Gavin Verhey revisited his game of “three random cards” in today’s episode of Good Morning Magic.
To play the game, Verhey goes to Gatherer and hits random three times, breaking down the history or lore behind any card that pops up. His previous playing of the game lead to a discussion on how Blood Moon almost didn’t end up in Eighth Edition.
First up is Wall of Souls originally from Stronghold. The version shown on screen is from Tempest Remastered, a Magic Online only set that combined the best from the Tempest block, much like the upcoming Time Spiral Remastered set that was teased in Zendikar Rising preview season. The wall forces the opponent to take some damage to continue to attack into it, and Verhey could see it as a future white or red design. The card is too old for Verhey to find design notes on it.
From Alara Reborn, Thopter Foundry looked unimpressive at first until people combined it with Sword of the Meek in Extended. When inspecting the design notes, it originally had no mana cost to sacrifice an artifact, which made the difference between infinite tokens from the combo to how much mana you had. The one-mana activation cost is called a “managate” used to prevent infinite combos and allow attacking players to know the opponent can’t make extra blockers when tapped out.
Lastly, the headline card from Magic 2014, Chandra, Pyromaster. The big deal was the zero ability, giving red a source of card advantage, similar to Elkin Bottle. Verhey hints at a new way white could get card drawing after they solved how to get it into red. The design notes show Verhey himself suggested making the +1 stronger, but it remained as only one damage. The +1 looks to have kept Chandra in check and from being an iconic card like Chandra, Torch of Defiance from Kaladesh, which had a similar plus ability to what Verhey recommended for Chandra, Pyromaster.