Eternal Analysis 014—Ambush and fast spells

Eternal avoided making Magic's mistake of taxonomically dividing sorceries and instants: They're all spells, but some are fast and some aren't. Then they dropped the ball.

CCDD 080218—Tale Teller

Cool Card Design of the Day
This idea started as a way for red to mitigate countermagic played against it, but then I saw no reason not to open it up for proactive use.

CCDD 091917—Stalking Clanodon

Cool Card Design of the Day
9/19/2017 - I found this art and wanted to play with the idea of a flash blocker that could only be played as a surprise blocker.

CCDD 052617—Spider Sense

Cool Card Design of the Day
5/26/2017 - Was messing with auras yesterday, primarily using flash to mitigate their risk of card disadvantage, and found a tribal line to explore.

CCDD 052417—Ambush Spider

Cool Card Design of the Day
5/24/2017 - Fixing Qasali Ambusher and Giant Trap Door Spider by merging them.

CCDD 051817—It's Dangerous

Cool Card Design of the Day
5/18/2017 - Started designing a Briarpack Alpha-à-la-carte spell only to discover it was just Savage Summoning with +2/+2 until EOT instead of a +1/+1 counter (and it was counterable), so I decided to explore a lower rarity version instead:

CCDD 111016—Briartooth & Sea Lionicorn

Cool Card Design of the Day
11/10/2016 - Most of the evoke creatures in Lorwyn were very strong and Briarhorn was no exception. It was a Giant Growth that gave you a 3/3 body for {3} mana more. On defense, you could boost a defender and make one, killing a small and a medium/large creature at no loss. You can even play it on it's own to kill an attacking 5/5. In Dark Ascension, we got Briarpack Alpha, which gave a reduced bonus and couldn't be alternately casted. Still good. Briartooth is an attempt to nerf this concept another way:

CCDD 082416—Bandits of Blackwald & Dodgy Bugger

Cool Card Design of the Day
8/24/2016 - The idea of reverse ninjutsu has a lot of promise, but executing on it proves dangerously unwieldy. Here are three, and I'm not sure any of them make the cut, but one at least comes close.

CCDD 082316—Drachnid Widow

Cool Card Design of the Day
8/23/2016 - Larger flash creatures have to be expensive because of their potential card advantage. Giving a creature reach at instant speed is much cheaper, because it relies on you having a creature available to block. Drachnid Widow skirts the line, letting you block a small flier by itself, or a large one if you've got something bigger already.

CCDD 081016—Tidestaff Adept

Cool Card Design of the Day
8/10/2016 - Combining flash with a limited form of {U}: +1/+1. The result is a 2/3 for three that can crush an attacker under the waves. Thoroughly uncommon, I like how blurs the line on x spells and on telegraphing tricks by being a variable-cost card that cares how your opponent attacks.

CCDD 040815—Amphin Leaper

Cool Card Design of the Day
4/8/2015 - I stumbled upon the file for my first Magic set in the archives of my computer this week. This thing is 20 years old and it shows. In addition to being based off of antiquated Magic rules, templates and design standards, it also achingly demonstrates every possible mistake a new designer could make. I considered lampooning it card-by-card for you all, but it was about 700 cards, 99% of them trash, and at best 5% with any kernel of interesting design.

One remotely interesting idea I found I have reconstituted for you today:

CCDD 072214—Quickscale Chanter / Greatreef Relay

Cool Card Design of the Day
7/22/2014 - Here's a Vedalken Orrery on a stick. But not as strong as Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir (who single-handedly turned off an entire keyword of cards from his own block).

CCDD 122013—Dutiful Knight

Cool Card Design of the Day
12/20/2013 - Another knight to show up when things are looking dark.

CCDD 062413—Rabid Gyre

Cool Card Design of the Day
6/24/2013 - Been a long day, so I'll just post this and say it was inspired by Evan's submission this last weekend. Needs Development, but is it mono-blue?

CCDD 053013—Ambush Spider

Cool Card Design of the Day
5/30/2013 - Tangle Spider deserves a power-level update. In honor of Giant Trap Door Spider. Alternately, Qasali Ambusher needs a simpler, mono-color version.

Subdivisions (Part One)

With the intent to expand Red's mechanical repertoire, a desire sitting patiently at the front my mind as I toiled away at eighteen demoralizing Red commons, I decided to get meta (more meta than usual) and divide one of the many pies within the pie: the Time Pie. Of course, the Time Pie had yet to be referenced in any other piece of Magic design ephemera, so it was up to me to decide what that entailed.