This week Juliet and Kaiyu are joined by Pipsqueak, creator of Lovesong, to discuss their newest set — Animus Vox.
Check out all the cards in the set here.
Set Theme (4:30)
Animus Vox is a set that mixes Space and Music. Pip started with a large file of space themed art which she the started pairing with designs based on actual songs. One hundred percent of the cards in Animus Vox have a musical reference somewhere whether it be in name or flavor text.
Rhapsody (9:10)
Rhapsody is a modal mechanic that is part kicker and part activated ability. Pip wanted a creature based mechanic that worked in aggressive decks and still helped those decks in the late game. Rhapsody allows early creatures to to scale up in the later while still encouraging players to cast them early rather than hold them in their hand.
Setting (14:40)
This set is full of references some of which Pip intended and some of which she didn’t. Juliet and Kaiyu admire how the Space theme works well as a back drop for the intentional references of the set while leaving plenty of literal space for players to find their own meanings among the designs of the set.
Mechanic: Augmented (25:10)
Augment is a returning mechanic from Pip’s first set Lovesong. The mechanic checks to see the number of colors you’ve used to cast spells this turn. The set itself has several mechanics that help support Augmented including Rhapsody and a mechanic coming up later in the show.
Mechanic: Reconstruct (30:15)
This is a mechanic that was originally designed by Fluffydeathbringer for their custom magic set. The mechanic combines emerge and flashback while avoiding some of the pitfalls of both.
Mechanic: Crystallize (33:00)
This mechanic originally appeared in the custom magic set Karsus. It serves to important functions in the set. The mechanic enables the Augmented decks by providing mana fixing while also helping the aggressive decks with a +1/+1 counter. This mechanic also allowed Pip better control the fixing by putting it in colored sources rather than colorless.
Constructed Play (37:30)
Animus Vox was included in the Field Test format on the MSE server. This format included eight sets that weren’t yet included in any Custom Magic Constructed formats and allowed Pip to get some play testing data before submitting the set to MSEM.
Story (41:41)
During the spoiler season that the Custom Magic Community held for Animus Vox, Pip wrote a story to accompany the release of Animus Vox. The story is built around several key moments that Pip had been conceptualizing for some time leading up to the set. Read Overture on MSEverse.
Various Pop Culture References:
This episodes features various references to pop culture:
(3:55) The Lion’s Eye Quotient
(7:40) Fall Out Boy’s latest album
(8:40) Mama Mia!
(15:10) Ulysses by James Joyce
(19:15) Who is the God of Poetry? Hermes? Apollo?
(26:00) Trouble with a Capital T/Tragic with a Capital T
(31:45) Never Enough — Eminem/Greatest Showman/Bare Naked Ladies
That’s the podcast for the week. You can join our discord at https://discord.gg/P88XZdFG. Thanks for listening!