CCDD 022818 - Naamet, the Enchantress and the Futility of Planeswalker Design

After three draft designs, I've cornered Selesnya into being either a Planeswalker or a Sorcery. I'm choosing Planeswalker for now simply to get it out of the way.

CCDD 022718 - Conjured Augmentation and Cascading Design Restrictions

Holy guacamole, the GDS3 design test is fun. My first two first draft designs were an Uncommon Azorius Enchantment and an Uncommon Orzhov Creature. Those decisions put the tightest squeeze on what I would be able to do in Boros and Selesnya, so those are the cards I decided to tackle next.

Weekend Art Challenge 022318 - Most Expensive Common Instant

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.

CCDD 022218 - Spoils Distributor

I still haven't had time to come up with a coherent GDS3 Design Test grouping, but I started thinking about it some more. Today I wanted to try to come up with something for Orzhov.

CCDD 022118 - All-In, its Corresponding Magus, and Knobs

I was thinking this morning (as I do most mornings) about Red's all-or-nothing nature, and other ways to mechanically capture it. Mana Seism and Final Fortune are extreme versions of this, where if your final play fizzles, that's more or less the game. I wanted something that was very risky, but there was a sliver of possibility of coming back from.

On to the Top 8!

OK Artisans. Emails went out today whether you've made it to the show. If you made it this far and got cut today, you have our deepest condolences, but making it this far demonstrates you know way more about magic than anyone has any business knowing, and I like your chances in the GDS4.

If you did make the top 8, CONGRATULATIONS and we know you can't confirm it, but we're rooting for you to go all the way.

If you did get cut and want to commiserate, this is the place to do it. If you want to show off your design test so we can see what a great asset you would be to R&D, this is also the place to do it. If you want to write postmodern poetry, this isn't the place to do it, but I sure can't stop you.

Lessons from the Exam

Lessons from the Exam
By Jim Harbor

Welcome Artisans, I hope I find you well. The GDS3 has stoked a fire under the custom magic community and I am glad to see it making all of us better designers, regardless of how well we placed. In the spirit of that, I am going to take a look at some of the trickier questions from the GDS3 exam. Instead of looking at just the right answer, I’m going to break down exactly what WOTC was testing; what they see as the signs of a good designer. Hopefully the takeaway from these questions will help us all tune up our design skills.

Weekend Art Challenge 021618 - nJoo

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.

CCDD 021518 - Mechanic "Improvements" and Monocolor Draft

I've been contemplating the problem of mono-color archetypes in draft. The biggest issue is that roughly 20% of a pack will be of that color/usable in your deck, whereas if you're drafting two colors your card selection increases to 40%. Incentivizing at least some of the people sitting around the table to draft mono is a tricky thing for a designer to do.

CCDD 021418 - Rashka, the Slayer and Autumn Willow

I've been thinking about Legendary Matters as a theme for a dumb vanity project I'm working on, and have been trying to come up with a Marquee mechanic to highlight that element of the design. Specifically, I want to get a sense of passing a destined role from generation to generation. I came up with these absurdly long mechanics.

CCDD 02132018 - DFC Evolution

KingRitz's submission over the weekend had me thinking about DFCs that could just straight-up be cast on either side.

Weekend Art Challenge 020918 - xenocry

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.

Write for Goblin Artisans

We're always looking for new content and writers. This community is full of fun ideas and hard-won wisdom we'd love to highlight.

If you've got an idea for an article, or a challenge, or a series, pitch it to us below or send a note to magic-by-design on googlegroups.com talk about it below in the comments. When you're ready to pitch your idea, send it over to zefferal at gmail.

If your proposal is interesting, we'll ask you to write it up. We may ask for revisions, and when it's ready we'll edit it and post it, noting you as the author.

If someone writes for us enough without need for editing, we'll probably make them an Artisan in Residence so they're free to write whatever fits. (Similarly, pitches from known Artisans will take precedence from those of first-time commenters. Try not to pitch content too similar to stuff we've already done.)

Proposals and drafts will be evaluated based on the merit of the content, provided the tone is respectful in accordance with our community guidelines.

CCDD 020718 - Infraction and Fine

That GDS3 design challenge looks like an absurd amount of fun. I've been contemplating how I would have tackled it, and one of the first designs I came up with ended up being this griefer enchantment.

GDS 3 Design Trial Open Thread

Open thread to discuss the Design challenge that was posted by Mark this afternoon. THOSE IN THE TOP 94 SHOULD NOT POST DESIGNS UNTIL INSTRUCTED. Everyone else, have fun!

CCDD 020618 - Lifecycle Aetherborn

Kaladesh's Aetherborn fascinated me, and while they got some limited tribal support in the block, there wasn't much that captured their unique lifecycle in the lore of the plane.

Weekend Design Challenge 020218 - Support Your Answer

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.

CCDD 02012018 - Monocolor Guildmages

I came up with a monocolor guildmage during the Goblin Game I ran last week, and decided to make a tight cycle out it.