Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #121 - Zendikar Part 4

Episode Date: May 9, 2014

Mark finishes his discussion of Zendikar in Part 4.

Okay, I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so in the last three podcasts, I have talked about Zendikar, and I got all the way up to PY. Almost got done with P, but not quite. So today, my goal today is to finish four podcasts, it seems like enough, on Zendikar cards, or Zendikards as I've been calling them. Okay, so let's see if we can get this done. Okay, Pyromancer's Ascension. So, it is an enchantment that costs one and a red. And if you cast an instant or a sorcery, another copy is in your graveyard, you get a quest counter.

And then, if two or more quest counters are on this, whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, it forks it, it copies it. Okay, so let's talk about the quest. We did a bunch of different quests. In fact, we did three cycles of quests. We might have one or two individual ones, but we did three cycles.

So the common cycle I've already talked about, that was the ones that had landfall, that had landfall built into the quest. This is the rare cycle. So the common cycle I've already talked about that was the ones that had landfall that had landfall built into the quest this is the rare cycle so the rare cycle were all rare things in which you had to do something that really wasn't yet a workaround

there was something you had to do so in this case you had to cast duplicates so you had to figure out how to get duplicates in order to do this you had to cast things for the second time now you could do shenanigans getting things in your grave, or, I mean, there's different ways to make this work. But anyway, the whole rare cycle was about trying to figure out how to get, it was much more restrictive, much more build around me, but had big effects. That's what made it rare. So, like, forking every instant sorcery you do, that's a pretty big

deal. But in order to do that, you had to sort of go through some hoops first. So, like, forking every incident sorcery you do, that's a pretty big deal. But in order to do that, you had to sort of go through some hoops first. So, you had to cast a bunch of incident sorceries first before you started copying them. And the thing that I also liked about this was the idea that there's an idea of duplication that goes on. That you're trying to duplicate what you've done, and then if you duplicate what you've done enough,

then the spell starts duplicating things for you. I thought that was kind of cute. And this was one of the earliest quests we made when we were trying to demonstrate different kinds of quests that were repetitive. And in fact, I think it was this enchantment, this exact enchantment, that kind of said to us,

oh, maybe the answer to quests is you keep doing the same thing. Because I think people really liked this quest and it was the inspiration for kind of how to do quests. Okay, which leads us to Quest for the Gravelord. Now this is one of the uncommon quests. So Quest for the Gravelord was an enchantment for black, single black. Whenever a creature dies, you put a quest counter on it.

And then we remove three quest counters, you make a 5-5 zombie token. And I think you remove three counters and you sac the enchantment. I didn't write that down, but I'm pretty sure you do sack the enchantment. And so the idea was that this quest could get you into a 5-5 creature, but enough things had to die first. The flavor was you were sort of building

a zombie out of parts. So if enough things died and gave you enough parts, then you can make a big 5-5 zombie. So the uncommon ones, I believe the way they worked, was you sacked to get the effect. So the commons were quests, and when you got up to three, you sacked it to get the effect.

This was different things happening. They weren't the same, and the numbers of things you needed, I believe, varied between the cards. But once you got enough, then you could sack it and you would get something. And then the rare, you didn't sack the rares. Once you reached the rare,

you turned on, basically, the enchantment, and it would do this powerful thing. But it didn't go away. You would have it forever. And the reason we sac the quest at the lower commonalities was it's very powerful. We were okay at rare, making you jump through sort of weird hoops and then giving you a powerful enchantment, but at lower rarities,

we wanted to sort of, we'll give you a thing, so jump through the hoops and you get a thing. You don't get an ongoing thing, you just get a single thing. Next, Rite of Replication. So it's a sorcery for two blue and a blue, it's kicker of five, and you get to make a clone token, but if you kicked it, you get to make five clone tokens. So this is a very popular card. I love cloning things.

So I... And I like tokens. So if ever there was a card that was up my alley, it's something that makes clone tokens. I'm a huge fan. I like clone tokens. I think whether I made this... I might have made this spell.

It is right up my alley, so I could have. Although I don't... I'm not definitively sure I did made this spell. It is right up my alley, so I could have. Although I don't... I'm not definitively sure I did make this spell. I did like the idea of... That the blowout was just a whole bunch of them. And more clones than we've ever done. And I know we talked a lot about how many is the right number. We wanted enough that it really said, wow.

But not so many that, like... You know, we wanted your opponent to have a chance. And so we ended up with five. We also did little subtle things like kicker five. that it really said, wow, but not so many that, like, you know, we wanted your opponent to have a chance, but, and so we ended up with five. We also did, like, little subtle things like kicker five, get you five, little aesthetic things like that. And like I said, I firmly, firmly believe that the aesthetics,

stuff like that, while it's not always noticed consciously, it's very much noticed subconsciously, and whenever we break stuff, whenever there's an obvious pattern and we break it, we get letters. You know, everything says seven, but the cost is eight. Oh, no.

So I'm a huge believer in trying to get the aesthetics right. Anyway, this is just a fun card. It's definitely a card that has a use, but when you kick it, you know, you could do all sorts of crazy things with it. Next, Riverboa.

So Riverboa is a reprint from Visions, I believe. So Riverboa is a reprint from Visions, I believe. So Riverboa is a snake, one and a green. It's a 2-1 snake that has island walk, and for one green mana, you can regenerate it. I think one of the things we liked about it is that there was a lot of land shenanigans going on. Land walk seemed interesting. I think flavorfully we liked the it is that there was a lot of land shenanigans going on. Landwalk seemed interesting.

I think flavorfully we liked the idea of, in Venture World, there was this river snake that felt like right out of Indiana Jones. And it was a nice, clean little car. I mean, one of the things that we tried to do with reprints is we tried to find reprints that we, I mean, like I said last time, there's two types of reprints.

There's reprints that are just basic, everyday effects. You know, and we're just going to do, go cancel, naturalize, stuff like that. We're just going to do a lot. And then there's two types of reprints. There's reprints that are just basic, everyday effects. You know, and we're just going to do cancel, naturalize, stuff like that. We're just going to do a lot. And then there's stuff in which, no, it's kind of more specialized in that it's kind of fun when we get to bring it back, because people go, oh, I remember Riverboa. Hey, Riverboa, that's a lot of fun.

You know, and people have a lot of fond memories in that one of the things we've learned as the game gets older is, we don't need to reinvent the wheel, that, the wheel that there is a fondness from the player base. The new players if the old players enjoyed it, why wouldn't the new players enjoy it? It was a fun card. And for the old players it's this little romp through

the nostalgia of the past. Like, oh yeah, I remember Riverboa. And so we really try as hard as we can to find good places and do reprints. One of our beliefs is we should get as many reprints as we can to find good places and do reprints. One of our beliefs is we should get as many reprints as we can that people feel comfortable with because design

is a resource. There's only so many cards you get to make. And at some point you start making clunky cards because you don't have the clean ones. So sometimes, hey, when you have the clean version of stuff, you want to make use of it. And so anyway, it's I'm a big fan of finding cool reprints to bring back of it. And so, anyway, it's... I'm a big fan of finding cool

reprints to bring back. And they don't even have to be splashy reprints. I think Riverbow is not quite as splashy. Sometimes we bring back, you know, like Mindslaver, which was majorly something that people played and constructed and did weird things. And sometimes it's just like, hey, this is a cool little creature. We should bring him back.

Okay. Next. Sco him back. Okay. Next. Scoot Mob. So Scoot Mob was a 1-1 insect for green, a single mana. It's a rare, actually. And during your upkeep, if you have five or more lands, it gets four plus one, plus one counters. So one of the things we wanted to do

is we wanted to reward you for playing land. And we wanted a few cards. We tend to put them in higher rarities to reward you for just having a lot we wanted a few cards, we tend to put them in higher rarities, to reward you for just having a lot of land. And then this guy is cute. This guy, um, he had a fun, I don't remember if he played this, he had a fun play, top of my head.

Um, the neat thing with this card is kind of, when you get to a certain point, it explodes. It's very innocuous and minor, but, you know, and so, one of the things that's funny is sometimes, you know, if you get this out turn one, like, you really have to wait before it gets bigger, and your opponent knows that they can go after it,

so you often hold back on it to wait until you get close to having enough lands. But anyway, this card was a lot of fun. I had quite a enjoyment with this card. This card is kind of explosive, and it's fun to have a card that kind of, like, starts innocuous and pretty quickly gets out of hand.

We very particularly, by the way, did not put Trample on it, because we wanted this card to be something that you could deal with, you could chump, and that Trample would make you that you wouldn't be able to chump in. So we wanted you to sort of be able to stall for a little while. Eventually, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. You're going to have a problem. But it does give you a chance to find some solutions. We don't want every card to just be like, bam, and you're dead. It's sort of like, well, here have a problem. But it does give you a chance to find some solutions. We don't want every card to just be, like, bam, and you're dead. It's sort of like, well, here's a problem.

It's going to get harder and harder to deal with, but try to deal with it. Next is Scythe Tiger. So Scythe Tiger is a cat, a 3-2 cat for a green mana. It's got Shroud, and when you enter the battlefield, you sack a land. Who can say the inspiration for this card? It is Rogue Elephant, also from Visions, I believe. So Rogue Elephant was a 3-3 for a single green that you had to sack, I think you had to sack a forest when he came into play. Maybe it was a land. My memory was it was a

forest, but it might have just been a land. It is a similar card. So this, we went down the path of and it is a similar card. So this, we went down the path of having cards where you were sacking lands as a cost or not playing lands as a cost.

We ended up realizing it wasn't too much fun, but we had to do a little of it. So it's a little nod to Rogue Elephant. We brought this back. So we made it 3-2,

but we made it Shroud, so it's sort of like, you know, it can't be targeted, so that protected it, but made it a little bit, so it's sort of like it can't be targeted, so that protected it, but made it a little bit weaker, so in combat, you can deal with it in combat, because having a one drop, if it's too big,

can cause problems. So we lowered its toughness, so you get a couple hits in, but then your opponent pretty quickly can get a two-powered thing and could defend against it. But they can't destroy it with a spell, because it has Shroud. Next, Sorin Murkoff. Three black, black, black.

So that's three colorless mana and three black mana. He's a Planeswalker with a loyalty of four. Plus two, you drain a creature or player for two. So you do two damage to them and you gain two. You, the player, gain two life. Minus three, a target opponent's life becomes

ten. And then minus seven, control target players next turn. So let's talk about each of those. So the first is, one of the things that we've discovered is what makes planeswalkers good is putting out blockers, like Elsbeth or someone like that, and sometimes it's being able to deal with creatures that might be a problem. And so his plus ability can deal with creatures. Not small creatures, it can't deal with all creatures. Also, he allows you to get your opponent life down which ties into the second thing so the second ability getting your opponent

to 10 was tying into the vampire theme of the set so the vampire tribal component the vampires the thing that

unified them was they had this if your opponent is at 10 or less life things turned on that they were hungry and if they they sensed that

there was you know they got excited when they realized you were closer to if they sensed that there was, you know, they got excited when they realized you were closer to death. They could sense blood in the water. And so this thing gets you right there. This is sort of a vampire enabler. But it also ties into the first thing. One of the things you always want to do is you want to make sure your planeswalkers sort

of cohesively tie together. And clearly we're going for a vampire flavor here. So the first thing is, he can feed on you, or feed on creatures. Or if he's really hungry, he can really feed on you. And because he's a vampire at his ultimate, he can hypnotize you and take you over. Now I should point out that I actually designed this ultimate not for Sorin, but for Nicol Bolas. So remember Nicol Bolas. So remember Nicole Bolas? His first two abilities... So Nicole Bolas that got printed, I did the first and second ability, and the third ability was done by

somebody else. Because I saw the card, and I thought we could do better for our master villain. And so I liked the idea that I think he can destroy something, he can take control of something, and then he's supposed to take control of players, because he's a puppet master.

And so I really liked that, but a lot of our neighbors wrote gung-ho on the ultimate of Nicol Bolas ties into his original card from Legends, and they thought that was cute, and I liked the cleanliness, and he's a puppet master, but anyway, we ended up not using that,

and so they go, oh, a vampire. A vampire could take control of somebody. They liked the ultimate. They thought it was a cool ultimate. That mind slaver as an ultimate seemed neat. And him being a vampire seemed cool. So Sorin got it. Anyway, he was quite popular.

I mean, I think people liked it. This was the introduction of Sorin, I'm pretty sure. And so I think people enjoyed the idea that we had a vampire planeswalker. That was pretty cool. And Sorin was pretty cool. I mean, people liked Sorin. He's one of the popular planeswalkers, so it all worked out well. Next is

Sphinx of Jar Isle. So it's a Sphinx for 4UU, 5-5, Flying Shroud. Remember, back during this time, Hexproof wasn't in the game yet. It was Shroud. Shroud means that nobody can target, where Hexproof means't in the game yet. It was shroud. Shroud means that nobody can target,

where hexproof means nobody else can target it. And also, it had the ability that you can look at the top of the library. So I think what was going on around this time was we were trying to find an iconic for blue. So early magic, I mean, we figured out pretty quickly that red had dragons and white had angels and black had either demons or vampires. But blue and green have caused us lots of problems. Now, eventually, I've talked about green. We eventually got to hydras. So blue, originally, I think we tried...

We tried gins, but gins were a little... It was hard to fit gins in a lot of worlds. And gins didn't have as much of fantasy feel as we hoped. We looked at other things, but the important thing for the blue iconic was, because knowledge is such a key part of blue, we wanted the blue iconic to have a sense of it's smart. And so like giant flying things didn't feel, I mean, we wanted something that was smart. And so we tried a couple different things. But in the end, I think Brady, Brady Domenech, the former creative director, came up with the idea of sphinxes. So for those that don't know, they're sphinxes. They are

creatures that are part bird, part lion or something. I'm not sure. They're a combination of things. But anyway, they're super smart. And one of the most famous sphinxes is the riddle of the sphinx, who in Greek mythology... Is it Oedipus? Anyway, there's a sphinx where they ask the riddle, you know,

what walks in four feet in the morning and two feet in the afternoon and three in the evening. It's man, by the way. So the sphinxes had a sense of sort of, you know, they knew knowledge you did not know. And that felt kind of neat for a blue iconic. So we were playing around with that. And so one of the things we started doing is just trying to make some more powerful sphinxes

to get people excited for sphinxes. And this is one of the first ones. just trying to make some more powerful Sphinxes to get people excited for Sphinxes. This is one of the first ones. So the neat thing about this thing is because knowledge is important, this card has a neat sort of flavor that it knows what is coming. You can look at the top

of your library. For a while, a card that I made that if we were playing online, we could do this, but it just doesn't work is a card that let you look at your library whenever you want it and see the order of your library, so you always knew what was coming. But that was a little... There was cheating issues when you pick up your library and go through it.

So we ended up... This card is just where you just see the next thing. So you know it's coming, but you just know the next thing that's coming. Okay, next. Stonework Puma. It's an artifact creature that costs three. It's a cat ally, and it's a 2-2. It's a vanilla creature.

So why do I want to talk about this card? This card is a fine tradition, something that goes back... I'm not sure if Metallic Sliver is the first one in this camp, but one of the things we've done is that we'll do a tribal thing in which you care about some tribe, and then the artifact version

is the only one that doesn't care, it just is. That's a schtick we often do in artifacts. We did it in the slivers in Tempest, because the flavor, the funny thing is, the reason we originally did it in Tempest was Volrath, who was the bad guy, was fascinated by

the slivers. So Volrath was a shapeshifter, and the slivers were shapeshifters. So Volrath, I think he found them on some other plane, and he brought them to Wrath, that's the story. And so he sort of put them under his castle in the Furnace of Wrath, and kind of let them breed. But he wanted to spy on them, so he made a robotic sliver to sort of go among the herd. And so the robotic sliver was the metallic sliver. And the metallic sliver, the reason it doesn't grant any abilities is because it was this artificial creature that was spying

on them. So it was able to get information from them, but it never gave them information. Anyway, I thought that was very clever, and a lot of people didn't know that. Maybe some of you didn't know that. But anyway, that started us down the path of the idea of artifact creatures that, you know, don't grant,

aren't tribal in the giving way but are tribal in the receiving way. And Stonework Puma is definitely one of those. It's an ally. It's rewarded for things

that are allies but it is the one card that doesn't do the ally thing. It doesn't care. Like, when it comes into play, it triggers other allies

but it doesn't care about other allies coming into play. Next, Teetering Peaks. This is a land, enters a battlefield, taps. So this is a cycle, and these were common. So this one says when it enters the battlefield, target creature gets plus two, plus O at the end of turn,

and you tap for red. So this was a mechanic that I thought was going to be a major, major part of the set and ended up being a smaller part, and these are what we called Spell Lands. And the idea was, we were going to be a major, major part of the set and ended up being a smaller part. And these are what we called spell lands. And the idea was, we were trying to find a way, when we came into the set, we loved the idea of lands that sometimes are spells and sometimes are lands. And we had goofed around with spells you could discard to go get a land, and we obviously had done that with land cycling. And so we liked the idea of, what if you had a spell

that, what if you had a spell that, what if you had land that could be a spell? That's the original way we did it. So the first versions, when they came into play, you had the option of spending mana, and if you did, they were a spell. So the idea is, oh, it's a land, but oh, later in the game, if you don't need it,

you can spend, you know, a bunch more mana. So imagine, I'm just making this up, but imagine this card was something like, when it comes into play, you may sac this land and spend you know, a bunch more mana. So imagine, I'm just making this up, but imagine this card was something like, when it comes into play, you may sac this land and spend 2R, and if you do, do 3 damage to your target creature or player. So it's like a little lightning bolt. And the idea was, oh, well, it comes into play tapped and taps for red, so it's a red land if you need it, but later in the game, if you don't need it, it turns into a lightning bolt.

That sounded really cool, right? Sounds cool. So we started playing with it. Here's the problem. Here's what would happen. People would put it in their deck as a land. Looked like a land. But then if they used it, see, this was the sneaky thing.

It wasn't really a land. It was really a spell. It was a spell that had the special secret ability that when you needed it, it could be a land. But the point was, it was a spell. And that if you treated it like a land, and whenever you needed it could be a land. But the point was, it was a spell. And that if you treated it like a land, and whenever you cast it as a spell,

you kind of shorted yourself on land. So what happened is, people would get these things, they would use them, so like, what we thought would happen is like, oh, well this is a lightning bolt, well if you really need it late in the game and mana doesn't matter, you'll use it. But what happened is, people would go, oh, I need it, I need a lightning bolt, and they would just use it,

and they would get mana hosed, and then the game wouldn't be fun. So we messed around a bit with what these wanted to do. Eventually we said, okay, well, what if these just create the spell, they don't sacrifice themselves, they just, in addition, you get the spell. Those proved to be insanely, insanely powerful.

And then the other problem we ran into was, so let's say, I have a land that says, okay, when I come into play, I can shock something, but you have to spend 2R. You don't sack the land, just you get to do it. People go, that's so good, I don't want to play this land until I'm able to have the mana to shock things.

So people would withhold the land, not play the land when they need it, and in the end, mana screwed themselves. So one of the big challenges of doing Zendikar was trying not to make land mechanics that made people do things that made the game unfun,

even if they weren't aware of what they were doing. So in the end, we said, okay, well, what if we make lands that we tried having very cheap spells, and eventually we went to free spells, and now it's just like, okay, they come and play tapped,

but you get a small rider that's a spell that might be valuable to you. And, anyway, this is where they ended up. Like I said, there was some fun... I feel bad sometimes in that there's some lands that, like, I do believe the right player using it correctly,

you know, the sack to do a bolt land is cool. If you understand to, like, treat it like a spell, it's a cool spell. But we have to be careful in that we don't want players that don't understand how it works in a larger sense to play it poorly and then make a bad experience.

We have to let that guide us. We have to play for all the different players. It was a neat card. Like I said, if played correctly, it was interesting. But it proved not to play well for enough of the players. Next, Trusty Machete. So this is an artifact

that costs one. It's an equipment. And it gives equipped creature plus two, plus one. So, this is an example of a top-down piece of equipment. So what happened was, we said, okay, we're going to go to Adventure World.

We need equipment. We're like, we have to have a machete. I mean, you have to have a machete. I mean, have you seen adventure films? Because there's brush, and you've got to clear the brush. And apparently the one sword that's really good for clearing brush is the machete. And maybe it is.

I have no idea. So we spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out what the machete was supposed to do. It was the one thing that was an actual sword. It was the one thing we came up with, like, oh, what actually has an adventure function, yet is a sword, which we liked a lot

because we wanted a weapon. So, like, this is a legit weapon that is used as a tool when adventuring. Like I said, because our guiding thing was, all of our equipment must be something the adventurer would use. Like, the adventurer's not going to carry along a broadsword. They're just not going to do it.

I've got to climb mountains and get through things. I'm not going to waste my time carrying something that, like, what, in case I run into a weapon, I'll pull, you know. Anyway, Triad of the Shad is very simple, but I like the nuance. I like the nuance. I like the...

Pretty much, it's a basic sword. When you do equipment, you want to do a few just like... I mean, vanilla, if this makes sense. But just like power toughness pumping and doesn't do much else. It even has a relatively cheap acquiesce cost, so you can toss your machete around. Okay, next is Turn Timber Ranger. So for those wondering, let me check in. Okay, I have a longer podcast than normal.

So this is funny. I was racing because I had a lot to get through today, and then there's traffic for some reason. It's not raining or anything. But I'm pretty much, for those that don't know my commute, I have to travel on two different freeways to get to work. And usually the interchange between the freeways

is about my halfway point, so that gives me a little sense of, you know. So I'm just coming to the halfway point, and looking at my clock here, I'm on the 23-minute mark. So now sometimes there's more traffic here than there, so it's not always a halfway point, but if traffic's going smoothly,

I'm just hitting my halfway point. But the funny thing is because I've been going quickly through these because I wanted to get through them all, and I'm looking now and I'm like, oh, I'm already up to T, and I have half the ride left. So if I talk a little more in the last part, I'll cue you in that that's me trying to fill some space here, giving away all my secrets. Okay. Although, this road is going much faster, so anyway.

I believe I will finish. And today, for those, you get a little longer podcast. I don't know, by the way, it's funny. Some people love when I have traffic. They're like, ooh, yay, longer podcast. And other people, apparently a lot when I have traffic. They're like, ooh, yay, longer podcast. And other people, apparently a lot of people have a commute that's very close to mine. And they're like, oh, it's perfect because your commute is perfect in mine. So whenever I run long, they're like, it ran long. I couldn't listen to it all. So anyway.

But it is the nature of the beast. Drive to work is, in fact, a drive to work. Sometimes I find, by the way, I find it interesting that sometimes people think, like, it's like some gimmick. Like, I'm sitting in a studio and I have, like, traffic noise or something. But, no, I am literally, this is the time I have available to do my podcast. So, I am driving to work. And it's time to get to the next thing. You can tell I'm strong.

Okay, Turn Timber Ranger. Turn Timber Ranger was three green and green, an elf scout ally, 2-2. When it or any other ally comes into play, it gets a plus one plus one counter, and you get a 2-2 wolf token. So this card originally gave you the

wolf token. So it's whenever an ally came into play, whenever it or another ally came into play, you got a 2-2 wolf token. So it's whenever an ally came into play, whenever it or another ally came into play, you got a 2-2 wolf token. But the problem was, I said, wait a minute, well, this doesn't fit any of our rules. Like, it's not a fighter, doesn't get a plus one plus one counter. It's not a wizard, because it doesn't count the number of allies, you know, to do something. And it's not a cleric, because it doesn't grant all allies something. I mean, it doesn't fit. And there was some debate, like, it's a cleric because it doesn't grant all allies something. I mean, it doesn't fit. And

there was some debate. Like, it's a cool card! Why can't we just do it? I'm like, well, no. I'm a big believer that, like, you've got to be careful not to... Exceptions have their place. But I'm like, well, it is a cool card, but I would rather just find a way to make it fit in one of the things.

So we walked through it. We're like, okay, well, we want to make the 2-2 counter, so granting something doesn't make sense. I'm like, okay, can I make a number of 2-2 counters equal to the amount of allies in play? No! Barokan! So I said, okay, well, what if we turn it into a

fighter, and then just because it's a rare card, it gets a bonus. So it gets bigger, but it also gets an extra bonus. That way, it is a fighter. it is a card that grows with time, but oh, hey, then, you know, this is an additional rider.

And that was the compromise we got on this card. I mean, I think this card is a lot of fun, and it is definitely... Some of the allies... Well, I guess all the allies...

I mean, one of the things we wanted to do with the ally deck was, and this is true of any tribal deck, is I want to give you options on how to build it. So, for example, if you ever notice, nowadays, whenever we tend to focus on a tribe, we usually push that tribe to more than one color. In Innistrad, we were doing monster tribes, so every tribe went to two colors.

Vampires are normally black, but we bled to red. Zombies are normally black, we bled to blue. Werewolves didn't really exist, but we put them in green and red. Spirits, I guess, normally do exist in blue and white, but we focused them there. Humans, we did kind of everywhere, but we focused them in green and white. Minotaurs and Theros, minotaurs are normally red. Well, we pushed them into a second color. We pushed them into black. And the reason we do that is

we like when we push on tribal to not make it... Because one of the things with early tribal sometimes is like, oh, I want to make a tribal deck. Well, I just put every card that has that card type on it in a deck. Okay, done.

And that's not that much fun. I mean, it can be fun. But for the players that want a little more challenge, for the Johnnies out there that want a little nuance in their deck building, we like to give you enough options that there's ways to do it. Now, the allies were nice because allies existed in all five colors. And so one of the things we did is

we definitely pushed certain types of things in different directions. So, like, I believe, like, the fighter ones, more of them were in white and green, so they built up. We sort of picked where we put them so that they would give a different feel and different touch. We were trying to make it so that different ally decks would have different agendas.

I like this card a lot because it says, oh, well this ally deck, one of the things is it can produce a lot of tokens. There's ways to take advantage of that. So one of the questions we get is why wasn't it an ally wolf token? And the answer was, well, twofold. The first answer is, so we didn't want to give you infinite wolves. I make an ally wolf token. Hey, an ally came in play.

I get an ally wolf token. Hey, an ally came in play. I mean, we could have worded other or something. And the second thing was it just kind of got a little bit strong because we had things that boosted every ally. So if you had your wolves, it got a little strong. Like having a bunch of two creatures was good enough. So we decided not to do that.

Next. Ooh, V, Valakut. Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, enters the battlefield. When a mountain enters the battlefield, if you have five or more, it's a lightning bolt, it's a three damage on creature player,

and it taps for red. So this was a cycle. I talked about the white one earlier in my podcast, a couple podcasts ago. I bring in the red one only because this ended up being probably the highest profile of this cycle. But there's a question people asked about, and I forgot to answer it when I was talking about the red one only because this ended up being probably the highest profile of this cycle but there's a question people asked about and I forgot to answer when I was talking about the white one

which was why does this sound like it's a legendary land and it's not a legendary land? Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle how many Molten Pinnacles are there? so let me explain before we changed the legendary land rule as we did recently, the legendary

rule worked really, really badly on lands. And it really made this weird gameplay where you had to get your land out first. In fact, people would sideboard in dangerous lands so they could play, like, Tolarian Academy. There's a strategy, if you were playing in a format where Tolarian Academy was ready. You played Tolarian Academy whether or not you even had the ability to use it because it was so important to

stop your opponents that you would just try to open your opening hand and play it first if you went first just to stop them from having it. And anyway because the

gameplay was so bad we made a conscious decision to not do Legendary Lands. There's a few rare exceptions like I have Ugin. Things were like the card was really meant to be a few rare exceptions, like Ive Ugin, things where, like,

the card was really meant to be a flavor card, and so, like, we didn't think it had lots of turn in play, so it didn't matter too much. But anyway, we really shied away from doing Legendary Lands. The thing was, we really wanted to do

the creative end of Legendary Lands, so we said, ah, whatever. The rationale we had at the time was, look, there's one Valakut, meaning the place, there's a single place. But the lands don't represent the place. The lands represent the mana bonds to the ley lines there. And like, well, while there's one Valakut, many people could tap off a Valakut.

It's not like only one mage could get the red mana. There's many mana lines running through it. And so because it represented the mana veins of Valakut, you know, it's not legendary. There's a lot of mana veins. That was the rationale. Anyway, this card definitely... I had a lot of fun coming up with cards.

Like, we specifically asked for this to be a volcano so that the idea of the mountains was... It was spewing the lava was the idea. I thought it was pretty cool. Okay, next. Vampire Hex Mage. So this is a 2-1 Vampire Shaman. Black and a black.

It's got First Strike. And it has the ability to sac this card to remove all counters from one card. So black somehow has become the card in the color pie that hates counters. That goes after counters. I think this card, I think this card was made as a workaround to help block deal with planeswalkers, I think. The set did have a lot of counters in it. You know, the allies were building up with counters, there were different counters that were going on, and so it kind of made sense

in the set. I think that I think development liked the idea that there's this subtle workaround. I mean, we got more blatant later on. Like, now, Black just gets to kill Planeswalkers. And we still do a little bit of anti- counter hate from time to time.

That is something that we've deemed to Black. So, if we're in an environment where there's a lot of counters, a.k.a. I'm designing it, then we often will give black a card. Sometimes it can deal with the counters. It's black. Black likes destroying things,

so we're like, eh, why not let it destroy counters? Next, Vampire Nighthawk. So sometimes you make a card and you don't quite know what you're making. This is a card that I think was more powerful than we realized. Oh, so its stats are it's one black black for a 2-3 creature. It's got Flying, Death Touch, and Lifelink.

So let me talk a little bit about the Death Touch-Lifelink combo. So Death Touch obviously kills any creature it touches. Lifelink gains you life. Mechanically, they've got nothing in common. Really. I mean, the only advantage, I guess, that Death... Okay, there's one synergy, which is you kind of don't want to block a Death Touch creature,

and you do want to block a Lifelink creature, because Death Touch is going to kill whatever it blocks, and you don't want to block a Death Touch creature, and you do want to block a Lifelink creature, because Death Touch is going to kill whatever blocks, and you don't want your thing to die. But Lifelink is constantly gaining you life, and you want to get rid of it. So this creature is interesting in that it combined two things that, I mean, the reason we combine them is not because mechanically they're amazing, because they're really not, is that flavor-wise, this is where names become important, and this is kind of interesting.

People really like Life, Length, and Death Touch, and like I said, it's not particularly good mechanically, but it feels good, because one says life on it, and one says death on it, and it just feels like this weird juxtaposition, which is just the words. I mean, if Death Touch was called, you know, Venom and Lifelink was called, you know, Spirit Guide,

I don't think people would want these together, but because one says life and one says death, people really like having these together. And that is the power of words and the power of, you know, pattern completion and like, oh, life and death, those are opposites. Oh, they should go together, you know. And it is the power of words and the power of, you know, pattern completion and like, oh, life and death, those are opposites. Oh, they should go together, you know. And it is interesting.

One of the things I've learned, what set was this from? There's a set where I made a card and I called it, what did I call it? I made reference to polymorph because the spell had an effect that flavor-wise matched polymorph, and the development team changed it to match the card polymorph, even though the name wasn't supposed to connect to the card.

It was just like, oh, it's changing things. That's a polymorphing thing. And words are powerful. One of the things I teach my designers when you name things, when you give them design names, even if your design names aren't real, and a lot of times they're not meant to be real, they're meant to be jokey, or they're meant to be...

Be careful about your names and what they convey, because it will lead people to believe things. One of the things we do is we do a God Book study, and one of my pet peeves about the God Book study is, a lot of times they'll use design names, because that's just what they have at the time of doing the God Book Study, and I really, really believe that cards with better names do better in the rare poll, even though those are not the names on the cards, meaning, like, I

get frustrated when cards get graded better, and the thing that's giving it the extra something isn't going to be in the card that players are going to see, and like, you know, like, that's, I'm glad you like this playtest name and graded it higher because of it,

but that doesn't help us because it's not going to have this name. Although sometimes if the name's awesome, maybe I go, oh, they love the name, we should keep the name.

But a lot of times, you know, like the thing that won in Innistrad that won the Rare poll, I mean, not that the card wasn't also cool,

was called Dracula and it was, you know, the king of vampires. And it later went on to be Olivia Valerian. wasn't also cool, was called Dracula. And it was, you know, the king of the vampires. And it later went on to be Olivia Valerian, which, she was the queen of the vampires. But the reason it was called Dracula is just I wanted the creative team to understand, I would name it after the trope I was going for. You know, this is Jekyll and Hyde, get it?

So that the creative team saw that trope. So I named it Dracula to get, hey guys, it's, you know, leader of the vampires. And it was first in the poll, and I think part of it was, ooh, cool, Count Dracula, you know, like, but it's not going to be Count Dracula. So, anyway.

Vampire Nighthawk was one of those things where I think the government knew it was good to see a constructed play. I think it was a little better than they thought and ended up being quite powerful. I'm glad it was a vampire. It kind of played into our themes and we were trying to make a mono-black vampire deck, so this fit perfectly in that.

It had double black in it, so it ended up fitting real well in the deck we were trying to make, so I'm happy for that. It's a little better than we meant. It's one of those kinds of cards that fall in the area where it's better than we mean. It's printable, but it warps the environment, so you have to be very careful when you print it. I mean, it's one of those kinds of cards that fall in the area where it's better than we mean it's printable but it warps the environment so you have to be very careful when you print it

it's not quite lighting bolt but lighting bolt falls in the same category so vampire and nighthawk is the kind of thing that probably we can bring it back but we have to be careful when we do okay the final card and I am almost a wizard so with a little bit of stalling I timed this correctly how are we doing on time it's a long ride you with a little bit of stalling, I timed this correctly. How are we doing on time?

Well, today's a long ride. You got a little extra podcast today. Okay, my final card is called Vampire's Bite. Because it's black,

it's an instant. For kicker 2B, it has a kicker of 2B, 2 and black. And then target creature gets plus 3, plus 0. And if kicked, it gains lifelink.

So this card, I like on two different levels. First up, the mechanical level, is it played really neat. It was a very cool card. It is neat... It is hard to give black a combat trick that feels uniquely black. And this is kind of nice

because plus N plus O is something white... White will do little ones, maybe plus one plus O. Everyone's in a blue moon because plus N plus O is something white I mean, white will do a little one maybe plus 1 plus O, everyone's in a blue moon plus 2 plus O but like plus 3 plus O, white would never do and so it's and white's the only color that has lifelink so it kind of combines some things that are a little bit different

black doesn't tend to boost its toughness, it only boosts its power so it often doesn't survive like the reason you boost it in combat is to help kill other things, but the reason Giant Ghost is so much better is you beat the thing and survive. And so a lot of black boosting, you know,

we need a little something extra to give it a little juice. And this card was really neat because the lifelink was really, you know, if you put it on something like plus three, plus oh, and put it on just even a two-power, three-power creature, bam, all of a sudden, like, you are making a pretty good life swing. And I enjoy that about this card in that there's reasons you want to cast it for one mana,

you know, that you don't always need a kicker. Sometimes, like, you need to kill something, and you only have one mana open, and it's perfect. But once you have it, once you have the mana, you know, it's a very useful card. And, like, I like, it's a useful black trick. Now, the other reason I like it is the flavor is awesome. We were trying really hard in this set to really sort of do vampires and do vampires correctly.

And so the idea of, you know, I can damage you, but I can feed upon you if things are right. The type of lifelink in vampirism is really, really good. And so, anyway. The interesting thing about this card mechanically is I think the early version we tried

gave you Life Link originally and then if you kicked it, it gave you the boost. And that ended up not working quite as well. The boost worked a little better in that if you're going to only spend one mana, usually you won the life game, so you needed the combat trick. And so we changed it such that

we just swapped it around, and that worked a little bit better. It's neat, by the way. That happens a lot, where you do something where it's like, the main effect is this, and the side effect is that, and you're like, eh, it's not quite working. You're like, let's swap them. So anyway, okay. Four podcasts later, with a little extra help

from the traffic, I've gotten through all of the Zendikards. So the plan here is, as I explained earlier, is, I mean, I'll be taking a little break and doing a few other topics, but when I come back to do another podcast on design, the next design I'm going to talk

about will be Worldwike. I'm going to start going through blocks in order when I do my designs to give a little cohesion because the stories follow, and so I'm like, oh, I'll do them consecutively. So next time we talk about design, we'll be talking about World Lake and there's lots of interesting stories there. But anyway, as much as I love talking about magic,

even more, I like making magic. So it's time for me to go. Great talking to you guys and I hope you enjoyed the extra podcast today.