Design Class – The Four Dynasties of Amateur Magic Design

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This week, Fearless Leader wrote about the five dynasties of Magic Design (actually, it was kinda of a rehash of his State of Design of this year, but it makes sense in Transformation Week). If you didn’t click the link, nor read the article, don’t worry, here’s the info “that will be on the test” version:

  • First Stage (Alpha through Alliances): This stage was about the focus on individual card design. Design decisions tended to be made on a card-by-card basis.
  • Second Stage (Mirage through Prophecy): This stage was the introduction of the block and the focus of design in thinking of Magic in terms of a year.
  • Third Stage (Invasion through Saviors of Kamigawa): This stage was the introduction of block themes. Blocks were no longer just a collection of mechanics, but contained specific things chosen to highlight the block’s theme.
  • Fourth Stage (Ravnica through Rise of the Eldrazi): This stage was the introduction of block planning. Instead of picking a theme and continuing it through the block, design now planned out how exactly the block was going to evolve. This planning allowed for themes to be better set up and paid off.
  • Fifth Stage (Scars of Mirrodin through ???): Now we get to last year. What I believe Scars of Mirrodin block has done that shifts design into the next age is to radically change how mechanical themes are looked at and used. For the last two stages, themes have been used as the foundation to build the block on. Starting with Scars of Mirrodin, mechanical themes are now thought of as tools used to put a block together. Metaphorically, themes are no longer the canvas, but the paint.

All of this is great. You really see the evolution of Magic when it gets separated into these categories. In fact, this isn’t the first time that MaRo has brought to us these dynasties (as highlighted in his State of Design right before Ravnica, the fourth stage). Here it is broken down:

  • First Stage (Alpha through Alliances): Design on a card by card basis.
  • Second Stage (Mirage through Prophecy): Blocks are created and keywords are enforced.
  • Third Stage (Invasion through Saviors of Kamigawa): Creation of the Block Theme (Multicolor being Invasion, and so on).
  • Fourth Stage (Ravnica through Rise of the Eldrazi): Tying the block closer together by having the sets in the block interconnect better.
  • Fifth Stage (Scars of Mirrodin through ???): Design a world that encompasses and design for that plane.

That fifth stage is a little card to pin down since we’ve only seen 4 sets (plus a Core Set), of this new design philosophy. As fellow GDS2 participate, and eventual winner, Ethan Fleisher said:

During the Designer Search, I was working based on some obsolete assumptions. Not only could I not see the next eight to twelve sets worth of innovation that were in the works, but I had to look back several years in order to get a clear picture of what sorts of standards existed in common between sets.

And he’s right. We’re in a total lag of trying to stay on top of what Wizards considers “proper” design. For people not working at Wizards, we’re trying to decipher what is not laughable when it comes to designing cards of our own. Everyone started making Planeswalkers when they first were announced, but we didn’t know exactly how they worked and what their impact would be. Wizards did.

So for today, I give you the four dynasties of amateur Magic design. It’s because of this constant catch up, and the way people design cards, that I believe that this is how people create cards. Of course, this is just one man’s opinion and everyone else is a little different.

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Gavin Verhey’s #24

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Editor’s Note: Inspiration of this piece came from Gavin Verhey. It’s also dedicated to him: Good luck on the new job.

In the northwestern part of the United States there resides a tiny town of Seattle, Washington. Some of you may be heard of it, it’s about 10ish or so miles north of Renton, Washington; Renton, of course, being home to Wizards of the Coast.

This metropolitan area has over 3,000,000 souls living here, as well as large lake that separates the area. There are two bridges that cross the lake: Interstate 90 and Highway 520 (lovingly called the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, or just the 520 Bridge). With the population growth in the area, there has been discussion for a while about expanding one of the bridges. It makes sense, the 520 Bridge has two lanes of traffic each way, no carpool, and only supports 65,000 cars a day while currently carrying 115,000.

Oh, and there’s this little tech company called “Microsoft” that’s one the east end of the bridge (the west end is Seattle). Daily traffic creates a huge bottle neck at the ends of the bridges, there it connects with Interstate 5 and Interstate 405. It’s normal to expect at least 40 minutes of travel time to go this almost a mile and a half bridge. It’s inefficient and it causes too many problems.

After years of deciding what to do with it, the state government has ripped off the Band-Aid and they’re doing construction. “Full bore, let’s get this baby working again,” type of attitude.

It was a broken outdated system that couldn’t be used to its fullest. That’s great right? In fact, for around the past year and a half they’re working on the east side of the bridge, expanding the highway to get the bridge ready for expansion itself. They’re closing the bridge during weekends (another one is expected this weekend). Sure, it’s inconvenient now, but in a few years we’ll see the fruit of their labor. Right?

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Lost Words – The Reserved List Project

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Editor’s Note: What follows is the first part in a series I was going to write about the Reserved List. This was written in February of last year, when the talk of the Reserved List heated up and we, the players, didn’t know what was going to happen. While all of this in the air, I had an idea. I wanted to write a four part series about the Reserved List and what should be done with it. My goal, if the editors allowed it, were to have this published on four different websites: Old Gathering Magic, Old Mana Nation, Quiet Speculation and here. To my knowledge nothing like this had ever been attempted (and still hasn’t).

This was abandoned when the announcement of the Reserved List was made public as half of the series dealt with what should happen with it. While I don’t agree fully with the decision, this is neither the time nor the place for that discussion. Part One, what you’re about to read, dealt with the history of the Reserved List, and why it was created. If you’re relativity new to Magic, or just haven’t kept up with the political aspects of the game, then hopefully this will shed some light on the topic.

Why this is coming out now is that not everything I write makes it to publication. I was going through some of my writing documents and found this. Creating a straw poll on twitter, I asked if people wanted to still read this. If you don’t like this, blame them. Most of this is still in its original state (some mention of dates and events). Please remember, this is about the history, not if you agree with Wizard’s final word on the topic.

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It all started with trying to be everything to everyone.

Certainly we all know that can’t happen, so a choice had to be made. What good is a game without its players? If there’s no one to play, is it still a game? A decision was finally made and that has made all the difference.

It was decreed that Wizards of the Coast said they wouldn’t print certain cards ever again. Not only was this a game, but a dream for collectors as well. With one single mistake, Wizards upset a section of their fans. Wizards backed up, evaluated everything and said, “No more.”

This is what players and investors have to remember: All Wizards did was make a promise not to reprint these cards. There was no contract signed by anyone, the government didn’t force Wizards to do this, and there weren’t any lawsuits involved. Out of their own good will, Wizards created a list of cards they said they would never reprint because some players cried foul. The events that proceeded it changed the way the game was made, marketed and played.

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The 5 Scariest Design Mistakes in Magic History

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With this being Halloween and all, I thought I’d get in the spirit a little bit. Spirit, as in ghosts 😉 (And what’s the deal with airline food?). Not everything that Wizards of the Coast has printed for Magic been perfect. There have been a ton of mistakes that have haunted the game (stop my puns if they get too much). Those mistakes were horrible at the time and have even driven away people in droves, but hopefully their lessons have been learned and not to be repeated.

Hopefully.

As you’ll see I left out singular cards, but one is heavily implied. I didn’t feel it fair to blame one card out of several hundreds from the same set or situation.

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