"new" mechanic
General forum
Posted on Sept. 8, 2014, 11:55 p.m. by bretters
Okay... So I think they should just turn the whole your opponent loses x life and you gain x life into a mechanic and call it sap life. I'm gonna sap life for 3. What do y'all think?
VampireArmy says... #4
I agree they should evergreen it with a word but "Sap" seems too bland.
September 9, 2014 midnight
Sometimes adding keywords/ability words makes the game more complicated for beginners. While for advanced players it's fine, WotC does want Magic to be accessible to new players, and Magic is hard enough to learn as is. So I don't think this change will happen.
September 9, 2014 12:01 a.m.
They are making new mechanics every set / block. I think "adding" this as a mechanic would keep the game simple.
September 9, 2014 12:04 a.m.
Well, first off, there are a few too many variations on this to keyword all of it into Whatever X. There's drain each opponent, drain target opponent, gain a set amount, gain life equal to the life lost this way, gain twice that much, sorcery variants, creature ETBs, creature LTBs... It'd go the way of unblockable, which worked for a bit, but there were too many variants for it to be used consistently.
There's also the thing that some others said, that Magic has a bit of jargon going into it, and keywording something this simple adds needless complexity. New players going in have quite a bit of vocab to learn, both from actual game mechanics and from individual cards because of fan nicknames. It can also be flavored differently in different blocks (Usually a blood drain, but then how do you explain Siege Rhino from Khans?).
September 9, 2014 12:12 a.m.
MSU_Iced_Z says... #8
bretters You do realize that that isn't even the text on Gray Merchant of Asphodel now, right? You're describing a mechanic that hits one opponent. Gary hits all opponents and you gain the total. Something like Obzedat, Ghost Council only hits one opponent. So already this mechanic covers less ground.
September 9, 2014 12:13 a.m.
MSU_Iced_Z says... #9
Ninja'ed. And more expansively. Consider my example cards an extension of erabel's answer.
September 9, 2014 12:14 a.m.
blackmarker90 says... #10
Single target would be leech, AoE (multiple opponents) would be Siphon.
September 9, 2014 12:18 a.m.
Okay... Got it. I think one of these modes does show up more prominently than the rest though? So the most prominent mode can be the mechanic?
September 9, 2014 12:20 a.m.
MSU_Iced_Z says... #13
Okay, so now we're at "add two mechanics, which still don't cover all the things you would think of (eg, Siege Rhino)." That's just jargon for the sake of elitism.
September 9, 2014 12:21 a.m.
Siege rhino is dumb haha. You only gain 3 no matter how many opponents. That seems fldifferent than all the recent life loss life gain cards.
September 9, 2014 12:24 a.m.
MSU_Iced_Z says... #15
Now that's a well-reasoned argument if I've ever heard one.
September 9, 2014 12:25 a.m.
There's no reason to keyword it, is the thing. There are too many variants, it doesn't save space, it adds more jargon to be learned for newer players, and there's no flavor reason to create a new keyword (like, we're not on a new plane needing a new mechanic). If the only justification you've got is "because they can"... then they shouldn't.
September 9, 2014 12:26 a.m.
it doesn't have to be a keyword. in my play circle it's just "life drain" obzedat enters play and i drain YOU for 2 life. gray merchant enters play and i drain each of you for devotion. blood artist triggers 8 times. i'll target two of you 3 times and one of you 2 times and drain you. just agree on something with your mates
September 9, 2014 12:42 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #18
Protip: Look at other examples of this kind of situation. Namely, unblockable.
"Unblockable" isn't a keyword because there are so many variations on unblockable and because there's no reason to limit the variations to a single, keywordable usage.
Drain effects are similarly not keyworded because they are so varied. I suppose you could try to argue for making them ability words instead, but then you run into the same issue with number of targets/affected players, ratio of life loss to life gain, whether the loss/gain is a constant or scalable value, etc. Basically all the reasons "unblockable" doesn't exist.
bretters says... #2
Gray merchant.. Just change his text should read sap life for x where x is your devotion to black
September 8, 2014 11:57 p.m.