Equipment

Dividing Set Themes in Drafts

When/if: a single set split into two draftable packs. There is some overlap (land cycles, equipment, colorless artifacts, etc) but one pack is Team X (Bolas let's say) which is 3 different archetypes in his colors and the other packs are Team Y (Ugin let's say) which are 3 archetypes in colorless, white, black. All the cards together make a single set, but you would draft Ugin packs with Ugin packs, and then only play against players who drafted Bolas packs.

We did this in Mirrodin Besieged. The set was split in Mirran and Phyrexian, and you chose which side to play when you played in the prerelease.

Artifacts Black Colorless Colors Cycles Draft Formats Equipment Lands Mirrodin Besieged Phyrexians Prerelease Sealed Format White

Bloomburrow's Equipment Situation

Did Bloomburrow ever have more Equipment that it does right now? Between Blacksmith's Talent and the Valiant mechanic, I'd imagine it would be easier to drop a few more Equipment in the set for increased synergy.

The set had a lot to fit in. There’s a good chance set design tried a larger as-fan of equipment at some point.

As-fan Bloomburrow Equipment Mechanics Set Design Valiant Blacksmith's Talent

Powerless Creature Possibility

Would the rules support a creature with no power in the P/T box, and only toughness? So, it would be unable to gain more power with pump spells or equipment? I was just trying to imagine the ultimate pacificist creature.

The rules require each creature to have power and toughness. It can be 0, but it has to be something.

Creatures Equipment Rules Spells

Feedback and Preferences for Duskmourn

to add to the feedback pile on duskmournthe concept and flavor of the plane are incredible. for me, I think it’s the coolest one since mirrodin.y I really like the horror-based technology, and the whole rich vein of horror it taps into. the ghostbuster-type equipment the survivors have feels a lot more jarring as an initial impression; they seem a bit more like something out of sci-fi than horror.I disliked the non-technological stuff, like the sneakers and gym rooms, at least for now. I think they’re a bit too much for my personal sensibility of what “fits” magic. That said, still very excited for duskmourn!

Thanks for the input.

Equipment Flavor Horror Mirrodin Survivor

Commenting Flavored Adventure Equipment

We had adventure equipment in one of the dungeons and dragon's sets. Iirc they were flavored as the process of how they were made or journeying through the dungeons of where they were lost.

FYI

Dungeons Equipment

Equipment with an Adventure

Can an equipment have an adventure?

Technically, any permanent can have Adventure. I’m not sure how it would be flavored.

Equipment

Modern Horizon 3 Experience

Went 4-0 at my MH3 prerelease, the format is pretty sweet! Any format that can be kept honest by suiting up a dinky 1/1 flyer with an equipment is a good format to me, shoutouts to Mandibular Kite and Inventor's Axe. Side note, high five to whoever made a minor Impulse Draw Matters theme in MH3 with Unstable Amulet and Laelia! I got like 4 damage off the Amulet in one game!

Glad you had a good time.

Equipment High Fives Inventor's Axe Mandibular Kite Modern Modern Horizons 3 Prerelease Sealed Format Unstable Amulet

Special Frames for Vehicles

Why do vehicles get thier own special frames? I like the frame, but it seems odd when similar subtypes like equipment or mounts don’t have one.

They had to have a power/toughness box, so we needed a visual way to avoid confusion.

Card Frames Equipment Mount Subtype Vehicles

Self-animating Equipment

Inspired by your podcast and thinking about how Living Weapon became For Mirrodin!, I wanted to offer up my opinion as a big Living Weapon fan for years: It turns out that the thing that appealed to me about Living Weapon was not the mechanics of an equipment that came with a body. It turns out the thing that appealed to me about Living Weapon was the flavor of an equipment animating itself (or at least a horrible little germ in a little horrible mech). Can I get a maybe on more self-animating equipment that is *flavorfully* self-animating, rather than flavorfully being wielded by a person?

Modern Horizons sets and Commander decks can still access Living Weapon, so you can still get cards of that flavor.I’m skeptical we’re making a new mechanic with that flavor as the For Mirrodin! style of designs play better, are easier to balance, and have significantly more design space.

Commander Decks Design Space Drive to Work Equipment Flavor For Mirrodin! Germ Living Weapon Mechanics Mirrodin Modern Horizons

Future Evergreen Mechanics

If/when: a future mechanic or card type or tool that immediately becomes evergreen the way equipment did.

I assume when, but it will happen more infrequently over time as there is less simple space to explore.

Card Types Equipment Evergreen If/When Mechanics

Jetpack Classification

Is a jetpack a vehicle or equipment?

Yes. : )

Equipment Humor Vehicles

Neon Dynasty Design Origins

So you've said before that Neon Dynasty started, correct me if im wrong, without Ninjitsu or Samurai and more of a focus on Auras and Sagas vs Vehicles and Equipment, with Ninja and Samurai being the commander decks. How far along did those come? I've heard people say Isshin and Satoru were the precon face commanders and were put into the set instead? Is that true? :)

Ninjutsu wasn’t in the vision design handoff with plans of it being a focus of a Ninja Commander deck, but that’s the only thing you stated that I actually said.

Auras Commander Decks Equipment Ninja Ninjas Ninjitsu Ninjutsu Sagas Samurais Vehicles Vision Design

Equipment vs Auras Mechanics

[Regarding Equipment on opponent's creatures] "Equipment already does most things better than Auras. Let Auras have their place to shine." Speaking of that, why doesn't Equipment fall off when it's attached to a creature you don't control? It's super awkward that if your creature gets Mind Controlled they keep the Equipment, and that you can easily move it unless you happen to not have the mana or another creature. It's niche, but I think having the attachment rules align with the Equip ability is more intuitive and leads to better gameplay.

It’s just not how Equipment was written. It’s such a narrow use case, it wasn’t worth the extra words.

Auras Creatures Equip Equipment Game Play Mana Mechanics Rules

Mono White Power Request

Hi Mark,

Is there anything that is a color pie break about the card Avacyn, Angel of Hope?

If not, can you please make more mono white creatures that have very high power like her. I feel that in Commander, there aren't that many white creatures that are really big threats and win conditions in the form of combat. I want to see more really big white creatures where if you get hit by them just once or twice, it's really back breaking.

I mention this because I notice that when I build mono White decks in Commander, I sometimes have difficulties coming up with combat oriented win conditions that don't involve going wide with tokens or relying on colorless equipment.

So for this reason, can you please make more creatures like Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Serra's Emissary or even Moonshaker Cavalry?

Thank you.

Avacyn’s in color pie. We don’t do a lot of big white creatures, but we can do a few from time to time.

Angel Appreciation Avacyn, Angel of Hope Color Pie Colorless Commander Creatures Equipment Moonshaker Cavalry Serra's Emissary Tokens White

Opponent Equipment Design

Inspired by some recent Custom Magic posts (that I won't share with you for obvious reasons) - what do you think is the design space for Equipment that could attach to an opponent's creatures, and an associated keyword action for it?

Equipment already does most things better than Auras. Let Auras have their place to shine.

Attach Auras Creatures Design Space Equipment Keyword Actions

Artifact for Vehicles Idea

If/when: A artifact type similar to equipment specifically designed for vehicles (and/or artifact creatures to expand design space if needed) that doesn’t fall off while your vehicles aren’t creatures?

If. It’s pretty niche. Enchant (Creature or) Vehicle basically has that functionality, though not an artifact.

Artifacts Creatures Design Space Enchant Equipment If/When Vehicles

Balancing Powerful Equipment

I really like the fact that Key to the Vault has a mana pip in its equip cost, much like some of the reconfigure costs from Kamigawa. I'd love to see more design usage of limiter pips in these unique ways

Over time, we’re using colored mana more as a way to balance powerful equipment.

Equip Equipment Mana Reconfigure

Vehicle vs Reconfigure

Hey Mark! I'm curious why Set Design went for the vehicle variation for mount rather than the reconfigure variant suggested by vision design, to me the latter seems to capture the 'creature that combines with a rider' idea really well. Although maybe this goes back to the unicycle equipment/vehicle debate

It was significantly less complex/wordy and more intuitive.

Equipment Mount Reconfigure Set Design Unicycle Vehicles Vision Design

Equipment-Focused Units

if/when a gruul or selesnya future unit that care about equipment ?

If, but the right set could sway us.

Equipment Gruul (R/G) If/When Selesnya (G/W)

Equipment Limit Query

Follow up on elephants in boots problem podcast. Was there any discussion on limiting the amount of equipment a creature could have equipped?

No. It was again extra words for little impact.

Creatures Drive to Work Elephant Equipment