New Player Perspectives: Meet Freyja

Designers often have a specific idea of how their cards will be received by players. Naturally, the accuracy of these predictions is far from guaranteed.

Here at Goblin Artisans, we give and receive frequent feedback on designs. I suspect all of us are getting good at predicting how other designers will view our cards. However, I don't think this feedback is a valid substitute for the perspective of an inexperienced player. It's one thing to pontificate on how cleanly a card reads, how intuitive a mechanic feels, et cetera; it's quite another to actually hand a deck to somebody who's never played Magic before and see what they do with it. Sure, I've read Mark Rosewater's explanations of what new players do and don't understand, but I haven't experienced it firsthand since 1994.

CCDD 030514—Jaunt Through the Woods

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/5/2014 - This was the card I originally tried to use Satyr Wayfinder's text on, but it was too much text. So this uses the old search method to leave room for the keyword that can get you the spell for free.

CCDD 030414—Expedition

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/4/2014 - Satyr Wayfinder gets you land without breaking the game for a search-and-shuffle. I argue it's inevitable that we see a more direct Rampant Growth variant using that tech. One important difference is that a card that only does that shouldn't be able to fail (Wayfinder gets away with that because you always get at least the 1/1 body.)

Who's up for GDS3?

I have some questions for the Goblin Artisans community. How many of you are planning to enter the third Great Designer Search, when it comes around? Do you hope to be a finalist, or will you participate as a community contributor?

Would you participate in a practice GDS run by Goblin Artisans? How much time would you be willing to invest in such a contest, given that there'd be no internship prize?

Would a sample multiple-choice test be a valuable preparation tool?

What role does Magic design play in your life, on a scale from "It's a fun way to kill time" to "I'm gonna work in R&D someday, somehow"?

Weekend Art Challenge Review 022814—Tung Monster

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

This weekend, I gave explicit permission to bend or break the core rules of the challenge, because I determined it was a bad challenge. More on that in the wrap up.

Weekend Art Challenge 022814—Tung Monster

Weekend Art Challenge
Click through to see this weekend's art and the design requirements for your single card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which I will try to provide, and which everyone is welcome to provide as well.

If you choose, you may use that feedback to revise your submission any number of times. I will post and review the most recent submission from each designer some time on Monday, life permitting. To help ensure I recreate your design accurately, please use CARDNAME instead of ~ in your submissions.

CCDD 022714—Evade

Cool Card Design of the Day
2/27/2014 - Green creatures are good at getting into fights; they should be good at getting out of them too.