Elemental Chaos: a Love Letter to Futuresight

On May 4th in the year 2007, WotC released a set by the name of "future sight", a set designed to show what mechanics and keywords may one day show up in the future of magic. Purple mana was considered, delve and graft found their first prints, and one card was printed that has become the focus of this very post.

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=136137&type=card

This is Shah of Naar Isle, a noble efreet from the plane of Wildfire... Now I know what you're thinking: "What's Wildfire?? I've never heard of it."

Well two years later, on September 4th, 2009, the original Planechase set was released. Planechase was a supplemental (and incredibly underplayed/underrated) set that delved deep into planar lore and introduced the mechanical ramifications of a duel taking place on a plane. Segovia, the plane of tiny warriors, shrunk all your creatures. The Alaran Shards gave various buffs to creatures in their colors. And Wildfire?

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=198070&type=card

Wildfire burned every player sitting at that damn table. Putting this into your planar deck guaranteed the ire of your fellow players, but the feeling of being able to bolt players for a couple drops of mana and the roll of a dice? Absolutely thrilling.

But just this year, the lead of design in mtg stated with the subtly of a hippopotamus that wildfire would definitely never get a set release. A set needs to contain all five of magic's lands, and an even distribution of its colors. So, therefore, "a cool fire world" would never be able to see play.

... I'm determined to prove him wrong. Enter this new custom set: Elemental Chaos, where the five shard-planes of Daybreak (w), Riptide (u), Nightfall (b), Wildfire (r), and Greenwood (g) battle for the victory of their color. Thats right, a set that would make mono-colored decks relevant again, with unsubtle mono-colored effects.

I hope you'll join me in designing it!
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Comments

  • @Tigersol, get in here, this is like Otaria and you nailed that set.
  • Hmm... I will probably get the time on Saturday. Mono colour here I come!
  • I'm thinking of making mechanics that reward the decks for doing what the colors do best. For example, Nightfall might have something similar to Gravestorm.
  • Devotion is a must for a monocolor set, I'd alos encourage hybrid mana or split cards. I'd love to see Chroma return, but the other two are much, much more important.
  • Hybrid mana is definitely necessary, especially for interplanar travelers flavorwise. Speaking of flavor...
  • Cookie Dough is my favorite flavor
  • The obvious choices for the Signature Races of Riptide and Wildfire are Djinn and Efreet respectively. However, Daybreak, Nightfall and Greenwood don't have similar Genie-based-elemental-humanoids. Thoughts on the introduction of new creature types for the others?

    If I had to restrict them to established types I'd say...

    Daybreak - Spirit
    Riptide - Djinn
    Nightfall - Nightmare or Horror
    Wildfire - Efreet
    Greenwood - Dryad
  • Anyway, here's how I'd do the set mechnaically
    Mechanics:
    -Devotion
    -Basic Split Cards (no special mechanics like fuse or anything)
    -No hybrid mana until a later set in the block where the shards either combine or ally with one another.
    -Some new monocolor-matters mechanic
    -Chroma (maybe?)
    Factions Creature Types
    White: Humans, Angels
    Blue: Fish, Kraken, Octapuss, Leviathan, Merfolk
    Black: Zombie, Demon, Vampire
    Red: Djinn, Efreet
    Green: Elemental, Dryad, Beast
  • Devotion always struck me as a very set-specific mechanic. Monocolor-based Chroma however.... That I can appreciate.
  • edited September 2018
    @ErinsCards, not to step on your toes or anything, but PLEASE dont make these mono color. That's already Kerjold's gimmick!
  • @Ranshi922 I don't see why we can't both do... The same gimmick?
  • It sorta makes it less special X{
  • We can play it off differently! For example I'm going to try and build tribal mechanics interweaved with color identity, as well as new color-based keywords (G R A V E S T O R M). It's all how you use the basic idea!
  • @Tigersol has a complete set skeleton and set file for a monocolor matters set. He might’ve beat bith you, @ErinsCards and @Ranshi922
  • What does that stand for?
  • I reviewed it for him and we had basically finalized it as of a few months ago.
  • nobody cares, @Arceus8523!!!! *yell in a defensive unconvincing way*
  • edited September 2018
    @Ranshi922
    You’re just jealous *blows tongue*
  • edited September 2018
    Anyway, this set definitely has the potential to be significantly different from Otaria because whereas Otaria made its monocolor function by using LOTS of hybrid mana to make cards viable in two different monocolor strategies in draft, and focused on an existing place on an existing plane, this is being built neglecting any sort of two color aspect whatsoever (except for the proposed split cards, where each side could be used to cover a faction) and using a plane all its own.
  • yes I am Rabshi! wat ur nam nu frend.?
  • @Ranshi922 @Arceus8523 or we could just like

    Design our own sets and

    Not be childish about it and act like we own an entire theme
  • When they made Dragons of Tarkir no one was like "Ugh, what a Ravnica rip-off"
  • You can have two sets that do the same thing different ways
  • Especially when, you know, we're doing it for fun

    Because designing cards is fun
  • Im not being childish. I am joking around... I was at first a bit vexed by the idea, but when it is seen to be expressed in a totally different way, it was all fiiiiiinne. *that last bit in my mind while I was writing was in a stoner voice*
  • @ErinsCards
    Yeah I wasn’t fighting one bit! I was just making some jokes.
  • edited September 2018
    @Arceus8523, who is Rashmi? Sounds like either someone I'd hate or get along with!
  • @Ranshi922
    I can’t tekk if you’re being sarcastic or not. Rashmi is the legendary Simic Elf Mythic from Kaladesh that invented the planar bridge.
This discussion has been closed.