An Early Death for M99

Sad to say, I have officially decided to end this project. There are several reasons behind this.

First, I don't feel that it meets my needs as a Magic design project for the time being. Between the number of reprints and the simplicity of most of the cards, the project is much more about designing an environment than designing cool cards. Without the resources or interest in heavy playtesting, this is not a particularly effective route to practice. I'd rather just work on my cube if I want to practice balancing a format.

Additionally, while I wanted to do the work largely on my own, the complete lack of feedback or attention has contributed to my lack of enthusiasm. Writing this stuff is a lot less fun when it doesn't feel like anyone is reading it.

Finally, the Great Designer Search 2 has been announced. I'm going to be putting a lot of work into card design, and it's going to need to be newer and bolder than M99. This is the smallest of the reasons, but was the final impetuous for me shutting the project down entirely.

That said, I certainly don't consider the M99 project to be a failure. My goal with these things is always to learn, and I've certainly learned a few things about both design and managing myself.

Now, off to go practice...

Stray Thoughts: Punishment

NOTE: Rather than simply clean things up and write a post about my final conclusion, I've got an ongoing thought process recorded here. It seems more informative than just writing down my final conclusion.

I want to make up a returning keyword. I love what scry did for M11, but the existing ones just don't suit my needs. I'm leaning towards something to put in red, largely because I have a lot of trouble with the of available mechanics for commons. It definitely has to be something that can go on non-creature spells, and if it can go on creatures as an ETB ability so much the better.

Considered but dismissed:

Flashback - Elegant mechanic, not very much design space and no clear flavor

Kicker - Similar issues, no overarching flavor or clear mechanic

Hellbent - Interesting and very Red, but not very fun and requires too much support

Contraptions - Overpowered

New Idea: What about the "Punisher" mechanic from Odyssey block? It's not a keyword, but it's flavorful and a casual favorite. Let's take a quick look over the options and see what's there:

Book Burning - Not very good, but fun and wacky.

Blazing Salvo - Solid card, but not super interesting.

Barbarian Bully - Interesting concept, bad choice for reprint

Longhorn Firebeast - Similar - cool concept, underpowered by modern standards

Dwarven Scorcher - Like Blazing Salvo, but worse.

Browbeat - A classic. Definitely worth reprinting if we use the mechanic.

Breaking Point - Too far off-color for my tastes.

Molten Influence - Off color and overly narrow

Skullscorch - Ew. Let's stick to cards that are actually fun.

Dwarven Driller - Um, no?

Lava Blister - Who designed these cards and why do they hate fun?

More recently, Temporal Extortion, Dash Hopes, and Tyrannize have shifted the concept slightly adding black and changing it to life loss.

Okay, there are definitely a lot more of these than I thought. Still, most of them are horribly unfun or distressingly off-color. Browbeat is the only one I like enough to be sure I'd want to reprint it.

Concerns:

Often involves using off-color abilities - should be careful.

Something of a griefer mechanic - cruel choices that aren't fun for new players.

Let's try off the ability tentatively with a few commons, browbeat at uncommon, and one scary rare:

Jerk Elemental - 1R

Creature - Elemental (C)

When Jerk Elemental enters the battlefield, any opponent may have it deal 4 damage to him or her. If a player does, sacrifice Jerk Elemental.

3/1

Firesmite - 2R

Instant (C)

Firesmite deals 5 damage to target creature unless that creature's controller has Firesmite deal 5 damage to him or her.

Browbeat - 2B

Sorcery (U)

Any player may have Browbeat deal 5 damage to him or her. If no one does, target player draws three cards.

Devastate - 1RR

Sorcery (R)

Target opponent may have Devastate deal 7 damage to them. If they do not, they sacrifice and artifact, a creature, and a land.

The more I mess with this mechanic the more I think it belongs in black. It feels more like a sadistic choice forced upon the hero than an angry threat, and life payment fits the template a lot better than choosing to take damage. Even Browbeat has an awkward template where people could accidentally give their opponents cards by targeting them. This may have a place in the set at some point, but I don't think it's the common-level mechanic I'm looking for. I'll keep in mind if I need some more flavor for black, but it's not going on the skeleton any time soon.

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.

Goals and Principles

I've been lagging a bit on this project, and I think it's partly due to a lack of clear objectives. "Make a new-style core set" is a good starting point, but it leaves a lot to be determined. After only two new core sets, we're still learning what exactly that means. Furthermore, M99 is being designed in the abstract, without any Standard environment to fit into or M98 to differentiate it from.

Let's start with what I doubt want M99 to be. I don't want it to be a list of my favorite cards. I don't want it to be a half-assed way to get out of designing new cards. I don't want to just fill in the blanks, taking M11 and replacing half the cards with similar new ones.

1) I want it to be a complete, cohesive set. The design process doesn't end when I've got 229 cards filled out - that's when I start making cuts and filling holes.

2) I want the set to have some iconic, memorable selling points. The new planeswalker cycle is a good start, but some exciting reprints and splashy new cards will help.

3) I want the set to have its own feel that is distinct from M10, M11, and any hypothetical sets M12-M98. This will probably involve designing a new "returning" mechanic, as there aren't any others that I feel fit the core as well as scry.

With more specific goals in mind, hopefully I will be able to make more progress on the set.

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.