Blogatog

What's the "Deckmaster" on the back of Magic cards about, btw?

Wizards of the Coast thought that trading card games were going to explode (and to be fair, they did for a while) and Deckmaster was going to be Wizards’ brand of trading card games.

Can I pronounce my cards however I want to? What about my opponent's cards?

You can pronounce all words however you like. It’s only when you start trying to communicate with others that you might notice some problems.

Mar 30, 20128 notes

In regard to how many questions you answer, I think you should answer all you want. I will say, though, that I often feel cheated by how many of the questions seem to be the same ones over and over, and I wonder why you don't answer a more diverse array of questions. However, I know you're basically volunteering to do your tumblr thing, so I quickly squelch my unfounded feelings of being cheated and just enjoy the info overload :)

I try to answer different questions. What tends to happen though is that some topic is in the zeitgeist and it just seems to be on a lot of players minds. Part of trying to be relevant is trying to answer the questions that I think a majority of people are interested in.

Even in multiplayer I don't target other players with my draw spells. Just because there are extra players doesn't mean EVERY spell has to have political implications. If I wanted other players to draw cards, I'd play Prosperity.

Note that not every multiplayer game is the same. Some are very political, some much less so. Targeting doesn’t enhance every multiplayer game but it enhances some which is a big reason for me to support targeted draw as a default.

There's a rumor going around that there's a card in Avacyn Restored containing the word "of". Can you confirm that?

I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the word “of” in a title of one or more Avacyn Restored cards. Go to it rumor mills!

Mar 30, 20129 notes

When making cards like Gutter Grime and Requiem Angel, how do you decide between "non-token" and "non-type"?

Sometimes its mechanical, sometimes its flavor. Both Gutter Grime and Requiem Angel were made “non-blah” for the first reason. Each would get kind of silly (powerwise) if the tokens it made just made other tokens when they died.

I usually pre-order the next expansion a couple of weeks before the previews start. Usually I know something about the set. Today I realized that I have no idea what is in Avacyn Restored other than not double-sided cards and not flashback. Why does it seem that the info on this set seem so far behind?

We normally don’t say anything until previews (which start April 9th).

You mentioned that "The Ravnica guilds do tend to pull towards certain psychographics"--how about a quick breakdown of that? Or, since I have trouble pinning down my psychographic but do know my colors, at least tell me what Simic pulls toward. :-)

Here’s where the guilds tend to pull. Note that this doesn’t mean you can’t like a certain guild and be of a different psychographic:

Azorious (W/U) - Spike

Boros (R/W) - Timmy

Dimir (U/B) - Spike

Golgari (B/G) - Johnny

Gruul (R/G) - Timmy

Izzet (U/R) - Johnny

Orzhov (W/B) - Spike

Rakdos (B/R) - A cross between Spike and Timmy

Selesnya (G/W) - Timmy

Simic (G/U) - Johnny

Mar 30, 201216 notes

Do you prefer working on large sets, small sets, or stand-alone products? Why?

I like doing block design which is the major responsibility of the Head Designer.

Why not apply "Game design is about making people love your game not making no one hate it" and "My job is to excite players not avoid pissing them off" to the Reserve List? A few'll whine, but it'll excite so many. You want to keep your promises and ethical obligations, but your ultimate obligation is to make the best game you can, right? You're as beholden to the rest of us on that as you are to the few RL supporters on the RL. All Magic players deserve an opportunity to play with these cards.

This is the last one on this topic. There are things in life that you want to change that you cannot. In order to live with them you have to learn to accept them because beating your head repeatedly against a wall really doesn’t do anyone much good. I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about myself (and R&D).

The Reserved List cannot change. Please just accept it. End of topic.

Mar 30, 20124 notes

I'd love to try out Polyhedra. Where can we find it or the rules for it?

It’s a game I designed long ago that has never been published. It involves cards and dice so it’s not just something I can easily post.

I would say I agree with Zach on targeted card draw, although I am close to agreeing with you. It just seems to me that on a card by card basis, "draw 2 cards" seems cleaner? More intuitive?

My whole argument is not about the card in a vacuum but the role it serves the game as a whole. Yes, in a vacuum it’s slightly less intuitive but I argue it adds enough big picture-wise to make up for the small downgrade invidually.

Mar 30, 20122 notes

You mentioned recently that if R&D was allowed to "bit the bullet" and update the back of Magic cards, there would be "a whole bunch of things we’d change". What are some of these changes, and has R&D ever made a mock-up of what it would look like? If so, could you share it with us if one does exist?

Some of the bigger changes:

• Change the logo from blue to yellow as it appears everywhere else now

• Get rid of Deckmaster

• Change TM to ®

• In general, clean up the details to make the back crisper

Mar 30, 20125 notes

The other day in one of my classes, I learned about "Markov" chains in mathematics... I immediately linked this to Sorin and the Markov vampire clan from Innistrad. Also, Phyrexians have the greek symbol for "phi" as their insignia... and I know Richard Garfield is a mathematician. I'm not sure how well you'd be able to answer this, but how many references to things in mathematics do you know of that are there in Magic?

There are quite a number of them. My favorite are Elkin Bottle and Bosium Strip.

Mar 30, 20125 notes

Looking at the Alara shards individually, Esper is my favorite, as I enjoy using tricky abilities that often come on artifacts, but holistically it failed to serve the block. Exalted, Devour, Unearth, and 5-power-matters can all go in the same deck and have plenty of synergy, but colored artifacts have no place.

Why can’t individual cool colored artifacts go into that deck?

Mar 30, 20123 notes

What is R&D's stance on "random, but somewhat controllable" cards like Gamble or Capricious Efreet? Should they be kept out of Spike territory (like coin flip cards) or could they get a chance (like cascade cards)?

In general the what I’ll call “blatantly random” cards that get close to Spike need to be ones that players can influence. (Magic has tons of variance so I’m talking about the cards that are neon light “I’m a card with a random effect” cards.)

Has it ever been considered to make an enchantment or some other card that would turn mana burn back on? All the rules on a card, allows people that like the burn to use it, stops new players from being confused, best of both worlds.

Cards have been designed to do exactly that. None have made it into a set yet but I’m sure one will one of these days.

Mar 30, 20122 notes

I noticed lately the lords have been an uncommon as compared to rare. Is this something we will continue to see in the future and would you mind giving insight to the philosophy of design behind this?

We do lords at uncommon when we want them to be relevant to limited.