Rezatta, the Renaissance plane — Vision Design Part 2

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  • An alternative option is to make you always lose psylian life first. I can't think of any situations where you wouldn't choose to have your opponent lose it first, since it's taking away a resource that's strictly better life. And in the same key, even if it's a little feel-bad, it would incentivize players to use it aggressively before they lose it, as well as simplify our rules text: "You lose and pay psylian life before regular life."
  • @Lujikul
    Yes, that was the first version, but it feels horrible when you have to pay life and the set will probably have more of that than usual as a life-matters set. The anti-synergy here is *REALLY* strong.
  • Yeah that will put a strain on design space
  • edited March 2019
    @ningyounk
    "If a source you don't control causes you to lose life, you lose psylian life first."

    And in every other way it is identical to normal life except that it can be paid in exchange for {c}.
  • @Faiths_Guide
    Alright, I like this enough, the only downsides is that it doesn't explicitly tell you what happens when you control the source, but it does imply it. I'll try to find a way to test how people intuitively understand this rule in different situations.
  • edited March 2019
    @ningyounk
    Right. I believe that psylian life--just as it adds to life total--should be identical in as many aspects to "normal life" as possible. In short, I believe that listing the exception to eliminate choices from gameplay (as we've done) is all that needs to be done for reminder text.
  • edited March 2019
    image
  • @Faiths_Guide
    I'm a little confused, what land? xD Is there a bad copy-paste? I like the idea though ^^
  • edited March 2019
    @ningyounk
    Lol, copy/pasted Vorinclex's wording. My bad. Thanks!

    Also, commons are hard!
  • https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/heat-stroke

    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/stroke-of-paint

    Card for a Common Counterspell and an Uncommon Board Clear for Red. The idea is that true art can't be stopped, no matter how long it takes. (Except for the fact that the Counterspell could be used to target a Masterpiece and thus stop true art but we're getting ahead of ourselves.)
  • edited March 2019
    I think pylian life and it's abilities could make for an interesting land cycle. Here is one for blue and green. Feel free to criticize!
    (Card will be posted later)
  • @Faiths_Guide and @ningyyounk

    An idea for pylian life:

    If you are dealt damage and have any amount of psylian life that is higher that 0, than you may choose to lose psylian life instead. Your psylian life total cannot go below zero. If you lose all non- psylian life, than you have not lost until you not only have lost all normal life, but all psylian life as well.

    The rule needs a bit of polishing, though.
  • @MEGAElixer Sprawling Jungle is easily exploited as you can tap, add one cm, then pay one psylian life to get the other cm (Don't you get two cm for paying psylian life?) untap, rinse and repeat
  • Also you would get colored mana as well as since your card says lose they can also do that, effectively turning this card into a gamebreaker
  • @MEGAElixer
    That ruling is a little long, we're looking for something that we could put on the reminder tokens ^^

    E.g.:

    image
  • @ningyounk
    Right, I believe the wording I presented works best:
    "If a source you don't control causes you to lose life, you lose psylian life first."

    In every other way, I think it could be treated as identical to your regular life.
  • @Faiths_Guide
    Yes, I think we can try your version, I just picked up the example above from the old introduction from page 1, to show what it kind of looks like ^^
  • @ningyounk
    Cool! Yes, I picked up on that. ;)
  • @EnvyReaper I see what your saying, but I'm also pretty sure you need to pay two psylian life to add the mana.

    You could add 1, then pay two psylian life for the other, adding another two, so your amount of life would stay the same.
  • @MEGAElixer, remember the bottom part, Lose 1 psyllian life, add {G} or {U}, that is why this is op due to you having to spend psyllian life to add mana for the untap
  • @EnvyReaper

    Oh, I get it now! Thanks, I'll delete it and repost a better version later.
  • Hello again everyone ^^

    I've been playtesting Discover as the fourth mechanic for a few week-ends now and I'm super happy with it. I didn't add all the cards to Untap.in this time, but this is the deck I used for playtesting purpose (+ 18 lands including 4 bilands). As usual THOSE CARDS ARE NOT PART OF THE SET, they're just meant to push the mechanic in every direction and see what works and what doesn't.

    imageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimage


    Here are my thoughts on the mechanic so far:

    - It's a lot of fun, there's an unknown component to it that makes it especially exciting.
    - Chaining spells that discover into each other is especially fun.
    - It's surprisingly balanced. It's basically Scry in the early game and only becomes card advantage in the late game. Putting discover multiple times on the same card for instance will rarely only "draw" you more than one card.
    - There is a surprisingly deep design space hidden here. You can play with the trigger of when to Discover, care about discovering, about casting a discovered card, about the nature of discovered cards you cast, about the cards you put in the graveyard with discover, etc.
    - It's very confusing in conjunction with Scry. I don't think we should have both in the set, we should probably treat Discover more like Explore or Surveil and make it replace Scry for a set.
    - Discovering at instant speed should probably be kept out of common rarity. In small doses, it adds a lot of fun dramatic tension when you discover to find a creature.

    - - -

    The next step now will be adding all the mechanics to the common set skeleton with the right as-fan, mimicking the as-fan of similar mechanics from other sets (for instance, I'm thinking of basing the way Discover is used at common on the way Explore was, having psylian life closer to something like Energy maybe, etc.)

    We can then have the first version of all the commons, which will allow us to see how all the mechanics interact with each other. I think the one main thing we'll need to keep in check is complexity. Psylian life and Elated asks you to keep life swings in check, Masterwork asks you to remember all your masterwork's abilities with a lot of interaction weaved in. We'll need to make sure it's not too brain-melting.
  • @MTG_Sappy
    Hi x) This is on hold so I can finish my half-GDS challenge for now, as-in I'm not producing cards for it at the moment. But I'll have some holidays soon and I intend to finalise the first version of the design skeleton ^^
  • @ningyounk
    Thanks for letting me know why
  • Alright, small update on the set advancement ^^
    As I'm on holidays, I took a bit of time to work on the next step which is the design skeleton of all commons.

    For now, I'm going with this mix of four mechanics:

    1) Psylian life (Pay 2 psylian life: Add one mana of any color.)
    2) Elated — ..., if at least 3 life was gained and/or lost this turn, ...
    3) Masterwork (Choose a permanent you control as this resolves. It becomes your only Masterwork.)
    4) Discover (Look at the top card of you library. You may cast it. If you don't, you may put it into your graveyard.)

    It's a balanced mix of mechanics with card filtering, mana fixing, help to bypass board stalls, mana sink, etc. I hope this gives a set that's really fluid to play. There are some nice synergies between the mechanics. Psylian life help fuel Elated. Masterwork helps creature get in damage for Elated. Discover is a mana sink for Psylian life.

    There are also some concerns, we'll see how it plays and go from there. Notably, the synergy between the mechanics aren't as strong as we've seen in recent sets. Masterwork might be a bit too unique on top of psylian life, MaRo already stated that it's better to have only one newer mechanic per set because if you have too many unknown variables it's very difficult to make a set skeleton work and find the right amount for the mechanic. The complexity is also higher than usual, as psylian life, Elated and Masterwork ask you to track multiple things. I have my eyes on Masterwork because of this, we'll see how complex it is to track when it's mixed with the other mechanics.

    To simplify things, I have balanced the mechanics among colours, which doesn't mean that they don't get off-colours cards, but I'm trying to focus more on those colours. I'll be going with the first option but I could see the second one work too:

    image


    So, how do we incorporate the mechanics into the design skeleton? First, this is where we last left the design skeleton:

    image


    Blue text indicates evasion as that has been balanced to about 5% of each type of evasion across colours. Red text indicates removal which has also been balanced across colours. Bold text indicates evergreen keywords we should try to incorporate at least once in each colour (though some like deathtouch or flash in green are optional). It's just a canvas to paint on, nothing in this set skeleton is set in stone.

    The first thing I did was look at how recent mechanics in large sets have been incorporated at common:

    image


    There are many different patterns. The more mechanics you have in a set, the less space there is for each mechanic obviously so the whole Guilds of Ravnica block shows us the lower bar. On average, there are 5 to 10 commons bearing a set mechanic in a set. Exceptions include mechanics that replace Scry like Explore or Surveil which have a higher rate, and A/B mechanics that need a high as-fan to function like Energy.

    So, what patterns can we copy for the mechanics of Rezatta? I started with something balanced, so we can adjust later:

    PSYLIAN LIFE: 9 cards
    ELATED: 7 cards
    MASTERWORK: 10 cards (It's a parasitic mechanic with Art and Artists so I pushed it.)
    DISCOVER: 7 cards (Like Explore. It will replace Scy in the set, so it might need a push to 10.)
  • These is how I got to those numbers, I used different cycles:


    1) PSYLIAN LIFE

    I made three cycles with one card for each of its three colours (white/black/green):

    a. One creature card that gives you psylian life as a one-shot:
    - 2W - 2/3 - ETB: You may have each player gain 2 psylian life.
    - 1B - 1/1 - When CARDNAME dies, you gain 3 psylian life.
    - 6G - 7/7 - ETB: You gain 4 psylian life.

    b. One non-creature card that gives you psylian life as a one-shot:
    - W - Enchantment Aura - Enchant Creature. ETB: Gain 3 psylian life. Enchanted creature can't attack or block as long as you have psylian life.
    - 2W - Sorcery - CARDNAME deals 2 damage to target creature or player. You gain 2 psylian life.
    - 1G - Sorcery - Choose one: You gain 6 life OR You gain 3 psylian life.

    c. One card that gives you psylian life repeatedly:
    - W - 1/1 - T: You gain 1 psylian life.
    - 3B - 3/3 - Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you gain 1 psylian life.
    - G - 0/2 - Defender. Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you gain 1 psylian life.

    It might be a bit much but I wanted to have a significant amount of psylian life production as I'll be adding later cards that care abot having psylian life.


    2) ELATED

    This one is core to the set but also isn't as parasitic so I settled with only one full horizontal cycle (five colours) plus one card to reinforce it in each of its colours (white/red). That's how Explore was used on Ixalan:

    a. Full five-colours cycle of creatures with an evergreen keywords that enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter if you have Elated:
    - 1W - 1/2 First Strike. Elated — If at least 3 life was gained and/or lost this turn, CARDNAME enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
    - 3U - 2/3 Flying. Elated — If at least 3 life was gained and/or lost this turn, CARDNAME enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
    - 2B - 1/2 Deathtouch. Elated — If at least 3 life was gained and/or lost this turn, CARDNAME enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
    - 3R - 3/1 Menace. Elated — If at least 3 life was gained and/or lost this turn, CARDNAME enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
    - 4G - 5/4 Trample. Elated — If at least 3 life was gained and/or lost this turn, CARDNAME enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.

    b. One card in white and red to reinforce its main colors:
    - 2W - 2/2 - Flying. Elated — If at least 3 life was gained and/or lost this turn, this spell costs {1} less to cast.
    - 2R - Sorcery - Elated — If at least 3 life was gained and/or lost this turn, this spell costs {2} less to cast. CARDNAME deals 3 damage to any target.


    3) DISCOVER

    I initially wanted a full cycle with ETB abilities but that worked much better with Elated, so instead I focused Discover more on its two main colours (green/blue) and added a colourless card so any colour can still have access to it if they want. I used three two-cards cycles:

    a. Cycle of cheap creatures that discover when they enter the battlefield:
    - 1U - 1/3 - ETB: Discover.
    - 2G - 3/2 - ETB: Discover.

    b. Cycle of creatures that discover repeatedly:
    - 2U - 2/3 - Whenever you cast a sorcery, discover.
    - 3G - 4/4 - Whenever CARDNAME attacks, discover.

    c. Cycle of sorceries that discover:
    - 1U - Sorcery - Discover. Discover.
    - 1G - Sorcery - Discover. When you do, you may have target creature you control fight target creature you don't control.

    d. One colorless card to let decks without blue or green have a bit of card filtering:
    - {1} - 1/1 - Sacrifice CARDNAME: Discover. Use this ability only any time you could use a sorcery.


    4) MASTERWORK

    This is where it gets tricky. I wanted three cycles in its colours (blue/black/red) plus one colourless creature. But I'm having a hard time defining the difference between the abilities tied to art creatures and artist creatures. Here's my first draft but I don't like how complex it is:

    a. Cycle of Artist creatures:
    - U - Artist - 0/4 - Masterwork. Spells your opponent control that target your Masterwork cost {2} more to cast.
    - 1B - Artist - 1/3 - Masterwork. Whenever your Masterwork dies, draw a card.
    - R - Artist - 1/1 - Masterwork. Your Masterwork has haste.

    b. Cycle of Art creatures:
    - 2U - Art - 2/3 - Masterwork. CARDNAME can't be blocked as long as it's your Masterwork.
    - 3B - Art - 1/5 - Masterwork. Whenever CARDNAME attacks, if it's your Masterwork, it deals 2 damage to defending player or planeswalker.
    - 1R - Art - 2/1 - Masterwork. Whenever CARDNAME becomes your Masterwork, it deals 2 damage to target opponent.

    c. Cycle of non-creature spells:
    - 1U - Instant - Exile target permanent. If it was your Masterwork and is a creature, it enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it. Masterwork.
    - 1B - Instant - Masterwork. Your Masterwork gains lifelink and indestructible until end of turn.
    - 2R - Instant - Masterwork. If it's a creature, your Masterwork gets +3/+1 until end of turn. Other creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn.

    d. One colourless creature:
    - {5} - 3/4 - Masterwork. As long as CARDNAME is your Masterwork, it has +2/+0.

    ___

    Here we are ^^ I'm really struggling to find an elegant way to do the common Masterwork cards so any help on that matter is especially appreciated ^^

    At first I wanted to do a cycle of Artists like the cards in Tarkir that granted evergreen keywords to creatures with +1/+1 counters on them. But at common, you basically have access to haste, reach and vigilance which don't match the colour distribution at all.
  • @ningyounk, I think the problem is you are relegating Masterwork to too many cards, I suggest actually decreasing how many cards Masterwork has, possibly limiting it to Rare+, because then we would not need to focus on it as much
  • @ningyounk I also think the problem is that you are overselling it at this point, when you put it on everything all you do is dilute the set with the mechanic, and in some situations it isn't even worthwhile
  • @EnvyReaper
    The issue with Masterwork is that it needs a critical mass of cards that let you choose a Masterwork. It's the most parasitic mechanic out of the four, which is why it needs a lot of cards to function (and why it's not a Rare+ kind of mechanic). But yes, maybe there are a bit too many, we'll see during playtest how it feels ^^
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