papa_funk

Overcompensation

2009-03-27T16:10:26Z

Now is the time of year where the old clan gathers, usually in Phoenix, for some Spring Training action, along with Rock Band, socialization and sitting around in a property that could pass for a cult complex. Sadly, with a vacation balance of -14 hours, and a Sunday - Saturday rental preventing a weekend barnstorm, we had to pass on going this year.

So, since we obviously needed to do something crazy in honor, we bought a house. I'm guessing Phoenix would have been cheaper.

More specifically, we bought a kitchen that had a house wrapped around it (and doors to the outdoor kitchen). Oh, and there's a game room. It's a mere block and a half or so from... um... charming downtown Los Altos, aka "Heart of the Heart of the Suburbs" (but, to be fair, less than a mile from the location of the first semiconductor foundry. This is Silicon-Valley suburbs.)

Close in about 30 days, then a few weeks for fixing the minor crap that came up in the inspection, then party time.

Annual Magic Set - now with more color

2009-03-24T22:07:19Z

When Conflux came out, I thought "what wacky in-theme thing could I do that Wizards wouldn't dare?", to which the answer was "Hey, let's make every non-land card multicolor". I started work on that and had to push up the production schedule suddenly when the first thing they leaked... was an all-gold set. Sigh. The first couple cards spoiled had enough thematic similarities that I really had to push to the finish (Knight of New Alara is thematically similar to Primatic Anthem).

An all-gold set poses some interesting challenges. How do you do 1-drops? Hybrid would have been cheating. I figured out one way and will be interested to see how WotC does it. Making sure that I balanced the colors appropriately was far too overwhelming for the set editor I was using, and the last 30 cards were effectively a big hole-filling campaign.

As always, I lean more heavily on set mechanics and themes than a real set would - I can make a vanilla 3/1, or throw in a reprint (and I was sooo tempted to throw in Terminate), but what's the point? There's also a cycle of 4-color legends, just to... encourage... Wizards to do the same. I also wish I'd managed to throw in more cards that benefitted you if you controlled a permanent of the right color. I put in the enablers to support the ones in Conflux, then put in some reverse-enablers, then ran out of room. Oh well. That would be for Development to fix.

Big props to Eli Shiffrin and the rest of the gurus who helped fix some of the templating on these cards. Their ability to keep "gets", "has" and "gains" straight, and know the order keywords are supposed to appear is downright impressive.

Alara Rebirth

Time to hibernate for another year.

New Magic Set

2008-03-26T21:12:14Z

This year was a little weird. Since Wizards isn't releasing a "third" set in the traditional fashion, I didn't have a lot to go on. I couldn't try to guess what they would do, and since they set it up as a 2-set block, they closed off a lot of design space.

So, I tried to do it as a set to bridge the gap between the theoretically discrete Morningtide and Shadowmoor. That meant taking the little flavor that had leaked about the upcoming set, coming up with a little backstory and going from there. Thus, a tribal set with a little more focus on the graveyard than the past two.

In story terms, the idea is that the goblin scout Thark, with manipulation from Oona and Colfenor has stumbled into Velis Veil. There, he discovers the source of the Changelings and, being a good goblin, plugs himself into the energy. The resulting discharges - the Aurora - radiate out, warping the plane.

Not too much in here that would make the rules manager cry. We'd need new rules for splice (splicing onto permanents just gives them a comes into play ability), clash (how the "numbers" work) and a few individual cards. The usual caveats apply - focus on limited, may break in constructed (I was pretty good this time, I think). Think of it as the file to be handed off to development, who will immediately point out that Grave doesn't work at all. Still messing with that one...

Here they are. Thanks to the irc guru team for their fixes. Feel free to post comments in the forums.

Unexpected

2007-08-01T01:20:07Z

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/usnat07/judge

New Magic set - Now with 100% more Substance

2007-04-02T16:42:10Z

Another year, another 165 card set exploring the theme of the year's block.

Future Sight (the real one) will be about the future, whatever that means to Wizards. Time Spiral was about nostalgia (the past), Planar Chaos about alternat presents. While it wouldn't surprise me if Wizards snuck some future set cards into Future Sight, that approach didn't really interest me.

Instead, I tried to think of ways in which mechanics could combine or evolve to produce new ways of thinking about them. The core themes of the block - Madness, Rebels, Morph, Echo, etc - all got lots of explanations, but almost every mechanic ever printed in Magic (except some of the obviously abandoned ones - Banding, Phasing, Fading) shows up in some weird combination. The keyword density of this set is insane, probably more than Wizards would be comfortable printing. Several of the mechanics (notable Rebels ad Morph) would need some rules changes. Like that never happens.

With a few exceptions that are focussed on a temporal theme, every card has references to past cards in Magic. This actually represented an interesting design constraint, especially as I couldn't really coopt the ones TS and PC had already referred to. By the end, I felt that there were very few interesting reference points left to mine. There's also more bad puns in this set than usual...

Enough preamble. The cards are here. Feel free to post comments on the set or individual cards below. Usual caveats - mostly designed with limited in mind; tried not to break constructed and may have failed (or may be sneakier than you think). Thanks to Gavin for doing a quick beta and catching my more egregious mistakes.

Magic Great Designer Search Test #8 (last)

2006-12-09T16:41:49Z

And so it ends. The final challenge - create all the commons for one color in a 180 card expansion set (so 11 cards) and an appropriate rare for the prerelease card.

Once I came up with the theme I wanted to explore, the cards were very easy. Fully 3/4 of the time I spent on this challenge was coming up with the theme, discarding lots before I found a design space I wanted to work in.

Now it's over, and the whole thing was a fun exercise. I enjoyed designing with different constraints than I usually do (ironically, this last challenge was the most 'normal' for me). I guess I'll be back in Februaryor so with my now-seeming-traditional third set. Whee...

Elvish Ploughman
1G
Creature - Elf Shaman
T: Put a +1/+1 counter on target land
1/1

Garner
2G
Sorcery
Target player gains 1 life for each basic land in play

Harvest Elemental
3GG
Creature - Elemental
When Harvest Elemental comes into play, return up to two lands from your graveyard to your hand.
4/4

Llanowar Naturalist
G
Creature - Elf
T: Add G to your mana pool
Landbond: 2 (You may pay 2 and remove this card from the game, bonding it to target land)
Bonded land gets "Whenever this is tapped for mana, add G to your mana pool"
1/1

Llanowar Symbiote
2G
Creature - Elf
Plant 0 - Llanowar Symbiote becomes a land with "T: Add G to your mana pool"
2/2

Mottled Beetle
3G
Creature - Insect
Protection from lands
3/2

Return to Earth
G
Instant
Target artifact or enchantment loses all abilities and becomes a Forest.

Roar
3G
Instant
Target creature gets +3/+3. Another target creature gets +2/+2. Another target creature gets +1/+1.

Unearthed Gardens
2G
Sorcery
Search your library for a basic land and put it into play. Landbond Unearthed Gardens to it. (Remove Unearthed Gardens from the game)
When bonded land is put into your graveyard from play, search your library for a basic land and put it into play. Landbond Unearthed Gardens to it.

Unfettered Loamdweller
Creature - Beast
3G
Unfettered Loamdweller comes into play with a +1/+1 counter for each land you control with a different name.
0/0

Vernal Awakening
G
Instant
Target land becomes a 2/2 creature. It's still a land.

Prerelease Card

Groundshaker Behemoth
1GG
Creature - Beast
Trample
You can't play lands
Discard a land card: Add GG to your mana pool
5/5

The challenge in this block is managing your land - they're your most important resource, but rewards await some players who use them more aggressively. They're easier to get in this block, but they're also much easier to lose and most cards interact with land in some interesting fashion. Indeed, the biggest challenge was designing commons that weren't part of the theme, as it's a huge design space. Honestly, I went a little over, but given the nature of the challenge, I think some indulgence is called for.

As they're commons, they need to be simple, but I tried to sneak in hints at the complexity at uncommon and rare. The uses of Plant and Landbond here are simple (Unearthed Gardens has a bit too much text for a common, but the effect is straightforward), but hint at interesting potential for higher rarities.

Magic Great Designer Search Test #7

2006-12-07T18:23:06Z

My other Magic duties and lack of internet access at Worlds meant a delay on getting this one done. Still did it in a bit over a day.

After the hilarity and looseness of Un-cards, this one was like designing in a straightjacket, and probably the toughest challenge yet. Not sure if meeting all the requirements was even possible on a couple of them.

The original spec is here. Eight cards, then up to 50 words on each talking about the design. I've kept them in order and tried to keep the names similar so that it's possible to follow along.

Only one more to go... Will go read that after I've looked at what the competitors came up with.

Really Hurt
2B
Sorcery
Name a nonland card. Target player reveals his or her hand and discards all cards with that name.
Name a nonland card. Target player reveals his or her hand and discards all cards with that name.
Uncommon

The trick in designing this mechanic is to somehow change the information entropy state between the two parts of the resolution so that repeating the process has new meaning. That usually means interacting with a private zone, and the hand is the obvious one.

Skritano Firewurm
4RR
Creature - Dragon
Flying
Whenever you play a spell, Skritano Firewurm gets +1/+0 for each red mana used to pay for it.
5/5
Rare

Timmy will be so excited that he gets to pump up his dragon for "free" that he may not even realize that this is pretty constraining.

Frenzied Dance[Pants]
1R
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature attacks, that creature's controller moves Frenzied Dance[Pants] onto another creature.
Enchanted creature loses all abilities and can't block.
Common

This card does some crazy things while still being clearly common. It clears blockers out of the way, and acts as kind of a weird Pacifism that makes creatures want to attack so that you can get rid of the thing. Should be great in multiplayer.

Temporal Gardens
RU
Enchantment
Flash
While Burning Gardens is on the stack, creature cards you own have Flash.
Creatures you control have haste.
Uncommon

There's a pretty fertile design space here, but it's all at rare, as it rewrites so many game rules. Uncommon is tough, and an interesting common seems nigh-impossible. You also have to work to make it interactive with anything other than instants. This is a decent and slightly subtle combat trick.

Vernal Contest
1G
Sorcery
Each player chooses a card in their hand. Reveal them simultaneously. The player who reveals the creature with the lowest casting cost puts it into play. If both have the same casting cost, put both into play under your control.
Rare

Aside from being a generally fun card, this is a bit of a hoser for blue control decks - it sneaks in early and they often don't have a creature (or at least a mid-sized one) available. The final clause makes the decision remarkably complex.

Knowledge Surge
XU
Sorcery
Pyre 1 (Remove a card in your graveyard to reduce the cost of this spell by 1)
Target player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
Uncommon

This is both a Pyre enabler and a finisher, as well as allowing you to churn your deck into your graveyard if you need to. Pyre 1 is dangerous on any particularly strong effect, but elegant.

Persistent Soulgiant
5W
Creature - Giant
White creatures get +1/+1 for each non-Aura enchantment you control.
1WW: Target white creature you control becomes an enchantment.
4/4
Rare

The rules will need a bit of tweaking to support this (enchantments with tap abilities), but it should be pretty clean. Makes combat math challenging, but is the classic preview card in that it initially looks much more powerful than it actually is. Bomby in limited and Timmy will love it.

Diseased Wretch
BB
Creature - Zombie
XB: Search your library for a card with converted mana cost X and put it into your graveyard. Shuffle your library afterwards.
2/2
Uncommon

A versatile card - tutors stuff into your graveyard, thins land out of your deck, enables Pyre(!) - as well as letting you fetch all those Auratide enchantments. Will see serious tournament play. These cards were designed in isolation, but several have interesting synergies.

ETA: Wow, apparently Alexis Janson and I think a lot alike. I'm rooting for them

Magic Great Designer Search Test #6

2006-11-16T18:56:44Z

This week, Un-cards! Almost no other restrictions, except that they had to be multicolored and rare. You couldn't repeat a color combination. Oh, and now you need names, flavor text and descriptions about the cards.

Desiging Un-cards is great fun.

Day of the Kobolds
2WR
Sorcery
When Day of the Kobolds comes into play, remove all creatures you control from the game. Then put that many 0/1 red Kobold tokens into play.
You can't lose the game as long as you control a Kobold.
You hit the lights and they just scatter. Gotta get them while they're alseep - Urkin, Phyrexian Exterminator

Pick an iconic land art (Diamond Valley? Plateau?) and just overrun it with kobolds that are hiding and running about. Have one hanging off the text box.

"Question Mark" Rosewater
Legendary Creature - Human Trivia-God
GU
2/2
T: Choose a casting cost and card type. Starting with you, each player names a card with that combination. The last player to successfully name a card puts two 1/1 green Squirrel tokens into play. You may not choose a combination with fewer than 2 cards for answers, or one that has been chosen this match.
There are 118 creatures that cost 1G. And did I mention I used to write for Roseanne?

It's Mark Rosewater. If you want to put him into a chicken suit, I'm not going to be the person to stop you. In light text in the gold background, dig out the longest cardname chain and just print it, overlaying the various card pieces.

Fritz, Obsessive Collector
2GW
Creature - Human Gamer
1/1
2: Put a Pro Player card into play blocking target creature. Tear it up it at end of combat.
At last, a use for these things

A balding mage with glasses (base reference: Urza's Legacy Archivist) with bookshelves full of binders rising behind him. He has a binder open on a desk in front of him, and a couple binders are stacked next to him with labels showing ("White FE U3s", "BoK lands")

Phyrexian Arcade
Enchantment
WBB
Bond (As this comes into play, choose a player sitting next to you to be your Teammate)
At the beginning of your upkeep, if your Teammate has an odd number of permanents in play, you draw a card and they lose one life.
A drop of humanity for a sea of high scores

The traditional background of a bunch of heads watching (see Phyrexian Arena), but Gerrard and Urza are, backs to us, standing on something that looks like a non-trademark-infringing DDR machine. Gerard is going strong, while Urza is starting to flag. Text for the Name and Type line should be in an appropriately video-game-y font.

I Got Nothing. You?
1UR
Enchantment
Bond (As this comes into play, choose a player sitting next to you to be your Teammate)
Whenever you're dealt damage, exchange hands with your Teammate. Cards you don't own may be played by paying their converted mana cost. Your Teammate may do the same for cards they don't own.
I know there's a Dwarven Pony in here somewhere

Two mages at lecterns separated by a glowing portal. One mage has an arms through the portal and is groping at the other mage's lectern.

Magic Great Designer Search Test #5

2006-11-11T00:46:18Z

This was a great challenge and a lot of fun. It forced me into top-down design mode and I pretty much had to come up with entirely new cards.

Wizards gave the designers 10 "holes to fill" and the details on what needed to go into those holes. The catch - art had already been done for the cards. The full art (which is worth checking out along with my answers) is at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/designersearch/episode3

I hate these challenges. I sleep like crap the night after they're released. Off to read what the real candidates did...

White (uncommon)

We need an answer to all the token making in the environment. Be subtle.

Rings of Resistance (Picture #2)
2W
Enchantment
Uncommon
Whenever a creature comes into play, that creature's controller sacrifices it unless they pay X, where X is the number of other creatures that share a type with this creature.

White (rare)

We're looking for a weird Johnny-style enchantment

Rally Around the Flag (Picture #8)
3WWW
Enchantment
Rare
Creatures in your graveyard can attack or block as though they were in play. (They still tap to attack)

Blue (common)

We need a sorcery. No card filtering or drawing. No bounce (aka returning cards to hand).

Internal Reflection (Picture #4)
U
Sorcery
Common
Swap target creature's power and toughness (this effect does not end at end of turn)

Blue (rare)

We need a creature. Something splashy for Timmy.

Arcris, Master Replimagus (Picture #1)
5UU
Rare
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a token into play that is a copy of target creature you control.
3/3

Black (uncommon)

Make an aura you want to put on your own creatures.

Petrifying Glare (Picture #3)
BB
Enchantment - Aura
Uncommon
Enchant creature
Flash
Destroy all creatures blocking or blocked by enchanted creature at end of combat.

Black (rare)

Can be anything.

Bargain with the Past (Picture #10)
2B
Sorcery
Rare
Sacrifice all permanents that came into play under your control since the beginning of your last turn.
Draw three cards.

Red (common)

Instant or sorcery. No direct damage or destruction (artifact or land).

Disrupting Overlay (Picture #7)
2R
Instant
Common
Players may not play instants or sorceries until end of turn. Draw a card.

Red (uncommon)

Creature. Want a build around me for draft (aka something that will encourage players to go down a path or paths he or she wouldn't normally had they not drafted this card early; examples of this type of card are Lightning Rift, Mark of Eviction and Momentary Blink).

Sulfurous Alarmist (Picture #6)
2R
Creature - Human Wizard
Uncommon
Morph - 1R
When Sufurous Alarmist is turned face up, turn target creature face up until end of turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, turn Sulfurous Alarmist face down.
0/1

Green (common)

Creature. Something that costs four or more mana.

Fangren Behemoth (Picture #9)
Creature - Behemoth
Common
5GG
Sacrifice an artifact: put a Metal token on Fangren Behemoth.
Remove a Metal token from Fangren Behemoth: Regenerate Fangren Behemoth.
6/4

Green (rare)

Non-creature spell. Green's lacking in "wow" factor (aka something that will impress the player by how different it is).

Sheep in Wolf's Clothing (Picture #5)
3G
Enchantment - Aura
Rare
Enchant creature you control
GG: Sacrifice enchanted creature. Search your library for a creature with a lower converted mana cost than enchanted creature and put it into play. Attach Sheep in Wolf's Clothing to this creature.

Allow me to apologize for at least two cards that will cause the Rules Manager much pain. Mechanically, the only card that I felt had to be driven by the art was the Morph, as that's a very clear sign. Presumably this set has morphs if the art is to be in it. I tried to keep a decent mix of Timmy (Master Replimagus), Johnny (Sheep in Wolf's Clothing) and Spike (Bargain With the Past) and keep the complexities appropriate for the rarity. Picture #7 was the hardest - as a flavor goob, this is a significant event, but it's clearly Red, and the choices are uncommon creature or common sorcery.

Magic Great Designer Search Test #4

2006-11-03T08:20:27Z

Test #4 got released. In it, the designers were randomly assigned 1 cycle each of rare, uncommon and common. At least 1 had to be tight and 1 had to be loose. Then, at most 50 words to talk about each cycle.

I got out my trusty die, and randomly assigned myself instants, creatures and enchantments.

Instants (Common)

Rewarding Bolt
R
Instant
Rewarding Bolt deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
Target opponent draws a card.

Rewarding Mists
U
Instant
Return two target creatures to their owners hand.
Target opponent draws a card.

Rewarding Demise
B
Instant
Destroy target non-black creature.
Target opponent draws a card.

Rewarding Growth
G
Instant
Search your library for a basic land and put it into play tapped.
Target opponent draws a card.

Rewarding Blink
W
Instant
Remove target creature from the game, then return it to play under it's owner's control.
Target opponent draws a card.

A tight cycle of staple abilities for each color, as needed in common. Is the power level jacked up enough to make the reverse-cantrip (a reversal from many traditional cycles) worthwhile?

Creatures (Uncommon)

Airfoil Auradon
3U
Creature - Auradon
1/1
Flying
Airfoil Aurodon gets +1/+1
3: Search your library for an Auradon and remove it from the game. Airfoil Aurodon gains all abilities of that creature.

Valorous Auradon
1W
Creature - Aurodon
1/1
Vigilance
Valorous Aurodon gets +0/+2
3: Search your library for an Auradon and remove it from the game. Valorous Aurodon gains all abilities of that creature.

Enraged Auradon
2R
Creature - Aurodon
1/1
R: +1/+0 until end of turn
Enraged Aurodon gets +2/+0
3: Search your library for an Auradon and remove it from the game. Enraged Aurodon gains all abilities of that creature.

Behemoth Auradon
3GG
Creature - Aurodon
2/2
Trample
Behemoth Aurodon gets +2/+2
3: Search your library for an Auradon and remove it from the game. Behemoth Aurodon gains all abilities of that creature.

Skeletal Auradon
1BB
Creature - Aurodon
1/1
B: Regenerate
Skeletal Aurodon gets +1/+1
3: Search your library for an Auradon and remove it from the game. Skeletal Aurodon gains all abilities of that creature.

Uncommon is the perfect place for this loose cycle, whose mana costs and abilities would need to be balanced carefully in playtesting. It lets limited players try to find 2 or 3 in a draft, and gives budget Timmies the chance to build huge creatures, provided they are willing to pour in the mana.

Enchantments (Rare)

Sigil of the Grave
1BB
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
Sigil of the Grave may only enchant a creature you control
Whenever a creature you control other than enchanted creature is put into a graveyard from play, each other player sacrifices a creature.

Sigil of Opposition
1UU
Sigil of Opposition may only enchant a creature you control
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
Tap a creature other than enchanted creature: Tap target artifact or creature.

Sigil of the Earth
1GG
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
Sigil of the Earth may only enchant a creature you control
Tap a creature other than enchanted creature: Untap target basic land

Sigil of Violence
1RR
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
Sigil of Violence may only enchant a creature you control
If a creature you control other than enchanted creature would deal damage to a creature or player, it deals double that damage to that creature or player instead.

Sigil of Humility
1WW
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
Sigil of Humility may only enchant a creature you control
All creatures other than enchanted creature lose all abilities and are 1/1

This set takes iconic enchantments from Magic's past and reimagines them as auras. A twist: the enchanted creature itself is the only one unaffected, making for interesting play decisions. The drawbacks of a) being Auras and b) needing two creatures to make most of them useful allows for compelling costs.

Magic Great Designer Search: Test #3

2006-10-27T16:06:08Z

So I fell fairly early in the Great Designer Search. There was a test on which I scored 29/35 and the cutoff was 30. Normally I would lose a lot of sleep over this, but a) I'm convinced two of the 'correct' asnwers were totally wrong so feel justified and b) realistically I realize that I was going to have to bow out pretty soon anyway. Being a magic designer is my dream job, but I'm not in a place where I can make that happen at this point.

I thought it would be fun to play along anyway, assuming I have the time, once they announce each round. Comments welcome. Here's my entry for the design 6 cards stage (a few are tweaked ones I've created before, some are totally new):

The requirements were: all 5 colors had to be represented as well as all 6 types and all 6 cmc from 0-5, Two each of common, uncommon and rare, and they should sound like they come from 6 different (future) blocks. Then a brief paragraph about the choices.

Tracks of the Darkmagus (uncommon)
{}
Land Creature - Swamp Island
2/2
Flying
T: Add U or B to your mana pool
During your upkeep, pay (hybrid U/B) or sacrifice Tracks of the Darkmagus
Tracks of the Darkmagus is Blue and Black

Alchemist's Bolt (common)
R
Instant
Alchemist's Bolt deals 3 damage to target creature and 3 damage minus the toughess of that creature to you.

Havenwood Pathfinder (common)
1G
Creature - Elf Shaman
1/1
As Havenwood Pathfinder comes into play, choose a color.
T: Add a mana of each chosen color to your mana pool.
Evolve 1G: Choose a color. (Play this ability only once)

Gurza's Plow (uncommon)
3
Artifact
2,T: Search your library for a basic land card of a type you do not control and put it into play tapped.
Sacrifice Gurza's Plow: Gain 2 life for each basic land type you control.

Armor of Light (rare)
3W
Enchantment
Auras you control not attached to permanents remain in play. If they are unattached and you could play a sorcery, you may pay their mana cost to attach them to a permanent.
Auras attached to illegal permanents become unattached.

Change of Plans (rare)
3UU
Sorcery
Search target opponent's hand for a creature card and put it into play under your control. That player may choose to copy this spell and change its target.

I confess, I cheated on the color requirement, but I did it in a truly designer way, as it gave me the flexibility of rotating any color in there I needed (and you got a bonus color as a result). I tried to create a mix of simple and complex cards, all 3 psychographics and some tournament staples, as well as niche cards. I also tried to design cards that had the player or players make subtle choices. For example, the decision on whether you should copy Change of Plans is a really interesting one to me, and those sort of tensions tend to drive me as a designer.

Alias Finale

2006-05-23T06:09:18Z

Wow, that was wretched.

They said "Hey, we have something we'd like you to look at"

2006-03-31T06:43:38Z

God help them

Annual Magic 3rd set

2006-03-21T03:05:07Z

For the past couple of years, I've been creating Magic sets to be the "fake" third set of the block. The first year was as part of a team, and last year was a solo effort.

I finally finished this year's (another solo effort). It turned out to be quite challenging this year. Instead of a mechanical framework to build on (coming up with new twists on, say, Soulshift), Wizards gave us an organizational framework. I thought it would be freeing, but it actually turned out to be much harder. I had to come up with mechanics, make sure I had the right numbers everywhere, and otherwise had very little guidance. Capturing flavor was trickier.

Normally, I would just point you at the cards, but I figure I should give you a rundown of the guilds and mechanics first:

Cult of Rakdos (B/R): The cult are the jailers and torturers of Ravnica. The Dimir may be collecting information, but these are the creatures responsible for extracting it. They are violent and amoral, and as a result of their line of work, more in the know than you might expect.

The Rakdos mechanic is Thrall. You may reveal a card with Thrall in your hand at any time. At that point, all cards in your hand of the same type become copies of that card until you play that one (and stay so; yes, the rules need a little tweaking for it). If you reveal two thrall cards of the same type, all the other cards of the appropriate type can be played as copies of either. (Note that this mechanic would be even better online - as soon as the card entered your hand, it would take over...)

Simic Combine (U/G): If Izzet are the mad scientists of the mechanical world, the Combine are their match in the biological world. Working with a variety of oozes, shapeshifters and other creatures they can tweak or control, they seek to improve upon their creations. They are also, logically, in charge of the food supply for Ravnica. The minimal farmable land means that other means for sustenance must be discovered.

The Simic mechanic is Evolve. Evolve is very simple - it's an ability that each permanent with it is only able to play once. If the permanent leaves play and returns again, it's a new permanent and can play the ability again.

The Azorius Senate are the politicians of Ravnica. They represent the "official" ruling council (as opposed to, say, the Orzhov) and run the government and all it's associated bureaucracy. Though they do not seem dangerous, they can sometimes leave you wishing they'd just do something straghtforward like attack.

The Azorius mechanic is Taxation. Certain creatures they control can have their abilities turned off if an opponent is willing to not untap certain permanents during their untap. Note that the permanents must already be tapped in order to be used to pay the taxation. A land is easy, but other types of taxation may be harder.

Having gone over all that, here are the cards. I've tried to template them correctly, though there's always one or two I revisit a year later and cringe at. I'd love any comments anybody has about these.

The view from Haleakala

2006-03-12T18:30:08Z

So, since we are intrepid tourists, we braved the windy switchbacks and drove up the 10,000 feet to the top of Haleakala, the larger of the two dormant volcanos that make up Maui. I figured I should share the vista with you all.

No, the curtains are not drawn. We had a lovely time, though.

God hates me

2006-02-28T06:46:11Z

I'm off to Hawaii on Wednesday for 11 days, for the Pro tour and an actual vacation with just Jen (basically the first since our honeymoon). Woo hoo!

Thomas Dolby is playing in San Francisco on the 9th.

Will probably need two copies (one for me, one for boylawyer)

2006-02-14T06:34:32Z

Unlike that hideous Disney-Devo thing I unleahed on him last time, this one is the pure awesome. What is it about Sweden that just makes all music inherently cooler?

Oh, and Pop Justice is pretty cool, too.

Think we could substitute ground pork rinds for the carb-conscious?

2006-01-06T19:45:41Z

Got Tang?

The collected wisdom of lockoutlass (first in a series)

2005-12-19T05:34:03Z

A kipper is not a pancake.

For those of you feeling under the weather

2005-12-15T21:55:15Z

http://panexa.com/

May make you hurt more.

The holiday spirit

2005-11-11T19:44:05Z

KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!

I'll take 'Feeling Groovy' for $100 Alex

2005-10-26T20:40:26Z

Question: What do the following three bands have in common?

Flaming Lips
Ozomatli
Earth, Wind and Fire

Answer: They have played (or will be playing) at the last three Y! Year-End-Parties.

Earth, Wind and Fire???

Fun with Work

2005-09-19T22:36:56Z

In honor of the day, a little regex hacking

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ResultSet xmlns="urrn:yahoo:srch" totalResultsAvailable="2334572" totalResultsReturrned="10" firrstResultPosition="1">
  <Result>
    <Title>Britney Spearrrrs</Title>
    <Summarrrry>We be official site with chat, email, tourr inforrrmation, merrrchandise, and morrre. Arr!</Summarrrry>
    <Url>http://www.britneyspears.com/</Url>
    <ClickUrl>http://rds.yahoo.com/SIG=11nld9hoj/EXP=1127254816/**http%3A%2F%2Fwww.britneyspears.com%2F</ClickUrl>
    <ModificationDate>1126940400</ModificationDate>
    <MimeType>text/html, ye scurvies!</MimeType>
  </Result>
  ...

Memeage

2005-09-16T23:07:47Z

List 10 things (in no particular order) that bring you a moment of joy

1. lockoutlass
2. lockoutlass
3. lockoutlass
4. lockoutlass
5. lockoutlass
6. lockoutlass
7. lockoutlass
8. lockoutlass
9. lockoutlass
10. Hugin

May be the best product name of all time

2005-09-02T17:00:45Z

http://www.affordablesupplements.com/BSN107.jpg

While we're on the subject of the wonder of marketing, Cheez-it has released "Twisterz", a snack that comes in a variety of two-flavor combos, including Cheddar and... More Cheddar.

(FWIW, they're very good, as are the Buffalo and Blue Cheese ones)