I haven't followed standard at all for a while, but tacking on 2 1/1 fliers to a costlier time warp is actually that good?
Magic: the Gathering |OT| Innistrad: Midnight Hunt - We're not in Eldraine anymore
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It's more the copying that pushes epiphany over the top. Most epiphany decks could just run 4 counterspells and get the same effect as they pass, counter, and get the turn back same as if they just took an extra turn, but the extra mana, draws, and combat phases that come with multiple extra turns creates a cascade effect where they're making more treasure and drawing more cards and dealing damage and finding more epiphanies or recasting them from the graveyard and such that you just die no matter how far ahead you were. The traditional tactics against a big mana combo are more soft deterrents here too, counterspells can't stop galvanic iteration copies and hand hate can't pluck an epiphany that's already safely foretold in exile.
1. Fortell prevents the card from being targeted by discards and such
2. The Strixhaven cards that copy spells effectively give you 3 turns in a row, with multiple flyers and enough mana to bring out your choice of dragons with Haste, doing effectively kill damage very quickly, not to mention searching for the rest of your Epiphany's.
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Not a big difference but Jean's deck is Alrund's-less. I got into Magic around Kaladesh/Aether Revolt when Marvel was doing nasty things in Standard. Also had that copycat deck. I don't have much if any experience prior to that set but does it feel like WotC is either more willing to ban overpowered cards and/or WotC is doing a terrible job at playtesting and not catching these problems prior?
2021 has been for all intents and purposes ban-free for Standard with only the Arena ban so far. 10 bans in 2020, 4 in 2019, 4 in 2018, 5 in 2017. Prior to that the nearest ban was in 2011 with Jace and Stoneforge Mystic.
2021 has been for all intents and purposes ban-free for Standard with only the Arena ban so far. 10 bans in 2020, 4 in 2019, 4 in 2018, 5 in 2017. Prior to that the nearest ban was in 2011 with Jace and Stoneforge Mystic.
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Ah yeah, was actually just coming in here to correct myself that not all of the Top 4 decks use Epiphany.
I wrote a long read (3000-ish words) about the history of MTG's first expansion, Arabian Nights:
paperwave.substack.com
Some highlights:
The History of Magic's Arabian Nights: the Game's First (and Weirdest) Expansion
Magic's first expansion is also its most wild. Find out why...
paperwave.substack.com
Some highlights:
- Garfield designed the set almost entirely by himself, in a very short period of time.
- Playtesters had almost no time. Fellow designers like Skaff Elias had just one week to suggest balance changes!
- Antiquities came out just 11 weeks after Arabian Nights. The set was only ever sold for about 2 months!
- It was sold before Unlimited came out, and was thus sold out before most of the country had ever seen MTG.
- As most fans know by now (But I'm mentioning it bacause it's so interesting if you didnt) - Arabian Nights almost had a completely different card back, a decision that was only reversed at the 11th hour.
- Some Arabian Nights commons are more rare than some Arabian Nights uncommons.
- Arabian Nights is the smallest expansion, clocking in at just 78 cards.
- Arabian Nights is the only expansion based on a real-world setting
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And Yuta Takahashi is the World Champion, going completely undefeated in Standard (and completely defeated in Draft)
I wrote a long read (3000-ish words) about the history of MTG's first expansion, Arabian Nights:
The History of Magic's Arabian Nights: the Game's First (and Weirdest) Expansion
Magic's first expansion is also its most wild. Find out why...
Some highlights:
- Garfield designed the set almost entirely by himself, in a very short period of time.
- Playtesters had almost no time. Fellow designers like Skaff Elias had just one week to suggest balance changes!
- Antiquities came out just 11 weeks after Arabian Nights. The set was only ever sold for about 2 months!
- It was sold before Unlimited came out, and was thus sold out before most of the country had ever seen MTG.
- As most fans know by now (But I'm mentioning it bacause it's so interesting if you didnt) - Arabian Nights almost had a completely different card back, a decision that was only reversed at the 11th hour.
- Some Arabian Nights commons are more rare than some Arabian Nights uncommons.
- Arabian Nights is the smallest expansion, clocking in at just 78 cards.
- Arabian Nights is the only expansion based on a real-world setting
I go crazy for MtG history content and I'm surprised by how little of it is on YouTube or blogspace. There are a good number of people playing Old School and a handful of videos breaking down hidden Commander gems for old sets, but not a lot talking about the history of the game or competitive play.
I wasn't playing for another 2 years after this and Arabian Nights cards were already rare enough that they had a bit of a mystical quality when you did encounter them. I did own a Library of Alexandria for a bit. I'm fairly certain that my local shop bought a stolen collection from someone--it was a huge purchase that the owner was looking to recoup some money on ASAP, so he sold it to me for $150 (and threw in an AN City of Brass for $30 more) at a time when Library was about $250 or so. I wound up selling it while getting into modern a year or so later and made a couple hundred bucks of profit, but as we all know, it still ended up being pretty short-sighted.
The real-world mythology seeping into the game is weird, but I think I may like it better than the Greek or Egyptian-flavored brand of MtG from Theros and Amonkhet. The allusions are so on the nose that they might as well just be called Zeus and Horus and what-have-you. Magic has made me "smarter" in some silly ways (my vocabulary is artificially inflated by a lot of old playables), so it would be nice to actually feel like I'm learning something through interacting with the cards. The set Arabian Nights is responsible for much of my appreciation for the culture and its literature which likely wouldn't have developed otherwise.
I'm only halfway done with your blog post, so I'm gonna get back to it. Would love to read similar articles if you choose to cover more Magic stuff.
EDIT: You may have seen it in your research, but there's a great episode of Fireside with Peter Atkison where he discusses the early years of the game with Lisa Stevens (now with Paizo, I think?) and they talk about the card back at about 42 minutes in.
This is the one!
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This video is fantastic so far - thank you. I hadn't seen it. I plan on doing an article like this about all the expansions - at least all of them until I run out of steam (probably somewhere around Apocalypse 😅) so references like this will be a huge help. I also downloaded the early issues of Scrye and Duelist which are a trip in and of themselves - they'll also help.
I have written some other Magic stuff, including a deep dive trying to provide a more accurate count of how many total unique MTG cards actually exist:
How Many Total Magic: The Gathering Cards Are There?
It's just one game, Michael. How many cards could there be? 10?
paperwave.substack.com
I wrote a long read (3000-ish words) about the history of MTG's first expansion, Arabian Nights:
The History of Magic's Arabian Nights: the Game's First (and Weirdest) Expansion
Magic's first expansion is also its most wild. Find out why...
Some highlights:
- Garfield designed the set almost entirely by himself, in a very short period of time.
- Playtesters had almost no time. Fellow designers like Skaff Elias had just one week to suggest balance changes!
- Antiquities came out just 11 weeks after Arabian Nights. The set was only ever sold for about 2 months!
- It was sold before Unlimited came out, and was thus sold out before most of the country had ever seen MTG.
- As most fans know by now (But I'm mentioning it bacause it's so interesting if you didnt) - Arabian Nights almost had a completely different card back, a decision that was only reversed at the 11th hour.
- Some Arabian Nights commons are more rare than some Arabian Nights uncommons.
- Arabian Nights is the smallest expansion, clocking in at just 78 cards.
- Arabian Nights is the only expansion based on a real-world setting
Fun read! I love this stuff, MTG history is really interesting. Looking forward to reading your write ups on more sets!
My elementary school all seemed to get into Magic between February and April 1994, so almost all of our card pool was Unlimited, Revised, and Antiquities. That ended up with Arabian Nights having a bit of a mythical feel, since they were pretty much the only cards that no one had in their collection. Our LCS actually was selling boosters for $5 each, but the idea of paying $5 for 8 cards sounded insane to us 12 year olds. That mystique has remained through the years, I still get excited to pick up an AN card in a way that I don't feel for AQ or anything after.
I think the thing that impresses me most about AN is how progressive its design was so early. It completely redefined the possibilities of what a land could be, and also pretty much introduced the concept of creature efficiency as a deliberate design. For being such a tiny set, it had quite an enduring impact on the game. It's pretty amazing how long the AN creatures were the standard - it probably wasn't until Morphling in Urza's Saga that Juzam was finally surpassed.
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I got into Magic in 1994 - right around 4E, Fallen Empires - Homelands. Played up through Weatherlight at that time, before dipping out of the game (and obviously dipping back in over the years). Looking at the expansion list now, I stopped RIGHT at Tempest block, which couldn't possibly have been worse timing 😅
Anyway, by 94-95, at least for ~11-year-old me growing up in the Midwest, I don't think any of us had even HEARD of Arabian Nights. I guess I do remember one rich kid terrorizing the rest of us with Juzum Djinn, but I mostly remember his deck full of Legends. Every game was me holding on for dear life until he inevitably cast Nicol Bolas or some other ridiculous monster and then the game was over.
My experience was that ARN, ATQ... those sets didn't really exist in our conciousness. Legends was the first set to break through. It's crazy how much more overlap there was back then, too. I remember even as late as 96 when Mirage was new stores were still trying to unload their Fallen Empires boosters.
Anyway, by 94-95, at least for ~11-year-old me growing up in the Midwest, I don't think any of us had even HEARD of Arabian Nights. I guess I do remember one rich kid terrorizing the rest of us with Juzum Djinn, but I mostly remember his deck full of Legends. Every game was me holding on for dear life until he inevitably cast Nicol Bolas or some other ridiculous monster and then the game was over.
My experience was that ARN, ATQ... those sets didn't really exist in our conciousness. Legends was the first set to break through. It's crazy how much more overlap there was back then, too. I remember even as late as 96 when Mirage was new stores were still trying to unload their Fallen Empires boosters.
This is a cool point. I've been playing a Type 2 progression format with a group on Facebook where each year of standard gets shrunk to a month and it's been bizarre watching the growth of creature design at that pace. AN was the set where Garfield toyed with alternative costs to creatures, allowing them to be powerful and under-costed for the first time. It took until Visions for them to realize they could go the other direction--paying slightly more for Nektrataal and Man-o'-war to have spell effects attached to them.
Don't think I have ever been in the same room as a Juzam Djinn. There was never even a reason to think about how the card played (just a big, dumb attacker that sometimes sneak attacked you on turn 2) at the time. We just heard legends and knew that the card was scary. Then Phyrexian Scuta got printed as a largely over-hyped disappointment and the narrative shifted from "best creature ever" to "you kinda had to be there".
New Secret Lair Drop imminent. I think they usually go up around 11CST. Image also has Superdrop in its title so could see up to 6 of em.
Anyone running Juzam Djinn was also running 4x Dark Ritual so a turn 1 Juzam Djinn was extremely common.
Pre-edit: anyone running Black at all was running 4x Dark Ritual :)
Halloween or horror theme stuff seems like a given
New Secret Lair Drop imminent. I think they usually go up around 11CST. Image also has Superdrop in its title so could see up to 6 of em.
Yeah I've owned one Juzam that I splurged $140 on in 1999. Juzam was actually the second most valuable card in all of Magic at that time. It was definitely satisfying dropping him on turn 1 or 2, and he was very good, but not *that* much better than the Juggernaut he replaced. Deck would have improved more if I spent that money on a Jet instead. I think some of his legend and value is tied to the art and general coolness factor - he was just such a badass!
2 months and I'm still affected by a bug that permanently has me at 0 games 0 rank. No word from the devs, shameful.
That said I'm having fun with a scute swarm deck. The kinda stupid shit I like playing, soon as I had someone use that against me I had to make one.
bronze tier 0
saw some other people had this problem but no solutions, stuck at bronze rank 0 and no way to rank up. any updates to this problem?
feedback.wizards.com
That said I'm having fun with a scute swarm deck. The kinda stupid shit I like playing, soon as I had someone use that against me I had to make one.
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Woof, just watched the Prof's video on his Amazon boxes and Cheerist buying Magic is miserable now.
Edit
The video in question.
Edit
The video in question.
I'm honestly surprised the one box he opened was legit - it looked absolutely horrible, even if some of the other boxes that didn't get opened looked worse.
Haven't finished 'em yet, but the youtube algorithm recommended 'em, and I've since been enjoying a longform video/podcast of Gavin talking with Melissa Detora on design stories for the original commander 2011 series....which also has a sequel up since then.
(Also includes information such as the fact that Melissa Detora is going to be technical lead for Commander/casual and 'expanded universe' products moving now - which maybe is at least partially responsible for the newer precons 'finally' having somewhat decent land bases)
The 2011 one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzchA-QZuPc
And the follow up of Commander 2013, featuring Prossh, true-name nemesis, and Oloro (haven't gotten to this one yet) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX0iaFnKAcQ
B&R announcement: Historic bans and Arena-exclusive rebalances, no Standard bans until after Crimson Vow
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October 13, 2021, Banned and Restricted Announcement | Magic: The Gathering
Announcing Standard considerations and changes to Historic.
Standard:
No changes
We've been carefully monitoring the Standard metagame since the format rotation and release of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. As Innistrad: Midnight Hunt's Standard season winds down and we approach the release of Innistrad: Crimson Vow next month, we've been aware of some players' concerns about the impact of certain individual cards on metagame diversity, such as Alrund's Epiphany and Esika's Chariot. After reviewing MTG Arena metagame data and recent online events (including the World Championship), and in considering the upcoming release of Innistrad: Crimson Vow, we've decided not to make any changes at this time.
We'll consider changes to the Standard environment, if necessary, after evaluating Innistrad: Crimson Vow's impact on the metagame.
Historic:
Tibalt's Trickery is banned in Historic.
Memory Lapse is suspended in Historic.
Brainstorm is banned in Historic (from suspended).
Five digital-only cards are being rebalanced
More info in the article
standard continues to be shit. players lose. mtg finance wins
historic card alterations seem okay. memory lapse is 100% the correct ban. the card leads to unfair games, and it just makes me ignore all cards that cost more than 2 when i deckbuild
phyrexian tower should also be banned, but it's not played in 40% of the decks so they don't even notice it
historic card alterations seem okay. memory lapse is 100% the correct ban. the card leads to unfair games, and it just makes me ignore all cards that cost more than 2 when i deckbuild
phyrexian tower should also be banned, but it's not played in 40% of the decks so they don't even notice it
Very happy with the historic stuff. Still hate the perpetually mechanic, but really really dig the digital buff/nerfs. Its only a matter of time before its just regular practice for historic in general as they dont consider in a paper format. Im kinda fine with that, especially if theyre still working their way towards actually having other paper formats available eventually.
No standard changes are some straight BS tho. The idea that bans only need to revolve around insanely high win percentages just doesnt cut it unless you dont give two shits if your game is actually fun to play
No standard changes are some straight BS tho. The idea that bans only need to revolve around insanely high win percentages just doesnt cut it unless you dont give two shits if your game is actually fun to play
Secret Lair: Strange Things reveals start
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Secret Lair: Stranger Things will be fully revealed later today, but here are the first cards
Went with soldier and wizard for their types after all.
Friends forever is to partner as horsemanship is to flying. Unclear if each franchise that wants this will keep using Friends Forever, or if they'll make new ones each time.
Eleven is a bit weird in how it draws focus to her name, but it also isn't not a representation of her powers. She builds up power (cards) to cast spells, and it's easier for her if she has the help of her friends.
Went with soldier and wizard for their types after all.
Friends forever is to partner as horsemanship is to flying. Unclear if each franchise that wants this will keep using Friends Forever, or if they'll make new ones each time.
Eleven is a bit weird in how it draws focus to her name, but it also isn't not a representation of her powers. She builds up power (cards) to cast spells, and it's easier for her if she has the help of her friends.
Friends forever is at least an interesting limiting valve to not bringing for more 'broken' partner pairings - I imagine if they do more/other universes they'll invent new versions to avoid introducing too many partners that could break things more.
Interesting that 11 has to attack a la Jeleva, but without any real protection to keep her from getting blocked and killed outside of 5 toughness - I suppose the ability is strong, and that one of the other non-revealed cards might clear the way for her somehow.
Interesting that 11 has to attack a la Jeleva, but without any real protection to keep her from getting blocked and killed outside of 5 toughness - I suppose the ability is strong, and that one of the other non-revealed cards might clear the way for her somehow.
It's possible that "Friends forever" is just "Partner" but with a coat of paint to make it fit with the theme? Maybe?Secret Lair: Stranger Things will be fully revealed later today, but here are the first cards
Went with soldier and wizard for their types after all.
Friends forever is to partner as horsemanship is to flying. Unclear if each franchise that wants this will keep using Friends Forever, or if they'll make new ones each time.
Eleven is a bit weird in how it draws focus to her name, but it also isn't not a representation of her powers. She builds up power (cards) to cast spells, and it's easier for her if she has the help of her friends.
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Effects wise, Dustin is pretty bad, while Mike is pretty solid. Art wise, I always found fantasy art of real people super weird, and Mike isn't doing anything to change that.
Also, somewhat interesting article by IGN
As Magic: The Gathering Grows, Fans Aren't Sure What Its Future Holds - IGN
Wizards of the Coast talks about the future of Magic: The Gathering and Universes Beyond.
Biggest news is that the Professor for some reason thought a Wild West world would be ludicrous for Magic in the past.
No, the intention is to make sure you can't use them with Partner cards.
Is Selesneya reanimate-on-a-legendary-body new?
Obv green and white have both had it on creatures before, but I don't really remember it featuring in Selesneya, at least compared to golgari.
Obv green and white have both had it on creatures before, but I don't really remember it featuring in Selesneya, at least compared to golgari.
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All the new Secret Lair info is here
magic.wizards.com
Stranger Things Are Happening in the Secret Lair | Magic: The Gathering
Watch your head as you step into the latest strange, mind-melting drops from Secret Lair.
Stranger things seems pretty meh outside of 11, Jim (another way for Boros to 'draw', even if at a poor rate), and maaaaaybe the shadow in a tibalt 'play opponent's decks' type deck, but damn @ the other stuff.
Artifact Myroddin lands with nifty artwork, Monster Anatomy having Ilharg, Gishath, and Prot Hulk, and the halloween movie poster one having blasphemous act....the land one having sick art for good commander staples like Kessig, Vault, Gavony, and Slayer's Stronghold...along with some other dud(ish) ones.
tho Lol @ the demon one having Griselbrand - I get 'why', but considering it's banned in commander, gonna be a bum card in a lot of people's hands.
edit: I think the reveal stream also maybe indicated that they're possibly able to reprint TWD unique cards at some later point in time, now?
The Stranger things cards will have functional reprints as a one-of in 1 out of every 8 set packs in New Capenna.
Artifact Myroddin lands with nifty artwork, Monster Anatomy having Ilharg, Gishath, and Prot Hulk, and the halloween movie poster one having blasphemous act....the land one having sick art for good commander staples like Kessig, Vault, Gavony, and Slayer's Stronghold...along with some other dud(ish) ones.
tho Lol @ the demon one having Griselbrand - I get 'why', but considering it's banned in commander, gonna be a bum card in a lot of people's hands.
edit: I think the reveal stream also maybe indicated that they're possibly able to reprint TWD unique cards at some later point in time, now?
The Stranger things cards will have functional reprints as a one-of in 1 out of every 8 set packs in New Capenna.
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From an art perspective I like the two land secret lairs the most this time around. The artifact lands are the ones I'm drawn to the most but the financial value and playability would be super low for me. I'd like to think there would be a more valuable artifact lands throw in there as the extra but I'm not sure I'm willing to risk that's the case.
I also really like the Midnight Hunt land treatment so I'm a fan of that lair. All the other lairs are a bit too different for my liking. That and there's nothing too great value wise for Modern.
I also really like the Midnight Hunt land treatment so I'm a fan of that lair. All the other lairs are a bit too different for my liking. That and there's nothing too great value wise for Modern.
Someone on reddit suggested Darksteel Citadel as the 'bonus' card - which certainly makes sense, though it's value is basically nil, as are the rest of the pixel-art artifact lands outside of an art/collector sense.
I'm curious on what the hidden bonus card(s) for the 'monster anatomy one' would be - the Liliana/Halloween ones probably have another zombie, werewolf, or other 'classic horror' card, but there's a crapton of big-ass creatures and/or scary-sounding spells to put in there.
Ditto on the black/white lands - that's a good # of the 'semi-good' utility lands already there, not sure what else they'd sneak in for a bonus without going over the top.
The black/white lands is close-ish to the asking price, and and Monster Anatomy seems to be worth it, although I'm souring on the monster anatomy art after looking at it some more. Read the fine print is also good, if held up in value mostly by Razaketh.
I wish Liliana had been a better version in the pinup/poster set - ideally dreadhorde general, but anything other than Death's majesty would have been better value-wise.
This Secret lair overall seems much more 'theme' based rather than value-based, or more balanced between the two like the phyrexian-text praetors.
....Now that I think about it, will the functional Stranger things reprints still have 'friends forever', or at least, some other non-'partner' pairing?
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Very late summaries
magic.wizards.com
* A fun little story about Gisa and Wilhelt.
* Wilhelt, newly revived, raises an army and goes to woo Gisa. She isn't interested and their armies clash. He sends her a love letter, signed with his name, but having thought his name was Wilham, she gets offended that he'd dare claim she got his name wrong and eradicates his army. He retreats.
* Gisa, bored of Thraben, goes to move in with Geralf, to his horror.
magic.wizards.com
* This is a nice story about Liesa.
* A woman named Algli lost her family to monsters, and then a ghoulcaller reanimated them and she had to deal with that too. She joined up with a cult devoted to reviving the Buried Lord, but over time, their lack of success left just her, the leader, and one other person.
* Their last attempt to revive him seems to fail, so they separate. Algli stays at the summoning site, saddened.
* Liesa appears behind her, to Algli's surprise. She explains that the Buried Lord was successfully summoned, but he's a demon and he's hungry. She attempted to make deals with him in the past, and she suspects that's why she was revived when he was.
* Algli explains to her what happened since she died. Liesa thinks that even though her sisters turned on her, she's saddened by their loss (she doesn't care for Avacyn, however). She worried about how the reunion with Sigarda will go.
* They go into the woods and find the cult leader dead. Then they find the other woman in the clutches of the Buried Lord. Liesa asks for parley, but he eats the woman regardless.
* They fight and Liesa appears to kill him, but then he pops out of the ground and grabs Algli. In her panic, she starts chanting the spells the cult taught her, but they're all to make the Buried Lord stronger, so they don't help.
* However, when she entrusts her hope to Liesa, that gives her enough power to defeat the Buried One.
* Liesa realizes that she and the Buried One are bound together, so she can't kill him.
* Algli, as a tanner, offers to forge him into armor for her. She agrees.
The Dance of Undeath | MAGIC: THE GATHERING
Wilhelt wanted nothing more than the hand of glorious Lady Gisa, so he clawed his way back from the grave to win her over. Will she accept his proposal?
* A fun little story about Gisa and Wilhelt.
* Wilhelt, newly revived, raises an army and goes to woo Gisa. She isn't interested and their armies clash. He sends her a love letter, signed with his name, but having thought his name was Wilham, she gets offended that he'd dare claim she got his name wrong and eradicates his army. He retreats.
* Gisa, bored of Thraben, goes to move in with Geralf, to his horror.
The Dusk Reborn | MAGIC: THE GATHERING
Algli believed summoning a demon was the only way to protect herself, but the ritual goes wrong and Liesa, a fallen angel, appears instead.
* This is a nice story about Liesa.
* A woman named Algli lost her family to monsters, and then a ghoulcaller reanimated them and she had to deal with that too. She joined up with a cult devoted to reviving the Buried Lord, but over time, their lack of success left just her, the leader, and one other person.
* Their last attempt to revive him seems to fail, so they separate. Algli stays at the summoning site, saddened.
* Liesa appears behind her, to Algli's surprise. She explains that the Buried Lord was successfully summoned, but he's a demon and he's hungry. She attempted to make deals with him in the past, and she suspects that's why she was revived when he was.
* Algli explains to her what happened since she died. Liesa thinks that even though her sisters turned on her, she's saddened by their loss (she doesn't care for Avacyn, however). She worried about how the reunion with Sigarda will go.
* They go into the woods and find the cult leader dead. Then they find the other woman in the clutches of the Buried Lord. Liesa asks for parley, but he eats the woman regardless.
* They fight and Liesa appears to kill him, but then he pops out of the ground and grabs Algli. In her panic, she starts chanting the spells the cult taught her, but they're all to make the Buried Lord stronger, so they don't help.
* However, when she entrusts her hope to Liesa, that gives her enough power to defeat the Buried One.
* Liesa realizes that she and the Buried One are bound together, so she can't kill him.
* Algli, as a tanner, offers to forge him into armor for her. She agrees.
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Will the Wise's card art has been edited
Before
After
In the old version, Will's head blocking the letters formed the word "HOMO"
Before
After
In the old version, Will's head blocking the letters formed the word "HOMO"
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Mechanical Color Pie 2021 Changes
Mark Rosewater provides a list of the changes made between his Mechanical Color Pie 2017 article and today's 2021 version.
Mechanical Color Pie 2021 | Magic: The Gathering
Mark returns with a 2021 update of where card abilities fall within the color pie.
Most notable changes I saw. Putting my own thoughts in italics, since italicizing the pasted text is being oddly finicky.
Animating artifacts (Target/all non-creature artifact(s) you control becomes an artifact creature.)
Primary: Blue
Secondary: Green
Blue is the color most likely to turn a non-creature artifact into an artifact creature. Green is second most likely to do it.
Another goal of this change was to add abilities that had been left out previously, or ones that were new. In this case, animating artifacts goes all the back to Alpha. It was just left out of the original article. I decided to expand the sections on animating permanents. The 2017 version just listed animating lands.
This isn't really a change, but one that confused people. Turns out there was a green card for this as recently as Aether Revolt.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & STATUS: Banisher Priest
OLD:
Primary: White
Secondary: Blue, green
This is one of white's most efficient answers, especially in Limited. It is usually used on creatures but sometimes hits other permanents. The effect is always on a permanent, usually a creature or enchantment.We've used this effect in blue and green as an enters-the-battlefield trigger with the flavor that it's "eaten" the creature.
NEW:
Primary: White
This is one of white's most efficient answers, especially in Limited. It is usually used on creatures but sometimes hits other permanents. The effect is always on a permanent, usually a creature or enchantment.
This was one of the more controversial things in the original mechanical color pie article. I had wanted to let green have access to this ability (for example, I made a Big Bad Wolf card that originally used it Throne of Eldraine), so optimistically, I put it in the article. It turned out that it wasn't an overall popular idea and it was never added to green. Blue did have a card that did this (Colossal Whale), but we decided in the meeting that this just isn't something we want in blue. The end result is the ability is now solely in white.
~~~
REMOVE SECTION: Blocking extra creatures
Blocking extra creatures (This creature can block an additional N creatures each combat)
Primary: White and green
This ability used to be solely in white, but we added it to green because we felt green needed it for gameplay reasons. It's possible that as we do this more in green, we'll start doing it less in white.
This is an ability we've stopped using for various reasons, so I removed it from the article.
I'm pretty surprised they're straight up dropping additional blockers, after announcing they were adding it to green last time. I suppose it's just confusing to figure out during combat, especially with menace.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & STATUS: Can't block
OLD:
Primary: Black
Secondary: Red
For a long time we separated black from red by making black have the "can't block" drawback on its creatures and red have the "must attack" drawback on its creatures. Time has shown that the "can't block" drawback leads to better gameplay, so we've started letting red get it from time to time.
NEW:
Primary: Black and red
For a long time we separated black from red by making black have the "can't block" drawback on its creatures and red have the "must attack" drawback on its creatures. Time has shown that the "can't block" drawback leads to better gameplay, so we've started using it on red as much as black.
This change is an example of us drifting to what works better in gameplay. "Must attack" feels very red, but it just plays a lot worse than "can't block", so we've just starting using "can't block" a lot more in red, enough to move this to primary in red.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT: Card Draw
OLD:
Blue is the best at card drawing. It has the most of it and no restrictions. Black's card drawing must involve paying some other cost, most often life but sometimes sacrificing permanents. Green's card draw isusually tied to creatures but occasionally tied to land. White has a very narrow band of card drawing where it's focused on having to use a specific strategy (like say having a deck full of Equipment). All colors get cantrips (spells that draw you a single card). Red doesn't get any card advantage, with two exceptions—impulsive draw and wheeling. (See impulsive draw and "wheeling.")
NEW:
Blue is the best at card drawing. It has the most of it and no restrictions. Black's card drawing must involve paying some other cost, most often life but sometimes sacrificing permanents. Green's card draw is tied to creatures. In the past we've also connected it to land, but that ended up making green card draw a little too much like blue, so we've pulled back from that. All colors get cantrips (spells that draw you a single card). Blue gets the best cantrip spells, white gets the best cantrips smaller creatures and green gets the best cantrip larger creatures. While white is still tertiary at card drawing, we have added some new abilities for white to draw cards. The big limitation is that white tends to draw over time rather than all at once, so it has a once per turn limit on card drawing (multiplayer does allow white on occasion to draw multiple cards tied to how many opponents a player has). Other than cantrips, red only draws cards with three exceptions — impulsive draw, "punisher" effects, and wheeling. (See impulsive draw, "punisher" effects, and "wheeling.")
The popularity of the Commander format has caused us to do a lot of rethinking about how each color draws cards (as card flow is even more important in that format). Blue and black have stayed mainly the same. We've dialed down green card drawing a little (it's still secondary, but in more ways that mirror green's style of play and no longer tied to lands, just creatures), upped red a little (impulsive draw has a higher as-fan than it used to), and defined how exactly white was going to draw.
Looks like they're going to differentiate cantrip creatures as white getting the small ones and green getting the big ones. The last small green cantrip creature was Llanowar Visionary.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & ADD SUBSECTION: Creature destruction, single creature
OLD:
Destroy target creature, its controller makes a token is now 100% out of blue.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & STATUS: "Enchantress" ability
OLD:
Primary: White
Secondary:Green
This ability started in Limited Edition (Alpha) on Verduran Enchantress, a green card. It stayed in green for many years, but has drifted toward white as part of us experimenting with white draw in narrow deck themes. The ability has still done a bit in green.
NEW:
Primary: White and Green
This ability started in Limited Edition (Alpha) on Verduran Enchantress, a green card. It has bounced back and forth between green and white, and now can be done by either. In white, it has the limitation of only drawing one card per turn as that's a new rule for white card drawing. The best ones are probably going to appear in white and green.
This ability has bounced back and forth between white and green. We finally decided that each can have it but tilted toward how their color does it.
It seems like what this is really trying to say is that enchantress effects will generally be green-white gold rather than any one color.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT AND STATUS: Flash
OLD:
Flash
Primary: Blue
Secondary: Green
Tertiary:White, black, and red
Everyone gets some access to flash. Blue gets it the most as it plays into the color's reactive play style. Green gets it as one of its versions of creature destruction. White, black, and red get flash when they functionally need it to get an effect to work, most often with reactive enters-the-battlefield effects.
NEW:
Flash
Primary: Blue
Secondary: White, black, and green
Tertiary: Red
Everyone gets some access to flash. Blue gets it the most as it plays into the color's reactive play style. In the last few years, we made it secondary in white and black, and kept it secondary in green. White tends to get the small cheap and mid-size defensive creatures, black gets creatures that can surprise kill you, often with higher power than toughness, and green gets bigger creatures. Red can get flash when it functionally needs it to get an effect to work, most often with reactive enters-the-battlefield effects.
This is another evergreen keyword change since 2017. We added flash as secondary in both white and black. We talked about removing it from green, but finally decided that it's more a useful tool than a mechanic in a traditional sense and each color could use it on different kinds of creatures (and occasionally other card types).
This has been the case for a few sets, but posting in case people didn't notice.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT: Protection
OLD:
Protection
Primary: White
Tertiary: Blue, black, red, and green
Protection has dropped from evergreen status (meaning it shows up in most sets) to deciduous status (we can use it when we need it), but it still will show up from time to time. It's mostly a white ability that can show up in other colors, usually with protection from something the color dislikes (an enemy color, artifacts for green, etc.)
NEW:
Protection
Primary: White
Tertiary: Blue, black, red, and green
Protection has changed back from deciduous status back to evergreen status, but it doesn't show up in every set. It's mostly a white ability that can show up in other colors, usually with protection from something the color dislikes (an enemy color, artifacts for green, etc.)
Protection was evergreen. Then it became deciduous. Then it became evergreen again, but not used every set. I think protection just doesn't like committing to a label.
Posting more because this indicates that there isn't going to be another waffle regarding this in the near future.
~~~
REMOVE SUBSECTION: Putting cards from hand onto battlefield
Putting cards from hand onto the battlefield
Primary: Green
This isn't an effect we use all that often, but it's green when we use it.
I removed this as we just don't use it any more.
RIP Elvish Piper
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & STATUS: "Reanimation"
OLD:
Primary: Black
Secondary:White, red, and green
Tertiary: Blue
Black is the best at bringing the dead back to life. It has no real restrictions on what it can bring back. White tends to reanimate smaller creatures, usually with a converted mana cost of 2 or less. It will occasionally reanimate a creature type that is mostly white (things like Angels or Humans). Red has Phoenixes. Green has creatures that can bring themselves back from the graveyard. Both black and white will sometimes reanimate a swath of creatures all at once. Blue, on rare occasion, can make a copy of a creature out of the graveyard.
NEW:
Primary: White and black
Secondary: Red, and green
Black is the best at bringing the dead back to life. It has no real restrictions on what it can bring back. White tends to reanimate smaller creatures, usually with a converted mana cost of 2 or less, but we've started letting white bring back larger creatures on occasion. Red has Phoenixes. Green has creatures that can bring themselves back from the graveyard. Both black and white will sometimes reanimate a swath of creatures all at once.
We've started letting white have more reanimation effects, including ones allowing it to get bigger creatures. In 2017, I included blue thinking maybe we'd let blue copy dead creatures, but it's not something we've chosen to do, so I removed blue.
This is something we've been seeing already, but confirmed that white is getting more general reanimation.
~~~
ADD NEW SUBSECTION
"Reanimate" permanent (Return a permanent card from a graveyard to the battlefield.)
Primary: White
White is the one color that can reanimate any permanent type, so it gets to reanimate "target permanent." It can also reanimate "target artifact," "target enchantment," or "target planeswalker." It doesn't specifically get "target land," but can do so when it's "target permanent."
This isn't an ability we used to do but have started letting white have access to.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT: "Transformation"
OLD:
Primary: Blue
Transformation can be temporary, through a one-shot spell that lasts for the turn, or more permanent, usually through an Aura. It overwrites the base power and toughness of the creature. This ability used to be in both blue and white, but we decided to focus it in blue.
NEW:
Primary: Blue
Transformation can be temporary, through a one-shot spell that lasts for the turn, or more permanent, usually through an Aura. It overwrites the base power and toughness of the creature. This ability used to be in both blue and white, but we decided to focus it in blue. Sometimes blue can overwrite what the creature is currently doing and just make it the "transformed" creature. The one thing that we've taken from blue is destroying or exiling a creature and then giving the controller of that creature a creature token as a means of flavoring transformation. That is now a white ability flavored as giving compensation for destroying/exiling the creature. This means all of blue's transformation abilities are auras or limited effects on spells or activations.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, we've taken away blue's ability to destroy creatures and then give its controller a creature token as a means of representing transformation. That's solely a white ability now.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & LABELS: "Tutoring"
OLD:
Interesting that red is getting instant/sorcery tutors.
~~~
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & LABEL: Vigilance
OLD:
Primary: White
Secondary: Green
White tends to get this on creatures where the power is equal to or less than the toughness, and seldom with a power greater than 3. Green tends to get this ability on larger creatures to differentiate it from white.
NEW:
Primary: White
Secondary: Blue and green
White tends to get this on creatures where the power is equal to or less than the toughness, and seldom with a power greater than 3. Green tends to get this ability on larger creatures to differentiate it from white. We've recently decided to also make blue secondary in vigilance because we were looking for more creature abilities to use in blue. We're still feeling out what kind of blue creatures will get vigilance.
This another of our recent big changes, and something that hasn't happened on printed cards yet. Play design came to the Council of Colors saying they wanted the addition of vigilance to help in making limited relevant blue creatures, so we added it as a secondary in blue. We talked about removing vigilance from green but realized that there were needs for it in green, so we let both blue and green be secondary. We're still figuring out how exactly we're going to differentiate it in the various colors.
This is a pretty significant one... though also not that significant, lol. I could see blue vigilance creatures with tap activated abilities.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & LABEL: "Wheeling"
OLD:
Primary:Blue and red
There's a big debate in R&D as to whether this is supposed to be a red ability. It obviously goes all the way back to Limited Edition (Alpha) with Wheel of Fortune, but it's a raw form of card advantage that's supposed to be something red is bad at. For now, it stays in red's(and blue's) part of the color pie.
NEW:
Primary: Red
There's a big debate in R&D as to whether this is supposed to be a red ability. It obviously goes all the way back to Limited Edition (Alpha) with Wheel of Fortune, but it's a raw form of card advantage that's supposed to be something red is bad at. For now, it stays in red's part of the color pie.
We decided that we do this infrequently enough that it could just be a red thing. We felt blue didn't need it nearly as bad a red did.
They were iffy on red keeping this four years ago, and looks like it's still hanging in there.
~~~
Treasure creation (artifact tokens with "T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.")
Primary: Red
Secondary: Black and green
Tertiary: Blue
As the color of temporary mana, red is best at treasure creation. Black and green can both make treasure, but black tends to usually require some additional cost. Green historically has not had a lot of treasure making cards, but it's squarely in pie for green to do so. For flavor reasons, like Pirates, blue occasionally creates Treasure.
This is another deciduous thing that I questioned whether to include, but as we've been using it a lot, I decided to include it.
There was some talk before about white making treasures as a tax, but I suppose they aren't going through with that.
Primary: Blue
Secondary: Green
Blue is the color most likely to turn a non-creature artifact into an artifact creature. Green is second most likely to do it.
Another goal of this change was to add abilities that had been left out previously, or ones that were new. In this case, animating artifacts goes all the back to Alpha. It was just left out of the original article. I decided to expand the sections on animating permanents. The 2017 version just listed animating lands.
This isn't really a change, but one that confused people. Turns out there was a green card for this as recently as Aether Revolt.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & STATUS: Banisher Priest
OLD:
Primary: White
This is one of white's most efficient answers, especially in Limited. It is usually used on creatures but sometimes hits other permanents. The effect is always on a permanent, usually a creature or enchantment.
NEW:
Primary: White
This is one of white's most efficient answers, especially in Limited. It is usually used on creatures but sometimes hits other permanents. The effect is always on a permanent, usually a creature or enchantment.
This was one of the more controversial things in the original mechanical color pie article. I had wanted to let green have access to this ability (for example, I made a Big Bad Wolf card that originally used it Throne of Eldraine), so optimistically, I put it in the article. It turned out that it wasn't an overall popular idea and it was never added to green. Blue did have a card that did this (Colossal Whale), but we decided in the meeting that this just isn't something we want in blue. The end result is the ability is now solely in white.
~~~
REMOVE SECTION: Blocking extra creatures
This ability used to be solely in white, but we added it to green because we felt green needed it for gameplay reasons. It's possible that as we do this more in green, we'll start doing it less in white.
This is an ability we've stopped using for various reasons, so I removed it from the article.
I'm pretty surprised they're straight up dropping additional blockers, after announcing they were adding it to green last time. I suppose it's just confusing to figure out during combat, especially with menace.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & STATUS: Can't block
OLD:
Primary: Black
For a long time we separated black from red by making black have the "can't block" drawback on its creatures and red have the "must attack" drawback on its creatures. Time has shown that the "can't block" drawback leads to better gameplay, so we've started letting red get it from time to time.
NEW:
Primary: Black and red
For a long time we separated black from red by making black have the "can't block" drawback on its creatures and red have the "must attack" drawback on its creatures. Time has shown that the "can't block" drawback leads to better gameplay, so we've started using it on red as much as black.
This change is an example of us drifting to what works better in gameplay. "Must attack" feels very red, but it just plays a lot worse than "can't block", so we've just starting using "can't block" a lot more in red, enough to move this to primary in red.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT: Card Draw
OLD:
Blue is the best at card drawing. It has the most of it and no restrictions. Black's card drawing must involve paying some other cost, most often life but sometimes sacrificing permanents. Green's card draw is
NEW:
Blue is the best at card drawing. It has the most of it and no restrictions. Black's card drawing must involve paying some other cost, most often life but sometimes sacrificing permanents. Green's card draw is tied to creatures. In the past we've also connected it to land, but that ended up making green card draw a little too much like blue, so we've pulled back from that. All colors get cantrips (spells that draw you a single card). Blue gets the best cantrip spells, white gets the best cantrips smaller creatures and green gets the best cantrip larger creatures. While white is still tertiary at card drawing, we have added some new abilities for white to draw cards. The big limitation is that white tends to draw over time rather than all at once, so it has a once per turn limit on card drawing (multiplayer does allow white on occasion to draw multiple cards tied to how many opponents a player has). Other than cantrips, red only draws cards with three exceptions — impulsive draw, "punisher" effects, and wheeling. (See impulsive draw, "punisher" effects, and "wheeling.")
The popularity of the Commander format has caused us to do a lot of rethinking about how each color draws cards (as card flow is even more important in that format). Blue and black have stayed mainly the same. We've dialed down green card drawing a little (it's still secondary, but in more ways that mirror green's style of play and no longer tied to lands, just creatures), upped red a little (impulsive draw has a higher as-fan than it used to), and defined how exactly white was going to draw.
Looks like they're going to differentiate cantrip creatures as white getting the small ones and green getting the big ones. The last small green cantrip creature was Llanowar Visionary.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & ADD SUBSECTION: Creature destruction, single creature
OLD:
- Destroy target creature.
Primary: Black
Black is king of creature destruction and is the one color that can kill regardless of circumstance.
- Destroy target creature with power 4 or greater.
As champion of the little guy, white will also destroy large creatures.
- Destroy target creature.
Primary: Black
Secondary: White
Black is king of creature destruction and is the one color that can kill regardless of circumstance. White can kill a single creature, but usually at a higher cost. Sometimes in both white and black this spell exiles the creature instead of destroying it.
- Destroy target creature with power 3 or greater.
As champion of the little guy, white will also destroy large creatures. We've moved the floor of the ability from power 4 to power 3.
- Destroy target creature. It's controller gets compensation.
Primary: White
This ability used to be in white and blue (flavored as transformation in blue), but it's now just a white ability.
Destroy target creature, its controller makes a token is now 100% out of blue.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & STATUS: "Enchantress" ability
OLD:
Primary: White
Secondary:
This ability started in Limited Edition (Alpha) on Verduran Enchantress, a green card. It stayed in green for many years, but has drifted toward white as part of us experimenting with white draw in narrow deck themes. The ability has still done a bit in green.
NEW:
Primary: White and Green
This ability started in Limited Edition (Alpha) on Verduran Enchantress, a green card. It has bounced back and forth between green and white, and now can be done by either. In white, it has the limitation of only drawing one card per turn as that's a new rule for white card drawing. The best ones are probably going to appear in white and green.
This ability has bounced back and forth between white and green. We finally decided that each can have it but tilted toward how their color does it.
It seems like what this is really trying to say is that enchantress effects will generally be green-white gold rather than any one color.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT AND STATUS: Flash
OLD:
Flash
Primary: Blue
Secondary: Green
Tertiary:
Everyone gets some access to flash. Blue gets it the most as it plays into the color's reactive play style. Green gets it as one of its versions of creature destruction. White, black, and red get flash when they functionally need it to get an effect to work, most often with reactive enters-the-battlefield effects.
NEW:
Flash
Primary: Blue
Secondary: White, black, and green
Tertiary: Red
Everyone gets some access to flash. Blue gets it the most as it plays into the color's reactive play style. In the last few years, we made it secondary in white and black, and kept it secondary in green. White tends to get the small cheap and mid-size defensive creatures, black gets creatures that can surprise kill you, often with higher power than toughness, and green gets bigger creatures. Red can get flash when it functionally needs it to get an effect to work, most often with reactive enters-the-battlefield effects.
This is another evergreen keyword change since 2017. We added flash as secondary in both white and black. We talked about removing it from green, but finally decided that it's more a useful tool than a mechanic in a traditional sense and each color could use it on different kinds of creatures (and occasionally other card types).
This has been the case for a few sets, but posting in case people didn't notice.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT: Protection
OLD:
Protection
Primary: White
Tertiary: Blue, black, red, and green
NEW:
Protection
Primary: White
Tertiary: Blue, black, red, and green
Protection has changed back from deciduous status back to evergreen status, but it doesn't show up in every set. It's mostly a white ability that can show up in other colors, usually with protection from something the color dislikes (an enemy color, artifacts for green, etc.)
Protection was evergreen. Then it became deciduous. Then it became evergreen again, but not used every set. I think protection just doesn't like committing to a label.
Posting more because this indicates that there isn't going to be another waffle regarding this in the near future.
~~~
REMOVE SUBSECTION: Putting cards from hand onto battlefield
This isn't an effect we use all that often, but it's green when we use it.
I removed this as we just don't use it any more.
RIP Elvish Piper
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & STATUS: "Reanimation"
OLD:
Primary: Black
Secondary:
Black is the best at bringing the dead back to life. It has no real restrictions on what it can bring back. White tends to reanimate smaller creatures, usually with a converted mana cost of 2 or less. It will occasionally reanimate a creature type that is mostly white (things like Angels or Humans). Red has Phoenixes. Green has creatures that can bring themselves back from the graveyard. Both black and white will sometimes reanimate a swath of creatures all at once. Blue, on rare occasion, can make a copy of a creature out of the graveyard.
NEW:
Primary: White and black
Secondary: Red, and green
Black is the best at bringing the dead back to life. It has no real restrictions on what it can bring back. White tends to reanimate smaller creatures, usually with a converted mana cost of 2 or less, but we've started letting white bring back larger creatures on occasion. Red has Phoenixes. Green has creatures that can bring themselves back from the graveyard. Both black and white will sometimes reanimate a swath of creatures all at once.
We've started letting white have more reanimation effects, including ones allowing it to get bigger creatures. In 2017, I included blue thinking maybe we'd let blue copy dead creatures, but it's not something we've chosen to do, so I removed blue.
This is something we've been seeing already, but confirmed that white is getting more general reanimation.
~~~
ADD NEW SUBSECTION
"Reanimate" permanent (Return a permanent card from a graveyard to the battlefield.)
Primary: White
White is the one color that can reanimate any permanent type, so it gets to reanimate "target permanent." It can also reanimate "target artifact," "target enchantment," or "target planeswalker." It doesn't specifically get "target land," but can do so when it's "target permanent."
This isn't an ability we used to do but have started letting white have access to.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT: "Transformation"
OLD:
Primary: Blue
Transformation can be temporary, through a one-shot spell that lasts for the turn, or more permanent, usually through an Aura. It overwrites the base power and toughness of the creature. This ability used to be in both blue and white, but we decided to focus it in blue.
NEW:
Primary: Blue
Transformation can be temporary, through a one-shot spell that lasts for the turn, or more permanent, usually through an Aura. It overwrites the base power and toughness of the creature. This ability used to be in both blue and white, but we decided to focus it in blue. Sometimes blue can overwrite what the creature is currently doing and just make it the "transformed" creature. The one thing that we've taken from blue is destroying or exiling a creature and then giving the controller of that creature a creature token as a means of flavoring transformation. That is now a white ability flavored as giving compensation for destroying/exiling the creature. This means all of blue's transformation abilities are auras or limited effects on spells or activations.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, we've taken away blue's ability to destroy creatures and then give its controller a creature token as a means of representing transformation. That's solely a white ability now.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & LABELS: "Tutoring"
OLD:
- "Tutor" for an instant or sorcery.
Primary: Blue
When tutoring, the two spell types are often put together and blue seeks them out.
[...]
- "Tutor" for an instant or sorcery.
Primary: Blue
Secondary: Red
When tutoring, the two spell types are often put together and blue seeks them out. We occasionally let red search out red instants and sorceries (usually to get things like direct damage spells).
Interesting that red is getting instant/sorcery tutors.
~~~
- "Tutor" for a planeswalker.
Primary: White
White is the color that cares the most about planeswalkers, so it's the color that can tutor for them.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & LABEL: Vigilance
OLD:
Primary: White
Secondary: Green
White tends to get this on creatures where the power is equal to or less than the toughness, and seldom with a power greater than 3. Green tends to get this ability on larger creatures to differentiate it from white.
NEW:
Primary: White
Secondary: Blue and green
White tends to get this on creatures where the power is equal to or less than the toughness, and seldom with a power greater than 3. Green tends to get this ability on larger creatures to differentiate it from white. We've recently decided to also make blue secondary in vigilance because we were looking for more creature abilities to use in blue. We're still feeling out what kind of blue creatures will get vigilance.
This another of our recent big changes, and something that hasn't happened on printed cards yet. Play design came to the Council of Colors saying they wanted the addition of vigilance to help in making limited relevant blue creatures, so we added it as a secondary in blue. We talked about removing vigilance from green but realized that there were needs for it in green, so we let both blue and green be secondary. We're still figuring out how exactly we're going to differentiate it in the various colors.
This is a pretty significant one... though also not that significant, lol. I could see blue vigilance creatures with tap activated abilities.
~~~
CHANGE TEXT & LABEL: "Wheeling"
OLD:
Primary:
There's a big debate in R&D as to whether this is supposed to be a red ability. It obviously goes all the way back to Limited Edition (Alpha) with Wheel of Fortune, but it's a raw form of card advantage that's supposed to be something red is bad at. For now, it stays in red's
NEW:
Primary: Red
There's a big debate in R&D as to whether this is supposed to be a red ability. It obviously goes all the way back to Limited Edition (Alpha) with Wheel of Fortune, but it's a raw form of card advantage that's supposed to be something red is bad at. For now, it stays in red's part of the color pie.
We decided that we do this infrequently enough that it could just be a red thing. We felt blue didn't need it nearly as bad a red did.
They were iffy on red keeping this four years ago, and looks like it's still hanging in there.
~~~
Treasure creation (artifact tokens with "T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.")
Primary: Red
Secondary: Black and green
Tertiary: Blue
As the color of temporary mana, red is best at treasure creation. Black and green can both make treasure, but black tends to usually require some additional cost. Green historically has not had a lot of treasure making cards, but it's squarely in pie for green to do so. For flavor reasons, like Pirates, blue occasionally creates Treasure.
This is another deciduous thing that I questioned whether to include, but as we've been using it a lot, I decided to include it.
There was some talk before about white making treasures as a tax, but I suppose they aren't going through with that.
Secret Lair: Extra Life 2021
New Extra Life Secret Lair revealed
magic.wizards.com
We wrangled a group of extremely talented children and asked them to draw us their take on iconic Magic creatures, like Mulldrifter and Craterhoof Behemoth. We took those young Picassos' masterpieces and handed them over to all-star artists Lars Grant-West, Chris Rahn, and Magali Villeneuve to bring those drawings further to life. You get two copies of each card in the drop—one with the kid's art, and the other with the professional artist's interpretation. We're not gonna lie, it's super cute. The flavor text comes from conversations with the kids, too! So, do some good and get multiple copies of some awesome cards. Support Extra Life today!
Contents:
Join Wizards of the Coast for Extra Life 2021 | MAGIC: THE GATHERING
Raise money for charity and support Wizards of the Coast's Extra Life 2021 campaign!
We wrangled a group of extremely talented children and asked them to draw us their take on iconic Magic creatures, like Mulldrifter and Craterhoof Behemoth. We took those young Picassos' masterpieces and handed them over to all-star artists Lars Grant-West, Chris Rahn, and Magali Villeneuve to bring those drawings further to life. You get two copies of each card in the drop—one with the kid's art, and the other with the professional artist's interpretation. We're not gonna lie, it's super cute. The flavor text comes from conversations with the kids, too! So, do some good and get multiple copies of some awesome cards. Support Extra Life today!
Contents:
- 1x Mulldrifter by Aliya, age 5 ½
- 1x Mulldrifter by Magali Villeneuve, age 41
- 1x Craterhoof Behemoth by Kira, age 5 ½
- 1x Craterhoof Behemoth by Lars Grant-West, age 52
- 1x Metalwork Colossus by Hyan Tran, age 6
- 1x Metalwork Colossus by Chris Rahn, age 36
That is possibly the weirdest art for Craterhoof I've seen.....but I'll take a variant that isn't 70 dollars in a heartbeat.
Mulldrifter looks pretty cute tho - it does seem more 'like' the OG variant, tho.
Mulldrifter looks pretty cute tho - it does seem more 'like' the OG variant, tho.
- Status