Beacon of Creation Podcast

Washington Cube Champs is a two day event packed with cube draft! Not just a niche format anymore, cube has its own events and tournaments, including WCC pulling in over a hundred players! This week we've got a pair of interviews with players at the event, including a full breakdown of the cubes each of them played. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com Theme by Dee Culp

With Tarkir Dragonstorm winding up, we're following their lead and enhancing some old mechanics! Like going from Scavenge to Renew and Flashback to Harmonize, we asked the listeners to design some new mechanics based on old ones. Designing mechanics is one of the hardest things to do a designer, so check out the fruits of everyone's labor! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com

Elders... be they dragons, dinosaurs, or Final Fantasy villains, they've always got cool abilities and an epic feel. This week we review your submissions to the challenge of designing new Elders creatures. Thrown into the mix is Juliet's challenge to include... the whole alphabet? Another great wacky mix of card analysis, creativity, and tangents about childhood and podcast saints. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com

Crossover eps take another card game, teach you the rules, and compare those ideas to Magic. What can we steal to use in our own designs? For this ep, our hair is turning gold, our energy is radiating from our bodies, and normal humans can't even see the speed of our punches. It's Dragonball Z! It's got commander-style face cards, a more spell-like combat system, and plenty of wild nooks and crannies to its design. Brad's bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/specialbeamcannon.bsky.social Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com

This one is for the flavor text lovers! Tim and Juliet have to dissect the flavor in this mystery pack from Peter. The pack's story has an order, and it's up to us to figure it out! Very much a Custom Magic episode. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com Moonshot's big charity stream is this weekend!

Starting in Zendikar, quests have been a fun way to build towards a goal. This week's guest, Qirn, has been thinking all about quests for a Legend of Zelda set and has some ideas. Along the way we break down the challenges of designing quests and the cards that are like quests. A deep dive! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com

We've got Beacon regular IgnitedxSoul, aka Dylan, on the pod this week! The topic is Outpost Zero, a sci-fi horror set, but more specifically we're diving into some problem draft archetypes in the set. A nice mix of learning about the set and brainstorming ideas for designs! Check out Ignited's writing: https://www.dylan-tyler-ward.com Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com

Don't miss this ep! Our listeners each sent us one of two things: either a custom card (of any design) or a real card with the name and types changed. The job for us hosts is to guess which is which, and you can play along!  Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com

With Dragonstorm out but Alchemy not yet revealed, we're taking a shot at some ideas for Arena play with these new mechanics! Long time discord member Craftedlavaistrue joins Tim and Peter for a trio of new cards. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com

Arms and the magic we sing of fate And Voc-Gal's micro-set Battle rate. Meanwhile the well-built set speedily came to the isle of the two Sirens, for a fair and gentle wind bore her on. Then presently the wind ceased and there was a windless calm, and a god lulled the waves to sleep. https://beacon-of-creation-mtg.github.io/previews/VGT https://khord22.github.io/VGE-spoiler  https://linktr.ee/khord22   

Juliet and Redbay break down the hip new limited format and custom design project: 45-card Micro-sets for duplicate sealed! Can this new format bring the best of traditional set design limited and the brevity and expediency of jumpstart play? Check out a preview of five different Micro-sets made by different designers, with a deep dive into Redbay's own traditional-fantasy inspired Veyrathal! Check out the current state of each of the micro-sets here: https://beacon-of-creation-mtg.github.io/ Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Reverse-Engineering a Definition Video Essay: https://youtu.be/0DosgFDJ7tw

Winter hibernation is over and we're hungry! Our challenge this month was to design cards with cards with devour, emerge, or exploit, so keep those snacks coming! We've got dreadmaws, eldrazi books, corrupt sherifs, lots of red arrows, and more! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com

They don't make formats like they used to... but should they?! Join guest Tom on a tour through the famous Rise of the Eldrazi format. Along the way we'll also talk about the parallels between ROE and a certain current draft format. Finally we try to see beyond just the cards in the original set and brainstorm some additions to the format. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com Theme by Dee Culp

Celebrating 400 episodes! This is an intro to the original Beacon of Creation project, Castmire, a spooky Magic set in a world before Duskmourn and Murders at Karlov Manor. The coolest part of the ep is the second half, where we give into sweet ideas from all of you to do with Castmire. We've got the two original creators of Beacon here, Brad and Adam, and lots of their stories and perspectives! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com Theme by Dee Culp Frog Legs Rag by Kevin Macleod

Juliet and game designer Aaron Lim dig into Magic's most interesting cards with the Food subtype! From Gingerbrutes to Krovod Haunches, they resist the urge to create tokens and design some tasty (though potentially broken) cards that'll make you say "Bon Appétit". Check out Aaron's Kickstarter live now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ehronlime/ithaca-in-the-cards-and-what-should-we-have-tomorrow-2nd-eds You can hear "Ithaca in the Cards" played on Party of One here: https://www.partyofonepodcast.com/2022/09/14/339-ithaca-in-the-cards-with-aaron-lim/ Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Big spells with a backup plan! We've got all of your entries in our Four Weeks challenge, where designers had to make a spell you can cast for either 8 mana or 2 mana! We've got lots of Cleave and Prototype, some Spree, and plenty of other innovations. Yet another fun design deep-dive! Juliet's Bath & Butler Works pod on Moonshot: https://www.patreon.com/posts/bath-butler-3-of-122994563 Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Final Fantasy previews are here and we've assembled a heroic party to talk all about it! Tim and Juliet are joined by the wonderful Ash Parrish of the Verge to break down all the cards. We talk our favorite previews, then talk through some possibilities for the set. What color is Bahamut? Should Materia be a token? What are the famous dragons in Final Fantasy anyhow?  Ash's work: https://www.theverge.com/authors/ash-parrish Ash is on Insert Credit: https://insertcredit.com Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

You Make the Pack is our community project where we build a pack of Magic cards, one card at a time! What starts as a blank slate quickly narrows into a specific vision. Past packs were Food Hell World, Declining Clockwork Empire, and The Beach That Makes You Old. For this episode we're looking at everyone's cards for this new YMTP. We've got snorf, story, spores and more. Come along with us as we explore all the possibilities. Khord's stuff: https://linktr.ee/khord22 Peter's new bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/peterofbeacon.bsky.social Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com Theme by Dee Culp, but listen to the end of the episode too...

This week is all about drift archetypes! We break down all ten from the new set along with their gold cards. Are they exciting? Believeable? Synergistic? This is a great way to get familiar with the components of the set's limited design. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com Watch "Cars" for Pete's sake!

What is Magic missing? We listened to all of you! This month's challenge was to use a new creature type and we went through all your cards. Juliet's new game: https://mousewifegames.itch.io/princeton Moonshot Patreon for Juliet's next project: https://www.patreon.com/c/moonshotnetwork/posts Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

In this episode we learn about Joyride, a bumper car battle race board game. Along the way we brainstorm ideas in Magic inspired by this new game! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

This week we're in the lab, talking all about cube experiments! Something between a normal limited format and a custom set, a cube is a way to test out all varieties of Magic in just the right conditions. To help him, Tim brings on cube organizer Alex and format mastermind Sam to go through more than a dozen cube pitches! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Would you like to listen to two people say the word "Beast" about two hundred times each? We have the episode for you. Diving into "Call the Beast" from Wrenchmar, we talk all about how to package flavor and novelty into a showstopper mechanic. No need to know anything going in, we cover it all! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Part of what makes Custom Magic fun is how easy it is to get into. Design a card, show it around, and done! For the New Year, Juliet wanted to tell us all about other ways to get involved in game design as a solo designer. There's so much in this pod!!! Some of the tools described: GB Studio https://www.gbstudio.dev Bitsy https://bitsy.org Renpy https://www.renpy.org Button Shy https://buttonshygames.com downpour https://downpour.games decker https://internet-janitor.itch.io/decker RPGMaker w/Pokemon Essentials https://essentialsdocs.fandom.com/wiki/Essentials_Docs_Wiki  Also look forward to Showcase Zero this Friday! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

We've got a ten pack of Defender-matters cards to review this month for our (Ad)vent Sentinel design challenge! The added twist here of getting the number 12 on a card really put our designers on an interesting track. Juliet's Castmas pod: https://moonshotpods.com/ill-be-pod-for-castmas/ Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

We've got a super cool guest for our episode this week! Principal game designer on the new Teamfight Tactics season, Shawn Elizabeth Main!! Not only that, Shawn was the lead on Conspiracy, so you know we're getting some multiplayer Magic talk in too. These Design Crossover eps are all about learning a new game and then riding that wave of inspiration back into some ideas for Magic. This one is for the multiplayer draft heads! The new TFT set/season, Into the Arcane: https://teamfighttactics.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/set-overview/teamfight-tactics-into-the-arcane/ Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Unpacking is where we go through a pack one card at a time and learn what we can just from that pack. No archetype lists, no explanation of mechanics, just what's on the cards. It's a great way to both see what the packs can tell us, but also brainstorm things that COULD be in a set but aren't. (also shh... we told Bradley he was recording an ep about Foundations so we could suprise him) The pack: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AmyuCVn_UGWJ_cGtpBhtX7abaEiGeLnGVbTuz98bBg4/edit?usp=sharing Bradley's twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/bradleyrose Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

We've got Bass back on the pod to tell us EVERYTHING about the short-lived Transformers TCG! This game burned short but burned bright. You start with your whole team in play, and each card has value both as a spell but also during the super cool "flip" phase of combat! Like all Crossover eps, we also sprinkle in plenty of ideas of how to cross those mechanics back into Magic. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Who needs to cast spells when you can sit back and let your creatures do the casting? Just the easy life for us! Fortunately our listeners didn't take it easy and instead submitted a baker's dozen creatures-that-cast spells cards for us to review. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com Thunder sound by SoundBible

We're back with a new crossover episode! Peter explains everything Tim needs to know about Wingspan, then they ride the wave of inspiration into a variety of mechanics for Magic! You don't need to know anything about Wingspan to listen (Tim didn't!) Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com Bird sound by SoundBible Music by Dee Culp

Spurred by the idea of simultaneous combat, Peter and Tim delve into all the phases and steps of a turn! After honing our understanding of each one, we also break out into some free form ideas. Deleting the draw step? A "start turn" phase to match "end turn"? Multiplayer alternating main phase actions? Lots more discussed. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Juliet and Esper witness the carefully-designed majesty of magister sphinxes on the white-blue-black Esper shard, from its played-everywhere cards to possibly the worst card in all of Magic: The Gathering. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Moxtober is our yearly event where we design cards based on a daily, one-word prompt. What would you design for "Alpha" or "Trial"? Our community designed a ton of cards. This year, we're putting the spotlight on all our new submitters (plus a who came back!). Moxtober is for everyone and this episode is a celebration of that! New members in this ep: Smell Hole - Smoking Gun Underworld Dreamer - Leyline of Inevitability The Real Eli - I Am Error Gluestick248 - Burning Slice YABO - Alpha Alpha Regal-Turtwig - Downfall of the Spire Talone - Limited Edition Alpha Ortuy - Escape Pursuit Therandomguyhi/Alastar - Alpha Agonizer sky.net - Break the Mirror PlaidWeaselVT - Animal, Loose Cannon Evan - Thunderous Sozu Spiderify - Gracinda Hamadyne - Barely Alive   Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

You all went quiet on us... but then came back! In the Going Ghost challenge, we asked for cards that blink out but take some time to come back. Plenty of spooky ghosts and funny flavor to be found in this ep! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Juliet and Mdub dig up the bones of Magic's Skeletons—from the ever-imitated Drudge Skeletons, to Skeletons that are Swamps, to modern Demilichs, not forgetting a number of cards that are clearly Skeletons in all but name. Along the way, we regenerate the design space for Skeletons of the future! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

We're back again with a deep dive on the uncommon gold cards of the newest set! We're honing our instincts on the design of these types of cards, and talk about how to apply it to our own designs.  Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

You've got questions, we've got an episode! We've got a whopping twenty-five questions packed into this episode, so you better press play! Theme music by Dee Culp "Misty Bog" by Eric Maytas soundimage.org Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

We're putting on our finest outfits and securing our monocles as we review the "To the Nines" challenge review. You all submitted equipment, but you weren't allowed to use the Equip ability! We've got scarabs, fish, crowns and collars this week and it's all going to be fun! More Juliet content at https://www.twitch.tv/moonshotnetwork Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Kayiu and Juliet tackle what makes designing for an IP swing or miss, covering Portal: Three Kingdoms and Chikyu: Ruined Future. Along the way, we break down some bad card design habits, some -1/-1 counter mechanics, Dynasty Warriors, a general acclaim for decayed, and a quick introduction to what makes Moxtober great! Juliet & Riley's Three Kingdom Spectacular is on Oct 1st at https://www.twitch.tv/moonshotnetwork Kayiu's live set-design streams are Sundays at https://www.twitch.tv/kayiu102 Schwa's article on fan-sets: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CcsU5xtDLNSm2DWh4zZDY46gDuvZkHBh3beFj3qioPk/edit?usp=sharing Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Our last pod about Design League 3 is here! We've got both league champ Prov and runner-up Brad here to talk about their process, the planes, and their ideas for the future! Be sure to catch our previous two league pods for some helpful context on this one.   Recommendations Brad's twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/bradleyrose Prov recommends: watching soccer! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Two-thirds of the Squares that Cube podcast join the pod this week to break down YOUR submissions to our Octopus-Overloaded challenge, Eight Legs a Week! Will our six arms be enough?? Squares that Cube feed: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2298320 StC Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0rM876ypRLwnF7rodNaUAZ StC's Pacific NW drafters Discord: https://discord.gg/eu4nthkkf5 Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Our league finalists had to invent a whole standard deck, along with making up ideas for a variety of standard sets to go in it! This week is Provocative's entry, and you'll hear all about some new tokens, Rakdos planeswalkers, and why the sun is bad! Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Our league finalists had to invent a whole standard deck, along with making up ideas for a variety of standard sets to go in it! This week is Bradley Rose's entry, and you'll learn about it along with us. Super exciting! Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Calming beach views, cooking for your friends, and all the Magic you could want! Tim and guest Shobi make the case for taking out a whole weekend with friends for playing Magic. Too much? Or not enough? They also go through all the cool drafts they did over the course of three days of Magic. Shobi's show in Portland: https://www.funhouselounge.com/burwesque/ Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Bloomburrow's rules change to "enters" has us hungry for more! Can we shorten "once a turn", "flicker", "end of turn", and more? Join our tour of rules text minutiae. Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Bloomburrow is here! We've had a look at the archetypes, and it's time for us to break down the design of each of them. For that, we have our four categories: Excitement: Is this a cool new strategy? Do these two cards inspire us? Accuracy: Do we believe decks will actually be able to play this strategy? Synergy: Does this make unused cards great? Are these cards only good in the right deck? Raw Strength: Are these two cards useful on their own? Do these cards lead me to this color pair? This is less abuut how to pick the best cards to win games, and more about the impression these archetypes might make on players picking up the set. With these tools we can also improve how we design our own sets. Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

This month's challenge is all about making a mana fixing card! Even better if we can get some heist flavor in there. From jewels to rads to chains we've got a pile of cards to dive into! Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com Music by Dee Culp

We're making good on June's "Halfway There" and designing cards to go with our favorite submissions from that challenge! Finding the right balance of flavor, deckbuilding, and explosive commander fun is a big challenge! Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com Music by Dee Culp

Tim liked what he saw in Bloomburrow previews ordered up a frog burger with a side of flies and Juliet serves up the A-B-Cs of F-R-O-Gs! We talk a little Bloomburrow, dive deep on the history of frogs in Magic, then explore some design ideas for frogs in the future. Juliet's July/December Christmas pod: https://moonshotpods.com/ill-be-pod-for-castmas/ Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

Our competition, the Design League, just finished its first half. Come listen to the great cards designed for this competition. Along the way you'll also get the POV of both a competitor and a judge for the league. Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com

This month's challenge review takes on Partner With commanders. We've got a whole bunch of great submissions from Kithkin to Moby Dick! Lots of crazy flavor, technology, and even some mystery. Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes: https://beaconofcreation.com