomitable (This creature can't be destroyed by creatures with a combined power and toughness less than or equal to its own.) "It is as I've said it is—argue that it's not. Hold me up to the light if you think you have the power. I will hold you up to mine—I will break you down!"
1/4
"With this flaming sword that is the truth, I will hold you up to the light, and it will burn your vices to nothing. All that you prized as the source of your power will be revealed as it truly was all along."
Should Judgeman be a Knight—or do you think he should be an Avatar?
The seems super cool, but kind of ruins his intended character as a civil proclamator.
Ignoring the name placeholder, this was a concept I quickly thought of while I was on the name a card kick. It branched off from an idea I had about a design that acted as a way to designate ambiguous threats as definite ones. The original code-name for this was "Declaration". It would be card that that declares others cards as enemies as unlawful/unjust, deceptive, primitive, malicious, or even hallowed/orderly/atoned. There was a loose concept in mind that this effect could work with protection in a dynamic way, so that you can protect yourself from unprotected threats. It enables a playerto only haveto run protectionfrom a single color, and from there would free up all kinds of space in the sideboard for other technical support. As the design unfolded, it began to feel immensely like it belonged in some distant place in time. It still, to me, feels more like a card that was (or should have been) apart of the original Alpha/Beta/Unlimited scene.
I was kind of beside myself with the sense of a power-creep here if I added anything else to the design, but I know better than to more importantly leave something underwhelming. If you want your design to fly, you need to make sure it has enough lift to carry itself in competitive play. Of course, if the effect is really powerful, then it can be more of an easier (or essential) pass to make, but since this effect doesn't really do anything by itself (only enables other content to be useful), I felt there was room enough to give it another ability. I felt something like Order of the Stars would be too cliche, so that's where I decided to put Enforcer down instead.
Currently contemplating a restriction on this card's ability—designating the named cards have to be nonland cards. Currently, it would enable you to name basic lands, and then destroy them with cards like Northern Paladin, Blue and Red Elemental Blast. Sounds awesome though! And with as many a card combo as it is, I'm not hardly seeing the powertrip there. Add Balance and you're only complicating it further. Mine as well just play Armageddon? The more I think about it, the more it just seems like a dynamic deck structure than it does anything totally broken.
The Eternal One2U Creature — Avatar
Protection from green
The second time you draw cards each turn, put that many +1/+1 counters on The Eternal One.
1/1
The Flawless One2W Creature — Avatar
Protection from black
The first or second time a white source causes you gain life each turn, put that many +1/+1 counters on The Flawless One.
1/1
The Virile One2G Creature — Avatar
Protection from red
The second and third time a green creature enters the battlefield under your control each turn, put a number of +1/+1 counters on The Virile One equal to that creature's power or toughness.
1/1
The Cannibalistic One2B Creature — Avatar
Protection from blue
The first time a black source you control causes a permanent to be put into a graveyard each turn, put a number of +1/+1 counters on The Cannibalistic One equal to that permanent's converted mana cost.
1/1
The Blazing One2R Creature — Avatar
Protection from white
The first time a red source you control deals damage to an opponent or a source an opponent controls each turn, put that many +1/+1 counters on The Blazing One.
1/1
Blazing WhirlwindR Creature — Elemental
Blazing Whirlwind enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put two +1/+1 counters on Blazing Whirlwind.
Blazing Whirlwind can't attack unless it has power 6 or greater.
0/0
Blazing WhirlwindR Creature — Elemental
Deathtouch
Blazing Whirlwind can't attack unless it has power 6 or greater.
At the beginning of your upkeep, increase Blazing Whirlwind's base power by 2.
0/3
This brilliant piece of work was the product of a spontaneous idea that came to mind for a time-lapsed Ball Lightning. The concept was that it would essentially be some equal of Ball Lightning—only for a single mana—and would have to mature over the course of a few turns to bridge the gap of power, cost, and balance. I loved the idea when it came to mind. Dynamic and interactive—pseudo-unique. It would have all the qualities that really make for an immensely appealing card (the kind that stimulate and sustain the most interest in the game). To be honest, I really am struggling to make peace with the current version of the design. It almost feels like it does too much, and is all over the place in odd directions. I sort of prefer the original version for its simplicity and linear order. However, I was immensely compelled by the essence of giving this card Deathtouch, and it being able to destroy creatures via other content (such as the Magic Red Loop enchantment posted here). If you put two of them together, it almost becomes like a Father-Son Kamehameha, and enables it to attack on the immediate turn after it enters the battlefield.
I had another concept for perfecting a design from Bloodlines named Kihadou, and doing something like this, only with charge counters instead. Odd that they would kind of be so redundant of one another. It might seem odd that something like Street Urchin is able to deflect it entirely, but if you look back to characters like Paul Revere, it's actually been known to be a quite a thing. I'm really just hard stuck on the essence of this having deathtouch for one mana. It just feels like something so immensely appealing for red, that's long overdue, and deserved for it to have. Another amazing bit about this design is its tactical utility. It secretly exists as my Super Special Awesome Chocolaty Fudge Coated Super Bait Super Card. It's a removal bait for a single mana, that intends to provoke your opponent to waste their removal spells on it, while offering an offensive bonus if they don't. It might come as a surprise, but this is not the first time you should have seen this either.
Mentalforce Armor2U Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each card in your hand.
Enchanted creature may block creatures as though they have no abilities.
This was a quickie concept that I came up with in the shower. I thought of it being a blue variant of Blanchwood Armor, then remembered there was Empyrial Armor/Empyrial Plate. I really didn't want to expand upon it any—wanting to keep it relevant to its green contemporary. But remembering the pre-existing concepts forced me to take this beyond the likes of that to stave the redundancy. I tried putting both effects into one line, but the effect honestly felt tacky to me then, so I split them apart into two separate lines. The second effect certainly fits in well with the project, and is a great example of how easy it can be to dance circles around even a powerful ability such as Nuisance.
The flavor of the concept runs along the lines of using ones mind to boost their strength. It's incredibly stylish in the sense that many times over, their confidence is a dark confidence (just a figment of their imagination). They don't actually have any cards in hand, yet they conceive themselves to be immensely empowered. It fits in perfectly with the power toughness boost. Well explained—and great realism. A bit on ends with the title Mentalforce, but possibly just at an absence of words right now. Can't understand why this was never put into blue before. I think it's a great buff for blue that blue creatures have legendarily needed for a long as I can remember.
I started the game in 7th Edition/Odyssey Block, but had a great fascination content from the older sets. Looking over them, I often found so many interesting and imaginative designs that were just missing some bit of crucial support to make it work. This was a great inspiration behind a lot of the creative content I came up with when I got into designing—long after I had left the game (which was a bit after the release of Mirrodin). I had bought one booster box, pulled a Platinum Angel, and kept it as a treasure with my single re-animator deck after selling the rest of my collection. I had a slight return at the Lorwyn set, lasting up until the end of the Shards of Alara block, when I departed once again selling my entire collection.
Even to this day, I find a lot of the development seems very self-centered, and doesn't look back as thoughtfully as it should. I strive not to be like that, and not to make the mistakes of others, or repeat the mistakes of the past. I'd like to not learn the hard way if I can help it. The hard way is never ideal. And though it's thought to be proficient—it's really not. If simply a person is too devoid to fully understand (or interpret) all of the matters and conditions (dynamics of physics) involved, the full lesson or principal is not truly learned. You'll have to revisit it again. Being first is just one of the grand dooms in the professional realm of conscious existence. The other two being—thinking you're smart/but you're not smart—and cheating/or trying to cheat your way through something. Two more grand dooms—best navigated by minding your talent, being honest with yourself, and treading water safely.
Sad Wings of Destiny2U Enchantment
Ward 2
: Exile target untapped creature, then return it to the battlefield tapped. "Although your alpha status is just a figment of your imagination, you're unaware, and so willing to believe. And so you blindly leap, off out on a branch. Taken on the sad wings of destiny. From which you may return a broken man—broken body or broken spirit."
Originally envisioned this design based on the name, which I had absolutely no idea what the effect would be. I had originally thought of something like an aura that you would enchant to a creature you control, and then when it dies, some effect (life gain?). Later I etched out this design based on the effect being combo materia with the design below. Had no name for it and then suddenly felt that it would be an amazing, intriguing fit to the Sad Wings of Destiny. Something compelled me that this wants to be resistant to removal, and that's where the protection from white and from red comes in. Not even the holiest of powers is beyond it. Still open to removal from green, which I don't really mind. Because it's a monkey trick, and then I thought you have the ape, who comes in and quarters it. And thus—that's the sad wings of destiny. But I forgot it's artifacts only. And now it doesn't make much sense. At this cost, I suppose it doesn't really need protection. It's still thought to be beneficial to the flavor, but I quickly don't see any way to implement it as desired (other than adding green to the list). So I did.
Decided to shift the functionality for this one after considering a number of critical issues that the previous version (with a mana activated ability) would face. The design really faced a large cost expensure, and needed to do away with large amount of it to see the self-sufficient potential it would need to thrive in the game. First it wants to be able to do something when it hits the board. It doesn't want to waste a turn just sitting around. Then when it can be put to use—sets you back an additional two mana. Even though the mana activated ability can be used with infinite potential, it more importantly isn't going to see that potential in any time-frame that's precedent to the game. Second it doesn't want to be redundant to itself in multiple copies. You want there to be incentive to having multiple copies in your deck, and being able to make dynamic use of them. From this, I decided to exchange the mana ability cost with a tap activated cost instead. This makes the design more interactive (tapping it interactive—it's fun) and also accomplishes the primary objective by alleviating the immense cost expensure it faced, and solving the redundancy issue in multiple copies.
As disruption/pseudo-removal, this puts it on par with Oblivion Ring, which is great. And for functionality, it is much more graceful in that it forces players to be more resolute and strategic, and doesn't allow them to play like slop, or carry-out unbounded slop operations.
King of Thralls4UBBR Legendary Creature — Demon
King of Thralls costs 4 less to cast if a creature you control that entered the battlefield this turn was put into a graveyard. UBR: Regenerate King of Thralls. If you do, put two +1/+1 counters on it. King of Thralls can't be prevented from regenerating this way. "You've all been crushed on this front! And all the benefit of doubt has been obliterated. There isn't enough left of any of you to toss into the wind."
7/7
Famous Last WordsU Instant
Draw three cards, then discard your hand. "Such poetic tragedy—the most famous last words are the ones we should have never said—and not the ones we never got to speak."
Duel at Sunset1R Enchantment — Saga
|: Nonbasic lands are Mountains.
||: Create a treasure token.
|||: Each player shuffles their hand into their library, then flips seven coins and draws a card for each flip they won.
"Meet me when the sun is in the western sky. The fighting must begin before another, someone, dies."
The idea for this came to be out of the blue. It was just a cosmetic image in my head, no effects, no lead in any direction whatsoever. I actually first thought of it as being a black card. However, the potential (and relativity) to red had so much domain, I just wrote down the concept with both to poise the question, and leaving the design blank to begin the tension. I figured anyone who seen it would try filling in the spots, and I welcomed that, because then it would become a duel at sunset unto itself. And we would see who the best man is. Lots of cliche effects and blanche damage assignments were immediately thought to be avoided. Of course, I had the newborn Challenge function to work with, but was a bit skeptical of using it. It's been sitting in my OneNote for quite awhile (as long as Knxtxdxth)—but I'm still not very familiarized with it myself. I knew the first ability wanted to be something immensely technical. No leads still, but something really intuitive came to mind in the effect of a temporary Blood Moon. Early in the game, that can be such an amazing technical punisher. It almost operates as a Time Walk. The flavor with the mountains also fits perfectly into the theme, by a stretch of the imagination, painting a scene of the sunset in its effect (the sun setting behind the mountains).
The second ability I had originally thought to be universal (effecting both players). However, I would be doing something terrible in that, and going against my own advice: Never give your opponent any unnecessary card advantages. It was then I scrapped the uncomfortable equal sides draw and turned it into a one-sided effect instead. For the effect, there are a lot ofpossible draw combinations, but in the end I decided the classic Bazaar sequence would be the best. The reason for this actually has to do with the third and final ability having gone down on the card first. And Wheel of Fortune was the pretty much the best possible duel reward there could be. It's such as hard card advantage, you're basically dead if you miss it. Since discarding cards would be contradictory as a punisher (even against a winning opponent) I replaced it with a shuffle effect instead. Now here's where the bazaar effect becomes super intuitive to the design. You're loading your chamber, and the draw to discard proportion enables you to "cut the fat", and discard any cards that could be an adulterant when you shuffle and redraw.
Noble CorsairWW Creature — Human Noble Fighter
Pierce (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, put a -1/-1 counter on that creature at the end of combat.)
2/2
Godborn Sentinel2WWW Creature — Human Noble Fighter
Indomitable (This creature can't be destroyed by creatures with a combined power and toughness less than or equal to its own.)
: Godborn Sentinel gets +0/+2 until end of turn. Creatures it blocks this turn don't untap during their controller's next untap step.
3/5
Street UrchinR Creature — Human Thug
Disarm (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, detach all cards attached to that creature. It permanently loses up to one of its colors and/or all instances of a keyword of your choice.) "They're notorious for carrying daggers, often laced with poison for pernicious deeds. A wild dog among humanity—a mutiny upon the spirit of brotherhood."
1/1
Just a few neat designs.
I suddenly realized that Disarm wasn't going to work as I envisioned it, so I thought I mine as well just turn it into a soft-lock deathtouch. Currently, I have it limited to combat damage, but am questioning how necessary that is compared to actual deathtouch. I had a really neat idea of doing something especially unique with the final clause added, and having it remove a colored mana symbol from the cost. The way I envision this to work is: If a card loses all its colored mana symbols, then it loses its color designation and becomes colorless instead. Kinda narrow, but opens up interactivity and design space none-the-less.
EDIT: I had to rework Disarm again, because it wouldn't function the way I originally envisioned it if damage has to be done first. The main idea to disarm was to do so before damage is dealt. With the addition of removing counters, it now treads uncomfortably upon the likes of mid-school phantoms—which is kinda narrow—but still rather feel-bad for me. I guess it can't be helped. Disarmers aren't afraid of ghosts—I don't know what else to tell ya. I am currently contemplating a version that has the creature lose all abilities until the end of its controller's next turn, but that won't really fix the phantom issue any. Also brushed up the flavor text, since it originally referenced being like rats. And with it begin red (and rats traditionally being black) I'm not trying to give anyone a seizure.
Decrepit World Legendary Land
You may have Decrepit World enter the battlefield under another target player's control.
At the end of turn, you lose 1 life.
: Add C to your mana pool. Discard a card at random, then target player gains control of Decrepit World. "What have I become...my sweetest friend? Everyone I know—goes away—in the end."
So here's a design that reflects a play the Divine Spirit made on the world possibly. The design combines elements of Sleeper Agent and Hypnotic Specter to emulate the darkness and severity of the concept. Essentially, this drops, then you give yourself hexproof, so you don't have to hear or deal with any of their bs. From there, they can delude themselves all they want, and pretend f[]| e[]\ o[]t/r i[] [t] [\], and run amok through all their grotesque, disgusting, unspeakable wrong-standing and wrong-doing. And via the suite of Force Bubble, Solitary Confinement, Worship—one transcends onwards to victory.
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized."
These are words that a famous architect responsible for a lot of work in my city, including the Terminal Tower and the Emerald Necklace made and embodied in the work that was done here. It was marvelous work, and I find the words to be ever inspiring in my own work. And having huge domain over fantasy game development. I think this concept has that exact magic—to stir men's blood. Unlike a lot of decisions and choices that the development team has made, which strip away coherence, and forcemajeure from the perception and context of the work. These are things you absolutely never want to do in a fantasy game—because it will make the product blanche and unimaginative—no longer having the magic that stirs men's blood.
Back when I was working on Mythgard and Bloodlines of the Orient, I worked with turning Spellshape into a ability in order to create efficient and resourceful spells that would help to bridge the traditional gap in the flow of the cards. It dawned on me the other day as to why I didn't just do Enchantments with upkeep triggered effects, so these are very new, and a few simple ideas that came to mind. One of the primary ideals here is to make red, blue, and green very splashable for white and black. The blue one is the black sheep of the family—and the CMC of the others hasn't been entirely looked over yet. It can be hard not to get carried away, but I strictly put my foot down to keep these as graceful as possible.
White1WW Enchantment
When ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, you may have target creature gain first strike, vigilance, or flying until the beginning of your next upkeep.
Green2G Enchantment
When ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, you may have target creature gain +2/+2 and trample and reach until the beginning of your next upkeep.
Red2R Enchantment
When ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, you may have target creature gain +2/0 until the beginning of your next upkeep. Then, you may have it fight another target creature if able.
BlueU
Enchantment
When ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, you may have target creature and/or land become the color type, creature type, and/or land type of your choice until the beginning of your next upkeep.
Black1BB Enchantment
When ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, you may have target creature gain deathtouch or become indestructible until the beginning of your next upkeep.
White Domain CopyW Unassigned
Choose a permanent card in any revealed zone. Treat the effects of that card's static abilities as though it's on the battlefield until the beginning of your next turn.
Red Impulse CopyR Unassigned
Copy an activated ability of target creature with in its activation cost. You may reassign any targets or names for this instance.
Blue Method CopyU Unassigned
Copy an activated ability of target creature with only mana in its activation cost. You may reassign any targets or names for this instance.
Green Land/Mana CopyG Sorcery
Copy any number of mana abilities from land cards you own in the graveyard and/or exile. You still have to pay any mana in the activation costs of those abilities to copy it.
Black Reanimate CopyB Unassigned
Copy an activated or triggered ability of target creature card in any graveyard. You may reassign any targets or names for this instance. You lose 2 life.
Colorless Deciphering Copy Unassigned
Copy an activated or triggered ability of target artifact or target artifact card in any revealed zone. You may reassign any targets or names for this instance.
~ cost 6 more to cast if it targets an artifact or a artifact card with a converted mana cost five or greater. or
You can't copy abilities that require 10 mana or greater to activate.
Colorless Spark Copy Unassigned
Copy a loyalty ability of target planeswalker or target planeswalker card in any revealed zone whose activation cost doesn't require loyalty counters to be removed. You may reassign any targets or names for this instance.
Grave Pitfall1GG Creature — Wall
Flash, defender
Whenever Grave Pitfall blocks a creature, tap that creature. It doesn't untap during it controller's untap step as long as Grave Pitfall remains on the battlefield. Any time you could cast a sorcery, you may have an untapped creature you control fight any creature tapped this way.
0/7
Trap Door Room2U Creature — Wall
Flash, defender
When Trap Door Room blocks a creature, put a trap counter on that creature. As long as that creature has a trap counter on it, it loses all abilities and is a 0/2.
0/3
Midnight TerrorsB Creature — Wall
Defender B: Regenerate Midnight Terrors.
Whenever Midnight Terrors regenerates, you may pay B. If you do, put a copy of it on the battlefield. "Mother-daughter slayer reporting for duty!"
0/1
Siege of CoalsRR Creature — Wall
Defender
Indomitable (This creature can't be destroyed by creatures with a combined power and toughness less than or equal to its own.)
Siege of Coals can block an additional creature.
4/4
Shallow TrenchWW Creature — Wall
Flash, defender
When Shallow Trench blocks a creature, untap that creature and remove it from combat. That creature can't attack or block as long as Shallow Trench remains on the battlefield. "Ha ha! It is a hole—just so deep enough so that you sprain your ankle!"
0/2
Thinking about implementing a keyword I designed for another member awhile back to replace Flash in these designs. It's essentially a resource efficient morph based around a more universal, adaptable concept. Also thinking about changing the Silhouette keyword itself, and making it an enchantment rather than a creature for the face-down function. It was only designed to be used for creatures. This form would enable free play (awesome lol-enabler for Enchantment based designs) and currently would exist void of any color designations, although I'd like for it to retain its original color while it's face-down. Making it colorless would open up interaction with the new-age colorless designation, which isn't something I want it to do, as it's not truly relevant to the new-age colorless designation as they've illustrated it.
I like the flavor that Silhouette adds to the designs, although I don't like how it alters their functionality. First by making them more time-lapsed, and second by forcing me to give on the concept of making white and black hard to splash in this set—while red, green, and blue remain openly splashable.
Silhouette [cost] (You may cast this face down as a 0/1 creature for 1. Turn it face up at anytime by paying its silhouette cost.)
Silhouette [cost] (Anytime you could cast a sorcery, you may play this card face down as a 0/1 creature. Turn it face up at anytime for its silhouette cost.)
Holy Greaves2 Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature has haste.
Spells you cast that target equipped creature cost 2 less to cast.
Equip 0
Shouldn't be too much to explain here. Just a graceful palette swap of Lightning Greaves. Could definitely see something like: "Spells you cast cost target equipped creature cost 1 less and spells your opponent casts that target equipped creature cost 1 more to cast." But a holy item wouldn't protect the unholy (if they got their hands on it). It could though suggest that the unholy entity is prime for atonement or redeeming, by the closest reason of superstition. And that certainly backs up the effect it currently has.
Enigmatic Orb0 Legendary Artifact
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may pay 3. If you do, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy. Exile Enigmatic Orb. "No one knows from whence it came, nor the source of its dread power. One thing though is certain: Very few escape its grasp. Even in death—its powers continue."
Change the text of target permanent by exchanging any single mana cost with the mana cost of that card.
Exchange Platform 2
You may pay a planeswalker's mana cost to activate loyalty abilities that planeswalker has which add loyalty counters. This effect enables you to activate loyalty abilities any number of additional times.
Hunger Pains of Savagery
Lost in the Wild1G Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature or planeswalker
At the end of your turn, put a -1/-1 counter on enchanted creature and it loses all abilities until the beginning of your next upkeep; or remove a loyalty counter from enchanted planeswalker. It loses up to one loyalty ability of your choice until the beginning of your next upkeep.
Take by ForceRRR Sorcery
Gain control of target creature with a converted mana cost less than the converted mana cost of a creature you control.
Far from ReasonU Instant
Counter target spell if its converted mana cost is greater than the number of lands it's owner controls. Ignorance surrounds us. It is the bane of all intelligent people. It is the anti-device of all intelligent things. The negative bonds—which tear away from all that is pure and true.
Crush of a Greater Echelon2 Instant
Counter target spell if its converted mana cost is less than the number of lands you control that can produce blue mana.
Necrokinesis1B Sorcery
Put a creature card with converted mana cost 5 or less from your graveyard onto the battlefield. It gains haste. Sacrifice it at the end of turn.
Chaosforce1RR (Our Impression of Chaoslace) Enchantment
Flash
As Chaosforce enters the battlefield, choose a card.
All targets for the chosen card, all copies of it, and all cards with the same name are chosen at random. Re-assign these targets if they weren't chosen at random.
The next time you cast a spell named Chaosforce, the card chosen for it has to be chosen at random.
Mindforce GameU Instant
Change the target of target spell or ability with a single target unless its controller reveals his or her hand and has you choose a card from it, then discards that card. "Many things want to work in theory, but they don't work in practice. Opposing me at your level of development is one of them."
Take Prisoner1UU Instant
Untap target creature and gain control of it. It gains, "This creature can't attack or block as long as the player that controls it doesn't own it."
Prisoner of War1UU Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature or planeswalker
You control enchanted creature or planeswalker.
Enchanted creature or planeswalker can't attack or block or use any loyalty abilities that require counters to be removed from it. Anytime you could cast a sorcery, you may sacrifice Prisoner of War and return enchanted permanent to its owner's control. If you do, add five mana in any combination of colored or colorless mana to your mana pool.
I decided to just take the alternative name I had above for Take Prisoner and split it here. I added planeswalkers to the functionality to give it more umph. Then I took the other ransom concept and put it into black—as that's obviously where it would belong.
Take Ransom2BBB Sorcery
During target player's next turn, you control that player's hand. (You see all cards in that player's hand and make all decisions for any cards played, exiled, discarded, etc.)
Decided to take this a different route with how crowded it is below. I thought to keep this as a sorcery, because it's definitely realistic that people can flail when being taken hostage (or for ransom). Keeping it a sorcery effectively helps to preserve dynamic—while also opening up interactivity a bit so that it becomes more of a soft-lock than a hard one.
Ransom Negotiation1BB Instant
Target a creature you don't control. Target creature's controller sacrifices it or you choose one —
• Add six mana in any combination of colored or colorless mana to your mana pool.
• Target player puts the top 10 cards his or her library into his or her graveyard.
• Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle your library.
Alt. Ver. 1
Choose a creature or planeswalker. The chosen creature or planeswalker dies at the end of its controller's next turn. You can't choose a permanent with protection from black or regeneration this way.
Tragic End1B Sorcery
Target creature dies at the end of its controller's next turn. "O' your indulgence. Makes you feel otherwordly. But you are still, just a mortal man, whose time is ticking away. And you'll be dead soon. And all the things you thought you knew will no longer be relevant. They won't have helped you a single bit."
Ransom RoomBBBB Enchantment
When Ransom Room enters the battlefield, choose a player. The chosen player exiles all creatures he or she controls, then may return any number of those creatures to the battlefield under their control.
Creatures the chosen player controls get -1/-1 for each other creature that player controls.
Decided to go another route again here, seeing as how I don't like to rehash things so much, but prefer to do something unique. Essentially an inverted Coat of Arms with a unique kick. Clears out the room in a unique way—possibly holds a bunch of stuff indefinitely. This is pretty much exactly where it wants to be on par with the gold standard Damnation as a board sweep. Undecided on the cost. It certainly doesn't feel like it should be so cheap, but doesn't feel right to much more expensive either (in contrast with gold standards).
Lucasambumbi the Dark SlaveB Legendary Creature — Human Rogue Wizard
Lucasambumi enters the battlefield under an opponent's control of your choice.
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice another permanent and add B to your mana pool or you lose 2 life.
Exile Lucasambumi: Each opponent creates three treasure tokens.
3/3
Lore Card
"If there was one thing Lucasambumbi knew—it was slave trading. He knew how to be the best, or the worst possible slave. He connivingly choose the latter. And from there knew it was just a matter of time until the patience of his keepers would wear too thin to bare his baneful, scornful soul."
Lucasambumbi, Slave TraderBB Planeswalker — Lucasambumbi
{+1} Gain control of target creature with a converted mana cost 1 or less.
{-2} You get an emblem with, "Anytime you could cast a sorcery, you may return a creature you control but don't own to its owner's control. If you do, add four mana of any combination to your mana pool."
{-6} Change of the text of this permanent by replacing all instances of any number and number word with 6 or six.
{3}
Just wanted to put the emblem figure down on a planeswalker (which I wasn't pressured about having to do from the start). Just the natural course as the other designs evolved. I find it neat how this would work with Disarm above—although obviously I had no intentions of this design at all. It also works dynamically with another design I posted awhile back, Alter Equilibrium, which after they flip the switch would enable a player to jump from the number six to eight! I figure he starts out smuggling birdsor something, I don't know; and then works his wayup tobiggerthings.
Why is this not in the Custom Set Creation subforum?
The concept for this set feels a little too close to Dominaria, the Bant Shard of Alara, and Eldraine for me. What will there be to differentiate it from those sets beyond nuanced details?
There seems to be a bit more of an early modern feel (you do say it's 'more developed'), but that's not something we haven't seen before, as it's also true for Fiora and Innistrad, and might not be enough anyway. The moral/ethical philosophy part is kind of interesting though, maybe if you expanded it out to be a broader thematic/stylistic element that could work.
Mechanics review
Pierce (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, put a -1/-1 counter on that creature at the end of combat.)
Feels wrong to me that this works based on blocking not based on damage or combat damage.
It's a bit of an odd combination between Bushido and Wither. I'm not sure whether it will play that well. Seems like quite a bit too specific of an effect to be a great workhorse mechanic but it's just not exciting enough to be a splashy or quirky one. That said, playtesting is king. so maybe this proves itself to play better than it reads to me.
Disarm (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, detach all equipments and Auras attached to that creature if its combined power and toughness is less than this creature's own.)
Full Form
Disarm (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, detach all equipments and Auras attached to that creature and remove all counters from it, except negative counters, if its combined power and toughness is less than this creature's own.)
This is wordy, swingy, metagame and situationally specific, and even more complex ruleswise than it first looks. I'm not sure if you want either effect, especially the second one, on a one-off card design, let alone a whole mechanic. It's neat flavour, but it just doesn't work as a mechanic. A simplified version of this effect à la Corrosive Ooze and Treefolk Mystic could easily work on a card or two (I don't think the p/t condition is worth the extra text, the effect is situational enough already).
Enforcer (This creature can't be destroyed by other creatures with a combined power and toughness less than this creature's own.)
This is another oddly specific effect that isn't very splashy or quirky either. Maybe on a one-off card. I just don't see this doing enough work for the set to warrant being a mechanic, and I have less hope that it could maybe prove itself in playtesting than with Pierce.
En Garde (Whenever this creature attacks or taps to activate an ability, challenge your opponent. If you win, you may have any creature block it this turn if able or have any creature lose all abilities until end of turn.)
and
To challenge your opponent, each player flips a coin and calls it until one player calls it right and the other player calls it wrong.
To challenge your opponent, each player rolls a twenty sided die. Then, the player that rolls the higher number wins.
To challenge your opponent, have that player call high or low, then that player rolls a 20 sided dice. If the result of the roll is 11~20, then it's high. If the result of the roll is 1~10, then it's low. If that player called it right, then he or she wins the challenge.
Challenge already looks more than complex enough on its own. Nesting it within the mechanic of En Garde is way over the top even for a set aimed at more experienced players. You're literally going to run out of space to put this on cards, which means your going to have to rely on an exterior play aid or something to remind players what it does, and that seems very desperate just to save a mechanic that also gives off serious Clash vibes which don't bode well for its playability *and* has a complex 'lose abilities' effect. Frankly, En Garde reads like a good mechanic from an entirely different game slapped into MtG where it doesn't really belong. MtG as a game already has randomness in the form of the draw, so it just doesn't want this much randomness added to it. There's a reason dice rolling has been restricted to Un sets. It's got some neat casual fun elements and the flavour is good as with your other mechanics, but I don't see this mechanic working in a million years.
Silhouette [cost] (You may cast this face down as a 0/1 creature for 1. Turn it face up at anytime by paying its silhouette cost.)
Free Form
Silhouette [cost] (Anytime you could cast a sorcery, you may play this card face down as an enchantment. Turn it face up at anytime for its silhouette cost.)
Unfortunately, the rules strictly define any face down card on the battlefield as a 2/2 creature, so Silhouette doesn't work. Reworking the rules to make silhouette work would be problematic.
Perhaps you could have Silhouette exile cards face down and then cast them from exile though. That might actually work quite well.
I'm not really seeing the similarities. I think you meant Mercadia and not Dominaria. But even Mercadia was more Middle Eastern—and not very Euro Renaissance. Even Ravinca would be closer than either of those two—with the society development concept it runs.
Still—an immensely far cry. We're talking about an untouched, well-developed, organized world. Magic is like a footnote to them. They're all about aristocratic material world. Politics and social matters, and solving things with their minds and bare hands, before resorting to magic. Not really sure what else to tell you here. Even at first thought, I don't think of this world anything like the others. It's way more neat and polished, and does away with unnecessary or excessive fantasy elements. Which is especially good for the MTG Universe as a whole, because it provides contrast to what is already available. It's actually entirely the opposite—as it intends to be almost nothing like anything that currently exists. But is a much more serious, strict, iron-clad world.
I really loathe the memory-issue argument. Arguing about memory issues for MTG just has lol written all over it. If you have memory problems, then you're just going to want to find a different game altogether. Same is true for saying a new concept is too complex. It's way too late in the game for any of that. Point of no return. Unless a concept is truly mind-bending (which none of these are) then it's going to fit in just find (especially in that it provides new interactivity for the game). This interactivity breeds one of the fun factors of a fantasy game.
I updated Disarm if you check the other posts. I just didn't update the original post so there would be reference as to what the original version looked like. If it did any less, it would be nearly useless. It simply strives to have enough utility so that it's not. This is a equipment/aura heavy development, so it should see great potential here. The current version also has utility with other sets, as it effectively puts a dampener on devotion.
I wanted Pierce the wording composure for Pierce to present the functionality of the mechanic gracefully. It has more command and presence about it triggering of blocking and being blocked. It speaks on fathoms of proficiency. This is a keyword that elaborate finesse. It's not to be abused, or thrown haphazardly around. Rapier equipment don't grant Pierce—for example. It is an action of prowess. It is the man that makes the sword, not the sword that makes the man. I'm not against it working with damage or combat damage, but the majesty of the concept takes a strong kneel then.
I noticed you didn't actually explain why a function or concept doesn't work. You just gave an empty statement, but didn't describe any real significant details of how it's illogical, malfunction, improficient, or counter-productive. This really makes it hard for me to explain myself, when I don't really know what you think is going wrong here. I will say that if the rules say something, and then another developer is presenting something else, the Golden Rule would be a great starting reference. This would really take the simplest adjustment, and I really don't even begin to see the fuss in this one. Limiting face-down cards to creatures only is like crippling yourself as a developer. You need as much design space available to open as possible. This is simply beginning to open some unopened space.
I'm not really seeing the similarities. I think you meant Mercadia and not Dominaria. But even Mercadia was more Middle Eastern—and not very Euro Renaissance. Even Ravinca would be closer than either of those two—with the society development concept it runs.
Still—an immensely far cry. We're talking about an untouched, well-developed, organized world. Magic is like a footnote to them. They're all about aristocratic material world. Politics and social matters, and solving things with their minds and bare hands, before resorting to magic. Not really sure what else to tell you here. Even at first thought, I don't think of this world anything like the others. It's way more neat and polished, and does away with unnecessary or excessive fantasy elements. Which is especially good for the MTG Universe as a whole, because it provides contrast to what is already available. It's actually entirely the opposite—as it intends to be almost nothing like anything that currently exists. But is a much more serious, strict, iron-clad world.
Ok, so your world is also low in magic like Kaladesh. That's interesting.
I really loathe the memory-issue argument. Arguing about memory issues for MTG is just lol-worthy. If you have memory problems, then you're just going to want to find a different game altogether. Same is true for saying a new concept is too complex. It's way too late in the game for any of that. Point of no return. Unless a concept is truly mind-bending (which none of these are) then it's going to fit in just find (especially in that it provides new interactivity for the game). This interactivity breeds one of the fun factors of a fantasy game.
That's really not a productive attitude toward game design. Facing the problem of growing complexity over time and just giving up is not an answer. You can't just let complexity spiral out of control because 'MtG is a complex game'.
Complexity is not just a barrier to entry for new players. Excess complexity ruins gameplay for everyone. It makes gameplay tedious, exhausting and distracts from the fun of the game by occupying your time with bookkeeping, memory exercises and math. Complexity isn't just about comprehension. And games should only be as complex as they need to give them the best gameplay, and not add in complexity just because they can.
I updated Disarm if you check the other posts. I just didn't update the original post so there would be reference as to what the original version looked like. If it did any less, it would be nearly useless. It simply strives to have enough utility so that it's not. This is a equipment/aura heavy development, so it should see great potential here. The current version also has utility with other sets, as it effectively puts a dampener on devotion.
Pushing an aura and equipment theme only to counter it with a whole anti-auras and equipment mechanic is not going to lead to the best gameplay. The stronger you make the auras and equipment theme, the stronger Disarm will become, the stronger Disarm becomes, the weaker the auras and equipment becomes, the weaker Disarm becomes, and so on. You're pitting your themes directly against each other and it's going to get in the way of either theme working out very well. There's a reason we don't see anti-artifact mechanics even in artifact sets where they would be relevant. Anti-themes are best left to individual cards.
I wanted Pierce the wording composure for Pierce to present the functionality of the mechanic gracefully. It has more command and presence about it triggering of blocking and being blocked. It speaks on fathoms of proficiency. This is a keyword that elaborate finesse. It's not to be abused, or thrown haphazardly around. Rapier equipment don't grant Pierce—for example. It is an action of prowess. It is the man that makes the sword, not the sword that makes the man. I'm not against it working with damage or combat damage, but the majesty of the concept takes a strong kneel then.
I don't see how triggering of blocking and being blocked better represents finesse than combat damage. But since pierce is representing fighting, the fact that it doesn't require the creature to successfully fight to work is odd to me.
I noticed you didn't actually explain why a function or concept doesn't work. You just gave an empty statement, but didn't describe any real significant details of how it's illogical, malfunction, improficient, or counter-productive. This really makes it hard for me to explain myself, when I don't really know what you think is going wrong here.
Are you referring just to my comments on Silhouette here?
I will say that if the rules say something, and then another developer is presenting something else, the Golden Rule would be a great starting reference. This would really take the simplest adjustment, and I really don't even begin to see the fuss in this one. Limiting face-down cards to creatures only is like crippling yourself as a developer. You need as much design space available to open as possible. This is simply beginning to open some unopened space.
It's a rules issue. I don't really know all the detail. You can read up on the rules yourself if you want to try to understand it.
In general, changing the rules just to allow new design space is fine, but it shouldn't be done lightly. There's a lot of design space you can access by making the rules ever more obtuse and complicated. That's not going to make the game more fun to play.
On the topic of complexity, what exactly do you think is over-complicated about it? You're making it out to be an equation of some kind. It's right along the same lines as clash. Did you think that was over-complicated? I didn't find it all that special or interactive, but it wasn't poorly received either.
"Complexity isn't just about comprehension." // Well—what is it about then? This is just an empty authoritative statement because you didn't even explain yourself. If I'm not mistaken, you wanted complexity to be about comprehensive (or to contour to comprehension)—am I right? Because your central argument was that comprehension is being impeded upon by complexity.
If we can just make one clear point about this, what is so complex about the set of three mini games that challenge your luck is based around?
Are anti-forcesnottheepitomeof MTG? It's not very intuitive for a self-proclaimed set developers to make an argument that developing a set around Checks and Balances is bad etiquette. This is one the core-essential aspects that breeds interactivity in a game—and interactivity which breathes the fun of life into the players.
"Are you referring just to my comments on Silhouette here?" // No, it was also Enforcer, and a number of other empty opposing suggestions. feelsbadman
I am really on the ropes about Pierce. I do understand the feel-bad aspect of it not dealing damage to invoke the piercing effect. But on the flip-side of this, in addition to force majeure (if you come face to face with it—it WILL break you through); the effect currently has the ability to pierce through the likes ofprotection, which opens up interactivity and creates a new and unique check and balance to the game. What this would mean for protection, would be that it could be implemented more freely and excessively, with there now being a soft-lock check against it (an interactive, time-lapsed, fighting chance against it). It protects them from being killed, but fairly and equally takes it toll on them as it should.
It does leave a bit of a loophole in the perceptive logic that creatures are piercing other creatures without dealing damage to them. And this is why I am very on the ropes about it. The eyes do adjust though for me, and the longer I think it over, the more I see the grander beauty in it, although it forces a stretch upon my imagination.
We might just have to agree to disagree on some of the other points here. Particularly the likeness of this world and other worlds in MTG.
On the topic of complexity, what exactly do you think is over-complicated about it? You're making it out to be an equation of some kind. It's right along the same lines as clash. Did you think that was over-complicated? I didn't find it all that special or interactive, but it wasn't poorly received either.
You may have noticed I already cited the comparison to Clash as a bad thing. Clash is a slightly complex mechanic because it requires you to know what converted mana cost means (a term which new players often get confused by) and is somewhat wordy with multiple effects going on. That's not the reason Clash is considered to be a design failure, but Challenge, and especially En Garde, is much more complicated than Clash. Clash has one straightforward mode, Challenge has three separate modes that you choose between. The amount of extra words that adds alone is huge. As I said before, you're not going to be able to fit En Garde onto a card with all the relevant reminder text, so you'd have to leave some of it out. That means you've just added a major comprehension complexity barrier to newer players who won't have any idea what it does when they see the cards, and a memory issue for everyone in remembering exactly what it does. En Garde compounds this with *another* modal option, which also brings with it board complexity in deciding blocks or determining the outcome of ability loss and how that it interacts with layering— something which most players don't fully understand.
And THEN we get to the reason why Clash was considered a design failure— which is that players just didn't find it fun. As I said before, this sort of random effect is mostly relegated to silver border unsets and rarely does it see print in standard sets. It just doesn't play that well in MtG. Games like Hearthstone have more random effects because they have less inherent randomness of the draw with you drawing only minions (creatures) and spells, gaining mana automatically and having the hero power for extra consistency, and yet still Hearthstone has shied away from straight dice roll effects, preferring to hide its randomness more behind random card selection from known card pools. Players don't particularly like effects that sometimes just whiff, basically.
"Complexity isn't just about comprehension." // Well—what is it about then? This is just an empty authoritative statement because you didn't even explain yourself. If I'm not mistaken, you wanted complexity to be about comprehensive (or to contour to comprehension)—am I right? Because your central argument was that comprehension is being impeded upon by complexity.
If we can just make one clear point about this, what is so complex about the set of three mini games that challenge your luck is based around?
My central argument was that "excess complexity... makes gameplay tedious, exhausting and distracts from the fun of the game by occupying your time with bookkeeping, memory exercises and math". That's not just about comprehension. There's also all the mental processing of in-game decisions. Making half of all instants and sorceries into Charms wouldn't increase comprehension difficulty if they just had simple effects as choices, but it would make the game worse anyway because it would flood the game with too many choices that would start to become tedious and less rewarding the more you encountered them. That's what En Garde and Challenge are— excessive choices that are going to become tedious and unrewarding. Especially when the choices for challenge are hardly different at all in any meaningful sense. If you're going to do a wordy, random mechanic, at least just pick one way of rolling the die. This is not a choice players are going to care about or enjoy making. I already find it tedious just reading the effect, let alone playing it.
And when I say complexity isn't just about comprehension, that's not to say En Garde and Challenge don't have any problems on that front. The sheer wordiness of it is going to make it harder to understand, it gives more room for people to get confused, and when you're not even going to be able to fit all the text on a single card, many players are definitely going to have some difficulty comprehending it when the cards don't actually explain how it works. And that's going to add to the decision making headache when you try and remember what the options where mid-game when planning out your turn (except the choice is pretty meaningless so player's will end up just picking one mode and doing that every time but that won't apply when players first encounter the mechanic and assume, wrongfully, that their choice is important).
Ah, I almost forgot that most well known of set mechanics "destroy all islands". Wait, no, that's an individual card effect and not comparable to an entire set mechanic like Disarm, the difference between the two being my entire point of argument. Positive mechanics like Constellation, or Landfall, or Affinity, are fun mechanics because they are fun to build a deck around. They want to be mechanics because they volume is important to building decks around them. An anti mechanic like Disarm can't have a deck built around it. They are dependant on what you're opponent is playing. Volume of disarm cards doesn't really help with anything, you don't need many of them in a deck to successfully counter another strategy, it's the volume of the mechanics that disarm counters that matters. And most players prefer building decks around a theme for value than metagaming with a counter-strategy, because building around a theme is a fun creative puzzle that's core to the magic experience while metagame counterplay is a smaller piece of it, and one that's most appreciated by specifically experienced competitive players, and because most players prefer doing something cool and powerful themselves to stopping their opponent from doing things (which is why counterspells are somewhat disliked). That's why anti effects like Disarm make good individual card designs, but not good set mechanics.
"Are you referring just to my comments on Silhouette here?" // No, it was also Enforcer, and a number of other empty opposing suggestions. feelsbadman
Silhouette is a complex rules issue. I said Enforcer doesn't work in the sense that I don't think it serves any clear purpose to the set as a mechanic and you would have difficulty making enough cards that actually make good use of it— like what happened with Skulk.
I am really on the ropes about Pierce. I do understand the feel-bad aspect of it not dealing damage to invoke the piercing effect. But on the flip-side of this, in addition to force majeure (if you come face to face with it—it WILL break you through); the effect currently has the ability to pierce through the likes ofprotection, which opens up interactivity and creates a new and unique check and balance to the game. What this would mean for protection, would be that it could be implemented more freely and excessively, with there now being a soft-lock check against it (an interactive, time-lapsed, fighting chance against it). It protects them from being killed, but fairly and equally takes it toll on them as it should.
It does leave a bit of a loophole in the perceptive logic that creatures are piercing other creatures without dealing damage to them. And this is why I am very on the ropes about it. The eyes do adjust though for me, and the longer I think it over, the more I see the grander beauty in it, although it forces a stretch upon my imagination.
I don't think either of the reasons you cite in favour of the blocking trigger are as relevant as the odd flavour and somewhat counter-intuitiveness of it not being connected to damage. Imagine you block with a Pierce creature and your opponent Murders it; the Pierce effect would still go through even though the creature never got to fight and is dead when the effect takes place. I could see basing it off blocking if it played better that way, but given it's not going to matter most of the time and when it does it's more likely to feel weird if the effect goes through than bad if it doesn't.
We might just have to agree to disagree on some of the other points here. Particularly the likeness of this world and other worlds in MTG.
I don't know much about your world or it's themes. But I want to hear the pitch. How will it stand out before I've seen all the detail? What's the obvious centrepiece features of this world and what makes them exciting?
This is literally the point where I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree. Mainly because your points of interest seemed to be based upon your personal preferences, and not aspects or conditions that would unconditionally affect everyone.
Saying that aspects like bookkeeping and math make games too tedious to be fun is effectively saying that games like Dungeons and Dragons and Yu-Gi-Oh! aren't fun. Some people don't mind—or actually find a thrill in games with higher levels of detail. With that being said, I don't think it's fair for any game developer to have to cater to the special needs (or low-functioning perception) of certain players. Those kinds of games simply aren't for them. And it should be a respected liberty that the game developer is able to cater to their target demographic with the fullest extent of their capabilities. Some game aspects may be simplified in good faith—but what you're basically suggesting is hard oppression upon the creative talents of the game developer. It's unjust—and suggestions like this should never be made—because they simply can't be won.
Most fun mechanics might be ones that you can build around, but some mechanics also enable you to build more freely, and thus open up (or advance) the fullest extent of the development and its capabilities. Disarm is one such mechanic. There actually is nothing about Disarm that it can't be built around, but the inherent intention for it isn't to be built around. It exists as something built around the overworld of the game itself—and thus seeks to perfect the equilibrium and balance of its elements and their interactivity. It opens up interactivity and creates new interactivity. It is this interactivity that is one of the primary driving forces of the game and its fun. It enables players to do more—that's fun to them. Although you might not see anything that you can do with it.
Just want to note that in the scenario you presented, the effect of Pierce wouldn't resolve, because the creature would no longer be on the battlefield for it to have any relevancy when it resolves. It would if say the creature was regenerated, but that's not exactly an un-self-explanatory scenario. There's great flavor in that, and once again with Pierce working this way (in its Force Majeure), it opens up more interactivity with regeneration (acting as a time-lapsed, hard check against its own hard-lock capabilities).
The game could really use this, as it enables regeneration (a beloved mechanic) and protection (yet another—suggestively endangered) to see new life. It also enables development to ease up on hardremoval that take away interactivity, and can effectively reduce abilities like regeneration to nothing (not fun). Ideally, you want to make it gradual, and that's why I am strongly leaning towards Pierce retaining its current composure in lieu of one that requires damage to actually be dealt. In this, it transcends the game, and through a stretch of imagination, enables the game itself to see new life (good job).
This is literally the point where I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree. Mainly because your points of interest seemed to be based upon your personal preferences, and not aspects or conditions that would unconditionally affect everyone.
No, they are based on proven conventions of game design.
Saying that aspects like bookkeeping and math make games too tedious to be fun is effectively saying that games like Dungeons and Dragons and Yu-Gi-Oh! aren't fun. Some people don't mind—or actually find a thrill in games with higher levels of detail.
MtG already HAS bookkeeping and math. I'm not saying you can't have bookkeeping and math in your games, and that much should be patently obvious. Players enjoy games with detail that is rewarding. It's both about the sheer level of complexity, and how well executed the complex elements are.
With that being said, I don't think it's fair for any game developer to have to cater to the special needs (or low-functioning perception) of certain players. Those kinds of games simply aren't for them. And it should be a respected liberty that the game developer is able to cater to their target demographic with the fullest extent of their capabilities. Some game aspects may be simplified in good faith—but what you're basically suggesting is hard oppression upon the creative talents of the game developer. It's unjust—and suggestions like this should never be made—because they simply can't be won.
I'll repeat the point I made earlier that excess complexity isn't just a problem for newer players. Framing this issue as just catering to new players is both a warped understanding of how much difference there actually is in what new players and more experienced players enjoy and evading addressing the point of where the complexity ceiling lies for more experienced players. You can design your sets however you like, free of my 'oppression', but if you want to design sets that actually play well you're going to have to submit to certain standards beyond your specific personal vision.
Most fun mechanics might be ones that you can build around, but some mechanics also enable you to build more freely, and thus open up (or advance) the fullest extent of the development and its capabilities.
Some mechanics are less build around than others. Kicker doesn't have much to build around, for example, but yet it does still lend toward that with how it encourages more mana intensive decks, how most individual kicker cards are designed with specific archetypes in mind, and how they keep making cards that mechanically care about kicker just like with other such mechanics like cycling and adventures. What none of these mechanics do, is base their playability primarily on the metagame prevalence of other strategies. Landwalk, fear and intimidate all used to be evergreen mechanics that did this for color, but they were all gotten rid off partly because they are anti-mechanics that can be unfun for both the user and the recipient in deciding games based on what can feel like happenstance. Protection still exists because it is used specifically as a universal anti-synergy mechanic to put on individual sideboard oriented cards.
Disarm is one such mechanic. There actually is nothing about Disarm that it can't be built around, but the inherent intention for it isn't to be built around. It exists as something built around the overworld of the game itself—and thus seeks to perfect the equilibrium and balance of its elements and their interactivity. It opens up interactivity and creates new interactivity. It is this interactivity that is one of the primary driving forces of the game and its fun. It enables players to do more—that's fun to them. Although you might not see anything that you can do with it.
Again, Disarm is a perfectly good type of effect to have, it's just not one you want very much of in one set. We just don't see this type of mechanic in MtG, or Hearthstone, or Faeria or any number of other cardgames. You hardly seen many anti-creature mechanics (e.g. deathtouch, wither) and they are the most common and most important cardtype to these sorts of games and always get lots of interaction. You don't need to push a creature theme; there's always a creature theme. There's never going to be an archetype of creature focused decks to counter, but the same cannot be said for auras and equipment.
EDIT: An another note on anti-creature mechanics is that these mechanics often appear on creatures themselves, necessarily making it hard for them to in any way counter creature based decks as an archetype, which is not true for disarm (in fact, you've stated you don't intend to even put it on a single aura or equipment.
Just want to note that in the scenario you presented, the effect of Pierce wouldn't resolve, because the creature would no longer be on the battlefield for it to have any relevancy when it resolves.
Pierce, as written, is a delayed trigger ability, like Flickerwisp. Delayed triggered abilities exist independently of the card that produces them. Once Pierce is triggered, it will take affect regardless of what happens to the creature with Pierce. That's why Flickerwisp can bring the creature back even if Flickerwisp dies before the end of turn, which the gatherer rulings confirm if you must know.
8/1/2008 The exiled card will return to the battlefield at the beginning of the end step even if Flickerwisp is no longer on the battlefield.
The game could really use this, as it enables regeneration (a beloved mechanic) and protection (yet another—suggestively endangered) to see new life.
Specific interactions with an abandoned evergreen mechanic and a mechanic relegated to sideboarded oriented cards don't help any of these mechanics.
Having a mechanic that gave creatures a buff when they fought a creature with banding would 'breathe new life' into banding, but that wouldn't make either of those mechanics okay (not that protection isn't okay, by the way).
It also enables development to ease up on hardremoval that take away interactivity, and can effectively reduce abilities like regeneration to nothing (not fun).
Development doesn't ease up on hard removal because it doesn't have enough good alternative, it does so because such cards are good for the game. Kill spells *are* interactive after all, because they can be countered, they can be worked around with death triggers and reanimation, they can be negated by -protection abilities on creatures and instant buffs and auras, they can be forcefully discarded from the hand or library, they can be locked out by cost increasing effects and effects that stop instant speed casting, they can be punished with certain triggered abilities like Bonecrusher Giant, and more.
How can they be based on proven conventions when the fact stands that some people find a thrill in games that are complex?
This wouldn't be a thing if what you're saying was true.
Just want to add that I said Pierce explicitly wouldn't be granted by equipment—not Disarm. And in the scenario you initially suggested, the person destroys their own creature, so Pierce wouldn't go through, because the creature would no longer be on the battlefield for the effect to have any relevance. It doesn't matter if it's a delayed triggered ability—the target/choice/selection is no longer present.
Kicker wasn't a totally defunct mechanic, its fundamental dynamics had some decent potential, but it was poorly implemented. If simply Kicker spells kept the kicker cost down to a single mana, many of them would have been much more efficient and adaptable. Say, doing almost the same thing for a single green or a single blue. That's great! That's efficient! But obviously, the way Kicker was envisioned involved looking down the mana curve, so that spells could effectively exist at two places on the mana curve/color scale (it could be red-white—or it could be white-black; it could be a 6 mana spell or it could be a 10 mana spell; a 2 defensive or a 4 offensive). Another bad implementation involving kicker was that the initial investment did nothing. The cards weren't worth playing unless you could pay the kicker. And many cards had underwhelming effects for their place on the mana curve—suggestively in respects to having kicker (which you can't do and remain at equilibrium with the overworld game). That is why they're only good in their own Block. And once again, they had to make a card ridiculously powerful to circumvent this (which they should never have to do).
How can they be based on proven conventions when the fact stands that some people find a thrill in games that are complex?
This wouldn't be a thing if what you're saying was true.
I'm sorry, this is such a non response that it's hard for me to even know where to begin. That's not an accurate description of the point I an making or what the point of contention is.
I'll try to explain it again: this isn't about whether complexity is allowed. It would be meaningless to say complex games are bad because games aren't simply complex or simple. It's not even just a scale. Complexity is, fittingly, more complicated than that. There's different kinds of complexity and complexity can be implemented in different ways. Games that are just as complex can be more less or hurt by their complexity, more or less benefit from it.
The complexity presented by en garde and challenge is not just high but also not rewarding. Especially the choice between the different dice roll games. As I've said, it's just not an interesting choice and adds way too much text for little gain.
Just want to add that I said Pierce explicitly wouldn't be granted by equipment—not Disarm.
My mistake.
And in the scenario you initially suggested, the person destroys their own creature, so Pierce wouldn't go through, because the creature would no longer be on the battlefield for the effect to have any relevance. It doesn't matter if it's a delayed triggered ability—the target/choice/selection is no longer present.
What are you talking about? I wasn't talking about removing the target of pierce, I was talking about removing the creature with the pierce ability.
Kicker wasn't a totally defunct mechanic, but it's fundamental dynamics had some decent potential, but it was poorly implemented. If simply Kicker spells kept the kicker cost down to a single mana, many of them would have been much more efficient and adaptable. Say, doing almost the same thing for a single green or a single blue. That's great! That's efficient!
That would have severely limited the design space of the mechanic for no real gain.
You say this bit like you're describing something obviously bad, but the best part of kicker as a mechanic is the way cards can be played as two significantly different cards depending on the circumstances.
Early magic was full of wonky power levels. Kicker has seen much more recent use than the examples you cite. And this is all talking card-by-card execution and balancing not mechanical design.
I just wanted to share another world concept that I came up with at about the same time as Knuxtxdxth. This set takes place in a well-developed, aristocratic world. The primary struggle in the world is a battle between honor and merit and vice and debauchery. The world's heritage is deeply rooted in the principals of virtue. Handed-down by the instruction of the Divine Soul, who said that it is only through what is true and pure that conscious life may see any meaning. And without these (or in opposite of them), a chaos will consume all and gravely threaten the balance, so that no conscious existence will go unadulterated.
With hearts becoming heavy and the tension almost too much to bare, a noble aristocrat suddenly declares war on the corruptees, and a group of other noble aristocrats (who become known as the Corsair [a name meaning 'exemplar/envoy, or privateer authority of the Divine Soul']); begin taking the fight to the Imperial Occulte; who think of themselves as pimps, and have begun to engage in all kinds of unspeakable practices. Supporters of the Imperial Occulte are often called Musketeers by the Corsair (a name meaning 'dirty rat' or 'stench—of tears'; correlating to the reaction instigated by the sight of their vice, debauchery—and hubris [extreme pride or arrogance in regard to their wrong-standing or wrong-doings]).
The Imperial Occulte have attracted some very powerful allies, who seek to exist as kings among the debaucherous party, and excessively indulge themselves with the fruits of unspeakable practices. One of such is known as the Moorish Chief, who is revealed by the leader of the Corsair to be actually be an incredibly powerful planeswalker, from the genesis of mankind. He abandoned his destine love, the Divine Soul, and all the faithful to what is pure and true to take up the way of the devil (Hedonism—the obsessive indulgence of oneself without any consideration for the well-being of others; disrespecting free will and well-being.) The oversoul of this very spirit of vice and debauchery that threatens the noble world.
However, despite the overhead, the Corsair are determined to exorcise this threatening spirit of vice and debauchery from the world. And their noble leader blazes a path for them—onwards to victory.
Mechanics
This is mostly a combat based set revolving around sword-fighting, so the nature of the mechanics should be obvious. However, the mechanics are pretty pretty adaptable, so that they could easily see use outside of the block as well. I thought to provide enough functionality so that this is adaptable by both form and flavor. As a side-note, I was also thinking about making Disarm reset power and toughness. I've included that version in the Full Form variant.
Currently, this function is modal, meaning you can challenge your opponent using any of the means below. I think this is great because it provides lots of interactivity to keep the aspect fun, while enabling players to take different paths if their energy is high or low. Statistically, the 20-sided dice challenge has the best odds, but there's obviously some psychological factor in the others, especially the last one, which puts all the pressure on the opponent. The concept is based on a challenge of luck—and below is the original design I made to embody the concept as a whole.
To challenge your opponent, each player flips a coin and calls it until one player calls it right and the other player calls it wrong.
To challenge your opponent, each player rolls a twenty sided die. Then, the player that rolls the higher number wins.
To challenge your opponent, have that player call high or low, then that player rolls a 20 sided dice. If the result of the roll is 11~20, then it's high. If the result of the roll is 1~10, then it's low. If that player called it right, then he or she wins the challenge.
This is thought to be a double-sided card. All the effects are printed on the reverse-side. For whimsical people with gambling problems this is a killer.
Test Your Luck 2
Instant
Challenge your opponent. Then, apply the following effects based on the color(s) of mana that was spent to cast Test Your Luck.
//
W — If you win, gain 10 life. If you lose, sacrifice all lands you control.
U — If you win, draw two cards. If you lose, discard your hand.
G — If you win, return a card from your graveyard to your hand. If you lose, exile all cards in your graveyard.
R — If you win, you deal 4 damage to any source. If you lose, skip your next turn.
B — If you win, add BBBBB your mana pool. If you lose, you lose half your life, rounded down.
Creature — Human Minion
Nuisance (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with power 3 or greater.)
"They're notorious for staging crimes. Most often the worst of what's seen in a day's work. A scoundrel among servants—a treachery upon the innocent world."
1/1
Just a simple evasive alternative I thought would be interesting. A neat concept for corrupt authorities and the suite of other such problematic characters that you can't directly address without jumping through hoops—or by approaching them from some greater social high ground. I had a haunting power-creep tendency that tempted for a moment thinking this should be a 2/1. Just something about it wanting to appeal strongly in the "modern vision". I didn't really like the notion though, because as a 1/1, then you play something like Unholy Strength—and oh yeah‒this guy's a real d[]|. He's definitely going to be a problem. Other quick plays (like Bad Moon) stack with it so that if you can't respond within a few turns, that's going to be the end of the game. Ultimately decided to dismiss the notion. And then I changed my mind.
And then I changed my mind again. To the integrity of the set, the color critically needs this to remain a common, and act as filler especially for draft and block play. In either case, it remains vulnerable to the likes of Underworld Fires/Pyroclasm, so this choice might only be aesthetic.
Corrupt Inspector Clouseau 1B
Legendary Creature — Human Minion
As Corrupt Inspector Clouseau enters the battlefield, name up to two cards.
Whenever you draw the named card, you may reveal it. If you do, search your library for a copy of that card, reveal it, then put that card into your hand. Shuffle your library. You lose 1 life for each card put into your hand this way.
Nuisance (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with power 3 or greater.)
3/2
Here's a concept that I thought up last night, conceiving a way to combine/implement/optimize elements of Dark Confidant and Vampiric Tutor together, beginning to etch out the power scale for black. It's somewhat of a palette swap/mirror-universe/doppelganger of Judgeman. As a corrupt inspector, he's got to be very aggressive, ruthless; but putting himself off on the corruptee side comes with immense vulnerability. I had a few variant ideas for this effect. One such was making this design legendary, with the name Corrupt Inspector Clouseau. Another was limiting the function to a single named card, but enabling you to search for any number of copies when you do draw it (for the same amount of life). It's a really tough call to make, when you know you only get one shot, and you need the design to be seeing its apex potential in its final form. That being said, I am still considering those options, so don't put this down as the final version. In either case, would probably be really neat in a deck based around Relentless Rats.
I did decide to increase the power-scale a bit here on this one. Despite the need to reflect vulnerability on putting oneself off on the corruptee side, I felt that it's imperative to reflect some measure of resistance that an experienced individual should have. He always wears a vest, and takes some fundamental precautions that make him more of a hard target. I think that's good to the design being legendary, although this one doesn't exactly beckon for it with an effect such as it has (that would act as a benefit in multiple copies—enabling a player to change the named cards).
I also decided to blend down the life cost for the effect, and change the wording composure for better coherence. Nothing prevents a player from naming the same card twice, and then being able to retrieve two copies of it in a single instance. The life cost was blended down because although powerful, the effect isn't exactly as self-sufficient (relying on the draw) as to require such a heavy life cost. At paying 2 life a card, it kind of bends the design into potentially less than playable territories. And that's definitely not something that should be done here. It's a waste of potential. Potential that I believe the design crucially needs for who it is/who it is supposed to be. Just a mortal man—but still an incredible danger for what one is capable of—especially one with such authorities.
Diary of a Madman 0
Artifact
2, Pay 1 life, : Look at the top three cards of your library, put one of them into your hand and exile the rest.
"It is now October 1st, 4:33AM. Henrietta is dead. I could not bring myself to dismember her corpse. But I dragged her down the steps...and I buried her. I buried her in the cellar."
Here'a a design from a suggestion I gave sainthyacinth in another thread. I decided to put it into a form for myself that I felt wouldn't be thought of—but is the alpha potential available to it. I contrasted the costs with Sensei's Divining Top, as it's almost on odds with it. The fact that you have to exile two cards is a far greater drawback than Sensei's Divining Top, as they both can essentially accomplish the same thing, but at the cost of no precious resources there. Missing your next draw just isn't really a big deal, especially since the Top lets you infinitely work off the top 3 cards of your deck. Dairy of a Madman drops for free, but costs you some life to read it. I don't feel that any more than 1 life is necessary, since it begins to quickly threaten grinding the game down to a sudden end. I actually even questioned if the effect should cost 2, but seeing as how it lets you reach into your library for that one crucial card, I literally can't shake the impact that has, and measure of influence over card advantage and board advantage in the game. I think it really does exactly what it wants to do—exactly as graceful as it needs to be done.
Church Bells 1W
Enchantment — Saga
|: You may play an additional Plains this turn.
||: White spells you cast with a converted mana cost 6 or greater cost 3 less to cast.
|||: White creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
Here's a design I came up with based on an intention chelovek (a fellow poster) might have had. Originally, I didn't want to do this as a saga, because sagas represent lapses of time, and I felt like the lapse of time for this concept was too short for it to fit the saga concept. Ultimately, seeing no other way it could be done, I quickly decided by a stretch of the imagination that it would have to be done this way. It's a very evocative concept for me. Where I live there are a bunch of churches all around me. I can hear the church bells all the time—ringing out from the distance playing the most beautiful melodies. It opens your heart to the world. Makes you feel like you can accomplish great things. Leaves you feeling so empowered. And that pretty much explains the course of the abilities. So you drop this—and then here comes the bride.
Puritan Police W
Creature — Human Soldier
Lifelink
"Self-aware to the world and its every strife—relentlessly honoring all that is pure and true. An embodiment of patriotism in the fathoms strength that it takes to remain devoted in the face of every crushing danger and desire."
2/1
Judgeman WW
Legendary Creature — Avatar
As Judgeman enters the battlefield, name up to three cards and choose a color.
The named cards are the chosen color in addition to their other colors.
Indomitable (This creature can't be destroyed by creatures with a combined power and toughness less than or equal to its own.)
"It is as I've said it is—argue that it's not. Hold me up to the light if you think you have the power. I will hold you up to mine—I will break you down!"
1/4
"With this flaming sword that is the truth, I will hold you up to the light, and it will burn your vices to nothing. All that you prized as the source of your power will be revealed as it truly was all along."
Should Judgeman be a Knight—or do you think he should be an Avatar?
The seems super cool, but kind of ruins his intended character as a civil proclamator.
Ignoring the name placeholder, this was a concept I quickly thought of while I was on the name a card kick. It branched off from an idea I had about a design that acted as a way to designate ambiguous threats as definite ones. The original code-name for this was "Declaration". It would be card that that declares others cards as enemies as unlawful/unjust, deceptive, primitive, malicious, or even hallowed/orderly/atoned. There was a loose concept in mind that this effect could work with protection in a dynamic way, so that you can protect yourself from unprotected threats. It enables a player to only have to run protection from a single color, and from there would free up all kinds of space in the sideboard for other technical support. As the design unfolded, it began to feel immensely like it belonged in some distant place in time. It still, to me, feels more like a card that was (or should have been) apart of the original Alpha/Beta/Unlimited scene.
I was kind of beside myself with the sense of a power-creep here if I added anything else to the design, but I know better than to more importantly leave something underwhelming. If you want your design to fly, you need to make sure it has enough lift to carry itself in competitive play. Of course, if the effect is really powerful, then it can be more of an easier (or essential) pass to make, but since this effect doesn't really do anything by itself (only enables other content to be useful), I felt there was room enough to give it another ability. I felt something like Order of the Stars would be too cliche, so that's where I decided to put Enforcer down instead.
Currently contemplating a restriction on this card's ability—designating the named cards have to be nonland cards. Currently, it would enable you to name basic lands, and then destroy them with cards like Northern Paladin, Blue and Red Elemental Blast. Sounds awesome though! And with as many a card combo as it is, I'm not hardly seeing the powertrip there. Add Balance and you're only complicating it further. Mine as well just play Armageddon? The more I think about it, the more it just seems like a dynamic deck structure than it does anything totally broken.
The Eternal One 2U
Creature — Avatar
Protection from green
The second time you draw cards each turn, put that many +1/+1 counters on The Eternal One.
1/1
The Flawless One 2W
Creature — Avatar
Protection from black
The first or second time a white source causes you gain life each turn, put that many +1/+1 counters on The Flawless One.
1/1
The Virile One 2G
Creature — Avatar
Protection from red
The second and third time a green creature enters the battlefield under your control each turn, put a number of +1/+1 counters on The Virile One equal to that creature's power or toughness.
1/1
The Cannibalistic One 2B
Creature — Avatar
Protection from blue
The first time a black source you control causes a permanent to be put into a graveyard each turn, put a number of +1/+1 counters on The Cannibalistic One equal to that permanent's converted mana cost.
1/1
The Blazing One 2R
Creature — Avatar
Protection from white
The first time a red source you control deals damage to an opponent or a source an opponent controls each turn, put that many +1/+1 counters on The Blazing One.
1/1
Blazing Whirlwind R
Creature — Elemental
Blazing Whirlwind enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put two +1/+1 counters on Blazing Whirlwind.
Blazing Whirlwind can't attack unless it has power 6 or greater.
0/0
Blazing Whirlwind R
Creature — Elemental
Deathtouch
Blazing Whirlwind can't attack unless it has power 6 or greater.
At the beginning of your upkeep, increase Blazing Whirlwind's base power by 2.
0/3
This brilliant piece of work was the product of a spontaneous idea that came to mind for a time-lapsed Ball Lightning. The concept was that it would essentially be some equal of Ball Lightning—only for a single mana—and would have to mature over the course of a few turns to bridge the gap of power, cost, and balance. I loved the idea when it came to mind. Dynamic and interactive—pseudo-unique. It would have all the qualities that really make for an immensely appealing card (the kind that stimulate and sustain the most interest in the game). To be honest, I really am struggling to make peace with the current version of the design. It almost feels like it does too much, and is all over the place in odd directions. I sort of prefer the original version for its simplicity and linear order. However, I was immensely compelled by the essence of giving this card Deathtouch, and it being able to destroy creatures via other content (such as the Magic Red Loop enchantment posted here). If you put two of them together, it almost becomes like a Father-Son Kamehameha, and enables it to attack on the immediate turn after it enters the battlefield.
I had another concept for perfecting a design from Bloodlines named Kihadou, and doing something like this, only with charge counters instead. Odd that they would kind of be so redundant of one another. It might seem odd that something like Street Urchin is able to deflect it entirely, but if you look back to characters like Paul Revere, it's actually been known to be a quite a thing. I'm really just hard stuck on the essence of this having deathtouch for one mana. It just feels like something so immensely appealing for red, that's long overdue, and deserved for it to have. Another amazing bit about this design is its tactical utility. It secretly exists as my Super Special Awesome Chocolaty Fudge Coated Super Bait Super Card. It's a removal bait for a single mana, that intends to provoke your opponent to waste their removal spells on it, while offering an offensive bonus if they don't. It might come as a surprise, but this is not the first time you should have seen this either.
Mentalforce Armor 2U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each card in your hand.
Enchanted creature may block creatures as though they have no abilities.
This was a quickie concept that I came up with in the shower. I thought of it being a blue variant of Blanchwood Armor, then remembered there was Empyrial Armor/Empyrial Plate. I really didn't want to expand upon it any—wanting to keep it relevant to its green contemporary. But remembering the pre-existing concepts forced me to take this beyond the likes of that to stave the redundancy. I tried putting both effects into one line, but the effect honestly felt tacky to me then, so I split them apart into two separate lines. The second effect certainly fits in well with the project, and is a great example of how easy it can be to dance circles around even a powerful ability such as Nuisance.
The flavor of the concept runs along the lines of using ones mind to boost their strength. It's incredibly stylish in the sense that many times over, their confidence is a dark confidence (just a figment of their imagination). They don't actually have any cards in hand, yet they conceive themselves to be immensely empowered. It fits in perfectly with the power toughness boost. Well explained—and great realism. A bit on ends with the title Mentalforce, but possibly just at an absence of words right now. Can't understand why this was never put into blue before. I think it's a great buff for blue that blue creatures have legendarily needed for a long as I can remember.
I started the game in 7th Edition/Odyssey Block, but had a great fascination content from the older sets. Looking over them, I often found so many interesting and imaginative designs that were just missing some bit of crucial support to make it work. This was a great inspiration behind a lot of the creative content I came up with when I got into designing—long after I had left the game (which was a bit after the release of Mirrodin). I had bought one booster box, pulled a Platinum Angel, and kept it as a treasure with my single re-animator deck after selling the rest of my collection. I had a slight return at the Lorwyn set, lasting up until the end of the Shards of Alara block, when I departed once again selling my entire collection.
Even to this day, I find a lot of the development seems very self-centered, and doesn't look back as thoughtfully as it should. I strive not to be like that, and not to make the mistakes of others, or repeat the mistakes of the past. I'd like to not learn the hard way if I can help it. The hard way is never ideal. And though it's thought to be proficient—it's really not. If simply a person is too devoid to fully understand (or interpret) all of the matters and conditions (dynamics of physics) involved, the full lesson or principal is not truly learned. You'll have to revisit it again. Being first is just one of the grand dooms in the professional realm of conscious existence. The other two being—thinking you're smart/but you're not smart—and cheating/or trying to cheat your way through something. Two more grand dooms—best navigated by minding your talent, being honest with yourself, and treading water safely.
Sad Wings of Destiny 2U
Enchantment
Ward 2
: Exile target untapped creature, then return it to the battlefield tapped.
"Although your alpha status is just a figment of your imagination, you're unaware, and so willing to believe. And so you blindly leap, off out on a branch. Taken on the sad wings of destiny. From which you may return a broken man—broken body or broken spirit."
Originally envisioned this design based on the name, which I had absolutely no idea what the effect would be. I had originally thought of something like an aura that you would enchant to a creature you control, and then when it dies, some effect (life gain?). Later I etched out this design based on the effect being combo materia with the design below. Had no name for it and then suddenly felt that it would be an amazing, intriguing fit to the Sad Wings of Destiny. Something compelled me that this wants to be resistant to removal, and that's where the protection from white and from red comes in. Not even the holiest of powers is beyond it. Still open to removal from green, which I don't really mind. Because it's a monkey trick, and then I thought you have the ape, who comes in and quarters it. And thus—that's the sad wings of destiny. But I forgot it's artifacts only. And now it doesn't make much sense. At this cost, I suppose it doesn't really need protection. It's still thought to be beneficial to the flavor, but I quickly don't see any way to implement it as desired (other than adding green to the list). So I did.
Decided to shift the functionality for this one after considering a number of critical issues that the previous version (with a mana activated ability) would face. The design really faced a large cost expensure, and needed to do away with large amount of it to see the self-sufficient potential it would need to thrive in the game. First it wants to be able to do something when it hits the board. It doesn't want to waste a turn just sitting around. Then when it can be put to use—sets you back an additional two mana. Even though the mana activated ability can be used with infinite potential, it more importantly isn't going to see that potential in any time-frame that's precedent to the game. Second it doesn't want to be redundant to itself in multiple copies. You want there to be incentive to having multiple copies in your deck, and being able to make dynamic use of them. From this, I decided to exchange the mana ability cost with a tap activated cost instead. This makes the design more interactive (tapping it interactive—it's fun) and also accomplishes the primary objective by alleviating the immense cost expensure it faced, and solving the redundancy issue in multiple copies.
As disruption/pseudo-removal, this puts it on par with Oblivion Ring, which is great. And for functionality, it is much more graceful in that it forces players to be more resolute and strategic, and doesn't allow them to play like slop, or carry-out unbounded slop operations.
King of Thralls 4UBBR
Legendary Creature — Demon
King of Thralls costs 4 less to cast if a creature you control that entered the battlefield this turn was put into a graveyard.
UBR: Regenerate King of Thralls. If you do, put two +1/+1 counters on it. King of Thralls can't be prevented from regenerating this way.
"You've all been crushed on this front! And all the benefit of doubt has been obliterated. There isn't enough left of any of you to toss into the wind."
7/7
Famous Last Words U
Instant
Draw three cards, then discard your hand.
"Such poetic tragedy—the most famous last words are the ones we should have never said—and not the ones we never got to speak."
Duel at Sunset 1R
Enchantment — Saga
|: Nonbasic lands are Mountains.
||: Create a treasure token.
|||: Each player shuffles their hand into their library, then flips seven coins and draws a card for each flip they won.
"Meet me when the sun is in the western sky. The fighting must begin before another, someone, dies."
The idea for this came to be out of the blue. It was just a cosmetic image in my head, no effects, no lead in any direction whatsoever. I actually first thought of it as being a black card. However, the potential (and relativity) to red had so much domain, I just wrote down the concept with both to poise the question, and leaving the design blank to begin the tension. I figured anyone who seen it would try filling in the spots, and I welcomed that, because then it would become a duel at sunset unto itself. And we would see who the best man is. Lots of cliche effects and blanche damage assignments were immediately thought to be avoided. Of course, I had the newborn Challenge function to work with, but was a bit skeptical of using it. It's been sitting in my OneNote for quite awhile (as long as Knxtxdxth)—but I'm still not very familiarized with it myself. I knew the first ability wanted to be something immensely technical. No leads still, but something really intuitive came to mind in the effect of a temporary Blood Moon. Early in the game, that can be such an amazing technical punisher. It almost operates as a Time Walk. The flavor with the mountains also fits perfectly into the theme, by a stretch of the imagination, painting a scene of the sunset in its effect (the sun setting behind the mountains).
The second ability I had originally thought to be universal (effecting both players). However, I would be doing something terrible in that, and going against my own advice: Never give your opponent any unnecessary card advantages. It was then I scrapped the uncomfortable equal sides draw and turned it into a one-sided effect instead. For the effect, there are a lot of possible draw combinations, but in the end I decided the classic Bazaar sequence would be the best. The reason for this actually has to do with the third and final ability having gone down on the card first. And Wheel of Fortune was the pretty much the best possible duel reward there could be. It's such as hard card advantage, you're basically dead if you miss it. Since discarding cards would be contradictory as a punisher (even against a winning opponent) I replaced it with a shuffle effect instead. Now here's where the bazaar effect becomes super intuitive to the design. You're loading your chamber, and the draw to discard proportion enables you to "cut the fat", and discard any cards that could be an adulterant when you shuffle and redraw.
Noble Corsair WW
Creature — Human Noble Fighter
Pierce (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, put a -1/-1 counter on that creature at the end of combat.)
2/2
Godborn Sentinel 2WWW
Creature — Human Noble Fighter
Indomitable (This creature can't be destroyed by creatures with a combined power and toughness less than or equal to its own.)
: Godborn Sentinel gets +0/+2 until end of turn. Creatures it blocks this turn don't untap during their controller's next untap step.
3/5
Street Urchin R
Creature — Human Thug
Disarm (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, detach all cards attached to that creature. It permanently loses up to one of its colors and/or all instances of a keyword of your choice.)
"They're notorious for carrying daggers, often laced with poison for pernicious deeds. A wild dog among humanity—a mutiny upon the spirit of brotherhood."
1/1
Just a few neat designs.
I suddenly realized that Disarm wasn't going to work as I envisioned it, so I thought I mine as well just turn it into a soft-lock deathtouch. Currently, I have it limited to combat damage, but am questioning how necessary that is compared to actual deathtouch. I had a really neat idea of doing something especially unique with the final clause added, and having it remove a colored mana symbol from the cost. The way I envision this to work is: If a card loses all its colored mana symbols, then it loses its color designation and becomes colorless instead. Kinda narrow, but opens up interactivity and design space none-the-less.
Ideally, one of the flavor aspects behind Disarm is that it breaks your body or it breaks your spirit.
EDIT: I had to rework Disarm again, because it wouldn't function the way I originally envisioned it if damage has to be done first. The main idea to disarm was to do so before damage is dealt. With the addition of removing counters, it now treads uncomfortably upon the likes of mid-school phantoms—which is kinda narrow—but still rather feel-bad for me. I guess it can't be helped. Disarmers aren't afraid of ghosts—I don't know what else to tell ya. I am currently contemplating a version that has the creature lose all abilities until the end of its controller's next turn, but that won't really fix the phantom issue any. Also brushed up the flavor text, since it originally referenced being like rats. And with it begin red (and rats traditionally being black) I'm not trying to give anyone a seizure.
Legendary Land
You may have Decrepit World enter the battlefield under another target player's control.
At the end of turn, you lose 1 life.
: Add C to your mana pool. Discard a card at random, then target player gains control of Decrepit World.
"What have I become...my sweetest friend? Everyone I know—goes away—in the end."
So here's a design that reflects a play the Divine Spirit made on the world possibly. The design combines elements of Sleeper Agent and Hypnotic Specter to emulate the darkness and severity of the concept. Essentially, this drops, then you give yourself hexproof, so you don't have to hear or deal with any of their bs. From there, they can delude themselves all they want, and pretend f[]| e[]\ o[]t/r i[] [t] [\], and run amok through all their grotesque, disgusting, unspeakable wrong-standing and wrong-doing. And via the suite of Force Bubble, Solitary Confinement, Worship—one transcends onwards to victory.
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized."
These are words that a famous architect responsible for a lot of work in my city, including the Terminal Tower and the Emerald Necklace made and embodied in the work that was done here. It was marvelous work, and I find the words to be ever inspiring in my own work. And having huge domain over fantasy game development. I think this concept has that exact magic—to stir men's blood. Unlike a lot of decisions and choices that the development team has made, which strip away coherence, and force majeure from the perception and context of the work. These are things you absolutely never want to do in a fantasy game—because it will make the product blanche and unimaginative—no longer having the magic that stirs men's blood.
Back when I was working on Mythgard and Bloodlines of the Orient, I worked with turning Spellshape into a ability in order to create efficient and resourceful spells that would help to bridge the traditional gap in the flow of the cards. It dawned on me the other day as to why I didn't just do Enchantments with upkeep triggered effects, so these are very new, and a few simple ideas that came to mind. One of the primary ideals here is to make red, blue, and green very splashable for white and black. The blue one is the black sheep of the family—and the CMC of the others hasn't been entirely looked over yet. It can be hard not to get carried away, but I strictly put my foot down to keep these as graceful as possible.
White 1WW
Enchantment
When ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, you may have target creature gain first strike, vigilance, or flying until the beginning of your next upkeep.
Green 2G
Enchantment
When ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, you may have target creature gain +2/+2 and trample and reach until the beginning of your next upkeep.
Red 2R
Enchantment
When ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, you may have target creature gain +2/0 until the beginning of your next upkeep. Then, you may have it fight another target creature if able.
Blue U
Enchantment
When ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, you may have target creature and/or land become the color type, creature type, and/or land type of your choice until the beginning of your next upkeep.
Black 1BB
Enchantment
When ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, you may have target creature gain deathtouch or become indestructible until the beginning of your next upkeep.
White Domain Copy W
Unassigned
Choose a permanent card in any revealed zone. Treat the effects of that card's static abilities as though it's on the battlefield until the beginning of your next turn.
Red Impulse Copy R
Unassigned
Copy an activated ability of target creature with in its activation cost. You may reassign any targets or names for this instance.
Blue Method Copy U
Unassigned
Copy an activated ability of target creature with only mana in its activation cost. You may reassign any targets or names for this instance.
Green Land/Mana Copy G
Sorcery
Copy any number of mana abilities from land cards you own in the graveyard and/or exile. You still have to pay any mana in the activation costs of those abilities to copy it.
Black Reanimate Copy B
Unassigned
Copy an activated or triggered ability of target creature card in any graveyard. You may reassign any targets or names for this instance. You lose 2 life.
Colorless Deciphering Copy
Unassigned
Copy an activated or triggered ability of target artifact or target artifact card in any revealed zone. You may reassign any targets or names for this instance.
~ cost 6 more to cast if it targets an artifact or a artifact card with a converted mana cost five or greater.
or
You can't copy abilities that require 10 mana or greater to activate.
Colorless Spark Copy
Unassigned
Copy a loyalty ability of target planeswalker or target planeswalker card in any revealed zone whose activation cost doesn't require loyalty counters to be removed. You may reassign any targets or names for this instance.
Grave Pitfall 1GG
Creature — Wall
Flash, defender
Whenever Grave Pitfall blocks a creature, tap that creature. It doesn't untap during it controller's untap step as long as Grave Pitfall remains on the battlefield. Any time you could cast a sorcery, you may have an untapped creature you control fight any creature tapped this way.
0/7
Trap Door Room 2U
Creature — Wall
Flash, defender
When Trap Door Room blocks a creature, put a trap counter on that creature. As long as that creature has a trap counter on it, it loses all abilities and is a 0/2.
0/3
Midnight Terrors B
Creature — Wall
Defender
B: Regenerate Midnight Terrors.
Whenever Midnight Terrors regenerates, you may pay B. If you do, put a copy of it on the battlefield.
"Mother-daughter slayer reporting for duty!"
0/1
Siege of Coals RR
Creature — Wall
Defender
Indomitable (This creature can't be destroyed by creatures with a combined power and toughness less than or equal to its own.)
Siege of Coals can block an additional creature.
4/4
Shallow Trench WW
Creature — Wall
Flash, defender
When Shallow Trench blocks a creature, untap that creature and remove it from combat. That creature can't attack or block as long as Shallow Trench remains on the battlefield.
"Ha ha! It is a hole—just so deep enough so that you sprain your ankle!"
0/2
Thinking about implementing a keyword I designed for another member awhile back to replace Flash in these designs. It's essentially a resource efficient morph based around a more universal, adaptable concept. Also thinking about changing the Silhouette keyword itself, and making it an enchantment rather than a creature for the face-down function. It was only designed to be used for creatures. This form would enable free play (awesome lol-enabler for Enchantment based designs) and currently would exist void of any color designations, although I'd like for it to retain its original color while it's face-down. Making it colorless would open up interaction with the new-age colorless designation, which isn't something I want it to do, as it's not truly relevant to the new-age colorless designation as they've illustrated it.
I like the flavor that Silhouette adds to the designs, although I don't like how it alters their functionality. First by making them more time-lapsed, and second by forcing me to give on the concept of making white and black hard to splash in this set—while red, green, and blue remain openly splashable.
Silhouette [cost] (Anytime you could cast a sorcery, you may play this card face down as a 0/1 creature. Turn it face up at anytime for its silhouette cost.)
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature has haste.
Spells you cast that target equipped creature cost 2 less to cast.
Equip 0
Shouldn't be too much to explain here. Just a graceful palette swap of Lightning Greaves. Could definitely see something like: "Spells you cast cost target equipped creature cost 1 less and spells your opponent casts that target equipped creature cost 1 more to cast." But a holy item wouldn't protect the unholy (if they got their hands on it). It could though suggest that the unholy entity is prime for atonement or redeeming, by the closest reason of superstition. And that certainly backs up the effect it currently has.
Enigmatic Orb 0
Legendary Artifact
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may pay 3. If you do, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy. Exile Enigmatic Orb.
"No one knows from whence it came, nor the source of its dread power. One thing though is certain: Very few escape its grasp. Even in death—its powers continue."
"No one knows where it came from—or the source of its power. One thing though is very certain: Those whose lives it touches are changed forever."
Exchange Platform 1
Change the text of target permanent by exchanging any single mana cost with the mana cost of that card.
Exchange Platform 2
You may pay a planeswalker's mana cost to activate loyalty abilities that planeswalker has which add loyalty counters. This effect enables you to activate loyalty abilities any number of additional times.
Hunger Pains of Savagery
Lost in the Wild 1G
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature or planeswalker
At the end of your turn, put a -1/-1 counter on enchanted creature and it loses all abilities until the beginning of your next upkeep; or remove a loyalty counter from enchanted planeswalker. It loses up to one loyalty ability of your choice until the beginning of your next upkeep.
Take by Force RRR
Sorcery
Gain control of target creature with a converted mana cost less than the converted mana cost of a creature you control.
Far from Reason U
Instant
Counter target spell if its converted mana cost is greater than the number of lands it's owner controls.
Ignorance surrounds us. It is the bane of all intelligent people. It is the anti-device of all intelligent things. The negative bonds—which tear away from all that is pure and true.
Crush of a Greater Echelon 2
Instant
Counter target spell if its converted mana cost is less than the number of lands you control that can produce blue mana.
Necrokinesis 1B
Sorcery
Put a creature card with converted mana cost 5 or less from your graveyard onto the battlefield. It gains haste. Sacrifice it at the end of turn.
Chaosforce 1RR (Our Impression of Chaoslace)
Enchantment
Flash
As Chaosforce enters the battlefield, choose a card.
All targets for the chosen card, all copies of it, and all cards with the same name are chosen at random. Re-assign these targets if they weren't chosen at random.
The next time you cast a spell named Chaosforce, the card chosen for it has to be chosen at random.
Mindforce Game U
Instant
Change the target of target spell or ability with a single target unless its controller reveals his or her hand and has you choose a card from it, then discards that card.
"Many things want to work in theory, but they don't work in practice. Opposing me at your level of development is one of them."
Take Prisoner 1UU
Instant
Untap target creature and gain control of it. It gains, "This creature can't attack or block as long as the player that controls it doesn't own it."
Prisoner of War 1UU
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature or planeswalker
You control enchanted creature or planeswalker.
Enchanted creature or planeswalker can't attack or block or use any loyalty abilities that require counters to be removed from it. Anytime you could cast a sorcery, you may sacrifice Prisoner of War and return enchanted permanent to its owner's control. If you do, add five mana in any combination of colored or colorless mana to your mana pool.
I decided to just take the alternative name I had above for Take Prisoner and split it here. I added planeswalkers to the functionality to give it more umph. Then I took the other ransom concept and put it into black—as that's obviously where it would belong.
Take Ransom 2BBB
Sorcery
During target player's next turn, you control that player's hand. (You see all cards in that player's hand and make all decisions for any cards played, exiled, discarded, etc.)
Decided to take this a different route with how crowded it is below. I thought to keep this as a sorcery, because it's definitely realistic that people can flail when being taken hostage (or for ransom). Keeping it a sorcery effectively helps to preserve dynamic—while also opening up interactivity a bit so that it becomes more of a soft-lock than a hard one.
Ransom Negotiation 1BB
Instant
Target a creature you don't control. Target creature's controller sacrifices it or you choose one —
• Add six mana in any combination of colored or colorless mana to your mana pool.
• Target player puts the top 10 cards his or her library into his or her graveyard.
• Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle your library.
Alt. Ver. 1
Choose a creature or planeswalker. The chosen creature or planeswalker dies at the end of its controller's next turn. You can't choose a permanent with protection from black or regeneration this way.
Tragic End 1B
Sorcery
Target creature dies at the end of its controller's next turn.
"O' your indulgence. Makes you feel otherwordly. But you are still, just a mortal man, whose time is ticking away. And you'll be dead soon. And all the things you thought you knew will no longer be relevant. They won't have helped you a single bit."
Ransom Room BBBB
Enchantment
When Ransom Room enters the battlefield, choose a player. The chosen player exiles all creatures he or she controls, then may return any number of those creatures to the battlefield under their control.
Creatures the chosen player controls get -1/-1 for each other creature that player controls.
Decided to go another route again here, seeing as how I don't like to rehash things so much, but prefer to do something unique. Essentially an inverted Coat of Arms with a unique kick. Clears out the room in a unique way—possibly holds a bunch of stuff indefinitely. This is pretty much exactly where it wants to be on par with the gold standard Damnation as a board sweep. Undecided on the cost. It certainly doesn't feel like it should be so cheap, but doesn't feel right to much more expensive either (in contrast with gold standards).
Lucasambumbi the Dark Slave B
Legendary Creature — Human Rogue Wizard
Lucasambumi enters the battlefield under an opponent's control of your choice.
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice another permanent and add B to your mana pool or you lose 2 life.
Exile Lucasambumi: Each opponent creates three treasure tokens.
3/3
Lore Card
"If there was one thing Lucasambumbi knew—it was slave trading. He knew how to be the best, or the worst possible slave. He connivingly choose the latter. And from there knew it was just a matter of time until the patience of his keepers would wear too thin to bare his baneful, scornful soul."
Lucasambumbi, Slave Trader BB
Planeswalker — Lucasambumbi
{+1} Gain control of target creature with a converted mana cost 1 or less.
{-2} You get an emblem with, "Anytime you could cast a sorcery, you may return a creature you control but don't own to its owner's control. If you do, add four mana of any combination to your mana pool."
{-6} Change of the text of this permanent by replacing all instances of any number and number word with 6 or six.
{3}
Just wanted to put the emblem figure down on a planeswalker (which I wasn't pressured about having to do from the start). Just the natural course as the other designs evolved. I find it neat how this would work with Disarm above—although obviously I had no intentions of this design at all. It also works dynamically with another design I posted awhile back, Alter Equilibrium, which after they flip the switch would enable a player to jump from the number six to eight! I figure he starts out smuggling birds or something, I don't know; and then works his way up to bigger things.
The concept for this set feels a little too close to Dominaria, the Bant Shard of Alara, and Eldraine for me. What will there be to differentiate it from those sets beyond nuanced details?
There seems to be a bit more of an early modern feel (you do say it's 'more developed'), but that's not something we haven't seen before, as it's also true for Fiora and Innistrad, and might not be enough anyway. The moral/ethical philosophy part is kind of interesting though, maybe if you expanded it out to be a broader thematic/stylistic element that could work.
Mechanics review
Feels wrong to me that this works based on blocking not based on damage or combat damage.
It's a bit of an odd combination between Bushido and Wither. I'm not sure whether it will play that well. Seems like quite a bit too specific of an effect to be a great workhorse mechanic but it's just not exciting enough to be a splashy or quirky one. That said, playtesting is king. so maybe this proves itself to play better than it reads to me.
This is wordy, swingy, metagame and situationally specific, and even more complex ruleswise than it first looks. I'm not sure if you want either effect, especially the second one, on a one-off card design, let alone a whole mechanic. It's neat flavour, but it just doesn't work as a mechanic. A simplified version of this effect à la Corrosive Ooze and Treefolk Mystic could easily work on a card or two (I don't think the p/t condition is worth the extra text, the effect is situational enough already).
This is another oddly specific effect that isn't very splashy or quirky either. Maybe on a one-off card. I just don't see this doing enough work for the set to warrant being a mechanic, and I have less hope that it could maybe prove itself in playtesting than with Pierce.
and
Challenge already looks more than complex enough on its own. Nesting it within the mechanic of En Garde is way over the top even for a set aimed at more experienced players. You're literally going to run out of space to put this on cards, which means your going to have to rely on an exterior play aid or something to remind players what it does, and that seems very desperate just to save a mechanic that also gives off serious Clash vibes which don't bode well for its playability *and* has a complex 'lose abilities' effect. Frankly, En Garde reads like a good mechanic from an entirely different game slapped into MtG where it doesn't really belong. MtG as a game already has randomness in the form of the draw, so it just doesn't want this much randomness added to it. There's a reason dice rolling has been restricted to Un sets. It's got some neat casual fun elements and the flavour is good as with your other mechanics, but I don't see this mechanic working in a million years.
Unfortunately, the rules strictly define any face down card on the battlefield as a 2/2 creature, so Silhouette doesn't work. Reworking the rules to make silhouette work would be problematic.
Perhaps you could have Silhouette exile cards face down and then cast them from exile though. That might actually work quite well.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
Still—an immensely far cry. We're talking about an untouched, well-developed, organized world. Magic is like a footnote to them. They're all about aristocratic material world. Politics and social matters, and solving things with their minds and bare hands, before resorting to magic. Not really sure what else to tell you here. Even at first thought, I don't think of this world anything like the others. It's way more neat and polished, and does away with unnecessary or excessive fantasy elements. Which is especially good for the MTG Universe as a whole, because it provides contrast to what is already available. It's actually entirely the opposite—as it intends to be almost nothing like anything that currently exists. But is a much more serious, strict, iron-clad world.
I really loathe the memory-issue argument. Arguing about memory issues for MTG just has lol written all over it. If you have memory problems, then you're just going to want to find a different game altogether. Same is true for saying a new concept is too complex. It's way too late in the game for any of that. Point of no return. Unless a concept is truly mind-bending (which none of these are) then it's going to fit in just find (especially in that it provides new interactivity for the game). This interactivity breeds one of the fun factors of a fantasy game.
I updated Disarm if you check the other posts. I just didn't update the original post so there would be reference as to what the original version looked like. If it did any less, it would be nearly useless. It simply strives to have enough utility so that it's not. This is a equipment/aura heavy development, so it should see great potential here. The current version also has utility with other sets, as it effectively puts a dampener on devotion.
I wanted Pierce the wording composure for Pierce to present the functionality of the mechanic gracefully. It has more command and presence about it triggering of blocking and being blocked. It speaks on fathoms of proficiency. This is a keyword that elaborate finesse. It's not to be abused, or thrown haphazardly around. Rapier equipment don't grant Pierce—for example. It is an action of prowess. It is the man that makes the sword, not the sword that makes the man. I'm not against it working with damage or combat damage, but the majesty of the concept takes a strong kneel then.
I noticed you didn't actually explain why a function or concept doesn't work. You just gave an empty statement, but didn't describe any real significant details of how it's illogical, malfunction, improficient, or counter-productive. This really makes it hard for me to explain myself, when I don't really know what you think is going wrong here. I will say that if the rules say something, and then another developer is presenting something else, the Golden Rule would be a great starting reference. This would really take the simplest adjustment, and I really don't even begin to see the fuss in this one. Limiting face-down cards to creatures only is like crippling yourself as a developer. You need as much design space available to open as possible. This is simply beginning to open some unopened space.
Ok, so your world is also low in magic like Kaladesh. That's interesting.
That's really not a productive attitude toward game design. Facing the problem of growing complexity over time and just giving up is not an answer. You can't just let complexity spiral out of control because 'MtG is a complex game'.
Complexity is not just a barrier to entry for new players. Excess complexity ruins gameplay for everyone. It makes gameplay tedious, exhausting and distracts from the fun of the game by occupying your time with bookkeeping, memory exercises and math. Complexity isn't just about comprehension. And games should only be as complex as they need to give them the best gameplay, and not add in complexity just because they can.
Pushing an aura and equipment theme only to counter it with a whole anti-auras and equipment mechanic is not going to lead to the best gameplay. The stronger you make the auras and equipment theme, the stronger Disarm will become, the stronger Disarm becomes, the weaker the auras and equipment becomes, the weaker Disarm becomes, and so on. You're pitting your themes directly against each other and it's going to get in the way of either theme working out very well. There's a reason we don't see anti-artifact mechanics even in artifact sets where they would be relevant. Anti-themes are best left to individual cards.
I don't see how triggering of blocking and being blocked better represents finesse than combat damage. But since pierce is representing fighting, the fact that it doesn't require the creature to successfully fight to work is odd to me.
Are you referring just to my comments on Silhouette here?
It's a rules issue. I don't really know all the detail. You can read up on the rules yourself if you want to try to understand it.
In general, changing the rules just to allow new design space is fine, but it shouldn't be done lightly. There's a lot of design space you can access by making the rules ever more obtuse and complicated. That's not going to make the game more fun to play.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
"Complexity isn't just about comprehension." // Well—what is it about then? This is just an empty authoritative statement because you didn't even explain yourself. If I'm not mistaken, you wanted complexity to be about comprehensive (or to contour to comprehension)—am I right? Because your central argument was that comprehension is being impeded upon by complexity.
If we can just make one clear point about this, what is so complex about the set of three mini games that challenge your luck is based around?
Are anti-forces not the epitome of MTG? It's not very intuitive for a self-proclaimed set developers to make an argument that developing a set around Checks and Balances is bad etiquette. This is one the core-essential aspects that breeds interactivity in a game—and interactivity which breathes the fun of life into the players.
"Are you referring just to my comments on Silhouette here?" // No, it was also Enforcer, and a number of other empty opposing suggestions. feelsbadman
I am really on the ropes about Pierce. I do understand the feel-bad aspect of it not dealing damage to invoke the piercing effect. But on the flip-side of this, in addition to force majeure (if you come face to face with it—it WILL break you through); the effect currently has the ability to pierce through the likes of protection, which opens up interactivity and creates a new and unique check and balance to the game. What this would mean for protection, would be that it could be implemented more freely and excessively, with there now being a soft-lock check against it (an interactive, time-lapsed, fighting chance against it). It protects them from being killed, but fairly and equally takes it toll on them as it should.
It does leave a bit of a loophole in the perceptive logic that creatures are piercing other creatures without dealing damage to them. And this is why I am very on the ropes about it. The eyes do adjust though for me, and the longer I think it over, the more I see the grander beauty in it, although it forces a stretch upon my imagination.
We might just have to agree to disagree on some of the other points here. Particularly the likeness of this world and other worlds in MTG.
You may have noticed I already cited the comparison to Clash as a bad thing. Clash is a slightly complex mechanic because it requires you to know what converted mana cost means (a term which new players often get confused by) and is somewhat wordy with multiple effects going on. That's not the reason Clash is considered to be a design failure, but Challenge, and especially En Garde, is much more complicated than Clash. Clash has one straightforward mode, Challenge has three separate modes that you choose between. The amount of extra words that adds alone is huge. As I said before, you're not going to be able to fit En Garde onto a card with all the relevant reminder text, so you'd have to leave some of it out. That means you've just added a major comprehension complexity barrier to newer players who won't have any idea what it does when they see the cards, and a memory issue for everyone in remembering exactly what it does. En Garde compounds this with *another* modal option, which also brings with it board complexity in deciding blocks or determining the outcome of ability loss and how that it interacts with layering— something which most players don't fully understand.
And THEN we get to the reason why Clash was considered a design failure— which is that players just didn't find it fun. As I said before, this sort of random effect is mostly relegated to silver border unsets and rarely does it see print in standard sets. It just doesn't play that well in MtG. Games like Hearthstone have more random effects because they have less inherent randomness of the draw with you drawing only minions (creatures) and spells, gaining mana automatically and having the hero power for extra consistency, and yet still Hearthstone has shied away from straight dice roll effects, preferring to hide its randomness more behind random card selection from known card pools. Players don't particularly like effects that sometimes just whiff, basically.
My central argument was that "excess complexity... makes gameplay tedious, exhausting and distracts from the fun of the game by occupying your time with bookkeeping, memory exercises and math". That's not just about comprehension. There's also all the mental processing of in-game decisions. Making half of all instants and sorceries into Charms wouldn't increase comprehension difficulty if they just had simple effects as choices, but it would make the game worse anyway because it would flood the game with too many choices that would start to become tedious and less rewarding the more you encountered them. That's what En Garde and Challenge are— excessive choices that are going to become tedious and unrewarding. Especially when the choices for challenge are hardly different at all in any meaningful sense. If you're going to do a wordy, random mechanic, at least just pick one way of rolling the die. This is not a choice players are going to care about or enjoy making. I already find it tedious just reading the effect, let alone playing it.
And when I say complexity isn't just about comprehension, that's not to say En Garde and Challenge don't have any problems on that front. The sheer wordiness of it is going to make it harder to understand, it gives more room for people to get confused, and when you're not even going to be able to fit all the text on a single card, many players are definitely going to have some difficulty comprehending it when the cards don't actually explain how it works. And that's going to add to the decision making headache when you try and remember what the options where mid-game when planning out your turn (except the choice is pretty meaningless so player's will end up just picking one mode and doing that every time but that won't apply when players first encounter the mechanic and assume, wrongfully, that their choice is important).
Ah, I almost forgot that most well known of set mechanics "destroy all islands". Wait, no, that's an individual card effect and not comparable to an entire set mechanic like Disarm, the difference between the two being my entire point of argument. Positive mechanics like Constellation, or Landfall, or Affinity, are fun mechanics because they are fun to build a deck around. They want to be mechanics because they volume is important to building decks around them. An anti mechanic like Disarm can't have a deck built around it. They are dependant on what you're opponent is playing. Volume of disarm cards doesn't really help with anything, you don't need many of them in a deck to successfully counter another strategy, it's the volume of the mechanics that disarm counters that matters. And most players prefer building decks around a theme for value than metagaming with a counter-strategy, because building around a theme is a fun creative puzzle that's core to the magic experience while metagame counterplay is a smaller piece of it, and one that's most appreciated by specifically experienced competitive players, and because most players prefer doing something cool and powerful themselves to stopping their opponent from doing things (which is why counterspells are somewhat disliked). That's why anti effects like Disarm make good individual card designs, but not good set mechanics.
Silhouette is a complex rules issue. I said Enforcer doesn't work in the sense that I don't think it serves any clear purpose to the set as a mechanic and you would have difficulty making enough cards that actually make good use of it— like what happened with Skulk.
I don't think either of the reasons you cite in favour of the blocking trigger are as relevant as the odd flavour and somewhat counter-intuitiveness of it not being connected to damage. Imagine you block with a Pierce creature and your opponent Murders it; the Pierce effect would still go through even though the creature never got to fight and is dead when the effect takes place. I could see basing it off blocking if it played better that way, but given it's not going to matter most of the time and when it does it's more likely to feel weird if the effect goes through than bad if it doesn't.
I don't know much about your world or it's themes. But I want to hear the pitch. How will it stand out before I've seen all the detail? What's the obvious centrepiece features of this world and what makes them exciting?
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
Saying that aspects like bookkeeping and math make games too tedious to be fun is effectively saying that games like Dungeons and Dragons and Yu-Gi-Oh! aren't fun. Some people don't mind—or actually find a thrill in games with higher levels of detail. With that being said, I don't think it's fair for any game developer to have to cater to the special needs (or low-functioning perception) of certain players. Those kinds of games simply aren't for them. And it should be a respected liberty that the game developer is able to cater to their target demographic with the fullest extent of their capabilities. Some game aspects may be simplified in good faith—but what you're basically suggesting is hard oppression upon the creative talents of the game developer. It's unjust—and suggestions like this should never be made—because they simply can't be won.
Most fun mechanics might be ones that you can build around, but some mechanics also enable you to build more freely, and thus open up (or advance) the fullest extent of the development and its capabilities. Disarm is one such mechanic. There actually is nothing about Disarm that it can't be built around, but the inherent intention for it isn't to be built around. It exists as something built around the overworld of the game itself—and thus seeks to perfect the equilibrium and balance of its elements and their interactivity. It opens up interactivity and creates new interactivity. It is this interactivity that is one of the primary driving forces of the game and its fun. It enables players to do more—that's fun to them. Although you might not see anything that you can do with it.
Just want to note that in the scenario you presented, the effect of Pierce wouldn't resolve, because the creature would no longer be on the battlefield for it to have any relevancy when it resolves. It would if say the creature was regenerated, but that's not exactly an un-self-explanatory scenario. There's great flavor in that, and once again with Pierce working this way (in its Force Majeure), it opens up more interactivity with regeneration (acting as a time-lapsed, hard check against its own hard-lock capabilities).
The game could really use this, as it enables regeneration (a beloved mechanic) and protection (yet another—suggestively endangered) to see new life. It also enables development to ease up on hard removal that take away interactivity, and can effectively reduce abilities like regeneration to nothing (not fun). Ideally, you want to make it gradual, and that's why I am strongly leaning towards Pierce retaining its current composure in lieu of one that requires damage to actually be dealt. In this, it transcends the game, and through a stretch of imagination, enables the game itself to see new life (good job).
No, they are based on proven conventions of game design.
MtG already HAS bookkeeping and math. I'm not saying you can't have bookkeeping and math in your games, and that much should be patently obvious. Players enjoy games with detail that is rewarding. It's both about the sheer level of complexity, and how well executed the complex elements are.
I'll repeat the point I made earlier that excess complexity isn't just a problem for newer players. Framing this issue as just catering to new players is both a warped understanding of how much difference there actually is in what new players and more experienced players enjoy and evading addressing the point of where the complexity ceiling lies for more experienced players. You can design your sets however you like, free of my 'oppression', but if you want to design sets that actually play well you're going to have to submit to certain standards beyond your specific personal vision.
Some mechanics are less build around than others. Kicker doesn't have much to build around, for example, but yet it does still lend toward that with how it encourages more mana intensive decks, how most individual kicker cards are designed with specific archetypes in mind, and how they keep making cards that mechanically care about kicker just like with other such mechanics like cycling and adventures. What none of these mechanics do, is base their playability primarily on the metagame prevalence of other strategies. Landwalk, fear and intimidate all used to be evergreen mechanics that did this for color, but they were all gotten rid off partly because they are anti-mechanics that can be unfun for both the user and the recipient in deciding games based on what can feel like happenstance. Protection still exists because it is used specifically as a universal anti-synergy mechanic to put on individual sideboard oriented cards.
Again, Disarm is a perfectly good type of effect to have, it's just not one you want very much of in one set. We just don't see this type of mechanic in MtG, or Hearthstone, or Faeria or any number of other cardgames. You hardly seen many anti-creature mechanics (e.g. deathtouch, wither) and they are the most common and most important cardtype to these sorts of games and always get lots of interaction. You don't need to push a creature theme; there's always a creature theme. There's never going to be an archetype of creature focused decks to counter, but the same cannot be said for auras and equipment.
EDIT: An another note on anti-creature mechanics is that these mechanics often appear on creatures themselves, necessarily making it hard for them to in any way counter creature based decks as an archetype, which is not true for disarm (in fact, you've stated you don't intend to even put it on a single aura or equipment.
Pierce, as written, is a delayed trigger ability, like Flickerwisp. Delayed triggered abilities exist independently of the card that produces them. Once Pierce is triggered, it will take affect regardless of what happens to the creature with Pierce. That's why Flickerwisp can bring the creature back even if Flickerwisp dies before the end of turn, which the gatherer rulings confirm if you must know.
8/1/2008 The exiled card will return to the battlefield at the beginning of the end step even if Flickerwisp is no longer on the battlefield.
Specific interactions with an abandoned evergreen mechanic and a mechanic relegated to sideboarded oriented cards don't help any of these mechanics.
Having a mechanic that gave creatures a buff when they fought a creature with banding would 'breathe new life' into banding, but that wouldn't make either of those mechanics okay (not that protection isn't okay, by the way).
Development doesn't ease up on hard removal because it doesn't have enough good alternative, it does so because such cards are good for the game. Kill spells *are* interactive after all, because they can be countered, they can be worked around with death triggers and reanimation, they can be negated by -protection abilities on creatures and instant buffs and auras, they can be forcefully discarded from the hand or library, they can be locked out by cost increasing effects and effects that stop instant speed casting, they can be punished with certain triggered abilities like Bonecrusher Giant, and more.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
This wouldn't be a thing if what you're saying was true.
Just want to add that I said Pierce explicitly wouldn't be granted by equipment—not Disarm. And in the scenario you initially suggested, the person destroys their own creature, so Pierce wouldn't go through, because the creature would no longer be on the battlefield for the effect to have any relevance. It doesn't matter if it's a delayed triggered ability—the target/choice/selection is no longer present.
Kicker wasn't a totally defunct mechanic, its fundamental dynamics had some decent potential, but it was poorly implemented. If simply Kicker spells kept the kicker cost down to a single mana, many of them would have been much more efficient and adaptable. Say, doing almost the same thing for a single green or a single blue. That's great! That's efficient! But obviously, the way Kicker was envisioned involved looking down the mana curve, so that spells could effectively exist at two places on the mana curve/color scale (it could be red-white—or it could be white-black; it could be a 6 mana spell or it could be a 10 mana spell; a 2 defensive or a 4 offensive). Another bad implementation involving kicker was that the initial investment did nothing. The cards weren't worth playing unless you could pay the kicker. And many cards had underwhelming effects for their place on the mana curve—suggestively in respects to having kicker (which you can't do and remain at equilibrium with the overworld game). That is why they're only good in their own Block. And once again, they had to make a card ridiculously powerful to circumvent this (which they should never have to do).
I'm sorry, this is such a non response that it's hard for me to even know where to begin. That's not an accurate description of the point I an making or what the point of contention is.
I'll try to explain it again: this isn't about whether complexity is allowed. It would be meaningless to say complex games are bad because games aren't simply complex or simple. It's not even just a scale. Complexity is, fittingly, more complicated than that. There's different kinds of complexity and complexity can be implemented in different ways. Games that are just as complex can be more less or hurt by their complexity, more or less benefit from it.
The complexity presented by en garde and challenge is not just high but also not rewarding. Especially the choice between the different dice roll games. As I've said, it's just not an interesting choice and adds way too much text for little gain.
My mistake.
What are you talking about? I wasn't talking about removing the target of pierce, I was talking about removing the creature with the pierce ability.
That would have severely limited the design space of the mechanic for no real gain.
You say this bit like you're describing something obviously bad, but the best part of kicker as a mechanic is the way cards can be played as two significantly different cards depending on the circumstances.
Early magic was full of wonky power levels. Kicker has seen much more recent use than the examples you cite. And this is all talking card-by-card execution and balancing not mechanical design.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
Quite a few updates and lots of design notes if you got any new feedback.