Design Class – Common Creature Data Dump
http://wp.me/p5VSx-1lZ
One of the projects I’m working on (out of, like, five currently) is a pauper cube so my friends and I can draft it. Why a pauper cube? One, all my “cool” and “pimp” cards are in my Commander decks and two, I can update it pretty easily when a new set comes out. No foils either, so I don’t feel like I have to keep them in there because they’re cool; it’s a personal choice. Plus, I wanted the challenge.
I was inspired to finally do it after looking at Adam Styborski’s Pauper Cube blog and it would give me a chance to create my own draft environment. I didn’t think much of it, and just tried to throw in cards that fit a theme (each color at their own tribe to work with) and throw in cycles of cards. I knew, and still know, it’s a work in progress but it was going to be a vailent first attempt. The cube was tailored more towards sealed play since that the limited format we prefer. I put it together and some friends and I drafted it once.
Spoiler: it wasn’t perfect.
Rarely do you get anything right on the first attempt. So I went back to work. Because I was working on a spreadsheet like Adam, I wanted to gather as much information as possible and see how things worked out. Before I come across Zac Hill’s amazing limited piece (which you should read and caused me to rework my cube while I was in the middle of reworking it), I wanted to look out how common creatures fared against each other. I found some fascinating information.
So, here’s a PDF of the spreadsheet with raw data:
Design Cheat Sheet #1 – Zones and Parts of the Card
http://wp.me/p5VSx-1lD
Magic is a complicated game.
I really don’t have to tell you guys that. One of the hardest barrier to entries to this game is overcoming all of the language and all of the rules. But once you get past that, Magic’s still really complicated. With all of the timing issues and layers upon layers, there has to be an intricate judge program to make sure the high levels are adjudicated properly. And that’s not always the case.
So when you’re designing a card for a game that’s so complicated, sometimes you forget what goes where or if it all works. That’s why people playtest their works (I hope you’ve been doing that). Sometimes you need a little help. And that’s what I intend to do.
I’ve designed a cheat sheet (one of many, hopefully), that will help you guide yourself in the process. This isn’t intended to be an end all type of thing, but it’s here to help you when you’re breaking down the parts of the game. Even though the game has a huge amount of rules, luckily they can be dissected down to the common language building blocks to make the game work.
SOPA Will Kill the Magic Community
http://wp.me/p5VSx-1ie
I usually don’t get political (especially on a non-political website). Sure, there might be issues that I have an opinion about, but nothing like this. I have never written my Congressman until a few days ago. I never called my Congressman until just a few weeks ago about this very topic (I just got one of his aides, which is completely understandable).
If you’re following me on twitter (@mtgcolorpie), you’ve noticed that for the past several weeks I’ve been tweeting about SOPA or the Stop Online Piracy Act (and if you’re sick of it, I’m sorry). It’s a bill that’s currently being debated in Congress to try and “stop” online piracy of movies, music, software, and maybe prescription drugs and other fake merchandise. It’s a well intnetioned act, and it basically declares “war” on online piracy.
And since our government has done such a bang up job on the “wars” on terror, drugs, poverty, education, I’d say this act is going go be of equal success.
Source: SMBC-Comics.com
It doesn’t matter what your political beliefs are- Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist- this is a matter that affects us all. And it will kill the Magic community online. How you may ask? Buy not allowing us to talk about Magic.
The 100 Best Designed Cards Ever
Yes, this card is somewhere on this list.
http://wp.me/p5VSx-1iw
Best laid plans…
This series was originally going to be a part of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). What was going to take place was that I was going to reveal 5 cards a day for 20 days, or slow roll the top 10 (I hadn’t completely decided), where each card had its own little write-up. Along with the write-up it was going to look pretty fancy with graphics and stylized nicely, like you would see in a publication. It was going to be a fun thing to talk about during the longest break between new set releases where it’s traditionally the slowest Magic news time of the year; it only had the World Championships to compete with at the end of the run.
Alas, like everything else lately, I just ran out of time. So I’m presenting the whole list today, only without commentary.
What follows is a list of what I consider to be the 100 best designed* cards in all of Magic. And there’s an asterisk with designed because I know that not all cards are designed but developed as well. This is a design blog, and I understand the Development has an equal hand in how the cards you play with shape out. But we’re doing it this way and that’s that. It doesn’t mean that any of these cards are going to be reprinted (in fact, I know that some of them won’t be), but I wouldn’t disagree ripping any of these out of a booster pack in the future.
I went through all the Magic cards ever printed. To be on this list they have to be the best designed cards according to modern design standards. There’s no Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Maze of Ith, or any of that ilk on this list. Any of these cards could be printed today, and many of them have. They have appropriate mana costs, fit in the right color with the correct philosophy, and are balanced. There are some cards that are/were tournament staples, and some that little to no play outside of casual and Commander. The cards were not given weight to any particular format of limited to constructive (outside of #100 for obvious reasons). Cycles of cards were considered, and if each card in the cycle was designed very well, it was included as one entry (4 such cycles made the list). I decided that the cutoff to be on this list was M12 so nothing from Innistrad on will be on this list.
Of course, this is a highly subjective list. There are some on here that people will disagree with (I’ll talk about #2 in a moment), but this is my feeling of the best designed cards. They were not chosen on this list because they were good for tournament play or that they inspired other cards years later. They were included on this list because the card was well designed; it broke new ground in a well done way, or did a concept the most eloquently. The card, on a whole, makes sense mechanically and flavorfully.
Now I believe that #2 will be one of the most controversial cards on this list. I strongly believe that it’s a well designed and balanced card, only the environment it was played in broke it in half. Taken outside of that, there hasn’t been too much issue with the card. There will be a future post (whenever that will be) that I’ll use to try and defend my opinion on that card.
Before I get to the list, here’s a bunch of stats:
- Color Breakdown:
White – 14
Blue – 15
Black – 16
Red – 13
Green – 12
Artifact – 10
Land – 4
Colorless – 1
All (Cycle) – 2
Multicolored – 13 - Type Breakdown:
Noncreature Artifacts – 7
Creature – 45
Enchantment – 9
Instnat – 19
Land – 4
Planeswalker – 2
Sorcery – 14 - Magic Ages Breakdown of First Printing:
Alpha-Alliances – 10
Mirage-Prophecy – 12
Invasion-Saviors – 31
Ravnica-Rise of the Eldrazi – 40
Scars of Mirrodin-M12 – 6
(One cycle of cards goes between those two ages) - Other Breakdowns:
Invitational Cards – 3
On Reserved List – 2
Number of Jaces – 1
And now, without commentary, is the full 100:
Design Class – The Four Dynasties of Amateur Magic Design
http://wp.me/p5VSx-1hN
This week, Fearless Leader wrote about the five dynasties of Magic Design (actually, it was kinda of a rehash of his State of Design of this year, but it makes sense in Transformation Week). If you didn’t click the link, nor read the article, don’t worry, here’s the info “that will be on the test” version:
- First Stage (Alpha through Alliances): This stage was about the focus on individual card design. Design decisions tended to be made on a card-by-card basis.
- Second Stage (Mirage through Prophecy): This stage was the introduction of the block and the focus of design in thinking of Magic in terms of a year.
- Third Stage (Invasion through Saviors of Kamigawa): This stage was the introduction of block themes. Blocks were no longer just a collection of mechanics, but contained specific things chosen to highlight the block’s theme.
- Fourth Stage (Ravnica through Rise of the Eldrazi): This stage was the introduction of block planning. Instead of picking a theme and continuing it through the block, design now planned out how exactly the block was going to evolve. This planning allowed for themes to be better set up and paid off.
- Fifth Stage (Scars of Mirrodin through ???): Now we get to last year. What I believe Scars of Mirrodin block has done that shifts design into the next age is to radically change how mechanical themes are looked at and used. For the last two stages, themes have been used as the foundation to build the block on. Starting with Scars of Mirrodin, mechanical themes are now thought of as tools used to put a block together. Metaphorically, themes are no longer the canvas, but the paint.
All of this is great. You really see the evolution of Magic when it gets separated into these categories. In fact, this isn’t the first time that MaRo has brought to us these dynasties (as highlighted in his State of Design right before Ravnica, the fourth stage). Here it is broken down:
- First Stage (Alpha through Alliances): Design on a card by card basis.
- Second Stage (Mirage through Prophecy): Blocks are created and keywords are enforced.
- Third Stage (Invasion through Saviors of Kamigawa): Creation of the Block Theme (Multicolor being Invasion, and so on).
- Fourth Stage (Ravnica through Rise of the Eldrazi): Tying the block closer together by having the sets in the block interconnect better.
- Fifth Stage (Scars of Mirrodin through ???): Design a world that encompasses and design for that plane.
That fifth stage is a little card to pin down since we’ve only seen 4 sets (plus a Core Set), of this new design philosophy. As fellow GDS2 participate, and eventual winner, Ethan Fleisher said:
During the Designer Search, I was working based on some obsolete assumptions. Not only could I not see the next eight to twelve sets worth of innovation that were in the works, but I had to look back several years in order to get a clear picture of what sorts of standards existed in common between sets.
And he’s right. We’re in a total lag of trying to stay on top of what Wizards considers “proper” design. For people not working at Wizards, we’re trying to decipher what is not laughable when it comes to designing cards of our own. Everyone started making Planeswalkers when they first were announced, but we didn’t know exactly how they worked and what their impact would be. Wizards did.
So for today, I give you the four dynasties of amateur Magic design. It’s because of this constant catch up, and the way people design cards, that I believe that this is how people create cards. Of course, this is just one man’s opinion and everyone else is a little different.
