Wednesday, June 13, 2018

CCDD 061318 - Planeswalker Aether Trails

I was thinking about yesterday's Planeswalking exercise and how PW-matters cards are very tricky to do at uncommon due to the inherent mythicness of the type. Hour of Devastation had an interesting take on the theme, with a direct-to-sideboard/jank box cycle that relied heavily on their thematic tie to the story to justify their existence.



The Planeswalker intro decks that have been coming out since Kaladesh have each had a rare sorcery that has a dramatic effect on the game and tutors for that deck's particularly named planeswalker.


Is there a (design) reason we can't create inefficient tutors for a subset of planeswalker cards with a vestigal effect that might be useful in their deck?



These are very development-heavy cards, since their potential targets can vary wildly in terms of power level, but assuming we make them strictly not tournament playable, these are great cards for beginners running a single copy of an exciting Planeswalker they cracked open (or on their PW precon that they are tweaking).


3 comments:

  1. I think this:

    "These are very development-heavy cards, since their potential targets can vary wildly in terms of power level, but assuming we make them strictly not tournament playable, these are great cards for beginners..."

    means that you are only giving yourself the opportunity to design stale cards. I don't mean to hate on your concept, it's just that the cards you posted clearly have effects that will matter more for the larger environment they are in (and ought to be developed that way) and simply posting them as-is brings out their quotidian side.

    Why not try making a splashier card that only summons Tibalt? Or a card that only summons one specific planeswalker card? I feel like the Dark Intimations/Wasp of the Bitter End/Hour of Devastation design space is a lot more worthy of consideration, and one that Wizards will be exploring a lot more in for-funsies environments and power levels. Those cards are extremely flavorful.

    Maybe next CCDD or challenge could explore that.

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  2. Planeswalk 3
    Sorcery
    Search your library for a planeswalker card, reveal it, and put it into your hand.

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  3. Don't they make these in the intro decks already? Except that they search for the named intro planeswalkers rather than the real deal too. Which does make them easier to develop to be bad.

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