The pack mechanic

[MrZuccinniHead]

I love this mechanic and I have TONS of ideas for cards to build, but I think we need to iron something out before more cards are made.

What creature types in what colors should get pack mechanics?  I already saw that beasts are one and I figured that insects would be another good choice, but that's it...I think we should limit each color to two packs to focus on.  I also thought that it would be cool to use lesser used creature types...no elves, wizards, goblins, clerics, zombies.  I also thoguht that maybe we shouldn't "bleed" the creatures like in Onslaught block...ala red and green both getting beasts.

Some suggestions:
Blue - Birds and Fish
Green - Beasts and Insects
Red - Barbarians and Dwarves
White - Knights and soldiers (might be too common...maybe cats or foxes or elephants like the Leonin/Kitsune/Loxodon)
Black - Rats and Thrulls? (just an idea...not many black creatures that work in packs besides insects and i used that in green.)

I think we should decide this right now, or else we will have to edit things in the future.  This mechanic is great and really opens up a lot of card ideas.

[Ephraim]

I hadn't really intended on limiting the mechanic to just a handful of creature types. Rather, I was going to spread it as broadly as possible. If any given creature type only has three or fewer cards with the pack mechanic, then it becomes necessary to select additional creatures of that type to flesh out the deck. Rather than providing enough creatures of each type so that deck builders can easily build a pack-creature-only deck, I want to force deck builders to determine which non-pack creatures are best suited to the deck they want to build.

Also, I officially want to change the nature of the pack mechanic to follow Jacob Orlove's suggestion.
Pack X -- Y is a static ability meaning "If you control X or more creatures that share a creature type with this creature, then Y."
That means that each creature now counts itself. Adjust numbers upward accordingly.

[MrZuccinniHead]

I hadn't really intended on limiting the mechanic to just a handful of creature types. Rather, I was going to spread it as broadly as possible. If any given creature type only has three or fewer cards with the pack mechanic, then it becomes necessary to select additional creatures of that type to flesh out the deck. Rather than providing enough creatures of each type so that deck builders can easily build a pack-creature-only deck, I want to force deck builders to determine which non-pack creatures are best suited to the deck they want to build.

Also, I officially want to change the nature of the pack mechanic to follow Jacob Orlove's suggestion.
Pack X -- Y is a static ability meaning "If you control X or more creatures that share a creature type with this creature, then Y."
That means that each creature now counts itself. Adjust numbers upward accordingly.

first question, so every pack creature i have made so far should have abilities of one level higher now?

second question, so you'd rather just spew out a bunch of pack creatures and change the creature type later to make the "set" more streamlined?

[Ephraim]

In response to your first question, yes, each pack creature, if created with an accurate understanding of the way the rule was initially written, should now have a pack number one higher.

In response to your second question, no, I do not want to create a bunch of typeless creatures to be given creature types later. I want to conscientiously creature creatures with types now, but take care not to create too many creatures of any one type that have the pack mechanic.

[asmoranomardicodais]

Has anyone thought of a name for the pack mechanic rather than "Pack"? We need a finalized keyword mechanic, so people can stop saying "Knights don't travel in packs", etc.

[Ephraim]

I fully intended to keep it as "Pack." It doesn't even matter that Knights don't travel in packs because the mechanic is fundamentally incompatible with creatures that require a race/class distinction. Wizards doesn't make just Knights anymore. They make Elf Knights and Human Knights and Elephant Knights. Unfortunately, there is no simple and elegant way of patterning the Pack mechanic to ignore that cumbersome race creature type. Thus, a Human Knight with Pack counts both Humans and Knights. This is a problem, because the flavour of the mechanic almost inherrantly yields creatures that focus on one creature type. It is sensible that a collection of Knights should give your creatures first strike, but it is not sensible that a Human Knight with Pack should give your creatures first strike when backed up by Lumengrid Warden and Humble Budoka. For flavour reasons, therefore, the "style guide" on Pack requires that it be given only to nonsentient animals (ie: creatures that are going to have just one meaningful creature type) that can reasonably be expected to benefit from grouping.

[asmoranomardicodais]

I understand that about pack, and I also realize that we can only pack things that make sense for packs. I personally just do not like the name "Pack" of the mechanbic, and I would prefer we find a name that sounds more finalized.

[Matt]

OK I put

Pack X -- Y is a static ability meaning "If you control X or more creatures that share a creature type with this creature, then Y."

as the official wording in the master list.