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Prehistory Set - Introduction and Vision Design
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Also, here's a mechanic I though might fit the idea of "primal".
Predator(Whenever a creature you don't own enters the battlefield with power less than this creature, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn)
And here's an alternate version of the ability:
Predator(Whenever a creature you don't own enters the battlefield with power less than this creature, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature)
The more I've marinated on the concept of amolga, the less I like it. To me it feels unnecessary to introduce a new source of magic into the game when we already have mana the aether. While I'm not totally dismissing the idea, I think we should concept how mana or aether could be responsible for the rapid evolution on the plane before we introduce a new substance.
@LordTachanka123
I'm not a massive fan of reverse evolve for a few reasons:
- It relies on your opponents doing something.
- It will rarely activate since, by the time you get a big creature out, your opponents are only going to be playing big creatures anyway.
- There is way to build around this mechanic. Most mechanics usually are designed in a way that encourages you to play more of them.
This weekend I'm thinking of playtesting both the "unlockable evolutions" mechanic and the "split transform" mechanic. Both seem pretty splashy, and I want to determine whether there is any fun to be had with either of them.
Yes, it is; however, it has got its flaws. Additionally, it has been previously flavored as the "RPG" mechanic, so it may be hard to get that association out of players' minds. I've been considering it, but, as of now, there hasn't really been anything about it that's made me think it should be included in the set.
We can use counters to represent the individual features of the evolutions.
A
Anyway as you can tell, the nyx and aether are similar, this is that for _____, as they say, to each their own
So, if we just took aether, or pure life, we could use that @Tigersol?
The Amolga is what the natives call the primal energy that exists on [Panegoa]. The actual energy is an extremely strong presence of the Aether. The Aether here is chaotic, and can mix and match creatures unexpectedly due to the Aether taking part in summoning. This can either lead to very powerful creatures (the cycle of god-like creatures) and malformed, distorted creatures (horrors and nightmares?)
Popping by with some feedback on what I've read on the set so far:
• I think a prehistoric theme sounds interesting enough to support a whole set and would definitely have a unique feel among MTG sets ^^ Because this is a top-down set, I would encourage making a list of all the tropes you could think of that are related to the prehistoric era, maybe even make some random cards out of them and see what mechanical theme could appear. For instance, in these two articles about the Vision Design hand-off of Eldraine, you'll find a whole list of tropes for both the Camelot theme and the Fairy Tale theme: PART 1 PART 2.
• What's your twist on the prehistoric theme? What's going to make it a distinguishable magical plane of the multiverse and not a representation of what actually happened on Earth when dinosaurs were still roaming? On Ikoria for instance, there are a variety of mystical monsters and they experience sudden mutations. Here are some ideas from the top of my head:
- The plane is consistently undergoing various natural disasters, and everyone just tries to live in the middle of constant tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, meteorites, hurricanes, wildfires and the likes.
- The motor of evolution on this plane is eating each other. As-in, eating a bird will give you wings.
- The plane is roaming with cave men, dinosaurs, but also a new type of villainous creatures like the phyrexians or the eldrazis that threaten to eradicate all other life forms.
• What's the main mechanical focus of the set? If this a faction set? A multicoloured set? A graveyard set? Focusing on factions like humans vs. dinosaurs might be a bit of a low hanging fruit, especially because it looks a lot like Ikoria. Focusing on evolution like I've seen a lot of talk about it in the thread might be interesting but it's going to be a challenge not to feel too close from Ikoria's Mutate + keyword counters combo. I'd be interested to see if the early humans theme could drive the set in some new unexplored direction.
I don't see any obvious way to go yet, but it might come by working a bit on the tropes ^^ For instance, going with the natural disasters might take the set into a rhythm theme where it's important to play your cards on certain turns as the natural disasters come and go. You could also represent the "ancient" aspect by tapping into the same "colorless-matters" theme as Eldrazis for instance.
Hope this helps a bit, I can't wait to see what you'll come up with ^^
Also, because I can.
Wow, that was really helpful. Thank you.
You certainly have a point about needing a twist. Since I'm still at the very early stages of vision design, I have a lot of time to focus on themes and see which ones fit. That being said, I absolutely love the idea that natural disasters have some major significance to the set. I think an interesting concept to explore from a creative standpoint could be the fact that the plane itself is still forming. Volcanos erupt on the plane frequently as the continents of the world are being formed. Violent tempest plague the world. Earthquakes shatter the ground. Not only does this play up the "survival of the fittest" and "primordial savagery" moods I had discussed earlier, but it does make the plane itself an interesting place to visit. Additionally, his could explain why the fauna on the plane is so far behind that of other planes.
Making a mechanic or a mechanical representation of this will be a little challenging, but maybe the combined brains of those in this discussion could come up with something.
In terms of focus, currently the theme I am exploring is evolution, and I'm waiting to see where that takes this project. I have no clue what colour combinations this set will care about yet.
Writing down tropes is a great idea. I will certainly do that.
Colourless matters is fascinating. I don't know what it would look like, but it's an idea that would definitely be worth exploring.
I'm not sure what era you're focusing on, but you can feel free to put any of my cards into your set if you have premium. As well as use the mechanics..Thaw, and Hunt
I was focusing more on a Stone-age Pleistocene Epoch based set. There are a couple dinosaurs, but they are basically the last of their kind. Created a mechanic called Endangered- you can only have one copy of this card in your starting deck.
I will warn you, part of the reason I gave up was because I began to find it very difficulty to find suitable art in this theme after awhile. So, good luck
As far as tropes and interesting twists I'm with @ningyounk think about your setting, what makes it (presumably) difficult to live in? And who are the people living there, what are the factions and what are there color identities (I recommend sticking to either enemy-colored, or Allied colored...etc. otherwise you'lll have unbalanced representation. That was one of my mistakes.) Are their volcanoes going off all over the place? Or is it an Ice-Age? That will give you a very good place to start in order to create abilities.
(Feel free to use these) In my case I decided that Snow lands mattered since it was an Ice-Age, but because it was the end/interglacial period, the snow was melting and I came up with an ability called Thaw by which snow lands get turned into Thawed lands- Thawed Lands being the main theme of the set.
Also Hunt (I know maybe a better name) "When this creature ETB, put a scent counter on target creature you don't control. When that creature dies, you draw a card and gain 2 life."
Hope this helps.
I loved your paleomythic! Especially Ondovi!
Feedback welcome.
Apex-If this creature has the highest(Power, toughness, cmc) of creatures you control,****
I don't know if power would work well for a good aggro theme, or if CMC would encourage a high land deck.
Apex N(If this creature has the highest (P, T, CMC) among creatures you control, it gets +N?+N)