The Homelands 1.1 Project #1

Since I listened to Mark Rosewater’s podcast on what went wrong with Homelands (can be found here: http://media.wizards.com/podcasts/magic/drivetowork25Homelands.mp3 ) I got to thinking why not redesign Homelands to function properly for draft while keeping with the great flavor.  Now instead of making a Homelands 2, this project is to find ways to “fix” the original, which is why I am calling it Homelands 1.1.  I hope this can turn into a community effort to help better understand Magic’s past and to inspired continuing creative and flavorful design in the future. 

The first step with be to redesign the individual cards, many of which are printed in near nonfunctional ways or at costs that far exceed their function.  Some try to be flavorful with abilities that don’t really make sense.  Second, these cards need to be judged in the context of each other, as there is no point in having a bunch of cards that don’t work together.  Third, if we get there, would be playtesting.

Starting with individual design, I hope to post five cards a post for discussion and improvement.  I will post both the original and my alterations.  In the spirit of the set, I will try to stick with the power level of the era but with be open to using all tool at my disposal we have today, such as keywords and understanding of the color pie.  I am interested to hear what you think and hope you would go about this.

Today’s cards are the first five of the set.  Note, I will be rendering my versions in modern card frames for clarity:

 

 

 

 

Let me know what you think!

Chimzar's Maximize Burn Spells

My take on Maximize burn spells.  I think I like how the 1 damage one plays...

Chimzar's Card of the Day #16 - Filled With Thought

It has been quite a while since I posted here (had a baby!), but Mad Olaf's keyword Maximize sparked the creative juices.  I know I should wait, but I had to make a draw spell with this ability.

Edit (for power):

Chimzar's Card of the Day #15 - Jasper, Born of Light

I meant to post this a couple weeks ago.  This is my celebration card for my son's birth on April 26th, 2012.

Chimzar - Mad Olaf's Art Challenge #5 - Darth Vader, Sith Lord

Here is what I did with the "art" Mad Olaf posted for today (5/4/12):

Chimzar - Mad Olaf's Art Challenge #4 - Fight Club

Here is what I did with the art Mad Olaf posted for today (5/3/12):

I had a more "Magical" name, but I had to go with the cheap joke.  Ultimately I'd want better flavor.

Chimzar - Mad Olaf's Art Challenge #3 - Door to the Past

Here is what I did with the art Mad Olaf posted for today (5/2/12):

Chimzar's Card of the Day #14 - Glacial Mound/Thawed Horror

I'm still not happy with the art (I like having artist credits and the first image is a photograph, boo) but I really like the card and wanted to show it off.

Chimzar - Mad Olaf's Art Challenge #2 - Xarin, Dread Bringer

Here is what I did with the art Mad Olaf posted for today (5/1/12):

Chimzar - Mad Olaf's Art Challenge #1 - Super Master Decoy

Here is what I did with the art Mad Olaf posted for today (4/30/12):

Chimzar - Counter Spell Friday: Cruel Counter

As I try to keep this blog alive by myself, today for Counter Spell Friday I have a spell that doesn't care about keeping you alive.

Playable: yes; Does it hurt?: Oh, yes!

Chimzar - Counter Spell Friday: Sage's Rethinking

This is one of my favorite designs.  As I stated in my intro, I really like to work with negatives on cards and this card is negative yet very positive.  I'm interested to hear what you think about playability and if players would really understand it.

Chimzar - Counter Spell Friday: CMC 5

Happy Counter Spell Friday where I weekly (or soon to be weekly) talk about the most powerful spells in Magic, counter spells.  I know it is very late on Friday that I am posting this, but its not Saturday yet and that’s what counts.  Counter spells are what make noncreature spells interactive.  Without them players would just play their hand until they win instead of having interaction.  Today I am going to talk about my favorite counter spell and designing others like it.  So, my favorite counter spell is CMC 5, can be used with a different cost and makes me smile whenever I cast it.  Here is a link.

Now you probably think I am crazy as there are many far better counter spells, but it is truly a great design.  First and far the greatest reason is that it is constructed playable.  Back in Shards block it fit in great as its early mana fixing was amazing for blue and countering a spell late game was also great.  Its costs led into when you would want to use either part.  Second, whenever I countered a spell with it, I just had to smile.  There is just something about paying five for a counter spell.

There are only 6 CMC counter spells in all of Magic’s history.  Most top out at 4 as most second abilities are fair at 4.  The spell really has to be unique or powerful to cost 5.  Traumatic Visions does something blue never does by fixing your mana.  Force of Will is "Free" or cost above average.  Desertion steals the spell.  What all of these have in common is that when you play them you are getting serious bang for your buck.

The design examples I have for you today are to show reasons for having a counter spell at CMC 5.  Obviously the more powerful of counter spell the more it should cost. 

Second, if you bleed colors (say to white or black) the CMC should go up compared to its blue counter parts.

Lastly, the more a spell does the more it should cost.  My examples are combinations of two colors. 

I hope you enjoy Counter Spell Friday and I’ll be back with more next week.

Chimzar - Designing Ante, Part 3

For the third installment of Designing Ante, the cuffs are off.  Having the high risk of actually losing ownership of cards allows designers to push the boundaries of power.  In this article I will be discussing the heightened power level, the importance of high risk and reward, and, most importantly, the excitement of playing ante cards.

Ante cards do extraordinary things.  They need to or players will play cards that have much less risk to them.  A good test for this is asking if this card is "Power 9" powerful.  A card that does the same thing as a Mox but also antes a card when it entered the battlefield would be on par with this idea.  Just like the "Power 9," ante cards need to improve you position as enablers.  When you have a Black Lotus on the battlefield, for a turn, you are ahead three turns.  That said, you can't win the game with just Black Lotuses.  Ante cards need to work the same way, by not winning the game for you, but instead setting your other cards up to win.  Keep in mind that Zen, the most common Ante format, is played with a very random assortment of cards of all colors, so higher power level cards that don't win the game themselves do not take the game over as effectively as one may think.

As a cost for crazy powerful abilities there also needs to be risks.  This includes exchanging cards, giving cards to opponents or anteing more cards.  Most often ante cards need to encourage their caster to win the game without guaranteeing it.  Cards that just take can really hurt the appeal of ante as it takes the randomness and sport out of the game.  You want players to win the cards not steal them.  Exchanging is much better as it may not be fair but at least they get something back and both players may not be completely happy.  Putting more cards in the ante adds more excitement as raising the stakes is positive both for the player getting the powerful spell and his or her opponents getting more cards to win.  All of these work, however, the less random and more "unfair" cards should be less frequent and at higher rarities.



The most important aspect of any Magic card design is that the card encourages fun and exciting play.  The best ante cards are exciting for all players.  The more interaction players have the more they will want to keep playing to figure out the puzzles the cards create.  For the player casting the ante spell, the card should allow the player to do something they want that may not be feasible without ante because of its high power level.  Ultimately, fun need to be happening for players to want to risk their cards.  Without fun, no one will play.

Now the examples I have shown today may not be perfect and probably break some of the ideas I have talked about.  What is important to remember with any design is to push it to ask the question of why or why not does this card design work and/or help create a fun game experience.  I hope that these articles encourage you to design some ante card of your own and at the very least that you try playing Zen.  Until next time, may all of your ante winnings be Black Lotuses.

Chimzar's Card of the Day #13 - Defining Moment

Its Counter Spell Friday!  Ok, I just made that up, but I'm starting a trend.  This one is simple yet fun!

CHALLENGE:  New challenge for next Friday.  Make a constructed playable counter spell with a converted mana cost of 5 at every rarity. 

Chimzar - Monarchy and Monarchs, Part 1

Monarchy is a keyword ability that I have been working on for years.  I will be discussing the blend of flavor and function, both of which Monarchy is based on.  So here is the concept of Monarchy.

The base functional text of Monarchy is as follows "Monarchy - [Ability] as long as ~ is a Monarch. (At the beginning of your upkeep, if you don't control a Monarch, you may have a permanent with Monarchy you control become a Monarch in addition to its other creature types. This effect lasts indefinitely.)"  In lay terms, Monarchy turns a normal creature in to a leader.  When a creature becomes a Monarch, it will lead in a different way. 

From the flavor angle, creatures with Monarchy tend to have "male" flavor, where as creature that are just Monarchs are "female."  From a flavor stand point this makes sense, as the "kings" are appointed where as "queens" either are married in or come from nobility.  This however has created an issue.  When played together, "queens" can block the Monarchy creatures from becoming "kings."  The issue is less prevalent in a setting where creatures die often and makes getting your "king" online more challenging, which promotes more skillful play.  If it becomes a real issue, Monarch could be changed to King and Queen, but I'd like to avoid that.

This ability started as a "pope" ability where a creature was elected "pope", but flavor wise it made little sense to have both players with a "pope."  Using Monarchs instead opens up the options of who can be a leader while keeping the in-fighting flavor.  The flavor of "queen" really adds to the flavor (I'll talk about "queens" next time).

Please let me know what you think.  The most important aspect of an ability is that it functions with in the rules and is intuitive.  Monarchy has been festering in my mind for years, but really needs outside reality checks.  Do you think this could lead to interesting and fun plays?  If not, how could it improve?  Thank you for reading and for you input.

Chimzar's Card of the Day #12 - The Ghosts of Gods of Old (Non-Artifact Colorless Uncommon)

In spirit it is written right, but please correct me if my rules are off.  This is cheap for an Eldrazi (does this count for a cheap non-artifact colorless creature?), but maybe I could make it cheaper?  I have been meaning to write multiple articles but have been super busy.  I'll get to it here soon, hopefully...

Chimzar's Card of the Day #11 - Quickdraw Ranger (White Common)

Good and Flavorful.  What more can you ask for?

Chimzar's Card of the Day #10 - Man-Eating Demon (Black Rare)

Look mom, no mana cost!

Edit: Human Offering granted pseudo Flash, but I don't think it fits with the flavor. 

Chimzar's Card of the Day #9 - Outsider's Appeal

We've been exhausting creatures recently, so I thought I would fulfill a request I had.

Counter spells, here I come!