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[RESULTS] Theros: Beyond Death Challenge — Design some new mechanics for enchantments
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MECHANIC #1: Auracycling {cost} ({cost}, Discard this card: Search your library for an Aura card with the same converted mana cost as this card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)
A clever variation on basic landcycling. Generally speaking, MTG is getting away from Transmute-like mechanics because they create a lot of shuffling and reduce variance, making games longer and more redundant. That being said, it might work for auras because the card type itself has a lot of built-in weaknesses. I do think adding bonuses to the auracycling activation was a mistake since it’s so much stronger than regular cycling and make sure you can chain them, making that cycle feels super overpowered.
CARD #1: Survival Tactics
That’s a clever parallel between the two abilities. The rate might be a bit too good considering this is basically a Split card.
CARD #2: Path of the Sinpurged
Again, the parallel between the two abilities is very clever. However, giving +3/+3 lifelink plus having auracycling and a cycling bonus is definitely worth a lot more than just two mana.
CARD #3: Vizier’s Teachings
That’s provoke, auracycling and -1/-1 counters on the same card. It’s a lot of nonevergreen keywords at once which makes the card quite complicated.
CARD #4: Reckless Poise
Double prowess is not a thing x) You either need to spell it out or, as weird as it sounds, give “Prowess, prowess” to the enchanted creature. Additionally, the auracycling triggered ability on this one is too impactful to be uncommon, I think it entered Rare territory.
CARD #5: Best of Three
Haha x) It’s cute but as you know triple strike is strictly silver-bordered territory for now. Frankly, double strike is good enough. Additional combat phases also are not meant to be uncommon and they’re exclusively red, making this a colour pie break.
@Fiskerton
MECHANIC #1: Vow (subtype)
Unfortunately, a subtype like this needs to have rules baggage attached to it (E.g.: Sagas) or at least be referenced by other cards (E.g.: Shrines) to be considered a mechanic, so these cards would be just regular enchantments without the Vow subtype if they were real. Additionally, there’s already a cycle of auras called Vows for Commander. On their design itself, the concept is interesting and flavourful, it reminds me of Conspiracy cards and Vanguards, but the fact that they are one-mana makes most of them really overpowered.
CARD #1: Vow of Shelter
It’s a pretty cool idea, and one of my favourites from the cycle. Giving all permanents you control hexproof is not a White thing though, barring very specific exception like Shalai (which was meant to be played with Green, the proper colour for this).
CARD #2: Vow of Isolation
I like the idea, it reminds me of a reverse Hymn of the Wilds, but I think it’s weird that it prevents you from using planeswalkers since they’ve become the default finishers of control no-creature strategies.
CARD #3: Vow of Enmity
The 2 life loss feels way too much of a downsides to use that card a priori, 1 life is bad enough.
CARD #4: Vow of Bloodshed
I like the idea behind this one, it feels nice in a super-aggressive deck. Because of the type of archetype it’s meant to help, this is the one where the one-mana cost feels the most overpowered though.
CARD #5: Vow of Savagery
This one might be my favourite, as the fact it’s only one-mana is compensated by its bonus requiring quite a lot of mana to do something.
@Tomigon
MECHANIC #1: Nyxtouched (Enchantment artifacts and enchantment creatures are nyxtouched.)
The name “Nyxtouched” sounds very flavourful. Using batching in this case sounds like a great idea but I’m not sure it’s the best combination of things to combine. The fact that it cares about only two things is already a bit low and since enchantment artifacts are not really a thing apart from Prophecies so it feels a lot like it just cares about enchantment creatures. Maybe “Enchantments and enchanted permanents are nytouched” would be a good start for instance. Additionally, I wish the two cards were not showcasing the same “Threshold 1” use of the mechanic.
CARD #1: Starfield Hummingbird
Nice callback to Birds of Paradise, it looks like the right kind of reward for a threshold of 1.
I like the use of Scry 2, it feels right in line with the other artifact tokens we’ve been getting (Food, Treasure, Clues) though it might be a little weak, I’d probably start with some more aggressive numbers. The concept of an artifact enchantment feels a bit weird, but that name is selling it quite well.
CARD #2: Path to Nyx
Another cool wink at an old card, Path to Exile. I’m always uncomfortable with one-mana removal in white though. I know we can’t erase the ones that already exist, but it’s probably not a great idea to make more and this card would feel just as valid in black. At least the nyxtouched restriction ties it more deeply into White’s colour identity.
@Reizon
MECHANICS #1-4: Hazmat, Armos, Averian and Control subtypes
There’s a rule in MTG design that a noncreature nonplaneswalker card can’t get a subtype unless at least one other card references that subtype or they’re here to carry some rules baggage (like Sagas). Those entries wouldn’t get individual subtypes just for them if they were really made in the game, so I can’t really count them as mechanics. Additionally, there are some massive issues with the basics of card design like templating, colour pie, power balancing etc. It’s always useful to check on existing cards with similar effects to get a sense on how to write and cost them.
CARD #1: Hyperbaric Chamber
Though the templating is closer to Yu-Gi-Oh! than Magic and the cost and colours are off, I get what you mean and that’s a pretty fun idea though I wish there was a way to replenish oxygen for the opponent in case they don’t have a dedicated oxygen deck themselves.
CARD #2: Atmospheric Unit
Again, the costs and templating are all over the place so it’s a bit difficult to give constructed feedback, but my main advice is to remember that the cards should be designed so the game is fun for both you AND the opponent.
CARD #3: Harsh Logistics
That’s actually not a very big restriction, the best and most effective cards are the cheapest ones so a lot of decks will have no cards at 6-or-more mana at all and, even if they do, it will only be a handful. This 8-mana card wouldn’t actually have much of an impact on the game.
CARD #4: Landlocked Atolls
It’s a funny idea, I like the concept of it but 15 lands is probably too much. Most games of Magic never reach that much lands anyways. If you think about it, most decks have 22-23 lands. To even draw 15 lands, you would need to draw on average 40 cards out of your 60-cards deck!
@bnew07
MECHANIC #1: Enact N (Reveal the top N cards of your library. Put an enchantment card from among them into your hand and the rest on the bottom. Then, put a Law card with converted mana cost N or less from your hand onto the battlefield.)
The gameplay idea is interesting, I like that it will cancel the card disadvantage tied to auras. It’s quite parasitic though, and it’s very wordy with over 40 words of reminder text while missing the reveal part. I also don’t think that an impulse search is adapted to auras since you can’t just fill your deck with them. Barring big Enact X cases, I’m expecting the mechanic to whiff more often than not. I’m also a bit uncomfortable with playing cards for free at lower rarities.
CARD #1: Ward of Order
That’s a fine common to demonstrate the mechanic, but it also highlights how Enact 2 is very swingy. The difference between “target creatures gets +2/+2” and “target creatures gets +2/+2, you draw a Law and put a 2-mana enchantment onto the battlefield” is pretty important for 2 mana common.
CARD #2: Pathward Barrier
For Enact 1, it would probably be ok to get a one-mana law for free but the chance of finding a law on top of your library and/or having exactly a one-mana law in your hand is rather slim.
CARD #3: Law Courier
I really like the second ability, it’s pretty flavourful and shows other ways of using Laws which is nice.
CARD #4: Reactive Legislation
This is really backbreaking if it fails entirely while also having a high probability of failing because the opponent controls the X. I wish it had additional failsafe value, for instance by countering the spell.
CARD #5: Absolute Justice
That’s a nice reward for Mythic, it really pushes you to consider a Law-Centric deck which is very welcome for a deck revolving around a more difficult type of cards to build around like enchantments.
THIRD PLACE: @Faiths_Guide with 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 liked how the mechanic addressed the card disadvantage issue with auras and I believe you also had the most reaslitic entry for this challenge with great execution! However, I do think Blessings could be improved by getting rid of Devotion and that they felt a little tool-like.
SECOND PLACE: @DeepSky with Aura Mastery (As long as you control another Aura or there is an Aura card in your graveyard, EFFECT.)
I feel like it's one of the most realistic mechanics from this contest =D It feels inspired by many different existing mechanics at the same time and you did a great job at balancing it to fit the need of the aura subtype. My main bemol is on the execution itself of Freezing Gaze, I think it was a bit much as a repeatable effect for common.
FIRST PLACE: @LyndonF with 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.)
I feel like using the graveyard as a way of dealing with the card disadvantage problem of auras was the best idea I've seen in the contest. It's simple but it actually makes a lot of sense. The reminder text is really long but I think it's not that hard to fix it. Overall, it's just a very elegant solution to a very old problem
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Thank you everyone who participated, even if you're not part of the top 3 I've seen a lot of super interesting ideas that with just a single tweak or two would have easily made their way onto the podium as well! It made me feel auras had a lot more design space to offer in the future of MTG which is great
Now, for the rewards:
@Faiths_Guide: Which 1 card would you like me to favourite?
@DeepSky: Which 3 cards would you like me to favourite?
@LyndonF: Which 5 cards would you like me to favourite?
Again, thanks everyone! See you for the next challenge
Thanks.
Could you put a favorite on the card I submitted that you liked the most?
Congrats to winners and mentionables!
Fyi, the special frame for enchantment artifacts and enchantment creatures are called "nyxtouched frame". So I didn't want to call cards with normal frame "nyxtouched".
You say scry 2 might be a little weak? I disagree. I think scry 2 is almost as powerful as "draw a card." Castle Vantress costs 4 mana to scry 2, and Castle Locthwain costs 3 mana and a few life to draw a card. So I swapped Clue token's "Draw a card" with "Scry 2".
Yeah, Eldrazis are a big outlier in MTG, their whole concept it to be way more expensive than normal cards so you probably shouldn't take them as a reference. I like to pretend they don't exist XD
@Faiths_Guide
I favourited Wisdom of Thassa because I'm especially fond of how the Blessing ability mixes with the library manipulation theme of the other ability.
@Tomigon
Oh yeah, I forgot about the nyxtouched frame x) I found it was a really good idea to make something more of that name, it's really flavourful. But yeah, mechanically I think it needs to be expanded to more than the cards with the nyxtouched frame because that's basically just enchantment-creatures so the keyword feels forced.
Yeah, in restrospective I might have dismissed the Scry 2 a little too hastily, you're right. I agreed from the beginning that Scry 2 would definitely be an interesting effect, but my reasoning was that if Clues could get "2, Sacrifice: Draw a card" then Scry 2 was just slightly below in term of value for the same cost (Ideally, I would have them cost 1.5 mana I think). But thinking more about it, I don't think "2, Sacrifice: Scry 3" would be adequate to most colours outside Blue. At first, I thought that "1, Sacrifice: Scry 2" should at least be considered, but the more I try to tweak it the more I realise that it doesn't need to be super aggressively costed since it's often more of a rider that accompanies another effect. So yeah, 2 mana for Scry 2 might be a bit lower in value than Clues but it's still probably the best combination of cost and scale, my bad.
Ultimately, I really liked the Prophecy mechanic, it was definitely in the conversation for Top 3, by the way. The main reason I left it somewhere between fourth and fifth place was not so much the balancing but the fact that I think it shouldn't be an enchantment (though obviously for this contest and in the context of nyxtouched it had to). I get the flavour of it, but with Treasures, Clues, and now Food, I think it feels too much part of a Mega-cycle for breaking the elegant symmetry between them and having one member be an enchantment-artifact instead of an artifact.
Also, here's a crazier try at Prophecies to see if I can get a sweet variation on their balance (it's more explosive but I thought it was interesting, it's just a thought I wanted to share):
Thanks! Nice token too. ^^
Congrats to other @winners !
Holy cow! I won something!
Please favorite:
(the entry)
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/lethal-blast
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/warped-falkenrath
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/rals-charm-2
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/lilianas-guile
As for the mechanic, I feel like it should not follow Bestow exactly, namely not giving the power and toughness boost (by default). So that's why the entry only has an on attack trigger. The flavor behind this is the enchanted creature remembers only the characteristics and actions of the remembered creature, so only abilities, not the base power and toughness.
Ah yeah, I see what you went for, I like the idea because systematically giving +P/+T to the creature was really driving the Bestow costs super high and also restricted design space to small creatures mostly. I mentioned the concept of Bestow to try and reduce the complexity behind the mechanic, but I think the right alternative frame would accomplish that well enough. For instance:
Please favorite
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/latia-eternal-spark
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/plagued-hellkite-2
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/mirror-maze-1
Favourited!
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Again thank you everyone, and if you're passing by @Corwinnn you can close the thread =D