Return to Alara: Shard Design

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Mechanics | Shard Design | Skeleton

Bant - Reused Exalted. - Play up auras and build a boss. - Blue legend that makes a creature you control attacking alone hexproof?

Esper -Everything an artefact. -Metalcraft?

Grixis -Unearth could be reused Elsewhere. _maybe bring back Delve? (Plays well with Cycling)

Jund: - Jund had a token theme and death triggers (death trigger overlays with grixis,) - Frenzy - Devour un-popular. Maybe Dragon Tribal?

Naya -Need a non-power four or five matters. -Convoke big features?

Cycling is a mechanic all the shards can use: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/cycling-round-track-2009-02-19

Archetype Speed

1. Jund?
2. Naya?
3. Grixis
4. Bant
5. Esper

Ally pairs are overlapping so must have speed altered according (WG, WU slowest, RG fastest.). Enemy colour pairs must entirely correspond to their shard.

WU = (Controlly, overlaps bant UB = (Control, esper artifacts + grixis instants/sorceries) BR = RG = WG = (Go wide, Overlays Bant's Exalted with Naya convoke.)

1. BG. = Faster than usual.
2. RW = token/swarm/go wide, slower than usual.
3. UR =
4. UG = 9 BW = Esper slowest?

Esper

• Gets Demonic Tutor variant.
• Take an extra turn/steal opponents next turn.
• (Mind control, this or grixis)
• Make an artifact token copy, flashback.
• 2 generic artifact, etb draw a card, sac to get effects required coloured mana.

Grixis

• The graveyard/death shard. (remove green graveyard stuff.)
• Noncreature spells with flashback.
• Use your graveyard as a finite resource by exiling cards from it.
• Blue and red discard draw spells. (Torment Voice, Red Ideas Unbound/Act on Impulse that draws and makes discard hand end of turn;
• Blue/Black Self Mill.
• Flashback spells feel grixis (drain life, Disentomb, Zombify than banishes+token copy, 1B sorcery, make a zombie token. ; flashback Wheel of Fortune, extra combat step. ; Entomb for sorceries ; 2U Sorcery, Draw two cards then discard a card + flashback ; BR Slave of Bolas with UB flashback ;
• red gets prowess only in Grixis (unneeded in Jund/Naya.)
• Red Act on Impulse variants let you either play or go to graveyard.
• Erratic explosion that puts the cards in your graveyard (if delve, only hits creatures).
• Red gets a polymorph, five mana, put revealed cards in your graveyard, blue flashback cost.
• Gets a +1/+1 counter when you flashback an instant/sorcery (U/R) (or all three colours, get a +1/+1 counter when you cast an instant/sorcery spell from graveyard OR creature etbs from their.)
• Morality Shift

Jund

• The most aggro shard.
• Downplay nature/predations, play up savagery/dragons.
• Has Thrinax's (lizards)
• Reprint Dragon Fodder.
• A baby dragon.
• Lava axe dragon
• Fight/Savage Bite effects
• (dragon land, T: C + T, reveal a dragon: add one mana of that creatures colours to your mana pool.)

Naya

• Swarm
• Convoke
• Still has big creatures, +5 power.
• group pump spells +2 power.
• creatures that like it if you have multiple creatures. Scion of the Wild, red power equal to the number of creatures you have.
• creature clone self etb (WG), when attacking Godsire, exile post combat.
• Cerodon Bull Cerodon + Cerodon Yearling, has menace+block additional creature as well.

Bant

• can't be blocked by more than one creature. (Green)
• blue, prowess + exalted.
• Rhodes
• Cultivate / Offering to Asha /
• Regrow an aura and non-aura?
• Incomplete cycle (two big gold auras with basic land cycling)
• damage prevention, (draw a card whenever damage prevented // an enchantment that prevents the next 1 damage to you, a teammate or planeswalker either of you control (Orb of Warding ///

Misc

• Goals: Reward play three colours, not 2/4
• Make each wedge play style slightly parasitic.
• Slight bleeding as Alara merged. (eg. RG dragon with convoke.)
• The shards know they exist and have hosers. * Http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/between-rock-and-shard-place-2008-09-05
• http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/shard-candy-2008-09-12
• http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/shard-tricks-2008-09-19
• http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/when-worlds-collide-part-i-2009-01-16
• http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/when-worlds-collide-part-ii-2009-01-23
• http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/solid-gold-2009-04-10
• http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/goldfingers-2009-04-17
• U+R: Swerve /// W+U: Hindering Light / WU: can't attack this turn + can't be backed this turn / W to tap, U: to stop it untaping next untap step. / U+G: untap another target permanent / WB Tidehollow Sculler variant /// UR: +3 until end of turn & -3/-0 until end of turn // (RW gold enchant, gives vigilance and gives a second combat step.) OR cheap WR enchantment, creatures you control have haste and vigilance, cycle