@LordTachanka123 Nope, we haven't really talked about fencing much, is it something you associate with Renaissance? We could totally make a few cards about it ^^
Brave Duelist is a bit much for a common, the combination of first strike and lifelink on a 2-powered creature is quite potent for just 2 mana, it's difficult to block while every swing that goes through creates a 4-life swing (especially potent with Renaisssance).
I think the easiest way to implement some fencing is to look for cards already in the set that could fit the flavour.
@LordTachanka123 Yeap, Angels are part of the plan, they should be a bit more prevalent than in other sets as there's a whole theme about the Church of Serra, but mechanically they shouldn't be anything major, similar to how they're handled on Innistrad or Dominaria for instance. Maybe we'll get an Angel lord at higher rarity if we have any idea for a cool design but that's about it.
Since the theme of the Church of Serra is tied to the mechanic of serran life, I'd like to extend them to black in the same way Innistrad has red angels. They're a bit of a harder sell for Green as big flyiers though. I had one white and one black angel at common to seed the theme:
And are they going to be similar to the old Serra cards? And is Serra herself going to be referenced? Or has she turned into a more abstract idea? Questions galore!
So, the set introduces Serran Life, a special life score that you can spend 2 of to add one mana of any colour. Serran Lifelink isn't keyworded, but is a concept.
Don't worry, it's just that "psylian life" was a code name I invented based on "phyrexian mana" (it's kind of the mirror mechanic) but I wanted something a bit more flavourful for the set. After talking about how the pillars of the Church of Serra was a really perfect fit for the Renaissance theme (its four virtues are art, freedom, discourse and peace), it hit me that the flavour of psylian life could be linked to the Church of Serra so I made a switch to "serran life" — I'm pretty satisfied with how it sounds, personally — but it's not mentioned anywhere in the introduction yet. Hence, serran lifelink is a pet name (not actually keyworded) we give to the ability where a creature has lifelink except it gives you serran life instead.
The story is still super fuzzy, but yes, Renaissance means rebirth so, in my head, I was thinking we could have the rebirth of Serra as a regular planeswalker be a major plot point. This means she would get her a card, similar to her card in Modern Horizons (though I was thinking something that mechanically cares about life instead of flyiers, maybe she has a static ability with "If you would gain life, you gain that much serran life instead" or something like that):
Serran lifelink is really potent because you leave the possibility of growing the creature and getting a lot of life and therefore a lot of mana. We need to be careful at common, especially in White which is not supposed to have too much ramp. That's why I think we should wait for uncommon before we use Serran lifelink.
I also wanted to ask, and I know this isn't super important, but from what I've heard the church is lead by a collective. Are they each getting individual cards?
@LordTachanka123 For the collective, I believe the Church of Serra has multiple branches and not all of them have the same organisation, so we're free to create a new version of the Church of Serra with its own hierarchy. But yes, having one white, one green and one black card to represent high-ranked priests might be a cool way to convey the difference in how each colour applies the principles of Serra, for instance.
The land is cool, definitely a bit pushed on the numbers, but it's also a bit too niche I think. We probably won't have that many Angels and Clerics, though we can get back to it once we have a better understanding of the supported themes at higher rarities. I really like the idea of caring about both Angels and Clerics though, we can definitely use that on a less niche design.
LordTachanka123 To represent the Rebirth of Serra, we need to get a good idea for how it actually happens in the plot, but it would definitely get a card depicting it, similar to "The Elder Spell" in War of the Spark for instance:
I'm not super keen on going with actual green flying angels, that's a pretty big break of the colour pie, but one they've already made a few times when it was part of a cycle (namely, Dragons of Tarkir and its green dragons are he biggest offenders here.) I'd still be interested in exploring either only clerics or non-flying angels in green before resolving to use actual big green flyiers.
shadow123@LordTachanka123 Yeaaaah you're right it's a bit much xD I don't want to make it so expensive that it's unplayable, I'll just change the concept ^^
@LordTachanka123 No, any humanoid race is fair game. Because we can't commission our own illustrations, we can be a bit looser on the diversity of races on the plane. We know we have gorgons (because they make statues), sirens (because they sing), humans, I've also been trying faeries, shamans (as Jesters, for the carnival theme), angels and clerics (for the Church of Serra theme).
Comments
Nope, we haven't really talked about fencing much, is it something you associate with Renaissance? We could totally make a few cards about it ^^
Brave Duelist is a bit much for a common, the combination of first strike and lifelink on a 2-powered creature is quite potent for just 2 mana, it's difficult to block while every swing that goes through creates a 4-life swing (especially potent with Renaisssance).
I think the easiest way to implement some fencing is to look for cards already in the set that could fit the flavour.
Yeap, Angels are part of the plan, they should be a bit more prevalent than in other sets as there's a whole theme about the Church of Serra, but mechanically they shouldn't be anything major, similar to how they're handled on Innistrad or Dominaria for instance. Maybe we'll get an Angel lord at higher rarity if we have any idea for a cool design but that's about it.
Since the theme of the Church of Serra is tied to the mechanic of serran life, I'd like to extend them to black in the same way Innistrad has red angels. They're a bit of a harder sell for Green as big flyiers though. I had one white and one black angel at common to seed the theme:
I'm an idiot.
And is Serra herself going to be referenced?
Or has she turned into a more abstract idea?
Questions galore!
I din't know we that we changed it from psylian.
Don't worry, it's just that "psylian life" was a code name I invented based on "phyrexian mana" (it's kind of the mirror mechanic) but I wanted something a bit more flavourful for the set. After talking about how the pillars of the Church of Serra was a really perfect fit for the Renaissance theme (its four virtues are art, freedom, discourse and peace), it hit me that the flavour of psylian life could be linked to the Church of Serra so I made a switch to "serran life" — I'm pretty satisfied with how it sounds, personally — but it's not mentioned anywhere in the introduction yet.
Hence, serran lifelink is a pet name (not actually keyworded) we give to the ability where a creature has lifelink except it gives you serran life instead.
The story is still super fuzzy, but yes, Renaissance means rebirth so, in my head, I was thinking we could have the rebirth of Serra as a regular planeswalker be a major plot point. This means she would get her a card, similar to her card in Modern Horizons (though I was thinking something that mechanically cares about life instead of flyiers, maybe she has a static ability with "If you would gain life, you gain that much serran life instead" or something like that):
KorandAngels
Serran lifelink is really potent because you leave the possibility of growing the creature and getting a lot of life and therefore a lot of mana. We need to be careful at common, especially in White which is not supposed to have too much ramp. That's why I think we should wait for uncommon before we use Serran lifelink.
Are they each getting individual cards?
Just something I made while we were discussing Serra. I realize now that 3 mana is a little much.Probably should have gone with 2.
For the collective, I believe the Church of Serra has multiple branches and not all of them have the same organisation, so we're free to create a new version of the Church of Serra with its own hierarchy. But yes, having one white, one green and one black card to represent high-ranked priests might be a cool way to convey the difference in how each colour applies the principles of Serra, for instance.
The land is cool, definitely a bit pushed on the numbers, but it's also a bit too niche I think. We probably won't have that many Angels and Clerics, though we can get back to it once we have a better understanding of the supported themes at higher rarities. I really like the idea of caring about both Angels and Clerics though, we can definitely use that on a less niche design.
Just an idea for a green angel.
To represent the Rebirth of Serra, we need to get a good idea for how it actually happens in the plot, but it would definitely get a card depicting it, similar to "The Elder Spell" in War of the Spark for instance:
I'm not super keen on going with actual green flying angels, that's a pretty big break of the colour pie, but one they've already made a few times when it was part of a cycle (namely, Dragons of Tarkir and its green dragons are he biggest offenders here.) I'd still be interested in exploring either only clerics or non-flying angels in green before resolving to use actual big green flyiers.
Just another idea.
It definitely seems too powerful for common. I think it should cost 2RRR or 5R.
Yeaaaah you're right it's a bit much xD I don't want to make it so expensive that it's unplayable, I'll just change the concept ^^
@LordTachanka123
No, any humanoid race is fair game. Because we can't commission our own illustrations, we can be a bit looser on the diversity of races on the plane. We know we have gorgons (because they make statues), sirens (because they sing), humans, I've also been trying faeries, shamans (as Jesters, for the carnival theme), angels and clerics (for the Church of Serra theme).