DESIGN 201 - Boring Design Space

[Machinus]

There are some TMD members who have designed many cards in this forum, and there are also many members who only post a few cards, or just read the cards but don't post at all. I think it would be beneficial to explain some design philosophy for people who are not familiar with it, so that the quality of cards in this forum can improve, and also so that we can get more ideas (I think the cards designed here are great, so don't misinterpret that).

So, let's look at what would make up a bad card. I don't mean bad as in "unplayable," I mean bad as an poorly designed. There are many powerful cards that have abysmal design. This is one of the first obstacles to understanding card design - well designed cards aren't necessarily powerful, or weak. Rosewater has a long list of cards he designed that destroyed formats, and I'm sure he isn't proud of them (although that's part of his insanity, developing broken cards and making the game exciting and interesting). So, besides obviously broken cards, what makes for bad design? We could just start with basics, and not even look very deeply into flavor or the color pie (yet).


Very Hot Explosion
1RR
Sorcery
Very Hot Explosion deals 4 damage to target creature or player.

Pretend Char doesn't exist. What's wrong with this card? Why is it bad? What's the problem with working near this design space?


Strong Elf Guy
1G
Elf Warrior
1G: Target elf gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
2/1

Is this a well designed card? What are the potential problems of a card like this? What are it's strengths (as a design, not objectively as a "playable" magic card).


Sneaky Water Magick
1UU
Instant
Choose one - Counter target noncreature spell; or, Look at the top three cards of your library; put one of them in your hand, and the rest on the bottom of your library.

Why can't this card be printed? What is the danger of making card like this? In what direction should ideas like this to in order to improve?


Inscrutably Etched Totem
2
Artifact
Tap: Add 1 colorless mana to your mana pool.
2, Tap, discard a card: target player skips his or her next draw step.

Is this a good idea? Would this card make it through development? Why or why not?


Please discuss these examples, and the more obvious themes contained in them. Feel free to add examples, but I would like this thread to be a discussion of concepts generally agreed on and understood, and NOT a debate about the finer points of design. If we can't agree, then we shouldn't be teaching it in DESIGN 201. I think it could be very constructive to talk about design space to stay away from, and how to locate more interesting places to work on cards.

[Limbo]

Very Hot Explosion
1RR
Sorcery
Damage deals 4 damage to target creature or player.

This card is bad in vintage, extended and 1.5 because better cards exist in those formats. This card is bad in standard, because nobody is going to pay 1RR for the sorcery speed card. This card is not good in sealed / draft as it has double R in its cost. As such, it isn't really useful in any format. The problem for this card is that loads of (better) alternatives already exist in most formats, and it is bad in the formats where it could be useful.

Strong Elf Guy
1G
Elf Warrior
1G: Target elf gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
2/1

This is a nicely designed card if it weren't for the power of 2. This would be better of as a 1/2 or a 1/1. The 2 power makes it double aggressive, and too good a beatstick in sealed, draft. It does provide a nice ability though, and it still is vulnerable to removal. So at 1/1 or 1/2 this would be better of, as a 2/1 it is a little too powerful in sealed, draft.

Sneaky Water Magick
1UU
Instant
Choose one - Counter target noncreature spell; or, Look at the top three cards of your library; put one of them in your hand, and the rest on the bottom of your library.

This card provides both a counter AND "draw" (card quality) as an option on one card. Because it replaces itself in an optimal way if you don't need it anymore, this is way too good. It would actually be better to make the 2nd ability : look at the top three cards, put them back in any order. That way it would not be draw and counter in one and as such not broken but just good.

Inscrutably Etched Totem
2
Artifact
Tap: Add 1 colorless mana to your mana pool.
2, Tap, discard a card: target player skips his or her next draw step.

This card is nuts. First : it provides two abilities that have nothing to do with each other, second this card is both mana acceleration in the early game, after which it can singlehandedly lock down your opponent to prevent him / her from ever drawing another card. So after you gain superior board position with a nice critter you just lock them down and bash them to death. Not to mention the combolitiousness with either squee or genesis...

[Anusien]

We so ought to make a Vapor Ops test!

Anyway:

Very Hot Explosion
1RR
Sorcery
Damage deals 4 damage to target creature or player.

Are we looking at this from a design or development standard?  In terms of environments, it's always going to be fighting with Hammer of Bogardan in that limited design space, and the Hammer is almost strictly better (3 is almost always 4 in terms of killing creatures).  It's also barely better than something like Volcanic Hammer, and 9 times out of 10 players would prefer the Hammer for the limited mana cost.  It's also fighting for design space with Fiery Temper and Pulse of the Forge, both of which were better.
In terms of design, it's boring.  Nowadays R&D likes to spice up direct damage by making it fight into the block, usually by showcasing a new theme or mechanic.  Wizards wouldn't print a card like this unless it interacted well with the block (Lightning Helix, Magma Jet, Glacial Ray) or at least was interesting (Hanabi Blast).  There's no flavor associated with the card already, and no good reason to print it.

Strong Elf Guy
1G
Elf Warrior
1G: Target elf gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
2/1

There are no 1G Elves at anything other than 1/1.  In fact, there are problably less than 20 2/1 creatures.  2/1 for green is primarily either a 1/1 or 1/2 utility slot, or a 2/2 bear with a weak ability.  This is a creature with a very aggressive but vulnerable early game body and the kind of ability that makes it a potential late game bomb.  It would make more sense to be a 2/2 for 2G with that ability so it's not as tempting to run it into a blocker.  However, this ability is very high costed.  Take a look at Ursapine, who gets a slightly better form of the ability at 3GG for a 3/3.  In terms of development, I'd put this guy a 3G for a 2/2 or 2/3 and see if I couldn't get him flavor as a Lieutenant or something.

Sneaky Water Magick
1UU
Instant
Choose one - Counter target noncreature spell; or, Look at the top three cards of your library; put one of them in your hand, and the rest on the bottom of your library.

And when we run out of design space in blue, we take two very good cards and splice them together in a poor way.  The traditional bane of countermagic is that it's worthless in your hand when the threat is already down.  There have been very few exceptions to this: Complicate and Miscalculate are the only two counterspells that Cycle, and Dromar's Charm is the only Charm that counters.  You basically slapped Impulse and Counterspell together and weakened it slightly.  If you wanted to make this card, you'd have to price it at 4, and then it would be worse than Discombobulate.  However, I don't think this card should be printed at all.  It's too flexible, I feel.  If you wanted to make a similar card, I would make it a UB card and play on the ways those two colors deal with trying to get advantage.  Blue will get advantage by using its resources to shut the other player down (Annex, Countermagic, Control Magic) and black will sacrifice its own resources to get an advantage (Night's Whisper, Skeletal Scrying, Vampiric Tutor).  I'd do something like this:
Secrecy Magic is a bad name
1UB
Instant
Choose one - Counter target noncreature spell; or, Pay 2 life, draw two cards.
That's more inline with current cards like Consult the Necrosages.  It provides the same flexibility but has a more flavorful way of doing it, and if you want to try and get an advantage, it's going to cost you.

Inscrutably Etched Totem
2
Artifact
Tap: Add 1 colorless mana to your mana pool.
2, Tap, discard a card: target player skips his or her next draw step.

Skipping phases is very rarely down, and it's very much a blue ability.  If this card were printed it would take a niche ability (that is rarely used, and rarely played) and give it to every color.  That is a bad thingâ„¢.  It's an interesting card, but that interest comes from its abusability more than any interesting design space it provides.  This card breaks a fundamental rule of magic in a bad way.  It takes one of the laws of the game (draw a card every turn) and turns it off.  This card would be the most obnoxious card ever to play against, not the least of which because its drawback is minimal.  Get a Jushi Apprentice going and lock your opponent out of the game?  Pitch Deep Analysis or Basking Rootwalla and stall for 3 turns while beating face?  It's also undercosted; I'd make it 4 to cast (with only that ability) and 5 to activate along with pitching of 1 card, and maybe 2.  I'd have to work with it a lot to see, and even then it would be on a watchlist.  At least that way makes it so you've probably seen a way to remove the card by the time the other guy gets the engine going.  Even then, Wizards tries to stay away from this (when is the last time Stasis was printed?).  In other words, it's a dangerous card bordering on broken without any compelling story or flavor reasons to be printed.
Edit: I forgot to object to the random mana production ability like everyone else.  Mana production with any other decent ability costs 2 (Guardian Idol), and that is at least decently flavorful.  This is a huge WTF.

[Nazdakka]

Very Hot Explosion
1RR
Sorcery
Very Hot Explosion deals 4 damage to target creature or player.

Pretend Char doesn't exist. What's wrong with this card? Why is it bad? What's the problem with working near this design space?

As written I wouldn't be surprised to see this in the next large set. It's possibly a trifle undercosted, but I don't see anything fundamentally wrong. Not every card can show off startling design innovations - Magic needs its Benevolent Ancestors, its Convolutes and its Recollects, to give a few examples from Ravinca. None of those cards have any particular mechanical connections to the themes of their set, they're just variations on known themes which haven't been done before.

On the issue of design space, then yes, you are setting a pretty high standard for 3cc sorcery-speed burn which people will base their comparisons on, and there's only so many vanilla burn spells you can print before you run out. However, if that's what design want to do, then why not? You *might* be obsoleting cards like Pulse of the Forge or Lightning Blast... or you might not. I don't think this card single-handedly eats a huge quantity of design space though, so I'm curious to know what problem you feel there is here.

PS: Neither Fiery Conclusion or Dogpile have any special connection or synergy with the themes of red in Ravinca, yet they got printed. There are lots of 'boring' cards which get printed in every set, we at the CCF tend to prefer to make the more exciting ones.

Strong Elf Guy
1G
Elf Warrior
1G: Target elf gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
2/1

Is this a well designed card? What are the potential problems of a card like this? What are it's strengths (as a design, not objectively as a "playable" magic card).

A strong limited card which is pulling itself in two directions. On one hand he wants to be an extremely annoying utility creature, on the other he wants get his hands dirty in combat as a 2/1 for 2. The question he asks is 'why am a 2/1'? I think the answer is 'why not?'. What's wrong with making players think about whether they should be attacking with him as a bear or holding back for the late game? If you don't think R&D print creatures who can be played aggressively in the early game but which are still powerful late, then I quote the examples of Stonewood Invoker, Eight-and-a-Half Tails, Kavu Titan and large numbers of Morph creatures.

All that said, I wouldn't print it. Elves have enough Lords and tribal helpers already without making more good ones, and this one is highly reminiscent of Ursapine, a card which is capable of winning games almost single-handed. Another point is that a powerful Elf 'Lord' such as this would feel out of place in any set without lots of Elves already, and if we do that we have to revisit the territory of Onslaught block.

Anusien: Run an MWS search and you'll find a dozen examples of 1G elves who are 2/1, 1/2 or 2/2. I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say, I'm sure Magic has a lot more than 20 2/1 creatures.

Sneaky Water Magick
1UU
Instant
Choose one - Counter target noncreature spell; or, Look at the top three cards of your library; put one of them in your hand, and the rest on the bottom of your library.

Why can't this card be printed? What is the danger of making card like this? In what direction should ideas like this to in order to improve?

Reasonable countermagic or good card selection, depending on your mood. Extra mana to account for improved flexibility, but you're still getting a lot of flexibility in a cheap package. The flexibility is the problem, this will often be better late than Miscalculation while still remaining a strong card-drawer. Needs to cost 1 more mana IMO, but then it's just plain worse than Dismiss. I think this one is very hard to modify without drifting into other cards or adding more text.

Inscrutably Etched Totem
2
Artifact
Tap: Add 1 colorless mana to your mana pool.
2, Tap, discard a card: target player skips his or her next draw step.

Is this a good idea? Would this card make it through development? Why or why not?

Finally, an easy card to object to. A soft lock with this card could be held for a long time, while all that would be needed for a hard lock would be a constant source of card advantage. Undercosted lockdown components are a big no-no, people hate to play against them, plus in this case you've got a random mana generation ability tacked on for no apparent reason. The second ability is almost unprintable at any cost, simply because it's a 1-card lock. If you had to make the ability, then maybe this card could be a creature so it's easier to deal with, plus maybe it could require more sacrifice to use.

[Anusien]

Anusien: Run an MWS search and you'll find a dozen examples of 1G elves who are 2/1, 1/2 or 2/2. I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say, I'm sure Magic has a lot more than 20 2/1 creatures.

My point is twofold.  (ooh, MWS lied to me somehow).  First off is that 1G 2/1 Eves tend to be offensive.  About the most utility they get is Joiner Adept or Seeker of Skybreak; not anything this good.  At 1G Elves in general, for an ability that good they tend to be 1/1s (Herald, Hivemaster, Wellwisher, Vanguard).  This ability is costed very highly, as we both noted on Ursapine.  Being an Elf is almost costed like being a Goblin in terms of actually being worth mana.  There are a handful of non-elf 2/1 creatures for 1G that have relevant abilities, but I don't know how many of them are that good.

[dandan]

My point is twofold.  First off is that 1G 2/1 Eves tend to be offensive.  About the most utility they get is Joiner Adept or Seeker of Skybreak; not anything this good.  At 1G Elves in general, for an ability that good they tend to be 1/1s (Herald, Hivemaster, Wellwisher, Vanguard).  This ability is costed very highly, as we both noted on Ursapine.  Being an Elf is almost costed like being a Goblin in terms of actually being worth mana.  There are a handful of non-elf 2/1 creatures for 1G that have relevant abilities, but I don't know how many of them are that good.

But it is OK for Wizards to print this?

or this?


Frankly an Elf for 1G that doesn't generate mana can have 2/1 or 2/2. And Gempalm Strider is a pretty solid Elf pumper that cantrips and doubles as a bear if need be. The ability is strong and personally I'd limit it to one activation per turn but I could see Wizards printing it as is in a Rare slot.

[Jacob Orlove]

PS: Neither Fiery Conclusion or Dogpile have any special connection or synergy with the themes of red in Ravinca, yet they got printed. There are lots of 'boring' cards which get printed in every set, we at the CCF tend to prefer to make the more exciting ones.

Actually, both have a lot of synergy with Selesnya's token generation, and with Boros's emphasis on all-out attacks.

[Nazdakka]

PS: Neither Fiery Conclusion or Dogpile have any special connection or synergy with the themes of red in Ravinca, yet they got printed. There are lots of 'boring' cards which get printed in every set, we at the CCF tend to prefer to make the more exciting ones.

Actually, both have a lot of synergy with Selesnya's token generation, and with Boros's emphasis on all-out attacks.

That occured to me, but from a structural point of view, why should Red get cards which are synergetic with G/W? The Boros do have an preference for all-out attacks, but so does red. Would either card have seemed particularly out of place had they been printed in Champions or Mirrodin?

[Jacob Orlove]

Fiery Conclusion could fit in a lot of sets, but I think Dogpile would have felt pretty out of place in Champions (spirits and non spirits ganging up on somebody?), and it would have been a little odd in Mirrodin, which was somewhat creature light.

[Godder]

Very Hot Explosion
1RR
Sorcery
Very Hot Explosion deals 4 damage to target creature or player.

Pretend Char doesn't exist. What's wrong with this card? Why is it bad? What's the problem with working near this design space?

This isn't bad - it's a cheaper Sorcery Lightning Blast. It's vanilla, but there's always room for some vanilla. Where we could go wrong is by either under-doing or over-doing the design space, much like the 2/2 for WW.

Strong Elf Guy
1G
Elf Warrior
1G: Target elf gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
2/1

Is this a well designed card? What are the potential problems of a card like this? What are its strengths (as a design, not objectively as a "playable" magic card).

The design of the card is straightforward enough, albeit a little crowded - Elves don't really need yet another good tribal card. However, the specifics need tuning - just how good this is in its current form depends on how many other Elves there are in the block (and may well force the hand of the block designers) i.e. either there are lots, and it's a Limited bomb, or there aren't many (if any), in which case it's merely undercosted for Limited (a likely Rare). This isn't in keeping with how cards like this are costed. Green cards that do this are generally more expensive and either bigger to compensate for the extra cost (Snarling Undorak, Ursapine) or have another complementary token-generating ability (Squirrel Wrangler), or both (Sliver Queen, Nemata), or have other limitations (Rootwalla, Timberwatch Elf). Also note that this ability on a tribal card along these lines costs more as well.

Sneaky Water Magick
1UU
Instant
Choose one - Counter target noncreature spell; or, Look at the top three cards of your library; put one of them in your hand, and the rest on the bottom of your library.

Why can't this card be printed? What is the danger of making card like this? In what direction should ideas like this to in order to improve?

The options aren't related in any way (other than being Blue abilities) nor do they present an interesting tension between the choices. It's just two of Blue's best abilities (countering and card quality) stuck together on a card for no apparent reason, and weakened a bit to try to make up for the flexibility. Kicker or Entwine could make the card work, as would changing/tweaking the options so they present an interesting choice.

Inscrutably Etched Totem
2
Artifact
Tap: Add 1 colorless mana to your mana pool.
2, Tap, discard a card: target player skips his or her next draw step.

Is this a good idea? Would this card make it through development? Why or why not?

Not with these costs, if at all. It's far too cheap, and arguably the ability shouldn't be available to anyone anyway. This card could easily lock someone out of the game, especially if they haven't put any artifact removal or card-draw in their deck (not unknown, especially in Limited, Block and Standard), or drawn any. This could be played on turn 2, and literally win the game by itself if it's not answered immediately.

[Matt]

You know, I still have my old articles on design. I should find some way to get them hosted on TMD.

[Upinthe]

Sneaky Water Magick
1UU
Instant
Choose one - Counter target noncreature spell; or, Look at the top three cards of your library; put one of them in your hand, and the rest on the bottom of your library.

Why can't this card be printed? What is the danger of making card like this? In what direction should ideas like this to in order to improve?

Without even considering what each of the abilities on this card are, I can tell you that this is horrible templating. I had to read this card three times before I realized that there were only two choices instead of three. Even once you sort it out, it's still confusing...

[Anusien]

You know, I still have my old articles on design. I should find some way to get them hosted on TMD.

If it's a pain for them to get put up on TMD, send them to me and I can host them.  Jorlove probably can as well.

[Nazdakka]

So, let's look at what would make up a bad card. I don't mean bad as in "unplayable," I mean bad as an poorly designed. There are many powerful cards that have abysmal design. This is one of the first obstacles to understanding card design - well designed cards aren't necessarily powerful, or weak. Rosewater has a long list of cards he designed that destroyed formats, and I'm sure he isn't proud of them (although that's part of his insanity, developing broken cards and making the game exciting and interesting). So, besides obviously broken cards, what makes for bad design? We could just start with basics, and not even look very deeply into flavor or the color pie (yet).

(...)

Please discuss these examples, and the more obvious themes contained in them. Feel free to add examples, but I would like this thread to be a discussion of concepts generally agreed on and understood, and NOT a debate about the finer points of design. If we can't agree, then we shouldn't be teaching it in DESIGN 201. I think it could be very constructive to talk about design space to stay away from, and how to locate more interesting places to work on cards.

So, Machinus: What do you think is wrong with all of these cards? It's clear you think something is wrong with all of the examples, or you wouldn't have used them. Can you tell us what you expected to hear when you started the thread, and give your views on what is wrong?

[Machinus]

Most of what I was looking for got covered in the responses.

For the red card, I wanted to emphasize how uninteresting the card is, and how this lack of flavor would prevent it from being made. On the mechanical side, it is very similar to about a hundred other red cards. It is worse than them, though, because it is a sorcery, it has no mechanic, and all it does is deal damage. It is in a very overworked design space, which means that it needs to have a higher level of flavor, not lower. It doesn't even push the power level for uncommons, and obviously doesn't add anything interesting to the card species. This example was mainly about the problems with the design space for red spells.

For the green card, I wanted to emphasize the somewhat conflicting abilities, and the resulting overpoweredness of the card. This card is good by itself in the early game, the mid game, and the late game. However, you want to pump it up instead of casting other elves. Ursapine is a fine card because it costs 5; in an elf deck, this card basically monopolizes creature combat. Additionally, there are already lots of elves that do stuff like pumping, so again this is kind of a dangerous space to be designing a card in.

The blue card is just poor design. The abilities are part of blue's core identity, so using them requires a creative reintepretation of them on a mechanical or thematic level. Obviously you can't just put two abilities like this together on a card and say "choose one." They aren't really related to each other, and this card is useful almost all of the time because of it. The card isn't interesting, then, from either perspective. Cards like this need to be more coherent, and have a more interesting connection to blue's character.

The artifact card is about being interesting. The ability is completely boring and would not be fun, either to use or have used against you. Even so, the card is unfair since it breaks the rules of the game by preventing your opponent from ever drawng again. The card would not attract players to use, and it would not be enjoyable when it gets used. This is very clearly a poorly designed card, since it is mechanically bad and has no real connection to the artifact theme. Why is this an artifact ability? It doesn't really make sense.

Again, a lot of the stuff I was thinking got said by other people. I think this was a good exercise.

[eskimo81]

Very Hot Explosion
1RR
Sorcery
Very Hot Explosion deals 4 damage to target creature or player.

Meh, it's a little boring.  It's just burn.  It's not interesting at all.

Strong Elf Guy
1G
Elf Warrior
1G: Target elf gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
2/1

Either he should not be an elf, or his ability should be to only give himself +1/+1.  Elves have a habit of generating lots of mana, and this guy gives them a way to spend it to do some evil things.

Sneaky Water Magick
1UU
Instant
Choose one - Counter target noncreature spell; or, Look at the top three cards of your library; put one of them in your hand, and the rest on the bottom of your library.

It's card advantage, and a counterspell in one.  It's everything a blue mage would ever want, but should never have.  It's just too strong.

Inscrutably Etched Totem
2
Artifact
Tap: Add 1 colorless mana to your mana pool.
2, Tap, discard a card: target player skips his or her next draw step.

Two Words: Howling Mine.  'nuff said.

[Jacob Orlove]

There is no such thing as "boring" design space. There are poorly designed cards, but there's plenty of "staple effect + block mechanic" or even just "staple effect that's relevant now" (think shatter in mirrodin block), and there's nothing wrong with cards like that. What you're really trying to get people to avoid is inelegant cards. I wish Rosewater's article had been less terrible, because right now I don't really have any article to link you to that explains it.