Magrazam and the Pyre Hermits

When Guthreham's wild growth started getting out of hand, many wizards that had been serving the Arbor (and many of which had fought in the wars) started using their magics to try to get things in hand.

Some mages with more controlling magics were embraced by Janell and the Arbor as a way of trying to keep things in check without suppressing the growth that Janell and her followers embraced. But pyromancers and other wizards with harsher, destructive magics found themselves on the outs. It was a clash of wills that threatened to turn violent. But Magrazam, an elder mage who once fought by Janell's side, could sense that Janell was much more powerful than others understood. He doesn't know what a planeswalker is, but he knows that there's a lot more to Janell than meets the eye.

So instead he and his fellow wizards threw up their hands and left, heading up to the Nightscrape Mountains and essentially became hermits and live on their own terms.

Then the plagues came and started infecting people, killing them and often zombifying them. Many of the infected were pushed off to the coast or into the ruins of the overgrown cities Guthreham has abandoned. But others wanted to be free of this brutal, unending life cycle entirely. Some diseased folks or families with dying members have taken a difficult trek up to the Nightscrape Mountains. They seek release in the flames. They want the pyre hermits to burn them into dust, freeing them from all the pestilence.

At first, the pyre mages would only burn corpses and fully zombified people. But increasingly they've agreed to essentially euthanize those who have reached the end stage of disease. Magrazam is increasingly concerned that they cannot remain on the sidelines of all this. He's also aware, thanks to the natural cavern networks delving deep into the mountains, that there are independently operating artifacts and artificial creatures in the bowels of the plane. He doesn't know how they got there or what they're for. He has no idea about Guthreham's secret, but he does suspect Janell is hiding something significant.

This is an example of the common land cycle. Each will have a second cheapish on-color ability that essentially "exerts" the land.

Edit: No, this needs to damage an opponent, not a creature. Too powerful at common. Silly me.

Spurning Spurn ... and Bringing in Detain?

I think I've hit a "Kill Your Darlings" space. As much as I want to make "spurn" work as a mechanic, it just really isn't fitting into this set. Flavorwise, having it trigger from spells and activated abilities seems very much not in the spirit of a world that's worried about being overwhelmed by beasts and plagues. Mechanically, it doesn't create a win condition or really set one up because the effects are so varied and so reactive. White in particular is struggling for a play archetype given that it doesn't have access to either mutate or reave.

So "spurn" is out. There may still be spaces in the set where I can have white and blue punish opponents for lobbing spells at them. That fits well into what they're about in this set. I'm thinking of bringing detain in to replace spurn, the Azorius mechanic from Return to Ravnica. In the big Magic Design Search 3 essay test, we were asked to pick a mechanic to make evergreen. I chose detain, because it mechanically clarifies and clearly represents a host of existing stun mechanics that blue and white already use to keep opponents from using their creatures. So could I make a detain a mechanic blue and white use to hold opponents' creatures back to prepare their own armies?

I have decided I do want to make the burgeoning enchantments work. They actually better represent the growth concepts of this world than spurn did. I'm still not entirely sure about balance, power, rarity, and what to do when the options run out. I don't want them to just pop like a limp balloon. So I'm thinking at the very least, they cantrip once they're done.

Also an interesting bit of tension once you bring detain into this set. When you target a mutating creature with detain, it's going to get a +1/+1 counter. So you've successfully held the beast at bay, but it's feeding off your magic.

I decided to go with a "may" version on this one, and I'm wondering if it's going to cause memory issues. A player can decide not to use the first effect when his next upkeep comes around. So it will remain at that first effect for his or her next upkeep. Is that something a player would obviously realize?

Edit: I just realized that if it's a "may" effect, they can just leave it in play and never select the last step, which seems weird. I think the "may" has to be on the steps themselves. In which case I'm wondering if a player thinks they've chosen a step even if they decide not to detain any creatures. Complications!

Edit II: Since the steps require targeting an opponent's creatures, I think the "may" is not necessary. You don't have to worry about it backfiring on you (which would not be in the flavor for this one). It would just fizzle.

But fizzling creates a new gameplay concern. If an effect fizzles, does that still count as "chosen"? If there's no valid target for the first effect, what happens? Here's where things get messy. Normally you cannot cast a spell or use an ability when there's not a valid target.

So under the rules, can you even "choose" the first effect if your opponent has no creatures? So perhaps the first two items on the list require a "may."

Some Mutate Creatures

So for the set, the black and blue mutate creatures will be flavored as being afflicted with diseases, while the green and red mutate creatures will be the ones flavored as growing and reproducing out of control.

I've thought about some parasitic creatures and enchantments in black/blue that would allow for counters from creatures to be spent to cause effects, to sort of mechanically represent people studying and trying to use mutations for other ends. But I'm not entirely sure of the design space here, because I need to also make sure there's a decent number of friendly mutate triggers. You can't spend counters if it's too much trouble getting them in the first place. I'm still thinking about those drum enchantments. Now that I've changed spurn, they could still potentially work in the set. Not only can the by used for mutate triggers, your opponents use of the drum enchantments could trigger your own spurn abilities.

Spurn Version 3.0

That title is a lie. There have been like six iterations of this mechanic before getting to this point. But I think we may be there. Would you play this creature?

I think this is the cleanest, most intuitive representation of the concept of spurn. If an opponent gets aggressive toward you during your turn, you can punish them. Like "reave," this incarnation of spurn can be keyed to trigger just once when casting a spell or when a creature comes into play, or repeatedly, as is the case with this gull.

The design challenge is keeping it focused on a punish response that fits for blue/white/green colors. And I think this mechanic is too complex for common. But that's okay. This is a reactive mechanic, not a synergy-focused one. You don't build your deck around using spurn. Each card stands or fails on its own.

Mirroring Life vs. Death

Thinking about ways to mechanically represent the growing conflict between the "pure" creatures and people represented in green and white versus the plague-afflicted black and blue folks with mechanics that aren't necessarily mutate or reanimation.

Here's a common mirrored pair in green and black.

The rules text is maybe a little more complicated than it needs to be by referring to the battlefield rather than just creatures you control. But I wanted to make sure it was very clear what triggered the bonuses.

There is a question as to whether the mechanics are too complex for common. I don't think they are. It's very easy to check and not confusing.

The Mystery at the Heart of It All

So, what is Guthreham actually giving birth to?

That's a very good question.

Anyway, here's a legendary artifact.

Well, this doesn't really explain things, does it? But it at least gets a sense of where new, apparently uncontrolled artifact constructs are coming from.

My original draft of this artifact had it making a token copy of each non-token creature when the creature entered the battlefield. But that didn't really feel like it actually really highlighted the concept overgrowth in a way that made it feel different and mysterious and legendary. So given that this world is all about the uncontrollable escalation of life and death, what if you got a reward for both gaining and losing life? There's a lot of fun things to do with this artifact. I suspect the rules templating will take some work.

Burgeoning Enchantments

After fiddling around with the turn-based Estevan alternate-win enchantment, I really started thinking that yes, a modal enchantment could work in this set and can be presented in such a way as to mechanize the uncontrollable growth concept.

Check out this uncommon blue enchantment.

So each upkeep you go down the list, and the effects get bigger and bigger each upkeep until the enchantment essentially pops like a balloon.

Balancing this is a bit of a challenge. How do you calculate the value of three essentially "free" effects that are balanced by the time delay. It's one of those enchantments that does nothing when it's played. It's really like combining a modal spell with the suspend mechanic.

It would have to be heavily playtested. I was actually trying to decide whether there should be a final reward when the enchantment pops. Or should there be a final penalty? It would have to depend on the power levels.

Estevan

People affected by the various plagues and diseases that have cropped up have been forced out of The Arbor and other communities and have had to find refuge out in the wilds or along the Wildtide Coast, part of which is now called the Blightcoast.

Not even Janell's closest have been spared. Estevan was a general in her army who was exiled as signs of disease started consuming his body. An ambitious man, he is furious at her rejection and is turning the plague-stricken rabble into an army, and it includes the zombies the people become after they die. Estevan doesn't really order them around, but they seem to feel some sort of connection with him due to his afflictions.

He plans to gather all these exiled afflicted people and march back to the Acres and demand entry back into the Arbor. He is aware this may well mean war, but he has nothing left to lose.

I feel like Estevan could actually be black/white but I feel like his mechanics are mono-black. I had planned a cycle of mono-colored legends, but it's quite possible to make them enemy-colored creatures. I'll think about it.

This is just meant to be a weird alternate win experiment, but I'm considering turning this type of mechanic into a cycle. This is a variation on Demonic Pact, but it occurs to me that a staged, modal series of triggered enchantment effects could be interesting to explore. And it's another way of mechanically representing out of control growth (or decay, in this case).

Not sure on the templating here. I am hoping that it's clear that each upkeep you go down the card and trigger the next effect. If you survive the three previous triggers, you'll win the game.

Common Overgrowth Removal

I'm showing the extent of my absence from Magic here. Likely the burn/removal category will have some reprints, but I'm not entirely knowledgeable enough to know the whole inventory of removal and what's already been designed in this space. Also, I am admittedly unsure on costing these spells.

Anyway, three commons.

Unconditional creature destroy for a decent price. But with a downside. Part of me feels like this spell already exists, but a card search in gatherer found nothing. Again, here I'm trying to hit the uncontrollable nature of zombification rather than the necromantic aspect. Killing off your opponent's creature doesn't inherently give you control of the zombie. There will be reanimation in black that doesn't have a downside, too. I think Ritual of the Returned could be a good reprint for the set (and a reave trigger).

This may feel undercosted given the power of the reave trigger, but remember that mutate is going to be fairly common in this set. When you target a mutate creature, it gets a +1/+1 counter before this spell resolves. So this spell naturally kills a smaller range of creatures than it might in another set. Without the reave trigger, this is more likely going to need to be combined with combat damage to truly kill.

Zirn will have a rebuke, too. It will be a counterspell. It also originally had spurn, but it no longer works with the new mechanic, and I'll need to rethink it. I'm not sure about the cost on this. I think it needs to be splashable for this set. This may be a case where I kill off the spurn and just run the reprint of the typical white "Destroy 4+" spell with a new name.

I have decided that there will be NO green instants with the fight mechanic as removal. It really, really seems to be distorting the limited environment. Ramp, big creatures, land searching, and creature-based removal is a whole lot. I see cases where early access to fight instants immediately pushes people into green. And with the mutate in green, it will be way too powerful (remember the fight mechanic targets the creature). I believe I will have one mid-sized green non-mutating creature with flash that has fight as a spurn-triggered mechanic. Probably at uncommon.

Remaking the Spurn Mechanic

Ultimately I've decided the "spurn" mechanic simply doesn't work the way I had initially intended--as a bonus reward for good timing with instant-speed spells. "Good timing" is not necessarily the same as "in response to an opponent's spell." I had to get that through my head, particularly when thinking about the phases of combat.

So I'm simplifying spurn so that it's a bonus triggered effect if an opponent has cast a spell during your turn. It emphasizes the idea of defending and punishing your opponent when he or she attempts to use spells to come after your stuff.

So Warned by the Wind becomes this:

Mechanically this essentially helps protect one of your creatures from removal during your turn, and if it does so you get a tempo bonus against your opponent. It can still protect your creature during your opponent's turn, and I think the cost keeps it playable (especially in limited).

Changing this wording also lets me spread spurn into sorceries, which right now have pretty much no identity in this set. Here's white's "kill everything" spell in this set.

I can see skilled players trying to tease out a combat spell or removal from opponents by attacking and then dropping this spell after combat. But even without the spurn trigger punishment, obviously this is a good spell. I may be undercosting it. The rule templating may look strange on a sorcery, but that's in the event some other ability allows the spell to be played at instant speed.

I'm still thinking there aren't going to be huge number of spurn abilities, compared to the other triggers. If we have to add .5 mana (or whatever) to balance every spurn spell, it can put a real hurt on white and blue. And the blue-white shell is very control-oriented this set. It needs to be able to survive mutants.

Overgrowth Big Beasts

In white, angels will represent the top end, probably power/toughness no greater than four.

Here are the top-end monsters in the remaining colors.

There are no vampires or demons on Guthreham, thanks to Janell. But there are dragons, and the spread of diseases in the overgrowth occasionally infect even them. So there are zombified dragons as a result of the plague and not through dark necromancy.

Edit: Just realized I templated it wrong and it should require you to sacrifice all your creatures. I don't know why I made that mistake.

Note that the bounce is a must, not a may, part of the general "out of control" feel of the set. In this case, though, it's not as likely to backfire unless it gets out onto the battlefield abnormally early (which could happen). I'm trying to decide if it's okay that it hits lands. I think it is. Heck, if I go with the decaying dual lands concept, it's a way to save your own.

I was way too impressed with myself for coming up with this name. And then I did a Google search out of curiosity and found out it's already the name of some cross-country foot race. Nothing new under the sun. The name has flavor meaning here: Surrounding The Arbor are six rural regions known collectively as The Acres. Each one is named after a species of tree: (Juniper, Alder, Oak, etc.).  Janell named all these districts and planted the trees they're named for after they won the war. Unfortunately, the overgrowth has made all the acres very dangerous places to live from all the mutating beasts. The trees she planted have spread and overwhelmed the pastoral communities. The guards of The Acres have to patrol constantly to try to keep creatures like this from reaching The Arbor and threatening lives.

As with mechanics like raid, revolt, and explore, most creatures and spells with reave on them will trigger only once, typically as an enter-the-battlefield effect. The Nightscrape Sovereign will be one of the few exceptions, but I've still templated it to happen only once, and any recurring use of reave will be templated to happen only once per turn to avoid absurd game-breaking combos.

Note again that this is a must, not a may. This guy can backfire on you if you're not careful. Pun intended.

Struggling with Spurn

This card I made is terrible and I'm not using it, but I'm posting to highlight some of the problems I'm having trying to design with the spurn mechanic.

As I'm trying to design around spurn in white, it feels like white wants to use spurn to punish aggressive combat tricks. That's what it does in combat at instant speed. Kill an attacker; call in token blockers. Essentially punish players for coming at them.

But timing is a problem with this card, and that's bad, because the whole point of spurn is to reward smart timing when casting instant-speed spells. Experienced players will likely wait until after blockers are declared to deploy combat tricks. At that point, if you respond with Defense of the Arbor, then it's too late to use the creature tokens as blockers. They're not worthless, but they're not going to accomplish what I envision happening. This isn't really "rewarding good timing."

I tried a version where I reversed the effects and dropped the cost down.

This is terrible. Can you imagine looking at this card in a limited format and realize it might not even destroy a creature? No, it's terrible.

I think spurn is going to be a good tool to respond to removal and damage, but the way the mechanic is written right now is not going to be great in combat itself.

The first card could potentially be fixed by setting it to kill a "big creature," which is in white's wheelhouse and that kind of removal is most certainly going to be in the set. But I'm not sure of the value of stapling spurn onto it.

I'm also worried that the mechanic is actually terrible for a limited environment where players are focused on creatures and play only a limited number of non-creature spells. These spells must be designed so that they're playable even if you don't get the spurn trigger. The mechanic needs to feel like a reward. If you feel like you're going to lose the game because you cannot trigger the spurn effect, that's a bad card.

In that vein, I just realized that the drumbeat enchantment cycle cannot exist in the same set as spurn as the mechanic is now. If I use those enchantments instead of auras, then suddenly spurn loses a whole bunch of things to respond to. The irony of spurn is that its value as a mechanic is based on having strong non-creature spells to react to. If I don't have those, spurn is a weirdly inessential component to the set.