Xianlu: Mechanics

This is a pretty common mechanic with this exact name I've seen pop up elsewhere. Thanks to those people for inspiration.

Pretty much a filler mechanic. Again, it's aiming at depowering removal and instant speed tricks in general while still keeping them relevant for later. By necessity, it will show up more in and , but will also be found in all colors.

A big focus of the set is on reacting or surprising your opponent. By increasing the prevalence of instant-speed creatures and spells, I hope to encourage that. The combat step is going to be more important than usual in this set, so expect a lot of Reflex spells encouraging being cast during the combat step.

Sequence is a pseudokeyword that classifies abilities that have the rider "If you cast another noncreature spell this turn," This is found primarily in , on primarily instants, sorceries, and creatures. Most of these cards have very over the top martial arts moves names and are relatively cheap; it is encouraged to cast multiple cards per turn, similar to Surge, to get the maximum benefit.

Seal is an enchantment subtype. Generally, Seals are fairly moderate - they are weak aura removals that any player can pay a moderate fee to remove them. If they do remove them, you draw a card, refunding the card used to cast the seal. This is to keep removal plentiful in a format where voltron is encouraged, but also keep it within reasonable limits. Most of these Talismans serve as tempo spells. There will be a number of cards in that will key off of enchantments in the battlefield and graveyard, or Seals themselves, creating a removal-heavy tempo archetype.

Monstrous returns, with no mechanical changes from its previous iterations in Conspiracy 2 and Theros. Monstrous appears in , making up the "evil monsters" faction of Xianlu. Design-wise, expect Monstrous to show up a little more on smaller creatures that get larger; the Monstrous archetype is a little more aggressive than the typical Monstrous archetype in Theros.

There will be an uncommon semi-cycle with Monstrous , where X is something the opponent has - further strengthening the role of timing when it comes to combat.

Thanks to Link for inspiration for this mechanic.

Note that + abilities stack. There will be cards that give + abilities to creatures without Bequeath at uncommon and above. There will be a "School" cycle that permanently gives a card a + ability. This archetype is primarily centered in , but is found in all colors. decks focus on constantly recurring smaller bequeath cards on sticky followers to make them more annoying or evasive. decks focus on constantly fueling large creatures by sacrificing them Bequeath creatures. decks aim for a large Bequeath creature with numerous +1/+1 counters on it.

Keeping track of + abilities uses perforated cards. To limit the number of perforated cards, there will only be a pool of 11 different + abilities - 7 "common" ones, and 4 "rare" ones, on two different perforated cards.

Only one {+} ability stacks, which is Lei Fang, Lost Heir's {+} ability. I wanted to make his unique. Having {+} abilities not stack also helps with tracking and simplifying abilities moving around, which can get confusing in lieu of not having enough perforated stubs.