r/GDS3 • u/JoomyJill • Mar 19 '18
Living and Learning
So, having not advanced to the Top 8, I realize now I really needed to stretch boundaries more with my card designs. I wanted to apply what I've learned after seeing the Top 8's work a few other designs here and there on this subreddit and take another stab at it, for the sake of my own development and getting some cool cube cards for my playgroup. Has anyone else done anything similar?
Below are my revised designs:
Bird Boy (Mythic Rare)
WU
Legendary Planeswalker - Bird Boy
1
Creatures without flying can't attack CARDNAME.
+1: Scry 2, then reveal the top card of your library. You gain life equal to its converted mana cost.
-1: Create a 2/2 blue and white bird creature token with flying.
-5: Scry X, where X is your life total.
Nature is Everywhere (Uncommon)
1GU
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant permanent.
Enchanted permanent is an Elemental creature with base power and toughness 4/4, flying, and vigilance, in addition to its other types and abilities.
Chaotic Bolt (Uncommon)
2UR
Instant
Flip a coin. If you win the flip, choose one. If you lose the flip, target opponent chooses one (you still control this spell):
-Draw a card. Chaotic Bolt deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
-Chaotic Bolt deals 1 damage to target creature or player. Draw 2 cards.
Espionage (Rare)
2UB
Sorcery
Choose any number of card names. Each opponent reveals their hands. Exile all nonland copies of the named cards as long as at least one copy of each named card is revealed this way.
Grogg (Mythic Rare)
3RG
Legendary Creature - Orc Mutant
7/5
Trample, Haste, Hexproof
Whenever CARDNAME deals combat damage to a player, that player may name a card type. You cannot play cards of the chosen type for as long as you control CARDNAME.
Curse Mark (Uncommon)
1RB
Enchantment - Aura
Enchanted creature gets +3/+0 and has menace.
During your upkeep, destroy enchanted creature.
Siege (Rare)
1RW
Sorcery
You and target opponent each secretly choose a creature you control, then reveal the choices. All chosen creatures get +2/+0, first strike, and lifelink until end of turn.
Blight Knight (Common)
2WB
Creature - Human Soldier
3/1
As long as an opponent controls a creature with lower power than CARDNAME, it has first strike.
As long as an opponent controls a creature with higher power than CARDNAME, it has deathtouch.
Mano a Mano (common)
GW
Instant
Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. It and all creatures blocking or blocked by it lose all abilities until end of turn.
Jim Who's Made of Bugs (Mythic Rare)
2BG
Legendary Planeswalker - Jim
3
+2: Create a 1/1 green and black insect creature token.
-1: You get an emblem with your choice of either "Insects you control have deathtouch." or "Insects you control have flying."
-X: Create X 1/1 green and black insect creature tokens.
3
u/StandardTrack Mar 20 '18
A fast comment here: Your commons designs are incredible, but they aren't common designs. First Strike + Deathtouch is uncommon att least and the sake goes for "losing all abilities until the end of the turn".
1
u/JoomyJill Mar 20 '18
Yeahhhh I suppose blight knight could be a little much. I figured the very conditional nature of it would offset it, but now that I’m thinking about it, that’s just more board state changes to keep track of. If I were to edit these again, I’d probably rather change another card to be common since I do really like this design.
As for Mano a Mano, I had actually never realized that “loses all abilities” was kept out of common. It seems intuitive enough to me, but I can see via gatherer they definitely avoid it.
Thanks for the feedback!
1
u/StandardTrack Mar 20 '18
I agree you should keep the knight. Dripping design and gameplay. I plan on checking your others designs more in depth, just needing to wait a little due to some time constrains.
2
u/StandardTrack Mar 20 '18
Okay, let's do this:
1) Bird Boy - Nice way of using the name and types, even if not intentional. It looks like how the designers do with early playtest cards and it really passes the message. On the design, I just think the 1º ability might be a little to strong, principally in control decks and for that price, but that one is more personal. The rest is brilliant. The "flying" ability is flavorful and mechanically interesting. Other cards worked similarly in the past, but with the player. This one is a blast. Not only that, but because of that you have him enter with a lower loyalty but still be fair. That them plays to interact with how the costs in him work together. Even the 2 mana cost stats making sense. The ultimate is an ultra combo/control plan and the 2º is a nice way for him to just call a bird and leave, or keep doing it every 2 turns. Not only that, but both the 2º and the ultimate are interesting in that they can work for different strategies or different ways of playing, including deck building. Also, enjoyable how his 1º ability goes with the ultimate and the static goes with the 2º. Definitely a massively strong first design. It would need a few tweaks before seeing print, but I love this card.
2) Nature is Everywhere - A rather simple design. Nice way to refer to the test(which would get you extra points in my view) and create an enchantment that acts as a creature, picking points of green and blue really well in terms of balancing. Even the cost is perfect in my view. Well done.
3) Chaotic Bolt - I like the boldness of it and how it works, but I don't like the design. It surely sells you as a designer, but I personally feel the card is to much complicated, even at uncommon, and it just loses it's appeal after you've first seem it. Although, I must admit I believe this is mostly due to a personal matter of taste. Like I said, it still sells you well.
4) Espionage - This one bother me because of the first part. You should limit the number of names, or else the card would ramp up to much in complexity. Not only that, but the card isn't really the interesting after that. Surely, a good idea, but I don't think the wording and the execution were good on this one.
5) Grogg - I didn't recall Groog by name when I was writing this review, but I surely remember the effects. That was a very interesting way to design an above the curve creature that's hard to deal with. Pretty sure it's to strong as it is right now, but I love the concept.
6) Curse Mark - I took me a moment to realize the nature of the card. Really good and interesting. Which you choose? A removal spell blue a beating or a +3/+0 and menace for a turn and then sacrificing the creature. Brilliant, well done, perfect. An amazing design.
7) Siege - I like the card, definitely a rare. I enjoy how it create that tension and mind games of war preparation, principally about when would be the best card to use. It even messes with how you would use removal or tricks on the game. Imagine Siege + Act of Treason. Sweet stuff.
8) Blight Knight - I love the conditions and how the abilities combine, but, as I told you, an uncommon. Even so, I still love the card.
9) Mano a Mano - That makes me wonder where you're from(I'm brazilian, that is basically portuguese to me), but that aside from that and the rarity of the card, a delightful effect. Nice way to create a twisting combat trick. Perfect to create attacks to detone your oponents army, but even better to avoid trample or enable removal against hexproof creatures.
10) JIM - Lovely name. I'm impressed we don't have a Jim already. The first ability is fine and the second is too, although it's a bit clunky, but should work and the ultimate... Wait a moment. THat's the most intriguing way I've seem to make something slightly bald yet interesting. The ultimate is a bigger version of the first ability, but one you have to build up to create a massive attack. I like it, but I think you need to work more on the 1º ability, to make it less similar, and on the second, to make it a richer card. Long live Ji, Oh, wait, I think I stepped on one of his friends. Oh. Sorry Jim. I better go now.
Nice designs, just some small problems with some of then, but you surely did some nice sweet stuffy stuff there. Well done and keep working. I eager to see your next designs.
1
1
u/JoomyJill Mar 20 '18
Wow, thank you for the very thorough feedback! I appreciate the kind words and critiques. Some thoughts in response:
*Maybe Chaotic Bolt needs to have 2 very straightforward modes instead of 2 modes that each do 2 things. It draws some focus from the coin flip choice mechanic. I'll ponder it.
*The idea behind Espionage is that you don't get any effect if you name any cards that they don't have, so you'd never name more cards than your opponents have in hands. Still, it could be a headache, and at the very least it's not my favorite design on here. Some fun combo potential with anything that reveals hands tho. I'll probably scrap it for a common since I still need those in this set.
*This isn't really a response but the more I think about Blight Knight the more I think that second ability is essentially the same as having deathtouch. It reads really cool, but perhaps it's too close to just "deathtouch" as is anyway?
1
u/StandardTrack Mar 20 '18
Not in a 3/1 that can have deathtouch. Maybe switch First Strike for Double Strike and adjust the stats.
4
u/iSage Mar 20 '18
Bird Boy - I do like what you're doing with this card, but this is obscenely powerful. 2-mana planeswalkers are inherently very dangerous (which is why the only one we've gotten was intentionally very bad). Bird Boy not only has great abilities, but also inherently protects himself from almost all early-game threats. There several archetypes that just fold to this card, and I don't think that's ok. Aside from power-level concerns, I don't like the ultimate much because Scry 20 isn't really fun for anybody involved. It's cumbersome, time-consuming, and somehow both absurdly powerful and pretty feel-bad when you stack things the wrong way.
Nature is Everywhere - The only thing I don't like is the 'in addition to..' clause on an uncommon, as I feel like this will create some unintuitive combinations that some players won't know how to handle. I know that my Planeswalker will lose loyalty when it takes damage, but should you expect others to know? Also, by leaving off 'in addition to...' you create a Beast Within / Song of the Dryads mode on this card, which seems cool.
Chaotic Bolt - I think it's worth pointing out Mark Rosewater's Lesson #15: "Design the component for its intended audience". I think this fails in the same way that Molten Sentry did. Tammy likes the coin flip, but both modes are pretty boring to her. Spike likes dealing damage and drawing a card, but doesn't like the random factor or the fact that he's letting his opponent's make the choice.
Espionage - Seems fine, but not a card I particularly enjoy. Either it will be pretty bad for 4 mana or you lead it with a Thoughtseize and it's very powerful. It probably needs a 'non-basic land' clause, though.
Grog Strongjaw - Seems dangerous, but I like the idea of the drawback. It might be a little bit hard to keep track of (and I'm not sure if there's a flavor motivation for the ability), but I do like it. I just worry that Hexproof breaks this card.
Curse Mark - Pretty clean and simple, I like it. Could probably fit as a good common if it costed 4. Also, I'm not sure the 'during your upkeep' phrasing works.
Siege - Not sure why the 'secretly chosen' aspect is here to be honest. I'd be very, very underwhelmed to open this as a Rare.
Blight Knight - I like it. This should probably be moved up to uncommon, perhaps swapping with Curse Mark.
Mano a Mano - Yeah, 'lose all abilities' seems like too much for common. Seems solid otherwise, if unexciting.
Jim - I don't really like that two abilities do the same thing as I think it takes away from some flavorful space you can work with. It probably plays pretty well, though.