I guess I'll start my showcase of my Xenoblade M:tG set (as it is right now) with the draft archetypes using this nice graphic I made for when I ran an in-person draft recently.
When I started making the set, the easiest archetypes to pin down were Green-Black sacrifice to represent the telethia and the Bionis, Blue-Black for the mechon to both mirror the Bionis and since those colors work well for artifact strategies, red-white legendaries because Shulk, Pythra, and Noah all felt Boros, and Blue-White blades both because a lot of the XC2 party fits those colors and the idea of two creatures cooperating together towards a greater strategy fits blue-white. Then came a bit of filling in the gaps: Green-Blue counting different permanent types came from thinking about what blue was going to look like having both a creature based strategy and an artifact one, and it felt like a good way to represent the Nopon merchants and their wacky wares. Red-Black felt perfect for a lot of the Xenoblade X cards, representing the desperation and aggression that humanity demonstrates in that game. Then came Red-Green and Blue-Red with the break mechanic. Essentially break (and topple) was something I wanted to represent because it's one of the few mechanics shared by every game in the series, but it's absolutely the number one mechanic that if I wanted to do it faithfully I would have to make a different card game. I'll probably go into it's development history more when I talk about the break mechanic in particular but centering break in red felt right as it's an aggressive mechanic in the games and green could represent it's more straightforward uses while blue could represent some of the more tactical things break can do. And finally we arrive at the last two which are the archetypes that have changed the most drastically throughout development by far (because I go feral whenever I deal with abzan). Green-White started as an archetype to represent the people of the Bionis and the wildlife of the worlds, but essentially the archetype felt unfocused and not too flavorful until I painstakingly arrived at where it should have been all along, Nopon typal. White-Black, on the other hand, had a more focused design inspired by Jin from XC2. Specifically it was about creatures attacking alone. The problem was it was really bad and I couldn't really find a good way to save it (the story here is actually pretty interesting imo and I will elaborate later) so instead I went back to the drawing board. After a lot of humming and hawing, I arrived at a control archetype centered around using your life as a resource. This flavorfully represents both the idea of flame clocks from XC3 as well as functioning similar to the enrage mechanic found on unique monsters throughout the series.
And that about covers a broad overview of the draft archetypes as well as how I arrived at each one. I might go more in-depth on them in the future but overall, I like how the archetypes came out and they were pretty satisfying to put together. If you want a fun exercise, it's pretty easy to make two-color archetypes out of your favorite series to get a sense of the vibes without having to make a bunch of cards. I recommend trying it sometime!
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Alright then, here's the characters, the weapons they use (that's a contributing factor, I'd say), and some details whenever I consider it necessary.
First off, Gwin Evans, 24 years old who uses long swords and assault rifles:
Doug Barret, 30 years old, who uses photon sabres (basically light sabres) and rayguns (also, voiced by Patrick Seitz)
Lao, 31 years old, the Sad™ widower who uses a sniper rifle and javelin (voiced by Matt Mercer)
L'cirufe, the tallest playable character bar none, who uses shields and psycho launchers (kinda like the orbitars in KIU)
Kentaro Nagi, 57 years old, who wields longswords and gattlings guns - the resident Dunban-like swordmaster
Phog Christoph, 24 years old, who uses dual swords and dual guns (also very likely neurodivergent)
Frye Christoph, 30 years old, older brother of Phog, uses gattling guns and longswords, enjoys drinking about as much as Gregor Fire Emblem
Hector Bumwhistle Birthwhistle, or H.B. for short, 28 years old, uses shields and assault rifles
Also of note with H.B. is the Superior Form™:
Bozé Lowes, 54 years old, uses javelins and sniper rifles. Also derogatory, personally.
Yelv (just Yelv, really), 22 years old, uses photon sabres and rayguns. Also enthusiastically calls the player avatar "pardner".
And lastly, Jack Vandham, who's not actually playable and 48 years old.
This is the second time I am answering this because my workplace wifi died as I was publishing it. These are my ratings, which don't mean anything, followed by short commentary.
Gwin: Very Fuckable, acts like he wants to be friends with benefits but always catches feelings. Would I reciprocate? Who knows?
Doug: HOT, we love a guy with a deep voice and light sabers and big guns. It does not get better than that. Hung and everyone can tell.
Lao: Not My Type, but I can easily see him causing multiple fans some terrible mental illnesses. "How big is that dick?" "Small, leave me alone"-type of guy.
L'cirufe: Attractive, monster fans need their rights respected. His face card is NOT declining.
Nagi: HOT. Resident old man whose cervix is being done crazy things to on twitter (or should be). Hung and don't ask me how I can tell.
Phoggot: Eh. Good for him on the neurodivergence but you can meet multiple twinks who look like him at any nightclub.
Frye: Intriguing, looks like someone who lead an interesting life and could surprise you in bed. Further research is needed.
Hbirthwhistleguy: Not My Type, but I'm sure he has quite a reach with fans. I support his Bayonetta 2 cosplay endeavors.
Bozé: Eh, this man will leave you and pretend the child isn't his. Have I played this game and do I know what this guy is about? No, but it had to be said.
Yelv: No, thank you. We have Shulk at home. That man is not 22.
Jack: I Love Arm. I could see him being a secret softie in bed. Spoils you to make up for feelings of inadequacy.
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almost done with xenoblade chronicles x, only two or three chapters to go
gotta say, i kinda wish i wasn't rushing through this game in order to beat it before 3 releases. I don't really care for the story or the characters all that much but the world design and the combat and especially the Skells really make me want to take my time and absorb it all.
i'll probably come back to it later on, play through it again.
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