that is the most YMtC design ever

Posted this from my phone and didn't really explain it. There's actually a lot I like about this
-It's optional, so the ability is pure upside compared to the same creature not having this option.
-Flavorfully, it feels similar to the extinction of the dinosaurs where the little creatures survived and the big ones died out.
-You can sort of build around it by using Battlegrowth effects to extend your creature's life.

Downsides:
-Possible memory issues if a creature who you choose not to use the ability on later gets counters on it from another source (in this situation, it doesn't have the "vanishing" effect. This is intentional so battlegrowth doesn't turn into removal).
-If you choose not to use the ability it feels like a very different creature. It feels more like a split card than an "organic" ability. Eg A 2/2 for with "Flopvanishing 4" is either just a 2/2 or it's a 6/6 that gradually gets smaller then dies when it hits 2/2.

And there's a whole cycle of them!

Egyptian is winning, discuss that.

Also Essence of Greed is pretty funny.

Egypt is winning, Prehistoric is a close second, and everything else is WAY far behind

At this point, I would think a hybrid solution might be proposed: Sapient civilizations are modeled after egypt and prehistoric thematics are used for the world at large -- Herds of dinosaurs wandering across the desert and such. It would be no stranger than including Magic-native creatures (like Baloths) anyway.

I didn't vote for Egypt. What do people like about it?

If people do a set as a group, using a top down approach might be tricky because we will have different opinions on what "Egypt flavour" is and what is the best way to implement it.

Designing with Egyptian flavor would be doable if you have evocative keywords. For instance, based around the growing cycle with the Nile river:
Riverbound (As long as there are more lands than creatures, it is flooding. As long as they are equal, it is growing. As long as there are more creatures than lands, it is harvest.)
Thus you could have different abilities come online depending on what part of the cycle it is.
To be honest though, I would need to read up on Egyptian myth to prepare.

Avoid the E. A. Wallis Budge books if you go for something of textbook quality.

Big things in Egyptian Mythology: Duality (Light versus Darkness, Order Versus Chaos, Interconnectedness of the living and the dead). Honestly, Transform (Day and Night sides) would be a GREAT mechanic to convey how Egypt would look at the universe. We'd probably also want to play with the graveyard somehow as in Egyptian thinking the world of the living and the world of the dead can affect one another -- your existence in the underworld persists as long as any part of your self persists in the known unierse.

There are up to seven parts of the 'soul' depending on how you look at it. To use wikipedia's english terms the five big ones would be your Heart (emotion/will), Shadow, Name, Personality, and Vital Spark. The body and a complicated immortal essence referred to as the Akh in some texts are 6 and 7.

It would be easy enough to map the five main parts of the soul to the five colors. The Heart, as emotion and willpower without identity is very much . The personality -- your intellectual identity -- on the other hand maps to . The vital spark, the losing of which is the difference between alive and not alive? That's . Name, as an idea of solidity and categorization fits nicely into , and the shadow is pretty naturally

It seems like Egypt and Prehistoric are tied now for some reason. Maybe Tevish's hybrid idea is the way to go after all.

I didn't vote for Egyptian because I have an Egyptian tribe in one of my sets about 9 sets from now.

Class was a powerful motivator in Ancient Egypt. There were whole classes of people that were poor and expected to die for their pharaoh or master at any time.

Slave Laborer
Creature ─ Human Citizen
Peon (You may sacrifice Slave Laborer at any time.)
1/1

Peon is a bad name, but can't think of a better one off the top of my head.

Have lots of card that trigger when sacrifices happen.

Also, religion was a strong motivator. A return of Gods. Religion helped drive the Class system as well.

High Priest of Death
Creature ─ Human Cleric (U)
Whenever a creature is sacrificed draw a card.
2/2

They were big believers in magic. Most of it was pretty dark stuff. Of course the graveyard was huge for them as it was the passing into the next world. How to reflect that, I'm not sure. But there were very ritualistic about burial.

Legend (and Hollywood) has it they were masters of curses and traps.

Ritualistic Burial
Enchantment ─ Aura (U)
Enchant creature card in a graveyard.
Enchanted creature is a Mummy with "Whenever you cast a Trap, return this creature from your graveyard to the battlefield."

I might be a little premature about all this though. I would say Egyptian has a lot more going for it than Prehistoric does, but hey, I just like making cards man.

Those who worked as slave laborers were actually very well taken care of new studies show. otherwise they wouldn't have been able to build pyramids and things.

Well that's good to know. Of course it might of been "Attrition Construction."

I seem to remember it being work for the farmers during their off season. Also, beer every day.

Hmmm....happy slaves are a lot less interesting than unhappy ones.

That's because when people say the word "Slave" they think of the American South for the most part. "Slavery" actually covers a lot of forms of social and economic relationships, none of which are considered OK in the western world nowadays but not all of which were always and inherently abusive. In some cases, the most important difference between being the top dog's slave and being a freeman under his rule is that the big guy actually has an interest in what happens to his slaves. After all, they're his property, useful tools. You wouldn't just hit your computer with a rock or bash your car's engine with a monkey wrench, so why treat YOUR slave badly? It doesn't make sense. In some periods and places and for some reasons, being a slave was essentially ultimate job security. By the same token, however, there would also be arrangements far MORE abusive than the Old South, resembling little more than concentration camps, and set up for something of the same purpose -- getting some work out of undesired peoples before inevitably exterminating them. Hollywood (and pop culture in general) prefers the latter, starting at the brutal end of practice in the Confederate states and going crueler from there.

Egyptian civilization lasted, with something resembling continuity, for millennia -- a feat essentially unprecedented in human history. Naturally, their society experienced many shifts in the tone and tenor of its practices They had so much more time, even without breaking continuity, for their mores and political viewpoints to shift hither and thither, so there's probably evidence for just about anything happening some time. Most archaeological information suggests Egyptian slaves were treated, basically, as being of value. So they got food, water, rest, and basic accommodations that resulted in them staying healthy, strong, and with something resembling morale rather than dying and revolting constantly. Slavery no doubt entailed an obligation to obey and an inability to cancel your labor arrangements on your own terms, but the popular image of whip-wielding taskmasters spilling slave blood on the sand as a matter of course was probably not common during most periods of their civilization.

I think that same problem will happen no matter what gets chosen. If we go with one of the less strictly defined themes, there's just going to be another runoff vote to figure out what the actual theme is going to be. At least with a real-world mythology there's a fixed goal in mind, because otherwise it's just a matter of popularity.

I think one problem with Egyptian mythology as a theme is that it's already on WotC's shortlist, and it wouldn't be much fun if an upcoming set ends up steamrolling our plans. Had that happen with Khans and my wedge-faction set plans and it was frustrating...

Egypt is a fairly specific, predefined theme. We may have different ideas on Egypt, but there'll be more unity. Egypt promises set focus.
Prehistoric is fairly wide open in interpretation. The only definite is dinosaurs. I'm not doing this without dinosaurs. Prehistoric promises design freedom.

Also I think it's important to figure out the purpose of this set. Do we want to make it draftable or is it just a collection of neat cards?

Egyptian is nice. However, I get the feeling most of us gets our impression of them and their history from games and movies except Tevish I guess, who seems to have studied them before. Do a Scorpion King thing? Cleopatra?

Doesn't everybody study Egypt in school? What did you guys do in history class?