Code Geass: Recent Activity
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Mechanics | Introduction and General Invitation | Proxies for playtest | Design Challenge 2 | Colour-pair archetypes | Skeleton |
Recent updates to Code Geass: (Generated at 2024-05-03 21:02:05)
See CL02 Thriving Heath.
I've been wanting some colourless Equipments, to fit into any of the several strategies that want to go heavier on the Equipment. I wasn't sure whether to make them specific named Knightmare models like the coloured Equipment, and if so which ones. I'm currently thinking they can be things that aren't actually Knightmare mecha themselves, but can be, well, equipment that the characters use. In some cases like this one it can actually be modules that bolt on to other Equipment.
But what about the cards that aren't one-and-done? Like the set's Pacifism, Geass of Inaction, which would need to stop saying
> Enchantment - Aura Geass
> (Enchanted creature has protection from other Geasses.)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can't attack or block.
and instead would say
> Sorcery - Geass
> (Exile this spell when it resolves. Its target gains protection from other Geasses indefinitely.)
> Target creature can't attack or block. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)
I feel like that would be pretty weird. It's not a concern on wordiness grounds, but it's just odd. I might still need to do it, but it's the opposite of "one-and-done": it's two permanent static effects.
V.V., the creepy immortal child who's actually about 60. He's immortal, like C.C., Impulsive Witch, but in his case he just doesn't die at all, rather than dying and coming back to life, so I think indestructible is more appropriate here. I think a 2/2 unconditionally indestructible is probably okay for 4 mana in two colours?
The only way he can die is if he gives up his Code willingly, which he eventually does for the sake of Emperor Charles zi Britannia. He's quite evil and callous, but also quite scientifically minded and detached, so I think blue-black suits him. Black accounts for the indestructible so I wanted to give him a blue sacrifice ability. Countering a spell isn't an exact match for what happens in the series, but it's not too far off.
It's looking like I might want a rare/mythic in each of the ten gold colour pairs. I started trying to think of what concepts in Code Geass might be , and fairly quickly arrived at Euphemia. She's the nicest character in the series, kind, compassionate and encouraging. She is a Britannian royal, but she has a great heart for the traditional Japanese, being one of the only Britannians to call them "Japanese" rather than the derogatory term "Elevens". She's beloved by both citizens and soldiers alike. And the series could have gone in a very different direction if her plans had been allowed to proceed...
Mechanically, this is somewhere between Emiel the Blessed, Juniper Order Ranger, The Great Henge, Mentor of the Meek, and Inspiring Commander. The wording is a slight simplification from how Wizards would currently template this, but I think it's clear and unambiguous.
The skeleton has a hard counterspell slot here, which has to be at least 3 mana and will often be 4 or 5. However blue common has a lot of four-mana spells at the moment: Misinform, Geass of Desertion, and the current set of stats for Unethical Researchers. So this might want to be just 3 mana.
There have been a couple of cards that are strictly better than Cancel recently, such as Neutralize and Wizard's Retort, so I'm hoping this is okay. It's clearly worse than Dismiss.
I'm on the fence about the "up to one" here. I was thinking I'd like it if you could use this without a spell to target, as a really bad way to trigger the draw-second-card rewards. But it's such a bad thing to do I'm not sure if the extra fiddly wording is worth it.
For what it is worth, I consider the sorcery option superior to the Aura option as well. It's the best way to convey "one and done" anyway.
It was originally designed that the ones with ongoing effects would be Auras, and the ones that are one-and-done would be instants/sorceries. Which you have to admit makes the most sense. As I mentioned waayy back when, over here, I acknowledge the subtype sharing between permanents and oneoffs is new, but I don't see any reason why it shouldn't happen; and I asked the Rules Manager at the time and he didn't point out any problems with it either.
That said, I do agree the playtesting showed that the difference between the Auras and inst/sorcs, while subtle and usually irrelevant, does come up occasionally. I don't recall why it was a problem, but I said so 4 years ago and I believe my past self :) Misinform is the common in the set that'll have it make a difference, and there are probably one or two uncommons/rares.
I disagree that Disenchant interferes with the point of the mechanic. Flavour-wise, the only magical effects in the series are Geasses and related things, plus one or two supernatural weirdnesses like the Collective Subconscious. In-set, there'll only be one Naturalize-type effect which will be flavoured similarly to Geass Canceller, which is also a thing that exists in the series. If someone wants to cross the flavour of sets (which always leads to flavour weirdness when crossing between high-magic settings like Dominaria and low-magic ones like Kaladesh), then I'm happy for Disenchants to undo the ongoing Geasses.
So I do need to either turn all Geasses into Auras, or all Geasses into instants/sorceries. I don't really like either of those which is why I haven't done it yet... This looks so much wordier than Geass to Betray, so I don't like the Auras option. I could try the sorceries option, and I probably will. It looks so weird to have the ongoing effects on sorceries, but it might be the least bad solution.
I'm confused why any Geass at all is an Aura. First of all technically you are mixing subtypes of cardtypes were that are not supposed to share subtypes: enchantment with instant/sorcery.
But then you also do the haunt thing, where the mechanic works different on permanents vs. nonpermanents, which has been identified as one of the main problems with the mechanic (and in your case it clearly screws with the whole point of the mechanic since Disenchanting a Geass now opens the creature for a second Geass... as long as it was an Aura).
You could easily turn all Geass into Auras (some without static ability except for the implicit Geass protection), but you could ALSO turn all the Auras into sorceries with indefinitely lasting effects; after all you are exiling the sorceries by default already, so the memory issue is alrady solved.
I'm quite certain this would be put partly into black these days as Bribery-style stuff has been moved there (compare Gonti, Lord of Luxury & Dead Man's Chest, also Thief of Sanity & Hostage Taker).
The second season of the series has a few episodes concerned with the Collective Unconscious of all humanity. Rather annoyingly that is already the name of a card, so I need to use a slight synonym here.
This was designed top down for the concept. I ended up at what seems like an interesting tweak on Future Sight, and also a way that feels somewhat justified for green to contribute to controlling cards the opponent owns.
Hmm, well - Reverse Damage says this can be White. Control Magic says Blue. Black for the obvious "Yeah, I'm willing to freakin DIE to get control of that. And, you know, not actually die because that would be dumb." It's not really very green? It's the weak taking control of the strong, very un-green there. Red... is heavily against the planning flavour. Though for actual play value? "I'm playing a trap spell, and hoping you forget it exists. I'm sure that'll pay off for me. Shaddup." maybe :)
Honestly, nails it for me. A red downside would be to make the control temporary (boo). Or global. ... ok, global is insanely Xanatos-roulette. I mean, in practical terms, when's it ever actually gonna come up that you fire this off and then you accidentally kill off an opponent so they get the effect and it keeps on trucking turn after turn? When you're a RED player, that's when!
Having realised I really want Emperor Charles zi Britannia to be a black-white mythic, that makes me think I might need to change this. Charles's card really needs to be black-white, but this could be whatever colours it fits. This wants to stay a mythic rare, as it represents the amazingly audacious plan which nobody except Lelouch could either come up with or carry out, but its colours are flexible.
I do quite like the current effects, so I'm wondering what colours this effect fits in? I think it could probably be anything part-blue (well, maybe not blue-green). If I were to make this blue-red, would the current rules text still fit that, do you think? I could maybe add "Your life total becomes 1" to make it feel a little more red.
The Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire. Unashamedly supremacist and discriminatory, as exemplified by this quote:
> All men are not created equal! Some are born swifter of foot, some with greater beauty, some are born into poverty, and others born sick and feeble. Both in birthland and upbringing, in sheer scope of ability every human is inherently different. Yes, that is why people discriminate against one another, which is why there is struggle, competition, and the unfaltering march of progress.
> > Inequality is not wrong -- equality is! Consider the EU, which made equality a right: rabble politics by a popularity contest! The Chinese Federation, with its equal distribution of wealth: a nation of lazy dullards! But not our beloved Britannia! We fight, we compete; evolution is continuous. > > We will fight on. We shall struggle, compete, plunder, and dominate. And in the end, the future shall be ours. All Hail Britannia!
So I wanted some mechanics to represent his ruthlessness and imperial dogmas. Sacrificing creatures seems appropriate, and a way to get extra value from sacrificing your creatures seems apt as well.
Slightly annoyingly this design fits better with the (Black-green archetype) than the (White-black archetype), but not every rare has to fit into the archetypes. And the Emperor of Britannia, the black-white faction in this set, has to be black-white.
Marianne, Lelouch's mother and one of the Emperor's many consorts. As well as being a lightning-fast fighter in a Knightmare (hence her nickname), she also had the power to stowaway in other people's subconscious when she died. I dunno how you represent that on a card, but getting the opportunity to play a card from each player's library seems as good as anything.
Originally I had her having flash and haste, but then there was basically nothing white on her card, and I think she should have white in her cost because she's a Britannian noble and a relatively caring one, and the colour red in this set is mostly associated with the rebels opposed to Britannia. So I swapped haste for lifelink.
An initial stab at a signpost gold uncommon for the (Black-green archetype).
A straightforward Travel Preparations/Gird for Battle which Prepares into a double Battlegrowth or two-thirds of a Reap What Is Sown.
UR09 -> CG14; could alternatively stay at uncommon
I wanted a few more cards with my Prediction / planning mechanic, prepare. This is much better as a combat trick than as slow removal, so I think the costs of 1 vs 4 are about right.
Art from inside one of the Britannian control rooms with computer readouts showing all their units dying.
I wanted a card to give the (White-black archetype) and (Blue-black archetype) some late-game bleeding-style reach/inevitability. I have fond memories of Death of a Thousand Stings so this is somewhat inspired by that. If this was an instant it'd need to cost at least 4, but I think as a sorcery 2 is fine because you can't leave mana up and have it as a "if you do nothing, I do this" backup plan for your mana.
I came up with this design, then tried to find a flavour for it. The Avenging Samurai is a compelling one, but that means I either need to have this have "Samurai" in the name but not on the type line (big no-no), or have it be creature type Samurai without bushido (that was a no-no in Kamigawa), or add bushido with reminder text which makes this super wordy, or add bushido without reminder text which doesn't make much sense when there's only about 5-6 cards in the set with bushido. Or just find another name which fits with this being a green (traditionalist Japanese) Soldier or Rebel or Citizen.
I think I'm most inclined to break the "all Samurai must have bushido" rule. I think the plan then is to leave bushido specifically to the Four Holy Swords and Tohdoh, but I might have a couple more Samurai without it.
I might do a bit more brainstorming for a non-Samurai name though.
yikes! super wordy. OK, never mind.
CG06 -> UG05; add Revolt ability
deactivate and remove from skeleton as discussed