NaGaDeMon #04: Nonblack Faction Mechanic

One way to be able to easily tie together cards broadly is via the card type line. When looking for a nonblack mechanic, I first thought of a team of creatures working together. The first iteration of this was a D&D-style party where you needed a Cleric, Warrior, Rogue, & Wizard. That was turning out to be a bit more convoluted and/or pulling the focus away on trying to achieve four colors. If creature type were to be referenced, it should be a single type and something evocative of everything black isn't.

Enter allies. Black is selfish and works for its own best interests. Those who work as a cog as part of a greater machine for the better of the whole; whether it's your family or community, or whether it's the right or logical thing to do; this is what black doesn't do.

...interestingly, in Avacyn Restored, black was isolated to itself while the other colors got access to a mechanic focusing on working together: soulbond.

If I were to pursue the allies route, I would be making zero black ally creature cards to ensure those that want to play with allies only go to four colors. And I'd be introducing a new style of ally mechanic, like how Cohort was introduced to join the Rally type of ally mechanical gameplay.

New ally mechanic tentatively called "Alliance."

For soulbond, I'd have to see what space there is left to explore and how to further evolve soulbond beyond the level it's at now as of Avacyn Restored.

For example, Flowering Lumberknot and Joint Assault are the only two cards that interact with the soulbond mechanic that don't have soulbond themselves (interestingly, Joint Assault doesn't care about whether a paired creature is paired with a soulbond creature while Flowering Lumberknot cares about whether the pairing is with a soulbond creature).

Could there be a soulleech? Mindbond? Bodybond? Tripling instead of pairing? Pairing a pair? Pairing with not just any creature but with another soulbond creature?

Remember: caring is pairing.

I still have my work cut out for me for the nonblack faction, but let's dig into some designs anyway:

Allies mechanics

• Alliance - For each color among allies you control, EFFECT.
• Alliance - This creature gets +N/+N as long as it and another Ally is attacking or blocking.
• Alliance - EFFECT X, where X is the number of allies you control.
• Alliance - As long as the last creature to enter the battlefield under your control is an Ally, EFFECT
• Alliance (Your Allies can help cast this spell. Each Ally you tap after you’re done activating mana abilities pays for 1 or one mana of that creature's color)
• Alliance 2 (As this creature enters the battlefield, you may reveal an Ally card from your hand. If you do, this creature enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters.)
• Alliance (As this creature enters the battlefield, if the last creature to enter the battlefield under your control is an Ally, you get an alliance counter. Otherwise, you lose all alliance counters. Then, this creature enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each alliance counter you have.)

White Ally

1W

Creature - Human Warrior Ally

Alliance (As this creature enters the battlefield, if the last creature to enter the battlefield under your control is an Ally, you get an alliance counter. Otherwise, you lose all alliance counters. Then, this creature enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each alliance counter you have.)

2/2

Four-um

2U

Sorcery

Alliance - Draw a card for each color among allies you control, then discard a card.

Pair of Shocks

R

Instant
CARDNAME deals 2 damage to target creature or player. As long as you control a paired creature, CARDNAME deals 4 damage to that creature or player instead.

Bear Hug

1G

Instant

Alliance (Your Allies can help cast this spell. Each Ally you tap after you’re done activating mana abilities pays for 1 or one mana of that creature's color)

Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn.