Under the Hood - Bloodfall #2

In the original article, found here, I talked about the flavor and background for a block that I plan on building myself over the next few months.  To sum things up, the first set, Bloodfall, is about a demonic ritual gone wrong, resulting in a river turning to blood and the demon sleeping somewhere underneath.  The planeswalker who performed the ritual, Kecra, seeks to find the Demon to fulfill his pact, but the natives of the plane all have their own reactions to the river of blood and have essentially used the event as an excuse for a declaration of war, fighting over control of the rivers.

In the article, I posted image files for four different cards to illustrate the feel of the set, created as I typed the article.  However, astute readers may have noticed that the four cards lacked any new (or even uncommon) keyword abilities.  In essence, they were generic.  Now that our flavor is established, the next step is to design the base mechanics for the cards that fall in line with the setting.  It's time to grab a wrench and head under the hood.

Productivity Through Boredom - Bloodfall #01

I've found that often times, surrounded by things to do, no one thing motivates me more than another, and I end up just lying prone due to my own indecisiveness.  In that period of inactivity, I'm essentially bored out of my mind, and yet I know there's plenty of things I could be doing to keep me busy.  As much as it is a flaw, a lot of things in my life have come from this quirk of mine.

For you see, in this psuedo-boredom, I often brainstorm for something that will pull me out of my rut of inactivity.  I'll search the depths of my creativity for an activity that draws me more than whatever else I may have been choosing between.  It's periods like this that resulted in the creation of this site in the first place, among a number of things that were much more productive than whatever else was on my to do list.  In this way, I gain productivity through boredom, and it suits me well.

Now, what does this have to do with Magic?  Well you see, I'm doing it again.  I already have the column, so what is it this time, you may ask?

I want to build a block.