Card Core Design #3: Number Crunch

Last time, I filled in the creature slots of the commons design skeleton with creature keyword abilities. Today, I start to fill in the basic effects that appear for each color at common as well as add in non-keyword creature abilities that usually show up at common. For example, "Whenever CARDNAME deals combat damage to a player, DO SOMETHING."

Data Incomplete

I first started out with gathering data on what kind of effects usually appear at common in a core set. I only gathered data on white, blue, and black so far - so I'll have to finish red and green for next week's article. After gathering the numbers for each type of effect from cards found in each of the sets from Magic 2010 to Magic 2015, I then filled in my own numbers for each of those effects. In general, the numbers I put in are an average of the numbers written down for any one particular effect. There are some cases where, because undying exists, certain type of effects either don't get any number representation or is minimized.

Here's what the numbers look like for the first three colors:

	Undying	M15	M14	M13	M12	M11	M10
WHITE
Lifegain	3	5	3	2	3	4	3
Small buff to 1	2	3	2	3	2	3	1
Small buff to all	1	3	1	1	1	1	3
Destroy/exile enchantment	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Prevent damage or grant indestructible	0	1	1	1	0	1	1
Tap creature	1	0	1	0	1	1	1
Destroy artifact	0	1	1	0	0	1	1
Grant keyword ability	2	2	0	1	3	1	1
Big buff to 1	0	0	1	1	1	0	0
Punish attacking/blocking creature	0	1	1	1	0	0	1
Create creature token(s)	1	2	1	2	0	0	0
Put Aura card into hand	0	1	1	0	1	0	0
Bounce to top of library	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Grant protection	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Opponent skips next combat	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Exile big stat creature	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
BLUE
Counterspell (hard)	1	2	1	0	1	1	1
Counterspell (soft)	2	1	2	2	2	2	2
Draw cards	2	1	3	1	2	3	3
Bounce	2	3	2	1	2	1	1
Milling	2	1	1	2	2	2	1
Grant evasion	1	2	2	1	2	0	1
Diminish	1	1	1	1	0	1	1
Manipulate top of library	1	0	0	1	1	3	2
Twiddle	1	1	1	1	1	0	0
Looting	1	1	0	0	1	0	1
Return sorcery/instant back to hand	0	0	1	1	0	0	0
Switch power/toughness	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Modify type	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
BLACK
Discard	2	2	2	3	2	3	2
Deflate	2	2	4	1	1	2	1
Creature removal	2	1	1	1	2	2	2
Return creature back to hand	1	1	1	1	2	2	2
Small pump	2	0	3	3	2	2	2
Gain life	1	1	0	2	2	1	1
Card draw	1	1	1	1	0	1	1
Life loss	1	0	0	1	1	1	2
Direct damage	1	1	0	1	2	0	1
Grant lifelink	1	1	1	1	0	0	0
Creature token	0	0	1	1	0	0	0
Land destruction	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Grant intimidate	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Grant deathtouch	1	1	0	0	0	0	0

For white, since white sometimes cares about creatures having too large power or toughness, I relished the chance to put in a card that cared about that due to the larger creatures that have undying. To boot, having it be an exile spell would be extra good since, again, undying would trigger otherwise. In fact...

For blue, I valued having bounce for the interesting interactions that would have with creatures with undying.

And the tables above informed how I arranged my effects into my design skeleton's card slots. The tight squeeze is a real thing that happens, despite the large set size! Here's what I ended up with:

Code	Card Description	Card Design
CW01	creature, small, vanilla
CW02	creature, small, undying, flying	1W. 1/1. Flying. Undying.
CW03	creature, small, flying
CW04	creature, small, undying
CW05	creature, small, lifelink
CW06	creature, small, first strike
CW07	creature, small, token-making
CW08	creature, small, lifegain
CW09	creature, small
CW10	creature, medium, vanilla
CW11	creature, medium, flying
CW12	creature, medium, vigilance
CW13	sorcery, lifegain, enchantment/artifact removal	Solemn Offering
CW14	sorcery, token-making, remove +1/+1 counter
CW15	instant, grant flying & undying
CW16	instant, exile big stat creature
CW17	instant, team buff
CW18	instant, lifelink, first strike, small buff	Swift Justice
CW19	enchantment, Aura, Pacifism-like
CW20	enchantment, Aura, small buff, vigilance
CU01	creature, small, vanilla
CU02	creature, small, flying
CU03	creature, small, flying, flash
CU04	creature, small, islandwalk
CU05	creature, small, saboteur, card drawing
CU06	creature, small, bounce	Voidwielder, reprint
CU07	creature, medium, vanilla
CU08	creature, medium, flying, only block flying
CU09	creature, large, Illusion
CU10	sorcery, card drawing
CU11	sorcery, loot effect
CU12	sorcery, milling
CU13	instant, counterspell, hard
CU14	instant, counterspell, soft
CU15	instant, counterspell, soft
CU16	instant, twiddle
CU17	instant, move counter	Move a counter from target creature onto a second target creature.
CU18	instant, bounce
CU19	enchantment, Aura, lock-down
CU20	enchantment, Aura, can't be blocked	Tricks of the Trade, reprint
CB01	creature, small, vanilla
CB02	creature, small, undying, Skeleton
CB03	creature, small, flying
CB04	creature, small, discard
CB05	creature, small, sac creature for small pump
CB06	creature, small, Shade
CB07	creature, medium, vanilla
CB08	creature, medium, flying
CB09	creature, medium, ETB tapped
CB10	creature, medium, undying
CB11	creature, medium, life loss
CB12	sorcery, creature removal
CB13	sorcery, discard
CB14	sorcery, return creature card
CB15	sorcery, sac creature to draw cards
CB16	sorcery, deflate
CB17	instant, deflate
CB18	instant, direct damage + gain life
CB19	instant, creature removal
CB20	enchantment, Aura, grant lifelink + deathtouch

Cleaning the Counter

Because this is a set that is making important use of +1/+1 counters, I hearken back to when there was heavy counter use and see what blue could do. I relished the chance to do a monoblue version of these cards:

Since this is a core set, I can't include either of these two cards, despite their being common, because they're hybrid. Great! I get to add another version to this library of counter-moving cards. 

Now, again, because this is a core set, I can't make the spell too complicated. I was tempted to have a card that said "Move a counter from target permanent to another target permanent that shares a card type." Permanents sharing card types? Oi. Too clunky for a common core set card. I did want to still tickle the potential for creative counter moving and not explicitly call out +1/+1 counters, though. For decks of older, Constructed formats that might want to make some cool use of moving charge counters around or something.

So, while I'll miss the chance to move around counters among planeswalkers (that'll be for another time), I'm satisfied with keeping the spell simple and restricted to creatures but keep it flexible in both who you can target and what kind of counters you can move. Like this:

What's interesting is that the wording I used here is not templated slightly incorrectly from the above cards of Bioshift and Fate Transfer. There was a new card from Fate Reforged, Daghatar the Adamant, that changed up how the wording goes for moving counters, so I decided to follow that template. Here's the card:

Lens of Truth

We're now entering into territory of much potential changes to the design skeleton with all the cramming we're doing and moving of effects and numbers around. While painting by the numbers is one method of filling in the design skeleton, I musn't forget other attributes of a set or core set that should be present. It's easy to have tunnel vision and do cold design like what I've been doing up until now. But if I continue to do so, I'll miss some important ingredients that make up the big picture.

This subject reminds me of the Book of Lenses, a game design book that helps you to examine your game designs from various, different lenses/perspectives. Up until this point, I've been designing with just one or two closely-related Magic Design Lenses. What I need to make sure of is that I account for each of the different lenses when I let myself have the time to get to them.

For example, what of the creature types for each color that should show up? If a lifegain effect on a card is a staple for white commons, perhaps the same can also be said for "red always has a Dragon creature at rare."

And what of the number of horizontal cycles? These lenses will be explored in a future post, whether that's next week after red and green have their effects filled in, or in two weeks after that. Until then, see you on the #mtgdesign Twitter-spheres (@bradleyrose)!