Yea or Nay?

As you may know, the next big set for Magic:the Gathering is the Return to Ravnica.  For those of you who weren't around the first time, the plane of Ravnica is a big city, kind of like Coruscant, but less space-y.

The city is divided into ten guilds.  Each guild is made up of two colors and its philosophy is based on the interaction between those colors.  For example: the green/white guild, Selesnya, values community, life, and peace whereas the Cult of Rakdos (black/red) are generally cruel and disgusting.

The last time we went to Ravnica, each guild has its own mechanic or keyword.  Dredge, the Golgari's keyword, is still being used to take down tournaments in eternal formats. This time each guild is going to have a different keyword, and I've been trying to independently figure out a keyword of my own for each one.

Last week we looked at how the Orzhov Syndicate uses gold to get what it needs, and yesterday's  Card of the Day was my take on the Golgari ability word. This week's keyword is for the Azorius Senate.  If you're familiar with the guild, you'll know that the Blue/White Azorius Senate makes the laws for Ravnica and they are very liberal with their use of Law Magic.  Therefore, I propose Voting.

Let's go over a few of the pitfalls before I unveil the whole thing.

In a two player game, if each player gets one vote, most times the vote is going to fail.  The solution for this is to let other Planeswalkers vote, as well.  If you have Gideon on your side, you're probably going to win.

That was the initial design.  After some thought, I decided to let legendary creatures vote, as well, for a few reasons. One, it's just unfun if you're always losing votes because your opponent is playing with (generally) more expensive cards than you.  Most legendary creatures cost less (financially) than Planeswalkers. Two, I wanted people to have to count more votes. Voting seems bad if you don't get to interact with it. Three, Commander!  This seems like a perfect mechanic for commander decks to play with.  It feels at home in a multiplayer enviroment, and when you're playing commander, everyone has at least one legendary creature to play with.

OK, so here's the wording on all vote cards that are less than rare.

(Each player gets one vote plus one vote for each Planeswalker and Legendary Creature he or she controls. Each player may choose to vote Yea or Nay.)

And, without further ado, I present Azorius Justicar, in all his extended art glory: