Mechanic Help: Speciate

[BOVINE]

The following mechanic and example cards are designed specifically for Cubelet.

Format Rules, Notes, & Guidelines

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• 100 singleton nonland cards form a shared library. The library is the only shared zone.
• Any time a player can play a land (or put a land into play), they may play any card from their hand face down as a land with "T: Add one mana of any type." (It isn't a 2/2 creature.)
• No mulligans.
• No tutor effects. Top of deck and shuffle effects are allowed.
• When the library has no cards, shuffle all graveyards and exiled cards into the library.
• Colors don't need to represented equally. Cubelet offers a curated experience. (The set I'm working on takes place on Muraganda, for instance, where red and green are prevalent.)

Keyword Action: Speciate

Speciate. (This creature gains deathtouch, hexproof, reach, trample, or vigilance chosen at random.)

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Examples:

Tractiomancer

1g

Creature – Elf Shaman

t: Target creature speciates. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery. (It gains deathtouch, hexproof, reach, trample, or vigilance chosen at random.)

Whenever a creature with no abilities enters the battlefield under your control, untap Tractiomancer.

2/2

Adaptive Baloth

1gg

Creature – Beast

When Adaptive Baloth enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, it speciates. (It gains deathtouch, hexproof, reach, trample, or vigilance chosen at random.)

4/4

Environmental Pressure

4gu

Enchantment – Aura

Enchant creature

You control enchanted creature.

When Environmental Pressure enters the battlefield, enchanted creature speciates twice. (It gains deathtouch, hexproof, reach, trample, or vigilance chosen at random, twice.)

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Representing speciation and random mutations, Speciate has been a blast to experience so far but I haven't finished designing the entire Cubelet so I haven't been able to test it in the environment in which it will actual see play (only in singleton 60s and EDH). Play lines can be radically different from game to game and turn to turn. Speciate intends to convey how organisms mutate randomly to follow different evolutionary paths. Typically, we'd want to avoid randomness in our designs but with only 5 outcomes of commonly seen keywords, Speciate results in familiar game states, is quick to determine, and is vital to replayability. This set utilizes punch card markers.

I have concerns and notes and am seeking feedback and insight.

• Speciate is suppose to be random. I'm not concerned about the random aspect.
• Hexproof is a concern in the format. With a limited card pool interaction needs to be happening and hexproof can feel very powerful at times.
• Reach may not be as exciting as the other keywords but there are flyers and creatures without flying that can only be blocked by flyers or reachers.
• This is a multiplayer format so vigilance feels good when you're trying to close a game through combat without leaving yourself open.
• Deathtouch is strong and I plan to have another keyword that affects combat damage is a less definitive way.
• All of these keywords fit nicely into G and GU but I maybe want to get another color represented here so that different evolutionary paths might be conveyed. I'm thinking about lifelink because come-from-behind mechanics are vital to the format. Lifelink isn't G or gu and speciate currently only fits there.
• Another option is to have a rules card with abilities that aren't just keywords and have players refer to it when speciating but that increases memory issues dramatically and punch card markers wouldn't elegant solution.

[Mookie]

Hmmm, interesting. Seems like a good mechanic for limited replayability, although variance may make it a bit awkward/inconsistent at times. Also somewhat reminds me of Explore, which is another RNG-ish mechanic. I'm actually a fan of a bit of RNG, but it can be difficult to balance the variance. There isn't a huge gap between most keywords though, so that doesn't seem like it will be an issue.

Punch card tech seems appropriate here - seems difficult to keep track of abilities otherwise.

How are you doing the randomization? Five can be a slightly awkward number to randomize with most objects - may be preferable to switch it to 4, 6, or 8 options (all of these can be sizes of dice, while 4 and 8 work with coinflips).

If a creature speciates multiple times, can it get another copy of a keyword it already has?

Shroud may be worth doing over hexproof if that is causing problems.

If the format is intended to be multiplayer, it may be worth having more aggressive mechanics to prevent board stalls.

I definitely like the flavor of the mechanic in UG, since Simic has a big emphasis on evolution. Red seems like the most likely addition, given the chaotic nature of the mechanic (and Temur is the most nature-focused wedge). Red opens up first strike, haste, and menace. Dethrone could also be interesting, given that you're doing multiplayer.

I'll suggest the creature getting a +1/+1 counter as another possible option.

[SecretInfiltrator]

All you really need is five additional cards of french vanilla creatures with the ability in question - sleeved separately from the deck, then shuffle and pick one. Actually I'd consider preparing just that. Multiple copies for each keyword, so you can use the additional ones as reminders.

If you want to go really far off the deep and you create a stack of twenty custom Speciation cards with different abilities and the keyword become "Target creature speciates. (Attach the top card of your Speciation deck to it.)"

On the other end of the spectrum you can just use the deck you already have present and do something like "This creature speciates. (Exile the top card of your library. The creature has all keyword abilities of cards exiled this way.)"

Both tactics are fairly silver-bordered for varying reasons, but I think they are fine for the format you propose.

[BOVINE]

Thanks Mookie.

Agreed. Couldn't do Speciate without punch card markers.

Shroud definitely takes the edge off compared to hexproof and I've always enjoyed shroud. Imo, sroud also reinforces the state of nature theme of Muraganda as it feels like an ability belonging to wild animals more so than one summoned by another being.

For determining outcome we've been using phone AI ("Roll a d5"), 5 playing cards, or a d10 (1-2, 3-4, and so on.) I should/would probably go up to six outcomes. More seems overwhelming, less underwhelming. And clearly, determining outcome with a d6 is more natural than out current methods for five outcomes.

Yes, it's possible to gain the same ability more than once. None of the current outcomes care about that but I'd have to be careful with the sixth outcome unless, for instance, it were something like "gets a +1/+1 counter."

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Thanks SecretInfiltrator.

A larger Speciation list seems like so much fun and given Speciate is suppose to convey random mutations, I could work if well designed. Hedronize had no flavor of randomness and so I understand why it felt random and wasn't used for Zendikar 2.

Can't be exiling the limited card pool. Remember, there are only 100 cards available. For 4 players, each start with 7 and are chipping away at the library with each draw. Yes, an empty library prompts a zone shuffle-in but we can probably find more elegance somewhere.

Great insight already. Gears are turning. Who else has got something?

Edited to remove double post.