One of (perhaps the) main design focuses (foci?) during the so-called “Bronze Age” of Magic has been the concept of block mechanics. Older blocks like Tempest or Mirage tended not to have such overarching themes across each block. In fact, Saga block was supposed to be “the enchantment block”, although everyone remembers it as either an artifact block or a broken card block.
In general, blocks tend to be focused on such different themes that they aren’t really very compatible with each other. Using Onslaught for an example, there were no Cycling cards and very few Goblins in Odyssey and Mirrodin, the two sets that were legal when Onslaught was and thus nearly every card in those decks came from either Onslaught block or from the basic set. In Type One however, blocks never rotate out. This gives deckbuilders the ability to plumb older sets for cards which can work along with a block mechanic. Some blocks have been more successful than others because of this effect.
When looking at block mechanics, two separate aspects stuck out: there are the cards themselves which use the mechanic, and then there are the enablers that allow the mechanic to be abused. Both of these need to be of sufficient power for the mechanic to make a dent on Type One. Furthermore, it is also very beneficial if preexisting or otherwise generally useful cards can be shaped into being enablers or can become more powerful through the use of the mechanic’s enablers.
Invasion
Invasion has two themes: multicolor and Domain. As I demonstrated in part one, Type One decks are built on the fact that because there are so many relatively drawback-free lands that produce numerous colors of mana, it becomes easier to splash more colors than to commit more to the colors already in a deck. Thus, it became easy for decks to splash cards like Meddling Mage or Artifact Mutation, even if neither of those colors were among the main ones in a deck. The number of Invasion block cards has ebbed and flowed over the years (when Invasion first came out, it was possible to create a Type One deck from primarily Invasion block cards), but this has been more to do with the steep increase in power level in sets like Odyssey and Mirrodin rather than a fundamental flaw with multicolored strategies.
Domain, however has not faired well. On the surface, Domain should be a somewhat natural fit for Type One decks. A large portion of Type One decks are based on dual lands and dual lands and are thus run many colors, making it very easy to set up the Domain with very little actual constraint on deckbuilding (for instance, Type One decks wouldn’t need to use specialized cards like Harrow or Rampant Growth that the original Domain decks needed). Therefore, rather than being a problem of having sufficient enablers, the problem was that the mechanic itself was not sufficient strong enough. There is little incentive to assemble a varied set of lands in order to power Collective Restraint when Moat and The Abyss are available for the same purpose. Similarly, with draw effects like Thirst for Knowledge and Skeletal Scrying providing instant-speed draw spells that net you cards at a one-for-one ratio to mana, Allied Strategies looks pretty weak.
Odyssey
Odyssey is one of the most successful blocks in Type One in terms of its mechanics. This stems from a variety of reasons. First, within the block itself, both the individual cards using the mechanics (discard, graveyard effects, etc.) and the enablers for these mechanics are very powerful. The best example of this is how Basking Rootwalla shows up in decks like Fish or R/G aggro where the only way to Madness it out is through the Wild Mongrels that are in the deck, even though the only card in the deck that can take direct advantage of the discard ability is Basking Rootwalla.
Additionally, there were already enablers among the staple cards in Type One. Madness decks could use cards like Lion’s Eye Diamond and Bazaar of Baghdad as an additional discard outlets. TnT could use Survival of the Fittest to both find and discard Incarnations like Anger and Wonder. There’s also Psychatog, which works on the most general level, since Type One already provided tons of ways to quickly fill a graveyard-such as Intuition to find Flashback cards like Deep Analysis or Lava Dart.
Onslaught
Onslaught’s themes of Cycling and tribes, with the exception of Goblins, failed to make a dent on Type One. With regards to Cycling, there were plenty of enablers (both in the form of existing Cycling as well as Fluctuator) already in print because of Saga block but little use for many of them. Why play Secluded Steppe when Tundra is legal? Who wants to have to use Scrap when you can have Rack and Ruin? Off the top of my head, the only Cycling cards that I can remember seeing much play in Type One are Cloud of Faeries and Renewed Faith. A Type One Cycling deck would be sacrificing too much power by having to replace Type One staples with Cycling cards.
Tribal decks had the opposite problem. For all of the non-Goblin tribes, there simply were just not enough playable cards in the tribes to make them work. A Cleric tribe deck could run Rotlung Reanimator and then uh, Order of the Ebon Hand? Do Zombies have anything more than Withered Wretch and Sarcomancy? The closest thing to a Type One playable Elf is Elvish Spirit Guide, which is neither an Elf nor actually ever hardcasted. And unless there’s some card that was randomly errata’ed when I wasn’t paying attention, it looks like Aquamoeba is it for Beasts and it’s not from this Block.
Goblins, however worked because it had both aspects. The two most powerful Goblins, Goblin Lackey and Goblin Recruiter, were both printed before Onslaught. Along with other good existing Goblins like Mogg Fanatic, Goblin Matron, and Goblin Ringleader, there are plenty of Goblins to power up those Goblin Piledrivers and Siege-Gang Commanders. Of course, it is also important to point out that the Goblin tribe was given the most tribal cards in the block by far. Just look at the Warchief cycle.
Mirrodin
Mirrodin is an interesting case. Mirrodin was the artifact block, and the most recognizable manifestation of this was in the form of Affinity. Affinity has the tools, both within the block and from existing Type One staples, to work in Type One but rarely sees play. I think that this ultimately comes from the mechanic being pushed too far. It becomes difficult to find a way to squeeze in say, Force of Will without compromising too much of the deck’s strategy.
With regards to Type One, it is the artifact emphasis of Mirrodin that made such a powerful impact because the set finally gave some of the preexisting enablers something to actually enable. Prior to Mirrodin, Tinker was used to find Memory Jar almost every time, while Goblin Welder’s primary purpose was to allow aggro decks to keep a stream of creatures flowing or maybe to return a spent Tangle Wire to play. Both of these plans are fine and good but they pale in comparison to what Mirrodin finally allowed them to do. If we take Control Slaver, control decks in Type One prior to Mirrodin were already running a large number of artifact accelerants and always looking for new draw spells. With the addition of cards like Mindslaver and Thirst for Knowledge, control decks gained something to do with those spare Moxes that was much stronger than what was previously available.
I should also note that perhaps a more extreme case of Mirrodin allowing enablers to finally enable is with Teen Titans in Extended. While everyone has Moxes in Type One (making Goblin Welder easy to use), there were very few artifacts worth Welding away in Extended. Mirrodin then brought in not just the Sundering Titan and Platinum Angel to Weld into play, but also the artifact lands to provide good fodder for the Welders.
Champions of Kamigawa
Lastly, we have Champions block. The two main themes here are Legendary status and Spiritcraft. For purposes of this article, we can’t really count the first of these themes because it is much more of a flavor aspect that a gameplay-related one. I honestly doubt that Umezawa’s Jitte would see any more or less play if it weren’t a Legendary permanent. There are a fair number of cards within the block which take Legendary status into account, but nearly all of these affect the game in a way that is not relevant in Type One and thus are going to have to compete with cards that in many cases do more or less the same thing but affect more than just Legends (think Hero’s Demise or Time of Need).
Spiritcraft, and more specifically, Arcane spells are the most obvious example of a mechanic which just can’t cut it in Type One because it can’t draw upon an existing set of enablers. I could definitely see some of the Splice cards like Glacial Ray, Horobi’s Whisper, Evermind, or Wear Away being played in Type One, but there simply aren’t any existing cards to Splice these on to, leaving us with just the Splice cards themselves, which ultimately defeats the strategy itself. Now, we’re forced to use the Arcane spells just in Champions block. This leaves us with a problem similar to that with the Cycling cards in Onslaught block where the cards that enable our strategy are just worse than what we already have. Example: Murmurs from Beyond seems like it should be a playable card in terms of power level, but I’m not going to cut Thirst for Knowledge in order to run it.
Before ending, I just want to also point out that while these articles are called “Designing for Vintage”, the other use for them is to provide a set of useful guidelines when poring over spoilers or looking for cards to fill a gap in your deck. As Ravnica is looking to be another Invasion-type block, many of the same lessons from that particular block might be applicable next year as well.
–JP Meyer
jpmeyer at gmail dot com