#gds3
Note
I'm listening to your GDS3 Podcasts and am wondering, do you think there will be a GDS4, or are there new things that would prevent it?
I hope to do a GDS4 one day, but it's a huge amount of work, and we need the company to be in a place where we have the ability to hire multiple finalists.
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Murders at Karlov Manor Booster Challenge
With every* set since zendikar rising, I've done a booster of custom cards meant to be a part of the set. This is based on a challenge from GDS3, so my goals are to not just to make cards that feel like a part of the set but also ones that Innovate which is a rather difficult balance to strike. I try to cover a wide variety of themes, colors, and mechanics. This is the first set using the new play boosters which I thought would make things more different than it did; it's basically just one fewer card and one slot that's flexible in rarity- I decided to make it uncommon, and I grouped it in with the other uncommons because it really doesn't matter which takes the flex slot.
Rare
Worldsoul's Justice 3WW
Sorcery
Choose one or more-
* Destroy all colorless creatures.
* Destroy all monocolored creatures.
* Destroy all multicolored creatures.
“You all profited while Ravnica screamed! You are all guilty!” -Oba
Art link
This is a flexible board wipe that takes advantage of the variety of colors you might have on board in this set between the light multicolor theme and the disguise mechanic to let you sculpt it to your needs.
Uncommons
Increased Surveillance 1U
Instant
Surveil 1, then surveil 2, then surveil 3. (To surveil, look at that many cards from the top of your library. Put any number into your graveyard and the rest back on top in any order.)
Rumors of the Dimirs’ fall only aid their all-seeing eyes.
Art link
We've seen something kinda like this before in Cryptic Annelid, but i think scry vs surveil makes a big difference here. This is a great card for filling up your yard to collect evidence, while sculpting your future draws.
Midnight Investigator 1BB
Creature- Vampire Detective
When Midnight Investigator enters the battlefield, each player may collect evidence 5. If a player doesn’t, they lose life equal to the total mana value of cards in their graveyard. (To collect evidence 5, exile cards with total mana value 5 or greater from your graveyard.)
3/2
Art link
One thing that's cool about collect evidence that only one card played with is that it's something anyone *can* do. I made this symmetrical rather than just opponents to reward building around the mechanic, but i like the way that the life loss effect essentially has a cap.
Chaos Seal 3B
Enchantment
Sacrifice Chaos Seal: Exile the top three cards of your library. You may play those cards this turn.
Disguise 1R (You may cast this card face down for 3 as a 2/2 creature with ward 2. Turn it face up any time for its disguise cost.)
The Rakdos excel at finding novel uses for Azorius containment spells.
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In theory this card could be part of a cycle but I wasn't finding a lot of other effects that fit the bill. I needed something that wasn't problematic as an on board trick but also that you don't always want to use immediately after playing, and that benefited from being able to come out "cheaply" with a disguise cost. Impulse draw was a good fit because the amount of mana you have available really matters.
In Hiding G
Enchantment
Ward costs of permanents you control cost an additional 1 to pay.
When In Hiding enters the battlefield, you may cloak a card from your hand. (To cloak a card, put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature with ward 2. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it’s a creature card.)
Art link
I went back and forth between white and green for this card. White is a little better at this kind of weenie and I feel like the re-ward fits it a little more, but neither is a bad fit for green and green is more of the disguise color so in this particular set it might make sense there. In the end I went green to differentiate this card a little more from the white common that is a noncreature permanent that has a minor effect and makes a 2/2 on ETB.
Commons
Compiled Case Notes 1W
Artifact
When Compiled Case Notes enters the battlefield, create a 2/2 white and blue Detective creature token.
1, T: Surveil 1. Activate only if a Detective entered the battlefield under your control this turn or was turned face up under your control this turn.
Art link
I like the detective typal stuff and wanted to make a card for it; here's one that works fine in a vacuum as essentially a bear with kicker 1: Surveil 1, but gets a lot more interesting if you have other detectives which is a place I like my common typal rewards.
Detain the Suspect 1U
Sorcery
Tap target creature then choose two. You may choose the same mode more than once.
* Put a stun counter on that creature. (If a creature with a stun counter on it would become untapped, instead remove a stun counter from it.)
* Investigate.
Art link
One cool thing you can do with stun counters that you couldn't with old "doesn't untap" effects is make a variable amount of turns. Investigate is clearly the better option synergy wise in this set, but being sorcery means tapping doesn't stop an attacker, and stopping an attacker for a turn or two can be *very* valuable. I think this card's in a good spot of how often you choose each of the three modes (two stun counters, two clues, counter and clue)
Kidnap 4U
Instant
This spell costs 1 less to cast for each card you drew this turn.
Target creature’s owner puts it on top or bottom of their library.
In a city as big as Ravnica, it’s all to easy to fall through thr cracks.
Art link
The set already has some of this with the split cards and morphs, but I just wanted to add another spell that's expensive but can be cast cheaply to fill up your yard with expensive stuff for the sake of evidence collection. This was the cost reduction effect I found I liked best for this set.
Golgari Scapegoat 3B
Creature- Elf Assassin
3B: Suspect Golgari Scapegoat. (A suspected creature has menace and can’t block.)
Whenever Golgari Scapegoat deals combat damage to a player, if it’s suspected, surveil 2.
3/4
After the Invasion, the other Guilds are quick to blame the Swarm.
Art link
This is a kind of design I always love doing with a set mechanic- give it a way to turn itself on so it works fine on its own, but cost it such that you'd much rather find another way to turn that effect on if you can.
Mysterious Bloodstain B
Artifact- Clue
When Mysterious Bloodstain enters or leaves the battlefield, suspect up to one target creature. (It has menace and can’t block.)
2, Sacrifice Mysterious Bloodstain: Draw a card.
Art link
This is a cycle of clues that all do an effect when they enter or leave the battlefield. This is the one I like best because I think a card like this would do a lot of work in getting the BR suspect deck online; more than any of the others this one feels the most like a card you can only make here.
Covert Operations Head 1R
Creature- Goblin Soldier
Face-down creatures you control have haste.
2/1
Though once goblins filled only the lowest Boros ranks, after the Invasion devastated Boros numbers those who survived quickly rose.
Art link
Fairly straightforward disguise reward here. I wanted to cost it to be 2 mana, since coming down before turn 3 is hugely important for this particular card, so it basically built itself from the initial idea.
Anzrag's Escape 2G
Sorcery
Choose one-
* Return target card in your graveyard to your hand
* Return target card you own in exile that you collected as evidence this turn to your hand.
Art link
Simple enough idea here, it's a regrowth that doesn't compete with the set's graveyard mechanic. I don't think this breaks the spirit of the rule that cards shouldn't be able to get cards back from exile because of how specific it is; it doesn't at all prevent using exile as a safety.
Elephant in the Room 4G
Creature- Elephant Detective
Disguise 4G. This cost is reduced by 2 if Elephant in the Room is attacking and isn’t blocked. (You may cast this card face down for 3 as a 2/2 creature with ward 2. Turn it face up any time for its disguise cost.)
5/5
Art link
I wanted a card that lets you use disguise to sneak a big creature out early without breaking the rule of five, and I came up with a design I quite like to get around it.
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Meet the top 8 contestants from the Great Designer Search 3 and see their first design trial!
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I keep seeing people post about GDS3 and I feel like @flavoracle and I are just sitting on the sidelines cheering for everyone participating.
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A Circus Act
Great Designer Search 3 is going on. I’m not in it, but that won’t stop me from trying the prompts! This is my response to challenge #2 which can be found here. I’ve also already seen some of the submissions for challenge #2, so some of my designs are shameless ripoffs/riffs on other submissions. The actual contestant’s submissions can be found here. I’m probably also gonna make these into individual card posts for browsing convenience.
With that out of the way, step into the big top!
I approached the idea of Bigtopia, the circus plane, from a couple angles. The biggest one is a legendary-matters theme. The circus doesn’t feature an ordinary-ho-hum-run-of-the-mill-strongman-available-at-your-local-grocery-store. The circus features Doga, Strongest Woman in the World! The circus also needs to feel bright and colorful. Many of the legends are multi-colored to bring that feel and color fixing becomes important in this environment. Finally, auras and cards that care about them help to express the sense of wonder and magic that surrounds the circus, its aura, if you will.
Designs:
Traveling Circus 2G
Enchantment - Aura [common]
Enchanted land has “T: add 2 mana in any combination of colors.”
2: attach Traveling Circus to target land you control.
Carnival Wilson, Ringmaster 1UWR
Legendary Creature - Djinn Wizard [mythic rare]
Other legendary creatures you control get +1/+1 and have haste and vigilance.
When Carnival Wilson enters the battlefield, search your library for up to three legendary creature or planeswalker cards, reveal them, and exile them. Then shuffle your library.
T, X: Choose a card exiled with Carnival Wilson with converted mana cost X. Until end of turn, you may cast that card without paying its mana cost.
2/2
Katya Slyck, Knife-Thrower 3RB
Legendary Creature - Vampire Rogue [rare]
Lifelink
Katya Slyck enters the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters on it.
1, remove a +1/+1 counter from Katya Slyck: Katya Slyck deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
1/1
Feats of Strength 1G
Sorcery [uncommon]
Target Creature you control fights target creature an opponent controls. If your creature survives, put a +1/+1 counter on it and it becomes legendary.
-
“I heard he punched a bear!”
“Well, I heard he punched a dragon!”
Acrobatics U
Enchantment - Aura [common]
Whenever enchanted creature attacks, it gets +1/+1 and gains flying until end of turn.
When Acrobatics enters the battlefield, draw a card.
Juri Skye, Trapeze Artist 1UR
Legendary Creature - Djinn Wizard [uncommon]
Flying
Whenever an aura enters the battlefield under your control, target creature gets +1/+1 and gains flying until end of turn.
2/1
Human Cannonball 3R
Enchantment - Aura [Mythic Rare]
Enchanted creature gets +3/+0 and has haste and “T, sacrifice this creature: This creature deals damage equal to its power to target creature or player.”
At the beginning of combat on your turn, you may pay 3R. If you do, you may return Human Cannonball from your graveyard to the battlefield enchanting target legendary creature you control.
The Clown Car 4
Legendary Artifact - Vehicle [Mythic Rare]
Whenever a creature crews The Clown Car, The Clown Car gets +X/+0 until end of turn where X is that creature’s power.
Whenever a creature with first strike crews the Clown Car, The Clown car gains first strike until end of turn. The same is true for deathtouch, double strike, flying, haste, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, menace, reach, trample, and vigilance
Crew 4
0/4
-
Honk. Honk.
Breakdown:
Traveling Circus
This is a design that I basically stole. The original design was just fixing, not ramp, and didn’t do enough to really justify playing it. This one is great fixing for playing 5-color legends and also works as ramp. In addition, it’s an aura, which synergizes with the set’s aura theme.
Carnival Wilson, Ringmaster
Savvy readers may recognize the skeleton of Kaho, Minamo Historian hidden within this design. On a flavor level, Carnival is calling the line up for a three-ring circus act and giving them the spotlight when their turn comes up. I initially had this design as mono-white, but I thought that this might be too much card advantage for white and that the haste red could grant would help the flavor by allowing a performer to actually begin their act the turn that Carnival introduces them. Giving things +1/+1 vigilance and haste let Carnival impact the board the turn she comes into play, which is important.
Katya Slyck, Knife-Thrower
Another very stolen design. It’s hard to design black cards fro the names we were given. :( The original design wasn’t as powerful, didn’t have lifelink, and used temporary -1/-1 instead of damage. I also used the judge feedback on that design and gave her counter-removing ability a mana cost.
Feats of Strength
Plenty of designs featured fighting, but the judges frequently felt that the designs didn’t reflect the feeling of a single epicly strong person that one might come to see in a circus. What I tried to do here was capture the moment that someone goes from being strong to being a famously strong person. The “If your creature survives” is NOT proper templating, but other wordings were cumbersome and awkward. This card clearly communicates what happens, so I think it’s alright. Flavor text is a nod to Surrak and Savage Punch/Epic Confrontation.
Acrobatics
I wanted this to grant flying, but it needed to be temporary to reflect leaping into the air. Card draw was added to keep the card impactful despite the drawback of the the buff being temporary.
Juri Skye, Trapeze Artist
Juri is meant to be a signpost for the UR draft archetype: evasive auras. Her flying is permanent because she LIVES up on the trapeze. Great synergy with Human Cannonball.
Human Cannonball
This was originally a legendary creature named Phoenix Racham. I just wanted to tell you that because I think that name is cool. Anyways, huge chunks of repeateable damage = scary and I was able to connect it to the legendary theme.
The Clown Car
Honk. Honk.
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Great Designer Search 3, Test 1
Today we take a break from our regularly scheduled programming (Timebent, my custom set) to talk about the first design test from GDS3, You Might as Well Tribal (good one Mark).
I'll be following along with all the tests from GDS3 and making cards for each challenge. I'll go in depth on my choices and I'm happy to have conversation with all y'all.
For this test, designers must create eight cards for a creature type that hasn't "seen a lot of love", or even a new type. Here are the rules:
1. The creature tribe must be different from other designers (this rule doesn't apply to us).
2. All the cards need to be designed as though they were in a standard legal set (so no retired mechanics, and adjust power level accordingly)
3. It isn't enough for a card to be the creature type, all eight cards have to mechanically care about that type.
4. You need two cards at each rarity (common, uncommon, rare, mythic rare)
5. Your tribe needs to be in at least two colours, and the colours have to fit the tribe (so don't do green/red squids)
6. You need to have one of every card type aside from planeswalker. The other two cards can be any type you want (to be clear, you're allowed to design a planeswalker but it isn't required).
7. You can use any evergreen mechanics and up to two non evergreen mechanics, but you can't use your own named mechanics. There is no requirement to use named mechanics.
The judges are looking for:
Flavourful design, fun gameplay, syngery, originality, and appropriateness in colour pie, rarity and card type.
For this test, I chose to do insect tribal in green and black. They have a strong graveyard focus, and I wanted to create the feeling of a swarm that breeds rapidly and wipes things out viciously. The swarm is a green aspect, the death is a black aspect, and breeding rapidly is represented by the graveyard, which is the common ground between black and green. That being said, let's look at my cards:
-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=--=+=-=+=-=+=
Land (1)
Instant (1)
Sorcery (1)
(note: the tokens are black but I don't have the version saved on my phone where I fixed that, apologies)
Planeswalker (1)
Artifact (1)
(This is not the most creative name I've ever thought of, I'll admit)
Enchantment (1)
And of course, creatures (2)
-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=--=+=-=+=-=+=
Clearly, these are all playtest names, but for most of them I tried to convey the flavour (except for the artifact, I really couldn't think of what kind of artifact insects would use {maybe it's like a breeding ground?}).
I have two green cards, two black cards, two multicolor cards, and two colourless cards, to show equal representation of the theme of each of the colours. For my two extra card slots, I made one planeswalker because I wanted to, and one extra creature because creatures are the most important part of a tribal deck.
-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=--=+=-=+=-=+=
Individual card notes:
Bugso: I understand why they don't make many tribal planeswalkers - they're the most important cards in a set, they're flagships for the plane and tribal 'walkers are often too narrow. However, Bugso is a nice package and I think it works well enough with itself that one wouldn't NEED to play it in an insect tribal deck to get value out of it, but it's better if you do - much like Liliana, Death's Majesty. I feel like I was able to represent all aspects of the tribe in this card: the swarm, the rapid regrowth, and the slaughter.
Boon of the Ash Borer: I knoooooow, ash borers are all about destroying land and this has nothing to do with land, but it sort of bores through your deck for personal gain which is very much like the bug that killed my favourite tree when I was a kid (no, I'm still not over it).
Design 3 (artifact): I feel like I could fiddle with the numbers a bit. Since individual insects aren't incredibly strong, I think it could cost 3 mana.
-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=--=+=-=+=-=+=
Feel free to comment on what you think of my designs, or reblog with your own! I'm really excited for the start of the GDS3 show and I hope you are too.
#gds3#great designer search 3#MtG#custom cards#custom magic card#MtG custom card#MtG tribal#MtG the game#magic the gathering#magic the card game#magic
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PSA FOR GDS3
Hey so I've got blacklists enabled for the following tags.
If you make a custom card please tag it with one of these things and (hopefully) it won't show up!
Thank you !!!
The list is:
custom card
custom cards
custom magic card
custom magic cards
custom mtg
magic the gathering custom
magic the gathering custom card
magic the gathering custom cards
mtg custom
mtg custom card
mtg custom cards
Thank you so much for doing this!!! You can rb this if you want this is just a personal list, but I'm basically trying to block any and all tags people might put down custom cards in (as well as un-following people who do mostly custom cards)
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GDS3 - Challenge #1 - Tribal
I love game design so I have a lot of interest in Wizards Great Designer Search 3. Unfortunately I don’t meet the requirements to enter but that won’t stop me from joining in with the challenges anyway.
I haven’t yet looked at what the designers have made for their first challenge (but I did check what creature types they went with so I didn’t do the same as them) so my designs wouldn’t be influenced by reading the judges feedback on other designs.
You can read the full rules for the challenge here but to summarise the challenge was to make 8 tribal cards for a creature type of your choice for a standard legal set.
For this challenge I decided to go with the creature type Wurm. Wurms have been around for a long time in magic but they have never gotten any tribal cards so I thought they would be a great candidate for this task.
Click below to see the cards!
(Note: I am using playtest style names since I am bad at coming up with real names)
One of the interesting challenges I had made for myself by choosing Wurms is that Wurms are all high mana cost. So the normal tribal strategies of getting out as many of a tribe as possible and antheming them wouldn’t work. I went a different route entirely and decided instead of trying to play lots of small creatures the Wurm tribe would just focus on getting out a few big Wurms a bit earlier than normal. The first card shows off how I went about this
A quite simple design but I think it works well. Your opponent gets a turn to deal with this guy just as they would with a mana dork and if they don’t you’ll likely get to play a 5 drop on turn 3 which is pretty strong (but as steal leaf champion has shown its not too strong for standard)
The next card isn’t particularly interesting but is something I imagine would be included in a set with this tribe. One problem you sometimes come across when playing big creature decks is that you only have one creature and while it can usually attack profitably you often don’t want to because it will get chump blocked and you’ll leave yourself defenceless. This combat trick solves that problem letting you get in for some good damage and keep a blocker.
For one of my uncommons I wanted to make a Wurm lord to show off what sort of pay off you’ll be getting for playing this tribe in limited but giving +1/+1 to all your creatures isn’t very good in a tribe of fatties. I wanted something that was good if you only had a couple of Wurms and game winning if you had lots of Wurms as well as providing some interesting play. In the end I decided to go with provoke. I like provoke here because with a couple of big Wurms out it can be a serious threat making your opponent have to think very carefully about their blocks but if you have managed to get several Wurms out it makes your opponents blocks miserable as they lose the choice to just take a hit from some of the wurms and the blocks they do make will likely be chumps as it is unlikely they will have enough creatures to block everything and still make double blocks to trade with your wurms.
One of the requirements for this was that you had to make a tribal card for each card type (except Planeswalker and Tribal) and I’ll be honest I really struggled to think of an artifact for a while but then I came up with an idea that seemed perfect. Flavourfly I had already decided that there would be a Cult that worships Wurms and is willing to sacrifice themselves for the Wurms (like Wurmfood) so I came up with the idea of a sacrificial dagger that gives any creature Wurmfoods ability.
I think this is a really strong effect as it can turn tokens and early game creatures into mana generation in the late game for your big creatures. If this mana was usable on any creature I would think it might be too strong for standard but the restriction of only Wurms makes this a much fairer card.
Now we get to the first Rare and the land card for my tribal set. The land card for a tribe is fairly easy to do and I could have easily taken the lazy route and just made a tap dual that enters untapped if you are using a Wurm deck but that seemed boring to me and I wanted to use this card to emphasize the decks strategy of sacrificing cultists to play Wurms.
What I went with in the end was this. A tap land that can generate a single mana of either of the tribes colours or can sacrifice a creature to generate 3 mana to cast a wurm spell. I went with 3 mana to keep it in line with the other cards I’d already designed and I don’t think this makes the card too strong.
My next rare is another payoff card for running this tribe. Again I wanted to make sure the card was stronger if you had lots of Wurms out but still good if you only had 1 or 2, I also wanted it to still be playable in limited in a deck without any Wurms.
So this is basically just the card overcome if you don’t have any Wurms which is fine in limited and can win you games but if you do control a Wurm it becomes much better. All you need is one Wurm out and this gives you an overrun style effect for only 3 mana which could let you end a game early with your cultists out and a single wurm. If you have multiple Wurms this does get a lot stronger but at the same time if you have multiple wurms out you probably has enough mana that costing 2 less probably doesn’t matter much.
The first mythic I am going to show is probably the most powerful card in this group. So far all the cards I have made I have ensured that the card is still playable in limited if you don’t have any Wurms but with this being a mythic I decided to drop that restriction in favour of making the card more powerful.
In a Wurm Tribal deck this is going to at the very least draw you into some good creatures in the late game which is fine but not great. (You do have the potential for this card to do nothing but in my experience that almost never happens). What makes this card really strong though is the Morbid trigger. If you can get a creature to die (which should be easy in this deck with the cultists) you get to just put a Wurm into play every turn for free. If this enchantment goes unanswered it can end the game very quickly which really is what an expensive enchantment should be doing. Again like previous cards If it wasn’t for the fact it is limited to a Tribe I would say this could end up being too strong for a standard set. As it is though I think it is just strong enough and probably the best payoff card in the tribe for constructed.
I particularly like how this card ties together the two things this deck is doing, sacrificing creatures and playing big Wurms.
Lastly we have a card I designed with commander in mind. It would be wrong to design new tribal cards without giving the commander players a legendary so they can play the tribe in commander (and brawl!).
(Card was named by a friend of mine as a pun on Wurmcoil Engine)
Like with the previous mythic this creature ties together what the deck is doing, it sacrifices creatures and gives you big Wurms but unlike the previous card this is strong on its own and I could see people running it in commander decks that don’t even run Wurms. Initially this creature was going to be Golgari with a red ability to allow commander players to run some of the Red Wurms in their deck but I couldn’t think of a satisfying way of doing a red ability on this card without it feeling tacked on and it made the card feel disconnected from the rest of the cards. One thing to note though, I would never make this more than 3 colors as that would make it too hard to cast in standard so I know commander players would complain regardless of whether I went Jund or Naya as I’d be leaving out some really good Wurms in Green Red and Green White. Sure this way I’ve left out both but the best Wurm cards are Mono Green anyway and on the plus side you can Run Massacre Wurm in this deck and who doesn’t love Massacre Wurm.
So that is all the cards I made for this challenge. If you are reading this I want to thank you for taking the time to look at my cards. Let me know what you think as I would love to be given feedback on this. Also if any of you have done this challenge send me a link to your cards and I’ll have a look :)
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GDS3 Trial 1 Post Script
I went into this challenge with a general strategy in answering the questions overall. I also had a plan in how to go about answering them in the time given. I will first tell you my plan for answering them, then the strategy I was working under to help guide my answers overall, and finally thoughts on the answers I have and how well I did on each question. I mostly won't provide my answers here yet (I will do that either after the contest ends or at least if I know I am no longer in the running).
My plan to answer them worked as follows. First I read each question and then noted them on my phone. I spent the next day just considering each question and talking to myself about it. That night I made notes of possible answers for each as well as a few bullet points of how I could defend those answers. The next day I recorded myself talking about my best potential answers (it was a point where I was stuck in my car for about an hour, so I channeled Drive to Work and talked about Magic). When I got home I listened to that stuff and took some more notes, then set to work writing essays.First draft done, I went to bed.
The next day I reread my answers and then reread the questions, and then reread my answers. Then I rewrote my essays from scratch after considering what about them should change. I was very happy with the second draft I had for each of the essays and I made more minor revisions and corrections on the next day before submitting them. I'm quite pleased with the overall answers.
My strategy in answering them was to showcase a wide range of abilities; I touched on design and development issues, the integration of creative, player reception, and the larger (standard) environment created that each set is a part of (barring supplemental products of course). Some questions naturally focused on individual mechanic and card design, while others allowed me to talk about bigger concerns with a design (for better or worse, and with one answer in particular I definitely dropped the ball in pursuing this strategy).
Question 1
I sought to emphasize my design skills though they are all currently “amateur.” I don't and have not had a career as a professional in any aspect of design, though my hobbies and passions all revolve around it. I also put great weight on my ability and desire to work with a team in collaborative processes. I'd love the opportunity to expand on these things during a face to face interview.
Question 2
I don't think any non-evergreen mechanic currently satisfies the demands of being made evergreen. Due to that, this was the hardest question of the ten from my perspective. I made the argument for skulk, shifted into green to act as evasion on green's smaller creatures where trample doesn't make sense. I'd make it primary in green and tertiary in black and blue, only to be used there when none of their other evasion makes sense somehow. This would hopefully allow the mechanic to see some good use despite its small design space.
Question 3
This felt like the easiest question to answer. Defender is strictly a downside mechanic, there are no issues with writing out the effect defender has since walls are never crowded with text, and mimicking Propaganda text on cards that lose defender actually saves space and simplifies cards that currently have defender. For example I'd drop defender from Hightide Hermit and write its rules text as “Hightide Hermit can't attack unless you pay EE.” Even in a world where defender remains evergreen, that's a good change to make to cards like that.
Question 4
I've taught a few people to play Magic so I feel really good about my answer with this. I even write it out as a bit of a story to help them see how that first game with a stranger would go. I defined the best possible outcome as the stranger wanting to play Magic after I taught them and that the best way to ensure they want that is for them to have fun. I'd grab two planeswalker decks and we'd start playing. First game open handed so I can look at their cards and advise them directly and they can ask questions without feeling like they're giving up information that should remain hidden. I explain just rules relevant at the time and stay away from any complicated stuff or technical terminology that might trip them up or overwhelm them. When we're done with that first game I ask if they want to play again and then we play a normal game with hands hidden. I haven't always taught players this way, but my methods for teaching the game improve each time I do it (one of the first people I taught was my fiancee and I regret that because I did not do a good job at all, but it gave me a better idea of how to teach Magic by making what not to do clearer).
Question 5
The answer to this question is fun, no doubt in my mind. People come to the game because it's fun and they stick with the game because it's fun. You have to make sure it remains fun. Making a fun experience isn't easy, but I also touched on how there are a lot of different players and each of them gets something different from Magic. So the real trick is learning about all the different ways people enjoy Magic and then making some aspect of the game for each of them. In other words, you aren't just designing for yourself.
Question 6
My answer to this question is complexity. I clarify that complexity isn't all bad; some of it is absolutely needed to make the game as enjoyable as it is. But too much complexity or complexity employed the wrong way, ruins the game. Complexity needs to be watched and it always needs to be in service to a fun experience. I think this answer is solid but it felt a bit rote to me as well. I've read and listened to a lot of Rosewater's stuff on design and I never set out to rehash his ideas here, but he has an incredible understanding of design philosophy and since I'd consider myself a student of his in many respects, that comes through in my answers anyway.
Question 7
I wanted so much more from Cipher. I think its shortcomings are that it was difficult to develop, confined mechanically (it couldn't be used on combat tricks and they chose not to use it on instants due to confusion), and it used weird terminology with encode. My solution is a mechanic I called Spellstrike which I believe has more tools to develop it fairly, works on instants and sorceries and as combat tricks, and used only existing and commonly used Magic terminology. That's all I'll say about it here as I hope to design some of these cards in a challenge later.
Question 8
This is where my strategy in answering really bit me. I've talked about specific card and mechanic design in previous questions so I thought this was a good space to expand to block and larger environment design, as well as creative. I answered that I loved Eldritch Moon but that its reception by the larger player base was soured because it followed Battle for Zendikar block. I didn't touch so much on design issues in the set itself here, nor on what I would change because it would have made the set better for me. Instead I focused on how design and creative failed to recognize that the general flavor of Eldrazi would cause fans to conflate Innistrad and Zendikar Eldrazi as being essentially the same thing even though the designs are literally worlds apart. Delaying Shadows Over Innistrad block I believe would have resulted in better reception of it. Still, my answer here is the biggest miss I had among these questions though I still believe it showcases an ability to learn from every aspect of a design.
Question 9
I considered Aether Revolt and Dragons of Tarkir for this. Dragons of Tarkir took away the best mechanic part of Khans of Tarkir, the clans, but introduced a lot of cool dragons. Ultimately I decided I had more to defend in talking about Aether Revolt instead and could better showcase an eye for design with a specific circumstance I'll mention below. Aether Revolt for me just didn't do much that Kaladesh wasn't already doing and better. I didn't include this in the question as I didn't think of it at the time, but now I wonder if that's because it suffered from the blob problem where decks could too easily just play good stuff so not as many cards had the chance to shine in constructed. In limited it just wasn't doing enough to change draft to make it more enticing to draft this than it was to draft triple Kaladesh. I'm not clear on what could have changed that.
But for the actual question, the aspect I think worked best, was the mechanic Revolt. I went on to discuss how it's not simply a Morbid clone and specifically that it forces you to reassess how you play something as simple as Evolving Wilds. Any mechanic that makes you rethink an aspect of the game that you usually take for granted is doing good work.
Question 10
This is the question I had the most potential answers for: use they/their instead of gendered pronouns in rules text, introduce “discard” to red in the form of “impulsing” cards out of opponent's hands, use draw as terminology to describe moving a card (not permanent) from any zone to a player's hand and discard to describe moving a card from any zone to a player's graveyard, getting rid of the legend rule, making enchantment creatures evergreen, and probably a few others I can't think of now.
I opted to defend removing the legend rule. It allows more fun and I believe it's the one design decision that you can most directly connect to a financial business decision because of the huge market evidenced for Commander players. Again, the answer here played into my goal to show a breadth of vision in my design abilities.
Overall I'm really happy with my answers despite the errors I see now. In the short time available to answer them I believe that I provided strong answers backed up with reasoned judgment and examples, even in the case that I didn't quite answer the question at hand in number eight. I also now feel that I should have worked an explanation for my strategy in answering the rest of the questions into my answer for question one. That would have better explained why 8 missed the mark a bit (though I would have answered differently if I thought at the time I wasn't really answering the question provided). I hope it's enough to get my foot in the door and afford me the opportunity to answer more questions or further elaborate on these as well as perhaps offer up other ideas. You could get a really good idea of what a designer is like just by finding out their reasoning for their answer and I want to be able to share a lot of what I said here with the folks at Wizards of the Coast if the opportunity arises.
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In GDS3, there was a challenge where contestants chose a standard legal set and made a booster pack of custom cards for it. If someone chose a set with a bonus sheet (had that been a thing at the time), how should they have approached that?
Match the as-fan in the booster and pick an appropriate card that potentially could have been on the bonus sheet, but wasn’t.
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Wilds of Eldraine Draft Booster Challenge
Every set I like to make a draft booster pack featuring the themes of the set. (This particular booster has been done for like a month and I just never got around to posting it lol.) The goal of this project is to make cards that you would be unsurprised to open alongside the rest of the set, while innovating on its mechanics. This is a hard balance to strike, especially at common which takes up the majority of the booster. It's based on one of the challenges from GDS3 that i can no longer link because of wotc's shitty ass update to their website that broke access to like half their articles.
Now that the intro and griping are out of the way, let's get into it!
Art links:
Gadwick
Bitter Winds of Winter
Gold-Spinner Faerie
Syr Ginger's Vow (Screenshot from trailer)
Magic Pumpkin
Sword of Noble Destiny
Never Woke Up // Lay Down
Hungering Lich-Knight
Evil Relative
Induce Vengeance
Reign of Vermin
Basket of Baked Goods
Feasting Hedonists
Hunting Prowess
Rare
Gadwick, Wizard of the Wilds 2U
Legendary Creature- Human Wizard
> Lost Research 1U
> Instant- Adventure
> Draw a card. (Then exile this spell. You may cast the other half later from exile.)
Prowess
You may cast creature cards as though they had Lost Research as an Adventure.
2/2
I always like to do something novel in these boosters since, riffing off the GDS3, they’re supposed to be something I’d show to wizards of the coast to impress. Sometimes it’s quite hard to do anything too new at common and uncommon, which means I want to go hogwild at rare. This definitely has the novelty factor. I have no idea if it can be made to work within the rules or if this wording is correct, but I wanted it in here all the same.
Uncommons
Bitter Winds of Winter U
Snow Enchantment
If you would put one or more stun counters on a permanent an opponent controls, instead put that many plus one stun counters on it.
5U: Tap target creature and put a stun counter on it. (If a creature with a stun counter on it would become untapped, remove a stun counter from it instead.)
I’m a big proponent of the idea that the snow-queen themed cards should have had the snow subtype. I might make a post defending that at some point, but for now just go with it. I went back and forth on whether to make my own card for this theme snow, since it would match less with what the set did, but ultimately I went with this because I decided if I ever do anything with my cards like a custom cube, I’m gonna prefer it to be snow. And I make the rules here. This set has an unusually high number of stun counters and while it isn’t directly tap-matters like most of the cards in this archetype (though it does enable it, if not all that well), it just feels like a cool card to exist and this feels like a good place to do it.
Gold-Spinner Faerie 3B
Creature- Faerie
Bargain, bargain, bargain (You may sacrifice up to three artifacts, enchantments, and/or tokens as you cast this spell.)
Flying
When Gold-Spinner Faerie enters the battlefield, create a Treasure token for each time it was bargained.
When Gold-Spinner Faerie enters the battlefield, create a Treasure token for each time it was bargained.
3/3
You’ve heard of multikicker, now get ready for multibargain! This feels like design space for the mechanic that wasn’t really explored, so it felt good to touch on in this booster.
Syr Ginger’s Vow 2B
Enchantment- Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I | Create two Food tokens
II | Sacrifice a Food. If you do, draw a card.
III | Destroy up to one target creature or planeswalker.
For a while I had a Saga in the rare slot, but I decided to swap it out for something with a bit more novelty, so I ended up subbing in this card which I think I like better anyway. I love the Syr Ginger stuff, it’s just so silly, and I like doing Sagas that show a plane’s history. I think this captures the steps of her story very well which is nice for anyone who didn’t see the trailer.
Commons
Magic Pumpkin W
Artifact- Food Vehicle
Celebration — As long as two or more nonland permanents entered the battlefield under your control this turn, Magic Pumpkin is an artifact creature.
2, T, Sacrifice Magic Pumpkin: You gain 3 life.
3/2
I love weird type combinations, and I wanted to make a Food Vehicle or Food Equipment, and that felt like something that needed to be a top down design- luckily, cinderella provided the perfect opportunity. I wanted it in the cinderella story colors therefor, which means it needed to be white. White isn’t *much* of a food color in this particular set but I feel like that’s fine.
Sword of Noble Destiny 2W
Artifact- Equipment
When Sword of Noble Destiny enters the battlefield, attach it to target creature you control. You may create a Royal Role token and attach it to that creature. (If you control another Role on it, put that one into the graveyard. Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has ward 1.)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has ward 1.
Equip 1
I know this set is mainly focusing on fairy tales and not camelot, I’m really shocked we didn’t get a sword in the stone reference using royal role tokens. It seems like such a hard thing to resist. So I didn’t. I pared it down to its simplest form to get it to work at common; I’m quite happy with the sword bestowing the same bonus as a royal role token, and that you can stack them on the same creature and be happy with that since the bonuses stack. Works out neatly.
Never Woke Up 1U
Enchantment- Aura
> Lay Down U
> Instant- Adventure
> Tap target creature.
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature doesn’t untap during its controller’s untap step.
This set debuted adventures on enchantments but only on a single rare cycle. I wanted to expand on that with a cycle of Auras, and here’s the representative of that cycle.
Hungering Lich-Knight 2B
Creature- Zombie Knight
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Hungering Lich-Knight has lifelink and haste as long as you’ve sacrificed a permanent this turn.
3/1
The Wilds are haunted by the Courts’ past misdeeds.
Here’s a twist I always like to play with alternate cost mechanics; one where the bonus doesn’t specifically require the alternate cost, but if you pay the cost it’s guaranteed. I did something similar with exploit back in VOW. I think it’s just a very fun way to do something a little different with a mechanic.
Evil Relative 1R
Creature- Human
When Evil Relative enters the battlefield, for each creature you control named Evil Relative, create a Wicked Role token and attach that token to that creature. (If you control another Role on it, put that one into the graveyard. Enchanted creature gets +1/+1. When this Aura is put into a graveyard, each opponent loses 1 life.)
1/1
I wanted a card that really plays with the “You can only have one role on a creature” and Wicked felt like the best way to do that since it has a payoff for that. Since there was no wicked role card connected to the wicked step family, I decided to connect it to that which helped pull the design together in a “have multiple of this card” direction.
Induce Vengeance 2R
Instant
Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to any target. Create a Cursed Role token and attach it to that creature. (If you control another Role on it, put that one into the graveyard. Enchanted creature is 1/1.)
The coven would not let their sister’s murder go unavenged.
I wanted to try using a cursed role as a sacrifice-lite effect and decided fling was a nice and simple execution of that. I think it’s fun cause with bargain and with other roles, since it’s easier to get your creature back at full power. It was very far from the usual fling flavor though, so I decided to go with someone kills a witch and is then cursed by her sisters in return.
Reign of Vermin 1R
Enchantment
When Reign of Vermin enters the battlefield, create two 1/1 black Rat creature tokens with “This creature can’t block.”
4R, Sacrifice Reign of Vermin: Attacking Rats you control get +2/+0 until end of turn.
You know I couldn’t resist putting a rat typal card in here. Typal cards at common tend to be be more of the threshold-one variety (that is, only asking that you control one creature of that type, or one other creature) because limited plays better if commons are less demanding on your deck, so they’re more usable in multiple archetypes. But I think this card works fine on its own even if it’s of course better with more Rats to go around so I don’t think that’s too much of a problem. I also like how this design came out as very good bargain fodder, which helps it tie into the set more.
Basket of Baked Goods G
Artifact- Food
Whenever Basket of Baked Goods enters the battlefield or is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature.
2, T, Sacrifice Basket of Baked Goods: You gain 3 life.
The werefox couldn’t help but comment on the smell of such a delicious morsel.
Here’s another nontoken food and another fun piece of bargain fodder. I know it’s redundant with some of the cards I have already but I’m really happy with the design and I definitely wanted it in here.
Feasting Hedonists 1G
Creature- Elf
Ward 2
Whenever an Aura becomes attached to Feasting Hedonists, create a Food token. (It’s an artifact with 2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
2/2
A night of song and dance in the woods, a decade of time lost.
And here’s the obligatory enchantment payoff of the set, simplified for common. It has a simple payoff (though one that ties well into set themes and helps you pay bargain costs you probably want in your enchantment deck without having to sacrifice those enchantments you want), and I made it only proc off of aura that become attached to itself so follow the rule of thumb that commons shouldn’t do much when you’re not already looking at them. The ward is so you don’t get punished too hard for putting auras on this thing.
Bonus Sheet Slot
Hunting Prowess 3G
Enchantment- Aura [rare]
Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies. Copies become tokens.)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.”
Bonus sheet slots are always weird since they’re explicitly reprints and the point of this project is to make new cards but the solution I’ve settled on is to make a card that wouldn’t feel out of place on the bonus sheet (ties into the overall theme, doesn’t demand things of limited that aren’t present, works flavorfully) but also wouldn’t be a good fit for the main set. The easiest way to meet that second constraint is to use a keyword that wasn’t present. This is a card that would have most likely been in MH2 to be reprinted here, but I think an Aura with storm is just a lot of fun. Combat damage trigger felt like the best way to make it being an Aura, rather than a sorcery distributing counters, worth it in a way that can be spread out or stacked on one creature.
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Welcome, everyone. Today marks the start of the trials for the Great Designer Search 3 (aka GDS3)! The trials are a series of three tests that will help us narrow down the field of applicants to eight finalists. Today's article is going to walk you through what the trials are going to be and give you a rough timeline.
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Great Designer Search 3 - Trial #2 Emails Sent Out
I just received my email confirming my acceptance to Trial #2, the multiple choice test, in GDS3. If you submitted essays for Trial #1 but didn’t receive an email yet, hold tight for a bit. If you don’t receive one by the end of today, let @markrosewater and @wizardsmagic know. Trial #2 won’t be live until Friday, so you have a few days to get any errors sorted out.
Good luck, everyone!
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Here are the ten cards I submitted for the Great Designer Search 3, reaching the top 19 and surviving all but the final cut before the top 8 selection.
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GDS3′s Planeswalkers: Ari Nieh
Rahmi, Master Engineer (mythic rare)
3RW
Planeswalker — Rahmi
4
Whenever an artifact is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, put a loyalty counter on CARDNAME.
0: Create a 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature token.
-2: Add RRR to your mana pool.
-8: Create a 10/10 colorless Golem artifact creature token with trample and indestructible.
Here we see another planeswalker design tabboo being breached: 'Walkers with a static ability. There's a lot to like here: Solid themes and characterization, for one thing, plus the card assembles a "story" in play.
The biggest letdown is in the use of the color pie. This just doesn't feel like a RW card. The -2 ability, which seems a little out of place here, does make it feel Red... but this could be a UR, BR, monored, or even colorless card (with some small tweaking). Making 1/1 tokens is classically White, but when those tokens are colorless artifacts that connection gets tenuous. Making the tokens feel more White (making them 1/1s Soldiers with vigilance, or changing the ultimate so it makes three Baneslayer Angels instead of one Blightsteel Colossus) would be an obvious way of fixing this.
But I think the -2 ability feels out of place and doesn't have much in the way of synergy with the rest of the card, so for me changing that to something more relevant would be the first place where I'd look for improvement. I'd replace that with something that pushes towards putting your artifact creatures into combat, like "Artifact creatures you control get +1/+0 and vigilance until your next turn."
Also, nitpick: If you're going to create a token that quotes a famous creature from Magic's past, try to keep it in line with it. Darksteel Colossus is an 11/11, and it doesn't really affect the power level of the card to go for the full callback here.
Gwyn, Harvest Celebrant (mythic rare)
2BG
Planeswalker — Gwyn
4
+1: You may sacrifice a creature. If you do, return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
-2: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Another target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
-7: You get an emblem with "Whenever a creature dies, each opponent loses 3 life and you may draw a card."
This is just a solid design with a thematic throughline and a clear identity. I especially like how the -2 ability is on-theme narratively even though it's not mechanically, and how it feels extremely Green-Black without stepping on Vraska or Garruk's toes.
Nitpick: This card seems clearly geared for a defensive, incremental-advantage game built around creatures but the -2 encourages attacking. I'd suggest using some newer planeswalker tech and changing the wording to "until your next turn."
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GDS3 Essay Answers for Round 1
So the Great Designer Search has begun. Several people I follow on twitter who were eligible to enter put up their answers to Round One, an essay contest (which meant I now knew the questions). (http://sarpadianempiresvol-viii.tumblr.com/post/170001140404/the-great-designer-search-3-trial-1-essays and https://mtgcolorpie.com/2018/01/22/gds-3-round-1-essay-answers/)
I thought it might be fun to answer them, despite my ineligibility to actually enter GDS3. (I don’t live in the US).
Unfortunately, a lot of the essays’ questions irked me and most of my answers end up containing a level of snark I’ve tried to tone down so I don’t end up sounding like this...
1. Introduce yourself and explain why you are a good fit for this internship.
2. An evergreen mechanic is a keyword mechanic that shows up in (almost) every set. If you had to make an existing keyword mechanic evergreen, which one would you choose and why?
I am presuming the following:
I cannot change the mechanic anyway, not even in name. (Otherwise, this question may as well ask me to invent a mechanic.)
I can’t choose ability words, as they’re not the same as keyword mechanics. (Similarly, I couldn’t pick hybrid mana.)
I can pick keyword actions. (I’m being pedantic, but since the hypothetical is asking me to make choice, I’d rather know what my options are... or are not.)
So I’m picking Crew.
There’s no good candidate for a Blue/Black keyword (an obvious circumstance for selecting a keyword), and really the two mechanics that ought to be evergreen are Crew and transform for this same reason:
Every Magic world needs them.
It’s why Equipment became evergreen; mechanics are either necessary to gameplay or creative (or both). Some story elements cards ought to capture, such as swords and shields. But Magic cannot capture other basic creative needs because the evergreen keywords needed to represent them don’t exist. I can think of five such tropes currently absent.
Vehicles remained absent until Crew.
Transform carries logistical issues and walks the tightrope of being too broad, like Kicker.
The complexity of Crew may be a concern, but that can be offset by its intuitive and independent natures; the mechanic piggybacks on creative resonance and doesn’t need to appear more than once or twice, nor even at common, to do its job.
And it’s so much fun.
3. If you had to remove evergreen status from a keyword mechanic that is currently evergreen, which one would you remove and why.
Defender.
It’s a downside mechanic that does nothing.
It can just be written out, the game text is three words.
It’s annoying because creatures with defender don’t count as creatures in design skeletons, and they wheel in draft because they can’t attack. And sometimes they’re a trap; newer players take them and miss that one little keyword without reminder text and end up with a dud in their decks.
And R&D don’t even use it when they could: most effects that stop a creature attacking don’t even give the creature defender. Pacifism-auras say “it can’t attack”, not “it gains Defender”. Auras that say “it can’t attack or block” can’t give defender because it would look counterintuitive; “it gains defender and can’t block”.
It’s a keyword that got grandfathered in because of walls, and really, that’s this keyword’s purpose: to consolidate a tribe around specific gameplay.
Walls are cool. Buffing your walls/creatures with defender remains silly fun and was a theme in Iconic Masters. One of my best friends loves doing this. I made a commander deck I adored which sat behind lots of walls and forced everyone’s creatures to attack (this was before goad).
So write the mechanic out, de-keyword it, and create a new creature type. “Guardian” will do. Then make creatures that say, “Guardians and Walls you control...”.
Yes, other evergreen keywords might be a problem, such as Hexproof, but Defender demands players actually remember what it does; the actual number of evergreen keywords MtG can sustain remains precious, and Defender doesn’t need to be one of them.
4. You’re going to teach Magic to a stranger. What’s your strategy to have the best possible outcome?
I’d ask them to pick two of the following:
Soldiers and honourable knights
Wizards of water and air
Necromancers and zombies
Goblins and pyromancers
Elves and big monsters
Then I’d get the two welcome decks they picked and tell them to shuffle them together. I’d then pick two other decks they didn’t pick and shuffle them together and start explaining how the game works with broad strokes, animating the game’s rules by picking up cards and focusing on the fun.
I want to focus on why I’d make them pick decks: I want a new player to immediately notice the personal customisation of the game by making them pick two colours and smooshing them together. After one game they will immediately wonder what would’ve happened if they combined two other decks together or one of their chosen decks with a deck they didn’t pick, because once a player realises how much customization Magic has, they’re hooked.
I was the first person in my town to play MtG so I taught most of the people in my area.
That’s how I did it. They picked two colours (no sample decks back then) and I gave them what cards I could in those colours so they could have a deck.
5. What is Magic’s greatest strength and why?
As I pointed out in my previous answer, the customization Magic offers. Players can truly make Magic their own in a way almost no other game has. Thanks to the versatility of the mana system and the faction distinction in the colour pie, players get to essentially compose the colours of their deck, making it an intensely personal game.
Right now, one of my best friends is getting hooked to this game, and this is what’s drawing him in. We draft and he loves playing colours he’s not played before, combining them in new ways, finding new strategies to explore.
The modularity of the game creates the opportunity for players to invest themselves in it.
6. What is Magic’s greatest weakness and why?
The community.
Players can customise Magic so completely that what matters to them becomes the only thing about the game that really matters and anyone who disagrees isn’t “really” playing Magic.
Players will happily dismiss cards as rubbish if they won’t hit their chosen format. That negativity drives people away because, hey, that card might be a lot of fun in another format.
Other players, deciding Magic must be serious, don’t like silly cards, and so cards that aren’t powerful or even sensible get mocked.
And that’s if you can even find players who want to play the same format as you.
Players who take the time to invest in Magic can easily become stubborn, and won’t play outside their comfort zone. My (now former) playgroup was at first, all about serious tournament constructed play. Then it became about Commander, playing their decks against each other, but the politics was always very Spike-y. But I I loved diversity of format. I loved trying new things: Planechase, Archenemy... just recently I played my first ever Pauper tournament. I don’t like constructed formats, but I’ll play if that’s what everyone wants. My new playgroup, amusingly, made of friends in the same group who were put off Magic because they “weren’t good enough” and never found it that much fun, are finding it to be fun precisely because I show up with different sets to draft and different formats to try; Wizard’s Tower, Explorers of Ixalan, and they’re getting hooked as I show them that Magic isn’t just one game.
And then there’s the community that doesn’t even play Magic but their existence drastically affects other people’s capacity to get cards: Investors oft-times turn Magic from a card game into a stock market game, that casual players now find themselves embroiled in as unwilling participants. You can’t play Magic without playing the market anymore... which is why I make decks for my friends.
As I cultivate my new gaming group, I’m simultaneously inoculating them from the community’s problems.
7. What Magic mechanic most deserves a second chance (aka which had the worst first introduction compared to its potential)?
Tribute.
It’s not fun in a standard-legal set pushed for competitive play because no one wants to do that at tournaments, or even in 1v1 games.
But Conspiracy sets would love it. It’s the kind of mechanic you absolutely want to debut and delve into in Conspiracy or Commander because the whole joy is you get to pick who pays tribute. You get to make a great deal, “pay the tribute and I promise you [blah].” It causes players to make alliances, break alliances, create grudges, end grudges...
That’s what you want in a keyword for multiplayer Magic.
8. Of all the Magic expansions that you’ve played with, pick your favourite and then explain the biggest problem with it.
My favourite expansion is probably Khans of Tarkir.
I love Morph. I love the creative behind Khans, a war-torn dragon graveyard makes it so unique. I love the real world influences for the clans. I love the five clans. I love the enemy-three-colour combinations more than any other colour combinations. And my favourite clan might be the Temur.
My biggest problem with it... Ferocious.
The Temur deserve better than that mechanic. I remember spoiler season: we’d seen the creative for each of the five clans, but the last clan mechanic to be spoiled was the Temur. I was expecting something to fit the art for Savage Punch because lookatit.
Bushido!
That’s what I expected. The finally renamed Bushido. “Duelling” maybe. It would work when they attacked, blocked, or fought. It would be perfect.
And instead we got this reprint of the Naya mechanic from Shards, which was boring back then too.
Ferocious. And then in Dragons of Tarkir you failed me again ad gave them the way too similar in both name and function keyword, Formidable...
It still drives me crazy.
9. Of all the Magic expansions that you’ve played with, pick your least favourite and then explain the best part about it.
Dragons of Tarkir.
That list I made of why I loved Khans? Yeah, you got rid of all that. Except Morph. And it managed to make Dragons boring.
But the best part? There are four cards I love.
Zurgo Bellstriker because I love how he plays and I love the character.
Dragonlord Silumgar because he is fat and cute and he steals things while on his chez-long being petted and adored.
Narset Transcendent because this one of the most beautiful pieces of art in the game.
Sarkhan Unbroken because he is the most metal planeswalker and it’s about time he got back to being a badass and look at the art shut up.
10. You have the ability to change any one thing about Magic. What do you change and why?
Some things I would love to change remain to speculative on my part because they restructure the way in which certain decisions regarding story or reprints are made. But... since I’m not privvy to those discussions, I’d rather save those suggestions for another time.
Instead, I’ll look at a problem that needs solving.
Commander.
MaRo’s blog continually floods with the demands of Commander players that fights against the demands of every other format. These demands basically stem from two issues:
The Legendary rule
The colour identity rule
A “Tribal Commander” showcases both of these issues.
Commander players want a legendary creature that grants a tribal bonus so it can lead that tribe, and the commander needs to be in all the colours of that tribe.
But Non-Commander players want the creature to not be legendary, so its tribal bonuses can stack, and in few colours as possible, so it can go in different archetypes of that tribe.
I have some suggestions for fixing the colour identity side, but since Wizards doesn’t control the format, I’ll focus on the change Wizards could implement: get rid of the Legendary rule.
I was expecting the rule to go when Ixalan debuted Legendary Planeswalkers, yet it remains. The Legendary rule has changed multiple times and it’s gone from being a cool bit of flavour to an irrelevant nuisance.
What formats actually care about the rule?
Limited players don’t care, neither for cube, draft or sealed, since most cubes are singleton and Legends are rare or mythic, appearing infrequently.
Constructed formats like standard or modern don’t want to care. Constructed formats want to be able to make their decks as consistent as possible and the legendary rule aggravates.
Most damningly, Commander itself, the format that cares most about whether a card is legendary or not, doesn’t actually care about the legendary rule. You’re only allowed one copy of any card.
The rule just gets in the way; people ignore it but enjoy the flavour behind it.
I’d argue the flavour of legends would survive and does not rest in that rule.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it.
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