Playtesting Frostmere - Day 2

If you're not up-to-date on my current project, you can start here. Part 2 is here.

There have been quite a few changes in the few rounds of playtesting that I've done.  This may be the most fun I've had since creating this blog. 

I'll be posting original versions of cards and then the "fixed" version, explaining the reasoning for each one.  The new versions are going to be playtested soon, and I will give a full report on those cards, as well.

First, we have our snow "tri-lands."  Since the Coldsnap duals just entered the battlefield tapped, I wanted to something a bit different.  My original version didn't have enough drawback, so I tried again.  The Legendary status creates a flavorful experience, while at the same time being enough of a drawback where this wouldn't be an automatic 4-of.  This card is also promoted to Rare on account of the Legendaryness of it.

A small change here, but a significant one.  This card, along with Disciple of Gargut, can be backbreaking.   A slight tweak is all it needs, methinks.

While I previously thought a small tweak we necessary here, after a few more rounds, it turns out that this is the 2nd most powerful card I've played with.  (The 1st most powerful is a doozy!)  The changes are numerous here.  Mana cost, power, rarity, and activation cost tweaks should make this guy a little less broken.  We will see soon enough.

Oh, Icy Excavation. This card is, by all accounts, the #1 most broken card I've played with.  Every time this card was cast, it was the end of the game.  When you pay 4 mana to draw 8 cards, there is a problem.   I changed the mana cost to make it less disgusting and hopefully that's enough.

One small tweak to make this feel more like a weird hybrid between a shock land and a fetch land.  I think it succeeds in that regard.

 Mammoth Lair is still functionally the same, with better language.  Playtesting helps you figure that stuff out, too. I modified the wording from the Hidden cards in Urza's Saga. 

  Another wording fix along with a slight toughness boost for the sake of easier math.  I also feel that this should be a common. 

Winter Bolt as a sorcery fixes is a fair trade for the ice counter.

That's all for today!  Stay tuned for the next episode of Playtesting Frostmere.

Playtesting Frostmere -- Day 1, Part 2

For part 1, click here.

Thanks for coming back!  The second deck that I made was a Red/Black ice deck.  It manipulates ice counters to do mean things.  Here's a rundown on some of the more important cards in the deck -

Below Zero was busted in its original incarnation.  Originally it only gave a counter when it ETB, but at the beginning of your upkeep, it dealt damage equal to the number of ice counters on it to a creature or player.  In combination with a few of the other cards in the deck, its original abilities made it way too strong.  What you see is the nerfed version.  We haven't tested this version yet, but it seems more reasonable.

These four cards form the rest of the core of the Red/X Ice counter deck.  Disciple of Gargut was less impressive than I expected, but still really good.  I was thinking about adding 1 colorless to his mana cost, but more playtesting is needed. Cover in Frost is the card that, when combined with Below Zero, is an absolute killer.  I like it in this deck to help get rid of a creature with the Disciple, and I think it will play nicely with the rest of the Ice counter team.

Both of these cards are singletons in the deck, but only Icy Excavation came up.  When I cast it, I drew 6 cards and lost 1 life.  This card needs to be tweaked.   I'd say adding an X to the mana cost and getting rid of the life loss might be the right fit.  A verdict is still out for the Parasite, but a colorless Control Magic probably needs to cost more, even with the drawback.

 Snowy Apex (and the rest of the cycle) was completely overhauled.  They originally only read" 1: Add R to your mana pool."  The clever part was that they were snow lands, so you could filter for a single color and for snow mana.  When I overhauled the snow costs to make it easier for players unfamiliar with the snow rules, I added the ability to tap it for S. It just feels bad not being able to tap your land for mana unless it's a really cool land (see Mammoth Lair from yesterday).

The last card I wanted to mention was Set Fire.  This is an homage to Electrostatic Bolt.  It's also awesome.

Thanks again for listening.  Make sure to tell your friends to check out the blog, and follow me on twitter and like the page on Facebook.

Playtesting Frostmere - Day 1, Part 1

Whew.


Hollee and I spent the better part of three hours playtesting a pair of decks I put together using mainly cards from Frostmere, a set I'm designing. 

Here are a few highlights from the first of the two decks:

Deck 1 - Hollee:  Since Hollee enjoys playing Green/White, I made her a Selesnya deck focusing of the Snowfall mechanic.  Here are a few key cards:

Brenish Hunter is the cornerstone of a good landfall deck in limited environments. When his ability triggers more than once a turn, he gets really mean.

This is the core of snow lands.  If you're familiar with how snow mana works, the main rule is -- Whenever you get mana from a snow permanent, that mana has the snow supertype.  In other words, you can use it for any costs that require snow mana.  To alleviate some of this confusion, I've added it as an option on each snow land that can produce mana in Frostmere.

Side note, all of these lands besides the Basic land changed from when we first started playtesting.  Hidden Embankment didn't tap for mana, and the Icicle Glade had a useless ability word, Frigid.  Frigid was supposed to read -- This enters the battlefield tapped unless you control another snow permanent.  I only ever put it on the two color lands, and it seemed unnecessary, so I removed it. The Mammoth Lair had a triggered ability to sacrifice it and put a token into play, but this version just feels better.

These two creatures, while not being snow themselves, really go along with the theme.  The Badger, while being immensely fun, is a hard guy to block.  It turns out that ability is a really good way to make blocking generally turn out in the Badger's favor.  The Paladin is also a really good card.  It turns out that an 8 point life swing for 3 mana might be too strong.

One other card worth mentioning is Justice of Ice.  This is part of a rare cycle of Snow Enchantments that have a Snowfall bonus.  This one  works really well with Brenish Hunter and is also cray in multiples.  A limited powerhouse, for sure.  This was costed at 1W originally, and it was WAAAYY to cheap, so I fixed it.

That's all for tonight, but don't fret. I will post the other deck's analysis tomorrow, so stay tuned!  Remember to follow me on twitter @madolaf, and like the Facebook page (facebook.com/olafscards) to keep up on updates.

Card of the Day - Savage Cold

While I was making this card, I had some trouble finding the best wording. Here are two other versions that might work, as well.

Let me know which version feels the best, and is the most grokkable.

Card of the Day - Assault Drake

I couldn't decide if I wanted WU or UR for the mana cost, so I made both and both at the same time.  Which one is correct?

Card of the Day - Mutating Serum

This is the third four color rare I've made so far on my blog, and the second with these four colors.  This card started out as a red/white/blue uncommon sorcery that gave the creature first strike and bounced it after it was dealt combat damage, but then I changed it to an aura to prevent memory issues.

After making it into an aura, I didn't like that the aura went away after the creature was returned to its owner's hand.  I briefly toyed with the idea to return the enchantment as well, but thought better of it.  I just scrapped the bounce and started fiddling with the mana cost.  As I write this, I realize this card is not a four color card after all, but a pure Simic card.  Here's my final version, which I just created.

Let me know what you think about this design in the comments section below, on Twitter, or on Facebook!  I look forward to hearing from you.

Card of the Day - Embue Venom/Venomous Assault

Today's card is an evolution of an idea.  It started as a black instant and evolved into a multicolored sorcery. 

Let's see how it happened.

At first I wanted a black combat trick to punish blockers.  I came up with this:

As you can see, it is quite powerful, and can rip though an unsuspecting opponent's defenses like a spark plug through window glass.   The first thing I changed was the name.  Embue Venom sounds more like an Aura than an Instant, and it doesn't feel like a whole team kind of thing.  The new name is Venomous Assault.

Once the name was changed, the card felt less black than it had previously.  Assault to me is a very red/white feeling word.  Also, I didn't like this card as an Instant. It felt too swingy. I reworked it and came up with this.

In this iteration, it forces the opponent to make a tough choice.  The little boost is nice, too. 

I like the dual hybrid cost.  It's such a strange thing, but it totally works on this card.  You can play it as Selesnya, Orzhov, Gruul, or Rakdos.  I really hope this is something WOTC explores in the future. 

For more on 4 color cards and Dragon's Maze, check out Bradley Rose's article about them, here.

Card of the Day - Curse of Reflections/Doppelganger Pack

Today's card comes from an idea from my girlfriend.  She said to me, "Is there a card that when you play a creature, everyone else gets the same creature?"  I thought for a second and said, "no... at least not that I can recall."  To which she responded, "Well then. Make one."

So I did.

I coudn't decide which version I like better, so I'll post them both.

The first version is a curse that lets everyone copy one players creatures.  The rider at the end prevents multiples on different players causing infinite loops.

The second one only lets you get the tokens, but at a cost.

I feel like this card could be blue or green, but I didn't want the curse to be hybrid.

Let me know which version you like better, and if you'd make any tweaks on the design.

Edit: As per suggestion.

A nontoken clause is more effective in regards to preventing going infinite. 

Card of the Day - Memory Wipe/Sense Motive

I wanted to make a card where you get to choose whether forcing a discard or milling would be the better play.  I came up with a skeleton for a card, but I couldn't quite get the wording right.  I tried a few more variations and got this:

Instead of choosing which effect to do, it does both.  Sprinkle in some panache (the bit about mana cost), and you got yourself a nice Dimir card.


Bonus!  After going back to the original idea, I finally made the wording fit.  Here's that card.

Card of the Day - Feedback Elemental

Today, I'm going to do something a little different in that I'm going to show the evolution on an idea that made a final card.

My lady and I were watching The King's Speech when I came up for the idea for this card.  I thought, "What if a wizard had a stammer?  It would probably make casting spells a bit harder."

I made this card out of the idea.

After thinking about it, I decided that putting this ability on a creature would be more interesting, so I made it into a Demon.

I gave it flying, a decent P/T and a fun piece of flavor text.  But it didn't feel quite right.

After looking at it again, I realized that this ability is generally a white ability, as evidenced by Aura of Silence and Grand Arbiter Augustin IV.  The Grand Arbiter's version could be said to be blue, as well, but taxing is widely regarded as a white ability.   I changed the card once again to reflect this.

I left the flavor text, but I changed the mana cost, power, and keyword to something more white.  I could have left flying, but I went for vigilance instead.  I also added a bit of artwork and cleaned up the wording.

I'd like your feedback input on this, guys!  Let me know what you think the next evolution of this card should be.