the skeleton
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Posted on May 11, 2010, 2:36 p.m. by Xander574
Hey everyone should read this article i have cpy and pasted it bellow but also here is the link:the skeleton
People should definitly read this...also it may be in our best interest to eventually have an updating skeleton when we get to making the actual cards
Nuts & Bolts: Design Skeleton Mark Rosewater Monday, February 15, 2010
The letter A! little over a year ago, I ran my first Nuts & Bolts column (on card codes for those that might not have read it). The idea behind it was that there is a lot of minutiae that goes into design and that part of understanding the process is learning about all the little things we do. At the end of the column I asked if you all wanted to see more of this kind of thing and the response was an overwhelming "yes, but no too often." So I present my 2010 Nuts & Bolts column. For today I've chosen the topic of Design Skeletons. Design Skeletons in the Closet
Let's begin today's column by answering the first question: what exactly is a design skeleton? The simplest metaphor I can think of is a blueprint. Before builders can come in and build a house, the architect has to map out what exactly he wants in the house. A design skeleton is a preliminary blueprint that helps the designer map out what he or she needs to have in the set. Today, I am going to build a design skeleton for an imaginary small set to show you how it is done. I am going to call my small set Justice as it is part of the Truth, Justice, and The American Way block (notenot actually a block, I'm making this up). Also, to keep things simple, I am just going to make the design skeleton for the common cards in the set. In a real design, the uncommons, rares, and mythic rares would also be added.
A key part of design skeletons are card codes so if you haven't read the previous Nuts & Bolts column I recommend you do so before you move on. Let's begin by laying down the card codes for Justice's commons. I'm going to assume Justice has a common cycle of lands and five common artifacts. With this info, here's how the card codes lay out:
CW01 CW02 CW03 CW04 CW05 CW06 CW07 CW08 CW09 CW10 CU01 CU02 CU03 CU04 CU05 CU06 CU07 CU08 CU09 CU10 CB01 CB02 CB03 CB04 CB05 CB06 CB07 CB08 CB09 CB10 CR01 CR02 CR03 CR04 CR05 CR06 CR07 CR08 CR09 CR10 CG01 CG02 CG03 CG04 CG05 CG06 CG07 CG08 CG09 CG10 CA01 CA02 CA03 CA04 CA05 CL01 CL02 CL03 CL04 CL05
The first thing we need to do is to figure out how many creatures we want. To do this we need to walk through what we know about the set:
1 The Set Is Going To Have Around 50% Creatures
The percentage of creatures tends to ebb and flow. R&D's current philosophy is that Limited is more fun if you more often have to stretch a little bit for your last few cards rather than cut cards that you know are strong. At its core, Magic is about discovery so we've brought that philosophy to Limited where we want to force players to have to try out cards they might not have played before. Anyway, this means that of the 60 commons, only 30 are going to be creatures.
2 Colors Follow Their Normal Creature Distribution
As a default, here is what colors have the greatest percentage of creatures from most to least:
White For a long time, green was the color that got the most creatures but a year or so back we spent some time trying to differentiate between white and green and came to the realization that it was silly for green to be the color that got the most and the biggest creatures at common. White is the "army color" so we decided it would make sense for white to get the largest number of creatures and leave green the largest creatures at common. White beats you with numbers while green beats you with size.
Green While green isn't #1 anymore, it still is the "creature color" and thus gets the #2 slot.
Black Black has become the color that tends to balance creatures and spells and thus sits in the middle.
Red Blue and red are the two spell colors, meaning that they tend to have the most spells of the five colors. Red, though, has more creature needs than blue and thus is #4.
Blue Some color has to have the fewest creatures. Why not the color most tied to spells?
Artifacts From time to time a theme may bring artifacts from the bottom higher up (in artifact-themed blocks, it's often #1) but most of the time it only has zero to two artifact creatures at common.
To figure out what each color gets, let's do the math. We have thirty slots and we want the colors to go in the order we set. With 30 creatures, that averages out to 6 per color. Black is the average color so lets start by giving it 6. Now let's go up and down one for green and red respectively giving green 7 creatures and red 5. Then let's go up and down one more for white and blue giving white 8 and blue 4. Now we have to figure out whether or not we want an artifact creature. I'd like to have one but to do so means stealing one from a color. I'll steal one from white but to keep white up, I'm going to add a token making instant/sorcery to white. This is my way of staying at 50% while giving white a little something to keep it the "army-making" color.
Here's what this all looks like in the skeleton: (remember that R&D likes to put creatures first in the card codes)
CW01 creature CW02 creature CW03 creature CW04 creature CW05 creature CW06 creature CW07 creature CW08 instant/sorcery token making CW09 CW10 CU01 creature CU02 creature CU03 creature CU04 creature CU05 CU06 CU07 CU08 CU09 CU10 CB01 creature CB02 creature CB03 creature CB04 creature CB05 creature CB06 creature CB07 CB08 CB09 CB10 CR01 creature CR02 creature CR03 creature CR04 creature CR05 creature CR06 CR07 CR08 CR09 CR10 CG01 creature CG02 creature CG03 creature CG04 creature CG05 creature CG06 creature CG07 creature CG08 CG09 CG10 CA01 creature CA02 CA03 CA04 CA05 CL01 CL02 CL03 CL04 CL05
Just knowing they are creatures isn't enough. Next we want to figure two things. First, I like to make sure that we keep an eye out for the evergreen creature keywords. Second, the lead designer needs a sense of how big they are. For the skeleton, we tend to use three sizes: small, medium and large. Small means anything from a 0/1 up to about a 2/3. Medium is a 3/3 up to about a 4/5. Large is 5/5 or larger. Let's look at each color: White
Keywords White gets the following at common: flying, first strike, vigilance and sometimes flash, protection or lifelink.
Size Almost all of white's creatures are small. For Limited purposes, we've started giving white more medium creatures. Still, the majority of white should be small.
Blue
Keywords Blue gets flying and shroud, and sometimes islandwalk or flash.
Size Blue usually has all small creatures with one medium and sometimes one large. The large is usually a serpent-like thing. Black
Keywords Black gets the following at common: flying, deathtouch, intimidate, and sometimes haste, lifelink, regeneration or swampwalk.
Size Black gets a mix of small and medium creatures but never large (well, barring some quirky block theme).
Red
Keywords Red gets the following at common: haste, first strike, trample, and sometimes intimidate or mountainwalk. Firebreathing isn't technically a keyword, but it shows up in almost every set.
Size Red, like black, has a mix of small and medium creatures. Every once in a while red will have a large creature but most often at the small end of the large spectrum.
Green
Keywords Green gets the following at common: trample, deathtouch, regeneration, and sometimes flash, forestwalk, reach, shroud, or vigilance.
Size Green has a mix of small and medium creatures and always at least one large (sometimes two).
Lets take all this information and put it into the mix. Note that I'm making rough estimations on what size certain keywords will go. The design is not locked down to what I put. If, for instance, I need to move vigilance from a medium creature to a small I can. Here's what the skeleton looks like now:
CW01 creature, small CW02 creature, small, flying CW03 creature, small, first strike CW04 creature, small CW05 creature, small CW06 creature, medium, vigilance CW07 creature, medium, flying CW08 instant/sorcery token making, flying CW09 CW10 CU01 creature, small, flying CU02 creature, small, shroud CU03 creature, medium, flying CU04 creature, large CU05 CU06 CU07 CU08 CU09 CU10 CB01 creature, small CB02 creature, small, flying CB03 creature, small, deathtouch CB04 creature, medium, intimidate CB05 creature, medium CB06 creature, medium CB07 CB08 CB09 CB10 CR01 creature, small CR02 creature, small, first strike CR03 creature, small CR04 creature, medium, haste CR05 creature, medium, trample CR06 CR07 CR08 CR09 CR10 CG01 creature, small CG02 creature, small, regeneration CG03 creature, small, deathtouch CG04 creature, medium, reach CG05 creature, medium CG06 creature, medium CG07 creature, large, trample CG08 CG09 CG10 CA01 creature, medium CA02 CA03 CA04 CA05 CL01 CL02 CL03 CL04 CL05
Now that the creatures are mapped out, let's turn our attention to the other card types.
Artifacts Obviously, I already assigned five at common. Odds are these are going to be simple utility cards. Without Esper-like oddness, artifacts don't show up in colors.
Enchantments As a general rule the only enchantments we tend to do at common are auras. Block themes can tweak that, but without a reason you will not see global enchantments (this is an old term but I don't know of one that's replaced it so I'm still using it) at common. Most colors will have at least one aura, with white and green sometimes having more than one.
Instants All five colors get instants but white and blue tend to have more proportionally than the rest.
Lands Like artifacts, lands have been assigned their own common slots and don't show up in colors.
Planeswalkers For some odd reason we don't tend to do this card type at common.
Sorceries All five colors get sorceries but black and green tend to have more proportionally than the rest.
Tribal Tribal is the only card type that we don't use every block. I keep getting letters about how a specific spell wants to, based on flavor, have tribal. The answer is that we only use tribal when it is a major component in the block.
Let's layer this in:
CW01 creature, small CW02 creature, small, flying CW03 creature, small, first strike CW04 creature, small, flash CW05 creature, medium, vigilance CW06 creature, medium, flying CW07 sorcery token making, flying CW08 instant CW09 instant CW10 enchantment, aura CU01 creature, small, flying CU02 creature, small, shroud CU03 creature, medium, flying CU04 creature, large CU05 instant CU06 instant CU07 instant CU08 sorcery CU09 sorcery CU10 enchantment, aura CB01 creature, small CB02 creature, small, flying CB03 creature, small, deathtouch CB04 creature, medium, intimidate CB05 creature, medium CB06 creature, medium CB07 instant CB08 sorcery CB09 sorcery CB10 enchantment, aura CR01 creature, small CR02 creature, small, first strike CR03 creature, small CR04 creature, medium, haste CR05 creature, medium, trample CR06 instant CR07 instant CR08 instant CR09 sorcery CR10 enchantment, aura CG01 creature, small CG02 creature, small, regeneration CG03 creature, small, deathtouch CG04 creature, medium, reach CG05 creature, medium CG06 creature, medium CG07 creature, large, trample CG08 instant CG09 sorcery CG10 enchantment, aura CA01 creature, medium CA02 sac effect CA03 tap ability CA04 equipment CA05 equipment CL01 produces W CL02 produces U CL03 produces B CL04 produces R CL05 produces G
Notice how I made some changes to the skeleton as I was adding in new things. The best example is in white. I realized that I was a little tight so I did a few things. First, I removed a creature because it became clear that with ten slots pulled out for artifacts and land white couldn't hold eight creatures. As I wanted enough space for instants to give white the combat tricks it likes, I chose to make the token-making spell a sorcery. I then added flash to one of the white creatures because even with two instants I knew I needed to have a little more surprise for white.
This demonstrates the point of the skeleton. The skeleton isn't there to lock the designer in but to make the designer aware of what things they need to allocate. When something isn't working, the designer then has to re-jigger the skeleton to get what they need.
Notice also that I also made some determination of what kind of artifacts I wanted and pointed out that the land was a cycle by stressing the colors.
Next, I have to weave in whatever the set is about. Let's suppose that the Truth, Justice, and the American Way block is about the graveyard. Truth created a graveyard-based mechanic (I'm calling it gravetwist; once again completely made up for this article) that went on permanents and spells. It's something that can be grafted onto any type of spell so I can pair it with different effects. To do this, while I'm weaving the block mechanic in, I'm also going to weave in what I call the basic effects. Let's run through these quickly. These are effects that pretty much show up in every set in common in a particular color:
White White always has some kind of lifegain, enchantment removal, and creature removal (which can include Pacifism-like effects), and some combat trick (small power/toughness boosting and ability granting are common ones). It often has team boosting ("all your creatures get +1/+1" until end of turn) and damage prevention/redirection.
Blue Blue always has a counterspell (often two, one hard, one soft), "bounce" ("return BLAH to its owner's hand"), card drawing, creature-control enchantment (most often locking it down), and sometimes has a card sifting, shrinking ("target creature gets N/-0 until end of turn"), or twiddling ("tap or untap target BLAH").
Black Black always has multiple creature kill (usually "destroy target nonBLAH creature" and "target creature gets N/-N until end of turn"), discard, graveyard creature retrieval ("return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand"), and often has power boosting ("CARDNAME gets +N/+0 until end of turn), card drawing for life, or damage/life loss to a creature or player oftentimes where you gain life as a result.
Red Red always has direct damage (on numerous spells, some hitting players, some creatures and some both), power boosting, panic effects ("target creature cannot block"), and sometimes haste granting and land destruction.
Green Green always has power/toughness boosting, land searching, artifact/enchantment removal, and often mana production, life gain, fog ("prevent all combat damage"), and flying destruction.
Note that whatever doesn't show up in common can show up in uncommon to still have a presence in Limited.
With all this in mind, let's take another swipe at the skeleton:
CW01 creature, small CW02 creature, small, flying, gravetwist CW03 creature, small, first strike CW04 creature, small, flash, ETB life gain CW05 creature, medium, vigilance CW06 creature, medium, flying CW07 sorcery token making, flying CW08 instant, power boost CW09 instant, enchantment removal CW10 enchantment, creature removal CU01 creature, small, flying, CU02 creature, small, shroud CU03 creature, medium, flying CU04 creature, large CU05 instant, hard counterspell, gravetwist CU06 instant, soft counterspell CU07 instant, "bounce" CU08 sorcery, card drawing CU09 sorcery CU10 enchantment, aura, creature removal CB01 creature, small CB02 creature, small, flying CB03 creature, small, deathtouch, gravetwist CB04 creature, medium, intimidate CB05 creature, medium, ETB raise dead CB06 creature, medium CB07 instant, creature kill, gravetwist CB08 sorcery, discard CB09 sorcery, drain creature CB10 enchantment, aura, positive effect, gravetwist CR01 creature, small ETB direct damage to player CR02 creature, small, first strike CR03 creature, small CR04 creature, medium, haste CR05 creature, medium, trample CR06 instant direct damage to creatures CR07 instant direct damage to either CR08 instant power pump CR09 sorcery panic, gravetwist CR10 enchantment, aura, positive effect CG01 creature, small, gravetiwst, ETB artifact/enchantment removal CG02 creature, small, regeneration CG03 creature, small, deathtouch CG04 creature, medium, reach, gravetwist CG05 creature, medium CG06 creature, medium CG07 creature, large, trample CG08 instant, power/toughness boost CG09 sorcery, life gain CG10 enchantment, aura, positive effect CA01 creature, medium CA02 sac effect, mana related CA03 tap ability, mana related CA04 equipment, power/toughness pumping CA05 equipment, evasion CL01 produces W CL02 produces U CL03 produces B CL04 produces R CL05 produces G
Putting in all the keywords starts to make me realize where I'm getting squeezed for effects. I can solve some of those problems by using creature slots. I can use an enter the battlefield (ETB) trigger, for example, to mimic a sorcery. The skeleton also forced me to start thinking about things like how much gravetwist do I want and in what colors? In addition, I get to start examining if it's flavored differently in different colors. Notice how it's heavier in black and green, the two graveyard colors. I also made white and green put the ability on creatures while blue and red used it only on instants and sorceries.
How many passes a designer does on a particular skeleton has a lot to do with the needs of the individual set. What I have above might be enough or might require a few more passes if there are other issues that need to be addressed. What you can tell from just the sample skeleton that I have posted is that the most common design issue is having too much to fit in, rather than too little.
It's important to remember that the skeleton is a flexible, living, breathing document. The reason you make it is to give you a sense of where things are in the moment. As cards start going in, you will begin to see where ideas you had won't work and that will force you to reconfigure the skeleton. In the end, the design skeleton is a tool that better allows the designers to get a big picture of all the moving parts to their set allowing them to start figuring out what their set is going to need design-wise.
this is a good way to think about it and could frame the challenges to design cards
May 11, 2010 6:19 p.m.
I have 2 foil and a Korean hydra and I would be looking to turn the into 3 English non foil ones + the difference, if anyone's interested, let me know and I'll look through your binders.
mattlohkamp says... #2
yeah, working within a framework like this makes it so much easier to figure out which cards you need for a set.
May 11, 2010 3:52 p.m.