The "NGA Constructed" concept has gotten me fired up. This will probably fall by the wayside and vanish, but I got the idea to design Taramir.

Not just one set, a Taramir Block


Large Set: Taramir

Taramir (Set in the early waning, before the destruction of Tolkas) features the return of the Cumulative Upkeep Mechanic, the new ability word Decay (Which adds depletion counters and forces the sacrifice of the permanent in question if there are too many), and a new keyword: Salvage

"Salvage [Cost]: Effect" means "[Cost], Exile this card from your graveyard: Effect. Activate this ability only when you could cast a sorcery." In the Taramir set, all Salvage abilities feature an on color cost and produce an effect very closely related to their base card.

White Commons
Blue Commons
Black Commons
Red Commons
Green Commons
Colorless Commons
White Uncommons
Blue Uncommons
Black Uncommons
Red Uncommons
Green Uncommons
Colorless/Multicolored Uncommons & Rares
White Rares
Blue Rares
Black Rares
Red Rares
Green Rares
Mythic Rares


Small Set #1: Waning Light

Waning Light (Set in the Late Waning, between the foundation of Tolkas and the Last Dawn) returns Cumulative Upkeep and Decay. In addition, Fateseal returns as a mechanic and Salvage evolves -- off-color salvages and salvage effects complementary to the original can now exist

White Commons
Blue Commons
Black Commons
Red Commons
Green Commons
White Uncommons
Blue Uncommons
Black Uncommons
Red Uncommons
Green Uncommons
Colored Rares
Colorless Cards
Mythic Rares


Small Set #2: Age of Darkness

Age of Darkness (Set after the Last Dawn) brings back Cumulative Upkeep, Fateseal, and Decay. It adds Vanishing to the mix and evolves Salvage further, introducing colorless and nonmana salvage costs.

White Commons
White Uncommons
White Rares/Mythics
Blue Commons
Blue Uncommons
Blue Rares/Mythics
Red Commons
Red Uncommons
Red Rares/Mythics
Black Commons
Black Uncommons
Black Rares/Mythics*
Green Commons
Green Uncommons
Green Rares/Mythics
Artifacts
Lands
The Final Cards
*A Black Mythic appears in "The Final Cards"

And here are the Large Set Mythics. I'm done with YMTC for the night.

Archangel of the Rising Sun

Creature – Angel [MR]
Flying, Lifelink
When Archangel of the Rising Sun dies, return it and each other creature card in its owner’s graveyard that was put there from the battlefield this turn to its owner’s hand.
4/4

Indomitable Light

Sorcery
You get an emblem with “You don’t lose the game for having 0 or less life”

Spirit of Forgotten Secrets

Creature – Spirit [MR]
Flying, Hexproof
Cards in your graveyard have “Salvage : Draw a card.”
4/4

Grand History

Enchantment [MR]
Cumulative Upkeep
When Grand History leaves the battlefield, you get an emblem with “You have no maximum hand size” and draw cards equal to the number of age counters on it.

Demon of the Oncoming Night

Creature – Demon [MR]
Flying, Deathtouch
When Demon of the Oncoming Night enters the battlefield, search your library for any number of black cards, reveal them, then shuffle your library and put those cards on top in a random order.
5/5

Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools

Planeswalker – Tevesh [MR]
[0]: Sacrifice a creature. If you do, Tevesh Szat gains loyalty equal to the sacrificed creature’s toughness.
[-1]: Reveal the top card of your library and put it into your hand. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost.
[-10]: Destroy all creatures you don’t control. For each creature destroyed this way, lose 1 life unless you sacrifice a permanent.
[3]

Pyroclastic Dragon

Creature – Dragon [MR]
Flying, Haste
Whenever Pyroclastic Dragon attacks, it deals 4 damage to each creature without flying.
5/4

Tears of the Sun

Instant
Tears of the Sun deals X damage to each opponent and each creature you don’t control.

Orien Retreat Ancient

Creature – Treefolk
Trample
When Orien Retreat Ancient enters the battlefield or attacks, search your library for a basic forest card, reveal it, and put it onto the battlefield. Then, shuffle your library.
Salvage : Search your library for any number of basic forest cards and exile them, then shuffle your library. For the rest of the game, you may play basic forests from exile.
3/8

Glory of the Forest Retreats

Enchantment [MR]
Decay – At the beginning of your precombat main phase, put a depletion counter on Glory of the forest retreats and choose one – Creatures you control get +X/+X until end of turn; or add X green mana to your mana pool; or search your library for a green creature card with converted mana cost X or less, reveal it, then put it into your hand and shuffle your library. X is equal to the number of depletion counters on Glory of the Forest Retreats. Then, if Glory of the Forest Retreats has more depletion counters on it than the number of lands you control, sacrifice it.

Archive of the Lorekeepers

Artifact [MR]
Cumulative Upkeep – Discard a card
: Draw two cards
The Lorekeepers had knowledge the rest of Taramir could scarcely dream of, in part because the Lorekeepers disallowed outsiders to even dream of it.

University of the Lorekeepers
Legendary Land [MR]
: Add to your mana pool
, : Exile the top card of your library face down
At the beginning of each upkeep, you may exchange your hand with all cards exiled with University of the Lorekeepers.

Ilyria, Champion of Revolution

Planeswalker – Ilyria [MR]
[+1]: Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn
[-2]: Creature spells you cast cost less to cast until end of turn. This ability reduces only the amount of colored mana you pay.
[-7]: Creatures you control get +3/+3 and have First Strike, Lifelink, and Vigilance until end of turn.
[3]

Tala of Tolkas

Legendary Creature – Human Wizard
Cumulative Upkeep – Draw a Card
Salvage - Gain 1 life for each card in your graveyard, then shuffle your graveyard into your library.
“What knowledge I have, I offer for the good of all peoples, no matter the cost.”
1/2

Darkhatched Hellkite

Creature – Dragon
Flying
Whenever Darkhatched Hellkite deals combat damage to a creature, it deals that much damage to each other nonblack creature that shares a color with the damaged creature.
As the sun dimmed, things of darkness crawled back into the light.
6/5

One of the things that stands out to me with this, and with the cards you posted in YMTC, is that this would probably be a miserable format to play in. Lots of drawbacks, dwindling resources, your stuff slowly being destroyed...

I like it. I like it a lot actually. I think we have a freedom in fan sets to explore territory that Wizards can't, one of them being the aesthetics of misery, discomfort... stuff that other forms of art have explored for centuries but that games have been reluctant to explore outside of like... really bad games, accidentally, or weird indy games.

Heh... glad this getting some attention. I'll probably alter the first post to just link to all the YMTC threads since I'm just tearing through the design for the time being

The kind of fun thing is that between CKY's project and mine, we might actually get to experience how drafting a dying world would actually play out. I'm kind of curious to see the folks interested in fanset drafts have at it when I'm done. Probably with rage in my direction, but I'm really, really curious.

Also, I'm finding that having to find flavors for cards is making me discover WHERE a world's design can stretch to accommodate things. For instance, I knew I needed some fliers for the blue commons, and then out of nowhere I got the dying Efaruna drakes (and the cat-sized drakelings that were probably still around at Planedeath). I'm tempted to throw the fanset up for a vote when I finish it as supplemental information.

The first post has been updated.

I think drafting Fool's Gold is less "Shucks, everything is going to pieces," than "You can do that in a Limited format!? What!? How!? But that's so broken!"

I've never grasped why Vanishing was introduced to replace Fading. Likewise, I ask: why use Decay? Is Decay something that adds depletion counters based on card-specific triggers (like the depletion lands) instead of automatically every upkeep? Started reading the cards, now I see the difference with Decay.

I like Keeper's comment about the aesthetics of misery. Taramir is a miserable, miserable place.


Question: are the M:EM-based card sets going to get voted into the M:EM canon? Or are they better considered as only based on canon?

Kinda depends. Taramir might be--that's up to Szat. YMTC Masters? Proooobably considered extracanonical. Starstill? I'm angling for it.

In any case, Green Uncommons are now up!

I feel like this is actually going to get done -- I've already got the colorless uncommons and a good number of the rares 'in the can'. I guess at that point I move on to Waning Light


As for submitting the set(s) to the M:EM... I'm seriously considering it, but the cards would be considered a secondary source on matters: if and where they conflicted with the guide, the guide would win.

After a bit of a delay, the blue rares are up.

Taramir -- the Large Expansion -- is finally done!

:claps:

Awesome. Now we can have a competition to see whether Solphos or Taramir is more broken.

All-Taramir deck vs All-Solphos deck? I'd be game if someone happened to set up the cards on Lackey...

What is Solphos?

There are links in CKY's signature. Basically, it's an Alchemy plane where things have gone horribly, horribly out of control. It's pretty great and I have high hopes for it getting into M:EM eventually.

Especially once Block Constructed is a thing for both of them, the prospect of a duel between the two amuses me greatly

Also, it occurred to me that Taramir might well make Ponza a thing in NGA Constructed. I've been looking over my growing notes for Waning Light and Age of Darkness and I've got Wildfire, Port, and Armageddon variants and reprints of Dust Bowl and Tectonic Break. No mana rocks in Taramir (yet), but I'm sure there will be a few in NGA Constructed overall.

Waning Light has begun.

And is coming along rather well.

While not fully posted Waning Light is Fully Designed -- that is to say, a draft of the white commons and blue commons is done.

Some things to look forward to in Age of Darkness

• Wall Tribal
• Vanishing
• More -1/-1 Counter Antics
• A card designed to make Cumulative Upkeep.dec viable
• What is, once resolved, the last dragon you'll ever need (or get)
• Incarnations of Taramir's last days
• Nonmana salvage costs
• Taramir takes on Stasis, Smokestack, and Nether Void!