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CardName: Britannian Faction Cost: Type: (Faction) - Discussion Pow/Tgh: / Rules Text: The decadent oppressors, the world-spanning civilised empire who believe they're naturally superior to other races. Have a very well-organised military, but suffer from excessive internal politics, entitlement, arrogance, and racism, especially towards the conquered natives. Flavour Text: Set/Rarity: Code Geass None

Britannian Faction
 
(Faction) – Discussion
The decadent oppressors, the world-spanning civilised empire who believe they're naturally superior to other races. Have a very well-organised military, but suffer from excessive internal politics, entitlement, arrogance, and racism, especially towards the conquered natives.
Updated on 13 Nov 2014 by Alex

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2014-08-25 09:14:36: Alex created and commented on the card Britannian Faction

Britannia I think have to be white/black. Lots of Britannians are clearly black (Charles, Clovis, probably Jeremiah) and lots are clearly white (Cornelia and lots of the students and soldiers).

Mechanically, the Britannian faction wants to have one or two keywords / ability words called something like:

  • Overwhelm
  • Superior Technology
  • Conquer
  • Dominate

Now to figure out what those should be... If anyone has any suggestions for a mechanic fitting one of those names or something similar, ideas are very welcome!

The flavour of the group is that they're the decadent oppressors, the world-spanning civilised empire who believe they naturally have a right to live well. They're keen on culture like art, theatre and dance, and they have a very well-organised military - though it does perhaps suffer from excessive internal politics, entitlement, arrogance, and racism, especially towards the natives of the nations they conquer.

One possibility: "Oppression", a mechanic that has drawback and advantage elements, something like "This creature can't be blocked by creatures with toughness 1. Whenever this creature attacks, put a 1/1 red Rebel creature token OTB under defending player's control." Creatures with this would be pretty aggressively costed. I guess it's the ability from Varchild's War-Riders :)

Example: Kewell Soresi.

Another possibility is one of the Dominance mechanics from the Goblin Artisans set, such as "Dominance - As long as you control a creature with power greater than any other, [benefit]".

Hmm. Maybe...

Dominance (At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, that player taps an artifact, creature or land for each creature with Dominance you control.)

More of a W/U thing, though. Let's try...

Opulence 3 - When you untap during your untap step, if three of your lands were already untapped, [benefit].

Or maybe...

Entitlement 2 (When ~ enters the battle, you may exile a permanent. If you do, put two +1/+1 counters on ~. When ~ leaves the battlefield, return the exiled permanent.)

Ideas brainstorm:
Superiority— If this has a higher CMC than a permanent an opponent controls, [effect].

Decadence [#] (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay {x}, where X is your decadence.)
This would be paired with other abilities that cared about your decadence:
"Whenever you pay decadence, you gain that much life."
"Whenever you pay decadence, return a permanent card with CMC equal to your decadence from your graveyard to the battlefield."
The decadence for all your permanents would pool. So if you had one for Decadence 1 and one with Decadence 2, you could pay {3}.

Conquer— Whenever a permanent an opponent controls leaves the battlefield, [effect.]"

I'll try to come back later with more ideas.

Many thanks for the suggestions!

Opulence is pretty similar to "{3}: [Do something]". The difference could be played up with support from other cards. I think the flavour connection might be a bit weak.

Entitlement is interesting. Like an optional Champion. Fits into the "fewer larger creatures" theme that I'd been wondering about.

Superiority is interesting too. Somewhat similar to the Hierarchy mechanic on my black-white nobles faction in Clockwork Wings, as on Nouveau Riche, Mindpoison Marquise, Lord of the Demesne. But caring about the opponents' stuff rather than your own. Which is harder to manipulate...

Conquer also has potential. That'd mesh nicely with the combat-tricks theme of the set, and also with white and black removal. I'll try throwing together a couple of Conqueror cards.

Decadence looks pretty curious. It actively discourages you from building a deck themed around it.

Really? It would certainly get costly, but it would get more powerful as it scaled, too. If you had Decadence 5, you'd get up to 5 scaled points of Decadence effects each turn. So with the two examples, you'd get 5 life and a creature with CMC ≤ 5, and whatever other effects your other creatures provided, like destroying things or drawing cards or +1/+1 counters.

Oh, I see. Hmm, yes.

2014-09-18 12:43:25: Alex edited Britannian Faction

Brainstorming possibilities.

Progress: whenever you cast a permanent spell, put a +1/+1 counter on ~. At end of each opponent's combat, if a creature attacked you, remove a +1/+1 counter from ~.

Inexorability: when ~ dies, return a permanent card that costs less from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Overwhelm: If you control more creatures than an opponent, this gets +1/+1 (or some other bonus)?

Throwing around suggested ideas: Imperial Recruiter and Vicious Imperialist use Link's "Conquer". I want to try examples of several other mechanics suggested here too, but I need to go now.

Examples using jmgariepy's "Entitlement": Cocky Knight, Bloodthirsty Skyknight.

Examples using Link's "Decadence": Benevolent Landowner, Cruel Princess.

on 24 Oct 2014 by Visitor:

I like all three keywords so far.

Doing a winnowing pass of the mechanics to try to narrow it down:

  • Retribution as on Regiment Initiate has a big downside that both Jay and I are worried about.
  • Sabotage as on Britannian Beachstormers doesn't feel white and feels more suited to Black Knights than Britannia.
  • Loyalty as on Devoted Soldiers is a fine mechanic but way too close to my current implementation of Knightmares, specifically Eject.
  • Purity as on Elite Squadman has potential, but the racist aspect of Britannia isn't really where the series of Code Geass focuses as a whole.

All the above could be due further investigation, but will be put on the back burner for the moment, in favour of letting me focus on these ones for further consideration:

Things I'm undecided on:

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