Sweet Tales of Bredoria: Comments

Any reason you don't have a skeleton for your set? Prefer your food boneless?

Well, since this set is based around candy & sweets, I do prefer it boneless lol.

However, I made a skeleton just for you, HarrisonY. I already had a land card named Sprinklebone Bayou, so I figured a skeleton would fit here anyway: http://www.magicmultiverse.net/cards/138586

Thanks for the recommendation!

Have you given thought as to what the limited archetypes would be?

Yeah, so I'm still messing around with all cards, but basically the archetypes are:

Azorius: Knights and wizards of the Yeasted City (capital of Bredoria), will mostly be tribal.

Boros: Chefs and Rebels fighting a civil war, main ability is Hardbaked (tap a Chef creature for additional value.)

Dimir: Zombie tribal, main ability is Fudgeblight (Put -1/-1 counters on creatures and if they die, you create a Zombie token.)

Golgari: Oozes living underground, will mostly be tribal.

Gruul: Sweetbeast tribal (yes, candy animals.)

Izzet: Elemental Cult of Chaos, will mostly be tribal and of course involves casting instants and sorceries.

Orzhov: Use Food to either kill or reanimate stuff. A bit of Warlock tribal. Also, cannibalism.

Rakdos: Devils, Imps & Demons stealing The Roaring Oven's Flame of Creation, main ability is Feast (sacrifice Food to activate ability.)

Selesnya: Citizens and Peasants exploring and going on adventures, main ability is Sugarcoat (meet a requirement to transform permanent.)

Simic: Protectors of the Sugarmint Wilds, a bit of Faerie tribal, main ability is Jammed (put jam counters on creatures to remove their abilities, owner of creature must pay 2 mana to remove jam counter.)

Also, all colors will have adventures and all colors will have Food related stuff.

I would really recommend using the "Add Skeleton" link in the set header to add a design skeleton to your set to track the card slots - like HarrisonY already did. Ie. this sort of view.

Related links about the design skeleton concept:

• https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/nuts-bolts-design-skeleton-2010-02-15-0
• https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/nuts-bolts-filling-design-skeleton-2011-02-28-0
• https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/nuts-bolts-13-design-skeleton-revisited-2021-03-22

Changed the Dimir archetype "Fudgeblight" ability: Instead of creating a 2/2 Zombie token when a creature with a blight counter on it dies, a player simply can't gain life as long as they control a creature with a blight counter on it.

I thought this'd fit better with all the lifegain going on in the set by other colors, plus there are already a lot of tokens being created by other cards and abilities.

Okay, alright, so... forget most of what I said about the archetypes before. A lot of things underwent some changes, mainly the five set mechanics. A lot of stuff got cut, cards and archetypes changed colors and types, or just got overhauled completely. Inspired by sets such as New Capenna or Tarkir, Sweet Tales of Bredoria also focusses on three-color archetypes:

Abzan - The only three colors that actually relate to Food, this was the obvious choice for all (or most of) the Food related cards. It's mechanic, Sweet Tooth, puts Food in the spotlight, and is similar to Capenna's Alliance mechanic, but triggers various effects when Food enters the battlefield instead of creatures. Creature types are Chefs and Golems (usually Food artifacts). The old Oven-Baked mechanic gets replaced by this one, which used to tap Chefs to trigger effects. This really limited the player to pretty much only play Chef tribal decks. Using the abzan colors for this mechanic meant I was going to have to use the same three-colored wedges that Tarkir used for the other archetypes and mechanics.

Sultai - Are there any colors more perfect for undead creatures? In the story of Sweet Tales of Bredoria, some kind of plague is decaying the sugary lands and its inhabitants, so zombies roam about biting people.Take a bite lets you put -1/-1 counters on your own creatures for various effects, challenging the player to wisely use this mechanic. Creature types are Zombies (of course) and Oozes. (there's also a little bit of warlock and assassin action). This mechanic underwent the most changes, used to call Fudgeblight which created zombie tokens when a creature died with a blight counter on it and used to stop lifegain, and overall it was a bit of a mess.

Temur - My least fav mechanic, but I'm actually happy with it. Temur is usually all about creatures and growth, so Decorate fits here nicely. When a specific goal is met (a bit similar to how you solve Cases in Murders at Karlov Manor), a creature with decorate can flip to it's back side, which is either a better version of the front side, or it triggers an effect (similar to Daybound and Nightbound creatures, though there's no flipping back). Creature types are mostly Sweetbeasts and some Scouts (representing adventurers). The only change this mechanic ever had, was that it used to call Sugarcoat, but because WotC released a card named Sugar Coat (which I also put in the set), I changed the name. Aside from that, the mechanic stayed the same throughout.

Jeskai - Had a difficult time coming up with this mechanic, it's inspired by Flashback and plotting. Only by either milling or discarding a card with Concoct does it go to exile, where it can be cast for its Concoct cost. Casting a card this way has advantages: It can be cheaper to cast or it triggers additional effects. Some playtesting is required of course, but the concept seems fun. Creature types are Elementals (specifically milkshakes) and Knights. Before Concoct, there was a mechanic named Jammed. A very boring, tedious mechanic that let you put a jam counter on an opponent's creature so that it loses all its abilities. Then that opponent could pay 2 mana to remove one jam counter from their creature. Perhaps fine for one card, but not for an entire archetype/main mechanic.

Mardu - Last but not least, a little mechanic called Blaze, where you want to deal combat damage to opponents for various effects. In a way, it's similar to the Blitz mechanic from New Capenna (they even sound similar), but your creatures are not supposed to die. Blaze creatures often have keywords like haste, menace or deathtouch to try to get past blockers. Creature types are Mostly Rebels and Rogues/Mercenaries (of which are a lot of Goblins). This mechanic was the last one I came up with and has no earlier versions, though it was the replacement for Feast, where you sacrificed Food to trigger effects (usually creature buffs). Feast used to be a red-focussed mechanic, comparable to Boast, but the use of Food seemed very much out of place for red.

All colors will still have adventures, and all colors include the Bredorian creature type (since that's basically the Human creature type in Bredoria).

Now, that's enough babbling from me. Go enjoy some desserts.