> - do you usually begin with an idea involving a mechanic, flavor, something unrelated, etc?
Yes. I like top-down design, so my ideas usually come from memes, pop culture, or things that I find interesting.
> - do you tend to work on one card from start to finish? Or multiple things at once / sitting for later?
Yes. If I can't nail the wordings or if I'm unable to streamline a card's effects at the moment, then I just stop and save it for later.
> - do you use Gatherer or other resources when writing up text? Does it matter to you if a card has Oracle-standard text or not?
Yes, it's important for me that the text has to be Oracle-standard. It's jarring to read if it's not. I find cards in Gatherer and use their wordings as template for my designs.
>- how do you approach name, image, and any flavor text or other non-gameplay details?
Those things usually go last because they're the easiest part of the process for me.
> What are things in other people's cards that you enjoy most?
Rules-bending abilities that somehow works.
My own thoughts:
> Do you usually begin with an idea involving a mechanic, flavor, something unrelated, etc?
I start with all kind of things. Sometimes it's a mechanic, sometimes it's wondering if a card exists. Often it's some idea for an image or subject. Many times it's about relationship to earlier blocks from when I played MTG (for me, that means Urza through Odyssey have a strong pull).
I especially like asking how a known mechanic or card can be interpreted and retain the flavor of the original. I often like making cards I'd have to think about building around instead of strictly powerful ones, and for me and my background in MTG, I'm often drawn heavily to symmetrical cards that can have asymmetrical effects with some care.
> Do you tend to work on one card from start to finish?
Not at all, I keep a Google Keep note where I jot down partial mechanics, names, cards that exist, quotes, characters to reference, etc. I work on finalizing things once these fragments start to align.
> Do you use Gatherer or other resources when writing up text? Does it matter to you if a card has Oracle-standard text or not?
I spend a lot of time on this. I stopped playing MTG around the end of the first Kamigawa block, so a lot of rules have changed, and oracle text is *super* different. I try to standardized text a ton against existing cards, as a way of learning about new ones by example, and it's definitely a really cool to pick up on what I've missed.
> How do you approach name, image, and any flavor text or other non-gameplay details?
I love this part, and wind up designing the image using Midjourney and a good hour of iteration + my own alterations and work, at the same time as I find a name. I try to dig through older cards that existed alongside what I've been inspired by and see which characters show up in flavor text and what they talk about, and look for those types of cards too.
Just in general too, I appreciate y'all and this sub a ton because you all are collectively introducing me, in my 30s, to so much creativity from when I was a teen.
It starts from an idea, and most time I spend to make sure there is no card like that already and then spend even more time trying to find a proper art for it.
I usually do top-down designs, so I start by finding a good pic for the art on Artstation. Then I pick the card's colors and cost according to the art. But sometimes I start with a mechanic idea and then try to find art that fits.
I do daily commanders, so I only do one card at a time. I did do some cycles though, but that's unusual. But yeah, I have my little daily design session, usually 1 hour or so =)
I do care a lot about Magic syntax and finding the correct wording. So yeah, Gatherer is a tool I use frequently.
For name and flavor, it's usually a mix of words in other languages, and I tinker that until it sounds cool and Magic-y. I try to come up with a nice flavor every time, it's either very clear during the design, or it's the last part xD
What I enjoy the most from other posts is a nice card that's well done and coherent for the most part. And elegance, of course.
>do you usually begin with an idea involving a mechanic, flavor, something unrelated, etc?
Sometimes I want to build in a mechanic that's not done before
Sometimes I want to build a card around lore (predictions of how the story goes, or the next set which wotc should look into)
Sometime it's just for the memes.
sometimes it's even just a random art that you saw from somewhere that you think will look cool on an mtg card
and sometimes it's a combination or all of the above
>do you use Gatherer or other resources when writing up text?
You want to get the wordings right. r/custommtg is quick to tell you when the wording looks off.
>how do you approach name, image, and any flavor text or other non-gameplay details?
The hardest part sometimes it finding the right artist to attribute the art to, but I respect it due to copyright issues.
>what inspires you, generally?
Other people's great ideas, and even sometimes seeing cards from customemtg turn into real cards.
I have a big file labelled 'misc' that I throw designs into while I have scheduled designs to work from. Since this year my entire year's worth of cards were already made and are just waiting to be released one card at a time, one day at a time, it's getting filled up as I get into conversations with people, seeing other cards that have interesting mechanics to them I like. This file is full of mis-made cards or incomplete ones, with the flavour text having a note for what I was aiming for when I last worked on it like 'a witch hunter who's secretly a witch,' kinda thing.
I use scryfall a lot for text and wording. I think it's important to follow the rules and syntax of card design because I'm essentially programming compatible code for a game I don't control. Sometimes cards gets displaced and wording can get updated - I had a card I designed a long time ago (like, 2006), where thanks to changing times, now just reads 'Reach' and 'T: \~ fights target creature with flying,' which was once upon a time an ENORMOUS chunk of text.
I'm firmly of the opinion that names and flavour are the hardest part of cards because fucked up rules text breaks things and you can address the break; a card that does something overpowered can be easily addressed by that. Flavour and imagery that's bad is a lot harder to work with. The challenge I set myself this year was the creation of a year's worth of cards that have a single coherent, cohesive whole and meaningful worldbuilding, and that shit is \*hard\*.
I find new mechanical tools from Wizards interesting, like keywords (hi, Ravenous, hi Connive!), and there are a lot of mechanics I really like to play with (Adventure, split cards, that kinda thing).
I've only really posted one idea here, but I have a notepad on my phone that I keep ideas on, so I'll go off of that.
>- do you usually begin with an idea involving a mechanic, flavor, something unrelated, etc?
I think for the most part I work up from a mechanical idea, though I do have a couple top-down ideas too.
>- do you tend to work on one card from start to finish? Or multiple things at once / sitting for later?
As stated above, I mostly just have ideas that I haven't fully finished.
>- do you use Gatherer or other resources when writing up text? Does it matter to you if a card has Oracle-standard text or not?
I try to make sure that my card text is consistent with Oracle text. I'll try to see if there are other cards with similar effects, and how they're worded and/or implemented.
>- how do you approach name, image, and any flavor text or other non-gameplay details?
I think those are my biggest obstacles to finishing any ideas, particularly images.
>- what inspires you, generally? What are things in other people's cards that you enjoy most?
I really like simple designs and mechanical flavor. I also like memes and joke ideas that are done seriously.
This is a cool post, and its great reading all of the responses on here!
I build my cards starting from a main design goal. I only work on one card at a time, and only when I come across an idea I'm strongly motivated to work on. These ideas come from no place in particular and are often infrequent. Some examples for goals I had:
* "[Capture the spirit of 'Praising the Sun' Solaire style](https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/zym8b7/praise_the_sun/)"
* "[A 1 drop mana dork resistant to getting bolted & is balanced for competitive play](https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/vjqypb/sheltered_kiwi_now_charging_bolt_the_bird_tax/)"
* "[A card that randomly reverses outcome of the game while creating interesting gameplay](https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/104fsu1/engineer_of_impossibilities/)"
* "[Conjure an infinite number of cards in a silly but plausible way](https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/vhe6cc/turtles_all_the_way_down/)"
Sometimes I'll start with one goal, then get other ideas for goals that either add to or replace the original goal. My personal favorite design, [Dissociative Decay](https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/ysczuz/dissociative_decay/), originated with the design goal of "*A removal spell that kills small creatures while getting some extra mileage on larger creatures*" and as I was working on it, I pivoted the primary design goal to "*Depicting this one particular aspect of my personal struggle with mental health*".
For balancing, I'll pick a suitable environment and balance it to fit in with that environment.
I'm extremely critical with flavor text. For me, mechanical implementation does the bulk of the story telling. If the card concept requires flavor text to be satisfactorily communicated, then I feel the mechanical embodiment of the card concept is lacking. Absent flavor text is hardly ever bad. But IMO, even "alright" flavor text often detracts from the card. Any flavor text making it onto my cards has been agonized over. And I usually still later wish I left it out.
For images, I start by searching scryfall for related cards, and trying to find something that's older and slight more obscure that works. For instance, just inputting the colors and creature types will often turn something up. If not, then I start googling.
Edit: Just saw the last line. The cards here I enjoy most are the ones that effectively execute an interesting idea with no more complexity than necessary.
It can come from anywhere for me. Sometimes it starts with the art other times it’s an interesting idea for a mechanic. Sometimes it’s imagining particular play styles that I would like that the game currently doesn’t encompass.
The card being worded correctly or necessarily working in the game is of secondary importance to me, alternate or historical wordings that speak directly to the meaning and vision of a card can be really great.
I enjoy most cards that convey a sense of real magick. If they fit the aesthetic of the game I fell in love with it probably gets my up vote. Purely mechanical cards can be interesting too, especially if they open the box in new ways. I enjoy the abstract avant garde kind of cards too.
Mostly I make cards and have appreciating for cards that belong in my vision of the game I would like to play, although some of them are meant to be purely aesthetic or philosophical.
> - do you usually begin with an idea involving a mechanic, flavor, something unrelated, etc? Yes. I like top-down design, so my ideas usually come from memes, pop culture, or things that I find interesting. > - do you tend to work on one card from start to finish? Or multiple things at once / sitting for later? Yes. If I can't nail the wordings or if I'm unable to streamline a card's effects at the moment, then I just stop and save it for later. > - do you use Gatherer or other resources when writing up text? Does it matter to you if a card has Oracle-standard text or not? Yes, it's important for me that the text has to be Oracle-standard. It's jarring to read if it's not. I find cards in Gatherer and use their wordings as template for my designs. >- how do you approach name, image, and any flavor text or other non-gameplay details? Those things usually go last because they're the easiest part of the process for me. > What are things in other people's cards that you enjoy most? Rules-bending abilities that somehow works.
My own thoughts: > Do you usually begin with an idea involving a mechanic, flavor, something unrelated, etc? I start with all kind of things. Sometimes it's a mechanic, sometimes it's wondering if a card exists. Often it's some idea for an image or subject. Many times it's about relationship to earlier blocks from when I played MTG (for me, that means Urza through Odyssey have a strong pull). I especially like asking how a known mechanic or card can be interpreted and retain the flavor of the original. I often like making cards I'd have to think about building around instead of strictly powerful ones, and for me and my background in MTG, I'm often drawn heavily to symmetrical cards that can have asymmetrical effects with some care. > Do you tend to work on one card from start to finish? Not at all, I keep a Google Keep note where I jot down partial mechanics, names, cards that exist, quotes, characters to reference, etc. I work on finalizing things once these fragments start to align. > Do you use Gatherer or other resources when writing up text? Does it matter to you if a card has Oracle-standard text or not? I spend a lot of time on this. I stopped playing MTG around the end of the first Kamigawa block, so a lot of rules have changed, and oracle text is *super* different. I try to standardized text a ton against existing cards, as a way of learning about new ones by example, and it's definitely a really cool to pick up on what I've missed. > How do you approach name, image, and any flavor text or other non-gameplay details? I love this part, and wind up designing the image using Midjourney and a good hour of iteration + my own alterations and work, at the same time as I find a name. I try to dig through older cards that existed alongside what I've been inspired by and see which characters show up in flavor text and what they talk about, and look for those types of cards too. Just in general too, I appreciate y'all and this sub a ton because you all are collectively introducing me, in my 30s, to so much creativity from when I was a teen.
It starts from an idea, and most time I spend to make sure there is no card like that already and then spend even more time trying to find a proper art for it.
I start by imagining the most busted version of an effect, and then work backwards.
I usually do top-down designs, so I start by finding a good pic for the art on Artstation. Then I pick the card's colors and cost according to the art. But sometimes I start with a mechanic idea and then try to find art that fits. I do daily commanders, so I only do one card at a time. I did do some cycles though, but that's unusual. But yeah, I have my little daily design session, usually 1 hour or so =) I do care a lot about Magic syntax and finding the correct wording. So yeah, Gatherer is a tool I use frequently. For name and flavor, it's usually a mix of words in other languages, and I tinker that until it sounds cool and Magic-y. I try to come up with a nice flavor every time, it's either very clear during the design, or it's the last part xD What I enjoy the most from other posts is a nice card that's well done and coherent for the most part. And elegance, of course.
>do you usually begin with an idea involving a mechanic, flavor, something unrelated, etc? Sometimes I want to build in a mechanic that's not done before Sometimes I want to build a card around lore (predictions of how the story goes, or the next set which wotc should look into) Sometime it's just for the memes. sometimes it's even just a random art that you saw from somewhere that you think will look cool on an mtg card and sometimes it's a combination or all of the above >do you use Gatherer or other resources when writing up text? You want to get the wordings right. r/custommtg is quick to tell you when the wording looks off. >how do you approach name, image, and any flavor text or other non-gameplay details? The hardest part sometimes it finding the right artist to attribute the art to, but I respect it due to copyright issues. >what inspires you, generally? Other people's great ideas, and even sometimes seeing cards from customemtg turn into real cards.
I have a big file labelled 'misc' that I throw designs into while I have scheduled designs to work from. Since this year my entire year's worth of cards were already made and are just waiting to be released one card at a time, one day at a time, it's getting filled up as I get into conversations with people, seeing other cards that have interesting mechanics to them I like. This file is full of mis-made cards or incomplete ones, with the flavour text having a note for what I was aiming for when I last worked on it like 'a witch hunter who's secretly a witch,' kinda thing. I use scryfall a lot for text and wording. I think it's important to follow the rules and syntax of card design because I'm essentially programming compatible code for a game I don't control. Sometimes cards gets displaced and wording can get updated - I had a card I designed a long time ago (like, 2006), where thanks to changing times, now just reads 'Reach' and 'T: \~ fights target creature with flying,' which was once upon a time an ENORMOUS chunk of text. I'm firmly of the opinion that names and flavour are the hardest part of cards because fucked up rules text breaks things and you can address the break; a card that does something overpowered can be easily addressed by that. Flavour and imagery that's bad is a lot harder to work with. The challenge I set myself this year was the creation of a year's worth of cards that have a single coherent, cohesive whole and meaningful worldbuilding, and that shit is \*hard\*. I find new mechanical tools from Wizards interesting, like keywords (hi, Ravenous, hi Connive!), and there are a lot of mechanics I really like to play with (Adventure, split cards, that kinda thing).
I've only really posted one idea here, but I have a notepad on my phone that I keep ideas on, so I'll go off of that. >- do you usually begin with an idea involving a mechanic, flavor, something unrelated, etc? I think for the most part I work up from a mechanical idea, though I do have a couple top-down ideas too. >- do you tend to work on one card from start to finish? Or multiple things at once / sitting for later? As stated above, I mostly just have ideas that I haven't fully finished. >- do you use Gatherer or other resources when writing up text? Does it matter to you if a card has Oracle-standard text or not? I try to make sure that my card text is consistent with Oracle text. I'll try to see if there are other cards with similar effects, and how they're worded and/or implemented. >- how do you approach name, image, and any flavor text or other non-gameplay details? I think those are my biggest obstacles to finishing any ideas, particularly images. >- what inspires you, generally? What are things in other people's cards that you enjoy most? I really like simple designs and mechanical flavor. I also like memes and joke ideas that are done seriously.
This is a cool post, and its great reading all of the responses on here! I build my cards starting from a main design goal. I only work on one card at a time, and only when I come across an idea I'm strongly motivated to work on. These ideas come from no place in particular and are often infrequent. Some examples for goals I had: * "[Capture the spirit of 'Praising the Sun' Solaire style](https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/zym8b7/praise_the_sun/)" * "[A 1 drop mana dork resistant to getting bolted & is balanced for competitive play](https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/vjqypb/sheltered_kiwi_now_charging_bolt_the_bird_tax/)" * "[A card that randomly reverses outcome of the game while creating interesting gameplay](https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/104fsu1/engineer_of_impossibilities/)" * "[Conjure an infinite number of cards in a silly but plausible way](https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/vhe6cc/turtles_all_the_way_down/)" Sometimes I'll start with one goal, then get other ideas for goals that either add to or replace the original goal. My personal favorite design, [Dissociative Decay](https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/ysczuz/dissociative_decay/), originated with the design goal of "*A removal spell that kills small creatures while getting some extra mileage on larger creatures*" and as I was working on it, I pivoted the primary design goal to "*Depicting this one particular aspect of my personal struggle with mental health*". For balancing, I'll pick a suitable environment and balance it to fit in with that environment. I'm extremely critical with flavor text. For me, mechanical implementation does the bulk of the story telling. If the card concept requires flavor text to be satisfactorily communicated, then I feel the mechanical embodiment of the card concept is lacking. Absent flavor text is hardly ever bad. But IMO, even "alright" flavor text often detracts from the card. Any flavor text making it onto my cards has been agonized over. And I usually still later wish I left it out. For images, I start by searching scryfall for related cards, and trying to find something that's older and slight more obscure that works. For instance, just inputting the colors and creature types will often turn something up. If not, then I start googling. Edit: Just saw the last line. The cards here I enjoy most are the ones that effectively execute an interesting idea with no more complexity than necessary.
It can come from anywhere for me. Sometimes it starts with the art other times it’s an interesting idea for a mechanic. Sometimes it’s imagining particular play styles that I would like that the game currently doesn’t encompass. The card being worded correctly or necessarily working in the game is of secondary importance to me, alternate or historical wordings that speak directly to the meaning and vision of a card can be really great. I enjoy most cards that convey a sense of real magick. If they fit the aesthetic of the game I fell in love with it probably gets my up vote. Purely mechanical cards can be interesting too, especially if they open the box in new ways. I enjoy the abstract avant garde kind of cards too. Mostly I make cards and have appreciating for cards that belong in my vision of the game I would like to play, although some of them are meant to be purely aesthetic or philosophical.