CCDD 031314—Sylvan Aqueduct & Tree City

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/13/2014 - Here are a couple of lands that try to fall in a new spot in the power level spectrum, iterating on past land mechanics.

New Player Perspectives: Session 1

[New Player Perspectives is the ongoing story of my non-gamer girlfriend's introduction to Magic.]

Freyja prefers to jump in and figure a game out for herself, so I only spent about ten minutes explaining before we started. (I suspect this is a common trait- few people are willing to spend the 25+ minutes it would take to thoroughly explain all the phases, card types, etc.) She chose the W/U deck. We played with hands revealed for the first game, and I did a fair bit of explanation of what spells she could cast and why. Happily, it turned out to be an extremely close and exciting game. She won from 2 life.

A Set in Four Cards: Milokraz

Theros & Born of the Gods Challenge—Review

Theros & Born of the Gods Challenge—Review
Today I review the mythic rare submissions for cards that might have been in Theros or Born of the Gods. Remember, I'm primarily focused on whether the card is a good addition to the block and how realistic the card is in terms of being printed in an actual Magic set.

Brimaz is certainly at exciting card, and I like how vigilance means you don't have to choose between making cats on offense or defense (even if that takes some of the fun of finding a way to give him vigilance or double strike or multiple attacks away from the player).

Obviously the card is dangerously undercosted (I'd cost this at {3}{W}{W} or maybe {1}{W}{W}{W} if we really want to push it), but that's a Dev issue. My biggest concern: I'm not sure the novelty of getting its tokens into combat immediately is worth breaking four lines of text up into seven. "Whenever CARDNAME attacks or blocks, put a 1/1 white Cat Soldier token OTB" is 90% functionally identical 90% of the time. Giving the tokens vigilance seems unnecessary, but if you were married to that, why not just give Brimaz "Cat creatures you control have vigilance"?

Weekend Art Challenge 030714 Review—Toru-meow

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

It's a wordy one, so get comfy.

Weekend Art Challenge 030714—Toru-meow

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 030614—Seer's Sanctuary

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/6/2014 - Colorless smoothing land.
(Sack effect is worse than scry X in a couple ways.)