Mine of Derentuk

DeinoStinkus
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Post by DeinoStinkus » 3 years ago

The sun sets on another long day of penniless work. The shining etherium factories loom over encampments where the many workers live. But Hudon, a goblin with a sharp mind and even sharper tongue, wants to change all that. Welcome to Derentuk.

There are no new mechanics in this set. However, Ascend and Treasure make a return.

Archetypes so far:

- Esper Treasure

- Red + Any Color Aggro

- Power 4+ Tribal

- Worker Tribal

- Boros Discard

- Bat/Nightmare Tribal

- Mill

- Zombie Tribal

https://mtg.design/u/DeinoStinkus/MDT

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RattingRots
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Post by RattingRots » 3 years ago

Looking at the commons and uncommons you have so far, it's a bit tough to get a picture of how a lot of these themes are going to be built out.

I don't exactly understand what makes workers or bats unique tribes, but maybe that will be more clear with more of the set.

There several cards that point to synergies that don't look like they exist in the rest of the set (such as Refraction Gemwalker and Merfolk Skywatcher). I think picking a few of these and supporting them would at least make for a better limited experience (although if you're thinking of it more for something like commander it might make more sense).

It also seems like black is getting a ton of reanimate effects, a ton of either repeatable or multitarget removal effects. Both of these types of effects are very swingy, and I would scale those back. I think the reanimate is an important part of the zombie theme so it's more justified, but I would still be concerned that type of mechanic is something that really warp games so I would try to make it subtler or find multiple themes zombies can have. Zombies can be a tough tribe, because flavorfully coming back from the dead is the entire point, but mechanically it's tough to make that work without inherently giving a ton of either card or mana advantage and/or making games turn into repeatedly doing the same thing over and over.
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DJK3654
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Post by DJK3654 » 2 years ago

I must ask, why exactly did you choose to have no new mechanics? Usually only supplemental sets and core sets don't have new mechanics and this doesn't sound like it's trying to be something like either of those. Supplemental sets have some other kind of unique feature (e.g. Modern Horizons having splashy reprints and new cards that would be hard flavourwise and/or mechanically to put in a premiere set) and core sets are aimed at beginners. The point being, what's the selling point for this set if not new mechanics? Relying on flavour seems risky to me.

Some other varied thoughts-
  • Reanimate is probably not reprintable in a standard legal set. I don't know if that's what you're intending here, but if it is, this card is almost certainly out of bounds. Same goes for Price of Progress and possibly Swords to Plowshares as well I think.
  • Your dual land cycle is interesting, but I worry they might be a little unfun for many people to play with. A lot of players, especially newer players, are quite reluctant to lose cards from hand because it feels worse to them than it probably is bad strategically. And given these are dual lands, a lot of players will be all but forced to play them, so using a polarising effect like that seems perhaps risky.
  • Aclazotz name seems hard to pronounce, especially for a planeswalker character, who are supposed to be important to the story and probably recur multiple times in different sets. The second and third abilities on his card also seem like they have a typo, being a +3 and +8 for those effects is way busted (I assume they are supposed to be - effects).
  • Xanaban, Aclazotz's Liege's third ability should be worded "that player discards a card. If they can't, they sacrifice a permanent instead". See Brain Pry, Plaguecrafter, and Doom Foretold for example.
  • Silent Stalwart looks really bad. Could easily be a 2/2 or something.
  • Lollai, Mistwalker looks like a nightmare to play against. Being able to repeatedly steal creatures is pretty back-breaking, but being able to do so using an unblockable creature that you can also buff to unblockably beat down your opponent seems like too much.
  • Iridescent Lotus is totally busted. Lotus petal is already pretty broken, and this is arguably better. Legendary is not a huge drawback, especially to a card that you don't expect to stick around, and the bonus is pretty significant. More broadly, "busted card except put in an extra drawback/cost that totally makes it fair"" has backfired multiple times before (e.g. Lotus Petal as previously mentioned, Lion's Eye Diamond, , Brainstorm, Seething Song, and Yawgmoth's Bargain), and this is therefore a kind of design I would be very wary of. And both LED and Lotus Petal were specifically riffing off the same card as this!
  • Bloodshed is out of colour pie for red. Red doesn't get unconditional creature destruction like that. I get the feeling based on this and other hybrid cards I will mention below that you aren't fully considering that hybrid cards need to be fully in colour pie for both colours, as if they were printed as a monocolour card. Hybrid cards might often bend a little more than usual to make it work, but only so far.
  • Replenish out of pie for both blue and green. Blue can't gain life and neither blue nor green can remove counters from enemy creatures as that's a black ability.
  • Quarry Hieromancer's first ability is a little bit concerning. It's the kind of ability where there might be ways to go infinite with it or otherwise be oppressive and swingy. But there are some other similar cards that suggest this could be okay.
  • Menial Tasks is out of colour pie for black, as black doesn't get tap effects.
  • Aliquaz's Protection looks too good. Fog cards don't always see play, but in the right deck that can be quite powerful and that kind of deck tends to go from meme status to oppressive and unfun very quickly. A strictly better fog is probably not a good idea.
  • Fleeting Dream seems busted. That drawback isn't a drawback if you win and unlike Final Fortune, if you don't manage to win, you're still doing alright. I'm not sure, but I would consider costing this at 4 mv.
  • Necrophilia should have its name changed. That card also rings alarm bells for me. Like with Iridescent Lotus, this kind of riff off really broken cards is dangerous territory. And like with Iridescent Lotus, this card is riffing off broken cards that have already had 'fixed' versions made that turned out to be themselves broken. That said, maybe this one is okay, I don't know, but I'd be extremely careful with it. I question whether this card would be fun enough to be worth the risks as well. This looks like a design that would only be balanced when it's balanced almost exclusively around decks trying to break it, making it unplayable in any other decks.

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