Colorless Non-Artifact Creatures March 4, 2010
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I suspected that we might end up seeing colorless non-artifact creatures after seeing Eye of Ugin. I suggested the idea on facebook but I was told that it was pretty unlikely and I agreed. (more…)
“Nix”: A Landless Magic Set February 17, 2010
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We already know what Magic will look like in 2060 and 2070. Now I know what Magic will look like in 2063. This is the year that Magic will develop the all 0 casting cost set. They tried an all gold set in 2009. They tried an all land set in 2017. The time will come for a 0 casting cost set. No lands will be required to play Magic. (more…)
Wizards of the Coast Tried October 30, 2009
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Zendikar has proven to have inadequate mana fixing. The inevitable advice for us is, “Play 18 or 19 lands in a 40 card deck!” Yes, that helps, but then you often end up drawing all lands the whole game. However, Wizards did try. They designed cards that would help with mana fixing, but those cards were rejected… and apparently they were never replaced with appropriate mana fixing. (more…)
Unscrewed Part 10: Gym Socks of Ma ‘Rûf (Unglued 3) October 26, 2009
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Ring of Ma ‘Ruf was a great card idea, but it has two problems. One, it’s too weak. Two, it was given an errata that said you can only get a card from your sideboard with it. (Why? It’s already too weak!) (more…)
Unscrewed Part 9: Hypnotism (Unglued 3) October 20, 2009
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Today’s Unscrewed cards show an idea that I didn’t think of myself: Triple hybrid. I actually did think of it myself at one point, but apparently other people also thought of it before me. Not really surprising. It’s just based on the idea that hybrid cards could give us even more options. You choose between three colors instead of just two. (more…)
Unscrewed Part 8: Vodalian Coast (Unglued 3) October 13, 2009
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Not only will Unscrewed do many fun things that would probably never happen for real, but it will give us the mana fixing that we’ve always wanted. The mana fixing will be balanced, but it will help us avoid mana screw much more effectively than usual. I gave many suggestions to how mana screw could be avoided over a year ago, and Unscrewed will implement some of these ideas. In particular, the idea of split permanents. A card could have two choices: You could play it as a land, or as something else. For example, Vodalian Coast: (more…)
Unscrewed Part 7: Bazaar of Cairo (Unglued 3) October 7, 2009
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My first Magic set, Awakening, was finished in 2007, over 2 years ago. My favorite new mechanic was a wacky fun idea: The untap symbol. It didn’t take me much longer to think of a similar mechanic: The doubletap symbol. I decided that this new mechanic could be used for Unscrwed (Unglued 3). The idea is that you can turn a card upside down to do something quite similar to how tapping permanents work. The difference is that you could doubletap a card, even if it was already tapped (but you can’t doubletap a creature if it is already upside down). The result is that we can get cards like Goblin Prophet, seen above. Goblin Prophet was one of the first cards I thought of that used the doubletap symbol.
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Unscrewed Part 6: King Kong (Unglued 3) October 1, 2009
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Vanguard was an ancient way to play Magic where players used a card that gave them new abilities. The vanguard card was basically the original planeswalker card, but it counted as you. You could be the Sliver Queen or Gerrard. The problem with Vanguard cards was that both players had to agree to play with them because they gave players more power than was usually allowed. Just like creature tokens were found in Unglued, vanguard cards could be found in Unscrewed packs. (more…)
Unscrewed Part 5: Blackest Lotus (Unglued 3) September 28, 2009
Posted by James in : all, fake cards , 3commentsI have been working a lot on Unscrewed 3. I have thought of over 60 cards so far, but I want there to be at least 150 cards in the set when I am done. (more…)
Infinity: A Future Magic Set Part 4 July 9, 2009
Posted by James in : all, fake cards, speculation , 3commentsBefore reading this, you should take a look at Part 1.
Welcome to the final installment of my Infinity articles. In today’s article I will preview three noncreature spells. Some of these are a little more powerful for the cost. (more…)
Infinity: A Future Magic Set Part 2 June 26, 2009
Posted by James in : all, random, fake cards, design , 3commentsBefore reading this, you should take a look at Part 1.
What exactly will Magic look like 50 years from now? I’m not going to show my entire Infinity set here, but I will show enough cards that can give you a pretty good idea what the game will look like. (The rule of thumb: Four casting cost cards will have one casting cost instead.) (more…)
Infinity: A Future Magic Set June 19, 2009
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In October 2008 I decided to make a satirical article series, The Power Creep, about what Magic will be like 50 years in to the future.
Then around February 2009 I started making an entire Magic set based on the Power Creep articles. I was very curious and perhaps a bit power hungry. What would Magic be like 50 years from now if my predictions were correct? What if moxes and Black Lotus were no longer over-powered? I wanted to know. (more…)
Unscrewed Part 4: Satanic Tutor June 16, 2009
Posted by James in : all, random, fake cards, game rules, complecated rules , 1 comment so far
One rule I don’t like: You can’t have another player’s cards in your hand. There is nothing fun about this rule and it limits design space. This is rule 217.1a:
If an object would go to any library, graveyard, or hand other than its owner’s, it goes to its owner’s corresponding zone. If an instant or sorcery card would come into play, it remains in its previous zone.
Magic 2070 Card Previews June 9, 2009
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Here are all the latest Core Set previews:
- Magic 2070 Preview Cards Part 1 (6/3/09)
- Magic 2070 Preview Cards Part 2 (6/6/09)
- Magic 2070 Preview Cards Part 3 (6/9/09)
I posted about a couple of these preview articles earlier, but I decided I could show them all in a single place.
The power creep continues. Although the power level of cards can sometimes decrease, they tend to become more powerful as time goes on.
The power creep has been apparent starting with Kird Ape, and now continues with cards such as Wild Nacatl and Bloodbraid Elf. (more…)
New Garbage Pail Kids Cards May 19, 2009
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Predicting 11th Edition Part 3 April 14, 2009
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What will the dual lands of 11th Edition (Magic 2010) look like? I already explained what other people suspect the new dual lands might be like. The time has come for me to introduce my new ideas about what the dual lands might look like: (more…)
Predicting 11th Edition Part 2 April 10, 2009
Posted by James in : all, fake cards, speculation , 10commentsI already wrote an article about what the dual lands of 11th Edition (Magic 2010) might look like here, but there are many other interesting ideas for dual lands. In this article I will present some of the more interesting ideas that other people have thought of. I will write another article that presents my own ideas. (more…)
Predicting Alara Reborn Part 5 April 3, 2009
Posted by James in : all, fake cards, speculation , 11comments
Updated 4-15-2009
The art and card names of 5 Obelisk-like cards have been spoiled here. Like Obelisks, cards like these are expected to be used for mana fixing. However, Alara Reborn is all multicolored, so it isn’t as easy to provide us with mana fixing. Here are two ideas about what these cards might do that were thought of by other people: (more…)
Predicting Zendikar Part 4 April 2, 2009
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A New Kind of Poison (part 2)
It has been suggested that Zendikar might feature poison in new ways: It can be used on instants/sorceries, as a drawback, or as a resource. I have shown how the first two ideas might work, but how might poison be used as a resource?
Predicting Zendikar Part 3 March 31, 2009
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A New Kind Of Poison (part 1)
Since “poison” appears to be the most likely returning mechanic of Zendikar, I will spend the next two articles revealing what the poison cards might be like. One important reason to think that Zendikar is about poison is that Mark Rosewater promised that poison would return in a future set here. That was quite some time ago. If poison doesn’t return in Zendikar, then it would probably return in the next block. (more…)