Day 19: Design Test Submission

Mopey, the Eighth One

Some of you have certainly noticed my lamentation regarding the highly-likely possibility of me being out of the running for The Great Designer Search 2. If you haven't, well, now you know. And you'll get to know why because I'm posting my design test submission publicly down below. 

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.com/magicthegathering/wiki/Labs:Gds/gds2/rainingcatsdogs/designtest/card01]

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.com/magicthegathering/wiki/Labs:Gds/gds2/rainingcatsdogs/designtest/card02]

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.com/magicthegathering/wiki/Labs:Gds/gds2/rainingcatsdogs/designtest/card03]

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.com/magicthegathering/wiki/labs:Gds/gds2/NoShoes/CardIdeas]

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.

Day 18: Looking for Ursula

'Round and 'Round We Go

I've just sent in my design submission for the Round 3 Design Test. I know for sure that I'm not satisfied with what I turned in. At least three cards I can think just made me groan. And that's a bad sign when you, as the designer, do that, let alone the audience (in this case, the judges). If there were ten cards to submit, and I gotta make top 8 of 101 people, that means I'd only have room for one bad card. Maybe. I'm accounting for that extra odd 2% as the Part I of the World. But, hey, the heavier the weight is for Part I, the better of I'll be.

The reason why I turned in work that I'm not satisfied with is because I ran out of time at the end. While I was spending almost all of my free time working on this task, I should have made sure to not let myself spend too much time on one thing or to veer off in territory that didn't matter. If I had just stopped and evaluated where I was on, say, Saturday night, and planned deadlines accordingly, I would've been better off. But, nay, I have this nice spreadsheet I'm...

Sleep break. (Hours later.)

*Yawn*

Hey-o, I'm back. Still kinda tired, but a toddler was "calling" from their recent rousing from sleep. Not my toddler, but still, nonetheless, I needed to aid the situation. Some Kix and juice later, and now she's trying to fin a VHS tape and the father's up with the second child. Good to go. At least, enough to get back to this post.

I wonder whether it'd be better to write a short post rather than a long one. I was thinking, "The better I am at writing, the more you'd want to read my stuff." So, if it's short and sweet, you could have a greater tolerance for lesser skill in writing to "enjoy." ...On the other hand, I could just write however many words I like (to the point where a normal-sized article would stop) and let the reader stop reading if they so choose to stop reading. The downside would be that those who stop early would miss the latter parts of what I would say.

O.K., I could just have a strategy, then. I could write about the most important parts first then--

Hold the phone! This is exactly the technique used in newspapers. Er, I believe so. I dunno, I never was a communications major, *cough* Mark Rosewater */cough*

Searching for Voice Fischer

Speaking of Mark Rosewater, I was reading this two-part article interview that Ted Knutson (Am I linking unnecessarily?) gave MaRo, and it made me want to write. I never did fancy myself a writer. I would even tell people specifically that "I'm no writer." However, I want to write because, well, if I write enough, I'll get better. That's provided I find my "voice", among other things.

MaRo mentioned finding your voice. Once you're able to do that, writing becomes easier. But, getting to that voice part is a difficult process. Another thing he mentioned was -- Wait, did I mention that this was for becoming a regular Magic writer? As in, exactly what I'm doing now. Except, others may get paid and write for more prestigious websites (and not just blog). -- Anyway, as I was saying... He mentioned "putting yourself into your writing". I may or may not be paraphrasing. So, that's what I'm doing now. Maybe I'm not doing it enough. This next paragraph will be an attempt at "more" of me.

Look at Me, I'm...

Over the past month and then some, ever since Mark Rosewater's announcement of The Great Designer Search 2 at the end of August, I've been focusing a lot of time and energy on preparing for this competition and actually competing in it. This was my chance to get the internship which would most likely lead to a permanent position of my dream job. I'd be set. So, what the heck am I talking about? I'm not sure. I was about to mention something I imagine is true for so many others. They've also invested their time, energy, and emotion into it.

I guess I could say that, at least, from my end, there was doubt of my abilities as a designer. In the beginning, before the actual article detailing how the contest was going to go down, I was getting more and more of the feeling that I didn't have a chance. The first Great Designer Search had competitors who were software engineers and other such impressive titles. Sure, I had a degree in game programming, but that may have made it worse since I don't actually hold a job related to my degree right now. If I make it as a finalist for GDS2, my title will read "Target employee" or something like that. Which, by now, is fine with me. It'd actually might make people root for me, as I would probably be, seemingly, "the underdog" alongside the other listings of occupation. But, this is a round-about way of saying that it didn't help my doubting to see that I've been floating around jobless up until I just got a job at Target a month ago.

Right. So, while I was preparing for GDS2, I was completing challenges from GDS1. And while I was trying to do these challenges, it felt like it was more difficult for me than it should have been for an aspiring designer. I just stared blankly at the computer screen as I was firing blanks on designing. Perhaps I had some mental locks in my head (speaking of which, of A Whack on the Side of the Head is, as Mark Rosewater put it (at least, I think), the best book on creative thinking. It's O.K. I checked it out. Well, literally. I borrowed it from my library, and it's right next to me as I type this. It's a good one. Anyway, this book talks about mental locks. ...Wait a minute. Does this count as one of those asides that MaRo does every now and then? In that case, maybe I should have made this its own paragraph). Like I was saying, perhaps I had mental locks in my head. Whatever the case was, I wasn't churning out designing. Was I fit for this internship? I felt like I was doomed from the beginning.

But, nonetheless, I should do my best, anyway. The worst that could happen is that I fail. I might be wrong about myself, and I could be a great designer. I mean, I did win a previous design contest held by Bragster and Wizards to "Design Your Own Card". I have to be made of something, right? It also helped that others that have been around me described how creative I am. Though, they haven't seen my work put into action. I didn't make anything creative of note with my degree, but it could just be in the way that I communicate with people. My current roommate does tell me that my line of thinking is different. So, I'm weird. And Weirds are red/blue. And red/blue is associated with creativity. So, maybe that's why (Go, go, illogical logic.).

But, as I progressed through the rounds, I felt more confident. This was a test of my abilities. And I was passing. Well, the first round's test may not have been evaluated just yet and only based on whether each of my essays were between 250 and 350 words. There would be evaluation for sure when it came to Round 3. So, that didn't really tell me whether or not I rocked at Magic design. However, Round 2 came, and I had to pass a multiple-choice test that tested my ability on modern design principles. And I passed. This was where it all turned around for me. I knew what I was doing, for the most part. So, Round 3's design test was the real deal. This is what it's all about. If I passed, then I was just pure awesome.

...And then I let myself run out of time for a quality submission. Frick. I'm so disappointed in myself. I can do better at design, but I ran out of time. I didn't set deadlines for myself properly, even though I was spending all my free time doing the assignment. During the last couple hours, I had to frantically design a few cards on the fly just to meet the requirements of the email I needed to send. I sent it at the last minute, and I just. Could. Have. Done. Better. ...But, Life just happens. If I were to be in the Top 8 of 101 people, every single card needed to rock. But, they don't. I know, because I groan whenever I look at a few of those cards I sent.

...And 'Round and 'Round

And that brings me full circle to why I'm writing in the first place (Did I go in a circle? I'm not sure. It felt more like a rollercoaster ride). I feel like I've got no chance for making it as a finalist. So, what do I do now? Well, I keep trying to get that dream job, regardless of whether or not there's a Great Designer Search 2. One way is to get noticed as a Magic writer writing about Magic in a way that shows my aptitude of being able to be in Magic R&D. In the past, I would have just stopped there. Because I was "no writer." But, now, I feel empowered. I can write if I really want to. I just need to write. And write. And write some more (among other things). The same is true for design.

So, I can just keep pushing along with my Magic designing, anyway. Ddsign sets and playtest them and such. And I could even write about that, too. That's more of a reason for me to write. I could also construct cubes, which could show off my development skills, being able to put together a balanced set, and all (let alone balancing my own designed sets). So, I'll just keep pushing.

...One last thing: This blog post was written with some experimentation. I'm trying to find that voice of mine, and I'm trying out these sectioning my post with headers. Whatever. This is a good thing. Hopefully, I'll keep doing this. It'll feel weird, since I haven't yet accepted that I do write. Some day, though. 

...I'll get that dream job.

Cheers,

Brad

Day 16: Round 3 Design Test

I passed the multiple-choice test. I'm in the top 101 people of The Great Designer Search 2, and it's only going to get a lot more difficult within the next two days. Nay, I don't even have 48 hours. So, here's the deal:

Mark Rosewater posted up the design test for Round 3. And if you'd like to help me out designing some cards for my challenge (I'm going to need to choose four designs not done by me), here are the steps you'll need to take (You might have already taken care of a few things.)

1. Go to my Wiki page here.
2. If you haven't signed up for the Wizards' Community forums, click on the "Sign Up" link in the upper-right hand corner of the page and sign up.
3. If you haven't joined the Magic: The Gathering group, click on the "Join Group" link below the group's avatar image along the left side of the page. (If you aren't on the same page of that group, you can click on the link to my page in the first step, again. Then, you'll see it.)
4. Read the top of my page under the section "Round 3: Design Test" Assignment. Then just follow the instructions.

So, below, I've got the tribes and mechanics described for you, so that you can be on your way.

Tribes

Bird (Vulture folk) - White/Black
These guys are vultures. They fly, for the most part. I haven't defined much of a personality for them, so imagine what you like.

Gnome - Blue/Red
Gnomes make their debut as a major tribe in this set. There's only be one non-artifact gnome in Magic. This will fix that. Gnomes are tricky. They like to "play around" with magic, pull pranks, and are curious. They make up for the absence of Goblin mischief and stature with their own wily and short ways.

Crocodile (Crocodile folk) - Black/Green
This race isn't as well defined, either. Well, except, that they're the largest of the five species listed here. Note that the Crocodile card listed below is the smallest Crocodile's printed power/toughness. Don't take that card as a final card, just like the keyword names chosen that's on the example cards below.

Dwarf - Red/White
This is a proud race. They are tough, sturdy, and hard-headed. The choice of white dwarves stemmed from Eventide's hybrid red/white dwarves. As red/white are functionally about combat, this fits the dwarves perfectly.

Frog (Frog folk) - Green/Blue
These frogs are bipedal frog folk. They're NOT like the Anurid race from the plane of Dominaria. Those guys are, like, beasts! This plane's frogs are not beasts. They are intelligent dudes. Again, not much personality imbued in these guys.

Dreams and Nightmares
I'm not sure whether to add these types. If I do add them, they'll span multiple colors. If I add only Nightmares, I'll spread them all across the five colors. Same thing if I choose Dreams. If, however, I choose both, then I'm thinking of doing it like the Odyssey block and put Nightmares in blue, black, and red. And Dreams would be in green and white. Nightmares would have the Trauma mechanic (described below) and Dreams would have flashback (Yes, the first time creatures would have flashback. They work like Evoke does, since they'll have effects that trigger from you casting it and would get exiled when the spell resolves. Except, you know, you actually get to use the creature once before they die and is flashbacked (flashed back?)).

Classes for Ally Pairs
I've decided that the race creature types are going to pair two enemy colors when you want to build a deck around a certain race. However, for more diversity, I'm going to use the classes to pair ally colors. Except, in a broader sense (like three colors to a class). For example, Wizards will only be in blue, black, and red. This means that there can be blue/black Wizard decks, black/red Wizard decks, and (blue/red Wizard and/or blue/red Gnome) decks. The main focus won't be on these ally pairs, but they will be there as a minor theme. I'm not sure whether to include tribal cards that reference classes. But, the fellowship mechanic will definitely work with class types.

And I finally have four mechanics, though, a couple may need a bit of polish. Here they are, with some card mock-ups for visual appeal.

Fellowship

Fellowship -- Whenever you play a card sharing a subtype with CARDNAME, DO THIS.

And here's an example card:

Trauma

Trauma NUMBER (Whenever this creature would deal damage to a player, that player mills NUMBER cards intead.)

This card was modified off of Evan Erwin's Erode mechanic. His blog post debuting the mechanic is here: http://www.misterorange.com/?p=220 And the mechanic on the Wiki is here (one of the pages of MTG Color Pie's Wiki, in fact): http://community.wizards.com/magicthegathering/wiki/Labs:Gds/gds2/mtgcolorpie/FurnitureShopping1

WHOA! Disclaimer: There's "mill" as an action word now. Just like with scrying and regenerating, the "Target player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard" wording has been shortened to "Target player mills X cards." As this was a "library-themed" block, I thought it'd be proper to take take a risk and take action here with a commonly used cluster of words.

Here's an example card:

Flashback

This one's not new, but the placement of flashback on creatures is new. When you cast a creature from your graveyard via flashback, that creature will trigger its "when you cast me, stuff happens" ability, then it is exiled. It's like an evoke creature entering the battlefield (or leaving it), then sacrificing it. Here's an example:

Also, here's a Gnome tribal card just because:

Hold Thought

Hold Thought (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.)

Most, if not all, cards that have this ability have a second ability that interacts with the top card. Most often, the parameters for successful interaction is if the top card shares a subtype with the card with Hold Thought. 

I really don't like the name of this mechanic. Also, I'm wondering whether this mechanic can be done better. I believe this one is the weakest of all (unless you count that flashback-ing isn't innovating enough, maybe?). However, it is caught up in the synergy among all the mechanics. Trauma is good for ruining cards that care about the top card of card of the library (Hold Thought). Of course, those cards put into the graveyard may be flashback cards, so that's good for the player being milled. And casting multiple spells to trigger Fellowship is desired, so, flashback can help with that.

Here's an example of this mechanic, anyway:

Easy as pie, right? Also, I know that "drawing the second card from the top of your library" may be a controversial thing since you don't draw from there, you "put" from there. As in, "put the second card from the top of your library into your hand". But, since it's already so wordy, I decided to short-hand it.

For each of the mechanics, I tried to incorporate the fact that this plane resides in the mind of a planeswalker. (That's why it's a "library matters" theme.). Well, with the exception of fellowship. Anyway, if you'd like to submit your designs for my efforts, just go back to the top of this post and follow those steps.

Cheers,

Brad

Day 12: Essay Answers

It's been a while! That's because I was world building and writing essays for The Great Designer Search 2. Speaking of which, I made it into Round 2! I'll be doing the multiple choice test sometime during the 24-hour window on Wednesday. Man, it's gonna be tough.

When I saw others post their essay questions on their blogs and whatnot, that reminded me: Hey. I have a blog, too! So, here I am to post my answers. Then you guys can all throw tar and fire at me after you read them.

But, first, here's the link to my Wiki page:
"Raining" "Cats" and "Dogs" Block

I've yet to have a satisfiable environment. I do have mechanics and themes, yet, I'm working on the world to cement these mechanics and gameplay in and perhaps spawn more ideas in terms of gameplay. Perhaps you'd like to help and leave some suggestions or feedback on my Wiki page. That'd be awesome.

O.K., and as per the questions from this page, here are my answers (except for number 1):

2. You are instructed to move an ability from one color to another. This ability must be something used in every set (i.e. discard, direct damage, card drawing etc.). You may not choose an ability that has already been color shifted by R&D. What ability do you shift and to what color do you shift it? Explain why you would make that shift.

If I were instructed to move an ability from one color to another, that would be the ability to “bounce” permanents from blue to white. This would make an impact on blue’s overall ability to deal with other card types, but there are other means that blue could take advantage of to make up for the loss. Here’s what I’d do exactly:

The reason why I’d move this ability to white is to play into white’s theme of dealing with adversity in a pacifist way (Unless something did wrong to white first, then white will seek justice, of course). Returning a permanent to its owner’s hand doesn’t kill it, but bouncing gets rid of the problem for white, at least, temporarily. White already does this method of temporary solutions in the form of putting creatures onto the top of their owners’ library. Actually, this is ability is also shared in blue. Speaking of which, here’s what I’d do with blue after I make the shift.

Blue’s loss of returning permanents to their owners’ hand means less power in dealing with all the other card types. However, blue has other means in dealing with these cards. As I mentioned before, blue can put creatures on top as well as shuffle them into their owner’s library. Blue could even put them Xth from the top or put them on the bottom of their library. To be brief, this is what else blue can do to various cards: tap down temporarily or indefinitely, counter, gain control of, mill, manipulate power/toughness, gain unblockability, have shroud, and change targets of. Blue still has plenty of tools at its disposal.

Moving the ability from blue to white still makes sense flavor-wise for white. White would gain an extra “pacifist” way of dealing with problems. For blue, it means cranking up blue’s current solutions to cards as well as taking the white ability to shuffle or put on top of the library creatures and their ilk.

3. What block do you feel did the best job of integrating design with creative? What is one more thing that could have been done to make it even better?

What Alara block did right was how they represented five distinct shards of a world, the elegance of the shards coming together, and the end-product twist of the final set.

Shards of Alara saw the different shards of a world, each missing two colors of mana. That was represented in the game literally. However, design made a great decision and divided up the set’s mechanics among each shard, giving each their own feel for what playing with only three colors is like. Another good decision: Having Esper all-artifact-based and having Naya care about creatures with power 5 or greater to combat the problem of not having enough keyword mechanic slots to give to every shard. Finally, revisiting cycling in this was a top-notch move.

With Conflux, the shards came together which led into the makes-so-much sense return of domain. And then cycling explored more design space: Basic landcycling. Wow. It has synergy with domain’s mechanic?! It’s like some well-thought out plan of flavor and function playing off of each other unfolding before my very eyes.

Lastly, Alara Reborn pulled off a milestone with its all-gold set. The excellence of Alara creative set the stage for the reason for doing a set with all gold cards. The Borderposts were a genius move, cycling proved itself to be an MVP once again for fixing mana bases in Limited, and the hybrid mana symbol gave each shard access to more cards in the set, which, again, was important for Limited. Problems of an all-gold set: solved.

However, one thing that could have been done to make Alara block even better is improving upon Naya’s mechanic. It’s the weakest of all five shards, and it doesn’t do a great job of being exciting. Esper’s shtick made an impact with “splashy-ness.”

4. R&D has recently been looking at rules in the game that aren't pulling their weight. If you had to remove an existing rule from the game for not being worth its inclusion, what would it be?

The rule that “snow mana” (I know, it doesn’t actually exist.) is defined as mana that comes from a snow source is one that I think isn’t worth its inclusion. Its lack of pulling weight is defined as “pushing weight”. Of course, with this exclusion comes a new inclusion as well. I’ll explain:

Let’s go back to the time before the card Nantuko Elder was designed. During that time, there were just five types of mana. The generic mana symbol used for costs was supposed to represent “mana of any color” and only that. And then Nantuko Elder came along, trying to produce “1G” mana. “Whoa!” said the Magic rules. Then, one thing led to another and now permanents can add colorless mana. A sixth type of mana was added!

So, what does this have to do with snow mana? Well, I want to make snow mana a supertype of mana. Yes, I mean there can be snow white, snow blue, snow black, snow red, snow green mana, and snow colorless mana. I believe this will be greatly beneficial to Magic design as seen in the form of “snow red mana” and “Spend only snow mana on X.” And snow colorless costs can still be represented by “snow colorless” symbols with numbers in them just like regular colorless costs.

I recognize there’s a problem with having different types of snow mana, though. The symbol uses a snowflake, currently, but how do we graphically represent a snow red mana being different from a snow blue mana? That’s where I have faith that the same forces that created the hybrid mana symbol graphics can do the same with snow mana symbols.

I’d like to remove the rule about paying costs with snow symbols needing to use mana that come from snow sources. And with that removal required an inclusion of a new rule that says that snow is a supertype of mana. And this will help create more Magic design space.

5. Name a card currently in Standard that, from a design standpoint, should not have been printed. What is the card and why shouldn't we have printed it?

From a design standpoint, Marshal’s Anthem should not have been printed. This is because the card’s “return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield” effect is outside of white’s slice of the color pie. Sure, white returns creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield but not in this way.

White used to be able to return creatures from the graveyard (Breath of Life, Resurrection) to the battlefield without some sort of catch. Then, one day, Wizards R&D decided that this ability should be shifted to black and printed Zombify; and I agree. As one of the colors that are identified as being able to interact with the graveyard, black should be the color that has that definitive power in bringing creatures back from the dead.

This isn’t to say that white shouldn’t ever return creatures back from the graveyard. It just does so with restrictions. Either the returned creatures are small, army types (Proclamation of Rebirth, Order of Whiteclay) or they’ve had something happen to them first, fitting the “redemption” flavor of white (Second Sunrise, Adarkar Valkyrie).

Looking at Marshal’s Anthem, it doesn’t do that. It allows you to bring a creature back with no restrictions even if it’s been there for quite a while, too – And multiple creatures, to boot.

Bonus reason why it shouldn’t have been printed: From a flavor perspective, it doesn’t make sense for the anthem of a marshal to be able to bring people back to life (unless you count taking a metaphor of “That anthem brings people to life!” quite literally).

6. What do you think design can do to best make the game accessible to newer players?

What design can do best to make the game accessible to newer players is to make sure both the fantasy flavor and the image of the complexity of Magic is strong. Newer players are looking for different things in a game that they can enjoy, depending on the person. Introduction of Magic to newer players is where the Vorthos and Melvin axis of player profiles is most important.

Newer players that lean toward being Vorthos are looking for something that evokes the fantasy experience strongly. This means being resonance with the fantasy theme is important, so that the player can identify with it. Wizards has already made an excellent move in the Magic 2010 and Magic 2011 core sets with more of a focus on flavor as well as the terminology and rules changes with “casting”, “battlefield”, and etc. The core sets are also doing a good job of attracting new players with using the traditional fantasy theme, as new players should start within the familiar. New mechanics in each new set should strive toward matching up with the flavor of the world/block that the mechanic is in, whenever possible. All of these efforts will be aimed toward making that new Vorthos player happy.

Newer Melvin players will be seeking a game with richness in complexity. They’ll appreciate the strategy, the depth of gameplay, and the innumerable combinations and situations with the thousands of cards available. Whenever Wizards reaches out to newer players, they should highlight the former qualities of this game and not try to hide the fact that the game is actually something complex. Seasoned gamers / strategy players will want to see that this game actually has much to explore in terms of gameplay. Fortunately, what design can do in the future for Melvin players is to keep up strong Magic designs in each of its cards, its mechanics, and its themes and the interesting interaction potential among these pieces of the game. Just keep Magic’s gameplay strong, and you’ll have a strong chance of winning the new Melvin player’s heart.

7. What do you think design can do to best make the game attractive to experienced players?

People want familiar things with a twist. With each new set that is released, it has to still feel like Magic. With experienced players, you have an important resource at your disposal: Magic itself. Design should use this to best make the game attractive to experienced players.

What I mean is that when players have been playing for a while, they’ve built up experiences and knowledge of older Magic sets, mechanics, and cards. When revisiting planes, experienced Magic players would go, “Oh, yes! I loved drafting that set, and now, it’s back? Hooray, more of the same but with a twist!” (Something like that.) Planes have “design space”, too. As for mechanics, some mechanics are worth revisiting for their design space, but, depending on the mechanic, players might also have fond memories for the time period the mechanic last appeared in. And also depending on the mechanic, it might even spice up a deck of old that they have, like an Affinity deck. Lastly, reprinting cards might have a little impact but printing new cards that remind players of other notable cards are also a plus.

What it comes down to is nostalgia. Time Spiral used this as a theme, the Un-sets uses this for its comic material, and there’s no avoiding nostalgia when revisiting Scars of Mirrodin. Look at how Nintendo is using their Mario. People remember playing the Super Mario Bros. video game and perhaps that would motivate them to purchase a Nintendo DS with New Super Mario Bros., a 2D Mario sidescroller (despite multiple 3D Mario games).

Design needs to tread familiar ground (planes, mechanics) but in new ways. It also needs to recognize and harness the power of nostalgia to keep experienced players happy and perhaps bring back players of old who remember those “good ol’ days.” This is how design will best make the game attractive to experienced players.

8. Of all the mechanics currently in Extended, which one is the best designed? Explain why.

Proliferate is the mechanic best designed of all other mechanics currently in Extended. I know, I know, the mechanic is as new as a mechanic can be in Extended; but, man, does it deliver. Here are the reasons:

The mechanic made the Phyrexian/poison theme possible. Infect alone wasn’t going to cut it. Proliferate provided the support that the Scars of Mirrodin block needed and then some. It also does a good job of supporting the flavor part of the Phyrexian oil infection.

Proliferate is modular. And I mean VERY modular. Poison counters get affected by proliferate, sure, but within its own Limited environment it also affects -1/-1 counters, charge counters, and loyalty counters.

It’s elegant and adds extra depth to the game in a new way. As previously mentioned, proliferate affects many different kinds of cards that use counters because of the fact that all the counters share the attribute of “being a counter.” Proliferate gets right to the core of this attribute and touched that practically virgin design space (My respects to Gilder Bairn, especially, of the few cards that are related). As a result, proliferate interacts with countless cards that use counters as markers.

And, to boot, many Johnnies are happy with proliferate. This mechanic is a shiny new plaything by which they can build decks around and say, “Look what I did with proliferate! I’m using it with Chance Encounter!”

Supporting a block theme, modularity, elegance in execution, and its impact on Magic’s gameplay as a whole make proliferate the best designed mechanic currently in Extended.

9. Of all the mechanics currently in Extended, which one is the worst designed? Explain why.

The worst designed mechanic currently in Extended is clash. It’s not as elegant as other mechanics are, and it doesn’t make the flavorful connection to the world of Lorwyn. I also can’t see much wiggle room in terms of design space.

Clash makes me put the spell aside, reveal the top card of my library along with another opponent, compare the costs, then decide on whether to leave the card on top or put it on the bottom of my library. Oh, yeah, I was casting a spell, wasn’t I? And the benefit of this mechanic is a method of randomization. The coin flip, while not innovative, is a much cleaner process.

However, as for the benefit, it’s not much of a gain to merit the mechanic. It can interact with kinship, but it’s a narrow synergy. If you clash and find a creature on top, then well, you were already going to get your kinship to go off anyway. If you clash and put it on the bottom, well, there’s still a chance the next card won’t be a Shaman.

While it’s O.K. for there to be mechanics that don’t make a flavorful connection to the world (like cycling), it does help. Clash doesn’t have anything to do with the tribes or anything else in the world other than maybe referencing how the tribes are “clashing” with each other. But, Magic always has a clash with each other. Otherwise, there wouldn’t always be a combat phase. And if I’m missing a flavorful connection with clash, that’s further proof that clash did such a poor job with flavor.

Clash is too clunky, not interactive much with other mechanics, and it’s not flavorful. There’s not a lot of variation you can do with clash, either. This is why clash is my choice for the worst designed mechanic currently in Extended.

10. Choose a plane to revisit other than Dominaria or Mirrodin. What is a mechanical twist we could add if we revisit this plane?
I’m going to not choose Kamigawa and the untapped potential of “splice onto <something besides Arcane>.” I feel that’s too obvious of a choice for what plane to visit with a mechanical twist to it.

Instead I’ll pick Ravnica. However, a problem with this is the number of mechanics in the block. Because of the way the block was done, there were ten mechanics spread out over the. What mechanical twist can be done to the return of the guild system and Ravnica to make it not feel like a “rinse and repeat” block? This is my answer:

Color used as a theme over the course of Magic has been explored time and time again, and yet, there are still aspects of color that haven’t been touched on. Ravnica block explored the pairing of two of the five colors. Shards of Alara block focused on the identity of three-color shards, each missing two colors. “Monocolored” is the default distinction in Magic. So, that brings us to four colors missing, three colors missing and two colors missing, which leaves: one color missing.

This would be an exploration of two-guild four-color factions. While there have been four-color cards, this hasn’t been done as a theme of a block before. The joining of two guilds can mean a hybrid twist of two of the old guild mechanics. For example, a Selesnya-Izzet guild can have “Replivoke 2 (You may tap two creatures any number of times as you cast this spell. For each time you tap two creatures, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for the copies.)”

I realize that the number of factions would result in five mechanics when usually a large set has four mechanics. I’d like to think that solution can be figured out as was done with the Shards of Alara block (Nay and Esper). Anyway, the point is that the four-color theme and exploring un-evolved mechanics is the mechanical twist that can be added if Magic decides to revisit the plane of Ravnica.

So, that's that. Feel free to criticize (or compliment) my answers and/or reasoning as you wish. So, now, I'm going to get going on preparing for my future endeavors in the competition.

Cheers,

Brad

Day 1: Unterior Decorating

Hey! 

If you haven't already heard The Great Designer Search 2 has begun! If you're interested in Magic design period, and you haven't yet read the introductory article by Mark Rosewater, then GET GOING MAN. 

Stop reading this right now and read that. 

In fact, I will forgive you if you get all caught up in what results from reading that and completely forget (or purposefully ignore) about reading this blog post. For sure, man.

Actually, you might say that anyone who's interested in GDS2 shouldn't be wasting their time reading something like this when they could be spending their time creating and viewing content for world/block designs. Well, I'd like to think that somebody could argue that reading this isn't a waste of time (Off topic: I notice that I don't usually make definitive statements about things that somebody else could have a different opinion on.). There's content in this blog post after all, and there are card designs below that could spark somebody's imagination into generating ideas they didn't have before.

If you still managed to read this and know what I'm talking about in terms of Great Designer Search 2, I thank you so much for your valuable time. Time is VERY valuable now. However, here's something relevant: My world/block page. It was mentioned on this wiki page. Also, I'm part of the Team Color Pie design team for this competition, which has a world/block page belonging to none other than MTG Color Pie.

Anyway, for those that know what I was up for a majority of these posts, I was completing challenges from the last Great Designer Search, and I stopped short of the Un-cards. I will not be continuing any further in my practicing since I'll be focusing on doing things that are actually for GDS2. For now, that's creating my world/block. 

However, I did mostly create four out of five cards. The existing four cards aren't completely complete, however. Just the concept and the text in the text box. The rest of the card is also very important for Un-cards (art and representation of the card), which is why these cards aren't technically complete. Here, I'll show what progress was done:

The art is supposed to depict very gentlemanly and ladylike players dressed in formal wear doing a musical-chairs sort of thing. I think the sophistication in times of silliness is funny, but it could be terrible. I'm no comedian. 

Anyway, the card is tricky in that you'd have to time the death of a player while that player is under the control of another player (i.e. not your seat). 

The last sentence solves the problem where, in a multiplayer game, the player removes all the cards they own from the game, normally. However, since a player can be controlled by someone else, and that player loses instead of the player that would normally lose, that would have meant you'd take your cards under the control of another player, and that person would be out of cards. Unless I forced either the player to get up out of his or her set to replace the losing player or to stay where they are and the cards all move toward him or her. Neither solution was desirable, so that's why that sentence is there.

For all those players that bemoan the existence of Baneslayer Angel. This mostly mirrors Baneslayer Angel, but I figured I didn't have to exactly antagonize it. I just needed enough to be able to do the job: completely answer her in many fun ways. Originally, I had the requirement to put Angelslayer Elemental onto the battlfeild be to yell out, "I will avenge you Serra Angel!", but I didn't want to have more than one card that involved yelling out. Speaking of which, that leads into my next card:

All right, I did a lot of research for this one. There's all sorts of references in here related to MaGo. Actually, too many of it focus on his many names, but whatever. It's all about him! And, no, I'm not some Cult of MaGo fanboy. I just thought it'd be refreshing to do a card design of him instead of the expected gravitation toward designing a card of Mark Rosewater (making fun of one of the people that are the "faces of Magic").

• The name "Mark Gottlieb, Ph. D." refers to his Doctor Wombat name on Magic: The Gathering Online and follows the same format as "Richard Garfield Ph. D."
• Since MaGo is MaRo's archnemesis, I put the mana cost using the colors that what I think a MaRo card wouldn't use. MaRo would be a blue/red (representing creativity). However, I'm not being fair to Gottlieb. He even stated in his last article that all his articles in his House of Cards column have been about being creative. So, I would put him in red/blue at least, as well, if I weren't forcing him to be in the role of being defined by being the archenemy of someone else. Also, I justified the mana cost with the abilities in its textbox. May or not be "stretching it".
• The "supervillain" thing is a fun class to put instead of "designer" since during his time as Rules Manager implied that he could be evil and bend the rules of Magic toward his bidding.
• "Agrajag!" is his Starcraft name.
• He has an affinity with Rabid Wombat. I'm not sure if it's his favorite card ever or not (I can't spend too much time trying to find the source that confirms this.), but he definitely likes this card specifically. It's also the only Wombat (besides changeling cards and Mistform Ultimus), so he's specifically look for this card until the day Wizards prints more Wombats. ...And I'm sure he wouldn't mind being able to search for those new guys. He is also called Wombat for his puzzle masters thing or whatever (Such apathy! If you're reading this, MaGo, I could say I'm sorry, but the apathy also permeates how I care about your feelings. ...Joke. It's a joke. Don't be sad.)
• The second part of that search ability helps a Rabid Wombat if you already have one.
• The final part is the coolest part. "Mago" appears on Spanish cards who have "Mage" in the title in the English equivalent. For example, "Meddling Mage" in Spanish is "Mago entrometido". And, in Italian and Portuguese, the creature type "Wizard" is "Mago". You can read about it in MaGo's article about his discovery of this fact here. In fact, this also cites the source of all other MaGo name references on this card.
• The second ability hoses all Maro cards, except for the weird Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer. And yes, how I did that second ability is a risk in that there could be Cults of Maros appearing in all sorts of places, which would defeat the purpose of hosing. Though, it's fun to think that there'd be one legitimate one out there. But, whatever. I'm not going to spend too much time trying to decide whether "0" or "number of Cult of Maros" is the correct decision. ...Oh, wondering what the Cult of Maro thing is? It references the Cult of Mago that sprung up in Wizards' forums after his last article. Here, read this wiki from MTG Salvation (Yeah, that's pretty much where you'd get all the information
• He played upon the "Rules Manager" title with "Rules Man(ager)" in this article.
• There's no specialness for the 3/3 bit.

I never did figure out what to put in the art besides Mark Rosewater somewhere in it.

This was the last card I was trying to complete (in terms of gameplay). I obviously never finished (I planned to make fun of Jace, The Mind Sculptor by having five abilities a'la Greater Morphling.). I incorporated black's power thing (money = power) with some green abilities to justify green-ness (I saw that there wasn't enough green representation in my cards). The ultimate ability involves counting the total US cent value of the counters on this planeswalker for some effect. Obviously, I still needed to figure out how I would control it going out of hand (stating certain coins can only be counted, restricting all abilities to only deal with coins with a value less than 25 cents, dividing the total by a large number, and whatever other options) because there are dollar coins in existence that would be adding 100 to the total per coin if used.

Go, go card house building! I like the tension of trying to outspeed your opponent while still carefully building a card house. I tried to state the rules text for a card house in a way so that people don't cheese their way through this challenge. Is this card still costed too little for the amount of cards you could potentially draw? I don't want it to cost too high so that players can play this more often. I tried to offset this with more mana symbols and reasoning that a gambling red part gives the chance of nothing, so the cost is lower.

I want the art to show the tortoise and the hare building card houses. The tortoise's house is clearly stable, yet underdeveloped, and the hare's looks almost done, yet, just about to fall over.

So, that's that. Erm, what else? Hmm... Oh! Yes. OxyFrog in the comments of my last blog post pointed out that my Shapeshifter lord doesn't actually work the way it does since Shapeshifters lose their Shapeshifter type when they're copied as another creature. I forgot this fact, which is no bueno. Thanks for helping me see that, OxyFrog!

Cheers,

Brad