Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #136 - Rise of the Eldrazi, Part 2

Episode Date: July 3, 2014

Mark continues with part 2 of his five-part series on the design of Rise of the Eldrazi.

I'm pulling out of my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so last we talked, we were discussing Rise of the Eldrazi. And I started talking about some cards, and I will continue doing some card stories. Okay. Oh, first let me begin, by the way. I realized that last podcast I made a mistake, which I did not realize. One of the things I do sometimes is I'll pull into my parking space and then I'll turn it off and then I'll think about what I said and then I'll go, wait a minute. So I talked about the level up creatures, about whether or not we decided to have them go up or down, whether or not the power and toughness

was higher up, and then as you leveled up, you went down and improved, or you started low and went up. And we fought back and forth on which way it went, and I imply last time it went up, which it didn't.

It went down, which I figured out like three seconds after I finished. But I liked my last podcast, so I decided not to re-tape it that was the for those not in the know what'll happen is

I'll do a podcast and I'm not happy I'll re-do it and the one you heard last time was my third take on the on Raizel Drazi and I was finally happy with it

and so anyway I made a mistake I'm fallible for those that haven't yet figured that out okay next Awakening Zone so Awakening Zone is a green enchantment I'm fallible, for those that haven't figured that out. Okay. Next, Awakening Zone.

So Awakening Zone is a green enchantment. Two and a green. And beginning of upkeep, you get a spawn. So one of the things that was a big player, I talked about this last time, that Brian wanted to do mana crystals. They were too close to poison, so we ended up doing

they call them mana bots for a while. Eventually, we got turned into Eldrazi spawn. Although in R&D, the people that were around at the time... Like, I know Eric Lauer still calls them mana bots. Anyway, the... They ended up being a pretty crucial part of the design because what happened was they were in the set to fuel

Eldrazi, to get Eldrazi out. But the interesting thing is that they ended up having another function, or multiple other functions. So, for example, you could use them, there were

strategies in this environment where you would beef them up, where you would get a whole bunch of spawn, and then you could turn them... There were strategies in this environment where you would beef them up, where you would get a whole bunch of spawn, and then you could turn them on and attack. So there was a strategy where you overran people with spawn. There were some strategies where you were just buying time,

and the spawn wasn't you casting things with them. They just... For every spawn you made is one less creature that hit you. So it's just a means to prevent stuff. There was aura strategies, so sometimes you could build up your spawn and make them bigger. Anyway, the spawn

ended up being very, very interesting. So this was definitely one of those cards that, like, making a spawn, oh, well, it could go in a ramp deck, but it also could go in a more, a wider deck where you're attacking with lots of creatures, or go in a deck where you're stalling. So it was an interesting card, and then this card actually went in a lot of different archetypes. It wasn't

just one archetype because the spawns went in so many different archetypes. So one of the things that when you're designing that's really important is whenever you can find an aspect of your design that has dual function or multiple function, more than two sometimes, that's really good. And that if you can make something that people have different ways to use it, it just broadens, it allows you to take a singular idea and a singular mechanic and just gives you more depth. And so one of the things that I think Rise of

Drazi did well is the different things, the different components of it could mix and match and give different strategies. And one of the reasons that it's a very beloved draft set is there are a lot of different ways to play the cards that even though the cards do the same thing when mixed and matched in different ways

cards become, they have different values to them and it's something Magic is good at in general but particularly good in Rise of the Aliadrazi, especially in Limited Next is Balagedd Scorpion 3B, 2-3 Scorpion ETB, destroy a creature with power 1 or less.

So, one of the things that Brian did, or Brian's team did, and development, was in order to make this battlecruiser magic, in order to allow the big things to come out, there was a lot of aggression early on to destroy small things. And this is a good example that, as you'll see, there's a lot of play early and deal with early

threats so that you can get to the later threats. And cards like this are a good example where it's very, very good with dealing with early threats, but not particularly bigger threats. So it slows down the environment without stopping the bigger thing of being created. It also

encourages you to sort of level up your guys or to get enchantments on your guys. There definitely were smaller creatures that could get bigger, and because you knew this was around, you wanted to waste no time to make your guys bigger. Because a lot of level-up guys started with one power, and they turned into something pretty awesome, but if the scorpion came before you got them out of the range,

the scorpion could take care of them. Also, by the way, because of that, the scorpion was valuable not just early game, but later game sometimes, that if you could bring out your level-up guy or bring out some creature that you planned to buff, and the scorpion could come out then, it was useful later in the game.

It wasn't just useful. There were more things that had one power than normal. Also, by the way, it could destroy spawn. That was another thing that was able to get rid of spawn. Okay. Baneful Omen. 4 BBB. It's an enchantment. At the beginning of your upkeep,

reveal your top card, and then all opponents lose life equal to converted mana cost. So this card, I think, was inspired by what we call Bob. What's Bob's real name? Bob Marr won one of the Invitationals and made a card called... What is Bob actually called? It's a black creature.

This is where my inability to recall names comes out to haunt me. You guys are screaming right now because it's a very, very famous card. It'll come to me. Anyway, that was a card in which you played, you revealed the top card of your library. You've got to put it in your hand, but you lost life equal to it. And this card was definitely turning that on its ear. It's like, well, I'm going to reveal cards, and instead of me losing life, I'm going to make you lose life.

Now, I don't get the card, but I do get a... It does allow me to put big, powerful things in my deck. And definitely one of the themes of Rise of the Drazi is we want you to play with big, expensive cards. And this card says, come on, big, expensive cards can do big things. The other thing you'll notice is we said to all opponents, not just to an opponent,

which is definitely a sign of us thinking more about multiplayer play, that this is the kind of card that, oh, if I'm playing in a game of Commander or something, oh, that this thing can, you know, really have a huge impact on all the players, not just a singular player. Next, Battle Rampart. So it's a wall, a red wall, for 2R, it's a 1-3, got Defender, and tap, target creature gains haste. Okay, let me have my red wall rant.

I think I teased this at my first podcast. So one of the things that development, well, one of the things that design had done a little bit and then development ended up playing up more was having this wall theme, a Defender Matters theme. And so for some reason, just the space where it ended up fitting was in red. But one of my pet peeves,

and this happened all through development because I was on the development team, is so if you look at the philosophies of the colors, the color that cares the least about defenders, about walls, about, is red, you know. White is all about defense, loves walls. Blue is about the long game, about

thinking things through. It likes walls. You know, green, green clearly has some big things. It'll have some walls, some natural walls, it has plants and this and that. And even black understands the importance of, you know, having the regenerator or the thing to stop you. But red, red is like

attack, attack, attack, attack. Red is like no, no, no, no, no. And, you know, red is never thinking about the future. A defender is all about the future. It's not about living in the moment. And so, I mean, I like that this card grants haste. That's red, you know,

and it was an enabler to sort of get you to play things and attack with them. But, the red wall theme, throughout development, I would constantly have little tirades

during development and go, why is this red? And then Matt, Matt Place was the head developer. Matt goes, he goes,

I sympathize with you, Mark, but I have nowhere to move it. You know, it just kind of got carved into red, and it just was something that fit. And this happens

sometimes in design or in development where you have something, and you kind of want to put it somewhere else, but like, the set is full, and there's really no place to easily move it, and it's where it is. And you're like, oh, we need it, and it fits, and yeah, it's probably supposed to be somewhere else,

but, you know. The bane of my existence is when things aren't the way they should color-py-wise and the defense is kind of like well, we can't move it. But it shouldn't be there in the first place. I will like the fact that it gives haste. It's at least one of the walls that encourages

actual aggression, unlike some of the other red walls. Okay, next is Battle Rattle Shaman. It's a Goblin Shaman for 2-2, costs 3-R. Beginning of upkeep, target creature gets plus 2 plus 0 until end of turn. So one of the strategies we ended up having is

there is a strategy that have where you get little things and sneak them through. I'll talk about it later. The cornerstone is mechanic. What was it called? It was called Goblin Tunneler. So there are a bunch of ways to beef things and a way to get some of the smaller stuff through.

So there was a strategy where you had a bunch of smaller guys and you kept beefing them up. And so it wasn't that you made a giant guy, but that you're small guys. And so Battle of Red El Shaman was part of the strategy. It actually was pretty good. It was a pretty interesting card.

I mean, you could use it on anything for aggression. It didn't need to be on small things. But it comboed really well with Goblin Tunneler, and it was definitely... There was definitely a deck where the value of the thing was kind of stack tricks and how you stacked them so you can make things unblockable and then make them bigger and such. Okay.

Bear and Boar Umbra. Okay. Now, by the way, I like Rastrider Drizy. I'm venting some today just because it's fun to vent because venting is humorous commentary. But so as I vent, I will try to put in all the things I did like about the set, but I'm venting a little bit. So Boar and Bear Umbra,

it's one of my pet peeves, is I hate names in sets, in the same set, that are just too close. For example, what set was it? There was a set that had Quick Sliver and Click Slither,

and I tried so hard to get that change, and I could not. So this one, Bear Umbra, Boar Umbra, they're both green umbras. Bear and Boar, like, you know. Okay, so Bear Umbra costs 2 GG. Your creature gets plus 2, plus 2. And when it untaps, you can untap some lands. I think you can untap all your lands.

And then Boar Umbra is two and a green, and your creature gets plus three, plus three. And both of these are totem armor. Totem armor means that when the creature would die, instead you sacrifice the aura, and you essentially save the creature.

So these are both, I mean, well, the names are similar because the umbras were the totem armor. And, I mean well the names are similar because the umbras were the the totem armor and I mean the idea of the flavor was

that you took the shape of some larger creature and so you got the essence of a boar or a bear and I appreciate I like that flavor

a lot I just wish they had chosen two words that were not almost the same word it just caused confusion. You know, I played the boar umber. The bear umber or the boar umber? The boar umber. Bear.

Bear umber or boar umber? Okay, I played the boar umber. You know, like, it just causes confusion. One of the things that I constantly stress is the importance of words. Words are important. Words have meaning. Words do things. You've got to be really careful of the connotation of things.

So, okay. Next. Blood Throne Vampire. So 1B for a 1-1 Vampire. Sacrificed creature gets plus 2 plus 2 to end a turn. So I don't think this is the first time we did this card. It's possible this is the first time it's a 1-1. It might have been a 2-2

before. But this is a good example of a card where it's flavorful, but then you stick it in the right environment, and it just does other things. So one of the things we did with the Eldrazi is we segregated who got what. So people often ask that, which is, we do a cool new mechanic, and not everybody does a mechanic.

Why can't everybody do the mechanic? And sometimes we spread the love, but sometimes it's like, oh, well, we want to break things up. We want colors to play differently. So in this set, black, red, and green leaned more toward the Eldrazi, and those are the three colors, in addition to Cullis, that made Eldrazi spawn. Blue and white were a little more toward the Zendikari side,

and they tended to play a little more with level up and auras, and they were a little more of the building up on the creature side, where the Eldrazi side was more like, get out, giant Eldrazi. So since Black had the ability to make Eldrazi spawn, we wanted to give it a card. Black likes to sacrifice creatures already, so this was another way to make spawn useful is as creatures, that as far as the Blood of the Throne Vampire cares,

he doesn't care what the creature is. He doesn't care how big it is. Oh, it's only a 0-1? Whatever. Yum yum. Chomp chomp. And so this was a different way to make the spawn have value as fodder. Because black like to sac things. And so this is an example of a card where

I think the previous version was a 2-2, but a card like this we've done before. But just in this environment, it of a card where, I mean, this might be the first, I think the previous version was a 2-2, but a card like this we've done before, but just in this environment, it had a very different feel. Next, Bramble Snap, 1G, 1-1 elemental. Tap an untapped creature and get plus one, plus one until end of turn. And this is another example. This is the same sort of way to see you spawn in a way that's inventive.

So there's a card called Llanowar Sentinel. Ooh, I'm impressed. I remember that name. And it allows you to have creatures that make itself bigger. This is the same basic mechanic in green. And the idea is, oh, well, the spawn, I can turn the spawn into pumping this creature up. And so it essentially turns the spawn

into value attack-wise. So if I have three spawn out, this guy becomes a 4-4. And even just the threat of spawn, it allows you to get through because you knew the audience your opponent knew that you could make it bigger. Then we get to Brimstone Mage.

So this is our first level up guy. I decided to pick one or two level up guys to talk about. I chose him just because he was interesting to me. And once again, let me stress it goes down the top of the power toughness on the first highest level in the card is the original one.

And then it goes down. And what we did is the first, so you had to have an ability called level up. And the level up ability, the way it worked was you had the first text box, then you added the second text box, then you added the third text box.

And the rules were you gained everything you already had except the power toughness would overrule it. But if you had something in the first text box, then you added the second text box, then you added the third text box, and the rules were you gained everything you already had except the power toughness would overrule it. But if you had something in the first text box, I believe you would get it in the second text box, is that correct? I think so. That's why level up only had to be in the first text box because you still had it in the second text

box and the third. Okay, so at first, this creature, when you first play it, it's 2R, Human Shaman, it's a 2-2 creature. So all it has is a level ability for 3 red. Now, level up has to be kind of expensive, because the value of being able to play a 2R, 2-2, that is a great ogre. Not a great creature, but it's not a horrible creature. I mean, it's a little below the curve, but it's something that, like, the fact that it has value,

I mean, it has a lot of value, it can turn into something very powerful. Okay, so then you pay the level, but every time you pay a level, you get a level counter. And then when you reach a certain number of levels, so for example, this one, level one to two, as soon as you have one level counter,

or two level counters, it turned into a tip. It turned into a prodigal pyromancer, if you will. Taps to do one damage to target creature or player. Okay, so all you have to do is, you put it up for 2R, it's a 2-2. You spend 3R once, it becomes a creature that can tap to do damage.

Okay, now, when you get to 3+, and the reason, by the way, we said plus, people are like, well, why did you say 3 level is there are sometimes other reasons why you might make them over the maximum. And so, we just, just for clarity, like, we didn't

want you somehow making it a fourth level. People go, well, it loses all its abilities. Now it's not level, so, we said level three pluses for clarity. We need it to level three. Oh, level one and two, by the way, not only did it gain the tap damage ability, it also went from a two-two to a two- one and two, by the way, not only did it gain the tap damage ability, it also went from a 2-2 to a 2-3.

Then, on the 3-plus scale, it turns into a 2-4 and it taps into three damage to target creature or player. So there's a lot going on, by the way. So aesthetically, for example, notice that we were trying to make the evolution make sense. So it goes from a 2-2 to a 2-3 to a 2-4.

Also, we decided to make it into do one damage and then we jumped to three damage, trying to make the evolution make sense. So it goes from a 2-2 to a 2-3 to a 2-4. Also, we decided to make it into do one damage and then we jumped to three damage to try to make the final ability exciting. And so the idea is this thing starts small. It's not particularly strong. There's a little bit of investment and you get more value out of it. And it's a lot of investment.

So you have to pay two R to get it into play and then you have to play three R three times. So that's 12 mana. So 12 mana plus your initial 3, 15 mana, you got a 3-power guy. I mean, you can do 3M, that's very powerful. Now, a lot of people wanted to look at it and go, wow, for 15 mana, shouldn't I get more than that? I'm like,

no, no, no. You're forgetting the opportunity cost. Which, for starters, means you got a 2-2 creature when you played this. You then, after you spent a little bit of mana, you got a Tim. You were able to do one damage. That was valuable. That had value. And then eventually you were able to upgrade it. So the big difference here is the opportunity cost means that whenever I had mana, I was able to make use of the mana.

I didn't have to do it all at once. I didn't have to wait until I got 15 mana on the table. I could use it when I got it. And so that is a lot different. It's not like it costs 15 mana and it taps deals three. That's a different card. And a lot worse card than this. Okay, next. Brood Warden. Three green and green. Four four. Eldrazi Drone. Eldrazi spawn. Get plus two plus one. So this was part of the green overrun with spawn strategy. The idea is get a lot of spawn out, and then I need a finisher card, and this is one of the cards that you can do

to help do the finishing, is, oh, I get a whole bunch of spawn out, now all my spawn goes from zero one into two twos. Notice it's plus two plus one, because it goes with spawn, and spawn all have a zero one. It gives you the stat so it squares them. Makes it nice and easy. And like I said, one of the things you'll see about spawn squares them. Makes it nice and easy. And like I said,

one of the things you'll see about spawn is they go through it. Like Bloodthroat Vampire, Bramblesnap, Broodwarden. They all really do really different things with it.

And that's one of the neat things about the spawn. Okay, cast through time. It's an enchantment. It's four blue, blue, blue. So it's four colors, three blue. All your instants and sorcerers

gain rebound. So remember, rebound is a mechanic that says when you cast a spell, it goes off right now, and it goes off at the beginning of your next turn. So one of the things we like to do, it's fun, is to take our mechanics and go, everything that's applicable gains this mechanic. So this mechanic only appeared in

instants and sorceries, so obviously there's only granted instants and sorceries, but in general, in some ways, it's kind of forked all your spells. I mean, it forks, one of the forks, one of the copies is later, it's the next turn. But the other fun thing, and the reason this is, this is the kind of card that can be appreciated in many different levels. I think

the spikes out there are just like, okay, I double all my effects, that's good. And even to the Timmies, doubling is good. But to the Johnnies out there, it's like, hmm, well, what spells can I get, what spells can I do neat things with? And this has a lot of fun build around me. It's like, well, if I could add rebound to any spell, ooh, what spells would I want to add rebound to?

And I see some very fun decks with cats at time. It was never super powerful, but it was fun, which is what it was designed to be. Corpse Hatch, 3BB Sorcery. Destroy target non-black creature and get two spawn. So one of the things they did with the spawn is we put them as rider on a lot of cards. And so this is a card that, you know, 3BB, 3 black black,

is, although it's funny, early in the day we used to make all kill very cheap, and we finally got to the realization that limited was more interesting if, for limited, not all the kills were so cheap. The ones meant for constructed were on the cheaper side. And this is definitely something where we're like, okay, we'd like having slightly more expensive kill spells, but oh, we can

use an extra rider on it. So it could cost five mana, but oh, it nets you some tokens. And the thing about the Andrazi is it's okay to have mana production stemming from larger spells. Like, this is a five mana spell, but the things you're trying to get on the Andrazi side are really big. So it's okay that out of the five mana, I'm reducing more mana. Excuse me.

One more time. Good night. Good night. Okay. One thing I'm trying to point out is that your mana ramping is very, very different in the set where you're trying to build to the giant, giant things. And that a lot of times having five mana spells that get you more mana, well, what's that going to do for you? How big a spell are you going to cast? In normal environments, maybe not that much.

In this environment, oh, well, I cast a five-cap spell this turn. I get two spawn. Maybe I get a land next turn. I could cast an eight-mana thing next turn. And even then, I haven't even got to the Titans yet. I still need some more mana before I get to spawn. Maybe I get a land next turn. I could cast an eight mana thing next turn. And even then, I haven't even got to the Titans yet. I still need some more mana before I get to the Titans. Okay, Daggerback Vasculous. 2G, 2-2, Death Touch.

So what's this doing there? So one of the things we definitely wanted to make sure was we wanted to get answers to the big giant creatures. I get a giant Eldrazi out. So the reason we like Death Touch better than, say, just too many kill spells is that this card, it's an answer. If you get it out, your opponent can't just attack with their Eldrazi, but it doesn't instantly destroy it.

It kind of negates it. It sort of makes them find their next answer. And so rather than remove the Odrazi, it stalls them until they look for the answer to this problem. But when they find the answer, then they can get rid of it and then attack again. And so it does a good job of sort of, instead of just completely dealing with the problem, it's sort of, it's an answer to the problem that can be answered.

And having answers with answers helps a lot when you're trying to sort of build up Battlecruiser magic. Next, Distortion Strike. So, Sorcery for blue. Target creature gets plus one, plus oh, and is unblockable, and has rebound. So this was my favorite rebound card. It was really, really interesting and limited.

There was a red-blue archetype. I talked about this earlier with... I forget the name of it. The one that gave plus two, plus oh at the beginning

of every upkeep. Where you had these creatures and you sort of buffed them and made them unblockable and sort of

snuck through with a lot of small guys. It was my favorite deck to draft in this environment. And it was a quirky deck and it's one of those decks where you had to understand the pieces to it

where we gave you all the pieces but you had to understand what they were and this was a key deck and it's one of those decks where you had to understand the pieces to it where we gave you all the pieces but you had to understand what they were and like this was a key spell in the deck and the neat thing about it was it wasn't one of

like the the Eldrazi had this rampant giant Eldrazi and there was you know level up guys and there was an aura plan

but this was just a little bit different it wasn't the straight and narrow and we the development definitely played off this theme this was one of my favorite decks and we snuck some key spells in

to make it work and this was one of them. This is my favorite draft. I'm very famous in R&D in that I figure out one thing I can do well in draft because I'm not quite as strong as most R&D and they come from the Pro Tour. So my strategy is I figure out one strategy that I

know I can do, that I can learn and get good at, and that way when I'm drafting with them, I have my one strategy that I understand what I'm supposed to be doing with it. Makes it predictable they know what I'm drafting, but I'm not as talented a drafter as most of the rest of R&D, for those that did not know. Domestication, 2UU aura, enchant creature,

gain control of target creature, and then at the end of any turn, if you have power 4 or greater, it falls off. So one of this thing was, it's a means to deal with smaller creatures, but if your opponent has ways to get bigger, you can't steal big things, you can only steal small things. And there are ways to make small things bigger to knock this off.

So we liked the idea that not only... It could have just said enchant power three or less. So why did we do it the way we did it? Because we liked that there were means that you could put auras on your... Let's say your opponent steals your creature. Well, you could put an umbra on it or something to make it big enough and then you get it back. Or you could giant growth

or some sort of giant growth boosting thing to get it back. It just had neat interactions. And one thing that's fun is sometimes you want to do things just a straight and narrow way and sometimes you just thing to get it back. It just had neat interactions. And one of the things that's fun is sometimes you want to do things just the straight and narrow way, and sometimes you just want to check it up a little bit, just have a combo of things, tweak around. And this one definitely has a lot of fun where you steal stuff, but there's ways to get it back.

There are not traditional ways that you deal with control magic. Next, Drana Kalastria, Blood Chief. Cuts three black black, legendary creature, vampire shaman, 4-4 flyer. For XBB, target creature gets minus X minus zero, and she gets plus X plus zero. I'm sorry, gets minus zero minus X, and she gets plus X plus zero. So this card is one of those cards where we do a lot of fun mirroring things. She gets to kill things, and while killing things, she grows stronger. The flavor, obviously, is that she's a vampire, and she's attacking them,

and as she drains their blood, they die, and she gets stronger. But the other thing I like, this is the aesthetics of things, the fact that one is, you know, it's minus zero, minus X, and she's plus X, plus zero. It just is a nice parallel there. There's a mirror, which is sort of fun. I talk about this a lot, but the reason aesthetics are important

is not so much, it just creates the sort of central sense that things work. It's kind of like when you read a poem or just when you read prose of any kind. There are a lot of things that you learn as a writer or as a poet that just make things more feel better. Because

when behind the scenes, the structure just sort of matches, you know, when you use alliteration, or when you watch your meter, or you use certain word choice, that it just has an effect. That there's things that you can do that have an effect on your audience. And if you want to be an artist, one of the things you do is you want to understand what those things are, because the audience might not even be consciously aware why things feel better to them, but they do. And so why does design care so much about aesthetics? It just makes things feel better. The fact that this is minus O minus X and then plus X plus O, it has this nice little balance to it. It just feels better. Even if you're not consciously aware of it, you know, the aesthetics, it's kind of like,

and people do notice, I'm not saying people never notice, but it's the kind of thing that just, in general, us being careful of aesthetics, and I talked about with the level-up guys, like the 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, I spent a lot of time on the level-up guys, trying to make sure that as much as I could, I mean, development

had to change a few things for power reasons, but I tried to make sure that there was an evolution, that My rule to them was, if I showed you the first level up and the second level up, that you could make some guess at what the third level up is. That there's a pattern that you're sort of following. And I tried really hard, because, like I said, I'm one of the biggest believers of the importance of aesthetics. Next, Eel Umbra. It's a 1U aura. It's a 1U aura. It's Flash, plus 1, plus 1,

2-year-old creature, chant creature, and it's totem armor. And this is a good example of using... One of the things about auras that are very interesting is that you definitely can use auras in lots of different ways.

And this card, in some ways, kind of is a counterspell. I mean, it's a counterspell that protects your creatures from certain types of things. It also is a counterspell. I mean, it's a counterspell that protects your creatures from certain types of things. It also is a combat trick. So it has a bunch of different functions. You know, for example,

let's say I just know my creature is going to die. You're going to cast a spell and kill my creature. I can flash this on and just... Essentially, it's like, you know, countering the spell that kills my creature because the totem armor will die and save the creature. But they didn't see that coming

because it had flash. Other times, it's a combat trick where all of a sudden my creature is plus one, plus one. You didn't expect it. Or my creature is plus one, plus one. I'm able to kill your creature and then even if my creature would die, now it doesn't die.

So there's a lot of... I mean, eel umber is a good example of a pretty simple card. There's not a lot of words on the card. I mean, it's got Totem Armor, so... But it's... As Totem Armor cards go, it's pretty simple. Flash plus one plus one, and that... There's a lot going on there.

There's a lot you can do with Flash plus one plus one. It is surprising kind of the value that you can get okay well I am pulling into the parking space so

anyway how far did I get I got to E okay guys this might be a longer series but anyway

hopefully you're enjoying it it's a lot of fun I love going through cards remembering things and talking about what we did and I these podcasts are very popular that's why I do them and why I that you're enjoying it. It's a lot of fun. I love going through cards remembering things and talking about what we did. These podcasts are very popular.

That's why I do them and why I decided to do long versions of them. In the beginning, I would do the whole set in one thing and I just wasn't getting to a lot of things and people seemed

to enjoy the story. So I will continue doing that. So anyway, thank you very much for joining me today. And as much as I love talking about magic history and magic design even more

I like making magic so it's time for me to go talk to you guys next time