Walls:
Ideally, walls should be in defensive colors, only. Therefore, only White, an ally, and an artifact have walls:
Angelic Wall
Wall of Swords
Sunweb
Fog Bank
Glacial Wall
Crenellated Wall
No Green wall made the cut, although a couple (Whip Vine, Carnivorous Plant) almost did. The one artifact selection was Crenellated Wall. All of the others are Blue or White. That means no walls were even considered for Red or Black. Red and Black are too aggressive for walls. Green is too aggressive for more than one or so. The walls are fairly self-explanatory, actually.
I like Fog Bank. It was just too Blue-ish to leave out.
Angelic Wall comes in as well, and of the other ones have already in a basic set.
Combo:
As mentioned in the first piece, there should be combo cards in the basic set, but they should suggest multiple combos, instead of being overly limited. Included are:
Opposition
Solitary Confinement
Ankh of Mishra
Howling Mine
Fecundity
Now, I know some people may not like the presence of Opposition. I was initially leaning towards Rising Waters, but ultimately felt that Waters was a bit more abusable. Opposition always played out well, but there are answers to it. I felt that with Choke, Juntu Stakes, and City of Solitude included in the set, Opposition had enough foils.
Remember, the environment needs to be balanced. I can hardly take all of the good cards way from Blue and simultaneously hand Green great powerful cards, and yet have a fair, balanced environment.
Solitary Confinement was a definite addition. I loved the idea of a White spell that said, "Thou Shall Not Touch Me." To be honest, I thought about including it in a basic set as soon as the spoiler came out. I really thought it was just a basic White card.
The Ankh left Standard just as it was seeing loads of play. It also fits in fast decks too. Howling Mine has not seen as much play recently – but it could always surprise us, especially with Opposition and Icy Manipulator in the same set. Fecundity was a nice little Greenish addition, and look for it in a later section entitled "Non-Blue Drawing."
Casual/Combo Cards:
There were some cards I liked that could be either purely casual, or explode into a combo. They are:
Show and Tell
Balance of Power
Reprocess
Searing Wind
Relentless Assault
Fling
Restock
Pack Hunt
Nature’s Resurgence
Liege of the Hollows
Collective Unconscious
Pegasus Refuge
Snake Basket
Brood of Cockroaches
Mind Maggots
Zombify
Denizen of the Deep
Verduran Enchantress
I wanted several different things to do with the Denizen besides hard-casting it (in case you couldn’t tell). Look for Mind Maggots and Zombify, or maybe Show and Tell. There are a few ways to make quick mana through creatures and artifacts, and I thought up a lot of fun decks. I loved my elf-ball-basket-Fecundity-Collective-Unconsciousness-City-of -Solitude-deck; it was one reason I removed Citanul Hierophants from the environment (heh).
Cards like Searing Wind always show up somehow. Fling, in addition to giving you something to do with that Denizen, has seen some combo uses.
Others of these cards were tried in combo decks. Some worked. Some didn’t. I felt my Cockroaches-Fecundity deck, while original, was pretty lame.
Show and Tell is one of the cards I expect should be pretty popular. Liege of the Hollows, as the original squirrel card, might also sell a few packs. That is always a goal of a main set.
Non-Blue Card Drawing:
One crucial quality some colors need is a way of drawing cards, or of looking through several cards and making a selection. Here are the cards that draw or tutor for pure cards, and are non-blue:
Jayemdae Tome
Howling Mine
Commune with Nature
Compost
Fecundity
Sylvan Scrying
Nature’s Resurgence
Collective Unconsciousness
Pack Hunt
Spiritual Focus
Oblation
Goblin Matron
Skulltap
Skeletal Scrying
Reprocess
Phyrexian Arena
Of course, there are lots of ways to gain card advantage. The concept is so important that it should hardly be limited to Blue. Additionally, other colors get sweeping effects or multiple targets: Wrath of God, Wildfire, Shatterstorm, and Tempest of Light are excellent examples.
But while White and Red get plenty of sweeping effects, Black and Green get hardly any. To compensate, both get some pure card drawing. Black gets Reprocess (which is hardly used) and Phyrexian Arena, which may be the first balanced Necropotence. Add in Skulltap and Skeletal Scrying and you have a solid amount of card drawing from common to rare.
Green, however, has just one sweeping effect – and that is the rare Hurricane. As such, it gets more card drawing than any other non-blue color. Fecundity and Nature’s Resurgence help out both players, but, of course, you can set up for them. Collective Unconscious fits in nicely, and Pack Hunt will grab you a few creatures. I felt that these cards represented some versatile card advantage opportunities for Green. Sylvan Scrying tutors for any land, while Restock is pure card advantage. Toss in the common Commune with Nature and you have a well rounded suite of card drawing.
Changing Rarity:
Where appropriate, rarity was changed on several cards to give the set a better Limited feel. Some cards are more appropriate for a different commonality, anyways. These cards include:
Battle Cry
Dragon Engine
Fling
Flowstone Crusher
Hunting Drake
Mental Discipline
Clone
Megrim
Rule of Law
Whiptail Wurm
Some cards simply feel like a different rarity. Flowstone Crusher and Mental Discipline feel more uncommon than common. Dragon Engine, Whiptail Wurm, Rule of Law, and Battle Cry were each made more common. None of these cards were particularly valuable, and each fit in nicely at their spots. The hoser-esque Hunting Drake belongs in an uncommon slot. Fling was moved to the uncommon spot to prevent problems in Limited. Clone is an appropriately rare card.
That leaves Megrim. Honestly, Megrim was made a rare for two reasons: First, I initially moved it to rare because I thought of it more as a rare. I then moved it to uncommon because I didn’t like the thought of a rare that would have little value. Since Megrims are readily available, I was put off by having a valueless rare. As I continued to flesh out the set, however, I ran out of space in the Black uncommons for spells. The last card I cut was Megrim. If Megrim were uncommon, it would not be in the set.
However, after I cut some more Black cards from rare spots, I had a couple of open slots. I looked back at my rares and uncommons that had been cut – and I spied Megrim again. I decided that it was better to reprint Megrim as a value-lite rare than to have no Megrim at all.
One-Drops:
It was very important that each color should have two common one-drops. They are:
Infantry Veteran
Suntail Hawk
Llanowar Elves
Village Elder
Frostling
Raging Goblin
Blood Pet
Carrion Feeder
Manta Riders
Tidal Warrior
Every one of these creatures is a 1/1. I wanted creatures that represented each color well. Therefore, there are no Stone-Throwing Devils or Bog Rats, for example. A few commons almost made the cut, including Insidious Bookworms and Elvish Berserker.
I also wanted a few one-drops in uncommon slots. Look for:
Elvish Lyrist
Elvish Scrapper
Icatian Priest
Goblin Soothsayer
I didn’t really want a one-drop in Blue, and all of the Black ones were cut, which was fine by me after reviewing their collectively low power level. We are left with the two Green guys that blow up stuff. Additionally, Icatian Priest joins with a very White ability, while the Soothsayer has a similar ability with a good Red taint.
Use New Cards, Where Applicable:
Here you find relatively new cards that help flesh out the set. All of these cards are printed in Odyssey Block or later:
Suntail Hawk
Demystify
Pay No Heed
Raise the Alarm
Commune with Nature
Nourish
Frost Ogre
Frostling
Crack the Earth
Screaming Fury
Carrion Feeder
Consume Spirit
Skulltap
Minamo Sightbender
Goblin Cannon
Icy Manipulator
Ghostly Prison
Rule of Law
Tempest of Light
Fangren Pathcutter
Sylvan Scrying
Demolish
Threaten
Relentless Rats
Zombify
Skeletal Scrying
Long-Term Plans
Puppeteer
Grid Monitor
Oblation
Solitary Confinement
Joiner Adept
Twist Allegiance
Last Word
Trade Secrets
I wanted to include all Magic cards, not just old ones.
Miscellany:
There are a few cards that do not fit in the above categories that I wanted to discuss. They are:
Smokestack
Zephid
Time Warp
Bribery
No Mercy
Ogre Shaman
Smokestack is a great card that has a lot of synergies with combo and aggressive decks. It is the Braids for all colors. I really wanted something in a Winter Orb fashion that could be experimented with as disruption in aggressive decks. I wanted tempo to have at least one card after I cut Rising Waters: Enter the Smokestack.
I know that Smokestack’s reprinting would be major news, and it might shift the environment somewhat for a while – but after I decided to leave out Armageddon and Waters, I really felt like tempo should get one card to help it out. I want my set to be friendly to all types of strategies without making that strategy too powerful.
I believe that Blue should always have access to a decent flier that cannot easily be stopped. Rainbow Efreet and Morphling were a bit over-the-top, and Silver Wyvern was a little weak. I wanted a creature that Blue could always turn to for a draw-go style deck. That creature is Zephid.
While we are on the subject of Blue, I felt that Blue needed the ability to take an additional turn in the basic set. It is just too essential of an ability. I put in the classic. I tried playing with it, but combo had better stuff, and control really did too. So it never did that much. Still, it will drive sales, build interest, and be a lot of fun. It also goes well with Restock…
Bribery is just such a Blue card, I wanted to include it. It can also get your opponent’s Denizen of the Deep, and I wanted to take a second to point that out.
No Mercy is one of Black’s answers to Absolute Grace. It is also a shut-down, controllish kind of card. It is classic in the style of The Abyss, Pillar Tombs of Aku, and so forth. I wanted a Black enchantment that adequately represented its traditional abilities. I tried it in U/B, and found it to be really strong. You would need to watch out for it.
Ogre Shaman was the most legitimate of the Cursed Scroll/Meteor Storm/Stormbind cards I could find. I wanted Red to have a way of turning random cards into burn, without the effect being too powerful. The Shaman, as a five-mana creature that had to tap and use mana, was sufficient.
Conclusion:
It was my goal to create the best, most balanced, set possible, within quite a few parameters. I believe that I have done more than that. I believe that I have created a balanced set, with a load of chase cards. For example, each of these could be considered a chase card at one time or another:
10 Painlands
Coat of Arms
Snake Basket
Serra Angel
Sengir Vampire
Erhnam Djinn
Mahamoti Djinn
Shivan Dragon
Show and Tell
Jade Statue
Blaze of Glory
Armageddon
Wrath of God
Thundermare
Time Warp
City of Solitude
Child of Gaea
Exploration
Utopia Tree
Might of Oaks
Relentless Assault
Searing Wind
Wildfire
No Mercy
Phyrexian Arena
Deflection
Opposition
Rising Waters
Icy Manipulator
Jester’s Cap
Time has certainly neutered some of these cards, like Snake Basket, Relentless Assault or Deflection. However, it does start to look like a virtual “Who’s who” of chase cards that weren’t brokenly powerful (like, say, Mox Diamond, Oath of Druids, Cursed Scroll, Stroke of Genius, and so forth). I think I have made a good set, and also a set that would sell well, from start to finish. I believe you can do both.
At least, I’ve tried to. Anyway, a lot of time and care went into this activity. Here is my labor of love. Please let me know what you think.
Until later,
Abe Sargent