Stray Thoughts: Punishment

NOTE: Rather than simply clean things up and write a post about my final conclusion, I've got an ongoing thought process recorded here. It seems more informative than just writing down my final conclusion.

I want to make up a returning keyword. I love what scry did for M11, but the existing ones just don't suit my needs. I'm leaning towards something to put in red, largely because I have a lot of trouble with the of available mechanics for commons. It definitely has to be something that can go on non-creature spells, and if it can go on creatures as an ETB ability so much the better.

Considered but dismissed:

Flashback - Elegant mechanic, not very much design space and no clear flavor

Kicker - Similar issues, no overarching flavor or clear mechanic

Hellbent - Interesting and very Red, but not very fun and requires too much support

Contraptions - Overpowered

New Idea: What about the "Punisher" mechanic from Odyssey block? It's not a keyword, but it's flavorful and a casual favorite. Let's take a quick look over the options and see what's there:

Book Burning - Not very good, but fun and wacky.

Blazing Salvo - Solid card, but not super interesting.

Barbarian Bully - Interesting concept, bad choice for reprint

Longhorn Firebeast - Similar - cool concept, underpowered by modern standards

Dwarven Scorcher - Like Blazing Salvo, but worse.

Browbeat - A classic. Definitely worth reprinting if we use the mechanic.

Breaking Point - Too far off-color for my tastes.

Molten Influence - Off color and overly narrow

Skullscorch - Ew. Let's stick to cards that are actually fun.

Dwarven Driller - Um, no?

Lava Blister - Who designed these cards and why do they hate fun?

More recently, Temporal Extortion, Dash Hopes, and Tyrannize have shifted the concept slightly adding black and changing it to life loss.

Okay, there are definitely a lot more of these than I thought. Still, most of them are horribly unfun or distressingly off-color. Browbeat is the only one I like enough to be sure I'd want to reprint it.

Concerns:

Often involves using off-color abilities - should be careful.

Something of a griefer mechanic - cruel choices that aren't fun for new players.

Let's try off the ability tentatively with a few commons, browbeat at uncommon, and one scary rare:

Jerk Elemental - 1R

Creature - Elemental (C)

When Jerk Elemental enters the battlefield, any opponent may have it deal 4 damage to him or her. If a player does, sacrifice Jerk Elemental.

3/1

Firesmite - 2R

Instant (C)

Firesmite deals 5 damage to target creature unless that creature's controller has Firesmite deal 5 damage to him or her.

Browbeat - 2B

Sorcery (U)

Any player may have Browbeat deal 5 damage to him or her. If no one does, target player draws three cards.

Devastate - 1RR

Sorcery (R)

Target opponent may have Devastate deal 7 damage to them. If they do not, they sacrifice and artifact, a creature, and a land.

The more I mess with this mechanic the more I think it belongs in black. It feels more like a sadistic choice forced upon the hero than an angry threat, and life payment fits the template a lot better than choosing to take damage. Even Browbeat has an awkward template where people could accidentally give their opponents cards by targeting them. This may have a place in the set at some point, but I don't think it's the common-level mechanic I'm looking for. I'll keep in mind if I need some more flavor for black, but it's not going on the skeleton any time soon.

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Stray Thoughts: Illusions and Aven

I love that the "sacrifice when it's targeted" ability has gotten flavored as illusions in blue. It's just so perfect that they seem real until something looks directly at them. Tragically, I don't think the ability is a fit for M99.

As much as I love both the gameplay and flavor, it just keeps warping the set around it. I keep going, "Oh, that's a cool design, but it would break too many ice cages at common." I hope the effect continues to show up on-and-off, but for now I won't be including Ice Cage or any illusions in the set.

On a completely unrelated note, I've decided to include Aven as a sub-theme. It allows me to get flyers into white that interact with the soldier tribe, and can even show up a little in other colors.

I've already got the Aven Strikeforce at uncommon, and Aven Cloudchaser seems like a good common inclusion. I love the principle of Aven Brigadier, but it certainly won't cut it as a reprint. He's symmetrical, overcosted, and not nearly flashy enough to fill the Mythic slot I'm looking at for an additional lord. So let's take a page out of Nocturnus's book and design ourselves an awesome mythic lord.

Aven Sky Commander - 1WWW

Creature - Bird Soldier (M)

Flying, First Strike

Other Bird creatures you control get +1/+1 and first strike.

Other Soldier creatures you control get +1/+1 and flying.

3/3

Finally, a quick take on something to fill out our generic black commons while adding some continuity to the set.

Rotting Aven - 2B

Creature - Bird Zombie (C)

Flying

2/1

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Liliana and Marik

If you missed my previous post, part of the plan for M99 is to have 10 gold cards in the set: Each allied color pair gets a mythic planeswalker and a signature spell for them at uncommon. Here are the first two of each:

Liliana the Hunted - 2UB

Planeswalker - Liliana (M)

+1: Return target non-land permanent to owner's hand.

-2: Target player sacrifices a creature.

-6: Target player discards their hand, then loses 1 life for each card in their graveyard.

{4}

Liliana's Extortion - 3UB

Sorcery (U)

Target player discards two cards and you draw two cards.

Marik, Lord of the Tribes - 2RG

Planeswalker - Marik

+2: Each player puts two 1/1 green Elf creature tokens on the battlefield.

-3: Put a 3/3 red Ogre creature token onto the battlefield.

-7: Untap all creatures and gain control of them until end of turn. They gain haste until end of turn.

{4}

Marik's Summons - 1RG

Sorcery (U)

Choose one - Put three 1/1 green Elf creature tokens onto the battlefield; or put a 3/3 red Ogre creature token onto the battlefield.

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Tribe Members

Having determined the five lords I will be using, let's figure out what commons and uncommons I'm going to be printing within their tribes. First, some reprints:

Elite Vanguard

Glory Seeker

Maritime Guard

Scroll Thief

Rotting Dead

Bog Raiders

Goblin Mountaineer

Goblin Piker

Goblin Chariot

Llanowar Elves

Sylvan Ranger

And then lets look at some very simple new cards to fill out some of the holes:

Noble Escort - W

Creature - Human Soldier (C)

Lifelink

1/1

First-Gate Sentries - 3W

Creature - Human Solider (C)

Vigilance

2/4

Aven Strikeforce - 1WW

Creature - Bird Soldier (U)

Flying

3/1

Tidal Ambushers - 2U

Creature - Merfolk Soldier (C)

Flash

2/2

Ravenous Ghoul - 1B

Creature - Zombie (U)

Sacrifice a creature: Put a +1/+1 counter on ~.

1/1

Elvish War-Party - 2G

Creature - Elf Warrior (C)

Trample

3/2

I'll start using these to fill out the design skeleton and get more of an idea what to do next.

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Tribes and Lords

Tribes and their lords have always been a fun and popular part of the core set. Alpha gave us Goblin King, Elvish Champion, Lord of Atlantis, and Zombie Master. More recently, M10 and M11 have had splashier lords for less-supported tribes, like Vampire Nocturnus and Knight Exemplar. So what tribes will M99 support?

The five most traditional tribes for each color are Soldiers, Merfolk, Zombies, Goblins, and Elves. More recently, we've seen Vampires start to replace Zombie's as black's primary race. Despite my love of obscure tribes, I've decided to stick with the primary five for a cycle of core set rares. I'm going to try to squeeze in a more unusual lord or two at other rarities, though.

Lords boost your army, and as such are important enough that you often don't want them to attack. One of the clever solutions to give them some added value is to give them tap abilities that let them contribute even when they can't attack. I'm a big fan of tight cycles, so I'm going to be sticking with lords that are 2/2s for 1CC, grant +1/+1 but no keyword abilities, and have a tap ability related to their tribe. Here are the three reprints I'll be using:

Merfolk Sovereign - 1UU

Creature - Merfolk (R)

Other Merfolk creatures you control get +1/+1.

T: Target Merfolk creature is unblockable this turn.

2/2

Cemetary Reaper - 1BB

Creature - Zombie (R)

Other Zombie creatures you control get +1/+1.

2B, T: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.

2/2

Elvish Archdruid - 1GG

Creature - Elf Druid (R)

Other Elf creatures you control get +1/+1.

T: Add G to your mana pool for each Elf you control.

2/2

I chose zombies over vampires because vampires deserve epic, flavorful lords like Nocturnus rather than simple cycled lords. That leaves white (soldiers) and red (goblins). So what can fill out the cycle?

Frontline Recruiter - 1WW

Creature - Human Soldier (R)

Other Soldier creatures you control get +1/+1.

T: Put a 1/1 white Soldier token onto the battlefield.

2/2

Goblin Tactician - 1RR

Creature - Goblin Shaman (R)

Other Goblin creatures you control get +1/+1.

T, Sacrifice a Goblin: ~ deals 2 damage to target player.

2/2

Both quite simple, but they fit their respective tribes. One last design before I sign off for the night:

Knight Marshall - WW

Creature - Human Knight (U)

First strike

Soldier creatures you control have first strike.

2/2

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Drawing Cards

Three colors generally have the ability to draw cards. Blue is by far the best, and usually draws cards simply using instants and sorceries that do little else. Black gets to draw cards as well, but almost always has to pay life for them. Finally, green can draw cards at higher rarities by using creatures.

Blue

I want blue to have some very simple, sorcery-speed card draw/selection at common, and a slightly flashier instant at uncommon. I'm pretty happy with Divination as a simple card with a flavorful name, but let's make something new for the common card selection and uncommon instant.

Fateful Choice - U

Sorcery (C)

Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

Quick Thinking - XUU

Instant (U)

Look at the top X cards of your library. Put up to two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

Somewhere in between Sleight of Hand and Ponder lies Wise Choice. I like it because it forces decisions but not shuffling. Quick Thinking is a very clever design, but I'll have to see if it actually plays well. I can see either of these getting replaced at some point.

Black

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do a vertical cycle of black card-drawing, life-losing spells or creatures. Here's my first run at the cycle:

Pact Imp - 2B

Creature - Imp (C)

Flying

When ~ enters that battlefield, you draw a card and lose 1 life.

1/1

Pact Devil - 2BB

Creature - Devil (U)

Intimidate

When ~ enters the battlefield, you draw two cards and lose 2 life.

2/2

Pact Demon - 2BBB

Creature - Demon (R)

Flying, Trample

At the beginning of you upkeep, you draw a card and lose 1 life.

4/4

I'm really happy with these. If I can design 226 more cards like this cycle, I'll be knocking on WotC's door the next day.

Green

This hasn't been a core part of green's color pie in a while, but I feel like the mechanic is so good that it deserves the use.

Fecund Beast - 3GG

Creature - Beast (U)

Whenever ~ or another creature you control is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, you may draw a card.

3/4

I'll keep doing post like this designing 5-10 cards a shot, and load them all onto the design skeleton once a week or so. For the record, I had never thought about any of the above cards before today.

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.