Activated abilities

starfall

One thing that Vanguards introduced into the game that went largely unnoticed was activated abilities. That is, abilities which can be activated whenever the player chooses, or even, chosen not to be activated at all.

For a long time now activated abilities have been translated from paper into MTGPQ as game actions which the player only has indirect control over (or no control over at all!) This often happens via Activated gems... but it's hard to activate a gem sometimes to achieve the effect you want, particularly if the number of gems is low (e.g. Accursed Horde, Adanto Vanguard, Aryel Knight of Windgrace), or, at other times, the effect of triggering the activated gem by mistake can render the creature unplayable (I'm looking at you, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim!). In fact, sometimes, the activated gem is usually triggered at entirely the wrong point in the turn, making the card utterly useless! (Goblin Motivator)

Going forward, I'd like to see more activated abilities that work like Vanguards added to Creatures (perhaps, to emulate the TAP symbol, the creatures could become disabled as part of the cost of using the ability).

There's still a place for activated gems in the game, but this could open up new areas of design space!