Weekend Design Challenge 122917—Preview Week

Click through to see the requirements for your design test, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of times. I will aim to review the most recent submission from each designer.

Choose a Magic set no one else has claimed (and claim it in the comments before you begin work, because it'll take a bit and you could get scooped). Then select ten cards from that set for each of the daily features from the mothership circa 2010.

Multiple Choice Magic Design Question of the Day 9

9) Assuming the next four expansion sets will each feature one of these direct damage cards in the common shock variant slot, which two are least likely to see print?

Magma Jet, Scattershot, Pyromatics,
Blaze, Gut Shot, Erratic Explosion

 a) Magma Jet and Erratic Explosion
 b) Scattershot and Pyromatics
 c) Blaze and Gut Shot
 d) Magma Jet and Scattershot
 e) Scattershot and Erratic Explosion

Click through to see the answer and my rationale.

Multiple Choice Magic Design Question of the Day 7 & 8

7) Which of the following timeshifted Planer Chaos cards is least likely to be reprinted in a new expansion set?
 a) Malach of the Dawn
 b) Kor Dirge
 c) Harmonize
 d) Blood Knight
 e) Merfolk Thaumaturgist

8) Which of the above is most likely to be reprinted in a new expansion set?

Click through to see the answer and my rationale.

Multiple Choice Magic Design Question of the Day 6

6) Which of the following is the best way to achieve resonance on a single card?
 a) Use keywords and ability words to define its features.
 b) Prove the rule by finding an exception to it.
 c) Demonstrate as much that's true about the concept as possible.
 d) Show the concept in contrast with its opposite.
 e) Demonstrate one unique thing that's true about the concept.

Click through to see the answer and my rationale.

CCDD 122517—Rudolph the Red-Nosed & Santa Claus

Cool Card Design of the Day
12/25/2017 - Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, my friends!

Weekend Art Challenge 122217—feliciacano & rainerpetterart

Click through to see the illustration and design requirements for your single  card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of times. I will aim to review the most recent submission from each designer.

Multiple Choice Magic Design Question of the Day 5

5) How many of these abilities can be countered with Stifle?

Flying

Bushido 1

Cascade

Dredge 3

Conspire 

Cycling

Using a face-down creature's morph ability to turn it face-up.

[Mana]: CARDNAME gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Activate this ability only once per turn.

CARDNAME's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.

If a source you control would deal damage to a permanent or player, it deals double that damage to that permanent or player instead. 

CARDNAME gets +1/+1 as long as you control another black creature.

{T}: Add {C} to your mana pool.

If an opponent would draw two or more cards, instead you and that player each draw a card.

You may have CARDNAME enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield.

You may discard a Plains card rather than pay CARDNAME's mana cost.

 a) 4
 b) 5
 c) 6
 d) 7
 e) 8

Click through to see the answer and my rationale.

Multiple Choice Magic Design Question of the Day 4

4) Which of these Ravnica keywords has the largest design space?
 a) Radiance
 b) Overload
 c) Cipher
 d) Forecast
 e) Haunt
 f) Bloodrush

Click through to see the answer and my rationale.

Multiple Choice Magic Design Question of the Day 3

3) Which of the following statements is a red planeswalker most likely to agree with?
 a) I do what's best for me.
 b) I can solve any problem.
 c) Love will overcome.
 d) Just go with the flow.
 e) Justice must be served.

Click through to see the answer and my rationale.

Weekend Design Challenge 121517—black removal

Click through to see the illustration and design requirements for your single  card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of times. I will aim to review the most recent submission from each designer.

Multiple Choice Magic Design Question of the Day 2

2) Assuming R&D is going to make a card with four of the following five changes to Giant Growth, which of the changes shouldn’t be made?
 a) Add 'you control' after 'target creature'.
 b) Change 'target creature' to 'each creature'.
 c) Make it a sorcery.
 d) Add "Then it fights target creature you don't control."
 e) Change the mana cost to {3}{G}{G}.

Click through to see the answer and my rationale.

Multiple Choice Magic Design Question of the Day 1

1) Which of the following is the least appropriate way for Design to serve these audiences?
 a) Design should make sure there are high mana costs for Timmy.
 b) Design should make sure there are bad cards for Jenny.
 c) Design should make sure there are under-costed cards for Spike.
 d) Design should make sure there are wordy cards for Mel.
 e) Design should make sure there are funny cards for Vorthos.

Click through to see the answer and my rationale.

CCDD 121217—All Hail the Gitrog

Cool Card Design of the Day
12/12/2017 - Top down card.

GDS3 Prep: A Set in Four Cards

A Set in Four Cards is an exercise we've occasionally done around these parts, and a fantastic way to prepare for GDS3. The goal of the exercise is to tell your audience as much as you possibly can about a hypothetical set merely by showing them four cards. The only words you have to communicate your set's themes, mechanics, and hooks are through cardnames and rules text (and the set name).

Big Picture Mechanics

What kinds of mechanics does a set need to click? If we were designing a new set, what sorts of mechanics would we want to be sure to include?

First, let's review the marketed mechanics from the last few years of sets and try to categorize them.

Introduce Yourself!

Goblin Artisans is more than four years old. It's high time we had an open "get to know you" thread!

So, I know you like CCG design, but who are you people? Where do you come from? What are you interested in? What is your life like, when you're not brainstorming Magic cards on the internets?

Lurkers, now's your chance to come out into the daylight! We don't bite.

[Originally Posted July 2015. In the interests of making this thing findable, this has been bumped.]

Weekend Design Challenge 120817—GDS3 Multiple Choice Quiz Questions

Click through to see the design requirements for your quiz question, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of times. I will aim to review the most recent submission from each designer.

GDS3 Prep: Review the GDS 2 Multiple Choice Quiz

You heard the awesome news that the Great Designer Search is back, right? This is the moment that Goblin Artisans was born for. This is your home for preparation leading up to the event, as well as coverage and analysis during. Feel free to share any other content you find relevant. Zachary Barash wasted no time contributing to the cause on Hipsters of the Coast.

The first active culling of potential GDS3 participants will be the multiple choice quiz. The first two times, this test was quite hard, including questions the answer to which had never been discussed outside R&D at the time, and some notorious trick questions. Only the 100 highest scores will move on, so we're going to review the previous quizzes, analyze them, and speculate about the next one.

First, we'll review the GDS2 quiz. I recommend taking it first. Then follow along with us as we review the questions. The page won't display the answers or grade your test, but the answers have been scraped from the page's code by Mr. Vovoda. Regardless, discussing the questions is more important now than seeing the right answers.

Go Big or Go Home: GDS3 is Here!

As you may have heard, WotC recently announced the Great Designer Search 3.

Are you planning to enter? It has long been a dream of ours that, when GDS3 rolled around, the Goblin Artisans community would crush it and take multiple spots in the Top 8. I can’t wait to see who among our regulars will step up to the challenge.

What sort of content would you like us to post to help you prepare? Jay’s working on a review of the GDS2 multiple choice test. Here are some other ideas:

• GDS2 lessons and retrospectives
• Set building brainstorming threads
• Sample essay questions that we can imagine them asking
• Sample multiple choice questions
• Rerunning design challenges from GDS2

Please let us know what would be most interesting or helpful!

Also, consider this an open thread for “OMG GDS3” comments etc.

CCDD 120617—Master's Journal

Cool Card Design of the Day
12/6/2017 - Here's a six-mana rare that does nothing on its own. Also, it lets you counter more than one spell and is therefore completely broken, like Counterbalance and Forbid.

Non-Games

Hey friend. I want to tell you about a game I'm really excited about. It's the most expensive game on the market, and the rulebook is so much bigger than all other games they don't even print it. But it's totally worth it because the theme and the art are fantastic and the gameplay is so deep and fun. I mean, when you get to play; Maybe a fifth of all games are decided by the luck of the draw, though you don't always know that until you've played it out.

Let's talk about game design, variance, and non-games for a bit. Non-Games are experiences that look like games but whose outcome is not influenced by choices the players make. Candyland is a non-game. Some games of Magic are close enough to being non-games that it's a problem worth discussing.

Non-games aren't Magic's biggest problem. A steep learning curve, overcoming the perception of a poor value ratio and appealing to the full potential market are #1, #2 and #3 in some order. I would put the frequency of games that are frustratingly decided by the draw at #4. I'm calling these non-games because they aren't decided by decisions players make after the game has begun (after deck-building and mulligans, which certainly factor heavily). While not the most important problem facing the game, it is important, and it's something we can address.

Weekend Design Challenge 120117—binary auras

Click through to see the illustration and design requirements for your single  card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of times. I will aim to review the most recent submission from each designer.