Worldbuilding Cards for Edge of Eve

[Pygyzy]

Disciplined Thrall W
Creature — Human Serf
Omen (If you're attacking or defending, choose how a creature with lesser power attacks or blocks.)
Loyal Thrall gets +1/+2 as long as you control a Vampire.
1/1

Inheritor of Solitude 2uu
Creature — Vampire Noble
Spite (Whenever you're attacked, this creature deals 1 damage to attacking player unless they have you put a +1/+1 counter on this.)
Whenever Inheritor of Solitude deals damage to an opponent, draw a card.
3/3

Frontline Loyalist bb
Creature — Human Mercenary
Frontline Loyalist gets +1/+0 and has deathtouch as long as an opponent is subjugated. (An opponent is subjugated if you control a creature with the greatest power.)
2/3

Clickbeast 4R
Creature — Insect Beast
Deathless 4R (Whenever a creature you control without deathless dies, you may pay this creature's deathless cost. If you do, return it from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.)
Clickbeast can't be blocked by Humans or Vampires.
4/4

Rugged Packmaster 2G
Creature — Human Beast
Dominate
When you dominate, focus (At the beginning of your end step, if you dealt combat damage to an opponent, put a +1/+1 counter on this card. Then you may add an additional counter of a kind on this card to it.)
2/2

Spy Kit 2
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature has infiltrate. (It can't be blocked except by tapped creatures as though they were untapped.
Equip 2

Temporal Convergence WUBRg
Enchantment
Each player's steps and phases occur simultaneously. The player that went first this game has priority first, followed by the next player in turn order.

[SecretInfiltrator]

Frontline Loyalist bb
Creature — Human Mercenary
Frontline Loyalist gets +1/+0 and has deathtouch as long as an opponent is subjugated. (An opponent is subjugated if you control a creature with greater power.)
2/3

With greater power than what? Depending on the answer I also wonder whether it is a good idea to change the power of one of your creatures based on subjugation since subjugation is based itself on power of your creatures.

Wait! How is the "loyalist" a Mercenary?

Rugged Packmaster 2G
Creature — Human Beast
Dominate, focus (After your untap step, if you dealt combat damage to an opponent, put a +1/+1 counter on this card. You may add an additional counter of a kind on this card to it.)
2/2

Haha, "Human Beast". That's neat.

The "if you dealt damage to an opponent" is missing a time frame. This game? This match? Ever?

Spy Kit 2
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature has infiltrate. (It can't be blocked except by tapped creatures as though they were untapped.

No equip ability?

Temporal Convergence WUBRg
Enchantment
Each player's steps and phases occur simultaneously. The player that went first this game has priority first, followed by the next player in turn order.

Combat will be problematic. Is there a rule preventing attacking creatures from blocking?

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

Temporal Convergence WUBRg
Enchantment
Each player's steps and phases occur simultaneously. The player that went first this game has priority first, followed by the next player in turn order.

Combat will be problematic. Is there a rule preventing attacking creatures from blocking?

There is Party Crasher from Unstable that deals with similiar problem. Simply, if both players would go after each other declering attackers, then only attacking creatures with vigilance - or otherwise untapped by something - could possibly engage in blocking and they deal combat damage - both as attacker and blocker - at the same time, with exception that if a creature would deal its damage to same creature as both attacker and blocker, it deals it only once.
However, I am not sure how much is it a band-aid for Un-set or rather logical conclusion of rules as of now. Either way, this card would require long reminder text to solve the basic issues that my arrive.

[Pygyzy]

Frontline Loyalist bb
Creature — Human Mercenary
Frontline Loyalist gets +1/+0 and has deathtouch as long as an opponent is subjugated. (An opponent is subjugated if you control a creature with greater power.)
2/3

With greater power than what? Depending on the answer I also wonder whether it is a good idea to change the power of one of your creatures based on subjugation since subjugation is based itself on power of your creatures.

Wait! How is the "loyalist" a Mercenary?

Should be "the creature with the greatest power" thanks and fixed.

Frontline Loyalists are an ever shifting alliance. The Frontline is kinda a motley crew of assorted "superhero/supervillain" types and their followers. The Frontline have no real plan or goals except violence for fun and gain. Basically The Watchmen mixed with the League of Doom and a dash of Rico's Roughnecks.

Rugged Packmaster 2G
Creature — Human Beast
Dominate, focus (After your untap step, if you dealt combat damage to an opponent, put a +1/+1 counter on this card. You may add an additional counter of a kind on this card to it.)
2/2

Haha, "Human Beast". That's neat.

The "if you dealt damage to an opponent" is missing a time frame. This game? This match? Ever?

Oops, fixed.

Spy Kit 2
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature has infiltrate. (It can't be blocked except by tapped creatures as though they were untapped.

No equip ability?

Fixed thanks.

Temporal Convergence WUBRg
Enchantment
Each player's steps and phases occur simultaneously. The player that went first this game has priority first, followed by the next player in turn order.

Combat will be problematic. Is there a rule preventing attacking creatures from blocking?

Yes I had considered this. I figured I'd have to add a rule for that but I went for elegance in this case. I'll see if I can come up with a more explanatory wording.

There is Party Crasher from Unstable that deals with similiar problem. Simply, if both players would go after each other declering attackers, then only attacking creatures with vigilance - or otherwise untapped by something - could possibly engage in blocking and they deal combat damage - both as attacker and blocker - at the same time, with exception that if a creature would deal its damage to same creature as both attacker and blocker, it deals it only once.
However, I am not sure how much is it a band-aid for Un-set or rather logical conclusion of rules as of now. Either way, this card would require long reminder text to solve the basic issues that my arrive.

Yes this is me trying to make a silver order mechanic work (which is honestly where most of my ideas come from) here's the ruling for Party Crasher for reference.

During each combat, there's a time when attackers are declared. Normally, only the active player declares attackers, but Party Crasher doesn't play by those rules. During the declare attackers step of your opponent's combat phase, after they're done declaring their attackers, you may choose to declare Party Crasher as an attacker. After you declare blockers, the defending player can declare blockers for Party Crasher. All combat damage is dealt simultaneously, unless a strike ability (first, double, last, and/or triple) is involved.

If Party Crasher attacks during an opponent's turn, that opponent could block it with an attacking creature that is untapped as blockers are declared. That creature will then be attacking and blocking at the same time. If Party Crasher is also untapped as blockers are declared, it can block the attacking creature that blocked it. Even if all this happens, the creatures will only deal combat damage to each other once.

[spacemonaut]

Omen (If you're attacking or defending, choose how a creature with lesser power attacks or blocks.)

This ability mostly doesn't work.

When I'm defending, attacks are already declared. It's too late to determine how creatures attack. All I can do is declare how creatures block, which I was already going to do. I guess I can declare how my opponents also block in a multiplayer game?

When I'm attacking, the only other person attacking is my teammates. What's the use of choosing how they attack? They're already cooperating with me.

The clearly remaining functional part of this is that after I attack, I can choose how something blocks, which is sort of in the design space of Provoke.

Omen is a poor choice for this mechanic's name, so I'd suggest choosing another. Master Warcraft and Boros Battleshaper play in this design space (they're a mechanical reference for doing this mechanic differently, if you're interested) and flavor this kind of thing as strategy and tactics, so that's somewhere you could start.

Spite (Whenever you're attacked, this creature deals 1 damage to attacking player unless they have you put a +1/+1 counter on this.)

These kind of effect currently exists in red and black exclusively. It's not blue at all: https://scryfall.com/search?q=o%3A%2Fwh ... r=released

Meanwhile the +1/+1 counter dilemma thing is historically seen in red and green (riot, tribute).

Do you mean "Whenever a creature attacks you" or "Whenever one or more creatures attack you"?

I'm concerned about keywording this: too many creatures with spite is going to get out of control.

(The green version deals combat damage to attackers, but that hasn't been in pie for green for over a decade. It's moved over to a red effect, seen in Circle of Flame.)

Deathless 4R (Whenever a creature you control without deathless dies, you may pay this creature's deathless cost. If you do, return it from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.)

The fact Deathless creatures are not actually deathless, but instead make other creatures deathless, make me think this should be renamed to something else, like Necromancy. Are you sure you're going to use this in great enough quantities to warrant it being a whole keyword? It doesn't stack or do anything for you if you have multiple different creatures with this ability—you just need one, and it'll be the one with the lowest necromancy cost in the set.

Dominate, focus (After your untap step, if you dealt combat damage to an opponent during your last turn, put a +1/+1 counter on this card. You may add an additional counter of a kind on this card to it.)

This has memory issues. Why am I waiting a whole turn cycle? This should be an end step trigger:

At the beginning of your end step, if you dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on this permanent. Then you may choose a type of counter on it and add another counter of that type.

Dealing combat damage to opponents is flavored around sabotage and infiltration. This doesn't sound very focus-y, it sounds more like finding rewards or experience.

Equipped creature has infiltrate. (It can't be blocked except by tapped creatures as though they were untapped.)

This is kind of wild. It's evasion versus defensive decks. I'd be interested to see how it plays out. It promotes attacking, which is a pretty healthy thing to promote in a metagame.

Each player's steps and phases occur simultaneously. The player that went first this game has priority first, followed by the next player in turn order.

I don't think this will play well, but playtesting will show whether or not it will.

[Pygyzy]

Omen (If you're attacking or defending, choose how a creature with lesser power attacks or blocks.)

This ability mostly doesn't work.

When I'm defending, attacks are already declared. It's too late to determine how creatures attack. All I can do is declare how creatures block, which I was already going to do. I guess I can declare how my opponents also block in a multiplayer game?

When I'm attacking, the only other person attacking is my teammates. What's the use of choosing how they attack? They're already cooperating with me.

The clearly remaining functional part of this is that after I attack, I can choose how something blocks, which is sort of in the design space of Provoke.

Omen is a poor choice for this mechanic's name, so I'd suggest choosing another. Master Warcraft and Boros Battleshaper play in this design space (they're a mechanical reference for doing this mechanic differently, if you're interested) and flavor this kind of thing as strategy and tactics, so that's somewhere you could start.

I tried to reword it in hopes of clarifying that actually but it looks like I failed. Old wording - Omen You choose how one creature with lesser power attacks or blocks during this combat.

I tried to fix the issue of you getting to decide how creatures not attacking you in multiplayer attack/block but I guess it's unavoidable. Does this wording work better?

The flavor of omen is that you're seeing the outcome of the battle before it happens. I could try something like Warcraft but since this is for a dark horror setting, omen is pretty important to the sets flavor. A lot of it is built around Omen. Changing that name changes a lot.

Spite (Whenever you're attacked, this creature deals 1 damage to attacking player unless they have you put a +1/+1 counter on this.)

These kind of effect currently exists in red and black exclusively. It's not blue at all: https://scryfall.com/search?q=o%3A%2Fwh ... r=released

Meanwhile the +1/+1 counter dilemma thing is historically seen in red and green (riot, tribute).

Do you mean "Whenever a creature attacks you" or "Whenever one or more creatures attack you"?

I'm concerned about keywording this: too many creatures with spite is going to get out of control.

(The green version deals combat damage to attackers, but that hasn't been in pie for green for over a decade. It's moved over to a red effect, seen in Circle of Flame.)

Yes this is a bit of a bleed but it is the Grixis mechanic and I felt like the reflexive trigger and the punisher ability was just enough of a bend that it's not egregiously out of color. This would only be tertiary in blue.

This mechanic is a bit of a hole filler because I needed something that used counters to interact with focus and I wanted to give it a Vampirey flavor since vamps in this set are primarily blue. These vamps mostly
keep to themselves and aren't predatory. They control the levers of power. I do see the problem about too many creatures having this.

How about this.

Spite — Whenever one or more creatures attack you, you may cast this spell for its spite cost. <cost>

Or

Spite — Whenever one or more creature attack you, <effect>

Thoughts?

Deathless 4R (Whenever a creature you control without deathless dies, you may pay this creature's deathless cost. If you do, return it from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.)

The fact Deathless creatures are not actually deathless, but instead make other creatures deathless, make me think this should be renamed to something else, like Necromancy. Are you sure you're going to use this in great enough quantities to warrant it being a whole keyword? It doesn't stack or do anything for you if you have multiple different creatures with this ability—you just need one, and it'll be the one with the lowest necromancy cost in the set.

Haha ok lemme fix that. This should give you a better idea of the intent.

Clickbeast 4R
Creature — Insect Beast
Parasite 4R (Whenever a creature you control without parasite dies, if this card is in your graveyard, you may return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped for 4R.)

By deathless I meant the creature inside the dead creature. That's what this is. I just really messed up the wording. This is kinda like recover. Should I add "If you don't, exile this.", for power level issues?

Dominate, focus (After your untap step, if you dealt combat damage to an opponent during your last turn, put a +1/+1 counter on this card. You may add an additional counter of a kind on this card to it.)

This has memory issues. Why am I waiting a whole turn cycle? This should be an end step trigger:

At the beginning of your end step, if you dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on this permanent. Then you may choose a type of counter on it and add another counter of that type.

Dealing combat damage to opponents is flavored around sabotage and infiltration. This doesn't sound very focus-y, it sounds more like finding rewards or experience.

Another formatting issue fixed. Dominate originally gave a static +1/+1 buff if you dominated but I changed it to interact with focus. That's why it was worded that way.

Dominate — At the beginning of your end step, if you dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on this permanent.

Focus — You may choose a type of counter on it and add another counter of that type.

I think that clears up the confusion. Sorry bout that

Each player's steps and phases occur simultaneously. The player that went first this game has priority first, followed by the next player in turn order.

I don't think this will play well, but playtesting will show whether or not it will.

[/quote]

I'm curious too. I'll do a little rules digging to see what I can come up with on making this work and maybe fiddle with it a little.

Thanks for the feedback.

[user_938036]

Interesting mechanics, I see you are already considering changing a few but I want to help out your wording. And join the discussion on flavor and color pie.

Omen (At the beginning of combat, choose a creature with less power than ~. You choose how that creature attacks or blocks this combat.)

This has a strong flavor of coercion that you apparently don't want. You are almost literally strong-arming a creature into attacking or blocking. The effect is in color but you want a flavor of seeing the outcome of the battle before it happens while this screams "I am leveraging my might to decide the flow of battle." It doesn't even play into the Master Strategist that this ability normally uses.

Spite (Whenever one or more creatures attack you, ~ deals 1 damage to the attacking player unless they put a +1/+1 counter on it.)

As was mentioned this is so far out of blue's wheelhouse that it has no reason being here even as a bend for a set mechanic. The damage, the punisher, and to a lesser extent the trigger all scream not blue. Anyone of the parts could be forgiven as a bend like the life loss on Vapor Snag or Eternal of Harsh Truths but it's an ability composed of three different things that aren't blue so it feels especially egregious.

Giving Grixis a defensive mechanic is very suspect to start with. This wants to be white so much that it's strange to see it in one of the most nonwhite color combinations. As for your fix, red doesn't really get flash that often but it is a far more acceptable bleed than this in blue.

Deathless {cost} (Whenever a creature you control without deathless dies, you may pay {cost}. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.)

I'm not sure about an exile clause as long as you keep the prices high. I'm far more concerned with using tokens. I would start with nontoken, then see how it plays out.

Dominate(At the beginning of your end step, if you dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on this permanent.)

Focus(Choose a counter on this permanent. Put another counter of the same type on it.)

When doing abilities like this you want the reminder text of the first ability on the first ability not mixed with the second ability. Also Focus needs to be written so that the creature focuses not the player.

Temporal Convergence, first, this is obviously a silver-bordered card. Normal magic doesn't want to do this even if it can(which it probably could).

Alright, let's talk as though this is going to be real. First, drop the part giving priority. The rules already handle that just fine you are only confusing the players further. Reminder text is sufficient.

"Player's share turns. (The active player gets priority first.)"

The simultaneously sounds cooler but the game already supports players sharing turns, just not normally as enemies. It took a lot of digging to come up with this despite its simplicity. Obviously, such a card would need an in-depth explanation in the comp rules but I think if they wanted to expand on the concept of sharing steps and phases then this would be the breaking of the flood gates for that.

[SecretInfiltrator]

I'm surprised that you didn't make more use of flavor text on your "Worldbuilding Cards". From the cards themselves I don't get much sense of the world. The tribal aspects about Vampires having Human thralls is really the only thing clicking about these.

[Pygyzy]

That's all extremely helpful.

Omen — (At the beginning of combat, choose a creature with toughness less than the number of permanents you control with omen. You choose how that creature attacks or blocks this combat.)

How's that look?

Spite — Whenever you're attacked, you may pay this card's spite cost.

I'm gonna go with this shortened format since it's just reminder text. I know it's nonstandard but I think it's still functional since you can only ever be attacked by creatures (as opposed to noncreatures). I guess it won't work if my planeswalker is attacked?

Deathless — Whenever a nontoken creature you control without deathless dies, you may pay <cost>. If you do, return this card from the graveyard to the battlefield tapped.

Looks good to me

Focus — Choose a counter on a permanent you control. Put another counter of the same type on it.

Would this work? This way I can spread counters around and also put it on nonpermanents. It's a mini-proliferate.

@SecretInfiltrator yes I'm working on flavor text. I wanted to see if I could convey some themes without it.

In regards to the flavor:

As for the vamps not enslaving people and instead enthralling them, the humans choose to stay with the vamps because they protect them from the Whelm, Frontline and Underground. The vamps aren't really benevolent just sorta ambivalent.

Good point about not seeming urban enough. I shoulda mentioned it was post apocalyptic, or mid-apocalyptic. Kinda. Basically multiple timeline realities are overlapping on one another. One where the world is destroyed and one where it's not. Beastmen are WG and are sorta like good werewolves. They're part of the Underground which is sorta just what's left of humanity. They've evolved more into stock than humans at this point due to the effects of human farming.

Updated card with added flavor

Hallowhall Thrall W
Creature — Human Serf
Omen (At the beginning of combat, choose a creature with toughness less than the number of permanents with omen you control. You choose how that creature attacks or blocks this combat.)
Undercity Thrall gets +1/+2 as long as you control a Vampire.
"I thought I was food. Instead they used my blood to synthesize an antigen to the viral DNA that caused the mutation." —Talbot Slake, Heir to Mankind
1/1

Inheritor of Solitude Tower 2uu
Creature — Vampire Elder
Spite 1U (Whenever you're attacked, you may pay 1u.)
Whenever you spite an opponent, draw a card.
"If I had wanted you dead, we wouldn't be having this conversation. It must've cost you dearly to come all this way. I'm curious why you're here."
3/3

Frontline Fiend 1b
Creature — Human Demon
Frontline Fiend gets +1/+0 and has deathtouch as long as an opponent is subjugated. (An opponent is subjugated if you control a creature with the greatest power.)
"With great power comes no consequences."
2/3

Clicking Remnant 4R
Creature — Human Insect
Deathless 4R (Whenever a creature you control without deathless dies, you may pay this creature's deathless cost. If you do, return it from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.)
Clickbeast can't be blocked by Humans or Vampires.
"If that ever happens to me, you know what to do." —Neville Ceres, to Seb
4/4

Alpha Packmaster 2g
Creature — Human Beast
Dominate (At the beginning of your end step, if an opponent was dealt combat damage, put a +1/+1 counter on this card.)
Whenever you dominate, focus (Choose a counter on a permanent you control. Put another counter of the same type on it.)
Decades of bloodline breeding created the Therian. The perfect stock.
2/2

True Blood 2
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature has infiltrate. (It can't be blocked except by tapped creatures as though they were untapped.)
Equip 2
"It mimics their power. You have abilities... you've only dreamed of. Be careful. It has... side effects. —Seb Cain, Practitioner of the Dark Arts.

Temporal Convergence Wubrg
Enchantment
Players share turns. (The active player has priority first.)
If we must fall, we fall together.

[spacemonaut]

The flavor of omen is that you're seeing the outcome of the battle before it happens. I could try something like Warcraft but since this is for a dark horror setting, omen is pretty important to the sets flavor. A lot of it is built around Omen. Changing that name changes a lot.

[...]

Omen (At the beginning of combat, choose a creature with toughness less than the number of permanents with omen you control. You choose how that creature attacks or blocks this combat.)

This works OK! So would this wording for the original power-based one: (At the beginning of combat, you choose how up to one target creature with less power than this one attacks or blocks this combat.) But it could only go on creatures.

I'm not super sold on the flavor of this being omen, but I could see you being able to sell that flavor of foresight somehow. There's an uphill battle given there's an established flavor of foresight (card advantage) and forcing attackers/blockers (tactics, strategy, provocation, etc) but it's possible it could be overcome. Another potential flavor for this ability is literal mind control or intimidation, like "compel" or "terrify" or etc.

I hear you on a lot being built around Omen, but let's take a step back from what you've already made: is Omen really the best choice here for the mechanic? Is there another Omen mechanic you could make that works better with established favors? The answers could be yes and no in that order, but I think it's worth exploring. I hear things need to change, but better sooner rather than later.

By deathless I meant the creature inside the dead creature. That's what this is. I just really messed up the wording. This is kinda like recover. Should I add "If you don't, exile this.", for power level issues?

That clarification you made makes so much more sense! Definitely leave out that exile clause.

If you're going for a flavor of "this is coming out of the dead creature" that's not coming across. Compare Emerge, for example. I only have one card to go from though. You might want to sell the flavor more directly through card names/flavor—and choose Horrors, Spirits, Shades, etc.

Another formatting issue fixed. Dominate originally gave a static +1/+1 buff if you dominated but I changed it to interact with focus. That's why it was worded that way.

Dominate — At the beginning of your end step, if you dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on this permanent.

Focus — You may choose a type of counter on it and add another counter of that type.

I think that clears up the confusion. Sorry bout that

Dominate (At the beginning of your end step, if an opponent was dealt combat damage, put a +1/+1 counter on this card.)
Whenever you dominate, focus (Choose a counter on a permanent you control. Put another counter of the same type on it.)

This makes a whole lot more sense! Seeing it laid out like this, I think both of these are a flavor win. Nice work.

"Whenever you dominate" may not be the wording you want. It's not necessarily clear, and there's a balance knob available here that it leaves on the table.

Instead, I suggest creatures dominate. That way you can write: "Whenever a creature you control dominates" (to trigger on every dominate trigger) or "Whenever one or more creatures you control dominate" (to trigger once for all of them) or "Whenever this creature dominates" (to trigger on just the same creature).

That aside, you have a timing issue to work out: when does "whenever you dominate" get triggered? Consider a creature that's just dominated for the first time: I need to have the counter already there before focus resolves. This suggests "whenever you dominate" needs to occur either:
• simultaneously with the dominate ability, so the dominate ability can be put on top
• after the dominate ability resolves

One option is to make this an ability word with triggers of "At the beginning of your end step, if an opponent was dealt combat damage this turn, (thing)". The above card would say:
Dominate — At the beginning of your end step, if an opponent was dealt combat damage this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME, then focus. (Choose a counter on a permanent you control. Put another counter of the same type on it.)

Using an ability word doesn't let you write "Whenever you dominate", but it'd render it unnecessary. "Whenever you dominate" is itself just another dominate trigger: "Dominate — At the beginning ...".

Also speaking of, I've got a shorter focus wording to suggest that's riffing off of Proliferate:

(Choose a counter on a permanent you control. Put another counter of the same type on it.) — old
(Choose a permanent you control, then give it another counter of a kind already there.) — my suggestion

Also had a thought was artifacts could also potentially have dominate. Imagine a Titan Forge that builds up from Dominate triggers.

Spite — Whenever one or more creature attack you, <effect>

This is the most adaptable version and most compatible with blue. It also lets you do things like raven storms and call it spite!

I'm not 100% confident in the "Spite <cost>", "Whenever you spite" model in the newer card. It places major focus on the cards with the cheapest spite costs and the biggest spite triggers, so you always have to balance the biggest spite trigger against the smallest cost you might be paying for it, bearing in mind that the cost you put on the same card might never be used at all. That might give you some trouble designing for limited or constructed.

I'm curious too. I'll do a little rules digging to see what I can come up with on making this work and maybe fiddle with it a little.

A couple of days later I'm sorta coming around on Temporal Convergence possibly being pretty bonkers fun, though I'm not sure I'd want to see in many games.

[SecretInfiltrator]

With the rules issues being in the process of getting cleared up, let's talk design issues: Spite as a mechanic on the whole discourages interaction. Interaction is the life blood of the game. That's why you have 1000% more attack triggers than block triggers in the game.

Omen does a funny thing where you can use it on your own creature to "protect" it from further omens. Not necessarily bad, but something easy to miss.

Dominate and focus seem like the abilities here best suited for commons.

[Pygyzy]

Lyleth Tal, The Last Hero 4WW
Legendary Enchantment Creature — Demigod (U)
Infiltrate
When Lyleth Tal, The Last Hero enters the battlefield, create a colorless Vision enchantment token with omen for each nontoken Serf you control.
Partner
"We have no choice but to rise or fall. There's no future but what we make."
4/4

I think you should be able to omen your own creature. Here's why.

Let's say it's my combat. I have a 5/5 with omen and my opponent has 5 Vision tokens with omen. Beginning of combat the triggers go off, since I'm active mine is first then the opponents. I choose my 5/5. My opppnent does too but their triggers resolve first, then mine and I choose for it to attack. Is this correct? If that's right, that's how I intend for it to work.

Burke Esby, Genius Madman 3UU
Legendary Enchantment Creature — Demigod (U)
Spite u (Whenever you're dealt combat damage, you may pay u.)
Whenever you pay Burke Esby, Genius Madman's spite cost, note the amount of combat damage you were dealt and the player.
u, Sacrifice Burke: Burke deals damage to the noted players equal to the noted damage.
Partner
3/3
"Let's pray this works."

I hope this version of spite solves some of the non-interactivity. It's kinda like a delayed life payment. It's a little out of color in blue for this particular effect but I wanted to play around with some of its capabilities

Neville Ceres, Executioner 1BB
Legendary Enchantment Creature — Demigod (U)
Neville Ceres has indestructible as long as your subjugation is five or greater.
Partner
"We do what we need to get by."
5/1

It's kinda hard to balance subjugate but it think this works.

The Gruesome Twosome RR
Legendary Enchantment Creature — Demigod
Link, link (This card enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it for each permanent you control with link.)
Deathless RR
Partner
"How do you like me now?"
0/0

New mechanic

Raveneye Bloodsworn 2GG
Legendary Enchantment Creature — Demigod (U)
At the beginning of of your end step, this card dominates twice, then you focus twice.
Partner
"Ahh, this'll be fun."
2/2

I think that's the proper way to word it right? I just wanna make sure I got the syntax correct. Dominate is now just "if you dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn

Thanks for all the help. I'm gonna start working on a skeleton.

[SecretInfiltrator]

You should keep the reminder text on each design you post, especially since e. g. omen has changed swignificantly.

I think you should be able to omen your own creature. Here's why.

Let's say it's my combat. I have a 5/5 with omen and my opponent has 5 Vision tokens with omen. Beginning of combat the triggers go off, since I'm active mine is first then the opponents. I choose my 5/5. My opppnent does too but their triggers resolve first, then mine and I choose for it to attack. Is this correct? If that's right, that's how I intend for it to work.

That's how it would work if you control four Vision tokens with omen as well and your creature had 4 toughness. Are you still hung up on the old version of omen that cared about power? Do you recall that the omen reminder text says "less than" rather than "less than or equal"?

If you control only one creature all of that is pretty straightforward, but the real question is: How does it play with multiple possible targets? Will it be played intuitively the correct way? Is it good gameplay that your omen can cancel out your opponent's omen or does that cause omen to not matter just a bit too often?

I think the gameplay of protecting your own creature can be reasoned to be interesting, but as you might notice by getting some details in the example wrong (or maybe I do), there are some moving parts to this mechanic that might be a problem.

Burke Esby, Genius Madman 3UU
Legendary Enchantment Creature — Demigod (U)
Spite u (Whenever you're dealt combat damage, you may pay u.)
Whenever you pay Burke Esby, Genius Madman's spite cost, note the amount of combat damage you were dealt and the player.
u, Sacrifice Burke: Burke deals damage to the noted players equal to the noted damage.
Partner
3/3
"Let's pray this works."

That mechanic is straight not something blue would be able to do. Does blue get to do everything again?

I hope this version of spite solves some of the non-interactivity. It's kinda like a delayed life payment. It's a little out of color in blue for this particular effect but I wanted to play around with some of its capabilities

What part of the design is meant to address the lack of interaction the mechanic promotes?

Neville Ceres, Executioner 1BB
Legendary Enchantment Creature — Demigod (U)
Neville Ceres has indestructible as long as your subjugation is five or greater.
Partner
"We do what we need to get by."
5/1

Have you defined somewhere yet what subjugation is? I need reminder text.

The Gruesome Twosome RR
Legendary Enchantment Creature — Demigod
Link, link (This card enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it for each permanent you control with link.)
Deathless RR
Partner
"How do you like me now?"
0/0

Aw, you get a two-some with partner and it doesn't do something like Brothers Yamazaki? : ( All is well! ; )

Link is per definition a parasitic mechanic. There is no getting around that. I have seen something similar a lot, but never quite seen it made interesting. It's functional though.

Raveneye Bloodsworn 2GG
Legendary Enchantment Creature — Demigod (U)
At the beginning of of your end step, this card dominates twice, then you focus twice.
Partner
"Ahh, this'll be fun."
2/2

Oh, god, searching for reminder text again... Wait... what does it mean that "this card dominates twice"? Doesn't that mean its dominate ability triggers twice? You haven't defined that as a keyword action by itself anywhere, right? Does this mean, that the card can dominate without damage having been dealt? I'm at a loss...

It bears repeating: These cards have tried to innovate so much on mechanics that in this very thread changed their functionality that reminder text would be necessary to make certain we think of the same thing right now. @.@

[Pygyzy]

Sorry my bad. I know its chaotic, I'm trying to get all the ideas to come together then finalize it.

Templating is by far my worst design capabilitiy but you're helping and I'm listening and learning. I have a tendency to get a little carried away (you might have noticed). I'm also a bit lacking in the focus department. Also I'm always posting from my phone. Thats why my posts look like a mess sometimes(always).

Anyway, yeah I keep jumbling up the abilities but with your help they actually function (Dominate properly formatted I swear this time) so what I can do now is pull out the design skeleton and start filling the blanks. Thank you again for being patient.


Omen (At the beginning of combat, choose a creature with toughness less than the number of permanents with omen you control. You choose how that creature attacks or blocks this combat.)

Spite Whenever you're dealt combat damage, you may pay <Spite Cost>

Ok so here the deal with this one. The previous version punished an opponent flat out for attacking, this version actually feels more like a reverse ninjitsu in that you'll let a weenie guy through just to get a cheaper spell. Your opponents not gonna necessarily know when you're gonna spite so that's part of it.
In regards to blue having everything: I know you'll probably disagree with this and I think you're right to do so, here's the way I look at this.

Obviously this is a white card yes. Everything screams white. So why blue? Well for one, White doesn't spite. And the reason that I justify allowing this bend is since it's the Grixis faction mechanic for this set, it is primarily gonna be Black and red but I need at least a few blue cards with it so I took a minor liberty.

The Blue Vampires. I have to give them a separate identity so they're not just vamps that are blue, so what I did is have them sorta bleed a little from other colors (get it Bleed[/b]?) That way I'm trying to show how they're controlling things ever so sneakily. Turns out making Blue Vamps that are both flavorful and mechanically functional was harder than I thought.

By changing it from attack to combat damage, it makes the defender pay more close attention to what gets through and what doesn't rather than everyone just going "Ah just don't attack ever again and kill all blue players."

Subjugate — Your opponents are subjugated if you control the creature with the greatest power.

Not sure if that's exactly correct wording. Supposed to be scalable like devotion

Ok so Dominate — I got mixed up cuz I wanted it to be a keyword action not an ability word.

Dominate — If an opponent was deal combat damage this turn,

Just gonna make it an ability word. I think that's the best solution.

Focus (Choose a permanent you control, then give it another counter of a kind already there.)

Should have a skeleton up soon.

[spacemonaut]

Obviously this is a white card yes. Everything screams white. So why blue? Well for one, White doesn't spite. And the reason that I justify allowing this bend is since it's the Grixis faction mechanic for this set, it is primarily gonna be Black and red but I need at least a few blue cards with it so I took a minor liberty.

Blue doing burn is not a bend or "minor liberty". It's a flat-out break. Blue can't burn. Spite being part of the Grixis mechanic doesn't change that. What it means is you should be giving the spite cards that burn to red-black, and let mono-blue spite cards do things blue can do.

Flavor is one of the most flexible things available—it can justify anything at all. Settle the mechanics on a mechanical level, then flavor them.

[user_938036]

Neville Ceres, Executioner
Legendary Enchantment Creature — Demigod (U)
Neville Ceres has indestructible as long as your subjugation is five or greater.
Partner
"We do what we need to get by."
5/1

Subjugate — Your opponents are subjugated if you control the creature with the greatest power.

Not sure if that's exactly correct wording. Supposed to be scalable like devotion

The use if this ability isn't flowing. As it stands Neville Ceres has indestructible as long as you have the largest creature and 5+ opponents. While that technically tracks i am highly doubtful you meant it to work this way.

If you want it to work like devotion then copy devotion. Your subjugation is the greatest power among creatures you control.

Otherwise you are using it more like the cities blessing. I just tried to word an ability using it and it's a mess. Because in multi-player at least one of your opponents will be subjugated and you don't want that from a design perspective meaning you have to look at your own state and check for a negative.



I have a suggestion to help you get this straightened out. Post only your mechanics, the colors they go in and what you want them to accomplish and represent in your world.

[Pygyzy]

Im gonna try to get the design skeleton up either tonight or tomorrow and itll have the updated wording. Thanks that was all really helpful