You Make the Draft IV

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Date: Saturday 31st March - 12 noon

Where: Penderel's Oak - High Holborn

 

Concept:  

* Each participator designs 45 Magic cards in Magic Set Editor format

* Send finished cards to [e-mail]

* We print them all out, sleeve them up, and shuffle into boosters

* Draft and enjoy!

 

Although there was only four of us who did this last time, many onlookers expressed their interest in being part of the next one.

 

Threads from previous instances:

You Make the Draft I - Initial thread 

You Make the Draft I - Preliminaries

You Make the Draft I - Aftermath (includes link to visual spoiler of all created cards)

You Make the Draft II - Initial thread

You Make the Draft III - Initial thread

You Make the Draft III - Aftermath (includes link to MSE file)

 

Things we learnt from the previous attempts and loose rules:

• No planeswalkers. Having 8 untested planeswalkers in a draft can be pretty lopsided, especially as people tend not to design simple answer cards as they are dull
• Super power mythic bombs - try and limit yourself to 1, if you desperately need more, let us know and we can try and accommodate them
• Cards must have art (designer secret - finding lots of art first inspires lots of ideas for cards!) (DeviantArt is a pretty good resource)
• Designing heavily linear/parasitic cards, as your 45, that all interact with each other is not really going to work if we get 360 cards total. If you want to do something like this then let everyone know so they can either support your theme or veto it mercilessly
• Having a theme or design goal would be a great way to help tie different peoples 45 cards together. If you have any suggestions please post them

 

EDIT: We have chosen "land matters" as a theme, so try and include a smattering of cards that interact with lands in some way.

People who have expressed interest so far:

1. Simon
2. Tom Baker
3. Kieran 
4. Glenn
5. Andy
6. Dan
7. Charlie
8. Phil
9. Rebecca

EDIT: Design Skeleton file here: YmtSet.mse-set

[Andrew Tan]

Tom how do i send you my cards to upload to the spoiler ?

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Just send him the .mse file, same as you sent to me.

Tom will then perform some wizardry to take that and turn it into a webpage.

Andrew Tan said:

Tom how do i send you my cards to upload to the spoiler ?

[Thomas David Baker]

This man speaks the truth.  bakert at gmail dot com.

[Peter Dun]

2 points:

1) Out of curiosity, how did the landfall land you were trying to design play out Simon?

2) This spoiler is very interesting... but some of these rare cards are very very broken... :S. Would offer to be a developer for next time (not very good at designing cards to be honest...) but its not very helpful if I cant play, and I don't think anyone is interested in that sort of advice :P

[Peter Dun]

I really really like:

Baloth Surprise (although this HAS to cost X1RG or it would only ever get played as a tutor for broken 0/1cc cards)

Band of Farmers

Pressure Wave (the cycling cost, the card itself seems really broken...)

Spoilheap (was this card good? I honestly have no idea just looking at it, but it makes me want to try it)

Thriving Manticore

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Hey Pete,

I think we are still trying to decide how best to handle this next time, but having someone who isn't invested in the cards to be able to cast a discerning eye over them is probably a really useful thing.

I did get advance notice of Dan and Andy's sets, but I mostly looked over them with a view to templating and not power level and so I missed some humdingers (most noticeably Game Winning Bomb, which I thought doubled counters on activation, not every upkeep).

Regarding my landfall lands, the ones that added 2 mana and didn't untap naturally were horribly broken, and we swiftly took them out of the set for the second draft. The one that I was more worried about (Rich Seam), where you could untap by returning any other land to your hand went completely unplayed I think. The reason for this is probably the age old Necro issue, and the same problem that affected Kieran's cards. Players generally have an instinctive dislike for cards that have strong negative effects (no draw step, paying life, sacrificing/bouncing lands) even if the outcome is really strong. Once you actually play with them that reaction often gets overridden once you see the power level of the card.

Baloth Surprise - I had this in my first draft deck and it was pretty good. I had no 1 drops and only 3 two drops, so I never cast it as a tutor, just for as big an X as I could. My one gripe with the card was that it wasn't that much of a surprise as it wasn't an instant. I thing making it X1RG and instant might be fair.

Pressure Wave - Charlie mentioned that this was probably too good. Compare it to Call to Heel, where you are getting the effect for free and uncounterable, AND bouncing an opponents guy! That said, I didn't actually ever see anyone play it.

Spoilheap - I know this was played both drafts, but I never heard any good/bad comments about it, so my guess is that it was fine.

Thriving Manticore - I know Charlie had this in the second draft, and I had it in the first. I only drew it once, leveled it up, then died before I could ever attack with it. It is pretty fragile early on, and is only good once you have hit level 3.

[Dan Barrett]

Baloth Surprise - I wasn't thinking constructed, but agree it should cost at least 3 if we are considering that. Wasn't sure if Trample or not. Name-wise, it should either be surprise and instant, or remain sorcery and become "Baloth Roulette". I know Glenn hated the card, but I think it's entirely fair as a rare, compared to say Enigma Sphinx/Enlisted Wurm

[Philip Dickinson]

dan isn't everything effectively the same rarity though? "fair as a rare" seems like an odd thing to say considering all cards occur in the same frequency lol

[Dan Barrett]

Fair point regarding rarities, but I think you know what I mean: "compared to existing cards, this would be printable [as a rare]"

[Simon O'Keeffe]

So now I've had a chance to look over the cards a little, here are the ones I liked:

Bear Assault - I think everyone mentioned this looked like a strong card, but no one had the courage to play it. This is a really good use of Kieran's sac a land mechanic

Clastiform - this was either a ritual or fuel for land sac guys. Also a mini-combo with my fetchlands.

Decaying Bear - what's not to love. Putrefy at sorcery speed and a 2/2 bear!

Elvish Meditator - this was a cool idea. We should probably reword it to not use cascade. Also was the intent that you would put the land straight into play, or like cascade, you would have to play it using your land drop for the turn?

Frontline Skirmisher / Sword Sharpener - I think I underestimated these guys on first reading. Playable one drops that turn into a spell later. The first strike one seems way better as the threat of him basically makes a creature unblockable, and you don't have to sac him. With haste guy you only get one use.

Lava Fiend - I love Kieran's Annihilater 1 guys he keeps making

Life Stealer - so much value on this guy for a simple three drop. Might be okay at four mana, but even then still seems better than Blind Hunter

Magus of Gravity - I think this was one of the better of the cycle. An interesting ability on good sized body for blocking grounded flyers. Should obviously be a Turtle Wizard!

Magus of the Grave - this guy was pretty obnoxious. In theory shouldn't be anywhere near as bad as Grave Pact, but because he triggered on himself dying also, you could never deal with him efficiently.

Magus of the Tome - All day I assumed this guy was a 1/1. I even played had him in my deck for the first draft,  and still aimed -2/-2 spells at him when playing against him assuming he would die. Blue getting a Hill Giant with ability was a little too good.

Persistent Zombie - This guy was pretty cool, and a nice skill tester for those who spotted you could play him for just 2B and the top five cards of your library.

Pure Evil - This was just supposed to be a Smallpox variant, but was actually way too good in almost mono B decks. Should probably cost BBB

Purecolour dudes - these were interesting but I never saw one trigger. Could probably bring it down to 6 of the same land type

Rampaging Beast - Why is it not an Elephant :-)

Rivenshell Turtles - all these guys were cool designs

Sharecropping - a little too good in practice, but the idea is nice

Steady Researcher - did anyone play this guy? I really like him. Simple and elegant cards are always the best

Stoneshell Armour - Turtle skin!

Swords of X - amazing how just half of a Sword of X and Y is still really good. Green one was templated kind of weirdly, and white one was really irritating. Having so many in the draft was probably too much.

Thanks, Bro! - the best anti-Glenn card ever!

[Dan Barrett]

Elvish Meditator - this was a cool idea. We should probably reword it to not use cascade. Also was the intent that you would put the land straight into play, or like cascade, you would have to play it using your land drop for the turn?

Put it straight into play, it is intended to be kind of like a random Ondu Giant

Purecolour dudes - these were interesting but I never saw one trigger. Could probably bring it down to 6 of the same land type

I'm not sure, I wanted them to be an incentive to draft mono-colour decks, however that might not be well-suited to this format.

Rampaging Beast - Why is it not an Elephant :-)

I couldn't find any more beast images, and wanted my creature types to be consistent!

Sharecropping - a little too good in practice, but the idea is nice

OP only because of Kieran's mechanic, to be fair?

Steady Researcher - did anyone play this guy? I really like him. Simple and elegant cards are always the best

One of my best I think, good flavour in what would be a common/uncommon. I liked Charlie's U - fateseal 2 draw a card a lot too, which is similar I guess.

Thanks, Bro! - the best anti-Glenn card ever!

Glenn has been quite OP recently, so a hoser card needed to be printed.

Other cards of mine:

End of All Knowing - should have been worded as Forbidden Crypt, to prevent same spell being returned multiple times

Everlasting Corpse - Charlie suggested either: comes back tapped OR cannot block. Both seem a fair tweak

Floor-Talon Drake - Perhaps should return untapped lands? Or sacrifice rather than return? It was supposed to be a genuine drawback, not just undercosted dragon.

Fuck You Dragon - I went over the top here

Game-Winning Bomb - Again, too far.

Staffbearer - This can be fixed to my original intent (enable landfall, protect you from manlands) rather than 2-mana LD by having the land return straight away?

Throw Back - Simon suggested this might be OP, could make it bounce a land and a creature controlled by different players if necessary? Or same effect to each player (return a land and a creature he/she controls)?

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Floor-Talon Drake - Perhaps should return untapped lands? Or sacrifice rather than return? It was supposed to be a genuine drawback, not just undercosted dragon.

I think no matter how you cost it, having a 5/5 flyer on turn 3 in limited could still be a problem. I think a simple tweak of its P/T, like the following:

Floor-Talon Drake - 4UU

Creature - Drake - 4/4

Flying

Morph - return two lands to your hand

This way it at least gives your opponent an extra turn to find an answer, and makes it a little more fragile. If this remains too strong you could change the unmorph to untapped lands, or sacrifices.

Staffbearer - This can be fixed to my original intent (enable landfall, protect you from manlands) rather than 2-mana LD by having the land return straight away?

Yeah that sounds good, or even just add a mana cost to the ability to make the owner have to choose between hurting both of you or none of you.

Throw Back - Simon suggested this might be OP, could make it bounce a land and a creature controlled by different players if necessary? Or same effect to each player (return a land and a creature he/she controls)?

I didn't actually see anyone playing this, but it still seems really strong at 3 mana, basically a time walk. The exact same card exists already for 3U and sorcery.