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Rezatta Set Design - Uncommons Part 2
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1) About Marble Maiden:
I would like to align every Art-matters card on this "Whenever ~ or another Art you control enters the battlefield or attacks and isn't blocked, EFFECT" idea, but it probably would be too strong for common in the case of Marble Maiden as it is right now, so I think the token should go. However, I would like to keep a card that produces two Arts at common. I looked at other cards where there could be room for it and I figured Discover should probably not be as prominent in Green anyways so I think we can put the token on Serran Evangelist (watch out, I switched the illustrations for Marble Maiden just so it still shows two creatures on the card that produces two creatures):
BEFORE:
AFTER:
2) About Soothing Lullaby:
As I said earlier in the feedback, Soothing Lullaby was a late addition that turned out to be pivotal to the UB archetype. But It was a bit on the strong side (often tapping the whole board repeatedly turn after turn) and the ability loss was problematic with some Avatar in particular. So I was thinking of making it a bit more expensive but adding an untap option to open some combo potential (it might need to say nonland, we'll see): (before/after)
It is a gargantuan amount of work, but I'm also taking it slow, I'm just doing this whenever I need a break from my work etc. (you can tell I was really bored with my formation today because I posted a lot xD) I actually think once you've done it properly it probably becomes much quicker the next time over. One of the mistakes I keep making is not wanting to playtest soon enough. Playtesting is a bit annoying, I have to make the cards, make the decks, play them against each other, etc. But last time we spent like a week talking about White card draw and then in the span of one 5-minutes game I played the card and was like "yeap, this is unplayable garbage, moving on" xD
The one change I made was making sure the flying and trample ones were not both 5-mana, especially because blue and green are supposed to be the most important masterwork commons. I ended up pushing the trample one down to 3-mana. Ironically, I had to reshuffle a few cards at common in green and ended up changing the Art cards I just remade right above >.<
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Now, uncommon is a much tougher nut to crack. There were multiple issues. Some cards were too strong, some cards were not enough, and in general the blue and green ones, which were supposed to be the core of the archetypes, felt disappointing. I really liked the red one, though it was a bit too strong, and I think that's because how the saboteur trigger (Whenever your masterwork deals combat damage to a player) was synergising nicely with the archetype. I think I'll be down to try the whole cycle at uncommon as this:
Masterwork
+ Grants combat-relevant ability depending on colour
+ Whenever your masterwork deals combat damage to a player, effect depending on colour.
So, what I'm going to do now is take some time to study how the skeleton of Strixhaven works as there are some very clear primary and secondary themes in each college. Then, I'll try to define primary and secondary themes in each ally colour of Rezatta more clearly, and those will inform the effects we put on the saboteur triggers of the masterwork cycle.
Sure, you can submit flavour text ideas, but please keep in mind a few things:
- The effects of the cards aren't locked in yet and are likely to change.
- The names and illustrations are placeholders. This means that, once we're done designing the effects, we'll take some time to redistribute all the illustrations and choose the final names accordingly.
So, if you have a good idea for flavour text, you need to be careful that it's not referencing a combination of effects, names and/or illustrations. Ideally it would be tied only to a name, illustration or general effect concept so the flavour text can still work if the illustration is moved to another cards, or the effect of the card is changed a little bit ^^
1) Making UB more diverse
I was looking at some bi-coloured combinations that had two very distinct strategies supported in Draft and quickly realised that it's usually because of how faction sets work. For instance, in Ravnica you can play an agressive Izzet deck with creatures and pump spells or a more combo-y Izzet deck that pings the opponent almost incidentally as you're churning through your deck. Similarly, in Strixhaven some Quandrix cards will care about +1/+1 counters (they're more aggro-y) while others care about controlling six or more lands (they're more controlling). I think it's super cool but the reason they can do that is because they only care about five colour combinations. Those sets compensate for the lack of five directional archetypes in the missing colour combinations by doubling down on the number of supported themes in the available combinations, aiming each of them at a separate splash of a third colour.
So my take away was that, since Rezatta isn't a faction set, it needs to be more subtle in the way the archetype branches out. For instance, UB shouldn't probably introduce more directional themes outside of Art. But it should let you the choice to build a more combo-y or agressive version of the Art deck.
2) Making UB more branded
I've made several sets of directional cards to try to steer the archetype in a direction where it feels distinctly like Art and isn't too close to other UB tribes such as Rogues, Faeries, Ninjas and Zombies. It's difficult because the design space in UB isn't that large, so here's what I explored:
a. Focusing on transformation effects. I took inspiration from old Shapeshifter cards. For instance, instead of having a 2/2 get +1/+1 until end of turn, it would become a 3/3 until end of turn. This version allowed for very recognisable effects such as:
- CARDNAME becomes a 3/3 and gains flying until end of turn.
- Target creature's power becomes 0 until end of turn.
- Switch target creature's power and toughness until end of turn.
- Target creature becomes your choice of a 1/1 or a 4/4 until end of turn.
What I liked is that it was quite flavourful and allowed a clear path towards either offensive or defensive effects. What I didn't like was that it had a very limited design space, especially for pay-off cards, that the effects didn't stack, and that it made anything no creature-related like card advantage effects look out of place. I do think that it's a decent lead to get a more branded feel in combination with other tools.b. Focusing on milling. I tried a first version where every Art milled a player when it entered the battlefield and had an effect based on the number of land cards milled this way but it was absolutely terrible on many aspects.
I then spent a couple days trying to twitch the "enters or leaves the battlefield" trigger so it would instead trigger on ETB, death, mill and discard. The problem is that the "proper" way to phrase this would be: "Whenever CARDNAME or another Art you control enters the battlefield or dies or CARDNAME or another Art card is put into your graveyard from anywhere." That's obviously not very practical xD My last attempt at this was: "Whenever CARDNAME or another Art card you own enters the battlefield or is put into your graveyard from anywhere" which is better but not by enough. I ended up shelving the idea for now, maybe the BG archetype can offer the graveyard synergies to make use of the incidental UB mill. Still, I liked the idea that it synergised with Discover since you could mill your cards with it to trigger your Art effects.
c. Focusing on the recursion aspect. My latest version went back to the roots of the archetype. The "leave the battlefield" part of the trigger was playing a bit awkward, what would be a way to replace that in a way that would that would reward blinking and reanimation? I ended up with this template:
- Whenever CARDNAME or another Art enters the battlefield under your control, effect. Additional effect if that Art wasn't cast from your hand.
One of the advantages of this is that it also synergises with discover, though it doesn't synergize with bounce effects (but it's still an ETB effect s it's not that bad either). I also think it makes Art reasonably recognisable. The graveyard synergy potential isn't particularly high though.Here are some examples of cards using this template:
I think I'm going to stay on that at this moment, and decide the best trigger/effects combinations based on how the other archetypes pan out.
I honestly don't really have any ideas at the moment, I'll have to read through this forum to see what people have been doing and what's the current situation...
Hey thanks for stopping by ^^ Right now the situation is a bit tricky because I came back from the first uncommon playtest and there are a lot of pieces that are going to move at once ^^
The main aspect I'm working on right now is diversifying each ally archetype so they have at least two different play styles available in each. I'm testing a lot of different options and combinations, so this may take a while.
I'd really like to help, but I kinda abandoned Magic as a game, which is why I find it difficult to make cards that would appeal your style. Feel free to ask for help though, if you need me.
What we need vary depending on the phase of the design we're on. Right now, we're building uncommons, but we're still shaping the play style of each archetype so bear in mind we're looking for a quantity of interesting options that can be adjusted over a single very specific fully-fleshed card. Basically, it's better to make two text-only cards that are easily modifiable than one beautiful card with flavour text and everything that only works at a specific mana cost with specific stats.
I've playtested a first complete version of the uncommons and came up with a lot of feedback so here's a bunch of things that we need right now by archetype (both commons and uncommons would be useful - you can still share rare/mythic ideas if you think you have something cool):
Art is one of the most exciting things about this set. I am very moved by art and am impressed with this concept in the game.
Are there effects that target creatures but have an additional effect if the creature is art? Is this a space that is good for the set? What colors interact with art the most?
Art in the set is a creature type, as beautiful pieces of Art will spontaneously come to life on Rezatta. The primary colours for Art tribal are blue and black, green is secondary, red and white can have Art creatures but they don't have cards that care about them.
Mechanically, Art's main mechanical theme in the set has been recursion so far. Their signature trigger used to be "Whenever CARDNAME or another Art you control enters or leaves the battlefield". However, it's been playing a bit awkwardly in the latest playtest so I'm trying to refine both their signature trigger but also the type of effects they have access to. For their signature trigger, I'd like to test a "Whenever CARDNAME enters the battlefield, effect. If CARDNAME wasn't cast from your hand, additional effect" template for most Arts, with a few pay-offs that care specifically about other Arts entering the battlefield as well. For the effects, I would like to introduce a bit of a transformation theme if possible (e.g. target creature becomes a 4/4 until end of turn), as I think it's pretty flavourful for Art.
I also want to try a modification of the Masterwork mechanic in the next playtest that makes your masterwork an Art for added synergy, which also plays in the transformation theme.
Cards that have an additional effect if the target is an Art are completely fair game. For instance, we have this at common and it's been doing wonders in playtest:
Uplifting Sonata 1U
Creature - Art Spirit
Flying
When Uplifting Sonata enters
the battlefield, creatures you control
gain flying until end of turn.
If Uplifting Sonata was not cast from
your hand, it enters the battlefield
with power and toughness of 2/2.
1/1
Hey! I've been taking a break, I needed a step back to recharge the creative batteries as the next step is likely going to involve some serious structural changes again.
Ideas for uncommons are still welcome. Specifically, I've been struggling the most with:
- Refining two distinct play styles in WU
- Implementing some kind of infinite three-cards combo in UB Art including at least 1 common and 1 uncommon
- Designing one RG finisher that rewards ramp / serran life synergies and is less oriented towards over-the-curve early plays
- Refining the control branch of GW by adding stuff like a fog card, a card that can block multiple creatures, a protection spell, etc.
- Finding the missing link for WB Angels and Clerics (like Mill for Rogues)
- Finding how to make BG work from scratch
- Finding how to make RW work from scratch
- Finding ways to make GU masterwork stronger and more diversified
pstmdrn
It looks like it could fit, I'd be interested in pushing the aggressiveness blue creatures for both the WU and UB archetypes a bit. The last ability feels weird for memory issues, a +1/+1 counter is probably needed here. I was actually playing with the idea of having a blue card that said "Creatures you control that weren't cast from your hand enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on them" to increase synergy between the UR and UB archetypes (and maybe WU, I'm still contemplating a stronger token theme).
___
As a little teaser, here's a fun design I came up with just yesterday:
This would be used more as a way to control the board. I don't remember if you wanted the WU decks to be aggro and tempo, so if they are, this might not work. But, it could be a cool control tool if that's what you had in mind.
I don't think that WU gets a token strategy often, but I think that it could work, especially if the tokens are fliers since WU has had flying synergies in the past.
These designs are nice and in brand with what the archetype is trying to do, the gold slot is a bit difficult to negotiate (Soul of the Library works really great) so we might consider adjusting them to a monocoloured shell though making Soul of the Library monowhite to make room for a new design is still on the table as well. I really like the first one in particular (minus the discover part which makes it a bit complicated) since I'm trying to fine a way to push the control potential of this colour combination. The second one is also nice but I think it's doubling down on what the archetype is already solid at doing.
For clarification, here are the two play styles I've ben trying to introduce in WU so far:
1) Aggressive value cards: The idea is that your second spell produces two-for-ones to take the upper hand in ressources early and swarm the opponent. The archetype relies quite heavily on little flying creatures to cross the finish line. The poster cards for this archetype would be these (I made a few changes since last time I've shown them to make them more agressive):
I'm still unclear on the trigger by the way, as you can see. "If this is the second spell you cast this turn" makes it more branded compared to regular storm but "If you cast two or more spells this turn" allows blink shenanigans.
For this path, I would like to consider one more "Whenever you cast your second spell each turn" card at uncommon. I was thinking something like this maybe:
2) Disruptive tempo cards: The idea is that you slow down your opponent to go into the late game and then win with a large protected flying threat. This is the path that really isn't there yet in the file and needs help, but there are some seeds that play great and pushed me to want to try to make it work:
I'm pretty sure Painted Augur can work with that path as well, and Cry for Faith could work nicely by producing lifelink blockers at instant speed or providing a finisher. What's really missing are uncommons that are synergistic with that idea. Just one good enabler would really make a difference, I feel. Finding enough room while making sure there aren't too many cards dedicated to a single archetype is also going to be a challenge.
Also, for rare, here's the kind of effects I'm envisioning for the slower version of this archetype:
1) Cry for Faith plays really well but the Cleric/Angel theme is a bit confusing considering the WU theme is science and more importantly the white pay-off common (Biospark Mage) is already a creature on the aggressive side so I'd prefer a noncreature spell that helps the controlling side of the archetype in that slot. I also wanted a repeatable "Whenever you cast your second spell" effect since White didn't have one yet. I ended up making Cry for Faith a Renewal spell, which makes it more of a glue card for all the white archetypes. I then made Soul of the library, the WU card, monowhite since it technically doesn't do anything White can't do on its own. The fact that it can be repeated and therefore draw more cards is playing a bit with the colour pie rules, it might want to be a group hug draw if it's too strong.
2) For the blue pay-off, I'd prefer it as a non-repeatable effect since there's already a blue common one and now a white uncommon one. A creature would also be more balanced since White is a non-creature. However it would be good if Blue brought something to the more agressive side of the archetype and Painted Augur was a bit slow for that. I ended up making an agressive 2-mana creature:
BEFORE / AFTER
3) For the WU multicoloured slot, the previous design ended up in monowhite so I needed a replacement that would, ideally, fit both the agressive and controlling archetype in a subtle way. I toyed a bit with the designs from feralitator, I was particularly into the idea of flash tokens in the end but as I said I think that was a bit too many tokens in the same file, so I ended up with a new concept that both fuels your agression and slows down the opponent:
As a bonus, here are some designs that I put aside in the process:
1) Enable at least one three-cards combo in addition to the global ETB + recursion synergy going on in the set.
2) Adding a more agressive route where you want to actively attack with your Art creatures.
Starting with the combo, here are some ideas I had:
#1: Milling cards equal to your life total:
• Put Gobold in your graveyard.
• Play Sunken Concerto.
• Play In Memoriam targeting Gobold with Renewal enabled.
• Gobold is an Art, it triggers Sunken Concerto, the opponent mills a number of cards equal to your life total plus 3 (from the +1/+1 counters and the static +1/+1).
I wanted the Art type on In Memoriam to matter in at least one combo, so I figured a good way to do that would be to reanimate the biggest creature in the set as an Art and have an effect somewhere that scales with the power or toughness of that creature.
The fact that I changed Gobold's power instead of toughness to be equal to your life total is unrelated to the combo, it's just that I think Green needs a bigger Avatar and this way Blue, which struggles to find an appropriate Avatar, can pick up the "Toughness = life total" effect.
#2: Infinite recursion loop
• Have all three cards on the battlefield.
• Sacrifice Glass Cleric with Serran Officer. You produce 3 serran life.
• Pay the 3 serran life to activate Glass Cleric's ability and reanimate it.
• This triggers Mesmerizing Lullaby, untap Serran Officer. The opponent loses 2 life and you lose 1 life.
• As long as you have more than half your opponent's life total, you can redo this indefinitely.
I wanted an Art reassembling skeleton for the purpose of activating the "If an Art enter the battlefield under your control and wasn't cast from your hand" triggers. I worked my way from there, trying to assemble something that ressembles the Cat Cauldron combo but hopefully a bit less oppressive.
This one does feel a bit weird, I think I'd prefer to focus on ETB shenanigans instead of untapping so it feel more in brand with the Art theme. I'll try something that picks up a blink spell from the graveyard on ETB next time maybe.
After going over all the recursion-matters cards, I realised there's enough loose synergy that an infinite loop combo wasn't needed since there are a ton of recursive combos you can do even if it doesn't end the game in one single turn. So here's where how I distributed things:
1) The recursion enablers:
While playtesting, I realised the deck didn't have a lot of room for too many recursion spells anyways so putting too many cards than blink or reanimate in the set could be a real concern since once the UB player had grabbed a couple of them the rest would just decant to the end of the draft pack with the cards nobody wants. Hence, I mostly stayed on the already existing recursion spells. I just moved the "when this creature dies, return it to the battlefield" effect from green to black, and added the Art Reassembling Skeleton from above at uncommon. While the infinite combo with that card isn't there anymore, I still liked the synergy with BR aggro and I figured paying serran life could be the red thread underlying the WB archetype.So here are the cards that allow recursion shenanigans:
Breathing Waltz: Actually a potentially important combo piece since it can bounce itself to be replayed infinitely as long as you have mana.
Sudden Animation: The corner piece of the whole archetype.
Wavering Exploration: Not its first role but can work as a blink spell in a pinch.
Dancing Wave: Can work as a weird blink spell in many situations.
Vicious Influence: I've switched indestructible with the reanimation effect for the purpose of triggering the new "If it wasn't cast from your hand" signature restriction.
Macabre Waltz: Especially synergistic with the graveyard synergies.
Glass Cleric: A new addition that helps enable the new signature condition of Art.
2) Art-matters cards:
Those are cards that specifically care if you play other Art cards in your deck. I decided to keep them at uncommon, introducing the signature theme of Art through one-time effects at common instead.
Moving Lullaby: I hesitated with the looting effect instead but since the black card is more controlling, I went for a more agressive effect as tapping opposing blockers was one of the most effective ways to win with damage during playtest.
Taken by Beauty: A new addition to bring some more controlling options to the black part of the archetype as well as some noncreature spells.
Sunken Concerto: This is a mix between the old version of the card and the one right above. The first ability supports an agressive playstyle but also synergises with the second ability, which is aimed to be an important combo piece. During playtest, this effect cared about land cards being milled and was underwhelming so I changed it to nonland instead.
3) One-time Art ETB effects:
In addition to the directional cards above, there are a lot of Art that features an ETB ability and, in most cases, a bonus if you satisfy the new signature "If it wasn't cast from your hand" restriction. I've separated them between the controlling ones and the agressive ones so you see how they're distributed:
a) Controlling:
Mosaic Instructor: It's a premium common that is almost always useful, I toyed with multiple options for the bonus but ended up with colorless mana production even if it bends the colour pie a little because that's the most synergistic.
Breathing Waltz: An important tempo advantage. The mill rider is found on other Art cards to allow the deck to win without attacking.
Scriptural Tragedy: I removed the enchantment sacrifice bit to make room for another mill rider.
Sour Pontiff: A new addition meant to offer a decent Reanimation target at common in in UB colours.
Immortalize in Stone: An expensive removal spell with the advantage of enabling the signature restriction of the directional cards.
b) Agressive:
Only two new cards added in this section but I hope that, in combination with the more controlling cards and cards from the surrounding archetypes, it will be enough to be a playable option in Limited:
Glasswings: Completely new design that can really pack a punch in Blue and also serves as a weird removal/tempo spell sometimes.
Inkborn Hunter: A modification of the previous design in this slot, it now acts as a pump spell and picks up the indestructible rider that was dropped by Vicious Influence.
This doesn't have "If you lost life this turn" in its text box, but it still works for that same archetype.
I'm not sure if you need any more removal, and I also think this one is a little boring, but I think this could work.
I was going to suggest a card that costs less if you lost life this turn, but since serran life already gives you mana for paying life, I think that idea would be way too powerful.
I'm super wary of any effect that scales with the amount of life you lost this turn because there are already existing cards that have "Pay N life" as a cost so you can easily pay any amount of life whenever you want. Rezatta itself has a white uncommon like this to entice RB players to try and splash white. Because of this, the red card would actually play as "When ~ enters the battlefield, if you have more life than target opponent, they lose the game."
I definitely think that a more controlling version of RB would involve a removal spell that gets better if you lost life. New Insults (I really want to get rid of that name by the way xD) kind of fills that role in red but a more directional design is probably necessary. However killing two creatures instead of one is a tad too swingy. Maybe something like a variation over Fatal Push would be more appropriate, for instance. I wasn't particularly impressed with the play pattern of the black uncommon removal that cared about creatures having different power and toughness. Since it's the one effect I was most excited to test for this little subtheme, I think I'm going to drop the "nonsquare stats" vertical cycle idea altogether so that would leave an open slot for a RB-directed removal spell at uncommon.
Looking at the file, I also have issues with how strong the red enchantment is at common. I think it would be a good opportunity to move the direct damage to player effect to a different card and that's exactly the kind of effect that would work well with a version of RB that would be less focused on creatures. Here's an example: