Does this card need to exist though? If Flashback is a good fit for the set, why isn't there a cycle of flashback cards? Frankly, "corrupted" is a crappy mechanic; imagine if the set was full of Flashback cards where the cost was "remove N poison counters from an opponent"; now we have returning mechanic done in a new way; rather than a full text box for a KO Call of the Herd.
@@williamsimkulet7832 Corrupted is primarily to make limited work with narrow applications in constructed. It incentivizes slowly poisoning your opponent without going all-in on winning with poison and gives toxic creatures a use in decks that don't want to kill with poison.
It depends on your relationship to the game. For you and me it might be fine because we already know what the words means. But for newer players, it may mean another mechanic to learn early on. Not a problem individually, but can add up. Nothing comes without some level of mental “cost”. I’m glad to see them “testing the waters” these days though on how much they can safely shorthand.
@@jacobd1984 The problem is that there's no need to "test the waters"; Magic is 30+ years old and has gotten along just fine w/o nested keywords like this, let alone as one-shots. I'd love a cycle of flashback cards; frankly Flashback is a better mechanic than every other mechanic in this set. But these dipshits said "Let's do Corrupted - Flashback, because I came up with Corrupted so I like this mechanic."
@@simonteesdale9752 WOTC is batting 50% with 2022 limited formats, so I'm not going to trust them that "corrupted" is balanced for limited. Frankly, I like the idea of a mechanic that rewards you for poisoning your opponent... but blocks of pointless text on (C)s and (U)s isn't it. Why not "Sycophant (When this creature attacks, it gets +X/+X, where X equals the number of poison counters defending player has.)" It's simple, rewards you for poisoning w/o "fatal poisoning", and is easy enough to put on all sorts of equipment and french vanilla creatures. And, again, I cam up with it in 30 seconds. Give me a budget and 2 years and you won't see hot garbage like this.
As a new-er player myself who's dyslexic, I find keywords waaaaay better to read than long card text, even if I don't know what the keyword is, learning it and remembering it is a much more enjoyable experience for me than trying to get through a ton of card text on a card my opponent played upside down from my perspective on the other side of the table!
Even without dyslexia, it can be annoying to parse just because internally it might _sound_ like something you already know, but you still have to read through the card anyway in case there's some small difference - like how [Vines of Vastwood] doesn't give a creature hexproof, but makes it so it "can't be targeted by your opponents' spells or abilities" which _IS_ functionally different... if you cast it on an opponent's creature. And because subtle differences like that exist, you have to play "spot the difference" every time and make sure there isn't some underlying specific reason the keyword wasn't used.
Landfall better be on that list it's such a simple mechanic with a large amount of reminder text that it would remove the cognitive load of reading new cards.
For the time being, I wonder if Mechanic (reminder text) would be the best approach. Saves time if you only need the name, but gives you the text if you don’t know what the word means.
Landfall is also an *ability word* , and not a *keyword* . It has no *reminder text* ; it requires the *rules text* to appear on each card in order to function. The italicized word and dash syntax "Landfall -- " has no rules meaning, and exists only to shorthand the effect as a signal for parsing aid.
Agreed, but landfall cards are always wordy. It's not like Rampaging Baloths says "Landfall - Make a 4/4 beast". Adding landfall to Tatyova for example would make it wordier, but makes sense
I love this. This is one of the best changes I think I've seen during my time playing this game, and my only disappointment is that you're *not* going back and erattaing old cards to work with them if their text is /exactly/ matching one of these mechanics :P
@@poogly123 oh no that is true outside arena - they did a big thing where they erattad the oracle text of every old card that exactly surveiled or had a landfall ability to have surveil/landfall! I just wish they'd do that with every keyword they're now making deciduous
@@Yunas_Jet They could do with making a set dedicated to updating these cards, like a Jumpstart or Masters. Not that this would be the primary goal of the set, but to try to include as many of them as possible so that the updated printings are available for those who want them
Really happy to see WotC has come around on one-off mechanics and being more generous with deciduous mechanics. The most problematic type of complexity on cards I think comes from raw word count, especially on cards like the Deans from Strixhaven or Questing Beast, and not from one-off keywords being reused (even with reminder text).
I honestly think that the worst kid of complexity is interacting with too many systems at once. Even with keywords Questing Beast would be extremely bloated just because of how many things it does at the same time. But even then I cannot think of a reason why having a more streamlined explanation of its abilities would hurt.
A special note for Glimpse the Cosmos vs Forbidden Alchemy, the Flashback is something so easy to interpret, you can usually do it before actually reading the card. So when I see Forbidden Alchemy, my brain don't read the card line by line. The first thing I see on the card is Instant, 2U to cast and 6B to flashback, because the alternative casting cost is just so easy to see. This is already enough information to narrow the card down to a really small pool of possible choices, it's probably a one time use effect that generate some value once (and then once again). It's probably a draw spell, a mill spell, a -3/-0 effect, or something similar. Meanwhile, even the first part of Glimpse the Cosmos is very difficult to read, since I have to keep in my head all the possibilities that the card does. Since I know it have a lot of text, what does it do? Is the U an additional cost I can pay while casting it? Is it buyback? Is it Giant tribal? What am I looking at on top of my deck? So yeah, the difference is very big.
I actually think this is a great idea and I think this really helps the readabillity of cards in the future. I mean, at the end of the day thats what keywords are for - they are meant to simpify the writing on the cards so that complex rules can be broken down to only a word.
Deciduous already existed in MTG design terminology, they're just expanding it to include 1 ofs, instead of "bring back the mechanic for a whole set, every once in a while"
I remember this conversation, when Consider was released and actually commenting on it. When I saw Wizards going back to change a number of cards to reword their abilities as Surveil and Landfall somewhat recently, I rejoiced. It's great to see that the people making the game actually listens to the community, and that learn from trying out different things as well. Thanks for making this decision, it's a big victory for those of us who really love synergetic gameplay.
I was surprised to see one Battle Cry card in the set, but now it makes sense (also following the Surveil change in BRO)! I love this decision from a designer's perspective, as now you can sprinkle an old mechanic into a set as necessary. Thanks Aaron! Modern Horizons 1 and 2 were enjoyable because of all the callback mechanics, even though some appeared on just 1 card. I can understand you don't want standard sets to become that bloated with mechanics, but as mentioned it can help players understand the game better by using the same keywords more consistently.
A couple of mechanics that I would LOVE to see appear anywhere are Cycling, Kicker and Exploit. These three mechanics are all very simple to understand and are all extremely fun!
Kicker is informally in pretty much every set. Graveyard Trespasser, for example, is ultimately just kicker that relies on your creature resolving before you cast the kicker cost.
Yeah, really looking forward to actual kicker cards thay actually have kicker being a thing. Wish they'd errata older cards though. It's annoying when a card basically has kicker but I still can't copy it with verazol
This is actually why I wish they errata’d the OG werewolves to have Daybound/Nightbound. It’s kind of lame that a werewolf commander deck is either bad if you use OG, limited in card selection if you use just one of the sets, and clunky if you combine them into one deck
I'm really happy about all this, BUT the one sore point is the lack of errata for older wordings. Like you said (and I've been saying for years and years at this point), the world is different and looking up cards is so SO much easier these days. Depriving players of synergies that are staring them right in the face seems absolutely ridiculous to me. I'm not saying everything should be errata'ed, some cards would definitely behave in unexpected ways, but the whole "cards need to work exactly as printed" has LONG since been invalid. The planeswalker damage redirection changes, companion changes, even little changes like Ajani's Pridemate no longer being a "may" ability. They all invalidated what was written on cards but made the game better and more cohesive. After all these changes big and small just over the past few years I find it incredibly frustrating that THIS is the hill R&D seems insistent to die on. If confusing newer players really is the primary concern, why be so stubborn about the consolidation and reduction of words?
I have to say that as I was watching the video, this was definitely what I expected them to say. However, taking a step back, I'm not surprised, and maybe even glad that they haven't done this. Erratas are so confusing, and potentially a real pain point for new players. In a world where the main entry point into constructed Magic is 100-card singleton in an eternal format, I think it's important to reduce pain points for new players as much as possible.
This reminds me of something MaRo said a long time ago, and that is to "not fight human nature". Us dummies trying to play this complicated game enjoy when we understand what is happening, and this helps that.
I hope we can get old cards like emry updated to say affinity for x when it eventually gets reprinted. I think slowly making these changes would be awesome.
ELD had 6 card with affinity; it should have been a keyword in the set. When your set only has 1 of a keyword, either print more (at least 5) or remove the 1 card. There can be exceptions, but not for derivative (U) filler like this.
This was something I wanted *for years*, I really want to hug aaron forsythe right now! Thank you! You can even reword old cards this was and no one would bat an eye, trust me.
This also goes along with the current storyline of magic. With Elesh Norn using Nissa to accelerate the Invasion Tree's growth and somewhat merging all of the planes into one. If you're going to have moments like Quintorius fighting next to Junji and Thalia, it would make sense to have multiple one-off mechanics, at least for the time being.
I'm happy for this change. I've talked about this with my friends multiple times. Magic cards these days are often wordy when what they're doing is actually simple, easy to understand, and more fun than older equivalents. But they're wordy just because of how the rules work. I've even specifically had my attention on how "Affinity" has still been getting used, but not the keyword. Taking up so much space for something so small. Happy to see it back. I think there's a LOT of effect archetypes that should be compressed to a keyword. Especially red's exile "impulse draw", though there's still been developmental variation (I like "can play until the end of your NEXT turn"). MTG's design team does good about having accessible and popular cards that teach a mechanic, I believe inexperienced players could handle a keyword increase. Rather, would benefit. Your Glimpse The Cosmos example definitely induces "too long, won't read".
Some guesses for new deciduous mechanics other than surveil, flashback, cycling, affinity, and landfall: Kicker (of course), phasing (out only), Shield counters, stun counters, ward, foretell...
Freaking thank you!! It was such a drag to read 5 lines of text to figure out, if it is exactly flashback, or just very similar but with some minor twist somewhere.
I agree, from a design perspective there's 2 things going on here 1 - Using keywords without reminder text assumes people know what they do, new players are bound to struggle with this 2 - Can we leverage existing card templates to make future card text boxes shorter and easier to understand? My favourite example of this is Omnath, Locus of the Roil Other than wanting sets to feel unique there's no good reason we couldn't just put "Landfall" on the card as you've already defined how it works ""When a land enters the battlefield under your control" do X If you need to add reminder text then so be it
this is a good change - it will help enormously with card searches, as you said: searching for "landfall" instead of "land enters the battefield under you control" is a heck of a saving in keyboard wear! As to which mechanics to do next, landfall is the one I would have suggested if you hadn't already done that! I'm actually more interested in keywording cumbersome phrases like "enters the battlefield under your control" - "enters for you" perhaps?
This is absolutely wonderful! There are so many keywords that magic players just know. Also, you're right that anyone can just look up what a specific keyword does if they don't. I kept crying out for "mill" to be keyworded years before it actually was.
Deciduous keywords random guesses/wishlist: champion, kicker, bloodthirst, foretell, offering, surge If we're talking wishlists I'd also love to see vanilla creatures get the Basic supertype. I'm kind of surprised that "return target permanent to its owner's hand" hasn't been shortened in some way. "Bounce" seems the obvious choice as that's the slang but it's not very flavourful, maybe "banish" so we can have "banish target creature"? Then there can be cards that specifically reference banishing, idk.
I kind of disagree with that list because I know what... none of those do off the top of my head except foretell, lol. Champion is closest, but I don't actually remember what happens when you champion another creature (you sac it until the new one dies iirc?) - they're not the most intuitive ones. Now the "Basic Creature" thing sounds interesting. I don't think currently it would have any rules implications, but at least sounds like it could be utilized (vanilla creature tribal go, lol). Banish I do think wouldn't be a great choice though, since it's basically a synonym of exile. It sounds much harsher than it is, mechanically, and could be a headache for translators.
Absolutely agree that this is a positive and easy thing to do. So many times I have a revelation on reading cards, "Ah, it is just X mechanic". And ironically I get thrown off when the mechanic is just SLIGHTLY different, so I use the card wrong. But, I know Flashback and Affinity and Kicker (I assume?) so it is easy to just catch that and know what I am doing right away. And it helps new players not only see more connecting mechanics, learn faster, and gather more synergistic cards together, but it also helps them catch up with Magic lingo! We all keep using Mechanic names to describe similar effects anyways, might as well do it officially, too.
I cant wait for an Emry or Reality Heist to have Affinity proper printed on it. I've always understood the reasoning behind putting the full ability text sans keyword on cards, particularly as one offs in a draft card that would just have to have the rules text in parentheses anyway, but this will be a nice change.
Don't forget Gearseeker Serpent. Now, if only we get a few more decent Affinity for Artifacts cards and some more Artifact Lands in Standard. We might get a decent Affinity deck in Pioneer.
I was worried about the big rules change tbh, but this seems really great for the health of the game! Hopefully cards will become easier to parse in the future.
Other than flashback & affinity: -Cycling for sure -Kicker for sure -Channel possibly -Convoke possibly -Unearth possibly (very clean) -Evoke, maybe? I could see it. -Reconfigure if the design team has kindness in their hearts -Dredge (lmao could you imagine) One cool thing about this design philosophy change is that we might see more Lier, Disciple of the Drowned or Tectonic Reformation style effects that grant these keywords. Like maybe they make a green legend that gives creatures Kicker G - enter with an additional +1/+1 counter or something. I'd love to see a white card that grants unearth, I think that'd be sick. Also, the templating of Viral Spawning is really cool. I'd love to see more of this style conditional-keywords. Like a card with morbid-channel, where you can only channel it if you had a creature die, or delirium-kicker. These kinds of conditions could let them print effects that would be too powerful on rate without them; the versatility of Kicker is so strong in limited that the actual effects are often quite weak at lower rarities, but imagine you had to have a creature die to use it. You'd have an interesting tension between going down on board and being able to play a powerful effect. If the added versatility comes with a restriction-be it deckbuilding, sequencing, or whatever-design can produce a few more cards every set that suit both limited and constructed; these keywords can be used to create constructed-playable cards, especially commons and (more likely) uncommons that don't overwhelm the limited environment. What I'm saying is I'm excited for my cube Honorable mention: -Rebound. Do not expect it, but I think rebound is the kind of easily understood keyword that this philosophy change would open up. Really powerful, so I think it's unlikely, but a red impulse-draw sorcery for just R or 1R with rebound sounds sweet. Rebound on a fight spell, maybe. Rebound on an Undying Evil kinda spell. A Rebound version of Homestead Courage. A snapcaster-esque creature that grants rebound to your next spell. Thoughts: aired. Head: empty.
I have been singing the praises of this choice. I love it. Not every mechanic needs to come back with any regularity, but things like Flashback, Cycling, scry a couple years ago, even something like hellbent, threshold or cascade, these are really very simple effects that any Magic player can grasp without difficulty. I love just having them available as needed. I like cycling showing up way more than I like a cycling heavy/focused set for example. I would also love to see this for reprints, Mox Opal in a set not built around metalcraft, especially since so many people understand a mechanic because Commander has introduced them to a card with it. Everyone knows Cyclonic Rift. Really just A+ decision, and probably on the short list for highlights of 2023! :)
Yesssss. This is what we need. Especially if these cards get reprinted really soon with the keywords. Now we just need to keyword "Can only be blocked by one creature" (challenger?) "Can block an extra creature each time it blocks" (Sentinel?) "Can only block creatures with flying" (Soar?) "Can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less" (Spoopy) etc.
Great to hear, doing a flexible card with fewer words is really elegant! As suggestions, channel and adventure have great potential for polyvalent cards and should definitely come around more often! I prefer them to some MDFC's as they are a bit awkward for paper magic (especially draft). For example, Hagra Mauling could have easily been a land as it's back side with a channel for it's front side. It would also be easier to print for you guys.
I wouldn't update existing cards to have the keyword, though, since that's a lot of errata for old cards. New cards, though, should be a blast to see with old mechanics attached.
Something you mentioned that I've discussed with other people before is just how much the internet has changed the way sets can be designed. Especially in Commander, where you have so many different mechanics overlapping with each other, it shouldn't be expected of everyone to have each mechanic and interaction memorized from a rulebook, which I feel like consequently gives much more room for people in your position to make interesting cards. Similar to what you mentioned, some players only have to learn what flashback does one time, but all players will have to read the second paragraph on Glimpse the Cosmos multiple times.
This is great! My guesses are: Cycling, Kicker, Affinity and Flashback (duh), Surveil (also duh), Landfall, Battle Cry, Support, Bolster, and my bold prediction is the keywordification of Flicker. “Flicker a creature (exile target creature and return it to the battlefield under your control).”
That's a good idea overall. Famous mechanics like flashback, surveil and affinity are great for teaching the game. But I believe they all should come with reminder text: suspend ("Venture Forth" from Baldur's Gate) is not an easy one to remember without a reminder. Also, nesting mechanics (like Viral Spawning having flashback if an opponent is corrupted) makes reading harder, even on the second reading for me (and I have 6 years of heavy playing under my belt). I would prefer to omit the flashback keyword and just write the full text.
I definitely think this is the right direction. Even when I was a brand new player a few years ago, I remember being confused as to why Evolution Sage didn't say Landfall. The explanation that Landfall wasn't a theme in War of the Spark didn't sit right with me, especially knowing that cards existed that cared about Landfall, and those cards would exclude Evolution Sage for what seemed like an arbitrary reason. I still feel this way. Glad to see Wizards coming around on this one.
I think Shield Counters made a great addition to the game's economy in general and would love to see them from time to time. Devotion is another mechanic I also think works great with the game and could see more play. There's dozens of 'em that could work, I'm sure. Excited for this because many mechanics have amazing design space within them that could be left unexplored by simply not having enough time under the sun to come back to every plane
Finally! I have never liked having set/block-specific mechanics, and would much rather have whatever mechanics that fit each individual card. Flashback is very easy to understand with the reminder text, and I think that goes for most well-made mechanics out there.
This is great, I always had to explain to new players I teach why these two cards do the same thing but one is a keyword and the other isn’t. And once they get to a point where they recognize they do the same thing, it isn’t intuitive why they aren’t written the same way.
The other great thing about this change is, as a player who missed from about 2003-2016 of MTG, it may help me learn older keywords I haven’t run into before, prior to me running into them at my buddy’s cube draft and having to bug people what it does :)
Great idea! I was hoping this would also include all ability words, though. Since ability words don't have rules functionality and the text still always explains the card, every card that says, "Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control..." should have Landfall. Every "As long as you control three or more artifacts" card should have Metalcraft, regardless of whether it's on the list of evergreen/deciduous mechanics or not.
This actually is really great. It's always important to have in mind new players, so having text in the cards to explain them is very good, but also evergreen mechanics and terms also help the game, tunring familiaritie and the flow of the game simple for those who play it a lot.
Still going to fight for Arcane. I know there's added complexity, but I still think assisting arcane decks is relatively low complexity cost. I'm surprised that we didn't even get one in Kamigawa Commander. I fully understand there are major issues with attempting to pull all the cards into a cohesive 100 card singleton deck, but I think having the ability to throw that deck a bone every few years will be a boon for those of us that always try to build some sort of arcane deck.
I am a big fan of seeing one of cards in sets. Thanks for the video too! I suspected this sort of thing was happening when I noticed consider get the surveil keyword a few months back, it’s nice to see it officially confirmed and explained. This sort of thing restores some hope and faith in the magic R&D team 🙏🏻
Love this! I agree this can help make things more simple and easy to comprehend in the long run! Reading giant blocks of text is mentally draining, and error prone!
The elephant in the room is that flashback works different that those cards mentioned. For example, Narset Reversal and Remand doesn't work the way you want with your flashbacks spells, but works fine with Mission Briefing target's spell.
Hmm if I had to guess future mechanics that would be now deciduous my guesses would be convoke, delve, kicker, dual faced cards, magecraft. That’s all I can think of right now
Keyword mechanics are what magic so easy to understand and read the cards quickly once you learn them. It let's me skip most of a cards text sometimes. A game like yugioh has so much text as they don't use keywords the cards can be confusing to part out, and it makes sense from a standpoint of a card "whenever you surveil" yet the other card doesn't have the keyword unless you know, so it just makes sense to simplify this as much as possible. Less text the better if possible, especially in paper where I have to read upside down or grab the thing
I enjoyed hearing this very much. As much as I am discontent with how WotC handles products the design team is doing a great job, it's honestly impressive. Thank you, Gavin.
Loving this a lot, I have been making so many custom card ideas and both reusing old keywords on custom commanders (reused forecast recently like who saw that coming back haha) to other cards with my own custom keywords within an attempted custom set, I highly appreciate the existence of keywords in general, so clean and glad they’re being used more!
Here's a very simple one: instead of having to add text "Nahiri (planeswalker X) can be your commander," just have "Legendary Planeswalker General - Nahiri" or "Legendary Planeswalker Leader - Nahiri," or even "Legendary Planeswalker - General Nahiri." It carries a lot of advantages if you just make something like "General" or "Leader" a planeswalker type. For formats where it doesn't matter, it's just another type, and a space that could be used for something else. For commander, it could easily be a shortcut for "this planeswalker can be a commander."
Now all we need is for all old cards to have the relevant mechanic words added to them at least in Gatherer, if not in paper. All old cards that essentially Landfall should have the actual word added on Gatherer, same with Emry having Affinity, and every other mechanic that's only on one card in a set but is inexplicably spelled out instead of simply keyworded. Just as you went back and retroactively made old cards Surveil, same should be done for _all_ mechanics. Since you're doing it for all new cards, there's a finite number of old cards to go through and fix, so it's a once-and-done effort to make the game better. Just like the grand creature type update was a once-and-done big fix to old cards. The only argument against putting the keyword was "how will new players learn?" but that argument is nothing now that everyone has full access to the sum total of human knowledge in their pocket at all times. Putting keywords instead of spelling out the effect every time not only makes more cards work together, but makes all cards far easier to understand.
This is something I've been asking for for a long time. Though I would say it actually would make sense to go back and oracle old cards like Glimpse the Cosmos to have Flashback instead of the huge block of text. We gain a lot more than we lose from such shorthand.
I am fine with the idea of keyword abilities, but make certain to add reminder text where space allows on the card. It helps the process of learning or remembering a mechanic, and while a rule lookup is just a google search away, that pulls your attention from the action of the game itself.
I think this is great! I mean isn't "Mill" the same idea, where one word in context means an entire sentence worth of rules? Why write an entire essay when one word can convey an entire concept. Plus it isn't every keyword or ability so there is a set list to memorize. (All main sets also include reminder texts too, so it is impossible to misunderstand)
Landfall and surveil are two mechanics that keep showing up in set after set without being keyworded. When you make your sets, it really just is better to keep on using keywords you made. The players are not easily overwhelmed like you might think. It's not even about commander, it's just trusting the players to be capable of learning and remembering two things.
Personally I would love to see spells that involve Frost or Ice in flavor to be snow. Example like Icefang from adventures in the forgetten realms would be awesome as a snow creature or ride the avalanche. Stuff like that would be sick.
i think one of the biggest issues the player base has is that even when you go back to a plane, you aren't necessarily going to see more cards with prior keywords. i loved evolve from when i started and was super happy to see it finally return with the latest 40k decks. but evolve was no where to be seen during the war of the spark block where we returned to ravnica. i don't even know off the top of my head what keywords were in the original ravnica block but i'm sure some people were disappointed to not see any new cards with those keywords either. something that is getting lost is that keywords are a method of saving text space. but have been approaching them as a method of sharing flavor. the two D&D sets shows you have other options to do that.
so what do i think is on that list: -affinity it gets more incorperated & experimented with. it began with war of the spark with tezzeret & the experimentation started with esper urza. now we have it in the newest set as the equipment-version while not being a set mechanic as it is not featured in a mechanic spotlight. 2 cards are in the mainset (as we know of at the moment), 1 in the precon & 1 being the commander-booster-thing -flashback (well it was offically stated) -cycling (was used with the capena triomes) -surveil (indirectly stated) -landfall (that is a no-brainer as it is sth that bugged players with a lot of past cards) -battle cry (the phyrexian hero of bladehold that had to be legendary because reasons had it. side note: we don´t need that many new commanders. it has no real benefit) -phasing (i feel we saw that a lot as of late also excluding teferi. the blue march in neon dynasty also featured it) pure gut feelings: -proliferate (i love it, but pls don´t do treasure-big) -kicker (i hope for more multikicker personally)
Yeah this is an amazing change. about time. Always hated that we would get a set that would be focused around a mechanic then not see it again for a long time. Like Ikoria with cycling would have loved to have a few cycling cards thrown in here and there when that set was still in standard. one mechanic I'd also love to see come back like this is Morph. Loved this mechanic back when it was introduced in Onslaught and then that was it. Only have seen it in 2 other sets, and one commander deck since it was introduced. Would love to see new morph cards come about without having it be a full set based around them.
Currently building a Sevinne deck and I was SO PUMPED for you to say all those cards are just going to work like flashback now! Unfortunately that is not exactly the case, but I am certainly excited for the future of this design space for that deck, but for Magic in general.
Was indeed confused about flashback and affinity being here, but this makes sense would love to see it more in the future, it also adds a chance that even if say flashback isn’t a main keyword for the set, it might still get a card or two anyways for the people who enjoy that mechanic
I think it should have been this way for years. Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons 2 especially were amazing sets for filling out these strategies by bringing back mechanics. Clues, Madness, Affinity - I loved it then and am a huge fan of it now. I often asked myself why Edgar's Awakening didn't just have madness, as it's perfect there and would have saved ALL the card space
Fantastic change. And one thing you didn’t mention that matters is the excitement a mechanic like this brings to a new player. If I’m new to magic and I open this one flashback card, and I like it, finding out that there have been dozens printed in the past (and many are cheap commons and I commons) I’m going to be so excited. It’s a gateway to diving into Magic’s past.
There could be a templating update for a conditional if. This could possibly allow for cleaner complex card space. For example let’s look at that “if you control a giant” card. Here’s a template [if this condition]:: {cost} (reminder text) Control a giant:: Flashback 1 This templating is not for trigger effects. This second example is more clear on that which has the keyword and cost first then the conditional: Flashback U:: control a giant:
guessing the keywords: Affinity Battalion Cycling Detain Devotion Escalate Entwine Flashback Landfall Kicker Read Ahead Replicate (Possibly Squad too, but Replicate could technically also work on creatures) Surveil Unearth I would have put Exert on the list too, but I think Stun counters fill that role better.
I guess.. With march of the machines seeing creatures from different planes.. That there will be some mechanics from the the sets of those planes.. Strixhaven . Quintorius .. Magecraft Dominaria .. Teferi .. Phase Out? Innistrad .. Thalia .. Training etc.
I think we need a shortened version of looking at the top X cards and putting one into your hand/battlefield, the rest on the bottom. It seems to come up a lot and is a pain to read through. E.g. "Foresight 5 a creature mana value 3 or less to the battlefield." "Foresight 7 any two cards to your hand." Glimpse of the Cosmos becomes: "Foresight 3 any card to your hand. Flashback U, activate only if you control a Giant." Sooo much nicer. It'll actually look like the text box of a common again.
I think having more mechanics with reminder text in more places is good for new players. More exposure to mechanics helps with learning the game. Also this is the best thing designing for commander has done for the game
I feel all keywords should be deciduous. If you feel a need to give a card an ability, it makes it easier to give it that ability. I've noticed at my LGS when I play a card that doesn't have a keyword but functions as one, I just tell newer players it is the keyword and they thank me for the simple description. I liked that you also went back and made errata on cards like Tireless Tracker to have landfall.
the living weapon style equipment I think should also be unified under a singular mechanic too, let called it _Bearer_ for example (but the name living weapon is soo much better, to bad is taken), such that is the keyword plus the token characteristic, and what it does is create a token with those characteristic on etb and attach the card to it, so them living weapon -> bearer 0/0 black germ creature token. for mirroding! -> bearer 2/2 red rebel creature token. and card like the following then have Barbed Spike -> bearer 1/1 colorless thopter creature token with fliying. Ancestral Blade -> bearer 1/1 white soldier creature token. Wolfrider's Saddle -> bearer 2/2 green wolf creature token. Citizen's Crowbar -> bearer 1/1 green and white citizen creature token. Mask of Immolation -> bearer 1/1 red elemental creature token.
One drawback I could see this having if overused is for limited if rather than keeping designs for Flashback (or kicker or cycling) cards for sets where those mechanics are themes of the sets, they're all spread between sets. Some of the best limited environments that I've played are constructed around these recurring mechanics, Amonkhet, Dominaria, Midnight Hunt, and Dominaria United. Also some of the designs of "not-Flashback" or "not-Kicker" mechanics are really intreresting, like Escape or Prototype.
No erratas is understandable but lame, I'd like more cards that are just keywords like thores of chaos and ardent plea. These look so nice centralized without reminder text!
I think its helpful/a good change. There are many times Ill just say the mechanic rather than the actual text when describing what a card does, even if it doesnt expilicitly say that mechanic and people understand/like the shorthand. That said idk how "newbie friendly" it is, but considering a new players response is usually "what is that?" or "can I read the card?" it's probably fine. Since I am so insightful, I definitely know the new not-evergreen mechanics and won't tell people how glad I am that banding will be used in more sets without reminder text.
3:56 the fact that a prominent Magic designer is using Scryfall really says something about how useful Gatherer actually is 😅
Gather is like Alchemy. It exists, but no one likes it.
Wotc occasionally sends the scryfall developers a bunch of free magic stuff, because they're very aware of how much better it is.
This is a great idea. I always thought it was silly to avoid shorthand names for mechanics if it wasn’t a primary mechanic of the set
Does this card need to exist though? If Flashback is a good fit for the set, why isn't there a cycle of flashback cards?
Frankly, "corrupted" is a crappy mechanic; imagine if the set was full of Flashback cards where the cost was "remove N poison counters from an opponent"; now we have returning mechanic done in a new way; rather than a full text box for a KO Call of the Herd.
@@williamsimkulet7832 Corrupted is primarily to make limited work with narrow applications in constructed.
It incentivizes slowly poisoning your opponent without going all-in on winning with poison and gives toxic creatures a use in decks that don't want to kill with poison.
It depends on your relationship to the game. For you and me it might be fine because we already know what the words means. But for newer players, it may mean another mechanic to learn early on. Not a problem individually, but can add up. Nothing comes without some level of mental “cost”. I’m glad to see them “testing the waters” these days though on how much they can safely shorthand.
@@jacobd1984 The problem is that there's no need to "test the waters"; Magic is 30+ years old and has gotten along just fine w/o nested keywords like this, let alone as one-shots. I'd love a cycle of flashback cards; frankly Flashback is a better mechanic than every other mechanic in this set. But these dipshits said "Let's do Corrupted - Flashback, because I came up with Corrupted so I like this mechanic."
@@simonteesdale9752 WOTC is batting 50% with 2022 limited formats, so I'm not going to trust them that "corrupted" is balanced for limited.
Frankly, I like the idea of a mechanic that rewards you for poisoning your opponent... but blocks of pointless text on (C)s and (U)s isn't it.
Why not "Sycophant (When this creature attacks, it gets +X/+X, where X equals the number of poison counters defending player has.)"
It's simple, rewards you for poisoning w/o "fatal poisoning", and is easy enough to put on all sorts of equipment and french vanilla creatures.
And, again, I cam up with it in 30 seconds. Give me a budget and 2 years and you won't see hot garbage like this.
As a new-er player myself who's dyslexic, I find keywords waaaaay better to read than long card text, even if I don't know what the keyword is, learning it and remembering it is a much more enjoyable experience for me than trying to get through a ton of card text on a card my opponent played upside down from my perspective on the other side of the table!
Even without dyslexia, it can be annoying to parse just because internally it might _sound_ like something you already know, but you still have to read through the card anyway in case there's some small difference - like how [Vines of Vastwood] doesn't give a creature hexproof, but makes it so it "can't be targeted by your opponents' spells or abilities" which _IS_ functionally different... if you cast it on an opponent's creature. And because subtle differences like that exist, you have to play "spot the difference" every time and make sure there isn't some underlying specific reason the keyword wasn't used.
It's almost like that was the point.
@@altosforteaquax5083 - I feel like in saying that you're missing my point, lol.
@@KingBobXVI Could be. I read op's comment not yours.
I feel bad for you because this is the absolute worst time in history to start playing this game
Landfall better be on that list it's such a simple mechanic with a large amount of reminder text that it would remove the cognitive load of reading new cards.
I believe it has been confirmed
Landfall has already been implemented. Same time as the surveil errata
For the time being, I wonder if Mechanic (reminder text) would be the best approach. Saves time if you only need the name, but gives you the text if you don’t know what the word means.
Landfall is also an *ability word* , and not a *keyword* . It has no *reminder text* ; it requires the *rules text* to appear on each card in order to function.
The italicized word and dash syntax "Landfall -- " has no rules meaning, and exists only to shorthand the effect as a signal for parsing aid.
Agreed, but landfall cards are always wordy. It's not like Rampaging Baloths says "Landfall - Make a 4/4 beast". Adding landfall to Tatyova for example would make it wordier, but makes sense
I love this. This is one of the best changes I think I've seen during my time playing this game, and my only disappointment is that you're *not* going back and erattaing old cards to work with them if their text is /exactly/ matching one of these mechanics :P
While I doubt it’s true outside Arena, I’ve noticed that Consider now says “Surveil 1” and works with other Surveil cards.
@@poogly123 oh no that is true outside arena - they did a big thing where they erattad the oracle text of every old card that exactly surveiled or had a landfall ability to have surveil/landfall! I just wish they'd do that with every keyword they're now making deciduous
@@Yunas_Jet They could do with making a set dedicated to updating these cards, like a Jumpstart or Masters. Not that this would be the primary goal of the set, but to try to include as many of them as possible so that the updated printings are available for those who want them
Really happy to see WotC has come around on one-off mechanics and being more generous with deciduous mechanics. The most problematic type of complexity on cards I think comes from raw word count, especially on cards like the Deans from Strixhaven or Questing Beast, and not from one-off keywords being reused (even with reminder text).
I honestly think that the worst kid of complexity is interacting with too many systems at once. Even with keywords Questing Beast would be extremely bloated just because of how many things it does at the same time.
But even then I cannot think of a reason why having a more streamlined explanation of its abilities would hurt.
@@_Ve_98 it's because they cannot come up with anything new
A special note for Glimpse the Cosmos vs Forbidden Alchemy, the Flashback is something so easy to interpret, you can usually do it before actually reading the card.
So when I see Forbidden Alchemy, my brain don't read the card line by line. The first thing I see on the card is Instant, 2U to cast and 6B to flashback, because the alternative casting cost is just so easy to see. This is already enough information to narrow the card down to a really small pool of possible choices, it's probably a one time use effect that generate some value once (and then once again). It's probably a draw spell, a mill spell, a -3/-0 effect, or something similar.
Meanwhile, even the first part of Glimpse the Cosmos is very difficult to read, since I have to keep in my head all the possibilities that the card does. Since I know it have a lot of text, what does it do? Is the U an additional cost I can pay while casting it? Is it buyback? Is it Giant tribal? What am I looking at on top of my deck?
So yeah, the difference is very big.
I think the old cards should definitely be updated.
Absolutely
I actually think this is a great idea and I think this really helps the readabillity of cards in the future. I mean, at the end of the day thats what keywords are for - they are meant to simpify the writing on the cards so that complex rules can be broken down to only a word.
"Good Morning, Good Morning Magic!" ~Magic
Good morning Magic AND S4ad0wpi!
I like this deciduous mechanics change! Affinity and Flashback have EVOCATIVE names that just feel right to see on cards.
I love that you chose to call this Deciduous. Makes perfect sense and cements Forest to be the strongest card
Deciduous already existed in MTG design terminology, they're just expanding it to include 1 ofs, instead of "bring back the mechanic for a whole set, every once in a while"
I am excited by both this change and more episodes of GMM....perhaps I have Affinity for Gavin?
Now that's an affinity I can definitely get behind!
I remember this conversation, when Consider was released and actually commenting on it. When I saw Wizards going back to change a number of cards to reword their abilities as Surveil and Landfall somewhat recently, I rejoiced. It's great to see that the people making the game actually listens to the community, and that learn from trying out different things as well. Thanks for making this decision, it's a big victory for those of us who really love synergetic gameplay.
Sucks for anybody that wants to play a fun game without being exploited though. Lol
@@luckybones8749 How so?
I was surprised to see one Battle Cry card in the set, but now it makes sense (also following the Surveil change in BRO)! I love this decision from a designer's perspective, as now you can sprinkle an old mechanic into a set as necessary. Thanks Aaron!
Modern Horizons 1 and 2 were enjoyable because of all the callback mechanics, even though some appeared on just 1 card. I can understand you don't want standard sets to become that bloated with mechanics, but as mentioned it can help players understand the game better by using the same keywords more consistently.
Is battlecry in the standard set or in the commander decks?
@@ApoEdvarg Main set, surprisingly! Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold referencing Hero of Bladehold from Mirrodin Beseiged which is a neat callback
A couple of mechanics that I would LOVE to see appear anywhere are Cycling, Kicker and Exploit. These three mechanics are all very simple to understand and are all extremely fun!
Kicker is informally in pretty much every set. Graveyard Trespasser, for example, is ultimately just kicker that relies on your creature resolving before you cast the kicker cost.
Yeah, really looking forward to actual kicker cards thay actually have kicker being a thing. Wish they'd errata older cards though. It's annoying when a card basically has kicker but I still can't copy it with verazol
This is actually why I wish they errata’d the OG werewolves to have Daybound/Nightbound. It’s kind of lame that a werewolf commander deck is either bad if you use OG, limited in card selection if you use just one of the sets, and clunky if you combine them into one deck
I'm really happy about all this, BUT the one sore point is the lack of errata for older wordings. Like you said (and I've been saying for years and years at this point), the world is different and looking up cards is so SO much easier these days. Depriving players of synergies that are staring them right in the face seems absolutely ridiculous to me. I'm not saying everything should be errata'ed, some cards would definitely behave in unexpected ways, but the whole "cards need to work exactly as printed" has LONG since been invalid. The planeswalker damage redirection changes, companion changes, even little changes like Ajani's Pridemate no longer being a "may" ability. They all invalidated what was written on cards but made the game better and more cohesive. After all these changes big and small just over the past few years I find it incredibly frustrating that THIS is the hill R&D seems insistent to die on. If confusing newer players really is the primary concern, why be so stubborn about the consolidation and reduction of words?
I have to say that as I was watching the video, this was definitely what I expected them to say. However, taking a step back, I'm not surprised, and maybe even glad that they haven't done this. Erratas are so confusing, and potentially a real pain point for new players. In a world where the main entry point into constructed Magic is 100-card singleton in an eternal format, I think it's important to reduce pain points for new players as much as possible.
I remember how excited people were when prowess, previously a Tarkir-specific mechanic, became an evergreen mechanic.
Can we all agree that cycling should show up in like every other set? It’s so good!
Id love this
god no
Absolutely not, keep it rare, keep it special.
@@Iyzdor yeah, I can see that, but cycling is already a kinda common mechanic. Idk one card with it per set could work
@@alexmaragh7766 like on one big creature or spell, not as a mechanic
This reminds me of something MaRo said a long time ago, and that is to "not fight human nature". Us dummies trying to play this complicated game enjoy when we understand what is happening, and this helps that.
I hope we can get old cards like emry updated to say affinity for x when it eventually gets reprinted. I think slowly making these changes would be awesome.
ELD had 6 card with affinity; it should have been a keyword in the set.
When your set only has 1 of a keyword, either print more (at least 5) or remove the 1 card. There can be exceptions, but not for derivative (U) filler like this.
This was something I wanted *for years*, I really want to hug aaron forsythe right now! Thank you! You can even reword old cards this was and no one would bat an eye, trust me.
This also goes along with the current storyline of magic. With Elesh Norn using Nissa to accelerate the Invasion Tree's growth and somewhat merging all of the planes into one. If you're going to have moments like Quintorius fighting next to Junji and Thalia, it would make sense to have multiple one-off mechanics, at least for the time being.
I'm happy for this change. I've talked about this with my friends multiple times. Magic cards these days are often wordy when what they're doing is actually simple, easy to understand, and more fun than older equivalents. But they're wordy just because of how the rules work. I've even specifically had my attention on how "Affinity" has still been getting used, but not the keyword. Taking up so much space for something so small. Happy to see it back.
I think there's a LOT of effect archetypes that should be compressed to a keyword. Especially red's exile "impulse draw", though there's still been developmental variation (I like "can play until the end of your NEXT turn"). MTG's design team does good about having accessible and popular cards that teach a mechanic, I believe inexperienced players could handle a keyword increase. Rather, would benefit. Your Glimpse The Cosmos example definitely induces "too long, won't read".
Some guesses for new deciduous mechanics other than surveil, flashback, cycling, affinity, and landfall:
Kicker (of course), phasing (out only), Shield counters, stun counters, ward, foretell...
Freaking thank you!! It was such a drag to read 5 lines of text to figure out, if it is exactly flashback, or just very similar but with some minor twist somewhere.
If a card has a keyword, it should say the keyword. Like Squee in Dominaria United has Escape. Therefore, it should have been escape.
I agree, from a design perspective there's 2 things going on here
1 - Using keywords without reminder text assumes people know what they do, new players are bound to struggle with this
2 - Can we leverage existing card templates to make future card text boxes shorter and easier to understand?
My favourite example of this is Omnath, Locus of the Roil
Other than wanting sets to feel unique there's no good reason we couldn't just put "Landfall" on the card as you've already defined how it works
""When a land enters the battlefield under your control" do X
If you need to add reminder text then so be it
I'm equally delighted this is happening and astonished it took this long.
Again, delighted it's happening.
this is a good change - it will help enormously with card searches, as you said: searching for "landfall" instead of "land enters the battefield under you control" is a heck of a saving in keyboard wear!
As to which mechanics to do next, landfall is the one I would have suggested if you hadn't already done that! I'm actually more interested in keywording cumbersome phrases like "enters the battlefield under your control" - "enters for you" perhaps?
This is absolutely wonderful! There are so many keywords that magic players just know. Also, you're right that anyone can just look up what a specific keyword does if they don't. I kept crying out for "mill" to be keyworded years before it actually was.
Yessssss. 10/10. Thank you! I would love to see "Impulse X" to replace the block of text that is
Deciduous keywords random guesses/wishlist: champion, kicker, bloodthirst, foretell, offering, surge
If we're talking wishlists I'd also love to see vanilla creatures get the Basic supertype.
I'm kind of surprised that "return target permanent to its owner's hand" hasn't been shortened in some way. "Bounce" seems the obvious choice as that's the slang but it's not very flavourful, maybe "banish" so we can have "banish target creature"? Then there can be cards that specifically reference banishing, idk.
I kind of disagree with that list because I know what... none of those do off the top of my head except foretell, lol. Champion is closest, but I don't actually remember what happens when you champion another creature (you sac it until the new one dies iirc?) - they're not the most intuitive ones.
Now the "Basic Creature" thing sounds interesting. I don't think currently it would have any rules implications, but at least sounds like it could be utilized (vanilla creature tribal go, lol).
Banish I do think wouldn't be a great choice though, since it's basically a synonym of exile. It sounds much harsher than it is, mechanically, and could be a headache for translators.
Absolutely agree that this is a positive and easy thing to do. So many times I have a revelation on reading cards, "Ah, it is just X mechanic". And ironically I get thrown off when the mechanic is just SLIGHTLY different, so I use the card wrong. But, I know Flashback and Affinity and Kicker (I assume?) so it is easy to just catch that and know what I am doing right away. And it helps new players not only see more connecting mechanics, learn faster, and gather more synergistic cards together, but it also helps them catch up with Magic lingo! We all keep using Mechanic names to describe similar effects anyways, might as well do it officially, too.
I cant wait for an Emry or Reality Heist to have Affinity proper printed on it. I've always understood the reasoning behind putting the full ability text sans keyword on cards, particularly as one offs in a draft card that would just have to have the rules text in parentheses anyway, but this will be a nice change.
Don't forget Gearseeker Serpent. Now, if only we get a few more decent Affinity for Artifacts cards and some more Artifact Lands in Standard. We might get a decent Affinity deck in Pioneer.
I was worried about the big rules change tbh, but this seems really great for the health of the game! Hopefully cards will become easier to parse in the future.
Other than flashback & affinity:
-Cycling for sure
-Kicker for sure
-Channel possibly
-Convoke possibly
-Unearth possibly (very clean)
-Evoke, maybe? I could see it.
-Reconfigure if the design team has kindness in their hearts
-Dredge (lmao could you imagine)
One cool thing about this design philosophy change is that we might see more Lier, Disciple of the Drowned or Tectonic Reformation style effects that grant these keywords. Like maybe they make a green legend that gives creatures Kicker G - enter with an additional +1/+1 counter or something. I'd love to see a white card that grants unearth, I think that'd be sick.
Also, the templating of Viral Spawning is really cool. I'd love to see more of this style conditional-keywords. Like a card with morbid-channel, where you can only channel it if you had a creature die, or delirium-kicker. These kinds of conditions could let them print effects that would be too powerful on rate without them; the versatility of Kicker is so strong in limited that the actual effects are often quite weak at lower rarities, but imagine you had to have a creature die to use it. You'd have an interesting tension between going down on board and being able to play a powerful effect.
If the added versatility comes with a restriction-be it deckbuilding, sequencing, or whatever-design can produce a few more cards every set that suit both limited and constructed; these keywords can be used to create constructed-playable cards, especially commons and (more likely) uncommons that don't overwhelm the limited environment.
What I'm saying is I'm excited for my cube
Honorable mention:
-Rebound. Do not expect it, but I think rebound is the kind of easily understood keyword that this philosophy change would open up. Really powerful, so I think it's unlikely, but a red impulse-draw sorcery for just R or 1R with rebound sounds sweet. Rebound on a fight spell, maybe. Rebound on an Undying Evil kinda spell. A Rebound version of Homestead Courage. A snapcaster-esque creature that grants rebound to your next spell.
Thoughts: aired. Head: empty.
I have been singing the praises of this choice. I love it. Not every mechanic needs to come back with any regularity, but things like Flashback, Cycling, scry a couple years ago, even something like hellbent, threshold or cascade, these are really very simple effects that any Magic player can grasp without difficulty. I love just having them available as needed. I like cycling showing up way more than I like a cycling heavy/focused set for example. I would also love to see this for reprints, Mox Opal in a set not built around metalcraft, especially since so many people understand a mechanic because Commander has introduced them to a card with it. Everyone knows Cyclonic Rift.
Really just A+ decision, and probably on the short list for highlights of 2023! :)
Yesssss. This is what we need. Especially if these cards get reprinted really soon with the keywords.
Now we just need to keyword "Can only be blocked by one creature" (challenger?) "Can block an extra creature each time it blocks" (Sentinel?) "Can only block creatures with flying" (Soar?) "Can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less" (Spoopy) etc.
So, does this mean that Squee, Dubious Monarch is getting "Escape--3R, Exile four other cards from your graveyard."?
Great to hear, doing a flexible card with fewer words is really elegant!
As suggestions, channel and adventure have great potential for polyvalent cards and should definitely come around more often!
I prefer them to some MDFC's as they are a bit awkward for paper magic (especially draft).
For example, Hagra Mauling could have easily been a land as it's back side with a channel for it's front side. It would also be easier to print for you guys.
This is a welcome change, and a long time coming.
I wouldn't update existing cards to have the keyword, though, since that's a lot of errata for old cards. New cards, though, should be a blast to see with old mechanics attached.
Something you mentioned that I've discussed with other people before is just how much the internet has changed the way sets can be designed. Especially in Commander, where you have so many different mechanics overlapping with each other, it shouldn't be expected of everyone to have each mechanic and interaction memorized from a rulebook, which I feel like consequently gives much more room for people in your position to make interesting cards. Similar to what you mentioned, some players only have to learn what flashback does one time, but all players will have to read the second paragraph on Glimpse the Cosmos multiple times.
This is great!
My guesses are: Cycling, Kicker, Affinity and Flashback (duh), Surveil (also duh), Landfall, Battle Cry, Support, Bolster, and my bold prediction is the keywordification of Flicker.
“Flicker a creature (exile target creature and return it to the battlefield under your control).”
That's a good idea overall. Famous mechanics like flashback, surveil and affinity are great for teaching the game. But I believe they all should come with reminder text: suspend ("Venture Forth" from Baldur's Gate) is not an easy one to remember without a reminder.
Also, nesting mechanics (like Viral Spawning having flashback if an opponent is corrupted) makes reading harder, even on the second reading for me (and I have 6 years of heavy playing under my belt). I would prefer to omit the flashback keyword and just write the full text.
I definitely think this is the right direction. Even when I was a brand new player a few years ago, I remember being confused as to why Evolution Sage didn't say Landfall. The explanation that Landfall wasn't a theme in War of the Spark didn't sit right with me, especially knowing that cards existed that cared about Landfall, and those cards would exclude Evolution Sage for what seemed like an arbitrary reason. I still feel this way. Glad to see Wizards coming around on this one.
Gotta love the card database pf choice of the wizards employee to be scryfall rather than gatherer. Chef's kiss.
I think Shield Counters made a great addition to the game's economy in general and would love to see them from time to time. Devotion is another mechanic I also think works great with the game and could see more play. There's dozens of 'em that could work, I'm sure.
Excited for this because many mechanics have amazing design space within them that could be left unexplored by simply not having enough time under the sun to come back to every plane
Finally! I have never liked having set/block-specific mechanics, and would much rather have whatever mechanics that fit each individual card. Flashback is very easy to understand with the reminder text, and I think that goes for most well-made mechanics out there.
This is great, I always had to explain to new players I teach why these two cards do the same thing but one is a keyword and the other isn’t. And once they get to a point where they recognize they do the same thing, it isn’t intuitive why they aren’t written the same way.
The other great thing about this change is, as a player who missed from about 2003-2016 of MTG, it may help me learn older keywords I haven’t run into before, prior to me running into them at my buddy’s cube draft and having to bug people what it does :)
Great idea! I was hoping this would also include all ability words, though. Since ability words don't have rules functionality and the text still always explains the card, every card that says, "Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control..." should have Landfall. Every "As long as you control three or more artifacts" card should have Metalcraft, regardless of whether it's on the list of evergreen/deciduous mechanics or not.
This actually is really great. It's always important to have in mind new players, so having text in the cards to explain them is very good, but also evergreen mechanics and terms also help the game, tunring familiaritie and the flow of the game simple for those who play it a lot.
Still going to fight for Arcane. I know there's added complexity, but I still think assisting arcane decks is relatively low complexity cost. I'm surprised that we didn't even get one in Kamigawa Commander. I fully understand there are major issues with attempting to pull all the cards into a cohesive 100 card singleton deck, but I think having the ability to throw that deck a bone every few years will be a boon for those of us that always try to build some sort of arcane deck.
I am a big fan of seeing one of cards in sets. Thanks for the video too! I suspected this sort of thing was happening when I noticed consider get the surveil keyword a few months back, it’s nice to see it officially confirmed and explained. This sort of thing restores some hope and faith in the magic R&D team 🙏🏻
Love this! I agree this can help make things more simple and easy to comprehend in the long run! Reading giant blocks of text is mentally draining, and error prone!
The elephant in the room is that flashback works different that those cards mentioned. For example, Narset Reversal and Remand doesn't work the way you want with your flashbacks spells, but works fine with Mission Briefing target's spell.
Funny that you're using Scryfall to search for cards rather than Gatherer! What does that tell you about Gatherer?
Hmm if I had to guess future mechanics that would be now deciduous my guesses would be convoke, delve, kicker, dual faced cards, magecraft. That’s all I can think of right now
Dual faced cards are deciduous, they won't use them too much due to how cards are printed
Magecraft is an ability word, not a keyword (unlike convoke, delve, and kicker).
Keyword mechanics are what magic so easy to understand and read the cards quickly once you learn them. It let's me skip most of a cards text sometimes. A game like yugioh has so much text as they don't use keywords the cards can be confusing to part out, and it makes sense from a standpoint of a card "whenever you surveil" yet the other card doesn't have the keyword unless you know, so it just makes sense to simplify this as much as possible. Less text the better if possible, especially in paper where I have to read upside down or grab the thing
I enjoyed hearing this very much. As much as I am discontent with how WotC handles products the design team is doing a great job, it's honestly impressive. Thank you, Gavin.
@5:28 It's me, it's CGB!
Good eye! Haha. I love that you found that Easter Egg
Loving this a lot, I have been making so many custom card ideas and both reusing old keywords on custom commanders (reused forecast recently like who saw that coming back haha) to other cards with my own custom keywords within an attempted custom set, I highly appreciate the existence of keywords in general, so clean and glad they’re being used more!
flash back is one of my favorite mechanics ever, I hope we see more cards with it in more sets in the future!
Grateful for this news, abstracting ideas like this makes cards more readable and easier to teach others how they work.
Here's a very simple one: instead of having to add text "Nahiri (planeswalker X) can be your commander," just have "Legendary Planeswalker General - Nahiri" or "Legendary Planeswalker Leader - Nahiri," or even "Legendary Planeswalker - General Nahiri." It carries a lot of advantages if you just make something like "General" or "Leader" a planeswalker type. For formats where it doesn't matter, it's just another type, and a space that could be used for something else. For commander, it could easily be a shortcut for "this planeswalker can be a commander."
Now all we need is for all old cards to have the relevant mechanic words added to them at least in Gatherer, if not in paper.
All old cards that essentially Landfall should have the actual word added on Gatherer, same with Emry having Affinity, and every other mechanic that's only on one card in a set but is inexplicably spelled out instead of simply keyworded.
Just as you went back and retroactively made old cards Surveil, same should be done for _all_ mechanics. Since you're doing it for all new cards, there's a finite number of old cards to go through and fix, so it's a once-and-done effort to make the game better. Just like the grand creature type update was a once-and-done big fix to old cards.
The only argument against putting the keyword was "how will new players learn?" but that argument is nothing now that everyone has full access to the sum total of human knowledge in their pocket at all times. Putting keywords instead of spelling out the effect every time not only makes more cards work together, but makes all cards far easier to understand.
This is something I've been asking for for a long time. Though I would say it actually would make sense to go back and oracle old cards like Glimpse the Cosmos to have Flashback instead of the huge block of text.
We gain a lot more than we lose from such shorthand.
Just a gentle reminder that I appreciate all the work you do Gavin!
I am fine with the idea of keyword abilities, but make certain to add reminder text where space allows on the card. It helps the process of learning or remembering a mechanic, and while a rule lookup is just a google search away, that pulls your attention from the action of the game itself.
I think this is great! I mean isn't "Mill" the same idea, where one word in context means an entire sentence worth of rules? Why write an entire essay when one word can convey an entire concept.
Plus it isn't every keyword or ability so there is a set list to memorize. (All main sets also include reminder texts too, so it is impossible to misunderstand)
Landfall and surveil are two mechanics that keep showing up in set after set without being keyworded. When you make your sets, it really just is better to keep on using keywords you made. The players are not easily overwhelmed like you might think. It's not even about commander, it's just trusting the players to be capable of learning and remembering two things.
Personally I would love to see spells that involve Frost or Ice in flavor to be snow. Example like Icefang from adventures in the forgetten realms would be awesome as a snow creature or ride the avalanche. Stuff like that would be sick.
Heroic, Alliance, Ferocious, Cycling, Kicker, Madness, Delve
Yes yes yes yes yes
So glad to hear this. I always heard Mark defend the other viewpoint & never quite got it. Definitely glad to see it
5:30 was not expecting to see the one in best of one, CGB
i think one of the biggest issues the player base has is that even when you go back to a plane, you aren't necessarily going to see more cards with prior keywords. i loved evolve from when i started and was super happy to see it finally return with the latest 40k decks. but evolve was no where to be seen during the war of the spark block where we returned to ravnica. i don't even know off the top of my head what keywords were in the original ravnica block but i'm sure some people were disappointed to not see any new cards with those keywords either.
something that is getting lost is that keywords are a method of saving text space. but have been approaching them as a method of sharing flavor. the two D&D sets shows you have other options to do that.
Brilliant idea. I think this will help reduce words on card, and the synergy is appreciated
so what do i think is on that list:
-affinity
it gets more incorperated & experimented with. it began with war of the spark with tezzeret & the experimentation started with esper urza. now we have it in the newest set as the equipment-version while not being a set mechanic as it is not featured in a mechanic spotlight. 2 cards are in the mainset (as we know of at the moment), 1 in the precon & 1 being the commander-booster-thing
-flashback (well it was offically stated)
-cycling (was used with the capena triomes)
-surveil (indirectly stated)
-landfall (that is a no-brainer as it is sth that bugged players with a lot of past cards)
-battle cry (the phyrexian hero of bladehold that had to be legendary because reasons had it. side note: we don´t need that many new commanders. it has no real benefit)
-phasing (i feel we saw that a lot as of late also excluding teferi. the blue march in neon dynasty also featured it)
pure gut feelings:
-proliferate (i love it, but pls don´t do treasure-big)
-kicker (i hope for more multikicker personally)
8:40 affinity for cards you own in exile LET'S GOOO
Yeah this is an amazing change. about time. Always hated that we would get a set that would be focused around a mechanic then not see it again for a long time. Like Ikoria with cycling would have loved to have a few cycling cards thrown in here and there when that set was still in standard. one mechanic I'd also love to see come back like this is Morph. Loved this mechanic back when it was introduced in Onslaught and then that was it. Only have seen it in 2 other sets, and one commander deck since it was introduced. Would love to see new morph cards come about without having it be a full set based around them.
Currently building a Sevinne deck and I was SO PUMPED for you to say all those cards are just going to work like flashback now! Unfortunately that is not exactly the case, but I am certainly excited for the future of this design space for that deck, but for Magic in general.
Was indeed confused about flashback and affinity being here, but this makes sense would love to see it more in the future, it also adds a chance that even if say flashback isn’t a main keyword for the set, it might still get a card or two anyways for the people who enjoy that mechanic
I think it should have been this way for years. Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons 2 especially were amazing sets for filling out these strategies by bringing back mechanics. Clues, Madness, Affinity - I loved it then and am a huge fan of it now. I often asked myself why Edgar's Awakening didn't just have madness, as it's perfect there and would have saved ALL the card space
Fantastic change. And one thing you didn’t mention that matters is the excitement a mechanic like this brings to a new player. If I’m new to magic and I open this one flashback card, and I like it, finding out that there have been dozens printed in the past (and many are cheap commons and I commons) I’m going to be so excited. It’s a gateway to diving into Magic’s past.
There could be a templating update for a conditional if. This could possibly allow for cleaner complex card space. For example let’s look at that “if you control a giant” card. Here’s a template
[if this condition]:: {cost} (reminder text)
Control a giant:: Flashback 1
This templating is not for trigger effects. This second example is more clear on that which has the keyword and cost first then the conditional:
Flashback U:: control a giant:
Even a plus sign would do here:
Flashback U + control a giant
guessing the keywords:
Affinity
Battalion
Cycling
Detain
Devotion
Escalate
Entwine
Flashback
Landfall
Kicker
Read Ahead
Replicate (Possibly Squad too, but Replicate could technically also work on creatures)
Surveil
Unearth
I would have put Exert on the list too, but I think Stun counters fill that role better.
I guess.. With march of the machines seeing creatures from different planes.. That there will be some mechanics from the the sets of those planes..
Strixhaven . Quintorius .. Magecraft
Dominaria .. Teferi .. Phase Out?
Innistrad .. Thalia .. Training
etc.
I think we need a shortened version of looking at the top X cards and putting one into your hand/battlefield, the rest on the bottom. It seems to come up a lot and is a pain to read through.
E.g.
"Foresight 5 a creature mana value 3 or less to the battlefield."
"Foresight 7 any two cards to your hand."
Glimpse of the Cosmos becomes:
"Foresight 3 any card to your hand.
Flashback U, activate only if you control a Giant."
Sooo much nicer. It'll actually look like the text box of a common again.
This is fantastic, it makes sense, and it makes the cards easier to read. 100% Support this
I think having more mechanics with reminder text in more places is good for new players. More exposure to mechanics helps with learning the game.
Also this is the best thing designing for commander has done for the game
Flashback, Madness, Surveil, Morph, multikicker, Kicker, Undying, Cycling. All should be Deciduous.
Intriguing! Keen at the prospect of seeing something like Fabricate come back :D
Can’t wait for one card with banding in march of the machines
I feel all keywords should be deciduous. If you feel a need to give a card an ability, it makes it easier to give it that ability. I've noticed at my LGS when I play a card that doesn't have a keyword but functions as one, I just tell newer players it is the keyword and they thank me for the simple description. I liked that you also went back and made errata on cards like Tireless Tracker to have landfall.
the living weapon style equipment I think should also be unified under a singular mechanic too, let called it _Bearer_ for example (but the name living weapon is soo much better, to bad is taken), such that is the keyword plus the token characteristic, and what it does is create a token with those characteristic on etb and attach the card to it, so them
living weapon -> bearer 0/0 black germ creature token.
for mirroding! -> bearer 2/2 red rebel creature token.
and card like the following then have
Barbed Spike -> bearer 1/1 colorless thopter creature token with fliying.
Ancestral Blade -> bearer 1/1 white soldier creature token.
Wolfrider's Saddle -> bearer 2/2 green wolf creature token.
Citizen's Crowbar -> bearer 1/1 green and white citizen creature token.
Mask of Immolation -> bearer 1/1 red elemental creature token.
One drawback I could see this having if overused is for limited if rather than keeping designs for Flashback (or kicker or cycling) cards for sets where those mechanics are themes of the sets, they're all spread between sets. Some of the best limited environments that I've played are constructed around these recurring mechanics, Amonkhet, Dominaria, Midnight Hunt, and Dominaria United. Also some of the designs of "not-Flashback" or "not-Kicker" mechanics are really intreresting, like Escape or Prototype.
No erratas is understandable but lame, I'd like more cards that are just keywords like thores of chaos and ardent plea. These look so nice centralized without reminder text!
Big fan of this idea! Thank you for continuing to improve magic!
I think its helpful/a good change. There are many times Ill just say the mechanic rather than the actual text when describing what a card does, even if it doesnt expilicitly say that mechanic and people understand/like the shorthand. That said idk how "newbie friendly" it is, but considering a new players response is usually "what is that?" or "can I read the card?" it's probably fine.
Since I am so insightful, I definitely know the new not-evergreen mechanics and won't tell people how glad I am that banding will be used in more sets without reminder text.