[Val] Valhar, the Dying Plane: Front Page

Original Concept

Mechanical Hook:

Valhar is an attempt to create as interesting a small set as possible revolving around a rather terrible mechanic: cumulative upkeep.

There are a few main goals:

1. Create a playable Limited environment.
2. Explore ways to interact with the mechanic in a simple form.
3. Explore the color identity of the mechanic. Make it feel different for each color.

There are also a few self-imposed restrictions/milestones to help the goals:

1. There need to be cards featuring the keyword at all rarities in each color.
2. Each rare and most uncommon card has either cumulative upkeep or interacts with one of its aspects (counters, the upkeep step, sacrifice, you name it!)
3. At common and uncommon there will be no nonmana costs for cumulative upkeep.
4. There will be french vanillas with cumulative upkeep in each color.
5. There will be no multicolor.

Beyond cumulative upkeep no other keyword/ability word is planned. I could imagine something interesting springing from someone's mind though, but I specifically want to avoid further existing keywords.