End of the Line

You may or may not know that I was entered in the Great Designer Search 2, and made it to round 3 - the design test. By now I'm sure that you can figure out that I didn't pass that part.

I'm basically okay with that. The more astute of you might, if you took note of various timing convergences, realize that part of my motivation in starting Journey to Nowhere was as a cathartic action. As part of that, and with my personally-driven participation in the GDS2 (though I still plan to participate on the wiki because hey, I like designing), I'd like to share my various submissions.

One last thing to keep in mind. Even though this particular journey didn't go anywhere for me, I've got no regrets (other than not doing better!). Overall, I feel like this was good for me, and it's gonna give me something to think about in the coming years. Fortunately, I've already got a pretty good job, so I'm still doing fine without this, but I definitely have a better feel for what I'm capable of and what I can work on. Look out, WotC, you haven't heard the last of me!

It's should come as a given that I'm not really satisfied with my submission. I mean, I didn't get in, obv!

Some of my essays were pretty poor, and I took what I feel are overly "safe" paths on a couple of them. I also feel like my writing came off as a little dry and impersonal. More importantly, I feel like I could have gone a little deeper into the text companions to the design test. I didn't fully utilize the 250 words, even though I had done some very similar writeups on my wiki page (available here). Particularly, I'm disappointed with the Mechanics description, which was a little overly blurby, in hindsight. In any case, without further comment (for now, I may go back for a more detailed post-game after a little time to get my thoughts in order), here is my complete GDS2 portfolio:

Multiple Choice: By my count, 45. I missed 2, 6, 29, 38, and 41

Essays:
1. Introduce yourself and explain why you are a good fit for this internship.
My name is Chris Young. I'm 23, and I've been playing Magic since I was very young. My first memory of Magic is being enamored by the Prodigal Sorceror, which my camp counselor told me was called "Tim." I didn't realize the source of the reference until later, but I was nevertheless hooked. I built decks from the random pile of Ice Age and The Dark cards my friend gave me when he quit Magic. I played the Microprose Shandalar game. The first product I bought from the game store was the Tempest Deep Freeze preconstructed deck. I remember it completely blowing my previous decks out of the water and it was then that I realized that there was more to deckbuilding than just getting a huge pile of all the cards I liked and putting them together. Now, I build decks all the time. At any given time, I have at least 3 decks built and more in various stages of brainstorming and development. I'm constantly trying to come up with new, interesting decks, and I'm known in my playgroup for building the craziest decks with the most obscure cards - and doing well with them! The two I'm proudest of recently are a Bazaar Trader combo deck involving Immortal Coil, and a Molten Psyche deck. Apart from Magic, I enjoy all sorts of other games, from Scrabble to Mah Jong to Settlers of Catan, and I'm always excited to try a game I've never played, especially if it means discovering a new way to think about strategy, and I love talking about strategy before, during, and after games. I also do crosswords and I enjoy computer programming, which I currently do for a living. I would be very excited to design for Magic. Through high school and college, I followed the YMtC events intently, and frequently posted on the wizards.com YMtC board. I hope that I can get this job, as it is something that I have desired for many years.

2. You are instructed to move an ability from one color to another. This ability must be something used in every set (i.e. discard, direct damage, card drawing etc.). You may not choose an ability that has already been color shifted by R&D. What ability do you shift and to what color do you shift it? Explain why you would make that shift.
To color-shift a mechanic, there needs to be two things: a justification for its new color and a reason for it to leave its current color. Considering these, I would move the Ophidian/Scroll Thief ability to draw a card upon dealing damage to a player from blue to red. First consider it in terms of flavor. In blue it is often represented by thievery - Thieving Magpie, Scroll Thief, etc. To my mind, this doesn't entirely work, as what sort of thief hits the person they're stealing from? In red, this could be represented more by bullying or mugging, both red cards in the vein of Browbeat. For a color values perspective, this is slightly out of place in blue, as it is a combat focused ability. Blue has ways of achieving repeatable card draw without going into the red zone, and despite the ability often meshing with blue's evasion, it's an odd way to keep blue's creatures relevant. In red however, red already wants to be attacking. Investing heavily into the board is red's way of getting ahead, so this fits well with red. While red normally does not get card advantage by drawing cards, this fits red because it puts the focus on combat. In terms of design, it is an interesting ability for red, the color of haste and trample, each of which synergizes well with the mechanic. Blue's evasion fills a similar role, but since blue's evasion often just eliminates blocking, it doesn't lead to many interesting decisions, whereas red creatures can usually be blocked, but the defender would have to trade, so it causes more tension in the decision.

3. What block do you feel did the best job of integrating design with creative? What is one more thing that could have been done to make it even better?
I think Ravnica was the best integration of creative and design. Each of the ten guilds had a unique mechanical feel that was also closely interlinked with its creative roots. It showed an incredible grasp of both what each of the color pairs meant philisophically in its keyword mechanic, its affiliated cards, and its flavor. While a few of the guild mechanics fell a little flat, the varied, distinct voices of each guild shone through brilliantly. What I most appreciated about its meshing of design and creative is the repeated structure throughout the set. Each guild had a leader legend and an associated minor legend, each guild had a "headquarters" land. These 10 card cycles not only evendenced an underlying flavorful framework, they reinforced the uniqueness and mechanical feel of each guild. Despite this, it feels like the guild theme was not taken far enough. While it's true that you didn't necessarily want every single card to be guild-aligned, there certainly could have been more of that. Shards of Alara showed that it was possible to make a number of self-contained mini-sets, and while you wouldn't want to take the guilds that far, you certainly could have made more guild-associated cards. The guilds were just so tied to the same rules as the watermarks (that they had to be two-colors, have an off-color activation, or have the guild keyword), but I think there should have been more guild cards that didn't fit along those lines - purely flavorful guilded cards. Doing that would have definitely strengthened the guild feel and helped the cohesiveness of the set.

4. R&D has recently been looking at rules in the game that aren't pulling their weight. If you had to remove an existing rule from the game for not being worth its inclusion, what would it be?
I would remove rule 305.3, the rule about the special restrictions on playing lands out of turn or playing extra lands. In particular, I feel that this rule is unintuitive when it comes to cards like Brilliant Ultimatum or Djinn of Wishes. It doesn't make sense that there are special rules for lands in cases like that; with other card types that normally wouldn't be able to be cast at non-sorcery speeds, there is no such restriction. It seems unclear why there needs to be a special case for lands. The only time when this rule comes into effect are with cards that allow you to play cards as a part of their resolution. In terms of power level, the type of effect that generally would allow this to happen are already very powerful, so that shouldn't be an issue, and in terms of gameplay, it simply feels better for an ability that allows such powerful things to happen to be as unrestricted as possible. The impact that this would have is relatively minor - it wouldn't remove the restriction on playing only one land per turn, it would merely allow you to get around it in the same way that you can get around the timing restrictions on sorceries with the same effects. Of course, you would have to be careful about other effects that allow cards to be played at instant speed, such as Vedalken Orrery, but given the nonland clause of Leyline of Anticipation, wordings that would get around this would be very possible in the event of this change being made, as long as future designers are careful.

5. Name a card currently in Standard that, from a design standpoint, should not have been printed. What is the card and why shouldn't we have printed it?
Dormant Gomazoa should not have been printed. At least, with design as it is now, it should not have. To understand this, consider what it's evident purpose is. On the surface, it's a 5/5 for 3 mana in blue. This is impressive, but of course it has a drawback - it only untaps if you are targeted by a spell. This is my first problem with it - the ability doesn't make a lot of sense. Why would it matter if you are targeted? Why does the Gomazoa not wake up if when it becomes the target of a spell? And in any case, players do not commonly target themselves, so it's not like it's an incidental trigger that comes about naturally (I'll come back to this later). And then, Blue is not really a color that needs 5/5s to come out on turn 3. So what is underneath this unappealing surface layer? As with many "bad" cards, looking deeper leads us into Johnny territory. What you have, is a card that can untap at will. There are any number of ways to harness something like that. But - and this is what I feel is the most important issue - how do you intend to repeatedly become the target of a spell? You cannot rely upon your opponent - while it almost acts as a hoser to a burn type deck, it doesn't really perform a useful role as one. So we are left with filling your deck with cards that target a player. So this is it - the big problem with Dormant Gomazoa: design has been moving away from making beneficial effects targeted. So few effects that targeted help the targeted player, and it's not even predictable when a spell will target. At the very least, it would be allowable if there were some sort of standard for targeted effects, but instead you have Sign in Blood next to Jace's Ingenuity and Whitesun's Passage next to Rest for the Weary. So then, Dormant Gomazoa just brings attention to this problem.

6. What do you think design can do to best make the game accessible to newer players?
To attract new players, the best thing that design could do would be to make interesting build-around-me cards that encourage deckbuilding and lead players in new directions. What keeps new players coming back is investment and interest in the game, and a large part of that is their deck. If a player can be proud of their deck, they will want to play it more and continue to make it better and better. What an interesting build-around-me rare can do is encourage a new player to explore new avenues, and try to discover new cards. For example, a card like Furnace Celebration, which turns something that is normally a cost into a benefit can make a player start to look at their old cards in a new light, and also to seek out cards they haven't seen to try to do something with the interesting card they found. Or, a card like Ezuri, Renegade Leader, which can be a flagship card, something that gives their deck a personality while also pointing a new player in the tribal direction. The total number of Magic cards is huge, and providing pointers to new players as to where to start is essential. That's what build-around-me cards do - they tell a player to look for more cards that do this particular thing. Creating that sort of exploration and attachment to the deck building process through card design is the best way to get newer players more into the game.

7. What do you think design can do to best make the game attractive to experienced players?
To make Magic more attractive to experienced players, the most important thing for design to do is to maintain a dynamic and varied Limited experience. While Constructed is a strong force, by its nature it is usually self-correcting, and while it is not ideal for bannings to occur, it is possible. In Limited, this is not an option, so it is very important to get it right. This matters most of experienced players because, for them, novelty is an important motivation in playing Magic. A good Limited environment provides a lot of novelty, as each experience is different. With worse limited sets, experienced players' interest can dwindle drastically. In this aspect, Rise of the Eldrazi was a great success. There were many different viable strategies, and there was none that was particularly outstanding. Compare this to the Magic 2011 format, which was dominated primarily by the blue-white flying deck, and had fewer alternate or complex interactions, leading to a less interesting Limited format. While the set still needed to serve other purposes than just this, it still led to loss of interest from experienced players. What design needs to do is to plant multiple strong limited strategies in a set. This can be accomplished with strong linear mechanics, like Rise's defenders theme, or with interesting commons or uncommons that change the style of play or manner of victory, such as Furnace Celebration, Kiln Fiend, Jace's Erasure, or Hedron Crab. If enough of these types of strategies recieve enough support in the set, Limited play becomes more interesting and attractive to experienced players, which is important to keep in mind when designing a set.

8. Of all the mechanics currently in Extended, which one is the best designed? Explain why.
The best designed mechanic of all the different mechanics of Extended is thhe Planeswalker card type. Planeswalkers bind creative flavor to a mechanical and gameplay feel perfectly. Flavorfully, they are intended to be near-equals to the player. While in practice they don't equal the power of the player, while they are in play they shape the game around them and have powerful effects that do emulate another player. The rules that govern them help this too. That they can be attacked like a player and maintain their own "life total" in the form of loyalty is the perfect way of making them player analogues. The only odd case in the rules is those for the redirection of damage, but in practice, it functions intuitively in practically every case. In terms of card design, planeswalkers have been a huge success. Despite their somewhat strict structure (that they have 3 (usually) abilities that can only be sorcery speed, and that their text must be relatively limited) there have been an incredibly wide variety of different planeswalkers that all can serve different purposes. As a mechanic, it is wide open for new design, while still keeping close (but not too predictably close) to what would seem like a fairly strict formula. This underlying structure causes the planeswalkers to all be very cohesive - even though they are all incredibly unique, they still feel like a connected whole. The fact that they all still feel like a group despite each one being very different and playing differently is a very good indicator of the strength behind the planeswalker design.

9. Of all the mechanics currently in Extended, which one is the worst designed? Explain why.
Of all the mechanics in Extended, Kinship is the most disappointing design-wise. This stems partially from the feel of the mechanic when it is played, and partially due to its unfortunate juxtaposition with the Clash mechanic; unlike Clash, which exists in the same set, there is little tension to a Kinship trigger. This is partly because, as an upkeep effect, a player feels less control over the result. Where a Clash is directly a result of the player taking an action, Kinship simply happens, without the player feeling complicit in the ability. Everything good about Clash simply overshadows Kinship - that a Clash involves both players, which leads to more excitement, that clashing allows you to manipulate your deck - and this can only lead to the conclusion that it was a mistake to print Clash and Kinship in the same set. While there is some synergy between the two, in that Clash allows you to possibly set up good Kinships, the difference is that a Clash usually felt like something extra and exciting, where for creatures with Kinship, that was the only element of their card, which makes Kinship creatures just feel subpar to play, especially since Kinship was only ever relevant once per turn at the upkeep phase. At other points of the turn, it was merely a vanilla or french-vanilla card. To be a good mechanic, Kinship needed to be able to stand on its own. It needed more tension and more relevance - like Clash. That flawed comparison is ultimately what makes Kinship fail as a mechanic in the set it was designed for.

10. Choose a plane to revisit other than Dominaria or Mirrodin. What is a mechanical twist we could add if we revisit this plane?
Suppose a Magic set were to return to Kamigawa. A mechanical twist that could be added is to expand on the Splice mechanic. Of all the mechanics of the original Kamigawa block, Splice is the mechanic that stood out the most, yet it was still only used in pretty limited ways relative to its potential. Splice only ever appeared on instants, and only ever could be spliced onto Arcane spells. What I propose is to implement different types of Splice. Suppose we wanted to allow splicing onto a creature type, like Splice onto Goblin or Splice onto Wizard. One problem with this idea is that splicing onto a permanent spell wouldn't work within the current rules. Some solutions to this problem would be to change the Splice rules to allow the spliced text to remain on the object if it moves to play upon resolution. Another would be to make a new mechanic that is a spiritual successor to Splice that would work for creatures. This would account for the distinct mechanical necessities of such a thing, while still keeping the feel of the original Splice mechanic. The Tribal type also could pose a problem, but it could probably be solved by the rules. Then, the other problem is to determine how this design will be implemented. To best replicate the feel of Splice, we would ideally have the spliced spell be duplicated when the creature comes into play, but it could also be fine, if a little odd within the rules, to have the spell's effect occur upon resolution, which would make Tribal spells work.
 
Design:
Chris Young
setzerg617@gmail.com

Part I - The World
 A. What is the name of your world?Atheram

B. Describe your world in one sentence or one sentence fragment. (15 word maximum.) For example: An adventure world where the land itself attacks all visitors.
A world unstuck in reality, where the material and immaterial are confused and entwined.

C. Describe the flavor of your world. (250 word maximum)
On a small plane nestled in the folds of the Blind Eternities, things weren't dying. They would cease to live, certainly, but their essences lingered. The afterlife had become a closed loop, and was twisting itself around and through the plane like a nine-dimensional moebius strip. At the same time, noncorporeal creatures (elementals, spirits, and illusions, among others) were growing more fantastical and erratic, while some corporeal beings were beginning to become ungrounded, getting more spectral. Something had shifted this world from its place in reality, and that jarring displacement has caused the the spirits of the afterlife spill out and cycle through the plane in an endless cycle of not-quite-life and impermanent-death. Reality is broken, and the conceptual is becoming more solid than the actual. This is Atheram, a world caught between the real and the unreal - between the body and the essence. A world of enchantment... and enchantments.

D. Describe your world through the lens of its mechanics. (250 word maximum)
The focus of this block is enchantments. With the world slipping out of reality, the abstract is overtaking the ordinary. As such, enchantments are going to be much more prevalent. There will be Enchantment Creatures - fragile beings that Release their essence when they die. You'll also see Auras with Emulate that don't quite work like you'd expect - they affect the world around them rather than the creature they're attached to. There's also a theme of a broken afterlife, with some creatures having some way to return after "death," and the return of Haunt, but with a twist: Hauntings now act like creature enchantments, allowing creatures with Haunt to continue to affect the game even when they die.

Part II - The Cards
1. Feature Article
Embra Brightflame (mythic rare)
1RG
Planeswalker - Embra
Starting Loyalty: 3
+1: Until the end of your next turn, red and green mana doesn't empty from your mana pool as steps and phases end.
-2: Put an X/X Elemental creature token into play, where X is the amount of red and green mana in your mana pool.
-5: Return each card in your graveyard to your hand.

2. Making Magic
Kyra, the Lost (mythic rare)
1GG
Legendary Enchantment Creature - Elf Spirit
3/3
You may play Kyra, the Lost from exile.
Release 5 (When this card goes to a graveyard from the battlefield, you may exile it. If you do, put another enchantment card with converted mana cost 5 or less in your hand or graveyard onto the battlefield.)

3. Serious Fun
Soul Battery (Rare)
[http://community.wizards.com/magicthegathering/wiki/Labs:Gds/gds2/setzerg/Cards]
5
Artifact
Whenever a creature goes to a graveyard from the battlefield, put a charge counter on this.
T, remove X charge counters from this: Return target creature card in a graveyard with converted mana cost X or less to the battlefield.

4. Limited Information
Sink into Muck (common)
[Black Enchantment Handler - http://community.wizards.com/magicthegathering/wiki/Labs:Gds/gds2/Seeonee/Prototypes/Black]
3B
Sorcery
Each opponent sacrifices an untapped permanent.

5. Savor the Flavor
Wrench into Being (uncommon)
[Turn Magic to Flesh - http://community.wizards.com/magicthegathering/wiki/Labs:Gds/gds2/setzerg/Cards]
1B
Instant
Target nonaura enchantment becomes a 4/2 Elemental creature in addition to its other types until end of turn.

6. Building on a Budget
Fecund Enchantress (rare)
2WW
Creature - Human Druid
0/2
Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, you may draw a card.
Whenever an enchantment you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may draw a card.

7. Top Decks
Aflame Elemental (rare)
2RRR
Creature - Elemental
5/1
Haunt (When this card is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, exile it haunting target creature.)
Haunted creature gets +5/+1.
When haunted creature is put into a graveyard, it deals 5 damage to target creature or player.

8. From the Lab
School of Thought (rare)
2UU
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
Emulate - Each creature you control other than enchanted creature gets all activated abilities of enchanted creature.

9. The Week That Was
Inspiring Glow (uncommon)
2G
[http://community.wizards.com/magicthegathering/wiki/Labs:Gds/gds2/Seeonee/Prototypes/Green]
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2.
When enchanted creature leaves the battlefield, choose one -- draw a card; or return ~ to its owner's hand.

10. Latest Developments
Warweary Villa (rare)
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
3WW: Warweary Villa loses all abilities and becomes an enchantment with "Creatures you control get +1/+1 and have first strike."

Commentary:
Embra Brightflame: A shamanic Flamekin Planeswalker who has embraced green life magic, come to Atheram to commune with the Aetheric spirits and the lost souls of Atheram's afterlife.

Kyra, the Lost: Leader of an elf tribe. One of the first to die as the afterlife came apart. Features the Release mechanic, which will appear on all enchantment creatures. For most cards, the release number will be less than the card's converted mana cost, but it can be increased for splashy effects like this.

Soul Battery: Ties in with the afterlife theme, and gives a way to steal creatures with haunt or release so their effects can't be used.

Sink into Muck: Gives black a way to deal with enchantments, but only by exploiting its enemy's mistakes. A limited trick to watch out for.

Wrench into Being: Flavorful top-down card that allows Black to deal with enchantments by giving them physical form. Liken it to summoning Death.

Fecund Enchantress: The enchantress deck has historically been a staple budget option.

Aflame Elemental: A threat that resists removal and can act as a powerful finisher.

School of Thought: Wacky ability hijinx. Interesting possibilities with cards like Gideon.

Inspiring Glow: A solid limited/constructed card in the line of Moldervine Cloak.

Warweary Villa: Part of a land cycle to (a) fit more enchantments into the set without overloading it and (b) smooth out late draws by letting your lands do something if you don't need mana.