Mechanic A should be usable on every spell type, and affect the way the card is played.
Spellclash - [ Cost ]
As this spell is played, any player may pay the Spellclash cost to have this spell go directly to the graveyard (and not onto the stack). After a player does this, any player may now pay the spellclash cost to have spell go on the stack as normal. Repeat this process until all players choose not to pay the spellclash cost for a full rotation. Spellclash is a replacement ability of putting the spell on the stack. So it occurs after all costs of the spell have been paid, but before it goes on the stack. Decissions are made in AP-NAP order, and the cost may only be paid once per decision rotation.
... Think Eureka meets red-light-green-light. Also note that there is no restriction on who can turn on or off the spell, so I could cast it, and immediately clash it off, then pass to you, after you pass it back, I can then clash it back on, and pass it to you. and we would continue (see Darkfire, also could be relevant with Enscrolled Marionette if you want to pump your GY).
Subterranean Impact
Sorcery (C)
Spellclash - Sacrifice A Land.
Destroy target land.
Darkfire
Sorcery (U)
Spellclash - pay 2 life, or if you do not control Darkfire you may pay
instead.
Target player looses X + 3 life, where X is the number of times the Spellclash cost was paid (by all players). You gain 3 life.
Enscrolled Marionette
Artifact Creature (R)
Spellclash - Discard a card.
Enscrolled Marionette comes into play with X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is the number of Sorceries in your graveyard.
0/0
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Mechanic B should be a mechanic that will only work on creatures.
Symmetry - [Static effect]
The Creature gain's the static effect while It's Power is Equal to its toughness. Because it is static ability keyed, gaining or loosing the effect does not use the stack. Knight of Balance
Creature - Human Knight (C)
Symmetry - Knight of Balance gains Protection from Red, Protection from Black, and First Strike.
: Knight of Balance gains +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/2
Mystic Oak
Creature - Plant (U)
Defender
Symmetry - Mystic Oak gains "Sacrifice: Put an Green Treefolk token into play under your control, with power and toughness equal to that of Mystic Oak. If Mystic Oak's Power is equal to 5 also put two 2/2 green bears tokens into play under your control.
2/5
Harlequin of Mirrors
Creature - Harlequin (R)
Symmetry - Harlequin of Mirrors gains "T: Destroy target creature that has Power equal to its toughness."
: Target creature’s power becomes equal to its toughness
: Target creature’s toughness becomes equal to its power
1/3
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Mechanic C should be usable only on cards of a certain color. All three example cards should be that color.
Color = Black.
Stitch When this card comes into play, you may remove target creature card in any graveyard from the game. If you do that card is considered 'Stitched' to this card [basically a simplified version of imprint] Rotting Abomination
Creature - Zombie (C)
Stitch
If the Stitched card is Black, Rotting Abomination gains Fear.
If the Stitched card is named Rotting Abomination, Rotting Abomination gains +2/+0
1/3
Rotten Bloodmage
Creature - Zombie Thaumaturgist (U)
Stitch
If a card is stitched to Rotten Bloodmage, Rotten Bloodmage gains "
, Return Block Bloodmage to it's owner's Hand: Draw a card, then discard a card."
2/2
Vile Totem
Enchantment (R)
Stitch
Creatures that share a creature type with the Stitched card get -1/-0 when attacking you.
Creatures that have the same name with the Stiched card cannot attack you.
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Mechanic D should use counters in a new and interesting way.
Fade out - [Triggered Ability]
Whenever ~this~ is sacrificed as a result of the fadeing ability, [Effect]. The Fadeing Trigger will fully resolve before this ability goes on the stack. Therefore the card that generated this ability will generally be in the graveyard when the fade out ability is put on the stack. Fields of the Righteous
Legendary land (R)
Fading 7
Fade out - Put seven 1/1 flying spirit tokens into play under your control.
,
: add
to your mana pool.
, Sacrifice Fields of the Righteous,
: Target blocking creature gets +7/+7 until end of turn, return that creature to it's owners hand at the end of combat.
Unstable Phantasm -
Creature - Mutant illusion (U)
Fading 3
Fade out - Return Unstable Phantasm from your graveyard to your hand.
If the number of Fade counters on Unstable Phantasm is Odd then Unstable Phantasm gets +X/-X, otherwise Unstable Phantasm gets -X/+X where X is the number of Fade counters on Unstable Phantasm.
2/4
[so its a 5/1 with sickness, then a 0/6, then a 3/3, then a 2/4, then it gets returned to your hand]Forgotten Clock Tower
Legendary Artifact (R)
Fading 2
Fade out - Take an extra turn after this one.
At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep flip a coin, if you loose the flip choose one: Put a Fade counter on Forgotten Clock Tower -OR- Remove all Fade counters from Forgotten Clock Tower and that player takes another turn after this one.
One card must be a Stone Rain variant. -- Subterranean Impact
At least on card must interact with the graveyard. -- Stitch
One card must be a 2/5 creature. -- Mystic Oak
Only one card may be blue. -- Unstable Phantasm
I'll do a little play by play...
Spellclash was not my favorite. But it ended up being fairly interesting. I think Darkfire is kinda neat. The mechanic is probably too difficult to explain with the comprehensive rules. In my head, its really simple... but putting it on paper was a definately not.
Symmetry I think is really cool. The Mystic Oak seemed a little forced (given the 2/5 creature constraint below), but really not that bad of a card over all. I really like Harlequin of Mirrors, and I really like Knight of Balance. Harlequin of Mirrors is just a cool rare (great type 4 card as it turns out). Knight of Balance is probably my second favorite card in this challenge. It is obviously derived from combining Silver and White knight. The pump ability makes him interesting. The 'good tech' with this guy is to pump him once pre-combat attack while he has his Pro-red/black, then after blockers are declaired pump him some more (causing him to loose his protection). I later realized that you might beable to give him a psudo-double strike. I'm not sure how the rules handles creatures loosing first strike durring the first strike damage step ... So I left him as is. If you can give him double strike, then I would propose adding "You cannot use this ability in combat" to him.
Stitch. I really like Imprint... and this is just a completely simplified version of that. These are just cool cards. I already had an Imprint version of Vile Totem in my Design notebook, so I just used that and changed Imprint to Stitch. The other cards I think are equally cool.
Fade Out. This mechanic I have been toying with in my notebook for a LONG time. Again, Its kinda tricky to word... The idea is that the trigger only goes off when It dies as a result of Fading. So you can't just sac it to gain the effect. You have to wait for it. Oh, this mechanic doesn't really use counters in a "new" and interesting way. But I didn't care, I just wanted to put up some of my favorite fade out cards.
Fields of the Righteous is neat. I didn't want to make it good as a mana source so I made it a simple converter. It seems really powerful still.. esp in Draft. Obvisouly an ode to Righteousness, but its uncounterable. Because it is uncounterable and has a rather nasty effect past 7 turns I opted to weaken the Righteousness ability and add the return to hand drawback.
Unstable Phantasm again, difficult to word, but simple in concept. The idea is that his P/T would Pendelum back and forth, and when he finally stablized.. he would get unsummoned. Keeping in mind the the way Fade out works, this guy is far from indestructable.
Now we get to my favorite card. Forgotten Clocktower. When you first read the card ... its like "dang, that is SUPER broken." But after you see it in play (or think of it in play) its actually really not. The most devistating thing about the card is even if you choose to clear all fade counters and skip a turn... that means they get Another Upkeep in which you have to flip. Not only that, but they get an extra turn. This card is very statistically satifying esp if you've studied "Random Walk" Functions. It takes about 3-4 turns to get this card to actually 'go off.' At the best, this card goes off after 3 of your opponent's turn (that is if you roll 3 good flips in a row). At 'worst' it will never go off, as you flip bad time and again. At WORST ... you try to get the counters down by skipping turns and then proceed to loose flips still and it nets you negative turns. (at absoulte worst, you stubornly keep loosing an skipping turns... never get another turn).
