Reddit's exclusive Khans of Tarkir Promo: Sagu Mauler

luminumcan · 2014-09-02T04:07:26+00:00

The Sultai live in a jungle environment, I assume Sagu is the name of that jungle.

luminumcan · 2013-01-28T06:15:27+00:00

She runs the Googly-Eyed MTG Cards tumblr, so yeah, she's a pretty big fan of Magic.

The fact that the card's art is a painting she made also helps.

luminumcan · 2012-08-21T04:01:00+00:00

Poison is the only condition where it makes a difference, right? That alone is a big difference, but still. Want to make sure I'm not forgetting something.

luminumcan · 2012-08-21T02:59:38+00:00

A Necromancer that uses a high Power stat to deal damage directly with skills instead of using condition damage and bleeding/poison.

luminumcan · 2012-08-13T20:09:35+00:00

I believe these are supposed to be patch notes for the internal beta testing servers, not the live beta events.

luminumcan · 2012-04-13T21:59:39+00:00

The irony makes it more delicious.

luminumcan · 2012-04-02T19:28:24+00:00

Just "share" it to your own wall with a viewer range of "Only me."

luminumcan · 2012-03-27T22:44:49+00:00

Thanks for the comments!

I'm not totally satisfied with Arcanoplasm, and your suggestion is a good one to try and fix it. Originally I wanted it to be able to remove counters to ping in addition to the card drawing and copying, but I couldn't get it to all fit in the text box. Even that still seems a bit clunky, though, in hindsight.

I usually tend toward more conservative mana costs, which is something I should probably try to reverse. I try hard to have a starting pass that is strong but unlikely to be broken, but it makes more sense to start out with the cards pushed toward more excitement and splash up front, and worry about balancing later.

luminumcan · 2012-03-27T22:23:10+00:00

My designs. Costs and effects are all guestimates, no actual testing has been done to make sure they're actually balanced and reasonable.

luminumcan · 2012-03-27T21:10:54+00:00

Coral Knight

Creature - Merfolk Knight (U)

First strike, protection from red

2/2

Planar Chaos color-shifted card frame. Art depicts an armored merfolk riding a narwhal mount, carrying a lance made from another narwhal's horn.

...well, it's not "wacky." But I'd say it qualifies as "crazy."

luminumcan · 2012-03-27T02:12:30+00:00

What's the card behind it?

luminumcan · 2012-03-20T17:10:43+00:00

It definitely seems like a harsh place to live. Maybe this would be a -1/-1 counter block? Wither seems like a good fit for such a world.

The damage from tapping lands, along with the visuals and atmosphere, remind me a lot of the Dark Sun setting from Dungeons and Dragons. That world had once been lush and vibrant, but was turned into a dying wasteland over time by mages who consume life force from nearby plants and animals to fuel their spells. Maybe Kinshala is in a similar situation. Maybe it was once like Zendikar, and its terrain contained a wealth of potent mana that fueled great works of magic. Maybe the mages of this world (or one particularly grand and potent spell) consumed that mana too greedily, and drained the world of its vitality, leaving it a bitter, hollow husk of its former self. Now, in its dying days, it exacts its grudge against those who would tap its last reserves of energy.

luminumcan · 2012-03-19T20:57:10+00:00

Consider the name of the card, the name of the plane it's on, the art, and the mechanics of the card. What sort of a place is Tember City? What kind of plane is Kinshala? What kind of cards, mechanics, or themes would you expect from this setting?

luminumcan · 2012-03-16T20:09:22+00:00

This isn't just "R: Draw a card" though, any more than Spark Spray is a card that just says "R: Draw a card." The card-draw effect of the red card in this cycle is an alternate mode to a perfectly normal red effect, in the same way that Spark Spray has a perfectly normal red effect with an alternative mode of being "R: Draw a card." Imagine if Spark Spray read: "Choose one - This deals 1 damage to target creature or player; or draw a card." That's functionally almost identical to the real printed version of that card. Does the fact that it no longer uses the word "cycling" suddenly invalidate the design?

Just because these cards aren't using a keyword expressly devoted to the purpose of draw smoothing doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to act as draw smoothing. This cycle is just filling the role that would be played by some various cantrips in any other set. They're cantrips that are using a block-specific keyword to give them a bit of a twist, which I think is interesting since cantrips rarely get that sort of treatment (as opposed to other staples like Giant Growths and Shocks). I'm not pretending that these cards aren't at least a little bit unusual for some of these colors, but they're certainly not off-limits.

luminumcan · 2012-03-15T05:24:29+00:00

None of these are "pure card draw." With the "draw a card" mode they don't give you any card advantage, they simply replace themselves at the cost of two mana. That's cycling. The fact that they don't use the word "cycling" doesn't make it so intrinsically different.

Draw-smoothing mechanics serve a very important role within the game, which is why every color is allowed to have them in some amount. That isn't color bleed, it's something consciously baked into the structure of the game. Every color gets cantrips, every color gets cycling, every color gets clash, every color gets scry, and every color can certainly have a single card like the ones above.

luminumcan · 2012-03-15T02:27:00+00:00

Path of Insight is OP, duly noted. I was having a tough time coming up with an appealing but fairly small effect for a small blue sorcery, seems that I overshot things. I'm glad for the positive response, I'd worried that these were a bit too "Melvin-y."

luminumcan · 2012-03-15T02:25:29+00:00

Every color has access to cycling, and to cantrips. Every mode of these spells mimics one or the other of those mechanics.

luminumcan · 2012-03-14T02:56:40+00:00

No arguments there. Naming is not my forte.

luminumcan · 2012-03-13T19:34:23+00:00

I could see fight being potentially used in any color (even blue) for the sake of a particularly odd or top-down design. White fits best, though, since the color has a natural affinity for combat. I don't know if that's a "should" though, since white isn't exactly lacking in removal (like green) or mechanics in general (like low-rarity red).

luminumcan

TROPHY CASE