Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #135 - Rise of the Eldrazi, Part 1

Episode Date: June 27, 2014

Mark starts a five-part series on the design of Rise of the Eldrazi

I'm pulling up my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay. Previously, I had talked about, I'd done a series on the Zendikar cards and on the Worldwake set. So I'm going to finish off the Zendikar block today by starting talking about the design of Rise of the Eldrazi. Dun-dun-dun. Okay, so, where do we begin? I guess we begin, so those that remember, when I originally pitched Zendikar, it was as this experimental block, messing with land mechanics.

And anyway, there were many who were dubious that this idea would work. So meanwhile, Bill Rose, the VP of R&D, so two years earlier, actually, we had done, Bill had tasked me with coming up with a way to do four blocks because two years before that, we had done Ravnica block

and then we'd added Coltsnap on as a fourth set. And it didn't really go over that well. And I said to Bill, I go, next time we want to do four sets in a year, I could make it make sense if you just let me ahead of time plan because Colesnuff had not been planned ahead of time. And so Bill said to me, okay, we're going to do four sets, make it work. And then I came up with the idea of two mini blocks,

the large small Lorwyn block and the large small Shadowmoor block. And the two mini blocks went together and they were a mega block together. It was a world that changed. Anyway, the innovation really of that block, though, was the idea of Shadowmoor being a spring set that was large. And it turns out large sets sell better than small sets. There's more cards, and people were excited and liked it. And Bill had done the math and realized that

he didn't feel we could do a large set every year in the spring because that would make too many cards in standard. But the numbers worked out that every other year, roughly every other year, we could do a second large set. Not kind of the core set, obviously. And so this year had been scheduled such that the spring set was going to be a large set. So Bill had this idea. Bill said, okay, here's what we're going to do. Mark, you have your world. Let's assume you can get a large set. So Bill had this idea. Bill said, okay, here's what we're going to do. Mark, you have your world.

Let's assume you can get a large and a small material out of it. And then the spring set will be a large set, complete mechanical reboot, something completely different, not at all tied. It'll be a different world. And your world will be a large small. It'll be the fall and the winter set.

And then a brand new world will be the spring set. So that was the plan going into this block, that Zendikar actually would only be two sets. So, for Zendikar, obviously, I built the land mechanics. My team had come up with landfall, and we decided to put Kicker in, and then the creative team came back and said, okay, well, if we're going to focus on land,

we think Adventure World would work well. And then we ended up designing a bunch of things to make Adventure world made sense. We made the allies and the traps and the quests and such. So, while they were building their world, there's a man named Richard

Winters, who currently is on the creative team, who is an illustrator, who does concept illustration. And what we do every year is we build a world every year. Which, by the way, I talked about this when I talked about the creative team. It is insane that every year we build a world. I mean, I'm impressed. It's amazing.

You know, you watch other people build worlds for, like, you know, other projects, and, like, they'll take years and years and years, and every single year we're building a new world. Anyway, so we bring in what we call the concepting team, which is we get a bunch of artists and then we give them the ideas of what the world's about and they start sketching and they come in for three, four weeks

to sort of do the preliminary work to map out what this world looks like. So Richard, I believe for Zendikar, he wasn't yet a wizard's employee. He had just been brought in for this concepting. And one of the things that we were trying to do for the top-downness of the world was there's an influence that it had as an Indiana Jones feel. And so Indiana Jones definitely had this sense of old temples.

You know, you're digging for antiquities. And so Richard got the idea of something of just some structured stuff in it. So he started making geometric forms. I don't even know if they were hedrons originally, but just different geometric forms. So one of the other people who was on the team that was doing all the sketch work was Mark Tadine, who we might know as a longtime magic illustrator.

And he took the idea and started running with it, of making just different geometric shapes built into the landscape. And they ended up making these hedrons that looked really cool. Now at this point, the hedrons didn't mean anything, it just, it was trying to capture a certain feel, and they liked the

feel of it. So meanwhile, Brady Dommermuth, who at the time was the creative director, was trying to figure out, he knew he wanted a world in which the world was full of resources, rich with resources, that would draw planeswalkers to it, but that it was dangerous. That the world was reacting in some way. And I think Brady came up with the idea of,

what if there was something trapped inside the world, that the world reacting was kind of reacting to this thing being caught inside. And I think the idea of the hedrons, like they liked the hedrons and maybe something trapped inside and then it all came together that the hedrons were part of the prison

that were keeping this thing trapped inside. And the idea was to do some sort of ancient evil. Something that... So, for those that know, the way we explain the Eldrazi is they were crossed between Cthulhu and Galactus. So let me explain the two source material.

So Cthulhu was a series of novels written by H.P. Lovecraft. Some were short stories, I think some were full novels. And in it was a world in which there existed these ancient evils that were so alien and so foreign that just to glimpse

them, to understand them, would drive a man insane. And they were horror stories that really had this sense of people trying to discover what was going on, but usually in the end the knowledge itself would drive them crazy. And the creatures, Cthulhu and such,

they were these ancient gods of before the beginning of time, really ancient things that were from other dimensions, but they were almost unfathomable and they couldn't be comprehended because they were so strange and alien. Galactus is a character from Marvel Comics.

He is a being as old as the universe that eats planets, that he's forever hungry, and he roams the galaxies, finding planets to consume. So, we first meet him in the comics in Fantastic Four.

The Silver Surfer is his herald, and the Silver Surfer has come to Earth to warn them because he as his herald, he tries to steer him to uninhabited worlds but for some reason that isn't working and he's coming to Earth

and Silver Surfer warns him that oh no, the mighty Galactus is coming he's coming to eat the Earth obviously the Fantastic Four managed to stop him but anyway, the idea of the Odrazi was these kind of ancient evil creatures that were kind of unfathomable, but that they were hungry, and that they come to try to eat the world. So, for those who might not know, here's the backstory of the Eldrazi, as I understand it.

So, many, many years ago, I don't know the time frame, but a decent while ago, the Eldrazi, there's three main titans, if you remember their names. The three titans are Ulamog, Kosalek, and Emrakul. Woohoo! I'm impressed. I remember all three of those. So they

were messing up the multiverse. Oh, so they live in an area called the Blind Eternities. So the Blind Eternities is the space in between the planes in the multiverse. That if you are a planeswalker and you want to walk from one plane to another plane,

you have to pass through the Blind Eternities. And the Blind Eternities are... They're this weird place. It's where they're from. They're colorless because they predate the concept of color in the universe. They're ancient beings place. It's where they're from. They're colorless because they predate the concept of color in the universe. They're ancient beings because of the wish.

They're ancient beings. So they're causing havoc, because that's what they do. And three planeswalkers... Let's see, remember this. The three planeswalkers were Ugin, Sorin, and a third one that we've never referred to by name, but only as the Lithomancer.

And the three of them realize the Eldrazi are a problem. So they lure them to Zendikar. There's something about the nature of Zendikar. And they trap them inside Zendikar. And the lock of the prison, if you will, is the Eye of Ugin. Remember the Eye of Ugin, if you will, is the Eye of Ugin. Remember the Eye of Ugin, which was in World Wake. And the way they set it up, I believe, is that the three planeswalkers said,

until we return, the only way to unlock this is for the three of us to return. But really what they did is, they weren't specific enough, that they set it up so you needed three planeswalkers to be in the Eye of Ugin to open it. So, it turns out you didn't need

those three planeswalkers. You needed any three planeswalkers. So, flash forward to Sharjah Alara and Nicol Bolas has figured out I guess he's figured out about the Odra's or something. Anyway, Nicol Bolas has figured out, I guess he's figured out about the Odra's or something. Anyway, Nicol Bolas decides that he wants to get them freed.

I don't know why. I'll assume it's nefarious because it's Nicol Bolas. And so he gets Sarkhan, who at that time I believe was Sarkhan the Mad, he gets Sarkhan to Zendikar and then he tricks Chandra there, and Jace follows Chandra. So the three of them end up there,

and three of them end up in the Eye of Ugin, and then, bink, they're free! So, and that is, so the idea was, okay, let me jump around today. So Bill's plan originally was brand new world,

third set, brand new world. Well, the creative team were like, whoa, whoa, whoa it's hard making one world we don't want to make another world and so they had come up with this idea of these ancient evils, and so they said what if something happens to the world that's so fundamental that it shifts

everything, and that you can have a mechanical reboot, but creatively we're still in the same world the team had to figure out what the Eldrazi looked like and the spawn, and there was work to do, but it wasn't completely remake the world. And so Bill said, okay, that sounds okay.

So the idea of Rise of Eldrazi was going to be, okay, the Eldrazi have been released. That's a pretty major shakeup for the world. You know, these ancient evils, what's going to happen? So, a fine question, What's going to happen? So, a fine question. What's going to happen? So, the idea was, so let me talk about the design team for a second.

The design team was led by Brian Tinsman. I included Aaron Forsyth, Graham Hopkins, Gregory Marks, Bill McQuillan, and Devin Lowe. The development team, by the way, the interesting thing about this set, I should mention, is when I get to my stories, is I was not. The development team, by the way, the interesting thing about this set I should mention is when I get to my stories is I was not on

the design team but I was on the development team. So the development team was led by Matt Place, included Mark Globus, Eric Lauer, Gregory Merckx,

and myself. So the interesting thing about it was that I have a different perspective. You'll see when I tell my stories. Anyway,

Brian Tinsman was the lead designer. And Brian loves Cthulhu. Brian has a tattoo on his chest of Cthulhu. And so when he found out that there's ancient evils being released, and he was doing the set, and they were Cthulhu-like creatures, Brian was giddy. Giddy, giddy, giddy, giddy.

He was really excited. And so he went to them and said, okay, tell me about these creatures. And they're like, well, they are ancient creatures, so old that they predate the existence of color. Brian's like, colorless, check. And then he said, and they are immense creatures. Brian's like, giant creatures, check.

And then they're like, okay, and they're hungry. And Brian goes, voracious. Got it. Giant, colorless, voracious creatures. So Brian set out to make a world that reflected the Eldrazi. And Brian, for those who know anything about Brian's design, Brian does not, when Brian does something, he goes full throttle. So Brian said, I want to make a world, a set,

in which it's the highlight, it's the release of these creatures, He goes full throttle. So Brian said, I want to make a world, a set, in which it's the highlight, it's the release of these creatures, these crazy, dangerous Eldrazi creatures. So in order to do this, Brian realized that in order to have giant creatures, you would have to shift the environment. Because normally in magic, it's hard to get out giant creatures. Especially, I mean, we're talking about, I think it was 10, 12, and 15, I think. You know, 15 men, that's hard to get a 15-man creature out. So Brian said, okay, I need to do a couple things.

First off, I need to slow down the environment. So Brian had this idea we called battle cruiser magic. So Brian had enjoyed multiplayer play, and one of the things he noticed in multiplayer play, in free-for-alls, is that a lot of times in casual groups, there's this unwritten rule that says, early in the game, don't mess with each other. Let each other develop.

And once, you know, they have out, everybody kind of has built up some monsters and some creatures and such, that then you go at it. Then the monsters get a clash. You know, Pacific Rim time. And so, Brian said, what if we made an environment where it really slowed you down

and that it enabled you to build up so that it got to be giant monsters fighting giant monsters was Brian's idea. So he really warped the environment

to make it to make aggressive creatures not good. And so so he did a bunch of things and there was a Defender Matters theme and he he did a bunch of things. There was a Defender Matters theme, and he just did a bunch of things to slow down the aggressive strategy, so they weren't particularly

good. Then, in order to get the Eldrazi out, he did a couple things. First thing he did is he said, okay, they're expensive. Well, how do I get them out if they're so expensive? So the first idea he came up with was mana crystals, tying into the hedrons. And the idea is, okay, well, if you want to get out the Eldrazi, you need to acquire these mana crystals, and then you could spend the mana crystals to cast these giant creatures. The idea was they were

essentially, you know, counters you got that you could exchange for colorless mana. The problem was, this set was being followed by Scars of Mirrodin. Scars of Mirrodin, we knew, had a poison theme. I was very gung-ho to bring back poison. I knew poison lined up with the Phyrexians really well.

And so I said to Brian, Okay, Brian, it's too close to poison. I need you to find a different way to do this. So Brian tried again, and he came up with the idea of spawn, which were 0-1 colorless creatures that you could sac for 1 colorless mana. And it turns out, spawn were even cooler than mana crystals, because there just was more interaction. That they were creatures, so you could buff them, or you could put enchantments on them,

or you could block with them. That a 0-1 creature, even though most of the time you were trading it for mana, had other use. And so they... It's a good example of the restrictions actually forced Brian to find something he liked even better. Okay. So we have some spawn to be able to get these things out.

So what happened was he also embraced the colorlessness of them, and most of the Odrazi were colored. Some of the lower Odrazi, the drones that made the spawn, were colored. Although most people don't even remember them as being colored, but they were. But I think the key part of them was the idea of these colorless creatures. And it allowed us for the first time to make colorless instants and sorceries. Now, artifacts have always existed, so we could mimic a lot of that. But this is the first time that literally there was a sorcerer instant that any deck could play.

And Brian tended to make them big effects, so the idea that they were drossy spells. They weren't just little things, they were bigger things. So he made them colorless, he made them expensive, he made them big. The next thing he did is he needed something to represent their voraciousness, their hunger. And so he came up with a mechanic called Annihilator. So what Annihilator did is Annihilator N, N being a number, number was between 1 and 6, I believe, in Rise of the Adrazi. When you attack, if you have Annihilator, your opponent, as an attack trigger, must sacrifice N permanents.

So if I have Annihilator 1 and attack, every time I attack, you have to sacrifice a permanent. If I have Annihilator 5 or 4 or 6, whatever, Annihilator 6, you have to sacrifice a permanent. If I have Annihilator 5 or 4 or 6, whatever, now that there's 6, you have to sacrifice 6 permanents. So, turned out Annihilator was really, really strong. So strong, it later would cause developmental issues. But anyway, it conveyed it. You get the Eldrazi out, and they just start eating things.

And it also made you want to be aggressive with it. We wanted to make sure that these things were things that once they got into play, you started having some conflict. On top of that... Okay, so that was the Eldrazi side. So on the Zendikar side, what I call the Zendikari, the Zendikari side The Zendikari side needed people to fight against them.

And this was Adventure World, right? So, well, if there's a threat, well, they're going to band together. So, in Shadowmoor, Brian made a creature, I did not look this one up, and my ability to remember this is going to be bad. It was a red-white hybrid creature that came into play,

and you could activate it multiple times, and each time you activated it, it upgraded to a bigger creature. And it had three different versions, a 2-2, a 4-4, and an 8-8, if I remember correctly. And it was one of the most powerful cards in the set. Brian really liked that. He liked the idea of creatures leveling up, and so he set out to make creatures that had level up, he called it,

and the name stuck. So a level up creature had three states. It came in one state. You could then level it up to get to a second state and level up to get to a third state. And the idea was there was a cost to level it up, and then at different levels, the creature would get better. And in fact, if you've ever seen a level up card, the card has essentially three text boxes and three power toughness boxes. And we had a big discussion, by the the way of what order they were supposed to go in. Brian spent an enormous amount

of time with these frames and showing people and trying to make them mechanically work the best they could. As is, they were a little confusing, but so the big discussion was, did you start with, was your power toughness the lowest box? Because normally when you look at power toughness

it's in the lower right hand corner. And then as you got better you went up. Or did you start at the top and then go down? In the end we decided to start you where you normally go and then go up. That you would level up so that you would look in the lower right corner is what you would expect to see. Because we found that that's what people wanted to look.

So the level of creatures, there was a big fight at the time and one of the themes of the set from a design standpoint was we had just started, the previous year we had started what we called New World Order, and Shards of Alara had been retrofitted to New World Order, but Zendikar was really the first set to be designed with New World Order. Well, this was the first set Brian had ever worked on since we had done New World Order, and Brian really wasn't quite on board with New World Order.

In retrospect, as the head designer, I needed to crack down a little more. Brian has a vivacious spirit, which I always want to let him sort of do his thing, but one of the downsides of the set, I'll talk about it in a little bit, is the set is the only set since

New World Order began that really didn't have New World Order. And one of the things I tried to do in development was get the level ups out of common. It's really complex. Really, really complex. And I thought, oh, they're cool and they're impactful, but just

have higher rarities in that when you play limited, you don't need to have tons of them. But Brian really, really wanted me to fight for them. A fight I should have fought a little harder on. Beside Level Up, there also was Totem Armor. This was part of Brian's theme of sort of building things up

to fight the giant Nodrazi in his Battlecruiser magic. The Totem Armor were auras that if the creature was going to die, instead you lost the enchantment and the creature stayed. So they kind of built in, had this extra kind of regeneration element

where if you were going to lose both the cards, you only lose the enchantment instead. And one of the big problems with enchantments is that when you kill the creature, you also lose the enchantment, so two for one's you. So enchantments is that you have, when you kill the creature, you also lose enchantments, so it two-for-ones you. So these protected the creature, so they prevented the two-for-one. Also, he made rebound, which was a mechanic that you cast it, and the effect goes off this turn and goes off the beginning of next turn. And so it's sort of an effect that has two turns. Also, to play into the

long gameness of the Battlecruiser of it, he made Invokers, which is a cycle of common, that were creatures that were just well-costed normal creatures that you would play in limited, except they all had 8 colon do something. And so what happened

is, like, it's another thing where, like, these cards most of the time function as commons, but once you got eight mana, really when you start to do things, you tend to see more higher rarities. But invokers were kind of the same thing of, as you get up to a high expense of mana, you start to do things.

And so, anyway, Brian had crafted this careful set between the two. So let me run over some of the basics of the set. So the set came out April 23, 2010. It had 248 cards, 100 commons, 60 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythics. For those of you who know their magic sets, normally back in the day, back in 2010, our large sets were 249 cards.

What happened to the missing card? Well, normally there were 100 commons. I'm sorry. Normally, there's 101 commons. This set only had 100. Now, I've explained the 101th common is really a weird card

in that it's slightly less common than common and slightly more common than uncommon. And traditionally, we put an artifact or a land there, something that can go

in any deck, so we have color balance in common. So what happened was we really, really wanted people to or Brian really, really wanted people to have the Eldrazi in their limited game, so he made two Eldrazi to go in common.

A 7-7 and an 8-8. And one of them, I forget which one, we doubled up on the common sheet so that the Eldrazi would show up a little bit more, so they actually were slightly more common than common, just so you would see the Eldrazi would show up a little bit more, so they actually were slightly more common than common, just so you would see the Eldrazi a little more. We wanted to make sure that in Rize of the

Eldrazi that if you opened up a bunch of packs and you just at least saw one Eldrazi in your packs, if not more. The symbol for the set was a hedron, which ended up being the hedrons that were entrapped them. I think the hedrons, I don't know the answer to this. I think there's something about the hedrons that's tied to the Eldrazi,

and the reason they were able to trap them had to do with the connection between the hedrons and the Eldrazi. I don't know specifically. So, okay, let's talk a little bit about the set, because the reaction to, the set was a weird set. Brian is known for doing weird. Brian, of lead designers in the past, Brian really loves having some quality and just running with it.

And he really, really embraced the craziness of the Eldrazi. So this set had a very interesting reaction. Let's talk about Limited, for example. So among the hardcore drafters, this was a beloved Limited environment. It was, it was, there was a lot, like, one of the things this Limited did is definitely, there was a lot of deck archetypes built into it.

If you talk about modern drafting, this is one of the early sets that really, both design and development worked really hard to make sure there was different archetypes to draft. There was a lot of different things going on. Because it went to a long game, there were a lot of decisions that got to be made. Also, it was counterintuitive. So for the people who drafted a lot, it really made you rethink things.

And I think, you know, people who draft all the time, the idea of, oh, this thing that normally is good is bad is interesting to them. The problem was, for the less experienced drafters, this set was baffling. It didn't do things they normally assumed it would do. There were a lot of things you had to kind of override, basic rules you would learn that weren't true. That a lot of people, for example, wouldn't put giant creatures in their deck, because this environment really was about giant creatures, so you were supposed to put, you know,

a 10 or a 12 or a 15 cost thing in your deck. The idea that you're supposed to attack with the Eldrazi was problematic for a lot of beginners or less experienced players. Anyway, what we found was it created a schism. And schisms are interesting. You learn a lot from schisms. And what I mean by schism is where

one part of the audience reacts one way and one reacts the other way. Where this was a set where it was beloved by part of the audience and it just hated by another part. Because the people that really got it and enjoyed the nuance enjoyed it quite a bit. And the people who didn't were just confused and didn't understand and

just wanted to play normal magic and this set did not let them do that. Now, the set was really splashy and had a lot of fun things and definitely for the casuals and the commander crowd. So the set did okay, but it really

was a mixed bag. It was not... And the way that I know I've heard it explained was the set was a set full of crazy, and it was at a good time to be a set full of crazy. Zen and the Car had been pretty straightforward, and so

it was kind of a weird set put in a place where it was okay to have a weird set. It wasn't following lots of other weird sets. But it definitely was something where Battlecruiser Magic turned out to not be for everyone. Ironically, the casual environment that Brian was modeling turned out to, while it might work in casual free-for-all, didn't really work in limited.

The other problem was what we call the biodome problem. So let me explain this. I'm not sure if I explained this in my podcast before. I have explained this in my article, so you might have heard this before. What a biodome is, is when you create a magic set, you are doing two things. You're making a limited environment, and you're making a constructed environment. The limited environment, design has a lot more say on the limited environment because development picks costs. So you don't have a lot of control

on the constructed environment if you're not dictating costs. So you don't have a lot of control on the constructed environment if you're not dictating costs. So what design does for constructed is it kind of picks themes. The way I always describe it is design picks the paints that development will then paint the canvas with. So design is picking

what paint development has to use. The elements that development's going to use come from design, but design does not dictate what the constructed environment is going to look like because they don't control the key factor

that determines it which is costing and power. So, Brian really went to town to make a very fun limited environment.

The problem was that when you make limited, you control everything. If you have things that are a problem because let's say you make something that like, So, when you make limited, you control everything. If you have things that are a problem, because let's say

you make something that, like, oh, well, this thing hurts it. Well, I'll just not have that thing. You can control that in limited. You can just either get rid of the threats or lower the power of the threats. But in constructed,

well, other sets have been made. You know, if someone's trying to develop a set and is like, oh, this is a problem, well, previous sets have that in standard. Standard has that. You can't get rid of it. You don't have the control like you do. So the biodome problem is

when a designer makes a set that works fine and limited because when you control the environment, it works fine. But when you take it outside, it's problematic. And so, development had a lot of problems. They wanted to make the Eldrazi matter. And, I mean, on some level, the Eldrazi in certain formats very much did matter.

But it was very, very hard standard to make them matter. They did what they could, and they had some success. Okay. Anyway, I'm almost to work. So the plan for my podcast here is today was about just the general set and kind of what went into it. And then the next couple of podcasts, I'm not sure how many you'll have,

I'm going to talk about cards and talk about different stories. The thing that's very interesting, and let me lay out one of the things that is going to frame kind of a lot of the card stories. So Brian put together his design team and really went to town. They made a crazy, wacky, strange set.

And development, led by Matt Place, I was on the team, our job was to take the set that was this really crazy set and maintain the coolness of it and some of the insanity of it, but in a way that worked. Because one of the things is that a lot of the archetyping that went on, we're talking about drafting,

that there were key archetypes, a lot of that was the development team sort of taking germs that were put there by the design team and then flushing them out. This is normally what development does. Design says, here's a cool idea. Here's our attempt at it. And then development says, okay, well,

I like that idea, but let's make it work. A classic example of that was in Innistrad, where I came up with black-red vampires. I wanted to be aggressive but the means by which I chose to be aggressive didn't work as well and then Eric, the lead developer,

put in the slith mechanic, the when they attack they get plus one plus one for every damage they do as a way to make an aggressive vampire. They didn't keep the mechanic I had for the vampires but they kept the spirit of what I was trying to do with the vampires. And a lot of that happens with Rise of the Drazi is we kept alive the idea of um this slower you know you're building up to these larger creatures you know battle cruiser magic as Brian called it we kept alive that spirit but there's a lot to making

that happen and it was it was very tricky so as we we get into it, as I get to the card stories, I'll try to pick different areas where I can talk about where that happened. Anyway, I'm sitting in traffic. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to start talking about cards. Okay, we'll start with All is Dust! Seven mana. Tribal Sorcery Eldrazi.

Players sacrifice all colored permanents. So, one of the things for starters, let me talk about tribal. So all, or most of the cards that were Eldrazi, especially the colorless ones, tribal was something that got introduced in Lorwyn,

which allowed us to put creature types onto non-creature things. So obviously all the creatures were Eldrazi, but we wanted the spells and such to be Eldrazi too. So this, for example, was an Eldrazi spell. So, like, Eye of Ugin made Eldrazi spells cost less. Well, it helped with this, because this was an Eldrazi spell. All is Dust, by the way, is a good example

where we were trying to do a whole bunch of things. Brian wanted to introduce Cullis spells, and this was a Cullis sorcery. We were trying to get the flavor of the voraciousness of the Eldrazi. Also, because the Eldrazi got defined by their colorlessness, the idea of them being anti-color came into play, that there's a sense of they demolish colored things because they are ancient.

And so this card just does a really nice job of conveying the sense of we come and we just waste. All is dust. We waste, you know. What do the Eldrazi do to the land? Well, this. They destroy it, you know. And that, oh, that's one thing, by the way, that people always bring up is,

we did not do a really good job of capping off the story. In fact, in some ways what we did is, there's kind of a cliffhanger on the Zendikar. Like, which is so what happens is the Zendikar or the Jace and Chandra and Sarkhan accidentally or unwittingly

release the Eldrazi. And the Eldrazi go wild and then the Zendikars are trying to fight them, not having a lot of success and scene, like what happens, you know, and that it was kind of a giant to-be-continued, if you will, that one of the

things we were trying to do during Shards of Alara and during Zendikar and then during Scars of Mirrodin was we wanted to get a rogues gallery. So Shards of Alara reintroduced Nicole Bolas, Zendikar introduced the Eldrazi,

and Scars of Mirrodin reintroduced the Phyrexians. Just to start building up some villains to start having a play. And so really, we wanted to leave the Eldrazi like, oh, things are bad. If you notice, by the way, I mean, I guess Nicole Bolas isn't quite successful in Shards of Alara, but both in Rise of Eldrazi and Scars of Mirrodin, the bad guys, the story ends

with the bad guys having a huge upper hand. And one day, one day I'm sure we will, I mean, when we say two, we continue,

that means one day we will continue it. Okay. Ancient Stirrings, Sorcery, for one green mana. Look at the top five cards, put one colorless

in your hand, and the rest on the bottom in the order. So this, by the way, is us having fun. This is the top five cards, put one Cullis in your hand, and the rest on the bottom in the order. So this, by the way, is us having fun. This is the designers having a little design fun. So it turns out what is Cullis? Well, it turns out there are three things that are Cullis.

There are lands, of which green gets to manipulate. There are artifacts, which this set had, Zendikar had a bunch of. And then there are Cullis cards, which are the Eldrazi. And so this set is like, oh, well, here's a neat way to sort of collect these things that, you know, green can handle this, and

green getting artifacts is a little not a normal thing for green, but like, okay, it's kind of fun, and you can search for things, and a lot of the times you're searching for land, but this was a clever way to feel more Eldrazi-ish, you know, but give you access to land, so I thought it was kind of clever.

Next, Aura Gnarled. Two and a green for a beast, a two-two beast. Creatures with power less than this creature can't block it, and it gets plus one, plus one for each aura on it. So there definitely was an aura theme in the set.

You wanted to build things up. There was totem armor. This is one of the cards that say, hey, put auras on me. I like auras. Auras are good. This card was clearly inspired by a card called what is it called?

It is one of Gottlieb's favorite cards. It's from Legends. It is a Rabid Wombat. I got that name. Rabid Wombat was a creature that got more powerful for every enchantment on it, and it got bigger.

And so this definitely was that. It was combined with something we started doing in green, where it's like... Green often has evasion issues, so this is a different kind of evasion for green that says, oh, well, the bigger I am, little things aren't going to block me. So as I get bigger,

less and less things are capable of blocking me. And so we combine that evasion with... We combine that evasion with a thing that would build it up to make you want to enchant it. Okay. I'm now at work. So, okay, I've got a few cards

in. So what will happen is next time I will continue. I left off at A, so I have plenty of space to go. And I will tell you more about the wonderful world of, well, wonderful set of Rise of the Odrazi. Ooh, I see I had a little traffic today, so you guys got a little extra

content. That's why I had to talk after the end, because I had arazi. Ooh, I see I had a little traffic today, so you guys got a little extra content. That's why I had to talk after the end, because I had a long ride. Anyway, I love talking about magic, but even more, I like making magic. So it's time for me to go. So guys, thanks for joining me, and join me next time for more Rise of the Eldrazi.