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Atlantis-Themed Set
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Fortunately the "mancy" part in electomancy means magic can magic will make electricity do things it not otherwise physically possible underwater. Like stay in a coherent curving bolt that seeks a target and just shocks them. Which just as a Pyromancer makes fire so things it should not in the air.
feralitator Cards are looking good. It would be great to find art of underwater elemental lava things like that but throwing out great gouts of steam and black smoke. The mermaid is suspiciously out of water.
I like the drowned subtheme. n=made a "Burning" thing in the second of my Viking sets to make a Fire/ Ice thing with "Burning" and snow being opposites.
I know you likely thought of most of these but I think these are general idea for new type concept like this
- mana special in some way I know why you don't want that. And I share the hurting with you on NOT having a "burning" mana symbol" or example "Burning Mana" carries a risk of old - mana burn. I have to re-do those lands and make the reminder text oracle text one day.
-You could avoid that two ways:
1) add a clause to the land that makes them but never specify the mana a drowned. Suppose if these lands had a man-burn with a condition that they don;t untap on your next turn if you fail to use the man?
- Care about "Drowned" cards - counting up the number is the simplest way.
- Use it so a spell or ability can target or affect Drowned and non-drowned things differently.
- Have using Drowned mana act like a kicker. You don't need a mana symbol. Just "If Drowned mana was used to play this...." You could also make a bimodal spells that have one effect "above water" and a different one "below water"
Drowned counter iseas:
- I made a "Burning" counter that makes any permanent it is on a Burning one. It removes and is removed by the snow counter in exactly the same was +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters cancel out. If they ever interacted I imagine a Drowned and Burning counters would do the same if they ever ran into each other.
- Use them to track the swelling potency of something - making the number of downed counters on a card matter. It's a good way to measure deep sea "crushing pressure".
Examples:
White - maybe it can act like a purifying water thing, removing enchantments?
Blue - You might make a "Drowned" Counter on a land work like a modified Flood counter " A land with a Drowned counter on it becomes an Island in addition t its other types."
Black - a "Bottomless Abyss" enchantment creature which puts a Drowned counter on it's target and makes them count as -1/-1 counters.
Red - effect that destroys an artifact when it has a number of Drowned counters on it equal or more than its casting cost.
Perhaps cards that are, by themselves, drowned permanents are immune to some spells that can otherwise have a power bump to extra benefit.
I only have the bare bones but "burning" examples that may be food for thought are here:
https://mtgcardsmith.com/user/mmm3creator2/sets/56967
I don't think that drowned cards would need some form of drawback, as I don't think that they would be producing any special mana, like snow lands, and I don't think that they would have special abilities (especially since there would probably be basic drowned lands). As a comparison, the only drawback to snow lands is that you can only use the snow lands in your limited pool for limited games, which means that there isn't any drawback to snow mana in-game. So, I don't think that there would be a reason to give drowned cards a drawback.
I was thinking of using some form of counter to signify lands that become drowned lands or lands that are no longer drowned lands. However, this would only be to change the land's supertype, so I don't think that there would be extra uses for these counters or any effects that would want to put more than one of these counters on the same land.
While pyromancy wouldn't really work underwater, I don't think that any of the red factions are really underwater-based and would care about pyromancy. Pirates wouldn't really be underwater at all. Elementals represent volcanoes and land rising from the oceans, which kinda makes them more about lava and magma than pyromancy. Sea Dragons (If they become the third red faction), despite normal dragons breathing fire, would probably not breathe fire (As unusual as it may be for a red dragon, I think that it makes sense for dragons that would live underwater). There could probably be a sea dragon breathing electricity on one card, but I don't think that electricity would need to be a primary thing for red in this set.
I don't think that the mermaid is unusually out of water. A good number of pictures with mermaids and merfolk display them sitting on a rock or something just out of water.
A mermaid out of water in an Atlantis set where there are almost no places out of water is odd.
(This would probably be a drowned enchantment)
I had two card ideas with the same theme, so I used the same art:
I'll try to think of other ideas for this mechanic later. Especially some common and uncommon ones.
Also, just for research purpose, I don't know if you've looked into the Legends of Runeterra TCG but they have a region centered on the sea called Bilgewater. You might want to take a look at it for inspiration, they have pirates, underwater monsters and even two mechanics that are close to the themes you used with Sunken! They basically have a self-mill theme (they call it tossing) and the reward are cards with "Deep" that have effects once you have under a certain number of cards left in your deck.
I actually was considering hideaway, but I wanted to try a slight variant, just in case I wanted to put it on enchantments (since enchantments don't usually tap), or if I wanted to take more than one card. Either way, I'm just not sure if I want that mechanic, I feel like there are only so many cards where it mechanically and thematically works.
I do play Legends of Runeterra from time to time, but I somehow didn't think of Bilgewater at all when thinking about this.
A deep-like effect might be really interesting. I feel like the magic version could look to see if you have 15 or less, but I feel like it could be better if it looks for 10 or less cards in your deck. Since deck size isn't one that most players (other than mill decks) really care about, and I don't want to make checking the number of cards in your deck a tedious task, but I feel like being aware of deck sizes could make for an interesting mechanic. Something like this:
(I know it should say "6 damage to any target instead")
The main problem you're going to face with a Deep-like mechanic though is that it's really bothersome to count the number of cards left in your library. That's why you only find these kind of mechanics on games you can only play online, not in paper. Magic usually counts the number of cards in the graveyard instead for this reason (see the Threshold mechanic). But it was more to let you know a similar theme existed in other games, what I really like is more the flavour of going "deep" in your deck x) Maybe there's a way to have a similar flavour in your set, for instance, the bottom card of your library could be "the Deep/Abyss" or something like that.
Dive - Reveal the bottom card of your library, if the revealed card is a _______ card, then [effect]...
or
Dive - Reveal the bottom card of your library, [effect], where X is the mana value of the revealed card.
(Maybe it sends the revealed card to the graveyard to prevent the possibility of revealing the same high-cost card a bunch of times)
Here are some of my ideas:
-If the revealed card is a land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped
-Exile/destroy target creature with mana value less than or equal to the revealed card.
If the revealed card is a creature, deal damage to target creature equal to the revealed creature's power.
-Return target creature from your graveyard to your hand. If the revealed card is ______, Return that creature from your graveyard to the battlefield instead.
-If the revealed card is an instant or sorcery card with mana value X or less, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.
-Deal X damage to target creature or planeswalker, where X is the mana value of the revealed card.
-When [cardname] attacks, If the revealed card is a creature with power X or less, put it onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. If a creature is put onto the battlefield this way, return it to your hand at the beginning of your next end step.
-If the revealed card is a ________, put two +1/+1 counters on this.
-If the revealed card is a creature, target creature has base power and toughness equal to the base power and toughness of the revealed card.
-Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one into your hand, and one into your graveyard. If the revealed card is a ______, draw two cards instead.
-A creature that would be sacrificed at the end of your turn, unless the revealed card is a ________.
-If the revealed card is a _____, put that card into your hand.
-If the revealed card is a _____, create a creature token.
-[effect], if the revealed card is a ______, repeat this process (This would work better if the revealed card is sent to the graveyard).
-If the revealed card is a nonland card, You gain X life, where X is the mana value of the revealed card. Otherwise, you gain 4 life.
-Tap target creature. If the revealed card is a _____, that creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
-If the revealed card is a land, create a treasure token. Otherwise, create X treasure tokens, where X equals the mana value of the revealed card.
-Target player discards a card. If the revealed card is a _____, that player discards two cards instead.
-If the revealed card is a _____, untap this.
-Effect based on the revealed card's color.
-If you revealed a _____ card from a dive effect this turn, this costs {2} less to cast.
Probably not all of them will work, but I like some of these.
So this is a possible version for Dive, though it still needs some work. I'm not quite sure if I want it to be exclusively a cast effect, but for now, it is. The "Then, you may change this spell's targets" is there in case you don't get the result you expected.
For example, your opponent has a 5/5 and a 3/3. You target the 5/5 with this, hoping to put a card with a mana value of 5 into your graveyard. However, you put a land card into your graveyard. The ability to change the spell's target allows you to change the target to the 3/3, so you aren't wasting a spell just because you were unlucky.
Obviously it isn't worded the best.
Another Example but for a creature.
Again, the wording will need to be adjusted.
I actually didn't think of additional costs, so (after slightly altering the wording) I think that might work. Here's the original burn spell I had with the correct wording (I think?):
I'm gonna make some more card ideas with this wording later.
Here's another dive card that I think came out really well.
Dive (To dive, put the bottom card of your library into your graveyard.)
In addition, instead of saying "If the card you dove for", cards can say:
"Whenever a ______ card is put into your graveyard from your library, [effect]."
or if an instant or sorcery,
"If a _______ card was put into your graveyard from your library this turn, [effect]."
I feel like raid would make a lot of sense here, with the whole pirate theme going on. Unless someone thinks that there could be a different mechanic instead, I think it's safe to say that raid will be in the set. I'll think of some ideas for raid cards just to make sure that there is enough design space for it tomorrow.
So dive represents the deep abyss of the ocean, but there is also going to be a volcanic elemental theme. I've been trying to think of different ways to represent this theme, such as a keyword similar to Leyline of Combustion, or a mechanic similar to monstrosity, but I don't feel like anything has clicked just yet.
These are two legendary pirates I had in mind:
A legendary skeleton pirate that can self-resurrect if you have attacked this turn. I think that there could be an ETB effect that might give a special combat step that would allow only certain creatures to attack. Or, it could resurrect other creatures tapped and attacking whenever it attacks.
A rat pirate that would probably be some discard-related creature. Probably something like Raiders' Wake second ability on a stick.
I do have a few ideas for other raid cards but not many:
- A spell that copies itself or allows you to choose multiple modes if you have attacked.
- A spell that deals damage but deals X damage instead if you have attacked.
- An enchantment that deals 1 (or 2) damage to an opponent(s) at the end of the turn if you have attacked.
- A creature that gets a +1/+1 counter at the end of the turn if you have attacked.
- A spell that would force each player to sacrifice a creature, but doesn't require you to sacrifice a creature if you have attacked.
- A card that would have an effect in one color, but has an effect in a different color if you have attacked. (Ex: Life gain normally, dealing damage if you attacked)
I think a lot of these ideas are replacement-type effects, which maybe shouldn't all be used since a fair amount of dive effects will probably be replacement effects (I don't think that everything should have a replacement effect).
A few quick comments as I pass by:
• Dive is somewhat flavourful but it doesn't do anything that mill can't do in this form, so it won't lead you to any particularly original effect. I would probably wait to see if there are interesting synergies before committing to "mill the bottom card of your library" as the basis of the set.
• If you keep it as-is, you can remove the first two words of the reminder text to gain space when it follows the keyword directly. E.g:
- Dive. (Put the bottom card of your library into your graveyard.)
- Dive, then draw a card. (To dive, put the bottom card of your library into your graveyard.)
• Raid is a mechanic that has already been used twice, is likely to come back again in an official MTG set, has been associated with Pirates before, and has limited design space (as the effects need to be relevant post-combat, which rules out pump effects, etc.) Because of all this, it might be better to look for something more original for the set ^^