Some Important Reading

TigersolTigersol
in Custom Card Sets
Hello there! Recently, I have seen a massive spike in Custom Card Set creation, and, as a result, I think it is very important that all those involved in the forums learn how a set is designed. While there are many amazing articles written by Mark Rosewater, I think his greatest series of articles to this day is his Nuts and Bolts series, which breaks down how sets are generally designed. Please keep in mind that the first few articles in this series are very old, and, as a result, contain some outdated elements.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/nuts-bolts-card-codes-2009-01-12-0
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/nuts-bolts-design-skeleton-2010-02-15-0
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/nuts-bolts-filling-design-skeleton-2011-02-28-0
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/nuts-bolts-higher-rarities-2012-02-27-0
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/nuts-bolts-initial-playtesting-2013-02-11-0
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/nuts-bolts-iteration-2014-03-03
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/nuts-bolts-three-stages-design-2015-03-30
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/nuts-bolts-troubleshooting-2016-02-15
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/nuts-bolts-evaluation-2017-02-20
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/nuts-bolts-10-creative-elements-2018-03-26

Anyway, I am not trying to be rude of passive aggressive with this. I merely want to help out people who are designing custom card sets on these forums, and are getting lost in the complexities of it all.

Other things I would suggest for aspiring set designers:
- Listen to MaRo's podcast Drive to Work, which airs twice a week.
- Read MaRo's weekly column Making Magic, which can be found on Magic the Gathering's official web page.
- Check in on MaRo's Tumblr blog Blogatog, which contains insight granted by him answering player's questions.

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