Post by Vunik on Mar 27, 2022 22:14:35 GMT
Hello everyone!
I've recently had an itch to get back into full set design, and I came up with Frontiers of Symand, a top-down Wild-West set. To help me actually finish this set, and make it better than most my sets end up being, I'm creating this thread. Hopefully, this will catalogue my thought process, and the design and development changes made to the set as I get feedback and suggestions from all of you!
And to start it off, here are my ideas for the mechanics of Frontiers. Just a quick note: I made a cycle of each mechanic in all colors - I don't think that they'll all be 5 color mechanics, I just wanted to explore design space. Also, none of these are balanced at the moment - just trying to throw ideas at the wall.
Bounty
The first concept I wanted to try to portray was the idea of bounties, and in doing so, I came up with the following:
Bounty N (When this creature dies, the player that killed it creates N Treasure tokens.)
The idea here is that you get cheaper costed creatures with the downside that they pay whoever gets removal off on them. I'm also thinking that they'll fuel a self-sacrifice in either 
or 
(or maybe ).
or (or maybe ).
Quick Draw
After bounties, I wanted to create a representation of dueling that is so common in Wild West stories. The next three mechanics all draw on this. The first is this one:
Quick draw (When this enters the battlefield, you may activate or trigger one of its abilities without paying the costs.)
Quick draw makes a quasi-modular ETB effect, and allows you to get value from activated or triggered abilities immediately. I'm not entirely sure on this one.
Duel
I'm also not so sure on this one, which is the mechanic supposed to represent dueling itself.
Duel - . . ., if another player has cast a spell this turn, [effect].
This would most likely go on instants or instant-speed activation effects, so it can properly be used in response. I feel that this is relatively weak and hard to pull off, so I might change it or drop it.
Chargeable
This is the most complicated mechanic, designed to represent the dueling wands that the world of Symand use instead of guns.
Chargeable N-<cost> (To activate the other abilities, you must remove a charge counter from this. This enters the battlefield with a charge counter. <cost>: Put N charge counters on this.)
I think it works, I just think it's wordy and complicated. There are parts of it I like, and others that I think need some massaging. I think I want to keep this in as much as possible.
Escalate
A returning mechanic, I felt this fit the Wild West, as escalation is a part of its stories. Things always get worse, or more important, or more impactful.
-1/-1 Counters
This isn't necessarily a mechanic as much as it is a theme, but I was planning on including -1/-1 counters, as I want Frontiers of Symand to feel like the cruel Wild West, as opposed to the optimistic Wild West.
Whew. Alright, that was a big post. I look forward to all the feedback, and hopefully soon I'll be back with some worldbuilding/common cards.