The ability is called "Manifest" and it's a variant of cycling.
"Manifest X (pay X, Discard this card: Put a 1/1 colorless Spirit creature token onto the battlefield.)"
Fairly simple, but potent. Both Manifest and Cycling are designed to give alternative value to cards that might not be usable in all situations. Cycling grants you a replacement card, Manifest gives you a body to attack, block, or use towards another effect.
Today I'll show off the common cycle of cards, all very basic but fill niche effects (good for designing cards for limited environments). All of the cards run off the basic cost of 2 mana to manifest, nothing fancy. Later this week I'll be looking further into the design space of the ability in terms of costs, and abilities that trigger when you manifest cards.
Sadly none of the art I used had sources (again, acquired from Wallbase). If you know who created any of the art, please comment below so I can give them proper credit. So without further ado, the common cycle of Manifest.
Tomorrow I'll show you a cycle of cards based off of Snapcaster Mage.
All of them interesting in their own right, and as over powered as their blue brethren.
I like manifest! It's a nice alternative to cycling.
ReplyDeleteWhy is the white one a sorcery and the green one an instant?
ReplyDeleteI wanted a mix of sorceries and instants in the cycle. Making the white one a sorcery, and green an instant was based off of a couple points:
DeleteThe first being current power level of cards. In standard we have naturalize, but no disenchant. Green also has rampant growth. I didn't want something that was going to be almost strictly better than disenchant, a card we don't even have available to us in white at the moment. On the other hand with green, I wanted something that would compete with rampant growth, but play a slightly different role.
The second point is playability. Artifact/Enchantment removal can see play at almost any speed, people just perfer instants. Ramp spells see play mostly at one to two mana for a +1 effect, any three mana needs to add a +1.5 (usually a solid +1 & a temporary +1, think harrow or growth spasm). Lacking the temporary +1, I decided instant speed & the alternative effect would balance it out.