Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #826: Legendary Artifacts, Part 2

Episode Date: April 16, 2021

In this podcast, I share some more card-by-card design stories about legendary artifacts.

I'm not pulling in my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another Drive to Work Coronavirus Edition. Okay, a couple weeks back, I did a podcast on legendary artifacts. I did not finish. There's a bunch more to talk about. Strixhaven got in my way, and I had a bunch of stories about Strixhaven, but I'm back. And so I was going to do part two of my legendary artifact podcast. So just me telling stories about legendary artifacts. It's fun. I like these podcasts. I just go back and remember making cards.

So it's kind of fun for me. Okay, so we're going to start with Grimoire of the Dead. So Grimoire of the Dead is from Original Innistrad. So it costs four generic mana, legendary artifact, one in tap, discard a card, put a study counter on Grimoire of the Dead, tap, remove three study counters from Grimoire of the Dead, and sacrifice it. Put all creature cards from all graveyard

onto the battlefield under your control. They're black zombies in addition to the other creature types. So this card was literally, we were making Innistrad and we were like, we gotta do the Book of the Damned. And this was just a top down, like, it's a book that tells you how to raise the dead. And so, I mean, we made it our

we couldn't call it Book of the Damned. We called it Grimoire of the Dead. But this really was like, okay, well, you read it, and okay, yeah, it takes a little bit of time to use it, but eventually you get to summon everything that's summoned from the graveyards. Okay, next. Albrus the Blinding Blade. So this summoned from the graveyards. Okay, next. Albrus, the Blinding Blade.

So this is from Dark Ascension. So it costs seven generic mana, legendary artifact equipment, equipped creature gets plus one, plus oh. When equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, unattach Albrus, the Blinding Blade, then transform it. It costs equip one.

And the flip side was a 1313 called Withengar Unbound. Legendary creature, demon, 1313. Flying, intimidate, trample. Whenever a player loses the game, put 13 plus one plus one counters on Withengar Unbound. So there's a bunch of things about this thing.

So first off, we had made, so Innistrad introduced the transforming double-faced cards. All the ones that were in Innistrad were either... I think they were all creatures. In fact, all the ones in Innistrad were creatures. A lot of them were werewolves, but there was, like, you know, a vampire turned into a bat and such,

a little girl that turns into a demon and things. But they're all creatures that transform into creatures. So one of the things we were interested in trying in Dark Ascension was, hey, was there some risks we can do on it? And one of the ideas we liked a lot was, well, what if it was an artifact that turns into a creature?

And we started, that's where this card started. It's an artifact that turns into a creature. Well, why would it turn into a creature? And we came up with the idea, well, it's a blade, and when you sort of, you kill something, then it summons a demon. And one of the running things we had done in Innistrad was the 13 is kind of an unlucky number.

And so one of the themes we ran on Innistrad is we like 13 showing up a lot. So it seemed kind of cool to make a 13-13. The other cool thing about this is it clearly was made with multiplayer in mind because it has a trigger

that only happens when a player loses a game. Well, in a two-player game, that's not particularly exciting of a trigger. It's like, I've killed you with my Withengar and it gets bigger.

So clearly you can see us sort of starting to think, you can see us sort of starting to think, you know, I mean, not that we weren't doing multiplayer cards, but clearly this was made with multiplayer in mind. Okay. Next, Hellvault. Legendary artifact.

3 generic mana. This is from Avastin Restored. 1 in tap. XL target creature you control. 7 in tap. Exile target creature you control. 7 and tap. Exile target creature you don't control. When Hellvault is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, return all cards exiled with it to the battlefield under their owner's control.

Okay, so the Hellvault, for those that might not know their Innistrad story, original Innistrad, there was a device called the Hellvault that a lot of demons had been stuck into. The angel Avacyn, I don't know if she made the Hellvault, but she used the Hellvault to trap demons. There are a lot of evil demons and stuff in the world. But when she was trying to trap, who was she trying to trap?

One of Liliana's demons. I'm blanking on her name, but it'll come to me in a sec. He pulled her in and she got trapped. So what happened was, Avacyn and Gristlebrand. Avacyn and Gristlebrand both got trapped in the Hellvault, and a lot of bad things happened because Avacyn went away. But anyway, it was a big part of the story, and so what happens in the story is,

Liliana wants Gristlebrand because she's seeking the four demons that were part of her contract, and she needs to kill all four of her demons. Well, one of them's Gristlebrand because she's seeking the four demons that were part of her contract. And she needs to kill all four of her demons. Well, one of them is Gristlebrand, but he's trapped inside the Hellvault. And so she... I don't know if tricks is the right word, but gets Thalia to break the Hellvault,

which frees Gristlebrand. And also frees Avacyn, because she gets restored. But anyway, so this card was just part of the story. We knew we needed to do a top-down Hellvault. this card was just part of the story, and we knew we needed to do a top-down Hellvault. It's a key part of the story. And so really it was, okay, well what does a Hellvault do?

It traps things. Well, why would you want to trap things? And then we came across the idea of having two activations, that one was a cheap activation, so you could use it to save your creatures that were about to die, and one was an expensive activation, because you could use that to get rid of your were about to die, and one was an expensive activation, because you could use that to get rid of your opponent's creatures, but we

didn't want to make that too cheap. There's a card that was in the dark that was a land that let you sack creatures, and you usually could use it when your creatures were about to die, and then you could get them back, and I always liked that design. So, that design

inspired Hellvault. Okay, next up, we go to Theros. So there's four legendary creatures I want to talk about in Theros. Spear of Heliod, Bind of Thassa, Whip of Erebos, Hammer of Perforos, and Bow of

Nylea. So the Spear of Heliod was one white white. So all five of these are legendary enchantment artifacts. And each one of them has a static ability and has an activated ability. So Spear of Heliod is creatures you control get plus one, plus one.

One white, white, tap, destroy target creature that dealt damage to you this turn. Biden the Thassa said, whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. One and tap creatures your opponent controls attack this turn available. Whipple Erebos, creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. One and tap. Creatures your opponent controls attack the return of Abel. Whip Erebos.

Creatures you control have lifelink. Two black, black, tap. Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile at the beginning of your next end step. If it would leave the battlefield, exile instead of putting it anywhere else.

Actions build only anytime you could activate a sorcery. Hemipherphoros. Creatures you control have haste. Two and red, tap. Sacrifice at land. Put a three, three, colors golem enchantment artifact. Creature on the battlefield and bold Nylea Okay, whew.

Okay, so starters, these originally were supposed to be legendary enchantment artifact equipment. They were supposed to be equipment. It literally didn't fit on the line. We could not fit it. Legendary enchantment artifact takes up most of the line. You might be able to fit a tiny creature type if it was

a creature type, but there's just no space. There's just no space. So we ended up making them global enchantments and like well the gods using them like you the planeswalker the god is using them so each one of them was designed to sort of capture the essence of the god

so Heliod was kind of a Zeus-ish god so it boosts your creatures but also Heliod likes to smite things as did Zeus to be fair so it has sort of a you harm me I kill you So it has sort of a, you harm me, I kill you. Thassa

is kind of a Poseidon-ish sea god. So we gave it I think the activation was that you can force people to, because Thassa tends to goad people. And then we just needed a basic good ability,

so we ended up giving it a curiosity ability, that when creatures hit, you draw a card. This one is not quite as sea-flavored as some of the other ones that are. Whip of Erebos. So he's the god of the underworld, so it made sense for Erebos' ability to get things out of the underworld,

because he oversaw the underworld. I think Lifelink just needed a very short static ability because his activate ability was so long. Purphoros is sort of the builder. So we liked the idea that he gave things haste. And then you could sack a land to make golems. So he sort of carved golems out of the land, which we thought was cool.

And then Bov Nylea, she's sort of the nature goddess. And so attack creatures have death touch, so she's a hunter, that made sense. And then you're kind of using the bow to do things. So the cool thing about it is it has a 1, 2, 3, 4 design.

We like doing this. So it's a plus one, plus one counter. Or two damage to target creature with flying. Or gain three life. Or put the four cards from your graveyard on the bottom of your library in any order. So it sort of is this one, two, three, four thing, which is kind of cool. Okay, next.

Hero's Podium. I don't know if I have a story for Hero's Podium. I'm going to skip over Hero's Podium. Next is Godsend. So Godsend is from Journey to Nyx. One white, white, legendary artifact equipment. Equipped creature gets plus three plus three. Whatever equipped creature blocked or becomes blocked by one or more

creatures, you may exile one of those creatures. Opponents can't cast cards with the same name as cards exiled with Godsend. Okay, so this is equipped three. This is another top-down story card. So Heliod sends equip three. This is another top-down story card. So, um,

um, Heliod sends Elspeth on a mission and gives her this sword. Or is it a spear? I'm not sure whether it's it's kind of part spear, part sword. But anyway, it's cute because

God's End, is it God's End or God's End? It's kind of both. But anyway, God's End, is it God's End or God's End? Um, it's kind of both. Um, but anyway, in the story, she uses it to kill, um, uh, Xenagos. And so we wanted something that was powerful and exciting. And then we made it legendary just because it's clearly a one key thing in the story. Um, but one of the things that's kind of fun about this card is that the idea is that once you kill something that you can't then

cast another version of it. Once she kills it, it's dead. There's no longer casting it. So I thought that that was cool. Hall of Triumph was also from

Journey to Nyx. Three generic mana. Legendary artifact. As Hall of Triumph enters the battlefield, choose a color. Creatures you control of the chosen color

get plus one, plus one. Sometimes we like to put in Artifact these general abilities that are generally useful, and the idea here is, well, whatever deck needs it, you can pick the color you want.

And just, granted, plus one, plus one to your team is a general thing that we thought we could sort of put there. Okay, next up, the Chain Veil. So four generic mana.

This is from Magic 2015. Legend Artifact., the Chain Veil. So, for generic mana, this is from Magic 2015, a legendary artifact. At the beginning of your upkeep, if you didn't activate a loyalty ability of a Planeswalker this turn, you lose two life. For a tap, for each Planeswalker you control, you may activate one of its loyalties once this turn is out. None of its loyalties have been activated this turn.

So, the Chain Veil is an item that Liliana got her hands on that makes her very powerful, but is very harmful. So the idea was, this was this top-down Chain Veil. So the idea we liked is the activated ability, it lets you sort of get extra abilities out of Planeswalkers, but it comes at a life loss. Like, there's a penalty to using it.

And once again, that was simply just top-down. Okay, next up, Dragon's Throne of Tarkir, Legendary Artifact Equipment. Equipment creature is Defender and Two-Tap. Other creatures you control gain Trample and get plus X plus X at the end of turn where X is this creature's power. Equip three. Okay, so this

card came about because when they were making the world building, one of the artists that was doing the world building drew this, like... Because the idea was the dragons are all dead, right? In Dragons of Tarkir. I'm sorry, in Throne of Tarkir. In, uh... Not Dragons of Tarkir.

This was, um, Khans of Tarkir. In Khans of Tarkir, the dragons are all dead. They would come back when the timeline gets changed. We'll get to that in a second. But anyway, one of the cool things about this was when we were doing the world building, one of the artists that was doing the world building loved the idea that one of the Khans had a skull,

had one of the dragon's skulls as their throne. Like, how can you more communicate the dominance of the Khans over the dragons than the skull of one of the dragons is a throne. I think for the Mardu, I think of the Mardu leader. But anyway, and this was, we literally, so what happens sometimes is, there'll be

something really cool in the world guide, and we're like, wow, we gotta do that. And so like, okay, we want to do the dragon throne, so okay, okay, we have to figure out what it does. And like I said, okay, we want to do the dragon throne, so, okay, okay, we have to figure out what it does. And like I said, this was just, it's a dragon throne, so the idea of it sort of, you know, buffing

creatures, the idea that whoever sits on the throne, you know, has influence over everybody, we thought was pretty cool. Okay, next up, Ugin's Nexus. So, and this is also from Concert Turk here. So, it costs five And this is also from Conqueror of Tarkir. So it costs five generic mana,

legendary artifact. If a player would begin an extra turn, that player skips that turn instead. If Ugin's Nexus would be put into a graveyard from the battlefield, instead exile it and take an extra turn after this one.

So, okay, so this was another top-down. So in the story, Sarkin returns to Tarkir, his homeworld, and Sarkin is a giant fan of dragons. He grew up in a world where the dragons had all been killed off. But he sparks, he becomes a planeswalker, he travels the other world, he sees actual dragons.

He actually works for Nicol Bolas. Like, he actually interacts with dragons. And he comes back to his home, and now that he knows that dragons, like, now that he's seen dragons, now that he can become a dragon, he decides that the world, that where the world went astray is that the

dragons had died. So he needs to go back in the past and make things right, which he does. Well, it depends on whether or not bringing the dragons back to life was doing the right thing, but to him it was. Sarkhan loves the dragons. So anyway, we needed a device to represent the time

travel. So Ugin's Nexus is the means by which he travels back in the past, and we wanted to have to represent that because it's a big, big, big story point. In fact, I think it's the very last thing. I think the story point in this card is the, like, the end of the story. And then he wakes up and, you know, he's, the next thing he's in the past.

And that's the beginning of the next story. Okay, so next up, what is this from? This is from Magic Origins. Okay, so we have Almaret's Archive and Pyromancer's Goggles and Sword of the Animus. Okay, I'm going to talk about Pyromancer's Goggles. So,

Chandra has a pair of goggles that she's always had. But we decided for some reason not to make Chandra's Goggles, because these aren't Chandra's a pair of goggles that she's always had. But we decided for some reason not to make Chandra's goggles because these aren't Chandra's goggles. But when Chandra went and studied at... What was it called?

When she studied on Ragatha, one of the people that got revered, one of the Planeswalkers that was revered was Jaya Bowerd. Now, little does she know, spoilers if you haven't read the story from four years ago, the woman who ran the,

I don't know, monastery, I don't remember what you call it, but the person who ran the place was Jaya Bowerd, but Chandra didn't know that yet. But anyway, these are, I believe, represented Jaya's original goggles. And so we just wanted to come up with something that was cool.

So what pyromancer's goggles do is they cause five generic mana, tap, add red to your mana pool. When that mana is spent to cast a red instant or sorcery, copy that spell, and you may choose new targets for that copy. So the idea is, okay, well, what are... You know, this is pyromancers.

Well, what are pyromancer spells? Well, mostly direct damage spells and stuff. Usually they're instance and sorcery. So like, okay, well, this lets you copy instance and sorcery. You can produce mana, and then that mana lets you copy spells when we cast them. So anyway, I think pretty cool. Okay, next up, Tamiyo's Journal. So, anyway, I think it's pretty cool.

Okay, next up, Tamiyo's Journal. So, Tamiyo's Journal showed up in Shadows Over Innistrad and Legendary Artifact. You'll notice, by the way, we skip over Battle for Zendikar. I don't think there were any Legendary Artifacts in Battle for Zendikar. Because most of the Legend legendary stuff were colorless because of the Eldrazi. Anyway, interesting little side note.

Okay, so Tamiyo's journal costs 500 mana. At the beginning of your upkeep, investigate. Put a colorless artifact token onto the battlefield with two sacrifices artifact. Draw a card.

Tap, sacrifice three clues. Search your library for a card and put that card in your hand and shuffle your library. Okay, so Tamiyo was a character that we introduced I think in this story? Is this where we introduced Tamiyo?

So Tamiyo is a scientist, but also a planeswalker. And she studies moons. So Tamiyo is going from place to place. Oh, I think we met Tamiyo in Avacyn Restored. I think this is not the first time we met Tamiyo. I think we met Tamiyo originally in Avacyn Restored and then we come back and she's still there studying

but anyway in the story something happens to Tamiyo and Jace is trying to solve the mystery and part of solving the mystery is he finds Tamiyo's journal in fact in the art to the card you see Jace holding Tamiyo's journal and mostly what we wanted is, well, what's

Tommy O's journal? Well, she's a scientist. She's recording data, right? So, like, okay, well, investigate what's the mechanic in the set. Like, that's kind of cool. You can investigate. Helps you get cards. And then the idea is, you can either get clues, which lets you get cards directly, or you can save up the clues, and then

you can, you know, if you figure out the clues, you can go get whatever card you want. You can tutor for a card. Anyway, I thought that was pretty cool. Okay, next up, we have two legendary artifacts from Kaladesh. Okay, so Aetherworks Marvel costs four generic mana, legendary artifact. When a permanent you control is put into a graveyard, you get an energy. And then pay, I think it's six energy.

Look at the top six cards of your library. You may cast a card from among them without paying its mana cost. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in random order. Okay, so let me talk about this one first. So this was the card I previewed. So we did this big event. We rented out this whole theater in downtown, right by the convention center.

It's for Kaladesh. We had a big Adventurers Fair. Anyway, we had a big show where we introduced this at. And I did the part about the mechanics. And the card I introduced or one of the cards I introduced was Aetherworks Barbel. This is a very good card. It ended up getting banned

for a while. But it is a very powerful card. The reason this card got made was we were just trying to do something big and splashy with... It's a mythic rare. We wanted something big and splashy with energy. This card is big and it is splashy.

The one thing that's funny, you'll notice that it says pay and then it has six individual energy symbols. We later realized that we should, I think above three, we write a number now. We'll say, like, it should say six energy symbol rather than energy symbol six times. Okay. Okay, the other Legendary Artifact is Sky Sovereign Consul Flagship, 5 generic mana, Legendary Artifact Vehicle, flying.

When Sky Sovereign Consul Flagship enters the battlefield or attacks, it deals 3 damage to a target creature or planeswalker an opponent controls. Crew 3. Okay, so Kaladesh was the set that introduced vehicles. And so we knew we wanted some big mythic rare vehicle. And this played a role in the story. We knew it had a fly, because it's a sky

ship, basically. And the idea was that it just does damage to things. So every time it enters, when it attacks, it's constantly damaging things, which sort of played out. I think this is the government controls the ship, and so it's something that the good guys

in the story have to deal with. Okay. Next up. Okay, what is next up? We have Commander 2016. So there's Briah, Ethereum Shaper, and there's Silas Wren, Seeker Adept.

I did not work on this set, so I don't have lots of stories for these two. They are very cool designs, though. But I'm going to move on, just because I don't have stories in these two, because I did not make any of it. So next up is Gonti's Aether Heart and Heart of Kirin.

Oh, there's a bunch here from... This is Aether Revolt, right? Yes. So Aether Revolt actually has a bunch of legendary. Gonti's Aether Heart, Heart of Kirin, Hope of Ghirapur, Paradox Engine,

Planar Bridge. Okay, that's it. Yeah, Heart of Kirin, Hope of Ghirapur, Paradox Engine, Planar Bridge. Okay, that's it. Yeah, Heart of Kirin was... So Heart of Kirin costs two generic mana, Flying Vigilance Crew 3. You remove a loyalty counter from a planeswalker you control rather than pay Heart of Kirin's crew costs. So Heart of Kirin is what the good guys use. They help save the story.

And so we liked the idea that it was a vehicle, but that it interacted with planeswalkers in a way that we hadn't before. So, um, you can crew it, but you can also use loyalty rather than crew to crew the thing. Um, which is kind of cool. Um,

Paradox Engine, uh, whenever you cast a spell, untap, it costs five generic mana, legendary artifact. Whenever you cast a spell, untap all non- 5 generic mana, legendary artifact. Whenever you cast a spell, untap all non-land permanents you control. I think we made Paradox Engine just to be a weird build-around card, and I think it ended up, if I remember correctly,

they might have made it legendary because it was powerful and they didn't want multiples at once. I think that's why it's legendary. Finally, Planar Bridge. Planar Bridge is 6 generic mana, legendary artifact, eight in tap, search your library for a permanent card,

put it on the battlefield, then shuffle your library. So Planar Bridge has a big story point. So Tezzeret goes to Kaladesh on behalf of Nicol Bolas. He's looking for, it turns out, the Planar Bridge. The reason he wants the Planar Bridge

is it allows the user to transport, I think, non-organic things from one plane to another. Because the point is, the only way to travel, Planar travel, is to be a planeswalker. But Bolas has a plan. He has an army of undead creatures that he needs to get to Ravnica for his master plan. And so he uses Tezzeret in that. And Tezzeret is able to steal the Planner Bridge and that is how Bolas gets his

Eternal Army from Amonkhet to... Now the interesting thing is, I'm talking about Amonkhet, but Amonkhet hasn't happened yet. Amonkhet is coming up next. Okay, so the next five cards are a cycle, a legendary. We don't have a lot of legendary cycles.

I did the god equipment earlier, but there's not a lot of them. So these are the monuments. These were uncommon. So there's Bantu's Monument, Hazardous Monument, Kefnet's Monument, Oketra's Monument,

and Ronas's Monument. So they all work the same. So the legendary artifact, they all cost three. So spells of whatever color of that cycle cost one less to cast. So Bantu's is black, Hazoret is red,

Kefnet is blue, Oketra is white, and Ronas is green. And then each one has a separate ability that sort of matches them. So Bantu is whenever you cast a creature spell, each opponent loses one life and you gain one life. So he drains when you cast creature spells. Hazoret is whenever you cast a creature spell, each opponent loses one life and you gain one life. So he drains when you cast creature spells.

Hazoret is whenever you cast a creature spell, you may discard a card if you still draw a card. Oh, these are all creature spells. So whenever you do a creature spell, do something. Bantu, the black one, drains the opponent for a life. Hazoret, the red one, lets you rumble. Rummage. Discard and draw.

Kefnet, the blue one, freezes a creature, so it taps and doesn't untap. Oketra, the white one, makes a little 1-1 warrior creature token with Vigilance. And Rona's, the green one, target creature gets plus 2, plus 2

until end of turn. And the idea was, we were really trying to hammer home when we got to... So Amonkhet is our Egyptian-inspired world, also Bolas, not his home world because he's from Dominaria, but the world that he sort of adopted and that he

was, he had his master plan he was building that we didn't quite know. And we really wanted to reflect as much as we could all the Egyptian things. The idea of there being gods and they have monuments to them just seemed like a really cool thing. And this cycle

was made to say, we want monuments. How do we get these to be monuments? And so those were done literally as top-down monuments. Okay. Next up, also in Amaket, is Throne of the God Pharaoh. So Throne of the

God Pharaoh costs two generic mana, less generic artifact. At the beginning of your end step, each opponent loses life equal to the number of tapped creatures you control. So the throne is the throne is the throne of Bolas.

And so we just wanted something that was mean. We just wanted a mean spell, and that it just felt very mean. Okay, so next up is... Where is this from? Commander 2017. It's the Hammer of

Nazdan and Ramos Dragon Engine. It did not work with the Commander. I don't have a lot of stories for these. I know Ramos was made... They liked the idea of making Ramos into a five-color legendary creature. So for Commander, to make a five-color Commander, Ramos has always been tied to all five colors.

But that's all I really have on that. Okay, but next up are three cards that I know quite well. Because next up is Unstable. So we get the Grand Calculatron, Kindslaver, and Crooked Other Thumb. Okay, so I can tell little stories in these, and then I think that'll wrap it up for today.

Okay, so Grand Calcutron, each of the factions, there were five factions in the set, had a leader. And so the cyborgs, the thing I thought would be really funny about the cyborgs is that their leader started as a human and over time essentially became a computer. So the Grand Calcutron, white and blue, legendary artifact. The Grand Calcutron can be your commander. That was eroded, but it's on the card. When the Grand Calcutron enters the battlefield, each player's hand becomes a program. In order, Rove reveals cards. Players can only play the first card of the program. If a card will be put into a player's hand from anywhere, that player reveals it and places it anywhere within the program instead. At the beginning of each player's end step, if that player's

program has fewer than five cards, they draw the cards equal to the difference. So the idea here is, you get to keep drawing cards based on what you play, but you have to sort of set up your cards in order, and you have to do them. So this mechanic came first. I love the idea that the leader of the cyborgs had turned himself into a computer, but it, uh, that came after we had this card, and then we realized that, oh, this mechanic,

originally it was like an enchantment, like, oh, this would be neat on, oh, what if we made the leader and made him this, and then we could make it a legendary artifact and then put this ability on it. The reason that the card didn't say you can play as a commander on the card was we ran out of room. And I'd always meant for that to be true, so I rotted it and said, okay, it is true. We wanted every faction to have a legend,

at least one legend you could play as a commander, and this was White Blue's only one, so we did a rod to that. Next up is Kindslaver. Kindslaver costs five generic mana. Five and tap. Sacrifice Kindslaver. A person outside the game controls target player during their next turn.

Neither player may advise that player until the end of that turn. Okay, so this is Mindslaver. Well, I mean, it's a riff on Mindslaver. Mindslaver was a card that I originally made for Tempest, but the rules said we couldn't do. I finally made it again in Mirrodin. It actually got printed.

And then it got reprinted in Scarves of Mirrodin, I believe. But anyway, one of the themes of Unstable was what we call outside assistance, where you go and get people outside the game and involve them in the game. So the idea of kind slaver, which, by the way, is called friend slaver, I think, in design,

was that you would go get somebody else, and then you take over your opponent's turn, but you don't get to decide what to do. Your opponent gets to decide what to do. My favorite story of this, which I might have told before, but it's an awesome story, so I'm going to tell it again,

is I was playing against Ben Hayes it was in development because Ben loved development and Ben uses Kind Slaver and calls over

Tim Aiden who was one of the editors at the time who was a pro player and Tim comes sits down looks at the board and just kills Ben

and like uses Ben's own thing to or I'm sorry looks at the board and just kills Ben. And, like, he uses Ben's own thing to... I'm sorry. Ben had taken over my turn. He uses my board to kill Ben. And then Tim says, never make me do this again. That was very funny.

So, the lesson there is don't have Tim do your kind later. Finally, we have Croak's Other Thumb. Costs two generic mana, legendary artifact. If you'd roll a die, instead roll two of those dice and ignore one of those results. So, there was a card called Kroak's Thumb

that was in... I talked about it in Part 1. It was in... What was it? Saga? Where was it? Anyway, it was in... And we had made it legendary because... Oh, we made it legendary for mechanical purposes

because it was problematic because there were two in play. But anyway, it was an ongoing joke with us that it was Crook's Thumb, but like, doesn't Crook have two thumbs? And so when I made this card, which literally is exactly what Crook's Thumb is, except instead of coins it's dice, I'm like, okay, this has to be Crook's Thumb.

And it's like, it's an uncommon legendary'm like, okay, this has to be Quark's thumb. And it's like, it's an uncommon legendary artifact. We don't do those that much. But it needed to be uncommon for limited purposes. But it just, it had to be Quark's

thumb. There really was no way around it. So, anyway, I'm happy to do that. How Quark got into two different universes, I don't know.

Or maybe Quark lost his thumb in one universe and then a parallel version in another universe. Anyway. We're getting into parallel universes and things. Anyway, guys, so that is all the time I have for today. I've reached my desk.

But I hope you guys are enjoying. I don't know whether I'll do one more of these. I'm... There is more to talk about, but we... I'm not sure I necessarily have a whole, I might hold off a little bit. Let us build up some more legendary artifacts. I gotta look and see, but I'll do a part three at some point. There's some more fun stories to tell,

but it might be a little ways off. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this. It is fun. I really do enjoy these ones where I just sit down and just tell stories about cards. It's a lot of fun and brings back memories. But anyway, I'm at my desk, 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. Okay, guys. Well, I'll see you all next time. Bye-bye.