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Rezatta — VISION DESIGN PHASE
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What the fourth mechanic will be depends strongly on what the Art Coming to Life mechanic ends up being. We definitely needs one of them to be a mana sink for instance, and we also need one of them to be instant/sorcery-friendly. Additionally, since Blue is such a bad fit for both Psylian life and Elated, it would be preferable to have both the Art mechanic and the fourth mechanic to feel at home in Blue, and at least one of them be Red-friendly (since Red does fine with Elated.)
So, I'm exploring again the Discover mechanic for now because I think the theme of progress could be a strong fit to depict Renaissance. The versions we've explored are:
Discover an OBJECT card. (Reveal the top three cards of your library. You may put an OBJECT card from among them in your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.)
— 32 words
Discover an OBJECT card. (Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile the fifth or an OBJECT card. Put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.)
- 34 words
My main issue with both of them is that they are over 30 words which is really a lot (reminder from New World Order: a mechanic below 12 words is just perfect, and we must try not to go over 22 words). It has been done before with existing mechanics, but it would be a really big offender to the wordiness of the set and I'm not sure it's pulling enough weight to justify it. It's nothing fancy, it's still just a filtering mechanic. Additionally, it has some weird play patterns (failing at finding what it's looking for) and limited design space (there's not that many things you can search for and find consistently.)
So I think it would be a good idea to explore different paths for this fourth mechanic (it does NOT have to be a progress mechanic.) Here's a try at a different take on Discover. In this version, I'm assuming the Art mechanic ends up being a keyword that's a mana sink that goes on Instant/Sorcery like the latest version of Faiths_Guide. So, I kept Discover as an action keyword to diversify the mechanics, and I tried to make it a filter mechanic because that's blue-friendly and useful to any set. Additionally, I made it a saboteur mechanic to synergize with the life theme and Elated.
—20 words
Its main strength, I believe, is that it has a lot of design space (you can discover whatever you want, however you want, and care about the discovered cards). Its main weakness, I think, is the memory issue of remembering which creature dealt damage or not this turn.
I fully support the new discover mechanic. It seems a bit taxing on draft decks, so we should definitely avoid any mill cards for the set.
Absolutely!
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Well, so far the reception for this mechanic is unanimously positive, I'm definitely playtesting this one x)
EDIT: Or, if there’s a Quicksilver Dagger-type pinging enchantment, you can tap your creature in response to your opponent casting a spell to ping them and pop off an instant, so that might be good to have.
You make a really good point, that's exactly the two things playtest will need to clarify:
- How annoying is it to exile your cards and lose them? As Faiths_Guide already mentioned, this also seems not very compatible with a mill strategy in the set because of limited reasons. One way of dealing with the issue if it creates unfun gameplay would be to put the cards back in your deck maybe. Or letting you cast them consistently but with an added bonus if the creature that discovered it is still around.
- How much nonbo the saboteur trigger will create? It works fine with lands, most creatures and sorceries (except combat-relevant ones) but it will waste combat tricks and instants designed specifically to be used during your opponent's turn (counterspells,...). One way to fix that (at the expense of the life matters synergy) would be to change the restriction to something like "Exile it. As long as this creature is tapped, you may play cards it discovered."
I playtested this card as-is, it certainly was very useful in the dedicated psylian life deck but I was still unsure after playtest about how useful it would be in an environment that was not entirely dedicated to playtest that mechanic x) I do think we'll get a similar effect but I'd also like to playtest "1W Instant - You gain 3 psylian life. Draw a card." and "2W Instant - You gain 6 psylian life" in the same slot. Actually maybe the last one should be in green because of the mana implications ^^
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I'm going to write a fresh thread to draw some more help on the mechanics revision, so people can jump in more easily ^^ Meanwhile the Living Art contest can bear its fruits
The reminder text for Techniques currently falls at 29 words, so it's lengthy and easily has the potential to add far too much complexity, especially for commons and uncommons, and is another thing people would have to remember and keep track of. I did want to at least put it out there, though.
Well, for very flashy mechanics, we can always consider having them only at higher rarities (aftermath, transform into lands, sagas).
I'm more concerned that this is exactly the legendary mechanic in a proto-version (for instance, you can shunt it with copying effect). If you keep twitching that mechanic enough that it works in any case and is more reasonably lengthy, you'll re-invent exactly the legendary mechanic I believe
I hadn't noticed it before, but you've got a point there. The restriction is almost exactly that of legendary with just one or two differences. Back to the drawing board.
I saw!! How cool is that?? =D
@Ranshi922
Play design is the last part of the development of a set:
1) Vision design works on the "blue print" of the set, what concepts make this set? What's the feel, the idea?
2) Set design fills the design skeleton, it transforms the original idea from the blue print into a full fleshed house though unfinished.
3) Play design focuses on gameplay, it balances the set and look at every card in excruciating details, changing one point of toughness here or changing 2G into 1GG there, like you add paint and finitions to your house.
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Now that the Living Art contest is over, I'll voluntarily let another week pass so the set get a two-weeks break, then I'll kick the new thread ^^
It works but the question is: Do you really want that? It's a downsides mechanic (players tend to dislike them) that plays weirdly like Legendary but without the strong flavour Legends have. On top of that, I'm not sure it would really help the set with conveying that Art is living on this plane, unless I'm missing something? There are plenty of mechanics that work in a vacuum, but in a set they need to fill specific roles.
I will also kick a fresh thread on lore this week-end at the end of the two weeks break yes ^^
Rezatta, the Renaissance plane — Vision Design Part 2
Rezatta, the Renaissance plane — World Building Part 2
@Corwinnn Could you please close this thread for me? Thanks! =D