Here are some black Commons for brainstorming since its one of harder colors to design for:
Hateful Firebender1B
Creature - Human Bender (C)
Hateful Firebender can’t block. XB: Hateful Firebender gets +X/+0 until end of turn.
[2/1]
Hei Bei3B
Creature - Bear Spirit (C)
Spiritform 2 (This creature enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it.
If damage would be dealt to it, prevent that damage. Remove a +1/+1 counter from it.)
When Hei Bai dies, you may return another target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
[0/0]
Si Wong Sandbender2B
Creature - Human Bender (C)
Si Wong Sandbender is colorless. B, T, Discard a land card: Put a 1/1 colorless Sand creature token onto the battlefield.
[2/2]
Young Bloodbender1B
Creature - Bear Spirit (C)
Pay 2 life, Q: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn. Tap that creature.
[1/1]
Catgator3B
Creature - Fish Crocodile (C)
Sacrifice a Swamp: Regenerate Catgator.
[3/2]
Fighting Fire With Fire2B
Instant (C)
Fighting Fire With Fire deals 2 damage to target creature. When that creature dies this turn, its controller loses life equal to its power.
Bloodbender CharmB
Instant (C)
Choose one — Each opponent loses 1 life; or destroy target creature with power 1; or remove a counter from target permanent.
Burn to Ash1BB
Instant (C)
Destroy target nonblack creature. Bending — Exile that creature instead if you activated an activated ability of a creature this turn.
Sandbending2B
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature is colorless.
Enchanted creature has “B, T, Discard a land card: Put a 1/1 colorless Sand token creature onto the battlefield.”
Fire Nation Bending1B
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature XB: Enchanted creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn.
You guys can just keep posting if you want. I'll probably get around to making a thread for the set sometime in the next few days. And i'll incorporate some of the idea you guys throw out here.
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"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
I've had a few ideas cooking for a while. The first was some mechanic to represent spirits. At first I was thinking of a soulbond-like mechanic that linked two creatures to represent guardian spirits. White creatures would link to yours to protect them, while black creatures would link to your opponent's to haunt them. Then i realized we already have a mechanic that represents things haunting other things, and it's already in white & black! This seemed to fit really well, since it feels a lot like the spirits are helping from another world, and Haunt wasn't really explored all that well in guildpact. (Haunt also goes on spells, which is a good thing.)
So far I like your sand bending idea as a mini-theme for black. It won't appear nearly as much as other bending arts, but it will help fill black up. White also gets a mini theme in the form of Air, which also won't appear very often but will still have a small presence.
Your "Bending" mechanic seems pretty good. I too had thought of an activated ability mechanic which was basically "splice onto activated ability", allowing you to cast a spell for a cheaper cost by revealing it whenever you activated a creature ability. I'm not sure which is better though, as yours has much more room for variation than mine.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
http://www.mediafire.com/?85lazgv4o9aheo5 Here's a compilation of some work I've done on the subject. I lost the muse for it at the moment though so am putting it here.
I was actually just about to make the thread in the custom set forums. There's a lot of stuff I like and a lot of stuff I don't like. I'll definitely use some of your ideas in my own version of the set, but I think you're going in a bit of a different direction from me. You're free of course to make the set how you want to make it, I think I'm just going to make mine a bit different.
EDIT: Ok, some more in-depth analysis:
I really like your charm cycle, awesome idea.
Pro-lands on the winged lemur is great.
I don't really like your spirit mechanic. It's exalted from your graveyard, which is strange. Why does it only work when I attack alone? I don't know, i just don't like it all that much.
Ice Cage reprint is great.
I like your enchantments based on the bendings, but I had a slightly different idea. One cycle at common would simply be called "~bending" and grant the creature that ability, while another at uncommon would be called "~bending mastery" and give a bonus to those creatures. For instance, the Earthbending Aura might grant the animate land ability, while Earthbending Master would give all your lands +1/+1 or something.
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
Hateful Firebender 1B
Creature - Human Bender (C)
Hateful Firebender can’t block.
XB: Hateful Firebender gets +X/+0 until end of turn.
[2/1]
Hei Bei 3B
Creature - Bear Spirit (C)
Spiritform 2 (This creature enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it.
If damage would be dealt to it, prevent that damage. Remove a +1/+1 counter from it.)
When Hei Bai dies, you may return another target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
[0/0]
Si Wong Sandbender 2B
Creature - Human Bender (C)
Si Wong Sandbender is colorless.
B, T, Discard a land card: Put a 1/1 colorless Sand creature token onto the battlefield.
[2/2]
Young Bloodbender 1B
Creature - Bear Spirit (C)
Pay 2 life, Q: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn. Tap that creature.
[1/1]
Catgator 3B
Creature - Fish Crocodile (C)
Sacrifice a Swamp: Regenerate Catgator.
[3/2]
Fighting Fire With Fire 2B
Instant (C)
Fighting Fire With Fire deals 2 damage to target creature. When that creature dies this turn, its controller loses life equal to its power.
Bloodbender Charm B
Instant (C)
Choose one — Each opponent loses 1 life; or destroy target creature with power 1; or remove a counter from target permanent.
Burn to Ash 1BB
Instant (C)
Destroy target nonblack creature.
Bending — Exile that creature instead if you activated an activated ability of a creature this turn.
Sandbending 2B
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature is colorless.
Enchanted creature has “B, T, Discard a land card: Put a 1/1 colorless Sand token creature onto the battlefield.”
Fire Nation Bending 1B
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
XB: Enchanted creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn.
Avalon: The Legend Begins :: Pirate Set :: Babel: The Æther Wars
Favorite Magic Card: Fowl Play
[Primer] [Barrin's Tome]: A Master Wizard's Spellbook.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Avalon: The Legend Begins :: Pirate Set :: Babel: The Æther Wars
Favorite Magic Card: Fowl Play
[Primer] [Barrin's Tome]: A Master Wizard's Spellbook.
So far I like your sand bending idea as a mini-theme for black. It won't appear nearly as much as other bending arts, but it will help fill black up. White also gets a mini theme in the form of Air, which also won't appear very often but will still have a small presence.
Your "Bending" mechanic seems pretty good. I too had thought of an activated ability mechanic which was basically "splice onto activated ability", allowing you to cast a spell for a cheaper cost by revealing it whenever you activated a creature ability. I'm not sure which is better though, as yours has much more room for variation than mine.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Avalon: The Legend Begins :: Pirate Set :: Babel: The Æther Wars
Favorite Magic Card: Fowl Play
[Primer] [Barrin's Tome]: A Master Wizard's Spellbook.
EDIT: Ok, some more in-depth analysis:
I really like your charm cycle, awesome idea.
Pro-lands on the winged lemur is great.
I don't really like your spirit mechanic. It's exalted from your graveyard, which is strange. Why does it only work when I attack alone? I don't know, i just don't like it all that much.
Ice Cage reprint is great.
I like your enchantments based on the bendings, but I had a slightly different idea. One cycle at common would simply be called "~bending" and grant the creature that ability, while another at uncommon would be called "~bending mastery" and give a bonus to those creatures. For instance, the Earthbending Aura might grant the animate land ability, while Earthbending Master would give all your lands +1/+1 or something.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing