As a designer there are a lot of benefits to doing mock designs for other games. It helps sharpen my skills, lets me think outside my comfort zone, and its fun to boot. The Great Designer Search challenges are a great way to get constraints from the creators themselves, and even see how they would judge results from other designers. While they obviously won’t be looking at my cards (if it’s not clear by now I’m not a GDS3 participant), reading the feedback on the contestant’s designs can give you an idea of what the judges were looking for, and how that applies to your designs.
Before I walk through my process and the cards I came up with, there are some things to keep in mind. I’m operating on a different timeline from the contestants; I just did this in a few hours during my free time. I’m not sure how long they have for each challenge, and I have the advantage of reading all the judge’s feedback for all contestants (again, not sure if they get that info or just their own feedback). The biggest one is that I’m not playtesting these cards because it is just a practice exercise; if I was actually in the contest I would playtest them a lot.
With that, lets get started! I won’t go over all the rules, as they can be seen at this link by scrolling down to Design Challenge #2. To start we have a list of 25 playtest names that we need to pick eight from to make cards out of. Because this challenge is about matching the flavor of the names, the first thing I’m going to do is go down the list and see if I can come up with a basic idea of what a Magic card would look like for it. This is an easy way to eliminate any names I don’t want to make a card for. Again, if I was a part of the contest I would do more research, as I’ve never been to the circus and am only going off my memory of seeing the circus in the media, but it should be enough to come up with eight cards.
Acrobatics
I imagine a creature would use Acrobatics to dodge a removal spell or otherwise survive. An instant blinking a creature or granting Hexproof seems like an easy win here.
Circus Peanuts
Despite peanuts being salty and that having a correlation to Magic players, I’m drawing a blank on what a Magic card would look like. Moving on.
Circus Tent
Structures/buildings are usually represented as Lands or Artifacts. The properties of a circus tent is that it is appealing to see and easily movable. There aren’t a lot of stadium type cards in Magic, and I’m not coming up with a good design right away, so I pass on this. Keep it in mind in case I need something more unique in my submission.
Clown Car
A clown car is a tiny Vehicle that can fit way more people in it than it seems like it should. This one I’m excited about and I’m already thinking of unique ways to use the Vehicle sub-type.
Contorionist
A person that bends their body in strange ways. A practical application might be to fit themselves in a small space. I’m not sure what the Magic connection would be, maybe Power/Toughness switching?
Feats of Strength
Feels like an aura that buffs Power/Toughness. While I will want some simple Commons for my submission this seems really obvious, and wouldn’t be an impressive design.
Fire Eating
If fire breathing is +1/+0 for R, than eating it would be +0/+1? Not in red’s color pie, but having a creature with a R activation cost makes sense. May revisit.
Flaming Hoop
My first thought is an enchantment that deals damage to attacking creatures, but not sure how often those designs are done anymore since they don’t seem fun.
Human Cannonball
A person that gets shot out of a cannon (fling) but survives and comes back for more. The second half has my brain tingling for some interesting ways to do it, so I’m excited for this one, and I think I may have my one Legendary.
Juggling
Originally I was trying to get too cute with this by juggling creatures in play, but I think a really elegant design would be to Scry 3 (the common number for juggling) and adding an effect based on where it lands for rarity.
Knife Thrower
Initial thought was Sparkmage Apprentice or something similar. Then I thought knife throwers never actually hit their target, just throw the knives near them. I don’t know if that is something the judges would consider but no reason to risk it when I have other designs.
Lion Tamer
I’m thinking something along the lines of Blade Splicer where it brings a friend and can help buff that friend.
Magician
This feels like a trap. In a game called Magic, having a playtest name like that is not going to tell me what the card is supposed to do outside the context of the set. Completely avoiding.
Plate Spinning
I’m imagining something where you have to line up multiple zones to have the same number for a big reward. More on this one later.
Ringmaster
I already have my Legend, and the only design I can think with this card is tribal based, and since the last challenge was all about tribal I would avoid this.
Seltzer Bottle
I could see this as an Artifact that prevents a creature from blocking, but I already have an Artifact I’m excited for, so probably going to pass here.
Stilts
An equipment that gives a creature Reach? I’m sure I could come up with something more interesting but again I already have an Artifact, and don’t think I’ll want a second.
Sword Swallowing
A creature that exiles an equipment and brings it back out presumably with some kind of reward for doing so? I could explore here more if I need to.
Three Rings
I’m not 100% sure what this is. Would do more research for an actual submission but for now skipping.
Tightrope
I imagine something like Silent Arbiter but that card never seemed fun to me, so I’m going to pass.
Trained Elephant
Traveling Circus
This just feels like a vague culmination of the set in general. Going to avoid.
Trick Riding
I feel like I could come up with something but drawing a blank. Would probably benefit from watching videos, but for now leaving this alone.
Trapeze Artist
I’m picturing a Restoration Angel type card where the trapeze artist swoops in and saves a creature in danger.
Unicycle
A vehicle I guess but already have one I’m excited for.
So now that we have that out of the way, here is the list of cards I already have a design for:
Acrobatics
Clown Car
Contortionist
Human Cannonball
Juggling
Lion Tamer
Plate Spinning
Hmm, that is only seven. Looks like we did too good of a job of culling the list. Before adding an eighth let’s write some quick notes for the design of these cards so we know what hole we need to fill.
Acrobatics – White, Instant, Uncommon
Clown Car – Artifact, Mythic
Contortionist – Blue, Creature, Common
Human Cannonball – Red/White, Legendary Creature, Mythic
Juggling – Blue, Sorcery, Common
Lion Tamer – Green, Creature, Uncommon
Plate Spinning – White, Enchantment, Rare
So we see a couple issues, because I cannot have more than 3 cards of a type. I also cannot have another creature, which is fine, but I think a bigger issue is having two blue commons. Going through Mark Rosewater’s color pie article I see that red is secondary in power/toughness switching, so I decide to switch Contortionist to Red. Now all I need is a Black non-creature that is a Rare. I want an equal amount of safe and risky designs (to show my skills as a nuts-and-bolts designer), and since I think Plate Spinning will be a bit risky, I think we can be safe with the last card. Of the remaining cards these are the ones I think I can come up with something to fill the slot:
Circus Peanuts
Knife Thrower
Sword Swallowing
Trick Riding
None of these feels like an enchantment so some kind of rare removal instant or sorcery makes the most sense. We’ll come back to this; for now here is are the card designs as I would submit them.
Design 1
Juggling (common)
1U
Sorcery
Scry 3.
Draw a card.
Just a simple common that I feel like gives off the sense of juggling. Every set needs cards like these so I don’t feel bad submitting one.
Design 2
Contortionist (common)
4R
Creature – Human Monk
5/2
Prowess
2: Switch CARDNAME Power and Toughness until end of turn.
The flavor feels right for this card, but this may be my weakest design. I added Prowess late to give it some more play but anything else and I’d be worried I’m over correcting too much and make something too complex for common. Even now the precedent I’m quoting for P/T switching at common is Calcite Snapper from Worldwake, so I’m a little nervous this isn’t acceptable, but willing to take the risk.
Design 3
Acrobatics (uncommon)
2W
Instant
Exile target creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield under your control. If that creature entering the battlefield causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.
I think Panharmonicon is okay at Uncommon as long as it is a one-shot, and I think this is a neat take on the blink mechanic.
Design 4
Lion Tamer (uncommon)
3G
Creature – Human Shaman
1/1
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, create a 3/3 Cat creature token named Lion.
T: Target Cat you control gains Deathtouch, Reach, or Trample until end of turn.
A relatively safe but flavorful Uncommon. The Lion Tamer presents his Lion to the crowd and then commands him to do various tricks.
Design 5
Going to go a bit more in depth with this one. Plate spinning requires a lot of focus and coordination to keep multiple plates spinning at the same speed. Too slow and they’ll eventually stop and fall off, but too fast and they’ll lose balance. I decided to represent this by checking different zones for the same amount of cards.
Plate Spinning (rare)
2WW
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control exactly four creatures, four non-creature, non-land permanents, and have four cards in hand and four cards in your graveyard, you win the game.
2: Exile a permanent or a card in your hand or graveyard. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a Sorcery.
I wanted to do four zones, but exile doesn’t work since you cannot ever reduce the size of it (well not easily). So I went with checking for creatures and non-creatures. For each zone, if you want to speed it up you have to play (or draw) cards, but if you’re going too fast you can slow things down. Activating the ability only as a sorcery is a concession that it would be much harder to interact with if you could activate at the end of your opponent’s turn. I’m really happy with how this card turned out, but wouldn’t be shocked if it was hated. This card would have benefited heavily from playtesting.
Design 6
So we still got a hole to fill. I’m not the most comfortable winging it on a rare but since this is for my own practice and not the actual submission I think it makes sense to try and come up with a flavorful rare on the spot. Looking back at Sword Swallowing it could make sense as a removal spell, as forcing your enemy to swallow a sword probably kills them. But, I want to convey how you might have a creature that can actually swallow it, so some kind of modal spell or multiple effects makes sense. Here’s what I came up with:
Sword Swallowing (rare)
2BB
Instant
Up to one target creature you control gains Deathtouch and Indestructible until end of turn.
Destroy target creature or planeswalker.
The idea is the creature swallows the sword proving his indestructibility then pulls it out and uses it to kill anything in his way. Sounds cool right? The problem is, I won’t be around to explain the flavor of the card to everyone that sees it, so if that doesn’t come across on its own then this might be a miss. Mechanically speaking it is a potentially powerful card, but without the flavor it might come off as two disconnected abilities. I added the ability to destroy a Planeswalker to make it feel more rare.
Design 7
For a clown car I came up with the idea of a vehicle where the creatures crewing it disappears, and then they all return to some great effect. I decided it would be cool if you got to put another creature in to play because it always seems like there is more clowns in the car than you remember getting in.
Clown Car (mythic rare)
2
Artifact – Vehicle
2/3
Crew 1
You can only crew Clown Car with 1 creature per turn.
Exile any creature that crews Clown Car.
At end of turn, if 4 or more cards were exiled with Clown Car sacrifice it; if you do return all creatures exiled with Clown Car to play. Then put up to two creature cards from your hand into play.
There is a lot of text here and it all came about because this card plays weird. If we just have the last ability as is players would just wait until they have four creatures and crew them all at once, so we have to restrict players to only crewing with one creature per turn, which I think makes sense with such a small vehicle. This is a risky design but feels like a splashy mythic requiring a big cost if your opponent kills your Clown Car, but promises a big reward.
Design 8
Milliardo, Human Cannonball (mythic rare)
3RW
Legendary Creature – Human Berserker
3/4
When you cast CARDNAME, create a colorless Cannon artifact token with “T, Sacrifice a creature you control: Deal damage equal to the sacrificed creature’s power to target creature or player.”
If CARDNAME would be sacrificed, instead exile it and return it the the battlefield at end of turn.
Normally a creature shot out of a cannon is gone for good. But a human cannonball comes back for more. This feels like a safe submission while still feeling mythic, and has a unique mechanic for coming back. What I haven’t been showing with these designs are iterations, which this one went through a lot of, mostly with the token creation. It took me a while to think of a cast trigger to prevent it from making a new cannon each time it comes back. The name comes from Gundam Wing which I’ve been rewatching lately, sue me.
So lets see how we did based on what the judges are looking for this round. I double checked that I’m following all the rules so we’re good there. I’m not going to write the 250 words comment part because I’ve written 2500 words. Regarding mechanical flavor, I feel like I did a good job, as that was the purpose of this exercise. I haven’t playtested the cards but I think they are fun. Set feel is tricky because the cards are in different colors, so it is difficult to make them feel connected without a unifying mechanic. I would try to talk up in the comments that I was going for a feel of the cards playing to the crowd with splashy effects, or coming out for repeat performances. If I spent more time on it I might come up with a set skeleton for what the different draft archetypes/themes would be for the different color combos, and alter my designs to fit those. Card choice kinda feels like it fits in with set feel, but I think I did a slightly better job here as a few of the cards work pretty well together while a couple others stand on their own. Originality may be on the weaker side; I have a few different mechanics and use some others in interesting ways, but I’m not doing anything that a whole cycle or keyword could potentially be created from. Still, I feel like I’m doing enough interesting things while demonstrating solid design principles that I think this is a strong submission. Color pie, rarity, and card type appropriateness I think I did well on.
I don’t usually design a full submission for the various challenges, so it was interesting to figure out what I would do, and came up with some cool ideas I don’t think I would have come up with had I not forced myself to follow through with it. An important aspect of design though is getting feedback, so how did I do? I don’t expect to get a job at Wizards anytime soon, but any feedback could prove valuable in future game designs. Who knows, maybe I’ll try again on future challenges or go back to past challenges and provide my potential submissions for those.
DRAW AND GET A BEER 