I just heard from Groovelord moments ago actually, and he's fine with us using his design.
Good!
As far as white cards are concerned, I don't know that we need a massive overhaul since I do feel we already have some oppressive white cards, but I do agree that a minor overhaul may be necessary. I'd like to say more about this, but I've got to go to work right now.
We'll have to evaluate where we are with white from a big picture perspective. I might do it myself soon, just not now.
Why don't we just go ahead and "reprint" Containment Priest in the next set?
This is another option I didn't think about, and I'd be fine with that, but I have to say that it feels more at home to me in the Brotherhood set rather than the Rebel set. That said, it's definitely something we can consider.
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MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016 DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for: "Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index.Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
I like how Containment Priest interacts with Mass Roundup, so I'd like it to be in this set, but I was thinking that we could perhaps wait until the next set to include Groovelord's card. I'd like to say more, but I've got a lot to do if I'm going to be ready for Star Wars tonight.
Edit: BTW, I've been meaning to point this out for a while now, and I'm sure everyone has noticed by now, but I added a watermark column to the spreadsheet quite some time ago. I know this doesn't really do much in reality, but it is an easy way to see how many Brotherhood cards we have vs how many Rebel cards we have.
(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
1- Yesterday night on tv I watched the Italian version of the movie "Delivering Milo", and by the way I liked it a lot. I never watched it before, so imagine how I laughed when I discovered one of the protagonists is called Elmore Dahl!
2- I'd like to offer my card from the latest CCL round to the design team to be refined and then included in the set if necessary:
Inescapable Handcuffs3
Artifact (R)
When Inescapable Handcuffs enters the battlefield, if W or U was spent to cast it, detain target creature or planeswalker. (W/U)(W/U), T: Detain target creature or planeswalker. (Until your next turn, that permanent can't attack or block and its activated abilities can't be activated.) Waterproof, fireproof, and thief-proof.
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MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016 DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for: "Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index.Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
I like it bravelion, but we would have to do something about the hybrid mana. Replacing it with would probably be the easiest thing to do, although I like it better the original way. Would or do? That seems a little weird, but it has been done before I think. If we do want to bring it in, I would suggest it replace either Imperfect Worker (although that only leaves us with 1 rare Drone), Memory Hole, or Dahl's Wall. Maybe it could be a drone? Now a few more things...
- I wouldn't mind replacing Fanatical Guardian with Containment Priest. Fanatical Guardian seems like its downside is too strong, but I can't see making it even stronger than a 3/3. It might be fine as is, and playtesting the card definitely intrigues me, but I would really like to fit the Priest in somewhere, and that seems like the best spot to me.
- I also wouldn't rule out replacing Repelling Radiance with Groovelord's card, although I rather like Repelling Radiance, and think our set is the perfect set for it considering implants.
- I would love to finish off the ministers. I'm quite pleased with them for the most part, but we at least need to decide what to do with the red one. I suppose we could just use lion's suggested wording. It seems a bit inelegant to me, but I see no other choice if we are going to keep the equipment/implant theme of the card, which I'd like to.
- I suppose we'll playtest the current 137-F, although I'm still a bit worried about being able to blink a creature as many times as you have white mana. She seems like a decent fit for Soul Sisters as worded.
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(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
Flatline asked me to take a look at the set. However, the links to the commons and uncommons seem to be broken. Can someone fix them and let me know when I can take a look? Thanks!
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@ kjsharp, I think you're referring to the spreadsheet on my own Google Drive, and in that case I haven't touched it. It's still there. I will check its permissions again, maybe something has gone wrong with them in all this time, but last I remember the spreadsheet was public to view but of course private to edit, so you should totally still be able to view it in theory.
EDIT: I checked and everything is fine. You should be able to view the file just fine. Permission is only required to edit it. Here's a link to the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is made up of four sheets, each corresponding to a different rarity. Let me know if you still have trouble seeing it.
@ Flatline, was this a plot from you to force me to start rethinking about Ormos again? I've always known we would come back to it eventually, but have we figured out a way to playtest? If I remember well, that was the wall that stopped us, as only you had a way to playtest with friends but had (rightly) real life constraints. By the way, now that they've killed Magic Duels (many thanks Wizards... ), I've started playing XMage and lately I have indeed been thinking about maybe implementing Ormos there to play even just against the AI (better than nothing) if I have the time and will to look through the quite complicated Java source code. Now I lack both of those things, but would it be something potentially useful to do one day?
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016 DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for: "Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index.Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
In the very first post of this thread is are two links that are not working for me - card renders (without art) of the commons and uncommons. I'd rather look at those than at a spreadsheet if at all possible.
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In the very first post of this thread is are two links that are not working for me - card renders (without art) of the commons and uncommons. I'd rather look at those than at a spreadsheet if at all possible.
It's true that I made renders, but I honestly wouldn't even know where they are now. They might have been lost when the MTGS blog stopped working for me. They were hosted there. I discovered it didn't work anymore when I went to post my latest article about rarity, I wanted to post it in my MTGS blog and it didn't work anymore and that's what forced me to open a Google Blogger account and post it there. I guess I have to redo the renders, but first I have to find the original MSE file in my local drives... the problem is I don't know where it could be now. I can look for it but I can't guarantee it will be soon. In the meantime...
It says that "the folder is in bravelion83's trash. To view this folder, ask him to restore it."
...you should be able to look at the spreadsheet. Now, this message is strange. The folder is in my root, not in my trash, I am sure. I'll look into this and I'll let you know here as soon as I discover something about this. Thanks for letting me know, if you didn't I wouldn't know anything and I would think everything's fine.
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MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016 DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for: "Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index.Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
@ Flatline, was this a plot from you to force me to start rethinking about Ormos again? I've always known we would come back to it eventually, but have we figured out a way to playtest? If I remember well, that was the wall that stopped us, as only you had a way to playtest with friends but had (rightly) real life constraints. By the way, now that they've killed Magic Duels (many thanks Wizards... ), I've started playing XMage and lately I have indeed been thinking about maybe implementing Ormos there to play even just against the AI (better than nothing) if I have the time and will to look through the quite complicated Java source code. Now I lack both of those things, but would it be something potentially useful to do one day?
No plot, but I would like to revisit Ormos someday. I just bought a new laptop recently, so I'm going to start to look into ways to play custom cards online. Up until recently I had been using my work laptop, which doesn't allow me to download anything. I am not what you would call a computer genius, so it might take me a bit to get it all figured out.
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(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
No problem, it was just a thought I had and I am far from implementing it. I'd probably be able to do it if I can understand the source code. I've programmed before and I've done a few websites in the past (all local stuff, nothing major, and anyway I think most of them aren't even up anymore), but I never had anything to do with Java, which is the language XMage is written in. We'll see.
Anyway, if we want to get this back into our hands, the first things are: 1- counting us to check who's still in and 2- me refinding the file as I was mentioning in my last posts. I'll let you know when I have updates on the latter.
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MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016 DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for: "Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index.Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
I'll begin making a list of random musings. Will revise and edit them inevitably as I progress through the set, but just want to keep a log here. Will write a new message saying that this post is complete.
White:
1) creature size is small. Magic Origins small. Will be looking at how this tracks throughout the colors.
2) Where are the brainwash payoffs? As I read the lore to the set, White is supposed to be the evil color, and yet brainwash payoffs appear absent. Perhaps a Grind to Dust effect would be nice.
3) tapping and detaining overlap in functionality quite a bit, so it feels odd to see so many tap effects and detain effects put together.
4) Art direction will need some care because white has both rebels and brotherhood creatures. You don't want a BFZ problem where the allies look the same as the non-allies. This is made more difficult because the races belong to both camps. Perhaps a clothing or weaponry choice would suffice?
5) Holding Cell is a phenomenally designed Magic card. Really loved that one.
6) No combat tricks in White is.....interesting. This is something that will affect the Limited environment, and I'll be paying attention to this as I move through the rest of the colors. Noting down some skepticism regarding White's ability to aggro it up.
7) Lifegain subtheme noted for future reference.
Blue:
1) I'm trying to figure out how a deck is expected to deal 20 to the opponent. Like with White, Blue is extremely defensive. Only a select few cards have more than one power. Orithian Drone-Rider seems to me to be the premier card in Blue commons/uncommons, almost necessary to kill the opponent. I suspect there needs to be another card that effectively kills the opponent added to blue, something that is more a "midrange creature" and less a "control finisher".
2) White won't be able to attack into Blue. I'll be paying attention to whether the other colors can attack into blue reasonably. Blue encourages board stalls because of the high toughness and brainwash mechanic.
3) Low P/T continues, except even more so, seemingly because of brainwash.
4) Might brainwash discourage attacking/blocking? I'll see how brainwash is done in the Jund colors.
5) Loyal Drake should get -1/-1 if you control a Rebel. Drop the defender stuff.
6) Feigner of Obedience is my favorite card in the set thus far.
7) I think Orithian Confessor could be improved. Specifically, consider the design: "Unblockable. As long as Orithian Confessor is tapped, creatures your opponents control enter the battlefield tapped." That would introduce a tempo generating creature to blue.
8) Establish the Truth could be made into a rare win condition for a blue control deck by changing it to: "Target player puts the top 5 cards of his library into his graveyard. At the beginning of the end step, you may return an instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand."
9) In general, I like the instant/sorcery suite of blue. There's a greater diversity of purpose than there is in the creature base. They seem fun!
10) Brainwash payoffs are present in Blue, more so than in White. I'd describe them as minor payoffs, leading me to think that this isn't a synergy-driven set. Seems much more like DTK or a core set thus far. I'm gonna have to re-acquaint myself with DTK again. It's been a while, but I did at least 50 drafts of that format.
Artifacts:
1) There's way too many pieces of equipment in this set. The As-fan of equipment must be through the roof.
2) Overall, the equipment discourages attacking, promoting board stalls. If the format is slow, then most all the implants become playable, further slowing down the format.
3) Makeshift Shiv is excellent. If the Rebels are going to have an equipment subtheme, there needs to be more offensive equipment at that power level. Both of the Rebel equipments at the common level need buffing. Warhammar is an easy fix (lower equip cost). Liberation Banner needs a buff of some kind as well.
4) Cathedral Protector at common is going to be potentially disastrous for the limited format. Will see how easy it is for Jund colors to attack into it, but my hunch is that Cathedral Protector is going to help ensure that control decks always win.
5) Torture Instrument is an excellent card from a design perspective. It will function similarly to Whirlermaker. It probably should be uncommon since (hopefully) not everyone is going to be on the "turn 20" gameplan.
6) I don't want to discuss individual cards all that much, but regarding the rare UB Implant - the card's title might as well read Pacifism. Implants either need to have some sort of upkeep/end step ability OR they need to give minor taxes to engaging in combat (e.g. the common ones). Once you cross a certain punishment threshold for engaging in combat, an Implant ceases to have unique text and simply becomes Pacifism.
7) Honed Beacon is exciting enough to be rare. The card is phenomenal and versatile, possibly Constructed-worthy in the right environment. Really cool design too!
7) Anyway, with such a high as-fan of equipment, granting effects that sacrifice your own tempo for a long-term advantage, I'd be interested in seeing how many equipments a typical deck would want in this format. This depends upon the speed of the format. The As-fan of equipment is so high that I imagine that you're wanting every player to be playing at least 2 equipments. I'd have to number crunch to get exact figures.
Red:
1) Creature size is small. Slightly bigger than White/Blue. The creature sizing guarantees that we're getting to the late game, but I don't see how Red can compete in the late game.
2) From a game design perspective, Embolden works very well with Implants in that Embolden is trying to generate a tempo advantage, and Tempo is what you have to sacrifice with Implants. I'm glad that y'all put both in the same set.
3) It seems the way we want Red to win games is to tempo the opponent out. In fact, Embolden requires that you be ahead on board to really function properly, so it seems doubly important for Red to "get ahead and stay ahead" if it wants to win games. This I don't like as a competitive limited player - I'm at the mercy of God and God alone to have near-perfect draws and to win the die roll to be on the play. By my eye, only the uncommon 3R Mage enables Embolden without getting through for combat damage.
4) Call me crazy, but a reprint of Goblin Matron or Goblin Ringleader would be really helpful. Not only would it create a novel once-in-a-while draft archetype, but it would really help in the card advantage department. A reprint of Goblin Matron would generate a lot of buzz for Modern.
5) Also glad that more creatures than usual have First Strike, which helps counter Brainwash.
6) Artifact/Equipment subtheme in Red feels more minor than I would have expected.
7) Remove Rebellious Blast from the set. Y'all went really heavy on these types of effects, using 1 Mythic, 1 Rare, and 1 Uncommon slot to do something that obliterates every non-rare Red creature in the set. I don't like any of those 3 cards, and would want to see them modified. Shattering Explosion, for example, could deal its damage to target creature or player, not to all creatures and players. I guess it's fine to have one of these effects for Constructed, but putting 3 in the set feels like overkill.
8) Combat tricks? Where are they? Is there a rationale for not including them? Again, I see some good removal (especially Emboldened removal for when you are already ahead), but I don't see how Red is supposed to "get ahead" when it is on the draw assuming equally good hands and equally skilled players.
9) Assuming you don't want to change much, what you could do is give Red good card filtering and draw and unblockability effects to ensure that it can keep having enough gas in the late game. Make Carpe Diem common. Make a Clever Escape effect for common. Reprint Spark of Creativity. These are some ways that Red can possibly catch up or play at parity with blue and white. This is the over-riding concern with Red --> Red's mechanics are all about tempo, and not ways to acquire tempo but ways to dominate once you have tempo. The set needs to better grapple with this reality.
10) One recent format - Oath of the Gatewatch - might really help y'all with designing this set, and Red in particular. I'll need to review Oath of the Gatewatch to make more surefooted and insightful recommendations regarding Red, because the Recruit mechanic seems to be need to have a similar in gameplay effect to either RG Landfall or Ally Rally.
Green:
1) While I've felt this way about a lot of the creature cards in the other colors, the Green cards really highlight this for me. Every uncommon creature card with CMC 4 or greater could cost 1 loss or be moved to Common. Some examples: Saddled Beast would make for a fantastic Common. Elvish Recruiter is a wonderful card that should cost 3 or receive a P/T buff. Could continue on down the list.
2) Wild Rebellion should be a reprint of Shed Weakness, or a functional reprint of Shed Weakness that removes Brainwash as well. Along similar lines, Break the Bond should remove the status of being brainwashed.
3) Overall, the Green creature suite is my favorite thus far. You have some less powerful cards, some clearly overpowered cards (Friendly Stranger, Elf token maker). P/Ts feels on-point. There's a greater sense of free-flowingness here, and doesn't feel held back. I can identify how Green can win a game of Magic that goes late. This is the first time I've felt like a player that decides to do something other than UW Control can build a competitive deck.
4) All of Green's rares/mythics are bombs. It would be objectively incorrect not to take one P1P1. This isn't true for the other colors and is something to keep in mind. Not sure it is a bad thing, but not sure it isn't a bad thing. Maybe a few could be narrower or encourage different archetypes (a la the Rebel Lord)?
5) How will Green hold up to all the tapping and detaining of White? The prevalence of Hexproof might help make this a non-issue, but it is worth keeping in mind, either before playtesting or during playtesting. EDIT: After further review, I think that the set as a whole is fine in this regard. It might be a problem that comes up in playtesting, but I'm less worried about it now.
6) Overall, I'm quite happy with the way Green looks. Good job guys.
Black:
1) Like Green, Black's creature suite is good. Cards feel better for certain decks than for others, and I can identify cards that can compete in the late game (which seems integral for this format). Overall has a fresh feel that could generate enthusiasm for the set and limited environments. Good job guys!
2) I would like to see a creature or two that a drafter wants for his aggressive deck but not for his GB Ramp deck (case in point: Khenra Eternal) so long as that fits the set's archetypes alright.
3) Some things I don't like related to 1 and 2: there is a greater diversity of effect in Black than in the other colors. This I like. But it does highlight something negative I sense - where are the payoffs for some minor subthemes? I've seen enough lifegain to make me content with that subtheme for that White card that rewards you for lifegain (similar to Crested Sunmare in HOU), but where are the graveyard payoffs? And why might someone draft the 1/1 zombie guy with Embolden BB? Are these setup cards for the next set?
4) Wow, that Thoughtseize variant. That's.....insanely strong. The only reason I think it is okay is that it punishes unfair decks more than fair decks. But you'd only put this card in the set to check, say, Aetherworks Marvel decks and other combo decks. Is this better than Inquisition of Kozilek? Y'all would need to ask a Modern pro about this card. My hunch is that it would dethrone Inquisition of Kozilek because of its effectivness against Eldrazi & Taxes, Eldrazi Tron, and combo decks that rely on key pieces for their decks to function. That's a weak hunch though so maybe call it an inkling rather than a hunch.
5) Blacks rares are all excellent, similar to Green in this regard.
6) Suppress is a really well-designed Magic card. I think that card is really cool and well-suited for Constructed play.
7) There's a heck of a lot of discard in this set....pourquoi? I see The Rack, so is there supposed to be some sort of Discard draftable archetype that can come together once every 4-6 drafts? Personally, discard is my least favorite thing in limited. I really liked Mire's Malice and Consign to Oblivion, but I've really disliked other discard effects. Y'all are playing with fire here... hopefully there's a mechanical reason, rather than merely lore/cultural/flavor reasons, why there is so much discard in this set.
Multicolored:
1) Listing some cards that I feel need some reconsideration and reworking and re-tweaking: Brotherhood Sentinel, Mollification Mage, Unholy Retribution (and other cards that deal with -1/-1 counters and don't add/remove 'Brainwash' tag), Grim Balance.
2) The Father Dahl planeswalker feels fresh. My hunch is that it is underpowered, but some planeswalkers should be, and this one isn't offensively so. The reason I think this is underpowered is that its -1 is more or less Kiora, the Crashing Wave's plus ability. The overcosted nature of that ability allows for what I think is a really strong plus one ability, hence the planeswalker's overall uniqueness. I think y'all should be content with leaving it as is.
3) The Freigh planeswalker needs revision. I'd be content with the planeswalker if you removed the word "non-artifact" from its ultimate. You're already asking the guy jamming this to go through hoops to make the card relevant. Making him need to be jamming non-artifact creatures feels unnecessary and will make reception of the card negative. I'd also be content with this card in mono-Red, but RG works well too. I like that this planeswalker is a RG planeswalker wholly different from Xenagos and Domri Rade.
4) Not a huge fan of the rare duals. I recognize that some duals are better for certain strategies and colors than others, but these feel more extreme in this regard. In particular, what I'm not enthusiastic about is that this encourages non-interactivity in Standard. Interactive, instant-speed Magic is the best Magic. With that said, in the right Standard environment with the right duals of surrounding sets to complement these, I think that these could be fine. They're definitely creative.
5)Regarding the common lands, see my comment about graveyard synergies in this set. Are these plants for the next set? Ignoring the lack of synergy they seem to have with this set, I really like them. Milling 2 is probably roughly the same power level as gaining a life, and they would probably be useful in various Standard strategies. Honestly could have gotten away with those at rare I think - I don't think their reception would have been poorly received at rare by the MTG Community at large.
Final Impressions:
1) My worries after looking through the White, Blue, and Artifacts have been somewhat mollified regarding the dominance of Control. I am still very concerned that the set as a whole does not promote attacking enough. Yes the brainwash creatures are over-costed, but only Green's creatures seem poised to break through in a way that puts legitimate pressure on the opponent's life total. I would feel better about the limited environment, for example, if the power and toughness of every creature in the set were raised by 1, merely because "getting through in the red zone" would make a bigger impact on the opponent's life total. Y'all have designed a set with creatures that are sized for sets in the years 2000-2007, which is fine and could be really cool and refreshing, but ways to allow for profitable attacking must be copious.
2) I think that games in this Limited environment are going to result in reaching the late game. Sometimes they'll reach the late game through trading, and sometimes they'll reach the late game through board-stalls. The dearth of combat tricks means that you're relying solely on Embolden to generate authentic tempo, and I'm skeptical that that is enough. Bombs and flyers become super important in those formats.
3) My musings in the Red section are more important than anything else I wrote. How does an aggressive deck win when it is on the draw? The mechanics of the set don't promote it, namely because (i) embolden requires that you be ahead on board already and (ii) y'all have made Recruit tamer than Rally or Landfall. Regarding (ii), you're unfortunately priced into doing this somewhat because you've made Recruit work for any creature, but I think y'all should try to make recruit at least as potent a mechanic as Landfall was in BFZ/OGW. From a game design perspective, Landfall is a way to allow aggro decks to still win games despite flooding a little, and Recruit doesn't have that luxury (I'm quite concerned about this,actually. I think you want Naya colors, especially on aggressive cards, to have more filtering and card draw and such. Let Veteran Motorist be your guide.). I think Recruit is a mechanic that can be made to work, but recognize its similarities to Landfall and Rally, as well as its shortcomings and strengths regarding the caprices of one's draws and the caprices of the MTGO shuffler. You want players to have agency. That's why Magic is better than other games.
4) I think y'all are most of the way there. I'm happy Flatline nudged me to take more thorough look at the project that y'all have been working on. Looking at the notes, I can tell that y'all have put in a ton of effort and care into it, and I look forward to seeing it completed. Looking at the Dragons-Fate Reforged and Oath-BFZ formats will be immensely beneficial to y'all. Oath-BFZ is explained above. DTK-FRF because that's the level of synergistic drafting that I think this set mirrors.
completed my impressions. Hope they prove useful. Got it done sooner than I had imagined, probably because I enjoyed reviewing the set so much
Y'all should also know that I come from the perspective of a competitive Limited player, so Limited is mostly what I was concerned about. 90% of the Magic I play is the Competitive Draft League on MTGO, which is cutthroat Limited Magic. On average I win about 60% of my matches, which makes me 'better than most but not quite professional level', although my percentages do vary environment to environment. For example, my Amonkhet (65%) and Oath of the Gatewatch (68%) were particularly good, but my Aether Revolt (50%) and Kaladesh (54%) were not so hot. Thus, I wasn't looking for X number of Standard playables, or Y number of Modern/Commander playables, or any other checklists. I thought there was enough "Constructed power" in the set, but I'd need to re-examine that to form a definitive opinion. Importantly, I gave no thought to how the set fit into our current Standard, but I did think about how it would jive with various hypothetical Standards. Nevertheless, I understand that Magic set design takes into account factors beyond creating a great Limited environment, and for those factors other opinions will be more helpful than the ones in my above post.
Holy smokes! I was just suggesting you check out Ormos casually, but thanks for the in-depth analysis. It is much appreciated. I am just now reading this, and will try to respond ASAP. Though I would like to point out that we never really finished designing the mythics, nor did we do any play-testing.
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(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
Glad to help out. I think it's helpful to have someone from outside the project look at it thoroughly at this stage. Also, it looks like it's been over a year since y'all really dealt with it, so it'll be good coming back to it with fresh eyes. You'll see things you didn't see before. You'll think of something creative that wouldn't have come to you before. You'll come up with solutions you wouldn't have thought of before.
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Follow me on Twitch if you're interested in watching competitive league drafts.
Play MTGO? Check out my latest MTGO finance articles on Quiet Speculation.
Oh, so it turns out someone was able to access the spreadsheet after all even if I wasn't able to find the MSE file yet... And what a feedback! I have an impression this will be really useful should we really decide to take back matters into our own hands. Impressive work, many thanks for taking the time and will to do it, kjsharp!
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MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016 DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for: "Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index.Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
As I see it as one directly involved, it has always been alive, it was just on hiatus mainly because of real life things coming up and a lack of ways to playtest. At least this is how things are from my own point of view. I keep thinking we might come back to this any day if we have the time and if we figure out how to playtest (that's why I was bringing up XMage before). I know Flatline eventually comes to come back to this too. All this recent talk might be doing is pushing me more and more towards actually doing it. I'd be curious how Flatline feels about this.
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MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016 DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for: "Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index.Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
I have always hoped and planned to finish Ormos, even if it was just on my own. The only thing that has prevented me from pushing for it is that I know what a time sink it will be if we really get back into it. I look at it in much the same way as I look at the decision of when to have your first child, you know you want to, but it just never seems like the right time. I haven't even had enough time lately to look really closely at kjsharp's feedback.
Partially because it has been so long since we worked on Ormos that I need go back and re-familiarize myself with set itself. At this point, I think kj probably knows the cards better than I do. While reading through his thoughts, I kept having to go to the spreadsheet to see what the card kj was referring even does.
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(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
I am not on Discord and honestly I'm not planning to use it anytime soon, but thanks for the offer anyway. A Cockatrice adaptation was in the works in the same folder that contained the missing MSE file I was talking about before, but again I remember I downloaded Cockatrice specifically to do that and never used it again either before or after those few days. Between then and now, I've formatted my pc and one of the external hard drives I saved the data into fell onto the ground and broke (I still remember that moment vividly... a friend was in the room with me, and let's just say I didn't show him the best part of myself in that moment...). I don't know if it was the one that contained those files, I'd have to check, but it might have been, or might not (I have other ones too).
I still haven't seriously retaken this into my hands, but I admit I'm closer now than ever before in the last year at least. We'll see where this goes.
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016 DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for: "Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index.Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
I didn't even know such a thing existed. MTGS is the only involvement I have with the custom card community. Up until recently, I did all of my custom Magicing on my work laptop, which does not allow me to download anything onto my computer without my work's permission, but I just recently bought my own laptop, so I may actually try to look into things such as cockatrice. As I've stated before, I am not what you would call a computer genius, so sometimes it takes me a while to figure out what I'm doing when it comes to certain computer related things. That combined with the fact that I have very little time to dedicate to card design, makes it difficult for me to get around to such things.
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(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
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Good!
We'll have to evaluate where we are with white from a big picture perspective. I might do it myself soon, just not now.
This is another option I didn't think about, and I'd be fine with that, but I have to say that it feels more at home to me in the Brotherhood set rather than the Rebel set. That said, it's definitely something we can consider.
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here)
CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for:
"Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index. Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
Edit: BTW, I've been meaning to point this out for a while now, and I'm sure everyone has noticed by now, but I added a watermark column to the spreadsheet quite some time ago. I know this doesn't really do much in reality, but it is an easy way to see how many Brotherhood cards we have vs how many Rebel cards we have.
1- Yesterday night on tv I watched the Italian version of the movie "Delivering Milo", and by the way I liked it a lot. I never watched it before, so imagine how I laughed when I discovered one of the protagonists is called Elmore Dahl!
2- I'd like to offer my card from the latest CCL round to the design team to be refined and then included in the set if necessary:
Inescapable Handcuffs 3
Artifact (R)
When Inescapable Handcuffs enters the battlefield, if W or U was spent to cast it, detain target creature or planeswalker.
(W/U)(W/U), T: Detain target creature or planeswalker. (Until your next turn, that permanent can't attack or block and its activated abilities can't be activated.)
Waterproof, fireproof, and thief-proof.
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here)
CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for:
"Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index. Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
- I wouldn't mind replacing Fanatical Guardian with Containment Priest. Fanatical Guardian seems like its downside is too strong, but I can't see making it even stronger than a 3/3. It might be fine as is, and playtesting the card definitely intrigues me, but I would really like to fit the Priest in somewhere, and that seems like the best spot to me.
- I also wouldn't rule out replacing Repelling Radiance with Groovelord's card, although I rather like Repelling Radiance, and think our set is the perfect set for it considering implants.
- I would love to finish off the ministers. I'm quite pleased with them for the most part, but we at least need to decide what to do with the red one. I suppose we could just use lion's suggested wording. It seems a bit inelegant to me, but I see no other choice if we are going to keep the equipment/implant theme of the card, which I'd like to.
- I suppose we'll playtest the current 137-F, although I'm still a bit worried about being able to blink a creature as many times as you have white mana. She seems like a decent fit for Soul Sisters as worded.
EDIT: I checked and everything is fine. You should be able to view the file just fine. Permission is only required to edit it. Here's a link to the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is made up of four sheets, each corresponding to a different rarity. Let me know if you still have trouble seeing it.
@ Flatline, was this a plot from you to force me to start rethinking about Ormos again? I've always known we would come back to it eventually, but have we figured out a way to playtest? If I remember well, that was the wall that stopped us, as only you had a way to playtest with friends but had (rightly) real life constraints. By the way, now that they've killed Magic Duels (many thanks Wizards... ), I've started playing XMage and lately I have indeed been thinking about maybe implementing Ormos there to play even just against the AI (better than nothing) if I have the time and will to look through the quite complicated Java source code. Now I lack both of those things, but would it be something potentially useful to do one day?
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here)
CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for:
"Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index. Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
It's true that I made renders, but I honestly wouldn't even know where they are now. They might have been lost when the MTGS blog stopped working for me. They were hosted there. I discovered it didn't work anymore when I went to post my latest article about rarity, I wanted to post it in my MTGS blog and it didn't work anymore and that's what forced me to open a Google Blogger account and post it there. I guess I have to redo the renders, but first I have to find the original MSE file in my local drives... the problem is I don't know where it could be now. I can look for it but I can't guarantee it will be soon. In the meantime...
...you should be able to look at the spreadsheet. Now, this message is strange. The folder is in my root, not in my trash, I am sure. I'll look into this and I'll let you know here as soon as I discover something about this. Thanks for letting me know, if you didn't I wouldn't know anything and I would think everything's fine.
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here)
CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for:
"Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index. Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
Anyway, if we want to get this back into our hands, the first things are: 1- counting us to check who's still in and 2- me refinding the file as I was mentioning in my last posts. I'll let you know when I have updates on the latter.
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here)
CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for:
"Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index. Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
1) creature size is small. Magic Origins small. Will be looking at how this tracks throughout the colors.
2) Where are the brainwash payoffs? As I read the lore to the set, White is supposed to be the evil color, and yet brainwash payoffs appear absent. Perhaps a Grind to Dust effect would be nice.
3) tapping and detaining overlap in functionality quite a bit, so it feels odd to see so many tap effects and detain effects put together.
4) Art direction will need some care because white has both rebels and brotherhood creatures. You don't want a BFZ problem where the allies look the same as the non-allies. This is made more difficult because the races belong to both camps. Perhaps a clothing or weaponry choice would suffice?
5) Holding Cell is a phenomenally designed Magic card. Really loved that one.
6) No combat tricks in White is.....interesting. This is something that will affect the Limited environment, and I'll be paying attention to this as I move through the rest of the colors. Noting down some skepticism regarding White's ability to aggro it up.
7) Lifegain subtheme noted for future reference.
1) I'm trying to figure out how a deck is expected to deal 20 to the opponent. Like with White, Blue is extremely defensive. Only a select few cards have more than one power. Orithian Drone-Rider seems to me to be the premier card in Blue commons/uncommons, almost necessary to kill the opponent. I suspect there needs to be another card that effectively kills the opponent added to blue, something that is more a "midrange creature" and less a "control finisher".
2) White won't be able to attack into Blue. I'll be paying attention to whether the other colors can attack into blue reasonably. Blue encourages board stalls because of the high toughness and brainwash mechanic.
3) Low P/T continues, except even more so, seemingly because of brainwash.
4) Might brainwash discourage attacking/blocking? I'll see how brainwash is done in the Jund colors.
5) Loyal Drake should get -1/-1 if you control a Rebel. Drop the defender stuff.
6) Feigner of Obedience is my favorite card in the set thus far.
7) I think Orithian Confessor could be improved. Specifically, consider the design: "Unblockable. As long as Orithian Confessor is tapped, creatures your opponents control enter the battlefield tapped." That would introduce a tempo generating creature to blue.
8) Establish the Truth could be made into a rare win condition for a blue control deck by changing it to: "Target player puts the top 5 cards of his library into his graveyard. At the beginning of the end step, you may return an instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand."
9) In general, I like the instant/sorcery suite of blue. There's a greater diversity of purpose than there is in the creature base. They seem fun!
10) Brainwash payoffs are present in Blue, more so than in White. I'd describe them as minor payoffs, leading me to think that this isn't a synergy-driven set. Seems much more like DTK or a core set thus far. I'm gonna have to re-acquaint myself with DTK again. It's been a while, but I did at least 50 drafts of that format.
1) There's way too many pieces of equipment in this set. The As-fan of equipment must be through the roof.
2) Overall, the equipment discourages attacking, promoting board stalls. If the format is slow, then most all the implants become playable, further slowing down the format.
3) Makeshift Shiv is excellent. If the Rebels are going to have an equipment subtheme, there needs to be more offensive equipment at that power level. Both of the Rebel equipments at the common level need buffing. Warhammar is an easy fix (lower equip cost). Liberation Banner needs a buff of some kind as well.
4) Cathedral Protector at common is going to be potentially disastrous for the limited format. Will see how easy it is for Jund colors to attack into it, but my hunch is that Cathedral Protector is going to help ensure that control decks always win.
5) Torture Instrument is an excellent card from a design perspective. It will function similarly to Whirlermaker. It probably should be uncommon since (hopefully) not everyone is going to be on the "turn 20" gameplan.
6) I don't want to discuss individual cards all that much, but regarding the rare UB Implant - the card's title might as well read Pacifism. Implants either need to have some sort of upkeep/end step ability OR they need to give minor taxes to engaging in combat (e.g. the common ones). Once you cross a certain punishment threshold for engaging in combat, an Implant ceases to have unique text and simply becomes Pacifism.
7) Honed Beacon is exciting enough to be rare. The card is phenomenal and versatile, possibly Constructed-worthy in the right environment. Really cool design too!
7) Anyway, with such a high as-fan of equipment, granting effects that sacrifice your own tempo for a long-term advantage, I'd be interested in seeing how many equipments a typical deck would want in this format. This depends upon the speed of the format. The As-fan of equipment is so high that I imagine that you're wanting every player to be playing at least 2 equipments. I'd have to number crunch to get exact figures.
1) Creature size is small. Slightly bigger than White/Blue. The creature sizing guarantees that we're getting to the late game, but I don't see how Red can compete in the late game.
2) From a game design perspective, Embolden works very well with Implants in that Embolden is trying to generate a tempo advantage, and Tempo is what you have to sacrifice with Implants. I'm glad that y'all put both in the same set.
3) It seems the way we want Red to win games is to tempo the opponent out. In fact, Embolden requires that you be ahead on board to really function properly, so it seems doubly important for Red to "get ahead and stay ahead" if it wants to win games. This I don't like as a competitive limited player - I'm at the mercy of God and God alone to have near-perfect draws and to win the die roll to be on the play. By my eye, only the uncommon 3R Mage enables Embolden without getting through for combat damage.
4) Call me crazy, but a reprint of Goblin Matron or Goblin Ringleader would be really helpful. Not only would it create a novel once-in-a-while draft archetype, but it would really help in the card advantage department. A reprint of Goblin Matron would generate a lot of buzz for Modern.
5) Also glad that more creatures than usual have First Strike, which helps counter Brainwash.
6) Artifact/Equipment subtheme in Red feels more minor than I would have expected.
7) Remove Rebellious Blast from the set. Y'all went really heavy on these types of effects, using 1 Mythic, 1 Rare, and 1 Uncommon slot to do something that obliterates every non-rare Red creature in the set. I don't like any of those 3 cards, and would want to see them modified. Shattering Explosion, for example, could deal its damage to target creature or player, not to all creatures and players. I guess it's fine to have one of these effects for Constructed, but putting 3 in the set feels like overkill.
8) Combat tricks? Where are they? Is there a rationale for not including them? Again, I see some good removal (especially Emboldened removal for when you are already ahead), but I don't see how Red is supposed to "get ahead" when it is on the draw assuming equally good hands and equally skilled players.
9) Assuming you don't want to change much, what you could do is give Red good card filtering and draw and unblockability effects to ensure that it can keep having enough gas in the late game. Make Carpe Diem common. Make a Clever Escape effect for common. Reprint Spark of Creativity. These are some ways that Red can possibly catch up or play at parity with blue and white. This is the over-riding concern with Red --> Red's mechanics are all about tempo, and not ways to acquire tempo but ways to dominate once you have tempo. The set needs to better grapple with this reality.
10) One recent format - Oath of the Gatewatch - might really help y'all with designing this set, and Red in particular. I'll need to review Oath of the Gatewatch to make more surefooted and insightful recommendations regarding Red, because the Recruit mechanic seems to be need to have a similar in gameplay effect to either RG Landfall or Ally Rally.
1) While I've felt this way about a lot of the creature cards in the other colors, the Green cards really highlight this for me. Every uncommon creature card with CMC 4 or greater could cost 1 loss or be moved to Common. Some examples: Saddled Beast would make for a fantastic Common. Elvish Recruiter is a wonderful card that should cost 3 or receive a P/T buff. Could continue on down the list.
2) Wild Rebellion should be a reprint of Shed Weakness, or a functional reprint of Shed Weakness that removes Brainwash as well. Along similar lines, Break the Bond should remove the status of being brainwashed.
3) Overall, the Green creature suite is my favorite thus far. You have some less powerful cards, some clearly overpowered cards (Friendly Stranger, Elf token maker). P/Ts feels on-point. There's a greater sense of free-flowingness here, and doesn't feel held back. I can identify how Green can win a game of Magic that goes late. This is the first time I've felt like a player that decides to do something other than UW Control can build a competitive deck.
4) All of Green's rares/mythics are bombs. It would be objectively incorrect not to take one P1P1. This isn't true for the other colors and is something to keep in mind. Not sure it is a bad thing, but not sure it isn't a bad thing. Maybe a few could be narrower or encourage different archetypes (a la the Rebel Lord)?
5) How will Green hold up to all the tapping and detaining of White? The prevalence of Hexproof might help make this a non-issue, but it is worth keeping in mind, either before playtesting or during playtesting. EDIT: After further review, I think that the set as a whole is fine in this regard. It might be a problem that comes up in playtesting, but I'm less worried about it now.
6) Overall, I'm quite happy with the way Green looks. Good job guys.
1) Like Green, Black's creature suite is good. Cards feel better for certain decks than for others, and I can identify cards that can compete in the late game (which seems integral for this format). Overall has a fresh feel that could generate enthusiasm for the set and limited environments. Good job guys!
2) I would like to see a creature or two that a drafter wants for his aggressive deck but not for his GB Ramp deck (case in point: Khenra Eternal) so long as that fits the set's archetypes alright.
3) Some things I don't like related to 1 and 2: there is a greater diversity of effect in Black than in the other colors. This I like. But it does highlight something negative I sense - where are the payoffs for some minor subthemes? I've seen enough lifegain to make me content with that subtheme for that White card that rewards you for lifegain (similar to Crested Sunmare in HOU), but where are the graveyard payoffs? And why might someone draft the 1/1 zombie guy with Embolden BB? Are these setup cards for the next set?
4) Wow, that Thoughtseize variant. That's.....insanely strong. The only reason I think it is okay is that it punishes unfair decks more than fair decks. But you'd only put this card in the set to check, say, Aetherworks Marvel decks and other combo decks. Is this better than Inquisition of Kozilek? Y'all would need to ask a Modern pro about this card. My hunch is that it would dethrone Inquisition of Kozilek because of its effectivness against Eldrazi & Taxes, Eldrazi Tron, and combo decks that rely on key pieces for their decks to function. That's a weak hunch though so maybe call it an inkling rather than a hunch.
5) Blacks rares are all excellent, similar to Green in this regard.
6) Suppress is a really well-designed Magic card. I think that card is really cool and well-suited for Constructed play.
7) There's a heck of a lot of discard in this set....pourquoi? I see The Rack, so is there supposed to be some sort of Discard draftable archetype that can come together once every 4-6 drafts? Personally, discard is my least favorite thing in limited. I really liked Mire's Malice and Consign to Oblivion, but I've really disliked other discard effects. Y'all are playing with fire here... hopefully there's a mechanical reason, rather than merely lore/cultural/flavor reasons, why there is so much discard in this set.
1) Listing some cards that I feel need some reconsideration and reworking and re-tweaking: Brotherhood Sentinel, Mollification Mage, Unholy Retribution (and other cards that deal with -1/-1 counters and don't add/remove 'Brainwash' tag), Grim Balance.
2) The Father Dahl planeswalker feels fresh. My hunch is that it is underpowered, but some planeswalkers should be, and this one isn't offensively so. The reason I think this is underpowered is that its -1 is more or less Kiora, the Crashing Wave's plus ability. The overcosted nature of that ability allows for what I think is a really strong plus one ability, hence the planeswalker's overall uniqueness. I think y'all should be content with leaving it as is.
3) The Freigh planeswalker needs revision. I'd be content with the planeswalker if you removed the word "non-artifact" from its ultimate. You're already asking the guy jamming this to go through hoops to make the card relevant. Making him need to be jamming non-artifact creatures feels unnecessary and will make reception of the card negative. I'd also be content with this card in mono-Red, but RG works well too. I like that this planeswalker is a RG planeswalker wholly different from Xenagos and Domri Rade.
4) Not a huge fan of the rare duals. I recognize that some duals are better for certain strategies and colors than others, but these feel more extreme in this regard. In particular, what I'm not enthusiastic about is that this encourages non-interactivity in Standard. Interactive, instant-speed Magic is the best Magic. With that said, in the right Standard environment with the right duals of surrounding sets to complement these, I think that these could be fine. They're definitely creative.
5)Regarding the common lands, see my comment about graveyard synergies in this set. Are these plants for the next set? Ignoring the lack of synergy they seem to have with this set, I really like them. Milling 2 is probably roughly the same power level as gaining a life, and they would probably be useful in various Standard strategies. Honestly could have gotten away with those at rare I think - I don't think their reception would have been poorly received at rare by the MTG Community at large.
1) My worries after looking through the White, Blue, and Artifacts have been somewhat mollified regarding the dominance of Control. I am still very concerned that the set as a whole does not promote attacking enough. Yes the brainwash creatures are over-costed, but only Green's creatures seem poised to break through in a way that puts legitimate pressure on the opponent's life total. I would feel better about the limited environment, for example, if the power and toughness of every creature in the set were raised by 1, merely because "getting through in the red zone" would make a bigger impact on the opponent's life total. Y'all have designed a set with creatures that are sized for sets in the years 2000-2007, which is fine and could be really cool and refreshing, but ways to allow for profitable attacking must be copious.
2) I think that games in this Limited environment are going to result in reaching the late game. Sometimes they'll reach the late game through trading, and sometimes they'll reach the late game through board-stalls. The dearth of combat tricks means that you're relying solely on Embolden to generate authentic tempo, and I'm skeptical that that is enough. Bombs and flyers become super important in those formats.
3) My musings in the Red section are more important than anything else I wrote. How does an aggressive deck win when it is on the draw? The mechanics of the set don't promote it, namely because (i) embolden requires that you be ahead on board already and (ii) y'all have made Recruit tamer than Rally or Landfall. Regarding (ii), you're unfortunately priced into doing this somewhat because you've made Recruit work for any creature, but I think y'all should try to make recruit at least as potent a mechanic as Landfall was in BFZ/OGW. From a game design perspective, Landfall is a way to allow aggro decks to still win games despite flooding a little, and Recruit doesn't have that luxury (I'm quite concerned about this,actually. I think you want Naya colors, especially on aggressive cards, to have more filtering and card draw and such. Let Veteran Motorist be your guide.). I think Recruit is a mechanic that can be made to work, but recognize its similarities to Landfall and Rally, as well as its shortcomings and strengths regarding the caprices of one's draws and the caprices of the MTGO shuffler. You want players to have agency. That's why Magic is better than other games.
4) I think y'all are most of the way there. I'm happy Flatline nudged me to take more thorough look at the project that y'all have been working on. Looking at the notes, I can tell that y'all have put in a ton of effort and care into it, and I look forward to seeing it completed. Looking at the Dragons-Fate Reforged and Oath-BFZ formats will be immensely beneficial to y'all. Oath-BFZ is explained above. DTK-FRF because that's the level of synergistic drafting that I think this set mirrors.
Y'all should also know that I come from the perspective of a competitive Limited player, so Limited is mostly what I was concerned about. 90% of the Magic I play is the Competitive Draft League on MTGO, which is cutthroat Limited Magic. On average I win about 60% of my matches, which makes me 'better than most but not quite professional level', although my percentages do vary environment to environment. For example, my Amonkhet (65%) and Oath of the Gatewatch (68%) were particularly good, but my Aether Revolt (50%) and Kaladesh (54%) were not so hot. Thus, I wasn't looking for X number of Standard playables, or Y number of Modern/Commander playables, or any other checklists. I thought there was enough "Constructed power" in the set, but I'd need to re-examine that to form a definitive opinion. Importantly, I gave no thought to how the set fit into our current Standard, but I did think about how it would jive with various hypothetical Standards. Nevertheless, I understand that Magic set design takes into account factors beyond creating a great Limited environment, and for those factors other opinions will be more helpful than the ones in my above post.
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here)
CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for:
"Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index. Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
I remember how Brainwash lead me eventually to one of the mechanics I've been using recently.
Wound (If this would deal damage to a creature, you may put a single -1/-1 counter on that creature instead.)
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
As I see it as one directly involved, it has always been alive, it was just on hiatus mainly because of real life things coming up and a lack of ways to playtest. At least this is how things are from my own point of view. I keep thinking we might come back to this any day if we have the time and if we figure out how to playtest (that's why I was bringing up XMage before). I know Flatline eventually comes to come back to this too. All this recent talk might be doing is pushing me more and more towards actually doing it. I'd be curious how Flatline feels about this.
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here)
CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for:
"Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index. Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
Partially because it has been so long since we worked on Ormos that I need go back and re-familiarize myself with set itself. At this point, I think kj probably knows the cards better than I do. While reading through his thoughts, I kept having to go to the spreadsheet to see what the card kj was referring even does.
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
I still haven't seriously retaken this into my hands, but I admit I'm closer now than ever before in the last year at least. We'll see where this goes.
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here)
CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for:
"Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index. Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)