Merlin Ahrenadel
Kingdom of Iron
Kingdom of Iron is a Magic: the Gathering custom set based around the art of Jakub Rozalski.
The set takes place in the early 1900s, where ancient machines akin to HG Wells’ War of the Worlds are discovered in a cavern deep beneath the earth.
These machines are then used as a tool of war by various nations.
The core mechanics are depletion counters, the new Relic artifact type, colorless mana, the Armored keyword, and Powered (an extension of the empowerment mechanic).
The Relic artifact type is used to represent the ancient machines that have been unearthed to wage war. Non-creature Relics have the Powered ability that represent the limited power supply of each machine, requiring strategic play or a steady supply of resources.
The set also features a cycle of Relic Creatures that function autonomously that cost one colorless only mana and one colored mana as draft support. Armored provides a sense of toughness to large mechs without using unduly large toughness. When combined with guardian the results can be very powerful.
Escort is one of two mechanics I created based on the concept of taking the poorly implemented Banding mechanic from early in Magic’s history and simplifying it to preserve the idea of smaller creatures grouping together to fight a single powerful enemy as one. Instead of creating new terminology, I made use of the existing mechanics of blocking groups and damage assignment to create a more intuitive replacement.
The second mechanic is Guardian, which acts as a simpler functional replacement for the damage reassignment half of banding that can be easily divorced from the escort half. It functions as a cooperative replacement for first strike in defensive situations, acting as a wall for other blockers, or with escort protecting a vulnerable attacker.
The land cards in this set form the base of the mechanics used in this set.
The cycle of five common lands are based on an older cycle of depletion lands from Mercadian Masques, updated for modern card designs.
The use of depletion counters also represents the economic destruction of the industrial revolution.
The use of colorless mana production represents the land being turned into a Wastes (destroyed land) and the eldritch nature of the ancient technology being unearthed. The ancient facility acts as a color fixing rare land that interacts with the common lands and extends the life of Powered cards.