CardName: Challenge # 024
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Rules Text: Design two Magic Cards based on the cards from other games.
See the comments.
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Set/Rarity: Multiverse Design Challenge Common
Challenge # 024
C
Design two Magic Cards based on the cards from other games. See the comments.
The cards that you design shouldn't be literal translations. Feel free to go a little nuts if you feel it necessary. By the way, I admit that this is a tricky challenge. I intentionally chose cards that have a hard time translating into Magic cards so that we strengthen our design muscles. Good Luck!
Well, I think you'd kinda need a refresher of the entire rules to some of those games. Since I'm fortunate enough to know most of those games, I'll probably just skip those which I don't know.
Well, let's see if I can't explain the ones I do know, a bit.
Get Out of Jail Free - the next time a specific unlikely event occurs, which would cause you to skip several turns, you can prevent it. Subtleties about sometimes skipping turns being a good thing here.
Woodcutter - The is pretty much like mana, you can usually only buy one card a turn, this lets you buy a second one (splitting your resources). The thing that looks like a mana cost is actually the cost to put it into your deck, there's no cost to using it once it's there.
Kessel Run - Declare that you're trying to do something moderately difficult, with a benefit several turns later if you manage it. I'm not sure if the 'draws destiny' is yet another chance for the opponent to stop you, or is just a bonus for them, though.
Wild Draw Four - Ok, draw 4 is obvious. Wild means can instead be used to match any set?
Cigarette Smoking Man - I have no freaking idea what all these numbers mean.
Longest Road - This is actually just a score marker, not a playing piece at all!
Epidemic - These are scattered semi-regularly through the deck and advance the game-end failure condition. They also accelerate the board state.
Distinguished - The game of apples is everyone has to play their noun cards to try and best match this card, and the judge selects which one is closest in their opinion. Kinda soc-eng.
Telekinetic Charging Cell - Life points are kinda also mana in this, but otherwise it's what it sounds like. Enchant the creature, you can then use its activated abilities for free, and you're also allowed to dredge the card back. (For an equivalent of 2.5 life)
You are a Rock, and a bonus card from Mad Magazine for the heck of it - Guhhhhhhhhhh....
FWIW, is it worth suggesting people title their cards with variants of the original title? Maybe that's obvious, but it can be confusing if everyone calls their new card "woodcutter".
Thinking aloud. The two easiest to convert are the yugioh and the dominion. (Maybe the startrek and x-files, if I knew the rules for those properly)
The dom card wants to allow you to do something twice - and the only 'one per turn' in magic is land drop, so that's pretty obvious. The mana gain would need to be deferred (as woodcutters is)
The wording for "You can still activate abilities that cost life, but you don't lose the life by doing so" would be hard, and making it not completely broken would be harder.
Epidemic is, like, half the whole rules to the game. A direct translation is possible, however, with Time Epidemic. I don't LIKE that card, and will try for a third.
Wow, I'm impressed at the diversity of cards already suggested, this was a surprisingly good idea for a challenge.
"The dom card wants to allow you to do something twice - and the only 'one per turn' in magic is land drop, so that's pretty obvious"
That's actually a really good idea, but I hadn't thought of it. You should go ahead and make it, often the most interesting cards are what one person thought was obvious but other people didn't.
Ideally, "play an extra land" would be paired with a card draw effect, so it's more likely to be used (most "play an extra land" are a bit weak, as it puts you ahead for a couple of turns, but not usually in the long run), but unfortunately, a 3-cost creature with ": Draw a card. You may play an additional land this turn" is a bit too good, even if it doesn't do "T: Add " as well, and would probably be too good even if it cost ", :". Can anyone think of a way of balancing it?
Fun challenge! I created Sigil of the Longest Road and Mark of the Distinguished. (I think it's fine to name your card the same as the inspiration if you want; although it becomes less reliably linkable using (((triple parens))) then.)
Ha! I'm glad to see this idea worked out well. Since Vitenka 'spoiled' what a number of these cards 'do', I might as well fill out the rest of the ranks.
Wild Draw Four - Vitenka mentions that this is an obvious choice, which makes me wonder how much Uno has been played around the house. When a player plays a 'Wild Draw Four', they name a color, then the next player draws 4 cards. That player must play a card of that color, or keep drawing from the deck until they can. It's a nasty little card in Uno... the type that experienced players never play until someone is going to go out, because it will either mess someone up, or allow you to auto-win (since the card itself is wild).
Cigarette Smoking Man - I have no idea as well. But when I saw his abilities accompanied by really strange numbers, I had to toss him in. :)
The Mad Magazine Game was came out in 1979 and was a maze board variant in which the person who lost all their money first won the game. Losing all your money in Mad is very hard... At various points, when a person has almost won, he might get sent to the poor house, where they set you up with some more money. There's also a $1,329,063 dollar bill in the game, which is given out on rare occurrence, and is as difficult to get rid of as it is to get. The game is full of other strangeness, which, if I do this challenge again, is a prime candidate for being added. And that bonus card boggles my mind every time I see it...
@Jack: Man, as much as I doubt Kessig Wolf Run is based on Kessel Run, I... I really want to believe it is true...
Oh, and with Kessel Run: The destiny number of a card is the number in the top right corner of the card (On Kessel Run, it is 5). When a player is asked to reveal destiny, they discard the top card of their deck and use that number. In theory, you want high Destiny numbers, since you traditionally added them to combat. Kessel Run appears to be taking advantage of your opponent's high destiny saturation, though.
@jmgariepy: I couldn't decide. The names just seemed suspiciously similar for them not to have changed "Kessig run" if they didn't want to make the reference (even if they decided on the name of the "Kessig" region beforehand), and there are several other references to other media in Innistrad (eg. the defender plant that has protection from zombies is a reference to the awesome computer game plants vs zombies). But OTOH, the card doesn't seem to have any connection to the Kessel run other than the name, and the Kessel run isn't a horror trope in any way I know of. And it's quite possible that whoever named and copy-edited the card had never heard of the Kessel run, if they didn't hang around on starwars message boards, even if they are a geek.
@Jack: My faith in humanity would be shattered if I didn't believe that every member of R&D didn't know their obscure Star Wars references. I'm betting that the name sounded right to everyone, but they didn't know why. Most of them going "Kessig Run", huh? Is there a Kessig Run? scans internet No, I guess not. Sounds comfortably familiar, though.
"My faith in humanity would be shattered if I didn't believe that every member of R&D didn't know their obscure Star Wars references ... scans internet No, I guess not."
The cards that you design shouldn't be literal translations. Feel free to go a little nuts if you feel it necessary. By the way, I admit that this is a tricky challenge. I intentionally chose cards that have a hard time translating into Magic cards so that we strengthen our design muscles. Good Luck!
Get Out of Jail Free, from Monopoly
Woodcutter, from Dominion
Kessel Run, from Star Wars CCG
Wild Draw Four, from Uno
Cigarette Smoking Man, from X-Files CCG
Longest Road, from Settlers of Cataan
Epidemic, from Pandemic
Distinguished, from Apples to Apples
Telekinetic Charging Cell, from Yu-Gi-Oh!
You are a Rock, from Mad Magazine, the Board Game
And a bonus card from Mad Magazine for the heck of it.
I think I need a reminder on what some of those keywords mean, some of those cards I can't work out what they are like.
Well, I think you'd kinda need a refresher of the entire rules to some of those games. Since I'm fortunate enough to know most of those games, I'll probably just skip those which I don't know.
Well, let's see if I can't explain the ones I do know, a bit.
Get Out of Jail Free - the next time a specific unlikely event occurs, which would cause you to skip several turns, you can prevent it. Subtleties about sometimes skipping turns being a good thing here.
Woodcutter - The
is pretty much like mana, you can usually only buy one card a turn, this lets you buy a second one (splitting your resources). The thing that looks like a mana cost is actually the cost to put it into your deck, there's no cost to using it once it's there.
Kessel Run - Declare that you're trying to do something moderately difficult, with a benefit several turns later if you manage it. I'm not sure if the 'draws destiny' is yet another chance for the opponent to stop you, or is just a bonus for them, though.
Wild Draw Four - Ok, draw 4 is obvious. Wild means can instead be used to match any set?
Cigarette Smoking Man - I have no freaking idea what all these numbers mean.
Longest Road - This is actually just a score marker, not a playing piece at all!
Epidemic - These are scattered semi-regularly through the deck and advance the game-end failure condition. They also accelerate the board state.
Distinguished - The game of apples is everyone has to play their noun cards to try and best match this card, and the judge selects which one is closest in their opinion. Kinda soc-eng.
Telekinetic Charging Cell - Life points are kinda also mana in this, but otherwise it's what it sounds like. Enchant the creature, you can then use its activated abilities for free, and you're also allowed to dredge the card back. (For an equivalent of 2.5 life)
You are a Rock, and a bonus card from Mad Magazine for the heck of it - Guhhhhhhhhhh....
FWIW, is it worth suggesting people title their cards with variants of the original title? Maybe that's obvious, but it can be confusing if everyone calls their new card "woodcutter".
Thinking aloud. The two easiest to convert are the yugioh and the dominion. (Maybe the startrek and x-files, if I knew the rules for those properly)
The dom card wants to allow you to do something twice - and the only 'one per turn' in magic is land drop, so that's pretty obvious. The mana gain would need to be deferred (as woodcutters is)
The wording for "You can still activate abilities that cost life, but you don't lose the life by doing so" would be hard, and making it not completely broken would be harder.
But easy is boring. So: Distinguised Apple Picker. Will try and think of the second one...
Epidemic is, like, half the whole rules to the game. A direct translation is possible, however, with Time Epidemic. I don't LIKE that card, and will try for a third.
Wow, I'm impressed at the diversity of cards already suggested, this was a surprisingly good idea for a challenge.
"The dom card wants to allow you to do something twice - and the only 'one per turn' in magic is land drop, so that's pretty obvious"
That's actually a really good idea, but I hadn't thought of it. You should go ahead and make it, often the most interesting cards are what one person thought was obvious but other people didn't.
Ideally, "play an extra land" would be paired with a card draw effect, so it's more likely to be used (most "play an extra land" are a bit weak, as it puts you ahead for a couple of turns, but not usually in the long run), but unfortunately, a 3-cost creature with "
: Draw a card. You may play an additional land this turn" is a bit too good, even if it doesn't do "T: Add 
" as well, and would probably be too good even if it cost "
, 
:". Can anyone think of a way of balancing it?
Kessig Wolf Run already sort-of echos Kessel Run :) (I can't decide if that's a deliberate homage or not.)
Edit: My cards: Industrious Woodcutter, Road of Woe, Jace's Wild
Fun challenge! I created Sigil of the Longest Road and Mark of the Distinguished. (I think it's fine to name your card the same as the inspiration if you want; although it becomes less reliably linkable using
(((triple parens)))then.)Rachael created Epidemic and Get Out Of Jail Free.
Deck Cutter, but it's RUBBISH. Dominion Wood isn't much more fun.
And yes, this is a GOOD challenge. Just a really hard one.
Ok, put together Gut out of jail free. to answer Rs.
Ha! I'm glad to see this idea worked out well. Since Vitenka 'spoiled' what a number of these cards 'do', I might as well fill out the rest of the ranks.
Wild Draw Four - Vitenka mentions that this is an obvious choice, which makes me wonder how much Uno has been played around the house. When a player plays a 'Wild Draw Four', they name a color, then the next player draws 4 cards. That player must play a card of that color, or keep drawing from the deck until they can. It's a nasty little card in Uno... the type that experienced players never play until someone is going to go out, because it will either mess someone up, or allow you to auto-win (since the card itself is wild).
Cigarette Smoking Man - I have no idea as well. But when I saw his abilities accompanied by really strange numbers, I had to toss him in. :)
The Mad Magazine Game was came out in 1979 and was a maze board variant in which the person who lost all their money first won the game. Losing all your money in Mad is very hard... At various points, when a person has almost won, he might get sent to the poor house, where they set you up with some more money. There's also a $1,329,063 dollar bill in the game, which is given out on rare occurrence, and is as difficult to get rid of as it is to get. The game is full of other strangeness, which, if I do this challenge again, is a prime candidate for being added. And that bonus card boggles my mind every time I see it...
@Jack: Man, as much as I doubt Kessig Wolf Run is based on Kessel Run, I... I really want to believe it is true...
Oh, and with Kessel Run: The destiny number of a card is the number in the top right corner of the card (On Kessel Run, it is 5). When a player is asked to reveal destiny, they discard the top card of their deck and use that number. In theory, you want high Destiny numbers, since you traditionally added them to combat. Kessel Run appears to be taking advantage of your opponent's high destiny saturation, though.
I don't think I called out the uno one as an obvious one. Since, no, I don't remember what wilds do. I called out yugio.
Here's the rules for the xfiles ccg, if anyone wants to try and work it out: http://ccggamez.com/files/xfiles/XFCCGAdvancedRules.pdf
@jmgariepy: I couldn't decide. The names just seemed suspiciously similar for them not to have changed "Kessig run" if they didn't want to make the reference (even if they decided on the name of the "Kessig" region beforehand), and there are several other references to other media in Innistrad (eg. the defender plant that has protection from zombies is a reference to the awesome computer game plants vs zombies). But OTOH, the card doesn't seem to have any connection to the Kessel run other than the name, and the Kessel run isn't a horror trope in any way I know of. And it's quite possible that whoever named and copy-edited the card had never heard of the Kessel run, if they didn't hang around on starwars message boards, even if they are a geek.
Good challenge!
- Get Out Of Jail Free: Temporary Reprieve
- Telekinetic Charging Cell: Become the Master
@Jack: My faith in humanity would be shattered if I didn't believe that every member of R&D didn't know their obscure Star Wars references. I'm betting that the name sounded right to everyone, but they didn't know why. Most of them going "Kessig Run", huh? Is there a Kessig Run? scans internet No, I guess not. Sounds comfortably familiar, though.
"My faith in humanity would be shattered if I didn't believe that every member of R&D didn't know their obscure Star Wars references ... scans internet No, I guess not."
ROFL!
Also Distinguished Consul, and Champion Woodcutter which I thought was the simplest expression of Vitenka's idea.
I created Ephemeral Charging Cell and Wild Rules Change. I'm not sure I succeeded at this challenge, so I might come back to it later.