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The Great Cardsmith Designer Search -- Stage 4: Vertical Cycles
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I can't track it back, it's possible it was in a Great designer Search or M-Files, but I remember there was a design where you would put a lot of permanents at once on the battlefield, and their solution was to make auras enter the battlefield after the rest so they had targets. I don't think your opponent was doing the same though, so I don't think there has been a given solution for this specific problem. I do believe using "in any order" as you did solve the problem elegantly by mirroring what we already know with putting cards in the library.
Oh, awesome, thanks! I believe that was a white design of @Phelgming's? I could be wrong.
Found what I was thinking of:
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/manifested-aid
Oh, I was sure it was an actual card XD Now I'm not so sure anymore x)
Here is my 4-card vertical cycle of Kaladesh assembly workers I made for the current circuit challenge contest. I figured I would post it here. Aside from the Kaladesh bias it conforms to the contest rules. Any feedback you have would be great!
Would 0/1, 1/2, 2/3, & 3/4 (-1/-0 for each) help with balance? WotC tends to keep straight generic mana creatures restricted to below "vanilla rule" stats pretty often.
Really nice designs!
I actually started off with those exact P/T but thought that the common/uncommon were just too weak and needed a boost.
OVERALL SUBMISSION:
I think the mechanical aspect of the submission is quite solid, I like the regular increase in mana cost, stats, number of required creatures to tap and of course strength of effect. It feels like a really intricate vertical cycle, as opposed to more loose ones, and those always have a certain Mel-kind of elegance to them ^^
I also like that you went with an artifact cycle which is harder to do, and you manage to give them a bit of flavour with the Assembly-Worker creature type.
On the "could-be-improved" part, my main complain is that it's very tamed mechanically. I would have liked at least one aspect of this cycle to explore something MTG hasn't done before. It's a very clean cycle but it's not very original in what it does, it's an Assembly-Worker version of the Cohort mechanic, kind of. Fortunately, the fact that the two highest-rarities cards are interesting in weird combo decks mitigate the issue a little.
On the stats subject brought by Faiths_Guide, I would have hated to break the perfect symmetry of the cycle with non-square stats personally xD But maybe increasing all mana costs by 1 would have been something to consider to avoid giving all colours access to N/N creatures for N mana with upsides.
Still it's a very enjoyable cycle in how intricate it is on many levels. I think it suits your style quite well which I'm starting to understand x) You seem to especially enjoy mel cards that have very subtle design details in them but you tend to overlook the excitement factor of the overall submission sometimes. So it's a very polished design, the only thing I'm missing is a bit more spice from the novelty department to make it really awesome ^^
Small comments on a card-by-card basis:
Common — Aetherforge Salvager
That's the hardest one because there are few effects that really work at common repeatably. I think you did a fine job at finding something simple that's desirable while still making the tapping cost a real safety guard to prevent this from becoming too problematic. I like the balance of it overall ^^
Uncommon — Aetherforge Drone
I like how the three ones of highest rarity really work together to make the cycle work, they do feel like Assembly-Workers in this way. The uncommon provide the fuel for the other Assembly-Workers to work which I find quite enjoyable. I think the effect is well suited for uncommon
Rare — Aetherforge Overseer
This is a quite exciting card in a combo deck, and it can also help you assemble your vertical cycle on the board (though its probably not worth tapping that many creatures since the mythic one is just four-mana). It makes me wonder what I could do to break it, and the fact that you need four artifact creatures on the board (counting itself) to activate it sounds like a good safety valve.
Mythic — Aetherforge Liberator
Repeatable tutoring is always a little boring to play against as it's long and reduces variability but if there's one place where you can experiment with those kind of play styles it's going to be at Mythic Rare. Once again a cool combo card with a reassuring safety valve and the ability to synergise with the rest of the cycle if needed.
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/biomancers-laboratory
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/menagerie-breeder
Oh, that's not a bad idea x) Would you mind favouriting those three for me please?
1) https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/tooth-burglar?list=user
2) https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/necromantic-brewing
3) https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/frosted-queen
All your request faves have been delivered.
Thanks a lot for the feedback!
I definitely do tend to make Mel designs. I didn’t start out designing this as a vertical cycle so when I realized it could be one I put a lot of focus onto finding useful effects rather than novel ones. I could definitely improve in this area.
As for the issue with the N mana N/N, in Magic’s history this has already been done for each mana cost (Sparring Construct, Watchers of the Dead, Cathodion, Su-Chi) so I am not too worried about it.
All your comments align perfectly with my thinking on these 4 designs. I wanted the rare/mythic to synergize hence the tutoring ability but I agree that it could have repeatability issues. I think if I were to innovate anywhere in the cycle, it should be the mythic rare and I should have done something more novel.