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I had an idea... for a 1,000 card set
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2) a regular block (big/small/small) is in the neighborhood of 600 cards. Therefore a 1,000 card set would be two small blocks - very doable.
3) we should break down the numbers of commons uncommons rares and mythics so we know how many of each will make the cut. I can do it if we know how many cards go in a set, either by block format or overall.
I will put that information on a spreadsheet and then make that available to everyone if that is what people want.
4) the themes are excellent - seasons and holidays. Just marvelous ideas.
5) what new or old mechanics are we going to stress?
6) should we choose creature types to focus on just as our own planes have a dominant color?
7) flavor and creativity come from limiting choices more than expanding them. Working within limits proves to create focused and deep results. Let me stress 5 and 6 again,
8) I also suggest limiting the ancillary card types - maybe even prohibit them entirely.
9) I suggest limiting Legendary creatures and Planeswalkers as well - perhaps something like 10 of each, because a smaller cast of characters is easier to follow and plot around. Small casts create tighter stories than people can understand better.
I would also like to make a lot of green / temur but it appears that green is already quite popular.
Ouphes is a tribe I love but they are underrepresented. They appear most often in green.
We do two small blocks. Each will focus on the main 5 colors, the 10 personal islands, each of which will be small. They will be the guild colors in the first block and the shard and clan colors.
The thematic basis of each island will be a matter of what the corresponding user has contributed to the community or otherwise a well known project of theirs.
For example, @jpastor might be the Izzet island with themes of randomness to represent his most famous contest, the mystery boxes.
For me, I'd be a curse focused island on account of my phobia stuff that I have been doing.
As for the rarity and color distribution, we would need further collaboration, but I do think that this would be a good premise to start with.
@Ranshi I just noticed your post. I think Gaifal is a great name and should be the name of the realm.
Anyone else on board with this name?
-non-premium members use the teacup symbol.
-premium members use the better custom symbol.
The new symbol is great but (like you said) we can't use it.
Although I do agree with scott that adding some kind of restriction helps with creativity and pushing forward.
@Ranshi has the idea of two blocks: One is guilds and the other one is the three-color groups. What a marvelous idea! I will second that!
Each block will have an abundance of complimentary color cards.
Let us say for instance that the two-color block comes first. Just for instance. Then each cardsmith would be responsible for some fraction of the component colors; some gold cards; we can decide whether we use hybrid mana and if so, then some of those; some artifacts; and some lands.
Additionally a cardsmith would be responsible for one legendary or planeswalker which would go into the mythic slot(s).
Then assign color pairs or triples, depending on which block we wish to do first. (Actually I'm getting ahead of myself since we have not decided on the actual color themes)
Then we will decide how many cards will go into each set. For instance we could do 250/125/125, just for instance. (In reality relative rarity is dictated by sheets of 121 cards so that would define the set size but this is just an example.)
Then I will work out the numbers of each kind of card - color and rarity - for each cardsmith to fill. Or we could summon ningyouk to do it properly.
Then we can pick some mechanics out to use and assign them to colors. We can use any of the evergreen mechanics and choose a few deciduous ones, and then surf the Mechanics thread to see what else looks fun.
Then we will make some cards and see how they look in relation to one another in terms of power and flavor. Do we go for Urza's Saga or Mercadian Masques?
Then we can decide whether the set might be draftable. For maximum realism it should be draftable before constructed-worthy, but that is up to everyone.
Granted if everyone joined they would only need to do like 50 cards (which is still quite a bit), and we would have a set. But right its looking like 100 per person, atleast.
Personally, idk if I'm going to do it; i'm sorry. I'm kind of burnt out of it and school is starting soon for me (highschool) so I can't really commit that well. Although a card or two a day while in school, I'd do my part over time, so that's not really an issue I guess.
I'm more into core sets that don't really have a specific color/tribal restrictions; in other words, just a heap of random cards. We all know how good core sets are! (It's sarcasm)
It's a good idea to make tribes/guilds and makes for better sets, but it just doesn't work for me; it's not my specialty. Plus, 1000 is a ton of cards.
I'm going to be working on my own core set slowly over time if I stay interested in the site. But, if you need cards from there, I can donate them to the set. Feel free to use them if you like them. If needed to, I perhaps could remake them if wanted.
Good luck.
We certainly can and should have other users have cards in the set, but those would be of uncommon legendaries, or representative rares. Everyone deserves acknowledgment, but if everyone had an island, we'd easily have in the triple digits. My June Stupidity can attest to that!
I guess we do have the workforce, it was just me being ignorant
I made a big statement that I wasn't going to join in since I thought there was only like 7 people contributing, but I think we can do it then. Ignore the self-centered tone of my previous post.
4 small sets, 121 cards each:
41 commons
41 uncommons
35 rares
4 mythics
2 large sets, 258 cards each
86 commons
86 uncommons
76 rares
10 mythics
So it would go Large-small-small (500) Large-small-small (500)
As far as colors go, it will really depend on what we do for themes. Is this a mixed-color-heavy set, and if so is it hybrid-intensive or is it mostly gold?
What are the themes of the blocks?
What is the story?
Who are the principle characters?
These are all questions I cannot answer.
Supported Jobs/Professions in MtG, in order of popularity (30):
Wizard
Warrior
Soldier
Cleric
Shaman
Knight
Rogue
Druid
Scout
Artificer
Ally
Pirate
Monk
Archer
Berserker
Advisor
Assassin
Spellshaper
Rebel
Mercenary
Minion
Samurai
Barbarian
Nomad
Ninja
Rigger
Spy
Praetor
Monger
Flagbearer
What I noticed is that there is no job/profession representing "commoners."
This is completely out of order honestly but it's something I have been thinking about since I came back to making cards: There ought to be designations for commoners in the city and commoners in the country. I would suggest "mechanic" and "peasant" but there are other possibilities. "heathen" or "bumpkin" for country folks. Or "serf." I don't know. "Citizen" for city folks.
Human
Elf
Goblin
Merfolk
Faerie
Minotaur
Dwarf
Kithkin
Vedalken
Cephalid
Orc
Kor
Ouphe
Gnome
Kobold
Noggle
I suppose all the rest of the tribes would be considered enemies, so there are a lot of those to choose from.
Perhaps I will make up a taxonomy of various kinds of creatures? Plants, Undead, Giant types, and so forth.
IDK, you guys want to use a return of an old set for the theme.?
I remember @Scott_Anderson referencing Urza's Saga and Mercadian Masques. Maybe something something like that could be cool. I've never played older sets, but they seemed interesting as they have slightly-different flavor and way of playing them. People could remake them with a modern touch to them but still keep their original essence. Just a thought though... you guys decide.
I guess we can add new characters and tribes to those previous sets.
"Citizen" sounds good to me.
Although I'm sure we can maybe come up with some new lore instead of revisiting older sets.
Since it's 1000 cards, I'm thinking we just include all creature types Scott mentioned. They all seem interesting and relevant. But, we still focus on a couple as the main theme.
Just my opinion to get people thinking. What does everyone else think?
Looks like Serf, Citizen and Peasant all exist.
@Leaf_Juggernaut The reference to Mercadian Masques and Urza’s Saga were based on the power level of the sets. While Mercadian Masques was a very weak set apart from a few outliers, Urza’s Saga was full of overpowered cards. The theme of islands still seems good for everyone to contribute, but what we actually make there is to be decided.
As for the various tribes, I don't mean to propose anything in particular. I was only sharing some of the research I had done.
If someone would like to take a deeper dive into set sizes and rarities, that would be just fine with me. We could also do two-set blocks at 300/200 (roughly) or even something more exotic like what Legend of the Five Rings did.
@Axnoodle, I knew about the Serf tokens. Are there other Serfs...? No, it appears that there are not.
Still, they exist.
Are there other Citizens? There are several cards which make Citizen tokens but no cards of the type.
So they exist.
Are there other Peasants? Yes, nine Peasant cards are in Throne of Eldraine.
Great, so we have Citizens and Peasants? Does that make sense?
(Maybe black Peasants are Serfs?)
So @Axnoodle has answered my question
Reason I mention is that we should probably not choose themes that are fairly close to what the real sets have been for the past couple of years. This will prevent unconscious idea drift (not copying per se but being unduly influenced) and also keep our set quite apart from anything Wizards is doing.
It would be a shame for people to work very hard on this set and have others look on it as derivative.