An idea was growing in my mind: How cool would it be, to see, if I could create a deep, balanced limited environment - not with the cards wizards print, but completely out of nothing. It would be a hard task, but also a very fun one.
Then another idea came to me: What I could need, was a team. A group of people, who know how to create a balanced limited environment, full of synergies and interesting ways to go. ANd who would be better for this job, than the Riptide crew?
Okay, here's my plan: I would always give out something like: "A red common burn spell", "a white rare with ability X", or "an anchor card in BG for archetype X", sometimes with a first sketch, if I think I'm on a good idea, sometimes without. We would then share ideas and discuss until everyone participating is satisfied with the result. Then I would add the card to the full spoiler, which will be added to this post.
It would be a nice creative activity, challenging and fun for us, I'd say. We would share ideas on every card/mechanic/cycle until it is done, and it can always be changed. No deadlines, doesn't matter if it takes 3 hours or a week to get a card right. Also, we would use our hive mind to find right artworks for the cards, then, at some point, those cards could be proxed out in good quality for actual drafts and games.
Okay, here is my first sketch:
Vakeztan is a wild continent on an uknown planet, losely resembling central asia (Kazakstan, Uzbekistan) etc. with rough mountains, hot desserts, exotic jungles and beautiful coasts. It's a dangerous place with giant beasts of all kind. The sentient inhabitants are humans, elves, viashino, ogres, and leonin.
Game play wise, I'm imagining a wedge set, where every one of the 5 factions actually is focused on the enemy color, so unlinke Khans did it. Every faction gets a keyword, plus I want to add cycling as a neutral mechanic, because it is so great at smoothing and reducing the number of nongames significantly.
Here are my ideas for the factions:
centered in
A desert folk which is praying to the sun. They are doing sacrifices to calm the good of heat. Their honored dead get embalmed magically after dying to do the hard work, their people could not do in the daily heat.
Machanic: Embalm. That was my inital idea and I love the idea in these colors, focused on also makes sense with the white mummy tokens.
Races: Human, Viashino, Leonin
centered in
A folk lead by shamans, living in the jungle. They embrace the nature and it's forces. Their shamans are masters of illusions and they know how to mix certain plants for an emowering and mind-expanding experience, which they believe, brings them closer to their gods. This magical drug is what I try to embrace in their mechanic.
Mechanic: I though of an ability word, that gives you something for every card you've drawn this turn, but mayve someone has a better idea.
Races: Human, Viashino, Elf
centered in
Clans of Rough Nomads and Warriors, pillaging through the lands. They are scared of nothing. To travel across the continent, they've become extraordinary beast tamers, domesticating and enslaving the creatures of the wild.
Mechanic: "~Mount", an ability that will be on the domesticated beasts like: "T: Target creature gets +P/+T for as long as ~ remains tapped. When that creature dies this tun, sacrifce ~. Mountonly as a sorcery."
Races: Human, Ogre
centered in
They are Conquerers from another continent, ccepting their truth as the only right one believe and traveling across the world to either missionary people or erase them.
Mechanic: I thought of their playstyle to be about instants/sorceries that create tokens, but not something that's just a spells matter mechanic. To get the invasion feel, something that cares about having the most creatures/lands/permanents would be cool.
Races: A new race from another continent ... any ideas? Should be something fitting the colors and with enough art to chose from.
centered in
Jungle Folk of proud fighters and shamans, surviving in the rough wilderness thanks to being masters in disguise and guerillia. They defend their native ways angainst intruders passionately. They hunt the worlds giant beasts in groups by attackign them from the undergrowth.
Mechanic: Morph? That would be a good fit, but I'm keen on hearing opinions on this too.
Races: Elf, Leonin
Last but not least, we should keep in mind to have 10 archetypes for 2-color decks, in addition but resulting from/harmoizing with the 5 factions. Here' a quick sketch what could make sense imo:
WU Cycling? Skies?
UB Saboteurs
BR Aggro
RG Cycling?
GW Beast Tribal
WB Your creatures dying matters
BG Power matters
GU +1/+1 counters
UR Instants/Sorcerys matter
RW Tokens matter
But that should be only a side note for now.
Ooookay. I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes, I had to rewrite all this, because my laptop died. Let's start with focusing the 5 wedge factions and finding the ideal mechanics for them. If enough people are into this, we could soon start with creating the first actual cards!
Then another idea came to me: What I could need, was a team. A group of people, who know how to create a balanced limited environment, full of synergies and interesting ways to go. ANd who would be better for this job, than the Riptide crew?
Okay, here's my plan: I would always give out something like: "A red common burn spell", "a white rare with ability X", or "an anchor card in BG for archetype X", sometimes with a first sketch, if I think I'm on a good idea, sometimes without. We would then share ideas and discuss until everyone participating is satisfied with the result. Then I would add the card to the full spoiler, which will be added to this post.
It would be a nice creative activity, challenging and fun for us, I'd say. We would share ideas on every card/mechanic/cycle until it is done, and it can always be changed. No deadlines, doesn't matter if it takes 3 hours or a week to get a card right. Also, we would use our hive mind to find right artworks for the cards, then, at some point, those cards could be proxed out in good quality for actual drafts and games.
Okay, here is my first sketch:
Vakeztan is a wild continent on an uknown planet, losely resembling central asia (Kazakstan, Uzbekistan) etc. with rough mountains, hot desserts, exotic jungles and beautiful coasts. It's a dangerous place with giant beasts of all kind. The sentient inhabitants are humans, elves, viashino, ogres, and leonin.
Game play wise, I'm imagining a wedge set, where every one of the 5 factions actually is focused on the enemy color, so unlinke Khans did it. Every faction gets a keyword, plus I want to add cycling as a neutral mechanic, because it is so great at smoothing and reducing the number of nongames significantly.
Here are my ideas for the factions:
centered in A desert folk which is praying to the sun. They are doing sacrifices to calm the good of heat. Their honored dead get embalmed magically after dying to do the hard work, their people could not do in the daily heat.
Machanic: Embalm. That was my inital idea and I love the idea in these colors, focused on
also makes sense with the white mummy tokens.Races: Human, Viashino, Leonin
centered in A folk lead by shamans, living in the jungle. They embrace the nature and it's forces. Their shamans are masters of illusions and they know how to mix certain plants for an emowering and mind-expanding experience, which they believe, brings them closer to their gods. This magical drug is what I try to embrace in their mechanic.
Mechanic: I though of an ability word, that gives you something for every card you've drawn this turn, but mayve someone has a better idea.
Races: Human, Viashino, Elf
centered in Clans of Rough Nomads and Warriors, pillaging through the lands. They are scared of nothing. To travel across the continent, they've become extraordinary beast tamers, domesticating and enslaving the creatures of the wild.
Mechanic: "~Mount", an ability that will be on the domesticated beasts like: "T: Target creature gets +P/+T for as long as ~ remains tapped. When that creature dies this tun, sacrifce ~. Mountonly as a sorcery."
Races: Human, Ogre
centered in They are Conquerers from another continent, ccepting their truth as the only right one believe and traveling across the world to either missionary people or erase them.
Mechanic: I thought of their playstyle to be about instants/sorceries that create tokens, but not something that's just a spells matter mechanic. To get the invasion feel, something that cares about having the most creatures/lands/permanents would be cool.
Races: A new race from another continent ... any ideas? Should be something fitting the colors and with enough art to chose from.
centered in Jungle Folk of proud fighters and shamans, surviving in the rough wilderness thanks to being masters in disguise and guerillia. They defend their native ways angainst intruders passionately. They hunt the worlds giant beasts in groups by attackign them from the undergrowth.
Mechanic: Morph? That would be a good fit, but I'm keen on hearing opinions on this too.
Races: Elf, Leonin
Last but not least, we should keep in mind to have 10 archetypes for 2-color decks, in addition but resulting from/harmoizing with the 5 factions. Here' a quick sketch what could make sense imo:
WU Cycling? Skies?
UB Saboteurs
BR Aggro
RG Cycling?
GW Beast Tribal
WB Your creatures dying matters
BG Power matters
GU +1/+1 counters
UR Instants/Sorcerys matter
RW Tokens matter
But that should be only a side note for now.
Ooookay. I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes, I had to rewrite all this, because my laptop died. Let's start with focusing the 5 wedge factions and finding the ideal mechanics for them. If enough people are into this, we could soon start with creating the first actual cards!
