Beacon of Creation

A show about design in Magic: the Gathering. Each week we cover both official cards and custom cards made by the community. The weekly design challenge gives you the opportunity to make it on the show! Hosted by Tim, Juliet, Kayiu and Markus, with guests! Music used with permission: https://www.youtube.com/user/daleculp

Following Signposts - Avatar the Last Airbender 11/19/2025

Following Signposts - Avatar the Last Airbender 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: Show Notes and Images: Intro music by Dee Culp /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/39091395

Live Design - The Year of Mechanics w/rexxer2 11/12/2025

Live Design - The Year of Mechanics w/rexxer2 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: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: Intro music by Dee Culp /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/39004900

Rhoxtober Challenge Review 11/05/2025

Rhoxtober Challenge Review 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: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: Intro music by Dee Culp /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/38920390

Back to Battlebond! Bradley Brainstorming Bonanza 10/29/2025

Back to Battlebond! Bradley Brainstorming Bonanza 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: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: Intro music by Dee Culp /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/38818605

Studying the State of Design 2025 10/22/2025

Studying the State of Design 2025 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: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: Intro music by Dee Culp /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/38738535

High Octane Cube Selesnya w/zurishmi 10/15/2025

High Octane Cube Selesnya w/zurishmi 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: Show Notes and Images: Intro music by Dee Culp /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/38588075

Hit the Books Challenge Review 10/08/2025

Hit the Books Challenge Review 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: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/38508280

Design Crossover - Once Upon a Galaxy w/Alexis Janson! 10/01/2025

Design Crossover - Once Upon a Galaxy w/Alexis Janson! 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: The dev twitch channel: Yukmouth streams the game daily: Alexis's bsky: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/38420920

Moxtober 2025 Primer 09/30/2025

Moxtober 2025 Primer Kayiu and Juliet walk through the basics of Moxtober 2025, the yearly community custom Magic event! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/38414095

Favorite Flavor - Spiders w/Gabe Lincoln 09/24/2025

Favorite Flavor - Spiders w/Gabe Lincoln Juliet is joined by Gabe Lincoln to ask to borrow a cup of one of Magic's oldest flavors, Giant non-Lizard-Wizard non-Hero-Villain Spiders. How do the arachnids that predate the keywording of reach differ from the ones that come after? What is the anatomy of a two-color gold Spider? Why does Ravnica get the most Giant Spiders of them all? Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/38335395

Through the Omenpaths Re-Flavoring 09/17/2025

Through the Omenpaths Re-Flavoring Wizards is releasing Through the Omenpaths, a full reflavoring of their Spider-Man set. That got us curious how the existing Universes Beyond sets could be redone too! Khord jumps on the pod as we tackle cards from LotR, 40k, Doctor Who, and more. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/38233840

Objection Challenge Review, Part 2 09/10/2025

Objection Challenge Review, Part 2 Our packed court of Objection! submissions wraps up this week with another packed ep full of great cards! This wide open challenge asked submitters to design a mechanic called "Objection" and we got SO MANY versions. Listen in for our thoughts on all these cards, including three more new submitters! Submissions from: Xena, MWB, JamesDaltonBell, Juliet, Keith^3, Pat, Inte, Selkie, kuyashiiPlays, Mark Confidant, and Redbay Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/38153635

Objection Challenge Review, Part 1 09/03/2025

Objection Challenge Review, Part 1 You won't hear me objecting to so many design submissions, but you WILL hear all about the first half of our cards with the Objection mechanic! Keywords, ability words, and flavor, this challenge is all about defining "Objection!" as a Magic mechanic. Due to some Discord issues and due to the huge number of submissions, this week's ep just covers the first half, from: Dragon of the West AuxiliaryOtter Vtbassmatt Kumrac Sagebeez SillyPhilly Khord Qirn Justnigel KennaKhaos Larcent Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/38069035

You Make the Pack, But Like, Right Now! 08/27/2025

You Make the Pack, But Like, Right Now! We've told you about You Make the Pack, now it's time to do it!! We've got some live design this week, making submissions for the YMTP event. We brought on new community member KennaKhaos to help and it was definitely the right choice! We tackle both a rare and a common for this emerging project. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/37975385

Favorite Flavor - Final Fantasy XII w/Brendan McLeod 08/20/2025

Favorite Flavor - Final Fantasy XII w/Brendan McLeod Juliet and game designer Brendan McLeod dispel Ondore's lies as they talk about Final Fantasy XII's sparse appearances in the canon "Magic: The Gathering–FINAL FANTASY", and set out to make a jeskai Commander deck with all new designs for the game's biggest hitters and most memorable moments and characters. Brendan's bsky with links to Paper Labyrinths and The Prisoner's Dilemma: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/37886995

Create a Custom Set in a Month! 08/13/2025

Create a Custom Set in a Month! How do you make your own set in a month? The power of friendship! Beacon regular Brad (aka Redbay) breaks down the schedule he and Peter (MonoWhiteBorder) used to finish and release an entire set in a month. There's a TON of great tips for making sets in this ep, so you won't want to miss it! Check out the set here: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/37788980

Following Signposts - Edge of Eternities 08/06/2025

Following Signposts - Edge of Eternities Signpost gold cards are a great way to teach your drafters what archetypes and decks can be drafted in limited. By learning from retail Wizards sets, we can improve our design skills and make more fun sets ourselves. In our Following Signposts episodes, we break down what we learn JUST from the archetype card and the uncommon gold cards. Your drafters won't know the whole picture, but what can they gleam from a handful of cards? Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/37698765

Ju-Lie Challenge Review 07/30/2025

Ju-Lie Challenge Review Tapping is core to Magic and it's about time we did a Design Challenge all about it! This month you sent us all your cards that tap lots of creatures, and as an extra challenge we said to do it without blue! As always lots of innovative cards and plenty of deep dives into the nooks and crannies of each submission. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/37604370

Star-Crossed Lovers of New Capenna 07/23/2025

Star-Crossed Lovers of New Capenna A little bit of romance, a dash of action, some new mechanics, and even a speedy bunch of card crafting. This episode has it all! Fusing Capenna's angels and demons world with families, weddings, and duels of honor seems like it will make for a super fun set! Be sure to check Juliet and co's production of Hamlet but with Sonic characters this Saturday at Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/37515630

Card Colosseum: Sudden Death 07/16/2025

Card Colosseum: Sudden Death Design or Die! To celebrate Card Colosseum, Khord and Tim are design cards at lightning speed! Each prompt gets three minutes, for 15 cards all in one podcast. Listen to our answers to these prompts, then hop on the Discord and give us your versions! Card Colosseum is a yearly event in the Magic Set Editor (MSE) Discord where pairs of players battle it out, bracket-style, to see which designer comes out on top. Khord's Linktree: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/37422205

Final Fantasy Tactics (Advance!) Set w/ Judge Bones 07/09/2025

Final Fantasy Tactics (Advance!) Set w/ Judge Bones Passion project meets mainstream set release with Judge Bones's Final Fantasy Tactics Advance project. Started before FIN and reinvented afterward, we talk through all the components he needs to jumpstart this fun adaptation. Learn a bit about some classic games, brainstorm about advanced sideboards, and embrace our new Geomancer overlords. Meet Bones at Cube for a Cause: Bones bsky: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/37344640

Finality Fantasy Challenge Review 07/02/2025

Finality Fantasy Challenge Review Your last chance on the battlefield! This month's design challenge is all about finality counters. Bring creatures back, but not forever. Added on top is a whole lot of Universes Beyond-style top down flavor! Tune in to hear about all the twists our designers found for this still-new mechanic. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/37253005

Live Design: Dual Lands, Novelty, and Callback 06/25/2025

Live Design: Dual Lands, Novelty, and Callback In this live-design episode, Tim and Juliet tackle a templating question based on the precedent of Party, with some help from Banding and Domain. Along the way, they examine the role that lands, dual lands, and 1/1s play in the sequencing of Magic's gameplay, and how all that's best of dark and bright (Shadowmoor and Lorwyn) meet in the aspect and eyes of novel designs. Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/37143685

Cube Cube and More Cube! Washington Cube Champs Recap w/daisyama and zurishmi 06/18/2025

Cube Cube and More Cube! Washington Cube Champs Recap w/daisyama and zurishmi 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: Show Notes and Images: Theme by Dee Culp /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/37052100

Souped-Up Keywords! Your Upgrades On Old Mechanics 06/11/2025

Souped-Up Keywords! Your Upgrades On Old Mechanics 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: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/36932775

May B.C. Challenge Review 06/04/2025

May B.C. Challenge Review 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: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/36844850

Design Crossover - Dragon Ball Z TCG (2000) 05/28/2025

Design Crossover - Dragon Ball Z TCG (2000) 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: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/36742795

Lore Detectives! They Made the Pack, Can We Order It?! 05/21/2025

Lore Detectives! They Made the Pack, Can We Order It?! 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: Show Notes and Images: Moonshot's big charity stream is this weekend! /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/36653595

All About Quests w/Qirn 05/14/2025

All About Quests w/Qirn 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: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/36559555

Alien Space Survival! Outpost Zero w/IgnitedxSoul 05/07/2025

Alien Space Survival! Outpost Zero w/IgnitedxSoul 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: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes and Images: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/36465340

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