Weekend Design Challenge 070921 - Non-D&D Classes

Happy Friday Artisans! Click through to see this weekend's design challenge. Once you've gone and made your own card for submission, go ahead and offer some feedback on your fellow Artisans' cards. Throughout next week I'll try to offer some feedback of my own.

CCDD 031021 - I Dare You

At best, a much better Cancel. At worst, a much worse Distress. It all depends on how the mind game plays out.

CCDD 081620 - Locked in Combat

Here's one of those card designs where the concept is clear and the challenge is how to make it appealing, because the concept just doesn't do that much. How often would you want this effect over Smite or Celestial Flare?

CCDD 071420 - Continuous Looting

This design went through a bunch of iterations, if I remember correctly. I knew I wanted a card selection effect that gave players the option or maybe the obligation to stop at some point. As usual, the best way to do that turned out to be the simplest too.

CCDD 070920 - Frontline Anthem

Here's a weird keyword ability. It goes on any permanent, but preferably non-creatures to avoid timing issues. It's partly upside but mostly downside. It's trying to capture the flavor of borders, conquests, and lines of battle. It's... defensive!

CCDD 061220 - One-Eye, the Wanderer

Designing "Norse gods" has been an appealing design goal since we saw Magic take on the Greek pantheon in Theros, even more so since we met the Egyptian gods of Amonkhet. I've seen several neat ideas from other sources but there's still one implementation that appeals the most to me as a mechanical and flavor match.

CCDD 042920 - Breakneck Pace

Red's gotten a lot better at card draw in recent years. We routinely see Rummaging Goblin and Act on Impulse effects even at lower rarities. The theme for both those effects is that they're "short-sighted"; red isn't necessarily gaining any permanent advantage out of them. That's not just a matter of flavor; it opens the way for some exciting designs that wouldn't be safe to print in blue.

CCDD 042720 - Cabalistic Teachings

I designed this card before the Companions got spoiled, but in some ways it's trying to fill a role similar to theirs. I'll let you decide whether that's a good or a bad thing.

CCDD 032420 - Virus

This started out as mostly a joke card, but trying to capture the logic of "flatten the curve" / "social distancing" in a reasonable text box turned out to be an interesting challenge.

CCDD 031920 - Curse of Frustration

Dominion's "Curse" mechanic, where you add junk cards to a deck (usually the opponent's), is a cool and powerful design tool that online CCGs like Hearthstone have also picked up. Unfortunately it's logistically impossible for paper Magic. This is the nearest I could responsibly get to implementing it with existing design tech.

CCDD 022620 – Rouse the Rabble

I got inspiration from Divine Visitation, but I took it in a different direction.

CCDD 022220 - Mental Block

Holding up mana for Cancel (and other counterspells) during an opponent's turn is stressful. You more or less commit to countering whatever they cast, and hope they don't figure out your plan. So a counterspell enchantment that you can cast in advance and use on demand is appealing. In fact it's too appealing. It shuts down interaction and creates frustrating play patterns-- at least, I assume that's we've never seen one (unless you count Common Courtesy). But maybe there's a similar effect that could work.

CCDD 08212019 - Defiance

Posted without further comment.

Weekend Design Challenge 020819 - Faction Ascendency

Hey, Artisans! Click through to see this weekend's design challenge, submissions due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, so after you've come up with your idea, tell people what you like or dislike about theirs. Also listen to what they had to say about your card, and armed with that critique, revise your submission any number of times. I haven't been the best about reviewing recently, but I will attempt to review the most recent submission from each designer sometime at the beginning of next week.

CCDD 062718 - Circle Logic

For this past weekend's challenge, Jay Treat randomly ended up redesigning Circle of Protection: White. The idea of a circle of protection is a very resonant fantasy trope, but in Magic it has been saddled with some poor early choices in its history: Making a 5-card cycle out of it, making it overly strong as a hate card, and carrying a tremendous amount of complexity (plus a history of terrible art).

CCDD 050918 - Other Iconic Forms

I loved Jay's exploration of Forms of the Phoenix earlier this week, and decided to take a shot at forms for other iconic creatures.

CCDD 050718—Form of the Phoenix

Cool Card Design of the Day
5/7/2018 - Now that red has a chokehold on black-bordered forms, let's try it on another iconic red creature.

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.

CCDD 091117—Fueled by Pain

Cool Card Design of the Day
9/15/2017 - The impetus of this design was to punish your opponent for hurting you and reward you for playing into black's masochism.

CCDD 062817—Voodoo Bonfire

Cool Card Design of the Day
6/28/2017 - Here's a cheaper, more damaging Lava Axe, thanks to a delayed effect, and the chance for your opponent to prevent some of the damage.