Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #465: Tweaks

Episode Date: August 25, 2017

We have to make a lot of Magic sets, and while we always make new things, a lot of our job is taking the staple things we do all the time and finding small ways to make them feel different. In today's podcast, I talk about how we do that.

I'm pulling out of the parking lot. We all know what that means. It's time to drive to work. And I took my son to camp. Okay, so today... So one of the things that we have to do all the time in design is what I call tweaks. Which is, look, so one of the big things about making magic is, really what we're trying to do is, most of the time, the vast majority of what we do is the same game. You know, probably, I don't know, 80% or something of any one set is mostly the same. You know, there's a four-fifths of any set probably is just the same as any other set.

That there's a lot of basic overlaps. There are a lot of certain effects happening, certain rarities and certain colors, that there's a certain sort of staples to the way the game functions. Now, that 20%, that one-fifth, you can make a lot different by... You don't have to change a lot.

You can change a little to change a lot, one of my sayings. So you don't need to change much. And the fact that we change maybe 20% is a huge deal. One of my sayings. So you don't need to change much. And the fact that we change maybe 20% is a huge deal. That makes sets feel really different from one another. But the reality is that when you're building a set, that more of what you're doing is sort of the status quo than it is reinventing the wheel or doing something brand new. Yes,

there's new stuff. Yeah, you tend to build around the new stuff and you tend to pick old stuff that reinforces the new stuff. But a lot of what you do is old stuff. So one of the issues in general is like there are certain effects we do all the time. So for example, in green common, I'm going to have a giant growth. I'm going to, for one or two mana, as an instant, I'm going to, usually instant, sometimes sorcery, I'm going to make your creature bigger for the turn. I'm just going to do

that. That's something green does. That's something you're always going to see. So, the idea essentially is, while we definitely reprint cards, we definitely repeat things, we definitely do things we've done before, one of the things about having sort of the same staple effects all the time is we do what we call tweaks. So what a tweak is, is it says, let's take something that we do, we normally do all the

time, and figure out how to do it slightly differently. So I'm going to use Giant Growth as my example today, just because every set has a Giant Growth. Somehow, those who don't know what I mean, the original Giant Growth was in Alpha. It costs one green mana. Target creature gets plus three, plus three until end of turn. Giant Growth shows up all the time,

and we do Giant Growth variants in literally every set. We don't make a set without a Giant Growth variant. I don't think that's possible. So I'm going to talk today, I'm going to walk you through sort of some of the how exactly you can do tweaks and how you do them. And notice, by the way, that you can tweak any kind of spell. I'm going to start talking about giant growth, but then we'll get into creatures and stuff. There's ways to tweak creatures, just as there's ways to tweak spells. Okay, so first off, when I say a tweak, what does a tweak really mean? Well, a tweak means that the card is fitting some basic archetype from a structural standpoint.

Giant growth is a good example. So when I say giant growth, what do I mean? Well, I mean green tends to have a spell at common that allows you to make your creature temporarily bigger. Usually that is a combat trick, so usually it's an instant.

So first off, the first thing you can tweak is the card type. You can go between instant and sorcery if it's a spell. And sometimes, actually, with Giant Growth, sometimes we'll make it an enchantment. For example, let's say we're having a set where enchantments matter, or enchantments play a role. Maybe what I want to do is do an aura that has a flash on it, so that I can, you know, that I'm able to sort of surprise you,

make my creature bigger. Oh, but the tweak on it is, it's an enchantment, it's an aura, it's not going to end at end of turn. In fact, we even had, in Mirage, we had a cycle of auras that you could cast normally as auras, but if you cast them as instants, then they went away. So that's a good example of a card that

kind of was a giant growth, but functioned as something else. So we can change what card type it is. Usually for a spell, it means instant or sorcery. You know, giant growth is traditionally an instant, but hey, we've made sorcery versions of it. Usually you get a little bit more boost if you're a sorcery. Plus four, plus four, or something, traditionally. Okay, so that's the first thing you can do is you can kind of change sort of what card type it is. Sometimes, for example, the giant growth effect. So sometimes what we do for the spell effect is instead of making it on a spell,

instead of making it instant or sorcery, we'll make it an enter the battlefield effect, for example. So if I have a creature with an enter the battlefield effect, it's hard creature gets plus three plus three, I could do that normally so it's just kind of like a sorcery version or I could put it on a creature with flash and then now it's kind of like an instant version so giant growth I can put it on an instant

I can put it on a sorcery I can put it on an enchantment I can put it on a creature in theory I could have a land maybe that I mean probably wouldn't do plus three plus three but I could imagine a land maybe that, I mean probably wouldn't do plus three plus three but I could imagine a land that maybe when Ender's Battlefield has a trigger where target creature gets plus one plus one

we've definitely made planeswalkers that one of their loyalty abilities is making creatures bigger what am I forgetting artifacts we've done artifacts that have done that as well so like any you actually can use any of the card types to sort of get across artifacts. We've done artifacts that have done that as well. You actually can use any of the card types to sort of get across this thing. And the idea essentially is I want to have a giant growth

like effect, but part of what makes each set different is how I execute upon that will vary sort of how it plays. So obviously I can change the card type. And that is something, one of the tricks by the way is you normally have so many creatures and so many spells. Because you have less spells, it's the tighter resource. So sometimes what happens is I use up all my spell space and I still have a spell-like effect I need, but I don't have

space for it in spells. That's when I'll do things like the creature... Oh, actually, there's a couple different ways to do creatures real quickly. So number one is, let's say I want to do Giant Growth. I can have a creature that enters the battlefield and Giant Growth. Giant Growth gives plus three, plus three, or some boost. Or I can have a creature that I can sacrifice the creature to get the effect. That's another thing we also will do.

Sometimes I can even do a repeatable effect. We do that less and not a common. So usually this is in the common slot. Usually if I'm trying to fill the common slot for Dying Growth, it'll either be a creature with an Enter the Battlefield effect or be a creature with a sac effect, because I only want you to get it once. Also, we've done stuff like seals, which are enchantments that just sit there

that you sacrifice to get the effect. So a seal of strength, I think it was called, was essentially a giant growth that my opponent knows I have it, it's sitting on the board. That's why we don't do a lot of these, but the idea is I cast it when I have the mana and then whenever I'm able to use it, it's just sitting there and I can use it whenever. Okay, the next thing that we will look at is sort of cost. So we can mess with numbers. So giant growth, for example, not every effect has a number in it. Things with numbers are a little more tweakable.

But giant growth traditionally is one mana, one green mana, four plus three plus three. So one thing we can change is, well, what if it costs a little bit more, but it's plus four plus four? What if it costs a little bit less, but it's plus, or not a little less, it's one. But what if it has another ability with it, but it's plus two, plus two? So that's another thing that we can do, is that we can sort of affect whether or not something else is used with it. So for example, maybe I grant you plus three, plus three. Maybe I grant you plus three, plus three and trample. Or maybe plus two, plus two and trample. It's a smaller spell.

Trample is the most common thing we add on. We've added other things on as well. So the idea essentially is you can add something to the effect. So the effect, you can play around with numbers. You can play around with how much something costs. And usually, the Jaguar is weird in this case because it costs one mana. But let's say for a second I pick something that costs three mana normally. The range I have is I can make it more expensive than normal to get a bigger effect.

I can make it less expensive than normal to get a smaller effect. Or the other option I have available to me is I can make it less expensive, but there's another cost. Hey, it only costs one mana, but I have to pay life or sacrifice a creature

or I have to do something that's another kind of payment. So you can mess around with that. You can mess around with the different kind of payments. For example, we've done giant gross in the past where instead of you paying extra mana, you give life to your opponent. Or we've done ones in which you have to sort of discard another card of appropriate color. There can be different kinds of costs associated with it.

Another common tweak that we will do is, and this is actually a super common one, is we tie it into the mechanic that's one of the mechanics of the set. So let's say, for example, we're doing a mechanic that's a spell mechanic. We're doing flashback, we're doing buyback, we're doing cycling, we're doing a mechanic that's a spell mechanic. We're doing flashback. We're doing buyback. We're doing cycling. We're doing kicker. Whatever effect that we're doing. Something in which you need some base effect to add something onto.

I'll use cycling as my example because we just said cycling in Amaket. So cycling says, okay, I want to give me the option of cycling something away. So there's a bunch of ways you can make use of that. One is I can make a situational giant growth. Although giant growth is a little weird because it's not super situational. But I can make something in which maybe it's a...

I'm talking about changing around numbers. Sometimes to go high in rarity will do the same effect, but really big. So, for example, Might of Oaks was a good example where it was a rare card, but it was plus seven, plus seven. So, part of how we scale is you can sort of go really big if you're trying to make big splashy effects. So, with cycling, for example, we might want to do something that's bigger and splashier, but more expensive. So maybe earlier in the game, when you just need land or something, you could cycle it away.

We could do a tweak on it. We could do something where maybe you're getting plus three or plus four, but if you cycle it, maybe you get plus one, plus one. In addition to the card, you get a little tiny version of the effect. So whatever we do, another big part of tweaking is taking your spell and then finding a way to adapt it to the mechanic of that particular set.

Whatever that set is, you can find that version of how to do things. And with Giant Growth, for example, Giant Growth is the kind of thing that normally we try to put whatever the spell is. If there's a spell that can be applied, we normally do that. Sorry, I'm a yawny today. So, for example, like, one of the first things we do when we get a new mechanic is we try to, like, usually when I'm testing out the new mechanic, when we're making the very first cards to see whether it will work, the very first thing we tend to do with the new mechanic is just put basic effects on it.

And Giant Growth being a very popular one. In fact, Giant Growth and Lightning Bolt. Probably, I've made more test cards testing out new mechanics with Giant Growth and Lightning Bolt. Because they're a nice, clean staple. You know you're going to have them in the set. Okay, so another thing you can do beyond adding mechanics to it is sometimes you can just play into the theme of the set. So it's not a mechanic per se, but it's something that

sort of plays in what's going on. So with Giant Growth, let's say, let's give an example here. Let's say there's a theme of duality or there's a mechanic in the set that, you know, there's heroic that cares when you target things. So maybe the set wants sort of dual targeting for some reason. That's a little mini theme you're doing. Oh, well, Giant Growth, instead of making one creature plus three plus three, maybe makes two creatures plus two plus

two. You know, you can change sort of how many targets it has. You can change sort of what you use it on. Sometimes you add extra restrictions. Sometimes what you do is you do a conditional thing where you get upgraded, if we're doing a mechanic like kicker or something we do that you know, plus two plus two, it could be plus four plus four and sometimes what you want, sorry I'm so tired today, sometimes what you

want to do is you'll care about something that's key to the set and you say, okay, normally it's plus two plus two but if you care about the thing that's key to the set then it becomes plus four plus four that's another very common thing we can do is sort of make it or the other thing we do sometimes is we'll make modal cards where you have more than one choice so sometimes what we do is we'll make we'll make a staple effect part of a modal choice usually when when we do that, we shrink it a little bit. Like if you're part of a charm or something,

you're probably getting like plus one, plus one, or plus two, plus two. Probably not plus three, plus three. Because you want something that's more of a fraction of a spell. So sometimes you do tinier versions when you're trying to do that. Other things you can do when you're trying to tweak a spell is sometimes you can sort of we'll use it for flavor sometimes. There might be a big point in the story where a certain character does something.

Oh, yeah. Sometimes, by the way, sometimes we reprint things. That's not technically a tweak. But sometimes what we do is we want the effect. We basically want the card, but for some reason the flavor of the card doesn't quite match. Or we want to use it to tell a story or something, and by tweaking the name a little bit, we can get there. Giant Growth is a more generic name,

but we definitely... I can imagine having a story point where that's a beat of it, and maybe instead of calling it Giant Growth, we call it a different spell. The one thing we have to be careful of when we do stuff like that, is when we make a tweak and change the name, is you have to figure out whether there's formats that having 8 instead of 4 matters in the format. There's certain cards that are powerful enough that you have to be careful not to sort of give them new names willy-nilly because they can actually change, you know, having a different name can really mean something. It lets you get

five to eight cards in your deck. It lets you get extra cards, five through eight cards in your deck. But it's very common for us to sort of make changes in things to sort of better fit the dynamic of the story. So other tweaks we can do, like I said, we can mess around with costs, we can mess around with effects, we can mess around with targets,

we can mess around with the volume of the effect, we can mess around with additional effects. Okay, so let's get to creatures. So that spells, like you can, there's a lot of different ways that you can tweak things and a lot of different ways you can get utility out of it. Usually the thing for us is, oh, so one of the things about the staples is understanding what the staple is supposed to do for you.

Why, like, one of the things when you're messing with staples is you want to have a good understanding of what exactly this effect does for you and how it plays into the current environment you're crafting. So for example, Giant Growth mostly is a combat ability. And it's one of Green's ways to do creature kill because Green doesn't have a lot of creature kill. And the idea is, if I use my Giant Growth, I do one of two things normally

I either do extra damage that's going to help me win the game or it allows me to survive combat in a place where it either allows me to kill the other creature and or survive combat and so it's a situational card but it's a situational card that can help you get rid

of other cards and so in green it's a pretty staple part of green's identity. And so we want to make sure to put that in every set. Okay, so let's go to the other type of tweak. It's a creature tweak. So the idea of a creature tweak is sometimes you want to bring back a creature and you, there's a certain, um, just like there's certain spell staples, there are certain creature

things that you need. Now, the difference between a creature and a spell is spell are more effect based, which is like, oh, well, green needs this kind of effect in combat. So we want to have a giant growth-like spell. Creatures are more about curve and more about having the right range of creatures that you can play together. And so a lot of times what happens is, the reason that we'll tweak creatures is that we want something that this kind of creature provides, but something about the original isn't repeatable. Maybe it's a flavor thing, maybe it's a mechanics thing,

but when you're tweaking a creature, what you're trying to do is you're trying to bring a creature that sort of captures that same sensibility. And just like we have staples with spells, there are definitely creatures that we do on regularity. I think the spell effects are a little more like every single set has a giant growth

I think with creatures you start saying oh like a root wall is a good example yeah a lot of sets have a root wall and what a root wall is for those that don't know it's a green creature with a built in giant growth so it's a creature that says I'm 2-2 but once per turn if you spend 2

to green I can get plus 2 plus 2 until end of turn. So it's sort of a built-in giant growth. So root wall is the kind of thing that, well, not every set has to have a root wall, but a lot of sets do. It's definitely a staple kind of effect that we tend to do. And so the key to creatures, first off, sometimes what you want is, assuming you don't want the exact same creature, is you want what we call functional reprint, which is where we can creatively change it. And what that means is we can change the name and change the creature type, but pretty much functionality, power, toughness, rules, text box, that stuff's all the same.

And the reason we'll do that usually is flavor-based. Usually it's we want to make it fit the world, and the cart we're pulling from doesn't fit the world. Another kind of thing that we'll do with creatures is, sometimes you want to bring back a creature, but there's extra baggage to that creature. Creatures in general tend to be slightly more complicated than spells, just because you have essentially have something layered on top of the creature. And what we try to do is, I mean, a lot of the tweaking is a similar thing.

Let's say Ruwala. With creatures, the easiest way to tweak it is to mess around with power and toughness. That's something that spells can't really do. So let's say for example, I want to have a Brutwalla. Well, I could have a 1-1, I could have a 2-2, I could have a 3-3. I have some ability to sort of dictate how big I want it to be. The one thing that we do now with New World Order is if you're going to change a common creature, if a creature's going to change its stats, we tend to give its square stats a common.

So, for example, a Root Walla, which is going to make itself bigger, we tend not to make an uneven stat these days. We will most likely make it a 1-1, a 2-2, or a 3-3. And, usually, when we're doing boosts, you'll notice when I was talking about giant growth we usually keep them square, not always, but we usually keep them square it's much more traditionally going to be plus two plus two there are exceptions to that, there are definitely certain colors focused on certain things, red is more likely to pump power than it is to pump toughness

so some of the way we lay out the spells to dictate sort of how we make them. But the first place to go is to look at that power toughness. Sometimes, like, for flavor purposes, we'll change the creature type. Like, we'll reprint a card, and the only thing we'll change is the name of the creature type. Note that the creature type changes, that's functional,

so the name has to change. The other thing that's very common when you're doing tweaks is when you're trying to figure out your holes for your set. A lot of times the holes in creatures are based upon size. And so one of the things that's also common to do is sometimes you'll reprint something in a set and then realize that you need to move it around for size. So you end up making a new version of the card, just changing the stats around or changing the cost around or just making a little tiny tweak to it. Um, uh, the other thing that we'll do sometimes with creatures is, um, we'll mess around with doing keywords and stuff with them. You know, we'll do sometimes with creatures is we'll mess around with doing keywords and stuff with them. You know, we'll do what I call French Manila. Sometimes if you want them to do something,

we either incorporate the new mechanics or incorporate the old mechanics to sort of tweak it up a little bit. You know, one of the neat things about basic effects, let's take root wall as a good example. We've been making Root Walls for 20 years and so we've learned a lot of different ways to make Root Walls. We've learned a lot about synergies of Root Walls and so we've definitely sort of the more you make of something, the better understanding you have of it. And by the way, that's one of the reasons that one of the reasons you start to get a very good sense of sort of unnecessary cards is after you've made enough sets, you just start to learn sort of where you can lean on.

Like, where are there cards that sort of support more weight? So let me talk a little bit about why... I know whenever I talk on tweaks, one of the comments I get back to people is, you know, why can't we be more adventuresome? And the answer is, we are sometimes. It's not like we don't ever make crazy tweaks, but usually the crazy tweaks are at higher rarities. It's something more splashing. Normally, a common, the goal of a tweak is not to draw a lot of attention to itself. In fact, the exact opposite. What I want to do when I make a tweak is I want the player playing it, seeing it, knowing the archetype I'm going for it and go, oh, I get it as a giant growth. Oh,

I get it as a root walla. That the idea of tweaks is not to draw attention to itself. Now there's exceptions to that every once in a while. Like I said, with giant growth, we'll make, uh, you know, the giant, giant growth. Um. But other than that, pretty much what you want to do is make something that sort of is strong and functional but usually splashy is not where functional reprints go. You want to make something, or not even just functional reprints, but tweaks in general. You want to make sure that you understand sort of what role it plays, but then the goal

of a tweak is kind of to not draw attention to itself. Remember early on I said 80-20, that magic is about 80% stuff you already know, and about 20% stuff you don't know. it's important to make it feel as if everything is pretty um that you don't want to draw a lot of attention to things because one of the keys to making simple effects is just make it feel like normal

magic um and a lot of people I don't know it's funny so much of my design talk so much of what I talk about is about that 20% it's about the innovation and how to do something we've never done before. And it's an exciting part of the design, and obviously I get why I talk probably more about it than anything

else, because it's the sort of splashy part of the design. But tweaks are definitely one of the most important actual structural deals with making sets. That you need to make sure that you find a way to get the basic effects that you need, but that you change up a few things so that it plays differently. I'm trying to think of the other... Tweaks aren't restricted to spells or to creatures. We'll often tweak artifacts. In fact, a lot of times, there's certain staple artifacts that we use on a regular basis. Usually, an artifact is either

getting you mana or producing mana or some basic equipment or something. But a lot of that stuff, so here's another reason that we do tweaks is there's no great reason to reinvent the wheel that there is not an infinite number of things you can do that really are simple and elegant and play well and so one of the goals

when you're trying to do tweaks is you're trying to figure out kind of the simplest space you can be in like I want to do this effect, I want to be there, but I don't want to choop a lot of design space around it. What's the most minimal impact I can have while accomplishing this task? And I think when people make their own sets, like one of the things that's interesting when you sort of talk to people and they start designing their own sets,

one of the things that people underestimate all the time is staples, is getting in the base level effects that they need. Now, if people make a design skeleton, that's what I recommended, it helps a lot, and then you're more conscious about making sure all the different elements are concentrated and included in your design. How are we doing on time today? I'm almost to work. The other big thing about tweaks, I guess I will say,

is that there's an elegance to tweaks. That part of what makes a good tweak is that you are finding a way to get the essence of what you're doing in a way that is both familiar and sort of new. And it requires a delicate hand. That a really good, like it's kind of funny that when you first start off, you get all excited about your crazy over-the-top designs.

Look at this weird, you know. And over time, what you start to sort of become fond of is when you're able to make like a really elegant tweak like like the best tweak is a tweak in which people feel like they've seen it before even though they haven't seen it before you know a lot of what the tweak is is I'm just trying to do the basic thing now there is a range like when you put new mechanics on on it there are tweaks in which draw a little bit more attention to themselves. And it's... If drawing attention to yourself is part of what the design is trying to do, I'm doing this brand new theme.

This is part of my theme. I want you to notice that this thing is doing its theme, that that's okay. But what you need to be careful is, when you do stuff, especially at Common, where it's more about making people pay attention to how the card is different than it is about just playing the card like a normal function. The thing I always remember is that cards fall into archetypes and that certain cards do certain things. And the reason that we like them is they have a general utility to how they affect the game.

Well, the idea is your goal is not to interfere with that. That when you're making a tweak of something, you're trying to reinforce that, not mess with that. So, the most common, I'm almost to work, but the most common mistakes I see when I see, not that I look at a lot of designs, but the few that I've been

able to look at is that people tend to over-, that they stick too much in, you know, that they their tweaks have too many different aspects to it. They're like, I'm gonna make a giant growth variant that does the new mechanic that's in the set and plays into this theme in the set and just, hey, just to be different does this thing. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

One of those is fine. You don't need all of them. That the key to tweaking is subtlety and careful deliberation of just finding the right thing that just tweaks it just a little bit differently. Like I said in the beginning, you don't need to change a lot. You can change a lot by changing a little. That it is very easy to just one simple little change, one simple little tweak, just, you know, because when you're going to play the card, people will recognize the archetype they're playing with, but then you want to

figure out, okay, how do I best use this one? This one's a sorcery, but plus four, plus four. This one requires me to tap a creature, but I can play it for free. This one, you know, there's lots of different giant ghosts out there. And the key, whenever you get a new tweak, is to figure out, okay, how is this tweak different? What can I do with it? And the best elegant tweaks are the ones where it gets people sort of thinking, but it doesn't really change its fundamental role in what's going on. Because if you change your role enough, then you stop filling that role.

Giant growth is meant to sort of promote a certain style of playing green, and so we like to have it, so the reason we make it in the first place is to have that effect. Let's see, how much to work? Final things on tweaks. When you are making tweaks, one of the things that I always say to people is, A, less is more. Like, change one thing. Tweak one thing.

Make one thing different. like change one thing, tweak one thing, make one thing different. And then try to make sure that how you're tweaking it fits into what you're doing. Another common mistake I'll see with tweaks is people will make a tweak that like in a vacuum is a fine tweak. There's nothing wrong with a tweak, but that tweak doesn't play to what the set is doing. It doesn't play into the identity of what the set is. But that tweak doesn't play to what the set is doing. It doesn't play into the identity of what the set is. That, you know, if I'm trying to do something particular in the set,

well, I want my staple effects, if I'm going to tweak them, to try to lean in that direction. And the lean can be very subtle, or the lean can be a little heavier, depending on sort of what you're doing with it. But, you know, don't... The key to a good tweak is kind of like the key to a good poem in that you want to sort of capture the essence of what you're trying to do

with the least amount of space like one of the big things they say about poetry is you know convey all you want to convey in the fewest possible number of words and that's kind of similar to how tweaks are made. Is you want to sort of accomplish your task. You want to make sure that they are, they fulfill the role of what they're trying to do. And once again, remember that every tweak has two functions. It's filling the basic utility. Make sure that it does fill that basic utility.

And it is leaning in toward what you are doing. It is one tiny adjustment to make the set more your set and lean more in the direction that you want it to lean. So use your tweaks wisely, kids. It's an important part of the design process. Every set has tweaks. They allow us to sort of do the thing that we always do but in a way that makes it a little more novel.

So anyway, that is all I have to say in tweaks. So I'm now in my parking space. So we all know what that 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 guys next time.