Postcards from Neobha (custom set)

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I've had ideas for a small set of my own floating around my head for a long while now! This is gonna unfold primarily by me posting individual cards - each will have flavour text and the hope is that a coherent image of the world will eventually be deriveable from them. Gonna force some new creature types and the re-introduction of others that have been pruned. These cards will generally be simple so as to believably have room for their descriptions and I'm aiming at an older-school of flavour thought, where you get big thoughtful quotes rather than single-sentence witticisms.

If you do decide to follow along, feel free to post about your educated guesses about the world I'm painting, or anything else you think of. Thanks!

: : Postcards from Neobha : :

Mechanics:
Refine X: Put up to X cards from your hand on the bottom of your library in any order, then draw that many cards.
(I wanted to make this set have a lot of card filtering but without big "graveyard set" implications. A Lat-Nam's Legacy effect was my first thought but giving it a simpler template and avoiding an entire shuffle makes the whole thing neater.)

Wild at heart: Play this card's abilities twice if you control no non-basic land.
(This setting doesn't have war but it does have clashing ideologies and one of its main stages is the debate between respecting the land (wasting it! - dwarves) and harnessing it (exploiting it! - dryads) towards progress. This ability can show up on any type of red and green card that has a triggered or activated ability, and tertiarily appearing in black as part of black's flavour slice in Neobha is artistic expression.)

001.
Sloganeering Poet, 1BB
Creature - Banshee Artist, C
: Another target creature you control gains menace and +1/+0 until end of turn.
"On stage she becomes a fury, howling the words, hissing her sibilants and gasping inelegantly for breath. It comes not from spite, only the need to drown out the fizzing in her ears that can not otherwise be controlled." - Danvrey, dryad
1/3

[void_nothing]

Theater world? Seems reasonable, I've seen that done in custom cards before in different ways. If that is the case here I want to see this spin on it.

I'm not sure Banshee needs to be a creature type although for the theme of such a world, Artist would definitely need to be. I think Spirit Artist would be just fine. Backwards compatibility with Spirit tribal is ideal especially since all past Banshees were either printed as or errataed to Spirits - Banshee itself comes from an era where everything's creature type was the same as its name, even if that name was People of the Woods.

[barbecube]

This card is all right imo except for the excessively long flavor text, which does not add to the card in any real way. Of course the banshee poet has an unpleasant presentation style, she's a banshee.

[folding_music]

(me being touchy, removed)

[void_nothing]

No one's trying to discourage you and I think I was being pretty evenhanded in my tone and suggesting a really minor change. If you don't want any suggestions or opinions, then, well, why post on a forum in the first place?

[folding_music]

Well, I'm sorry for posting negatively. Just bear in mind that your assumptions about what I'm making, taken from a single card, might not be a big enough part of the picture to suggest changes yet!

[void_nothing]

Worth noting that I always like to see the Banshee myth represented in fantasy - if there are some cool other members of the tribe I look forward to seeing them all. Using them in a world based on theater or something similar is quite an obvious move yet perfectly resonant - whatever creature type they'd get (a corporeal Banshee seems more like a kind of Faerie, but then again if they don't have flying and are more or less the size of other humanoids then that goes against what a Faerie typically always has been in Magic) I think they make a great characteristic tribe for black in this setting.

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002.
Restorative Bloom, 1G
Enchantment, C
When Restorative Bloom enters the battlefield, gain 3 life.
Whenever a creature with deathtouch attacks, that creature loses deathtouch until end of turn.
"The ring of flowers that follows the wood's edge has become this country's border. We are grateful for the invigorating scent they breathe into our towns and we understand that they mustn't ever be crossed." - Councillor Ilmitt

I certainly do want this set to have elements of art and drama - it's not the full idea of the world, I just want it present as a large component cos it's what I'm interested in; Banshees would be naturally expressive beings who end up encouraging other susceptible races (definitely thinking of Goblins and Faeries for starters) to form big artistic movements. I imagine 'em generally being punky but not as excessive as the Cult of Rakdos. Actual appearance and physiology is still negotiable!

(I always found it strange that M:TG has multiple synonyms for magic users - shaman, wizard, cleric, druid, sorceror - and for fighters/military units - knight, scout, soldier, berserker, warrior and so on - but nothing much for the unarmed section of the population beyond advisor and artificer. That might be a slight exaggeration but it's such a strange and constant gap in the world building. They've definitely had settings where not everyone was fighting for their lives!)

[void_nothing]

Restorative Bloom is a very neat hoser. It is, however, so small in scope - deathtouch is something you mostly fear on a blocker rather than attacker anyhow, so all this does is remove the partial evasion function of deathtouch - that it could most likely cost G.

Agreed on the noncombatant nonmage class types. I like to use Merchant, Farmer, and Bard as types on my custom cards.

[barbecube]

I would not put this effect on a green card since green is one of the colors that gets deathtouch on its creatures, so this runs a decent risk of self-hosing.

[void_nothing]

I would not put this effect on a green card since green is one of the colors that gets deathtouch on its creatures, so this runs a decent risk of self-hosing.

It is probably somewhat more white than green for that reason, you're right. It does feel kinda like a Fog effect but the execution is pretty white.

[NUMBERS]

Sloganeering Poet seems okay, a 1/3 for 1bb needs a good ability and it definitely provides that.

Restorative Bloom... feels strange. I think it's cost, and relevance, is going to depend on how much deathtouch there is and in what colors, especially at common. The fact that it affects your creatures as well makes me think it could cost , but it's going to be so environment dependent I am unsure. Interesting flavor text certainly.

[Krishnath]

I think Restorative Bloom feels more like a white card than a green one. It should probably also be an uncommon rather than a common, as the removal or neutralization of keyword abilities is very rarely put on commons. But honestly, unless the set has a much higher number than usual of cards with Deathtouch, it doesn't really make sense. I am hoping that as you post more cards of the set, we see more deathtouch cards to make it seem reasonable. Love the name and flavor though.

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003.
Rolnish Fundamentalist, W
Creature - Dwarf Cleric, C
When Rolnish Fundamentalist blocks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each creature you don't control that isn't attacking.
"The same moment you discover your true calling, some bloody-minded zealot discovers theirs. What I don't understand is why they call my art demonic - all I ever sing about is joy and innocence!" - Heexilee, a bard
1/1

(Restorative Bloom feels green to me when I think about it analagously to old green cards which remove flying from creatures - deathtouch on an attacker as has been stated is more or less a form of evasion and, seeing as I don't imagine this set having too many flyers as it focuses on various species of land-based townsfolk I thought trying to control deathtouch in the same way would be reasonable! I'll try and include black mana deathtouchers at all rarities - the set in any case will need rogues.)

[NUMBERS]

Rolnish Fundamentalist now that's an interesting effect, which for some reason took me a moment to grok the intended effect, but it seems like it should work well as a way to incentivize all in attacks by an opponent in , as otherwise it can get to be quite big as a blocker.

[void_nothing]

Rolnish Fundamentalist is very neat but could be a... concerning blocker in EDH. At least it has no removal-proofing, and a triggered ability so it can be responded to? For Standard and Limited though, absolutely fine.

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004.
Oral Tradition, 2RR
Enchantment - Aura, R
Enchant creature you control
When enchanted creature dies, create two red 1/1 creature tokens with that creature's creature types and abilities.
"The Viashino avoid the written word but have a great talent for recitation. Should you meet one of their elders, you'll gain access to one of the world's most idiosyncratic encyclopaedias." - Bhilpar, to her students

(Was hoping to open this with a common of each colour, but this really exciting idea occurred to me and it's way too complicated to be at that level. Trying to establish a tradition in this set where groups never get to describe themselves, but are instead spoken of by another group, either in a positive or negative light, and you learn how the society really locks together.

I guess these four cards hint at a dense, populated, Ravnican setting, which is partially true!)

[user_938036]

004.
Oral Tradition, 2RR
Enchantment - Aura, R
Enchant creature you control
When enchanted creature dies, create two red 1/1 creature tokens with that creature's creature types and abilities.
"The Viashino avoid the written word but have a great talent for recitation. Should you meet one of their elders, you'll gain access to one of the world's most idiosyncratic encyclopaedias." - Bhilpar, to her students

I know you've gone out of your way to not use the word copy, but you are blatantly making a copy of the dying creature. Copies like this are blue with the possibility of green(green is supposed to be able to copy its own creatures, it just doesn't very often) and this nearly exact effect was colorless. Soul Separator

[NUMBERS]

004.
Oral Tradition, 2RR
Enchantment - Aura, R
Enchant creature you control
When enchanted creature dies, create two red 1/1 creature tokens with that creature's creature types and abilities.
"The Viashino avoid the written word but have a great talent for recitation. Should you meet one of their elders, you'll gain access to one of the world's most idiosyncratic encyclopaedias." - Bhilpar, to her students

I know you've gone out of your way to not use the word copy, but you are blatantly making a copy of the dying creature. Copies like this are blue with the possibility of green(green is supposed to be able to copy its own creatures, it just doesn't very often) and this nearly exact effect was colorless. Soul Separator

I really like the idea behind this card, but I gotta agree I'm unsure of the color / implementation of it specifically. I suspect the idea is it's similar to a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker type effect, but reflavored?

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005.
Narrators of Theory, 2U
Creature - Neobhan Artist, C
When Narrators of Theory enter the battlefield, refine 2. (Put up to two cards from your hand on the bottom of your library in any order, then draw that many cards.)
"Neobhans teach in pairs, as a duet, so when we receive scrolls from the capital, both sides of the vellum are full of text. Unlucky pairs of us end up clumsily re-enacting the lessons, to the amusement of the council." Audrey, Rolnish scribe
2/2

(Oral Tradition basically is a copying effect, yeah, but there's lots of red copying cards from teh past that do this temporarily like Heat Shimmer and all that. Of course, this time it's the original card that dies instead of the copy. Might not be PRIMARILY in red's purview but it arguably fits in my eyes. Plus this is sort of a flavour-first set in any case, I'm not trying to perfectly match modern card design tendencies.)

[user_938036]

005.
Narrators of Theory, 2U
Creature - Neobhan Artist, C
When Narrators of Theory enter the battlefield, refine 2. (Put up to two cards from your hand on the bottom of your library in any order, then draw that many cards.)
"Neobhans teach in pairs, as a duet, so when we receive scrolls from the capital, both sides of the vellum are full of text. Unlucky pairs of us end up clumsily re-enacting the lessons, to the amusement of the council." Audrey, Rolnish scribe
2/2

(Oral Tradition basically is a copying effect, yeah, but there's lots of red copying cards from teh past that do this temporarily like Heat Shimmer and all that. Of course, this time it's the original card that dies instead of the copy. Might not be PRIMARILY in red's purview but it arguably fits in my eyes. Plus this is sort of a flavour-first set in any case, I'm not trying to perfectly match modern card design tendencies.)

Temporary copying is definitely in red's pie but this isn't temporary at all, its a permanent copy of a creature after it dies. Stretching into a new space is open to interpretation but blatantly ignoring the color pie because you like the flavor of an ability is not a good way to design.

Refine is interesting. A light twist on rummaging. What colors would you see this primarily in? As its rummaging, I would imagine primary red but because it is different it could reasonably be placed elsewhere. Rummaging/looting for two appears to normally be done at uncommon. Its a place with an amount of wiggle room but I wouldn't expect a lot of this above 1 at common.

[Krishnath]

005.
Narrators of Theory, 2U
Creature - Neobhan Artist, C
When Narrators of Theory enter the battlefield, refine 2. (Put up to two cards from your hand on the bottom of your library in any order, then draw that many cards.)
"Neobhans teach in pairs, as a duet, so when we receive scrolls from the capital, both sides of the vellum are full of text. Unlucky pairs of us end up clumsily re-enacting the lessons, to the amusement of the council." Audrey, Rolnish scribe
2/2

First off, I must say I like Refine. It feels very much as a red and blue mechanic, and it is an interesting take on it. As for the card itself, I am thinking that it is both undercosted and to low of a rarity. Compare it to Tormenting Voice combined with a Bear, and you'll see where I am coming from. And unlike Tormenting Voice, the cards aren't put in your graveyard but on the bottom of your library. You can also compare it to Merfolk Looter and Rummaging Goblin, both are powerful cards, and this is considerably more powerful. Personally I'd up the cost by 2 and make it uncommon.

As user_938036 pointed out, Refine 1 seems like the ideal for commons. I would put Refine 2 and 3 at uncommon, and 3+ at rare and beyond. Card filtering is an incredibly powerful tool and needs to be costed appropriately.

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That seems like overrating the ability to me - at five mana you present the player with an undesirable card, just a 2/2 with an ability that leaves them at card parity, doesn't effect the board and unlike classic looters provides no cards to the graveyard for delve or delirium effects, No-one'd want to play it unless they were on a fairly specific flickering plan; it'd be a bad card, and I'm not a fan of designing cards with feigned naievete, respecting some sort of style guide that gets broken all the time instead of respecting the player.

As it is now I'd say Narrators of Theory is a card that respects the amount of mana you spend on it and gives you the right amount of value back. Maybe it could be uncommon but Careful Study was common, Cephalid Looter was common, three cmc blue creature cards that actually replace themselves like Sea Gate Oracle are common and so forth. I don't mean to be aggressive about justifying this particular design but I don't see the sense in "correcting it" in a way that'd make it no good.

edit: Refine would belong to all colours but in different ways; blue and red would be the only colours to get Refine above x=1 but only as immediate effects rather than recurring ones. Green and black would get creatures and enchantments with triggered abilities that provided Refine in particular scenarios. White has classically bad card selection and would probably only get Refine on cards that'd normally have "Draw a card." written on them.

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{reprints that suit the setting:
006. Viashino Fangtail (orig. Ravnica: City of Guilds) at common
007. Lilting Refrain (orig. Urza's Saga) at uncommon
008. Kiss of Death (orig. Portal 2) at uncommon
009. Vine Dryad (orig. Mercadian Masques) at uncommon
010. Restoration Specialist (orig. Aether Revolt) at uncommon
011. Fool's Tome (orig. Tempest) at uncommon)

012.
Printing Press, 2W
Enchantment, R
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put an artifact card from your graveyard that costs 1 or less on top of your library.
"The fearful old Rolns show us nothing but disdain; their idea of art begins at metalsmithing and ends at pious choral music. But their children have a soft spot for the cry of the Banshees and have discovered their own way to contribute." - Heexilee, a bard

[NUMBERS]

I think Printing Press is a neat idea; not sure how to evaluate its power level, but I can't think of any way to break it open offhand (but my knowledge is limited, so perhaps there's something more obvious I'm missing).

I have mixed feelings on Refine. It's the kind of effect that increases deck efficiency really, really well without being overly obvious that it does so. I'm not sure how to fairly cost it - especially because it doesn't put cards into the graveyard.