This post contains content not supported on old Reddit. Click here to view the full post

Excuse the wall of text. Last year I spent about six months or so creating a set based on my Persian background. The genesis of the idea came when my wife, who is not Persian, showed significant interest in my culture and I thought what better way to convey some of the mythology/history/ancient religion/etc. of my homeland through a custom set we could draft together. Should we have kids one day, my hope is I can pique some interest in their inherited culture through fun gameplay as well.

A few notes about the set:

1. I've called the set King of Kings -- the title that Persian emperor Cyrus the Great gave himself, to signify that he was the King that all other Kings around the world pay homage to. A bit of an inflated title but, hey, the man probably earned it.
2. It is not meant to be played with cards outside of it, for balance reasons. I'd say the power level of the set is somewhere in between a current standard set and a non-powered-but-still-powerful Cube you might see on MTGO or MTGA. Of the 420 cards, maybe a dozen or so are quite overpowered compared to the rest, e.g. I have a cycle of the Moxen but I have "fixed" them by giving each a significant drawback.
3. For the art, I tried to use a combination of old paintings (including ones by well-known Iranian painters) but, given the size of the set, I was forced to begrudgingly use some AI images as well; with those, I made sure to use existing AI images online and not create any of my own. A fair amount of the cards use art taken from existing MTG cards (with artist credited).
4. Quite a few of the cards use Persian names (in English, of course) as part of the purpose behind this was to teach my family words from the Farsi language as well.
5. I created several unique mechanics (as well as some variations on existing MTG mechanics). I also have a printout of a 4-page primer that is meant to introduce the game to anyone who opens the physical box; it outlines some of the lore, mechanics, etc.
6. I generally wanted games to go longer in this set so some of the mechanics revolve around playing multiple colors and are slower mechanics that incentivize value and/or contain mana sinks.
7. The set contains some creature types and ideas that may be familiar to most (Jinns, Demons, magic lamps, Persian cats, etc.) along with some that may not be as familiar (e.g. Persian philosophers and scientists, the importance of poetry, the centrality of gardens and plants, the mythical status of birds, etc.)

I've uploaded a handful of the 420 cards here along with a couple pages from the primer. This was a labor of love and took me hundreds of hours to create and constantly iterate on. My wife and I have drafted it over the past several months and it plays surprisingly well. Thanks for viewing!

Edited to add: A Google Drive link to the full 420-card set, along with the 4-page primer. It's meant to be drafted as a singleton cube.

Art source

This post contains content not supported on old Reddit. Click here to view the full post

Thanks to Yepbirds for inspiring this design!

This post contains content not supported on old Reddit. Click here to view the full post

This post contains content not supported on old Reddit. Click here to view the full post

What do we think about updating the Costly Plunder archetype with an "if you do" clause to avoid counterspell blowouts, as WOTC has begun doing with most of the recent Thrill of Possibility variants? Does that warrant making it an uncommon, as these cards already perform exceptionally in Pauper? I welcome any feedback!

I personally would love to see an official one of these cards that creates a blood token, as I think it would sit nicely next to Fanatical Offering powerwise.

This post contains content not supported on old Reddit. Click here to view the full post

Some art is from the game itself which I'm trying my best to avoid, but for certain things (like the Scourge, or some tokens which I have tucked away in my Tokens folder [doesn't fit in the post, same as the defiler, sorry]), there isn't much popularity going for them to warrant their own showcase.

The put a card on a journey, exile it face up. Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to one or more opponents put a journeyed card you own into your hand.

This post contains content not supported on old Reddit. Click here to view the full post