Community Design a Set Project
Custom Cards forum
Posted on March 19, 2015, 5:18 a.m. by Maltanis
Hey guys. I thought it might be cool if we worked as a community to design our own set!
From the world itself, to the characters within it, I thought this would be a great idea, especially having seen the "Create a Card" thread pick up some life recently.
Whose game?
Generally, every project needs a leader and lead.
Leader means a person who at least gives some kind of direction so that the project does not veer off into weirdness ("lets have a set similar to Khans, but with frogs instead of dragons"!). Also, that is the person that once in a while consolidates the output of the community to give an overview of the overall project development and sets goals for the team. I.e. "The first week, we will work and develop the mechanics. Next week, we will work on the flavor and setting!"
Lead means sparking off the idea. It is terrible to say "Lets work together to solve world hunger!" and leave it out there. At least follow it up with "I have an idea how to do it, who is with me?". This not only gives the initial spark to the community, but also gets the right people who are interested in developing that particular idea.
My two cents, this is too vague as is.
March 19, 2015 6:38 a.m.
All we need is a handful of people, but I think we could get really creative and wacky the more people get involved.
Thanks for the input Boza, I was just looking to get some discussion going before taking up the project.
I was thinking that rather take up tons of forum space, we could move some discussions over onto decks. So having a deck for say green cards, red cards, etc. Just as a way of splitting up the different sections. But that's a little further down the line at the moment.
The first question we need to answer is what kind of set are we going for? I figure it's easier to start design with a world idea, as this will let new people come in and contribute without having to have read everything else.
My plan is to take the helm on this, so if I feel something is going wrong I want to be able to step in. But as this is intended as a community project, I won't let something the community loves drop out just because I don't enjoy it. The idea is to make something we can all enjoy.
So someone get us started. What's a cool idea we could design a set around? World ideas? Story? Characters? Try and keep away from the lore Wizards use themselves. It's cool if you want to try and include a character, but it needs to make sense and not just randomly throw things together. We want to try and be original here!
March 19, 2015 6:45 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #5
Well with that set I mentioned I have it does have a basis of a story currently if you'd be willing to try it out or something. It's a set planned to be a two parter (Being after Khans is done that will be sets from then) and the first set is Moti Isle. It's a set based on enemy dual colors and each having a tribe based on it.
Boros Solas (Elementals) - Religious group of fiery elementals that believe the sun is the owner of the island and praise it for its power.
Golgari Thanataks (Zombies/Treefolk/Fungi) - Species of fungus that takes over dead bodies and makes them a home to spreading fungi and flora to join in.
Izzet Steelkin (Constructs/Artificers) - Robotic creatures living in high mountains and volcanoes for the forging potential as they create their own kind. A species started by a lost artificer who washed up on the island, they live on their own now long after his death.
Simic Lutrins (Own creature type and Beasts) - Otter-like tribe of people who aim to progress their society in anyway possible. Some aim for brute over brawn, but commonly the other way around. Smartest yet smallest tribe.
Orzhov Phantasms (Spirits) - Ghostly creatures that possess an object to maintain their own reality. It is unknown how long they have been around but they are quiet and reserved, yet will fight for their right to keep their domains.
These five tribes have been leaving in relative peace on the island, a war here and there due to differing views on certain subjects, yet they have lived in their own areas for the longest time. Rumor began to spread of a magical flower housed on the island that would not only give people the power of the island itself, but possibly even the world. With this rumor spreading, the tribes began to search for this flower in hopes of finally settling the dispute and having the island to themselves for their own reasons...or just for the power possibly.
A basic base line for what the concept is for my set, I would need to work on mechanics for them a bit more, here's a basic idea of what each tribe does in game right now:
Orzhov Phantasms - Exile, ETB, control
Simic Lutrins - Land animation, card advantage
Boros Solas - Possible tribal orientation, damage dealing and redirection.
Golgari Thanataks - Graveyard play and cards entering new zones triggering effects.
Izzet Steelkin - Red/Blue artifacts. Artifact sacrifice and blue artifact play.
So yeah, I mean if you guys would want to work with this concept its at least a start. Have some pretty cards in concept too.
March 19, 2015 7:02 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #6
Let's not do dual tribes. Or triple tribes. There has been too way much of that in recent history.
I've been thinking about making a custom block, and the long and large of it is that it requires an immense amount of time and organization. Do not get the idea that it's easy to design this. Because making one card is hard enough alone, so ~300...
So for the story. Two of the most powerful planeswalkers meet each other and end of up fighting. Because of their power, the two planes that they are fighting on attract each other and end up by "mending". In other words, they now make up one plane with weird combinations of lands and creatures from both planes. That would be set one.
Set two. Three new planeswalkers originally from the two planes, having heard about the catastrophe, come to this new plane in an attempt to combine their powers to separate them. The meet in the middle of the new plane, and the combined power of their sparks ignites an explosion that rips apart the planes. However, in the process, one of the walkers is killed and a legendary Elemental creature with incredible power is born from his essence. Upon birth, the creature vanishes, leaving a small trail for the walkers to follow.
This would leave a path open for an eventual second block.
It's worth mentioning that if you guys really want to do this (and for the record, so do I), Femme_Fatale I believe is making her own custom block.
March 19, 2015 7:27 a.m.
biggestmtgnerd says... #7
Seems legit. Each tribe should have their own mechanic. The should also be a returning mechanic, which might be one of the tribe mechanics. Maybe one should be a triggered ability for the Thanataks, where whenever a card changes a zone, something happens
March 19, 2015 7:30 a.m.
We'll that's certainly a lot to start with. I like the ideas you've got, not 100% on the Exile mechanics, just because Wizards themselves have said they don't want to mess with it before and I think it's opening up a lot of hassle for ourselves, but it's something we could work on and see if we can make a good design that doesn't turn the exile zone into graveyard 2.0
I'm assuming that the names will not keep the Orzhov, Simic etc titles, and this was simply identifying the colour's to us.
I'm not big an the Orzhov clan being mainly Spirits, I think Human's who serve the spirits might be better. This way it can explain how the spirits started possessing things giving us a Master/Servant role that would feel very Orzhov to me. Plus this allows us better interactions between them and the other groups. A "flicker" mechanic might be better here, however we need to look at your Thanataks here, as they look at movement between zones.
I love the otter people and I'm 100% behind that idea! Simic is a great colour combination for them and I can see them controlling large waterfront cities where nature and technology come together (this world doesn't seem "technology" based as it is, but these guys would be basically pushing the world forward tech wise) I don't see where Land animation comes from here, but it's early days.
Elementals as a main group is sweet. As we're going 
here, a combination of fire and air spirits seems interesting, especially when you consider the whole fire needs air to survive concept, so you can a society very interconnected with each other and through that their religion (Ancient Elementals that they worship? nice for ridiculous mythic cards) The tribal thing works here as we have a group working together, so Elemental lords and such are nice here.
Thanataks I can see as a "guardian" type tree-folk species who have very few large settlements, but groups who wander the forests ensuring their survival and "resurrecting" life via the fungi that lives on them. This creates our "mushroom people" (If you've played Dark Souls, you know what I mean) who are fungi versions of their former selves and serve the Thanataks in protecting the forest and eventually would join onto the Treefolk themselves as they grow older in a continued cycle. Working on a mechanic that looks at leaving the battlefield is a nice idea as well.
Steelkin is cool. Izzet artifacts is always fun, reminds me of the artifact theme in esper from Alara. Sacrificing artfiacts to get more artifacts or additional costs is a nice idea, my worry is how you achieve this without having a ton of much cheaper artifacts, which then just heads us towards a "play a cheap thing, use it to get a really big thing" line. Again, work in progress.
So yeah, overall, i really like the idea. Needs some work on the overall story, why is the flower powerful? what is this island? etc etc. But the relative peace between the tribes mean we can have different species living in different places and makes it easier for us to design mono coloured cards that could fit in both places.
The cards you've designed are ok... I'm not sold on them. The land you made is just a bit bad honestly. Tapping 3 creatures for 2 mana is just so overcosted. It's not worth it. I like the idea, mainly it's just the costing and the final effects, it just doesn't seem balanced currently. But again, early days.
I should probably mention at this point that I can be super critical at times, and it can seem like I'm just stomping all over your fun. But it's genuinely out of a want to make something as awesome as we can. Please don't take it personally.
March 19, 2015 7:33 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #9
Isn't the whole planes getting destroyed thing kinda done a bit too? I don't know Magic lore really really well but if I remember right Alara had that and so did the Morning tide block. What would the themes of the two planes be anyways? I mean if it were color based (Like Alara with the shards being separated) it would be easier...but what would the two planes be o~o
Also yeah each tribe was going to have their own mechanic, but I wasn't so sure if I wanted to name them all. Thanataks will have an ability like that as well. Willow is their leader and thus he benefits from card zone movement. I was told that the Phantasms could have Haunt from Ravnica...but I feel like returning a mechanic from the exact same colors is a bet eh. Like Exalted was returned and at least changed into Orzhov.
March 19, 2015 7:34 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #10
Guys, doing tribes that have colors is EXACTLY the same thing as Ravnica. I mean, in Ravnica, Orzhov has exile, Simic has a ton of card advantage, Boros is aggro and burn, Golgari is graveyard play, and Izzet plays a ton with artifacts. It would basically be a copy/paste of RTR with different tribe names. And let's face it, that would be boring as f***
March 19, 2015 7:37 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON - Remember the colour pie exists for a reason. We either go mono, dual, or triple or beyond. The colour pie lets us design "tribes" with the correct colour combinations that reflect who they are. By restricting ourselves to 5 "tribes" we get a nice variety, plus this can change for the 2nd block.
The moment you mention mending I shudder. Involving ridiculous plane changing effects can be pretty mental. Seeing as how this is a community project having a simpler idea will make it easier for people to come in, rather than having to decipher some ridiculous story.
I think the Otter People and Elemental love combined with Mushroom people has kind of sold KalvinHobbez idea for me. It's simple enough in theory, but has plenty of area's to go into for complexity. Great for people to drop in and out of.
I get this is a HUGE undertaking. This could take us a long time. But I figure with people putting the work in, we could make something really awesome. I think it might be worth getting SOME sort of hierarchy (lead story, lead design, lead art(maybe?) ) going at a point, but at the moment I'd like to see whose willing to put the work in.
March 19, 2015 7:42 a.m.
biggestmtgnerd says... #12
FAMOUSWATERMELON izzet is Instant and sorcery, not artifacts, Orzov is more about slowly draining the life from the opponents. I concede that GB graveyard is kinda cliche, but I like the idea of the zone transfer.
March 19, 2015 7:46 a.m.
Ok. So we don't seem to like colour pairing's here guys. But we need some kind of structure to the world. We need country's or alliance's and the such. These different area's will have different ideals and different personalities, thus we use the colour pie to identify where they fit in.
Magic has been going for 20 years, were going to have some cross overs. But let's not kid ourselves into thinking we can't use the colour pairings along the way. The last thing I want to do is redesign the ravnica guilds, but we need to accept that the guilds exist due to the colour pie, which will ultimatly guide where are characters lie in terms of colour and thus how we derive their mechanics and abilities.
At this point in time we should be focusing on story and ideas for the world. Not mechanics. Not colour pairing. But story. This is what is going to let us decide on our colour pairings and mechanics.
March 19, 2015 7:47 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #14
I'm just saying that there's not point in making a new set if it's very similar to one in the past. The dual color tribes exist for Ravnica alone. The same goes for the shards of Alara and the klans of Tarkir. Taking the exact same idea would be too repetitive. And while it may be easy, this was never going to be an easy project. So might as well make the final project interesting.
biggestmtgnerd Plenty of Izzet decks revolve around artifacts and Orzhov does have a bunch of exile (Teysa, Orzhov Scion says hi).
March 19, 2015 7:52 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #15
Oh no it's alright, you certainly aren't being too critical. When I posted on the MSE forums now THOSE guys were critical. But yeah I guess I'll tackle each part of your post.
When it comes to the Phantasms and Solas, I need to work on their mechanics a bit more after all. I always felt like Orzhov has always done exile every single time, but I haven't gotten a better idea for them yet. Also moving cards from exile can be difficult to manage, but something like what Wilky does doesnt seem as ridiculous.
I was tempted to actually have humans be in the concept somewhere, but was also on the idea of humans not being able to survive in such a mess of crazy creatures...but that doesn't explain how they do in other sets. But yeah, I had the idea of having supportive creature types to each tribe. Lutrins would have Living Land beasts and treefolks for example. Flicker was another idea I had for the Phantasms, but didn't work too hardcore on it. The Thanataks would probably rely on movement of lands and creatures, so that leaves more room for Phantasms to exile flicker.
Lutrins I am still bouncing around how I imagine them living on the island, but for the art I found for Nokalus it gave me a brief idea I could work with. Possibly they live in technologically advanced cities...but not like what you'd usually think. Like they'd have wooden houses with water-wheel powered gadgets about. Being the Izzet Steelkin forge out of rock and metal, the Lutrins forge out of wood.
They currently worship the sun as their god, but believe the moon is a secondary, weaker sun. I had the idea that possibly the sun gave them their power, so they are reverse vampires and can not be out during the night as the moon is not strong enough for them. This could maybe work in as a mechanic, a possible day-night cycle concept somewhere, maybe using transformations from Innistrad?
Now Thanataks I can see easily becoming treefolk but with how the elementals are already red and the treefolks would be Golgari, I fear this set might become a bit too close to what Eventide had with the Flamekin and Treefolk. I don't mind some allusions, but I try to be careful. There was this other thing about how their corpse bodies are susceptible to other plants and maybe insects to hop right on into the very willing hive of a body. Weaker organisms would lose the fight for dominance in this body and thus are coughed out, alike mucus in a human body. So cards like "Putrid Cough" could be a legit thing.
When it came to artifacts I was always very iffy about them as I've always heard of how brutally crazy of combos they can have. With how you mentioned the small creature into big creature, thats why I made Lava Forged. Tinker was such a crazy card for what it could do. Ornithopter into Blightsteel Colossus ain't so fun. Thats why Lava Forged has that mana restriction, thus to make it more balanced. I plan to try and make everything working like this for the Steelkin.
Well the flower is a distant relative of the Black Lotus. Yeah might be cliche to do another lotus thing but whatever. The flower itself has been said to look like a hybrid of a lotus and orchid. Each part of the flower is accordingly to a color of mana. The White Enlightment of the Lotus, the Green Overgrowth of the Orchids, the Red Strenth of the Stem, the Blue Storage of the Leaf, and the Black Absorbing of the Roots. The island itself will have a very tropical scenario for the set, which would make the set have a nice theme. Arabian Nights was deserts, Zendikar was exploring jungles and odd new worlds, Innistrad was old timey Salem.
The Lutrin Domains card is actually in a cycle of a set of rare lands, so I do need to work them a bit. I just loved the art I found for it and wanted to post it. I mentioned a bit ago of a discard land for my set, but I heard that it'd be nicely playable in Golgari but not much else, so thus I made a card for the Thanataks in this new cycle that you discard a card to add the mana...or was it two cards...cant remember.
Also the planned secondary set has a concept of a possible unknown new entity coming to the island, fueled off the war and hatred of the tribes as he is a possible demon. Offering a contract to each tribe, he would give them power of the past to aid their battles as long as they were still on his side. Unknowingly to each tribe, he had done this to every other tribe. by "powers of the past", I mean that they would each have a character of Magic past be resurrected from their colors and fighting on their side. Like Ashling the Pilgrim for the Solas as "Ashling the Redeemed" and Chromium for the Phantasms as "Chromium Apparition". Just an interesting little idea of how they each get crazy power that ultimately causes the island to sink from the destruction.
March 19, 2015 7:53 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #16
Oh man posts going around pretty fast.
Izzet artifacts were never a hardcore thing until recently when Magic 2015 came out with cards orienting themselves towards it. I felt like there wasn't a good representation of Izzet artifacts in a non-core set, thus Izzet Steelkin.
Orzhov I mentioned already that I'd like to have a unique mechanic for them as the Phantasms having exile is too common for Orzhov.
Boros I mentioned as well as it needs to be worked on outside the tribal.
Golgari has the graveyard play just because it's so hardcore in their colors. Not having graveyard play is just wasting potential. It's a secondary anyways, being the zone transfer is the main concept.
Simic will have more than just the card advantage. It will actually utilize that Living Land mechanic (In flavor, I need to work with that it means.) and have powers correlate with your hand size, possibly. Kamigawa did handsize powers a lot, but in all colors. I'm baffled that Simic hasn't had a big part to do with it. I have no idea where +1/+1 counters come from for Blue-Green...
March 19, 2015 7:56 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON - So are you suggesting we design an entirely mono coloured set?
This is what's causing issue, you're dismissing the idea of using 2 colour tribes but not suggesting an alternative.
Nobody wants to just copy and paste ideas, but we need some kind of identifying factors. Look at Theros for example, you had the 10 gods, each a 2 colour pairing which represented the different areas and lifestyles of Theros. Just because we use 2 colour pairings to help identify an area or people doesn't mean you are making it the focus of the set. Really, we should be matching the pairings with our ideas, but this is where we've started. We may have 
ruled cities, but this doesn't mean people who align with or are unwelcome there, it's just a different area of the world.
If you can suggest to me some other way of designing the set without using colour pairings at some point to identify people within the world, let me know. But I just don't see it.
March 19, 2015 7:58 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #18
Maltanis What does that even mean? I'm saying that we should do a set that doesn't have "tribes", or has them as a sub-theme. Perhaps something like Zendikar (and you could have something like the vampire sub-theme they had there). Zendikar did not have 2 color tribes and yet was an amazing set. I have no time left, I'll leave a better response later.
March 19, 2015 8:01 a.m.
KalvinHobbez - I am loving how much information you have on this, you've obviously done a lot of work.
Now for the less fun part. As much as your ideas are interesting, and a great place to start, remember this is a community project, and thus we want everyone to be coming in to contribute towards the story. Obviously we need a place to start (and I'm loving what you've given us), I'm just slightly worried you're going to get too involved and I don't want to see you get upset because we start altering your work.
On that note I actually suggest for the moment you do LESS work on these ideas. This is early days, so things are very subject to change, doing all this thinking now may actually hamper the process in the future as it's going to leave less room for other people to work within.
March 19, 2015 8:04 a.m.
Ok, I kind of do not like this idea of tribes and island. Being on an island, blue-based tribes will inherently get some advantage over the islands, thematically speaking. Not to mention that besides otter people (i cannot even imagine that, but it sounds more like Pokemon than Magic - I am envisioning Psyduck in armor with a spear), it has nothing original going on.
Plus, completely non-human sets are a thing of the past - only lorwyn did it but it had 10 tribes with plenty of mashing'em together.
So, while I do like the idea and theme (sort of), there needs to be a central theme to it. the world is loosely defined and in relative balance. What is destabilizing the peace?
- is the izzet artificier who created the robots Urza? And now, Ral Zarek has come and is powering them up, Tesla-style?
- are the golgari tribe infesting and molesting the other tribes due to Vraska trying to take control of them?
- Are the otter people an early experiment of kiora at evolving wildlife and she returns to check on them?
- Are the Boros elementals reacting to wild surge of mana, caused by Elspeth escaping the underworld via the blind eternities into this new world, ready for revenge?
- Are the Orzhov phantasms rallying under the recently arrived Sorin who readies them for a fight against the Eldrazi?
My idea is all of the above - the above planeswalkers have stmbled upon this world, finding 1 of the 5 tribes and trying to recruit them and train them for the upcoming eldrazi battle.
March 19, 2015 8:12 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #21
Well whenever I start an idea I get kind of crazy with the concepts and all. I mean the story and basis is just being made, mechanics have room to move around anyways. I mean as long as the original idea isn't entirely changed I'd be fine with it. If my idea isn't ultimately chosen to work on, that's alright. I'd just enjoy some help with working on the set, but I could try to continue it on my own.
Oh also about the dual color stuff. Innistrad had an underlying theme of "tribes" for each ally color.
Selesnya - HumansAzorious - SpiritsDimir - ZombiesRakdos - VampiresGruul - Werewolves
So I'm basically just doing an Innistrad styled block with their color themes.
March 19, 2015 8:13 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON - What does what mean?
Zendikar did not have 2 colour tribes. In fact there were 3 multi-coloured cards in total I believe. This is because it was designed as a mono-coloured set and lacked 2 colour areas because this area was used to focus on colourless cards instead.
Zendikar still had tribes. Blue had Merfolk, Green had Elves, Black had Vampires, Red had Goblins and then we had Humans across the board. In fact most magic sets have "Tribes" because the existence of the colour pie forces this to happen. Can you imagine blue goblins? Ok, maybe you could, but 99% of the time it doesn't work.
There has been so far no overall consensus on the colour pairings.
SO
I really enjoy KalvinHobbez ideas, I think we can work with it and it's a nice place to start with. I like his ideas for the different PEOPLE of the world, their colour pairing also make sense. This does not make this a 5 tribe world, does not mean we will have 5 mechanics based upon each tribe. But I would like to stick with this world because it is interesting, and has things we can work with that will allow us to create new ideas. Maybe we can go from 5 colour pairings to 5 mono coloured ideals. It doesn't matter at this point, what is important is getting some structure in place.
March 19, 2015 8:14 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #23
Upcoming Eldrazi battle? Well I didn't really expect this set to happen before Battle of Zendikar... Also the humans thing isn't entirely true, I said that the Phantasms have a possibility of having them on their side.
Also with the "ugh tribes suck" thing, I only call them tribes because I don't exactly have a better name for them. Each group is different in their own style. Solas are considerably a religious group, maybe even a cult to some. Lutrins are a society on their own. Phantasms don't exactly have a group, they only stay together because they are bound to the island. Thanataks live off the fauna and are solitary creatures. All of this stuff is subject to change. After being told to not work too much on the idea, I'm being told to work more on the story pfft.
March 19, 2015 8:16 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #24
Oh also with the secondary set in idea once the pact making demon of some sorts has tempted each group into his plan, he tempted them into changing their ways as well, as he'd want to see the chaos happen. Think of him like a demon of disorder, then. But this means each group will change in colors. I have not settled on what the colors will be, but they keep one of their original colors. Thus the first set will be Simic Lutrins, second set might turn them into Gruul Lutrins, where they have been oriented into a more aggressive state rather than calm and reserved.
March 19, 2015 8:18 a.m.
I never saw it as an island, but as a mainland with an Isle in a lake of some sorts where this flower is contained. I mean, it's just a basic idea, but an all powerful artifact that is suddenly discovered is a nice way to shake up the world.
And what's wrong with otter people (Psyduck is a duck btw...) we have tons of human/animal hybrids in magic, and people like otters!
I agree we need humans, but as said before, this is only the beginning, so we will defiantly have other creature types in the mix, humans HAVE to be around.
I REALLY do not want to get outside planeswalkers involved. This is meant to be our idea, not something where we use outside source material. I'd like to see original ideas, not old characters ripped of or used just because people like them.
KalvinHobbez - We'll I'm saying now I'm stealing Otter people! I love them as a species, loads of fun to be had with them!
I have no issue with the "tribes" theme, it's not like we need to have loads of multi-coloured cards, most of the multi-coloured cards could be placed in uncommon and above. I just think it's important to use the colour pie when creating our world so we have characters representing the correct colours.
It should be clarified guys that we're not going to be using the words Izzet or Boros etc in the set. It was just to help identify the different groups to their colour identities.
March 19, 2015 8:22 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #26
Oh I even have designs for each tribe's species as well. I'm not a very great artist so my best pictures of them would be pretty funny looking, but I may have a friend draw them up in the near future.
Also yeah I like planeswalkers and all but I don't exactly like sets based on them. Magic started off with them, why suddenly have such a big dependency on them? This is a secluded island away from most of other stuff, so they'd need powerful Magic like that pact maker to even make a replica of these past characters of Magic.
March 19, 2015 8:25 a.m.
So here's the info I've got so far for our Story idea, I'm getting this out here for a bit of clarity.
Our plane is a large vast world, full of a variety of creatures and life. Within it, the 5 largest species are The Lutrins (otter people), Solas (elementals), Thanataks (Treefolk), Steelkin (artificers), Phantasms (spirits, I'm not keen on the name either, due to there being lots of phantasms in magic)
The world lives in relative peace, with a few minor skirmishes between the groups over the centuries, but nothing special.
Within our world, there exists a legend of the "Isle of Moti". This legend says that on the Isle exists a powerful artifact which grants its user the power over all magic. When rumour spreads of this powerful artifact, the most powerful beings from the plane begin putting their own plans into motion to obtain the all power relic.
This is a nice little summary of what KalvinHobbez has come up with.
Here's my little input to the story. KalvinHobbez - you mentioned a demon before, so, it turns out that the rumors being spread are actually the work of a demon. The Isle of Moti is protected by powerful magic that prevents him from going there, so he is using people to gain the artifact for his own devices.
Our first set would focus on the initial journey to obtain the relic. The second set would be the aftermath, the demon has obtained the relic and now the world fights together against his powerful corruption magic (which is what lets us change the colour identity of SOME of the people due to their corruption) this conflict will be resolved (we can decide on how later)
I think this sounds pretty interesting and has TONS of room for cool bits of lore, unique characters and exciting cards.
I hope this all sounds good to people.
March 19, 2015 8:38 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #28
So you'd rather have them not live on the island but go to the island as part of the set? I guess as long as the tropical theme can stay in to make it unique. The original idea was that they all lived on the island and it's actually just a very large island. Think like a non-industrialized Madagascar.
I do like the idea of the demon tricking the groups into obtaining the relic for himself. Though I feel like some tribes, like the Phantasms, wouldn't feel as much of the primordial ghosts they were. I liked the idea of them having lived on the island for centuries, but I guess that could be changed.
The set names I had, as well, were "Moti Isle" with that Lotus symbol you saw on some of those cards and then "Lotus' Calamity" which is an undecided symbol, possibly the ripped petals of a lotus falling.
March 19, 2015 8:44 a.m.
The island idea just doesn't fit in with what I think of when you start speaking about the "Planes" in magic. I guess you could make it a Archipelago styled world, with lots of smaller islands, that way the Phantasms have been living on their island for centuries, perhaps originally being humans, the Lutrins have spread out across the islands founding cities along the way.
The Thanataks are able to spread due to shallow waters letting them cross the isles and the winds carrying spores across the world. The Steelkin live in the mountain islands and have a series of underground networks that is their main domain (as steel people crossing water is difficult) and maybe they even have flying machines (Ornithopter reprint guys!)
The Solas are elementals, so they live side by side with people in different areas of the world, but have a central island where their gods derive from and they return to regularly for rituals and breeding etc.
Set names arn't so crucial at the moments. Set one being "The Isle of Moti" sounds cool to me. I like the 2nd set being ripped petals falling. Makes sense thematically. I don't like Calamity, it just brings up memories of past events. Maybe something like "Grasp of xxx" where xxx is the demon's name. Again, names aren't so important currently though.
March 19, 2015 8:59 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #30
I guess I'd just have to change around some stuff of the story. Like how most of the reasons they fought for the flower was due to things about the island itself as well. The Solas believing the sun owned the island they lived on as well, but that could still be the case, they just don't live there. The artificer who started the Steelkins was washed up the island as well, seeing the unused potential of it and thus made the Steelkin. Before he died he'd construct self sufficient Steelkin to continue his legacy. His daughter came to the island in search of him as well, dying a premature and unjustified death there. The Phantasms saw this unfortunate lasting of a life and brought her with them as their own. Most of them are ancient ghosts, so a newer spirit would benefit them as well. This daughter is Wilky, a card shown there as their leader :3
March 19, 2015 9:05 a.m.
I love how you've got all this detail set up! I think it's fair to say, that assuming you continue with this all the way, you should come in as our Lead Story Designer. The fact that the original story was yours means you know the most about it, just remember not to throw to much at it, we want other people to get involved as well. It's not fun if you're just doing it all yourself.
At this point I think we need to get some more people onboard so we can start making a go at moving of into some design work instead of just story.
March 19, 2015 9:09 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #32
Yeah I do enjoy the story I made and want to keep to some certain things, but I try to not get too fixated and let other opinions mold the concept into what it will be. It seems like we are the only ones on board for Isle of Moti currently but we can just see. I currently have 140 cards made for the first set. All rarities have been done as well. Looking at Khans of Tarkir's build of how many rares and mythic rares and such they had, I made the set accordingly. I have five mythics for each tribe and then one mythic for every monocolor and a mythic artifact. So yeah I've been messing with this idea for a bit now.
March 19, 2015 9:12 a.m.
biggestmtgnerd says... #33
Cool. Could you share the set so far with us? This is turning out to be pretty interesting
March 19, 2015 9:40 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #34
Well it's most a lot of random eyes I'd put in here and there. Like maybe a common cycle of vanilla creatures and such. Most of them are pretty odd probably. I could show more cards over time if the concept is interesting to use. I'll show some more right now. I'll show off the rest of the rare land cycle:
March 19, 2015 9:51 a.m.
Que the Nope Hammer...
I think the effects on these lands is way too varied. Gain 2 life over let an opponent draw a card. It makes the colour fixing extremely unfair. I get what your trying to do and it's cool, but it's just asking for abuse in the future.
I'd say if you want lands with different effects think to things like Gavony Township and Kessig Wolf Run, trying to give fixing with a varied effect is asking for trouble.
If you could balance it so each effect was exactly equal, but this is really hard to design in advance.
With the cards you've got in the bank, keep them safe for now, if it feels good for the future bring it out, but again we don't want to smash everyone's fun (assuming some more people turn up) by releasing half a set before we've even properly begun!
biggestmtgnerd - Got anything to contribute yourself? You seem pretty interested, and this is meant to be a community project! :)
March 19, 2015 10:01 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #36
I'm just showing off how I've imagined the set so far to maybe get more ideas going. And yeah the lands were mainly a concept you mess with for a bit and I could tell they were pretty odd.
March 19, 2015 10:05 a.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #37
I've been tagged.
I have no desire to read through all of this at the moment. I'll look at it later.
But yes, I am working on a custom block. It could actually be multiple blocks. But I have long since taken a hiatus off of it (for about 6 months now) as I'm waiting for the mods on the MSE forums to make M15 Omega Style template for me. I can't make this set properly without it.
Oh, and making cards for me is easy. 300 cards within ... 1 week. But then again, this set already had all of its lore pre-made, so the general card concepts were pretty much done for me.
March 19, 2015 10:13 a.m.
We'll the lands usually represent something to do with the world. Theros had scry lands representing the prophetic visions of the gods, khans & zendikar has fetches to show the changing landscapes.
We have a world dominated by islands. So each "land" is going to be isolated to some extent. Our people are "reasonably" peaceful and communicate with each other.
And I just had a cool idea. So we've had snow-covered lands before. Now in a world with islands, each land is segregated. So we'd have a plains island, a mountain island etc.
Now we have Basic Isle Land I know I said about being original, but this is an idea that magic players love, has tons of design space, and makes sense in our world. The islands are going to be a big part of the world, so having the land itself play into that seems like fun.
Also maybe a rare cycle with something like comes into play tapped unless you control a basic isle land like Isolated Chapel but more set specific.
March 19, 2015 10:15 a.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #39
I also just realized that you weren't making a T/O custom set, just a community set in general.
March 19, 2015 10:19 a.m.
Femme_Fatale - Thanks for popping in, if you do read and have any ideas let us know!
Glad you mentioned Magic Set Editor, completely forgot about it!
We have an entire lore to design! So this makes things a bit more complicated in the long run, but hopefully will give people more satisfaction out of the set.
March 19, 2015 10:19 a.m.
When you say T/O do you mean tappedout? I guess I don't understand the difference your mentioning.
The plan for this is to get something together that people could potentially use and show of to their own locals, but we can all have a hand in making.
March 19, 2015 10:21 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #42
Hm I didn't really plan on introducing too many new subtypes and such, but I guess something like Isle lands could work. But it'd be annoying when saying it "Equal to the number of isle lands I control.." "...islands or ISLE lands?"
March 19, 2015 10:22 a.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #43
I'm pretty good with everything but nerfing. As my experience is in constructed formats, not really drafting. So my block(s) are being designed as an entire constructed format rather than a draft.
I think that the planeswalkers for this set should be like, T/O regulars people turned into cards.
March 19, 2015 10:24 a.m.
It just flew into my hands, I had twigged that they are called isle lands.....
May lead to confusion
Just throwing it out there. There's not really a better name, Sea Land?
March 19, 2015 10:26 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #45
Most of my experience is in Commander so I'm oriented towards flavor and fun cards in certain ways. Just cards that could be odd and interesting are what I like to go for. I've drafted a bit here and there and went to prereleases so I've done some normal constructed too. I don't have many people to play Magic with, though, because anyone I meet seems to be kind of an egotistical jerk and talk down to me because I don't buy single cards much...I like boosters instead :c
Anyways, I've been on TappedOut for a while but haven't really talked on here much so I don't really know who are the regulars either.
Also with the Isle of Moti lands, I guess maybe Tropical ____? Like Tropical Forest, Tropical Mountain, Tropical Island, Tropical Plains, and Tropical Swamp. Plains doesn't make too much sense and I think Tropical Forest is already a card...
March 19, 2015 10:28 a.m.
I can see ChiefBell getting himself a walker if we follow that path!
Could get a community vote going to see which of the top users get the spot.
March 19, 2015 10:29 a.m.
I've got experience in draft, sealed, constructed and all formats from Standard to Legacy. So whatever. I'm also a stickler for powerful cards, I'm happy to be that guy who nerfs things.
Hmmm. You could do Jungle lands?
Jungle Covered Island
Basic Jungle Land - Island
Could be a thing, plus gives us something in the tropical theme you wanted. Oh, we definitely need a Birds of Paradise reprint in the set! such flavor!
March 19, 2015 10:32 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #48
Well wouldn't a Jungle Plains kind of be contradictory? Tropical seems like it describes the land while Jungle says what the land is instead. Oh yeah I planned on some reprints for the set but forgot about that lil birdy. I know I'd want to make some thopters because I found Ornithopter such a funny little card.
March 19, 2015 10:34 a.m.
Yeah, the problem is Tropical Island is a card. We'll, let's put it in the bank for now. Not something we HAVE to do, and maybe somebody will have a good idea.
When I'm home this evening I'll set up a deck which I will list all of our current information we've got and put ideas into. Need to be able to keep track of it all.
March 19, 2015 10:39 a.m.
KalvinHobbez says... #50
Well Tropical Island is a card name, while Tropical Island would be a card type. It's like Conflux and Conflux the set, or Time Spiral compared to the set sorta. But yeah we can settle on that later.
Also don't think I mentioned it but I've been a game programmer for a while and have designed characters and concepts for a few years now, so heh, I probably have experience in conceptualizing things.
KalvinHobbez says... #2
I wouldn't mind working around with a group to make a set. I've actually be messing around with a set concept of mine. Haven't really posted it here yet but I posted in on the MSE forum and people seemed to like the concept. But yeah I'm game for trying a community set.
March 19, 2015 6:18 a.m.