Magic: the Gathering - T: Add Three Mana Of Any One Colour To Your Mana Pool

[Siriel]

its just like artifacts and enchantments, very hard to deal with in monoblack

No that's just you being lazy and not noticing that mono black has like three different planeswalker killers.

[Nihilm]

There is also To the Slaughter if you have delirium online from the recent set.

[Seika]

Mono-black cards that directly deal with planeswalkers (of any or no playability): Hero's Downfall, Ruinous Path, To the Slaughter, In Garruk's Wake, Vampire Hexmage, Thief of Blood, Æther Snap, Hex Parasite (even if it's technically colourless).

[Siriel]

Could always have two separate games and then the winner half of both games make their own game after and same for the loser half. If we get too many players.

I mean we can always just play a random commander game with those. It doesn't have to be a tournament.

We've been meaning to play another one anyway, and playtesting is the best way to see if something is busted unless it's immediately apparent.

[Nihilm]

Sure, I'm fine with anything.

[Lycodrake]

Lyco being allowed to tutor for Sigarda is important because she is my angel waifu, just like Dromoka is my dragon waifu and Karametra is my god waifu. :V

[aldeayeah]

Seika, Voice of the Ancients RUG
0 Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature. Proliferate.
-2 Search your library for a land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
-6 You get an emblem with "Spells you control have cascade."
Starting loyalty: 3

AL: So, Seika is RUG because she likes ramping/overwhelming people with critters but she also likes the craftiness/gro-an-army aspects of Simic/Blue too. The design idea for Seika was "synergy, diplomacy and deceptive strength".

Her 0 (actually +1, because Proliferate) should actually read "combos with counters" and is the best friend of mechanics as varied as Evolve, Infect, Bolster, Planeswalkers... Note that she can put the +1/+1 counter on a creature she doesn't control, and that she can proliferate planeswalkers she doesn't control; this is the diplomatic part of this ability. You can also just use it to grow an army every turn, although I'm not sure that's wise with Mac on the table.

...I forgot to mention it, but Siriel's minus ability is another such example of a diplomatic ability. Whenever possible, I've tried to make abilities that target any creature/any player to encourage diplomacy.

Seika's -2 is there for several reasons. Ramp, evidently, but also land toolbox/combo. The temptation to include a Marit Lage will be high; don't forget to include answers to indestructibility in your decks, or at least flying chump blockers. TBH this may be too powerful - I fully expect Seika to come up with some fun shenanigans involving manlands, utility lands, Crucible of Worlds and/or Life From the Loam. Oh well, at least Karakas is banned (and not in her color identity).

SI: It's way too powerful.

AL: It's meant to be powerful. It's hard to do it consecutive times though, and she's left with a pesky 1 loyalty if she tries it off the bat, so you guys can finish her off quickly. Land tutoring is powerful, but not so powerful that it's unacceptable as a repeatable ability IMO.

SI: What about creature tutoring?

AL: *sweatdrop* We'll get to that. As for the ultimate, it's pretty splashy, everybody loves cascade right? Right?

ALL: *stony silence*

AL: A couple rules details: a) Every spell has cascade, even the ones that you hit through cascade, b) Multiple instances of cascade stack so, say, a Bloodbraid Elf would cascade twice under this emblem, and everything would cascade twice under two of these emblems, c) A cascade for 0 exiles your whole library and then puts it onto the bottom of your library, randomized.

All said, I think Seika is fine like this, with the possible exception of the second ability. I think her being pretty loyalty-starved compensates for that.

SE: *poker face*

Mac, Remnant of Old Phyrexia BBBB
+2 Each player sacrifices a creature.
-4 Destroy all planeswalkers.
-10 You get an emblem with "Whenever you would draw a card, instead search your library for a card, put it into your hand, and lose 1 life."
Starting loyalty: 4

AL: So, Mac is our resident black mage, so I made him casts the spells that makes the peoples fall down!

MA:

AL: +2 is really oppressive IMO, so you'll do well to stock up on manlands, token generators and the like.

SI: -4 is tremendously unfun.

MA: I like it.

AL: Siriel has a point. On one hand, I think mAc needs a repeatable way to interact with planeswalkers since they're going to be a dominating force (something that hasn't been pointed out is that Siriel and Raffles can already do that, on a plus ability to boot). On the other hand, he shouldn't be able to KILL FUCKING EVERYBODY upon being cast.

That said, -4 is out. Instead of it:

-X Mac, Remnant of Old Phyrexia deals X damage to target creature or player and you gain X life.

(I know this is the same ability as Sorin, Grim Nemesis, but Consume Spirit was Mac's signature spell long before that was a thing.)

This changes a lot the way Mac plays. It turns himself into a commander damage win condition, to start with, joining Siriel and Raffles in that club. It's also a more diplomatic ability, making him more of a good citizen/team player, and less public enemy number one.

MA: Meh.

SI: Public enemy number two, you mean. Did you forget about that abomination you made for Nihilm?

AL: Everything at its right time. As for the ultimate, Mac loves his Phyrexian Arenas and his tutors, so I combined them. I'm going to slightly retool it though:

-12 You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, search your library for a card and put it into your hand, then shuffle your library. You lose 1 life."

Now it makes him draw extra cards, and it stacks. Takes him one more turn to ultimate though. So the card is left like this:

Mac, Remnant of Old Phyrexia BBBB
+2 Each player sacrifices a creature.
-X Mac, Remnant of Old Phyrexia deals X damage to target creature or player and you gain X life.
-12 You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, search your library for a card and put it into your hand, then shuffle your library. You lose 1 life."
Starting loyalty: 4

AL: Stay tuned for the next entry.

[Seika]

Commander damage is combat damage only. Planeswalker commanders (barring Mycosynth Lattice jank) don't get to attack on that axis.

(And, by way of templating pedantry, the emblem should read "Spells you cast have cascade").

E: I just looked at the EMA spoilers. They are actually doing this. They're going all-out on real Legacy cards, and pushing it pretty much as far as they can within the Reserved List. I honestly wasn't expecting that.

I mean, absolute stack-tonnes of value are still imprisoned in the List and especially the duals, but that can't be helped. I wonder what this will do to Legacy prices: can it really push them down, considering what can't be added? Will the interest spike (if there is one, given the other price considerations) actually make Legacy more expensive?

[I3uster]

tear down the goddamn list

[Nihilm]

E: I just looked at the EMA spoilers. They are actually doing this. They're going all-out on real Legacy cards, and pushing it pretty much as far as they can within the Reserved List. I honestly wasn't expecting that.

I mean, absolute stack-tonnes of value are still imprisoned in the List and especially the duals, but that can't be helped. I wonder what this will do to Legacy prices: can it really push them down, considering what can't be added? Will the interest spike (if there is one, given the other price considerations) actually make Legacy more expensive?

Wonder if this is actually going to make it make sense to draft in terms of being able to get your money back from the cards most of the time. Because the EMA draft price tag looks pretty steep.

[Seika]

Wonder if this is actually going to make it make sense to draft in terms of being able to get your money back from the cards most of the time. Because the EMA draft price tag looks pretty steep.

In theory, this is self-correcting: packs more valuable than the MSRP -> stores just open the packs themselves and sell off the singles -> prices drop -> packs no longer more valuable than MSRP. There are issues with how this interacts with Masters sets' limited print runs and already high MSRPs though. If EMA does contain that kind of value, expect price gouging and hoarding to begin immediately, as with MM1.

[Lycodrake]

Green Sun Zenith *and* Natural Order. Dang.

[aldeayeah]

Lycodrake, the Beast King 2RGW
+1 Up to one target creature deals damage equal to its power to up to one target creature.
-X Search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost X or less and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
-8 You get an emblem with "You declare all attackers and blockers and you assign all combat damage."
Starting loyalty: 5

AL: I may have gotten a bit carried away with this one.

SI: No shit.

LY: :3

AL: So, the image for this one is "Lyco loves creatures, and creatures love Lyco" (note that this makes him the natural enemy of mAc, even moreso than Siriel)

So the thing is, creatures do what Lyco asks of them.
Which, in the case of +1, is killing another creature or committing suicide.
In the case of -X, it's heeding his call.
And in the ultimate, it would be obeying him FOREVER.

SI: The "forever" part concerns me.

AL: You have a point, as usual. Let's slightly retool it.

-8 Gain control of all creatures.

AL: Much better IMO. Still splashy and in line with the vision, but now you can kill/wrath/bounce the creatures away from him.

SI: Much better indeed. That -X is way too good, and it's a non counterable combo engine for a color combination conductive to creature combos (Kiki+Resto, Spike+Thune, Anafenza/Melira+Persist, not to mention artifact creature combos like Myr, etc).
Even if he doesn't abuse the synergy, there's stuff like the Sigarda thing you mentioned, or hatebears such as Phyrexian Revoker...

LY: But... angel waifu... :'3c

AL: I trust Lyco, perhaps more than any other, not to abuse that kind of power, but you're right in that, as it stands, it's totally nuts. So, let's rebalance it.

-X Search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost X or less, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

AL: Better GSZ, toned down to CMC-bound Eladamri's Call. Now you can counter/discard them, and he doesn't get to cheat on mana. But that's not all.

Starting loyalty: 4

AL: Sorry, no angel waifu the turn you come down.

LY:

AL: It's for the greater good.

ALL: THE GREATER GOOD!

AL: OTOH, I think I can safely bump you down to 4CMC now.

Lycodrake, King of Beasts 1RGW

LY: :3

AL: So we're left with this:

Lycodrake, King of Beasts 1RGW
+1 Up to one target creature deals damage equal to its power to up to one target creature.
-X Search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost X or less, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
-8 Gain control of all creatures.
Starting loyalty: 4

AL: Next up: major Nihilm redesign.

SI: Hallelujah!

- - - Updated - - -

Commander damage is combat damage only. Planeswalker commanders (barring Mycosynth Lattice jank) don't get to attack on that axis.

my life is a lie

[Seika]

The new ult's not exactly Naya.

[aldeayeah]

I know that kind of effect is Blue. But I feel it's warranted in this case. It could have been an Insurrection, but I wanted to give the rest of you time to react.

See, he's not luring the creatures with tricksy Blue mind control, he's luring them with unabated BEAST KING charisma!

[Lycodrake]

What if the ultimate were instead an Insurrection that gave the creatures Myriad? And maybe 1-2 other keyword abilities.

[Nihilm]

happy tortoise

[aldeayeah]

I name Nahiri, the Harbinger (never change Pixiv)

Never change.

Apropos EMA: hohoho, Sinkhole.

[mAc Chaos]

I love these design comments. MORE

Hmm, I wonder how much of an effect they'd have on prices. Did the last Masters set do anything?

[aldeayeah]

Depends on how playable or easily available the original was.

Archetype playable, original with low availability.
Archetype playable, original with medium availability.
Playable everywhere, original highly available.
LOL TARMOGOYF