MTG Salvation

For those of you who don't know, we are currently choosing a theme for our community-made custom set. Everyone is free to participate in any part of the design process, so please stop by and help us with the project!

I split up the possible themes into subcategories. Please vote for your favourite from each category.

What will we do about ties?

I have an idea that we could do. After this voting is over, we take the 1st place of each, and vote on those. In the case of a tie, we put both up there.

My votes went to multiplane, phyrexia, and -1/-1 counters. It could be some sort of showcase about how some planeswalkers go from plane to plane and (try to) stop phyrexia.

Sort of like the weatherlight, but modern design, and only glimpses of each plane, 7-ish planes in all.


EDIT: Joseph1069, that's a good idea.

Seems from the results that a lot of people basically want Return to Zendikar 2: Focus on the original themes, as there are high scores for 'Exploration' and 'Land Matters'.

Not necessarily, I voted for both, but would far rather go to Pyrulea than Zendikar and wanted to take land matters in a different direction.

Same for me, I honestly voted for stuff which already had a high vote count if I'm down for it, and so far it looks quite well. Pyrulea is very interesting, and the other themes fit to it quite well

The Sky is inside on Pyrulea, but you can take it for the other meaning as outside of your sphere, in that case just the opposite direction, so to speak.
Maya/Inca can be incorporated any which way, maybe in terms of religious and cultural ban on knowing what's outside the sphere.
Hence exploring the "sky", the barrier of the sphere deep underground.
Land matters can be taken many ways, as in how many lands, how many basic lands, landfall again, creatures that tap an untapped land for something, if you control a certain kind of land, special mana like snow mana etc.

Just a quick brainstorm, but kinda looking forward on it.
A bit sad though that Muraganda didn't get more votes, a group and I are working on a Muraganda set right now and I'm a bit on design low right now..

Edit: According to Horizon Boughs and Horizon Canopy, Pyrulea focuses around sacrificing lands for cards, untapping at each untapping step and searching for basic lands.

I thought the "Sky"(UW) would be the air between the canopy(G) and the the sun, "beneath" the canopy would be a twilit tangle of vines and boughs(GB). The plane would have no definite boundary, instead the trees terminate in hydropon-esque roots that extend into the thickening Aether(RUC), absorbing mana. Each layer would be host to various civilizations, vying to expand outwards into the hazardous but powerful Aether.

That's an interesting idea, having several layers, each representing a different environment, if you like. According to the lore, the sphere is surrounding a star of some kind - perhaps this is responsible in some way for the massive plants? In addition, it is possible that there could be some large landmasses orbiting the sun just above the canopy. Maybe these could represent the mountains?

In terms of mechanics, both cards we have for Pyrulea seem to suggest a theme of using lands for resources, which the people of the plane would obviously have to do in order to survive, given the unique qualities of their surroundings. Perhaps we can capture this in some way in the set.

Quote from poison counter »

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Also interesting, although having factions spread evenly over the colours is nicer. Aether as a boundary is an interesting concept, it also makes for 2 power sources to expand into. The "star" in the core, which is visible from the canopy and can be used be the top layer in the sky, and the aether which makes up the outer layer, usable by the root dwellers. It would give all the groups a direction to explore into, cause the grass is greener on the other side.

Quote from Voxzorz »

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It's a dyson sphere, a spherical contraption around a star to harness its power. Just imagine our planet core as a star

I'm abroad with Pyrulea idea, but I think a land matters theme should be more of a secondary theme, to differentiate it from Zendikar. Perhaps more of a library theme or cards in hand related theme.

I agree, maybe exile as a primary theme as it hasn't been explored much.

Quote from poison counter »

I agree, maybe exile as a primary theme as it hasn't been explored much.

Exile seems a bit odd for Pyrulea as a main theme, but as a secondary theme, definitely something I could see.

Library theme is good, although any stuff happening with the library is not necessarily in all the colours, unless you count searching.
Hand theme sounds like Kamigawa, but there sure is still Designspace open, even though some themes may lead to feel bad moments. How about Forecast for ETB-lands? Fits exploring, as in "look where I'm going next".

Just a thought on land theme, which interests me. If we do go with a land theme, I'd actually prefer it involve something other than landfall. Like maybe some new ideas having to do with unique lands, some land control type of stuff, maybe some ways to make land destruction more interesting without breaking balance too much. The exploration thing could be part of it. Also, I absolutely adore legendary lands from a flavor standpoint, even though some of the old ones ended up being broken mechanically. But I miss the days of there being more unique, kind of powerful legendary lands.

It would represent the Aether and voyaging into the unknown. Hand theme makes for stagnant gameplay as it discourages playing cards. Maybe a carddraw subtheme?
EDIT: We could also do "Fire Upon the Deep" style zones; basically the world becomes stranger, more high-magic and mana-rich as you travel outwards from the sun and approach the Aether.

Quote from poison counter »

It would represent the Aether and voyaging into the unknown. Hand theme makes for stagnant gameplay as it discourages playing cards. Maybe a carddraw subtheme?
EDIT: We could also do "Fire Upon the Deep" style zones; basically the world becomes stranger, more high-magic and mana-rich as you travel outwards from the sun and approach the Aether.

Could you elaborate that please?

Which part do you want me to elaborate on?

It would represent the Aether and voyaging into the unknown.

Sounds interesting, but what were you replying to? What is the "it"? The landtheme?

Also the Fire upon the Deep(?) style, do you mean that "deeper" zones use stronger magic in comparison to the ones closer to the core? High-magic to me means more sophisticated, not sure if that fits to the root-dwellers, unless they are the most advanced due to their proximity to the aether.

Quote from Gustostueckerl »

It would represent the Aether and voyaging into the unknown.

Sounds interesting, but what were you replying to? What is the "it"? The landtheme?

Sorry, "it" refers to an exile/flickering subtheme.

Also the Fire upon the Deep(?) style, do you mean that "deeper" zones use stronger magic in comparison to the ones closer to the core? High-magic to me means more sophisticated, not sure if that fits to the root-dwellers, unless they are the most advanced due to their proximity to the aether.

Not more sophisticated, just more chaotic, surreal and powerful.

• The sky close to the sun would have no magic(vanilla creatures) (WUBR)
• the "lower"(outer) sky has laxer physics and weak magic(basic spells and things like aven are possible)the inhabitants of this layer have thus resorted to technology, which they are using to try to spread to the other zones in search of mana. They have begun to devise modules that let them survive in the roots and Aether, where they hope to pipe raw mana to the surface. (UB)
• The surface has about the same level of magic as a normal set and is inhabited by rival feudal kingdoms, who resent the incursions of the sky-dwellers but hypocritically seek to gain advantage over their opposing fiefdoms by being the first to gain a territory in the understory(branches and trunks of the great trees, nothing to do with Undertale).(GRW)
• The understory layers are rich in magic with a shamanistic, stone age culture. They worship the mana and the elementals that occasionally form from it in their realm, and so see the Aether as a holy realm they are called to inhabit.(GW)
• The roots are inhabited only by fleeting illusions, elementals and other manifestations or raw mana, wild currents of magic make it hostile to all but the most protected outsiders. (RU)

Thus the set would deal with the darker aspects of exploration than those handled in Zendikar: conquest, resources, exploitation and the extent to which one's origins shape one's destiny.

FYI: Fire Upon the Deep is a scifi/fantasy book about a galaxy divided into similar zones

How long should we keep the poll open before we begin design?

@poison counter:

Your layer system is interesting, but a bit confusing. Why is the "sky" separated into 2 parts, and how are there even whole civilizations on them? Floating rocks or cities, like Sera Sanctum?

As far as I know, Pyruleas surface goes around the star and is covered in dense foliage, which actually makes the top of the tress the surface.
Then, as interpreted, come the trunks and branches, which make up he second layer, followed by the roots and the aether, the third and outmost layer.

The "resorting to technology" part is probably hard to fulfill since the plane is so densely covered by plants, and I mean really dense, not like Ravnica slightly above average covered.
It's probably hard to find any kind of metal there, if they even have it at all, since finding soil may be a problem.

I envisioned all of the people more in tune with nature, just with different philosophies behind it.(Cohabitation and completely vegan, exploiting and domesticating)

Alright, I was just throwing out random ideas as they came to me. Do you think we are ready to cement this as our plane and begin design/creative?

They are good ideas, was just contemplating on them

Not sure when the vote will be over, Voxzorz has to decide, and it looks like other people voted to, legendary matters is currently top theme instead of land matters.

@ Those who voted legendary matters as the mechanical theme: That is a great subtheme but hard to pull off as the main set theme(mechanically, not creatively). Legendary commons are outside Maroist, WOTC-style design and even ignoring that philosophy, commons seldom feel legend-worthy. Given that commons are the mortar of a primary theme, this poses a significant barrier. If you have a way around this however, I -and likely the rest of the custom design community- applaud you and eagerly await your breakthrough.