NaGaDeMon #05: Nonred Faction Mechanic

Art by Svetlin Velinov

Red's aggressive. What are the aspects of this aggression?

• Red attacks with creatures early
• Red uses up its cards quickly
• Red trades away resources helpful for the long-term in favor of a short-term advantage

What are the factors that lead into each of these aggressive aspects?

• Red's creatures are cheap and efficient to cast
• Red's creatures tend to have higher power than toughness
• Red's spells don't incentivize you to wait to cast them later
• Red's benefits involve sacrificing permanent resources

What are the symptoms of these factors?

• Red's creatures tend to be sideways
• Red's lands tend to be sideways
• Red's hands tend to be empty
• Red's number of permanents can possibly lessen rather than grow as turns pass

Taking the above into consideration, I've come up with some qualities for a nonred faction to focus on:

• Having untapped creatures
• Having a bigger hand
• Having a number of permanents that always increases as turns pass

How do I have untapped creatures?

• Not attacking (ew)
• Always getting new creatures (ooh, this means growing permanents)
• Vigilance
• Having high toughness creatures but with low power

How do I have a bigger hand?

• Not casting spells (ew)
• Cantrips and draw spells (but red does cantrips and card filtering)

How do I always have the number of permanents increase as turns pass?

• Don't sacrifice (hmm, black does this, though)
• Always be playing stuff that hits the board and never the graveyard (but blue, though)
• Don't get your stuff killed, yo (hexproof, not getting into trades in combat)

Lastly, there's a quirky thing I discovered:

The word "counter" appears the least on common red cards in all of Magic.

Obviously, blue has the most number of cards with "counter" in the text. Green plays with +1/+1 counter growth a lot. And white and black are somewhere around "more than red."

Having a mechanic that cares about "counter" in the text encourages players to play with cards that grow their creatures and counters answers to their creatures. However, this also reminds me of the counter theme that is in Commander 2016, but a little spin on it.

For both the fact that caring about a word in text is potentially confusing (overload handles this pretty well by only referring to its own text) for what counts and what doesn't (for example, does "Can't be countered." count?); and that counters as a nonred theme has already been done, I'm leaning toward something that is more novel for nonred.

In Ixalan, there is no red common card that has toughness greater than its power. Yet, every other color has toughness greater than its power. I think that this bodes well for that direction. 

Let's try some mechanics designs:

• At end of turn, if you control more untapped creatures than tapped creatures, EFFECT
• As long as CARDNAME is attacking and you control more untapped creatures than tapped creatures, EFFECT
• Whenever you cast a creature spell with toughness greater than its power, EFFECT
• Whenever a creature with toughness greater than its power enters the battlefield under your control, EFFECT
• As long as you control a creature with toughness greater than its power, EFFECT
• Whenever you attack with a creature with toughness greater than its power, EFFECT
• Reveal from your hand a creature card with toughness greater than its power: EFFECT
• Counterplay - Whenever you play a card with "counter" in its text, EFFECT
• Countercast - Whenever you cast a spell with "counter" in its text, EFFECT
• Countermove - As long as you've played a card this turn with "counter" in its text, EFFECT
• Clean counter - Whenever a card with "counter" in its text is put into a graveyard, EFFECT
• Countermeasure - At end of turn, if you played a card with "counter" in its text, EFFECT

Let's try some card designs:

NONBO REPRINT:

The above Ally is the only one that has greater toughness than its power that also doesn't have a name that mentions a word that is specific to Zendikar. It also has flying, which the nongreen faction cares about. Alas, this is a black Ally, of which the nonblack faction, caring about Allies, could not use. And, thus, to encourage four-color (instead of five-color) play, this can't be used.

Anyway...

ACTUAL SYNERGISTIC ENVOY REPRINT:

Synergizes with the nongreen faction and doesn't call out a specific place. Shout out to Pillarfield Ox, though. The hero we needed, not the hero we deserved.
...wait, speaking of hero...

Anyway... let's do new designs:

Tough Centaur
2G

Creature - Centaur Warrior

Tough 'n' Rumble (Whenever another creature with toughness greater than its power enters the battlefield under your control, this creature gets a +1/+1 counter)

2/3

Tough Soldier

3W

Creature - Human Soldier

Toughen Up - Whenever another creature with toughness greater than its power enters the battlefield under your control, this creature gains vigilance until end of turn.

2/4

Card Count

2U

Draw three cards, then discard two cards unless you discard a card with "counter" in its text.

Untapped Potential

BB

You draw two cards, then you lose 2 life unless the number of untapped creatures you control is more than the number of tapped creatures you control.

...lots of exploring of card designs that still needs to be done, but I'm loving the toughness greater than power thing. Gonna need to find the most enticing and grokkable effect. In the meantime, consider this red card that is the antithesis of what this nonred faction might possibly shape up to be.

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.

Lighting the Torch Commander

Art by Volkan Baga

The last Elder Dragon Highlander deck I created had me twist my tongue to form aesthetically-pleasing sounds as I announced the name of each card I played during games. Now the "creatively-constrained Commander" torch is passing on and into the hands of my latest general: Tuktuk the Explorer.

The theme? Every card in the deck depicts a torch in its art (even the basic land).

Here's the decklist in text form then visual form. Below that, read about how this deck came to be.

Note: This deck is VERY weak in terms of power level. Don't play this if you like to win.

Commander (1)
Tuktuk the Explorer

Lands (40)
36 Mountain
Barbarian Ring
Hall of the Bandit Lord
Keldon Necropolis
Thespian's Stage

CMC 1 (7)
Blazing Torch
Goblin Balloon Brigade
Magus of the Scroll
Norin the Wary
Orcish Spy
Tunnel
War-Torch Goblin

CMC 2 (10)
Abbott of Keral Keep
Madcap Skills
Makeshift Munitions
Mogg Cannon
Reckless Reveler
Sanguinary Mage
Scent of Cinder
Subterranean Scout
Torch Fiend
Wall of Torches

CMC 3 (12)
Boggart Arsonists
Captive Flame
Deputized Protester
Enraged Revolutionary
Five-Alarm Fire
Ghitu Fire-Eater
Mark of Mutiny
Mudbutton Torchrunner
Orcish Cannoneers
Reiterate
Staff of the Flame Magus
Torch Song

CMC 4 (15)
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Dance with Devils
Fated Conflagration
Goblin Grenadiers
Goblin Razerunners
Hotheaded Giant
Impetuous Devils
Jeska, Warrior Adept
Pillaging Horde
Reign of Chaos
Talon of Pain
Tapestry of the Ages
Tooth and Claw
Vigilante Justice
War Barge

CMC 5 (7)
Blood Rites
Burn at the Stake
Eldrazi Monument
Pyromancer's Goggles
Storm Fleet Arsonist
Vulshok Battlemaster
Witch Hunt

CMC 6 (4)
Devils' Playground
Flayer of the Hatebound
Incite Rebellion
Inescapable Brute

CMC 7 (2)
Ignition Team
Vicious Shadows

CMC X (2)
Blasphemous Act
Kaervek's Torch

Lighting the Way

My previous execution of EDH restrictions with Rhys the Redeemed relied upon names of cards. For my second stab at creating a heavy constraint, I wanted to look elsewhere. Something that was, ideally, the opposite of text. That's when I moved my gaze from the top of the card toward the centerpiece of it: the art.

But what ABOUT the art? What am I supposed to care about? I didn't trust myself to be able to accurately determine consistently amongst cards I looked at whether or not a piece of art followed an art aspect that many might miss until they see a Magic Man Sam video or a Vorthos Mike tweet. I decided to only focus on literal depictions in the illustrations. That way, there'd be no dispute.

The theme I ultimately arrived at was: "a torch in the art." But what IS a torch? (Funny, I had to determine a specific definition for this deck just like I had to determine what made the cut for alliteration cards for my alliteration Commander deck.) Here's what I defined:

A static pole-like object with a flame-like source of light at one end used for means of illumination or destruction.

Here's what that means:

• The source of light doesn't have to be natural fire but should be fire-like
• I'm ignoring that flashlights are called "torches" in real life in parts of the real world and that flashlights don't meet the above definition since the light that emanates isn't "flame-like"
• Depicted torches don't have to be possibly portable. I'm not talking about torches mounted on dungeon-crawler walls. I mean ones that you can't feasibly pick up and carry around. See The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for an example of a stationary torch
• Torches sometimes are used to light your way but sometimes used to set fire to things. Both uses are embraced for this deck.
• Candles don't count
• Cauldrons of fire don't count
• The focus is on whether the depicted object FEELS like a torch more than other types of fiery and/or illuminating objects
• Humanoids are not torches
• "Torch" in the name or flavor text doesn't count

Torchling by rk post

I debated whether to count candles since a candle is a long, cylindrical object. I decided that the concept of a "candlelit dinner" was important enough of a feeling that a "torchlit dinner" couldn't fulfill (instead gives a different feeling) that the same should go for "candelight" versus "torchlight." Candles were out.

Cauldrons of fire. You see this at the Olympic games after the Olympic torch is used to light it. And in other places where a receptacle is HOLDING fire within it. This is no torch.

Let's talk "no humanoids." I'm looking mostly at Chandra, but also at Torchling. I decided that even though Chandra's silhouette, when she stands perfectly straight while enflamed could resemble a torch, using Chandra would kill the spirit of the torch deck. There's a LOT of artwork that uses Chandra. And, for at least the planeswalker cards, her presence in the artwork would be overpowering enough.

Like Mark Rosewater says about Magic design, "If the theme isn't at common, it isn't your theme." The reason that is the case is because folks see commons most often in a booster pack of any given set. Including Chandra means you'd see more of her rather than other kinds of art most commonly. The torch theme would take a hit.

...Sadly, as much as I want this power and despite the name "Torchling", that "alternate reality Morphling" is also out. The focus was more on it being a red Morphling than it being a living embodiment of torches (shout out to Wall of Torches for being that "living" embodiment).

Lastly, "torch" in the name is a no-no. Same goes for flavor text. The focus of this deck is torches in art. Not mentions of "torch" elsewhere. 

Trial by Fire

So, how did I go about building the deck? Oh, goodness. Lemme tell ya.

Before deciding on which torch commander to use, here were my possibilities: Tuktuk, Norin, Thraximundar, and Sedris. 

I decided Sedris' torches were more like burning effigies, which were their own feel, less of a torch. For Thrax compared with Tuktuk and Norin, I felt like there wasn't as strong of a torch connection for Thraximundar, even though I REALLY wanted to include blue due to Ixalan's Marauding Looter.

Marauding Looter by Jason A. Engle

Lastly, Norin was already its own novel gag as a commander and more popular on EDHRec. Tuktuk is the one that felt most like a champion of the torch (and the one that needs most a (torch)light shined upon 'im).

After deciding on this monored commander, the realization sunk in that I was super lucky to only have one color to deal with. Because the next task of finding cards with torches in the art is not an easy one. You can't filter card on Scryfall by "torch." So thus began, months ago, the arduous task of searching every single red identity card that exists in Magic - which includes artifact cards.

Luckily, Scryfall has a "save" feature that lets you save up to 100 cards, which I found was plenty considering just how few choices there are available in the "torch in the art" card pool. A life-saving resource as I spent many commutes on the train to and from work doing the manual work of scrolling through search results on my phone and scrutinizing card art for tiny little depictions of torches. 

As an aside, by happenstance, Cube April happened to mention the topic of filtering Scryfall results by depictions of things in the art while I had this blog post in its draft state (It's what spurred me to expedite finishing this post!).

So, after weeks of searching through every single red and artifact card that existed in Magic, saving cards I found using Scryfall's save feature, what was the next task? Doing it again.

You know that phenomenon that happens when you're reading a novel or otherwise a passage of text, and you catch your mind was elsewhere, resulting you in not actually absorbing the information you were reading and thus requiring you to re-read the text? I figured the same thing might have happened while I was scrolling through art after art. ...and the result of the second pass of red cards and artifact cards? I ended up finding MANY cards I missed during my first pass. Whew.

Throughout my two passes, I came upon some cards that, even with a definition above, I still couldn't determine if was an eligible torch card. Sometimes, I took to Twitter and asked. And in some of those cases, if the artist was accessible on Twitter, I just asked the creator of the art directly!

Like when trying to determine whether some specks of red above an archway in the background was a candle or a torch (remember: candles don't qualify) for the art of Blasphemous Act, and I really hoped to have Blasphemous Act count in my torch card pool for having access to a mass creature board wipe. So, I asked the artist of the card, Daarken:

After the two passes, and scrutinizing and asking questions, I worked on a list from my available card pool. Very little synergy to work with, I did manage to find a few cute little interactions. Even by now, I'm sure maybe there are some cards I cut that I didn't think counted that perhaps should be counted and, conversely, some cards I included that maybe shouldn't have.

Anyway, below are some of the highlights of moments I had during my torch commander journey. Thanks for reading, and you can catch me and this deck in action in games of Commander at Grand Prix Portland. :) See you there.

Illuminations

• "Chandra, Torch of Defiance", despite my two rules above against humanoids and word mentions, still was eligible. That's because the San Diego Comic-Con 2017 promotional art for Torch of Defiance depicts a person holding up a REAL torch to the wall art of Chandra.
• The Card Kingdom website listed Orcish Spy's set versions but not its art versions. I only needed the Fallen Empires version with specifically art #61c, and not the #61a that the site only displayed from Fallen Empires. I put in an order and mentioned in the notes of the order to grab that specific art I needed. They were able to fulfill the request. :)
• Norin and Vigilante Justice is a funny combo
• Ixalan was fantastic timing for providing torch cards since pirates like to hold torches
• Angry mobs of townsfolk like in Innistrad like to hold torches
• Devils REALLY like torches
• War Barge on opponents' creatures then sacrificing War Barge to Makeshift Munitions = LOL
• I'm PRETTY sure that orange glow at the end of protrusion of the silhouette of one of the three humanoids depicted in the art for the Basic Mountain I included in my deck means there's a torch depicted in the art. If not, no big deal: basic lands already have exception rulings in Commander.
• Subterranean Scout + Goblin Grenadiers is the kind of creature removal this deck is about
• Tunnel is my favorite card I hope I can cast one day in a Commander game