General Alternative Resource Systems

[Velrun]

The basic structure of the game currently is that you start with a small fixed deck. You play a Best of 5 and Grid Draft between games to add cards to your deck. There are some things that carry over between games, and ways to trash friendly / enemy cards.

There would be no land cards.

Discover is a 'Pick 1 of 3' (from the pile of cards that you grid draft from).

That sounds amazing for tournaments! Especially if there could be an impartial judge to help all the players in all the game with the discoveries.

I would play that format! I would play the Griselbrand out of it!

 

[Velrun]

People concerned about 2 free draws, would an alteration like this be appealing?

- (max once per turn) Draw a card.
- (max once per turn) Gain an empty mana crystal (tapped land). Max 10 mana crystals.
- Gain a temporary mana (is lost at the start of your turn)
- Pay _ mana (2? 4?): Draw a card

Something where the first draw is free, but the second cuts into your ability to play stuff that turn. Less elegant but maybe more functional.

Yes that would suffice but allow me to suggest:

- Gain an empty mana crystal (Tapped land)
- Gain a full mana crystal this turn only (Lotus Petal)
- Draw a card.
- Exile the top card, you may cast it this turn only.

So a permanent and temporary mana/draw each turn.

And bonus fifth option:
- Scry 3.

If you implement these rules (your own or mine; either way) I believe you should provide the players with some kind of game board that serves as a reminder to what they can choose. Like some piece of paper where the options are listed.

If you do this, then you can also make the rules sleightly more advanced. Maybe something like this:

Players begin with two ACTION TOKENS and may move them each turn or let them stay where they already are. Both moving them and keeping them on the same spot is called ‘moving’ the ACTION TOKENS.

At the beginning of each turn, move both your ACTION TOKENS to two ACTION SPOTS. You must move both action tokens only simultanously.

The different ACTION SPOTS available:

- Draw a card.
- Draw a card. Move only to this ACTION SPOT if there is no ACTION TOKEN on this spot already.
- Play a tapped land.
- Play a tapped land. The ACTION TOKEN placed on this spot is permanently exile after this turn.
- Play a untapped land. Put it back into the LAND BOX at the end of this turn.
- Scry 2.

Players keep their ACTION TOKENS on the ACTION SPOTS when they pass the turn and the ACTION TOKENS begin the next turn on the same spots before they are moved to new spots. In this way players cannot draw 2 cards each turn.

In this way your game would be a lot more strategic because the players have a lot of options to share their turn strategies according to their game plan and the board state.

 

[Suicufnoc]

People concerned about 2 free draws, would an alteration like this be appealing?

- (max once per turn) Draw a card.
- (max once per turn) Gain an empty mana crystal (tapped land). Max 10 mana crystals.
- Gain a temporary mana (is lost at the start of your turn)
- Pay _ mana (2? 4?): Draw a card

Something where the first draw is free, but the second cuts into your ability to play stuff that turn. Less elegant but maybe more functional.

I don't think the option to draw 2 is probably necessary if you don't have the risk of mana flood/screw.
What's the reasoning for making the mana tapped?

I kind of wonder how it would play with one action per turn:
- Draw a card.
- Gain an empty mana crystal (tapped land). Max 10 mana crystals.

So my real proposal (1 per turn)
- Draw a card.
- Draw 2, discard 2. (not sure about this one)
- Gain 2 mana crystals. Max 20 mana crystals.
- Gain 3 empty mana crystals (tapped land).

or

Draw a card + (1 per turn)
- Draw 1, discard 1. (this could be scry 1 if the draw happens afterwards.)
- Gain 2 mana crystals. Max 20 mana crystals.
- Gain 3 empty mana crystals (tapped land).

This creates two extreme opposite mana curves:
2 drop, 4 drop, 6 drop, 8 drop
no play, 3 drop, 6 drop, 9 drop

those both seem reasonably similar enough to me that it can probably be balanced. Makes it less likely that you have cards in hand you can't play on curve

Additional thoughts:
this is really different. I wonder if this would mean you just built your deck for one of the two curves? I mean there's more options than that...

Plan A: Run 2 drops, 4 drops, maybe some 6, take 2 mana every turn.
Plan B: run 3, 6, 9, take 3 a turn.
Plan C: run 2,3,5, Start with a 2 or 3 drop depending on hand, can get to a 5 drop turn 3 either way.
Plan D: run some one drops, start with 2 or 2+1 or 3
Plan E: run more one drops, start with 1+1 or 2 or 2+1.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I think Velrun's first suggestion is really elegant, a simple and grokkable choose 2 from a short list of options. Sweet and to the point, and the exile and play this turn is a good analogy to gaining a full mana crystal for a turn.

 

[Velrun]

Sweet and to the point, and the exile and play this turn is a good analogy to gaining a full mana crystal for a turn.

Yeah that’s what I was going for. My only issue with this is the fact that you NEVER want to exile instead of drawing but you sometimes want to gain untapped land for a turn instead of a tapped.

 

[Jason Waddell]

A couple thoughts re: exiling.

I'm not entirely against it, but I have some complexity concerns. I think for veterans of Magic it's pretty intuitive, but for others less so. It also has weird (bad) interactions with instants / counterspells.

I think if there was a mana cost associated with the second draw, there's a bit more of a dilemma about what to do. Say it's:
- Pay 3 mana: Draw a card.

Then you have an end-game dilemma between your 7-mana two-card turn and your 11-mana one-card turn. Is that interesting? Maybe...


Another idea I had for an actual end-game ability was:
- (two actions) Lose 5 mana crystals: Shuffle your graveyard into your library.

This would kind of "reset" you to the midgame, and I think be a bit skilltesting.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Maybe: "Reveal the top card of your deck. You may play it (pay costs as normal). If you don't, put it on the bottom of your deck."?

 

[Jason Waddell]

If there's interest, I'll make a full write-up on the current prototype design. Here's are a couple cards that may be useful for the discussion:

For most horizontal lines, there's some condition to be met to do the bottom side. Here, the green circle means you have to have a Green card in your graveyard. All mana is "colorless", but some cards will need you to sequence / deckbuild in such a way in order to get full value.

The trashcan symbol means you trash the card. It's gone from your deck and can't be used for the remaining games. So you have to weigh short term gain versus the long-term strength of your deck.

Of course, there are also cards with multiple pips for their bottom half.

Spoiler

Anyways, given the "cards in graveyard" as a resource, maybe a temporary card draw could be something like:
"Draw a card. At the end of your turn, discard a card."

For you Panglacial Wurm fans.