Western-themed Plane
Custom Cards forum
Posted on March 5, 2014, 2:27 p.m. by jermtube
It may be a weird idea, combining the wild west and fantasy magic... but I hashed out a simple idea. The Plane's inhabitants very recently discovered mana. There are five regions that emit mana of each basic color and they're scattered across the landscape. This results in a 49ers sort of mad dash to tap into the resources, with different kinds of people attracted to different mana sources. Some are trying to connect the mana geysers via railroad and thus bring the Plane together as a unified area, while others want to split up territories and keep things for themselves.
Mana can be used as ammunition with artifacts, so think magically-charged pistols and artifact creatures. Gideon could planeswalk over and try to bring order to the wild west, and a local inhabitant who is Red-aligned would find their Spark and blaze a trail of their own.
One returning mechanic would be Clash because it reminds me of a shoot-out... DRAW! I was also thinking Viashino can be a native non-Human inhabitant since most of the Plane would be desert or scrubland. Thoughts on how to expand this idea? Could be cool.
I was wondering if Dwarves could inhabit to the plane as miners, blacksmiths, prospectors, etc. They're humanoid enough to not be totally out-of-place.
I also thought about a mechanic new to the game that has to do with controlling territories, so it would have to involve lands... but not be Landfall....
March 5, 2014 3:10 p.m.
ChiefWannaHacka says... #4
You could have a mechanic that involves static bonuses, or etb bonuses based on the number of lands you control.
March 5, 2014 3:15 p.m.
LordoftheReal says... #5
Huh! I'm particularly interested in this idea. Ravnica story did have Boros members with their mana-charged pendreks, so similar barrel-equipped handheld artifacts wouldn't be odd (bet bullets would be charge counters you can add for mana.) My favorite possibilities are 1. that lands are just now beginning to produce accessible mana 2. a sort of Settlers of Catan style land advantage mechanic
March 5, 2014 3:20 p.m.
End result could feel like Cowboys & Aliens - dudes on horses shooting magical plasma.
I think that on a plane where magic and mana usage are new developments, the theme should be related to converted mana cost, or land count. Mana cost is related to the use and availability of mana as a resource, and games are about small creatures duking it out, trading and disrupting each other until you strike gold.
It's difficult to portray the difficulty of accessing mana or the benefits of having more mana, because all you need to do in game is add lands to your deck, and build a better curve. Having more land doesn't feel like you ever strike gold unless you get to drop an unanswered bomb, or blow the opponent out.
March 5, 2014 3:21 p.m.
First crack at this idea: Claim. Similar to Chrono or Devotion, Claim is an ETB effect that has to do with the number of lands you control of a particular basic type. (Sorry about my lack of formatting knowledge). Most likely better for long-game effects.
Viashino Scrubdweller-Viashino Shaman-2GW (3/3)Claim - When Viashio Scrubdweller enters the battlefield, if your claim to white or green is five or greater, you gain 5 life and put a +1/+1 counter on Viashino Scrubdweller.
Mine Delver-Human Prospector-1UR (2/2)Claim - When Mine Delver enters the battlefield, if your claim to red or blue is five or greater, draw three cards, then put an artifact or land drawn this way into your hand. Put the rest at the bottom of your library.
Make it better?
March 5, 2014 3:30 p.m.
x754 i hear that... so that's why my first thought came to something of a devotion mechanic, only it counts the particular number of basic lands you have.
March 5, 2014 3:37 p.m.
Bromjunaar says... #9
I could see a nice cycle or two of equipment for this, such as:
Long Rifle - 3
Artifact - Equipment
Equip 1
Long Rifle may have no more than 4 charge counters on it.
2: Add a charge counter to Long Rifle. Activate this ability only if no charge counters were removed from Long Rifle this turn and it is equipped.
Remove a charge counter from Long Rifle: Equipped creature does 2 damage to target creature or player. Activate this ability only if no charge counters were added to Long Rifle this turn.
Old Pickax - 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equip 1
When equipped creature deals damage to a player, you may search your library for a basic land card and put it on the battlefield.
March 5, 2014 3:39 p.m.
Bromjunaar nice! I'm even thinking about mana-fueled horse artifact creatures. Depending on what mana you tap it for, it gains an ability until EOT: Vigilance for W, Flying for U, Intimidate for B (2 kinds of evasion, ya), Haste for R, Trample for G... this could extend to other artifacts like locomotives, etc.
March 5, 2014 3:44 p.m.
LordoftheReal says... #11
Horses should still be horses, but make a mechanic like Sattling-- essentially a mix between Bestow and Soulbond. What would be some Black creatures?
March 5, 2014 3:55 p.m.
LordoftheReal Black creatures would definitely involve Bandits or Mercenaries, Human, Viashino, whatever else would like on the plane. Those who are fighting for chaos and individuality on the plane, as opposed to a lawful world, would be Black aligned. Scorpions and Snakes would also be Black aligned, along with Green.
March 5, 2014 3:58 p.m.
LordoftheReal says... #13
Guessing Vedalken would be the blue-aligned race, and the Green race would be the equivalent to the natives of the focal area of the story.
March 5, 2014 4:32 p.m.
Claim needs to be worded 'Claim X' instead of just 'Claim'.
March 5, 2014 4:44 p.m.
LordoftheReal says... #15
I could see this plane having its own variant where you essentially play a mini-Magic game of Monopoly (or more accurately Settlers of Catan) for control over areas of a map representing a jumble of "land tokens" (in a nutshell) and different lands on the map have different life totals you can damage and when it hits 0 you claim it and its life total goes back to Default+X. Every upkeep it provides you with Y mana provided that Z.
March 5, 2014 4:55 p.m.
What about Dual lands that can first only produce colorless but after paying a cost can produce mana?
Vulcanic Mine
T: add 1 to your mana pool
T: add R or G to your mana pool, activate only if ~ has a Claim counter on it.
1, T: add a Claim counter to target land.
March 5, 2014 5 p.m.
ChiefWannaHacka says... #18
Claim would need some rewording, since lands don't have color identities.
Viashino Scrubdweller-Viashino Shaman-2GW (3/3)Claim - When Viashio Scrubdweller enters the battlefield, if your claim to Plains and Forests is five or greater, you gain 5 life and put a +1/+1 counter on Viashino Scrubdweller.
Mine Delver-Human Prospector-1UR (2/2)Claim - When Mine Delver enters the battlefield, if your claim to Mountains and Islands is five or greater, look at the top 3 cards of your library, then put an artifact or land drawn this way into your hand. Put the rest at the bottom of your library.
March 5, 2014 5:27 p.m.
My thoughts on the races of the world.... tentatively called "Kiyay"... as in Yippee Ki Yay... I said tentative.
Humans - aligned to all 5 colors, depending on their subtype (mercenary, scholar, brawler, deputy, ranger, etc)
Viashino - primarily red and green, they exist outside the settlements and act as the quintessential savages
Dwarves - primarily red and white, they exist alongside most of the other races just fine, but their occupations boil down to prospector and blacksmith types
Rhox - primarily white and green, they're the ones that fight for law in a chaotic Kiyay as enforcers of the law
Incarnations - primarily black and red, they're the spirits of vengeance and bitterness that are a product of the lawlessness that exists on the plane
Spirits - primarily black and white, they're the lingering souls of both the innocent and the damned
Aven - primarily white and blue, they stand for the law but at a sky-high distance
March 5, 2014 6:30 p.m.
Lock, Stock & Barrel? Magipunk Western/ Australian Outback
Basic Conflicts
Law-folk vs. Outlaws ... Cow-herders vs. Raiders ...Miners vs. other Miners... Survival vs. Weather ...Natives vs. Invaders...
Basic Icons:
six-shooter...ten-gallon hat...sheriff badge...untamed stallion...horse with no name...
How would these things become defined in terms of the color pie and magical trappings?
March 5, 2014 9:39 p.m.
I think that the tribes should be organized better, such as in, say, five allied color tribes and the humans, being five color.
W/U: Aven,
U/B: Rogues
B/R: Horrors
R/G: Viashino
G/W: Leonin/Loxodon/Elves
March 5, 2014 9:40 p.m.
I think you NEED minotaur cow-boys.... get it? Hurloon Wrangler returns!
March 5, 2014 9:42 p.m.
JakeHarlow says... #23
This is shaping up really well. I wonder if WotC ever thought of this. I can see some of the cards now: Baloth Rodeo, Spellbound Sixgun, etc. Would be awesome.
Would be really interesting to see our boy Gideon decked out in a duster, "High Planes Drifter" style. Maybe he trades in his sural whips for a pair of mana pistols.
March 5, 2014 11:03 p.m.
I think some guys at MTGSalvation came up with an idea similar to this.
If you google 'archester frontier of steam', you can find the fan set they created. It's a mix of steampunk and wild west themes.
March 6, 2014 1:55 a.m.
MaRo did mention it as an example in his Top-Down drive to work podcast.
March 6, 2014 5:07 a.m.
i don't see elves living in this plane but i do think i should squeeze in more blue aligned races
March 6, 2014 10:17 a.m.
I'm still waiting for the release of Space: The Convergence!
March 6, 2014 10:18 a.m.
JakeHarlow says... #28
If MaRo mentioned it, maybe the dev team has fielded discussions of this in the past. Who knows, maybe we will see it someday. At the rate Magic produces expansions, they're going to have to come up with ideas a lot.
March 6, 2014 10:23 a.m.
i don't see elves existing in this world. now i'm actually thinking about having the tribes be enemy colors to sort of express the turmoil the plane exudes.
RU creatures include the Humans and Dwarves/Gnomes who mine deep into the plane's crust to discover the mana veins, and use artifacts charged with red or blue mana for direct damage or card draw. Inventive and a little reckless, they have the most enthusiasm for the "mana rush." They'd have an ability called "Mine" which maybe lets you dig into your deck until you hit a land for different effects.
WR creatures are the deputies and lawbringers, usually Humans and Rhox creature types. They're feared by cretins and respected by the denizens who can't protect themselves. Their stance on the "mana rush" is this: keep them contained and don't take more than anybody else or we'll shoot. They'd have the Clash mechanic, which would be altered to have a "shoot-out" feel.
BW creatures are the spirits of the hanged, innocent or guilty of crimes committed in life. They inhabit ghost towns and gallow sites and terrorize or forewarn those who stray too close to their haunting sites. Unaware or uncaring about the recent discovery of mana on the plane, they cannot rest until they're contended with. Not sure what mechanic they'd have but it'd have to do with a "payback" mechanic.
GU tribes are occupied by Viashino shamans and outcasts who live away from the settlement towns to be closer to nature. They've been aware of the mana underneath their feet for years, well before the mana geysers burst, and use this magic to perform miracle spells and protect themselves from encroaching settlers. They would have a mechanic called "Claim" which works like a devotion mechanic, only it counts towards the number of particular basic lands you control.
GB groups are populated with Human and Viashino drifters and druids who are in tune with the nasty parts of the plane: they live with the vermin and understand that the difference between life and death is how well you can adapt to an unforgiving world. They search for ways to impose this "live and let die" mentality on the whole of the plane by tapping into the mana geysers, sharing it with the scorpions and snakes that take them in. Their mechanic would have something to do with tapping into your opponent's land or hand.
Possible synergy off the top of my head:
RU and GU. Mine deep into your deck and get to the lands, then use the land Claim to have fun stuff happen.
BW and RW. This combo would have lots of removal and tapping effects from the spirits. Probably a midrange style deck build.
March 6, 2014 11:16 a.m.
ChiefWannaHacka says... #31
Maybe the BW could utilize Unearth? That has the back from the dead feel to it.
March 6, 2014 11:53 a.m.
ChiefWannaHacka or even Haunt from Ravnica! Although I don't think its particularly exciting... I've never played with it.
JakeHarlow i'd love to see it actually happen; i think its a matter of time, to be honest.
Krayhaft that sounds interesting - i can definitely see steampunk as a good in-between for the wester / magic genres. That's what i was thinking with the mana-infused blunderbuss' and things of that nature.
Korombos Baloths would be perfect! i was thinking the Rhox could find a place in the world instead of the minotaur... still communicate that brute feel and they'd be an interesting White creature besides Humans. plus I'd like to see a rhino-humanoid with a cowboy hat. awesome.
March 6, 2014 12:08 p.m.
And I thought a little more about the other color combos. Tell me what you think:
In the second block I would introduce the friendly-colored groups which I'm brainstorming as I type this.
WU Aven creatures who descend from the sky as the "new law" who will put things right in Kiyay. They're unimpressed with how things have been progressing and are the new sheriffs in town, often competing with the RW vigilantes. They might have the Detain mechanic, or something to that effect. And flying, duh.
WG settlers move in and begin building infrastructure, resulting in a population boom. Their goal is to unite the plane via railroad system, allowing everyone to reach the mana geysers which are far-flung and dangerous to get to. They'd probably have a token thing going on and are more of an ideology than a tribe.
BR spirits appear as Incantation creature types, borne from the animosity and strife the inhabitants of Kiyay exhibit as they clamber for land and control. BR would also have mercenaries and robbers, thieves, and other lowlives who are out to cause trouble.
BU are the businessmen and women who acquire monopolies. They're out to control the people, and in turn the mana supplies. This is more of an ideology than a tribe.
RG are the savages who respond to the fortune seekers trespassing on their lands. Viashino and other bestial creature types will make up this color combo, and they'll be very much like the Gruul clans.
March 6, 2014 12:13 p.m.
nice. Another thought might be reactions to despoiling the land. maybe something tainted comes up with the mana veins... slivers or germs... maybe some hint at the origins of phyrexia.
March 6, 2014 12:28 p.m.
Bromjunaar says... #35
"Inventive and a little reckless, they have the most enthusiasm for the "mana rush." They'd have an ability called "Mine" which maybe lets you dig into your deck until you hit a land for different effects."
Let's do a land cascade. :D
March 6, 2014 1:02 p.m.
the Mine ability could dig down and have a negative effect for the cards before you hit a land and a positive effect for the number of lands in a clump :) Something to profit from or deal with/mitigate manascrew :)
March 6, 2014 1:31 p.m.
Korombos would you say the non-land cards you hit would be put at the bottom of your deck? and the land you hit gets put into play?
March 6, 2014 1:33 p.m.
I dunno, I was thinking something like... this will be badly formatted... Dwarven Explosives Team... Mine X, pay x mana, flip that many cards one at a time from the top of the library until you flip an land card. do Y damage to all creatures without flying where Y is the number of nonland cards flipped. count how many land cards are in the land clump that's Z. put one into play tapped. gain Z life
March 6, 2014 1:44 p.m.
Let me try again with fewer variables. Wording is still going to be bad...
Prospecting Sage 2RU
creature- Gnome 1/3
Mine 5: When ~ enters the battlefield, reveal the top 5 cards of your library. For each non-land card revealed, ~ takes 1 damage. For each land revealed this way, you gain 1 life. You may put one of those land into play tapped. Shuffle the rest and put them at the bottom of the library.
March 6, 2014 2:22 p.m.
Korombos sounds cool! So there's a risk of killing your creature in the process? Maybe it should be an activated ability or something.
I'm also thinking about a BR mechanic based off of the "crossroads" western motif, deals with the devil and such. I'm thinking of calling it Conscript.
March 6, 2014 2:28 p.m.
@ jermtube I figure flavorwise, the non-land cards are the dirt and the land cards are the ore. The dirt is drawback, and the ore the reward. I don't know how exactly it would play out. I figured ETB might balance an extra land coming into play. If it were an activated ability, the land might need to go to the hand.
It would be neat for another card to have you lose life for dirt, but deal damage for ore. Yet another could tap down creatures you control for dirt, but give +1/+1 counters for ore. If I could figure out the wording, hitting mana pockets for x would be sweet, too. Maybe this could also be a way to thin out mana, too, returning ore to the bottom and dirt to the top.
Maybe better deck manipulation as a sorcery...
Manaseek: reveal top 7 cards of your library, take the land revealed this way and put them on the top of the library and non-land to the bottom... er shuffling them somewhere in those steps.
Paydirt: reveal top 7 cards of your library, and do the opposite of Manaseek
March 6, 2014 3:54 p.m.
Dwarven Recruiter
Creature - Dwarf Advisor
1UR
When Dwarven Recruiter enters the battlefield, mine, then put a creature card mined this way with power 2 or less into your hand. (to Mine, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a land card. Put that card into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.)
2/1
Allows for graveyard shenanigans.
March 6, 2014 10:47 p.m.
LordoftheReal says... #43
I'm not sure about multicolor in a set like this... But let's see: Humans, Dwarves, Minotaurs, Viashino, Snakes (Kamigawa style) Birds, Horses, Spiders, Scorpions... some kind of Green native creatures, (possibly elves as the original natives of Kiyay as the equivalents of Native Americans) ! Maybe the occasional Illusion creature in the desert. Reprint of Desert, maybe some sort of cactus field land, mines, crop fields, rivers, lakes, wells, etc
March 6, 2014 11:32 p.m.
LordoftheReal from the way I see it, this plane would have Humans, Viashino, Spirits, Dwarves, Aven, Rhox, Snakes, Scorpions, Demons, Horses, Illusions (liked that suggestion). I wrote a post a page back that explains where they all fit in Kiyay.
cschiller i dig it WHOOPS I MADE A TERRIBLE PUN.
March 7, 2014 10:40 a.m.
LordoftheReal says... #45
I'm assuming the Aven would be Blue or Black? (Innistrad style)
March 7, 2014 11:07 a.m.
LordoftheReal the Aven would be Azorius colors, they'd be the "new sheriffs" in town that come in and challenge the way the Boros deputies have been handling the chaos on the plane. They'd work together but they'd have political differences about how they go about distributing justice.
Boros deputies shoot first, ask questions later.
Azorius deputies would try to enforce new legislation and curfews, things like that
March 7, 2014 12:15 p.m.
yea Aven are humanoid and vultures are just vermin. there's a vermin tribe that goes with the Golgari cards along with the scorpions and snakes and rats. works for me.
JakeHarlow says... #2
Amazing idea! I love mana ammo concept. They could even have a "Goblin with No Name" card.
I can see my first deck already: "A Fistful of Mana." Lol.
March 5, 2014 3:05 p.m.