We're posting this update here from Duelworks and 2i with permission in order to spread greater visibility on the design progress of the release of the game.
September 2024:
Design and Development Update
Booster pack sets:
As previously announced with Kickstarter, we’re making four reprint booster boxes with three regions each, plus universal!
We’d like to give you some insight into what goes into picking cards and making the lists work. What makes these sets challenging is that we can only include 150 cards and must split it evenly between Rares, Uncommons, and Commons as well as mixing in promos. We want to also include cards players are excited about, but also avoid things we suspect are very common in the community (like cards that have multiple reprints from original or promotional starter decks or boosters).
As we get closer to releasing the second booster set list, we’ll go over more detailed choices. Ask us what choices you’d like to hear about! As a final fun update today, we are naming each of the four booster sets. The Naroom, Paradwyn and Weave set is called “Traitor’s Reach: Wildlands”!
Templating for release:
Something people ask is why the timeline may be so long to release all the KS cards. What they don’t know is that we’re remaking the templates for Magi-Nation individually.
It’s unfortunate that not all of the original files (even art!) have made it through the years and survived, so it’s an arduous process to create each card template for all 13 regions and make each card individually—adding in art and making sure the text is set!
None of the team is on this full-time either, so we’re making steps forward as quickly as our time allows (when we’re not suffering cyber attacks from the dream plane). We hope to make steady progress, and these updates will hopefully give you all an idea of where we’re at!
Playtesting:
Does the current draft of Possession, perhaps cast by way of Cleansing or Mantle of Shadows, enable a dangerous combo? Are Tony, Returned's cost reduction or ability to loop certain Relics too powerful or are they balanced by his difficulty casting Spells? Is Darkwood Furok too pushed, and if so, is the solution to reduce its starting energy, limit Summoning to once per turn, or something else?
Help us answer these and other questions by participating in Community Playtesting to some credit from the Arcanist's Armory! See the announcement post for details!
Details: A limited time playtest promotion! Every person that wants to build a deck around 1 or more of the new promos and then play matches. For every documented match that you provide feedback on the promos for, AA can give you a $2.50 gift card up to a total of $25 per playtester. However, each promo can only count as a new promo for testing up to 3 times or $7.50 (of the $25 max) so to get all $25 and be eligible for the total amount you will need to try at least 4 different decks. I will also give a $100+ a promo of the tester’s choice (of those available in the remaining inventory at the time this is claimed) for the first 3 community members to claim $25 gift cards who have 10+ documented matches with feedback.
This will help prepare for the upcoming Final Playtest Tournament for the current batch of promos—both Duelworks and unreleased 2i designs—to be released as part of the Kickstarter redemption.
Top finishers in the tournament will receive cash prizes from Duelworks' design budget, and the champion will have the opportunity to commission a promo Spell design!