Brandon's Magic post: Augmented Draft

[PeterAhlstrom]

This thread is for discussion Brandon's Magic: The Gathering post on June 9th, 2014.

 

http://brandonsanderson.com/introducing-augmented-draft/

Edited June 9, 2014 by PeterAhlstrom

[Kurkistan]

Well ain't that tantalizing.

[Sart]

What deck color does he normally run? I prefer green white enchantments. 

[Fifth of Daybreak]

Will this be of interest to former MTG players, or only current ones?

[Lightsworn Panda]

BRANDON PLAYS MTG TOO!?!?!?!?! YEEEEEEEAAH!

 

Wait... it's the 7th of June here. Is this an upcoming post?

[Gamma Fiend]

Yeah, looks like Peter is just trying to get us all hyped up with speculation about some upcoming announcement.
 
So let the crazy theories begin! (In increasing order of craziness)

1)We know Brandon often plays Magic with his fans at random card stores and places, so he will now be hosting a tournament for his fans! First place winner will get an appearance in one of his upcoming books!
or
2)Brandon Sanderson will be announced to be a story-writer for one of the upcoming Magic: The Gather Novels! (thus influencing the cards)
or, even better yet,
3)Wizards of the Coast will be working with Brandon Sanderson and releasing The Cosmere Cube! The ultimate Draft set designed and tested  by Brandon Sanderson and his most loyal fans!

/tinfoil hat.

[Wyrmhero]

This just in, Dragonsteel is the codename for Khans of Tarkhir! Oh, if only.

 

If it's number 2, then the Magic books might actually be worth buying. I remember looking at the Scars of Mirrodin and the Zendikar novels. Utterly worthless and I haven't bought one since. If Sanderson wrote one of the novels, I would immediately buy it. At least we would finally have a rigidly defined colour pie thanks to the First Law, and characters rather than robots.

Edited June 7, 2014 by Wyrmhero

[Fifth of Daybreak]

The Time Spiral books weren't bad, and I really enjoyed Agents of Artifice. 

[Wyrmhero]

So at first I was a little bit sad, since it was a draft thing, and that wouldn't be relevant to me since I live in the UK.

 

Then I saw that it was the opportunity to draft with Sanderson at all the conventions over the next year, like London, and I was happy

 

1) We know Brandon often plays Magic with his fans at random card stores and places, so he will now be hosting a tournament for his fans! First place winner will get an appearance in one of his upcoming books!

3) Wizards of the Coast will be working with Brandon Sanderson and releasing The Cosmere Cube! The ultimate Draft set designed and tested  by Brandon Sanderson and his most loyal fans!

 

Good guesses!

 

I think the problem here will be that we're trying to suggest cards here for a minicube, which means less of the utility cards than you would expect for a Mistborn-themed set, since the utility should be in the set you're drafting itself. I'm thinking of cards like Leap, Mighty Leap or Aerial Maneuver (Steelpushing), all of which are simple commons - though quite powerful in a draft, since they give you evasion at instant speed - but cards that should be represented in the set already.

 

You could have Fog for the mist, for instance. Again, functional but already an effect in most sets.

 

Well, to start off, let's see what kind of effect best represents the abilities/powers in Mistborn:

• Pewter - Power and toughness boosts, simply enough - Giant Growth and Brute Force works well to represent that. Temporary effects would represent it best.
• Tin - Possibly Scry effects would be what you're looking for here, or Future Sight-style 'reveal the top card of your library, you may play it'.
• Iron - 'Must be blocked if able', or things such as Pariah, and damage reduction, redirection or prevention.
• Steel - Leap or Prodigal Sorcerer-style 'tap to deal damage' would represent this best, I feel. Maybe Fling at a push.
• Copper - Perhaps Morph effects, to hide your things from your opponent. Ixidron would be amusing in a cube, but probably too strong and too close to a board wipe if there are few other Morphers around.
• Bronze - Seeing your opponents hand would work here, such as Gitaxian Probe or Telepathy.
• Zinc - 'Must attack this turn if able' and cards like that would show the impulsive nature brought on by rioting emotions. Sadly, Magic is severely underrepresented with 'emotional' cards not based on anger, and so it's hard to think of things for that.
• Brass - Pacifism and other cards like it represent the soothing nature of brass well.

But again, almost all of the cards I've mentioned are standard effects in Magic, and are in every set. Not that this is a bad thing, mind, just not helpful for a mini-cube. Allomancy is just a really functional magic system

 

Of the suggestions above, only really Future Sight, Pariah, Ixidron and Telepathy aren't in every set in some way, shape or form. Note as well that none of the theoretical effects there are Black, and most of them are actually Blue and White.

 

Amusingly, the best representations of Inquisitors are oozes - The Mimeoplasm and Necrotic Ooze represent the idea of stitched-together creatures, and the Necrotic Ooze in particular allows you to represent Hemalurgy by activated abilities. It's a shame that one of the Great Designer Search cards never got printed (Executive Decision. Basically you join creature cards together with paperclips), but that's how it goes sometimes.

 

Feruchemy could be represented by 'storage' spells. Iceberg and Mana Bloom let you store away mana for later use, as do the cycle of storage lands from Time Spiral. Sun Droplet is an example of storing health away, though it's not the same as how Bloodmaking works. I think it's close enough, at least.

 

Character-wise is very difficult, since all the possibilities for them would have to be Legendaries or Planeswalkers, who each have their own themes as well. Kelsier might be best represented by Elspeth, Sun's Champion, since he's been known to raise armies (for +1 loyalty), destroy more powerful foes such as Inquisitors (-3) and empower his own people with his Allomancy (-7 Emblem).

Edited June 9, 2014 by Wyrmhero

[Peng the Just]

You forgot cloak of mists. You can't have mistborn without mistcloaks

[Wyrmhero]

You forgot cloak of mists. You can't have mistborn without mistcloaks

 

Even better, it's actually a decent (if terribly underpowered now) card!

[Kurkistan]

I was thinking of some kind of Red-Black high-cost card to represent Koloss. Ideally it'd have a really cheap Monstrous ability that makes it so that it attacks every turn, but I don't think any existing card works like that.

 

EDIT: Looking at Red-Black now.

 

Maybe Carnival Hellsteed? Still looking... Something with Unleash would probably work, flavor-wise.

 

EDIT 2: Heh. Maybe Ruin could be Mogis? Too easy?

 

EDIT 3: In a pinch Ashenmoor Gouger (3 hybrid red/black cost, 4/4 that can't block) might work.

Edited June 9, 2014 by Kurkistan

[Ashiok]

Don't forget the Mimeoplasm for Hemalurgy

[Lightsworn Panda]

WHEN WILL HE ACTuALLY POST IT ITS ALREADY TUESDAY ASDFGHEJK

[Gamma Fiend]

WHEN WILL HE ACTuALLY POST IT ITS ALREADY TUESDAY ASDFGHEJK

O.o

It already has been posted. Link here and the first post was edited with it as well. Also a blog on Sandersons Website.

Basically Brandon saying he wants to have a cool mini-cube his fans could use and play with at signings and bunch of stuff like that using the new Conspiracy Draft set released. And then maybe gettings artists to help make him some alternate-art cards that could be used in a Mistborn "themed" deck. (Uses real Magic cards, with their same effects, just are titled and look all Mistborn style)

[Ashiok]

seems cool

[Kurkistan]

So kandra are both easy and a bit challenging. Obviously cloning, but how to go about it.

 

I tries to see if there was any pacifistic route to take, but couldn't really find any existing cards to match that. So I decided to focus on the whole "eat dead bodies" thing instead.

 

Body Double (duh)

 

Dimir Doppleganger - Has a tad more utility and the nice ability that it can keep changing as it goes. Two color, though, so less broad ability to play it.

 

Lazav, Dimir Mastermind - Very expensive (in terms of mana types) two-color with an un-flavorful hexproof, but still with that more active ability.

 

Myself I'm leaning towards Body Double. Short, sweet, to the point, and I'm not so sure we'll even need to change the flavor text.

[Ashiok]

again. The Mimeoplasm fits a lot of stuff

[Lightsworn Panda]

(Facepalm) I thought it was to be posted here on 17th Shard.

 

One day, I'll have to get Advantageous Proclamation or Traumatize (Hate and love that card).

 

Our Market Research Shows That Players Like Really Long Card Names So We Made this Card to Have the Absolute Longest Card Name Ever Elemental Is probably the best card name ever 

Edited June 10, 2014 by Lightsworn Panda

[Kurkistan]

again. The Mimeoplasm fits a lot of stuff

 

I discounted that for the kandra because gaining power from the dead isn't really their "thing", and also because it's not exactly very easy to play. Drafting three colors is... hard.

[Gamma Fiend]

Golems could totally be the Lifeless Statue Army from Warbreaker, with Precursor Golem being the main enabler for that that.
If there's a 'Quick/annoyingform' for Parshendi, they could substitute as goblins. 
Planar Cleansing could be called The Everstorm.
Unearth effects could be like making Lifeless, bringing them back from the graveyard for one use. Jasnah's soulcast blast could be a lightning bolt or even a straight up kill spell like terminate. I'll try and think of more cool things that could be cosmere-converted.

Some possible dual-land color Cosmere Locations:
W/G: ?
W/R: White Sand
W/B: Tranquine Halls?
W/U: ?
G/R: ?
G/B: Hell's Forests
G/U: Halledren
R/B: Scadrial Ashmounts
R/U: Reshi Isles
B/U: ?
 

[AEMarling]

I've drafted with Brandon Sanderson previously at BayCon and am Hellbent excited to do so again at Westercon.

 

First, I do think it's important that you have a pod that allows players to opt-out of the Augmented Draft. Magic is already a complex game, and adding a card, especially a wacky one, to the pack will stress casual players and beginners. Those who draft more often will love the addition of The Conspiracy Mini Cube, especially if Brandon Sanderson chuckles maniacally whenever he flips over a Hidden Conspiracy. I also think the flavor will mesh fairly well with other draft formats.

 

As a Magic flavor judge, I do worry about the Uncube. It may be like adding chocolate chip cookies to a dish of well-prepared asparagus, two good things that go badly together. (Frazzled Editor and editors in general are indeed overpowered.) The Good Fixin Minicube is more subtle. The problem I have with it is Wasteland. It leads to games that are the opposite of fun, and it's a relatively pricey card for a public cube.

 

I believe the best idea is the Mistborn minicube, at least from the perspective of the fans. We want a draft experience that's as Brandon Sanderson as possible, and there'd be nothing greater than attacking Brandon Sanderson with an altered-art card that represents a Steel Inquisitor. I don't see why there shouldn't be a Stormlight Archive minicube as well. I'll keep these and mind and look for flavor appropriate cards.

[Triumvirate]

~Obligatory Necropost~

 

Wyrmhero wins this topic.  The only thing I can think to add to what you said is for Zinc; if we're talking "rioting emotions" other than anger, I suppose we could stretch out a bit...  "Milling" could represent "sadness" to me, and perhaps "envy/greed" represented by "extort" or somesuch...  "pride" by "exalted", and mayhaps "intimidate/shadow/etc" for "fear" (on attacking creatures, rather than on target enemy creatures)?

 

This is a great idea!

Edited December 31, 2014 by Triumvirate