Stray Thoughts: Illusions and Aven

I love that the "sacrifice when it's targeted" ability has gotten flavored as illusions in blue. It's just so perfect that they seem real until something looks directly at them. Tragically, I don't think the ability is a fit for M99.

As much as I love both the gameplay and flavor, it just keeps warping the set around it. I keep going, "Oh, that's a cool design, but it would break too many ice cages at common." I hope the effect continues to show up on-and-off, but for now I won't be including Ice Cage or any illusions in the set.

On a completely unrelated note, I've decided to include Aven as a sub-theme. It allows me to get flyers into white that interact with the soldier tribe, and can even show up a little in other colors.

I've already got the Aven Strikeforce at uncommon, and Aven Cloudchaser seems like a good common inclusion. I love the principle of Aven Brigadier, but it certainly won't cut it as a reprint. He's symmetrical, overcosted, and not nearly flashy enough to fill the Mythic slot I'm looking at for an additional lord. So let's take a page out of Nocturnus's book and design ourselves an awesome mythic lord.

Aven Sky Commander - 1WWW

Creature - Bird Soldier (M)

Flying, First Strike

Other Bird creatures you control get +1/+1 and first strike.

Other Soldier creatures you control get +1/+1 and flying.

3/3

Finally, a quick take on something to fill out our generic black commons while adding some continuity to the set.

Rotting Aven - 2B

Creature - Bird Zombie (C)

Flying

2/1

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Design Skeleton 2

I'm going to take another run at the design skeleton, filling out more of the generalized categories and adding the reprints and new designs I'm happy with. With this out of the way, I can start looking more closely at what holes need filling.

To see what I'm doing, check out Mark Rosewater's article on the subject here.

White

CW01 - Noble Escort (W) soldier, Lifelink 1/1

CW02 - Glory Seeker (1W) soldier, 2/2

CW03 - First-Gate Guards (3W) soldier, Vigilance 2/4

CW04 - creature, small, 3/1?

CW05 - creature, small, taps to buff

CW06 - creature, small, first strike

CW07 - creature, small, flying

CW08 - creature, small, flying, soldier?

CW09 - Wild Griffin (2W), Flying 2/2

CW10 - Blinding Mage (1W), WT: Tap Dude, 1/2

CW11 - creature, small, ETB gains life

CW12 - creature, medium, good blocker

CW13 - creature, medium, flying

CW14 - enchantment, pacifism/prison effect

CW15 - enchantment, creature buff

CW16 - instant, fog/safe passage effect

CW17 - instant/sorcery, artifact/enchantment removal

CW18 - instant, combat trick (all creatures)

CW19 - instant, combat trick (one creature)

CW20 - sorcery, conditional removal

UW01 - creature, knight

UW02 - Aven Strikeforce (1WW) soldier, flying, 3/1

UW03 - creature, medium lifelink

UW04 - creature, big flyer

UW05 - creature, junior lord

UW06 - enchantment, good creature buff

UW07 - sorcery, conditional reanimation?

UW08 - Celestial Purge (1W) instant, exile black or red perm

UW09 - conditional removal (prison or kill attacker)

RW01 - creature, big angel

RW02 - Frontline Recruiter (1WW) soldiers get +1/+1, T: make 1/1 soldier, 2/2

RW03 - creature, small, amazing utility dude

RW04 -

RW05 - Splashy Rare Cycle

RW06 - Honor of the Pure (1W) enchantment, white creatures you control get +1/+1

RW07 - Day of Judgment (2WW) sorcery, Destroy all creatures

RW08 - enchantment, makes rules

MW01 - creature, epic lord

MW02 -

Blue

CU01 - Maritime Guard (1U) merfolk 1/3

CU02 - Scroll Thief (2U) merfolk ophidian 1/3

CU03 - Tidal Ambushers (2U) Flash 2/2

CU04 - creature, small, ETB effect

CU05 - creature, small, flying

CU06 - creature, small, looter?

CU07 - creature, medium, high-flying

CU08 - creature, medium, good blocker

CU09 - Harbor Serpent (4UU) Islandwalk, can't attack w/o 5 islands, 5/5

CU10 -

CU11 - Mill?

CU12 - Mill?

CU13 - enchantment, bad creature buff

CU14 - enchantment, lock down creature

CU15 - instant/sorcery, card selection

CU16 - Divination (2U) sorcery, Draw 2 cards

CU17 - instant, bounce spell

CU18 - instant, combat trick

CU19 - instant, soft counter

CU20 - Cancel (1UU) instant, Counter target spell

UU01 - creature, interesting ETB ability

UU02 - creature, shroud dude

UU03 - creature, biggish flyer

UU04 - creature, interesting tap ability

UU05 - creature, cool wall

UU06 -

UU07 - enchantment, steals stuff

UU08 - Flashfreeze (1U) counter red or green spell

UU09 - instant/sorcery, complicated card draw

RU01 - creature, large flyer

RU02 - Merfolk Sovereign (1UU) merfolk get +1/+1, T: target merfolk unblockable, 2/2

RU03 - creature, leviathan of some sort

RU04 - creature

RU05 - Splashy Rare Cycle

RU06 -

RU07 - enchantment, dominating CA

RU08 - sorcery, big weird spell

MU01 -

MU02 -

Black

CB01 - creature, small rat

CB02 - Bog Raiders (2B) zombie, swampwalk, 2/2

CB03 - Gravedigger (3B) zombie, ETB return creature from GY to hand, 2/2

CB04 - Child of Night (1B) lifelink 2/1

CB05 - creature, small ETB discard

CB06 - Pact Imp (2B) ETB draw 1 lose 1, flying 1/1

CB07 - creature, small shade

CB08 - creature, small, flying

CB09 - creature, medium, 4/2?

CB10 - Rotting Legion (4B) ETB tapped 4/5

CB11 -

CB12 -

CB13 - enchantment, creature buff w/drawback

CB14 - sorcery, life drain

CB15 - instant, combat trick

CB16 - sorcery, creature recursion

CB17 - sorcery, choosable discard

CB18 - sorcery, multi-discard

CB19 - sorcery, -x/-x effect

CB20 - instant, creature kill

UB01 - creature, small, deathtouch

UB02 - Ravenous Ghoul (1B) zombie, Sac creatures for +1/+1 counters, 1/1

UB03 - creature, medium, drawback

UB04 - creature, small, flying zombie

UB05 - Pact Devil (2BB) ETB draw 2 lose 2, Intimidate, 2/2

UB06 - cool GY hate

UB07 - sorcery, tutor

UB08 - Deathmark (B) sorcery, kill white or green creature

UB09 - Rise from the Grave (4B) sorcery, reanimate creature from any GY as black zombie

RB01 - Pact Demon (2BBB) upkeep draw 1 lose 1, flying, trample, 4/4

RB02 - Cemetery Reaper (1BB) zombs get +1/+1, 2BT: exile C in GY to make 2/2 zomb, 2/2

RB03 - creature

RB04 - creature

RB05 - Splashy Rare Cycle

RB06 -

RB07 -

RB08 - big sorcery, counts swamps?

MB01 -

MB02 -

Red

CR01 - Goblin Mountaineer (R) mountainwalk, 1/1

CR02 - Goblin Piker (1R) 2/1

CR03 - Goblin Chariot (2R) haste, 2/2

CR04 - creature, small, first strike

CR05 - creature, small, firebreathing

CR06 - creature, small, ETB human

CR07 - creature, medium

CR08 - creature, medium, attacks always or can't block

CR09 - creature, small, bad flyer (aven?)

CR10 -

CR11 -

CR12 -

CR13 -

CR14 - sorcery, art/land destruction

CR15 - enchantment, conditional creature buff

CR16 - sorcery, prevent blockers

CR17 - instant, combat trick

CR18 - sorcery, player-only burn

CR19 - instant, small burn

CR20 - instant, larger burn

UR01 - creature, taps or sacs for damage

UR02 - creature, double strike?

UR03 - creature

UR04 - creature, dies at EOT

UR05 -

UR06 -

UR07 - instant/sorcery, 2 to each creature+player?

UR08 - Combust (1R) instant, 5 damage to W/U creature, cannot be prevented/countered

UR09 - instant, awesome burn

RR01 - creature, big dragon

RR02 - Goblin Tactician (1RR) Goblins get +1/+1, T: sac goblin for shock? 2/2

RR03 - creature, smashy giant

RR04 -

RR05 -

RR06 -

RR07 - damage sweeper

RR08 - big random splash spell

MRo1 -

MR02 -

Green

CG01 - creature, small plant wall

CG02 - creature, small

CG03 - creature, small

CG04 - creature, small

CG05 - Llanowar Elves (G) elf, T: add G to mana pool, 1/1

CG06 - Sylvan Ranger (1G) elf, ETB search for basic land to hand, 1/1

CG07 - creature, medium, life gain?

CG08 - Elvish War Party (2G) elf, Trample, 3/2

CG09 - creature, medium, reach

CG10 - creature, medium, deathtouch

CG11 - creature, large

CG12 - creature, large, trample

CG13 - creature, largest

CG14 - instant, fog?

CG15 - flying hate?

CG16 - sorcery, life gain cantrip?

CG17 - enchantment, interesting conditional buff

CG18 - sorcery, artifact/enchantment destruction

CG19 - instant, combat trick

CG20 - sorcery, land search

UG01 - creature

UG02 - Acidic Slime (3GG) ETB kill art/ench/land, deathtouch, 2/2

UG03 - creature

UG04 - Fecund Beast (3GG) draw card when it or other creature dies, 3/4

UG05 - creature, huge

UG06 -

UG07 - sorcery, Lure effect

UG08 - Autumn's Vale (G) instant, cannot be countered/targeted by blue/black spells

UG09 - enchantment, powerful buff aura

RG01 - creature, huge wurm

RG02 - Elvish Archdruid (1GG) elves get +1/+1, T: get G for each elf, 2/2

RG03 - creature, sweet 4/4 for 2GG

RG04 -

RG05 - Splashy rare cycle

RG06 -

RG07 - Overrun variant

RG08 -

MG01 -

MG02 -

Artifact

UA01 - creature, small

UA02 - creature, medium

UA03 - creature, large

UA04 -

UA05 - mana fixing

UA06 - life gain

UA07 - equipment

UA08 - equipment

UA09 - equipment

UA10 - equipment

RA01 - creature

RA02 - creature

RA03 -

RA04 -

RA05 - equipment

RA06 - equipment

Land

CL01 - 5-color mana fixing

RL01 - wu land

RL02 - ub land

RL03 - br land

RL04 - rg land

RL05 - gw land

RL06 - special ???

RL07 - special ???

Gold

UZ01 - W/U planeswalker signature spell

UZ02 - Liliana's Extortion (2UB) Sorcery, opponent discards 2 you draw 2

UZ03 - B/R planeswalker signature spell

UZ04 - Marik's Summons (1RG) Sorcery, get 3 1/1 elves or one 3/3 ogre

UZ05 - G/W planeswalker signature spell

MZ01 - W/U Planeswalker

MZ02 - Liliana the Hunted (2UB)

MZ03 - B/R Planeswalker

MZ04 - Marik of the Tribes (2RG)

MZ05 - G/W Planeswalker

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Liliana and Marik

If you missed my previous post, part of the plan for M99 is to have 10 gold cards in the set: Each allied color pair gets a mythic planeswalker and a signature spell for them at uncommon. Here are the first two of each:

Liliana the Hunted - 2UB

Planeswalker - Liliana (M)

+1: Return target non-land permanent to owner's hand.

-2: Target player sacrifices a creature.

-6: Target player discards their hand, then loses 1 life for each card in their graveyard.

{4}

Liliana's Extortion - 3UB

Sorcery (U)

Target player discards two cards and you draw two cards.

Marik, Lord of the Tribes - 2RG

Planeswalker - Marik

+2: Each player puts two 1/1 green Elf creature tokens on the battlefield.

-3: Put a 3/3 red Ogre creature token onto the battlefield.

-7: Untap all creatures and gain control of them until end of turn. They gain haste until end of turn.

{4}

Marik's Summons - 1RG

Sorcery (U)

Choose one - Put three 1/1 green Elf creature tokens onto the battlefield; or put a 3/3 red Ogre creature token onto the battlefield.

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Tribe Members

Having determined the five lords I will be using, let's figure out what commons and uncommons I'm going to be printing within their tribes. First, some reprints:

Elite Vanguard

Glory Seeker

Maritime Guard

Scroll Thief

Rotting Dead

Bog Raiders

Goblin Mountaineer

Goblin Piker

Goblin Chariot

Llanowar Elves

Sylvan Ranger

And then lets look at some very simple new cards to fill out some of the holes:

Noble Escort - W

Creature - Human Soldier (C)

Lifelink

1/1

First-Gate Sentries - 3W

Creature - Human Solider (C)

Vigilance

2/4

Aven Strikeforce - 1WW

Creature - Bird Soldier (U)

Flying

3/1

Tidal Ambushers - 2U

Creature - Merfolk Soldier (C)

Flash

2/2

Ravenous Ghoul - 1B

Creature - Zombie (U)

Sacrifice a creature: Put a +1/+1 counter on ~.

1/1

Elvish War-Party - 2G

Creature - Elf Warrior (C)

Trample

3/2

I'll start using these to fill out the design skeleton and get more of an idea what to do next.

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Tribes and Lords

Tribes and their lords have always been a fun and popular part of the core set. Alpha gave us Goblin King, Elvish Champion, Lord of Atlantis, and Zombie Master. More recently, M10 and M11 have had splashier lords for less-supported tribes, like Vampire Nocturnus and Knight Exemplar. So what tribes will M99 support?

The five most traditional tribes for each color are Soldiers, Merfolk, Zombies, Goblins, and Elves. More recently, we've seen Vampires start to replace Zombie's as black's primary race. Despite my love of obscure tribes, I've decided to stick with the primary five for a cycle of core set rares. I'm going to try to squeeze in a more unusual lord or two at other rarities, though.

Lords boost your army, and as such are important enough that you often don't want them to attack. One of the clever solutions to give them some added value is to give them tap abilities that let them contribute even when they can't attack. I'm a big fan of tight cycles, so I'm going to be sticking with lords that are 2/2s for 1CC, grant +1/+1 but no keyword abilities, and have a tap ability related to their tribe. Here are the three reprints I'll be using:

Merfolk Sovereign - 1UU

Creature - Merfolk (R)

Other Merfolk creatures you control get +1/+1.

T: Target Merfolk creature is unblockable this turn.

2/2

Cemetary Reaper - 1BB

Creature - Zombie (R)

Other Zombie creatures you control get +1/+1.

2B, T: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.

2/2

Elvish Archdruid - 1GG

Creature - Elf Druid (R)

Other Elf creatures you control get +1/+1.

T: Add G to your mana pool for each Elf you control.

2/2

I chose zombies over vampires because vampires deserve epic, flavorful lords like Nocturnus rather than simple cycled lords. That leaves white (soldiers) and red (goblins). So what can fill out the cycle?

Frontline Recruiter - 1WW

Creature - Human Soldier (R)

Other Soldier creatures you control get +1/+1.

T: Put a 1/1 white Soldier token onto the battlefield.

2/2

Goblin Tactician - 1RR

Creature - Goblin Shaman (R)

Other Goblin creatures you control get +1/+1.

T, Sacrifice a Goblin: ~ deals 2 damage to target player.

2/2

Both quite simple, but they fit their respective tribes. One last design before I sign off for the night:

Knight Marshall - WW

Creature - Human Knight (U)

First strike

Soldier creatures you control have first strike.

2/2

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Drawing Cards

Three colors generally have the ability to draw cards. Blue is by far the best, and usually draws cards simply using instants and sorceries that do little else. Black gets to draw cards as well, but almost always has to pay life for them. Finally, green can draw cards at higher rarities by using creatures.

Blue

I want blue to have some very simple, sorcery-speed card draw/selection at common, and a slightly flashier instant at uncommon. I'm pretty happy with Divination as a simple card with a flavorful name, but let's make something new for the common card selection and uncommon instant.

Fateful Choice - U

Sorcery (C)

Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

Quick Thinking - XUU

Instant (U)

Look at the top X cards of your library. Put up to two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

Somewhere in between Sleight of Hand and Ponder lies Wise Choice. I like it because it forces decisions but not shuffling. Quick Thinking is a very clever design, but I'll have to see if it actually plays well. I can see either of these getting replaced at some point.

Black

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do a vertical cycle of black card-drawing, life-losing spells or creatures. Here's my first run at the cycle:

Pact Imp - 2B

Creature - Imp (C)

Flying

When ~ enters that battlefield, you draw a card and lose 1 life.

1/1

Pact Devil - 2BB

Creature - Devil (U)

Intimidate

When ~ enters the battlefield, you draw two cards and lose 2 life.

2/2

Pact Demon - 2BBB

Creature - Demon (R)

Flying, Trample

At the beginning of you upkeep, you draw a card and lose 1 life.

4/4

I'm really happy with these. If I can design 226 more cards like this cycle, I'll be knocking on WotC's door the next day.

Green

This hasn't been a core part of green's color pie in a while, but I feel like the mechanic is so good that it deserves the use.

Fecund Beast - 3GG

Creature - Beast (U)

Whenever ~ or another creature you control is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, you may draw a card.

3/4

I'll keep doing post like this designing 5-10 cards a shot, and load them all onto the design skeleton once a week or so. For the record, I had never thought about any of the above cards before today.

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Design Skeleton

This is just going to be a preliminary version, but it's taken some work to put together. I'll continue filling this out as I actually design cards.

To see what I'm doing, check out Mark Rosewater's article on the subject here.

White

CW01 - creature, small

CW02 - creature, small

CW03 - creature, small

CW04 - creature, small

CW05 - creature, small

CW06 - creature, small

CW07 - creature, small

CW08 - creature, small, flying

CW09 - creature, small, flying

CW10 - creature, small, taps dudes

CW11 - creature, small, gains life

CW12 - creature, medium

CW13 - creature, medium, flying

CW14 -

CW15 -

CW16 -

CW17 - instant/sorcery, artifact/enchantment removal

CW18 - instant, combat trick (all creatures)

CW19 - instant, combat trick (one creature)

CW20 - conditional removal (prison or kill attacker)

UW01 - creature, knight

UW02 - creature

UW03 - creature, medium lifelink

UW04 - creature, big flyer

UW05 - creature, junior lord

UW06 -

UW07 -

UW08 -

UW09 - conditional removal (prison or kill attacker)

RW01 - creature, big angel

RW02 - creature, senior lord

RW03 -

RW04 -

RW05 -

RW06 -

RW07 - sorcery, board sweeper

RW08 - enchantment, makes rules

MW01 - creature, epic lord

MW02 -

Blue

CU01 - creature, small

CU02 - creature, small

CU03 - creature, small

CU04 - creature, small, ETB effect

CU05 - creature, small, flying

CU06 - creature, medium

CU07 - creature, large serpent variant

CU08 -

CU09 -

CU10 -

CU11 -

CU12 -

CU13 -

CU14 - enchantment, lock down creature

CU15 - instant/sorcery, card selection

CU16 - instant/sorcery, card draw

CU17 - instant, bounce spell

CU18 -

CU19 - instant, soft counter

CU20 - instant, hard counter

UU01 - creature

UU02 - creature

UU03 - creature

UU04 -

UU05 -

UU06 -

UU07 -

UU08 - instant, complicated counterspell

UU09 - instant/sorcery, complicated card draw

RU01 - creature, large flyer

RU02 - creature, lord

RU03 - creature

RU04 - creature

RU05 -

RU06 -

RU07 -

RU08 -

MU01 -

MU02 -

Black

CB01 - creature, small

CB02 - creature, small

CB03 - creature, small

CB04 - creature, small

CB05 - creature, small

CB06 - creature, small

CB07 - creature, small shade

CB08 - creature, medium

CB09 - creature, medium

CB10 - creature, medium

CB11 -

CB12 -

CB13 -

CB14 - unknown, draw 1 card lose 1 life

CB15 -

CB16 - sorcery, creature recursion

CB17 - sorcery, choosable discard

CB18 - sorcery, multi-discard

CB19 - sorcery, -x/-x effect

CB20 - instant, creature kill

UB01 - creature

UB02 - creature

UB03 - creature

UB04 - creature

UB05 - creature

UB06 -

UB07 - unknown, draw 2/3 cards lose 2/3 life

UB08 -

UB09 - sorcery, reanimation

RB01 - creature, lord

RB02 - creature

RB03 - creature

RB04 -

RB05 -

RB06 - unknown, draw N cards lose N life

RB07 -

RB08 -

MB01 -

MB02 -

Red

CR01 - creature, small

CR02 - creature, small

CR03 - creature, small

CR04 - creature, small

CR05 - creature, small

CR06 - creature, small

CR07 - creature, medium

CR08 - creature, medium

CR09 -

CR10 -

CR11 -

CR12 -

CR13 -

CR14 -

CR15 -

CR16 -

CR17 - instant, combat trick

CR18 - sorcery, player-only burn

CR19 - instant, small burn

CR20 - instant, larger burn

UR01 - creature

UR02 - creature

UR03 - creature

UR04 - creature, dies at EOT

UR05 -

UR06 -

UR07 -

UR08 -

UR09 - instant, awesome burn

RR01 - creature, big dragon

RR02 - creature, smashy giant

RR03 - creature, goblin lord

RR04 -

RR05 -

RR06 -

RR07 - damage sweeper

RR08 - big random splash spell

MRo1 -

MR02 -

Green

CG01 - creature, small

CG02 - creature, small

CG03 - creature, small

CG04 - creature, small

CG05 - creature, small, taps for mana

CG06 - creature, small, searches for land

CG07 - creature, medium

CG08 - creature, medium

CG09 - creature, medium

CG10 - creature, medium

CG11 - creature, large

CG12 - creature, large

CG13 -

CG14 -

CG15 -

CG16 -

CG17 -

CG18 - sorcery, artifact/enchantment destruction

CG19 - instant, combat trick

CG20 - sorcery, land search

UG01 - creature

UG02 - creature

UG03 - creature

UG04 - creature, medium, draws cards

UG05 - creature, huge

UG06 -

UG07 -

UG08 -

UG09 - enchantment, powerful buff aura

RG01 - creature, huge wurm

RG02 - creature, elf lord

RG03 -

RG04 -

RG05 -

RG06 -

RG07 -

RG08 -

MG01 -

MG02 -

Artifact

UA01 - creature, small

UA02 - creature, medium

UA03 - creature, large

UA04 -

UA05 - mana fixing

UA06 - life gain

UA07 - equipment

UA08 - equipment

UA09 - equipment

UA10 - equipment

RA01 - creature

RA02 - creature

RA03 -

RA04 -

RA05 - equipment

RA06 - equipment

Land

CL01 - 5-color mana fixing

RL01 - wu land

RL02 - ub land

RL03 - br land

RL04 - rg land

RL05 - gw land

RL06 - special ???

RL07 - special ???

Gold

UZ01 - W/U planeswalker signature spell

UZ02 - U/B planeswalker signature spell

UZ03 - B/R planeswalker signature spell

UZ04 - R/G planeswalker signature spell

UZ05 - G/W planeswalker signature spell

MZ01 - W/U Planeswalker

MZ02 - U/B Planeswalker

MZ03 - B/R Planeswalker

MZ04 - R/G Planeswalker

MZ05 - G/W Planeswalker

DISCLAIMER: The fan-designed cards here are NOT produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast® and Magic: The Gathering® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Concepting Planeswalkers

Planeswalkers were key to the marketing of Magic 2010, and Magic 2011 expanded on this by giving the planeswalkers "signature spells" at common and uncommon. So far, the core sets have been used to show off the original 5 planeswalkers introduced, one representing each color. So what direction could this be taken in the future?

I've always liked the idea of introducing gold cards to the core set in a very limited fashion, and planeswalkers seem like the ideal way of doing this. My current plan is to create a single mythic planeswalker for each allied color combination, and give each signature gold spell at uncommon. 10 gold cards seems like a reasonable number to put in a core set, and the use of planeswalkers gives them a thematic connection.

It will take me quite a bit of brainstorming before I can even come up with 5 planeswalkers I like enough to playtest, but I wanted to share the concepts I'm working on for the various color combinations. Names are strictly working titles at this point.

White/Blue - "Gareth Seaborn"
Blue's planeswalkers have been designed around the color's philosophical aspects ("control and manipulate") so I thought it would be interesting to focus more on blue's elemental associations with water and air. A merfolk planeswaker seems like a cool concept, and blue/white seems like a good pair for the related appropriate mechanics like tapping, flying, and rule-changing.

Blue/Black - "Liliana Undercover"
I want to do at least one new version of a current planeswalker, and Liliana struck me as the most interesting choice. Rather than going for redemption or a spiral into madness, I settled on the concept of Liliana on the run, forced to rely on subtlety rather than raw power. Some sort of defensive bounce/discard will likely be used.

Black/Red - "Marek the Hunter"
We've seen the "evil and crazy" take on black/red quite a few times, so I want to try something different but still in tune with the color combination. Some sort of antihero vigilante could be fitting to the combination, so I'll see what I can think of along those lines.

Red/Green - "Damar of the Hoard"
This is the only bottom-up design on the list. I designed the combination of abilities a while back, but they're a good fit for red/green and the core set. I'll wait to show him off until I've got the others finished, though.

Green/White - "Bob the Gardener"
In a game that is all about the battles between planeswalkers, what would a peaceful planeswalker look like? It would be interesting to design relevant abilities with a "not intended for combat" feel to them.

Introducing Magic 2099

I've designed quite a few Magic cards over the years, doing everything from scrawling them on napkins to submitting them to online competitions. I mostly lost interest for a while, frustrated by the quality of forum discussion and lack of local interest in playing around with fan-made cards. I never got around to my eventual goal of designing a complete set, and have been inspired to give it another shot.

I was always discouraged by the prospect of trying to flavor a block and its mechanics, so instead I am choosing do design a core set, using a combination of fan-designed cards and "reprints" of existing cards. This experiment is as much about trying to design an environment as it is about creating individual cards.

I chose the name Magic 2099 (M99 for short) because it communicates that I am attempting to create a new core set in the contemporary style, but shouldn't cause any copyright issues until I'm over a century old. The set is not intended to be a realistic prediction of what Magic will be like in 2098.

I will keep this blog updated with my progress and thought processes as I design the set. Comments and criticism are welcome, but please refrain from suggesting new card designs as I am trying to challenge myself to complete this on my own.