Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #633: Morningtide, Part 3

Episode Date: May 3, 2019

This is part three of my three-part series on card-by-card design stories from Morningtide.

I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the drive to work. Okay, so last couple episodes I've been talking about Morning Tide. Well, I'm not done yet talking about Morning Tide, so we will continue talking about Morning Tide. Okay, so next, Mind Spring. So Mind Spring costs X blue blue. It's a sorcery. Draw X cards. Okay, so there was a card called Braingeyser. I forget what it's like Braingeyser was in. Or is it a saga, maybe? Anyway, many years ago, we made a spell, which was XUU draw X cards.

And at the time, I said, you know, I'm a big fan on draw spells being targeted so that you could have some flexibility in how you use it. So that maybe I could draw a card or I could let a teammate draw a card or maybe if I'm trying to mill somebody out, I can make them draw a card. So I convinced them to make Grainerizer target player instead of you draw.

And that broke the card. I think that, I mean, while I have more restricted cards that I designed than anybody else, and that's something I'm proud of, that card, while I didn't restricted cards that I designed than anybody else, nothing I'm proud of, that card, while I didn't make it straight up, I feel like I made the contribution

that I kind of tipped it over to make it broken. So anyway, this was the chance of redemption to make a spell that basically was Braingeyser but not the broken version of Braingeyser. And apparently,

if you can just draw your own cards, it's good, but not crazy broken. The problem with Braingeyser. And apparently if you can just draw your own cards, it's good, but not crazy broken. The problem with Braingeyser is because when someone can't draw cards they lose, and X means that you have a lot of mana, it just becomes a way for blue to draw

cards that just the kill condition when you need it to be, which is a little too efficient. So, anyway, Mind Spring is slightly, slightly less broken Braingeyser. Okay. Next is Murmuring Bosk.

So it's a land, a forest. So it taps to add green. All forests tap to add green. As Murmuring Bosk enters the battlefield, you may reveal a Treefolk card from your hand. If you don't, it enters the battlefield tapped. And then you can tap to add white or black.

Oh, and it deals one damage to you. So the idea essentially was we did a series of cards, a cycle of cards in Lorwyn that were basically dual lands that enter the play tapped unless you revealed

the appropriate creature type. And then it tapped for the two colors that those creatures were in. So what had happened was we had, I think we made a cycle of five of them in Lorwyn. And so I think the other three we ended up making in Morning Tide, this is the Treefolk one.

The ones we, the cycle we had done in Lorwyn all tapped for exactly two colors. Where something like the Tree cycle we had done in lore, we would all tap for exactly two colors, where something like the Treefolk, which was in three colors, this was unique. So, this thing taps for green all the time, which is the base color of Treefolk, but you can, for pain, tap for white or black. So, it lets you

have access to three colors, but not, the white and black, you have a little extra cost to get them. But, if you're playing a Treefolk deck, it comes to play untapped. So anyway, this was part of our cycle for the Treefolk cycle. Next, Mutavolt.

So Mutavolt's a land, taps for colorless. And then for one generic mana, it becomes a 2-2 creature with all creature types until end of turn, it's still a land. So this was, there's a card from Antiquities called Mishra's Factory which taps for Coalesce and then you could activate it to make it a 2-2 creature. We were trying to do a fixed

version of Mishra's Factory, so make a Mishra's Factory that had a lot of the functionality, a little bit different, and we thought, you know, this time Mishra's Factory was a really strong card that went into into a lot of decks now mishra's factory allowed you to tap it to give plus one plus one to target mishra's factory um this one doesn't do that um so we thought by removing that but oh instead we'll give it the changeling you know it'll count for all things so we gave it that we we thought, like, oh, well, getting the Changeling ability was weaker than being able to grant a creature plus one

plus one. Like, one of the tricks with Mishra's Factory, as most people who didn't play Mishra's Factory might not be aware of this, but you can activate and make it a 2-2, block, and then tap itself to make it a 3-3 to block and kill a 2-2, for example. Anyway, there's a lot of cool stuff you can do with Mishra's Factory. Anyway, we tried to make a fixed M-3 to block and kill a 2-2, for example. Anyway, there's a lot of cool stuff you can do with Mishra's Factory.

Anyway, we tried to make a fixed Mishra's Factory and Mutavolt was really, really strong. And so apparently even not being able to make itself bigger, Mutavolt went on to be a very powerful card. So Mishra's Factory, uber powerful. A slightly weaker Mishra's Factory, still very powerful.

Okay, next. Notorious a slightly weaker Mishra's Factory still very powerful okay next Notorious Throng so three in the blue so four mana one of which is blue Tribal Sorcery Rogue

it's got prowl five in the blue so prowl means by the way you may cast this for its prowl cost if you don't comment damage to a player

this turn with a Rogue. Create X-1-1 Black Fairy tokens with Flying where X is the damage dealt to your opponent this turn. If Notorious Throng's Prowl cost was paid, take an extra turn after this one. So the idea of this card, it does a bunch of different things. One is, this is a card where the Prowl cost is higher than its normal cost. Most of the time with Prowl, it's cheaper this is a card where the Prowl cost is higher than its normal

cost. Most of the time with the Prowl, it's cheaper. Like, the reason I want to hit you is so that I can get this creature out. What this creature did is it said, okay, if I normally hit you, like, basically this card says, I need you to do damage. My effect is based on you doing damage. So, I can't even cast the card unless you're doing damage. And this card says, okay, I'm going to make one, one black flying creatures, fairies, equal to the amount of damage you do.

But for extra mana, meaning if I did damage with a rogue, and this card only cares about rogues because the only creature type it has, it's a tribal sorcery, is rogue. But if I did damage with a rogue, I'm allowed to pay two more and get a free time walk. So this one's a little bit different of a prowl card.

The idea here is not that it's cheaper, it's that you get an added effect if you do it. So this is a good example of how you can play around with effects like this, where prowl normally functions as a way to get spells cheaper, but the mechanic allows you to do other things with it as this card. So this card essentially is like, oh, well, if I've done damage with the Rogue, I get to essentially pay one and a blue, or actually not even one and a blue, two extra,

and I get a Time Walk, essentially. I get an extra turn. So this was a cool card. Okay, next. Obsidian Battleaxe. So Obsidian Battleaxe, uh, it costs three generic mana. It's a tribal artifact, a warrior equipment. Remember before I said that there was equipment for each of the classes we were supporting. Equipped creature gets plus two plus one and has haste. Whenever a warrior creature enters the battlefield, you may attach obsidian battle axe to it, and then it has equip three. So the idea here is plus one, plus two plus one and haste, but it snaps onto warriors. So essentially what it means is, assuming you play

one warrior turn, that warrior will have haste. Plus one, plus two, plus one and haste. So it goes really good in a more aggressive deck. One of the problems with equipment in aggressive decks is usually you're using up all your mana because you're trying to hit the curve, and you don't have the mana to equip your equipment. But this thing, you know, once you get it out there, you don't need to spend the mana. It just keeps snapping on to all the different creatures

or different warriors that you have. And so, you know, this was made to be an equipment that really had an aggressive element to it that was advantageous. Okay, next. Una's Blackguard. So one and a black, so two total,

one of which is black. It's a 1-1 fairy rogue, so it's a creature. It's flying. Each of the rogue creatures you control enter the battlefield with an additional plus one plus one counter on it. Whatever creature you control with a plus one plus one counter on it deals combat damage to a player. That player discards the card. So this is the combination of a lot of themes. There's a bunch of cards in the set that grant plus one plus one counters to a particular card type, class type, when they enter the battlefield. This is part of that cycle.

And they all grant something to creatures that have plus one, plus one counters. So it's like, oh, well, so normally when we make what we call lords, the default sort of low-hanging fruit lord is all creatures that you control, of the creature type you care about get plus and plus one. Well, this sort of does that, except it's granting a counter. So it's not granted to the ones that are already there. It's granted to all the future ones that come out after it. And then it grants an ability

that is relevant to what the card is. So this one is, oh, it's granting the Specter ability, which is a saboteur ability. Whenever you do combat damage to the opponent, they discard a card. And so the idea is Una's Blackguard comes out, and then every fairy you play,

all of which should have flying, because fairies all have flying, so meaning they have evasion built in, now they're doing discard stuff. And fairies were the blue-black deck, and they were very, um, I mean, it was very blue-black, and it was sneaky, and it was definitely trying to get card advantage off the opponent. So doing damage and making them discard cards, very on theme for fairies.

Next, Orchard Warren. Orchard Warden. I'm sorry, Orchard Warren. Why is that so hard to say? Four green-green, so six men in total, two witches green. It's a four six treefolk shaman, so it's a creature. Whenever another treefolk creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may gain life equal to that creature's toughness.

So one of the things you're trying to do in a tribal set, especially when you have multiple different tribes, is you want to mix and match the abilities so that, you know, different creatures care about different things. And so one of the things that you like to do is, is there a way to make this play into the strength of the creature? Okay, well, I want to do a life gain card. So one of the nice things about giants is, A, tends to be a slower deck, and B, giants tend to be a little bit bigger, and they tend to have a decent amount of toughness.

So the idea here is I'm playing something, and when I do get a giant to come into play, you know, Barton Changelings and stuff, I'm probably getting a pretty big boost of a life gain. And so when I'm trying to beat you down with my big giants, life gain is sort of nice. It helps, you know, because I'm trying to stabilize because I'm obviously playing a slower deck.

And I tend to have creatures that have a lot of toughness to it. So the synergy is just there. It's very nice. Okay, next. Pack Disdain. It costs one and a black. It's an instant. And choose a creature type.

Target creature gets minus one, minus one until end of turn for each permanent of the chosen type. So this one's a little bit different. This is a scaling effect based on a chosen creature type. So normally in tribal sets, and sometimes outside of tribal sets, we do this, like, choose your own creature type cards. And the reason we do that is we like to make cards that are adjustable so that

you can sort of make the tribal deck you want to make. It acts as glue for all the, like, all the tribes we're supporting is like, oh, well, if you're playing black, this can go in any tribal deck that's playing black, and you just name the tribe that your deck cares about. The neat thing about this thing is it's a scaling effect that has sort of what we call sealing, which is, okay, I'm going to kill a creature.

The worst I can do with this is kill it. So let's say I have lots and lots and lots of creatures in play, lots of permanents in play. Okay, well, then I really kill it, you know. And the neat thing about this is, it's cheap and so it can come down early, but because you have to count the number of creatures, you know, it really changes in power over the time. So like early on, for

two mana, I'm getting, you know, minus two, minus two, minus three, minus three, something that's pretty fair. But later in the game, my two mana might get me a minus twelve, minus twelve, or minus thirteen, minus 13. So it definitely adjusts as you're playing. So that's kind of cool. Okay, next.

Reach of the Branches. Four and a green. So it is a tree folk. Hold on a second. Oh, I'm sorry. It's not a... I said tree folk, I'm thinking creature. It's a tribal instant. Tree folk.

Create a 2-5 green tree folk shaman creature token, and whenever a force enters the battlefield under your control, you may return the creatures from your graveyard to your hand. So the idea essentially is, this is a

repeatable token maker. So it's making 2-5 Treefolk tokens. That's a very quirky token to make. 2-5 tokens are not something we make very often. In fact, in the history of Magic, I mean, maybe there's one or two others, but this might be the only card that makes 2-5 tokens.

So it's pretty flavorful for a Treefolk. And 4 to green for a 2-5, not particularly good. But the idea that I keep getting it back, and all I need to do to get it back is play a Forest. One of the things we played up in this block was a synergy between forest and tree folk. We thought that was very fun. The flavor is very cool.

That, you know, plant tree, you play trees and get more tree folk. So we thought that was pretty flavorful. So the idea essentially is you're going to keep getting this thing back. So this is very much a repeatable effect. So 4G, 4 in a green, make a 2, 5, and getting to do that, you know, many, many times.

You have a lot of 4s in your deck. We thought it was pretty cool. And so the flavor is neat. I like the... It's not often we tie a basic land type to a creature, so that is a little bit different, and it's kind of cool. So I... Anyway, I think that's a cool card. to a creature. So that is a little bit different and it's kind of cool. So I think that's a cool card. I like it.

Okay, next. Rains of the Vines deal. So it costs three and a green, four mana, one of which is green. It's an enchantment, an aura, an enchant creature. Enchanted creature gets plus two, plus two. When enchanted creature dies,

you may return Rains of the that said from your graveyard to the battlefield attached to the creature that shares a creature type with that creature. Okay. So here's us making an open-ended card. Once again, this card wants to be in a tribal deck, but you choose. And even if it's not in a tribal deck, let's say playing limited, it still has some functionality. Basically the idea is it's an aura and tribal deck, let's say playing Limited, it still has some functionality. Basically, the idea is it's an aura, and we're always looking to find ways auras have the inherent offset of card disadvantage.

Because it's a card, I put it on my creature, and normally if you kill my creature, then not only do I lose my creature, but I lose the enchantment card. I'm getting two for one. And so, historically, enchantments have always been a challenging card type. And so one of the ways we play with it is we're always trying to find ways to help offset the card disadvantage. So this card offsets it by having it come back.

But it doesn't automatically come back. It only comes back if the creature you have it on shares a creature type with the other creature you have in play. And so one of the interesting things about this is when you're choosing what to put it on you kind of got to be conscious of what you have on the battlefield and maybe what you have in your hand. This is also a place where changelings do this cool thing where changelings function as intermediaries.

So let's say my creature dies. I have a tree for something that dies. I can move it to my changeling and then when my changeling dies I can put it anywhere because the changeling has all creature types. So it played very nicely with changelings and I thought it was a neat twist. Like one of the things I like

is how do we do things, like how do we solve problems but solve problems in a way that are key to the set we're making it in? You know, the aura problem is an ongoing problem that Magic has to solve. Well, it's kind of neat to say, oh, is there a solution, but a Lorewind, you know, block-themed solution? And tying it to tribal was, I thought, pretty cool. Okay, next, Revel Arc.

So Revel Arc costs four and a white. So it's five mana total, one of which is white. It's an elemental, a 4-3 elemental creature. It's got flying. When Revel Arc leaves the battlefield, return up to two target creatures with power two or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, and it has evoke, evoke five white.

You may cast spells for its evoke cost. If you do, it's sacrifice when it enters the battlefield. So the idea essentially is I have a four three flyer that when it dies, I get back two smaller creatures. Now note, by the way, it says power two or less. When I designed this card, because I designed this card, when I designed this card, it said CMC 2 or less. And I think Mike Turian led this set. He changed it from CMC to Power 2. Which, by the way, makes it lots

better! When it's CMC you're only getting cheaper creatures. When it's Power 2 or less, it could be a very expensive, very powerful but small creature. Where CMC 2, it tends to be, you know, a less powerful creature. So anyway, this is one, like I said, the evoke creatures in Morning Tide,

rather than have enter the battlefield triggers, have death triggers. So if you don't pay the evoke cost, it automatically goes away. I'm sorry. If you pay the evoke cost... I said that wrong. If you pay the evoke cost,

it gets sacrificed at any end of the turn. So this is a quirky card where its evoke cost is higher than its normal cost. Normally it costs four and a white, five mana. But it evokes for five and a white, six mana.

But because you can get back two creatures, a power two or less, which can be very powerful, especially later game, sometimes what you want to do is just do that. Like, sometimes I don't want to cast the creature, I just want to get back my two other creatures. So, for one more mana,

essentially you can convert it and say, I don't want to wait for this to die, I'm going to kill it. And so this is one of the things that's fun to play around with as we take mechanics and we play with them, is the fact that you can sort of do things that are a little antithetical to how they normally work. Like I earlier talked about a Prowl card that was more expensive.

Well, that's not how Prowl normally works, but it's fun to sort of say, hey, this one's a little different. Now, Revelark went on to be a very powerful tournament staple card. A very powerful card. And so, it turns out that sometimes you do want to pay more evoke, and that people will do that. Okay, next. Reese the Exiles.

Reese spelled R-H-Y-S. Two and a green. It's a legendary creature. It's a 3-2 legendary creature elf warrior when Reese the Exiled attacks you gain one life for each elf you control so it gains you life

and then for black sacrifice an elf you regenerate her so Reese is so one of the tricks we do on legendary creatures is in order to determine what colors you can be for a commander, your color identity,

it looks not just at your mana cost, but any mana symbols anywhere on the card. So this card, by having a black activation, for all intents and purposes, from a color identity standpoint, it's a black-green card. If you had this as your commander, you can play black and green cards. And what this does is, it combines the two abilities pretty nicely. It says, hey, you want to attack with me. I'm a 3-2, you know, for three mana, three mana, 3-2, and you gain life every time you attack with me. If I attack by myself, well, I'm an elf, so you gain one life, but in an elf deck, where I have lots of elves, you can gain a lot of life

because elf decks can be very aggro and attack a lot of creatures, and you can gain a lot of life. And then, now note, you can play this in a mono green deck, do that, and never have to use the black ability. That's possible. But if you have black mana, what you can do is you can sacrifice a different elf to save this elf. One of the things the elf deck does really well is it makes a lot of elf tokens and has

a lot of cheap one drops that later on aren't as important. So the idea is, since this thing's what's gaining you a lot of life, you know, you can sacrifice a different elf to keep this elf alive. And so, anyway, I know this card is, there's a bunch of people that play Commander with it. It's good. If you want to play an elf deck, and you want black and green elves, this allows you to play a black and green elf deck.

Okay, Roar of the Crowd. Three and a red. It's a sorcery, so four mana, one of which is red. Choose a creature type. Roar of the Crowd deals damage to any target equal to the number of permanents you control of the chosen type. So this is a lot like the black spell I talked about earlier.

It's a scaling effect, but based on something you choose. But it's a scaling effect that has a ceiling. Like, the best I can do is kill a creature. Oh, I'm sorry. This one does not have the ceiling. Sorry. That other spell costs two mana, and the best it can do is kill a creature. This can hit any target. So the best it can do is kill a creature. This can hit any target. So the best it can do is kill an opponent.

So this is much more powerful. That's why this costs twice as much, because it can hit any target. But the nice thing about this is direct damage is a very useful ability, something Red likes to do. And it says, okay, here's a direct damage spell. Look, just play a tribal deck. I'm very good in any tribal deck. You just put me in a tribal deck.

And one of the fun things about these choose your own stuff is that it allows players to craft tribal decks not necessarily out of the decks we've told them to play. Now, obviously, if you're playing in Limited or something, yeah, you're choosing one of the main things we're supporting here. But note,

even in Morning Tide Limited, there were eight races and five classes that all could be supported. So you had a lot of different choices of what you wanted to do. And one of the interesting things in Limited sometimes was not that your entire deck was all one thing. There was some crisscrossing, and then in the moment you could figure out what's the best play with this card. Next, Scarblade's Elite. Scarblade's Elite is black, black for a 2-2 elf assassin it's a creature tap exile an assassin card from your graveyard destroy target creature so one of the things we

did since this was the class um set was we made a bunch of one of class matter cards so assassin was not one of the supported classes for Limited, but there are some Assassins in it. There are Assassins in Lorwyn. Assassins in Magic. It's a creature type we do. This was an Assassin Lord. And what does an Assassin Lord do?

Uses Assassins to kill people. This one makes use of the graveyard, so the idea essentially is I have my Assassin deck, I'm doing all my stuff, and some of them are going to die because of the graveyard. So the idea essentially is I have my assassin deck. I'm doing all my stuff. And some of them are going to die because the nature of using assassins, you know, you have to attack with them or sometimes you sacrifice them. So this is using assassins in the graveyard as a resource. So it's sort of like, okay, play an assassin deck.

Hey, some of your assassins are going to die because assassins tend to be smaller in nature. And then this allows you to use that resource as a means to kill things. And it's two mana for a 2-2. Note that most assassins are black, so it's quite possible that an assassin deck would be mono-black, in which this is a two-drop. So black-black 2-2 is not hard to hit if you're playing a mono-black deck. So this was really geared toward a mono-black assassin deck.

But once again, well, there's some multicolored assassins, but I believe assassins is almost solely a black thing. Okay, next. Shine Wind. Did I say that correctly? Shine Wind.

So one and a white. So two mana, one of which is white. It's a 0-0 elemental. Flying. Shinewind enters the battlefield with a plus one, plus one counter on it. So it's a 1-1 essentially. One and white. Remove a plus one, plus one counter from Shinewind.

Destroy target enchantment. So what we did here is we made a creature. Now, it would not be uncommon for us to make a one white, one one, sack this creature, destroy target enchantment. We can make it like that. This is playing to the themes of the set. So rather than it just being a one one, it uses plus one, plus one counters. A, anything that rewards you for having plus one, plus one counters,

get rewards for this card. And if you get plus one, plus one counters on this card, like with Reinforce or something, it allows you to use it to destroy more than one enchantment. Every time you get a plus one plus one counter on it, now you have an additional use of the card. The card comes with only one use, so normally it can just kill one enchantment. But for one and a white for a flyer, like, yeah, one and a white, one and a flyer to sac to destroy enchantment. That's the kind of card we make, and this card just is upside.

You know, the plus one plus plus counter can enhance other things. You can use other, you know, if you can, you get multiple uses if you enhance this thing. So it's a good example of us taking something that we normally do and just finding a way to make it a little more this set.

Okay, next. Squeaking Pie Grubfellows. Three and a black. So it's a three, two, Goblin Shaman. It's a creature. Kinship. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may look at the top card of your library.

If it shares a creature type with Squeaking Pie Grubfellows, you may reveal it. If you do, each opponent discards a card. So I talked about Kinship before in a previous podcast. It was a new mechanic to this set. It was trying to play in the clash space of I have creatures that sometimes will do this thing, but not always.

And the way you increase the chance of it happening was the more tribal your deck was, the more often these effects go off. So this is a four mana 3-2 that some of the time I make my opponents discard a card and so also by the way, Squeaking Pie Grubfeld one of the things we were playing around with in Lorwyn and Morning Tide

was making our creatures a little less kind of vicious if you will, and so for some reason there's a lot of pie throwing and things a lot of I don't like you and I'll do things to you, but yeah, you know.

We were trying to make them a little less vicious than normal. I mean, they're still assassins and things, but a little less vicious. Lorwyn is the kinder. Shadowmoor is the dark, mean side of things, so it's a little nicer. Okay, next.

Stony Brook Schoolmaster. Okay, it's two and a white, so three mana total, one of which is white. It's a one-two merfolk wizard. It's a creature. Whenever Stony Brook

Schoolmaster becomes tapped, you may create a one-one blue wizard merfolk creature token. Okay, so each of the tribes had their own theme. So the merfolk, which was white and blue in Lorwyn and Morning Tide, had a tap as cost effect. And the way it worked is that if you tapped a certain number of merfolk to do something,

that was the cost of effects. Oh, tap three merfolk to do blah. So what this thing is doing is reinforcing that by saying, hey, you want to play me. If you tap me for an effect, I get to make more tokens, which then you can use those to tap for effect. Now, be aware, you could attack with this creature,

but it's a one-two. It's a three mana one-two. Not often you can attack with it and survive. So really this card was made as a means to reinforce the merfolk theme of tapping as a cost. But the idea is, if you're playing in that theme, it plays with the

theme and enhances the theme because you want to tap it to get the benefit, and the benefit you get is more creatures that you can use for tapping. And so this card definitely has a... If you were making the Merfolk deck, the white-blue Merfolk deck,

this was an auto-include. Interestingly, we stuck it in blue. I'm sorry, we stuck it in white, not blue, because we wanted you... It was a very strong card for the deck. We wanted you to play white-blue in your Merfolk deck, and making tokens is more of a white thing than it is a very strong card for the deck. We wanted you to play white-blue in your Morpho deck, and making tokens is more of a white thing than it is a blue thing.

And so we could be more aggressive on the white card of making tokens than we could be on the blue card. Okay. Next card. Titan's Revenge. Okay, Titan's Revenge costs X red red, so two red plus X of any generic mana.

It's a sorcery. Titan's Revenge deals X damage to any target. Clash with an opponent. If you win, return Titan's Revenge to its owner's hand. So remember, each clashing player reveals the top card of their library, then puts the card on the top or bottom of the library. A player wins if their hand has a higher converted mana cost. So Clash was in Lorwyn. We continued it in Guild Pact.

The idea was, I have a spell, and I don't know whether or not I'm going to have my bonus. And I can win the bonus the more I'm playing larger spells. Kinship was a little bit easier, because playing a deck all full of the same creature type is something that your deck thematically wants to do. Having lots of expensive things isn't really what your deck wants to do. You want your deck to have a curve to it, so you might play some more expensive things,

but you still need to play some cheap things. And land obviously has a converted amount of cost of zero, so if you hit a land but you still need to play some cheap things. And land obviously has a conferred amount of cost of zero. So, you know, if you hit a land, you're going to hit a zero. This card was definitely pushing the envelope of what we call, like, the variance, meaning how powerful is the effect? What's the differential between missing and not? And this is an X spell. That is a very powerful spell. And so the, if you hit, I get it back.

I get another X spell. I get a draw and X spell essentially was really, really a high variance. And so this was one of those cards where you worked really hard because there were some ways to set it up, you know, between, for example, let's say I have a different Clash card, I see the top card of my library, and I can choose to keep it on top, I might do that, setting myself up, so that I can try to hit this and get it back. Like if I know, for example, that I'm going to, or I think I'm going to win, I might cast a small Titan's Revenge, you know, killing something,

with a high probability that I'm getting it back, stuff like that. But this is definitely an example where we were pushing Clash a little bit. My guess is this was an attempt at maybe making a Clash that could be a constructed card. But the problem with Clash in general is that it's enough of a variance that Clash did not end up being...

I'm trying to... Maybe there were one or two Clash cards in Constructed, but I don't remember it being a particular powerhouse in Constructed. Usually you want consistency in your decks. So I think the only decks that played Clash might be ones where there were some means to guarantee that you, more of the time, would win. But in Limited, for example... I mean, you played the card in Limited.

Look, it was an X-Bow. Of course you play an X-Bow. But there are many dramatic moments with this card. This is definitely one of those cards that, like, your Limited game could hinge on, do I get the Clash? Like, for example, one of the things I know people would do sometimes is

my life total minus Red Red is half your life total. So if I can Titan's Revenge and win, the next turn I will win. And so that's a very dramatic clash. It's like, okay, I knocked your life total in half, and next turn, if I get this back,

I'm going to beat you. Okay, let's clash. And it's a very dramatic moment. I mean, the one thing I do like about that is I like, like I said, randomness makes for exciting moments. When the game can hinge upon it, it's cool in that it I like, like I said, randomness makes for exciting moments. When the game can hinge upon it, it's cool in that it's dramatic, but also players don't like feeling like the game comes down to a coin flip. So there's a balance of how much power you put in randomness, and that one

probably a little bit too high. Okay, next, Supreme Exemplar. Six and a blue, so seven mana total, one of which is blue. It's a 10-10 elemental, so it's a creature, flying, and it's champion and elemental. So when this enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you exile another elemental you control. When this leaves the battlefield, this card returns to the battlefield. So this was just a giant champion creature. And the idea is elementals really run the gamut of how big they are. We have Elementals at one drops all the way up. So this is sort of for your Elemental deck, saying, hey, as a finisher, for seven mana, you can have a giant creature. Ten-ten is a little big for seven mana.

But once again, you need to get to seven mana. One of the reasons this card worked in the Elemental deck was there are a bunch of ways in the Elemental deck to get extra mana. Because Elementals had a wide range of what they did, one of the side effects we do with Elementals is give them access to mana. So one of the reasons you play this Elemental deck is not just because it makes my Elementals help win the game, but I might be able to play like one of the red Elementals from Lorwyn that just helps me get extra mana so that long before I have seven mana, maybe I can get this out. And that's why this was in the elemental deck.

Okay. Next. Thornbite, oops, sorry. Oh, sorry, I forgot, I skipped one. Thornbite Staff, let me go back a second. Thornbite Staff costs two generic mana. It's a tribal artifact, Shaman Equipment.

It has Equipped Creature has two and tap. This creature deals one damage to any target, and whenever a creature dies, untap this creature. And then whenever a Shaman Creature enters the battlefield, you may attach Thornbite Staff to it, Equipped for. So this was another one of the cycle of

class cards, of equipment that snaps to the right thing. So this is another one of the cycle of class cards, of equipment that snaps to the right thing. So this is a staff, wants to be a shaman. You can do damage with your staff. And if you kill things and untap. So one thing you can do is, when I have this, if my opponent has a bunch of little things, kill a little thing and untaps it. Kill a little thing and untaps it. I can sort of mow down little things, for example. So it's a real good answer to, there's certain tribes that can spit out a lot of small tokens, and this can sort of mow down little things, for example. So it's a real good answer to, there's certain tribes that can spend a lot of small tokens, and this can be an answer to that. But anyway, this is the shaman part of the cycle.

Okay, next. Vidillion Click. One blue blue, so three mana total, two witches blue. It's a 3-1 legendary fairy wizard, so it's a creature. It's got flash, it's got flying, as most blue fairies do. When Vindillion Click enters the battlefield, look at target player's hand. You may choose a non-land card from it. If you do, that player reveals the chosen card, puts it on the bottom of their library, then draws a card. So this is a bend in blue to be kind of big bend in blue. Really, this is a discard card. Normally we would do discard in black. I think we were, because

fairies were playing this disruptive space, we were sort of messing with where you can bend blue. And the idea here essentially is kind of a kind of like a force loot although the fact that you're picking first what they discard makes it more of a force rummage so essentially the flavor we were going for is blue can discard a card to draw a card

or blue normally draws a card and discards a card but blue can loot meaning I'm going to trade a card in my hand for a card not in my hand and this this effect was trying to kind of mimic that as a means like how can i do discard in a black card oh well i'm sorry in a blue card instead of a black card well maybe if i do kind of a forced loot um i mean maybe i guess the way you do a forced loot is they draw a card then you make them discard a card. But even then, it's really pushing it.

It's really not... It's a pretty big bet for blue. Now, this card went on to be a very powerful... I mean, to this day, it's still played in... Any format that can play this card, there are decks that play this card. It's a very powerful card. And just because... While they're not going down this card, there are decks that play this card. It's a very powerful card. And

just because, while they're not going down a card, the fact that you're getting rid of a card that matters, you know, most of the time, if I make you get rid of your best card, you're not going to draw a card as good as that card. Sometimes you do. It's not, you know, it's not, this isn't quite as good as straight up discard

because I'm not, they are getting to replace it with another card. But it's a lot of up discard because I'm not, they are getting to replace it with another card. But it's a lot of utility, meaning I'm downgrading their best card to most likely not as good as their best card. So there's value to that. And that's interesting. I do like the card.

It's a little bit pushing of being a black card, but I do in general like the card. I mean, it's a cool card. Okay, next. Weed Pruner Poplar. So four and a black for a 3-3 Treefolk Assassin. So it's a creature.

At the beginning of your upkeep, target creature other than Weed Pruner Poplar gets minus one, minus one, until end of turn. So I'm not sure exactly how a Treefolk is an Assassin. I guess you don't see it coming because it's just like oh there's nobody here

just some trees but I like the idea that it's a tree folk assassin I like mixing and matching there's some fun flavor mixes this is probably the only tree folk assassin

I think in magic I mean barring changing things of course so this card basically the idea here is that I just get to shrink things every turn. If this were a set with minus one, minus one counters, maybe it would have minus one, minus one counters

and be more expensive, but it's not. So obviously there's a plus one counter theme. So anyway, this is just kind of a cute card. It's a tree folk for your tree folk deck. It's in black. And it's doing something kind of cool, which is it's giving you an answer to small creatures, which I think is

a fine thing for your Treefolk deck to want to have. Next, Weight of Conscious. One and a white, so two mana total, one of which is white. It's an enchantment aura. Enchant creature. Enchanted creature can't attack. Tap two untapped creatures you control that share a creature type. Exhale, enchant a creature.

So the idea here is you're sort of messing around with two different things. First off, it is like a pacifism, although they can block. It just keeps them from attacking. So it shuts them down from attacking. And then it allows you to get rid of the creature permanently. But in order to do that, you have to have two creatures of the same creature type. Once again, it doesn't tell you which creature type. So you can put this in any tribal deck that has white.

And not even necessarily a tribal deck. Just a deck that has some overlap. This is definitely a little bit of a bet in white. And that white is... I mean, white can get rid of any creature if you spend enough mana. So I guess the idea here is, while it's not mana, there's a hoop to jump through. And so it doesn't super efficiently get rid of creatures.

But I will say it's a little bit of a bend in that it's a little bit more efficient in getting rid of any creature than white normally. It's not that white can't get rid of any creature. We do make expensive uncommons and stuff that do that. But this one's a little bit cheaper,

especially in a tribal deck where tapping two creatures isn't the craziest of costs to achieve. Okay, next. Weirding Shaman. It's one and a black for a 2-1 Goblin Shaman. That's a creature, obviously.

And for three and a black, sacrifice a Goblin, create two 1-1 Black Goblin Rogue creature tokens. Now notice it doesn't say a non-token goblin for sacrifice. So, the cool thing is, once you get this out and get out another goblin, you can sacrifice that goblin to make two goblins. And now, you're netting goblins. Now, while you're, you know...

I mean, early on, you have to have a goblin to start. I mean, you can sacrifice it, but that's not... As strategies go, since it makes goblins, you kind of want to keep it around. But assuming you have another goblin to get the thing started, it then starts feeding itself. And so the idea is that once you get it going, it's going to eat one of the goblins it makes.

And so it's just going to essentially every turn make a goblin, assuming you have the mana to do that. And so it allows you to just sort of generate infinite goblins over time, which obviously is a good thing to do. Okay, guys, I am now at work, and luckily I finished up what I had to talk about. So anyway, I hope you guys have enjoyed this talk about Morning Tide. I did.

It's fun. It's fun going back. Like, you know, it's interesting to get back in the mindset of what we were doing in the set that I just made a long, long time ago. I mean, Morning Tide was many years ago, so it's kind of neat to see that, and I'm sort of,

it's fun for me to reminisce as much as for, I mean, I assume people who listen to this, either you are reminiscing because you also played it, or, oh, you don't know and you're hearing me talk about it and, you know, you're learning about Morning Tide for the first time. So anyway, for those that aren't paying attention, I did the Lorwyn thing. I'm doing Morning Tide now, which means the next one I plan on doing will be Shadowmore. I'm going to do the whole block.

But anyway, I hope you all enjoyed listening to this. It was fun doing it. But I'm now at work. So we all know what that means. This is the end all enjoyed listening to this. It was fun doing it. But I'm now at work. 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. Bye-bye.