Knowledge from the Helvault (Part One)

Though you may have come to Magic design as an extension of previous and/or concurrent game design experience, one of the more challenging aspects of designing for this particular game is that much of what we consider to be "good design" is defined in less-than-equal parts by:

• Personal play-style / psychographic profile
• General game design philosophy
• Awareness of what Wizards of the Coast tells us is good design

It's this last quality that might be the most uniquely troublesome: having access to the actual designers and developers of the game is often a boon to our productivity, but it can also lead us to false conclusions and rigid behaviors, because as educational as Mark Rosewater and company can be, they can never give us the combination to the safe. So while we're operating from the perspective that the most recently released set is the One True Document and the Word of MaRo is absolute, each spoiler season has a habit of betraying our dogma.

It is with that in mind that I'd like to take a look at what we know of Avacyn Restored and pay attention to the designs and themes that are reshaping some of my design philosophy and get us all thinking about what the set might suggest about our future in Magic design.