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2 years ago ::
Jul 04, 2011 - 1:56PM
#31
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Date Joined:
Feb 28, 2002
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Green initially was the color that represented the destructive force of nature. If you look at the alpha, arabian nights, and antiquities sets, you'll find that green has more cards that destroy things or damage creatures than any other color. If you read the Alpha rulebook, it describes green as a color that does that kind of things, and if you look at the effects green got, it was able to destroy artifacts, creatures, lands and enchantments, so Desert Twister didn't feel out of place.
At some point, green's destructive ability shifted to white, who suddenly became the color able to destroy everything while green became the worst color in the game. Then Mark Rosewater started shifting a lot of green effects to white (fog, sandstorm, mass lifegain, wyluli wolf, tranquility, flash, desert twister), and white effects to green (disenchant, pacifism, vigilance, crusade effects), making both colors interchangeable, while at the same time giving us the worst core sets in the history of the game, with great moves like taking away Birds of Paradise from the core set because it had flying.
The proof that it was a mistake to take away all forms of creature control from green is that fog is again a green ability, and you can find cards like Beast Within on the newer sets. Moreover, these changes came from the development team, which are the ones that care the most about good gameplay, which in turn is what makes games fun. So, if contradicting a design choice produces a better game overall, it's probably a flawed design choice.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 04, 2011 - 2:54PM
#32
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Date Joined:
Oct 28, 2006
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I thought the main call on color identity was the overall flavor, with line-by-line characteristics being secondary. The eternal example being that Moat  isn't red, and resetting your life to 5 isn't red, but Form of the Dragon  is extremely red. So if Nature is green, and a storm can destroy a creature, then why shouldn't Green represent that? Now I think a better issue with Desert Twister  is that the name doesn't invoke pinpoint destruction. I would either make it involve some randomness (the path of a tornado is unpredictable) or make it an instant like "{this} deals 1 damage to each of target player's creatures. Creatures can't attack this turn." (like a Sandstorm but everybody takes cover.) In both cases though it would still potentially destroy creatures. what happened to Skaff
seydaneen, I believe Skaff is a freelance designer now. People come to him with prospective game ideas and he works on the ones he likes. So Microsoft or EA could pick him up for a project, or you could if you offered enough and had a good idea. Sounds like a good life to me. 
Free MTGO Tournaments you should be playing: Pauper (all commons) - Tuesday Nights, prizes by MTGOTraders Peasant (Pauper + 5 uncommons, with paper rarity) - Sunday Nights, prizes by MTGOTraders Silverblack (Modern-era Commons and Uncommons - Most Wednesday nights, prizes by MTGO Bazaar Heirloom ("Cheap" cards only, e.g. rares under 20 cents) - Sunday afternoons, sponsored by MTGOTraders Check the superbly-made Gatherling site for more. Other games you should try: Spectromancer - Online card game by Richard Garfield, available cheap on Steam. DC Universe Online - action-based MMO. Free to play. Surprised me how well designed it is. Simunomics - Free-to-play economy simulation game.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 04, 2011 - 5:03PM
#33
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Date Joined:
Dec 16, 2005
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" Me: So would you mind removing it from the set? Robert: Well, it is a nice simple card with a splashy but unique effect. Is there something else to stick in its place? [ROBERT AND I LOOK THROUGH THE BINDER OF GREEN RARES AVAILABLE FOR THE SET.] Robert: No. No. No. Maybe. Nah, no. No. No. Ummmm... No. No. No. No. No. No. And no. Doesn't look good." Did you ever ask yourself why there wasn't a suitable, sufficiently splashy and distinctive replacement for Desert Twister inside green's slice of the colour pie, I wonder?
I thought the main call on color identity was the overall flavor, with line-by-line characteristics being secondary. The eternal example being that Moat isn't red, and resetting your life to 5 isn't red, but Form of the Dragon is extremely red.
So if Nature is green, and a storm can destroy a creature, then why shouldn't Green represent that?
Because it's green, and the "overall flavour trumps the colour pie" rule is almost never applied in green. The new core sets (M10 and beyond) were the first time I've seen that rule applied to green, with Entangling Vines  .
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2 years ago ::
Jul 04, 2011 - 6:43PM
#34
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I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the Skaff story sounding like a friggin' eulogy.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 04, 2011 - 8:13PM
#35
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Date Joined:
Aug 31, 2005
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while at the same time giving us the worst core sets in the history of the game, with great moves like taking away Birds of Paradise from the core set because it had flying.
The only core set Birds of Paradise was omitted from was Ninth Edition.
While it's quite possible that Randy Buehler is a liar, he states the following reasoning:
The reason we didn't put it in Ninth is that we wanted to bring back Llanowar Elves. The Elves are a perfect common for showing off green's mana acceleration flavor, but having two different 1-mana creatures that tap for mana in the same core set is just too much. Elves and Birds are so powerful in constructed that it left us no room to print more good, cheap mana accelerators in the expert-level sets. Thus we're only going to have one of them at a time in the Core set.
Admittedly, that too is no longer modern-day design policy, but if he's telling the truth (and I tend to believe him on these matters) you are not.
edit: and if Randy's a liar, so is Aaron Forsythe!
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2 years ago ::
Jul 04, 2011 - 8:16PM
#36
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Date Joined:
Sep 16, 2005
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I LOLed at the Necroptence's Whoops!
That was a good one!
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2 years ago ::
Jul 05, 2011 - 12:16AM
#37
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Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2003
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while at the same time giving us the worst core sets in the history of the game, with great moves like taking away Birds of Paradise from the core set because it had flying.
The only core set Birds of Paradise was omitted from was Ninth Edition.
Birds of Paradise  were only out of Standard for a few months, anyway, because they put them into Ravnica that fall.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 05, 2011 - 2:02AM
#38
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On stories: MaRo is a truly great storyteller. I value his storytelling abilities almost as highly as his design abilities; his stories are the only material I've ever come across that I automatically lucid read without even trying. His story about the swordfish and the runner ranks as one of my favorite tales from any source, period. When MaRo stops working on Magic (and there will be a day, though maybe he won't stop entirely) and starts working on publishing Mood Swings or whatever new games he creates saves and destroys all at once, I want him to write a column about whatever the hell Mark Rosewater feels like writing about today. I'd read it. On the color pie: I think the color pie is not as important an issue as a lot of people make it out to be. Oh, it's important, the existence of the color pie is exceedingly important. But ultimately the exact nature of the boundaries are not as important to the health of the game as a lot of other things, like complexity creep and player retention and balance issues and a bunch of other really important stuff I'm forgetting. Hornet Sting  came and went and Magic's still here, and not too much better or worse off for it. Maybe one day we'll look back and laugh at Hornet Sting much as we laugh as Desert Twister today, maybe we'll learn it is a natural part of the game, and either way Magic goes on. Besides, Five-Color control had a day in the sun, and that still felt like Magic. Deciding what abilities go where is a slightly arbitrary decision to create linearity/modularity, and that stuff has a way of working itself out over time for the most part. On Skaff Elias: I don;t know what he's doing at this moment, but he's certainly not dead, and he actually recently worked with Richard Garfield on a game called Spectromancer. It's basically a simplified, streamlined version of Magic with an emphasis on gameplay as opposed to deckbuilding, and it's currently available at a hugely discounted price through Steam. I'd recommend picking it up, especially if Duels 2012 left you looking for a slightly deeper experience.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 05, 2011 - 3:44AM
#39
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Date Joined:
Mar 16, 2004
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I too would be interested to hear MaRo's take, and that of the rest of R&D, on Beast Within  and Chaos Warp  . Both seem waaaaayyy out of colour pie to me. I mean, imagine if either of those turned up in a fan-made set. There'd be a chorus of "Er, no. Fun idea, but massively colour-pie-breaking." I like Lignify  and Arachnus Web  (especially with the spider that flings them), like Plummet  and Hurricane  , and dislike Hornet Sting . I'm somewhat on the fence with Desert Twister ... it is clearly out of the modern pie, but it's got a lot of history and flavour. If I object to Hornet Sting I guess I should object to Desert Twister too... I certainly wouldn't want to see anyone coming up with something like it in a new set.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 05, 2011 - 3:56AM
#40
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Date Joined:
Jan 17, 2005
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That article makes me miss Desert Twister. A 6 mana sorcery isn't an issue. If green got Terror, okay, color pie issue. But a 6 CMC sorcery is not a problem. Those type of cards are overall a good thing for magic. It gives a color an answer to something. It won't be great, but at least there is some hope. And they usually don't see much serious play anyway, due to not being optimal enough. The whole green fights creatures with creatures thing has rarely worked out as well. You typically cannot force a creature to block. Green is the color least likely to see evasion on its creatures, while other colors happily fly around it. And the other colors just kick any threatening green creatures in the jimmy with a non-creature answer while their creatures do their thing. There's far bigger issues to keep an eye on, things like the power level on certain mythics. For that matter, there's better small issues to focus on, like getting a more limited version of O-ring (creature and planeswalker only) added rather than reprinting the answer any permanent O-ring. When MaRo stops working on Magic (and there will be a day, though maybe he won't stop entirely)
I look forward to that day, personally. Although no doubt whoever follows will have his own quirks that are equally annoying 
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Kicker Aggro (Invasion Block)
