I want to hear a block flavor design that you would absolutely love and that would probably alienate a significant portion of the community.
Personally I would love to see an entire block based on a gritty My Little Pony plane. I'm sure most of you have never seen that episode where Princess Luna creates a reoccurring nightmare to torture herself for the evils she perpetrated as Nightmare Moon and her nightmare curse feeds on her self hatred until it infested the world, but that show can get dark. There are tons of characters and monsters to fill out a block, and I'm quite certain such a block would royally piss everyone off.
What flavor/theme would you personally like to see in a magic block that would be too esoteric for the company and alienate a large portion of the players?
I had to think a little, as I tend to like the themes of most sets, less so their execution. Theros as very true to Greek mythology would look entirely different from what it was, and I'd love more like that, flavor rendered more like Portal Three Kingdoms or Arabian Nights than world building (this isn't actually a criticism of their current world-building model, just a personal preference).
As for an actual concept set: a magic-free Magic block. This may seem insane, but many creatures in Magic are non-supernatural or at least non-mystical, artifacts are a popular theme and basically just machines, and many instants and sorceries are not truly magical things, e.g. Stab Wound. The game of Magic could still function, but it could be a block where the reality of it forced a kind of creativity in terms of how they're used, whatever the setting was otherwise.
I'd love to see a block with an off-center colour pie: Pirate World.
White primary/blue secondary: military fleet.
Black primary/blue secondary: deep ones.
Red primary/blue secondary: pirates.
Green primary/blue secondary: reef merfolk.
I'd love to see Magic cope with more realistic settings. What would a block set in the modern day look like? Or not necessarily on Earth, but just some random plane with similar levels of technology and globalisation, and all the mess that comes with. Perhaps also an honest attempt at a scifi setting (Space: The Convergence doesn't count, sorry).
I feel like the first one would be especially hilarious. Imagine forcing the colour pie onto real life people, organisations, philosophies, politics...I know we've all heard the "What colour was Hitler?" discussion, but trying to apply the pie holistically to our world would be intimidating, properly almost impossible, but definitely entertaining.
Personally I would love to see an entire block based on a gritty My Little Pony plane. I'm sure most of you have never seen that episode where Princess Luna creates a reoccurring nightmare to torture herself for the evils she perpetrated as Nightmare Moon and her nightmare curse feeds on her self hatred until it infested the world, but that show can get dark.
I think it would be interesting to see a block that has no magic, like a plane where magic has disappeared, all the planeswalkers revert to creatures, maybe at the end of the lore they find out where the magic went. Like no enchantments what so ever, a lot of combat based sorceries and instants, heavy on equipment, like really experiment with combat matters.
Do a commander product, or summer set using Forgotten Realms Drizzt as a focus, and make rule books for Ravnica DnD play at the same time. It would sell like hot cakes, and help support DnD, a franchise Hasbro seems dead set on letting fail.
Absurdism: The Block. A plane where the laws of physics, causality, and society are totally alien, but with a mundane aesthetic, rather than overtly a cartoon world or a grimdark cosmic horror land.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Supposed to alienate the masses.... I would say do a set based off of something like Chrono Trigger or FF3, complete with 16bit art. People would rage about how digital art is ruining the game, and that the artist where being lazy.
What flavor/theme would you personally like to see in a magic block that would be too esoteric for the company and alienate a large portion of the players?
For MLP? No black cards other than couple of villains.
A block based on the bible and koran
Alternate universe trilogy: Blirzkrieg, The Final Solution, The Thousand Year Reich. Starring Anne Frank, atticwalker!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
What flavor/theme would you personally like to see in a magic block that would be too esoteric for the company and alienate a large portion of the players?
For MLP? No black cards other than couple of villains.
You don't think the hedonistic, carefree Lady of Parties deserves to be Rakdos?
I think all the calls for "really dark themes" only really fit the "alienate all the players" criterion. I certainly don;t think i'm alone in that I play Magic for entertainment, and excessively dark themes, like some of those raised in the above post, would certainly put me off. I want to have fun, not go home shocked to the core and be unable to sleep again [/exaggeration].
Of course, some of these themes have already been raised - but the ones that haven't, haven't for a reason.
Tryhard world. Every inhabitant of the world is THAT GUY.
Journey To Winmore. ( GW Enchantment: as long each opponent has 1 or less life, and you have 50 or more life, creatures you control get 6+/6+, trample, infect, haste, and doublestrike. )
I would love to see a feminist block based on Merlin Stone's "When God Was a Woman" which portrays the patriarchal overthrow of matrilinial societies and the enforcement of judeo/christian dogma to take away the rights of women in society around 5,000 BCE to the year 0. It would be awesome.
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Sci-Fi. Aliens, spaceships, fancy tech, the works. It probably wouldn't alienate that much of the audience, but Maro has said several times that they're never going to do it.
I would love to see a feminist block based on Merlin Stone's "When God Was a Woman" which portrays the patriarchal overthrow of matrilinial societies and the enforcement of judeo/christian dogma to take away the rights of women in society around 5,000 BCE to the year 0. It would be awesome.
Well, it would certainly keep the theme of fantasy.
Dress those ideas up and you might be onto something:
Replace spaceships with Aetherships
Replace space itself with the aether-seas between the fragmented plane's continents.
Make the whole plane a series of continents separated by aether-seas.
The little tribes: Humans, orochi, viashino, amphin, surrakar,
The big tribes: wurms, lizards, dragons, sea serpents, oni demons
I want to see a theme that glorifies industry, progress, and decadence: making it based on your merits regardless of class or sex. Think space-vikings doing smash and grabs on one another for the glory of their homelands and their allies among the other continents.
Spellwhat? Do we need falx equivalents? My idea is a bit out there for the game, but every human's got a falx cerebri. I'm not going so far as to make mutants.
If you have any of the old Magic the Gathering SHADOWMAGE comics on hand, look at the first issue. There's a skyship made from a dragon's carcass set against the backgroup of a multicolored astral landscape. That's more what I had in mind for the viking theme.
Aesthetically, I like the look of the wastelanders from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, with scattered lands ruled by warlords ala Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road.
Personally I would love to see an entire block based on a gritty My Little Pony plane. I'm sure most of you have never seen that episode where Princess Luna creates a reoccurring nightmare to torture herself for the evils she perpetrated as Nightmare Moon and her nightmare curse feeds on her self hatred until it infested the world, but that show can get dark. There are tons of characters and monsters to fill out a block, and I'm quite certain such a block would royally piss everyone off.
What flavor/theme would you personally like to see in a magic block that would be too esoteric for the company and alienate a large portion of the players?
I had to think a little, as I tend to like the themes of most sets, less so their execution. Theros as very true to Greek mythology would look entirely different from what it was, and I'd love more like that, flavor rendered more like Portal Three Kingdoms or Arabian Nights than world building (this isn't actually a criticism of their current world-building model, just a personal preference).
As for an actual concept set: a magic-free Magic block. This may seem insane, but many creatures in Magic are non-supernatural or at least non-mystical, artifacts are a popular theme and basically just machines, and many instants and sorceries are not truly magical things, e.g. Stab Wound. The game of Magic could still function, but it could be a block where the reality of it forced a kind of creativity in terms of how they're used, whatever the setting was otherwise.
UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU's prison: blue is the new orange is the new black.
Mizzix Of The Izmagnus : wheels on fire... rolling down the road...
BSidisi, Undead VizierB: Bis zum Erbrechen
GTitiania, Protector Of ArgothG: Protecting Argoth, by blowing it up!
GYisan, The Wanderer BardG: Gradus Ad Elfball.
Duel EDH: Yisan & Titania.
In Progress: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV duel; Grenzo, Dungeon Warden Doomsday.
White primary/blue secondary: military fleet.
Black primary/blue secondary: deep ones.
Red primary/blue secondary: pirates.
Green primary/blue secondary: reef merfolk.
I feel like the first one would be especially hilarious. Imagine forcing the colour pie onto real life people, organisations, philosophies, politics...I know we've all heard the "What colour was Hitler?" discussion, but trying to apply the pie holistically to our world would be intimidating, properly almost impossible, but definitely entertaining.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
For MLP? No black cards other than couple of villains.
A block based on the bible and koran
Alternate universe trilogy: Blirzkrieg, The Final Solution, The Thousand Year Reich. Starring Anne Frank, atticwalker!
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
real dark themes, like rape, killing of innocents (kids/women) sacrifices ,real tragic heroes ,DARK stories
Δε φοβάμαι τίποτα...
Είμαι Άνεργος.
Grimstringer on Cockatrice, add me if you wanna
Of course, some of these themes have already been raised - but the ones that haven't, haven't for a reason.
Journey To Winmore. ( GW Enchantment: as long each opponent has 1 or less life, and you have 50 or more life, creatures you control get 6+/6+, trample, infect, haste, and doublestrike. )
UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU's prison: blue is the new orange is the new black.
Mizzix Of The Izmagnus : wheels on fire... rolling down the road...
BSidisi, Undead VizierB: Bis zum Erbrechen
GTitiania, Protector Of ArgothG: Protecting Argoth, by blowing it up!
GYisan, The Wanderer BardG: Gradus Ad Elfball.
Duel EDH: Yisan & Titania.
In Progress: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV duel; Grenzo, Dungeon Warden Doomsday.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
GWUBRDraft my Old Border Nostalgia Cube! and/or The Little Pauper Cube That Could!RBUWG
Modern:WDeath & TaxesW | RUGRUG DelverRUG
White: Dairy
Red: Meats
Green: Fruits and vegetables
Black: Grains
Blue: Candy
Wouldn't blue be like, beverages or something?
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Well, it would certainly keep the theme of fantasy.
Replace spaceships with Aetherships
Replace space itself with the aether-seas between the fragmented plane's continents.
Make the whole plane a series of continents separated by aether-seas.
The little tribes: Humans, orochi, viashino, amphin, surrakar,
The big tribes: wurms, lizards, dragons, sea serpents, oni demons
I want to see a theme that glorifies industry, progress, and decadence: making it based on your merits regardless of class or sex. Think space-vikings doing smash and grabs on one another for the glory of their homelands and their allies among the other continents.
Now, what would the Magic equivalent of Falx be? Probably some place with hundreds of Emrakuls dotting the surface.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
If you have any of the old Magic the Gathering SHADOWMAGE comics on hand, look at the first issue. There's a skyship made from a dragon's carcass set against the backgroup of a multicolored astral landscape. That's more what I had in mind for the viking theme.
Aesthetically, I like the look of the wastelanders from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, with scattered lands ruled by warlords ala Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road.
White: The United Kingdom.
Blue: Japan.
Black: Germany.
Red: The Soviet Union.
Green: The United States of America.
All legendary creatures would be actual historical figures from that time period.
The Great Creature Token Project