Hmm. I'd be interested in hearing how playtesting of this mechanic goes. First thinking about it, it has the possibility to create stagnant boardstates. Player A's best play is to chump with his Kami every turn, and Player B's best play is to swing in anyway. Or worse, Player A gets enough Kami out on the board that Player B can't attack because he'll lose his creature and the Kami will just keep coming back and back. It could play really well, but I expect that it will be mostly used to freely chump attackers all game long.
As far as the fourth color goes, I'd give it to green if you expect the spirit breakdown of the original Kamigawa to be similar to your own. Black had more Oni than Kami, and green is a more spiritual color in general.
Personally I'd see green as 10% and black as 20% instead of red, since those are the "coming back from the dead" colors. Red had Demons and Ogres as well, though not as much as black.
Would restricting it to only lethal damage make sense? Or tacking on a mana cost to the effect, ala Lantern Spirit? The current wording encourages odd behavior like pinging your own fatty in response to a Pull Under so you'll get the sidestep effect.
I am a little concerned about incessant chumping. In particular, the Kami of Lifting Fog is a chump magnet, and I know it.
I've been through about 50 versions of this mechanic. Rather than post them all here and see if you all prefer a different version, let me try to define the factors of identity and purpose that the final version of this mechanic NEEDS to have:
It needs to encourage combat to happen. Specifically, it needs to encourage players to attack and block with as many creatures as possible, without hesitation.
It needs to interact with players' hands. I'm trying to re-work the "Wisdom" theme from Kamigawa block in a functional way - namely, a way where having cards in your hand is a bonus, rather than something that discourages you from casting spells.
It needs to make sense on Spirits.
With all that said, let me put forth one of my many alternate versions of this mechanic, which maybe stands a chance of being preferable:
Frozen-Geyser Kami2R
Creature - Spirit [C]
Haste
Sidestep (If this creature is attacking and would die, return it to its owner's hand instead.)
[2/1]
It certainly eliminates the chump blocking problem, right?
Encouraging carefree attacking is much better than encouraging carefree blocking. If players are attacking as often as they can, then their opponents will block as often as they can... or else they'll die. To me, at least, this second version is preferable and enjoyable. Even if my creature is outclassed, I can attack and bluff a combat trick, and if my bluff is called all I'm down is the cost of the attacker rather than a card.
OK, cool. One of the reasons that I didn't submit that version, originally, is because it's still susceptible to sacrifice shenanigans and so forth (which I tried to fix in the OP version of the mechanic.)
Would you consider that to be a problem? Or was I worrying too much about it?
This is a good mechanic, though I'd argue that it encourages racing more than blocking because what would ordinarily be a trade becomes severely unprofitable for you. If my opponent's 2/2 has sidestep, I'm much better taking the hit on the chin and cracking back with my own 2/2 next turn. This is even more so if my 2/2 has sidestep, since my opponent can't trade out with his follow-up X/2.
In Zendikar, the landfall mechanic (though not inherently by design) ended up encouraging attacking much more than blocking - it didn't turn out well for the speed of the format.
Ultimately, any mechanic that recurs threats needs to be carefully managed. Frankly, if the original version added to the cost of a regular french/vanilla creature, I'd be more comfortable with it... but that also has the Soulshift problem. I wouldn't worry too much about sacrifice shenanigans unless you expect it to be a theme in your set (constructed formats are much more accepting of shenanigans than limited is).
On a more meta note, if you go with version 2, this is the second mechanic that is purely attacking focused. Perhaps a defender subtheme could help make games less like Zendikar limited?
You're referring to the second version I posted in the comments, correct?
I appreciate the feedback.
And, I'm pretty sure I have other ways to encourage blocking. Just last week people were worried about a certain Snake Samurai. He's starting to seem pretty reasonable now!
EDIT: @Piar - a defender subtheme... right on the money!
Funny, and very telling, that this made both Jenesis and myself bring up Zendikar. Also, this makes the Kumano style of burn much more relevant, if you plan to bring it back.
Also, this makes the Kumano style of burn much more relevant, if you plan to bring it back.
It might be a little confusing because you get the exile effect if you kill the creature during the beginning of combat step, but you won't if you kill the creature after it's declared an attack. For this reason I'd prefer it kept out of common.
Any reason for using a replacement effect instead of a "dies" trigger?
Also, this makes the Kumano style of burn much more relevant, if you plan to bring it back.
Does it? I mean, I was hoping that it would, but my reading of 616 is that it the Sidestep creature's controller gets to decide which replacement effect applies, so they'll always pick the sidestep.
I'm fine with that - if Kumano burn doesn't work, it doesn't work. It would be a nice bonus if it did, but I can find a good flavor reason that it doesn't, I think.
EDIT: @Jenesis - actually, no. Now that you mention it, this would all be resolved nicely by adopting the Weatherseed Treefolk wording, i.e.:
Frozen-Geyzer Kami2R
Creature - Spirit [C]
Haste
Sidestep (When this creature dies, if it was attacking, return it to its owner's hand.)
Frozen-Geyser is way too pushed as a 2/2 haste at common that recurs itself. Dial it back down to a 2/1. That's still pretty awesome in limited.
I would also recommend not having this be a large mechanic in the set - make it a minor, interesting theme. Too much of this will warp the format, and require the rest of the set to compensate the mechanic. Maybe 10 or 11 cards in the set, maximum.
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Its weird to me that white doesn't get any of the attacker mechanics (Deathknell or Ninjutsu) since it often has aggressive white weenie strategies. White also had a reasonable number of Kami in the old block. If you don't want the set to support those strategies (or if you want white's weenies to only be samurai) then its a fine enough distribution I suppose, but I'd like to see white a bit more aggressive. I am not sure right now how I would redistribute the Wall-tokens and Deathknell yet myself. I wish I had a suggestion but I'd have to get back to you on it.
White wants Deathknell more than blue and red, as white/black/green are the best colors for reanimation.
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It is a little unusual to see red making 0/2 walls at a high rate, but It frees red's real creatures up to attack. Red also has recent history of liking walls, like Lobber Crew and Vent Sentinel.
Mechanically, Deathknell seems to me to be bounce as much as it is reanimation, depending on how you spin the flavor. With the current flavor (primarily defined by the keyword "Deathknell" itself), it points to WBG. With bouncy flavor, such as "Ethereal" or something, it points to WUR.
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Creature - Spirit [C]
Flying
Sidestep (If this creature has damage on it and would die, return it to its owner's hand instead.)
[1/1]
Creature - Spirit [C]
Sidestep (If this creature has damage on it and would die, return it to its owner's hand instead.)
[2/2]
Creature - Spirit [C]
Haste
Sidestep (If this creature has damage on it and would die, return it to its owner's hand instead.)
[2/1]
As for what colors get this mechanic, the breakdown for the Call to Glory set is:
:symu:: 40%
:symw:: 30%
:symr:: 20%
:?mana:: 10%
I'm trying to decide whether black or green should be the 10% color. Suggestions?
[EDIT]: The mechanic has changed substantially from this first post. See below.
As far as the fourth color goes, I'd give it to green if you expect the spirit breakdown of the original Kamigawa to be similar to your own. Black had more Oni than Kami, and green is a more spiritual color in general.
Would restricting it to only lethal damage make sense? Or tacking on a mana cost to the effect, ala Lantern Spirit? The current wording encourages odd behavior like pinging your own fatty in response to a Pull Under so you'll get the sidestep effect.
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I've been through about 50 versions of this mechanic. Rather than post them all here and see if you all prefer a different version, let me try to define the factors of identity and purpose that the final version of this mechanic NEEDS to have:
Creature - Spirit [C]
Haste
Sidestep (If this creature is attacking and would die, return it to its owner's hand instead.)
[2/1]
Would you consider that to be a problem? Or was I worrying too much about it?
In Zendikar, the landfall mechanic (though not inherently by design) ended up encouraging attacking much more than blocking - it didn't turn out well for the speed of the format.
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On a more meta note, if you go with version 2, this is the second mechanic that is purely attacking focused. Perhaps a defender subtheme could help make games less like Zendikar limited?
You're referring to the second version I posted in the comments, correct?
I appreciate the feedback.
And, I'm pretty sure I have other ways to encourage blocking. Just last week people were worried about a certain Snake Samurai. He's starting to seem pretty reasonable now!
EDIT: @Piar - a defender subtheme... right on the money!
It might be a little confusing because you get the exile effect if you kill the creature during the beginning of combat step, but you won't if you kill the creature after it's declared an attack. For this reason I'd prefer it kept out of common.
Any reason for using a replacement effect instead of a "dies" trigger?
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Does it? I mean, I was hoping that it would, but my reading of 616 is that it the Sidestep creature's controller gets to decide which replacement effect applies, so they'll always pick the sidestep.
I'm fine with that - if Kumano burn doesn't work, it doesn't work. It would be a nice bonus if it did, but I can find a good flavor reason that it doesn't, I think.
EDIT: @Jenesis - actually, no. Now that you mention it, this would all be resolved nicely by adopting the Weatherseed Treefolk wording, i.e.:
Creature - Spirit [C]
Haste
Sidestep (When this creature dies, if it was attacking, return it to its owner's hand.)
[2/2]
I would also recommend not having this be a large mechanic in the set - make it a minor, interesting theme. Too much of this will warp the format, and require the rest of the set to compensate the mechanic. Maybe 10 or 11 cards in the set, maximum.
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Creature - Spirit [C]
Deathknell (When this creature dies, if it was attacking, return it to its owner's hand.)
[2/1]
Creature - Spirit [C]
Trample
Deathknell (When this creature dies, if it was attacking, return it to its owner's hand.)
[4/2]
Creature - Spirit [C]
Haste
Deathknell (When this creature dies, if it was attacking, return it to its owner's hand.)
[1/1]
It's feeling more like a reanimation mechanic than a bounce mechanic.
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Deathknell:
40% :symb:, 30% :symg:, 20% :symw:, 10% :symr:, 0%
Wallmakers:
40% :symu:, 30% :symr:, 20% :symw:, 10% :symg:, 0%
It is a little unusual to see red making 0/2 walls at a high rate, but It frees red's real creatures up to attack. Red also has recent history of liking walls, like Lobber Crew and Vent Sentinel.