Overview: Themes, Abilities, and Mechanics.

Themes, Abilities, and Mechanics

Overview: Themes, Abilities, and Mechanics.

Attitude:
I have spent a lot of time coming up with interesting mechanics, fun interactions, and all around nifty cards, but the bottom line to me in many cases is “Attitude is everything.” By this I mean I want the each color to clearly cater to an attitude. What I think one of the strongest points of Magic has been its appeal to a variety of personality types. My wife likes to play white, I like green, I have friends who like other colors as well – in a lot of ways, it's that attitude that makes it “fun”. I want to make sure each color is strong enough in its own theme that, even at the competitive level, you will be able to choose a deck that fits your personality. Because of this I have been a little more lenient than the recent sets on deciding what each color can and can't do. I don't say “Can black stop enchantments?” as much as I would say “Does it fit black's attitude to be able to stop enchantments?” (And my answer is “Black should be able to make its opponents want to destroy their own enchantments.”)

Some of the existing attitudes currently portrayed in cards are obvious, some not so much, so bear in mind that mine will be similar, but not exactly the same as the current ones. To support the attitudes I have tried to make sure that each color has at least two different strategies (one fast, one slow) fitting its theme. This is where some of the more original elements come in, as I have also tried to make each color have its own unique way of killing its opponents that still fits its attitude. For more details on the strategies, and for more examples, please refer to the listsof the induvidual colors. So, some examples then - briefly and alphabetically:

Black: Theme: Pain - “Let me help you hurt yourself.”

Angry Spirit

Creature - Spirit

Common

4B

5/1

Flying. Any player may sacrifice a creature to prevent all damage dealt by Angry Spirit this turn.

KF

Kill Method: Mana Overload

Dark Meltdown

Instant

Common

B

Add BBB to target opponent's mana pool.

LE

Blue: Theme: Control - “Everything you are, I control.”

Confusing Vision

Creature - Illusion

Common

3UU

2/1

Flying. 1UU: Put Confusing Vision into play. Use this ability only when Confusing Vision in your hand, and only in response to a spell which targets a single creature. That spell now targets Confusing Vision.

LE

Kill Method: Deck Drawing.

Thought Tsunami

Sorcery

Uncommon

XU

Target opponent draws X * 3 cards.

LE

Green: Theme: Creatures - ”I'm going to come over there and stomp on you.”

Darkwood Hounds

Creature - Hounds

Uncommon

3GG

3/3

Trample. G: Darkwood Hounds gets +2/+2 for each creature blocking it until the end of turn.

LE

Kill Method: Combat Damage.

Invigorating Surge

Instant

Common

XG

Target creature gets +X/+X and trample until the end of the turn.

LE

Red: Theme: Destruction - “I'm going to blow you away.”

Toast

Instant

Common

Toast deals 5 points of damage to target creature.

LE

Kill Method: Direct Damage.

Flaming Rupture

Sorcery

Uncommon

X1RR

Destroy target basic land. That land deals X points of damage to its controller.

LE

White: Theme: Defense - “Do whatever you want – you won't be able to hurt me.”

Circle of Protection: Creatures

Enchantment

Uncommon

1W

1W: prevent all combat damage dealt to you by a single creature.

LE

Kill Method: Increase Death Threshold.

Turmoil Within

Sorcery

Uncommon

3WW

Permanently increase target player's Death Threshold by 5. (Your Death Threshold is the score your life total must be reduced to, to lose the game - initially zero.)

KF

Abilities:

There are four new or returning abilities. I have more new abilities than the normal set, but most of them are very straight forward so I feel this will not be too overwhelming. The abilities are Tunneling, Spy, Defection, and Buyback. Additionally, there are quite a few new mechanics, but they are simply explained on the cards as opposed to being an actual ability. More on those later, but first the abilities…

Tunneling:
This is probably the easiest of the new mechanics. Quite simply, it works exactly like flying. With flying, the concept is that the creature is going over you so you can't block it. With tunneling, the concept is that the creature is going under you so you can't block it. Similar to its concept being the antithesis of flying, it is also distributed in the opposite manner. That is, blue hardly has any tunneling creatures, white and black have a little and red and green have the most, with green having the big creatures, and red the small.

Spy:
Spy allows creatures to break the rules of control. Basically, a creature with spy allows both its owner and it's controller to play its abilities. As would be expected, this is primarily a black ability. Spy does not show up until the 1st expansion.

Defection:
This is another one of those “drawback” abilities, like echo or phasing, that allows for under-costed creatures. The ability allows opponents to try to take control of the creature at its defection cost during their upkeeps. This makes for creatures that are a little cheaper than normal, as well as adding some interesting game-play interactions. This ability shows up mainly in green, red and black, and only in the last expansion.

Buyback:
Buyback is my favorite mechanic ever. I am a proponent of it actually becoming a standard ability, like having it show up in 7th edition. It is just such a good way for cards to stay interesting. Anyway, I did not want to tread old ground with this ability, so I have expanded it to allow buyback for permanents as well. It is still the same idea: instead of going to your graveyard, the card goes to your hand. This allows for green to have a larger showing this time around, since it was kind of left out with “Rathi” buyback. This time around, black is notably left out, as it serves as sort of an “anti-buyback”.

Mechanics:

Quick Play:
These are creatures that have a incredibly high casting cost normally, but when certain requirements are met can be put into play from you hand at instant speed and at a reduced cost. There are five for each color. (Two common, two uncommon, and one rare.)

Money Back:
These creatures and spells sort of expand on the “free” spells of the Urza's Saga series. Each color has a unique type of “free” spell. Incidentally, this has changed the “untap lands” mechanic that was used for blue in Urza's Saga to be for white. Blue now allows you to tap that many of an opponents lands and add the mana to your mana pool - once again, trying to stick consistent with the attitude of the color. There are around ten of these for each color.

Discard Effects:
For Edgecomb's stand there are a series of cards that have a alternate effect when they are discarded from your hand. The effects tend to be scaled down versions of their slightly over-costed actual spells. These spells are true "pitch" spells – their only cost is the fact that you now have one less card in your hand – on the other hand, this does mean their effects are generally pretty miniscule.

Cross Color:
The only other theme that covers more than one color, is what I call "Cross Color" creatures. These are creatures that have land home of a color different than their own. This allows for them to be extremely under-costed. The most common occurance of this mechanic is with the two fleets of white and black ships (they all have island-home).

Conclusion:
Additionally there are many mechanics that are not color specific and, of course, there are combinations of these various mechanics along with the strategies and kill methods presented above. It is probably overkill to explain the why and how of each of them here, but hopefully you have enough ideas now to recognise these when you see them.

ThmMcs

LotE

Games

Ideas

c2m

WDATM?


Overview: Themes, Abilities, and Mechanics.
Attitude: I have spent a lot of time coming up with interesting mechanics, fun interactions, and all around nifty cards, but the bottom line to me in many cases is “Attitude is everything.” By this I mean I want the each color to clearly cater to an attitude. What I think one of the strongest points of Magic has been its appeal to a variety of personality types. My wife likes to play white, I like green, I have friends who like other colors as well – in a lot of ways, it's that attitude that makes it “fun”. I want to make sure each color is strong enough in its own theme that, even at the competitive level, you will be able to choose a deck that fits your personality. Because of this I have been a little more lenient than the recent sets on deciding what each color can and can't do. I don't say “Can black stop enchantments?” as much as I would say “Does it fit black's attitude to be able to stop enchantments?” (And my answer is “Black should be able to make its opponents want to destroy their own enchantments.”) Some of the existing attitudes currently portrayed in cards are obvious, some not so much, so bear in mind that mine will be similar, but not exactly the same as the current ones. To support the attitudes I have tried to make sure that each color has at least two different strategies (one fast, one slow) fitting its theme. This is where some of the more original elements come in, as I have also tried to make each color have its own unique way of killing its opponents that still fits its attitude. For more details on the strategies, and for more examples, please refer to the listsof the induvidual colors. So, some examples then - briefly and alphabetically:
Black:	Theme: Pain - “Let me help you hurt yourself.”
Angry Spirit	Creature - Spirit	Common	4B	5/1	Flying. Any player may sacrifice a creature to prevent all damage dealt by Angry Spirit this turn.	KF
	Kill Method: Mana Overload
Dark Meltdown	Instant	Common	B		Add BBB to target opponent's mana pool.	LE
Blue:	Theme: Control - “Everything you are, I control.”
Confusing Vision	Creature - Illusion	Common	3UU	2/1	Flying. 1UU: Put Confusing Vision into play. Use this ability only when Confusing Vision in your hand, and only in response to a spell which targets a single creature. That spell now targets Confusing Vision.	LE
	Kill Method: Deck Drawing.
Thought Tsunami	Sorcery	Uncommon	XU		Target opponent draws X * 3 cards.	LE
Green:	Theme: Creatures - ”I'm going to come over there and stomp on you.”
Darkwood Hounds	Creature - Hounds	Uncommon	3GG	3/3	Trample. G: Darkwood Hounds gets +2/+2 for each creature blocking it until the end of turn.	LE
	Kill Method: Combat Damage.
Invigorating Surge	Instant	Common	XG		Target creature gets +X/+X and trample until the end of the turn.	LE
Red:	Theme: Destruction - “I'm going to blow you away.”
Toast	Instant	Common			Toast deals 5 points of damage to target creature.	LE
	Kill Method: Direct Damage.
Flaming Rupture	Sorcery	Uncommon	X1RR		Destroy target basic land. That land deals X points of damage to its controller.	LE
White:	Theme: Defense - “Do whatever you want – you won't be able to hurt me.”
Circle of Protection: Creatures	Enchantment	Uncommon	1W		1W: prevent all combat damage dealt to you by a single creature.	LE
	Kill Method: Increase Death Threshold.
Turmoil Within	Sorcery	Uncommon	3WW		Permanently increase target player's Death Threshold by 5. (Your Death Threshold is the score your life total must be reduced to, to lose the game - initially zero.)	KF
Abilities:
	There are four new or returning abilities. I have more new abilities than the normal set, but most of them are very straight forward so I feel this will not be too overwhelming. The abilities are Tunneling, Spy, Defection, and Buyback. Additionally, there are quite a few new mechanics, but they are simply explained on the cards as opposed to being an actual ability. More on those later, but first the abilities…
Tunneling: This is probably the easiest of the new mechanics. Quite simply, it works exactly like flying. With flying, the concept is that the creature is going over you so you can't block it. With tunneling, the concept is that the creature is going under you so you can't block it. Similar to its concept being the antithesis of flying, it is also distributed in the opposite manner. That is, blue hardly has any tunneling creatures, white and black have a little and red and green have the most, with green having the big creatures, and red the small.
Spy: Spy allows creatures to break the rules of control. Basically, a creature with spy allows both its owner and it's controller to play its abilities. As would be expected, this is primarily a black ability. Spy does not show up until the 1st expansion.
Defection: This is another one of those “drawback” abilities, like echo or phasing, that allows for under-costed creatures. The ability allows opponents to try to take control of the creature at its defection cost during their upkeeps. This makes for creatures that are a little cheaper than normal, as well as adding some interesting game-play interactions. This ability shows up mainly in green, red and black, and only in the last expansion.
Buyback: Buyback is my favorite mechanic ever. I am a proponent of it actually becoming a standard ability, like having it show up in 7th edition. It is just such a good way for cards to stay interesting. Anyway, I did not want to tread old ground with this ability, so I have expanded it to allow buyback for permanents as well. It is still the same idea: instead of going to your graveyard, the card goes to your hand. This allows for green to have a larger showing this time around, since it was kind of left out with “Rathi” buyback. This time around, black is notably left out, as it serves as sort of an “anti-buyback”.
Mechanics:
Quick Play: These are creatures that have a incredibly high casting cost normally, but when certain requirements are met can be put into play from you hand at instant speed and at a reduced cost. There are five for each color. (Two common, two uncommon, and one rare.)
Money Back: These creatures and spells sort of expand on the “free” spells of the Urza's Saga series. Each color has a unique type of “free” spell. Incidentally, this has changed the “untap lands” mechanic that was used for blue in Urza's Saga to be for white. Blue now allows you to tap that many of an opponents lands and add the mana to your mana pool - once again, trying to stick consistent with the attitude of the color. There are around ten of these for each color.
Discard Effects: For Edgecomb's stand there are a series of cards that have a alternate effect when they are discarded from your hand. The effects tend to be scaled down versions of their slightly over-costed actual spells. These spells are true "pitch" spells – their only cost is the fact that you now have one less card in your hand – on the other hand, this does mean their effects are generally pretty miniscule.
Cross Color: The only other theme that covers more than one color, is what I call "Cross Color" creatures. These are creatures that have land home of a color different than their own. This allows for them to be extremely under-costed. The most common occurance of this mechanic is with the two fleets of white and black ships (they all have island-home).
Conclusion: Additionally there are many mechanics that are not color specific and, of course, there are combinations of these various mechanics along with the strategies and kill methods presented above. It is probably overkill to explain the why and how of each of them here, but hopefully you have enough ideas now to recognise these when you see them.