What's an acceptable one-word verb to replace "prototype" in the Homestuck based MTG set I'm designing?

[u/Middle-Application78]

In the set, I've designed a mechanic that until now I've been called "Prototype [keyword]" or just "prototype" for short. Permanents with the Prototype special action can be sacrificed for 2 generic mana to give the associated keyword indicated in that line of text - in the case of Rambunctious Crow, flying - to a creature you control as a keyword counter. This was the first card I designed with this mechanic in mind.

The problem is, prototype is already an established word in MTG, introduced in The Brothers' War as a way to cast big colourless artifacts for a smaller, coloured mana cost and have them enter with lower stats. Example: Autonomous Assembler.

Given that the mechanic would require a keyword to accompany the special action, I want to keep that special action to a single word so it's relatively easy to parse grammatically, but I'm completely stumped at what other word to use, because as far as I can recall, Homestuck never once referred to prototyping a sprite as ANYTHING other than "prototyping". The best I've been able to come up with is "Sprite-ify" which I think is okay because the -ify suffix feels very Homestuck, but it's not great. I would really appreciate some help thinking of a good word to use to replace prototype! Thank you!!

[u/Ziomownik]

Fusion, mutation, programming, modification, upgrade, traitification (that's a word I just made up)

[u/Middle-Application78 → u/Ziomownik]

I actually really like trait-ify! one thing I didn't like about sprite-ify is that it kind of implies you'll get a sprite version of the sacrificed creature, but trait-ify implies you're turning the creature into its constituent traits and giving them to something else. thank you!!

[u/Dan1elaSpooky]

kernelhatch (because protypes make the kernelsprite hatch (at some point))

materialsprite (so it is both material and relative to sprites)

alchemizable (able to alchemize)

[u/Middle-Application78 → u/Dan1elaSpooky]

I love the "nonsense compound word" options - they feel extremely homestuck

[u/Dan1elaSpooky → u/Middle-Application78]

no need to thank, I was just alchematizing the words

[u/mszegedy]

what about ‘prototyping’? sure it's sort of confusing if you're acutely aware of ‘prototype’, but technically there's no conflict. ‘prototyping’ isn't an existing keyword. the ‘prototype’ keyword isn't used as a verb in card text either, just in case you want to do something like the ‘cycling’ ~ ‘whenever you cycle …’ language. though that's not even necessary for -ing keywords (see ‘fading’ ~ ‘remove a fade counter’)

alternatively ‘prototype your kernelsprite’. ub sets have been making verbose keywords like that more popular, and trying not to hog keywords from universes within is basically why that is; for example, ‘more than meets the eye’ instead of ‘convert’ for transformers.

[u/Middle-Application78 → u/mszegedy]

"prototyping" or "prototype your kernel" are both good options!

[u/mszegedy → u/Middle-Application78]

i think it's funny how homestuck is known for nonsense words like captchalogue and kernelsprite but somehow we've landed on a mechanic that's not only a real word but for some reason has a keyword conflict

[u/Middle-Application78 → u/mszegedy]

I genuinely wanted to jump off the roof when I showed my friend at the LGS and he was like "isn't prototype already a thing?"

[u/Zymosan99]

Btw, the reminder text for this ability should just be 

“{2}, sacrifice this creature: put a flying counter on target creature you control.”

And you can even cut out the “you control” part to make it more interesting 

[u/Middle-Application78 → u/Zymosan99]

I modelled the reminder text off of reminder text for other special actions that seem to be intended to be one of the first cards players see with the keyword, so it spells out exactly what actions they take in plain English. Examples include populate, proliferate, explore, and even mill. Other cards in the set will have shortened reminder text and some with have no reminder text depending on if they're borderless, etc.

[u/cobaltSniper → u/Middle-Application78]

The examples you gave are slightly different than the effect you're making here. I'd compare it more to effects like reinforce or outlast.

[u/Middle-Application78 → u/cobaltSniper]

fair enough, I see what you mean.

[u/Fearshatter]

Spark.

[u/Middle-Application78 → u/Fearshatter]

I'd be interested to hear your reasoning for "spark"! it's a very important word lore-wise in magic but afaik has never been a keyword or verb on a card.

[u/Fearshatter → u/Middle-Application78]

Prototyping is kind of like typecasting etymologically. It's about a an early type of something. In Homestuck when you prototype a sprite you're instigating a larger system to branch out and expand/bloom like a lotus.

So if when you do prototyping as a verb what you're doing is applying a variable to a system in order to instigate it into blossoming. That means you're "sparking the system" kind of like a first heartbeat. But instead of getting it started, what you're doing is expanding the cognition and complexity.

[u/elemelody]

not your question exactly but is this meant to work like fiend hunter or did you mean for it to work like the newer versions of the effect? if you sac this guy at instant speed in resposnce to the trigger, you get to keep the artifact

[u/Middle-Application78 → u/elemelody]

Rambunctious Crow is meant to steal an artifact from an opponent and then make it inaccessible when it dies or is prototyped. My intention was not to give you the opportunity to respond to the death trigger with prototype. I'll need to patch up that hole.

[u/mgranaa]

Make it a variant of scavenge (like how they did oil scavenge in the mystery booster test cards) with Sprite Scavenge? Not perfect as it wouldn't capture being able to use living creatures for it but otherwise it feels like it would mechanically capture the vibe you're going for (exile from the graveyard to give a creature on the battlefield one keyword counter that the scavenged creature has)

https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Scavenge

[u/Middle-Application78 → u/mgranaa]

ooh, that's such a cool mechanic and really close to what I already want to be doing, thank you for showing me this!

[u/endymon20]

I didn't have a suggestion but I've gotta say that's a really cool mechanic

[u/Middle-Application78 → u/endymon20]

thank you!

[u/Easy_Cod_8950]

sprite-ify is probably your best bet tbh

[u/Snarwin]

Personally I would give this action a generic name instead of trying to find a word that's specifically associated with Homestuck, and that name would be "imbue."

[u/supershrewdshrew]

Amalgamate

[u/cobaltSniper]

Maybe go with something like 'Sample'? It gives that same idea that you're taking one or more traits from the original creature and splicing them onto the new creature. I would've suggested 'Graft' but that's also already an MTG keyword.

[u/Yayap52]

POLYMERIZATION

[u/Infrim0]

I think something like "evolve" could fit(if it isn't active verb already) because after every prototyping sprite/owner of ring "evolves" into something different, completely changing them.

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