Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #707: Tempest Cards, Part 3

Episode Date: January 24, 2020

This is part three of a four-part series of card-by-card design stories from Tempest.

I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the drive to work. Okay, so I've been talking all about Tempest, the very first set I ever led. And I'm up to red, so I've already talked about white, blue, and black. So we start with Apocalypse. So two red, red, red. So five mana total, three witches red, sorcery, exile all permanents, you discard your hand. So this card does something that red does not really do, which is it destroys enchantments. Now, it's not very pinpoint in its destruction. Part of destroying, like if I want to destroy enchantments in red with this card,

I got to destroy everything and throw away my hand. I gotta destroy everything and throw away my hand. So, um, this is definitely, I'm not sure whether it's a severe bend or a break. Um, it definitely is not, one of our big things about whether something's a break is how much it undermines the weakness. And I'm like, it's not as if I'm running into problems and enchantments that this card does a great job of solving that problem. It sort of gets rid of everything I have. I mean, it's a pretty back-against-the-wall solution, which in some ways is red. I don't know. But anyway, it's just unique in the sense that it did something that we don't do very

often in red. Okay, next. Chaotic Goo. So Chaotic Goo costs two in red. Okay, next. Chaotic Goo. So Chaotic Goo costs two red red. It's an ooze. It's a creature. Zero, zero. Chaotic Goo enters the battlefield with three plus one plus one counters on it. So essentially it starts as a three, three. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may flip a coin. If you win the flip, put a plus one plus one

counter Chaotic Goo. If you lose the flip, remove a plus one plus one counter from Chaotic Goo. So one of the things we tend to do from time to time is coin flip cards. This is a good example of a coin flip card. And the idea essentially is its size is going to grow and shrink sort of randomly. We started at 3-3. Now if it shrinks enough, it could die. Because if it gets to 0-0 it'll die. But statistically that doesn't happen a lot. It can happen. I guess one out of

eight times it'll die after you cast it. I mean, after three turns, one out of eight times, you would lose three times in a row. But anyway, for those who don't know, I'm a big fan of oozes. It's one of my favorite creature types. And so this is just us making a very random ooze. A chaotic ooze. A very random ooze. But I think it's a fun

card. I kind of bemoan we don't do a little bit more with coin flipping and stuff. Well, I agree that we need to keep that stuff away from tournaments because we don't want tournaments decided. We want the variants a little tighter for tournaments. But for more casual fun play, I think cards like this are a lot of fun.

Okay, next is Fireslinger. One and a red. It's a human wizard. It's a creature. One, one. Tap. Fireslinger deals one damage to any target and one damage to you. So we start making the transition.

So when magic first started, there was a card called Prodigal Sorcerer, which was a blue card that cost, I think, two and a blue, one, one. You could tap to do one damage to any creature. It didn't take us too long to figure out, like, well, is blue really supposed to be doing direct damage? That if you're going to have somebody who's a wizard who's pinging people with magic, yeah, that seems like it should be red.

So Fire Slinger was our first attempt, or an early, maybe not our first attempt, but an early attempt. And so what we did is we basically made Prodigal Sorcerer, except we made two changes. We made it one cheaper, and we had to do one damage to you.

So there's a repercussion for using the fire. So, I can harm other things, but I harm me as well. So, when I harm other things, I, the controller of the player, get harmed. So, anyway, I think this card saw some tournament play. Sorry. Gives it a hike to myself. But anyway, it's interesting. One of the things, if you go back and look at the history of Magic, is I think Richard made a lot of cards in Alpha that were sort of just top-down flavored.

And as we started sort of consolidating the color pie a little bit, making it more a little cohesive, and a lot of the decisions made in early Magic were made on a case-by-case basis, where, oh, well, let's just make decisions about this card in a vacuum. And what we found was, while each card was very flavorful, it had a problem where the systems weren't consistent. So, like, with the color pot, for example, we cleaned up a little bit, saying,

okay, well, these colors do this, that color doesn't do this. And so this is, like, the shift over to red sort of being pinging things. It's more of a red thing than a blue thing. Okay, next. Furnace of Wrath. One, red, red, red. So four mana total, three wishes red. You'll notice, by the way, that we were much more willing back in the day

to put a lot of colored mana symbols on stuff. We are more... Not that we don't do it these days, but we're more hesitant about it. So it's an enchantment. If a source would deal damage to a permanent or player, it deals double that damage to that permanent or player instead.

Who could have made this card? It doubles all damage. So for those who don't know, I love doubling things. I don't know why I love doubling things. It is fun. So anyway, this was me saying, like, if you look at the history of me making a lot of cards,

I just keep going, what else can we double? And this was very early on. It's the first set where I really designed for. I mean, I filled some holes before Tempest, but the first set that I really was designing for. And so I got to do all the things I'd always wanted to do. And one of them was, let's double damage! The playtest name for this card was Furnace of Wrath,

much like the playtest name for Death Pits of Wrath, so Death Pits of Wrath. And those two cards and how cool they sounded encouraged Michael and I to name the Plane of Wrath, Wrath, just because we like those card names. Goblin Bombardment. One and a red. Enchantment. Sacrifice a creature. Goblin Bombardment

deals one damage to any target. The idea here is that you can use creatures as a resource to do direct damage. This card ended up being really strong mostly because there's no mana cost to use it.

I'll tell you what my favorite story about Goblin Abardment is. So there used to be a pro player named Brian Hacker, who was a very good player, and he and his team were known for playing really aggressively. They were one of the first teams that really said, okay, in any format, what's the most aggressive you can be? And they were the ones that started on the path of what are the one drops, the two drops, you know, how do I make a curve that's really small and just, it's uber aggressive from the get-go.

And I remember I showed him Goblin Bombardment. Tempest was coming out and we were previewing cards. I went to him before he'd ever seen the card before. Back in those days, we previewed slower. It wasn't as... The website, the Magic website,

didn't really start in earnest until 2002. So, a lot of the people back then were done through a duelist. People weren't quite as aware of upcoming sets. And so, I remember going to a Pro Tour where we got to show off Tempest. We weren't playing it yet, but we got to show it off. And I showed Brian Goblin Bombardment because I'm like, oh, this is completely epic. This is a really strong card,

especially Unlimited. I mean, it was fine in Constructed. And so I show it to him, and Brian's initial response is, eh. I'm like, really, Brian? So I said, here's what we're going to do. We're going to play a game. I'm going to have Goblin Bombardment, and we're going to count how much damage I do with Goblin Bombardment. And I think I ended up doing 13 damage with it.

And at the end of the game, Brian said, Okay, I think you might be right. So anyway, Goblin Bombardment and a card called Forbid, which whenever I, whatever set Forbid's in, I have a similar story with John Finkel and the card Forbid. Those are my two stories where I went to an iconic pro player that's known for a certain style of play, showed them a card that would go on to be a staple of that style of play,

and had them go, ah, I don't know, and me go, no, no, it's good. Okay, next, hand-to-hand. Two and a red enchantment. During combat, players can cast instant spells or activate abilities that aren't mana abilities. So here's an interesting, this is a good example of a card where I designed the card to be, hey, just fight. Don't mess with the fight.

Don't giant growth. You know, it's like, you're going to fight and we're just going to, the bigger guy is going to win. But how this card ended up getting used is, by the way it's worded, back then, Circle Protection Red was a big problem for Red, and it's activated during combat to prevent the damage. So the way Hand to Hand worked was it prevented the activation of Circle Protection, so, um, it ended up being this answer to Circle Protection Red, um, which is kind of funny, because, like, um, you know,

it's a good example where you make a card do one thing and it ends up having a completely different function. And so, anyway, that was very interesting to me. Okay, next. Jackal Pup. Costs a single red mana. It's a 2-1. A jackal, it's a creature. Whenever Jackal Pup. Cost a single red mana. It's a 2-1. A Jackal, it's a creature. Whenever Jackal Pup

is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to you. So the idea was, it was a 2-1 for a single red mana. At this point, only white had had that. White had Savannah Lions. Green had had some 2-1s for green, but then they had some 2-1's for green but then they had some drawback there were 2 powered 1 drops

in green but anyway the first time we did it in red and we were super cautious we were like okay well you get 2-1 for 1 but all damage to it so whenever it gets in a fight you take the damage now be aware it's a 2-1 so when when it takes damage, it's going to die.

But the idea is, when it dies, it is going to do a bunch of damage to you along the way. Even with this drawback, this was a really powerful card. And the reason was that red was very aggressive by nature, and having a 2-1 for red, even with a drawback, even with, okay, I'm going to lose some life with just such an efficient creature, and really good in an aggressive red deck, that it saw a lot of play. Okay, next, Kindle. One and a red, instant.

Kindle deals X damage to any target, where X is 2 plus a number of cards named Kindle in all graveyards. So the idea is, I cast a Kindle, it does 2 damage. I cast a second Kindle, it does 3 damage. And now, it's counting not just my graveyard, but all graveyards. So other people casting Kindle also make the Kindles bigger. But each Kindle, no matter who, like, the first Kindle cast in a game by anybody does 2 damage. The second, 3 damage. The third, 4 damage. 5 damage. The third, four damage. Five damage. And anyway, the reason this came about was

I was trying to come up with a way to do spells that were kind of like Plague Rat. In fact, I think the playtest name for Kindle was Plague Bolt. And the idea was, I liked the idea that as you had more of them, they got better, but how do you do that

with a spell? And I finally came up with the idea of, well, what if you just looked at your graveyard? So, when I first cast it, it does just two damage, but the second one will look in the graveyard and seize it, and now it does three. Now, back then, we tended to make effects global, so whenever, like, you know, if you made goblins plus one, you get all the goblins plus one, but not just yours. So this is in that era. Nowadays, we make Kindle-type spells.

We just look at your own graveyard, not everybody's graveyard. But anyway, I'm very proud of Kindle. Not only was Kindle a fun card, but it really was the model of a mechanic that we ended up using. We've used a bunch over the years. And so I do think that Kindle has a soft spot in my heart because it really was it was me experimenting and making something, but it really was a pretty

revolutionary card design-wise that really inspired a lot of things down it. Like one of the things that's interesting is sometimes you make a card, it's just a fun card. But sometimes you design a card and it really kind of like opens a pathway and a lot of cards get designed because of it. And Kindle is one of those kind of cards.

So from a game design standpoint, from a magic design standpoint, I'm really proud of it because it definitely was me sort of discovering this new vein of design. So anyway, very proud of it. Next, Mog Fanatic Red. 1-1 Goblins is a creature. Sacrifice Mog Fanatic. It deals one damage to any target. So we were trying to come up with a one-drop you might want to play. I'm like, okay, well, it's a one-drop, and whenever you want, you can sac and do one damage.

Very good. That ended up being quite good. Mog Fanatic, I mean, Jackal Pups I'll play, Mog Fanatics I'll play. So I'll play in the same deck. So, red aggressive decks. The idea of having a one drop so you can fill out your curve. And doing one damage can be, especially when you're like,

I'm trying to just get through with my creatures, the idea that I can sort of attack and whenever I need to, but for no mana, you know, I can use that to do the extra point, really makes it harder for my opponent to sort of stop me. And it ended up being actually a quite powerful level of effect.

And also the Tempest, Tempest also had us playing around a little bit more with the idea of how you could take a known staple creature like Goblin and really change up how Goblins look. It's the first time we had an in-house design team, Tempest was.

And we really sort of took some of the classic creature types that we did and really re-envisioned how they looked. So Wrath was one of the first places where the Goblins looked very, they were called Mugs, they looked very different. And the Merfolk looked different, and the Elves looked a bit different. So I thought that was kind of cool. Okay, next, Rolling Thunder. X, red, red. So, red is, um,

it's an X spell, but with two red mana. It's a sorcery. Rolling Thunder deals X damage, divided as you choose, among any number of targets. Okay, so, in Mirage, we had a card called Caravex Torch, which was an X spell, and you could spend X and one red mana to do X damage to any target. That was really good. I mean, people were splashing red just to play that.

That's how good it was. And so I'm like, okay, how do we fix that problem? I'm like, oh, well, what if we made it not splashable? What if instead of having one red mana, it requires two red mana? Note, I didn't move the X spell out of common, which is the correct answer. So we ended up making... Rolling Thunder is insane. Rolling Thunder is still something you probably splash

for because it's so good. Now, given it's harder to splash for double red than it is single red. But, um... Anyway, it's a good example of me recognizing a problem, trying to fix the problem, and like making it better than it was, but not exactly fixing the problem. You know, like, I did something where, like, it's still, it's a good example where it is something that I, it was noticeable that it, I mean, it wasn't as flashable. But, anyway, it's a good example of early days in magic.

We were definitely recognizing problems and incrementing, but we didn't really wrap our brain about all the problems that we had. Like, we've learned so much about Magic over the years. And it's funny now looking back and saying, in Expel, a common that kills multiple things? Like, what were we doing? But I also understand that, like, you know, like, one thing that's very interesting, when you look back at anything, you know, like, one thing that's very interesting,

when you look back at anything, you know, like, take cars, you look back at the Model T, well, yeah, the Model T by today's standards seems pretty antiquated, but compared to what became before it, which was nothing, it's, it's quite advanced. So, um, I give myself, you know, an eye, and my, my fellow R&D members of the time, okay, look, we were learning, uh. And we made a lot of advances. I think Tempest did a lot of things different than stuff before. And I think Tempest was a big step up in Magic design. But did we understand everything?

Did we fix everything? Nah, no, we didn't. Okay, next, Searing Touch. Single red, instant. Buy back four. So you may pay an initial four mana as you cast the spell. If you do, put this card back in your hand as it resolves. Searing Touch deals one damage to any target.

So this was one of the first buyback spells we made. And originally it was buyback two. I've explained this before, but it's real quick. When we were trying to figure out buyback, we were like, oh, well, buyback is like getting a card. So

normally if we were going to add mana, like take an effect and make it a cantrip, we would add two mana to it. Like Counterspell is blue-blue, but Dismiss is two blue-blue. So we're like, oh, it's kind of like getting an extra card. Okay, we'll just cost it like it's a cantrip. The problem is, A, it's not just one extra card.

I mean, every time you're casting it, you're getting another card. And B, it's not a random card. 40% of the time, it's not land. It is always the same card that you know what it is, which has some effectiveness to it. So, Searing Touch ended up being pretty good. But it's funny how we kept adding mana to it. I mean, I think, if I remember correctly, it cost 2 mana, then it cost 3 mana, then it cost

4 mana, then I think for briefly it cost 5 mana, and then we're like, what? And we put it back to 4 mana. I'm not sure whether 4 mana was correct. Buyback in general is pretty strong. Okay, next. Stark of Wrath. So Stark of Wrath costs 1 red red. He's a 2-2 human rogue. He's a legendary creature. Tap, destroy target artifact or creature.

That permanent gains control of Stark of Wrath. And this effect lasts indefinitely. So when I destroy something, I can destroy a creature or an artifact. Then my opponent gets it. Okay, so for those that don't know, Stark, in the Weatherlight Saga, Sisay, the captain of the Weatherlight, gets kidnapped by Volrath. And Volrath also captures Stark's daughter, a woman named Takara.

And Stark is the kind of person that is an opportunist. He works for whoever he needs to. And so what happened was Stark is upset with Volrath because he kidnapped his daughter, but he has no way to rescue his daughter. So what he does is he goes and finds Gerard because he knows that Gerard, through means, he knows that Gerard used to be on the Weatherlight.

And he wants Gerard's help. And he says, look, Sisay's been captured. Oh, I think what happens is, well, Sisay gets captured. The Weatherlight crew comes to get Gerard because they need his help going to get Cissé. And then through means, Gerard figures out that Stark might have information for them. I think that's how it happens. And anyway, they find Stark. Stark's about to be killed by a guy named Meraxus. They stop Meraxus. And then, and by stop it, I mean they are

saving Stark and then when no one's looking, I mean they are saving Stark, and then when no one's looking, Stark stabs Meraxes in the back. A little symbol that starts with that, super trustworthy. Anyway, Stark says to them, if you help me rescue my daughter, I will give you information of how to, you know, I know how to get into the castle. I used to live there. You bring me along. I'll help get you there.

Because one of the problems they had early on was Sissy was captured, but they didn't know where. Where was she? Okay, somebody kidnapped Sissy. Where's Sissy? So Stark was the one that said, okay, you need to go to the Planet of Wrath. You need to go to Volrath Stronghold.

So they bring Stark along. But Stark is very untrustworthy. And they kind of know he's untrustworthy. So, this card is supposed to represent the idea that he he'll work for however he needs to work for. So, he's your creature. You cast him. But once you use him,

oh, now he's working for somebody else. Now, this card is a little outdated in that we no longer let Red do straight up creature destruction red does direct damage red doesn't destroy target creature anymore it deals damage to creatures and obviously that means

it's easier to kill smaller things for red than bigger things but the other thing that's interesting is that I think philosophically if you look at Stark the character, Stark maybe is a little more mono-black than he's mono-red. He's super selfish and is always looking out for himself. Although, I guess the reason maybe we made him red is he is taking great lengths for his daughter.

But anyway, the character in my mind probably should have been black and not red, looking back on it. Um, I think we had a bunch of black characters and we didn't have a lot of red characters. And so, I mean, maybe the truth is this character is a black red character and we didn't have a lot of multicolor cards. But anyway, we wanted to have, I mean, he was technically a member of the crew, um, at least at the time. And so we wanted to represent him.

Um, what ends up happening to Stark, for those that don't know the crew, at least at the time, and so we wanted to represent him. What ends up happening to Stark, for those who didn't know the story, is he ends up getting killed in Mercadia by a Volrath in disguise. Volrath's a shapeshifter, and so Volrath kills Stark. That was supposed to be a giant murder mystery, and we were going to plan clues throughout the set,

and it was going to be a big puzzle for the players to figure out who killed Stark. And the answer was... The answer was... Takara, but Takara secretly is Volrath in disguise. Volrath was the real answer. Anyway, that didn't happen. Michael and I, for those who don't know the story, got let go from the story

during, kind of during Exodus. And so by the time Mercadia came around, we were not doing the story anymore. So, I mean, some of our story did happen. So Stark did get killed by Bolgoth, but there was no murder mystery. Okay, next. Sudden Impact. Three in the red. It says four mana total, one of which is red. It's an instant. Sudden impact deals damage to target player equal to the number of cards in that player's hand. Okay, so in Legends, there was a card called Stormseeker, which was exactly this card,

except in green. The only problem there is green doesn't do direct... I mean, green's not supposed to be doing direct damage. I'm sure the people who made it said, oh, Hurricane does direct damage, but we really have pulled back from green doing direct damage to players. We still let green do a little bit

of direct damage to Flyers. That's about it. So what we said is, that's a really cool card. I mean, I think I made this card, but I like Storm Seeker. It's a cool card. Players like it. It's just in the wrong color. Let's just make it in the right color. But what color would do damage to you based on the size of your hand?

Red. So Sudden Impact is exactly, exactly Stormseeker except shifted from green to red. That's all it is. But I felt like the card was a cool card. It deserved to have a home. And so we just moved it to the proper colors. Okay, now we get to green. Okay, Aluren.

So two green greens, so four mana total. Two hits is green. It's an enchantment. Any player may cast creature spells that can earn mana cost three or less without paying their mana cost and as though they had flash. I think this is a Mike Elliott card. So the idea here is

either Mike or I made this. You can cast cheap creature spells for free. So the idea is as long as the creature spells cost three or less, they're free to cast. Green is one of the big creature colors. Early in the day, green had the biggest and the most creatures. Eventually we divided, so white has the most, but green has the biggest. But anyway, this was back in the day when green was more about all creatures. Now, green's

more about bigger creatures, white's more about smaller creatures. But anyway, this was back in the day when green was more about all creatures. Now, green's more about bigger creatures. White's more about smaller creatures. But anyway, this was a spell that really lets you play creatures. And there's another card I'll get to called Recycle. And a learn and recycle together were a combo. There's a whole deck around them. Recycle, I think we'll get to Recycle. It had to do with card flow. And so this lets you play things that are free

and that lets you draw more cards so you combo together. Next, Apes of Wrath. Two green green. It's a 5-4 ape. When Apes of Wrath attacks, it doesn't untap. Turns controller's next untap step. So the idea is it's a 4-mana 5-4, which back in the day was a big deal.

Now it's not as big a deal. But back in the day, you were getting a lot for your free mana. And the idea was, well, it can only attack every other turn, so it doesn't untap. So the idea, it's big. This card came about, well, what happened was when Michael and I decided to name the plane Wrath. So we liked Furnace of Wrath and Death Pits of Wrath. Once we said we were going to name the plane Wrath, I, about three seconds later, said, oh, we've got to make a card called Apes of Wrath. So I did.

I'm not sure who designed this actual card. It's quite possible that we looked for a card that made sense to be called Apes of Wrath and named it that. I think the idea we were liking is we wanted to get green some bigger creatures for cheaper, and we're just looking for drawbacks to do that. So this is us going, okay, I want to make a big green creature that's not too expensive. Okay, what do I need to do to do that? And so the untap thing

was the means by which we did that. Okay, next. Earthcraft. So one and a green enchantment. Tap an untapped creature you control. Untap target basic land. So in Alpha, there was a card called Laidruid. And so Laidruid I think cost two and a green. It was a 1-1. And you could tap it to untap a target land. Actually, Laidruid was actually in the

first, Zach Dolan's very first winning U.S., or not U.S., World Championship deck, back in 1994, had a Laidruid in it. Now be aware, there were a lot of non-basic lands, like Library of Alexandria and stuff that you might want to untap.

Anyway, Earthcraft, the idea of Earthcraft was all your creatures become, Earthcraft was all your creatures become... The idea was all your creatures become laidroids. But to make it slightly better, instead of grafting that ability onto all creatures, it just lets you tap an untapped creature, which you can do even with a summoning sick creature. Because the cost is on the Earthcraft, not on the creature. If I had said all creatures gain un, untapped-oriented land,

then if you have Summoning Sickness, you wouldn't be able to use it. So Earthcraft was very good. There was a deck, multiple decks built around it. It was a very, very powerful card. Okay, next. Eladamri, Lord of Lees. Green, green. It's a 2-2 elf warrior, legendary creature.

Other elves have Forest Walk, meaning they can't be blocked as long as they're defending the control of Lees. Green, green. It's a 2-2 elf warrior, a legendary creature. Other elves have Forest Walk, meaning they can't be blocked as long as the Fendicare controls the forest. Other elves have Shroud, meaning they can't be the target of spells or abilities. It was not called Shroud at the time. Future Sight would invent the keyword Shroud, but it was exactly

what Shroud was, so I'm giving you, I think, the Oracle update, not the as was written-written-on-the-card. So Eladamri was the leader of the elves. The elves play a big role in the Tempest story. When Gerard falls over the side of the ship and crashes in the forest, using some magic to keep himself alive, which is why he doesn't die. He studied magic under Multani. Most people forget that. Anyway, he met with El Dromery

and El Dromery ended up becoming an ally with him. So part of them going to rescue Sisay had to do with the elves attacking the stronghold from the outside, which was led by El Dromery. That ended up not, which was led by El Dromery. That ended up not going quite as well. El Dromery plays a later role later in the story when we go back to Wrath.

But anyway, he's the leader of the elves. We wanted to make an elf lord. For some reason, we decided not to do plus one, plus one. Maybe because we had a lot of different cards that had done lords with plus one, plus one. So we decided to give elves... We were trying to be super flavorful. So the idea is, well, elves, they're sneaky. So A, they have forest walk. So if anyone is playing forest, they can sneak through the forest, but they're elves.

And they have shroud. They're hard to target. So the idea was it made elves harder to block and harder to target. So it sort of protected the elves. So Elodomri, by the way, Michael named Elodomri. So Elodomri, Michael's parents are Irma and Dale. And so Elodomri is Irma-Dale backwards. That's where the name Elodomri comes from. But anyway, that was Elodomri.

So that was our... I'm not sure if he was the first elf. I think he might have been the first elf lord. I'm not sure if there was an elf lord before Eladamri. I think he might have been the first elf lord. We would make better elf lords later. Both Urza Saga and Lorwyn would make much better elf troops. Okay, next.

Harrow. So Harrow costs two and a green. It's an instant. As an additional cost it casts a spell, sacrifice a land, search your library for up to two basic land cards, put them onto the battlefield, and shuffle your library. So I was trying to riff around with land fetching.

And the idea here is that you could go get two lands, but to make it so it was a little cheaper, you sac the land to go get two lands. But to make it so it was a little cheaper, you sacked a land to go get two lands, but it allowed you to color fix and stuff. This spell was originally called Crop Rotation. It changed its name, although another spell would then become Crop Rotation.

I thought Crop Rotation was an awesome name, by the way. I'm kind of sad that they changed the name. But anyway, this ended up being a pretty good spell. We would later bring it back during Zendikar, because Zendikar is landfall, and this was like a set that cared about land enters the battlefield. So anyway, this was a fun spell that we would later bring back.

It's just a nice design spell. Crackle in. X, green, green. Creature, beast. So it's a 0-0. It enters the battlefield with X plus 1 plus 1 counters on it. So whatever you pay for X. And then 1 and a green regenerate Crackling.

So originally this card had been, it was called Creature Ball, and it was X and a green mana. So the idea was it just made an XX creature. I was told that was too good. It turns out it's not too good, but we didn't know that. Our creatures were weaker back then. We've since made them stronger. So instead of making XTMN, XTG,

but since that was a bit weaker, we added in the regeneration to it. So this was Creature Ball. I would later go to make, I think it's Ivy Element. I would later go make the XG spell because as I realized that creatures were getting better, I came back and pitched it again and did it. Okay, Mirri's Guile.

One green mana, enchantment. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order. So here is Scrying. So I talked about how there's a card in the set that did Fate Seal. There was a card in the set that essentially did Scrying. So both Scrying and Fate Seal did exist in the set. I mean, not named or anything. But this is, I think, the earliest example.

Although there might have been a card. I'd take that back. There are some blue cards in Legends that sort of looked at the top of the library and put some stuff back. Sometimes you have to keep a card, too. So I guess that is the first Sc Legends that sort of looked at the top of the library and put some stuff back. Sometimes you have to keep a card too. So I guess that is the first scrying, sort of. Anyway, back in the day, green used to have

one thing in Green's Color Pie was library manipulation. It wasn't that it was great at drawing, but it could sort of mess with your library to get you better draws. There's a few cards in here that do that. We've since moved that off and could sort of mess with your library to get you better draws. There's a few cards in here that do that. We've since moved that off and said, you know what, that really is a blue thing.

That's not a green thing. Green's a little more, green's less about what's coming up and what's in the library and more about in play and the creatures and stuff. Mirri, by the way, is the cat warrior who is best friends with Gerard. She and Rofellos, the elf, studied with Gerard under Multani, magic. And when Rofellos, so in the story, the reason that Gerard left the weather,

the reason they have to go get him again, is his friend Rofellos dies, and he and Miri both leave the ship because they're very saddened by Rofellos' death. So. Okay. Next. Muscle sliver.

So one in a green. One one creature. Sliver. All sliver creatures get plus one plus one. So secretly it's a two two. Because it affects itself. Because all slivers affect themselves. Um.

So. This was a big fight. The idea of making one green tutu, so it's a grizzly bear, but it's better than a grizzly bear. And at the time, we were like, better than a grizzly bear? I don't know if we can make better than a grizzly bear, which is ironic now

that we've made hundreds of better than grizzly bear. But it was a big fight at the time. It was a big in development. I mean, we designed it this way, but in development, there was a big talk about, was it too good? We ended up doing it, and it ended up being a very good card.

Muscle Sliver definitely was... When Sliver decks were played early on, Muscle Sliver definitely was a big player in them because it's a very efficient way to make your slivers bigger. And as I said, slivers were carried over from Mike Elliott's After Ways set.

So we ended up making, I think, two cycles of slivers in Tempest. And then we made another cycle, a multi-color cycle in Stronghold. And then, I don't think there were any slivers in... I guess it is. I don't think there were any slivers in... I guess it is. I don't think there were. Anyway, this was definitely one of the best of the slivers, and probably the best sliver in Tempest.

And if nothing else, if you were just playing this card, forget playing other slivers. Just the idea that this was a 2-2, then a 3-3, then a... One was a 2-2, two were 2-3-3s, 3-4-4s, and 4-5-5s meant that just this card by itself got very good. Now add in the

other slivers, and it got, I mean, even better, so. Okay, next. Overrun. Two. Green, green, green. Sorcery. Creatures you control get plus 3, plus 3 and gain trample until end of turn. So this is another sort of iconic magic card that premiered here.

Overrun has showed up many times in many places. It really reinforces what we like green to be. Green is all about winning with its creatures. And so the idea of get a lot of creatures out and the idea of get a lot of creatures out and then, you know, just overrun people with, I mean, literally overrun, with giant creatures was just something that was very,

it just felt super green. I mean, obviously the fact that we've reprinted the card so many times really reinforces how green the thing felt. So, you know, that is something that was, I don't know, it is, like I said, it's neat to make something so iconic that it just becomes something that you do again and again in the thing.

Okay, Recycle. I said I'd mentioned this before. So Recycle is four green green enchantment. You skip your draw step. Whenever you play a card, draw a card. Your maximum hand size is two. So the idea is when I play this card, there's a big cost that comes with this card. A, my hand size is two, so at the end of the turn, I discard down to two.

And the second thing is, I skip my draw step. I don't get a draw step. Now, what do I get for that? I get that whenever I play a spell, I draw a card. Now that is a dangerous trade-off, because, A, you can draw land, right? And land doesn't get you another card. Oh, I said, when you play a card, maybe when you play a land, you draw a card.

I first said, when you play a card. I guess maybe when you play land, you draw a card, because that's when you play a card, and you do play land. It doesn't say when you cast a card. So, okay, I guess you get a card off of playing land. Anyway, this was teamed up with Aluren, and the idea of Aluren is Aluren says you can play creature cards

cost 3 or less for free. So if your deck is all full of cheap creature cards and this spell, then when you get both Aluren and Recycle out, you just sort of dump your hand. It's like, I play all the creatures in my hand, and then I draw cards for all the creatures that are in my hand, and then I play all those creatures,

and I keep going until I run out of steam. But, oftentimes, I would get such a large quantity of creatures out that on the next turn, I could defeat you. And, depending on what you played, like, there's this card called Concordant Crossroads,

which was in Legends, that gave all creatures haste, for example. It's possible that Tempest and Legends, did they overlap? I'm not sure. I guess they didn't. But anyway, at least in larger formats, you can combo those two things together.

They were very good. Okay, next, Root Wallah. Two and a green for a 2-2. It was a lizard. It's a creature. So for one and green, it gets plus two plus two until end of turn. You can activate the ability only once per turn. So the idea was it's a lizard that can

blow itself up to make itself bigger is the idea. So it's a 2-2 that can make itself a 4-4. The real idea of it is it is something that sort of has a 4-4. The real idea of it is it is something that sort of has a built-in giant growth. I mean, it's a mini giant growth, but that was the idea of it. This was a Mike Elliott card, I'm pretty sure.

So the idea was that it had a built-in giant growth, you could only use it once, it couldn't become infinitely bigger. And the flavor of it was it was a lizard that could sort of blow up and expand to make itself bigger. The funny thing is when Mike made this card, he named it Chuckwalla. Chuckwalla is an actual lizard that blows itself up.

The artist who got the card didn't realize that Chuckwalla was an existing creature that existed in the world, and so he made up a sort of fantasy lizard. And so we ended up changing the name because it wasn't actually a chuckwalla. A chuckwalla is a certain kind of lizard. So we made a rootwalla. And this is another card, kind of like Kindle, that really become a staple ability. Like the idea of I can activate once per turn, make myself bigger on green, is something we do all the time in green now.

So this definitely was, it was the first time we did it, but it's something that really inspired us to do a whole bunch of stuff. Okay, how am I doing? Okay, I have two more cards, and then I'll be done with green. And then next time we'll do gold and artifacts. Scragnoff, Forna Green, Creature, Beast. This spell can't be countered. Protection from blue, 3-4. So this card was originally called Greased Weasel.

So the idea was, I liked the idea that there was an answer to everything. And at the time, blue counter spell decks, permission decks as they called them, were really good. I just counter everything. Well, how do I stop a deck that just counters everything? And I'm like, okay, well we should make something that really blue has trouble handling. So A, it's got protection from blue, so we can't target it. But the biggest problem with blue is that it just counters things, right? So then I can create a protection from blue. Well, if you just counter it, it's got protection from blue, so it can't target it. But the biggest problem with blue is that it counters things, right? So then it can create protection from blue. Well, if you just counter it, it never comes into play. So we did an ability we'd never done before, which is

can't be countered. And originally, it's funny, when it first got templated, it was a really lengthy, like, while on the stack, this can't be the target. And I finally said, can't we just say can't be targeted? And they go, okay, I guess we could. And so this is the first can't be targeted spell. We would later do a lot more. Green does it on creatures.

Red does it on spells. Blue does it somewhat on spells. It showed up in other places. But this is the first time we did can't be countered. Oh, the other interesting thing about this is, this was, this and duplicity were the two cards that I had made the earliest in magic, like before I came to, back in my days when I was just making cards for fun. They're the two cards that I made earliest in my life, chronologically, that ended up in a magic set. And I think, I didn't know which of the two of them was older, but they both were like way before I came to Wizard. I think Scrag Moth was the first one I made, just because I was playing against blue decks,

and I'm like, ah, I need an answer against blue decks. So I made one. Okay, the final card in green that I'm going to talk about is Spike Drone. So Spike Drone costs one green mana. Spike Drone enters the battlefield with a plus one plus one counter on it, so it's a one one, essentially, to remove a plus one counter from Spike Drone, put a plus one counter on target creature. So this, in Stronghold, we had a series of creatures called the Spikes.

And all the Spikes came with some number of plus one, plus one counters. All of them could move their plus one counters for two mana. And then some of them also had an additional ability for how they could use the counters. And the idea is when you get a spike out, you can make any other creature bigger, or you could share the counters between the spikes, and they can use them in different ways. We decided, so I made the spikes in Tempest Design. We ended up pushing them back to be in Stronghold, but we made a teaser. We put a little teaser in. So we put the absolute simplest one, which is, you know, 1-1.

That's all it did. It didn't do anything else. We put it in Tempest as a little teaser of things to come. So when they showed up in Stronghold, it was a little teaser. That, my friends, was Spike. I made the Spike mechanic. I was very proud of the Spike mechanic. It's very board intensive, so it's something we haven't done a lot of since, but I did like the mechanic. It's also neat that you can use it with any creature, but the synergy it has with other Spikes

is, if you put it on another spike, the other spike can still move it. And so moving between spikes, like, there's a reason why you want to play extra spikes with it, but it doesn't require you. So it has a tribal component that is, there's synergy there, but it's not required. So anyway, I thought that was pretty cool.

Okay, guys, so I'm up through green. So next time, hopefully, probably next time will be my last one. I will talk multicolor. I will talk artifacts. So anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying hearing all about Tempest. But anyway, I'm at work. So we all know that means it's the time to end. It's the end of my drive to work. I messed that up.

We all know that means it's the end of my drive to work. I also mess up the beginning a lot. I just always re-record it. So for those that go, you end up the ending all the time, but you never mess up the beginning. Anyway, guys, instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. So I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.