For Challenge # 074

I spent some time over the weekend trying to think of an actual pirate-themed mechanic. I thought of lots of signature mechanics, and lots (bushido, rampage, battle cry, some landfall, battallion, etc, etc) are simple variations on "this creature gets a bit better" under thematically appropriate circumstances.

So "swashbuckle". It's not a perfect name, ideally it would be appropriate to pirates, but be possible to reuse later. But wizards have made it clear they'll do the best thing for the current set, as long as it doesn't actively sabotage the future, even if it means they might have to make a functionally-similar mechanic later.

Features I wanted for swashbuckle:

• it should give a creature boost (probably)
• it should be a bit random, to represent the devil-may-care nature of pirates
• but be more random for the opponent, and only a little bit random for the player, so it's more like a game of bluff, not "I randomly win/lose".

I went back and forth with random things like "flip a coin, if you win this gets +1/+1", but they were too fiddly and most players will hate them. I tried things like "may reveal a card that shares a colour with this/land card/nonland card/etc/etc" or "may discard" or even "may discard, if you do, draw a card".

But I decided "discard a card" was simpler.

It's not perfect, because you'll often not want to use it. It would be too feel-bad if it was just +1/+1. But it turns unwanted cards into 2/3 of giant growth, which is not terrible, and often even the threat of using it will make someone not block, which fits the piratey flavour.

I'm not sure about it only applying when it's blocked. I don't think it should be any time, because then you'll always have to decide "if this is unblocked, how many cards should I discard?" But maybe it should just be "when this attacks" or "when this attacks or blocks". I think it makes sense that the pirate is a scurvy nothing normally, but comes into her own when she's forced into a swordfight, and the opponent has to guess if you'll have a card you're willing to discard. But I'm not sure.

I've not playtested it at all, obviously; I'm not sure how it compares to existing "discard a card" creatures. But it's the definitely the most plausible mechanic I've been able to come up with so far.

It's like a fixed Wild Mongrel. I can see this having interesting play value, but I fear "discarding a card" is a cost that a lot of newer players would really prefer not to pay.

It's true... I'm sure many players will just say "I like Bushido better". Tricky, because I like this ability, and the themes you can build around it. Heck, I could see Madness returning in a Pirate themed world, sure.

But, you know, this might not be a great ability to stick on 10 common creatures anyway. A person can only discard so many cards. Pirates wouldn't work very well in tandem with other Pirates... which seems very important. You want a few good Pirate Lords, and you don't want his ability to be "I fix the Pirates so they work okay together." You want him to be fun to read.