NaGaDeMon #03: Nongreen Faction Mechanic

Let's talk green. Green does varying things. But green absolutely does NOT do flying. Like, there's the five iconic large races: Dragons, Angels, Demons, Sphinxes, & Hydras. Green is the only one that doesn't get a flier.

On top of that, green goes out of its way to hurt fliers. The only thing that rivals green's hatred of flying is its aversion to artificial stuff. Specifically, artifacts. But let's not talk about artifacts. We just got Kaladesh happening. Let's do flying. Because every nongreen color does flying (yes, even red a little bit).

The nongreen mechanic focuses on "flying matters." It's supposed to encourage you to have flying creatures. What's the best way to do this? Time to brainstorm:

• As long as you control a creature with flying, EFFECT
• Whenever you attack with one or more creatures with flying, EFFECT
• Copilot (At end of turn, if this creature and another creature with flying attacked this turn, this creature gets a +1/+1 counter.)
• Whenever a creature you control with flying dies, EFFECT
• Whenever you cast a creature spell with flying, EFFECT
• Whenever a creature with flying enters the battlefield under your control, EFFECT
• Tailwind -- whenever a creature with flying enters the battlefield under your control, EFFECT
• Gust -- as long as a creature with flying you control attacked this turn, EFFECT
• At end of turn, if each creature you control has flying, EFFECT
• At end of turn, if a creature with flying entered the battlefield under your control this turn, EFFECT
• At end of turn, if a creature with flying you control dealt combat damage this turn, EFFECT
• At end of turn, if a creature with flying you control attacked this turn, EFFECT
• At end of turn, if a creature with flying you control died this turn, EFFECT
• Copilot - As long as you control two or more creatures with flying, EFFECT
• Flock - As long as you control three or more creature with flying, EFFECT
• Fleet - As long as two or more creatures with flying you control are attacking, EFFECT

Whew. Lots of possible designs. The type of effect we go for might depend upon what the other mechanics in the set are, whether we can set up some mechanical synergy (and determine via playtesting what isn't fun). Let's just design some cards now just generally supporting the flying matters theme:

Wingman

2W

Creature - Bird Soldier

Flying

Copilot (At end of turn, if this creature and another creature with flying attacked this turn, this creature gets a +1/+1 counter.)

Aeroclasm

1R

Sorcery

CARDNAME deals 2 damage to each creature without flying.

Ink and Quill

2U

Sorcery

Draw three cards then discard two cards. If you control a creature with flying, discard one card instead.

Bat Buddy

1B

Creature - Bat

Flying

Fleet - As long as two or more creatures with flying you control are attacking, this creature gets +1/+1.

Catapulting Goblin

1R

Creature - Goblin Warrior

When CARDNAME ETB, target creature you control gains flying until EOT.

2/1

Birds of a Feather

3W

Instant

Create two 1/1 white Bird creature tokens with flying and copilot. (At the end of each turn, if a creature with copilot and another creature with flying attacked that turn, the creature with copilot gets a +1/+1 counter.)

(Man, Birds of a Feather was difficult to template. And it may not even be completely correct. But thank goodness for Hornet Nest existing giving a great example of how to write out reminder text for a keyword ability when multiple creature tokens are created that have multiple keyword abilities.)

'kay, that is all.