Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #996: Artifact Destruction

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

In this podcast, I look back at the history of artifact destruction.

I'm not putting on the driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another Drive to Work at Home Edition. So it is snowing today, so normally I would have been driving to work, but I'm not because there's lots of snow and I live on a hill. So anyway, I thought I would do... it's easier to do card referencing when I'm at home than I am in the car. So I thought I'd talk a bit about the history of something, and then with lots of access to cards. Okay, so today I'm going to talk about the history of artifact destruction. So the interesting thing about artifact destruction is we eventually came to some terms on what did things where, but there was a lot. It is not, it took a while for us to get there. We did not start, like, a lot of the history of early magic and artifact destruction, we're trying lots of different things. We're kind of all over the place. So I want to sort of walk through and talk a little bit about where we're

at and what we did and how we eventually got to some conclusions. But it took us a little while to get there. Okay, so Alpha comes out. There are three cards in Alpha that can destroy an artifact. Two of which are common and one of which is an artifact. It's rare. But I'll get to that one in a second. So, the two commons is you have disenchant, one in white, destroy targeting artifact or enchantment, and shatter, one in red,

destroy target artifact. First off, by the way, before I get to the artifact, there's something very interesting about this. So, if you look at the actual text on the actual cards printed in alpha, the original rules text for disenchant is target enchantment or artifact must be discarded. And the text for shatter is

shatter destroys target artifact. So, you look at disenchant, you're like, oh, the technology didn't exist yet to target an artifact. And like, no, it existed. It was on shatter. But, other than not getting the cooler template, Disenchant really makes Shatter look pretty bad, right?

Like, for two mana, you can destroy an artifact in white or in red. But, if you do it in white, you also get the option of destroying an enchantment. Now, I get that red doesn't destroy enchantments. It's part of its weakness. It's not that I want Shatter to destroy enchantments. I'm I get that red doesn't destroy enchantments. It's part of its weakness. I don't want... It's not that I want shatter to destroy enchantments. I'm just like, why does this cost two mana?

I remember the first time I saw it, and I saw... I think I saw disenchantment before I saw shatter. And then I was like... I was trying to understand, like, oh, shatter's just... Red's worse at this? Like, I was trying...

You know. But anyway, that always... That puzzled me. And the interesting thing is, I tried, when I walked in the door in 95, to get a one mana shatter, and I eventually did do it, but I did not do it,

I think it's not until Guildpact, which was, when's Guildpact? Past 2003, because I took over in 2003 as head designer, and Ravnica was the first set that I... block that I led while I was head designer. And so

this must have been 2004? I mean, maybe we worked on it. Yeah, no, no, because I took over in 2003 and we were... okay, so... no, because I took it out in 2003 and we were, okay, so anyway, it took eight years to get to, and it took even longer than that to just get the simple version

Smelt, which is just a single red instant destroy target artifact wasn't until Magic 2013 which was another year later, so like, it took ten years almost, I think, to get Shatter as the cost it's supposed to be. Anyway, that was one of my many tasks in Artifact Destruction.

Anyway, okay, so let's go back. So, we have Shatter, we have Disenchant. So, very early on, it's in Alpha. White can destroy artifacts, red can destroy artifacts. The other one was Nevin Roll's Disc, which was a rare. Four mana. So, basically, it was one and tap. Destroy all...

Nevin Roll's Disc enters the battlefield tapped. One and tap. Destroy all artifacts, creatures, and enchantments. So, it destroys all permanents but lands. And... Well, Planeswalkers were a thing at the time. Anyway, and it was the first time we had mass artifacts. So, Alpha introduced the idea of destroying artifacts.

It had pinpoint artifact destruction, it had mass artifact destruction. Uh, it didn't have something that only destroyed artifacts. We'll get to that in a second. Um, okay, so we start on, and we're like, okay, artifact destruction, it's white, it's red. Okay, we're figuring this out. Next, okay, Arabian Nights comes out, literally no card in Arabian Nights destroys an artifact. You can't destroy an artifact. One of the interesting things, by the way, as we look at these

early sets is, Limited really just wasn't a thing. Now that Limited is a thing, now we think about Limited, we have artifact destruction at common in every set, in multiple colors, usually. And so, the idea, like, the idea you would do a whole set and just, there's no common in every set in multiple colors usually and so the idea the idea you would do a whole set and just there's no way in that set to destroy artifacts

was a very different way of thinking because limited just wasn't how we built it anyway we get to antiquities, antiquities has an artifact theme, it's the very first set that has a mechanical theme, it's artifacts so of course it's got some artifact destruction, it's four artifact destruction cards none in white interestingly two in red It's Artifact. So, of course, it's got some Artifact Destruction. It has four Artifact Destruction cards.

None in white, interestingly. Two in red. One in green. One in black. So we'll start with the red ones. So Detonate is X and a red. Sorcery. Destroy target Artifact with mana value X. It can't be regenerated.

Detonate deals X damage to that Artifact's controller. Real quickly, it can't be regenerated. Detonate deals X damage to that artifact's controller. Real quickly, it can't be regenerated. There's this weird thing. So when Richard made Alpha, he made a card called Terror, and Terror destroyed a creature and it couldn't be regenerated.

And the idea, I mean, like, I think Richard was trying to get some flavor or something. For some reason, for a long time, most destruction effects had this can't be regenerated on it,

which is kind of crazy since one of the reasons I have regeneration is so it can live through destruction effects. So, anyway. So, detonate not only destroys an artifact, but allows you to do damage to its controller equal to the mana value. And so that's the first time

it's sort of, it's not just an artifact, but it's an artifact plus another ability, right? It can do damage. The other red thing is Shatterstorm, two red red, and it destroys all artifacts. Obviously, they can't be regenerated because it has to be there. So it's the first simple sort of mass artifact destruction card that doesn't destroy other things. I mean, obviously, Neverall's disexisted, but that kind of blew up everything. that doesn't destroy other things.

I mean, obviously, never all of this existed, but that kind of blew up everything. Finally, you know, and the artifacts that were like, well, because in Alpha, there was Tranquility that blew up all the enchantments. So while there wasn't pinpointed enchantment removal for some reason in Alpha, it did blow up all the enchantments. So finally, Shatterstorm makes it say,

okay, now we blow up all the artifacts. Okay, it also puts it into two new colors. So Crumble is a green, costs one green, it's puts it into two new colors. So, crumble is a green, costs one green, it's an instant, destroy target artifact, can't regenerate, of course, that artifact's control regains life equal to its mana value. So it's kind of like a source of plowshares

for artifacts, that allow you to destroy an artifact, and then, now the neat thing about crumble was, this actually saw a bunch of play, A, because it was one mana removal for artifacts, because red somehow couldn bunch of play. A, because it was one mana removal for Art of Exile. Because red somehow couldn't remove for one mana. But green, what's the first color to remove for one mana? Green.

And it also allowed you sometimes to destroy your own artifact if you needed the life, which happened in tournaments some of the time. Finally, we get the weirdo here. Gates of Phyrexia. Black, black, enchantment. The first enchantment to destroy artifacts. Sacrifice one of your creatures during yourxia. Black, black, enchantment. The first enchantment to destroy artifacts. Sacrifice

one of your creatures during your upkeep. Oh, sorry, I'm reading the actual card. Let me read the Oracle version. Enchantment. Sacrifice a creature. Destroy a target artifact. Activate only during your upkeep and only once each turn. So, this is, I think early in Magic, the color pie wasn't quite as settled.

I think we've done a lot of things to sort of make it, you know, like early Magic went card by card and did a lot of cool things in the flavor of the card. And the color pie matched the general sense of the flavor, so the color pie was definitely there. The philosophies were there. But it took us a little while to sort of

much like the rules. It took us a while to make sort of rules that overarched everything, rather than making every rule to match the card Much less the rules. Like, it took us a while to make sort of rules that overarched everything rather than making every rule to match the card as you made it. And the color pie was kind of similar.

Now, Gate of Phyrexia isn't the only black card destroyer artifacts. There's a couple more, but none of them are particularly good, and really, black is not... It's supposed to be

a weakness of black. Black's not supposed to be a destroying artifact. So, Gate of Phyflexia was a... I assume it was done as a top-down flavor, but... Anyway, it's a break. Shouldn't be doing it. Okay.

Next, we get to our third set, Legends. And Legends... Again, there's a white divine offering for one and a white. You can destroy an artifact and gain life equal to the mana value. And there's Floral Spasm. So far, we've had instants

that destroyed artifacts, sorcerers destroyed artifacts, artifacts, enchantments. But finally, we get a creature. So actually, creature was the fourth creature, sorry, the fifth creature type. If you want creature was the fourth creature, sorry, the fifth creature type. If you want to know the order by which creature types destroyed artifacts, instant and artifacts were first, then enchantments and sorcery,

and then finally creatures. So Floral Sposm costs three and a green. It's a 2-2 creature. It's an elemental, although at the time it was a Sposm. Whenever Floral Sposm attacks and isn't blocked, you may destroy target artifact defending player controls. If you do a Floral Sposm attacks and isn't blocked, you may destroy target artifact defending player controls. If you do, Floral Sposm assigns no combat damage.

Early in Magic, for some reason, Saboteur effects are when you do combat damage to do something. The early Saboteur effects made you give up the damage in order to get the effect. So, oh, if Floral Sposm hits you, I can do two damage, or I can destroy an artifact. Now, one of the funniest stories about Floral Sposm is the actual written version of it that got printed in

Legends said, if Floral Spasm attacks an opponent and is not blocked, then Floral Spasm may choose to destroy an attack artifact under that opponent's control and deal no damage. So what I used to do when I played Floral Spasm, when I did play Floral Spasm, is whenever I would do damage, and I would give up the damage, I would go,

okay, Floral Spasm, what artifact would you like to destroy? Yes? Oh, okay. Well, Floral Spasm says, you know, and I would pretend like Floral, I would go, okay, Floral Sposm, what artifact would you like to destroy? Yes? Oh, okay. Well, Floral Sposm says, and I would pretend like Floral Sposm had a picket. So the other interesting thing is a couple things.

So this is the first creature. We then get to the dark, which comes next. The dark has the card Dust to Dust, one white white, exile two artifacts. It's the first time two things happen. One, it's the first time that exiling happens, where we're exiling an artifact.

Rather than destroying an artifact, we're exiling it. And the second thing, it's the first time in which it destroys two. Not up to two. If you only have one, you can't destroy it. You must destroy exactly two. And also, there's Scavenger Folk. Scavenger Folk

is... Where's Scavenger Folk? Scavenger Folk is green for a 1-1, and he is human, the timing of Scavenger Folk. Green and tap, sacrifice Scavenger Folk, destroy target artifact. So green, once again, gets the second creature that gets to deal with artifacts.

And this is one that, this was another one that saw some play because early on you could drop it on turn one and then you could wait around until you find the thing that you wanted to destroy with it. Now, the interesting thing is, as you can see, the story as we look at early artifact destruction is we are...

Legends is the... Dark is the fourth set in. There were five Magic sets in. Alpha plus four expansions. Magic's not even a year old. Sorry, just slightly over a year old. So it's... It just had its birthday a month or two before.

And we have Artifact Destruction in every color but blue. And in multiple cards in every color but black and blue and so you know definitely it's like we're still trying to find our feet you know there's not there's not a lot of rhyme or reason yet in what's going on

in Ice Age that follows the dark we get Yolkel Hops which is four red red and you get to destroy all artifacts, creatures, and lands and it can't be regenerated of course and so I think we start to establish that red

if you notice in the early ones red is doing it more than anybody else red has the most destruction spells and red seems to be the mass artifact destruction color what we eventually decided was that green and white can have some access to it but really red was king of it

but anyway it takes us a while to understand what's going on and the one through line that sort of happens in the early days is you see green, you see white you see red, you see more red than you see anything else you do see the occasional black, like in Mirage

we have Frexian Tribute, two in the black sorcery, sacrifice two creatures, destroy target artifact as an additional cost to cast a spell, sacrifice two creatures so I think this is the idea early on that the way you show that something is not good at it is make a really bad card. Three mana and sacrifice two creatures, destroy one artifact.

But what we found is making bad cards does not communicate the color doesn't do something because players, on average, not all players, but most players aren't great at determining rate. And what they see when you see it on a card is, oh, it does this. And the idea is, well, some cards are bad, some are good. Like, having a bad card doesn't really communicate the color doesn't do it. Not having it communicates

the color doesn't doing it. And so one of the things we've started to be better about is trying to be careful about when and where and how we represent stuff. But anyway, you definitely see cool stuff happening. Oh, and Alliances, a little funny story on Alliances.

So there's three artifact destruction in Alliances. Gorilla Shaman, red, it's a 1-1 Ape Shaman, and then for X-X-1, destroy target non-creature artifact with a mana value of X.

I think the card was made mostly to destroy Moxes. They call it Mox Monkey, I think that's his nickname. And then there's Primitive Justice, one in red, and it's a sorcery. As an additional cost to cast the spell, you may pay one R and or one green

any number of times, destroy a target artifact. For each additional one R you paid, destroy another target artifact. For each additional one green you paid, destroy another target artifact, and you gain one life. So this is kind of early kind of kicker stuff

that before kicker was a thing. In fact, it's kind of multi-kicker, or it is multi-kicker, essentially. But anyway, the funny story is, and the is multi-kicker, essentially. But anyway, the funny story is, and the set also had pillage, by the way. One red red destroyed target artifact or land can't be regenerated.

Two of the three cards in Alliances were apes, because there's this little flavor. There's these apes in the set, and we decided it was funny that the apes hated technology, and so we made the two cards that destroyed, or we made two of the cards that destroyed it reference apes. So there's this little tiny theme. It pops up from time to time, but that's where it stems from,

if you ever see apes hating things, that comes from there. Anyway, you start seeing green get more and more artifact removal. Probably the one that... So we get to Visions. Visions did two things that really started putting green on the map. One is it made Creeping Bold, two green green sorcery, destroy target artifact,

land an enchantment, and it made Octavia Orangutan. Two in red. When Octavia Orangutan comes into play, destroy target artifact. Two, two. So the idea comes into play is enter the battlefield. Sorry.

Old school template. So Creeping Mold said, wow, green can really start doing some flexibility. The reason Creeping Mold was good is, oh, I have a lot of flexibility.

What do I want to do with it? And Octavia Rangitang was just, hey, it's a creature with an effect, you know, Vision was the first set that had entered the battlefield effects, and it was pretty efficient.

And so Green, along with Crumble, Creeping Mold, Green started becoming much better at dealing with artifacts and started taking a little bit more of a slice of the pie. Also interesting, Hearth Charm, by the way, is in Visions. The charm started in Mirage and then they

show up again in Visions. One of the modes is Destroy Target Artifact Reacher. It's just the ever-niddling of like, one mana, just can't destroy an artifact in red! It took a long time to do it. We started teasing that. I know Goblin Vandal in Weatherlight

R for 1-1 and he spent Red Man, Destroy Target Artifact, Defending Player Controls. Sorry. So, I'm trying to read the Oracle text to you. So, whenever Goblin Vandal attacks and isn't blocked, you may pay Red.

If you do destroy target artifact depending on player controls and assigns no damage so it's like Floral Spasm but it's a 1-1 at least it costs one red mana and can destroy an artifact

although not exactly an instant so there's definitely so anyway so sets go by we're definitely

making different things so finally we get to Shattering Pulse. So Shattering Pulse was in Stronghold. Shattering Pulse said one and a red, buy back three. You may pay an additional three when you play the spell. If you do, put in your hand, set up your graveyard as part of the spell's effect. Destroy target artifact. Now this card had a giant fight.

You'll notice it's one R instant destroyed artifact with buy back, right? It's just better than shatter. And I remember people going, we canback, right? It's just better than shatter. And I remember people going, we can't do this, it's just better than shatter. And I remember being in a room and going, okay, shatter's horrible! Why can't we make better than shatter? Why is, like, somehow shatter this thing we can't make better than?

It's a bad card. We can make better than a bad card. So, um, I, I, uh, I mean, I had some allies in this fight, but we won this guard. So, I mean, I had some allies in this fight, but we won this fight. But I think Shattering Pulse was the first sort of like,

okay, we're going to make better than Shatter. So anyway, so one of the things that's interesting is, many years go by, definitely,

I mean, red becomes the primary artifact destruction color, but there's a lot of debate between white and green, who's supposed to be doing what. And there's a lot of back and forth on that. So the interesting thing is this goes on for

a while until we get into Onslaught. So Onslaught, when was Onslaught? Onslaught. So Onslaught... When was Onslaught? Onslaught was... Onslaught, so I... Okay, so this is like...

Invasion was 2000. So Onslaught's like 2002, maybe? So we're talking seven-ish years after Magic came out where I finally said, okay, guys, look, I think we need to be a little more orderly. Like, we really have been all over the place as far as what was doing what with artifact destruction. And so I made a pitch. I said, okay, guys, here's what we need to do.

What if here's a crazy idea. What if red had a common artifact removal spell? What if white had a common enchantment removal spell and green had a common green had a common

the one that did either. Because at the time, naturalized was a white thing, and I made the pitch to make naturalized, I'd say disenchant was a white thing, and I argued to make disenchant green. That core should be green to be naturalized. And so,

and it was a big talk at the time, and basically what I said is, look, we want to have some balance. Right now is sort of like, we didn't have pinpoint enchantment instruction a lot of the time. Let's just sort of finalize those. And the argument I made was,

green was anti-artifice, and green was... Well, because if we made red... Well, red had to be artifacts. Red can't destroy enchantments. And we didn't want black to destroy enchantments. That was a weakness for black.

Blue wasn't supposed to destroy permanents. So, like, okay. Green, white, and red are the right colors. We like red as being the focus one. Red can't be the color that destroys artifacts or enchantments. And it just made a lot more sense to let green have that flexibility since white, one of white's things was we liked white

having a lot of answers, but sort of segregated. Now, interesting what would happen is we, for years and years, the common had a white enchantment and red had a common artifact rule and then green had a common naturalized. Eventually what happened was we started getting to the point where

we were trying to make more utility cards that have less cyborg cards. And so one of the things is we started just putting more modes on cards as a general thing. And as we started doing that, there's this desire to bring disenchant back. And so we started making

naturalized plus. Started making we started making Naturalize Plus. Started making cards that do Naturalize, but more. And our rule right now is that both green and white have access to it. Both green and white can make cards destroy either, but we let green be a little bit stronger at it than white. So within one set, I mean, not that any, I guess, in one set,

who knows, but overall, on average, we want green's effect to be a little bit better than white's. And we finally, after a few early days, we solidified that black just wasn't able to destroy artifacts. We do let black

destroy your own artifacts. You can sacrifice artifacts, like Rats of Wrath from Tempest lets you destroy your own artifacts. That's fine. But anyway, so one of the things that's been really interesting is when you look through the history of sort of all the different artifact destruction spells,

you know, there's... We very early on sort of cemented the idea, okay, there's three colors for removal. For some reason, it took us a long time to do that with enchantments. We only recently, a couple years ago, added black in, realizing that, you know what, you actually want to have multiple answers to any one type of threat.

And that for card types, hey, we probably want to have three colors that can answer it. And so, that's why we finally put enchantment removal into black. Okay, so I thought what I would do for this next part is just talk about some individual stories

from some artifact removal design cards. Okay, so, what do I start with? Let's talk a little bit about Crash! So, Crash is from Mercadian Masks.

So it costs two and a red. It's an instant. You may sacrifice a mountain rather than pay the spell's mana cost. And you get a destroyed target artifact. So I remember there was a theme. I made this card. There was a theme in Arcadian Masks of alternate costs.

I think we did more pitch spells. The things that first showed up in alliances. And the idea I liked was, well, one of the things we said is, okay, we want to make sure that you're not playing things out of color. So, hey, I have to discard a card of the right color. That's how you do pitch spells.

And so I pitched the idea of what do you sacrifice to land? And so this was, okay, well, what's a nice, what's something that we want to do that it might be nice that it could be free, but I well, what's a nice, you know, what's something that we want to do that, you know, it might be nice that it could be free, but I'm willing to sacrifice a mountain.

And we decided that an artifact destruction spell might work well. Let's see, what else? Oh, and then, by the way, in the same set, so crash is common. At rare, we made Pulverize. And Pulverize, you can cast it by just sacrificing two mountains and then destroy all artifacts. It is interesting looking back at those two cards, being that they're clearly mechanically connected. It's kind of interesting that flavorfully, they're really not...

Crash and Pulverize, I mean, they're both words to destroy. But, like, one is, I think, the weatherlight running into a tree, and the other is this giant, I don't know, pink elephant thing attacking somebody, so. Okay. Let's see. Obliterate.

So, Obliterate. So, Obliterate is six red red, sorcery, Obliterate can't be countered, and then it destroys all artifacts, creatures, and lands, and they can't be regenerated. Okay, so what happened was, when I first came to Wizards, one of the things was, I had this mono green deck, and I just could not... And I made a mono green deck and a mono blue deck. And I used, this was in the early days, this was before there were regular tournaments, or the tournaments were very limited. So I didn't have a lot of people to play with, none of my friends played Magic.

So I made this mono green deck and this mono blue deck, and I used to play them against each other. And the idea was, I'd play both sides, but I would try to act like I didn't know what the other side was doing. I would say, well, assuming I know this and not that, what would I do? But anyway, one of the problems I ran into was mono-green had a real hard time dealing with mono-blue.

And so I decided that I wanted to make a card that answered it. And so the first thing I did is I made to make a card that answered it and so the first thing I did is I made a creature with protection from blue but then I realized that you could counter it and so like blue had an answer to it they just countered it

and so I said well what if it couldn't be countered and so I made so the card ended up calling Skragnoff and I just said okay and they had this crazy template they wanted to put on it, and I just argued and argued and argued to be Campy Countered. But anyway, once Campy Countered got into the game, one of the arguments I made is I thought Campy Countered

should be in both red and green. Why? Those are the enemies of blue, and blue's the counterspell color. So the idea we ended up landing on is that green had Campy Countered mostly for creatures and red had it mostly for spells so we were making this giant spell

that destroyed everything and so the idea I liked was that you couldn't stop it and that you know so the idea was it's such a powerful thing that you can't even counter it that destroys everything except powerful thing that you can't even counter it. It destroys everything except the lands, and you can't even counter it.

The other interesting thing about this, by the way, is one of the saddest stories ever. Baron is the father of Hannah. He was the right-hand man to Urza, and Hannah dies in the story. This actually is an invasion after Hannah's death, and Baron is so upset at his daughter having died that he goes out and he casts a spell

that just obliterates a giant amount of... I'm not sure where he is when he does obliterate spells. But anyway, it's showing him in his grief casting obliterate and... I don't know, very... Okay, next up. Artifact mutation. very... Okay. Next up. Artifact mutation.

So this was also an invasion. So it's red and a green instant. Destroy target artifact. It can't be regenerated. Put X, 1, 1 green sapling creature tokens into play where X is its mana value. So one of the things that I liked the idea was we were doing multicolor, because Invasion was multicolor,

and I'm like, well, red and green can both destroy artifacts, and red and green can both make creatures, although red's a little better at or I guess red did more of destroying artifacts, not that green was bad at it. But anyway, I love this idea. So we made

actually a well, was it a pair? I'm not that Green was bad at it. But anyway, I love this idea. So we made actually a... Well, was it a pair? I'm not sure whether it was a pair. But anyway, we made artifact mutation and so it sort of blows up and makes little creatures. I like when we can make things that

take you in different directions. Obviously there's a lot of decks that want answers, want to destroy artifacts, but this thing doesn't just destroy them, it produces something. And so if you're going to put it in your deck, like, obviously there's a lot of decks that want answers, want to destroy artifacts. But this thing doesn't just destroy them, it produces something. And so if you're going to put it in your deck, you're like, well, I'm going to make a lot of 1-1s. What do I do with that? And so I like the idea that it forces you to think about something in a slightly different way. And that's something I always appreciate.

In that, we have to make a lot of cards. We have to do a lot of artifact destruction cards, for example. If we can make things that make you think about it in a slightly different way, I think that's always pretty cool. Oh, Smash! So Smash is Mercadian Masks. So Smash is Tuna Red, Instant Destroy Target Artifact, Draw a card. So this is another

in my step to try to get us closer to a single mana shatter. So normally the way it works is when you make a cantrip spell, you add two mana. So if we were making a cantrip shatter, well, shouldn't it be three and a red?

But I argued that shatter shouldn't be one and a red. It should be red, which means the cantrip of it should be two and a red. And I somehow convinced enough people that they made it. It is very, very funny as we go through the history of, I can just slowly see me like, little by little, trying to get

us where we need to go. Okay, my last card here, it'll be Glissa Sunseeker. It's a fun story. Then I realize I'm almost out of time. So, Glissa Sunseeker, two green green. It's a legendary story. Then I realize I'm almost out of time. So Glissa Sunseeker, two green green. It's a legendary creature. She's got First Strike, Tap, Destroy Target Artifact.

If its mana value is equal to the amount of unspent mana you have. So she cares about how much mana is in your great bowl. She was the main character of the Mirrodin book, and I really wanted to make a fun card for her. And so I wanted to do something that was a little bit different. So I decided that I was going to look outside the box. I liked the idea that she could destroy artifacts.

She was a green creature. And it made some sense with the story. But I wanted a way that sort of reigned her in that was different. And then we came across the idea that we never really used unspent mana as sort of something to monitor

effect size. And I was really happy with this card, and I'm happy with how it came out. And she showed up in Mirrodin. Interestingly, by the way, in Mirrodin, it's funny that we're ending on Mirrodin, we brought Shatter back in Mirrodin because we thought it was funny that...

We brought back both Shatter and Terror, which were both in Alpha, but Terror can't destroy artifacts. And obviously in Alpha, Terror was way better than Shatter. But in this set, they were a lot closer. Not that Terror was

bad. He destroyed plenty of things. But we liked the idea that we brought it back and that the relative power was very different. That Shatter was stronger than normal because of how many artifacts there were. And Terror was worse than normal because of how many artifacts there were. Anyway, we thought that was cool.

Anyway, I hope what today's podcast is sort of showing you is that even something as simple as artifact destruction took some time to find its feet. It took a while to figure out where to do and what colors and how to do it. And, you know, even just in the best way to execute all the different things.

Anyway, I like going back and looking at history and sort of seeing how things played out. So it was sort of, I find it interesting today. So I hope you all found it interesting. But anyway, guys, I somehow made it through the snow to work by not leaving my house. But I'm now at my somehow made it through the snow to work by not

leaving my house, but I'm now at my desk, so we all know what that means. It means instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. So guys, I hope you enjoyed the history lesson, but it's time for me to go. I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.