Set Theme Game

In the aftermath of the Phyrexian invasion, the city of Garaphur began its reconstruction under the council and with the additional guidance of Pia Nalaar. However, morale was an all time low and paranoia was growing, and with it discontent with the new consulate. Those outside the "legal network" were all too happy to help foment this despite some additional leeway being granted both due to the need for their support and as gratitude for the help during the invasion. More importantly, however, was the reminders of what had trespassed: Destruction, converted bodies from both beyond the plane and from Kaladesh itself, and that mass of glistening oil, for now inactive... presumably. Cleaning things up and returning Garaphur to the shining beacon of peace, safety and innovation it had once been would require keeping a lot of people from their homes and place of work. It would require room to work and to minimize incidents.



That criminal underbelly had plans of its own as well. They knew better than to outright incorporate phyrexian technology, but to take inspiration from some of their concepts and designs was not out of the question. Many began "recruiting volunteers" for certain experiments combining metal and flesh, with many aetherborn in particular seeking out these experiments to become the so-called "Filmeld" (from melding with filigree) due to the supposed effect of increasing their longevity.



As often happens with inventors in Kaladesh, an idea struck in their moment of need: With Garaphur as the main focus of the invaders, there was much of the world left relatively safe. With their current authority and expertise a container similar to Garaphur's reservoir could be developed, less able to gather aether from the air but able to store it in great amounts. With this in toe they would send-out a large scale expedition, visiting the inventors of the various cities spread throughout Kaladesh, inviting those citie's own inventors to display their prowess in the first ever World Fair!



Some with excitement and others with little choice, a great portion of Garaphur departs on this massive expedition. Of course, even with such a large group, the dangers aren't absent. Bandits near Garaphur who eyed the frequent access its citizens had to aether and didn't have the technology to gather it so abundantly would seek out to raid them, especially with the mobile reservoir as a potential prize. Among them would likewise be those who may or not lack the aether, but simply despise what Garaphur is or stands for as a hub of artifice and invention, a taint on the world in the eyes of some even in the plane of Kaladesh.



With limited resources in both aether and metal, the artificers are forced to recycle, improvise and adapt. Even so, the World Fair marches on, and cities rich and poor, powerful and feeble, honest and cunning, will seek to impress the inventors and citizens of Garaphur. Will you join the tour as well?



Long story short, this return to Kaladesh would feature the citizens of Garaphur visiting various cities throughout the rest of Kaladesh - indeed this is one of the things that has been said could prompt a return to Kaladesh according to an article about where planes fit in the Rabiah scale. I'm thinking it could feature and explore these themes of abundance and squalor, with some cities that clearly fall on the later and others on the former, all seen through the eyes of the people of Garaphur who lived with abundance and would have (following the phyrexian invasion) fallen that much closer to squalor. This could be visible mechanically as well, with Mardu (black, red, white) having the Scrap Together mechanic and many artifacts that quickly go into your graveyard, whereas Simic (blue, green) would get Metalcraft, which only is active if you already have a bunch of artifacts (and yes normally green isn't really all for artifacts but I figured it could work since this is Kaladesh). There could also be a more minor themes with Orzhov (white, black) life gain (and black in particular using life-spending effects for phyrexian-inspired tech cards) and the Gruul (red, green) raiders having blitz.



While energy is one of the universal mechanics here, so every color would use it, the set could try to fix the error of energy of being too universal in access and too broad in potential application in a way that would play into the themes by making bigger costs in terms of energy. This would give more of the feeling that you are trying to scrap together enough energy to get by while mechanically rebalancing it by reducing efficiency. Blue would, however, be the most energy-centric color on its own, with tools to make energy-usage more efficient that would be either hard to splash or only make themselves more efficient.

Vehicles would probably also show up, but be a much smaller and less significant part of the set, a couple of examples rather than a wide-spanning mechanic.



But of course, what's the point of having this whole set based around visiting various places if you don't have anything to mechanically show for it? Sure cities might have their own visual and mechanical identity, but there is something to say about the travel.

For one, you have cities - legendary lands at uncommon or rare - that are artifacts in your hand or graveyard. These cities would have the mechanic "Expand", which lets you put a brick counter on the city. This is a way to have a multiples of the legendary land without actually having multiple, allowing that land to produce more mana for each brick counter.

But those brick counters may give another bonus, affecting the ability these cities bring as they are part of the World Tour. World Tour is a mechanic that sets a trigger for the next time you tap a land for mana, in other words, you take something of the experience with you as you travel to the next location.