Everybody Hates Naya?
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Posted on May 15, 2019, 2:59 p.m. by ZendikariWol
I've heard that Naya was the least well-liked out of all the planes, and I kinda get why. Their main mechanic was very, very casual, as were their colors.
But what I haven't heard is... how could that be fixed? I'm building a return to Alara set (maybe a block, who knows?), and am seriously struggling with ideas for a Naya mechanic. Here's my food for thought so far:
The denizens of Naya revere gargantuans.
Gargantuans are very large creatures.
Naya is largely a jungle, in case that helps anything.
ZendikariWol says... #3
I love tokens, clayperce and, yes, they are a very strong strategy in the colors, but it wouldn't make any sense with Naya's flavor.
May 15, 2019 3:19 p.m.
What about something like a pseudo-Cascade effect? Reveal a creature or (basic) land to go to your hand from the top X cards where X is the creature's power when it ETB?
It's easy to scale through rarity and has a good mix of chance - you might help yourself ramp to something big, get something big, or whiff with a smaller creature... which is fine because you don't want every creature to be an Elvish Visionary, sometimes you won't draw the extra card.
To help balance you can decide what happens with any cards not put in your hand - maybe randomly back on top would be interesting?
May 15, 2019 4:34 p.m.
GhostChieftain says... #5
I would say have it somewhat like the evolve mechanic mixed with something like heroic, where it has a different effect when a larger creature enters the battlefield.
Ex.
Herald of the feast
Elf
Revere- when a creature with greater power than Herald of the feast enters the battlefield under your control draw a card
3/2
May 15, 2019 4:39 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #6
Well BS-T, that feels very Sunbird's Invocation / Cream of the Crop . I don’t like the idea of having a mechanic that functions like other cards.
GhostChieftain that seems pretty good, actually. I might go with that.
May 15, 2019 6:16 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #7
GhostChieftain I’ve done some thinking, some looking into mechanics and storm scales, and here’s what I’ve come down on.
Reverence as you put it has a serious limit, in that it can only be applied to creatures. And, while that does prove fitting for the mechanic, I have a lot of creature-based mechanics in this set.
Bant is coming back with Renown.
Esper... has artifacts, but hear me out!
Grixis, I think, is gonna be centered around discarding cards or sacrificing permanents somehow. Prior to this exact second I was thinking their main mechanic might be discarding creatures, but as is, I think their main thing will be “no pain, no gain.” Paying life, sacrificing permanents, discarding cards. Idk. She’s a work in progress. Perhaps a keyword “contract”??
Jund’s keyword is Predation (though I could be convinced to fall back on Scavenge or Devour). Predation reads “When this creature attacks, you may sacrifice a creature. If you do, (effect).”
Naya’s is now not an actual keyword, it interacts with creatures either with power X or greater or power X or less- to symbolize Naya’s admiration for varying forms of life. It’s going to function similarly to old Naya but wider and more applicable. And it lets Nayans appreciate the insects and things that might not be so gargantuan.
May 15, 2019 9:20 p.m.
landofMordor says... #8
I like that last point, ZenWol -- after the Conflux, each shard has had their philosophies thrown into question, and each has probably needed to reevaluate what makes them unique. With that as the focus of a new set, it would make sense for Naya's horizons to broaden.
A mechanical thought -- you could do Revere X (whenever a creature power X or greater enters, do this), which lets you do it on noncreature permanents. Then again, I guess that is still restrictive on what knobs you can turn, because Revere 1 would be busted.
May 16, 2019 9:51 a.m.
ZendikariWol says... #9
I'm thinking most anything under 3 will be "power less than", landofMordor... and also I'm exploring this a little more indepth in a forum in the Lore thread.
clayperce says... #2
Idk about the Plane itself, but I love Naya colors :-)
I'd rec' a Token theme ... some of my favorite Naya Commanders ( Rith, the Awakener and Hazezon Tamar ) worked very well with that as a theme. It's maybe like you said, that the denizens revere huge Creatures ... so a huge Creature that makes more worshipers seems quite on-flavor.
In case it might help, my favorite way to pick themes is to check the available Commanders in those colors and see what theme(s) they suggest. If nothing else, we know there's already enough support for them in those colors to make a decent EDH deck. Here are the Naya ones ...
Good luck (and good skill) with the design!
May 15, 2019 3:14 p.m. Edited.