9 replies to this topic

[Kalam Mekhar]

Alright, so I've given a decent amount of feedback for people designing custom cards, so I figured it was high time I started posting my own ideas. Let me know what you think honestly, even if you think the card sucks. I want true opinions of these cards and mechanics.

 

I'm currently designing a set in my own world of Drakmord. I want the set to have a decently strong mono-color theme, and I think a way to do that would be to give each color its own mechanic/identity. Today I'm going to start with my white mechanic I'm toying with. It may have enough space to use it in its own set though, so I'm not real sure it's the mechanic I'm going with yet, but I'm trying it out.

 

Prowess {cost} ({cost}: Put a skill counter on this creature.)

As long as ~ has a skill counter on it, [it gains an ability/pump/etc.].

 

So the idea is it's like a one time level up cost. You pay the cost to get your skill counter, signifying you've received training or something like that to gain an ability or improved combat strength. I'm working on commons first, and I will probably only have a few prowess creatures in common white, so I think I'm sticking with just pumps for the commons to keep things straightforward.

 

Let me know what you think.

Attached Files

•  Gloryblade Paladin.jpeg   31.12KB   64 downloads
•  Footman of Paladar.jpeg   31.72KB   70 downloads
•  Fruits of Training.jpeg   27.86KB   44 downloads

[Djehuty]

I like the idea of that keyword. I could see a few artifacts or support creatures that allow you to add skill counters to cards at the cost of mana. As for what you have presented, I see no issues with what you've got. So far, their converted mana costs combined with the costs of their Prowess ability really balances it out - you're basically getting a 4/4 creature for 5 mana on the second one, and the enchantment is pretty nice, too. I imagine this'll be a Buff Swarm strategy set.

[FlamJ54]

would you be making a card that would give an additional bonus if they had a 2nd skill counter? Like if they had recived more training than normal.

[Kalam Mekhar]

would you be making a card that would give an additional bonus if they had a 2nd skill counter? Like if they had recived more training than normal.

That's something I was considering, yes. I would like to keep it pretty straightforward if I'm going to keep this for the white mechanic, but this is definitely an area I would explore for higher rarities.

 

I like the idea, and know you'll make some other cards with the counter ability, but for the first cards it seems repetitive to just put: gains +1/+1 and +2/+2. Other than that, I love the idea of the new game mechanic though. I feel this has a lot of potential as a set.

The reason I just went with pumps is because there will most likely only be ten or twelve (maybe a few more) total prowess cards in the set, and I want the rarities to follow patterns a little, similar to what the Return to Ravnica team did for detain and populate. What I mean is, commons will just boost themselves, uncommons can gain keyword abilities, and rares/mythics can gain both or crazy different abilities. I could flesh the mechanic out much more by using it for an entire set rather than just one color, so that's why I'm wondering if it really fits here or if I should find something narrower.

 

I like the idea of that keyword. I could see a few artifacts or support creatures that allow you to add skill counters to cards at the cost of mana. As for what you have presented, I see no issues with what you've got. So far, their converted mana costs combined with the costs of their Prowess ability really balances it out - you're basically getting a 4/4 creature for 5 mana on the second one, and the enchantment is pretty nice, too. I imagine this'll be a Buff Swarm strategy set.

Yeah, I wanted the creatures to "curve out" in both forms and not be broken, so for the first one, I experimented with it gaining +2/+2 for W, but that seemed a bit too good. It would enable a swing for 3 on turn 2, and that's too much for common, and arguably rare too. Second had similar problems: I tried +2/+2 for 1W with a 1W cost instead of 2W, and I may still try that one, but this seemed a bit fairer. Might not be that bad though.

[Kalam Mekhar]

Nice idea. that anthem card makes it scary though. 

 

... you could try a Mikaeus, the Lunarch version only with skill counters.

Yeah, the anthem might be a bit strong for common. Most likely is, but I was trying to compare it to Time of Heroes from RoE.

 

I like that idea quite a bit actually. Will probably slot this in for rare. Thanks for the idea!

[Kalam Mekhar]

Alright, so while the issue of prowess is still up in the air, I thought I'd throw out some ideas for blue. Maro talks about how blue is lacking in a creature combat mechanic in common, so I want to feature a new mechanic to aid in that goal, but I don't want it to be the only thing blue is about in this set. The blue faction is partially represented by bards, and partially by rogues/assassins, so I thought of two things to give both sides an identity.

 

The only actual keyword I'm planning on having is not named yet, but I'm thinking enervation or sleepstrike or something to that effect. Basically, when the creature with the ability deals combat damage to another creature, that creature is tapped and doesn't untap on its controller's next untap step. Basically, it's another form of evasion in blue, but hopefully put on cards that are defensive in nature so it doesn't seem aggressive. I like it though because you can keep an attacker tapped to sneak your own guy through next turn, so it feels tricky, and very blue.

 

Another mechanic in this vein I was experimenting with was called aetherstrike, which also triggered on combat damage to a creature, but instead of tapping them, it returned them to their owner's hand. Now I'm not sure if this is more or less powerful than the other. On one hand, it seems like it is because it sets the opponent back on mana and keeps that creature from swinging for a turn, but on the other hand, they get to cast another creature (in case of any abilities that would care) and possibly set off ETB triggers with it. This is the "drawback" they've been implementing in some sets recently, with cards like Roaring Primadox. I don't know how often this would really be a problem, but it might seem less useful overall because of cases where you don't really want to bounce your opponent's creatures, but you would like to block. You guys can let me know what you think about either version.

 

Okay, now for the mechanic that will define the bards' side of blue, it won't have a name because it's unnecessary and I'm already going to have 5 different keywords I believe. What it does is this: the creature (it will only appear on creatures) can tap for a cost to activate an effect and you can choose not to untap it to continue its ability. They've used this type of mechanic before on many creatures throughout Magic's history, and I thought it would make a lot of flavor sense for bards to be singing a magic song to do whatever and as long as they keep singing, the magic keeps working.

 

An example of this:

Attached Files

•  Lullaby Weaver.jpeg   35.86KB   11 downloads

[FlamJ54]

two more suggestions for prowess, one having a leader, like each creature with a skill counter get +1/+1 and having like a trainer who makes it cheaoer to get a skill counter (like each prowess cost {1} less to activate?

[Kalam Mekhar]

Those are both sound ideas. Thanks again.