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Recent updates to Multiverse Design Challenge: (Generated at 2025-08-25 20:04:09)
Added class type
You could just make it an ability word, so the payoff doesn't have to be the same.
As for the subtype, I don't think this card necessarily needs one. Maybe Nomad?
That's a really nice space to explore, both the reward and trigger. If you want tokens, I'd make them a single standard size, like "1/1 Human Settler" or something.
See Challenge # 157.
Not sure how well this works, "no other creatures" is likely to make you feel bad, but rewards you for hitting it on-curve in the first one or two turns, and helps recover from an empty board. It needs to be costed on the assumption you'll usually only get the bonus on one or two creatures in a game.
I wasn't sure what the bonus should be. "Token copy of this" fit the flavour best, but seemed fiddly. I guess they did embalm? +1/+1 counter was simplest, and could have a scaling number for larger cards. "Repopulate N, create an N/N creature token" might make sense, but seems fiddly and odd flavour-wise.
Ineriande Battlesinger with a forest-counting mechanic Treesheltered. Teverin Survivor with Repopulate, referncing the omniburst.
See Challenge # 157.
Not sure how well this works, is it interesting enough, is it too stall-y? But I was looking for other ways to capture "protected by trees" flavour. It's not just +0/+1 per forest so it's easier to count, and more interesting when it happens. Non-common cards may have an effect keyed off toughness.
Myriad Vanguard with ANOTHER spellstorm mechanic, based on revealing the top card of your library.
See Challenge # 157.
One more spellstorm mechanic. I think I've seen something v similar elsewhere, but not sure quite where. Unless I'm thinking of Homarids :)
That's the flavour I'm going for, varied weather. Except here it's going to hit too rarely, but the flavour of "instant or sorcery" is so strong. Hm, maybe should be "may reveal from your hand"? Except then it's too repeatable.
The idea is, it can go on creatures sometimes, but often on enchantments that have a targetted effect when they happen (like lightning or a gust of wind from a storm), or a status effect (all creatures get -1/-0 UEOT).
But is probably too swingy as is, as well as coming up too rarely.
I also considered "may reveal the first card you draw each turn, if..." but it was more complicated for no benefit.
Now we have a few more eldrazi to compare these things to :) Although really, it looks like everything with CMC 13 or more has a cost reduction mechanic apart from the original Emrakul.
This really looks over the top. But is it comparable to Emrakul, the Promised End? It's really hard to say.
I did like this idea.
Thank you. Hm. I got nervous because of having a power increasing ability depend on the power it already had, but I guess for a targetted ability, not a static one, that doesn't actually create any problems.
I would like to see more use of "base power" now it exists, the concept of "what's printed on it (or copied, or set)" seems one that might be understood more easily than the resultant power. But maybe here is not the right place.
Good points.
I guess you could add a cost. Most simply paid on each attack, although if you wanted it to feel more like equipment you could make it a "mount until unmounted", although that has all the usual fiddlyness of trying to pair creatures with each other. Or maybe have a cost you can pay to mount "until end of turn"?
Good Q. I'd reckoned it worked in any colour, because you can interact with the mount, and getting one creature through once didn't seem unbalanced or unreasonable for any colour. But I'm not sure.
Thank you!
Yeah, those are the ways I was thinking. It could also be dialled down by giving it flashback instead of returning it to your hand (so to repeat a 3-cost spell, you need 7 mana in one turn, and to repeat two 3-cost spells, you'd need 10 mana.)
Niiifty. And presumably one at 3 can bring back one at 2, which can then bring back this. Reminds me of Soulshift chains.
The power level needs to be low enough that the game can cope with the effect being repeatable, which this card I think manages without looking awful, but might be tricky for some.
I like this, though. I'd be interested to see what a Limited environment with a bunch of cards with this mechanic in would look like. It tickles my Johnny-senses. (And maybe that's a way to avoid the repetitive-game-state problem: make many of the effects Johnny combo-piece effects rather than straight-up value.)
This seems interesting, yes, for the reasons you state.
Possible drawbacks:
1) The absence of a mount cost is a bit of a liability as well as a benefit. It means a harnessed 4/4 does a lot more than a harnessed 2/2, which fits the flavour perfectly, but might make it hard for development to tweak the knobs.
2) Colour pie concerns. This is fine in blue, and I imagine it's probably fine in red. Is this something green or white can do, though? By default I'd expect white to be the colour most about domesticating animals. Possibly this world's set might avoid that, but it's a constraint.
I'd avoid calling out "base power" in a targeting condition. I expect many people would misplay that. I think "base power" is only used for creating or setting, not for targeting.
Building Static, another spellstorm concept.
See Challenge # 157.
Sickening Stormheads, a riff on the concept of spellstorms generally.
See Challenge # 157.
I doubt this is workable, but I wanted to play more with the storm concept, and investigate something like old only-one-in-play-at-a-time world enchantments.
The idea is, you have weather cards, which are like other "staple cards with keyword tacked on". And storm enchantments (including auras), which don't have mana costs and usually live in your sideboard, but you can cast for their spellstorm cost (usually one 1 mana of the appropriate color) when you play a weather card.
Storm cards will be the sort of interesting-but-niche cards which don't usually make sense in your deck by themselves, but are good if as a tack-on to a staple spell, or good if you can build round them and have multiple build in tutors. Some are global enchantments, some are auras (they go back to sideboard when they die, maybe?), some maybe even have an ETB effect.
Weather cards also serve as answers, since you can bounce someone else's storm instead or as well as playing your own. And normal enchantment removal too. But you can stack multiple of your own storms if you make a spellstorm deck if you want.
There's a lot of hurdles here, since you need to draft or own weather cards and storm cards, and the storm cards are often niche. Getting any storm card with any weather card means getting a particular storm is more reliable than spells you just need to draw.
But some things help it. You can develop storm cards on the expectation that if someone plays with them they will often have it available (like avatars but less so). They can be designed so they work with a particular strategy (so it's not too repetitive since they need other cards in your deck to do their thing), or to be answers to particular things (so it depends on what the opponent does).
You need to draft both, but you don't need to draw both, so the A/B mechanic is less troubling than it might be.
In draft, you need some common storms, so everyone has some available, but there's always some niche picks. In constructed, you need to decide if you want to devote sideboard space to them, it's not just "free". And in casual, sure, you can have "any storm you want", there's only a finite list, so it's not as tiresome as tutoring outside the game for "any creature".
Leashed Serpent and Serpent Racer with two variants on taming spellbeasts, one a "power 4 or greater" variant, one a simple mount mechanic.
See Challenge # 157.
Another attempt at a mount mechanic. Called "harnessed" to fit the flavour but mainly to distinguish it from other mount mechanics.
Although a lot simpler, just straight up unblockable on the creature riding, with a flavour limitation on size that avoids some of the confusing aspects of other mount mechanics.
I'm not sure how much design space there is here, but I like at least some of it. There's a lot of unblockability going around, but you can always block the mount. Sometimes the mount may die immediately it attacks, but at least it got a creature through once. And you can have small mounts with evasion abilities that don't automatically grant them to the biggest creature you have. And large mounts that are just stompy. Mounts that grant abilities in addition to unblockable. Creatures that have benefits if they mount a creature. etc.
There's not even a mount cost.
See Challenge # 157.
Looking for further ways to do "tame spellbeast" mechanics. This is a little fiddly, but by calling out a small set of creatures, it avoids a little of the combat complexity of having instant speed pumps available, it's mostly not a surprise, just a boost to one creature.
I realised if I was defining spellbeasts to be 4+ power creatures, that interacted badly with toughness boosts. Does "base power" fix that? Or is it too confusing? Either way, I think it helps to now have that terminology available.
And obviously different creatures might give different bonuses as well as harness, like haste here.
Explore is a lot harder to develop than scry since explore N can give you a card advantage of up to N. Those might only be lands, but lands that are fueling the spells you are more likely to draw next and depending on the land and the game state might be sourly needed.
Also the mechanic doesn't let you get rid of dead nonland draws if you need it to which is one of the amin reasons Augury Owl is a strictly superior design to Sage Owl - having to put back cards you don't want to draw onto your library is a terrible feeling making you loath your upcoming inevitably bad draws.
An explore keyword action is a noble goal, but this version is still too flawed and would fall apart in playtests pretty quickly.
Oh yes, good point.
Thank you.
Hmm. Doesn't have myriad though
Aww, cute. Soulbond is the perfect Magic way to represent marriage.
Scry is a keyword action. :)
Nice flavor interpretation, regardless.