It was just an example card after all, but I guess that ability kinda sucked then...

Also didn't Simic Combine kind of already do that a lot already?

How about a sacrifice mechanic similar to Feed the Pack, except we spit out 1/1 Saprolings? So you make them bigger, then cast an instant/sorcery and kill your big creature to make tons of small creatures.

My llama fellow is right! That would stick pretty well to the spore thema.

Fellow llama*, my first language is trying to kill my English...

Llama fellow works as well as fellow llama, just has a different meaning

So I'm terrible at naming, but something like:

Seed (When this spell resolves, you may sacrifice a non-token creature. If you do, put X 1/1 Saprolings into play, where X is that creature's toughness.)

I would also be ok with the number of Saprolings being the number of +1/+1 counters on the creature, then we could also do things like reprint Bond Beetle

Insect tribal. Bond Beetle, Scute Mob and dat black one that proc's on sacrificing.

Abilities are updated.

Dat flavour text tho.

Germinate is a good name for the ability.

Growth is way too overpowered though. It should probably be "equal to the number of counters" and "whenever a non-token creature dies" or else it won't be fair at all.

Also Growth and Germinate are way too good together. I'd personally rather see Growth on only one or two cards rather than as a keyworded ability due to how strong it could be. Balancing it would be difficult.

Changes are done.

lemmingllama Growth has a different effect for every creature and I meant to put non-token creature. Those were just ideas made up on the spot to work with after all. Didn't know anyone was actually paying attention, really...but yeah, Growth would not always give +1/+1, it might have something like your common Thallids that you remove counters for an effect.

In other words, growth is a pseudo keyword with the defining characteristic being this: "Whenever a nontoken creature dies, put a Spore counter on CARDNAME — [effect].

Yeah, it can be a modernized form of what the Thallids have done in the past. I feel like I'm not sure if I want to make them spore counters due to having to be careful with Thelon of Havenwood making them too ridiculous...but he's in colors anyways, so he might as well be a basis for what the Thannalids are then.

Uh, that's not really what I was thinking of. And this will never touch any constructed card, so don't even worry about those. This is a standalone set that has no relevance to any other ability beyond its own interactions.

Anyways, the Thannalids are Fungus Shamans. Think: Ghave, Guru of Spores.

Oh yeah I love Ghave, but I feel like due to the Thannalids having that lack of white it should have less creature token focus and more creature growth focus.

I'd be ok with Growth being about adding on spore counters. If we do that though, I would vote for Growth to be "whenever a non-token permanent is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, put a Spore counter on this creature" and then the effects are "Remove X Spore counters from this creature: Do things". This way Spore counters can be put onto the creatures more consistently.

Yeah, it's a modified form of the Thallid concept. Maybe even throw in some classic Thallids where they get a counter every upkeep, but primarily Growth will be based off death. I could imagine some nice comfortable combos like "Remove a spore counter: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn" on a slightly higher costed Thanallid to keep combos going.

Removing a single counter to do an effect will likely be too powerful. I would be more in favor of keeping with the original Thallid design if we are doing Growth as spore counters, where you have to remove three counters to do something. We could fiddle with the numbers, make it two or four or some giant ability if you remove ten, but not one. Even with an innocuous ability like "Remove a spore counter: Put target card from a graveyard onto the bottom of it's owner's library." could be bonkers in the right build.

Ah well I was just giving an example anyways, so numbers would be modified after all. But yeah I'd like to see a big bad Thallid effect at ten counters or something, would be neat to see something like that happen. Probably have some pseudo-tribal like how Thelon would give +1/+1 to creatures with spore counters and such. Maybe we could bring in the counter removal stuff mentioned earlier and actually have it remove any counters then? Like "Remove any number of counters from target creature and put that many 1/1 Saprolings onto the battlefield." Of course this would be a bit higher costed due to the versatility.

What I want the Thannalid's subtheme to be is counters, lets not put any tokens in the mix. I want to leave the token subtheme to the Forlorn. We currently have solved the Lutrin subtheme to be equipments/fortifications, the Solas subtheme to be auras and the Steelkin's subtheme to be artifact sac. This helps really balance things, since most of the Thannalid's counters have to do with the death, and removing the ability to make tokens off of the Thannalid's abilities allows us to be a lot more versatile and combative if the Thannalid's were to face of the Forlorn.

So are we in agreement that Entomb and Growth will be the two mechanics for the Thannalid? We can work on the wording, but if we can get the general ideas for each mechanic on the main design page then we can start building cards and also do another forum post with the mechanics to get some feedback.

Just an example of what it could do, I didn't want a token focus anyways due to them being like Ghave minus the white, which is the token color. Thannalids could maybe even have lore referencing how Thallids were made too. I think Thelon himself cultivated a form of self reproducing fungus creature that could make food for his people during harsh winters, yet they grew to be really powerful and he could not stop them. This is lore stuff anyways, back to mechanics. Thannalids probably do fit into the aggro theme we'd need more of.

And yeah, it's probably better that we have the Thannalids more focused on self-growth and destroying other things. I mentioned Thallid since he is the stereotypical thallid, but I do agree that it is better to just do the effects than spit out creatures and sacrifice them for effects.

Thinking Growth could be pre-war and Entomb post-war. Entomb just sounds more aggressive anyways. I did have some stuff allusioning Skullbriar, the Walking Grave as well. Originally got the zone movement idea for Sultai, but later learned about Skullbriar and it seemed like there could be some linking there.

There is a lot of room for how Growth could work, but I don't want them to just copy every Thallid made either. Thannallids won't care about tokens, so at least that will make them mechanically different there.

I don't particularly like entomb + growth myself. They don't synergize. (Then again, neither does soulbond and fate shared, but I can work the cards around that issue to fix it). I would rather have entomb + ungrave together as I made ungrave specifically to synergize post war with entomb. Growth is still a good mechanic, but I think it requires its own war ability, something that synergizes with it more. And the thing I think that will make the Thannalids stick in peoples minds if we make the two mechanics synergize really nicely.