Omen Vs Omen

Pygyzy
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Post by Pygyzy » 3 years ago

So the first mechanic for Urban/Horror is this weird evasion ability
Omen(You choose how one creature attacks or blocks.)

That's it.
Q1: Does it need to say "in combat"?
Q2: I think this is best wording for brevity. Is it good reminder text?
Q3: Player A the AP, has 2 creatures with Omen, Player B NAP, has one. Using this wording who would choose first? Would player A choose two creatures, then B choose one (potentially reversing one of player A's choices?).
Q4: Any other rules pitfalls I might have missed?

Q5: Last, are these functional?
Judo (Damage dealt to this by a creature also causes this to deal that much damage to that creature.)
Infernal — Whenever a creature you don't control is exiled, each opponent loses life equal to it's toughness.
Damnation (Any amount of damage dealt to this by a creature is enough to exile that creature.)
Last edited by Pygyzy 3 years ago, edited 1 time in total.

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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 3 years ago

"You choose how one creature attacks or blocks." is a bit ambiguously worded. It's also somewhat odd in that declaring attackers and blockers is a turn-based action, which is usually controlled by only a single player - even if you play a card like Master Warcraft, that only transfers control of the action, instead of splitting control. Having two players make mutually exclusive choices is a headache. Another complication is that players already control how their own creatures attack or block by default - if you control a creature with Omen, does that mean you can only attack or block with one creature?
I'll point to Boros Battleshaper (or just using a triggered ability in general) as an alternative implementation to reference that is significantly less ambiguous.

Answering the questions individually...
1 - without specifying 'each combat' or 'each turn', I believe that this ability will only function once. Even if it doesn't, it's ambiguously worded. I'd also recommend adding 'may' or 'up to one' somewhere.
2 - as mentioned, it's ambiguously worded, so no.
3 - as written, not clear. The way you would want things to function is: active player chooses up to two creatures they control as attackers with Omen, then non-active player chooses up to one creature as an attacker with Omen (or chooses an already-chosen creature to not attack), then active player would choose what remaining creatures they want to attack with. However, declaring creatures as both attacking and not attacking is weird, as previously mentioned.
4 - already mentioned a few things, but reiterating that sharing control of a turn-based action and being able to override previously-declared attacks/blocks is weird.

My suggestions:
"You may choose how one creature an opponent controls attacks or blocks each combat" is the closest to what you already have, and makes it so you don't need to pass control of the action back and forth.
If you're willing to use a triggered ability instead, "At the start of each combat, up to one target creature either attacks or blocks this combat if able, or can't attack or block this combat".
Either way, you'll probably need some more words to remove ambiguity.

5 - Judo sort of works, but appears to draw the game if two creatures with Judo hit each other. May want to make it a triggered ability instead. Infernal should be its, not it's. Looks fine otherwise, although this ability does look a bit too narrow to keyword.
Damnation appears to exile the other creature dealing the damage. Is that the intent?

Pygyzy
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Post by Pygyzy » 3 years ago

Thanks that's all very helpful. Will make the appropriate changes.
Yes, damnation is "reverse exiletouch" there is a exile theme
About Omen: yeah it's pretty weird but here's what I thought it would be neat if I could get it to work right.

So for the Urban/Horror set i thought I would be cool if I could capture the feel of a showdown between good and evil. Omen would be very flavorful. You could remove any resistance your opponent has just because it was your destiny. The struggle between players trying fight over who has the most omens could add a lot fun tension. It has the feel of a high stakes chess match for world domination. One wrong move and it's over. Just getting that balance will be hard

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