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The Maestro's Challenge: Lead Designer

Written by The Maestro and CM Staff

This Maestro character is starting to weird us out a bit. But hey, they're giving us some fun design challenges to work with! This past month we were tasked in making a nonblue card themed around water. Let's see the top picks!

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ck! I am definitively delighted at each and every one of your enlightening entries for Episode 4: Fish out of Water. That said, a sizeable selection rose above the rest, to be highlighted here in my fifth transmission:

Third Place
Abyssal Scourge (Designed by storyfeline)

The Maestro: Ah, a creature of the sea I’d be terrified to see! Its secondary cost is very scary, an emerge that can result in a surge of advantage. From my vantage, the costs seem a little lost in the sauce, but the flavor and art let this leviathan vibe in third place.

CM Staff: Starting things off with style with a good ol' giant sea monster! The emerge mechanic feels like a great option here from a flavor perspective, evoking the thought of a monster emerging from the depths. Mechanically it's quite interesting, too, since you can use it to proc its ETB ability. It's quite likely that the emerge cost should be more expensive to offset all the cards you're drawing, and the body seems a tad small for a Leviathan, but the idea here is excellent. Side note, we noticed the art has been edited to add purple tones! Excellent detail to help it feel more in place on a black card.

Second Place
Lutrine Hangout (Designed by OHMYGOD)

The Maestro: When I saw these otters, I knew I oughta place them highly, as adorable animals always entertain me. The curious creatures this card creates are balanced and fun, despite the token being a little blue. The art choice is divine- I doubt I’d do better,̸̪̈ ̷̝́m̴̦͆n̵͔̏ȕ̴͙ ̵̏ͅW̴̼͛ ̷̨͛ť̴̪ǎ̷͜m̸͉̚s̷̺̈́ ̶̀ͅm̴̯̐ ̷̦́d̸̜͗r̸̛̘b̴͕̊ṣ̷̌ ̸͠ͅd̷̙̃v̶̨̈́d̵͍́m̶̦̓r̶̺̽k̷̫͒a̵͈͐q̶̨̊n̸͇̏k̶̙͘ ̸̼̔t̶̼̅a̵̺̔r̷̡͐ ̵̦͂z̶͕̆h̴͇̔! These aquatic mammals aptly handle a 2nd place finish.

CM Staff: Now this is quite cute. Visually. Mechanically this is pretty scary, but in an exciting way! This card is a great example of tweaking inputs and outputs to make a card feel another color while still being in pie. Drawing a second card is a trigger you'd normally see on a blue card, but creating tokens is still quite green, especially when your primary avenue to get it is through successfully connecting through combat from the second ability! A very fun, creative, and mechanically cohesive card.

First Place
Shallows Scraper (Designed by Magmadragon3)

The Maestro: This ancient mariner’s rime ends with a great time! A classic tribal group receives a really radical revamp here through reanimation. Surveil supports the plan perfectly, and the Scraper’s small body lends players a puzzle when playing. Excellent work, I am honored to bestow my favor!

CM Staff: The anticipation and reward this card creates is top notch! Getting to reanimate a big sea creature is such a fun payoff, and it all comes from a card that makes an outstanding mechanical narrative. A lone dreck skimming the water for horrors as it enters and attacks, finally summoning the horrors from the depths once it gets deep enough. All together, this design is well thought out and looks like it'd be a blast to play, earning its spot in first despite the tough competition!

Now, back to business.

Episode 5: Lead Designers

For our fifth fun frenzy, I would like you to design an artifact card that uses poison counters in some way. Again, instructions of how to deliver your design shall be found within my home away from home within this server of yours: the #feedback and #showcase threads. My favorite submissions shall be published, alongside pleasant praise, in my next transmission, along with your next challenge. Work hard, for my show’s conclusion will coincide with the bestowment of a prize so grand as to illuminate thee for all time.

Good work, good luck, and good night!

-The Maestro

If you'd like to participate, please join the Custom Magic Discord Server! For some more specifics on how to submit, please refer to the following:

Use the $design command on the Custom Magic Discord Server to submit your cards. You can only submit one entry. Submitting a second entry will erase your first one, and so on. If you submit multiple designs in one submission, it will be ignored by The Maestro.
If you are not looking to ⁠showcase your submission in the #Showcase thread, you're not looking for feedback in the #Feedback thread (both found in #custom-designs on the Custom Magic Discord Server), or you're looking to submit your design more discreetly, please use the #⁠bot-spam channel. Do not spam the ⁠#custom-designs threads.

Come Celebrate Mole Day!

Written by DrChillbrain

Mole Day is a holiday of great importance, celebrated every October 23rd from 6:02 AM to 6:02 PM in honor of Avogadro’s Number: 6.02×1023. It is complete and total nerd shit, but that’s why we love it, and it’s as good of a reason as any to throw a celebration, isn’t it?

Every year, the Custom Magic Discord uses this opportunity to hold a collaborative design event, where people can contribute designs to create a great big Science-themed set. Cards are designed throughout the month of October, with the great big premiere draft event on the holiday itself.

2023 marks the fourth year of the Mole Day events on the server, and we’ll be using a similar format to last year’s event: You’ll be able to submit cards through a special Mole Day Submissions channel alongside an MSE file with your card and the slot on the set skeleton you’re designing it for, then you can vote on others’ designs. At the end of each week, every card with a positive vote total will be added to the file.

One difference this year is that, rather than a singleton cube, users will be working together to design a traditional set, with multiples, rarities, and 10 traditional 2-color archetypes. This may seem like a small change but opens up a lot of differences in the approach to design: Getting a solid set of commons is crucial!

So put on your Mole Day Branded Bucket Hat, throw on Micheal Offutt’s classic album Celebrate the Molennium, and hop on over to the #mole-day channel to get with discussing and designing with fellow fans of the world’s favorite chemistry-themed holiday (citation needed)!

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