So let's take a look at 1 Rare/Mythic, 3, Uncommons, and 10 Commons:
Rare/Mythic
This was initially rare, but as I was crafting more and more cards, I realized this is actually mythic in practice, especially within the terms of the set. Not only does it mutate, it can steal triggers of whatever an opponent might use to mutate their own creatures. Imagine if your opponent has one of the drumbeat enchantments. If they try to trigger it, you can steal the effect.
It doesn't exactly represent what blue is doing much in this set. It's just a pure limited bomb and goes well with any blue color combo. It's intended to illustrate the blue-green "grow smarter" archetype but it's so strong it doesn't require it at all. I may need to bump up the mana cost.
Uncommon 1
Now that I've nailed down the fecund mechanic, this card seems much less dangerous and I think it's fine at uncommon. It's kind of like the Amonkhet embalm lord in that it doesn't affect itself until it dies and makes a token. I thought that perhaps it should be the B/G signpost card, but fecund is also going to be in blue and white, and I don't want to given players the false impression that fecund is limited to two colors.
Uncommon 2
So this is the B/R reave signpost card. But I'm concerned about the fact that it doesn't have the reave kicker keyword on it. It facilitates reave by making sure you can trigger it across the whole turn and still get a benefit on the Corpse Kindler. So you can ignore the reave cost in a turn and still get the bonus effect. The question here is whether players will recognize when they look at a reave card that they only need to exile one card per turn, unless they've got a card that counts how many cards have been exiled.
Uncommon 3
I'm still not quite sure on the power level on this one, as well as templating the soldier tokens in this set as having first strike. That does tend to make them good against the other token creatures, but then again, they're going to be weak against the mutate creatures. Note that the ability wants you to have evasive creatures. White and blue will have their fliers (and blue will have one or two unblockables).
Common 1
So obviously this card tells you that your counters can be used in this set as more than just P/T bonuses. Potentially useful when your creature gets suppressed! And this is firmly in the G/W archetype for the set where you carefully manage your green mutate beasts by also removing counters to use a resource.
Common 2
Very simple anti-token creature red card. The R/W archetype is supposed to be about using militaristic force to deal with the creatures of the overgrowth. Since red can keep creatures from blocking, this seemed like a good way to express the dynamic. Though I could also maybe give it an ETB effect where it deals damage to a token creature and that would be on-color too.
Common 3
There are, to my surprise, no cephalids in this pack. I'm still trying to figure them out at common rarities given that the U/B focus is on playing with spells from outside of your hand. Since Xirn and the plague killing off the cephalids represents a central conflict in the set, that's a big gap right now to work on. U/B is not really playable yet.
This card itself is a neat way to encourage you to allow it to trade in order to maybe be fed to a reave trigger. Maybe it should be 3/2 to encourage aggression and increase the likelihood of a trade?
Common 4
Obviously this counterspell signals to players that you should feel comfortable exiling your own cards. So I wonder if the signaling that this is a set about exiling cards to be used as a resource is compatible with the signaling that this set is about creatures growing in size and number. To me, as somebody who had top-down designed these mechanics with an interesting story in mind, it makes sense. But I'm a little concerned that the reave mechanic doesn't appear connected to the others when you look at just the cards.
Common 5
Once you see mutate creatures, this card clearly signals that white is intended to keep them in check. So I like it, even though it's not a terribly strong combat trick. Funny thing. If you use this on a mutate creature, it will get a +1/+1 counter, but the counter won't modify its stats this turn.
I'm glad I concepted this mechanic, and it plays well in U/W, but I do worry about rules issues with it.
Common 6
This set's version of Shock. One of the very first reave cards I designed. I am concerned that the story it tells is kind of confusing and that it's not going to really be clear to players that reave represents a desperate effort to destroy plagued undead and overgrown monsters. I think I also need to have a red spell and possibly a black one as well that exiles a creature if it kills it.
Common 7
I decided to put the fecund bird in white rather than blue. I think I might give blue a small fecund crab or turtle at common to give it some strong early defenses.
Common 8
This will be the only "new" common land. Should I have common ETB tapped dual lands? Probably. The set is heavily focused on two-color decks. I do also plan to have rare dual lands for the ally colors. I'm still trying to figure out a good balance on what they do when they ETB.
Common 9
Mutate bear! An obvious gimme for the mechanic. This should hopefully signal that green is a primary color for mutate.
Common 10
This is the "Ah ha!" card for reave players to help them glue their deck together. Normally a card that could keep coming back like this would not be a common. I think it works in this set because it's parasitic. You have to cast another spell or use another ability to bring it back. But I do worry about what happens when one player is able to draft them all. It might have to be bumped to uncommon just because we need to limit the number of them. The combo with Corpse Kindler is pretty strong. We'll have to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment