Should Cards With Join Forces Benefit Only Players Who Pay Mana?
General forum
Posted on Jan. 26, 2020, 9:50 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
The join forces mechanic introduced in the original Commander set is a very nice mechanic, and I would like to see it, return, but I do not like the fact that it can benefit players who did not contribute to it, meaning that they can leech off the effort of others.
Therefore, I believe that it would have been a better mechanic if it benefited only players who contributed mana toward it: for example, Minds Aglow should read "starting with you, each player may pay any amount of mana. Each player who paid mana this way draws X cards, where X is the total amount of mana paid this way."
What does everyone else say about this? Should cards with join forces benefit only players who actually contribute toward them?
i think that the cards would have to work significantly differently. because they are usually effects that really help accelerate people. they are reasonable because everyone benefits from them and they are symmetric. being behind a few draws isn't the end of the world but lets take an example using Collective Voyage. it's a 4 man game of edh and it's T3, and someone casts CV and pays 1 into the effect. the next person pays 2 into it. the third person happens to be tapped out and the last guy pays 3 into it. now every but the third player is going to be on turn 9 while they sit at turn 4. it'll be very hard for that third play to catch up to everyone else. taking it a step further if i had CV i would probably see if i could wait will all of my opponents were tapped out and keep the benefits all to myself. 4 mana out 3 lands from library into play? sounds amazing to me. i'm not saying the effect can't be done, just that the effects would have to be structured so that if a player is left out that they aren't left out of the game, and try and find a way to encourage players to work together to pay mana instead of making it stronger to try and go solo on the cards.
January 26, 2020 11:45 p.m.
If they worked differently, Minds Aglow would not be one of the best cards for Nekusar, the Mindrazer. Additionally, this change would mean that contributing 1 mana would get you the full benefit of everyone else, which is not good - this is means that in order to not make this effect symmetrical, which is really the point of symmetrical cards, you will have to wait for everyone to tap out.
By making it the contribuition non-compulsary, it reduces the ways you can abuse this card.
January 27, 2020 7:27 a.m.
Last_Laugh says... #5
I like the way the mechanic works currently, but I hate the name of the mechanic itself. To me the mechanic name does imply that if you didn't pay into the effect (aka 'Join'), then you shouldn't benefit.
maxon says... #2
You benefit even if you don't actually contribute, so why not everyone else. Seems like a solid politics effect. You can even be the sole contributor in return for favor.
January 26, 2020 11:12 p.m.