Aether Paradox1C Enchantment
As Aether Paradox enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Creatures of the chosen type enter the battlefield with their power and toughness switched. Perception can be a devil's trick we play on ourselves. Convinced that we exist in some way that we don't—or don't exist in some way that we do.
Guard of Honor1W Enchantment
Creature spells with toughness greater than their power cost you one colored mana of any type less to cast. Honesty is a shield that protects you even from yourself—where you would otherwise be your own worst enemy. Yet it is a shield that may lie heavy and test the strength of even the mightiest crown.
Raise the Labyrinth1U Enchantment
Whenever a blue creature with defender enters the battlefield under your control, you may search your library for a blue creature card with defender, reveal it, and put it into your hand, then shuffle your library. The ground shook—and the towering presence of the walls enveloped the invaders now trapped within. Another haunting presence from the distance could be felt, shaking their hearts with its power. The monster and the princess game had begun.
Shared Loyalty1C Enchantment
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, you may place a -1/-1 counter on each creature you control. If a counter is placed on a creature this way, prevent all damage that would be dealt to Planeswalkers you control this turn.
Transmute 1C Beware your ties of loyalty—for they may be knotted with a noose—and lead you to the hang.
Heavy Lies the Crown1C Enchantment
As long as a player controls any creatures, if a Planeswalker he or she controls would be dealt damage, prevent 1 of that damage and vice versa. "I really loathe her using me as a vessel for her chauvinistic expressions. She's such a kiddie at her worst. Something she used to be far from."
—Sorin speaking on Olivia
Heavy lies the crown—a man's place in a woman's life.
I promise not to make any more of these right now. I just wanted to clear my cache.
Guard of Honor could also accelerate stuff like Aven Brigadier.
I was going ask if anyone thinks the costs could be switched for Aether Paradox and Shared Loyalty.
I must admit, you'll have to blame my 'out of touch'ness once again for Shared Loyalty. I was under the impression creatures couldn't block for Planeswalkers, but now I do recall that rule when they came out in Lorwyn.
I actually really like shared loyalty. Works incredibly well with walkers who make tokens. You shrink your tokens and you stop any sort of evasion. Even with being able to block I really like the design.
As for heavy lies the crown the vice versa means that your creatures take one less damage? Is that right? If so it's pretty cool with damage based wrath effects.
I guess my biggest question is why do they have the colorless symbol? What are you trying to prevent/encourage with the more restrictive cost?
Shared Loyalty (as now written) needs a clause requiring you to have creatures. Otherwise, you can just prevent damage to your PWs while your board is empty. The card feels really black to me as well.
It has the clause "if s counter was put on a creature this way then..." Probably not WotC's preferred wording but I believe it functions within the rules.
As for colorless not having that sort of effect of heavy is the crown if it were traditonal colorless I'd fully agree but colorless required colorless is basically completely undefined at this stage. But that feeds back into my point of why colorless symbols, I think they are something that should only be deployed with a purpose tied to flavor and not be used to make utility cards harder to cast.
I personally would only ever approve colorless if the larger set needed it for flavor purposes.
Edit: Aether Paradox would be an absolute nightmare to track in paper. It would be fine in digital but I'm not sure it's worth the complete headache it would cause maintaining the gamestate. I have a hard enough time remembering pithing needle names I could see this making complex combat boards states miserable.
Is it a card that serves a broader purpose in your design or just a cool once off? If it's a tribal set and it really synergizes with one of the tribes then I could see keeping it but just as a once off I'm not convinced it adds positively to the game that isn't covered by Assault Formation in a less mentally taxing way.
Shared Loyalty (as now written) needs a clause requiring you to have creatures. Otherwise, you can just prevent damage to your PWs while your board is empty. The card feels really black to me as well.
No, because a counter has to be placed on a creature or else nothing. That is why it's worded as-is and not simply, [If you do, ].
I guess my biggest question is why do they have the colorless symbol? What are you trying to prevent/encourage with the more restrictive cost?
It's to fully blend the line of the concept. I didn't like the colorless mana symbol at first to be honest, but I do see capability for it to do something (although far more roundabout) that was apart of my vision in my very first works.
If you want the power, you gotta pay for it. The name tells all about the colorless symbol; heavy lies the crown.
Aether Paradox would be an absolute nightmare to track in paper. It would be fine in digital but I'm not sure it's worth the complete headache it would cause maintaining the gamestate. I have a hard enough time remembering pithing needle names I could see this making complex combat boards states miserable.
Is it a card that serves a broader purpose in your design or just a cool once off? If it's a tribal set and it really synergizes with one of the tribes then I could see keeping it but just as a once off I'm not convinced it adds positively to the game that isn't covered by Assault Formation in a less mentally taxing way.
It is different, in that the reverse of power and toughness remains even if Aether Paradox is removed.
People shouldn't be playing games unprepared. Imaging showing up to D&D with only a candle and D6.
I personally think that Assault Formation is a choppy mess. It infringed on the uniqueness of a dynamic card, to do something that the team couldn't think of a more creative way to do. That's really bad for business.
Well if it's just for power then I have to disagree with using the colorless symbols. If it's not integral to your flavor I'd highly recommend increasing the cost and removing the colorless symbols. I think your initial reaction was correct. They are weird and off putting and shouldn't be a normal part of magic. They should be used to signify something weird and otherworldly. Aether Paradox is the only card that fits that bill to me. Crown and Loyalty just don't fit from a flavor perspective as far as I can tell. And to me there is nothing so powerful about either that I'd be completely uncomfortable with them just costing 2 generic mana.
As for the tracking issues magic is a complex game but most of the complexity comes from interactions between cards and players. They try really hard to avoid tracking issues without tokens involved as a reminder for people like me who would absolutely get lost in a Aether Paradox game. Unless it's designed to support a tribe in your design I'd highly recommend axing it. It's a clever on paper design but a miserable in play one. Especially for how often it will have low impact.
Edit: expanding on the colorless vs generic mana as a way to make them weaker: it doesn't decrease the power level of the card it just makes the decks that can use it more narrow. In any deckthat plays one of them they will be functionally the same as costing 2 generic mana because the challenge was addressed during deck building. If that was the goal then you succeeded, I'm just warning you that from a player perspective that making colorless into a sixth color this way without strong flavor reasoning is going to be wildly unpopular.
Enchantment
As Aether Paradox enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Creatures of the chosen type enter the battlefield with their power and toughness switched.
Perception can be a devil's trick we play on ourselves. Convinced that we exist in some way that we don't—or don't exist in some way that we do.
Guard of Honor 1W
Enchantment
Creature spells with toughness greater than their power cost you one colored mana of any type less to cast.
Honesty is a shield that protects you even from yourself—where you would otherwise be your own worst enemy. Yet it is a shield that may lie heavy and test the strength of even the mightiest crown.
Raise the Labyrinth 1U
Enchantment
Whenever a blue creature with defender enters the battlefield under your control, you may search your library for a blue creature card with defender, reveal it, and put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
The ground shook—and the towering presence of the walls enveloped the invaders now trapped within. Another haunting presence from the distance could be felt, shaking their hearts with its power. The monster and the princess game had begun.
Shared Loyalty 1C
Enchantment
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, you may place a -1/-1 counter on each creature you control. If a counter is placed on a creature this way, prevent all damage that would be dealt to Planeswalkers you control this turn.
Transmute 1C
Beware your ties of loyalty—for they may be knotted with a noose—and lead you to the hang.
Heavy Lies the Crown 1C
Enchantment
As long as a player controls any creatures, if a Planeswalker he or she controls would be dealt damage, prevent 1 of that damage and vice versa.
"I really loathe her using me as a vessel for her chauvinistic expressions. She's such a kiddie at her worst. Something she used to be far from."
—Sorin speaking on Olivia
Heavy lies the crown—a man's place in a woman's life.
I promise not to make any more of these right now. I just wanted to clear my cache.
Aether Paradox works. It feels blue to me, but if Eldrazi is a theme in your set I could see this making sense.
Guard of honor might need to be worded a little different, but it seems okay as is. Makes sense for a Doran the Siege Tower type deck
Raise the Labyrinth is oddly specific finding only blue creatures, but the card does work as written.
Shared Loyalty... doesn't make sense. You can already block something attacking your Planeswalkers, so why does this need to exist?
Still, 3/4 functioning and non-broken cards is a sight better that I expected, so I'll give credit for that.
I was going ask if anyone thinks the costs could be switched for Aether Paradox and Shared Loyalty.
I must admit, you'll have to blame my 'out of touch'ness once again for Shared Loyalty. I was under the impression creatures couldn't block for Planeswalkers, but now I do recall that rule when they came out in Lorwyn.
As for heavy lies the crown the vice versa means that your creatures take one less damage? Is that right? If so it's pretty cool with damage based wrath effects.
I guess my biggest question is why do they have the colorless symbol? What are you trying to prevent/encourage with the more restrictive cost?
Heavy lies the crown needs to be white, as that ability and protecting planeswalkers in general are fimly white ebilities and colorless doesn't protect that way in its suite of abilities.
As for colorless not having that sort of effect of heavy is the crown if it were traditonal colorless I'd fully agree but colorless required colorless is basically completely undefined at this stage. But that feeds back into my point of why colorless symbols, I think they are something that should only be deployed with a purpose tied to flavor and not be used to make utility cards harder to cast.
I personally would only ever approve colorless if the larger set needed it for flavor purposes.
Edit: Aether Paradox would be an absolute nightmare to track in paper. It would be fine in digital but I'm not sure it's worth the complete headache it would cause maintaining the gamestate. I have a hard enough time remembering pithing needle names I could see this making complex combat boards states miserable.
Is it a card that serves a broader purpose in your design or just a cool once off? If it's a tribal set and it really synergizes with one of the tribes then I could see keeping it but just as a once off I'm not convinced it adds positively to the game that isn't covered by Assault Formation in a less mentally taxing way.
No, because a counter has to be placed on a creature or else nothing. That is why it's worded as-is and not simply, [If you do, ].
It's to fully blend the line of the concept. I didn't like the colorless mana symbol at first to be honest, but I do see capability for it to do something (although far more roundabout) that was apart of my vision in my very first works.
If you want the power, you gotta pay for it. The name tells all about the colorless symbol; heavy lies the crown.
It is different, in that the reverse of power and toughness remains even if Aether Paradox is removed.
People shouldn't be playing games unprepared. Imaging showing up to D&D with only a candle and D6.
I personally think that Assault Formation is a choppy mess. It infringed on the uniqueness of a dynamic card, to do something that the team couldn't think of a more creative way to do. That's really bad for business.
As for the tracking issues magic is a complex game but most of the complexity comes from interactions between cards and players. They try really hard to avoid tracking issues without tokens involved as a reminder for people like me who would absolutely get lost in a Aether Paradox game. Unless it's designed to support a tribe in your design I'd highly recommend axing it. It's a clever on paper design but a miserable in play one. Especially for how often it will have low impact.
Edit: expanding on the colorless vs generic mana as a way to make them weaker: it doesn't decrease the power level of the card it just makes the decks that can use it more narrow. In any deckthat plays one of them they will be functionally the same as costing 2 generic mana because the challenge was addressed during deck building. If that was the goal then you succeeded, I'm just warning you that from a player perspective that making colorless into a sixth color this way without strong flavor reasoning is going to be wildly unpopular.