CCDD 073118—Torches & Pitchforks

Cool Card Design of the Day
I wanted a damage spell where I could do a little to two targets, or a bit more to one.

CCDD 073018—Hit 'Em High || Hit 'Em Low

Cool Card Design of the Day
I found this art and it just screamed to be a fuse split between Smite the Monstrous and Reave Soul. Look how pretty these cards are together!

Weekend Art Challenge 072718—Wraths

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.

CCDD 0727/18—some other wraths

Cool Card Design of the Day
Here are a few Wrath effects that don't address the problem of disrupting the game's story, but work a bit differently than most.

CCDD 072618—some better wraths

Cool Card Design of the Day
Let's look at a few Wrath effects that are less disruptive to the game's story.
Divine Reckoning, Cataclysm/Cataclysmic Gearhulk, Barter in Blood,  and Pyroclasm are a few of the existing sweepers that mitigate the problem by affecting fewer permanents. Settle the Wreckage offers compensation (which is sometimes irrelevant, but often not).

CCDD 072518 - Tithe of the Deity

Jay's discussion regarding Wrath of God effects yesterday was very interesting. I don't fully agree with his thesis, but it definitely raised some interesting questions.

In the meantime, it had me thinking about wrath effects, and I came up with this.

Wrath Effects Are Bad for the Game.

Hypothesis: Effects that kill everything hurt the game.

A game session is a story. Actually, it's two. One story is being told by the game about the fiction of the game's world. In Magic, it is a story of a conflict between two powerful wizards, whose spell repertoire represents the most powerful magic across many planes of existence. The other story is about the players themselves, and their card-based duel.

Weekend Design Challenge Review 052118 — You Might As Well Tribal: Review

Hello, Artisans! It took us a little while to get to here, but today we're reviewing the first of our Play-At-Home GDS Challenges, You Might as Well Tribal.

Our guest judge for this first play-along challenge is Reuben Covington. Reuben is a pillar of the custom magic design community, having long been active on the MTGSalvation custom magic forum, the Custom Magic discord, and of course, here at GA. He helped take our community project Tesla over the finish line, and has created/is creating other sets, including Dreamscape and Vastuum. He hosted the Remaking Magic Podcast, and has written one of THE defining pieces on NWO and Redflagging. Plus, he’s an all-around awesome dude. Welcome Reuben.

So you Artisans came up with a frankly absurd amount of tribal cards for this challenge. The volume of submissions, along with doing whatever we could to keep pace with the GDS show, made it a very busy few weeks since these were submitted. We tried to give meaningful feedback as best we could. If we came off slightly more critical or dismissive than usual, it’s because we are trying to emulate the “GDS Judge Voice.” But know we were all incredibly impressed with the thoughtfulness, creativity, and excitement you all poured into your designs. It showed, and frankly reinforced just how proud we are to be a part of this community

All that gushing aside, let’s get on with the show!

Weekend Design Challenge 072018 - For Designing: Magic Cards, Never Printed

Hey Artisans. Click through to see the requirements for this weekend's design challenge, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, so once you've got your great idea down, give some thoughtful critique to some of your peers. Revise your submission any number of times, and on Monday-ish, I'll review the most recent submission from each designer.

CCDD 071918—Exploit Disorder

Cool Card Design of the Day
Here's another. This card was designed to be a two-for-one, and appealing in that regard. But automatic, guaranteed two-for-ones are boring, so I found a pair of related states we could craft some removal around.

CCDD 071818—Loquacious Sphinx

Cool Card Design of the Day
Here's another.

I really wanted a Sphinx that helped you cast multiple spells. It was tricky waking the line between Snapcaster Mage and Torrential Gearhulk.

CCDD 071718—Cruel Master

Cool Card Design of the Day
I took a design test (for a non-Wizards company) today, and here's one of the cards I didn't submit.

Weekend Design Challenge 071318—Eternal

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.

Eternal Card Game (IV—Conclusion)

What else is unique about Eternal?

Eternal Card Game (III—Mechanics)

What mechanics make Eternal tick?

CCDD 071118 - Half-Lords

Cool Card Design of the Day
During GDS3's first challenge, I came up with an idea for Imps that I ended up discarding because, after iterating, it didn't feel like it fit the tribe anymore. I still like the idea, though, so I figured I'd walk you all through my thought process so we could discuss whether the core idea of a "Half-Lord" is salvageable in some way.

Eternal Card Game (II—Card Types)

What kinds of cards will you see in Eternal?

Eternal Card Game (I—Factions & Resources)

A few weeks ago I tried out Eternal, a digital card game in the style of Hearthstone and Duelyst, and it's the only one I enjoy anywhere near as much as Magic, so I'd be remiss not to write about it. At a high level, its implementation is the closest to Magic's I've seen, differentiating itself primarily in two ways: First, it sets into action many of the "If we could re-create Magic knowing what we know now" refinements, and second, it makes delightful use of the platform in its mechanics.

Weekend Design Challenge 070618 - Evergreen Keyword Matters

Hey Artisans. Click through to see the requirements for this weekend's design challenge, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, so once you've got your great idea down, give some thoughtful critique to some of your peers. Revise your submission any number of times, and on Monday-ish, I'll review the most recent submission from each designer.

CCDD 070518 - Jeskai

Happy 5th of July everyone! I'm just gonna leave these here.

CCDD 070318—upkeep and Titan Peak

Cool Card Design of the Day
I was reading Magic story, and remembering how often Fantasy talks about wizards having to continue to focus attention, magical energy, or both in order to keep up ongoing spell effects, and how that limits what new spells they're able to cast. Old-school upkeep payments captured this flavor perfectly, and even though they're downside effects, I honestly do miss them. Is there a better way to get the same flavor? I think so.

Big Deck Energy

a guest post by Wobbles

A recent Twitter conversation made me realize that a popular casual format played by my friends may not be widely known. It certainly wasn't when I went to look for an article to describe it! So let me let you all in on a great format known as 

Big Deck Magic

CCDD 070218—Murderous Mage

Cool Card Design of the Day
The way that Baral, Chief of Compliance makes all your spells cheaper rather than just your counterspells got me thinking about a card dedicated to improving your removal rather than doing it incidentally.