The Top 10 Most Open Design Old Extended Keywords

Avenger, SMASH!

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This list was started before the announcement of how Extended is going to change, but I decided to continue with it anyway. I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the top Old Extended legal mechanics that have the most open space. Of course, I’ve got rules for this before people get up in arms about what I left something out.

  • The first list I’m looking at keywords only. The second list in a following post will be game mechanics.
  • The mechanic has to debut between Mirrodin and now. If a mechanic debuted before hand (Say Cycling or Morph), it doesn’t count.
  • Keywords that used to be not keyworded (Flash, Vigilance, etc.) Don’t count.
  • This is not a list of the most broken (Affinity) nor heavily played (Exalted), but the ones that have the most open space to design more cards.

Why am I doing this? There has been a push by Wizards to start treating keywords more as renewable resources rather than just throw-aways (No Single Serving Friends here). Yes, you still see those throw-away mechanics here and there in some of the smaller sets (Prowl, Cascade), but for the most part keywords are being created to be used over and over. Seeing what open space is still left in mechanics instead of “wasting” new areas will not only allow that virgin space to last longer, but allow something to get fully explored to get more interesting with each generation of the mechanic. It’s always Wizards’ tradition to go with the easiest/simplest way of introducing a mechanic then ramping it up (See: almost every block that has a keyword mechanic). The second time around, it evolves.

This doesn’t mean that other mechanics can’t be used over for the same general purpose, it’s just they don’t have the chance to grow or evolve based on what they are set up to do. Two examples: Cascade and Threshold. Cascade, the way it’s set up, can’t do anything different then just cast cards less than the casting cost of the card; it’s very rigid in its ability (though every powerful). Threshold, while requiring you to have 7 cards in your graveyard, can do anything it wants once it meets that requirement (from a land becoming a creature to the only way a spell works). It’s that versatility that we’re looking for.

I’ll be creating a card with each of the mechanics to give one area of design still usable. And, again, if Wizards wants to use these designs, please feel free to do so.

Continue reading “The Top 10 Most Open Design Old Extended Keywords”

Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (What is This? A Format for Ants?)

Current state of Extended

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Editor’s Note: The format has to be at least, three times bigger than this!

There’s a scene in the movie Zoolander (right here for your convenience) where main character Derek Zoolander gets depressed about losing Male Model of the year to Hansel (He’s so hot right now). His male model roommate friends try to cheer him up by getting him a Orange Mocha Farppacino, which does the trick. They’re driving around in a Jeep bopping their heads to Wham!, not having a care in the world because everything is awesome.

They stop at a gas station to refuel and from there a water fight breaks out using the gas station squeegees. Zoolander gets distracted, as male models tend to do, and goes to look at something while the rest of the guys escalate the playful fight to include the gasoline hoses and blissfully spray gas on each other. One of them decides it’s time for a smoke break, lights up and blows up the other friends, but leaves Zoolander safe.

That’s just what happened to Extended, symbolically.

After losing popularity to the newer, hotter format (Legacy), Extended played around with gasoline (fast combo decks). Suddenly, we learned that if there’s anything that this horrible tragedy can teach us is that a format’s life is a precious precious commodity. Just because it has a turn 2 20/20 and “infinite” 1/1 flying tokens, it doesn’t mean that they too can’t not die in a freak gasoline fight accident.

Once again the Magic world has been blown apart by Wizards. If you didn’t see the Banned and Restricted lists for June 18th, you can take a look. Here’s a summary if you don’t want to read the whole thing:

As of July 1st, All sets Mirrodin through Coldsnap will be rotated out of Extended. This is Mirrodin block, Kamagawa block, and Ravnica block including Coldsnap and 9th Edition. The rotation will now be every 4 years instead of the previous 7. This means that when Scars of Mirrodin is released, Time Spiral Block and 10th Edition will rotate out of Extended.

Also banned: Sword of the Meek and Hypergenesis.

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

Continue reading “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (What is This? A Format for Ants?)”

Price of Progress – Getting to Carnegie Hall

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True story: While we were getting ready for the first round of SCG Seattle Legacy tournament, I was watching a player associated with a famous MTG strategy site play his deck versus another player. He played Price of Progress. Having never really played that card before, he didn’t know that it actually did 2 damage instead of 1. We all laughed at his error as he learned something new.

But if he had playtested more, he would’ve known.

To be fair, I’m sure this was format he hardly played and he most likely got this list either online or from a friend. Not everyone knows every card in every format but most people would know what the cards in their deck would do, but playing it before the tournament would help with that situation.

I’m not bashing him nor making fun of him. This guy has only been nice when I’ve been in contact with him and he’s a very smart player, but even the “pros” don’t always know what cards do when they pick up a deck for the very first time without hours upon hours of playtesting. And that’s where my situation comes in. I didn’t playtest for SCG Seattle. I went 0-2 drop. This isn’t a tournament report about what I did wrong, this post is how I’m perfectly fine with that situation.

It’s all about getting to Carnegie Hall.

Continue reading “Price of Progress – Getting to Carnegie Hall”

Lotus Cobra is Evil – It All Makes Sense Now

StarCityGames columnist Bennie Smith wrote a few weeks about about a comic idea that would be funny to see (it’s a the bottom of the link). He asked me about it and I got a hold of Sixten to see if he could do it. While he wasn’t able to do the actual comic (he was having a problem with making it look foily), he did this instead. Yes, that is actually Bennie Smith in the comic. If you came here from Bennie’s post this week, here is the full size comic. Thanks Bennie for including Sixten and I in your work; you’re aweome.

(For those who are wondering, I don’t think Sixten will take any more requests to put themselves in a comic. If you read Bennie’s suggestion, he wasn’t even in the comic, it was all Sixten’s idea.)

As always, credit goes to Sixten.