Elestral

Overview

Elestral is the name of my second Magic: The Gathering custom set project.

Now that Aenyr is practically done, I have started to work on a new plane in the Multiverse where the weather and astronomy are central and intertwined. Nature is omnipotent, and mortal races have no choice but to study it, try to adapt to it or bow before its magnificence. Note that Elestral is not a space fantasy  or a cyberpunk set. Rather, it’s a fantasy set that focuses on nature, observation, prophecies, elemental and astral forces, and adaptation to what’s greater than oneself.

This article features an explanation of my design goals for Elestral, previews of three new mechanics that play into the “planning ahead” theme of the set, and my thoughts on how the color pie would be divided among various weather and astronomy tropes. Card examples will be provided throughout the article.

Like I did with Aenyr, this article will be updated as the set progresses to offer a constant and up to date overview of the set and its mechanics.

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Aenyr v1.2 visual spoiler

It’s been 8 months since Aenyr v1.00 came out. During that time, I’ve had plenty of time to continue the playtesting for limited. And, something that I didn’t think could be possible, Aenyr has entered an online custom constructed format, which allowed me to further develop the set and balance it out even more.

The 1.1 update was mainly to fix some problematic cards in constructed and find some new car for many cards. The 1.2 update is the big brother of 1.1 and is worth posting here. It had three main goals:

1. World building: This is the first of a series of 1-4 updates that will reinforce the general cohesion of Aenyr as a world. Many cards have new names, new art and even new creature types. Known characters also start to be referenced more in flavor text and art. Also, the humanoid races of the plane will be more represented at common and uncommon, especially Aven and Vampires.
2. Constructed fixes: Some cards were way too good for a standard environment power level and have been nerfed appropriately.
3. Limited fixes: The Satyr and Mill archetypes both received slight buffs and some cards that were never picked or played were changed to fill some holes in the limited gameplay, such as a lack of original combat tricks

The set is getting closer and close to being finished now. I’m very happy with the general card balance, and the next few updates will mainly be focused on the set’s story before I start working more seriously on the second set of the block, which will be called GRAND FINALE.

Jezango

INTRODUCTION TO JEZANGO

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Jezango is a remake of an old project I had called Kazundoo. This name, albeit cool, sounded too similar to Kazandu, a jungle in Zendikar. Kazundoo had many problems which I had to fix and kinda didn’t want to, so I started working on Aenyr instead. Now that the v1.00 full visual spoiler is up, set design for Aenyr is momentarily put on hold in favor of more intensive playtesting.

Now, my design efforts will go into making that previous project as good as it should have been in the first place. The set’s plot revolved around Settlers, Pirates and Natives fighting for dominion over an island called Kazundoo. I decided to keep this as Jezango’s main conflict and even amplify its importance.

This article features a presentation of the new format Jezango creates as well as a brief overview of the conflict each and each faction’s mechanical identity in the game, along with, of course, some sample cards. The article will be updated as the set progresses to offer a constant and up to date overview of the set and its mechanics.

Aenyr v1.00 full visual spoiler (249/249)

After months of work, it’s finally time to release the full visual spoiler for Aenyr, my art-themed Magic: The Gathering set. This is version 1.00, which means it’s the first time all 249 cards are done.

It doesn’t mean, however, that the set is finished. I have to refine flavor texts, work on the story and still balance some cards out but most of the hard work is done. I’m also ready to start playtesting the set in paper with my playgroup!

This post contains some useful links concerning Aenyr such as v1.00 release notes and some other links for those who are interested in playtesting the set, and the full visual spoiler. Enjoy!

The end of Aszakir

Aszakir was my first custom set project.  It started about a year ago.

“I want to make the feeling of a “Chaotic World” to have a direct impact on the game.
I will do this by trying to make the five colors feel unique and interacting in new ways with elements of the game.”
—Aszakir design goal, taken from the main MtgSalvation thread

After a few months designing cards for this project, I realized how flawed this design goal was. It made Aszakir not feel like a set as a whole but more like a mashup of original design ideas I’ve had during the time I worked on it. This led me to close Aszakir’s main MtgSalvation thread and start working on a new project, Kazundoo. There, I wanted to make a set that flavorfully felt more like one. I think I really succeded on the flavor level, but I had issues with the mechanics and how they interacted with one another, so I also put this project on hold. I didn’t want to stop designing cards so I started to work on a third custom set, Ænyr.

To this day, Ænyr is my favorite project and I really like creating cards for this Art World. I also don’t want my work on Kazundoo to go to waste as I’m thinking about making duel decks or something similar. Because of all those much cooler ideas I have, I decided to stop the Aszakir project for good.

This is a compilation of my favorite cards from that project.

Aenyr

What is Aenyr?

Aenyr is a new plane of the Multiverse where Art is the source of all Magic. Aenyr is a whole custom Magic: The Gathering set that’s playable in both limited and constructed environments.

This article features my design goals for Aenyr, three new mechanics that bring a new take on a “Multicolored matters” theme and my thoughts on how the color pie would be divided among various art forms such as music, dance, theater and more. I will also present card examples for each of those art forms.

The set is now finished as of November 27th, 2017. This article will have one last update in the near future to update the card images that appear in it.

Click here to see the visual spoiler

Dig

Here is a wordy but interesting  mechanic I made for a B/R Dwarf faction. The Ghurzad are greedy and reckless in their neverending search for gold.

Dig [Number] (Exile the top [Number] cards of your library, then put a colorless Gold artifact token onto the battlefield for each land card exiled this way. They have “Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.”)

It’s red because it’s reckless, and it’s black because it’s greedy. Giving up cards in exchange for ramp/artifacts is clearly B/R to me.

The common creature that introduces us to the ability.

This one digs when he deals combat damage. A 1/1 for 1 that can ramp very fast if you’re lucky. Yeah, dig is a bit about luck.

I really like the flavor on this one.

A twist on a red ramp spell.

Not sure if this one should be red instead of black., or maybe hybrid.

Artifact synergy works well with dig since it makes artifact tokens.

Dark Confident in a dwarf’s body.

A dwarf shaman that’s a cool finisher for burn/artifact decks.