Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #374 - Discontinued Rules

Episode Date: October 14, 2016

Mark talks about may of the rules that Magic has abandoned over the years.

I'm pulling out of the parking lot. We all know what that means. It's time to drive to Newark. And I'm dropping my son off at camp again. Okay, so for today, I'm going to go back in the Wayback Machine and talk about... So magic... I talk about how magic constantly evolves. And one of those parts is the rules. That the rules of magic keep changing. And that while the basic rules are the same, you know, if you played in Alpha, and then you played, you know, 23 years later, a lot of it works. A lot of what you would know works, but not everything.

And so today I'm going to talk about some of the discontinued rules. That's some things that once upon a time you could do in magic, but you can no longer do. And so first, before I get there, let me philosophically explain what's going on. Why are there things in the rules that we abandon? Why do we change things?

Well, obviously we change things, but why do we abandon things? Why are there things that used to work and no longer work? And the answer is, one of the big issues I always talk about is, I think magic's number one problem of all its issues. It's a great game. It's amazing. It's cool. It's fun. There's all sorts of awesome things about the game. But its biggest flaw, or Achilles heel, if you will, in my book, is it's, well, we talk about the ability for people to learn it. What do I call it? See, sometimes I'm driving and I

have a term I use every single time and then I'm blinking the term. We talk about the ability to access the game. What's the term? Anyway, it will come to me in a second and you guys are, you always yell at me when I forget the obvious terms that I know. So one of the things we talk about is the ability for people to get into the game. How easy or hard is it? And Magic's big flaw is it's hard. That, you know, from not knowing anything to knowing enough to play is a big deal. And the problem with Magic is because magic keeps growing and keeps adding things

that the ability to start to learn how to play becomes harder and harder. I did a whole podcast in New World Order that's behind that. But one of the things we realized is, look, part of evolving is we're going to want to add things. Sometimes we go,

oh, this is really cool. You know, we make equipment or we make something and we say, you know what? That's cool. That should just be a normal part of magic. So there are things in magic that get added along the way that weren't there in the beginning, that weren't something in alpha, but that we add. Well, in order for that to be true, in order for us to have the freedom of adding things from time to time, we also have to take things away.

That if everything was just additive, we also had to take things away. That if everything was just additive, barrier to entry, there it goes. Barrier to entry talks about how easy it is to get into the game. And the way I think about it is, there's the metaphor I use, which is it's a ladder. That you want to climb a ladder. Well, how high can that first step be that you're going to use the ladder? Even if you look up the ladder, you go, that's an be that you're going to use the ladder? Even if you look up the ladder and go, that's an awesome ladder. That's an amazing ladder. If that first step is just too high, you don't use the ladder.

And that's one of the things we're always working about with, you know, we want to keep the barrier to entry. I mean, Magic is a complicated game. I think a lot of people worry that, like, somehow we're going to keep it from being complicated. It's so inherently complicated. I'm not worried. I're going to keep it from being complicated. It's so inherently complicated. I'm not worried. I'm never worried about it not being complicated enough. It's a complicated game.

What I am worried about is just it being too much and people not being able to get into the game. Because it's a fun game, but there is a lot of reasons to sort of shy away. And so, basically, today, what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk about some rules that once existed in Magic, talk about why they existed, and then talk about why we got rid of them. And in some cases, I was, a lot of them I had a hand in. One of my big things is trying to make sure that Magic sort of like, in order to advance, in order to give ourselves room to grow, in order to be able to add things to the game, we have to find rules that no longer fulfill a function. That's wrong. Rules that aren't, rules that the busyness of learning them are worth what the rule does.

So we're going to start with today, Manaburn. So Manaburn's an interesting story because during the 6th edition rules, which were the biggest rules changes the game had, Bill Rose contemplated getting rid of Manor Burn. And I fought to save Manor Burn. I really said, no, no, no, it's an important part of the game and I fought to save it. And then years later for Magic 2010, I was the champion of getting rid of it. So this is a good example of, so okay, let me explain Manor Burn for those who might not know what mana burn is, because it's actually been a while since Magic 2010. The idea is that you put mana in your mana pool and it clears at the end of each phase. I always get confused of the steps and the phases. Anyway, so the idea when you have your combat phase, at the

end of the combat phase, or the end of the main phase, your mana clears. So the idea is if you have mana in your pool, it goes away. The idea is you can't just leave mana in your pool and it doesn't just float there forever. Sort of for bookkeeping purposes, the game occasionally cleans out the mana

pool. Now it used to be what Mana Burn said is, if the game ever cleared out the mana pool. Now it used to be, what Mana Burn said is, if the game ever cleared out the mana pool and there was mana in the mana pool, then you took damage. So for example, let's say... Usually this happens because you have something that produces more than one mana.

So I have some mana flare. It was an alpha, it was a red enchantment that all your lands tap for an extra mana of whatever It was an alpha. It was a red enchantment that all your lands tap for an extra mana of whatever color they tap for. We made a green version, but I'm blanking

on the green name. I'm blanking on names today. Okay, so the idea was I tap my mount and I get two red instead of one red. Well, let's say, for example,

I have mana flare in play and I need to cast a spell that costs five mana and I have three lands. Well, I can tap my three lands, add six mana to my mana spell that costs five mana, and I have three lands. Well, I can tap my three lands, add six mana to my mana pool, spend five of it to cast my spell, but then I have one extra mana. And let's say I have nowhere to spend that mana. Then when the mana pool got cleared, I would take one damage.

Actually, I don't even think it was damage. I think it was loss of life. I would lose one life. And the idea was, it was a flavor thing. It's kind of like you have to manage your mana, and if you don't manage your mana, it can come back to bite you. Like it's sort of, there's a reason why you have to be careful. The problem we ran into, though, is the game without some external force, really you use your mana when you need to use it.

You don't tend to put it in your pool unless you're going to use it. And it's only when you have a lot of mana producers that produce more than one mana that you sort of overextend how much mana you need and then have mana floating in your pool. In general, magic is pulled back how many things make more than one mana.

You know, we don't regularly make even artifacts that produce more than one mana. We don't do a more than one mana we don't do a lot of rituals we don't do a lot of mana flare type things you know we do it a little bit but not a lot and the perfect example of it is I forget what set it was we were trying to figure

out whether mana flare I wanted mana flare to go because I thought it wasn't worth it but I said you know what I should have some I should experience it to understand whether or not we needed it so what I said to my design team, I should experience it to understand whether or not we needed it. So I said to my design team, I said, okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to stop playing with Manaburn.

So what I want you to do is stop playing with Manaburn, and then you know, after a month, we'll talk through and see how different it feels. And I think my team at the time had six people on it. So a month later,

we got together, and we've been playtesting for a month. This was later in the process, so I think we had weekly playtests. And a bunch of us had not only done it there, but had done it in other places we were playtesting. And so I said to them, okay, a month later, okay, let's regroup of the six people.

How was it different? And for all six of us, okay, a month later, okay, let's regroup of the six people. How was it different? And for all six of us, for a month of playing, it never came up. No one, like, not having man and bird just didn't happen. It didn't matter. And so I was like, oh, okay. So why, you know, if we could play, if six people could play for a month and it not come up, it's just like, that's not, that's not happening a lot, you know. And I understand there's older formats

where you're more likely for that to happen. But, I mean, we really, the magic rules have to be for the present and not the past. And so we talked a lot about it. I mean, I pitched the idea, and we decided that, okay, it's flavorful, but it really is something that you have to learn early on in the game, and it just doesn't matter. I mean, remember when I first learned Mana Burn. I didn't even understand Mana Burn, because when I

first learned, I had the Alpha Rulebook, and I didn't have a Mana Flare, and I didn't have a Soul Ring, and I had nothing that produced two mana. So I, for the life of me, could not understand what the rule meant. I literally didn't understand it. And it wasn't until I think I saw mana float, I'm like, oh, there's a way you could have extra mana in your pool. I didn't even understand how that could happen. So we decided, and we got rid of it, and we said, you know what?

If you want mana floating at the end, yes, there's a little less mana resourcing, but it wasn't even amazing gameplay, you know what I'm saying? It was just kind of like you had to manage it, yes, there's a little less mana resourcing, but it wasn't even amazing gameplay. You know what I'm saying? It was just kind of like you had to manage it. It sometimes affected deck building a little bit, and sometimes it would affect play a little bit,

but it really didn't come up much. And I understand there's decks where it matters. I'm not saying it never, ever matters in all of Magic, but it doesn't matter very much. And it's definitely one of those rules that people learned early on, because when they were learning about mana, they would learn this rule. And it's definitely one of those rules that people learned early on because when they were learning about mana, they would learn this rule.

And it's just like, it's one less thing to learn about when you're learning about the mana system, which is already complicated. Just one less thing to learn about. So mana burn went away. Okay. Another one,

here's one that, so I'm going to talk about some of the early ones and then I'll get some of the later ones. Another one that goes back to Alpha that went away. So the next one we're going to talk about went away during 6th edition. So once upon a time, if I had an artifact, a non-creature artifact, and I tapped it, it turned off. So for example, what was very famously used was used with, you would use it in combination with Icy Manipulator which was an artifact

it cost what was it four to play one to tap tap target permanent I believe and so the idea is I could put on an artifact

that had some sort of global effect Howling Mine was one of the Howling Mine and Winter Orb were the two so Howling Mine says

everybody during the rep keep draws an extra card. Winter Orb says players can only untap, I think, one land each turn. And so the idea was that if I put out Winter Orb or I put out Howling Mine and I had an Ice Manipulator, some way to tap it, what would happen is if it was a positive effect like Howling Mine, I would make sure that on my turn I got to draw an extra card, but I would tap it before if it was a positive effect, like Howling Mine, I would make sure that on my turn, I got to draw an extra card, but I would tap it before my turn was over, so on your turn, it was tapped, and you wouldn't get to draw an extra card.

Or, if it was something negative, like a winner orb, where it prevented things from untapping, I would let you have the winner orb in effect, so you only tap one thing a turn, and at the end of your turn, I tap it, so all my things would untap. one thing a turn, and at the end of your turn I tap it, so all my things will untap. And so, anyway, I think the flavor

of it was kind of like, oh, there's a way to turn off artifacts. And there's neat interactions in the cases I'm talking about. But the problem we ran into is we kept running into trouble because artifacts tapped. It was a real hard thing to build around

because you would try to build artifacts that did things, but the idea that someone could, like, the idea that you would make an effect and it was a balanced effect because it affected everybody, but then a player could just turn it off on the appropriate time, it was really hard to cost and appropriately make them. And we also tend to forget. Like, there's a classic case where, what was it?

At the very first Invitational, Sands of Time, which was in Visions, I think, we had, at the very first Invitational, for the very first time, we had a format where they were, I think Standard, where they were able to play Visions

for the first time ever. And there's this broken deck with Sands of Time, because Sands of Time did all this craziness, but then if you just shut it off, then in your turn it didn't do the craziness. And so, you know, the card was balanced, assuming like everybody would have to deal with this craziness. But, you know, the fact that they turned it off just meant, eh, we couldn't really make those kind of cards. And I was definitely the champion of getting rid of this rule

because it just, I mean, I understand the flavor. It's like, oh, you can turn your artifacts off and now they don't work. But it really made it hard for us to make them. It really was a huge developmental problem. And it was the kind of thing that, like, didn't, like, you would learn it and you would, like,

one of the things in general we try to get rid of are rules that when you learn, you're like, what, didn't... Like, you would learn it, and you would, like... One of the things in general we try to get rid of are rules that when you learn, you're like, what, really? Really? Okay, I guess if people say so, you know. Things that don't quite feel like they're real rules. And this one definitely had a bit of that feeling when you tell somebody you could turn things off.

And also, the fact that it worked on non-creatures but didn't work on creatures, or the fact that what exactly something turned off meant, it was complicated. And the idea is, let artifacts be artifacts. And what we did, our compromise was, we took a few of the artifacts that really mattered that you turned them off, and we changed their text so it said,

when I'm tapped, this is true. So, for example, what we did with Howling Mine, Howling Mine said, as long as Howling Mine is untapped, all creatures draw two cards. And so in the few cards where it mattered, we just built it into the card rather than building it into the rules.

But here's a funny thing that happened. We eroded a couple cards, Howling Mine and Winter Orb were the two big ones. And what happened was, Howling Mine was a card that we printed again. So when we printed it again, we put that text on it. So there are a bunch of different basic sets, core sets, that have the Howling Mind, as long as Howling Mind's untapped. But Winter Orb we stopped making because it was too strong. So we never ever printed it with that text.

So at some point we decided to stop doing functional errata. So we went back and we changed back any cards that had functional Rada. But because Howling Mind had been reprinted, and actually the most recent printing had that text on it, we left Howling Mind alone. But because Winter Orb never had been printed under that text, we changed it back. And there was a lot of grumbling.

Because really, that interaction made Winter Orb much more powerful. The fact that I could affect my opponent and not affect myself really made it crazy strong. But the fact that we had never printed in that version and we wanted the cards to match what they said, we put the Arad in. Okay, here's another rule that most people don't know. So in early days of Magic, so let's say I attack with a creature and you block with your creature. If I tapped your creature,

so blocked tappers didn't deal damage. Still blocked the creature, but it didn't deal damage. So what would happen is, let's say I had a twiddle or an ice manipulator. Let's say a twiddle so you'd know it was coming. Twiddle was an instant that would tap around, tap out permanent. So let's say I had a twiddle in my hand, and I attack with my 2-2,

and you block with your 2-2, planning to trade. Well, if I use my twiddle and tap your creature, now your creature, because it's tapped and it's a blocker, doesn't deal damage to my creature, and I kill it without it killing me. So it allowed you to turn sort of tap effects into combat tricks.

And once again, I think there's some flavor there. I mean, a lot of these rules came from, oh, it's kind of cute, it's kind of flavorful. And there was a point in time where understanding this rule, actually, creature combat a lot had revolved around understanding this rule, and effects that tap really meant something. The problem was, though, that once I had a tap effect, it really got kind of hard to deal with. And it was another one of those kind of rules

that you have to explain to somebody, and they'd go, what? And you go, yeah, yeah, this is how the rule works. And they're like, really? And so we decided, also in 6th edition, that the rule just wasn't worth it. That it was one of those complicated rules

that you kind of had to understand the moment how it worked. Not that it, in a vacuum complicated rules. You kind of had to understand the moment, how it worked. Not that it, in a vacuum, wasn't an interesting rule or didn't provide some interesting things. But it was the kind of rule that was so obscure. One of the things that would happen a lot is more advanced players would get in a tournament or something and they would use this on a less advanced player.

They would seem like they were making it up. They were like, what do you mean you tapped my creature? So, I blocked you, didn't I? And it didn't make sense to people, so we just took it out because it was confusing people. So another thing early Magic did, this is kind of phasing

out a card type, I guess, is Magic, the timing rules used to work differently, and Magic used to have seven card types, but no Planeswalker. In its place, we had interrupts. So what interrupts were, and this has to do with kind of how the timing worked early on.

Early Magic had what we call batches, rather than a stack. Things sort of got batched together. It's complicated. In fact, there's a famous, Tom Wiley, who was one of the original rules managers, because the system got so complex pre-6th edition rules, he made a chart.

It looked like a rat maze, and it was just so complicated that we were almost making fun of how complicated it was. Tom put it in a rat maze. Do this, but if this, do that, but if that, do this. It was really early magic. A lot of the rules had been sort of patched together. It's like, let's answer this card.

Let's answer that card. Let's answer that card. And the rules weren't consistent between the cards. They just kind of were consistent within each card. And it made a really weird rule set of rules to understand. That's what 6th edition did, was to kind of clean up the rules. But anyway, what interrupts were is, there used to be sorceries, instants, and interrupts. And interrupts, in the early days, you could not respond.

An interrupt was a spell that you couldn't respond to except with other interrupts. So the idea is, I cast a spell. So the idea is I cast a spell. If you cast a counterspell, the way it would work is you couldn't deal with my interrupt unless you had an interrupt. So if I counter your spell, which is interrupt, unless you had another interrupt, usually it was like a spell counter spell, you couldn't respond to me. So it allowed, but the problem was that it just caused some weird things to me. So it allowed... But the problem was that it just caused some weird things to happen. Like, for example, there was a card called Red Elemental Blast and Blue Elemental Blast.

And what the cards did is they countered... So Red Elemental Blast countered a Blue spell or destroyed a Blue Permanent, and Blue Elemental Blast countered a... Sorry. The Blue one countered a Red spell or destroyed a Red Permanent, and the Red one countered a red spell or destroyed a red permanent, and the red one countered a blue spell or destroyed a blue permanent. The problem was because it countered spells, it had to be an interrupt.

But, but it could destroy things. And so when you destroy things, people were very used to being able to respond to things. Normally, for example, let's say you had a, so Tim, a prodigal sorcerer, could tap to deal one damage. So let's say I had a lightning bolt in my hand, which did three damage. So you say, okay, I'm going to use my prodigal sorcerer, and I say, okay, I'll hit it with my lightning bolt. The way it would work is it would deal one damage to me, and I would destroy it with a lightning bolt.

Not too far away from how it works now. Although damage worked differently back then. But nonetheless, the end result was Tim did damage and you destroyed the Tim. Now let's say I use Red Elemental Blast on it to destroy a Blue Permanent. What would happen is you would tap Tim, I would use the Red Elemental Blast,

it was an interrupt speed, if you will. I mean, speed's a little... But it functioned as an interrupt, meaning that you stopped it before the effect ever happened. So you tapped him to do damage to me, I go, ha-ha, no you don't. And there's no damage. That confused people.

So interrupts for a little while, there's a little area where we had mana sources, where cards that produce mana, or spells that produce mana, had a special quality to them, so that they couldn't be affected. But that ended up going away. But anyway, so interrupts got

phased out just for sort of, I mean, when we revamped to the stack, it just was easier to talk about how things could interact with other things, and it ended up working fine, that we didn't need to have interrupts. Okay, damage on the stack. So damage on the stack was something that

didn't start the game. We added it. When we added the six-in-six rules, we added the idea of the stack. And the stack is a last-in-first-out, which means if I cast a spell, then in response, you can cast a spell. In the response, I can cast a spell. In response, you can cast a spell. And then the effects happen from the last effect, and they work back to the first effect. So the idea is I could do something, and you could respond to me doing something. Well, in order to be consistent, we decide to have creature damage work the same way. That damage went on the stack. So what that meant was, if I dealt damage to you, I could say, okay, I put the damage on the stack.

But what that allowed is there was a lot of weird quirkiness. Because if the creature somehow disappeared, it didn't matter. The damage was already there. So what it allowed you to do is I could get in a fight. I'm about to kill the creature. And then I sack the creature to do an effect. But the damage is still there, so I still kill the creature. So let's say you attack with a 2-2 and I block with a 2-2.

And I have some means to sacrifice a creature to draw a card. I would both kill your creature and draw a card. But you're like, wait a minute. Wasn't I there to do the damage? Sure. Well, wasn't I sacrificed to draw the card? Sure. Well, how can those both be true? And it was confusing. And so

damage on the stack was the quintessential beginner thinks you're pulling their leg. It just doesn't make any sense to them. And what we found was things that are just that non-intuitive, where you have to kind of learn it works because it doesn't make any sense that it works,

are not great for the game. And also, in general, damage from the stack was, created this thing where you were always making decisions at the last possible moment because you weren't punished for not doing that. And then in the new system,

now it's like, okay, I'm going to, I could, let's say the same situation where I both can block your creature or I can stack it to draw a card. I got to choose now. Do I want to destroy your creature or do I want to draw the card? I don't get both.

I can't both, like, sacrifice my creature to stop you and sacrifice my creature to draw cards. I can't do both things. Creatures have to be somewhere. And so damage on the stack went away. Another thing that once upon a time, you were not allowed, you had to tap your mana before you could cast your spells.

And if you cast your spells first, it was against the rules. In fact, there's a Pro Tour, the second Los Angeles Pro Tour, the one that Tomi Hobi won, the one that Tomi Hovey won, the first one, Tomi Hovey, also won in Rome. He actually won because his opponent, Dave Mills, was disqualified in the finals.

Why? For casting spells before tapping his mana. Now be aware, he'd been warned about it many, many, many times. It had been escalated and escalated and escalated and escalated. But nonetheless, a finals of a pro tour happened. Someone gets disqualified because, you know. And the funny thing was, in the situation that was going on, there's nothing he could do.

He wasn't trying to fool anybody. Like he literally just got excited that he was able to play his card. I think he finally got the land he needed and he threw it down and just played the card because he was just so excited to get to play the card. And what happened was he wasn't used to tapping his man before he played his spells. Just at home, that's not how he did it. And so he could not overcome the sort of I don't know, just, what's the word I want? The habit of just doing it that way.

So another rule, the mulligan rule has changed over time. In fact, mulligan rules change a couple times. We just changed it recently. So now you get a scry. If you mulligan, you get a scry at the end. That's a new thing. But originally, by the way, what we call a Paris mulligan, which is you can draw a new hand, but you get one less card. That didn't show up until PT, Los Angeles.

It is oddly named. PT Paris was the first constructed format to use it, PT to use it, but not the first P to use it. We used it at LA before, which was limited. And then the reason it was used in the PT, it's a funny story, is we wanted to test the grounds and we thought it was safer to test it in a limited format so for pro tour los angeles we decided to test it then when they sent out the stuff for pro tour paris somebody forgot to change the floor rules because we always send the floor rules to the players and it got left in and like uh-oh we got left in by the

time we figured it we felt it was too late to change it that people had already made deck choices and stuff so it was like okay well let's see we wanted to test it and luckily for us it turned out okay but because it was the first Pro Tour

that was constructed the mulligan got named after it so Pro Tour Paris which was designed by the way by Matt Hyra who used to work

at Wizards sorry he's a game designer doesn't work at Wizards anymore but back in the day, who used to work at Wizards. Sorry, he's a game designer, doesn't work at Wizards anymore, but back in the day, he was, long ago, worked at Wizards. Anyway, the original Mulligan, if you go way back to Alpha, sorry, I have the hiccups. I'm almost to work, so hopefully I'll work through these hiccups.

The way the Mulligan used to work is, if you drew no land or all land um you could mulligan once um and I the original one was no land or all land and then eventually it got changed

I think to 0, 1, 6 or 7 meaning if you got either all of something or none of something, or one of something, or one of nothing, that's when you roll. And in the old mulligan roll, you just drew a new hand, but you only

do it once. So let's say I draw a hand, and I have seven lands. I can get a mulligan. I get to draw a new hand of seven cards, but no matter what that hand is, that's it. That's what I got. I can't change it in again. And we realized just it was inconsistent enough, so Matt Hyra came up with the Paris Mulligan, and we ended up making use of that.

A few other things. I'm almost to work. Damage prevention windows. So let me tell you this one. So let's say, for example, I have a creature. I use old school. Let's say I have a grizzly bear. Or no, I have a hill giant.

I have a 3-3 hill giant. And you have a lightning bolt that does three damage. And I, in my hand, I have a giant growth. Okay, so right now, it's last and first out. So if I have a Giant Growth, if you cast a Lightning Bolt to destroy my Giant Growth,

and I have a Giant Growth, well, you try to destroy it. In response, I grow it. It's a 6-6. Lightning Bolt hits it. None of damage. It's not dead. But in reverse, if I try a Giant Growth, and I have a 3-3 Hill Giant, and I try to make it a 6-6, in response, you use your Lightning Bolt, you do 3 damage before it grows, is destroyed.

Under the damage batch windows, you didn't care about damage until the end of the back. So what happened was, okay, so I'm gonna go, you're gonna try to use a Lightning Bolt to my Hill Giant, I Giant Growth it, it survives, like it does now. But let's do the reverse. I giant growth my hill giant, in response, you try to lightning bolt it, the lightning bolt's there, but the

damage waited until the end of the batch. So no matter what, if I had a giant growth, if you had a lightning bolt and I had a giant growth, there was no way to kill my hill giant under the old system. You just couldn't do it, because the damage waited until the end. In fact, batches, I don't... I was going to try to see if I could explain batches today, but I realized that I haven't used batches in so long

that my knowledge of them is super fuzzy. Before the stack, the spells kind of were clumped together, but you would have batches of effects, and they would resolve in a certain way, but I don't have the expertise to properly explain batches of you, so I opted not to. Some other small rules. It used to be,

for example, that you didn't check for life total until end of phase. So, for example, if I got down to zero, but I could get myself back up before the end of the phase, I didn't die. And we changed that rule just to make it simple. You get to zero, you die. You don't get to zero. There were...

The way the phases work and stuff, like combat wasn't its own phase originally. It was just any time during the main phase if something you could do, you could just attack if something you could do. So anyway, there's a lot. One thing I'm trying to point out today is

Magic's a wonderful game, but just the magic, as you know it, it keeps changing. We keep sort of fine-tuning things. I've talked a lot about things that got added to the game. That's a whole separate podcast, but today I was talking about,

well, things get added, and things also get taken away. So today was just a little peek in some of the things that once upon a time you could do. Once upon a time you had mana in your pool, you took damage. Or, sorry, you lost life. Once upon a time if I blocked and you tapped my creature, I didn't do damage.

You know, once upon a time if I had an artifact and it got tapped, it turned off and didn't work anymore. These are just things that once upon a time used to happen in Magic, but no longer do. So anyway, a little trip in the past. I hope you guys... Sorry. One of the things that I like to do is I like to sort of...

A lot of people I know who listen to this podcast haven't been playing magic for 23 years. So it's fun to look back sometimes and just talk about some old ways and things happen. But anyway, I am at my parking space, and I promise I will take care of my hiccups. But we all know what that means. It means the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. I hope you enjoyed the glimpse of the past today, but it's time for me to go. See you all next time.