Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Design”
The atmosphere is shifting on the horror-plane of Innistrad, from endless moonlit night to blood-drenched wedding day. Innistrad: Crimson Vow isn’t just Midnight Hunt Part Two — it’s a full expansion set in its own right. That means debuting new mechanics alongside daybound/nightbound and disturb, and the vampiric guests of Olivia Voldaren’s big wedding are happy to oblige — with …
There’s a lot to talk about for Innistrad: Crimson Vow already, and where better to begin than with the stellar new white cards we saw last week, including those on the first look stream, which was a blast to watch. Thalia? In Standard? In This Economy? I can’t talk about new white cards without first discussing a stellar reprint into …
We’ve reached the sunset of another spoiler season, so it’s time to introduce the mechanic which defines Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, if not the plane of Innistrad as a whole! With a struggle breaking out in the lore over the threat of eternal night, what has previously been of concern to Werewolves alone is now heavily intertwined through all colors and …
“The strong will hunt the weak” seems to be the dominant philosophy of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. But not all denizens of the haunted plane follow such twisted laws of nature! And we can see proof of this resistance in one of the set’s many innovative mechanics: coven. Coven is a green-white mechanic, seen on the witches of Harvesttide, their human …
After several weeks giving Adventures in the Forgotten Realms a good thrashing, I’ve come to a monumental and unexpected realization: Treasure is the most important mechanic in Magic: The Gathering. And that’s only partially because of all the Immersturm Predators it helps me cast turn three on the play! Not every mechanic needs to herald a huge evolution in how …
Just a few weeks ago, the Magic community was excited by the spoilers from Modern Horizons 2, one of the deepest and most powerful sets of all time. We were getting huge blasts of fresh and exciting design space every few hours. There was a planeswalker you can target with Green Sun’s Zenith or Unearth, new pitch spells that you …
Strixhaven, like every new Magic set, is designed with its own set of mechanical themes. But after nearly three decades, most have been revisited many times, reappearing in Standard over and over in slightly different forms. I think one of the coolest things to do with a Commander deck is to gather up these different incarnations of a theme and …
After covering the complex utility of the Strixhaven Commands at the start of spoiler season and then the ultra-wordy, double-faced Deans cycle in my last column, I wanted to follow up with something a little more classic and straightforward. Luckily enough, there’s a third cycle of college-defining cards which fit the bill for us battlecruiser Magic enthusiasts: the Elder Dragons …
Strixhaven looks to have a smorgasbord of powerful and exciting Magic cards. It seems to Kristen, though, that red is currently Magic’s Golden Child. Looking through the previews for Strixhaven, it’s occurred to me that all of the most exciting designs involve red mana. It’s no secret that red has been the second-most maligned color from the players’ perspective in …
Since as far back in Magic design as Ravnica: City of Guilds, WotC has embraced using powerful legendary creatures to anchor the identity of a set’s signature archetypes or factions. This habit has only been reinforced by the mechanical need to support these factions in the Commander format. So as soon as it became clear that Strixhaven: School of Mages …
