Weekend Art Challenge 030113—Raven Mimura

Weekend Art Challenge
Let's try two new things this week. First, I'm going to give you a better environment to design for. Context is vital to a good design, so naming the plane this card is meant for might help us design to that set's needs.

Secondly, I'm going to offer an additional service for those interested. If you'd like me to give you feedback on your design before the official review, submit your entry before Sunday afternoon and note that desire explicitly in your comment. I will respond with my initial thoughts as I'm able and you will have the opportunity to revise your design once before the final review. I'm doing this because the only thing better than getting design feedback is being able to act on it and get even more feedback. Iteration is good design.

Click to see this weekend's art and requirements.

CCDD 022813—Hunter of the Infernal

Cool Card Design of the Day
2/28/2013 - What if instead of inhibiting interaction with Protection, we had an alternative that promotes interaction. The downside is that Hunter of the Infernal can't block all day like Elite Inquisitor, but the upside is that you get to attack your demons rather than attack past them, which is an odd thing for a monster hunter to do.

CCDD 022713—Westfield Marshal

Cool Card Design of the Day
2/27/2013 - I've been living in this run-down dirt-trap they call Westfield County almost a year now. The closest I've got to a friend is the judge whose a bit too eager to string up the lowlifes I bring in. Hell, if I arrested everyone who broke the law around here, three of these towns would be nothing but tree ornaments.

Set Design: Unanswered Question #1

First, I'd like to apologize to our readers for the fact that our set design project has slowed to a snail's pace. The unexpected windfall of free time to which I alluded in this post has vanished. To make a long story short, I was unable to sing for a few months, but am now healthy again and hard at work. That's an excellent outcome for me personally, but not quite so good for having time to blog.

Nevertheless, I intend to keep this ball rolling, and hope that you're still excited about it too! We've narrowed the field to three worlds: Ankh-Theb, Ekkremes, and Frontier. While the original plan was to select one of the three based on the final round of pitches, there are some major unanswered questions that need to be addressed before we move forward. And so, since we have a big crowd of people who love nothing more than solving design problems, we're going to crowd-source those answers before making the final decision.

The first question is about Frontier, our Wild West candidate. We almost certainly want a mechanic to represent gunslinging. Of course, it won't be with actual guns- perhaps some sort of wandslinging? It might take the form of a keyword ability, a keyword action, or neither of the above. It probably goes on creatures.

Tell us, faithful readers: What kind of mechanic can we use to represent gunslinging?

CCDD 022613—Phantom of the Loch

Cool Card Design of the Day
2/26/2013 - Everybody wants to block Stealer of Secrets, but nobody wants to block Slate Street Ruffian. What if we married the two to make a blue creature that your opponents don't want to block?

Weekend Art Challenge Review—022213 Takeru-San

Weekend Art Challenge Review
24 Entries. Awesome.

Ankh-Theb: Make your life now - Your next is not your own.

HV: This pitch is by James Bartolotti.  Here are the pitches from rounds one, two, and three.

Mechanical Themes: Green and Blue have a theme of growth, realized with harvest counters that you gain from your creatures and spend for effects. White and Black interact with death, by avoiding it (the Mummify mechanic), or defiling it (e.g., Fallen Kathari). Red tribes make their life in the desert,  returning to strike at civilization in one large attack.