General Nerdery

[h3lian]

                                Lovingly made Bea’s for @rcsetorn​ 🌹

[markrosewater]

I get that the whole Phyrexian planeswalker thing is supposed to feel disgusting and uncomfortable, but there's more to it than that. The whole concept of Phyrexia already made me feel disgusting and uncomfortable enough. What it's doing is making me feel disgusted with *the story as a whole*, and by extension, the Wizards writing team, and even the game as a whole. It sends the message that there's no point in enjoying the characters or story because they can simply be ruined at any time.

One of the challenges with making Magic is that we do a lot of different things with the game. The idea being that we sometimes do things that you personally love, and other times do things that others love. The Phyrexians are super popular. I get that they aren't with you, but the their fans should have a chance to allow them their time in the spotlight, and what they do is infect others.

[3smuth]

I think what’s missing from the conversation about Phyrexian planeswalkers is that planeswalkers aren’t just any characters; they have been pretty explicitly designed and billed as audience surrogates. Players are supposed to not just “love” their favourite character, but identify with them. And that’s not incidental to planeswalkers, that’s explicitly a role they exist to perform: they’re there to let you put yourself into the game, and into the story.

That said, it’s a tricky position to be in when virtually your entire cast of characters is supposed to be representing somebody out in your audience. There’s a special care you have to take with audience surrogate characters, so when everyone is someone’s surrogate you quickly develop something of an audience investment paradox: the audience can’t be invested if the story doesn’t have real stakes, but any potential stakes come at the cost of your audience’s ability to invest through their surrogate character. It’s tough.

While I’m reticent to hold it up as some highwater mark of Magic’s story, I think Gideon’s death managed to deliver on this reasonably well. Any member of the audience who was identifying with Gideon could almost certainly also identify with his heroic sacrifice. Players got to feel the drama of the moment, but when the dust settled those players who had identified with Gideon weren’t punished for doing so. I suppose it’s possible the Gideons in the audience feel differently though, he wasn’t ever the character I identified with. Tamiyo was.

The difference with compleated planeswalkers is that they don’t pay off the investment players have in their identity character. Do I still identify with a Tamiyo that is a corrupted husk of her former self? Absolutely, but if I wanted to feel that just looking in the mirror is a lot cheaper than Magic cards. More importantly though, asking your audience to put themselves into your characters is an exercise in trust. And while the feeling of a character you identify with becoming corrupted is unique and powerful, when your trust gets cashed in for cheap thrills you will inevitably learn from your mistake.

So it boils down to that question: are players meant to identify with planeswalker characters, or are they just NPCs? Because much of the effort that’s gone into building a diverse cast seems to suggest the former, but maintaining that requires a delicate touch. If you’re careless in the way you leverage your audience’s trust, you can very quickly show them that those characters are just NPCs, and waste much of the effort you’ve gone to to tell them otherwise.

[inventors-fair]

Ready and Able

Here’s some examples from some of the mods here!

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@teaxch has been working on this card for a while, and I think it’s a good example of how abilities are special in magic. There are a few cards that let you cast specific types of cards off the top of your deck, and ninjutsu is a cool restriction on that, but it’s a lot more difficult to make function within the rules. But it’s still possible! Probably.

@3smuth made Dovin, the Mediator (though @loreholdlesbian came up with the general concept), which messes with one of the weirdest abilities in the game: loyalty abilities. There’s a lot of weird things you can do with loyalty abilities, and I’d be happy to see some more, or even other versions of this effect. This card, though, took a lot of work to make, so play with this space carefully.

And I was the guy who made Stitcher’s Playground. I wanted to show the power of “this ability triggers once each turn.” This effect would be ridiculously powerful without it. It would go infinite so easily and be crazy powerful. However, it’s still important that this not say “first time each turn” like some cards, because playing this and sacrificing a creature for immediate value is important, and you don’t want that messed up by a removal spell from an opponent or if you forgot you used that Priest of Forgotten Gods to pay for this.

~

This week has a lot of options and a lot of weird things you can do, and these are just a few of them. I’m excited to see what shows up in the inbox.

-Mod Mr. ShinyObject

[inventors-fair]

Judges’ Familiars

For our example post this week, I bring you a couple of friends from my own household:

Sheltered Housecat

My cat, Logan, is a real handsome fellow. He was found abandoned, and ever since I took him in he’s been so grateful that he’ll put up with every method I’ve devised to annoy him. I wanted to represent that resilience with some kind of indestructible or recursion mechanic, and tying it to him finding a home seemed thematically appropriate. Mechanically I tried to play it a little safe with the cost relative to the power of a hard-to-answer aggressive one-drop, but it’s hard for me to gauge how playable the resulting card actually is.

Ravenous Whelp

My daughter’s new puppy, Taro, is still at the age that he’ll try to eat anything - small as he is, the tactic is surprisingly effective. The mechanics were straight from his personality: stealing whatever he can find, treating it as food, and biting at anyone foolish enough to try to stop him. Mechanically it’s powerful removal that when used as a three-drop leaves a window open to answer it, or can be used at 5+ mana to destroy something outright.

[ @3smuth ]

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BONUS: I wanted to make sure that all of our judges got a chance to join in this week, so meet a few more of our friends!

Maul Jester

@abelzumi‘s pup Liberty seems easily distracted, picking fights with squirrels and hounds, and chasing cats and birds out of its yard.

Noisy Lapcat

@mistershinyobject has Harry, a kitty that is hard to ignore and demands the full attention of everyone he brushes up against.

Curious Stray

@thatboonguy brings us Ebony, a curious kitten that apparently can’t resist crawling into your lap to take a peek at whatever you’re looking at.

[inventors-fair]

Friends

It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of the things you love, to obsess over details that distract you from the emotional core of what loving something really is. Sometimes we need a little extra help to shake all that off and get back to basics. After all, what are friends for?

My last couple challenges have been a little technical: I always feel like if I’m able to make you rethink your resources, or your expectations, or even your approach to design, that’s when I’ve done my job as a judge. But as important as those things are, design can’t be all about rethinking: it has to be about refeeling too. And who better to help us reconnect with the feeling that underpins all great design than our best friends.

The Goals (M.E.O.W.)

Mandatory: Design a nonlegendary creature card based around your* pet.

Encouraged: The best designs will be those that convey individual personality beyond just a species or creature type.

Optional: You are welcome to show off more exotic animals that you’re close to, but we’re just as excited to see your dog or cat.

Warning: Don’t forget the basics. Our focus is on emotion this week, but strong design is what will ensure your audience gets to feel it too.

*Don’t have a pet at home? Use a childhood pet. Your best friend’s pet. Your neighbour’s pet. Your aunt’s. Whatever critter you know that has burrowed its way into your heart, I want to see that connection. I want to feel it.

And very, very importantly, for this week: PICS PLEASE. Choosing art can be easy for once, just snap a cute pic of your furry (scaly, feathery, slimy…) friend for all to see. Just make sure to credit all artwork appropriately! Please and thank you!

What are you waiting for? Someone just gave you permission to show off your pets, so get to it! You know what to do!

[ @3smuth​ ]

Show off your best friends: > HERE < Become friends with our friends: > HERE <

[inventors-fair]

Mashy Examples ~

>> @3smuth combined the names of Return to the [Earth/Ranks] and presumably Tribute to the Wild. Now, the colors are the same here, but the name fits with the convention, and in a mechanically neat way. It’ll take care of a nonland permanent (including a creature!) for a few turns, UNLESS its controller wants to get a land. The fantasy feel of the art, the weird removal, man. I’m a big fan of this card. There is some general removal overlap, but they took a new twist on what the name might mean. I don’t think I’ve seen a removal card quite like this before.

>> For me, firstly: I found two Innistradian cards, Bump in the Night and Fork in the Road, and took ‘em both out for a spin on the old Ravnican route. Featuring original MS Paint art! The intent was to take horror tropes and turn it into something both funny and mechanically unique/powerful. Maybe it’s a little narrow, but hey, trinket text happens. I just like the visual of what a bump in the road could entail, and compared with the original cards, it’s different enough I feel. The 3 is shared, but it felt wrong to bump it to 4. Hm, maybe coulda done 4 to the thing and 2 to the crew. Eh, live and learn.

>> Secondly, I wanted to get weird. Allure of the Unknown caught my eye, but only after I had made sure that there were a few Curse of the —- cards that I could snag the name from. What’s a curse? Plenty of things. Curses can have a whole bunch of baggage attached to them. And this curse is unlike any other curse, picked because I liked the name “Curse of the Unknown.” That’s it! That’s where you should be coming from: what does this name mean by itself?

So, there are always going to be a couple weird issues. For example, if you make a “Curse of [the]” card, naturally it’ll be a curse, and that’s just going to be how it is, and some curses have the overlap that comes with enchanting a player. Or, if you’re using a character’s name (Chandra’s Phoenix, Teferi’s Tutelage) in a two-part name, the fact remains that they Chandra’s Tutelage is probably gonna have something to do with damage or burning or exile, and Teferi’s Phoenix… Well, truth be told, I wouldn’t know what that looks like. But. It’s okay to have mechanical overlap; intentional homages, though, are best to be avoided.

Do your best. Make fun. Enjoy. — @abelzumi​

[markrosewater]

Would a return to Kamigawa require Orochi, Kitsune, Nezumi, Moonfold, and the Akki version of golbins to be prominent in the set? Or would those creatures need to be present at all?

What would you all expect?

[3smuth]

In order of most necessary to least:

Moonfolk: Thanks to Tamiyo, this is the only connection new players have to Kamigawa as a setting. Luckily, while weird, they are fairly iconic to the setting and can be used to signal familiarity both for players that saw the first block, and those that have met Tamiyo since. That said, they eat up a significant portion of the weirdness quota.

Kitsune: The design for kitsune is pretty terrible, but foxes are one of the more familiar areas of Japanese trope space so they still feel like a good resource. They actually move up the list if you’re willing to redesign them to look like...y’know, foxes, and that version wouldn’t demand much of the weirdness quota for the set.

Nezumi: Nezumi are...fine, I guess. They don’t have any major design flaws, but at the same time are not especially evocative of Japan to the uninitiated. I believe Tamiyo has an adopted Nezumi son, so I would expect a nonzero number of Nezumi to appear in a return. They’re relatively light on weirdness because they actually look like what they are, but they’re still pretty abnormal.

Akki: Goblins looking different on some worlds is another of those signaling tools, but having them evoke traditional river monsters (kappa) doesn’t seem like the best way to do it. Kappa are a relatively familiar concept that would want to be delivered on, and if Akki interfere with doing so recognisably they could easily be dropped.

Orochi: The six-limbed snakes are by far the weirdest and least evocative among the five characteristic races of Kamigawa, and not only would it be fine not to revisit them, I think they actively make the setting worse. Why this tribe wasn’t something familiar like tanuki the first time around, I’ll never know.  

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EDIT: I forgot the single most important point: please be sure to include creatures that aren’t these types. The original Kamigawa block had literally three cards that were not one of its main tribes (Spirits, humans, ogres or the five above), and that is a depressing lack of diversity. I’m really hopeful that any revisit would tone down the tribal elements to let us just see more of what Kamigawa has to offer.

[inventors-fair]

Your Time is Gonna Come

Several weeks ago we introduced a feature on our Discord server to make it easier for participants to suggest contest themes they’d like to see. So as this week rolled in and I was feeling slightly uninspired, I figured I’d take a look at those suggestions and see if anything I saw caught my fancy. So thanks to everyone contributing ideas and reacting to them, this is your feedback in action.

The Storm Scale is a ranking of the likelihood that a given mechanic will be reprinted in any future Standard-legal set. Mechanics are ranked from 1 (very likely) to 10 (very unlikely). The scale is created and used by Mark Rosewater as his personal assessment and is not an official policy or guarantee.

One of those popular suggestions was designing around a mechanic with a high Storm Scale rating, meaning one that is difficult to return to in Standard. Having looked through the compiled list of ratings that Mark Rosewater has provided, I concluded that rather than just asking for designs with unlikely-to-impossible mechanics, I’d rather see you focus on the ones that actually have a chance.

The Goals (M.E.O.W)

Mandatory: Design a card from a hypothetical Standard-legal set featuring a mechanic that has received a Storm Scale rating of 8.

Encouraged: The best designs will be those that not only utilise the mechanic, but illustrate why it’s worth revisiting, and why this (theoretical) set is the place to do it.

Optional: Sometimes making a mechanic work involves using it in an entirely new way, but sometimes it’s a matter of finding the setting where that mechanic fits in just as it is.

Warning: While this contest is rooted in unlikelihood, avoid leaning so much into the theme that your designs themselves are unlikely to see print.

Why specifically 8? The short story is that I looked at the list, and the 9′s and 10′s were largely broken or bad mechanics, and the 6′s and 7′s looked reasonable enough that you wouldn’t have to do much work justifying them. 8′s offered a particular balance of being feasible to revisit, but forcing you to do the work of figuring out why and how. And there’s nothing I enjoy more than making you work for it.

A couple final notes: storm scale ratings can change, so if you find a source on a rating that isn’t shown on the page linked above (and right here, for good measure), feel free to go for it - but obviously I’m going to be the final judge, so remember what the challenge is asking of you. Secondly, the storm scale is by definition only relevant to Standard, so make sure that’s the power/complexity level you’re aiming for. And as always, any additional questions can be directed toward our inbox.

~Mod [@3smuth]

Submit your unlikely contenders: > HERE < Shelter with us from the storm: > HERE <

[inventors-fair]

No Artificial Flavouring

Just dropping by this afternoon with a few quick examples! Each of these was simply plucked from my various card files, so bear with me.

Starving Artist

Occasionally (read: often) one of the submissions we get will inspire me to redesign my own version of it, and inspiration credit on this one goes to @jsands84​‘s Undiscovered Artist. The story this tells is a timeless and poignant tale of the artist whose work was unappreciated in their own time, only coming into its true value after their death. This takes advantage of familiar tropes and uses the flexibility of named counters to deliver a deeply flavourful design even without space on the card for flavour text. Note on this one how simplicity in a design can leave room for players to focus on the story it tells, rather than fixating on how to maximise the card mechanically.

Murderous Mystery

Similarly, an inspiration credit on this one from @misterstingyjack​‘s Parlor Room Revelation, with some modifications to play into the Cluedo theme. This design again illustrates how useful existing story tropes can be, allowing otherwise disconnected things to feel connected without the need to explain them. It also highlights the use of flavourful types and keywords, with “died,” “Clue,” and “investigate” all doing work to successfully sell the story being told. This one is a particularly good example of rising action over the course of a story, with dramatic tension building as Clues are collected, eventually culminating in the satisfying resolution of locking an opposing creature up for good.

Moonlit Waltz

I thought it was important to include one relatively simple design to show that submissions this week need not pack to the text box to ‘justify’ the lack of flavour text, and that stories can be rather open-ended. This card illustrates two characters sharing an unforgettable moment together, but leaves relatively open how to interpret the impact of that memory. Could this card this card have flavour text? Absolutely, and you could use it to pin down precisely what that +2/+2 is supposed to represent - but it also doesn’t need it to get the point across, and letting a design get its own point across is what this challenge is really all about.

~Mod [ @3smuth ]

[inventors-fair]

Kald’ve, Would've, Should've

It’s that time again, and with the release of a new set I am once again asking for your missed design opportunities - this time, your lost heroes of Kaldheim! Like I said the first time around, I’m hoping to make this a recurring feature of the blog, and much like my favourite draft archetypes, that means just forcing it and hoping the cards turn up anyway. Of course in this case, the cards are up to all of you.

For this week’s challenge, I want you to come up with cards that coulda, woulda, shoulda been included in the new set. Something you can imagine was wrongfully left on the cutting room floor, a better version of a card that did see print, or something particularly clever that the rest of the design team just missed. This time around, consider real-world myths and tropes that you would’ve liked explored through Kaldheim mechanics as well.

The Goals (M.E.O.W.)

Mandatory:  Design a card that could have appeared in Kaldheim. Use only mechanics from the set or those that are evergreen.

Encouraged:  The most successful designs will be those that mesh the the mechanical themes of the set with its top-down influences.

Optional: You don’t need to use any of the named mechanics from the set, as long as your card feels like it belongs within the set and its setting.

Warning: Be aware of not only what mechanics exist, but how they exist. If the set gives a certain meaning to a mechanic, be careful not to undermine it. 

As always, a full spoiler of the set is available here. Be sure to pay attention to the themes as you look through it, as those should really be guiding your design decisions this week. Innovation is strongly encouraged as always, but this week will test your ability to innovate within an existing set of themes.

NOTE: After a bit of feedback from our last such challenge, I’m going to be a little more lax with judging this time around. Rather than focusing on things like design skeletons and as-fan, we’re going to give you the space to just explore what you would’ve wanted to see in the set. You’re still limited to one card so you’ll have a hard time introducing whole new themes, but no need to worry about which specific slot in the design skeleton your design would be occupying.

Don’t forget that the inbox is open for questions and concerns, but beyond that just enjoy traversing the ten realms of Kaldheim!

~Mod [ @3smuth​ ]

Submit your lost heroes: > HERE < And visit our Discord realm: > HERE <

[inventors-fair]

Good Times, Bad Times Commentary

I was actually pretty pleased with this challenge. I’ll admit that I kinda scraped this one together last-minute, but once I saw the submissions that were coming in, I was proud of the way that you all took it as an opportunity to really flex your design muscles. My goal with these challenges is always going to be to make you stretch a little out of your comfort zone in order to sharpen your skills, and it felt like there was a lot of that going around this time.

Just a note: there were actually a lot of submissions that didn’t technically need the “times” formatting, which isn’t exactly surprising. Like I mentioned in the runners-up post, while I insisted that the winners I selected be formatted correctly, I’m not going to concern myself too much with that for the sake of commentary. I’ll definitely note whether the template was correct or not, but how well you reached for it is more important than obsessing over formatting.

Keep reading

[inventors-fair]

WELCOME TO THE INVENTOR’S FAIR

Salutations! Here’s a quick guide and FAQs to help you along the way. Scroll down for the most recent posts and contest!

What is the Inventor’s Fair?

This Tumblr is a collaborative custom card competition blog for Magic: the Gathering. Each week, one of our rotating judges creates a contest prompt, and then people submit their entries. At the end of the week, the cards are judged and winners are chosen.

Why is the Inventor’s Fair?

Since perhaps the inception of the game, players have been making their own cards. The creation of the internet, fandom, and online communities have led to many people sharing those cards online. Part of the love of the game is through creating new mechanics, ideas, stories and interactions. This blog exists as a challenge space for people who enjoy sharing their ideas in a low-stakes competitive sphere.

Wait, you already have an FAQ page. What’s this, then?

The FAQ page felt a little outdated, and people were asking questions that were there, so it’s clear that not everyone is using it. This is a pinned post with all the available information, starting points, etc.

Click the readmore for everything you need to know!

Keep reading

[inventors-fair]

Behind the Times

A slightly silly design from an old community contest in our Discord (check it out if you haven’t already!), Sparkivore is an example of the multiplication approach to “times”. Notice especially how it leans into the fact that multiplication tends toward large numbers, tries to identify new variables worth multiplying, and still tries to apply that end result to something with clear value. One of the things Tammy players love about “times” is that it creates the possibility of really momentous plays, so try to find ways in your designs that capitalise on that.

Courtesy of @mistershinyobject, Stitcher’s Preparations showcases the repetition approach to “times”. Pay attention to how it’s able to achieve something that a comparable X-spell couldn’t, with both the ‘costs’ and the payoff changing significantly in value from one iteration to the next. One of the things Spike players love about “times” is the really rich decisions it can allow for, so look to maximise those if you go this route.

An old pet design that made a surprisingly good example for this week, Ashling Reignited is our representative of the tracking approach to “times”. Admittedly I didn’t notice at first that all three abilities actually feature “times”, but even so we can see how the template lets us set (and bend) limitations as well as build value through reuse. One of the things Jenny players love about “times” are restrictions worth breaking and clear signals on synergies, so be sure to consider what messages you’re sending with your designs.

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So far I’ve seen a lot of interesting ideas being tossed around both in the workshop on Discord and in our inbox here, so I’m looking forward to judging this one. Until then, keep up the good work!

-Mod [ @3smuth ]

[inventors-fair]

Brushing Up

Here’s some examples, one from @abelzumi, one from @3smuth and one from myself.

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Cornered Brushwagg tells a great story. Brushwaggs are famous for their tenacity, and even without the flavor text, just the name and text make it clear. This guy does not like being outnumbered, and will kill anything in it’s path on its way out. With the flavor text, you get a more specific tale that gives us a name and by extension a plane. Outside of flavor, the card is also really cool. Early game it’s an efficient body, a 2/3 for two, and in the late game it can either help you stay alive as the board gets full, or help you get in damage if your opponent had a bunch of big guys. A very solid card.

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Brushwagg Forager is a cool card that happens to be a brushwagg. I love mini-game style cards, where you and your opponent stare down and they have to make a decision and you get to blow them out or fall to your own hubris. Even though the text is cool on its own, it still feels like a brushwagg! The fact that it can puff itself up is a common effect of brushwaggs. The name helps explain the flavor: that a brushwagg is finding something and bringing it back to its… nest? cavern? dam? Whatever a brushwagg has. Or, I also like the interpretation that it’s incorporating it into its coat like a bird nest filled with twist ties. It’s also pretty efficient as a 3/2 for 2 that can effectively draw a card once for a little mana more. Very powerful, which makes it an understandable uncommon.

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Woolly Brushwagg was my attempt to show you guys that you can get creative. Even when it’s not green and even though it’s half sheep, this card still feels like a brushwagg. The first ability harkens back to the original brushwagg, and the second ability helps facilitate the first. This still feels exactly as territorial and defenseive as any other brushwagg, but it also feels new. It isn’t that destructive, it isn’t great at attacking, and the flavor text even says its a more docile breed. But that’s something I’d be happy to see. I’m especially excited to see what other creature types people roll into their brushwaggs. Dragon? Demon? Soldier? Warrior? Peasant? The possibilities are endless…

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Thank you for checking out my brushwaggs. If this has inspired you to make your own, you can submit it here. Or, you could come on the discord and pick my brain. Either way, good luck and keep working on those waggs!

-Mod Mr. ShinyObject

[inventors-fair]

R-R-R-Rewinners’ Circle

Another round of applause for our winners this week: @dumbellsndragons,  @reaperfromtheabyss and @stormtide-leviathan!

Ramunap Deep-Dweller // Ramunap Avatar (Surprise Me…but also Costume Change, Limited Engagement, Art’s Second Chance, For Sale: Magic Cards, Never Played, and Seeing Stars)

I went into this challenge knowing that there would be some number of Surprise Me submissions, but assuming that since I was expecting any one of fifty different prompts, it would be pretty hard to actually surprise me. What’s more, it doesn’t particularly surprise me that you threw multiple challenges into one card: indeed, that’s probably exactly what I would’ve done (restrictions breeding creativity, and whatnot). But what did surprise me is how well it actually came together. Attaching the draft count to your life total is really clever, the life loss effect helps you get down to it even if you took it early, and the white side feels white without doing anything the black mana can’t justify. In short, the surprise is not so much that you tried or even that you succeeded, but that if you hadn’t explained it yourself, I may not have noticed. You put a tough challenge on yourself and executed it almost seamlessly, which is certainly enough to colour me surprised.

Ghirapur Wondersmith (Dual Masters)

This card is illustrating some really solid design work, and a strong understanding of both of the mechanics it’s utilising. Ascend cards really want some way to work toward 10 permanents; Fabricate cards really want both modes to matter in different situations. Finding the interesting space in the overlap is clever enough, but this design makes the most of that space in a powerful and elegant way. I wouldn’t be shocked if playtesting showed that the mana cost on this needs to go up, but I can’t blame you for starting off pushed: it’s kind of a home run design. The mechanics interact in a way that Mel appreciates, but it also offers interesting decisions for Spike, combo potential for Jenny, and the promise of armies of tokens for Tammy. It even has the cute Vorthos element of imagining Ghirapur’s version of the city’s blessing. All-in-all, very nicely done.

Channel the Cosmos (The Rainbow Inside Us All)

What really struck me about this one is just how elegantly it’s executed - it takes discipline to keep from adding frills to a design like this, and good on you for resisting. The simple symmetry between one mana for one card early and 5 mana for 5 cards later is aesthetically really satisfying; it’s also really pushed, as drawing cards off of flashback is pretty powerful. I’d be hopeful that the restrictive mana cost would be enough to keep it in check, but I’d also be on the lookout for ways to tweak the balance without losing the elegance; I’m not a huge fan of legendary sorceries, but this might be a place for it. At any rate, I’m a sucker for elegance and symmetry, and this design delivers on both of those in spades. It’s the kind of card that play design would definitely have their eye on, but I’d be rooting for to make it to print as-is.

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I hope everyone’s enjoying their holidays, we’ll be back tomorrow with runners-up and kicking off commentary for this week. It should be a fun one!

~Mod [ @3smuth ]

[inventors-fair]

R-R-R-Rewind 2020

This has been an…unconventional year. The end of the year is almost always a time for reflection, and in the interest of maintaining some semblance of tradition - and boy, am I a sucker for tradition - we’ve decided to wind up this year the same way we did last year: with a look backwards.

The Goals (M.E.O.W.)

Mandatory: Design a card to fit ANY of the fifty design prompts we’ve used this year. Be sure to include which prompt you’re designing for.

Encouraged: Try to bring all that you’ve learned this year into your design. Commentary and feedback can be a great asset here.

Optional: You’re welcome to try and approach an old theme from a clever new angle, but don’t feel obligated to reinvent the wheel.

Warning: Be careful to give prior submissions a wide berth. We’re not redesigning our old work, we’re revisiting the prompt itself.

I’m sure many of you will remember your favourite challenges from this year, or remember a great idea that came just a little too late. For those of you who don’t recall all fifty prompts off the top of your head - filthy casuals - I’ll be including a follow-up post (courtesy of @abelzumi​) with links to all the previous contests from this year. 

I’m excited to see what you’re interested in revisiting, and how each of you makes the most of your second chances. As always, you know where to send any questions you might have.

~Mod [ @3smuth​ ]

Resubmit your memories: > HERE <

And don’t forget our Discord: > HERE <

[inventors-fair]

What makes a good gift?

~

Will everyone get a chance? I designed Incantations of Kagemaro to be a control-themed draw engine that you can either take to your grave or work to your advantage. Bounce it around all you want, but someone will run out of cards, and someone will have to pay the price. It all comes down to how much you’re willing to put in to card advantage.

Will someone be punished for a gift? @thatboonguy​ designed Absurd Overgrowth for that purpose, as a blessing and a horrendous choice, a limit to how much you want to grow.

Will there be gifts to go around? Sapkeep Sikkits by @teaxch​ may be on-the-nose in the name and flavor text, HMPH, but it refuses to be anything but extreme in its control. Take it, swing it, give it back. What are you building around? Is the card you’re designing made to head a deck like Sapkeep, or it is part of a greater strategy?

What are you willing to give? @3smuth​‘s Mephistopheles in Chains plays a dangerous game. Someone will suffer, or someone will have to find a way to pay. The demon will rise again, and if you don’t find a way to use them, then you’re going to face the consequences.

So, with all that in mind, where does this leave us design-wise? Flavor can be all you want, but even Goatnap had its place in a draft format full of shapeshifters. Punishment is the first aspect of gifts, of course, giving an opponent a contract you can’t get out of, a creature that imposes upon you. But what else can there be? An obstacle? A curse, a real curse?

Here’s something to keep in mind: why is my opponent getting something, and why is this not a curse? What flavor or mechanical specificity prevents it from being a card type that would act in the same way?

Consider, revise, react, approach, and collaborate.

-@abelzumi​