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2 years ago ::
Jun 10, 2011 - 12:44PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Jun 24, 2008
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This thread is for discussion of this week's Making Magic, which goes live Monday morning on magicthegathering.com.
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2 years ago ::
Jun 12, 2011 - 9:14PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Aug 28, 2008
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But Mark! TimeSpiral was Magic's "Gladiator," Cineplex moneymaker and Best Picture winner!
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2 years ago ::
Jun 12, 2011 - 9:44PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Oct 25, 2010
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I still think you're selling Time Spiral short. At the time, me and my friends were pretty casual players (our first tournament was the Planar Chaos prerelease). Even then, the set had a ton of appeal to our casual eyes, as it had a ton of different themes going on, so my friend who wanted a tribal deck could build Thallids or Slivers, my friend who wanted a control deck could load up on Think Twices and Mystical Teachings, and my friend who wanted a wacky combo deck could build Paradox Haze-Chronomatic Escape. Plus, you basically got 2 rares in every pack (at least in Time Spiral, and sometimes in Planar Chaos). Who doesn't want 2 rares in every pack, especially when they're a casual player without a huge budget? Also, looking back, Ravnica-Time Spiral had one of the most vibrant Standard formats ever, with viable control, aggro, and combo options and a wide pool of strong but not overwhelmingly powerful cards to choose from - a perfect toolbox. So I definitely think it succeeded in being a fun block, and the most balanced one released in a long time.
Modern design could learn more lessons from Time Spiral than Time Spiral could learn from modern design. Embrace the arthouse! I would much rather R&D design with an arthouse sensibility and rely on creative team/branding to market it to the lowest common denominator than for the sets to be built from the ground up with the lowest common denominator in mind. To use your metaphor, make a brilliant arthouse film, then leave it to the marketing team to give it glitz to sell to the people who just want to see explosions and breasts. Your job is to create a film that will be remembered, not a film that will sell well and then fade into the haze of so many summer blockbusters.
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2 years ago ::
Jun 12, 2011 - 9:44PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Jun 12, 2011
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Magic is in many ways alive. The game, like a shark, can never rest. Like a shark, it is barreling swiftly towards the future. You might say Magic has several sets of serrated teeth, slanted backwards into its mouth, making it difficult to remove a mechanical or conceptual element from Magic, once that element has entered the game's massive jaws. Which in many ways makes Magic comparable to a shark. 
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2 years ago ::
Jun 12, 2011 - 9:44PM
#5
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I was hoping for more specific discussion of the New Phyrexia cards, but I appreciated the column anyway. NPH is my favorite set since my all-time #1, Future Sight, so I obviously think it turned out well, but I'd still love to hear what Mark thinks about the results.
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2 years ago ::
Jun 12, 2011 - 9:46PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Feb 26, 2004
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Have you ever noticed how hard it is to do pinpoint enchantment removal in artifacts? We know doing so would undercut red's weakness, so we are very careful about not letting artifacts have access to that ability.
Mark, why do you only ever fixate on this one weakness? You are not "very careful" about making sure a green deck can't use artifacts to kill creatures. You are not "very careful" about keeping decks with no blue and no black from using artifacts to draw cards or force discards. Those artifacts are all vital components of a healthy game - and a Disenchanting Rod would be too. MAKE ONE!!!
My New Phyrexia Writing CreditsMy M12 Writing CreditsAs far as the benefit of the rest of Magic is concerned, gold cards in Legends were executed perfectly. They got all the excitement a designer could hope out of a splashy new mechanic without using up any of the valuable design space. Truly amazing.
--Aaron Forsythe's Random Card Comment on Kei Takahashi 
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2 years ago ::
Jun 12, 2011 - 9:54PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2003
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Have you ever noticed how hard it is to do pinpoint enchantment removal in artifacts? We know doing so would undercut red's weakness, so we are very careful about not letting artifacts have access to that ability.
Mark, why do you only ever fixate on this one weakness? You are not "very careful" about making sure a green deck can't use artifacts to kill creatures. You are not "very careful" about keeping decks with no blue and no black from using artifacts to draw cards or force discards. Those artifacts are all vital components of a healthy game - and a Disenchanting Rod would be too. MAKE ONE!!!
Lux Cannon  ? Liquimetal Coating  + Shatter  ? Seems like they have. That's basically the level of quality for artifacts that kill creatures, anyway.
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2 years ago ::
Jun 12, 2011 - 10:04PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jan 24, 2011
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I've been waiting for this article and it didn't disappoint. I love learning about the inner workings of the game so it was really interesting reading what you had to say on the matter.
Also, the color pie archive was a great idea.
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2 years ago ::
Jun 12, 2011 - 10:13PM
#9
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Have you ever noticed how hard it is to do pinpoint enchantment removal in artifacts? We know doing so would undercut red's weakness, so we are very careful about not letting artifacts have access to that ability.
Mark, why do you only ever fixate on this one weakness? You are not "very careful" about making sure a green deck can't use artifacts to kill creatures. You are not "very careful" about keeping decks with no blue and no black from using artifacts to draw cards or force discards. Those artifacts are all vital components of a healthy game - and a Disenchanting Rod would be too. MAKE ONE!!!
The (relative) lack of Enchantment removal is probably the one edge they have over Artifacts.
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2 years ago ::
Jun 12, 2011 - 10:20PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Jan 20, 2009
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So Mark, I guess giving blue direct  damage  , life gain  , and land searching  at common rarity is okay, but giving red a 2 card combo that destroys enchantments at uncommon isn't. Amirite? I appreciate that MaRo loves the color pie enough to write this column, but he seems to have double standards on what breaks the pie.
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Kicker Aggro (Invasion Block)
