General Brainstorming: Low Fantasy Cube

[Sorrynametaken]

This is an idea I've been thinking about for a while. The basic concept is an environment with no non-human humanoids(Elves, Goblins and so on...). I am imagining a world that has magic but doesn't have dragons, angels or demons, but magically enhanced real life animals may exist such as Mystic Snake and Giant Scorpion. This restriction would create a distinct environment from a flavor and gameplay standpoint.
With a human-centric cube, the evasion will be limited, but perhaps this is the kind of the environment where abilities like flanking and banding(!) can shine. Birds and Bats can provide some evasion as well. I took a look at humans in all the colors and not surprisingly White has very strong choices, so the power level on that end will have to be controlled.

Restrictions(subject to change)
-Creatures can only be humans, golem-like artifact creatures, (roughly)real life animals or objects.*
-Art must be consistent with the first restriction. Seventh Edition Pacifism is ok, but not the Grakk art. Syndic of Tithes is a human, but its artwork depicts a thrull, so it is not acceptable.

Now I am making this thread to brainstorm ideas of cards or themes I could focus on. For example, a soldier theme in White is clearly doable and many of Blue's humans are wizards. Green still has access to some bigger creatures, fixing and ramp. Red seems to have a decent assortment of options in pingers and (relatively) aggressive humans. *Since Black has such a heavy theme of necromancy and the graveyard that is hard to ignore, I'm fairly certain I want to allow zombies and cards that depict zombies, but they must be sufficiently human-looking or animal-looking.
Below I have some lists for humans in all five colors plus animals. These are not comprehensive; they are just some of the cards that stuck out to me as I dug through Gatherer.
(I realize these labels sound awkwardo_O )
White Humans
Blue Humans
Black Humans
Red Humans
Green Humans
Animals
Zombies
Flankers

 

[Jason Waddell]

This is an idea I've been thinking about for a while. The basic concept is an environment with no non-human humanoids(Elves, Goblins and so on...). I am imagining a world that has magic but doesn't have dragons, angels or demons, but magically enhanced real life animals may exist such as Mystic Snake and Giant Scorpion. This restriction would create a distinct environment from a flavor and gameplay standpoint.
With a human-centric cube, the evasion will be limited, but perhaps this is the kind of the environment where abilities like flanking and banding(!) can shine. Birds and Bats can provide some evasion as well. I took a look at humans in all the colors and not surprisingly White has very strong choices, so the power level on that end will have to be controlled.

Restrictions(subject to change)
-Creatures can only be humans, golem-like artifact creatures, (roughly)real life animals or objects.*
-Art must be consistent with the first restriction. Seventh Edition Pacifism is ok, but not the Grakk art. Syndic of Tithes is a human, but its artwork depicts a thrull, so it is not acceptable.

Now I am making this thread to brainstorm ideas of cards or themes I could focus on. For example, a soldier theme in White is clearly doable and many of Blue's humans are wizards. Green still has access to some bigger creatures, fixing and ramp. Red seems to have a decent assortment of options pingers and (relatively) aggressive humans. *Since Black has such a heavy theme of necromancy and the graveyard that is hard to ignore, I'm fairly certain I want to allow zombies and cards that depict zombies, but they must be sufficiently human-looking or animal-looking.
Below I have some lists for humans in all five colors plus animals. These are not comprehensive; they are just some of the cards that stuck out to me as I dug through Gatherer.
(I realize these labels sound awkwardo_O )
White Humans
Blue Humans
Black Humans
Red Humans
Green Humans
Animals
Zombies
Flankers

Interesting idea, I've never designed entirely from a flavor perspective. How do you think this restriction will affect the color balance? Blue seems fairly lacking in the human department.

Maybe you could borrow the flavor of something like Game of Thrones? That gives you access to Ajani (white walkers, get it? heh), but more importantly zombies and a sprinkling of draggons.

Are there many flying humans? Or is this going to be super ground-based warfare? Horsemanship?

 

[Sorrynametaken]

There actually are a few airships(Rishadan Airship, Stronghold Zeppelin, Talas Air Ship) and some decent birds in Blue. My initial list of Blue humans is quite small because I excluded some more narrow cards. Perhaps I can push an overall artifact theme with golems, myrs and such that Blue could take advantage of.

I figure equipment, auras and combat tricks can help break up stalls along with some non-conventional evasion(threat of activation abilities, flanking, bushido). For now, I'd prefer to stay away from horsemanship since it is P3K-specific.

A Game of Thrones-like world is a good comparison of what I'm going for, so a sprinkling of fantastical creatures may be admitted.

 

[Jason Waddell]

I would imagine unblockable would be a pretty strong mechanic with a dearth of flying creatures.

Where do you come down on animal hybrids?

 

[Eric Chan]

It's probably my nostalgia nerve being tweaked, but I can get behind any cube where both flanking and banding are themes.

I suppose my concern is that white gets a disproportionate amount of the goodies. Even with your extensive animal list, it seems like white's list of humans outnumber and probably outclass the best of what the other colours have to offer. If you're using flavour as a design constraint, maybe you should take that challenge even further, and flesh out your fantasy world before continuing. It might be worthwhile to picture and lay out just what is going on in this particular world, figure out what the different countries and continents look like, what type of people inhabit them, and so on, so that you can justify the inclusion of more non-human creatures, while still fitting everything into your creative vision. Like, the golems subtheme seems like a good idea, and you could probably stretch to fit a bunch more creature types without breaking the illusion of low fantasy. Human-looking dwarves? Giants that aren't particularly.. giant? A lot of elves already look 90% human (sometimes moreso than actual humans), but I'm not sure if you want to open up that can of worms.

And if you're going for Game of Thrones-type fantasy, you gotta have wolves (!!).

 

[Sorrynametaken]

Animal Hybrids: Perhaps; especially if it fits with a mad scientist vibe.

@Eric
I'd rather stick primarily with the rules I have set so far regarding creature types. Humans, wildlife, zombies, and golems/constructs. After reading your post and checking the animal list again, I realized I left out wolves somehow. I certainly want to include several of them as they seem mostly playable and I have put them in the list for consideration.

White may have a disportionate amount of good choices, but that just means I need to balance accordingly and not give White a huge advantage. Maybe I should try to build the weakest color section first. Which color do you guys think suffers the most? Another way could be to put all the flankers I can and build the creature sections around that.

As for defining the world, that may be a good idea. Here is a starting point. This is a low fantasy setting with some slight steampunk elements(Golems, I suppose). White mostly represents the military and the ruling government that regulates the use of magic and magical objects(Disenchant ). Knights, Soldiers and such. Blue mostly represents scientists(Wizards) who have, through engineering and magic, have developed Golems and other tools. The general population respects them, but is also suspicious of their activities. I can include a disportionately large artifact section to make "artifacts matter" cards relevent. Blue should have the most cards that interact positively with artifacts. Black represents cultists who practice necromancy, mercenaries(not the creature type), rogues and, of course, the results of Black magic, Zombies. Red: Firemages, bandits, barbarians and marauders. Green: Mostly wildlife, with a few rangers and the like.

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Did someone say banding?

Get some camels in there.