This was submitted for the Goblin Artisans design challenge for the Britannian Faction. This is Nich Grayson's Subjugate.

I've seen a few tweaks on soulbond's "pairing" technology here on Multiverse, but I certainly hadn't thought of using enemy pairing as the Britannian keyword mechanic. (jmgariepy went there with Arch Concervator last year.) It seems to have potential.

How does this compare to Faceless Butcher / Fiend Hunter? The creature in question can still block (and deal damage to attackers when it blocks); and if it attacks and deals lethal damage, you'll die before this gives you the life back. But on the flip side, if the subjugated creature dies, this can then subjugate another creature for free (when the new creature ETBs). Plus this is of course somewhat more expensive.

Other possible uses of subjugate at common:

> : Tap the creature paired with ~. (or)
> : Tap the creature paired with ~.

> At the end of your turn, the paired creature's controller loses 1 life.

> The creature paired with ~ can't attack or block unless its controller pays . (Not really different enough from this card's "gain that much life". There are other variants too:)
> Prevent all damage that would be dealt by paired creature.
> Whenever subjugated creature attacks, put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token OTB.

> Subjugated creature's activated abilities can't be activated.

> Subjugated creature gets -2/-0. (I thought this would be blue, but Cast into Darkness.)

> Subjugated creature can't block.

> Whenever an opponent loses 4 or more life in a single combat phase, subjugated creature gets -2/-2 UEOT.

> Subjugated creature loses first strike and trample and can't have or gain first strike or trample. (Bleh, is all that wording really necessary?)

Other options for uncommon or higher:

> When subjugated creature dies, return it to the battlefield under your control.

> Subjugated creature gets -1/-1. (I don't think this can be common, since it can kill eight 1/1s all arriving at once.)

Plus bigger versions of the common options.

Hmm, there seems to be at least a moderate amount of potential there...

Some examples for playtesting:

Commons: this card , Detainment Officer , Brutal Coercers , Occupation Grunts , Spiteful Warden

Uncommons: Enforcer of the Peace , Cruel Viceroy , Exploitative Industrialist

Rares: Prison Warden , Silvertongued Prince

Having tried to create a range of subjugate creatures across colours and rarities, I'm feel more dubious about the mechanic. As I mentioned on Enforcer of the Peace, even if the flavour varies a little between them, mechanically they're all some variation on "A guy who picks on an enemy guy and interferes with him doing things." I can see this simultaneously feeling not-interesting and too-annoying.

But having come this far, I probably will still give it a try in playtesting.

In playtesting, it did indeed feel like they all pick on an enemy and nerf it a bit. And I certainly worried about that being annoying.

Keeping the creatures lined up with what they subjugate wasn't a problem... until we started needing to do complicated blocks or double-blocks, at which point the board state gets virtually impossible to represent. Edwin said "the whole game state depends on a choice you made five turns ago" (without any visual representation now except where things are positioned). And it'd be even worse in multiplayer.

This all adds up to being a bit too fiddly and not worth trying to fix, so I think this mechanic is doomed. Was interesting to try though.