#MTGMoxtober Day 14: Summoning

 

#MTGMoxtober Day 13: Thirteen

 A finisher for a monowhite control deck.

#MTGMoxtober Day 12: Bones

 People have been casting bones to tell the future for a long time.  I wanted to give white an interesting way to draw cards. The play pattern on this seems like you would use it once and see the top two.  If you get a card, great!  If not, you know what the next one will be.  I can't be bothered to do the math on how many cards you get over X turns, but it's for sure more than 50% of the time.

#MTGMoxtober Day 11: Thief

 

This card had the most iterations of any I've done so far this year.  It started Black/Blue and used heist counters, then turned into black/red tiefling, then became an art thief, then became legendary, then could only play artifacts, then exiled graveyards instead of using heist counters.  What a journey.

#MTGMoxtober Day 10: Mystic

Remember conjure? 

. 

#MTGMoxtober Day 9: Duel

 I thought it would be fun to have a minigame for a duel card. Who doesn't love a minigame?

#MTGMoxtober Day 8: Paranoia

 Commander card that reads:  "maybe just attack someone else."  Also:  Can we get Freeze as a keyword please?

#MTGMoxtober Day 7: Wax

 The first thing I thought of with wax was Madame Toussad's House of Wax.  I thought it would be fun to make a clone that copied abilities instead of the whole card.

#MTGMoxtober Day 6: Plot

 ZoMbIeS!!!!

 

#MTGMoxtober Day 5: Nightmare

 I was imagining what a Tamed Nightmare might look like, and I came up with this:

I like all those griffins and pegasi that grant flying when they attack, and I wanted to expand on that a bit.  I upped the p/t and added lifelink to the mix to make it more interesting.

#MTGMoxtober Day 4: Dream

 I wanted the dreamy theme to be a quasi-random effect that can be manipulated by how you build your deck.  This is a card where you will want to have a list of the cards in your library handy when you use it.

#MTGMoxtober Day 3: Pawn

 A simple minion who is used for nefarious purposes.  The true definition of a pawn.

#MTGMoxtober Day 2: Mystery

There is more than one way to make a Mystery card.  I toyed around with a few iterations, and found a neat idea. 

The rules for Mysteries are as follows:  

1. You start the game with a Mystery deck.  The first Mystery is turned face up as the game starts and you may solve the mystery on your turn if you meet the criteria.  When you do, you get the reward, you exile the Mystery and reveal the next one. 

2. You may solve more than one Mystery each turn, if you meet the criteria.

3. Once the Mystery deck is depleted, it is out of play for the rest of the game.

#MTGMoxtober Day 1: Rebirth

 

Let's start with a curse!  I wanted to make a "resurrect a player" card.  I like that you can cast this on yourself and just get a second chance, or cast it on someone about to die to gain control of that player forever.

Kharsen, Wrongly Accused

 

It's been a while since I've posted new cards, but I got the bug again after playing a one-shot set in Castmire as this guy.  I like the idea of putting ability flavor words on planeswalkers so you can get a feeling for what they are all about.

If you ahven;t heard the newest episode of Beacon of Creation yet, you should listen here to get the context. (throw them a rating or whatever too so more folks can get in on the fun)

Beacon of Creation Update

All written communication for the podcast is going to be on Discord from now on.  It's just a more robust and community-driven format for what we need. 

You can find it here: https://discord.gg/M5eepQF

If you want to see the current iteration of Castmire, you can check it on Planesculptors.

Beacon of Creation Episode 98 Notes

Design Challenge Due Monday, Nov 25th by 7pm Pacific:


Give us a card a that starts with the word "Dwarven"

Based on this article from 2005:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/thirty-two-short-columns-about-dwarves-2005-11-21

Beacon of Creation Episode 97 Notes

Design Challenge due November 18th by 7pm Pacific:

Create a "Soul of _____" card for a plane that doesn't have one yet. 

 Here is a list of all of them.

#Moxtober Day 31: Ripe

Rotten! Human don't like rotten things so they can't block rotten things.  Fun!

#Moxtober Day 30: Catch

This is just bad, right?

#Moxtober Day 29: Injured

Something being injured doesn't mean anything by itself, but a lot of cards that reference it will give disadvantages.

#Moxtober Day 28: Ride

Does anyone have a cleaner reminder text?

#Moxtober Day 27: Coat

Is this too close to Equipment?  I dunno.

#Moxtober Day 26: Dark

Cloaked is an alternate form of Morph.  You still cast the card as a face down 2/2 for three, but the flip condition is different, and notably, free.

#Moxtober Day 25: Tasty

Thallids were originally bred as food, right?

#Moxtober Day 24: Dizzy

Yay for mind flayers!  I still want a D&D set to happen.  I think it will.

#Moxtober Day 23: Ancient

I know wizened isn't the right word here.  I wanted to have a mechanic that showed off experience of creatures and how they get more powerful as they get older.

#Moxtober Day 22: Ghost

Insubstantial is almost like indestructible, so it's not cheap.  On the other hand, your creatures can't do much, combat wise, so it's very defensive.  Probably better if -1/-1 counters and trample are big in the set this exists in.

#Moxtober Day 21: Treasure

Since treasure is now deciduous, I think having some mechanics that mention it specifically is fine. 

#moxtober Day 20: Tread

I don't think this is the exact right flavor for this mechanic, but it's high time it gets keyword.

#Moxtober Day 19: Sling

Ammo.  It's a thing, I guess.

#Moxtober Day 18: Misfit

This one is a play off of day 16's Wild mechanic.  Should they be in a set togther?  I dunno.

#Moxtober Day 17: Ornament

I don't have much to say about this one.  I wanted to make equipment called ornaments, but that felt a bit too far.

#Moxtober Day 16: Wild

I'm actually really proud of this one.  There is nothing in Magic so far that counts the number of subtypes a creature has.

#Moxtober Day 15: Legend

This one put me in a pickle for a while.  Eventually I landed at "What happens when a Legendary Creature dies?" 

#Moxtober Day 14: Overgrown

This one is a little weird. It is a mono-green mechanic, and I don't know what else it could go on besides a creature.  Maybe a sorcery that overgrows two of your creatures?  I dunno.

#Moxtober Day 13: Ash

My mind went to exile as soon as I saw this prompt.  The ability is kind of like embalm, except it happens automatically.

#Moxtober Day 12: Dragon

Dragon is one of those Magic terms that is in (nearly) every set.  It's fun to play a deck full of dragons.  But sometimes you wonder if dragons have any relatives.  The Dragonkin batch lets you know who is related. I went back and forth on putting all the different reptilian races in the batch, but I went with the fantastical instead of the mundane.  I still love lizards, turtles, and crocodiles, but they are not quite dragons.

#Moxtober Day 11: Snow

Brenish Hunter is another card from Frostmere, and snowfall is the main mechanic of that set, but since this is Moxtober, I needed to make a new original, so I present Frozen.  It's just keywording an already used mechanic, but sometimes that's needed.

#Moxtober Day 10: Pattern

This mechanic is a play on Ascend from Rivals of Ixalan, but instead of controlling ten total permanents, you need to control four specific types of permanents. Because this card is an artifact, and you will (in most cases) have land already, you only need an enchantment and a creature to see the pattern and turn this on.

#Moxtober Day 9: Swing

The first thing I thought of was how in Magic, when you swing, you're attacking. And then I thought of the phrase "life swing", another slang term which usually applies when you damage an opponent and gain life.  I figured draining an opponent was as good a trigger as any to feature in a mechanic, so Tithe was born.

#Moxtober Day 8: Frail

This ability is seen elsewhere in magic (see Lichenthrope) but I think it's enough of a drawback to put on an undercosted creature.

Moxtober Day 7: Enchanted

C'mon inktober.  Why you givin' me prompts that are actual magic terms? Anyway, I wanted to do something with auras, and this came to mind. 

Moxtober Day 6: Husky

This is another take on the regenerate mechanic.  This one is a bit different, in that it lets the creature die then come back right away instead of preventing the death. Could be interesting with ETB or leaves play triggers.

Moxtober Day 5: Build

Structures are fun.  This card doesn't have the rules for structures on it, but here's my version:

A Structure is a permanent that can be attacked. It deals no damage to attacking creatures, but whenever it is dealt damage, remove that many +1/+1 counters from it.

Moxtober Day 4: Freeze

I've been obsessed with snow for the last 10 years.  My first custom set was Frostmere, where snow reigned supreme.  Here is a land from there.  It's not a new design, but I love it.

Moxtober Day 3: Bait

I'm planning on doing mechanics based on the first thing i think of when I hear the word, so you're getting a fisherman today. Bait is an enchantment token, so that's something.

Moxtober Day 2: Mindless

This one is pretty simple, but if you know my design style, I give a lot of credence to simple designs. It fits perfectly on zombies, golems, and probably constructs.  Interestingly enough; if a Mindless creature has haste, it may never get a chance to block at all.

Beacon of Creation Episode 91 Notes

Design Challenge Due October 7th:

Costume Party! Tim had an idea of peppering draftable cards that help enhance the Halloween Cube’s draft strategies with a costume mechanic. Costumes have a head and body piece. Costume pieces are emblems. Your deck can have one head costume piece and one body costume piece.

Be creative with non-tribal archetypes but also remember to not be confusing! For example, Vampire Fangs as a costume piece that helps the lifelink deck may incorrectly signal that Vampires are in black (lifelink is white-black). Maybe. Keep in mind, and with that said, go nuts!

Moxtober Day 1: Ring

So, I guess I'm doing this Moxtober thing that Bradley Rose did last year.  Basically, you take all the prompts of Inktober and make magic cards out of them.

The first prompt is Ring.  I wanted to get the feel of people sharing emotions and abilities kind of like in that movie Midsommar. (I guess minor spoilers for the movie if you haven't seen it.) I went back and forth between exactly three and at least three for the design, but I think "at least three" feels better in practice.

Beacon of Creation Episode 90 Notes

Design challenge due September 30th:

A colored artifact that couldn’t be an enchantment; make sure it’s not an equipment.

Beacon of Creation Episode 89 Notes

Design Challenge Due September 23rd:

Give us a card that would fit in Eldraine.
Feel free to use any of the available mechanics. (Food, Adventure, Adamant)

Join our Discord!

Beacon of Creation Episode 88 Notes

Design challenge due September 16:

Design an overpriced card that would fit in a 1997-ish Magic set

Can put it into an existing set, or just imagine a setting that would have fit back then.


Join our discord!

 https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh

We have Discord now!

Join the Beacon of Creation Discord channel!

https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh

Beacon of Creation Episode 87 Notes

Design challenge due September 9th:

Design something that combines two abilities on one card.

Beacon of Creation Episode 85 Notes

OK, so this one's actually due September 2nd;  we're going to attempt to record at MFVegas, and we won't be going over custom designs, so we're giving an extra week for this one:

Design a shapeshifter or bio-scientist.

Beacon of Creation Episode 84 Notes

This week's design challenge:
Design a commander card for an Energy deck.

Beacon of Creation Episode 83 Notes

New Commander Deck Challenge, due Monday, August 12th by 7pm PST.
-- Should fit in one of the new Commander decks (Morph, Flashback, Populate, Madness)
-- Could be a Commander or just one of the 99

Beacon of Creation Episode 82 Notes

This week's challenge is to design a card to fit the GW archetype in Contenders. The thing is that the GW archetype isn't defined yet. Your archetype has to work with the Contender, but deosn't necessarily need to be synergistic. Here's the GW Contender:

Beacon of Creation Episode 81 Notes

Hey there Beaconeers!  This week's challenge is to make your best Fairy Tale card.  It doesn't have to be Eldraine themed, but it doesn't hurt!

Beacon of Creation Episode 79 Notes

We liked the MH1 design space challenge a lot, and we're going to do an M20 episode next week.
We're also trying out having the design challenge coincide with the show's topic. So, next week we'll be making our own M20 cards, and we want you to as well. A card in M20's design space.


Specifically M20, so potentially using the themes from that set.


No new keywords/etc






Due July 15th by 7pm Pacific.

Beacon of Creation Episode 78 Notes

Next week's design challenge is to make a card in Modern Horizons design space; a card that could've shown up in the set, but didn't.

Email all submissions to cards@beaconofcreation.com

The deadline is 7pm Pacific time on Monday, July 8.

Beacon of Creation Episode 76 Notes

Hey there Beaconeers!

This week's challenge is to make a four colored card for Brad's four colored world.  If you don't know much about it, listen to episodes 75 and 76 to get the rundown.

Your submissions are due by 7pm PST on June 24.

Beacon of Creation Episode 74 Notes

Design challenge due Monday June 10th by 7pm Pacific. You can send your submissions to cards@beaconofcreation.com

Create a card using the Accelerate mechanic.

Accelerate is a an action word with the following rules: The next creature or planeswalker spell you cast costs 1 less to cast. It enters the battelfield with and additional +1/+1 or loyalty counter.

For example, you could have a creature with "When ~ enters the battlefield, accelerate."
 
Remember that all designs are welcome.  They don't need to be perfect.

=Adam

Beacon of Creation Episode 73 Notes

Hey there beaconeers!  Sorry I haven't been posting here during the Ignite the Beacon specials, but we're back to normal now!

Design challenge due Monday, June 3rd by 7pm.

Create the first sliver to appear on Castmire.

Beacon of Creation Episode 68 Notes

Design challenges due Monday, April 29th by 7pm.

Top-Down challenge: Castmire's Buy-a-box promo using a mechanic that's not in the set.

Bottom-up challenge: Design Castmire's dual land cycle.

Beacon of Creation Episode 67 Notes

Design challenges due Monday, April 22nd by 7pm.

Top-Down challenge: A card draw spell that feels white and is not just a cantrip.

Bottom-up challenge: Design a legendary headwear equipment.

Beacon of Creation Episode 66 Notes

Design challenges due Monday, April 15th by 7pm.

Top-Down challenge: Revise a Castmire Exemplar card. Bonus points if it fits into the set's motifs in an interesting way.

Bottom-up challenge: Design a spell that shows transmutation magic without changing power/toughness or replacing the card the another.

Send submissions to cards@beaconofcreation.com

Beacon of Creation Episode 65 Notes

Design challenges due Monday, April 8th by 7pm.

Top-Down challenge: Design Garruk's Axe.

Bottom-up challenge: Design an uncommon planeswalker using the WAR template.

Beacon of Creation Episode 64 Notes

Design challenges due Monday, April 1st by 7pm.

Top-Down challenge: Design a Contender. You can find the current Contenders here. Try to make one that fits in with the themes of the set found here.

Bottom-up challenge: Design a card with the word dumbwaiter in the name.


Alsso: I finally updated the Patreon to charge only monthly instead of for each episode; so if that was your barrier to entry, it's fixed now.  You can find our Patreon here.


Thanks to all of our patrons:

Tim Reilly
Bradley Rose
Trevor Cashmore
and
Andy Bentley

Beacon of Creation Episode 63 Notes

Since we ran short on time, the challenges are rolling over this week.

Design challenges due Monday, March 25th by 7pm.

Top-Down challenge: A door using the Visit mechanic. The rules text is either of these two things:

(Play this card face down as a land named Unopened Door with "T: Add C." You may turn this card face up for its visit cost as long as a creature you control is attacking.)

OR

(Play this card face down as a land named Unopened Door with "T: Add C." You may turn this card face up for its visit cost as long as an opponent was dealt combat damage this turn.)








OR (this bit is new!)

(Play this card face down as a land named Unopened Door with "T: Add C." You may turn this card face up by tapping an untapped creature you control and paying this card's visit cost. Activate as a sorcery.)




Bottom-up challenge: A card named Neverending Hallway.

Bonus Challenge!: A cycle of cards showing love.

Other notes:

Tim Reilly's Contenders set can be found here:

Planeswalkers

Other Cards

Beacon of Creation Episode 62 Notes

Design challenges due Monday, March 18th by 7pm.

Top-Down challenge: A door using the Visit mechanic. The rules text is either of these two things:

(Play this card face down as a land named Unopened Door with "T: Add C." You may turn this card face up for its visit cost as long as a creature you control is attacking.)

OR

(Play this card face down as a land named Unopened Door with "T: Add C." You may turn this card face up for its visit cost as long as an opponent was dealt combat damage this turn.)

Bottom-up challenge: A card named Neverending Hallway.

Bonus Challenge!: A cycle of cards showing love.

Other notes:

 No episode next week, as I will be on a big boat in the Caribbean.

I made a subreddit for a new format I'm testing. Give me your best ideas.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ArmyOfOneMTG/

Beacon of Creation Episode 61 Notes

Design challenges due Monday, March 4th by 7pm.

Top-Down challenge: An artifact that is a lantern.

Bottom-up challenge: A white card with “1W, Sacrifice a clue:”





Note: This is a pretty good episode to jump in on.  We go over what we've talked about over the last year-and-a-half or so and talk about where we're going in the future.

Beacon of Creation Episode 60 Notes

Design challenges due Monday, Feb 25 by 7pm.

Top-Down challenge: In honor of (https://itch.io/jam/short-rest) short rest jam, design a card that works as a short rest.

Bottom-up challenge: A mana dork that interacts with any version of Haunt, Startle, or Investigate.

Trevor also wanted to mention @rpgdesignfrog. Go follow them if you like that sort of thing!

Beacon of Creation Episode 59 Notes

Design challenges due Monday, Feb 18 by 7pm.

-Top-down challenge: A card based on Disney’s “The Haunted Mansion”, “Phantom Manor”, or “Mystic Manor”

-Bottom-up challenge: A green four-drop that eats (or uses) clues.

Beacon of Creation Episode 58 Notes

Design challenges due Monday, Feb 11 by 7pm.

-Top-down challenge: A planeswalker with only one loyalty ability.

-Bottom-up challenge: A spirit or elemental native to Castmire that's tricksy but helpful.

Beacon of Creation Episode 57 Notes

Design challenges due Feb 4:

Bottom up:  An evasive creature with a simple and clean design.

Top down:  Marquee goblin that does something "new"

Beacon of Creation Episode 55 Notes

Design challenges due Jan 21at 7pm.

-Top-down challenge: Design a card based on something that scares you personally.

-Bottom-up challenge: Design a removal spell that affects at least two creatures.

Beacon of Creation Episode 54 Notes

Submissions due January 14th at 7pm PST:

Top down challenge: Think outside the greenhouse.  Show a green element of Castmire that doesn't include plants. Bonus points: avoid common green tropes from other sets.

Bottom up challenge: Take your favorite creature and make a one-drop version of it.

Beacon of Creation Episode 53 Notes

Design challenges due Jan 7 at 7pm.

-Top-down challenge: An equipment or vehicle you would find in a mansion.

-Bottom-up challenge: A build-around uncommon that works with startle.

Beacon of Creation Episode 52 Notes

Design challeges due Dec 24 at 7pm Pacific:

Top down design:
Big holiday meal or get-together

Bottom up design:
Your take on gates, only one of a cycle needed.

Beacon of Creation Episode 51 Notes

Design challenges due Dec 10 at 7pm.

-Top-down challenge: Design a card that evokes the sensation of being “indoors”.
-Bottom-up challenge: Design a red common that dabbles in undermined design space for red.
-Bonus challenge: Design some common trespass cards.

I added the new design skeleton and the first version of all the commons to the sidebar ->

 Feel free to print out the commons and playtest them.  Any feedback on how they play would be very helpful. Send feedback on playtests to playtest@beaconofcreation.com.

Beacon of Creation Episode 50 Notes

Challenges due Monday, December 3rd by 7pm Pacific time.

Worldbuilding Challenge:
Rare mystery card that use clues.  Make sure it's a cool story moment, as this will be canon in Castmire's story.

Castmire Design Challenge:
A common Haunt creature. (current colors for Haunt are Green, Black, and White)

Current reminder text for Trespass:
(As this spell resolves, exile it haunting target land. When that land's controller is dealt combat damage, you may cast this spell without paying its mana cost. Then put it into its owner's graveyard.)

Beacon of Creation Episode 49 Notes

Our design challenges for next week are due Monday, Nov 26, at 8pm Pacific Time.
-Design a rare for constructed.
-Design a green common that cares about the graveyard.

Beacon of Creation Episode 48 Notes

Hey there, Beaconeers!

We got a lot done this episode regarding Castmire. We talked about the color combinations, draft archetypes, and mechanics for each color.  Our first pass ended up with these pairings:

Haunt creatures (WBG)
Trespass spells (URB)
Startle (WRB)
Investigate (UWG)
Gates (URG)

UW: artifact matters or tempo (detain)
RU: artifact matters (red sacrifice, blue gets more)
RB: Startle Trespass
UR: Lands-matter gate/trespass?
UG: Colorless-matters? (gates+artifacts)
WB: Haunt + Startle = ???
WG: Haunt + Investigate = ??? defender matters value-creatures?
UB: Nightmares/horrors/value control?
RG: Ramp gates
BG: Haunt recursion
WR: (go wide?)


We are recording on Sunday this week, so the challenges will be due  on Sunday the 18th, by 8pm.

Our design challenges for next week are:

• Design a white common that gains life, but without lifelink.
• Design a black common that is a helpful aura.
• Design a rare signpost card for one of the archetypes we talked about on the episode.

Beacon of Creation Episode 47 Notes

Castmire Worldbuilding Challenge #1
- Create a white common combat trick that gives +2/+2 and a small bonus.

Castmire Worldbuilding Challenge #2
- Create a blue common that cares about instants and sorceries.

Our new email for submissions is cards@beaconofcreation.com

The old one still works, but this one is easier for us moving forward.

Beacon of Creation Episode 46 Notes

Cardcrafting Challenge:

• Design a card that evokes a costume change

Castmire Worldbuilding challenge:

• Black uncommon that returns a creature from the graveyard to the battlefield.

 Just a heads up, I added the Design skeleton to the sidebar as well as all the Castmire worldbuilding challenges as an MSE file to download. The Version # on the Castmire file always updated with the episode number that it's been updated with.

-Adam

Beacon of Creation Episode 45 Notes

Design Challenge Due Oct. 29

• Cardcrafting challenge:
• Make an escape room card
• Castmire Worldbuilding Challenge:
• Pumpkin patches

Beacon of Creation Episode 44 Notes

Cardcrafting Challenge:

• Make a two-card combo with a card that doesn’t have a combo

Castmire Worldbuilding Challenge:

• Detain at common and detain in non-white, non-blue 

Here's a link to Brad's blog where he is doing all the #Moxtober challenges: click me!

Beacon of Creation Episode 43 Notes

Cardcrafting Challenge:

• Design a simple card that hasn't been designed yet. 

Castmire Worldbuilding Challeng:

• Pick an Inktober 2018 prompt, whichever day you’d like, and design an individual card (not a mechanic) based on that prompt.
  https://inktober.com/rules/ 

Beacon of Creation Episode 42 Notes

Submissions due Monday, October 8th.

Cardcrafting challenge

• Design a creature card that has an effect that is related to a loud sound flavor

Castmire Worldbuilding Challenge:

• Something Spoooooooky! A scary ghost with a vendetta.