Weekly Mechanic #1 - Masochism
For the first week of my series Weekly Mechanic, I have a mechanic design that’s inspired by “Fateful Hour” known as “Masochism”. Before I get into Masochism though, I want to give some context to explain how I developed it:
Fateful hour is a notoriously bad mechanic from Dark Ascension, one of the sets from the original Innistrad block. It’s a mechanic that’s often described as bad because it’s one of the most narrow to be developed—it requires you to be at 5 or less life to have an effect. This is something that actually rarely happens in a traditional limited game of Magic. As of right now, only 9 cards use Fateful hour as a mechanic. An example can be seen below with Gavony Ironwright.
The activation threshold of “5 or less life” is infrequently encountered within a game of Magic because, as any limited Magic player can tell you, you will often be dead from a single attack when you’re above 5 life. Fateful hour just doesn’t do anything if you’re at 7 life and facing down a 5/5 and 2/2 on board.
What I found most interesting and redeeming about Fateful hour, however, was that it is a fun play on the “Threshold mechanic” because it tracks life. A “Threshold mechanic” is a shorthand used to describe a mechanic whose function rests on meeting a certain criteria to activate, and once it has been activated, it stays active (for the most part). It’s called a “Threshold mechanic” after the mechanic… well… Threshold! Threshold is on cards which receive an additional effect as long as you have seven or more cards in your graveyard.
Masochism plays interestingly into the Threshold space, but in a more realistic manner than Fateful hour. I currently have it keyworded as: “If you’ve lost 5 or more life this turn…”. I believe life lost in a turn seems like an interesting threshold angle to approach because it is far more likely to occur in a game when compared to having 5 or less life. Additionally, this life loss can be induced by your own spells and abilities, leading to a more interesting build-around potential for limited. I’d also guess this mechanic to be something that is primarily black, as it looks at the life lost in particular, but also something that could be in red because it cares about damage in general. Life loss is also a theme of vampires, which are traditionally black and red. Thus, it makes the most sense for Masochism’s design space to be the black-red archetype of a set. While it’s almost impossible to trigger on your turn without “pay life” effects, it is very likely to trigger on your opponents turn when you’re behind, as when they deal combat damage to you, it will turn on the Masochism threshold, allowing your spells to receive an additional effect. This dynamic makes instant speed Masochism spells extremely powerful and less narrow than their sorcery speed counterparts. As a rule then, instant speed Masochism should be used sparingly, as it will really push the cards’ effect. As an example, I think its reasonable for a premium common removal spell in Black at instant.
When I was first brainstorming this mechanic, the first card that I thought of came to me as an instant, funnily enough. I think this is because I naturally enjoy those cards that are good when playing from behind, such as Scream of Pain.
Now, those who are a little more invested in Magic design will notice that I don’t have reminder text of "Damage causes loss of life” built into Masochism. While I originally added this text to remind the player that Masochism’s life loss tracking includes damage they take from their opponent, I don’t think its entirely necessary. I regard Scream of Pain as one of the most interesting designs I made using the Masochism mechanic because it perfectly encapsulates the interesting tension that Masochism creates—an opponent may avoid dealing 5 damage to you during their combat phase to avoid tipping you across the threshold and turning on your instant-speed Masochism cards. This tension could also be seen as a strike against Masochism as well, however, as it may be unsatisfying to hold back progressing the game in order to avoid getting blown out. In order to evaluate Masochism, I’ve opted to use a pros and cons list of what the mechanic brings, as well as explore some of the preliminary designs I’ve made. These include both enablers and payoffs.
Cutthroat Sadist is the signpost common build-around I designed for the Masochism keyword. As long as you’ve lost exactly 5 life to enable a Masochism effect, Cutthroat Sadist is set up to gain you that life back when he attacks. Its baseline 2 mana 3/1 body is also extremely reasonable.
Depths Terror is an example of an uncommon Masochism enabler, rather than a card that is using the keyword itself. Paying 5 life to surveil two is extremely inefficient and likely would lose you the game if you’re not triggering Masochism, which means that only Masochism decks would like this card. Depths Terror also doesn’t play a competent role as a blocker, which supports the theme of Masochism being overly aggressive and ensures that Depths Terror is unlikely to be played outside of Masochism-focused decks. Another nice thing about Depths Terror is that even if your opponent kills it the turn it comes down, it doesn’t need to tap and can be used trigger your Masochism effects right away before it dies.
Bloodmark Vampire is a combination of both an enabler and a payoff, but it is much more defensively slanted compared to the other cards I’ve showcased so far. As a three mana 1/1, Bloodmark Vampire is much more likely to die during combat, but it is able to trigger Masochism abilities at any time, including its own. I think this card is actually kind of a nightmare to play against as an aggressive deck, as if you’re unable to kill it, it turns every single blocker into a guaranteed trade through its deathtouch ability. Bloodmark Vampire’s design space is more of the bad baseline card with an impressive Masochism effect. Having maybe one or two cards other cards in addition to Bloodmark Vampire that are able to function as both a payoff, as well as an enabler, will ensure that Masochism is well supported in limited.
Dreadful Act shows how allowing the player more agency in deciding when they lose life creatures interesting decision points and compelling gameplay. It’s also both a payoff and an enabler. Say, for example, that Dreadful Act is targeting a creature with mana value 5 or greater. It’s likely that you’d prefer to lose the life if the creature is recurrable, has dies effects, or if you’d just like to turn on your Masochism effects for the turn. There’s also times, for example, when you’ll lose life during your opponents combat step (because it is instant speed), and all of your Masochism creatures will suddenly be turned on and ready to block with their additional effects.
Speaking of instant-speed Masochism shenanigans, Blood Pact shows how instant speed payoff effects can be less punishing than cards such as Scream of Pain. Blood Pact feels safer to me than cards like Scream of Pain because it doesn’t immediately swing the game in your favour if you manage to cast the card with the Masochism effect after taking a 5 damage or more swing from your opponent on their turn.
On the flip side, there’s also potential for some pretty interesting instant-speed Masochism payoffs that don’t immediately swing the game back in your favour. I have a particular affinity for designing black tutor cards, and Sick Indulgence combines the baseline effect of Entomb with the potential to have an instant speed Demonic Tutor instead. Realistically, its unlikely this card would ever see print, but I thought it was a fun example of how the effect can be pushed to create powerful designs that don’t immediately solve the problem at hand in the same way that Scream of Pain does.
Exsanguinor is an interesting Masochism payoff card that can disincentivizes your opponent to deal more than 5 damage to you, provided you have a creature card in your graveyard. Its build-around commander vibe provides you with some hoops to jump through, but pays you off with a big, splashy effect.
Up until this point, I’ve mostly focused on black cards. This is probably due to the fact that black is my favourite colour in Magic and thus, the colour I find easiest to design for, but its important to note that the first card I created when exploring this mechanic was red. Sanguine Bloodletter is a pretty standard card design by modern Magic’s power level, but its Masochism effect turns it into an nigh-unblockable 4/2 in the early game. This is an example of a playable card being given a small upside from its Masochism effect, rather than receiving something super impactful.
Fleshing out the red design space a bit more, Sadist’s Urge shows how an already premium card can be pushed even further by stapling a Masochism effect to it, similar to how Vile Exsanguination functions. It’s not super splashy, but I’d be willing to bet this card would have an above 60% win rate if it got printed.
Here’s my example of a red rare that is both an enabler and a payoff. By spending 5 life on Blood Hall Brawl’s effect, you get a meaningful boost to your creature’s power and essentially “draw” a nonland card from the top of your library. While the card advantage + Masochism angle may be a little scary, its not that abusable without some significant life gain.
Alright, I’ve been dancing around it a bit up until this point, but there’s clearly the opportunity to create some black red gold cards that utilize the Masochism keyword. Bloodlust Ringleader reinforces what Cutthroat Sadist initially put forward—lifelink is extremely valuable to have in a Masochism deck because it provides you with more resource (your life) to spend. I like Bloodlust Ringleader a lot, but there’s definitely some knobs to be tweaked to ensure that the payoff of lifelink isn’t too broken and doesn’t offset the risk of using your life as a resource.
Admittedly, Masochism enablers are underrepresented in my current card list, so here’s Shared Torment. This is only the second card I’ve featured that doesn’t have Masochism key-worded on it. Shared Torment is a sneakily (or not sneakily) overpowered card, as it will provide you with an immense amount of filtering as a baseline. In the early game, you can discard your higher mana value cards and enable your Masochism effects, as well as pressure your opponent’s life total. In the late game, you can either discard a higher mana value card to finish off your opponent, or simply discard a land and ensure that your hand is stocked up with playables.
Finally, we have Xavier, the most commander-y, pushed payoff/enabler hybrid we’ve seen for Masochism. Xavier will both drown your opponents in card advantage, as well as juice up your entire board of Vampires to ensure your opponents are not in the game for very long after he’s been cast. Notably, Xavier’s trigger is not a may ability, which means you may have to balance the risk of losing life when he attacks, depending on how many Vampires you have out and how much life gain you have.
Okay, now we’ve gone through all of my initial designs for the Masochism mechanic, so let’s reflect on the Pros and Cons of the mechanic, as well as give it a final grade.
Pros:
Extremely flexible design space
Masochism effects, similar to threshold, can be easily balanced because the design space is so open. You can take a weak baseline card and staple a highly impactful Masochism effect to it, or take a strong baseline card and staple a minimal Masochism effect to it.
Fun decision points
Masochism inherently creates a lot of decisions, as you manage your life total with much greater scrutiny than in most games. If you’re attempting to rush down your opponents with self-damage and aggressive, Masochism-enabled swings, its likely you’ll set yourself up for an extremely weak late-game if your opponent is able to stabilize.
Paying life is fun, and having a payoff for it is also fun
Paying life, as we’ve seen with mechanics such as Phyrexian Mana, is inherently kind of broken because its a resource that you start with 20 of at the beginning of a game. That said, there’s no denying that paying life is very fun and it feels like you’re getting away with something. Cards such as Necropotence (1 life = 1 card), have illustrated that players love to abuse this mechanic as much as they can to get an advantage over their opponents
Clean, uncomplicated design with a lot of depth
Masochism is a clean and uncomplicated design, which helps players who are less enfranchised pick up the mechanic easily. The threshold of having lost 5 life is something that routinely happens in a game of Magic, even if it is only during your opponents turn when they attack you, so its a mechanic that has real relevance (unlike Fateful hour). Masochism is also deceptively Spikey and deep. Is it worth it to take this attack from my opponent, or would I rather chump with this creature and ensure I have the life necessary to trigger my Masochism next turn? Is it worth it for me to pay 5 life to have this effect this turn and swing out, or will my opponent be able to blow me out by destroying my creature in response? While these questions are interesting and demand the player look at their future turns with higher scrutiny, I will admit that this could also be regarded as a con if the answer is always clear. If its always clear that enabling Masochism is the best option in a given game state, the mechanic becomes less interesting, so this would be something to keep in mind when designing Masochism effects
Lifelink and gaining life in general becomes more relevant
As most limited Magic players will be able to tell you, cards that gain you life in limited are usually a trap. Having dedicated life gain cards in your deck is a good way to ensure that you get card advantaged out of a game. In the context of a set with Masochism, however, life gain becomes more appealing because they provide you with a resource to be exchanged for value. By emphasizing the importance of spending life, there’s a (somewhat) equal importance on gaining life, and the priority level of life gan cards increases.
Cons:
Sometimes incentivizes your opponent to not take actions, as dealing 5 or more damage to you enables Masochism
Masochism, if not designed appropriately, risks creating game states where your opponent is incentivized to not progress the game due to the risk of being blown out by a Masochism effect. A card like Scream of Pain, for example, forces your opponent to either kill you the turn they deal damage or risk being two-for-one’d after dealing 5 damage. This is something that is unlikely to happen if the Masochism cards are agressively slanted, but should be kept in mind for any defensive designs, especially at instant speed.
Could be broken in constructed where paying life is easier and thing such as Necropotence
In my bubble of a random limited set that I’m designing for, I don’t have to consider the impact of Masochism on constructed formats, such as Legacy or Modern, where cards like Necropotence and Necrodominance make paying life a trivial endeavour. While there’s no guarantee the Masochism cards I designed would have an effect on constructed, it’s important to remember there are many existing life paying enablers.
Might create too much racing— “two ships in the night”
As everyone favourite Vintage Cube player, LSV, has pointed out about original Zendikar, there is sometimes the risk of creating a limited format where the two players are just trying to race one another and ignore blocking almost altogether. This tends to happen in extremely aggressive limited formats where creatures have high upside for attacking, and don’t block particularly well. This was the case in Zendikar because of aggressive Landfall creatures, which were difficult to boost during an opponent’s turn, as you tend to play your lands during your own turn. Another limited format where this occurred was Amonkhet, primarily due to the exert mechanic requiring the creature to be declared as an attacker. Masochism dips into this design space because of its aggressive slant and the way in which being attacked and losing life on your opponents turn can sometimes be something that is favourable, as it turns on your instant-speed Masochism effects.
Life loss threshold will become irrelevant, as the upside of enabling Masochism will eventually be outweighed by the downside of having lost 5 or more life
Inevitably, there will come a time in the later stages of the game where there’s just no way that losing 5 or more life is favourable for you, even if you’re receiving a beneficial effect (lifelink not included, I guess). Getting down to a low enough life total inherently shuts off Masochism as well, as if you have 5 or less life, you cannot trigger it without dying. To rectify this issue, life gain emerges as an interesting avenue to exploit to ensure that Masochism retains its relevancy into the late game and your life total can continue to be spent as a resource.
Overall Grade of Masochism: B+/A-
Honestly, I think I started off with kind of a banger for my first Weekly Mechanic. I could see this keyword being implemented in to the Vampire creature type for the return to return to return to Innistrad. I think there’s definitely some tweaks that could be made to make the design more interesting and balanced, such as making the life loss threshold lower and decreasing the power of Masochism effects, but I really like where it is currently at. I think the flexibility of this mechanic is what really shines in particular, and I look forward to what I develop next week so that I have a comparison point! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week for Weekly Mechanic #2!
