Cool Card Design of the Day4/7/2011 - Theme is important to Magic as it is to all games, but some players enjoy the story beyond the cards and some don't. I've never read a Magic novel (well, not for entertainment, anyhow) because I'd rather read a fantasy novel created for the explicit purpose of telling the story rather than one contracted as marketing materials. Even so, I still have Vorthosian tendencies and have spent a few daydream cycles wondering about the planeswalker's spark or various cultures and conflicts set forth in the Multiverse. I mention this because
I heart Doug Beyer.
The man's imagination, talent, and (somehow most importantly) passion is nothing short of inspiring. This week he wrote A Planeswalker's Guide to New Phyrexia, Part 1 and it was fascinating. It also spoiled some art for the upcoming set: a speculator's wet dream.
I made a card out of each piece of art (except Suture Priest, since I already knew that one), but I'm only sharing this one because the others are pretty boring. This one's not terribly astounding either, but I was pretty happy with the theme of it, including my B+ flavor text.
I made a card out of each piece of art (except Suture Priest, since I already knew that one), but I'm only sharing this one because the others are pretty boring. This one's not terribly astounding either, but I was pretty happy with the theme of it, including my B+ flavor text.
I'm part of the contingent who sees that art and speculates a circle of protection variant. Like so:
ReplyDeleteTome of Protection 3{PW}{PW}
Artifact (R)
({PW} can be paid with {W} or 2 life.)
As ~ enters the battlefield, choose a color.
{PW}: The next time a source of your choice of the chosen color would deal damage to you this turn, prevent that damage.
I'm not sure I'm as well-versed in the current mythology as Luminum, but isn't the character a Furnace Worker, one of the red-aligned Phyrexians?
ReplyDeleteSeems strange that you would both feel this art represents a white card, though I will concede Jay's design isn't wholly removed from a red-centric perception.
The art shows one of the members of the white-aligned Machine Orthodoxy as described and shown in the Planeswalker's Guide article linked to above, along with one of the Tome Lackeys also mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to point out that the Planeswalker's Guide is not the sole product of Doug Beyer. It's something produced by other members of the Creative team as well, including Jenna Helland et al.
Ah, I thought his helmet marked him as one the Furnace Workers described in Forsythe's Ratchet Bomb commentary.
ReplyDeleteWhat other representations of "sermonizing" are we used to in Magic? A twist on Preacher or Evangelize perhaps?
Ooh, interesting thought, metaghost. Maybe
ReplyDelete"Target opponent chooses a creature he or she controls with a -1/-1 counter on it. Gain control of that creature."
That's a design I can put my faith in.
ReplyDelete