Animal Aenigma - When animals join mages
Hi there Mages,
With the recent announcement of the new Mage Noir Kickstarter campaign launching on October 15th, you must be curious about the new features that are on the way.
In this blog post, we’re going to focus mainly on game design. The new features discussed here will be in terms of ideas, goals, and mechanics.
- Why did we choose to add animals?
- How do they work?
- And what about the other new cards, the more “classic” spells that will complement your pre-existing decks?
We’ll also briefly touch on some points regarding the content of the Kickstarter.
You’re probably very eager to learn more about Animals, so let’s not wait any longer.
Animals in a Creature-less Game
From the start, Mage Noir was designed as a card dueling game without creatures, setting it apart from the vast majority of games in this genre. The goal has always been the same: to make you feel like a real mage, not a warlord commanding an army of creatures.
The introduction of Animals in Mage Noir might raise an eyebrow. “Oh, so they’re adding creatures after all?”
Rest assured, our original approach and objectives haven’t changed. In Mage Noir, you won’t be able to control hordes of animals. Your Animal is an equal, a longtime companion, a friend, and a valuable ally in your battle against your opponent. That’s why a deck can only contain one Animal. This design choice aligns with our initial vision for the game. The Animal remains a key piece of a strategy, requiring the player and their Animal to coordinate and act together.
The concept is closer to a duo fight than a battlefield.
Eole’s signature spell by Marjolaine Ganachaud
Why animals ?
An idea we’ve had for a while
The very first reason is that this idea has been on our minds since the beginning of Mage Noir. From the genesis of Mage Noir, the possibility of playing with a unique companion that would synergize with our strategy was already a long-term goal for us. However, introducing this mechanic too early would have made them far too dominant compared to the diversity of cards currently available. With the arrival of a third wave of expansions, we now feel the game has developed enough to make this addition both relevant and interesting.
A Universal Message
The second reason is even simpler. We love animals. Everyone loves animals (except for you two psychopaths in the back). Regardless of its mechanics, the very idea of playing with an animal companion seems incredibly exciting to us. It’s also a simple message: Mage Noir includes animals. And to remind you, the universe of Mage Noir is our own (with just a bit of magic added in, but it’s a secret!). No dragons, no chimeras, no phoenixes, or unicorns here. If you see one, it’s just a spell that a particularly aesthetic Mage decided to shape in a specific way (like the Draconic Flame, for example—stylish, but still just a flame in the shape of a dragon).
The Animals you’ll play with are simple, natural creatures, just as you know them. Mage Noir is a game that’s meant for everyone.
Deer by Jeffrey Jeanson
We’re confident that this new feature will appeal to all types of players.
- On one hand, seasoned players will discover new combos and even more interesting deckbuilding possibilities.
- On the other hand, all the future Mages who haven’t yet given the game a chance for fear of encountering something beyond their reach will find a welcome invitation.
Not only do Animals arrive at the perfect time, but they also bring an interesting mechanic and serve as the perfect welcoming message for new players. Adding them to the game during this campaign seems like an obvious choice to us.
How do Animals work?
Deckbuilding
As mentioned above, the first thing to remember about Animals is how they fit into deckbuilding. A deck can only contain one single Animal.
This requires you to choose your Animal carefully. It must fit well with the overall strategy of your deck to fully unleash its potential. The Animal counts towards the minimum 40 cards in your deck, so you can have one Animal and 39 other cards.
Entering the Game
When setting up the game, the Animal is placed on top of your deck after you’ve chosen your starting hand. This means it will always be the top card of your deck at the beginning of the game.
When you draw your Animal, place it directly in front of you on your play area.
Its presence and arrival replace your first draw, reducing the number of options in your hand at the start of the game. Additionally, because the Animal’s arrival is linked to your draw, the second player’s Animal will enter the game one turn earlier than the first player’s.
General functioning in the Game
An Animal has various abilities. These can be either automatic effects that trigger under certain conditions or specific actions it can perform at the Mage’s request.
However, just like a regular spell requires Mana to be prepared and releases its Mana when activated, asking your Animal to perform an action requires you to pay the Mana cost for that action and release it into the Available Ether.
Additionally, performing an action is generally tiring for the Animal. It is then turned face down and cannot perform any actions for the rest of that turn. This is known as the Animal being exhausted.
Once all prerequisites are met and all costs are paid, the effects of the Animal’s ability are applied as written on the card, just as you would apply the effects of a spell.
At the beginning of your next turn, your Animal will have rested, so you’ll turn it face up again, and it will be able to perform another action.
New Spells
But Animals have other resources that your magic can encourage. Many of them have a signature spell that only works with them. These spells are often very powerful but have the final effect of exiling your Animal, making it unusable for the rest of the game. Unless you manage to bring it back to your side…
Using these spells is therefore not a decision to be taken lightly.
Interacting with the Opponent’s Animal
You may have noticed that an Animal doesn’t have displayed health points. It’s not possible to attack the opponent’s Animal.
This decision is intentional. An Animal is carefully chosen during a player’s deck construction, and the player’s strategy heavily relies on it. Just as we prefer to avoid purely destructive strategies, it’s possible to strategically hinder the opponent’s Animal, but much more difficult to completely get rid of it.
Additionally, giving health points or making the opponent’s Animal a specific target would significantly distract the player from the real opponent—the other player. By keeping the opponent’s Animal out of reach, the game’s main focus remains centered on the Mage versus Mage duel.
However, it is possible to hinder the Animal through various techniques like intimidation, control, or other methods.
Why This Implementation?
Our main objectives when implementing the Animals were as follows:
- Ease of use
- Further enriched and varied deckbuilding
- Consistency with the Mage Noir universe
Ease of Use
We believe this version of the Animals is both simple to handle while providing maximum depth, both in terms of design and the interesting decisions they bring to the game.
Additionally, some of the Animals have a clear design direction regarding the initial deck they were intended for. This allows players to play their first games with them in a context that is easy to grasp. Once their use is well understood, it will be possible to venture off the beaten path a little more.
Eole’s crow by Jessica Heran
Variety in Deckbuilding
Speaking of venturing off the beaten path, this leads us to the question of Animals within different playstyles. As you can see with the Dog example above, Animals can be very versatile. Apart from the use of Mineral Mana, this Animal can fit into many different decks.
Other Animals may be more mechanically tied to certain strategies or to a specific element, but just as we have done so far with more traditional spells, Animals are designed with the intention of expanding deckbuilding options and offering you interesting choices.
And speaking of interesting deckbuilding choices, there are two Animals per element in this Season 3 of Mage Noir, for a total of 12. Some have already been revealed in the illustrations you may have seen in our Kickstarter updates and on our social media. For the others, we’re keeping some surprises for you. Follow us on social media, and be there at the Kickstarter launch to discover them.
Regarding Consistency in the Universe
If you haven’t noticed, we’d like to bring up a point that’s important to us. We haven’t used the term “Familiar” even once. And this is a deliberate choice to maintain consistency within the universe. Mage Noir takes place in our world, in our reality. Mages appear to be ordinary humans. Magic is practiced in secret. Animals are also realistic elements of the world and are not mythical creatures but real animals.
This factual aspect is also important from a mechanical perspective. Indeed, Animals are NOT spells; they are Animals. As such, they are not considered to be in preparation, and while they remain in play, they are not akin to Permanents, Equipment, or Rituals.
It is through the relationship between the Mage and their Animal that the latter will learn exceptional abilities and get used to magic being practiced around them.
For both humans and Animals, magic is a science, and it is through practice that one masters it.
On that note, what kind of magic will you practice alongside your Animals in this third season of Mage Noir?
What’s Coming Next for Mage Noir?
To begin with, much like our previous campaign, the Animal Aenigma campaign will introduce 6 new expansions, one for each element in the game.
Given the major innovation brought by the Animals, we felt it wise to take this opportunity to deepen the existing playstyles rather than create new ones. Thus, for the most part, the upcoming expansions will continue to use mechanics and components you are already familiar with, giving you more options in constructing your existing decks.
“Levantera Breath” is an excellent example if you’re looking for more options to play Air.
This desire to deepen already existing strategies and make them more interesting does not prevent us from creating key cards that can give rise to new, unique decks, or cards that can be useful in the arsenal of any Mage, regardless of their element.
So, here’s what you can expect to see in the upcoming expansions:
- A clash between wind and lightning in The
and the Scholar. - A burning, uncontrollable rage in The
and the Avenger. - A marine odyssey in The
and the Sailor. - The resilience of trees and nature in The
and the Huntress. - True martial prowess in The
and the Warrior. - The vastness of the universe in The
and the Astronomer.
We’re excited to share more information about these expansions and the stories they tell, but to keep things clear and concise, we’ll save that for another blog post.
That’s it for today, Mages!
To summarize how they work:
- You can only have one Animal per deck.
- It enters the game at the player’s first draw.
- It can only perform one action per turn.
- It has unique signature abilities.
We believe Animals are both an exciting and coherent addition to the game, appealing to all Mages. Above all, it’s a mechanic that will enrich deckbuilding and existing strategies, and we can’t wait to see what you create with it.
We hope you’re eager to test them out and learn more about the new companions joining you.
Get ready for their arrival by pre-registering for the Animal Aenigma Kickstarter campaign, which will launch on October 15, 2024!
We wish you an excellent day, Mages, and until the next article, take care and have fun!
~The entire Double Combo Games team.