CCDD 20210624 - Gambling Hall

 

CCDD 062411—The Flipback Mechanic Gets Schooled

Cool Card Design of the Day
6/24/2011 - So, funny story: Yesterday I talked about the similarity between the flip mechanic and its cousins as well as some of the things you've got to need before you're justified in using that crazy card frame and then I showed off a cycle of cool non-permanent flip cards. While the flip mechanic gave those cards a unique identity and allowed a couple fine details to be tweaked for the benefit of the designs, there's an easier way:

CCDD 062311—The Flipback Mechanic

Cool Card Design of the Day
6/23/2011 - A couple weeks ago I was thinking about the flip mechanic from Kamigawa. Flipping falls under the same category of mechanics as split cards, modal cards (see charms and commands) and level-up cards: basically, things that can be other things. Despite their similarities there are important differences and if you design a card using one of these methods that could just as easily be designed using another method, you've almost surely stepped over the line.

For example, a split card where both sides have the same mana cost and card type might as well just be modal. So what is required to justify a flip card? There must be a way to flip it during the game or else it's a just split or level-up card. I've got some quirky flip permanents I'll show you tomorrow, but I really wanted to crack the nut that is instant/sorcery flip cards. Such spells are normally one and done, but if they're going to flip, they can't just have two sides, there has to be a way to cast both sides.

My answer is flipback: