Cycle of Incarnations

[Rithaniel]

So, as my first post on this new website, I thought I'd post a cycle of Incarnations I've made. The idea is that each one embodies a potentially undesirable trait. Many come with hefty downsides. To balance these downsides, they are given large bodies that are aggressively costed (perhaps even a bit too much). One thing to mention is that "Want" would have been named "Obsession," but it was a struggle to keep it's text box below ten lines of text. (It's been reworked! Woohoo!) Anywho:

Obsession W{B/R}
Creature - Incarnation R
When Obsession enters the battlefield, target opponent puts a need counter on a creature they control. If they can’t, sacrifice Obsession.
Creatures with need counters on them can’t leave the battlefield.
“I can’t go on without it. I just can’t.”
4/4

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Paranoia U{R/G}
Creature - Incarnation R
Your opponents play with their hands revealed.
Paranoia’s power is equal to the number of cards in your opponents hands with text containing the word “target” and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1.
*/*

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Detatchment B{G/W}
Creature - Incarnation R
Indestructible
Whenever you control more than one creature, choose a creature you controls and sacrifice the rest.
“Why should I care about them? They’re not involved in my life.”
3/3

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Indecision R{W/U}
Creature - Incarnation R
Haste
When Indecision enters the battlefield, exile a creature you control.
T, Exile a creature you control: Return each other creature card exiled with Indecision to the battlefield under their owner’s control.
“This one… No, this one.”
3/3

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Ego G{U/B}
Creature - Incarnation R
Skip your draw step.
Ego’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.
“Why should I change? You don’t need to grow if you’ve already reached perfection.”
*/*

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Lastly, artist credits

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All these pieces of art were found on deviantart, links to the particular pages where individual images were found are given below:

• 2wenty
• DartGarry
• jeffchendesigns
• MaxBedulenko
• Vulpes-Ibculta

[RattingRots]

These range from extremely elegant to very complex. Complex isn't necessarily a bad thing and they are rares, but I'm not entirely sure all of these are worth the complexity (I think in practice there would be a fair amount of housekeeping and it won't take games to such interesting places that the effort investment pays off).

Are you deadset on having them all follow the same mana cost template? I think some of these make sense at more than 2 CMC. I think a few of these need balancing, and it's certainly possible to do while keeping them all at 2 CMC but may be easier if you allow more flexibility.

If you play Want fair, it's essentially a convoluted Diabolic Edict with a few conditions. You're probably going to play it expecting a 3/3 or worse to get the yearn counter, at which point your opponent either attacks and takes 4 damage per turn, or blocks Want endlessly. It does open up the option to bounce the creature and net a cheap 4/4. I think it's at a good power level, however this is a pretty good example of something that's probably to complex.

Paranoia is very flavorful I'm not a huge fan of it mechanically. It's both fairly arbitrary and requires a slightly annoying amount of housekeeping. On the plus side, "target" is probably the best word to be easy to keep track of.

I think at 2 mana, Detachment is way too strong. It's both an undercosted (indestructable) creature and a pseudo-wrath for 2 mana. You can easily put it in a constructed deck that doesn't need more creatures but wants to just hose a lot of other decks (and can pack removal for the remaining creature), and this is a bomb in almost any limited environment. I'd also think there are some degenerate interactions, although nothing is coming to mind. This is an interesting card at about 5 mana I think (maaybe 4), but at 2 it's just bonkers)

I absolutely love Indecision, (love the card too). Has the potential for so many fun interactions with ETB effects and the like. Wouldn't change anything about it - I think the cost is fine - I think the abuse potential is just manageable enough.

Ego is possibly fine at it's cost, I think it might be slightly too good. It's a very interesting card, although it might create some feel-bad situations for either player - if you get it Pacifismed or something, or you just win because you play a 2 mana 5/5 and your opponent has no answer to it. Also topdecking this will always be a feel-bad obviously.

[Rithaniel]

I could potentially change the cost to something other than the format I have right now, but, if possible, I'd like to keep to the pattern.

Yeah, mechanically Want is easy to explain: "When it comes into play, one of your opponent's creatures becomes 'indestructible++' and Want will eternally be in combat with that creature whenever either it or Want attacks." The only issue is that, the way abilities that affect how creatures can block are traditionally worded, it's very difficult to actually express this idea in rules text. I'd be open to revisions of it, but I want to keep that sense of obsession in it's flavor, where it has selected a target on the opponent's side of the field and chases it endlessly, not even letting it die. (Also, I personally would compare it's effect to Pacifism more than Diabolic Edict, but I can see both comparisons.)

Some earlier variations on Paranoia had it looking at instant or sorceries, creatures, or converted mana cost, but all of those felt extremely arbitrary to me. I don't necessarily like the move of looking for particular words in text boxes (Does a keyword ability which targets count? Does the reminder text for that keyword have to be on the card for it to count? Too many rules questions), but it's the most meaningful, and, imho, the most well-balanced option I could think of.

Hmm, perhaps Detachment is too strong. I could make it a 2/2 with just the one ability, or a 1/1 with indestructible, or make the field-wipe ability only affect your side of the field. Thoughts?

Indecision I was thinking about making say "Exile another creature you control" so that you can't sacrifice it when it would otherwise die, but I ultimate went with this because, honestly, it's just a little bit more fun to have that option. I glad you like the design.

Yes, Ego is, definitely, both the highest risk as well as the highest reward. I was thinking of perhaps modifying it so that it's power and toughness would be equal to half the number of cards in your hand, rounded up, or equal to the number of cards minus two, or something like that. Though, I am drawn to the elegance of the card as it exists now, and the gamble associated with it. Still, I suspect that, if this card got printed in it's current form, there is a chance (I'm not sold on it) that it would be the next Tarmogoyf.

[SecretInfiltrator]

The second ability of Want should be split in two abilities so it's not as easy to miss half of the effect. Overall this is the effect most inelegantly phrased and not worth the amount of text put forward to realize the concept. At least in its current incarnation.

[Prole]

Cool ideas here,
My only comment would be that Paranoia should be */*+1
Just so it doesnt die when opponent has a crappy hand

[Gashnaw]

I like paranoia a lot but i feel these kind of go against what the incarnations are.

Wonder, Valor, Anger, Filth and Brawn all focus on graveyard shenanigans.
Guile, Purity, Hostility, Dread and Vigor cost a lo more for their effects.
And then you have Genesis

6/11 deal with GY and 5 don't. I feel that to keep incarnation on flavor, they too should do GY stuff.

[SecretInfiltrator]

Wonder, Valor, Anger, Filth and Brawn all focus on graveyard shenanigans.
Guile, Purity, Hostility, Dread and Vigor cost a lo more for their effects.
And then you have Genesis

Well, if you make a list already, don't forget about Genesis's mirror: Glory.

The seven Judgment Incarnations dealt with the graveyard because they were part of a graveyard block. The five that came after no longer did the same because they were in a new differently themed set. I would argue that a new cycle again gets to be a new interpretation of what it means mechanically to be an Incarnation.

[Rithaniel]

The second ability of Want should be split in two abilities so it's not as easy to miss half of the effect. Overall this is the effect most inelegantly phrased and not worth the amount of text put forward to realize the concept. At least in its current incarnation.

I like your use of the word "incarnation" at the end.

Yes, I was doing what I could to draw inspiration from existing cards, but cards that affect how creatures block are all green and worded as "must be blocked if able." However, it really did end up being awkwardly worded. I'm thinking about reworking the whole ability, or perhaps invoking the ability of the designer to invent new wordings.

Who knows, maybe I'll come back in a minute with the card given it's proper name.

Cool ideas here,
My only comment would be that Paranoia should be */*+1
Just so it doesnt die when opponent has a crappy hand

That's probably a good idea. I think I will do that.

I like paranoia a lot but i feel these kind of go against what the incarnations are.

Wonder, Valor, Anger, Filth and Brawn all focus on graveyard shenanigans.
Guile, Purity, Hostility, Dread and Vigor cost a lo more for their effects.
And then you have Genesis

6/11 deal with GY and 5 don't. I feel that to keep incarnation on flavor, they too should do GY stuff.

I'm with SecretInfiltrator on this one. Those incarnations deal with the graveyard because they were designed in the Judgment block, and they focused on the graveyard because Judgment focused on the graveyard. It's not anything inherent to incarnations that they have to do that, though, as shown by the Lorwyn incarnations. (Another example are Nightmares. It used to just refer to the one card Nightmare, but then they made that creature a "Nightmare Horse" and broadened what a Nightmare could be.)

[RattingRots]

Does the reminder text for that keyword have to be on the card for it to count?

I'm 99% sure that reminder text would count. If a card references rules text all that actually matters is the oracle text, and all oracle text includes reminder text.

Another annoying rules issue is what a word like "Targets" or "Targetted" would do.

--

One random idea for Paranoia would be:

When ~ enters the battlefield, choose a card type.
Each opponent plays with their hand revealed
~ gets +1/+1 for each card in your opponent's hand with the chosen type.

[Rithaniel]

Want (now renamed to Obsession), Paranoia, and Detachment have been reworked.

I decided that the blocking ability on Want wasn't really worth keeping around, and so I removed it while increasing the power of the other ability (It's wording is chosen based off of the token Xenagos Ascended).