Companion Design Space

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Watchwolf
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Post by Watchwolf » 4 years ago

Keruga, the Macrosage and friends all have deck-building requirements. I wonder, however, if Companion can be expanded beyond deck-building conditions. For example, I wonder if a card like this is possible:

White Companion 1WW
Creature - Bird (U)
2/2
Companion -- You weren't the starting player.
~ costs 1 less to cast if you cast it from outside the game.
First strike, flying

As far as we know, WotC designed this mechanic as a deck-building challenge, but I don't think we have comprehensive rules for it yet. The way I'm interpreting it is:

You include one or more Companion cards in your sideboard.
Before the start of the game, you reveal your chosen Companion.
As long as the condition for your Companion is met, you may cast it from your sideboard once as though it were in your hand.

What that means to me is that you could reveal your chosen Companion, and depending on what the requirement is, still not be able to meet it. For the IKO Companions, you already know if you meet the conditions because your deck can't change throughout the game. But nothing about the mechanic tells me that the requirement can't be met or lost after the game has already started. Other examples designed to be catch-up aids:

Black Companion 1B
Creature - Vampire (U)
2/1
Companion -- You started your first turn with fewer cards in hand than your maximum hand size.
You may cast ~ as though it had flash if you cast it from outside the game.
Lifelink

Red Companion 1RR
Creature - Viashino (U)
3/3
Companion -- You haven't cast any spells this game.
~ has haste if you cast it from outside the game.

Green Companion 2GG
Creature - Dinosaur (U)
4/4
Companion -- You didn't play a land on one of your previous turns.
~ enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it if you cast it from outside the game.

And one more to complete the cycle, though it goes back to just being a deck-building requirement:

Blue Companion 1UU
Creature - Merfolk (U)
2/2
Companion -- Your starting deck has at least four more cards in it than the minimum deck size.
When ~ enters the battlefield draw a card. If you cast it from outside the game, draw two cards instead.

If these don't actually work with Companion's rules, that's fine. I'll just give the mechanic a new name for these cards.

user_938036
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Post by user_938036 » 4 years ago

They have been quite clear that the companion condition needs to be true for you to claim it as your companion.

Though a similar mechanic can function in any way you want so...

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