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I had an idea... for a 1,000 card set
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We need to focus on gathering our thoughts and thinking of actual synergies both in limited and block, putting the cards before the story. What are our mechanics? Are they intuitive and are they toxic? Do your mechanics gel well together?
Figure that out first and decide on coherent synergies, otherwise this project will end in disaster.
If you want to make fewer, that's fine - there will be plenty of candidates for any slot you don't end up using.
The total number of slots we will give everyone is 83. They are broken down like this:
2-color tribe
4 hybrid common creatures
1 hybrid common spell
3 uncommon hybrid creatures
3 uncommon hybrid spells
2 uncommon gold cards (any)
Total: 13
3-color tribe
1 or 2 rare gold 2-color creature
1 or 2 rare gold 3-color creatures
2 rare 2-color cards (any)
1 rare gold 3-color instant
1 rare gold 3-color sorcery
1 rare gold 3-color enchantment
Total: 8
Any Type
2 Mythics – any color and kind of card you want
Total: 2
5 of each one-color common, 4 of which should be creatures (ideally)
4 of each one-color uncommon, 3 of which should be creatures (ideally)
3 of each one-color rare, one of which must be a creature or planeswalker.
Total: 60
All together that's 13 + 8 + 2 + 60 = 83 cards.
I made an example of Boros v. Sultai on the last page of the spreadsheet here so you can see what cards you need.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BnhSRV88l1vWkxMvMrqfQ9Ib4PUNqFKI/view?usp=sharing
Additionally there are:
common vehicles
uncommon vehicles, artifacts, equipment and lands
rare vehicles, artifacts, equipment and lands to design. Please do suggest these kinds of cards too.
I would also like to restrict the mechanics. It makes a set feel more like a set. Additionally, providing ourselves with design limits will make for more creativity rather than less IMO.
In as much as each person has his own setting and story, the fiction is robust enough for that to happen. Each of us will do a little self-contained story on a different aether island. While travel between them does happen, we can suspend our disbelief to allow various cultures to develop on each one.
Maybe the point of the set should be that it’s very chaotic and a collision of a bunch of different ideas (much like mtgcardsmith).
But if You are dead set on having a running theme then we could do something like modern horizons did where there was a large collection of mechanics but all of them followed one theme (alternative costs). We could say that you could use any mechanic as long as it follows a certain theme (Graveyard, tokens, multicolor matters).
even the most chaotic of sets, for example Planar Chaos, had draft archetypes (B/W Rebels, W/G Saprolings, Slivers).
Your example of Modern Horizons also actually had draft archetypes (R/W Slivers, U/B Ninjas, G/R Landyard, G/U Snow.). It was chaotic, but the chaos supported archetypes.
They are what make a set fun, and if a set isn't actually fun to draft with coherent archetypes, is it really a Magic set?
This is what is happening here, we have a separate person each designing a 3 color combination versus an enemy 2 color combination.
To explain why this is poor, lets say one person designs Grixis vs Selesnya. The Grixis has a Coherent Theme, and Selesnya has a coherent theme. Then one person designs Naya vs Dimir. The Dimir cards, because they are made by an entirely different person, will likely not fit into what the Grixis archetype is doing, and make the cards vastly less coherent and unusuable in draft. The Naya cards also aren't garuntee to work within the Selesnya draft archetype.
Combine this with the sets being too big (Lumeria took two years to make and perfect with reprints in a single, small set.) and the fact that there will end up being too many draft archetypes (20 for each color pair) for it to be consistently fun, and I think that the idea isn't going to end up well.
To me drafting is fun. It's all I play when I do play paper magic!
But since we can't actually draft this set, it wasn't something I was pushing for.
The last ones are always the hardest.
1. Father of Autumn doesn't feel like a Mythic Card. If anything, it feels like an Uncommon card.
2. Asleep for A Hundred Years is woefully busted, mainly in Izzet Phoenix and Storm.
3. Whispers of the Deep is probably too strong (Tutors at 3 mana are supposed to be conditional.)
4. Corrupted Turncoat adding mana is silly and out of flavour.
5. Gloaming is a free lightning helix, since burn decks don't care about exiling cards from their library.
6. Attacking and not being blocked for an effect that requires not dealing damage was retired for a reason. It creates a mediocre creature that can easily be chump blocked, and can't actually pressure the opponent while putting its effects to good use.
7. Having a mechanic based around exiling cards from your library is bad for several reasons. One, adding exile synergy to a generalist card makes Pitch Spells broken and thus they cannot be printed. This means that cards have to benefit off of their own exiled cards, and at that point it isn't synergy.
8. The Evil Eye cycle is too underpowered and feels straight out of the first few years of magic.
9. Asking Fallowcrust is BROKEN. 1 Mana tutors were retired for a reason, and even if it puts it on top of your library it is still far too easy to tutor. Regular Tron becomes broken because they can easily get tron lands using this.
10. Ouphe Slingers is also busted. Do you want to give Eldrazi Tron a free lightning bolt? Maybe giving Death and Taxes a lightning bolt?
11. Landwalk is a retired mechanic. Don't use it.
12. Dwarven Chiurgeon doesn't work as is with the Stack, and Red also doesn't have access to indestructible.
13. I might love flanking, but I have accepted that it is a bad mechanic with limited possibilities.
My thoughts right now are:
1. Look at how pushed recent creatures have been and actually design more creatures like them. A three mana 0/3 lord is bad. A 3 mana 3/2 with a bad effect you never want to use is bad. Hosing Unblockable and Shadow creatures on a 1/2 is also bad
2. Stop trying to make free spells work. Free spells never end up well, just look at Force of Will and Once Upon a Time.
3. You don't need 20 mechanics in one set. Try to give maybe 2 unique mechanics to each set and work from there.
1. Wolfpack Tactics. A variant of the common fight effect that hasn't really been done before.
2. Seal of the Sentry. Very nice for limited, if this had it.
3. Hammersmith. Surprised this card hasn't been done before at such a decent cost, and even though no other equipment have been printed in the set yet and it's still underpowered, I like it.
4. The Abbatoir at York. Pretty nice.
5. Wit of Steel. Even though the name doesn't fit, it's neat.
Gloaming is in there by accident.
Attacks and is not blocked is retired? That’s too bad. I think it’s a fair mechanic.
At the moment I’m torn on flanking. It fits R/W very well.
Fallowcrust may need a preemptive ban in Modern. I want it in.
It is a powerful card in this format because three-color decks will likely be the norm.
Ouphe Slingers can come out.
I’ll have to think about how to make the Dwarf Chirugeon. She should be in there.
Landwalking is deciduous, not obsolete. But I’m willing to work on it. I wonder if there is another way to do that ability? Something like flying but not flying.
It is the story of the creation of the world. It is how all of the tribes originated and how everything came to be.
CREATION:
In the beginning, in an eternal Void of silence, slept the Celestial Blacksmith, its head engulfed in dreams. He slept for eons; longer than a mortal mind could ever know. And as he slept, Creation ended, and it was consumed, and then it was then no more. Now in the blank void was curious ethereal light...
Yet the Blacksmith still slumbered. In his mind, he would voyage into the most creative depths of his imagination; it played a movie one-of-a-kind. He dreamt of colors unheard of and of animals unseen. Ones with: 4 legs and 3 gallant stripes, 2 eyes and a mane that flowed just right. These dreams were good. Almost too good and almost too much. They filled his mind with joy, an expectation the void could never touch. But becoming tired of his reality only being a dream, his senses began to rush.
At the appointed hour in a place that would never change, an illumination spawned so bright. It warred with the darkness and won each battle at the speed of light. But, it came from none other than the drowsy Blacksmith himself. He’d made it so before his slumber; to wake up and make his line of sight something other than darkness. To get a bird's eye view on a world anew.
He dreamt of beautiful melodies that charmed even the most unpleasant of souls: songs. He dreamt of a feeling so strong even death can't destroy: love. He dreamt of a source of fuel for the stomach and the mind: food. He dreamt of dancing and painting to release the enslaved creativity: art. Not only that, but of war and death as well; he figured one must balance the good with the bad, the malicious intents with the innocent conscience.
And as he woke, the dreams of eons poured forth from his body to the waking blackness and out into the waking Realm. And also did five beings then appear.
Out from his eyes, a white mare strode.
Then from his brain, a stallion of blue.
Then from his heart came out a courser colored red.
His stomach then produced a green dray’s horse.
And from his loins, the blackest destrier with a mane colored-alike and tails of fire spewing smoke of the thickest density.
These five celestial horses grazed upon the aether formed from the bursts of light. Gradually, the glaring light subdued as the floating matter became food.
What they left within their wake were 15 islands floating: five each of each their colors singly, and ten smaller islands all about, these sharing character with each celestial steed upon its shore.
The Blacksmith called these islands by “Gaifal;” Or, the Aether Archipelago, as they are named today.
The Blacksmith then put rein upon each horse, and gave them discipline, for they had none. He taught them how to speak to one another so to share their thoughts among the host; to raise their voices up in harmony together, as one.
And as they sang, the song would resonate along the bored islands and bring life along to accompany the lonely land. Across the whole panorama were flora and fauna of all shapes and all sizes; and where the soil that was once tame, is now rich with surprises.
Among the newcomers, were adventurous denizens of many varieties; equipped with musing minds that would dream the unbelievable. For civilization rose from these thoughtful kin, who put together a society from the resources found within.
But they knew, each one of them, that it was good. The Blacksmith knew. The steeds of every color knew. They knew that precious Life was good.
These new beings knew little of the nature of the steeds. They would gaze up and ponder on what brought what they now see; but thankful that they weren't made blind, they took it as a generous gift from the omniscient kind.
So, they called them “Angels.”
Yet compared to what miniscule knowledge they had acquired, the Blacksmith was still a lost treasure buried deep in the mire; they knew only of what the steeds would whisper to them. But, understanding his accomplishment of birthing all what was beautiful to this world...
They called him “God.”
And these are the stories of those little islands that float among the stars and the denizens who tread them; a place in which they call home. Where they may cooperate like the leaves resting upon a tranquil tree; and clash like the adventurous waves of the ocean, moving against each other but not in harmony. Beings of all kinds, these denizens are brought forth by the pride of their colors; expressed through the music and the love of the light, live out their lives, doing what their hearts desires.
And all the while, this God and his five colored steeds stand watch and marvel at Creation.
I’ll update what is necessary as we go along.
Have we decided on a set symbol? Should we choose six symbols or have all of them under one symbol or what? I wish everyone had Premium but we can make do.
The idea part is fine. Just make cards slowly over time.
Remember, quality over quantity.
Also, Ranshi can't actually edit out cards. (I know its a slight misunderstanding due to how I phrased it last time).
Once the design has been approved by the quality control department, Ranshi is most likely going to make a card on his profile copying the approved card. He is going to change to the formatting of the card to make it look smoother and apply any changes to the text. So, an "edit" of our card.
I've made a fairly small error on the card-color spreadsheet. I have put all the three-color faction cards at rare and all the two-color faction cards at uncommon.
Please continue to make cards as you were before but tonight I will post an updated spreadsheet. The number of cards will be the same, but it will be better since it will be easier to slot two-color faction Legends.
Here is the latest version of the 1,000 card set.
ANAL-RETENTION ALERT:
In order to get everyone 2 mythic slots, I have bumped the set to 1,002 cards; 1,000 that would come in boosters and 2 that would come in the booster box of the large expansions.
YOUR TASK
I have added a page to the spreadsheet at the end that tells you exactly what card slots you are responsible to fill. The number of cards you must make is 83.
So what about the rest? 83 cards x 10 = 830 cards.
There are special land card slots and artifact card slots to fill. We can all submit some cards for that.
There are also a few more monocolored cards that will need to be designed, but not enough to assign one more card to each person. We will just have to decide on what goes there out of whatever additional submissions come in.
We will also have to decide what kind of duals we will have in the set. Since this set is about colors I think it would be good to have a relatively high number of dual lands in the set. I have made that suggestion on the spreadsheet in the land slots. You can take a look and let me know what you think.
NAME ALERT:
The first block has been named but the second block has no name, nor do the expansions have names. So I assigned code names to them: Hot Dog, Mustard and Relish. I really have no idea what we will call them but those are the place holder names for now.
1,000 Card Set Spreadsheet Updated 10 Jan 2020:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BnhSRV88l1vWkxMvMrqfQ9Ib4PUNqFKI/view?usp=sharing
Naturalize
Lightning bolt/Lightning Strike
Murder
Cancel
Plummet
Negate
Giant growth
Shatter
and so on...
Or are we going to make spin off of those cards like these cards:
https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=373576
https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=430772
If we do make them, maybe 5 of the best ones of each color?
I don't mind not including them. Just an option I wanted to present because I feel like theoretically, cards like these will make the set block-constructed worthy. It doesn't matter too much though since it won't really be played basically.
I do think "is it good in draft?" is a question we can ask about some cards though, to help adjudicate power level and rarity.
What do you think?
On one hand it would be realistic for about 15-20% of cards to be reprints. On the other hand, those are cards we can't design ourselves!
I do think we should reprint some nice lands though. We will need nice lands for this kind of set.
Either that or we can expand the set by a little bit. I only proposed only 5 of each color, which is 25 in total more to the set. If that seems like too little, we can do 7 per color instead.
I think we can get away with a little bit of basic reprints.
But at the same time, they have been reprinted so many times that for a custom non-official set, they don't seem like they are required. So idk, its a tough choice for sure.
I believe I have some nice landscapes saved up on my Deviantart account. I can make some basic lands as well eventually.
Its 5 lands per color right?
If there ends up more than that in total in the end, we'll choose the nicest looking ones.