A lot of my ideas simply come from coming across an interesting word or phrase and building a card around it. That’s how my mind works; yes, I know, I need professional help, one of these days I’ll be able to afford it.
Calcification
R
Enchant Creature
Target creature gains +0/+2 and becomes a Wall in addition to its normal creature type or types.
This could be a nifty little card similar to Laccolith Rig, playable both on your or your opponent’s creature. You can protect your critter by making it tougher or eliminate an annoying attacking creature of your opponents. And, you could now have things like a Rebel Legend Wall.
I originally called it "Ossification," but that’s a little too out there even for me, the King of Arcane Terminology.
Sometimes the silly ideas end up being pretty good:
Deference
UU
Enchant Creature
Unless creature enchanted by Deference attacks, no other creature that player controls can attack.
Oh no. After you. I insist.
Volcano God
Land
TAP: Put a virgin counter on Volcano God
2, TAP: Remove a virgin counter from Volcano God: Target creature deals no combat damage this turn.
The continued survival of the village depended upon the supply of virtuous maidens.
Come to think of it, there hasn’t been a Polynesian-themed expansion yet. I wonder if…
Desiccate
1R
Instant
Desiccate deals 2 damage to target creature or player or 4 damage to target white creature.
It provides nice symmetry to Parch and a nice way to get rid of those annoying three and four toughness white creatures. That is, assuming there are any annoying three and four toughness white creatures out there in Type II these days.
Speaking of symmetry:
Finest Hour
W
Enchantment
All creatures are white.
Gotta have that balance. We have Darkest Hour in Urza’s Saga, we have Finest Hour here. Not so coincidentally, this idea came to me while watching a PBS special on the Battle of Britain.
Twin Killing
2UU
Instant
Counter target spell. Put a 1/1 blue Spirit token creature into play. This creature has flying and "Sacrifice Spirit: Counter target spell with the same name as the spell originally countered by Twin Killing."
Oy vey, I’m gonna have to work on the wording of that one. Sort of a mini-Quash that can end up countering two spells for the price of one.
Speaking of wordy and unwieldy…
Path of Glory
2WW
Enchantment
When Path of Glory comes into play, choose a creature type.
All creatures of this type are considered Legends in addition to their normal creature type.
The coronation was going well until they all started arguing over who actually stabbed Morg in the back.
So what does this card do? If your opponent has, say, three Mogg Toadies in play and you drop this, all of the sudden all the Goblins become Goblin Legends, meaning, under Legend rules, you’ve got two Legendary Mogg Toadies too many.
Funky, yes, but I like it.
You know what else would be cool? If a future expansion would make more Rebels and Mercenaries, increasing the playability of those in Mercadian block. And not just a smattering of non-white and non-black Mercs and Rebels-how about some gold ones, ones that went across colors.
For example:
Rebel Flagellant
1WR
Summon Creature – Rebel
2/2
First strike
R, Sacrifice Rebel Flagellant: Rebel Flagellant deals two damage to target creature or player.
They live only to die.
Prodigious Sorcerer
2BU
Summon Creature – Mercenary
1/3
TAP: Prodigious Sorcerer deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
B, TAP: Prodigious Sorcerer deals 2 damage to target creature of player. Put a -0/-1 counter on Prodigious Sorcerer.
With greater power comes greater cost.
Yes, a bit of a play on "Prodigal Sorcerer" there.
Looking back at my chrysalids, I imagine that I’ll need some appropriate hosers and boosters for the mechanic:
Early Frost
1B
Sorcery
Put two chrysalis counters on each chrysalid in play.
Growth Spurt
1G
Sorcery
Remove one chrysalis counter from all chrysalids in play.
I miss Enchant Worlds. There were some cool ones in Legends, a few in Homelands and Mirage block, and none since. I always thought it made for an interesting mechanic, in that you could get rid of an annoying Nether Void with a Concordant Crossroads.
State of Grace
3WWW
Enchant World
Creatures cannot attack. All damage dealt to players and creature is reduced to 0.
Something for my latest attempt to resurrect the Millstone deck. Ah, Millstone, how I miss thee.
Nightfall
BBBB
Enchant World
All black creatures gain +1/+1. All non-black creatures gain -1/-1.
If we’re going to reprint Enchant Worlds, they might as well provide some bang for the buck.
Other than showing off my massive mutant brain’s knack for inventing cards, what’s the purpose of this exercise, you ask? Well, here’s my challenge to you, the Star City readers: Send me your ideas for cards, using the aforementioned mechanics or whatever else you might have invented. I figure between me and my many readers (all six of you), we should be able to put together our own little one-hundred-odd card expansion.
I’ll sort through all the submissions and in a few weeks’ time (or months, I’m pretty busy with work these days), I’ll publish the entire list of what the Star City Magic Expansion will look like. Maybe we’ll even get some artwork.
What do you win if your ideas are selected? Well, you get my eternal pride and admiration, and you’re name in print with your submissions. Sorry, you want the million dollars; you’ll have to go eat fried rat with the rest of those schmucks on the island.
So what are you waiting for?