CCDD 053020 - Turn to Vapor

This design is inspired by Lignify and friends-- Darksteel Mutation, Kasmina's Transmutation, and so on. They often make their target useless for attacking, but leave it able to block. That can be a major drawback-- for example, if the target is The Locust God or a Commander or another creature with built-in recursion-- so I decided to make a version that plays somewhat differently.

CCDD 041620 - Drive to Exhaustion

Nothing too groundbreaking today, just a neat little Act of Treason variant.

CCDD 030920 - Stare Down

Here's a conditional counterspell that's kind of the opposite of Mana Leak and company: potentially oppressive in the late game but much less reliable early on.

What I've Learned from Guilds of Ravnica's Mechanics (Part 2)

Please enjoy the second in a series of five guest posts from Larcent about the mechanics of Guilds of Ravnica. —Jay Treat

Lesson Two: Jump-start and making "spells matter" matter

In draft and sealed formats, where players have 40-card rather than 60-card decks, creatures are highly prioritized and other spells tend to be limited. Non-creature spells tend to be focused primarily on impactful cards that help swing the game in your favor. A limited deck may have only a handful of non-creature spells, often removal and combat tricks.

CCDD 080918 - Guild Excommunicates

This week we looked into joining a guild, and benefiting from being a part of it. Have any cards explored what leaving a guild looks like?

CCDD 042518 - Steam Vent Remixes and Overdesign

I've been thinking a lot about rare land cycles a lot recently, and Ravnica's shocklands have been bugging me.

CCDD 030118 - Relentless Madness, Ral Zarek 2, and Planeswalkers in Vision/Set Design

Two more cards in my draft for the Design test today, plus a detailed discussion of how to figure out the numbers on a Planeswalker design.

Designing Suvnica, Week 8: Curses and Tricks

Hey everybody. This week, we're starting Stage 3 of Suvnica design. We have working creative identities for each of the guilds, now it's time to really start pinning down the mechanical. I know a lot of you have been eager to start coming up with guild keywords, and this week we're doing that for the Zhavi and the Tezzi guilds.

Suvnica Guild Profile: The Tezzi

(This is part of a series of documents that are meant to provide snapshots of each of the guilds. These documents will probably be updated with some regularity. They are meant to provide a starting reference point when developing new cards and ideas for the guilds.)

{U}{R} The Tezzi

The Tezzi are primarily entertainers of various sorts. They are musicians, acrobats, and actors, as well as poets, playwrights, and philosophers. They also are the home to most of Suvnica's intellectual anarchists, believing the pact that governs their lives to be inherently evil. They revel in minor breaches of the rules and ordinances, never passing an opportunity to play an embarrassing trick on the stoic Zhavi, brutish Radkar, and sycophantic Gilrog.

Suvnica Week 4 Review, Part 2: Learn and Burn (Izzet)

Moving right along, let's look at some of the visions we thought up for {U}{R}.

Designing Suvnica, Week 4: Lessons Learned

You guys are seriously prolific designers. Week 3 doubled the size of the Suvnica card file, moving from 70 to 144 cards. 74 cards is a lot to process and review. I'm in the middle of writing up the card reviews, but it may be a little while longer before they're ready. In the meantime, I wanted to get this week's challenge posted so we can try to double the size of the card file again. Exponential growth FTW!