Bob - Designing What Has Already Been Designed

Today I'd like to go over a handful of older mechanics, and trying out some unused design space on them, or combining them with other mechanics to create something new.

Suspend

Suspend was always an interesting mechanic. You pay a small amount early to get something better later on. It actually casts the card and doesn't just put it onto the battlefield, so you could put it on instants/sorceries. They even did alternative ways to remove counters (such as Deep-Sea Kraken & Greater Gargadon). They also made a cycle of repeating spells (although they weren't very good).

What I wanted to try was combining the design space of the repeating spell, with the flicker/return to hand bounce that some blue creatures are known for. I give you Chrono Witch. What might be interesting to try for the future is alternative suspend costs in place of just mana.

Sidenote: The formatting on Magic Set Editor for suspend is actually incorrect, it should be "Suspend X -- Cost"

Morbid

While not really a keyword, morbid is a useful descriptor for more thematic or flavorful cards.

Blood Frenzied Samurai was a top down design from the image, morbid obviously fit it very closely. It also represents the only morbid ability that triggers instantly when a creature dies (the only other repeat trigger is reaper from the abyss).

Evoke + Unearth

Both abilities are similar in that they give you a one use effect of a creature. Only difference is what zones they're played from, and how long the creature gets to stay in play. When combined they can create tons of utility. 

When designing hell dragger, I could have just done a single leave play ability, however I wanted her flavor to make whoever she took with her, to experience the exact same effect. So when she died, so did her enemy, and when she was exiled, so again was her new enemy. Oddly enough, this wasn't a top down design, and the image was the last piece added to the card.

Affinity

Affinity, when combined with a lot of other affinity, and many cheaply costed affinity based objects, is broken. However, affinity from a design aspect is just really cool. It rewards you for playing multiples of certain card types and theme decks. However, who said it had to be limited to card types?

I think there's a lot of design space left for affinity. Searching behemoth is just one example, but what about life totals? Or reverse affinity for life, or cards in hand? Cards in deck, graveyards, etc... Who says affinity can only be for card types.

Haunt

Lastly I want to talk about Haunt. Always used with an enter the battlefield ability that recurs later on in the game. But why does it always have to be an enter the battlefield effect? Isn't the flavor of ghosts cursing something until it dies a lot more variable? What about the haunted creature having -1/-1 while it's haunted. Maybe the haunted creature is so incapacitated by fear that it can't attack or block?

Or maybe a witch who lives on through death?

One of the important pieces of design is not just attempting to create new ideas and concepts, but to look at what has already been done by you and others. Examine the flavor, and specifically what the effects do to cards. Is there another zone that could be utilized? What about other types of cards or resources that can be counted? Explore abilities and look back on older ones, and you might find something cool and interesting that has yet to be done.

Tomorrow I'll go over the rare cycle for Manifest, so make sure to check in for that around midnight if you like what you've seen so far.