Alright, I should probably stop procrastinating and address the as-fan of the enablers before digging deeper into the adjustment of red and green xD So here's the count:
• WU 2d spell matters: This archetype is very much not parasitic, literally any spell that's cheap, any draw spell, and any spell producing mana (including serran life) can be considered an enabler so no specific count for it.
• UB Art enters and leaves the battlefield: The as-fan of Art creatures in UB is currently as follow (not counting the removal that turn the creature into Art though it could be used on your own creatures in a pinch): - BLUE: 3 commons + 1 uncommon - BLACK: 3 commons + 1 uncommon - MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon - COLOURLESS: 2 commons + (?) uncommon
I think we can try to aim at roughly the same numbers as the Knight theme in Eldraine. This was also a main theme of the set that was heavily supported by mostly two colours and a splash of their enemy colour (BR + W). This was their repartition at this stage in BR: - BLACK: 3 commons + 4 uncommons - RED: 5 commons + 4 uncommons - MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon - COLOURLESS: 1 common + (?) uncommon
So the current Art as-fan in Rezatta is already pretty close to good, I I think it just needs a couple additional "accidental Arts" at common and uncommon in each colour, for example turning all the vanilla creatures at common into Art would help a lot with the as-fan.
• BR Suicide aggro: The current as-fan for cards that allow you to lose life is: - BLACK: 6 common + 1 uncommon - RED: 6 common + 1 uncommon - MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon - COLOURLESS: 2 common + (?) uncommon
The commons are in a fine place though Black could use one of those "Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may pay 1 life". The uncommons clearly need a couple more in each colour.
• RG Even life makes you stronger: The as-fan of cards that allow you to change the parity of your life total in RG is currently as-follows: - RED: 5 commons + 2 uncommon - GREEN: 3 commons + 1 uncommon - MULTICOLOURED: 0 - COLOURLESS: 1 common + (?) uncommon
Green could use some more incidental life gain at common (easy to fix) and both red and green probably need one more enabler at uncommon.
• GW serran life: Here's the as-fan of serran life in GW right now, which followed a pretty strict pattern at common with 3 cards in each of the three life gain colours: - GREEN: 3 commons + 1 uncommon - WHITE: 3 commons + 4 uncommons - MULTICOLOURED: 1 - COLOURLESS: 0 common + (?) uncommon
Again, I think we can mimick roughly what was done with the food theme in Eldraine, which was mainly BG + a dash of white and did a good job at not flooding the set with life gain: - BLACK: 4 commons + 0 uncommon (that's super weird btw) - GREEN: 5 commons + 2 uncommons - MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon - COLOURLESS: 1 uncommon (I'm counting the Gingerbread cabin in Green)
My take-away from that is that we can have one more incidental one-shot serran life gain card in both green and white at common. Green probably can use one more uncommon while White could use one less.
• WB renewal: That one is made easier by the fact that you can trigger renewal just by attacking so it needs a pretty low as-fan to be functional to begin with. Taken into account that it is sandiwched between the GW serran life achetype, the white winks to the BR archetype, the BR archetype itself, and the black winks to the GW archetype, I'm not even going to bother counting. It's overflowing with ways to trigger renewal.
• UR discover: Here are the cards that discover right now: - BLUE: 3 commons +1 uncommon - RED: 3 commons (one repeatable) + 1 uncommon - MULTICOLOURED: 0 - COLOURLESS: 1 common + (?) uncommon
Commons are actually better positioned than I though they would, though Blue could gain one more incidental discover to compensate for the lack of repeatable discover at common (super easy to fix). Uncommons dropped the ball pretty hard since none of the pay-offs discovered themselves, which needs to be fixed. I know we're adding a "whenever CARDNAME attacks, discover" creature in Red at uncommon though so this should help a bit.
• BG +1/+1 counter: As I mentioned above, this is definitely lacking right now (3 commons total) so we would need to add a lot more of incidental +1/+1 counters at common (possible) or reconsider the archetype entirely so it leans more into already existing synergies. This one is on standby.
• RW 2-power or less matters: Here is the as-fan of weenies in the RW colours already in the set: - RED: 7 commons + 4 uncommons at least - WHITE: 7 commons + 6 uncommons - MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon - COLOURLESS: 1 common + (?) uncommon
It's overflowing with enablers, no help needed.
• GU Masterwork: And finally the masterwork cards un GU: - GREEN: 2 commons + 2 uncommons - BLUE: 2 commons + 2 uncommons - MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon - COLOURLESS: 0 common + (?) uncommon
That's a difficult one because the archetype is meant to be more discrete but that might still be a little too hard to make function in Limited. I'm not sure how to add more incidental Masterwork keywords without destroying the play pattern of the archetype. We could try to add one masterwork creature at common in colorless, bringing back the Silver Statue Masterwork version. And we could consider making one noncreature spell in both blue and green at the condition that they interact with your masterwork in a way that respects the play pattern of the archetype so far.
Angels and Clerics: I was thinking something similar to the WB Zombie theme of Amonkhet as a reference for the as-fan of the Angels and Clerics. It had that distribution: - WHITE: 7 commons + 2 uncommon - BLACK: 4 commons + 3 uncommon - MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon - COLOURLESS: 0
If we except the huge overshoot in white due to the Embalm mechanic, these are pretty reasonable numbers. If we count both angels and clerics as some kind of batch, Rezatta can probably reach a critical mass of this batch. Here's the current as-fan: - WHITE: 2 commons (1 of each) + 3 uncommons - BLACK: 2 commons (1 of each) + 2 uncommons - MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon - COLOURLESS: 0 common + (?) uncommon
All we would have to do is make a handful of already existing creatures into Clerics and Angels at common (for example, Charging Statue, Reborn Faerie, Radiant Champion in White, Vexing Buffoon, Animated Tragedy, and Silverfur Burglar in Black). Since Cleric is a class type, it can even go on anthropomorphised animals to avoid pushing them out of the set by accident, unlike Humans.
The upside of Clerics & Angels compared to Human tribal is that it's more original and branded for the set, since Human tribal was done in a handful of other planes already like Innistrad and Ikoria. Having a double-tribal system can also open some more exciting new design space. The idea being that it rewards you for having either a Cleric or Angel, but rewards you even more if you have both, similarly to how Party feels in gameplay. For example:
B/G: Even life matters While it would definitely have more synergies, it's actually undermining the main reason why this is the RG archetype. RG is still kind of a big creature themed archetype, but the Even life rider was added to this theme (like the mill theme and Rogue theme are being linked in Zendikar Rising for instance) because the set didn't feel enough like a life-matters set at common. Since commons are built on a shard system of archetypes, I really need the Even life theme to stay part of the ally-coloured archetypes cycle. It's the one instance where the mechanical theme is not helping the colour pair as much as the set theme as a whole.
@ningyounk , W/B Angels and Clerics does sound decent then. I do have a few ideas for the signpost:
TBA - 4BW Creature - Angel Flying When ~ enters the battlefield, you may return up to two target Cleric cards from your graveyard to your hand. 3/3 or 4/4
TBA - 1BW Creature - Cleric Angels you control have vigilance / flash / lifelink. 3, T, Sacrifice a Cleric: Search your library for an Angel card, then shuffle your library and put that card on top. 2/3
TBA - BW Creature - Cleric At the beginning of your upkeep, you may exile (or sacrifice) ~. If you do, search your library for an Angel card, reveal that card, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library. 1BW, Return ~ from exile to your graveyard (or Exile ~ from your graveyard): Target Angel you control gets +3/+3 (or +2/+2) and gains first strike until end of turn. 2/2
For the WB Angels & Clerics archetype, I would like to try something a bit new by making sure each pay-off always rewards you for having either a Cleric or an Angel, but becomes stronger if you have both. So, if we take the designs you proposed above:
1st design — It only rewards you for playing Cleric cards, there is no additional value for having Angels in your deck. The spirit of the archetype would be something more like this:
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, choose one — • Return target Cleric card from your graveyard to your hand. • Return target Angel card from your graveyard to your hand.
This way you get value for having either a Cleric or an Angel in the graveyard, and you get more value by having both.
2nd design — I like the last ability as a way to weave the two tribes together and produce this additional synergy value of putting the two together in your deck. Ideally the first ability would also boost your Clerics though, so it does offer some value if you're playing a bunch of Clerics.
3rd design — Oppositely to the first design, this one only rewards you for playing Angels. It would need an incentive for playing other Clerics.
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That's for the philosophy of how this archetype would be enabled and would offer an edge when correctly played. As for the type of reward that would be granted, I'd be interested in going the "Inquisitor way" with this WB archetype and have a stronger focus on removal when possible, a bit like the Human tribe on Ikoria.
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On the other hand, I'm not sure what the reward of the Renewal archetype is going to be in BG. I was trying to get a mix of control by removal and bleeder effects in WB (both directional enchantments were meant to slowly wither your opponent's life total). Whatever the archetype strategy is to win, it has to work with end of turn triggers preferably. An archetype focused on small incremental value might be the way to go.
It's probably a good idea to implement the change in archetypes before continuing into adjusting Red (and especially Green), so I'm going to take some time to think about it a bit more ^^
@ningyounk , For the commons, I have a few suggestions for supporting Angels and Renewal, besides from shifting everything to a cleric.
1. In white, cut Reborn Faerie and Radiant Champion for a Cleric / Angel payoff and probably another card for serran life. I'd also suggest making Charging Statue a french vanilla 2/1 with first strike.
2. In black, I'd make Serran Inquisitor pay 3 life to have an opponent lose 3 life. While this is the same practically with Renewal, it helps reinforce this theme of "3 life", and I'd cut Heresy for an on-theme removal spell for either archetype, since Heresy doesn't seem particularly supportive or good for any archetype. The other cuts to black to support the Angel / Cleric archetype is down to you.
3. In green, I'd give Insectoid Guard some kind of pump ability that gives it +3/+3, just to have an emergency way to enable Renewal if needed. For the most part, Green has a decent amount of Renewal payoffs.
And I may as well mention it; Crafty Ranger has Ranger in the name, but it's a scout. This isn't a gigantic flaw of the set of something, but it kills my soul.
@SpellPiper2213 , that's because Ranger is an entirely new typeline added in Rezatta - it's like when Noble was added as a subtype with Throne of Eldraine, cards like Stromkirk Noble became Nobles. With this set, cards like Jadelight Ranger would probably go from being Scouts to Rangers.
It's quite weird to introduce a subtype called "Ranger" in a set and not have the card with "Ranger" in the title be a Ranger, don't you think?
I don't believe that Ranger needs to actually be a new type introduced in this set as scout already takes that role better, but since it is, Crafty Ranger should be a Ranger.
For the enemy-coloured archetypes, the idea is to hide them a little at common so players aren't drown with ten main archetypes. On the surface, the set focuses on the five allied ones. To do that, we have a single cycle of directional cards for these archetypes at common. The enemy-coloured archetypes are meant to be less directional; They should still have the same number of enablers, but what those enablers do should synergise by itself — which can get a bit tricky when they are centered on things that don't win the game on their own like Renewal or Tribal). Since the five directional cards I mentioned aren't on the first page of the thread, I'm reposting them here:
As you can see, they each appear in the second colour of the enemy colour pair. By switching the archetypes to BG Renewal and WB Angels & Clerics, we remove Moving Farewell and Self-Confidence from the set and now need a directional green card about the Renewal mechanic and a black card about Clerics and Angels tribal. We also need a cheap conditional removal in black to replace Moving Farewell and a cheap pump spell in green to replace self-confidence (ideally also using +1/+1 counters since the set still needs some of these).
1. Reborn Faerie is also part of an important cycle at common that introduces the Renewal mechanic so it can't be cut without being replaced by a creature with a similar pattern, I'm afraid.
2. Serran Inquisitor did start at "Pay 3 serran life: Opponent loses 3 life" but it turned out to be not attractive enough compared to other things you can do with serran life in the set so I made it a bit more efficient.
3. Insectoid Guard is part of the french vanilla cycle, we can discuss changing its stats but I'd really like to keep this cycle complete to keep the complexity from spiralling out of control.
Ah, there must have been some kind of confusion. The ranger subtype is not meant to be added to Rezatta since it bears no importance for the set (unlike Art, for instance). It's just a mistake I tend to make, tell me if you find any creature with the Ranger subtype somewhere, it's supposed to be a Scout xD
I feel like the Angel and Cleric payoff at common could be very simple, such as an Angel/Cleric that says "Clerics/Angel spells you cast cost 1 less to cast.", or if the spell also needs to be a removal spell, something like "As an additional cost to cast ~, you may reveal an Angel card from your hand" with a tacked on reward for revealing the angel card, like gaining life or creating a Cleric token. It seems very hard to hide the archetype like the other enemy colored archetypes.
As for replacing Self-Confidence, any renewal spell would be decent. Maybe a pump spell that gives +2/+2 and a keyword, but gives +4/+4 if renewal was triggered that turn? Alternatively, some type of "Revive" effect (The card) or land recursion effect that becomes a Regrowth effect if you trigger renewal.
I'm throwing things at a wall in terms of ideas, but I hope one of them sticks.
We have a similar card in Black already that is less parasitic (Council of Traitors) and having two would be a bit too much for the set, I'm afraid. If it ends up too strong and we want to make it more parasitic, I think it would fit the UB Art tribal better because of the focus "leaves the battlefield" triggers.
It's ok, enemy archetypes don't need to be super hidden, the main way the set hides them is by not having two directional cards at common so you can't connect the dots I like both the cost reduction and card reveal as ways to care about Angels & Clerics at common, we could totally use that.
I was thinking of reworking the entire suite of black removal spells. Here they are right now:
That's actually one more than usually needed, but I felt Heresy was a bit necessary since Death Row plays really slow. So here's my idea for the redesign:
1) Angelic Kiss remains the same, it's actually the base on which the rest of the removals are built around.
2) Death Row becomes a 5-mana sorcery murder with upsides. This way, we don't need Heresy to support the black removal and can drop it as well. Since UB Art needs some more incidental Art creatures, I went back to a previous design:
3) Moving Farewell has to go since it was the directional WB Renewal card. To replace it, we need a cheap (1-2 mana) conditional removal that specifically isn't aimed at creatures with power 2 or less to avoid overlapping with Angelic Kiss. We can transform it into the directional Angel & Clerics card — an opportunity to reinforce the removal-heavy gameplay intended for the archetype. Here are two examples of possible designs:
This leaves us with one empty slot. Since there are no enchantment at common in Black anymore, I figured it would be a good idea to make an aura or equipment to replace the slot left by Death Row. Looking at what's missing in Black from the as-fan discussion, we could use a "whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may pay 1 life" enabler for BR. So here's a concept:
On an unrelated note, I wanted to get rid of the "Whenever an Art you control attacks" trigger on Spirit of the Ballet for a while now. The card is meant to be a support for the serran life archetype before the UB Art one, and the trigger was sticking out like a sore thumb next to the signature "whenever an Art enters or leaves the battlefield under your control". I just changed "an Art" into "one or more creatures":
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For the green pump spell, I'd like the renewal bonuses to work post-combat at common so you can always enable them with combat damage; the +4/+4 wouldn't qualify. But maybe with +1/+1 counters instead, it would still be interesting post-combat:
If we go that route, the second green pump spell is also 2-mana though, so it would need to change as well. I think I'd prefer to have a bigger than +2/+2 pump spell to complement Self-Confidence so let's go up to 3-mana. Here's a revised version (before/after):
However, I have another possible plan. From the as-fan discussion above, I'd be interested in having a noncreature masterwork spell in both blue and green at common. Because of the nature of the masterwork mechanic, I was thinking that they could be pump spells. Something like "Masterwork. Creatures you control get [BONUS A]. Your masterwork gets [BONUS B]" for instance. If so, we could use the slot left by Self-Confidence for the masterwork pump spell, and add the blue one in place of Dive Deeper. Something like this for instance:
For the renewal slot, there are multiple options to add a Renewal rider somewhere on a green common (Watercoloured Guide, Endangered Winterhowl, Serran Evangelist — I'd be interested in moving the discover on a White card, Angelic Revelation, Through the Dirt). But to decide which path to go on, we first need to take a step back and define how the new archetypes are supposed to win. I don't have it right now, but I'll post a follow-up explaining what are the cards that are going to be removed following the change in archetypes, and what are our options to replace them.
@ningyounk , I think there are various ways that the archetypes attempt to win, but for now the current best ways to win in limited are:
W/U Second Spell - Attempts to get out a Thunder Drake or good uncommon and protect it / let it swing the game. Otherwise the deck should be playing red, which provides removal, tricks and general good creatures to back up the archetype.
U/B Art - Attempt to generate tempo with stuff like Inkborn Hunter and Breathing Waltz, while leveraging the 2-for-1's and removal spells that black has. A Green splash is viable if one gets 2-3 copies of Marble Maiden or a green bomb.
B/R Life Payment - This is Cheeky Performer:The Archetype. Grab as many copies of it and Sparks as possible, in addition to generic red aggro cards. The deck works because of the signpost and Cheeky Performer, not much else for B/R to work with.
R/G Even Life Total - There's one generally mediocre 5-drop in red that supports this, and the only true good support card is Endangered Winterhowl. Most of the time, this will just be a stompy deck that uses decent commons or will be an even life total deck that relies on the uncommons.
G/W Serran Life - Has a surprisingly powerful signpost uncommon, but otherwise this becomes a decent if unimpressive ramp / Renewal Midrange deck. Can also become a go-wide aggro deck.
W/B Clerics and B/G Renewal - N/A so far.
G/U Masterwork - The masterwork synergy is fine, but hampered by the lack of good things to put the masterwork buffs on at common. Like the rest of the hidden archetypes, primarily focused on uncommons.
U/R Discover - Red is really good and will make up the bulk of the archetype. Blue still provides some decent cards, value and tempo plays, albiet not that much synergy with discover.
R/W 2 Power or Less - Ditto, to a lesser extent. The cards and colors themselves are better than the bulk of discover and masterwork cards, the creatures less parasitic, eta. This will obviously be a red aggro deck, but one with a lot of late game and possible good value.
(Keep in mind, I'm still using the commons from the front page as a basis for these archetypes.)
On another note, something that would be neat is if the set reprinted Fallen Angel or Bond of Flourishing at uncommon to support the newly added themes. I'd also consider reprinting Gift of Paradise.
@ningyounk As for the black removal suite, I agree with keeping Angelic Kiss and adding Set in Stone.
Eradicate Heresy seems very bad, even in the archetype it's made for. It's generally a bad Fourth Bridge Prowler or Fungal Infection; waiting until turn 4 to play the spell leaves you with a Disfigure most of the time, a card that benefits from being playable turn 1 or turn 2.
I'd suggest using the idea of making you reveal a cleric / angel card from your hand. Alternatively, there's a few interesting ideas that I've had:
TBA - {B}{X} Instant ~ costs {1} less to cast for each Angel and Cleric you control. Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
TBA - {B}{X} Sorcery You may pay {B} and reveal a Cleric (or Angel) card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost. If you do, X becomes equal to 2. Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn.
I like Artistic Transgression, but Artistic Diversion feels clunky and the -2/-0 effect generally clashes with the timing of your masterwork gaining hexproof.
@KorandAngels , balance can't be rushed. While it is good that you enjoy lore aspects, the focus right now is on designing the cards themselves - after all, this is a custom card site.
The-DM That's the spirit, but the main difficulty here will be to find a spot to add this incidental serran life gain in an already cramped common skeleton ^^ That card is fine in a vacuum, but what to remove in its place? We'll need to spend some time examining what already existing cards have room for a little boost, and what cards among them have the most affinity with archetypes that would be interested in some incidental serran life.
We did finish the common skeleton but it doesn't mean it will stay this way forever. As we make our way to higher rarities, the new cards we add will require to go back to the lower rarities and align some stuff. For instance, the apparition of a new Angels & Clerics tribal archetype during the process of designing uncommons will shake things up quite a bit at common. There's a list of things we need to change at the beginning of page 19 of this thread, The-DM was right in that we need one more common card that gains serran life ^^
1) On Potential reprints: • Fallen Angel: I think a free sacrifice outlet hints a bit too heavily at an aristocrat archetype. While Black always need a few sacrifice outlets, I believe we can use that slot for something more synergistic.
• Bond of Flourishing and Gift of Paradise: The concepts could fit but, since we have a very limited number of slots that can utilise the serran life mechanic, I want life gain cards to gain serran life whenever possible, which will limit potential reprints of life gain cards in the set. Functional reprints using serran life might be on the table, however.
2) On Eradicate Heresy: It does make a lot of sense to use hand reveals in the context of a spell aimed at the first few turns, that sounds like a good call.
I really like your first concept (I assume it's supposed to get -X/-X?), X spells are red-flagged on principle at common, but it's still a very cool variation on Death Wind and I'd be interested in trying it. My only bemol is that the slot is aimed at a weak but early interaction spell so I would have liked it to start at 1-mana = -1/-1 and have the rate becoming worse instead of improving as you sink more mana into it. Here are your version and a variation on that idea — it's wordy but I like how it scales:
Your second concept is a bit convoluted for a common, I'm not sure it's worth the complexity points. The fact that it also defaults to -2/-2 is not ideal as this competes a bit with Angelic Kiss.
3) On Artistic Diversion:
I'd argue that giving opponents' creatures -2/-0 is basically a better "your creatures get +0/+2", though we could also go that route if you think shrinking looks weird. I went this way as it has some more interesting utility outside of protecting your masterwork and it's more in colour pie than a buff for blue. I see it as a kind of weird modal spell ^^
This map of the best strategies will be very useful later down the line, thanks a lot. The analysis does touch a bit on power level so we'll be using that in combination with the first playtest at uncommon to align the different archetypes power wise. Right now, we do have a more structural question to tackle first: how to design roads to victory for each archetype in a way that makes them feel distinct.
On that note, here are the previous directional uncommon cards for WB Renewal and BG +1/+1 counters matter:
1) WB Renewal had a bleeder-style of winning, slowly chipping away at the opponent's life total:
That's a small flyier generator, a small repeatable drainer and a big drainer to be replaced. Now that we're switching to Angels/Clerics tribal, I have made a list of other cards that I think could be played in this archetype, to get a sense of what direction they're pushing towards. I mostly gathered Angel/Cleric cards and removal:
I don't think the bleeder strategy is going to work anymore (outside of Serran Inquisitor), so I was thinking of making UB Art the bleeder deck, and maybe add a touch of mill to go with it. There's a pretty clear affinity for serran life with Cleric cards like Serran Priestess, Inspiring Archpriest, Serran Inquisitor or Golden Gates Inquisitor all interacting with it. There is a bit of Go Wide synergies in white, but mostly I think the characteristic way of winning for this archetype is going to be through big flying angels. I'll make sure that the GW archetype gives some room in that area by maybe focusing more on the pump aspect as the win condition.
2) GB +1/+1 counters wanted you to stack the counters on the same creature and then give it some kind of evasion to pressure the opponent:
We've got some unblockable creatures, a touch of removal and a big life loss machine. The new BG Renewal archetype has a few Renewal cards to work with and a ton of cards that can enable Renewal in black/green. Let's see what available strategies they are pointing to:
There's a bit of everything, but it's pretty value-oriented with a touch of card draw and I feel there's a possible focus on ramp that might work here. If we restrain the RG archetype to a more aggro-y gameplay with above-the-curve creatures, the BG archetype fit as a slightly more grindy archetype but offering the possibility of going even bigger in the long term. Also, that would fill the slot left by the +1/+1 counters theme pretty organically. So I'm thinking growing creatures and value engines for the BG Renewal rewards.
On that note, I think we need to add two more directional renewal cards to black and green that are not part of the other cycle. I haven't finished yet, but I'm currently exploring this:
A• Transforming the current Renewal uncommon cycle into an all-enchantment cycle with an ability that creates a life swing + a renewal ability that triggers at the end of your turn, on the same model as Council of Traitors and Warming Prayers but for all colours.
B• Adding a new renewal slot in each of black and green. I was thinking maybe something very loud like "If the sum of all life gained and lost this turn is 3 or more [EFFECT A]. If that sum is 7 or more, [EFFECT B]." For instance:
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Sorry, that was a particularly long post even for me x) This is just a plan, it's not even the actual proposition for cards. To summarise, the three directional cards in each archetype could be something like this:
1) WB Angels and Clerics tribal (All of these cards need to have very loud synergies with both Angels and Clerics) - White: A way to make 4/4 Angels. - Black: A big life loss spell. - Multicoloured: A very large Angel.
2) BG Renewal (All of these cards need to have Renewal) - Black: Repeatable card Advantage? - Green: A way to grow one or more creatures very large. - Black/Green: A value engine that can get big. Could possibly involve coming back from the graveyard bigger each time?
I don't have the concepts yet unfortunately >.< Also, I will be slightly slower to answer until around Christmas (basically the same as this week) as I'm trying to finish another game design in parallel I promised my friends they would be able to physically try for Christmas xD
@ningyounk , I enjoy the first Eradicate Heresy that you posted. The 3 / 7 Renewal idea is sweet.
For each of the Directional Cards, there are a few ideas to consider:
TBA - 3WW Creature - Angel Flying Whenever ~ and another angel you control attacks, (creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn) OR (Tap target creature an opponent controls). 4WW, T, Exile a Cleric you control: Create a 4/4 white Angel creature token. 3/3
TBA - 4BB Sorcery Target opponent loses 4 life. If you control an Angel, that player loses 6 life instead. If you control a Cleric, you gain life equal to the life lost this way.
TBA - 4WWBB Creature - Angel Flying When ~ enters the battlefield, you may return target Cleric card from your graveyard to the battlefield. When ~ dies, you may exile it. If you do, return target Angel card from your graveyard to the battlefield 5/5
TBA - 1B Enchantment - Aura Enchant land Enchanted land has "Renewal -- T: Draw a card. Activate this ability only if the sum of all life gained or lost this turn is 3 or more and only at any time you could cast a Sorcery."
TBA - 3G Artifact T: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. Renewal -- At the beginning of your end step, if the sum of all life gained or lost this turn is 3 or more, untap ~.
TBA - BG Creature - Skeleton TBA Counters remain on ~ as it moves to any zone other than a player's hand or library. Renewal -- At the beginning of your end step, if the sum of all life gained or lost this turn is 3 or more, you may pay 3BG. If you do, return ~ from your graveyard to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. 2/2
TBA - BG Creature - Zombie 1B, Sacrifice ~: Draw a card. Renewal -- At the beginning of your end step, if the sum of all life gained or lost this turn is 3 or more, you may pay 1G. If you do, return ~ from your graveyard to your hand. 2/2
I also have a few other ideas for cards that could be reprinted: *Angel's Tomb *Wispweaver Angel *Devour in Shadow *Necrogen Scudder *Serene Steward *Urbis Protector
I wish you luck with your Christmas Shenanigans, and a Merry Christmas to you.
Ok, for this week I'm going to focus almost exclusively on adding the directional cards for the new archetypes at uncommon, but you'll see it created a really big chain reaction so I have like 10 cards swap to propose xD
1) The Slug Festival Problem: Refocusing the gameplay style of each archetype
There is one issue that really started to bother me while I fleshed out the archetypes to make sure they felt different: There are too many slow grindy archetypes. WU is still fiddling around not sure how it wants to win, GW is all about waiting for the alpha strike, WB was a slow bleeder archetype, RG already had implemented slow elements where creatures picked up one +1/+1 counter per turn, and now BG started to head towards a slow grindy style of play as well. It's definitely a personal bias I have with this type of archetypes, so here's the main guideline I came up with to ensure every archetype won't feel the same. I re-affirmed the role of each common shard archetype as a specific playstyle, which means the enemy-coloured pairs should lean towards a mix of the two shards they share. GWB Serran life is the control sluggish shard archetype, so having a slow WB and BG archetypes are fair game. The other archetypes need to be gently pushed in their own direction. In particular, RG needs to be more about over-the curve agression and less about growing slowly. WU needs to be more about snowballing value and less about small incremental effects.
2) BG Renewal: Directional cards
Let's start with the BG Renewal directional cards. I played with the idea of the "If the sum of all life gained and lost this turn is 3 or more, EFFECT A. If that sum is 7 or more, effect B" a little more and it really feels like there's enough material for a cycle at rare actually. I ended up using my idea for the white one for another card you'll see later, but here's an example of what it could look like at rare: • WHITE: Create two 1/1 clerics → Create a 4/4 Angel with flying • BLUE: Blink a creature → Create a copy of it • BLACK: Recuperate a creature card from your graveyard to your hand → Reanimate it onto the battlefield • RED: Discard a card, draw two cards → Discard your hand, draw seven cards. • GREEN: Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature → Put two +1/+1 counters on each creature you control.
So instead, I latched on the idea of using the "sum of all life gained and/or lost this turn" as the "trademark" of the archetype and went from there. This pushed towards a more explosive style of gameplay which I found was interesting and helped the set feel less sluggish. I also focused the effects on resilience, this way it helps the GWB Serran life shard in its quest for protecting your life total, and the UBG Art tribal shard thanks to some recursion effects and a general graveyard theme that gives it a more combo-y feel. Here's my try:
In Memoriam obviously replaces its previous instance, so this shouldn't be any problem to fit those cards in the uncommon skeleton.
3) WB Angels & Clerics: Directional cards
I played with the duality of the Cleric and Angel tribes a bit to offer two axes: the cheap clerics should offer a smooth transition into the big angels on the curve, letting the archetype play both on early agression and late-game finishers. I liked the two monocoloured cards I found so the removal aspect is a little lighter than I intended at first, but I put it back on the gold signpost:
Finding space for the two monocoloured cards are going to be much more complicated since the directional cards in white/black were the renewal enchantments and those are still in the skeleton. For the black one, it'll probably be easy to fuse the two sac outlets into one card to make room for the big angel.
4) RG Even life: Directional cards
I didn't like that the previous directional cards outside of the red one were pushing for a slower, grindy gameplay. In addition, the red one was too close to the design of the blue common one for my taste. I wanted to do make the archetype more agressive. The idea is that the creatures would arrive on the battlefield earlier than they should for their size, or bigger than they are originally meant, but they wouldn't really grow after that. I also tried to help the archetype control the parity of your life total a little more, whenever I could fit it onto the card. Here is my redesign for those cards:
They all just replace their original counterparts so no difficulties to integrate them to the skeleton here. Especially since neither red or green have been ironed out yet.
An unforeseen domino effect of these archetypes changing was the place of UB Art in the set. With a lot of removal effects picking up the theme of WB Angels and Clerics, UB Art Tribal started to have redundant effects and its theme of "changing things around them" never really picked up anyways. Since WB left the bleeder archetype open, I repurposed the UB Art tribal archetype towards its core combo component, dropping the heavy removal aspect in the process, while retaining some of the tempo effects. The idea now is that UB Art should be able to win without attacking if it wants to. I also added more ties to the graveyard, which should play well with its new BG enemy branch.
Those won't be any problem to swap in the skeleton but they aren't exactly the same mana cost as their previous counterparts so their will be need for a few mana curve adjustements later.
6) WU Second spell: Directional cards
Finally, I didn't really like the previous directional cards for the WU archetype because they were exploring a "Whenever you cast a spell beyond your first" rider that pushed for a regular storm archetype with a lot of little incremental value. I wanted to re-center the archetype around the second spell specifically, so you would even consider keeping your third spell for later. Hence, I had a try at something a bit more explosive. I did however let the gold signpost untouched, I think it does the job really well at providing mana, life, card advantage and a recursive first spell to cast.
Again, this will require a bit of reshuffling mana wise. As I'm looking at them right now, I just realised they are all 3 mana so the faerie is definitely going to have to move somewhere else on the curve, maybe one of the other spells as well.
I'm not going to make a detailed analysis of each card since I've posted alternative version right above, but I definitely took inspiration at the start so thanks a lot!
For the reprints:
• Angel's Tomb: Could be part of the artifact uncommons, though only if we need some specific cards aimed at WB Angels and Clerics because its level of synergies with other archetypes is low. It's also a bit weird flavourfully in comparison to how Art creatures are treated in this set. • Wispeaver Angel: The recursion archetype is centered on UBG so I'm purposefully avoiding blink effects in white for this set ^^ • Devour in Shadow: It totally could work if we decide that BR needs a little boost, but as a functional reprint since regenerate isn't a thing anymore. Also, with Feed the Swarm now at common, there might be room for a little boost. • Necrogen Scudder: That's totally in theme for BR if we decide aggro needs more support cards. • Serne Steward: I was totally thinking of this card for white, no kidding xD I think we need such a variation on Ajani's Pridemate in the set. Since we've passed the ironing of White, my plan was to put an Ajani's Pridemate variation in green to be more original and synergise with the now outdated BG +1/+1 counters theme. • Urbis Protector: That's quite perfect actually ^^ If we find room for it and we aren't swimming in 6-mana angels already, it's definitely high on the waiting list.
@ningyounk , looking at the directional card ideas so far, I have a few thoughts about them:
For B/G, Sudden Bloom feels a little too strange as a combat trick that relies on something that happens post-combat, and Effigy of Solstice feels too easily recurrable and potent to be an uncommon.
For W/B, I'm pretty sure "Arbiter" is misspelt for Arbiter of Serra. Messenger of Serra feels much more like a Rare than an uncommon - the combination of a cost reduction effect and a +1/+1 Counter effect is just supremely complex for an ucommon. It could be upshifted to be a rare 3 mana 2/2, because at 2 mana it feels potentially too good.
For R/G, the archetype looks good so far. I would like to entertain the idea of changing Frostbreath Dragon though - perhaps a 4 mana 3/3 Dragon with Flying and Haste that, when it enters, if you have an even life total, it gains +2/+2 until end of turn? Enables Renewal much more easily and consistently for non-even life decks.
For U/B, Spilled Ink feels a bit abnormal at uncommon. Most other cards that say "Cast ~ spells at any time you could cast an instant" and have flash are printed at rare in Standard-Legal Sets, like Yeva and Shimmer Myr. The only uncommon card I can think of that provides the effect continuously is Raff Capashen, which also doesn't have all of the extra text. Spilled Ink also feels a bit potent at uncommon - it allows all of your arts to at the very least chump block and trade into attackers, while also being a 2 mana "destroy target attacking creature". Leaving the battlefield and granting deathtouch is also quite unusual. Sunken Concerto could also afford to only be able to activate its ability at any time you could cast a sorcery - it blanks removal spells and certain, chump-blocked death, which is rather potent.
For U/W, Cry for Faith and Faerie Analyst are cool, simple as that. I do feel like Soul of the Library is a tad too similar to Dovin's Acuity, but that's a nitpick. I also feel like instead of "If this is the second spell you cast this turn", it could say "If this isn't the first spell you cast this turn", but that's more personal preference on my part. It's just feelbad when you cast the first spell, but an opponent murders something in response, leading to the unfun dilemma of "Should I counterspell that or cast the card that I can't get the maximum benefit out of anymore?"
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Comments
• WU 2d spell matters:
This archetype is very much not parasitic, literally any spell that's cheap, any draw spell, and any spell producing mana (including serran life) can be considered an enabler so no specific count for it.
• UB Art enters and leaves the battlefield:
The as-fan of Art creatures in UB is currently as follow (not counting the removal that turn the creature into Art though it could be used on your own creatures in a pinch):
- BLUE: 3 commons + 1 uncommon
- BLACK: 3 commons + 1 uncommon
- MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon
- COLOURLESS: 2 commons + (?) uncommon
I think we can try to aim at roughly the same numbers as the Knight theme in Eldraine. This was also a main theme of the set that was heavily supported by mostly two colours and a splash of their enemy colour (BR + W). This was their repartition at this stage in BR:
- BLACK: 3 commons + 4 uncommons
- RED: 5 commons + 4 uncommons
- MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon
- COLOURLESS: 1 common + (?) uncommon
So the current Art as-fan in Rezatta is already pretty close to good, I I think it just needs a couple additional "accidental Arts" at common and uncommon in each colour, for example turning all the vanilla creatures at common into Art would help a lot with the as-fan.
• BR Suicide aggro:
The current as-fan for cards that allow you to lose life is:
- BLACK: 6 common + 1 uncommon
- RED: 6 common + 1 uncommon
- MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon
- COLOURLESS: 2 common + (?) uncommon
The commons are in a fine place though Black could use one of those "Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may pay 1 life". The uncommons clearly need a couple more in each colour.
• RG Even life makes you stronger:
The as-fan of cards that allow you to change the parity of your life total in RG is currently as-follows:
- RED: 5 commons + 2 uncommon
- GREEN: 3 commons + 1 uncommon
- MULTICOLOURED: 0
- COLOURLESS: 1 common + (?) uncommon
Green could use some more incidental life gain at common (easy to fix) and both red and green probably need one more enabler at uncommon.
• GW serran life:
Here's the as-fan of serran life in GW right now, which followed a pretty strict pattern at common with 3 cards in each of the three life gain colours:
- GREEN: 3 commons + 1 uncommon
- WHITE: 3 commons + 4 uncommons
- MULTICOLOURED: 1
- COLOURLESS: 0 common + (?) uncommon
Again, I think we can mimick roughly what was done with the food theme in Eldraine, which was mainly BG + a dash of white and did a good job at not flooding the set with life gain:
- BLACK: 4 commons + 0 uncommon (that's super weird btw)
- GREEN: 5 commons + 2 uncommons
- MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon
- COLOURLESS: 1 uncommon (I'm counting the Gingerbread cabin in Green)
My take-away from that is that we can have one more incidental one-shot serran life gain card in both green and white at common. Green probably can use one more uncommon while White could use one less.
• WB renewal:
That one is made easier by the fact that you can trigger renewal just by attacking so it needs a pretty low as-fan to be functional to begin with. Taken into account that it is sandiwched between the GW serran life achetype, the white winks to the BR archetype, the BR archetype itself, and the black winks to the GW archetype, I'm not even going to bother counting. It's overflowing with ways to trigger renewal.
• UR discover:
Here are the cards that discover right now:
- BLUE: 3 commons +1 uncommon
- RED: 3 commons (one repeatable) + 1 uncommon
- MULTICOLOURED: 0
- COLOURLESS: 1 common + (?) uncommon
Commons are actually better positioned than I though they would, though Blue could gain one more incidental discover to compensate for the lack of repeatable discover at common (super easy to fix). Uncommons dropped the ball pretty hard since none of the pay-offs discovered themselves, which needs to be fixed. I know we're adding a "whenever CARDNAME attacks, discover" creature in Red at uncommon though so this should help a bit.
• BG +1/+1 counter:
As I mentioned above, this is definitely lacking right now (3 commons total) so we would need to add a lot more of incidental +1/+1 counters at common (possible) or reconsider the archetype entirely so it leans more into already existing synergies. This one is on standby.
• RW 2-power or less matters:
Here is the as-fan of weenies in the RW colours already in the set:
- RED: 7 commons + 4 uncommons at least
- WHITE: 7 commons + 6 uncommons
- MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon
- COLOURLESS: 1 common + (?) uncommon
It's overflowing with enablers, no help needed.
• GU Masterwork:
And finally the masterwork cards un GU:
- GREEN: 2 commons + 2 uncommons
- BLUE: 2 commons + 2 uncommons
- MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon
- COLOURLESS: 0 common + (?) uncommon
That's a difficult one because the archetype is meant to be more discrete but that might still be a little too hard to make function in Limited. I'm not sure how to add more incidental Masterwork keywords without destroying the play pattern of the archetype. We could try to add one masterwork creature at common in colorless, bringing back the Silver Statue Masterwork version. And we could consider making one noncreature spell in both blue and green at the condition that they interact with your masterwork in a way that respects the play pattern of the archetype so far.
MISSING SLOTS, A SUMMARY BY COLOUR:
WHITE:
BLUE:
BLACK:
RED:
GREEN:
COLORLESS:
Angels and Clerics:
I was thinking something similar to the WB Zombie theme of Amonkhet as a reference for the as-fan of the Angels and Clerics. It had that distribution:
- WHITE: 7 commons + 2 uncommon
- BLACK: 4 commons + 3 uncommon
- MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon
- COLOURLESS: 0
If we except the huge overshoot in white due to the Embalm mechanic, these are pretty reasonable numbers. If we count both angels and clerics as some kind of batch, Rezatta can probably reach a critical mass of this batch. Here's the current as-fan:
- WHITE: 2 commons (1 of each) + 3 uncommons
- BLACK: 2 commons (1 of each) + 2 uncommons
- MULTICOLOURED: 1 uncommon
- COLOURLESS: 0 common + (?) uncommon
All we would have to do is make a handful of already existing creatures into Clerics and Angels at common (for example, Charging Statue, Reborn Faerie, Radiant Champion in White, Vexing Buffoon, Animated Tragedy, and Silverfur Burglar in Black). Since Cleric is a class type, it can even go on anthropomorphised animals to avoid pushing them out of the set by accident, unlike Humans.
The upside of Clerics & Angels compared to Human tribal is that it's more original and branded for the set, since Human tribal was done in a handful of other planes already like Innistrad and Ikoria. Having a double-tribal system can also open some more exciting new design space. The idea being that it rewards you for having either a Cleric or Angel, but rewards you even more if you have both, similarly to how Party feels in gameplay. For example:
B/G: Even life matters
While it would definitely have more synergies, it's actually undermining the main reason why this is the RG archetype. RG is still kind of a big creature themed archetype, but the Even life rider was added to this theme (like the mill theme and Rogue theme are being linked in Zendikar Rising for instance) because the set didn't feel enough like a life-matters set at common. Since commons are built on a shard system of archetypes, I really need the Even life theme to stay part of the ally-coloured archetypes cycle. It's the one instance where the mechanical theme is not helping the colour pair as much as the set theme as a whole.
TBA - 4BW
Creature - Angel
Flying
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may return up to two target Cleric cards from your graveyard to your hand.
3/3 or 4/4
TBA - 1BW
Creature - Cleric
Angels you control have vigilance / flash / lifelink.
3, T, Sacrifice a Cleric: Search your library for an Angel card, then shuffle your library and put that card on top.
2/3
TBA - BW
Creature - Cleric
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may exile (or sacrifice) ~. If you do, search your library for an Angel card, reveal that card, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
1BW, Return ~ from exile to your graveyard (or Exile ~ from your graveyard): Target Angel you control gets +3/+3 (or +2/+2) and gains first strike until end of turn.
2/2
For the WB Angels & Clerics archetype, I would like to try something a bit new by making sure each pay-off always rewards you for having either a Cleric or an Angel, but becomes stronger if you have both. So, if we take the designs you proposed above:
1st design — It only rewards you for playing Cleric cards, there is no additional value for having Angels in your deck. The spirit of the archetype would be something more like this:
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, choose one —
• Return target Cleric card from your graveyard to your hand.
• Return target Angel card from your graveyard to your hand.
This way you get value for having either a Cleric or an Angel in the graveyard, and you get more value by having both.
2nd design — I like the last ability as a way to weave the two tribes together and produce this additional synergy value of putting the two together in your deck. Ideally the first ability would also boost your Clerics though, so it does offer some value if you're playing a bunch of Clerics.
3rd design — Oppositely to the first design, this one only rewards you for playing Angels. It would need an incentive for playing other Clerics.
_
That's for the philosophy of how this archetype would be enabled and would offer an edge when correctly played. As for the type of reward that would be granted, I'd be interested in going the "Inquisitor way" with this WB archetype and have a stronger focus on removal when possible, a bit like the Human tribe on Ikoria.
___
On the other hand, I'm not sure what the reward of the Renewal archetype is going to be in BG. I was trying to get a mix of control by removal and bleeder effects in WB (both directional enchantments were meant to slowly wither your opponent's life total). Whatever the archetype strategy is to win, it has to work with end of turn triggers preferably. An archetype focused on small incremental value might be the way to go.
It's probably a good idea to implement the change in archetypes before continuing into adjusting Red (and especially Green), so I'm going to take some time to think about it a bit more ^^
1. In white, cut Reborn Faerie and Radiant Champion for a Cleric / Angel payoff and probably another card for serran life. I'd also suggest making Charging Statue a french vanilla 2/1 with first strike.
2. In black, I'd make Serran Inquisitor pay 3 life to have an opponent lose 3 life. While this is the same practically with Renewal, it helps reinforce this theme of "3 life", and I'd cut Heresy for an on-theme removal spell for either archetype, since Heresy doesn't seem particularly supportive or good for any archetype. The other cuts to black to support the Angel / Cleric archetype is down to you.
3. In green, I'd give Insectoid Guard some kind of pump ability that gives it +3/+3, just to have an emergency way to enable Renewal if needed. For the most part, Green has a decent amount of Renewal payoffs.
It's quite weird to introduce a subtype called "Ranger" in a set and not have the card with "Ranger" in the title be a Ranger, don't you think?
I don't believe that Ranger needs to actually be a new type introduced in this set as scout already takes that role better, but since it is, Crafty Ranger should be a Ranger.
1. Reborn Faerie is also part of an important cycle at common that introduces the Renewal mechanic so it can't be cut without being replaced by a creature with a similar pattern, I'm afraid.
Ah, there must have been some kind of confusion. The ranger subtype is not meant to be added to Rezatta since it bears no importance for the set (unlike Art, for instance). It's just a mistake I tend to make, tell me if you find any creature with the Ranger subtype somewhere, it's supposed to be a Scout xD
I feel like the Angel and Cleric payoff at common could be very simple, such as an Angel/Cleric that says "Clerics/Angel spells you cast cost 1 less to cast.", or if the spell also needs to be a removal spell, something like "As an additional cost to cast ~, you may reveal an Angel card from your hand" with a tacked on reward for revealing the angel card, like gaining life or creating a Cleric token. It seems very hard to hide the archetype like the other enemy colored archetypes.
As for replacing Self-Confidence, any renewal spell would be decent. Maybe a pump spell that gives +2/+2 and a keyword, but gives +4/+4 if renewal was triggered that turn? Alternatively, some type of "Revive" effect (The card) or land recursion effect that becomes a Regrowth effect if you trigger renewal.
I'm throwing things at a wall in terms of ideas, but I hope one of them sticks.
[NAME] - 1BB
Creature - Human Cleric
Whenever a Cleric or Angel you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
1/3
We have a similar card in Black already that is less parasitic (Council of Traitors) and having two would be a bit too much for the set, I'm afraid. If it ends up too strong and we want to make it more parasitic, I think it would fit the UB Art tribal better because of the focus "leaves the battlefield" triggers.
@Potato13
It's ok, enemy archetypes don't need to be super hidden, the main way the set hides them is by not having two directional cards at common so you can't connect the dots
I was thinking of reworking the entire suite of black removal spells. Here they are right now:
That's actually one more than usually needed, but I felt Heresy was a bit necessary since Death Row plays really slow. So here's my idea for the redesign:
1) Angelic Kiss remains the same, it's actually the base on which the rest of the removals are built around.
2) Death Row becomes a 5-mana sorcery murder with upsides. This way, we don't need Heresy to support the black removal and can drop it as well. Since UB Art needs some more incidental Art creatures, I went back to a previous design:
3) Moving Farewell has to go since it was the directional WB Renewal card. To replace it, we need a cheap (1-2 mana) conditional removal that specifically isn't aimed at creatures with power 2 or less to avoid overlapping with Angelic Kiss. We can transform it into the directional Angel & Clerics card — an opportunity to reinforce the removal-heavy gameplay intended for the archetype. Here are two examples of possible designs:
This leaves us with one empty slot. Since there are no enchantment at common in Black anymore, I figured it would be a good idea to make an aura or equipment to replace the slot left by Death Row. Looking at what's missing in Black from the as-fan discussion, we could use a "whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may pay 1 life" enabler for BR. So here's a concept:
On an unrelated note, I wanted to get rid of the "Whenever an Art you control attacks" trigger on Spirit of the Ballet for a while now. The card is meant to be a support for the serran life archetype before the UB Art one, and the trigger was sticking out like a sore thumb next to the signature "whenever an Art enters or leaves the battlefield under your control". I just changed "an Art" into "one or more creatures":
___
For the green pump spell, I'd like the renewal bonuses to work post-combat at common so you can always enable them with combat damage; the +4/+4 wouldn't qualify. But maybe with +1/+1 counters instead, it would still be interesting post-combat:
If we go that route, the second green pump spell is also 2-mana though, so it would need to change as well. I think I'd prefer to have a bigger than +2/+2 pump spell to complement Self-Confidence so let's go up to 3-mana. Here's a revised version (before/after):
However, I have another possible plan. From the as-fan discussion above, I'd be interested in having a noncreature masterwork spell in both blue and green at common. Because of the nature of the masterwork mechanic, I was thinking that they could be pump spells. Something like "Masterwork. Creatures you control get [BONUS A]. Your masterwork gets [BONUS B]" for instance. If so, we could use the slot left by Self-Confidence for the masterwork pump spell, and add the blue one in place of Dive Deeper. Something like this for instance:
For the renewal slot, there are multiple options to add a Renewal rider somewhere on a green common (Watercoloured Guide, Endangered Winterhowl, Serran Evangelist — I'd be interested in moving the discover on a White card, Angelic Revelation, Through the Dirt). But to decide which path to go on, we first need to take a step back and define how the new archetypes are supposed to win. I don't have it right now, but I'll post a follow-up explaining what are the cards that are going to be removed following the change in archetypes, and what are our options to replace them.
W/U Second Spell - Attempts to get out a Thunder Drake or good uncommon and protect it / let it swing the game. Otherwise the deck should be playing red, which provides removal, tricks and general good creatures to back up the archetype.
U/B Art - Attempt to generate tempo with stuff like Inkborn Hunter and Breathing Waltz, while leveraging the 2-for-1's and removal spells that black has. A Green splash is viable if one gets 2-3 copies of Marble Maiden or a green bomb.
B/R Life Payment - This is Cheeky Performer:The Archetype. Grab as many copies of it and Sparks as possible, in addition to generic red aggro cards. The deck works because of the signpost and Cheeky Performer, not much else for B/R to work with.
R/G Even Life Total - There's one generally mediocre 5-drop in red that supports this, and the only true good support card is Endangered Winterhowl. Most of the time, this will just be a stompy deck that uses decent commons or will be an even life total deck that relies on the uncommons.
G/W Serran Life - Has a surprisingly powerful signpost uncommon, but otherwise this becomes a decent if unimpressive ramp / Renewal Midrange deck. Can also become a go-wide aggro deck.
W/B Clerics and B/G Renewal - N/A so far.
G/U Masterwork - The masterwork synergy is fine, but hampered by the lack of good things to put the masterwork buffs on at common. Like the rest of the hidden archetypes, primarily focused on uncommons.
U/R Discover - Red is really good and will make up the bulk of the archetype. Blue still provides some decent cards, value and tempo plays, albiet not that much synergy with discover.
R/W 2 Power or Less - Ditto, to a lesser extent. The cards and colors themselves are better than the bulk of discover and masterwork cards, the creatures less parasitic, eta. This will obviously be a red aggro deck, but one with a lot of late game and possible good value.
(Keep in mind, I'm still using the commons from the front page as a basis for these archetypes.)
On another note, something that would be neat is if the set reprinted Fallen Angel or Bond of Flourishing at uncommon to support the newly added themes. I'd also consider reprinting Gift of Paradise.
Eradicate Heresy seems very bad, even in the archetype it's made for. It's generally a bad Fourth Bridge Prowler or Fungal Infection; waiting until turn 4 to play the spell leaves you with a Disfigure most of the time, a card that benefits from being playable turn 1 or turn 2.
I'd suggest using the idea of making you reveal a cleric / angel card from your hand. Alternatively, there's a few interesting ideas that I've had:
TBA - {B}{X}
Instant
~ costs {1} less to cast for each Angel and Cleric you control.
Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
TBA - {B}{X}
Sorcery
You may pay {B} and reveal a Cleric (or Angel) card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost. If you do, X becomes equal to 2.
Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn.
I like Artistic Transgression, but Artistic Diversion feels clunky and the -2/-0 effect generally clashes with the timing of your masterwork gaining hexproof.
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/soul-of-solace
Your white common. (Is this what you wanted, @ningyounk ?)
That's the spirit, but the main difficulty here will be to find a spot to add this incidental serran life gain in an already cramped common skeleton ^^ That card is fine in a vacuum, but what to remove in its place? We'll need to spend some time examining what already existing cards have room for a little boost, and what cards among them have the most affinity with archetypes that would be interested in some incidental serran life.
FourEyesIsAFish@SpellPiper2213
We did finish the common skeleton but it doesn't mean it will stay this way forever. As we make our way to higher rarities, the new cards we add will require to go back to the lower rarities and align some stuff. For instance, the apparition of a new Angels & Clerics tribal archetype during the process of designing uncommons will shake things up quite a bit at common. There's a list of things we need to change at the beginning of page 19 of this thread, The-DM was right in that we need one more common card that gains serran life ^^
@Potato13
1) On Potential reprints:
• Fallen Angel: I think a free sacrifice outlet hints a bit too heavily at an aristocrat archetype. While Black always need a few sacrifice outlets, I believe we can use that slot for something more synergistic.
• Bond of Flourishing and Gift of Paradise: The concepts could fit but, since we have a very limited number of slots that can utilise the serran life mechanic, I want life gain cards to gain serran life whenever possible, which will limit potential reprints of life gain cards in the set. Functional reprints using serran life might be on the table, however.
2) On Eradicate Heresy:
It does make a lot of sense to use hand reveals in the context of a spell aimed at the first few turns, that sounds like a good call.
I really like your first concept (I assume it's supposed to get -X/-X?), X spells are red-flagged on principle at common, but it's still a very cool variation on Death Wind and I'd be interested in trying it. My only bemol is that the slot is aimed at a weak but early interaction spell so I would have liked it to start at 1-mana = -1/-1 and have the rate becoming worse instead of improving as you sink more mana into it. Here are your version and a variation on that idea — it's wordy but I like how it scales:
Your second concept is a bit convoluted for a common, I'm not sure it's worth the complexity points. The fact that it also defaults to -2/-2 is not ideal as this competes a bit with Angelic Kiss.
3) On Artistic Diversion:
I'd argue that giving opponents' creatures -2/-0 is basically a better "your creatures get +0/+2", though we could also go that route if you think shrinking looks weird. I went this way as it has some more interesting utility outside of protecting your masterwork and it's more in colour pie than a buff for blue. I see it as a kind of weird modal spell ^^
This map of the best strategies will be very useful later down the line, thanks a lot. The analysis does touch a bit on power level so we'll be using that in combination with the first playtest at uncommon to align the different archetypes power wise. Right now, we do have a more structural question to tackle first: how to design roads to victory for each archetype in a way that makes them feel distinct.
1) WB Renewal had a bleeder-style of winning, slowly chipping away at the opponent's life total:
That's a small flyier generator, a small repeatable drainer and a big drainer to be replaced. Now that we're switching to Angels/Clerics tribal, I have made a list of other cards that I think could be played in this archetype, to get a sense of what direction they're pushing towards. I mostly gathered Angel/Cleric cards and removal:
I don't think the bleeder strategy is going to work anymore (outside of Serran Inquisitor), so I was thinking of making UB Art the bleeder deck, and maybe add a touch of mill to go with it. There's a pretty clear affinity for serran life with Cleric cards like Serran Priestess, Inspiring Archpriest, Serran Inquisitor or Golden Gates Inquisitor all interacting with it. There is a bit of Go Wide synergies in white, but mostly I think the characteristic way of winning for this archetype is going to be through big flying angels. I'll make sure that the GW archetype gives some room in that area by maybe focusing more on the pump aspect as the win condition.
We've got some unblockable creatures, a touch of removal and a big life loss machine. The new BG Renewal archetype has a few Renewal cards to work with and a ton of cards that can enable Renewal in black/green. Let's see what available strategies they are pointing to:
There's a bit of everything, but it's pretty value-oriented with a touch of card draw and I feel there's a possible focus on ramp that might work here. If we restrain the RG archetype to a more aggro-y gameplay with above-the-curve creatures, the BG archetype fit as a slightly more grindy archetype but offering the possibility of going even bigger in the long term. Also, that would fill the slot left by the +1/+1 counters theme pretty organically. So I'm thinking growing creatures and value engines for the BG Renewal rewards.
On that note, I think we need to add two more directional renewal cards to black and green that are not part of the other cycle. I haven't finished yet, but I'm currently exploring this:
A• Transforming the current Renewal uncommon cycle into an all-enchantment cycle with an ability that creates a life swing + a renewal ability that triggers at the end of your turn, on the same model as Council of Traitors and Warming Prayers but for all colours.
B• Adding a new renewal slot in each of black and green. I was thinking maybe something very loud like "If the sum of all life gained and lost this turn is 3 or more [EFFECT A]. If that sum is 7 or more, [EFFECT B]." For instance:
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Sorry, that was a particularly long post even for me x) This is just a plan, it's not even the actual proposition for cards. To summarise, the three directional cards in each archetype could be something like this:
1) WB Angels and Clerics tribal (All of these cards need to have very loud synergies with both Angels and Clerics)
- White: A way to make 4/4 Angels.
- Black: A big life loss spell.
- Multicoloured: A very large Angel.
2) BG Renewal (All of these cards need to have Renewal)
- Black: Repeatable card Advantage?
- Green: A way to grow one or more creatures very large.
- Black/Green: A value engine that can get big. Could possibly involve coming back from the graveyard bigger each time?
I don't have the concepts yet unfortunately >.< Also, I will be slightly slower to answer until around Christmas (basically the same as this week) as I'm trying to finish another game design in parallel I promised my friends they would be able to physically try for Christmas xD
For each of the Directional Cards, there are a few ideas to consider:
TBA - 3WW
Creature - Angel
Flying
Whenever ~ and another angel you control attacks, (creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn) OR (Tap target creature an opponent controls).
4WW, T, Exile a Cleric you control: Create a 4/4 white Angel creature token.
3/3
TBA - 4BB
Sorcery
Target opponent loses 4 life. If you control an Angel, that player loses 6 life instead. If you control a Cleric, you gain life equal to the life lost this way.
TBA - 4WWBB
Creature - Angel
Flying
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may return target Cleric card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
When ~ dies, you may exile it. If you do, return target Angel card from your graveyard to the battlefield
5/5
TBA - 1B
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant land
Enchanted land has "Renewal -- T: Draw a card. Activate this ability only if the sum of all life gained or lost this turn is 3 or more and only at any time you could cast a Sorcery."
TBA - 3G
Artifact
T: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.
Renewal -- At the beginning of your end step, if the sum of all life gained or lost this turn is 3 or more, untap ~.
TBA - BG
Creature - Skeleton TBA
Counters remain on ~ as it moves to any zone other than a player's hand or library.
Renewal -- At the beginning of your end step, if the sum of all life gained or lost this turn is 3 or more, you may pay 3BG. If you do, return ~ from your graveyard to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.
2/2
TBA - BG
Creature - Zombie
1B, Sacrifice ~: Draw a card.
Renewal -- At the beginning of your end step, if the sum of all life gained or lost this turn is 3 or more, you may pay 1G. If you do, return ~ from your graveyard to your hand.
2/2
I also have a few other ideas for cards that could be reprinted:
*Angel's Tomb
*Wispweaver Angel
*Devour in Shadow
*Necrogen Scudder
*Serene Steward
*Urbis Protector
I wish you luck with your Christmas Shenanigans, and a Merry Christmas to you.
1) The Slug Festival Problem: Refocusing the gameplay style of each archetype
There is one issue that really started to bother me while I fleshed out the archetypes to make sure they felt different: There are too many slow grindy archetypes. WU is still fiddling around not sure how it wants to win, GW is all about waiting for the alpha strike, WB was a slow bleeder archetype, RG already had implemented slow elements where creatures picked up one +1/+1 counter per turn, and now BG started to head towards a slow grindy style of play as well. It's definitely a personal bias I have with this type of archetypes, so here's the main guideline I came up with to ensure every archetype won't feel the same. I re-affirmed the role of each common shard archetype as a specific playstyle, which means the enemy-coloured pairs should lean towards a mix of the two shards they share. GWB Serran life is the control sluggish shard archetype, so having a slow WB and BG archetypes are fair game. The other archetypes need to be gently pushed in their own direction. In particular, RG needs to be more about over-the curve agression and less about growing slowly. WU needs to be more about snowballing value and less about small incremental effects.
2) BG Renewal: Directional cards
Let's start with the BG Renewal directional cards. I played with the idea of the "If the sum of all life gained and lost this turn is 3 or more, EFFECT A. If that sum is 7 or more, effect B" a little more and it really feels like there's enough material for a cycle at rare actually. I ended up using my idea for the white one for another card you'll see later, but here's an example of what it could look like at rare:
• WHITE: Create two 1/1 clerics → Create a 4/4 Angel with flying
• BLUE: Blink a creature → Create a copy of it
• BLACK: Recuperate a creature card from your graveyard to your hand → Reanimate it onto the battlefield
• RED: Discard a card, draw two cards → Discard your hand, draw seven cards.
• GREEN: Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature → Put two +1/+1 counters on each creature you control.
So instead, I latched on the idea of using the "sum of all life gained and/or lost this turn" as the "trademark" of the archetype and went from there. This pushed towards a more explosive style of gameplay which I found was interesting and helped the set feel less sluggish. I also focused the effects on resilience, this way it helps the GWB Serran life shard in its quest for protecting your life total, and the UBG Art tribal shard thanks to some recursion effects and a general graveyard theme that gives it a more combo-y feel. Here's my try:
In Memoriam obviously replaces its previous instance, so this shouldn't be any problem to fit those cards in the uncommon skeleton.
3) WB Angels & Clerics: Directional cards
I played with the duality of the Cleric and Angel tribes a bit to offer two axes: the cheap clerics should offer a smooth transition into the big angels on the curve, letting the archetype play both on early agression and late-game finishers. I liked the two monocoloured cards I found so the removal aspect is a little lighter than I intended at first, but I put it back on the gold signpost:
Finding space for the two monocoloured cards are going to be much more complicated since the directional cards in white/black were the renewal enchantments and those are still in the skeleton. For the black one, it'll probably be easy to fuse the two sac outlets into one card to make room for the big angel.
4) RG Even life: Directional cards
I didn't like that the previous directional cards outside of the red one were pushing for a slower, grindy gameplay. In addition, the red one was too close to the design of the blue common one for my taste. I wanted to do make the archetype more agressive. The idea is that the creatures would arrive on the battlefield earlier than they should for their size, or bigger than they are originally meant, but they wouldn't really grow after that. I also tried to help the archetype control the parity of your life total a little more, whenever I could fit it onto the card. Here is my redesign for those cards:
They all just replace their original counterparts so no difficulties to integrate them to the skeleton here. Especially since neither red or green have been ironed out yet.
An unforeseen domino effect of these archetypes changing was the place of UB Art in the set. With a lot of removal effects picking up the theme of WB Angels and Clerics, UB Art Tribal started to have redundant effects and its theme of "changing things around them" never really picked up anyways. Since WB left the bleeder archetype open, I repurposed the UB Art tribal archetype towards its core combo component, dropping the heavy removal aspect in the process, while retaining some of the tempo effects. The idea now is that UB Art should be able to win without attacking if it wants to. I also added more ties to the graveyard, which should play well with its new BG enemy branch.
Those won't be any problem to swap in the skeleton but they aren't exactly the same mana cost as their previous counterparts so their will be need for a few mana curve adjustements later.
6) WU Second spell: Directional cards
Finally, I didn't really like the previous directional cards for the WU archetype because they were exploring a "Whenever you cast a spell beyond your first" rider that pushed for a regular storm archetype with a lot of little incremental value. I wanted to re-center the archetype around the second spell specifically, so you would even consider keeping your third spell for later. Hence, I had a try at something a bit more explosive. I did however let the gold signpost untouched, I think it does the job really well at providing mana, life, card advantage and a recursive first spell to cast.
Again, this will require a bit of reshuffling mana wise. As I'm looking at them right now, I just realised they are all 3 mana so the faerie is definitely going to have to move somewhere else on the curve, maybe one of the other spells as well.
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Potato13
I'm not going to make a detailed analysis of each card since I've posted alternative version right above, but I definitely took inspiration at the start so thanks a lot!
For the reprints:
• Angel's Tomb: Could be part of the artifact uncommons, though only if we need some specific cards aimed at WB Angels and Clerics because its level of synergies with other archetypes is low. It's also a bit weird flavourfully in comparison to how Art creatures are treated in this set.
• Wispeaver Angel: The recursion archetype is centered on UBG so I'm purposefully avoiding blink effects in white for this set ^^
• Devour in Shadow: It totally could work if we decide that BR needs a little boost, but as a functional reprint since regenerate isn't a thing anymore. Also, with Feed the Swarm now at common, there might be room for a little boost.
• Necrogen Scudder: That's totally in theme for BR if we decide aggro needs more support cards.
• Serne Steward: I was totally thinking of this card for white, no kidding xD I think we need such a variation on Ajani's Pridemate in the set. Since we've passed the ironing of White, my plan was to put an Ajani's Pridemate variation in green to be more original and synergise with the now outdated BG +1/+1 counters theme.
• Urbis Protector: That's quite perfect actually ^^ If we find room for it and we aren't swimming in 6-mana angels already, it's definitely high on the waiting list.
For B/G, Sudden Bloom feels a little too strange as a combat trick that relies on something that happens post-combat, and Effigy of Solstice feels too easily recurrable and potent to be an uncommon.
For W/B, I'm pretty sure "Arbiter" is misspelt for Arbiter of Serra. Messenger of Serra feels much more like a Rare than an uncommon - the combination of a cost reduction effect and a +1/+1 Counter effect is just supremely complex for an ucommon. It could be upshifted to be a rare 3 mana 2/2, because at 2 mana it feels potentially too good.
For R/G, the archetype looks good so far. I would like to entertain the idea of changing Frostbreath Dragon though - perhaps a 4 mana 3/3 Dragon with Flying and Haste that, when it enters, if you have an even life total, it gains +2/+2 until end of turn? Enables Renewal much more easily and consistently for non-even life decks.
For U/B, Spilled Ink feels a bit abnormal at uncommon. Most other cards that say "Cast ~ spells at any time you could cast an instant" and have flash are printed at rare in Standard-Legal Sets, like Yeva and Shimmer Myr. The only uncommon card I can think of that provides the effect continuously is Raff Capashen, which also doesn't have all of the extra text. Spilled Ink also feels a bit potent at uncommon - it allows all of your arts to at the very least chump block and trade into attackers, while also being a 2 mana "destroy target attacking creature". Leaving the battlefield and granting deathtouch is also quite unusual. Sunken Concerto could also afford to only be able to activate its ability at any time you could cast a sorcery - it blanks removal spells and certain, chump-blocked death, which is rather potent.
For U/W, Cry for Faith and Faerie Analyst are cool, simple as that. I do feel like Soul of the Library is a tad too similar to Dovin's Acuity, but that's a nitpick. I also feel like instead of "If this is the second spell you cast this turn", it could say "If this isn't the first spell you cast this turn", but that's more personal preference on my part. It's just feelbad when you cast the first spell, but an opponent murders something in response, leading to the unfun dilemma of "Should I counterspell that or cast the card that I can't get the maximum benefit out of anymore?"