Flyrocopter Scout –Excellent 08/10
Soul Drain – Fantastic 09/10
Frenzied Corsairs – Change the body to 2/1 or color shift to black. As-is it’s virtually unprintable 02/10
Settler’s Caravan – Very flavorful. Probably not printable because of the “any order” clause. Eternal format Johnny wants to break it. But will probably be a letdown much of the time. 05/10
Guardian of Kazundoo – Not sure about double colored aside Colonization (EDIT: At common). 06/10
Kahana Observer – Okay 06/10
Lone Evangelist – Name flavor is a little off. Would be decent as a 2/3. As-is, it’s okay 06/10
Sinister Strike – Name sounds black. Redflagged as 2-for-1. Decent 07/10
Stitched Gulgud – Jinx is cool. The body is odd. Overall it seems too strong*. Needs development 04/10 (*EDIT: I didn't notice that it also couldn't a/b alone)
Wave of Dispersion – Recall needs development 03/10
Saleisan Biomancer – Bad flavor. Otherwise excellent 8/10
Soul Harvest – Fantastic 9/10
Flaming Skull – Odd. Red Pirate tribal and red Human tribal in the same set. It’s an odd design with weird flavor. Doesn’t look appealing. 03/10
Trystor, Who Seeks Revenge – Awesome 10/10
I came up with a mechanic the other day that has a similar "networking" feel as Recall, and I'm curious what everyone thinks of it. I was trying to find an Archer tribal mechanic:
Elvish Skyhunter 1G
Creature - Elf Archer (U)
Quiver 2 (When ~ enters the battlefield, you get 2 arrow counters) GT, 1 arrow counter: ~ deals 2 damage to target creature with flying.
Not an archers would deal damage. Many would have "trick arrows" that tap, force an attack, or remove keywords from a creature.
I came up with a mechanic the other day that has a similar "networking" feel as Recall, and I'm curious what everyone thinks of it. I was trying to find an Archer tribal mechanic:
Elvish Skyhunter 1G
Creature - Elf Archer (U)
Quiver 2 (When ~ enters the battlefield, you get 2 arrow counters) GT, 1 arrow counter: ~ deals 2 damage to target creature with flying.
Not an archers would deal damage. Many would have "trick arrows" that tap, force an attack, or remove keywords from a creature.
Thoughts?
Well, I like it more than having arrow tokens on the battlefield, but it'd need development (read: playtesting) to really know whether it's worth pursuing or not.
I made some changes to the cards according to your suggestions and I have some replies to your comments on the mechanics:
Frenzied Corsairs was moved to black.
Settler's Caravan was simply removed, I added a G cost Jinx common for green instead.
Lone Evangelist has been reworked to be part of a 10 cards common cycle that gets bonuses when you spend mana of an allied color.
Lone Evangelist2W
Creature - Human Settler Cleric (C)
When Lone Evangelist enters the battlefield, if U was spent to cast it, draw a card.
2/2
Sinister Strike hasn't been playtested yet, so I can't tell if it's going to need a change. I'll let you know.
Stitched Gulgud is now an uncommon with a new ability:
Stitched Gulgud3BB
Creature - Zombie (U)
Jinx 1B(1B: Exile this card from your graveyard jinxing target creature you don’t control. Jinx only as a sorcery.)
When Stitched Gulgud or jinxed creature dies, put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield under your control.
4/4
About Jinx: As Reuben pointed out, Jinx doesn't always work as it does on the booster version of the Gulgud. I try to use that templating for commons only. Having the same effect on the jinxing creature when it's in play and the jinxed creature when it's jinxed is easier to understand for new players IMO, and it cuts a lot of red-flagging for wordiness on my jinx commons. Also, about what Dan said about the fact that it always needs to be a downside, I found out that it isn't necessarily true.
Luminescent Crokka2G
Creature - Frog (C)
Jinx 1G(1G: Exile this card from your graveyard jinxing target creature you don’t control. Jinx only as a sorcery.)
Whenever Luminescent Crokka or jinxed creature attacks, add G to your mana pool at the beginning of your next main phase.
2/2
The Jinx designs get more "complex" as I get closer to rare, obviously, like the rat Reuben mentionned.
About the custom frame: /u/TenebraeOmega on the subreddit made it for me. I felt like t was needed for a complex mechanic such as Jinx, because players will often have the reflex of putting the jinxing creature behind its target, like an Aura, to show which creature it affects. The jinxing creature is still in exile when this happens but is "attached" to a creature on the battlefield. The new card frame emphasizes that something weird is going on there and that you should be careful.
About Recall: This mechanic is still my greatest nightmare yet. I want to use Totems somehow in the set, and I don't want them to be creatures. I completely understand what you said about it being hard to develop as is, and I agree. My problem is that I don't know how to fix the mechanic yet. If anyone has a suggestion about how to fix Recall and the Totem network ideas, please let me know and we can discuss it here or via PM on reddit, or whatever
Saleisan Biomancer is now a 2/2 for 2GU with a static Scry 4. It's much cleaner that way, thank you guys.
Soul Harvest will stay a 2BB uncommon as long as it's not playtested, but I can easily see it bumped to rare. I think its cost will stay the same, though.
Flaming Skull was changed according to Dan's suggestion.
As an additional cost to cast Flaming Skull, you may exile a Human creature card from your graveyard.
Flaming Skull deals 2 damage to target creature or player. If you exiled a Human as you cast Flaming Skull, it deals 4 damage to that creature or player instead.
Trystor is a mythic because 1) as you guys said, he has a unique effect that hasn't been seen before and 2) he's important to the lore. He once was a planeswalker, and when he planeswalked to Terys (the plane Kazundoo is on), he got captured by Ubundu De'Kunta, a Spirtachi witch that wanted to travel to the plane of Velundi, Kazundoo's spirit-world. The two planes are really close to each other and interact in some weird ways that I'm probably going to explain more in an eventual Planeswalker Guide to Terys and Velundi. The thing is, Ubundu stole Trystor's Spark by performing a weird voodoo ritual so that he could become a planeswalker himself and seek the spirits' aid in the war between the natives and the settlers.
About Recall: This mechanic is still my greatest nightmare yet. I want to use Totems somehow in the set, and I don't want them to be creatures. I completely understand what you said about it being hard to develop as is, and I agree. My problem is that I don't know how to fix the mechanic yet. If anyone has a suggestion about how to fix Recall and the Totem network ideas, please let me know and we can discuss it here or via PM on reddit, or whatever
Perhaps
Recall N (As you cast this spell, you may sacrifice N artifacts. When you do, copy it and you may choose a new target for the copy.)
So it's now a Conspire variant, avoiding repetitive gameplay issues. Having it as 'artifacts' rather than 'totems' removes the parasitic element entirely, so that totems are simply used as the main way of fueling it rather than the only way. The N variable stops the cost from being too low so you can put it on higher CMC cards with bigger effects while putting on low CMC cards with weak effects without the cos being too high, I would expect Recall 1-2 would be most cards, and a few 5-6 CMC cards could have Recall 3.
Great reviews, as always. I touched on a few similar points in my reviews. It looks like I'm fairly good at finding flaws in designs, but not as good at recognizing good designs or saying why they're good. That's something I need to work on. Any tips on how to improve at that?
@Zervintz - Glad we could help. Hope you enjoyed us digging into your work for two episodes. Send us another booster pack some time.
@TheAzureSpirit - People overall tend to be better trained at finding problems than the good stuff. Train yourself to focus on what good cards and mechanics look like, as well as what qualities make them good. Find the bright spots, then try to clone them.
When working on a game, it's very helpful to figure out what your ideal game experience for this title looks like. Roughly how long is it, what's the core fun thing players do and so on. If a design is helping push your game experience closer to the target, that's a good design.
Then you apply other factors, like how elegance reduces the negative side-effects of comprehension and tracking complexity. There are some things which are almost universally good. No matter what, you probably want your games to feel replayable via a variety of game states. Cards that do different things when played offer more options increase the variety in the game experience. This is one reason why a removal spell that offers scaling rewards based on the toughness of the creature is a bit better than one that always gains you 3 life no matter what it kills. Sometimes you'll gain 1 life from killing a utility 1/1. Sometimes you'll use it to kill a 9999/9999 your friend made with a combo in a commander game. Then you'll have a story to tell.
Studying human psychology is very helpful here. But mostly you just want to look for what works and try to replicate that. Practice your mental playtesting skills a lot as well. This is probably your most powerful tool. If you can get a good idea of how it feels to play with a card, you can start seeing the benefits of having it in your game.
This was cool! Maybe one day I can get a Netropolis booster reviewed.
Have you guys thought about brainstorming a custom set as part of the podcast? Like coming up with a design goal, then brainstorming mechanics and emphases as you're recording? It's probably a lot of pressure to do something like that on the spot, but I bet it would be pretty interesting.
This was cool! Maybe one day I can get a Netropolis booster reviewed.
Have you guys thought about brainstorming a custom set as part of the podcast? Like coming up with a design goal, then brainstorming mechanics and emphases as you're recording? It's probably a lot of pressure to do something like that on the spot, but I bet it would be pretty interesting.
Glad you enjoyed it.
We did a mock exploratory design meeting for battle for zendikar a while ago. Like if we were the exploratory design team for battle for zendikar (before we knew anything about the set other than its name) what would our first meeting be? We had it live on the podcast.
In general, these types of broader design goals involve a lot of false starts and winding paths. The create-a-card-challenge we did with Moon-E worked really well though. It's possible we'll do both again someday.
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In this episode:
Card Renders:
Contact details:
remakingmagic.tumblr.com
Reuben Covington
Twitter: @reubencovington
Email: reubencovington@gmail.com
MTGsalvation Account: Doombringer
Dan Felder
Twitter: @DesignerDanF
Email: minimallyexceptional@gmail.com
MTGsalvation Account: Stairc
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
Elvish Skyhunter 1G
Creature - Elf Archer (U)
Quiver 2 (When ~ enters the battlefield, you get 2 arrow counters)
GT, 1 arrow counter: ~ deals 2 damage to target creature with flying.
Not an archers would deal damage. Many would have "trick arrows" that tap, force an attack, or remove keywords from a creature.
Thoughts?
I made some changes to the cards according to your suggestions and I have some replies to your comments on the mechanics:
Frenzied Corsairs was moved to black.
Settler's Caravan was simply removed, I added a G cost Jinx common for green instead.
Lone Evangelist has been reworked to be part of a 10 cards common cycle that gets bonuses when you spend mana of an allied color.
Creature - Human Settler Cleric (C)
When Lone Evangelist enters the battlefield, if U was spent to cast it, draw a card.
2/2
Stitched Gulgud is now an uncommon with a new ability:
Creature - Zombie (U)
Jinx 1B (1B: Exile this card from your graveyard jinxing target creature you don’t control. Jinx only as a sorcery.)
When Stitched Gulgud or jinxed creature dies, put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield under your control.
4/4
Creature - Frog (C)
Jinx 1G (1G: Exile this card from your graveyard jinxing target creature you don’t control. Jinx only as a sorcery.)
Whenever Luminescent Crokka or jinxed creature attacks, add G to your mana pool at the beginning of your next main phase.
2/2
About the custom frame: /u/TenebraeOmega on the subreddit made it for me. I felt like t was needed for a complex mechanic such as Jinx, because players will often have the reflex of putting the jinxing creature behind its target, like an Aura, to show which creature it affects. The jinxing creature is still in exile when this happens but is "attached" to a creature on the battlefield. The new card frame emphasizes that something weird is going on there and that you should be careful.
About Recall: This mechanic is still my greatest nightmare yet. I want to use Totems somehow in the set, and I don't want them to be creatures. I completely understand what you said about it being hard to develop as is, and I agree. My problem is that I don't know how to fix the mechanic yet. If anyone has a suggestion about how to fix Recall and the Totem network ideas, please let me know and we can discuss it here or via PM on reddit, or whatever
Saleisan Biomancer is now a 2/2 for 2GU with a static Scry 4. It's much cleaner that way, thank you guys.
Soul Harvest will stay a 2BB uncommon as long as it's not playtested, but I can easily see it bumped to rare. I think its cost will stay the same, though.
Flaming Skull was changed according to Dan's suggestion.
Flaming Skull deals 2 damage to target creature or player. If you exiled a Human as you cast Flaming Skull, it deals 4 damage to that creature or player instead.
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
Perhaps
Recall N (As you cast this spell, you may sacrifice N artifacts. When you do, copy it and you may choose a new target for the copy.)
So it's now a Conspire variant, avoiding repetitive gameplay issues. Having it as 'artifacts' rather than 'totems' removes the parasitic element entirely, so that totems are simply used as the main way of fueling it rather than the only way. The N variable stops the cost from being too low so you can put it on higher CMC cards with bigger effects while putting on low CMC cards with weak effects without the cos being too high, I would expect Recall 1-2 would be most cards, and a few 5-6 CMC cards could have Recall 3.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
@TheAzureSpirit - People overall tend to be better trained at finding problems than the good stuff. Train yourself to focus on what good cards and mechanics look like, as well as what qualities make them good. Find the bright spots, then try to clone them.
When working on a game, it's very helpful to figure out what your ideal game experience for this title looks like. Roughly how long is it, what's the core fun thing players do and so on. If a design is helping push your game experience closer to the target, that's a good design.
Then you apply other factors, like how elegance reduces the negative side-effects of comprehension and tracking complexity. There are some things which are almost universally good. No matter what, you probably want your games to feel replayable via a variety of game states. Cards that do different things when played offer more options increase the variety in the game experience. This is one reason why a removal spell that offers scaling rewards based on the toughness of the creature is a bit better than one that always gains you 3 life no matter what it kills. Sometimes you'll gain 1 life from killing a utility 1/1. Sometimes you'll use it to kill a 9999/9999 your friend made with a combo in a commander game. Then you'll have a story to tell.
Studying human psychology is very helpful here. But mostly you just want to look for what works and try to replicate that. Practice your mental playtesting skills a lot as well. This is probably your most powerful tool. If you can get a good idea of how it feels to play with a card, you can start seeing the benefits of having it in your game.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Have you guys thought about brainstorming a custom set as part of the podcast? Like coming up with a design goal, then brainstorming mechanics and emphases as you're recording? It's probably a lot of pressure to do something like that on the spot, but I bet it would be pretty interesting.
Glad you enjoyed it.
We did a mock exploratory design meeting for battle for zendikar a while ago. Like if we were the exploratory design team for battle for zendikar (before we knew anything about the set other than its name) what would our first meeting be? We had it live on the podcast.
In general, these types of broader design goals involve a lot of false starts and winding paths. The create-a-card-challenge we did with Moon-E worked really well though. It's possible we'll do both again someday.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane