Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Day 4: Breaking the Combination
Next, I wanted to have a theme. I could copy and paste one of Alan’s preview articles, which mentioned which sets had what themes; Kamigawa made spiritcraft important; Invasion liked multi-color cards, Legions had creatures, and the list goes on. Anyway, my brain was already confused with the balancing of little critters and big critters, so I quickly came up with “Colour Matters.” What other set had this?
Now, this theme confused me more. We’re currently going through the Ravnica block, which features two-colour combinations, and those are fun. So why am I making a set where colour matters? I want to encourage people to play multiple colours, because I think it’s more fun. It’s probably possible to play mono-red, but it wouldn’t be as fun in my opinion. Hopefully you guys will try to play 2-colours or more. But for now, I’ll write why it’s good to play ONE colour!
First, there are some cards that have been shifted out of their colour pie – for example, there’s that white rare that let’s you draw cards, or that Dimir card that acts like a Gruul card (which, by the way, is my favourite card in the set.)
My key mechanic also emphasizes that it’s good to play a single colour. Remember how the set should be very playable? Well, mono-coloured cards are usually more playable than multi-coloured cards, so my set has a lot of single coloured cards.
It was easier to work with single-coloured cards. This way, I had to balance 5 cards – white cards, blue cards, etc. If I had a lot of 2-color cards, I would have to balance 10 cards – white-blue, white-green, etc. I have a few multi-colour cards, but the majority of my set is single coloured.
At the time of this writing, my key mechanic only appears on about 17-20 of my cards, but I think that will be changed by the time I post this article. (edit: maybe it did change, but I’m too lazy to count the new total now.) Heh. So what is it, and how does it work?
What’s the key mechanic?
COMBO BREAKER!! Well, not breaker, just combo. Combo isn’t the most exciting mechanic, but it does what I wanted it to do – it makes colour matter.
Now, the combo on this card is probably among the most complicated – it reduces the cost by 1 for each red spell played this turn, and it increases the damage by 1 for each red spell played. On most other cards, it might be combo X, combo 1R, or maybe just combo R.
What does Combo R mean? It means if you have played a red spell this turn, this costs R less to play. Doesn’t matter if you play 1 red spell or 3, it will costs R less. But generally, you have to spend R to play a red spell, so it doesn’t really reduce the cost of the spell, does it?
No, it doesn’t. However, it does allow you to play more spells in one turn. By the time this is posted, I think I’ll have more things that have combo X, or at least combo 2 or 3, so it actually becomes useful.
Ahh, but with combo 2 or combo 3, it means the early game spells are still useful late game! How wonderful! But for now, we still have mostly single combos, like combo R. So I’ve showed you the mechanic, but I will now show you another card which can actually benefit you soooo much:
This is something you’ll find on a few other cards, but this is probably the most important one. It adds a combo point, but rather than you spending mana for that point, you gain 1 mana for that point! So back in the example with the first preview card, you can sacrifice 10 red creatures, deal 11 damage and still have 9 red mana in your mana pool! And if you had multiples of BEHOLD, you can then proceed to deal 11+ more damage for each red mana (as long as you have copies of the card). (The + is there because the first copy of BEHOLD adds to the combo points, so you deal additional damage for each subsequent copy of BEHOLD).
So, this is the key mechanic of the set. It doesn’t appear on too many cards, but when it does show up, I hope you can make use of it. I think it’s okay like this, so that there’s not TOO MUCH emphasis to play a single colour. But if you play a lot of cards in one colour, you can really make use of this mechanic.
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Next, I wanted to have a theme. I could copy and paste one of Alan’s preview articles, which mentioned which sets had what themes; Kamigawa made spiritcraft important; Invasion liked multi-color cards, Legions had creatures, and the list goes on. Anyway, my brain was already confused with the balancing of little critters and big critters, so I quickly came up with “Colour Matters.” What other set had this? Now, this theme confused me more. We’re currently going through the Ravnica block, which features two-colour combinations, and those are fun. So why am I making a set where colour matters? I want to encourage people to play multiple colours, because I think it’s more fun. It’s probably possible to play mono-red, but it wouldn’t be as fun in my opinion. Hopefully you guys will try to play 2-colours or more. But for now, I’ll write why it’s good to play ONE colour! First, there are some cards that have been shifted out of their colour pie – for example, there’s that white rare that let’s you draw cards, or that Dimir card that acts like a Gruul card (which, by the way, is my favourite card in the set.) My key mechanic also emphasizes that it’s good to play a single colour. Remember how the set should be very playable? Well, mono-coloured cards are usually more playable than multi-coloured cards, so my set has a lot of single coloured cards. It was easier to work with single-coloured cards. This way, I had to balance 5 cards – white cards, blue cards, etc. If I had a lot of 2-color cards, I would have to balance 10 cards – white-blue, white-green, etc. I have a few multi-colour cards, but the majority of my set is single coloured. At the time of this writing, my key mechanic only appears on about 17-20 of my cards, but I think that will be changed by the time I post this article. (edit: maybe it did change, but I’m too lazy to count the new total now.) Heh. So what is it, and how does it work? What’s the key mechanic? COMBO BREAKER!! Well, not breaker, just combo. Combo isn’t the most exciting mechanic, but it does what I wanted it to do – it makes colour matter. Now, the combo on this card is probably among the most complicated – it reduces the cost by 1 for each red spell played this turn, and it increases the damage by 1 for each red spell played. On most other cards, it might be combo X, combo 1R, or maybe just combo R. What does Combo R mean? It means if you have played a red spell this turn, this costs R less to play. Doesn’t matter if you play 1 red spell or 3, it will costs R less. But generally, you have to spend R to play a red spell, so it doesn’t really reduce the cost of the spell, does it? No, it doesn’t. However, it does allow you to play more spells in one turn. By the time this is posted, I think I’ll have more things that have combo X, or at least combo 2 or 3, so it actually becomes useful. Ahh, but with combo 2 or combo 3, it means the early game spells are still useful late game! How wonderful! But for now, we still have mostly single combos, like combo R. So I’ve showed you the mechanic, but I will now show you another card which can actually benefit you soooo much: This is something you’ll find on a few other cards, but this is probably the most important one. It adds a combo point, but rather than you spending mana for that point, you gain 1 mana for that point! So back in the example with the first preview card, you can sacrifice 10 red creatures, deal 11 damage and still have 9 red mana in your mana pool! And if you had multiples of BEHOLD, you can then proceed to deal 11+ more damage for each red mana (as long as you have copies of the card). (The + is there because the first copy of BEHOLD adds to the combo points, so you deal additional damage for each subsequent copy of BEHOLD). So, this is the key mechanic of the set. It doesn’t appear on too many cards, but when it does show up, I hope you can make use of it. I think it’s okay like this, so that there’s not TOO MUCH emphasis to play a single colour. But if you play a lot of cards in one colour, you can really make use of this mechanic. |