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

It's Not Just a Phase, Mom 11/20/2024

It's Not Just a Phase, Mom 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/34027334

Favorite Flavor - Esper 11/13/2024

Favorite Flavor - Esper 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/33911467

Moxtober Card Highlights! The Newbies are Here! 11/06/2024

Moxtober Card Highlights! The Newbies are Here! 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/33814090

Going Ghost Challenge Review 10/30/2024

Going Ghost Challenge Review 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/33679812

Favorite Flavor - Skeletons 10/23/2024

Favorite Flavor - Skeletons 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/33578847

Following Signposts - Duskmourn 10/16/2024

Following Signposts - Duskmourn 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/33479687

Mailbag Episode! Tim Answers Your Questions 10/09/2024

Mailbag Episode! Tim Answers Your Questions 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/33385842

"To The Nines" Challenge Review 10/02/2024

"To The Nines" Challenge Review 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 Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/33293347

Designing for IPs and Moxtober Hype! 09/25/2024

Designing for IPs and Moxtober Hype! 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 Kayiu's live set-design streams are Sundays at Schwa's article on fan-sets: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/33198482

Champion's Podium! League Wrap-Up w/Provocative and Brad 09/18/2024

Champion's Podium! League Wrap-Up w/Provocative and Brad 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: Prov recommends: watching soccer! Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/33102732

Eight Legs Challenge Review w/Squares that Cube 09/11/2024

Eight Legs Challenge Review w/Squares that Cube 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: StC Spotify: StC's Pacific NW drafters Discord: Join Beacon of Creation's Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/33003877

Sunset Sacrifice! League Finals Entry from Provocative 09/04/2024

Sunset Sacrifice! League Finals Entry from Provocative 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/32890382

I Wanna Rock! League Finals Entry from Bradley Rose 08/28/2024

I Wanna Rock! League Finals Entry from Bradley Rose 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/32771647

Running an All-Magic Weekend 08/21/2024

Running an All-Magic Weekend 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: Join our Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/32667227

Spinning Templates! Tightening Rules Text 08/14/2024

Spinning Templates! Tightening Rules Text 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/32569552

Following Signposts - Bloomburrow 08/07/2024

Following Signposts - Bloomburrow 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/32467447

777 Jackpot Challenge Review 07/31/2024

777 Jackpot Challenge Review 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: Show Notes: Music by Dee Culp /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/32361522

Live Design - Our Other Half 07/24/2024

Live Design - Our Other Half 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: Show Notes: Music by Dee Culp /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/32236912

Frog-et Me Not! Making a Splash in Bloomburrow 07/17/2024

Frog-et Me Not! Making a Splash in Bloomburrow 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: Join our Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/32174622

Cool Cards from Design League! 07/10/2024

Cool Cards from Design League! 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/32074997

"Halfway There" Challenge Review 07/03/2024

"Halfway There" Challenge Review 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: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/31993612

Lorwyn and Ravnica Collide in a New Pack 06/26/2024

Lorwyn and Ravnica Collide in a New Pack We built a pack together and it came out very Lorwyn-y! Patrick and khord22 hop on the pod to tell Tim all about it. Listen in to learn about collaborating on Magic designs! Join our Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/31890972

Ancient Kamigawa and Environment Design 06/19/2024

Ancient Kamigawa and Environment Design We bring the past into the present! Returning guest thesixthroc describes how they tried errata and custom cards to bring original Kamigawa to the present. Along the way we dive into designing for an audience, the cost of errata, highlighting hidden themes, and... Channel—Mutate?? thesixthroc's Kamigawa list: Join our Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/31805032

Cascade Challenge Review 06/12/2024

Cascade Challenge Review We asked for your gold Cascade + Discover designs and you responded! A full seventeen submissions for this challenge, all inspiring fun ways to play with cards off the top. Join our Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/31709872

Hat Trick! Random Hats with Random Legends 06/05/2024

Hat Trick! Random Hats with Random Legends Coming off fedoras on Faerie Detectives and Stetsons on Homarids, Redbay cooked up a "hats for legends" generator! He and MonoWhiteBorder grab some hats, put them on some fan favorites, and do some live design. Join our Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/31610497

All About Eldrazi 05/29/2024

All About Eldrazi Modern Horizons 3 is bringing back the broods and titans, so it's time to venture back into the Blind Eternities! The Eldrazi are a super-cool creature type that has gotten some, but not a ton, of exploration over the years. We break down all the lessons learned so far, then dive into some "character pie" between the titans. As a wrap up we try to assign a variety of keywords to different titans. Prepared for your reality to be warped! JB's games and add-ons: Join our Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/31509712

How to Win Design League 05/22/2024

How to Win Design League Design League starts back up May 26th, and to get you ready we've got League Emperor Redbay and longtime judges Juliet and Tim. They talk through the process, their judging styles, and even live design and judge a card on air! The challenge we revisit: See Juliet on the Moonshot Moongarita charity drive: Join our Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/31414127

Design Crossover - Midnight Suns 05/15/2024

Design Crossover - Midnight Suns Heat up your cauldron and practice your hexes because we're going goth! We're looking at the videogame Midnight Suns and seeing what we can carry back into Magic. This card-based strategy game is by the same studio as the Civilzation and X-Com games, so it's coming from a different starting point. Tim and Peter talk through the gameplay and extrapolate where Magic could take those ideas. Join our Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/31301412

Solar Eclipse Challenge Review 05/08/2024

Solar Eclipse Challenge Review We're taking your submissions one day (and night) at a time! We asked for your common day/nightbound cards and we got a bumper crop! Hitting that common rarity on a double face card is a narrow target, ESPECIALLY for our listeners who love to pack innovation into each card. Join our Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/31190757

Following Signposts - Thunder Junction Archetype Uncommons pt 2 05/01/2024

Following Signposts - Thunder Junction Archetype Uncommons pt 2 Time to bring the cows home! We've got the second half of our new episode format, where we check out all the draft archetypes of a set. This is focused on the gold cards and on Wizard's description of the pairs. Our categories are: 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? Join our Discord: Show Notes: /episode/index/show/beaconofcreation/id/31064053

Beacon of Creation

TOPICS