Juvenile Offender
Design 5
Balance 6
This is a bit more interesting than a lot of one drops designed for beating face. This is narrower than most needing some degree of support to be interesting. The scaling is indeed interesting, this can grow pretty fast and can even become a relevant top deck even in the late game. This can also be a 1/1 embarrassment. I don't love that polarity. It is also a bit of a snowball card, make this turn one and then answer everything they have with crime and this will do critical damage pretty quickly and start dodging some removal and winning most combats. I like that this makes you consider your design a bit, and I like that it is a little bit more interesting and involved than many other pure combat focused one drops, however I am not sure that offsets the polarity and snowball potential of the card.
Knowledge Power Conduit
Design 8
Balance 6
This is a really aspirational card. It is huge amounts of fun getting it going but it is hard to not die getting there, and then to put it to good use. This is very middle management sort of affair needing both support and payoff. Normally really no nos in limited settings. The thing is, this is just such an alluring card. Like moths to a flame, this pulls the nerd in. This card is fun, it is one of the most fun cards I have designed and so I'll be damned if it being a bit narrow is getting in the way of my good time! I did probably also cock up the design a bit. Copies are a bit hard to answer, and messy, and so it should probably be a counters on the card mechanism to give a bit more counter play. I am torn though, I like the costing on this and part of me thinks this card needs all the help it can get. I am certainly going to test other versions of this card. Just because something isn't a problem doesn't mean we can't make it better! That is obviously not a luxury wizards can so easily afford, nor is it without mental and financial cost for me to do so, but I think in the case of a card with this much promise it is worth trying to get it closer to right. Especially if I can already point out some potential design issue...
Knuck Fuckle
Design 7
Balance 8
I just had some random effects I wanted to see on cards and so threw a couple of unrelated ones on this dork. This was just a bit of fishing, I wanted to see what would come of a card like this. All told it has worked out pretty well. Played loads but never oppressive or anything. There are plenty of places happy with a card like this and you are typically happy playing it for just one of the abilities. Broadly a design win as it is fun, it makes you want to build with it and play it and it does this without offending opponents or being out of whack on power level. I don't mind if a card is aimless or ambiguous in what it is trying to do if the card is fun and compelling. I thought this was a silly tester card and so named it accordingly, now it seems like it is a real card and so I have renamed it Nick Bottom for a cleaner, more youth friendly cube.
Krushok
Design 6
Balance 6
This is my attempt to fix Overrun. My +2/+0 and trample dork at six mana was one of the best win conditions in the format. It seemed weak compared to both Overrun and Craterhoof and yet it was one of the big name cards. I didn't think it was reasonable to nerf it any further and so I thought I would dabble in scaling it down. This little dork might be cheaper but it gives a window to react in thus keeping this rather calmer. As yet this has not partaken in an alpha-strike. That is probably a good thing but it might also mean this card is either bad or under tuned. Bad seems unlikely, but boring is certainly a possibility. Jury still out on this one.
Legendspeaker
Design 8
Balance 6
Big fan of this one. Convoke is one of my favourite mechanics and being able to give it to stuff without it is always a tantalizing possibility. My interest is always piqued when you can stick a cost reduction effect on other spells. I spent time trying to break Mycosynth Golem! This isn't too much of a limited card as it fails to stand alone that well nor offer than much raw power. I have no idea what sort of shell you want this in nor how many historic cards you are looking to have before this is exciting. Cards like this take a while to come out of their shell. Once players have worked out how and where it goes I'll be better able to appraise this one. It is probably too narrow for limited play but might one day suddently become really powerful should sufficient support exist in the meta. Indeed, this is the sort of card that could just be a bit broken in the right sort of combo deck. Due to how my I like it I shall very much give this every chance to succeed. Hopefully it will do so without resorting to combo. I might also toss a bit more stats this guys way to make him a bit more generally playable in a limited setting if the support is not forthcoming. I want this guy to succeed.
Lifeforce Weaver
Design 8
Balance 6
A take on Llanowar Elf. Much more relevant in combat and even able to burst output more mana like a Wall of Roots. Worse however in that without ways to evolve this guy he does nothing. He is like the Arbor Elf of the set. Mostly comparable to a more standard elf, sometimes a bit of a wiff, and sometimes a bit better. This guy plays OK, if slightly more polar than other cheap mana dorks. What he does well compared to other ramp is being interesting and different. That goes pretty far in an otherwise fairly samey group of cards. There are also some cool counter synergies on the go with this one which is always fun.
Litter
Design 4
Balance 4
I had been liking the way in which vehicle which came with their own crew played so I tried to distil that into the purest and cheapest useful form. Mostly I think I failed in that endeavour. This just isn't tempting enough, it is low power, low scaling and super low excitement. You would only play this in an aggressive deck and even then, only really to make up the numbers, to bolster artifact synergy, or to lower exposure to mass removal. All of these things can be done with more powerful or exciting cards and so they typically are. I expect to be cutting this soon and not looking back. Just not offering enough of an experience to merit the slot.
Little Fat Goblin
Design 5
Balance 4
I'm not entirely sure what this was about. It just sort of happened and it seemed reasonable, if somewhat aimless, and so I printed it. It hasn't done anything of note yet, but I have just dropped a whole food synergy thing in the fifth print run so it might well start to do something. A relatively low power, and somewhat niche support card.
Loose Moss Walker
Design 3
Balance 4
Another card to come into being just because I want to toy with mechanics and find out how they work. In red this would see play, perhaps in white too. Cheap efficient beaters are the name of their game. In green this is just small and shit. It didn't tell me anything about last strike. If a stompy archetype ever presents itself cards like this will go in it but that is pretty unlikely. Stompy rarely performs in a constructed setting for one. Secondly green doesn't need a different thing to do, especially when it will do it less well and less interestingly than other colours already doing it. Colour shifting this to one of those colours is probably a little overly dangerous and so I'll sac this off and learn about last strike in other ways.
Lord Baron Sengir IV
Design 3
Balance 2
I shit the bed here. This is basically indestructible, and you aint racing it either. You need to be a supremely long way ahead, able to win around this, or have specific answers to it else you were just done for. I have revised this down to 3/3 base stats and a need to sac 3 Blood to get the perks. I want a big flashy Blood payoff vampire legend and was happy with the concept of this, just not the execution. Hopefully I won't uncover other design flaws once the balance issues are addressed.
Merchant Ship
Design 4
Balance 6
Top down design mostly aimed at upcycling this art and trying to create a flavour that was also playable. It did get play and was interesting and well balanced. Despite that the card feels off. It is blue ramp and life gain. It is a human boat? A skulky boat? It doesn't quite feel like a magic card. Off in just a few too many ways and thus ultimately a dead end design and an early retirement.
Merfolk Trade
Design 6
Balance 5
I had a lot of wiggle room to toy with tutor effects as they are far weaker in limited than any other setting, especially ones without combo decks. Demonic Tutor gets almost no love in my unpowered cube nor has it done for quite a long time despite it being a pretty premium card in the powered cube. I like tutors in principle for the consistency they can offer. I had designed a cycle of Vampiric Tutor style cards that found a basic land or any card of that colour. I only printed the black to test as I figured they would not be too popular. The card disadvantage never felt worth the utility. Next test, to see if that same template works when served up in Demonic Tutor form. This is a much more significant tempo hit but saves you the card. Overall this is better suited to most limited environments, and mine being relatively slow is not going to punish you too hard for using this. Even so, it is not a popular card despite pretty substantial power level. While this isn't getting too much love yet I think as the format matures and either more synergies are added, or simply uncovered, this will appeal ever more. Also, if I ever add in actual combo cards and decks then there is a good chance this moves right to a top tier spell.
Mill Wheel
Design 3
Balance 2
Preemptive design. I felt like I needed a cheap generic mill effect. No specific reason. This is a bit limp to be a threat or a support card. It also kindof has to be too bad as a threat such as this is not the kind of game play we are encouraging. I haven't even put this in the cube, there is no point, it would just be taking up space. I just wanted to have it ready to go when for whatever reason a cheap little mill rock was needed. This card just feels like it should exist. A Plutonic magic card of sorts like Giant Growth, Counterspell, Wrath of God, Stone Rain, Rampant Growth, etc.
Monastery Instructor
Design 8
Balance 7
I feel like this has been a hit. It is quite flashy and exciting with some real nice upside. It is also a nice scaling synergy card with a pretty reasonable floor. Throw on top of that some interesting game interactions and mechanical tensions and you have a pretty involved one drop for not much mana, text, or noise. This has yet to own a game all by itself but it has seen plenty of play, and even tossed out the odd counter here and there!
Mounted Ballista
Design 3
Balance 4
The hardest design challenge might be to make Gather the Towns folk fun... This certainly didn't hit the mark. This is a little bit too top down. It is also way too loaded in the EtB effect resulting in a card with a lot of text hanging around further clogging up the game without doing much of much. This fails more on feel than anything else. You make this you wanna shoot shit in the face, not do nothing with some lame 1/1s. For this flavour to work as a card it needs a whole mechanical reworking to feel like a big shooty weapon.
Mushroom Soldier
Design 5
Balance 6
A silly tribute to Infected Mushroom and a vessel to explore the mechanic. The problem with infect is that it was very linear, parasitic, and polar. Especially in draft formats. The intent here was to solve those issues. While I think I have done that here in a cute way I did it on a boring and unrequired card. No green mage wants an efficient little beater. Scale this up a bit in size or add a stompy archetype to green and this is interesting. Equally you could probably play this in an infect deck if there were such a thing within my homemade meta. I like the way you could potentially set this up to one shot a player with the right buffs or use it as a wither dork in combat to help tackle a problem dork. I really like that the opponent can use it to fog normal damage they might take to the face. In comic fail fashion I feel as if I did one of the best implementations of a bad mechanic, and then managed to dump that on a near unplayable card! I may try and reuse this solution later down the line, and if I do I'll make sure to put it on a playable creature!
Paladin
Design 4
Balance 7
Painfully boring. I have been trying to make an interesting and relevant iteration of a Samite Healer but have thus far failed. This was an attempt to see if scaling the card up a bit, and thus giving it a bit of threat, was of any help. As yet this has not tempted anyone into playing it. I think it is more a case of dodging the draft rather than being ineligible so to speak. I think if this were presented at a time white weenie was being played it would often make the cut, that just doesn't seem to have happened yet. Largely because white is real dull and consequently not played as often as it otherwise might. This bear with bells is doing nothing to help entice you to play white sadly. It might ultimately be a playable Samite Healer but I am pretty sure the quest to find a fun or interesting one is still very much underway.
Penumbra Unicorn
Design 7
Balance 7
I wouldn't have done this but I stumbled upon the art and it compelled me. This is a very suitable card. The power and flavour are on point for a gold card and I like the way it marries up with the art. While this is broadly a win as a magic card it is rather less so when it comes to cube play. This isn't super fun to play with or against being rather polar, a kind of brutal Kitchen Finks against aggro decks and mostly just a low impact bear against the bigger lists. It jusut does its thing and that is either great or rather minor. Further to that the card just isn't what I want from my gold. This is curve filler and hedging, or perhaps lifegain support. It is not a flashy signal card or thing to splash. This is not the sort of gold card worth using up valuable cube space on. So while it is a fine placeholder card I will endeavour to make something better.
Piaranya
Design 3
Balance 2
This is a top down card design gifted to us via another Andrea Mengucci mispronunciation. I wanted to try and replicate the effect of a shoal and I am pretty happy with the flavour of the card. Sadly it fails on the mechanical side repeatedly. Firstly this is too good, you can easily gum up the board with it cheaply and take control of the game with little risk or cost. I have doubled the offspring cost, such was the extent of the overpowering! It is certainly a much more reasonable card with the changes as far as power level goes. Sadly it won't fix the other issues. The play pattern is never going to be great as first strike isn't a great mechanic. The nature of the card ensures you are using it to play defence and first strike blockers are tedious. There is a real Ophiomancer vibe to this card. And that right there is the final problem. Blue shouldn't have effective low risk board control dorks like this. We are at a bit of an impasse as the flavour of the card is on point for the colour and the mechanics are on point for the flavour but the mechanics and the colour do not mesh. The only real fix for such things is to down power it sufficiently that it isn't problematic. That might mean going to something as wild as offspring 3! At that point the card probably just doesn't see play, and that might be for the best. I guess it won't be too long to wait now for Universes Beyond - Waterworld edition after which I can just colourshift this out of blue to make it more reasonable!
Power Lich
Design 7
Balance 2
Love the design concept on this one but I did rather overshoot with the power level. This isn't reasonable at three mana and it remains pretty unreasonable at four 4 mana as well! It is just a bit too sticky for a card that offers both ongoing value and some reasonable board control. I probably need to up the life cost to two per counter removed. Really put some pressure on those card draws and deaths.
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