Faction Concept: The Monato'en Tribe (finished)

[halcyon98]

I think the Trial is far too difficult to complete, even if lots of spells in this faction can deal damage. It’s a great idea, and it suits the faction well, but I think 30 or 40 damage would be a more reasonable requirement.

[2munk4u]

Changed it to 30 damage;)

[halcyon98]

Congratulations on finishing, by the way.

[2munk4u]

Thank you!

You too!

[2munk4u]

Reflections on making of the faction.
I wanted to share some of my thoughts and processes as I was making this faction. Mostly it’s to sort my thoughts for later personal use, and maybe it can be of use to others too.

Why I wanted to make a faction.
I love to theorize and conceptualize about possibilities and potential. This is probably the reason for me to wanting to make a fan faction. It also is a sort of challenge to myself and a way to gain experience in making of a fantasy world. I love to make stories and am a big fan of all kinds of ccg, so it for me it’s a great way to experience both of those things while making a fan faction.

The concept to the faction:
I want to make something that could be considered “original” or something “old with a twist”. For this faction i had an idea to use some sort of space vampire race. But i thouhght about many difrent twists, like them being some sort of knights, or space pirates. but it was things i felt had been done a lot before. After som days of going back and forth on the concept i had an idea for a mechanic that would steal health. but that too was a common ability in most ccg. so i thought, WHY would they need to feed on other beings life force. And from there i got the idea of a planet that had the conditions for a spiece to evolve to live on essence and life energy of others.

From there I needed a reason as to why would this faction need/ want to leave their planet in search of a new one? I decided to go for that they needed to leave but I also wanted them to have developed a philosify that reflected them as a fleeing planet where they were dying out. Thats how i started to design a faction that wanted to survive, while still have a greater understanding that they are not the only ones that needs to survive.

Next part of the design was the keyword and the mechanics. I had already made out the idea of Mount. I wanted a minion to be able to move another minion, mount was the keyword based on that.
Second ability was a bit more difficult. In my mind the best fit would be a “lifelink/lifesteal” but i went with a psycic type of communication that also could be used as an ability. hench the Essence link keyword.

Then i sat up a system where i made the space for each card to each expansion like how many creatures, spells and arifacts. I also look at what kind of feeling or theme each expansion had (to me) and sort of tried to follow suit in the design. example Tribe/bond in Ancient Bonds.

Designing the cards
When i started to work on the cards and also the mechaning i tried to follow some pointers i had gotten on earlier concepts and some rules of my own.

• Keep it as simple as possible (keyword and wording)
• Stick to your theme/concept (don’t do too many things at once)
• Do not directly copy other peoples ideas (make the cards your own as much as possible)
• Follow your vision, and stay true to what you want to make (but be open to suggestions and improvments)
• Make drafts and refine later (sometimes you just have to make what you have in mind before you change it or scrapp it.)
• Do not make what you do not like. (it is your idea, your concept. So you are making this for you, not someone else)

These “guidelines” is what i at least tried to use while making the concept, and i feel it helped to stay on target and still be able to do what i had in mind.

After making the faction.
I felt happy after posting the basic cards of the factions and wanted to hear what other people thought. And luckly many seemed to like it. I also got some pointers to what needed to be adressed. Such as how the keywords worked when dispelled. The over complex Essence link that was reworked 2 times. and things i had overlooked, so that realy helped!
(thanks to @alplod, @limango and @halcyon98 for feedback and suggestions!)

@halcyon98 also pointed out the speed at witch I put out the cards. And that made me think/want to take some more time to make each cards. If i made cards to fast, I felt that some potential of the concept was a bit lost. So for the next concept i will take some more time to design cards i did not felt was rushed/pused.

Final words.
Thank you all for reading! I hope it was at least interesting and fun to follow the making of The Monato’en Tribe.

(During the starting proces of the faction, i had several ideas for keywords/themes i just felt fitted better in the already existing factions. And on that note want to, sometime soon, share some of these ideas)