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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 14, 2020 19:24:19 GMT
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 14, 2020 19:33:00 GMT
First, a teaser, as is tradition:
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 14, 2020 20:03:23 GMT
Human greed knows no limits or boundaries. It shouldn't have been a surprise that when we discovered valuable resources on other planets, we did everything in our power to acquire them. The first planet we discovered we named Rethia, and immediately sent people to colonize it. However, the world's atmosphere was harmful to humans, and the work of colonization wasn't easy. In the years it took for the colonists to render the planet livable, funding for the AOSE, the government institution responsible for managing space exploration, had come close to running out. Luckily for the scientists, and unluckily for the colonists, another planet was discovered, one that possessed a strange mineral that caught the attention of the executive branch.
Discovered on the planet of Olten, Slyten Crystals have a variety of properties that have yet to be fully understood, but their most valuable one so far appears to be their ability to replicate non-organic matter, causing it to grow. A single crystal represents a swiss army knife of possible matter. However, proximity to Slyten has some side effects. It can cause violent hallucinations and the development of uncontrollable psionic powers. But while there is some Slyten available near the surface of Olten, there isn't nearly as much as the AOSE promised their funders. To get more crystals, fracking efforts began, which had limited success. Then, a gateway was found on Olten, guarded by alien beings and leading to a motherlode of Slyten Crystals...
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 14, 2020 20:05:44 GMT
Some cards featured in Love Song: [/font] [/ul] [/div] |
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Post by Daij_Djan on May 15, 2020 7:40:01 GMT
Very interesting artstyle.. Really interested in seeing more!  |
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Post by fluffydeathbringer on May 15, 2020 10:49:23 GMT
I've been involved with custom magic for about eight years now, and sometimes I get insecure about it. making cards for a fantasy card game? building characters for it? is that really what you're doing with my life? is that really what an adult should be doing? isn't it arrested development or something? but then I get over those things by reminding myself that I'm doing those things because I want to. because I get fulfilment out of them. because just because you've been alive for some arbitrary number of years, it doesn't mean you have to grow out of the things you love if they help you get by. and what helps me remember that is this one song by the mountain goats, particularly these lyrics:
Do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive Do every stupid thing to drive, to drive the dark away [...] People might laugh at your tattoos When they do, get new ones in completely garish hues I lie down in my corner because I like my corner
and that's my mountain goats story
as for how that's relevant, today's spoiler is based on another mountain goats song, which I actually hadn't listened to before writing this post.
it's a good song. it's a good band. this is a legendary that nails what I think a good legendary should nail: this sense of coolness and awe and distinction that transcends mere gameplay efficiency (although the first ability feels more white to me but that's just me). this is a good set from what I've seen so far. the maker's good company and has made my stay in this whole online fake mtg social circle better. just. good things all 'round
so yeah, this thread gets my official semi-oldhead recommendation of "look out for more of this", for what that's worth. so does this one, for which the sentiments above also apply. except I don't know any songs or bands named kahembo. there could be some |
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Post by 2wb on May 15, 2020 17:01:11 GMT
It could let your heart grow cold, But it definitely will remember the words you said. The simple means you are not given a clouded mind, and my preview for you excellently encapsulates this. Make sure to light your hope on fire, so that You'll be given a new start. It shares your road, It will not tell you all is fine, But can will hold you fast into the game, Because it knows that like it, you're a Hopeless Wanderer gives you a very powerful banjo creature if you can keep it up, if you can just keep going. The promise of cracking in late with a powerful critter, or shielding you with its improved stats so that you aren't stuck too long in a bad place. Wander up your curve, and love the skies you're under! |
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 15, 2020 19:07:00 GMT
The Mechanics of Love Song encourage people to be aggressive, or sling spells, or build 5 color greed piles. Balancing all of these things against each other, and creating interesting tension, was a very engaging and interesting part of the design process for me.
Our first mechanic is a returning canon mechanic, which showed up in Battle for Zendikar. While it was squandered there, I fell in love with the mechanic. Converge is a mechanic that causes your spells to scale with the colors spent to cast them.
The next mechanic is a returning custom mechanic, created by herziquerzi in Carpe Arcanum. Cadence says "Whenever you cast a spell, if its converted mana cost is greater than this creature's power, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature." It encourages aggressive strategies and rewards you for curving out. When I began work on this set, I knew I wanted Converge (and another mechanic we'll get to later), but I was concerned that a set built around 5 color greedpiles would lead to a stale draft environment. I needed aggressive strategies to make the risk/reward calculations more interesting. Cadence fit the bill exactly.
The third mechanic is a new mechanic. I wanted to reward players for not spreading themselves too thin in terms of colors, and also wanted a spell based mechanic because I love spell slinging decks in limited. Enter Leitmotif, a Rebound-like, which says "When you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. When you next cast a spell that shares a color with it, you may cast this spell from exile without paying its mana cost."
Unfortunately, we don't have a fifth mechanic to show off for Red, so I'll instead give a sneak peek at one of its rares, who also happens to be the main character (or one of the main characters) of the story of Love Song.
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Post by FLAREdirector on May 15, 2020 19:54:50 GMT
The strength of the humble +1/+1 counter can’t be overstated. Just one such counter, and suddenly an unassuming Shepherd of the Flock can fell even the mighty Questing Beast! But here’s the problem: So many cards only put a counter or counters on one creature at a time. This is a very great tragedy. Wouldn’t it be great to have a force multiplier that dramatically increases the effectiveness of even a single +1/+1 counter? Just imagine the possibilities! Well, friends, imagine no longer. Just in time for Saturday Friday Night Fever, we Gibb you . . .  I’m a sucker for any card that enables me to go both tall and wide. To maximize the value from the Cadence trigger, follow up with cards like Champion of Lambholt or Tuskguard Captain in the three-drop slot and Cazur, Ruthless Stalker or Mowu, Loyal Companion in the four-drop slot—and that’s just canon monogreen creatures! Meanwhile, MSEM cards like Arpechian Yatte (CAC), Entropic Harvest (WAY), and Invoke the Wild (GNJ) will also complement Olten Survivalist very well. |
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 16, 2020 1:52:19 GMT
Love Song is a story about exploration, about the forces that bind us together, about ancient evils, about a girl loving her bride-to-be so much that her spark ignites, and about the universe telling you, yes you, that it loves you. And that you matter. But those aren't the story elements we're focusing on today. We're focusing on the shady dealings that happened behind the scenes. In an earlier post, I showed off a couple cards that gave an insight into the mind of President Roger Myers, who sees this exploration as a great way of securing his fourth consecutive term. However, one of the few people in the world he believes to be his friend has other things in mind.
Aldorus Fin certainly puts the Vice in Vice President. Independently wealthy, Fin made billions off of selling space fairing technology and parts to companies and countries across the world. He funded Myers' election campaign almost single handily, with the condition that he wanted to be Vice President, as a vanity position. He assured Myers that he wouldn't interfere with the man's politics, he just wanted a seat at the table. And so he bought his way into power. And then, like any sensible person, he immediately left the planet.
Heaven was purchased by the government as a "permanent improvement for future executive branch members." But of course, Myers has no interest in it, leaving the ship all to Aldorus. Plus, his company was able to secure the contract to build the ship. The Vice President is wealthy, but isn't it better to have the tax payers pay for your luxury space vessel than having to pay for it out of pocket? With the success of space exploration, Myers demagogic speeches, and Aldorus' funds, there seemed to be nothing in the way of them winning election after election after election until both of them were too old to care anymore.
At least, that's what it seemed, until a Senator decided to do some snooping.
Senator Winters was one of the first people to try and kill the Space Bill when it was first proposed. When it became clear that the tide was against him, he switched sides, and got himself placed on several key committees. He had no interest in space, and thought that the exploration of these other planets was a colossal waste of time and money. But if that time and money was going to be wasted, he wanted a say in exactly how it would be. Winters rose to prominence as one of the leading factors in determining who would get to go to space and when.
And then he learned about the Guardians, about Mephisto's Gate, about all the secrets that the President and Vice President had been hiding from him and from the populace. And his ability to tolerate this charade quickly fell apart. He began digging, and found that the plans that the executive branch had in mind could spell disaster for the planet, and more concerningly that President Myers had no idea what was going on. And so Winters approached his old friend Aldorus Fin, on his starship, and tried to settle the whole thing peacefully.
How do you think that went?
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 16, 2020 16:13:45 GMT
I think it's high time I start showing off some of the cards I promised a few posts ago. Let's look at two cards in particular, the creature with negative power and the sorcery without a mana cost.
When playing around with different converge designs, I realized that I really wanted to make a Triskellion riff. But having a converge creature where you couldn't end up spending all five colors felt wrong. And at the same time, a 5/5 for 5 that could turn into up to 5 removal spells would be warping in limited (and plausibly constructed). So, the fix was obvious.
In Love Song, the Precursors were the alien race that used to live on Olten. While their original name and culture has been wiped out, much of their technology still remains, scattered among the planet. And deep past Mephisto's Gate, beyond the Guardians watching eyes, lies their final resting place where they were buried by the remaining few members of this once great civilization.
Death and the fall of civilizations is an underlying theme in Love Song. The universe moves in ways that are mysterious to us as casual observers, or even as occupants. If a star goes supernova, there's nothing we can do but sit there and watch the destruction unfold. While mortals might fight over petty things such as political power and wealth, while they might think they rule the world, they don't control it. They cannot stop it from ending. Love Song features a number of planets, even though most of them aren't named.
This brings us to the first mythic to be spoiled in this thread. There's a growing consensus among the MSE discord that Mythics are, by and large, superfluous. Keeping cards at mythic to protect limited doesn't work mathematically, weird cards show up at rare all the time, and several cards are put at mythic for the transparent purpose of selling packs. Given that we, as custom designers, don't have to worry about the last one, a group of designers (all of whom I respect) have taken the stance of Abolish Mythic. Love Song is my first traditional set that I've seen through to completion, and I knew that I wanted it to be fully traditional, including having mythics. I just needed to make sure to do them right.
Let's break this card down.
* It is a sorcery that you cannot cast. If you find a way to do so, it resolves without doing anything. * It uses a new type of counters called apocalypse counters. * It slowly ticks down, forcing your opponent to make difficult decisions, and by the end it has provided a 6 for 1. * But when the world ends, no one is in control. Even if you set this in motion, even if you were the one to include it in your deck, you're going to die as well.
All in all, I think it makes for a solid mythic. And it is one of three mythics in the set with "___ the World" as its name.
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 17, 2020 2:18:55 GMT
While Love Song is still receiving active iteration and tuning, it does currently have a functional limited, with some interesting twists. Love Song's archetypes are looser and more cube like, allowing for emergent deckbuilding rather than on rails drafting. With that said, it does have ArcUns that act as incentives to move into specific color pairs, or reward players for being in them. Let's start by looking at the allied colored ones.
For people familiar with MSEM, you'll notice that we're checking off another item on our spoiler list: an uncommon version of a banned MSEM card (Deadly Manipulation by Korakhos). Let's break down these archetypes very quickly:
  is Converge Control. A 5c Greedpile deck centered around Bant that looks to take the game long and bury its opponent in superior card advantage and quality.  is Two Color Control. By focusing colors more, you get the ability to take advantage of powerful Leitmotif spells and Dead Man's Party, since most of the set's "multicolored" slots are mono colored cards with converge and augmented.  is Grindy Midrange. Red aggression combined with black disruption allow the archetype to go over other aggro decks and other control decks. Source Decay acts as the ideal curve topper, repeatedly castable for your Cadence creatures, and good at closing games out.  is Cadence Aggro. This slot is being changed due to its nonbo with Converge, but the basic idea is to curve out with Cadence creatures and use combat tricks to push the last bits of damage through. is Token Midrange....kinda. While This card lends itself great to token based midrange decks, it also lends itself very well to the ramp decks in the format, generating chump blockers and threats. It also plays great with one of the set's rares (a canon reprint) alongside an Evolving Wilds.
Now, enemy colored:
Since the set is primarily focused on the allied colors, I took a bit more of a varied approach to the enemy colored arcuns. is a Aristocrats archetype, which utilizes token generation to provide aggression and blood artists for reach. While the ArcUn might look grindy at a glance, treat the sac outlet as just a way of getting the last few points, or the last few tokens, that you need. is a Ramp archetype, focused on getting to the late game with black removal and green ramp (usually splashing several other colors along the way) and dominating the late game with threats that bury your opponent in card advantage. is Augmented, utilizing fixing in order to play the best cards. Sage of Wilds is a Lorescale Coatl that becomes an absurdly powerful draw engine as long as you're achieving augmented. is a Spellslinger Aggro deck, curving cadence threats into tempo answers, overwhelming its opponent. is the Cadence deck, with their Arcun acting as a mana sink/repeated way to generate Cadence triggers.
I mentioned earlier a rare reprint, and it certainly is an exciting one. I think now is a good time to sho—wait, where on earth did it go? No! Give that back, it isn't for you! Goddammit!
Well. Guess I can't show off that reprint just yet, but here's another thing on the checklist. This stupid, greedy insect.
We have two more spoilers before the full set spoiler drops in 24-ish hours. I hope you all have enjoyed this spoiler season as much as I have.
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Post by Parasign on May 17, 2020 6:13:09 GMT
Like any good space opera, Love Song has its fair share of aliens. Which brings up the age-old problem: what creature type do you give them? Sure, you could give them their own unique type. But then you run into a lack of backwards compatibility. Unless Love Song gets a sequel, your Oltenians would never know the joys of tribal synergy outside their own set. So what's the alternative? "Beast" seems a bit too generic. "Construct" implies they were all intentionally created. "Horror" pigeonholes them into being monsters. "Weird" might work, but its current MtG meaning is pretty specific and using it for extraterrestrials would be something of a stretch. But what about "Elemental"? Those can get pretty alien. They're usually inorganic, but Lorwyn proved they don't have to be. It's vague enough to work for pretty much anything, while still feeling more specific than "Beast" does. And, as you've seen, Love Song is already using it to great effect. But wait, what was that about tribal synergy? Is there some reward for playing all these outer-space elementals in the same deck? {Youre about to find out}  |
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2020 8:35:12 GMT
Bam. My spoiler card. I had something written up about simple rares but I backspaced at the wrong time and the whole thing was eaten.
It's a big trampler that destroys a ton of artifacts and enchantments. I like it.
I have no idea what else to say, other than stuff about me loving this set and wanting it to be in MSEM so I can (not) play them, and maybe something about Borderlands. Specifically, the second one, because that's where I first heard the song that this card's flavor text references, Short Change Hero by The Heavy.
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Post by shiftyhomunculus on May 17, 2020 13:10:45 GMT
So there's this band called Area 11. Their frontman was a friend and occasional member of the Yogscast, way back in the day, and that's how I got to know them - they did the incidental music for a bunch of mid-period Yogscast videos. They wrote mostly about anime, which went over my head, but I knew a killer riff when I heard one and they had no shortage. I was sixteen when they released their debut album, All the Lights in the Sky, and soon I was seeing them on every tour. I met some of my best friends through these gigs. Their music owned my mind for a long, long time, and I find myself associating some of their songs with particular moments in my life - "Knightmare/Frame" with some of my first tentative attempts at writing longform fiction, "In the Blind" with exam season, and the four-part mini-epic "Bōsōzoku Symphonic" with my first serious relationship. As is the case for most of my obsessions, I found my interest fading over time. I've been lukewarm on some of their more recent material, though I do still find it very listenable. But today's card spotlight refers to a song by Area 11 at what I'd consider the height of their power, the album opener, in fact, for their second studio album Modern Synthesis. It's a brilliant rock album with some cool synthy twists to it in places - give it a listen sometime, it's on all the streaming services. If you only have time for one track, start with "Watchmaker", which actually served as part of the inspiration for one of my own Magic OCs, Agathi. But this story is not about Agathi. It's about a Slyten-powered astronaut with some gnarly tricks up their sleeve. Introducing Jacque, Crystal Touched.  Fractals in a palm of a single tree
Debase a joyous song into elegy
Are you ready for life?Well, are you? Jacque is a Piker who punches above their weight in terms of scaring your opponent - it's not often that a humble 2/1 with no keywords represents as big a threat as this. I especially like that Jacque can give you an immediate payoff in the midgame when paired with a 3-drop, or lend themself to a stormish aggro-combo strategy that wants to trigger their ability multiple times in a turn to make a huge double striking board (since it will proc on every spell from the moment you've spent all five colors). They're deceptively open-ended like that. I hope you're all as excited as I am to see the full set when it drops, which I understand is soon. In the meantime, here's what I hope is some thematically appropriate Area 11 to close us out. And when I reach out into event horizons
Will there be light and sound, or will it be just me? |
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 17, 2020 16:58:16 GMT
Everybody waiting for the fall of man
Everybody praying for the end of times
Everybody hoping they could be the one
I was born to run, I was born for this
Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyesAnd through it all, the rise and fall
The bodies in the streets
And when you're gone, we want you all to know
We'll carry on, we'll carry on
And though you're dead and gone, believe me
Your memory will carry on
And through it all, the rise and fall
The bodies in the streets
And when you're gone, we want you all to know
We'll carry on, we'll carry on
And though you're dead and gone, believe me
Your memory will carry on |
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Post by gateways7 on May 17, 2020 17:36:02 GMT
It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you. Throughout all of Magic, one of my favorite and one of the most evocative creature types has been Horrors. They’re incredibly flavorfully resonant in that they’re easy to understand, and they’ve been used to great effect flavorfully. We have various types of horrors all across the Multiverse - Eldrazi-corrupted townsfolk from Innistrad, the Rathi monsters, and especially the Phyrexians - all united under one tribal banner. There's nothing that (two) hundred (and ten) men or more could ever do.
There have been 210 Horror cards throughout Magic, ranging in plane, color (there are a surprising amount of white and red horrors, 11 and 20 respectively), converted mana cost, and all manner of aspects. Horrors are incredibly cool, incredibly diverse, and yet that begs the question - why have we never gotten a Horror tribal card? I bless the rains down in Africa, gonna take some time to do the things we never had.
We’ve had cards in Ooze tribal, Treefolk and Shaman tribal, Golem tribal, Archer tribal, and even Advisors, all of which (bar Shaman) have less creatures than the Horror tribe. It only makes sense that cards for Horror cards would exist. So, what would a Horror tribal card do? Well, Horrors often have a habit of filling up your graveyard by sacrificing creatures, discarding cards, and milling things from the top of your library. Therefore, it makes sense to have a payoff that keys off of the cards in your graveyard, so without further ado… The wild dogs cry out in the night.
 This is a really solid card, where if you're able to fill up your graveyard enough you get a ton of upside and a very strong beater. I'd love to make a Horror deck with it, and I think it's gonna be a really fun card to play with. |
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Post by cyberchronometer on May 17, 2020 20:52:56 GMT
Hey, I'm CyberChronometer. Those of you who play MSEM may remember the WB Enchantress deck, "HB: Stronger Together," that I piloted to a 4-2 finish at GP Yogyakarta. Pipsqueak's Discoveries of Akieva added an interesting tool for this kind of deck:  In combination with the Line artifact cycle from Rail War, Artisan's Genius can be a powerful recursion and mana engine. So, I decided to rebuild the deck in WU, focusing more heavily on tutors that allow us to find our key pieces quickly. I also took advantage of the new powerful answers that WU gives us access to, like The Long Road North: 2 Artisan's Genius4 Serene Prayer4 Slaffield Workgate2 Unbound Expanse4 Writing Wonders1 Photon Barricade4 Legendweaving4 Keeper of Holy Lands3 Idyllic Tutor1 The Long Road North3 Judge's DecreeWhile this seems like a reasonably good shell, I must admit, I was tempted by greed. What good is an enchantress deck that doesn't play the best enchantment in the format? So I decided to splash black for Villainy.  It wasn't easy. Splashing a three-pip card while still running eight Lines was the hardest manabase crafting challenge I've ever faced. Fortunately, we rarely actually want to play Villainy on curve—we're more likely to play a tutor on turn 3 into a Villainy on turn 4, which makes things significantly easier. 2 Villainy1 Plains1 Island3 Swamp2 Wayfarer's Shrine4 Marinton-Ravengulch Line4 Lumenbay Flyer Line2 Barren Desolation2 Flooded Depths2 Flooded Morass2 Ocean Monastery1 Arctic MineNow, I know what you're thinking. You're going point out that Villainy's terrible in this deck. It only drains life when I play a black spell, and the only spell that can trigger it is the second copy of Villainy. Villainy's only good in a deck where your whole world is black. But you're missing something important. I've only showed you 58 of the cards in this decklist. And everything in this deck is black. {2 Everything Black}  2 Everything Black 4 Serene Prayer 4 Slaffield Workgate 2 Unbound Expanse 4 Legendweaving 1 The Long Road North 4 Writing Wonders 2 Villainy 1 Photon Barricade 1 Plains 1 Island 2 Wayfarer's Shrine 3 Judge's Decree 4 Marinton-Ravengulch Line 3 Swamp 4 Lumenbay Flyer Line 2 Barren Desolation 2 Flooded Depths 2 Flooded Morass. 2 Ocean Monastery 1 Arctic Mine 2 Artisan's Genius 4 Keeper of Holy Lands 3 Idyllic Tutor |
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 17, 2020 21:05:10 GMT
For those of you who have been paying attention, we have crossed off all but three items of our spoiler list. And while I could continue to drop story spoiler after story spoiler (Who is Glitch, Galactic Muse? What happened to Captain Thomas? Do our gay main characters reunite? What is the ultimate plan of Senator Winters?), I think it is about time that we start to wrap this up. I have three more spoilers I promised you, and so I will deliver them.
First of all, our Villainy riff. For those of you who play MSEM, or follow my set designs, I doubt I have a more iconic card than Villainy from Storytime.
Villainy is an incredibly evocative design, based on Dirty Work from Magic:Villains. It makes you feel like an ultimate necromantic spellslinger, killing creatures to draw cards in order to kill more creatures. The flavor text of it is a reference to Villains: The Musical by cajun as well as to the Emperor's New Clothes by Panic! At the Disco. In some ways, this card could slot right into Love Song itself. But instead, I'm following a different pedigree, one set up by HerziQuerzi. See, when I designed Villainy, I thought of it as a stand alone design. But the card spoke to a ton of people, who instantly began to imagine what other colors in this cycle would look like. Herzi was the first to put one in a set that got into MSEM (Heroism from Memorium Arcanum), but other designers also tried their hand at it. HonchkrowDavid designed an amazing red one (Piracy) and Timespiraled had a blue one in WAY that got cut late in development. Since I knew I wanted this set to have a card in this cycle, I decided to try my own hand at the blue slot.
 The key traits of this cycle are two triggered abilities: one that rewards you for doing a thing that that color wants you to do, and one that helps feed into the first condition as you cast in color spells. I think Whimsy is unlikely to reach the same heights as its cousin, but I still think the card will be a joy to play with.
Next, the set's only vanity card (allegedly), for everyone's favorite astronaut. The moment that I decided that the Servos in this set were going to be rovers, I knew I wanted an homage to the Mars Curiosity Rover. And of course, what better way to represent it than a relentless explorer that draws you a card on hit (ala the original Curiosity in Magic).
Finally, I hope to show off the Storm card that you've all been waiting for. Several guesses were made on the MSE discord server about what it was going to be, and one person got it correct. For those who want everything, for those who need everything, for those who will not stop until they get everything their hearts and Minds Desire, I give you Want It All: This card is not easy to enable, but if you manage to do it, it is frankly insane. An instant speed Mind's Desire that bypasses timing restrictions is an immensely powerful effect. If you open this in your first pack of a draft, it'll be hard to make the deck come together, but I made sure that it was possible, and I look forward to seeing someone force it.
Thank you all for following along during this spoiler season. I have a few more spoilers I handed out that might come rolling in soon, and in a few hours I'm going to drop a link to the Planesculptors. The set is likely to change a fair bit in the coming week or two as I test it (already I plan on cutting/changing 3 of the ArcUns I spoiled) but I welcome any and all feedback, either here or over the discord server.
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Post by augur on May 17, 2020 22:05:57 GMT
Today, we're going to talk about dipping- more specifically, double dipping and it's variants. Our next preview card dips in a number of ways. First up is triple dipping. {Spoiler} That's right, you can get three creatures for the price of one! Although four mana for three 1/1s isn't exactly a deal, the flexibility in casting and instant speed lend themselves to a number of uses, whether that's landing beaters at end of turn or bolting an attacking creature. The artifact type opens up additional synergies as well, especially since in a pinch you can make three 0/0s that can trigger ETBs or get buffed by anthems. But if you've got a good pair of eyes you've already spotted the "Choose one" up at the top of the textbox, so it's time to talk about another kind of dipping... X-dipping? {Spoiler} Why bother with Constructs if something you've already got will make a bigger difference? Though unfortunately duplicating Walking Ballista doesn't do a whole lot, you can just duplicate a different artifact beater like MSEM's Sparking Automaton. This mode is even more flexible than the first- draw a bunch of cards off of Arcum's Astrolabe Baleful Strix! Duplicate your Solemn Simulacrum in singleton formats! Uh... strip your entire hand with five Chrome Moxen! Duplicating mana rocks even once isn't a bad idea as well, since they make future copies of Advanced Schematics even more impressive. I'm eyeing MSEM's Hub of Innovation since them entering tapped is less impactful when they're spawned at end of turn, and getting multiples turns on the card draw easily. Speaking of Hub of Innovation, let's turn to Discoveries of Akieva, Pipsqueak's earlier rarityless set. While Advanced Schematics, being in Love Song, contains a reference to a certain song, this song was actually referenced in DOA on another blue card- making it a bit of a double dip. Can you guess which one? {Spoiler}  //  Stay tuned for the full spoiler! |
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Post by CanterburyEgg on May 18, 2020 0:10:21 GMT
Today, we're going to talk about the universally most-loved sorcery spell in the history of Magic: the Gathering. And I think we all know what that spell is.
 Hmm? Scapeshift isn't your favorite spell? Then you're not the audience for this post--but I suppose I can understand. After all, Scapeshift has one mode: win the game. If you cast it and you aren't winning, you're probably not Scapeshifting right. And while I prefer to win the game, I know there are some people out there with a bit o' flair for the dramatic, and prefer to go bigger than a simple victory. So let's take a look at today's spoiler card and then talk a little bit about how we got here.{Lay Claim to Nature}   This isn't a sexy use case, but with Oracle you can go land-neutral while drawing two cards. Instant-speed Divination in green isn't exactly what the doctor ordered, but it could be worse, right? Now we're talking. Imagine it: Turn four, float a mana, bounce all of your lands, and then play eight lands? Can that be right? You're at 9 mana on turn four and we're just getting started. This method hurts, but it's not dissimilar to a Channel, and I've known that card to be powerful in its time. Cast a second one of these and you can kill yourself before even spending the 20-odd mana you've accumulated. Now that's Magic.
But some of us just want to win the game. No frills, no ramp. Just let me win! But if my Valakut goes to my hand and not the battlefield, how am I supposed to combo off? Ohh, yeah. That's the good stuff.
With Lay Claim to Nature, it's all going down, and to quote a song that I'm certain wasn't referenced in LVS, it's a whole new world.
Don't you dare close your eyes. |
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 18, 2020 2:04:13 GMT
Alright, at long last, the full spoiler. Many thanks to those of you who shared spoilers for this thread, it was a joy to run. If anyone thinks this set looks sweet, please pop into the MSE discord, I hope to do more drafts and test games with it.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2020 5:51:30 GMT
I'm absolutely in love with everything about this set.
Oh and that spoiler card I was given is pretty awesome in draft and Commander IMO.
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Post by cajun on May 18, 2020 11:47:56 GMT
what shenanigans are you planning pip
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 18, 2020 15:32:48 GMT
Cajun, I just very strongly believe in future proofing things. WotC added commanders to every magic format overnight. Who knows if we'll be stuck to 5 colors by 2025.
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 20, 2020 0:37:58 GMT
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Post by Lady Mapi on May 20, 2020 15:41:11 GMT
I hate to mention it, but... you might want to fix Bulletproof Mind and Returned Explorer - I'm not sure they work as they are now. I'm also concerned about how often you'll actually be able to augment your stuff, but I'd have to see it in play to see if it's as janky as I fear it might be. Otherwise, this is a good set. I like this set. I especially liked the following cards: - Guardian of Lost Truths
- Known Unknowns
- Dream of Greatness
- Painwield Explorer
- Scarlet Mist
- FO-2 Radiation Kid
- Lay Claim to Nature
- On the Shoulders of Giants
- Ignition Point
- Lone Survivor
- Ragefueled Adventurer
- Glass Castle Reactor
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 20, 2020 20:14:44 GMT
The typos on Bulletproof Will and Explorer have been fixed. I gotta do a full pass for those sorts errors later today (since FLAREdirector gave me a fix list).
Augmented has seemed okay from initial testing, but I need to increase fixing (and consequently turn down some of the Augmented payoffs at common).
Thanks for weighing in!
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Post by ThatDamnPipsqueak on May 30, 2020 23:36:40 GMT
I received a ton of great feedback from so many members of the MSE community (as well as a few people outside of it). The Planesculptors is now updated with extensive flavor patches and some substantial redesigns (including of many of the cards featured in this thread). While my next project is going to focus on a different setting, expect to return to this one in the future; I have two more sets planned for it.
Hopefully sometime this year, Animus Vox (AVX, small set) will focus on Glitch and the war between the Abominations and Guardians. And Misery Business (MSR, small set) will focus on Senator Winters and the continued political backstabbing.
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"When in doubt, do a common." 
