Let's develop cards for my set!

Thatcardartist7Thatcardartist7
edited April 2017 in Custom Card Discussion
Since I don't currently have premium available (yet) and I'm trying to make a dramatic return to the community, I figured I should host my first challenge! The challenge is for you to help me develop a new plane Ghettash. The entire plane itself is a large city ruled by 3 criminal factions.

The Alterra, founded by a group of mages with the intent of creating a city to observe and experiment on in order to obtain as much knowledge as possible. Primarily mages and artificers, though enforcers exist within their ranks.

The Glatorians, known for there utter ruthlessness, are a group of thugs with no other intent but to rule the city and obliterate the opposing factions. They almost exclusively think short term and don't have a definite end goal.

The Hultaria, a faction operating similarly to the mafia, are intelligent, organized criminals. They also happen to be the biggest of all the factions. Not one person on the plane truly doesn't fear them.

There are, of course, those who would rather not choose a side. Just simple shopkeepers, tailors, and smiths who would just like to live normal lives. These deserve praise too. Please attempt to be accurate with the wording of your text (I'm a little picky with that). If wording isn't your strongpoint, I can remake the card myself, giving credit to the origional creator. This will be a perfectly viable contest until I announce otherwise. I advise that you stay involved in all three discussions. This allows for you to stay informed and for me to not repeat myself

Note: this discussion is specifically for the cards. The other discussions linked here
Lore/Name: http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/2759/anyone-have-a-plane-name-how-about-lore#latest
Mechanics/factions: http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/2759/anyone-have-a-plane-name-how-about-lore#latest
Voting: http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/2765/voting-poll-set-name#latest

Comments

  • CrediusCredius
    is there a story behind the plane and set or is this still an open discussion (lore does help with creating cards for a set)
  • GelectrodeGelectrode
    edited April 2017
    For the Gladiators, focusing on short-term goals and violence:

    image
  • MilaMila
    An Alterra Artificer, that can repair nearly anything, using parts of other artifacts to rebuild destroyed destroyed artifacts.

    image
  • LujikulLujikul
    All I can think about is how 2/3 of this plane sounds like Greece.
  • MagicChessMagicChess
    @Thatcardartist7, are there specific colors for each faction?
    And I'd like to re-ask @Credius 's question: Are you going to supply us with more lore, or do you want us to create the story based on our cards?
  • Thatcardartist7Thatcardartist7
    Thank you all! I see that I neglected to mention the mana allignments for each faction. The Alterra are comprised of mainly blue and white with a side of red, the glatorians are red and green with a side of black, while the hultaria are primarily black and white with a very small amount of red. As for Credius, I don't already have a story formed. The idea of the contest was that the plane would form as we went on. So I assume it's an open discussion. I suppose if you have an idea for lore you could just post it here and we'll go from there?
  • MagicChessMagicChess
    @Thatcardartist7, thanks!
  • pstmdrnpstmdrn
    Are you opposed to returning mechanics? Extort seems great for the Mafia faction.
  • ningyounkningyounk
    Here's three questions to help you foresee problems for your set:

    1) How do you intend to deal with this colour imbalance in your factions?
    W: Main colour of two factions
    U: Main colour of one faction
    B: Main colour of one faction and secondary colour of another faction
    R: Main colour of one faction and secondary colour of the two other factions
    G: Main colour of one faction

    2) What is the mechanical focus of each faction?

    3) What is the theme of your set? Can you give us a logline fr your set?
  • CrediusCredius
    I reckon this is probably the balance of the factions:

    Alterra is basically the mental/artificial faction, using high amounts of counters, tapping, milling and artifacts.

    Glatorians as the name suggests are aggro and ramping, using lots of direct damage, floating damage and heavy hitters.

    Hultaria as a more maffia based faction would suggest relies heavily on weakening and destroying, probably with deathtouch prevalent for its assasins and such.

    I do see that with the imbalance, certain aspects may be left out, however it wouldn't be the first time a plane or set has a major imbalance (the lorwyn/shadowmoor block/plane for instance was divided in sets that showed how imbalanced the plane was during both times)

    There's also again the point that a set/plane actually can't fully exist or live up to its full potential without a story/lore to base off the mechanics and planeswalkers/legendaries which tend to be the main characters/secondary anta/protagonists in the lore.

    @Thatcardartist7 , I would advice opening a seperate discussion in the custom sets and discuss each seperate thing: the plane (and it's name, balance, etc) the factions (mechanics, linkbacks to plane discussion, etc) and the lore itself (characters, history, result and if necessary the impact of it on the main story if you want it to be connected to it...)
  • Thatcardartist7Thatcardartist7
    Thank you all for the suggestions. My proposed solution to the color imbalance was that first, the un-aligned denizens of the plane were my temporary fixer. One possible solution that came to mind, was perhaps in the second expansion (I plan to have three) a few new factions could rise from the citizen's ideals. Perhaps a group of rebels and a religious order or even some kind of nature cult. I do plan on opening new discussions. That already came to mind when I realized how crowded this discussion would become. As for the "theme", I don't quite understand what you mean. Perhaps you can clarify. I also do not at all oppose returning mechanics. The previously mentioned nature cult could very possibly have awaken or landfall. I would like to come up with two central mechanics for each faction, 1 returning, 1 origional.
  • ningyounkningyounk
    @Thatcardartist7 When I'm talking about theme, I'm talking about what makes your set original, what does it do that differenciates it from other sets? Here are examples:
    Amonkhet: Graveyard set based on ancient Egypt
    Kaladesh: Optimistic artifact set where you play as an inventor
    Innistrad: Graveyard set based on gothic Horror
    Zendikar: Land-matters set featuring lovecraftian monsters
    Tarkir: Dragon set with three blocks articulated around a unique time-shifting structure
    Theros: Enchantment set based on ancient roman and greek mythology
    Etc...

    So, what makes your set special? Can you give a logline (sell us your set in one sentence)?
  • Thatcardartist7Thatcardartist7
    I don't have the set that well fleshed out yet. My hopes is that the theme will form as the community creates the set's lore. I appreciate all of the help. Please redirect any more advice you have to the proper discussion. Not to sound rude.
  • Thatcardartist7Thatcardartist7
    edited April 2017
    obviously comparisons can be made to this and ravnica and as far as I can tell ravnica had no theme. In fact, it's theme is diversity, which I guess is what I was going for in a sense.
  • ningyounkningyounk
    @Thatcardartist7 Ravnica's theme is a multicolour set based on bicoloured guilds ;) If you compare it to another multicolour set you will see the theme is actually quite strong ^^ For instance Khans of Tarkir is also a multicolour set but based on tricoloured factions, you would agree they feel very different thanks to their respective themes. Some core sets have no themes though, yes ^^

    What is the proper discussion for creative and design comments? Mechanics and factions?
  • modnation675modnation675
    edited April 2017
    @Thatcardartist7
    You may want to delve further before deciding to make a set, as it's easy to do badly. But difficult to do well.

    To make a fully developed set you might want to look over recent sets more thoroughly to see their framework. Then if you can't see a framework other than diversity, you need to take a further look thematically and mechanically until you can. Especially as all sets have a firm guideline, even Future Sight ironically.

    Hopefully your set goes well and we'd like to join in when you have further details that you may elaborate on. (Eg. creature types, multi-color plans, and what things you don't want in the set) This is incredibly important as knowing your preferences as well as boundaries accelerates development of the cards drastically.
  • DecaldorDecaldor
    For the Hultaria:
    image
    I'm thinking that there could be more cards on the Hultaria side that deal with tax counters to make this card more powerful.
  • Thatcardartist7Thatcardartist7
    Thank you all you all once again. @ningyounk I guess that the proper discussion depends on the comment. As for your last comment, that would likely go in lore actually. I suppose I should make it obvious that it's not exclusively lore, but also general set ideas not relating to the cards themselves. @modnation675 I apologize for my near-sighted comment earlier. I wasn't truly thinking about what the theme may be. It was just a comment of the top of my head. @Decaldor great card! You are correct to assume that the taxation counters will be popular in the hultaria. That's exactly the kind of card I'd like to see. Keep it up!
  • DecaldorDecaldor
    I think this is an interesting card for the Alterra:
    image
  • Faiths_GuideFaiths_Guide
    image
  • Thatcardartist7Thatcardartist7
    @Decaldor I like it, though it could very easily be abused. How you ask? Artifacts. That and possibly the generic cards introduced by @Faiths_Guide. I believe it should say colored permanents. Though that would then cripple lands.
  • OdogomOdogom
    edited April 2017
    I liked what Decaldor had. Something like this maybe.
    imageimage
  • Thatcardartist7Thatcardartist7
    I prefer the first version. Very good design! Once again, keep it up!
  • OdogomOdogom
    edited April 2017
    @Thatcardartist7 Thank you. Yeah the first one was the actual idea, and the second was thinking I should try and use tax counters.

    image
    This is a maybe card, how a conspire-like ability might be used and how it might make use of the unaligned creatures.
  • Thatcardartist7Thatcardartist7
    I don't think citizen would become an actual creature type. Please note that I'm not sure if intelligent zombies will exist in the Hultaria. Though slave-like zombies definetly do.
  • Thatcardartist7Thatcardartist7
    ANNOUNCEMENT

    I'm making a huge change. The Hultaria are going to be aligned with blue rather than red. This is to avoid color imbalance a little more, as well as add a more intelligence based statute on the Hultaria.
  • Thatcardartist7Thatcardartist7
    edited April 2017
    i have decided that elves will be absent from the plane. This is to make room for more exotic races, and to simply make the plane a little more unique.
This discussion has been closed.