Otaria Forever (Ideas): Rundown

Dominaria Reborn (DRB - working title) is a set looking to explore counters as a mechanical base, using an established MTG backdrop. I started playing the game back in 2001 when I was 11 years old, and the Odyssey & Onslaught blocks were my first sets. I've wanted WotC to return to Otaria for a while now, and while I understand their reasons for wishing to explore the Multiverse further I feel as though there's still stories to be told.

That said, this is primarily being conceptualised as a bottom-up set in the vein of Zendikar or Odyssey itself. The creative can come later, and if it turns out down the line it becomes a poor fit then I'll look towards changing it.

Counters as a mechanic are fraught with problems, which is something I'm becoming increasingly aware of as I work on designing the core mechanics of the set. Counters gives players more numbers to crunch and adds another level of micromanagement to the game that some won't enjoy (again, this was a criticism levelled at Odyssey). But it's a design space that I feel doesn't get enough attention for these very reasons, and given that I don't particularly need to design with the beginner in mind this might be one of the best avenues through which said space can be explored.

Created on 23 Jul 2014 by keflexxx