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[OneEightZero]

Heh. Artist's inspiration.

 

["God's Beard!"]

How do you guys feel about poison counters? I personally think it's a dick move.

 

[The Technomancer]

Poison would have been extremely easy to accidentally make too powerful, and I think they did a good job of keeping it in check (although it was a little on the strong side in Limited). The main problem with it is that it was so linear: you don't want to be running creatures with and without infect.

 

[OnPoint]

Heh. Artist's inspiration.

Hah! That's beautiful.

 

[OneEightZero]

Heh. They should reprint Leeches.

 

[OnPoint]

Heh. They should reprint Leeches.

Why a similar card never showed up in the Scars block I'll never get.

 

[The Technomancer]

Why a similar card never showed up in the Scars block I'll never get.

MaRo felt that removing poison would make it "just another life total", which he admits in retrospect was a mistake

 

[Haly]

How do you guys feel about poison counters? I personally think it's a dick move.

Not a fan. WotC did a good job managing it in Scars block but it doesn't really blend well with the rest of the game. I agree with Technomancer that it's too straightforward, either you run Infect or you don't. Also, as a mechanic, it only works when there's enough cards that apply poison to support a poison victory. Printing one or two cards with Poisonous or Infect in a core set is absolutely useless.

 

[OnPoint]

MaRo felt that removing poison would make it "just another life total", which he admits in retrospect was a mistake

I always felt there should have been a way to remove them. I can't believe he couldn't see that it would have been a good idea

 

["God's Beard!"]

So wait, is poison discontinued or something?

 

[OneEightZero]

MaRo felt that removing poison would make it "just another life total", which he admits in retrospect was a mistake

Something Wicked This Way Comes, Part 1
Something Wicked This Way Comes, Part 2

 

[Haly]

No, it'll be part of the rules forever (possibly), but a way to apply poison counters won't make another appearance in a new set until we go back to Mirrodin or something.

Possibly not even then.

 

[The Technomancer]

So wait, is poison discontinued or something?

Every block has a few unique mechanics (like poison and metalcraft in Scars, or the transforming cards and Undying in Innistrad). If a mechanic is a success then they bring it back years later. Flashback, for example, was a returning mechanic from Odyssey, and when Innistrad is over Flashback will go back into...hibernation.

(technically Poison was a returning mechanic as well, but it was very small in the past and the "Infect" implementation was brand new)

 

[OneEightZero]

So wait, is poison discontinued or something?

Infect will be gone from Standard once the Scars block rotates out.

 

[OnPoint]

Every block has a few unique mechanics (like poison and metalcraft in Scars, or the transforming cards and Undying in Innistrad). If a mechanic is a success then they bring it back years later. Flashback, for example, was a returning mechanic from Torment, and when Innistrad is over Flashback will go back into...hibernation.

Buyback was Tempest. Flashback was Odyssey.

 

[The Technomancer]

Buyback was Tempest. Flashback was Odyssey.

Right, there we go

 

["God's Beard!"]

Man, this is getting complicated. So they come up with new ideas, write a story about it, then make cards based off of that story, then if the ideas were popular they make a new story with cards to go with it?

What happens to the mythology when an idea is unpopular? Do all the quarians go extinct?

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Not a fan. WotC did a good job managing it in Scars block but it doesn't really blend well with the rest of the game. I agree with Technomancer that it's too straightforward, either you run Infect or you don't. Also, as a mechanic, it only works when there's enough cards that apply poison to support a poison victory. Printing one or two cards with Poisonous or Infect in a core set is absolutely useless.

Eh, there is some wiggle room there. The GR Wolf Run decks tend to run Inkmoth Nexus for use as a possible alternate win condition while not really being an all-out poison-you-to-death deck.

 

[The Technomancer]

Man, this is getting complicated. So they come up with new ideas, write a story about it, then make cards based off of that story, then if the ideas were popular they make a new story with cards to go with it?

What happens to the mythology when an idea is unpopular? Do all the quarians go extinct?

Basically this is how it works: each year for the past...ten years or so they visit a new plane of existence, a new cool magical world. Each new world comes with its own story and its own unique mechanics. Then next year its on to a new plane with a new story and new mechanics.
But: if mechanics are popular they come back (like Flashback). If a setting is popular, it can come back (Scars of Mirrodin was a revisit of Mirrodin from years ago, Return to Ravnica will be a return to...Ravnica, which I think was 2004)

And of course the planeswalkers show up across sets all the time.

 

[OnPoint]

Eh, there is some wiggle room there. The GR Wolf Run decks tend to run Inkmoth Nexus for use as a possible alternate win condition while not really being an all-out poison-you-to-death deck.

I run a green zenith ramp deck with a tiny splash of black for Glissa and a tiny splash of red for Wolf Run/Inkmoth.

It's nice to have a backup plan.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Basically this is how it works: each year for the past...ten years or so they visit a new plane of existence, a new cool magical world. Each new world comes with its own story and its own unique mechanics. Then next year its on to a new plane with a new story and new mechanics.
But: if mechanics are popular they come back (like Flashback). If a setting is popular, it can come back (Scars of Mirrodin was a revisit of Mirrodin from years ago, Return to Ravnica will be a return to...Ravnica, which I think was 2004)

And of course the planeswalkers show up across sets all the time.

So it's kinda like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Every time the story ends, they just reset it with new ideas but everybody has stands.

Do any of the stories involve space and aliens?

 

[Pandaman]

What happens to the mythology when an idea is unpopular? Do all the quarians go extinct?

they typically feed the plane to some sort of eldrich abomination from beyond the stars.

 

["God's Beard!"]

they typically feed the plane to some sort of eldrich abomination from beyond the stars.

Like Cthulhu? Oh wait, is that what the Eldrazi are?

 

[The Technomancer]

So it's kinda like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Every time the story ends, they just reset it with new ideas but everybody has stands.

Kinda sorta. They've done a really great job at designing worlds over the past decade, its honestly one of my favorite parts of the game. We've been to Mirrodin (metal world), Kamigawa (japanese spirit world), Ravnica (giant magical city), Dominaria post-apocalypse, Lorwyn (fairy-tale world), Alara (random mishmash), Zendikar (Indiana Jones adventure world) and Innistrad (gothic horror world)

 

[Haly]

Man, this is getting complicated. So they come up with new ideas, write a story about it, then make cards based off of that story, then if the ideas were popular they make a new story with cards to go with it?

What happens to the mythology when an idea is unpopular? Do all the quarians go extinct?

Sometimes they do it from the bottom up (mechanics -> flavor) and others from the top down (flavor -> mechanics).

Most old sets take the bottom up approach, because back then the story behind Magic and the mechanics of Magic were separate things.

In recent years, however, they've tried to bridge the two aspects with top down design, as with Mirrodin, Ravnica and Innistrad.

Eh, there is some wiggle room there. The GR Wolf Run decks tend to run Inkmoth Nexus for use as a possible alternate win condition while not really being an all-out poison-you-to-death deck.

Well that's true. But even if Blinkmoth Nexus was legal, Wolf Run decks would probably still run it. The main idea is to go over the head of your opponents' creatures, that they can spend half the mana for a win is just a luxury.

So it's kinda like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Every time the story ends, they just reset it with new ideas but everybody has stands.

Do any of the stories involve space and aliens?

Yeah pretty much. However it should be noted that while mechanics sometimes tie into the flavor of the world, the story rarely explicitly features the mechanics. So, while werewolves do transform in Innistrad, they don't transform because some other dude isn't playing spells. They transform because of the moon, or something.

 

[The Technomancer]

Like Cthulhu? Oh wait, is that what the Eldrazi are?

The three big villains right now (based on what I've inferred from what they've said) are the Eldrazi (Cthulu-like world eaters), the Phyrexians (the Borg) and Nicol-Bolas (the immortal dragon planeswalker)

 

[Pandaman]

its kind of surprising we get a soratami card when it was heavily implied that Bolas went and had his way with kamigawa.

 

[Haly]

What happens to the mythology when an idea is unpopular? Do all the quarians go extinct?

Someone gets fired.

No, I'm kidding. IIRC Masquerade block was pretty poorly received. Usually they apologize, tlak about what went wrong, then vow to avoid it in the future.

its kind of surprising we get a soratami card when it was heavily implied that Bolas went and had his way with kamigawa.

Man if Bolas razed and salted the earth of every plane he visited, we wouldn't have a multiverse at all.

Magic, being heavily tied with Tolkien/D&D fantasy also draws a lot of inspiration from the Lovecraft mythos. Cards like Glimpse the Unthinkable and Dark Depths are highly reminiscent of the stuff Lovecraft liked to explore. The act of milling and hand discard is very symbolic of mental degradation.

 

[WanderingWind]

So, I missed Ravnica. What's the deal with it? Will there be elves and faeries and goblins and shit in that block?

 

["God's Beard!"]

So crazy looking things like wurms and slivers are just awesome creatures?

Also, I'm reading through those color articles and they're way more... emotional than I was expecting.

 

[The Technomancer]

So, I missed Ravnica. What's the deal with it? Will there be elves and faeries and goblins and shit in that block?

Yeah, its got the traditional tribes. The original block was focused on every two-color combination (the guilds), but I'll be surprised if they do it that straightforward this time.

So crazy looking things like wurms and slivers are just awesome creatures?

Wurms are generic. Slivers come from the world that all Magic sets took place on for the first years of the game: Dominaria

 

[Haly]

So crazy looking things like wurms and slivers are just awesome creatures?

Slivers are Zerg.

Possibly also buggers from Ender's Game.

 

[noquarter]

So crazy looking things like wurms and slivers are just awesome creatures?

Also, I'm reading through those color articles and they're way more... emotional than I was expecting.

I think slivers weRe created by Voltrath, which is why we don't see them almost all, even though they are extremely popular. Wurms are just cool creatures though.

 

[red13th]

MaRo felt that removing poison would make it "just another life total", which he admits in retrospect was a mistake

Oh he admitted that? Cool. Infect sucks.

 

[ultron87]

Those other dragons must wish they hadn't made fun of him for reading so many books.

 

[Lucario]

So crazy looking things like wurms and slivers are just awesome creatures?

Also, I'm reading through those color articles and they're way more... emotional than I was expecting.

Wurms are the descendants of Elder Dragons who lost the dragon war, slivers... I have no clue.

 

[The Technomancer]

Oh he admitted that? Cool. Infect sucks.

Pretty much

I've spent a lot of time exploring this issue and what I've come up with is this: while I think the execution of poison was good, it was far from perfect. When poison returns (and I do believe it will return one day—not soon, but someday), design needs to reexamine all the decisions we made this time. We will explore whether or not the game is supposed to give players a way to get rid of poison. We will explore whether it is supposed to be more different from life. We will explore whether having another enabling mechanic like proliferate is a positive or a negative.

 

[Haly]

Wurms are the descendants of Elder Dragons who lost the dragon war, slivers... I have no clue.

Slivers were engineered as a kind of war machine except they got out of control etc etc.

 

[Pandaman]

slivers are from Rath, right? so they're probably ultimately phyrexian.

 

[echoshifting]

So, I missed Ravnica. What's the deal with it? Will there be elves and faeries and goblins and shit in that block?

Recommended reading

The flavor of the Ravnica guilds was great. Definitely check 'em out before the block hits.

Golgari 4 life

Here's a wiki hub with links to more in-depth articles on each guild

 

[OneEightZero]

The three big villains right now (based on what I've inferred from what they've said) are the Eldrazi (Cthulu-like world eaters), the Phyrexians (the Borg) and Nicol-Bolas (the immortal dragon planeswalker)

Does Liliana fit in there somewhere?

 

[Haly]

Liliana isn't really big enough to warrant being an "antagonist".

However that may change depending on where they take this Veil thing.

Simic represent.

 

[OnPoint]

Freaking last post

 

[Pandaman]

silly foals, the real big bad is zombie giant Laquatas.

 

[The Technomancer]

Man, I can't just commit myself to one guild. The Selesnya, Simic and Izzet all have my heart.

And yeah, I don't know if Liliana is really a "villain" yet

 

[siddx]

I came back to magic right as Kamigawa was ending and Ravnica was starting. I really enjoyed playing Ravnica, great flavor, great cards, great mechanics. I remember the first time I saw the redesigned cards though, I was not amused. Still think they are ugly as fuck.

 

[OnPoint]

Slivers were engineered as a kind of war machine except they got out of control etc etc..

Slivers were engineered on the plane of Rath, seen in the Tempest block, by that block's main antagonist, Volrath.

They made their way to Dominaria when Rath was overlaid on the plane, and have made some appearances in sets later like Time Spiral and Legions.

 

[echoshifting]

Come on techno, you gotta pick a guild! The trash talking in this thread will be glorious next block.

 

[WanderingWind]

Recommended reading

The flavor of the Ravnica guilds was great. Definitely check 'em out before the block hits.

Golgari 4 life

Here's a wiki hub with links to more in-depth articles on each guild

Cool, thanks!

And Black/Blue Dimir for me. Fuck y'all.

 

[Lucario]

Man, I can't just commit myself to one guild. The Selesnya, Simic and Izzet all have my heart.

And yeah, I don't know if Liliana is really a "villain" yet

Those are my three favorites too @___@ My favorite is probably Izzet though ^.^