FUR: Card-by-Card Designs, Pt I

     Welcome back to TwistedSpoon Studios! In the last design article on FUR, the custom magic set about the culture and art of beast folk, we created a set skeleton that incorporated all of the set's themes and mechanics. This week, we're going to start filling out that skeleton with some card-by-card designs. First, though, I have an announcement: FUR finally has a name!

    If you're on the r/CustomMagic subreddit, you can probably figure out exactly when last week's article was written. Back in October, I ran a series of polls to find the best names for each territory (sorry u/Intent!) and, more importantly, the plane of the set! I'll discuss the results in the next worldbuilding article, but for now, all you need to know is that FUR takes place on the plane of Urbestia. This may not come as a surprise-- I updated the name of the index page after the polls-- but there it is.

    With that out of the way, the new card file is done, and you can find it here! We're going to talk about some specific card designs and the reasoning behind them. Note that at Wizards, the team that designs cards is not the team that costs them, so power levels will be a little wonky. We're more focused on flavor, design, and mechanical roles. Let's get into it!

CW04 - Skahelos Sidewinder

{1}{W} Creature - Snake Artificer - 1/1

When ~ enters the battlefield, it crafts. (Create your choice of Combat claws or Protective Pelt and attach it to this creature.)

    This one is fairly straight forward, but it's a great example of how crafting works at common. As a reminder, crafting creates one of two equipment-- Combat Claws (Equipped creature gets +1/+1; Equip {2}) or Protective Pelt (Equipped creature gets +0/+2; Equip {2}). In other words, this card is a two-drop 2/2 or a 1/3-- two standard creatures that appear for {1}{W} in premier sets. Neither of these is an exciting stat line, but it has the flexibility of being either depending on what you need in the moment. On top of that, you can then move those stats around-- even if the creature dies. Skahelos Sidewinder demonstrates how a card can go from curve-filler to synergistic setup.

CU07 - Grating Aficionado

{3}{U} Creature - Fish Folk - 2/4

Ward - Mill two cards (Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, counter it unless the controller of that spell or ability puts the top two cards of their library into their graveyard.)

{1}{U}, {T}: Target player mills X, where X is the number of artifacts you control.

    If you'd told me at the beginning of this that FUR was going to be an artifacts-matter set, I would've scoffed, but it just works. Between the Masks, Treasures, and crafting in general, there are plenty of artifacts just lying around. The minor mill subtheme also helps differentiate UB from the other artifact archetypes (BR, UR, and RW). If you've ever been to a convention (or any nerd event in general), you've probably met this guy. 

CB12 - Assemble the Ranks

{3}{B} Sorcery

Create a 0/0 black Knight Army token, then put a +1/+1 counter on it for each Knight you control.

    Knights? Armies? What? Okay. So the WB Wolf tribal theme has shifted sideways into Knight tribal for two reasons. First, there aren't many wolves in white and black outside of this set; if this were an actual set, you'd be pretty disappointed not to be able to play your cool new Wolf lords in Commander or whatever, so instead, all of the Wolves in the set are also Knights. The second reason is that I didn't want to include a race-based tribal archetype in a set about cultural heritage due to the comparison to nationalism. This card was a fun way to fill a hole in black; I loved Amass in War of the Spark and this felt like a flavorful homage. There's an argument for the Lumbering Battlement treatment in white; if I find a better option for this slot, we may just do that.

CR11 - Scrap Blast

{R} Instant

As an additional cost to cast [Cardname], sacrifice an artifact or land. 

[Cardname] deals 3 damage to any target.

    I've always had a soft spot for Collateral Damage and its ilk. Who doesn't like Lightning Bolt? Well, Play Design, clearly. While we don't get Bolt in standard anymore, we do occasionally get homages like this. Usually they involve sacrificing a permanent, or they cost two to three mana and have a condition that makes them cheaper. With plenty of artifacts, especially artifact tokens, floating around, this felt like a good match for the set. I don't know if this card is going to be terrible or great (Collateral Damage was honestly pretty bad), but I'm looking forward to seeing it in action all the same.

CG18(a) - Aurora Cloak

{2}{G} Enchantment - Aura

Enchant creature

When [Cardname] enters the battlefield, tap enchanted creature.

Enchanted creature has "{T}: add two mana in any combination of colors."

 

    This is one option for the green ramp spell at common. This usually comes in one of three flavors: a sorcery that puts lands onto the battlefield (a la Rampant Growth); an enchantment that makes a land tap for more mana (like Market Festival, which is also in the file as an alternate option); or a creature that taps for mana (e.g. Llanowar Elves). The fun thing about option number two is that you can build your deck to untap the land and tap it again to essentially double your ramp. I love this strategy, but I didn't want the Vivid deck to be able to set up with one card and then be safe for the rest of the game. While there are both land and enchantment destruction spells in the set, this approach makes your ramp even more fragile. That being said, ramping from three straight to five-- or six, if you have a land card for the next turn-- is pretty strong. I feel like it's going to take some tinkering to get this card to sing, but I really think it will.

Design's Up

    That's all for this week. Which designs do you like best? If you were designing with these mechanics, what would you make? Let me know in the comments, and if you mock up any designs, we'd love to see them!

    Over the next few weeks, we'll be alternating between worldbuilding and card-by-card articles while I find some playtesters. (If your interested in playtesting the set, shoot me a DM at u/DefyKnowing on Reddit, or use the "Contact Us" link on this blog. We'll be using Cockatrice to play online-- you can find it here.) Next week, we're getting back to worldbuilding. We'll be building the relationships between the tribes and the map of the plane. Until then, check out my friend and bona fide furry artist (SFW) Kyotai's page here.

    See you soon!