Week 1: Living Up to a Legacy

Week 2: In a League of Their Own

Week 3: Artistic License
Week 4: Where Art Thou?

Week 5: Power . . . At Any Cost!

Week 6: The Object of My Designer

I know it’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to talk to you guys about our friend Nyssa Raatko. If you’ve forgotten, here is what she looks like so far:

Over the last few weeks, R&D has been testing your design, and this week, you’ll be able to make one of the last decisions about Nyssa—her all-important ATK and DEF. But before we get to that, let’s get into another tutorial. I’m going to talk about what happens to a card after we finish with design.

Once a lead designer has finished designing a Vs. System card set, it goes to the lead developer, who then reviews it to flag potential problems. Dave “Hump” Humpherys is the lead developer of Vs., and he’s caught countless infinite loops and broken cards that cunning lead designers have tried to slip through. After he looks at the design file, he sends any cards that can’t or shouldn’t be made back to the designer. After that, the designer makes new cards or redesigns the problem ones.

After a few iterations of this process, we finally have what we call the “dev file” (short for “development file”), and our hard-working developers then have a chance to test the cards as a whole. The development team often starts off by playing a few drafts with the set, because that’s one of the most effective ways to determine whether team themes and card synergies are working. Soon after, the Constructed testing will begin. First, we test the cards in isolation—in other words, we make Constructed decks using cards only from the new expansion. Eventually, we expand the scope of the testing to include the Modern Age format, followed by Silver Age, and finally, Golden Age.

This is only a brief look at one of the aspects of development. I hope to shed more light on the subject in the future. But now, to the big decision: what stats should Nyssa Raatko have?

What ATK and DEF?

A)      12 ATK / 13 DEF

B)      11 ATK / 14 DEF

C)      14 ATK / 12 DEF

It’s time to vote on your favorite ATK and DEF combination for Nyssa Raatko. To vote, email fancardcrossover@gmail.com with your name and UDE number (if you have one). Then, put the letter of the stats you want to see in the subject line of the email. You have until 9PM PST on June 14th to get your vote in.

We’re nearly at the end of the process for making the first fan card. There are still a few things that need to be done, but I’d like to thank everyone for their feedback so far. Please email me with any improvements that you’d like to see in how we run the next fan card selection process.

Good Gaming,

TBS