Thursday, January 11, 2018

Multiple Choice Magic Design Question of the Day 19-24

19) Which of these abilities/templates is best for the most audiences?  a) Whenever you put a -1/-1 counter on a creature, create a 1/1 black Insect creature token.
 b) Whenever you put one or more -1/-1 counters on a creature, create that many 1/1 black Insect creature tokens.

 20) Which of these abilities/templates is best for the most audiences?
 a) As long as CARDNAME is attacking, it gets +2/+0.
 b) At the beginning of combat on your turn, CARDNAME gets +2/+0 until end of turn.

 21) Which of these abilities/templates is best for the most audiences?
 a) Whenever CARDNAME or another creature dies, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
 b) Whenever CARDNAME or another creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

 22) Which of these abilities/templates is best for the most audiences?
 a) Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.
 b) Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you may gain 1 life.

 23) Which of these abilities/templates is best for the most audiences?
 a) At the beginning of combat on your turn, target creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
 b) At the beginning of combat on your turn, you may have target creature get +2/+0 until end of turn.

 24) Which of these abilities/templates is best for the most audiences?
 a) This creature gets +1/+1 as long as it's attacking or blocking.
 b) This creature gets +1/+1 as long as it's blocked or blocking.
 c) This creature gets +1/+1 as long as it has blocked or been blocked this turn.
 d) Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

Click through to see the answer and my rationale.

The best answer to #19 is B. These abilities are functionally identical, but the first triggers N times and the second triggers once. While that could matter to a triggers-matter card, reducing triggers is better for digital implementations because it requires fewer clicks for players to pass priority.

The best answer to #20 is A. It's a static effect and avoids generating a trigger, which is a small boon to paper Magic (you can't miss a trigger that never happens) and a real boon to digital Magic (less busy-clicking). See Adanto Vanguard and Kitesail Corsair.

The best answer to #21 is B, though A is a fair answer. A requires you to choose a target where B does not, and that's one less click in digital Magic. B is also better in multiplayer. A has the upside of counting all deaths and so can be used more offensively, giving the design flexibility; B only counts your own deaths and can only be used defensively or as a combo, giving the design focus. Though A is strictly better (in a duel) in terms of power, B is the stronger design. Zulaport Cutthroat vs Blood Artist.

Ah, the age old debate between Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant. The best answer has flip-flopped over the years. Soul Warden stuck around for a long time before being replaced by Soul's Attendant. That 'may' stuck around through original and Scars of Mirrodin on Auriok Champion and Suture Priest. Then it disappeared again on Pious Evangel, Authority of the Consuls, and Anointer Priest. The 'may' was originally added so that tournament games would need to be rewound less when players forgot these mandatory triggers, but it was removed again because clicking 'yes' to a question like that is a waste of time in digital Magic, and I believe the original concern was addressed by a change to the tournament rules which says that if you miss your own trigger, it's your fault alone, and the penalty is that you don't get that effect. The best answer to #22 is A.

The best answer to #23 is B. Melissa explains why better in her article Play Design and Digital Magic, which this question set leaned on heavily, but basically: With the 'may' we can assume the trigger was missed after no attack is declared; Without it we have to assume it happened, and that raises questions of what was targeted, and could make the triggering card (it's Battle-Rattle Shaman, okay?) vulnerable to Smite the Monstrous in a contentious way.

Finally, the best answer to #24 is C. A and B share the flaw that the toughness boost ends as soon as combat does, which will cause a creature that survived combat by 1 damage to die as soon as it ends, which is awful. C and D are functionally identical, but C accomplishes the effect without a trigger. D is a good answer (and currently the best we've got, but C looks forward, which is a designer's job). I learned of this template from Wobbles. When they retheme bushido—and they will—this is the wording they should use. (Probably minus the blocking.)

These questions are focused on important incidentals of design choices and templating. They affect the practical details of the game's procedure both IRL and online. Tournament judging experience and UX knowledge aren't something anyone can reasonably require a game designer to have, but they are nonetheless relevant and helpful. (If I were scoring this test, I would not weigh these six questions as highly as the rest of the text. Maybe treat all six as weighing two total.)

17 comments:

  1. Thanks for the shout out!

    I'd say 23 skills be "none of the above". This ability is awkward in it's timing and problematic at competitive levels. Battlerattle Shaman should be worded:

    0: Target creature gains +2/+0 until end of turn. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery and only once each turn.

    This avoids the timing confusion, avoids extra clicks, and prevents miscommunication at competitive RELs. I just wish there was better graphic design to communicate sorcery speed abilities, because that is a block of text.

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  2. Notes and answers, before clicking through:
    19. B. Much more convenient for MTGO (just the one trigger) *and* clearer for paper players.
    20. A. Power does not (usually) matter outside of combat, and there's no trigger to worry about on MTGO.
    21. These are functionally different because of the "you control" specification, but assuming that's a mistake then I prefer B. Plays better in multiplayer and more convenient on MTGO because you don't have to target.
    22. A. There is no reason to use "may" in this context.
    23. B. A is going to make players very sad if all their possible targets have shroud and they have to choose an opponent's creature. Though specifying "you control" and removing the "may" could be even better.
    24. Toughness needs to stick around post-combat, so it's either C or D. C avoids a trigger, but it's nonstandard and could be confusing. I'm going to go with D. The trigger is manageable and avoids confusing players who are used to seeing it this way.

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    1. I agree that D is better for 24. C reads very confusingly.

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    2. I agree, C is better tech if we start with no preconceptions. I got thrown by the fact that D has been the standard wording forever.

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    3. That's fair and I'll correct it to clarify D is the next best answer. When it's strong enough, today's non-standard wording is tomorrow's standard. As designers, it falls us to see not just what is, but what could be.

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  3. Ah, cool. Another good question!

    I got most of the questions. I wasn't sure about 22 -- I hadn't realised they'd updated the tournament rules to remove as much need for "may", that is a good improvement.

    And I missed what was up with 23; I had that article before, but didn't remember the problems with battle rattle. I feel like there must be a slightly better way of implementing that ability but I'm not sure what it is. I wonder if it could trigger after you declare attackers (and target an attacking creature)?

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    1. I like the activated ability (harder to miss than triggers) but that would be a good option too;

      Whenever one or more creatures you control attack, target creature gains +2/+0 until end of turn.

      This has the added advantage of not triggering if you aren't attacking.

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    2. I like an activated ability in some ways, but I think wizards are right to avoid "0:". An activated ability you can only use once at a certain time would be a better replacement for triggered abilities where there's any significant choice involved. But I can't think of a good templating.

      I'm not sure about "Whenever one or more..." In principle it does everything required, but I think people might be confused about exactly what it means.

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    3. Various ideas:

      "Once per turn, during your main phase, you may have target creature get +2/+0 until end of turn."

      "Whenever you attack, you may have target creature get +2/+0 until end of turn."

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    4. The later is off because "you" don't attack, just your creatures attack. The former could work in Magic with some rule changes. Right now abilities either need a trigger condition or an activation cost.

      I agree: 0 cost abilities are awkward. That and the timing restriction text are why triggered abilities exist. I could certainly imagine a version of the game where you have something like:

      §: Target creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn. (§ represents an ability you can activate only when you could cast a sorcery and only once each turn.)

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    5. Actually according to Eli Shiffrin's article today, players can attack, and can be referred to in that way. See Fire and Brimstone for a reference.

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    6. ^^ This is a neat change and SUPER awkward now that they just finshed an entire block with Raid's "you attacked with a creature" wording. Why aren't they errataing those cards?

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    7. "Whenever you attack, target attacking creature gets +2/+0 until eot " seems great.

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    8. Apparently both templates are acceptable, but "you attack with a creature" is preferred to "you attack"?

      https://twitter.com/EliShffrn/status/951660583018840064?ref_src=twcamp%5Eshare%7Ctwsrc%5Em5%7Ctwgr%5Eemail%7Ctwcon%5E7046%7Ctwterm%5E1

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    9. Ah, cool, I hadn't noticed that wording was now ok.

      If it's standard enough, "Whenever you attack, target attacking creature gets..." definitely seems to hit all the good notes: it's intuitive, doesn't have unnecessary triggers, doesn't have gratuitous triggers, works like most players expect, etc.

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  4. I see Jays getting a bit lazy in his old age. This was a classic "copied from the text book" exam in this case pulled from Melissa DeTora's article on Play design for digital.

    A goid topic all the same recognizing digital concerns is an often overlooked aspect of custom mtg

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