Gavin Verhey is back with another episode of Good Morning Magic where he breaks down the five favorite cards he has ever designed.
Verhey mentioned on a previous episode that he came up with Monastery Mentor and how it went to print almost exactly as he pitched it. He goes over how it entered the card file as an enchantment before turning into an artifact before getting reverted back to a white creature and having its mana cost played with, eventually ending right back where it started.
Next, Verhey explains the origin story of Teferi’s Protection. It started as “Vanish into Smoke” a card with the same design but with vampire flavor for the Vampires deck in Commander 2017. The card got a flavor re-skin to show Teferi phasing out Zhalfir, then the rules manager authorized using the keyword phasing for the first time in a long time.
Battlebond’s Stunning Reversal was a concept Verhey came up with when trying to use an idea from video games. Even the hanging on by a thread idea was conceptualized in the art.
Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign has an interesting story from theory to finalization. Verhey wanted to make a new commander for an odd mana costs matter deck that plays off the top of the library, but he ended up working with every aspect of the card to make sure everything was odd. From words, amount of letters in words, to details in the art, everything is odd about this card.
Finally, Verhey goes over Serene Remembrance. When he was a kid, Verhey made his own cards and his friends came over and played with them. After he started working at WotC, Verhey went home for a visit and his mother gave him a box of his created cards where he found the design for Serene Remembrance. Verhey pitched the card for Gatecrash and it went to print just how he designed it when he was 11 years old.