This little plastic Shockbox makes Magic: The Gathering games even more painful

Magic: The Gathering is a painful game. It hurts to see your meticulously crafted deck wiped out by a killer combo on turn four or to see your winning creature crumble with a timely Counterspell. But Sheepwave – a streamer, artist and Magic: The Gathering content creator – don’t think this already ruthless game is painful enough. To spice it up Magic Games, Sheep wave made the Shockbox – a box that delivers a small electric shock whenever a player takes damage.

Sheepwave says the Shockbox grew out of a “twisted” sense of humor and an affinity for electrical engineering projects.

“It all started as a one-off joke I made,” says Sheepwave The edge. “But people really responded to it, and it suited my skills well. Electrical engineering challenges are a special kind of fun, and being able to put those skills to work to create such a unique show was really fun for me.

The Shockbox is a plastic junction box filled with wires, balsa wood, and a small device similar to a TENS unit that delivers the electric shock through electrodes stuck to a player’s arm. Designed for use by up to four players at a time (perfect for a commander or two-headed dragon game), the Shockbox zaps a person after taking a random amount of damage.

Courtesy of Sheepwave

In Magic, players start with 20 or more health points depending on the match format. You win the game by reducing your opponent’s life total to zero, accomplished by hitting your enemy in the face with a combination of monsters and spells. The Shockbox keeps track of a player’s health total and each time a player takes damage, they press a button on the box once for each point of damage taken.

Getting a little jerk for each point of damage would age quickly, so Sheepwave has created a delightfully insidious method of keeping games interesting and players on their toes.

“It tracks four distinct damage thresholds,” Sheepwave explains. “Once a player has taken more damage than their threshold – which is a random value somewhere between 1 and 10 that the box changes to create suspense at low health totals – they activate a shock, the duration of which is is determined by the number of points of damage they caused before it triggers.

To put it simply, you never know when or for how long you’re going to be shocked. And, to increase the fun, Sheepwave has programmed each button to flash to warn the player as they score their damage that a shock will come soon ™. Here is the box in action.

It’s hilarious to hear players scream whenever they’re shocked, but Sheepwave points out how important security was when designing this box. The box’s actual shock mechanism is powered separately from the rest of the box’s components and operates on a single nine-volt battery that isn’t powerful enough to cause damage. She also installed circuit breakers and fuses that players can remove from the box to disconnect it from the power source in an emergency.

“Ensuring that the systems are separate means that even a worst-case failure on one side will put no one at risk and that the Shockbox runs on internal batteries rather than a wall outlet is another safety feature. “

Sheepwave has also created a calibration mode for the box that allows each player to adjust their shocks to a level that is comfortable for them.

“While it has been a lot of fun playing the role of the ‘Mad Scientist with no regard for safety or sanity’ on social media, I really want to make sure people understand that the picture has entertainment value. and I put several times more work into security features than anything else.

According to Sheepwave, shocks don’t really hurt.

“The shock experience is surprising, not painful,” she says. “They are a little rude but in a fascinating way. At one point, the involuntary contraction caused me to drop a hand of cards on the table, which I found very funny.

Sheepwave designed the box for several months, but says it only took about a month to build it. Keeping the box compact was one of the construction’s biggest challenges.

“It has gone through a lot of overhauls,” Sheepwave said. “The first version was built in a Tupperware container.”

Image: Sheepwave

The Shockbox comes with limitations and rules that Sheepwave created to keep the game interesting. Players are not allowed to gain more than 60 life points and some cards are prohibited, especially those that arbitrarily end or extend the game regardless of the total life points like Platinum Angel.

Sheepwave says there are certain decks that she discourages people from playing with the Shockbox.

“Playing with decks that are too defensive just doesn’t promote the kind of experience that people sitting with electrodes attached hope to have.”

Eat crappy blue control decks.

Sheepwave has no plans to sell the Shockbox, so don’t expect to show up on your next Friday night. Magic with the intention of terrifying and delighting your friends.

For now, it’s just a little more “shocking” for her Magic streams.