#Meltober 07: Exhausted

During the month of October is #Inktober! Each day has a single-word prompt, but instead of inking something, I design a Magic: The Gathering mechanic to fit the word. This is called #Meltober, named after "Mel", the more mechanically-inclined counterpart to "Vorthos" of the aesthetic profile spectrum.

Keep in mind that these mechanics aren't playtested! These are more off-the-cuff brainstorms. :)

Today's prompt is: "exhausted."

Ah, yes. Even more bent than hellbent. Hellerbent?

Being exhausted. It could mean tired - your body's energy resources being run out. I decided to focus on specifically being out of resources. What does that mean? Cards and mana. You can still be ahead and exhausted. Out of gas but winning. Just look at burn. :)

For the mana part, mana is often empty in mana pool. And I didn't want to focus on there being "less lands" as part of being exhausted since that promotes a pro-land destruction environment (sorry, April).

So, instead, focused on tapped lands. But because folks can just tap out and save their mana in their mana pool to cast multiple spells in a turn, I needed to write in that there's no mana in the mana pool as well, exposing the term "mana pool" written at common. Heliod help us.

Is it interesting to essentially ensure a deck playing style that's in topdeck mode, in Limited? Maybe, maybe not. (I realize that outside of whatever set this mechanic appears in, you can still use your graveyard as a resource, like casting flashback and friends, in lieu of having a hand.) If it's not fun to try to force yourself to be exhausted, perhaps the correct approach is to focus card designs on trying to get your opponent to be exhausted and your opponent avoiding being exhausted.