Conversation: Recent Activity
| Conversation: Cardlist | Visual spoiler | Export | Booster | Comments | Search | Recent activity |
| Mechanics |
Recent updates to Conversation: (Generated at 2025-09-05 15:22:16)
| Conversation: Cardlist | Visual spoiler | Export | Booster | Comments | Search | Recent activity |
| Mechanics |
Recent updates to Conversation: (Generated at 2025-09-05 15:22:16)
''I presume that my parents are just going to rush out and live their lives despite my protestation. It's like living with teenagers over here.''
Wow, that's rough, dude. My mum's also high risk, but even though this is hard for her, she isn't looking to put herself in danger. I suppose the best thing for you to do is to keep insisting, but I guess it's up to them how seriously they take things.
Also, on a lighter note, being a security guard sounds pretty metal :P
@Sorrow
''I overeat (in general), boredom eat, can't hit up the gym, and my only other hobby besides designing Magic cards [is] [...]''
Besides the fact I don't normally work out, you just described me pretty much perfectly. Try to stay healthy, if you can. I've heard that working on one's body is something that can really lift spirits (apparently that's why prisoner's sometimes get ripped, just out of boredom and sadness)
In other words, don't let your username define you, Sorrow!
I as very lucky that my job paid me up until or through the next pay period despite the department I'm in being unable to work due to covid-19. By June 8th I will find out if I'm only being temporarily furloughed or if I'm being laid off.
I've gained the coid-20. I overeat (in general), boredom eat, can't hit up the gym, and my only other hobby besides designing Magic cards in baking sweets- a rough combination. I've been bored, like most other people. I've begun watching Ask a Mortician videos because I'm deathphobic and has the effect on me that horror films have on those who get scared when they watch horror films. That, or they're neat historical videos that don't give me the hebie jeebies.
Thanks, Jack, for starting this thread, even if it got buried until now (it seems the conversation about ability counters jumped in the way of this 'set'.)
I live in the same household with my parents. They're on the bottom floor. And they're on the edge of eighty so I've been in complete isolation. I have to go to work, but I'm lucky because my job is security guard. There's only one other guard in the whole building, we don't share an office (any more) and we're likely to be the last people in the building to get furloughed.
But it's been frustrating trying to stop my parents from going out. I've yelled at them for going to the grocery store because Instacart can never seem to pick up Lactaid. I'm furious about my sisters who keep coming over to visit.
Now we're opening up the country too soon, and I presume that my parents are just going to rush out and live their lives despite my protestation. It's like living with teenagers over here.
I just came here to ask this, but it's already been asked.
I'm doing fine, and hope everyone else here is managing as well.
I'm a student, and our family's money comes from pension and social services (which apparently aren't the same thing, i learned recently), so those things haven't changed much. School did go from 'having been easy for many years' to 'wow this sucks'
Lately, I've been more down than usual, and developed a bad habit of not sleeping every other night. Boredom has been creeping in too, but with all day to play video games, I've been staving it off... at the cost of doing much school, stupidly.
I'm probably the only person I know (besides my brother , maybe) to not remotely keep up with the news. My mom's checking it constantly, probably hours every day. I've looked up a thing or two, and heard the rest from her.
Today I learned that 1 in 1500 people have been confirmed infected, according to google's worldwide statistics and the population of the planet.
I'm fortunate, I believe.
I would entirely prefer more Fish over having Shark return. But I'm looking forward to Eel, Carp, Ray, Piranha, Lamprey etc. ;)
The "carnivore" etc. stuff is the kind of extravagance a digital game can afford, but for a tabletop card game I'd always err into the other direction.
My theory was to introduce additional types, so "shark" lists "shark, fish, sea-creature" at the bottom of the text box. But those extras are usually obvious from the initial type so you don't need to memorize them all separately. Then we can have falcons back :)
You could even introduce some which aren't strictly hierarchical but are obvious from the flavour like "carnivore" orv", Hunter" or "monster" as long as you're strict about them being obvious.
But sadly it would almost certainly still introduce too many edge cases that don't work.
I'm annoyed that shark is a separate creature type from fish. I mean, it's not as annoying as wolves and hounds, but it's up there for me.
> Perhaps it would be good for them to use mutate triggers to increase board-presence, to better offset the card disadvantage?
That's exactly why I think Trumpeting Gnarr is so interesting: It creates a 3/3 token whenever it mutates. A lot of other mutate effects involve removal (or at least tempo) or putting stuff on the battlefield.
Though it will be interesting to see whether that turns back on the mutate creatures since removal options are also strong against them.
That's an interesting way to strengthen the mechanic...
I guess we'll see how well it plays, I guess it depends on what kind of mutate triggers they use? I mean, board presence can be a lot more important than triggering card draws or other one-time effects... Perhaps it would be good for them to use mutate triggers to increase board-presence, to better offset the card disadvantage?
Elsewhere someone mentioned that Mutate is inherently card disadvantage, like Auras, because a single removal destroys two or more of your cards. So the Mutate trigger is like enters the battlefield trigger to offset the disadvantage. Except it can trigger multiple times if you decide to go heavy mutate deck.
I knew I had seen this on Multiverse somewhere. Nice job, sir.
I think so. I think the point is that if your third (splash) color doesn't show up, you can still mutate
Do the weird hybrid costs only show up in mutate costs? I think (wg)(r)(r) is much less off-putting if the main mana cost expects you to play main red with the other colours anyway
I don't think so, I think it's just "parasitic" and "not parasitic"
Thanks, I didn't know about linear and modular...
Is there an opposite of parasitic/insular?
I really like the mutate mechanic. Companion's a bit weird, but seems fine too.
That's linear vs modular, also an old pair of design terms. Linear mechanics really need you to build a deck around them, so you tend to run a lot of cards with the mechanic (like metalcraft). Modular mechanics can be played on their own with no loss (like cycling). Mutate is a little linear, because it does reward you for having more mutate, but it can also be run on its own fine
Parasitic specifically means it only works with other cards from its own set/block. Most linear mechanics are parasitic the first time, but can become less parasitic if they get used more (like slivers)
Insular is a lot better of a word. I hadn't thought about it.
I agree mutate isn't insular. The abilities that specifically reference it and only work with it are probably insular, but you make a good point that it's not a problem because it encourages deck building for the new mechanics.
My main problem with hybrid cards is, at least for me, i find them to have a deceptively tight design space.
I'd kind of assume that since there are more colors, there would be more cool abilities, but in fact, since you have to make sure every possible color combination of the card fits the color pie, it really restricts what you can do with the card.
I still like hybrid cards though, they're really good to look at to get a reminder about the color pie.
First, the word 'parasitic' is unintuitive for how they use the word. They should use the word 'insular'.
Mutate is not insular because it works with every (nonhuman) creature. It can target any (nonhuman) creature. (Aside, in some cases like Human Insect or Human Werewolf can't be mutated? But in Innistrad they did transform.)
Second, that triggered ability is just a rider for new mechanics. It's a bonus that encourages linear deckbuilding. There's always abilities that encourage certain themes or mechanics.
> "when this creature mutates" abilities are parasitic?
A bit linear. But mutate itself works with any non-Human creature and even a single card can trigger its own "When this creature mutates" ability, so to say "When this creature mutates" abilities are parasitic is like saying "When this creature exploits a creature" abilities are parasitic. They always do something, but aren't quite as open-ended/modular as "When this creature enters the battlefield or mutates" or "Whenever you sacrifice a creature".
The fact that you can mutate any non-Human creature makes this far less parasitic than host/augment.
The best comparison would be to ask: Would a creature with bestow be parasitic if it had the ability like "Whenever this or enchanted creature is bestowed an Aura, do something"? It still works with any creature, so it's not problematic.
The cards that reduce mutate costs etc. are more parasitic.
There's nothing wrong with parasitic mechanics in moderation. It's also not that parasitic, because you can run mutate creatures in any deck and still get the trigger. It's somewhat linear, because it rewards you for having multiple mutate cards in the same deck
Am I correct in understanding that mutate is parasitic- or rather, "when this creature mutates" abilities are parasitic? It's not the first time Magic has had a parasitic mechanic (if mutate is), and I doubt it will be the last.
The official stance often quoted and repeated since 2018 (and probably earlier) used to be: "Reaction to the Alara Reborn Cards is what made us realize mixed hybrid symbols are a mistake."
Now it's a mistake they intentionally repeated. ;)
Maybe the wedge cards for the Messenger Falcons cycle are gonna be in Ikoria, too. :D
@Sorrow, yeah, I was already feeling 100% vindicated just by the amonkhet punchcards, but this has me over the frickin' moon XD
@Secret they've done costs like that before, though, in Alara Reborn IIRC. in my opinion, it was inevitable that it would happen again, really.
On the list of things that Ikoria does and would have gotten your design ripped apart by the custom card community: mana costs like
. I know, I've been using much more considerate costing schemes than that and got criticized for it.
Though I'm going to side with the custom card community here in that the specific sample cards are already so complex that this cost is just making things even more noisy.
I also get where they are coming from though on mutate costs, maybe: It's a perfect cost that tells you "If you've been splashing one of these two colors to get this card in and dindn't draw the mana, you can still mutate as long as you have the correct main color."
It's weird and pragmatic. But it made its way onto a real card.
I haven't been playing this game at all, and looked up the last couple sets like once each, so i don't know how good they've been, but these new mechanics seem pretty interesting, more so than what I felt with my very quick looks at Theros 2.0 and Throne of Eldraine.
Can't wait for more
big stompy bois.
Oh gosh, mutate is entertaining. It reminds me of what Goblin Artisans were trying to do with Head/Body of mecha assembling into one giant robot. It's a way of making a "make one giant creature" mechanic that's not too punishing if you don't draw the right parts together, and gives you some reason to do so rather than just try to play all the creatures separately.
It seems too rules-headache-y to be printed but I guess they thought it was ok!
It's not totally open ended because it doesn't give you any way to combine two non-mutate cards. But you can take the text box of any 1/1 from an older set and easily staple it to a big stompy mutate creature you have now, that's more melvin/johnny than I expected to see :)
I'm happy for you, Circeus, that you made the ability counters years before Ikoria. You knew what Magic could do, Wizards just hadn't gotten there yet.
I think Innistrad probably first changed the ideas of what could be physically done in Magic with the introduction of DFCs that required a checkbox card. Amonkhet had the punchcard, and I think doing that is a big precursor what Ikoria would be willing to do.
I'm coming around on mutate just being a modified bestow. Still think keyword counters are a terrible memory issue
Oh, cool. Yeah, I can see why people would be doubtful, because without the physical counters as reminders wizards have always avoided using multiple counters for reminders. But it makes a lot of sense, well played!
That and mutate also reminds me a little bit of my superhero set where I tried to have different creatures all contributing to one giant creature with the abilities of all of them. Like slivers but where only one creature gets all the benefits at once. But I never really refined it to the point where there was an implementation that made sense.
I've spent years trading magic designs here. It's sort of scary how long. But only know a few of you in real life.
I live in the UK, my wife and I are fortunate to be able to continue working from home much like usual. Video socialising is going surprisingly well.
How is everyone else coping? Is anyone in a country NOT dealing with this pandemic?