temporary storage: Recent Activity
| temporary storage: Cardlist | Visual spoiler | Export | Booster | Comments | Search | Recent activity |
| Mechanics | Cult World references | Aerial vs. Aquatic mechanical ideas | Clan Lore and Individuals | Katonah's Plane Tests & Details |
Recent updates to temporary storage: (Generated at 2025-12-31 16:47:08)
A single creature should only be able to bind once per turn and nowhere in the reminder text did I indicate such. What would be the best the way to indicate that?
As an aside: Better than most cards that do something similar. Ghost Warden was mentioned. Infantry Veteran/Anointer of Champions is strictly worse (unless you need a Kor, or an Advisor?)
Akrasan Squire isn't strictly worse in that you could attack with the squire and it gets its own bonus. That's pretty good. Can't block with the Squire to get its own bonus, though. Attacking is better than blocking, but this is more generally useful, so I'd say this is better than Squire, which is quite a good card to begin with.
Which is not to say that this card isn't possible. Wizards bumps the power level in creatures all the time. Though I would give 0/1 some consideration.
Ghost Warden is cool with me, but this would be intended to be a mechanic on multiple cards, so it'd be a red-flag any time it popped up at common.
A flat +1/+1 would be the simplest method I think. I think for a moment I did consider Joint N, but it wouldn't have necessarily gone of the creature's p/t.
Ghost Warden? Well, red-flagged under NWO is not impossible. But I generally wouldn't want too much of it.
Does this always add +1/+1 ore does it depend on the base p/t?
Not nwo compliant unfortunately.
Maybe add reach as an archer?
I'm not certain there is any color this design couldn't be.
Needs to be a soldier for flavor still.
I could see this being a green Ooze.
Flavor is a never-ending amount of soldiers. Not sure what color the ability would actually be.
See Ochatzin Rebel. Test mechanic 2 for a return to Coaxkika.
I think this mechanic might be more viable. I took inspiration when I tried out Harness on Waveskater.
Point 1: Should binding only affect the next instant or sorcery cast instead of all instants and sorceries UEOT?
Point 2: Should binding only be limited to sorcery speed?
Test 1 of a mechanic for the eventual return to Coaxkika. Coaxkika was big on instants and sorceries, however this mechanic is probably too powerful too appear on many cards.
Huh, so I literally did the same mechanic on creatures about 10 months prior to this example.
Edit: Nah forget it. I rescind this comment because I'm probably wrong.
Actually you can respond to the trigger written this way - it's the intervening if-clause that stops the ability to trigger in the first place.
The problem that players will not know which is true is the real issue though - also the floating of mana at inappropriate times leading to bad gameplay AND the fact that a mechanic that only works once you have ten mana is also not going to play that well.
Note: Why is blackswell a keyword? Shouldn't the reminder text belong to the triggered ability? Compare devotion.
Yeah, unfortunately you can't respond to the trigger if written this way. Though you could write it this way:
"Whenever another creature you control dies, if you have Blackswell, each opponent..."
The problem is that you have to target with the way it's written, and I'm pretty sure that target will fail if you don't have Blackswell. If you don't target, though, the ability will only check for Blackswell on resolution.
I should point out, these details will be lost on many players. Even if the ability does work, some people will assume it doesn't unless you Blackswell before the creature dies. Thankfully, creatures rarely die for no reason, and enough people will get the idea that they can blackswell in response to a spell or ability. A few won't know that.
Another thing that many people don't understand is how and when mana stays in your pool. This creature is going to confuse a lot of players when they Blackswell in combat, trigger the ability, then empty their pool at the end of combat.
I will say, for what it's worth, I find the ability interesting, and could be fun. Wizards development team would probably shoot it down. But if you're cool with the ability not being realistic in the real world, it might be the sort of ability that makes custom sets worth playing.
Also, missing p/t (assuming you weren't going to add that in later.)
This probably has rules issues. Also, it asks players to float mana around as if everyone knew exactly when the mana pools are emptied.
Blackswell is a hold name. This mechanic will exist for all 5 colors, so there'd be Redswell, Blueswell, Whiteswell, and Greenswell.
Yes, I am attempting to create a mechanic for a set.
While one could ransom their own assets, I wasn't intending that direction with these designs.
Where are you going with this? Are you planning on having this as a block/set mechanic?
It reminds me of that mechanic were the cards were exiled and instead of drawing you could choose of the cards you owned that were exiled this way. It has appeared in a couple of custom sets as well as in GDS2 if I recall correctly.
See Snatch.
To example that ransom wouldn't always be from the same zone.
I forget if it's spectre or specter.
I did want to include that the ransom could alternatively end by Starsilent Kidnapper dying, but that looked weird in the reminder text. (.... If Starsilent Kidnapper leaves the battlefield or that card's owner pays
return the ransomed card to it's owner's hand.)?