12 replies to this topic

[ziolang]

Alright, so the backstory to this is that my older brother has an affinity for milling people. We would joke around about how crazy it would be to have an entire block where milling was the gimmick.

 

Well, here it is! Using my new-found tool, Magic Set Editor, I've decided to undergo the challenge. Welcome to:

 

(I'm not an artist, so this is the best I got; it was made on a site that does it for me)

 

IMPORTANT: I do not own any of the images for these cards. The artist is place on the cards is listed as Michael Bowen, who is a fictional placeholder. I am also aware that some images may already be from existing magic cards.

 

So I think I'll kickstart this thing with three commons, two uncommons and a rare!

 

 Icebreaker.jpg   42.58KB   0 downloads  Wretched Scourge.jpg   48.48KB   0 downloads  Signal Hawk.jpg   37.68KB   0 downloads  Head Hunter.jpg   40.36KB   0 downloads  Bramble Walker.jpg   47.47KB   0 downloads  Seraph Revealer.jpg   46.93KB   0 downloads

 

Feedback would be great!

[chaoscal]

while this would be fun I too am a lover of milling but it would get a bit to repetitive if the entire set was mill here's my advice. make 2 or 3 mechanics maybe more one of which involves milling like grind love the mechanic by the way. then two other mechanics that dont involve milling. magic isn't fun if everyone is doing the same thing so try to add a bit of variety 1/3 of a block (three sets) spread out over the sets would be a good idea if your making a set still keep it at roughly a third at most as otherwise you limit your creativity to just cards that solely focus on mill maybe keep it in two or three colours rather than rainbow millstone death combo i'd go for black blue and if you wanted t move into another colour go with green as this is all about life and death and the natural order. white is t forthcoming and very open and righteous and red is a short term thinker so both wouldnt really be mill heavy if you fit the colour pie but love the idea 

[ziolang]

I expected such a response from someone to be honest. I agree with you as well. The problem I faced is that I wanted to do a "what if there was a milling version of every gimmick?" as the theme. Obviously yes, that leaves the set kind of dry. So the way I see it is I have three options:
1 Continue the set as a joke set and make milling versions of things.
2 Make grind just a new gimmick of its own and make the set realstic.
3 Do both by making a seprrate thread for one or the other.

Whatever the case, grind will show up in every color, itll just be mostly found in black blue and red.

[chaoscal]

i say do 2 as you clearly have a knack for realistic card making if you want to do both thats up to you but i think this could be a great set if you organise it right.

[Commandant]

Milling as a central theme isn't the problem. What you need are distinct variations upon the idea.

 

For an example subtheme, we can look at "Grind". While it isn't officially keyworded, the term is generally used to refer to a type of milling that cares about the number of lands milled (so you may want to change the name if you want to use what you're using). With this mechanic in place, certain lands can have abilities that activate when they are milled. A set of dual taplands, usually unexciting, can have an ability that allows them to enter the battlefield when they're milled. This adds another level of strategy to using the grind ability correctly.

 

You may also want to consider the colour identities as well, and how they all relate to milling. White, red, and green will have to be given new mill-centric roles that happen to fit the colours flavourfully.

 

Blue: indiscriminate milling. Primary goal is to mill mass quantities of cards from opponents, or perhaps to mill oneself to cast flashback spells and such, as a secondary goal. The iconic milling colour. It would be practical, albeit boring, to attach a set number of cards to mill on the usual blue cards that are present in every set, much like how scry was used in Theros.

 

Black: targeted milling. Primary goal is to seek and remove specific threats from opponents, or to use those threats to your own advantage. Again, with a possible secondary goal of searching and discarding one's own cards to flashback, reanimate, etc. Targeted milling cards can take the place of the cards that discard, which are present elsewhere, as a prominent subset of black cards. Reanimation also becomes a lot more relevant.

 

Red: whereas black is known for being suicidal with life costs, red can do this with milling themselves. Alternate casting costs, and abilities that trigger upon being milled are something to consider. Possible balancing required in the form of negative static abilities being applied by cards while they're in the graveyard. Fast-hitting, but stalls out when the game progresses too long, as per the regular red.

 

Green: recursion from grave can be a primary goal, where the cards are first milled and then put into the hand. In this manner, green can possibly be better at "drawing" than blue, given the right setup. Secondary goal can be to have permanents that care about the number of cards being milled, e.g., Tarmogoyf-like creatures. The focus is less on depriving the opponent or setting a timer against them, and more on pooling one's own resources.

 

White: probably a focus on exiling cards from the library, and exiling cards in the graveyard. An interesting idea would be for white to mill exactly as much as needed, such as by having you declare a quality, and if something among the top X cards of the library have that quality, it's milled or exiled. White removal can be focused on delaying, on the surface, by sending cards back to the top of the library, only to have them be milled by another ability. Good candidate for the combo-centric colour.

 

 

A story about the setting would also be nice. Why is the plane mostly populated by creatures that have the ability to perform psionic lobotomy?

[chaoscal]

commandant just Wow. you've really thought this out these ideas are good ziolang ive changed my mind do both and follow commandants guide to a great milling set.

[ziolang]

I greatly appreciate the input. I've been brainstorming on ideas on how to make this a more exciting set overall and those thoughts will really help.

I had thought of Green/Black being the graveyard players, but this gives me a better idea on how to distinguish the two.

Red... I'm looking toward the elemental Haste/Grind combo as a good possibility; effectively allowing it to combo well with blue and its straight milling. ie: a Red/Blue deck would be the aggressive mill where blue directly mills for strong numbers and red hits with creatures and burn spells to control the battlefield/add a bit more to the milling. Red may also see some returns of old gimmicks or other ideas to give it some additional diversity beyond the red/blue combo. Alternate costs will likely appear, thanks for that idea~

Blue is going to be difficult. I want to do the straight mill of course, but I'm trying to find more ways to flesh it out so it can combo better with colors other than red. We'll see what happens with that.

White... deck exiling could work and probably should work. It's going to be costly though as exiling is a stronger form of discard/destroy. Unless I do the standard token-soldier-swarm to combo with some convoke costed spells~

 

As for the storyline, the title gives a hint as to the direction this is going. I haven't got it all figured out yet, but in time!

[ziolang]

Alright, it's time to test some ideas. The following is a pool of some of the 2-color creatures that display the probable gimmicks of the colors and their potential combinations. There will not be a large amount of two-color creatures, just these which serve as open-ended creatures to fit nearly any deck format.

 

The guardians assemble!

 

 Field Guardian.jpg   45.89KB   0 downloads  Glade Guardian.jpg   48.14KB   0 downloads  Hybrid Guardian.jpg   50KB   0 downloads  Infernal Guardian.jpg   40.63KB   0 downloads  Oasis Guardian.jpg   45.19KB   0 downloads  Sedge Guardian.jpg   50.61KB   0 downloads  Trail Guardian.jpg   43.71KB   0 downloads  Daybreak Guardian.jpg   46.79KB   0 downloads  Esper Guardian.jpg   41.61KB   0 downloads  Volt Guardian.jpg   44.54KB   0 downloads

[Sertar]

I cant belice how much its strong with a shoc land dear god but nice card overall the pics fit and its fun to read keep up to good work!

[ziolang]

Alright, sorry it's been a while but I've been reconstructing the set a bit. All cards I post are subject to change due to the fluxuating theme of the set, so bear with me for any changes you see.

 

Now, for some releases. Let's start with a bit of storyline for the set that'll lead into this post's theme.

 

Welcome to the Rift.

 

 Rift Guardian.jpg   47.89KB   1 downloads  Dunes Walker.jpg   40.32KB   0 downloads

What is the Rift and why is he guarding it? Why is that human making you sacrifice cards for gaining life?

 

The Rift is one of the "factions" you could say of the plane. It is white/black in characteristic and specializes in travel through the realm where all enteties go when they become "exiled." As such, the core function of the cards focuses heavily on exile. Let's take a peek:

 

 Manapoint Piker.jpg   47.17KB   0 downloads  Raven Mistress.jpg   39.24KB   0 downloads [Yes I'm aware the piker is a card image already from the Innistrad block.]

 

The new mechanic, Blink, allows one to effectively trade the creature with an exiled one. You still have to pay the exiled creature's mana cost, so don't be fooled by that. What's the point of this you might ask? Doesn't that just mean I'm exiling cards to pay more mana to cast them? Well, Blink is an instant. You can do it at any time. It effectively gives all of your exiled creatures flash and the ability to be cast for a bit of a higher price. Your 1/1 can leap to a 6/6 and smash an attacking creature for instance.

 

But wait, what about the part of the keyword about moving enchantments and counters? Let's take a look~

 

 Gallant Cavalier.jpg   45.76KB   0 downloads  Midnight Runner.jpg   41.78KB   0 downloads

 

Fuel your army with counters that you can then blink later onto stronger creatures, or weaker creatures with awesome abilites. And now that we've established some ground, let's give you a few other blink options~

 

 Riftkeeper.jpg   39.68KB   0 downloads  Priestess of the Rift.jpg   47.15KB   0 downloads  Seraph Revealer.jpg   47.03KB   0 downloads

 

Mythic rare? let's give you one of those too~

 

 Redbeak Griffin Chief.jpg   47.39KB   0 downloads

 

Empower your army strategicly and you can overpower your opponent!

 

Now, to wrap this up, let's have a look at the leader of the Rift. The leader is a lot more than one would think. She's not only a powerful being, but she's also...

 

 Eleina The Rift.jpg   40.65KB   0 downloads

 

A Planeswalker! One of the five currently listed for this set. Her main goal? To feed your extra hand that is exile and then cast from it. Orzhov would welcome her wholeheartedly!

 

As always, I own none of the images found here~

 

Final note: This, my friend, is how the "milling" gimmick manifests itself in white. While milling won't be the main strategy of a white deck, you will be able to work it with blue/white to make a nasty combo. As I said, milling is the main gimmick of the block.

[ziolang]

Well, since we're exploring keywords, let's have another!

 

Hmm... let's see. The idea was petitioned and here it stands. Red's form of milling shall be found in the keyword of Fuel. What is it?

 Burn to Stubble.jpg   42.69KB   0 downloads  Call of Lightning.jpg   52.13KB   0 downloads

 

Yup. Red Self-mill to reduce costs. Pretty simple, but imagine what would happen if one comboed this with the return of Delve? Fun times. And no, fuel will not be red-exclusive, just the highest presence of it will be red.

 

Anyway, have some cards.

 

 Baleful Harvenger.jpg   57.23KB   0 downloads  Barrel Protection Squad.jpg   49.07KB   0 downloads  Fyuroths Mantra.jpg   54.37KB   0 downloads

 

Speaking of Fyuroth:

 

 Fyuroth Living Hatred.jpg   45.29KB   0 downloads

[chaoscal]

love these red cards especially fyuroth and baleful harbinger great cards and a fun mechanic hope to see more 

[ziolang]

Getting into a bit of a rush here as I'm excited to get more cards out. Let's look at y pride and joy; the theme of the story line.
 While the plane is currently unnamed, its story is in deep development stages. It is the plane of seals and banishment. When something gets sealed away, it is actually being bound to this plane, but in a different form and with no memory of being its original self.

 

So let's look at the Glade, the "faction" responsible for keeping the seals.

 

 Glade Guardian.jpg   46.33KB   0 downloads  Glade Esper.jpg   39.95KB   0 downloads

 

Well there's a couple of heavy hitters right there. One can sense a landfall type theme going on here immediately, but this is not the main idea of the Glade. The land-based theme is present, but the real power is packed into...

 

 Glade Witch.jpg   43.75KB   0 downloads  Seal of the Living Wilds.jpg   43.35KB   0 downloads

 

Sealing. Yup, it's like morphing your opponents creatures into your own. Banisher Priest would be proud. You flip a creature face-down into a creature of your making and then gain control of it for as long as it's face down. However! As per the need to clarify the obvious cross-keyword issues, what happens if you've sealed a morph creature? It's face down, isn't it? Can't you pay the morph cost to turn it face up? The answer is yes. The face of the card is still owned by its caster, so if it has a morph cost, its owner can pay that cost to turn it face up and get it back. [No, morph does not appear in this set at all. Well, so far.]

 

With that out of the way, have some more:

 

 Komodo Lancer.jpg   50.19KB   0 downloads  Ornak Mage Tracker.jpg   45.38KB   0 downloads

 

And of course, what's a post about the Glade without showing off one of its prize cards?

 

 Kathlyn Child of the Glade.jpg   42.77KB   0 downloads

 

Ever wanted a 1-cost planeswalker? Meet the nine-year-old Kathlyn. She's some species of elf-like creature that was sealed to this plane from an unknown plane when she was seven. After living within the Glade under the rule of Tilos, her spark ignited. A 9-year-old with planeswalker powers? What will this mean? Who's Tilos? Answers to come... in time!