Not the starting player

Alchemy: The Brothers' War formally introduced a designed-for-digital, MTG Arena-specific mechanic that gives an beneficial effect to specific cards if you were not the starting player. It was designed by Dave Humpherys.

Background

Because Alchemy is mostly played Best-of-One, the designers built upon the design space of Forsaken Crossroads from Alchemy: Innistrad to create cards that counteract the advantage that a starting player has by playing first.

The idea may also be inspired by Gemstone Caverns from Time Spiral, which used luck counters as a benefit. It only ever tracks the starting player designation at the immediate start of the game, making it feasible for paper, while the other designs require knowing the starting player many turns into the game.

Examples

• Forsaken Crossroads (may untap itself)
• Lonely End (gain three life)
• Phantasmal Extraction (costs less to cast)
• Shove Aside (can be cast as though it had flash)
• Surgical Metamorph (costs less to cast)
• Sylvan Smite (put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control)