DOLEBRIA - Four-Color World!

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  • edited December 2016
    @KJMartin here's a card I made a while ago. http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/xreun-realm-walker?list=set&set=13631
    Yes it's broken... Yes it infinite loops... But I think the art could be usefully as the leader of the Goroth clan.
  • Also i was thinking we should make a cycle of quad coloured (hybrid?) cards called archetype of disorder or archetype of unnaturalness similar to the archetypes from BOG.
  • @unicornsareevil13579 Thanks - most of them look really cool! :) Just so you know, to save the 'spamming', by hovering near the top right of a comment you can edit your comment.
  • @ShadowKnight1224, @touchstone
    Here's what I;ve got so far:

    Mechanics:

    Hybrid mana.
    Vibrant - As long as you control a multicolored permanent...
    Kicker
    (For Goroth) Idk. But, I think the mechanic I came up with could work. Also, @ShadowKnight1224 delve was mainly hated because you could play delve cards SO quickly, even when they had very powerful effects and costed very much, not because of fire and forget :P We could always get rid of the exile part.
    (For G/W/R/B) Something punishing hand size could be good...I'm thinking a mechanic called 'primitive' or 'primal'...Don't know what it does tho.
    Perhaps it's something like (As long as an opponent has three or less cards in his or her hand, _____.)
    Or maybe we take the Equilibrium mechanic (I think it's by @Tomigon) and change the name. The ability is - At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent has more cards in his or her hand than you...
    (For G/W/R/U) Succour seems good.
    (For G/W/U/B) Ima thinking Gravestorm, although I did like my other ability, the 'you may cast this card for its ____ cost if a permanent left the battlefield this turn' but it's probs too good.
    (For W/U/B/R) See, ima gonna be honest with you, I think the only thing that's going to work here is an artifact theme, but this time it's focused a bit more on saccing them. Green hates artifacts - destroying them + enchantments is one of the main thing the color likes to do. The C16 general in those colors is artifact tribal too. While exiling could be the way to go, I'm not sure how flavorful it would be and how
  • edited December 2016
    For Goroth: Maybe exile from the hand and the graveyard? Like "Abandon N: Exile a card with converted mana cost N or less from your hand and your graveyard. You may cast this card without paying its mana cost." Going 2-for-1 actually feels like a relevant downside that's worth the free spell.

    For Decisiveness: I like your idea! I think comparative handsize is a lot more relevant than an arbitrary number of card and forces you to play aggressively to counter it. "Decisive: If you have less cards in hand than each other player, [effect]."

    For Patience: Actually, your mechanic would just be a revised Morbid, so not only would be too good, it'd also be too similar to a pre-existent mechanic. Also I think this set has kind of a lot of cost-reduction/free cast mechanics, you really don't want to go overboard with those. My vote goes to Gravestorm.

    For Unnaturalness: Gonna have to disagree here, I think artefact-focus has been done to death and will keep on being done to death because we have way too many artefact-focused planes and factions already, but it's up to you. I think an alternative to my proposed mechanic could be something like "Surpass: As long as this creature has an Equipment or Aura attached to it, [effect]." Instead of a general artefact theme, this is a theme of enhancing creatures with equipment and auras, both of which are a specific subset of things Green hates (artefacts and enchantments).
  • edited December 2016
    Alpha-Pack Leader

    just an idea
  • @TheFriendlyGeek That's a nice idea for a cycle, but it needs to drop haste, because that's not a white or black mechanic.
  • I think it's a stretch to remember the colours.
  • edited December 2016
    The main problem with hybrid mana is that it has generally been used in two ways:

    Either both colours can do whatever's on the card, which limits design space to where both colours overlap; or the permanent is sacrificed or lacks abilities if you don't cast it with both colours, which ends up being just a complicated way of doing multicoloured.

    I think a way to make hybrid matter on its own without devaluing proper multicolour cards is to have them interact with other cards you play, like a 1-mana hybrid colour 1/1 that gets an ability if a colour was used to cast it OR if it has a card of that colour attached to it (via aura or equipment), and the same for the other colour. You can replace Succour with Soulbond, for example, and have hybrid count for that as well.

    Other factions can instead receive benefits if there are certain coloured cards in the graveyard or exile, for example. The only faction that doesn't immediately benefit from these mechanics is Decisiveness, but you can make that one more straightforward and traditional in hybrid design, which also fits the direct and straightforward way it's meant to be played.
  • We could also repeat something like the mimic cycle
  • edited December 2016
    Shifting Beauty Another idea. Maybe based on the rest of the set, this card could be bumped up to rare
  • edited December 2016
    For R/W/U/B, I like @ShadowKnight1224Is Surpass idea

    "Surpass - As long as this creature has an Equipment or Aura attached to it, [effect]."

    Other things I just came up are..

    "Earth hex [Cost] ([Cost]: Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your opponent's control this turn, if that player controls more lands than you, he or she loses 1 life.)"
    ^Because green ramps.

    "Suppress [Cost] ([Cost], {t}: Creatures with converted mana cost 4 or greater costs {1} more to cast until end of tun.)"
    ^Because green creatures are big.

    Both are activated ability keyword, so you can't remove reminder text. So it takes space in the text box.. :(

    another one
    "Recall [Cost] (If this card's owner is you, you may cast it from exile for its recall cost. Then shuffle it into your library.)"
    ^Because UB often sends cards to exile.. (Delve, Unearth)

    -----
    Feel free to rename Equilibrium ability and use it!
  • @Tomigon Equilibrium was by you? Awesome! Thanks for letting use use it!
  • edited December 2016
    @KJMartin in responds to a previous comment. I dont inderstand abandon. Is it activated/triggered or like cascade? What cards do you exile and what do you cast.

    I think exile and graveyard could work in goroth but I think each 4 coloured guild should be based of the two colour allied guild supported with two other colours. For example goroth should be based of rakdos with support of green and blue. This would make Dolebria different from commander 2016 in a good way.
    (You can see this on my card above)

    Also I found that Wikipedia describes these four coloured decks from commander as follows.

    Non-white - Chaos (Kinda like rakdos)
    Non-blue - Aggresion (Kinda like gruul)
    Non-black - Altruism (Kinda like selynsia)
    Non-red - Growth (ummmmmm...¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
    Non-green - Artifice (not really but...we could work with artifacts returning/entering like in kaladesh)
  • @unicornsareevil13579: Abandon is an alternative cost mechanic. It's not activated or triggered because it refers to how you pay for a spell. Abandon lets you exile two cards (one from hand, one from graveyard) that have the same or higher mana cost than the card with Abandon. You're basically burning future and past resources in exchange for tempo and turn efficiency.

    You can base specific decks on a given colour pair with support from the others, but that's not how you make a colour philosophy. Abzan wasn't Black supported by White and Green, it was unique. Some decks may have leaned more heavily one way or another, but the colour philosophy wasn't decided that way.

    Also, what you found in Wikipedia is what the designers did for the four colours in Commander 2016. They focused on a certain aspect and built a deck around it (they say so themselves), which is why they look similar to other guilds, it's because a deck must have a tight focus. You can't make a deck that encompasses the entire breadth of what the colour combination stands for or is capable of. You can't even do it in monocolour! Imagine a monoblue deck that encompasses countering, illusions, time magic, technology, deception, intelligence, knowledge, water, air and ice. You can't have all those things in a single deck (or at least one that works), so each monoblue deck has its own specific focus, just like how each C16 deck had its own specific focus.
  • @ShadowKnight1224 ok thanks that clears things up.
  • WooHoo! We have the mechanics down:

    Non-Faction Mechanics:

    Hybrid Mana
    Vibrant - As long as you control a multicolored permanent, {EFFECT}.
    Kicker

    Goroth
    Abandon N (Exile a card with converted mana cost N or less from your hand and your graveyard. You may cast this card without paying its mana cost.)

    Ima gonna be honest, I do not like this mechanic. I think it;s too weird, and far, far, far too OP, so this is the mechanic I would like to change most. But we can stick with this for now.

    Decisiveness
    Decisive - If you have less cards in hand than each other player, [effect].

    Ima fan of this one.
    Altruism
    Succour {CARD TYPE} (This card costs {1} less to cast for each {CARD TYPE} you control.)

    Just realised this is basically affinity. Oops.
    How about we do a spin off of Convoke? So then it would be:

    Succour {CARD TYPE} ((Your {CARD/CREATURE TYPE} can help cast this spell. Each {CARD/CREATURE TYPE} you tap while casting this spell pays for 1 or one mana of that {CARD/CREATURE TYPE's} color.) I still don't like it. AT ALL...
    How about:
    Succour {COST} (This card costs {1} less to cast for each {COST} You pay.)
    The cost could be something like "...Discard a card" or "...Tap an untapped creature you control...

    Patience

    Gravestorm

    Unnaturalness

    I still disagree with you, but, since that mechanic seems to be the popular option, we're going with:

    Surpass - As long as this creature has an Equipment or Aura attached to it, [effect]





  • edited December 2016
    For Abandon: Could change it into a cost reduction instead of a free cast.

    Abandon [Cost] (You may cast a spell for its Abandon cost if you exile a card with Abandon from your hand or your graveyard).

    This way, it's like Surge, but it requires you to build a deck with a lot of Abandon cards.

    I'm not a fan of your version of Succour, since it feels generic. White, Blue, Red and Green are also known for their instants and combat tricks, so how about:

    Succour: If [cardname] was cast on an attacking or blocking creature you control, [effect].

    It only goes on instants that target creatures, but it lets you add more juice to your combat tricks, flickers and protections.
  • edited December 2016
    I'm not sure about gravestorm. The very name suggests being incredibly death obsessed, which often isn't the case with "patience."
  • @ShadowKnight1224 for your version of Succour, it should probably say: If [cardname] was cast during your attack or declare blocker's step, [effect].
  • @ShadowKnight1224
    I like @TheFriendlyGeek's one more, but neither of them are good, I think. They are both way, way, way, too similar to heroic, and that wasn't very popular. :\
  • @TheFriendlyGeek: My phrasing is actually valid, we have plenty of cases (mostly in White) that specifies target attacking or blocking creature. Your version is actually a lot more applicable in general, so I'd agree with it as a replacement.

    @KJMartin: That's a fair criticism of mine (even though Heroic is on the creature and mine would be on the spell), but @TheFriendlyGeek's is not similar at all to Heroic, since it doesn't specify a target. You can actually have wide-reaching effects like Fog or a mass flicker instead of a targeted buff.
  • @ShadowKnight1224 but yours did not state a target
  • edited December 2016
    @TheFriendlyGeek It would actually be confusing wording if it did. If the spell says "Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. Succour: If [cardname] was cast on an attacking or blocking creature, it gets trample." That's valid and easy to understand. If it said "target attacking or blocking creature" after it says "target creature", it could easily lead players to confusion. We've seen cards where once the word "target creature" is used, they refer to "that creature" or "it" to avoid confusion.
  • @shadowKnight1224
    How about 'If {cardname} wasn't cast during a main phase, _____'.
    Or even change a to your.
  • edited December 2016
    I think that it'd be good to make a way to punish players for playing rainbow with this set, because it wouldn't be too hard, and then they could just run all the goodstuffs, and since we already have to provide an accessible four color mana base for each faction, it wouldn't be hard to make it five color.
  • edited December 2016
    @KJMartin: I think that works (tentatively leaving it as "a main phase" for now might be better).

    @Lujikul: Well, Abandon is actually inherently good against that because it requires other Abandon cards, which makes it hard to just pick the good ones, you have to go all-in. Surpass is also fairly unique in that regard.

    Gravestorm generally requires a certain type of deck as well, you can't just chuck a card like that in any deck.

    Decisive generally doesn't go well with control, but otherwise probably mixes well. Succour probably goes well with everything.

    So a potential way to fix this would be to include a "stealth" synergy in Decisive that rewards fast play and a very focused strategy. That should do the trick there.

    For Succour, we could add another stealth synergy where its effects are defensive and even group-huggy at times, so that you can't just chuck a card like that into any deck, it just isn't worth it.

    As for avoiding rainbow, we can easily include hosers and hate against the missing colour, in ways that don't discriminate if you control the thing or not, so you'd be self-nuking if you played it.
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