Lore
The plane of Cogsban has two primary regions, the city and the otherlands. Virtually all of Cogsban’s human residents live in the city, which is going through massive, rapid expansion due to the discovery of a new, mana-rich ore underground. This ore, when combusted, can have its mana extracted and used for power. However, the combustion process has a byproduct of soot and smoke that is then vented into the air. Over the course of two decades, this ended up leading the city to its an industrial, steam-powered state, though it has also lead to a large amount of smog coating the skies. From this smog, respiratory illness has begun to plague the citizens and it has even been correlated to machine inefficiencies. Furthermore, the city is beginning to experience an energy crisis; they are running out of active mines for this ore within city limits, the government has proposed simply mining outside the city and then expanding city limits to those areas for development afterwards, but a small minority within the government fears what may happen to Cogsban’s natural world under this plan. There is no knowledge of what’s beyond the city and thus no knowledge of the potential harm city expansion could cause.
Enter Buckley and Floyd, a pair of brothers greatly concerned with the issues current energy forms are causing. For a long time, they had been pushing the government to grant them funds for an exploration outside the city to retrieve information in the greater plane, but they were consistently turned down due to a lack of interest. This all changed when a young upstart in the government by the name of Dionis offered the brothers their funding personally, easily swaying the small environmentalist majority within to support them as well.
During Buckley and Floyd’s expedition, back in the city, there is an increasing discontent among the lower class—who tend to be tasked with making widgets, airships, and other government-ordered devices—and the upper class and government—who pay very little attention to the general public and give very little care to poverty or the growing criminal underbelly. Talk of riot is common and natural leaders fit a rebellion like the sparkmage Tessith are making themselves known. Spies like Kikai have successfully infiltrated the government and are bringing in intelligence on government plans before their public release. All the citizens need is one mistep and they can put their plans into action.
Details
Features the following mechanics:
o Smog Counters (Whenever a permanent with a smog counter on it becomes tapped, its controller loses 1 life for each smog counter on that permanent.)
o Configure (At any time you could cast a sorcery, you can configure any number of other artifact creatures to this by tapping those creatures. Each is configured to this for as long as it remains tapped and you may choose not to untap it during your untap step.)
o Adjunct—Whenever a spell or ability would cause you to choose between two or more modes, [effect].
o Pinnacle—If you control a creature with the greatest power or tied for the greatest power among creatures on the battlefield, [effect].
o Gadgets (As this Gadget enters the battlefield, you may put it over or under another Gadget you control. They form an assembly of the Gadget on top plus all cogs from under it.)
Points of Interest
Archetype Showcase
As with most sets nowadays, Blackened Skies uses the ten two-color guild pairings as the basis for its Archetypes.
| Colors | Archetype | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Airship Tribal | A flying-based strategy with a token subtheme that wants to flood the board and go wide, winning before other decks can assemble their go-tall strategies. Signpost Uncommon: Carrier Flagship | |
| Smog Value | Use the downside of smog counters to power down your opponent's permanents and play high-value, ahead-of-curve creatures that use smog as a minor downside, then remove the smog counters from your permanents. Signpost Uncommon: Smogmarshal | |
| Widget Midrange | Take full advantage of Configure to power up your Widgets. Signpost Uncommon: Widget Combatant | |
| Fungus Tribal | Many of the Fungus in Blackened Skies want to see you use modal effects to your advantage, assemble them together to show your opponent the power of the Sporebodied! Signpost Uncommon: Fungal Overgrowth | |
| Smog Control | Combine smog counters with tap effects to oppress and whittle down the opponent while building up for a big finishing play. Signpost Uncommon: Smogspitter Vessel | |
| Gadget Tribal | Gadgets like to work well with other Gadgets. Assemble your army of machines to out-value the opponent. Signpost Uncommon: Metalwork Duelist | |
| Modal Value | Take full advantage of modal spells and wait the opponent out until you can develop your board. Signpost uncommon: Sporeshooter | |
| Tap Aggro | Play fully offensive over defense and try to power up a few massive creatures early in the game. Signpost Uncommon: Metalworks Brawler | |
| Pinnacle Midrange | A more late game oriented deck that looks to build up a massive threat that can push through for big damage. Signpost Uncommon: Lumberslicer | |
| Pinnacle Stompy | Power up your creatures so you control the biggest and dominate the board with your high-powered beaters while gaining bonus effects off your Pinnacle cards for controlling these big creatures. Signpost Uncommon: Welpcraft Artisan |
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This is the first version of Blackened Skies published on PlaneSculptors.net.