Tribal
I don't think that Athambia Academy should be a tribal set.
I do think that there should be minor tribal elements among the five houses to help provide each with a very specific mechanical identity.
Tribal
In my original drafts of the set, the only creature type that would be called out in the set would be "Beast", as a sort of runner for different creatures that would be summoned or augmented by the students or trainees. In Magic, anything from standard green vanillas to Blast-ended Skrewts to the Vizzerdrix can fit into the catchall "Beast" clade. This could allow us to make some "creature-handler" style cards, any of which could themselves be from any type or tribe, while working within the block with a unified type.
See - I'm still thinking in terms of a block.
I'd set the seeds in the large set and make the tribal elements matter in the smaller sets.
What I liked about the "Beast-master" mechanic was that it didn't need to be part of a tribal set— It was just a single tribal mechanic to give an identity to those who specialized in "care of magical creatures".
I think having houses focus on fields like Enchantments, Artifacts, Instants, Sorceries, and Creatures would communicate a world of Wizards better. Tribal doesn't sound Wizardly to me.
For Tribes, some creatures like Illusions, Elementals, Shades, and Zombies could represent a branch of magic (in fact there was a Mondombre round 2 pitch that suggested Illusion magic). However, I'm not sure it should be a big theme. Spellcasting and learning should be bigger themes in this set than tribes.
Playing up affiliations with different spell types is an excellent suggestion to consider.
It could break down something like this:
Drakmor House — UB Artifacts — In this world, all artifacts have an evilness to them. They're easy to use, but corrupting or dangerous.
Sylvania House — RG Creatures — These are the keepers of wild things. Beasts other houses might have put down.
House Duval — GW Enchantments — This house seeks beauty through enchancement, as well as protection from negative forces like age, entropy and outright evil.
Tango House — BR Instants — These tricksters range are mostly harmless, but a few malicious members give them a bad name.
House Mondorr — WU Sorceries — This is the rich, pompous house that favors powerful but slow ritualistic magic.
Drakmor Archivist 2U
1/1 Wizard
X, T: Look at the X cards of your library. You may cast an artifact card among them. Put the rest back on top in any order.
Twisted Tomb 3
Artifact
B, Pay 1 life, T: Target creature gets -1/-1 until EOT.
3, Pay 3 life, T: Target creature gets -2/-2 until EOT.
Shredkin 1RG
3/3 Beast
Haste
Must attack each turn if able.
Sylvanian Beastmaster 2G
2/3 Shaman
Creatures you control with "Must attack each turn if able" or "Can't block" lose those abilities.
Garden Mage W
1/1 Cleric
Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, gain life equal to its CMC.
Unicorn's Blessing GW
Enchantment—Aura
When ~ ETB, choose a color.
Enchanted creature has protection from black and from the chosen color.
Sparkling Distraction 1R
Instant
Choose two—Either target creature can't block this turn; ~ deals 1 damage to target creature; or discard a card then draw a card.
Clever Prankster 1B
2/1 Wizard
Auras you own have Flash.
Mondorr Cantor U
1/1 Wizard
1, T: Prepare a sorcery (You may exile a sorcery card from your hand face down. Put an age counter on a face-down sorcery in your exile zone. You may cast it for up to 1 less for each age counter on it.)
Grand Ritual 5WU
Sorcery
Draw a card for each creature you control. Then add W or U to your mana pool for each creature you control.
This feels similar to Ravnica to me. BG Necromancers = Golgari, GU Summoners = Simic, UR artificers is similar to Izzet as they seem to represent mad science.
I guess the difference is that this isn't a multicolor set, but school houses and guilds are both human organizations with philosophies based on 2 colors.
That sounds worth looking into, although the decision to do multicolor is such big step that affects everything about the set, that it feels weird to make that decision not for the benefits of multicolor but just for the sake of trying to make a set about Wizard groups work. Also, making it about Wedges may also make it feel even more like Ravnica just by being multicolor.
I've put up an idea about how to support of theme of choosing your specialty card type here on the wiki.
It supports drafting around a card type, but it also supports drafting a normal deck and adapting to the board state or the matchup by choosing which cards in your deck to power up for that game.
I think some kind of keyworded mechanic like this would be necessary to communicate the theme of choosing your favored spell type just through the contents of an opened booster. Many sets already have cards that reward mini-themes like "equipment" or "instants/sorceries." If someone opens a card that rewards playing artifacts, it would just look like one of those draft mini-themes, and it may not be clear that the set is about choosing one of those houses or specialties.
I love the theme of evil cursed artifacts, since that feels different from Mirrodin, Phyrexia, or Esper.
Making a faction about slow, ritualistic magic is also another great unexplored idea.
However, 2-color Houses might seem too similar to Ravnica guilds. I wonder if it would be better to have 4-color Houses.
(This doesn't mean you build 4-color decks. You just get to choose from those 4 colors when you're drafting/building a deck of that theme.) For example:
Non-Green colors: Artifacts
Non-White colors:?
Non-Red colors: ?
Non-Black colors: Enchantments
Non-Blue colors: Creatures
I filled out the obvious ones first and I'm not sure where to put Instants and Sorceries.
This is something I proposed for Bradley Rose's set:
Non-Green colors: Artifacts
Non-White colors: Instants/Sorceries
Non-Red colors: Enchantments
Non-Black colors: Lands
Non-Blue colors: Creatures
However, I do think that this is the one set where distinguishing Instants and Sorceries actually makes sense. So I'm not sure how to fix this yet.
I like the 5 schools of magic concept a lot, but I think Major needs some major playtesting before I'm on board for it. Too few cards with the mechanic and it'll rarely be wrong to major in the first spell you cast with it, too many and everyone will be forced into one of only 5 linear archetypes in search of synergy. There may be a comfortable middle ground; there may not, but I certainly want to know the answer before I go basing a set around the mechanic.
As for supporting the themes purely through cards like those Jay proposed, I'd still anticipate some of the Metalcraft/Infect problems of overly linear drafting, I wonder if we couldn't capture the feel by making decks with greater numbers of one type or another without explicitly counting them (and thus leading to powerful linear synergies). For instance, a creatures with Lifelink or evasion encourage playing power-boosting auras and lots of good colorless lands encourage playing artifacts. Alternatively, small enough rewards (like Goblin Electromancer) might allow for more deck diversity.
To be sure about how Major would work, we probably need to do some math. You're right that it would require a lot of Major cards for each card type.
To make a real choice of what to Major in, you would need two cards of different Majors in your hand.
However, I'm almost confident that an interesting Limited environment can be made out of this; even if it turns out to be about 5 linear archetypes, each of those archetypes are going to be spread across many color combinations, so it has more potential for diversity than Return to Ravnica. I just think of something like a 5/4 artifact creature Golem that can be used in either an Artifact deck or a Creature deck, and we get the fun interweaving of synergies that we had in M13.
There could be lots of ways to artificially increase the Major cards in people's decks:
If we have cards that returns a particular card type from your graveyard to your hand. You could recast an Instant with Major, choosing to Major in Instants, then get that Instant back to benefit from your Majoring in instants, for example.
There could be a Uncommon cycle of Major teachers with the subtype Teacher, and cards to tutor for Teachers. Those Teachers could act like Lords for their Majors. (Boost all Instants if you Major in Instants, etc.)
There could be some modal Major cards where they gain a different bonus based on your Major:
Or, there could be a creature that lets you Major in Creatures or Enchantments, and grants an ability like flash to the card type you Majored in. Or a Goblin Electromancer that lets you major in anything, and reduces the cost of whatever you Major in. There could be creatures that gain a bonus whenever you cast a spell of the Majored type.
Change Major to Lesson and you can solve some problems, as well as make the mechanic far more interactive at the cost of increasing parasitism.
Only one Lesson can be taught at any time. When a new lesson begins, the old one ends.
So you get things like:
Enchanting Apprentice - 2W
Creature - Human Wizard (C)
If the current lesson is Enchantments, ~ gets +1/+1 and has vigilance.
2/2
Heavy Handed Homework - 1W
Enchantment - Aura
Enchanted Creature gets +2/+2.
Enchanted Creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step unless the current lesson is Enchantments.
Intro to Pyromancy - 1R
Instant (C)
~ deals 3 damage to target creature. If the current lesson is instants, ~ deals 3 damage to that creature's controller.
Think Quickly - 1U
Instant
Change the current lesson to Instants.
Draw a card.
Think Naturally - 1G
Sorcery
Change the current lesson to Creatures.
You may search your library for a land and put it in your hand. Then shuffle your library.
Erratic Proctor - 4R
Creature - Goblin Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, choose Instant or Sorcery. Change the current Lesson to the chosen type. You may return a card of the chosen type from your graveyard to your hand.
2/2
Study Hall - 2U
Enchantment (U)
No lessons may be taught.
Elain Hovumm, Beastmaster -2GG
Legendary Creature- Orc Warrior
~ teaches Creatures in addition to the current lesson.
Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may search your library for a creature card. Shuffle it, then put the card on top of it.
3/4
Omnibus Wonderwand, Headmaster - WUBRG
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
~ teaches all lessons.
You have no maximum hand size.
Whenever you cast a spell, you may draw a card.
Whenever a card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, you may return it to your hand.
5/5
I still prefer 'major' over 'lesson,' though if we move away from the literal school environment, 'specialty' or 'school of magic' might be better yet.
I'm not sure having multiple majors is a good idea since the memory factor is already an issue with just one major per player.
I like a lot of those cards.
I pulled this from something I had been working on with Seasons. As long as only one lesson is in place, it shouldn't be too hard to track. You can add an emblem like token to the Pack like Poison counters, one for each. Or, as suggested earlier, a spinner dial at the pre release.
I just like the interplay of making your opponents cards worse while your making our own better - fighting over what to teach and how to teach it - making your students more successful than your rival.
I like the feeling of Lesson quite a bit. I think that most of the cards that get boosts should also set the lessons themselves, otherwise they can look weird when they show up in a booster pack all alone.
Enchanting Apprentice - 2W
Creature - Human Wizard (C)
Lesson - Enchantments (When this enters the battlefield, you may change the current lesson to Enchantments)
As long as the current lesson is Enchantments, ~ gets +1/+1 and has vigilance.
2/2
Also, I think the boosts should be relatively modest, for a couple reasons. First, if Lessons keep switching back and forth, you're going to have a lot of cards that are stronger on your turn then on your opponents turn, which seems like it could lead to another overly fast format if not controlled (like Zendikar, where Landfall generally made creatures that were simultaneously great attackers and horrible blockers).
Second, in casual formats, it's quite likely that you'll play against a deck with no Lesson cards in it, so as long as you build your deck around a single Lesson, it will always be turned on. On that note, maybe it would be better if you paid an additional cost when you cast the spell to change the lesson, instead of it happening automatically:
Enchanting Apprentice - 2W
Creature - Human Wizard (C)
Enchantment Lesson W (You may pay an additional W as you cast this. If you do, change the current lesson to Enchantments.)
As long as the current lesson is Enchantments, ~ gets +1/+1 and has vigilance.
2/2
Three ways to add a cost. I like the third as it essentially creates a teacher and gives a memory indicator as to what the lesson is.
Enchanting Apprentice - 2W
Creature - Human Wizard (C)
Educate 2: (2, discard this card: change the current lesson to Enchantments.)
As long as the current lesson is Enchantments, ~ gets +1/+1 and has vigilance.
2/2
Enchanting Apprentice - 2W
Creature - Human Wizard (C)
Educate 1W, Reveal ~ from your hand: Change the current lesson to enchantments. (Play this ability only during your upkeep and only once each turn.)
As long as the current lesson is Enchantments, ~ gets +1/+1 and has vigilance.
2/2
Enchanting Apprentice - 2W
Creature - Human Wizard (C)
Educate 1W, Exile ~: Change the current lesson to enchantments. (Play this ability only as a sorcery. When the lesson changes, return ~ to your hand.)
As long as the current lesson is Enchantments, ~ gets +1/+1 and has vigilance.
2/2
/forum/t-593198/tribal#post-
