This set, which has yet to be named, revolves around life in general, and, more specifically, lifegain.
The idea of the set is that you should have incentive to gain life not only to survive longer, but also to gain other benefits, for example through the ascended keyword.
Often, your primary goal might not even be to get the opponent down to 0 life, but firstly stop him from getting 30 life...
Other themes of the set include:
- Blessings vs Curses: We have seen the Curses, a special type of Enchantments that enchant players,
in the Innistrad block.
Here, I introduce its counterpart, Blessings, which have a positive effect on the
enchanted player. Also, there will be new Curses and they will "fight each other" in a way.
(For example, there is a blessing that removes curses and vice versa)
- Burn counters: These counters which can be put on a player prevent ("absorb") lifegain,
but they serve some other purposes and a deck can be built around accumulating burn
counters on your opponent, regardless of whether they try to gain life or not.
The keywords so far are the following:
Ascended: You are ascended as long as you have at least 10 more life than your starting life total.
Burn: When a source with burn deals damage to a player, that player gains that many burn counters. If a player with burn counters on him or her would gain life, for each life he or she whould gain, a burn counter is removed instead. If the player would gain more life than burn counters on him or her, all burn counters are removed and the player gains life equal to the difference between burn counters and lifegain (For example, if a player with 3 burn counters on it would gain 5 life, instead, that player removes 3 burn counters from him or her, then gains 2 life).
The roles of the colors regarding the life theme are the following:
White:
- Primary ascended color. A lot of creatures that benefit if you are ascended.
- Small, but steady lifegain (e.g., lifelink)
Green: - Secondary ascended color
- Lifegain in bigger chunks
Black: - Tertiary ascended color
- Lifegain mostly through drain effects and lifelink
- Use life as a payment
- Secondary burn color
Red: - Anti-lifegain color
- Primary burn color
Blue: - Has no identity yet. Might get a focus on mill in order to avoid attacking the life total. Suggestions are very welcome!
Hybrid: I use hybrid in this set since I like it and think it should be evergreen, also appearing in sets
with no special multicolor focus.
Also, many cards fit nicely into two colors, as there is a lot of overlap between white and green
regarding general lifegain, between white and black regarding lifelink creatures, and between
red and black regarding lifegain hate.
Child of Day1W
Creature — Human Soldier {C}
Lifelink
2/1
Stinging Soldier1W
Creature — Human Soldier {C}
Vigilance, Lifelink
1/3
French Vanilla Flier 2WW
Creature - Bird {C}
Flying
3/3
Pleasegainlife Flier W
Creature - Bird {C}
Flying
Whenever you gain life, Pleasegainlife Flier
gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
1/1
White Ascendbear1W
Creature — Human Soldier {C}
As long as you are ascended, White Ascendbear gets
+2/+2, has flying and vigilance and is an Angel in addition
to its other creature types.
2/2
Renew2W
Enchantment — Aura Blessing {C}
Enchant player
At the beginning of enchanted player's upkeep,
that player may gain 2 life.
White Life-Knight WW
Creature — Human Knight {U}
Lifelink
As long as you are ascended, White Life-Knight
gets +2/+2 and has first strike and protection from black.
2/2
Mustgainlife Flier WW
Creature - Angel {U}
Flying, First Strike
At the beginning of your end step, if you didn't gain life
this turn, sacrifice Mustgainlife Flier.
3/3
Ascendmana Elf 1G
Creature - Elf Druid {C}
: Add G to your mana pool. If you are ascended, add GGG to your mana pool instead.
1/2
Lifeboar1G
Creature - Boar {C}
Whenever Lifeboar becomes blocked, you
may sacrifice it. If you do, you gain 5 life.
2/2
Regrowth 2G
Enchantment - Aura Blessing {C}
Enchant player
When Regrowth enters the battlefield, enchanted player gains 5 life.
Sacrifice Regrowth: Enchanted player gains life equal to the damage dealt to him or her this turn.
Lifegain Visionary 1G
Creature - Elf Druid {C}
When Lifegain Visionary enters the battlefield, choose one -
you gain 5 life; or you draw a card.
1/1
Lifegain Centaur 2G
Creature - Centaur {C}
When Lifegain Centaur enters the battlefield, choose one -
Put a +1/+1 counter on Lifegain Centaur; or you gain 5 life.
2/2
Lifegain Cantrip 1G
Sorcery {C}
You gain 5 life.
Draw a card.
Vanilla Beast 2GG
Creature - Beast {C}
4/4
Growing Ascendbear 1G
Creature - Bear {C} 5G: Put a +1/+1 counter on Growing Ascendbear.
This ability costs 5 less to play if you are ascended.
2/2
Surge of Life 2G
Sorcery {C}
You gain 5 life. Then, if you are ascended, target land you
control becomes a 5/5 green Elemental creature. It's still a land. (This effect is permanent)
Lifegrowth 2G
Sorcery {C}
Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
You gain 1 life for each land you control.
Green Charm GG
Sorcery {C}
Choose one - You gain 5 life; or search your
library for a basic land card, reveal it, then put it into your hand;
or destroy target creature with flying.
Demoncaller 1G
Creature - Elf Priest {G}
When Demoncaller enters the battlefield, you gain 5 life.
:symtap:, sacrifice Demoncaller: Put a 5/5 green Demon creature token onto the battlefield. Play this ability only if you are ascended. I am currently also working on some flavor and green demons will be part of it, so... 0/1
Life-Liking Spider 1G
Creature - Spider {G}
Reach
At the beginning of your upkeep, if a player has more life than each other player, that player gains control of Life-Liking Spider.
3/4
Battle Priest G
Creature - Elf Priest {G}
Sacrifice Battle Priest: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. If you are ascended, put five +1/+1 counters on that creature instead.
1/1
Ascendcast Beast 5G
Creature - Beast
Ascendcast Beast costs 5 less to cast if you are ascended.
5/5
Black Life-Knight BB
Creature - Human Knight {U}
Lifelink
As long as you are ascended, Black Life-Knight
gets +2/+2 and has first strike and protection from white.
2/2
Dark Spirit Link 1
Enchantment - Aura {C}
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has lifelink.
Blessingcaster 2:symwg::symwg:
Creature - Human Shaman {C}
When Blessingcaster enters the battlefield, you may
search your library for a blessing card and put it onto
the battlefield attached to target player. If you do,
shuffle your library afterwards.
2/2
* Exile should be Uncommon. The non-white clause is bit strange in this set since you don't have a color theme.
* Angel's Call is too strong. I think it's CMC should be 1WW.
* Ajani seens extremely narrow, not a good PW design. His useless outside of your lifegain theme. I think you should change his ultimate.
* I liked your Ascentant Knight mini-cycle.
* Liked the Blessings too. I'm found of enchanting players, wish they played a bigger role in the game.
My opnion on Green:
* Nature's Child "whenver ~~ attack, you gain 4 life" doesn't feel green. Green normaly gain life by sacrificing creatures, playing creatures or playing spells (though theres some time i don't see green lifegain spell).
* Balototh is pretty far from common level. This creature would break limited for your set.
* Regrowth is bit forced imo. It could 've a triggered ability like "whenever a creature you control dies, gain 3 life".
My criticism on Black:
* Wave of Darkness is really blasphemous to the pie. In most cases it is straight up life gain on black !
* Sorin's other abilities should be stronger/cheaper. You're paying life to make him grow ! Overall i think i like him. A negative "+" ability on Pw is awesome idea.
Hybrid:
* Blessing Caster is too strong for common. Really liked him !
General:
* I like the "life matters" theme. I was designing a wedge color Alara-like set and life matters was the theme of the WBR shard.
* Also liked how you distributed the life related effects across each color. It's nice that you remenbered that white has direct life gain cards (life link, straight up life gain) while green has conditional life gain and gaining it in huge chuncks. I think milling could fit blue since mill interacts well with life theme.
* Another suggestion for blue color would be "false life" such as found in Delusions of Mediocrity. Not execly like in this card but by doing stuff such as "Target player gain 10 life. That player looses 10 life at the end of turn". This is really tricky stuff and would be rare material.
* The really bad thing about your set is how you letting the theme suffocate the design. So far almost all the cards are bounded to life gain and thats not good. Set themes have to be little more subtle in order to fit in all mtg core themes (combat, card advanatage, tempo, etc...).
* You should use other life related theme, not only life gain. Loosing life, 10 life triggers such as zendikar vampires, difference between life totals etc... A good start would be keyword for "[...] if you did not loose life turn". This keyword could be mainly blue for being so good at defending itself.
* The wording of "burn" ability is really tricky. There isn't such thing as "absorb life gain" in the game. I think a better way to input the burn mechanic would be:
Burn - (Whenever this car deals damage to a pçayer, that player gains a burn counter).
Burn Counters - (Whenever the player would gain life remove one burn counter instead).
* You should also explore other themes or build some subthemes. The blessing subtheme so far is a good idea. You could put a curse subtheme like in INN and spells that interacts with curses and blessings. Blue could switch the targets of such enchantments (on the stack like a deflect spell and on the field for higher cost).
Hi, thanks for your comments, they are really helpful
I will definitely look for other "life matters" themes than gaining life or paying life. Thanks for your suggestions.
My next steps will include these suggestions:
Quote from "italofoca" »
* The really bad thing about your set is how you letting the theme suffocate the design. So far almost all the cards are bounded to life gain and thats not good. Set themes have to be little more subtle in order to fit in all mtg core themes (combat, card advanatage, tempo, etc...).
* You should use other life related theme, not only life gain. Loosing life, 10 life triggers such as zendikar vampires, difference between life totals etc... A good start would be keyword for "[...] if you did not loose life turn". This keyword could be mainly blue for being so good at defending itself.
* You should also explore other themes or build some subthemes. The blessing subtheme so far is a good idea. You could put a curse subtheme like in INN and spells that interacts with curses and blessings. Blue could switch the targets of such enchantments (on the stack like a deflect spell and on the field for higher cost).
This set, which has yet to be named, revolves around life in general, and, more specifically, lifegain.
The idea of the set is that you should have incentive to gain life not only to survive longer, but also to gain other benefits, for example through the ascended keyword.
Often, your primary goal might not even be to get the opponent down to 0 life, but firstly stop him from getting 30 life...
Other themes of the set include:
- Blessings vs Curses: We have seen the Curses, a special type of Enchantments that enchant players,
in the Innistrad block.
Here, I introduce its counterpart, Blessings, which have a positive effect on the
enchanted player. Also, there will be new Curses and they will "fight each other" in a way.
(For example, there is a blessing that removes curses and vice versa)
- Burn counters: These counters which can be put on a player prevent ("absorb") lifegain,
but they serve some other purposes and a deck can be built around accumulating burn
counters on your opponent, regardless of whether they try to gain life or not.
The keywords so far are the following:
Ascended: You are ascended as long as you have at least 10 more life than your starting life total.
Burn: When a source with burn deals damage to a player, that player gains that many burn counters. If a player with burn counters on him or her would gain life, for each life he or she whould gain, a burn counter is removed instead. If the player would gain more life than burn counters on him or her, all burn counters are removed and the player gains life equal to the difference between burn counters and lifegain (For example, if a player with 3 burn counters on it would gain 5 life, instead, that player removes 3 burn counters from him or her, then gains 2 life).
The roles of the colors regarding the life theme are the following:
White:
- Primary ascended color. A lot of creatures that benefit if you are ascended.
- Small, but steady lifegain (e.g., lifelink)
Green:
- Secondary ascended color
- Lifegain in bigger chunks
Black:
- Tertiary ascended color
- Lifegain mostly through drain effects and lifelink
- Use life as a payment
- Secondary burn color
Red:
- Anti-lifegain color
- Primary burn color
Blue:
- Has no identity yet. Might get a focus on mill in order to avoid attacking the life total.
Suggestions are very welcome!
Hybrid:
I use hybrid in this set since I like it and think it should be evergreen, also appearing in sets
with no special multicolor focus.
Also, many cards fit nicely into two colors, as there is a lot of overlap between white and green
regarding general lifegain, between white and black regarding lifelink creatures, and between
red and black regarding lifegain hate.
The cards so far (the names are placeholders):
White:
Common:
Soul's Attendant
Recumbent Bliss
Child of Day 1W
Creature — Human Soldier {C}
Lifelink
2/1
Stinging Soldier 1W
Creature — Human Soldier {C}
Vigilance, Lifelink
1/3
French Vanilla Flier 2WW
Creature - Bird {C}
Flying
3/3
Pleasegainlife Flier W
Creature - Bird {C}
Flying
Whenever you gain life, Pleasegainlife Flier
gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
1/1
White Ascendbear 1W
Creature — Human Soldier {C}
As long as you are ascended, White Ascendbear gets
+2/+2, has flying and vigilance and is an Angel in addition
to its other creature types.
2/2
Renew 2W
Enchantment — Aura Blessing {C}
Enchant player
At the beginning of enchanted player's upkeep,
that player may gain 2 life.
Uncommon:
Ajani's Pridemate
White Life-Knight WW
Creature — Human Knight {U}
Lifelink
As long as you are ascended, White Life-Knight
gets +2/+2 and has first strike and protection from black.
2/2
Mustgainlife Flier WW
Creature - Angel {U}
Flying, First Strike
At the beginning of your end step, if you didn't gain life
this turn, sacrifice Mustgainlife Flier.
3/3
Uncommon:
Exile
Rare:
Rhox Faithmender
Mythic rare:
Planeswalker is under construction
Green:
Common:
Nature's Claim
Invigorate
Battlegrowth
Respite
Ascendmana Elf 1G
Creature - Elf Druid {C}
: Add G to your mana pool. If you are ascended, add GGG to your mana pool instead.
1/2
Lifeboar 1G
Creature - Boar {C}
Whenever Lifeboar becomes blocked, you
may sacrifice it. If you do, you gain 5 life.
2/2
Regrowth 2G
Enchantment - Aura Blessing {C}
Enchant player
When Regrowth enters the battlefield, enchanted player gains 5 life.
Sacrifice Regrowth: Enchanted player gains life equal to the damage dealt to him or her this turn.
Lifegain Visionary 1G
Creature - Elf Druid {C}
When Lifegain Visionary enters the battlefield, choose one -
you gain 5 life; or you draw a card.
1/1
Lifegain Centaur 2G
Creature - Centaur {C}
When Lifegain Centaur enters the battlefield, choose one -
Put a +1/+1 counter on Lifegain Centaur; or you gain 5 life.
2/2
Lifegain Cantrip 1G
Sorcery {C}
You gain 5 life.
Draw a card.
Vanilla Beast 2GG
Creature - Beast {C}
4/4
Growing Ascendbear 1G
Creature - Bear {C}
5G: Put a +1/+1 counter on Growing Ascendbear.
This ability costs 5 less to play if you are ascended.
2/2
Surge of Life 2G
Sorcery {C}
You gain 5 life. Then, if you are ascended, target land you
control becomes a 5/5 green Elemental creature. It's still a land.
(This effect is permanent)
Lifegrowth 2G
Sorcery {C}
Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
You gain 1 life for each land you control.
Green Charm GG
Sorcery {C}
Choose one - You gain 5 life; or search your
library for a basic land card, reveal it, then put it into your hand;
or destroy target creature with flying.
Demoncaller 1G
Creature - Elf Priest {G}
When Demoncaller enters the battlefield, you gain 5 life.
:symtap:, sacrifice Demoncaller: Put a 5/5 green Demon creature token onto the battlefield. Play this ability only if you are ascended.
I am currently also working on some flavor and green demons will be part of it, so...
0/1
Life-Liking Spider 1G
Creature - Spider {G}
Reach
At the beginning of your upkeep, if a player has more life than each other player, that player gains control of Life-Liking Spider.
3/4
Battle Priest G
Creature - Elf Priest {G}
Sacrifice Battle Priest: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. If you are ascended, put five +1/+1 counters on that creature instead.
1/1
Ascendcast Beast 5G
Creature - Beast
Ascendcast Beast costs 5 less to cast if you are ascended.
5/5
Mythic rare:
Planeswalker is under construction
Black:
Common:
Sign in Blood
Child of Night
Blood Consumer B
Creature - Vampire
Pay 3 life: Put a +1/+1 counter on Blood Consumer.
1/1
Greater Deathmark BB
Sorcery {C}
Destroy target creature.
If that creature was neither white nor green, you lose 4 life.
Uncommon:
Ambition's Cost
Vampire Nighthawk
Black Life-Knight BB
Creature - Human Knight {U}
Lifelink
As long as you are ascended, Black Life-Knight
gets +2/+2 and has first strike and protection from white.
2/2
Rare:
Dark Confidant
Mythic Rare:
Planeswalker is under construction
Hybrid:
Common:
Nip Gwyllion (maybe with another creature type)
Vampiric Bird 1:symbw::symbw:
Creature — Bird Vampire {C}
Flying, Lifelink
2/1
Dark Spirit Link 1
Enchantment - Aura {C}
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has lifelink.
Blessingcaster 2:symwg::symwg:
Creature - Human Shaman {C}
When Blessingcaster enters the battlefield, you may
search your library for a blessing card and put it onto
the battlefield attached to target player. If you do,
shuffle your library afterwards.
2/2
Uncommon:
Dawnglow Infusion
* Exile should be Uncommon. The non-white clause is bit strange in this set since you don't have a color theme.
* Angel's Call is too strong. I think it's CMC should be 1WW.
* Ajani seens extremely narrow, not a good PW design. His useless outside of your lifegain theme. I think you should change his ultimate.
* I liked your Ascentant Knight mini-cycle.
* Liked the Blessings too. I'm found of enchanting players, wish they played a bigger role in the game.
My opnion on Green:
* Nature's Child "whenver ~~ attack, you gain 4 life" doesn't feel green. Green normaly gain life by sacrificing creatures, playing creatures or playing spells (though theres some time i don't see green lifegain spell).
* Balototh is pretty far from common level. This creature would break limited for your set.
* Regrowth is bit forced imo. It could 've a triggered ability like "whenever a creature you control dies, gain 3 life".
My criticism on Black:
* Wave of Darkness is really blasphemous to the pie. In most cases it is straight up life gain on black !
* Sorin's other abilities should be stronger/cheaper. You're paying life to make him grow ! Overall i think i like him. A negative "+" ability on Pw is awesome idea.
Hybrid:
* Blessing Caster is too strong for common. Really liked him !
General:
* I like the "life matters" theme. I was designing a wedge color Alara-like set and life matters was the theme of the WBR shard.
* Also liked how you distributed the life related effects across each color. It's nice that you remenbered that white has direct life gain cards (life link, straight up life gain) while green has conditional life gain and gaining it in huge chuncks. I think milling could fit blue since mill interacts well with life theme.
* Another suggestion for blue color would be "false life" such as found in Delusions of Mediocrity. Not execly like in this card but by doing stuff such as "Target player gain 10 life. That player looses 10 life at the end of turn". This is really tricky stuff and would be rare material.
* The really bad thing about your set is how you letting the theme suffocate the design. So far almost all the cards are bounded to life gain and thats not good. Set themes have to be little more subtle in order to fit in all mtg core themes (combat, card advanatage, tempo, etc...).
* You should use other life related theme, not only life gain. Loosing life, 10 life triggers such as zendikar vampires, difference between life totals etc... A good start would be keyword for "[...] if you did not loose life turn". This keyword could be mainly blue for being so good at defending itself.
* The wording of "burn" ability is really tricky. There isn't such thing as "absorb life gain" in the game. I think a better way to input the burn mechanic would be:
Burn - (Whenever this car deals damage to a pçayer, that player gains a burn counter).
Burn Counters - (Whenever the player would gain life remove one burn counter instead).
* You should also explore other themes or build some subthemes. The blessing subtheme so far is a good idea. You could put a curse subtheme like in INN and spells that interacts with curses and blessings. Blue could switch the targets of such enchantments (on the stack like a deflect spell and on the field for higher cost).
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
I will definitely look for other "life matters" themes than gaining life or paying life. Thanks for your suggestions.
My next steps will include these suggestions:
Most of them still revolve around lifegain, and this will remain a major component of the block.
Maybe there are a little too many cards that focus on the theme right now, but for ascended to work, there needs to be a lot of lifegain.
I also deleted or changed some other cards.
Thanks for your comments in advance!
Tumblr : http://www.tumblr.com/blog/mrtj120