New Mechanic: Repair
Custom Cards forum
Posted on April 28, 2020, 2:50 p.m. by TheCardPool
Hey everyone! Came up with an idea for a new artifact creature mechanic and wanted some feedback on it. For an example, here's a generic-level card with the mechanic as I envision it:
Orthodoxy Observer
Artifact Creature—Drone
When Orthodoxy Observer enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying.
Repair 3 (When this creature dies, exile it from your graveyard and put three time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from it. Then, if this card has no time counters on it, you may cast it until end of turn.)
2/1
I saw it as a mix of impulse draw and suspend, getting at the trope of self-fixing machines. Of course getting a free cast would be bonkers, but I think having to pay for it again or lose it forever when the time counters are up balances it.
Thoughts? Ideas? Is Repair too good? Not good enough? What are the limitations here? I welcome all feedback!
TheCardPool says... #3
Flooremoji yes, exactly! Knew there was a card I couldn't think of, haha. Hmm I don't mind the discard idea. That could actually work pretty well. I was thinking these costs could come in variable numbers too, like Repair 2, Repair 4, etc.
In reference to limited, I'm mainly a commander player so I usually only think about that format when I'm designing. However, what you said is spot-on. That would be super boring. So an extra cost is probably needed.
April 28, 2020 3:42 p.m.
Honestly I like it, and I think itd be interesting in a standard set if you made the discard part of the cost of their mana cost might be a mistake though. Maybe having the discard be a may ability when they die would be interesting so you can choose whether or not they come back (at a cost).
Also, I can imagine some interesting cards with it, such as having a phoenix with Repair 1, a creature who has repair X where X is the mana cost of the card discarded, etc.
Also, a quick question: do all these cards have to be artifact creatures? And what colors would you have this mechanic in?
April 28, 2020 4:11 p.m.
TheCardPool says... #5
dbpunk that's actually exactly what I was thinking. The revised Repair would read like this:
Repair 3 (When this creature dies, you may discard a card. If you do, exile it from your graveyard and put three time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from it. Then, if this card has no time counters on it, you may cast it until end of turn.)
Those are some cool spins on the mechanic, I'll have to think about it! As per your other notes, I was thinking of this mainly as an Esper () mechanic because that's where most artifacts are, and having this on something that's not an artifact would feel flavorfully weird. However, I like the idea of a red Repair Phoneix...definitely stealing that one.
Thoughts on making it on non-creature artifacts, too? I thought about that but wasn't sure if it was too busted, especially if they could sacrifice themselves.
April 28, 2020 4:32 p.m.
So speaking technically, organisms do repair themselves through cellular regeneration, but since thats not strict common knowledge it might be a bit odd. Honestly changing the name of a keyword to something else is a pretty easy task usually.
Additionally, theres so many uses for this kind of mechanic that it would be limiting to only include it on artifact creatures. Especially since there is no strict artifact theme tying the mechanic to artifacts.
April 28, 2020 8:30 p.m.
jconeil1988 says... #7
This seems pretty similiar to the undying mechanic, that I could see this being artifact creature specific, or like an etherium artificer, being able to grant the ability to non artifact creatures with the use of an instant or enchantment.
April 29, 2020 11:10 a.m.
TheCardPool says... #8
jconeil1988 I didn't really think about undying with this but I guess it is kind of like that! Just maybe a little less broken? Haha. I'm not sure if I'd want this to extend beyond artifacts but it's totally possible!
Flooremoji says... #2
So, basically an Epochrasite like mechanic?
Seems like it would really slow down limited. I think most games of limited would play down to the clock, so somthing would need to be added to the cost so it wasn't just swing in, all get block, everything dies, then recast them x turns later.
I think discarding a card in addition to their cost would make for a more balanced and flavorful mechanic.
April 28, 2020 3:27 p.m.