Monarchy is a keyword ability that I have been working on for years. I will be discussing the blend of flavor and function, both of which Monarchy is based on. So here is the concept of Monarchy.
The base functional text of Monarchy is as follows "Monarchy - [Ability] as long as ~ is a Monarch. (At the beginning of your upkeep, if you don't control a Monarch, you may have a permanent with Monarchy you control become a Monarch in addition to its other creature types. This effect lasts indefinitely.)" In lay terms, Monarchy turns a normal creature in to a leader. When a creature becomes a Monarch, it will lead in a different way.
From the flavor angle, creatures with Monarchy tend to have "male" flavor, where as creature that are just Monarchs are "female." From a flavor stand point this makes sense, as the "kings" are appointed where as "queens" either are married in or come from nobility. This however has created an issue. When played together, "queens" can block the Monarchy creatures from becoming "kings." The issue is less prevalent in a setting where creatures die often and makes getting your "king" online more challenging, which promotes more skillful play. If it becomes a real issue, Monarch could be changed to King and Queen, but I'd like to avoid that.
This ability started as a "pope" ability where a creature was elected "pope", but flavor wise it made little sense to have both players with a "pope." Using Monarchs instead opens up the options of who can be a leader while keeping the in-fighting flavor. The flavor of "queen" really adds to the flavor (I'll talk about "queens" next time).
Please let me know what you think. The most important aspect of an ability is that it functions with in the rules and is intuitive. Monarchy has been festering in my mind for years, but really needs outside reality checks. Do you think this could lead to interesting and fun plays? If not, how could it improve? Thank you for reading and for you input.
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