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Recent updates to Multiverse Design Challenge: (Generated at 2025-05-18 18:05:54)
Buried Treasure, cautiously reprinting "Hideaway".
For Challenge # 074
As with loot, it seemed mandatory to include Hideaway in a pirate set.
I never found it very interesting the first time it was printed, it always seemed a big hurdle for little benefit, but I hoped it had some more room to shine.
The biggest problem is that there's not really room for the reminder text and two lines of text telling you when to use the exiled card. Even the Howltooth Hollow cycle were very squeezed for space.
I reluctantly decided there would have to be some common cards to tell you what it did (maybe a simple cycle of pirates who returned a hideaway card to your hand when they died?), and some more interesting uncommon/rare cards.
It's slightly strange that the number of cards to search is fixed, but what happens when it goes off isn't. I decided to try "put it into your hand" instead of "cast it", although since most of the time it will be an average-plus card, there's not that much difference.
This card could be either, but I thought "return to your hand" might be simpler on other cards, and this is "whenever a creature deals damage to an opponent, ponder" which is very good if you can get it to go off. OTOH, "cast" would be more interesting.
Navigator -> Seafarer
Oops, I went back and forth on the name. I think I had "navigator" for finding land and "seafarer" for finding nonland, and a couple of other ideas, but none were quite right. Let's use "seafarer" for now.
I also considered "card that shares a colour with it" or "creature card" or "noncreature card", which would also be good, but none had a very good flavour.
Alternatively, if this is "once each turn", maybe landfall instead of "if you draw" would do fine (and even fit the flavour)? Though maybe that means this is still too close to Zendikar?
@all, thank you.
Keywording loot would be perfect for a pirate set, if looting were to be keyworded.
You'd also assume that the reward would be better... drawing a land would be a consolation prize. That, and you wouldn't have to reveal important information... just that you drew a land, and this is what it is.
I get the impression that you wanted to avoid comparisons to Landfall, Jack. But I think the audience is going to talk about landfall anyway. What Navigator really wants to reveal is some card type that doesn't exist yet. Unexplored territory, or hidden treasuresd, perhaps. I agree that that's tricky to translate.
Oh, by the way, I like the ability. I should probably mention that, since it seems important.
Wouldn't a navigator want to find land, though?
This is one of the simplest implementations of the idea, which therefore seems good to me.
For Challenge # 074
A variant on Swashbuckle from Mainbrace Brawler, inspired by miracles, werewolves and homarids (sorry).
The flavour is more of a favourable or unfavourable winds -- each turn, your navigation cards may or may not turn on.
I'd like a more swashbuckly name than "navigator", but preferably one that ties into the favourable winds/nonland idea, or otherwise justifies a particular card type.
I wasn't sure about the exact revelation: should it be "reveal the card you draw in your draw phase", or "each card you draw in your turn" or "the first card you draw each turn"? Or "at the start of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library", but that could be confusing if you shuffle your library with an instant speed effect between the resolution of two navigator abilities. Does that matter?
LOL.
Neither do I. What I do know is that, if I kept designing this set, that I'd have a bunch of tribal drummers kicking around. Then when it came time to make theme decks, I'd be able to call this one "Savage Beats". ;)
Yeah, I'm not sure how this should be phrased.
The trouble with "defending player chooses a creature" is that you have to specify they have to choose a different creature.
The trouble with "For each attacking creature with savage you control," is it sounds like if you have two creatures, each reduces the number of blockers by two.
Both of those ought to be obvious, but between beginners who don't know how to read the cards, and people who think too much who will parse reminder text as if it were rules text it may not quite work.
And it's interesting that it does count creatures that couldn't block anyway, but I bet people will get it wrong.
I think it should be easy to choose good reminder text; it's a good candidate for the keyword because the reminder only has to be clear, the unnecessary complication can go in the comprehensive rules. But I can't actually decide how it should be phrased.
Yeah, I was thinking that. I think wizards would still avoid officially calling it "loot", but I'm not sure. It's certainly a perfect fit for pirates, especially on an attack trigger.
Added Briny Scavenger.
For Challenge # 074. I still don't know what the perfect mechanic for Priates is, but this seems like as good a time as any to experiment with looting as a keyword action...
Technically, reminder text just has to make sense and be unambiguous. It doesn't have to be real rules text.
"Target creature of the defending player's choice that player controls?" I feel like it would be more clear that what we've got now.
It's true... I'm sure many players will just say "I like Bushido better". Tricky, because I like this ability, and the themes you can build around it. Heck, I could see Madness returning in a Pirate themed world, sure.
But, you know, this might not be a great ability to stick on 10 common creatures anyway. A person can only discard so many cards. Pirates wouldn't work very well in tandem with other Pirates... which seems very important. You want a few good Pirate Lords, and you don't want his ability to be "I fix the Pirates so they work okay together." You want him to be fun to read.
It's tricky, because it's not that simple: it's something like "target creature of an opponent's choice that player controls".
Why can't this just read "Savage (When this attacks, target creature [of the defending player's choice] can't block this turn)?"
It's like a fixed Wild Mongrel. I can see this having interesting play value, but I fear "discarding a card" is a cost that a lot of newer players would really prefer not to pay.
After thinking about it all weekend, Mainbrace Brawler with Swashbuckle, my best attempt at a serious-ish mechanic :)
For Challenge # 074
I spent some time over the weekend trying to think of an actual pirate-themed mechanic. I thought of lots of signature mechanics, and lots (bushido, rampage, battle cry, some landfall, battallion, etc, etc) are simple variations on "this creature gets a bit better" under thematically appropriate circumstances.
So "swashbuckle". It's not a perfect name, ideally it would be appropriate to pirates, but be possible to reuse later. But wizards have made it clear they'll do the best thing for the current set, as long as it doesn't actively sabotage the future, even if it means they might have to make a functionally-similar mechanic later.
Features I wanted for swashbuckle:
I went back and forth with random things like "flip a coin, if you win this gets +1/+1", but they were too fiddly and most players will hate them. I tried things like "may reveal a card that shares a colour with this/land card/nonland card/etc/etc" or "may discard" or even "may discard, if you do, draw a card".
But I decided "discard a card" was simpler.
It's not perfect, because you'll often not want to use it. It would be too feel-bad if it was just +1/+1. But it turns unwanted cards into 2/3 of giant growth, which is not terrible, and often even the threat of using it will make someone not block, which fits the piratey flavour.
I'm not sure about it only applying when it's blocked. I don't think it should be any time, because then you'll always have to decide "if this is unblocked, how many cards should I discard?" But maybe it should just be "when this attacks" or "when this attacks or blocks". I think it makes sense that the pirate is a scurvy nothing normally, but comes into her own when she's forced into a swordfight, and the opponent has to guess if you'll have a card you're willing to discard. But I'm not sure.
I've not playtested it at all, obviously; I'm not sure how it compares to existing "discard a card" creatures. But it's the definitely the most plausible mechanic I've been able to come up with so far.
I meant that Bombard seems like a red or green ability, and fight is definitely a red or green ability.