Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #722: Top 10 Blocks

Episode Date: March 13, 2020

In this podcast, I talk about what I consider to be my top 10 Magic blocks.

I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so today is another top 10 list. I haven't done a top 10 list in a while. So today is the top 10 blocks. Okay, so for many years, over about 25 years, we made 25 different blocks. Starting with Ice Age block, ending with Ixalan block, and then we sort of dissolved the block model. But, so we have 25 different blocks. So today, I'm going to go through and pick what I consider to be the top 10 blocks.

So a few caveats before I get to my list. First off, I'm judging them as whole blocks. It's not just a matter of blocks that had good sets in it, per se. I'm sort of judging it as the essence of the whole thing. And that means, A, I'm judging it sort of mechanically how it held together. I'm judging it story-wise how it held together. What just, as a whole entity, was a great block. Now note, for today, I'm not taking into account how well they sold necessarily.

I'm taking into account what I, this is me as someone who put together a lot of these blocks, judging sort of what I think of them and what ones excite me most as just blocks trying to do something really interesting. Anyway, the other caveat I always give when I do top 10 lists is,

this is my opinion today. Maybe if you asked me a month from now, I'd be slightly off, slightly different. But this was the top 10 list I made today. Okay, so at number 10 for best blocks, Amonkhet. So Amonkhet was, in fact, it's the only two-set block on my list. The thing I liked about Amonkhet was it did something

with a story that I thought was pretty interesting. I mean, there's a couple blocks on this list that I thought had interesting stories and played with the block in interesting ways. Amonkhet was interesting in that it was a piece of a larger story. It was part of the Bola saga. And this is the part of the story where our heroes, this is the end of Act 1, where heroes

come to do what they think is the right thing, but they're not really thinking it through and they don't quite understand how dangerous the enemy is, and they get their butts kicked. They get, you know, they lose in Act 1. So, and one of the things that's really cool was, about Amonkhet, was one of the things we said when we built it was we were trying to combine two things. One was we were doing top-down Greek, not Greek mythology, top-down Egyptian mythology. And we were making it feel like Bolas.

Because the idea, for those who don't know the story real quickly, is Nicola Bolas, as part of a master plan, found this plane and sort of reshaped it in this image. And so one of the things that we did when we made the block is we said that this world was part Egypt, part Bolas. And the idea was that the first set was a lot of Egypt with a little Bolas, and the second set was a lot of Bolas with a little Egypt. And so we really sort of set up something where there was something where we got... Like, this set really has an event that happens, right? It is sort of... The first set is the Gatewatch.

And the five main Gatewatch. So Gideon and Jace and Chandra and Liliana and Nyssa show up and they come expecting like this horrible place because they know Bolas is here. But when they show up, the people are happy. Now, the world is kind of a weird world and, you know, it definitely is something that strikes our heroes as being something very odd and off-putting, but it is normal for our world. And so the idea is we created this cool sense of there's a disconnect between how you, the players, and representing our heroes felt about the world that seemed a little off and

how the people themselves saw the world. Like, the heroes came thinking they're going to save the people from Bolas and the people revere Bolas. They don't want to be saved from Bolas. Bolas is, you know, is their god. And then, during the course of the block, we shift from sort of everything is weirdly okay but has this undertone of things not okay,

to the point where Bolas shows up and, you know, Armageddon basically happens, and everything gets destroyed. Anyway, it was a neat block. It definitely, I liked how the fact that it played around with some stuff, it introduced some themes that then got reinforced. Like, I like the idea that we sort of hinted in the first set

of sort of Bolas's, I don't know, evilness, which gets paid off in the second set. So, I really did enjoy, like, the set as a whole I thought did a good job of sort of presenting something and then making something happen.

And that, there's progression there. You know, there are definitely things looking back that we could have done a little better. I think we overstuffed the block a little bit. And I think we could have executed a little better on the internals in the second set. But anyway, I do like the essence of the overall thing. I do like it was, It told a little story. And it was a story that I don't... One of the things that we were trying to do with this set was...

The previous year, Gatewatch had shown up, and they saved the day. And they show up on the next world, and they saved the day. So they show up on Zendikar, saved the day. They show up on Innistrad, saved the day. They show up on Innistrad, save the day. They show up on Kaladesh, save the day. We really were trying to create the sense of, okay, there's just this pattern of they show up and they save the day. And this time they didn't save the day. And that was kind of a surprise.

We thought that was kind of interesting. You know, we were trying to shock the audience a little bit. We didn't really let on that this was a three-year story, so it was very hard to realize this was the end of Act One when you had no idea how big the story was. So anyway, I liked Dominicat. I thought there was a lot of fun going on. I liked a lot of the way we intertwined the Egyptian stuff with Bola stuff. And the block as a whole has, like, the point of today is looking at blocks and sort of

as a whole has, like, the point of today is looking at blocks and sort of as a whole entity. And I think as a whole entity, this told an interesting story. And it definitely conveyed different elements of the Egyptian mythology and different elements of Bolas. And anyway, the whole package I liked. So this was my number 10 block. Okay, number nine was Odyssey Block. Now, this might be an interesting thing. I mean, Odyssey Block definitely made mistakes.

But the one thing I did like was I like bold experimentation. So Odyssey Block did something. Now, given it didn't work out, this is not something we plan to do again. But I do respect what he was trying to do and the boldness of his idea. So for those that might not know about Odyssey, that was a long time ago. We show up in Odyssey. It's a normal set. Then the second set, Torment, skews black, meaning that darkness has come in the story, and so white and green don't show up as much. Black shows up more.

Red and blue are kind of normal. White and green are lower. In order to make more room for black, we had to lessen white and green. And then in Judgment, which is the last set, we reverse it. White and green come up and black goes down. And so it was us messing around with sort of a basic fundamental concept of magic sets, which is color.

Now it turns out, it turns out, it causes a lot of problems. And so it's not something we really repeated. That having colors be mismatched, especially for limited, really throws a wrench in things. matched, especially for limited, really throws a wrench in things. But one of the things, I mean, when I look at blocks, one of the things I like is I like the idea that it took a really bold stance and tried something different. I like that it was, the reason it's number nine on my list is, you know, it really stood up and tried something. As a block, it tried something. And in some ways, there are

a lot of blocks that kind of, eh, it did its thing. This block, at least, will always be remembered for stepping out and trying something experimental. And sort of my, the reason I'm putting, I mean, it's a nine, I guess, not higher, but is I respect a lot what it was trying to do. And I respect, like, I do, as head designer, I appreciate the boldness of what the block was trying to do. And I respect, like, I do, as head designer, I appreciate the boldness of what the block was trying to do. And it really sort of set the tone to say that we could experiment a little more. In some ways, I think Odyssey was the first very experimental block we did. And it really, it was one of the things that made me realize that we could think of blocks

as larger entities. I mean, there were definitely some earlier things we did where there were, we played around with stuff. And I'll be honest, for this slot, I didn't know whether to put Invasion or Odyssey. I ended up putting Odyssey. Invasion, likewise, was us messing around very early with trying to give some definition to blocks. In some ways, Apocalypse being the enemy color set, meaning we did ally, ally, enemy, was us saving something. In some ways, Apocalypse...

We did ally, ally, enemy with us saving something. In some ways, Apocalypse... So this slot was kind of saved for an early set that really mechanically set a tone. And I ended up picking Odyssey over Invasion just because I think Odyssey was a little bit bolder in what it tried. But I respect the boldness. Invasion was also interesting in that Invasion was probably the precursor to a lot of the block planning. So I don't know. I mean, maybe this is a tie between Odyssey and Invasion.

They both, on some level, they represented early sets that were playing around in mechanical space, trying to sort of introduce the idea that blocks can be an entity unto themselves, that there's a design that blocks can be something. And so both Odyssey and Invasion were early takes where we were sort of trying to figure out and I think early on in Magic, one of the things you'll watch for the history of Magic is how early in Magic we were

very focused on the card. And then we were focused on the mechanic. And then we were focused on the set. And then we were focused on the block. We kept sort of pulling back. And some of these early blocks is the earliest things of us pulling back. You can sort of see that. Okay. So number nine was a tie

between Odyssey and Invasion. Number eight was Tempest Block, another early one. Tempest Block was really the first block where I feel we went all out on story. Where there really was, I mean, Tempest Block was the first time

we integrated story into the card set. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, there were stories before that. And I mean, Ice Age had a story, Mirage had a story. But Tempest was the first one that said, we're not just going to tell a story, we're going to tell a story through the cards. And we've experimented a lot of different ways, but Tempest will always have a warm spot in my heart.

I miss my baby, too. But in that, it was one of the boldest sets we had in how it told the story through the cards. Like, if you ever saw Tempest itself, we did a little storyboard where we told the story of Tempest through all the card arts because the story was all laid out through the art.

And the whole block did this. I think Tempest probably did it a little bit better than Stronghold and Exodus, but all three sets did it. I like the boldness of the storytelling and the integration of the story into the set. Since then, we've been all over

the board. I mean, we do show some of the story through the cards now. I don't think anyone's done it as boldly as Tempest has done it, although we've definitely...things like War of the Spark, I think, definitely was us pushing more in that direction. But anyway, Tempest Block, to me, was the first set that really ingrained the story in the cards in a very interconnected way. So Tempest Midnight number eight. Number seven, Innistrad Block. So I enjoy, so Innistrad Block wasn't the first block to mess with this. We'll

get to that one in a second. But the idea of we're going to tell a story and it's going to sort of, the sets themselves are going to change to represent that story. You know, the idea that it's the monsters are at hand and the humans are in trouble. And then the monsters get the upper hand even more so and the humans are on the brink of extinction. And then something happens in which the Savior comes to save the humans. Avacyn, for those who don't know. So the idea is it's Innistrad, Dark Ascension is the darkest times, and Avacyn Restored is Avacyn comes to save the day.

And I like, there was a lot of interesting dichotomy run through there. I like the idea that we play the dark and play the light. You know, there's some interesting mirroring going on. But I think it was a fun story where we really set something up. We told an environmental story. We had something that really had

meant something. And then the fact that we turned it on its head, I thought was quite cool. And I thought that was kind of a neat, you know, that things are going bad, but then as the block goes along. And we had a lot of, you know, we've had some downer blocks. This is one of the more uplifting blocks.

Like, I mean, I know obviously it's the end of Strahd, so the monsters weren't exactly forever put at bay. But they were put at bay for a while. And I like that it had kind of a happy ending. Not all our blocks have as happy an ending as this one did. Okay, next. Number six is Time Spiral Block. Now, Time Spiral Block is another one where a lot of the things we did, I don't know if we'd do again,

but the structure was... I liked the structure. The past, present, future, and each set sort of defining what it meant in that way. Yeah, Plane of Chaos and Future Sight were mistakes in their own way.

But it was bold. It was, you know, if I'm looking at blocks as a whole, I gotta kick back and appreciate it. Having a theme that plays through, that's connective, yet each set has its own identity is very interesting.

The idea that, you know, the time theme with past, present, and future, it's not that, I mean, we have the bonus sheet that runs through the block, which I thought was a really interesting innovation that really defined the block in a cool way. And we used a connective theme that was a three-part theme that clearly felt connected to each other,

but each set had its own unique identity. And that's not something we've done a lot of. I think that there's, like I say, this would be higher up on the list if we executed better on all the individual component pieces. Like I said, I think Planar Chaos, in retrospect, was a mistake. And that messing with the color pie.

People don't understand, like, this is the one exception. We're doing something novel. It's just like, oh, you did this. This is what the, you know what I'm saying? Even now, there's the amount of, but here's a card that did this. That's acceptable and in the color pie. It's like, ah. Anyway.

And Future Sight was a little too complex. I mean, I think Modern Horizons is what it wanted to be, which was a supplemental set geared toward players, more advanced and franchise players that want the extra complication. I think as a normal set,

it was a little bit much, a lot bit much. But, despite all that, man, as a block, as a concept, as the whole, there was a lot of goodness there, and there's a lot of really interesting choices made. And as someone who cares about block design, while there were some misses that went on there, man, it was a noble attempt.

Okay, number five, Zendikar block. So this was the first time we did large, small, large. Well, first or second, depending on how you want to count it. But it's the first time where we tried this idea of, well, I'll get to the precursor.

But this was the first three-step block where we did large, small, large. I mean, there's a four-step block I will get to the precursor. But this was the first three-step block where we did large, small, large. I mean, there's a four-step block I will get to. And it was... I liked the idea that we went to a world and there was something odd about the world and then we had payoff at the end, which was Rise of the Eldrazi.

So it's Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi. And when that thing happened, it just turned the world on its ear. Innistrad obviously did that, but this did that before Innistrad. And I really enjoy it. I like the idea that it really played into stuff and then it sort of just took this left turn,

but a really interesting left turn. And from a story perspective, I like the idea of why is this world so crazy? Oh, well, here's why, you know. What are all these, what are all these, what are they called? The hedrons. All these hedrons doing here. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, this is part of this larger story.

And I thought the introduction of the Eldrazi and sort of you hear about them. And at first they're just like gods that are part of the mythology of the Eldrazi and sort of you hear about them and at first they're just like gods that are part of the mythology of the world but then you realize that the stories were based on something true that happened and anyway I do like Zendikar and enjoy a lot of the place as it did something neat in expanding its story. Okay, number four I guess is actually the first set to break from the large, small, small.

For many years, blocks were just a large set, a small set, a small set. And so number four is Lorwyn slash Shattermore block. So what happened was, Bill, we had made Cold Snap as a surprise fourth set. And I made a note to Bill that if we wanted to do a fourth set, give me some notice. I could weave it in and make it part of the block rather than kind of an afterthought. And so Bill said, OK, we're doing it.

And so I came up with the Lorwyn-Shadowmoreor block, which was large, small, large, small. And Lorwyn and Shadowmoor were their own little mini blocks. We had never done a block that wasn't large, small, small before, let alone mini blocks, let alone two reflective mini blocks. And I, once again, I'm judging this more on the execution of what they were. Not, not sadly, not sales and stuff like that. once again, I'm judging this more on the execution of what they were. Sadly, not sales and stuff like that. But Lorwyn was us doing something really interesting.

I love the idea of this world that vacillated between two states and that we got to see one state and see the other state. Then we got to see this light world and this dark world. I like that each set did something mechanically that could be reflected in the other set. But each set was about something that the other set wasn't about,

but that could use the other set and care about it. You know what I'm saying? The fact that Lord of the Moon was tribal and Shattermore was about color and hybrid. But each one could look at the other

in a way that mattered. Like, if you care about creature types, well, as long as those creature types show up in the way that mattered. Like, if you care about creature types, well, as long as those creature types show up in the next set, that works. If you care about color, well, magic sets have color. That works. And so, there's a lot of neat connective ties between them. And

I also like the world. The world got a lot, I mean, I think the world is slowly regaining some popularity. In the day, when it came out, it was not very popular. And especially Lorwyn, people thought was a little soft, I guess, at the time. I think our audience has grown and magic has matured some where everything doesn't have to be dark badass all the time. But anyway, Lorwyn was definitely us messing with lighter space

in a way we hadn't done before. The dichotomy between two is something we hadn't done before. The idea of a world that sort of changes is something we've never done before. So anyway, I like Lower Wind Shadow more. I think it's a very interesting block. Okay, number

three. Cons of Charkir block. This is another one where this could have been number one if we had landed the execution a little better. But the idea, so the idea of this block was we were telling

a time travel story. That we go to visit a world, Sarkhan's home world of Tarkir. He misses the dragons who had been killed at extinction. He goes back to the past, they were forged, and he changes history.

And in this case, Bolas fighting what we now know as his twin Ugin, and killing Ugin. Bolas kills Ugin, and the death of Ugin, end result is the death of the dragon, Sarkir. And by saving Ugin, Sarkin changes history. And we come back, and the final set Dragons of Tarkir is an alternate timeline and it was made so that you drafted the first, you know, you drafted Khans of Tarkir with Fate Reforged and then you

drafted Dragons of Tarkir with Fate Reforged and from a constructed standpoint it was really interesting, there were mechanics that showed in Fate Reforged. Some then show up in... Some were in cons.

Some were in dragons. We're doing morph, and then you get... Was it manifest? Manifest, is that right? As a protomorph. I hope I got the name right there. Anyway, like I said, we messed up. Megamorph wasn't quite the finale

it should have been and I think we made a world so compelling and so lovely to people that the dragon world didn't so it's a little bit of a let down

I wish I wish we had made a dragon world that competed with the cons world that the audience just liked the cons world better we had never done Wedge before

and we had done Ally and so maybe it being Wedge was more novel. But anyway, we didn't nail the execution on the final set, but we, man, it was a really, it was a grandiose idea,

and there's a lot of fun execution we did, seeing things that appear, and then earlier versions, and then alternate versions. And we really had fun between the sets and there were cards that show up in cons

and then you see earlier versions in Fate Reforged or you see earlier versions in Fate Reforged and later versions in Dragons or you see things in cons. You see the alternate versions.

Like all the legendary creatures, how they play out is differently. You know, Narset, it leads her clan in one but becomes a planeswalker in another. You know, Narset, it leads her clan in one but becomes a planeswalker in another. You know, it was just neat to see how we can really mess in that space. And I think there's a lot of fun things we did.

And I think it was a really neat block in the places that we got to play with. Okay, number two. Scars of Mirrodin block. So the idea of Scars of Mirrodin block was we idea of scars of Mirrodin block was we were coming back to Mirrodin what we had introduced on the original Mirrodin but

subtly was that the Phyrexians were there and this was the return of the Phyrexians. The Phyrexians had been a major player in magic. They'd gone away they'd been defeated in an invasion and this was their return and it was a glorious return and the whole block really

ended up being the story of the transition of Mirrodin falling to the Phyrexians and becoming new Phyrexia. But we did it in a really cool way where you're back on Mirrodin and we have just a hint of Phyrexia, then there's a war and And at the pre-release, you get a picture side, and half the set is Phyrexian and half is Mirren. And we even did this thing where we didn't tell you the third set. We said the third set was either going to be Mirrogen Pure if the Mirrogens win, or New Phyrexia if the Phyrexians win. And people literally, like stores, bought the set not knowing the name of the set. And we didn't reveal until shortly before the set came out. And it was, like I said, the idea of watching this world fall,

watching Mirrodin fall to the Phyrexians and having a war and building a pre-release around the war and then having the sort of payoff and something where the audience was like rooting for different things was just a really fun grandiose way to do the block. And like I said, there are plenty of execution issues. There was not enough connective tissue between the two sides, meaning when you drafted, you tend to draft one side or the other. I actually had put it in design.

It got taken out. But there's things that the block could have done better. there's things that the block could have done better. But as a block design, as something that was really shooting for the stars, I think that Scars of Mirrodin block was a really, really interesting block that told an interesting story and really sort of used the block model as the way to tell the story in a very innovative way that I thought was cool. Okay, the number one block. Dun-da-da!

This one should be obvious. A Ravnica, original Ravnica block. It was bold in its time. I remember when I first tried to convince people of we're going to do a block about the ten two-color pairs, but not all of them are going to show up in every set the first set is going to have four other two-color pairs and that we're not going to show the other six until the other two sets um originally when

i first pitched that people were like what are you talking about um but i slowly got him aboard uh and it ended up being a really innovative block so much so that we repeated it multiple times although I guess the last time wasn't technically a block but it was an active block like I admit and so it's a very interesting model

and it's what I call the pie model where you take something and you divvy it up across the block there's not a lot of themes that work that way It's what I call the pie model, where you take something, you divvy it up across the block. There's not a lot of themes that work that way. Like, I was so happy with Ravnica, and then when I tried to repeat it, it proved to be super hard to do. But it is really a... As far as innovative blocks go, it is probably... I mean, not only was it innovative, it was successful.

People loved it. I mean, a lot was it innovative, it was successful. People loved it. I mean, a lot of these other ones are some execution issues. And this is the one where, not that we couldn't have done better. We always do something better. But I mean, this execution was pretty well handled. The original Ravnica was really fun. It was a neat set to draft. And it really had an identity in a way that blocked before that.

I mean, we had done, I mean, it was not the first sort of planned block. Well, okay. It's the first block that I oversaw as head designer, and I was really, really big on the idea of having block plans. So in some ways, it was the first sort of me in full force doing the block planning. Although, like I said,

I had a lot of hand in stuff like Invasion and Odyssey and things. But, anyway, it was something special. I don't know. It was lightning in a bottle.

I mean, there's other blocks that I obviously enjoy. They're on the list. But this was, I don't know, like from a, I mean,

now that the blocks are done and I can look back and look at all the block design stuff we did, um, this is the one I'm proudest. It's a total block design, um, is the one I'm proudest of. It really is, um, it did a lot of cool things and it, in some ways, the other thing that makes me extra proud was there wasn't a lot to model it after. Like I said, we had Invasion and Odyssey. Like we had messed around a little bit with the idea of blocks having a larger identity, but it was the first time we sort of went full throttle and it just was, I don't know. I mean, once again, it's my first block as head designer, so there's some sentimental stuff there. So I can't... Clearly, that shadows a little bit.

But I also think it's probably the best block design I've done. I mean, like I said, I'm proud of a lot of the stuff we've talked about today, and the vast majority of them, I think, were blocks that I did. But anyway, so that is my that's my number one pick like I said it is it is a block design

so well done that when we went back we kept sort of redoing what we'd already done we didn't like we didn't even innovate much like we went back for our return to Ravnica and we went to 5-5-10 rather than 4-3-3 and even when we went back I mean return to Ravnica, and we went to 5-5-10 rather than 4-3-3. And even when we went back, I mean, again, technically the third visit wasn't a block per se. But even then, we followed the same 5-5 model.

So, I mean, they definitely, they're, one of the ways you can tell it was a successful block is we mimicked it multiple times. That's usually a sign that you did something right. So, anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it. This was kind of hard. There's a lot of blocks out there. Like I said, whenever I make a top 10 list, I sort of just force myself to make some choices. I know I cheated a little bit by making two nines,

so it was secretly a top 11 list. But anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it. So to recap, here is my top 10 list. So number 10 was Amonkhet Block. It really told the story in an innovative way. Number nine was Odyssey slash Invasion Blocks. Oh, what am I doing? I am sorry, sorry.

Gotta pay attention to traffic, sorry. Safety first. So, sorry. Got first. So, sorry. Got a little distracted there. Make sure I'm safe. Okay, so number 10 was Amonkhen block. Number 9 was Odyssey block and slash Invasion block. Those are really the precursors to kind of the modern block planning.

Those are the two early cases where we, before we kind of officially did block planning, we kind of backed into block planning. So I like those. Number eight is Tempest Block. The one that put the story in a way that was probably the most ingrained we've ever put story into a set. Number

seven is Innistrad Block. It told a cool story, mechanically did it in an interesting way, and it definitely sort of, yeah, I don't know, it also was a very well executed block i thought uh um number six is time spiral block uh it was us doing something really interesting and it wasn't quite successful necessarily all the individual choices but the the overall block design was a thing of beauty and i think really cool number five was zendikar block uh which is

really doing our surprise twist, probably the best we had done the surprise twist with the Odrazi and the introduction of the Odrazi. I thought that was really cool. Number four was Lorwyn Shattermore block, which was the first kind of non-traditional, the non-three-step block, the non-large-small-small block, really sort of made us realize

that we could play around more with the format of what a block is. Number three is Khan to Tarkir block. We tried something very bold. Like I said, we didn't quite nail the landing, but I do think it was a very bold, and there's a lot of cool things we did do that we pulled off. Number two was Skars of Mirrodin block, which was probably one of the coolest stories that we told through the nature of the block structure

and using it as a way, you know, even using how we sold the third set as a way to bring excitement and make people root for their side I think was very innovative. And then number one was Ravnica, which is, I'll be honest,

the best block I've ever made. And really a home run in trying to do a block in a way that is innovative and different. So anyway, guys, I hope you enjoyed that. Not too much traffic today. But like I said, that's my top 10. You guys can give me your opinion on your top 10 and what you thought. Maybe if I did this a week from now, I'd give a different list.

But that was my list today. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. But anyway, I'm here 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. See you next time.