[RESULTS] Theros: Beyond Death Challenge — Design some new mechanics for enchantments

Hello everyone,

As most you you already know, we've recently got a surprise batch of early spoilers for the next set "Theros: Beyond Death".

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Now, without getting into spoilers territory, we've seen enough mechanics through the six packs that were leaked that we can probably assume we've seen them all. I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of novelty from these mechanics. There are certainly a lot of interesting enchantments in this set (I really like the Omens cycle, etc.), but the enchantments-centric mechanics seem very tame.

So this is the challenge I'm offering: let's make some more interesting mechanics around the enchantment type!

Here are the rules:

• Each card must showcase a new keyworded mechanic that revolves around enchantments that you invented. It can be any kind of mechanic (keyword ability, ability word, new card type, tokens, batching, action keyword, etc.) as long as it cares about enchantments or is a new kind of enchantment itself.

• You can make your card as if they were part of any black-border product, not just Theros or even a standard set. So feel free to use any other mechanic and flavour you need to make your new mechanic shine.

• Each participant gets up to five entries (one card is one entry, only the five last entries will be taken into consideration for judging, unless you clearly specify what are your entries). You're free to mix and match your entries any way you'd like so you could make a full set of five cards developing a single mechanic, or maybe just two cards but with a different mechanic on each, etc.

Old cards are allowed as long as they fit the other rules of the challenge.

• The deadline is Sunday, November 17th which means this will be a quick 2-weeks challenge.

• As for the rewards:
— FIRST PLACE: 5 favourites of their choice
— SECOND PLACE: 3 favourites of their choice
— THIRD PLACE: 1 favourite of their choice

Try to be original! Channel that sense of wonder that you experienced when you first discovered novel mechanics like Bestow, Sagas or Enchantment-Creatures for the first time and show everyone how you would push enchantments in a new direction =D

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Good luck everyone, let the challenge begin!
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Comments

  • THANK YOU, I was so dissapointed that they brought 2 of the original mechanics and the third is not even about enchantments.
    image
    Align uses the unxploited ability of tapping enchantments, they are not meant to be tapped, but it is supposed to feel like aligning a constellation if you have enough stars (enchantments) to do it.
  • I have a custom mechanic called burrow that enables the creature to become an enchantment aura after it deals combat damage you can instead of applying the damage, you can attach it as an enchantment aura to a permanent the defending player controls. Does this count @ningyounk?
  • edited November 2019
    You didn't say what all the mechanics were. Therefor I can't enter the contest.
  • @sorinjace
    Absolutely, this counts ^^

    @KorandAngels
    Hey :) I'm not sure I understand what mechanics you mean? I can see two possible misunderstandings. Hope this helps:

    1) If you're talking about the mechanics from Theros: Beyond Death: I purposefully let them out of the introduction because some people prefer to stay away from spoilers. You can find them easily on websites like http://www.magicspoiler.com/for instance, if you haven't seen them and you're interested. You don't need them for this contest though =)

    2) If you're talking about the mechanics to use for the contest: That's the point! ;) You need to create your *own* mechanics, you can't use any that's already existing (which include the ones coming in the next Theros set) ^^

    I hope this clears the issue somehow =)
  • @ningyounk do they have to be about Theros? Because if it doesn’t I have a bunch of cards with the song subtype that I created and I’d love to make more of them :)
  • Iv'e kind of seen them; I was expecting you to list them here and I can't get all of the from those spoiler thingies.
  • @shadow123
    Nope, if you look at rule #2, it specifically says it doesn't have to be about Theros ;)
  • edited November 2019
    @KorandAngels
    Well we can't know for certain that's all of them but it seems unlikely there will be more just for complexity reason. Here is the list:

    SPOILERS WARNING

    Devotion to M (Counts the number of mana symbol from the colour M - which can be W, U, B, R and/or G - among permanents you control.)

    Constellation -- Whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, effect.

    Escape {cost}--Exile N other cards from your graveyard (You may cast this spell from your graveyard for its Escape cost.)

    Sagas

    Enchantment-creatures

    What makes me sad about this list is that it's almost exclusively returning mechanics, with zero new ways to play with enchantments, hence this challenge.
  • edited November 2019
    [EXPUNGED]
  • I also wnted to design new World Enchantments, but I realize they would technically not be appropiate for the challenge.
  • edited November 2019
    DELETEDDDD
  • Here is a song. This mechanic/subtype is based around different movements in a musical piece.

    image
  • My walker's 0 ability should be a static ability.
  • edited November 2019
    @KorandAngels
    Sorry, Constellation is not a valid entry for this contest. As a reminder, the contest is asking you to create a NEW mechanic about enchantments, however Constellation is an already existing mechanic.

    My personal recommandation, that I always follow myself, is to take your time while reading the introduction without assuming anything a priori, and always reading it twice ;) If you have any doubts about the rules, feel free to ask ^^
  • Thanks for the approval @ningyounk! Since I've already created some creatures with the burrow mechanic/keyword ability, I'll create new ones soon, I just have to find some creepy art for it ;)
  • edited November 2019
    @ningyounk
    So you're fine if we design a mechanic focused on Commander for example?

    I'm kinda leaning this way now (I'm currently developing the following mechanic) -
    Blessed - When you cast [cardname], if your devotion to [color(s)] is equal to or greater than its converted mana cost, ...
  • @Faiths_Guide
    Yeap, as long as it's specifically designed to go on enchantments, it's valid for this challenge! ^^
  • edited November 2019
    @ningyounk
    Just realized that that mechanic by itself has nothing about it that makes it "an enchantment" mechanic. Is it still valid because it's designed to be on enchantments, or should I rework it?

    That idea versus a new subtype implementation:
    image image

    (Both of those should have the Aura subtype).

    I'm trying to make enchantments, especially Aura's, feel better and pose less opportunity for the dreaded 2-for-1.

    [ I published a placeholder: https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/gracious-boon ]
  • image

    Aura mastery — [as long as/if] you control another Aura or there is an Aura card in your graveyard, ...
  • @Faiths_Guide
    It's technically valid but yes, it doesn't exactly scream enchantments x) In a real set I have a hard time imagining the designers would stop themselves from using all the design space this offers with creatures, which is probably much bigger than the one with enchantments.

    This would have been a different story if Blessed was tied to a specific reward that feels very enchantment-y. The Theros Gods are a good example of that, they used a Blessed-like mechanic but in a way that only really makes sense on enchantments: becoming creatures.

    @Tommyneko
    Since Faith_Guide asked about this issue for his own mechanic and I helped him a bit, I figured it's only fair to let you know the Evil mechanic probably suffers from the same problem ^^ It feels like Evil would end up on non-enchantment spells more often than not.
  • edited November 2019
    @ningyounk so I have to make a new mechanic that focus only enchantment
  • @Tommyneko
    Or a mechanic that's meant to be exclusively or almost exclusively on enchantments. The goal is to push the design space of enchantments in general. Some examples would be Sagas and Bestow, you wouldn't put Bestow on a creature for instance.
  • technically Bestow can only be on creatures
  • edited November 2019
    @fiskerton
    Right, "...you wouldn't put Bestow on a [nonenchantment] creature for instance."
  • @fiskerton @Faiths_Guide
    Oh yeah XD It is awkward when you read it aloud, my bad XD I did mean *nonenchantment* obviously x)
  • edited November 2019
    image
  • @ningyounk tq for explain it
This discussion has been closed.