Good day, everyone! (You'll excuse the lack of dialect - the aristocracy is above the common tongue)

Welcome to the design/development thread of The Wilde Wastes*, the M:EM multiplayer summer set. In this thread we will strive to create a flavorful and fun limited environment based upon the Expanded Multiverse Community plane known as Jakkard!

The main goal of the set is to creatively represent this much loved plane, and the conflict between the privileged and the poor inherent within. The aristocracy seeks to keep order, while the downtrodden rise up in rebellion, and all the while outlaws and renegades sling bullets at one another, looking to get an upper hand!

And when the Star Folk get involved, well, you can be sure things are going to get wild.

Now, thanks to the useful planar guide to Jakkard (linked above) we have a pretty good handle on what colors are doing what. The emphasis should be on the power struggle between the aristocracy () and the poor (), and also on expansion () versus nature (). With this as a template, it should be fairly simple to come up with plenty of interesting and unique cards.

We also need to decide on which mechanics to include (or create) and which planeswalkers to include (if any, and how many).

So, at the moment, the thread is open to all sorts of ideas! I'll be heading this particular project, but I really won't be doing a whole lot besides the clerical stuff. If there is a dispute, we'll just vote on it, but since this is in the early stages anyway, all ideas are welcome!

*The name is subject to change.

Reserved

Summer sets often like to cause mechanics to return (Morbid in conspiracy, for instance). I'd suggest Proliferate for "expansion" themed cards

Hey, that's a pretty good idea. If we have enough counters running around, it would make a lot of sense. Which actually brings me to my next point:

GUNS.

We really need to give these things a mechanical identity. I believe this is super important and something we should get down first. Are they artifacts? Check. Equipment? Er... probably? But how do we represent that? Where do we go from here? Should we color these artifacts, or just give them colored actives? Much to discuss.

Here's my take on a potential mechanic that we could use for our firearms:

Reload - Reload is a mechanic found exclusively on equipment, and allows the player to place charge counters on those artifacts at the beginning of their upkeep - assuming the card is equipped to a creature. On the card, this mechanic will read as follows:

Revolver - [U]

Artifact - Equipment
Revolver enters the battlefield with 3 charge counters.
If Revolver is equipped, remove a charge counter from Revolver: Revolver deals one damage to target creature.
Reload 1(At the beginning of your upkeep, if Revolver is equipped, you may place one charge counter on Revolver.)
Equip

Or, in a more simple manner:

Pistol - [C]

Artifact - Equipment
Pistol enters the battlefield with one charge counter.
Removed a charge counter from Pistol: Equipped creature gains First Strike until the end of the turn.
Reload 1 (At the beginning of your upkeep, if Pistol is equipped, you may place one charge counter on Pistol.)
Equip

This mechanic would , of course, work well with proliferate, but I'm not sure how well it works from a flavor perspective. Thoughts?

One thing that might be interesting on the nature side of the conflict could be an animals matter theme, dependent on the race. For example:

Dartshot Cascavel
Creature - Snake [Insert appropriate class]
If you control a Basilisk, Dartshot Cascavel has Deathtouch.
2/3

Vash have Dragons Matter and Minotaurs have Baloths Matter.

Hmm, that's actually very interesting as an uncommon cycle! I like the idea, Moonbeam, though I'm not certain that it's the Minotaur who raise the baloths. We could just assign them names like "Baloth Handler" and not worry about the race, though. Granted, we'd have to get more creative with the name, but we're in the early stages anyway...

Yeah, the nature side of things could use a sort of "other creatures you control matters" theme. Keep in mind, though, that Minotaurs are less a part of the Nature vs. Expansion side, and more a part of the Rich vs. Poor side. And the outlaw/renegade "faction". They're R/B in this set.

Nature is mostly going to be Centaurs, Vash, and Rattlers, methinks.

I'd template Guns something like this.

Reload X - This equipment enters the battlefield with X bullet counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, if it's attached to a creature and has less than X bullet counters on it, put a bullet counters on it.

Revolver

Artifact - Equipment
Reload 3
Equipped creature has "Remove a bullet counter from Revolver: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature or player"
Equip

Pistol

Artifact - Equipment
Reload 1
Remove a bullet counter from Pistol: Equipped creature gains First Strike until end of turn.
Equip

Hmm, that does seem to work better. I worry about using bullet counters. Though they are more apt, charge counters accomplish the same thing and also provide synergy with previous mechanics... granted, if this is in a vacuum anyway, it hardly matters.

Your take is more elegant, I admit.

reprints!
Highway Robber and Tavern Swindler

...

*Updates card list.*

Bullet counters or charge counters, makes little difference to me. My main concern is rolling the nearly required ETB ability into the Reload ability and making it more resonant by having guns only hold so many bullets (barring putting a shot in the chamber, so to speak, by proliferating)

If we use proliferate, Steady Progress would seem like a good reprint.

Minotaurs do raise Baloths according to the Guide, so that could work. The colors are tricky though so centaurs might be better there.

Blue would be Birds, Black would be... demon... bears? Hrm. Somehow I don't see much future in Hide-Behind Tribal or Celestial Stag Tribal. Hrrrrrrm

There are definitely a lot of Fearsome Critters though that'd be fun to explore. Hm, can we get a Fearsome Critter mechanic, actually?

I'm torn on Bullet vs Charge Counters. On the one hand, yeah, charge counters are more backwards compatible. On the other hand, there's lots of stuff in Magic (Proliferate most notably) that deals with generic "counters", so I'm not sure it's as dangerous as, say, Arcane.

Also, one of the longstanding notions I've had from the early days of working on this world was Luck cards like Gemstone Caverns or the Leylines (I mean... obviously) or the Phyrexian Chancellors, or even arguably Grandeur cards. Just tossing that out as well as a possibility. If we followed Gemstone Caverns that could play into the Proliferate stuff potentially.

Where do we want our Summer Multiplayer weirdness to take place? During draft? During gameplay? Both?

I've had a list of reprints for Jakkard rolling around for ages.
Now I just wish I could remember more of them because I have no clue where the reprint file is.
Fairly certain Vendetta would fit too.

On other news, how about an enchantment that is basically in the same neighborhood as Nevermore? And flavorfully, I'm thinking it is a Wanted Poster, possibly with a life gain for when something dies.

Anyways, I do agree with Keeper that we should have gemstone caverns (which was on the list) and leylines, but I think we should create our own leylines. I'd like to take first crack at those if anyone would allow me. I also agree that we should have Grandeur as the legendary mechanic. That was ALWAYS part of our plan, going all the way back to the old boards.

Also:

Trains should be creature type "Juggernaut".

Edit: I think we should also do one signature card for the walkers in our set. Dack got one in conspiracy, so...

@Keeper: My vote is for the wackiness to take place during the game. Conspiracy already covered draft pretty well.



@Barinellos: I agree with the Juggernaut typing, the signature card, and Vendetta. I'm not sure how to go about doing the wanted poster thing though. hmm...

At the moment, between guns, gemstone cavern type cards, leylines, and Grandeur, it seems like the major strands are Counters and Weird Hand Tricks.

Can we work with that?


Wanted Poster 1WW
Enchantment
When Wanted Poster enters the battlefield, name
a creature card.
Whenever a creature with the chosen name enters
the battlefield, put a Bullet counter on each Gun you
control.

...Or alternately we could do less parasitic and go with just "The named card can't be cast." But that's less funny.

EDIT: "Creatures you control have T: fight target creature named with Wanted Poster"

Hehehehehehehehe

Mechanic - Quick Draw: Whenever you would draw a card, you may instead reveal a card with QUICK DRAW and pay the cost. If you do, you get an effect. For instance...

Start Prayin'

Instant
As an additional cost to cast Start Prayin', tap a creature you control.
Gain 6 life.
Quick Draw - : Whenever you would draw a card, you may reveal Start Prayin' from your hand and pay instead of drawing a card. If you do, gain 6 life.

EDIT: @Keeper: That wanted poster card is hilarious. Should definitely think about that going in here.

I insist on there being at least one Rail-Runner card. Some like:

Dedicated Rail-Runner -
Creature - Human Advisor
Vigilance
, : Tap or untap target creature.
1/3

Also, here's a card for our old friend Mel Odrum.

Mel Odrum, the Unsuccessful -
Legendary Creature - Human Rebel
When ~ enters the battlefield, target opponent gains control of it.
~ attacks each turn if able.
~ deals combat damage to players in the form of life.
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
3/1

Dude! Man.. I'm... I'm a little unhappy with you Ruwin.
I specifically asked for you guys to let me have first crack at the leylines! I'm... genuinely a little hurt and bothered by that.

As to a review, I'll have to be honest, I do NOT like the names. Some of that might be an emotional response, but I just don't like the idea of leylines being attached to "owners".

I only really came up with two leylines at work, but:



I think Leyline of Anticipation might actually be suited for the blue section as it is.

HA! Mel amuses me a lot.



So, I'm actually fairly glad that this thread didn't get out of hand too, because I have an idea for a mechanic that really fits things, I think:
Clash
It feels like it fits a few of the tropes we have, between gunslingers and also gamblers.