Magic Design Journal – Part 1 of 20+
Before we start with the journal, a few things:
At this time, there are 26 boosters left, and thus 26 rares; however, I looked at the uncommons, and if I’m not mistaken, I think there are approximately 26 uncommons (out of 75) that you haven’t seen yet! This includes Take Two, Infliction, Return to Earth and Soil, the white “Check” card, the green “Check” card, and many others.
Also, I put this thing together: http://www.baomon.com/blog/card-names-s.mp3 - The file is about 4.5 megs, or 4:30 long, and in it you’ll find the sources for some of the card names or other references. You’ll hear clips from Aladdin’s “Prince Ali” and some references to Firefly, among other things.
Magic Design Journal:
Coronam Vitae - XW [R]
Instant
As an additional cost to playing this spell, remove the top XXXXX cards of your library from the game.
Gain XXXXX life.
A few months ago, somehow we started talking about Thoughtlash, and David thought it might be… actually okay. I think if it didn’t have the cumulative upkeep cost, I think it might actually work – with Thoughtlash, you technically have 60 life instead of 20, yes?
So that’s the inspiration for Coronam Vitae, or Crown of Life. Coronam Vitae is latin, and it’s a piece of lyric from the Elfen Lied intro song. I think during creation it was more expensive… but then I didn’t think people would draft it. Oh yeah, it used to be a sorcery, with “Speedup – remove the top X cards from the game.” But, then I took that out and just made it a bit better.
Just like Thoughtlash, it trades cards for life. It’s rare, and other than possibly Double Jeopardy, it is the fastest, most efficient (mana cost) life gain in Combo Breaker. It’s found a nice home in David’s deck, although he first misread it and thought the cards go into the graveyard, which I can see, would also be quite useful. But alas, they’re gone forever instead, like Thoughtlash.
Such high life gain, instant speed, low cost – are very convincing reasons to make it rare. And that it was. (During creation, the name of this card was “Knowledge for Life”. There’s another card in Combo Breaker, which you haven’t seen, that used to have the name “Life for Knowledge.”)
Just a drop of water – U [R]
Sorcery
Draw 2 cards.
Dredge 2
This was one of the first cards I made. So people say it’s broken now, but it doesn’t even work the way I intended! I intended that you can draw a card, dredge this one, and then use it again! But alas, it doesn’t work, which is good, because then it would’ve been much more broken.
Simply, I wanted more card drawing in my set. The fact that it obsoletes Counsel of the Soratami didn’t even cross my mind, because the Dredge 2 was the most important thing. It used to have Dredge 1, but then it would’ve been too good.
So is it really broken? Probably. The average cost to draw an extra card a turn is approximately 2UU or 3U, or a bunch of life – for this card, it’s U and a 2 card mill. So you draw faster, but in the process you mill – of course, unless your opponent has a milling deck, you don’t really care.
Good news – nobody drafted it yet. There are 6 blue rares left. Good luck!
Gifts Returned - 2BB [R]
Sorcery
Put the top 4 cards of your library into your graveyard. You may repeat this process as often as you wish. After that, choose 2 cards in your graveyard; put those cards in your hand. Your next black spell has combo 1B.
This one breaks the cycle I was going for – the other cards above are all 1-to-cast rares (Coronam Vitae would sorta suck, but still) – but the black 1-to-cast rare hasn’t been drafted yet, nor officially previewed, so it would be wrong to talk about it.
Gifts Returned comes from Gifts Ungiven, but indeed different. It used to cost 4BB, then I thought that… it shouldn’t cost that much to take two cards out of your graveyard. Recollect is 2G, so in one way it would just be two recollects.
Then there’s the other part, the force mill and then the choosing. I’m not really sure I intended it to be such a great tutor. I meant it to take cards out of the graveyard, so you can re-use them… but then I obviously had the force-mill in it for a reason – I guess, in case your first force-mill gives you better options.
Also, it could be a draw back – since I’m calling it force-mill… but Jason used it really well. Duy opened it, Jason was to his right, but they were passing left and it got to Jason, and Jason used full advantage of it. Kudos for him to use it in a different way than I expected, heh.
Finisher - R [R]
Instant
Deal 2 damage to target player. That player draws 2 cards.
Flashback: Discard your hand.
At first glance, Char looks… boring and bland. Arc Slogger… ugh. Alan would look at these and see the beauty in them, and in that vein, comes Finisher. Ambrose opened it and passed it right to Duy, and Duy took it, so Alan didn’t get to see it, but I’m sure Alan would’ve also seen what Duy saw in it.
First, it’s called Finisher, because at the end, if you’re about to win (by damage or by mill), then you use Finisher to deal and “semi-mill”, and, if you’re that close to finishing, you can pay the flashback as if it didn’t matter. At the end, Deal 4 damage is good, and Force Draw 4 cards is almost like (but better) than mill for 4.
It’s rare because of the flashback – no mana – and also because of it’s flexibility. You can cast it on yourself to draw cards when desperate, and when really desperate, you can discard your hand for another 2 cards. This card has always been named Finisher, but near the end, I watched some of School Rumble again and "Arrow Message" became a good name, but I really liked the simplicity of "Finisher."
It’s flexible, cheap, and potent. All the combinations for a rare.
Muscle Sprout - G [R]
Creature – Plant Monster
Trample
Threshold – Muscle Sprout gets +3/+3.
If Muscle Sprout is attacking, and then you reach Threshold for the first time this game, creatures you control get +2/+2 until end of turn.
1/1
Lastly for today, we come to Muscle Sprout, another 1-to-cast rare. It used to have Threshold +2/+2, but in the last few days I pumped it up to make it better. I was considering adding Trample to the Threshold-attack bonus (other creatures), but that would be quite wondrous. I was also considering giving it haste, which would work nicely in its flavour.
Muscle Sprout rhymes with Brussel Sprouts, and Sprout implies “Instant something”, which is where the name comes from. It used to be black, and had a different name, but then moved to green for limited pointing.
That concludes this edition of Magic Design Journal. I think this will be a daily or bi-daily thing. Tune in next time for another 5 rares, or maybe 5 uncommons, or something.
At this time, there are 26 boosters left, and thus 26 rares; however, I looked at the uncommons, and if I’m not mistaken, I think there are approximately 26 uncommons (out of 75) that you haven’t seen yet! This includes Take Two, Infliction, Return to Earth and Soil, the white “Check” card, the green “Check” card, and many others.
Also, I put this thing together: http://www.baomon.com/blog/card-names-s.mp3 - The file is about 4.5 megs, or 4:30 long, and in it you’ll find the sources for some of the card names or other references. You’ll hear clips from Aladdin’s “Prince Ali” and some references to Firefly, among other things.
Magic Design Journal:
Coronam Vitae - XW [R]
Instant
As an additional cost to playing this spell, remove the top XXXXX cards of your library from the game.
Gain XXXXX life.
A few months ago, somehow we started talking about Thoughtlash, and David thought it might be… actually okay. I think if it didn’t have the cumulative upkeep cost, I think it might actually work – with Thoughtlash, you technically have 60 life instead of 20, yes?
So that’s the inspiration for Coronam Vitae, or Crown of Life. Coronam Vitae is latin, and it’s a piece of lyric from the Elfen Lied intro song. I think during creation it was more expensive… but then I didn’t think people would draft it. Oh yeah, it used to be a sorcery, with “Speedup – remove the top X cards from the game.” But, then I took that out and just made it a bit better.
Just like Thoughtlash, it trades cards for life. It’s rare, and other than possibly Double Jeopardy, it is the fastest, most efficient (mana cost) life gain in Combo Breaker. It’s found a nice home in David’s deck, although he first misread it and thought the cards go into the graveyard, which I can see, would also be quite useful. But alas, they’re gone forever instead, like Thoughtlash.
Such high life gain, instant speed, low cost – are very convincing reasons to make it rare. And that it was. (During creation, the name of this card was “Knowledge for Life”. There’s another card in Combo Breaker, which you haven’t seen, that used to have the name “Life for Knowledge.”)
Just a drop of water – U [R]
Sorcery
Draw 2 cards.
Dredge 2
This was one of the first cards I made. So people say it’s broken now, but it doesn’t even work the way I intended! I intended that you can draw a card, dredge this one, and then use it again! But alas, it doesn’t work, which is good, because then it would’ve been much more broken.
Simply, I wanted more card drawing in my set. The fact that it obsoletes Counsel of the Soratami didn’t even cross my mind, because the Dredge 2 was the most important thing. It used to have Dredge 1, but then it would’ve been too good.
So is it really broken? Probably. The average cost to draw an extra card a turn is approximately 2UU or 3U, or a bunch of life – for this card, it’s U and a 2 card mill. So you draw faster, but in the process you mill – of course, unless your opponent has a milling deck, you don’t really care.
Good news – nobody drafted it yet. There are 6 blue rares left. Good luck!
Gifts Returned - 2BB [R]
Sorcery
Put the top 4 cards of your library into your graveyard. You may repeat this process as often as you wish. After that, choose 2 cards in your graveyard; put those cards in your hand. Your next black spell has combo 1B.
This one breaks the cycle I was going for – the other cards above are all 1-to-cast rares (Coronam Vitae would sorta suck, but still) – but the black 1-to-cast rare hasn’t been drafted yet, nor officially previewed, so it would be wrong to talk about it.
Gifts Returned comes from Gifts Ungiven, but indeed different. It used to cost 4BB, then I thought that… it shouldn’t cost that much to take two cards out of your graveyard. Recollect is 2G, so in one way it would just be two recollects.
Then there’s the other part, the force mill and then the choosing. I’m not really sure I intended it to be such a great tutor. I meant it to take cards out of the graveyard, so you can re-use them… but then I obviously had the force-mill in it for a reason – I guess, in case your first force-mill gives you better options.
Also, it could be a draw back – since I’m calling it force-mill… but Jason used it really well. Duy opened it, Jason was to his right, but they were passing left and it got to Jason, and Jason used full advantage of it. Kudos for him to use it in a different way than I expected, heh.
Finisher - R [R]
Instant
Deal 2 damage to target player. That player draws 2 cards.
Flashback: Discard your hand.
At first glance, Char looks… boring and bland. Arc Slogger… ugh. Alan would look at these and see the beauty in them, and in that vein, comes Finisher. Ambrose opened it and passed it right to Duy, and Duy took it, so Alan didn’t get to see it, but I’m sure Alan would’ve also seen what Duy saw in it.
First, it’s called Finisher, because at the end, if you’re about to win (by damage or by mill), then you use Finisher to deal and “semi-mill”, and, if you’re that close to finishing, you can pay the flashback as if it didn’t matter. At the end, Deal 4 damage is good, and Force Draw 4 cards is almost like (but better) than mill for 4.
It’s rare because of the flashback – no mana – and also because of it’s flexibility. You can cast it on yourself to draw cards when desperate, and when really desperate, you can discard your hand for another 2 cards. This card has always been named Finisher, but near the end, I watched some of School Rumble again and "Arrow Message" became a good name, but I really liked the simplicity of "Finisher."
It’s flexible, cheap, and potent. All the combinations for a rare.
Muscle Sprout - G [R]
Creature – Plant Monster
Trample
Threshold – Muscle Sprout gets +3/+3.
If Muscle Sprout is attacking, and then you reach Threshold for the first time this game, creatures you control get +2/+2 until end of turn.
1/1
Lastly for today, we come to Muscle Sprout, another 1-to-cast rare. It used to have Threshold +2/+2, but in the last few days I pumped it up to make it better. I was considering adding Trample to the Threshold-attack bonus (other creatures), but that would be quite wondrous. I was also considering giving it haste, which would work nicely in its flavour.
Muscle Sprout rhymes with Brussel Sprouts, and Sprout implies “Instant something”, which is where the name comes from. It used to be black, and had a different name, but then moved to green for limited pointing.
That concludes this edition of Magic Design Journal. I think this will be a daily or bi-daily thing. Tune in next time for another 5 rares, or maybe 5 uncommons, or something.
posted by Unknown at 9:47 PM
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