Looking at the naval aspects of pirate world. The idea is that all ships will have protection from non-ships, creating a parallel economy to normal creatures so we can have small ships at 1/1 that still outclass normal creatures. I don't entirely like it, as it promotes non-interaction (very similar to shadow), but I liked the flavour.
1/1 unblockable... Well, I guess Kamigawa went that way.
But Harbinger of Spring is a lot more expensive (though it adds a point of power and soulshift)
Treated as if it were shadow, mmm, I also dislike shadow intensely. But I guess I can see it, kinda.
I think 1/1 unblockable is plausible, but if this is an infinite blocker it probably needs to cost more. Maybe it should only be on attack? But I don't want to recreate horsemanship...
Ships should be part of a new card type, Vehicle, which carry creatures. They can be attacked like Planeswalkers, and players would fight for control of these vehicles. There should be a card called Mutiny whereby you take control of a ship and all the creatures on it.
What's the advantage of the ship carrying a creature? Some kind of bonus, like an enchantment? How do creatures get on and off? Do ships have loyalty counters or some other type of counter to track their life?
I'm not sure whether they should be artifacts or not -- which I prefer, and which wizards would currently use. I think the current guidelines are something like:
self-propelled mechanical things are artifact creatures
creatures riding something are typed as the rider, not the mount
creatures operating a vehicle are sometimes typed as the driver, sometimes as the vehicle, and mostly avoided because they would be ambiguous.
My natural inclination is definitely to make ships artifact creatures, but even though it doesn't entirely make sense, I think the answer which works better in the long term is to keep "artifact creature" for self-propelled artifacts, and let ships be creatures (just like you can have one creature card for a whole mob or herd of individuals). That lets them partake of the flavour of different colours, and lets artifacts retain some of their alienness.
But I'm not sure. I think wizards would probably avoid it, but I thought it was worth trying in an amateur design.
You know, I like the concept (It reminds me a lot of how the original Star Wars CCG used to work: Combat in space didn't really affect combat on the ground and visa versa, but ignoring one or the other was bound to result in a game loss.) The real problem seems to stem from the fact that this can't really be supported outside of block. Inside block, it seems fun. Once the block is done... yeah, it becomes Spiritcraft, and people treat the set like Odyssey or Kamigawa. The cards don't make sense outside of their vacuum. Still fun in the vacuum, though.
By the by, this Schooner can block land creatures and prevent the damage to itself, like, let's say Hundroog. I assume that's a bug?
Well, the idea is that a small number of these would be balanced even if they're effectively unblockable. After all, shadow creatures from time spiral weren't a problem in constructed? But I agree it probably wouldn't work. (I considered letting the ships be attacked, but decided it was too complicated.)
"By the by, this Schooner can block land creatures and prevent the damage to itself"
Well, the idea was not so much "sea" and "land" as "50 foot long and made out of oak" and "not", so I did intend them to be able to block "normal" creatures (but I agree, that's more interactive but a lot more annoying than shadow).
For Challenge # 074
Looking at the naval aspects of pirate world. The idea is that all ships will have protection from non-ships, creating a parallel economy to normal creatures so we can have small ships at 1/1 that still outclass normal creatures. I don't entirely like it, as it promotes non-interaction (very similar to shadow), but I liked the flavour.
1/1 unblockable... Well, I guess Kamigawa went that way. But Harbinger of Spring is a lot more expensive (though it adds a point of power and soulshift)
Treated as if it were shadow, mmm, I also dislike shadow intensely. But I guess I can see it, kinda.
I think 1/1 unblockable is plausible, but if this is an infinite blocker it probably needs to cost more. Maybe it should only be on attack? But I don't want to recreate horsemanship...
Personally, I have a problem with ships that aren't artifacts.
Ships should be part of a new card type, Vehicle, which carry creatures. They can be attacked like Planeswalkers, and players would fight for control of these vehicles. There should be a card called Mutiny whereby you take control of a ship and all the creatures on it.
What's the advantage of the ship carrying a creature? Some kind of bonus, like an enchantment? How do creatures get on and off? Do ships have loyalty counters or some other type of counter to track their life?
I'm not sure whether they should be artifacts or not -- which I prefer, and which wizards would currently use. I think the current guidelines are something like:
My natural inclination is definitely to make ships artifact creatures, but even though it doesn't entirely make sense, I think the answer which works better in the long term is to keep "artifact creature" for self-propelled artifacts, and let ships be creatures (just like you can have one creature card for a whole mob or herd of individuals). That lets them partake of the flavour of different colours, and lets artifacts retain some of their alienness.
But I'm not sure. I think wizards would probably avoid it, but I thought it was worth trying in an amateur design.
You know, I like the concept (It reminds me a lot of how the original Star Wars CCG used to work: Combat in space didn't really affect combat on the ground and visa versa, but ignoring one or the other was bound to result in a game loss.) The real problem seems to stem from the fact that this can't really be supported outside of block. Inside block, it seems fun. Once the block is done... yeah, it becomes Spiritcraft, and people treat the set like Odyssey or Kamigawa. The cards don't make sense outside of their vacuum. Still fun in the vacuum, though.
By the by, this Schooner can block land creatures and prevent the damage to itself, like, let's say Hundroog. I assume that's a bug?
Well, the idea is that a small number of these would be balanced even if they're effectively unblockable. After all, shadow creatures from time spiral weren't a problem in constructed? But I agree it probably wouldn't work. (I considered letting the ships be attacked, but decided it was too complicated.)
"By the by, this Schooner can block land creatures and prevent the damage to itself"
Well, the idea was not so much "sea" and "land" as "50 foot long and made out of oak" and "not", so I did intend them to be able to block "normal" creatures (but I agree, that's more interactive but a lot more annoying than shadow).