Mo' Mythics, Mo' Problems

The primal mechanic has me worried this designer might disagree with his job description — me, MaRo, and everyone else employed by Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) are in the business of creating desire for Magic products. Our biggest seller is booster packs.

— Ken Nagle

Since the introduction of the mythic rarity, a lingering air of dissatisfaction has loomed over the magic community regarding the intent behind the not-especially-distinctive orange symbols. This is primarily due to the effect the additional rarity has on secondary market values, inflating them to a great degree, but also because of various beliefs regarding what type of cards were "supposed" to be designated with this rarity, beliefs often rooted in a frequently stated misquote of Mark Rosewater. As I sat down to work on a cycle of mythics started during the initial planning of my GDS block, I was thinking about the expectations placed upon cards of a given rarity, but also about how monetary considerations can (and perhaps should) affect how the design of mythics is carried out. What I mean by "monetary considerations" is two-fold:


- First we have the simple notion that mythics are intended to drive sales, moreso than a card from any of the lesser rarities. This is most practically achieved by designing cards that satisfy a broad cross-section of demographics, usually through the application of unique and flashy mechanics, even ones that ultimately have no bearing upon tournament play. Of course, there will also be those cards that drive sales by virtue of their ability to define some portion of the competitive metagame.

- Counter to the above is that Wizards has to at least partially approach consumer feedback and be wary of the frequency they print a card like Jace, the Mind Sculptor. This is both because gameplay can't sustain an abundance of cards of that power, but also because the secondary market value of cards such as Jace and Tarmogoyf can create consumer dissatisfaction due to a perception that the game is divided between the haves and the have-nots.

Admittedly, this last little point can't be especially high on the list of "things Wizards should be concerned about", as it ultimately implies a great demand for their product, but it is nonetheless part of what I consider to be "monetary considerations".

With the recent push to expand MTG into diverse casual formats and most recently assimilate EDH into a line of official products, many recent mythics appear designed to cater to this prominent segment of the MTG audience. This is perhaps the safest approach financially, as a card like Praetor's Counsel can be pushed to an absurd end, then costed far beyond what is logical in Standard while still maintaining some semblance of marketing pull because of its impact on EDH/Commander. And though some may argue that the "singleton" nature of said format is a natural economic stabilizer preventing a card like Praetor's Counsel from being all that desirable, I believe it's safe to say that Wizards is reaping well-deserved rewards for acknowledging the value in designing specifically for these formats.

Planeswalkers are another large piece of the marketing draw to mythic, and when reviewing the planeswalkers released since Zendikar you'll notice a gradual reconsideration of what they feel is reasonable for a PW. 5/9 cost 5cc and up, two of which are forced to compete for the same slot at 3WW, and the three at 4cc that aren't Jace (Koth, Tezzeret, and Nissa) are each set up to demand a very particular deck in order to properly maximize their impact. While this is most assuredly a set of design choices primarily rooted in the demands of game balance, as well as being slaves to top-down brand identity, I think it's arguable that this also reflects a truth that Jace's design is more "mistake" than "intentional cash-cow". Aaron Forsythe may be regretting Chandra Ablaze (recently tweeted as being the one truly failed PW design), but I don't think he would revise her by removing the discard from her plus-ability and changing the mini-wheel to a full-on Wheel of Fortune.

Cutting to the chase a bit, as far as designing a cycle of non-PW mythic is concerned, it's important for me to recognize that these designs should possess a certain allure but should not be more exciting than the planeswalkers from the same set. For instance, though the average Spike may be excited to crack a Sword of Feast and Famine in his draft because of its appearance in prominent Standard decks at the moment, Tezzeret is still the most broadly exciting card that can be opened from a pack of Mirrodin Besieged. While Vengevine and the Eldrazi may have had greater marketing cache than Gideon and Sarkhan 2.0, I don't consider that significant precedent for the purposes of this article simply because it's extremely rare that designers have the opportunity to introduce new card types, new frames, and outlandish abilities all within the same design (Eldrazi Titans). And don't even try to mention Primeval Titan and his ilk, as the O.G. planeswalkers had been printed almost three years straight at that point.

So let me first introduce the current PW candidates:

» Click to Reveal «

Om, Time's Courier (Mythic)
2WB
Loyalty - 4
+1 - Target player reveals his or her hand. You may choose a nonland, noncreature card from it and exile that card.
-3 - Exile target creature.
-5 - Cast all cards exiled with Om, Time's Courier without paying their mana costs.

Sila Eoman (Mythic)
2GU
Loyalty - 3
+2 - Add one mana of any color to your mana pool for each spell you've cast this turn.
-2 - Draw a card for each spell you've cast this turn.
-8 - Until end of turn, whenever you cast a spell, you may untap up to three lands you control or draw two cards.

Sitting pretty in their 4th revision, neither would appear disturbingly imbalanced or unexciting, though I have some concerns that Sila's abilities are a bit too oriented towards a Spike/Johnny hybrid without anything to really offer Timmy other than an enemy-color cost. For most of his existence, Om had a blue mana in his cost to better tie together the theme of time manipulation, but I felt that was forcing my hand and skewing the abilities towards primarily blue concepts that ultimately made him less interesting. Regardless, they serve their purpose as a reference point, allowing me to compare demographic appeal, presumed power levels, and content overlap.

As my GDS set was built around various musical concepts, my initial instinct for a cycle of mythic spells was to design a series of leitmotif, spells that are evocative of a given legendary creature within the block and have a recurring effect that can be activated under certain conditions. In their original form they looked like this:

» Click to Reveal «

Arbiter's Leitmotif (Mythic)
5WWW
Sorcery
Each player chooses 5 permanents he or she controls, then sacrifices the rest.
Harmony — If you've cast another spell this turn, you get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may destroy target creature with power 4 or greater."

Corruptor's Leitmotif (Mythic)
5BBB
Sorcery
Each opponent discards his or her hand.
Harmony — If you've cast another spell this turn, you get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put target creature from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control."

Subjugator's Leitmotif (Mythic)
5UUU
Sorcery
Return up to 5 target permanents to their owner's hand.
Harmony — If you've cast another spell this turn, you get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may draw cards equal to the number of cards in target player's hand."

Survivor's Leitmotif (Mythic)
5GGG
Sorcery
Search your library for up to 5 land cards and put them onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library and untap all lands you control.
Harmony — If you've cast another spell this turn, you get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may gain life equal to the number of lands you control."

Destroyer's Leitmotif (Mythic)
5RRR
Sorcery
Destroyer's Leitmotif deals 5 damage to each opponent and each creature he or she controls. This damage can't be prevented.
Harmony — If you've cast another spell this turn, you get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may search your library for a Dragon permanent and it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library."

Though part of me enjoys the "self-comboing" nature of these designs, there are a number of easily identified problems. The most immediate concern is that in my pursuit of how to portray the recurrence of the spell, I chose to merge the somewhat awkward "Harmony" ability with emblems, a flavorless mechanical device invented by WotC to assuage the memory concerns of cards that create permanent effects that last beyond the lifespan of the card that generated that effect. Not only does this lead to a cumbersome conglomeration of unsightly clauses, but it means that the ultimate form of a given leitmotif is almost entirely non-interactive, a surefire way to lose the interest of players. Another problem is that in my initial exploration of a tight cycle, where the CMC all line up and each primary effect (excepting the Corruptor's) incorporates the number five, I had partially erased the individuality of each leitmotif. That is to say, if these spells are supposed to represent something akin to a theme song for a given character, why are there so many shared characteristics? Moving beyond those two issues, there are other individual problems, mostly revolving around how mass discard isn't fun, mass bounce isn't fun, and actually activating the harmony effect on an 8cmc spell is mostly a pipe-dream, even in EDH.

Into the trash they go, in favor of a significantly more conservative approach that streamlines the card text and provides a bit more individual flavor for each design.

» Click to Reveal «

Arbiter's Leitmotif (Mythic)
3WWW
Sorcery
Each player chooses 5 permanents he or she controls, then sacrifices the rest.
Harmony — If you've cast another spell this turn, put Arbiter's Leitmotif into your hand as it resolves.

Corruptor's Leitmotif (Mythic)
2BBB
Sorcery
Put target nonland permanent from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. That card is black instead of any other color.
Harmony — If you've cast another spell this turn, put Corruptor's Leitmotif into your hand as it resolves.

Destroyer's Leitmotif (Mythic)
XRRR
Sorcery
Destroyer's Leitmotif deals X damage to each opponent and each creature he or she controls. This damage can't be prevented.
Harmony — If you've cast another spell this turn, put Destroyer's Leitmotif into your hand as it resolves.

Subjugator's Leitmotif (Mythic)
3UUU
Instant
Gain control of target spell. You may choose new targets for it. (If that spell is a permanent, it enters the battlefield under your control.)
Harmony — If you've cast another spell this turn, put Subjugator's Leitmotif into your hand as it resolves.

Survivor's Leitmotif (Mythic)
2GGG
Sorcery
You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. Then gain life equal to the number of permanents you control.
Harmony — If you've cast another spell this turn, put Survivor's Leitmotif into your hand as it resolves.

No longer a tight cycle, I've adopted a similar line of thought as was applied to the Zenith cycle, allowing the CMC to vary between the cards and giving Blue an instant. Some may find the variable cost of Destroyer's Leitmotif disagreeable in the context of a cycle, but it felt like a necessary concession in order to give it a chance at being more than a limited bomb. Of particular note is that the Harmony/Emblem ability has been replaced with the much simpler Buyback effect. I have some reservations about this decision, as repetitive gameplay is almost as disruptive to player's enjoyment as non-interactivity. (Presumably why the Zeniths are all shuffled back into your library.) However, because the Harmony effect requires the expenditure of at least another card AND an unspecified amount of mana, this was a reasonable solution to create the feel of a recurring theme while making this cycle competitively enticing.

Arbiter's Leitmotif has changed the least between revisions, as such it needs the most work to reach a completed state. The combined effects of the card create an intriguing story, pushing the idea of an arbitrator passing harsh judgment upon the world whenever things get out of their control, but I know this card would quickly ascend the ranks of things people hate to see play in multiplayer. Even a simple recurring wrath is upsetting, especially in a format like EDH where matches are already beset by near constant board-resets. The greatest problem for me when designing the white cards in this set is that the flavor has set up the color as a major player in the camp of "bad guys", defined by oppressive tendencies and consequent control strategies. When it came time to apply that train of thought to the creation of a flashy mythic sorcery, I kept arriving back at Balance effects. I had considered a more ridiculous concept of wealth redistribution, whereby the controlling player changes control of each player's permanents until everyone has the same amount of each type and then all excess is sacrificed. That was not only hideously wordy, but would be a major headache to perform in an actual game.

Corrupter's Leitmotif is fairly by-the-books, being a slight upgrade to Beacon of Unrest. It's arguable that allowing monoblack to resurrect card types normally out of its jurisdiction (enchantments, planeswalkers) is a great snafu, but it was interesting enough to test the waters of public opinion. Ideally such an effect would be B/G, as it somewhat explicitly fuses Nature's Spiral and Rise from the Grave, but it's important to properly incentivize casting this card over other reanimation options regardless of whether you can activate the Harmony. An immediate alternative is to pursue a Living Death variant, which could expand the card's appeal into Johnny territory, but that's significantly problematic as a consistently recurring effect.

As mentioned previously, Destroyer's Leitmotif has in some respects been pushed the most, being one of the most outright brutish possibilities for a direct damage spell. Strictly outclassing Flame Wave in situations that don't involve Gaddock Teeg may turn out to be a bad idea, but there's also a chance that the truth of the card's power is largely on par with Earthquake in typical one v. one situations. Comparing it to Comet Storm, its immediate predecessor in the realm of mythic burn, it scales much more rapidly (with the added benefit of unpreventability) but sacrifices instant-speed and adds R to the initial investment. The simplest balance may be to have it hit everyone, but one of the primary directives of mythic design is to ensure that a card is indisputably all upside. All in all, I'm not happy with moving away from the more amusing Dragonstorm variant of the original. Some sort of red token-generator may be a suitable alteration, for instance creating X Hellspark Elementals, but that's rather tame at investment levels equivalent to the costs of the other leitmotif.

In lieu of writing about the remaining designs, I'll return back to the initial topic of this extended swim in the sea of my mind. Upon moving away from the initial leitmotif, I've lost a bit of that mysterious quality that really makes a card feel "mythic". Due to their reliance on staple concepts and parallels to previous rare cycles, the average consumer is unlikely to find these especially exciting. Certainly they have qualities that prevent them from being absolute trash, but Dramatic Entrance 2.0 isn't what I meant by "unique" or even "flashy". I did successfully create designs that would sit below the PWs in terms of marketability and assumed secondary value (an easy task, for sure), and they do possess a more positive representation of "recurring theme", but I've achieved that by transforming them into glorified rares. Though innovation in design is an ideal that isn't always healthy, it's important to pursue a more distinct vision when designing mythics, as mundanity is the last quality you want players to perceive when they crack one of these fabled pieces of cardboard. This is obviously challenging when trying to balance the various defined and undefined goals of such cards.

It can't be emphasized enough that a good deal of what happens after a card is released can have very little to do with how a card was designed. Though I brought up JTMS as problematic, its ascendency to the $100 plateau could be partially explained by an unexpected hunger for a powerful blue card after Alara block did its best to erase the memory of our former Faerie overlords. There's also a certain conspiratorial perception that Worldwake was under-printed, resulting in a mythic more mythic than any mythic before it or since. And while WotC has access to the FFL (an internal development league for testing future formats), their statistics couldn't have told them that Lotus Cobra was going to be worth as much as it is, they just knew it had an evident strength and excitement that made it a viable mythic and smart choice for a Mike Flores article.

So why bother with "monetary considerations" to begin with? Because it's another rubric by which we can evaluate our designs, relevant in a world that has struggled with a number of natural disasters and economic turmoil, conditions that can quickly reassign this game's position in the consumer's mind, from "Disposable Income Vacuum" to "Recently Ebay'd".