[Workshop Wednesday] Ladies Love Green Armor Plating

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    Welcome back to TwistedSpoon Studio! Today we're talking custom design, and to continue the sci-fi theme of the last few articles, today we're talking power suits. Inspired by space sci-fi from Halo to Warhammer 40K, this cycle is intended for a hypothetical Commander preconstructed product.


Gear Up

    Suits are a new artifact subtype that acts like equipment, but attaches to players. The Don ability allows you to attach a suit to a player-- any player-- at sorcery speed. Each of the suits in today's cycle also has an enters-the battlefield ability.

    While it may not seem strictly necessary, the etb-effects are actually what makes this work. After all, if you want an artifact that gives you abilities, those already exist: they're called artifacts. Putting those extra effects behind a cost begs the question, why not just make them more expensive?

    Thanks to these spell-like effects, these go from artifacts with extra steps, to spells that can give you extra value later. Instead of playing an artifact in installments, you can do something relevant with the turn that you play this, and don it later when you have spare mana. The balance for the etb-effects are based on 3-4 mana instants and sorceries. 

    The other fun wrinkly in this design is the fact that you can attach these to any player. In Two-Headed Giant, you can suit up your buddy and watch them run wild. In Commander, you can secure alliances, pay back debts, or even king-make by slapping these on your opponents. (And later pull the rug out from under them when you don the suit yourself in the final showdown.)

    The biggest issue that I have with these designs is the flavor execution. On the one hand, they play better when you can stack multiple suits, much like equipment decks tend to do. On the other hand, the idea of wearing multiple suits at once feels a bit weird. Then again, we are talking about a game where a dog holding a sword and pilot a helicopter, so maybe I'm overthinking it.

    How about you? What would you make with the bottom-up premise of player-equipment? Or the top-down conceit of sci-fi power armor? Let us know down below, in the subreddit, or just post your designs to r/CustomMagic!

    

Wax Don, Wax Doff

    That's all for this week. Tune back in on FUR Friday for the final worldbuilding article before we start designing again, or check back in next Monday to learn about the One-Hour Game Jam! If you want to see more custom Magic content, have a look at the last Workshop Wednesday, where we try out three different cyberpunk mechanics. If you're more into big-picture design talk, see our two-part Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty analysis-- Part 1 and Part 2.

    See you soon!

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