Joined: Sep 23, 2013 Posts: 5220 Location: California
First strike The first strike faction is dominant in red, secondary in white. First strike is actually a lot like flying: they both care about themselves on other creatures. This mechanic has a little more nuance than flying does since its not an evasion mechanic, but the similarities remain. All of my first strike designs for common leaned toward the simplistic side. Two were already preview: one in the vigilance thread and one in the trample thread.
Ashen Purebreed Creature - Hound (C) ( can be paid with or a prize counter.) First strike "All the way from shadows of the great Mercadian mountain, these hounds comes from a long line of expert training. Whether as a guard-dog or the lead hunter, their obedience is unrivaled and their tracking skills undeniable. A finer prize you won't likely find." - Kron, tournament orator 3/2
Another member of the prize counter common creature cycle, and the last with one of the 10 tribal keywords. First strike has been used a lot on artifacts, so there's not even much stretching here as far as it being viable as a colorless card goes.
Quick Hook Instant (C) Mastery - Target creature gains first strike until end of turn. Then if that creature has two or more instances of first strike, it gains double strike until end of turn. "A straight jab is often incorrectly viewed as the quickest way to land the first blow; a strike from the side hits twice as often, especially when employing both fists." - Fierce, Foremost, ch. 1, ls. 7
This was one of the first mastery cards ever made, and perhaps one of the most intuitive ones. It's a nice concept that is useful in both of its modes and makes for a rather perfect showing-off of mastery.
Battleground Lancer Creature - Human Knight (C) First strike Mastery - Battleground Lancer gets +1/+1 as long as it has two or more instances of first strike. "Death radius" - Kjeldoran measurement equal to the standard length of a lance 1/1
The last of the +1/+1 mastery common creature cycle. There have been strict upgrades to Tundra Wolves in this fashion before: Boros Recruit and Mosquito Guard both did it before. Mastery should be a rewarding thing, anyway. Usually you're taking a bit of a gamble throwing multiple resources into the singular basket.
As always, comments and critiques welcomed.
Mechanical distribution and break-down
Each color pair has been assigned an evergreen keyword. (Save for , for which I've made one up.) For each pair, one color is dominant for use of that keyword, and gets access to a few more cards related to it than its counterpart. In order to make these factions clear, no keyword in this set will appear outside of its color-pair. (Except for those evergreen keywords that have no faction ties, i.e. landwalk.)
The break-down is as follows (dominant color first):
- Flying - Intimidate - Haste - Trample - Vigilance - Hexproof - Deathtouch - Lifelink - First strike - Reminisce (You may cast instant and sorcery cards from your graveyard as long as they target this creature. If you do, exile them.)
All colors have equal access to mastery, which is an ability word checking for extra instances of a particular keyword. (ex. Mastery - As long as ~ has two or more instances of hexproof, it gets +1/+1.)
All colors have access to regulate, which is a removal keyword action. "Regulate" means "Each player who controls/has the most or is tied for the most of a particular kind of card, spell or permanent chooses one that they control and puts it on the bottom of its owner's library." (ex. Regulate creatures. (Each player who controls the most or is tied for controlling the most creatures chooses one he or she controls and puts it on the bottom of its owner's library.)
An additional resource is added to the game called prize counters. These are thus far only given to players through Tournament cards, a subtype of enchantments. They can be used to pay for costs with , as well as various forms of hybrid symbols using the same icon. When a player receives a prize counter, it stays with that player until it's used to pay an appropriate cost. (Thanks again to ty for the images.)
Joined: Feb 09, 2015 Posts: 191
Identity: Curious Cannoli
Really like the mastery mechanic.
_________________
"To believe something is to believe that it is true; therefore a reasonable person believes each of his beliefs to be true; yet experience has taught him to expect that some of his beliefs, he knows not which, will turn out to be false. A reasonable person believes, in short, that each of his beliefs is true and that some of them are false."
There is something about mastery that has always rubbed me up the wrong way and I'm not sure what it is.
Hmmm... my biggest complaint about it, having designed with it for a long time now, is how heavy-handed it is. You need a creature with [KEYWORD] to get your cool effect. There was a time when I was just using this as a modal spell. Something like:
Elevate Instant (C) Choose one: - Target creature gains flying until end of turn. - Target creature with flying gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
I feel this form highlights the separation in a nicer way, but it doesn't quite work well on creatures, which I stubbornly wanted at the time and stubbornly refuse to change now.
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First strike 
, for which I've made one up.) For each pair, one color is dominant for use of that keyword, and gets access to a few more cards related to it than its counterpart. In order to make these factions clear, no keyword in this set will appear outside of its color-pair. (Except for those evergreen keywords that have no faction ties, i.e. landwalk.)
, as well as various forms of hybrid symbols using the same icon. When a player receives a prize counter, it stays with that player until it's used to pay an appropriate cost. (Thanks again to ty for the images.)
