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.

It's All Aesthetics, Really

Just finished looking through M10 on gatherer. Some thoughts on cards:

Centaur Courser - The art is pretty cool, but it should still be a Nessian.
Deathmark - Like the art, especially the black mana symbol where the pupil should be. Is this the first time a mana symbol has shown up in card artwork?
Doom Blade - Like the art, still don't like the name.
Excommunicate - The old flavor text was better and would still fit in M10. They should have kept it.
Fabricate & Rod of Ruin - Saldrath is really good at magic.
Flashfreeze - Love the flavor text
Illusionary Servent - Really like the art
Lifelink - What is going on here?
Manabarbs - Kamahl knows what's up. No legendaries in M10, it seems.
Mind Control - This art is terrible.
Naturalize - They should have used the Shards of Alara art. It was better.
Ornithopter - Like the art. The flavor text isn't new, but it seems oddly appropriate.
Ponder - Like the new art except for the face.
Prodigial Pyromancer - Uncommon now. Is it just me, or does the text seem a little bolder on M10 cards than on their Tenth Edition versions?
Serpent of the Endless Sea - Really like the art. The name seems like something Shore Snapper would come up with.
Sign in Blood - Love the art, love the card. I want to see someone lose to this thing.
Time Warp - LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN! In the water? I don't understand.
Unsummon - Why does this Esperite only have four fingers? That bugs me so much. It's like how Suntail Hawk has four legs for some reason.
Veteran Armorsmith & Veteran Weaponsmith - I like cards that share art, especially when that art is good.
Weakness - Rude
Whispersilk Cloak - Like the art
Wind Drake - Hate the art

That is all.

Card of the Day - Cull

This card is coming. Wizards will print it or some equivalent. Two mana (same color) straight-up destroy a creature. It may take five years, it may take twenty, it may take even more but I guarantee this card is coming.

Just like a vanilla one mana 1/3. Mark my words.

Original Art

An Outside View

If you're interested at all in card design, you should read what Mark Rosewater has to say. As Magic Head Designer, he knows what he's talking about. My ideas on card design are almost entirely gleaned from Rosewater's writing.

His latest article is a particularly good one. He talks about various cards and just dispenses design wisdom and it's all grand. I'd like to talk about two of these cards that have me (somewhat) on the defensive now.

Finest Hour
I was all prepared to rip this card a new one with color critique. Now I'm glad I waited. Looking at this card, I had lost the trees for forest. I was so focused on the fact that it was so similar to Relentless Assault that I didn't look at the component parts. While I still don't entirely agree with the color scheme, I understand the reasoning behind it better now. The really important thing that this reinforces is that a team of designers is better than any of those designers on his/her own.

Intimidation Bolt
I am an amateur designer, and I am keen to stress form over flavor. But I do this because I am an amateur designer. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of people making fake magic cards. There are a lot of fantastic ideas out there. And there are also a lot of terrible-looking cards. These cards look bad because their creators use strange phrases in jumbled text-boxes and hold on so hard to their flavorful ideas that they refuse to let them go when they can't find the right wordings. Many cards end up looking like something from the early days of Magic - a wonderful idea hidden behind a confusing mass of ugly text. That's why I feel the form of a fake card is so important. In almost all cases, the flavor is already there.

Card of the Day - Fell Banishing, Impromptu Revival, Worldmoss

Confession time. I did not create reclaim. I discovered it during a brief stint on the MTG Salvation forums. Someone else had created a fair few intelligent, well-designed cards with it and I thought, "this is just what I need for Chicken." Chicken, the codename of the first set in the Chicken block (followed by Noodle and Soup) had a land-matters theme. A mechanic that messed around with lands would be a welcome addition. So, being the well-mannered individual that I am, I politely sent the creator a message asking if I could use his mechanic. This was a nicety. I did not have to do it. Only Wizards of the Coast has copyrights for cards and mechanics. But I wanted to be thoughtful and to honor the collective illusion of control, and to give him a chance to feel good about graciously granting my request. The response I received was anything but polite. It informed me that I could use reclaim but that I was not to display any cards I created with it. Although it granted permission, it did so grudgingly. This guy seemed insulted that I should even notice this mechanic he had revealed in the public domain for all to see, let alone request to use it. Well, I'm violating his terms. I've been able to use reclaim since the second I laid eyes on it, permission or not. Reclaim's creator is a smart fella and a good designer. But that doesn't give him permission to be rude.

NOTA BENE: None of my cards or mechanics or names or what-have-you belong to me. Not reclaim, not fervor, not portend, not anything. Only the art has some ownership attached to it, and none of it's mine. Even if I did have control over these things, I would encourage people to use them. Collaboration (even when not actually working together) fosters creativity. Just look at growing (the mechanic Shenafu based on doublethink). And look at the new way I'm using reclaim:




Reclaim is one of those things that gives me difficulty when judging the power level. So I'm not sure if Fell Banishing is good or if it's terrible or if it's just mediocre. But I am sure that it's neat. And yes, the discard triggers for both spells if you reclaimed a swamp.




This is exactly the sort of card I railed against during Shadowmoor. Sure, white does get some zombify effects, and green does get some raise dead effects, but mono-green doesn't get zombify. Because of cards like Temple Garden and Hermit's Hovel, you can get 3 Plains in a mono-green deck. It is better than hybrid in that you HAVE to have some way to get white mana to get its white ability, but it irks me that you don't actually have to use that mana.

But I'm getting too serious about this. After all, Magic is just a game (and these cards aren't even real).




What do we do with games? We win them! Twice!

EDIT: The original version let you win the game without actually reclaiming any lands. While certainly amusing, it was slightly overpowered. The problem has been subdued.

I just lost the game.

Original Art - Fell Banishing
Original Art - Impromptu Revival
Original Art - Worldmoss

Card of the Day - Wish Away

It is frustratingly difficult to find card images. Assuming you've managed to pin down one that has the appropriate fantasy flavor (which is no small task), you still have a number of factors to consider. Is it copyrighted? If so, you'd best start your search again. Will it fit into the image box? Unlikely. Most pictures are taller than they are wide, so you'll almost certainly be cropping off pieces of your beautiful find. Sometimes this ruins the art, making it unfit for the card.
Oh, and were you thinking of making a Vedalken? A Viashino? How about even a Merfolk? Good luck. Humans, humans, humans, it's all about humans (understandably, as all the artists are human, the other races being imaginary). Still, it makes having a diverse creature-base a bit difficult. If you search on DeviantArt, you'll probably manage on elves (although some may be a bit WoWy) and you'll be fine for goblins. You will have more dragons than you'll know what to do with. Angels, Mosters, Demons, and grotesque horrors will all be easy to locate. Most everything else will be a trial. God forbid you want a tribal theme. There is extreme color-bias in DeviantArt as well. The people there are a macabre lot, on the whole, and it shows. Black art is easy to find. It practically finds itself. No trouble there. Red art is also pretty easy as long as you only want goblins and burn. What little white art I've found has all been dully similar - dudes with swords, armor, and a noble expression. Blue soaks up all the wizards you find, strange possible-counterspelly pictures, and most of the weird stuff that didn't make it into black and red. Green is a nightmare. Nobody draws insects, spiders, and bears. And to find what little fantasy art of such creatures there is, you have to slog through page upon page of pictures. Bloody pictures. And don't even try looking for green spells. As if the color-bias weren't enough, there's also a terrible creature bias. Nobody wants to draw spells. They just aren't as exciting, I guess. But that means that most sets I make are either creatures or spells (like Wish Away) with a creature's art. Wondering why that art didn't go on some Ice Gargoyle or something? Because I have too many of its kind already.

Oh, and this card is for Thursday the 5th.

Original Art

I am Dissapointed at the World in General, but at the People on www.blogger.com in Particular

So out of all the people who read Max's Birthday, I was the only one who liked it enough to list it as a favorite book? Shame on you, world. Max's Birthday is quality literature.

I'm talking, of course, about the original version. With the dragon. The lobster version isn't worth a shit. Way to sell out, Rosemary Wells. You turned my favorite childhood series into a whore for The Man.

I capitalized 'The Man'. Did you see? That was to show you how strongly I feel about this.

Which is very strongly.

I maybe should have made myself more clear.

EDIT: Son of a bitch. I can't find the original Max's Birthday anywhere on the Google. This is just like 1984, only with a children's book about anthropomorphic rabbits. THE TRUTH CANNOT BE SUPPRESSED, ROSEMARY WELLS A.K.A. BIG BROTHER.

EDIT EDIT: I would just like to clarify that Rosemary Wells is not really Big Brother. That was an allusion.