Blank Slate Mechanic Shortening
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Feb. 10, 2019, 1:09 p.m. by Rambolicious_0
So I'm designing a mono-colored set, where the blue slice is much too wordy.
Suggestions for shortening the text without changing the meaning?
Blank Slate (When you cast this spell, choose static or triggered. At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library. If it is a creature, non-equipment artifact, or non-Aura enchantment card with one or more abilities of the chosen type, you may exile that card with a device counter on it. Otherwise, put it on the bottom of your library. This card has all abilities of each card exiled with a device counter on it that are of the chosen type.)
Also taking out the device counter and just exiling it under the creature might help.
February 10, 2019 2:42 p.m.
Rambolicious_0 says... #4
dbpunk I really like both alternatives.
Version 1 for creatures
Blank Creature Slate — At the beginning of your end step, look at the top card of your library. If it's a creative card, you may exile that card until ~ leaves the battlefield. Otherwise, put that card on the bottom of your library.
[Effect printed separately here]
Timing changed to end step so you don't get a pseudo-scy before your draw.
February 10, 2019 3:37 p.m.
If you are going the "until it leaves the battlefield route" then you should also add where it goes after the creature leaves play.
February 11, 2019 5:08 a.m.
Rambolicious_0 says... #6
That's what the separate effect would contain.
February 11, 2019 11:09 a.m.
Rambolicious_0 says... #7
That's what the separate effect would contain.
February 11, 2019 11:20 a.m.
I do not think this should be an "until it leaves the battlefield" ability. That starts to get really messy when you're dealing with cards from the library. Explaining where the card is supposed to go is going to take up more space, cutting into the space for the interesting text.
As a whole, I really do not like this ability. In constructed, it will be really, really easy to abuse with cards like Mystical Tutor , Enlightened Tutor , and Worldly Tutor , so you will need to have a high converted mana cost to make up for that.
In limited, however, it has the opposite effect. The ability is dependent far too much on luck and what happens to be on the top of your library. As such, if these cards have a high cost, they will not be worth running--in Limited you can't maximize your chances of hitting an Omniscience , so, more often than not, you'll hit some mediocre common. Thus, if the cards have a high mana cost, they will not be playable due to their volatility.
Further, for both Sealed and Standard's sake, the set would have to contain top deck manipulation. But top deck manipulation is pretty firmly in Blue's domain (the other colours tend to send things to the bottom of the library after looking at the top few cards). That's going to make Blue disproportionately powerful, which is a huge problem in Draft.
Overall, I think this would be a fun ability to have on some cards, but the problems with designing it as a core mechanic of a set are myriad.
February 11, 2019 11:37 a.m.
Rambolicious_0 says... #9
cdkime "Simple" change: the text of the card exiled is irrelevant. Only the card types/subtypes/supertypes(?) matter.
As for a luck factor in Limited, I think scry could mitigate that without being OP.
February 11, 2019 noon
I think you could probably do something like that quite effectively. For example:
Blank Slate: Lands - At the beginning of your end step, reveal the top card of your library. If it is a land, you may exile it to put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
Scrying is still primarily in Blue. Though you see it sometimes in other colours, it would be a substantial deviation from the norm to create a set where every single colour has a strong representation of scry mechanics.
I think this is less of a problem with your proposed change above, as it makes the potential payoff much less, so will not result in one colour having a significant advantage.
Since you are designing a mono-coloured set, you should probably consider adding mono-coloured versions of the scry lands (ex. Temple of Enlightenment ). You still should have them enter the battlefield tapped, to prevent them from being generally better than a basic land. Perhaps to make up for the lack of two colours, you could still have them have land subtypes, so they can be tutored.
February 11, 2019 12:11 p.m.
Rambolicious_0 says... #11
"Though you see it sometimes in other colours, it would be a substantial deviation from the norm to create a set where every single colour has a strong representation of scry mechanics."
Is that good or bad?
Should the new scry lands come in each color, or just blue?
February 11, 2019 3:15 p.m.
I would say deviating from the Colour Pie, even if there is precedent, is a bad thing. The Colour Pie is what makes Magic work--there needs to be an opportunity cost for choosing to run one colour over another (Ex. Blue might give you better top deck manipulation, but it does not tend to have hard removal spells).
Personally, I would make it a cycle of mediocre scry lands for each colour. It's a simple, easy-to-understand design that has some precedent in other lands. Frankly, I think a reprint of the scry lands would be better, as colour-fixing is an important part of limited events, but you said you wanted a mono-coloured theme.
February 12, 2019 11:15 a.m.
How about this simplified version:
Tabula Rasa 2U (2U: This card becomes a copy of a card you own in exile. That card is placed in the graveyard. Activate only as a sorcery.)
This means that the creature or card will be able to transform itself once into any card in your exile and ensures no other card will be able to do the same. This gets rid of the pesky non-aura, non-equipment restrictions. Example:
Tapestry of the Forgotten 3U
Encantment (Rare)
At the beggining of your upkeep, you may exile the top card of your library.
Tabula Rasa 2U (2U: This card becomes a copy of a card you own in exile. That card is placed in the graveyard. Activate only as a sorcery.)
Separate the milling into exile from the ability and you will have a stronger ability for it.
On second thought, this is basically, the reverse version of Ingest mechanic of the eldrazi.
February 12, 2019 11:41 a.m.
Rambolicious_0 says... #15
cdkime What about colorless scry? It's second-most common after blue and shouldn't break the color pie.
How about using both kinds of scry lands?
By "mono-colored set," I meant core mechanics would be color specific, not extra ones or synergy.
February 12, 2019 11:49 a.m.
Rambolicious_0 says... #16
Boza It'd be weird having an instant or sorcery on the battlefield.
dbpunk says... #2
To be honest, this is a really powerful mechanic that's kind of too over the top to be a key worded mechanic. It also leaves very little design space for the for what can be done with it, unless you have cards that give you a reward for returning cards exiled with it to another space (which would make it op). Maybe making a single rare with this ability would be better.
That being said, I think your main issue lies in it being a choice between triggered and static and the fact it only hits a few types of things.
"Blank Slate (At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a non-aura non-equipment permanent, you may exile it. If you do, this card gains all abilities of that card. Otherwise, put that card on the bottom of your library.)"
Another option is to have Blank Slate target a card type, then have a following effect for each type of card exiled with it, instead of automatically gaining all of those cards abilities. For example:
"Blank Slate: Sorceries (At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a sorcery spell, you may exile it. Otherwise, put it on the bottom of your library.)
: You may cast a copy of target sorcery spell exiled by ~ without paying it's mana cost."
That changes the mechanic quite a bit, but it does also allow for some more space to design around and could make for some really interesting cards with it.
February 10, 2019 2:41 p.m.