These are cards that will be in Colonies of Mantria, my new custom set (and first since 2006... it's been a while :p). I'm pretty psyched, because for the first time I went out of my way to find art for every single card.
I was a bit afraid, because rumor had it that Zendikar would feature a prehistoric setting, rendering my work on finding the art for Colonies pretty much useless. But since that was proven wrong, I decided to finish it and "release" it.
So, to sum it up: Mantria is a wild plane that has endured a process of colonization for the last 200 years. It has an overarching land theme, and many cards hint at the progress versus nature conflict.
I've posted some cards that will be in the set here in the past, and here are some more (mostly showcasing the set's theme) I'd like your opinion on.
(The cards still don't use the new terminology, but I'll fix that before I put it out.)
Aeonic Avenger - 2WW
Creature — Luminon Soldier (R)
Flying
Aeonic Avenger gets +1/+1 and has lifelink as long as an opponent controls more lands than you. The arms of justice, delivering the final verdict.
3/3
Trammel - 1UU
Instant (U)
You may only spend mana from nonbasic lands to play Trammel.
Counter target spell. If that spell is countered this way, draw a card.
Lurker of Tharia's Ruins - 3B
Creature — Human Rogue (C)
:symb:: Lurker of Tharia’s Ruins gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
:symb:, Remove a land card in your graveyard from the game: Lurker of Tharia’s Ruins gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
1/1
Hunter Spinosaur - 3BB
Creature — Dinosaur (C)
Hunter Spinosaur can’t block.
When Hunter Spinosaur comes into play, you may sacrifice a nonbasic land. If you do, destroy target creature.
3/2
Eruption Caster - 2R
Creature — Human Shaman (C) Earthbond — Whenever you play a land, you may pay :1mana:. If you do, Eruption Caster deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
1/1
Janeshan Adventurer - 2G
Creature — Elf Rogue (R)
When Janeshan Adventurer attacks, search your library for a land card and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.
2/1
Glowmist Field
Land (C)
Glowmist Field comes into play with two depletion counters.
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
:symtap:, Remove a depletion counter from Glowmist Field: Choose one — Add to your mana pool; or target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Bubbletide Island
Land — Island (C) (:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.)
Bubbletide Island comes into play tapped.
When Bubbletide Island comes into play, you may pay :symu:. If you do, look at the top four cards of your library, then put them back in any order.
Heart of the Biosphere
Land (U)
:symg:, :symtap:: Add :symg::symg: to your mana pool. Put a charge counter on Heart of the Biosphere.
Whenever there are four or more charge counters on Heart of the Biosphere, sacrifice it. If you do, you may put a creature card from your hand into play.
Crystal Range
Land (U)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
When Crystal Range comes into play, you may pay :5mana:. If you do, search your library for an instant or sorcery spell with converted mana cost 3 or less and play it without paying it mana cost. Then shuffle your library.
Soil Elemental
Creature Land — Elemental (U) (This card isn’t a spell. It’s affected by summoning sickness.)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
You can’t play Soil Elemental unless you control four or more lands.
2/2
I take it this is your take on the ubiquitous Land Set? I honestly can't wait to see your take on it as your one of the forum's best minds in the set creation biz.
I like what I've seen so far with the utilization of lands as pseudo-spells and creatures. And the return of depletion (and hopefully storage) counters since a land set wouldn't feel right without them.
I really like glowmist field. I believe this could be turned into a cycle.
In my experience, if multicolor-themed sets are most prone to rampant cycles, land-based sets are a very close second. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if almost all of his lands in the set were members of cycles, especially at common and uncommon.
I would assume thats for any normal set, not one that's designed around lands. Certainly Dryad's Arbor doesn't make any sense as a cycle. Blue gets a land that's also a creature and it can play it on the first turn? Seems un-blue to me.
I would assume thats for any normal set, not one that's designed around lands. Certainly Dryad's Arbor doesn't make any sense as a cycle. Blue gets a land that's also a creature and it can play it on the first turn? Seems un-blue to me.
The Arbor was, in fact, a part of a very loose cycle.
The trick in designing a set like this with a high number of cycles (which is assuming that Colonies follows my original presumption) is to make some cycles obvious (a common cycle of lands each tapping for a color and each having a common keyword or mechanic for instance) and others a little less obvious (a cycle of five lands each adding a creature to the board but one being a land creature, another making tokens as an activated ability, one making a token if you pay an amount of mana as the land enters play, another discarding itself from your hand to put a creature card from your hand into play and the fifth being a traditional man-land with an ability to awaken it - all five add a creature to the board but aren't a rigid cycle). That also allows you to show how each color approaches a common theme.
That said, avoiding cycles in a set like this can be just as disastrous as going overboard. There's a certain expectation of seeing completed cycles, especially when you're dealing with lands that tap for colored mana.
Yeap, but in a heavy land set, (land) cycles should be taken very careful... otherwise the set would be made "entirely" out of cycles.. and that's bad designing IMO.
125 of 330 cards in Invasion belonged to cycles. There are at least 25 cycles in Shadowmoor (so at least 125 of 301). Both sets are the most cycle-heavy sets in the game and neither are regarded as poorly-designed sets (Invasion is quite the opposite, it's one of the most popular sets ever).
You're right in that cycle-heavy sets can come across as lazily designed (again, I don't think it's bad per se as much as it can be design on auto-pilot; why design 30 cards when you can just come up with 6 ideas and use the one idea to make 30 cards?). But there are ways of diminishing that perspective without cutting cycles.
One is flavor. Using different naming conventions can often 'hide' a cycle and make it less obvious. Simple common cycles of staple effects paired with a set's keyword are in pretty much every block, usually as a common cycle. Yet we don't always notice that because they don't make it obvious by the name that the cards are in a cycle.
Another is making a couple oddballs in the cycle to make the cycle less rigid. The Ripple cycle in Cold Snap does this with the white one being a creature with the rest as spells. The Lorwyn lords do it as well, with the whole massive cycle being both unusually-numbered (more than the standard 5 or 3) as well as all very loosely connected.
A big one is power level. You know when players don't mind cycles? When some of them are powerful. We're still aware there's a cycle at work but if the end result is a few awesome cards and a couple lesser ones with a similar mechanic, it's no big deal. Like pitch cards. Or you can make various members of a cycle appeal to different player demographics (one geared for Limited, one for Spikes, one for Johnnies, etc).
This isn't as much of a request for tight cycles as it is a request for symmetry, like requiring an equal number of cards among all colors in a set.
Agreed. A land block will naturally exhibit a lot of symmetry. But if that's a problem, minimizing the number of cycles in the colored cards (or spreading certain cycles across the block) can reduce the overexposure of symmetry.
I take it this is your take on the ubiquitous Land Set? I honestly can't wait to see your take on it as your one of the forum's best minds in the set creation biz.
Thanks, I hope I can live up to expectations.
Quote from Mythrandir »
I really like glowmist field. I believe this could be turned into a cycle.
Bubbletide is interesting. It makes topdecking this lands in lategame not so bad.
Thanks! Both are, in fact, part of cycles. I tried my best to ensure that not all color-alligned lands are part of cycles, although like Mikey said, the very nature of a set like this is likely to lead to lots and lots of them.
Quote from Jasper »
I seem to remember a R&D member stating that, as a general rule, colored lands should always come in cycles.
They don't have to necessarily come in cycles in a land-themed set like this one, otherwise, design would get boring very fast.
While creating the set on MSE, I divided all colored lands into "batches" of five, to help ensure that every color got the same amount of lands. However, not all of those batches turned out the same - some are straight cycles, some are unrelated, and a lot are loose cycles (for example, the "comes into play lands", which are actually varied spells at different mana costs in land form, and those spells wouldn't be considered cycles on a normal set).
For example, here are the white and black parts of an uncommon "batch":
Yannel-Crop Machair
Land (U)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool. If you have 15 or more life, add to your mana pool instead.
:2mana::symw:, :symtap:, Return Yannel-Crop Machair to its owner’s hand: You gain X life, where X is target creature’s toughness.
Ramatoan Mausoleum
Land (U)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool. If there are two or more cards in your graveyard, add to your mana pool instead.
At the beginning of your precombat main phase, if Ramatoan Mausoleum is in your graveyard, you lose 1 life and add to your mana pool.
Both of them have primary mana abilities that work in a very similar way, but the nature of the second effect on each of them helps set them apart.
Also, when you take a closer look at them, you'll see that their primary mana abilities will give you colored mana in completely opposite stages of the game. The Machair is more likely to give you colored mana on the early game, while the Mausoleum is more about the mid-late game.
Hopefully cycles like this one will help give each color their unique take on lands.
While creating the set on MSE, I divided all colored lands into "batches" of five, to help ensure that every color got the same amount of lands. However, not all of those batches turned out the same - some are straight cycles, some are unrelated, and a lot are loose cycles (for example, the "comes into play lands", which are actually varied spells at different mana costs in land form, and those spells wouldn't be considered cycles on a normal set).
For example, here are the white and black parts of an uncommon "batch":
Yannel-Crop Machair
Land (U)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool. If you have 15 or more life, add to your mana pool instead.
:2mana::symw:, :symtap:, Return Yannel-Crop Machair to its owner’s hand: You gain X life, where X is target creature’s toughness.
Ramatoan Mausoleum
Land (U)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool. If there are two or more cards in your graveyard, add to your mana pool instead.
At the beginning of your precombat main phase, if Ramatoan Mausoleum is in your graveyard, you lose 1 life and add to your mana pool.
Both of them have primary mana abilities that work in a very similar way, but the nature of the second effect on each of them helps set them apart.
Also, when you take a closer look at them, you'll see that their primary mana abilities will give you colored mana in completely opposite stages of the game. The Machair is more likely to give you colored mana on the early game, while the Mausoleum is more about the mid-late game.
Hopefully cycles like this one will help give each color their unique take on lands.
Thanks for all the responses so far!
That's a great way to implement cycles without causing a cycle-overload for the players. Good work.
I was a bit afraid, because rumor had it that Zendikar would feature a prehistoric setting, rendering my work on finding the art for Colonies pretty much useless. But since that was proven wrong, I decided to finish it and "release" it.
So, to sum it up: Mantria is a wild plane that has endured a process of colonization for the last 200 years. It has an overarching land theme, and many cards hint at the progress versus nature conflict.
I've posted some cards that will be in the set here in the past, and here are some more (mostly showcasing the set's theme) I'd like your opinion on.
(The cards still don't use the new terminology, but I'll fix that before I put it out.)
Aeonic Avenger - 2WW
Creature — Luminon Soldier (R)
Flying
Aeonic Avenger gets +1/+1 and has lifelink as long as an opponent controls more lands than you.
The arms of justice, delivering the final verdict.
3/3
Trammel - 1UU
Instant (U)
You may only spend mana from nonbasic lands to play Trammel.
Counter target spell. If that spell is countered this way, draw a card.
Lurker of Tharia's Ruins - 3B
Creature — Human Rogue (C)
:symb:: Lurker of Tharia’s Ruins gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
:symb:, Remove a land card in your graveyard from the game: Lurker of Tharia’s Ruins gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
1/1
Hunter Spinosaur - 3BB
Creature — Dinosaur (C)
Hunter Spinosaur can’t block.
When Hunter Spinosaur comes into play, you may sacrifice a nonbasic land. If you do, destroy target creature.
3/2
Eruption Caster - 2R
Creature — Human Shaman (C)
Earthbond — Whenever you play a land, you may pay :1mana:. If you do, Eruption Caster deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
1/1
Janeshan Adventurer - 2G
Creature — Elf Rogue (R)
When Janeshan Adventurer attacks, search your library for a land card and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.
2/1
Glowmist Field
Land (C)
Glowmist Field comes into play with two depletion counters.
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
:symtap:, Remove a depletion counter from Glowmist Field: Choose one — Add to your mana pool; or target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Bubbletide Island
Land — Island (C)
(:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.)
Bubbletide Island comes into play tapped.
When Bubbletide Island comes into play, you may pay :symu:. If you do, look at the top four cards of your library, then put them back in any order.
Heart of the Biosphere
Land (U)
:symg:, :symtap:: Add :symg::symg: to your mana pool. Put a charge counter on Heart of the Biosphere.
Whenever there are four or more charge counters on Heart of the Biosphere, sacrifice it. If you do, you may put a creature card from your hand into play.
Crystal Range
Land (U)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
When Crystal Range comes into play, you may pay :5mana:. If you do, search your library for an instant or sorcery spell with converted mana cost 3 or less and play it without paying it mana cost. Then shuffle your library.
Soil Elemental
Creature Land — Elemental (U)
(This card isn’t a spell. It’s affected by summoning sickness.)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
You can’t play Soil Elemental unless you control four or more lands.
2/2
*****
ricklongo and RicardoLongo on MTGO
*****
Visit my gaming blog: http://www.gamingsweetgaming.blogspot.com
****************
Check out Rick's Picks, my PureMTGO article series
****************
I like what I've seen so far with the utilization of lands as pseudo-spells and creatures. And the return of depletion (and hopefully storage) counters since a land set wouldn't feel right without them.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
In my experience, if multicolor-themed sets are most prone to rampant cycles, land-based sets are a very close second. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if almost all of his lands in the set were members of cycles, especially at common and uncommon.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
The Arbor was, in fact, a part of a very loose cycle.
The trick in designing a set like this with a high number of cycles (which is assuming that Colonies follows my original presumption) is to make some cycles obvious (a common cycle of lands each tapping for a color and each having a common keyword or mechanic for instance) and others a little less obvious (a cycle of five lands each adding a creature to the board but one being a land creature, another making tokens as an activated ability, one making a token if you pay an amount of mana as the land enters play, another discarding itself from your hand to put a creature card from your hand into play and the fifth being a traditional man-land with an ability to awaken it - all five add a creature to the board but aren't a rigid cycle). That also allows you to show how each color approaches a common theme.
That said, avoiding cycles in a set like this can be just as disastrous as going overboard. There's a certain expectation of seeing completed cycles, especially when you're dealing with lands that tap for colored mana.
125 of 330 cards in Invasion belonged to cycles. There are at least 25 cycles in Shadowmoor (so at least 125 of 301). Both sets are the most cycle-heavy sets in the game and neither are regarded as poorly-designed sets (Invasion is quite the opposite, it's one of the most popular sets ever).
You're right in that cycle-heavy sets can come across as lazily designed (again, I don't think it's bad per se as much as it can be design on auto-pilot; why design 30 cards when you can just come up with 6 ideas and use the one idea to make 30 cards?). But there are ways of diminishing that perspective without cutting cycles.
One is flavor. Using different naming conventions can often 'hide' a cycle and make it less obvious. Simple common cycles of staple effects paired with a set's keyword are in pretty much every block, usually as a common cycle. Yet we don't always notice that because they don't make it obvious by the name that the cards are in a cycle.
Another is making a couple oddballs in the cycle to make the cycle less rigid. The Ripple cycle in Cold Snap does this with the white one being a creature with the rest as spells. The Lorwyn lords do it as well, with the whole massive cycle being both unusually-numbered (more than the standard 5 or 3) as well as all very loosely connected.
A big one is power level. You know when players don't mind cycles? When some of them are powerful. We're still aware there's a cycle at work but if the end result is a few awesome cards and a couple lesser ones with a similar mechanic, it's no big deal. Like pitch cards. Or you can make various members of a cycle appeal to different player demographics (one geared for Limited, one for Spikes, one for Johnnies, etc).
Agreed. A land block will naturally exhibit a lot of symmetry. But if that's a problem, minimizing the number of cycles in the colored cards (or spreading certain cycles across the block) can reduce the overexposure of symmetry.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
Thanks! Both are, in fact, part of cycles. I tried my best to ensure that not all color-alligned lands are part of cycles, although like Mikey said, the very nature of a set like this is likely to lead to lots and lots of them.
They don't have to necessarily come in cycles in a land-themed set like this one, otherwise, design would get boring very fast.
While creating the set on MSE, I divided all colored lands into "batches" of five, to help ensure that every color got the same amount of lands. However, not all of those batches turned out the same - some are straight cycles, some are unrelated, and a lot are loose cycles (for example, the "comes into play lands", which are actually varied spells at different mana costs in land form, and those spells wouldn't be considered cycles on a normal set).
For example, here are the white and black parts of an uncommon "batch":
Yannel-Crop Machair
Land (U)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool. If you have 15 or more life, add to your mana pool instead.
:2mana::symw:, :symtap:, Return Yannel-Crop Machair to its owner’s hand: You gain X life, where X is target creature’s toughness.
Ramatoan Mausoleum
Land (U)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool. If there are two or more cards in your graveyard, add to your mana pool instead.
At the beginning of your precombat main phase, if Ramatoan Mausoleum is in your graveyard, you lose 1 life and add to your mana pool.
Both of them have primary mana abilities that work in a very similar way, but the nature of the second effect on each of them helps set them apart.
Also, when you take a closer look at them, you'll see that their primary mana abilities will give you colored mana in completely opposite stages of the game. The Machair is more likely to give you colored mana on the early game, while the Mausoleum is more about the mid-late game.
Hopefully cycles like this one will help give each color their unique take on lands.
Thanks for all the responses so far!
*****
ricklongo and RicardoLongo on MTGO
*****
Visit my gaming blog: http://www.gamingsweetgaming.blogspot.com
****************
Check out Rick's Picks, my PureMTGO article series
****************
That's a great way to implement cycles without causing a cycle-overload for the players. Good work.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains