#Moxtober 21: Drain

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 #Moxtober.

(#Moxtober was previously named #Meltober, named after "Mel", the more mechanically-inclined counterpart to "Vorthos" of the aesthetic profile spectrum.)


Day 01: "poisonous"
Day 02: "tranquil"
Day 03: "roasted"
Day 04: "spell"
Day 05: "chicken"
Day 06: "drooling"
Day 07: "exhausted"
Day 08: "star"
Day 09: "precious"
Day 10: "flowing"
Day 11: "cruel"
Day 12: "whale"
Day 13: "guarded"
Day 14: "clock"
Day 15: "weak"
Day 16: "angular"
Day 17: "swollen"
Day 18: "bottle"
Day 19: "scorched"
Day 20: "breakable"

Today's prompt is: "drain"

My first instinct was to design a Vampire card. This makes sense as I also was also concepting "partake" from a vampire's point of view. There's blood being drawn. Let's have the creatures enjoy a bit of it, too.

With lifelink being an MVP for triggering partake, I figured partake would be good in black and white colors. Black is also good at inflicting hurt while white is good at gaining life. Another color I thought would be suitable is green, with its life gain spells and its natural inclination to cause some pain to the opponent via creature damage.

Since I figured black is "obvious" for this mechanic, I wanted to showcase white and green dabbling in partake. With white and green being more communal, I felt "partake" evoked a sense of sharing.