CCDD 042513—The Boss's Son, Infiltrate & Inside Job

Cool Card Design of the Day
4/25/2013 - The world doesn't need a lot of Sleeper Agents. It doesn't. But if it did…

<wavy lines dream sequence>

Suvnica Index

Here's a link to all the Suvnica posts to date.

CCDD 042413—Singular Bloom

Cool Card Design of the Day
4/24/2013 - Everyone loves to Rampant Growth on turn 2. Less so on turn six. A card:

Sonnet #4: To Emmara Tandris

Whence came she by such sturdiness and brawn

Who is no elemental, but an elf?

What other shaman blocks Rix Maadi's spawn,

Or knocks out Hellkite Tyrants by herself?

None but Emmara Tandris, stalwart maid,

Selesnya's runner and its champion fair.

And stronger still with token-wrought brigade;

(She's not just Hexplate Golem, guys, I swear!)

But no mere elf has such vitality

Or lustiness, and though I sing her praise,

Her strength comes not by nature. Know that she,

Like Armstrong, juiced to win the Tour de Maze!

And though her thews be mightier than Mars,

On Gatherer, she'll never break two stars.

Tesla: Mission Statement

Before we get started on this project, I think it's important to lay out our goals and process. We determined some of them at the beginning of the set selection process, but there's more to be said on this topic.

Our overall goal is to design a large, standalone set suitable for limited play. Here are a few specific points worth mentioning:

• We are attempting to emulate the standards of Wizards R&D. Thus, even though our set will never be marketed, it must be marketable. In particular, we're looking for appealing, resonant cards and comprehensible mechanics. We'll try to design for a general Magic audience, not just for ourselves.
• We are a design blog, and will mostly be working on what Design does. We'll also have a Development period, but only for limited; we can't exactly run FFL without knowledge of the rest of the standard format! 
• As far as Creative goes, we'll do what we can. Given our budget ($0), we won't be commissioning any artwork. But we will definitely use worldbuilding as a tool to inspire mechanics. 
• We do not have a specific deadline. Unlike R&D, we have the freedom to work until we're completely satisfied with the product.

One more brief but important announcement: Sadly, I won't have enough free time in upcoming months to continue running this project. But fortunately for all of us, Chah has volunteered to take over! He is now Lead Designer for this set, and I have complete confidence that Tesla is in good hands.

How You Can Playtest Tesla

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and a playtest is worth a thousand online threads.

We would like to invite you guys to experience the current iteration of the Mech mechanic. We hope this will help us think about the best implementation of the Mech mechanic as well as the best way to design a set around it.

Act of Legend

Legends have been an indispensable part of Magic for a long time. The "Legendary" supertype lends an aura of coolness to many cards that are popular hits. Story-wise, Legends are important for portraying lead characters in each new setting. Finally, the mechanic is crucial for the existence of the Commander format, one of the most fun ways to play Magic casually.

The mechanic's current function contains some degree of awkwardness, which Mark Rosewater has discussed in this article. (It's also interesting to see the counterpoint Developer Tom LaPille provided here.) One of the points Mark Rosewater raised is that the Legendary mechanic is purely a drawback mechanic.

On the one hand, it seems fine to me to have the Legendary supertype remain purely a drawback since drawbacks allows the card to be more powerful and thus more appealing. It only starts to become a problem when it harms player perception of the card, but legendary status is usually perceived as a source of coolness.

On the other hand, cards that seem fitting as Legends such as the Titan cycle in Magic 2011 are often made into non-Legendary creatures, possibly to avoid negative perception.

A mechanic idea I'd like to talk about today, Act of Legend, tries to add something to the Legendary supertype, adding a beneficial mechanical definition to Legends. Here are examples of a card with this mechanic: