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Renaissance Set — Creative Design
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Life matters is different from life gain, and you seem to be mistaking it for purely life gain.
Life matters means you care about having more or less life than before, and changes in life total. Not just about gaining life.
As for the spawn/scions, they don't produce colored mana, which is a really important detail to keep in mind.
I know it's long but if you don't want to read everything just keep this in mind: a mechanical focus is NOT an archetype
Also, life-matters is a much broader theme than just life gain. Imagine a BG deck where the less life you have, the bigger your creatures get. Or a GR deck that gives you bonuses whenever an opponent loses life. Or a WU control deck that rewards you for not losing life for a turn as an original way to measure if you're controlling correctly. Or a WB deck that regularly pays huge chunks of life to obtain the favours of the God. Or a turbo aggro RB deck with a suicidal gameplay because as long as your opponent hit 0 first it doesn't matter if you're at 1.
Ooo that's awesome.
Just as an Idea of using Virtuoso as an action also a side nod to the Arabian trade routes to Italy.
@Lujikul I just took the time to read The Clayshaper, you write very well
Okay, sorry, I guess I just misunderstood the prospect.
But speaking of life and tribal.... http://www.mtgsalvation.com/cards/hour-of-devastation/29017-crested-sunmare
I mean... WHAT???????????????????????????????? Horse tribal? This is totally something we could build off considering the presence of life in our set.
Why does white always get so much more love than black by WotC? I think they could really push black much better, similar to white.
I love the story and the name. Both are really cool and a great setup for the theme of the set.
In general, white is considered among the weakest of colors.
Yes, because of things like a lack of ramp. Although black tends to have most of the same weaknesses as white in terms of what is printed.
But yes, that is true to an extent.
In short, white could use a "push."
Meanwhile, we all know those people that would preach blue to be the best colour.
Lol, if only that were the case. Green is the best supported due to the advantage of being the primary ramp color. But that's fair as their removal sucks.
I agree with it, except for three things:
One, I don't think that we have fully decided on life-matters over enchantment matters. Two, I think that Virtuoso would make more sense in an enchantment-matters set, unless there is an enchantment subtheme (probably for art), which I think is also plausible.
Three, I think we should add the original Discover to the list of probable mechanics (Discover [something] (Look at the top three cards of your library. You may reveal a [something] card and put it into your hand. Put the rest of the cards on the bottom of your library in any order.))
@Lujikul, I LOVE "The Clayshaper." That last sentence gave me chills! It's a great introduction to the set, and would make me REALLY excited if I read that on magic.wizards.com just above the first spoilers!!! It would also make a great script for one of the trailer things. I have a couple things I want to mention that I think could improve it.
First, I think we should condense it a bit so that it can serve as a quick teaser like the ones WotC gives before each set, by shortening the beginning part about children to just one paragraph and maybe taking out the bit about the baker's (was that supposed to be 'painter's'?) daughter. Conversely, we could expand it (a lot) and make it the first episode in the set's story.
This, by the way, gives me a great idea! If-- excuse me-- when this set becomes reality, we should write story episodes and post them on a thread in the forums.
Second, in the second-to-last paragraph, don't say "silly creations;" it makes it sound to unimportant.
Finally, I think that there shouldn't only be five Muses; instead there should be countless, but maybe with those five (Love, Bliss, Despair, Ire, and Solitude) at the forefront. @Lujikul, I really liked how you took my story idea and based this amazing piece off of it (improved upon it, really XD), and I am wholeheartedly behind this being our teaser.
I'm not sure I could expand on The Clayshaper as a specific story, but I'd be more than happy to write more. Just don't ask me to include any pre-existing characters (specifically any that have had their personalities fleshed out in canon lore) and I can get working on them.
I'll make the proposed changes to The Clayshaper and post it in the private chat, so we can see if that's better before I make any permanent changes.
I personally don't see the need of having an enchantment theme or subtheme (to me the set doesn't require it so far), but if you want to push enchantment-matters as a mechanical focus over life-matters, we're going to need some mechanical arguments to compare the two of them! ^^
1)Why could each mechanical focus be good for the set and how it could be better than the other mechanical focus?
2) What are the traps we will have to avoid when building upon each mechanical focus?
I'll start:
1) Life-matters' biggest strength is, in my opinion, its originality : it has never been the mechanical focus of a real set. Also, it's a very wide theme which can mean different things for each colour.
Enchantment-matters' biggest strength is, in my opinion, that we have a semi-canvas for it with Theros. It wasn't considered a true enchantment set by design itself which means we can find some new design space, but it still cared a lot about enchantments which could give some directions.
2) Life-matters' biggest trap is, in my opinion, that we don't have any reference from real set to decide how to handle it. It's a terra incognita, and we would have to even prove first that the design space is wide enough and interesting enough to support a theme mechanical focus.
Enchantment-matters' biggest trap is, in my opinion, the very nature of enchantments that are not well-defined. How would we design an enchantment-matters set that doesn't feel like an artifact-matters set where we switched the word "artifact" with "enchantment"?
The best way to answer this is probably to design some cards for each mechanical focus in every colour and see how it goes ^^ Right now, I feel that making cards for life-matters that shows it blends well with many kinds of archetypes could really swing the balance in its favour. On the other hand, making cards proving we can care about enchantments in new ways that weren't done with artifacts sets could really swing the balance the other way.
I like enchantments but have never been a fan of enchantment matters. They feel really good to play, but design wise they are so catch all. I think ot would be copycat to use enchantment creatures again since that takes the uniqueness out of them, like the annoyance I have with the Amonkhet Gods feeling like copycats of the ogs.
Midrange:
- 1, Remove a +1/+1 counter from CARDNAME: You gain 2 life.
- As long as your life total is higher than your opponents' life total, CARDNAME has flying.
- CARDNAME enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters equal to your life total divided by ten rounded down.
Ramp:
- Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, if you gained life this turn, untap it.
- T, pay 1 life: Add a mana of any color to your mana pool.
- Reveal the top card of your library until you reveal a land card. Put that card onto the battlefield tapped then put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. You gain life equal to the number of cards revealed this way.
Graveyard:
- Return target creature card from your graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost.
- Exile any number of creature cards from your graveyard. Each player loses that much life.
- Whenever CARDNAME dies, return it from your graveyard to your hand unless target opponent pays 3 life.
Turbo Aggro:
- Whenever an opponent loses exactly 1 life, you may pay 1. If you do, create a 1/1 creature token.
- At the beginning of each player's end step, if that player has 3 or more cards in hand, he or she loses 3 life.
- As long as you have 5 or less life, CARDNAME gets +3/+3.
Control:
- At the beginning of each opponent's end step, if you didn't lose life this turn, you may draw card. If you do, discard a card.
- Player's cant lose life until end of turn.
- Creatures with power more than or equal to your life total can't attack you.
@ningyounk, I'm not insisting that we have an enchantment-matters theme or sub theme; I was merely saying that I think that Virtuoso fits more in enchantment-matters, but it would be fine in life-matters
Okay, it seems like life-matters is what people want. But yes, I think art tokens should definitely be enchantments.
Discover a [THING] (Reveal the top three cards of your library. You may put a [THING] card from among them in your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.)
--> Let us care about what we discover. E.g:
Discover a creature. You gain life equal to its toughness.
Discover a land. If it's a forest, you may put it onto the battlefield tapped.
Discover an instant or sorcery. Spells with that name cost 2 less to cast until end of turn.
Discover (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card in your hand and lose 2 life. Otherwise, put it in your graveyard and you gain 2 life.)
--> Helps the life-matters mechanic.
Discover (Draw a card, you may exile it. If you do, you gain 1 life then repeat this process unless you exiled three cards this way.)
--> Helps the life-matters mechanic in a more refined way. Let us care about the cards you decide to exile, though it's a little weird to exile the cards you care about instead of drawing them.
Overall, the more I think about the first version (without life gain), the more I think the balance is really cool (because you can whiff and you get to define how hard it is you find what you're looking for) and the design space is really huge.
You have a subset of a few cards that can't be put in a deck but the game consider everyone owns them from outside the game. Basically, all those mechanics say "Make a Discovery" which means you cast a card that is just defined in the games rules. Like the Monarch, where the card doesn't tell you what it means, you just look for a Monarch token and read on it what it does.
Example 1: Simpler option. You have three different Discovery cards, when you make a discovery just cast a copy of one of your choice from outside the game.
Terra Incognita — T: Add CC to your mana pool.
Eureka — T: You gain 4 life.
Invention — T: Draw a card.
Example 2: Competitive option. You have five strong discoveries to make but once a player have discovered it, it's not available for other players anymore.
White Discovery — T: Your life total becomes equal to your starting life total.
Blue Discovery — T: Draw three cards.
Black Discovery — T: Choose up to one target creature. Destroy all other creatures.
Red Discovery — T: Deals 6 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or players.
Green Discovery — T: Search your library for up to two lands. Put them onto the battlefield. Untap them. Shuffle your library.
Example 3: Progressive option. There are a bunch of different discoveries, you need to make small discoveries before unlocking the medium discoveries before unlocking the big discoveries.
Discoveries: Small > Medium > Large
White: You gain 2 life > You gain 6 life > Double your life total.
Blue: Scry 2 > Draw three cards, discard two card > Draw three cards
Black: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn > Destroy target creature > Destroy all creatures.
Red: Deals 2 damage to target player or creature > Deals 3 damage to all creatures and players > Deals 7 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or players.
Green: You may play an additional land this turn > Untap all lands you control > Search your library for up to three lands, put them onto the battlefield. Untap them. Shuffle your library.