Athambia Academy

Challenges

Challenge from Round 1:
Make the scale of the Academy appropriate to a Magic set. Explore other "wizard school" tropes in addition to the dueling.

Pitches

+ Round 1 Pitch

What is the name of your set?
"Athambia Academy"

What is the core concept of your set?
Magical dueling academy: Top-down "Hogwarts" + "It's time to duel!"

Seven Commons:

Duelist's Arsenal R
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature you control
When ~ enters the battlefield, enchanted creature deals 3 damage to target creature.
Enchanted creature gets +1/+0.

Fine. This could be "to another target creature" so that nobody is forced to duel himself.

Ambition's Cost 3B
Sorcery
Draw three cards.
You lose three life.

One for the Slytherins, I presume? I'm fairly sure this is not a common, but aside from that it's a good choice.

Shifter Pupil 1U
Creature - Shapeshifter
U: ~ gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
1/3

I suppose this is on theme, but it could really go into almost any set. Only the card name lets us know that this is a student.

Eager Competitor W
Creature - Human Wizard
Whenever ~ becomes the target of a spell you control, draw a card.
1/1

I get the flavor here, but this is probably not white and certainly not common.

Prodigal Penitent 2W
Creature - Human Cleric
T: Target creature gains lifelink until end of turn.
2/2

A reasonable design, but the flavor isn't quite clear to me. What is this guy doing at Hogwarts?

Enthralled Kurlodon 2GG
Creature - Beast
Beastmasters who excel at lesser charms are often taken to enthralling great beasts for ease of summoning.
4/4

Sure, this is a good way to fit green fatties into a boarding school.

Beastmaster's Whip 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equip: 1
Equipped creature gets first strike and “T: Target Beast creature gets double strike until end of turn."

Cute. I'd rather it gave haste than double strike, particularly at common, but this is pretty good.

Summary

I'm personally extremely excited about Hogwarts: the Gathering. The biggest reservations expressed by the judges were whether there's enough material in a single school to build a whole set around. After all, most sets are entire planes! Also, much of the magic in such books is small potatoes compared to the stuff we're used to. Your challenge is to make the scale of the Academy appropriate to a Magic set. I'm also interested in seeing what you can do with "wizard school" tropes: learning spells, teachers, prefects, houses, and competitions. It's not obvious that dueling is the most fruitful ground to farm here, although it may turn out fine.

+ Round 2 Pitches

James Bartolotti's Proposal
Antny's Proposal
Jacob Munford's Proposal
Ben Heaton's Proposal
Circeus's Athambia Academy/Sephorgia hybrid Proposal

Worldbuilding

+ Possible approaches for the Magical Boarding School element of this set

• Major focus: Emulate a Harry Potter-esque boarding school life.
• Medium focus: Focus on Wizard Academy tropes from various fiction sources, without necessarily focusing on a kid's world or boarding school life.
• Minor focus: Focus more on elements other than school life, such as wizard houses and their philosophies, high-level wizardry and spellcrafting, or the aspect of learning. The school element is subdued in a way similar to the City flavor of Ravnica, where the flavor is existent in names and art but not really consequential to the way the game plays.
• No focus: Use Harry Potter only as a starting point for inspiration, and find themes such as "Alchemy" "Spellcrafting" or "A world ruled by Wizards." A school environment may not appear in the set at all.

+ World ideas

• A boarding school for kids from various Magic planes.
• A war between rival clans of wizards.
• The whole school is a mini-plane.
• The school houses (like Griffindor) are represented by color combinations.
• A school in Ravnica where the school houses are the Guilds.
• A training ground plane for people who possess the planeswalker spark to prepare for a future invasion by Eldrazi.
• A school in Jace's home plane.
• A multi-planar chain of schools run by the Inifinite Consortium for a sinister purpose. For example, something is causing more people to be born with the spark than usual and the Consortium is trying to collect them.
• The teacher is a famous character such as Urza, Teferi, or Feroz.
• Teenage versions of recognizable characters like Sorin or Jaya Ballard, appearing together.
• A Magocracy world.

Mechanical Themes

Learning

• Choose your Major
• Level Up (possible twists: "tap" level up costs; "when ~ attacks, put a level counter on it")
• Auras
• Lots of Auras
• Creatures that like being targeted by your own spells.
• An instant or sorcery that you can "equip" or "teach" somehow to creatures.
• Teach [cost] ([cost]: exile this from your hand taught to target creature. Whenever that creature attacks, you may cast a copy of this from exile without paying its mana cost)
• Enchantment "Lessons" like Zendikar's "Quests" - achieve a condition to gain a static or repeatable effect
• Knowledge counters - use them to unlock abilities or strengthen pupils.
• Familiars - soulbound animals which wizards use as pets.
• Add your mechanic here!

Wizardry

• Spellshapers
• Splice into Arcane, Splice into Instant/Sorcery
• Storm
• Alternate costs: "you may tap an untapped [color] creature rather than pay ~'s mana cost"
• Add your mechanic here!

Teachers

• A creature that adds a keyword like first strike to another creature.
• Creatures that enhance your spells somehow (such as a Pyromancy teacher that adds +1 damage to damage spells).
• Tutors, whether Idyllic or Diabolic
• Add your mechanic here!

Animal Training

• Build-your-own creature, Simic genetic experimenting
• Add your mechanic here!

Enchantment block

• Basically combine the Sephorgia and Athambia pitches (possibly throwing in the Ethereal mechanic). Sephorgia provides us our mechanical pitch (enchantment block), and Athambia is our flavor pitch (Magical education).

Tomes, Wands, Potions, Owl Familiars, etc.

• Add your mechanic here!

Add your mechanical theme here! (Research, dueling, shape-shifting, alchemy, etc.)

Individual Card Designs

+ Card designs

Beastmaster Incantation XG
Sorcery - R
You may tap an untapped green creature you control with power X rather than pay ~’s mana cost.
Put an X/X green beast creature token onto the battlefield.

Astrology Class 3U
Enchantment - R
Tap an untapped creature you control: look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library.

Genero W
Instant - C
Put a 1/1 white homunculus creature token onto the battlefield.
Teach 2W (2W: exile this from your hand taught to target creature you control. Whenever that creature attacks, you may cast a copy of this from exile without paying its mana cost.)

Willing Experimentee 1R
Creature - Flamekin Wizard - U
Whenever ~ is the target of a spell, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
1/1

Apprentice's Fire 1R
Instant
Major in Instants (When you cast this, you may choose Instants as your Major if you haven't chosen a Major this game.)
Apprentice's Fire deals 3 damage to target creature. If Instants are your Major, it also deals 3 damage to that creature's controller.

Novice Enchantress 2W
Creature - Human Shaman
1/3
Major in Enchantments (When you cast this, you may choose Enchantments as your Major if you haven't chosen a Major this game.)
When Novice Enchantress enters the battlefield, you may put target Aura card from your graveyard into your hand.
Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, if enchantments are your Major, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.

Owl Familiar 2W
Creature - Bird
1/1
Flying
When [Name] dies you gain life equal to the number of knowledge counter on [Name].
Soulbound – If one or more knowledge counter would be placed on Owl familiar or the creature it is bound with place an addition knowledge counter on it.
“Pupils would always beg for a dragon or griffin to take to school, but parents would sensibly pick something would aid rather than distract from their studies.”

Rookie Diviner 2U
Creature - Cephalid Mystic
1/2
T: Look at the top X cards of your library where X is the number of knowledge counters on ~. You may put them back on top of your library in any order.
Booktrained ( During your upkeep if the number of cards in your hand is greater or equal to the number of knowledge counters on [Name], place a knowledge counter on [Name].)
“Caerulon students often spend so long in the library it is often mistaken for their dormitory.”

Pride of Vraka 1RR
Creature - Cat Warrior
2 / 2
~ has first strike if it has 3 or more knowledge counters.
~ has double strike if it has 6 or more knowledge counters.
Battletrained (When [Name] attacks place a knowledge counter on it)
“Each time we duel I become a better fighter.”

Other Discussions

• Choose your Major
• Learning Enchantments

Links

• Round 1 Pitch on Goblin Artisans