ark likes to invent conversations that happened at Wizards, so here goes:
**phone rings**
JMS: Hello?
Scott Johns (magicthegathering.com's producer): Hey JMS, it's Scott. We're going to do Swap Week as a theme week on the site, where each of the columnists on a day writes the other guy's column.
JMS: Okay...
Scott: That means you'll need to break off in the middle of your last preconstructed deck evolution to write Making Magic on March 13th. Awesome, huh?
JMS: ...
Scott: Are you thrilled?
JMS: Um. No.
Scott: What?!? Why not? You get arguably the sweetest assignment of all ten week-day writers!
JMS: But, Scott... I don't make Magic.
Scott: Oh. Well, you're a creative guy. You'll think of something.
JMS: But...
Scott: Gotta go! Gottlieb just ran by naked! Oh God, he's coming back! Hide, everyone! Get dow--
**click**
So here I am. As I've said in previous articles, some of the writers on this site are Wizards of the Coast “insiders.” They work in Renton, creating the game we all love. Others won some sort of writing lottery in order to discuss Magic on a weekly basis. I'm one of the lottery guys. I've visited WotC's offices three times, and although I do work on names and flavor text as a contractor, my insights into Magic Design are few.
Luckily, Mark uses a number of gimmicks in his column that I can borrow for a day. One of my favorites is Topical Blend, where Mark lets you decide what two topics he's going to squish together into a day's worth of tasty reading. The first time out, he talked Design Mistakes and Girls. Last time, he tackled a Sixth Color of Magic and the fact that he's crazy. That second article also left me these handy poll results:
|
List A - Magic Related (Choose One)
|
| What happened to Pestilence? |
463 |
7.8% |
| Pros and Cons of Introducing a Sixth Color |
463 |
7.8% |
| Impossible things to do in Magic |
342 |
5.7% |
| Biggest changes in Magic that never happened |
255 |
4.3% |
| Possible ways to make Magic more appealing to women |
194 |
3.3% |
| Why Skeletons are not just really, really rotten Zombies, despite what Cohen the Barbarian said to Ghaak in "The Last Hero" by Terry Pratchett |
148 |
2.5% |
| Angels |
148 |
2.5% |
| 6th Color Pros and Cons |
147 |
2.5% |
| Stories about banned cards I've designed |
145 |
2.4% |
| Poison Abilities in Magic (Why was it abandoned? Will it come back in a new set? Etc.) |
137 |
2.3% |
| Original Decisions in Magic (Why five colors? Why those basic lands?, etc.) |
135 |
2.3% |
| Cards That Failed To Get Through Design |
126 |
2.1% |
| The Power Nin |
124 |
2.1% |
| Impossible things to do in Magic |
116 |
2.0% |
| Frogs |
115 |
1.9% |
| Why Magic cards seem better now than they used to |
106 |
1.8% |
| Ooze Creature Types in Magic |
100 |
1.7% |
| Advantages for adding a 6th color |
95 |
1.6% |
| What Would Magic Be Like Without Rarity |
94 |
1.6% |
| What would early Magic (Arabian Nights through Fallen Empires) have been like under the block system |
92 |
1.5% |
| Math and Magic |
91 |
1.5% |
| Faeries |
91 |
1.5% |
| Zero-Cost Spells |
90 |
1.5% |
|
Magic Legends From R&D's Secret Lair |
89 |
1.5% |
| Legacy (the format, as opposed to the collection of artifacts that Gerard was responsible for) |
88 |
1.5% |
| Counterspells |
82 |
1.4% |
| Drafting |
80 |
1.3% |
| Game Theory and Battle of Wits |
77 |
1.3% |
| History of Grizzly Bears (and other 2-drop 2/2s) |
74 |
1.2% |
| Alpha/Beta |
73 |
1.2% |
| Enchant Worlds (aka World Enchantments) |
73 |
1.2% |
| Most embarassing moments of the Pro Tour |
70 |
1.2% |
| Player Evolution (I personally think everyone (who isn't influenced a lot by others) goes through stages in their magic experience) |
69 |
1.2% |
| Popular Cards vs. Good Cards (And How We Design Each) |
67 |
1.1% |
| People who don't like new sets |
64 |
1.1% |
| Most Comical Day in R&D |
63 |
1.1% |
| R&D's reflections about the Urza Block (with Multiverse comments, maybe?) |
56 |
0.9% |
| Top Magic Cards Inspired by Real People/Items/Events |
54 |
0.9% |
|
Un-set design |
53 |
0.9% |
| The coolest color combination |
52 |
0.9% |
| Coin Flip Cards |
49 |
0.8% |
| The color red |
48 |
0.8% |
| Storyline Development |
47 |
0.8% |
| Deck Milling throughout history (Altar of Dementia) |
45 |
0.8% |
| Balancing/Creating New Countermagic |
45 |
0.8% |
|
Magic Art |
42 |
0.7% |
| Three color cards |
41 |
0.7% |
| Your top regrets in Magic |
41 |
0.7% |
| Abilities that could be made into keywords (e.g., "Whenever this creature deals damage, you gain that much life.") and why you haven't done so |
38 |
0.6% |
| The race-class system |
37 |
0.6% |
| The Role of Chaos Inducing Cards |
36 |
0.6% |
| The Role of Chaos Inducing Cards |
30 |
0.5% |
| Design of vanilla creatures (!) |
27 |
0.5% |
| How to know the game has been stretched too far |
27 |
0.5% |
| Exploring virgin territory in design |
26 |
0.4% |
| Choosing Set Themes |
22 |
0.4% |
| Why cats in Magic have creature type Cat but dogs in Magic have creature type Hound (instead of Dog) |
22 |
0.4% |
| Expansion symbols and logos |
21 |
0.4% |
| How Magic decks are similar to and different from openings and opening positions in other games (e.g., chess and Stratego) |
20 |
0.3% |
| How the internet has affected Magic |
20 |
0.3% |
| Creature Types |
19 |
0.3% |
| How Sixth Edition Rules Affect Design |
18 |
0.3% |
| How has magicthegathering.com affected the game? |
18 |
0.3% |
| Recent changes to the color pie |
18 |
0.3% |
| Set Superdesign (amount of cards, amount of cards per color, amount of sets, release dates of sets etc) |
17 |
0.3% |
| Removal |
17 |
0.3% |
| Why Urza's is a Land Subtype rather than a Land Supertype. |
16 |
0.3% |
| The importance of Eternal formats |
15 |
0.3% |
| How the Public Impacts Magic |
14 |
0.2% |
| Ways you've changed cards to make it harder for players to cheat with them |
13 |
0.2% |
| Creature Types: Where do They Come From? |
12 |
0.2% |
| The design and economy of Fat Packs |
11 |
0.2% |
| How to successfully lead a design team |
10 |
0.2% |
| Self-sacrifice cards and forced sacrifice |
10 |
0.2% |
| The Reduction of the number of X Spells in Magic |
9 |
0.2% |
| Interconnectivity of sets |
9 |
0.2% |
| Cards with Flying |
8 |
0.1% |
| Does Rules Lawyering Detract from Magic |
8 |
0.1% |
| Designing Enchantments |
7 |
0.1% |
| Themes outside Magic affecting Magic design |
6 |
0.1% |
|
Magic's Resource System |
4 |
0.1% |
| Internal set structure |
2 |
0.0% |
| Cards that change controller whenever something specific happens (as with, e.g., Fractured Loyalty) |
2 |
0.0% |
|
Total
|
5948
|
100.0%
|
|
List B - Non-Magic Related (Choose One)
|
| Mark Rosewater is $%^# insane! |
869 |
11.5% |
|
Dungeons & Dragons
|
504 |
6.7% |
| Family Guy |
413 |
5.5% |
| Monty Python |
356 |
4.7% |
| Mark Gottlieb |
323 |
4.3% |
| Chaos theory |
225 |
3.0% |
| Richard Garfield Anecdotes |
218 |
2.9% |
|
The Matrix
|
206 |
2.7% |
|
Star Wars
|
196 |
2.6% |
| The concept of Zero |
178 |
2.4% |
| Heavy Metal |
175 |
2.3% |
| Why Canada spells things differently |
145 |
1.9% |
| Throat Wolf |
142 |
1.9% |
| Norse Mythology |
140 |
1.9% |
| Things new employees at have to go thru at Wizards |
136 |
1.8% |
| End of the World (or mankind) |
133 |
1.8% |
| Muppets |
131 |
1.7% |
| Video Games |
126 |
1.7% |
| Dragons |
121 |
1.6% |
| Ramen Noodles |
118 |
1.6% |
| World War II |
116 |
1.5% |
| How to argue and win (you always say there's lots of arguing and debate there and as team leader you often need to settle these I assume) |
111 |
1.5% |
| Gophers |
111 |
1.5% |
| That gunk that gets into your mouse |
110 |
1.5% |
| The movie Twelve Angry Men |
108 |
1.4% |
| Idiots and the Internet |
105 |
1.4% |
| Time Travel |
97 |
1.3% |
| The life and works of William Shakespeare |
95 |
1.3% |
| Richard Garfield vs Houdini |
94 |
1.2% |
| Sigmund Freud |
93 |
1.2% |
| Puppies and Kittens: Cute Pets, or Intergalactic Invaders? |
88 |
1.2% |
| My top regrets in life |
81 |
1.1% |
| Comic Books |
81 |
1.1% |
| How to keep a marriage together |
78 |
1.0% |
| Dr. Seuss |
77 |
1.0% |
| Are Tomatoes Fruit? |
74 |
1.0% |
| My favorite riddles and their answers rewritten in the context of whatever the other topic is your blending |
73 |
1.0% |
| Sir Isaac Newton |
72 |
1.0% |
| Pet Peeves (aka Rants) |
58 |
0.8% |
| College |
58 |
0.8% |
| Artificial Intelligence |
57 |
0.8% |
| Geek figures in history |
56 |
0.7% |
| Lies in the Media |
51 |
0.7% |
| Old Cartoons |
46 |
0.6% |
| Spandex |
45 |
0.6% |
| Art |
42 |
0.6% |
| Music |
40 |
0.5% |
| Soap opera and the proletariat color conflict |
40 |
0.5% |
| My favorite game |
37 |
0.5% |
| Eating out |
37 |
0.5% |
| Giant Turtles |
37 |
0.5% |
| Chicken and the Egg |
35 |
0.5% |
| Magic (you know like rabbits out of hats and such) |
34 |
0.5% |
| My Personal Life |
33 |
0.4% |
| Anatomy |
32 |
0.4% |
| My production assistant days |
30 |
0.4% |
| Experiences in school |
28 |
0.4% |
| Gameshows |
22 |
0.3% |
| TV shows you like |
20 |
0.3% |
| Superstition |
19 |
0.3% |
| Sleeping |
18 |
0.2% |
| Bad injuries |
17 |
0.2% |
| Clarence Darrow |
16 |
0.2% |
| Pets |
15 |
0.2% |
| My fans |
14 |
0.2% |
| My favorite recipes |
14 |
0.2% |
| Writing for television |
13 |
0.2% |
| Hairstyles |
12 |
0.2% |
| Dancing |
12 |
0.2% |
| Inspirational Sources |
11 |
0.1% |
| Office Supplies |
9 |
0.1% |
| Hotel reservations |
9 |
0.1% |
| Boredom |
8 |
0.1% |
| Colleagues |
5 |
0.1% |
| Singing |
3 |
0.0% |
| Famous People |
2 |
0.0% |
| Snack Foods |
1 |
0.0% |
|
Total
|
7555
|
100.0%
|
Now, if I'm going by sheer number of votes, I should be discussing “What happened to Pestilence?” and relating it to “Dungeons & Dragons.” Honestly, I would prefer Mark tackle both of these topics. Given that I have no insights into what happened to Pestilence, I'm pretty sure you would too.
For those of you who read Building On A Budget, you'll remember that last week I discussed my own personal affliction of rogue-itis. This affliction, as I described it, is my strong deckbuilding urge to follow the road less traveled, to become disenchanted with decks everyone is making, and to champion ideas everyone else thinks are junk. After last week's article, I received a ton of e-mails to the effect of, “right on, brother!” It seems that rogue-itis might be somewhat contagious.
In honor of rogue tendencies, then, it's time to pick the two topics I don't think Mark will ever realistically cover. That's right: I'm focusing on the bottom of each poll. Does that make me a bottom feeder? Wait. Don't answer that.
Cards that change controller whenever something specific happens (as with, e.g., Fractured Loyalty)” received exactly two votes, and “Snack Foods” pulled in one. If you're the lone person who happened to have voted for Snack Foods, please speak up on the Message Boards. Since I don't know who you are, I'm going to dub you Lawrence, although on second thought I think I'll call you Larry. Today's for you, Larry.
What do you get when Change-Controller Cards meet Snack Foods?
CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT!