Sure, I can add a text review of Sidekick here. Sidekick is a mechanic that has undergone substantial revision, but its essence is that it lets your team piggyback on/power up your spells.
Scouting Party1G
Sorcery (C)
Sidekick 2(You and/or your teammates may each pay an additional 2 as you cast this spell.)
Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped and shuffle your library. Then each player who kicked Scouting Party does the same.
Sidekick is another mechanic that gives your teammates options and help that only you can provide (presumably because you're the one with the card in your hand and in the right color). The present implementation works in regular magic, but obviously shines in and is intended for team formats. Scouting Party in particular is a good choice because mana screw is such an infamous "unfun" moment, and it lets green help its ally out of that bind.
As for some of the design decisions surrounding Sidekick, I've found it's important that the sidekick cost be equal to or one less than the CMC of the spell. This means that if cast on-curve a teammate still has the option to join in the fun. I also intend for Sidekick costs to be either generic mana or hybrid mana, for the same reasons Second Degree Burns wants to use hybrid mana. Developmentally, I think Sidekick itself is in a really good spot, but I'll admit that Scouting Party is probably overtuned - it's rampant growth + exposive vegetation + a new option without any penalty for the added flexibility.
Much like Bestow, Linger allows Auras to stick around after their host dies. It also still resolves to the battlefield if its enchant target isn't legal on resolution. It also comes on a custom card frame, so there's no confusion about why an Aura isn't attached to something.
Semblance of Power1B
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Linger (This stops being an Aura and loses its enchant ability if it's not attached to a permanent.)
Enchant creature
Creatures you control that are enchanted have menace.
Battle Preparations3G
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Linger (This stops being an Aura and loses its enchant ability if it's not attached to a permanent.)
Enchant creature
At the beginning of combat on your turn, enchanted creature and another target creature each get +2/+2 until end of turn.
Phoenix BoonRR
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Linger (This stops being an Aura and loses its enchant ability if it's not attached to a permanent.)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2, has haste, and must attack each turn if able.
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if Phoenix Boon isn't an Aura, attach it to that creature.
Back from the holiday hiatus, in this episode I discuss some key traits to incorporate in cooperative games to inspire camaraderie and review the submissions for the design challenge posed in episode 8.
Orzhov Epitaph3
Artifact (U) 2, T: Add CWB to your mana pool. "In memoriam of Teysa Karlov. She paid her debts and could not be raised. Donations accepted at Orzhova Church." - Memorial inscription
Yes, here is a fine place to post entries to the card contest. Thanks for the entries so far; both are quite interesting and have some good development lessons to learn from. I know the challenge involves an often unconsidered - and frankly narrow - design space to play around in, but keep 'em coming!
I've been looking for a mechanic that can fill a substantial amount of design space, and be a "flagship" mechanic for a set. Maybe not quite as present as Energy Counters, but close to that frequency. I'm hoping that Herald is that mechanic. Morph, manifest and megamorph won't be in the environment. Note that you still have to pay mana and other costs to cast the card to take advantage of the trigger.
Herald [a card]. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. When it dies, you may cast it if it's a nonland card.)
Glorious Portent1W
Sorcery (C)
Herald the top card of your library. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. When it dies, you may cast it if it's a nonland card.)
Calculated WarningB
Sorcery (U)
Herald a card from your hand. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. When it dies, you may cast it if it's a nonland card.)
Thoughtful Omen2U
Sorcery (C)
Scry 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom of your library and the rest on top in any order.)
Herald the top card of your library. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. When it dies, you may cast it if it's a nonland card.)
Brewing Storm3RR
Sorcery (R)
Herald the top three cards of your library. They gain haste. Sacrifice them at the beginning of the end step. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. When it dies, you may cast it if it's a nonland card.)
Esoteric Clairvoyance1G
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature deals combat damage to an opponent, herald the top card of your library. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. When it dies, you may cast it if it's a nonland card.)
In this episode of Cardography, I interview Oddsbod about his story-driven custom magic set Imago, and we explore how game designers can overcome the difficulties of telling a nonlinear story through gameplay.
This episode is also the first episode that has a design contest!
The podcast will be taking a two-week break for the holiday season, but over the break we're hosting a design challenge! Here's the situation you're designing for: You're working on a project similar to Oath of the Gatewatch, where part of the design goal is to support team formats. You're in the exploratory design phase and you're trying to come up with some cards or mechanics that would go well alongside Surge. Your challenge is to create a card or cards that makes use of the word "teammate" or "team" in its rules text.
In this episode of Cardography I interview Brett Meraw about his TumbledMTG project and get some insight into how designers should approach custom constructed formats.
Any time I see a designer starting on a new set, I always ask them what their design goal is. This podcast is a good way to understand the question and how to approach answering it if you haven't already learned about it. Hope it helps!
The latest version has been playing really well, and there's a lot of minor improvements I've been making over the past couple of days. Did a test with a Trap deck last night and learned a lot about their role in the format. I'll be updating again soon with a more polished edition, but I think the overarching redesign work is over.
@Legend, I'm looking for an opportunity to answer the questions you posed, but don't have the opportunity to yet. Soon I hope!
In this episode I talk with Martin Proud about mtg.design, the new Commander 2016 products and how designers can apply their craft to alternative formats like Commander.
Guest details:
Martin Proud of mtg.design
proudawesome on MTGSalvation
@Ancestral on Discord
After some extensive playtesting and even more extensive changes to the card file, I've got a big update for Magic Villains. The most major changes involve the mechanics suite. I tested four different versions of Hunt, and none playtested to a healthy standard. Unravel was a bit better mechanically, but it failed to deliver the flavor and feeling of being villainous. Fortunately I was also testing a cost reduction version of Unravel, which played very well and hit the mark on villainy. Without getting too much further into things, here's the changes to the mechanics suite:
OUT: Hunt, Unravel, Wither
IN: Frenzy, Possess, Torture
KEEP: Traps, Operate (Renamed Machinate)
Frenzy N (Whenever this creature attacks and isn't blocked, it gets +N/+0 until end of turn.)
Frenzy was discovered after much frustration and brainstorming what to do with the red-green Garruk faction. I knew I wanted it to be combat related, forcing players to engage in combat even in losing matchups. Each version of Hunt (and Provoke) tried to do achieve that end by directly forcing creatures into combat. Frenzy uses a more subtle approach, since frenzy creatures are more dangerous to a player's life total than to a creature's toughness. So far mining frenzy's design space has gone well.
Possess (When this creature enters the battlefield, it possesses target creature an opponent controls until either leaves the battlefield.)
Once I got rid of Hunt, I had a bit more complexity space to work with. Unravel wasn't playing as well as I hoped, and its alternative felt more at home in than in . We realized that the mechanic wants to really hone in on Ashiok's breed of villainy - The fear-inspiring shadowy character who uses your deepest secrets against you. Some discard and mill mechanics were considered, but were scrapped from the drawing board once we brainstormed Possess. Possess takes advantage of the complexity gap left behind by Hunt, and fulfills the sensation of villainy much more appropriately. Balance testing is yet to be finalized for this mechanic.
Torture (You can harm your creatures to cast this spell. Each creature you put a -1/-1 counter on while casting this spell pays for .)
Torture started out with a different name in and was an immediate hit. The designs were focused around creatures that gave you a positive spell effect whenever they were wounded, and the decision space was a high point for playtesters. On the other side of the table, though, wither players felt at a disadvantage - their creatures were enabling their opponents to beat them with what they thought was an upside ability. In some cases wither creatures were locked out of combat due to a simple Torture creature on the other side of the board. Wither felt like a filler mechanic, and with Possess filling in the mechanic and bringing in another "returning" mechanic for , it was time to cut Wither and let Torture take over.
The impact of such sweeping changes to the set file has been large. With the exception of white, each color has basically been entirely reworked. White managed to stay relatively intact, but still has significant changes especially at uncommon. The changes have been overwhelmingly positive - even as I was designing the changes it felt much more cohesive and on-point with the set's design goals.
As always, you can view the latest version of the set on PlaneSculptors.net or contact me if you want to obtain the latest version of the set file and get your villain on.
Yes! I'm still in the process of publishing to iTunes, Google Play Music and Stitcher, but if you have a feed reader you can stay up to date using this rss feed xml URL.
Scouting Party 1G
Sorcery (C)
Sidekick 2 (You and/or your teammates may each pay an additional 2 as you cast this spell.)
Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped and shuffle your library. Then each player who kicked Scouting Party does the same.
Sidekick is another mechanic that gives your teammates options and help that only you can provide (presumably because you're the one with the card in your hand and in the right color). The present implementation works in regular magic, but obviously shines in and is intended for team formats. Scouting Party in particular is a good choice because mana screw is such an infamous "unfun" moment, and it lets green help its ally out of that bind.
As for some of the design decisions surrounding Sidekick, I've found it's important that the sidekick cost be equal to or one less than the CMC of the spell. This means that if cast on-curve a teammate still has the option to join in the fun. I also intend for Sidekick costs to be either generic mana or hybrid mana, for the same reasons Second Degree Burns wants to use hybrid mana. Developmentally, I think Sidekick itself is in a really good spot, but I'll admit that Scouting Party is probably overtuned - it's rampant growth + exposive vegetation + a new option without any penalty for the added flexibility.
Semblance of Power 1B
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Linger (This stops being an Aura and loses its enchant ability if it's not attached to a permanent.)
Enchant creature
Creatures you control that are enchanted have menace.
Battle Preparations 3G
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Linger (This stops being an Aura and loses its enchant ability if it's not attached to a permanent.)
Enchant creature
At the beginning of combat on your turn, enchanted creature and another target creature each get +2/+2 until end of turn.
Phoenix Boon RR
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Linger (This stops being an Aura and loses its enchant ability if it's not attached to a permanent.)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2, has haste, and must attack each turn if able.
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if Phoenix Boon isn't an Aura, attach it to that creature.
Back from the holiday hiatus, in this episode I discuss some key traits to incorporate in cooperative games to inspire camaraderie and review the submissions for the design challenge posed in episode 8.
Podcast contact details:
Jake Mosby aka Piar
Email: CardographyCast@gmail.com
Orzhov Epitaph 3
Artifact (U)
2, T: Add CWB to your mana pool.
"In memoriam of Teysa Karlov. She paid her debts and could not be raised. Donations accepted at Orzhova Church." - Memorial inscription
Herald [a card]. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. When it dies, you may cast it if it's a nonland card.)
Glorious Portent 1W
Sorcery (C)
Herald the top card of your library. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. When it dies, you may cast it if it's a nonland card.)
Calculated Warning B
Sorcery (U)
Herald a card from your hand. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. When it dies, you may cast it if it's a nonland card.)
Thoughtful Omen 2U
Sorcery (C)
Scry 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom of your library and the rest on top in any order.)
Herald the top card of your library. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. When it dies, you may cast it if it's a nonland card.)
Brewing Storm 3RR
Sorcery (R)
Herald the top three cards of your library. They gain haste. Sacrifice them at the beginning of the end step. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. When it dies, you may cast it if it's a nonland card.)
Esoteric Clairvoyance 1G
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature deals combat damage to an opponent, herald the top card of your library. (Put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. When it dies, you may cast it if it's a nonland card.)
In this episode of Cardography, I interview Oddsbod about his story-driven custom magic set Imago, and we explore how game designers can overcome the difficulties of telling a nonlinear story through gameplay.
This episode is also the first episode that has a design contest!
The podcast will be taking a two-week break for the holiday season, but over the break we're hosting a design challenge! Here's the situation you're designing for: You're working on a project similar to Oath of the Gatewatch, where part of the design goal is to support team formats. You're in the exploratory design phase and you're trying to come up with some cards or mechanics that would go well alongside Surge. Your challenge is to create a card or cards that makes use of the word "teammate" or "team" in its rules text.
Guest details:
Oddsbod
http://www.planesculptors.net/set/imago
http://oddsbod.tumblr.com/
Podcast contact details:
Jake Mosby aka Piar
Email: CardographyCast@gmail.com
In this episode of Cardography I interview Brett Meraw about his TumbledMTG project and get some insight into how designers should approach custom constructed formats.
Guest details:
Brett Meraw aka Tumbles
http://tumbledmtg.wikia.com/
Podcast contact details:
Jake Mosby aka Piar
Email: CardographyCast@gmail.com
In this episode of Cardography I talk with Sebastian aka DeathByManga about why the color pie exists, when to break away from its rules, and more.
Guest details:
Sebastian - @DeathByManga on Discord
Podcast contact details:
Jake Mosby aka Piar
Email: CardographyCast@gmail.com
http://remakingmagic.libsyn.com/re-making-magic-episode-01
@Legend, I'm looking for an opportunity to answer the questions you posed, but don't have the opportunity to yet. Soon I hope!
@void: I'm surprised Rokujita doesn't want to partner up!
In this episode I talk with Martin Proud about mtg.design, the new Commander 2016 products and how designers can apply their craft to alternative formats like Commander.
Guest details:
Martin Proud of mtg.design
proudawesome on MTGSalvation
@Ancestral on Discord
Podcast contact details:
Jake Mosby aka Piar
Email: CardographyCast@gmail.com
OUT: Hunt, Unravel, Wither
IN: Frenzy, Possess, Torture
KEEP: Traps, Operate (Renamed Machinate)
Frenzy N (Whenever this creature attacks and isn't blocked, it gets +N/+0 until end of turn.)
Frenzy was discovered after much frustration and brainstorming what to do with the red-green Garruk faction. I knew I wanted it to be combat related, forcing players to engage in combat even in losing matchups. Each version of Hunt (and Provoke) tried to do achieve that end by directly forcing creatures into combat. Frenzy uses a more subtle approach, since frenzy creatures are more dangerous to a player's life total than to a creature's toughness. So far mining frenzy's design space has gone well.
Possess (When this creature enters the battlefield, it possesses target creature an opponent controls until either leaves the battlefield.)
Once I got rid of Hunt, I had a bit more complexity space to work with. Unravel wasn't playing as well as I hoped, and its alternative felt more at home in
Torture (You can harm your creatures to cast this spell. Each creature you put a -1/-1 counter on while casting this spell pays for
Torture started out with a different name in
The impact of such sweeping changes to the set file has been large. With the exception of white, each color has basically been entirely reworked. White managed to stay relatively intact, but still has significant changes especially at uncommon. The changes have been overwhelmingly positive - even as I was designing the changes it felt much more cohesive and on-point with the set's design goals.
As always, you can view the latest version of the set on PlaneSculptors.net or contact me if you want to obtain the latest version of the set file and get your villain on.