#custom planeswalker challenge

[loreholdlesbian]

Wilds of Eldraine Draft Booster Challenge

Every set I like to make a draft booster pack featuring the themes of the set. (This particular booster has been done for like a month and I just never got around to posting it lol.) The goal of this project is to make cards that you would be unsurprised to open alongside the rest of the set, while innovating on its mechanics. This is a hard balance to strike, especially at common which takes up the majority of the booster. It's based on one of the challenges from GDS3 that i can no longer link because of wotc's shitty ass update to their website that broke access to like half their articles.

Now that the intro and griping are out of the way, let's get into it!

Art links:

Gadwick

Bitter Winds of Winter

Gold-Spinner Faerie

Syr Ginger's Vow (Screenshot from trailer)

Magic Pumpkin

Sword of Noble Destiny

Never Woke Up // Lay Down

Hungering Lich-Knight

Evil Relative

Induce Vengeance

Reign of Vermin

Basket of Baked Goods

Feasting Hedonists

Hunting Prowess

Rare

Gadwick, Wizard of the Wilds 2U Legendary Creature- Human Wizard > Lost Research 1U > Instant- Adventure > Draw a card. (Then exile this spell. You may cast the other half later from exile.) Prowess You may cast creature cards as though they had Lost Research as an Adventure. 2/2

I always like to do something novel in these boosters since, riffing off the GDS3, they’re supposed to be something I’d show to wizards of the coast to impress. Sometimes it’s quite hard to do anything too new at common and uncommon, which means I want to go hogwild at rare. This definitely has the novelty factor. I have no idea if it can be made to work within the rules or if this wording is correct, but I wanted it in here all the same.

Uncommons

Bitter Winds of Winter U Snow Enchantment If you would put one or more stun counters on a permanent an opponent controls, instead put that many plus one stun counters on it. 5U: Tap target creature and put a stun counter on it. (If a creature with a stun counter on it would become untapped, remove a stun counter from it instead.)

I’m a big proponent of the idea that the snow-queen themed cards should have had the snow subtype. I might make a post defending that at some point, but for now just go with it. I went back and forth on whether to make my own card for this theme snow, since it would match less with what the set did, but ultimately I went with this because I decided if I ever do anything with my cards like a custom cube, I’m gonna prefer it to be snow. And I make the rules here. This set has an unusually high number of stun counters and while it isn’t directly tap-matters like most of the cards in this archetype (though it does enable it, if not all that well), it just feels like a cool card to exist and this feels like a good place to do it.

Gold-Spinner Faerie 3B Creature- Faerie Bargain, bargain, bargain (You may sacrifice up to three artifacts, enchantments, and/or tokens as you cast this spell.) Flying When Gold-Spinner Faerie enters the battlefield, create a Treasure token for each time it was bargained. When Gold-Spinner Faerie enters the battlefield, create a Treasure token for each time it was bargained. 3/3

You’ve heard of multikicker, now get ready for multibargain! This feels like design space for the mechanic that wasn’t really explored, so it felt good to touch on in this booster.

Syr Ginger’s Vow 2B Enchantment- Saga (As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.) I | Create two Food tokens II | Sacrifice a Food. If you do, draw a card. III | Destroy up to one target creature or planeswalker. 

For a while I had a Saga in the rare slot, but I decided to swap it out for something with a bit more novelty, so I ended up subbing in this card which I think I like better anyway. I love the Syr Ginger stuff, it’s just so silly, and I like doing Sagas that show a plane’s history. I think this captures the steps of her story very well which is nice for anyone who didn’t see the trailer.

Commons

Magic Pumpkin W Artifact- Food Vehicle Celebration — As long as two or more nonland permanents entered the battlefield under your control this turn, Magic Pumpkin is an artifact creature. 2, T, Sacrifice Magic Pumpkin: You gain 3 life. 3/2

I love weird type combinations, and I wanted to make a Food Vehicle or Food Equipment, and that felt like something that needed to be a top down design- luckily, cinderella provided the perfect opportunity. I wanted it in the cinderella story colors therefor, which means it needed to be white. White isn’t *much* of a food color in this particular set but I feel like that’s fine.

Sword of Noble Destiny 2W Artifact- Equipment When Sword of Noble Destiny enters the battlefield, attach it to target creature you control. You may create a Royal Role token and attach it to that creature. (If you control another Role on it, put that one into the graveyard. Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has ward 1.) Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has ward 1. Equip 1

I know this set is mainly focusing on fairy tales and not camelot, I’m really shocked we didn’t get a sword in the stone reference using royal role tokens. It seems like such a hard thing to resist. So I didn’t. I pared it down to its simplest form to get it to work at common; I’m quite happy with the sword bestowing the same bonus as a royal role token, and that you can stack them on the same creature and be happy with that since the bonuses stack. Works out neatly.

Never Woke Up 1U Enchantment- Aura > Lay Down U > Instant- Adventure > Tap target creature. Enchant creature Enchanted creature doesn’t untap during its controller’s untap step.

This set debuted adventures on enchantments but only on a single rare cycle. I wanted to expand on that with a cycle of Auras, and here’s the representative of that cycle.

Hungering Lich-Knight 2B Creature- Zombie Knight Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.) Hungering Lich-Knight has lifelink and haste as long as you’ve sacrificed a permanent this turn. 3/1 The Wilds are haunted by the Courts’ past misdeeds.

Here’s a twist I always like to play with alternate cost mechanics; one where the bonus doesn’t specifically require the alternate cost, but if you pay the cost it’s guaranteed. I did something similar with exploit back in VOW. I think it’s just a very fun way to do something a little different with a mechanic.

Evil Relative 1R Creature- Human When Evil Relative enters the battlefield, for each creature you control named Evil Relative, create a Wicked Role token and attach that token to that creature. (If you control another Role on it, put that one into the graveyard. Enchanted creature gets +1/+1. When this Aura is put into a graveyard, each opponent loses 1 life.)    1/1

I wanted a card that really plays with the “You can only have one role on a creature” and Wicked felt like the best way to do that since it has a payoff for that. Since there was no wicked role card connected to the wicked step family, I decided to connect it to that which helped pull the design together in a “have multiple of this card” direction.

Induce Vengeance 2R Instant Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to any target. Create a Cursed Role token and attach it to that creature. (If you control another Role on it, put that one into the graveyard. Enchanted creature is 1/1.) The coven would not let their sister’s murder go unavenged.

I wanted to try using a cursed role as a sacrifice-lite effect and decided fling was a nice and simple execution of that. I think it’s fun cause with bargain and with other roles, since it’s easier to get your creature back at full power. It was very far from the usual fling flavor though, so I decided to go with someone kills a witch and is then cursed by her sisters in return. 

Reign of Vermin 1R Enchantment When Reign of Vermin enters the battlefield, create two 1/1 black Rat creature tokens with “This creature can’t block.” 4R, Sacrifice Reign of Vermin: Attacking Rats you control get +2/+0 until end of turn.

You know I couldn’t resist putting a rat typal card in here. Typal cards at common tend to be be more of the threshold-one variety (that is, only asking that you control one creature of that type, or one other creature) because limited plays better if commons are less demanding on your deck, so they’re more usable in multiple archetypes. But I think this card works fine on its own even if it’s of course better with more Rats to go around so I don’t think that’s too much of a problem. I also like how this design came out as very good bargain fodder, which helps it tie into the set more. 

Basket of Baked Goods G Artifact- Food Whenever Basket of Baked Goods enters the battlefield or is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature. 2, T, Sacrifice Basket of Baked Goods: You gain 3 life. The werefox couldn’t help but comment on the smell of such a delicious morsel.

Here’s another nontoken food and another fun piece of bargain fodder. I know it’s redundant with some of the cards I have already but I’m really happy with the design and I definitely wanted it in here.

Feasting Hedonists 1G Creature- Elf Ward 2 Whenever an Aura becomes attached to Feasting Hedonists, create a Food token. (It’s an artifact with 2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”) 2/2 A night of song and dance in the woods, a decade of time lost.

And here’s the obligatory enchantment payoff of the set, simplified for common. It has a simple payoff (though one that ties well into set themes and helps you pay bargain costs you probably want in your enchantment deck without having to sacrifice those enchantments you want), and I made it only proc off of aura that become attached to itself so follow the rule of thumb that commons shouldn’t do much when you’re not already looking at them. The ward is so you don’t get punished too hard for putting auras on this thing.

Bonus Sheet Slot

Hunting Prowess 3G Enchantment- Aura [rare] Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies. Copies become tokens.) Enchant creature Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.”

Bonus sheet slots are always weird since they’re explicitly reprints and the point of this project is to make new cards but the solution I’ve settled on is to make a card that wouldn’t feel out of place on the bonus sheet (ties into the overall theme, doesn’t demand things of limited that aren’t present, works flavorfully) but also wouldn’t be a good fit for the main set. The easiest way to meet that second constraint is to use a keyword that wasn’t present. This is a card that would have most likely been in MH2 to be reprinted here, but I think an Aura with storm is just a lot of fun. Combat damage trigger felt like the best way to make it being an Aura, rather than a sorcery distributing counters, worth it in a way that can be spread out or stacked on one creature.

#original post #mtg #custom magic card #wilds of eldraine #eldraine #booster challenge

[talenlee]

USP-10: October's Custom Cards

New Post has been published on PRESS.exe: USP-10: October's Custom Cards

The Usurper’s Palace’s doors hang open. The gates of death are but another place that determined souls and desperate damned can find their own way out. A soul extracted from its husk can struggle over the threshold. The very nature of death, with the Usurper holding the Palace as they do, leads to the sloshing life and the unnatural growth around the world. The Outcasts’ lands have hydras erupting from the ground, as death itself fails to take hold.

It is a world where death struggles to last.

Warning: Wizards employees, this post contains unsolicited designs of custom magic cards.

And this time, this October, as everyone is doing spooky stuff, what did I do? An entire month dedicated to the cards in the Usurper’s Palace that cared about death, dying, and of course, the graveyard. Why, that’s hack stuff, you may say and yes, you’re right, but also, it’s hack stuff because it works and it’s reliable. That’s why all the cards in this month were cards that somehow cared about death.

There’s definitely a bias towards some classic deathly themes, but thanks to having escape and husks to work with, I was able to ensure there were other things that connected to this same space in all the colours.

Finally, we have the introduction of the Usurper of the set’s title, the character whose initial instigating action set the story in motion: Gansukh. They’re a planeswalker, yes, but where they’re from is unknown; indeed, much about them is unknown, because their pursuit of eternal life, at all costs, led to them finding this plane, with its Palace that made death into a place and not a process. Some time ago – immeasurable years, by their reckoning – they stepped into the throne and made the Palace their own. They couldn’t die, if they controlled the place that was death.

The gates of the Palace stay open while Gansukh is there; they get wider to permit more to escape or they get narrower to keep the undead population low, but they never close; the world is fundamentally one where death has the door open, at least a crack. People have their ideas as to why; a popular one is that if the palace doors close with Gansukh inside, they will be, finally, actually, dead – and when the palace doors open up again, there will be nobody inside; the final, quiet, graceless transformation into a tomb.

Gansukh being there is what let the Vampires proliferate; making undead was easy when death is cheap. Gansukh being there is what meant the system of selling your body and blood for survival and the spread of husks and spirits could happen. Gansukh brought a new order of life and death, where the dead never truly passed and all the life just swelled around in a tiring bubble. The vampires rose and needed a new territory to claim as their own, and so they took to the seas. They needed vast palaces, so they raided the outlands and burned down their first forests and set up border patrols to keep the subjugated peoples down. The palace boats formed the casinos and the parties and the foolish decadence that lured Ullaine, and she was so captivated by the dance of the culture and the reckless opportunities for love she snared the culture around planeswalkers. The Vast, with its endless cycle of thinking deaths, was arrested by Gansukh and now the ocean under the Palace teems with life that would normally never grow so big.

Everything is Gansukh’s fault.

And they hate their job. They hate the throne, they hate the palace, they hate how they are and they hate their life. But they are not leaving.

No.

That would admit that they were wrong.

It’s not like this world is about to produce a god of death that can find a way to challenge them, after all.

The Horned King is a god of death grown out of the roiling broken earth of the green-black bayous that remain of what became the outlands. It is a shape, stalking its way towards the Palace of Death, angry and resentful and insistent. It also has big scary horns that people keep trying to break and finding things going badly for it.

Astar, well, they haven’t shown up on a card yet, so this is a first appearance. They do seem to be a bit of a, a firebrand here? Someone who is somehow deeply upset about the way things are, and recruiting others to join them.

Cypstaerin, you won’t see on any other cards, because they are a big, unthinking, inhuman pile of fungus that doesn’t understand the cycle of death or life in the first place. Death, it thinks, exists as an extant form of life; there is merely the processing of the spores, the spreading and the creation and the competition. Cypstaerin is a player in the Outlands, fighting against the ravenous beasts, but also its influence is pushing things to an even more terrifying insistence on not dying.

Thanabel, then, Thanabel is someone who has been to the palace; she is an angel, and she starts out pretty unremarkable. But once she’s slain and makes her way to the Palace, and realises she can just walk out, she realises she can bring people with her, restoring them to life. In the narrative in my mind, I do not know per se who this happens to, but it seems to me to be a clear example of story-and-mechanic uniting to have a major character die in act 1, along with Thanabel, and for Thanabel to guide them out.

Or maybe she walks out with Nugai.

I feel like this is where almost all the Evoke got to hang out, in the end. I like the evoke cards a lot – particularly I like the flavour of the Evoke creatures all being enchantment creatures as well. They kind of remind me of the Mirage flash-enchantments, things that once upon a time had Substance.

I like the lightlings, darklings, and glimmerlings dividing up the three different ways you can approach the idea of ‘giving life.’ What holds you to life, what drives your life, that kind of thing. Glimmerlings sit fat and slack in green base; it’s things like prey drive or sustenance or spreading and growing. The urge of a life that wants things to be mostly the way they already are and is willing to fight over it, that complacent endurance, that’s something Glimmerlings are good at. They’re cope basically. Lightlings, on the other hand, they have an ideology, a principle, and that can mean they actually are built to last. Lightlings often have some effect when they die, but if they don’t use that effect they’re largely just still hanging around. And of course, darklings, they’re built around a want – an urge like revenge or acquisition or regret. Once they sort that out, they just dissolve out.

This isn’t to say they map always onto the three colours; there’s definitely at least one glimmerling that’s not green that’ll come up later.

If I had a favourite card here, it’d be this little package of Stuff I Like:

I like the type of creature it is; it seems to be a mix of a crab and dinosaur and some kind of big forest bug all at once. Its adventure is a value tool and the creature you get rewards a lot of different graveyard strategies, without being completely worthless in combat as well.

The Feral Treesquid is a weird one because it originally represented part of a greater mechanic, checking the yard for a number of cards. But that mechanic is now largely isolated to just the treesquid and the Horned King.

Bonus tidbit: There’s a legendary vampire with a chunk of the Horned King’s horn in her that makes her a dreadful threat to the maw.

The Usurper’s Palace (USP) is a collection of Custom Magic cards made with the general structure of a commander draft set. The cards are posted, one per day with different themes every month, to the Custom Magic subreddit, on my Mastodon and Cohost. Follow along for more!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#2023CustomMagicCards #CustomMagicCards #UsurperSPalace

#2023 Custom Magic Cards #Custom Magic Cards #Usurper's Palace #Games #Magic: The Gathering

[donatoarts]

Mordenkainen the Wizard

Planeswalker

34” x 25” Oil on Panel, framed

2020

Art Director: Zack Stella

I am honored to present the portrait of Planeswalker Mordenkainen from the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms D&D expansion from Magic:The Gathering.

This painting is my most detailed and masterfully executed Magic: The Gathering cards as well as one of the finest portraits to grace my portfolio.

This portrait of Mordenkainen envelopes so much of what I love about my career as an artist - from portraiture, to narrative storytelling, rendering of reflective surfaces, dramatic lighting effects, and most importantly conveying a sense of wonder and mystery. We may never know what the wizard was working upon as we interrupted his contemplative thoughts in his study, but we can be certain we will feel the wrath of his ire!

Ever since discovering Dungeons and Dragons in my youth, I have enjoyed the complexities, challenges, and excitement of role-playing the character class of wizards. This portrait represents the deep passion I have for gaming and the art creation infused within my youth around roleplaying. It was this wellspring I returned to again and again as this work evolved.

Reaching back deep into those wizardry gaming roots are a set of bookends I created during my hard-core D&D days, with one side a diorama composed with the elements from Grenadier’s ‘Wizard’s Room’ lead figurine miniature set. I loved to paint these miniatures, owning handfuls of the diverse sets produced, and enjoyed endless hours of enjoyment in use in our campaigns.

Due to the lack of access to proper art supplies as a young artist, all small details on these figurines were rendered and applied with sharpened toothpicks. I am happy to state those logistical hurdles are no longer a hinderance in my art creation now! I have long ago learned that proper tools are part of the pathway to creating masterful, professional works of art.

To those ends, as this painting came closer to finish, a proper frame was needed to house this image and complement its craftsmanship. Masterworks Frames in Utah was commissioned to create a customized silver frame with a slight accent of dark blue in the broad field of the frame.

Auction for the art live through July 11th 11:30pm EST

https://www.facebook.com/groups/mtgartmarket/posts/3081494005414131/

[housebeleren]

Magic Legends

Hoo boy. I’m honestly shocked it took this long. The Magic Multiverse is deep enough to nearly endlessly expand into, and many people are at least casually familiar with it. Basically, I’m pretty stoked, but as always, I have thoughts.

Full disclosure, I tend to stay away from MMORPGs just for the simple reason that they are too easy to completely lose your entire life into. Plus, I already have paper Magic & Arena to do that, so I otherwise try to stick to video games with clear starts and finishes. That said, a Magic: The Gathering based game is exactly the sort of thing that could suck me right back in.

Thoughts

I alternate between excitement and concern. My biggest concern is that the gameplay will be unexciting. The worldbuilding is likely to be pretty solid, given the material they have to work with, but translating the gameplay into something that isn’t just “World of Warcraft, but instead of continents, PLANES...” is going to be the biggest challenge for them to overcome. But, that will also be the biggest achievement if they manage to do it well.

My second biggest concern is that they will use the color pie too rigidly in such a way that it imposes too many limits on character building. One pessimistic commenter said “pessimistic prediction: one class per color” and I highly doubt that. They know better (at least... they must know better, right?). No, I have hope that they will come up with something a little more interesting.

The challenge is that in MTG lore, all characters use magic slightly differently. There are some obvious overlaps, like Chandra and Jaya, who would both fit squarely into “Pyromancer” class. But what about someone like Koth? Is that an entirely different class? Or do they mix his power suite up with the pyromancer power suite and come up with a more generic Red “Elementalist” class?

Similar things could be said for characters like Gideon & Teyo. They’d probably fall into similar classing. But would they bundle Elspeth & Ajani’s powers into the same class? This question really comes down to how finely they choose to divide the classes up. My guess is they probably won’t want to have more than 10-15 classes to start.

Character Creation - Class

I’ve actually given a lot of thought to this (shower/car thoughts), and there are definitely some cool ways they could mix up the color pie and still give people a reasonable amount of customization, but within some sort of confines so the game isn’t infinitely large. My solution would be to try to divide the realms of magic use into some number of “Schools”, which then have combinations of colors available to them. For example, one school would be “Elementalism”, associated with Red, Green, and Blue mana. You could pick any one or two color combination from within those three, and that would determine your Class. 

That would allow for a high degree of customization (each school would have at least 6 Classes associated with it), but there could be some shared design, moves, and in-game resources for all Classes within the School. So your moveset would be some number of general moves from your School, plus the specialized moves for your color & specific Class. (So a Green-Red Elementalist would get some general moves that all Elementalists get, some moves that all Green or all Red Elementalists get, and some specific moves that only the Green-Red ones get.) Examples of Schools that would cover most known Planeswalker movesets (totally just examples):

Elementalism - Red/Green/Blue - This covers all the elements & is probably the most straightforward. Probably the main DPS grouping.

Artifice - White/Blue/Black/Red? - These would be the characters who can manipulate metal as a core part of their powers. Characters like Tezzeret & Saheeli. Supports good for team buffs.

Arcane (or something?) - White/Blue/Black - Some sort of a catch-all bucket for characters who manipulate minds, time, law, and seek knowledge for power. Good at weakening/disabling the enemies & providing certain types of buffs. Also counterspells. :)

Soul/Spirit - White/Black/Green - This could cover a lot of the characters that manipulate life & death and call on spirits & demons to assist them. These would be the best healers

Creature - All colors? - These would be characters like Vivien & Huatli whose primary power suite involves summoning and bonding with creatures (and maybe those who transform into creatures). They’d be able to support and flex into roles as needed, based on their summons

Fighting/Martial - All colors? - The physical group for players who want to be Gideon and others who are strong physical fighters, aided by magic. Probably the main tanks and maybe some DPS for rogue-like characters (maybe Black-aligned goes towards DPS, white-aligned goes towards tank?)

So yeah, that’s just an example of one way they could subdivide, cover a lot of the bases, and still provide tons of customization, because within each School you could choose any combination of colors. (Probably just mono or dual color)

Character Creation - Race/Origin

The other part of character creation is the race & origin of your character. Personally, the #1 thing I hope they do NOT do is tie race & class together. I’d really love the flexibility to pick any race and class combination, and not fall into the usual tropes. What they should do, however, is provide a choice of origin planes for each race. 

For example, I would love it if they had 5 or 6 possible starting home planes (Ravnica, Zendikar, Innistrad, Dominaria, Kaladesh, & Theros, for example?), then for each race, you got a selection of starting points. If you pick Elf for your character, you could choose to start your adventure on Ravnica, Zendikar, Dominaria, or Kaladesh, but not Theros or Innistrad. 

Humans could start anywhere, of course, but each other race would have a subset of starting points, and that selection of Race & Origin would determine your starting point and initial storyline, leading to your spark ignition. And yes, I think it’s crucial that characters go through an initial story that culminates in their spark ignition, and flings them to another plane.

Wrap Up

Anyway, I don’t want to go too deep down this rabbit hole, because at the end of the day, they’re going to create what they create. My only hope is that they really do justice to the incredible Magic creative with equally compelling gameplay.

#MtG #magic legends

[magicarasa]

Three Tips for Designing Better Planeswalkers

Coming out of stasis to reblog this and to encourage all of y’all to read about the planeswalker designs because I think it affords a huge insight into designing such cards with a few key lessons that lend to better planeswalker designs. And since it’s one of the hardest card types to design for, it’s especially useful information to be cognizant of.

1. Know your ‘walker’s power suite

And not just that, but be aware of what other planeswalkers do so that you can make sure yours has a distinct mechanical identity. Mark outlines each of the two planeswalkers with a short thesis of what they can do, then specific bullet points of what that usually means mechanically. For Ajani it’s “boost others but not himself” and Chandra is pyromancy. Ajani’s bit is useful I think in comparison to Elspeth. Two characters with a pretty similar mechanical identity and yet small difference make sure they stay distinct.

These cards are damn near the same thing, but small changes make them distinct and very much in character. You wouldn’t mistake them for each other probably even if you only saw the abilities of each.

Where Ajani creates a single token at a time and then works at making you and those tokens more powerful, Elspeth is raising an army before clearing out the field for them to swing in. Ajani specifying cat soldier tokens, as well as their specific name are things only he would do, but also his ultimate ability being tied to life is something Elspeth would never do.

2. Core color(s)

This is something you should be aware of when making your planeswalkers and a way to help you push to the edge of who they are as a character and what that means you can and should (or shouldn’t) do with them. Mark mentions a number of characters who are part white--Sorin, Nahiri, Dovin, Narset, etc.--but how none of them are core white like Ajani (who has been printed with red and green as well, but always with his core color of white).

Is your Dimir ‘walker core blue or core black? Try making a mono color card for them. Imagine they’re the face of a core set and as such need to be one color. Does it still feel like that character?

3. Design with an environment in mind

And lastly, what I think is the most important part of planeswalker design and what I think is often least utilized by designers: know the environment they fit into. And the more specifically aware of it you are, the better. All of these Chandra cards are designed with Standard in mind, as well as Core 2020. The elemental theme is used to give them focus and synergy beyond the things Chandra has always done.

That elemental theme is something you wouldn’t achieve if you didn’t have a specific set in mind while designing and instead were just looking at a wider Standard environment.

Try picking a set and imagine your planeswalker is replacing one that was actually printed there. What role does it fill? How will it do that differently or not at all compared to the planeswalker that was printed? Mythic rares have a lot of flexibility but they still fulfill an important role in a set and having your custom design anchored in to that reality will provide direction.

As Rosewater is fond of saying, restrictions breed creativity. Without those restrictions to guide and challenge us, we end up with planeswalkers that feel kind of bland and generic.

Embrace restrictions and rise to meet the challenge they set for you.

#custom magic card #game design #magic #m20

[outourfrontdoor]

Fun baccarat game 바카라검증 for the whole family

Remember the last time you wrote a Royal Flush 바카라검증 리스트 while playing cards? What if that occurred once every hand, and someone was fortunate enough to have such baccarat? It can happen, no, I’m not speaking about cheating; I’m talking about a method to play baccarat with your family and have so much fun that you’ll would really like to play every time the group comes together for the same occasion. Yes, let’s talk about it since, don’t you think, home, family, and baccarat games go together?

Well, what I’m saying is entirely doable; all you have to do is game baccarat with five decks and eliminate all except the highest numbered baccarat. You’re effectively playing baccarat with almost all face cards and aces this way. It’s incredible how enthusiastic everyone gets, and each hand is enjoyable. Best of all, if you’re just having a nice time, playing with pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters ensures that everyone has a wonderful time, no one loses money, and you may start by giving each player some change.

Everyone wants to keep going, no one wants to quit, and everyone is smiling and having so much fun that everyone who isn’t participating stands around to watch. Best of all, even if you’ve never played a game of poker before, you may have beginner’s luck. Some may argue that this is stupid and that it isn’t the same as playing genuine baccarat, but I would argue that it is. After all, you do have baccarat in your hand, and you are playing, don’t you? And, after all, aren’t family baccarat games intended to be amusing and enjoyable? So, as you can see, all of the components you’re searching 바카라검증 커뮤니티 for are there. 바카라 패턴

One of the easiest methods to get started is to deal the cards before telling anybody, and then inform them that the game is generally played with face baccarat and aces only, with just the highest number baccarat. Watch as everyone smiles and says, “I was going to say, something here isn’t right,” or perhaps they are the luckiest person on the globe, or at least in this family, on this particular day. So, that’s how you do it, and I wish you the greatest of luck, as well as the most fun. Please ponder and reflect on all of this.

Baccarat in Magic: The 바카라검증 목록 Gathering

Microprose has published the next generation of this famous game, which includes two languages of the same game. It appears that this popular game will expand even more now that it is going from a printed to an electronic medium.

For those unfamiliar with the card version of this game, you and your opponent take on the roles of wizards, with a deck of mystical artifacts in your hands including strong creatures, magical spells, and mana-rich lands. The more land you own and possess the more mana (magical energy) you earn, which means your spells will get more powerful.

With Microprose’s latest edition, you may select between two modes of game play: duel or campaign. In dual mode, you 안전한 바카라검증 can put your custom-built decks against a computer opponent and choose from 60 pre-built decks for some serious game play. In campaign mode, you’ll have a bit more variation; for example, the well-known planeswalker Arzakon will want to conquer and take control of the land (Shandalar), and it’ll be up to you to stop him.

You may travel around Shandalar’s country, wander through cities, discover old ruins, and so on in this game, which is similar to earlier gathering games but with a little more excitement. Instead of fighting dragons and wizards, you may challenge them to a game of magic baccarat, and if you win, you get to add more magic collecting cards to your deck, but if you lose, you lose one of your magic baccarat. You may discover more about the magic collecting card game, as well as how and when to play those crucial baccarat games.

Benefits of Baccarat Games Played Online

Despite the fact that I enjoy playing cards, I am unable to set aside an 실시간 바카라검증 evening to play poker with my friends and family due to our all-too-busy schedules. Those evenings when we played poker for hours on end are fondly remembered by me. Nothing beats sitting down with your pals for relaxing game playing cards, reminiscing about old times and hilarious stories while enjoying a few drinks and munchies. This is, in my opinion, the finest method to spend time with my pals. When this is not feasible, I turn to my second favorite hobby, playing online baccarat games.

Playing online baccarat is simple; you don’t have to contact your pals and try to coordinate a convenient time and location for everyone to meet together and play poker. When playing online, you just log in and begin playing; everyone is already present, and you have virtual cards and a virtual table.

everything you need to 카지노사이트추천 know about online casino

Everything is redistributed, there is no way to cheat, and all you have to do is sit down and play the hand. You are allowed to leave or change tables if you become bored. People have even been known to play two or three online baccarat games at once. Such commitment is something I can only appreciate.

You may still make new pals when playing online. Text communication is available in online 메이저 바카라검증 baccarat games, allowing you to communicate with the individuals with whom you are playing. Because you are not meeting strangers face to face, using online chat is a wonderful way to meet new people.

Furthermore, no one will question you if you appear to be someone you are not. You have the option to exit at any time if you get uncomfortable or bored with the game. Playing online baccarat games provides all of the benefits of playing face-to-face card games without the commitment and effort. However, no matter how amazing online card games are, there’s nothing like a good poker night with old friends exchanging stories and a few beers.

[memnite-shyamalan]

Great Designer Search 3, Test 1

Today we take a break from our regularly scheduled programming (Timebent, my custom set) to talk about the first design test from GDS3, You Might as Well Tribal (good one Mark).

I'll be following along with all the tests from GDS3 and making cards for each challenge. I'll go in depth on my choices and I'm happy to have conversation with all y'all.

For this test, designers must create eight cards for a creature type that hasn't "seen a lot of love", or even a new type. Here are the rules:

1. The creature tribe must be different from other designers (this rule doesn't apply to us).

2. All the cards need to be designed as though they were in a standard legal set (so no retired mechanics, and adjust power level accordingly)

3. It isn't enough for a card to be the creature type, all eight cards have to mechanically care about that type.

4. You need two cards at each rarity (common, uncommon, rare, mythic rare)

5. Your tribe needs to be in at least two colours, and the colours have to fit the tribe (so don't do green/red squids)

6. You need to have one of every card type aside from planeswalker. The other two cards can be any type you want (to be clear, you're allowed to design a planeswalker but it isn't required).

7. You can use any evergreen mechanics and up to two non evergreen mechanics, but you can't use your own named mechanics. There is no requirement to use named mechanics.

The judges are looking for:

Flavourful design, fun gameplay, syngery, originality, and appropriateness in colour pie, rarity and card type.

For this test, I chose to do insect tribal in green and black. They have a strong graveyard focus, and I wanted to create the feeling of a swarm that breeds rapidly and wipes things out viciously. The swarm is a green aspect, the death is a black aspect, and breeding rapidly is represented by the graveyard, which is the common ground between black and green. That being said, let's look at my cards:

-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=--=+=-=+=-=+=

Land (1)

Instant (1)

Sorcery (1)

(note: the tokens are black but I don't have the version saved on my phone where I fixed that, apologies)

Planeswalker (1)

Artifact (1)

(This is not the most creative name I've ever thought of, I'll admit)

Enchantment (1)

And of course, creatures (2)

-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=--=+=-=+=-=+=

Clearly, these are all playtest names, but for most of them I tried to convey the flavour (except for the artifact, I really couldn't think of what kind of artifact insects would use {maybe it's like a breeding ground?}).

I have two green cards, two black cards, two multicolor cards, and two colourless cards, to show equal representation of the theme of each of the colours. For my two extra card slots, I made one planeswalker because I wanted to, and one extra creature because creatures are the most important part of a tribal deck.

-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=--=+=-=+=-=+=

Individual card notes:

Bugso: I understand why they don't make many tribal planeswalkers - they're the most important cards in a set, they're flagships for the plane and tribal 'walkers are often too narrow. However, Bugso is a nice package and I think it works well enough with itself that one wouldn't NEED to play it in an insect tribal deck to get value out of it, but it's better if you do - much like Liliana, Death's Majesty. I feel like I was able to represent all aspects of the tribe in this card: the swarm, the rapid regrowth, and the slaughter.

Boon of the Ash Borer: I knoooooow, ash borers are all about destroying land and this has nothing to do with land, but it sort of bores through your deck for personal gain which is very much like the bug that killed my favourite tree when I was a kid (no, I'm still not over it).

Design 3 (artifact): I feel like I could fiddle with the numbers a bit. Since individual insects aren't incredibly strong, I think it could cost 3 mana.

-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=--=+=-=+=-=+=

Feel free to comment on what you think of my designs, or reblog with your own! I'm really excited for the start of the GDS3 show and I hope you are too.

#gds3 #great designer search 3 #MtG #custom cards #custom magic card #MtG custom card #MtG tribal #MtG the game #magic the gathering #magic the card game #magic

[asmund-scion-of-ice]

Calm Before the Storm

Another day on Ravnica, slightly overcast, just a slight nip in the air. Not quite perfect, but it was nice enough. It was just past noon in the 9th District, and business was booming. Well, outside the meadery, anyway.

The myriad of peoples that called Ravnica home bustled to and fro outside my door, running along after their own mortality. It’s only fair, all considered. Their short life spans were never much of a problem to me; having dwarves back home that eventually submitted themselves to my service lived long enough, elves generally stayed out of my barony anyway, and humans came and went as they tend to do. But here, on Ravnica, I could barely fly half of a mile before running into another planeswalker, with the majority of them being human. All of them were nice people, and went about their business, visiting me from time to time. I liked it.

Today, however, was to be a special day. Gardonia, a local Boros-affiliate, decided to challenge Theren Everwood to a duel. Not just any duel, no. My mind drifted back to the evening prior...

I was flying about, minding my own business. Everyone had left the meadery and I had closed down for the night. Nothing atypical there, anyhow. As I circled above Oak Street, I found my friend Theren, following a number of contraptions through the very nature-oriented thoroughfare. It wasn’t quite snowing out, but my presence certainly aided in cooling down the area; I remember chuckling as I saw him shiver. He wound up at Digitalis’s lab. I’d had no idea that there were any labs out there. Well, the two wound up talking and complaining about the cold. Defending myself, I entered into a shouting match with Digitalis, requesting to keep the heat down. I do not abide heat. Terrible thing, that. Anyhow, she started up a machine; the machine amplified her voice. It was quite quaint, truly. Then Theren picked up the speaking device and sang a wonderful song. I’m certain half the plane heard it; his voice was truly thunderous, worthy of even a dragon. 

Now, still flying high above, I heard another man shouting. Wondering who was raising such a ruckus, we found Gardonia, singing his own medley, spewing lightning all about the city streets. I could already feel the heat. Not the heat of battle or fire, but the heat of a rivalry, the roaring flame of challenge. A bardic duel!

Immediately I jumped on the chance, proclaiming a duel at Frostwing Meadery.

And so, today. Readying the meadery was the job of the day. Cleaning the tables, the stage, and setting up a magical illusion to stop the crowd from viewing Gardonia’s lightning. The place was going to be packed tonight. Not that the meadery could really become full, but, I would do my best to fill it.

Over the course of the previous few hours, I must have moved three tons worth of liquors to the bar. I brought huge oaken casks, massive glass canisters, and great barrels of pine to the front, piling them and readying each to be drained by the thirsty visitors. Everyone had to buy at least one drink. That was ingenious, in my mind. “House rules!” I’ll cry, when someone declines. Ha! 

The assortment of drinks at my disposal were astounding, really. Dizzying, even. Most dragons hoard gold or jewels. I do hoard those things, of course, but, in my mind, hoarding tastes is the greatest pleasure in the world. Thus, opening my meadery. Sharing those tastes with the multiverse was wonderful, as long as I could keep most of it to myself.

But, I’m off topic. Washing down the tables, made of a fine white birch, is when my mind tends to wander. So I hurried and moved to the stage. A great construction, 200 feet across and 50 feet from front to back, the stage was where the battle would be today. Spreading a layer of snow over the pinewood planks, I wiped the stage. Luckily, I didn’t think anyone was using the piano, so I gingerly wheeled it into the back; I have a tendency to forget my own strength. After that, I spent an hour hanging lights, dainty crystals of blue and white, all gently pulsing a relaxing light. I stoked the fire on the eastern side of the meadery, as well; I don’t like fire, but few, if any, people enjoy the cold as I do. If I had my way, the meadery would be sub freezing temperatures, but I need customers. So scratch that.

Finally, I washed each stein, each drinking horn carefully, ensuring no stains escaped my prying eye. The Frostwing Meadery would be the place to visit on Ravnica this evening. No one will be able to avoid it. The Battle of the Bards would begin soon, and the merry company of friends would wash over my soul.

@gardianforce @thetalesofthereneverwood @digitalis-the-engineer

#frostwing meadery #battle of the bards #fanwalker #9th district #mtg #magoc the gathering #magic the gathering #magic #fanwalkers #the frostwing meadery #ravnica #ravnican city board #gardonia #theren #asmund #asmund speaks #asmund scion of ice

[scryfull]

MTG Fanwalker Deck Design Challenge

Design a planeswalker deck for a fanwalker of yours from an existing plane!

Planeswalker decks have a custom mythic planeswalker, two copies of a custom rare that tutors up said planeswalker, three copies of a custom uncommon that works better if you have your planeswalker in play, and four copies of a custom common.

Reprints-wise, they have two single rares, ten uncommons, and a bunch of commons all from the same block. They've also got four copies of an enters-tapped dual land from either Oath of the Gatewatch or Shadows over Innistrad at common.

Feel free to reblog this post with your custom cards or links to deck lists, or make your own post and tag me in it! I'd love to see what you guys come up with :D

#mtg #magic the gathering #magic: the gathering #custom cards #mtg custom #custom mtg

[loreholdlesbian]

March of the Machines Draft Booster Challenger

Hello everyone! Every set I like to make a booster pack of custom cards, inspired by a challenge in the GDS3 to which all the links are broken from wotc’s dumb site change so im not gonna bother. But the goal is to match the distribution of cards you could expect to find in a booster of MOM, trying to make cards that wouldn’t feel odd mixed in with those of the set. I try to fit with the ways mechanics were used in the set, while also being innovative and finding new things to do, which can sometimes be conflicting goals. There are also a lot of stipulations I put on myself in addition to being innovative while natural to the set, like trying to have a good spread of card types, colors, and themes while not being too similar to any card in the set (or the booster). Now let’s get into it!

Long post ahead, click at your own risk.

Rare

Thoughtweft Vigilant 2W  

Creature- Kithkin Knight  

Vigilance  

All noncreature spells cost 2 more to cast and have convoke.  

3/3

This is trying to do something new with convoke. Rather than using convoke as a flat bonus, it uses it as a way to alleviate a downside. It affects everyone, but your deck is gonna be better equipped to take advantage. The aggressive stats and relevant typeline encourage a very creatureful deck, so you might even rather 2 extra mana but being able to convoke your noncreature spells, while your opponents probably will not.

Uncommons

Vraska, Heretic’s End 1B P/B  

Legendary Planeswalker- Vraska  

Compleated  

Phyrexians you control have menace.  

-2: Destroy target creature or planeswalker that was dealt damage this turn.  

5 Loyalty

This set is the last time we’ll be seeing phyrexians for a while, so I wanted to give a last hurrah to the compleated mechanic (as well as to some of the characters who had it who died in this story, though vraska isn’t one). This is one member of a 5 card cycle of uncommon planeswalkers that all have a compleated, a static, and a minus ability. I think compleated is a neat mechanic on planeswalkers with no + ability, it’s using it in its simplest form to mean “you can cheap on the mana but you’ll get fewer uses of the ability, full stop”. Vraska tends to be a very removal-centric planeswalker, so her - needed to be removal, and this felt like the least problematic way to have repeatable removal that feels like her. If anything it feels too weak, we’ve seen this effect at one mana with a cantrip, but it synergizes really well with the menace she grants. This probably isn’t something wotc would have included in the set if im being honest, to differentiate it both from WAR and from ONE, but its something i think would be an awesome addition so I did it anyway.

Ikorian Behemoth 3GG  

Creature- Dinosaur Rhino Beast  

Haste  

Trample over everything (This creature can deal excess combat damage to the player, battle, or planeswalker it’s attacking. Excess combat damage to a planeswalker or battle it’s attacking can be dealt to the defending player.)  

5/4

“Trample over battles” felt like a cool bit of text we could have seen in this set but didn’t, which meant it was a perfect opportunity for this project. This went through a few iterations that ended with “Trample, trample over planeswalkers and battles” but i didn’t like how repetitive that sounded (I don’t like how repetitive [[Thrasta]] sounded either) so I came up with “trample over everything” which frankly is just an awesome-sounding bit of rules text, and definitely is a cool new thing to show off, which again, is perfect for this project and the kind of innovation I like to do.

Commons

Infuse with Halo 1W  

Instant  

Untap target creature and put a +1/+1 counter on it. It gains protection from Phyrexians until end of turn. (It can’t be blocked, damaged, or targeted by Phyrexians.)

This was originally a backup creature with protection from phyrexians, and I do think that’s a neat effect for a backup creature but I wanted to increase the number of noncreature cards in the pack plus I had another white backup creature i wanted so I went with this. I think protection from phyrexians would play pretty well in this set though.

Ranks of the Cathars W  

Creature- Human Knight  

Backup X, where X is the number of creatures you control named Ranks of the Cathars.  

3: This creature gains double strike until end of turn.  

0/1

This backup card is more about the +1/+1 counters than the ability, but backing something up turn 4 and then activating the ability is no joke, especially if you got another one down early.

Corrupted Sea  

Land  

~ enters the battlefield tapped.  

T: Add U.  

Cycling 1 P/U

Phyrexian mana cycling costs felt really cool, cause cycling is usually between 1 or 2 mana and isn’t a problem to the color pie, so it doesn’t bump up against phyrexian mana’s problems, plus the 2 life is hopefully gonna stop the ikoria problem of filling your deck with off-color cyclers despite being useable generically, cause all that life will add up fast. I put this on a land cycle, cause there was a cycle of landcycling spells at common i didn’t want this to compete with, plus having a land meant i had every nontribal card type covered in the pack.

Flock’s Protection 2U  

Instant  

Convoke  

Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1 for each creature you control.

Since blue is one of the big convoke colors this set, it wants more of a go-wide strategy than usual so I thought a card like this that rewards that would be a good addition.

Podtender Perfect 3B  

Creature- Phyrexian Elf  

When ~ enters the battlefield, incubate 3. That token becomes a 0/0 Phyrexian artifact creature with haste until end of turn.  

3/3

I had the idea for creating an incubator token and making it a copy of something until end of turn, so you could make use of the token before you transform it, but there was no good upper rarity slot for it but if i did a simpler implementation, I could do it at common, and the simplest was having it become the same thing you’re used to it becoming, a 0/0 Phyrexian.

Stinkcaller Shaman 1R  

Creature- Goblin Shaman  

When ~ enters the battlefield, exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn. A spell cast this way has convoke.  

2/1

Here’s another cool new way I found to use convoke, tying it to red’s impulse draw. I put it as an ETB on a creature so you could make use of that creature for the convoke cost.

Repurpose Biomass 1G  

Sorcery  

Incubate 2, then put a +1/+1 counter on an artifact or creature you control.

Nothing too complicated here, it’s basically an incubate 3 that’s more flexible with where you can put the last counter.

Transguild Skytraveller 2  

Artifact Creature- Bird  

~ is all colors.  

Flying, vigilance  

1/1

I thought a [[Transguild Courier]] type card would be a neat addition with convoke in the set, so it can help fix for your convoke cards.

Battle

Invasion of Rabiah 5  

Battle- Siege [rare]  

~ enters the battlefield with one fewer defense counter for each color spent to cast it.  

When ~ enters the battlefield, draw two cards.  

7 defense  

Lamp of Endless Realms  

Artifact  

You have no maximum hand size.  

4, T: Choose a card you own from outside the game and put that card into your hand.

Battles are a whole new card type, and if im trying to show off innovative new things, this was the perfect spot. But wotc was very specific in making all the battles work the same here, so I couldn’t deviate far from that. Making one with a variable number of defense counters felt like the best middle ground I could find. Since I needed the variation to never make it enter with 0 defense, this felt like my best option.

DFC

Furnace Implant R  

Enchantment- Aura [uncommon]  

Enchant creature you control  

Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has first strike.  

4 P/W: Transform ~. Activate only as a sorcery.  

Furnacestoker Firecat  

[RW] Creature- Phyrexian Elemental Cat  

First strike  

4/2

Similarly to battles, the DFCs here all worked similarly which didn’t give me a lot of room to come up with something new. They all turn into phyrexians, but all the dfc cards start as creatures. So I thought doing another card type would be neat (though admittedly there are already incubator tokens in this space)

Bonus Sheet

Lyssa, Ancient Theologian 2RW  

Legendary Creature- Human Cleric [uncommon]  

Whenever Lyssa, Ancient Theologian attacks, mill two cards. Choose a card milled this way. You may play it from your graveyard this turn.  

Whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, you gain 2 life.  

3/4

Bonus sheets are always hard since they’re all reprints, but ive settled on making new cards for them that wouldn’t have printed in the set they come with. Here, I went with something that could fit in strixhaven a) cause i had the frame for it and b) cause it lets me show off this new mill-based form of impulse draw that i think would be a really useful tool for red in graveyardy sets.

Art links:

Thoughtweft Vigilant

Vraska, Heretics’ End

Ikorian Behemoth

Infuse with Halo

Ranks of Cathars

Corrupted Sea

Flock’s Protection

Podtender Perfect

Stinkcaller Shaman

Repurpose Biomass

Tranguild Skytraveller

Invasion of Rabiah // Lamp of Endless Realms

Furnace Implant // Furnacestoker Firecat

Lyssa, Ancient Theologian

#original post #mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #booster challenge #march of the machines

[commandertheory]

Custom Challenge: Partners

New name, been outta the magic game for awhile! Just coming back. (It’s Raptorthedoctor/Thelovelymedusa/Abyssal-Lolth) So uhh, deck challenge! Not sure if you still do those anymore, buuuut can’t blame a girl for trying, right?  You might remember one of the things I liked to challenge you with were custom commanders, and Partner gives some new space to that, so I figured I’d hit you up with some choices. Attached are 10 commanders with Partner, one for each color pairing. The rules are simple, just pick the two you like best or think are most interesting and work around them! Alternatively, if you want to use one of these with one of the existing partners, feel free to do that instead! I’ll go over the 10 below (and if anyone else wants to play around with them, feel free.)

This is Arketh. He was essentially made top-down from the art. An abomination resulting from Phyrexian experiments in Darksteel, Arketh must sustain himself on the lives of others to maintain his indestructible status. Or he can be found as expendable, and the research gained him the experiment used to aid another creature.  Commander-wise, he could lend himself to a lot of interesting utility uses, but I like to think he might be good in some sort of dual-Voltron deck, given that he himself is a miniature Yahenni for one less mana (albeit without the additional growth effect) but can also protect another one of your creatures.

I’ve been waiting to make this card since forever, really, but Helddagrif never really felt like it’d fit as its own fully-powered commander. I think it works well here as a supplement threat to some other group-slug partner. Helddagrif, most likely the result of some demon or necromancer getting their hands on our hapless hippo friend, brings along group discard and damage, sure to make you a hit at the table! (Just make sure you don’t go past 3 activations of his first ability or your hippo isn’t long for this world. Unless you had a way to give him indestructible…)  Definitely not as interesting or unique a card as Phelda, I’ll admit it, but the idea was humorous and I kind of like that this purple hippo now has nothing but hate in its heart. The perfect minion for some dastardly character!

Just slightly less cringeworthy of a name than Helddagrif is Hyss. B/G got a pretty cool toughness matters theme with Khans block, so I’ve extended on that here. Hyss is probably one of the more mechanically unimpressive looking of the commanders, but never underestimate a deathtouch threat you can cast over and over at instant speed. Hyss is from Amonkhet. Or, well… I had concepted a plane ages ago where one of my Planeswalkers dwelt, which was an Egyptian world that had become subjugated by Bolas. While Amonkhet seems to be a bit more than “Subjugated”, if the shoe fits, wear it! Hyss is an assassin known for her poisoned blade. 

The cheapest of the cycle rewards you for playing with the most expensive creatures. She might be undercosted for what she does, but she comes with some fairly strict deckbuilding conditions..  The flavor text and epitaph are a reference to Illaoi from League of Legends.  Lissana is from Zendikar. She seems to have survived the Eldrazi incursion on a remote isle guarded by sea monsters, preferring to hermit here, rather than involve herself more actively in the conflict.

If you remember my Sharuum deck, you know I love Sphinxes. Morius here is an evasive beater that have a big upside when he enters. An upside that grows the more things have died. Luckily, you’re in black. He might not mind being paired with a white creature to increase the amount of available options, though.  Morius, if printed, would be the most expensive Partner printed. Ikra Shidiqi, Kraum, and Ravos are all tied for second at 5 CMC. Morius is a Sphinx from Theros who dwells in the Underworld. While he wears the mask of a Returned, he himself is still quite living. Whether he works for Phenax or Erebos, or whether he’s simply crafty enough to evade their detection is unknown. 

I’ve probably complained along with everyone else about red/white commanders. Here’s my attempt at an interesting one. 

Champion is a mechanic that I always wished got a little more love. There’s a bit of good mechanical design space, including using the championed creature as a resource. Some other ideas for what Scor might’ve done with the Championed creature included getting +X/+0 based on their CMC, putting tokens into play based on their CMC, or dealing damage based on their CMC. But I felt like a sunforger on a stick was just gonna be a more interesting route to go. I’m not entirely sure if the wording on the activated is correct as I have no examples to fall back on. Had to cut the reminder text for champion cause even as it is, the card is a bit crowded.

Scor is from Estaroth, a plane where mighty champions go on quests to battle ferocious monsters in the name of the realm. With his appearance and elemental status, some might consider Scor to fall firmly into the latter camp, but the guy’s got a heart of (Molten) Gold.

A commander that makes use of the fact that you can have two commanders. I’m still a little scared of the power level of this one, so he’s costed and given an appropriately squishy body to reflect that. To be honest, I’m still not entirely sure how much of the “power budget” of a card Partner eats up, and this might’ve been pushing it just a little. Honestly though, rebound probably isn’t a powerful enough ability to prevent him from being a 2/2 or 0/3. Or maybe costing 3 mana. I erred on the safe side. I’m not entirely sure which plane Terisys is from. Perhaps I’ll explore that later. I can’t help but think he’s related to Bolas in some way, though.

I’m a bit sad I couldn’t get flavor text on more of these, but they were eating up space in that text box.  So I haven’t actually seen or own any Kaladesh cards yet, but I’ve looked over the block and it looks pretty sweet. (Getting an inventor’s fair for Sharuum.) The Fabricate mechanic presents an interesting choice. Do I go high or do I go wide? Yinna offers two different effects based off what choice you take on the fabricate, although there are definitely ways in green/white to break those rules a little. She definitely benefits from cards that can give her +1/+1 counters, being paired or partnered with beatsticks for her to grant trample, cards that can increase her token production somehow (like anything with populate or doubling season-type effects), and bounce or blink.  Yinna, of course, is from Kaladesh. She enjoys blending organic life, mainly plants, with her artifice.

For whatever reason, I’m really bad at designing blue/white commanders as well as red/white ones. Maybe white just isn’t my thing. Selkia comes with a pretty powerful moat-like ability, with the caveat that she has to be untapped for it to be turned on. Luckily, blue is the color of untapping things and white is the color of vigilance, although with her 2/2 body, she probably needs to be beefed up a little before attacking in the first place. Selkia’s power scales with the number of players in the game. Having a moat effect becomes a lot more valuable when lots of people have huge armies of creatures (Or armies of huge creatures) and are just looking for places to point them. Selkia’s cost reduction ability, one meant to mimic Commander 2016’s “Undaunted” mechanic, also becomes better with each extra player in the game.  Selkia is from Alyra. A plane where an invasion of the south by powerful demon lords has forced many of the plane’s inhabitants to migrate to the cold North to make a last stand against the ever advancing demonic forces.

Finally, there’s Mag, Gurana Stalker//Old Mag This is a pretty straightforward beater on the front side. The flavor is a lot like the idea of a ramping threat, like a movie monster. Sometimes, like the blob, the monster grows from small to larger and larger as it devours more people. Sometimes it’s the alien chestburster who undergoes a metamorphosis and emerges as an alien warrior. Other times it’s the raptors who learn how to open doors.  Once transformed, Mag gains a powerful combat ability to show off her battle experience. She wouldn’t have survived to become “Old” Mag on the harsh plane of Vera if she wasn’t tough! She’s a monster in combat, making chump-blocking or often blocking her at all not much of an option. Like any growing monster, the best way to deal with her is when she’s small.  You may get the most out of Old Mag by forcing creatures to block her. If you can get enough +1/+1 counters on her, she can make devastating use of Lure effects, often being able to take out all comers all at once with that double dose of power increase, once from the counters and again from her ability. Like any voltron, she’ll do well with some hexproof or shroud. Ways to give her haste can start the attacks and counter stacking more quickly, and ways to give her +1/+1 counters can hasten her growth into the tyrant queen of the riverway a little quicker. Anyway, those are my take on the partner mechanic! I hope you enjoyed and it wasn’t TOO long of a read for you! I look forward to seeing what/if you do with them! 

Rattlesnakes and Sea Serpents

The two that stood out to me out of this batch were Hyss and Lissana, as both of them encourage a deck that operates at instant speed. Hyss requires you to keep mana open on your opponents’ turns so you can threaten them with a surprise deathtouch blocker, while Lissana allows you to cast your deck’s biggest threats at the last possible second, thus allowing you to constantly hold up counterspells and spot removal.

The Beasts of the Deep

There are a couple of very strong sea monsters, but in order to fill enough slots so that our commander’s ability is relevant, we’ll have to settle for running a few that are normally a little too vanilla for this format.

+Kederekt Leviathan: When cast EOT, it’ll clear out potential blockers and allow you to be the first to rebuild your board. +Colossal Whale: Flash gives this guy pseudo-haste, allowing you to quickly answer threats. +Wrexial, the Risen Deep: One of the few sea monsters that generate card advantage. +Scourge of Fleets: Probably won’t trigger for more than 3 or 4 in this three-color deck, but it’ll disrupt your opponents’ utility creatures/mana dorks/etc. and steal some tempo. +Stormtide Leviathan: Protects you and improves the effectiveness of your other islandwalkers. +Breaching Leviathan +Shipbreaker Kraken: Casting it EOT can allow you to immediately mostrify it and clear out blockers while you swing for 10. +Elder-Deep Fiend +Great Whale +Aethersquall Ancient +Stormsurge Kraken +Trench Gorger +Aethertide Whale +Deep-Sea Kraken +Grozoth +Inkwell Leviathan +Pearl Lake Ancient +Simic Sky Swallower

Harnessing Tiamat’s Might

In addition to one or two cards that specifically support our deck’s tribal theme, there are lots of cards that have synergy with our strategy of “EOT drop some huge fat”.

+Sunder: Once you have a bunch of large creatures on the board, casting Sunder can be an excellent way to close out the game. +Prime Speaker Zegana/Hunter’s Prowess/Hunter’s Insight/Rishkar’s Expertise/Soul’s Majesty: The ratio of cards drawn to mana spent on these is hard to beat once you’ve got a sea monster to target. +Greater Good: Good protection against board wipes and pretty thematic, too. Ever heard of whale falls? +Whelming Wave: Excellent way to clear out blockers while leaving our main threats untouched. +Toxic Deluge: Since most of the creatures we care about are huge, we can easily pick a number that will wipe out our opponents’ stuff while allowing our benthic beasts to survive.

Summoning the Sea

Given that the average CMC of our sea monsters is like 6 or 7, we’re going to need a fair bit of ramp if we want to consistently cast them.

+Ancient Tomb +Sol Ring +Mana Crypt +Joraga Treespeaker +Trinket Mage +Cultivate +Kodama’s Reach +Skyshroud Claim +Hunting Wilds +Ranger’s Path +Explosive Vegetation

Abyssal Magics

These are our primary means of interacting with our opponents; most of them are instant speed to keep with the deck’s theme of playing on our opponents’ turns.

+Crush of Tentacles +Rapid Hybridation +Pongify +Doom Blade +Sultai Charm +Nature’s Claim +Arcane Denial +Counterspell +Cyclonic Rift +Disallow +Forbid +Go for the Throat +Negate +Putrefy +Swan Song +Vendetta +Damnation +Toxic Deluge

Wrapping Up

The rest of the deck is mostly goodstuff, with one or two tricks to take advantage of Hyss’s deathtouch. You can take a look at the full decklist here:

Snakes and Serpents

Thanks for the extremely creative challenge (and for your patience) @lyla-lycoris! I’m working my way through my backlog and will tackle more submissions soon.

#challenge #lyla-lycoris #submission

[custommagiccards]

The winner of the new planeswalker keyword challenge is @puppydrum64 ! #mtg #magicthegathering #magic #custom #custommtg #custommagic #custommagiccard #custommagicthegathering #fakemtg #customcard #card https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv_-tv2H-6p/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=khegiaa472td

#mtg #magicthegathering #magic #custom #custommtg #custommagic #custommagiccard #custommagicthegathering #fakemtg #customcard #card

[illusivegore]

Gore Reviews Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014

Release Date: June 26, 2013 Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (reviewed), iOS, Android

It is summer time and we know all know what that means. No, I’m not talking about burning alive in the hot sun or possible death from heat stroke. Well those are legitimately answers as well, but I’m talking specifically about a new Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers game. The Duels franchise is slowly turning into something akin to Madden or Call of Duty with its yearly releases and while a game like Magic should be able to pull this off (because it adds hundreds of new cards to the game each year and has thousands of cards from the past to tap into), let’s not jump the gun with an assumption like that so quickly.

Magic is a game I’ve grown very passionate about over the last couple of years and while my IRL play has been significantly cut down, I still follow the game very closely. Each year I very much look forward to getting my hands on the latest Duels game because it lets me play the game I love when I can’t get together with friends. So it’s unfortunate that I have to say this, but Duels 2014 doesn’t quite live up to expectations and the series may have finally peaked and be on the decline.

Like years past, the single player options consist of the usual campaign, revenge campaign, challenges, and custom free-for-all or two-head giant matches. This year the campaign has you working with Planeswalker Chandra Nalaar and traveling to various planes within Magic’s lore to collect items in order to track down the elusive Ramaz. As with the other Duels games, the story means very little and most probably won’t give it a second thought. Where I draw the biggest issue with the campaign is due to its focus on encounters, which play out almost exactly the same each time. This sort of kills what makes Magic so great, it’s unpredictability. This is just a minor complaint as these are still fun to work through in most cases. After completely a few of these encounters, you’ll face the “boss” of that particular plane and actually get to play a real game of Magic. Upon defeating this opponent you’ll unlock their deck, as well as the next plane.

One “feature” in the campaign that felt rather tacked on was the ability to battle Magic’s original five Planeswalkers (Ajani, Jace, Liliana, Chandra and Garruk). Within each plane you’ll be able to pick one of the five to do battle with and by defeating them, you’ll unlock their deck. This feature is so unintuitive that I didn’t even notice it was available until I was halfway through the campaign. What’s even worse is that two of the Planeswalkers’ (Chandra and Garruk) decks are unlocked from the beginning, so facing them feels almost pointless. Luckily the revenge campaign stacks these five Planeswalkers and all of the “bosses” from the campaign and into a progressive ladder with no story or encounter filler, making for a tougher and much more satisfying experience.

The challenges in each Duels game are something I always look forward to, but unfortunately 2014’s were completely underwhelming. Out of ten challenges only one of them even slightly posed a real challenge to complete. It was like the developers just felt it was necessary to put them in because they’ve been in the series from the beginning and then proceeded to half-ass the job. I’m all for beginner challenges that help new players learn certain mechanics and tricks the game offers, but having every challenge feel like “baby’s first Magic game” was really disappointing.

Arguably the most important part of any Magic game is the deck selection you have at your disposal. Unfortunately, this is another sore spot in Duels 2014 for me. Like most of the previous installments you’ll have 10 decks available (once you’ve completed the campaign or paid to unlock them) and each has 30 cards to unlock to help you develop more powerful strategies. In years past Stainless Games has struck a beautiful balance between each deck, but this year the balance (or lack thereof) was all over the place. There are two or three decks that are completely overpowered, a few mediocre decks, and a couple that are basically unplayable if you want to win. This is honestly the most disappointing issue with Duels 2014 as unlocking each card has always been something that I’ve found quite enjoyable, but I’ve found myself unable to consistently win with a couple decks (even battling AI on the easiest difficulty) and that has deterred me from continuing the pursuit.

This issue becomes even more glaring when you step into the world of multiplayer. This is where most players will probably spend most of their time with the game and from my experience it just isn’t fun like it was in years past. When everyone plays the same two overpowered decks, the variety and enjoyment plummets immensely. Add on top of that the fact that the Steam version of the game is running rampant with cheaters and hackers, which Stainless apparently has no desire to address or fix, and the fun, competitive online experience that some may be used to, just isn’t there in Duels 2014.

The biggest addition to Duels 2014 and perhaps the game’s saving grace is the introduction of sealed play. While the sealed play in Duels 2014 isn’t quite the same as you’d see in paper Magic, it’s still something new, different, and enjoyable. In 2014’s version of sealed play you’ll start with six booster packs, each with 14 cards, in which you use to create your own custom 40 card deck. Once you’ve opened your packs and built your deck you’ll get to play through the single player sealed campaign, which allows you to unlock an additional three booster packs to further enhance your deck. This is the first time you’ve ever been able to create your own deck in a Duels game, so this feels like a major step forward. Also worth noting is that you can finally adjust your lands as you see fit (even with the 10 pre-constructed decks) for the first time as well.

Duels 2014 comes stock with two sealed slots you can use for free, each with its own pool of six boosters and three more unlockable via the campaign. You also have the option to buy more slots for $2 each if you want to build more decks or just want to try and get a little luckier with your pool. Compared to IRL Magic, $2 for 9 boosters isn’t too shabby, especially if you plan to take your sealed decks online, which will greatly extend their life making the $2 investment far more worthwhile.

The online sealed play is a much more refreshing environment when compared to the pre-constructed online games. Here you’ll definitely see a much wider variety of decks and because of this, games feel far more competitive and unique. There’s still the pesky problem of cheaters and hackers (mostly on the Steam version) that are just out to ruin days. While I played on the 360 and didn’t experience any cheating (that I know of), it still seems worth noting if you’re looking into possibly purchasing the Steam version of the game.

Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014 is a completely solid and competent game when it comes to gameplay, presentation and mechanics, but there are a number of issues holding it back including its unbalanced pre-constructed decks and completely lackluster single player campaign and challenges. There is one shining light and that comes in the form of sealed play. If you’ve always wanted to build your on deck in a Duels game, you finally have that chance, although on a limited basis. So if you’re a fan of the Duels series or Magic in general, it’d be hard not to recommend this, but just know that Duels 2014 is somewhat lacking and definitely isn’t the best game in the franchise.

Score: 3 out of 5

#games #video games #reviews #review #magic the gathering

[bub-the-voidling]

Custom Card Competition wk 15: Tribe Support

(This is a post about a private Card Brewing competition. Entries were not open to the public)

And another week of the custom card competition comes to an end! Exactly on time! I promise! DON’T SAY ANYTHING ELSE. *Cough* Anyway, this week the prompt was “Make a tribal lord or some other kind of tribal support.” And just as a reminder after this week we’ll have less loose prompts. See? I can take feedback :P Anyway, let’s not stall any longer, first card go!

Hey! You’re a week late, commanders were last week!

Now this seems a bit simplistic, or maybe not that good even if you just glance at it. But it gets all the [lords] [to] [buff] [all] [the] [doods], even though it sadly gets missed by the [best tribal support ever].

I’m not even that opposed to giving attacking dudes indestructible for 2 colorless mana, although I cannot deny that I at first wished it’d say “another.” But that would mess up the flavor of this unifier since she wouldn’t be attacking then, so it’s actually good she can make her self indestructible.

Also fun little thing, this card helps me personally. I’m actually making a set where one tribe is two creature types, and this seems like the smoothest way to connect them. Maybe I’ll steal the effect >:) 

9/10, I don’t have much to say other than good job.

Oh lordie how I love this card, get ready for a long one.

This, this card is just amazing. Like, if I saw this card in a “Just make a card this challenge isn’t loose at all” I think this might win it, there would have to be another sort of bomb ass card to beat this! But now you may wonder, why weren’t there a ton of fanfare before this one then? Like, you obviously love it, when will you say it won? Simple, it doesn’t really fit the competition.

Now, let’s take a moment to understand this. Planeswalker usually mess things up, and I love ‘em for it. So, the challenge was to make a tribalistic card, some sort of tribal support or lord. Now this is supposed to fall onto the support side most likely, but... To what?

Is it birds because he makes a token each turn? I mean, in that case it’s as much of a bird tribal card as [Elspeth] is a soldier tribal card or [annoying Gideon] is an ally tribal card. They’re just good cards for control or midrange because they make tokens each turn, like this card. Although this specific bird gets the double buff for the [best card in the universe] and kind of curves and gives you some value for [card you forgot existed] (finally) I’m still not sure this is the kind of support birds wants. Birb tribal is a weird tribal, I like the try. But for bird tribal the second ability doesn’t really make sense as birds don’t care about facedown cards, well at least yet :P Also, even though the ult is just [Dovescape] and I don’t think it makes too sense. Yes it makes birds, but that’s about it. Doesn’t seem synergistic with anything.

So is it [mighty morphing power rangers] tribal? Let’s be honest, no. It’s not. This clearly was meant to be a bird tribal and morph isn’t actually a tribe anyway. But I love this second ability. Oooooh god how I love this ability. This ability (and the defensive/controly/valuey first ability) just makes me go [YES]! There is so much you can do with this, curve a morph creature from T3 into this and unmorph with this walker! Do you want to go [big] [thicc] [threats]? Gotcha covered! Maybe that’s not your style, maybe you want to stay on color and not rely on this walker [value] [cards] that you can flip on [their] [own]! Or maybe a glorious mixture of [value] and [colorful] [jank]?! There’s so much you could dream about, why not a [giant boogle]?! This is just so fucking great. Seriously, this card would be just the best fan made card I’ve seen in a long while if it focused on it’s -2 instead of trying to birb. Or Maybe that it makes creatures like a control/value engine is good enough :P

This card would be super expensive in real life because it can be played in so many different ways and I would be super sad because I love it.

Oh yeah, before I forget. Insert [Airborne Aid] here, because bird.

9/10, you missed giving the +1/-8 birds a color like [this] card.

Look at this newcomer! Look at them go!

This captures the challenge amazingly, it gives what seems to be the perfect lord/support to a niche tribe. It gives them the stat they need and care about (toughness) without needlessly making them hard hitters, they’re meant to give mana not beat down, then it even makes them better at their trait by [usually] doubling the mana they produce. She seems like a ramp monster without breaking it as you shouldn’t get her before turn 3 and well, she can be killed. Although not easily with that butt. Your wincon could either be a full-on [druid tribal] or just ramp tribal into [great], [fun], [things]~

Usually when I have a winner I can’t say all too much about it and of course it’s true here too. The worst part about this is that I honestly don’t know if the winner knows that there’s a reward for winning xD

10/10, I’m a sucker for ramp

Congratulations to our newcomer to the PK server and PD player Geralf for winning this week’s card competition ^^ I’ll be waiting for your pm :P

But as usual there are some ineligible entries which are quite amazing this week if I do say so myself ^^ But let’s not keep them waiting and introduce first a giant enemy crab!

[MII][III][III][III][ILL]

That is all.

[Perfect]/10, that last bit of reminder text was nice.

Okay what a lovely entry, but I feel we violated some sort of law by praising mill so let’s hear from a lawyer what they think ^^

Oh boy oh boy oh boy, thank bajesus that you edited and included the artist’s name so I wouldn’t remove an extra point. From the flavor text and art to the effect and flavor. It’s great. Although… You forgot to add “nonland.” You accidentally turned this flavor and mechanic beast of a card into land paj (Paj means pie but is also a Swedish slang for “Doesn’t work/Broken”)

9/10, At least it’s not the artist’s name lacking that steals the point.

 Thank you all for entering this week’s Custom Card Competition ^^ Now… Next week we’ll bring some color and life to our colorless and dull weapons 😉 “Make a colored weapon! Some examples are [Godsend], [Mage Slayer], or even [Unscythe, Killer of Kings] if you’re crazy.” See you next week <3

[magicorganizedplay]

Hey everyone! We processed our usual weekly update today for the 2016-17 Premier Play leaderboard. This is the info we use to determine the Player of the Year, the geo-region champions that are invited to the World Championship, and more. It also displays the Pro Points earned at the top six Grand Prix finishes for players, acting as a helpful means for players to reference on how likely they are to improve on their Pro Point total for the season.

Here's the thing: This week’s entry had all the data we know people want, except for…well, some rows don’t have a name. There are some rows on the leaderboard in which we have an assigned DCI number, recorded finishes, Pro Points, all that tied to a number, and…no name.

This issue is connected to the recent retiring of the legacy DCI account system. The names that aren’t displaying are from folks who we have the data and DCI number for, but who have not migrated their DCI number to the Wizards Account system.

As the initial articles have stated, we were aware that some challenges might emerge with this transition to the Wizards Account system but felt it necessary for the long-term benefits. This is one of those challenges.

In lieu of this, we strongly recommend everyone who knows they have earned at least 10 Pro Points check this week’s 2016-17 Leaderboard update and Rookie of the Year race update. If you don’t see your name on this list and you know you should be on the leaderboard, you should contact customer service as soon as possible. Not doing so may impact our ability to award you prizes and perks tied to your seasonal Pro Point and Planeswalker Point earnings, such as tournament invitations and Pro Club statuses, so treat this request seriously.

Info on doing that was published in the March 21 article regarding this transition, which you can find below:

The surest way to solve any issues or answer any questions you might have is to contact customer service. If you need to contact customer service, you can do it one of these ways:

If you have a Wizards Account, you can contact customer service through wizards.custhelp.com.

If you do not have a Wizards Account, you can create one at accounts.wizards.com, and then use online help at wizards.custhelp.com.

If those options are not available to you, you can call us at any of the phone numbers found here, based on your region. Note that there are limitations to the amount and type of information that can be retrieved or given out over the phone due to privacy concerns, but our customer service representatives will do the best they can to address any issues you might have.

If you are contacting customer service, you can make the process go smoother and faster by including the following information in your email or having it ready when you call:

·        First and last name

·        DCI number

·        Date of birth

·        Email address registered with the account

·        Current email address (if different)

Any event information you can provide, such as the store name and location where you first received your DCI number or a recent event match record.

#mtg op #mtg #organized play #mtg organized play

[mantis-lizbian]

i’ve been thinking and have come to the conclusion that trading/collectible card games are best as a single-player thing. hear me out.

see, i recently came across my old GameBoys, and cache of games, among which was the Pokémon TCG video game. shortly after, i was inspired to try out a rom of one of the Yu-Gi-Oh! games for GBA. i used to collect - and play with - the actual, physical Pokémon cards when i was younger. same with Yu-Gi-Oh! when that came around, and Magic: The Gathering after that. but in addition to having better things to do with my money than drop hundreds over dollars to build a single deck for tournaments that would be obsolete either by meta or format long before i could afford another, i have always been a quintessential Johnny-type player. one of my favourite decks to this day was a Zubera deck whose win condition was essentially mass sepukku via Devouring Greed. virtually impossible to pull off against even a remotely competitive deck, but so much fun to win in a single turn by only killing your own creatures.

anyway, i’ve always been a huge fan of T/CCGs in theory, just never had much fun when actually playing against most people (read: pretty much anyone who isn’t also a Johnny - or a casual match against a friend who is also just using a “natural” collection of booster-acquired cards). the first time that i really, consistently enjoyed playing one of these games was the single-player campaign of Duels of the Planeswalkers (2014? whichever was the one before they allowed truly custom deck building). and after that, Hearthstone’s adventures (which, really, nothing’s yet beat - literally the only reason i play competitively there is to get more free gold to unlock those adventures with - and the announcement that old adventures would no longer be acquirable once they passed out of the standard format was the reason i quit, even though i was current with them, at the time; it’s indicative of misplaced priorities to me). Tavern Brawl is the only PvP that compares.

and the primary reason for this is: it’s boring as hell, playing other people. doesn’t matter what game it is, the meta’s only ever filled with the same half-dozen or so decks. T/CCGs have managed to create the one game where playing an actual person is less dynamic than playing a computer.

in addition to that (with the partial exception of Hearthstone, due to its nature), the way that a T/CCG video game is structured allows for actual difficulty and growth curves to emerge. you start out with a limited pool of cards - often, just enough to build a single, humble deck - and face opponents with similar, low-tier decks. as you win matches, you acquire more cards, allowing you to build stronger decks, and face stronger opponents. this also makes your growth entirely dependent on your skill rather than, say, the size of your wallet (which is what makes Hearthstone a partial exception). since there’s no shortcut to the best cards, you have to actually put thought into how to get the most out of the cards you have (though, of course, to mitigate the possibiluty of getting screwed over by the RNG, i do recommend a system like Hearthstone’s dusting of unwanted cards). and while, given enough time, you can certainly build a unbeatable meta-type deck (especially given the current limitations of AI), that’s what gimmick matches like Hearthstone’s adventures and Tavern Brawl are for, giving the player a unique (and often normally illegal, like by having too many copies of a card as seen in the Loatheb Hunter challenge - my personal favourite) preconstructed deck, or requiring vastly different tactics than normally, favouring cards and strategies that might otherwise not get much use. and speaking of cards without a use, i HATE it when a game has cards that have no use. my biggest reason for hating power creep, but i have to point out Yu-Gi-Oh! as a particularly bad example of this, because even way back in its earliest days, there was absolutely no reason to put level 1 or 2 monsters with no effect in your deck unless that was just all you had. and even then, you’d probably consider using regular playing cards in their place, for all the good they did you.

anyway, when it comes to actual person-on-person card games, i’m just going to stick with non-collectible deck building ones like Smash Up. unless you’re a fellow Johnny.

#tcg #ccg #yugioh #pokemon #magic the gathering #hearthstone #video games #game design