MTG Salvation

Introduction
This is a primer on New World Order and Red Flagging to help inform magic players and custom card creators what these concepts are and how to apply them.
My aim is to make this guide necessary reading for any custom card creator designing commons in a custom set.
This guide may still be a little rough so feel free to ask questions, give suggestions or point out any errors.

What is New World Order?
New World Order (commonly abbreviated to NWO) is a concept used by Wizard of the Coast when designing commons to limit complexity at common.
NWO is the brain child of lead designer Mark Rosewater and was first introduced in this article from December 2011. NWO's aim is to lower the barrier of entry of Magic and make magic more fun by introducing clarity to a blocks design while decreasing comprehension and board complexity that can lead to unsatisfying gameplay experiences.
New World Order was first implemented partially in Shards of Alara block with Zendikar being the first block fully designed with NWO in mind.
NWO and red flagging is potentially crucial if you plan on making custom magic card sets as keeping a lower complexity level at common will create better gameplay and allow you to focus the complexity on what you want to showcase in your set.

Q: So how do you actually apply NWO?
A: NWO is applied through the use of Redflagging common rarity cards that have an increased complexity by following certain rules and then making sure the total number of red flagged cards are less than 20% of your total commons.

What is Redflagging?
Red flagging is used to mark that a common card is breaking NWO complexity in some way so that the designer can make sure that the card is adding to the focus of the set and thus adding unnecessary complexity.
A common card is red flagged if it breaks one or more of the follow rules that I'll go into more detail about shortly. Cards that break more than one of these rules must come under intense scrutiny and most likely moved up to uncommon in all but the most aberrant of cases.
Any card that you keep in your set that is red flagged must make an important contribution to the set's theme or limited environment.

A quick Red Flagging Rules checklist:

• Does it affect other permanents?
• Does it have four or more lines of rules text?
• Does it need to be read twice?
• Does it create card advantage?
• Does it have the potential to kill multiple card at once?
• Can it create a loop?
• Problematic in larger numbers?
• Does it use complex magic terminology.

Red Flag Rules Details
Ok so now that you've wrapped your head around what the basics of NWO and red flagging are let look in detail at each of the red flag rules and how to apply them.
1) Does it affect other permanents?
Does this common have the ability to effect other permanents? (especially creatures)
It is the most important red flag for reducing board complexity that can be extremely hard for newer (or even experienced) players to parse effectively to make decision about what they want to do. In essence if there is too many things going on in the board state it becomes to hard and you end up making mistakes which doesn't lead to fun gameplay.
This is one of the hardest red flags to understand correctly as it comes in a range of varieties and severities. So lets look at a few examples:

Kithkin Shielddare is a common from Shadowmoor before NWO way implemented and the set was known for its confusing board states with extremely high board complexity. This is remarked upon in that year's State of Design article as being a mistake made in the set.
So then what is wrong here about Kithkin Shielddare and how exactly is it adding to complexity?
Whenever I attack a player who has Kithkin Shielddare I suddenly have to do a lot more combat math to figure other if the available blocks/trades are going to be worth it. Now this by itself is fine but because this card is common what happens if I had 2 or 3 of these? Suddenly you can see how while a single Kithkin Shielddare may be able to be calculated around (And this isn't even true for new players) a board state with 2 or 3 Kithkin Shielddare's is simply too much for our brain to handle which is a bad thing for your limited environment.

Ok now lets look at another example:

Now this looks like another example of a simple common that breaks this rule right?
WRONG
Tappers don't activate this red flag.
This is because they have to be used before combat and thus actually simplify the board complexity by making less choices in attacker or blockers. This can then apply to any sorcery speed activated ability or an ability that doesn't effect the board state such as Voyaging Satyr.
Ok one last example that tripped me up initially when applying Red Flagging to the commons of my custom set Dreamscape of Noctus.
Lets look at the following common card:
Now originally I saw cards like Crackling Triton in Theros and thought to myself that wizards must of decided that because the sacrifice creates card parity this effect wouldn't get red flagged under NWO. What it didn't realize was that was irrelevant and that instead the additional board complexity it added was what mattered irrespective of what power level the effect was.
This also shows us dangerous assumptions we can make about precedent based on WOTC products as I assumed Crackling Triton wasn't red flagged when in fact I later confirmed it was.
Remember that NWO says we can have 20% of our commons red flagged but they should each make an important contribution to the set's theme or limited environment.

Triggered abilities that only effect itself are not red flagged, this means that a card like Steppe Lynx or Midnight Guard that is triggered by other cards but that trigger only effects itself are fine at common. But remember that this effect is slightly more complex that normal as players can forget them. Thus if you have these type of triggers be consistent among a subset of commons it can reduce the overall complexity. If you are not using cohesive triggers for triggered abilities then some of your commons may fall under Red Flagging.

One last example is to show that cards don't need to have the word target on them to be red flagged under this rule.
One of my favorite examples:

Selfless Cathar in an example of a card that if a player forgets about it can lead to extremely bad situations. While it doesn't have the word "target" on it, it can still mess with the board state via its sacrifice ability. You may notice that this was a common in a core set (which try to reduce the common complexity even more than normal) but it was a role player in the white weenies limited archetype and thus WOTC felt it was worth having as part of their 20% allowance.

Finally be aware that instants and sorceries that target creatures don't fall into this category as they stay in your hand and are thus hidden information that isn't taken into account for board complexity.

2) Does it have four or more lines of rules text?
Does the card have four or more lines of non-reminder, non-flavor text.
This is by far the most common red flag, often making up for 75%+ of the total red flags in a set. Its also the red flag with the most leeway and that is most acceptable. Having a dozen wordy cards is going to happen to every set, but thats far better than having ridiculous board complexity due to having a dozen Samite Healer style cards.
It is important that when a player looks at the cards on the board and in his or her hand that they are able to understand them quickly and without getting confused. This is particularly important for younger players who may not be as strong at reading. So this red flag allows us to maintain a coherent and easily accessible game. reducing comprehension complexity and thus meaning your players can focus on the fun gameplay complexity.
Even if we assumed that all players of our set have strong reading abilities (a dangerous assumption) this restriction on wordiness prevents designers from creating cards that are mechanically too complex as we have to work within an extremely limited word limit.
The reason this only looks at lines of rules text is that a mechanics rules text only needs to read once or twice when learning that mechanic and can then be skipped while still knowing the functionality of the card.
Example:

Necrobite from M15 has a whopping 8 lines of text. (most cards in general should aim for 7 or less lines and never more than 9)
However this card doesn't actually fall under the red flag because nearly all of the card's text is reminder text that can be quickly mentally shortcutted by a player who knows what regenerate and deathtouch actually do. Be aware that red flagging doesn't take into consideration Average Words per Common which is still something to be aware of if you have lots of long reminder texts for your commons but that falls outside of the scope of this primer.
Lets look at an example of text we can't ignore:

Kinscaer Harpoonist as you can see has 4 lines of rules text and thus falls under the red flag here. However I've had designers try and argue that the flying text can be ignored due to being an evergreen mechanic. This however is not the case as the mechanic still contributes to what you have to think about when you read the card. Even if you know the mechanic, while your brain shortcut what flying means it is easy to will on a wordy card. How many times has the situation come up where your or an opponent forget that a certain creature has flying or first strike or other relevant evergreen keyword?
Counting the evegreen words in the line count helps keep the complexity down on what each common does and thus helps avoid these "feel bad" situations
One line of text that you can ignore when looking at word count is the enchant creature line on auras as this is considered part of learning the aura subtype except when given weird enchantment clauses that may fall off under certain conditions like Runner's Bane.


Ability words are the single greatest source of confusion and questions about the wordyness redflag so I'm going to expand on this a little more than in previous version of this primer.
An ability word is a word that thematically groups cards with a common functionality, but has no special meaning in the Comprehensive Rules. Examples include Battalion (Wojek Halberdiers) Landfall (Plated Geopede) or Converge (Brilliant Spectrum).
Nearly every ability word has some sort of text that is repeated across all cards that use that ability. For example nearly every landfall card has the "Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control." For the purposes of red flagging via the number of lines of text, this repeated ability word text is ignored and treated like reminder text.
Thus a card like Plated Geopede that looks like it contains 4 lines of text and thus would normally be red flagged actually only contains 3 lines and isn't red falgged once you disregard the generic landfall text.
The reason this is allowed is because of mental shortcutting. Applying a term to a specific ability means that we can gloss over the text and immediety look at what exactly the effect is without having to relearn what the card is caring about mechanically.
-> ->

Finally it is worth mentioning that sometimes you get "invisible mechanics" which are basically ability words with repeated text that don't have the italicized ability word text for whatever reason. Some examples of these are Eldrazi spawn/scions from ROE or BFZ, the Naya "5 power or greater" mechanic from Shards of Alara or the Processors from BFZ.
Basically if you asked most players what some of the mechanics of the set where, they will include these despite not having an associated ability word.
So when it comes to NWO Red Flagging we treat the repeated text of an "invisible mechanic" as exactly like as if it had an ability word, thus ignoring the repeated text.


3) Does it need to be read twice?
Is this card hard to parse or understand due to mechanical complexity or weird wording?
This is one of the rarer and more intuitive red flagging rules that looks at if players have the ability to work out quickly what the card does. An example of cards that do weird things that can fall under this category is the conspiracy cards. These can be more difficult to understand by newer players and thus should usually be moved to uncommon. In the case of the conspiracies they actually had a conspiracy or "draft matters" card as a separate slot in the booster pack to avoid them flooding the commons and breaking the spirit of NWO.


4) Does it create card advantage
Does this card means I end up with a total net gain on cards compared to my opponent?
This Red Flag is another major one after number 1 and 2 but is slightly less about design and more about developing a fun and balanced limited environment.
Examples of cards that fall under this catagory are creatures with enter the battlefield effects that can destroy something on board such as Cultbrand Cinder.

Be aware that cards that do straight card advantage without affecting the board such as Divination or Mind Rot don't fall under this category.

5) Does it have the potential to kill multiple card at once?
Can this card be used to reasonably create on board card advantage via killing two or more cards an opponent has.
This Red Flag is similar to the one above except it is more to do with how a card can be used to create advantages of how many creatures a player has. Since creatures are the core of most limited environments this is another red flag that is more to do with development than design concerns.

The most obvious example of this is something like Boulderfall which can easily kill two or more creatures. Even though the card was horrible in limited due to its high cost this card would of still bee red flagged due to its potential to turn a game around more than nearly any other common.

Another source of multiple kills in limited are combat tricks. If a creature you control is double blocked and you cast Giant Growth you can kill both of their creatures with a single card. However this doesn't fall under this red flag as combat tricks (and enchantment - auras) all have the inherent possibility of card disadvantage build into them if in response to your Giant Growth your creature gets targeted by a Doom Blade.
However some combat tricks can affect multiple permanents and thus do fall under this red flag such as Martial Glory or Break of Day as suddenly the two creatures you blocked with can now survive thus killing two of you opponent's creature with a single common spell.


6) Can it create a loop?
Does this card have the potential to create looping or repetitive gameplay?
Another rarer Red Flag is that it is dangerous to have cards that can create gameplay loops by themselves at common.
A gameplay loop is where an action can be repeated every turn without additional cards thus potentially not only creating card advantage but also making for an unfun enviorment for players.
The main aspect that is important about these loops is that they are uninteractive which is why cipher cards are not considered as they require you to fulfill the requirements of combat damage against your opponent.
The ability for cards such as Gravedigger to create a loop when played with another copy of gravedigger is why this card is now printed at uncommon. This loop creates card advantage it you block any opponent 2 toughness creatures and is very uninteractive for your opponent as even if they have removal it doesn't matter unless it exiles.
However the worst offenders of this red flag are cards that create gameplay loops all by themselves such as Sprout Swarm. This card is considered a mistake by R&D and should not be at common.
Be careful of your set mechanics as if you had a mechanic like Forecast or Buyback it is going to eat up a lot of your complexity by falling into this gameplay loop Red Flag.


7) Problematic in larger numbers?
Does this card become abusive if I have 5+ of them in a limited deck?
This is another narrow red flag rule that you should be aware of when creating cards that scale with the number of copies such as Kindle or that are free like Memnite.In a 3 pack draft you can potentially have 24 or a single common with an average of seeing 2.4 of that common. However as this is an average you don't want an above average amount of that common to ruin the draft. For example in Scars of Mirrodin playtesting originally Memnite was a common but was moved to uncommon when a play got 7-8 of them in a draft and proceeded to have ridiculous draws. The deck still wasn't even good but it creates a negative drafting experience that you don't want from your commons.


8) Does it mention uncommon magic terms?
Does this card use terminology that is hard to parse for newer players?
Common cards in magic form the bulk of cards seen by a newer player and are used as a learning tool when playing. However certain magic terms are not commonly used or essential to learn right away. To avoid overloading a new player on terminology certain words should be restricted to uncommon or greater or fall under this Red Flag.
List of magic terms that are Red Flagged:

• Converted Mana Cost
• X as a Cost
• Planeswalker
• Emblem
• Non-Standard counters - eg: Briber's Purse.

Time to test your knowledge!
In the following section I'm going to show you a variety of common custom cards and you should guess which Red Flags (if any) the card is breaking.


Summary

• New world order is designed to reduce complexity at common
• Red Flagging is a system of rules to keep complexity at common in check
• No more than 20% of the commons in your set should be red flagged
• Red flagged cards should each make an important contribution to your set's themes or archetypes

I hope this has been helpful as a guide and resource to help you understand New World Order and how to apply Red Flagging to your custom common card designs.
If you have any questions/comments post them below, PM me or you can contact me on twitter at @reubencovington.

Extra Reading / Listening
New World Order - DailyMTG
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/172
Understanding Complexity - Gathering Magic
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/natasha-lewis-harrington-editorial-psychology-03282013-understanding-complexity/
New World Order and Complexity Creep - Starcity Games
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/23228_New-World-Order-And--Complexity-Creep-.html
Red Flagging - Drive to work Podcast by Mark Rosewater
http://podbay.fm/show/580709168/e/1406909700?autostart=1 (Podcast)
http://dtwtranscripts.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/8114-episode-144-redflagging.html (Transcript)

Yay. Thanks for having me on the podcast!

PLANESCULPTOR SET LINK

Welcome to my latest project. A mish mash of ideas I've had for a long time that has finally come together with a variety of interesting mechanics and design challenges.
This is Dreamsacpe, a set about the collision of Dreams and Reality.
Heavily inspired by works such as "The Sandman." and the DND plane "The heart of the Dreaming."
The plane of Noctus is special in that its inhabitant's minds and souls are transported to the realm of the Dreamscape each night. A world of purest dreams, untold power and deep dangers.

Design Goal
Make the game feel alien and unknown again.

Visual Spoiler
Updated 27/09/2016

Plot + Story
A Planewalker's Guide to Noctus: To be Expanded
Frustrated with Ravnica. Ral Zarek has left, searching for something greater to allow him to express his genius freely and without limits. On his planar travels he finds himself on Noctus, a remote seemingly peaceful plane with a tang of strange magic in the air.
After meeting a small child named Mindi in his dreams he discovers a secret worthy of his study. The hidden realm of the Dreamscape. A powerful realm sealed beneath the passive dreaming of Noctus' inhabitants.
In his recklessness Ral Zarek unseals the Dreamscape, turning the dreaming potentially fatal and your nightmares far too real.
Heedless of the chaos he is unleashing Ral Zarek only wishes to master this realm of pure dreaming. Becoming a Dream Artist able to express him creativity unbound by reality and its limitations.

Meanwhile Evis, former leader of the Daumas Order and recently ignited planeswalker has returned from her travels only to find Noctus roiling with chaos as soulless dreamers roam and some Mori play mischief with reality. Now she has taken back control of the Daumas Order and is desperately trying to understand and contain the dreamscape and its influence. However increasingly her once peaceful way is becoming increasingly rigid and authoritarian as the Daumas ready for war.

Yemma, the greatest huntress in the multiverse was on Noctus hunting near the Sunbloom Haven when the Dreamscape erupted. Releasing huge Mori, creatures made of dreamstuff that represented the ideas or emotions. Striding through the forest she saw beasts and predators she had only ever dreamed of. A challenge that would test Yemma and her wolf companion Zola to their limits.

And as the world of Noctus is changed forever a cult that worships the King of Nightmares, Ikelious grows ever more powerful. Hinting that releasing our greatest dreams unfortunately comes at the cost of our greatest nightmares.

Mechanics

FAQ
How does Premonition work with shuffle effects?
Shuffling causes all face-up cards in the library to be turned face down, then you shuffle like normal.
See the comprehensive rules changes for Premonition:

702.PRMd If a one-shot effect causes a player to reveal, shuffle, or randomize the order of a card or cards in a library, at least one of which is face up, each such card is turned face down, and then the cards are revealed, shuffled, or randomized.

How does premonition and face up cards work with Oracle of Mul Daya and similar cards?
Face-up cards in the library and revealed cards are seperate states. A revealed card is not face-up.
See the comprehensive rules changes for Premonition:

702.PRMe If a continuous effect causes a face up card to be revealed, that card is both revealed and is face up. If the card somehow ceases to be revealed, the card remains face up.

How does Premonition work with card draw and mill?

702.PRMc If a face up card in a library would become the top card of a player's library, that player casts it without paying its mana cost instead. If that player can't, he or she turns the face up card face down instead and it becomes the top card of his or her library. It is no longer face up.

120.2. Cards may only be drawn one at a time. If a player is instructed to draw multiple cards, that player performs that many individual card draws.

Because the top of the library replacement effect on face up cards, if you have a faceup card in your library beneath the top two cards of your library and then cast a Treasure Cruise then you will draw two cards, then the replacement effect of the faceup card will cause you to cast the face-up card without paying its mana cost and thus be be placed on the stack and then the third card will be drawn.
However this separate event type of resolution doesn't apply to milling which is a single event as seen by the triggers on cards such as Darksteel Colossus. So any face-up cards that are milled are not cast and instead placed in the graveyard like normal. This means mill is both an effective way to trigger face-up card more quickly but also a weapon to use against it.

Will this set be released with art?:
Yes I am planning on finding art for all cards.

Card List
No card list yet!
See 2nd Post for full text card list sometime soon

Notable Cycles
- Common off colored activation cycle
- Common Off color flashback cycle
- Common Discard Flashback cycle
- Uncommon gold cards
- Uncommon Aspirant Cycle
- Uncommon Foretold cycle
- Rare gold cycle
- Mythic Incarnation cycle

Associated Threads
Apparition Cycle
Dreameater Engine+
Are any of these broken?
Hydra of the Twilight Grove
Mechanic Naming
A selection of Blue Cards
Dreams and Nightmares
Six more Commons
Some Red Commons
Off Color Flashbacks
Memoir Wording Discussion
DMS sample booster #1
DMS sample booster #2
Updated Watch List notes

Changelog

• 02/09/2014 - Initial Thread Start
• 02/09/2014 - Reformatted due to all my spoiler tags breaking
• 03/09/2014 - Added associated links
• 05/09/2014 - First Pass on white commons
• 09/09/2014 - First Pass on Blue commons
• 17/09/2014 - Updated Visual Spoiler
• 19/09/2014 - Replaced Trance with Awaken
• 22/09/2014 - Red, black and other misc commons
• 28/09/2014 - Artifacts commons added
• 01/09/2014 - Updated visual spoiler and officially replaced Awaken with Aspire
• 02/10/2014 - Second pass on White & Blue commons
• 08/10/2014 - Second pass on Red Commons
• 27/10/2014 - New wording for Aspire
• 29/10/2014 - Second common pass complete
• 23/02/2015 - Overhauled the main page
• 12/03/2015 - All commons complete
• 14/03/2015 - Visual spoiler + main page updated
• 18/03/2015 - Showcase and archetypes completed
• 29/03/2015 - 9 person draft playtest
• 30/03/2015 - Memoir and Premonition Wording changes
• 06/04/2015 - Planeswalkers Reworked
• 10/03/2015 - Rares development Underway
• 18/03/2015 - Sealed playtests underway.
• 20/03/2015 - Flavor Text update and Main Page update
• 05/05/2015 - All slots filled, dozens of changes.
• 10/05/2015 - Lots of playtest changes, starting sealed testing
• 12/05/2015 - Updated text spoiler
• 29/05/2015 - Lots of new playtesting both online and on paper, updated the visual spoiler again
• 11/06/2015 - Another main page update.
• 26/06/2015 - Large number of development updates
• 18/07/2015 - Many more development, art and flavor changes
• 21/07/2015 - Visual Spoiler Updated
SEE THIS THREAD FOR MORE DETAILED FUTURE CHANGELOGS

Comment Hidden

Ok there has been a bunch of issues with the wiki version I was trying to setup.
Thus I'll be posting early iterations onto the end of this thread and when I have reached a satisfactory number of mechanics I'll start a new thread that will end up replacing this one.

Note that the reboot of the custom mechanic encyclopedia is going to be a curated list, just suggesting a mechanic isn't enough to get it added.
I will be happy to provide feedback on all mechanics suggested, including improvements that could be made to have it included.
Once a mechanic is chosen to be included I will create a common example card and attempt to find any previous uses of that mechanic in custom cards projects.

The Custom Mechanic Encyclopedia
----------------------------
The Custom Mechanic Encyclopedia is a curated resource for custom card creators, containing a database of custom keywords, ability words and keyword actions.
----------------------------

Dreamwalk (This creature can't be blocked by untapped creatures. Tapped creatures can block it.)
Used in: Dreamscape, Dreams of Lyanar (Sleepwalk)
Tags: #Creature keyword #Evasion
----------------------------

Lineage X (This creature enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it if it shares a creature type with a card in your graveyard.)
Used in: 20min Booster Challenge
Tags: #Creature Keyword #Graveyard #Tribal #Modular
----------------------------

Growth [COST] ([COST]: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. This costs 1 more to activate for each +1/+1 counter on it. Grow only as a sorcery.)
Used in: Overworld, Tesla Exploratory Design (Iterate)
Tags: #Creature Keyword #+1/+1 Counter #Mana Sink
----------------------------

Enchantment-Craft — As long as you control three or more enchantments, [EFFECT]
Used in: Dreams of Lyanar (Dreamscape), Various Others (Wonderous, Perfect, Enchantcraft etc..)
Tags: #Creature Keyword #Spell Keyword, #Ability Word, #Threshold Mechanic
----------------------------

Premonition X -[COST] (Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may pay [COST] and put this card into your library face up just beneath the top seven cards. As it reaches the top, cast it without paying its mana cost.)
Used in: Dreamscape, MOON-E's Big ol' Warp Thread (Warp)
Tags: #Alternate Cost #Creature Keyword #Spell Keyword
----------------------------

Colonization — As long as you control three lands with different names, [EFFECT]
Used in: Kazundoo, Ankheret
Tags: #Creature Keyword #Spell Keyword, #Ability Word, #Threshold Mechanic
----------------------------

Eternal [COST] (If you cast this spell for [COST], change its text by removing all instances of "until end of turn" and exile it engraved to its target.)
Used in: Eternity, Fixing Eternal
Tags: #Spell Keyword #Alternate Cost #Mana Sink
----------------------------

Justice — At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent broke any laws since your last upkeep, [EFFECT]
Used in: Tesla, Consul Duel Deck, Suvnica Early Design
Tags: #Creature Keyword, #Ability Word, #Linear
----------------------------

Supplicate (Each creature you control which you put a -1/-1 counter on while casting this spell pays for 1 or one mana of that creature’s color.)
Used in:
Tags: #Cost Reduction, #Creature Keyword, #Spell Keyword, #-1/-1 Counter #Modular
----------------------------

Canister put a colorless Canister artifact token onto the battlefield. It has "T, Sacrifice this artifact: Untap target permanent. Activate this ability only only during your turn".
Used in: Tesla, Consul Duel Deck
Tags: #Modular #Tokens #Creature Keyword #Spell Keyword
----------------------------

Hostility — Whenever you cast a spell that targets one or more creatures you don’t control, [EFFECT]
Used in:
Tags: #Creature keyword #Ability Word #Modular #Linear
----------------------------

Arm (Put a colorless Equipment artifact token named Weapon onto the battlefield with "Equip 2" and “Equipped creature gets +1/+1” attached to this/those creature(s).
Used in: The Valla Wars, 20min Booster Challenge ,Netropolis
Tags: #Action Keyword #Modular #Creature Keyword #Spell Keyword
----------------------------

Corrupt (Whenever this deals damage to a creature, 1 of that damage is dealt in the form of a -1/-1 counter.)
Used in:
Tags: #-1/-1 Counters #Creature Keyword #Damage Modifier
----------------------------

Foreshadow [COST] ([COST]: Play with this card revealed as long as it's in your hand. You can’t cast it this turn. Foreshadow only as a sorcery.)
Used in: Esparand
Tags: #Creature Keyword #Spell Keyword #Modular #Mana Sink
----------------------------

Embolden — If you control a planeswalker or legendary permanent, [EFFECT]
Used in:
Tags: #Ability Word #Creature Keyword #Spell Keyword #Threshold Mechanic
----------------------------

Revive [COST] ([COST], Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a token that’s a copy of it onto the battlefield. Revive only as a sorcery)
Used in: Comic Book Set
Tags: #Creature Keyword #Modular #Tokens #Graveyard Mechanic # Mana Sink
----------------------------

Rebirth [COST]([COST]: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. If this dies with a +1/+1 counter on it, exile it instead. Rebirth only as a sorcery.)
Used in:
Tags: #Creature Keyword #Modular #Graveyard Mechanic #Mana Sink #+1/+1 Counters
----------------------------

Nightmare [COST](If you cast this spell for [COST], it isn’t a creature until you embody it.)
Used in: Dreams of Lyanar
Tags: #Creature Keyword #Alternate Cost
----------------------------

Revolution (T, Tap two untapped creatures you control: Transform all creatures with revolution you control. Revolt only as a sorcery.)
Used in: Tesla
Tags: #Linear #Modular #Creature Keyword #DFC
----------------------------

Weaken N (Choose a creature with the greatest toughness among creatures you don’t control. Put N -1/-1 counter(s) on that creature.)
Used in:
Tags: #-1/-1 Counters #Modular #Action Keyword #Spell Keyword #Creature Mechanic
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[Type] charged (You may tap an untapped [Type] you control as you cast this spell.)
Used in:
Tags: #Kicker #Modular #Linear #Tribal #Spell Keyword
----------------------------

Charge attack (T: At the beginning of your next upkeep, this creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Charge only as a sorcery.)
Used in:
Tags: #Modular #Creature Keyword
----------------------------

Wealthy — As long as CARDNAME is enchanted or equipped, [EFFECT]
Used in: 20min Booster Challenge
Tags: #Ability Word #Creature Keyword
----------------------------

Overwhelm — Whenever CARDNAME attacks and any of your attacking creatures aren’t blocked, [EFFECT]
Used in: Great Designer Search 2 (Breakout)
Tags: #Ability Word, #Creature Keyword #Modular
----------------------------

Retort [COST] You may cast this spell for its retort cost if a creature is attacking you.)
Used in: Overworld (Riposte)
Tags: #Spell Keyword #Modular #Alt Cost
----------------------------

Virtuoso — Whenever you cast a multicolored spell, [EFFECT]
Used in: AEnyr
Tags: #Ability Word, #Creature Keyword #Linear
----------------------------

Trance — [EFFECT] for each tapped creature you control.
Used in: Dreamscape
Tags: #Ability Word, #Modular
----------------------------

Mindtouch (Damage dealt by this creature also causes an opponent to put that many cards from his or her library into his or her graveyard)
Thought-Eater Neonate 2B
Creature - Vampire Rogue (C)
Mindtouch (Damage dealt by this creature also causes an opponent to put that many cards from his or her library into his or her graveyard)
3/2
Used in:
Tags: #Creature Keyword, #Modular
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Congregate (Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under you control, you may pay . If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
Used in:
Tags: #Modular, #+1/+1 Counter Mechanic
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Foreboding (The next time a creature enters the battlefield under you control, exile this card from your graveyard. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.)
Used in:
Tags: #Modular, #+1/+1 Counter Mechanic, #Spell Mechanic
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Manipulate (Move a counter from target permanent to another target permanent of the same type)
Used in: Serenta - Star of Strife
Tags: #Modular #Action Keyword
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Manalink (Damage dealt by this creature also adds that much C to your mana pool. That mana doesn’t empty from your mana pool until end of turn.)
Used in: Raksu Unchained
Tags: #Creature Keyword, #Modular
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Convoke Type bonus If CARDNAME was convoked by a CREATURE TYPE
Used in:
Tags: #Modular #Tribal
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Jinx [COST]([COST]: Exile this card from your graveyard jinxing target creature you don’t control. Jinx only as a sorcery.)
Used in: Kazundoo
Tags: #Creature Keyword, #Spell Keyword, #Alt Cost, #Graveyard Mechanic
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More to come.....

Discord Invite link:
https://discord.gg/Twc6FX2

Recently some members of the custommagic subreddit have started a Discord channel.
This is a great place to critique some custom cards, chat with other designers and receive quick feedback on your own cards.

Also the channel has been the site of a number of playtesting sessions for sets like Aeynr and Tesla.
For example here is a video of a game from an 8 player draft just a few days ago.

Discord for those who don't know is a great online chat room service, with powerful features like voice chat, making playtesting easy

Overall I like the themes of the set and I think they are the strongest point of the commons.

Overall comments:

• You seem to have a large number of 1/2's and overall the creature sizes are fairly small. I'd be interested in what your average P/T is.
• Some of the gold/hybrid cards seem a little conflicted in how much that want to support an archetype or even be very useful in draft.
• I really dislike the clunky tri-lands, for common something similar to gainlands is probably fine.
• White prowess is fine, especially in the context of this set
• You have way way too much lifegain at common
• overall the enviroment looks sluggishly slow and without the Eldrazi or mechanics like outlast to punch through in the lategame.

Card Comments:

• Araknis is totally fine as long as you have ways to overpower or bypass it at common. Rotting Mastadon was not an important card and I suspect is reasonably better.
• Book Pest - Fateseal still isn't fun
• Deepening Dementia - Having it always just mill you seems like a better imaginarium enabler right?
• Ensorcelled Instrument - This isn't ever being played. Is that the intention?
• Fearless Feline seems pretty damn pushed
• I really like Flamedancer
• Wouldn't High Road Bandit be way more interesting as a 2/1 without haste and that ability? Again you have so many 1/2's how do the games ever end?
• Moltenheart Elemental could be a 8/2 to punch through the spider? its a sad Cobblebrute currently
• I agree swiftstrike is probably a little too efficient for a cantrip.

Join Reuben Covington and Dan Felder for the sixtieth episode of Re-Making Magic, the podcast about game design and custom magic cards.

DIRECT DOWNLOAD
Podcast archive link
RSS feed
iTunes Channel
MTGcast page
Check out the Remaking Magic blog and ask us questions

In this episode:

• We return after our extended break due to Faeria and other commitments
• Episode 59 becomes lost to the void
• We talk in detail about the returning mechanics of Shadows over Innistrad
• Dan takes guesses at how these mechanics would be re-implemented while Reuben says how they ended up playing.

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

Turbojustice crushed it with his explanation. I just want to add 1 minor addition

A lot of the color pie is about Perception, you want blue to be perceived as the color with the smallest creatures? make it unable to have Grizzly Bears. You want to give the perception of white being the Weenie color, don't give it 6/6's at common.
What the DFC's cleverly do is make you associate the color bend of Insidious Mist to blue with the frame's color even though there is zero blue mana in the cost of the card. The majority of players are not color pie experts, its more instinctual. They can recognize if something is off but don't delve into it deeply. Because the perception of the card is masked by the blue card frame and amazing flavor there isn't the same instinctual wrongness as regular major bend or break in the color pie.

Join Reuben Covington and Dan Felder for the fifty-eighth episode of Re-Making Magic, the podcast about game design and custom magic cards.

DIRECT DOWNLOAD
Podcast archive link
RSS feed
iTunes Channel
MTGcast page
Check out the Remaking Magic blog and ask us questions

In this episode:

• Faeria, just entered backer early access and will be out to the public in early march.
• Reuben has been streaming on twitch
• We discuss the design behind faeria and our early experiences.
• Reuben highlights a game that was a tipping point in his strategic thinking that you can find here (Starts about 5 min in).
• Dan has made another video highlighting the tutorial design

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

Quote from DarthVedik »

Should this say 'cast it as a sorcery from the battlefield'?
Considering that when it's on the battlefield it has become a creature and is not a sorcery while on the battlefield?
Also, although the ability to cast a card from different zones works within the rules, casting 'from the battlefield' seems like a rules logistics nightmare.

I haven't been able to find any problems with 'cast form the battlefield', at the last judge conference(though the last one I went to was 2 years ago) we even discussed the logistics of a enchantment that let you cast creatures form the battlefield to repeatedly use etbs, there wasn't any real problem other than would people grok that the creature left and came back.

I came up with Clues five years ago.

Quote from CommanderZ »

Quote from Doombringer »

those other types are for the most part more minor things that are more specific to limited environments not any enviorment.
Other examples include "floating" cards, "sideboard" cards, and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head.

What's a Floating card?

Pirate Ship

...

To keep this tasteful and brief, all I have to say about all of this is Guitarweeps, one of my favorite designers on MTGS, is mocking(at least, that's what I'm getting) Wizards for their strange, out of the box ideas whenhe's "guilty" of the same.

blah blah blah, something about pots and kettles.

Honestly I could go point by point and argue against you here, but I don't think that'll be productive.

What I will say is that (completely in my own personal opinion) you're thinking about devoid entirely wrong. Devoid is not a mechanic the same way other mechanics are. It's just a way of identifying and marking out a certain number of cards that play a very key role in all aspects of the set. Honestly, they way you're describing devoid almost sounds like describing gold in Ravnica.

"Won't the gold frame confuse players and cause them to draft 'gold'?" Well, not really. There's a small amount of confusion at first, but pretty much everyone groks the frames relatively quickly, especially at the high as-fan that they're at in this set.
"But gold frames have colored mana symbols in their costs to identify them!" ...but so do devoid cards.
"There are too many gold cards and they're too easy to draft! Basically every player can draft some gold if they want to." Yes, because that's a major theme of the set.
"The gold cards reward you too much when you draft around them. Decks with zero gold cards won't show up at all!" Yes, because that's a major theme of the set.

Yes I know that you don't draft gold decks the same way you draft devoid decks, but the comparison still stands: they're special frames used to communicate information about a major set theme. They're supposed to be prominent in limited. Having them fail to do so would have been a failure of design.

Honestly these issues don't sound like issues. Maybe you're right about constructed, but the rest of these arguments really don't make a lot of sense to me. New players have been getting devoid just fine. Every devoid card is clearly Eldrazi so it's pretty obviously an "Eldrazi thing". Also let's remember that NWO is about keeping complexity down at common and nothing else. Devoid is not complex.

Nice to have you here Kingcobweb. I have no issue whatsoever with you writing about games. However, just as you see fit to acknowledge Maro's own position, I don't feel any issue with noting your lack of experience. I don't dismiss your articles or points because of your inexperience, that's absolutely irrelevant to whether your points are valid or not, I just noted that these are the kind of limited-view arguments that I commonly see from inexperienced designers or people that talk about game design without having done much of it (armchair designers). Correlation, not necessarily causation. I believe I also noted I could be completely wrong on your lack of experience, but was guessing at it based on what you were writing. Seems I wasn't wrong though.

We unfortunately didn't have time to go into the other aspects of your post. As it was, we actually recorded a podcast long enough that we ended up splitting it into two podcasts. The price issue made for an interesting discussion because it's emblematic of a common misunderstanding of the broader player experience. People tend to look at everything on the competitive level, or whatever level they personally focus on, and assume that's all there is. I'm sure the topic of mana variance will eventually come up (as Reuben and I disagree heavily on whether it's a good thing) but I deeply doubt whether we'll be addressing your other arguments. They just aren't relevant to what we're interested in for this podcast.

I bet the flight attendant has a dry sense of humor.

Quote from Ashiok »

Just to stress the point that one can talk in a different way without sounding necessarily old, I will briefly rewrite the conversations that I quoted:

"The man I used was Lazlo Lipko"
He sucked in a breath through gritted teeth.
"He is..." - Jace paused for a moment - "a problem for Ranvnica and its citizens. I was trying to find and contain him"
"There is no need for that anymore" - Liliana replied - "I've left his rotten corpse so destroyed that not even a golgari mage will find a use for his carcass" - she smikerd, as if proud for that particular accomplishment.
Jace sighed.
"This time I will overlook what you did" - he gestured with his hands - "I understand the need to twist some rules to achieve a goal... as I am guilty of that myself."

next one:

"Tell me what happened to Garruk" he prodded.
"Garruk? The man beast?" - she frowned - "There is nothing to say that I think you haven't divined already"
"Try me"
"He attempted to kill me over some stupid dead animal" she said "I defended myself and he got the worst of it. Now he is carrying a grudge."
"That is not what I was asking"
She blinked those ancient violet eyes.
"It is not?"
"Tell me about the Chain Veil"
"Oh" she said looking away "so that is what this is all about"

Last one:

"What a surprise to see you here old friend" - he said - "It is like time had standed still until I layed my eyes upon you once again. What fresh start do you want us to have?"
She grinned wickedly.
"We could start with a dinner"
He snorted.
She smiled serenely.
"Oh, I see... you actually meant that".
She grinned.
"Of course I did darling, I always mean what I say".

I don't know about anyone else, but me and a friend had read your version and it just seems too wordy. Not everything needs to be described to get the point across, if anything making everything longer will just complicate and bog down a story. Like with the first passage you've posted, it just seems incredibly awkward and long winded.

Yup, I'll probably be stealing Memetic Wastes design to test in Kolbahan! For Deamscape I'd probably test Twisted Tundra first, it seems the most suited to the format you're dialing in.

Impatience - 4RR
Enchantment
All creatures have haste, double strike and "at the beginning of your end step, sacrifice this creature".


Design Goal: To be a goofy red rare, mostly focused on Timmy players that like playing a card that warps the nature of the game and Johnny players that are looking for a puzzle to figure out how to use.


Thoughts?