Ruin of Seffala – The Hermit Cycle, and Post-Mortem

This cycle is a collection of hermits. Each card is a rare creature that costs only one colored mana, is an 0/2, and has two activated abilities that only require tapping the hermit (sometimes removing counters as well), and the two activated abilities synergize with each other.

The very last cards. Shed a tear and click to embiggen.

The Crag Hermit builds up Boulder counters over time, then unleashes the counters in the form of direct creature damage. It also utilizes the Jeskai Followthrough mechanic.

The Green Thumb Hermit creates defenders and ramps based on the number of defenders you control. This works for the G/W token strategy, and for Green's defender strategy, and for Green's more typical ramp strategy. I considered at first having the Green Thumb Hermit make the normal Moss Wall defender tokens with Toughlink, but that seemed like it would be overpowered (not like I knew what overpowered really was in this set when I made it, considering the other broken and unbalanced things I've done).

The Sickly Hermit has the bonus of Wither, the Jund mechanic, but that might at first seem useless on an 0/2. But the first ability lets you tutor for Parasite Auras and immediately attach them to the Sickly Hermit, so if you get one with a P/T boost like Engorged Parasite, you can attack with it and the Wither will come into effect (another reason I should have had all Parasites give +1/+1). Then the Sickly Hermit can pass off its sickness (Parasites) onto other creatures. And since it doesn't say you have to enchant one of your own creatures, you can summon up a removal Parasite like Slothful Symbiont and pass it back to an opponent's creature. Watch out for the Parasites that can destroy or lock down your own Sickly Hermit!

Scheming Hermit allows you to do the classic Blue abilities: Scry and Bounce (actually, in this case, Tuck). Each time you Scry, it fuels your ability to Tuck a bigger thing away.

Mentoring Hermit creates Shaman tokens and gains life based on how many Shamans you have, synergizing with the G/W tokens strategy, W/U Shaman tribal, and all of White's lifegain strategies.

And that's it, I believe. That's every card for Ruin of Seffala.

I learned a lot from designing this set. Firstly, I learned that I need to play Magic a lot more before jumping into the design space with it, but this does not just apply to Magic. I have a bad habit of wanting to design games in genres I have little experience in, like text adventures previously, or tabletop RPGs. I need to do a better job playing and studying those genres before thinking "oh, I can do this, I have a fun idea." With Magic, I began making this set before really getting back into it, and I can already tell my next Magic set, even with all its new faults, is leaps and bounds above this one, because I understand simple balance issues and have a better grasp on all kinds of interactions and play styles.

I also learned I should concentrate my efforts on what I enjoy. I was trying to work on my art skills one card at a time as I posted this set, but it just became so tiresome and dejecting with how long it took, even if I was improving my art skills and getting faster (or taking more time to get things right). I want making the art to be a fun experience, and I hoped it would help when it came to things like FissureVerse where I was always searching for art and asking permission to use it, a long, dejecting process in itself. When I took a long break from this blog and finally came back to it, eschewing the art, I was able to make blog posts so much more quickly, and felt more accomplished.

I think my next set is going to be posted with blank white art space, so that a player who wants to print-and-play can then customize their cards with their own art.

I also learned I need to work harder on this blog. With the huge gap in time from the early posts of Seffala last April until now, I felt bad that I'd let the blog languish, without even working on other projects besides Seffala. I was working on non-game projects, like moving and novel-writing, but I had hoped to keep up with this blog, too. If I spent less time relaxing after work, playing games, etc., and more time working on projects that I could post, I would feel more accomplishment. The nature of game development is that it takes a long time and something like two posts a week means you get lots of very little progress to report (e.g. Latchkey). I want to have more substantial posts, quality posts, but I also want to keep the kind of momentum I just had this month. The problem is here, all of my work was front-loaded a couple years ago when I designed the set, and these posts are pretty easy write-ups in comparison. My New Year's resolution to post a level a month kind of fell apart quickly. I was designing a DOOM level, I liked it on paper, and I started to make it in Doom Builder, but then it got boring pretty fast, and I lost track of it after a few sessions while Seffala got posted and filled me with accomplishment. I had hoped Monthathons would be useful to keep me in check and keep me going, but I think I need even closer goals, more immediate goals. So I'm going to have to consider what works best for me. Maybe the solution is quality over quantity, or the reverse, or somehow I manage to do both. Perhaps this blog works only as a hub for completed projects, or I have spurts like this where I plow ahead with a billion posts in a row, followed by dead air for a while.

Well, I guess that remains to be seen. In the meantime, I've got some projects to work on.