Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #206 - Arabian Nights, Part 3

Episode Date: March 6, 2015

Mark finishes with part 3 of his 3-part series on the design of Arabian Nights.

I'm pulling out of my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, the last two podcasts I've been talking about Arabian Nights, but I'm not done yet, so I will continue. So last I left, where were we? We were in, um, I just talked about Jeweled Bird. So today I'm going to talk about Jihad. So Jihad is an enchantment for white, white, white, so three white mana. So when it comes into play, you choose a color, and as long as your opponent has a card of that color in play, all white creatures, not just yours, but all white creatures get plus two, plus one.

But if your opponent ever doesn't have that color in play, you sacrifice this card. So this was a powerful card. It definitely was... White, ever since, I mean, Alpha, White had Crusade and definitely was doing weenie pumping. This was a little bit more aggressive and Richard was playing around

a bit more with the idea of caring about what your opponent had in play. The main thing about Jihad was, because you could choose the color, you know, your opponent was playing something, usually, so you could pick the color they were playing. But it gave your opponent out. If somehow they could get rid of the cards, you know, there was a possible avenue for them

to sort of somehow get rid of the Jihad. Next, Junin Afrit. So Junin Afrit is a one black, black, three mana Afrit, a three, threein Afreet. So Junin Afreet is one black black, three mana, Afreet, a 3-3 flying Afreet, and you must play black black during your upkeep or it is destroyed. It cannot be regenerated.

So basically this was, I think the way it worked was there were Jins and Afreets. I'm not sure. Some gins flied, some refreets

flied, but not all flied. The junior obviously flies. It's one of those things, again,

where Richard was definitely messing around with early magic had a lot more drawbacks. That was

something that was more prevalent early on. I think that just came from flavor. I think the

idea was that gins and refreets, based on that was more prevalent early on. I think that just came from flavor. I think the idea that, you know, the idea was that gins and refreets, based on, you know, the source material, they would serve you, but, you know, they weren't always on your side. They were serving you kind of somewhat against your will, and so there was always a cost to be paid. So a gin and refreet just had an upkeep cost.

You had to play black-black, or it would go away. Followed by jusuzamjin, so possibly the most famous card from Arabian Nights. It's definitely one of the most iconic. It was one of the I mean, there are other cards that clearly are super iconic, like City of

Brass or Bizarre Baghdad, but Juzamjin was probably in its day the most iconic. I mean, maybe with history, creatures have gotten better. Like, there's a period of time where 4 mana for a 5-5, oh, so it's 2 BB, 4 mana for a 5-5 creature, and it does 1 damage to you

during your upkeep. There's a point in time where that was really good. Getting 5-5 for 4 mana, even at the cost of a damage return, was just considered, it was really good. More says how bad creatures were than anything else. I mean, nowadays, you can get 4-mana 5-5 with Upside.

So, clearly, we've made creatures better over the time. But this was a super iconic card. I know the Duelist, for example, did a series of ads where we took famous Jynx and Efreetz and had them, like, reading the Duelist, for example, did a series of ads where we took famous djinns and ifritz and had them reading the duel. So it was a very fun one with the Juzam djinn. He's holding this little guy, and the little guy's reading the Duelist. But Juzam djinn, illustrated by Mark Tudine.

Anyway, one of the more iconic sort of... Definitely a very evocative piece, especially from the set. Cabal Ghul. So Cabal Ghoul costs one black mana for a 1-1 creature, and at the end of each turn you put a plus one plus one counter on it for each other creature that has died. So this is the first card I think that did this. It's something we do a lot more death triggers, something that gets bigger as other things die. It's a black ability.

And this is the first one that did it. One of the neat things about looking at old sets is you'll see things that just become things that become regular things that magic do, except this was the first one. I know I took a film class, a whole bunch of film classes. I went to film school. And sometimes you would watch a movie in film school

and it would seem kind of boring. I remember we watched, I think, The Great Train Robbery. And it was almost cartoonish by modern standards. And then the team was like, okay, see this thing where they're in one place and they cut, and now they're in another place and they cut back, and they go back and forth

between two places, and you believe that it's happening concurrently? Yeah, well, this film did that for the first time. We're so used to film iconography that we don't even think about it. That's just the way film works. But somebody had to do it for the first time.

And Arabian Nights has a lot of that quality. Somebody had to do this for the first time. And maybe when you see it, it doesn't seem that remarkable because you're so used to seeing it. But the first time you do it, when no one had done it before and you came up with it, that's pretty cool.

Okay, next is King Sulmane, who clearly had a bottle. One and a white for a 1-1 creature, and you can tap him to destroy a djinn or a frite. So one of the things that white did a little more early on, you saw this with Northern Paladin and stuff, is white was a little more early on, you saw this with Northern Paladin stuff, is White was a little more proactive about killing things. In general, by the way, early Magic was more proactive about killing things. One of the problems with creatures

early on was not just that they were weak, but man, oh man, there were tons of ways to kill creatures. And they were very efficient. So, one of the things that's happened over the years is, A, we've made creatures better, and B, we have made killing creatures not quite as easy, and we have made it

harder. Not every color can just easily kill creatures, you know. White clearly has a sense of it goes after things it considers evil, but usually you kind of have to do something before white can act. You know, it's like, I joke, white's like the Federation. Like, you gotta kind of strike first.

Like, once you endanger white or hit white or do something, okay, white can do something about it. You get in combat, white can do something about it. But if you kind of just sit there and don't actually attack, white has more problem dealing with it. But King Sulmane, just playing into the theme of the Jins and Afreets. In fact, I think the way it

worked is, I don't know if there were white Jins and Afreets, now that I think about it. There were blue Jins and Afreets, there were green Jins and Afreets, there were black Jins and I don't think there were white gins and efreet. Now that I think about it. There were blue gins and efreet. There were green gins and efreet. There were black gins and efreet. There were red gins and efreet. But white, white did not have, I don't think white had gins and efreet. It just had a guy who was good at killing them. Because I guess white was, I guess white just didn't go down for the gin and efreet thing. Okay, next, another very iconic card, Curd Ape. So Curd Ape costs one red mana for a 1-1 creature, but it gets plus one, plus two if you have any forests. So Alpha had Taiga. Taiga was a dual land that was both a mountain and a forest. So if you

played turn one Taiga and played a Kurd Ape, it immediately was a 2-3. And so, this was an early weenie deck. This was considered very viable. In fact, a lot of early weenie decks played red-green because of the fact that Kurd Ape existed. Or they played I should say, not that they played red-green,

but they played Taiga. Of course, Kurd Ape. Mono-red usually has always had some ability to be quick and fast, and the Cluridepe definitely played into that. Okay, now we come to what is probably the most powerful card in the set, which is impressive,

because there's some powerful cards here. Library of Alexandra. Okay, first off, it taps one color's mana. And the second is, you may tap it. If you have exactly seven cards, you may draw a card. So the idea is, if your hand is full, then you can get an additional card. So the way this card plays out is, if you can keep a handful of cards, instead of drawing one card a turn, you can draw two cards a turn.

And the limitation is just, you have to be careful not to play them too fastly to keep your hand full. But the fact that you were drawing two cards a turn, meaning you can play two spells a turn. So, I mean, the restriction of keeping your hand full is not that big of a restriction. Okay, I can only play two spells a turn.

And that's not assuming that maybe I have card drawing or something to fill my hand back up. So, Library of Alexandra, it's famous for all sorts of things. Probably the most famous thing is, in the very first World Championship, it was Bertrand Lestrade from France playing Zach Dolan from the United States. it was Bertrand Lestrade from France playing Zach Dolan from the United States. And Zach Dolan was playing... Well, Bertrand was playing a red-green, sort of a beat-down deck,

making use of Kurt Ape, obviously. And Zach was playing a little more of a control-ish deck. But anyway, the thing that... When I talked to Bertrand, the final was the best two out of three. And Bertrand said, basically, every finals were best two out of three. And Batron said basically, every game he drew for Library of Alexandria, I knew I was going to lose.

Because it just allowed him to get enough resources. I mean, a lot of a beatdown deck is trying to beat them before they get the answers. Well, if you have the means to draw cards and get the answers, then you can withstand the onslaught and survive. And so that is what happened. So every game in the finals of the first world championship that Zack drew Library of Xandria, he won.

And the one game he did not, he did not. I believe also one game he, not only did he draw Library of Xandria, but he also drew Ivory Tower, which together is a potent combo. Ivory Tower gains you life based on how many cards you have. So it's very powerful with something that keeps your hand constantly full.

Okay, next, Magnetic Mountain. One red red. It is an enchantment. And it says blue creatures do not untap as normal. And then during the untap phase, players need to spend... Oh, they've got to spend mana. So basically it locks down blue creatures and they have to send mana to untap them.

So early magic definitely had a lot of color hosers, something that Richard did a lot of. Richard was trying very hard early on in magic to define the relationship between the colors. So for example, Kurdate shows red is friendly with green,

where Magnetic Mountain shows that red is unfriendly with blue. And so there's a lot of different stuff in early Magic. We've since dialed down a little bit on the color hosers, just because they... At a low level, they're fine, and they make interesting sideboard cards, but at too high a level, they just can negate strategies at times,

and there definitely is a period in the past where our color hoses were a bit brutal, where it's sort of like, oh, well, if I draw my color hoser from my sideboard, you don't want a lot of answers to it. I'm going to destroy all green creatures for not a lot of mana, or I'm going to, you know, karma or gloom, right?

There's a lot of very, very, boil, there's a lot of mana, or I'm going to, you know, karma or gloom, right? There's a lot of very, very, uh, boil. There's a lot of very, very powerful color hoses in early magic. Okay, next, Merchantship. Merchantship was a zero to a creature for blue, single blue mana. Um, and if it attacks and was not blocked, you gain two life. Um, and remember, uh, it had island homes, so you had to have islands for it to attack and for it to survive.

This is another one where I think early magic, Richard was trying real hard to sort of capture the philosophy, like the idea of a merchant ship that traveled on the waters felt very blue because blue was about waters. And the idea that you gain life because it was bringing necessary supplies and things made sense, but blue gaining life, a little inconsistent. I think Richard early on

tended to err toward the overall card felt philosophically in the right place and worried less about the mechanics. I think what has happened with time as we refine the color pies is realize that Richard was a little more willing early in magic to put more mechanical stuff in more spaces.

And a lot of the energy we've spent is figuring out where exactly things are supposed to go so that the mechanics sort of reinforce the philosophy as much as they can. Okay, next is Metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is a green card, a green sorcery, costs a single green. You sacrifice a creature of yours in play and put that amount of mana equal to its casting cost plus one.

And it can be of any color. So the idea of this is I take a creature. So let's say I have a Juzamjin, so two black black. I sacrifice it. Instead of getting four mana, I get five mana. I get one extra. And then it can be whatever color I want five mana, because I get one extra. And then it can be whatever color I want.

Is it all one color? Yeah. So it also can be a single color, but whatever color I want. And then I only can use that mana to cast creatures. So the flavor here was that you were changing one creature into another creature. So something that's happened over time is we've made the divide of green can metamorphosize

its own things, that its own things can sort of turn into other things, but that blue is the color that polymorphs, that turns your opponent's things into other things. But anyway, this is early green, sort of trying to find different ways. Later on we do a lot of different ways to sort of turn one

creature into another, but this was one way. Next, Mijie Jin. Red, red, red for a Jin, for a 6-3 Jin. If you want to attack with it, you have to flip a coin, and if you win, you're fine, but if you lose, it doesn't attack.

So the idea is, in order to attack, so the Mijie Jin is 6-3, and Idwin Afrit is 3-6. The 6-3, you have to flip a coin to attack, and the 3-6, you have to flip a coin to block. So not only, by the way, so Mijie Jin

and Idwin Afrit are the two red Jins and Afrits, but from behind the scenes, Richard had friends named Jamie and Wendy, who, if I remember correctly, had recently got married, I think. But anyway, he wanted a little nod toward his friends, and so he made the red gin and freet

named after them. So Mijae, M-I-J-A-E, is an anagram for Jamie, and Edwin, Y-D-W-E-N, is an anagram for Wendy. So Mijae and Edwin are Jamie and Wendy, two friends of Richard's. Okay, next, Moorish Calvary. So Moorish Calvary is two white white for 3-3, and it has trample. So this was just a, once again, trample no longer is something that white uses a lot, especially now in things as small as a 3-3.

But he was trying, like, the idea of the army that rides through the desert, okay, flavorfully that makes a lot of sense in white. And he was trying to match what that did, so he made 3-3 trample. So the interesting thing about this card is this card is identical to War Mammoth in alpha, except instead of 3 and a green, which is what it costs, it costs two white white. So when you move from green to white, it costs a little bit more to get that. A little more color saturation, you know,

a little more color than it did originally. Next is Mountain. I've talked about Mountain already, but one more time. So Mountain is the only repeat card in the set. The only basic land in the set. And it was there as a mistake.

The thing that was interesting about it was that there weren't a lot of them. I think there was only one mountain on the sheet because it wasn't meant to be there, so it was a mistake. It was a C1. So on the common sheet there was one mountain, which meant you didn't get it all that often, and then it became

a status symbol for players sometimes if they were playing with red, to play with Arabian night mountains. It was one of the earliest blings, if you will, of I'm able to get, you know, because Arabian night mountains were not easy to get. The funny thing early on was people would play with them because they were sort of a status symbol, but if your opponent played sitting in a bottle at the top, it destroyed them. So if you played for style points, Arabian Nights, Mountains, not all Mountains, only they died

to City in a Bottle. So if you were trying to go for style points, every once in a while you would get hosed by your opponent playing the City in a Bottle. Okay, Nass Asp. So Nass Asp is a 1-1 Asp, which would now be a snake, but at the time it wasass Asp. So Nass Asp is a 1-1 Asp, which would now be a snake,

but at the time it was an Asp. It costs one green mana. If it inflicts damage on your opponent, your opponent has to spend one before their next draw phase, or they lose an additional life. So the idea is, if I hit you, you have to get an antidote,

or otherwise it does extra damage. So green for a 2-1 would be pretty antidote, or otherwise it does extra damage. So green for a 2-1 would be pretty powerful, in the day it was pretty powerful. So the idea was, it was kind of like a 2-1, except your opponent had a buyout to prevent one of the damage. Interestingly though, you just had to pay before your next draw step, so you did get an untap. So it wasn't like I had to save it if it hit me. If it hit me just on my next turn, I could choose, instead of taking damage, I could just pay the one mana. Okay, next, Oasis. So Oasis is a land that you tap to prevent one damage to any creature. To show the lack of development on the set, it's funny that Library of Alexandria

allows you to tap to draw a card if you have seven cards. Oasis prevents one damage to a creature and Library of Alexandria gets to tap for mana if you have seven cards. Oasis prevents one damage to a creature. And Libra Alexandria gets to tap for mana, and Oasis does not. So, anyway. I believe they've developed you might see the reverse being true, for example, where Oasis taps for mana and Libra Alexandria doesn't tap for mana.

Although if there was development, maybe Libra Alexandria wouldn't leave as is. Okay. next. Anything else about Oasis? I talked before about the lands, that Richard was definitely experimenting with lands and seeing what lands could do. Okay, the next card in question is Old Man of the Sea. One of my favorites.

One blue blues of three mana for a 2-3 creature. So what happened was you could tap Old Man of the Sea to take control of any creature whose power was no greater than it. So it was a 2-3, so you could steal anything that had power two or less. Now you could enhance it, you could make it bigger,

and then you could steal bigger things. And as long as this stayed tapped, you gain control of that. The old man to see in the stories was this creature, was a marid, which is what his creature type is, that he would latch onto your back and he would hold on really tight and there was no way to get him off. And when he was on your back, he could sort of steer where you would go. And so it would be a horrible thing to get a Mariner on your back. But anyway, that is Old Man of the Sea.

This card is another card, one of those cards that was like... It's funny because some cards kind of stand the test of time. It usually has to do with their power level. And some in their day were very popular and then just kind of lose steam over the years. Old Man of to do with their power level. And some, like, in their day were very popular and then just kind of lose steam over the years. Old

Boundless Sea, in its day, was a pretty popular card. I think this was the first card that let you steal things. I mean, there was control magics and things, but this was the first thing that was a creature that could steal something and then let that go and steal a different thing. Sort of repeatable stealing, if you will.

Okay, next. Oubliette. Oubliette was one black black, three mana for enchantment. When it came into play, you chose a creature, and then you... It said you removed it from the game, but you exile it nowadays.

But the weird thing about Oubliette was anything that was attached to it would go with it. So at the time, if you had auras on it, the auras went with the creature that got Oublietted. And if the Oubliette never got destroyed, then it would come back, but with all the things that had been on it. So Oubliette, for those who don't know a good word, is a type of prison. So you're being put in a prison. I mean, if you look at the picture, it shows that, obviously.

So you're being locked away in a prison. That's what's going on flavor-wise. So this is the first card that I remember that really messes around with remove from game, with the exile zone. It is also a card that sort of, I mean, well, I take that back. Swords of Plowshares, which was an alpha,

removed things, but this is the first time that the idea that using it as a hiatus, that I take it, I put you there, but you have the means to come back. That's the first card that did that. And that obviously would have a lot of influence down the road. Next, piety. Piety costs two and a white, so three mana for an instant. All defending creatures get plus zero, plus three.

So this is another example of, one of the things about early Magic that you can see is, as they were trying to find out just the idea of what really was valuable and what wasn't. You know, plus zero for three mana, plus zero, plus three, wait, wait, but only to defending creatures. It's pretty, pretty weak.

And I think a lot of that is just, it took a while to sort of understand, you know, it is funny in a world in which, right, Lobby Alexandria lets you draw two cards, personally draw two cards

a turn, in the same set with the cards that like, you know, I mean, A, magic in general, there's always a wide range

of what you can do. There's good cards and bad cards, but just, like in modern day, this card, this is probably super, super high

for the fact it is. I mean, if we did the card today, it wouldn day, this card, this is probably super, super high for the fact it is. I mean, if we did the card today, it wouldn't... You could use your creatures at any time, not to defend any creatures. Would not cost three mana. But anyway, it's a good example of a card that kind of shows the diversity of sort of how many... It's a very unmemorable card

versus some of the other unmemorable cards I've talked about. Pyramids. Oh. Pyramids. Oh, Pyramids, this is one of those cards that you always, like, as a designer, like, one day, you know, we want to someday, you know, we've done top-down worlds. One day we'll probably do a top-down Egyptian world. And that day, like, you really want to do Pyramids. And like, oh, we did Pyramids. And there's that kind of lackluster.

So it cost six. For two, you could prevent a land from being destroyed or remove an enchantment from a land. So the idea was it protects the lands. Now in the day, you've got to remember, land destruction was pretty aggressive. Black, green, and red all got land destruction. Black had a two-man land destruction.

So there were very, very effective land destruction decks. The biggest problem, though, is if you want to make a card to prevent people from land destruction, I'm not sure costing six mana was probably the correct way to go. So the intent was good, the flavor was good. I think Richard thought, oh, well, Pyramid's a pretty big thing, they can't be cheap. I mean, maybe this card shouldn't have been Pyramid, but... Anyway, it never really saw much play.

Next, Repent Blacksmith. One and a white for one, two, protection from red. So the flavor clearly is he's a blacksmith, so he is immune to fire. And I don't know. I mean, protection had begun in the base set.

It took a little while to understand how protection worked, but that, I don't know. I mean, protection had begun in the base set. It took a little while to understand how protection worked, but that... I don't know. I mean, this card was a pretty straightforward card. I mean, once again, 1, 2. You can see the creatures are a little on the weak side early on. Okay, next is the Ring of Maruf. So it costs 5 mana,

and then it costs 5 to activate. It's a mana artifact, so taps. Instead of drawing a card from the top of your library, select one of your cards from outside the game. Dun-dun-dun! So this is the very first wish. In fact, this is the card that inspired the wishes. The idea of this card is that I could wish for something.

That I, you know, what do I want? I want Thing X. Okay, next, Rook Egg. So Rook Egg costs... Is it two in red? Three in red for a 0-3 creature. And then when it died, you got a token, a 4-4 flying Rook creature.

So the idea was it was a little egg. One of the funny things about this card was when it first came in, it was unclear. The flavor was supposed to be you put it in a play, and when it dies, you get a rook. But the original wording was vague enough that there were some

people who felt that if you discarded it, you could get the rook. You just got rid of it. You just went to the graveyard anyway. And then we actually had to put up one of our earlier rods and say, no, no, no, that's not how it works. You got rid of it. He just went to the graveyard anyway. And then we actually had to put up one of our earlier rods. It's like, no, no, no, that's not how it works. You have to play it. But Rook definitely was a very valuable card.

Okay, next. Jander Saddlebags. So Jander Saddlebags are I'm sorry, not Jander Saddlebags. Sandals of Abdallah. I can't read. Sandals of Abdallah cost four mana, and for two, you give one creature, it says, Island Walk until end of turn.

And then if that creature is destroyed, you lose the shoes as well. Flying Carpet had the same rider. It's special. Richard tried to do early equipment, and the idea essentially is that you put it out, and you can use it, but if something happens to the creature wearing it, well, then you lose it.

As you can see, Island Walk was super fun. Everybody loved giving Island Walk. There's multiple cards in this set alone. Only 70 cards in the set, and multiple cards give you Island Walk. Sandstorm. Sandstorm is a green instant, and all attacking creatures get one damage. Like I said, green early on was a little more aggressive in hurting creatures.

It's something we definitely toned back on. This is one of those cards that people keep arguing, maybe should green do this? Should green have a little more defense? The thing that my sort of guidance for green is, if green has no creatures in its deck, if it's just a mono-green creatureless deck, green should have trouble with creatures.

The way it deals with creatures is supposed to be creatures, not through use of its deck. If it's just a mono-green creatureless deck, green should have trouble with creatures. The way it deals with creatures is supposed to be creatures, not through use of its spells. Okay next is Serendib Djinn. So Serendib Djinn costs two blue-blue, so four mana, for five five flying creature. And then during your upkeep, you choose one of your own lands and destroy it. And if you destroy an island in this matter, it does three damage. So the Serendipity Djinn doesn't like destroying islands, and so every turn you have to destroy a land, but if you destroy an island, it does three damage to you. But it's a 5-5 flyer for four, so like I said, once again, the Djinn and the Freed mostly are good bodies, but they come with a cost. Speaking of which, we get to Serendipity Freed, which is probably the most powerful of the Djinn and the Freeds.

So it's two and a blue, so three mana for a 3-4 flying creature, and it does one damage to you every upkeep. So it's kind of like Juzam Djinn, except it costs one mana less. It has one power less, but it flies. as M. Gin, except it costs one mana less. It has one power less, but it flies. Serenity of Refreet is definitely one of the most powerful creatures in the set.

This is the one that got reprinted, but had the wrong artwork and frame. It had the artwork and frame on it. Scheherazade. Scheherazade costs two white mana. It's a sorcery. You stop what you're doing. You take your cards that aren't in play. You take your library,

and you play a sub game with those cards. And then... What happens if you win the sub game? I can't remember. What happened? I don't remember. Well, the general gist of it is that you play a sub game and that... What happens in the window of the sub game?

Oh, you lose half your life. So you play a sub game, meaning you take your library, you leave your game. Oh, you lose half your life. So you play a sub game, meaning you take your library, you leave your game as is, play another game with the cards you have left in your library. Whoever wins that little sub game, you then bring your cards back, shuffle your libraries, and you return to your original game,

but that game, the loser of the sub game loses half of their life. So Scheherazade is the person the framing story in The Thousand and One Nights, the loser of the sub-game loses half of their life. So Scheherazade is the person, the framing story, in The Thousand and One Nights, the framing story, because really the book was telling lots of different Arabian fables and tales and stuff,

was the story of a woman who, there's a king who every night gets a wife, enjoys having the wife for one night, and then he kills her the next day. And Scheherazade decided to survive this, tells a story to him, but leaves it to be continued. And each night he leaves her alive

because he wants to hear the tale the next night. And her tales are the 1001 Raven Knights. So the idea of stories within stories inspired Richard, so he made Games Within Games. And this card definitely is a very interesting card. It's a very unique card. Only the unsets

really have messed around with doing sub-games again. It's something, this card is banned and vintage just because it takes too long for things to play. But it's a very inventive card,

probably one of the coolest, maybe even the coolest card of this set. It's Richard's favorite card from Arabian Nights. When you ask Richard what his favorite Arabian Nights card is, he always says Scheherazade. And maybe it's because it's both flavorful and very, very different. It's something that magic had never, I mean, it was really out there.

Next is Sinbad. Sinbad costs one and a blue. It's a 1-1 creature. You can tap him to draw a card from your library, but then you reveal it, and if it's not a land, you have to discard it so essentially, he gets free land for you, but only land and obviously, you're going to miss

some of the time so 40% of the time you get to draw a land next is singing tree it's a tree, originally it was summon singing tree, I think now it's a tree. Originally, it was Summon Singing Tree. I think now it's a plant. Three and a green for a zero three,

and you can tap it to reduce target attacking creature's power to zero. So this thing was pretty powerful, because you got it out, and then it kind of neutralized the most powerful creature of your opponent. You would see Maze of Ith would later do this. Maze of Ith was a little more powerful, only because it was a land, and it didn't cost anything to put into play, which Singing Tree

did. Also, Singing Tree is a creature, and destroying creatures is just easier than destroying land, so this was kind of the precursor to Maze of Ith. Which was a popular card at the time. I mean, Singing Tree. I guess Maze of Ith was too. Next, we get to Sorcerer's Queen.

So Sorcerer's Queen costs one black black for a 1-1 creature, and you could tap it to turn any creature into a 0-2 creature. I think how long does this remain tapped? Let's see. Oh, no, until end of turn. So turn things into 0-2 creatures until end of turn. This was, I think, the earliest of messing with resetting power and toughness.

I think that's the card that did this first. I don't think Richard did that in Alpha. Next we get to Stone-Throwing Devils. Black for a first-strike 1-1 creature. So it turns out, by the way, Magic tries very, very hard not to do this, but it turns out that Stone-Throwing Devils is a very obscure racial slur. So one of the things is you will not ever see Stone-Throwing Devils reprinted.

It's a huge mistake. We didn't realize at the time that it was a slur, and so it's something we will not reprint or redo. Any apologies, obviously, we didn't realize at the time we printed it that it had that connotation. It's a very obscure connotation, so it was not something easily discovered. But anyway, it's a black first striker. Early on in the game,

Richard had put first strike on the black knight, and black knight was very iconic. So early Magic had a lot more first strike going on in black. We've since really dialed that down. Black has first strike only tertiary, so you just don't see a lot of first striking in black anymore. Next, Unstable Mutation. It's a Chan creature.

It costs one blue mana. Tiger creature gets plus three, plus three. And then at the beginning of each turn, you put a minus one, minus one counter on it. So I used to play this in my blue-green weenie deck. So I had a Flying Man. He's a 1-1. I put this on it. He's a 4-4 for that turn. Then he's a 3-3, then a 2-2, then a 1-1, then he's dead.

But in a deck where I'm trying to beat you really fast and I'm giant-grossing and berserking and doing crazy things, this allowed you, in blue, to grow really big really fast. This ability now, by the way, if we did it, would be in red, not in blue. Next, War Elephant. 3 and white for a 2-2 creature with trample and bands. So this is another one of the... Or the elephant. I think the elephant does that-2 creature with trample and bands. So this is another or the elephant. I think the elephant on the set.

But it has banding, so it's a trample bander. Trample and banding. The rules of the time, banding and trample, the rules kept changing over time. There was a period in time though where banding and trample worked well together because you took all the damage

and you got to assign how it does so you could sort of Assign what you needed to and then trample over. There's a lot of weird rules with trample early on So anyway, I think there's a quirky period of time where banding and trample allowed you to assign just one damage and trample all the rest over but that was a small blip in time Next, Wailuli Wolf. So Wailuli Wolf costs one green mana. It's a 1-1. So

Wailuli Wolf is an anagram of Lily Wu. L-I-L-Y W-U. So Lily Wu was the maiden name of Richard's first wife. And this card was a little nod to her. So what the card did was you could tap it to give any creature

plus one, plus one until end of turn. And so it was a little boost. This ability now, green does it sometimes, also white ended up doing this ability a little more than green. This was another card that falls in the category of

a common card that also got reprinted as a rare. So this card was common in Arabian Nights and thus could be reprinted because it was common. And then in some of the base sets, at least one of them, the core sets, we put it in and put it at rare. And this is definitely... The art is also pretty iconic. This is Susan Van Camp. This is just one of those pieces that... One of the first pieces done by Susan Van Camp. This is one of, just one of those pieces that, one of the first pieces done by Susan Van Camp.

And, I don't know, it was very popular. People liked this card. And then we end with the Idwin Afrit. So, a red, red, red

for the three six. And if you choose to block with it, you have to flip a coin. And if you can't, then it gets, it can't block. So,

one of the things that Richard did is, there was the cycle, the four-color cycle of gins and frets. Sometimes they connected to each other like the red ones did. Other times they kind of just did their own thing. So there was some connection. I think Richard loved the idea of taking his friend, Jamie and Wendy, and combining them. And he came up with a pair that made sense

that one had a flip coin to attack, one to block. Anyway, I'm almost to work. That, my friends, is the wrap-up of Arabian Nights. I think one of the things that's exciting is Arabian Nights, you can see a lot of the roughness

around the edges. Part of that is the set was done so quickly. Part of that was early magic. Just Richard, you know, Richard was a lot more focused on matching the philosophy of the colors than necessarily lining up all the mechanics. That took a little bit of time to sort of figure out that, you know, figure out that, you know, it took a little bit of realizing what exactly, what colors wanted to do what. And I think one of the things we realized over time was that things were better off if not every color could do everything and that we divvied up more what things could do

and that if you wanted to do a particular thing, you had to go to a particular color, that just made for better gameplay. And so as we refined over the years, you could see us sort of figuring out where's the best place to put each mechanic and making sure that when we had similar mechanics, we gave slightly different tweaks.

You know, black doesn't block where red must attack, where they're similar but slightly different tweaks. You know, black doesn't block, where red must attack, where they're similar, but slightly different to give each color flavors, and delineate them for one another. But anyway, my friends, that is the very first expansion of Remy Knights. In all its glory, I don't have the ability to go through every card in every set,

but when your set has 78 cards, I can. So anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this little jaunt through history, and had a little traffic today so a little extra time for you but I'm now parked in the parking space which means as we all know oh you all know what that means

it's time to end my drive to work so instead of talking magic it's time for me to be making magic thanks for joining me guys I'll talk to you next time