I deliberately left tapping off for one particular reason: it makes it much harder to do proximity stuff.

We could do tapping, or proximity, but not both.

0.1 draft

Railroads

Railroads are a card type. They exist in your command zone. As the game begins, place all railroad cards you have there. The order in which you do so is important each railroad is "linked" to the railroads directly to the left and right of it, forming your a rail line. All railroads in your command zone must be in a single line.

At the beginning of your precombat main phase, if there is no train counter on any railroad in your command zone, place one on the leftmost railroad in your line. Otherwise, move it to the railroad immediately to the right of the one it is currently on. If there is no railroad to the right, remove the counter. When a train counter is placed on or moved to a railroad, Junction abilities may trigger. Junction abilities can trigger due to a train entering the railroad, leaving the railroad, entering or leaving a linked railroad, or multiple of the above

Sample Railroads

North Verkell Line
Railroad
Junction - When a train leaves the North Verkell Line, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card

Gold Rush Express
Railroad
Junction - When a train enters Gold Rush Express, add X mana of any color to your mana pool, where X is equal to 1 plus the number of railroads linked to Gold Rush Express
Junction - When a train leaves Gold Rush Express, tap all lands you control and empty your mana pool

Ghost Line
Railroad
Junction - When a train enters Ghost Line, you may rearrange your railroad line. You can't add or remove railroads, Ghost Line must remain in the same position relative to the left end of the line (For instance, if there were three railroads to the left of it, there must be three railroads to the left of it when you are finished rearranging)

Passenger Express
Railroad
Junction - When a train enters Passenger Express or a linked railroad, put a 1/1 white human token onto the battlefield.
Junction - When a train leaves Passenger Express or a linked railroad, sacrifice a creature.

Bandit's Line
Railroad
Junction - When a train enters a linked railroad, each opponent sacrifices a permanent unless he or she pays
Junction - When a train enters Bandit's Line, sacrifice a permanent unless you pay

Treasure Freighter
Railroad
Junction - When a train enters Treasure Freighter, you may pay . Note the types and amount of mana used to pay this cost.
Junction - When a train leaves Treasure Freighter, add to your mana pool mana in the types and amounts last used to pay X.

Shortcut Line
Railroad
Junction - The first time each turn a train enters a linked railroad, you may move it to another linked railroad (Junction abilities will trigger for both movements)

Hmmm...okay, I like the way Junction works, but I have another idea. What if you could junction railroads in more than just a straight line? Each railroad could junction to any other railroad with an open arrow-arrows being located on the railroad cards, of course. Kind of like Drakon or any other build-the-dungeon-as-you-go game. Admittedly, it lends itself to breaking, but we could limit it.

Also, maybe railroads should be Artifacts with "When you play ~, put it into the command zone" and then Junction. That way, they have a casting cost, they count to your 99, and you can't just set them in a game-breaker at the start.

Bump. What happened, everyone? We were having fun!

Hmm. Fun, you say? Okay, how about this:

Grizzled Lawman -
Creature - Centaur Warrior
Horsemanship
3/3

Dammit horsemanship is the exact opposite of fun Raven. Screw horsemanship, and screw shadow. At least have the decency to just say unlockable.

But... he's a Horse-man! It's a pun! Puns are fun!

That's not a pun. THIS is a pun!

Shipping Line
Railroad
Junction-When a train enters ~, choose two creatures. They both gain "Soulbond-(rules) Both creatures get +1/+1 and ": Regenerate target creature with Soulbond.""
Junction-When a train leaves ~, sacrifice all creatures with Soulbond.

See? It's a pun on shipping with mechanics that don't work too well!...Y'know what, maybe yours wasn't so bad.

HA! Shipping...

If only it were a Wall...

I don't get the pun, and I have a feeling I don't *want* to get the pun.

Shipping Wall 4
Artifact Creature-Wall
Defender
When ~ enters the battlefield, two target creature gain Soulbond and are paired.
Creatures with Soulbond have hexproof.
"MAKE JACE//BOLAS CANON OR SO HELP ME GOD--" --Sam Keeper, to the WotC
creative team, seconds before the SWAT team burst in.
0/4

Also on a serious note I do kinda like the idea of being able to move trains on the railroad cards in any direction, but maybe that complicates play too much? It would be kinda flavorful to just have the lines go in... a line. And it would make for some interesting gameplay if you only moved once per turn (once per every player's turn?) to a track that you couldn't necessarily determine beforehand.

Okay, I bow to your card-building expertise, ON ONE CONDITION: We include the following card.

Switcher Yard
Railroad
Junction-Whenever a train would leave ~, you may pay . If you do, put the train on a railroad X cards away from ~.

oooooh, lightbulb!

0.2 draft

Railroads

Railroads are a card type. All railroads you own begin play in your command zone

At the beginning of each player's precombat main phase that player first adds any railroad he or she owns to the "railroad line", a left-to-right sequence of railroads, if able. All players build onto the same railroad line

Players may roll the rail die at any time they could normally cast a sorcery. The rail die is a six-sided die with three blank faces, two "train" faces, and one "Chaos" face. Rolling the rail die costs , plus for each previous time the player whose turn it is has rolled the rail die this turn. If a blank face is rolled, nothing happens. If a train is rolled, the player who rolled the die places his or her train counter on the leftmost Railroad if it isn't on the railroad line, moves it one railroad to the right, or if it is on the rightmost railroad, removes it from the line. If Chaos is rolled, that player may move any player's train counter either one railroad to the right or one railroad to the left, removing it from the line if it would move off either the right or left end of the Railroad Line. Moving a train causes the junction abilities of railroads to trigger.

Sample Railroads

North Verkell Line
Railroad
Junction - When a train leaves the North Verkell Line, that train's owner may draw a card. If he or she does, he or she discards a card

Gold Rush Express
Railroad
Junction - When a train enters Gold Rush Express, that train's owner adds X mana of any color to his or her mana pool, where X is equal to 1 plus the number of railroads linked to Gold Rush Express
Junction - When a train leaves Gold Rush Express, tap all lands its owner controls and empty his or her mana pool

Ghost Line
Railroad
Junction - When a train enters Ghost Line, its owner may move Ghost Line to any position in the Railroad Line. All trains on Ghost Line remain on Ghost Line when it is moved

Passenger Express
Railroad
Junction - When a train enters a linked railroad, its owner puts a 1/1 white human token onto the battlefield.
Junction - When a train leaves Passenger Express, its owner sacrifices a creature.

Bandit's Line
Railroad
Junction - When a train enters a linked railroad, each of its owners opponents sacrifices a permanent unless he or she pays
Junction - When a train enters Bandit's Line, its owner sacrifices a permanent unless he or she pays

Treasure Freighter
Railroad
Junction - When a train enters Treasure Freighter, its owner may pay . Note the types and amount of mana used to pay this cost.
Junction - When a train leaves Treasure Freighter, its owner adds to his or her mana pool mana in the total types and amounts used to pay X this game.

Shortcut Line
Railroad
Junction - The first time each turn a train enters a linked railroad, the player who moved it may move that train to another linked railroad (Junction abilities will trigger for both movements)

Mmm...I like the original one better. In Planar Chaos, the die made sense-there was random plane chaos, hence the name. In this, not only does it make no flavor sense, but I don't want there to only be a 1/2 chance of me being able to pull off what I need. Make it an every turn, and maybe the *really* good railroads can only move once every two turns.

And also, what if railroads were a communal thing? Everyone can put in up to 3 Railroads, and it goes around by turn order before the game starts-player 1 places one, then player 2, then player 3, etc.

Hmmm...

The Rail Runners 1W
Creature--Scout
Each time you roll the rail dice, gain 2 life
1/1

Shakes 2RU
Legendary Creature--Noggle Artificer
Rail dice cost you 3 less to roll
2/2

There's potential here, I think...

It feels similar to Planechase but not, I think, so similar that it's uninteresting.

Yeah, it seems similar to planechase. I hated planechase. Maybe in combo with my newer edited suggestion it could work, and make more flavor sense? Also:

Railroad Saboteur
Creature-Human Rogue
When ~ enters the battlefield, put a charge counter on it.
, Remove a charge counter from ~: Destroy target Railroad. You may replace it with a Railroad you own from outside the game.
1/2

I wonder if we could just simplify things to, rather than remove stuff from the rail, make it possible to move left or right, and just make it impossible to move off the rail...