"Collapsed Theogony" is my final project for my Advanced Game Design class. I was tasked with creating a custom deck for Magic the Gathering that would be viable in the game's Commander format. The deck had to have a collection of every major card type (Creature, Artifact, Sorcery, etc.) that would result in at minimum 18 new cards that follow a commander and 2 sub-commander. The deck also had to have a noticeable theme, light amounts of lore, and be balanced to how Magic the Gathering functions.

With this in mind I developed the Collapsed Theogony deck. The main theme of this deck is it being about a coalition of fallen deities from either dead or dying religions. Due to their status as lacking true belief, they have to rely on each other and the surrounding environment in order to regain a semblance of their previous strength. This, in turn, connects to the main mechanic for this deck: enchantment cycling. The main design is that multiple cards rely on using, discarding, and then returning enchantments for use again. This would create an interesting gameplay loop within the combat of Magic the Gathering.

I put these in my portfolio in order to showcase my ability to design engaging game mechanics. This includes developing new mechanics, iterating on old mechanics, and creating a cohesive and balanced set of mechanics that work within a game system. While everything here is in a pre-established game, I believe I can translate these skills to a new game and create and iterate upon mechanics there.

Photos of a few of my designs and their justifications can be found below. Links to both the normal cards and the documentation of their design can be found to the left of this page.