Arceus8523's Bafflem Teaser

A cloaked figure sat at a desk in a small hut. He stared out the window at a strange world. The land he was on ended starkly just a few feet beyond the walls of his abode, floating a couple dozen feet above ground directly below it. A bird flew off in the distance, clearly larger than the figure was tall, and next to it a school of fish swam—through the air! He could see a waterfall on another of these floating land masses, but it flowed upward instead of downward. The figure had no idea how he had gotten to this place, but it wasn’t anything like his home—his home world. He tsked and shook his head in disapproval, and muttered under his breath, “The only sense to this place is that there is none.

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(Image Credit: Tithi Luadthong)

Hello, MTG Cardsmith! I’m excited to say that it’s been nearly five full years since I joined the site. To commemorate my five-year anniversary, I’ve got a custom MTG set to share with you all, and I can tell you I’m very, very excited to share this one. It’s been in development for over a year now as I grappled with how I wanted to tackle everything within. This set is strange, virtually unprecedented, and pushes a lot of traditional MTG design boundaries. Without further ado, let’s get into Bafflem!

Bafflem is a highly unstable plane that occasionally opens up rifts to other worlds that will suck structures, landscapes, and even inhabitants themselves into it. This leads to a world that is a logic-defying “hodgepodge” of all sorts of different landmarks, appearances, and types of life. The world is strange, unpredictable, and largely lacks the sort of “common sense” functionality of the “real world” we as the players are a part of. Bafflem’s aesthetic is targeted at being a surrealist/abstract world. Players should feel like their games of Magic are taking place in a chaotic world, one unlike any they’ve ever seen.

This strange and unorthodox feel isn’t just represented in Bafflem’s art, but in its mechanics as well. The original inspiration for the set was Time Spiral block, and thus this set is highly and unapologetically complex, moreso than any other set I have designed or will design (and possibly moreso than any official MTG set). Bafflem is in part a way for me as a cardsmith to experiment with all sorts of new and unique effects that will undoubtedly polarize (but also hopefully excite) players. That being said, I want to note that it is very unlikely every idea within it will be successful, and frankly the experimentation in this set is rather akin to the experimentation in Ikoria. Furthermore, as is true when I announce any of my sets, this is still merely a first draft of the set and things will likely change and iron out once I can start playtesting it. I don’t expect this set to enter into my eventual custom-standard (Stay tuned for that, by the way!) until months, if not a year plus, after the format launches. All that being said, Bafflem is strange, Bafflem is a huge design risk for me, but I sincerely hope Bafflem is exciting and truly unlike anything the MTCGS community has ever seen.

However, all that being said, Bafflem is not going to just have its set link dropped right away in this post, as I would normally do when launching a set. This time, I’m actually going to have a spoiler season! That begins today with my Mark-Rosewater-style teaser of the set (much like he’s done for new sets since Ikoria). As with official Mark Rosewater set teasers, these are tiny hints and partial information of the set.

Comments


  • First up, here are some things you can expect:
    • A new evergreen keyword
    • The highest toughness on any creature in any Magic set in any border color ever
    • The lowest power on any creature in any Magic set in any border color ever
    • The highest power on any common creature in any Magic set in any border color ever
    • A four-mana modal spell with the modes “Tap target creature,” “Counter target spell,” Draw a card,” and “Return target nonland permanent to its owner’s hand”
    • An enchantment that gives all your creatures an evergreen keyword
    • A single card with a new permanent type
    • A three-mana 3/3 creature with three evergreen keywords, three words in its name, three words of flavor text, three creatures types, and is the third card in the set numbering
    • A card that can enter a zone no previous card has been able to enter in a game of standard
    • Seven functional reprints of cards that have never been legal for sanctioned tournament play outside of draft
    • A colorshift of a popular commander card
    • A card that can unambiguously copy “enter the battlefield” effects
    • A “bordershift” of a silver-bordered card (e.g. Flame Spill had a virtually identical effect to Super-Duper Death Ray)
    • A card that references the stack
    • Two 1/0 creatures with no ways to give themselves toguhness.
    • A card that can return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield for 2 mana
    • A card that has the potential to create upwards of ten tokens at once
    • A creature with an ability that lets you reveal it from your opening hand
    • Red enchantment hate
    • A one-mana card that can destroy any land
    • Impulse draw (“exile the top card of your library. Until end of turn, you may play that card) at common
    • A three-color legendary creature that references a tribe which has gotten no previous support
    • A nonplaneswalker card that can give you an emblem.
    • A reprint of a popular enchantment for planeswalker decks in commander
    • An enchantment that can copy a subset of triggered abilities that has never been able to be copied before (except with Strionic Resonator, of course)
    • A planeswalker that can temporarily turn itself into a land
    • A reprint of a rare from Coldsnap
    • A functional reprint of a different rare from Colsnap, except it’s legendary
    • A creature that is a +1/+1 lord for a tribe that doesn’t appear on any cards in the set
    • A card that changes where you draw cards from
    • The largest numbered scry ever put a card
    • A nonblue Sphinx
    • A reprint of a legendary creature which didn’t previously have a named home plane
    • A card that can replace all instances of one word with another
    • A two-mana artifact that can potentially tap for one mana of any color
    • A one-mana artifact with an ability that adds two colorless mana
    • A new moxen
    • A functional reprint of a card from an unreleased, official, work-in-progress set over twenty years old
  • edited November 2020
    As I said previously, Bafflem is a world that can suck inhabitants of other planes into it. Bafflem features a cycle showcasing such misfortune individuals, including:
    • A Kitsune from Kamigawa.
    • A Homunculus from Ravnica
    • A Horror from New Phyrexia
    • A Steamflogger from Bablovia
    • An oracle from Theros
    • A monster from Ikoria
    Here are snippets of rules text you’ll see:
    • “can’t have or gain abilities not printed on it.”
    • “as long as your life total has changed this turn.”
    • ”each time it has entered the command zone.”
    • ”where X is the number of permanents attached to...”
    • ”it has the indicated ability.”
    • ”spells and effects that count the number of creatures you control”
    • ”If all lands you control are Plains…”
    • ”repeat the following process X times…”
    • ”outside the game”
    • ”sideboard”
    • ”treat it as though it’s on the battlefield”
    • ”as though it doesn’t exist.”
    • ”Choose a phase.”
    • ”if a land you control hasn’t left the battlefield this turn”
    • ”Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from the battlefield…”
    • ”4 minus that creature’s power.”
    • ”lowest life total among opponents”
    • ”then mill your library.”
    • ”Flying, deathtouch, lifelink”
    • ”loses all card types and abilities”
    • ”...would be returned from your graveyard to your hand…”
    • ”1/2 blue Bird creature token with flying.”
    • “unmarked conditions”
    • ”Your life total is represented by…”
    • ”instead mill a card”
    • ”Enchant creature card in your graveyard”
    • ”become red sorceries”
    • ”roll two six-sided dice”
    • ”cleanup step”
    • ”At the start of your turn, if you control ten or more damaged creatures…”
    • ”Put each card you own in exile”
    • ”for each 1 life your opponents have lost this turn.”
    • ”two cards at random”
    • ”that land deals 1 damage”
    • ”Each blocked creature you control with no creatures blocking it”
    • ”Exile all cards from your library face down.”
    • ”Elk”
    • ”green monocolored creature card”
    • ”twice that many”
    • ”face down onto the battlefield instead of into your hand as it resolves.”
    • ”+2/+2 counters”
    • ”merge into the creature on top”
    • ”Creatures you control lose all abilities”
    • ”each land untapped this way.”
    • ”land token”
    • ”Whenever a nontoken enchantment…”
    • ”If you would scry…”
    • ”Enchant player”
    • ”You can’t play basic lands.”
    • ”At the beginning of each of your steps and phases...”
    • ”13 plus X”
    • ”13 minus X”
    • ”other than a player’s hand or library.”
    • ”if that creature has an ability that would trigger when it dies”
    • ”for each colored mana symbol in that creature’s casting cost”
    • ”alternative cost”
    • ”that total twice that number.”
    • ”target Antelope, Elk, Goat, Rhino, Sheep, or Cat Beast”
  • Here are some snippets of reminder text you’ll see:
    • (...an Aura card in your hand.)
    • (If you would leave the battlefield…)
    • (Auras with nothing to enchant remain in your graveyard.)
    • (It’s a 2/2 creature.)
    • (...into your graveyard from whatever zone it’s in.)
    • (...You may turn a creature face up any number of times for its morph cost; it will still be face-down.)
    • (...The phases are beginning phase, precombat main phase, combat phase, postcombat main phase, and ending phase.)
    • (Then, resolve it as if it has been cast…)
    • (...“Until end of turn” and “this turn” effects don’t end.)
    • (...multiple instances of lifelink…)
    • (on the stack)
    And the set features designs, characters, and collaborations from:
    Well, I hope you all are as excited as I am for this. Spoilers for Bafflem begin on my fifth anniversary here on MTGCS, Monday, November 9th! I will post a link here to the spoiler thread once it’s up, and if you would like to pinged (with an @) when new spoilers are announced, don’t be afraid to drop a comment on this thread or the spoiler thread once it’s up. Trust me, this set is crazy (hopefully in all the best ways), and you won’t want to miss your chance to flame me for my horrible design decisions this! Thanks to everyone who read this far, and see you all soon with the first spoilers!
  • Heehee I've already seen the full set in its glory >:)
  • edited November 2020
    He has
  • Fblthp is the Homunculus. Bet. 
  • this definitely seems interesting... can't wait to see!
  • I've seen snippets of it already. I'm excited and will probably propose drafting it on untap to my playgroup, if you can get it set up there, @Arceus8523.
  • @Ranshi
    That is indeed the current plan ^^
  • @Arceus8523

    This is grand. I have seen one card from the set, (*giggling*), but I really would like to see more. Could you ping me when spoilers are revealed?
  • I've already figured out the bordershift card because you already spoiled that it's effects are here. 

    https://scryfall.com/card/unh/21/staying-power

    Honestly, I am kind of surprised that this kind of effect hasn't been used yet, though it's probably too confusing to keep track of.
  • Looks very weird. 
  • Just gonna bump this since spoilers will be starting tomorrow
  • Sorry for the delay on Bafflem's debut. The debut is taking much longer than I expected to prepare and I want to ensure everything is as exciting as possible for the set's launch. I am expecting everything to be ready before the end of the night.
  • Um... so what happened?
  • @joemamajoe

    The debut project has been taking longer than expected, this on top of an unexpectedly busy week IRL and some personal matters I had to attend to first. I'm trying to finish up the debut project, and I'm pretty close to done, but things got more hectic than I expected.
This discussion has been closed.