Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #820: Legendary Artifacts, Part 1

Episode Date: March 26, 2021

In this podcast, I share card-by-card stories about various legendary artifacts.

I'm not pulling my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the Drive to Work Coronavirus Edition. Okay, so today I'm going to talk about legendary artifacts. So I'm going to go through and just share stories. I've made a lot of them and others I was involved in even though I might not have made them. So we're going to start with the very first ever legendary artifact was in Stronghold. So in the story, the angel Selenia attacks Crovax and the rest of the Weatherlight crew. And she has a sword that she's

attacking with called the Sword of the Chosen. And we wanted to represent the sword. And at the time, there had never been a legendary, anything other than legendary creatures, I think. But we were talking, we were like, well, like, this represents the sword. There's not multiple swords. It's not like there's many swords of the Chosen. And so we said, okay, why don't we just make this legendary?

And it was more for flavor, really, than anything else. And the card's not particularly... The Sword of the Chosen is two generic mana, legendary artifact, tap, target legend, gets plus two, plus two, no end of turn. So it's one of the early cards we made that sort of legend,

like things that care about legends, legendary creatures. It's also funny, it says target legend, because at the time of the making of this thing, the creatures were not legendary yet, they were legends. Legends was a creature type. But anyway, that was the very first card. Not a very auspicious start.

But the second! The second! So the second ever legendary artifact, and the first ever legendary artifact creature, was Karn Silver Golem. So this happened in Urza's Saga. So one of our plans was, we wanted to sort of slowly dole out the whole crew of the Weatherlight Saga,

but we just wanted to do one or two per set over the course of the story, which ended up being about four years. We saved Karn for Urza Saga because Urza Saga takes place in the past, and he's the only crew member that was alive in the past. So Karn got created by Urza, for those that don't know that. He was made out of silver

because Urza was doing time travel experiments, and silver was the one object that could travel through time, according to his research. But anyway, it was time to make Karn. So the interesting thing about Karn was we had made a

Karn Vanguard card. I did a whole podcast on the Vanguard cards, if you want to go hear them. But anyway, on his Vanguard card, we had a whole podcast on the Vanguard cards if you want to go hear them. But anyway, on his Vanguard card, we had a card that was basically Titania's song. It animated artifacts, and he was the only one that made any sense with that ability.

So we kind of put it on Karn because we just liked the ability for the Vanguard card. And so like, okay, well he's the keeper of the legacy, so he has a relationship with, okay, well, he's the Keeper of the Legacy, so he has a relationship with artifacts, so okay, he animates artifacts. So when we got to make his card,

like, the popularity of his Vanguard card just made us go, okay, I guess he does that. So literally his... Oh, here's what Karn does. I should tell you what Karn does. Karn Silver Golem, 5-mana, Legendary Artifact Creature.

When Karn Silver Golem blocks or becomes blocked, it does. Karn, Silver Golem, 5 mana, Legendary Artifact Creature. When Karn, Silver Golem blocks or becomes blocked, it gets minus 4, plus 4 on the end of turn. Oh, by the way, I'm reading the original card. He's not a Golem, but that was not on the original card. And then 1, target 9 Creature Artifacts. It's an Artifact Creature with Power and Toughness, each equal to its casting cost until end of turn.

That Artifact retains its abilities. So I'm reading the original card. Anyway, so the second ability came about because we ended up matching the Vanguard card. The first ability is, we wanted him to be decently sized, because he's a giant golem. Karn is like 10 feet tall.

Karn is very tall. He's like 10 to 12 feet tall. He's very tall. He's taller than Garruk, and Garruk is tall. Anyway, I think he's like 10 feet tall, and Garruk's like 8 feet tall, I think, or 7 feet tall. Garruk's feet tall. He's very tall. He's taller than Garak, and Garak is tall. Anyway, I think he's like 10 feet tall, and Garak's like 8 feet tall, I think, or 7 feet tall. Garak's pretty tall. Anyway, the problem was

at the time, Karn was a pacifist, so one of the flavors of the character was Urza put a memory cap on Karn so that Karn could only remember so much time, because it was causing problems that he remembered everything.

But anyway, he put a cap on his memory because Urza does stuff. And Karn accidentally killed a man and that was one of his earliest memories and he had vowed not to harm anyone again. So he was a pacifist. So during the White Light Saga

Karn would not hurt anybody. He's still he was a pacifist. So during the White Light Saga, Karn would not hurt anybody. He's still, he's not completely a pacifist, but he's a kind golem. Anyway, so he's a 4-4 creature, but he's a pacifist. Well, how do we convey a pacifist? So he talked about, should he not be able to attack? And like, well, it's kind of lame

to have creatures that can't attack. So what he decided to do was, when he's blocked or blocked, he gets minus 4 or plus four. So the idea is he's really hard to kill. So when he gets blocked, he turns from a four four into a zero eight. But the idea is he refuses to harm anybody. So if he gets in a fight,

he won't fight them. He's hard to kill, but he won't fight them. And so the idea was he's good at blocking and stuff, but he's not good at fighting. But if no one blocks him, okay, well, he'll get through

and do four damage. So apparently he's pacifistic toward other creatures, but not toward planeswalkers. Okay, next. Predator Flagship. So Legendary Artifact, two in colon, target creature against flying to end of turn, five in tap, destroy target creature with flying. So the idea was, so the Predator is the bad guy ship. So this Predator Flagship bad guy ship. Um, so this, uh, Predator flagship shows up in, uh, Nemesis. Um, and this is the bad guy ship.

Uh, and so we wanted it, vehicles weren't a thing yet. Vehicles don't show up to Kaladesh. Um, so this couldn't be a vehicle. I mean, maybe one day, maybe one day we'll make a Predator, uh, vehicle, but we have not. be a vehicle. I mean, maybe one day we'll make a Predator vehicle, but we have not. So, the idea was it could make things fly because it's a flying ship to help them fly. And then, because it was kind of destructive,

we liked the idea that it could destroy things with flying. It did damage the weatherlight when they met back in original Tempest. But anyway, yeah, this was mostly made just to sort of capture that essence. And then

the Skyship Weatherlight ended up in Planeshift, the middle set in Invasion Block. So, Skyship Weatherlight, four mana, legendary artifact. I'm not sure whether I should be reading... I'm going to read the original cards because they're more fun to read. When Skyship Weatherlight, 4 mana, legendary artifact. I'm not sure whether I should be reading... I'm going to read the original cards

because they're more fun to read. When Skyship Weatherlight comes into play... Now it would be Into the Battlefield. Search your library for any number of artifact and or creature cards and remove them from the game. Then shuffle your library. 4 and tap. Choose a card at random that was removed from the game with Skyship Weatherlight. Play that card in your hand.

So the idea here essentially is that Weatherlight in the story was known for going and gathering both people and the legacy artifacts. So the idea is it goes and gathers things and then you have access to them. But it's random so

the idea is you can get any number of things but it's random what you get. Like the fewer things I get the more I know I'm going to get them sooner, but the less things I can get. So it encourages you to get more things, but then it sort of makes this little mini deck in Exile

that you're drawing from that's randomized. But anyway, I thought that was pretty cool. We did later make a Skyship Weatherlight. We did make one when we went to Dominaria. So I'm going chronologically. When I get there, maybe we'll talk about that.

Next up is the Legacy Weapon. So the Legacy Weapon shows up in Apocalypse. So Urza's master plan, so the Legacy are all these artifacts that he makes. It turns out if you put all these artifacts together, and the weatherlight is one of those artifacts, it makes. It turns out if you put all these artifacts together, and the Weatherlight is one of those artifacts, it makes an ultimate weapon, which is

used to save the day and defeat the Phyrexians. So we needed something that was really potent, right? So we ended up making something that had a Wooburg activation, so if you spend white, blue, black, red, green, you can exile target permanent.

And the original card said remove target permanent from the game, because exile wasn't a term yet. And we thought that felt like, ooh, it costs seven mana to cast. And then it also said, if legacy weapon we put into a graveyard from anywhere reveal legacy weapon and shuffle it into its own library instead. So we didn't want you, like,

animating from the graveyard, so it had anti-animation text. But anyway, we thought that was pretty... There's not been a lot of Woburg activation, especially on artifacts. So... Okay, next up is the Mirari from Odyssey.

Okay, so there was this... I was trying... For those that don't know me, you listen to my podcast, I assume you do. I really enjoy doubling things. I like it.

And the Mirari was a key part of the story. In fact, it's like the... It's an artifact that the entire story revolves around. It's a super powerful artifact that kind of lets people do whatever they want, sort of. And like, how do you capture this? We just wanted something that the entire story revolves around. It's a super powerful artifact that kind of lets people do whatever they want, sort of. And like,

how do you capture this? We just wanted something that was really exciting and powerful. So the original, so the card is five mana, a legendary artifact.

Whenever you play an instant or sorcery spell, you may pay three. If you do, put a copy of that spell on the stack. You may choose new targets for the copy.

This one, the original card mentioned the stack. We don't mention the stack anymore. Like, the Oracle text does mention the stack. We find when mention the stack anymore. The Oracle text does mention the stack. We find when we mention the stack, it confuses players. We try not to mention the stack in card text.

I mean, the stack is there and it works, but usually we don't need to reference it and people can understand it. Originally, by the way, the Mirari, you didn't pay mana. It just copied every instant sorcery you cast. I think it cost more. It cost like seven or eight.

But it was hard to get out and it was a little bit too much. So we decided that, okay, we'd put a mana gate on and ended up putting a mana gate of three. Mana gate's what we call, you have to pay some mana when you do something. But anyway,

it's still actually a pretty seemingly powerful card. But that is Mari. Okay, next up, our second ever legendary artifact creature. Bosh, Iron Golem. So, Bosh, Iron Golem is 8 mana. Artifact creature, Golem Legend, trample, 6-7. 3 and a red, sacrifice an artifact. Bosh, Iron Golem deals damage equal to the sacrifice artifact's converted mana cost

to target creature or player. So, uh... So, Bosh was the sidekick of Galissa, who is the main character of the Mirrodin story. He's a big golem. I think we were just trying to capture him, and he was powerful, He's a big golem. I think we were just trying to capture him and he was powerful

and we wanted something that sort of was interesting. It was an artifact set, so we wanted him to work with artifacts. We liked the idea that... We had previously done fling where you throw creatures to do damage. Like, well, what if he throws artifacts? He flings artifacts was the idea.

I think we gave him trample just because he was big enough. But yeah, I mean, just the character we knew existed in the story and so we wanted to make him. Next up, Croak's Thumb. So Croak's Thumb is a legendary artifact. Costs two. If you would flip a coin, instead flip two coins and ignore one.

Okay, so this card was from Mirrodin. We were just trying to make a lot of cool, quirky cards. I made this card. And the reason I did it was like, okay, well, one of the problems with trying to build a coin flipping deck, there's no reason to build a coin flipping deck, right? So I said, well, what if I gave you a reason to build a coin flipping deck?

And so I like this idea that it didn't let you determine the coin flip, because that was a little too powerful. But the idea is that you can flip two coins and then pick which one you want. So instead of 50-50, your chance of winning is now, instead of 2 out of 4, it's now 3 out of 4. You have a 75% chance of winning

instead of a 50% chance of winning when you flip a coin. The funny thing is, this card was originally not legendary. And what happened was, they were playtesting it, and in numbers it was problematic. Because getting a 7% chance is okay, but if you start putting four crux thumbs in play,

your chance of missing is so low. So the developers came to me and said, this card is problematic, but not if there's only one of them. Would you mind if we make this legendary? And I'm like, sounds good to me. And so we made a legendary. So we then, in Unstable,

I made Crux Other Thumb, which does the exact same thing, but with dice rolling rather than coin flips. And the thing that's always funny when we say Krook's Thumb is legendary, I'm like, yeah, he does have another thumb. Anyway, so he took advantage of that, and Krook's Other Thumb is in Unstable. Okay, next up is Mind Slaver. So Mind Slaver costs six generic mana, legendary artifact, four in next up is Mind Slaver. So Mind Slaver costs six generic mana, legendary artifact,

four in tap, sacrifice Mind Slaver, you control target player next turn. So it's funny, the Oracle text is you control target player during that player's next turn. So, almost the same text as the original. Okay, so the fun story about Mind Slaver, so this was in Mirrodin, was I originally

made this card to be Volrath's Helm in Tempest. I had this big thing about an idea I had, I think I called Marquee Cards, and I believed that inspired by Jester's Cap in Ice Age, I thought

every large set should have one card that can go in any deck. So, usually an artifact, but it could be a land. That did something you've never, ever seen before and just made people go, wow, I didn't know you could do that. And so, I made Grim Totem and Mirage, and Mind Slaver was me trying to do that in Tempest.

The problem was that the rules manager at the time, which I don't even remember who the rules manager was during Tempest. Uh, the problem was that the rules manager at the time, which I don't even remember who the rules manager was during Tempest. Um, Tom Wiley's my guess? But it might have been Beth, Beth Morrison. Um, or it could have been Paul Barkley. Anyway, one of those early people. Um, I was

told by the rules manager that it could not be done. Um, one of the problems at the time was I think they were worried about mana burn. It's funny because in the original version of Mindslave the reminder text says

you see all cards that player could see and make all decisions for that player. He or she doesn't lose life because of Mana Burn. That was rolled into what it means to control the player. Now, the Mana Burn stuff went away because Mana Burn's no longer a thing. But anyway, for whatever reason, I couldn't do it.

I was told I couldn't do it. So, flash forward many years in the future and we're doing Mirrodin, and I'm trying to make awesome artifacts. So I literally went back and looked at old files, and doing Mirrodin, and I'm trying to make awesome artifacts. So I literally went back and looked at old files, and I saw this card, and I'm like, So it was a different, I don't remember who the rules manager is, but it was a different rules manager than was back in Tempest. And I said, can we do this? And they're like, uh, sure. And so they let me do it, and we came up with the terminology of what it means to control a player.

So the reason Mind Flavor came about, by the way, for those that are interested, since I'm talking about it, there's a card in Alpha called Word of Command, where you take control of the opponent and try to cast a spell. But the problem was, you could always respond to it, so like, if I have an instant I could cast, I could just cast in response to them making me cast it.

So, Word of Command never worked really well. So I was trying to solve Word of Command and it came up with the idea of, well, what if the way you solve it is, what if you just take over their whole turn? So I use it, and like, on their next turn I mean, they can try to do something before we get to their turn, but once it's my turn, plus

they'll draw a card during their turn, so they can't keep me from playing the card they draw that turn. But anyway, so I did it, and then this card ended up getting reprinted in Scars of Mirrodin. Went back to Mirrodin. The one mistake of this design, the one mistake, is I do wish the card exiled itself

when you used it, rather than just sacrificed itself. Because a lot of the dangerous things that have a mind slaver is recurring it. And that's not really the fun part of the card, necessarily, so I kind of wish it had Exile. We actually talked about doing an upgraded Mind Flavor in Scars of Mirrodin.

Like, the same thing, but it said Exile. And, like, something Mind Flavor. And we talked about it, but we ended up not doing it. We thought it would be cool to bring it back. Okay, next. Sword of Kaldra. Shield of Kaldra. Helm of Kaldra.

So, these are three Legendary Artifacts. So, Sword of Kaldra helm of cauldra so these are three legendary artifacts so sword of cauldra costs four generic mana equipped creature gets plus five plus five whenever equipped creature

deals damage to a creature remove that creature from the game equip four shield of cauldra costs four legendary equipment legendary artifact equipment

equipment named sword of cauldra shield of cauldra and helm of cauldra are indestructible and equipped creature is indestructible. Equip four. And then Helm of Cauldron

costs three generic mana, legendary artifact equipment. Equipped Creature has First Strike, Trample, and Haste. And one colon, if you control equipment named Helm of Cauldron, Sword of Cauldron, and Shield of Cauldron, put a four four colorless avatar legendary creature token named Cauldron into play and attach those equipment to it. So the idea was each one of these is its own equipment.

But if you get all three in play, it creates Kaldra. It makes the Kaldra token. And so Kaldra is a 4-4. So if you put it all together, you get a 9-9 creature with First Strike, Tremple, and Haste that's indestructible. So that's pretty impressive. And so the idea was... So the idea of this thing was, I liked the idea of doing something that took multiple sets to come out. And note that Shield of Cauldron references Helm of Cauldron, which didn't exist on the next set.

That might have been the first time we ever referenced a card that did not yet exist. But obviously hinted that it was coming on the next set because obviously

Sword of Caldor was in the first set. Shields was in the second set. It didn't take rocket science to figure out where Helm of Caldor was going to show up. But anyway,

we were trying to do something that paid off over time. So this was the first that I think where something was built. I mean, we had cards in the past that you, like, Mirage had the Nightstalker cards that got you the Nightstalker. This was kind of inspired by that, but spread out over time.

And the idea that was cool was each one, they were equipment. So equipment was something that got introduced in Mirrodin. So it was a brand new thing, and it was just something cool. And anyway, I liked it was a brand new thing, and it was just something cool, and anyway, I liked it quite a bit. Okay, next up is Memnarch. So, Memnarch is an artifact creature, wizard legend, another...

Let's see, so it's our third legendary creature, legendary artifact creature, wizard legend. So, one blue blue, so it's a 4-5. One blue blue. So, it's a four five. One blue blue. Target permanent becomes an artifact in addition to its other types. Three and blue.

Gain control of target artifact. This effect doesn't end in a turn. And so, Memnarch is the bad guy from the Mirrodin story who starts, I think, as a human and slowly becomes an artifact creature over time. So one of the things that's interesting is Memnarch, if you read the very beginning of Memnarch, there's this oil that he picks up and rubs between his fingers

and then the story goes on. That oil is the Phyrexian oil, which slowly drives him a little mad and turns him into an artifact creature over time. I think he gets turned into an artifact creature. I don't think he started as an artifact creature in the story, but he might have been an artifact creature in the story. I'm now blanking on what exactly we said.

Anyway, he was a bad guy. It is funny, by the way, that how few legendary... Obviously, if you haven't listened to my podcast with Brian Tinsman, it is the other podcast this week, so go listen to it. But Brian and I were talking, in it we talked about

how many legends there are in Champs Kamigawa, and how that was a really weird thing, and how Mirrodin had so few artifacts, legendary, legendary cards in it. But it did have Sword of Cauldron

and Memnarch and it had Glissa and Bosh and so, or actually, Bosh was in, no, Bosh was, Bosh was in the first set.

Okay, so now we get to Champions of Kamigawa. So Champions of Kamigawa, like I said, it had a legendary theme. So this is the first set that had five um Champions of Kamigawa so Champions of Kamigawa uh like I said had a legendary theme so

this is the first set that had five legendary artifacts in it um before that the record was well I guess okay

so I um Mirrodin had four so I I guess it's not uh because of Kruxthum Kruxthum and Mindslaver

were both legendary editions Sword of Calldron and Bosh, I don't know. So there was a bunch of legendary stuff there. So I guess going

from four to five is not the most exciting thing. None of these have great stories. It's Kanda's Banner, Oathkeeper, Taken's Daisho,

Shell of the Last Kappa, Tetsumasa, The Dragon's Fang, and Tenzo Godo's Maul. Brian shared a story about Shell of the Last Kappa in

my other podcast this week, so if you want to hear a story about that. I was not on the design team, so I don't know a lot of stories of these designs. I do know that they represent just different parts of the story, but I don't know the story well enough or the designs well enough to have much story.

So we're going to move on to Gleemax. So Gleemax came out in Unhinged. So Gleemax costs a millionleemax came out in Unhinged. So Gleemax costs a million generic mana. You heard me. A million generic mana. It's a legendary artifact, and it says you choose all targets for all spells and abilities. And it has reminder

text. I like it a lot, so I'll read the reminder text. It says, Help us. R&D under mental domination of alien brain and jar. Only chance. Gleemax blatant disregard for flavor text. Send help. So Gleamax, for those that are unaware of the story, there was a running joke for a long time

that R&D, or Wizards as a whole, but I guess R&D, that R&D was under the control of an alien brain in a jar, which it was a joke that went back to a Usenet post, like in 93 or 94. But anyway, it was this

running joke. We decided, I decided that I wanted to make a nod to it. But it was an Alien Brain in a Jar that had total control, so we... And I knew I wanted to, I knew I wanted to have a card that just had a crazy high cost, because there was ways to generate infinite mana

in this ad. And so we gave it a particularly high cost. Really, you have to, for all intents and purposes, you have to produce infinite mana. You're not going to probably produce an individual million mana. But we wanted to give it a crazy cost. I decided a million. I just wanted something that looked, like, over-the-top

crazy. And, like, before this set, like, the largest ever was, like, 15 or, like the largest ever was like 15 or something. So we jumped from 15 to a million. And then I wanted to capture the sense of Gleamax takes control of people. So you're sort of

taking control of your opponent. So anyway, that is Gleamax. Okay. So now we get to... So there is... I did not have a story about any of the legendary artifacts

in Champs of Kamigawa but I do have a story about a very famous one from Betrayers of Kamigawa called Umazawa's Jitte so two generic mana, legendary artifact equipment, when a crypt creature deals combat damage put two charge cards on Umazawa Jitte.

Remove a charge card from Umazawa Jitte. Choose one. If Crypt Creature gets plus two, plus two until end of turn, or Target Creature gets minus one, minus one until end of turn, or you gain two life. Okay, so the story of this card is that up until very, very short before printing, uh, I think

the minus one, minus one ability was, uh, mana production. That I think you can make the creature bigger, you could gain two life, or you could produce mana. Uh, and it turned out, based on how the mana rules worked, that we couldn't do that mode, but that wasn't figured out until templating and editing, like the very, very last part. So after everybody is done, like it's in editing, trying to finish,

they figure out in templating that the rules don't work. So they have to change it. And so at the last minute, it gets changed to minus one, minus one, without any testing, because it's just so for the last minute, it gets changed to minus one, minus one, without any testing because it's just so late in the process. And it turns out that Tart Creature gets minus one, minus one. It was quite good.

So this card ended up being very powerful and got played a lot because it was so powerful. Okay, next up is Thrumming Stone, which is from Cold Snap. I don't have a story about that, but I'm going to move on.

Akroma's Memorial. So Akroma's Memorial is from Future Sight. Costs seven mana. Legendary artifact. Creatures you control are Flying, First Strike, Vigilant, Trample, Haste, Protection from Black, and Protection from Red. No rest, no mercy, no matter what. Memorial inscription. That's the flavor text rest, no mercy, no matter what. Memorial inscription. That's the flavor text from Okroma,

by the way. So the story of this card, the quick version, I think I've told this story before, but I'll tell the quick version, is we had done a poll online to determine the player's favorite legendary creature. I think there was like 64 creatures or 128

creatures. Anyway, Okroma won that. To honor Akroma, we both, we gave Akroma her own theme week on Magic Daily MTG. And we decided to put her on the bonus sheet, the time shifted sheet

from Time Spiral. So then when we were making Planar Chaos, we decided it would be fun to make an alternate version of her, because the character always was very angry, and it made... I mean, she was white because she was an angel, but she could have clearly been red.

She was pretty upset, pretty anger-driven. And so we ended up making a red version of her. And then once we did that, we made an Akroma in future, in Time Spiral. We made one in Planar Chaos. Oh, we got to make an Akroma in future.

But what, she's dead. How do we do that? So we came up with the idea of making a memorial. And so it was a way to honor her. And it was a nice thing. They talked about like a future part of the story. Like when she died, what's left of her. And then it just grants all the abilities.

All those abilities are things that the original Akroma granted. Although, vigilance had since become a keyword. Original Akroma just said you didn't have to attack. But since then, vigilance became a keyword. And Akroma had been, you know, eroded to have vigilance. Or not even eroded. I think just she had that terminology. It was updated.

But anyway, that is a Chromeless Memorial. Okay, next up. We're almost out of time. So I'm going to get to my next card, which is from Shadowmoor.

Reaper King! So Reaper King costs five two-brid mana, one of each color. So two are white and two are blue and two are black two are white, and two are blue,

and two are black, and two are red, and two are green. So as a trivia question, you can ask somebody, what card has the most different variants of mana cost? You can pick this one,

because there's an infinite amount, because any one of those can be swapped for two. Anyway, there's lots of options of what you can do. Anyway, Reaper King is a legendary artifact creature scarecrow. Other scarecrow creatures you control get plus one plus one. Whenever another scarecrow comes into play under your control, destroy target permanent.

So Reaper King has been a very popular commander. A, because he lets you play five cards. He's got five card identity. And he lets you destroy things. I know most of lets you play five cards. He's got five card identity. And he lets you destroy things. I know most of when you play with Reaper King, you need to use a lot of Changelings, because while we've made some Scarecrows, there's not a lot of

Scarecrows. We always get asked for more Scarecrows. The Reaper King fans are like, we need more Scarecrows! It's just Scarecrows in this deck, in this set. Make more Scarecrows. But anyway, it definitely has been, this was a very popular card. There's not a lot of Tuberid, and he's the only card with

different color Tuberids all on the same card. But he is much beloved. Okay, so we are almost out of time. But I have time. So next up, Shurim the Hegemon, Sentriplets, Unsightly Killer Kings.

But I'm going to end today by talking about Mox Opal. So Mox Opal came out in Skarsamiridon. So we've made it to Skarsamiridon. So we like to put Opals, not Opals, Moxes in artifact sets. And one of the challenges... So a Mox means it's a zero-cost artifact that taps for mana, usually colored mana of some kind.

But anyway, it's hard to make Moxes. Moxes are very tricky to make. And so we were in Skarsgård and we were back. We had made a Mox in original tricky to make. And so we were in Scars of Mirrodin, we were back, we had made a Mox in original Mirrodin, and we're like, okay, we've got to make a Mox. So Metalcraft, well, this card does, it costs zero, Legendary Artifact, Metalcraft, tap,

add one mana of any color to your mana pool, activate this ability only if you control three or more artifacts. So the idea we came up with, Metalcraft was a mechanic in Skarsgård, representing the Mirren, the people from Mirrodin, who were about to get attacked by the Phraxians

and turned into Phraxians. But anyway, so the idea, we liked the idea of Metalcraft, because the cool thing about Metalcraft was it could cost zero, but because you needed three artifacts on the battlefield, you don't get to use it right away,

so it definitely fits the goal of a Mox. And originally, I believe this wasn't legendary, but it turns out getting three Mox Opals on your opening hand, or even two Mox Opals and, you know, a zero-drop thing, was really powerful. And so they said, once again, development came and said, hey, would it be okay if we made this legendary? Because that solves a lot of our developmental problems. And sure, sure, sure. It's, there's only one Mox Opal. So we ended up making this legendary. But that, that is where it came

about. So anyway, that was a lot of fun. So I did not make it all the way through. So I think I will do another one of these. Anyway, this was fun. So I hope you guys enjoyed my jaunt through looking at legendary artifacts and all the stories that it generated.

Anyway, guys, I'm now at my desk. So we all know what that means. It means it's the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be my desk. So we all know what that means. It's the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. So I hope you enjoyed today's podcast and I will see you next time. Bye-bye.