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[RESULTS] Theros: Beyond Death Challenge — Design some new mechanics for enchantments
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The subtype is designed to conditionally address a common problem with Auras that result in their controller being easily "2-for-1'ed" by an opponent in a flavorful way thematically tied to Theros but applicable on other planes in other settings. It would be present (at least on Theros) in all five colors and my other three entries might continue exploring the space in other colors and rarities. Feedback and responses have been positive thus far.
If you are "devoted" enough you will be blessed with these spells instead of merely casting them "by your own strength/knowledge" and your hand won't diminish.
Linger-Basically a creature leaves marginal value in the form of an enchantment with all of it's activated and triggered abilities when it dies. I'll add some more concepts later, but this is the most creative application I could think of. Since it is a non-creature second time around it doesn't die when destroyed and the ability doesn't trigger a second time.
Reborn is when enchanted creature oof, the aura will become that creature. Yes I know it can also be equipment but the difference between aura (Reborn) and equipment (Rebuild [coming soon if you make kaladesh or phyrexian challenge]) is the aura can become a creature and it still has the aura abilities while rebuild in my concept, equipment cost will become cost to become a creature that already oof only if that creature by this equipment
Back to the main subject, reborn can become a creature that already oof if that creature attach that aura. It can also be a land, other echantment or even artifact
Here's a link to a card with the Linger mechanic @Animist and I worked on.
Dude, no worries! I think your idea might even be more realistic. I just thought you'd find it interesting
Respectively inspired by Zendikar, Innistrad, Amonkhet, Ixalan and Theros.
Just as a note, since most didn't have enough space for reminder text, but Auracycling only tutors for Auras with the same CMC.
Nyxtouched- Batching keyword
(An artifact or creature that's also an enchantment is nyxtouched.)
Edit:
(Enchantment artifacts and enchantment creatures are nyxtouched.)
Prophecy - Token's subtype
Prophecy token. (It's an enchantment artifact with "{2}, Sacrifice this artifact: Scry 2.")
Just to be sure, does Nyxtouched mean "artifacts + enchantment creatures" or "enchantment artifacts + enchantment creatures"?
Yeah the wording is confusing. "enchantment artifacts + enchantment creatures" is what I want it to mean. I'll change the wording if I get better idea.
Final three entries, further developing Hidden Realm
https://mtgcardsmith.com/Reizon/sets/47295
Look at Hyperbaric Chamber especially, it's a rather powerful enchantment. However, the rest revolve around managing the chambers.
https://mtgcardsmith.com/Reizon/sets/47317
There's 2 major enchantments in this one: Look for Landlocked Atolls and Harsh Logistics, they REALLY focus on the control elements of dueling.
Bumped rarity for being a permanent which increases devotion and grants possibly repeatable scry.
The mechanic requires a new enchantment subtype (Laws). This subtype is like Cartouche in that it has no inherent mechanical definition and is used like a marker. See below for some examples (THESE ARE NOT ENTRIES).
Enact as a mechanic utilizes the Law subtype without being fully parasitic. It is most powerful with Laws but still functions with regular enchantments. It is a keyword action. Here are my five submissions:
I would also choose to support Enact with enchantment creatures. I think the concept of a “living law” fits quite well with enchantment creatures and significantly helps the otherwise difficult to solve as-fan issue of Laws at common. This would enable me to make cards like Pathward Barrier, which are both enablers and minor payoffs at common to improve the consistency of the mechanic without overloading the set with auras / enchantments.
Between Angelic Gift and Gift of Orzhova.
Thank you everyone who participated! It's now time to judge all the entries, I'll come back with the results a bit later this week =D
Oooh, ran out of time for the black rare... Oh well. Good luck to all the entrants!
(If you want to finish the cycle, you can slip in the black Rare by the time I finish judging and editing. Since it's a mechanic-based contest it shouldn't change the ranking that much anyways ^^)
Oh cool, thanks. I've been waffling between a couple concepts and artworks, let's see if I get around to finishing it.
Went a different route than I anticipated; don't know how I feel about it.
But first, here's a bit of feedback for each entry:
P.S: To skip to the results, click HERE!
@Pepperoni
MECHANIC #1: Align — Tap N untapped enchantments you control: Effect.
I find the flavor of Align very unique; I love that you physically feel the constellation. Tapping enchantment is original, I believe there is interesting unused design space there. It’s tricky not to make it feel like a threshold though, I’d focus on effects that you’d want to activate every turn so there’s a bit of choice in which Align ability you want to prioritize.
CARD #1: Trapped in the Alignment
I think it’s the kind of use of Align I would avoid. It’s something you’ll use so rarely it could just say “If you control four enchantments”. Balance wise, it’s a bit swingy with no mana in the Align cost but a high number of enchantments required.
@shadow123
MECHANIC #1: Song (At the beginning of your upkeep, choose a mode that hasn’t been chosen. If you can’t, sacrifice this enchantment.)
I really like the idea behind this mechanic. It’s reminiscent of Sagas with a touch of Demonic Pact. There’s definitely a lot of interesting design space available here. I feel it would really need an alternative card frame to keep track of the chosen modes; I know you can’t do that on MTGCardsmith but there would have been extra points for mentioning it.
CARD #1: Death’s Nocturne
Death’s Nocturne is really overpowered. While it can be difficult to decide how to balance a new mechanic, in this case it’s basically a three-mana Demonic Pact with the mode “You lose the game” removed.
MECHANIC #2: Invoke {cost} ({cost}: Until end of turn, CARDNAME is a creature with base power and toughness equal to its mana cost in addition to its other types. Invoke only as a sorcery.)
It’s a simple but flavourful mechanic that we know would probably play well from things like vehicles and manlands. I think it’s quite interesting though I wish the creature could be more interesting than a CMC/CMC creature. Have you considered using the vehicle technology with a “disabled-by-default P/T box” to give more developmental knobs for balancing?
CARD #2: Dying Dreams
It’s a nice variation on Rest in Peace, I like that it’s a very useful sideboard card that you’re more inclined to maindeck just because Invoke makes sure it’s never a completely dead card. The ability doesn’t synergise with Invoke in any way though, I think there were better ways to sell the mechanic.
@SteampunkDragon
MECHANIC #1: Shimmer {cost} (You may cast this card for its shimmer cost. If you do, it’s not a creature.)
It’s an interesting mechanic, reminiscent of Evoke but for enchantments. I’m not confident there’s much design space there though and making a single Mythic doesn’t help with that concern. What would a common or uncommon with shimmer look like? I can’t really picture it. Additionally, the mechanic really needs a marker to help you remember which cards are creatures or not.
CARD #1: Archetype of Unity
It’s a fun idea that uses shimmer in an interesting way, but it’s also a very brain-melting design in many ways (the multiple hybrids cost, the sheer amount of abilities to remember on all your creatures, the weird interactions like first strike + deathtouch + trample, etc.)
@Tommyneko
MECHANIC #1: Evil {cost} (When you cast this spell, an opponent may pay its evil cost.)
It reminds me a lot of Tribute and I definitely feel there is interesting untouched design space in this area though it’s a bit tricky to explore. However, my main complain is that it doesn’t feel like an enchantment mechanic, I think most of the interesting design space for Evil would use creatures. The undefined Evil costs also feel like a step back rather than an improvement compared to Tribute’s cleaner execution with +1/+1 counters.
CARD #1: Deep to Shipwreck
The idea behind the Treasure thing is interesting but it’s weirdly worded so I’m not sure what’s going on. I don’t like that Evil cost because in most cases your opponent doesn’t even have the option to pay for it. As the card that’s supposed to sell the whole mechanic, I wish it was more interactive.
MECHANIC #2: Reborn (When this enchanted permanent destroy, this Aura will become a copy of that enchanted permanent. Change its text by replacing all instances of “enchanted” with “this”.)
While I’m usually not too picky on templating, the wording of this reminder text is so weird I’m not sure I understood what it was doing. Basically, the aura loses its own properties and become the enchanted permanent when I’s destroyed? If so, that’s really the Totem Armor mechanic but in a much more confusing way I’m afraid.
CARD #2: Journey Beyond
It’s a bit overpowered but I like the concept behind it. To improve it, I’d probably make it a separate activated ability on the land instead of a triggered ability, or I would make it at least 4 or 5 mana.
CARD#3: Eating the Sun
It’s a cool idea and it seems well balanced though it’s a bit intensive on coloured mana for no apparent reason. It reminds me of cards like Time Wipe and Duneblast.
CARD #4: Beauty Party
That’s too strong for just two mana and the two abilities feel pretty disconnected.
CARD #5: Murderous Weapon
I like the idea of an “Enchant equipment” that boosts the equipment itself, it’s very flavourful. I’m not sure that’s worth a rare slot though, it can probably be an uncommon, otherwise it would need a power boost.
MECHANIC #1: Blessing (Whenever you cast a Blessing, if your devotion to its colors is equal to or greater than its converted mana cost, draw a card.)
I like that you identified the card disadvantage tied to auras as the problem to solve with your mechanic and having a cantrip on a cast trigger is an elegant solution to it. It’s the kind of effect that could snowball very hard though which I find a bit scary. I like that there’s a condition to the cantrip but I think there was other as-good options available that would not reference another nonevergreen mechanic in their reminder text. I wish one of the cards of higher rarity would care about the Blessing subtype itself since all these entries are staple effects with Blessing stapled on them without any real kind of interaction, so it feels very tool-like like Cycling.
CARD #1: Gracious Boon
A fine common to show how the mechanic interacts with simpler effects, the balance nicely takes into consideration that you’ll receive the blessing more often with CMC=2.
CARD #2: Burning Resolve
A nice variation on a staple that shows a good understanding on how similar cards were costed.
CARD #3: Wisdom of Thassa
I like that you kept the one-mana Blessing for a Blue uncommon since it cantrips automatically if you enchant a blue creature. It feels about the right power level.
CARD #4: Virtuous Reward
That’s a pretty interesting reward for a devotion deck, there might be a fair bit of math involved though, I don’t think you want this kind of “Devotion Fight” to be more than a one-shot ability.
CARD #5: Night Servitude
Very solid aura, the fact that this goes especially well in an aggressive monoblack deck that plays 1-drops makes me a bit worried that it would take over the game on its own if not answered in the first couple turns by the opponent.
@DeepSky
MECHANIC #1: Aura Mastery — As long as you control another Aura or there is an Aura card in your graveyard, EFFECT.
A nice mix of Spell Mastery and Affinity for enchantments. I like that you acknowledged auras as being more difficult to add to a deck and reduced the threshold accordingly. It’s a bit convoluted but I get it’s basically “if you’ve played another aura this game”. I’m especially fond of caring about auras in the graveyard in this case because it gives you value after losing an enchanted creature and being two-for-oned.
CARD #1: Freezing Gaze
The classic escalation from tapping to freezing is nice and works well with the mechanic. However, repeatable freezing is probably too much for common. In this case, it probably didn’t need to be an aura itself, a one-shot effect might have been easier to balance properly.
@LyndonF
MECHANIC #1: Remember {cost} ({cost}, exile this card from your graveyard: Return it to the battlefield attached to a creature you control, except it’s an enchantment Aura in addition to its other subtypes with enchant creature. Exile it if it would leave the battlefield. Activate this ability only any time you can cast a sorcery.)
This mechanic reminds me a lot of Haunt and I agree there’s still plenty of interesting design space left unexplored in that area. I’m really fond of how this allows you to play more auras in your deck without cutting creatures, I even think it does it better than Bestow thanks to much more reasonable costs possible. The wordiness is a big issue though, 50 words is way too much but I’m sure there’s a way to simplify it. The Aftermath technology for instance could have helped.
CARD #1: Corrupted Knight
This works fine to sell the mechanic as its simplicity balances out the wordiness of the reminder text. I actually think you could have done even cleaner by getting rid of the attack trigger and kept the Bestow system (in this case just giving +1/+2 to the enchanted creature).
@Zah_the_planeswalker
MECHANIC #1: Linger (When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield and it is no longer a creature.)
I find this mechanic pretty original and exciting; I’m convinced there’s a lot of clever overlap between creature and enchantment static abilities. However, I’m less convinced of the design space available and lower rarities. I’d need at least an uncommon to believe that could be worth a keyworded mechanic. Linger also need some kind of marker so you know what creatures are lingering.
CARD #1: Chorus of the Cove
I like that you went with a sacrifice cost as I think it’s a good way of using Linger while keeping in check the board complexity it’s creating. Because this creature will likely never attack or block, I would have considered adding another colour to at least give it haste or something.
MECHANIC #2: Hidden Realm (Each endstep, a creature you control enter or leave this card’s hidden realm. While it is in the hidden realm, it is treated as though it didn’t exist. It doesn’t leave the battlefield.)
It’s a very flashy and interesting mechanic but I think there are multiple issues with it. First, it’s super complicated, you might even want to exceptionally mention phasing to get the rules working. The mandatory aspect of it also feels like a huge trap that will often kill you by accident. There are ideas behind it that sound very cool but I think it needs more iteration to be fun.
CARD #2: Arcane Parallel
That’s a really complicated card, and it doesn’t really interact with the mechanic in an interesting way. When the card doesn’t care about the creature that’s entering/leaving the rift, the mechanic feels very random.
CARD #3: Heavenly Branch
I like that this card actually interacts with the creature entering/leaving the rift. That being said, making multiple 4/4 flying angels for 3 mana feel really overpowered.
CARD #4: Rabbit Hole
It’s really weird, I’m not sure what the flavor is supposed to be on this one? It also feels more complicated than it needs to be.
CARD #5: Passage to the Core
I like that this one is much simpler, and I kind of get the flavor. This one is quite nice and I think it should have been the default design that inspire the others.