Vs. System.org

By ShadowTrooper

Back story:

I remember a long ago time, and I mean a long time ago, that I had an itch with card creating. I gave it a try once with a small Heralds of Galactus curve, and a few X-Force cards featuring Cable for the most part. I had fun with these cards and I still remember the theme behind the Heralds of Galactus cards. What I had the team do was that Galactus would cost 1 resource point less for each character with the version Herald. I remember it well because I based it on Draco, a Magic the Gathering dragon that cost 2 less mana points to summon for each basic land type that you controlled. (I’ll bet that didn’t make much sense if you haven’t played MTG). Then I had Galactus’ ATK and DEF relate to the number of locations in play and in the KO pile. Even though I thought it was a cool idea I never considered myself a good card creator. After seeing some of the cards others had created I found them ridiculous, especially after I tried to make what I thought were reasonable cards. So I got discouraged and even stopped visiting the threads. At that time MMK was being released and the forums started to get hostile. I knew I wanted to avoid falling into a net decking cycle, as had happened to me in MTG, so I decided to alienate myself from the forums and avoid the drama altogether.

Fast-forward a few years. Just as a new boost for the game came to me the Vs activity was lowering my area. I decided to re-introduce myself into the forums to get a bigger dose of Vs into my life. During my time in the forums I made some very cool friends (as I would guess has been the experience for most of you). I got reintroduced into card creating with a push from KardKrazy and his work on some sets like The Age of Apocalypse Raid set (which was previewed and release a few months ago) and a few other miscellaneous cards. I found that while not being a good card creator KardKrazy really appreciated my knowledge of the cards, their interactions, and my feedback. Perhaps I wasn’t as bad at this as I thought. During that time my heart was soften to the idea of fan created content as I also did a preview for DC Universe. It was with that set that I understood how much fan card designing had evolved from its original days. But that was just my opinion as I was soon to discover.

Some time after I decided to do a fan set. It is was Freedom Force collection that was released not to long ago. I didn’t really knew how good my cards were but I was very lucky to have Guglio as a mentor. Guglio is one of the best if not the best card designer out there. He gives me his honest opinions about the cards that I do, yet is humble enough to ask for my opinion on the cards that he does. With his help I started to understand a few things about card creating, and I actually came to understand just how good my cards were. Not terribly good but better than average for a rookie, which is just fine by me.

After I did the fan set I gave up on the whole fantasy card department yet again. I can’t say there wasn’t a reason for me quitting because there was. Basically I just got unmotivated to create cards when the majority of the community doesn’t appreciate them. Not many members of the community actually look at them, less comment on them, and even less of the community actually plays with these things. It seems that fantasy cards never really got over the prejudice and notion that they are ridiculously overpowered. A sad thing really cause just by making a few cards, trying to find a theme, and then decent images for the cards I learned just how much work and effort these guys put into their work. That frustrated me to the point that I decided to do something about it. Enter the Fantasy Set Directory.

With the ok from Carlos the Dwarf I began collecting all the fantasy sets that I could get my hands on. Sets found on Photoshop, TCGPlayer, and on VsSystem.org. I looked for members of Realms that had accounts on .org so I could get their sets in links other than on Realms to avoid sending people to catch a virus. Mostly as a precaution as I don’t know how safe Realms is as of now. I wanted people to get full and easy access to the sets the creators have slaved over. When I say slaved I am not lying, as such is the case with lastchance whom has dedicated the better part of a year on his Valiant Universe set. I want people to understand that these cards for the most part aren’t ridiculous, that they aren’t broken, and that they are just as entertaining and fun as the ones done by UDE. I really want to open people to a new option and possibility to get fresh new material.

Sharing what little I have learned.

Creating fantasy cards is not an easy a task as it seems, but it does help when you have an understanding of the characters background, powers, and any previous versions of the characters that have been created. This will help your creations get a more honest and realistic feel. I have found Wikipedia, and the corresponding official company web pages to be of great help. Not only will they help with the info of the characters but in some rare cases they also provide a good enough picture that can be used for the cards art.

One of the other lessons I have learned is that you shouldn’t create cards with a rarity in mind, but rather create the cards and then evaluate the cards power and establish a rarity. I will say that I don’t follow this rule down to a tee, as I like to determine how powerful a card I want to create before I actually create it. I do this for different reasons, but mostly because I want the characters that are going to be featured as Legends to have decent enough support and for them to be the highlight of the set. A curious thing that I have encountered is that it is easier to create cards that are rare and uncommon rather than the less powerful common cards.

Creating a theme is something you should do before you even start creating a single card. I believe this is a difficult task that is made harder when you have to mold a characters power to be represented faithfully while still maintaining a sense of unison with the theme at hand. It really is a back and forth process, as cards feed of the theme as much as themes feeds off the cards.

I will be honest I’m not a big fan of fan created keywords. This is not to say that I have not been impressed by some of them because I have, but the purist in me makes it hard for me to accept most of them. I have thought about some new and creative keywords; yet I have never introduced new keywords in the vast and extensive two set collections that I have created (sarcasm). Perhaps when I am more knowledgeable on the matter I will. One thing that I love is that some creators actually borrow Keywords that were created by other creators. Such was the case with Silkmane borrowing from JoseG the keyword of Nightvision to add on his Black Panther set. By the way Nightvision was a really great idea that JoseG had. Much like Loyalty replaces an extensive text, Nightvision simply means that the character can attack characters in the concealed area. Simple yet it blew my mind.

One thing that some card creators do is doing reprints. While not really making it fan created content this is a great way for rookie builders like myself to finish out the last few cards that we might need to make a complete collection or set. Reprints in most of the cases I have seen are not actual reprints but cards that are essentially reprints. Confused? For example rarely will you see the reprint of a Flying Kick, but you will find perhaps a “Cerebro” that instead of working with X-Men characters works with say The Smurfs. Essentially it is like what To Me My X-Men was to Press the Attack a simple change or addition of affiliations while the rest of the card remains the same.

Another of the steps that I have found advice is on is the subject of assigning rarity to the cards. The best advice I have received was to check for existing UDE cards that have a similar power to the one you have created, and compare it. If your card seems more powerful than its predecessor then augment the rarity of the card, if it is less powerful then lower its rarity. This is not a rule set in stone as a card can be more or less powerful than its predecessor yet still worthy to remain on the same rarity.

Comparing your cards with the cards available to us from UDE is not only a good idea to determine the rarity of our cards, but also a great way to learn the correct, or best way to template our creations. I have seen some fantasy content that is worded horribly, some of my own I might add. When KardKrazy suggested that he used existing UDE cards to help himself template the cards correctly I fell in love with the idea. It gives us the benefit of not only wording the cards correctly but if you are like me, and English is a second language it helps correct any misspelled words. I have seen how some of the cards that would be otherwise perfect are ruined because of not only the syntax, but also bad grammar. It is a good idea to have a friend or two check the cards you have created so that you can fix these problems before making your cards public. If you don’t know anyone with some card creating expertise it’s ok. Post a few of the cards you have doubts about in a thread over at the fantasy section and ask for help. Thankfully the guys that visit these threads regularly are real nice and always willing to lend a helping hand.

Well I think that all that I can share with you right now about my experiences in relationship with card creating, and what little I have learned when creating my own cards. I doubt anything I have said would of helped some of the seasoned card creators out there, but I hope that it has helped even if a little to those that just like me are starting to enjoy the game in a whole new way. Hopefully I managed to start an itch into others to start creating their own cards. Most of all I hope I have opened your eyes into how much fantasy sets have evolved and how much work and effort it takes to create them, as perhaps in the future this might be the only venue we will have left to keep the game new, fresh, and alive.