I own a brick and mortar store. As a huge fan of Multiplayer, Commander, Wedges, and an uber-Johnny everything I've heard about the Commander Decks THRILLS me. As someone who relies on MtG to put food on the table, what this set represents scares me to death.
Every From-The-Vault and Duel-Deck that comes out is usually a big earner for me, I'm largely in favor of these products. But Planechase and Archenemy both were far less good for my bottom line because of the fact that they contain several unique products, yet I can only buy them in sets of 1 of each. I haven't made money until I sell 3 of those decks. But what if only 2 of them contain the really sought after cards? Its a brutal ballancing act for R&D to make products like this exactly equally desirable to players and I think they hit the nail right on the head for casual players, but casual players aren't the only group out there.
Competetive players are extremely willing to pay a premium to know what they are getting, and fairly unwilling to take a chance on random product. So they love stuff like this. They love to show up on the first day right when I open. They love to buy up every copy of the deck with the good cards, thus denying casual players access to it. They love to refuse to shop at my store again and spread negative word of mouth about me if I refuse to open a new case so they can get more of that deck. Certainly people like that are in the wrong, but you really can't grasp the gravity of the old addage "the customer is always right" until you've been in a situtation where pleasing jerks is the difference between eating and going hungry. I'd prefer WotC stop putting me in this position.
The common solution to that among larger sellers is to raise the price on the in-demand one as soon as they can identify which it is. For example, CFB and SSG both sell the NPH event decks at $30 for the Stoneforge Mystic deck and $20 for the "other" one, or $40 for both. As a dealer, what's your feeling on that solution?
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It would have been more Vorthoseish for the creature to gain all the abilities of both creatures, true. But I think it might have been a rules nightmare even doing it the ways people in this thread have suggested. And even if the rules are simple, the actual gameplay wouldn't be. Morph? Level up? Linked abilities? Characteristic-defining abilities? While the rules might be unambiguous on all that stuff (I have no idea, and overall I doubt it, but I wouldn't be too surprised either way), it would be very easy to create incredibly complicated situations in games.
Great article overall, and I like the design discussion. However, the preview was very anticlimactic. No discussion of possible card combos, or idealized hypothetical game states wherein this card is suddenly awesome? Get players excited about the preview card itself, not just the set as a whole. How about this?
I've got out Warped Devotion and Equilibrium, and my empty-handed opponent controls an Akroma, Angel of Wrath. I cast The Mimeoplasm, targeting Akroma with Equilibrium. Akroma returns to its owner's hand, and thanks to Warped Devotion, gets promptly discarded. The Mimeoplasm then resolves, and copies Akroma for abilities and gets +1/+1 counters according to someone else's Mortivore. Note also that both of those cards are exiled, and can't be later reanimated by my opponents. Sure, quite a contrived example, but lots of fun!
That... looks like a good example of the confusing stuff I'm talking about. Isn't Mortivore 0/0 when it's not in play? Or is it? Any judges around here? And as unsure as I am about that, imagine how complicated gameplay would get if it had all the abilities of both cards. Your Akroma's size could be changed by exiling or reanimating cards from graveyards. Fun sometimes for some people, but very easily gets very confusing.
As for all the wedge color stuff, I'm hoping that we get a theme "wedge week" or something. Or maybe even one for each wedge, eventually. I remember when Ravnica was released there was a theme week for each guild, talking about its signature mechanic and what the two colors have in common and how they are opposed to each other and stuff. It might be interesting to read the same kind of thing about wedges. As for actual gold cards there aren't many in any wedge colors*, and most cards of one or two colors that mention the other colors of the wedge are designed to hose it. However, we're apparently getting a lot more of such cards soon, so it could be interesting to hear about the design (design, development, flavor, competitive power, etc.) of them. And besides, top-down design that puts three colors themselves all on one card is hardly the only appearances of wedges that matter. People have played wedges here and there since the game was new. Recently URG was a popular Constructed deck (which says something sad about the current Constructed metagame, since Jace is so good that you can throw him into a completely off-color aggressive deck and make it better, but that's not the point...). In Ravnica Limited, you basically had to play three colors, and there were some combinations that worked neatly when drafting one pack of each set, including at least one wedge: Boros-Izzet-Azorius.
What links each wedge together? The WBG wedge is easy: graveyards. They bring creatures back from the graveyard to the hand, to the top of the library, or to play, or regenerate to stop them from going to the graveyard entirely. The WBR wedge is a little harder, but I'd say it's based on board sweepers and symmetrical effects. Day of Judgment , Inferno , Consume the Meek ... White likes to be "fair" and balance everything, and black and red both like to kill everything for different reasons. As for the other three wedges, though, I'm having a hard time thinking of anything that ties them together. What weaknesses does each wedge have? What's the flavor of each like?
* Not counting stuff in the Commander decks, which we've only seen a fraction of so far anyway, the WBR wedge has two cards, URG has two, WBG has three, WUR has two, and UBG has two. That's a weak cycle of both creatures and enchantments from the Apocalypse expansion, the Planar Chaos dragons, and the Treefolk lord from Lorwyn. 11 cards, all rare, all but one from cycles, in the entire history of the game. That's not a lot.
I don't really like the idea of cards that you esentially have to buy up-front without the random factor thrown in. With annoying cards like Jace that, for me, shut me out of Constructed Magic entirely, it's the players that determine the value of the card. In this case, Wizards does that, thus ensuring a price cap for the card, but also making it difficult to pick up a playset of that whacky build-around-me rare no one likes for $1.
With that said, I understand where Mark is coming from with wanting to make cards for a certain subset of players but not being able to fit them into a current set. I'm a Limited player at heart, and sets need to cohesive to that end. The other upside is that these cards CAN be played in constructed Magic. The one thing I dislike about the annual fun gimmicky set is that they are self-contained and can't be put into a deck that you would bring to Friday Night Magic. This solves that, and at least they are legendary so it slighly dissuades you from wanting 4 copies.
Note that The Mime--- THERE'S A FREAKING TYRANNOSAURUS ON HIS ARM!---oplasm can hose opponent's graveyards. And if The Mim---A FREAKING TYRANNOSAURUS!---eoplasm ever dies, you can do this repeatedly, giving you a hideous amalgam of whatever horrors you can find among the graveyards of your foes using mill, discard, and your own efforts to find resources. (And Will, I meant Black, not Red, as I am sure was intended all along.)
The Mimeop---IT ACTUALLY IS HIS ARM!---lasm functions multiple roles, and has the chance to grow big, big, big. I see great effort focusing on using land cycling creatures, Mesmeric Orb , Life's Finale and kin, and lots of Regrow , just to enforce the card's structure itself. As mentioned before, a lot of small creatures get ridiculously strong when they are bigger, so getting fatties to dump counters onto double strikers, unblockables, untargetables, etc., becomes a deck to "work around" rather than people just putting it into the deck "because," like half of the Horde of Notions decks, which use it as a finisher, but not much more than that, and can frankly never cast it unlike most elemental-themed decks. This one is a lot more like Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed , or Maga, Traitor to Mortals -- pure utility.
"Possibilities abound, too numerous to count."
"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
"Ever since man first left his cave and met a stranger with a different language and a new way of looking at things, the human race has had a dream: to kill him, so we don't have to learn his language or his new way of looking at things." --- Zapp Brannigan (Beast With a Billion Backs)
(I'd errata theNephilim to be legendary in a heartbeat if I was allowed to do such a thing.)
Why wouldn't you be allowed to? Other cards have had their types errata'd in the past and it's not as if you're going to ruin their power level for legacy play.
(I'd errata theNephilim to be legendary in a heartbeat if I was allowed to do such a thing.)
Why wouldn't you be allowed to? Other cards have had their types errata'd in the past and it's not as if you're going to ruin their power level for legacy play.
They've often given creature type errata. They've given card type or supertype errata when rules changes necessitated it (e.g. when interrupts stopped existing in Sixth Edition, they changed all interrupts to card types and when world was made a supertype, they changed all "enchant world" cards to "world enchantment").
However, they've never given supertype errata just because they later decided a different supertype would be better. This is why Aladdin and Sindbad still aren't legendary. It would just be too big a functional change, and they don't want players to have to guess if a card is legendary or not.
It would have been more Vorthoseish for the creature to gain all the abilities of both creatures, true. But I think it might have been a rules nightmare even doing it the ways people in this thread have suggested.
willpell knows the rules pretty well (as do I). He was correct to avoid static abilities, because they could overlap in very brain-bending ways. But the way he did it would have worked from a rules perspective. Admittedly it would be very confusing to get triggered abilities but not static abilities.
That... looks like a good example of the confusing stuff I'm talking about. Isn't Mortivore 0/0 when it's not in play? Or is it? Any judges around here?
Nope. These days any */* creature's power and toughness are defined in all zones. (You'll note that this wasn't always the case; in particular, when the reminder text on Sutured Ghoul was written. That rules change made Sutured Ghoul rather better.
What links each wedge together? The WBG wedge is easy: graveyards. They bring creatures back from the graveyard to the hand, to the top of the library, or to play, or regenerate to stop them from going to the graveyard entirely. The WBR wedge is a little harder, but I'd say it's based on board sweepers and symmetrical effects. Day of Judgment , Inferno , Consume the Meek ... White likes to be "fair" and balance everything, and black and red both like to kill everything for different reasons. As for the other three wedges, though, I'm having a hard time thinking of anything that ties them together. What weaknesses does each wedge have? What's the flavor of each like?
I've done quite a bit of thinking about that, like several other amateur card designers.
WGB has regeneration and reanimation, as you've mentioned, but also lifegain and +N/+N. WBR has mass destruction, as you said, and also direct damage. WRU has "gain control" effects (hm, although with the reprinting of Enslave , that may be more BRU), and also bounce - although white doesn't get to bounce the same things red does. GUB are most affiliated with card-draw, and they're the colours that generally get "putting cards from the hand straight onto the battlefield". RGU I couldn't come up with anything in common to those three colours but not W or B. I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts.
The other upside is that these cards CAN be played in constructed Magic. The one thing I dislike about the annual fun gimmicky set is that they are self-contained and can't be put into a deck that you would bring to Friday Night Magic. This solves that, and at least they are legendary so it slighly dissuades you from wanting 4 copies.
Ah - you may be misinformed there. Unfortunately, the Commander cards aren't legal in any constructed format except Legacy/Vintage.
Competetive players are extremely willing to pay a premium to know what they are getting, and fairly unwilling to take a chance on random product. So they love stuff like this. They love to show up on the first day right when I open. They love to buy up every copy of the deck with the good cards, thus denying casual players access to it. They love to refuse to shop at my store again and spread negative word of mouth about me if I refuse to open a new case so they can get more of that deck. Certainly people like that are in the wrong, but you really can't grasp the gravity of the old addage "the customer is always right" until you've been in a situtation where pleasing jerks is the difference between eating and going hungry. I'd prefer WotC stop putting me in this position.
Simple solution. As soon as you figure out which precon has the Jitte in it, charge double for that one. The competitive players will still pay for it. They may give you some attitude (don't they always?), but you're in the right. Just tell them that you know why they want it, and that it's clearly in demand at that price. They'll admit it and buy it. Actually, you're going to lose the first customer. He's going to go to Walmart and buy them out. But then poachers 2-9 belong to you.
And if someone you like walks into your store you can say "Oh, for you, those are all the same price." =)
Phyrexian Dreadnought anyone? Play it, dont pay the cost, its 12 points of power in the Bin. Combine with something with tons of Keywords, and - blammo! - huge Creature.
I like this card very much. I'm only not too much of a fan of the art, but we can't get anything perfectly according to our personal preferences, right?
For linking a card to Gatherer without writting the name of said card for readers, use the autocard brackets together with and equal sign and right the name of the real card. Then put the message you want inside the tags, like you would do with autocarding. Like this:
I like storm crow because I really like crows in real life, as an animal, and the card isn't terribly stupid, but packs a good deal of nostalgia and also a chunck of the game's history. So it's perhaps one of the cards I have most affection to, but not because "lol storm crow is bad hurr hurr durr".
Although I do assume you deliberately refer to them (DCI) as The Grand Imperial Convocation of Evil just for the purposes of making them sound like an ancient and terrible conspiracy.
Now, now. 1994 doesn't quite qualify as "ancient".
Oh, it's a brilliant plan. You see, Bolas was travelling through shadowmoor, causing trouble, when he saw a Wickerbough Elder with its stylin' dead scarecrow hat. Now, Bolas being Bolas took the awesome hat and he put it on his head, but even with all his titanic powers of magic he couldn't make it fit. He grabbed some more scarecrows, but then a little kithkin girl asked if he was trying to build a toupee. "BY ALL THE POWERS IN THE MULTIVERSE!" he roared, "I WILL HAVE A HAT WORTHY OF MY GLORY." and so he went through his Dark Lore of Doom (tm) looking for something he could make into a hat that would look as stylish on him as a scarecrow does on a treefolk. He thought about the Phyrexians, but they were covered in goopy oil that would make his nonexistant hair greasy. He Tried out angels for a while but they didn't sit quite right. Then, he looked under "e" (because in the Elder Draconic alphabet, "e" for Eldrazi is right next to "h" for Hat) in his Dark Lore of Doom and saw depictions of the Eldrazi, and all their forms. "THIS SHALL BE MY HAT!" he declared, poking a picture of Emrakul, "AND WITH IT I WILL USHER IN A NEW AGE OF DARKNESS -- ER, I MEAN A NEW AGE OF FASHION!"
And so Nicol Bolas masterminded the release of the Eldrazi.
The last couple days have been roughly every perverse fetish imaginable, but it only got "creepy" when speculation on Mother of Runes's mob affiliation came up?
I like to think up what I consider clever names for my decks, only later to be laughed at by my wife. It kills me a little on the inside, but thats what marriage is about.
Of course, the best use [of tolaria west ] is transmuting for the real Tolaria.
Absolutely. I used to loose to my buddy's Banding deck for ages, it was then that I found out about Tolaria , and I was finally able win my first game.
Browbeat is a card that is an appropriate deck choice when there's no better idea available. "No better idea available" was pretty much the running theme of Odyssey era.
Modern is like playing a new tournament every time : you build a deck, you win with it, don't bother keeping it. Just build another, its key pieces will get banned.
I always find it helpful when im angry to dress up in an owl costume and rub pennies all over my body in front of a full body mirror next to the window.
Dymecoar:
Playing Magic without Blue is like sleeping without any sheets or blankets. You can do it...but why?
Omega137:
Me: "I love the moment when a control deck stabilizes. It feels so... right." Omega137: "I like the life drop part until you get there, it's the MtG variant of bungee jumping"
Zigeif777:
Just do it like Yu-Gi-Oh or monkeys: throw all the crap you got at them and hope it works or else the by-standers (or opponents) just get dirty and pissed.
Normally it's difficult to pick up on your jokes/sarcasm. But this one's pretty much out there. Good progress. You have moved up to Humanoid. You'll be Human in no time.
