Saturday, February 19, 2011

CCDD 021911—Auriok Saintcaller

Classic Cool Card Design of the Day
What follows is a CCDD that was created before the feature transitioned from the Wizards Wiki to Goblin Artisans. It has been formatted to fit your screen.

2/19/2011 - As often as I try to design entirely new cards and mechanics, I also like to riff on old cards and existing mechanics quite a bit. In his most recent article, Fight Club, Part 2, Mark Rosewater mentioned that "...The more recent mechanics, exalted and battle cry, are more holistic in that they have a relationship between the creature and other creatures you have on the battlefield. I have a feeling this trend is a telling one that hints at future mechanics to come."

I expect the interpretation that led to this design was a bit literal and that he was really talking about other as-of-yet-unseen mechanics that use the same design philosophy, but I find this to be a logical evolution of battle cry, just the same.

Will we see more battle cry in the next set? If it's somehow miraculously Mirrodin Pure, I guarantee we will. If it's New Phyrexia, well, I don't know. It would be unusual for a third set to ignore a mechanic introduced in a second set, but not unheard of. The set will either be 80% Phyrexian / 20% Mirran to mirror the proportions of the first set (with these surviving Mirrans being the hidden hold-outs, the rebel alliance if you will) or else 100% Phyrexian to make up for the smaller set size. Even if it is entirely Phyrexian, we may still see battle cry return on compleated Mirrans. I somewhat doubt that because of the particular flavor behind battle cry, but I can't discount the possibility.

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