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Steepleclimb Concluded

Yesterday, we concluded our three-set Cloudpierce block by drafting and playing Steepleclimb . We introduced the set in a spoiler post earlier this month.

Busting open packs

Everyone showed up with their cards printed and trimmed, meaning we had a brief period where we had to sleeve the cards, but otherwise we got started very quickly. We prepared packs each with 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 10 commons, and one non-basic land, and put them into ziplock bags.

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Steepleclimb Spoilers

After Cloudpierce (from 2018) and Towers Besieged (from 2019), our collaborative fan Magic: the Gathering block is due to conclude later this year with Steepleclimb .

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Towers Besieged

Last year, me and three friends created some custom Magic cards and drafted them. It was the most exciting and fun Magic: the Gathering experience I've ever had, and so it begged to be repeated!

Nominally, Cloudpierce, was a set about huge towers which pierce the skies, full of life. Outside the towers lies the barrens, where resources are scarce and survivability is low. Next, comes Towers Besieged where the towers are attacked by the savage forces in the barrens, and many begin to fall. Of course, none of this came through in the cards, it is already hard enough to come up with cards and find art without trying to showhorn a theme into the mix.

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Cloudpierce Concluded

Our bootleg Magic: the Gathering set which I hinted at last month, Cloudpierce, was a success! Busting open a pack and rifling through all the new cards is really exciting.

The new mechanics introduced were:

• Strategize (When this creature attacks or blocks you may pay (1). If you do, choose two target creatures you control. Put a -1/-1 counter on one of them, and a +1/+1 counter on the other).

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Translating puns

I often come across a pun in English which I suspect can't work well in other languages. Some of my favourites come from Magic: the Gathering. For example, "Hex" is a spell which destroys six creatures, from:

noun
    a magic spell; a curse (from German hexen)
combining form
    six; having six (from Greek hex)

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Cloudpierce Spoiler

Some friends and I are getting together to create a custom Magic: the Gathering set for drafting. We each are taking two weeks to create three booster packs' worth of cards, and on the night of the draft, we'll mix them up and draft with them in the usual fashion.

The set is called "Cloudpierce". It's about a plane in which civilised life is only sustained within cloud piercing towers, outside of which is the domain of savage monsters. The set symbol intends to capture the spirit of the tall towers.

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