Keyword Challenge

sdfkjgh So you mean like a revision of an already existing mechanic but changed in a way like we would have liked the mechanic to be? Or is it also okay to just show an old (and presumably bad) mechanic with the same rules text but executed better?

Sounds interesting, why not.


Scavenger Hawk
Creature - Bird
Flight (: Exile this creature. Return it to the battlefield tapped under its controller’s control at the beginning of the next end step.)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may gain 2 life.
1/2


Gem-Prying Raven
Creature - Bird
Flight (: Exile this creature. Return it to the battlefield tapped under its controller’s control at the beginning of the next end step.)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may destroy target artifact with converted mana cost 3 or less.
2/2


Songstress of Scribes
Creature - Angel Warrior
Flight (: Exile this creature. Return it to the battlefield tapped under its controller’s control at the beginning of the next end step.)
When ~ deals combat damage to an opponent, you gain 2 life and draw a card.
3/3

Nest Tender
Creature - Elf Druid
Whenever a creature takes flight, you may untap target basic land you control.
0/2
"Every hawk needs a roost in the wild."

Phoenix-Feather Ritual
Instant
Add . Spend this mana only to activate an ability of a creature.
"May the fire in your heart reach your wings."

Goblin Sling Catapult
Creature - Goblin
Goblins you control have flight. (: Exile this creature. Return it to the battlefield tapped under its controller’s control at the beginning of the next end step.)
Whenever a Goblin you control enters the battlefield and it wasn't cast, ~ deals 3 damage to target player.
0/5
"The new recruit's a real hothead. Let's see if he burns those humans!"

There have been Mist Dragon and Canopy Dragon that have suggested that one alternative interpretation of flying could be to see it as a "take off and land" type ability, so I took some inspiration from that and built on it accordingly. Practically, Flight acts as an alternative to more cut and dry defenses like Hexproof - if being targeted by removal spells or lethal damage, Flight creatures can dodge them by flying out of range, but you have to hold up mana to ensure that they'll be able to do so (think of it as exerting energy to retreat). That said, it will still exhaust (tap) the creature, which lets Vigilance still hold its role as a attack and block ability. Aside from its protective abilities, Flight can be used as a repeatable mana sink to trigger ETBs (as seen on Scavenger Hawk and Gem-Prying Raven), allowing you to get use out of smaller or more impractical creatures in lategame, can be used as a way to attack confidentially to try and push the advantage, drawing your opponent into a resource war if they want to combat your threat (see Songstress of Blades), or even to create all sorts of wacky jank wincons like Goblin Sling Catapult, which effectively relies on flinging your Goblins into the air and having them slam down on your unfortunate opponents.

I think this would create an interesting alternate meta of sorts where tapping down lands to deny Flight is more important (and thus we see more cards like Mana Short being used in place of printing more hard land destruction like Stone Rain that newbie magic players tend to complain about - so land denial is now more of a resource management tug-of-war. We can also create designs like Nest Tender and Phoenix-Feather Ritual to play with this new design space.) It also puts more Magic combat on the 'same' level as the rest of the current evergreen keywords, meaning that there's more emphasis on deciding when to attack or retreat instead of "this creature flies, so it's not getting involved at all". Abilities like First Strike, Menace, and "can block up to X creatures" also become increasingly important in this alternate meta because of this increased focus on how you can attack and block.

Once thing I acknowledge is that this gets rid of Auras/Equipment/etc...., which may seem like a flavor fail, but retreating/flying high doesn't exactly work so great when you're bogged down with heavy gear, does it?

ZephyrPhantom showing you all how it's done!