CCDD 062217—Stensia Hotelier (& Steal Mana)

Cool Card Design of the Day
6/22/2017 - I think we can handle a more aggressive Stensia Innkeeper at higher rarities.

CCDD 072916—Stone Reign

Cool Card Design of the Day
7/29/2016 - Stensia Innkeeper got me thinking about modern red land destruction. Here's another take.

CCDD 072816—Excavator Hail & Wake the Quaker

Cool Card Design of the Day
7/28/2016 - First up is a simple punisher Stone Rain. Punisher being a modal spell where your opponent chooses their own punishment.
That modality then inspired an escalate version…

CCDD 120915—Trash the Heirarchy

Cool Card Design of the Day
12/9/2015 - I've explored modern options for land destruction before, looking to make the effect viable where it's needed while avoiding the issues that got Stone Rain excommunicated from modern Magic. Here's another.

CCDD 032812—Blanket of Ash & Disgruntled Tour Guide

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/28/2012 - There was a lot of interesting discussion yesterday about Oath to Raze, so I wanted to follow up. There were some readers who felt it could be cheaper at 1R or RR while others felt that even this nerfed Stone Rain would have a negative impact on Constructed formats where nonbasic lands are de-rigeur. I'm fascinated that Demolish at 3R doesn't begin to cause a problem where Stone Rain and Oath to Raze do/could, but ultimately there is a better solution to reach the goal I was aiming for.

CCDD 032712—Oath to Raze

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/27/2012 - The Magic 2013 design team has kept Magus of the Moon in the file for most of its life. At Ian's suggestion, I asked if it weren't prudent to remove it so that people can enjoy their shiny new duals. We decided to keep it in as a safety valve against the 7 (soon to be 10) Innistrad block rare utility lands and any scary lands Friends may bring with it. (It would only stem a couple months of Inkmoth Nexus.)

That said, sometimes the best answer is the simplest answer. Stone Rain isn't an option since it's been added to the virtual reserve list as far as R&D is concerned. We don't need to answer basic lands though, because those aren't the cards we're worried about. Can we make a simple card that destroys nonbasic lands?

CCDD 011112—Ash Storm, Fiery Hail, Legageddon

Cool Card Design of the Day
1/11/2012 - With Stone Rain out of the picture for at least as long as Lightning Bolt was and quite possibly forever, old fans of land destruction are starved for succor. At first, they filled Stone Rain's slot with either bad LD (Demolish, Victorious Destruction) or none at all, but recently they've started to find more flavorful/useful variations that still don't qualify as efficient LD, but at least they're playable in the right circumstances (Tectonic Rift, Into the Maw of Hell).

That's not the only solution to the problem, of course, and you can see another I'd like to explore today in Tectonic Edge. LD is fine as long as you're using it to limit a player's resources or answer land-based threats and not locking them out of the game.