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We’ll get to the YMTC and the updates to Slivers in future posts.

I walked into my local game store, Uncle’s Games, and was asked if I wanted to be part of something cool. Of course, I do, doesn’t everybody? I was told that the game store is announcing its first ever Summer Invitational. This was cool.

It looks like at the moment that it will semi-represent the old Invitationals that WotC used to do with the pro players (here’s coverage of the 2005 Invitational). Uncle’s decided that it would be a tournament of 16 people, where everyone would get an invite through different means. Some of the people would be invited from their Bellevue (Washington) store, others from their Redmond (Washington) store.

It would all culminate on August 17th where the winner gets 4 copies of From the Vault: Exiled. You know FtV: Exiled, right? Balance, Beserk, Channel, Gifts Ungiven, Goblin Lackey, Kird Ape, Lotus Petal, Mystical Tutor, Necropotence, Sensei’s Divining Top, Serendib Efreet, Skullclamp, Strip Mine, Tinker, and Trinisphere. Basically a nice Vintage/Legacy/Commander/Cube starter pack of awesome cards. A playset of them (for those of you keeping track at home). Plus more prizes will be announced as we get closer to the event.

I nodded my head, “Yeah, I like this. How do people get an invite?”

Qualifying Events (At Uncle’s Games Bellevue unless otherwise noted):

1. Dragon’s Maze League (May 5th – June 5th)
2. Uncle’s Games Redmond – League (Thursdays, May 30th – August 8th)
3. Uncle’s Games Redmond – Dragon’s Maze Game Day (May 25th, Noon)
4. Friday Night Magic – Best record for June-July (June 7th – July 26th)
5. Modern Masters Draft (June 8th, 12:30 pm (Preregistration starts IN STORE June 3rd, 10 am)
6. TO BE ANNOUNCED Special Event (June 29th 12:30 pm)
7. Standard (July 6th 12:30 pm)
8. Modern (July 20th 12:30 pm)
9. Dragon’s Maze Sealed (July 27th, 12:30 sealed)
10. Legacy (August 3rd 12:30 pm)
11. Uncle’s Games Redmond – M14 Game Day (August 10th noon)
12. + 13. Two-Headed Giant Standard Constructed (August 10th 6 pm)
14. M14 Draft (August 11th noon)
15. Top Qualifier Wildcard (Best Record in other events without getting an invite)

I think it’s pretty cool that they’re trying to support so many different types of formats; when do you ever see a Two-Headed Giant tournament?

“That’s awesome,” I said. “But what about the 16th spot?”

“You’ve got the 16th invite. Dole it out however you wish.”

Yes, those were the exact words. I have the power to elect the 16th person to this really exciting event. While I’m trying to finish up the details about how I am going to hand this out, I can tell you that it will require two stages. This will be the only invite that you don’t have to play in a tournament, but you will have to be passionate and knowledgeable about Magic (of course). I’m looking to have fun with this, and hopefully have everyone who enters will have fun as well. Talking it over with the Uncle’s Games staff, we’ve come up with some really crazy ideas.

Considering this is the internet, I do have to set up some ground rules: This final spot will only be available to players who can be in Bellevue, Washington on the assigned dates (Right now: August 17th, and other one on a to be determined date). They are not going to fly you out if you live in New York, duh. As far as I know since there is no prize other than being invited to participate, it’s available to Magic players of all ages.

I’m helping get the information out early since there’s plenty on the calendar that people can plan for. I will let you know what will happen and I look to make the second stage fun for those of you who aren’t here in Washington.

So stay tuned for my official invite competition. In the meantime, you can see the official page here: http://www.unclesgames.com/mtg-invitational/, and check out their Facebook page if you have any questions.

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So it all comes down to this.

I knew that non-arua would win the vote, but I didn’t expect it to be by that much. That’s all fine and good.

Now it comes down to those of us in America and Canada submit our designs. I feel bad for the rest of the world, since obviously the community is larger than just these two countries. I’m sure it has to do with something on the legal side of things, but I have no knowledge of what it could be. Hopefully one day we can live in a world without lawyers. But back to the good part.

If you haven’t submitted your design yet, stop and take a breath. You only get one design so you better make it a good one. Already I’ve seen hundreds of submissions that people have sent in and I’m noticing a huge pattern here:

You’re rushing things.

I was going to spend some time about what Black can and can’t do, but I feel like we need to take a step back and look at card design in general. Most everyone is getting the idea of what Black is, so that’s good. And I think the benefit of submitting a top down design is fantastic since we can convey the flavor easier. However, everyone’s so excited to submit their card they’re losing perspective on several things. I tweeted out this link to one of Maro’s posts on basic design but I feel like people need to see it again, and again.

And again.

Before we get to that review, I want you to look at your design and ask yourself some honest questions:

• Is it fun?
• Would you put it in a deck?
• Would you be happy to see it when you draw it?
• Would you be happy to see it played against you?

While the 4th question is a little awkward, let me explain. There comes a point in every card’s life that you just don’t want to see it played against you. Either because it’s too powerful, you see it all of the time, or a combination of both. Primeval Titan is a fun card that you play, but you get tired of seeing your opponents play it. What about Black Enchantments? Recurring Nightmare is a hugely fun card for you to play, but when your opponent has it, you’re just groaning and complaining about why would WotC print such a broken card? Cards that create repetitive gameplay gets tiresome. Cards that create repetitive gameplay gets tiresome. Cards that create repetitive gameplay gets tiresome.

Listen, I’m not saying your card can’t be good; balancing cards that are fun for the person using them while not completely ruining the game for your opponents is very hard to do. But saying “I’ve got an idea for a Black enchantment”, scribbling down your first idea then submitting it doesn’t give this contest justice. You can come up with a ton of different Black enchantments but if they don’t follow the first three questions, while maybe touching on the fourth, then why are you submitting it?

Please, take a breath and learn what you’re most likely doing wrong when you rush your design (cribbed from Maro):

#1 – The card is too complicated

You have 300 characters for the mechanic of your card. That’s more than 2 tweets, which is an amazing amount of space. If you can’t make your card work within two tweets, don’t submit it. In fact, the shorter the better. Now that terms like “die” and “exile” are in use, take advantage of them. Wordier cards don’t mean better or funner cards (See: Ice Cauldron).

You’re doing one of several things:

• The card has too many abilities
• The card has too many flavor “add-ons”
• The card is hard to understand
• The card has too many memory issues

I get that you have one shot to try and impress WotC, but you don’t shove everything into one card. Does it fit the flavor you’re trying to promote? Can you describe the concept of the card in a few words? You don’t have to fit all fringe concepts and problems with the card, that’s what development is for. You’re trying to get the idea and possibility of the card out there, not get it ready for the Pro Tour. It’s not your job to do that, just give WotC the idea. Take apart your card text, and put as few words on there as you can while making the card do what you need it to do. I promise it will not only look better, but “feel” better as well.

#2 – The abilities on the card have no synergy

This is another one of those “try to cram everything into one card” issues.  What I see is “This effect is Black, and so is this one. Let’s combine them!” It doesn’t work out like that. You’re creating a card that just doesn’t flow well if you do this. Not every card in Design is perfectly worded, but I’m sure they make sense together. While I don’t find too many of these (but there are these types of cards lying around), I have another problem with what people are talking about related to this issue:

#2.5 – The abilities on the card have too much synergy

Too much synergy? How can that be? I’m a guy that loves to have synergy in my deck. Notice the key word in that sentence: “deck.” I’ve seen way too many cards where they’re trying to do everything at once. Because “A” happens, “B” must happen so “C” must happen as well. It’s almost like everyone is trying to make Rube Goldberg machines out of one card.

Stop it.

This comes from the “card is too complicated” and “too many abilities” camp, but this is a huge one. Stop trying to make your card combo with your own card. Some of the designs make sense like creating Zombies from dead creatures. But don’t give ways for controller of the card to put creatures in the graveyard. The card is not only too powerful, but you’re talking out the fun of the game. While trying to make a “build around me” card, you’ve basically designed an “only play me” card. Let the card breathe and find its space.

#3 – Making the audience do something they don’t want to do

This goes along with the “Is this fun” idea. I’ve seen cards that have a “goal” of something, like creating a huge token creature, but to get there is a real pain. Why are you making the player jump through hoops to get this? Is the effect big enough for you to do all of that work? Do you really want to go through all of that just to get that bonus?

Some people get drunk on the idea of being all powerful, especially when it comes to game design. They think that they’ll be able to make their lab rats go through a maze and be happy at the end of it. You really think that’s going to happen? How many of you like this card:

This is what you’re designing when you do this. Seriously. That’s what I’m seeing in plenty of cards. You’re making the player do all of these things for what? Don’t make your player do all of these things; if they don’t want to go through the hassle, then they won’t want to play with your card.

If you need more help, Please read this posts by Mr. Rosewater to help refine your idea:

• Design 101
• Design 102
• Design 103

Right now I’ve read a ton of entries where people pay life for cards, or reanimate creatures, or sacrificing permanents, or discarding cards or any combination of those. You can’t get ritual effects in Black anymore (so please stop trying to design them), and I’ve seen plenty of enchantments that add counters to do something (with many being referenced with the types of effects seen above). Black’s pie is more than that. Take a look at Black cards (hopefully in Modern design) and see what type of things you can do. You don’t have to directly reference anything, but do more than just what everyone else has done. Know what has changed since Magic has first come along and realize that using Gate to Phyrexia as it being a reference to do anything is just plain wrong. Do your research. I wish I could talk more, but we’re run out of time here.

Please, take a deep breath, and look over what you have. If it can lose text, lose it. If you’re trying to do too much, break it down.

If it isn’t fun, why do you want to see it printed?

And Black won the vote. Fine, I’ll just crumple up all my Red enchantment designs and throw them in the drawer of “stuff I’ll use sometime”.

Hopefully this vote also dispels the rumors that A) WotC is trying to control the vote by linking my articles (though I’m very grateful) and 2) that I have supreme power over the voting process.

I am not surprised that Black won the vote as I figured it would be Red or Black since the players want to complete cycles. They were the top two colors because that’s what people wanted to see. And now we’re in the all “important” phase of choosing if we want the aura card or not.

What we’re deciding here is if the card type line will read “Enchantment” or “Enchantment – Aura”. That’s it.

This might be one of the more lopsided votes that we’ll have throughout the whole contest but it’s not one to take lightly. By ignoring the vote, we could get stuck with a choice few of us want.

Vote for “Global Enchantment.”

Yeah, we don’t use the term “Global” anymore, but we did at one time. So, no, we’re not voting on “Enchant Worlds” either and that would be an aura anyway using modern templating. But there are two main reasons why you shouldn’t vote for Auras.

What it affects

Auras, by their nature, are narrow in gameplay design. Whatever you enchant, it really only affects that one aspect. Enchant a creature? It only really deals with that creature. You’re not going to get into Future Sight design here by selecting an aura that can enchant a card in a graveyard, or one in a person’s hand. Animate Dead is incredibly complicated in the rules because it switches zones and it has to continuously refer to that card while in a zone… On second thought, let’s not go there; ’tis a silly place.

Because auras affect one object, they are quite limited in their scope. Almost any design that you see that doesn’t benefit/hinder the enchanted object could very well be a regular enchantment anyway. Since they’re so small in scope, you can’t do as much with them as you could when it’s not an aura. Sure, giving a creature deathtouch by an aura is nice, but what about an enchantment that gives all creatures deathtouch, or at least one at a time with an activated ability. Auras focus too much on a small area when you can think small and large scale with regular enchantments. Again, this is all about design space and which one still has the largest area to work with.

Top-down design

And this is what hurts most auras out there, especially the “high-concept” ones. This is one of the reasons why even though “Form of the Dragon” seems awesome in concept, wouldn’t really get by to the vote. For each of the votes so far, all we’ve done is ship out mechanics, not entire cards. WotC doesn’t care about the playtest name nor the suggested casting cost. While I’m sure if we were really filling holes for real, we could at least suggest a name to help convey the idea of the card. That’s not going to happen here. We lose plenty of awesome design space that might look great with the entire package, but doesn’t look so good without it.

Here’s the list of auras in Modern. If you get past the usual -X/-X or lose of life mechanics, most of the auras work because of the name. Glistening Oil, an aura with the much loved “Rancor” ability, gets a bonus because of the story elements of the card which is something we have no control over. Again, a top-down design. Most of the Curses work because of the top down flavor that we just don’t have access to. Enslave? It doesn’t really work as a Black effect until you factor in the name.

Form of the Dragon

Example: The entire package of Form of the Dragon looks great as you’re being turned into a Dragon. You deal 5 damage during your upkeep (5 power of a typical dragon), your life total becomes 5 at the end of every turn (like 5 damage that a dragon has), and you can’t be attacked by non-flying creatures (because you’re a dragon, who flies). The first line of rules text in the card is Red (deals damage), while the last two aren’t really Red (life gain if your life total goes less than 5 and Red has no-Moat cards (Raging River doesn’t prevent non-flying creatures from attacking). But by putting the pieces together, you can create a Red card.

Maro once told me this story about an uncommon card he made with the playtest name “Magnet Man”, or something like that. You activated it to force artifact creatures to block it, like “attracting” with a magnet. You could also activate it to “repel” artifact creatures that you didn’t want to block it, like similar poles with a magnet. Sounds pretty fun and flavorful, right? You can totally picture that card attracting and repealing creatures like an actual magnet.

The card got made, anyone want to guess what happened to it?

The card makes sense now when you see the whole story, but you lost the initial idea when it goes to something more final. Now, if this card was submitted without the top-down name, would it be as interesting or even taken seriously? Most likely not. Yes, Creative got its hands on this card, but that’s even more than what we have to work with.

While this point has a larger role in YMTC than just auras, it’s something to keep in mind when the design window is so small. We don’t have the luxury of pitching cards with design names to fill out the whole idea of the card. So you have to take on mechanics fully rather than relying on flavor (something we’ll get into with the next post). I’ve seen ideas that are great with the whole package, but we don’t get that here. Without being about to submit names, we’re losing so much more of that design space. Mix that with the aura’s limited scope of the card type, and suddenly we’re playing in a really small area.

Listen, you’re not going to get the Rancor-style aura, we don’t know if WotC will print more Curses (a top down flavor idea) and we certainly can’t “force” their hand do to this.  WotC will go through the ideas and pick out the mechanics that they think have potential, not which ones might be good if they have a good name (something we’ll vote on as well). I had a couple cool Red enchantment ideas that I wouldn’t have been able to submit anyway since it’s the name that sells the concept of the card, much like with Form of the Dragon.

I know some people aren’t taking the Aura/anti-aura discussion seriously; I was thinking about not writing a piece myself. It seems like this is a foregone conclusion, and it might be. However, I do think that this is an important decision. If you haven’t voted already, please do so. Vote Gloabl Enchantment. Next time, we’ll get into designing enchantments and what you can do with them in Black.

And enchantments won that exciting runoff.

First, let me say that it was fun debating the people of “Team Land”; or those that wanted to debate rather than just yell. I hope that those of you who were on that side stay with the rest of us until the end of the contest. You’re not out of voting by any means, but I’ve seen a number of you get upset that your choice didn’t win. Yeah, my first choice didn’t win either (it was creatures). The key to this contest is to think of this as more than just an “I want” thing, because then you’ll always be disappointed. We’re a team here, and we all get a vote. If you feel like you don’t care anymore because one choice didn’t go your way, then that’s the wrong attitude. While this might be my Selesnya side talking, but let’s work together to build the best, and most fun, card that we can.

Basically this contest is what WotC has to do plenty of times. Following their design skeletons, there are several holes in a set that they are creating. Instead of trying to fill it internally, they have decided to let the fans choose which hole they want to participate in finding an answer to. We, as a group, has decided to go after the Enchantment hole, and are now deciding on which color. Then, I imagine, we will decide if it’s going to be an aura or not, then finally pitch our ideas about what should be sorted through to fill that hole. I’ve seen plenty of people complain about just telling us pitch mechanics now and let the color be decided by the mechanic, but it doesn’t go that way. We’re using their process, we have to play by their rules.

At the moment, our decision is actually pretty hard: what color should the enchantment be?

I’ve taken feedback from my last piece and a number of you want an honest discussion about whatever the voting is and not a personal preference. Fine, I can do that to some extent. We’ll take a look at what the colors have to offer and at the end, I’ll explain what color I’ll be voting for and hope that you will join me with that decision as well.

Please keep in mind that at this moment, we’re still not designing cards. Let’s explore what can be done with the colors first, then throw some concepts out there. Just because you have this one idea for a card doesn’t mean that you should just push that color. Again, think of what’s best for the game and go from there. I only took a look at Modern, non-aura enchantments. While there are some cool mechanics that were printed before 8th Edition, I wanted to see what was “acceptable” in the past ten years. Also within each color, I’ve separated out what the enchantment does and highlighted the top categories in a graph (There are some overlaps between categories).

White

The color of peace, love, and making rules. Most people associate enchantments with White because it does interact the most with the card type. There are more tutors for enchantments for White than any other. White will also use its love of rule making to interact with enchantments as well. Here’s how the color played out in categories for enchantments:

Most popular sub-sections:

Notable older enchantments: Angelic Renewal, Astral Slide, Crusade, Humility, Karmic Justice, Kismet, Land Tax, Limited Resources, Moat, Martyr’s Bond, Opalescence, Parallax Wave, Solitary Confinement, and Transcendence.

Blue

The color of intellect, seeking knowledge, and power over the mind. Blue has been connected with artifacts more than enchantments over the years, but there’s one way that Blue does interact with enchantments: auras. Because I’ve ignored them for this exercise it seems like Blue is more weak in this area; though to be fair, most of the auras are basically “take control of enchanted permanent” variety.

Most popular sub-sections:

Notable older enchantments: Aether Storm, Arcane Laboratory, Attunement, Back to Basics, Chill, Compulsion, Dream Hall, Energy Flux, Equilibrium, Future Sight, Illusions of Grandeur, Mind Over Matter, Mystic Remora, Opposition, Parallax Tide, Propaganda, Rhystic Study, Rising Waters, Seal of Removal, Standstill, and Stasis.

Black

The color of power, individualism, and corruption. There have been many powerful Black enchantments over the course of Magic’s life. Several of them have been banned from tournament play as they heavily warped the metagame. There’s nothing Black wants more than to win by any means necessary  Here are the sub-sections in modern design philosophy:

Most popular sub-sections:

Notable older enchantments: Attrition, Breeding Pit, Chains of Mephistopheles, Contamination, Death Match, Diabolic Servitude, Engineered Plague, Greed, Infernal Tribute, Lethal Vapors, Lich, Necropotence, Oversold Cemetery, Nether Void, Pestilence, Recurring Nightmare, Sarcomancy, Strands of Night, Subversion, The Abyss, and Yawgmoth’s Bargain.

Red

The color of impulse, emotion, and burning everything in sight. Red has had trouble with enchantments in the past because of the color restrictions that make it hard for Red to interact with magic (non-physical) objects. This doesn’t mean that Red doesn’t partake in the card type, but as you’ll see, it has had much less impact than other colors.

Most popular sub-sections:

Notable older enchantments: Chance Encounter, Goblin Bomb, Goblin Bombardment, Grand Melee, Grip of Chaos, Impatience, Land’s Edge, Lightning Rift, Mana Flare, Orcish Oriflamme, Price of Glory, Pyrostatic Pillar, Raging River, Repercussion, Smoke, Sneak Attack, Stranglehold, Sulfuric Vortex, Wild Research, Words of War,

Green

The color of nature, growth, and creatures. Green has a interesting relationship with enchantments; it’s the color that doesn’t want enchantments (not natural) but have some game controlling enchantments. Most of the time they’re either connected with creatures or mana, but there are a select few that are just good cards.

Most popular sub-sections:

Notable older enchantments: Aluren, Awakening, Bearscape, Burgeoning, City of Solitude, Concordant Crossroads, Defense of the Heart, Drop of Honey, Earthcraft, Eladamri’s Vineyard, Enchantress’s Presence, Exploration, Fastbond, Food Chain, Manabond, Oath of Druids, Pattern of Rebirth, Saproling Burst, Survival of the Fittest, Sylvan Library, and Words of Wilding.

Whew. We call caught up around here?

So, what does this tell us?

The most core mechanics of a color show up as enchantments. While this isn’t too much a of surprise, but it does tend to give credence that enchantments can be considered the “soul” of the color. Anything the color can do, an enchantment can do as well. Red, as you can see, is known mostly for its damage. There are a couple of oddities such as Green getting more drawing cards and Blue’s lack of stealing (again, because of the lack of auras).

Again, this is modern design style, not of all time. Most of the notable older enchantments I listed were either too cheap for today’s standards (Land Tax), nor the right color (Sylvian Library), leads to a repetitive/unfun game state (Statis) or just too powerful (Necropotence). Just because a color has done it once doesn’t mean it’s locked into its identity; I feel Enchantress’s Presence should be White not Green. Plenty of new and older enchantments are based on popular powerful enchantments in years past. That’s not an accident; players want to relive something that they previously know (this is a topic for another time). And there have been ideas of people saying they want another Yawgmoth’s Bargain or a Sulfuric Vortex because they want this type effect in Standard/EDH/Modern again. If you’re looking at where to go from to take a look at new designs, see what’s acceptable with modern design then figure out why a card hasn’t been reprinted or had a homage card printed yet.

But where does that leave us with what color I’m going to lobby behind? As seen by the earlier votes, players really want to not repeat what has already been done. We’ve got a new card type, and I have a sense that most players want a color that they haven’t seen before in YMTC. This leaves us two colors: Black and Red. Black seems like the obvious choice because of the pedigree that the color has shown throughout the history of Magic. However, just like with the land vote, I’m seeing a common style of card that people want. Players do want the Phyrexian Arena/Yawgmoth’s Bargin style of card again. They know it’s good, and they want something like that.

I want to repeat this: WotC will most likely pick cards they think are unique, have a reasonable chance of seeing print, and seems like a fun ability. Having constant rehashing of the same style of card isn’t going to win this competition. They know what players like.

Therefore, My vote for the color of enchantment is Red. This is where I’ll get a couple of weird faces. “But Robby,” the some of you will say, “most of what Red does is damage. Is that what you really want?” Not really, but this is where the “Restrictions breed creativity” comes in. Red is by far the most restrictive color when it comes to enchantments. If you want to design a card that has the smallest established mechanics, Red is your color.

If you want to take the road less traveled by, Red is also your choice.  Over the past few years Red’s slice of pie has grown to where it’s more than just damage such as drawing cards with a drawback and can steal permanents temporary. Plus, there are ideas that are out there that push Red into new and interesting ways yet, and this is important, still feel Red. We’re not talking about a Red Disenchant or anything because that doesn’t fit with the color’s philosophies. Red is not a dumb color, it’s just very passionate. It doesn’t think of the long game, but there’s an obvious need of something to either get it there, or have a card that is the end game goal.

For those of you worried about those “Random Johnny enchantments that cost 7 mana”, there really isn’t all that many of them. As long as the card design isn’t really obtuse or wordy, then there’s a better chance of the card costing less. We’ll get to the types and styles of enchantments next week, but there are plenty of options open to Red. If you’re worried about it not being able to be pitched to Force of Will or “There’s no good Red strategies in Legacy besides RDW,” then this is your chance to develop something within the color to change the metagame. A Red enchantment doesn’t have a roleplayer card, it can be the headliner card a deck is named after.

I really do want the card to be good, and I have the hope that it will be. I see too many people wanting the card to fit into a strategy and not enough emphasis on what the color can do. There’s my obvious love of Form of the Dragon; and what leaned me towards Red. It’s so different, unique, and so obviously Red (A Melvin loving a Vorthos card? It’s more likely than you think). But this is the type of card that I envision when I see the community creating another card with YMTC. It’s not just another semi-reprint, but someplace new and exciting. We’re following in the unique footsteps of Forgotten Ancient, Crucible of Worlds and Vanish into Memory, which all broke new ground of what could be done.

Of all the colors Red has the most opportunity when it comes to unexplored mechanics; let’s go find them.

Well, that happened.

26 votes? That’s a margin of error in almost any poll (Though electronic voting does make recounting so much easier). Because the voting was so close, WotC has decided that it’s going to do a run off between the top two card choices:

Enchantment vs. Land

Yes, they reran close voting in previous YMTC, so this was expected. I mentioned that it was possible that people were going to vote for a card type that hadn’t been done before (Creature, artifact and instant). This is really not a surprise. But some of you seem to think that we can “force” WotC to do whatever we want. That’s not the case with this contest. They are letting us create a card together. After we submit ideas, R&D are going to go through them and pick out 10 or so of the ideas they like. The ideas could be whatever the focus of the block is, a truly unique idea, or just something that’s really cool (Subjectively speaking). We get to choose an idea that WotC approves of.

Listen, I know that a good portion of you really like the idea of designing a land, but for this contest I think that choosing to go the land type is the wrong way to go. I can guess what a majority of the land designs are going to be:

• A Strip Mine or a Dust Bowl effect.
• A fetchland (ala Polluted Delta).
• A “Man-Land” (ala Mishra’s Factory).
• Something that taps for more than one mana.
• Something that taps for every color of mana.

None of those choices are sexy. You really want the card that the community makes to be a utility land? How exciting. Yawn.

I’m telling you again: don’t vote for land. And here’s why.

From what I’ve read online, those of you who are championing land are doing so for a couple of reasons:

It could go in every deck.

This is a valid concern. However you’ve got some problems with that thinking. One, the fact that it can go in every deck means it needs to be tested and quite possibly nerfed more than other lands. We’ve seen powerful colorless lands that can go in every deck take over metagames: Rishadan Port, Cavern of Souls (in a manner of speaking), Inkmoth Nexus, Library of Alexandria, and Mutavault among others. When a land that can appear in every deck takes over the metagame, players aren’t happy; they second guess WotC and no one wins. And in this situation, you want a cool and powerful card, right? We’d only have ourselves to blame. Remember that you have to play against that card too. That uncounterable, hard to kill land goes both (or in multi-player, all) ways. In Standard (since it’s going to be in boosters), WotC has toned down the land destruction because people want to play with their lands.

It may not be that bad, however. That’s if, and only if, they don’t force us to choose a color that the land can produce instead of colorless, which means it’s really only awesome for those decks. Out goes the hope of it appearing in every deck and why you (might have) voted for land in the first place. If, and it’s possible, WotC wants us to choose a color that the land produces to help keep the power down then it can’t go in every  deck (especially in Commander). Don’t think that they’ll be compelled to complete a full cycle here. In Saviors of Kamigawa, there were four rare lands: two produced colorless mana and one produced Blue and the land one Black. This land, which you thought was safe of only producing colorless mana, suddenly has shifted to produce one color and out goes your hope of it being in every deck.

I don’t want it to cost a million mana.

Oh, yeah, that. So why don’t we just ignore the mana cost altogether and choose a card type the doesn’t need it? Mana costs are important. It what keeps powerful cards unplayable until a more reasonable point in the game. When you have a card that can be played on turn one (as you can with land), you have to limit to what it can do. In modern design, a land has to produce mana or be able to go get another land that can make mana. After that, the only thing you can do to control the land is by the activation cost.

But that doesn’t mean that the enchantment is going to be expensive. The three contests prior to this, the converted mana costs were 4, 3 and 4. If the community picks a mechanic for the enchantment that can be cheap, the cost will be cheap. Having an enchantment say “You may cast nonland cards from your hand without paying their mana costs” isn’t going to cost 4, it’s going to cost 10. Players of every format don’t want the enchantment to cost so much that it’s unplayable. WotC needs to balance the card, and with lands, they can’t properly do that since there’s no mana cost. It’s more than just activation, it’s the whole package.

Remember: there are only a few ways to balance a land. And lands, since they can go in any deck, have to be pretty balanced. And since it could be colorless, it can’t deviate too far from anywhere on the color pie. So that means that it can do some small things, but it can’t do them very well.

What lands do you know of that aren’t just incremental benefits?

We’ve got man-lands, for sure. Kessig Wolf Run? Valakut? Vault of the Archangel maybe. With the first two, players have complained about banning them in some form or fashion. You can’t effectively cost them since they can come down on the battlefield at anytime. The effects for the lands have to be small so that they can be kept under control with the limited control valves that WotC’s Development has. The lands can’t be too powerful since they’re hard to remove and stop the repeatable effect. The effects that lands have can rarely be large so that they won’t become too dominate.

Enchantments, on the other hand, have a wide variety of possibilities. You can:

• Become a dragon (Form of the Dragon)
• Steal a creature (Soul Ransom)
• Create an army (Luminarch Ascension)
• Change your fancy non-basics (Blood Moon)
• Gain you a ton of life (Boon Reflection)
• Allow you to play The Walking Dead (Call to the Grave)
• Make your hexproof guy really good (Daybreak Coronet)
• Dabble in everyone’s graveyard (Debtor’s Knell)
• Exile that pesky nonland permanent (Detention Sphere)
• Double everything (Doubling Season)
• Make your creature a god (Eldrazi Conscription)
• Keep everyone down (Everlasting Torment)
• Make your army bigger (Glorious Anthem)
• While your opponent’s army is smaller (Curse of Death’s Hold)
• Seek revenge for killing your creatures (Grave Pact)
• Continue the cycle of life (Greater Good)
• Win the game (Helix Pinacle)
• Tutor up creatures (Hibernation’s End)
• Create combo pieces (Intruder Alarm)
• Have amazing sideboard cards (Layline of Sanctity)
• Make new enemies (Manabarbs)
• Prevent Death (Worship)
• Connect with an opponent (Psychic Possession)
• Double everything again (Pyromancer Ascension)
• Shock an opponent (Seismic Assault)
• Keep everyone at bay (Teferi’s Moat)
• Do things never done before (Wheel of Sun and Moon)
• Oh, and you can have your incremental benefits as well (Phyrexian Arena)

And those are just some rares in Modern. If you want, I can go through the uncommons and commons as well. We’d be here for quite a while. Do lands have the variety of roles they can fill compared to lands? Not even close. Notice: there’s a variety of mana costs to go with those enchantments, not just the feared 8 or 9.

Enchantments can be almost any mechanic you want. You can make them beneficial for you, or just hurt your opponents. It may be an aura, it may not. They can be Johnny/Spike and Timmy enchantments, or any combination of the above. Enchantments can be the pinnacle of a game instead of just the stepping stone. That’s so nice about the card type: it can fit into any role you want it to. At this point, we don’t have to narrow down what exactly we want to do. By slowly whittling down choices with each vote, we still leave so much open and so may directions we can go. Those that preach “restrictions breeds creativity”, MaRo’s mantra, think that we should vote lands. Why? At this point in the process, instead of tying one hand behind your back, you’re blindfolded and hogtied when you choose lands.

Some might ask why I’m so anti-lands (I’ve seen it in some of the forums around). It’s not that I don’t like lands, but this contest isn’t about trying to prove a point. We actually have a chance to make a real Magic card and people want to suggest a land to fix their mana? That’s like getting a Major League baseball at bat and trying to draw a walk rather than trying to hit a home run. Sure, the walk is safer and you have a better change of getting on base, but you’re not really swinging for the fences, are you? Walks aren’t remembered, home runs are. I believe that both Forgotten Ancient and Crucible of Worlds were home runs; why not try again? Who knows if or when we’ll ever get this shot again, and with enchantments, I feel like we’re taking that swing. WotC isn’t going to give us Search the City as much as they aren’t going to give us Wasteland.

I’m endorsing Enchantments this time around. Not only is there more room for design but there’s just more fun to be had with enchantments. You play your lands to cast your enchantments; it’s like eating your vegetables to get to your desert. Before you vote land, look up at the five bullets points at the beginning of this post. If your design that you have in mind matches one of those points, please rethink your vote. This is the card of the people: do we really want it to be a land to search for another land?

“Wake up kids//We’ve got the dreamers disease” - You Get What You Give by New Radicals.

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Is there anything more late ’90′s than the musical styling of New Radicals? One hit wonder, we salute you.

One of the larger media news stories this week has been about the resurgence of a Veronica Mars movie. This was a show on the WB and UPN that had a rabid fan base. After its cancellation, the fans wanted a movie. Like anything in business: it’s all about money. Warner Brothers (who own the rights to Veronica Mars) knew there was a loyal fanbase, but didn’t think it was large enough to support more seasons or even a movie. But with Firefly and Arrested Development both getting second lives through the push of its fans, it might be worth a shot for Veronica Mars.

For a project that big and that risky (if they’ll make the money back), you have to count on if there’s enough interest that will pay for something like that. The internet is fickle with its obsessions. The love of Snakes on a Plane didn’t transfer to so well on the big screen. Hollywood has this love/hate relationship with the internet and doesn’t know how to react to it just yet. Luckily, there’s a website where people can propose a project and if there’s enough interested parties willing to pay for it, the project will get funded and made: Kickstarter.com. If, by the end of 30 days the project doesn’t reach its goal, it doesn’t get made.

Warner Brothers told Rob Thomas (the creator of Veronica Mars and not the Matchbox 20 lead singer), that if they could raise $2 million, they would green-light a Veronica Mars picture. It would meet the demand that the studio wants and pay for part of the movie (a win/win for Warner Brothers). Now, $2 million is a lot of money; never had a Kickstarter project had a goal that large. If it failed, there would be no more talk of a Veronica Mars movie and it would only be part of a feverish fan’s dream.

They met their goal in 24 hours.

It was the fastest Kickstarter to $1 million and obviously the fastest to $2 million. As of this writing, with 29 days left in the Kickstarter, it has made almost $2.8 million.

What does this mean to Magic?

We can start getting new projects.

Before we make the complete connection to Magic, let me explain Kickstarter a little better. Say I have a project that I want to get funded. I can submit it to Kickerstarter and explain why I need the money (most of the time it’s production costs of making said product). To entice people to fund the project before it happens, I give out different tiers of rewards for pledging money to me. It’s just like those PBS telethons where you get a copy of Season 1 of Downton Abby if you donate $100 and Season 1 and 2 if you donate $150. The more you’re willing to pay the more you receive. But here’s where Kickstarter gets interesting: the backer don’t pay any money if the project fails to get fully funded. It has 30 days to make its goal or the project doesn’t happen and the backers don’t pay anything. If your product doesn’t meet demand, then it’s not viable in the market (ignoring other factors like if it was priced right). However, if the project meets its goals you can make stretch goals to keep encouraging more donations.

The image you see up at is the current Magic-related Kickstarter called” The Gathering: Reuniting Pioneering Artists of Magic: The Gathering“. It’s a book that has brought together artists from the early era of Magic to re-imagine famous pieces and tales from behind the scenes. What’s cool is that WotC supports this project even though they don’t control it. They were hoping to get $32,000 for a small print run.

They met their goal in 24 hours.

Notice a pattern?

As of this printing, there’s two weeks left to be a backer if you want to. They’ve been doing stretch goal after stretch goal including adding more pages, making the book look better, and by offering more sketch cards from the artists themselves. I’m already a backer (no, Mom-in-law, you don’t need to find me a copy of this), and I’m really excited for this project. In fact, there have been several Magic related Kickstarters including a musical with puppets, and a little documentary “Magic: The Gathering World Championship Video” which in turn brought us “Walking the Planes” to cover of the Pro Tour.

Again, what does it have to do with Magic?

Superfan and host of The Magic Show, Evan Erwin tweeted this when people were talking about the success of the Veronica Mars Kickstarter:

This, this is a very interesting thought.

A 5th Pro Tour tournament doesn’t get my juices going; I’m a fan of the game, but I can’t play in it so why would I fund it? I would love a foil Force of Will and would pay $100 for a limited card like that, but that’s not the point of the Kickstarter. Here’s the important part:

And it all comes full circle to Warner Brother’s issue with Veronica Mars: is there enough interest in the product to make it profitable? When you’re a business, like WotC, you need to find out if you can sell a product you can make? Sometimes they’re home runs: From the Vault, Planechase/Commander, and Duel Decks. Other times you just have to lick your wounds like the Premium Deck Series, and maybe Event Decks (still too early to tell). You can’t tell if the chatter on the internet means if they’ll buy or they just like the idea and it gives them something to talk about. And clearly the most popular idea on the internet when it comes to Magic is this:

A third Un-set.

Now, I don’t have all the inside information about the finances it takes to create a set, nor what the small details it takes to make it happen. It is an idea though. Anything outside of Magic’s set release schedule sometimes has a hard time finding an audience. The Un-sets do have a small but rabid fanbase, but are they enough to launch another set. I’m all for trying new things and seeing if they catch on, but it’s not my money and energy that’s being used to create these side projects. WotC can run a Kickstarter to raise the money and interest for an Un-set, much like WB did with Veronica Mars. Only one simple problem with the Un-set:

You can’t sell the product directly to the customers.

It’s a slippery slope. You can’t sell packs or boxes to the fans; most if not all Kickstarters sell what they make to their backers as the reason for pledging money. This bypasses the distribution system that WotC has set up and they need the product to go to their local game stores. LGS need to have to product to keep encouraging them to play and buy from there. However, you could run other “ideas” as pledge tiers:

• At X level you get a vote on what art goes on the booster packs.
• At X level you get an Un3 t-shirt.
• At X level you get an Un3 playmat.
• At X level you get an Un3 playmat signed by Mark Rosewater.
• At X level you get an Un3 playtest card.
• At X level you get your name in a flavor text of a card.

Again, I don’t know if you can do the playmats or other swag, but those are just ideas to get started. Magic players have started to show that they’ll support buying Magic related products besides just the cards. You can gauge interest in a product by tying the tiers directly to the product you are making without selling the product. If no one wants the items tied to it, most likely no one will want the actual cards.You can put the idea to rest or you can safely take the time and effort to create the set. It generates interest in the set because of the promotion of you pushing it. There might be some lag time between when the set is funded and when the set is released but that just factors into the whole situation.

This doesn’t end with a third Un-set. Since I said I already love Magic swag, you can start there. It looks like they’ve been pretty successful with the Guild Shirts (interestingly that demand was there after PAX because people told WotC they wanted them), and I’ve got a Planeswalker messenger bag. I’m sure many of their other branded things have started to sell.

How about that Magic: The Gathering show/animated series?

It doesn’t even have to be a hit and make millions of dollars for WotC to consider it. You can focus on niche markets and, if it’s profitable, deliver to those fans. Like the makers of “The Gathering” have shown, you can target individuals that appreciate that aspect of Magic. It can be Magic related without coming from WotC itself if it gets the go ahead from the company. Now, I’m sure that this is much harder and since “The Gathering” has all new art, but this opens up the Magic community for different opportunities. While it can’t get a another Pro Tour stop (not the right market for a Kickstarter), it can get the juices flowing at WotC to find other small ways of getting their product to their fans. Everyone wins: WotC gets their brand and products out there more while the fans who want said product can receive it.

If you haven’t already, go check out the Kickstarter for “The Gathering”. You have a chance to own a really cool piece of Magic related history. It shows WotC that there is a market out there for this type of product. While I’m not a Vorthos, I can appreciate the flavor of the game. The novels are coming back in terms of ebooks, and we still have the Magic comics. The market might be as large as previously thought, but if it’s making money WotC will still produce. By Kickstarting projects, we might just get what we want. This is just a new avenue for them to test their ideas, something I fully support.

After all, Veronica Mars passed $3 million while I was writing this up. Money talks. WotC will listen.

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So, Great Designer Search 2 Winner Ethan Fleischer announced that WotC is doing another “You Make the Card” contest. I’m excited, and you should be excited as well. If you missed the first three (And you might have since the last one was Coldsnap, around the last time we were in Ravnica), it goes something like this:

Each round the public votes on something that R&D gives us. Slowly, over the course over a year or so, we get to make decisions through voting that will make a real card. From type of card, to name, to art to what the card actually does. Now, R&D has to test the card, so we can’t just get something very powerful for very little cost or get a card that will break the Color Pie (Like a Black Disenchant or Red life gain). The card goes through any process like any other card that WotC would print. It might seem slow, but when you’re holding the card in your hand after you’ve opened it, it’s actually a pretty cool feeling.

Ethan’s announced the first decision, and I’m sure that some of you have voted. If you haven’t, I would like to talk to you about the options that you have and maybe nudge you in a direction. I don’t expect everyone to agree with I’ll say, but hopefully it’s enough to get you thinking and not throw away your vote. Here are your options:

• Artifact
• Creature
• Enchantment
• Instant/Sorcery
• Land

No Planeswalker (Way too many issues for a YMTC and it would most likely be another Jace), and no Tribal (Most likely not about to see print). Just the basic card types Magic introduced. Let’s get to it. 

Some things to keep in mind:

• It looks like this will be sold in booster packs, which means that it will be Standard legal. You’ll have to play with this card for two years at FNM.
• Because it will be Standard legal, if you want to design a card for an older format it’ll have to play nice with the new cards. Plus, they’re not bending the Color Pie to “fix” something.
• WotC will eventually get final say on the card. While you wish it would cost 2 less, it most likely won’t.
• It won’t have any keywords/mechanics from the upcoming set it’s in. WotC isn’t going to tip their hand like that (ie. no Red Snapcaster Mage).
• I will not be part of any niche support group for “silly” things. I will not be part of a movement for making Contraptions work, getting Pblthp into a creature, or a Squirrel Legend (That’s creative’s deal anyway, so you’re not going to win that one).

The past three YMTC choices were a creature, an artifact and an instant. So there are going to be people who say it should be one we haven’t done (Enchantment, sorcery or a land), and there’s plenty of argument there. If you haven’t seen the first three and the process I would recommend reading them first: Mr. Babycakes (Forgotten Ancient), Crucible of Worlds, and Vanish into Memory (With very little recap). To pitch this decision right, I want to bring up the concept of design space.

Design space is how much design you can fit into a space. Duh, right? It’s more than that; it’s more along the lines of what can the card type do and what can you get away with. Each of the types have bonus and drawbacks when dealing with them. Creatures can attack, but they can also die. Enchantments can take over a game, but they’re hard to set up. Yes, lands are cool because they’re uncounterable, but they’re also uncounterable when you have to play against them. By limiting yourself to a more restricting card type, you limit the options and the was the WotC can mess around with a card. Create a card with fewer “Adjustable knobs”, you’ll run yourself into a deep hole.

By “Adjustable knobs”, I mean the different ways that you can make a card balanced. If you have an ability you want to use, you have to make sure it doesn’t disrupt the game too early. Casting cost, power/toughness, mana of activated ability, creature type, and legendary status are all different ways of adjusting the card to make it work. That’s why you see plenty of powerful cards at high mana costs (Enter the Infinite), or powerful creatures with low power/toughness (Dark Confidant). And I doubt we’ll get the option of choosing the rarity of the card.

Take a look at Tiago Chan’s original invitational card submission:

Denying Channel
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
2UU, Discard CARDNAME: Counter target spell.

It seems really cool, huh? WotC decided that it was too powerful and had to change the card completely. And that’s how Snapcaster Mage was invented. There wasn’t too many ways to adjust the card. Here, you have an uncounterable counterspell that you don’t have to miss a land drop for if you draw it early enough in the game. You only had four options of adjusting the card:

1. Enters the battlefield tapped (It doesn’t matter, you’re not playing it anyway)
2. The color of mana it produces (It doesn’t matter, you’re not playing it anyway)
3. Legendary Land (It doesn’t matter, you’re not playing it anyway)
4. The cost of the activation

There are plenty of things that WotC could’ve tried with the activation (Discard another card, sacrifice a land, lose X life), but that was the only knob they were able to realistically touch in developing this card. There’s no casting cost to make sure this card get played “fairly”, because that’s a restriction with the land card type. This is the type of thing that I’m not sure many people are thinking of when they vote Land for the YMTC. “Restrictions breed creativity,” MaRo always says. In this case I feel there are too many restrictions to make everyone happy. Remember: This card will be Standard legal; there are restrictions on what you can do with it. With something like artifact or land, every deck will have access to it. People were complaining about Cavern of Souls but that’s the type of card I see the public pushing in this type of contest.

This a popularity contest, plain and simple. It’s not just for the Johnnies, or the Spikes, or the Timmies, but for all of them. There’s a reason why Crucible of Worlds is so beloved by the community: it fits into each one of those demographics. Forgotten Ancient is liked by everyone but the Spikes, and Vanish into Memory is really only liked by the Johnnies. Once the decisions start getting made it’s going to narrow down the number of interested people which means fewer voters (If the vote isn’t anything you like, why should you pay attention?). I feel this is why it took so long to get another one of these into place because of Vanish into Memory being a huge niche card.

If you haven’t voted yet (you have until this Friday), here’s the advice I’m going to offer: Vote for Artifact or Creature. Again, restrictions breed creativity and I feel that there can be some good cards that can be created by the community with the other card types. However, I don’t feel like this kind of contest benefits those types of cards as easily. At this point in the game we need to keep as many options open as we can. If we start narrowing down the adjustable knobs or the restrictions the card type places on us then it’s going to lose interest, and what the card can ultimately do, fast.

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Ever since Magic was first created, White has had a split personality. It’s been separated into two distinct camps:

• White Weenie
• White Control

Now, every color has aspects of both, but with White it was never so prevalent. What White was trying to accomplish the idea of the “army” and righteousness with “fairness” at the same time. However, it’s the only color that makes you feel bad for trying to cram everything that the color can do in one deck.

• Blue – Steal, Counter, Bounce, Draw
• Black – Discard, Kill, Reanimate
• Red – Burn, Swing, Burn again
• Green – Mana Ramp, Play Big Creatures, Pump Big Creatures

But with White, you couldn’t do that. You can’t play a bunch of creatures, then Wrath of God or Balance. That defeated the whole purpose of playing all those creatures in the first place (With Wrath of God, and Balance both being reset buttons of “righteousness” and “fairness” (One player can’t get ahead of the other player)). Sure, there was Banding to help the small White army deal with the larger creatures of the other colors (and we know how well that turned out), but you couldn’t play an all encompassing White deck. Unless you played a traditional White Weenie deck that relied on a control element. The only reason that White Weenie was able to survive as an archetype was because of one card: What should be a “fairness” card (one player can’t have more land than another) suddenly turned into an aggressive’s deck best friend. By playing your threats early then blowing up lands so the other player couldn’t stabilize, White Weenie became a favorite and power style of play. As long as White had its army of one and two drops that were “better” than the other colors as well as a way to “destabilize” the board after a few turns, it continued to see play.

But White has shifted away from “unfair” global reset buttons. Except for Wrath of God variants, the most recently printed Armageddon style disruption spell was Global Ruin in Invasion. That is almost 13 years old and not a legal set in Modern. Guess how long White Weenie has been mostly irrelevant? At the same time, creatures of all casting costs were getting better so White’s weenie rush just wasn’t viable anymore.

Elsewhere in the color pie, there was a deck that was picking up steam that followed similar style of play: Sligh. If you’re unfamiliar with the deck type, here’s a quick run down. Basically, it was a Red weenie deck that relied on tempo and a mana curve rather than just small creatures with a way to stop the opponent from doing anything. The deck was quick, and really, because of Red’s love of direct damage, didn’t need an Armageddon style spell to disrupt the opponent. The deck had finishers (Fireblast, Scroll Rack, Ball Lightning), it was just more damage to push the opponent below 20.

But the point of this isn’t to talk about bringing back Armageddon, it’s for something else entirely.

See, White is all about the Army feeling: their troops are better (and more numerous), than our troops. White’s creatures are going to work together to defeat you. And you know what the best two White army decks have been? Rebels in Marcadian Masques block (using smaller creatures to bring out bigger creatures). Goblins in Onslaught block. What, wait?

It’s time for White and Red to examine their place in the weenie aspect of the Color Pie.

As you can see with that mini history lesson, both White and Red are battling out for the top spot in the weenie color. For a while, every color was getting in on the big creatures, small casting cost game: there was Green Stompy, Suicide Black, and I guess Fish is more tempo setting. Both Green and White relied on something besides creatures to win (Winter Orb and Armageddon respectively) while Black and Red could win by brute strength of damage.

Now effects that have been helping White, Black and Green win with weenies have gone away (Mass land destruction, Hatred effects, preventing players from untapping by an artifact), Red is the only one that can sustain that ability to continue to live in that weenie area with support. However people, and especially WotC, continue to try to make White Weenie happen. Why? Red and White are the two more “army” like colors, which is why they fit perfectly together for Boros. They both love attacking, they both love getting an advantage in combat. This is nothing new. This is why Batallion and Battle Cry are great for these two colors.

One of the better non-mechanical ways to enforce the love of attacking is to make bigger creatures at smaller costs. You’ll want to play them earlier and attack sooner than the other colors. See: when I talked about White’s one drops. But this isn’t the only way to create the love of attacking. By showing cards that can work together, as if they are different functions of an army, you can demonstrate attacking and group feeling in White. This is where we get to the Onslaught Goblins example:

21 Mountain
3 Goblin Burrows
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Goblin Sledder
4 Skirk Prospector
4 Shock
4 Sparksmith
4 Gempalm Incinerator
2 Clickslither
2 Goblin Sharpshooter

Sideboard
4 Sulfuric Vortex
3 Threaten
3 Starstorm
3 Rorix Bladewing
2 Stabilizer

(List from here)

This deck had so much synergy. Except for the aforementioned Rebels, White has never gotten a deck to just work together on all levels. You would think that a color that specializes in combat and helping each other out would be more organized than some Goblins, right? Yes, some of this was direct damage related (White doesn’t really do), and some of it was sacrificing the now for the future (A Red trait), but the concepts of sum is greater than the parts should be White’s direction.

White’s Humans in Innistrad were a push in the right direction. Champion of the Parish, Doomed Traveler, Fiend Hunter, Mentor of the Meek, Midnight Guard, Selfless Cathar, Thalia, Unruly Mob and Village Bell-Ringer are good pieces of a whole idea. This is much different than earlier high-profile “return to White Weenie” cards like Knight of White Orchid, Puresteel Paladin and Student of Warfare, all of which are greedy in their own ways (they don’t work together and require you to invest in them to make them useful). Since Innistrad was a tribal set, it made sense that most of these were Human cards which is why they could push them because it wasn’t affecting the color as a whole. Cards like Fiend Hunter acted as removal while still being a threat, ala a weaker Siege-Gang Commander, and Selfless Cathar made your army bigger which is something that Goblins didn’t do. This is what I want to see more of.

Well, and tokens. Sheer numbers are a great indication of army. By having one card turn into “three cards”, you can easily depict the army feel. A single removal spell doesn’t stop the beat down when they have more than one token in play. It’s not out of White’s ability at all to make tokens, so it’s not like we’re trying to push an aspect that isn’t there. Innistrad’s White did a great job of that as well. And what’s fantastic about tokens is that you can still have the early beatdown strategy, or have it work for more of a control route later in the game. This allows White to tie its strategies a bit better rather than the dichotomy it has now. White is still the only color that shifts strategy as the casting cost increases. Because of this, it’s very hard for the color to get an identity to nail down.

Which brings us to Red. If I’m talking about promoting synergy in White, I’ll make a nudge for more powerful “single” creatures in Red. This color should get the larger creatures for a small cost but without the synergy that we’ve seen in the past. There’s a couple of ways of doing this: Tit for tat and uncoordinated benefit.

With tit for tat, I’m thinking along the lines of Jackal Pup. You can have the larger creatures, but generally there’s going to be a small drawback for it otherwise it’d be too good. There’s some of that going on recently (Gore-House Chainwalker, Hinterland Hermit, Mogg Flunkies, Reckless Waif, Slumbering Dragon, Vexing Devil) and, again, it’s going in the right direction. Red doesn’t care about the future, it doesn’t concern itself with 10 turns down the road, let alone next turn. Why don’t we have more cards that reflect that?

Here are some candidates for a good “colorshifting” that I could see in Red:

• Rogue Elephant (R, 3/3, ETB, sac a mountain)
• Flesh Reaver (1R, 4/4, whenever it deals damage to a creature or opponent, it deals damage to you)
• Spiteful Bully (1R, 3/3, At the beginning of your upkeep, it deals 3 to a creature you control)
• Carnophage (R, 2/2, At the beginning of your upkeep, tap it or it unless you pay 1 life)

Of course, this is semi-getting into Black’s weenie territory, but I feel that Black has ventured away from the Suicide Black model that was used before. This section won’t eat away at all of Black’s weenies, but make a bit more room of them. There’s the always popular “die at the end of turn” mechanic that fits perfect in here (and if people liked Echo, this is the place for it).

The other way to give Red is the uncoordinated benefit way. Instead of something like Goblin Piledriver, where you want Goblin cards, you have something like Kruin Striker that thrives on more weenie creatures. Kruin Striker is great for Red instead of White or Green because even though it benefit off of creatures, it’s only a small onetime bonus and the best way to use it is before your attack phase meaning you don’t have combat tricks in your hand. It’s a “All-in” card that you want Red to get behind. These cards will be fewer than in other categories, but could show up enough to help establish that idea in the color (I still think it’s a most virgin design area at the moment).

You still can have good Red weenies like Stormkirk Noble (you want to keep attacking), and Goblin Arsonist (Just try to block/kill me) because the color deserves that as well. I’m only suggesting to expand the possible area, not totally define it for Red.

Will this fix all the problems? No. White weenie will still have issues of not having that game changing spell that it needs and Red will struggle with stuff it can’t burn away. But this an help with some of the flavor and mechanic issues of these two colors. They both love combat, and are proficient at it, but should approach it from different directions. White has Soldiers and Knights while Red has Rogues and Warriors; they conjure up conflicting images of order and chaos. Their approach to small creatures should be the same as well.

I didn’t get a preview card.

That’s fine. I’m a small time blog and none of the other small time blogs received a preview card as well. So, no biggie. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Gatecrash Prerelease. I received a phone call from Borborygmos, which is odd because not only does he not like technology, he’s a fictional character. Anyway, he didn’t receive a preview article. I was shocked. Here was one of the guild leaders and he wasn’t previewed like all of the other leagendary leaders.

This was a match made in heaven; a blog without a preview card and a preview card without an article.

I interviewed Borborygmos for a few minutes. I really don’t want him to crush me.

MTG Color Pie: So, Mr. Borborygmos.

BORBORYGMOS: No need for formal. Call me Ishmael.

MTGCP: Wow, really?

ISHMAEL: No. Only joke. Better than saying call me maybe.

MTGCP: Fair enough.

BORBORYGMOS: See. Gruul more than smash things. Are smart. Know popcorn culture.

MTGCP: Alright. Now, I know that you’re a little upset about not receiving a preview article. You want to talk about that?

BORBORYGMOS: Unfair since Gruul no have technology. You see guild letter? Hand paint each one.  No Steve Guttenberg machine. Have to network social to make popular and be seen. Don’t know how. Both Facebook and Twitter taken by not me. Wish I smash their face.

MTGCP: That’s very understandable. I guess that’s why you’re enraged.

BORBORYGMOS: (Silence)

MTGCP: (Laughs nervously) Wait, how are you talking to me now if you don’t use technology?

BORBORYGMOS: Larger iPhone 5 better for fingers. Not that barbaric. Plus, you kill bit.

MTGCP: Some feel that you didn’t get an article because you were leaked early.

BORBORYGMOS: Always take leak in forest. Don’t see big deal.

MTGCP: No, that your card was spoiled way before it was suppose to.

BORBORYGMOS: Not Gruul fault. Yet Magic men punish us. We know we no loved. Gruul experience emotion too. Red is core color of Gruul.

MTGCP: Well, how do you feel about your new card versus your old one?

BORBORYGMOS: Both best cards ever. I make Gruul larger, then throw earth at not-Gruul. How can lose? New art makes tiny man scared faster.

MTGCP: And how do you feel about your Charm. It seems a little weak compared to the other ones.

BORBORYGMOS: Gruul no weak. Other guilds showoffs.

MTGCP: You have any final thoughts?

BORBORYGMOS: Gruul smash!

MTGCP: Yes, yes they do. Thanks so much for your time.

This has been a long time coming (though not as long as some other pieces I have in the pipeline). Let’s talk about Gates (Baby).

It all started 10 years ago. One of the fancy improvements to the new card frame was this little feature:

Why “Basic Land – Forest?”
We added “Basic” in order to help new players understand the difference between basic and nonbasic lands. By explaining this distinction on the type line, we did not feel the need to add reminder text to cards like Blood Moon that reference “nonbasic lands.”

We added “Forest” to the forests for two reasons. It allows us to make cards like the Dragon Lairs from Planeshift be “Land – Lair,” and then they need one fewer sentence in their text boxes. This also opens up design space for future cards. In addition, this change allows us to clean up an obscure rule that most of you won’t care about. (For the technically minded: the current rules say that every land has a subtype equal to its name. We needed that rule so that cards like Wood Elves don’t have to say “card named Forest,” but that rule has prevented us from making some cards we wanted to make, plus it’s kind of a silly rule to have anyway – if the cards have subtypes, we should just print them on the cards instead of having them be invisible subtypes. Then we can get rid of that rule because all lands will just have whatever subtypes are printed on them.)

Yes, the “new” frames are turning 10 this year and will have been in Magic the same amount of time as the old frames. But back to the point at hand. Because lands were now free to have a subtype, there were crazy things that you could do with them. It opened up so much design space and when I first read this I was like, “awesome.” Since 8th Edition we have seen the following land subtypes:

• Eighth Edition – Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Power-Plant, Urza’s Tower
• Mirrodin – Locus
• Ninth Edition – Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Power-Plant, Urza’s Tower
• Time Spiral – Desert, Urza’s
• Scars of Mirrodin – Locus
• Return to Ravnica – Gate

Yeah, huge innovation here. The Urza’s Lands helped with templating, Locus have been on two lands (but both benefit from multiples in play), and Desert is just a Desert to help with powerhouse Camel‘s ability. The Locus subtype is actually pretty powerful so it’s not like it can be really used again and Urza’s Factory is put there because of flavor.

So why hasn’t land subtypes been used more?

You need game mechanics to make it work. While it was a cute trick with Urza’s Factory, it gets a pass for being in a nostalgia set. The obvious place for a land subtype mechanic would be in a block were lands matter. Zendikar seemed like it would be the perfect place for it, but nothing ever materialized. There was some fear that a “land matters” block might be seen as a fun enough theme so I believe that some of it got pulled back. Now that we know that Landfall will come back eventually (thanks to the Storm Scale), we can hopefully see a land subtype theme there.

But why Return to Ravnica? There’s lands in every set. Why here and now?

Because it was needed to differentiate from other enters the battlefield lands. Seriously (near the bottom).

Finally, one day in a cardcrafting meeting (a weekly meeting where the designers and developers talk nuts-and-bolts issues) we were lamenting the lack of a good answer when Zac Hill said, “What if we just did the Invasion lands but added a marker?”

“Go on,” the room said.

“Imagine if these lands had special meaning to the guilds and they had a subtype. Then we could make a few cards that cared about the subtype and they wouldn’t be strictly worse anymore.”

After almost a decade, Mr. Hill spoke up and WotC was finally able to mine some of that design space. While the Guildgates were crafted with limited in mind, I think that they should be used more in design. Is there a reason why lands haven’t had subtypes before, like the Vivid lands from Lorwyn? Yes, it’s because no matter the flavor, it has to fit why they’re doing it; which is why Tribal died. Tribal has pretty much been dropped because of rules and templating issues though it fits flavor fantastically. Adding the subtype ”Monument” to the Hideaway lands is a nifty flavor idea but it doesn’t do anything gamewise.

That is, until you make the game care.

Currently, there are 4 cards that care if you control a gate:

• Armory Guard (Vigilance if you control a Gate)
• Gatecreeper Vine (Tutors for a Gate)
• Orge Jailbreaker (Loses Defender if you control a Gate)
• Gateway Shade from Gatecrash (Tap an untapped Gate, it gets +2/+2)

10 gates, 4 cards, one set named after a subtheme.  Of course there’s going to be more in Gatecrash, but that’s the point: there should be more. You can’t make it a major theme, but you can at least give players some options when it comes to interacting with Gates. There are plenty of effects that you can do surrounding land subthemes: tutoring for one, deal damage based on how many you control, have a creature gain a combat ability, have a creature lose a combat ability, the creature can tap for mana, and so on and so fourth. And it can fit into almost any setting that Magic has gone to over the past few years. Innistrad? It’s Haunted. Scars of Mirrodin? It’s under Phyrexian control. Finding the flavor isn’t hard, it’s coming up with unique mechanics so it doesn’t feel stale after a couple of years.

Gateway Shade

There’s an added benefit the first major land subtheme being in Return to Ravnica: it’s the opposite of why it wasn’t in Zendikar. WotC knew that Ravnica would sell, so they didn’t have to worry about banking the set on an idea that hasn’t been proven. With the concept being in a really popular set, WotC can study how people are liking the idea then, BAM, we can have it a few years from now. It’s sneaky, but I’m sure it’s just a byproduct of putting them in here. It’s been fun for limited, so far, and I want to see where WotC takes this concept over the rest of the block.

This really wasn’t as much about Gates as it was about land subtypes. Or about how WotC should do it more often. It’s a hugely untapped design area that I think would make people happy. Of course, different things make different people happy, so it’s all relative. I believe this mechanic area is more than just a hypothetical playground. You can obviously go intrablock, like what the Gates are doing in Return to Ravnica block, but the fun might be with interblock design. It has to work for limited to make sense, but having a land show up every once in a while that interacts with cards from the past can be a fun call back (it obviously depends on the design of the world and such fancies).

Let’s take a look at the Monument idea I had. Suddenly a cycle of rare one-shot lands could have the same subtype (like the Hideaway lands), and there could be a Green creature that could tutor for them. A year or two down the road, there’s another cycle of one shot lands and a Black creature that drains life for each Monument you control. Obviously this is just coming from the top of my head but now you’ve opened up design to function better with future and past blocks. These are the small touches that WotC loves to do (see: tribal elements about 2 to 3 years apart).

Land tutoring has always had this bad association with being too powerful because you could go get any land in the game. If there were a subtype of land cards that would just be focused on either A) having more casual appeal or B) low enough on the power scale so they aren’t easily abusable, then by “limiting” yourself you’ve opened up a whole new design area. Just like Zac Hill suggested.

Does that mean it’s going to happen? No, of course not. But hopefully WotC embraces some more land subtypes because I don’t want to wait for another 10 years before I get to play with them again.