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Rezatta, the life-matters Renaissance plane — SET DESIGN PHASE
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Yes, the flavour of "Masterwork" works quite well with the idea of someone making something they're proud of. It's just that there's going to be a separate Art tribal theme that just cannot overlap with the Masterwork mechanic because of the volume necessary to make tribal work.
So I figured it would be cool to have another theme about being the best, a genius, that would make a thematic bridge between the scientists and the artists in the set.
@shadow123
Nope, you can have the Masterwork ability on any card type, though a priori you can only have a creature as your Masterwork (I tried noncreature permanents that would get bonuses if they are you masterwork and frankly I don't think it's worth the added complexity.)
The masterwork abilities are always bonuses so the corner case where you don't want to choose a masterwork is so unlikely I don't think it's worth the extra words and hypothetical extra clicks in Limited. For instance, Riot in Ravnica Allegiance doesn't first ask you if you want to activate Riot.
I really like those dual lands, it's quite original, we could playtest them ^^ I'm just not sure I want a cycle of rare dual lands in the set as they are really horrible to open as a rare when you draft a custom set. A cycle of utility lands could be a better option, like Eldraine castles or the manlands.
@Termite1
Really cool card! I think Art of Innovation is a bit too wordy though and without a strong artifact theme in the set is probably not worth it. We definitely HAVE to do an effect like Serra's Lightbringer! It looks really fun ^^
Most decks will rely mostly on combat damage to trigger Renaissance so it's a bit awkward if the lands turn to creatures after combat
Land
Tap: Add {1} to your mana pool.
Renaissance — Tap: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
the process I'm thinking is:
Step 1: pick a color
Step 2: look at the mechanics for that color
Step 3: find the overlap between those mechanics
Step 4: Decide a rarity. Determine how that affects what the card needs to do. A red uncommon has a much more specific role than a white rare.
Step 5: Determine what is currently missing to get the archetypes we want.
Step 6: Put the pieces together for the effect part of the card.
Step 7: Figure out what power, toughness, and mana cost it needs to be for the card to work.
Kind Mentor — Common
1W
Creature
0/4
When you cast Kind Mentor, put a +1/+1 counter on the next three creatures that enter the battlefield under your control this turn.
Dreaming Epiphany — Rare
1U
Sorcery
Whenever you cast a spell (instant or sorcery instead perhaps?) this turn, discover.
Sylvan Researcher — Uncommon
2G
Creature
2/3
When you cast Sylvan Researcher, the next three spells you cast this turn cost {2} less to cast.
I’m not sure about the ones that deal damage. I think they would need to be play tested, because I could see them overall being bad, but be absolutely broken in some contexts.
Also since it looks like you don’t have any 1 mana cantrip cards yet here is this.
Since discover is less powerful than drawing a card (since you have to cast the card immediately) and since it seems like the cards you want to cast using it still follow regular casting conventions, (you still can’t use it to cast sorceries, creatures w/ flash, etc.) i hunk it could be balanced.
That idea of land is pretty original and yes, it's better suited for the playstyle that Renaissance is pushing for I think ^^ The idea of an activated ability only possible to activate when Renaissance is enabled is also a design space we'll definitely have to explore at some point.
For the "next three" spells, it's quite unique and is very branded but I see a couple issues with the idea. Namely, it creates a memory load for something that will rarely matter in the end (you very rarely cast four spells in the same turn). It also hardly synergises with cards that discover because you have to play that card first, then discover, then get lucky and reveal a spell you can cast.
For the Dreaming Epiphany, it's pretty cool! Maybe it can actually be some sort of Mythic enchantment à la Thousand-Year Storm? (4UR - Enchantment - Whenever you cast a spell, discover.) If you play cards in your decks that discover, the discoveries start cascading, it could be reminiscent of this style of play ^^
I playtested this exact card (Moonlit Meandering) though as sorcery speed common! XD I eventually cut it because it's actually quite confusing when you mix Scry and Discover on the same card (in the heat of the game, you keep asking yourself "Can I cast this card or is it just the scry? Does this one goes on the bottom of my library or my graveyard? Etc.) so I just gave up and made a rule that Scry and Discover should not appear on the same card.
One important note though, you absolutely *CAN* cast sorceries, creatures etc. with discover at instant speed. You're actually casting them as part of the resolution of the effect, just like Electrodominance will let you cast a sorcery, creature, etc. A better comparison is probably Chandra, Torch of Defiance's +2:
The fact that you're getting confused makes me think we need a didactic card that's meant to explain how the mechanic work to players when they see it. For instance, I added the card Celebration of Solstice to the set specifically because some people struggled understanding how gaining psylian life worked compared to normal life:
@brcien
I'm pretty sure the lifelink Masterwork should be uncommon or even rare based on similar existing cards and the fact that lifelink is super synergistic in this set:
I really like this dragon! We absolutely have to try this ability in the set though having monored care about gaining life feels a bit weird a priori. The last ability is also a nice way of putting some value in just attacking with the dragon, though it might push it a bit over the top as-is.
@KorandAngels
No, don't worry the world-building is far from finished. But at this point the Renaissance theme is not really pulling its own weight so we should probably do a bit of bottom-up work and see what themes it can bring to fill in the creative aspect. The three-colours mechanical distinctions for instance could give us five thematic pillars if they work well (religion, art, science, celebration, and competition) which could give us direction to what the world and story are lacking ^^
@SteampunkDragon
Prodigy is definitely on the list of possible names ^^ I just wish it conveyed the fact that this prodigy is really the best of them all, not just one prodigy among others. Actually, it's possible that a mix between the mechanic name and the type you give the creature would convey the flavour better. Here are some examples:
Eureka! (Choose a creature you control. It becomes your only genius.)
Masterwork (Choose a creature you control. It becomes your only prodigy.)
Pinnacle (Choose a creature you control. It becomes your only grandmaster.)
Any ideas to go with that?
Personally, I like the name masterwork and thought the flavor was clear and strong. I do think you want the name of the mechanic to match the name of the thing “that becomes your only ____”. Having two different names can at best slightly improve the flavor and worst lead to people calling your mechanic two different things.
Rooftop Violinist (or some other name)
2W
Creature - Human Violinist (Common)
Psylian lifelink
1/1
———
Dazzling Sculptor
4W
Creature - Human Sculptor (Rare)
Masterwork
Your masterwork has psylian lifelink.
3/2
So, we can't have straight-up the term "psylian lifelink" because it's technically a new mechanic and it's just not worth the trouble for one or two cards. That being said, we will *totally* have at least one card with that effect in the file if we can because that's something everyone's waiting for when they hear about psylian/serran life. It just have to be written in its entirety:
Rooftop Violonist
2W
Creature - Human Artist
1/1
Damage dealt by CARDNAME causes you to gain that much serran life.
I'm pretty sure we shouldn't do that at common though because it sounds quite powerful, but I might be wrong. Maybe we should playtest it as a horizontal cycle (1 common, 1 uncommon, 1 rare) just to see what happens. But for the common I'm not sure a 1/1 for 3 is appealing enough on its own, I'd like to consider something a bit more universal. Maybe go the opposite way, a high CMC card to compensate like a 3/3 for 5?
Nothing major, right now the main discussion is about how to scale down the number of things that the set cares about at common so all ten bicoloured draft archetypes end up with very directional cards. I was proposing to go with three-coloured mechanical themes, the allied colours pairs would care more specifically about those themes and the enemy pairs would create more subtle bridges between two of those archetypes. The first version is this:
WUR (Jeskai): Disruptive storm (Theme: Science)
UBG (Sultai): Combo Art tribal (Theme: Art)
BRW (Mardu): Aggro suicide (Theme: Celebration)
RGU (Temur): Midrange Go Tall (Theme: Competition)
GWB (Abzan): Control psylian life (Theme: Religion)
Based on that, we're also discussing changes in the names of the mechanic so the themes are better distributed. Which is why you'll hear about serran life (a proposition to get psylian life more branded) and various propositions for Masterwork so it creates a thematic bridge between the artists and the scientist that all want to become recognised as geniuses and better than everyone else. Also, in colours that have both Masterwork and an Art tribal theme, it helps not having 75% of the cards being about Art ^^"
The Midrange archetype is the most lacking both in terms of flavour and mechanical identity right now. Maybe it could care about +1/+1 counters? Thematically, we could also try to revisit the seasonal theme, +1/+1 could fit with a theme showing nature blossoming in spring. But had a hard time finding enough thematic material in this vein last time I tried.
Sylvan Researcher
2G
Creature - Elf Wizard
2/3
Cards you discover cost {2} less to cast.
W - Jeskai/Mardu/Abzan - Creature-focused cards with different creature focuses that synergize with different factions. For example, a cheap creature that buffs other creatures in the same turn, a token spawner for Mardu (better attacks), and a "Serran lifelinker" or a gain 1 serran life for each creature you control for Abzan.
B - Sultai/Mardu/Abzan - Small life focus? Would make sense in suicide/serran life (paying for the aggro one). I'd like some life-leeching Art cards, could lead to cool design space/flavor. The art creatures should be playable in all black archetypes.
U - Jeskai/Sultai/Temur - Not really sure what to do with blue. General disruptiveness is always good - subtle in Temur, but art-synergistic in sultai and all out in jeskai, but I don't know what to do for specific, distinctive playstyles. Maybe something more black than expected, like mill/graveyards, since black could do life stuff?
R - Jeskai/Mardu/Temur - All-out, attacking/damage-focused aggro. Damage triggers? works with elated, fast-paced-ness of Jeskai, aggro is perfect for Mardu. You'll be swinging often with Temur so that should work too.
G - Sultai/Temur/Abzan - +1/+1 counters, maybe? They always feel most at home in green, and I think that would be cool. Works in Art tribal, DEFINITELY works in go-tall, and works in Abzan as was shown by all of Tarkir, basically.
My idea for masterwork:
Excel (Choose a creature you control. It becomes your only prodigy.)
EDIT: Excel is a weak name, but a masterwork and a prodigy are not remotely the same. We'll need to decide whether to go with the prodigy aspect or the masterwork aspect.
What I meant is that in the latest version of the set skeleton I had a lot of commons that cared specifically about one bicoloured archetype. After checking with recent existing sets, I realised I pushed it a bit far, there usually aren't that many directional cards at common. They're supposed to synergize in more subtle ways so common feels less crammed and less complex.
@Termite1
A priori that's one of the things I would like to take a step back on at common. We don't have a larger archetype that specifically cares about discovering, that will probably be a two-colours thing (and I don't feel it would be a good idea to add since the Abzan serran life archetype already cares specifically about a set mechanic but in a more interesting way mechanically). So any directional card that says "whenever you discover" or "spells you discover" etc. should be kept at uncommon and rarer.
@SteampunkDragon
I'm actually not sure how to handle the mono-coloured decks yet to be honest. Most of the themes you're proposing here seem to be themes that want to be expanded on multiple colours, but maybe they could have one driving colour that also defines monocoloured gameplay. For now I always considered the main focus of each colour to be the second colour of their three-mana archetype:
gWb: White is more focused on serran life
wUr: Blue is more focus on playing a lot of spells.
uBg: Black is more focused on Art tribal.
bRw: Red is more focused on paying life to turbo aggro
rGu: Green is more focused on whatever the midrange archetype is. I want a mechanical theme that can be a bridge between a midrange/control gameplay where you buff your creatures to block better, and a midrange/aggro gameplay where you buff you creatures to do more damage à la Gruul.
For the RGU midrange archetype, I definitely want to try +1/+1 counters because it synergizes super well with masterwork and it's an easy reward for the other archetypes as well (RGU share GU with the Art tribal archetype so Art that gain +1/+1 counters, and share RU with the WUR strorm archetype, so stuff like "whenever you cast your second spell each turn, put a +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME"). I just don't want to have cards like Khans of Tarkir that says "creatures you control with a +1/+1 counter on them have ABILITY" because that overlaps too much with Masterwork. I was thinking caring about the number of +1/+1 counters on any given creature, which incentivizes you to stack them on one creature, which plays well with Masterwork.
One example I liked from the previous iteration:
Ah, my bad I think it's me who actually mixed the card you were talking about. Yes, we definitely need this effect at uncommon and it sounds much cleaner that the "next spells" thing I tried earlier. Interestingly, I actually had a card in the playtests decks dedicated to each mechanic that said "Discovered spells you control cost 2 less" and "2UG: Discover" and it was so powerful I separated the two abilities and actually nerfed the effect to "Cost 1 less to cast". But I want to try again at 2-mana reduction when we get there.
Yeap, it's a typo ^^
Musician’s Trance
——
Card designs:
Musical Revelation
UG
Sorcery (C)
Discover. If you put the discovered card into your graveyard this way, you gain serran life equal to its mana cost,
Harsh Criticism
2U (C)
Instant
Counter target artifact or creature spell. Draw a card.
I like the name, we could go top-down on this and try to design a card that fits the name. "Transe" gives me a blue vibe I think, I picture either a freezing spell or a "gain control" spell. An interaction with the Art tribal would be an especially welcome bonus.
As for the two designs:
Musical Revelation: I like the idea of caring about cards you mill with discover, it feels less bad when you discover a land or a spell you don't have the mana to cast. That being said, this specific card have three elements that make me think it would be better at uncommon:
1) It cares about discover in a new way, you usually want those improvements in the mechanics at higher rarity and leave the commons establish a baseline.
2) It's multicoloured. We don't have slots for multicoloured spells at common right now since multicoloured is not part of the mechanical theme of the set.
3) It can gain a huge chunk of serran life. I think we should keep in check how much serran life you can gain at common since it's free mana.
In addition, the fact that if there's a land on top of your library you lose almost all value is a bit concerning, that's something that should be addressed.
Harsh Criticism: You have to be very weary of counterspells that draw cards, they can chain into another and enable draw-go decks which are really unfun. In this case, Harsh Criticism is better than Bone to Ash in two ways (costs 1 less and hits artifacts) so it would probably be problematic at common. The specific artifact-hate is also a bit uncalled for in this set since we don't have an artifact theme. Each set usually gets only one soft counter spell at common (counter a specific subset of cards or counter unless opponent pays a cost), this means that we must aim it at something specific to this set.
Maybe this?
Harsh Criticism
2U
Instant (R)
Counter target spell with masterwork. Draw a card.
And for Musical Revelation, I agree as well. Is this better.
Musical Revelation
2UG (R)
Discover. If you put the discovered card into your graveyard this way, you gain serran life equal to its mana cost. If you discovered a land this way, you may play it as an additional land this turn.
Who told you that?