M13 Trajectories: Sirensong Rapture

This is a series where I pick a card from our fan M13 set and discuss how the design changed during the design process.

Today's card started out like this:

Designed by Wobbles, this card was born in the early stage of the set's design, when we were just settling on a returning mechanic for this virtual core set. Jay was pushing for a keyworded version of the Kird Ape mechanic, but many of us were skeptical (including me). To convince us, he proposed that everyone try designing some cards with this land-themed mechanic as a test of its potential. We came up with some cool cards that combined the effects of different colors and we the exercise to be extremely fruitful. Cards like Steward of Valeron or Consume Strength are insanely fun to design, and the way that a card like Impatience combines effects from different colors to create a meaningful effect as a whole is elegant.

However, we may have strayed too far from core set territory at that time. First of all, core sets try to have cards that do one simple thing. It's easier on new players that way, and core sets like M11 and M12 have shown that you can still provide deep gameplay while sticking to simple effects.

Secondly, core sets try to lay down the basics of what colors do. Cards like Recoil are very special because we have previous experience with bounce spells and discard spells as separate cards. Expansion sets entertain us with many quirky forms of "variant Magic," but that wouldn't be as enjoyable if "normal" Magic didn't also exist to establish the baseline.

It was Jules who found what we now think is the right spot for using the Kird Ape mechanic in a core set.

The complexity level feels right. I also like how it feels like a worse-than-average Black creature before you control an Island and a better-than-average Blue-Black creature once the condition is met.

Anyways, once we had better defined and simplified Lair, we were no longer focused on designing cards that form self-combos with the effects of two colors anymore. It seemed there was no room for cards in the style of Impatience, despite how cool it was.

The main designers went on to each design a set of Commons for an assigned color as a starting point. I was assigned Blue, and when I went on to design a card for Blue's weak pseudo-removal Aura slot, I remembered Wobbles' Impatience card. This is what it became:

The cost was changed around many times, starting with 2UU. Perhaps it's balanced at 1U.

I have a soft spot for this card. I've always had a problem whenever Blue got an efficient common removal card like Narcolepsy or Claustrophobia that's no less effective than White's Pacifism. Since Blue gets to counter creature spells, Blue's answers for creatures on the battlefield should be weaker than other colors. I like how this card is a slow and roundabout way of plotting a creature's demise, which fits Blue perfectly.

Cards that force a single creature to attack, such as Incite, have traditionally been very weak, as you can only kill creatures through blocking that you would already be able to handle. If you can't handle a fatty or evasive creature with your current blockers, you'd at least like to be able to nail a small utility creature that has powerful tap abilities like Prodigal Pyromancer or Merfolk Looter by forcing it to attack, but they can easily bow out of the attack by activating their abilities. It's a pity since the incite effect itself is straightforward and creates interesting situations on the board.

Most of the playable inciting cards have been mass-inciting cards such as Siren's Call, Incite War and Curse of the Nightly Hunt, or repeatable inciting cards such as Alluring Siren, Heckling Fiends, and Rage Nimbus. One of the few examples of a strong inciting card that only affects a single creature is Lust for War, but it relied on a very forced mechanic to make it playable ― why does the creature's attack cause 3 damage to its controller? The flavor connection isn't strong. Another way would be to make an attack-forcing spell as a cantrip, although the flavor there is also not very strong.

Because of this, I'm a fan of how Sirensong Rapture manages to be playable despite forcing only a single creature to attack, and it does so in a way that feels more or less natural (as long as you get the I'm-entranced-by-a-sirens's-song-and-walking-in-a-dream-state flavor). I'm glad Wobbles designed this combination of effects because this card makes me feel "Why didn't this card always exist?" and that's a good quality for a new core set card to have.

This is a highly subjective matter though. Not everybody on the team liked this card. There was an interesting discussion about whether the "forced attack" mechanic belongs more in Red and not so much in Blue. My stance was that while the mention of the word "attack" on the mechanic makes it feel like it's about aggression and war, when you think about its purpose, it's actually an ability for defensive decks that want to set up a good block rather than an offensive deck that wants to attack.

In terms of the planning and patience involved in using the card, cards like Sirensong Rapture indirectly bring about the removal of a creature in the next turn, and that play style fits a patient and manipulative color like Blue. In contrast, Red wants results right away ― if it wants to control the board, it can burn the creature. If it wants to get a blocker out of the way, it can call upon its burn / Panic / Act of Treason effects to attack right now.

One type of attack-forcing Aura that makes sense to play in Red is Uncontrollable Anger and Furor of the Bitten, where the forced attack is used as a drawback to a powerful size boost. Red and Blue each have access to different effects to pair with the forced attack mechanic (+2/+2 and -3/-0 in this case, but it could be something else), so there's definitely a benefit to keeping the forced attack mechanic in both colors.

I hope you enjoyed this. On Monday, I'll talk about a Johnny card with a creature locked inside, as we count down towards the release of Avacyn Restored.