Prepare - a morph-style mechanic

[Ryder]

Hello fellow designers, I'd like to gather feedback regarding the following mechanic. How do you find it?

Countermeasure 1UU
Instant (C)
Prepare 1U ({3}: Exile this card from your hand face down. Cast it on a later turn for its prepare cost. Activate only as a sorcery.)
Counter target spell.

Watchful Guard 4W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Vigilance
Prepare 3W ({3}: Exile this card from your hand face down. Cast it on a later turn for its prepare cost. Activate only as a sorcery.)
Watchful Guard has flash while prepared.
3/4

I'm considering having the player draw a card when they prepare a spell or having it castable at instant speed, but I'm not convinced yet.
Thoughts?

[SecretInfiltrator]

Comparing this to morph is a bit weird when foretell exists.

Tell us how exactly you consider your creation different from Saw it Coming and a variant of Gods' Hall Guardian.

There are two notable differences:

- Foretell costs one mana less to exile. That's really not worth a new mechanic.
- Foretell uses a special action rather than an activated ability. That's basically necessary to make the mechanic work since the rules are not going to get changed in a way that you can activate the ability while keeping the hidden information.

I think you just made foretell. I think that's fine. Foretell is fine.

[Ryder]

Oh well, I knew I saw this "cast it on a later turn" somewhere, but couldn't find it anywhere. What a fail. Thanks.

This means I need to pull off a megamorph / disguise and add something here, like the aforementioned "draw a card". Would it justify the greater cost?

[SecretInfiltrator]

Oh well, I knew I saw this "cast it on a later turn" somewhere, but couldn't find it anywhere. What a fail. Thanks.

This means I need to pull off a megamorph / disguise and add something here, like the aforementioned "draw a card". Would it justify the greater cost?

Making an effect inherently cantrip is a big deal. It would not only justify the greater cost, but might make an unappealingly high cost necessary. It basically becomes cycling, except you get to keep your card and also get a discount...

On the other hand: Just doing it won't hurt. Just keep the card advantage angle in mind and test whether it is different enough for you to prefer it over using foretell.

You know what a crazy variant of drawing a card would be? As part of preparing a card you also prepare the top card of your library and you can always just play normal cards from exile as you would from hand, but obviously other cards with prepare would get better cast from exile.

[Ryder]

Oh well, I knew I saw this "cast it on a later turn" somewhere, but couldn't find it anywhere. What a fail. Thanks.

This means I need to pull off a megamorph / disguise and add something here, like the aforementioned "draw a card". Would it justify the greater cost?

Making an effect inherently cantrip is a big deal. It would not only justify the greater cost, but might make an unappealingly high cost necessary. It basically becomes cycling, except you get to keep your card and also get a discount...

On the other hand: Just doing it won't hurt. Just keep the card advantage angle in mind and test whether it is different enough for you to prefer it over using foretell.

You know what a crazy variant of drawing a card would be? As part of preparing a card you also prepare the top card of your library and you can always just play normal cards from exile as you would from hand, but obviously other cards with prepare would get better cast from exile.

Foretell would make a poor flavor fit for my set, I'm forced to make a spin-off. This needs to be about deliberate planning, randomness wouldn't fit either, though I'm curious how you'd word the effect you described.

[SecretInfiltrator]

Foretell would make a poor flavor fit for my set, I'm forced to make a spin-off. This needs to be about deliberate planning, randomness wouldn't fit either, though I'm curious how you'd word the effect you described.

Squad Leader {W}{W}
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Vigilance
Prepare (During your turn, you may pay {3} and exile both this card from your hand and the top card of your library face down. Cast each of them on a later turn.)
When ~ enters the battlefield, if it was prepared, create a 1/1 Human Soldier creature token.
2/2

For flexibility with a slight loss in flavor "if it was prepared" could be "if it was cast from exile".

[Ryder]

Squad Leader {W}{W}
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Vigilance
Prepare (During your turn, you may pay {3} and exile both this card from your hand and the top card of your library face down. Cast each of them on a later turn.)
When ~ enters the battlefield, if it was prepared, create a 1/1 Human Soldier creature token.
2/2

For flexibility with a slight loss in flavor "if it was prepared" could be "if it was cast from exile".

Interesting. So it's essentially 3: Draw a card? Except you have two cards in exile instead of in your hand?

The morę I think about it the less I like he extra card. It is, as you said, a big deal, and would limit the design space. Here is something different:

Watchful Guard 4W
Creature — Human Soldier (C)
Vigilance
Prepare (During your turn, you may pay X and exile this card from your hand face down with X preparation counters on it. Cast it on a later turn for X less. X can't be 0.)
3/4

[OneAndOnly]

That's starting to feel more like suspend. Part of the joy of foretell is that, like morph, the card remains unknown to the opponent until it actually hits the field.

You could mess with the cost to prepare a little bit, though; perhaps "Pay X to prepare this spell; it costs 1 less for each other card your have prepared." Or, contrariwise, "Pay X to prepare this spell, where X is the number of cards you have prepared" (so it's harder to have more cards prepared).

[Ryder]

That's starting to feel more like suspend. Part of the joy of foretell is that, like morph, the card remains unknown to the opponent until it actually hits the field.

You could mess with the cost to prepare a little bit, though; perhaps "Pay X to prepare this spell; it costs 1 less for each other card your have prepared." Or, contrariwise, "Pay X to prepare this spell, where X is the number of cards you have prepared" (so it's harder to have more cards prepared).

With my latest version the card would still be face-down. I like the idea of relative prep cost though!