Conspiracy: Accords of Guile--The First Commander Draft Set

Comments

• Arceus8523

  May 2017 edited May 2017

  Returning Mechanic: Commanders
  You probably have one major question: If every deck needs to have a commander, how do you get everyone a legendary creature and how do you plan to give everyone a fair shot at building any color/strategy they want?
  Well, I believe I have solved that problem using what I have dubbed “Token” Commanders. “Token” commanders are two-color legendary creatures with the partner ability that appear on the back of any token on the set, so while on one side you might see this innocent Hippo token
  
  on the back you'll see one of the ten Token commanders.
  
  “Token” commanders aren’t actually tokens, they function exactly the same as a normal creature. They get their name because they are on the back of tokens. The only difference between a token commander and a normal legendary creature is that a “Token” commander cannot be used in your deck, they can only be used as your commander.
  You can see the ten token commanders here:
  https://mtgcardsmith.com/user/CMDConspiracy/sets/20235
  
  Any player may use any legendary creature in their draft pool as their commander, or, if they didn't get a legendary creature or just don't like the ones they have, they can choose up to two in any combination of the “token” commanders as partner commanders. If nobody at the table opened up a “token” commander on the back that is wanted by a player, they are allowed to proxy in that “token” commander as if it was actually there. Lastly, one quick clarification, conspiracies do nothing to alter the color identity of your deck, but do have to fall under the color identity of your commamder(s).
  Returning Mechanic: Lieutenant
  
  Lieutenant is a mechanic that gives a card a bonus effect if you control your commander. Most of the time this is on creatures, but Conspiracy 3 features spells and even a land that want you to have your commander in play. Cards with Lieutenant can be powerful, ahead-of-curve forces in the right scenarios and can serve as an incentive to get your commander on the field and keep it there. For those of you running partner “Token” commanders, Lieutenant will be active if you have either commander in play.
  New Mechanic: Council’s Accord
  
  The characters featured in our ten “token” commanders have managed to successfully overthrow the Marchesa “the Wilting Bloom” in light of her increasingly tyrannical and oppressive policies and now they have formed the Joint Council, a group of ten ruling Paliano and the greater plane of Fiora as a collective group. Policies must go through the Council and be backed and supported to be enacted. That’s why you must run your policies through the rest of the council and get support. That’s right, the power of Council’s Accord is determined by your opponents! Council’s Accord gives your opponents the chance to back you. Usually, the council’s accord effect gets more powerful for each person who backs you. Though, opponent’s don’t just back you to get nothing in return. As an incentive to support your policies, opponents who back you are often provided with a reward for doing so. It’s up to you if and when you want to try to appeal to the council, but once you do, your fate is in their hands.
  Returning Mechanic: Conspiracies
  
  In the words of WotC themselves,”Conspiracies start in the command zone and can have sweeping effects on the game, sometimes before the game even starts. You can have more than one, they don’t count as a card in your deck and some of them remain hidden until you reveal your master plan.” (Just a quick note, because the conspiracy card type is not available in the MTGCS editor, all the conspiracies are also interrupts. Just to clarify, the card type of the conspiracies is “conspiracy” and they have no subtype.)
  New Mehcnaic: Ulterior Motive
  
  Just because the Joint Council is a group doesn’t mean each member doesn’t have their own ambitions and wants to hold as much power for themselves. Now, as you win over the council, you can work to grow your master scheme. Then, when the time is right, reveal it and try to take your place as the strongest member in the council. Conspiracies with the Ulterior Motive mechanic start the game face down and whenever a player backs you, it gets a scheme counter. Then, at any time, you may turn your Ulterior Motive conspiracy face up and it will have an activated ability that requires you to pay scheme counters to get it to work. Just be sure your timing is right, once an Ulterior Motive conspiracy is face up, it can no longer have scheme counters put on it.
  Returning Mechanic: Draft Mechanic Cards
  
  “Wait do what now? We’re still in the draft!” That’s right, there are cards in the set that have effects during the draft that can allow you to look at other people’s cards or even affect the number of cards you or another player has in their card pool at the end of the draft. These cards will require you to reveal them as you draft them, so make sure you are paying attention to what you’re drafting.
  New Mechanic: Player Tokens
  
  Sometimes it feels like you’re all alone and the council just won’t listen to your plans, am I right? Well, let your voice be heard and make yourself an ally. That’s right! There are now ways for you to create player tokens. This is essentially like making an opponent that is permanently mindslaver-ed to a real player. If that token player manages to win the game, the player who controlled it when it was created wins the game instead. (The full rules for this mechanic are listed in the comments under the card.) Don’t forget, player tokens serve as opponents and can back players when asked to do so, meaning its controller essentially gets an extra chance to back on top of all the benefits a player token provides them.
  
  Some Additional Notes About the Format:
  - Unlike normal commander games, but like the draft format, there is no playset rule and no singleton rule. Your deck can have as many copies of a card as you'd like. If you get 5 Marchesas, feel free to play one in command and four in your deck.
  - Minimum deck size is 40 cards EXCLUDING your commander(s). You must play a commander and 40 card deck (unless, of course, a conspiracy changes that).
  
  That’s about all I’ve got for now. Please give me feedback, positive or constructive, on the set as it is far from perfect. If people want it, I can make a draft guide summing up strategies from the set and maybe some notes on how the set came about and was developed.
• Lujikul

  May 2017

  Commander draft sounds like the drafting period itself would take over two hours, due to the inherent restrictions of commander, both in color identity and its status as a highlander format.
• Arceus8523

  May 2017

  @Lugikul
  I wouldn't think so. I mean how many times have you not gotten enough of the 2-3 colors you want for your deck when drafting? The games might take a bit longer, but Conspiracy was already a multiplayer format to begin with, so I can't imagine these games taking much longer than games from the first two conspiracy sets. Also, I forgot to mention the singleton rule doesn't apply to this format, only the commanders stick around. I'll edit my description to mention that.
• Gelectrode

  May 2017

  @Arceus8523, @Lujikul, I think Lujikul is confused because he/she thinks that the decks you build are 100 cards. They are actually 40 cards.
  
  I really like the idea of the commanders on the backs of the tokens, but would it be smarter to have commanders in the same slots as the conspiracies? That way nobody is fighting over the commanders at the end of the draft. The commanders should also be pretty basic as well. I suggest a commander like this for a common slot instead of the super powerful Isham:
  
  --------------------
  Arkrah, the Cleansing Fire
  Legendary Creature - Elemental Soldier
  2WR
  
  Attacking and blocking creatures you control get +1/+0.
  
  Partner
  ---------------------
  With seven mechanics, I think there is too much happening in this set. Maybe cut one of the mechanics? I would suggest cutting the conspiracies, (including the Ulterior Motives), and even the player tokens (how would it work with Populate???). These are very cool ideas, but I think they would clutter the set up too much!
  
  I would design the sets with these four mechanics -
  
  * Common/Uncommon/Rare/Mythic Commanders in the conspiracy slot. Partner could also work alongside it.
  
  * Lieutenant. Makes perfect sense in a commander format, and is nice and simple.
  
  * Council's Accord. Cool mechanic!
  
  * Draft Matters. The usual stuff for a conspiracy draft
  
  
  Does that make sense? Cool idea for a set!
  
• Arceus8523

  May 2017 edited May 2017

  @Gelectrode
  I don't see how people would be fighting over token commanders. Everyone's allowed to use any token commander regardless of if they opened it, or if anyone else opened it. If a player is already using the only Isham opened and another player wants to use Isham, they are welcome to either bring in a copy for outside the tokens opened or proxy him. Everyone can use any token commander they want, there are no restrictions as to how they got that commander or where they got it from, as long as it's one of the ten.
  
  As for the simplicity argument, I originally had very simple designs for the token commanders, but one of my co-developers brought up the argument that if a player is stuck with a bad/simple commander, that puts them at an inherent disadvantage to the Phelddagrif or Marchesa player they could be facing. If the set had different rarities for commanders in the land slot (the slot conspiracies are currently taking up), that would put players who opened only common commanders at a massive disadvantage to those who opened more complex and useful rare and mythic commanders. The current token commanders keep everyone on a level playing field, which is the whole idea of draft as a format and serve as the heads of the key archetypes within the sets, such as UR noncombat damage, WR aggro, or UB kidnapping. The token commanders are also designed to pair well with other token commanders as partners. For example, Hedreas puts you into a pinger archetype and then Isham untaps all of them after they've pinged, leaving you with blockers and future pings.
  
  I simply refuse to cut conspiracy cards from a conspiracy set, it undermines the whole idea of the format. Having legendaries replace conspiracies is an interesting concept taht you or I could toy around with for a different set, but for a format designed around multiplayer play and the conspiracy cards, I think cutting them would result in the format losing a lot of its feel from both a flavor and gameplay standpoint.
  
  Quick clarification since you brought up token players and populate. The two don't directly interact in the slightest as populate can only duplicate creature tokens (trust me, I double checked when my co-devs and I were first designing the mechanic). I think it serves as a fun, interesting mechanic to spice up the late game and potentially turn the game in your favor.
  
  Lastly, in regard to the number of mechanics, it's a lot, but I don't think its excessive. This set has six mechanics (Commanders, Lieutenant, Council's Accord, Conspiracies, Ulterior Motive, Draft Effects, and Player Tokens) if you count each individually. Amonkhet had 5 mechanics (Embalm, Exert, Aftermath, Cycling, and -1/-1 Counters), plus there was the interaction between the Cartouche cycle and the Trial cycle, which is listed as a mechanic in the Amonkhet mechanic page by Wizards, which puts Amonkhet at the same number of mechanics as this set.
  
  I just wanted to bring up my thought process for the aspects of the set that you brought up. Thanks for the great feedback!
• Gelectrode

  May 2017 edited May 2017

  @Arceus8523, I recommend counting again. There are seven mechanics (Commanders, Lieutenant, Council's Accord, Conspiracies, Ulterior Motive, Draft Effects, and Player Tokens).
  
  
  
  Maybe it is just me, but I think this set would be very hard to approach as a beginner. I can assure you that as an advanced and scatterbrained magic player I would greatly enjoy this set, but if I were a beginner, I would be very confused. I also would think that a set where you can use proxies gives a great advantage to people who are supported by the Internet. In my opinion, your commander should be chosen while you draft. And besides, going into a draft knowing what colors and playstyle you would be drafting kind of defeats the purpose of drafting!
  
  I am however confused by what you mean by "Marchesa and Phleddagryff" Do you mean we can bring any legendary creature to the draft?
  
  I think that the commanders should be simple enough that they are understood, yet complex enough that you can creatively build around them. I would suggest only one paragraph of text besides partner, like the real partner commander. They are already complex enough. Maybe something like this for the kidnapping theme in UB?
  
  -----------------------------
  Hazzini, Black Market Auctioneer
  2UB
  Legendary Creature - Human Rogue
  {t}: Exchange control of two target permanents that share the same mana cost. Activate this ability only when a player can cast a sorcery
  0/4
  ------------------------------
  
  This card is simple, yet indicates some working around. Maybe go for a trash control deck that swaps walls for warriors while protecting your resources? Or maybe as a political engine that threatens your opponents into doing your bidding lest the dreaded ability trades their creatures away? Elegant and short.
  
  Just my two cents
  
• Arceus8523

  May 2017 edited May 2017

  @Gelectrode
  Whoops. Apparently I can't math (I blame my precalc final today for draining me of all math abilities for the day)
  
  This set is not meant to be for beginners, just like masters sets and conspiracy sets in the past weren't meant to be for beginners, either. That's what standard sets, welcome decks, deckbuilder's toolkits, and planeswalker decks are for, as well as resources like Duels of the Planeswalkers and Magic Duels.
  
  When I say Marchesa and Phelddagryf, I'm talking about a player who only has simple commanders in their card pool compared to a player who opened Marchesa, the Wilting Bloom or Phelddagrif (both are cards in the set) in their pool. The player with the simple commander would be at a disadvantage compared to the more powerful effects of a card like Marchesa or the political power Phelddagrif has. The token commanders are meant to be universally accessible, equally powerful commanders for players who didn't get a solid legendary creature to build around in their card pool. Plus, by not having a legendary in every pack, it makes the set more like conspiracy and less like Kamigawa block.
  
  Partner is on the token commanders because the set is designed to be more of a 3-color format than a two-color one. Plus, we didn't want to restrict players to playing a 2-color deck most of the time when their bread and butter may be 3-color, especially if a player wants to splash for a powerful effect. With the partner commanders, players have access to up to 4 colors in their identity in a variety of combinations of effects. If they want to run a two-color deck, they don't even have to partner, they can just run the respective two-color commander.
  
  Your new commander idea is much better at serving as a simple effect comparable to the effects of cards like Marchesa and Phelddagrif and is a pretty good idea. I want to test the set with the current token commanders and if they end up being too strong, then I would definitely go back and change the token commander effects.