#mtg design

[beardwitchbrews]

So Finality Counters are a new space that R&D is introducing in Lost Caverns of Ixalan to give us more readily available & cheap reanimation. If you haven't seen them yet, here's an example:

(god this card is so goddam cool. Uncommon? That name?? THAT ART???)

Finality being a counter is super sweet, too, because all of a sudden cards that remove counters or move them around become so much more interesting. Here are some highlights:

To recap: I reanimate my Great Mistake, it gets a Finality Counter. I tap my Fain, The Broker, removing the counter & create a Treasure token. Seems pretty sweet!

If you blink a creature, it returns to battlefield, sans counters- another way to reset.

And, of course, we could just say you know what? No counters ever, please.

This is the kind of design work that just sings with past Magic cards. I'm a huge fan!

[addgg-taylor]

AddGG R&D: The True Cost of Free Spells in Magic: the Gathering

Fun fact! It turns out that, if a deck can cut corners on paying mana, it will! While spells like Force of Will may seem to hold Legacy together, it actually speaks for a major problem with Magic the Gathering's faster formats, to the point to where it's now even a concern in Modern; are free spells keeping fast Magic in check, or are they enabling it in the first place? The popular take is that free spells are healthy in fast formats, especially free interaction in Vintage and Legacy. However, outside of Vintage, these free spells tend to be better at protecting and enabling fast strategies than they are at stopping them.

Many people would say that it goes both ways, that protecting and enabling your strategies just so happens to be a consequence of stopping your opponent. However, the simple matter is this; busted strategies don't get acted on as much nowadays because of spells like Force of Will or Daze stopping T1-2 kills. But what If you're deck can't run these spells? This is a very valid concern; some free spells are situational and offer no benefit to certain decks, while cards like Force of Will are unconditionally good in basically every deck that runs at least a few blue cards. The most unconditionally useful run wild, while the less conditional rarely see use at all. Here's my observation; free spells are allowed in most formats because it's less work to make more (and keep old ones unbanned) than it is to ban free spells, then ban the problematic cards free interaction no longer "keeps in check". This is WotC's ban philosophy, but those in charge of making the ban calls see what overwhelmed playtesters and stats on a chart say about gameplay patterns. They aren't playing at the table at local events and tournaments. They aren't spending their money to invest in Magic as a hobby, nor are they playing MTG Arena and experiencing problematic play patterns as the player. The problems that unbalanced cards create are much more serious when you're the one playing the game, and this especially holds true for players who want to play more diverse strategies outside of a "safe zone" with friends that Rule Zero cards they find problematic.

From a gameplay standpoint, here's the biggest problems free spells create:

They lead to disappointing endgames. No one wants to spend the entire game waiting for an opening against their opponent's interaction, only for to be punished for trying to win after their opponent has exhausted their mana.

They incentivize overly swingy plays and speed up formats as a result. Decks don't have to strategize around how they spend their mana if they can cast important spells for free.

The best way to keep up with the advantage free spells give is to play free spells yourself, which keeps metagames from becoming more diverse.

Free spells tend to warp formats around them. Most recently, Rakdos Scam has emerged as an archetype in Modern thanks to Fury and Grief, the former of which had to be banned. This extends into the past as well though, as Izzet Delver used to oppress the Pauper meta far worse until Daze was banned. Lastly, Leyline of the Void and Leyline of Sanctity frequently see play in decks that can't play them normally, with players even mulliganing down past 5 cards if it means having one against the right opponent.

If you want to design free spells, you should take the following into account:

Free spells, even conditionally, must have heavy care taken into their balance, and should generally only be introduced to Legacy, Vintage, and Commander.

When a free spell is made, its benefits shouldn't be too great and/or versatile. If many decks can run it, many decks will.

When banning cards in your custom formats, take into account what speed you want the format to be instead of focusing on "X beats Y". Such hyperfixations can result in bad ban decisions (or lack thereof). Also, don't allow card designs to creep the speed of the format by too much of a degree; power creep is natural, but allowing it to overstay its welcome can result in decks losing relevance because they aren't fast enough anymore.

[ordheist]

reposting all my trading card game stuff so that I might find the will to come back to this project

[ex0skeletal-undead]

Midra, Lord of Frenzied Flame (for MtG) by AnatoFinnstark

[prokopetz]

I haven't played Magic: The Gathering in years, but sometimes I still like to speculate about what sort of fuckery might have prompted this or that microscopic change to a card's oracle text. Like, "Rocket Launcher" went from "activate only if you controlled Rocket Launcher at the beginning of your turn" to "activate only if you've continuously controlled Rocket Launcher since the beginning of your turn", and I can't help but wonder whether this is just one of those editorial consistency things, or whether someone figured out how to break the game by repeatedly losing and re-gaining control of this one stupid card in the middle of their turn.

[pedrogferreira]

last spell, acrylic on paper.

Follow me on Instagram and X

[littjara-mirrorlake]

(And yes, I will draw it)

[merilles]

Ladies of the Ring 💍✨

[arsene-inc]

My game for the 1 page RPG jam is out. Replace your dice and your gm by decks from any tcg or ccg you want. You can even bring multiple different games at the table for all sort of crossover chaos.

So here comes Magic the Gathering meets Yu Gi Oh, meets Flesh and Blood meets Keyforge, meets Altered meets Duel Masters meets …. wow there are a lot of tcg out there and that's without counting the license-based ones…

[gay-little-izzet]

I had to try drawing this little dude

[floorboardghost]

Ok but hear me out…older chuck with long majestic hair.

[niuttuc]

Weird Magic: the Gathering effects: Third edition

Some months ago, I ran a poll and then another where people guessed which of a bunch of weird MTG effects wasn't real. It was fun, so we're running it back with a third batch of weird things.

As last time, only the current text of effects is used, not necessarily the one printed on the card. Limited to cards that exist in paper, and are legal to play in at least some tournament formats. Though last time I did expand to text that's part of keyword rules or that's part of the current reminder text on at least one card.

[txttletale]

been making custom magic cards after movie nights with my girlfriend

[lesbianralzarek]

still laughing over that one time someone took "rakdos cultists do a lot of blue collar and pink collar labor as their day jobs" to mean "preschool teachers and all other traditionally feminine jobs are usually performed by cultists who have dedicated their lives in service to the demon lord of chaos and riots" instead of the very obvious "those in charge of the entertainment sector who act as a release valve to a pressure cooker police state do sex work". they operate brothels and organize orgies. its, like, explicitly stated in canon? repeatedly?

brb, dropping my toddler off at murder clown daycare because i forgot that adult theatre actors perform labor and prostitution is a real career that exists in every society ever, and a setting like ravnica isnt complete without an answer to the question "where is the sex industry?"

[ex0skeletal-undead]

Sorcery, MtG Card design by Babs Webb on Instagram

[prokopetz]

The thing you need to understand about the rules of Magic: The Gathering and why the official rulebook is Like That is that a large portion of the game's tournament scene consists of people who approach the turn structure the way video game speedrunners approach terrain collision, and they've become very good at glitching out of bounds.