Ruin of Seffala – B/G Mechanic: Toughlink

Toughlink is pretty much what it sounds like: a form of lifelink, but for toughness. Instead of when the creature deals damage, however, the player gains life when the creature is dealt damage. The reminder text changes one word from the Lifelink text: 'by' becomes 'to' (also I removed the word 'also').

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This is also kind of like an anti-Afflict mechanic: with Afflict on the other side of the battlefield, a player doesn't want to attack, or lose life. With Toughlink on the other side of the battlefield, the player may not want to attack, or give their opponent life.

Originally, Toughlink was "When this creature dies in combat, gain life equal to its toughness." The 'in combat' part was so situational as to be absurd, and should a kill spell not affect a creature with Toughlink just the same? That part got struck out partway through the set design.

Then, I realized, Wither would completely break Toughlink if you gained life equal to the creature's toughness upon its death. If a creature dies through direct damage, its toughness remains at its starting toughness, but it has been dealt damage equal to (or greater than) its toughness, so Toughlink would gain the player an amount of life equal to the creature's toughness. But with Wither, -1/-1 counters replace the damage, which now directly affects the toughness of the creature. So if a creature with Toughlink died to damage via Wither, it would have a number of -1/-1 counters equal to or greater than its starting toughness, so its final toughness on death would be zero, and Toughlink would give the player zero life.

So now it's simply when the creature is dealt damage altogether does life gain happen. This allows for life gain when the creature is destroyed via a standard kill spell like Murder, or is dealt direct damage like Lightning Bolt, or is hit by a normal creature or a creature with Wither (because, as reminder text tells us, Wither deals damage in the form of -1/-1 counters). However, a creature that is given -1/-1 counters or loses toughness another way, such as with Dead Weight, would cause a permanent reduction in toughness (but does not deal direct damage), so that reduces or nulls out the Toughlink.

With the change from the initial concept of Toughlink to its final form, it actually makes Wither complimentary, rather than nullifying. A creature with Wither might walk into a wall with Toughlink (those cards to come) just to knock it down a peg, and the defending player would gain life, but just the once. With the counters now a permanent fixture, the defending player risks losing the wall next time, and only get the Toughlink trigger one more time. Meanwhile, a creature without Wither bouncing off a wall infinitely would trigger infinite Toughlink triggers without doing any real damage.

I chose B/G as the Toughlink colors because of the original intent for the Toughlink to trigger on creature death, and of course black and green are the colors of death and renewal/reward for death. It is also for more sacrificial outlets as a bonus, so, although sacrifice isn't a huge theme in this set, in future sets it might combo with Toughlink exponentially.