Throughout my journey with Magic the Gathering I noticed that there are certain cards that attract my attention, until I develop some kind of obsession with them. I started wondering why that is, what exactly it was that I found so endearing of these cards. So, I started to analyze them in an attempt to find out what great design is. The first thing I realized is, that it is a very subjective opinion, since for some cards part of the reason I am attracted to them is simply because their artwork is sick or their name sounds cool. Another thing is; I seem to have a bias towards black and green cards. But with those subjective thoughts out of the way I wanted to share with you my favourite magic cards and ponder about their design.
Plarg, Dean of Chaos / Augusta Dean of Order
The dichotomy between chaos and order as forces, that are shaping our world has always been a fascination of me. That’s why I was quite intrigued seeing a doublefaced card with the names Dean of Chaos and of Order, respectively. Unfortunately, they didn’t quite satisfy my hope for an intriguing depiction of the two forces.
First, obviously chaos is the perfect word for red as is order for white. The red/white combination is an aggressive one, where one finds oneself with a lot of cheap creatures that want to attack.
The dean of order is an interesting top end that buffs these creatures according to what the situation needs – more power to finish a job or vigilance to sneak some damage through while leaving some blockers.
I understand that this set is about a school but I can’t but imagine a military commander sorting out the ranks of his soldiers. So, being a dean already feels a bit off for her ability, but other than that I think the ability represents an interesting approach to order.
If we turn our attention to Plarg, however, things start getting disappointing. The one thing I really like is the name and the artwork. But what’s up with his abilities? Two questions: How do they convey chaos? And why are they so weak? Oh, and a third one: Why aren’t they aggressive?
With weak I mean slow.
Rummaging has no impact on the board at all, and the five mana ability might be doing well for a flooded aggro deck but if your aggro deck is flooding you have other problems. Worse than his impact on board, slow is the last thing I associate with chaos. Even if they were somehow faster, his abilities don’t affect the board in a chaotic way.
But how can we represent chaos in an interesting way? I’m not a huge fan of random effects, although I also don’t hate them, but I think chaos presents a great opportunity to use randomness. An idea I had, was that Plarg could deal 3 damage to three randomly selected targets whenever he attacks (only one damage each). The targets are random, thus causing chaos in attacking and blocking (In contrast to Augusta). Then the second ability would say that whenever a permanent you control gets non-combat damaged, you may draw a card. Just like that you would have an aggressive card-advantage card, that represents chaos, and might be interesting to play with.
Atris, Oracle of Half Truths
What makes Atris such an interesting card is his Enter-the-Battlefield effect.
This is genius design. The card name Oracle of Half-Truths is perfectly represented in the mechanic that provides you with half-knowledge of the top three cards of your deck. The mechanic also feels at home in the Dimir colour-combination which is about gaining knowledge through shady means. The fact that it is a tap out play and let’s your opponent in on the knowledge makes it a less powerful card advantage spell in those colours, but it leaves back a body that can block creatures at least. The 3/2 stats and the aggressive twist thanks to the Menace, seems rather odd for the colours and for an Oracle.
Besides these drawbacks in power level Atris is a great example of a card that increases the fun on both sides of the battlefield, since it provides meaningful choices that requires some psychological warfare by bluffing and calling the bluff. It’s like a minigame within the actual game of magic.
It really is a great way of giving carddraw some character and tell a story with it while creating a further point of interaction between the players and thus, increase the fun of the game.
The artwork invokes an ominous feel and simply looks cool. It fits perfectly with the name and the ETB effect. It seems to show some shady political advisor that knows more than he let’s on and who might be your enemy after all. It’s almost as if you let an opponent tell you information. Can you trust him? What is he hiding?
Bloodsky Massacre
Although I’m a great fan of the concept of sagas in Magic the Gathering, up to now the Bloodsky Massacre is the only one that made it onto my list of absolute favourite cards.
It is a rather niche saga, only playable in berserker decks, but it provides everything an aggressive deck needs. A creature when entering the battlefield, card draw that encourages you to attack and let’s you play another threat, since it costs no mana, and finally it even ramps you to play out your freshly drawn hand.
The card draw at times might be difficult to pull off. Sometimes you have to sent your berserkers into suicide attacks to draw. While not the best strategy, it is very flavourful. After all Massacre is in the cards iconic name and berserker are known for reckless attacks. The way the saga is depicted through a cool looking tattoo, that might be easily worn by a berserker who survived the massacre, makes the flavour even better.
Polukranos, Unchained
Polukranos is an awesome representation of a creature that combines green and black. The green is represented by its chunky stats and the black in its ability to destroy creatures and turn back from the dead. Its Hydra tendencies are mirrored in its return as a way stronger creature after you killed it the first time. The artwork is grand and displays a size you wouldn’t think possible on such tiny cards. Polukranos is a force of nature that is uncontrollable, or if you so will, unchained.
On MtG Arena it feels like Polukranos makes the best use of the Escape-Animation. When the chains break as you escape it from your graveyard, it does feel like you unleash an insurmountable menace onto the battlefield.
Murderous Rider
It’s an undead knight with a lance that they use to bring a swift end to any living thing crossing their path. What more do I need to say. It’s cool.
Actually, there is a lot more to say about it. I love the name of the card as Murderous Rider, since it is in fact what the card does: murder. Such effect, as well as paying with life for it fits perfectly into the black side of the colour-pie, as does a lifelink creature. It also takes in a great place in a controlling Dimir-deck. You can use it to destroy bigger threats or planeswalkers of other control decks or use it as a blocker that provides you with sweet, sweet life in the face of mono-red or white weenie decks.
That being said, the only thing I would change to improve the thematic design is to exchange lifelink with deathtouch. This makes it strategically worse of course but it would live up to the murderous in its name even more.
I suppose that poses an interesting question about a trade off between utility and thematic design.
I really love the design how it is. It provides interesting (although frustrating at times) choices for a control gamer to give up life for a threat or to give up an instant speed destroy effect for a lifelink blocker.
Blizzard Brawl
This seems to be the perfect fight-spell, with a high degree of iconography both in name and art. I think it’s appeal to me also comes from its efficiency. For one mana you get a removal spell that also buffs your creature and makes it indestructable. Yet it’s not overpowered, since it can only really be played in snow decks.
It’s a tiny card, with a simple effect, but it makes great use of the snow mechanic, thematically and in scaling its power. It burned into my mind as iconic.
Blood on the Snow
The artwork is haunting. It shows a devastated lone survivor looking upon a battlefield drown with red blood on white snow.
Blood on the snow is an event (opposed to an action) or rather it describes the aftermath of an event, possibly a brutal massacre. The name itself is as haunting and ominous as the image. They fit a board swipe mechanic painfully accurately. The lone survivor of the image is then represented by the permanent you may return.
A great card that left not only an impact on the battlefield but definitely on my conscious.
But the impact on the battlefield is more important to discuss. A boardswipe leaving you with a permanent more than your opponent is quite powerful. Especially for control decks that use planeswalker.
Giving a choice as to what exactly wipe and adding a return effect adds versatility to the card and make it quite fun to play with it.
Immersturm Predator
Immersturm Predator. The name already sends an ice-cold shiver down ones spine. If you look at the art your heart starts pounding faster, because you see a terrifying dragon with (literally) burning eyes swooping towards you. You can almost hear him growl. But is the card equally terrifying when it enters the battlefield in the actual game? The answer is yes. A flying, growing menace that can’t be destroyed. The sacrificing is supposed to feed the creature to the dragon, similarly the exile from graveyard, might be understood as the predator feeding on some corpse.
Its mechanics fit greatly in its colour combination. The threat comes from the red, the sacrificing comes from the Rakdos combination, and the graveyard hate from black. Thanks to the complexity it’s not only a dumb threat but it has some versatility as a sac outlet in Rakdos sacrifice decks and can be used as a tool to get rid of key cards in the opponents graveyard. That being said, it doesn’t provide a great deal of interesting choices besides which creature to sacrifice.
The attractivity of the Immersturm Predator comes from its coolness and game feel and only a partly of the interaction with the rest of the game. But, as already implicated, it also seems like a perfect representation of the Rakdos colour combination. The only thing off, in my opinion is its Vampire type. Even in the context of the set it would have made more sense to add Demon instead, as it would have played into its menacing appearance. Yes, menace would also fit but since it already has flying, a better type of evasion, I can understand that it would have been almost redundant to add it.
Cosima, God of Voyage
Cosima is another god from Kaldheim.
I llike the quite indricate design of Cosima as it is a creative way to represent the wisdom and skill gained by travelling. With every new land Cosima “explores”, she grows (in form of power) and learns (in form of drawing cards). Even though, sadly, she hasn’t seen much play, I think her design does fit the need of a blue control deck. She provides a blocker with quite the booty in the early game and then in the late game (and when you’re flooding) returns as a game closing threat and provides you a full grip of cards again.
The Omenkeel fits less into a controlling deck, since it needs a creature to embark. However, since it only needs one power and is able to take away resources from your opponent and provide you with lands, it seems like a good fit for a control mirror.
Here too, the ship’s ability is a quite successful representation of exploring the sees and finding new land.
The art is not outstanding but quite fine and especially Cosimas artwork fits her 2/4 stats in its ration (lower on the left (2) and higher on the right (4). In terms of choices it does bring up interesting situation where you gotta consider, if you want to bring back cosima now or rather wait one more turn.
All in all it’s an interesting card to play with, that also exquisitely is able to show a great representation of flavour in its mechanics. It does not add too much to the playfeel, except her return to the battlefield feels like her return from travelling abroad.
Cling to Dust
Cling is one of my all-time favourites. It was the first card that pointed my attention towards “playfeel”. When I was playing an amateur Dimir control deck I was finding myself consistently clinging to dust as I exiled creature after creature to stay alive in aggressive match ups, or card after card in control mirrors that dragged out eternally because because of our low levels of deck building knowledge. It really did feel like I was clinging to dust. And it made so much sense that creature cards gave you life, because that’s what you need most against decks that had creatures in the graveyard. The same the other way around. You need to draw cards in decks that play non-creature cards.
Besides that, Cling is also an excellent tool to exile persistent black cats that get roasted over and over again. It provides versatility of which all options fit to the deck strategy of a control deck. Some interesting choices are posed by it as well. Do I draw a card and hope to b saved by it or do I play on the safe side and get me some life? The artwork is the only thing to criticise here. It does show a man clinging to dust, but it could be more iconic to catch up to its iconic name.
Colour Identity
Of course, in MTG the colour pie plays an important, even baseline, role in the design.
- Flavour
- Each colour represents certain ideas and concepts. They are quite flexible and sometimes can overlap, but generally and briefly I would associate…
- White with order and masses
- Blue with the search for knowledge and perfectionism
- Black with ambition and sacrifices
- Red with aggression and emotion
- Green with nature and might
- Each colour represents certain ideas and concepts. They are quite flexible and sometimes can overlap, but generally and briefly I would associate…
- Strategy
- To each colour belongs a more or less distinct playstyle. Again, the borders are fuzzy and there is some variety between the different sets but generally applies:
- White: Aggression with many small threats
- Blue: Card Advantage
- Black: Removal
- Red: Aggression with small threats and non-creature spells
- Green: Ramp and aggression with big threats
- To each colour belongs a more or less distinct playstyle. Again, the borders are fuzzy and there is some variety between the different sets but generally applies:
A card design therefore should follow these ground rules, to not confuse the players and provide some orientation. But fitting into the colour pie is also important for a card, to make sense in a deck. For example, a red card that draws two cards and does nothing else, might not be played at all, because that would hurt the fast paced strategy of a red deck, while the same card in blue might be quite powerful.
Play fun
If it isn’t fun, why bother?
– Reggie Fils-Aimé
A great design for a card should make it interesting to play.
A creature that is only strong and has no abilities, is boring. It sits on the battlefield until it is removed, or it wins the game. On the other end of the spectrum, we have overpowered cards, which are maybe fun for me to play, but not fun for my opponent to play against. This too is faulty design, since it reduces the overall fun, the players have playing the game.
Complex abilities and effects on the card enrich the game.
Choice is the keyword here. Does the card open up more options to my disposal? Does it add to the choices of my opponent? Even better: Does it create an interaction between me and the opponent? A great example for this is Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths, that let’s the opponent divide the top three cards of my library into two staples, one of them face up, the other face down. I then can choose which of the staple I want to take into my hand, and which I want to put into the graveyard. It provides a little mini game within the game.
Choices come in many forms. Maybe a card creates a choice in every game, like Atris, or there is not a lot of choice in the situation one uses it, but it’s versatile to be of use in different situations. This makes the card more interesting to play with.
“Ludonarrative Harmony”
Now we enter the realm of “flavour”. Only mechanics with no context, would make it a pretty grey game. Luckily MTG tries to make the mechanics convey an idea, an action.
- Generally, one can say that
- instants and sorceries convey actions or events
- Artifacts convey objects
- Enchantments represent the modification of the environment or the creature
- Creatures convey creatures and their abilities the creature’s actions.
The better the mechanics fit the ideas the card tries to convey the better the design. Let’s take Etrata, the Silencer for example. Her ability let’s her hit the opponent, without being blocked, then she exiles a creature from the opponent. Having done so, you have to shuffle her back into your library. Etrata is an Assassin. She slips into the opponent’s stronghold, without being seen, eliminates her target and then vanishes and stays under for a while. The mechanics excellently represent her actions.
There is even a level deeper to this. Although rare, truly great design does not only let the mechanic represent an action but lets them tell a story. Brutal Cathar is a white creature, that exiles another creature when entering the battlefield. From the MTG story Cathar’s are some religious order that protects citizens from monsters. Brutal Cathar is thus deeply ingrained in the theme of order. But if a player doesn’t play a spell during their turn, it turns night, and Brutal Cathar turns into a red werewolf that deals damage when targeted in its blind rage. Brutal Cathar tells a tragic, ironic story.
Play Feel
Derived from the Ludonarrative Harmony, there is a step further from mechanics representing ideas. I call play feel the way the mechanics make the player feel. Ideally, they feel like doing what the mechanics represent. Let me give you the example of Cling to Dust. The card lets you exile a card from a graveyard. If it’s a creature card, you gain three lives, if it’s a non-creature, you draw a card. That means if you play against an aggressive deck, you find yourself trying to survive while stabilizing the board. With those three lives, you do feel like you are clinging to dust.
Iconography
Lastly, Name of the card, and its image play a huge part in informing my opinion on a card’s design. I think this is the most subjective category on here. Especially the image, but I think some thoughts on it can be shared objectively.
- Image:
- The image should fit to the mechanics. Goldspan Dragon for example has beautiful art. It has also the ability to create a treasure token when it attacks. But its haste ability does not fit with the comfortably sitting and relaxing dragon on the image. Why is there no image of a dragon swooping through the air, while gold is falling from his wings? It would fit way better.
- Name:
- Approach of the Second Sun. Cling to dust. Those are iconic names. The name should not only fittingly describe what the card does, but also be easily memorable.