Assemble the Legion

Card Design Insights

Well, it's finally my birthday again. Could I get some trivia about one of my favorite cards, Assemble the Legion? Barring that, perhaps something about the Firespout mega cycle from Shadowmoor and Eventide? Thank you, for this and everything else you do for the community!

I designed Assemble the Legion because I wanted to create an Army that got stronger over time. It was also a finisher card for Boros (red/white) which often runs out of steam late game.Happy Birthday!

Appreciation Army Assemble Assemble the Legion Birthday Boros (R/W) Eventide Firespout Red Shadowmoor White

Assemble the Legion

I keep hearing about how much you like doubling things, and I just realized that my favorite card does a lot of doubling. Were you behind Assemble the Legion?

I was.

Assemble Assemble the Legion

Token Keywords Issue

Hi Maro, Love your work. Just wondering why creature tokens within the last couple blocks don't have haste written on them, even when the card that creates says they have haste. Assemble the legion and Xenagos, the Reveler are examples of this. Thank you!

The problem is that tokens with keywords have a different art ratio than vanilla ones. As haste doesn’t usually have an impact beyond the turn they enter the battlefield, we chose not to write it on the token card to allow development the ability to add or remove haste as needed on tokens late into development.

Appreciation Art Assemble Assemble the Legion Creatures Enter The Battlefield Haste Keywords Mark Rosewater Reveler Tokens Vanilla Xenagos, the Reveler

Cumulative Upkeep Insight

My favorite keyword, by far, is Cumulative Upkeep. I think it had a ton of amazing design space that never really got it tapped for its full potential. What is your view of it? And why didn't Assemble the Legion get it?

We decided the memory and logistics issues weren’t worth the design space.

Assemble Assemble the Legion Cumulative Upkeep Design Space Keywords

Token Haste Omission

Why is it that on the red 1/1 Soldier tokens from Theros and the red-white 1/1 Soldier tokens from Gatecrash don't have haste written on them, despite the cards that produce them (Akroan Crusader and Sunhome Guildmage + Assemble the Legion, respectively) stating that they should have haste? The keyword 'flying' is printed on Bird tokens, but 'haste' is not printed on those Soldiers.

Because it seldom matters beyond the first turn and the art for tokens with text boxes is different than the one without. By not listing it we allow development more flexibility to add or drop it from tokens late into development.

Akroan Crusader Art Assemble Assemble the Legion Bird Card Printing Flying Gatecrash Gates Haste Keywords Red Soldier Sunhome Guildmage Theros Tokens White

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