You Make the Masters Set

[Thomas David Baker]

I loved Innistrad.  I believed Maro when he said New World Order made things better for experienced players too and used Innistrad as an example.

Then Modern Masters came out and despite having to include a bunch of rares and only being allowed cards from Mirrodin to Shards it was way better than anything we've seen since Innistrad, and most of what came before, too.

It will be minimum one year until the next Modern Masters.

So, my idea is, let's make our own Modern Masters.

Random ideas that are very much half formed:

* 6 of each of 60 commons, 3 of each of 60 uncommons, 2 of each of 50 rares, 1 of each of 10 mythics is 650 cards.

* Use old cards, pre-Mirrodin, for spell-based funtimes and novelty even for players that have been playing for a while.

* Invent cards where necessary to fill holes.

* Some possible seeded archetypes: free spell necro, ug madness, gro, draw-go, astral slide, reanimator, artifact control, mill, auras, tokens, birthing pod, pox, sacrifice, prison, wizard tribal.

* Possibly include a lot of Legacy playables and call it "Legacy Masters".  What wizards would print if they said fuck it to the secondary market and the reserve list and tried to support legacy via a "Masters" release.

What do you think?  Interested in being on the development team?  Could make for some cheap Tuesday nights during the long reign of M14* ...

* = Bit of a cheap shot.  I've actually really enjoyed 3 of the last 4 core set drafts.

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Sparksmith was pretty obnoxious in ONS limited, if you are set on including him he should definitely be uncommon.

A lot of direct damage in there too, would be good if red actually had something else we could put in.

Thomas David Baker said:

Spore Frog will obviously need to be bumped to Mythic.

Here are some red cards, with at least two too many pingers, if not three ...

CR01 - Goblin Sledder R - creature, small (goblins, sacrifice)
CR02 - Skirk Prospector R - creature, small (goblins, sacrifice)
CR03 - Goblin Lookout 1R - creature, small (goblins, sacrifice)
CR04 - Sparksmith 1R - creature, small, direct damage (goblins)
CR05 - Fireslinger 1R - creature, small, direct damage (wizards)
CR06 - Shock Troops 2R - creature, small (sacrifice)
CR07 - Mogg Flunkies 1R - creature, medium (goblins)
CR08 - Rock Jockey 2R - creature, medium (goblins)
CR09 - Chartooth Cougar 5R - creature, medium, landcyler
CR10 - Firebolt R - instant, direct damage
CR11 - Lavamancer's Skill 1R - direct damage (wizards)
CR12 - Kindle 1R - direct damage
CR13 - Blood Frenzy 1R - power boosting (sacrifice)
CR14 - Falter 1R - can't block
CR15 - Scattershot 2R - creature damage (storm)
CR16 - Thunderclap 2R - creature damage
CR17 - Scrap 2R - artifact destruction (cycling)
CR18 - Solar Blast 3R - direct damage (cycling)

[Thomas David Baker]

Please do Philip, please do.  As you can see from my cantrip and pinger-heavy lists above I have terrible biases and a distinct lack of knowledge of what is fun in the blocks we are drawing from.

R doesn't really do anything except direct damage.  Maro's design skeleton article says: "Red always has direct damage (on numerous spells, some hitting players, some creatures and some both), power boosting, panic effects ("target creature cannot block"), and sometimes haste granting and land destruction."

I think I hit most of those notes!

MMA had: combat trick, damage player (arcane), damage creature, artifact removal, damage creature or player, damage creature or player, damage creature or player, tokens, damage creature (arcane), damage creature/land cycler.

So I think we may be stuck on R with stuff like this.  We do need to get rid of Sparksmith, though.

[Kieran Symington]

What about Anarchist at common? He gives some useful recursion for Red decks and is randomly a Wizard for an on-colour Skill target.

[Dan Barrett]

Get rid of some stuff that kills dudes, cuz you gotta have SLICE 'N' DICE at uncommon!!!

[Thomas David Baker]

Cheeky all-commons playtest at my place in Pimlico tonight if people can make it.

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Like it!

Kieran Symington said:

What about Anarchist at common? He gives some useful recursion for Red decks and is randomly a Wizard for an on-colour Skill target.

[Thomas David Baker]

I think Anarchist costs too much to be a good Skills target but he has a bunch of synergy nonetheless.  If he got Instant or Sorcery it would be better.  We can prejudice R towards Sorceries to make him useful.

[ross miles]

or just make a different card?

Thomas David Baker said:

I think Anarchist costs too much to be a good Skills target but he has a bunch of synergy nonetheless.  If he got Instant or Sorcery it would be better.  We can prejudice R towards Sorceries to make him useful.

[Thomas David Baker]

Latest version of W:

CW01 - Soul Warden W - creature, small, lifegain (clerics)
CW02 - Master Decoy 1W - creature, small, tapper (soldiers)
CW03 - Welkin Hawk 1W - creature, small, flying (birds)
CW04 - Gustcloak Harrier 1WW - creature, small flying (birds, soldiers)
CW05 - Auramancer 2W - creature, small (enchantments)
CW06 - Aven Redemer 3W - creature, small, flying (birds, clerics)
CW07 - Dive Bomber 3W - creature, small, flying, removal (birds, soldiers)
CW08 - Angelic Wall 3W - creature, small, flying
CW09 - Daunting Defender 4W - creature, medium (clerics)
CW10 - Noble Templar 5W - creature, medium, vigilance (clerics, soldiers, cycling)
CW11 - Opal Carayatid W - enchantment (enchantments, soliders)
CW12 - Seal of Cleansing 1W - enchantment, artifact/enchantment removal (enchantments)
CW13 - Pacifism 1W - enchantment, removal (enchantments)
CW14 - Opal Champion 2W - enchantment (enchantments)
CW15 - Radiant's Judgment 2W - instant, removal (cycling)
CW16 - Prismatic Strands 2W - instant, combat trick
CW17 - Kor Chant 2W - instant, combat trick
CW18 - Second Thoughts 4W - instant, removal

[Thomas David Baker]

Latest R list:

CR01 - Mogg Fanatic R - creature, small, direct damage (goblins)
CR02 - Fireslinger 1R - creature, small, direct damage (wizards)
CR03 - Goblin Lookout 1R - creature, small (goblins)
CR04 - War Buggy 1R - creature, small, haste (goblins)
CR05 - Fault Riders 2R - creature, small, first strike (soldiers)
CR06 - Shock Troops 3R - creature, small, direct damage (soldiers)
CR07 - Anarchist 4R - creature, small (wizards)
CR08 - Mogg Flunkies 1R - creature, medium (goblins)
CR09 - Rock Jockey 2R - creature, medium (goblins)
CR10 - Chartooth Cougar 5R - creature, medium, mountaincycling (cycling)
CR11 - Firebolt R - sorcery, direct damage
CR12 - Kindle 1R - instant, direct damage
CR13 - Lavamancer's Skill 1R - aura, direct damage
CR14 - Blood Frenzy 1R - instant, power pumping
CR15 - Scrap 2R - artifact removal (cycling)
CR16 - Solar Blast 3R - instant, direct damage (cycling)
CR17 - Wave of Indifference XR - sorcery, falter
CR18 - Heat Ray XR - instant, creature damage

Firebolt may be too good at Common.  Too much of the damage can hit player - more should probably be creature-only.  More Sorceries for Anarchist?

Seriously considered timeshifting Mogg War Marshall or Dragon Fodder/Krenko's Command.  Mogg Alarm probably not good enough.

Fireslinger is a nombo with Lavamancer's Skills but there are few Wizards in R.

[Thomas David Baker]

Latest theme ideas:

WU - Birds

WB - Clerics

WR - Soldiers

WG - Enchantments

UB - Storm

UR - Wizards

UG - Madness

BR - Goblins

BG - Graveyard/Threshold?

RG - Beasts?

Non-color-paired themes: Cycling, Sacrifice?

[Thomas David Baker]

Monk Idealist is also a Cleric so he might take the place of Auramancer in W and be downshifted to Common.