I Have a Theory

Hagra Diabolist is That Guy. Prove me wrong:

what a tool

Need a post here!

Yes, a shameless TF2 reference. I got it yesterday off Steam and I'm preparing to play it tonight.

But enough about TF2. This is a magic blog!

So today, I'm going to introduce a new mechanic: Resonate. It's a psudeo mechanic, which means it does different things on each guy. Here's an example:

Reis is special because he doesn't have to be built around, like most of the resonate guys that I've created. I like the concept of resonate, but it feels like a very limited mechanic, like the "C.M.C. six or greater" thing from Scourge, only dumber, since this has to be the exact same C.M.C. So I'm trying to figure out how to make it work better. I'm wondering if I should make a guy that can change the C.M.C. of spells so that you can actually build a resonate deck, or spells with variable mana costs...I dunno.

Let's hear what you people think.

OH FUCK

It doesn't even stay within bounds but FUCK FUCK FUCK

No Way

What the hell, Wizards?

I MADE intimidate. I even CALLED it intimidate.

True, it's sort of the next logical step and lots of Magic design people don't like fear and intimidate is a pretty obvious name, but I'm still going berserk here.

Card of the Day - Worldscorch

There's not a whole lot here. The name I originally used for this card was "Yet Another Burn Spell" and that tells you pretty much everything you need to know about it. It's possible that this should be rare, but I feel like it's the sort of thing that you want to be able to run multiple of in draft. For when you hit 10 mana, you know. 10 mana, 10 damage. Nice.

Original Art

Metamorphosis Prerelease Card(s)

I promised a special treat. I lied.

Metamorphosis has been going on for a while, hasn't it? Quite a few cards. Quite a few. There have been a couple from Al's set, a couple from Nameless One's set, a couple from Shore Snapper's set, a couple from Utopia, but many more from Metamorphosis. About time we found out what the prerelease card is, no? Or, rather, the five prerelease cards. Remember that cycle of dual lands from Multiverse? Well, turns out they're in Metamorphosis now. Also, they are the prerelease cards.

This is a terrible idea, by the way. Either event coordinators would have to pass out a copy of each to every person or they would have to find some way of determining which to give to each person. Put them all in a bag and draw one out? There'd be disappointment there, maybe a bit of feeling cheated, if you didn't get the one you want. Disappointment is a terrible thing for a prerelease card to be associated with.

Regardless, here are the cards:



Familiar, no?




Hey, new art! Snazzy!




Snore




...snore?




I'm actually somewhat sleepy.




Still, these are pretty cool.




My least favorite art and least favorite name of the originals.




My least favorite art and least favorite name of the new ones.




So much better than Hermit's Hovel.




Eh. This one isn't great, but at least it's not Jungle Ravine. It was a little tricky to find art to match the name.

Original Art:
Placid Canal 1
Placid Canal 2
Shardcrown Lair 1
Shardcrown Lair 2
Bandit Camp 1
Bandit Camp 2
Jungle Ravine 1
Jungle Ravine 2
Hermitage 1
Hermitage 2

Land Friday

A couple of weeks overdue. No matter.

I've got a special treat for all you Land Friday fanatics out there (i.e. myself). I'll post it later today or sometime tomorrow or a month from now. Cheers!

Original Art

Card of the Day - Clean the Slate

Remember that you can do stuff in between the preview ability resolving and the spell itself resolving. Patron of the Orochi?

By the way, did I mention that it's really hard to find good art for Wrath of God effects? Because it is. Eventually I settled on a piece that shows the aftermath of such a spell but I'm not entirely satisfied with it.

Original Art

Card of the Day - Lightning Strike

Good thing preview resolves before the spell itself. I suppose you could always counter it, but you should really just wait to play this until it'll win you the game.

Original Art

Card of the Day - Strzyga

Preview is a triggered ability. It works (theoretically) much like the Demon's Horn cycle of artifacts. When you cast a spell with preview, the spell goes on the stack and then the preview ability goes on the stack. It is important to note that the preview ability goes on the stack after the actual spell and will thus resolve first. It's also important to note that preview doesn't care about whether the spell resolves or not. Even if the spell is countered, preview shit still goes down (unless your opponent Stifles it).

Preview is like Threshold, Channel, Sweep, Radiance, Hellbent, Grandeur, Kinship, Chroma, Domain, and (yes) Gotcha - a pseudo keyword. None of these actually means anything by itself; all of them are simply ways of grouping a similar complex ability that appears on multiple cards. All pseudo keywords are in italics and are followed by a dash. They are used for abilities that do similar things (or have similar ways of doing things) but do not have an identical effect on cards.

Preview (and most of the others listed above) could have been made a standard keyword. Here's how it would have looked:

Preview - Target player sacrifices a creature (when you cast this spell, target player sacrifices a creature.)

That's fine, I suppose, but it's kinda clunky. Less elegant, if you would. There are times when repeating yourself word for word is a good thing, but this is not one of them.

Oh, and please don't ask me how to pronounce Strzyga. I don't know and would be pretty damn embarrassed if somebody called me on that. That was the name of the art. I liked it so I lifted it.

Preview's kinda tricky to explain flavor-wise. The omen route worked pretty well for this guy (at least as far as I'm concerned), but Shardcrown Brute was just a complete bust. What are those ghosts doing there?

Original Art

Card of the Day - Shardcrown Brute

Ow. Fuck. I needed that leg.

Original Art - Shardcrown Brute

Happy now, Shore Snapper?

Card of the Day - Incurable Bloodmage

Bloodmites are a very tasty snack but I have not seen them at any point since the time when I left Grixis. I do not understand why this is so! The levels of taste and nutrition of the bloodmite are very high and a bloodmite is not a difficult thing to make. I entered a Tesco store and looked in the many aisles but I could not find even a very small bloodmite. When I was upset and asked for help from an employee that person was very rude and only screamed and screamed. The manager was the next person to also be rude. She said to me that I could not be in the Tesco because I was not wearing any shoes and also held a dead bird in my mighty jaws. The bird was not dead at the time when I entered and it must have become that way at some point but I had not noticed. Both of these things are unhygienic is what she said. It was an embarrassing time!

Original Art

Card of the Day - Manifesting Dreambeast

There have not been cards for many days. I do not understand this! The absence of cards is not a thing that many people would expect when there are also a great many names that call themselves a card of the day. I am saddened. Grell is a human that I try with to have respect for despite his lack of fearsome claws and scaly skin but I am not able to hold respect for him when the behavior he has is a thing that would result in immediate and gruesome death in Grixis. The death would be for him! But I am an ally who is helpful and I am able to perform kindnesses for Grell with a card. I am also an ally who is hungry but Grell says many things like do not do that and spit that out and I'm so ashamed I thought you knew better when I am trying to sate the great ravenousness that I have at some times and I usually listen to him so my hunger remains. I do not understand. We are meant to eat humans. For what other reason would they be constructed primarily of meat?

Original Art

Card of the Every Other Day or Some Such Tomfoolery - Chitinize

Some of you might have noticed that I have been, shall we say, less than punctual with the cards of the day of late. This is because I am a bum. Actually, no. It's because I'm lazy. No excuses (even though I just gave two). My assumption is that once I start up school again full time, I'll keep more regular schedules. Look for that. Late this August. Until then, expect choppy updates and missed days. If I find myself unable to readily update during the school year, I'll probably shift to a M-W-F or Tu-Th-Sa pattern of updates. But don't get your hopes down just yet.

A NOTE TO THE OTHER ENGINEERS: If you feel like submitting any cards, just drop my a line. I'm sure I can fit you into my nonexistent schedule.

Original Art

Card of the Day - Gravesnatch

Hungry, but not dead.

Original Art

Card of the Day - Celestial Armor

Where did all this blood come from?

Original Art

Card of the Day - Guardian Gargoyle

I feel ALIVE!

Original Art

Card of the Day - Memory Muddle

What featured art?

Original Art

P.S. I'm not dead.

Card of the Day - Flycatcher

Remember that time I didn't die? That was now.

This should really be uncommon.

Original Art

Card of the Day - Besiege

Still alive, yo.

Original Art