Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #1042: Costless Artifacts, Part 2

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

This is part two of a two-part series where I talk about zero-mana artifacts.

I'm not pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time to drive to work at Home Edition. Okay, last time I started talking about zero-cost artifacts. There were 44 of them. I talked about 21 of them. So we have 23 more to talk about. So let's hop to it and talk more about the design of zero-cost artifacts. Okay, so we've made it all the way up to, what is this? This is Stronghold. Mox Diamond. Okayhold. Mox Diamond. Okay, so Mox Diamond costs zero. Oh, as a reminder for those that didn't listen to my last podcast, I'm reading them as they were printed,

just because I find it entertaining to hear as they were printed. So, Artifact. When Mox Diamond comes into play, well, it used to be Enter the Battlefield, it comes into play, choose and discard a land card or sacrifice Mox Diamond. Tap. Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Play this ability as a mana source. Okay, so what we see now is our first attempt to make... I guess we made Lion's Eye Diamond and Lotus Petal, which were us trying to make different versions of a Black Lotus.

Mox Diamond is the first time we tried to redo the Moxes. And the lesson here, it's always the same lesson, zero cost things that provide mana are just good. Mox Diamond ends up being very good. So when we try it this time, we're saying, okay, we're going to make you discard a land card,

right? So you have to be able to discard a land. And so, okay, that's you know, it's not just this one card, it costs two cards. One of which able to discard a land. And so, okay, that's, you know, it's not just this one card. It costs two cards, one of which has to be a land. And I'm like, okay, so that's, you know,

it's not just the moxes of old. You know, it's a real cost. You have to discard a land. Well, turn one, when you have a land, you have some land in your hand. And this provides mana. So losing the land so you can get the mana, you're not, you know...

Anyway, the long, short story of it is we were trying very hard to make something that we thought was, you know, like a fixed Mox. And every time we tried to make a fixed Mox, some of the later ones are a little bit better, but Mox Diamond is just really good. So lots of German play.

We just sort of added another good Mox to the mix. I will say that I don't think it's as good as the original Moxes. It's good. It's not as good. Although it is, the nice thing about Mox Diamond is we let you tap for any color. So there's some flexibility with Mox Diamond. Anyway, a very good card. Next up, Spellbook.

So Spellbook was from Stronghold. Oh, not Stronghold, from Exodus. Sorry, from Exodus. So Spellbook costs zero. It's an artifact. Skip your discard phase. So Spellbook came about because there was a card in Magic,

in Alpha, called Library of Leng that Richard had made. So Library of Leng that Richard had made. So Library of Leng says, cost one, you have no minimum hand size. If an effect causes you to discard a card, discard it,

but you may put it on top of your library instead of your graveyard. So Library of Leng was a really cool card. And the whole, if you discard it, you put it on top of your library, like we wanted to make a clean version of that. And so the idea was,

Spellbook was just a clean version of Library Lang. A lot of people liked Library Lang. It wasn't powerful, but it was fun, and people liked it. So we decided to just make it clean. It's just a clean version of Library Lang. We took off the sort of complicated extra text. We said, look, you don't have to discard anymore.

And then, because we removed the other stuff, we thought we could reduce it down to zero. So anyway, it's a nice clean effect. I think spell... I mean, I don't know when and where spellbook's been used although I think it gets used every once in a while in decks where they want to fill up their hand and don't want to have to discard things.

It hasn't seen a lot of play. But anyway, it's a nice clean... I like spellbook from a design standpoint. It's just a nice clean card. Okay, next up, we get to Unglued. So Unglued had four cards that cost zero mana. So one of the themes you'll

see is, so we are halfway through all the zero-cost cards, and you'll notice, we're still in early magic. We're in Unglued. Unglued came out in 1998. So the fact that the vast majority of zero-cost cards are in the early, early parts of Magic shows that it's something dangerous we have to be careful with.

Not that there isn't designs, and we still do make zero-cost cards. We make less than we used to, and we have to be careful with them. And we've been burned a bunch of times, so we've learned to be very careful with zero-cost cards. Anyway, okay. Unglue did four of them. First up was Ashnod's Coupon. It costs zero. Artifact, obviously. Unglued did four of them. First up was Ashnod's Coupon.

It costs zero. Artifact, obviously. Tap. Sacrifice Ashnod's Coupon. Target player gets you target drink. And then it has errata literally put on it that says errata. You pay any cost for the drink. So Ashnod's Coupon has become... It's one of the most popular Unglued cards

just because if you're having fun and you're goofing around and you're not taking your magic super seriously, this is a fun card to include. And I've heard many, many stories of people being forced to get drinks and getting all sorts of different drinks. I've had to make weird rulings about this

card. Like, for example, there's ways to write out the errata. And so, like, oh, if I get rid of the errata, do they have to pay for the drink? And the answer is, well, they're supposed to write out the errata. And so, like, oh, if I get rid of the errata, do they have to pay for the drink? And the answer is, well, they're supposed to pay for the drink, but they can just quit the game, and then they don't have to pay for the drink.

But anyway, actually, that's cool. We did make, when Unhinged came out, we did an Arena League version of the card in foil that is very, very rare. The funny story is I was visiting Card Kingdom is a place that has cards, and we were visiting their, they run

a bunch of game stores here. So they brought us up to their warehouse to show all the cards they had, and they said name any card, and we can produce it. And I said, okay any card and we can produce it. And I said, okay. The foil promo version of Astronaut's Coupon. They're like, we do not have that. So, anyway.

This is a fun card. It's all a lot of fun play. And I'm happy I made it. It definitely has brought lots of joy to lots of people. Okay, Blacker Lotus. Blacker Lotus, cost zero, artifact. Tap, tear Blacker Lotus. Blacker Lotus costs zero. Artifact. Tap. Tear Blacker Lotus into pieces.

Add four mana of any color to your mana pool. Play this ability as a mana source. Remove the pieces from the game afterwards. Okay. So, my favorite story. So, Blacker Lotus was us making fun of Black Lotus. The idea is it's even better than Black Lotus. You get four mana, but you literally only get to use it once.

You have to rip it up to use it. So we did a guidebook study, a market research on Unglude, and the two cards that are most hated were Blacker Lotus and a card called Chaos Confetti. Chaos Confetti, you rip it up and sprinkle it, and every card you hit gets destroyed. It's a riff on the urban legend of Chaos Orb.

Anyway, we get back the data and the people who crunched the data, who at the time were external, now I think market research is internal, but anyway, the people came in and said, okay, we've looked at all the data, these are the two most disliked cards, but we've looked at names

and art and we can't find any correlate on why these are the two most disliked cards. And I'm like, did you read them? These are the two cards you rip up. Maybe people don't like ripping up cards. So we learned that lesson. We no longer make cards that rip up.

Although I think there's one more card that actually gets ripped up. Oh, did it get printed? It did not get printed. I did make a card in, what it get printed? It did not get printed. In, um, I did make a card, uh, in, um, what was it called? Uh, it was a card in the Unglue 2 that didn't get published. I think it was called, like, Iron Man. Um, and there was a format called Iron Man Magic, that whenever cards die, you ripped them up.

And so Iron Man Magic, um, I think you ripped it up when it died. Anyway, I was making a rip for that. But we didn't actually ever print any more rip-up cards. I think I made that, and then who knows if that actually would have ever come out. But I didn't design it, because it was funny. But I probably would not have printed that card. Anyway, Blacker Lotus

is obviously bonkers broken, although you can only use it once. The funny thing is, I was the first person to ever rip up a Blacker Lotus. When we first got the cards off the line and we were doing a playtest with it, I got Blacker Lotus, and I use it once. The funny thing is, I was the first person to ever rip up a Blacker Lotus when we first got the cards off a line and we were doing a playtest with it. I got Blacker Lotus, and I ripped it up, and I won my game.

I don't know how many Blacker Lotuses have been ripped up. Some. But anyway, it is a weird card. Okay, next, Jack in the Mox. Zero cost artifact. Tap, roll a six-sided die for Jack in the Mox. On a one, sacrifice Jack in the Mox. Zero cost artifact. Tap. Roll a six-sided die for Jack in the Mox. On a one, sacrifice Jack in the Mox and lose five life. Otherwise, Jack in the Mox has one of the

following effects. For two, add white. For three, add blue. For four, add black. For five, add red. For six, add green. So I was trying to make a Mox variant, and the whole idea of this is you didn't know what color you were going to get. But because I thought Moxes were so strong, I added this

if you roll a 1, you lose it and you lose 5 life. Goodness gracious! I think this does see a little bit of play in, well, it's an uncard, so you have to be playing uncards. But I think there are people who play Crux of the Thumb that lets you

roll 2 dice. So if you can roll 2 dice, you have to roll two ones. So it's a one out of 36 chances gets destroyed. So in the right deck where you can sort of offset the bad roll, it's a mox. In RetroVec, it's sort of funny. I think I overshot a little bit in how negative the thing was. One of the lessons we got from the market research was

players did not like die-rolling cards in which the bad things happened. They didn't mind if nothing happened. Like, if one was, you get no mana. Maybe the card was too good. If one was just, you get no mana. So, like, five out of six times you get mana, but one out of six you don't get mana. Anyway,

this card is... I see some play just because it is still a Mox. Even though it's weaker than the average Mox, and you don't control what color it is, and it can blow up, people still play it because it's a Mox. Finally, from Unglue,

the fourth zero-cost card is Urza's Contact Lenses. So Urza's Contact Lenses, zero-cost artifact. Urza's Contact Lenses come into play tapped and does not untap during its controller's untap phase. And then it says, all players play with their hand face up. Clap your hands twice. Tap or untap Urza's Contact Lens. Okay, so first

to understand this card, you have to understand that at the time tapped cards turn off. That is how the rules work. We changed that in the 6th Edition Rule Update. But this is how the rules worked. We changed that in the 6th edition rule update. But this is for the 6th edition rule update. So the idea of the card was it let you look at your opponent's hand.

Oh, but when you looked at their hand, they got to look at your hand. But the idea is, obviously I was making fun of Urza's glasses. And so, and then I also, I wanted something to make you be able to, uh, turn it on and off.

And so I had you clap twice. Uh, it's kind of like the clapper. Clap on, clap off, clap on, clap off, the clapper. Uh, it was a device that you could have. I don't know if they still sell the clapper, but, uh, you could hook it up to like your lights and things and you could clap to turn things on and off. So you didn't have to stand up and go do it. Um, anyway, uh, the other thing about, uh, I should mention about the unset is a lot flap to turn things on and off. They didn't have to stand up and go do it. Anyway,

the other thing about, I should mention about the unset is, a lot of Ungluten and Unhinge was parroting existing magic. But later, Unstable, Infinity, we started building our own worlds, but like Astronaut's Coupon, Urza's Contact Lenses, both Black Lotus and Jack the Mox will make it. So there was a lot of making fun

of existing characters and existing cards and stuff. There there's a lot of making fun of existing characters and existing cards and stuff. There's a little bit of that in Unstable and Infinity, but not as much as there were in Unglued and Unhinged. Okay, next up, we get to Urza's Saga. We get to Claws of Gix. So Claws of Gix costs zero. It's an artifact.

One, sacrifice a permanent gain of life. So it's a riff on, like, Zurn Orb. The big difference is it costs one to sac it and not zero. But you can sac anything, and you got one life instead of two life. I think this saw some tournament play. There definitely, there were some cards in which you would get some benefit, and then you wanted to get rid of it. And Closet Gix played well there it also

allowed a little bit of life gaining I know Closet Gix saw some play I don't know how much play, not tons I think but it definitely saw some play the 1 mana versus 0 mana was definitely a difference I don't know if Closet Gix is considered too good, it's good

it's the Zern Orb being 0 mana to a difference. I don't know if Closet Gix is considered too good. It's good. It's the Zern Orb being 0 mana to Sack of the Land versus 1 was a big differential. Okay, next up, Chrome Mox. Okay, so we have two cards from Mirrodin.

One of which was kind of broken, and one of which was not. Let's see if you can figure out which. One has the word Mox in it. Chrome Mox is zero. It has imprint. When Chrome Mox comes into play, you may remove a non-artifact, non-land card in your hand from the game, and then tap Add One Mana of any of the imprinted card's colors to your mana pool. So the idea was imprint was a mechanic from Mirrodin. In this particular case, you imprinted a card from your hand,

and then it could tap for whatever colors that card was. So, it was a bigger cost than... Mox Diamond made you discard a land, but a lot of times the land didn't mean much. Crow Mox made you discard a spell. It's a little more of a cost. Still not enough of a cost. Crow Mox was still very good and still played a lot.

So, you can see us incrementing and trying to make moxes that aren't quite as broken, and we keep incrementing a little bit and making it a little less broken, but we still haven't got to the not-broken part. Chrome mox still sees lots of play, and I believe it's restricted banded formats and stuff.

The other card, Welding Jar, 0. Sacrifice Welding Jar, Regenerate Target Artifact. So the idea, essentially, is it can save... So if you put Welding Jar out, it saves one artifact. So the idea essentially is it can save so if you put welding jar out it saves one artifact. So if an artifact is going to be destroyed

essentially you could sacrifice this instead. My favorite story about welding jar is welding jar was in the file from the very first version

of the file in Tempest. And I wanted to write a story about the design and so I did an article from the point of view of Welding Jar. I chose Welding Jar

because it had been in the set the whole time. And it's all about Welding Jar just talking about all the cards around it getting knocked out and changed, and Welding Jar just keeps on doing its thing. Welding Jar is a cute card in the sense that it does its function. It's not super powerful.

I mean, it was a common. But it definitely... It saw a little bit of play in Limited. It wasn't a great card. But it definitely... Sometimes if you had some really good bombs

that were artifacts, most bombs were artifacts in Mirrodin, you could use Wellingjar. So I think it saw some play in Limited. I don't know if it saw play outside of Limited.

Once again, it's a common card. It was kind of designed for Limited, which... So it did show up there. And anyway, if you've never read the again, it's a common card. It was kind of designed for Limited, which, so, it did show up there. And anyway, if you've never read the article, it's a cute little article. Okay, next up, we get to Fifth Dawn. So, Fifth Dawn has a card called Paradise Mantle.

So, Paradise Mantle is an equipment. So, this is the first zero-cost equipment. So, equipment showed up for the first time in Mirrodin. There was no zero-cost equipment in Mirrodin or in Darkdale, but it shows up for the first time in Fifth Dawn. So equipped creature has tap, add one man of any color to your mana pool, equip one. So the one nice thing about equipment is you have an equipped cost.

So there is a knob here. There is a cost you have to pay. But I think we decided that this ability was weak enough at equip one that we can make it zero cost. And so, you know, I think that is an important part of that. I don't know this all play, but

anyway, it's our first it's the first zero cost equipment. There will be more. Okay, next up, we now get to Cold Snap. So Cold Snap has Mishra's Bauble. Tap, next up, we now get to Cold Snap. So Cold Snap has Mishra's Bauble. Tap, sacrifice Mishra's Bauble. Look at the top card of target player's library.

Draw a card at the beginning of next turn's upkeep. So I talked in the last podcast about Urza's Bauble. This is a nod toward Urza's Bauble. Basically, Urza's Bauble will let you look at a random card in your opponent's hand. This lets you look at a card on top of their library. Similar effect. I just thought it would be fun to throw it. And all the cantrips in Coldsnap, because it was the missing set from

the Ice Age block, were all slow trips. So that's that. Okay, next up we get to Lorwyn. So, Herbal Pultis. Pultis? Pultis? Zero Artifact. Three tap Sacrifice, Herbal Pultis. Pultis? Pultis? Zero Artifact. Three tap Sacrifice Herbal Pultis. Regenerate target creature. So, Herbal Pultis is just Welding Jar, but for creatures

rather than artifacts. Regenerating creatures is a little bit more powerful, so it costs a little bit more. My guess is Welding Jar. Being that this costs three and Welding Jar doesn't cost anything, I told you Welding Jar might have been a smidgen cheap. That's why this one now costs three. Okay, next up

we get to Bonesaw. This is from Conflux. So Bonesaw, another powerful zero cost card. So Bonesaw costs zero. Equip creature gets plus one, plus oh. Equip one. So Bonesaw is pretty good. I think we

were a little too not cautious enough with our colorless equipment. Nowadays, when we push equipment, we tend to make it colored. So Bonesaw is definitely a good card and saw some play. Next up, we get to Zendikar. So Zendikar has two zero cost. One is Spider Silk net, zero cost equipment. Equipped creature gets plus zero, plus two. Equipped, two.

Bone saw caused issues. Spider silk net did not. So, giving two toughness, it's not as powerful as giving one power. Giving one power is very valuable. Okay, next up, also in Zendikar, ever-flowing chalice. It's got zero. It had multi-kicker, two. Okay, next up, also in Zendikar,

Everflowing Chalice. This costs zero. It had multi-kick or two, so you may pay an additional two any number of times as you cast this spell. Everflowing Chalice enters the battlefield with a charge counter on it for each time it was kicked. Add one colorless mana to your mana pool for each charge counter Everflowing Chalice.

So the idea is it taps for one, but you can kick it. So if you spend two on it, it taps for two. Four on it, it taps for one, but you can kick it. So if you spend two on it, it taps for two. Four on it, it taps for three. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. No, no, no. You have to spend two

to even get one out of it. Is that right? Yes. So if you spend zero on it, you get nothing because there's no charge card. So it's two gets you one, four gets you two.

So this is a zero-cost card, but only in the sense that it's the way to properly balance it. It is not really a zero-cost card. I mean, you can play it for zero and not be able to tap it if you somehow need to have an artifact on the battlefield. But this is a good example of a zero-cost artifact that really isn't zero for purposes of being free, but more we want it to adjust multi-kicker.

So it's zero, so the Multikicker is really the cost. So there is a cost. If you want to tap for one, you gotta spend two, so... Okay, next up. So this was in Scars of Mirrodin. There were two... Three cards. It's three zero cost cards in Scars of Mirrodin. A quarter shield.

So a quarter shield is zero in equipment. Equipped creature gets plus zero, plus three, and that's Vigilance. So, as a sign that we made Spider Silknet, it wasn't too good. We made it even a little bit better. Okay, Mem Knight. So I talked about how we made zero for a zero-two flyer.

We made zero for a zero-six that could block six times, that could keep shrinking. We made zero for a zero-three. Mem Knight is finally saying, okay, we're going to make a zero-cost creature that has a power, one power. It's a one-one. There was a lot of debate about Mem Knight, like, can we make a zero-cost creature that has a power, one power. It's a 1-1. There was a lot of debate about Memnite, like, can we make a 1-1? Is a 1-1 okay?

It turns out it was fine. It didn't cause any problems. So anyway, I don't know. We haven't really pushed beyond this. 1-1's the, I mean, we haven't made anything more than one power. Could we do zero for a 1-2? I don't know. Maybe 1-1's as good as we can get. I'm not sure. Not on a play design team, But that is us sort of pushing there. And Mem Knight was... Zero-cost artifact creatures make people very

happy. People love Mem Knight, so there's something fun about that. And I don't know. It's just a fun card. Okay. We also made a Mox! Because we never learn, and we keep making Moxes. So Mox Opal costs zero. Legendary artifact. We finally decided, hey, maybe these should be legendary.

Maybe we should stop making Moxes that you can just have four of in your deck. Or four of at once in play. Metalcraft. Tap. Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if you control three or more artifacts. So Metalcraft was an ability where it sort of, the threshold was having three artifacts. Now, Mox Opal is an artifact.

So secretly, it really needs two other artifacts. So it is an artifact, Mox Opal is an artifact, so secretly it really needs two other artifacts, so it is an artifact. Mox Opal also saw a lot of play, so I think we keep making it slightly not as broken, but still, overall line was really powerful. So Mox Opal saw a lot of play. Okay, next up, we get to Darksteel. Oh, no, Nufrexia. We get to Nufrexia.

So Nufrexia had a card called Darksteel. Oh, no, New Phyrexia. We get to New Phyrexia. So, New Phyrexia had a card called Darksteel Relic. It's a zero artifact, and it just said, Darksteel Relic is indestructible. So, indestructible had shown up in the previous set. Oh, no, indestructible,

sorry, it showed up in Torment. So, anyway, sorry, indestructible had shown up previously when we were on Mirrored and that's what, so Darksteel is, all the things that are Indestructible were made of Darksteel.

So this card was a controversial card. It doesn't do anything. It's a zero-cost artifact that all it does is it's Indestructible. And there was a lot of talk about this card

and should we do and should we not do and then in the end we're like, oh, let's see what happens with it. I don't know what really happened with this card. It was a quirky, weird card.

I assume there were people out there that did stuff with it because it's the kind of card that dares you to do something with it. And so yeah, like I said, I don't really know. I'm not well versed what people did with Dark Steel Relic. I don't know of it being like a tournament card although it could have been.

But it's a good example that sometimes we like to make things that are... We like to make something that makes people sort of think, like, what is this? You know, and I know... I think what had happened was we had talked about making Dark Steel

Relic way back in Torment. That we talked about making... We made a land that was indestructible and that's all it did, I think it tapped for mana but we had talked about this and I think we finally went back and were like, let's just do it and we did it, so I think Darksteel relic

the original version of it was in Torment and we ended up not making it, so that's my memory of what happened with Darksteel relic, but anyway we made it, it's a quirky card. I'm sure there's people out there that found weird things to do with it. Having an indestructible artifact

that costs zero. Okay, next up, we get to M12. So we get Kite Shield. So Kite Shield costs zero. Artifact Equipment. Equip creature gets plus zero, plus three. Equip three. So the funny thing as you look through this is, spider silk net,

zero for plus zero plus two and has reach. Mmm, not quite strong enough. A quarter shield, plus zero plus three and vigilance. Eh, slightly better than we need. Kite shield is okay, plus zero plus three. A lot of times in core sets, what we do sometimes is, we like to find the cleanest

version of things. And I think we sort of played around in this space and just decided, look, it didn't need an ability. Plus zero, plus three is the right amount. You know, it doesn't have to vigilance us a little bit too much. So, uh, a nice clean version of the card. Okay. Next up.

Oh, wait. That's funny. I didn't look ahead to this card. So the ongoing story of plus zero, plus three. So Cathars Shield, and this is from Eldritch Moon. This is funny. Okay.

So Cathars Shield is zero artifact equipment. Equipment gets plus zero, plus three, and has vigilance. Equipment three. So it's a quarter shield exactly. So, okay. So I'm not a play designer. So, I know the spider silk net

was too weak. A quarter shield got made. Then they made kite shield. So maybe they made kite shield to be simpler. Maybe it wasn't a power level issue. And then I guess when they made when Sam Stoddard did Eldritch Moon, I guess he's like, oh, you know what?

I'd rather just have a quarter shield than kite shield. I think that's fine. I think vigilance is okay. Or maybe in a premier set, you could be slightly higher power than the core set. I'm not quite sure why,

but the reason it's Cathar's shield and not a quarter shield is I assume a quarter shield is making reference to something that's unique to Mirrodin. Cathar's shield was set on Innistrad, and so they had to change the name. I assume that's what's going on.

Thalia is now in the Reminder text. A leader can inspire courage, but it is the smiths and healers who truly keep the hope alive. Thalia, Heretic, Cathar. Okay. Now we get up to our last zero-cost Mox for now. Mox Amber. Okay, so we get up to our last zero-cost Mox for now. Mox Amber.

Okay, so Mox Amber shows up in Dominaria. So the idea is we're back to Dominaria after a long period of being away. It was many, many years, over a decade. And they're like, okay, we're back. We're back on Dominaria. Okay, you know, I think it's time for us to try to do the Mox again. Um, and this time, um, so Mox Amber is a legendary artifact, cost zero.

Um, all the technology that we've learned, we use. Uh, tap, add one man of any color among legendary creatures and planeswalkers you control. Um, so this one is interesting in that instead of being a cost that you could pay out of your hand, like, oh, discard a land. Well, I might have a land. Discard a card. Well, I probably have a card. This one says, okay, I don't

really turn on until you do something else. And that something else is played legendary creatures or planeswalkers. And on top of that, you know, it is... Legendary Creatures and Planeswalkers don't tend to be cheap. I'm not saying we... You know, yes, there's a little doggy that costs one. But mostly they cost more.

And so the idea is, yeah, this will help you, but it more helps you in the mid-game than the early game. The reason mocks are so powerful is it allows me on turn one or turn two or turn three to get something out that I just can't do that early. And this mocks sort of addresses that issue in that it does help you and does

help you get into larger cost things, but it doesn't help you play the really cheap stuff. Now, I'm sure I mean, like I said, there are some cheap legendary cards, but this is still legal in Pioneer, in Modern, in Legacy, in Vintage. So that says we finally did it. Like, when I look back, let's see, let me look back at Chrome Mox.

So Chrome Mox is banned in Modern, not legal in Pioneer. It's just not legal in Pioneer. So it's banned in Modern. It is legal in Legacy and Vintage, although Legacy and Vintage, especially Vintage, has Moxes. So let's go look at Mox Diamond. So Mox Diamond, well, it's legal in,

yeah, it's not legal in Modern and Pioneer. It was banned in formats, in other formats that existed in the past. But, okay, so we finally made something that's playable in Modern that doesn't cause problems. It's funny, so we finally made something that's playable and modern that doesn't cause problems. It's funny, the one thing that's neat about the story when I go through something like the evolution

of artifact creatures at zero, or moxes at zero, is we do learn from what we've done before. Now, artifact creatures, we never really misstepped quite as much, but moxes is interesting in that we kept sort of slowly incrementally, you know, like getting the technology and making it legendary.

Getting the technology that there's some other cost that matters. That it's just not mana outright. You know, all these things help us slowly get there. Okay, the final card to talk about today, and then I'll talk about all 44 of the zero cost artifacts, is Jeweled Lotus. So it's an artifact. Tap, Sacrifice Jeweled Lotus. Add three mana an artifact. Tap, sacrifice Jeweled Lotus, add three mana of any one color, spend this mana only to play your commander.

Okay, so this was in, let's see, Commander Legends. Oh, I think this showed up in the Commander Legends. This was in one of the decks. So this wasn't in Dominaria. It wasn't in Dominaria proper.

It was in the Commander decks. So essentially what this is, is it's a Black Lotus, but only for your Commander to help get your Commander out. I assume they made this because a lot of low-powered Commanders, because you can get them out so fast,

are very powerful. And I think they were trying to help make... Encourage players to want to play some more expensive stuff. Although, the problem is you can use this even for your cheap stuff. So, I don't know. I'm not well-versed... Let's see. It is banned in Oathbreaker.

But it is legal in Commander. So, I don't really know the fate. My guess is it sees a lot of play because Black Lotus is very powerful. So for all the Commander players out there that go, of course it gets played all the time. That's my assumption, but I didn't really want to say that.

Anyway, so in 30 years of Magic, we've made 44 zero-cost artifacts. So it's, let's see, 44 divided by 30. So it's about one and a third every year or so. Now you'll notice they get front-loaded. The vast, vast majority of them are early in magic. I think as we've moved along, we've found spaces where they can be. Obviously, you can get plus zero, plus three as an equipment for zero.

You know, we've played around in different spaces it's interesting to note how many of these cards ended up being banned or restricted somewhere, a lot of them so the lesson here is you have to be careful, mana cost is a knob, it's an important knob not that you need it, the card cost can

adjust for it but anyway, that is a look at all 44 zero-cost artifacts. I hope you guys enjoyed this jaunt through it. I've gotten some notes that you guys like my card-by-card stuff, so I'm trying to up it a little bit, do a little bit more of it. It is much, much easier for me to do them at home than it is in the car, so I think most of them I will do at home. And so it's just, it's better.

Anyway, guys, I'm now at my desk. So we all know what that means. It means this is the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. I'll see you all soon. I'll see you all next time. Sorry. Bye-bye.