(A Storyline based on characters created and plagiarized by M:tG-Creative...)
In this CSC-thread I want to try and start a custom set project nicknamed "Saga" - it will be a reimagining of the Magic-storyline and hence starts with reimagining the first set: Arabian Nights.
The keyword is reimaging rather than retelling or recreating - the focus lies on taking the basic idea and characters and evolve them towards an ongoing storyline without being bound on having every event transpire as in the current storyline.
This allows for some neat things - like reasonably powered planeswalkers from the beginning and original storyline twists.
"Saga" tries to approach the flavor of its sets from all angles: The complete set contains not only cards of the normal types, but may also contain planes cards for the current location and scheme cards of the current plot - if they translate the idea better than legendary lands and overcosted spells.
There are some more considerations I don't need to dwell into to much now (recreation of vanguard cards, keeping set sizes low by lending an idea from TS-block, more casual support...)
I really am just brainstorming with much of this stuff and like to get input and ideas on every aspect of the project - I'd like this to be a community-project more than doing stuff all by myself. Feel free to jump in and get carried away!
So much to "Saga", let's talk about the set "Shards of Rabiah" (open to suggestions):
Set size: Not necessarily big... but certainly more than 76 cards... Setting: Rabiah Story: This will be a prologue exploring the setting of Rabiah and putting some key figures into place before a second set sets the storyline of Taysir into motion (MtGS-wiki is your friend).
Possibly the short-stories released for this set will play out in this set.
The mechanical themes will try to reflect the flavor of the setting. Original short stories are not out of question.
The story wants to be told through the cards - think Weatherlight-Saga, but toned down since more than one episode is told. Factions: In progress...
There will be a Djinn vs. Efreet dynamic as well as a (white) faction that is opposed to both Djinn and Efreet. Further there might be a "Brass City"-faction of artifacts & friends.
Themes: (This is the plan - anything can be removed if it turns out to not work and added if it turns out to be a good idea)
DESERTS:
There will be a small theme of Desert-related cards - the theme is certainly intriguing and has been tried by others. There are two things I would like to have to support this theme:
1. One or two cycles of nonbasic lands with the type Desert to support the existing one.
2. Desert land tokens to further allow for interactions.
DJINN & EFREET:
The most iconic tribes of the plane will make a return - these should be recognizable flavorful cards and also cards that thrive on their flavor like a new cycle of Wishes...
I imagine the possibility of exploring the six tribes: Djinn, Djann, Efreet, Marid, Ghoul, Sheitan/Nekrataal - and giving them their own identities.
At least one card for a Sahir (Djinn-Summoner) would be a nice idea.
MULTIPLES:
Since Rabiah is splitted into 1001 shards any individual (or at least most) exists more than once - I imagine this can be reflected in many ways. Relentless Rats, Accumulated Knowledge and similar cards give an inspiration. Based on Taysir's story and the movie The One I am especially drawn towards a theme that considers cards with the same name going to the graveyard.
TREASURES, RICHES, TRADING:
This theme should be reflected in an artifact sub-theme. Also I could see caravan cards that "attack" the enemy not for damage, but for a trading benefit - possibly profitable to some degree for either side (since this tries to be casual mostly any idea that also supports multiplayer politics is a welcome addition in my eyes).
This and Bazaars that are a little less powerful than the one of Baghdad.
Keywords:
Right now no keyword has been set in place - any keyword suggestion will be checked - having one original keyword wouldn't hurt as long as it's flavorful.
Desertification :1mana::symr:
Sorcery
Destroy target land. Its controller puts a Desert land token onto the battlefield. It has ":symtap:: Add to your mana pool."
Draw a card.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
I am kind of amazed at [...] the fact that somebody on this thread called Mind's Eye, Mirari's Wake, Decree of Pain, Desertion, AND Scroll Rack, all before they were officially spoiled. I will edit this post VERY shortly with the username of this user who deserves at least all of the cookies. Probably more cookies than that.
In ancient times there was a king on Rabiah who had gathered great riches from all over the world, but has made just as many enemies, who envied his riches. So one day finally an army composed of enemies of different nations approached the city of the king. Vastly outnumbered he saw no way to defend his kingdom. But then a wazir approached him with fortunate news.
The humble advisor had met a man on the market some time ago who traded only in the most wonderous things. Thought as a gift for an annual festivity the wazir bought a mirror of which the merchant told: The mirror was created by a powerful marid and it contains the whole world once again; but the only way to travel to the other side of the mirror is to stand before it and remove a little piece from it, and the only way to return to your side is to put the piece back in place.
Now the men devised a plan: When the army of the enemy approached the city, they brought forth the mirror and placed it on the city walls, so all the soldiers would be reflected on its surface. As the king had the mirror shattered into thousand pieces, the soldiers vanished. Just a thousandst part of them remained. For the mirror has broken into a thousand pieces and each part of the army was transported to the world behind the shard it was reflected in. Now that the men of the king ver superior in numbers they easily drove away the enemy on every single of the thousand shards.
Pleased to have succeeded the king wanted the worlds to reunite and tried to reassemble the mirror putting a thousand pieces next to each other. But when the puzzle was completed he noticed a thousandandfirst piece was missing - and so the mirror and the whole world of Rabiah remains disassembled.
As you could look onto the shards of the mirrors and observe the other worlds, some scholars had theorized that the missing shard is a different one on each of thousandandone versions of Rabiah - always the shard that represents exactly the version of the world it was missing from.
Others yet said the wazir was tricked by an evil entity disguised as a merchant, some being who removed a part of the mirror beforehand knowing it could never be fully reassembled that way.
The truth had never been discovered, remembered was only the Tale of How Rabiah Was Refracted Thousand-fold.
Or maybe not...
In an alternative version the ancient king was Suleiman, who imprisoned many Djinn and Efreeti and caused an army of 1001 of their kind to march to his city and claim their kinsmen. Since a thousand djinn are an army unmatchable by mere men he used the mirror to bring each of them onto a seperate plane - otherwise the story would remain the same.
I have decided to divide the Djinn into six tribes who are organized by color (which will be partially different to how Efreet and Djinn appeared one each in the four nonwhite colors):
Marid The rarest and most powerful tribe - they have left the main land for good and live out onto the open see. Not troubled with the lesser tribes any more after the end of the War of Djinn, which decimated their number.
They still bear a grudge against the lesser tribes, which is why they are bannished from the open sea on Rabiah. If a lesser djinn travels onto open waters and loses sight of the coast, the Marid's curse keeps them from ever seeing land again.
Creature type: Djinn
Djinn :symg::symu: The True Djinn have been neutral in the War of Djinn, but the Marid's curse was all-encompassing (also some Djinn fought on either side of the war) so they, too, are bound to the land and have moved from the saltwater of the coast towards any place of water - each oasis or stream can be considered the realm of a True Djinn and their whim decides whether a thirsting traveller will be allowed to drink from their waters - hence they are revered by the desert nomads.
Creature type: Djinn
Djann :symg::symrw: The Djann sided with the non-djinn creatures in the War of Djinn. Compassionate with the lesser beings they wouldn't allow the efreet to purge the humans and stood by their side. To these days the Djann are the most benevolent tribe and try to populate the barren deserts left after the war with life wherever they can.
Creature type: Djinn
Efreet :symb::symr: The desert-dwelling Efreet tribe has developed into something vastly different from the other tribes - pure in their essence and embracing their fiery form they reign over the burning desert sands. When the lesser humans attempted to travel the desert, the Efreeti didn't welcome the intruders. Some would allow them passage for a tribute, but others were to proud to be bought like that and destroyed anyone coming to close. When the Djann created safe passages through Efreeti lands, the conflict that would become the War of Djinn began.
Creature type: Efreet
Ghoul The lowest of the tribes they are numerous in places of death as they feed on the dead. Scavengers by nature they dwell in the desert and try to disorient wanderers with unearthly howling. As they, too, have diverged in their essence far from their djinni roots the Efreet recruited them with promises of great slaughter in the War of Djinn.
Creature type: Zombie??
Nekrataal :symb::symur:?? The Nekrataal tribe was always mischievous and parasitic - latching onto lesser beings and sometimes controlling them, always causing symptoms of great illness and plague. Themselves physically weak they were manipulators and some may wonder whether the War of Djinn wasn't secretly fabricated from among the Nekrataal despite the minor role they played compared to Djann and Efreet. Maybe that's the reason they received a special punishment when the Marid ultimately left for the open sea in the aftermath of the war: A course has bound them to the most recent creature they have been inhabiting with their powers. As the humans were the greatest ally of the Djann among the non-djinni this meant almost the whole tribe of Nekrataal was turned into what they despised most and ever since they have seperated themselves forming a cult of outcasts devoted to death.
Creature type: Human
Locations: City of Brass - Will have a small artifact based faction. It is said that Fatima the creator of the Brass Men lives deep within the city in seclusion from the world. I consider expanding on that story and theme with maybe even a planeswalker card.
Serendib - A plentiful island kingdom where Djinni and Efreeti rule, but are unable to leave due to the Marid curse. In result they have started to trade with humans in spite of the past.
---
While working on the desert theme I considered this:
Shiftsand Flats
Land - Desert Plains
(:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.)
Barren Flats enters the battlefield tapped.
:symw:, :symtap:, Sacrifice Barren Flats: Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a Desert card. If you do, put it on the battlefield. Shuffle your library.
as a cycle - the names will refer to shiftsand, mirages and/or simply Rabiah-specific places.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
I'd like to just raise the idea of the Grandeur keyword. It lets you discard copies of a legendary in play to get an effect. It reflects the "multiple incarnations" theme very well IMHO.
I am kind of amazed at [...] the fact that somebody on this thread called Mind's Eye, Mirari's Wake, Decree of Pain, Desertion, AND Scroll Rack, all before they were officially spoiled. I will edit this post VERY shortly with the username of this user who deserves at least all of the cookies. Probably more cookies than that.
I don't personally like the idea of creating the "Desert" subtype, particularly because the way you have it designed right now it can only be put on lands.
How could a creature be a Desert? Is there something I'm missing?
EDIT: Desert actually is an already existing land type anyway...
I was referring to in terms of his desert plains. Desert doesn't make sense on any other land type. Also, there's only one land in existence that has the "Desert" subtype. It just doesn't have a lot of design space and application.
I was referring to in terms of his desert plains. Desert doesn't make sense on any other land type. Also, there's only one land in existence that has the "Desert" subtype. It just doesn't have a lot of design space and application.
You can have Desert mountains quite easily. It's a stretch, but there could also be Desert forests and islands--think scrub lands and oasis, respectively.
I actually think there's a lot of flavorful design space here.
I am kind of amazed at [...] the fact that somebody on this thread called Mind's Eye, Mirari's Wake, Decree of Pain, Desertion, AND Scroll Rack, all before they were officially spoiled. I will edit this post VERY shortly with the username of this user who deserves at least all of the cookies. Probably more cookies than that.
Wow. Neat. I made a small set I called Eastern Sands about a year ago. I made some horrible design mistakes, got some good and honest feedback, and it's sort of been sitting, neglected, in my Magic Set Editor folder ever since.
So... here are some ideas I thought worked or could work...
Sorry if this feels like thread hijacking... I just wanted to throw out some ideas as it seems you're in the planning phase of this project.
-- Colorless Sand Warrior tokens (accessible by all 5 colors)
-- Colorless sources of damage (mostly at uncommon or rare)
-- +1/+1 counters
-- Desert land subtype (at common and uncommon)
-- Djinn creatures across 5 colors (I nixed efreets because I decided two tribes of genie was confusing. If you made five tribes, that might work... I wouldn't use ghoul for black, however, as ghouls are typically Zombies)
-- I was tempted to use Gravestorm, but couldn't quite figure out how. Still, I think it mechanically fits some of your ideas.
In this CSC-thread I want to try and start a custom set project nicknamed "Saga" - it will be a reimagining of the Magic-storyline and hence starts with reimagining the first set: Arabian Nights.
The keyword is reimaging rather than retelling or recreating - the focus lies on taking the basic idea and characters and evolve them towards an ongoing storyline without being bound on having every event transpire as in the current storyline.
This allows for some neat things - like reasonably powered planeswalkers from the beginning and original storyline twists.
"Saga" tries to approach the flavor of its sets from all angles: The complete set contains not only cards of the normal types, but may also contain planes cards for the current location and scheme cards of the current plot - if they translate the idea better than legendary lands and overcosted spells.
There are some more considerations I don't need to dwell into to much now (recreation of vanguard cards, keeping set sizes low by lending an idea from TS-block, more casual support...)
I really am just brainstorming with much of this stuff and like to get input and ideas on every aspect of the project - I'd like this to be a community-project more than doing stuff all by myself. Feel free to jump in and get carried away!
So much to "Saga", let's talk about the set "Shards of Rabiah" (open to suggestions):
Set size: Not necessarily big... but certainly more than 76 cards...
Setting: Rabiah
Story: This will be a prologue exploring the setting of Rabiah and putting some key figures into place before a second set sets the storyline of Taysir into motion (MtGS-wiki is your friend).
Possibly the short-stories released for this set will play out in this set.
The mechanical themes will try to reflect the flavor of the setting. Original short stories are not out of question.
The story wants to be told through the cards - think Weatherlight-Saga, but toned down since more than one episode is told.
Factions: In progress...
There will be a Djinn vs. Efreet dynamic as well as a (white) faction that is opposed to both Djinn and Efreet. Further there might be a "Brass City"-faction of artifacts & friends.
Themes:
(This is the plan - anything can be removed if it turns out to not work and added if it turns out to be a good idea)
DESERTS:
There will be a small theme of Desert-related cards - the theme is certainly intriguing and has been tried by others. There are two things I would like to have to support this theme:
1. One or two cycles of nonbasic lands with the type Desert to support the existing one.
2. Desert land tokens to further allow for interactions.
DJINN & EFREET:
The most iconic tribes of the plane will make a return - these should be recognizable flavorful cards and also cards that thrive on their flavor like a new cycle of Wishes...
I imagine the possibility of exploring the six tribes: Djinn, Djann, Efreet, Marid, Ghoul, Sheitan/Nekrataal - and giving them their own identities.
At least one card for a Sahir (Djinn-Summoner) would be a nice idea.
MULTIPLES:
Since Rabiah is splitted into 1001 shards any individual (or at least most) exists more than once - I imagine this can be reflected in many ways. Relentless Rats, Accumulated Knowledge and similar cards give an inspiration. Based on Taysir's story and the movie The One I am especially drawn towards a theme that considers cards with the same name going to the graveyard.
TREASURES, RICHES, TRADING:
This theme should be reflected in an artifact sub-theme. Also I could see caravan cards that "attack" the enemy not for damage, but for a trading benefit - possibly profitable to some degree for either side (since this tries to be casual mostly any idea that also supports multiplayer politics is a welcome addition in my eyes).
This and Bazaars that are a little less powerful than the one of Baghdad.
Keywords:
Right now no keyword has been set in place - any keyword suggestion will be checked - having one original keyword wouldn't hurt as long as it's flavorful.
Sorcery
Destroy target land. Its controller puts a Desert land token onto the battlefield. It has ":symtap:: Add to your mana pool."
Draw a card.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
I am also intrigued by the Arabian Night setting, and will be watching progress on this.
Also, Dehydration is a great card to include.
Commanders:
Basandra, Battle Seraph | Diaochan, Artful Beauty | Mayael the Anima | Nath of the Gilt Leaf | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Raksha Golden Cub | Rayne, Academy Chancellor | Roon of the Hidden Realm
The humble advisor had met a man on the market some time ago who traded only in the most wonderous things. Thought as a gift for an annual festivity the wazir bought a mirror of which the merchant told: The mirror was created by a powerful marid and it contains the whole world once again; but the only way to travel to the other side of the mirror is to stand before it and remove a little piece from it, and the only way to return to your side is to put the piece back in place.
Now the men devised a plan: When the army of the enemy approached the city, they brought forth the mirror and placed it on the city walls, so all the soldiers would be reflected on its surface. As the king had the mirror shattered into thousand pieces, the soldiers vanished. Just a thousandst part of them remained. For the mirror has broken into a thousand pieces and each part of the army was transported to the world behind the shard it was reflected in. Now that the men of the king ver superior in numbers they easily drove away the enemy on every single of the thousand shards.
Pleased to have succeeded the king wanted the worlds to reunite and tried to reassemble the mirror putting a thousand pieces next to each other. But when the puzzle was completed he noticed a thousandandfirst piece was missing - and so the mirror and the whole world of Rabiah remains disassembled.
As you could look onto the shards of the mirrors and observe the other worlds, some scholars had theorized that the missing shard is a different one on each of thousandandone versions of Rabiah - always the shard that represents exactly the version of the world it was missing from.
Others yet said the wazir was tricked by an evil entity disguised as a merchant, some being who removed a part of the mirror beforehand knowing it could never be fully reassembled that way.
The truth had never been discovered, remembered was only the Tale of How Rabiah Was Refracted Thousand-fold.
Or maybe not...
Marid The rarest and most powerful tribe - they have left the main land for good and live out onto the open see. Not troubled with the lesser tribes any more after the end of the War of Djinn, which decimated their number.
They still bear a grudge against the lesser tribes, which is why they are bannished from the open sea on Rabiah. If a lesser djinn travels onto open waters and loses sight of the coast, the Marid's curse keeps them from ever seeing land again.
Creature type: Djinn
Djinn :symg::symu: The True Djinn have been neutral in the War of Djinn, but the Marid's curse was all-encompassing (also some Djinn fought on either side of the war) so they, too, are bound to the land and have moved from the saltwater of the coast towards any place of water - each oasis or stream can be considered the realm of a True Djinn and their whim decides whether a thirsting traveller will be allowed to drink from their waters - hence they are revered by the desert nomads.
Creature type: Djinn
Djann :symg::symrw: The Djann sided with the non-djinn creatures in the War of Djinn. Compassionate with the lesser beings they wouldn't allow the efreet to purge the humans and stood by their side. To these days the Djann are the most benevolent tribe and try to populate the barren deserts left after the war with life wherever they can.
Creature type: Djinn
Efreet :symb::symr: The desert-dwelling Efreet tribe has developed into something vastly different from the other tribes - pure in their essence and embracing their fiery form they reign over the burning desert sands. When the lesser humans attempted to travel the desert, the Efreeti didn't welcome the intruders. Some would allow them passage for a tribute, but others were to proud to be bought like that and destroyed anyone coming to close. When the Djann created safe passages through Efreeti lands, the conflict that would become the War of Djinn began.
Creature type: Efreet
Ghoul The lowest of the tribes they are numerous in places of death as they feed on the dead. Scavengers by nature they dwell in the desert and try to disorient wanderers with unearthly howling. As they, too, have diverged in their essence far from their djinni roots the Efreet recruited them with promises of great slaughter in the War of Djinn.
Creature type: Zombie??
Nekrataal :symb::symur:?? The Nekrataal tribe was always mischievous and parasitic - latching onto lesser beings and sometimes controlling them, always causing symptoms of great illness and plague. Themselves physically weak they were manipulators and some may wonder whether the War of Djinn wasn't secretly fabricated from among the Nekrataal despite the minor role they played compared to Djann and Efreet. Maybe that's the reason they received a special punishment when the Marid ultimately left for the open sea in the aftermath of the war: A course has bound them to the most recent creature they have been inhabiting with their powers. As the humans were the greatest ally of the Djann among the non-djinni this meant almost the whole tribe of Nekrataal was turned into what they despised most and ever since they have seperated themselves forming a cult of outcasts devoted to death.
Creature type: Human
Locations:
City of Brass - Will have a small artifact based faction. It is said that Fatima the creator of the Brass Men lives deep within the city in seclusion from the world. I consider expanding on that story and theme with maybe even a planeswalker card.
Serendib - A plentiful island kingdom where Djinni and Efreeti rule, but are unable to leave due to the Marid curse. In result they have started to trade with humans in spite of the past.
---
While working on the desert theme I considered this:
Land - Desert Plains
(:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.)
Barren Flats enters the battlefield tapped.
:symw:, :symtap:, Sacrifice Barren Flats: Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a Desert card. If you do, put it on the battlefield. Shuffle your library.
as a cycle - the names will refer to shiftsand, mirages and/or simply Rabiah-specific places.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
Commanders:
Basandra, Battle Seraph | Diaochan, Artful Beauty | Mayael the Anima | Nath of the Gilt Leaf | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Raksha Golden Cub | Rayne, Academy Chancellor | Roon of the Hidden Realm
My art blog
Claims:
The kicker variant in WWK will be "Kicker without a kicked effect." - proven wrong Jan 2010 : 2 wrongs
Decks:
:symu::symb: Bloodchief Ascension - Modern
:symb::symr: Rakdos, the Defiler - EDH
:symu::symb::symw: Sharuum the Hegemon - EDH
:symw::symu::symb: Zur the Enchanter - EDH
I was referring to in terms of his desert plains. Desert doesn't make sense on any other land type. Also, there's only one land in existence that has the "Desert" subtype. It just doesn't have a lot of design space and application.
My art blog
Claims:
The kicker variant in WWK will be "Kicker without a kicked effect." - proven wrong Jan 2010 : 2 wrongs
Decks:
:symu::symb: Bloodchief Ascension - Modern
:symb::symr: Rakdos, the Defiler - EDH
:symu::symb::symw: Sharuum the Hegemon - EDH
:symw::symu::symb: Zur the Enchanter - EDH
You can have Desert mountains quite easily. It's a stretch, but there could also be Desert forests and islands--think scrub lands and oasis, respectively.
I actually think there's a lot of flavorful design space here.
Commanders:
Basandra, Battle Seraph | Diaochan, Artful Beauty | Mayael the Anima | Nath of the Gilt Leaf | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Raksha Golden Cub | Rayne, Academy Chancellor | Roon of the Hidden Realm
So... here are some ideas I thought worked or could work...
Sorry if this feels like thread hijacking... I just wanted to throw out some ideas as it seems you're in the planning phase of this project.
-- Colorless Sand Warrior tokens (accessible by all 5 colors)
-- Colorless sources of damage (mostly at uncommon or rare)
-- +1/+1 counters
-- Desert land subtype (at common and uncommon)
-- Djinn creatures across 5 colors (I nixed efreets because I decided two tribes of genie was confusing. If you made five tribes, that might work... I wouldn't use ghoul for black, however, as ghouls are typically Zombies)
-- I was tempted to use Gravestorm, but couldn't quite figure out how. Still, I think it mechanically fits some of your ideas.