Weekend Design Challenge 060118 - Finding A Good Mechanic

Hey, Artisans! Click through to see this weekend's design challenge, submissions due Monday morning.

Alright. Hopefully we'll be wrapping up our judging of the massive number of submissions for the first GDS Simulation challenge, and we'll be able to get started on the second one this week. I am optimistic our production schedule will be better than that of the actual GDS.

This weekend, we'll be continuing our GDS3 play at home challenges, doing the third round. Again, Inanimate and I, along with a guest judge (or maybe even two!), will be "judging" submissions like Maro & co. with the Top 8's designs. Here are the design guidelines, lifted directly from the mothership:

For the design test and the first two challenges, we didn't let you design any new mechanics. This design challenge is all about designing a new mechanic. Here's your assignment:

• You are going to design a brand-new keyword mechanic or ability word.
• You will have to name it and figure out its rules text and reminder text. Note it's more important that our judges can understand what it's supposed to do than its templating be 100% technically accurate.
• You will have to design three commons, two uncommons, two rares, and one mythic rare.
• You must use at least three colors.
• No more than two of your cards may be multicolored.
• Assume all the cards you are designing are in the same Standard-legal expansion.

Other than your new mechanic, you may use only evergreen mechanics.

Breadth of Mechanic – The point of this design challenge is proving you can make a mechanic that would have value in a set. A big part of that is flexibility. Demonstrate that this mechanic has enough breadth that it's worth keywording/ability wording. Note that this doesn't mean it has to go on multiple card types; it means that there is a variety of ways it can be used.

Backward Compatibility – How does your mechanic play into the overall latticework of the larger game? Is this something players can add to existing decks? Is it something that will do interesting things when blended with other mechanics in larger formats? The more parasitic your mechanic, the higher the barrier of fun is going to be.

Inspiring New Decks – One of the things good mechanics do is inspire players to create new decks. This doesn't mean this mechanic has to be a build-around mechanic, but it does need to introduce something new to the game that can be combined with in novel ways.

Fun in Density – Your new mechanic needs to be fun to play, but more than that it needs to justify having a keyword/ability word. Your mechanic needs to want to exist in volume.

Limited Applications – We're asking you to create a mechanic that can show up at common, which means it has to be something that would be fun to play in Limited. It is acceptable if its role in Limited and Constructed are different.

Set Feel – These cards are all from the same set. The designs need to reflect that.

Originality – You're not just showing off your mechanic, you're showing off your individual card designs. We want to see some innovation involving your new mechanic.

Color Pie Appropriateness – Your color choice needs to be appropriate to your flavor as well as your mechanical designs. Bends are allowed if appropriate (although be frugal with them), but breaks are not.

Rarity Appropriateness – Your designs need to fit into the rarity you're designing for. This design is asking for more commons than past designs because appropriateness for common of a new mechanic is key to it working well.

Card Type Appropriateness – Make sure that your cards are properly representing the card type they're in.

You will need to submit the following:

Design 1 (YOUR FIRST COMMON)
Design 2 (YOUR SECOND COMMON)
Design 3 (YOUR THIRD COMMON)
Design 4 (YOUR FIRST UNCOMMON)
Design 5 (YOUR SECOND UNCOMMON)
Design 6 (YOUR FIRST RARE)
Design 7 (YOUR SECOND RARE)
Design 8 (YOUR MYTHIC RARE)

Comments: You will have up to 250 words to say whatever you want about your design. You are free to talk about individual cards, but I would suggest spending some of your words explaining holistically what you were up to with your overall design.

Here's the limitations for you guys:

You may submit up to eight cards, but if you go under, no penalties. You may specify two cards you want us to review. We may not necessarily review both, but we will review at least one if you specify at least one. If you don't specify, we're not going to pick for you. The volume is just too much. We will, however, still offer general feedback on submissions as a whole.

PLEASE PUT YOUR CARDS IN THE FOLLOWING FORMAT

1) Cardname
Mana Cost
Type
Rules
P/T

Other than that, usual Design Challenge rules apply. Give each other feedback. Use that feedback to revise your submissions any number of times, and we'll grab whatever you have on Monday and put it in our document for review. We'll get it posted as soon as we're able to finish offering our judge feedback.

That's it! Have a great weekend, have fun, good luck. The final three are heading to Renton for the final challenge soon, and the finale of the GDS3 is right around the corner. I'm psyched!

-Zeff