Ideas For an Instant/Sorcery-Focused Block
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on April 20, 2016, 4:49 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
In the early days of this game, creatures were not nearly as prevalent as they are now, mostly because they were not nearly as powerful as they are, now. However, as creatures have become more powerful, they have begun to overshadow other card types, most notably instants and sorceries.
For that reason, some players have been wishing for a block with a strong focus on instants and sorceries, since there have been blocks with strong focuses on both artifacts and enchantments, and creatures have a strong presence in every block, even if the block itself does not focus specifically on them. Therefore, I now wish to speculate on ideas for a block that has a strong focus on instants and sorceries.
First, for the story of such a block, I believe that such a block would work well on Vryn, Jace's home plane, since that plane is where the mage-rings are and it is home to warring factions of mages. It is almost certain that both Jace and Chandra shall eventually return to their home planes, so, in the case of Jace, I believe that that would be an excellent opportunity to have a block with a strong focus on instants and sorceries.
Second, for mechanics, it is safe to presume that the prowess mechanic would be strongly featured in such a plane, to take advantage of instants and sorceries being more prevalent than creatures, but other mechanics that are often associated with those card types, such as entwine, flashback, or possibly even cycling or kicker, could be present in such a block, as well.
What does everyone else say about this? How likely is it that there may be an instant/sorcery-focus block at some point, and what ideas do you have for such a block?
TheAnnihilator says... #3
Lol, print Counterspell with flashback. JUST DO IT WOTC!
April 20, 2016 5:26 p.m.
Onion_duck says... #4
I've always wanted to see the flip side to the Legions set. For those unaware Legions was a set made of ALL creatures, not a single non-creature spell or even land. So the flip side would be a completely creature-less set. Which of course would require some alternate win conditions especially for drafting or sealed so I figured:
+
: Awaken-like effects (ex:Verdant Touch)
+
: Tokens (ex:Call of the Conclave)
+
: Creature Enchantments (ex:Myth Realized)
+
: Mill (ex:Mind Funeral)
+: Burn/Life Loss (ex:Blightning)
Colorless: Artifact Creatures (ex:Chimeric Staff)
Probably wouldn't be the greatest set, most people considered Legions a complete flop. But I think it'd be interesting to see.
April 20, 2016 8:59 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #5
Okay I would predict a mechanic that powers up the card if you cast and instant or sorcery card this turn, a mechanic that triggers when you cast an instant or sorcery, or a mechanic that looks at how many instants or sorceries are in the graveyard.
Those are all pretty obvious though, so I'd hope we get a mechanic based on manipulating the stack. Copy, counter, steal, etc.
April 20, 2016 9:08 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #6
I imagine that the buyback mechanic would be quite nice in a block with a great focus on instants and sorceries, and such a block also would be a good place to print a creature with protection from instants and sorceries, since I do not believe that that has ever been done, before (actually, Devoted Caretaker can grant that ability to a creature, but no creature has it permanently).
April 24, 2016 10:37 p.m.
Darthagnon says... #7
Wonder if they'd ever do Instant/Sorcery Creatures? Hmmm... They'd probably use the Flash mechanic on a lot of creatures in such a set. It would also be cool to see keywords that are normally Creature-exclusive on Instants/Sorceries, e.g. Gideon's Reproach with lifelink, or Roil's Retribution with deathtouch, a la Soulfire Grand Master
April 29, 2016 4:07 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #10
So am I allowed to post ideas for the block? I hope so:
Namma, Mage-Hunter 
Legendary Creature - Shaman
Whenever a spell you control deals damage, you may discard a card. If you do, draw two cards.
: Target spell gains lifelink.
: Target spell gains deathtouch.
: Target spell gains wither.
2/2
April 29, 2016 2:49 p.m.
TheRedMage says... #11
This card is very off-balance from a color pie POV. It makes it kind of ugly, if interesting. Either the white or the green activation should go (probably the green one).
April 29, 2016 3:05 p.m.
TheRedMage says... #13
This is a red card with three activated abilities, one in an enemy color and two in allied colors. It makes it look weird.
Just the allied colors would be better. Red-with-white-and-black-abilities would be ok if this was a Mardu card - as in, from the Mardu clan on Tarkir - since that is a red-based clan in the RBW colors, but otherwise the card would look weird even as a RBW card.
April 29, 2016 5:03 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #14
Oh I see, well it's one of my perferred ways to answer the question "How do we design four color cards?" Think about it this way, this character is very red. So much so, that, even though she is almost a well-rounded individual in all five colors, her connection to red (and in this case hatred to blue) make her a red card with three activated abilities showing that she knows how to use other colors, but not blue.
If you have ever seen Legend of Korra, I imagine that the character is similar in personality to Amon, with a hatred for those who learned to use magic, and uses her own magical abilities to try to bring balance to the world. In a way, she can use the ideologies of balance from white, of nature from green, and of selfishness from black to show that raw emotion is the path to ridding the world of the constant interference of the learned blue magic.
April 29, 2016 5:23 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #15
Since the overload and replicate mechanics are exclusive to instants and sorceries, I believe that they would also be excellent in a block that focuses on those card types.
TheAnnihilator says... #2
No clue how good an idea it is or what it might look like, but I'd really enjoy a set like this.
I mean, going back to flashback plus powerful instants and sorceries? What's not to like? xD
April 20, 2016 5:25 p.m.