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IRL #2: The Unwell Kingdom’s First Public Playtest!
This was a very exciting weekend: The Unwell Kingdom debuted with its first-ever public playtest at a local MtG event! We went with 8-player sealed,
IRL #2: The Unwell Kingdom’s First Public Playtest!
This was a very exciting weekend: The Unwell Kingdom debuted with its first-ever public playtest at a local MtG event! We went with 8-player sealed, since a few players were intimidated at the idea of drafting with an unfamiliar set....
Patch Notes: August 2025
The Unwell Kingdom’s most recent playtest was a unique one. We had a mix of experienced and brand-new players, so rather than toss them all into a draft together, I brewed up ten pre-constructed Standard decks! This gave the new...
Lore Spotlight #15: Wizards of the High Council
Many wizards study in the secret halls of The Unseen Library out in the Painted Wastes, but none are more enigmatic than the High Council! The Council convene in the library’s upper sanctum to discuss how to fill their halls...
Patch Notes: June 2025
May’s playtest was a big success! It was a simple 4-player draft with some usual faces, and the winner was Mole Stompy for the second test in a row, this time in Golgari colors instead of Simic. It’s a strong...
Lore Spotlight #14: The Tale of a Tart
I adore the concept of indirect storytelling through card art. Since The Unwell Kingdom is a set based on a D&D campaign, there are lots of narrative threads to pull on. Here’s one of my favorite examples. The orphans cycle...
Patch Notes: May 2025
The latest Unwell Kingdom draft playtest turned out to be a bit lopsided, but this was mostly due to draft strategies. I participated alongside three other players who were well-versed in the set, and I think everybody got tunnel vision...
Design Deep-Dive #16: The Merchants Cycle
Card draw is an important part of Magic, especially when playing limited formats. Without enough ways to draw extra cards over the course of a game, it’s easy to run out of gas and slow to a crawl. But too...
Card Showcase: Putressa, Resigned to Ruin
Creature — Goblin (1/3) 084/275 Rare When Putressa enters, target player becomes the monarch. Whenever a player draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, that player loses 1 life. “I was a...
Design Deep-Dive #15: Keyword Checkup 2025 – Inspire
After a full year of playtesting in 2024, it’s time to revisit this set’s unique mechanics to see what worked, what didn’t, and what needs to change. Inspire X Create X Inspiration tokens. They’re colorless enchantments with “Sacrifice this enchantment:...
Design Deep-Dive #14: Keyword Checkup 2025 – Hoard
After a full year of playtesting in 2024, it’s time to revisit this set’s unique mechanics to see what worked, what didn’t, and what needs to change. Hoard The hoard is a shared pool of cards in exile. To hoard...
Design Deep-Dive #13: Keyword Checkup 2025 – Concentration
After a full year of playtesting in 2024, it’s time to revisit this set’s unique mechanics to see what worked, what didn’t, and what needs to change. Concentration (Aura keyword) If enchanted creature is dealt damage or targeted by a...
Patch Notes: March 2025
The Unwell Kingdom’s most recent draft playtest was another success! Due to a late start, we didn’t find a definitive winner, but several players went 2-1 with varied decks like Selesnya Equipment, Azorius Enchantments, Jund Stompy, and a 5-color greed...
Card Showcase: Tourmaline, Far Traveler
Tourmaline stands out as the lone Planeswalker in the entire set. She was one of the player characters at the start of our campaign, a naive young genasi who becomes a Blood Hunter and very quickly finds the weight of...
Patch Notes: January 2025
We recently ran a very successful playtest draft, which saw a variety of solid decks in different color combinations, and no overwhelmingly powerful cards. In the end, Rakdos Inspire came out on top, piloted by Garp Garp’s own creator, Juston!...
Design Deep-Dive #12: Curve Topper Commons
The Unwell Kingdom has its fair share of monsters, each calling back to different battles from our D&D campaign. When designing the set, I chose to include a cycle of these creatures in each color and as commons, to offer...
The End of Our Tale
(orig. published Aug. 10, 2024) Our homebrew D&D campaign, The Unwell Kingdom, is coming to a close, 6 years to the day after it began. What an incredible journey it’s been. I’m so glad to have shared this with some...
Design Deep-Dive #11: Even More Tri-Lands!
(orig. published Aug. 07, 2024) A few months ago, I did a Deep-Dive on this set’s tri-lands, and the inspirations behind their design. Since then, they’ve proven to be extremely successful… so much so that I decided to make more!...
Lore Spotlight #13: The Haunting of Contraption!
(orig. published Jun. 18, 2024) Contraption is a goblin city on wheels, a hulking steel behemoth that roams the plains of Lyrea. Garp Garp grew up there, riding around and raiding the outskirts of Crestfall for food, until one day...
Card Showcase: Tilde, Nurse-In-Training & Rose, Devoted Florist
Tilde and Rose are two personal favorite NPCs from our campaign, a nurse and a florist in the quiet town of Cobbleston who are madly in love! Rose always finds excuses to hand-deliver medicinal flowers and herbs to Tilde’s clinic....
Card Showcase: Press On
Enchantment — Aura 145/275 Common Enchant creature you control, Concentration (If enchanted creature is dealt damage or targeted by a spell or ability, sacrifice this enchantment.) When Press On enters the battlefield, draw a card. You may play an additional...
Card Showcase: Fish Drop
Enchantment — Aura 057/275 Common Flash Enchant creature, Concentration (If enchanted creature is dealt damage or targeted by a spell or ability, sacrifice this enchantment.) Enchanted creature loses all abilities and becomes a blue Fish with base power and toughness...
Card Showcase: Mage Armor
Enchantment — Aura 048/275 Common Enchant creature, Concentration (If enchanted creature is dealt damage or targeted by a spell or ability, sacrifice this enchantment.) Spells that target enchanted creature cost more to cast. Reduce any combat damage dealt to enchanted...
Lore Spotlight #12: Bran Bramble
(orig. published May 15, 2024) Long ago, town of Bran Bramble was isolated from the rest of Lyrea, tucked away behind thorn-laden walls and ruled by a selfish lord. However, with the help of the new Queen’s Royal Guard, he...
Design Deep-Dive #10: From Concept to Card
(orig. published Apr. 25, 2024) Iteration is crucial to good design. Your first ideas are rarely your best, and especially when designing an entire set of cards, it’s impossible to know exactly how everything will interact until you actually sit...
Card Showcase: Un-Candle
Artifact 227/275 Uncommon During combat, all creatures have shroud. Originally crafted by wizards to prank their colleagues, the Un-Candle looks like an ordinary candle, but emits a sphere of magical darkness when lit! Even those with natural darkvision cannot pierce...
Card Showcase: Lost in the Swamp
Instant 214/275 Uncommon Create two 2/1 black Skeleton creature tokens with “This creature can’t block.” Basic Landcycling ( , Discard this card: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.) Lost...
Card Showcase: Study Buddy
Creature — Dwarf Wizard (1/3) 050/275 Uncommon Defender Other enchanted creatures you control have hexproof. If you control no enchanted creatures, Study Buddy can attack as though it didn’t have defender. Study Buddy is designed to be the perfect support...
Card Showcase: Glass Sword
Artifact — Equipment 228/275 Uncommon Equipped creature gets +1/-1. Whenever Glass Sword becomes attached to a creature, create a Blood token. This ability triggers only once each turn. Equip While it’s certainly no Skull Clamp, Glass Sword offers a decent...
Card Showcase: Fathers’ Parting Gift
Sorcery 138/275 Common Look at the top 7 cards of your library. You may reveal an equipment or basic land card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in...
Card Showcase: Pelly, Honest Smuggler
Legendary Creature — Halfling Pirate (3/2) 052/275 Rare Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent, choose one that hasn’t been chosen this turn: • Create a Treasure token. • Draw a card. • Target player mills...
Lore Spotlight #11: The False Prophets of Thrash!
(orig. published Mar. 25, 2024) Garp Garp was taught the power of thrash by the legendary Blue-Haired Bard, who belted odes to the god Thrashikus and inspired Garp to become a bard himself. So when, years later, Garp heard rumors...
Design Deep-Dive #9: Sagas Week Finale
(orig. published Mar. 3, 2024) Sagas might be my favorite card type in all of Magic: the Gathering. They offer some of the most direct blends of narrative storytelling and gameplay mechanics, right down to their unique presentation. While other...
Lore Spotlight #10: Sagas Week – The Queensguard Oath
Once Queen Lyndette took the throne of Crestfall, her first order of business was reorganizing the Royal Guard so they could station themselves across Lyrea and return the rule of law to its neglected towns and cities. However, she kept...
Lore Spotlight #9: Sagas Week – The Ballad of Nasty Pete
(orig. published Mar. 02, 2024) Once, some years ago, a goblin hunting party trekked out from the wheeled metal city of Contraption to find meat. They attacked a group of gnomes, but as they fought, the goblins noticed something unexpected...
Lore Spotlight #8: Sagas Week – Giants’ Day Festival
(orig. published Feb. 29, 2024) Every year around harvest season, Lyreans celebrate Giants’ Day as a way to pay tribute to Memnos and Lyros, the primordial giants who created land, life and sea. And no one knows how to party...
Lore Spotlight #7: Sagas Week – Birth of a Dragon
(orig. published Feb 28, 2024) Dragons are among the rarest and most mysterious creatures in the Unwell Kingdom. Few have ever been seen, though frightful tales of their ruthless cunning are passed down and distorted into myth. Most versions of...
Lore Spotlight #6: Sagas Week – The Leviathan Tournament
(orig. published Feb. 27, 2024) While the crown of Crestfall only changes hands through spilled blood, the overseas kingdom of Eldoris has a much different tradition. Every 10 years, the wise and powerful Leviathan emerges from the glittering sea to...
Lore Spotlight #5: Sagas Week – Fall of the Fell King
(orig. published Feb. 26, 2024) For hundreds of years, the kingdom of Crestfall was ruled by the dreaded Fell King, a high elf known for his cruelty. Under his rule, the land of Lyrea remained splintered and isolated, its people...
Lore Spotlight #4: Memnos & Lyros
(orig. published Feb. 22, 2024) Last of the four “God Sorceries” in the set, Memnos and Lyros represent the very creation myth in the world of the Unwell Kingdom. In the time before time, there were only the primordial giants....
Lore Spotlight #3: Thrashikus
(orig. published Feb. 21, 2024) Thrashikus, god of thrash! He has a bad reputation across Lyrea as an idol of violence and destruction, in large part due to a heretical death metal bardic cult, the False Prophets of Thrash! They...
Lore Spotlight #2: Xalyn
(orig. published Feb. 20, 2024) Xalyn is the goddess who created catfolk, and the one our catfolk cleric Fable holds in the highest esteem. Fable draws her healing powers from the wellspring of Xalyn’s grace, and contacts her directly in...
IRL #1: Packs, Proxies, and Playtesting
(orig. published Feb. 16, 2024) Designing a bunch of cards is all good in theory, but it means nothing until people actually shuffle up and play some games with them! Iteration is the most vital step in game design, so...
Card Showcase: Bug in a Jar
Artifact 227/275 Rare When Bug in a Jar leaves the battlefield, create a 1/1 green Insect creature token. “Sorry, Ogi! Garp Garp not changing you back until you ready to calm down and listen!” I originally designed this as the...
Card Showcase: Ogi
Creature — Cyclops Wizard 124/275 Common If an instant or sorcery spell you control would deal damage to any target, it deals that much damage plus 1 instead. Ogi is a kindhearted wizard who studied magic in the Unseen Library....
Card Showcase: Plant Familiars
Sorcery 144/275 Uncommon Create two X/X green Plant creature tokens. ’…a little TOO familiar.’ There are few things ramp decks love more than a good ‘X’ spell to sink their extra mana into. Plant Familiars is simple, but scales very...
Card Showcase: Acid Spray
Sorcery 085/275 Common Put three -1/-1 counters divided as you choose among one, two, or three target creatures. While there are no +1/+1 counters anywhere in this set, there are several cards that create -1/-1 counters! They are an effective...
Card Showcase: Old Dead Gold Mole-Molded Mold
Creature — Ooze (4/3) 096/275 Common When Old Dead Gold Mole-Molded Mold enters, exile target creature from your graveyard. When Old Dead Gold Mole-Molded Mold dies, return all cards exiled with it to the battlefield under your control. This is...
Card Showcase: Mole-Molded Mold
Creature — Ooze (2/2) 142/270 Common When Mole-Molded Mold dies, create a Treasure token. The molefolk beneath Crestfall have a peculiar burial custom. They harvest golden molds that grow in their winding tunnels, and use them to preserve the dead,...
Card Showcase: Cog
Artifact Creature — Construct (0/1) 238/275 Common Flying When Cog enters the battlefield, Inspire 1. If it entered from a graveyard or from exile, Inspire 3 instead. “Hello! I was born today!” Cog is a player-favorite NPC. He materialized in...
Design Deep-Dive #8: Lands Week Finale – Back to Basics!
Since I first began playing Magic the Gathering, I knew I wanted to draw a set of my own basic lands. This project became my excuse to finally do it! A fully playable set of custom cards just wouldn’t feel...
Design Deep-Dive #7: Lands Week – Utility Lands
(orig. published Jan. 19, 2024) It’s important to remember that lands can provide interesting payoffs aside from color-fixing. This set will include four utility lands to reinforce specific sub-themes, such as sacrifice, Inspire/Bards, and spellslinging Wizards! Crestfall Catacombs The Unwell...
Design Deep-Dive #6: Lands Week – Discard/Sac Lands
(orig. published Jan. 17, 2024) I’ll be the first to admit I’m playing with fire with this one. I’ve designed several cards in this set with “Discard or Sacrifice” activated abilities, including today’s cycle of mono-colored lands! Most real Magic...
Design Deep-Dive #5: Lands Week – The Tri-Lands
(orig. published Jan. 16, 2024) [UPDATE: After playtesting, even more tri-lands were added to complete the cycle! Learn more.] Perhaps the most powerful mana fixing in the Unwell Kingdom comes in the form of a set of tri-lands with a...
Design Deep-Dive #4: Lands Week – Illusory Palace
One big takeaway from researching set cubes is that mana bases in an average MtG set have a tendency to be very weak, to the point that many cubes will pad out the quantity and quality of mana-fixing lands from...
Lore Spotlight #1: Meet Our Heroes!
(orig. published Jan. 14, 2024) Six strangers awakened in a dungeon cell… Five years ago, our D&D campaign began! Learn a bit about each of the eight player characters at the forefront of our epic tale, featuring their own hand-drawn...
Card Showcase: Crown of Madness
Enchantment — Aura 088/275 Uncommon Enchant creature, Concentration (Whenever enchanted creature is dealt damage or targeted by a spell or ability, sacrifice this enchantment.) Enchanted creature is goaded, cannot block, and has “Whenever this creature is dealt damage or targeted...
Card Showcase: Cap’n Gator
Creature — Crocodile Pirate (2/4) 159/275 Common When Cap’n Gator enters or leaves the battlefield, create a 1/1 blue Crewmate enchantment creature token. Cap’n Gator is a quintessential green common for this set, as it can hook into a number...
Design Deep-Dive #3: Color Identities
(orig. published Jan. 03, 2024) While it’s important to not let any color in a set feel too one-dimensional, it’s also good to establish clear identities so that players can know what sorts of synergies to expect. This is especially...
Card Showcase: Royal Guard
Creature — Soldier (1/1) 001/275 Common , : Create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token with haste, then return Royal Guard to your hand. Activate only as a sorcery. What better card to showcase first than number 1 of 275!...
Design Deep-Dive #2: New Mechanics of the Unwell Kingdom
(orig. published Dec. 31, 2023) One of the first things I did when brainstorming for this set was to look for elements of our D&D campaign — be it lore, system rules, or whatever else — that would be good...
Design Deep-Dive #1: The Blank Canvas
(orig. published Dec. 27, 2023) This project started as a simple idea: “I want to create new Magic cards I can play with friends, based on the world and characters of our shared D&D campaign.” I knew this would be...
Welcome to The Unwell Kingdom!
(orig. published Dec. 20, 2023) This blog will document the trials and triumphs of creating a fully functional homebrew Magic the Gathering set – 275 original cards, new mechanics, hand-drawn art, and more – all based on our 6-year D&D...