New game mode idea: Planechase (updated)

ZW2007-

                   
Before we get started, if you don't know what the paper version Planechase is, you can read up on it at the mothership. Or you can read on and I'll lay out my version of it for Puzzle Quest.

In a sense, we already have Planechase-like effects in the game: Enraged, Supercharged, Legendary and also the special effects seen in Across Ixalan (AX), Race to Orazca, and certain encounters in Battle of the Four Tribes. My idea is to add an entirely new mode of play to the game that utilizes these mechanics and many, many more like them. In this mode, Enraged, Supercharged, and other new game altering effects would change multiple times within a single game. These effects are tied to specific planes. For example, Enraged could be the effect for the plane of Innistrad and Supercharged could be the effect for Kaladesh. Not all planechase cards are tied to an entire plane, some only reference certain regions of a plane. In this case, Ghirapur, a region on the plane of Kaladesh, could have it's own plane card that has an effect tied to the Energize mechanic.

                     

We're all familiar with the planeswalker symbol which is used for loyalty gems. The other one is known as the chaos symbol.

Planechase games would be PvP and you would start the game under the effect of a random plane. The game could either start with a single chaos gem in play or one could drop onto the board after a certain number of turns. There can only be one chaos gem on the board at any time and since there are no other like gems, it can't be matched with a normal match-3. The only way to break it is with a match-4, a match-5 or abilities that destroy gems on the board. Once the chaos gem is destroyed, you planeswalk to another plane. For example, you start out on Amonkhet and the effect is "All creatures have Embalm: 5". After 3 turns, a chaos gem will drop into play. Once this gem is broken, you travel to another plane. After another 3 turns, another chaos gem drops. Once this is destroyed, you switch to yet another new effect and so on.

As for the planes' effects and how they are tracked in game, it would have to be done carefully. AX gets a little confusing sometimes because there is no way to tell what special effects are active once you are playing the game. In TotP, an Enraged match will say "ENRAGED" across the top of the screen after 5 turns. If you tap it, you get a tool tip that shows what enraged does. In planechase, that top area of the screen could show the plane name and when you tap it, it would bring up the actual planechase card. Back to my earlier example, it could say 'Innistrad' across the top, tap that to view the Innistrad planechase card which says 'Enraged: Planeswalkers take double damage.'

I have a lot of ideas for plane effects:

• The first card you draw each turn is drawn from the top of your opponent's deck.
• You may activate your planeswalker's first loyalty ability for free each turn. (Still limited to one planeswalker ability per turn.)
• Loyalty matches are tripled. 
• [Insert color here] gems give +10 mana, all other colors give -2. (Planeswalker's specific mana gains are negated by this effect.) 
• Whenever you cast a card, fetch the next card of that type from your deck, it is free. Cards cast for free this way cannot trigger this effect. 
• Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under you control, it deals damage equal to it's power to your opponent. 
• Creatures can't attack. 
• The first spell you cast each turn is returned to your hand and gains full mana.  
• Whenever you cast a card, your opponent discards a card.
• Players may have 4 creatures on the battlefield. 
• All supports cost 5 mana and enter the battlefield with 5 shields. At the beginning of your turn, each support you control loses 2 shields. 
• Damage dealt to your opponent by creatures, spells, or abilities controlled by you is dealt to you instead. 
• Activate 1: gain 100 life. 
• When you planeswalk to Ghirapur, energize the board. Overload 3: something.

At this point I think you get the idea. Keep in mind this mode is first and foremost intended to just be fun. Outrageous, overpowered effects are very much intentional. These kinds of effects will lead to very memorable games. You also can't build decks to take advantage of the planes because they are so random. There are also a few special cards known as Phenomenons which only have a temporary effect and then you immediately switch to a new plane. For a better understanding, the paper versions can be seen here. All the paper Plane cards can be found here.

This mode would be similar to TG in that it's always active and there is no leaderboard. However, the progression rewards extend much higher than they do in TG. You would still earn 100 runes per game won (bear with me here). It would run for an entire week and "end" on Friday night at 9 p.m. EST to reset progression. This length would allow everyone a good chance to hit whatever progression rewards they choose and ending on Friday night would provide players with a fresh progression ladder going into the weekend. Progression rewards should be front loaded meaning the biggest reward is somewhere in the 10-15 games won range so that no one would feel pressured to play to a progression of 100 ribbons just to get the biggest part of the rewards. The rewards could be runes, basic (3-card) boosters, and small amounts of crystals (5 at a time max) with the exception of 50 crystals at the 10th-15th win (keep in mind this is only once a week).

Progression rewards could look something like this (1 ribbon per win):
5: 1,500 runes                  55: 3-card booster
10: 1,500 runes                60: 1,500 runes
15: 50 crystals                 65: 5 crystals
20: 2,500 runes                70: 1,500 runes
25: 5 jewels                      75: Newest set 5-card booster
30: 1,500 runes                80: 1,500 runes
35: 3-card booster           85: 3-card booster
40: 1,500 runes                90: 1,500 runes
45: 5 crystals                    95: 5 crystals
50: 5,000 runes                100: 10,000 runes!
Beyond 100: 1,000 runes for every 5 ribbons

So the grand total if you won 100 games of Planechase in a week would yield:
39,500 runes (including 100 per win), 65 crystals, 5 jewels, three 3-card boosters, and one 5-card booster.

Comparing the runes to the old QB rate, 100 games of QB would yield 30,000 runes. We'd be getting a better return than QB at 100 games played. It would take 132 games of QB to match this amount of runes so after 100 wins in planechase you are ahead of the curve compared to QB and after that, every 5 wins works out to be the same amount of runes per game as QB. By contrast, TG for full progression in one week yields 10,150 runes for 28 games played but beyond that the rune rate drops incredibly. 100 games of TG in a week would only yield 17,350 runes. Given the chaotic nature of this game mode, games would take longer than regular PvP so you probably wouldn't be earning runes at the same speed as you did in QB but it would also be more fun and entertaining than the QB grind.

Comparing the rest of the rewards, TG gives 105 crystals in one week so an extra 65 on top of that certainly won't break the bank. The three extra 3-card boosters helps make up for what was lost when the free 3-card booster every 8 hours turned into a free 1-card booster every 2 hours. The 5 jewels don't amount to much on their own either. That is only 20 extra jewels a month compared to the 500 from TotP and AX over the same time frame. The free newest set 5-card booster also doesn't compare to the 6 free XLN boosters we get in a week from AX. It would average out to over 14 games per day to achieve full progression which is pretty equivalent to TG (4 wins), TotP (8 wins), and AX (~4 wins) combined. So for the same number of wins compared to those events, you get far less rewards, but that was kind of the point anyway. The goal here is just a casual format that is simply fun to play and keep players engaged while not being repetitive. The progression rewards are just an added bonus (and a nice way to for players to enjoyable grind runes).

I hope you enjoyed my idea and thanks for reading. Feel free to contribute plane ideas and let's see if we can get this mode into the game! (Images...borrowed from the article linked above.)

This is an update to a thread that was originally posted here. There are some interesting suggestions made by others in that thread as well.

ZW2007-

(reserved to compile any Plane suggestions)

crusher

Some of your points inspired me to write my own post about new game mode. Yeah, there must be some RNG-dependant event.

bk1234

Thanks for reposting @ZW2007-

Dodecapod

This is an amazing idea; the Plane possibilities seem almost limitless, and any of the indestructible support or static background abilities from RtO, AX, or the B4T x.3 nodes might make for interesting Ixalan effects if this format is eventually implemented somewhere down the road.