Magic: The Gathering – Page 14

Slice of Pie – An Army of One (Drops)

Editor’s Note: When I used to blog on MySpace (I’m that old, who uses MySpace anymore?), I used to have a tradition: on the week of my birthday I’d have a blog post a day. Yes, five posts (for the weekdays); imagine that, huh? Well, I’m going to do that here on MTGCP since I’ve got some posts that are half finished and mostly finished. Oh, and the next piece in the Card Kingdom series will fire off this week as well. So sit back, and enjoy all the updating, this, the week of my birthday.

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This is not a new idea. I’m not the first one to point this out. In fact, fearless leader (aka Mark Rosewater) pointed this out during Shards of Alara:

Design has little design challenges it keeps repeating. One of them is making new one drop white creatures with the ability to attack for 2. Nearly every block has at least one, often more than one. Exalted proved to be the tweak of choice for Shards of Alara.

Really? How many cards are like this?

Oh.

Let’s ask and answer three important questions:

A design challenge?
Why this model?
Why is this important?

They’re all interwoven, so you’re not going to get some 1-2-3 answer sheet (Hooray Color Pie Philosophy!).

Continue reading “Slice of Pie – An Army of One (Drops)”

Design Class – Colorless Hybrid is an Oxymoron

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Editor’s Note: As with anything that I’ve written on this blog, I give Wizards of the Coast full use of these ideas and I won’t get mad. I mean, I suggested Memnite to see print at the same time Scars of Mirrodin was being designed. We’re cool Wizards, just send over some lawyers if you want me to sign some stuff if it makes you feel better (fist bump).

When I was flying down to Texas for the Magic Cruise 3, I had a few hours on the plane with no internet and a wife that was enthralled in Suduko (I have cards, she has numbers). Out came my paper notebook that I brought with me just in case I had some ideas for card design. Who am I kidding, I always have ideas for cards (and if you’ve got the same fever, you know what I’m talking about). My mind wondered to my GDS2 world that I half-heartly designed. It had been gestating in my mind for a while wondering if I should continue to work on it for fun. My pen connected with paper and out expressed all these ideas that I wish I had thought of the first time.

Time away from a project does bring focus.

Suddenly, I was coming across story and world ideas that I didn’t consider in the first place which would’ve made the whole thing (personally) much more interesting. If only I had thought of them in the first place…

Let’s not dwell on the past.

Anyway, besides the awesomeness of the story/world I was cooking up, I wanted to see if I could complete the cycle I was working on. You might remember it:

While I mainly focus on real world design instead of player created ones, I’m going to be a little egotistical here and show my process it about this cycle. For those that like to design their own cards in a serious manner, hopefully this will shed some light into what I was thinking. This is not a “You have to do it this way,” but just how my mind came up with this. After revisiting the world, I wanted to see if it could be done.

But before I create the future, I had to revisit the past.

Continue reading “Design Class – Colorless Hybrid is an Oxymoron”

Design Class – We Have a Lot In Common, You and I

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This may not be the most popular post I write. It’s not like I stir up controversy every time I put my fingers to the keyboard so I’m not going too far off the trail here. You ready?

I liked Planar Chaos.

(Ducks throws of rotten fruit left over from Planar Chaos)

And, no matter how much you don’t want to admit it, but Mirrodin Besieged is turning out to be like Planar Chaos.

(Ducks throws again)

And I noticed this all when I was going to make a joke. But it sets up to ask a single question: Is this lazy design?

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Lotus Cobra is Evil – It’s Not Embarrassing If It’s True

Sixten has decided to tell us a story about something that really happened. See, this is what happens when I don’t go to tournaments:

Sixten tells the story:

If you are “Razor Ramon”, the person who registered the deck named “Hard Gay” at the 2010 Washington State and Provincial Championships and got called out by the head judge, I tip my hat to your guts, as it could only have been a deliberate troll.

I name my decks different names; my two favorite have been “Everyone Knows You Never Go Full Bant” and “Do You Like Huey Lewis and the News?” You named a deck before? Share it below.

The Kingdom is Coming – Card Kingdom’s New Palace

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I don’t do advertising on MTGCP.

I feel like I’m a Ronin: a masterless samurai who does what he wants when he wants. I’ve turned down advertisers on this blog before because I don’t want them to limit what I can create on this blog without feeling guilty of hurting the people paying me to write. If I want to write something that my advertisers don’t want, I’m out of luck. Not so if I don’t have any. That’s different if I write on other websites because I’m on their site, not mine. Not being tied down to anyone exclusively allows me to do some awesome things.

Like what I’m about to talk about today.

In a series of 4 posts I will be working with Card Kingdom, one of the largest Magic suppliers on the internet, to talk about their secret project. Finally, after months of secret tweets and meetings, it can finally be announced.

But first, some back story.

I first met Dan Tharp at PAX this past year. He’s the PR director at Card Kingdom, and the one who’s behind the twitter, facebook and newsletter they put out. We’d been talking online for a while and with Card Kingdom’s presence with a booth at PAX, it would be a great time to meet. After a brief introduction, we talked about getting together at the PAX Scars of Mirrodin party afterward the convention and engage in some conversation. So, after I helped spoil those cards for you, Dan and I went to the bar for a drink.

“Can you keep a secret?” he asked.

I nodded.

“There’s going to be some exciting changes at Card Kingdom coming up. Though they’re still in the works, it looks like everything is going through.”

He had my attention. “Oh really? Like what?”

“We’re opening up a new store in Ballard.” It’s a section in the city of Seattle, for those who don’t live in the area.

“Well, that’s cool.” It’s always good when more card stores are opened as it gives more places for Magic.

Then he smiled. “But it’s going to be so much more than a store.” I was a little skeptical. How can a store be more than a store? (How am I not myself?) “We’re going to make it a mecca for gamers.”

Then he proceeded to tell me.

I am a believer.

Continue reading “The Kingdom is Coming – Card Kingdom’s New Palace”