I completed the “Create Your Own Magic Cards” assignment.

http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/create-your-own-magic-cards/

I’ve played magic before. I understand enough of it to know that I don’t like playing it. However, I thought it would be amusing to create some trading cards based on the movie Goodfellas.

Using the website http://www.mtgcardmaker.com I created a set of four cards. Two cards represent characters in the movie and therefore were converted to “creature” cards. One card represents a character named Tommy’s temperament, so I decided it was fitting to make that card a sorcery. Most of the characters in the movie end up in jail. Naturally, jail was designated as a land card.

Designing each card wasn’t hard. I suppose I designated powers based on the likability of each character in the movie. In magic there are different color choices such as gold, plain, green, etc. The mafia is at times referred to as the black hand, so I gave all of the cards the black color. At the bottom of every card a quote can be found from the movie.

Overall, this assignment was pretty fun and easy.

This assignment was done with my character in mind.  I had never played Magic the Gathering, but I have played Pokemon and a little bit of Yu-gi-Oh. I thought, how difficult could it be? The answer… Very.  Magic the Gathering is a hard, complicated and confusing game.  It’s as if someone took Dungeons and Dragons and put the entire game board on a deck of cards.  No wonder this assignment was worth so much. Sadly I wasn’t able to devote enough time to this as I should have, but I tried.

I attempted to do a little bit of research to make something that would actually make sense and along the way I felt like I was stuck in a trap card.  Next time I’m going to stick with what I know unless I have enough time to learn.

I play Magic: The Gathering on occasion, and found the “Create your own magic card” assignment amusing because of its creative potential.  Its fun to think of a favorite character’s traits and abilities and distilling those things into stats for a card game.  I chose Harry Dresden, a character from a series of books called the Dresden Files, a fantasy noir series about a wizard in modern day Chicago.  Dresden did much to influence my character, Jim Sardic, and I thought it’d be fun to put him on a card while giving him some credit for helping my ideas for developing Sardic’s personality.  Colors in Magic represent certain traits in people and environments.  For Dresden, I chose his fundamental colors to be red and blue.  Red represents raw power, pushing yourself through a conflict with brute force, and fire.  Blue represents control and thinking ahead to give yourself an advantage when trouble does come, a trait common to the archetypal wizard.

My first assignment in the shoes of Stringer Bell was the “Create Your Own Magic Cards!”. I never noticed this assignment before which leads me to believe that it was just created. This is seriously a fun and creative assignment. Gaming cards of all sorts are fun to read and fun to make. This was also perfect because Stringer would be a GREAT card to make. There are so many options for this! Let’s get down to it.

Outline: 

Obtaining the gaming card outline was simple. I just googled “magic card outline” and there were so many choices. I ended up picking this magic card because it said “special card” and Stringer Bell IS special.After i had the magic card outline i went looked for a good picture of Stringer. Sadly, not many pictures of the actor in Stringer’s costume, so my choices were limited. I ended up choosing this one because it made him look badass. This process was pretty simple to be honest. I used GIMP to add the pictures and text in layers. Thinking of what to write on Stringer’s card was actually the most difficult part of this assignment. My favorite term that Stringer and his crew use in the show is the word “muscle” when referring to the guys they hire as protection. It’s funny. Now, we all know Stringer is the main guy, right behind Avon if not ahead of him. So, i put him down as a “Level 10 muscle” because that’s magic card related and hilarious. The next part i wrote was based off of Stringer’s biggest talent and gift. His intelligence. So, that’s his power move because he’s the smartest and basically out smarts the other guys. Finally, i chose to write that he’s “Advanced Gangster Leader” because let’s be real. He’s above Avon and in a way always will be. That is, until he dies. behold! My Magic card below!

Outline:

Final:

Stars: 4

Hey guys!  So recently I have gotten back into playing “Magic: The Gathering”.  It is a card game that I used to play in high school, but stopped for a long time.  Several of my friends play now, and I decided to get back into it.  So the basis of the game is that you have to use mana, or lands, that you have played to cast spells and creatures to destroy your opponent.  Magic cards are renowned for the art printed on each card, and some of which can be very expensive due to this.

 

 

 

This is a good example of some of the beautiful art depicted on Magic cards. (Picture courtesy of Wizards of the Coast, http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=259205)

 

 

 

There is a sizable portion of the Magic fan community that is dedication to card augmentation and card creation.  Since I am nowhere near talented enough as an artist, I had no intentions of setting out to create some beautiful card art.  However, anyone can be creative enough to come up with a set of characters to create some cards!

Here is a great example of a fan created card.  Photo courtesy of Alaskan Nerdery Supply.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/AlaskanNerderySupply

My creation:

So for my assignment, I, of course, decided to create a few cards from a “The Wire” Magic Collection.  To do this, I used the website http://www.mtgcardmaker.com to actually generate the card.  To do this, all you have to do is make a few decisions  and enter a little bit of text.

To start, you have to choose what color deck you want the card to belong to (choices are green, blue, red, black and white).  Then you have to name the card, choose the card type, add some abilities if you wish, some flavor text, add a photo and then, voila!  You made art…kinda.

 

 

 

 

So finally, here are my “The Wire” Magic cards:

 

 

Omar:

Most people know by now that Omar is my favorite character, so why not introduce him first?  My thinking behind this one was simple:  Omar is a badass and seemingly unstoppable.  Therefore I gave him the deathtouch ability, as well as intimidate.  You know how Omar walks down the street and people both young and old run away from him?  Yeah…intimidation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 McNulty:

 

So McNulty was an interesting creation.  I instinctively wanted him to be a strong card, but when I thought about it, he isn’t really a strong force to be reckoned with.  Instead, he tends more to be a self-destructive character.  Therefore, I decided to make him a low strength card (a 2/2, visible in the lower right corner).  He tends to cost the department a lot, be it mental anguish or monetary, so I made his card cost a 9 total.  Also, he does motivate his compatriots, so the special ability is a good fit, I think.

 

 

 

 

 

Burell:

Not a lot to say here.  Blue because of the cop angle; a low power/toughness because its Burell: he’s a behind the scenes string-puller.  He can mess things up for anyone at any point though, so I gave him the extra ability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brother Mouzone:

Here comes brother, bringing down fire and brimstone down with him!  Brother is a very straightforward card:  High power/toughness, no trickery, just beatdown power.  I especially like the flavor text for this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Avon Barksdale:  Lord of the Pit

Really, no explanation necessary here…but I will anyway.

I couldn’t pass up the chance to use an actual card name (Lord of the Pit) in combination with Avon.  He is legendary; he is a demon; he is LORD OF THE PIT!  The ability listed is the actual ability on the actual “lord of the pit” card, and I thought it really fit Avon as well.  He will do anything (or do away with anyone) to save himself.  Not to mention the flavor text…classic line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you agree with these card descriptions?  Would you have given different characters different abilities?  Would you have created different cards?  Let me know in a comment, and then try this out for yourself!