Introducing Class Magic

Custom Cards forum

Posted on March 23, 2015, 3:41 a.m. by -Logician

For the last few months, I've been designing a new format that adds an entirely new dimension to deck building. In addition to building your deck, you also choose a class. What's a class, you ask? Here's an example.

Regular MSE users will recognize the purple set symbol as the "special" rarity. If my set was released as a booster pack, I would imagine every booster pack always including one random class card in the back. You'll notice that the color identity of the class is clearly stated right after the type "Class -- Black." The color identity of your class is very important, but not as strict as so with commander.

Your class card does NOT count as one card in your 60 card deck. I have made 28 unique classes: one for each color, one for each two-color combination, one for each three-color combination, two colorless, and one five-color. You simply choose a class among the 28 possible classes and start the game with that class card in your command zone. You start at level 1 (not zero, like the leveler cards). Your deck must be at least 60 cards. It is not a singleton format, and you may have up to four copies of a given card among your minimum 60 card mainboard, and your maximum 15 card sideboard just like in Standard. Cards in your deck may be of any color (you are not limited by your Class's color identity), but many cards in this set have special bonus effects if your class is a given color and you are at least some given level. Also, some cards can't even be cast unless you meet the color and level requisites.

Here's an example of a card that looks extremely overpowered at first sight. Make no mistake, requiring level 6 is a hefty cost. While I try not to make the process of leveling too difficult, it's not exactly easy either. It would be truly impressive if you actually dropped this on turn 4.

Some classes level up quicker than others. The classes with fewer colors in their identity are able to level up faster, while the classes that include several colors level up slower, but allow the deck to feature more of the set's class-specific powerful cards. For comparison, here's an example of a three-color class.

You'll notice that while the necromancer class had an activated ability that can put demons into play, the warrior class has nothing of the sort. However, the warrior class does have access to three colors instead of just one.

Here are some more examples of some class-specific cards in the set.

Not all of the powerful cards in the set are class-specific though. I tried to design cards that would change the way the game is played. In the example below, Tarnish is a creature that says, "You can't draw cards." However, the player is then able to utilize their graveyard like never before, except I cut off the ability to recycle instant and sorcery spells endlessly. The strategy could backfire with your opponent answering your graveyard, and so the weakness is clear.

Another example of a card that warps the game and changes how the game feels is Dawkstrike Angel. Flavorfully, she strikes at dawn. She essentially moves the combat phase to the beginning of the turn instead of in the middle. This pretty much shuts down haste entirely. Players gets so used to how magic is normally played, and when you introduce a card like this, it makes them think and presents the players with decisions they haven't yet encountered.

Here's an example of some interesting counter-magic fully equipped with the characteristically egotistical flavor text just as you'd expect. This kind of card really shows how far I wanted to go in order to avoid functional reprints and to just think outside the box in general. One of my goals for this set is to make as many cards as possible appear different or obscure. While sometimes I throw simplicity right out the window, I feel like the overall product becomes a much more interesting puzzle to figure out.

Perhaps one of the most ambitiously obscure mechanics in this set are a series of lands called Hideouts. This plane is young, and civilizations are only starting to emerge. In this pre-civilized era, hideouts are abundant. They basically give your creatures a place to hide for a little while. Since this set features many ETB effects, I wanted a dual land cycle that synergized with that strongly.

To show you just one more example of obscurity, here's the Cleric class that states, "As a player receives priority, removal all damage marked on creatures you control." Now there's a line of text you probably weren't expecting, but it makes sense considering its a cleric. A cleric heals, and in this case, a cleric heals all of its creatures as players receive priority. That means that if your opponent was planning on using two burn spells together to kill a single big creature you control, they might want to think again.

While that line of rules text does require a little bit more than the average amount of rules knowledge to fully comprehend, that's not something I'm at all worried about. My target audience for this is not new players to the game. Also, this set is designed solely for constructed play. This is not a draft set/format. This set is intended to be played with solo, as in not including any other magic set unless it is also a Class Magic set.

Now that I've put a small bit of this set and format onto the table, I'm interested in your initial reaction. How do you feel about having a Class associated with your deck, leveling up, and playing powerful cards like Bloodmore Hellkite (imaged above)? Would you feel comfortable playing with obscure cards like Dawnstrike Angel, Tarnish, and Hideouts?

I would love to have shared many more cards in this set, but it is still in the late stages of construction. I am currently 284 cards in and have images for less than half of them. I personally prefer only sharing cards that I feel are finished and have an image, which is why I only shared so few cards today. When I finish, I intend to create a custom Cockatrice cards.xml file and a downloadable collection of images so that the set is playable on Cockatrice. I'm unsure of the rules regarding the posting of such files on this forum though, and will take necessary informative precautions when proceeding to that step.

Thank you for your interest, and have a wonderful day.