I think we have enough mechanics for us to not need to make lame reduxes of Metalcraft, Constellation, and Dragonmaster Outcast/Scute Mob.

Yes I got carried away on a couple of those trying to figure out how to get the set themes in limited, we probably don't need that.

I'm still not sure on how we can do enchantments matter, mastery is solved with continuous enchantments, so we might have to keep those out of uncommon (and the seals might already be a problem) that why I suggested enchantmentcraft-2 (that seems quite different from constellation) since it makes auras more interesting.

Maybe modify enchantbringer?
(only on creatures)enchantment bringer(When this card enters the battlefield you may attach an aura with lower converted mana cost from your graveyard to it, or cast an enchantment with lower converted mana cost from your hand)

From the GDP thread:



We really need to nail this stuff down before the mechanics of the set get too out of control. We can always polish out unnecessary keywords in development, but I think we have a pretty good foundation now, and should focus on expanding the mechanics we already have rather than coming up with new ones.

Are we married to Splice? There seems to be many in opposition.

That's a good point, thatmarkguy. I just figured, what gets voted in gets voted in. But Crystallized Breath could be changed to have something other than Splice. I want Shazzeh's input before I go forward on this, though.

As I said in the poll, I'm okay with removing splice (and colored artifacts) if people are opposed to them. Changing Crystallized Breath is probably a good thing.

Ooze Geyser –
Sorcery (U)
Put three 1/1 green Ooze creature tokens onto the battlefield. They have "Sacrifice this creature: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."

Adds tension with Mastery if you're running a relatively controllish build of G-Spine Mastery.



Faith –
Enchantment Creature – Angel Incarnation (R)
Flying
When Faith leaves the battlefield or at the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 Bird creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
Evoke
4/4

Transparency –
Enchantment Creature – Illusion Incarnation (R)
Hexproof
When Faith leaves the battlefield or at the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 Illusion creature token with hexproof onto the battlefield.
Evoke
4/4

Blood –
Enchantment Creature – Vampire Incarnation (R)
Lifelink
When Blood leaves the battlefield or at the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 black Vampire creature token with lifelink onto the battlefield.
Evoke
4/4

Desire –
Enchantment Creature – Scout Incarnation (R)
Haste
When Desire leaves the battlefield or at the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 red Viashino Scout creature token with haste onto the battlefield.
Evoke
4/4

Nature –
Enchantment Creature – Ooze Incarnation (R)
Sacrifice Nature: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool.
When Nature leaves the battlefield or at the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 green Ooze creature token onto the battlefield with "Sacrifice this creature: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."
Evoke
4/4

That's a lot of unique tokens.
Anyway, good to hear that you didn't revisit the idea of Engrave, because the mechanic is making me really excited. The only problems is... I don't want to make instants and sorceries with it. Also, off-color Engrave activations is pretty cool stuff, you guys should do it too.



I want a cycle of pseudo-aura engrave effects, although arguments could be made for delaying it the second set we probably won't make. Such as:

Enhance
Instant
Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
The Engraved creature gets +1/+1.
Engrave

Scout incarnation... wut?

Probably good to keep in mind that Engrave makes 2 a very important number in this set. Anything that deals two damage gains lots of new targets and combat math will revolve around whether something is big enough to kill/survive a 2/2. Blockers with less than three toughness will lose a lot of value. I also wonder whether we should discuss 1/1 vs 2/2 for the engrave token stats. I'm not sure which is better myself.

Engrave can be used for lots of stuff, but they can't really do combat tricks or counterspells very well; nothing reactive really.

@Mown: I still see Engrave as a primarily spell mechanic. For permanents I would mostly keep it to noncreatures to make the difference between casting and engraving more significant.


Lord Baden Powell

T1 Forest, evoke Nature, sac it for , Necropotence

When trying to call a card broken, you're better off not including banned cards in your examples, you know.
Altohugh I assume that giving you 4 mana when you evoke it is an oversight.

I just remembered a cool card from when I tried to reimagine Orzhov.

Priest of the Undying –
Creature – Demon Cleric (R)
When Priest of the Undying dies, put an enchantment token named "Second Soul" onto the battlefield. It has "Sacrifice Second Soul: Return a card named Priest of the Undying from your graveyard to the battlefield with a relinquished counter on it."
If Priest of the Undying would die, if it has a relinquished counter on it, exile it instead.
4/4

Technically already exists, thought not quite the same.

Not the same at all. Parad's version is effectively a 4/4 that regenerates once, while Deathpact Angel is a 5/5 flier that can (slowly) recover from death any number of times.

So... It's undying. Or persist. I guess it does have a twist to it, but... I'm not seeing it.

This is the last time I'll bring up a recurring mechanic, I promise:

Shadow?

This set doesn't have enough evasion. Shadow could really help with that (particularly if we put it in Grixis colors rather than Esper colors where it's been in the past). Also, it gives a more evocative flavor for Spirits.

Blazing Haint –
Creature – Spirit (U)
Haste, shadow (This creature can't block or be blocked except by creatures with shadow or ethereal.)
2/2

Forgotten Soul –
Creature – Spirit (C)
Shadow (This creature can't block or be blocked except by creatures with shadow or ethereal.)
1/1

Frostblight Breathstealer –
Creature – Spirit (U)
Shadow (This creature can't block or be blocked except by creatures with shadow or ethereal.)
When Frostblight Breathstealer enters the battlefield, return target creature without shadow to its owner's hand.
2/2

Warding Wall –
Enchantment Creature – Wall (C)
Defender
Ethereal (This creature can block and be blocked by creatures with shadow.)
0/4

Mythbreaker –
Creature – Elf Shaman (U)
Ethereal (This creature can block and be blocked by creatures with shadow.)
When Mythbreaker enters the battlefield, destroy target creature with shadow or target enchantment.
2/2

I can't say I'm a fan of shadow.

Not sure I buy Etherial as a Thing.

I also think this could use some tighter flavor justification. What exactly makes these Haints shadow Haints?

Not sure if this has been discussed before, but do we really need "land" to be included in mastery? I can think of very few instances in which you'll cast a card with mastery and have an artifact, a creature, and an enchantment, but not a land. Unlike the other three card types, lands are something almost every deck automatically includes. Artifacts, creatures, and enchantments you have to work towards, lands are just sort of already there. I'd suggest changing mastery to take into account just artifacts, creatures, and enchantments. It makes the ability look cleaner and makes the cards slightly less wordy/leaves more room on mastery cards.

As for shadow, I'm not a big fan. It's a somewhat parasitic mechanic, just a little. Ethereal would be even more parasitic. Shadow is an obscure mechanic and Ethereal would be a mechanic that serves only to interact with Shadow. It all just seems sort of unnecessary to me.