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Renaissance Set — Design Phase
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Perhaps we could even translate this human sculpting into a theme. Removal spells might turn creatures into colorless Statue artifacts and gorgons might interact with Statues and/or make more.
At least let's try the original version first on a couple of cards and see how dark that looks or not ^^ I'll do one as soon as I have the time ^^
I think that trapping people in metal coatings is even worse than turning them to stone........
Anyway, I think it's okay to have some darker themes. Sort of like "inspiration at any cost."
I really think it's just too good of a trope to ignore ^^ It doesn't mean that all statues have to be made by gorgons, but I don't think this is too dark, it's actually quite funny in my opinion x) And optimistic sets still have the occasional Murder and the likes ^^
Other than that, splendid design.
Friends! Romans! Countrymen! Lend me your ears!
I have called you here today to the grand court of Rezatta, to say something that will RESONATE in your soul forever!
And that thing is... bump.
(Should we make playwrights?)
I think the next big step for this set is to create a basis of commons to start playtesting what works or not. I believe I linked the Google sheet where I'm currently trying to reproduce the structure of a real set at common if you're interested? (I'm on my phone right now, can't link it again sorry.) So the most helpful thing you could design is probably commons! Especially ones that naturally help multiple archetypes at once ^^ Once we have that, we can probadly start a new thread to bring in fresh people ^^ Maybe around the Halloween holydays hopefully?
What are playwrights? x)
Scriptwriters and bards, mostly.
Playwrights. Like, um, Shakespeare, or whoever would be bored enough to do that.
Actually, I think playwrights is a great idea! (And yes, our tropes don't only have to come from Italy. XD).
@ningyounk, Sculpting Prodigy is EXACTLY what I had in mind. It's a trope with a bit of dark humor, which is conveyed perfectly by the flavor text.p
@Everyone, we should start making a bunch of commons and uncommons to get some ideas out there and the base of the set down. I have a couple ideas.....
- Psylian life being life, it naturally pushes it more towards Abzan colours (Green/White/Black). I put it into three colours instead of two because it's flashy and new.
- Discover is pretty much locked in Blue/Green as main colours
- Compose is the main mechanic that can go in about any colour. While it's already really tied to Blue/Red, it's probably the other mechanic that needs to appear more heavily in three colours instead of two. The third colour could basically be anything.
- Which leaves us with Rebirth featured more heavily in two colours. The problem is that Green/White already has an overlapping mechanic in Psylian life.
Now based on these restrictions, if we want to balance the mechanics between each colours, I think the best way of doing it would actually be this:
Psylian life: Abzan (Green/White/Black)
Compose: Grixis (Blue/Black/Red)
Discover: Simic (Green/Blue)
Rebirth: Boros (Red/White)
It doesn't mean that those mechanics can't appear in other colours, it's just a way of saying where they are going to be more important, so each colour can feel different.
It does shake the archetype grid a little. Here's a try at a revised version, let me know what you think:
List of changes:
- The Midrange Rebirth archetype goes from GW to RW.
- RG Go Tall would probably feel too close to how RW Rebirth is likely going to play, so I pushed it into Go Wide instead.
- GW picks up a new Group Hug archetype? (I just thought it could be original, and help the set feel optimistic.)
- RW now being Midrange now shakes the balance of two other archetypes:
a) WB Psylian life goes from Midrange to Control (definitely a bet for this one)
b) UR Compose goes from Control to Disruptive Aggro (which actually makes much more sense)
What do you think of this plan? This way each colour has two main mechanics while they can still dip in the other ones:
WHITE: Psylian life & Rebirth
BLUE: Compose & Discover
BLACK: Compose & Psylian life
RED: Compose & Rebirth
GREEN: Psylian life & Discover
And it keeps the archetype grid just as diversified ^^
__________
Random design to go with it: An Outnumber with Compose to go with both the UR Compose and GR Go Wide archetypes, and a try at a blue common that gains you psylian life (the idea behind the flavour is that psylian life represents inspiration/creativity, and you can finally get some once you get rid of everyone and have some calm to think.)
It's quite grindy to get this first basis of commons because there's a billion things to balance (number of creatures, size, how many cards caring about each archetype, about set themes like life, level of evasion, number of removal, mandatory staples, etc...), it can look like not that much to do when you look at only 19 cards, but most of the work is actually dissecting existing sets to understand how things interact with each other ^^ Once this is done it will become possible to actually play test the environment and get an actual taste of each theme and mechanic.
Right now, we should probably enjoy the time break in the design, since it's when people get back to it with fresh eyes that we usually make the most progress ^^ The next big phase where we get to serisouly kick the project back on the rails should probably be when we have enough cards in the skeleton to actually playtest the set. This will probably be the occasion to open a new fresh thread that's not almost-20-pages long to draw in some new blood
That said, don't shy away from posting a concept card from time to time if you ever get an idea
This goes with the thematic concept I proposed a while ago that suggests that faeries are connected to the essence of the Muses.
DAYDREAMER
1W
Creature-Human 1/1
When Daydreamer enters the battlefield, you gain 2 psylian life.
ART THIEF
1UB
Creature-Human Rogue 1/2
Whenever Art Thief deals combat damage to a player, Compose 2.
SERENADE
1W
Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. If you paid Serenade's mana cost with mana produced by psylian life, put two +1/+1 counters on that creature instead.
CARDNAME
2BB
Creature-Gorgon Artist 2/2
Deathtouch
Whenever CARDNAME deals combat damage to a creature, create a colorless 0/3 Statue artifact creature with defender.
@MagicChess
Daydreamer: I really like the name, it's a cool flavour ^^
Art Thief: Very flavourful but tricky since you won't be able to attack with the token. It could work as long as it stays at higher rarities to avoid confusing players. Adding an ability requiring to sacrifice a creature could also help guide the players ^^
Serenade: It's tricky to track where the mana comes from. I think the right way to do it would be to give it a alternative cost asking you to pay psylian life directly. Something like "For each generic mana in CARDNAME's cost, you may pay 2 psylian life instead." and "If you paid psylian life to cast CARDNAME, additional effect."
The Gorgon: Damn that's flavourful, I love it!
The link to the Discovered cycle.
It doesn't look like it at first but there's a very specific reason that a card like this was in this specific set. It introduced the mechanic Surge, and a one mana instant was one of the best ways to enable it. So even cantrips must have a reason to be in a set ^^
Additionally, I think we should avoid the word "Discover" on cards that don't have the mechanic Discover for the set. Actually, since Discover is our card-draw-smoothing mechanic and a cycle of cantrips basically would be an answer to the set lacking card-draw-smoothing, maybe it would be a good idea to replace "Draw a card" by "Discover [Something specific]"? This way the cycle could feel more relevant to this specific set ^^
(Also, how do you post images of actual cards? I don't know how XD)
http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/2584/brief-guide-to-uploading-linked-pictures-images-in-comments-w-visual-aid#latest