Brimst

Author: Brimst Dev Team Current version: Version 16 Last change: 2023-06-25 12:25:09 Stage: Finished

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Brimst

The Alchemy Set

A custom Magic:The Gathering set by Reuben Covington and Zeu

Design Goals

Brimst is a top-down Alchemy Custom Magic expert level set, designed to follow all the rules, power level, and conventions of modern Wizards of the Coast standard legal products. It aims to be a polished, heavily tested, and well-balanced product for both casual play, custom card formats, and as a design portfolio piece. The set's power level aims primarily at a hypothetical Standard format, with individual designs aimed at wider formats such as Commander and Modern. Brimst is also designed to include elements that appeal to each major player psychographic. Finally, Brimst both fully supports a fun and varied draft and sealed environment, as well as building a cohesive new planar setting and original characters.

Mechanics

Vials - Create a Vial token. (It’s an artifact with “, Sacrifice this artifact and another permanent: Draw a card. Activate only as a sorcery.”) To discover the mysteries of the alchemic arts, you'll need to brew up the perfect concoctions and distill the finest ingredients for your rituals. Vials are a new artifact type that allow you to draw cards for a very cheap price, however alchemy is an art of equivalent exchange, and thus a sacrifice must be made.

Bifurcate - (If it isn’t a token, sacrifice it. If you do, create two tapped tokens that are copies of it except each is a Homunculus.) Need an extra pair of hands? Bifurcate is a new Action keyword that can be applied to your creatures to transmute them into two identical token halves. But the soul can only be split so much, so duplicating your tokens won't yield results.

Fuse - (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.) Split cards and the Fuse mechanic make their return in Brimst. Each half of these split cards represent the catalytic components and elements required for alchemical magic, being able to be cast individually, or combined together for wondrous results. Every booster pack in Brimst even has a dedicated Fuse card slot for limited.

Mixed - (Multicolor cards, split cards, and Chimeras are mixed.) Brimst is a world of melding and amalgamation. Fused ingredients, combinations of mana, and the enigmatic Chimeras all represent this aspect of alchemical power in this new "Batching" mechanic. From caring about the types of spells you cast, to what is in your graveyard, Mixed cards can be useful in all types of unexpected ways.

Constructed Primer

Check out the sets offerings for a standard level constructed set. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TUG0_K4H-llvXetI7spTQ0IcB8xvl70stPJFF-dKD_Y/edit?usp=sharing

Limited Archetypes

	Archetype Name	Description
	Tokens Matter	Take advantage of the power of tokens in this midrange strategy. Copy the best tokens for the situation, using bifurcate and vials to get either on-board presence or card advantage as required. Key Cards: Micrology Professor, Academic Tutelage, Velvet, Splitting Serpent
	Vials Control	Brew up an unstoppable wave of card advantage using vials, then close out the game with unblockable and flying threats. Sacrifice extra lands or tokens to your vials to always keep the best tool for any situation. Key Cards: Vision Infiltrator, Inspiration of the Sprites, Tomescape Aven, Corvian Enforcer
	Sacrifice Matters	Overwhelm your opponent's defenses with early aggression, then burn down their life total with sacrifice and death triggers enabled by vials. Be sure to convert your temporary Elementals to fuel further aggression. Key Cards: Reactant Rascal, Battlebrew Prodigy, Slogwijk Physician, Catalytic Combustor
	Mixed Ramp	Play huge fused spells and giant Chimeras in this slow but powerful mixed deck. Easily splash additional colors to take advantage of as many fuse cards as possible as you grow unstoppable. Key Cards: Reagent Rustler, Chimeraling Stampede, Cultivate, Battlebrew Filcher
	Go-Wide Midrange	Build a wide board state with tokens, cheap creatures, and bifurcate playing a balanced offense and defense before using a team pump to crush the enemy. Key Cards: Templar Traitor, Orgwoud Herd, Yeast, Soulsplit Pack
	Lifegain Matters	Play as the enigmatic Circle secret society, using lifegain triggers to keep yourself healthy and grow large threats. Take advantage of powerful removal spells and drain effects to grind out inevitable victory. Key Cards: Inner Circle Inductee, Unscrupulous Butcher, Inner Circle Secretist, Outer Circle Dignitary
	Mixed Control	Take control of the streets as the Sulfyre gang, using the mixed mechanic, utilizing fuse spells and defensive filtering to fill your graveyard with mixed cards. Key Cards: Sulfyre Student, Sulfyre Ascended, Councilor of Combinatorics, Sulfyre Chemist
	Reanimator and Graveyard Matters	Play out the largest creatures in the set and use your graveyard as a resource. Mill yourself, discard or sacrifice creatures to vials to fill the graveyard, then bring them back to life, even more powerful than before. Key Cards: Tierne’s Acolyte, Salvage the Experiment, Monocular Toad, Trash Gorger
	Spellslinger Peasant Aggro	Fight for the common folks and take back the magic denied to you. Play instant and sorcery spells to fuel aggressive bonuses and punish slower strategies that stand in the way of your revolt. Key Cards: Revolutionary Firebrand, Caroek Smuggler, Ink Elemental, Liberator of Dark Secrets
	Chimera Tribal	Harness the strength of Chimeras and mixed, choose between their different facets depending on the situation. Key Cards: Pride of Gennesaar, Chained Amusement, Cryoclaw Amalgam, Motley Ambush

Storyline

Brimst is a plane on the precipice of a new era. A plane based loosely on the renaissance and medieval Netherlands. Here alchemists form the most prestigious echelons of society, jealously guarding their magics, and ruthlessly seeking the final goal of their art: Immortality and the Unobtainable Stone. For hundreds of years the mysteries of Alchemy have lead to decadence, the constant need for new ingredients, and the metaphysical rules of equivalent exchange. Now discontent grows in the streets, the pale rot ravages the poor, and the secret society known as The Circle begins a secret conspiracy to change the world.

The Pale Rot, a devastating plague that infects Human and Homunculi sweeps through the cities of Brimst every year. Alchemic remedies are mostly useless against the sickness, but the elite have developed Amniosis: transforming one's body to have aspects of the animal world. Now the wealthy districts are a vibrant display of feathers, fur, and fangs as the working class suffer out of sight.

The native planeswalker Sarasa returns from her journey to the plane of Rakoa, bringing with her the powerful artifact: The Paradise Gem. This is proof of other worlds, disproving decades of doctrine about the nature of the universe and breaking the core principle of equivalent exchange. Sarasa's find is covered up by the deans of the Marus Academy, her magical telescope The Worldwatcher is destroyed, and her notebooks and Paradise Gem stolen.

Headmaster Marus is one of the most powerful alchemists on Brimst, and is actually the leader of the secret society of The Circle. He has stolen The Paradise Gem to use for The Ritual of Immortality. For decades, he has been secretly researching and collecting the most magically gifted students, blood, and life essence to begin the ritual, but with the Paradise Gem he can turbocharge the process without the need to obey the rules of equivalent exchange.

Unknown to Marus, another planeswalker Tierne: a native of Amonkhet has established an alchemic cult within the Ourgwoud Forest. The fate of her plane has left her bitter at the unfairness of the universe. She sees Brimst's concept of equivalent exchange as beautiful and balanced, but can see how it's all currently a lie, a weak metaphysical rule that is often bent or broken for selfish gain. She plans to manipulate the Ritual of Immortality into creating a god of alchemy that can enforce true equivalent exchange, and bring the glory of devotion to this plane.

Meanwhile, revolution grows among the workers of the Caroek District, as inequality grows, and new inventions such as the duplipress finally allow some to seize the power of alchemy from the elite. The young leader Anita leads a daring raid on the Marus Academy, using the secret Tomescape that connects all libraries. This is prompted after hearing rumors of the mysterious reappearance of Sarasa. She is the one who steals Sarasa's notebooks, learning of the existence of other planes, and the lie of equivalent exchange that is used to keep the commoners down for so long. With the duplipress, these discoveries could well change the balance of power on Brimst.

Sulfyre by Wakarimasensei

A 168 page novel set on Brimst about Katrien, Valc and the Sulfyre Gang Read it here for free: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LtLxm3nYx4KgizBDFhgqXP7ZhxkgBc7IpvTuuSYipd0/edit?usp=sharing

Major Characters

Sarasa: A planeswalker native to Brimst, before she sparked she was an extremely talented Alchemist and often travelled through the Infinite Tomescape, reading obscure tomes. Her ascension into a planeswalker was caused by her discovery that other planes might exist, those with other rules, that might not adhere to the precepts of Alchemy and Equivalent Exchange. She has just returned to Brimst after travelling to the plane of Rakoa, with the powerful artifact called The Paradise Gem in tow.

Tierne: A Planeswalker native to Amonkhet, she was once a priestess of the god Bontu. She has always had a fascination with the Curse of Wandering, a fundamental part of her home plane. Now as a Planeswalker, this fascination with the fundamental rules of other planes continues. She sees the weak and maluable laws of Equivalent Exchange on Brimst as wasted potential; which she hopes to see released and strengthened by the creation of a God of Alchemy under her control.

Morlus Marus: Leader of the Marus Academy and leader of the secret society of The Circle. One of the most powerful mages on Brimst, he has been guiding The Circle's resources for decades into the creation of the Unattainable Stone, and the Ritual of Immortality. He is a gifted teacher, and has trained many of the best Alchemists; Delighting in their success even as he plans their usefulness like pieces on a game board.

Anita: A commoner of the Caroek district, the daughter of a metalworker. Her father was poisoned by alchemic fumes and runoff from the nearby labs. She once stole an Alchemist's textbook, and showed a natural talent for magic. With the recent creation of the Duplipress, she envisions a world where magic is available to everyone, lifting the lives of all. Her dream to see this world realized has fueled her rousing speeches and daring raids against the alchemic elite.

Rosmun Baks: A red panda Planeswalker native to an unknown plane who has made his home on Brimst. He is a skilled alchemist and collector of rare ingredients that has now become obsessed with the study of Chimeras. He has recently set up the Genessear Preserve to study Chimeras and how their unique biology and magic might be used to prevent any species ever going extinct.

Valc: Leader of the Sulfyre, a street gang and smuggling organization that glorifies the form of the dragon, transforming themselves into Dracoforms via Amniosis and powering their flames with sulfur.

Project History

The earliest version of Brimst was created by pInkmoth in early 2017 as a top down alchemy set. It went though several early drafts that saw the development of an early version of the vial mechanic, as well as subthemes such as fuse cards. However in early in 2019, plnkmoth announced that he was quitting set making, and that anyone who wants to could take over one of his projects. Both Reuben and Zeu knew that Brimst would be an interesting opportunity to do a different kind of design practicing something similiar to WotC’s set design team, who takes handoffs from a vision design team to continue working on. This highly collaborative approach being potentially the next way to push the envelope on custom mtg set making and learn additional skills from each other. After initial handoff, Brimst quickly went through a series of rapid iterations and mechanics, including a Morph variant called Substantiate, the return of the Mentor mechanic, a mechanic about secrets that used the sideboard as a resource, and many others. Through this iteration process many playtests were conducted, overall themes of the story struck upon, and the art style polished. Eventually by early 2020, Mixed and Bifurcate were added and tested, with mentor and many of the earlier "alchemy school" elements of the set removed due to how clashed with the upcoming Strixhaven WotC set. By late 2021 the set was nearly complete, with much of the focus being on Character and worldbuilding element, including the writing of the Sulfyre novella by Wakarimasensei. After a hiatus due to work commitments, the project was finally completed at the end of 2022.

Special Thanks

pInkmoth - For entrusting Zeu and Reuben with your creation
Wakarimasensei - For writing and worldbuilding assistance, as well as the novella Sulfyre
Simon “Tyrant” Williamson - For art and design discussions
ShadowCentaur - For testing and balance help
Barbecube - For photoshop assistance
Cajun - For MSEM2 template support and templating assistance

To everyone who helped with our playtest sessions