MTG Salvation

                In my last post I told the story so far, the history of the world of Cazia. You met the main characters of the story, the planeswalkers Maers and Belthak (I will tell their story in full in a future post). I introduced the last two cities of Keb, Acania and Kabah. It is these two cities I’m going to focus on in this post.

                The basic story of Cazia and the name Acania were two of the first flavour elements to come out of early exploratory design. I knew that the Ancient Egypt analogue, later named Keb, would be the dominant force in the world. But I also knew from my analysis of the desert/flood themes that Cazia block was going to start out ruined and desert-ridden (see Part 3). I couldn’t show Keb at its height, I had to show it as a collection of ruins and lost monuments. This fits the pop culture image of Ancient Egypt well, as seen in movies like Indiana Jones or The Mummy. At the same time this also provided fuel for the conflict between the various cultures (see Part 4).

                I initially imagined Acania as halfway between Memphis and Petra, struggling on despite the collapse of Keb due to its important role as economic and cultural centre. But what would give Acania the military and economic edge needed to actually survive? I’d already established the idea that deserts sap mana (see Part 1), it was a simple matter to go from there to oases and rivers providing mana. In real life Petra was an important stopping point because of its hidden oases, enabling trade through the region. Acania sits on one of the last great mana oases in Cazia. Control of this mana oases would need to be tightly regulated, both to prevent its depletion and for strategic advantage. But who would regulate (rule) the city of Acania? And what colours would they and their city be?

                The answer to both these questions was remarkably straightforward. For colours, Acania would have to be white. I’d already established by this point that nomadic traders were white (see Part 5) and the idea of regulated preservation is very white. However Acania was also heir to the kingdom of Keb, which practiced slavery and whose last ruler was a patron of dark magics. These two concepts are very black, as does the idea of a ruling class which controls the flow of water to the masses. Acania was going to be white-black and needed some kind of ancient ruling class with extremely long term interests. What fit the bill? Vampires.

                Vampires have been done as a major race a few times in Magic, but never in white-black. White-black fits the philosophy of vampires very well, the white ideas of preservation and order meshing well with the black concepts of power and control. The Acanite vampires were less brutal butchers and more careful shepherds of an enslaved city, a particularly sinister idea I enjoyed. Now how do I represent the vampric Acanites mechanically?

                The answer was already there, sitting in my early design notes. The vampires of Acania use sac-for-value magic, sacrificing their own citizens for gain (see Part 2). This is already a branch Magic’s vampires are known for, with the uniqueness coming from the different colour combination. The contemporary Acania was done, but how did such a city come to exist? Where did the vampires of Cazia come from?

                I’d already answered this question when writing the story of Cazia (See Part 6), making this next step much easier. The last pharaoh of Keb had transformed the ruling class of Acanites into vampires as part of his experiments with dark preservation magic. Considering how important Keb was in the history of Cazia, and my desire to increase the overall Egyptness of the world, I knew I wanted at least one more major remnant of Keb. Why not use the former capital, the sinking city of Kabah? I really liked the idea of the last pharaoh turning to dark transformative magics and in desperation using them on his own people. Acania was a white-black city transformed into vampires, but what was Kabah?

                Kabah was going to be black and have some kind of transformed populace. The question then became how was the populace transformed and what was Kabah’s second colour? The answer to this next question came from a rudimentary analysis of Ancient Egypt and Kabah’s place as the former capital of Keb. The key to Ancient Egypt’s success as a state was control of the Nile river delta. The Nile’s annual flooding would provide the nutrients for large summer harvests, and the labour force for large winter building projects. At the same time flooding limited the location of cities, they had to be close enough to the river to benefit (and be out of the sandy dunelands) but far enough away that the floods didn’t destroy the city. The biggest cities of Ancient Egypt weren’t in the delta itself, but adjacent (notable examples being Alexandra, Giza, or Memphis). But if you have magic everything changes. You gain the ability to build in the delta itself, as you can build fast enough and strong enough to resist the flood. Kabah would be such a city.

                Kabah was now a black city of transformed people built in a swampy river delta. You know what else you get in swampy river deltas? Forests and crocodiles. Egyptian mythology is full of gods and magical creatures which combine animal and human traits (there are theories that a lot of the Greek mythological creatures like Centaurs and Satyrs were Egyptian in origin, adapted to fit the Greek landscape). In an attempt to reconnect with their gods and strengthen themselves against the coming droughts the people of Kabah transformed themselves into a race of crocodilian humanoids. The second colour at this point was obviously going to be green.

                Acania was roughly finished and Kabah was well on its way, but I was having a lot of problems with the mechanics. It’s all well and good to say that being crocodilians is what made Kabah unique, but I wanted something more to differentiate them from black-green groups which had come before (such as the Golgari). Join me next time when I go through the mechanics of Kabah and the larger problem I was having with green in a world of deserts.

                Long ago, before he stars were born and the river still flowed, there was Cazia. Cazia shone like a great jewel in the cosmos, the rich mana oases fuelling a great society of plenty. The five pharaohs were generous and kind, sharing their wealth and wisdom freely. But something changed. One of the five pharaohs, greatest of their number, died leaving just a boy-king. This boy-king was not wise and not kind, but most importantly he was weak. He allowed evil to creep into his kingdom. Where once there was unity, there was now disunity.

                The five kingdoms began to pull apart, and the five pharaohs’ generosity disappeared. It was at this time that the river flooded lower than before, and it rained less than it should.  The harvest was much diminished and for the first time in a very long time people went hungry. While this drought was no true famine, it was a sign of things to come. Then the boy-king died leaving no true heir, only a sister. The kingdom was thrown into chaos. With no pharaoh there was no link to the gods. And with no link to the gods, there would be no rains. Sure enough the next year was the first dry year, not a drop of water fell on the dead boy-king’s kingdom.

                Chaos! Hungry beyond belief, with no clear leadership, and believed abandoned by their gods the people of the dead boy-king’s kingdom went to war with the other kingdoms of the four remaining pharaohs. Where once there was disunity, now there was war. This war lasted for over a generation, ending when the last city of the dead boy-king’s former kingdom was destroyed and its people taken into slavery. The kingdom that won, the kingdom of the slavers, the kingdom of Keb, demanded more. They resumed the war and destroyed the other three kingdoms. Where once there were five kingdoms now there was only Keb. Where once there were five pharaohs, not there was only one. This god amongst men ruled over a whole world. But still the rains would not come.

                The last pharaoh devoted his life to rstoring the rains and saving the world of Cazua. Fightig a world takes lifetimes and all men are mortal. Someday this pharaoh, god amongst men, knew he would die. He turned to dark magics in his desperation, to extend his life and allow his people to survive. But no matter how hard he tried the rains would not come. It wasn’t age, or war, or excess which killed Keb, it was drought. And it wasn’t age, or war, or excess which killed the last pharaoh, it was ambition.

                Killed in the night by an assassin’s dagger, the last pharaoh of Keb was laid to rest as he should be, as befits a god amongst men. His tomb was the last great monument of Keb, a mighty pyramid of white stone that shone in the bright sun of Cazia. But even that great monument has been lost to the progress of time. All that remains of the once great kingdom of Keb, the kingdom which stretched across the world, is the cities of Acania and Kabah. If nothing else changes they too will be lost to dust and all that once was will be gone. Cazia will truly be the dead world.

                It is into this world that two planeswalkers appear, Maers and Belthak. Maers and Belthak both come from the same world, and it was their meeting that ignited both their sparks and sent them to Cazia. Maers is a young bard, little more than a child, with a magical voice that can sooth any anger and melt any heart. Belthak is a dwarven cook, always on the hunt for the next great flavour. Their arrival has stirred something deep within Cazia. For the first time in a millennia the rains have come.

                In my last post I discussed how I incorporated the first culture of Cazia, the brawl-loving Fomori. Good designs build upon existing structure and successful concepts and provide a return on promised payoffs. The Fomori are such an existing structure, however they had little native mechanical identity. I told the story in my last post how I developed a mechanical and cultural identity for the Fomori and in this post I will look at the other great nomadic people of Cazia, and how I developed a core mechanical identity for Nomads in general.

                I discussed when looking at the Fomori that I am looking at the exalted-type, “whenever this creature attacks alone” group of mechanics. I think there’s still a lot of interesting design space here to explore, the idea of attacking tall rather than wide. It’s still in the early stages but I’m looking at including a ‘work together’ type mechanic for green-white, specifically green-white Nomads. A green-white nomadic culture like this one would be defined by their cooperation in the face of insurmountable environmental odds. Creatures would grant abilities to other creatures rather than having them themselves, akin to Outlast and the Abzan (although I would like to note that I came to this idea before Khans, although it was more of a vague notion than an explicit mechanic). This cooperative, trader branch of Nomads is part of a larger society of Nomads centred in white, the Sutaki.

                The Sutaki are Arab themed Nomads, much the same way as the Fomori being Jewish themed. They ride camels, they travel the dusty highways of Cazia’s deserts, and they are a deeply spiritual people seeking their true prophet. The Sutaki principally show up in white, representing the strict code of social etiquette and ethics a nomadic trader society needs to thrive.  The Sutaki have a deep reverence for their ancestors and their desert homes. The first part comes out in the Sutaki’s use of restore (see Cazia Part 2) while the second comes out in a close association with Deserts (the sixth basic land type I introduced in Cazia Part 1). Along with the ‘helper’ mechanic I loosely described earlier (I will go into more depth on this topic when I discuss the green-white archetype of Cazia, Deadworld), this gave more than enough for the Sutaki to be getting on with, enough to spread them to a third colour.

                As I mentioned in my last post, ideally each creature type should be mechanically defined in at least three colours and by this point I knew I had enough mechanics to push the Sutaki further. Looking at the other three colours, there was really only one best choice. By coincidence as much as design both major Nomad cultures, the Fomori and the Sutaki, ended up in red-white. By this point it was clear that any specifically Nomad tribal cards were going to be red-white (similar to how Warriors in Khans appear in four colours but are only tribal in white-black). But what mechanically would Nomad tribal actually mean?

                Real life nomadic peoples such as the Arabs or the Mongols were feared for their mastery of the camel or the horse as weapons, and respected for their use as beasts of burden. It should be obvious where this is going: the red-white Sutaki are masters of warfare from camelback. Fighting from camelback offers several key advantages, such as increased height over horsemen or infantry, speed and mobility, and the ability to dual use herds for combat and beasts of burden. Mechanically this can be represented with a simple aggro strategy built around haste. To make the strategy more unique, instead of gaining extra value from higher cost efficiency (read, lower mana cost creatures) why not get it from extra abilities such as first strike or vigilance? But was this really enough? I thought not so I turned to the other established parts of Sutaki culture, their cooperative nature and their strong association with the deserts.

                What mechanic combines cooperation, deserts, and red-white? I thought quite a bit about this problem, and the solution came from a rather unlikely source. I remembered a card from my early experiences with Magic, Dune-Brood Nephilim. While the Nephilim were a resounding dud (they were tonelessly bland ad incredibly out of place in a block as rich as Ravnica), I really like the idea of tying token generation to lands. More specifically, tying 1/1 Sand tokens to Deserts. Sand tokens are weak by themselves, but with the cooperation of a strong leader they can become a potent army. The separation of the Sand tokens from the Sutaki would additionally allow me to recycle their use for other parts of the block without colour or flavour problems. Red-white had a strong identity mechanically and flavourfully, without one stepping on the toes of the other.

                Taking a step back from the cards and looking at the creature type ‘Nomad’ from a broader perspective helped me to develop two interesting and unique Cazian cultures and provide a broad mechanical focus for two archetypes and the Nomad type. Far too often I see people on these forums jump right into the mechanics of card creation, especially when it comes to custom set creation. Taking a step back allows you to see the bigger picture and create far more evocative, meaningful designs. Magic has become increasingly sterilized since its early years. While much of this sterilization has been in the pursuit of a better game with tighter, more fun rules, a lot of the magic of Magic has been lost. I firmly believe that good design, great design, is about producing that sense of childlike wonder that comes from a story well told as much as from a set of cards which play well together.

                As GRRM said, every story grows in the telling, so sorry it’s taken this long to finish the story of the Nomads of Cazia (and honestly there’s a lot more to talk about). Join me next time as I finally introduce Cazia’s “Big Bad” and the central conflict driving Cazia, Deadworld.

                As I discussed in my first two parts in this series, ancient desert cultures fall into two broad categories. The ‘great warrior’ peoples are most clearly typified by the Jews and early Arabs while the ‘great builder’ societies by Ancient Egypt or Babylon. Part of modern Magic emotive design (A concept I will expand upon in a future post, as well as what I see as the stages of Magic design) is creating a unique identity for your world. This can be done with names, art, mechanics, or the type line (among others, really any set of knobs can be used to create character).

                The type line is an interesting creative space which every set throughout Magic’s history has used for identity purposes (Surrakar on Zendikar, Naga on Tarkir) or to create new archetypes (Centaurs and Minotaurs on Theros). With Cazia I want to do both. New unique creature types will naturally come about as a product of continuing design, so at this early stage I chose to look at existing types which fit in the world of Cazia. Ideally those types would have little or no real identity, giving me free rein to design how I want (for what I mean by creature types having mechanical identity, look no further than the green dragons of Tarkir. Normally green doesn’t get flying, but the nature of Tarkir means all colours need dragons and dragons fly). Both the Arabs and the Jews, among others, were principally nomadic cultures and ‘Nomad’ is already a type in Magic with little identity. Boom! One type down.

                Nomad was going to be a major type in Cazia, the question then became how. I felt the best place to start was by giving the type some preferred colours. White was my immediate first choice, both for the obvious relationship between the nomadic lifestyle and Plains and the fact that the majority of Nomads already in Magic are in white. There had to be a reason for such a strong correlation, but I fear, considering the age of the cards in question, that it was a simple thematic choice based around the obvious Plains-nomadic lifestyle relationship. However my search for colour couldn’t end there, as modern Magic tribes need at least two colours, ideally three, to really work well. I also felt that the idea of Nomads was larger than the flavour and mechanics of white would allow me to express. Red was the second colour I looked at, representing the wanderlust and passion for the land inherent in a nomadic lifestyle. Green is another potential colour, with a greater focus on nomadic cultures’ relationship with and reverence for the land around them. A quick Gatherer search confirms this line of thinking.

                That Gatherer search also gives Cazia its future-shifted card (and coincidentally the second card in the set after Dune): Fomori Nomad. The few Fomori we’ve seen (Ruhan and Nomad) fit the ‘great warrior’ culture perfectly. I decided to give the Fomori a Jewish (esque) background, both to embellish their sparse existing culture and to provide a cultural reason for colour conflict (peoples of different colours don’t just fight because they’re different. Oh wait…). The Fomori are a race of deeply spiritual giants who worship a fiery god of vengeance and order. This culture was born of centuries of slavery and subjugation by the established powers of Cazia. Fomori never submit to another’s rule willingly and are always ready to fight for their place and their due, they have a cultural obligation to compete with one another and with the other peoples of Cazia. Old or weak Fomori are pushed to the edge of society. However some do find a place as priests and prophets of their fire god.

                Mechanically the Fomori are a race of Giant Nomads, always on the move looking for the next great fight. Naturally Fomori are red with a focus on the fight mechanic. This pairs with their naturally bigger (giant even) size nicely. Fomori often find themselves having to go it alone, the temptation to fight with one another diverting them from their goal. These self-imposed lonely exiles ties into the Fomori religion being an eclectic mix of inconsistent prophecies from a variety of sources, only some of which is truly a product of the fire god’s visions. This is represented by the Exalted group of abilities, as seen on red giants before in the form of Lunk Errant. I intend to include a handful of cards with these type of abilities, but I find they work best when they show up at lower amounts (I will revisit this concept in my next post). This type of mechanic plus the organization needed to maintain a large body of religious works from multiple authors with the singular objective of codifying a set of life laws led me to the Fomori’s second colour, white.

                White is already well established as the principal colour of Nomads, a conclusion I don’t dispute. The high level of social understanding needed to maintain a functioning large nomadic society is very white (an idea I will expand upon when I write about what each colour means in Cazia). The historical need for the Fomori to organize and unify to overthrow their oppressors fits white very well, while the dissolution of that culture into squabbling and petty brawls fits red. Fomori are more than willing to fight one another giving the slightest provocation, but will drop everything if there is a larger threat to their race (I think it’s more coincidence than design that Giants have time and time again been placed in red-white, if you look at the Lorwyn giants they are fundamentally different from my Fomori but end up on the surface seeming quite similar. I certainly drew inspiration from the source material, but I’m not going to place a creature type in a colour just because that’s where it’s always been). This wasn’t enough, as I said earlier I ideally like all creature types to be thematically present in three colours. Considering the highly spiritual and prophetic base for the Fomori religion, the best tertiary colour for these Giant Nomads is blue.

                Blue Fomori are relatively rare, but have an important role as the priests and prophets in Fomori culture. The ancient world had little in terms of scientific understanding, replacing it instead with highly sophisticated and diverse religions (again I will come back to this concept of the nature of each colour in Cazia in a future post). While I hadn’t set out to, I had ended up with the Fomori in Ruhan’s colours. But what about the Fomori’s relationship to the other two colours?

                The Fomori most certainly have the capacity to be green, but the relatively short historical period since their emancipation coupled with the fact that blue, red, and white fit the Fomori better stayed my hand. It’s not impossible that green will get a Giant Nomad at some point in Cazia block, but it’s not explicitly planned. Now for the last colour. The Fomori absolutely despise black. Slavery is a very black concept, and all the black cultures I’ve developed so far are great practitioners (I will discuss the idea of slavery in Magic when I discuss these cultures I just mentioned). No Fomori will willingly serve a black mage, or become one themselves. The central tenants of black are directly opposed to the cultural core of the Fomori race.

                In writing this post I realised I had far more to say about the evolution of the various cultural groups of Cazia. Join me next time when I move onto the other major group of Nomads on Cazia.

                It was brought to my attention by Doombringer that I should be more explicit up front about my design goals and the nature of Cazia. I think in general design goals are unnecessary, but can be a useful tool to help explain your thinking to others or yourself. As such I was intending to hold off on stating the design goals themselves until they naturally came up, but I have had enough confusion when discussing Cazian mechanics in the past and with my recent post advertising this blog that I will answer Doombringer’s main question in full.

 

What is the design goal of Cazia?

                As I discussed in my first post in this series, Cazia came about as a result of exploratory design looking at what an Ancient Egypt themed block would look like. The key cultural point of Ancient Egypt was their relationship to the Nile. The Nile was lifebringer in an otherwise lifeless desert. It was also something to be feared, home to vicious wild animals and dangerous diseases, not to mention the flood itself. The Nile provided the excess resources needed to develop the level of cultural and engineering sophistication Ancient Egypt is famous for to this day. Any Magic set hoping to capture even a drop of this sophistication would have to establish the environment first and let the culture flow from it, not unlike a river (this idea of cultural environmentalism I will revisit when I start my discussion of the blocks following Cazia).

                With a two set block structure and a dual-natured environment the focus of each set was obvious: one set would focus on the deserts and the dry season while the other focused on the river and the wet season. With only two possible combinations it was a simple matter of trying both and seeing which fit better. If we put Nile theme first then the player gets a relatively “normal” Magic experience followed by a depressingly bleak one dominated by colourless mana and the deserts. The emotional impact of the change is lessoned, in much the same way that the transition from Act I of a story to Act II is never as powerful as the transition from Act II to Act III. But if we swap the order and have deserts as the focus of the large set we get a much more interesting experience.

                The desert set should feel stifling and limiting, creating an emotional response of desperation. That desperation, for things to return to the “normal” time of Magical Christmasland, drives the player and the story. The central design goal of Cazia, Deadworld is to create a feeling of desperation in the player. Cazia Restored has the opposite design goal, to relieve that sense of desperation and restore life to the play experience of Cazia block.

 

How do I achieve the design goal of Cazia?

                Desperation is a difficult emotion to express in a game, especially one like Magic. If the player feels the negative emotion too strongly, it makes the experience less fun (a pitfall Magic has seen before with Infect and Scars block). However if there isn’t enough pressure then the emotion is lost. The challenge is as much one of implementation as one of balance. Indeed the desperation paradox is really one for Development to solve, balancing the numbers to get the right effect. If Development is where the emotion is primarily going to be perfected and expressed, it’s worth looking at the tools Development has even this early in the design process.

                The first knob to look at is cost, or more accurately price efficiency (a concept I will go into depth with in a future post). Players should feel a strong desire to push up in cost, desperation to get bigger. This naturally leads to the second set of knobs, power and toughness. Magic is a game about creatures, and always has been (anyone who says otherwise doesn’t understand the game very well). Giving creatures on average higher power than toughness is an easy way to manipulate these essential tools of Development while the set is still in design. An environment where creatures have on average higher power than toughness means that creatures are going to be dying a whole lot more, making the player desperate for more creatures to stem the tide (I will expand on this idea when looking at the design of the colour archetypes).

                Card availability is another tool of Development that design can start playing with quite early. Availability affects all formats, Limited and Constructed alike, and is an extremely useful tool for making colours and strategies unique (I will discuss this idea further when I look at the size of formats and the Magical Christmasland epidemic). Players should not be able to have access to everything they want, indeed the less they have to work with the better. Things players take for granted in the various archetypes need not be present. This lack of “normal” abilities will serve to create a feeling of desperation in the player, and naturally force new ways of solving existing Magic problems. Not only does this line of thinking lead to the development of a more unique environment, it also serves to help define the role of each colour in the world of Cazia.

 

                Join me next time when I talk about what I promised in my last post, the creation of the first peoples of Cazia the birth of the “Big Bad”.

                In my last post I introduced my first custom set, the desert world of Cazia. I walked through the thought process I went through to create Ruin, a mechanic which represents the desert’s ability to destroy. In this post I will walk through the second (and third) mechanic of Cazia, representing how the people of Cazia respond to the harshness of their desert home.

                Deserts are a difficult environment to survive in. They require careful planning, toughness, and a fair amount of luck to succeed. Desert animals tend to be very unique, developing a variety of water saving and anti-predation tools, or as the hawk shows becoming a deadly predator themselves. Desert peoples in real life tend to mirror this dual-natured survivalism becoming great warrior peoples (like the Arabs or the Jews) or great builders on what little sustenance they can find (like the Egyptians or the Babylonians). However the harsh rule of the deserts means sacrifice is mandatory, no matter your cultural leanings. This theme readily lends itself to Magic, the terminology is even identical:

 

Sacrifice a creature or land: [effect]

 

                Sacrificing creatures for immediate advantage is a very common ability throughout Magic’s history, showing up in all colours in various different forms. By including the mechanic at higher rates and adding the “or land” clause I have created what is both a new variation on the existing theme and a unique mechanical character for the peoples of Cazia. In playtesting these types of mechanics played extremely well, creating an interesting way for players to expend their resources in the search of the ever elusive crown of victory. However this simple version of the mechanic had some quite glaring flaws.

                A single big misplay, especially one which involved multiple lands, tended to be overly punishing. It was too easy for a player to simple sacrifice three creatures and two lands to a Nantuko Husk only to watch the card get Shocked in response. I knew going in that including lots of sacrifice effects at common would be risky (at the start I had 8, one per colour plus an extra in Jund). However this proved too many. The vast majority of repeatable effects were pushed to uncommon or higher and pretty much every effect got some additional cost or rider to limit its abusiveness. This type of broad stroke development is extremely useful for identifying problems early, giving time to correct and underlining the value of early playtesting.

                The other major flaw of this basic form of sac-for-value (would love a new name if you have one) is its potential for blowouts. Simple combat tricks and removal are too good in the world of sac-for-value. If sacrifice was going to be a major theme both it and the combat tricks surrounding it would have to be limited in scope. Instant speed tricks and removal had to be intractable or preventable somehow, meaning direct destruction or protection was absolutely out the window (this decision regarding removal would have a huge effect on the balancing of the commons, leading to a couple of interesting subthemes I will discuss in a future post).

                It was at this point that I needed something more than just redesigned costs and limited removal to make sacrifice work as a mechanical theme, especially one which involved sacrificing lands. I needed some form of restoration or card filtering (perhaps both?) to provide players the consistency in card value needed to make for a less swingy (read: more fun) limited environment. Ideally I wanted something which could interact with the graveyard and passively increase the play value of sacrifice with a carrot rather than a stick. I had seen this idea years ago on this forum, and this seemed like the perfect place:

 

Restore a [card type] (You may put a [card type] from your graveyard on top of your library.)

 

                Extremely simple and something which already exists in Magic, Restore seemed like the perfect solution to my problem (note that it’s not the *only* solution, an idea I will discuss at length in the future). However restore has another, very difficult, problem: it’s boring. Restore is naturally low power level, not actually gaining you much in the way of value and oftentimes becomes completely unplayable. Magic has been doing restore for a long time (though pretty much exclusively in green) and a lot of the interesting design space has already been tapped. To try and make restore more interesting and allow for a dramatic increase in power level, I decided to severely limit the scope of the mechanic by colour:

 

White – The weakest restore colour (white gets enough mechanics already), white can restore enchantments and at higher rarities creatures.

Blue – The second weakest restore colour, blue restores sorceries and at higher rarities instants. I decided to split instants and sorceries to give blue and red restore more unique identities and to preview a theme for a future block (spoilers).

Black – The second strongest restore colour, black restores creatures and at higher rarities lands and planeswalkers (In a future post I will go in depth on black restore and the relationship of each colour to Planeswalkers as a card type).

Red – The third strongest restore colour, red restores instants and at higher rarities sorceries and creatures. While black is the second best at restoring permanents, red is the second best at restoring spells.

Green – The strongest restore colour, green restores creatures and lands and at higher rarities can restore anything. The ability to restore anything is already a green ability, I saw no reason to change.

 

                By limiting the ability to restore of each colour I was able to design cards which include restore as effectively a zero cost ability. It also allows me to increase the total amount of restore in the set without making limited stale due to too consistent card quality (which filter mechanics like Dredge and Transmute have gotten dangerously close to before). At the same time thinking about how to limit restore helped me to further define each colour’s identity in the set.

                Looking at restore and sac-for-value as two different classes of response to a desert environment led me to an interesting realization about the flavour of Cazia and what cultures might exist. One class of cultures would be far more aggressive, responding to the limited resources of the deserts with shows of strength, competing fiercely. The other class of cultures would respond with increasing reverence and reservation of their limited resources, becoming like the great builder societies of our own world. It’s no coincidence that the Pyramids were built in one of the harshest habitats an ancient civilization inhabited. This flavourful separation lends itself well to the colour wheel, with red and green naturally favouring the more individualistic, freedom oriented cultures of the first class. Meanwhile the colours of order (white, black, and green) naturally tend toward the ‘great builder’ class of society typified by Ancient Egypt. Join me next time as I continue to explore this flavourful separation and the birth of Cazia’s “big bad”.

                I’ve played Magic since I was a kid and I’ve always been fascinated with the idea that I can create my own cards. While most of my friends either stopped playing Magic or moved onto other games (notably Warhammer), I persisted with my designs. This blog will be both the story of my experiences with Magic and my fumblings at design which are now leading into my first true set.

                A logical place to begin would be at the beginning, but equally valid would be to begin in the now. Currently I have four custom blocks, each with two sets following a two year cycle of the new set rotation coming in autumn 2015. Each set is built around a core mechanical concept and a real-world flavourful location. I came upon the idea relatively early while brainstorming that each world would thematically lean towards one or more colours. Much of the early concepting for these worlds happened before the rotation shift, and I still like to think of a complete block as a Magic “year”:

 

Year One (Autumn-Winter): Cazia, Deadworld

                Cazia is a desert world, the life-giving mana floods no longer flow. Ancient evils lie beneath the sands in great tombs as the inhabitants of this harsh world struggle for survival.

                Cazia’s central flavourful theme is an obvious one which Magic will no doubt do sooner rather than later, Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian culture was defined by their relationship to the seasonal flooding of the Nile. The reverence with which the Egyptians regarded the dead and the resources which allowed them to express that reverence all come from the life giving, dangerous flood. When the dry season was in effect Egypt was a dry dusty region, society only a couple bad harvests away from collapse. Slavery and the strict relationship between the demi-divine royalty and their servants was a huge part of all ancient cultures, Egypt’s particularly well known as antagonists in the Jewish Bible. Egypt was also surrounded by similarly rich cultures each with their unique characteristics a product of geography and circumstance.

                When deciding the mechanical focus of Cazia I wanted to capture what made Egyptian, and by extension other ancient civilizations, so unique. I wanted to capture the dichotomy of the seasons, between dry and flood, coupled with the split in terrain between desert and Nile. The cultural division, between royals and servants, was a distinguishing feature of all ancient cultures but Egypt in particular. I wanted to include elements of the Bible and similar religious stories which have survived, both to achieve resonance with the audience and because I think there’s some decent stories buried among the religious elements. I knew I had to mechanically hit all these points:

• The desert
• The seasonal flooding of the Nile
• The demi-divine pharaohs
• The religious variety and turmoil of the ancient world
• The pyramids, tombs, and the afterlife
• The conflict between slave and master

                The first concept I tackled was the simplest, but would go on to have a huge effect on how I thought about the set. I needed some way to represent the desert and its oppressive ability to slowly destroy. At the same time I wanted to bring something new to Magic (note that new doesn’t mean original). What simpler way to represent the deserts than by making land cards which were deserts? Why not represent the ability to slowly destroy by giving players the ability to destroy each other’s access to coloured mana? These two ideas came together into my first design, a rather clunky adaptation of flood counters:

 

Put a dust counter on target land. (Land’s with dust counters on them are Deserts instead of their other types and have “T: Add 1 to your mana pool.”)

 

                I really liked the idea in principal and early playtesting proved that it worked in theory. However the execution was severely lacking. Having lots of counters on lands created messy board states with lots of opportunity for misunderstanding (and thus cheating/forgetfulness). Having lots of abnormal counters floating around also made it much harder to design cards which used normal token types, and was a severe drain on overall complexity. At this early point I wasn’t yet looking at how the mechanic fit into the various colours, but it was in the back of my mind that a mechanic like this could not be in all five colours. My second pass attempted to solve the counter problem, but created a new problem all its own:

 

Destroy target land. Its controller puts a Desert land token onto the battlefield with “T: Add 1 to your mana pool.”

 

                This version played much cleaner, but introduced the rules headache of land tokens. Land tokens seemed like an interesting space to explore, the first set having just Desert tokens while the second set had the other land types. I wanted to do something new and land tokens seemed interesting enough. This current version of the mechanic was unnamed and seemed more like a rider to “Destroy target land” than an actual unique mechanic in and of itself. One afternoon brainstorm session later and I had this:

 

Ruin a/target land (Destroy that land and its controller puts a Desert land token onto the battlefield with “T: Add 1 to your mana pool.”)

 

                The flavour of “I’ll ruin your last Island” was exactly what I was looking for. But something still wasn’t right. Destroying the land became abusable as I started to include more effects which cared about sacrificing and retrieving cards from your graveyard. While situationally it’s exciting for the best play to be to ruin your own land, this version of the mechanic (combined with Restore, which I will discuss at length when I discuss the other half of achieving the desert theme) was effectively allowing non-green colours to filter their decks for lands. “Destroy that land” had to become “Exile that land”. However this ended up having the opposite effect. Now simply bouncing one of your lands would destroy it. This wasn’t an issue within the set, but certainly in formats with powerful bounce or flicker effects the ability to abuse would be phenomenal. In order to push the power level of ruin to be Constructed playable something else had to change as well. Instead of land tokens, why not just bring in a new land from outside the game?

 

Ruin a/target land (Exile that land and its controller puts a Desert basic land card from outside the game onto the battlefield under their control.)

 

                Now this was all well and dandy, but Desert is already a card (whoever named that card was not thinking long term). My sixth basic land, meant to represent the harsh, sandy deserts of Egypt, needed a new name. Being a big fan of sci-fi, what better place to look than the original desert planet and inspiration for Tatooine? Dune is flavourful, simple, and accurate (this piece of naming would also lead me to RG’s surprisingly obvious archetype). I was also still encountering the mana abuse problems, leading to two final edits:

 

Ruin a/target land (Exile that land and its controller puts a Dune basic land card from outside the game onto the battlefield tapped under their control.)

 

                This is the current version of Ruin, representing the desert’s ability to sap strength and slowly erode the mana of your enemies. Next time I will look at the other half of developing the desert theme, surviving in such a harsh environment.

Part two of my complete Dragon's Maze set review.

Gold:
- Advent of the Wurm: Wow this thing is good. I'm calling it now, Selesnya-Bant is going to kick ass in standard. This is good enough that it may find a home in EDH, but I doubt it will be a must play.
- Armored Wolf-Rider: Limited filler.
- Ascended Lawmage: This has a good combination of abilities, decent stats, and reasonable cost that makes it stand out as a potential constructed card. EDHs which need hex proof, evasive creatures are uncommon, but they do exist so I wouldn't be surprised if this makes an appearance in a few lists.
- Beetleform Mage: Limited filler.
- Blast of Genius: I think if this cost 1 or 2 less it would be playable in EDH. However as it stands this simply doesn't do enough for 6 mana.
- Blaze Commando: A limited firehouse, potential high end of a RDW, this is a sweet card. As it doesn't trigger on dealing damage to players, it is also a very easy card to use. Certainly a card to consider in burn heavy EDHs.
- Blood Baron of Vizkopa: The first of DGM's ridiculous mythics, this creature does a lot. It has two relevant abilities, decent stats, an awesome secondary ability, all for the low low price of 5 mana. Considering EDH starts at 40, the first part of this bad boy's trigger shouldn't be too difficult. However getting someone from 40 to 10 is hard work, so I doubt how many times you'll get the +6/+6. Oh well, I suppose all you get is a 4/4 lifelinker with double protection.
- Boros Battleshaper: Master Warcraft on a creature. I don't think this is very good at 7, but people will still try to use it.
- Bred for the Hunt: An interesting additional copy of Edric in some decks. In a 100% +1/+1 counters matter deck this could easily win games.
- Bronzebeak Moa: Now this is a powerful creature. With an engine such as Ghave this turns into a whole lot of damage to the face. Totally worth considering in creature or token EDHs.
- Carnage Gladiator: 1 isn't a bunch, but it adds up. However this doesn't add up fast enough. Run it in limited, not EDH.
- Council of the Absolute: In a format with a well defined meta this can just wreck decks. The nature of the ability is better with multiples, so I'd say leave this one in your Constructed binder.
- Deadbridge Chant: Jumping jesus on a trampoline this is good. It does everything recursion heavy BUG and BWG decks want to be doing anyway. If you know your opponent has this card, leave up counter mana. An absolute must have for any EDH running black and green.
- Debt to the Deathless: Double Exsanguinate could be good, I don't know. Testing is required.
- Deputy of Acquittals: Flash and friendly bounce, both useful abilities in EDH. I think this will find a home in a deck like Jenara which already abuses ETB triggers.
- Dragonshift: This is a very interesting card. At first glance it seems like it would work best in a token based strategy, turning an army of 1/1s into 4/4 dragons. It would certainly be good there, but I think this will have even wider applications than that. Any creature heavy deck in both blue and red can benefit from temporary drag-insanity.
- Drown in Filth: Potentially useful, I think theres probably more efficient things you can be doing at 2-cmc for both removal and mill.
- Emmara Tandris: Wow this is a let down. It is a unique ability (Indestructible would be better), but it isn't really worth a slot when the whole card costs 7.
- Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch: This will make for an interesting EDH card, probably the best general of the DGM legends. Totally worth running in any black-red aggro deck.
- Feral Animist: A simple but surprisingly powerful ability. Activate it twice in a turn and you're swinging for 8. Activate it a third time and you're swinging for 16. Seems good, especially with +1/+1 counters or other power pumping effects.
- Fluxcharger: Limited filler.
- Gave of Granite: Potentially a 1-sided board wipe (nod to staple Pernicious Deed), totally worth a slot.
- Gleam of Battle: Too expensive for EDH.
- Goblin Test Pilot: Limited filler.
- Gruul War Chant: Madcap global enchantment seems cool, but I doubt it will hold up after a couple of weeks. Fires of Yavimaya is a similar, cheaper, red-green enchantment that is 100% more relevant and still disappears from many lists.
- Haunter of Nightveil: Limited filler.
- Jelenn Sphinx: Limited filler.
- Korozda Gorgon: Limited filler.
- Krasis Incubation: I'm very much looking forward to playing with this card, it seems like it will be quite strong in the slower DGM format. However I don't see any application beyond limited.
- Lavinia of the Tenth: This card is very strong. Detaining all your opponents' mana dorks and manafacts seems very good, not to mention she's got quite a reasonable body. Control decks in blue and white with access to bounce combos will no doubt abuse the crap out of Lavinia.
- Legion's Initiative: This is very clearly a card designed with constructed in mind. However that doesn't diminish how effective this card can be in EDH. Most Boros lists I've seen have a big problem with spot removal and board wipes. Legion's Initiative not only solves that problem, but also acts as a half-and-half Honor of the Pure.
- Master of Cruelties: The first of the ridiculous mythics spoiled, people have been talking about this card for a couple weeks now for good reason. This badass Demon sits there are blocks anything that doesn't fly, eventually getting in that critical "auto 1" attack. This card is one that will see immediate and continuous play as it is an ability clearly geared for EDH. Killing or countering this card will be an absolute priority.
- Maw of Obzedat: This is going to be great in limited, but will find a home in EDH I'm sure. While I've only recently started playing Ghave, such an ability seems perfect for giving you those last few points of damage needed to sweep away players.
- Melek, Izzet Paragon: This is unbelievable in any format where Sensei's is legal. Oh hey, will you look at that? Sensei's Diving Top is legal in EDH? Melek is going to be an awesome general or third Future Sight in many a list.
- Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker: While I think he makes a better mill general than Szadek, I doubt Mirko will find that much of a following in EDH. Just as aggro strategies are much harder in EDH, so are mill strategies, doubly so once you consider how much recursion is in the format. This card will be great in Limited, and may find a home in Constructed, but has no real EDH application.
- Morgue Burst: Limited filler.
- Nivix Cyclops: Finally straight Izzet is playable in limited. This card is going to be really good in limited, a top 3 pick I'm sure. Izzet EDHs will also probably want to play this guy considering how efficient he is at getting huge.
- Notion Thief: What an unbelievable ability, perfect for EDH. Oh your opponents' try to draw a bunch with Consecrated Sphinx? Nope. Brainstorm? Nope. This card is awesome, a must have for pretty much any EDH running blue and black.
- Obzedat's Aid: Its taken a while to get this effect at it's 'default' cost, but now we have it: the ultimate in recursion effects. Pretty much every white and black EDH out there will experiment with this card and for good reason.
- Pilfered Plans: In EDH you target yourself with this and it's effectively "draw four" for 3-cmc. That seems really good.
- Plasm Capture: Mana Drain is excellant, I'm glad it's getting reprinted at a fair price. I can't think of a green-blue EDH this doesn't fit in, an absolutely fantastic pick.
- Progenitor Mimic: Clone something, then get a copy of that something each turn? Seems like a sweet EDH card, playable in most Simic decks.
- Putrefy: A stellar reprint, already a staple of EDH. No doubt this will also rock Constructed and Limited formats.
- Ral Zarek: Finally. This is one badass planeswalker, full of potential. I'm not convinced of his viability in EDH (neither of his non-ultimate abilities are that amazing), but he will win Limited and Constructed games for sure.
- Reap Intellect: This initially seems not that great in EDH. However might I point out that you get to exile a bunch of cards from target opponent's hand, plus search their library to see what remains? This has application in Constructed as a potential game breaker and in EDH as a high value super-discard spell.
- Render Silent: Super counter is a a great EDH card. Run it if you have both white and blue mana.
- Restore the Peace: I don't see this being that good, but someone will try it.
- Rot Farm Skeleton: A creature that recurs itself by effectively drawing me cards? Seems good.
- Ruric That, the Unbowed: Wow this card is powerful. In the immortal words of Evan Erwin, Take 6!
- Savageborn Hydra: Finally a Hydra capable of running in Animar. Double strike on a Hydra is a massive ability, doubling the mana investment you just put it. The ability to put extra +1/+1 counters on this thing is sweet, allowing you to immediately turn it into the biggest threat on the board.
- Scab-Clan Giant: Limited filler.
- Showstopper: If this could hit players it would be an awesome combo piece. Since it can't it's a crappy Limited card.
- Sin Collector: Almost-Castigate on a stick is a great card. This has obvious application in EDH, potentially in Constructed depending on how the format evolves.
- Sire of Insanity: An awesome combo piece and hellbent enabler.
- Species Gorger: Very good stats for cost, plus a great 'drawback'. This may be too slow for combo EDHs, but more casual Simic and RUG decks will no doubt love this card.
- Spike Jester: Limited filler.
- Tajic, Blade of the Legion: This is a really cool card that costs too much. Very rarely will this actually be an indestructible 7/7 for 4. Much more often this will be an indestructible 2/2 for 4, which really isn't good at all.
- Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts: Cool combination of abilities, seems perfect for reanimator strategies, especially in creature heavy metas.
- Tithe Drinker: This card is amazing, perhaps the best common in the set. Easily first pickable in Limited, capable in Constructed, dunno about EDH. Extort seems good, but 40 life is a lot to get through.
- Trostani's Summoner: This is an amazing card. Coupled with some form of flickering, it turns into an incredibly efficient source of power. In Limited this is 10 power for 7 mana, easily worth a slot.
- Unflinching Courage: New Armadillo Cloak is cool, a sweet card for Voltron decks such as Rafiq.
- Varolz, the Scar-Striped: The potential for mayhem with this Legendary have already been discussed, easily a must have for any Golgari deck.
- Viashino Firstblade: An awesome limited piece, not so great in EDH.
- Voice of Resurgance: Oh you wanted to do stuff on my turn blue player? Sweet! This is an absolute must have for Constructed and Modern, a total bomb in Limited, and a perfectly fine 2-drop in EDH.
- Vorel of the Hull Clade: Aquaman to the Super Friends deck. Vorel has decent enough stats and a cool ability, making him a fun casual commander.
- Warleader's Helix: Oh baby this card is good. I can't really think of many red and white EDHs that wouldn't want to run this card. As Mike Flores talked about last week, this is going to rock in Constructed too, so pick up your copies quick.
- Warped Physique: Limited filler.
- Woodlot Crawler: Limited filler, potential Constructed applications.
- Zhur-Taa Ancient: This sort of ability is very dangerous in EDH, but here it appears to be a drawback. As such this is a surprisingly affordable beastie, especially if you reduce its cost further with something like Animar or Heartless Summoning.
- Zhur-Taa Druid: Additional mana dorks are never bad, especially ones that grind out advantage over the table.

Split Cards:
- Alive//Well: I personally think this will turn out to be one of the strongest new split cards. Quite quickly this can gain you 4 or 6 life for 1 mana, or later turn into a 3/3 creature. One of the most obviously synergistic fuse cards, I also think its very well designed.
- Armed//Dangerous: This will be good in Limited, primarily for double strike. Lure is an interesting ability, especially when paired with double strike. I doubt this will see competitive or EDH play.
- Beck//Call: This is an awesome card, but I'm not really sure what deck will run it. Beck functions as an additional Glimpse of Nature, fusing wonderfully with Call. A card to look at for Bant decks.
- Breaking//Entering: This is incredibly strong, milling lots of cards then getting something big back with haste is awesome. I'm going to run this in my Grixis deck.
- Catch//Release: Each side of this card does something interesting in EDH, so it's worth running on that note. However fused this is a total blowout. Steal a land with Catch, then Release kills two of their lands plus sweeping a big chunk of the board.
- Down//Dirty: The two halves of this card don't fuse well together (they don't interact at all), but the utility of both abilities makes this card worth considering.
- Far//Away: By far and away the best of new split cards, Far//Away has immediate value as decent removal and a two for one when fused.
- Flesh//Blood: Flesh is the more interesting half of this card, as it allows you to turn your opponent's graveyard resources against them. Blood is decently strong removal, making a fused Flesh//Blood a pretty tough card to beat.
- Give//Take: This card is amazing. Give is a very reasonably costed version of that ability, but Take is the all star. Take can easily refill your hand in many Simic decks, especially ones with +1/+1 counters matter sub themes.
- Profit//Loss: This is a very lackluster split card, as the effect has already been done on a gold card before called Zealous Persecution. This is a much more expensive version of the effect, making me wholly unimpressed with this card's usefulness.
- Protect//Serve: This is a much stronger combat trick than Profit//Loss, allowing you to kill an opponent's creature without losing yours (twice if fused), or prevent your death by something scary.
- Ready//Willing: This is a cool set of abilities, at a very reasonable cost. I suspect this may have the most Constructed application of all the rare split cards, looking at the use of cards such as Boros Charm and Azorius Charm.
- Toil//Trouble: This has two abilities already proven to be useful in EDH. I think the addition of fuse makes this card worthwhile as a possible new trick for Rakdos.
- Turn//Burn: Mike Flores discussed this card's Constructed application in depth on the Mothership when it was first revealed. As EDH has even more ridiculous creatures out there than Constructed, I'm sure this will find a home.
- Wear//Tear: Sometimes simpler is better; this is easily one of the best fuse cards. EDH is full of your opponents' artifacts and enchantments that just need to die, this accomplishes that at a very reasonable price in a new combination of colors.

Artifacts:
- Cluestones: These are very weird mana rocks. However their presence enables way more drafting strategies. I suspect the cycling was added to counteract the higher value of artifact destruction.

Lands:
- Guildgates: Guildgates being at Basic is going to make this a very interesting draft format, enabling so many new strategies and color combinations.

Phew that took a while. I hope you enjoyed my full set review of DGM, feel free to post comments below.

This is my first set review. As I have been working towards making more competitive EDH decks I thought I'd share my opinions on this new set, primarily for EDH.

White:
- Boros Mastiff: While this is a great limited card, I see very little EDH application.
- Haazda Snare Squad: Limited filler.
- Lyev Decree: This is a fantastic detain card, potentially with EDH application in pauper or budget.
- Maze Sentinel: Vigilance isn't that great, neither is 6-cmc.
- Renounce the Guilds: There are always plenty of multicolored creatures in EDH games, this will almost always hit two or three permanents. Good in most white EDHs, especially monocoloured ones.
- Riot Control: Limited filler.
- Scion of Vitu-Ghazi: This is great in limited, may even find a home in constructed. No major EDH application.
- Steeple Roc: Limited filler.
- Sunspire Gatekeepers: Limited filler.
- Wake the Reflections: Potentially good in limited and maybe constructed.

Blue:
- AEtherling: Wow this thing is cool! Super Morphling is going to be great in most blue EDHs, especially those with lots of mana that can abuse the flicker and other abilities. Of my EDHs I could see myself running this in Thraximundar as a high power, difficult to handle creature.
- Hidden Strings: Cipher just went from bad to great. This has numerous applications from tapping opponent's stuff to getting double usage out of your stuff. Artifacts and creatures with powerful tap effects seem like the obvious first choice with a card like this, but might I point to the humbler Karoos? Suddenly this turns into a blue 2 for 4 ritual. This is definitely going into Thraximundar, probably Rafiq and Animar too.
- Maze Glider: Limited filler.
- Mindstatic: This has application as an effectively hard counter that doesn't require UU. Certainly useful in Pauper or Budget, probably not in regular EDH.
- Murmuring Phantasm: Limited filler.
- Opal Lake Gatekeepers: Limited filler.
- Runner's Bane: Limited filler.
- Trait Doctoring: Another amazing Cipher, with numerous EDH combo applications. Plus it makes the Magic turning machine easier.
- Uncovered Clues: Draw two instants or sorceries, or just dig four. Seems great in Limited or Constructed, maybe less application in EDH.
- Wind Drake: Limited filler.

Black:
- Bane Alley Blackguard: Limited filler.
- Blood Scrivener: I still haven't made up my mind on this guy. He's either an unbelievable combo piece, decent constructed power, or crap. This guy will require significant testing before being I can make up my mind.
- Crypt Incursion: This may be good, it may be filler. Graveyard hate is always good in EDH, primarily because of degenerate creature recursion strategies. Needs testing.
- Fatal Fumes: Limited filler.
- Hired Torturer: Limited filler.
- Maze Abomination: Limited filler.
- Pontiff of Blight: Extort has already proven to be a capable mechanic in limited, constructed and EDH remains to be seen. No matter the actual power this card will be fun to play with.
- Rakdos Drake: Limited filler.
- Sinister Possession: Limited filler.
- Ubul Sar Gatekeepers: Limited filler.

Red:
- Awe for the Guilds: Limited filler.
- Clear a Path: Limited filler.
- Maze Rusher: Limited filler.
- Possibility Storm: Another crazy random red enchantment, I don't see this one being that good.
- Punish the Enemy: Limited filler.
- Pyrewild Shaman: This is amazing, with definite constructed and limited application. I doubt many EDHs will be able to abuse this card, but it's still cool.
- Riot Piker: Limited filler.
- Rubblebelt Makka: Now this is an interesting common, a great limited and constructed animal. I could see myself using this in EDH.
- Smelt-Ward Gatekeepers: Limited filler.
- Weapon Surge: Limited filler.

Green:
- Battering Krasis: Another cheap evolve creature, good in limited, not in EDH.
- Kraul Warrior: a 2-cmc 2/2 with a relevant ability is always great in limited, but not in EDH where its ability is crap.
- Maze Behemoth: Limited filler.
- Mending Touch: Limited filler.
- Mutant's Prey: Limited filler.
- Phytoburst: Limited filler.
- Renegade Krasis: I'm looking to try this bad boy out in Animar, it seems good in a +1/+1 counters matter deck.
- Saruli Gatekeepers: Limited filler.
- Skylasher: Clearly a constructed card, I don't see this being that relevant in EDH.
- Trashing Mossdog: Another very reasonable Scavenge, great in limited, no other application

The rest will come in a second part.

Proxies are a very divisive issue in the Magic community. In my experience most players don't like them, especially when their opponent's proxy good cards. A common phrase I hear goes something like "You didn't win, you had proxies". I would argue the exact opposite. If a player is willing to proxy that means they must have put effort into their deck, but have come up short when picking cards out of their collection. If anything I consider proxies a sign of a good player, one who is willing to sacrifice the respect of their peers and suffer the grumblings to win games.

Often times the proxies I see don't result in a better deck, but a more optimized one. Most often optimizing a deck means tightening up mana bases, cutting irrelevant duplicates, and playtesting, playtesting, playtesting. However with the rapidly rising cost of our game playtesting requires the use of quite expensive pieces of cardboard, especially in formats such as EDH or Standard. Some formats only open up once you pay 500 dollars for a mana base, and that only gets you two colours. Wizards has made great strives to make the game more accessible to newer and younger players, this summer's upcoming Modern Masters an excellent example of this. But many staples of yesteryear will never be printed again due to the arcane Reserved List and Wizard's modern understanding of the colour pie, plus a little thing called game balance. Even new cards quickly hit extraordinary high prices (remember when Boros Charm was 10 bucks?). Due to the extremely high price of the game I find no issues with proxies, especially when playing expensive formats.

Now many of you will question the right to proxy considering it is banned in competition. But let me counter by pointing out what would happen if proxies weren't banned. Tournament attendance would no doubt soar as every Magic player ever would have a competitive deck. However the actual amount of product Wizards is shifting (which has hit record highs these past few years) would no doubt drop. Wizards is a company, and cutting their gross would severally affect their profits and the long term survivability of Magic. Therefore to continue to ban proxies at competition is a necessary evil to continue the viability of the game as a product, not a design to quash the integrity of proxy users.

Magic is a game, and games are ultimately about winning and having fun doing so. Some games (not Magic) don't even care about winning or force players to cooperate against some game controlled enemy (sometimes Magic). Proxies allow players to play whatever deck they want outside of the competitive scene, increasing the fun to be had. Instead of having to suffer agonizing weeks of suboptimal performance while looking for that elusive Scalding Tarn, that player can simply cut a notecard in half and return to the game a stronger, and more interesting, opponent.

I hope you enjoyed my essay, feel free to continue the discussion below.

In the wake of several decent sci-fi films this summer I thought it would be appropriate to create a list of what I consider to be the best science fiction films out there. This list is no where close to being comprehensive, but I will improve it as time goes on. In its current form this list will only feature modern films (full colour and sound). First things first lets talk about what is science fiction. The definition I will be using for a science fiction film is a film which uses some form of technology to say something about contemporary society. This is opposed to fantasy which seeks to tell a story in a fictional reality. Now to the list.

1) Blade Runner - Without a doubt the greatest modern science fiction film. Blade Runner tells the story of a man chasing biological super androids who are running rampant through a future LA, looking for some way to beat their inevitable shut down date.

2) 2001: A Space Odyssey - While some may question the quality of this film, it has endured as one of the great science fiction films. When the super computer intended to guide their ship to the edge of the solar system goes insane, two astronauts must work together to survive.

3) Alien - A testament to Ridley Scott's ability is that two of his films are unavoidable when discussing science fiction. When the crew of a industrial space freighter pick up a distress signal they release something terrible aboard their ship.

4) The Matrix - Unashamedly praising of Blade Runner, the Wachowski's masterpiece is a tense thriller. Facing a boring day job hacker Neo is a master online, but how far down the rabbit hole will he go?

5) The Terminator - One of the greatest action movies ever, the Terminator endures as the reason robots are scarier than any alien or zombie. A mysterious man arrives in a flash of light hunting one person, allowing none to stand in his way.

I am using this blog to publish a rough draft of my five block cycle. Each set will come in several parts discussing various elements of the set. In this first part of X13 (The first core set of my cycle) will discuss the basic structure of the five block cycle and possible returning mechanics for core sets throughout the cycle.

As previously mentioned, I am planning an ambitious five block cycle of custom Magic sets and stories. My objective is to take the large amount of custom designs I have acquired (some from me, some from friends, some from the forums) and place them into a shifting Standard format, accompanied by a multi-block story. This project will also serve as a lesson in design and development of not just Magic, but games in general.

The cycle will begin with and end with a core set, using X in the place of M for the numbering system. Each block will be a large set plus an undetermined number of other sets of variable size. Each “summer” in-between blocks will feature a core set, exactly the same as Wizards’ release schedule. There will be two duel decks, a premium series deck, and a multi-player series each “year” to simulate the rerelease of cards for Modern and casual formats.


X13 will be the first core set in the cycle, introducing five new Planeswalkers and a returning mechanic focused on mana. This covers a very broad range of mechanics, from the simplicity of Kicker, to the powerhouse of Buyback and on. I have not yet decided what mechanic I will actually use, but I have created a short list. Please feel free to comment on ideas for mechanics, or opinions on the mechanic I should decide. Here’s the list:
- Kicker: Simple, to the point, and incredibly flexible.
- Echo: A great mechanic from Urza block. Echo encourages a deep assessment of the actual value of a card, something which may be lost on a beginner.
- Buyback: The constructed king of mechanics. However it is just Kicker, plus it tends to be very powerful.
- Entwine: Choices are great. However this mechanic would require a lot of complex commons.
- Multicolour: Instead of a returning keyword, simple multicolour cards. The focus would be on allied colour, with cards designed to exemplify each colour pair.
- Convoke: Continuing the legacy of great Ravnica mechanics in core sets.

There are many other mechanics I have considered for the core sets, but to tie in with the first block X13’s mechanic will most likely draw from this list.

Please post with comments and suggestions for X13. What mechanic would you choose?

Here is part 2 of my discussion of why Vanilla cards are important for the game of Magic. Read part 1 here.

In my previous post I discussed the importance of Vanilla creatures to Magic, as a design tool, an introductory element, and as a simplifier for limited formats. Here I aim to tackle Virtual Vanillas, French Vanillas, and what I call Vanilla Spells. First let me begin by defining what I mean. Virtual Vanillas are creature which have an enter the battlefield effect, but once on the battlefield act like regular Vanillas. French Vanillas are creatures with one or two basic keywords. This does not include set mechanics nor activated abilities. Vanilla spells are the basic spell effects which we see time and time again in every core set and just about every expert level expansion.

In one of his most recent articles, Mark Rosewater discussed the issue of complexity creep on the game of Magic. What he meant by that is the tendancy for the game to get more complex as time progresses. Looking back it is clear to see this in blocks such as Ravnica, Time Spiral, and Lorwyn. In order to combat this complexity creep (complexity creep is bad because it increases the barrier for entry into the game and into new sets), MaRo talked about how the Magic design team have made commons simpler and higher rarities more complex. We can see this on cards such as Maw of the Mire and Trepenation Blade from Innistrad. But what does this have to do with Vanillas? Everything! Vanilla elements completly counteract complexity creep; there is literally nothing simpler in the game of Magic. Virtual Vanillas allow Magic designers to make interesting creatures with powerful abilities without comprimising the complexity of the game much. Rune-Scared Demon and Sphinx of Ulthuann, two competative-level cards, are nothing more than Virtual Vanillas. From just these two cards it is clear the depth of design, and this play, to be found in Virtual Vanillas. French Vanillas are an extension of this concept, but instead of having an ability when they enter the battlefield, they have an ability while they are in play. But the simple nature, and constant reoccurance, of these abilities prevents them from making the game difficult to understand and interpret.

The depth of design inherant in Virtual Vanillas and French Vanillas extends to their non-permanent cousins, Vanilla Spells. Vanilla spell effects, many which date back to Alpha and Beta, have enormous depth. This can be seen most clearly with the Shock vs Lightning Bolt debate. Are they both fair cards for R? Yes. Is either too powerful or not powerful enough? No. So then why do they both exist? And herein lies the power of Vanilla Spells. Why do both Shock and Lightning Bolt exist? Because the game is better for having the option of choosing one or the other for any given format. Vanilla Spells have this attribute of intense depth, but they also have the feature of simplicity and common understanding that they share with other Vanilla cards. Everyone understands Shock and Giant Growth, so when some competative player says "Oh its just another Giant Growth," about this years Titanic Growth, even new players understand.

I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. Any suggestions or thoughts are welcome, just leave them in the comments. Thank you for reading!

I, like most people, like ice cream. I like the cold, gooey, creamy, nutty varients. But my favourite flavour is vanilla. I like vanilla because it has no strings attached, it is just ice cream. I think the same attitude can be applied to Magic, both in gameplay and design.

As vanilla is the cornerstone of the ice cream industry, so are Vanilla cards the cornerstone of Magic. But before we get into what I mean by that statement, let me explain my terms. By Vanilla I mean any card that is simple enough to be understood at a glance or one read through. Magic already has three categories for what I would describe as Vanilla Creatures: True Vanilla, Virtual Vanilla, and Vanilla Plus. But I would argue that the term "Vanilla" can be applied beyond just creatures. Doesn't everyone know what Giant Growth does? Does that make it "Vanilla"? I say yes. Basic spell effects which show up on a regular basis (Counter, Giant Growth, Shock, Unsummon, and so on) are all Vanilla Spells. Now that you understand what I'm talking about when I say Vanilla, we can move on.

Vanilla Creatures are incredibly important to Magic. They provide a method to create simple, easy to understand limited fodder; they allow new players to focus on the more interesting cards they have; and they provide a basis for creating Virtual Vanillas and Chocolate cards. Any good limited player knows that a Vanilla can be a whole lot more than just the sum of its parts. It can attack, it can block, it can be sacrificed to big Demons. Magic needs its Vanillas so that the limited player has access to simple, but still useful, cards. As Mark Rosewater is oft to repeat, Magic is a complex game with a high learning curve. Vanillas are not just easy for an experienced player to understand, but also a new player. The ability to ignore the vast amount of text boxes allows a new player to focus on the text boxes that really matter, those of their Sphinx of Ulthuan or Rune-Scared Demon. Thus it can be seen that the most obvious, and arguably most important, role of Vanillas is to be simple cards that can still be relevant in the overall scheme of the game. The other side of Vanillas is their value to a Magic designer. Magic is a very very difficult game to design well, and having access to a set of cards that anyone who plays the game can understand is crucial. The Magic designer can use the tool the Vanilla provides to build interesting cards without breaking the game in any way.

I have to go now, but I will update and edit this blog soon, finishing with my discussion of the Virtual Vanilla and Vanilla Spells.

This deck is based off the decklist seen on the Magic website a couple of weeks ago, using Heartless Summoning to crank out Rune-Scared Demons on the cheap. This is my variation on that deck.


The deck's basic goal is to get out a Heartless Summoning, using its excellant removal suit to keep the board clear till it can get to 5 mana. From there you can then cast Rune-Scared Demon, searching another Rune-Scared. On 6 mana, Rune-Scared can be cast into Phyrexian Metamorph, copying the Demon, netting you two 5/5 flyers in one turn. This deck's big weakness is consistent board advantage from cards like Moorland Haunt and Inkmoth Nexus. The Ghost Quarters and sideboard Gut Shots are there to handle such threats. Overall this is a very tight control deck, with 10 pieces (!) of maindeck removal plus Mana Leaks, with wins off a horde of 5/5 flyers or a well timed Massacre Wurm.

This deck has a hard time against the aformented board advantage lands, but also other huge flying threats such as Angelic Destiny. Other control decks can also be an issue, but that is where the Frost Titan's come in. They can hit the battlefield for 4 with a Summoning out, letting you squeze in precious attacks with your flyers. I am still considering swapping out the sideboard Black Sun's for extra counters in the control match up.

Tell me what you think in the comments!