Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #866: Equipment, Part 2

Episode Date: September 3, 2021

In this podcast, I continue talking about the history of the Equipment subtype and share some card-by-card design stories.

I'm not pulling into a driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another Drive to Work, Coronavirus Edition. Okay, so in a previous podcast, I started talking about equipment, so I was going to do a second podcast on equipment. So I talked about how equipment got made, and I mostly just talked about equipments up through Mirrodin, the set that premiered them. So now I'm going to go at a little faster pace. I'm not going to talk... I talked about all the ones in Mirrodin. I'm not going to talk about all the ones moving forward. I'm just going to talk about certain ones, share some stories,

and then talk about some evolution of equipment. And we'll see how far we get. We'll get... Until I get to work. Okay. So first up, we're in... So I introduced in Mirrodin. And then the next set after Mirrodin was Darksteel.

Okay, so Darksteel... So there are three cards in Darksteel that introduced a new concept. So those cards are Heartseeker, Lean and Bola, and Surestrike Trident. So they introduced something called unattaching. So, for example, Heartseeker costs 4 mana, Equipped Creature gets plus 2, plus 1, and has Tap, Unattach Heartseeker, Destroy Target Creature, Equip 5.

Leanimbola was Equipped Creature has Tap, Unattach Leanimbola, Tap Target Creature, Equip 1, costs 1 to cast. Ensured and Trident costs 2 to cast. Equipped Creature has First Strike and Tap, Unattach, Two-Stat Trident. This creature deals damage equal to its power to target a player, Equip 4. Okay, so the idea of unattaching is, well, here's something that we can do with equipment that we cannot do with auras, which is we can give it to somebody,

and that person can throw it, and now they don't have it anymore, and it can do something. So the idea of, Dark Soul introduced this, the idea of unattaching as a means to represent using it, and now you don't have it. I'll start with a bola as the simplest one. Like, okay, a bola is sort of a chain with two balls on the end

that you throw, and it goes around people's feet to trip them, basically, is the idea. So, okay, so for one mana and equip one, I can put it on a creature, and then I can for free, unattach it. Just tap to unattach it. I've been able to tap the creature. The creature has been unattached. But I can use the creature to use its ability to tap something. Now, the bowler has

equipped one, so the idea there is I can equip it to a bunch of different creatures. So if I have a bunch of creatures, let's say for example, I have a creature that wants to get through, but I have a lot of small creatures,'s say, for example, I have a creature that wants to get through, but I have a lot of small creatures. I can equip it to all the small creatures to block, you know, to tap all your creatures so my big creature can get through. And this is an example of using a low equip cost on an unattached. Heartseeker and Sure-Shred Trident are the opposite, where they have high equip costs.

So Heartseeker, for example, you can destroy a creature, but it's equipped five, right? It's four to cast and five to equip. So usually, unless it's really late game, you're not doing it all at once. But it is something in which you can sort of equip to the creature, and then when you need it, you can use it. But because it's equipped five, it's not very easy. Like, you can't use it on multiple creatures very easily. And that's one of the things, by the way, as we started working with equipment, one of the big things we realized is one easily. And that's one of the things, by the way, as we started working with equipment, one of the big things we realized is one of the knobs that's really important is the equip thing.

One of the things we realized is some equipment we want to make easy to move, and some equipment we want to make hard to move. Usually the easy equipment to move are things that are smaller in nature, and it's kind of fun to move them around when you need them. Like, I can attack with a creature and then it has that build, but then I can move

to a blocking creature, for example. But there's also some fun things that what we want to do is we want to put high equip costs, so like, look, you sort of commit to something and then you kind of really want to keep it on one creature. You don't want to move it around. And what we found is the equip cost as a knob was a really interesting

knob for balancing reasons. The fact that this card has a mana cost to cast it and an equip cost to equip it, really, when I say knobs, in play design, what knobs means is something that play design can change. Usually they're numbers, but not always. Something they can change so that it allows them to fine-tune the card. The most obvious knob is mana cost, for example, on a spell. Equipment's nice because it has an equip cost, so it is a second knob. There are other knobs also, you know, about sort of on spells.

They can be instances of sorceries or such. But anyway, the nice thing about equipment is there has been a lot of knobs. One of the problems, at least early on, was it was always generic. There were always generic costs. And that burned us. But it did give us a lot of tools. And as we'll get into, we eventually get to color. But anyway,

that is Heartseeker, Lunabola, and Surestrike Trident. Next, I want to mention Shield of Kaldra. Last time I talked about Sword of Kaldra. So Shield of Caldra. Last time I talked about Sword of Caldra. So Shield of Caldra is interesting. It does something we don't do very often. So it costs four mana.

It says equipment named Sword of Caldra, Shield of Caldra, and Helm of Caldra are indestructible. Equipped creature is indestructible. I should mention, by the way, that I don't know. should mention, by the way, that I don't know, I don't think in Mirrodin we had any cards that use a keyword that was just from that set, a set keyword. We used definitely evergreen keywords, but indestructible at the time, it would later go on to be evergreen. But at the time, indestructible is something that was unique to Darksteel. It introduced Indestructible. So the fact that it was doing this was, it was equipment sort of making use

of the mechanic of the set, I think for the first time. Another thing, anyway, Shield of Caldor does is, it says Sword of Caldor, Shield of Caldor, Helm of Caldor. Well, Sword of Caldor was in Mirrodin.

This is Shield of Caldor. Helm of Caldor you hadn't seen before. There's no card called Helm of Caldor. And I don't know, I think this might be the first time we named a card that the card didn't exist yet. We did it in concept on Cure Block.

We did it with the Eldrazi sort of, at least we hinted at Eldrazi stuff coming. We've done it from time to time. Like back in Tempest, we had a mechanic that was coming in the next set, the Spike, so we had one Spike to show you that. So we've done little things where we nodded what's coming, but

I think this is the first time we literally named a card that didn't exist. Now, the idea was, you know, there's a pattern, blocks are three sets at the time, the first set of this card, the second set of that card. I mean, we were announcing pretty loudly that the third set would have Hel, the second set of that card. I mean, we were announcing pretty loudly that the third set would have Helm of Caldra.

But it's kind of fun, you know. It's something we've done more of, and I enjoy a lot, in the right place, where teasing something that doesn't yet exist is a lot of fun. I know in Unsanctioned, I made a card in Unsanctioned that teased Mut teased Mutate before Mutate was even a known thing. And the card cares about when things

it cares about when things get enchanted or I think get augmented. But I mentioned Mutate because it thematically fit, even though Mutate wasn't out yet. But it was coming out soon, so. It's fun. I enjoy sort of occasionally throwing things out there. The audience can sort of speculate on what it means.

Clearly, with Helm of Cauldron, you knew it was an equipment. And you knew it... The payoff... I'll get to Helm of Cauldron in a second. But we didn't tell you what the payoff was yet. In fact, you didn't even know... The first card just seemed like a standalone. The second card sort of said it was three of them and gave some sense of the relationship between them. The third one would say, hey, they work together.

We'll get to that in a second. Okay, next up, Skullclamp, also in Darksteel. So Skullclamp costs one. Equipped creature gets plus one, minus one. When equipped creature is put into a graveyard, draw two cards, equip one. Okay, so there's a card called Bequethal, I believe the name was. So Bequethal was from Exodus. It was an enchantment that said, if enchanted creatures put into any graveyard, draw two cards. So the idea was, all it really said is, I'm going to offset the card advantage of this creature, right? So if I

put it on this creature and you kill this creature, I get back the card for the creature. I get back the card for the aura. It was really something we were messing around with. I was very intrigued by this card. It ended up not being good enough. Like, I think the aura had to do something beyond just paying back for it when the creature died. The aura didn't do anything. I mean, I guess it paid you back for the creature dying, but it really wasn't enough. So, when we were making this set, I decided to make an equipment bequeathal and think, okay, bequeathal wasn't quite enough, so I was gonna make two upgrades to it. One was, it would be, I put plus one plus one on it, and the second thing is that it was an equipment. So, I wasn't losing the card for the equipment,

right? So, the fact that you drew two cards, you're like, okay, you know, so it was an equipment. So I wasn't losing the card for the equipment, right? So the fact that you drew two cards, you're like, okay. So there was more card, less card disadvantage or card equity, but you actually were gaining cards. And I put plus one, plus one on it. That's all I was trying to do. I was just trying to make an equipment Bakwithal

that really, I was intrigued by Bakwithal. It didn't quite work out. I was trying another Bakwithal. And then, as things would happen, in development, this is back when we had design development rather than vision design and play design, set design, play design,

they decided it would be clever instead of plus one plus one to be plus one minus one. And they thought, oh, they were being clever, as if plus one minus one. You know, and they thought, like, oh, they were being clever, you know, like, as if plus one minus one would be worse than plus one plus one was the idea.

Like, I think the idea when they made that change is they think, like, oh, well, you know, hey, it'd be kind of cute, you can combo and maybe kill small things, and, like, the general thought was plus one plus one is better than plus one minus one. Well, it turns out building into it the ability to kill the creature, so like

you didn't need, like, when I made the card, because it was plus one plus one, you still needed a way for the creature to die. You needed another card to sacrifice the creature. Like, you still needed some way to make it happen. Once you change it to plus one minus one, the combo all was built in, and this card, I one, the combo all was built in.

And this card, I mean, for those who don't know, Skullclamp was a very powerful, or still is a very powerful card, and ended up causing all sorts of issues. I mean, it's a super powerful card. But it's a good example why sometimes making a change in a vacuum, like you would think that turning plus one, plus one into plus one, minus one is a downgrade,

but it just so happens not here. Okay, next, Spellbinder. So Spellbinder costs three generic mana. Imprint. When Spellbinder comes into play, you may remove an instant card in your hand from the game. Whenever a equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may copy the imprinted instant card

and play the copy without paying its mana cost. Okay, so Spellbinder and Shield the Cauldron are the two cards in this set that make use of a mechanic, a set mechanic. Now, given Imprint first showed up in Mirrodin, it was a block mechanic, but for the first time, they're non-Evergreen mechanics. We're like, oh, well, one of the things we can do with equipment is make use of the mechanic specifically from the set it's in. And Imprint was a mechanic from Mirrodin that allowed you to basically exile a card,

and then the card that exiles it cares about it in some way. Imprint, at the time, only went on to artifacts. And the idea was that you're sort of customizing your equipment, right? So the cool thing here is, oh, I can go get an instant or sorcery card and then graft it onto my spellbinder. And now, every time my creature, you know, the equipped creature deals, I get to set off that spell. I think the problem we ran into with spellbinder is, I think it got played with some time walk. I don't know. Some

extra turn card. Was there an instant extra turn card? I think there was. Anyway, Spellbinder ended up seeing play, and definitely there's some dangerous things you can put into the Spellbinder. Oh, maybe...

Oh, I know what it was. There is a red instant that you get an extra turn, but you lose the game next turn. And I think they played it with the Platinum Angel that kept you from losing. So if you put Spellbinder on your Platinum Angel with Final Fortune or whatever on it, it's like every time the Angel hits you, you get an extra turn

and you're not going to lose the game because of the Angel. I think that was the combo. Okay, next up. The last two things I'm going to talk about from Darksteel. Sword of Fire and Ice

and Sword of Light and Shadow. So, Sword of Fire and Ice costs three. Equipped creature gets plus two, plus two and has protection from red and blue. Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, Sword of Fire and Ice cost 3. Equipped creature gets plus 2 plus 2 and has protection from red and blue. Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player,

Sword of Fire and Ice deals 2 damage to each creature or player, and you draw a card, equipped 2. And then Sword of Light and Shadow, 3 mana, equipped creature gets plus 2 plus 2, has protection from white and black. Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you gain 3 life and you may return up to 1 target creature card from your graveyard in your hand, equipped 2. I swear that when we made these two cards,

we just thought these were sort of cool, and they were kind of made to sort of reflect in the sense that they're just different colors. One's red-blue, one's white-black. One thing that's really interesting is I think the public feels whenever something could be a cycle, we intended that, and that's what

it's meant to be. So as soon as these two cards came out, like, clearly there be a cycle. We intended that, and that's what it's meant to be. So as soon as each new card came out, like, clearly there's a pattern. They cost three. They grant plus two, plus two. They get protection from the two colors. And then they give an ability, when you deal combat damage, the equipped creature,

you do an ability for each of the two colors, right? And so, like, okay. So, like, as soon as we put these cards up, people are like, oh hey where's the three other swords? um, and then once we made the three other swords, which we'll get to, uh, it's like, oh where are the rest of the swords? So um, one of the, it's funny had we just made one of these cards

I don't know whether people would have wanted more they might, uh, but making two once you make two dots oh, the line is so clear um, anyway, Sword line is so clear. Anyway, Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Light and Shadow, especially Sword of Fire and Ice, saw a lot of play, and very

popular. I guess they both saw play, what am I saying? They both saw play. But anyway, they inspired a cycle, and then a large, like, at first inspired a five-card cycle, then inspired a ten-card cycle. So, it is definitely one of those cards that I think once again,

I think the way it worked is I think Sword of Light and Shadow got made first, and then we light Sword of the Template of it and made Sword of Fire and Ice just because it was, I think white and black and red and blue are the two opposites that are kind of the cleanest I just think, like are the two opposites that are kind of the cleanest.

I just think, like, the other opposites all actually have a clear relationship. We've spent a lot of time on them. But these are the two that just sort of felt the most natural in what you see in kind of other IPs and stuff. You know, sword and fire makes a lot of sense. Light and dark makes a lot of sense. So anyway, we made these. They were popular. We make more.

They ended up also being very strong. One of the things, we're still in the range. For the entire Mirrodin block, we really, it took us a little while to understand kind of how powerful equipment was. And so we're still in the realm where equipment is more powerful than it should be. Okay, let's get on to the next set. than it should be. Okay, let's get on to the next set. The next set was the final set in the Mirrored in Black, Fifth Dawn.

Okay, so Fifth Dawn, let me talk about cranial plating. This is actually a cycle, made as a cycle. So cranial plating, two, equip creature gets plus one plus oh for each artifact you control. Black, black, attach cranial plating to target creature you control. Equip creature gets plus 1 plus 0 for each artifact you control. Black, black, attach cranial plating to target creature you control. Equip 1. Okay, a couple things about this. So this was a cycle in 5th Dawn where you could move the equipment with a colored mana cost. Now, this is the first time that colored mana cost, activation cost, appeared in equipment. Obviously, I talked last time about how

we had Nightmare of the Last... Like, clearly sort of said, I'm for black. I care about swamps. But this is the first time that we actually made cards that literally, like, if you want to maximize Crandall Plating, you really kind of need to be in a black deck that can activate this.

Now, given Nightmare of the Last, you need to be in a black deck. But, I mean, the first time that there was colored cost. I will point out, they weren't... It's funny. When we made Mirrodin, we redid the frames, and one of the things they decided for Mirrodin block was that we no longer needed to color coat

the activation costs on it. So, if you ever, for example, on Cranial Plating, it's harder to tell on Cranial Plating because it's black with black, but if you look at Healer's Headdress which is white, or Horned Helm which is green, or Neurox Stealth Suit which is blue, or Sparring Collar which is red, it's very obvious

the color is missing. That the in Mirrodin Block, the activation costs, whenever a mana symbol appeared in the text box, it was not colored. That did not go over well. We quickly changed it. It was one of those things where I thought they're like, oh, you know,

it'd be a lot cheaper if we didn't have to do that. Will people really care? And then the answer was, yes, they care. And so we undid it. I mean, I think we figured out pretty quickly it was a mistake, but I think we did it through the Mirrodin block just to be consistent on the Mirrodin block. But we went back after this, the

collard costs on artifacts started happening again. Them being collared. I think the interesting thing is I actually made this cycle for Darksteel, and then we ended up pushing them back. The cycle was made...

I mentioned Cranial Plating. Cranial Plating ended up being the really good one. There was already a lot of artifact equipment that was strong. And this one just kind of pushed it over top. Crane of Plating was very powerful. And being in the sense that you were playing a lot of artifacts

anyway, this is at a time, like, what was going on during Mirrodin Black was we made Affinity for Artifacts, which was insanely strong. And so that deck just played so many artifacts. So your cranial plating was just so large. And the fact that you can, like, the fact that you can move it was just gravy. Like, if it was just Equip Creature, you get plus one, plus zero for each artifact you control to equip one, that would be crazy powerful.

The fact you can move it just made it even more so. In fact, I think there were decks that played it that might not even run that much black, just because moving it wasn't the crucial thing about it. But anyway, we made those, and they were definitely fun. Okay, and Soul Scimitar, three. Three activation. And Soul Scimitar becomes a 1-5 artifact creature

with flying until end of turn. Equipped creature gets plus 1, plus 5. Equipped 2. So this is the first time I think we had equipment that turned into a creature. So the idea here is it's a sword, but the sword itself can come to life. This is making reference to a card called

Dancing Scimitar, which was in Arabian Nights, which was a 1-5 flying creature. And so the joke is it's like Flying Scimitar, except you can't just use it as a sword, because Flying Scimitar was a flying, you know, a sword. So, anyway, I think that was cool.

Grafted Wargear. So it's three mana. Equipped creature goes plus three, plus two. Whenever Grafted Wargear becomes unattached from a creature, sacrifice that creature, equip zero. So here's another equip zero. There's not a lot

of those in Magic's History. The interesting idea here was that there was a... We played around with equipment that were negative on the creature. Like, the grounded creature are positive and negative. This is the first one where there's nothing but positive on the creature. It's plus three plus two. But

on the equipment, it comes at a cost. So the idea is, I've grafted this war gear onto you, but it might kill you if I take it off and give it to somebody else. So it was interesting in that it really said, hey, you kind of want to put it on a creature and leave it on the creature until the creature dies, then move it to a new creature. Now, you can move if you want to.

It just comes at a very high cost, and they have to sacrifice the creature. And once again, this is us playing around and sort of looking at the spaces where we can do stuff like that. Okay, Helm of Caldra. So Helm of Caldra costs three. I think they all cost three, by the way. Legendary artifact equipment.

Equipped creature has first strike, trample, and haste. One colon. If you control equipment named Helm of Caldra, Sword of Caldra, and Shield of Caldra, put a 4-4,ullus Avatar Legendary Creature It says Avatar Legend Creature, now it would be Legendary. Token named Cauldra into play and attach those

equipments to it. Once again, I'm always reading from the original card just because it's fun to me to read the original card. Anyway, so this is the card that sort of joined them all together and said, hey, you know, if you get all three of these on the battlefield at once, not only will you have these three-piece equipment, but

we will make, you know, there'll be a giant 4-4 avatar, and I think, so the way it works is the sword grants plus five, plus five, and then anything it deals damage to gets exiled.

The shield grants it indestructible, and it makes the equipment indestructible. So, and then Helm of Chaldea gives it first strike trample and haste. So, basically what happens is

you have a 9-9 first striking trample, haste, indestructible creature that any creature it deals exiles in addition to what else it's doing. And all the equipment that's turning it into this itself has become indestructible. So the idea is, once you get it out, I mean, it's not that you automatically win, but man, you have a huge, huge upgrade to do so. So it definitely is something that pushes you in that direction. Okay, let's get to Champions of Kamigawa. to do so. So it definitely is something that pushes that direction. Okay.

Okay, let's get to Champions of Kamigawa. Okay, so Mirrodin Block ended. The interesting thing about equipment was it almost felt like it just became evergreen instantaneously. There are one or two other examples of this. I think it also happened with Prowess.

But the idea was, it's in a block. The block uses the mechanic. The very next set just uses it. Like, the next set was Shamsa Kamigawa. They're like, oh, we're doing Japan. You know what? There's a lot of cool equipment that we can do if we're in a Japanese-inspired world. So we're just going to keep equipment.

And then what happened was, I think, I mean, I would call equipment evergreen in that most sets have equipment. Every once in a while, we'll have a set without equipment. But it is something that is just, every set has access to it. Almost every set uses. So I would call it evergreen rather than deciduous because it's infrequent that we don't use it. And there's other evergreen keywords like scry that every once in a while we don't use. So I would call it evergreen.

But anyway, we just realized what was kind of there and what the cool thing was. And so almost instantaneously, we just, I mean, it wasn't like we even had to think about it. It was just like, we made it. This is a cool thing. Okay, this is now just part of magic. And equipment really sort of just

eased its way. I mean, I don't think there was a discussion. I don't believe there was even a meeting where we said, do we want this to be evergreen? I think we just said, eh, it's evergreen, and we just started making it. Like, it was funny that we did that, so. Okay, Kanda's banner. So two legendary artifacts.

Kanda's banner can be attached only to a legendary creature. Creatures that share a color with equipped creature get plus one plus one. Creatures that share a creature type equipped creature get plus one plus one. Creatures that share a creature type with a equipped creature get plus one plus one. Okay, so this is the first time we had equipment I think that restricts what it can equip. We will later get to things where there's a discount for

equipping to certain things, but this doesn't do that. This just says, hey, I can only equip a certain subset. Now, obviously there were things like Nightmare Lash, which kind of said, hey, you want to be in a certain subset. Now, obviously, there were things like Nightmare Lash, which kind of said, hey, you want to be in a black deck. Nightmare Lash very encouraged you

to, so you probably put it on a black creature, but you didn't have to. Where this is the first time they said, you know what? No, really, you have to do that. Okay, next. Oathkeeper, Takino's Daisho. So, three. Legendary Artifactino's Daisho. So, three. Legendary Artifact.

Equipped creature gets plus three, plus one. Whenever equipped creature is put into a graveyard from play, return that card to play under your control if it's a samurai. With Oathkeeper, Takino's Daisho is put into graveyard from play, remove equipped creature from the game, equip two. Okay, so here's a good example where we start saying, okay, we start caring about what gets equipped. Now,

Kindos Banner says, well, you can only equip the legendary creatures, where Oathkeeper sort of says, well, hey, I have a special bonus if you put me on a samurai. You don't have to put me on a samurai, but I get a bonus. I have an extra ability if you put me on a samurai.

And so, you can start seeing us playing... And the reason behind this, by the way, is we start recognizing the problem of equipment, because it's generic and can be powerful, just goes anywhere. So, what we're

starting to do here is find the first way, how can we control it so that things aren't sort of going everywhere? Because one of the problems we had in Mirrodin Block was all the good equipment just went in any deck. Why wouldn't you play it? And so, we're trying to start giving things, costs

and things, to make it such that they don't necessarily go everywhere, right? We were trying very hard to sort of think about that. So next, Tedesuma's the Dragon Fang. Six. Equipped creature gets plus five, plus five. Six. Removed Tedemusa,

the Dragon's Fang, from the game. Put a five, five blue dragon creature token with flying into play. Returned to Musa to play under its own control. When that token is put into a graveyard, equip three. So, once again, we're playing around a little bit with space. The idea here is, oh, the sword itself turns into a dragon, but if anything ever

happens to the dragon, well, then it turns back into a sword. Now, note it costs six to do that. So, I mean, it costs six to play. So, probably you're not turning into a dragon the turn you play it. Although, if you can play it, you do have the mana to then turn into a dragon. I also like the plus five, plus five. So, maybe

look, maybe it's just better as a thing on your creature, as equipment on your creature. But anyway, it's really interesting, and, you know, I like how it, I mean, I like the space we keep playing, and the boundaries we push with flavor, because that's a very flavorful card. In fact, I think a sword that turns into a dragon

is like Japanese mythology. So I think we're playing into something fun there. Okay, next. Tenza Godo's Mall. Legendary artifact equipment. Costs three. Equipped creature gets plus one, plus one. As long as it's legendary, it gets an additional plus two, plus two. As long as it's red, it has trample.

Okay, once again, you can see where we're sort of narrowing things in. Like, okay, hey, look. In limited, it's three mana, plus one, plus one, equip one. Not great. Maybe if you really need look, in Limited, it's 3 mana, plus 1, plus 1, equip 1. Not great. Maybe if you really need it, you'll play it. But it says, okay, look, there's two things that I'll help you with. If you're red, look, you get Trample, right? So plus 1 for Trample, maybe that's worth playing in Limited if you're playing red.

And then if you're Legendary, it's plus 3, plus 3. Now, if you're red and Legendary, it's plus 3, plus 3 in Trample. So, well, the thing that's very interesting here is I think there's a card, Godot was a card, I think, right? Godot was a card, is that right? Hold on a second, let me... So, Godot was...

Yeah, Godot Bandit Warrior was five and red. When Godot Bandit Warrior enters the battlefield, you may search your library for an equipment card and put it on the battlefield. If you do, shuffle your library. Whenever Godot attacks for the first time each turn, untap it and all samurai you control.

After this phase, there's an initial combat phase. So Godot's maul was literally made to play with Godot, and we put all these restrictions on it, so it's really good with Godot. Man, Godot wants to play it, but it's us trying to segment so that other... Like, this card is strong in the right Godo wants to play it, but it's not... It's us trying to segment so that other... Like, this card is strong in the right deck that wants to use it,

but it's not necessarily strong everywhere. Okay. Next up, Shuriken. Shuriken is one. Equipped creature has tap, unattached Shuriken. Shuriken deals two damage to target creature. That creature's control gains control of Shuriken unless it was unattached from a ninja.

Equip 2. So, the reason I talk about this is one, it's just a super clean, fun design. So, Shuriken's the little throwing stars people throw. Or I think, or is it... Or maybe I'm mis... Or maybe Shuriken is the...

It's the blade. Anyway, it's something that ninjas are known for throwing. It's a bladed throwing weapon. And so the idea here is, look, this card is worth playing in limited, for example, if you don't have a ninja. It is definitely worth playing. It does damage to things. But the idea here is if I throw something, well, my opponent can now pick it up and throw it back at me. That's why the flavor's really awesome.

But the idea is, well, if I'm a ninja, I'm a little better with my shurikens, and I can make sure that you're not getting them. And so the idea is if I throw this, I'm going to pick it up before you can get it, so I'll get to keep it. But one of the things the shurikens shows that I really like is how flavorful, like, one of the reasons that equipment still exists to this day, even though we've made a lot of changes with them, is how really powerful and flavorful they can be. Okay, so the last card I'm going to talk about today is Umazawa's Jitte, because

I can see my desk. So Umazawa's Jitte costs two legendary artifact equipment. Whenever an equipped creature deals combat damage, put two charge counters on Umazawa's Jitte. Remove a charge counter from Umazawa. Jitte, choose one. Equip you against plus two, plus two until end of turn.

Target creature against minus one, minus one until end of turn. It gets minus one, minus one until end of turn. Or you gain two life. Equip two. Okay, so this is another card that got kind of broken. So I'm trying to remember. So what happened was

one of the three abilities, I think, was Untap a Land. I think it was plus two, plus two, minus one, minus one. And I think the life gain was added when we couldn't, but I'm not 100% sure. Basically what happened was one of the abilities was Untap a Land.

And it turns out when it was in templating that at the time, it just didn't work. It could have been adding mana. It was either adding mana or untapping land. It just didn't work. At the time you needed to do it, it wasn't functioning correctly.

And so it got killed in templating. And what happens there is, okay, the editor says to the lead at the time, the lead developer, oh, we can't do it. The template doesn't work. The card can't work this way. And so the last minute they changed the card. And so it didn't get tested in its current form. And I think the life got added. Like, it's one of those things where you think like, oh, instead of mana, it's life. What could go wrong? And it turns out that the life got added. Like, it's one of those things where you think, like, oh, instead of mana, it's life.

What could go wrong? And it turns out that the life was just super important. I think it was the life. But anyway, it's a good example of why you have to be super careful when things change late. Because it changed so late

that we didn't playtest with it. And this is the kind of card that had to be playtested with. I mean, for those who don't know, Umazawa Jitte went on to be a very powerful card still played in older formats. And it just came from us making a change real quickly

and not double-checking it. But it's funny, like I said, this and Skullclamp, both of which I talked about today, were cards that something got changed, it didn't really get playtested, and then that came to burn us. So a good lesson as we talk about equipment

is to remove all the cards. But playtest your cards. Make sure that what you do. And if you have to change something really last minute, be very super cautious. And the irony is, I think they changed it to life,

which sounds very super cautious, but it ended up not being. Anyway, I'm at my desk. So I hope you guys enjoyed my jaunt through talking about equipment. I will stress that I think from time to time I'll come back. I don't think I'm going to do... I mean, I happen to do these two right near each other in Part 1 and Part 2, but

I think that's something I'll come back to at some point. One thing that's fun for me is to take some mechanic-like equipment and just kind of watch it evolve over time. I do think it's neat to see how we learn about things. And equipment's nice enough that it's small enough that I can sort of look at and see little evolutions and stuff.

So it's kind of fun to look at that. So anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this series. But anyway, I'm 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 making magic. I'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.