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I thank you for your input Froggychum.
Unfortunantely, I don't believe checking the same type of thing per card is line with what I want this mechanic to symbolize, which was an artist or performer at the top of their craft. The best actor wouldn't be judged by the same output and requirements as the best sculptor. The differing superlatives would need to be necessary to convey this flavor.
For what it's worth, the mechanic wasn't envisioned as something that decks would necessarily want to have different creatures with spotlight, but instead maybe a (single playset of a) creature or two with spotlight whose spotlight matched up with what the deck wanted to do.
"Is the variety of places that Spotlight can check a problem"
Mechanically, there is a lot of design space present here, so running out of ideas isn't an issue.
The huge issue with this mechanic is that it's WAY too nonspecific to be an ability word. I mean, ability words aren't as specific as keywords, but they still have a focus.
The difference between two spotlight conditions is so vast, that you'd be better off either not using an ability word or narrowing your designs into a tighter theme.
For example, 'having the lowest power' and 'having the most creature cards in your graveayard' are ENTIRELY different themes. Also, the former doesn't have much design space, but the latter definitely does.
I'd suggest narrowing it down to something else. Maybe, "If you control the most creatures" or "If you control the most permanents" or "If you have the most cards in your graveyard".
If you want this to be a five-color mechanic, then you'll have a hard time, because it's hard to design a mechanic that can work in all five colors.
I personally think, "If you control the most permanents" could definitely fit into all five colors.
However, this superlative-style ability has another huge issue: Only one player can benefit from it in a match-up. For example, if this mechanic has a lot of cards (as a five color theme would have in a set), then the chances somebody is playing it is pretty high. That means, that in games with more than one spotlight-player even if those decks are vastly different, the games will always be far less fun for all but one player.
Perhaps, if you made two separate mechanics or two variations of Spotlight, one that reads, "If you control the most permanents" and "If an opponent controls more permanents than you", then players would be able to have more opportunities to have success from their opponent's success, instead of having 90% of their cards do nothing because their opponent got to play first.
That still wouldn't stop 'mirror-matches' (games where more than one player are each playing Spotlight decks), but it would add some diversity to the meta.
Honestly, this mechanic just isn't advisable. Could still be fun, though.
Is the variety of places that Spotlight can check a problem? From my perspective, the amount of things that could be cared about in a single zone is small, and if cards want to be the most (or least) or something, they would want to look at different areas so as not to compete with each other. My brain, thus thought it logical for finding design space to use, that Spotlight not have limits to zones or items that can be checked.
See Brutal Boxer. Eye tokens are now 0/1 instead of 1/1.
Instead of giving Eyes abilities outright, I thought of Eyes adding abilities to instant and/or sorcery spells.
Creatures that interact with Eye tokens would be in all five colors.
Is this concept viable for a "mechanic"?
I think sometimes being a trigger and sometimes being a static effect is fine. See how Wizards used morbid, for example. The bigger concern I have is that spotlight just means "you have the superlative" right now, rather than having the same condition each time. It's chroma vs devotion, if you know what I mean
Fair enough. Do you think the format I used for Spotlight here and on Imposing Storyteller can coexist with Carnivale Security and Wilderness's Advocate?
followed dude1818's advice.
Maybe this should prevent damage to itself while in the spotlight? Otherwise it would be annoying to have to track damage just in case it loses indestructible each turn
See Imposing Storyteller.
One concept I have is that creature native to this plane has the potential to awaken an "eye." These eyes are supposed to function as cameras. This was the first attempt trying to showcase this, but I do not believe this makes the camera theme clear.
could tap to copy an instant or a sorcery, but that didn't feel like right being in all colors or appearing at common.
I consider that all eye tokens were identical and for
There are decent odds of this set introducing athlete as a creature type.
See Carnivale Security. Here Spotlight is constantly checked. Does this spotlight's method of existence conflict with the Spotlight of Carnivale Security and Wilderness's Advocate or can they coexist without causing problems?
So I realized it may be hard to have things to count that the creature or other permanent itself did. I kept the word spotlight, but expanded its area, so that spotlight can care if you have the most of something, rather than just the permanent itself.
For this and Wilderness's Advocate I chose endstep because it was just likely to occur first and benefit the player. Should I consider other phases (I was mainly thinking about upkeep) where Spotlight could be checked, or should I stick to only the endstep to appease players who would not remember which Spotlights are upkeep and which spotlights and endstep. Upkeep would be better for anything that might want to be done during an opponent's turn, but I suspect the majority of applications would be easier to check at endstep. Alternatively, I will make another card proposing a different method for Spotlight.
If Spotlight may be ill-favored because of the Story Spotlight cards, I could Limelight as an alternative name.
See Wilderness's Advocate. After considering spotlight, I thought it might be nice to attempt and make use of the mechanic on a planeswalker.
Spotlight will check for a creature (or potentially other permanent) having the most of something. I am considering having the possibility of having done the most something. This is only an example, and each instance would not rely on permanents attached. Here, I'm even tempted to limit to auras to free up design space that is likely limited.
See Sad Person. Originally was a +1/+1 counter, but I felt tired giving white another +1/+1 counter mechanic.
Top-down design test.
See Maggots.
See A Guy That Dies. I think I fixed the wording from the linked card. Cremate would be in
and 
, representing fire from red, and any chemicals that would negatively impact the environment in 
. I actually this would be useful for the big mana world, but that's not what these are for.
BrrBarrage uses X, so it's probably not okay for a mechanic.
Test mechanic for Urmak based on the idea of going wide and dying for the greater cause.
See Kilseq Rower. and A Llamasu. This time Calcify doesn't ramp outright, but instead creates a token. Some white (and probably blue) creatures may have a (not ability-worded) affinity for artifacts to reduce their cost.
This is probably a bad idea, since it involves a mechanic only there to support another ability. As bad as that is, it would make more sense than convoke for this plane.
See Kilseq Rower.
Cool in my head, ugly on a card.