Post by Daij_Djan on Jan 7, 2024 22:46:47 GMT
Thread design under construction
I pretty much threw this starting post together at the last minute, it'll probably get changed in style a few times
I pretty much threw this starting post together at the last minute, it'll probably get changed in style a few times
2024 in Cycles
This is a small little project of mine, posting a „cycle“ of five cards per week.
Set Code: Week: Cards: | x | (24) 6/52 30 cards, 5 tokens |
Background said:
A few years ago I participated in the small Cardtober 2019 project and enjoyed it quite a lot. Since I wanted to get back into bigger projects other than just single card designs back then anyway, I decided to basically expand this for the entire year of 2020.However it was pretty obvious from the start my time schedule would never allow me to do one unique card design per day, I instead came up with the concept of one „cycle“ per week. This actually worked quite fine till summer – when I had to go to to hospital for almost two weeks and then took a few weeks more off to recover completely. I tried to get back on track afterwards, but never really made it.
Since I really had quite some fun back then, I decided to redo the project for this year – except this time I'll (try to) post my designs every week to show them off and maybe force me a bit to not quit so easily
What is a „cycle“? said:
So, what do I mean when talking about designing a „cycle“ of cards every week? While I will most likely end up with some proper cycles from time to time, this should only happen when I'm too pressed on time and out of ideas. In general I plan on desiging five cards tyed together by a mechanical and/or flavor driven theme, spaced out evenly amongst the colors (this might get a bit blurry from time to time though – especially if colorless cards get into the mix)..These themes could come from various places – sometimes it'll just be something that came to mind spontaneously, sometimes it'll be based on something I've heard or read, sometimes there might be a single card design for any of our many contests that inspires me to go a bit further – and also suggestions are definitely welcome. Having a few backup themes for less creative weeks might definitely come in handy from time to time.
{Week 01}
I think my favorite design of the cycle is Artificial Landscaping, Rampant Growth shifted into blue.
bending the color pie said:
The first entry for this project was inspired by my recent entry for the Unbendable Pies Breaks contest.I think my favorite design of the cycle is Artificial Landscaping, Rampant Growth shifted into blue.
{Week 02}
Designs were intentionally left simple and at common/uncommon power level. Greyfin Shark actually was an older design I came up with around three years ago but then suddenly remembered when trying to think of a fitting fish design for this „cycle“.
I think my favorite card this week was the one that I came up with first: Hunting Cheetah. I've been a fan of this type of evasion for red ever since Gingerbrute, and exert works just fine both as a balancing tool as well as for flavor reasons.
animals said:
Honestly, I don't have much explanation to offer about how I ended up with this topic. I toyed with a few one based on the weekly contests, then the idea of doing rather normal real life animals just popped into my head.Designs were intentionally left simple and at common/uncommon power level. Greyfin Shark actually was an older design I came up with around three years ago but then suddenly remembered when trying to think of a fitting fish design for this „cycle“.
I think my favorite card this week was the one that I came up with first: Hunting Cheetah. I've been a fan of this type of evasion for red ever since Gingerbrute, and exert works just fine both as a balancing tool as well as for flavor reasons.
{Week 03}
Straight Flush is one of those designs, that feels quite simple but turns into a messy word soup when translated into a card. I do remember there exists a mechanic directly counting consecutively increasing mana values, but I really couldn't remember it from the top of my head (really sorry!) and didn't really have the time to look it up.. Snakes and Ladders is a bit weird as it's directly representing the entire game rather than just a part of one – which is why I decided to turn it into a world enchantment.
I think my favorite design this time around is a tie between Go To Jail and The Joker, the latter a design I definitely expect to show up in real Magic at some point in the future.
card & board games said:
As it's probably rather obvious, this „cycle“ was based on my entry for the current CotW contest. Since I started with an enemy-colored design, I chose to do all five cards this way.Straight Flush is one of those designs, that feels quite simple but turns into a messy word soup when translated into a card. I do remember there exists a mechanic directly counting consecutively increasing mana values, but I really couldn't remember it from the top of my head (really sorry!) and didn't really have the time to look it up.. Snakes and Ladders is a bit weird as it's directly representing the entire game rather than just a part of one – which is why I decided to turn it into a world enchantment.
I think my favorite design this time around is a tie between Go To Jail and The Joker, the latter a design I definitely expect to show up in real Magic at some point in the future.
{Week 04}
Line Break annoyed me a bit as in I literally wasn't able to find a sreenshot of the classic Tetris that actually featured a line getting removed for some reason. The cost reduction on Space Invaders is supposed to represent the „the more you destroy, the faster they become“ concept. And yes, the cost on Ghost Monsters' ability was taken directly from Bargain. I didn't just want to do paying mana and I liked the idea of sacrificing something to represent consuming the item – and after some pondering I thought Bargain would be a nice template to use.
My favorite design however this time is the Power Star, even if it kind of is just a keyword soup granting spell – but I think it fits so well nethertheless
vintage video games said:
This „cycle“ is a continuation of last week's, obviously. While I decided to stick with board and card games last time, I did want to explore some good old video games – so I did so this week. To mirror the previous cycle, I decided to use allycolored designs this time.Line Break annoyed me a bit as in I literally wasn't able to find a sreenshot of the classic Tetris that actually featured a line getting removed for some reason. The cost reduction on Space Invaders is supposed to represent the „the more you destroy, the faster they become“ concept. And yes, the cost on Ghost Monsters' ability was taken directly from Bargain. I didn't just want to do paying mana and I liked the idea of sacrificing something to represent consuming the item – and after some pondering I thought Bargain would be a nice template to use.
My favorite design however this time is the Power Star, even if it kind of is just a keyword soup granting spell – but I think it fits so well nethertheless
{Week 05}
Since this week's „cycle“ was supposed to only contain monocolored cards, I dropped the from Forgotten Past's cost – to be honest, I actually do prefer Backgrounds to be monocolored for the most part, so this fits nicely. Design note: The commander receives the coin flipping ability on ETB, so even if the Background gets removed, it'll still work. Originally, I thought about designing cards using die rolls as well as coin flips – but in the end, I already ended up with five dice rolling concepts I wanted to use, so there was no need to do coin flips anymore. Yaris, Fiery Gamber still caring about coins is a small nod to this.
My favorite design this week is Blessing in Disguise for sure though. I like the concept of cards caring about specific numbers you roll on any dice rolls, and the way this card balances itself is quite funny to me. (Like getting unlucky ona d4 is much more common than with a d20, but you only get a much smaller token in compensation as well.) Only wish I had an idea for what to do with the artwork though. Didn't have any specific art direction in mind and my random searches didn't really end up with something that really clicked with me.
dice rolls said:
Since the two last week's were tied together by flavor, I wanted to go with a mechanical theme again for this one. And since I had fitting designs in two weekly contests already, I decided on dice rolling.Since this week's „cycle“ was supposed to only contain monocolored cards, I dropped the from Forgotten Past's cost – to be honest, I actually do prefer Backgrounds to be monocolored for the most part, so this fits nicely. Design note: The commander receives the coin flipping ability on ETB, so even if the Background gets removed, it'll still work. Originally, I thought about designing cards using die rolls as well as coin flips – but in the end, I already ended up with five dice rolling concepts I wanted to use, so there was no need to do coin flips anymore. Yaris, Fiery Gamber still caring about coins is a small nod to this.
My favorite design this week is Blessing in Disguise for sure though. I like the concept of cards caring about specific numbers you roll on any dice rolls, and the way this card balances itself is quite funny to me. (Like getting unlucky ona d4 is much more common than with a d20, but you only get a much smaller token in compensation as well.) Only wish I had an idea for what to do with the artwork though. Didn't have any specific art direction in mind and my random searches didn't really end up with something that really clicked with me.
{Week 06}
Due to the nature of the given restriction, these cards would mostly end up as finishers for Limited. Despite nowadays Dash and Blitz being a thing, I really wanted to go back to Penada's Mirage for Dune Courser. Sanguinary Knight feels a bit pushed in both modes, but by increasing the color density copared to Blood Glutton (which doesn't feel like a pushed beater to begin with) the base body should be fine – and looking at Butcher's Glee (trading the regeneration for the toughness boost) the Bloodrush cost looks fine as well.
Still, my favorite for the week is Terror of the Western Sea. Partly for its simplicity, partly because till this day I kind of have a soft spot for Intimidate in blue. Small reminder: In an old article MaRo explained how the ability would be tertiary in , but then the mechanic got dropped before we ever got a blue card for it (white at the very least has Spectral Rider).
CMC5+ common creatures said:
Last week I realized after ending up with three new CMC2 cards how most of my designs for this project so far were pretty cheap. To counter this, I decided to go with some expansive cards for this „cycle“. Since I'm me, I decided to go for commons only – and after unintentionally ending up with four creatures, I decided to add this as additional rule for the final card as well.Due to the nature of the given restriction, these cards would mostly end up as finishers for Limited. Despite nowadays Dash and Blitz being a thing, I really wanted to go back to Penada's Mirage for Dune Courser. Sanguinary Knight feels a bit pushed in both modes, but by increasing the color density copared to Blood Glutton (which doesn't feel like a pushed beater to begin with) the base body should be fine – and looking at Butcher's Glee (trading the regeneration for the toughness boost) the Bloodrush cost looks fine as well.
Still, my favorite for the week is Terror of the Western Sea. Partly for its simplicity, partly because till this day I kind of have a soft spot for Intimidate in blue. Small reminder: In an old article MaRo explained how the ability would be tertiary in , but then the mechanic got dropped before we ever got a blue card for it (white at the very least has Spectral Rider).
Any type of feedback and/or theme suggestions are appreciated!