M13 A New Development

The M13 Design team could continue to tweak and improve the set's design indefinitely. The longer you look at something, the more you test it, the more previously invisible imperfections you find to fix. But we don't have forever. We've got less than two months to wrap this set up now. I had intended to pass the set off to a Development team much earlier, but life interceded. The current team has kept a strong eye toward the Dev side over the last couple months, so we're not starting at square one, but I can't pretend that makes up for real testing and revision from a dedicated Dev team. Regrets aside, we need to get as much proper development done as we can in the time we have left.

CCDD 040512—Against All Odds

Cool Card Design of the Day
4/5/2012 - What would it take to make Valor Made Real Limited playable? I'd say Against All Odds is about the minimum to convince decent players to run this, probably as their 23rd card.

Take a look.

CCDD 040412—Kettle Clanger

Cool Card Design of the Day
4/4/2012 - There's a neat poetry in the difference between Goblin Chariot and Goblin Shortcutter. They're both 2-power goblins that do something the turn you cast them. Something that screws up your opponent's blocking plans. One attacks a turn early and the other let's your team attack unhindered. That symmetry is neat and gives each card a unique identity.

But you know what, sometimes art is smashing two similar things together to see what you get:

CCDD 032812—Blanket of Ash & Disgruntled Tour Guide

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/28/2012 - There was a lot of interesting discussion yesterday about Oath to Raze, so I wanted to follow up. There were some readers who felt it could be cheaper at 1R or RR while others felt that even this nerfed Stone Rain would have a negative impact on Constructed formats where nonbasic lands are de-rigeur. I'm fascinated that Demolish at 3R doesn't begin to cause a problem where Stone Rain and Oath to Raze do/could, but ultimately there is a better solution to reach the goal I was aiming for.

Making Mythic Creatures

This draft has been moldering in the editing pile forever. I decided to pull it up again when I caught this comment from Metaghost in the dragons discussion: "...I think that the prominent thing this exercise has revealed to me is that part of why recent WotC dragons are boring is that the most resonant dragon tropes are boring. Or at least played out and stale." For some reason I was a little hurt by this. I think it's partly because I secretly love playing giant, terrible cards, especially dragons. Another factor may be that I'm a relentless fan boy, and I want to love everything Wizards does. But frankly, many of the mythics in the last two years (especially dragons) have been really disappointing. I think I assumed as a casual designer that making mythic creatures would be easy (surely they must be easier than red commons), but maybe it's worth reviewing what makes a mythic creature good.

CCDD 032712—Oath to Raze

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/27/2012 - The Magic 2013 design team has kept Magus of the Moon in the file for most of its life. At Ian's suggestion, I asked if it weren't prudent to remove it so that people can enjoy their shiny new duals. We decided to keep it in as a safety valve against the 7 (soon to be 10) Innistrad block rare utility lands and any scary lands Friends may bring with it. (It would only stem a couple months of Inkmoth Nexus.)

That said, sometimes the best answer is the simplest answer. Stone Rain isn't an option since it's been added to the virtual reserve list as far as R&D is concerned. We don't need to answer basic lands though, because those aren't the cards we're worried about. Can we make a simple card that destroys nonbasic lands?

CCDD 032411—Midsummer Dream

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/24/2012 - I found a rare few minutes spare and thought I'd scan my CCDD folder to find an old design that's worth sharing (many aren't, but I'm sure that's no surprise). The one I'd like to share today isn't remotely innovative, but it's very printable, has nice flavor and was created about a month before Innistrad was released.