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Project Spotlight: Errors in the Weft
Project Spotlight: Errors in the Weft
Featuring DrChipmunk
This month, we are featuring Errors in the Weft, a project being developed by DrChipmunk. To see the project as it stands now, check outs its planesculptors page, found here: https://www.planesculptors.net/set/errors-in-the-weft#details
In a few sentences, what is the premise of Errors in the Weft?
"Errors in the Weft is a battlecruiser Magic set where big creatures matter. It tells the story of a digital utopia that allowed its user to be whatever they wanted, and how it died."
Where would you say Errors in the Weft is in the development process?
"As of right now, EIW has been sent out for comments and consideration by the REV curators, so it's frozen. What happens next will depend on what feedback they send back.
If they request big changes, I'll make them, but I'm not going to do major overhauls on EIW for any other reason. Right now, I'm appreciating the break where I can't make changes. Maybe I'll write another short story."
What inspired you to begin creating Errors in the Weft?
"The Twilight Mirage is an actual-play podcast season about the decline of a futuristic utopia. It engages head-on with the questions of what a utopia looks like, what it needs to be maintained, and what happens when it fails. It's ambitious, bizarre, and hopeful.
17776 is a web story about a future where humans have stopped being born and stopped dying. It's a story about play and sport, and how humans use play and sport to find meaning and purpose.
Transistor is a video game about a city of style and lights, where everything was under control. It's a story immersed in a vision of the digital that is tactile, organic, and cool.
In real life, I'm a software engineer who works in C, a language that is closer to the dead metal than most. I've always been entranced by how computers feel when you have to speak their language rather than them trying to learn yours."
"These were my main inspirations. I've tried to tell stories of digital utopia in my table-top RPG groups before, but it's hard because the setting is hard to conceptualize and there isn't an obvious source of conflict. A custom Magic set is a much better medium for a story so focused on the texture of the world. I knew I could rely on cyberpunk illustrations and especially Netrunner for the art.
In my previous custom set, I designed exclusively for draft. This meant that the rares were a slog, since they served no purpose, and I had trouble finishing them. For EIW, I decided I would have a constructed format I was aiming for, just to give the rares something to do. I chose REV; I wasn't sure whether I was actually going to submit it.
Soon after I started the project, I was discussing it with my usual cube group. I mentioned that I might submit it to this format called REV. One of the other players there turned to me and said.
"Oh, I'm one of the REV curators."
So then I had to do it."
Big mana, big creatures, battlecruiser Magic encourages players to build big and dream big. Are there any tips you’ve learned that you’d like to share about designing for battlecruiser?
"My model when I started working on EIW was Rise of the Eldrazi, the only battlecruiser magic set that Wizards has (intentionally) made. Very quickly I realized that if I wanted to make a set that felt like a current-year play booster set, it couldn't be built on that model.
Limited in 2010 was all about value. Packs may have been larger than they are now, but there were fewer playables and even fewer relevant cards. The good cards defined your deck, and the bad cards were nearly incapable of ending games. ROE took that structure to the extreme: almost all the 2-drops and aggressively slanted creatures were bad cards. With no way to end games quickly, the environment could be made glacially slow. It was fine that your curve started on 3; the increased card quality of the more expensive cards made up for the inefficiency."
"Draft has changed a lot since 2010. The power level has increased, which increases the speed of the format, all else being equal. Unplayable commons are out. Power level bands are flatter. Whatever 2-drops I put in the set would have to be playable. I could put in fewer 2-drops, but that would just make them more desirable. Instead, I landed on the following structure:
- In this set, you build decks with a mostly normal curve. The Frank Karsten recommended curve of 2 1-drops, 7 2-drops, 7 3-drops, 4 4-drops, and 3 5+-drops, based on mana efficiency over a normal-length game, is still the goal. The cards in the set are distributed according to that curve, so no spot on the curve is particularly scarce.
- The cheap creatures serve important roles in the set, but most of those roles do not involve attacking. They enable synergies, ramp, draw and filter cards, and serve as mana sinks, but they aren't good at pressuring players on their own. In particular, there are no 3-power 2-drops at common.
- As a result of the last point, the format will be slower than usual. Instead of a higher curve to provide value over a slower game, there is a very high density of mana sinks. There are two mana sink mechanics, mana sinks in the lands, and invokers.
- The tagline has changed from "A slow format" to "A format where big creatures matter". You're allowed to end the game quickly as long as you do it with a big creature. There are payoffs for controlling big creatures and high-mana-value permanents. The removal suite is efficient but bad at hitting big creatures. There are bigger-than-usual creatures at lower-than-usual rarities."
In designing for Rev Standard, what changes or concessions have you had to make as a designer?
"EIW isn't just my first time designing for a constructed format; the Revolution custom standard that I played while developing EIW is the first constructed I've played of any kind.
One of the things I love about limited is how a mechanic can completely define the format. It doesn't matter to a limited format whether a mechanic works with thousands of cards from across Magic's history or only with cards in the same set. In fact, it can be more desirable for a mechanic to be set-specific because it makes the environment more distinct from other environments. Mechanics like Lesson / Learn, The Ring Tempts You, or Morph need the density a draft format can provide to make sense."
"These kinds of mechanics just won't fly in constructed. Early versions of EIW had mechanics that cared about the creature type "Error", Subroutines that required you to control Subroutines of specific other colors, and about 50 enchantments at common. These made the environment more distinct, but they wouldn't work outside the walled garden and they had to go.
As I took my first journey into the world of constructed, midrange made immediate sense. Constructed midrange decks are much like limited midrange decks. Constructed control decks are a different breed than limited control decks (much less focused on blocking), but I have durdling in my blood and I could get them soon enough. What took me a while to get was constructed aggro decks.
Constructed aggro decks may seem similar to their limited counterparts, but they're not. Limited aggro decks aren't that much faster than the midrange decks they are fighting. They have to earn value by forcing their opponent to make unfavourable trades and walk into combat tricks. Constructed aggro decks are much faster and care much more about the opponent's life total. I was shocked by them when I encountered them for the first time. I had to learn how these decks worked both to design cards for them and to design cards that are good against them. I'm still learning.
Partly because the EIW was headed for REV submission, and partly because it was more approachable and polished than my previous work, I got much more feedback than I've received before. Several curators gave comments, which were more immediate, authoritative, and direct than comments from anyone else. Being part of a constructed format means you have additional stakeholders. This was hard to take at first, but it has undoubtedly made the set better."
What is your favorite card in Errors in the Weft?
"Xeia, Record Chaser.
This card started with the art. The art suggested a character, which suggested a mechanic. She chases records, so she rewards you for playing a spell of greater mana value than she's seen before, and she gets a trophy (a Treasure) when she does. It's clean, it's flavourful, and it rewards the things the set is trying to reward.
I also wrote an entire short story about her, to which the beta reader feedback was "make her meaner". You always fall in love with a character when you write a story about them."
Would you like to give any special thanks to anyone on this server for their help?
"Silverparabellum, who was working on a set for REV at the same time as me. Very much my opposite in design sensibilities, and a great source of commiseration.
Zangy, who gave the most clear, reasoned, and actionable feedback of anyone. My go-to person for insight into the mind of a curator.
PTM, who helped me understand aggro and who was a good sport through my struggles with same."
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