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on 28 Oct 2012 by jameschanlee:

Design Log 10/28/2012

The terran tap/untap guys are coming along nicely, but there's only too much "tap" you can write on a card before it becomes unbearable. I'm still trying to map out a secondary ability for Terran. Looking at every single available name for Terran for similarities, we get a bunch of interesting things:

  1. The concept of modality (Modal creatures = Viking, Siege Tank), Tapping / untapping.
  2. Add-ons (Reactor, Tech Lab, Machine Shop...). Land auras? Fortifications? Artifacts?
  3. Autonomous units (Point Defense Drone; Auto-turret; Spider Mine; Seeker Missile) Artifacts? Trap artifacts? ("whenever a creature attacks you, sacrifice ~...")
  4. Activated cloaking (Ghost, Wraith, Banshee).
  5. Activated anything (Tapping / untapping, "Cost, T: Effect")
  6. Building / construction mobility (SCV; Raven; Liftoff) - Fortifications?

Also have a bunch of art that depicts Terran weapons like the Combat Shield, a bunch of helmets, etc. Equipment?

on 29 Oct 2012 by Alex:

Equipment feels like it could certainly fit the Terran flavour. As long as it doesn't turn it into "build one big scary unit" - that feels more Protoss-like.

(That list of Terran names would actually be really handy for a side project I'm doing right now, kinda parallel to this one: modding the Starcraft ships into a different game, the space roguelike game FTL. Do you happen to have the list of weapon names for Zerg & Protoss as well? And I don't suppose in your trawling of the web for Starcraft images, you happen to have found anyone who's made sprite sheets for the walking left/right/up/down of a few basic units like the marine, zergling and SCV??)

on 29 Oct 2012 by Vitenka:

How about "Equip all units" stuff, then? "All humans have +0/+1" style artifacts?

on 29 Oct 2012 by jameschanlee:

Alex: Here you go, I modified the link to include the other two races, in different sheets: List of Names And no, sorry, I haven't seen any of the sprites you need, though It's primarily because I haven't tried looking for actual unit renders. So there may be what you need somewhere out there. :)

Vitenka: That seems promising, I'll have to give that some thought.

I realized that Terran's theme could actually extend to more than simple tapping, but rather the concept of activated abilities in general. "[cost], [tap]: [effect]". Tapping is just one of the means of expression. Also, as per encouragement, I'm currently looking at the artifact / fortification / equipment route for Terran. From an aesthetic perspective, colorless artifacts are more suited for this race, I think. Protoss could get artifacts, but colored, like Esper.

­Reactor
­Tech Lab
(((Seeker Missile))), (((Tactical Nuke)))
­Bunker
­SCV

on 27 Aug 2013 by jameschanlee:

Wow, I haven't touched this in a while. Might pick it up again and try to make everything new world-ordery. Remove ninjutsu and morph, for one. For anyone looking into the comments, is this ability intuitive enough?

Zealot {w}{u}
Creature - Protoss [C]
Shielded (This enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. Whenever this is dealt damage, remove all +1/+1 counters from it.)
2/2

Eh. Basically it allows the creature to hit harder once to creatures, or keep smashing face to players. Power level is somewhere between +1/+0 and +1/+1. It also synergizes with Protoss blinking (exile, return to battlefield) effects. My biggest concern is that it doesn't act like a shield (it doesn't prevent damage). To do this, the counter can disappear after damage has been cleaned up for the turn... but that isn't intuitive at all.

Edit: the alternative is to have a new type of counter. But the question is, does it make intuitive sense to have a keyword that, by itself, does nothing?

Zealot {w}{u}
Creature - Protoss [C]
Psionic (This enters the battlefield with a psi counter on it.)
­{1}, Remove a psi counter from ~: Regenerate ~.
2/2

Reaver {2}{w}
Artifact Creature - Protoss [C]
Psionic (This enters the battlefield with a psi counter on it.)
­{1}, Remove a psi counter from ~: ~ gets +4/+0 until end of turn.
0/4

Thoughts? :)

on 27 Aug 2013 by Alex:

Doesn't seem great to me, precisely because it doesn't work like a shield. I'd expect a reflection of the Protoss shields to be some kind of toughness-pump, regeneration or damage prevention effect. As you say, yours works more like +1/+0 than +0/+1.

on 27 Aug 2013 by jameschanlee:

yeah, realized it was pretty crap. Any alternative I had was too wordy though.

I edited my original post, how about the alternative?

on 18 Aug 2014 by jameschanlee:

Playtest results 8/19/2014:

I read this somewhere before (MaRo?) but can't seem to find it again - fun game design is a balance between two things, drama and inevitability.

inevitability happens when a person, through incremental advantages, gets a sizeable enough lead that he's assured to win. This rewards the player who played better (or consistently got lucker)

Drama happens when the wind suddenly changes and the underdog manages to do something to turn the tide in his favor. This causes the most fun moments in the game, but too much drama will frustrate the players as they would feel the outcome is too random.

The problem I'm having right now is that I think drama can be increased. The decks as they currently stand (8/19/14) are pertty equal from a power perspective. However, that's also a problem - the consistency of the cards' powers mean that if you get behind on three land drops, you're pretty F*d. even the one drops in this deck are pretty strong, and barring certain cards, it's very hard to recover. Unless you're Protoss that has both Force Field and (((Purifier Beam))), and to a lesser extent the Terran Firebat. I'll see if I can add one or two more cards like these to other decks.

Fun cards:
fun Cards that create "minigames" - Changeling; Dark Templar - surprisingly! but it's always an interesting tactical decision whenever this guy eTBs, (((Widow Mine))) / (((Tactical Nuke))), (((Templar Archives))),
fun Surprise! cards - (((Contaminate))) [especially when tapped out]
fun drama (reversal of fortune) cards - Firebat, (((Purifier Beam))), Force Field, (((Gamete Meiosis)))

cards which are awesome when you're behind but very unfun when you're ahead:
­Queen

Cards that don't pull their weight / sometimes unfun:
(((Mind Control))) - usually used to knock out the biggest threat, and just seal the deal. feel-bad card.
­Stargate - never really used it, ability not synergistic in any way
(((Kerrigan, Queen of Blades))) - Some reshuffling of abilities is in order.Too bad I can't copy Sorin, Lord of Innistrad's ability.

Bombs in each deck (aside from the rares, which are self explanatory):
Protoss: EOT (((Mass Recall))) + (((Purifier Beam))); That **cking Sentry (good thing it's easy to get rid of, but still).
Terrran: Flying Siege Tank drops; unblocked Marine + Stimpack with enough mana is 9 hasty damage
Zerg: Overlord. Just freaking Overlord. Also any game where Zerg starts T1 (((Hive Cluster))) into Zergling; T2 Changeling.

on 20 Aug 2014 by Passthechips:

It does not seem Zealot is very blue white at all, as regenerate is generally a green/black ability. I would probably replace the effect with something like "prevent all damage that would be dealt to ~ this turn" or something of that mind.

on 20 Aug 2014 by jameschanlee:

Passthechips: that is... a really good idea. Will make changes immediately. Thanks.

on 24 Aug 2014 by jameschanlee:

8/25/2014 On Complexity:

From DDS1, the people who are attracted to the set is more "usually play starcraft but play a little magic" rather than the other way around, "mtg players who play a little SC". With this, it's not only important to have decks that play well, but also decks with as low a barrier to entry as possible.

I've sort of dug myself into a corner with Morph, so I guess I'm keeping that. I've gone through cards where complexity issues may arise, and I'll modify them make them simpler while maintaining as much original functionality as possible.

Made some changes to mitigate complexity on:

Additional cards on the complexity watchlist:

on 25 Aug 2014 by Doombringer:

Glad your keeping an eye on complexity.

I'll go through each of the cards on your complexity list and give my thoughts.

on 12 Mar 2015 by jameschanlee:

Hah! The mass upload file works! Just cleaning up some stuff. Hope I have more free time to look into this.

on 13 Mar 2015 by Grem-Zealot:

rahter than pseudo morph, why not make them dual-faced cards, the face-up version being the normal one, and them the transformed version having it's alternate mode.

And I think that nuke should be different, it hits way more than just a single strain of creatures (i.e. Everything with the se mana cost). It can also be survived by units that have a LOT of health

Enchantment

Enchant target creature named Ghost (or make ghost a sub-type).

At the end of your opponent's turn, ~ deals 10 damage to each creature target player controls. If enchanted creature is tapped, ~ deals 10 damage to each creature instead. Exile ~.

The ghost being tapped means you didn't 'aim' well.

on 15 Mar 2015 by jameschanlee:

@Grem-Zealot: I am personally a big fan of double-faced cards, however for a fan-made set they're just not very practical. This is meant to be proxied, and it's hard to do so (either for proxy pdf or cockatrice).

on 04 Apr 2015 by jameschanlee:

Balance well under way. Expect heavy revisions within the next weeks. :) Card image gallery updated with better art, more flavor text, changes, and hi res pics. :)

If there is a conflict between the pictures and the cardlist text, use the pictures.

on 09 Apr 2015 by jameschanlee:

DDS 3.23 Changelog

  • Last Updated April 9, 2015
  • Card images to follow

General

  • Came from a fresh batch of playtesting where 80% of the games were interesting / back and forth. Feeling really good about this, very close to final output.
  • Added LotV cards.
  • Shuffled around Protoss cards to give greater survivability at the start and to minimize instances where they just get run over without getting to do anything. Currently roles are weird for a control deck.. there are low CMC attackers and high CMC defenders, and you often draw the wrong one when you don't need it. See changes to Hallucination, (((Disruptor))).
  • Bumped up terran power (before they were the butt monkey) and increased synergy with face down creatures. See (((Covert Ops))), (((Raven))), and any of the mana-heavy morph creatures.
  • Balanced rarities across decks

Protoss:

  • -1 Plasma Shield, +1 Hallucination
    Hallucination, 2U, R, 0/4, Illusion, ETB as any creature on the battlefield, except it's still 0/4.
    Notes: Very fun. Funny how a Hallucinated carrier is strictly better than the original. Copying mutalisks or medics hilarious

  • -1 Colossus, +1 Disruptor
    Disruptor: 3W, U, 2/2, Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a creature, it deals 1 damage to each other attacking or blocking creature controlled by the same player.
    Notes: Colossus arrives too late for a defensive creature; always disappointed to play a 6-mana creature that wasn't a finisher. Same role, slightly weaker at cheaper mana cost

  • Observatory: ETB tapped, ETB look at top card of each player's library. (works better with bounce)

  • Mass recall: Rare-> Unc, removed "up to", mana cost now XU. (need to make room for new rare card Hallucination)
  • Carrier: GFets +1/+0 for each card in your hand, 0/3 (removes rules confusion with hallucination; 0/4 is too strong; the card draw is enough for the card. Mothership changed to be fatter)
  • Arbiter: 3UW, 2/2 (Balancing mana curve; Disruptor goes in 4-slot)
  • Nexus: ETB tapped unless you have five or more cards in hand. (Previous version the built up psi counters was cute but took up waaay too much attention, also very easy to miss)
  • Stalker: 2/2, when blocked by a creature with power 2 or greater, return to hand (made more relevant, less feel-bad to have in hand)
  • Mothership- 4WWU, 4/4, spells opponents cast cost 2 more to cast. (The extra-turn version was kinda meh.. if the board state was boring before you cast it, casting the mothership doesn't make it more interesting. Also ends up with a lot of Carrier to Mothership plays which is boring)
  • Warp prism: ability changed to 2WU, becomes 3/3: (Made more relevant)

Non-gameplay

  • Corsair: modified flavor text
  • Stasis Field: Renamed "stasis ward", new Oracle ability

Zerg

As always, Zerg has reached the pinnacle of evolution and has the fewest changes.

  • Roach: unc -> com, 5B: Return ~ from graveyard to battlefield tapped. (makes more sense to be bigger Reassembling Skeleton.)
  • Nydus Worm: 2G; common, put a 1/1 green Zerg creature token (3G version with 2 Zerg tokens was too overpowered when cast T3 or T4 against mana screwed opponent. This version is more interesting)

Non-gameplay

  • Adrenal Glands: Renamed "Aggressive mutation", LotV corruptor ability. An object that's a non-permanent boost always bugged me.
  • Ultralisk: Better art

Terran

  • -1 Terran Tech Lab, +1 Covert Ops
    Covert Ops, 3, ARtifact, Rare. T: Add 1 to your mana pool. whenever a face-down creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.
    Terran loses so often not because their morph costs weren't competitive, but simply because the action of casting a vanilla 2/2 for 3 drains too much mana and puts them way behind. Had to make ways to make vanilla 2/2s less crap.

  • -1 Medivac, +1 Raven
    Raven, 1WW, Artifact Creature - Terran, Unc, 1/2, Flying; as long as it's not your turn, face-down creatures you control get +1/+1. 3,T: Turn target permanent you control face down.
    Constructor of point defense drones and autoturrets.

  • -1 Vulture; +1 HERC
    HERC, 2R, Terran Soldier, C, 1/4. Provoke
    Interesting creature, and gives Terran more options for combat and/or get rid of annoying creatures

  • MArine: Ability 1R -> R

  • Viking: Ability 1W -> W
  • Hellbat: Ability 1R -> R
  • Siege Tank: At the beginning of your end step, you may turn ~ face down.
  • Calldown: untap two target permanents

Non Gameplay

  • Covert Ops: Renamed "ghost academy" to avoid conflict with new covert ops
on 09 Oct 2015 by Doombringer:

Just want to say this is one of my favorite sets on this site.

on 02 Apr 2016 by jameschanlee:

Hi!

I'm in the mood again to start editing my perpetually on-and-off set DDS. I've "released" it to the public several times, always monitoring the comments for problematic cards and mechanics. One thing we'd like is to tighten the mechanics of each race.

I'd like to ask anyone for feedback on this mechanic:

Zealot {w}{u}
Creature - Protoss Warrior [C]
Shield 2 (This enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it. Damage is dealt to this creature by removing +1/+1 counters from it first if possible.)
1/1

Is the reminder text "grokkable" enough for what we're doing? /u/onyxavenger from Reddit suggested some official rules for it:

Shield:

Shield is a keyword that represents two static abilities. "Shield N" means "This permanent enters the battlefield with N +1/+1 counters on it" and "If a source would deal damage to this creature while it has at least one +1/+1 counter on it, that damage isn't marked on that creature; instead each 1 damage that would be dealt removes a +1/+1 counter. Once the creature has no +1/+1 counters on it, any remaining damage is marked normally."

Example: I control a Dragoon, a 2/2 Protoss creature with Shield 2 (enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters and is a 4/4 creature). A player casts Lightning Bolt, an instant that says "Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to target creature or player," targeting Dragoon. Since Dragoon has two +1/+1 counters on it, two +1/+1 counters are removed and the remaining 1 damage from Lightning Bolt is marked on that creature. Dragoon is now a 2/2 with 1 damage marked on it.

Example: A Dragoon is on the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it. (It's a 4/4 creature). It gets into combat with a Siege Tank, a 5/5 creature. Both +1/+1 counters is removed and the remaining 3 damage from Siege Tank is marked on Dragoon. Dragoon is now a 2/2 with 3 damage marked on it, and it is destroyed as a state-based action. Since damage happens simultaneously, the Siege Tank is a 5/5 creature with 4 damage marked on it.

We know what we're trying to do is intuitive, we're just stuck on choosing the best reminder text. It opens a LOT of design space:

Ways to protect your shields:

Dragoon {1}{u}{w}
Creature - Protoss Warrior [C]
Shield 2
­{4}{w}: ~ gains first strike until end of turn.
2/2

tweaks...

Reaver {2}{w}
Artifact Creature - Protoss Warrior [U]
Shield 2
­{1}, {t}: Put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
0/2

Void Ray {2}{u}
Creature - Protoss Ship [U]
Shield 1
Flying
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
0/0

Carrier {4}{u}{u}
Creature - Protoss Ship [R]
Shield 2
Flying
Whenever a +1/+1 counter is removed from ~, put a 1/1 blue Protoss Ship creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
3/3

We can even incorporate our Immortal to this design, making a creature that becomes stronger when it shrinks:

Immortal {2}{w}{w}
Creature - Protoss Warrior [U]
Shield 2
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to ~ by creatures with greater power.
2/2

And other enablers: (if you cast this on a shielded creature, it keeps the counters but the counters don't disappear when it's hit):

Archon Meld {4}{u}
Enchantment - Aura [U]
Enchant permanent
Enchanted permanent is a 5/5 blue Protoss Archon creature (with trample?) and loses all other types and abilities.

on 02 Apr 2016 by dude1818:

Oh yeah, this came across my Facebook feed yesterday. Really cool.

on 21 Apr 2016 by jameschanlee:

Decklist Changes since version 3.24:

Pending cards for simplification / adjustmeent:

  • (((Gauss Rifle))). Make it more unique.
  • (((Science Vessel))). Out of flavor. not working.
  • (((Mass Recall))). Too swingy.
  • (((Mothership Core))) - kinda lame

Untested latest version

- Latest Viper.

Gameplay issues

  • Zerg sometimes needs a bit more push at the start. Finding its units have too low attack at times.
  • Protoss needs a way to kill artifacts or enchantments permanently. Thinking of how to make one that isn't the boring Disenchant.
  • Need less cards which are focused on battlefield and combat and more unique effects. Hand, library, graveyard, etc. But this is so, so, so hard. I mean, we can make all the Cryptic Annelids we want, but then people will complain that it has nothing to do with the SC unit! Waaah
on 21 Apr 2016 by jameschanlee:

What's new?

Since the last stable release, we've received a lot of feedback (some playtest, mostly design). From these, the next version will focus on three main thrusts:

  • Simplification of complex abilities. Complexity is relative, but the theme of the set drew out a lot of beginners. We will try to avoid, as much as possible, non-intuitive rules or interactions, while maintaining the core "function" of that card.

    • Minimization of evergreen keywords, or if they're there to put reminder text.
    • Kind of dug ourselves into a corner with Morph, but if possible to minimize interactions
    • Reduce relatively obscure terms (converted mana cost, stack...)
    • Reduce cards written in "Magic legal-ese"
    • Reduction in actual number of words per card, if able

  • Examples are:

  • Standardization of a single keyword per race. The current keywords don't necessarily have to be something that currently exists in MTG. The learning curve will increase little at first, but it's much clearer when the cards all work the same way instead of variants of the same thing. Currently testing:

    • Terran: Switch keyword, a variant of morph. Wraith, Siege Tank, Hellbat, etc.
    • Protoss: Shield keyword, a temporary boost in power. Zealot, Dragoon, Reaver, etc.
    • Zerg: Ravage pseudo keyword, a variant on the "attacking matters" keywords such as Raid, Bloodthirst, and Prowl. Found on Hydralisk, Mutalisk, (((Contaminate))), etc.

  • Stronger flavor matching. Many questions pointed out that card so and so does not match the unit's flavor specifically. The answer is always "it was a development decision for better gameplay", but it's not a satisfactory answer for casual onlookers. This is the hardest category to fill, and requires significantly more design headaches. Examples:

on 18 Jun 2017 by jameschanlee:

Quick crowdsourced question: Is a 2W Sorcery a good cost for "You gain 1 life for each land you control"?

on 26 Jun 2017 by Tahazzar:

The new Spawn looks pretty good in that it forces the "right way" to play the deck upon players which might be hesitant to do so otherwise.

The update on Shield is nice too. I didn't like the old variation but gave no mention of it since I was unsure if it was something that just the more enfranchised players might question (as in how does it exactly work).

That Switch though... It has two separate abilities slapped together which alone I think would cause some head scratching; one that is used from hand and other while it's on the battlefield - regardless whether it's face-up or face down. Also the whole thing about being face down is obviously problematic for newer players but that was something you already acknowledged.

on 29 Jun 2017 by jameschanlee:

Tahazzar: For Terran, I'm banking on the documentation available for Morph, as this is basically Morph that you can reverse. If I find something better you can be certain this would go out of the window though.

In the meantime, I changed the reminder text to better match the morph pattern.

on 08 Nov 2018 by jameschanlee:

Tahazzar: Hmm good idea. I don't think I have frame-only pictures (I always import a huge pic and frame it manually), but I should be able to whip some up.

on 08 Nov 2018 by Tahazzar:

If you mean what I think you mean, then you can copy the frame-only picture from MSE (click to focus on the pic, then from right click menu choose "copy") and paste it to some image editor (such as irfanview) and save it from there to your system, then upload it. The image copied from MSE should be of size ~ 316x231, which works well for this site. This is what I've done for the cards on my sets here.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's a functionality ready in MSE to export all of these "frame-only" pictures at once.

on 13 Nov 2018 by Tahazzar:

All of the cards are currently missing the illustrator credits...

on 13 Nov 2018 by jameschanlee:

Yeah, sorry. I use Magic Set Editor and have the credits on the full images, but there's no way to do an automated export that includes it. Don't want to type them all.

Playtesting is very very close to complete. Once that's done I'll replace the arts with full images, which includes both illustrator credits and flavor text.

on 19 Nov 2018 by Tahazzar:

Wouldn't "spawn 2" sound better as "spawn twice" or "spawn, then spawn again"? Sarah Kerrigan with spawn 3 seems to be the largest amount of spawning. "Spawn three times" would work well there.

on 22 Nov 2018 by jameschanlee:

Having land issues in playtesting (Zerg and Terran only have 23 lands and Protoss 24, not good for decks that reach 6 or 7 cmc).

Replaced the weakest / most boring card from playtesting with another of the cycling lands.

  • 1 Nydus Worm, +1 Extractor
  • 1 Repair, +1 Refinery
  • 1 Plasma Armor, +1 Assimilator
on 26 Nov 2018 by jameschanlee:

Updated art for remaining cards:

Removal of MTG art:

Last remaining MTG art are:

Added Token art

Replace generic Scifi art with actual Starcraft fanart

Improved Art

on 28 Nov 2018 by jameschanlee:

Final stretch!

Posted on reddit for comments and templating issues. Very good feedback here, and last few cards for testing.

Then release. Wooot

on 03 Dec 2018 by jameschanlee:

Changes:

Terran was falling way behind on wins compared to the other two, so bumped up power a wee bit and tightened up design synergy.

Zerg - Changed Spine Crawler to Spore Crawler, just added reach.

on 12 Dec 2018 by jameschanlee:

Final update complete.

Text errors:

  • Hierarch Artanis: top card
  • Thor: You MAY destroy all tapped creatures.
  • Nuclear Strike: removed aura
  • Shield: slightly changed reminder text
  • Added creature types for flavor for some artifact creatures.

New cards:

Art update, burning through last remaining good unused images.

Adjusted brightness for the ff cards, otherwise might be too dark for printing

Printerstudio file coming soon.

on 07 Jul 2023 by OniXIII:

Hi! Just found out about this recently, printed and played. We really enjoyed it. Question is it possible for this project to be updated into a self-contained Commander set ala Universe Beyond. Like maybe update the Planeswalker into a legendary creature(since WotC wants Planeswalkers to be exclusive in MTG Universe) or just have the Planeswalker have the ability thay says "[Name] can be your Commander". Then remove the duplicates and new more cards to fill in. I think the theme and deck is almost there due to its cards mostly being 1offs. That said, we are playing it ala Brawl Format with Planeswalker as the Commander, and just include the duplicates as it is.

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