The Sky is Not Falling; or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Suck It Up

GAME THEORY


So, as you may or may not know, the next core set is just over the horizon. This time is a little different, for the first time since M10, we're getting a bunch of new rules. Some big, some small. And as usual, people on Magic social media have gone completely bonkers. You'd think it was a sign of the apocalypse or something.

1. Cats and dogs will marry.
2. Rivers will run with blood.
3. You can't legend rule creatures with clones.

I've been playing the game since Shards of Alara, been a flavor nut for almost as long, an amateur card designer for about half that time, and a judge for 3 months. I've seen Magic from a lot of different perspectives, and I can safely say the sky is not falling. At least not from this.

I figured I'd go over all the changes, what they really mean, and why this won't be the death of Magic. Partly because I love you, and partly because I should actually use this stupid blog.

THE LEGEND RULE

The way the legend rule currently works is that there can only be one legendary permanent (creature, artifact, enchantment or land) with the same name on the battlefield at any given time. The idea being that it's a sort of space time thing. There's lots of bears and goblins and demons and what not to summon across the multiverse, but there is only one Thalia. Trying to make more than one creates a paradox, and both are eliminated. Or maybe your opponent used the same spell as you to dismiss her. Whatever. There is no exact flavor, and it doesn't really matter.
There can only be one.

The way it will work is largely the same, except for individual players. Each player may have a Thalia, but any one player can't have two Thalias. Legends are getting a bit of a boost though, the way it will work is that if at any time you have two legendary permanents with the same name, you get to pick one to keep, and the other goes to your graveyard as a state based effect.

WHY THIS ISN'T THE END OF THE WORLD

Well, I just told you why. An important think to note is that the legendary status was never exactly an upside or a downside, it depended on what side of the table it was on. If you played a legend, and your opponent legend ruled it, sucks for you. If your opponent played a legend and you legend ruled it, sucks for them. This new change doesn't make legends (in and of themselves) better or worse. Just different.

True it makes some legends much better (harder to kill hexproof legends, you can do dumb things like copying Zegana with a Progenitor Mimic, legendary lands and mana rocks like Gaea's Cradle and Mox Opal can be used like rituals) and some worse (can't loop Sharuum in EDH as easily), but as a whole legends just play too differently now for this to be considered better or worse.

I've heard some people complain about the flavor failure of this, and well, yeah, its a little bit worse, but interpreting Magic gameplay as a literal narrative is deeply flawed.
This is a game where Nicol Bolas can pick up Nicol Bolas and beat you to death with him.
There are far more egregious flavor fails in the game than this one. Seriously folks; it's a game about Magic. If you can't figure out how this might work, you're not trying hard enough.

THE PLANESWALKER RULE

The way Planeswalkers currently work is very much like the legend rule, but with names subtypes (the name on their type line) instead of their name. The new walker rule will work very similar to the new legend rule, but again with walker subtypes instead of legend names.

WHY THIS ISN'T THE END OF THE WORLD

Again a lot of the above. When Jace, He Who Devours the Dreams of the Innocent was in standard, many blue players would play Jace Beleren as a way to pre-emptively legend rule their opponents Mind-Sculptors. You get a free draw out of it, and they have to waste a whole turn clearing the board of Jaces before they can play their own. This scenario can and does happen in any format with a significant Planeswalker presence in top tier decks. The new rule prevents that from happening. Again, this is not better or worse, but different.
Wizards has said that since walkers have been printed, they've been hesitant to print Faith's Fetters style removal because of how powerfully it hoses walkers. If an opponent fetters one of your walkers, they've effectively destroyed it and the next one you play. With the new rule, fetters isn't a 2 for 1 against walkers. Which makes walkers stronger but also means that Wizards will be more inclined to print this style removal in the future.
I love playing with walkers, but playing against them, especially without a way to meaningfully interact with them, is miserable. Anything that enables better removal for them is a win in my book.

The flavor is about as weird for this as it was for legends. So the way it was before it was assumed that when you summoned a Planeswalker, they were fulfilling an agreement or debt or similar to you, and when your opponent legend ruled yours away that they were calling in a similar debt. Now, it's not so clear. I've heard some folks suggest that now a Planeswalker is merely playing both sides of the field. An interesting idea, but way more devious than I would come to expect from some of the characters, and it does nothing to answer how Sarkhan could simultaneously be sane and insane, or Ajani angry and mellow, or Garruk cursed and not. Alas, we'll have to learn to deal with it.

THE SIDEBOARD RULE

How deckbuilding worked before in constructed formats was thus; your main deck had to have a minimum of cards (usually sixty) and your sideboard had to have either 0 or 15 cards, nothing in between and any sideboarding you did in between games had to be done 1:1. Which is to say, for every card added, you had to take one out.
Your deck is the same, but now your sideboard can contain up to 15 cards. Additionally, you don't have to take any cards out when you sideboard to put more in. Should you so desire, you may put all 15 cards of your sideboard into your deck. I would not particularly recommend this, however.

WHY THIS ISN'T THE WORLD

Are you seriously going to ask me this? This doesn't affect deckbuilding in any real way. What it does do is prevent really unfortunate game losses that should have not happened. Imagine this scenario; you're playing a competitive game of Magic at a high enough level of rules enforcement that you can be penalized for mistakes. After your first game you do some sideboarding. Now, sometime before the round ends it is discovered that you only have fourteen cards in your sideboard. Under the old rules, you would receive a game loss. Under the new rules, nothing happens. Seems good to me. More games being determined through deck choice and play skill over semantic corner case rules lawyer crap like this is good for the game.

INDESTRUCTIBLE PROMOTED TO KEYWORD

This is a bit weird. You know what a keyword is right? It's usually a single word on a Magic card that implies a larger block of rules text. Key words are used by Magic designers to establish and reinforce themes of a card or set and to save space on cards which allows for more variance in design. For example, what you look at when you see the text box for Storm Crow is "flying" but what is actually there is "this creature can only be blocked by creatures with flying or reach". One of those sounds a lot more elegant than the other yeah? That's what keywords are great!
Indestructible is a piece of technology that was first introduced in Darksteel. It showed up on a bunch of cards and those cards could not be destroyed. Now here's the problem; Indestructible is not a keyword. Never was. R&D was using an English word to denote that cards were the definition of that word; ie, they could survive destruction effects. This was rather confusing as it was used like a keyword. It had design space, colors it showed up in more than others, a balance it had to maintain across effects and rarities, but it was never an ability, rules wise.
This lack of abilityness created a bunch of really weird cornercase scenarios that were probably never intended but just kind of happened because of how the rules worked.
For example, did you know that if you used Turn to Frog on a Falkenrath Aristocrat that had eaten someone that turn, the Aristocrat would remain indestructible? Indestructibility was not an ability to be taken away, just a quality of the card.
Did you know that if you cast Boros Charm that creatures that enter the battlefield after you cast Boros Charm will be indestructible hat turn?
That's some weird crap. Now that Indestructible is a keyword, those scenarios will work more akin to how logic would dictate them working instead of the weirdness that they are now.

HOW THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD

Because it's not. Now people who aren't certified Magic judges can figure out how indestructible interacts with stuff, and we get to save a bunch of space on cards by changing "Darksteel Colossus is indestructible" to "Indestructible". Neat.

UNBLOCKABLE TEMPLATE CHANGE

"Unblockable" as a line of rules text is being changed to "can't be blocked". Why, you might ask? Mostly to keep it in line with the current templating to the blajillion variants of unblockable already in print.

HOW THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD

Because nothing has changed. At all. Your favorite Tormented Soul works exactly as it did before.

PLAYING ADDITIONAL LANDS

Of all the weird rules crap I've talked about today, this is the weirdest. Did you know that when you have multiple effects that let you play a land you're supposed to specify which land drop you're using? For example, let's say you have an Oracle of Mul Daya in play right now you have two land drop options. You have your natural land drop (let's call it LandDropA) and the Oracle's land drop (LandDropB). You decide to play a land using LandDropB. Then you cast Cloudshift targetting your own Oracle. The Oracle comes back in, and the game recognizes it as a separate game object. You now have LandDropC. That's some weird crap.
The way land drops will work going forward is that instead of asking how many land drop effects you  have going on is to simply count the number of land drops you have available.
By default you will have 1 land drop. If you have an Oracle in play you will have 1+1=2 land drops available.
If you Cloudshift your Oracle you will still have 1+1=2 land drops available.
Make sense to me.

WHY THIS ISN'T THE END OF THE WORLD

Because it's such a cornercase thing that will almost never be relevant. That being said, this rules change is kind of interesting because its the only one we're getting that actually makes a few cards worse. I know that Cloudshifting Oracles to get 7 land drops in a turn was never a top tier strategy, but I'm sure there's some people out there who did do that sort of thing, and I would like to offer my condolences to you for losing a strategy you loved. Sucks man. ):


Well there you have it, all of the new rules changes. I hope I have helped convince you that Magic will somehow manage to weather this storm.
I'd love to hear what you think about the new rules changes.

Rosewater Rumble, the aftermath

A couple of weeks back, Mark Rosewater, Magic's lead designer, ran a tournament of sorts: The Rosewater Rumble.
He asked all of his followers on his numerous social media outlets to pick their favorite set of the 16 sets he had been the lead designer for.
A bit boastful, yes, but I would brag too if I had made that much of an impact on the game.

Today I offer some of my own opinions on the outcome of the poll, how I voted et cetera.
Or I would have, had I remembered what I had to say, but it was three weeks ago, and in that time I've forgotten some of the undoubtedly profound things I had to say.

I guess I'm going to wing it.

I want to highlight some of the sets I favored and why.

In his personal reviews, Mark speaks somewhat pessimistically of Mirrodin and Urza's Destiny. And not for no reason, they were two of the most overpowered sets of all time. They ushered forth some of the most poorly developed cards of all time that turned tournament play into a stagnant wasteland of salty tears.

But I kind of liked that. yes, those sets had some really bad issues, but their poor development stands in stark contrast to most of Magic's history where tournament play always had some semblance of balance. I feel that the unique circumstances that lead to these sets being so broken also led them to be unique in all the best ways. So many cards, so many cool cards, from these sets simply would not have ever happened in a set with a tighter leash.

I also personally voted very high for Shadowmoor and Eventide. I started playing just after Shards of Alara was released, so everyone I played with at the beginning had loads of decks full of hybrid cards. I came to play with and against a ton of the cardpool from the two sets, and even as my tastes and skills matured, I always had a soft spot for the sets. It seemed to me that as some quirk of hybrid design that the two sets had fewer cards that most players colloquially referred to as "limited chaffe", cards that are playable in limited, but pretty much nowehre else.

That's pretty much it.
Those are the only opinions I had that stood apart from the standard.

What did you think of the results of the Rosewater Rumble?
Why did you like or dislike the design of the various sets in it?

I'd love to hear what you think about it!

Golgari Unearth

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

 

Picking up where we left off; What if the Golgari had Unearth?

I started a contest to find out, and now I'm writing an article.

Unearth is basically Flashback for creatures as we know, but it offers considerably more versatility because of how many more things you can do with creatures.
Attack, block, sacrifice, equip, trigger, et cetera.

Unearth was pretty groovy the first time around, but I'm convinced that there's a lot more design space for it, especially were it to be bled into a new color.

As far as limited was concerned, Unearth gave you access to varying sizes of Ball Lightning variants; one free beefy swing. Kind of dull design space, but a necessary utility since limited is very much a big deal.

Plus if nothing else, we get an Unearth hydra. Hydras are cool.

 



 Another way to make use of Unearth is to consider that all Unearth creatures have haste by default. To me this would indicate that Unearth creatures with tap abilties would be a neat trick, but we didn't see much of that the first time around, which I consider to be a shame because of all the neat things you can do with that sort of functionality.

We didn't see many tappers the first time around because a lot of the higher level unearthers were built around enter the battlefield or leave the battlefield triggers, and I really can't blame them. The design space is so obvious, and with Magic mechanics, you generally want to go for the obvious designs first, because otherwise you'll have insufferable know-it-alls like me asking the designers "Why didn't you do this totally obvious thing?!"

 



One thing I am surprised never happened was that we never got any cards that gave you a bonus for unearthing them, which is to say that when you Unearthed them you got something you didn't the first time around.

 And finally, we didn't see much of things that were built around Unearth. Oh sure, there were a tad more than usual discard outlets at lower rarities, but nothing that called out Unearth explicitly. I'm surprised we didn't see the token "uncommon red enchantment that deals damage when you do a thing" or just *something* that would incentivize players to build unearth theme decks.

 



Whatever happens, I know that Unearth has enough resonance and design space that they'll definitely bring it back in the future, and I can't wait to see how my predictions pan out then!

What do you think about the possibilities of Unearth or how it would have fared for the Golgari?
Let me know and feel free to join my contest!

I don't have any clever wordplay for this; Absorb designs

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

 

Picking up where we left off yesterday; What if Azorius had absorb?

 

I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. I've tried coming up with some designs and it's harder than I would have guessed. I'll give you a hint why; absorb is a lot more powerful than it reads. Every creature with it is effectively X toughness higher than usual 90% of the time, and this leads to costing them higher than the default.

 

Another quality about Absorb that makes it tricky to design for is that there's just not a whole heck of a lot you can do with it design wise.

"Creatures you control can take more damage". Woo, really pushing the boundaries there.
Yes, should they bring back absorb, a lot of it will be as limited workhorses (see how most of the Detain cards were very simple, straight forward effects).
I think there's primarily three tricks to using absorb in unique ways.

1. Absorb triggers (ie; do BLAH for each damage prevented this way)

2. Big damn numbers. This creature is going for a Order of the Stars sort of thing.

3. Giving you, the player, absorb. This can run the gamut from utility effects,

cantrips tacked on to other effects,

Or whatever this thing is.

What do you think can be accomplished with absorb?
Please let me know!
Or better yet, participate in the contest I'm hosting!
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29532921/Return_to_Ravnica,_returning_mechanics,_part_3_-_Absorb

A Splice of Life

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

Return to Ravnica has been pretty cool so far, I think there is consensus on that. The familiar sights and sounds and smells (yes, smells.). A set can never recapture the essence of what made Ravnica, Ravnica, but I think they're doing a darn good job trying.
The design sensability this time around isn't "Gold matters", its "Ravnica matters".
Many of the designs play off of familiar city tropes, or build off of the identities of the guilds rather than simply being powerful or interesting 2-color gold cards, and I think that RtR is better off for it, plus it helps to distinguish itself from Ravnica classic.

One way they're accomplishing this is to give each Guild an all new mechanic for each Guild. Last time the mechanics were built around color synergies, this time each one is tailor made to that Guild.

While these new mechanics are, scientifically speaking, totes bitching, I saw an interesting opportunity raised in one of Making Magic's mailbag articles. In it, Mark was asked that if each guild received a returning mechanic instead what would it be.
This is the list we're working with:
Azorius-absorb
Orzhov-morbid
Dimir-Morph
Izzet-Splice onto instant
Rakdos-Wither
Golgari-Unearth
Gruul-Frenzy
Boros-Battle Cry
Selesnya-Affinity for Creatures
Simic-Proliferate

Naturally, I took this as a challenge.

I hosted a contest on the Magic forums this week, and I came up with some more designs on my own.

Splice has a lot of opportunities in that it isn't restricted by things such as particular strategy or focus. All you need is an instant.
This lends itself like combat tricks:

Powerful utility effects

 

Limited workhorses

 

Weird "what will you do with me" effects

And poweerful splashy rares


What sort of things would you like to Splice onto Instant?

Someone else's bad luck

Wowsers, it's been a while since my last post. Sorry about that.
School's gotten back in swing for me, and I've become a lot more active on the Wizards forums. Also, that Planeswalker creation contest I'd been participating in eventually started dying down, so I kind of lost the desire to keep writing about it.

But I've found a new thing to offset all that. The You Make the Card Forum, a place to show off your designs and get critiques for them, and do likewise for others.

A regular feature of that forum are contests; there's usually at least one daily. The host of the contest picks some sort of theme, and everyone tries their best to make an interesting card to that theme.
I've taken a shine to doing these contests.

My latest contest:


Black miracles

As you may recall, Miracles are one of the new mechanics featured in Avacyn Restored. They allow you to cast powerful effects for a fraction of the normal cost when you draw that card the first time in a turn. Lead designer Mark Rosewater has been trying to get this effect in the game since at least Tempest block (October 1997!).

The miracle cards tended to end up of one of two categories, in my eyes. The first were utility effects; stuff that color does all the time, but at significantly lower costs. Hallowed Burial for 1 mana, Evacuation for 2 mana, and so on.

The second are nostalgia cards. Cards that mimic popular, powerful cards of ages old. Time Walk, Decree of Justice, Wheel of Fortune.

 
These cards are the most exciting because they give newer players a very powerful taste of yesteryear, and they let older players relive some seriously good nostalgia. Good times all around.

In Avacyn Restored, for flavor reasons, these cards weren't allowed in black. Understandable, but I really want to see what Black is capable of doing in this design space, and I don't think I'm the only one.

I'd love to hear what you have to say on the subject and feel free to drop by the forums to join in the fun.

Negiri the Alchemist and Vigdis the Warbringer

Negiri was born dirt poor. Poorer than you can imagine. He had nothing of his own save his name and his magic. He learned early on that he was a skilled alchemist: he could turn things into other things.

He dabbled with this for a time, until he thought of something; he turned a rock into gold. He used the gold to buy some food. For the first time since he could remember, he ate.

He tried this again, and again, and again. It kept working. But he did not thinks things through; he had started to gain a reputation. Rumors were circulating in the ghetto about a kid who had gotten his hands on some gold. Some local gangsters found out who he was and abducted him, demanding to know how he came about so much gold.

Attempting to threaten it out of him he panicked and turned one of their weapons into a bomb. It had a much bigger kick than he anticipated. Though it would have killed anyone else, it ignited his spark, and flung him to (relative) safety.

Afraid and angry and bitter. He's come to the conclusion that money makes the world go round, and he never wants to be on the bottom rung of that later again.

He wanders for a time, doing odd jobs to stay above the poverty line wherever he is. Using his skills to impress people. One day he hears about a job offering a substantial reward. A bounty hunt for a horrible monster that was terrorizing the locals. He decides to try his hand at it.

Vigdis was born into war.

That's all there was on Valla ; war.

Little else mattered on the plane but strength, and the greatest accomplishment you could obtain to her clan was a glorious death atop the mountain of deadmen that killed you.

Vigdis hoped for such a death.

She honed her skills for many years.

She met her foes on the battlefield and slaughtered them all. After a particularly grueling battle, she was caught by surprise and a lowly goblin gave her a fatal blow. She fell to the ground; bleeding out. Her consciousness faded, and her body was lifted away from the battlefield. She looked down and saw the world below, the everlasting war beneath her. She had earned her death.

But alas, things are rarely so simple. She landed unceremoniously in an unfamiliar realm. This was not the afterlife she had been promised. This was something else. This was purgatory. This was surely a punishment by the gods! They had seen her felled by a single lowly goblin and were displeased. She had been denied her place in the afterlife for she had sinned.

She was beside herself with rage. She wandered the planes, finding the most spectacular foes, and killing them. Hoping desperately to one day again earn her spot in the heavens.

One day, she heard of a great and terrible beast that had been terrorizing the countryside for many a year, that had slaughtered the dozens of champions that had been sent to face it.
She would try her hand at this beast.

Negiri came upon the beast, and was horrified. This was far beyond his capabilities. He was skilled and clever, but war was not his expertise. What was he thinking?! As he sat and tried to come up with a plan, he withheld a woman approach the monster. Her hair like braided straw, an axe in one hand, and lightning in the other. She waged war with the beast, and over many minutes, managed to destroy the monster. He was thoroughly impressed. He had never before seen such raw power wielded so well.

Just then he had a most wonderful idea.

Vigdis was disappointed. Though the monster put up a fight, it did not put up a challenge. She had expected more of the creature from the stories told to her by the peasants. Though to be fair, her definition of tough was, well, tougher than theirs. Once again she was denied her glorious deathbattle.

She heard clapping.

She turned and saw a man approach her. He was clean shaven with skin as dark as her leather boots. Adorned with resplendent clothes and gaudy jewelry. She was unimpressed, but wary; what was such a soft squishy man doing monster hunting?

He introduced himself. He said his name was Negiri, and that he was an alchemist.
He picked up a rock and threw it into air and it burst into a firecracker.
Cute trick.
Nothing before her lightning however.
He said that he had a proposition for her.

Negiri proposed to the lightning woman that they team up.
He was well traveled and had heard of many similar tales of high bounties for monsters slain. He could find suitable prey for her and she could destroy it. And they could split the profits even.

The woman told Negiri that her name was Vigdis, and she did not seek battles for the money, but the glory.

"You can have all the money, I have no need for it."

Negiri's eyes bulged. This was too good to be true.

Here before him stood a goddess of war, completely content on the idea of fighting his battles for him, for the sake of something as intangible as 'glory'? He couldn't have dreamed of a more ideal scenario.

He reached out his hand.

"I believe this is the start of a beautiful friendship."

AppearanceNegiri is a man of average build. Short, well-kept facial hair and a hair shaved short with intricate patterns in it. His skin is very dark. His eyes are a dark brownish-goldish color.

He adorns himself with the finest clothes and jewelry money can buy on whatever plane he is traveled upon, whatever they may be.

His body itself is covered in tattoos and runes, as to help augment his alchemy. He has numerous pouches at his waist full of weird fluids and powders and stones that he uses in his alchemy.There is a large sabre to his side. He's not particularly well trained in it, be often alchemically transforms it into menacing shapes in front of would be foes to intimidate them. It usually works.

Vigdis is a woman of slightly greater than average height. Well muscled. Lithe and sinewy. Straw-colored hair in chest length dreads. Grey eyes. She has a number of scars across her body from some of the battles she has fought.

She is accustomed to simple leather and armor like that of her homeworld, but since traveling with Negiri, he insists that she is to look more impressive if she is to keep his company, she insists on wearing things more functional.

They have met a compromise, and now she wears some of the most impressive and artistic leather and armor you might see on the field of battle.

About the only thing that stays the same is her axe, a family heirloom.

PersonalityNegiri is a selfish and shallow man, far too concerned with how others perceive him for his own good. To that end, he always tries to wear the most extravagant fashions. Vigdis says he looks like a twit when he does so, so he tones it down sometimes.

He abhors being looked down on, or being told he is not good enough at something or has no talent at a particular task. Even if it's true. He holds a grudge for a very long time, and holds fantasies of revenge against those that have slighted him from decades before.

Vigdis is a Vallan through and through. She loves a good fight, and does not fear death. She is rather unconcerned with what other people think of her (unless they think she's weak) and doesn't particularly care about her appearance (save for looking intimidating).

She doesn't boast about about her strengths and talents, preferring to let her actions and reputation speak for her.

She's rather withdrawn. Her clan's entire social lifestyle revolves around battle, but most planes aren't as warprone as Valla, so she has difficulty adjusting to that and relating to other people, though she doesn't take offense to those who aren't as bloodthirsty as herself. Her travels have taught her that talent for battle can come from unexpected places, so she tries to keep that in mind wherever she goes.

She finds that she gets anxious and uncomfortable the longer it's been since she's gotten into a fight. Since Valla culture revolves so heavily around battle, she's never really garnered any other skills, and she hates it when she notices that. Recently she's trying to be more responsive to other talents, because she's not used to being bad at something and doesn't like the feeling.

AbilitiesNegiri is a powerful alchemist. He is skilled at turning one thing into another. The transmute mechanic is right up his alley, as are most forms of looting or digging .

In battle, he will often summon alchemically formed servants to fight at his behest. Weirds and homunculi and the like. He can repel opponents by undoing the bonds that hold their summons in the material world.

His studies in alchemy have made him quite versed in meta-magic. As such, if he knows what sort of foe he is soon to face, he can prepare adequate counter measures to render them useless .

Vigdis wields lightning magic. She can use it to in the traditional bolt-slinging way, or to strengthen her physical attacks .

That's pretty much all there is to it.

Another entry in the character contest:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29110815/Planeswalker_Creation_Contest_3:_Third_times_the_charm?pg=45

This round was for a pair of walkers that travel together.

It took me forever to find a pair that I liked.

First I tried a Bonnie and Clyde kind of pair, but the characters never really came together in a way I found compelling. Then I tried a cop and criminal handcuffed together shtick, but I couldn't think of a pair of magic specialties that felt right.

Then I tried something I liked, something like a Han Solo and Chewbacca dynamic. A pair of bounty hunters loyal to each other. It kind of worked from there. Vigdis was the first Magic character I came up with, and I'd been dying to find a place to use her. It came together perfectly.

I'd love to hear what you think!

The Mire

The Mire

It was a young plane, freshly formed from the swirling madness that is the Blind Eternities. The Mire does not remember much from the beginning. Not how it came to be, or when, or where, or why. It does not remember how long it wandered this congealed ball of grease that was a plane. Aimless, purposeless, alone.

Until one fateful day. Something moved. "What is that?" It thought. It took count of all of its pseudopods. This thing that was moving was not part of itself. This was something else. It's mind was flooded with thoughts the likes of which it had never had before, it had never encountered another living thing of such substance before. It had so many curiosities it wanted to fulfil. But this thing, this other thing began to attack the Mire. It tried to crawl away, but this other thing was relentless. Desperate, the Mire sprawled out as far as it could, looking for a way out. It felt a large rock, and with all its fortitude smashed the other thing. Over and over and over again, continuing to smash long after it had stopped moving.

The Mire studied the thing. Where had it come from? How long had it been there? Why had it attacked me? Where there others?

The curiosity turned to fear.

What if there were no others?
What if that was the only other thing out there?

What if

I'm all alone.

The Mire was terrified!
It spasmed and flitted about, horrified that it may have destroyed the one other thing there was. It screamed out a voiceless scream, and then the world became that much emptier.

Something ignited, and the Mire was pulled beyond the veil into the blind eternities.

What is this horrible place?
How did I get here?
Why?

It began to lose itself in this sea of madness. Then it began to see things amongs the technicolor void. It began to hear things. It saw another place, full of things!
Big things, little things, things with hands and feet and voices and magics!
The Mire crawled towards this place, hoping to get away from this godless void.
Desperate never to be alone ever again, no matter what.

+2: Untap target land. It becomes a 3/3 black Ooze creature that is a swap in addition to its other types and colors.
-3: Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of Swamps you control.
-9: Each player sacrifices another non-Swamp permanent for each Swamp you control.
[4]

Physiology
The Mire is an ooze. A mix of grey and a sickly green color mixing internally like a lava lamp. A number of softly glowing organelles are visible from within.

The Mire's default size is that of particularly large dog, though the size can vary considerably. More mass can be gained by eating, and the Mire can become utterly MASSIVE by consuming matter.

It tends to eat things it doesn't register as "alive"; plant matter and moss and the like, or drinking mana from the landscape; rather than consuming other sapient organisms.

The Mire can split into multiple bodies and later remerge those bodies if it so chooses. Naturally, the spark does not split, and will remain with only one of the bodies.


PersonalityThe Mire is a being motivated almost entirely by fear. The sudden attack and subsequent loneliness that triggered its ascension has given it a deep-set fear of being alone, whether physically or metaphorically.

Because it lived most of its life alone, it is incredibly unaware of pretty much all social conventions such as privacy, personal space, class, gender boundaries, race and species, etc.

It is incredibly curious and quick to examine most anyone or anything that piques its curiosity, though these interactions tend to end badly. Its first interaction has made it fearful of aggressive retribution from other living things, and the Mire is quick to resort to violence if it fears it is in danger or is being rejected by a would be "friend".

The Mire is genderless and has not aligned itself with either sex being entirely unaware of the concept.





This is my entry to round four of the Planeswalker creation contest on the gleemax forums. This time, the restriction was "non-humanoid walker". I rather like what I came up with.

I'd surely love to et your vote!
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29110815/Planeswalker_Creation_Contest_3:_Third_times_the_charm?pg=37

Why Wouldn't You Design That? Volume 1, Part 3

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

Part three, and probably the last one for Innistrad block.
Let me know what you think!

 Seems like a fairly obvious design choice to me. Though honestly, this very well may be way too good at 3 cmc.

 Full on friendship!

It tells a story! Yeah!!!

 This was originally a mirror image of Wretched Banquet, but it seemed way too good at 1 mana.

 Ghoultree is a neat card. While I don't think it's a particularly deep design space, I do think its worth more than two cards.

I love sliths. So much. So naturally, Innistrad block was a fun place for me. Falkenrath Maruaders and Markov Blademaster are nice expansions on the typical Slith formula, but I want to see them take it to its logical conclusion.

Aria, the Blood Witch

Aria had lead a privileged life. The daughter of a well-to-do noble deep in the province of Stensia, there was very little she did not have access to. The best clothes, the best food, any manner of entertainment accessible. She was born into more money than most people on Innistrad could count to. Everything most people could ever hope for was provided for her on a platter.

Her parents were quick to remind her that she was special, that she was destined for greater things than most. And she believed it; how could she not? Her family brought in the best tutors for her, she excelled in every subject. Foreign languages, history, mathematics, magic, and even the alchemy that the prudes in the capital would call heresy. There was nothing that she could not do. She was clearly better than everyone else.

Everything changed on the eve of her sixteenth birthday. She was greeted in the ballroom by half of the village. Nobles and bankers and clerics. Everyone of import from her village. But something was wrong. As she walked into the room, some of them began to shimmer, an illusion was fading. Their skin paled, and their eyes began to softly glow above sharp, crooked smiles. Many of them were vampires.

They informed her that she had her family was part of a project, she had been bred specifically for the purposes of being integrated into a vampire clan. Her entire life up to this point had been planned to the every last detail, to create someone of significance that would lift their clan out of the shadows, or at the very least provide a tasty snack. They assured her that would love it with them.

As the patriarch approached her, her world collapsed around her. Had her whole life been a lie? Had she ever made a single choice for herself? Was she actually as smart and strong and wonderful as she thought herself to be, or were those all pleasant lies to keep her complacent. She was horrified. She was enraged. She began to cry. Nothing made any sense anymore.

He assured her that she would come around. "Welcome to the family", was the last thing she remembered before she passed out from shock of the bite upon her neck.

Aria awoke in a cell. They did not want their investment escaping before she turned, it would seem. She spent the next three days in a a stupor. Her mind wracked with doubts about her life up until now, being whispered with propaganda from her captors, about how they were once one of the twelve great families, and her and others like her would raise them from their squalor, and her body slowly undergoing the transformation.

In three days time, her sire returned, the final stage was prepared. He cut himself, and filled a fine goblet with his blood. She could smell it, everything she had eaten since her bite tastes increasingly like ash in her mouth. That which was in the goblet smelled more wonderful than anything she had ever experienced in her entire lifetime. She gulped it down in a single breath.

Almost instantly, she felt better. The doubts and fears and regrets that had flooded her mind were still there, but now they felt dimmer, more far away. They could not hurt her now. She had clarity and purpose now. She turned towards her sire, and approached.

"What was it you said? 'Welcome to the family?'" She brought her hand up and brushed his cheek, and then plunged her fist up to her elbow through his chest.
"I don't like my family very much."

What little color was in his face faded almost immediately, the contorted look on his face stuck there as he died. Guards rushed into the room to see what was the clamor, and she dispatched them just as quickly with her magic. It was much stronger now.

She stood there , in the bloodstained room. The puddles of blood glistened softly, reflecting the moonlight. She observed her reflection, horrible and distorted. A monster. She felt like a monster. But she was her own monster.

She would be no one's thrall. No one's puppet. No one's convenient lie. She would not live a second longer a cog in someone else's machine. She had been raised to be special, and now she was. She knew in her heart that now she truly was. And with this insight, she was whisked away. Her spark ignited, taking a monster away to planes unknown.

Appearance
Aria was a stunningly attractive specimen before turning, as to be expected of someone chosen to be sired. Her figure is somewhat understated as she had not finished growing into herself before turning, a point that irritates her profoundly that she will not be "mature" for a very long time, given vampire's slow aging. She has long, straight, crimson hair that flows down to her chest. Her nails are long and somewhat unkempt. Her clothes are tattered and matted with blood, but were quite splendid once. She thinks very little of her physical appearance, and it shows.

Aria is spoiled rotten, being raised as the only daughter of a wealthy nobleman. She had spent her entire life not only being told that she was better than most, but actually being taught to be so. She is incredibly well verse in etiquette, language, history, weaponry, science, and magic; though most that meet her would not suspect as much because she doesn't like to talk about her past and she prefers living impulsively in the moment. She is of poor temperament and is quickly prone to violence and aggression.  She deeply hates being lied to, deceived, or being told what to do, and doing any of those things is the fastest way to get on her bad side. She eats who she wants when she wants, and cares not for the consequences; she feels like having the life she knew taken away from her entitles her to get away with most anything.

She has a bittersweet relationship with her vampiric condition. She truly enjoys the power and freedom that it affords her, but she's bitter and resentful about her origins. Sometimes she sinks into a deep depression about how inconsequential most of the choices she made during her human life were, and wonders if anything has really changed. She tends to get even more violent during these periods. She will often seek out and drain someone who is happy to make herself feel better.

She claims that she is not above turning others, but she has yet to ever do so. It is quite likely that she considers draining someone to death as a form of "mercy", that they are better off dead than a monster like herself. One of her very few redeeming qualities.

She does not like to admit it, but she is not a particularly happy woman, but she lacks the forethought to make any drastic changes to improve her life.

Powers
She is well versed in sangromancy. She can take command of blood spilled in battle and shape it as she wishes into weapons and shields and any shape she desires. She has dabbled in other forms of vampire magic such as shape-shifting, glamer, and hypnosis; but none of them have taken particularly well, preferring the brute force approach of her blood magic.

She can draw strength from her foes from wounds she has inflicted upon them or even from her very presence. If she has drawn your blood in battle, woe upon you, for she can easily aggravate the condition with very little effort . She can extend such powers to those in her vacinity, but such alliances are few and far between and only for the sake of convenience rather than a lasting desire for camaraderie.

Flight was the first vampire power she put any effort towards, and she has become quite accomplished at it since she has turned. She is immesnly fond of it, and the times she flies are among the very few times that she is truly happy. Her problems and doubts seems so far away and inconsequential when she is in the air.


This is my entry into the Gleemax forums "Planeswalker Creation Contest 3; round 3, female villains"
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29110815/?sdb=1&pg=last#520180087
I'd love to hear what you think and to get your vote!

Why Wouldn't You Design That? Volume 1, Part 2

DESIGN

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

PART TWO!

I'm not sure if you've realized, but there are no green curses. This was actually an accident, it just never happened. This is a travesty!

Double the fun!

More loners! They can form a support group. The trick with loners is that they're their own drawback. They're allowed to have bodies that are WAY over the curve, as long as they deeply discourage you from playing other creatures.

Undying is cool, I don't think there's any argument there. But it kind of bums me out there weren't many tools (within the block) for the purposes of building an Undying theme deck. Not on my watch!

They did a flashback Lightning Rift (in the form of Burning Vengeance), and yet they didn't do an Invigorating Boon or better yet, Astral Slide! It was so obvious, the flavor is PERFECT!

Finally, they never finished the captain cycle. I am disappoint, this card designs itself. (No, lifelink was not a reasonable ability, lifelink is crazy good.)

Those are all the most obvious (to me) things I might have done differently. I'd love to hear what you think, or what YOU would do differently!

Why Wouldn't You Design That? Volume 1, part 1

Welcome all!

Here's the first part in what I hope will be a recurring series, what I am calling "Why Wouldn't You Design That?", wherein I throw out what I think were some unfortunately missed tropes that the current block could have hit on.
DESIGN

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.


Let's get started!

The 13 theme. I think this takes it to the most logical extreme. Let's get it!

One of the greatest flaws of Innistrad is that it had a particularly rich catalog of characters that were built up through all of the style guides, and there is only so much room for legendary creatures in each set. Although, creative always builds up a surplus of story material so they have more examples to draw potential designs from, so this could merely be speaking highly of Innistrad's awesome flavor more than a R&D dropping the ball.

More green miracles. Seriously. I love the two that we have, but every other color got INSANE cards, and all green gets is pump spells. I feel betrayed. ):

Not much to say here. Obvious extensions of several recurring themes.

Push the loner theme in constructed. Many of the loner cards are super interesting, but most of them don't seem quite good enough for constructed, and while I doubt it had what it takes to become top tier, I feel like the theme had an appalling lack of constructed viable edge that many other themes from sets past have had. Plus, come on, look at that card, that's an awesome design and you know it!

There's more to come, but let me know what you think!!!

behind the scenes of the Mad Doctor

So it's been a while since my last post, and since my last article was more about flavor than design, I thought I should spend some time talking about the designs themselves.

Let's get started!
http://hairlessthoctar.blogspot.com/2012/04/mad-doctor.html

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Avacynian Scribe was simple enough.
White is the best weenie color and every color has access to cantrips.
As a designer I'm also on something of a crusade to get card draw in all five colors to some degree. It's just such an enormous and ubiquitous part of the game, that I don't really think it's fair to certain colors to have a monopoly on it.

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Geralf the Stitcher was a super easy design.
"All creatures are skaabs"
Bam. Done.
I will admit that 3 is probably way too low a CMC for such a powerful effect.
It should probably be at least 4, or have a heavier color weight.

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Since my original article went up, Avacyn Restored has come out.
In the set, Gisa is featured on a number of flavor texts, each time going by the moniker "Gisa the Mad".
That's the least of my problems.
I came up with design having totally forgotten that Coffin Queen is a thing. Which is weird because that card is super cool (and something that is sore need for a reprint).
In light of that, I'm rather disappointed in myself.
Coffin Queen has a pretty unique functionality, and I feel that it is fairly costed, and not necessarily an effect that needs to exist in plurality.
At some point, once I've written enough articles, I plan to do a "What would I do today?" article here I go over old card designs with what I've learned and say how I would do them differently.
By then, I plan to have something more satisfying.

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Alchemist.
I'm not sure it's a design that 'needs' to exist, but It was one I was interested in exploring.

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Treacherous Alchemy.
In my first article I mentioned how I feel that restriction free tutoring feels more blue than black to me. To that end, I felt I should do a blue equivalent of the current default tutor, Diabolic Tutor. But I didn't want to do a straight reprint of Diabolic, that would be boring.
So, since blue tends to favor working at instant speed, I made it work at instant speed, but have the infrequently used "top of the library" clause so that the power level is comparable to the slower but "into your hand" effect of Diabolic.
I'd love to see how the two would compare in the real.

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Bewitching Wall.
I think Gomazoa is neat.
So I made another.

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Geistflame Lantern.
As a proponent of fatties, I enjoy manarocks.
I did this as a a bottom up of a mana rock that cares about creatures dying, since that's a pretty ubiquitous effect in Innistrad.
I'm not sure the last ability needs to remove the counters AND sac though, the card is crazy wordy as is.

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Open Sewer
Rats of Rath intrigues me.
So I wanted to see what other effects in the same vein I could explore.
This is what I came up with.
I came up with some designs that I think are more interesting and/or powerful, but this was by far the most straightforward design. Going with the simplest execution of a design is a skill that I think more would be Magic designers need to embrace.

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Nothing is Scarier.
Black has a sort of neat relationship with enchantments. It (and red) are allowed to have very powerful, very aggressively costed enchantments with bad downsides. Why is this? Because red and black are the only two colors that lack the capacity to interact with non-aura enchantments on the battlefield. Because of this, they can't offset the bad downsides of their enchantments (oh say, Phyrexian Arena) by destroying them later the same way that green or white or blue could.
So here's a "nothing can block" effect.
I just realized that this kind of mimics cards like Razorjaw Oni.
Cool beans.

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Reflection is the top-downsiest card I've ever made. Nuff said.

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Pickled Brain
We have Mind Stone and we have Dreamstone Hedron. Why no effect in between?

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Sewer Mutant.
I saw Artful Dodge and decided to top down design a thing like what was in the art.

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Tesla Coil.
Everything is Chain Lightning.
Let's get it!

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Mitosis.
This is the card that started it all.
I thought of this card, and immediately thought of a mad scientist testing the effect on himself.
So I decided to try and write a story around it.
I'd love to hear what you thought of the story and the designs it brought forth!