I've been involved in various attempts at collaborative sets with limiting degrees of failure. Since I'm trying to find ways to force myself to write each day and because I love worldbuilding and Magic design so much I thought I'd give it another shot.
I'm hoping to join up with two or more other folks to work on a set together through email or google Wave and then debut it here on MTGS in a preview week a la WotC.
We'd also get important-sounding names.
I'd be Creative Director. I'd be in charge of building the world and story line, name cards/abilities/creature types and provide flavor text, submit designs, and help play test.
What I need is:
1) A Head Designer. ???
They'd be in charge of accepting (or not) designs, submitting designs, formulating a cardlist (or design skeleton), working on mechanical theme/identity of the set, helping play test, and helping other collaborators.
2) A Head Developer. ???
They'd be in charge of play testing and balance issues, submitting designs, would have final say over card mechanics, and helping other collaborators.
I could also use:
1) Art Manager. Stormblade
They'd be in charge of finding (or making) artwork and making renders, they'd also submit designs, help play test, help other collaborators.
2) Web Designer. ???
They'd be in charge of web development (making a site if needed, organizing our set's presentation, ect.), they'd also submit designs, help play test, and help other collaborators.
3) Designer. Dodavehu, Stormblade, Oculus, more volunteers welcome
Submit designs, help play test, help other collaborators.
4) Developer. ???
Help play test, help determine balance issues, submit designs, and help other collaborators.
If more than one person is gunning for a position, maybe we could have an informal contest or something (or they could just share the responsibilities if they wanted to be less dramatic).
I'm hoping we could have a "meeting" at least once a week to share progress.
I have three ideas I've been sitting on (and have done a bit of work in each):
1) Death/time mechanical theme, Egyptian creative theme
2) Card type matters theme, quasi sci-fi/steam punk theme
3) Monocolor theme, Dueling wizard school theme
Alternatively, we could come up with a new idea together.
I'm interested. I've been creating cards for an Egyptian set using Threshold and Delve as main mechanics, and the first one is definitely a shared interest.
This looks like just the project for me; I suck at making overarching set structures and plans, but given a starting point, can endlessly churn out designs...
Threshold would be a great starting point, but delve would be very blue/black centered. I think it's a good idea to have at least one custom mechanic, and one mechanic which doesn't solely focus on the graveyard. Perhaps something with thieving (raiding tombs? curses? Ooh! Nice idea for curses and raiding just came up! I'll tell you if this theme becomes more definite...don't want to spoil the surprise just yet...)
One final issue - how does playtesting usually get done for a whole set? Can custom sets be loaded onto Lackey or something?
As far as this goes, I'd be willing to lend what web design expertise I have to the project. (Card designs... eh, from me you'll probably get a bunch of stuff that gets filtered out fairly early in the process, and maybe a few interesting keepers.)
Glad to see some interest here. I was afraid it was headed for the second page.
I listed those in pretty much the order of completeness.
The Egyptian one has four mechanics and a ton of blue and white cards and even more notes on how things will work (even some art). I had a lot of ideas for black and some for green, but red was throwing me. It mostly focuses on the graveyard as a zone (think Flashback instead of threshold) and putting things into your library (the "time" part).
The storyline was that there was a Egypt like culture (like Kamigawa was a Japanese like culture) who found this magical desert that could mess with time. They found out that applying the sand to dead people could bring them back to life, so they used it on their dead pharaohs. The problem there was that all the dead kings felt they were the most deserving to rule and a civil war broke out. Also, wizards are finding more uses for the time sand and the desert's natives aren't happy.
The card type matters one I was working on with a partner, but we kind of got bored and quit after a while. The story was that a plane physically fractured (instead of spiritually of whatever the way Alara did) into two separate planetoids. There was one planet that became a kind of Fae-like place with elfs, fairies, and ye olde magick (enchantments, creatures matter). Another planet which was shaped mostly by a big exploitive city-state which focused on combining science and magic (artifacts, instants matter). There was also a third faction of survivors that existed in a ring of asteroids between the two planets that mostly went insane (sorceries, creatures matter). The two planets figure out interplanetary travel at about the same time, right before the storyline starts.
This is the most recent set I've been working on and I'm starting to feel the fatigue already (thus, this post). I've got a four mechanics sort of worked out and blue fleshed out pretty well (and a bit of white).
The idea is that the plane was defended by five powerful beings (each a different color) against some crazy threat (Phyrexia? Eldrazi?). Afterward each of them set up a defensive spire-like beacon and left. Over time people gathered around these beacons and came to believe that the color of their particular beacon was the only "right" kind of magic. After hundreds of years of bitter rivalry a single event has sparked a war between the five spires.
Like I said though, we don't have to use one of those ideas. It might be fun to think of a new idea.
As you can see, I'm more story focused than card focused, but I have a lot of ideas about the cards/mechanics too. I'm more concerned with the set's identity and in making it fun to play.
--
I still like the Egyptian idea, and I could split my time as Art Manager and Designer, if you'll allow it. Also, here are a few ideas I had with my set. Feel free to comment or borrow.
Threshold. Seems like a given in this setting.
Delve. Something I wanted to experiment with since Future Sight. I planned to have it on massive creatures, or combine it with Threshold to make interesting cards/effects.
Dredge. I avoided this because I personally don't like it.
Legendary cards. NOT IN THE WAY OF KAMIGAWA. Only a few cards focused on Legendaries and there were only a few Legendary creatures. One example:
Tomb of the Warrior
Land - Tomb T: Add 1 to your mana pool. If there is a Legendary Warrior in your graveyard, add one mana of any color to your mana pool instead.
Tomb. New land-type in the flavor of ancient Egypt. These lands could have effects such as the one above, or more unique effects depending on the design.
Oh well, there's only so long I can restrain meself:
The curse surprises you when it's first encountered, but then you know to watch out for it. Some initial ideas:
Tempest CurseU
Enchantment {C}
Flash
When Tempest Curse enters the battlefield, tap target creature without flying. 1U: Return Tempest Curse to its owner's hand.
Lingering Hex1BB
Enchantment {U}
Flash
Attacking creatures your opponents control get -1/-1.
Disrupting Curse2U
Instant {C}
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 4. 1U, Reveal Disrupting Curse from your hand: Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1.
The House of Life, also known as the Per Ankh, is an organization of Egyptian magicians. In ancient times, each temple in Egypt had a branch called the House of Life. They could perform amazing feats via magic and could call upon the power of the gods.
Egypt is pretty easy, magical-wise, especially with their history.
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Microsoft's latest update for Gleemax was buggy, and resulted in multicolor in every block since Lorwyn.
If you are interested i can collaborate from time to time
I have some ideas for the races and classes of an egyptian themed world:
Lesser races
Elementals, of sand, of heatwaves, of dryness,
Animals, big sand wurms, birds, lizzards, insects, dogs, snakes, scorpions
Spirits
Humas, they could have diferent stablished socia classes like the royal family, nobles, free citicens and slaves.
Viashinos (or snake people), they are a nomad tribe of thieves and assasins
Mystics, these guys could be human or vedalken, they are mages and couselors of the pharaohs. They also control the big river/oasis that provides the scarse water
People with dog heads, this is a very small and powerful race, they're like semi-deities and play some important roll in the history or somenthing
Deities, the omnipotent beigns favored by the diferent races
Oh well, there's only so long I can restrain meself:
The curse surprises you when it's first encountered, but then you know to watch out for it. Some initial ideas:
Tempest CurseU
Enchantment {C}
Flash
When Tempest Curse enters the battlefield, tap target creature without flying. 1U: Return Tempest Curse to its owner's hand.
Disrupting Curse2U
Instant {C}
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 4. 1U, Reveal Disrupting Curse from your hand: Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1.
I really like the idea of the curses.
However, I feel like mechanically, it should be more like the Traps in Zendikar - a single subtype of a major type (how traps were all instants). I personally like "Enchantment - Curse" since it feels more curse-ish in the sense that once triggered, the curse is there until dissipated (or de-enchanted). I think it could be an interesting twist on Enchantments (something we've needed for a while).
Maybe we could have a vertical/horizontal cycle of curses:
Incendiary CurseR
Enchantment - Curse
Flash
When Incendiary Curse comes into play, it deals 2 damage to target player or creature. 1R: Return Incendiary Curse to its owner's hand.
Gangrenous CurseB
Enchantment - Curse
Flash
When Gangrenous Curse comes into play, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature. 1B: Return Gangrenous Curse to its owner's hand.
As for the Egypt theme, I think it's cool. However, I'm not a fan of the idea of having time as a major theme, both because I can't see the flavor connection (if you can, please enlighten me), and because time is tricky thing to have cards centered around. Furthermore, Time Spiral did it. (On that note, I believe suspend has the longest reminder text of any recent mechanics.)
Maybe you could focus solely on graveyard themes? You could run Delve, Treshold and Retrace as main mechanics with maybe one more new thing? Delve feels like raiding tombs (since it's stealing from the dead), Treshold could work with praising the dead (ergo, wants things dead) and Retrace might fit in with learning from the dead. I dunno, it doesn't seem that far-fetched to me.
I don't think it should be purely graveyard-based, but definitely a heavy emphasis on it.
Regarding the curses - I did actually think about this having a subtype like Zendikar; the only thing I didn't like about Traps is that they had two cards that specifically dealt with them, so they may as well not have had the subtype. Here's another idea with that in mind:
Cracklehex1RR
Enchantment - Curse {U}
Flash
When Cracklehex enters the battlefield, it deals damage equal to the number of Curses you control to target creature or player. 3R: Return Cracklehex to its owner's hand.
Stalking GuardianBB
Enchantment - Curse {R}
Flash
Protection from green and white
As long as you control two or more other Curses, Stalking Guardian is a 4/3 black Spirit creature that's still an enchantment.
So looks like lots of people like the Egyptian ideas.
Any volunteers for the above roles (mostly the lead designer and developer)?
I've got Stormblade as the Art Manager and as a designer.
I like the idea of curses, but they're sort of weird in a death-themed set since they ignore the graveyard completely.
I'm also not too keen on bringing back old keywords. Maybe one at the most (as long as it's not Delve). I was toying around with bringing Offering back, but it had that weird tribal aspect to it. In fact, that brought me to this keyword:
Reincarnate (You may cast this card from your graveyard any time you could cast an instant by sacrificing a creature and paying the difference in mana costs. Mana costs include color.)
Yeah, longest reminder text ever, that's why it's uncommon and up.
I guess while I'm at it, here are the other mechanics from the set I was playing with:
Deathless (Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a colorless 2/2 Mummy creature token onto the battlefield.)
By far the most boring. But there were other cards that did stuff with Mummy creatures (which I felt made it too tribal). Actually, I don't know why I didn't officially cut this.
Timeless [cost] (If this card is in your graveyard, you may pay its Timeless cost to put it on top of your library.)
Plays with the oracle mechanic.
Oracle (not a keyword or ability word)
[cost], reveal the top card of your library. If [something], than [something].
Example:
CU03 1U
Creature--Human Oracle [c] T: Reveal the top card of your library, then draw that card. If the revealed card was a permanent, discard a card.
1/1
Creative note: The oracles were people that consumed the magical sand on a regular basis. They were able to get brief glimpses of the future, but it was highly addictive. Think magical opium dens.
The final mechanic was flip cards (my single returning mechanic). All of these flipped when the creature died and all were big crazy rares.
Narmorapet3WW
Legendary Creature--Human Pharoah
Lifelink
When ~ would be put into a graveyard from the battlefield, flip it instead.
4/4
--- Narmorapet I, King of Souls
Legendary Creature--Mummy Pharaoh
Whenever a creature is put into the battlefield from anywhere, you may gain 2 life.
If you have 50 or more life, you win the game.
5/5
So looks like lots of people like the Egyptian ideas.
Any volunteers for the above roles (mostly the lead designer and developer)?
I've got Stormblade as the Art Manager and as a designer.
As I said, my main capacity would be in plain design.
I like the idea of curses, but they're sort of weird in a death-themed set since they ignore the graveyard completely.
Flavorwise, they'd be a really good fit though; besides, I think it is a good idea to draw some attention away from graveyard (Zendikar, as a land block, had a lot of non-land themes, such as Allies, Traps and Quests. They obviously wouldn't be a centerpiece of the block, I'm thinking they would be restricted to red, black and maybe blue.)
I'm also not too keen on bringing back old keywords. Maybe one at the most (as long as it's not Delve). I was toying around with bringing Offering back, but it had that weird tribal aspect to it.
Delve is an excellent fit in this set, it creates a lot of tension, but threshold I wouldn't mind seeing left out (it messes nicely with Delve, but that's about it.) Offering is flavorful, but that would imply some sort of tribal block.
In fact, that brought me to this keyword:
Reincarnate (You may cast this card from your graveyard any time you could cast an instant by sacrificing a creature and paying the difference in mana costs. Mana costs include color.)
Yeah, longest reminder text ever, that's why it's uncommon and up.
I don't like endless recursion - if you have two identical creatures with this ability and a Deathgreeter, infinite life right there.
Deathless (Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a colorless 2/2 Mummy creature token onto the battlefield.)
By far the most boring. But there were other cards that did stuff with Mummy creatures (which I felt made it too tribal). Actually, I don't know why I didn't officially cut this.
Pretty boring, yeah. I would be all for using Zombies instead of Mummies, as they already have tribal support.
Timeless [cost] (If this card is in your graveyard, you may pay its Timeless cost to put it on top of your library.)
Plays with the oracle mechanic.
Oracle (not a keyword or ability word)
[cost], reveal the top card of your library. If [something], than [something].
Example:
CU03 1U
Creature--Human Oracle [c] T: Reveal the top card of your library, then draw that card. If the revealed card was a permanent, discard a card.
1/1
Timeless could use some rewording. Not a big fan of using the top of your library as a resource like that - too easy to mess with.
Narmorapet3WW
Legendary Creature--Human Pharoah
Lifelink
When ~ would be put into a graveyard from the battlefield, flip it instead.
4/4
--- Narmorapet I, King of Souls
Legendary Creature--Mummy Pharaoh
Whenever a creature is put into the battlefield from anywhere, you may gain 2 life.
If you have 50 or more life, you win the game.
5/5
Meh. Perhaps.
Another idea occurs...
Rhox Remnant3BB
Creature - Zombie Rhino {C}
Requiem 2B(When this creature is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may pay 2B and return it to its owner's hand. If you don't, exile it.)
4/3
For a better idea of the setting and feel, can we get a little more detail?
Do you mean cards or storyline?
Ok, I have you edited into the op as a designer, Oculus.
Let's see if I can address your reply:
The difference is that allies, traps, and quests didn't keep you from playing lands. They either co-existed or helped lands (traps were helped by having lots of land open, common quests had landfall triggers). Cards that don't go to graveyards fell out of place in a death-centered set.
What about something like: Curse of Enervation2BB
Enchantment
Creatures have -1/-1.
Sacrifice ~: Creatures target opponent controls gets -3/-3 until end of turn.
It's kind of like a big seal with a smaller static ability that affects your guys too (which makes you want to send to the graveyard).
When you guys were saying Delve I was reading Dredge. Delve could work, there's a lot of untapped space there.
That's a good point with Reincarnation.
Here's a mechanic from the monocolored themed set. Maybe it could migrate:
Wisdom [cost] ([cost]: When this resolves, exile it and return a card from your graveyard to your hand that shares a type with it.)
We could probably tweak that a bit to fit better.
I have a personal goal of not using any zombies in this set. That may be impossible though.
How should Timeless be reworded? That and the oracle mechanic are balanced by adding more mill than usual as costs and at instant speed (which also plays into the death theme).
I think Requiem has some potential. I especially like how it harkens back to Cyclopean Mummy. I'll assume that was on purpose ;).
--
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Listen to my M:tG flavor Podcast: Story Circle! (Newest episode is all about Innistrad previews.)
Let's explore the possibility of Delve real quick, using one of my older cards.
Anubin Sandstalkers 4BB
Creature - Hound Assassin
Delve Threshold - As long as you have seven or more cards in your graveyard, ~ has "T: Destroy up to two target tapped creatures."
4/3
Now, not saying we roll with my ideas, but a set revolving around the graveyard could use Delve to show some kind of conflict between the living and the dead?
Edit: This card has absolutely nothing to support my reasoning with expect Delve. Yay...
Never even heard of Cyclopean Mummy up 'til now. That's the beauty of the game.
The point of Curses was element of surprise followed by tension of the curses' potential. What about this?
Drowsing Curse1U
Enchantment - Curse {C}
Flash
When Drowsing Curse enters the battlefield, tap target creature. U, Sacrifice a Curse: Tap target creature.
This would leave a lot more room open for graveyard interaction, especially for fueling delve.
Timeless isn't worded that badly, but this would be better:
Timeless X(X: Put this card on top of your library. Activate this ability only if this is in your graveyard.)
Related note: I like Curses as enchantments with sacrifice effects. Definitely something I can see in each color.
Curse of Cowards 1W
Enchantment - Curse
Flash
When ~ enters the battlefield, target creature can't attack or black until the end of turn. W, Sacrifice a Curse: Target creature can't attack or block until the end of turn.
Related note: I like Curses as enchantments with sacrifice effects. Definitely something I can see in each color.
Curse of Cowards 1W
Enchantment - Curse
Flash
When ~ enters the battlefield, target creature can't attack or black until the end of turn. W: Target creature can't attack or block until the end of turn.
There's so much wrong with that I'll assume you left out something real big by accident.
Somehow, Curse just doesn't seem like something white/green would do; even blue is a bit of a stretch. But purely mechanically, it would be fine. I guess you can just name them Wards instead of Curses by name ( UB gets Hexes, RB Curses,GW Wards. All still are Curse by type.)
Delve is acceptable because it exiles things in the graveyard as a cost, and thus it is more about using the graveyard than detracting from it. As for Requiem and Wisdom:
Quote from Dodavehu »
Cards that don't go to graveyards fell out of place in a death-centered set.
I also like the Oracles, but I am not a fan of Timeless, because like you said:
Quote from Dodavehu »
Cards that don't go to graveyards fell out of place in a death-centered set.
On the mummy note, perhaps we could treat them as Eldrazi Spawn in the sense that they are fairly common through out the set, but are not actual cards (as in, they are tokens generated by cards).
So far, I can see that most of us are down for Delve and some sort of Curse-sacrificing-enchantments. I think we should probably stop here for now and try to create a story. Mechanics tend spring from color-identities, which in turn spring from the story. I've tried making sets where the story fits the mechanics, and things haven't gone so well.
Also, if you want people to fill out roles, I'm afraid I won't be of much help. I'm fairly good at design, development, and flavor generation, but not sufficiently good to take top spot in anything. And I'm sure Oculus, having seen my CCL entries, agrees (right?).
Probably a good idea to flesh out a story before getting bogged down in the mechanics. I'll assume several deities will play a big role - my suggestion would be to use a different race for each faction (for example, Aven would be sun followers). Other sentinent races you could consider using would be Rhox, Leonin, maybe Goblins...not much of a storyline person though, so you guys will be on your own for this one. I guess I'll just work on pounding out some generically-named curses in the meantime...
I think that for an Egyptian based set, a cool story would be Pharaoh versus people. Maybe the people are suffering because of the pharaoh's iron-fist, and they fight back (but Pharaoh has an army/god backup?). Or maybe the slaves are having an insurrection. I dunno. All I know that pharaoh versus people and/or gods would be cool because the Pharaoh is kind of like the bridge-ing point in between the people and the gods.
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I'm hoping to join up with two or more other folks to work on a set together through email or google Wave and then debut it here on MTGS in a preview week a la WotC.
We'd also get important-sounding names.
I'd be Creative Director. I'd be in charge of building the world and story line, name cards/abilities/creature types and provide flavor text, submit designs, and help play test.
What I need is:
1) A Head Designer. ???
They'd be in charge of accepting (or not) designs, submitting designs, formulating a cardlist (or design skeleton), working on mechanical theme/identity of the set, helping play test, and helping other collaborators.
2) A Head Developer. ???
They'd be in charge of play testing and balance issues, submitting designs, would have final say over card mechanics, and helping other collaborators.
I could also use:
1) Art Manager. Stormblade
They'd be in charge of finding (or making) artwork and making renders, they'd also submit designs, help play test, help other collaborators.
2) Web Designer. ???
They'd be in charge of web development (making a site if needed, organizing our set's presentation, ect.), they'd also submit designs, help play test, and help other collaborators.
3) Designer. Dodavehu, Stormblade, Oculus, more volunteers welcome
Submit designs, help play test, help other collaborators.
4) Developer. ???
Help play test, help determine balance issues, submit designs, and help other collaborators.
If more than one person is gunning for a position, maybe we could have an informal contest or something (or they could just share the responsibilities if they wanted to be less dramatic).
I'm hoping we could have a "meeting" at least once a week to share progress.
I have three ideas I've been sitting on (and have done a bit of work in each):
1) Death/time mechanical theme, Egyptian creative theme
2)
Card type matters theme, quasi sci-fi/steam punk theme3)
Monocolor theme, Dueling wizard school themeAlternatively, we could come up with a new idea together.
Anyone interested?
--
Winner of the 2nd Design Survivor Contest
Creator of the Vorthos Card Contest
Winner of 12th and the 18th Short Story Contests
Creator of the Vs. Tournament.
--Runner of the Superhero Vs. Tounrament
--Runner of the Villian Vs. Tournament.
Retired Player
Threshold would be a great starting point, but delve would be very blue/black centered. I think it's a good idea to have at least one custom mechanic, and one mechanic which doesn't solely focus on the graveyard. Perhaps something with thieving (raiding tombs? curses? Ooh! Nice idea for curses and raiding just came up! I'll tell you if this theme becomes more definite...don't want to spoil the surprise just yet...)
One final issue - how does playtesting usually get done for a whole set? Can custom sets be loaded onto Lackey or something?
[Clan Flamingo] Tier Archivist
[15:21] <@CC> Remember, if you argue, you are an idiot.
Untrophied Wins:
Perfect MCC Scores: 2
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Most Nominated for Random Categories, 2013
I listed those in pretty much the order of completeness.
The storyline was that there was a Egypt like culture (like Kamigawa was a Japanese like culture) who found this magical desert that could mess with time. They found out that applying the sand to dead people could bring them back to life, so they used it on their dead pharaohs. The problem there was that all the dead kings felt they were the most deserving to rule and a civil war broke out. Also, wizards are finding more uses for the time sand and the desert's natives aren't happy.
The idea is that the plane was defended by five powerful beings (each a different color) against some crazy threat (Phyrexia? Eldrazi?). Afterward each of them set up a defensive spire-like beacon and left. Over time people gathered around these beacons and came to believe that the color of their particular beacon was the only "right" kind of magic. After hundreds of years of bitter rivalry a single event has sparked a war between the five spires.
As you can see, I'm more story focused than card focused, but I have a lot of ideas about the cards/mechanics too. I'm more concerned with the set's identity and in making it fun to play.
--
Winner of the 2nd Design Survivor Contest
Creator of the Vorthos Card Contest
Winner of 12th and the 18th Short Story Contests
Creator of the Vs. Tournament.
--Runner of the Superhero Vs. Tounrament
--Runner of the Villian Vs. Tournament.
Land - Tomb
T: Add 1 to your mana pool. If there is a Legendary Warrior in your graveyard, add one mana of any color to your mana pool instead.
Retired Player
The curse surprises you when it's first encountered, but then you know to watch out for it. Some initial ideas:
Tempest Curse U
Enchantment {C}
Flash
When Tempest Curse enters the battlefield, tap target creature without flying.
1U: Return Tempest Curse to its owner's hand.
Lingering Hex 1BB
Enchantment {U}
Flash
Attacking creatures your opponents control get -1/-1.
Disrupting Curse 2U
Instant {C}
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 4.
1U, Reveal Disrupting Curse from your hand: Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1.
[Clan Flamingo] Tier Archivist
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Untrophied Wins:
Perfect MCC Scores: 2
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Egypt is pretty easy, magical-wise, especially with their history.
I have some ideas for the races and classes of an egyptian themed world:
Lesser races
Elementals, of sand, of heatwaves, of dryness,
Animals, big sand wurms, birds, lizzards, insects, dogs, snakes, scorpions
Spirits
Humas, they could have diferent stablished socia classes like the royal family, nobles, free citicens and slaves.
Viashinos (or snake people), they are a nomad tribe of thieves and assasins
Mystics, these guys could be human or vedalken, they are mages and couselors of the pharaohs. They also control the big river/oasis that provides the scarse water
People with dog heads, this is a very small and powerful race, they're like semi-deities and play some important roll in the history or somenthing
Deities, the omnipotent beigns favored by the diferent races
I really like the idea of the curses.
However, I feel like mechanically, it should be more like the Traps in Zendikar - a single subtype of a major type (how traps were all instants). I personally like "Enchantment - Curse" since it feels more curse-ish in the sense that once triggered, the curse is there until dissipated (or de-enchanted). I think it could be an interesting twist on Enchantments (something we've needed for a while).
Maybe we could have a vertical/horizontal cycle of curses:
Enchantment - Curse
Flash
When Incendiary Curse comes into play, it deals 2 damage to target player or creature.
1R: Return Incendiary Curse to its owner's hand.
Gangrenous Curse B
Enchantment - Curse
Flash
When Gangrenous Curse comes into play, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
1B: Return Gangrenous Curse to its owner's hand.
Maybe you could focus solely on graveyard themes? You could run Delve, Treshold and Retrace as main mechanics with maybe one more new thing? Delve feels like raiding tombs (since it's stealing from the dead), Treshold could work with praising the dead (ergo, wants things dead) and Retrace might fit in with learning from the dead. I dunno, it doesn't seem that far-fetched to me.
Regarding the curses - I did actually think about this having a subtype like Zendikar; the only thing I didn't like about Traps is that they had two cards that specifically dealt with them, so they may as well not have had the subtype. Here's another idea with that in mind:
Cracklehex 1RR
Enchantment - Curse {U}
Flash
When Cracklehex enters the battlefield, it deals damage equal to the number of Curses you control to target creature or player.
3R: Return Cracklehex to its owner's hand.
Stalking Guardian BB
Enchantment - Curse {R}
Flash
Protection from green and white
As long as you control two or more other Curses, Stalking Guardian is a 4/3 black Spirit creature that's still an enchantment.
[Clan Flamingo] Tier Archivist
[15:21] <@CC> Remember, if you argue, you are an idiot.
Untrophied Wins:
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Any volunteers for the above roles (mostly the lead designer and developer)?
I've got Stormblade as the Art Manager and as a designer.
I like the idea of curses, but they're sort of weird in a death-themed set since they ignore the graveyard completely.
I'm also not too keen on bringing back old keywords. Maybe one at the most (as long as it's not Delve). I was toying around with bringing Offering back, but it had that weird tribal aspect to it. In fact, that brought me to this keyword:
Reincarnate (You may cast this card from your graveyard any time you could cast an instant by sacrificing a creature and paying the difference in mana costs. Mana costs include color.)
Yeah, longest reminder text ever, that's why it's uncommon and up.
I guess while I'm at it, here are the other mechanics from the set I was playing with:
Deathless (Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a colorless 2/2 Mummy creature token onto the battlefield.)
By far the most boring. But there were other cards that did stuff with Mummy creatures (which I felt made it too tribal). Actually, I don't know why I didn't officially cut this.
Timeless [cost] (If this card is in your graveyard, you may pay its Timeless cost to put it on top of your library.)
Plays with the oracle mechanic.
Oracle (not a keyword or ability word)
[cost], reveal the top card of your library. If [something], than [something].
Example:
CU03 1U
Creature--Human Oracle [c]
T: Reveal the top card of your library, then draw that card. If the revealed card was a permanent, discard a card.
1/1
Creative note: The oracles were people that consumed the magical sand on a regular basis. They were able to get brief glimpses of the future, but it was highly addictive. Think magical opium dens.
The final mechanic was flip cards (my single returning mechanic). All of these flipped when the creature died and all were big crazy rares.
Narmorapet 3WW
Legendary Creature--Human Pharoah
Lifelink
When ~ would be put into a graveyard from the battlefield, flip it instead.
4/4
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Narmorapet I, King of Souls
Legendary Creature--Mummy Pharaoh
Whenever a creature is put into the battlefield from anywhere, you may gain 2 life.
If you have 50 or more life, you win the game.
5/5
Winner of the 2nd Design Survivor Contest
Creator of the Vorthos Card Contest
Winner of 12th and the 18th Short Story Contests
Creator of the Vs. Tournament.
--Runner of the Superhero Vs. Tounrament
--Runner of the Villian Vs. Tournament.
And I like the idea of a Mummy tribe. Just saying.
Retired Player
As I said, my main capacity would be in plain design.
Flavorwise, they'd be a really good fit though; besides, I think it is a good idea to draw some attention away from graveyard (Zendikar, as a land block, had a lot of non-land themes, such as Allies, Traps and Quests. They obviously wouldn't be a centerpiece of the block, I'm thinking they would be restricted to red, black and maybe blue.)
Delve is an excellent fit in this set, it creates a lot of tension, but threshold I wouldn't mind seeing left out (it messes nicely with Delve, but that's about it.) Offering is flavorful, but that would imply some sort of tribal block.
I don't like endless recursion - if you have two identical creatures with this ability and a Deathgreeter, infinite life right there.
Pretty boring, yeah. I would be all for using Zombies instead of Mummies, as they already have tribal support.
Timeless could use some rewording. Not a big fan of using the top of your library as a resource like that - too easy to mess with.
Meh. Perhaps.
Another idea occurs...
Rhox Remnant 3BB
Creature - Zombie Rhino {C}
Requiem 2B (When this creature is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may pay 2B and return it to its owner's hand. If you don't, exile it.)
4/3
[Clan Flamingo] Tier Archivist
[15:21] <@CC> Remember, if you argue, you are an idiot.
Untrophied Wins:
Perfect MCC Scores: 2
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Do you mean cards or storyline?
Ok, I have you edited into the op as a designer, Oculus.
Let's see if I can address your reply:
The difference is that allies, traps, and quests didn't keep you from playing lands. They either co-existed or helped lands (traps were helped by having lots of land open, common quests had landfall triggers). Cards that don't go to graveyards fell out of place in a death-centered set.
What about something like:
Curse of Enervation 2BB
Enchantment
Creatures have -1/-1.
Sacrifice ~: Creatures target opponent controls gets -3/-3 until end of turn.
It's kind of like a big seal with a smaller static ability that affects your guys too (which makes you want to send to the graveyard).
When you guys were saying Delve I was reading Dredge. Delve could work, there's a lot of untapped space there.
That's a good point with Reincarnation.
Here's a mechanic from the monocolored themed set. Maybe it could migrate:
Wisdom [cost] ([cost]: When this resolves, exile it and return a card from your graveyard to your hand that shares a type with it.)
We could probably tweak that a bit to fit better.
I have a personal goal of not using any zombies in this set. That may be impossible though.
How should Timeless be reworded? That and the oracle mechanic are balanced by adding more mill than usual as costs and at instant speed (which also plays into the death theme).
I think Requiem has some potential. I especially like how it harkens back to Cyclopean Mummy. I'll assume that was on purpose ;).
--
Winner of the 2nd Design Survivor Contest
Creator of the Vorthos Card Contest
Winner of 12th and the 18th Short Story Contests
Creator of the Vs. Tournament.
--Runner of the Superhero Vs. Tounrament
--Runner of the Villian Vs. Tournament.
Anubin Sandstalkers 4BB
Creature - Hound Assassin
Delve
Threshold - As long as you have seven or more cards in your graveyard, ~ has "T: Destroy up to two target tapped creatures."
4/3
Now, not saying we roll with my ideas, but a set revolving around the graveyard could use Delve to show some kind of conflict between the living and the dead?
Edit: This card has absolutely nothing to support my reasoning with expect Delve. Yay...
Retired Player
The point of Curses was element of surprise followed by tension of the curses' potential. What about this?
Drowsing Curse 1U
Enchantment - Curse {C}
Flash
When Drowsing Curse enters the battlefield, tap target creature.
U, Sacrifice a Curse: Tap target creature.
This would leave a lot more room open for graveyard interaction, especially for fueling delve.
Timeless isn't worded that badly, but this would be better:
Timeless X (X: Put this card on top of your library. Activate this ability only if this is in your graveyard.)
[Clan Flamingo] Tier Archivist
[15:21] <@CC> Remember, if you argue, you are an idiot.
Untrophied Wins:
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Curse of Cowards 1W
Enchantment - Curse
Flash
When ~ enters the battlefield, target creature can't attack or black until the end of turn.
W, Sacrifice a Curse: Target creature can't attack or block until the end of turn.
Retired Player
There's so much wrong with that I'll assume you left out something real big by accident.
[Clan Flamingo] Tier Archivist
[15:21] <@CC> Remember, if you argue, you are an idiot.
Untrophied Wins:
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Retired Player
[Clan Flamingo] Tier Archivist
[15:21] <@CC> Remember, if you argue, you are an idiot.
Untrophied Wins:
Perfect MCC Scores: 2
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Delve is acceptable because it exiles things in the graveyard as a cost, and thus it is more about using the graveyard than detracting from it. As for Requiem and Wisdom:
I also like the Oracles, but I am not a fan of Timeless, because like you said:
On the mummy note, perhaps we could treat them as Eldrazi Spawn in the sense that they are fairly common through out the set, but are not actual cards (as in, they are tokens generated by cards).
So far, I can see that most of us are down for Delve and some sort of Curse-sacrificing-enchantments. I think we should probably stop here for now and try to create a story. Mechanics tend spring from color-identities, which in turn spring from the story. I've tried making sets where the story fits the mechanics, and things haven't gone so well.
Also, if you want people to fill out roles, I'm afraid I won't be of much help. I'm fairly good at design, development, and flavor generation, but not sufficiently good to take top spot in anything. And I'm sure Oculus, having seen my CCL entries, agrees (right?).
Retired Player
[Clan Flamingo] Tier Archivist
[15:21] <@CC> Remember, if you argue, you are an idiot.
Untrophied Wins:
Perfect MCC Scores: 2
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