temawimag
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 137
Favorite Card: Elite Arcanist
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Post by temawimag on Feb 23, 2019 7:28:41 GMT
Hi, first time post, but I've been playing around with MSE for a few *chan threads for about a year now. Anyway, I've had two ideas for some sets I want to work on for fun, but I figure it might work better to start with the derivative idea between the two to see if I can even work on a collaborative project. For anyone who doesn't know, the Warrior Cats (Officially titled "Warriors," but the community tacked on 'cats' to make it distinct, and later the publication company just rolled with it) book series is a young adult novel series ongoing since 2003, outlining the adventures of four clans of cats who live in a woodland area, usually spanned in six-book arcs with some supplementary books. The first six books follow the events of a young housecat named Rusty joining on of the four clans of the nearby forest, ThunderClan and becoming Firepaw. Firepaw and his friend Graypaw discover a plot by one of the clan's top warriors (day-to-day rank in the series), Tigerclaw, to kill off the deputy (second-in-command) until he's appointed, then lead a coup against the leader of the clan, Bluestar, and from there take over the forest. Before they can get to proving Tigerclaw's plan was in motion by his murder of the previous deputy, the two of them help drive out a kitten-stealing warmonger leader in the adjacent ShadowClan, and retrieve a clan his cats drove out of the forest called Windclan. This earns Firepaw and Graypaw a promotion to warrior, and renames them Fireheart and Graystripe (names change with ranks in these books). Fireheart and Graystripe go to RiverClan, the clan which the second-to-previous previous deputy died in a skirmish with, and gather evidence that Tigerclaw orchestrated the previous cat's murder, and also find out that their leader Bluestar mothered two half-clan kittens.
By the time this comes about, though, Tigerclaw leads a coup in ThunderClan with some of the cats Fireheart and Graystripe defeated in ShadowClan. Fireheart stops Tigerclaw from murdering Bluestar, and Tigerclaw gets banished from ThunderClan. Bluestar has a downward spiral into paranoia due to Tigerclaw's betrayal and her secret being exposed, and appoints Fireheart to be the new deputy, leaving him to manage clan live while she turns into a senile old lady. Meanwhile to this, Tigerclaw retreated to ShadowClan and rose its ranks, becoming its leader when the kitten-stealing cat's successor dies off. Tigerstar forms an alliance with RiverClan, and begins to lure a pack of dogs to ThunderClan to kill everyone. Fireheart forms a plan to lure the dogs away from ThunderClan, and sees it about to fail when BlueStar snaps out of her dementia and sacrifices herself to lure the dogs away, leaving Fireheart to become the new leader of ThunderClan.
TigerStar's plans move forward regardless by trying to merge ShadowClan and RiverClan together, and starts making speeches of how he wants to have cat-Holocaust. Firestar answers by forming an alliance with WindClan to fight off the united ShadowClan and RiverClan. To get the edge in the upcoming war, Tigerstar goes to a group of nearby alley cats armed with dog teeth and bad tempers, and offers them a slice of the forest if they help him kill Thunderclan. Their leader, Scourge, accepts. As the two factions meet in battle, though, Scourge kills Tigerstar in front of all four clans, then tells give the clans a day to either leave or he's going to have his army of alley cats kill everyone. FireStar goes to RiverClan's leader to have the ShadowClan-RiverClan alliance join him, and the four clans unite to take down Scourge's alley cats.
With Tigerstar and Scourge both dead, the united clans split back into four, letting peace return to the forest until the sequel arcs. I think that if the events of the first arc, and a few supplementary books (I have a few specific ones in mind) taking place around it, could fill in enough material for a single expansion if they were to be summarized. On some of my off-time, I've been making a few cards for a hypothetical set like this. I have quite a few cards with vastly ranging qualities, so there's for certain enough here for at least one set. For each clan's identity, I have an idea for how they would work, and a few mechanics and cards already outlined. - ThunderClan: W/R/G Heroic - Since we follow their perspective for most of the books, we know the most about how StarClan (the deceased ancestors of the cats, whom all four clans worship) blesses them. By reusing Heroic, we can explore that idea on a mechanical level. Naya is there for the color scheme since including R and G are a must, and white seems fitting for Thunderclan's proactive role as peacekeeping in this arc - ShadowClan: U/B Skulk - I know R&D put this high on the storm scale, but I like the concept of Skulk for how it messes with the game's pacing, and SoI didn't really explore everything they could do with it. Even something like a skulk creature that can tap to lock down an opponent's creature doesn't exist as far as I know. This counteracts the choice for having ThunderClan be based on Heroic as well, and in terms of the color pie fits opposite of ThunderClan as well. - WindClan: W/R/B Ambush (You may cast this spell for its ambush cost during combat. If you do, it deals damage equal to its power to target tapped creature when it enters.) - An original mechanic for combining white liking to deal damage to creatures in combat, red liking creature damage period, and black putting creature kill on ETB. Honestly, the color combination is mostly arbitrary, but whenever I was looking for how to represent the clan, I mostly took a look at Dash and Raid as mechanics to be inspired by, and from there Mardu Colors in general. It seemed fitting to make them parallel, so I went with it. I ended up going with an original mechanic both to make the clan more distinct and because I wanted to have creatures be cast during the combat step, not afterwards, and Dash didn't really do enough for me for how much text it took up. - RiverClan: U/G Mistblock (As long as this creature is blocking, prevent all damage dealt to and by it.) - another original keyword, but obviously derived from fog/gas effects like Fog Bank. The color scheme seemed obvious after I stopped and realized that a clan who spends all of their time sitting on an island fishing while the rest of the clans starve in winter is probably best suited for either control or midrange, and putting them with a defensive mechanic ties into that nicely. Honestly, though, I'm not sure where I want to go about for designing the general direction of this clan between the two. In addition, to represent each clan leader getting nine lives, a lot of the legendary creatures I have so far have an effect called Starblessed (If this creature would die during the combat step, instead regenerate it, and put a -1/-1 counter on it.). This effect is 'officially' primarily U/W with G/B secondary, but since that combination can work for any of the factions I've set up, it doesn't really matter as much. Before I go about posting some cards for real serious discussion and asking about collaboration, assistance with balancing, card ideas, or anything like that, I want to ask about general interest for the project. Does anyone have any suggestions for replacing any of the mechanics or colors? Does anyone know if they want to help with this? Either way, I'm all ears. (A few cards are attached. Some of them don't have art because I only want to pull art from official sources for the time being.) |
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Post by fluffydeathbringer on Feb 23, 2019 10:58:50 GMT
- I'd take off the damage from Ambush because that'll open up the mechanic to more diverse designs without making them cost prohibitively much cmcwise - what's the point of making scourge force-sac a creature he deals damage to when he already has deathtouch anyway
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tarvoc
1/1 Squirrel
Posts: 56
Color Alignment: Blue
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Post by tarvoc on Feb 23, 2019 13:16:33 GMT
- I'd take off the damage from Ambush because that'll open up the mechanic to more diverse and designs without making them cost prohibitively much cmcwise - what's the point of making scourge force-sac the creature when the creature will die from his first strike deathtouch combat damage anyway. will you be having a lot of creatures dealing damage in this?
Yeah, Scourge is an odd design.
Also, I agree on the second point as well. Cutting the direct damage part out and instead combining the mechanic with various ETB effects seems to be the better choice. I guess it depends on the lore you want to capture though. I don't actually know Warrior Cats though, so I can't possibly tell.
That said, there seems to be a bit of a "legendary creatures" theme going on here, similar to Dominaria or Kamigawa. I guess that makes sense for the purpose of capturing the flavor of a character-driven book series.
(Also, is the usurper's name Tigerclaw or Tigerstar? The story summary flipflops between these two names, but they seem to refer to the same character.)
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Post by voltaic-qui on Feb 23, 2019 17:43:25 GMT
I'll make my two notes from what I've seen here:
1. -1/-1 counters and +1/+1 counters are almost never used in the same set.
2. Mistblock - and by extension, "blocking tribal" - is a really bad idea. Fog Bank isn't a card you want more of one of in any set.
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temawimag
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 137
Favorite Card: Elite Arcanist
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Post by temawimag on Feb 23, 2019 19:00:33 GMT
- I'd take off the damage from Ambush because that'll open up the mechanic to more diverse and designs without making them cost prohibitively much cmcwise - what's the point of making scourge force-sac the creature when the creature will die from his first strike deathtouch combat damage anyway. will you be having a lot of creatures dealing damage in this?
Yeah, Scourge is an odd design.
Also, I agree on the second point as well. Cutting the direct damage part out and instead combining the mechanic with various ETB effects seems to be the better choice. I guess it depends on the lore you want to capture though. I don't actually know Warrior Cats though, so I can't possibly tell.
That said, there seems to be a bit of a "legendary creatures" theme going on here, similar to Dominaria or Kamigawa. I guess that makes sense for the purpose of capturing the flavor of a character-driven book series.
(Also, is the usurper's name Tigerclaw or Tigerstar? The story summary flipflops between these two names, but they seem to refer to the same character.)
I do have a bit of protest for removing the damage from Ambush without a viable alternative, since if you do that then it's basically a worse version of Flash. I wanted a combat-based mechanic that casts a creature unorthodoxy. Scourge's second ability is there to explicitly get around Starblessed and by extension Indestructible. A creature that regenerates during the combat step would otherwise survive, so not only would the flavor be a complete failure, but it wouldn't make Scourge that spectacular of a card if it couldn't do something hilariously stupid like kill an Avacyn. I don't really think that there would end up being a legendary subtheme, it's just that designing cards for the main characters works as a starting point for establishing each clan's identity and mechanics. As for the names, it changes depending on the time in the story. Characters in the book series change their name to reflect their rank, with all leaders gaining the suffix '-star.' Any mention you saw of Tiger claw referred to the character before his attempted coup, and any mention of Tiger star refers to him afterwards. The order from birth usually goes -kit (kit), -paw (apprentice), -[varies] (warrior, deputy), -star (leader). I'll make my two notes from what I've seen here: 1. -1/-1 counters and +1/+1 counters are almost never used in the same set. 2. Mistblock - and by extension, "blocking tribal" - is a really bad idea. Fog Bank isn't a card you want more of one of in any set. I'm open for changing Mistblock since in practice I'm having trouble synergizing it with other effects, but the differing counters not usually being included I'm going to need some convincing on. |
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Post by fluffydeathbringer on Feb 23, 2019 19:10:31 GMT
- if it's an alternate cost mechanic then no, it's not a worse version of flash if every card doesn't have removal attached, because the cost is going to vary and sometimes be cheaper than the base mana cost. if every card has riskless removal attached to a flashy body you can cast on your opponent's turn while leaving mana open for other potential instant-speed answers then for the sake of proper balance every ambusher is either going to have to have low power, an ambush cost high enough to be prohibitive to actual gameplay except maybe in limited, or both
- if you're gonna have super-deathtouch then regular deathtouch is redundant, at least take that one off
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tarvoc
1/1 Squirrel
Posts: 56
Color Alignment: Blue
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Post by tarvoc on Feb 23, 2019 20:42:25 GMT
As for the names, it changes depending on the time in the story. Characters in the book series change their name to reflect their rank, with all leaders gaining the suffix '-star.' Any mention you saw of Tiger claw referred to the character before his attempted coup, and any mention of Tiger star refers to him afterwards. The order from birth usually goes -kit (kit), -paw (apprentice), -[varies] (warrior, deputy), -star (leader).
Ah. Okay, now it makes sense.  |
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temawimag
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 137
Favorite Card: Elite Arcanist
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Post by temawimag on Feb 23, 2019 21:16:51 GMT
- if it's an alternate cost mechanic then no, it's not a worse version of flash if every card doesn't have removal attached, because the cost is going to vary and sometimes be cheaper than the base mana cost. if every card has riskless removal attached to a flashy body you can cast on your opponent's turn while leaving mana open for other potential instant-speed answers then for the sake of proper balance every ambusher is either going to have to have low power, an ambush cost high enough to be prohibitive to actual gameplay except maybe in limited, or both
- if you're gonna have super-deathtouch then regular deathtouch is redundant, at least take that one off
I thought I had the effect on Scourge being for combat damage only, but looking at it now I'm seeing that I just left it at any damage, so you're right about that. I'll fix it on my local. I'm seeing your point on the alternate cost being risk-free, but at the same time, I'm really not liking the idea of just having combat-Flash since if the cards have a higher base cost, then there's going to be no reason to cast them except on the opponent's turn (which doesn't have any requirements like Raid or Flashback), and if they have a lower base cost, then it's going to be useless 90% of the time. I'm kind of okay with a mechanic for space focused towards lower-power creatures if it means a card can be cast at multiple points in the game, but I didn't think too much on how prohibitive that would be. How about a compromise reading something like (You may cast this spell during combat for its Ambush cost. If you do, when it enters, this creature fights target creature.)? That way it's not entirely riskless (I know that if it fights a smaller creature and lives, then it can block another, but that might be workable), while at the same time there's still a reason to cast it for its base cost? |
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Post by fluffydeathbringer on Feb 23, 2019 21:55:27 GMT
ambush being fight on entry would fix that yea
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tarvoc
1/1 Squirrel
Posts: 56
Color Alignment: Blue
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Post by tarvoc on Feb 23, 2019 23:00:31 GMT
It would imo also pretty much tie the mechanic to   , though. |
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temawimag
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 137
Favorite Card: Elite Arcanist
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Post by temawimag on Feb 24, 2019 0:06:15 GMT
While I see your point about tying it to R/G, that's running into a whole other issue. Part of the fault is mine for not giving a more detailed description of the group, so I'm going to do that now if we're reworking color combinations: ThunderClan cats live in a denser part of the forest, and have bulkier physiques than the other clans, so they're pretty much hardlocked at G. ShadowClan cats live in a marsh, and rely on stealth and infiltration to get an edge in battle, so they're B. RiverClan is characterized by a river surrounding its borders, putting up a defensive front while they base their home on an island and take a reactive approach to conflict, so they're U.
I'm trying to think of a combination that keeps all of this faithful that seems appropriate, but I'm about ready to throw my hands up and give up going 3/3/2/2 for the combinations, since giving U or G to one of the 2 is fixing a lot of the problems I'm running into with things.
Right now though it seems to be looking like Jund Heroic (ThunderClan), U/B Skulk (ShadowClan), Naya Ambush (WindClan), and U/W with a new for RiverClan.
Alternatively, Ambush gets scrapped or re-appropriated.
EDIT:
Okay, so I think we can fix the color issue completely by adding in a W/U/B group, and making the 2 2-color groups 3-color. For the answer to this, I'm tossing around the idea of including a dedicated StarClan faction, StarClan being the spirits of the cats' ancestors and the deceased spirits of good cats living in a clan of their own in the afterlife. Since the first arc doesn't quite go too much into its specific residents, we can use this space to have a faction not as focused on creatures as the prior ones.
If we don't include StarClan, the groups are looking like:
- ThunderClan (R/G/B Heroic)
- WindClan (W/G/R Ambush)
- RiverClan (W/U [Control/Pillowfort])
- ShadowClan (U/B Skulk)
If we include StarClan, it's looking like:
- ThunderClan (R/G/B Heroic)
- WindClan (W/G/R Ambush)
- RiverClan (U/G/R [offense/defense choice mechanic])
- ShadowClan (U/G/B Skulk)
- StarClan (W/U/B [Mechanic for conveying sending prophecies])
Personally, I'm in favor of just saying "We're making a new mechanic, so even though is uses fight we're not tied down to fight's colors, and leave the prior division" but that's a bit of a stretch and if someone here is going to comment on it, then there's probably going to be more people commenting on it if we go forward ignoring it.
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Post by Daij_Djan on Feb 25, 2019 9:28:22 GMT
I'm open for changing Mistblock since in practice I'm having trouble synergizing it with other effects, but the differing counters not usually being included I'm going to need some convincing on. Not mixing +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters within the same block is a rather old MtG design guideline to prevent confusion in Limited due to players having (at best  ) one type of counter available (like coins, sheets of paper or whatever). As sources look at the following quote from this article about the history of +1/+1 counters from 2008..
We try to consolidate in any one block to only put one type of counter on creatures. What this means, for instance, is that if a block wants to put some other type of counter on creatures we try not to make +1/+1 counters a key element of that block. Recent +1/+1 counter blocks were Mirrodin, Ravnica and Lorwyn. (As I am a huge fans of +1/+1 counters, most large sets that I lead design tend to fall in this category.) A recent non-+1/+1 counter block was Champions of Kamigawa. Note that within any one block there are single exceptions here and there (mostly at higher rarities), and Time Spiral block was just one big exception.
..or look at these two newer Blogatog posts |
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temawimag
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 137
Favorite Card: Elite Arcanist
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Post by temawimag on Feb 25, 2019 12:41:40 GMT
No offense, but I need more convincing than "MaRo said so." Like, a machanical reason besides drafting might be slightly inconvenient for physical players if a punch card a la Amonkhet isn't included. Putting a lot of gripes I have with some of MaRo's design philosophies aside, I'm not concerned about having the two since a creature will only have one or the other, and -1/-1 here are only on a keyword limited explicitly for some legendaries.
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Post by Daij_Djan on Feb 25, 2019 13:12:57 GMT
Well, there is no mechanical reasoning I can offer besides causing confusion due to mixups (or some people not knowing both counters would cancel each other out, I guess). But please don't get me wrong, this is no absolute standpoint indeed. For a long time my Penada set featured +1/+1 as well as shape counters (even though I dropped those in the end), so I pondered about the potential issues due to the normal design guidelines - and I decided to keep both anyway (I dropped the shape counters for a different reason) but indeed made sure it would be absolutely impossible to end up with both types of counters on the same creature (except for one mythic which could gain both on itself).
My take on this is: It's a design guideline for a very good reason - yet as literally every other design rule it can be broken as long as it's worth it and you've put some thought behind it |
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temawimag
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 137
Favorite Card: Elite Arcanist
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Post by temawimag on Feb 25, 2019 14:56:38 GMT
Well, there is no mechanical reasoning I can offer besides causing confusion due to mixups (or some people not knowing both counters would cancel each other out, I guess). But please don't get me wrong, this is no absolute standpoint indeed. For a long time my Penada set featured +1/+1 as well as shape counters (even though I dropped those in the end), so I pondered about the potential issues due to the normal design guidelines - and I decided to keep both anyway (I dropped the shape counters for a different reason) but indeed made sure it would be absolutely impossible to end up with both types of counters on the same creature (except for one mythic which could gain both on itself).
My take on this is: It's a design guideline for a very good reason - yet as literally every other design rule it can be broken as long as it's worth it and you've put some thought behind it I appreciate the feedback. The whole point of using -1/-1 counters was to convey a creature with multiple lives losing a life like Persist, and using -1/-1 does that without inventing a new counter that needs explaining. Since that's only applicable for a few legends, though, I don't want to dedicate an entire subtheme to it. Firestar is the series' main character, so in the hypothetical case of Wizards making a set from this, his card would be one that would be spoiled early. I think we can mitigate the problems of having players not expect to need two types of counters for limited and for new plauers not knowing how it interacts if we just put a line of reminder text on the Heroic ability noting the cancellation. |
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Post by voltaic-qui on Feb 26, 2019 1:18:07 GMT
Wouldn't it also work if you made the Heroic trigger Akroan Crusader style token generation, since this is the only card in the set that'd use both, presumably? (This also means you could make the card bigger on its backface, something ideal given this is a 2/2 with an ability that doesn't protect it from instant or sorcery speed removal.) |
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temawimag
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 137
Favorite Card: Elite Arcanist
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Post by temawimag on Feb 26, 2019 4:12:32 GMT
Wouldn't it also work if you made the Heroic trigger Akroan Crusader style token generation, since this is the only card in the set that'd use both, presumably? (This also means you could make the card bigger on its backface, something ideal given this is a 2/2 with an ability that doesn't protect it from instant or sorcery speed removal.) I have a draft of another legend (Bluestar, so it was in the same colors) using that setup, making two 2/2 tokens on Heroic. I didn't show it because something like that could easily go through a few versions depending on the power scaling the set develops. Speaking of mechanics, I made an entry in the Keyword Challenge thread for someone proposing a keyword off of the word "Astute." Let me know if this looks like a fun mechanic, since if we can base one of the groups (RiverClan) off of it, the split can go back down to 3/3/2/2 instead of 5 3-color groups (throwing my hands in the air here and saying if we do, then it's going to be shard-colored): Astute X (As long as you have X or more cards in hand, you are Astute.)
The state of being Astute would then grant certain cards a bonus effect, usually on the same ones that would grant the Astute ability, so for example a creature could have an ability that says if you're astute (it has its own Astute 5), it gets +4/+4, but if you can't keep five cards in hand, then you can alternatively play a card with a lesser Astute requirement and fulfill that one to get the +4/+4 ability. Edit: Thinking it over as well, Skulk doesn't seem to be enough for ShadowClan, since that ability was tested to be an evasion ability. While cards with flying can be supported in their own archetype, I think building around if creatures have skulk or not would be like checking if they have trample, and making a theme of it. The ability doesn't make sense as a state of being, quite like how a flying creature is "flying." I'm thinking that there might be design space for a B/U keyword for involving when a creature isn't blocked that gives a boost after the effect so skulk can still be used, called something like Trespass.  Open to suggestions for it here I have another thread on the Card Clinic thread with some more examples (since it adds a characteristic, we can add buffs to trespassing creatures) since this might have uses outside of this set. Also, I installed Beleran and went to update the templates to M15, and figured I might as well make the Firestar card a proper transform card. In completely related news, I'm conceding the idea of using +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters in the same set. Not because I want to, but because whenever I was updating the template, I was a colossal idiot and left in a bit of whitespace in the flavor text box, so it made the formatting look awful, and made me realize just how weak the card was.  ...So after trying to figure out a simpler design that could still make an impact while not looking like garbage, I fixed the flavor text whitespace just redid the flip side to be a beefier on impact, but without the build-in growth. Maybe this version is too powerful, maybe it's just right, I don't know, we need to justify that Legendary type, and I want to see how well the Heroic being a pseudo-additional cost balances with the low mana cost.  |
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temawimag
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Post by temawimag on Mar 4, 2019 2:06:46 GMT
I'm going to give it about two more days, but if nobody points out any problems with the Observant mechanic I've posted in the Clinic and Card Creation threads, then I'm going to move ahead with the set in another thread on the Community Projects board and link it here. Thanks for all of the feedback so far - the alignments are a lot cleaner and have more potential than when I started. {Heres the proposition so far:}Since the set is based off of a book series with a set story, with each faction except one having an easy way to splash into Green, there's expected to be a creature-focus on this set.
ThunderClan will get R/G/W and have creatures with Heroic - I can't imagine the peacekeeping forest brutes worked up over a prophecy about fire being anything except R/G/W, and giving them these colors gives a wide range of combat tricks and enchantments for Heroic to go off of. Legendary creatures representing this faction will be Rusty // Firestar, the series' main protagonist (an early game beefy creature) and Bluestar, the leader of ThunderClan throughout most of the series (a token-generator that goes off of Heroic).
WindClan will get W/G/B and have creatures with Ambush (You may cast this spell for its ambush cost during combat. If you do, it fights target creature when it enters.) - While some were suggesting to make Ambush Red, I think putting it on Green (where fight primarily is) and putting it on a creature entering when you're attacked is a nice enough compromise, since it's also creature-kill on a 187. It can still fit with Red the same way Exalted can fit with Black. Legendary creatures representing this clan will include Tallstar, (a creature to aid your board's resilience) and, since Tallstar survives throughout the entire first arc and it makes sense to give him a partner/"Lieutenant", Jake (a creature to tremendously buff one other creature at a time).
RiverClan, will get R/U and feature Observant (Whenever one or more instant or sorcery cards enters your graveyard, untap this creature.) - RiverClan cats are cunning and have a soft spot for beauty, so there's room for designing interactions with treasure here, but Observant is here to represent a creature taking an opportune moment quickly, like a cat patiently waiting for a fish. Ideally, a creature with the ability would either remain untapped, then use a tap ability when an instant presents itself (a cat fishing), or use it to take a moment to rejuvenate after attacking. Both of these styles fit a group of glossy cats that sit back and react to the world, while not creating a pillow-fort tribal like before. Legendary creatures representing this faction will be Crookedstar (a self-mill creature with limited sorcery recursion), and Leopardstar (a chaos beatstick).
ShadowClan, finally, will be U/B and have an aggro playstyle based off of Trespass (When this creature attacks and isn't blocked, it gets +1/+1 and is trespassing until end of turn.) - The marsh-dwelling stealth-masters shouldn't have any problem using every trick in the book to sneak past an enemy patrol of blockers, and punish the opponent heavily through buffs to trespassers for letting their guard down, or not building up a defense fast enough. Making it a characteristic-based ability means that effects can be stockpiled onto the trespassing creatures to make it actually worthwhile. Legendary creatures representing this faction will be Brokenstar (a card with a theft-based ability working off of Trespass), and the series' main antagonist Tigerstar, (a color splashed green creature lording skulk and a rampage-like effect).
Finally, with other design space allowed, the Clan-less and StarClan (a group and afterlife for Clan cats whom the four clans worship) will share an unnamed fifth sect of all five colors. This design space will have non-Cat creature (cats are basically the humans of this set), anything Twoleg (human) related, a few BloodClan cards, and some StarClan cards. Legendary creatures representing this outside space will be Scourge (A small creature that kills everything it can deal damage to), and Spottedleaf, a medicine cat (clan healers and prophets - think 'Shaman') responsible for giving the prophecy "Fire alone can save our Clan" which prompts Bluestar to get Rusty to join the clans in the first place. She starts to fall for him in the first book, but gets killed in a raid, and later recurs as a member of StarClan (Her design space will explore an unused 'Prophecy' mechanic for W/U/B I was working on).
No other legendary creatures are planned, with the exception of maybe a generic five-color cat tribal commander. Because of the variance of playstyles, though, I think we're good if we don't include this.
The number of cards in the set is to be around 250-275, not including basic lands.
The original source material will span from the first arc of books in the series ("The Prophecies Begin" as they'd later get known, which is also the set namesake for the time being); along with the Super Editions Tallstar's Revenge, Crookedstar's Promise, Bluestar's Prophecy, Spottedleaf's Heart (the events of these three can be summarized since they all take place around the same time), and Firestar's Quest; and the Rise of Scourge comic. The Super Editions were chosen because of their direct relation to some of the legendary creatures of the set, for their allow for more design space with WindClan and RiverClan (whom otherwise don't have as much characterization in the books), and because they can be told directly with the events of the first series without distracting too much from it (hence why some works like Tigerstar and Sasha weren't chosen). The Rise of Scourge is short, has enough action to go off of, is there to support a creature that isn't meant to fit into one of the main factions anyway, and most importantly gives an official source of art for Tigerstar's death and for Jake, so it's an exception I'm okay with.
The color distribution allows for some enemy-colored lands as well, depicting landmarks for the borders of each clan. How similar each of their effects will be, and what rarity they're to be can be decided in the future.
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) one type of counter available (like coins, sheets of paper or whatever). As sources look at the following quote from 
"When in doubt, do a common."