Weekend Art Challenge Review 032213—tigaer

Weekend Art Challenge Review
Here's the challenge we're reviewing today.

Set Design: Unanswered Question #8

We're back to the technological society of Ekkremes for today's question. One problem that we've faced throughout this idea's evolution has been using mana costs as a theme. In my opinion, having more than one mechanic that has to do with mana costs is out of the question. My reasoning is simple: Magic is about what happens on the battlefield. Alternate costs, kickers, cost reduction, et cetera are not where the focus of a set belongs. (If you don't believe me, count the mechanics in the last several blocks that are fundamentally about mana cost!)

So Ekkremes badly needs technology-related mechanics that aren't about mana cost. What are some fun things to do on the battlefield that work with this theme? Can we do something with vehicles? Mecha? Golems? Transformers? Rube Goldberg devices? There's a major risk of high complexity in such ideas, so try to keep it simple and elegant. Help us out: what goes on in the world of Ekkremes that's not about mana?

Weekend Art Challenge 032213—tigaer

Weekend Art Challenge
Click through to see this weekend's art by tigaer (aka Mr. Stripeypants!) and the design requirements for your card submission, due Monday morning. Remember that you may ask for feedback by mid-day Sunday and redesign your submission once after you get it.

CCDD 032213—Heart of the Taiga

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/22/2013 - I was thinking this morning about how perfect the Sunpetal Grove cycle and the Razorverge Thicket cycles are, when it occurred to me that they are entirely bottom-up designs. Both answer the question, "What kind of restriction can we put on a dual land that will keep them very usable in the right kinds of decks?" That's an excellent question to answer, but it's all about gameplay and none about resonance. What would a dual land with a top-down restriction look like?

I failed to answer that question today, but the attempt led me to something interesting just the same:

CCDD 032113—A Whack on the Side of the Head

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/21/2013 - I was thinking how black is the only color that gets discard, and wondered how other colors could do it. I remembered how red often discards in order to draw, ala Goblin Lore. What if it could do that offensively? I set out to make a card like that and this is the result:

Set Design: Unanswered Question #7

We're back in the wild Frontier for this question. Although the original pitch was for "Cowboys vs. Eldrazi", we've also discussed using Sandwurms as the iconic fatties. To me, this seems like an excellent move. Sandwurms lend our world some supernatural excitement, but they also fit easily into the desert settings thanks to the cultural cachet of Dune. Because of our old friend Craw Wurm, they're very much at home in Magic as well.

But what are these Sandwurms actually like? How do they work differently from other fatties? (For example, do cowboys ride them?) What are some mechanical themes that will paint these monstrous creatures? Readers, help us out: what makes an awesome Sandwurm?

CCDD 032013—Infuriate

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/20/2013 - The conversation around yesterday's Giant Attack got me thinking about the value of trample as a combat trick. To explore that further, today's card is the other half of Wildsize.