MTG Color Pie

First, let me say that it was fun debating the people of “Team Land”; or those that wanted to debate rather than just yell. I hope that those of you who were on that side stay with the rest of us until the end of the contest. You’re not out of voting by any means, but I’ve seen a number of you get upset that your choice didn’t win. Yeah, my first choice didn’t win either (it was creatures). The key to this contest is to think of this as more than just an “I want” thing, because then you’ll always be disappointed. We’re a team here, and we all get a vote. If you feel like you don’t care anymore because one choice didn’t go your way, then that’s the wrong attitude. While this might be my Selesnya side talking, but let’s work together to build the best, and most fun, card that we can.

Basically this contest is what WotC has to do plenty of times. Following their design skeletons, there are several holes in a set that they are creating. Instead of trying to fill it internally, they have decided to let the fans choose which hole they want to participate in finding an answer to. We, as a group, has decided to go after the Enchantment hole, and are now deciding on which color. Then, I imagine, we will decide if it’s going to be an aura or not, then finally pitch our ideas about what should be sorted through to fill that hole. I’ve seen plenty of people complain about just telling us pitch mechanics now and let the color be decided by the mechanic, but it doesn’t go that way. We’re using their process, we have to play by their rules.

At the moment, our decision is actually pretty hard: what color should the enchantment be? Continue reading “You Make the Card 4 – Round 3 (Choose the Color)”

You Make the Card 4 – Round 2 (Run Off)

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Well, that happened.

26 votes? That’s a margin of error in almost any poll (Though electronic voting does make recounting so much easier). Because the voting was so close, WotC has decided that it’s going to do a run off between the top two card choices:

Enchantment vs. Land

Yes, they reran close voting in previous YMTC, so this was expected. I mentioned that it was possible that people were going to vote for a card type that hadn’t been done before (Creature, artifact and instant). This is really not a surprise. But some of you seem to think that we can “force” WotC to do whatever we want. That’s not the case with this contest. They are letting us create a card together. After we submit ideas, R&D are going to go through them and pick out 10 or so of the ideas they like. The ideas could be whatever the focus of the block is, a truly unique idea, or just something that’s really cool (Subjectively speaking). We get to choose an idea that WotC approves of.

Listen, I know that a good portion of you really like the idea of designing a land, but for this contest I think that choosing to go the land type is the wrong way to go. I can guess what a majority of the land designs are going to be:

A Strip Mine or a Dust Bowl effect.
A fetchland (ala Polluted Delta).
A “Man-Land” (ala Mishra’s Factory).
Something that taps for more than one mana.
Something that taps for every color of mana.

None of those choices are sexy. You really want the card that the community makes to be a utility land? How exciting. Yawn.

I’m telling you again: don’t vote for land. And here’s why. Continue reading “You Make the Card 4 – Round 2 (Run Off)”

You Get What You Give

“Wake up kids//We’ve got the dreamers disease” – You Get What You Give by New Radicals.

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Is there anything more late ’90’s than the musical styling of New Radicals? One hit wonder, we salute you.

One of the larger media news stories this week has been about the resurgence of a Veronica Mars movie. This was a show on the WB and UPN that had a rabid fan base. After its cancellation, the fans wanted a movie. Like anything in business: it’s all about money. Warner Brothers (who own the rights to Veronica Mars) knew there was a loyal fanbase, but didn’t think it was large enough to support more seasons or even a movie. But with Firefly and Arrested Development both getting second lives through the push of its fans, it might be worth a shot for Veronica Mars.

For a project that big and that risky (if they’ll make the money back), you have to count on if there’s enough interest that will pay for something like that. The internet is fickle with its obsessions. The love of Snakes on a Plane didn’t transfer to so well on the big screen. Hollywood has this love/hate relationship with the internet and doesn’t know how to react to it just yet. Luckily, there’s a website where people can propose a project and if there’s enough interested parties willing to pay for it, the project will get funded and made: Kickstarter.com. If, by the end of 30 days the project doesn’t reach its goal, it doesn’t get made.

Warner Brothers told Rob Thomas (the creator of Veronica Mars and not the Matchbox 20 lead singer), that if they could raise $2 million, they would green-light a Veronica Mars picture. It would meet the demand that the studio wants and pay for part of the movie (a win/win for Warner Brothers). Now, $2 million is a lot of money; never had a Kickstarter project had a goal that large. If it failed, there would be no more talk of a Veronica Mars movie and it would only be part of a feverish fan’s dream.

They met their goal in 24 hours.

It was the fastest Kickstarter to $1 million and obviously the fastest to $2 million. As of this writing, with 29 days left in the Kickstarter, it has made almost $2.8 million.

What does this mean to Magic?

We can start getting new projects. Continue reading “You Get What You Give”

You Make the Card 4 – Round 1 (Card Type) Discussion

You Make the Card 4 – Round 1 (Card Type) Discussion

So, Great Designer Search 2 Winner Ethan Fleischer announced that WotC is doing another “You Make the Card” contest. I’m excited, and you should be excited as well. If you missed the first three (And you might have since the last one was Coldsnap, around the last time we were in Ravnica), it goes something like this:

Each round the public votes on something that R&D gives us. Slowly, over the course over a year or so, we get to make decisions through voting that will make a real card. From type of card, to name, to art to what the card actually does. Now, R&D has to test the card, so we can’t just get something very powerful for very little cost or get a card that will break the Color Pie (Like a Black Disenchant or Red life gain). The card goes through any process like any other card that WotC would print. It might seem slow, but when you’re holding the card in your hand after you’ve opened it, it’s actually a pretty cool feeling.

Ethan’s announced the first decision, and I’m sure that some of you have voted. If you haven’t, I would like to talk to you about the options that you have and maybe nudge you in a direction. I don’t expect everyone to agree with I’ll say, but hopefully it’s enough to get you thinking and not throw away your vote. Here are your options:

Artifact
Creature
Enchantment
Instant/Sorcery
Land

No Planeswalker (Way too many issues for a YMTC and it would most likely be another Jace), and no Tribal (Most likely not about to see print). Just the basic card types Magic introduced. Let’s get to it. Continue reading “You Make the Card 4 – Round 1 (Card Type) Discussion”

Breaking Down Boros’ Weenie Problem

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Ever since Magic was first created, White has had a split personality. It’s been separated into two distinct camps:

White Weenie
White Control

Now, every color has aspects of both, but with White it was never so prevalent. What White was trying to accomplish the idea of the “army” and righteousness with “fairness” at the same time. However, it’s the only color that makes you feel bad for trying to cram everything that the color can do in one deck.

Blue – Steal, Counter, Bounce, Draw
Black – Discard, Kill, Reanimate
Red – Burn, Swing, Burn again
Green – Mana Ramp, Play Big Creatures, Pump Big Creatures

But with White, you couldn’t do that. You can’t play a bunch of creatures, then Wrath of God or Balance. That defeated the whole purpose of playing all those creatures in the first place (With Wrath of God, and Balance both being reset buttons of “righteousness” and “fairness” (One player can’t get ahead of the other player)). Sure, there was Banding to help the small White army deal with the larger creatures of the other colors (and we know how well that turned out), but you couldn’t play an all encompassing White deck. Unless you played a traditional White Weenie deck that relied on a control element. The only reason that White Weenie was able to survive as an archetype was because of one card: Armageddon What should be a “fairness” card (one player can’t have more land than another) suddenly turned into an aggressive’s deck best friend. By playing your threats early then blowing up lands so the other player couldn’t stabilize, White Weenie became a favorite and power style of play. As long as White had its army of one and two drops that were “better” than the other colors as well as a way to “destabilize” the board after a few turns, it continued to see play.

But White has shifted away from “unfair” global reset buttons. Except for Wrath of God variants, the most recently printed Armageddon style disruption spell was Global Ruin in Invasion. That is almost 13 years old and not a legal set in Modern. Guess how long White Weenie has been mostly irrelevant? At the same time, creatures of all casting costs were getting better so White’s weenie rush just wasn’t viable anymore.

Elsewhere in the color pie, there was a deck that was picking up steam that followed similar style of play: Sligh. If you’re unfamiliar with the deck type, here’s a quick run down. Basically, it was a Red weenie deck that relied on tempo and a mana curve rather than just small creatures with a way to stop the opponent from doing anything. The deck was quick, and really, because of Red’s love of direct damage, didn’t need an Armageddon style spell to disrupt the opponent. The deck had finishers (Fireblast, Scroll Rack, Ball Lightning), it was just more damage to push the opponent below 20.

But the point of this isn’t to talk about bringing back Armageddon, it’s for something else entirely.

See, White is all about the Army feeling: their troops are better (and more numerous), than our troops. White’s creatures are going to work together to defeat you. And you know what the best two White army decks have been? Rebels in Marcadian Masques block (using smaller creatures to bring out bigger creatures). Goblins in Onslaught block. What, wait?

It’s time for White and Red to examine their place in the weenie aspect of the Color Pie. Continue reading “Breaking Down Boros’ Weenie Problem”