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Recent updates to Multiverse Design Challenge: (Generated at 2025-05-14 07:56:40)
For Challenge # 112. Not a keyword. None came to me, and a few were already mentioned anyway so maybe we don't need one. Instead I tried to project 'strangely intelligent, but alien' onto this card.
Added Grizzled Barber to the mix.
For Challenge # 112. What a mess I made for myself by taking Link's original challenge and giving myself extra constraints. Four of the tribes were tricky to translate through my lens, but 'create a keyword mechanic that allowed creatures from all five colors to be brought back from the dead' was really rough.
I think this got there, though. I specifically chose red to make sure this makes sense, but it works in my mind. The creature doesn't come back as a creature, so this feels a little closer to flashback, which is fine in all colors. I'm not a fan of using double-faced cards to do my dirty work, but it was the only way to turn a creature from the graveyard into an enchantment in play without dumping scads of reminder text on the card. Also, it let me turn a generic creature into a Legendary God when it returned, so that was cool.
Also of note: I named the card Grizzled Barber, then realized what kind of comment Vitenka would make, so I went back and made him a 2/2 Bear Artisan. I wouldn't mind seeing an Ursine humanoid in Magic, come to think of it.
Feel free to contribute some more, Alex. I find them all so interesting.
Nice idea for a cycle. I'm liking the ideas that have come together around Danahar.
See Challenge # 112. Inspired by jmgariepy's idea that all the factions might be all colors, here's a Rohn card that plays with green and white.
Keywording Sahala was driving me nuts. I really wanted to stick some sort of 'Tradition of Writing' on these guys. Infer, somehow, that knowledge is never lost, but stored somewhere to be accessed. The end results spun me through Incarnations (like Anger), spells that could be cast from the graveyard, creatures that turned into auras, and the ability to move cards from the graveyard back into the library. A big mixture of good and bad ideas... but the good ideas were generally better on not-creatures, which kind of defeated the point of what I was going for.
Eventually, I took a pit stop here in 'the other side of domain from Coalition Victory' land. It seemed legit for a society that was as comfortable in their own cities, as they were in other cultures. And I find it funny that they're more welcome in goblin tribes and necromancers's courts than in Terugan cities, so I played up that.
I didn't think we'd ever see shroud again, either, but if I remember correctly Maro has said it's not impossible.
Persist, on the other hand, is to me a completely different animal than Undying, and could very well reappear.
It does. But that just allows for larger effects, and better stats. I don't know if that's argument enough. I doubt, for example, that we'll ever see shroud again, now that we have hexproof. The same could be said for Persist.
Recall that Landfall's small bonus was +2/+2.
Golemfall is a fine idea, though like Constellation, it would probably have its own name. Why is the third ability limited to sorcery speed? I think it should be limited to nontoken artifacts, but not necessarily sorcery speed.
Anyway, I think this is a good fit for Rohn.
If you have the tap effects asking the Roamers a flavor of movement, this mechanic would fit then quite nicely. However, Restless compares unfavorably to Inspired, doesn't it?
I probably should have mentioned Absorb and Frightening. I didn't mean to overlook them. But I wasn't clear if it was supposed to be a mechanic specifically for the Pale Ones, or just a good idea in general.
Either way, I'll probably try to take yet another stab at the pale ones. I get the impression that everybody's got a different vague idea of what they should look like. I'd expect to get 10 different designs on those if I showed it to 10 different designers.
The first card I designed was based on Terugan lore and how to appropriately put that into card form ( Gathering the Council ), but yeah, it seemed like this moved into the 4 color tribes.
Jack also brought back Absorb for the Pale Ones and I created Frightening for them :p
Hmm, I like the mechanic, although the easiest way to achieve this makes me think of the creature staying put which doesn't seem like roaming to me, but hey, we all see things differently.
Hmm. It occurs to me that Absorb 1 isn't doing what I was thinking it would do. I kind of thought it would prevent 1 damage if three Goblin Heros attacked you. But it prevents 3; one for each hero. That makes "You have Absorb 1" the equivalent of Urza's Armor. Whoops. Oh, well, I supposed it is doable. Edit: Done.
Finally got around to this challenge. After reading everyone else's submissions, two things occurred to me.
1.) Each of these tribes could use a keyword mechanic. A few keywords were tossed around, but besides Jack's use of 'Perfected', and some 'Golem matters' stuff, nobody seemed interested in giving overarching mechanical ties to the five cultures. There's a lot of material to work with, so that makes sense. But I figured it would be nice if each tribe got a keyword to play with, so I've been working on that.
2.) There's been a lot of talk about which tribe is which colors and... I kind of think that's a trap? We've all been playing and designing cards for Magic for a long time, so it's natural that we'd want to assign certain color for certain tribes, since that's what Wizards always does. But, personally, I think the idea of having a set with five tribes that don't tie themselves to any particular combination of colors is refreshing. I don't see why Rohn, for example, can't just have cards of all five colors within its borders. Sure, Rohn could be Red/Blue. But it doesn't need to be. I just think no color identities would be a nice change of pace for a block.
That makes point one harder. I'm trying to find five keywords that both represent the tribe, and could be used, theoretically, by all five colors.
And I'm kind of failing? But at least I find the cards to be interesting. So far I've got Journeying Craghorn, Sculpted Sculptor, Everyman Golem and Secreted Curator. I'll be back to make three more cards later.
For Challenge # 112. Teruga made me want to work with creatures that grant Absorb, but not to themselves, but to their caster. The idea being that every creature granting Absorb helps solidify the force field.
I like the idea, but it's going to make me stretch the color pie. Obvious in white. Green, perhaps. And while it's very irregular for this to appear in blue, I think it might be fine for 'Absorb 1 you' to be tertiary in blue on some very inefficient creatures, and/or a throw away aside to large creatures, like a 6-cost Air Elemental, and only for this block. Red won't play this game, and that's fine.
Black is trickier. I'm sure one can swing damage prevention in the color, as long as it comes with some sort of cost. Discard, sacrificing permanents and life loss all work. At first I thought I was stretching the flavor of black to do this... but then it occurred to me that Lich variants have been doing this sort of thing for years.
For Challenge # 112 and here to support the golem theme. At this point, I'm pretty sure all five colors can do this.
For Challenge # 112. I couldn't help myself. Golemfall just sounded like a fun keyword to work with. Unlike landfall, this requires more dedication, so I made sure to keep the stats tighter.
Also, this would be a perfect set to introduce 'Artisan' as a creature type. It's a good creature type for anyone making a golem. But it's also a word that covers a lot of ground, giving us a class for all those swordsmiths and glassblowers to do. Craftsmen really deserve a class unto themselves...
For Challenge # 112. I wanted an ability that represented the fact that Roamers tend to move around, but not necessarily attack. 'When the creature untaps' works fine, but roaming doesn't infer constantly running around. Once per turn makes more sense in my mind. This mechanic could also use support from abilities or costs that happen to tap your creature. Some themed equipment would go a long way.
I dropped it two exiling two artifacts and made the land an artifact land (this was done for flavor purposes). I didn't want mana to be pumped into this card.