Thursday, May 21, 2015
Short hiatus.
I'm traveling with my family for the next week and a half. I'll be back to writing with a vengeance on June 1st.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Building an EDH supplemental, part 2
Last week I introduced the 5 headlining generals for the product. Here they are in their current version:
Pretty much no changes since last week. Keter became a trigger so that you still get your creature's on death triggers. Hesed was changed to be a global Crucible of Worlds so that Armageddon effects don't lock your opponents out completely.
Of course the pre-constructed decks came with more than one new legend. Unfortunately, I feel that making more four color cards would cheapen the specialness of the new nephilim. I decided to make one legend of each three color pair. Each deck will have a four color legend, a shard legend, and a wedge legend. As of now, the plan is to include 10-15 extra cards so that swapping for one of the three color legends is more easily accomplished.
Gevurah's deck:
These are the most concrete of the 10 lesser generals so far. Uriel currently mills the card if you miss. When playing with him it felt pretty bad to run into a road block if you have multiple triggers going off. I wanted library manipulation to be an important aspect of the card, but the strength of the trigger should be enough to warrant playing with brainstorm, top, etc.
Tiferet used to sacrifice for free until I goldfished a win off of a persist creature. Whoops! I think 1 mana should be enough to contain him. I'm largely ok with it going infinite as long as it involves a third piece, a la Ghave.
Both of these were designed from a place of wanting to do similar things to what had been done in their color combination previously, but from a different axis. Sultai decks care about the graveyard, but they either care about getting lots of cards into their graveyard or getting specific cards into their graveyard. I wanted to have a different interaction with the yard. Tiferet cares about cards leaving your graveyard. As such, the traditional weapons, Relic of Progenitus and friends, don't matter as much against this strategy. Of course that wouldn't be fun to just strip people of counterplay. The other side of the trigger is for something that everyone comes prepared to deal with, creatures.
Uriel had a similar genesis. Grixis generals often care about reanimation, but they are usually the ones doing the reanimating. I wanted to build a general that wanted you to be reanimating things and rewarding you for doing so. Combine that with library manipulation, sneak attack/goryo's vengeance, and continuing to fuel your deck, and you get Uriel.
Hesed:
Hesed has some interesting ways that she pushes the game. The lesser generals under her wanted to be aggressive. Netzach is the Mardu general that I hoped we would get in Khans. He wants you to be attacking and gives you the means to do so. The draw had to be black-ish to avoid Hesed's clause, but it feels right for the colors anyway. Most Mardu generals want to be attacking, but they themselves become the focus of the opponents removal since they are the only attacker that matters. I wanted Netzach to feel like he was spreading the glory out. He is leading an army, a very white thing to do. The card doesn't feel quite Red enough, aside from the desire to turn all of its creatures sideways as often as possible. It might need some minor tweaks.
Suphlatus is the most aggressive of all the creatures. She clears paths and gets enormous pretty fast. An aspect of the lesser generals that was important to me was that they be able to go into the other four color deck that they could fit in. This is not a hard rule, just something to keep in mind. Suphlatus would be right at home in Gevurah. She's also a solid entry into the Jund pantheon. There hasn't really been a Jund general that interacts with lands, and that seemed strange to me. Jund is the color of Destructive Flow and Earthlink. Having a low to the ground aggressive general fit the themes of Jund and Hesed.
Ein'Sof:
Ein'Sof is about growth unending. I wanted the generals under Ein'Sof to either promote growth or benefit from it.
Binah was originally written with Affinity for Lands. While that is striking wording, having the keyword would have required the reminder text anyway, so I just wrote the ability out in full. The rescue ability used to be an active and Binah had, "You may play an extra land on each of your turns." I found that iteration could have been a mono-colored card. As such, I attached the bounce to the playing of an extra land. Now it feels a bit like a ritual, since you can get an extra mana for the turn. It also provides more choices about what you are doing with your lands. You can play them for extra mana, but that means holding out on the Trade Routes ability since you might not wind up with a land to play. The other Temur generals are very unfocused, but for the most part involve reducing costs of your creatures or playing things for free. I went another way on Binah, who I have yet to figure out a good title for, and focused on providing for Landfall, which will be a pretty large part of the Ein'Sof deck.
Chohkmah was a similar story to Binah. Naya generals are all about creating lots of small creatures, and one of the original versions of the card gave each creature you controlled a +1/+1 counter for each land you controlled. Not only was that redundant with Avenger/Craterhoof, it was also completely overpowered. I flipped the script and instead made Chohkmah responsible for finding the land to fuel your growth. Now he wants you to have lots of creatures, but he doesn't provide them. He wants you to have large creatures so that they don't get blocked, but he doesn't help you get there. He is a pay off, not a set up. Also, as was pointed out to me, white infrequently tutors lands to hand. As such, the card got haste instead of vigilance. Turning your guys sideways every turn is a pretty red mindset, but the haste helps with concrete recognition. Of course, to make the white read a bit better, it could have both and cost more.
Keter:
Keter is the hub of the wheel. His lesser generals were a challenge. I am still not overly happy with Zadkiel. I think he will likely be changed. The idea was to make a creature version of Recurring Nightmare. Unfortunately, I think that Karador does what he is trying to do better. Its important to find space that exists within a color pairing and riff on it, but its also important to realize when you are too close to something and abandon ship.
Hod, however, was very easy to design. He is greater than all, so he amalgamates everything that exists, in a "Anything you can do, I can do better," sort of way. The hard part for him was finding a way to word him. The problem is that power and toughness setting abilities are very confusing. If there was a Lord of Extinction and a Consuming Aberration on the battlefield when Hod came into play, then he would choose one of them. If he chooses the Lord, and someone blinks the Aberration, he would switch to the Aberration's ability. So the simpler wording does work, but its quite confusing. Of course the wording I have here might be too confusing. There are some abilities that affect power and toughness that still work under the current wording, in fact most of them do, but people who play with the card won't use since they don't realize he can do it. Hopefully, feedback and testing let him work in his current iteration since its the cleanest, and having to list all the combat abilities takes so much space.
Yesod:
These two took some considerable time to make. It was only afterward, when I showed them to a friend, that it was pointed out to me that Da'at was very similar to Moonring Mirror.
Da'at wanted to be something that was indirectly connected to creatures. However, both decks with Jeskai colors liked drawing cards. In particular, since the trigger is on drawing cards, red sift effects that have been getting pushed recently get you multiple triggers. Da'at reaches beyond the veil to play those cards. He can even do so at instant speed, transforming Yesod by playing a creature. Most of the Jeskai legends are built around casting spells for free or in rapid succession. I wanted Da'at's meditative posture to take things a bit slower. A bit more measured. To process the raw data of a mass draw and find the best option. Also, on a practical level, I wanted him to be able to cast anything. The easiest way to ensure he didn't get out of hand was not letting him cast the card for free. As a side effect of that, he can play things at instant speed. I think he might need the "as though it had flash" text, but the oracle wording of Mosswort Bridge indicates that I don't.
Malkuth was an idea I had after reading some blurbs about Phylacteries. I was curious how I would go about making a creature that acted as a phylactery for multiple creatures. Malkuth hides the soul of a creature within his body, and makes new soulless bodies for those creatures. Like the Djinn, the victims aren't aware that Malkuth intends to use them to make himself an army. Killing Malkuth frees the souls. I also considered having the cards go the the graveyard, or back to play. To play feels a bit dodgy, since then he becomes a slow mass reanimate type card. To graveyard feels very strong since he then unequivable reads, Tap: destroy target creature, even if its indestructible/regenerates/etc. To hand seems like a solid place to start.
Well that was a lot of work! Zadkiel is in need of a re-design, but I'm reasonably happy with where the rest are. I'm going to start building decks around the cards and seeing what works with them. From there a number of the cards will get shaved down to open up room for the new cards that will be added to the precons.
Cheers!
Pretty much no changes since last week. Keter became a trigger so that you still get your creature's on death triggers. Hesed was changed to be a global Crucible of Worlds so that Armageddon effects don't lock your opponents out completely.
Of course the pre-constructed decks came with more than one new legend. Unfortunately, I feel that making more four color cards would cheapen the specialness of the new nephilim. I decided to make one legend of each three color pair. Each deck will have a four color legend, a shard legend, and a wedge legend. As of now, the plan is to include 10-15 extra cards so that swapping for one of the three color legends is more easily accomplished.
Gevurah's deck:
These are the most concrete of the 10 lesser generals so far. Uriel currently mills the card if you miss. When playing with him it felt pretty bad to run into a road block if you have multiple triggers going off. I wanted library manipulation to be an important aspect of the card, but the strength of the trigger should be enough to warrant playing with brainstorm, top, etc.
Tiferet used to sacrifice for free until I goldfished a win off of a persist creature. Whoops! I think 1 mana should be enough to contain him. I'm largely ok with it going infinite as long as it involves a third piece, a la Ghave.
Both of these were designed from a place of wanting to do similar things to what had been done in their color combination previously, but from a different axis. Sultai decks care about the graveyard, but they either care about getting lots of cards into their graveyard or getting specific cards into their graveyard. I wanted to have a different interaction with the yard. Tiferet cares about cards leaving your graveyard. As such, the traditional weapons, Relic of Progenitus and friends, don't matter as much against this strategy. Of course that wouldn't be fun to just strip people of counterplay. The other side of the trigger is for something that everyone comes prepared to deal with, creatures.
Uriel had a similar genesis. Grixis generals often care about reanimation, but they are usually the ones doing the reanimating. I wanted to build a general that wanted you to be reanimating things and rewarding you for doing so. Combine that with library manipulation, sneak attack/goryo's vengeance, and continuing to fuel your deck, and you get Uriel.
Hesed:
Hesed has some interesting ways that she pushes the game. The lesser generals under her wanted to be aggressive. Netzach is the Mardu general that I hoped we would get in Khans. He wants you to be attacking and gives you the means to do so. The draw had to be black-ish to avoid Hesed's clause, but it feels right for the colors anyway. Most Mardu generals want to be attacking, but they themselves become the focus of the opponents removal since they are the only attacker that matters. I wanted Netzach to feel like he was spreading the glory out. He is leading an army, a very white thing to do. The card doesn't feel quite Red enough, aside from the desire to turn all of its creatures sideways as often as possible. It might need some minor tweaks.
Suphlatus is the most aggressive of all the creatures. She clears paths and gets enormous pretty fast. An aspect of the lesser generals that was important to me was that they be able to go into the other four color deck that they could fit in. This is not a hard rule, just something to keep in mind. Suphlatus would be right at home in Gevurah. She's also a solid entry into the Jund pantheon. There hasn't really been a Jund general that interacts with lands, and that seemed strange to me. Jund is the color of Destructive Flow and Earthlink. Having a low to the ground aggressive general fit the themes of Jund and Hesed.
Ein'Sof:
Ein'Sof is about growth unending. I wanted the generals under Ein'Sof to either promote growth or benefit from it.
Binah was originally written with Affinity for Lands. While that is striking wording, having the keyword would have required the reminder text anyway, so I just wrote the ability out in full. The rescue ability used to be an active and Binah had, "You may play an extra land on each of your turns." I found that iteration could have been a mono-colored card. As such, I attached the bounce to the playing of an extra land. Now it feels a bit like a ritual, since you can get an extra mana for the turn. It also provides more choices about what you are doing with your lands. You can play them for extra mana, but that means holding out on the Trade Routes ability since you might not wind up with a land to play. The other Temur generals are very unfocused, but for the most part involve reducing costs of your creatures or playing things for free. I went another way on Binah, who I have yet to figure out a good title for, and focused on providing for Landfall, which will be a pretty large part of the Ein'Sof deck.
Chohkmah was a similar story to Binah. Naya generals are all about creating lots of small creatures, and one of the original versions of the card gave each creature you controlled a +1/+1 counter for each land you controlled. Not only was that redundant with Avenger/Craterhoof, it was also completely overpowered. I flipped the script and instead made Chohkmah responsible for finding the land to fuel your growth. Now he wants you to have lots of creatures, but he doesn't provide them. He wants you to have large creatures so that they don't get blocked, but he doesn't help you get there. He is a pay off, not a set up. Also, as was pointed out to me, white infrequently tutors lands to hand. As such, the card got haste instead of vigilance. Turning your guys sideways every turn is a pretty red mindset, but the haste helps with concrete recognition. Of course, to make the white read a bit better, it could have both and cost more.
Keter:
Keter is the hub of the wheel. His lesser generals were a challenge. I am still not overly happy with Zadkiel. I think he will likely be changed. The idea was to make a creature version of Recurring Nightmare. Unfortunately, I think that Karador does what he is trying to do better. Its important to find space that exists within a color pairing and riff on it, but its also important to realize when you are too close to something and abandon ship.
Hod, however, was very easy to design. He is greater than all, so he amalgamates everything that exists, in a "Anything you can do, I can do better," sort of way. The hard part for him was finding a way to word him. The problem is that power and toughness setting abilities are very confusing. If there was a Lord of Extinction and a Consuming Aberration on the battlefield when Hod came into play, then he would choose one of them. If he chooses the Lord, and someone blinks the Aberration, he would switch to the Aberration's ability. So the simpler wording does work, but its quite confusing. Of course the wording I have here might be too confusing. There are some abilities that affect power and toughness that still work under the current wording, in fact most of them do, but people who play with the card won't use since they don't realize he can do it. Hopefully, feedback and testing let him work in his current iteration since its the cleanest, and having to list all the combat abilities takes so much space.
Yesod:
These two took some considerable time to make. It was only afterward, when I showed them to a friend, that it was pointed out to me that Da'at was very similar to Moonring Mirror.
Da'at wanted to be something that was indirectly connected to creatures. However, both decks with Jeskai colors liked drawing cards. In particular, since the trigger is on drawing cards, red sift effects that have been getting pushed recently get you multiple triggers. Da'at reaches beyond the veil to play those cards. He can even do so at instant speed, transforming Yesod by playing a creature. Most of the Jeskai legends are built around casting spells for free or in rapid succession. I wanted Da'at's meditative posture to take things a bit slower. A bit more measured. To process the raw data of a mass draw and find the best option. Also, on a practical level, I wanted him to be able to cast anything. The easiest way to ensure he didn't get out of hand was not letting him cast the card for free. As a side effect of that, he can play things at instant speed. I think he might need the "as though it had flash" text, but the oracle wording of Mosswort Bridge indicates that I don't.
Malkuth was an idea I had after reading some blurbs about Phylacteries. I was curious how I would go about making a creature that acted as a phylactery for multiple creatures. Malkuth hides the soul of a creature within his body, and makes new soulless bodies for those creatures. Like the Djinn, the victims aren't aware that Malkuth intends to use them to make himself an army. Killing Malkuth frees the souls. I also considered having the cards go the the graveyard, or back to play. To play feels a bit dodgy, since then he becomes a slow mass reanimate type card. To graveyard feels very strong since he then unequivable reads, Tap: destroy target creature, even if its indestructible/regenerates/etc. To hand seems like a solid place to start.
Well that was a lot of work! Zadkiel is in need of a re-design, but I'm reasonably happy with where the rest are. I'm going to start building decks around the cards and seeing what works with them. From there a number of the cards will get shaved down to open up room for the new cards that will be added to the precons.
Cheers!
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Making a set, part 6
I settled on mechanics that I liked and mocked up some cards to go with them. The cards themselves are clearly not tuned, but give some idea of where I'm going with this. I'll go in WUBRG order.
Subvert is the UB keyword. It feeds off the opponent's draw step. It isn't a paralytic like it would be if it triggered off the opponent's spell cast. It has a lot of precedent in UB with Consecrated Sphinx and Notion Thief. The effect also scales with the number of cards your opponent draws over the course of the game, which has the sneaky incremental feel that UB likes. I feel this is the strongest mechanic of the bunch. It has a lot of space.
I'm not sure which wording is more correct. Consumed feels better, but might not be clear enough in the rules/with players. The cards I featured are all creatures, but the mechanic is capable of going on spells to power them up. Ie, there is an instant that gives -2/-2 that when consumed gives -5/-5. This has enough depth to do cool stuff while have a fixed cost. Its also important to the set since Subvert, Flesh Bond, and Brutal have board implication. A one time power-up is perfect.
These cards should all be phyrexian mana in the cmc, but again I can't get MSE to go phyrexian mana for some reason. These let the mechanics bleed into other colors for a pretty steep cost. It is my expectation that more often than not these cards will be played in one of their colors. Unlike New Phyrexia, there is no Infect in the set to offset the life cost of the cards. As such, Phyrexian mana is going to be more impactful here than it was previously.
Current design skeleton:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KKbhhgreewQ_ap6qMUWLUrVr42nUMWPxWT9cPe_JLBs/edit#gid=0
Some things are going to change in the near future. One, I need to have larger/more expensive creatures. I don't have enough of the like, 6-7 mana, 4/4 - 6/6 range. The creature number is currently at 51, which is about right but I think there wants to be more options for blue/red. Not many more, maybe like 1 creature each. Also, the colored equipment are going away. They're too confusing with Flesh Bond in the set.
I'll be back next week!
Cheers!
Interdict is a pretty simple mechanic. Its the worst of the bunch though. It either stops them from making plays or does nothing. I expect that playing it is going to push me down other directions though. Who knows, maybe it'll surprise me. I don't actually have that much to say about it.
Subvert is the UB keyword. It feeds off the opponent's draw step. It isn't a paralytic like it would be if it triggered off the opponent's spell cast. It has a lot of precedent in UB with Consecrated Sphinx and Notion Thief. The effect also scales with the number of cards your opponent draws over the course of the game, which has the sneaky incremental feel that UB likes. I feel this is the strongest mechanic of the bunch. It has a lot of space.
This is the Brutal mechanic. I am a bit concerned that it will have too much board complexity. As such, it might lose the dealt damage and received and just have one of those clauses. I do think the mechanic feels very R/G so I don't want to change it overmuch. It might not be that bad though, I'll have to see.
This is the real potential problem child. This does work within the rules, but it had to go through some funky contortions. I'm pretty happy with the reminder text. I think these are going to play a lot more intuitive than they look. I also can't think of other executions that work as a way of physically attaching a creature to another creature. If this doesn't work the G/W sect might have to change its focus.
There will be a whole cycle of these cards. I can't get MSE to render Phyrexian mana. Essentially, they play up the multicolor aspect of the set while still letting you use the cards fully, for a price.
These cards should all be phyrexian mana in the cmc, but again I can't get MSE to go phyrexian mana for some reason. These let the mechanics bleed into other colors for a pretty steep cost. It is my expectation that more often than not these cards will be played in one of their colors. Unlike New Phyrexia, there is no Infect in the set to offset the life cost of the cards. As such, Phyrexian mana is going to be more impactful here than it was previously.
Current design skeleton:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KKbhhgreewQ_ap6qMUWLUrVr42nUMWPxWT9cPe_JLBs/edit#gid=0
Some things are going to change in the near future. One, I need to have larger/more expensive creatures. I don't have enough of the like, 6-7 mana, 4/4 - 6/6 range. The creature number is currently at 51, which is about right but I think there wants to be more options for blue/red. Not many more, maybe like 1 creature each. Also, the colored equipment are going away. They're too confusing with Flesh Bond in the set.
I'll be back next week!
Cheers!
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Update on the supplemental product
As a recap, I'm building an EDH supplemental product because I can. Its focused around 4 color creatures, using art from the Angelarium, http://www.trueangelarium.com/treeoflife/ The initial design can be found here: http://lefowens.blogspot.com/2015/05/new-project-edh-supplimentals.html
Gevurah got a small update. He got bumped to a 4/4. It was pointed out that having a 3/3 without much protection that costs you 4 colors of mana that instantly dies to removal would be kind of not fun. Until I do testing and find out which of these should be more vulnerable I agree with that sentiment. Its likely that some of them will go back to having 3 toughness later but my initial playtest will be with four toughness or better. The other change Gevurah got was to word his activated ability to be "sacrifice another creature." That is a more modern template and fits better with his character.
Hessed got a major change. Her second static ability was too dangerous to put on a card that does other things. I wanted to go for more of an Earthmother vibe with her and so changed the static ability to be Crucible of Worlds. She now has that feel to her. I realized that there was a better interaction between the active and the reworded static effect, so the cards that get exiled go to the yard. You get access to the lands you exile. I also want the nonblue card to be a bit larger than its counterparts so she remains a 5/5.
Ein'Sof got an increased mana cost on its effects. I'm hopeful that adding a mana to each ability is enough. I really wanted the p/t to be able to match up to the creature tokens it makes to give a sense of connection between the tokens and the main creature, thus Ein'Sof is a 3/4 instead of a 4/4. I think changing the creature type to seedling should also prompt a connection, though seedlings with haste don't make too much sense. They will probably go back to plants. The Landfall ability has proper wording now. I cut out some of the text when I first wrote it, but it is text that needs to be there.
Keter was virtually unchanged. The only thing that got updated was the wording of his first ability to another creature. This is done for both practicality, he shouldn't exile himself, and flavor. Keter is the Hub of the Wheel, not subject to it. The wording about drawing a card is also more explicitly tied to the exile effect.
Yesod got a little wording update on the copy effect and retaining its ability to shapeshift. A note, it is intentional that Yesod transforms into the creature and loses its name/legendary status/etc. It is more in line with the fantasy of Yesod searching for new identities, for perfection.
One last note, I got a lot of feedback about the creature type. Divinity is a word used to describe something more than mortal. These creatures should feel new and different. I think it is entirely defensible to use something that hasn't been used before. The Nephilim exist with only 5 creatures. There are going to end up being 15 Divinities by the end. If this doesn't test well as a way to separate the creatures I'll move to something else, Nephilim being the next appropriate type.
Speaking of, the decks will have 3 legends each, as usual. However, more 4 color legends would be very difficult to do. As such, I decided to split the smaller legends into two 3 color cards, 1 Shard, 1 Clan, for each deck. That way if you want to use a different legend you only have to cut one color. This also means that none of the three color combinations will repeat.
The breakdown is currently set to be:
Gevurah - UBRG: Grixis (UBR)/Sultai (UBG)
Hessed - WBRG: Jund(BRG)/ Mardu (WBR)
Ein'Sof - WURG: Naya(WRG)/ Temur (URG)
Keter - WUBG: Bant (WUG)/ Abzan (WBG)
Yesod- WUBR: Esper (WUB)/ Jeskai (WUR)
I will be going deep in the tank to build the next set of generals. They should be along in a few days.
Thanks for reading, cheers!
I collected a good amount of feedback on the creatures so I updated their wording.
Gevurah got a small update. He got bumped to a 4/4. It was pointed out that having a 3/3 without much protection that costs you 4 colors of mana that instantly dies to removal would be kind of not fun. Until I do testing and find out which of these should be more vulnerable I agree with that sentiment. Its likely that some of them will go back to having 3 toughness later but my initial playtest will be with four toughness or better. The other change Gevurah got was to word his activated ability to be "sacrifice another creature." That is a more modern template and fits better with his character.
Hessed got a major change. Her second static ability was too dangerous to put on a card that does other things. I wanted to go for more of an Earthmother vibe with her and so changed the static ability to be Crucible of Worlds. She now has that feel to her. I realized that there was a better interaction between the active and the reworded static effect, so the cards that get exiled go to the yard. You get access to the lands you exile. I also want the nonblue card to be a bit larger than its counterparts so she remains a 5/5.
Edit* This art done by Noah Bradley
Keter was virtually unchanged. The only thing that got updated was the wording of his first ability to another creature. This is done for both practicality, he shouldn't exile himself, and flavor. Keter is the Hub of the Wheel, not subject to it. The wording about drawing a card is also more explicitly tied to the exile effect.
Yesod got a little wording update on the copy effect and retaining its ability to shapeshift. A note, it is intentional that Yesod transforms into the creature and loses its name/legendary status/etc. It is more in line with the fantasy of Yesod searching for new identities, for perfection.
One last note, I got a lot of feedback about the creature type. Divinity is a word used to describe something more than mortal. These creatures should feel new and different. I think it is entirely defensible to use something that hasn't been used before. The Nephilim exist with only 5 creatures. There are going to end up being 15 Divinities by the end. If this doesn't test well as a way to separate the creatures I'll move to something else, Nephilim being the next appropriate type.
Speaking of, the decks will have 3 legends each, as usual. However, more 4 color legends would be very difficult to do. As such, I decided to split the smaller legends into two 3 color cards, 1 Shard, 1 Clan, for each deck. That way if you want to use a different legend you only have to cut one color. This also means that none of the three color combinations will repeat.
The breakdown is currently set to be:
Gevurah - UBRG: Grixis (UBR)/Sultai (UBG)
Hessed - WBRG: Jund(BRG)/ Mardu (WBR)
Ein'Sof - WURG: Naya(WRG)/ Temur (URG)
Keter - WUBG: Bant (WUG)/ Abzan (WBG)
Yesod- WUBR: Esper (WUB)/ Jeskai (WUR)
I will be going deep in the tank to build the next set of generals. They should be along in a few days.
Thanks for reading, cheers!
Friday, May 8, 2015
New Project: EDH Supplementals
My favorite Magic format is EDH, as should be obvious by now. I decided that in addition to the custom set, I would like to make EDH supplemental products since the once a year release is a bit slow. I thought about doing a release for LoL champions as groupings of five based on their map position. I feel that would be the best way to capture a character driven game. It also gives them room to have a deck built around them. Most of the time the efforts to translate champions into Magic fail because there is too much to convey in a single card. While I do like this idea, I'm going to do something else first.
I was very taken with the Angelarium by Peter Mohrbacher. I know quite few people have been as well. I agree that the arts lend themselves to something otherworldly. To that end, I decided to make them into four color legendary creatures to helm the Commander product. Four color creatures are difficult because they are as much defined by what they aren't than what they are. I am going to discuss these one at a time, and I'll be back sometime next week to talk about the other legendary creatures that will be in the product.
These will be going in WUBRG order by the color that is missing. This is the Non-White card. White is the color of the group. It thrives on building a collective. The antithesis of that is build on the self. All the other colors understand the necessity of selfishness sometimes. Gevurah is the epitome of selfishness. It uses death to fuel its own growth, and consumes the living to advance its own agenda. The initial p/t is likely off, but I like the idea that it starts small and gets larger. Honestly I think the largest problem is that it doesn't feel very red. It does interact with some of red's cards in that red is a destructive color. So every bolt that kills a creature? +2/+2. Its also entirely possible that counters are too strong and it should just be +1/+1 until end of turn. I like it as is for now, especially considering this is in EDH where an unprotected creature is vulnerable no matter how large. The permanent nature of his growth also helps make the card feel more green.
Next is the non-blue card. Blue is about knowledge and perfection. Hessed scoffs at the pitiful learnings of the book-worms and scientists. All you need to know comes from the earth and the world around you. The opening two parts of the card are derived from Uba Mask technology. It prevents the accumulation of material, which is blue's real specialty. Instead, you have to pay mana to "draw" cards. Its something that you can repeat ad nausium, but you only have access to that card this turn. Non-blue colors can remove Hessed fairly easily...if they want to give up access to her ability. Of course, Black and green aren't happy with a totally level playing field and give you access to a dirty cheat. This does feel like a Red card a White card and a Black/Green card got slammed together a bit. However the card on the whole feels like something that could only exist in all four colors. Its a bit bigger than the others since the non-blue card should be beefier.
Ein'Sof is the nonblack entry. Black is about using the power of decay and death to empower itself. It believes that there is no place in the world for the weak and that building for itself is useless. Why go to the trouble when it can just take from others? To play against this, I made a card that is all about being a font of resources. Ein'Sof is the world tree. It is the Dark Tower. It is the structure from which all of existence radiates. As such it only ever gives you more and more material. Landfall - Draw a card is something I've wanted to see for a long time. The activated ability gives you creatures and counters, two things that white and green adore. Red is a destructive color most of the time, but here it gives the seedlings the impetus they need to spread and grow. If I want this card to feel more red than it should give all of your creatures haste. That seems a bit much, given that this card is already bonkers unless someone has removal for it. It does fight against black though, even with removal, since it will likely produce more resources during its time in play that an attrition oriented black deck would be able to overcome.
Red is about impulse, emotion, it is very brash and short-sighted. Keter represents the cycle of existence. That everything returns to where it once was. The short sighted struggles of mortals are essentially inconsequential in the face of the Wheel. Keter is the hub of the cycle of souls. Whenever a creature dies it imparts the knowledge it gained during its life to Keter before being spun out again to live. The cycle ever perpetuating itself. Note that there is a typo, It should say "If another nontoken..." The life loss is not particularly thematic, it is there as a balance lever. It might prove unneeded, but I think that the cyclical nature of the card lends itself to combos easily and having to also find a way to overcome the life loss will make it a bit harder to set up your own Wheel in game.
Green is the color of acceptance. Its the color of growth and nature. Yesod is the enitity from which all degeneration propagates. He is Change, sacrificing the world in order to become something else. Yesod can't accept who he is, and must continuously steal the identity of others.
I thought about these long and hard, but I'm sure I missed something. Feel free to ask questions or comment. I'll be back later and talk about updates and the way the decks are going to break down. But ask yourself, since four color design space is so limited, what would you do for the other legendaries?
I was very taken with the Angelarium by Peter Mohrbacher. I know quite few people have been as well. I agree that the arts lend themselves to something otherworldly. To that end, I decided to make them into four color legendary creatures to helm the Commander product. Four color creatures are difficult because they are as much defined by what they aren't than what they are. I am going to discuss these one at a time, and I'll be back sometime next week to talk about the other legendary creatures that will be in the product.
These will be going in WUBRG order by the color that is missing. This is the Non-White card. White is the color of the group. It thrives on building a collective. The antithesis of that is build on the self. All the other colors understand the necessity of selfishness sometimes. Gevurah is the epitome of selfishness. It uses death to fuel its own growth, and consumes the living to advance its own agenda. The initial p/t is likely off, but I like the idea that it starts small and gets larger. Honestly I think the largest problem is that it doesn't feel very red. It does interact with some of red's cards in that red is a destructive color. So every bolt that kills a creature? +2/+2. Its also entirely possible that counters are too strong and it should just be +1/+1 until end of turn. I like it as is for now, especially considering this is in EDH where an unprotected creature is vulnerable no matter how large. The permanent nature of his growth also helps make the card feel more green.
Next is the non-blue card. Blue is about knowledge and perfection. Hessed scoffs at the pitiful learnings of the book-worms and scientists. All you need to know comes from the earth and the world around you. The opening two parts of the card are derived from Uba Mask technology. It prevents the accumulation of material, which is blue's real specialty. Instead, you have to pay mana to "draw" cards. Its something that you can repeat ad nausium, but you only have access to that card this turn. Non-blue colors can remove Hessed fairly easily...if they want to give up access to her ability. Of course, Black and green aren't happy with a totally level playing field and give you access to a dirty cheat. This does feel like a Red card a White card and a Black/Green card got slammed together a bit. However the card on the whole feels like something that could only exist in all four colors. Its a bit bigger than the others since the non-blue card should be beefier.
Edit* This art done by Noah Bradley
I thought about these long and hard, but I'm sure I missed something. Feel free to ask questions or comment. I'll be back later and talk about updates and the way the decks are going to break down. But ask yourself, since four color design space is so limited, what would you do for the other legendaries?
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Making a set, part 5
Since the last update a lot has changed. I ran the set through a few times and concluded that I was trying to do too much. Good design is about taking away. Day9 once said that a great strategy is one that you can't take anything away from, not something you can't add to. There was a lot that I took out. I thought of what I actually wanted and what the most interesting facet of my design. I realized that multicolor Phyrexians are without a doubt the most enthralling aspect of the block and want them to take center stage. Being on Alara is no longer a certainty. The setting is now undecided except for the fact that Phyrexians are there. I developed these goals:
Design Goals:
Take the wind out of player's sails
Us multicolor phyrexian mana
Make a Guild-like structure for the 10 pairings of phyrexians
Make each sect of phyrexians feel distinct
The phyrexians in the first set will be allied pairs. The second set will be enemy pairs. When doing factions, as MaRo has said, its important to give each faction a mechanic to make it feel distinct. As of right now phyrexian mana is in the set. Its therefore important not to give any faction mechanic to a phyrexian mana card. That would deflate the division between the factions. I imagine that each faction will have its own hierarchy, but for all of them to be topped with a Praetor. People would expect more Praetors given how popular the original cycle was. I dug through the planeswalkers guide to New Phyrexia looking for likely candidates.
W/U: ?
U/B: A Sphinx of some kind
B/R: Azax-Azog, the Demon Thane
R/G: Benzir, Archdruid of Temple Might
G/W: Izathael of the Flesh Singularity
These definitely want to be creatures, so I don't think Tezzeret will be a Praetor, but he will be in the set in some capacity.
Since the focus is going to be on the color pairing, the idea was to create a direction for each pairing.
I liked Maro's short description of each color, so I made one for each of my phyrexian guilds.
W/U:
I'm unsure of the leader for this sect. I like the idea of them being an Angel. While thinking about the phyrexian way, I was somewhat at a loss for what to do with them mechanically. What is W/U about fundamentally? Its about creating systems of rules to perfect society. W/U is the color combination of socialism. What scary ideas are linked to socialistic agendas? Well, the Thought Police is a scary concept, and one that the Phyrexians are capable of if Phyrexian Revoker is to be believed. Some mechanics I ran through while narrowing it down,
1 - When you play this card, target opponent reveals a card at random from his or her hand.
This is a literal reading of the Though Police. I liked it since it feels invasive, but it has the problem of taking a lot of time to resolve the ability, and its only worthwhile if the card is random. It would be an ok mechanic but its not going to be fun for someone that isn't a tournament player.
2 - When you cast this spell, target opponent can't play spells that cost less than its mana cost until your next turn.
I liked this more. Eliminating options feels very phyrexian and it still felt like its limiting your thoughts. However it is massively overpowered. The reverse is potentially more so, with one mana cards locking out slews of plays.
3 - When you cast this spell, target opponent can't play spells equal to its mana cost until your next turn.
This feels about right, but its still limiting to pair it to its cost.
4 - When you cast this card, target opponent can't cast spells with mana cost N until your next turn.
This lets cards have N independently of their cost, which frees development to have a spread of N without creating perfect curves. N might wind up all being the same number in the end.
Interdict - N (When you cast this spell, target opponent can't cast cards with converted mana cost N until your next turn.)
This forces people to "lose " thoughts to the W/U phyrexians. I intend for this to mostly be on permanents so you can just point to the permanent if your opponent attempts to cast a locked out card. Its nice that it can go on nonpermanents though, and is just a fire and forget so as not to increase board complexity.
U/B:
I have a whole post on how I came up with this one - http://lefowens.blogspot.com/2015/04/subvert.html
Subvert - N (Whenever an opponent draws a card you may pay N.)
Whenever ~ Subverts a card, you may do EFFECT.
I really like this mechanic and it co-opts your opponents draw step, which is an excellent way of dampening some of the joy of the draw step.
B/R:
This was originally Compleat, but with the shift to focus on the Phyrexians, Compleat made less sense. Also, it was cutting out Devour. So, I combined them into,
Consume (When you cast this spell you may sacrifice a creature or artifact)
The card then gets an enhancement if you Consume a creature. This inspires fear in both your followers(your creatures) and your enemies(oh crap he got a super spell!). Its essentially kicker - sac a creature or artifact, but everything is kicker. This feels very phyrexian and also very black/red. Its also a mechanic that can go on instants and sorceries, and is a mechanic that does its thing and is over. I'm open to the idea of Consume doing something unified, but I like that for the most independent color combination should have a spread of effects.
R/G:
I made a mechanic previously that I think lines up with the phyrexian ideal of strength through combat and proving you are the best. It was originally G/U but it works just as well for G/R, which I suppose means its mostly a green mechanic, but I digress.
Brutal (At end of turn, if this creature dealt or received combat damage, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
Simple and straightforward, this mechanic is going to lead to problems becoming incrementally larger for your opponent to deal with. It also takes some of the wind out of blocking. Having creatures that don't immediately trade in combat is going to be much more of a problem, and red/green should have no problem making the most out of this mechanic.
G/W:
This is where a lot of the complexity of the set is going to come from. The G/W phyrexians come from the sect of the Flesh Singularity, which believes that all organisms should be sutured together to break down the bonds between individuals. What better way to do that then attach creatures to each other?
Well, unfortunately, its not that simple. Creatures can't attach to things, only be attached to. As such, the mechanic has to go through some contortions.
Flesh Bond - 3 (This creature loses the creature type and becomes attached to target creature. That creature gets +N/+N. When that creature leaves the battlefield, this regains the creature type.)
Essentially an equipment version of bestow. I don't know if this is going to be too much but I feel strongly that its the best option to portray the G/W philosophy.
The updated design skeleton:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KKbhhgreewQ_ap6qMUWLUrVr42nUMWPxWT9cPe_JLBs/edit#gid=0
The largest potential problem is that the Phyrexians only feel alive when they are subjugating another force, when they are clearly the malevolent baddies. By depicting them on a plane they have already compleated, you are losing some of that. Its probably going to be wise to budget 10 or so cards to see the natives that are left over. Maybe they could have some minor mechanic to help smooth out draws? Multicolor sets generally have cycling or morph to help limited in case colors are wonky. As a two color set, AvP is probably fine, but with the introduction of the next set most drafts would probably wind up three colors, so enough tools have to be provided for them. Maybe cycling from play could make a return so as to capture the being eaten by the phyrexians feel? Either way, that's enough for one post.
Cheers!
Design Goals:
Take the wind out of player's sails
Us multicolor phyrexian mana
Make a Guild-like structure for the 10 pairings of phyrexians
Make each sect of phyrexians feel distinct
The phyrexians in the first set will be allied pairs. The second set will be enemy pairs. When doing factions, as MaRo has said, its important to give each faction a mechanic to make it feel distinct. As of right now phyrexian mana is in the set. Its therefore important not to give any faction mechanic to a phyrexian mana card. That would deflate the division between the factions. I imagine that each faction will have its own hierarchy, but for all of them to be topped with a Praetor. People would expect more Praetors given how popular the original cycle was. I dug through the planeswalkers guide to New Phyrexia looking for likely candidates.
W/U: ?
U/B: A Sphinx of some kind
B/R: Azax-Azog, the Demon Thane
R/G: Benzir, Archdruid of Temple Might
G/W: Izathael of the Flesh Singularity
These definitely want to be creatures, so I don't think Tezzeret will be a Praetor, but he will be in the set in some capacity.
Since the focus is going to be on the color pairing, the idea was to create a direction for each pairing.
I liked Maro's short description of each color, so I made one for each of my phyrexian guilds.
W/U: Perfection through conformity
U/B: Power through knowledge
B/R: Control through fear
R/G: Strength through action
G/W: Unity through fleshW/U:
I'm unsure of the leader for this sect. I like the idea of them being an Angel. While thinking about the phyrexian way, I was somewhat at a loss for what to do with them mechanically. What is W/U about fundamentally? Its about creating systems of rules to perfect society. W/U is the color combination of socialism. What scary ideas are linked to socialistic agendas? Well, the Thought Police is a scary concept, and one that the Phyrexians are capable of if Phyrexian Revoker is to be believed. Some mechanics I ran through while narrowing it down,
1 - When you play this card, target opponent reveals a card at random from his or her hand.
This is a literal reading of the Though Police. I liked it since it feels invasive, but it has the problem of taking a lot of time to resolve the ability, and its only worthwhile if the card is random. It would be an ok mechanic but its not going to be fun for someone that isn't a tournament player.
2 - When you cast this spell, target opponent can't play spells that cost less than its mana cost until your next turn.
I liked this more. Eliminating options feels very phyrexian and it still felt like its limiting your thoughts. However it is massively overpowered. The reverse is potentially more so, with one mana cards locking out slews of plays.
3 - When you cast this spell, target opponent can't play spells equal to its mana cost until your next turn.
This feels about right, but its still limiting to pair it to its cost.
4 - When you cast this card, target opponent can't cast spells with mana cost N until your next turn.
This lets cards have N independently of their cost, which frees development to have a spread of N without creating perfect curves. N might wind up all being the same number in the end.
Interdict - N (When you cast this spell, target opponent can't cast cards with converted mana cost N until your next turn.)
This forces people to "lose " thoughts to the W/U phyrexians. I intend for this to mostly be on permanents so you can just point to the permanent if your opponent attempts to cast a locked out card. Its nice that it can go on nonpermanents though, and is just a fire and forget so as not to increase board complexity.
U/B:
I have a whole post on how I came up with this one - http://lefowens.blogspot.com/2015/04/subvert.html
Subvert - N (Whenever an opponent draws a card you may pay N.)
Whenever ~ Subverts a card, you may do EFFECT.
I really like this mechanic and it co-opts your opponents draw step, which is an excellent way of dampening some of the joy of the draw step.
B/R:
This was originally Compleat, but with the shift to focus on the Phyrexians, Compleat made less sense. Also, it was cutting out Devour. So, I combined them into,
Consume (When you cast this spell you may sacrifice a creature or artifact)
The card then gets an enhancement if you Consume a creature. This inspires fear in both your followers(your creatures) and your enemies(oh crap he got a super spell!). Its essentially kicker - sac a creature or artifact, but everything is kicker. This feels very phyrexian and also very black/red. Its also a mechanic that can go on instants and sorceries, and is a mechanic that does its thing and is over. I'm open to the idea of Consume doing something unified, but I like that for the most independent color combination should have a spread of effects.
R/G:
I made a mechanic previously that I think lines up with the phyrexian ideal of strength through combat and proving you are the best. It was originally G/U but it works just as well for G/R, which I suppose means its mostly a green mechanic, but I digress.
Brutal (At end of turn, if this creature dealt or received combat damage, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
Simple and straightforward, this mechanic is going to lead to problems becoming incrementally larger for your opponent to deal with. It also takes some of the wind out of blocking. Having creatures that don't immediately trade in combat is going to be much more of a problem, and red/green should have no problem making the most out of this mechanic.
G/W:
This is where a lot of the complexity of the set is going to come from. The G/W phyrexians come from the sect of the Flesh Singularity, which believes that all organisms should be sutured together to break down the bonds between individuals. What better way to do that then attach creatures to each other?
Well, unfortunately, its not that simple. Creatures can't attach to things, only be attached to. As such, the mechanic has to go through some contortions.
Flesh Bond - 3 (This creature loses the creature type and becomes attached to target creature. That creature gets +N/+N. When that creature leaves the battlefield, this regains the creature type.)
Essentially an equipment version of bestow. I don't know if this is going to be too much but I feel strongly that its the best option to portray the G/W philosophy.
The updated design skeleton:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KKbhhgreewQ_ap6qMUWLUrVr42nUMWPxWT9cPe_JLBs/edit#gid=0
The largest potential problem is that the Phyrexians only feel alive when they are subjugating another force, when they are clearly the malevolent baddies. By depicting them on a plane they have already compleated, you are losing some of that. Its probably going to be wise to budget 10 or so cards to see the natives that are left over. Maybe they could have some minor mechanic to help smooth out draws? Multicolor sets generally have cycling or morph to help limited in case colors are wonky. As a two color set, AvP is probably fine, but with the introduction of the next set most drafts would probably wind up three colors, so enough tools have to be provided for them. Maybe cycling from play could make a return so as to capture the being eaten by the phyrexians feel? Either way, that's enough for one post.
Cheers!
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Build of the week: Zegana's big draws
So I'v been pretty far to the black side of things for the last few weeks. Zegana is a really cool general that isn't as combo oriented as something like Momir Vig is. I started with my Mimeoplasm list that includes Zegana to great effect.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mimeoplasm-09-01-14-1/
Keeping the strong cards that fit the theme of large men and drawing tons of cards gives us:
Bane of Progress
Krosan Tusker
Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
Prophet of Kruphix
Stormtide Leviathan
Terastodon
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Woodfall Primus
Greater Good
Sylvan Library
That's not a very long list, but it gives me a direction I want to take the deck.
There are some givens for a list like this that haven't been hit from the Mimeoplasm,
Consecrated Sphinx
Tooth and Nail
Oracles of Mul Daya
Chasm Skulker
Kruphix, God of Horizons
Progenitor Mimic
Lorescale Coatl
Garruk, Primal Hunter
Doubling Season
Psychosis Crawler
Avenger of Zendikar
Regal Force
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Special attention has to be paid to the ramp for this deck since its going to be a lot of high mana bombs.
Ramp:
Sol Ring
Mana Crypt
Gilded Lotus
Thran Dynamo
Mind Stone
Dreamstone Hedron
Simic Signet
Chromatic Lantern
Shaman of Forgotten Ways
Somberwald Sage
Cultivate
Kodama's Reach
Explosive Vegetation
Skyshroud Claim
Hunting Wilds
Urban Evolution
Explore
And ways to find our various dudes:
Green Sun's Zenith
Natural Order
Chord of Calling
Birthing Pod
Assuming 38 land, this leaves 17 slots left to fill. The directions the deck can go from here are more focused on the card drawing, the large creatures, flicker effects, or big mana stuff like Genesis Wave. I feel you need to have white in the deck to really do flickering justice. The large creature theme is probably worth using another card or two on considering the amount of ramp that's got to be in the deck anyway. Drawing cards is fun, so that's probably going to get the most attention, and a number of counterspells/protection should also be made room for.
Rite of Replication
Zameck Guildmage
Draining Whelk
Lightning Greaves
Momentous Fall
Plasm Capture
Mana Drain
Seedborn Muse
Fathom Mage
Overbeing of Myth
Blue Sun's Zenith
Stroke of Genius
Krosan Grip
Spitting Image
Cyclonic Rift
Bribery
Crystal Shard
This mix of spells lets the deck cover its bases. It gives you more available mana, card draw, and interaction. Bribery curves nicely into Zegana. This was actually one of the easiest builds I've ever done, the full list is here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/02-05-15-zegana/
Cheers!
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mimeoplasm-09-01-14-1/
Keeping the strong cards that fit the theme of large men and drawing tons of cards gives us:
Bane of Progress
Krosan Tusker
Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
Prophet of Kruphix
Stormtide Leviathan
Terastodon
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Woodfall Primus
Greater Good
Sylvan Library
That's not a very long list, but it gives me a direction I want to take the deck.
There are some givens for a list like this that haven't been hit from the Mimeoplasm,
Consecrated Sphinx
Tooth and Nail
Oracles of Mul Daya
Chasm Skulker
Kruphix, God of Horizons
Progenitor Mimic
Lorescale Coatl
Garruk, Primal Hunter
Doubling Season
Psychosis Crawler
Avenger of Zendikar
Regal Force
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Special attention has to be paid to the ramp for this deck since its going to be a lot of high mana bombs.
Ramp:
Sol Ring
Mana Crypt
Gilded Lotus
Thran Dynamo
Mind Stone
Dreamstone Hedron
Simic Signet
Chromatic Lantern
Shaman of Forgotten Ways
Somberwald Sage
Cultivate
Kodama's Reach
Explosive Vegetation
Skyshroud Claim
Hunting Wilds
Urban Evolution
Explore
And ways to find our various dudes:
Green Sun's Zenith
Natural Order
Chord of Calling
Birthing Pod
Assuming 38 land, this leaves 17 slots left to fill. The directions the deck can go from here are more focused on the card drawing, the large creatures, flicker effects, or big mana stuff like Genesis Wave. I feel you need to have white in the deck to really do flickering justice. The large creature theme is probably worth using another card or two on considering the amount of ramp that's got to be in the deck anyway. Drawing cards is fun, so that's probably going to get the most attention, and a number of counterspells/protection should also be made room for.
Rite of Replication
Zameck Guildmage
Draining Whelk
Lightning Greaves
Momentous Fall
Plasm Capture
Mana Drain
Seedborn Muse
Fathom Mage
Overbeing of Myth
Blue Sun's Zenith
Stroke of Genius
Krosan Grip
Spitting Image
Cyclonic Rift
Bribery
Crystal Shard
This mix of spells lets the deck cover its bases. It gives you more available mana, card draw, and interaction. Bribery curves nicely into Zegana. This was actually one of the easiest builds I've ever done, the full list is here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/02-05-15-zegana/
Cheers!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)