Jeremy Geist @ofsaintdraft Twitter profile

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Jeremy Geist

3 years

Starting November 1st, I'm #wotcstaff . This means that Phantom Knight Games is shutting down indefinitely. For everyone who supported me for seven years of independent game design: Thank you.

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

I love the flavor text on Gravecrawler because Liliana talked a big game and then summoned a 2/1 that can't block

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

#mtgthunder #wotcstaff One of the interesting things about Plot is that it's not obvious why you would want to plot a card, so you have to look at the card's other effects for context. You can break these cards down into a few rough categories

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

#MTGOTJ spoilers for the main set are complete so that means it's time for card-by-card design stories!! #wotcstaff I'd like to start with the most inventive Limited archetype in the set, WU No-Spells

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

Those of you up to date might have noticed this cycle of gold commons that use hybrid mana as a disguise cost. In addition to making the set feel a bit more Ravnican, these serve several other crucial purposes #mtgkarlov #wotcstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

#MTGKarlov #wotcstaff Amzu's design came from a surprising place: The rules for Ravnica Clue!

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

Inspiration for new cards can come from anywhere – it can be a buildaround for Limited, a charming top-down, or even something for your pet deck! Anyway, this one came from Patrick Sullivan complaining about Voice of Resurgence on Shuffle Up and Play #wotcstaff #MTGKarlov

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

I call the second category "It sure would be nice if I could cast this with all my mana open." Dust Animus is the loudest about this but there's lots of spells that provide you value that you need to capitalize on quickly

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

Incidentally, the reason you can only cast plotted cards as a sorcery is because of cards that grant plot to cards that wouldn't normally have it – trying to avoid having an anytime counterspell face up, for example.

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

Finally, these two cards give you a specific bonus when plotted. These abilities were a bit controversial, since the point of plot is to give up tempo for a bonus later, but I think having a lot of variety for this mechanic is nice

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

The first is cards that you want to cast with a specific timing. Usually this would be because they benefit you having larger or more creatures, but sometimes they're checking for a specific condition, like Blacksnag Buzzard

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

OTJ was fun to work on from a mechanical standpoint because both plot and spree allowed us to try a lot of diverse cards with novel and cute interactions, many of which ended up in the final set. I hope you have just as much fun playing with them!

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

Then there's a couple of cards that you only want to plot to save mana on; only two made it to the final set but it's a fairly reusable shape. Probably the closest plot gets to Foretell

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

That templating appeared surprisingly late in the process, and we had a real headache trying to come up with ways to plot sorceries but not instants

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

4 years

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

10 months

I'm happy with my contributions for all the sets coming out next year but I think the thing I'm genuinely proudest of is, when we were trying to workshop a white common creature for MKM, suggesting "what if this was just Thraben Inspector?" #wotcstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

For those who don't know, I made the Alela precon for the original Eldraine Brawl decks. So I think it's either fitting or extremely funny that one of the first things I worked on as official #WOTCstaff was... an Alela precon for #mtgeldraine

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

#MTGKarlov spoilers are out so I get to do card-by-card design stories! Yay!! #WOTCstaff Delney was created in a "homework" assignment where we needed to fill in a space for a white mythic. The card now known as Aurelia's Vindicator was already in the file –

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

First, they provide a kind of pseudo-fixing. For example, with Dog Walker above, any red deck and any white deck can play it as long as they're okay with mandatorily playing it face-down (which you'd want to do anyway to get the dogs)

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

And finally, it broadens the list of what a disguise creature could be. If a two-color deck with no splashes plays a face-down creature, there's seven options from this cycle alone as to what it could be, not even counting the monocolor ones!

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

#mtgkarlov #wotcstaff Investigate and collect evidence are both mechanics that encourage churning through your library, so we wanted to include something that would reward you for going the distance instead of making you abruptly lose the game

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

#mtgthunder #wotcstaff Many of the original designs for Spree cards were meant to simulate the stages or goals of different heist stories. We even had D&D-style flavor words for a while! Final Showdown is meant to capture the Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai entrenched final stand

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

It's always up in the air whether experimental draft archetypes like this will succeed in real-life Limited, but I'm glad we're doing things like this so we can push the boundaries of what Limited decks will look like. I hope you have fun playing with it!

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

Second, this pseudo-fixing has the knock-on effect of making people play more creatures face-down. If part of your gameplan is playing off-color disguise creatures, you'll have no choice but to play the face-down game

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

This archetype was inspired by a single stray uncommmon that was in the card file when it was handed off to the Set Design team. It was novel enough that Dave Humpherys was intrigued by the gameplay implications and expanded it to multiple cards

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

Not really a design thing but I really like Lively Dirge's flavor text #mtgthunder #wotcstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

We can uniquely do an archetype like this in OTJ because of the prevalence of the plot mechanic, which allows you to pay for a spell upfront without casting it and adjust the timing of when you cast spells. (UR two-spell is here for the same reason!)

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

WU no-spells is also secretly a flash deck, something we tried in Theros Beyond Death in UR. Wrangler of the Damned has flash itself, so you can hold up mana for it with your other no-spell creatures out, and it works with your other instant-speed cards

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

ASSORTED DESIGN THOUGHTS ON MARCH OF THE MACHINE JUMPSTART #MTGMOM #wotcstaff MOM Jumpstart is the first product I've worked on to be released! I was the lead by virtue of being the only person working on it.

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

Another is to make the bonuses one-shots, so you only have to take one turn off from casting spells. This is a little gentler for players who draft these cards without fully being in the WU deck

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

One is the fairly classic tactic of putting expensive activated abilities on creatures that have the no-spells text. If you attack with Canyon Crab or activate Prairie Dog, you're still moving the game forward

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

I'm talking about the #MTGEldraine precon face commanders today! #WotCStaff I'm starting with the backup commander for the Faerie deck, Alela, who funnily enough was the face for the Throne of Eldraine Brawl precon I made

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

I was initially concerned about this archetype since if you get too much value from doing nothing on your turn, there won't be a lot of decision-making and the game will get boring. However, the team found a lot of workarounds to this as we polished the file

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

4 years

These are all great suggestions for improving your game design skills in order to do well on GDS4. I have some competition-specific advice as well.

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

I'm really excited for the WOE Commander reveals!!! It's the first product I worked on when I joined Wizards and I've been waiting two years for all of you to see them! #MTGEldraine #WOTCstaff I'll be doing card-by-card stories once a day for the next week or so

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

Now that I have a card I designed in my hand it's really sinking in that I'm contributing to the Magic canon. It's a pretty overwhelming feeling! #wotcstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

Speaking of cards leaving your graveyard, Skeleton Crew is my favorite card from 2023. My favorite hoop to jump through, AND it's great in my favorite Commander deck, AND it's my favorite creature type, AND the name is a silly pun? Sign me up #wotcstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

5 years

A beautiful paragraph from @Mengu09 ’s Invitational writeup

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

5 years

GOT A CARD INTO A MAGIC SET BAYBEE

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

11 months

My friends have been talking about DOTA a lot and I honestly love the lore power level gap between "the most powerful mage who's ever lived" and "three scrimbly binguses with a wheelbarrow full of dynamite"

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

I'm running towards the end of cards that have interesting stories, so I'll do a grab-bag of them #MTGEldraine #wotcstaff Timber Paladin was originally a top-down Pinocchio card that gained the Human type when enough Auras were attached to it, but the card was already wordy :(

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

4 years

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

3 years

Update: I’m actually going to join the Set Design / Vision Design part of Studio X. Super excited!!

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

2024 was a big year for me, I worked on a ton of sets: Murders at Karlov Manor (Set) Ravnica: Clue Edition (Set) Outlaws of Thunder Junction (Exploratory, Vision, Set) Bloomburrow (Exploratory, Vision) Duskmourn (Vision, Set) Can't wait for you to play with them! #wotcstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

5 years

Let me in. LET ME IIIIIIIIN

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

5 years

It’s been about a year since the GDS3 finals. I’ll treasure this day forever. @SixthComma @ChrisKMooney @maro254

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

In Ravnica Clue, there's two ways to make a suggestion about which suspects/weapons/rooms everyone has: Deal combat damage to opponents or collect evidence. Naturally, different guilds will be better at one or the other, and Golgari collects lots of evidence

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

2 years

MY JUMPSTART CARDS ARE HERE!!! I'll have a lot to write about them once the full decklists are revealed, but for now please enjoy my favorite, the unthinkable team-up of Surrak and a bear #MTGMOM #WOTCstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

#mtgeldraine #wotcstaff New cards in Commander precons have a number of things they're trying to accomplish; one of them is to provide tools for a theme that didn't have them previously

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

The card I always thought about combining with Delney was Mangara, but since their card was revealed I've seen lots of really cool cards I hadn't noticed. It's really cool getting to see everyone's ideas!

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

2 years

It's been ages since I last posted anything, just wanted to let people know that I'm still alive and designing some neato Magic cards. Can't wait to brag about them when they become public! #WOTCstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 years

Even though everyone turned in good submissions, I think the real winner of this round of #GDS3 is @ChrisKMooney for fulfilling every custom Magic designer's dream and convincing @maro254 to re-evaluate Haunt

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

The most interesting thing about these rules is that cards leaving your graveyard, normally something you have to engineer with other cards, will just happen naturally over the course of the game, so I designed a rare that takes advantage of that

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

3 years

I'm a bit late on it but it's about the three-year anniversary of the GDS3 finals. I think about it every day (in a "fondly reminiscing" sense) and though I haven't gotten to R&D yet I'm still trying my best to get there everyday

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

Miraculously, the token of the correct color combo, type, and home plane appeared previously on Izoni from GRN, and it was close enough that we were fine with the token being slightly larger than is normally intuitive. Thanks, Izoni!

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

2 years

With the products for March of the Machine announced I can now officially state that I led the design on MOM's Set Jumpstart packets! I think they turned out really well and I'm looking forward to sharing more as the preview season begins. #WOTCstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

5 years

In last week's LR, @RyanSpain talked about a lesson @mtgaaron gave in a WotC meeting about "ownable" (something a game can call its own, like a Beholder) versus "resonant" (something players already know, like a dragon). This is really interesting, and can apply to mechanics too

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

I combined this archetype with the text from my second-favorite MH2 card, Harmonic Prodigy. (number 1 is Academy Manufactor) I really liked the unintuitive and clever places Harmonic Prodigy would double triggers; I have it in Rielle, for instanace

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

I helped make this precon! #WOTCstaff My favorite interaction I snuck into the deck is Battle for Bretagard – if you turn it into a token with Anikthea, when it hits chapter III it copies all of your Anikethea tokens, including itself! #MTGCMM

The Command Zone

@commandcast

1 year

It’s time to exhume some enchantments and send your opponents to the underworld! Watch us reveal the full deck list (with 10 new cards, including 2 legends) for the "Enduring Enchantments" precon from Commander Masters. Don't miss it:

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 years

I'm proud to announce that my superheroic party game, Stand Back, Citizen!, is now available.

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

7 months

While I talk about cards "I designed" fairly often, in reality every card is contributed to by a big team of people. These two cards in #mtgkarlov are great examples – While I pitched the initial versions, Play Design is responsible for the fun shapes they're in now #wotcstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 years

Renton was super fun. #GDS3

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

The Insect token scaling off mana value of exiled cards also plays into collecting evidence, which also cares about getting high-MV cards into your yard

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

Similarly, Delney's ability isn't as cut-and-dry as you might think. For example, Ajani's Pridemate will get one double trigger, but then it has 4 power and won't benefit anymore.

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

I’ll miss you, inexplicable giant orb 💔

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 years

Congrats @H_2_tha_V ! #GDS3

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

10 months

@Only_Franco I feel like "The case of the obvious murder" and "The case of the extradimensional horrors" are different levels of investigative difficulty

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

4 years

There aren't "trick questions" in the sense of "providing unnecessary information meant to lead you to a wrong choice." Hot take: the B/G Serra Angel question was an easy question that people got wrong because they psyched themselves out and thought the first sentence was a trap

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

9 months

If I can be real for a second, I've had a really low self-concept for a long time, and having people I look up to in the Magic community get excited about cards/sets I worked on has truly meant the world to me and made me feel a lot better about myself #wotcstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

#MTGKarlov #wotcstaff Those of you familiar with Magic set structures know that we usually do a cycle of two-color cards at uncommon to show what the Limited archetypes are. MKM is no different

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

When making supplemental products like Commander decks (or in this case Ravnica Clue), we try to reuse existing tokens if able, either because it's hard to include new tokens in the product or because we're limited on the number of unique tokens we can print

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

As for this one, the design went like this. Corey: "Let's do a mana rock with flash." Me: "What's an effect that's fun, but people usually can't justify putting in their decks, that we can staple onto it?" Corey, known Portal Mage enjoyer:

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

4 years

When concepting party games, I subject them to what I like to call the "Big Jenga Test". It goes like this: Would this game command as much attention at a party as a big Jenga set? It's a surprisingly rigorous test

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 years

I was reading through old GDS2 stuff a while back and found this comment by Ken Nagle that's really, really valuable for tabletop game design, Magic or otherwise

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

4 years

Introducing my next game, A PERFECTLY NORMAL HOUSE! It is an absurdist horror storytelling game and unsettling real estate generator for 1 or more players. Pay what you like, including 0 dollars.

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

5 years

@GavinVerhey @AffinityForMTG "I'd like you to meet my...associate, Mr. Bond. Perhaps you recall lending him your Commander deck earlier?"

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 months

Today's card-by-card stories are about a pair of legends with what Studio X calls "titan triggers" – triggers that occur on ETB and on attack! #MTGThunder #wotcstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

5 years

GUESS WHO MADE A BRAWL PRECON?????????????

Gavin Verhey

@GavinVerhey

5 years

How did we build the Brawl decks? Me and @MelissaDeTora grabbed the talent of @Em_TeeGee @pknightgames @hankerino_ , and Stephanie, among others, and made some sweet new cards. Take a look! 😁 #wotcstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 years

I just put up my first article for Goblin Artisans about how designing other games made me better at designing Magic – and it could work for you, too!

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

One thing most people might miss is that the Insect token is 1/1, when normally cards that create scaling power tokens make 0/0s a la Quandrix fractals

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

While I think all these cards are cool, my personal favorite is Buried in the Garden, which was a Great Designer Search 3 card from Jay Treat originally called "Bought the Farm"

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 years

I started listening to Critical Role. The banter is great and the voice acting is superb, as expected, but I fear it promotes the unrealistic idea that an RPG with 9 players is actually going to make any plot progress

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 years

My greatest creation was Shadowrun Chuckman, who could throw a playing card from miles away and for as much damage as a mortar

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

5 years

In Latin countries, John Cena is known as Juan Dinner

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

5 years

One of the most educational things I've done as a designer is finding games I like that belong in genres I don't like as a whole Seeing what elevates a game into an exception often provides valuable lessons that can be applied to my own games

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

However, MKM actually has two multicolor cycles at uncommon! Since we're on Ravnica, @Murk_Lurker also added a cycle of "Lightning Helixes" – clean, elegant two-color cards that work well in any strategy. Unsurprisingly, Helix is in this cycle

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

I was able to contribute a few! #WOTCstaff • Shadowmoor Draw Spell • Ulgrotha Charm (Was originally Grixis and the abilities were Merchant Scroll, Serrated Arrows, and Digeridoo) • Xerex Squire (It's the squire of the hypotenuse, get it) • That's No Moonmist

Gavin Verhey

@GavinVerhey

1 year

Okay, so what exactly were those playtest cards at #MCMinneapolis ?? Today, I take you inside my Unknown Event - and show off all 62 cards! From Autumn Willow and Baron Sengir to Emrakul and Chatterfang, these were wild - take a look: #wotcstaff

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

5 years

I wonder if aggro decks have a reputation for being brainless partially because the most popular aggro cards represent brainless things (goblins, shooting lightning, etc.) and control cards represent cool smart wizards and whatnot

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

@theFrostmind I wasn't there for final tweaks but I imagine it makes such an enormous token that 4/4 was a good enough base body

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 years

On today's episode of #GDS3 , I'M GOING TO RENTON BAYBEE!!!!!!

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 years

I have some cute photos of myself from various escape rooms with which I could update my avatar but also I don't want to not be bragging about the GDS

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 years

This was secretly a baking Twitter the whole time, gotcha suckers!!!!!

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

MKM was one of the first sets I worked on so the GDS was still fresh in my mind and I brought up this card when we were working on this cycle. I'm glad we were able to pay tribute to everyone's hard work in a way that doesn't involve a BG Serra Angel

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

7 years

I got a shirt and playmat from @wizards_magic for making it to the #gds3 finals!

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

6 years

Whenever I learn a new RPG system I attempt to make a Chuckman. A Chuckman is a character as minmaxed as possible to perform throwing weapon attacks. They all have the last name Chuckman and various Germanic first names

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

8 months

So we wanted a spell or small creature. White mythics are one of the harder ones to do, so to find some inspiration I looked at the draft archetypes containing white. We had some cool payoffs for the WB 2-power archetype, which was also fairly novel

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

9 years

SHAKESPEARE FACT: IT'S COMING. Art by @IanJay

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

Orthion was a very challenging design. I knew I wanted a heat shimmer effect in the Backup packet so you could keep doing the fun part of the mechanic (the ETBs), but it's a complex mechanic to put in a product like this and I had to go back to the drawing board several times

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

1 year

#MTGEldraine #wotcstaff Today's story is about a pair of cards that @coreyjbowen knocked out of the park!

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Jeremy Geist

@ofsaintdraft

2 years

Excited that this is getting revealed! I helped work on the Enduring Enchantments commander deck, and all four decks ended up amazing. The main set is also a blast to draft – can't wait for it to come out! #WOTCstaff

Magic: The Gathering

@wizards_magic

2 years

Finally, we're not showing off the face cards quite yet but the eagle-eyed might notice a few favorite creature types gracing the #MTGCMM Commander Decks. Yes, that does say Eldrazi with the colorless mana symbol.

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