I need help completing the cycle on these legendary sorceries. Like the Dominaria ones, they do require a legend to be in play.
They all represent pivotal moments in the narrative. Arthur invading the mainland, the Battle of Camlann, and of course, Avalon.
Avalon is unapologetically stolen from a yugioh card of the same name.
Sometime in the last year I went head deep into the Matter of Britian, and from there The Welsh Triads, Cheirens (haven't touched the continuations yet) and The Vulgate Cycle.
It started with finding and reading Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, basically the canon of Arthurian legend in the English speaking world.
I had always wanted to try a Three Kingdom's style expansion for The legends of King Arthur and The Round Table. I mean, I knew the basics, about as much as anyone else, but I didn't really know the meat, and designing a set, is hard.
As I went deeper, I did decide to make a few rules for set cohesion. Only French and English sources. No Wagner or Parsifal, no Italian stage plays or the Dutch traditions. I only made a caveat no modern sources. Anything past 'The Golden Age of Illustrations' is also off the table, and originally, I wanted to do Medieval sources exclusively, but Tennyson has just too much influence. All art to my knowledge is public domain in the US.
Since my previous set was so popular here, I decided I will post once a week cards based on themes from this expansion, which is currently in the works. Since this is an active designed set, I'll take all feedback, and criticism is encouraged. Just know, it is supposed to be "pre-FIRE" design.
Here presented is King Arthur himself, and the currently designed knights of the round table. The Round Table is massive, with some traditions stating over a 1,000 knights were included in it in its height. I made a more sensible decision, after all, not every knight needs a card.
Grail knights have a universal theme designed around Saga's, as does Dinadan, who isn't a Grail Knight, but is described as a bard in a number of traditions.
Of course, most of the famous ones are there. Lancelot, Tristan, Gawain, Galahad, even Kay and Dinadan. I also at least attempted, to make them all somewhat unique. Flavor was a major decision, but so was functionality.
Here we go. Any knights you feel I missed?
Note: Apparently 'General Advice' was the wrong tag, so I'm trying the Content Creator tag instead. This is content right?
The Matter of Britian and Arthurian legends are defined, by their nature, their stories.
Poems, epics, alliterative narrations, and eventually books define the legends. From Welsh ballads, to The Vulgate cycle, to Tennyson single handedly causing the Arthurian revival in the Victorian age.
I wanted the sagas, to be based on actual stories in the legends. Many of these have the exact titles of stories or books in the legends, with the three exceptions being Arthur's prophetic return, Lancelot and Guinevere, and The Grail Quest. However, these are common enough motiff's that they fit anyway. The Questing Beast also isn't technically the name of a poem or book, but I will get to that later.
I'll be the first to admit these aren't particularly balanced, but since the set is still in its Alpha stages, none of these are the final versions of the cards.
Le Morte D'Arthur is a mess and is due for an entire redesign honestly.
Idylls of the King is about saga's deliberately, since Tennyson basically rewrote and recreated stories. The art is even from a cover of the book.
I had intended the Questing Beast to be an Enchantment creature, similar to the ones in a recent slop set. However, I had also debated against it, which is how it currently is. I wanted to avoid mr 'what does this card do' from Eldraine as much as possible.
I've been told Gawain and Dame Ragnelle doesn't work as written.
Several saga's are based on Welsh poems. Since I don't have an appropriate Kaldheim border, and I fear I lack the skill to design my own, they just get the standard border.
As always, feedback is appreciated, and more importantly, encouraged.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aTrqBO-M2Jc-Xsi2cV6kBRoxwY1seJHB/view?usp=drive_link
Designed as a thought process of what would a set hastily made for the 95 drought look like, as well as filling holes in the old school card pool.
It served as a creative outlet to experiment with abandoned or forbidden design spaces. Mechanics include World Enchantments, graveyard order, banding.
I did design it with some limited in mind, but admittedly, the gold bordered cards are a bit uneven. I also designed this with the 95 card pool in mind, so Faeries, which had some tribal support in Homelands, get some tribal support in this (sadly no minotaurs).
I was recommended on sharing this to this group by an individual in the main sub. If not allowed, feel free to delete.
Since this is a cube group, I'll be showing some cards that help archetypes, instead of the flashier or unusual cards.
Feedback will be appreciated.
"Reflections: What could have been" was one part thought exercise, one part passion project, with healthy amounts of passion and a small dose of insanity included.
The primary process happened under two different influences. The fad of groups in Old School adding errata to cards and the question 'What does old school need?' At the time I started, I regularly played 'Magic 95' format, and certain potential decks (like Faeries) influenced my design decisions, as well as feedback on the previously mentioned question.
The set serves as a means to experiment with abandoned or forgotten mechanics. This includes not only my favorite mechanic, banding, but Rampage, poison counters (but not Infect/Poisonous), World Enchantments, color hate, text change effects, and of course, Bands with Others.
When I initially started, I had planned this to be a 'small expansion', with no real story to the cards. Sort of a 'Legends 2'. As I continued to get ideas and explore into things, the set expanded. Then my laptop fried.
The design process can be broken into 3 primary sets.
The original contained period correct text, any art I could get my hands on (lots of Art stolen off Epilogue.net and old file dumps), and lacked direction.
At the advice of a good friend of mine, The second set, which started with me looking for period correct art, eventually switched to public domain art pieces. The availability, or lack there of, influenced how I designed the set. This was the first world were I developed a setting 'The Twelve Kingdoms' or 'The Realm'. A continent of confederate kingdoms who's 500 years of relative peace and the perpetual balance from outside forces which allowed this to happen, has grown stagnant, and how a new enemy from across the sea, brings ultimately an end to their age.
The Third and final version of it, greatly reduced the number of cards in the set, shifting it to 370 cards, counting basic lands, and was designed as a stand-alone expansion, designed to be played by itself, or with the 95 card pool. It also featured modern rule text, though I kept several archaic creature types in the set, including townsfolk and Ship. I'm not sure if I should have done that in retrospective.
I also posted these cards of 4chan for the sake of feedback.
I'm including a sample of cards I feel really sell the feel of the set.
This is a finalized set, and as such, I'm not taking feedback on changing of the cards, but all criticism is welcome, as they could help future projects.
The set can be viewed for download here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aTrqBO-M2Jc-Xsi2cV6kBRoxwY1seJHB/view?usp=drive_link
FAQ's (?)
How long have you worked on this set?
On and off, about seven or eight years.
Can I play with these cards?
Of course! I hope you do.
What was the inspiration for the Season Queens?
They are the oldest designs in the set, as they come from a set I worked on on Anycraze.com.
The art however, was recommended by a member on 8chan.
Why include colorless cards?
A little anachronistic, the idea was floated around however fairly early on. It originally was because I couldn't fit the art for 'Creation' onto a standard card and it felt like it should be colorless. The rest came from that.
How deep is the lore?
I've written way too much on the lore. It's probably a full setting, with history that ties it to the larger MTG lore.
Is there going to be expansions?
Yes, dreams, which will be a small expansion, and experiment with mechanics introduced in Ice Age and Mirage blocks respectively, and possibly a third set called Reality, which will show the fall out of the war, but I haven't done much for that set yet.
In the nature of Romances, women play a major part in Arthurian legends. From the Marriage of Eric and Enide, to the doomed romance of Tristan and Isolde, to the machinations of Morgan and the affair of Guinevere, women are a major driving force in the tales.
They aren't just courtly ladies either. Fairies, withches, sorceresses, even peasants.
Naturally I couldn't possibly hope to design an Arthurian set without romance being a major theme, and without women.
Here presented is a selection of a handful of the women currently in the set. Most of them are currently legendary, with the exception of Lady in Waiting. Morgan and Guinevere got welsh counterparts.
I want to thank you all, you're recommendations have changed this set, and made it, somewhat more cohesive. I'm in your debt.
Naturally, all criticism and suggestions are appreciated and will be looked into. Thank you.
A small selection of original (and Knight errant) creatures.
The non-legendary creatures are some of the most important parts of the card. I remember someone once telling me designing commons people will want to play with is the hardest part of design.
Art and flavor text plays an important part in this. We had bad pet cards in the lower power and rarities we enjoyed playing with, even if they were lackluster. I think one of the biggest problems with Magic today is there isn't any attempt to invoke that with modern magic cards.
Some of these fill in archetypes, not necessarily belonging to Arthurianism alone, such as red knights and White Stag.
At least one of these belong to a common medieval tale that's not technically in The Matter of Britian, but is arguably just as famous.
This is far from all of them, but some I like.
The Fisher King is a recurring character in Vulgate, and post-Vulgate material. He's often a wounded king, who rules over a semi-liminal castle that is surrounded by wastelands. This stems from the tradition of the health of the land ties to the health of the king.
The Fisher King, who is in possession of The Grail, is effectively immortal, but is a cripple due to a wound, and thus, can only fish from his room, while his kingdom dies around him.
First appearing in Percival, The Quest for the Grail, he is a somewhat uneven character, with numerous people taking their own interpretations of him, even in the middle ages.
The Castle, Corbernic, falls under a similar situation. Sometimes it's stationary, sometimes it isn't, and depends entirely on the writer.
Corbernic is full of great dangers, including dragons and demons, and great treasures. Both the Spear of Longinus/Destiny, The Grail Sword, and The Holy Grail all reside in the place.
It's also the place of Galahad's mother, Elaine of Corbenic. Elaine doesn't currently have a card.
As always, feedback is appreciated and will be listened to.