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Inside-a-mind set
Hey guys and girls. There's this idea I had a while ago for a set but won't dedicate the time to do it.
If anyone has played American McGee's Alice, you might have an idea for my inspiration. The main thing about this plane is that everything seems to be illusory, your emotions affect your enviroment (picture the spirit realm in Avatar TLoK), magic works quite different here than in any other plane. It is believed the plane is essentially empty and everything sprouts from the mind of the only inhabitant of the plane, where is this person and what makes their mind so powerful that it shapes the entire plane is unknown.
Anyways, due to this, here are the main characteristics of the plane so far:
Name of the plane:
Morei
Races/Main creature types:
-Illusion (The main race, most inhabitants are actually illusions in essence, in theory they all are except for planeswalkers and the hipotethical inhabitant of the plane)
W U G
-Nightmare (A corrupted illusion, these might even be created by your own fears linked to your arrival into the plane)
B U
-Construct (In this context, construct isn't a synonym with robot, i mean construct as in prejudices, social creations that make a place more understandable)
C W U B R G
-Demon (You get it, demon as in a deep fear, a tormenting voice)
B R
-Horror (Another manifestation of fears, but these are less clear, they are primal and disorganized)
R G
Themes
Mind bending. Mind Control. Information gathering. Sanity. Remembering. Philosophy
These themes are translated into:
Mill strategies
Hand disruption
Card draw
Mind control
Graveyard recursion
Story
Morei is a plane of Illusion, most of the plane is illusory, this makes it vulnerable to planeswalkers like Jace, Ashiok and Davriel all of wih have strong mind bending abilities. Ob Nixilis finds the plane and is quickly greeted by the peaceful race of philosopher demons there, they quickly realize Nixilis's non illusory nature and hipothesized about the possibility of becoming real beings, Nixilis doesn't hesitate to grant them information from the multiverse for them, including Liliana's contract's terms.
Jace is sent there by the gatewatch to prevent Nixilis from causing chaos in the plane.
With the death of hundreds of planeswalkers in the War of the Spark, the surviving planeswalkers explore the multiverse for different reasons, some seek to occupy the place of deceased planeswalkers
If anyone has played American McGee's Alice, you might have an idea for my inspiration. The main thing about this plane is that everything seems to be illusory, your emotions affect your enviroment (picture the spirit realm in Avatar TLoK), magic works quite different here than in any other plane. It is believed the plane is essentially empty and everything sprouts from the mind of the only inhabitant of the plane, where is this person and what makes their mind so powerful that it shapes the entire plane is unknown.
Anyways, due to this, here are the main characteristics of the plane so far:
Name of the plane:
Morei
Races/Main creature types:
-Illusion (The main race, most inhabitants are actually illusions in essence, in theory they all are except for planeswalkers and the hipotethical inhabitant of the plane)
W U G
-Nightmare (A corrupted illusion, these might even be created by your own fears linked to your arrival into the plane)
B U
-Construct (In this context, construct isn't a synonym with robot, i mean construct as in prejudices, social creations that make a place more understandable)
C W U B R G
-Demon (You get it, demon as in a deep fear, a tormenting voice)
B R
-Horror (Another manifestation of fears, but these are less clear, they are primal and disorganized)
R G
Themes
Mind bending. Mind Control. Information gathering. Sanity. Remembering. Philosophy
These themes are translated into:
Mill strategies
Hand disruption
Card draw
Mind control
Graveyard recursion
Story
Morei is a plane of Illusion, most of the plane is illusory, this makes it vulnerable to planeswalkers like Jace, Ashiok and Davriel all of wih have strong mind bending abilities. Ob Nixilis finds the plane and is quickly greeted by the peaceful race of philosopher demons there, they quickly realize Nixilis's non illusory nature and hipothesized about the possibility of becoming real beings, Nixilis doesn't hesitate to grant them information from the multiverse for them, including Liliana's contract's terms.
Jace is sent there by the gatewatch to prevent Nixilis from causing chaos in the plane.
With the death of hundreds of planeswalkers in the War of the Spark, the surviving planeswalkers explore the multiverse for different reasons, some seek to occupy the place of deceased planeswalkers
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Dash: Avoids loosing cards from your hand.
Maximum hand size is reduced/increased by N (BUG): selfexplanatory.
Madness (BUR): if you are forced to lose your cards, you may choose one that has a madness cost.
Sanity: Checks wether or not you are the player with the fewer cards in hand, has effects for both states.
Return cards from graveyard to hand (GB): Another way to protect yourself from this war.
Also, as for the society:
In this plane, resources aren't as scarce as in other planes, illusions don't need to properly eat, however they do get worn off by time's "memory", so they have to survive by consuming aether, reinventing themselves and renewing themselves with energy, this Is all really alien to anyone born outside the plane and useless to try to understand.
Illusions are the biggest population and cover the most "normal" part of society, simce creativity, innovation and energy creation are important resources, they have developed a great industry, it Is reminiscent of Kaladesh society. Nightmares often commit criminal activities but mostly they are feral along with horrors.
On the other side, constructs are created by normal illusions, however, unlike constructs in other planes, they are just as sentient as other illusions as soon as they are born, so they are functional memebers of society, in fact, often they occupy high positions.
Demons on the other hand have isolated from illusions and created their own civilized society. They can also gain life from the consumption and torment of other illusions, but they have evolved largely as a peaceful society in philosophy, politics and rethoric.
.
I was just throwing my thoughts here so i won't lose them and anyone can give me feedback if they can.
Well, I really like the idea of a set that uses madness, hellbent, and graveyard recursion as its primary mechanics. The only mechanic I don't like here is splice. It's not because of what the mechanic does, it's because it plays against the idea of having a small hand size/
I feel like there's a better way to do this than using splice. I mean, sets don't really use internally-competitive mechanics any more for a reason.
Also, can madness be added to green in the set?)
I think you should keep hellbent in and replace splice with this one. Also, that's a great mechanic.
I know, there are few mechanics that preserve card advantage, I will try to develop something. But the last thing I want to do is another discard-graveyard set, card advantage vs. card disadvantage really was the first seed that made this set be born, so I'll try to preserve it.
And, sure, green could have madness but i must be careful not to break the color pie.
https://scryfall.com/card/uma/156/basking-rootwalla
You know you want to.
-Free spells subtheme/instant and sorcery subtheme/Activated abilities subtheme (Hold your cheap/free spells in hand until the perfect moment and release the storm. This allows the "high Sanity" strategy to have something rewarding to do other than not playing magic. Illusory angel and illusory demon play with this)/
-Exchange control subtheme ( This Is always interesting design space but the interesting thing here Is that some players will be trying to hold a high Sanity and others the opposite, this means a Grim Strider might actually die if it goes from an insane player to a sane player)
-New Mill strategy (instead of putting cards from the top into the graveyard, this mill gives the opponent card advantage in exchange for a powerful effect, for example, a two mana repeatable hard counter that gives your opponent three cards. It is a dangerous play but eventually, if everyone runs out of cards, those draws might actually kill someone. It also plays with existing mechanics.)
-Tokens (This feeds into the "illusory" flavor. Tokens also can be a result of instant/sorceries subtheme.)
Edit: I have decided to replace splice for Dash, it preserves card advantage and there's design space for it, you win this time @arceus8523
Possible noncreature reprints
Visitor planeswalkers that might be fitting:
-Ashiok (This is a plane made for them, they would have a huge power spike)
-Liliana (I plan to include liliana's contract because demons are a prevalent tribe that, in this plane, has affinity for laws, contracts, civility and politics. Liliana's contract might be of interests for demonic society)
-Tamiyo (She likes to explore, she would love to visit. But I just mention her because I like her.)
-Jace (Another planeswalker that would gain a power spike. Not really a fan of Jace but he would probable be there.)
-Demon flavor
-Heavy card draw strategies
-Activated abilities subtheme
Card draw tradeoffs trigger Ob nixilis abilities and forces players out of Insanity.
Decrease in hand size. + Card draw tradeoffs cause discard.
New mechanic, hesitant to make it Jump-start, allows you to return stuff from graveyard by discarding in addition to the cost, adds to hand size.
Discard triggers Madness.