Gardenia

Author: Togs Current version: Version 1.8 Last change: 2022-05-01 01:23:24 Stage: Finishing Download for desktop

>>See the full writeup for this set here!<<

Introduction

Gardenia is a top-down custom set based around all things plants: flowers, seeds, trees, gardens, fungi.. you name it, its got it. Outside of just flavor, Gardenia also aims to evoke the mechanical feeling of plants through gameplay - the goal is to encourage players to grow their boardstate slowly over time, until it blossoms into something awesome. This set is designed with limited gameplay at its forefront (as that's the honestly the only format these cards will ever be played in real life). It contains 250 cards, with 107 commons, 77 uncommons, 49 rares, and 17 mythic rares. It attempts to closely follow modern set design philosophies, including making use of a set skeleton and going through vision, set, and play design stages.

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Mechanics

Proliferate (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)

Level up (: Put a level counter on this. Activate only as a sorcery.)

Growth Counters (growthcounter is a growth counter. Remove three to scry 1, then draw a card.)

Afterbloom N (When this dies, you may put N +1/+1 counters on target creature.)

Abundance (If you cast this spell for , copy it with the same targets.)

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Limited Archetypes

- Name Description
Level Up Although level up is spread throughout all 5 colors, this color pair tends to contain the strongest level up cards and the most synergies. It plays like a midrange deck, and tries to out-value its opponents with efficient creatures.
Examples: Lifestream Channeler, Master of Owls, Teacher of Warfare, Polliwog Ranger
Saboteur Tempo In order to juxtapose the various white and green durdle decks, blue and black has been rebranded to a much more aggressive color pair, focusing on using removal and disruption to connect with creatures and gain an early advantage.
Examples: Traitorous Embrace, Spectral Stag, Canopy Cutpurse, Playful Effigy
"Morbid" Although not keyworded, this color pair has many cards that get stronger if a creature previously died that turn. Prey on your opponent's low-toughness creatures or just sacrifice your own to enable these synergies.
Examples: Unrelenting Stalker, Bark Confidant, Bored Badger, Scurry of Rats
-Spells
Matter		 This color pair supports a ramp deck that aims to stall out the board early while building up resorces, then close the game out by dropping bombs with X equal to exorbitantly high amounts.
Examples: Arbor-Wing Sovereign, Undergrowth Elemental, Jungle Artisan, Haystack
Plant Tribal As with many other tribal decks, the strategy here is simple - grab a bunch of plants and go! Many plant cards have built-in synergies with each other, and +1/+1 and growth counters are both supported subthemes in these colors.
Examples: Botanical Sentry, Wall of Branches, Barkbow Preserver, Allergic Reaction
Lifegain This deck wants to play more low to the ground, using lifegain synergies to power up its cheap creatures while outracing other competing aggressive decks.
Examples: Solemn Harvest, Naturemade Companion, Venomous Matriarch, Beloved Botanist
Draw-Two This color pair contains many creatures that get a big advantage when you draw your second card in a turn. Make use of looting effects or cash in your growth counters to enable these synergies.
Examples: Gwenith, Wisp Weaver, Prism-Scale Coatl, Glade Charger, Foxglove Flitterer
Self-Mill Just like it says on the tin, this decks wants to mill itself - not to get any specific card in the graveyard, but to use the milled cards as "fertilizer" that can be exiled to power up many other cards.
Examples: Gluttonous Death Swarm, Insatiable Skymaw, Elderwood Highborn, Scavenging Kong
Artifact Creatures Similar to what Strixhaven did with Lorehold, this set takes Boros in a different direction than aggro or equipment aggro - instead its a midrange value deck that cares about playing artifact creatures.
Examples: Earthen Colossus, Copper Crusader, Stoneheart Pair, Awakened Earth
Proliferate /
Counters Matter		 This deck wants to durdle until the endgame, and inevitably overpower its opponent with proliferating, counter synergies, and big fatties.
Examples: Enigma Evoker, Thriving Snapjaw, Thicket Crasher, Grand Skyfisher

Version 1.8

Date: 2022-05-01 01:23:24

Added more specific support for the various archetypes at lower rarities.

Change log:

Version 1.7

Date: 2022-04-20 22:18:58

Change log:

Batch of mostly minor changes that accured over the past several months.

Version 1.6

Date: 2021-08-10 03:35:23

Change log:

Some typo fixes. Lowered average toughness levels at common, with the hope of discouraging board stalls. Added a cockatrice download package link.

Version 1.5

Date: 2021-08-08 08:04:55

Change log:

Small changes I forgot to include in the last update.

Version 1.4

Date: 2021-08-08 07:05:10

Change log:

Minor tweaks and changes in preparation for finally publishing this with a writeup post.

Version 1.2

Date: 2021-08-07 04:55:28

Change log:

First round of changes after initial playtesting. Changed many cards and added many others, with a focus on increasing the amount of growth counters that show up at common. The "Garden" cycle now shows up in place of the basic land slot.

Version 1.1

Date: 2021-07-06 04:32:01

Change log:

Various typo and balance fixes. Updated the set symbol.

Version 1

Date: 2021-07-04 05:39:52

This is the first version of Gardenia published on PlaneSculptors.net.