Hello and welcome to the Casual Chat!

Today I want to delve into a topic that I came up with when I was working on today’s Daily Commander article.

In it I mention a spell that has a historically bad mechanic in it, and while I do acknowledge that it is not a very good mechanic, I do wish that mechanic did make a return.

Which got me thinking, what other bad mechanics would be interesting if they made a comeback? Not on a bunch of cards or have a whole set revolve around them, but in a limited capacity, especially since Wizards of the Coast has been working on what have called cameo mechanics, a couple of old mechanics that come back on a couple of cards in a set.

These are five mechanics that I think would have some interesting design space as a cameo mechanic, or if they do happen to make a complete comeback, have a way to make them interesting and fun to play with.

5. Splice

Splice is a mechanic that made its debut in Champions of Kamigawa and has been on a total of 30 cards.

The way the mechanic works is that as you are casting a particular spell, you reveal the card with Splice from your hand and pay an additional cost to attach the spell with Splice’s effect onto the card being cast currently.

It’s a bit confusing, but essentially you are adding an additional effect to a spell while still having the spell with Splice in your hand, meaning you can cast the spell with Splice again and again.

Originally the Splice spells were attached to spells that had the Arcane subtype, but it has branched out onto instants and sorceries as a whole with a couple of cards.

I can understand why they would not want to add too many Splice cards into a set, since it can be a bit confusing for newer players, but I think that there are still some interesting design spaces that Splice can go onto. For example, could you Splice onto Creatures or Enchantments or Artifacts?

With the Backup mechanic from March of the Machine, there is precedent to add abilities to creatures for a turn, so Splice could potentially do the same thing or it could give a permanent ability to a creature or other permanent cast with it.

If that is a rules mess, what if we stick to instants and sorceries but give it a counter ability, so a combat trick can also become a counter spell or vice versa. It would add a bit of variety, in my opinion, in how spells are played if we had a couple more Splice cards that are actually pushed a little further.

4. Conspire

Conspire is mechanic that made its debut in Shadowmoor and is on 11 cards and there are 2 cards that give some of your cards conspire.

Conspire is a simple ability in that as you cast the spell, you may tap two untapped creatures you control that share a color with that spell and copy it.

I find it weird that this mechanic hasn’t been seen again because people like copying spells, and it just needs two creatures that share a color, meaning we can get creative with the mana cost of spells to copy them.

The original conspire cards are two colors via hybrid mana, so there are ways we can give three color spells conspire and get real wacky with the effects. Additionally, there is nothing saying that we can’t give permanents conspire, so we can get a token copy of a creature if we tap two other creatures.

We had cards with Offspring in Bloomburrow, so creating token copies of cards for an additional cost isn’t too complicated, and they can be slightly overcosted cards with average abilities, just so we can get two copies of it in play.

Like an anthem that costs four mana and gives creatures you control +1/+1 is not great, but if we copy it then we can give our creatures +2/+2 for four mana and tapping two creatures, which is a bit better.

We are going to be coming back to Lorwyn soon, so maybe there is some space for a Conspire cameo in the set.

3. Fortification/Fortify

Fortification and Fortify are mechanics that made their debut in Future Sight and has been on a grand total of 2 cards.

Fortification is an artifact subtype that has a Fortify ability to attach itself to a land you control, much like an Equipment, to give that land an additional effect.

This is a mechanic that I understand why there isn’t more of, and that is because it shares a lot of qualities with Aura’s that can be attached to lands, and are actually worse because you need to pay a Fortify cost in order to get the benefit.

However, I think there are some interesting places Fortifications can go. For example we can give lands the ability to give other creatures abilities like haste or indestructible, which would normally be a mana ability, but since we are paying mana to attach it to a land the cost can be “baked in” as it were.

Another way to to play with Fortifications is if they made lands into creatures when they are Fortified, which would be an interesting way to play with creature land space, especially it also happened to make the creature into an artifact creature for some more shenanigans.

I can understand why Fortifications are hard to bring back, but I can also see some potential in them that I think that they could be brought back every so often.

2. Epic

Epic is a mechanic that made its debut is Saviors of Kamigawa and is on 5 cards.

Epic is a spell that prevents you from casting any other spells for the rest of the game, instead copying itself over and over again at the beginning of your upkeep.

This was the spell I alluded to in the beginning as the spell I mentioned in the Daily Commander article today, and this is a mechanic that I know will not likely ever come back, but I think can come back.

The reason why it hasn’t come back should be fairly clear in that it essentially stops a player from playing the game and only casting the same spell over and over and over again, which can create some not so fun games.

I know I’ve been saying attach the spells to permanents for most of these picks, but this can be a way to open up some design space as a way to create an ever larger threat. Even just an anthem that boosts your creatures +1/+1 each turn can slowly accumulate into massive creatures, and maybe also have it gain additional effects if there are a certain number of cards with this name, creatures you get also gain trample.

There could also be ways to make it so that while you can’t cast spell, you can still get some creatures back from the graveyard or from your hand. The white Epic spell Enduring Ideal had the right idea in fetching enchantments from your library, and the blue Epic spell Eternal Dominion steals cards from your opponents libraries in order to give you some variety in play.

You can have one reanimate a creature from any graveyard, one that fetches artifacts, one that make your lands into creatures for a turn, there are some ways to play around with what Epic can do, but the balance would be making sure that they can provide a fun enough game play loop that it doesn’t become an issue, which is the hardest part.

1. Companion

Companion is a mechanic that made its debut in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths and there are 10 cards with the mechanic.

The Companion mechanic, as it is currently, is attached to a creature that goes in your sideboard and gives a deckbuilding restriction and for 3 mana can bring that creature out of your sideboard and into your hand and allow you to play it.

Yes, I am the maniac that likes the Companion mechanic. I understand that Companion as a mechanic is problematic, yes I understand that the best Companions homogenize deckbuilding, yes I understand that they can be broken beyond belief or unplayable.

However, the reason I like Companions as a concept is the fact that it gives a deckbuilding restriction. I am a firm believer in restrictions breed creativity, and while some of the restrictions on current Companions range from negligible to backbreaking, I think there is a way we can find balance between the two.

The first thing I would change would be to make them more color restrictive, no hybrid mana just regular mana, and the next thing I would do would be to find strategies that could use some help in a format and have Companions that give them a bit of a boost.

Keruga, the Macrosage is a Companion I see occasionally played in Pioneer as a way to incentivize playing bigger spells and is often played with the Planeswalker Quintorius Kand as a card advantage engine to help get the combo for the deck started, but that combo can only start once they get to five mana.

Incentivize some typal synergies that can play well together but might need help to stick together cohesively, like Kaheera, the Orphanguard does, or maybe even attach some benefits that incentivize you playing creatures with power less than their toughness or toughness of 1 or less.

There are ways to fiddle with the knobs in bringing some odd and interesting deckbuilding choices that get Johnny players like myself in a deckbuilding frenzy, but with how much vitriol the mechanic has sparked, I don’t see the mechanic coming back any time soon.

In Conclusion

This has been a fun article to write and if you want me to talk about some more weird mechanics in the future or some more lists of arbitrary size, then let me know.

Like most Magic players, I have some out there opinions on some cards and if you want to hear them, I am more than willing to share.

Thank you for reading, see you all next time!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual