"It takes two to lie, Lisa. One to lie, and one to be lied to."

* * *

Unrelated note from the shameless commerce division - my colleague Matt Derby, who is the nicest fella you'd ever want to meet and a heck of a writer to boot, recently published his second book. It's titled The Silent History, it has been getting some pretty great reviews, and it is available from booksellers and on a bunch of different e-readers. I very much recommend it, if you're looking for something to read this summer.

Wow. I appear to have spawned a discussion. WOOT.

Alright, so before I start a completely new thread for this, I suppose I should start the discussion here.

Basically, I want to spearhead the creation of a Jakkard fanset/block! However, I wanted input from all of you on how to go about doing that.

As a completely fan created plane, the only thing Jakkard is missing at the moment is cards! (Lord knows it has enough story behind it at this point.) I'm of the opinion that if we create cards for this fanset, it will give us two major benefits: First, cards are an excellent source of inspiration for additional stories. Second, we could draw a lot of attention to the M:EM from people interested in the flavor/mechanical aspect of the cards we make.

My main question, however, is this:

Should we create the thread and set HERE, in this forum, and allow it to be voted into the M:EM as a whole, or should we port this out to YMTC and transfer it over for voting when it is done? I see pros and cons for both choices, but I am personally for creating a thread here and working on it in-house.

It will be easier to manage that way.

If this is cool with all (or the majority) of you, I'll create the thread posthaste and we can discuss it more there. If you'd rather I take this to the EM and watch over the proceedings I can do that as well, but I may be less inclined to get the ball rolling until Starstill is complete. Probably best not to cause a bunch of clutter.

Let me know what you all think of this!

I think you should post the card concepts on YMTC. Additional feedback is helpful.

If I might make a suggestion, rather than a traditional set/block, what if we did a Summer Multiplayer set? That would free us up to invent unique mechanics for the plane that might not make as much sense in regular tournament magic. And we know from Conspiracy that it's totally possible to convey a setting's flavor in one of those products.

As to where it should go... maybe a thread here to come up with stuff at the conceptual level, and then a thread in YTMC once we start rolling on bulk card design? Then we could have some actual contests, which could be a lot of fun.

That... is an excellent idea. I'd say this is why we keep you around, but honestly, it's mostly for your ankles. O_O Hot damn.

Joking aside, this is a way better idea than the one that I had, and I'm all for it. Conspiracy was WAY more driven by flavor than most other sets I've seen, and man was drafting that set awesome. 10/10 suggestion, let's do that.

Yessssss

I've literally ALWAYS conceived of Jakkard as a setting suited for a Summer Multiplayer product so I'm glad you agree that it would be a good idea!

Also, good news on my end: the ridiculous out-of-the-blue due date that I was suddenly saddled with for my thesis proposal was officially nullified by my instructor, much to my relief. Clerical errors were apparently involved. It's all very stupid. Anyway, disaster averted on that front, basically, so maybe I can unwind a little bit.

Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes!



Thank God for that!

I actually defended my thesis on my birthday. I ended my presentation by saying to the committee: "I'm not mentioning this in an attempt to influence your decision in any way, but I do want to point out that today is my birthday, and I have a bottle of champagne which is chilling in the break room fridge as we speak."

OL: using endless niceness to his advantage, Like A Boss

And yes, thank god for that. The last few days have NOT been pleasant for me psychologically =_=

For the record, I would have popped the cork regardless.

I suspect the strongest incentive for them was that giving me my degree was the easiest way to see the back of me.

Oh hell yes. THE WASTE IN THE HEAT OF SUMMER. THERE IS SO MUCH FLAVOR IT'S GETTING META.

Also, just in case it matters(doubt it, but still) my newly minted walker Deryk is currently hanging out on Jakkard, attempting to reverse engineer trains as a concept. If we somehow don't have enough walkers here we could make him a card?

Bring it up in the thread!

(However, Alessa already has a story set on Jakkard, and she is also R/U, so I wouldn't get too set on putting him in.)

I think the current PWs seen in Jakkard are Fisco, Alessa, Aloise (though she's in Starstill), The Duchess (not in Archives), and Lia Xin

Alessa knows everything about the past, Deryk knows nothing.

Alessa wants to escape her past, Deryk wants to find his.

Alessa messes with the future and the past, Deryk messes with the here and now.

Alessa is clever and thinks ahead, Deryk is curious and hotheaded.

Alessa is more blue than red, Deryk is more red than blue.

Alessa is female, Deryk is male.

Honestly, I don't think I could've made them more different if I tried. Make Alessa U U/R and Deryk R R/U to balance it.

Aloise hasn't actually visited Jakkard, so right now it's just Alessa, Lia Xin, Fisco, The Duchess, and possibly The Shifter if the Duchess is around (also r/u as I recall) and the two potential characters whose names aren't springing to mind (gr and r respectively)

It's... not about being different? I'm not saying they're the same, I'm just saying they're both R/U. Changing the mana costs doesn't really change the fact that we'd have two R/U 'walkers in one set.

It's pretty well established that characters can be the same color combination and still be vastly different. Besides, Deryk hasn't even been voted into the M:EM proper yet, and still has a few kinks to work out before that happens.

I'm really going to have to give priority to Alessa because she's already has an excellent story based in Jakkard, and Barinellos worked hard to produce it.

Maybe next time, my friend. Any other questions or concerns you have should probably be vocalized in the Summer Set thread, however.

And feel free to post other ideas over there as well!

@Keeper: I mean, Aloise has visited Jakkard, just off-screen and for a brief period of time (like, a week). She didn't really do much of anything there, or make a name for herself, she was just looking around. (She didn't like it much - everyone was so rude!)

You're thinking of Dariuss and, uh, that Rattler who's named I can never spell right on the first try. Svetsh? Czetsh? This is what I get from doing it from memory.

I'm pretty sure Alessa and Fisco are guaranteed to make it into the set. Then, depending on how many 'walkers we ACTUALLY want to have, we can add more, but Lia is definitely high on the list of priority 'walkers. Louder Than Words was an excellent piece.

Alessa is a very balanced U/R actually.
But aside from that, I don't mean to discourage you at all, but I think it might be a little early for you to push Deryk into other projects.
Try to get a story under the belt and then we can talk.


Shifter is R/B actually
Duchess is U/W

Yeah, I didn't actually expect Deryk to get in. I was just trying to counter a point that wasn't actually being made. HOORAY FOR IDIOCY.

See I keep assuming he's blue because Shapeshifter.

Antine is also a planeswalker from Jakkard, however because of his utter failure to get into the Archives via the first printing of "Showdown," (which I just realized may be the genesis of my abusive treatment of him) he's not actually in the Archives at all, and was never really an active planeswalker while on the plane.

So...I guess I don't know why I mentioned him...

@Keeper: That is excellent news! I'm glad for you.

@Orcish: I ended my defense sobbing and rocking back and forth in the fetal position while constantly repeating "I did my best!" Okay, fine, that's a lie. Actually, my thesis defense was one of the most enjoyable experience of my academic career and it went extremely well. But my first version of the story makes for a better visual!