Registered Member #24041
Joined: 4:19:01 am GMT 01/24/17
Posts: 2145
*Blows dust off of forum*
So recently Alanonas and I were having a conversation about Thain (as we often do), and we got to talking about how certain NPCs and PCs would fit within the five-color magic wheel. And then we laughed and that was the end of the conversation.
Just kidding. Something like a combined 30 hours and 309 cards later, we have a full set of cards. And by "full set", I mean the idea here was to create a (hopefully) balanced Thain-specific expansion to MtG that could not only stand alone by itself but could also work with what is currently out in MtG standard right now. To help introduce this project, I will now A some Qs that you may have.
Q: Cuchuwyn/Alanonas, this seems like a really weird thing for you to do, especially when literally no one asked for it. Why?
A: I'm glad you agree that examining the world of Thain through the prism of MtG is an interesting project that everyone clearly wanted! While the alignment system of DnD certainly has its place, the color wheel of Magic is far more fluid, allowing for subtleties that simply can't be expressed by the fairly rigid alignment system we all know and love/hate. Furthermore, as we got further into the project, we discovered themes of Thain that were surprisingly under-represented (neutral/good flying creatures, for example), and others that were very much over-represented, compared to what one might expect (Thain has too many rogues and too many elves!).
Q: Why 309 cards? Why not 310 or 300?
A: 309 seemed like a nice logical number.
Q: You mentioned PCs and NPCs?
A: Yes! Quite a few of them, but not all of them, because we had to stop somewhere! We tried to include PCs that we felt fairly confident about being able to defend our choices for their color/abilities, which means that PCs that we don't interact with a ton or are newer are less likely to be included. The other big restriction was us not being able to find good art for a PC- we tried to keep the art all within a similar style for all the cards, to help keep set uniformity.
Q: Art?
A: Yes! All cards have art pulled from Google. Where possible, the artist is credited at the bottom of the card, but in many cases it was a picture in a pinterest board that was linked from a twitter thread that was buried in a blog post, so we weren't always able to find the artist, or there was more than one person who claimed it as their own.
Q: So can we play with these cards?
A: Yes! That's the goal, at least! Obviously these are not "real" MtG cards, and shouldn't be sold or used in tournaments or anything, but if you have a printer and a couple hours to kill, you could make yourself a few decks' worth pretty easily!
Q: So these are all Thain-related?
A: Yep! And fair warning, there may be minor spoilers in some of the flavortext (though nothing plot-related or anything like that).
Q: Flavortext?
A: Flavortext! Oh, and if your character is quoted as saying something in the flavortext, it is now canon that they say it. They may not have said it yet, but we will assume that someday they will.
Registered Member #24041
Joined: 4:19:01 am GMT 01/24/17
Posts: 2145
Oh, one final thing- feel free to make your own cards in addition to these, and we may also add more here and there if we get inspired, especially as we get to know more PCs/find cool art!
[ The Island of Thain ]
Magic: The Gathering Thain Set
