Ultimately, I think WUBRG order is simpler. The confusion, even subconscious confusion, of the varying different rules creates more dissonance, than the visual benefit of giving wedge and shard cards a specific order.
No way! It isn't called a color wheel for nothing. It's supposed to have no beginning or end. By saying comes always first and comes always last, you destroy all elegance the system has.
If we follow the "visual appeal" line of thinking, how do you interpret a card when there are unequal mana symbols, like the new angels. Should the double symbol come first, so that all three are W with a splash of R, G or U? That's how I think of them.
I do agree that in the case of cycles, all cards should look the same. I would've preferred to angels to all have the either in front or behind the other color.
THinking about wedge and shard cards, I suppose some concession can be made so the mana symbols visually express the "shard". RWG looks like W with it's neighbors on either side. WRG does not. For wedges, the mana symbols on Numot are RWU, which reads like a R with some W an U. But any wedge is more accurately a color pair with an off-color splash and should be WUR.
Btw, this is answered in the full text from the link from the article:
First is Wizards' philosophy regarding multiple large sets in a block. We've see Shadowmoor, Rise of the Eldrazi and Avacyn Restored so far (It's a shame New Phyrexia wasn't a large set). They always get a mechanical overhaul. You can disagree with that, but that's how they do it currently.
I do disagree with that, and I voice my dissent here in the hopes that they have my criticism (and that of others) in mind when they next plan such a block.
Second is the theory we're discussing here, that AVR was changed too late in design to become the 3rd set on Innistrad. For this, the mechanical disconnect is no proof, as even if Wizards had 10 years to make the block, they would still have this disconnect, because that's their intent.
One of the best examples of this was "Shake," "Rattle," and "Roll" (the codenames for Innistrad block). In the beginning, we were planning on doing something very different with the block.... The original idea for "Shake," "Rattle," and "Roll" was to use the block to do two different blocks. One would be a two-set block (one big and one small) and the other a one-set standalone block.
Okay, it was decided, we'll swap the two. Make the horror set the two-set block and make the other set a one-set block.
We don't know the timeline here, so we don't know how late these changes to the plans were made. Considering the fact that Avacyn Restored doesn't feel more than haphazardly connected to the rest of the block, I feel that they had to restart the design a little too late, thus leading to the problems pointed out in Leo-tech's post.
As for the legendary werewolf specifically, when AVR was finished, the commander precons hadn't even been released yet, and Wizards simply didn't know how big that audience was. It's not just "if only for the EDH players" it's "only for the EDH players". For most others, legendary is a downside that is better left off a card.
I don't play Commander. The reason I feel that they should have printed a Legendary Werewolf is because that's what we were promised by the inclusion of a cycle of Legends for each of the other tribes. Even if they didn't know how large the Commander playerbase was at the time, they still should have realized that they had established a cycle and then broken it. Mark Rosewater is constantly talking about how this is a bad thing, but here they do it and constantly deflect the mistake onto other things, such as "We didn't know about Commander" and "DFCs don't work well with Legendaries".
They made an incomplete cycle, then Mark Rosewater himself promised us it would be finished in the next set, then the next set rolls around and it's not finished. This is a mistake, Commander or no Commander.
As an aside to any who will claim Huntmaster of the Fells is the completion of the cycle: No. He's not legendary. What he is is a member of a very different cycle in DKA, the cycle of Drogskol Reaver , Falkenrath Aristocrat , Havengul Lich and himself, the four monster tribal mythic rares (none legendary) in that set.
Ultimately, I think WUBRG order is simpler. The confusion, even subconscious confusion, of the varying different rules creates more dissonance, than the visual benefit of giving wedge and shard cards a specific order.
No way! It isn't called a color wheel for nothing. It's supposed to have no beginning or end. By saying comes always first and comes always last, you destroy all elegance the system has.
If we follow the "visual appeal" line of thinking, how do you interpret a card when there are unequal mana symbols, like the new angels. Should the double symbol come first, so that all three are W with a splash of R, G or U? That's how I think of them.
I do agree that in the case of cycles, all cards should look the same. I would've preferred to angels to all have the either in front or behind the other color.
THinking about wedge and shard cards, I suppose some concession can be made so the mana symbols visually express the "shard". RWG looks like W with it's neighbors on either side. WRG does not. For wedges, the mana symbols on Numot are RWU, which reads like a R with some W an U. But any wedge is more accurately a color pair with an off-color splash and should be WUR.
Btw, this is answered in the full text from the link from the article:
I agree that the color wheel has some elegance and so does the notion of putting the symbols in an order that adds flavor. But the downside is that the varying systems feels chaotic. You've got to figure out why the symbols are in the order they are what that is supposed to represent.
Using WUBRG is the safe answer. It's simple to grok and provides consistency. The other systems add something (elegance?) in exchange for complexity. I suppose Wizards decided the upside of increased elegance outweighs the confusion caused by the complex system (which has been intriguing people since at least 2004).
And the full article doesn't explain the wedge decision. It merely says he chose one over the other. Interestingly, Apocalypse used color pair, then enemy color; while Planar Chaos chose enemy color, then color pair. For me, that type of inconsistency attacks the elegance.
I agree that the color wheel has some elegance and so does the notion of putting the symbols in an order that adds flavor. But the downside is that the varying systems feels chaotic. You've got to figure out why the symbols are in the order they are what that is supposed to represent.
Using WUBRG is the safe answer. It's simple to grok and provides consistency. The other systems add something (elegance?) in exchange for complexity. I suppose Wizards decided the upside of increased elegance outweighs the confusion caused by the complex system (which has been intriguing people since at least 2004).
And the full article doesn't explain the wedge decision. It merely says he chose one over the other. Interestingly, Apocalypse used color pair, then enemy color; while Planar Chaos chose enemy color, then color pair. For me, that type of inconsistency attacks the elegance.
A foreign language feels like chaos until you can read it. Our concepts of beauty and ugly are influenced by what we understand and what we don't. Safe (simple) is not always the best answer. Otherwise all creatures would be vanilla. NWO eliminates complexity, but only at common. As the confusion doesn't impede anyone's ability to play the game, I think it's quite acceptable.
I guess there is not much more to explain about the enemy pairs. It was just what he felt was right I think. He worded it a bit strange, but the Apocalypse and PC cards ARE consistent (he said enemy pair first).
They made an incomplete cycle, then Mark Rosewater himself promised us it would be finished in the next set, then the next set rolls around and it's not finished. This is a mistake, Commander or no Commander.
Okay I have to step in here because I get kind of sick of people always bringing this up. There was NOT meant to be a cycle of multi-colored mythic creatures to begin with. There was just supposed to be a cycle of super splashy creature type oriented mythics. First of all, Mikaeus, the Lunarch is mono-colored. And secondly, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born wasn't even meant to be a part of the cycle. When they were designing it, they considered Army of the Damned to be the Zombie mythic, a mono-colored sorcery of all things. Grimgrin is a pretty pivotal story character, so it's safe to assume he was included for that reason, which tilted the percieved nature of the cycle way out of whack. It was a case of 'we didn't realize it was a cycle', like the lack of a green mythic miracle.
Or I'm remembering it wrong, but I swear Maro explained that somewhere at some point
They made an incomplete cycle, then Mark Rosewater himself promised us it would be finished in the next set, then the next set rolls around and it's not finished. This is a mistake, Commander or no Commander.
Okay I have to step in here because I get kind of sick of people always bringing this up. There was NOT meant to be a cycle of multi-colored mythic creatures to begin with. There was just supposed to be a cycle of super splashy creature type oriented mythics. First of all, Mikaeus, the Lunarch is mono-colored. And secondly, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born wasn't even meant to be a part of the cycle. When they were designing it, they considered Army of the Damned to be the Zombie mythic, a mono-colored sorcery of all things. Grimgrin is a pretty pivotal story character, so it's safe to assume he was included for that reason, which tilted the percieved nature of the cycle way out of whack. It was a case of 'we didn't realize it was a cycle', like the lack of a green mythic miracle.
Or I'm remembering it wrong, but I swear Maro explained that somewhere at some point
Whether or not they intended it, it IS a cycle. Humanity is more mono-White than Green/White, so Mikaeus fits the humans' colors. The other three all fit their tribe's colors as well. One legend for each tribe, in that tribe's colors... except for Werewolves.
Mark Rosewater has said before that how people perceive things is often more important than how the designers intended them to be perceived. They might not have meant to establish a cycle of legendary creatures in each tribe, but the perception of such a cycle is there. Especially in a block with such a heavy tribal component, it's nearly impossible to ignore the existence of a "general" in all but one tribe.
I find it ironic that the set best suited for being a Large set in the last three years, New Phyrexia, which is literally a new world compared to Mirrodin, is the only one that WASN'T third-set-large...
While your argument is, on the surface, correct, Small-Set New Phyrexia makes sense from the "corruption" point of view.
Rise of Eldrazi and Avacyn Restored were both large sets following a huge earth-shattering change. This change took place in a fixed point in time. The Eldrazi awoke. Avacyn was released.
Phyrexia, on the other hand, was a slow process of corruption. We saw hints of the Phyrexian threat throughout the entire set, and the block taken as a whole demonstrates that very well. I could see an argument for NPH being a large set and part of the same block, but as a large standalone set? Notsomuch.
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I find it ironic that the set best suited for being a Large set in the last three years, New Phyrexia, which is literally a new world compared to Mirrodin, is the only one that WASN'T third-set-large...
While your argument is, on the surface, correct, Small-Set New Phyrexia makes sense from the "corruption" point of view.
Rise of Eldrazi and Avacyn Restored were both large sets following a huge earth-shattering change. This change took place in a fixed point in time. The Eldrazi awoke. Avacyn was released.
Phyrexia, on the other hand, was a slow process of corruption. We saw hints of the Phyrexian threat throughout the entire set, and the block taken as a whole demonstrates that very well. I could see an argument for NPH being a large set and part of the same block, but as a large standalone set? Notsomuch.
My point is that large sets shouldn't BE standalone sets unless the "earth-shattering change" actually changes the setting itself. If a set is set in the same setting (wow, that's a lot of "set"s) it should be part of the same block.
Avacyn came back to help humanity fight the monsters, but when she comes back the battle against the monsters disappears from the set and is replaced by something entirely new.
The world of Zendikar was making all of those preparations (the lands coming to life) in preparation for some ultimate danger, but when the danger shows up, all of those preparations are dropped and the world fights back in an entirely different way.
I'd assumed the reason Avacyn Restored is so disconnected (despite the fact that they kept claiming otherwise) is because they realized too late that the fans didn't like the disconnectivity of Rise of the Eldrazi. Zac Hill's article instead says that dropping almost everything from the rest of the block is a feature, not a bug. If that's the case, then I sincerely hope they never make another third-set Large because it absolutely ruins the story of the block.
Going forward, they should either make any third Large set be a completely different story in a completely different world, or they should make it fully a part of the block and its story. What they're currently doing is in some kind of limbo in between, and it doesn't allow them to meet any of their goals. If they want to make a set that ditches all of the "residue", then make a disconnected set - not part of the setting, the story, or the mechanics. If they want to make a set that continues the story of the block, then make a set that continues the block - continues the setting, the story, and the mechanics.
comes always first and 
comes always last, you destroy all elegance the system has. 
