MTG Salvation

Quote from Svennihilator

Design Philosophy and Development

First and foremost, I like slow limited formats. I draft online almost every day and if there's a limited GP or PTQ I'll go out to play in it. I still design with constructed in mind but a lot of my goals are to make a solid limited format. If you take a look at what competative players tend to say are the best limited formats in Magic you'll get answers like Onslaught block, Time Spiral block(New players didn't enjoy it not because it was slow, but because of complexity), or Rise of the Eldrazi. All three of these formats are very slow and share common elements that make them this way. The four most common ways to slow down a format are common creatures with high toughness, which we already have, creatures with expensive activated abilities, cheap but situational removal and expensive but high-impact removal. My goal in this final round and in the time after is to try and slow the set down so that games last long enough to play them and so that there are a variety of interesting archetypes to try each time you play.

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New Cards

First up is Angelic Favor. Looking at the set, we have zero white commons above CMC 4. That's something that definitely needs to change after the contest and I tried to take the first step with Angelic Favor. It's either a mediocre removal spell or a way to end games.

Seal of Endurance is somewhere between 23rd card and amazing depending on the board state. Before Rootborn Defenses I would have said this card should be uncommon, but it seems like Wizards is okay printing this effect at common.

Tidal Sphinx plays an interesting role in this limited format. On the one hand there are a lot of tokens you can eat for free each turn and you can set up constant ETB effects, but at the same time if your opponent has ETB effects or if Sphinx is your only creature then you're in for some sad times.

Water Tyke is my favorite of the bunch. I was quite surprised to find that this effect hasn't been done before on a one-drop and it plays quite well with the monocolor theme. Even if you never pump it and it sits around as a 0/3 you still stop bears for a while. It also plays well with Ninjutsu should there be a need for aggressive blue creatures come Kamigawa.

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Lands

These were easily the hardest designs I had to make during the entire contest. I had nine different ideas and each had their pros and cons, but ultimately I went with the Radiant cycle. There were three major hurdles I had to jump over. The first was that we have a decently-sized monocolor focus, but the lands were specifically reserved for duals. The lands somehow had to play better knowing the decks would be leaning towards a base color with a splash. The second hurdle was that the lands needed to come into play untapped, or at least have the ability to. With Kamigawa and the "return lands to hand" mechanic confirmed as returning, bouncing lands that came back into play tapped seems like the least amount of fun I can imagine. The last and ultimately largest hurdle was NWO's newest policy on dual land cycles. If a dual land cycle is to appear, all ten combinations need to be present. This is a problem because we only have five slots. So somehow these five lands need to be more splash focused rather than traditional duals, they need to have the ability to enter the battlefield untapped, they have to cover all ten color combinations and yet somehow still have to be elegant because this is Core.

Sounds easy, right?

Radiant Field
Land [Rare]
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if you control a Plains.

Promotes monocolor with a splash: Check. These lands require a threshold of their respective land type. You can't run four of these and four of the blue one because you can't reliably draw both a plains, an island and these duals. A hand with two islands and the white dual, Radiant Field is just worse than if you had two islands and a plains. The lands actually get worse beyond two colors, which is where this set wants them to be. They promote exactly what the set and the Standard environment want you to be doing while actively making it harder to run three or more colors. These aren't trying to be better or worse than the M10 duals, but replace them for a standard season that doesn't want three color decks running around. (Obviously they become better in older formats where you have access to shocks and duals, but I think fetches+shocks/duals is still just better considering the high amount of wasteland variants and man-lands that don't turn these on.)

Ability to enter the battlefield untapped: Check.

They represent all ten color combinations in only five slots: Check. Radiant Field is Plateau, Scrubland, Savannah or Tundra depending on what your splash is. If you're running a base-white deck splashing blue, you run Radiant Field. If you're running a base-blue deck splashing white, you run Radiant Coast. Base-red splash black? Radiant Ridge. You get the picture.

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First Revisions

A work isn't done when there is nothing more to put in, but when there is nothing left to take out. The Remnant cycle could be much simpler. There's just no reason that red or black should be getting flash creatures and half of the cycle wants you to cast it at sorcery speed anyways. The names are also very weird. I've changed them all to be easier to say. I would also really like to keep the flavor text on these but it puts the black, red and green one's into microtext on the cards, so I had to get rid of it. I apologize to whoever made them.

Vigor's Remnant's has been changed to 3WW, 3 life and to a sorcery. Commander's Charm already makes two dudes at instant speed with other bonuses and it's been in the set since the very first round of the contest. I don't think we need that effect twice. At CMC five it turns into more of a build-around-me value card and white needs more high cost cards in the set.

Suffering's Remnants is the only card in the cycle to receive a complete re-work. Nothing about the original card feels right. Why is black getting flash creatures? Why is black milling people in a Core Set? Why do the creatures have intimidate? Why is it the only card in the cycle where the original scaling is random? I've changed the card to a six-mana Nekrataal variant, thus the nonblack restriction, and the scaling has been changed to creatures that died this turn. It's potentially quite the limited card, but like most expensive removal spells it can also be mediocre at times. Our black is all over the place for limited play so it's nice to have a card that gives you a game plan.

For Fury's Remnants I really didn't like that the token was a 2/1 and that it had flash. I've changed it to make 1/1 Goblins which are a common theme in the set and made it a sorcery like the rest. Right now it plays like a Sparkmage Apprentice with a steeper cost but with an upside. The scaling has remained the same.

Gaea's Remnants was just too efficient. The closest things I can equate it to are Ondu Giant and Solemn Simulacrum. It's better than the giant in our set because we already have a focus on monocolor or with a splash, so the GG cost for two 2/2s and a land shouldn't be an issue. The costs of Flow of Ideas and Howl of the Night Pack say that a 2/2 and a card are fairly close in value, thus the reference to Solemn. I've changed the card to make 1/1 Saprolings, but instead of fetching basics it can now fetch any land. Now it's more of a ramp/utility card with an upside rather than being a 4/4 for four with an upside. Did I mention the original card was also an instant? That value.

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Second Revisions

Memory's Remnants was close to perfect. The biggest problem I had was that you would rarely play it as an instant for a 1/1 when you could play it on your turn for two 1/1s. It's been changed to a sorcery but remains the same otherwise.

Refute was actually my own submission and I think it's a fine card, but after seeing that there was no room for the red or blue charms to finish the cycle something had to be cut. Trickster's Charm uses the noncreature counter so cutting Refute felt right. None of the modes on Trickster's Charm are particularly cost-efficient, but when combined make for a well-rounded card.

Between both flying and intimidate, Living Cataclysm was just an expensive rare Lava Axe. I've changed it to be more of a flashy Ball Lightning variant. I like the flavor text though, so I'm going to keep it.

Tactless Mandrils is so very strange. The situation where I would be willing to give them a 6/3 and give up two cards to kill their hexproof creature and then the Mandrils I just gave them just wont come up. Not to mention they can just give the Mandrils back to me to counter whatever removal spell I'm using to target their hexproof creature. It's just not very good at its job. Dragon's Charm is a role-player. It's a finisher in the R/X tokens decks, a decent removal spell or a way to get rid of whatever stray artifact is giving you a problem.

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Third Revisions

Platinum Wyvern seems like it was intended to be part of a larger cycle that didn't get fully realized. I like when sets have an Air Elemental variant that is good at closing out games so I went with a new twist. Note how Mesmeric Drake doesn't say "...damage to a player...", so even if it's getting chumped or stone walled you're still advancing a win condition. I have never understood the need to put "combat damage" on cards what's power level isn't determined by it. Why should Johnny be punished because he wants to throw a copy of Mesmeric Drake in his Quicksilver Dagger deck?

Hellfire Scars is in a weird spot. You want it as a finisher in an aggressive deck because you don't care about your life total, but your creatures aren't going to have such high power that this does very much. It's one of those cards where you wont play it often because you're not sure just how good it is and when you do play it you'll probably be underwhelmed. I've decided to replace it with another card that gives black decks a real plan. I've said before that I think black is kind of all over the place when it comes to limited so I wanted a way for black to interact positively with all the tokens running around. Blood Hoarder is one of those cards you'll pick up when you start drafting an archetype like w/g tokens, w/r tokens or r/g tokens and one of your colors dries up or you'll see it early and move in. I like how with the couple of lifelink guys at common in black and white and this dude at uncommon, the updated Remnants of Vigor actually turns into a B/W archetype.

Mausoleum Archaeologist was just too wordy. It's hard to grasp at first what it does because of the awkward way it has to be worded. I think that it could pass in an Expert Level set, but it's a bit complex for Core. I've decided to replace it with something much simpler in Skeletal Champion. It has the potential to be fairly good but the steep cost should keep it in check. It shouldn't be a problem in standard considering this set is following a graveyard set so there will probably be a good amount of graveyard hate.

I already said my piece on Lava Barricade last round, so I'll just sum it up by saying that I'm not a fan of "punisher" cards and that I think this will have a marginal effect on limited. I've decided to replace it with the obligatory weird red sorcery that does stuff, only this time with a twist! It might see play! It's a lot of words, like the big ugly red sorcery should be, but it's just Act of Treason from their hand. It's intended to be a stop-gap if Standard turns into a "big stuff" format like with the titans.

Quote from yewlas

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New Cards

I took most of these challenges as an opportunity to fill holes in the set (hence why I picked so many commons). That was especially true here, for the few remaining spots open.

I felt like blue really needed another counterspell at common, since the only one was Temporal Excision. I also knew that a counterspell needed to cost less and be more narrow in focus. The image of an ethereal creature punching another one out made me smile, and thus was born Metaphysical Melee (originally titled Æther Rumble).

I don't have much to say about Thieve the Future except that I like stealing dudes and taking extra turns. Oh, and that this was a bottom-up design, so when I tried to give it some flavor in my head, I come up with a very wonky story about time travel that doesn't make any sense. Hopefully we'll fix it in the flavor text.

I rather like Rituals in red, and thought the Seals cycle was a good opportunity to set up for big turns.

The following is the true life story of how Truth Serum was created:
Me: I need to design an uncommon artifact for a core set, so it would help if it were a resonant card. It needs to mean something outside of mtg.
My wife: Oookay...
Me: Core sets have used a ton of the typical fantasy items- swords, staves, rings, etc. I need something different.
Wife: And why are you asking me?
Me: Well, Harry Potter is full of magical objects, and you know those books way better than me.
Wife:

From there, we stumbled upon the idea of potions, and when she said veritaserum, I knew I had my card. What makes me really happy is that when I told my wife (who is only superficially familiar with Magic) I wanted to do a truth serum card, she knew EXACTLY what it would do.

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Lands

I really struggled with this set of cards. Like Svennihilator, I had multiple designs cooked up. I didn't really want to make dual lands, since our set is not pushing multicolor at all. Ultimately, I went with the Strongholds because they reinforced the monocolor theme and would be really enticing with the Kamigawa land-bouncing mechanic.

Since I knew I was distancing myself from duals, I wanted a land that you didn't want to see on turn one, but rather a land that could serve as a strong topdeck. My biggest concern was power level. I didn't want them to be too strong, since they're basically 0-mana, unconterable effects. In many of my attempts, I erred on the side of caution and wound up with disappointing, weak lands. I'm hoping this pushes the envelope a bit, but not too much.

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First Revisions

I really liked Polar Sentinel, but it was just too hard to get through and would gum up the ground too often in Limited for my tastes. Do you know how many common creatures have 8 toughness? Ulamog's Crusher. That's it. The Mindmages are meant to help make milling more viable in Limited but still give blue a good defensive creature.

I love tap-down effects in blue, and was surprised to see that both this card didn't already exist and that blue had no common Frost Breath-like effects.

Fencurse Witch exists because I was surprised we didn't get a Swamp-matters card in a set with a monocolor theme. It also enforces the black sacrifice theme that seems to be developing.

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Second Revisions

Duelist's Sabre continues my mission of low-rarity, (hopefully) high-resonance artifacts. We didn't have an equipment that gave evasion, either. Also, Gideon is in the set, so I thought another equipment might be appropriate.

Defense of the Devout is a bad card, but could be fairly useful in a controlling Limited build. It's the kind of thing that could table and make it to the person who needs it in a draft. I think it's important that sets have such low power cards, especially custom sets, as the tendency to make everything as efficient as possible is persistent.

I wanted Terrasurge to be an Overrun effect, but I thought green needed a rare that focused on lands. Trying to cost it to make all your guys get +X/+X got frustrating (it always pumps for at least one more than you paid, i.e. even at 8 mana, if you cast it as soon as you hit 8 lands, you're pumping for +9/+9!) so I just made it a big pump spell for one guy.

Zombie Overseer was my design, and I had wanted to see an uncommon cycle of lords, but there just weren't enough slots. The goblin deck probably would've been bonkers with an uncommon lord, anyway. Plus, we already have a TON of cycles. So, I just went with another Zombie trope– self-reanimation. It also pushes the sacrifice theme.

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Third Revisions

Brutal Advantage is the missing common fight effect. It may need to cost more given Hunt the Weak, but I thought the temporary boost vs. the counter was a fair trade-off.

Thoughtskim was a little closer to the original card (Research Report) than I had intended, but I knew the set needed at least two common milling cards for the archetype to stand a chance in Limited. Blue also felt like it could use a little more card drawing at common.

Morbid Memories had so many restrictions on it. I wanted a discard spell. But it couldn't cost 1 (we already have Brain Bleed). It really needed to hit at least two cards, so it needed to cost at least as much as Mind Rot. Stapling another effect to it was tough, as common black already has enough removal and life loss. I'm hoping the flavor text helps tie the two effects together a little bit, since they're both in Liliana's sphere of influence. Oddly, my biggest regret is I fear the flavor text isn't badass enough for Lili. Hopefully it comes across as snarky.

I was a little worried about the demon, since if he's your only guy, he doesn't really have a downside. Monoblack control has had some pretty strong finishers anyway, though, so I didn't let it get too in the way.

I do feel like the black remake is too strong; it seems pretty easy to get three zombies and a Doom Blade for 6.

Quote from Rudyard

This shuts down your opponents' lands because their abilities are activated. Should add: "Abilities your opponents activate that aren't mana abilities cost 1 more to activate."

Quote from Svennihilator

GM, aurorasparrow and Savia all gave fantastic ideas as to overall set themes and helped bring a cohesiveness no the set that I tried to incorporate into my own cards each round. I think your guidance and ideas were fantastic and lead to where the set has become on a large scale.

Quote from Svennihilator

Oh my, I just saw this. I'm actually excited beyond words by this, haha. I design a lot in my spare time like I'm sure most of the contestants do so it's a very nice feeling to be recognized.

First off I want to give a big hand to MDenham for running a smooth and very exciting PT. I was intrigued by the different challenges each round and think we actually ended up with a playable set. I especially liked designing the packs.

You're an incredible designer, Yewlas. I was actually inspired by your third pack of cards back in round seven or eight. It blew mine out of the water.

GM, aurorasparrow and Savia all gave fantastic ideas as to overall set themes and helped bring a cohesiveness no the set that I tried to incorporate into my own cards each round. I think your guidance and ideas were fantastic and lead to where the set has become on a large scale.

And to everyone else who participated and to those who voted for me, thank you! It's a privledge to have made it this far and I couldn't have done it without your support. Everyone had interesting ideas and brought their own unique designs to the table.

Lastly, sig'ed!