The Usual Suspects: The Tapper

Welcome to a new installment in my series, The Usual Suspects. For those who haven't seen the first edition, in The Usual Suspects I take a deep dive into a card archetype that has seen repeated designs across Magic's history and analyze its purpose, its variants, and what makes it good (or bad). This week: One of the most archetypal white effects, the tapper – a creature that can tap itself to tap one of your opponent's creatures.

Magic: The Removing

For a long time, many Magic players advised players just getting into limited formats to follow the heuristic "BREAD". After bombs – the absolute strongest cards in a set, that could singlehandedly change a losing game into a come-from-behind victory – the acronym recommended that players draft removal.

Although BREAD is better used as a vehicle for butter and jam than as a Magic strategy, the fact remains that removal is the cornerstone of Magic by providing a necessary element of interactivity and allowing players to affect each others' plans. Entire colors are frequently made or broken by how strong their removal performs. However, while there have been plenty of set breakdowns based on their removal spells, I have not yet seen a breakdown of general removal effects at common in modern Magic and what they need to be effective. That's what this article intends to fix, color-by-color.

CCDD 08202020 - Krenko's Big Move

I had a long twitter conversation about the best Goblins last night, and that got me thinking about having a central Goblin villain in a story. Krenko is the closest existing contender, but we never get to see him do something truly despicable on screen. I came up with a story beat that might escalate him to villain status, and I came up with a story spotlight card for the set where it happens. 

CCDD 033120 - Seize Them!

GUARDS!!

CCDD 030620 - Ticking Bomb

"Red can't destroy creatures" is a well-accepted part of the color pie, but cards like Haphazard Bombardment and Shifting Shadow show that certain kinds of designs can get around that. By playing up red's random, unreliable, risky nature they turn what would otherwise be a color pie break into an acceptable color pie bend. Today's design is another attempt to play around in that space.

CCDD 042419 - Binding Contract

I was thinking about guilds, and law magic, and thought about what a magically binding contract might look like. So here's an Azorius uncommon that I think is very very Azorius, and something Jenny would love to abuse.

Eternal Analysis 011—The Must-Play Kill Spells

I'm a huge sucker for cycles and so is Dire Wolf (and so is Wizards). Most often, cycles exist to demonstrate the nature of the set by viewing it through the lens of each color/faction (and to demonstrate the nature of each color/faction through the lens of the set). Sometimes, though, they exist purely to support a number of archetypes. This is particularly the case with 2+color cycles like dual lands and the 10 Eternal cards we're looking at today.

CCDD 111218—Path to Peace

Cool Card Design of the Day
The problem with Path to Exile is that pesky downside. What if we turned that around and made it an upside?

CCDD 100918–Five-Aether Discount

Cool Card Design of the Day

A slight change of rules text changes a moderately useful build-around effect into a powerful removal spell.

CCDD 082818—Paired Strike

Cool Card Design of the Day
Here's a top-down-from-the-art implementation of two combatants coordinating an attack on a third.

CCDD 081618—Claim Dinner

Cool Card Design of the Day
This Prey Upon variant came top-down from the art. It's essentially a spell version of Polukranos, World Eater's monstrosity trigger, but using a very different template.

CCDD 081518—Killed in the Chaos

Cool Card Design of the Day
It feels great when you can tie an effect that serves a purpose for your game to a strong thematic concept. As the cardname suggests, this story is straight out of Assassin's Creed: No one will see a quiet stabbing in a bustling marketplace.

CCDD 073018—Hit 'Em High || Hit 'Em Low

Cool Card Design of the Day
I found this art and it just screamed to be a fuse split between Smite the Monstrous and Reave Soul. Look how pretty these cards are together!

CCDD 071918—Exploit Disorder

Cool Card Design of the Day
Here's another. This card was designed to be a two-for-one, and appealing in that regard. But automatic, guaranteed two-for-ones are boring, so I found a pair of related states we could craft some removal around.

CCDD 070218—Murderous Mage

Cool Card Design of the Day
The way that Baral, Chief of Compliance makes all your spells cheaper rather than just your counterspells got me thinking about a card dedicated to improving your removal rather than doing it incidentally.

Weekend Design Challenge 121517—black removal

Click through to see the illustration and design requirements for your single  card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of times. I will aim to review the most recent submission from each designer.

CCDD 111517—Astral Dissection

Cool Card Design of the Day
11/15/2017 - I saw this art and had to make a removal spell.

CCDD 032717—Barter in Bone

Cool Card Design of the Day
1/25/2017 - I'm postponing the Weekend Art Challenge Review a day because I'm sick and my brain not work good. Here's something I made when it did.

CCDD 020917—Caught

Cool Card Design of the Day
2/8/2017 - Here's an Oblivion Ring that rewards you for having an army.

CCDD 020817—In Custody

Cool Card Design of the Day
2/8/2017 - Here's an Arrest that rewards armies.