Can Planeswalkers Be Signposts?

Please enjoy this guest post from Larcent. —Jay Treat

War of the Spark is going to be bringing Magic players a flood of planeswalker cards, all at the same time. The final set in this latest trip to Ravnica will feature 36 planeswalkers, and each pack is guaranteed to have at least one.

There is going to be a lot to learn about planeswalker design after War of the Spark comes out and we see it all in action. The power levels are going to likely be lower, many of them designed to be rares or uncommons.

What I've Learned from Guilds of Ravnica's Mechanics (Part 5)

Please enjoy the third in a series of five guest posts from Larcent about the mechanics of Guilds of Ravnica. —Jay Treat

Lesson Five: Undergrowth and identity vs. gameplay

Green and black decks are doing quite well in Standard right now and are even seeing high-end competitive Magic play. This makes it all the more interesting that the undergrowth mechanic landed with such a thud with players. There's very little of it to be found in these decks. There are cards from Guilds of Ravnica in these successful decks, though, and there's a lot to learn about why those made the cut and cards with undergrowth did not.

What I've Learned from Guilds of Ravnica's Mechanics (Part 4)

Please enjoy the third in a series of five guest posts from Larcent about the mechanics of Guilds of Ravnica. —Jay Treat

Lesson Four: Surveil and liberating the jank

Mark Rosewater and other Magic designers are pretty open about the challenges of designing for blue and black together. They've been allied colors from the start, but the relationship between the blue and black is thematic and not mechanical.

What I've Learned from Guilds of Ravnica's Mechanics (Part 3)

Please enjoy the third in a series of five guest posts from Larcent about the mechanics of Guilds of Ravnica. —Jay Treat

Lesson Three: Mentor and simple complexity

I have to start by confessing that I have a hard time designing for the red and white color identity, and Boros is the guild I have the least connection with as a player. I'm a lover of weird and crazy combos, and the Boros Legion has no time for the shenanigans of Johnnies and Jennies. They're too busy busting the skulls of miscreants.

What I've Learned from Guilds of Ravnica's Mechanics (Part 2)

Please enjoy the second in a series of five guest posts from Larcent about the mechanics of Guilds of Ravnica. —Jay Treat

Lesson Two: Jump-start and making "spells matter" matter

In draft and sealed formats, where players have 40-card rather than 60-card decks, creatures are highly prioritized and other spells tend to be limited. Non-creature spells tend to be focused primarily on impactful cards that help swing the game in your favor. A limited deck may have only a handful of non-creature spells, often removal and combat tricks.

What I've Learned from Guilds of Ravnica's Mechanics (Part I)

Please enjoy the first in a series of five guest posts from Larcent about the mechanics of Guilds of Ravnica. —Jay Treat

Lesson One: Convoke as comfort food.

Anecdotal experience tells me that we amateur Magic designers tend toward the Jenny/Johnny play style and are very interested in seeing mechanics and sets that do new and different things. That's certainly my Magic identity.

Undaunted

Hey folks. Please enjoy a post from guest columnist Skye.
—Jay Treat

I wanted to tackle a Daunting subject today. For the past few years, Wizards has been experimenting with trying to find meaningful evasion for non-blue colors. Blue has more than its share of good evasion, with both flying and unblockability. This leaves most of the other colors, especially Green, with a bit of a mixed bag. For the benefit of green, I want to start somewhere you might not expect: Fear.

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!

Amonkhet Design Review

Hey folks. Please enjoy another post from guest columnist Jake Mosby.
—Jay Treat

The release of Amonkhet is just around the corner! Since we’re focused on design here, we’ll be discussing the design philosophy and implementation used for Amonkhet based on documents published by WIzards and by reviewing the set itself.

Keep Your Friends Close

Hey folks. Please enjoy another post from guest columnist Jake Mosby.
—Jay Treat

Understanding the color pie is a core skill for anyone who wants to design Magic cards. Luckily, there are a lot of resources available to designers that analyze the broad strokes of the color pie. Mark Rosewater has been writing about the color pie for 15 years, and he's written at length about how the colors interact with one another. In all that time, I have yet to see anything more than cliffnotes about how colors come into conflict with their allies. For example, if you want to make a set where green is at odds with white (like Mirrodin Besieged), there isn’t a go-to resource out there to help you identify potential sources of that conflict. This article aims to change that.

Designing Duel Decks

Hey folks. I'm pleased to announce a new guest columnist for Goblin Artisans. Please welcome Jake Mosby. This article was originally posted to MTG Salvation.—Jay Treat

Introduction
There are countless formats and ways to play Magic: The Gathering, and there are just as many different ways to participate in amateur/custom Magic design. Some people enjoy designing single cards. Some people enjoy participating in design challenges. Many embark on the journey of creating an entire custom set. But strangely, few custom designers focus their energy on creating one of the best tools to develop design skills: the Duel Deck.

Weekend Art Challenge Review 052616—Stop Skulking.

Hello Artisans,
I am quite overdue with this review. Here is the challenge I am reviewing.

Skulk is an interesting mechanic, making you care about low power creatures, allowing you to slip under stronger creature boards. It is very easy to understand, and will play differently depending on the board state. Unfortunately, it was often not rewarding enough in the games I have played.

Let us see if there are any NWO contenders!

Weekend Art Challenge 072216—maciejkuciara

Hello Artisans!
Anastase here!

This week the challenge is unconstrained, except for the image, BUT you can get bonus points (oooooh you know you want them) by trying to hit as many of the constraints in the list!

Weekend Art Challenge 071516—Conditional Evasion Mechanics

Hello Artisans,
Anastase here! This week's challenge is about finding new conditional evasion mechanics.

Evasion mechanics allow you to deal damage to your opponent even though they control some vanilla defending creatures. Flying, "cannot be blocked," intimidate, and skulk are all evasion mechanics.

Conditional evasion, however, works by convincing your opponent to choose not to block, usually from the fear of losing too much value. First strike, menace, and deathtouch are examples that fit.

Each Artisan is allowed one submission only, and has to specify the rarity of his or her card as well as the art for which it is designed for.

Weekend Art Challenge 070816—homoseptimus

Hello All! Anastase here with another challenge for you guys!

This week we are going to imagine Ludevic!

He has not yet been spoiled, so let us see if we can find a way to make the quintessential legendary stitcher alchemist come to life!

Weekend Art Challenge Review 062416—Eddie Smith

Hey all. Anastase here. I am lagging with my reviews but hopefully they will keep coming!

Here is the challenge I am reviewing.

Let's get to the cards!

Weekend Art Challenge Review 070116 — smolin

Here's Pasteur's review of last weekend's art challenge.

Weekend Art Challenge 070116 — smolin

Greetings, good morning, and good afternoon! Your friendly neighborhood Pasteur has arrived with a new Weekend Challenge. Click through to see this weekend's art and the design requirements for your single card submission.

Your submission will be due Sunday evening. Every submission warrants feedback, and everyone is encouraged to give feedback. You may use that feedback to revise your submission any number of times, though only the version rendered will be included in the review.

Weekend Art Challenge 062416—Eddie Smith

Hello all! Anastase here, with some free time again.

I will review the previous challenges soon, but in the meantime, let us get on with this challenge:

Weekend Art Challenge Review 061716—Samuel Bak

Here's Pasteur's review of last weekend's art challenge.