Demonic Tutor

Magic: the Gathering in the UK

So, what's the plan for this.  I'll either clear out Multiverse or add multiple set capability to it in the next few days.

But let's do some predesign(tm).  What's the plan for this set?

What's the theme?

Update: Multiverse now has the Wedges set in it.  Please do contribute - all are welcome to add cards or just comment on cards created by others!

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So had a kind of idea for a WBG ability - tentatively called 'Soulswap' (the name clearly needs work) - where you can pay a cost to swap a creature in play for one with an identical converted mana cost in your graveyard. Basically worded as 'Soulswap [Cost] ([Cost], Sacrifice ~: Return target creature with converted mana cost [X] from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a Sorcery). For instance, you could swap this guy:

Cupbearer       2W

Creature - Human Cleric

When ~ enters the battlefield, gain 2 life

Soulswap 3W

2/2

With this guy

Shroudbearer     2B

Creature - Zombie Cleric

When ~ enters the battlefield, target player loses 1 life

Soulswap 3B

2/2

Though I do worry the ability could possibly be broken!

Oh wow, I totally misread the ability and thought it just added the counter on casting the actual creature! Now that I've actually read it properly I like it!

Simon O'Keeffe said:

Hmm, maybe. I guess it is a bit like graft, but it basically gives you multi-kicker on all your non-creature spells (I notice in my example above it works for all spells, supposed to be non-creature). The idea was that you could layer on abilities tied to the +1/+1 counters if required.

Sneaky Sidewinder - UG

Creature - Snake

As long as ~ has a +1/+1 counter, it has "Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, draw a card"

Manaplex 2 (Whenever you cast a non-creature spell you may pay this card's Manaplex cost. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on ~)

1/1

RE: Manaplex

Okay great!

It probably needs a better name and a test run. It might be that in limited you have so few non-creature spells that you never trigger it, and maybe we need to move it to all spells.

As for your Soulswap, I immediately thought of Transfigure, and thought it was the same thing, but I see yours is more like Soulshift from Kamigawa. I wonder if limiting it to equal converted mana costs will make it pretty rare? Imagine you have 4 three drops in your deck, and only two of them have Soulswap. The chances of drawing one, and having another 3 drop in the graveyard, that you want to swap for seem a little small. Maybe have it work for equal or lower mana costs?

Kieran Symington said:

Oh wow, I totally misread the ability and thought it just added the counter on casting the actual creature! Now that I've actually read it properly I like it!


You may well be right on this - I just kind of liked thinking of it as "Transfigure for Graveyards". There's nothing in practice to stop it getting smaller creatures too! It might help to have it be activated from the graveyard rather than from in play as well (so sac a creature with equal or higher cost to get a creature from the graveyard into play) so you have options just by having cards in the graveyard rather than having to wait for a Soulswap guy to be in play on your turn.

Simon O'Keeffe said:

As for your Soulswap, I immediately thought of Transfigure, and thought it was the same thing, but I see yours is more like Soulshift from Kamigawa. I wonder if limiting it to equal converted mana costs will make it pretty rare? Imagine you have 4 three drops in your deck, and only two of them have Soulswap. The chances of drawing one, and having another 3 drop in the graveyard, that you want to swap for seem a little small. Maybe have it work for equal or lower mana costs?

Soulswap could be for anything with equal or lower mana cost.  Or, much less powerfully and much less in danger of being broken, only creatures with a lower mana cost.  

Also we have to remember that this wedge gets 65 cards and we want only a handful of them to have any given keyword (avoiding Towerfall's "everything is on theme!!!" intensity).  So same mana cost might literally never come up.

Does fit WBG well.

One problem with balancing it is that you pay the Soulswap cost of the guy in play but it's the guy in the bin that you are getting.

We should, of course, test it.

Flavor ideas:

Vorosh G(UB) - Sneaky biological experimenters.

Intet U(RG) - Constant revolutionaries.

Oros W(BR) - Angry fascists.

Teneb B(GW) - Life-death-rebirth cultists.  (This is very similar to Golgari but I think that is OK - we will add white elements and white does get resurrection.)

Numot R(WU) - Fiercely protective citizens.

Maybe WBR are the antagonists and RWU are the goodies of the storyline.

Or maybe there is no goodies/baddies only a network of crazy allegiances (I'm tempted to say - that has now broken down like the start of WWI - but that sounds a lot like the plotline of RGD).

I think it's going to be the Numot wedge that causes the most problems. I have literally no ideas for that particular area at the moment. I guess because the flavour isn't quite there yet - it definitely helps that the others currently have prospective abilities even if they aren't fixed yet because it gives people something to work with (e.g. WBG cares about graveyards, regardless of whether Soulswap is going to be their ability). No idea what would constitute a RWU ability, though!

Literally the best (simplest, anyway) wedge color card in the history of Magic is Numot-colored ... Lightning Angel!

I actually think that one of the wedge Commanders that they made might be able to help us here.

Zedruu the Greathearted draws cards and gains life based on the number of your permanents that other players control (he gives them away, too).  Now that's a very Commander thing, but it is at least some consistent idea about what it means to be WUR.

I started to think of them as civilized (U), fiercely protective of their way of life (R), and organized (W), and they started to seem like quite a good protagonist.  Or, if we want to turn it on its head, we could make them like Imperial Rome - conquering the savages and bringing civilization whether they want it or not.  That might be more red.

As well as Zedruu and Lightning Angel the Numot wedge also has Wild Research, Raka Disciple, and Rakavolver for inspiration.

Yeah Numot (RWU) was certainly the hardest for me to add some flavour to. I was more thinking about what archetypes that wedge would support, and a control role seemed likeliest.

I do like Tom's idea of Imperial Rome, and think there is maybe something there we could draw upon. I'll have to do some reading!

Since we potentially have three creature based mechanics (although Manaplex kind of blurs the lines a little) I think we want a spell based one for RWU.

Imperial rome things

You could do something detain like with spells instead of creatures

You could do a 5 toughness theme like the 5 power theme from shards but more controlling

More half-formed story and card type thoughts.

"Allies"
Experimenters (GUB) -> Revolutionaries (URG) / Cultists (BGW)
Revolutionaries (URG) -> Experimenters (GUB) / Citizens (RWU)
Fascists (WBR) -> Cultists (BGW) / Citizens (RWU)
Cultists (BGW) -> Experimenters (GUB) / Fascists (WBR)
Citizens (RWU) -> Revolutionairies (URG) / Fascists (WBR)

Double-colored classes that appear in three wedges: Rogue, Knight.  Clerics are in two wedges and awesome.

The protagonists:

Heavenly Kingdom of Peace (Also "The Kingdom" or "Northern Damassia")
Gerontocratic Military Theocracy
Controls the northern half of the Known World.
Humans, Angels, Knights, Clerics
Ancient priests lead a vicious militaristic society.
Repressive and violent.
Long time uneasy neighbors with the Republic of Southern Damassia.

Republic of Southern Damassia (Also "The Republic" or "Southern Damassia")
Democracy (voting rights are restricted to wealthy families and inherited - blood descendents only - or bought for huge sums)
Controls most of the southern half of the Known World.
Humans, Knights, Rogues
The only military power strong enough to withstand The Kingdom.
Fiercely protective of their society and citizens.
Long time uneasy neighbors with the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace.

This is the sometime steady-state of the known world.  Two (or more) big countries with uncharted lands and uncharted waters surrounding.  Antagonistic but theoretically at peace.

Then one (or more) of the other wedges turn up from somewhere else as the inciting incident.  Either they sail there from over the sea, break out of the icy North, rise up from the steamy Southern jungle, or pour out of a hole in the Earth itself.  This turns into everyone declaring war on everyone and chaos ensuing in standard Magic Block fashion.

So there's 2-4 existing kingdoms and 1-3 newcomer groups.  If it's just one newcomer group the obvious candidate is Experimenters (GUB).  They seem like a good "we have been hiding under the earth for hundreds of years and now we are hear to kill you" group.  Adding a second would probably be the Revolutionaries (URG) arriving from over the sea.  Which just leaves the life-death-rebirth religion which could be a City State that is independent of the large kingdoms or just a straight-up third large country.  (Then all the W factions are countries and the others are the invaders.)

Need some motiviation for the newly arrived factions but something along the "this is all rightfully ours because of X in the past" works.  Maybe the two big countries basically stole all this land and killed everyone or drove them off and this is 2 or more generations later.

Needs some more definition around Experimenters, Cultists and Revolutionaries but I quite like North and South Damassia?

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