Widespread Response U
Instant
Counter target spell that targets two or more permanents. When you prepare for the worst, you'll often be criticized for being overly prepared.
I'll add "Yin and Yang" to the list. ("Beginning and End" isn't really an idiom; "Bread and Circuses" is uncommon, I'm not sure many people will understand what is meant and will simply expect a literal circus instead.)
Common English Idioms for Split Cards
When designing custom cards, part of the difficulty is coming up with great names. With nearly 15,000 cards many names have already been taken. So I’ve gone ahead and searched for common (and some not-so-common) English idioms that would work well for almost any split card.
Asterisks (*) indicate the word has been featured on a card before. There has not been a precedent set for re-using an existing card or card half into a new split card - but perhaps you could start one (assuming it’s not previously a permanent spell). Otherwise, heavily consider turning it into a normal, single card (like how Reap and Sow is not a split card).
Two mechanics that are automatically in are creating creature tokens and removing counters on cards for effects. We see this in Thallid and Thrull cards, Goblin Warrens and others.
Aside from those two, what mechanics do you think I should try to recycle here?
First, a couple of things to think about:
Fallen Empires is a tribal set, mostly. So what other sets were noticeably tribal? Scourge and Lorwyn/Morningtide, certainly. Chances are there are mechanics in those sets that may work well here (Champion, Kinship, Reinforce, or Storm?)
Wizards has said that "Tribal" types are definitely out. Never again. (But that doesn't mean we can't still have a tribal theme.)
Unlike the Lorwyn block, Fallen Empires doesn't focus much on classes, only on races. So some mechanics (like Prowl) may not work so as well. (Interestingly enough, this could be considered for Biscuits. If we're having fewer factions in the first set, classes are another way to diversify the cards.)
I am open to adding a major mechanic, but I figure it may be best to see what's missing first, and develop around that. Also, there's no need to try and re-invent everything, either.
So, what mechanics would you like to see in a tribal theme set? And if you were to take a look at the existing Fallen Empires cards, if added, what kind of mechanics on additional cards might work well?
Hey! Just wanted to say I enjoyed reading through this and really like your writing style. This seems fun and I think it's a fantastic idea.
About the card Bethan Leitbur, I think the wording should be: "Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to target creature you control this turn."
Thanks! And good catch; you're right about the wording.
Thallids definitely seem like the most developed tribe due to their presence in Time Spiral block. I wonder what types of strategies you'll have in mind for the others? Will you be using any new mechanics, or not in order to stay true to the original sets?
I'm not opposed to including some new mechanics. I think the three counters and sacrifice can be used with other tribes as well. Also, I kind of like Empty the Warrens which uses Storm, so I'm playing around with using the Storm mechanic on a handful of cards. But yes, there could be room for one or two more mechanics between Biscuits and Gravy.
I've also been re-thinking the storage lands. I think the original storage lands may be better. I'll have to see how things play out. The next step is creating commons for the colors.
I will now go over each color, list out cards and showcase some new ones.
White: Soldiers and Zealots
White is home to the race of Humans, living in a kingdom called Icatia. There is a triangle of adversaries fighting here: Soldiers, Zealots and the Thrulls.
I'll be updating this post later, but for now, here's a teaser:
Bethan Leitbur 2WWW
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric Knight
Vigilance
Creatures you control have protection from black. T: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn.
3/3
The founder of The Order, Leitbur was deified by his people long after his death.
A cleric-knight, Bethan Leitbur can attack and heal at the same time, while fending off the forces of evil and chaos. (Too powerful? I could change him to just Pro-Black.) Pro-Black only now, and can heal any creature. This fits better flavor-wise with Order of Leitbur (Pro-Black) and other legendary clerics in the multiverse.
In the last post, I wrote about the cards which I could not include for reprint. Now, I'll go over the cards which deserve a spot in a Sarpadian set. But first, I want to briefly go over the cards I do not want in my set, and reasons for them.
Cards I'm choosing not to use
I'm not about to bring back banding, so all the banding cards are out. Possibly Soldiers with another ability, like vigilance, would work well in their place.
Wizards has said they would either like to use +1/+1 counters or -1/-1 counters in a set, but preferably not both, and no other types of counters. I think +1/+1 counters work better here in the weenie tribal theme, so that means any other buff/anti-buff counters are out the window.
The cycle of storage lands I'm thinking of using in place of the originals are the Time Spiral dual-color storage lands. I don't think this has to violate my monocolor decree fir Gravy, but, it could still go into Biscuits anyway.
I'd like to leave out Orgg in favor of one or more redesigned Orggs. There are a few variants, so why not create another?
Lastly, Fallen Empires features many cards that have optional counter-payments, which tends to be needlessly complicated. Most cards with this wording are out.
Now let's take a look at the cards that are worth consideration.
Combat Medic 2W
Creature - Human Cleric Soldier 1W: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn.
0/2
I'm still on the fence with this card.
The unlimited activated ability for healing isn't something often done in Magic, but I think it's appropriately priced, if slightly on the weaker end.
Icatian Javelineers W
Creature - Human Solider
Icatian Javelineers enters the battlefield with a javelin counter on it. T, Remove a javelin counter from Icatian Javelineers: Icatian Javelineers deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
1/1
Icatian Javelineers has been reprinted already a couple times. It was one of several cards from Fallen Empires featured in Time Spiral. It was also reprinted in Kiora vs. Elspeth.
Icatian Javelineers does a few things well. Firstly, it makes use of the "remove-a-counter" mechanic. It's a Soldier card that has a minor ability of being able to zap for 1 damage, one time. I don't think it's a coincidence that there are a larger number of creatures with 2 toughness in the original set - and Icatian Javelineers aren't the only card that can zap for 1 damage, either.
The fact that it can only deal 1 damage once says to me it is safe from bleeding too much into red. And hey, we just don't have many Javelineers in the multiverse. It's exciting - or at least as much as a 1/1 common can be, anyway.
Icatian Priest W
Creature - Soldier 1WW: Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
1/1
This was reprinted in Tenth Edition and Divine vs. Demonic. Surprisingly, white has had few cards that give any creature a bonus as an unlimited activated ability. Zhalfirin Commander is likely loosely based off of Icatian Priest.
I think this card would work fine in either Biscuits or Gravy.
Order of Leitbur WW
Creature - Human Cleric Knight
Protection from black W: Order of Leitbur gains first strike until end of turn. WW: Order of Leitbur gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
2/1
This card was popular back in the day as people felt it was just a tad stronger than White Knight.
Normally the firebreathing ability is in red, but it is a rather iconic card, and the Order of Leitbur is significant. So I'm going to make an exception here, and take its counterpart too, Order of the Ebon Hand.
Vodalian Mage 2U
Creature - Merfolk Wizard U, T: Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1.
1/1
This has been redone with Disruptive Student and Disruptive Pitmage. That being said, I believe Wizards is moving away from the activated ability counterspells. I'm leaning towards keeping it.
Mindstab Thrull 1BB
Creature - Thrull
Whenever Mindstab Thrull attacks and isn't blocked, you may sacrifice it. If you do, defending player discards three cards.
2/2
One of the better Thrulls in the set. Discard suits black fine, and three cards? Reprinted in Fifth Edition, I think it's one of the better Thrulls to keep. Also besties with Necrite.
Necrite 1BB
Cretaure - Thrull
Whenever Necrite attacks and isn't blocked, you may sacrifice it. If you do, destroy target creature defending player controls. It can't be regenerated.
2/2
Brother to Mindstab Thrull, a 2/2 with a Terror trigger isn't too bad. Technically cheaper yet weaker than Nekrataal. Another Fifth Edition reprint. (Stay away from the Drew Tucker variant.)
Order of the Ebon Hand BB
Creature - Cleric Knight
Protection from white B: Order of the Ebon Hand gains first strike until end of turn. BB: Order of the Ebon Hand gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
2/1
As I explained earlier, Order of the Ebon Hand was a popular card that found itself in many tournament decks in its day. Iconic and well-priced. The firebreathing ability can sometimes bleed into black, as can first strike, so it still fits okay.
A simple card that plays into the sacrifical nature of Thrulls. Reprinted previously in Fifth Edition.
Brassclaw Orcs 2R
Creature - Orc
Brassclaw Orcs can't block creatures with power 2 or greater.
3/2
Costs 1 more than Goblin Raider but has 1 better power and can block some creatures. Joins the cast of cards printed in Fifth Edition. This is a good card for Orc tribal.
Goblin Grenade R
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Goblin Grenade, sacrifice a Goblin.
Goblin Grenade deals 5 damage to target creature or player.
One of the sets better cards, it finds a home easily in almost any Goblin deck. It was picked up in Magic 2012. If it gets included, we will need numerous Goblins to complement it.
Goblin War Drums 2R
Enchantment
Each creature you control can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.
Reprinted in both Fifth Edition and Seventh Edition, it's a straightforward effect that provides some interesting strategy with a weenie theme.
Goblin Warrens 2R
Enchantment 2R, Sacrifice two Goblins: Put three 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Just as creatures and token spells have gotten more powerful with time, and with newer cards in the multiverse now handling more enter-the-battlefield effects, Goblin Warrens gets a little bit of power back. An acceptable Goblin factory when mana is plentiful, Goblin Warrens will give players more reasons to play a Goblin deck.
Orcish Spy R
Creature - Orc Rogue T: Look at the top three cards of target player's library.
1/1
Not too powerful yet very utilitarian. Red does library look-ahead effects (typically with just the top card of the library) so this isn't a large stretch for Orcish Spy. This will likely be one of very few dirt cheap Orcs.
Night Soil GG
Enchantment 1, Exile two creature cards from a single graveyard: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Some graveyard hate from back in the day that likely ended up being very narrow, this card could be much more important today with alternatives such as reclaiming cards or paying for flashback. Was wisely reprinted for Commander 2013.
Thallid G
Creature - Fungus
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on Thallid.
Remove three spore counters from Thallid: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
1/1
Good old Thallid! The original Saproling generator, this card perfectly captures the three-counter mechanic while carrying its rich flavor.
Dwarven Ruins
Land
Dwarven Ruins enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add R to your mana pool. T, Sacrifice Dwarven Ruins: Add RR to your mana pool.
Ebon Stronghold
Land
Ebon Stronghold enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add B to your mana pool. T, Sacrifice Ebon Stronghold: Add BB to your mana pool.
Havenwood Battleground
Land
Dwarven Ruins enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add G to your mana pool. T, Sacrifice Havenwood Battleground: Add GG to your mana pool.
Ruins of Trokair
Land
Ruins of Trokair enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add W to your mana pool. T, Sacrifice Ruins of Trokair: Add WW to your mana pool.
Svyelunite Temple
Land
Svyelunite Temple enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add U to your mana pool. T, Sacrifice Svyelunite Temple: Add UU to your mana pool.
This cycle of nonbasic lands are some of the best designed cards in Fallen Empires. Functional, simple, and just powerful enough, many of these were rightfully reprinted. These most definitely belong in Gravy.
Cards considering from Time Spiral block
Turns out there are a decent number of cards from Time Spiral that could work well in Biscuits and Gravy. I'll go over them here.
Empress Galina 3UU
Legendary Creature - Merfolk UU, T: Gain control of target legendary permanent.
1/3
The story behind Empress Galina is she is the leader of the Merfolk in Vodalia. She is able to escape with a collection of Merfolk through a portal, and end up in another continent in another time.
The only benefit to using her is if I include many legendary permanents (which is a possibility) she could play nicely. Otherwise, now is my opportunity to make "Empress Galina of Vodalia" or similar sounding card.
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder 4B
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Whenever you cast a creature spell, put X 1/1 black Thrull creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is that spell's converted mana cost.
When you control seven or more Thrulls, sacrifice Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder.
2/2
As already mentioned, Endrek Sahr, the thrull breeder, is perfect for this set.
Deathspore Thallid 1B
Creature - Zombie Fungus
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on Deathspore Thallid.
Remove three spore counters from Deathspore Thallid: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice a Saproling: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
2/2
Why not have a Thallid in black? I kind of like the idea. Not sure if having just one Zombie in the set is an odd idea, but it still is a Fungus, so perhaps that's not a large issue.
Empty the Warrens 3R
Sorcery
Put two 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Storm
I like this card, but only if I include some other Storm cards into the sets.
A nice, beatdown Green creature that's not a Thallid. Could go into Biscuits.
Psychotrope Thallid 2G
Creature - Fungus
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on Psychotrope Thallid.
Remove three spore counters from Psychotrope Thallid: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield. 1, Sacrifice a Saproling: Draw a card.
1/1
Yes, please! I like the idea of a drawing card mechanism.
Savage Thallid 3GG
Creature - Fungus
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on Savage Thallid.
Remove three spore counters from Savage Thallid: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice a Saproling: Regenerate target Fungus.
5/2
I love this card - a large Thallid that fills the void of Feral Thallid.
Sporesower Thallid 2GG
Creature - Fungus
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on each Fungus you control.
Remove three spore counters from Sporesower Thallid: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
4/4
Putting spore counters on each Fungus? Now that's fairly powerful ability, and I like it.
Thallid Germinator 2G
Creature - Fungus
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on Thallid Germinator.
Remove three spore counters from Thallid Germinator: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice a Saproling: Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
2/2
Marginally better than Thallid Devourer, and without the awkward "+1/+2" wording.
Thallid Shell-Dweller 1G
Creature - Fungus
Defender
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on Thallid Shell-Dweller.
Remove three spore counters from Thallid Shell-Dweller: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
0/5
Finally, we now have a Thallid wall! Excited.
Thelon of Havenwood GG
Legendary Creature - Elf Druid
Each Fungus creature gets +1/+1 for each spore counter on it. BG, Exile a Fungus card from a graveyard: Put a spore counter on each Fungus on the battlefield.
2/2
A cheap, useful, Elf/Fungus legend. The Black/Green ability is interesting, yet it's still a mono-Green creature. I like what's going on here, though, and I think it would work well.
Tukatongue Thallid G
Creature - Fungus
When Tukatongue Thallid dies, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
1/1
Is the Tukatongue tree native only to Jund? If not, then this simple Thallid would be nice to have.
Vitaspore Thallid 1G
Creature - Fungus
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on Vitaspore Thallid.
Remove three spore counters from Vitaspore Thallid: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice a Saproling: Target creature gains haste until end of turn.
1/1
Haste-giver adds some more richness to our Thallid army.
Flagstones of Trokair
Legendary Land T: Add W to your mana pool.
When Flagstones of Trokair is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may search your library for a Plains card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. If you do, shuffle your library.
This is a card that sells for around $10 since it's fairly powerful and has good utility. Wizards has said White is okay to have land tutoring second to Green, which is why I'm inclined to have this in the set, and simply come up with some other legendary lands for the other colors. Still, "City of Icatia" or "Town of Montford" could easily be done, too - I can only fit in so many legendary lands!
Calciform Pools
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool 1, T: Put a storage counter on Calciform Pools. 1, Remove X storage counters from Calciform Pools: Add X mana in any combination of W and/or U to your mana pool.
Dreadship Reef
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool 1, T: Put a storage counter on Dreadship Reef. 1, Remove X storage counters from Dreadship Reef: Add X mana in any combination of U and/or B to your mana pool.
Fungal Reaches
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool 1, T: Put a storage counter on Fungal Reaches. 1, Remove X storage counters from Fungal Reaches: Add X mana in any combination of R and/or G to your mana pool.
Molten Slagheap
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool 1, T: Put a storage counter on Molten Slagheap. 1, Remove X storage counters from Molten Slagheap: Add X mana in any combination of B and/or R to your mana pool.
Saltcrusted Steppe
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool 1, T: Put a storage counter on Saltcrusted Steppe. 1, Remove X storage counters from Saltcrusted Steppe: Add X mana in any combination of G and/or W to your mana pool.
I like the idea of having the original storage lands but making them dual color. This would hopefully make it slightly easier to play multiple colors/tribes while still keeping with the monocolor emphasis. Might go better into Biscuits.
I'm fairly certain this will end up being called the Sarpadia block, or have "Sarpadia" in the name somewhere, however, I'm waiting on naming the sets just at first. So, until they're properly named, the first set we'll give the nickname Biscuits, and the second one Gravy. Mmm, biscuits and gravy!
Fallen Empires is a 187-card expansion set, though really, before all the alternate art cards, only 102 cards are functionally unique. It is a very small set, and never designed to be one that stands alone. As I've mentioned before, seeing how Wizards is transitioning to a two-set block, I need two sets. It make sense to me to have this set take place after a large set, detailing the glory of Sarpadia, before its ultimate fall from grace.
Therefore, the first set will be a large set, between 249-279 cards, while the second set, the spiritual replacement to Fallen Empires, will be a smaller set, likely in the neighborhood of 145-185 cards.
I'm envisioning one or two generations of time between Biscuits and Gravy.
Seeing how Fallen Empires is monocolored and plays up the tribal aspect, I want to protect this. So Gravy must not have any multicolor cards in it, and likely Biscuits too - but I'll table that second decision later.
I want to be sure to focus on the invaders in Gravy as they won't be included in Biscuits, and the "home team" tribes will be heavily featured in Biscuits too. Therefore, Homarids, Thrulls, Goblins, Orcs and Thallids need to be present. Zealots are likely to be a threat here, I'm just not exactly certain how they fit in, as it feels less tribal than Merfolk or Elves, for example, and potentially could belong in Biscuits too. I'll think more about this.
Each tribe needs at least one leader. We do have mention of some of the heroes of these times in the flavor text, so expect to see faces like Bethan Leitbur and Ivra Jursdotter.
Cards that capture great flavor or are great cards aside from being costed poorly or containing an unnecessary drawback could be redesigned into new and better variations.
Counters and tokens are crucial to the set and will absolutely have a place. I definitely want to feature the Thallid mechanic (three counters and remove them) as well as playing up Thrulls and doing interesting things with them.
Reprinting original cards
If I'm trying to capture the spirit of the original set (hint: I am), it makes sense to use some of the cards again. Clearly, many cards are just plain bad. Icatian Town is overpriced. Deep Spawn sucks. Cards like Heroism and Raiding Party are just plain complicated! But certainly, there are a few outstanding cards we can take... right?
Good cards on the Reserved List
Some cards are worth keeping... if only they weren't on the Reserved List. Remember, up until Mercadian Masques, Rare cards which weren't reprinted soon thereafter were automatically added to the Reserved List.
I think it's worthwhile to identify some of the good cards we can't take, as we can then establish more parameters to making the set. It could also influence other choices. And, of course, they could still be reworked into new cards.
Hand of Justice 5W
Creature - Avatar T: Tap three untapped white creatures you control: Destroy target creature.
2/6
This is a little unusual for a white ability. 6 mana also feels high. It fits black a little better, so perhaps it's just as well it can't be reprinted.
Icatian Lieutenant WW
Creature - Soldier 1W: Target Soldier creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/2
This creature does fit well in a tribal Soldier theme, though the firebreathing ability is more red than white.
Homarid Shaman 2UU
Creature - Homarid Shaman U: Tap target green creature.
2/1
This has got to be one of the very few cards that has a multiple word type line that is exactly the same as the card name.
4 mana is a bit pricey, even with the hosing against green. But believe it or not, it's still one of the better Homarids here in the set.
Vodalian Knights 1UU
Creature - Merfolk Knight
First strike
Vodalian Knights can't attack unless defending player controls an Island.
When you control no Islands, sacrifice Vodalian Knights. U: Vodalian Knights gains flying until end of turn.
2/2
Wait... a flying merfolk... on a seahorse mount? Friggin' awesome!
A nice creature that has islandhome, first strike and can get flying. Islandhome is something that's done anymore, and first strike is typically a white or red ability. Perhaps could be turned into a white-blue creature, if multicolored is something I end up doing at all in the block.
Vodalian War Machine 1UU
Creature - Wall
Defender
Tap an untapped Merfolk you control: Vodalian War Machine can attack this turn as though it didn't have defender.
Tap an untapped Merfolk you control: Vodalian War Machine gets +2/+1 until end of turn.
When Vodalian War Machine dies, destroy all Merfolk tapped this turn to pay for its abilities.
0/4
A wall that can attack, and gets a bonus per merfolk tapped. Then, in typical early Magic fashion, destroy the creatures. I feel like this type of card, if made today may end up as an artifact creature, and that might be something to consider in its place.
By the way, for whatever unexplained reason, I am a fan of this art.
Thrull Champion 4B
Creature - Thrull
Thrull creatures get +1/+1. T: Gain control of target Thrull for as long as you control Thrull Champion.
2/2
Every tribe needs its champion or lord, and this almost fits the bill. It's curious to find a champion with only one devotion to its color, however.
I would love to have a "Lord of the Thrulls." Unfortunately, Thrull Champion has a narrow ability in that only works if other players have Thrulls, so a better Thrull lord may be necessary - and someone other than Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder.
Tourach's Gate 1BB
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant land you control
Sacrifice a Thrull: Put three time counters on Tourach's Gate.
At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from Tourach's Gate. If there are no time counters on Tourach's Gate, sacrifice it.
Tap enchanted land: Attacking creatures you control get +2/-1 until end of turn. Activate this ability only if enchanted land is untapped.
An interesting ability that lets you sacrifice thrulls to boost all your attacking creatures. This is a black ability, though it's very interesting to see this as a land aura. I forsee possibly a simpler ability in a nonbasic land. We'll see.
Dwarven Armorer R
Creature - Dwarf R, T, Discard a card: Put a +0/+1 counter or a +1/+0 counter on target creature.
0/2
Reminds me a little of Dwarven Weaponsmith. Costed fairly, the presence of so many different types of counters, however, is a no-go these days. There may be room for a similar ability in a Dwarf.
I firmly believe we need more Dwarves in the Magic multiverse!
Elvish Farmer 1G
Creature - Elf
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on Elvish Farmer.
Remove three spore counters from Elvish Farmer: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Sacrifice a Saproling: You gain 2 life.
0/2
I like this card. It fits in with the Thallid three-counter mechanic nicely.
Fungal Bloom GG
Enchantment GG: Put a spore counter on target Fungus.
A nice, simple card that generates spore counters. I'm not sure if this is properly costed - perhaps it would be? I think perhaps instants or sorceries generating spore tokens may be better, or tapping abilities on lands or creatures so it can't be taken advantage of too much.
Thelonite Monk 2GG
Creature - Insect Monk Cleric T, Sacrifice a green creature: Target land becomes a Forest. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)
1/2
An insect monk? Well, I suppose we've seen stranger things before...
This card is overpriced. Changing a land to a forest is a very good ability, however, and the indefinite aspect is unusual, certainly for cards these days. I'm not sure if this will be missed greatly, but if insect monks existed in Fallen Empires then perhaps there is room for more insect monks.
Aeolipile 2
Artifact 1, T, Sacrifice Aeolipile: Aeolipile deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
An artifact that lets you sacrifice to deal 2 points of damage to a creature or player, this isn't a terrible card. Since then, it has functionally been adopted in Barbarian Ring (Odyssey) and Blazing Torch (Zendikar and Innistrad).
Balm of Restoration 2
Artifact 1, T, Sacrifice Balm of Restoration: Choose one -
You gain 2 life.
Prevent the next 2 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn.
An artifact just like Aeolipile, except it prevents 2 points or lets you gain 2 life. Nothing functionally similar since.
Elven Lyre 2
Artifact 1, T, Sacrifice Elven Lyre: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
Back when Wizards was divided on "elven" versus "elvish." In Fallen Empires, "elven" was only used for noncreature cards.
I love the artwork, the flavor, the simplicity and the utility of this card. It is a real shame I can't take this card.
Implements of Sacrifice 2
Artifact 1, T, Sacrifice Implements of Sacrifice: Add two mana of any one color to your mana pool.
A decent card that's strictly better than Astrolabe. The various eggs from Prophecy are close, as well as Terrarion, a common from Ravnica.
Spirit Shield 3
Artifact
You may choose not to untap Spirit Shield during your untap step. 2, T: Target creature gets +0/+2 for as long as Spirit Shield remains tapped.
Really, this is equipment before there was "Equipment." Spidersilk Net is one more recent example. Opportunity here for some equipment flavor-wise, perhaps adding an ability or tweaking its power level slightly.
Zelyon Sword 3
Artifact
You may choose not to untap Zelyon Sword during your untap step. 3, T: Target creature gets +2/+0 for as long as Zelyon Sword remains tapped.
In the same vein as Spirit Shield. Another vote for equipment in the block.
Rainbow Vale
Land T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. An opponent gains control of Rainbow Vale at the beginning of the next end step.
A land that can produce one mana of any color, but passes to another player. It wasn't worded well in my opinion, as, if it would be activated during an end step, the trigger would wait one additional turn.
It's possible this is a card that could be redone with better rules. Perhaps this land, reworked, could find a home in Biscuits.
Up next:
I'll go over the good cards that deserve to be reprinted into Biscuits and Gravy.
Fallen Empires, the fifth Magic expansion, was released in November 1994 and took creature generation to a new level. The 187-card set met with mixed reviews from players, and controversy over the set's effectiveness still rages on.
It's no secret Fallen Empires was a disappointment.
It was the newest set when I started playing in late 1994, and at the time, cost about $1.45 for an 8-card booster pack (which felt like a good deal at the time for this twelve-year old kid). So these were the cards I collected, and being new and young, I though it was awesome.
However, Fallen Empires is grossly underpowered. Cards from the set are virtually worthless today. Wizards printed far too many, partly as they couldn't print enough from previous sets to keep up with demand, so they were guessing; partly as retailers requested more than they needed in case they only got a small amount of that request. At the time, Wizards was also still learning how to properly design and develop a Magic expansion set. Play-testing the cards wasn't a task that was afforded the time back then.
Yet it could be argued that it is very under-estimated as a set. Fallen Empires is arguably the first tribal set, featuring soldiers and zealots, merfolk and homarids, thrulls, dwarves, goblins and orcs, elves and fungi. Cards gave bonsues to others creatures of specific creature types. This adds great flavor to the set. And although at times inconsistent, much of the artwork is of the greatest quality we've seen on cards, which especially rang true 20 years ago. Ron Spencer's thrulls and thallids are fantastic examples.
Is it a bad set? Yes. But what if Fallen Empires were released today, some 20 years later? What whould it look like? With the knowledge of card and set design, could it be truly awesome?
Well, that's just silly. Instead of playing the "What If?" game, let's just redesign it ourselves already!
Redesigning Fallen Empires
I'm setting out to do the impossible (well, okay, not really - though I'm sure it won't be easy). I'll be redesigning Fallen Empires while doing my best to keep true to the lore, the feel and original goals of the set.
Ground rules
I will produce a set that is its own set, though perhaps similarly titled, not exactly titled "Fallen Empires" as to cause confusion. Instead, it will simply supplant it.
I must honor the spirit of the set. I must not make radical changes. It should still feel like Fallen Empires.
I may not rewrite Magic storylines or changing existing characters.
I may use cards from the original set, but I may not reuse cards that are now on the Reserved List.
Fallen Empires block?
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's look at how Wizards does things.
It was just communicated recently (2014) that Wizards is switching to a two-set block design. Various sensible reasons were cited. If Fallen Empires were released today, then there would need to be two sets.
Two sets? Well alright then!
Seeing that this is the fall of many empires on the continent of Sarpadia, and that we know very little about the people on the continent beforehand, it makes sense to have Fallen Empires as the second set of a two-set block, and a new set contrasting to how things were before all the strife. This will be intriguing, as I'll not only be designing two sets, but also starting with the second one first.
Up next:
I'll create a basic plan for the block.
I'll go over the cards worth keeping for inclusion from the original Fallen Empires and supplementary cards from Time Spiral.
I notice you've got a little bit of white border around some of your images - have you thought of scaling your crops to slightly larger than the image frame so it's eliminated?
Yeah, I need to resize the cropped images. There was an issue during my initial batch image conversion, but I'm in the process of fixing them, and also getting the missing artwork for a handful of cards.
I'd also use a sans-serif font for the card text, preferably one of the standard, boring web fonts like Verdana - boring, I know, but I found that at the default zoom the text was a little hard to read. Using a serifless font would make the text easier to read at small sizes
Hmm, possibly that could work. For now, I've increased the sizes a bit, but I could maybe see somewhere a checkbox to show it in a sans-serif font instead.
I discovered most deck builders suffer from having either super small card pics that are hard to read the rules text, don’t have pictures, or have large pictures which you have to wait considerably for each to download, and can only view one at a time. Using them was not fun!
I thought for a while about what it would take to generate cards dynamically. I figured it was totally doable. The more I thought about the cards, I realized much of what is printed is fluff — some cards have an abundance of reminder text and flavor text which could be left off entirely. So I spent the last few weeks trying to re-create cards… and I think the result is better than I imagined.
Keep in mind this is a little rough. It’s definitely a work in progress.
Features
Strong, graphical interaction with cards
Very small overhead for graphics (~2 MB for frames and symbols; card images average 16 KB each on-demand)
Support for nearly all tournament-legal cards (no — I am not going to even try to render “Un” sets!)
Support for generic deck lists and multiples of given cards
Fully scalable cards, readable at small sizes, larger sizes may allow for proxies
Consistency with all cards rendered using newer 2014 card frames
Rendered in Plantin web font by license
No reminder text and flavor text dramatically improves readability
Known Issues
Image loading needs optimization
Alternate art, versions not available
Lacking support for sets, rarity, collector number and illustrator credits (though at the very least I really want the artist credit here)
Split cards, flip cards and dual-facing cards are not fully-supported yet
Planeswalkers frames are missing
Colored frames on lands which produce mana are missing
Color-specific gradient frames are missing from two-color cards
Cards are not printable (a change back to using <canvas> may improve this)
Collision happens with the power and toughness box
Hybrid mana isn’t perfectly-sized with the rules text
Some pictures are missing and pictures aren’t perfectly sized (fix in the works)
Stars for power and toughness aren’t sized correctly in all browsers
Future
I’d like to turn this into a deck builder and provide more information, but the goal is to keep this as simple as possible. I want people to be able to save decks like a pastebin and take advantage of the visual appeal by being able to truly see a deck. It would be nice to be able to simulate drawing sample hands for decks. Finally, I want to pair this with a smart database to find, compare and suggest similar cards.
Feedback
So what do you think? I’m taking this slowly on purpose but I wouldn’t mind your criticisms. Certainly it’s lacking many features. Anything is okay at this point, and if you think I should push this into an entirely different direction I haven’t thought of, I’m open to your thoughts.
Otherwise, there still have been no new split cards released since Dragon’s Maze.
Thanks!
Instant
Counter target spell that targets two or more permanents.
When you prepare for the worst, you'll often be criticized for being overly prepared.
Thanks! If this turns out to be popular, I’ll make a list for “Or” cards (like Do or Die and Fact or Fiction).
When designing custom cards, part of the difficulty is coming up with great names. With nearly 15,000 cards many names have already been taken. So I’ve gone ahead and searched for common (and some not-so-common) English idioms that would work well for almost any split card.
Available Names for Split Cards:
Enchantment
Creatures you control with flying have indestructible.
Mechanics
Two mechanics that are automatically in are creating creature tokens and removing counters on cards for effects. We see this in Thallid and Thrull cards, Goblin Warrens and others.
Aside from those two, what mechanics do you think I should try to recycle here?
First, a couple of things to think about:
So, what mechanics would you like to see in a tribal theme set? And if you were to take a look at the existing Fallen Empires cards, if added, what kind of mechanics on additional cards might work well?
I'm not opposed to including some new mechanics. I think the three counters and sacrifice can be used with other tribes as well. Also, I kind of like Empty the Warrens which uses Storm, so I'm playing around with using the Storm mechanic on a handful of cards. But yes, there could be room for one or two more mechanics between Biscuits and Gravy.
I've also been re-thinking the storage lands. I think the original storage lands may be better. I'll have to see how things play out. The next step is creating commons for the colors.
White: Soldiers and Zealots
White is home to the race of Humans, living in a kingdom called Icatia. There is a triangle of adversaries fighting here: Soldiers, Zealots and the Thrulls.
I'll be updating this post later, but for now, here's a teaser:
A cleric-knight, Bethan Leitbur can attack and heal at the same time, while fending off the forces of evil
and chaos.(Too powerful? I could change him to just Pro-Black.)Pro-Black only now, and can heal any creature. This fits better flavor-wise with Order of Leitbur (Pro-Black) and other legendary clerics in the multiverse.I'm looking forward to custom cards too! There will definitely be new ones, and I'm open to suggestions.
In the last post, I wrote about the cards which I could not include for reprint. Now, I'll go over the cards which deserve a spot in a Sarpadian set. But first, I want to briefly go over the cards I do not want in my set, and reasons for them.
Cards I'm choosing not to use
I'm not about to bring back banding, so all the banding cards are out. Possibly Soldiers with another ability, like vigilance, would work well in their place.
Wizards has said they would either like to use +1/+1 counters or -1/-1 counters in a set, but preferably not both, and no other types of counters. I think +1/+1 counters work better here in the weenie tribal theme, so that means any other buff/anti-buff counters are out the window.
The cycle of storage lands I'm thinking of using in place of the originals are the Time Spiral dual-color storage lands. I don't think this has to violate my monocolor decree fir Gravy, but, it could still go into Biscuits anyway.
I'd like to leave out Orgg in favor of one or more redesigned Orggs. There are a few variants, so why not create another?
Lastly, Fallen Empires features many cards that have optional counter-payments, which tends to be needlessly complicated. Most cards with this wording are out.
- Farrel's Mantle: Feels more at home in green or red
- Farrel's Zealot: Feels more at home in green or red
- Farrelite Priest: Feels more at home in green; sacrifice consequence
- Heroism: Narrow; complicated
- Icatian Infantry: Banding is deprecated
- Icatian Moneychanger: Credit counters; unusual in dealing damage; slow life gain
- Icatian Phalanx: Banding is deprecated
- Icatian Scout: Weak; feels more at home with red
- Icatian Skirmishers: Banding is deprecated
- Icatian Town: High casting cost
- Deep Spawn: High casting cost; high maintenance; too many drawbacks
- Homarid: Difficult tracking
- Homarid Spawning Bed: Feels more at home with black
- Homarid Warrior: High casting cost; shroud is deprecated
- Merseine: Difficult tracking; complicated
- Seasinger: Island control is awkward
- Svyelunite Priest: Shroud is deprecated
- Tidal Flats: Feels more at home with white; complicated
- Tidal Influence: Difficult to track
- Vodalian Soldier: Weak
- Armor Thrull: Nonstandard buff counter
- Basal Thrull: Feels more at home with green, red or artifact
- Breeding Pit: Upkeep costs; nonstandard token
- Derelor: High drawback
- Hymn to Tourach: Slightly overpowered
- Initiates of the Ebon Hand: Feels more at home with green; sacrifice consequence
- Soul Exchange: Unusual counter type
- Thrull Wizard: Feels more at home with blue
- Tourach's Chant: Land hate; second buff counter type
- Dwarven Lieutenant: Narrow; weak
- Dwarven Soldier: Narrow
- Goblin Kites: Complicated
- Orcish Captain: Complicated; tedious coin flips
- Orgg: Slightly complicated; weak
- Raiding Party: Complicated
- Elven Fortress: Weak; uses "Elven" in title
- Elvish Hunter: Untap hate; pricey activated ability
- Elvish Scout: Feels more at home with white; narrow
- Feral Thallid: High casting cost
- Spore Cloud: Difficult to track; complicated
- Thelon's Chant: Land hate; second buff counter type
- Thelonite Druid: Slightly narrow; uncommon activated ability cost; uncommon animated power/toughness
- Thallid Devourer: +1/+2 buff is nonstandard
- Thorn Thallid: Feels more at home with red
- Delif's Cone: Narrow; feels more at home in white; possible abusive casting
Cards I'm choosing not to use printed from other setsThese cards were printed specifically in the flavor of Fallen Empires.
- Icatian Crier: No spellshapers in Sarpadia
- Shade of Trokair: Future inhabitant? No Suspend in Biscuits or Gravy
- Morgue Thrull: Feels more at home in blue
- Thelonite Hermit: Morph likely not in Biscuits or Gravy
- Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII: Feels like kind of a joke
Now let's take a look at the cards that are worth consideration.I'm still on the fence with this card.The unlimited activated ability for healing isn't something often done in Magic, but I think it's appropriately priced, if slightly on the weaker end.Icatian Javelineers has been reprinted already a couple times. It was one of several cards from Fallen Empires featured in Time Spiral. It was also reprinted in Kiora vs. Elspeth.
Icatian Javelineers does a few things well. Firstly, it makes use of the "remove-a-counter" mechanic. It's a Soldier card that has a minor ability of being able to zap for 1 damage, one time. I don't think it's a coincidence that there are a larger number of creatures with 2 toughness in the original set - and Icatian Javelineers aren't the only card that can zap for 1 damage, either.
The fact that it can only deal 1 damage once says to me it is safe from bleeding too much into red. And hey, we just don't have many Javelineers in the multiverse. It's exciting - or at least as much as a 1/1 common can be, anyway.This was reprinted in Tenth Edition and Divine vs. Demonic. Surprisingly, white has had few cards that give any creature a bonus as an unlimited activated ability. Zhalfirin Commander is likely loosely based off of Icatian Priest.
I think this card would work fine in either Biscuits or Gravy.This card was popular back in the day as people felt it was just a tad stronger than White Knight.
Normally the firebreathing ability is in red, but it is a rather iconic card, and the Order of Leitbur is significant. So I'm going to make an exception here, and take its counterpart too, Order of the Ebon Hand.This has been redone with Disruptive Student and Disruptive Pitmage. That being said, I believe Wizards is moving away from the activated ability counterspells. I'm leaning towards keeping it.One of the better Thrulls in the set. Discard suits black fine, and three cards? Reprinted in Fifth Edition, I think it's one of the better Thrulls to keep. Also besties with Necrite.Brother to Mindstab Thrull, a 2/2 with a Terror trigger isn't too bad. Technically cheaper yet weaker than Nekrataal. Another Fifth Edition reprint. (Stay away from the Drew Tucker variant.)As I explained earlier, Order of the Ebon Hand was a popular card that found itself in many tournament decks in its day. Iconic and well-priced. The firebreathing ability can sometimes bleed into black, as can first strike, so it still fits okay.A simple card that plays into the sacrifical nature of Thrulls. Reprinted previously in Fifth Edition.Costs 1 more than Goblin Raider but has 1 better power and can block some creatures. Joins the cast of cards printed in Fifth Edition. This is a good card for Orc tribal.One of the sets better cards, it finds a home easily in almost any Goblin deck. It was picked up in Magic 2012. If it gets included, we will need numerous Goblins to complement it.Reprinted in both Fifth Edition and Seventh Edition, it's a straightforward effect that provides some interesting strategy with a weenie theme.Just as creatures and token spells have gotten more powerful with time, and with newer cards in the multiverse now handling more enter-the-battlefield effects, Goblin Warrens gets a little bit of power back. An acceptable Goblin factory when mana is plentiful, Goblin Warrens will give players more reasons to play a Goblin deck.Not too powerful yet very utilitarian. Red does library look-ahead effects (typically with just the top card of the library) so this isn't a large stretch for Orcish Spy. This will likely be one of very few dirt cheap Orcs.Some graveyard hate from back in the day that likely ended up being very narrow, this card could be much more important today with alternatives such as reclaiming cards or paying for flashback. Was wisely reprinted for Commander 2013.Good old Thallid! The original Saproling generator, this card perfectly captures the three-counter mechanic while carrying its rich flavor.This cycle of nonbasic lands are some of the best designed cards in Fallen Empires. Functional, simple, and just powerful enough, many of these were rightfully reprinted. These most definitely belong in Gravy.
Cards considering from Time Spiral block
Turns out there are a decent number of cards from Time Spiral that could work well in Biscuits and Gravy. I'll go over them here.
The story behind Empress Galina is she is the leader of the Merfolk in Vodalia. She is able to escape with a collection of Merfolk through a portal, and end up in another continent in another time.
The only benefit to using her is if I include many legendary permanents (which is a possibility) she could play nicely. Otherwise, now is my opportunity to make "Empress Galina of Vodalia" or similar sounding card.As already mentioned, Endrek Sahr, the thrull breeder, is perfect for this set.Why not have a Thallid in black? I kind of like the idea. Not sure if having just one Zombie in the set is an odd idea, but it still is a Fungus, so perhaps that's not a large issue.I like this card, but only if I include some other Storm cards into the sets.A nice, beatdown Green creature that's not a Thallid. Could go into Biscuits.Yes, please! I like the idea of a drawing card mechanism.I love this card - a large Thallid that fills the void of Feral Thallid.Putting spore counters on each Fungus? Now that's fairly powerful ability, and I like it.Marginally better than Thallid Devourer, and without the awkward "+1/+2" wording.Finally, we now have a Thallid wall! Excited.A cheap, useful, Elf/Fungus legend. The Black/Green ability is interesting, yet it's still a mono-Green creature. I like what's going on here, though, and I think it would work well.Is the Tukatongue tree native only to Jund? If not, then this simple Thallid would be nice to have.Haste-giver adds some more richness to our Thallid army.This is a card that sells for around $10 since it's fairly powerful and has good utility. Wizards has said White is okay to have land tutoring second to Green, which is why I'm inclined to have this in the set, and simply come up with some other legendary lands for the other colors. Still, "City of Icatia" or "Town of Montford" could easily be done, too - I can only fit in so many legendary lands!I like the idea of having the original storage lands but making them dual color. This would hopefully make it slightly easier to play multiple colors/tribes while still keeping with the monocolor emphasis. Might go better into Biscuits.
I'm fairly certain this will end up being called the Sarpadia block, or have "Sarpadia" in the name somewhere, however, I'm waiting on naming the sets just at first. So, until they're properly named, the first set we'll give the nickname Biscuits, and the second one Gravy. Mmm, biscuits and gravy!
Fallen Empires is a 187-card expansion set, though really, before all the alternate art cards, only 102 cards are functionally unique. It is a very small set, and never designed to be one that stands alone. As I've mentioned before, seeing how Wizards is transitioning to a two-set block, I need two sets. It make sense to me to have this set take place after a large set, detailing the glory of Sarpadia, before its ultimate fall from grace.
Therefore, the first set will be a large set, between 249-279 cards, while the second set, the spiritual replacement to Fallen Empires, will be a smaller set, likely in the neighborhood of 145-185 cards.
- I'm envisioning one or two generations of time between Biscuits and Gravy.
- Seeing how Fallen Empires is monocolored and plays up the tribal aspect, I want to protect this. So Gravy must not have any multicolor cards in it, and likely Biscuits too - but I'll table that second decision later.
- I want to be sure to focus on the invaders in Gravy as they won't be included in Biscuits, and the "home team" tribes will be heavily featured in Biscuits too. Therefore, Homarids, Thrulls, Goblins, Orcs and Thallids need to be present. Zealots are likely to be a threat here, I'm just not exactly certain how they fit in, as it feels less tribal than Merfolk or Elves, for example, and potentially could belong in Biscuits too. I'll think more about this.
- Each tribe needs at least one leader. We do have mention of some of the heroes of these times in the flavor text, so expect to see faces like Bethan Leitbur and Ivra Jursdotter.
- Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder will make an appearance. (Yes, you can all rejoice now!)
- Cards that capture great flavor or are great cards aside from being costed poorly or containing an unnecessary drawback could be redesigned into new and better variations.
- Counters and tokens are crucial to the set and will absolutely have a place. I definitely want to feature the Thallid mechanic (three counters and remove them) as well as playing up Thrulls and doing interesting things with them.
Reprinting original cardsIf I'm trying to capture the spirit of the original set (hint: I am), it makes sense to use some of the cards again. Clearly, many cards are just plain bad. Icatian Town is overpriced. Deep Spawn sucks. Cards like Heroism and Raiding Party are just plain complicated! But certainly, there are a few outstanding cards we can take... right?
Good cards on the Reserved List
Some cards are worth keeping... if only they weren't on the Reserved List. Remember, up until Mercadian Masques, Rare cards which weren't reprinted soon thereafter were automatically added to the Reserved List.
I think it's worthwhile to identify some of the good cards we can't take, as we can then establish more parameters to making the set. It could also influence other choices. And, of course, they could still be reworked into new cards.This is a little unusual for a white ability. 6 mana also feels high. It fits black a little better, so perhaps it's just as well it can't be reprinted.This creature does fit well in a tribal Soldier theme, though the firebreathing ability is more red than white.This has got to be one of the very few cards that has a multiple word type line that is exactly the same as the card name.
4 mana is a bit pricey, even with the hosing against green. But believe it or not, it's still one of the better Homarids here in the set.Wait... a flying merfolk... on a seahorse mount? Friggin' awesome!
A nice creature that has islandhome, first strike and can get flying. Islandhome is something that's done anymore, and first strike is typically a white or red ability. Perhaps could be turned into a white-blue creature, if multicolored is something I end up doing at all in the block.A wall that can attack, and gets a bonus per merfolk tapped. Then, in typical early Magic fashion, destroy the creatures. I feel like this type of card, if made today may end up as an artifact creature, and that might be something to consider in its place.
By the way, for whatever unexplained reason, I am a fan of this art.Every tribe needs its champion or lord, and this almost fits the bill. It's curious to find a champion with only one devotion to its color, however.
I would love to have a "Lord of the Thrulls." Unfortunately, Thrull Champion has a narrow ability in that only works if other players have Thrulls, so a better Thrull lord may be necessary - and someone other than Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder.An interesting ability that lets you sacrifice thrulls to boost all your attacking creatures. This is a black ability, though it's very interesting to see this as a land aura. I forsee possibly a simpler ability in a nonbasic land. We'll see.Reminds me a little of Dwarven Weaponsmith. Costed fairly, the presence of so many different types of counters, however, is a no-go these days. There may be room for a similar ability in a Dwarf.
I firmly believe we need more Dwarves in the Magic multiverse!I like this card. It fits in with the Thallid three-counter mechanic nicely.A nice, simple card that generates spore counters. I'm not sure if this is properly costed - perhaps it would be? I think perhaps instants or sorceries generating spore tokens may be better, or tapping abilities on lands or creatures so it can't be taken advantage of too much.An insect monk? Well, I suppose we've seen stranger things before...
This card is overpriced. Changing a land to a forest is a very good ability, however, and the indefinite aspect is unusual, certainly for cards these days. I'm not sure if this will be missed greatly, but if insect monks existed in Fallen Empires then perhaps there is room for more insect monks.An artifact that lets you sacrifice to deal 2 points of damage to a creature or player, this isn't a terrible card. Since then, it has functionally been adopted in Barbarian Ring (Odyssey) and Blazing Torch (Zendikar and Innistrad).An artifact just like Aeolipile, except it prevents 2 points or lets you gain 2 life. Nothing functionally similar since.Back when Wizards was divided on "elven" versus "elvish." In Fallen Empires, "elven" was only used for noncreature cards.
I love the artwork, the flavor, the simplicity and the utility of this card. It is a real shame I can't take this card.A decent card that's strictly better than Astrolabe. The various eggs from Prophecy are close, as well as Terrarion, a common from Ravnica.Really, this is equipment before there was "Equipment." Spidersilk Net is one more recent example. Opportunity here for some equipment flavor-wise, perhaps adding an ability or tweaking its power level slightly.In the same vein as Spirit Shield. Another vote for equipment in the block.A land that can produce one mana of any color, but passes to another player. It wasn't worded well in my opinion, as, if it would be activated during an end step, the trigger would wait one additional turn.
It's possible this is a card that could be redone with better rules. Perhaps this land, reworked, could find a home in Biscuits.
Up next:
It was the newest set when I started playing in late 1994, and at the time, cost about $1.45 for an 8-card booster pack (which felt like a good deal at the time for this twelve-year old kid). So these were the cards I collected, and being new and young, I though it was awesome.
However, Fallen Empires is grossly underpowered. Cards from the set are virtually worthless today. Wizards printed far too many, partly as they couldn't print enough from previous sets to keep up with demand, so they were guessing; partly as retailers requested more than they needed in case they only got a small amount of that request. At the time, Wizards was also still learning how to properly design and develop a Magic expansion set. Play-testing the cards wasn't a task that was afforded the time back then.
Yet it could be argued that it is very under-estimated as a set. Fallen Empires is arguably the first tribal set, featuring soldiers and zealots, merfolk and homarids, thrulls, dwarves, goblins and orcs, elves and fungi. Cards gave bonsues to others creatures of specific creature types. This adds great flavor to the set. And although at times inconsistent, much of the artwork is of the greatest quality we've seen on cards, which especially rang true 20 years ago. Ron Spencer's thrulls and thallids are fantastic examples.
Is it a bad set? Yes. But what if Fallen Empires were released today, some 20 years later? What whould it look like? With the knowledge of card and set design, could it be truly awesome?
Well, that's just silly. Instead of playing the "What If?" game, let's just redesign it ourselves already!
Redesigning Fallen Empires
I'm setting out to do the impossible (well, okay, not really - though I'm sure it won't be easy). I'll be redesigning Fallen Empires while doing my best to keep true to the lore, the feel and original goals of the set.Fallen Empires block?
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's look at how Wizards does things.
It was just communicated recently (2014) that Wizards is switching to a two-set block design. Various sensible reasons were cited. If Fallen Empires were released today, then there would need to be two sets.
Two sets? Well alright then!
Seeing that this is the fall of many empires on the continent of Sarpadia, and that we know very little about the people on the continent beforehand, it makes sense to have Fallen Empires as the second set of a two-set block, and a new set contrasting to how things were before all the strife. This will be intriguing, as I'll not only be designing two sets, but also starting with the second one first.
Up next:
Illustration credits
Rainbow Vale: Kaja Foglio; Ruins of Trokair, Svyelunite Temple, Ebon Stronghold, Dwarven Ruins, Havenwood Battleground: Mark Poole; Icatian Stores, Sand Silos, Bottomless Pit, Dwarven Hold, Hollow Tress: Pat Morrissey
Yeah, I need to resize the cropped images. There was an issue during my initial batch image conversion, but I'm in the process of fixing them, and also getting the missing artwork for a handful of cards.
Hmm, possibly that could work. For now, I've increased the sizes a bit, but I could maybe see somewhere a checkbox to show it in a sans-serif font instead.
The readable, visual deck aid
(Link)
I discovered most deck builders suffer from having either super small card pics that are hard to read the rules text, don’t have pictures, or have large pictures which you have to wait considerably for each to download, and can only view one at a time. Using them was not fun!
I thought for a while about what it would take to generate cards dynamically. I figured it was totally doable. The more I thought about the cards, I realized much of what is printed is fluff — some cards have an abundance of reminder text and flavor text which could be left off entirely. So I spent the last few weeks trying to re-create cards… and I think the result is better than I imagined.
Keep in mind this is a little rough. It’s definitely a work in progress.
Features
Known Issues
Future
I’d like to turn this into a deck builder and provide more information, but the goal is to keep this as simple as possible. I want people to be able to save decks like a pastebin and take advantage of the visual appeal by being able to truly see a deck. It would be nice to be able to simulate drawing sample hands for decks. Finally, I want to pair this with a smart database to find, compare and suggest similar cards.
Feedback
So what do you think? I’m taking this slowly on purpose but I wouldn’t mind your criticisms. Certainly it’s lacking many features. Anything is okay at this point, and if you think I should push this into an entirely different direction I haven’t thought of, I’m open to your thoughts.
Thanks!