Years ago, Magic the Gathering created 3 personas for card players; Timmy, Johnny, & Spike. Two personas revolve around how the player wins the game, via “big” and flashy cards (Timmy), or winning with style (Johnny), and the 3rd persona, Spike, just cares about winning. Usually, a player is a mix of 2 personas and not solely one. John Earley wrote an article back in 2015 explaining the 3 personas here.
Most people don’t fit strictly into 1 persona, but instead they have the majority of one, with a little influence of the other. When designing cards, I like to keep these personas in the back of my mind. Not every card has to (nor should it be) top-tier. Some cards are more liked by others while having multiple ways to play it.
I don’t think Redemption necessarily fits these personas. So I asked myself, what are the Redemption profiles? Of course, I had to give personas biblical names and reasonings. Gabe has written a similar article in the past, so I want to give him credit, but I could not find the article on Land of Redemption, it might be on the old forums. Without further ado, here are the 3 Redemption personas I created.
Samson
Samson – Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Judges 16:28
Samson players play the strongest cards, simple as that. This is pretty much a direct comparison to Spike players. Samson players play to win, track their wins and losses, and would rather play with the strongest deck over their favorite theme. Their favorite deck is whatever is the strongest. Simply put, Samson players have fun through winning. If Samson players lose, they tweak their deck to ensure they don’t lose to the same strategy again, or they straight up copy the deck that beat them, if they think that deck is better.
Samson cards tend to negate, restrict, or stop the opponent from using their abilities, while getting resources and winning the battle. For this card, I picked something that’s relatively new to the game. For all the spoilers in this article, yes you read that right, I did a black box at the bottom of the card to take out the number and rarity, if applicable, on the card.
This card has a negate, so it automatically leans towards Samson, but then it has hand knowledge, a play ability, and takes away the opponent’s best good Enhancement.
The ability stems from the scripture as His chosen ones (meaning Heroes in our game), will fully enjoy new Heavens and the new Earth. Although it seems evil for a Hero to take something good from the opponent’s hand, this card symbolizes that even though we are opponent’s in the game, we are all trying to work together for His kingdom.
A turn 1 attack with this is extremely strong. I imagine this card coupled with Nebuchadnezzar* (*editor’s note: I’m assuming he’s referring to PoC Nebuchadnezzar, or teasing a new one!) who tosses the next, or does he do something else now, would be very tough for the opponent to get through. This card is extremely strong, but not just for Samson players. The other 2 personas could also want this card, which tells me this is a fun and well designed card.
Elijah
Elijah – And at noon Elijah ridiculed them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, since he is a god; undoubtedly he is attending to business, or is on the way, or is on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep, and will awaken.” I Kings 18:27
Elijah players like to have fun while playing. Elijah players are more about fellowship, community and playing a deck that is fun for them. Having fun can come from unique abilities, making the opponent do things they may not want to, or just flat out irritating your opponent.
I thought this was a great pick for Elijah players. Although I wanted to show a green card due to the name, I thought that might be too cliche. This card isn’t a battle winner, but wipes their territory and lets you shuffle your hand to draw 8. That means you can have only 1 card in hand, being The Final Act, and play this card to draw 8. You also get through all protection and the card cannot be negated. It’s pretty strong, but not a battle winner. I have had fun playing this card in playtesting.
There’s plenty of ways to get this early, or you can Reserve it. From a strategic perspective, you can play this card early in game like a Mayhem to use it as a speed boost, which I know Daniel players (is it players, or is it just Eman?), will appreciate. You can also play this later in the game to wipe their board, or shuffle back your Canaanites. Regardless of protect abilities, I mean, regardless of how you play this card, I would say Elijah players will enjoy this card.
Noah
Noah players are patient, enjoy thematic decks, not playing the meta and winning via a condition. Noah players do not have to leverage all traits in every deck they play, but you will see bits of these playstyles when playing against them. They favor control decks or building into a large attack that can take a few turns to accomplish.
It was difficult to pick a card for this persona without spoiling too much, but this card fits the mold very well. I wanted to show we are still designing for meek Lost Souls while bringing in an aspect of one of the Daniel Lost Souls currently in the game. This is a flexible card where the X for discarding Heroes can get very large.
Conclusion
I did a different take on our very first spoilers for this upcoming set. Instead of doing an introduction to the set and their themes, I wanted to tie in more of my thought process for designing cards and another element when evaluating the perceived power level of cards. I have seen a trend that cards are graded against the best cards in the game and if they are not at that level, then they are considered of lower quality.
I know one article will not change that, but I wanted to share some background on card design while writing a fun take on spoilers. I also think updating the Redemption personas would be fun and give some more amazing content for the community to discuss. They get 3 spoilers and personas! I will continue to do more articles for the upcoming set and release more spoilers and I hope you enjoyed reading the first article for the next set.
