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I had an idea... for a 1,000 card set
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Also, is this collection going to be exactly 1000 cards?
(Thanks for answering my pestering.)
Theme - Urban Cyberpunk
Colors - Blue/Red
Tribes - I'm thinking that 4 tribes is going to be a bit difficult to fit into 20 cards. I'll be using spirits and humans for sure, and if we do decide on 4 tribes per planet, I can probably work in more.
Mechanics -
Equip - As per usual.
Modification (Artifact Subtype), comes with the keyword ability Modify.
Modify {cost} - ([Cost]: Attach this permanent to target artifact you control. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.)
Possess {cost} - ({Cost}: Exile this card from your hand possessing target artifact.)
Modifications and Equipment are more supported by Human (mostly red) cards, while the Possess mechanic is unique to Spirits (mostly blue). The flavor is that the spirits reject the advance of technology and seek to disrupt mechanical systems where they can.
Is this actually serious and happening? Because if it is I have something that might help you guys out!
Okay. I was a bit confused, because it seems like everyone has their own ideas of what these things are.
I’m thinking...
-10 Two-Color Islands of 20 Cards. (200 Total)
-10 Three-Color Islands of 20 Cards. (200 Total)
-5 Large Mono Color Islands consisting the most heavily of commons and uncommons. (320 Each)
Those mono blocks should be 120 each (x5 = 600)
So that would be 60 of each color on each side of the block.
You have also neglected lands and colorless artifacts.
I’ll post a link to a spreadsheet for proposed distribution in the next couple of days. It’s a big project to slot 1,000 cards!
Please ranshi continue to propose the fiction that would go with the island concept.
They are to be related to the islands as are seen necessary.
Let me suggest the following distribution:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BnhSRV88l1vWkxMvMrqfQ9Ib4PUNqFKI/view?usp=sharing
I've only completed the parts of the first big block that I'm confident about and I haven't completed any of the next five. It's a big project.
Have people volunteer to make cards (unrelated to specific lore) to fill in slots. If @Scott_Anderson is willing to take the lead on this, he would assign smiths card slots based on their previous work and review them before they make it to the final stage of being put in the deck. Effectivly, I wouldn't expect any smith to be making more than 7-10 cards (although that may change based on the number of volunteers). For more lore specific cards, he would assign a smith and give them the story, or tell them to make it. Obviously there would be constraints, but I assume everyone was already expecting that.
I really do feel like this goal needs someone to take lead and have the final say. I would suggest Scott for this because he seems to have done that already to some degree. @Ranshi also seems to be very influential in this idea, and he would probably be one of the masters of the lore.
With a big project like this, there needs to be organization. I did a quick scan through the history of this chat, and one of the fears that I see is that it will become nothing more than a big pile of cards instead of a beautiful set. Scott has an idea that seems to be the best we have currently, and I don't want to see it go to waste.
If y'all want or need clarification on anything, or have something to add that I haven't considered, please call me out. I haven't been in many (if any) important things in the history of MTGCardsmith, and I do so want to be part of this, as it could be huge.
This is speculative; when I have made sets, even collab sets before, we have not broken out the leads. However in a huge megaset like this there is just too much to do to be a jack of all trades.
Each of us can contribute to any part of the process, but one person will be in charge of each category of things.
So here is - again, speculatively - my idea for structuring.
1) We need a Lore lead - someone who can tell the story. (The idea of an invasion, mixing of islands and then resolution with the new islands seems promising.) This person will tell the over-arching story of the six sets. With some luck we can each contribute some main characters to the set.
The Lore team will also have to comb the flavor text and make changes if necessary to keep the story consistent.
2) We need a Design lead - someone to establish the mechanics. (I don't think every island ought to get its own mechanic. They tried that in Khans block and it was not very successful.)
I suspect that the main characters will have a card in each set, but not every one would be a legendary creature, or even a creature. Some would be other kinds of cards which called out a character and some would be nonlegendaries. There might even be a character who never appears as a creature at all - something of an "NPC" in the story if you will.
3) Then a Development lead who does two things. The first is to sort cards out: "X cards in Y set at Z rarity need mechanics A, B, and C." Development lead would also (theoretically) balance the environment for draft and weed out cards that would end up being banned. But since we don't actually have a "league" with real cardboard to draft with this part would have to be conjectural.
an island environment with a theme
some factions on the island
and their TWO colors
A (small) point of conflict on that island so the factions have some tension
And especially main characters who are in the color identity of the island. Something with strong flavor.
(Then once we have nailed down ten two-color islands like this we can move on to the three-color islands.)
Mechanics would be assigned to players once we have an idea of what the situation is on their island but of course the players ought to have some idea about what they like.
Then with those mains and their realms we can build the start of the story. It wouldn't be a novel or a movie, but more like bullet points. A synopsis. That gives plenty of room to get in and out of various plot points flavor-wise.
Thank you for that breakdown.
I would be interested in being on the lore team, as I am in my senior year at high school and am about to enter collage for a creative writing major. Me and my siblings do a lot of creative writing (I'm in the zone which is why I'm up at 1 am writing instead of sleeping), and I feel confident that I can do a decent job.
Then I would ask for input on picking which deciduous mechanics we would use in the first block (second block having different ones). Deciduous means they come and go. Look at the list here and see the difference between Evergreen and Other (which I would call deciduous): https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Keyword_Abilities
Then I would ask for input on what kind of new abilities we would like to try in the set.
This is tricky. Brand-new abilities which haven't been playtested can be really crazy in terms of power level and all manner of other issues.
In my opinion, we should only use one or two new mechanics, and then fill out the rest up to about six or seven with deciduous mechanics from Magic's past. Any more than that and players would get confused or not recognize the theme.
The second block could have completely different ones.
Then as we are familiar with the Mains, I would solicit versions of the mains: Planeswalker cards, Legends, Nonlegend creatures, and other cards which are tied to or reference them. Perhaps as-is and perhaps with some modification, they would be slowly added to the set.
Then we would assign people to make cards with the chosen new mechanics. Those cardsmiths would also have free rein to use the deciduous and all evergreen mechanics.
I would distribute copies of the master spreadsheet with card types, colors and rarities to everyone to know what our goal is, and then I would keep it updated regularly as cards are penciled in to those slots.
I would probably have an easy time putting the first 80% of each set together to be honest, but the other 20% of cards would probably have 3 viable candidates for every open slot. This is what happens to me in my own designed sets - I know about 80 and I struggle with about 20.
So there will be a lot of cut cards and probably hurt feelings, but it's all in service of making a set and making it good.
Perhaps the biggest challenge is to cut down on Mythics. Out of the entire 1,000 cards, there are only 36 Mythic Rare slots. Only 36! That means some people are only going to get 1 or 2 Mythic slots. It will be a very hard thing to tell people no.
Her arc would go from simple maiden to leader in battle to general of a great army to doubting herself to eventually getting killed by - someone - maybe the enemy and maybe one of her own men. Maybe she gets tainted by power.
Here is her Legend card:
She would have a lieutenant who turns out to be an undead elf. He corrupts her.
So she would start white, turn red and white, have a legendary red and white, then near there would be a Mardu version of her and she would die black.
So the races involved would be Humans and Dwarfs. Other subtypes would be Citizen (city folk) and Peasant (country folk) and maybe a Serf (in black.)
Her targets, the Druids in the Wilderlands, would be drawn from the ranks of elves and men as well as Ouphes. These are not evil people, just celebrants of an older religion.
In terms of lore, we have a kind of Joan of Arc ascendancy so you can start cheering her as a hero. But then when you see it from the Druid point of view you can see she's not all goodness and light. Then you see her get corrupted, and you can mourn her as a flawed person.
Although all five colors would be involved you can see how it has a strong Boros versus Sultai flavor mechanically.
In terms of flavor, I would like to make it feel quite dark ages europe. Partly it would feel like the Brittany and part like Wales - two Brythonic areas which were constantly beset by Christendom.
In the end of the arc, the Men would mix together and ultimately adopt the Boros way of life - but the elves and ouphes would retain their old rustic ways.
Point one: Introducing the strife: Possibly an uprising or successful minor rebellion.
Point two: The controlling race surrendering some of their authority and allowing a very little representation from the common folk.
Point three: The power struggle for council rights, a split off of a pro-militant group from the average naya trying to eradicate the entire controlling race
Point four: The breakdown in communications brought on by this extremist sector of naya and the partial collapse of dimir society as they lose the work force that had been providing for them.
Point five (probably. Could change) Dimir forces wipe out the militant group while sustaining heavy losses. They hand over a decent amount of power and freedom to the Naya, trying to save themselves. The Naya are suddenly dealing with the fact that they have no real leadership. The Naya break down into a bunch of tiny groups, each finally free to express things the way they want. Dimir is facing the fact that it's society is not set for living without a subservient population, and collapses, eventually becoming more like the Naya in that they are a smaller, more diverse, and self sustaining population.