Mechanic idea: Seclude

[Darkenslight]

Here's an idea I had on the way home from the hospital today:

Reclusive Master

Creature - Human Rogue

Seclude 3 (When ~ comes into play, an opponent may search your library for up to 3 cards and remove them from the game.  If that player does, put that many copies of ~ into play without Seclude.)

4/3.

Seclude allows you to trade resources you haven't yet got (ie. your library) in order to acquire more NOW.  This ability would be almost exclusive to Back and Red as a result of this 'long-term advantage for short-term gain' theme.

An instant version, for example might be:

Rampant Fury 
Instant

Target creature you control gains +3/+0 and first strike until end of turn.

Seclude 2 (When you play ~, an opponent may search your library for up to 3 cards and remove them from the game.  If that player does, put that many copies of ~ onto the stack.)

[asmoranomardicodais]

Why would an opponent ever search your library for cards? I'm not giving my opponent an extra 4/3, especially not for free.

[zeus-online]

Its actually jester's cap for free...you get to search and destroy...urh remove the cards!

I kinda like it....

/Zeus

[asmoranomardicodais]

except its not a jeter's cap for free, its a jester's cap at the expense of giving them multiple 4/3's. Who would ever pay that price for a jester's cap?

[zeus-online]

Thats just an idea, see past it.....

I'm pretty sure its the mechanic you should look at, not the card itself...

/Zeus

[asmoranomardicodais]

Okay, well, even if the mechanic was on this creature:

Dude
B
Creature-Skeleton

Seclude 9

1/1


Why would the opponent ever give you extra 1/1's? One card out of the library is not worth giving the opponent card advantage. The cards with seclude would have to be incredibly weak, and even then the opponent would never choose to search with the seclude cost. It just doesn't make sense. Why give the opponent a free creature/spell so that you can lower the chances of them drawing a certain card (which are already not that high in a 60 card deck)?

[Darkenslight]

Okay, well, even if the mechanic was on this creature:

Dude
B
Creature-Skeleton

Seclude 9

1/1


Why would the opponent ever give you extra 1/1's? One card out of the library is not worth giving the opponent card advantage. The cards with seclude would have to be incredibly weak, and even then the opponent would never choose to search with the seclude cost. It just doesn't make sense. Why give the opponent a free creature/spell so that you can lower the chances of them drawing a certain card (which are already not that high in a 60 card deck)?

Firstly because it allows you to get rid of pesky 1-ofs that may ruin your day.  Also, it plays an interesting game of 'Can I deal with this now?'  In the example of your card, it allows you to go,  'OK, if I get a Pyroclasm, I win.'

It also offers the ability to let your opponents outplay themselves, a not insignificant trait in a mechanic.

[dandan]

Note that Dude might be quite interesting if it were Seclude 1

Seclude would probably be better balanced by making the number = no. of cards to remove and the cost of this is to give 1 copy.

Note that I proposed a very similar mechanic in Filter where you remove the cards, not your opponent but of course the effect is quite different.

[zeus-online]

He could just extract 1 card to see your deck, and thereby only give you 1 token.....Thats not bad.

/Zeus