Edit (03/11/13): Read my follow-up article!
I could feel it. It’s coming. The article you’re
about to read has been sitting for weeks on my laptop’s hard drive, half-completed.
I fear the announcement of “Sinker’s” set name, the name of the third set in
Magic: The Gathering’s
Return to Ravnica block. After all, Pro Tour Return to
Ravnica is over, and so are the U.S. presidential elections.
Commander’s
Arsenal has already been released, so there should be news of some kind coming
up soon to keep players excited.
It’s 9:01 P.M., and I’m on the west coast – I check
Daily MTG. I hold my breath. I see the "Announcing..." Magic Arcana image. Heart beat increases. *click* …And there it was:
Dragon’s Maze was announced.
Crap. The impact of my article has now been at least slightly diminished. I
better finish it – now. Also, I must replace all instances of “Sinker,” with “
Dragon’s
Maze.”
Sinker? I Hardly Know 'Er!
Dragon’s Maze, the third set in the Return to
Ravnica block, will have four-color cards. Now that I've said that, I must say that this is merely a speculation blog post. And I am setting myself up to look extremely foolish if I turn out to be foolish. I'm O.K. with that. I don’t usually passionately write speculative blog posts, so let me
explain why I’m doing this now.
Within the community of
Magic: The Gathering design
enthusiasts who don’t work for Wizards of the Coast, I have my own identity. When
you consider Jay Treat, you think of The Great Designer Search 2,
Goblin Artisans,
and the fan-made
Magic 2013 set. I, on the other hand, am the guy perhaps most-known
for writing a regular column designing a four-color
Magic set called
"You're a Designer, Harry!"
As others within the Magic: The Gathering design
community know, I’m an advocate for “four colors” as a viable theme for a
set. However, some doubt the merits of four-color cards being a part of a major
theme. While I haven’t solved the problem of supporting a four-color cards theme
myself, I don’t doubt the ability of a bunch of the most seasoned Magic
designers at Wizards to be able to crack the code. Once the eventual four-color
set is released, it’ll all make sense to everyone how it was possible.
(In fact, there's a lot of heavy hitters on the design and development teams for Dragon's Maze, including Eric Lauer, which might indicate that this set was extra-difficult to design - perhaps due to a four-color card theme.)
But I spent a lot of time thinking about how to do
four-color cards as part of a major theme. I put in effort along with the
design community, especially
Jules Robins, in making four-color cards work in a
set. In fact, Jules and I met up at his to playtest mechanics from my “four
colors matters” set. Also, on a related topic,
Jules wrote about four-color Commanders here.
As a budding Magic: The Gathering designer, I can’t
prove what was figured out correctly by me and those who collaborated with me
in supporting a four-color card theme unless I write about it BEFORE we see the
solution to the puzzle – which I believe to be in Dragon’s Maze. So that’s why
I’m writing this right now, on the heels of the announcement of Dragon’s Maze.
Now that that’s said, read on to see why I think
four-color cards will be in Dragon’s Maze.
Drafting Class
You’re in the middle of a Magic: The Gathering
draft of Magic 2013. Cleverly, you draft cards belonging to one of two colors
since you know that Magic decks can easily accommodate this. From experience,
you also know that you could dabble into a third color if you’re careful enough
with your card selection and have cards that support your mana base, like an
Evolving Wilds. What’s most important is a smooth mana base! Also, having some
fantastic cards in your third color would make “splashing” a third color worth
it.
Now, you’re drafting the Return to Ravnica set.
There’s no doubt you’re going to be building a two-color deck. There’s a bunch
of great two-color gold spells, after all; and there are more cards that help
you build a smooth mana base for your two-color deck. However, like the wily
guildmage you are, you know that with all the extra cards in this set there are
for mana support, it is even easier to build a three-color deck.
Compared to Magic 2013’s Evolving Wilds and Gem of
Becoming (and besides green’s usual card slot in sets that enable multicolor in
the form of Farseek), there’s a high chance you’ll see these kinds of cards in
your draft: any of the five Guildgates, any of the five Keyrunes, and
Transguild Promenade. That’s 500% more lands and 400% more artifacts than Magic
2013 has! Also, green has THREE nonrare cards that help fix your mana base as
opposed to Magic 2013’s one.
As an aside, I’m only mentioning nonrare cards as
cards that you can count on for building a multicolor deck, since it’s so rare
(hah!) to find any one particular rare card in a draft. But if we’re counting
rares, Return to Ravnica still definitely has the upper-hand over Magic 2013 in
terms of mana support.
So, in Return to Ravnica, you might draft an
Azorius/Selesnya deck. To support your three-color deck, you might have
acquired a Transguild Promenade, a Guildgate, and a Keyrune. Or maybe just a
couple Guildgates and a green mana-fixing spell. This is great mana support for
including a third color!
In the future, you’ll be drafting Gatecrash.
Again, you’ll be doing the same thing you were doing in Return to Ravnica with
these new cards pertaining to the five remaining guilds. There’s going to be
five more Guildgates, and there will be five more Keyrunes. And then there will
be a common artifact or land that is the equivalent of Return to Ravnica’s
Transguild Promenade.
Though, keep in mind that I’m not saying going
with a three-color deck is always the correct choice. You might open a Trostani,
Selesnya’s Voice, and you’d need to adhere very strongly to green and white. Perhaps
you wouldn’t have the right color-fixing cards, either.
In the more-distant-future-than-the-Gatecrash-future,
you’ll be drafting the third set in the Return to Ravnica block, Dragon’s Maze.
Dragon’s Maze is a small set, and it will be drafted with both Return to
Ravnica and Gatecrash. Representation for all ten guilds will be available in
Dragon’s Maze. After you draft the first pack (the Dragon’s Maze pack), you’ll
draft the Gatecrash pack. So what colors will your deck be?
Let’s say that, after drafting the Dragon’s Maze
pack, you decided to go into red and white – Boros. When it comes to the Gatecrash
pack, like someone with a sharp wit, you’ll draft white cards, red cards, and white-red
gold cards. And then the Return to Ravnica pack is drafted, and you’ll draft
the white cards, red cards, and… wait a minute. There no white-red gold cards
in Return to Ravnica. Every single gold card isn’t in your colors! Also, the
amount of color-fixing support is limited to, barring whatever will be in Dragon’s
Maze, is limited to the Boros ones, Transguild Promenade, and whatever the
Transguild Promenade-equivalent is in Gatecrash. You’re missing out on a lot of
cards in the Return to Ravnica pack!
On a side note, I want to share how interesting it
is that the amount of guild support your deck has exponentially correlates with
the number of colors your deck has:
- 1 Color = 0 Guilds
- 2 Colors = 1 Guild
- 3 Colors = 3 Guilds
- 4 Colors = 6 Guilds
- 5 Colors = 10 Guilds
So, the more colors you have in your deck, the more
mana-fixing you need. Luckily, the more colors you have, the more guild
mana-fixers you have access to! And, of course, there will be more cards to
choose from that are in your colors. So, you might think to yourself, “If going
two colors is a bad idea when drafting Dragon’s Maze, then how many colors
should I be drafting?”
Here’s the answer: at least three. If you have at
least three colors, you’ll be sure to have access to powerful gold cards in
both the Gatecrash and Return to Ravnica packs. Let’s say you pick
red-green-blue: Izzet, Simic, and Gruul. In Gatecrash, you’ll have access to
red, green, blue, and all Simic and Gruul cards. In Return to Ravnica, you’ve
got your picks of red, green, blue, and Izzet cards.
But, as you can see, the amount of cards that are
relevant in each pack is not equal. Dragon’s Maze will, of course, have something
for everyone, but Gatecrash will have the greater share of cards for you when
you choose red-green-blue than the Return to Ravnica pack. If you want a more
even spread of support for your colors, you’ll need to kick it into either four
colors or five colors.
Dragon Fource
Now, five colors, as a theme has been done more
than once. It was done back during the Invasion block as domain, and it
reappeared in Conflux. So, I’m not suggesting that there is going to be a
five-color theme in Dragon’s Maze. No way. …I’m speculating that there will be
a four-color theme instead!
Here’s why Dragon’s Maze will contain a theme
where it’s important to focus on four colors: the mana-fixing support, the
block structure, the cards referring to basic land types, the flavor support,
and the existence of Commander. O.K., the last one doesn’t necessarily
influence set and block design decisions, but it helps that it’s a boon instead
of something bad for Magic: The Gathering. Whenever something would be bad for Magic, it can
even be scrapped as a decision. This is not the case for four-color cards and
its impact on the Commander scene.
Multicolor as a theme is very popular, and players
love the identities given to each of the ten two-color pairs in the form of the
guilds. Shards of Alara brought us five more identities for each of the ally
three-color groupings. Domain (five colors) has already been done twice. This
leaves just ten identities left: the five “wedge” colors and five four-color groupings.
I feel that, like the shards in Shards of Alara,
the “wedge” colors have enough design space to merit its own block. When it
comes to four-color cards, however, it’s tougher. And this is especially why four-color
cards would be a perfect fit as a small set twist for the Return to Ravnica
block.
The mana-fixing support you need for four-color
cards is tricky – if you include too many cards in a set/block’s design that
help you have access to four colors, then what would stop a player from simply
having a five-color deck? This is a unique challenge for the four-color theme:
it would be “domain” all over again. So, you’d have to be careful with how you
dole out your mana-fixers.
Luckily, Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash has already
helped set up for four-color card support. The Guildgates and Keyrunes only
offer two colors of support – and rightfully so. They support two-color guilds.
These cards, along with Transguild Promenade, the Gatecrash-equivalent to
Transguild Promenade, and whatever mana-fixing support is available in Dragon’s
Maze will help to make four-color cards possible without going overboard and
enabling five-color decks.
Now, when you’re drafting Return to Ravnica by
itself, going with a two-color deck is an absolute minimum with the option of
going with a three-color deck is you pick up those mana-fixing cards. And like
I said above, when you’re drafting with Dragon’s Maze, going with a three-color
support is the minimum for optimal card choices between the Gatecrash and Return
to Ravnica packs. So, it stands to reason that your color strategy for the Dragon’s
Maze drafting format is: three-color minimum with the option to go four colors.
Four In Policy
Normally, when you’re increasing the number of
colors your deck supports, you’re sacrificing some of the punches your deck could
have in exchange for smoothing out your deck and having a wide variety of spell
effects. But when you’ve got two-color gold cards, something happens: the power
of the card is higher compared to a spell of the same converted mana cost. This
makes up for you going out of your way to make sure your mana base supports two
colors! You get powerful cards.
As a rule, the more colored mana symbols there are
in a card’s converted mana cost, the more powerful it can be. It has heavier
restrictions. This is why the guild leaders can be more powerful because they
each require a whopping four colored mana symbols. The guild leaders also
scream: play just my two colors. Have a ton of black and a ton of red, and
Rakdos will be yours to summon. And he will be powerful.
But, as another rule, the more different kinds of
colored mana symbols there are in the mana cost of a card, the more powerful it
will be. A gold card with a white mana symbol and a green mana symbol is more powerful
than a card of the same converted mana cost with two green mana symbols. That’s
because you can simply throw a ton of Forests in your deck to achieve casting
the latter card.
So, take these two rules of the power of cards
with colored mana symbols in their mana cost, and apply them to a theoretical
four-color card: you get super-powerful cards. This power you get balances out
the fact that they’re difficult to cast. Just look at
Woolly Thoctar as an
example of how much it dwarfs
Centaur Courser in size because it requires red,
green, AND white instead of the Centaur’s measly “one green” requirement. Here,
let me demonstrate:
Bonebreaker Giant is a 4/4 for 4R.
Add one more colored mana symbol for a cost of 3RR
yet still keep it monocolored, and you get a 5/4 Fire Elemental!
However, if you make that extra colored mana
symbol a second, different color instead of the same color, perhaps with a mana
cost of 3RG, you’ll get a 6/4 Streetbreaker Wurm! Two more whole points of
power for the same amount of mana as Bonebreaker Giant because there are more
colored mana symbols and more colors.
Lastly, to demonstrate the power of requiring
maximum number of colored mana symbols with the maximum number of colors on a
card with a converted mana cost of 5, I present to you: an 8/8 Fusion
Elemental! That’s QUITE the jump from 4/4 (yes, I do realize that its uncommon rarity may mean it had a bump in power level - which, on a side note, makes me upset - but you get the point)!
With all this power of four-color cards, you’re
going to want to run it in Standard. But how will you support four-color decks?
Ah, with a heavy-hitting line-up of the five ally dual lands in Magic 2013, the
five enemy dual lands in Innistrad block, and ten guild dual lands in Return to
Ravnica block.
It’s these guild duals that are particularly
important because they each have basic land types. There’s been a curious
increase in the number of cards that care about lands that are not just basic
lands but have the basic land types. In
Magic 2013, there’s
Arbor Elf,
Farseek,
Ranger's Path, and
Gem of Becoming. If you have the
Return to Ravnica block
duals, your color selection is vastly increased, despite fetching "just a Forest," which might be helpful when you’re
trying to cast your four-color cards in your Standard Decks!
Notably, what was determined with my own “four
colors matter” set is that the key to making a set that supported four-color
decks but not five-color decks was basic lands. Cards that required you to need
basic lands in your deck were leveraging the natural restrictions of devoting
card slots for those basic lands. The similarity between cards that cared about
basic land types and cards that care about basic lands is interesting!
Now, for something completely different: Commander
needs four-color legendary creatures. There are currently none to choose from
when you’re trying to find a Commander. Mark Rosewater said that if he
could go back and change the only five four-color cards in Magic: The Gathering
to be legendary creatures, he would. And with Wizards of the Coast’s recent strong
support for Commander by providing new Commander products every year, it’s safe
to say that Wizards likes it when something is Commander-friendly. So the fact
that having a set with four-color cards in theme means there’s an opportunity
for the existence of four-color legendary creatures only helps to reinforce the
decision to have a four-color theme.
Which brings me to my next point: flavor. It’s
difficult to define each of the four-color groupings. What does it mean to be nonblack?
How do we do what we did for Shards of Alara but with even more restriction?
How will a four-color nonblack card feel different from the Bant or Naya
shards?
This is yet another reason why Dragon’s Maze would
be perfect to house four-color cards: the flavor supports it. You see, the
protagonists have already been defined and have clear identities: the guilds.
The guilds are back and all ten will return in Dragon’s Maze. The difference
between the original Ravnica block and the Return to Ravnica block is that
there now needs to be a strong opposing force to all of the guilds (Nicol
Bolas? Maybe.)
However, as in the Ravnica story in the books and
in
articles on DailyMTG, there WAS something terrible all of the guilds were facing:
the Nephilim. Sadly, these four-color Nephilim creatures didn’t get much
presence card-wise. There are
seven Nephilim-related cards: one for each of
the five Nephilim and two measly cards that referenced the Nephilim.
In the original story, Niv-Mizzet had quite the
ordeal with these Nephilim. He destroyed two of ‘em and then fled the scene
(Ravnica) with Rakdos destroying a third Nephilim. The last two retreated underground
or something. …which is a fact that’s important! Niv-Mizzet eventually came
back, and… well, what’s he up to now? He’s having the Izzet League doing
strange things. I wonder why? Perhaps he’s BUILDING A DEFENSE AGAINST THE
NEPHILIM?! …and creating a maze of stuff underground, thus the “Dragon’s Maze”
set name! Eh, eh? All right, so that's a bit of a stretch, but you see where I'm going with this, right?
Ultimately, the story is right there and ready to
welcome the four-color Nephilim cards. A few may have died before, but the
nature of the Nephilim is unknown (regenerative properties, for example) and
the new Ravnican story was able to accommodate the re-forming of the guilds
despite the Guildpact being broken in the previous block’s story. So, the
plus-side is that this totally supports having five four-color legendary creature
cards.
On a tangential note, Wizards has stated that
there will be new guild champions for each of the guilds. What better time to
have guild champions to fight for each of their respective guilds than when the
Nephilim re-emerge to wreak havoc upon Ravnica? And, yes, I am aware that this
means there would be fifteen legendary creatures in one set. It’ll be all right
– five mythic legendary creatures and ten rare guild champion legendary
creatures.
I can also see as a possibility that there would
be humanoid/dragon/other four-color legendary creatures that channel their
respective four-color Nephilim. I’m stating this in case I get so close in my
prediction yet people will point out that the Nephilim didn’t end up being the
four-color legendary creatuers. Might as well cover my bases with far-reaching
speculation like this!
I also realize that designing four-color legendary
creature is entirely possible to do with just the Commander products. This is
something I fully support happening and think should happen. This would mean
even MORE potential four-color commanders. However, this shouldn’t take the
place of Magic: The Gathering eventually having four-color Block and Standard
decks! That’s an experience yet to be had!
Fourm of the Dragon
I can see how I could be wrong about the four-color card
theme, though. For example, there could be a multicolored vs. monocolored theme between the guilds and "the guildless" with cards that use the words “multicolored” and “monocolored” as hinted at in
the cards
Pyroconvergence and
Ultimate Price. Jay Treat
at least briefly mentioned thisbefore. (Though, "monocolored matters" would be a hard sell for me since the drafting
Gatecrash and
Return to Ravnica both encourage multicolor). Perhaps Gates will be very important (or they’ll help fuel the
four-color card support in the mana-fixing cards in
Dragon’s Maze). But
four-color cards is going to have to be my guess (which may or may not also have the "multicolored matters" theme, too).
Multicolor as a theme doesn’t happen every year.
And when multicolor does show up as a theme, it isn’t always the right time for
four-color cards. But Dragon’s Maze is the perfect time for four-color cards.
The block structure is right, mana-fixing support is correct, and “four colors”
is something that needs to happen in a Magic: The Gathering set someday. If there’s any time
to do four-color cards… this is it!
If hindsight is 20/20, four-sight is
Dragon’s Maze.
