Mopey, the Eighth One
What I sent in was not the best that I could have done because I ran out of time. This was my own fault, of course. However, it wasn't a matter of not spending enough time on this third design test -- far from it. This test was the only thing I focused on whenever I could leading up until the time I needed to send my e-mail in. The problem was that I didn't set up milestones for myself for the different requirements. I even let myself focus on parts of design that didn't matter so much for this task (Like constructing a design skeleton with the appropriate card codes. Far from necessary.)
Lesson Than Three
So, what did I learn?
1) When a project is needing to meet a deadline, make a plan with milestones. This will break down a complex task into several simpler tasks. Once this is done, you can divide up the time you have until the deadline among the simpler tasks. So, if you ever find yourself behind in terms of your mini-deadlines for your various tasks, you'll know you won't make it in the end unless you pick up the pace.
(You know, I already know this. I took a Project Management class while I attended DeVry University. Project management skills totally could have been applied here.)
2) Stay focused on what's important to complete your task. As I mentioned with the card skeleton activity before, I was doing things that were related, but they weren't really helping getting my task completed. So, figure out what you need to complete the next part you need to work on, then do that. Don't get distracted. It's easy to get the false sense of being productive by just doing things. But, if it doesn't contribute toward the bigger picture, it's just a distraction.
You can have all the design skills in the world, but if you, personally, aren't able to take a design assignment and do what's necessary to complete it all the way through and on time, then it wouldn't matter much. Sure, designing Magic itself requires various teams of people to care about all the extra "stuff" (But, what do I know? I haven't worked at Wizards.) to ensure success, but this was a condensed soup of ten cards and a description of a world/block.
And that's that. ...I'm no expert on project management and such, though. I could be steering you wrong. I don't want to steer you wrong. So, if you decide to do anything as a result of what I wrote, take caution. For anything. Just to be safe and so my conscience won't bug me as much when I try to sleep tonight.
First Track of Daft Punk's Discovery (2001) Album
One more thing -- I realize I didn't squeeze in humor into this article. Humor can spice up writing, but I don't think it's one of my strong points. I love to laugh, and I'm an easy-going person; but I couldn't do stand-up comedy. Perhaps I'll learn about comedy from some source sometime. Once I've become funnier, it might help me gain some regular readers, which just helps toward my goal of landing a job in R&D.
Then again, I wonder how many great Magic writers there are that aren't funny. I won't type anything here because one, I don't want to hurt their feelings, and two, I don't remember who hasn't slung some witticisms regularly in their writing.
Maybe that's a sign of how good they are. That reading their articles or whatnot was just a smooth ride of goodness that you didn't notice anything besides having a great experience. It's kinda like with video game controllers. You should be designing the player input, so that the player doesn't notice the controller during their gameplay experience. Well, except, when it IS part of the experience (Like the Wii controller or playing Mario Party so competitively that you should wear gloves to do your efficient, self-damaging strategy.) But, you catch my drift, right?
I'm getting off track! The text below is what I sent in. Enjoy laughing.
Cheers,
Brad
Submission
Part I - The World
A. Immovale
B. An imaginative plane created by and residing within the mind of a planeswalker.
C. Planeswalker Reena Mreez crafted the world she calls Immovale whose environment and its inhabitants are subject to the memories, thoughts, and stability of her mind. In the mind, the lines of distinction among person, place, and magic are blurred, especially while she dreams. Despite her frequent visits to the plane, its inhabitants do not know of their own origin or their creator -- for the most part.
Immovale consists of an endless ocean and is populated with bobbing islands of forestry and larger pieces of earth known as mount-plateaus. At the top of these amazingly tall mountains are flat stretches of land with kingdoms built upon it. There are wonderful black stream-passages leading away from these plateaus and toward one location. They lead to one murky part of the ocean overgrown with an amalgamation of dead vegetation, live weed-like plants, and a tainted aura.
The vulture tribe, the scavor, is suspicious of the irregularity of these swamps, which they frequent to trade with the gromp. The gromp, a crocodile species, seemingly know of a secret they're protecting from the other inhabitants. Meanwhile, the wibblies, a frog-like people, have long studied the nature of their world and its peculiar behavior and have noticed some patterns. The dwarves, on the other hand, care less about thinking and more about expanding their cities within the bobbing mount-plateaus. The curious and playful gnomes simply live as they wish: living within the moment, exploring unknown regions, and… pulling pranks.
D. The plane is tied to Reena's mind. The world and people blend identities sometimes. She experiences trauma, has flashbacks, has familiar thoughts, and focuses on ideas in her mind.
Themes: library and subtype matters. Mechanics: Trauma, Flashback, Familiarity, Focus. Also, Tribal and land-equivalent Terrain appear.
Trauma X (Whenever this creature would deal damage to a player, that player mills NUMBER cards instead.)
Yes, Trauma is using the word "mill". It's a keyword action now, like scry.
Flashback COST (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. If you do, exile it.)
This mechanic combats the Trauma mechanic. The twist in the large set is that it is also used on creatures with "When you cast CARDNAME" triggered effects.
Familiarity -- Whenever you play a card sharing a subtype with this, DO THIS.
Further supported by flashback's "cast twice" nature, this mechanic rewards those who play a single subtype. For the first set, that means creature types and basic land types. Tribal and Terrain support this by having types on non-creatures and non-lands.
Focus (Play with the top card of your library revealed. Whenever you would draw a card, you may draw the second card from the top of your library instead.)
This keeps a card on top of your library and is further supported by a secondary ability of any kind that cares about the top card of the library. Trauma disrupts this strategy.
Part II - The Cards
1. Chanker, Gromp Spawner (Rare)
[Some Crocodile Guy - http://community.wizards.
4BG
Legendary Creature - Crocodile Shaman
5/4
When Chanker enters the battlefield, put a 1/1 green Crocodile creature token onto the battlefield for each Crocodile card in your graveyard.
B, Exile a Crocodile card from your graveyard: Target Crocodile gains deathtouch until end of turn.
2. Dream Swallower (Mythic Rare)
[Dreameater - http://community.wizards.
3BBB
Creature - Nightmare
4/4
Flying, Trauma 5
Whenever a player mills a nonland card, you may search that player's library for any number of cards with the same name and put them into his or her graveyard. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
3. Gnome Trickery-Pull (Rare)
5RRR
Tribal Instant - Gnome
Until end of turn, you may cast exiled cards you own with a flashback cost without paying its mana cost. Whenever you cast a spell this way this turn, each other player may cast an exiled card without paying its mana cost. (Each spell cast this way is put into the graveyard when it resolves.)
4. Good Dream (Common)
3W
Creature - Dream
2/2
When you cast Good Dream, you gain 2 life.
Focus (Play with the top card of your library revealed. Whenever you would draw a card, you may draw the second card from the top of your library instead.)
As long as the top card of your library is white, Good Dream has flying.
Flashback W
5. Reena Mreez (Mythic Rare)
4UU
Planeswalker - Reena
3 Loyalty
[0]: Choose a subtype. Whenever you cast a card with the chosen subtype, put two loyalty counters on Reena.
[-5] : Choose a subtype. Return all permanents of the chosen subtype to their owners' hands.
[-11]: Choose a subtype. Search your library for any number of cards with the chosen subtype and put them into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
6. Wibblie Forestation (Uncommon)
3GG
Terrain Creature - Frog Forest
3/3
Trample
Familiarity - Whenever you play a card sharing a subtype with Wibblie Forestation, Wibblie Forestation gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
7. Blessing of the Scavor (Rare)
[Glorious Assault - http://community.wizards.
3WW
Tribal Sorcery - Bird
Reveal the top card of your library. Creatures you control that share a creature type with the revealed card get +2/+2 and gain lifelink until end of turn.
8. Recurring Nightmares (Rare)
[Awaken the Restless - http://community.wizards.
2BB
Tribal Enchantment - Nightmare
Whenever a creature card is put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile that card and put a 1/1 black Nightmare creature token onto the battlefield under your control.
9. Dwarven Waraxe (Uncommon)
4
Tribal Artifact - Dwarf Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+0. If equipped creature shares a subtype with Dwarven Waraxe, equipped creature and each creature sharing a subtype with equipped creature gets +2/+2 instead.
Equip 2
10. Plateau Murkways (Rare)
Land - Plains Swamp
Plateau Murkways enters the battlefield tapped.
Plateau Murkways doesn't untap during your untap step.
T: Add W or B to your mana pool.
Familiarity - Whenever you play a card sharing a subtype with Plateau Murkways, untap it.
Write-up: All the cards in the set have a subtype.
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