Card of the Day - Six-Shooter

A gunlinger's best friend.


Edit:  Better wording and Equip cost.

Card of the Day - Billy-Bumbler

Billy-Bumblers are native to Mid-world, They are described as a cross between a dog and a raccoon, with a curly tail.  There are some who can mimic a few human words.

Card of the Day - Raven Taheen

Taheen are generally described as people with animal heads.  This Raven Taheen can recruit other Taheen to help him with whatever evil shenanigans he is wont to get up to.

Card of the Day - Utter Evil

When Jake was crossing over into Mid-World during book three, there was a demon in the house trying to get him.  This card represents the evil presence in the house.

Edit:  This card seems way too powerful as it stands.  Here's another version.

 Still VERY powerful.  No longer too powerful.

Card of the Day - Lobstrocities

These guys attacked the Gunslinger at the beginning of book two.  They are mean. 

Card of the Day - Wandering Gunslinger

This week's cards are all inspired by Stephen King's the Dark Tower.  None of the cards this week are actual characters or locations in the series, but they resonate within the world created by Mr. King.

Card of the Day - Final Siege

Here's a nice Overrun variant that lets red in on the game.

Card of the Day - Explosive Learning

Boom.  Draw some cards.

Card of the Day - Scavenger Beetle

This is a constructed worthy card.  He's really hard to kill!

Card of the Day - Golgari Bonesmith

For some reason, Harvest costs with no mana component make me giddy.

Card of the Day - Fungal Expulsion

This card shows a simple way to use Harvest:  a smaller effect for the Harvest cost.

Card of the Day - Blossoming Mosshound

Here's a nice filler common for the Golgari.  The more cards I make with Harvest, the more I like the mechanic.

Card of the Day - Grave Purge

One of my favorite things about Harvest (other than the fact that activate it from more than one zone) is the fact that it's basically uncounterable.  Perhaps one of the other guilds is good at countering activated abilites?

It's Harvest Time!

Even though the new Golgari mechanic was revealed this week, I've been working on my own alternate since I saw HavelockV's challenge on Goblin Artisans, a fellow designer blog.

Last week's Sunday card was the first example of Harvest. Here's another:

Golgari traditionally use the graveyard as a resource, as evidenced by their last guild mechanic, Dredge.  I wanted to keep the same flavor while expanding on the idea.  I chose Harvest because of the tension it brings.  I like how you can give up casting the actual spell for the surprise factor of the Harvest ability or you can wait until the creature's dead and use it whenever.

Harvest isn't limited to creatures, though.  Here's an example of a card that might not have a useful target while it's sitting in your hand.

Have a good week, and don't be afraid to Harvest!

Card of the Day - Plea for Knowledge

I like votes where everyone gets something.  It feels good to vote for this.

Card of the Day - Plea for Funding

I added the Otherwise at the last minute because spells that do nothing sometimes are just plain not fun at all.

Card of the Day - Senator Valkias

In my version of Ravnica, the Azorius Senate gets a lot of legendary creatures to help out with voting.  Here's the Mythic Rare.

Card of the Day - Arbiter's Gavel

Each guild has to have an artifact, right?  This should be the only card with the line "You get one more vote."

Card of the Day - Wartime Assembly

This one can get out of hand really quickly.  You might even have your opponents voting Yea on this one.

Card of the Day - Bureaucratic Protocol

It's fun to not let your opponent do anything.  Except when you're playing with friends, unless your one friend has a bunch of baddies that everyone is scared of.  Then it's fun. But not for him.

Card of the Day - Filibuster

One of the things I really like about the vote mechanic is that you don't have to win every time.  Sometimes just getting a few votes makes casting a spell worthwhile.

Yea or Nay?

As you may know, the next big set for Magic:the Gathering is the Return to Ravnica.  For those of you who weren't around the first time, the plane of Ravnica is a big city, kind of like Coruscant, but less space-y.

The city is divided into ten guilds.  Each guild is made up of two colors and its philosophy is based on the interaction between those colors.  For example: the green/white guild, Selesnya, values community, life, and peace whereas the Cult of Rakdos (black/red) are generally cruel and disgusting.

The last time we went to Ravnica, each guild has its own mechanic or keyword.  Dredge, the Golgari's keyword, is still being used to take down tournaments in eternal formats. This time each guild is going to have a different keyword, and I've been trying to independently figure out a keyword of my own for each one.

Last week we looked at how the Orzhov Syndicate uses gold to get what it needs, and yesterday's  Card of the Day was my take on the Golgari ability word. This week's keyword is for the Azorius Senate.  If you're familiar with the guild, you'll know that the Blue/White Azorius Senate makes the laws for Ravnica and they are very liberal with their use of Law Magic.  Therefore, I propose Voting.

Let's go over a few of the pitfalls before I unveil the whole thing.

In a two player game, if each player gets one vote, most times the vote is going to fail.  The solution for this is to let other Planeswalkers vote, as well.  If you have Gideon on your side, you're probably going to win.

That was the initial design.  After some thought, I decided to let legendary creatures vote, as well, for a few reasons. One, it's just unfun if you're always losing votes because your opponent is playing with (generally) more expensive cards than you.  Most legendary creatures cost less (financially) than Planeswalkers. Two, I wanted people to have to count more votes. Voting seems bad if you don't get to interact with it. Three, Commander!  This seems like a perfect mechanic for commander decks to play with.  It feels at home in a multiplayer enviroment, and when you're playing commander, everyone has at least one legendary creature to play with.

OK, so here's the wording on all vote cards that are less than rare.

(Each player gets one vote plus one vote for each Planeswalker and Legendary Creature he or she controls. Each player may choose to vote Yea or Nay.)

And, without further ado, I present Azorius Justicar, in all his extended art glory:

Card of the Day - Nightshade Shambler

I've spent a good amount of this week thinking about the Guilds of Ravnica and decided I should create a mechanic for each one before they are actually released to the public.  I borrowed the Gold counters, but Harvest is all mine.

I like the idea of exiling it from your hand or graveyard.  It gives you a lot of good options.

Card of the Day - Assassin's Contract

Better Murder.   (It's better 'cause you get paid!)

Card of the Day - Mokari of the Obzedat

Here's a guild legend.  He uses gold counters as a win condition.

Card of the Day - Commissioned Plague

Damnation variant that makes gold counters good.

Card of the Day - Orzhov Coffers

A simple execution of gold counter production.  Perfect for an Orzhov land.

Card of the Day - Debtor's Respite

Here's an interesting way to use gold counters: as payment.

Card of the Day - Gold Counter

Sometimes great ideas need to be expanded upon.  This idea was used by Devon Rule in the GDS2, and then reexamined in HavelockV's challenge.  Since we're going back to Ravnica, I'd like to expand on Jay Treat's entry into the challenge.  This week's cards are all Orzhov cards based around the idea of gold counters. Enjoy!

Card of the Day - Path of the Knowledgable

I'm not sure if anyone noticed, but this weeks' cycle started on Wednesday and ended on Sunday.  Tomorrow I will start a new cycle, and it's going to be cool.

Card of the Day - Path of the Enraged

Haste and fighting is fun.  I love Ulvenwald Tracker, and I thought an enchantment version of him would be superawesome. Hence Path of the Enraged.

Card of the Day - Path of the Vile

I made these cards so the two abilities are synergistic.  The red ability on this one will kill any creature that it hits, because of the deathtouch.  I like how it can hurt players too.

Card of the Day - Path of the Wild

This card has the 2nd lowest mana cost, but the highest off color cost.  I like how the trample and lifegain are connected.