Studying the State of Design 2025

Juliet and guest judge Andrew Sherman tackle Mono-Red Mana Dorks for this month's design challenge review. Treasure, One-hit wonders, and Blitz (but not blitzball) all make fiery-hot appearances. Check out some of Andrew's Magic and other game projects: https://acsherman.github.io/sets/TPW https://acsherman.itch.io/ Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com Intro music by Dee Culp

Inspiring episode this week! Khord and IgnitedxSoul hop on the pod this week to tell us about Beacon Constructed, a Standard-like format composed of sets from the Beacon of Creation server. This contained setup has a lot of advantages and helps them playtest with each other.  Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com Intro music by Dee Culp

We're back again on the trail, following where the signposts lead us in draft. This new Avatar set has some new twists on the uncommon gold "archetype" cards and overall has some new ideas on structure. How do you structure a set with four types of elements in a game with five colors and ten color pairs? We dive in and give our breakdown. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com Intro music by Dee Culp

We've got a combo episode this week. Part project showoff, part live design, and all weird old mechanics. Rexxer2 aka Spencer hops on the pod with Tim to talk through this mechanic-a-day project and then dive in to design three of the cards! Fans (if they exist??) of Frenzy, Grandeur, and Gravestorm gotta listen to this one. The Year of Mechanics gallery: https://flareporeon.github.io/previews/YOM Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com Intro music by Dee Culp

Spooky season meets rhinoceroses in our monthly challenge! We got your best card ideas submitted throughout the month and we cover the entries in this episode. Lots of great designs, plus Juliet's twist on anagram card names! Charity stream for Moonshot this weekend: https://www.twitch.tv/moonshotnetwork Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com Intro music by Dee Culp

This week we're headed joining heads to brainstorm a ton of new ideas for 2HG draft! The episode starts with a recap of Battlebond along with cracking a sample pack. Once the table it set, we settle in to the big brainstorming session, sharing over a dozen ideas for a Battlebond followup.  Brad's stream: https://twitch.tv/bradleyrose Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com Intro music by Dee Culp

This week Gabe's bringing the Mark Rosewater's State of Design 2025 article to the pod. We've picked our favorite points from the article and talk through the implications and lessons. Some of these sets aren't that old but feel ancient now! It was fun to re-live these sets and find some takeaways now that we have some distance. The article: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/state-of-design-2025 Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com Intro music by Dee Culp

This week we're putting aside our usual design goals and focusing on a new one: creating cards good enough to hang in a high powered cube! Selesnya hasn't gotten as much love as the other color pairs in high power formats, but our community is here to the rescue. Local cube organizer Eric is back on the pod to evaluate all of your great submissions to this tough assignment! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com Intro music by Dee Culp

This challenge review dives into "spellbook" technology from Arena. What cool cards can you design when that card has access to three other cards? We got a ton of submissions again, so you'll learn all about the possible tech! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com

Big episode! Alexis Janson breaks down their game and helps brainstorm how to steal some of that technology for our own Magic designs. Alexis was a Beacon host way back in the day, so you know they're ready to go deep on the design and ideas behind Galaxy. Check out the game: https://galaxy.fun The dev twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/playgalaxygame Yukmouth streams the game daily: https://www.twitch.tv/yukmouth Alexis's bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexisjanson.com Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: https://discord.gg/t88Vpwh Show Notes and Images: https://beaconofcreation.com