2008 Baseball Magic Cards

Goose's mention of the Mariners Magic cards has basically ruined my chances at getting any work done this afternoon before going home to see the game getting rained out. We need to make Magic cards to commemorate what is sure to be a historically frustrating season of Mariners' baseball.. and I want to take it up a notch.

I want to design a baseball variant of Magic: The Gathering. This won't be a baseball card game in the sense that you have some playmat with bases on it and that you slide cards around on. but I'm thinking it can go like this:

1) Two players play a total of nine rounds, each taking alternate turns in the "Home/Away" fashion.

2) When it is a player's turn within each round, they are "batting." The opponent is then "defending." Players do not have life totals as in normal magic, but start at a score of zero. To win, a player must score points, or "runs" on the opponent during their batting turns, and prevent the opponent from scoring runs during their defending turns. The player who finishes the game with the most runs, wins.

3) Batting players attack and defend with their creature cards. Attacking creature are considered to be batting and baserunning, defending creatures are pitching and fielding.

Creatures with the pitcher trait cannot attack unless National League effects are in play.

4) Each of the colors of magic (green, white, blue, red and black) represent approaches to playing and managing the sport of baseball.

    * Green is the color of life, growth and creation in Magic - in Baseball Magic green is the color of hustle, grit and youth. Energetic rookies, base stealers and "scrappy players" are good examples of green cards.
   
    * White represents order, peace and tradition in Magic, so in Baseball Magic, white is the color of the Old School. Players who do things the right way and those with good fundamentals or a reputation for clean play are associated with white.
   
    * Blue is Magic's color for intelligence, deception and control. In Baseball Magic, crafty pitchers and stat-head managers both call the color blue home.
   
    * Red is the color of raw chaos and brute strength. If you're aiming for the fences with every swing or if you brush back batters with triple-digit fastballs, then you belong to red.
   
    * Black is the color of death, disease and corruption. Players who slide with their spikes up or curse at children are associated with black, as are the debilitating illneses and injuries that keep players off the field.
   
5) Each player begins play with a deck of cards. Their deck is made of up pre-selected cards, no more than 4 copies of any given card or more than 1 copy of any Legendary card.

6) There are several different types of card, and the type determines when each card can be played.

    * The top line of a card has the name of the card on the left, and the mana cost, if any, of the card on the right.
   
    * The top half of the card has the card art.
   
    * The card type is listed under the art on the left side, and the symbol indicated the edition or set that the card is from is on the right. The color of the symbol indicates the rarity of the card.
   
    * The text box below the type information describes the card's traits or special abilities and may include 'flavor text' in italics. The flavor text provides some descriptive or humorous commentary on the subject of the card, and may relate to other cards or the overall storyline of the edition.
   
    * The artist info is below the text box to the left, and the power and health information of creature cards is below the text box to the right.

7) Most cards in Baseball Magic require mana to play. Mana is the mystic power that drives all things, and players must draw mana from the resources available in order to see their teams to victory. In magic, players use land cards to gain mana.

Each player may play one land card per turn, and they may tap, or turn sideways, those land cards in order to gain mana.

Land cards add one mana of their associated color to your mana pool unless otherwise noted. When a player plays a card that requires mana from the mana pool, that mana is gone and cannot be used for another card.

Players cannot keep mana in their pool past the end of the current turn - if you tap land cards for mana during your turn, you must use that mana before the end of that turn or it is wasted. Lands may be tapped for mana at any time during any player's turn.

Baseball players are represented by creature cards.When you put a creature card into play, it remains in play until it is removed from play by another card or it takes damage equal to or surpassing its health statistic. Creatures also have a power statistic, which indicates their ability to impact the opposing players or score runs.

Sorcery cards are powerful effects that you can only play from your hand during your turn and outside of combat phases. An example of a sorcery would be "Moose ATV Attack," which damages an opposing target creature. This card cannot be played during an attack, as the opposing players are running around trying to field their positions, but it can be used between plate appearances to catch an unwary opponent who is making eyes at a ball girl or concessionaire.

Instants are cards that be played at any time, during any player's turn and during combat. These often represent surprise effects or in-play developments, such as turning a double play or causing the opponent to short hop a throw to first base. Unless otherwise noted, abilities on creature and other cards are instants. If multiple effects such as instants are played at the same time, opponents take turns playing their instants and effects and when all effects have been played, they are resolved in a first-in, last-out order.

Enchantments are permanent effects that are played on other cards as their rules describe, or into the general field of play. Enchaments do not leave play unless their own wording or another card forces them to. Examples of enchantments might be "Annoying PA Music" or "Hellish Bug Attack."

Cards may have "traits" or keywords in their type description or text box. These traits, like "Veteran," "Lefty," or "`Roider" will affect their interaction with other cards according to the rulebook. Some cards can only target cards with or without specific keywords, for example.

8) Before beginning the game, each player shuffles their deck to the opponent's satisfaction. Randomly determine who goes first. Each player then draws a hand of seven cards from the top of their deck.

9) During a player's turn, they may a) play one land card from their hand, b) play sorceries and enchantments and c) declare attacks (attack and combat rules need work and debate). At the end of each turn, if a player has more than 8 cards in their hand, they must discard cards of their choice until they have no more than 8.

Any questions to this point? Feel free to make cards or suggest ideas as you are comfortable. You can make cards easy at http://magic.falseblue.com and let me know if you have any suggestions. If we all work together, this just might not suck ass.

Some examples: