We Make the Set (Preliminaries)

[Thomas David Baker]

We're going to invent a set (cube?) that I'll print and sleeve that we can draft.

As there is no Constructed to think about (unless we do a Block format) and no business model and sales figures to worry about we're going to make a set without rarities.

We'll still have some cards that are one-ofs, and other that appear in multiples but it won't be on the strict rarity basis.  There will almost certainly be 360 cards in the completed draft set but that might include 8-ofs of some of the cards or lots of 2-ofs or anything ...)

I know that Nicolo and others have done this before on mtgsalvation and they probably have good advice for us.  Rob and Kieran have both made sets before that were good, too.

My current skeleton plan (which I'd like you to criticize or add to) is:

0. At every stage we have votes to determine which of the things suggested we want to keep and what we want to chuck.

1. Brainstorm on the set mechanics, overarching themes.  Decide on these.

2. Invent some flavor that matches what we agree in (1).

3. Invent cycles and individual cards while keeping an eye on overall color balance and curve and using the mechanics.  Decide on a few reprints if necessary.

4. Source some art (images.google.com, if nothing else).

What have I missed from the process?

[Kieran Symington]

I'm quite interested in doing this, but I think it probably needs a few people to commit to both making the set and being prepared to draft it otherwise it won't work at all.

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Sounds like good fun. I would certainly be up for drafting and helping out a bit with the set. Have to try and dig out the old set I created when I was a student, although Wizards subsequently printed most of the mechanics I came up with...

[Raymond Wat]

Very interesting and definitely have a go at this, both making as well as drafting.

[Gary Lynch]

I will draft it. Im not a creative person though so I doubt I will be much help with the making of it.

[Dan Barrett]

Those mechanics being?

sokeeffe said:

Sounds like good fun. I would certainly be up for drafting and helping out a bit with the set. Have to try and dig out the old set I created when I was a student, although Wizards subsequently printed most of the mechanics I came up with...

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Dan Barrett said:

Those mechanics being?

I basically had a version of Imprint that wasn't quite as clean as Wizards, also an Affinity mechanic that cared about basic lands ala Razor Golem, along with a kind of colour matters theme similar to Chroma. This stuff was about 10 years ago, so I can't remember in detail.

The file should still be on my old PC, although I fear it may have been lost in an OS re-install.