Giant

Raising Bar for Supplemental Sets

"Why has the bar for supplemental sets gotten higher? Is it universes beyond?Universes Beyond and Modern Horizons are the biggest two causes." That really sucks, a lot of us really looked forward to the summer supplemental sets because of how fun they were, 2 headed giant draft and conspiracy immediately come to mind.

The bar gets raised because new products do well. More players play them, more players buy them, and more players rank them higher in market research. It’s not some diabolical plot. It’s the game evolving towards what the players are most enjoying.

Draft Formats Giants Modern Horizons Plot Universes Beyond

Battle Removal Colors

"Which color(s) are the main one(s) for battle removal?Red and white usually have slightly more “combat tricks”. Green also always has a Giant Growth like effect that’s good in combat."I think this ask was about removing battles (the card type).

Red has direct damage, which removes battles. We haven’t chosen a color to destroy them.

Battles Card Types Colors Destroy Giants Green Red White Giant Growth

Primary Colors for Battle Removal

Which color(s) are the main one(s) for battle removal?

Red and white usually have slightly more “combat tricks”. Green also always has a Giant Growth like effect that’s good in combat.

Battles Colors Giants Green Primary Red White Giant Growth

Existence of Life Gain Hate Cards

Is there any major reason why there two life gain hate cards in the next two sets?

It’s not like a giant conspiracy or anything.

Giants Lifegain

Mount Creatures in Type Line

Do you think we will ever see the creatures who are serving as mounts in art show up in the type line? It’s become almost a running joke when, for example, a knight card which has flying because they’re riding a giant dragon seems to ignore the existence of the dragon everywhere else on the card. I just think it would be a cool way to get more cards for non-humanoid creature type strategies.

I never say never, so there’s always a chance, but I’m skeptical. Type lines are already tight.

Art Creatures Dragon Flying Giant Humor Knight Mount

Inconsistencies in Sea Monster Typing

On the topic of Sea Monsters, there are some 'sea-monster-like' cards that doesnt have the related types, and some cards with the related types, but have art that maybe doesn't fit the types. Example: Stormtide Leviathan is, as far as I can observe the art, a giant fish, but it has the name and type of Leviathan. Conversely, Fleet Swallower, is also a giant fish, big enough to rival Leviathans, but still just a Fish. Why is this the case?

Because we make a lot of cards and there are only so many constraints we can pay attention to.

Art Fish Fleet Swallower Giant Leviathan Leviathan Stormtide Leviathan

Asking about Giant Robot Vehicles

Hello. I'd like to see more vehicles flavored as giant, human-shaped robots. Can I get a non-binding confirmation that it's technically possible that some maybe, might show up in 'Volleyball'?In a related aside, I'd love to see a Gundam universe beyond set.

Vehicles, meaning the artifact subtype, doesn’t currently get creature types when it animates.

Artifacts Creatures Giant Robot Subtype Vehicles

Counters and Un-cards Rulings

Hello Mark, I have an un-rules question. Saw the Giant Fan came up recently and I've been considering it for a Cumulative Upkeep themed deck. Do counters referenced by keywords but not explicitly mentioned in the text count for Giant Fan? If I were to move a Velocity counter from Tornado onto a Herald of Leshrac, would that counter be turned into an age counter because Cumulative Upkeep refers to age counts implicitly, or would it be turned into a +1/+1 counter because the reference to age counter is not in the actual text but only in the comprehensive rules? My understanding from un-sets is that "rules text" usually only refers to the non-italicized oracle text in the text box of a card, but I'm not sure that's correct.

When Unsanctioned came out, we did an Oracle pass on the Un-cards. Giant Fan now cares about cards that “refer to” rather than caring specifically about rules text, so reminder text would matter. We’ve also ruled that if the counter is inherent to the card type, it will also get the counter, so using a Giant Fan to move a counter onto a planeswalker will get you a loyalty counter.

Card Types Cumulative Upkeep Giant Giant Fan Herald of Leshrac Keywords Planeswalkers Rules Tornado Un-sets

Proliferate Technology and Counter Types

You could make an eternal Giant Fan variant that removes a counter from one thing and adds a counter to another *of a type that's already on it*, right? That's just Proliferate-adjacent technology which we've had for years. The issue only arises when you make the card able to care about arbitrary counters the card *might* be able to have?

Yes, you can create another of a counter already on a card. Understanding potential is much more difficult.

Eternal Giant Giant Fan Proliferate You Make The Card

Legal Counter Movement

nesting grounds is the tournament legal version of giant fan for anyone asking why isnt giant fan legal in tournamet formats.

Nesting ground just moves counters, which the rules can do. It’s the changing of the counters, and the caring about what counters a card uses that gets us to acorn/silver-border territory.

Format Legality Giant Giant Fan Nesting Grounds Rules Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets

Adapting Counters in Acorn Cards

"Put a counter on a card that adapts to the kind of counter the card refers to (such as Giant Fan) is also squarely in acorn territory." By which you mean, the rules can't handle it, not because it would be overpowered? I'm curious as to why that is.

The rules can’t handle it. It’s not overpowered. Being very powerful doesn’t keep you from being eternal.

Eternal Giant Giant Fan Rules Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets

Counter Type Change

Is changing the type of counters on a permanent acorn territory?

Changing is acorn territory. The normal rules can remove a specific counter and then add a specific other counter. Doubling Season, and like effects, wouldn’t be triggered by the former and would by the latter.Put a counter on a card that adapts to the kind of counter the card refers to (such as Giant Fan) is also squarely in acorn territory.

Doubling Season Giant Giant Fan Rules Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets

Unfinity Sales Impact

Do you think the sales of unfinity would have been better if the attraction and sticker cards would have been pre banned from tournament play? Or was the amount of players soured by them being tournament legal not a factor in the sales of the product?

We just don’t pre-ban cards, especially a giant list of them.The intent was Unfinity would never be relevant in Legacy. The sticker rules were purposefully high in variance to avoid them being relevant. The fact that the problemsome card was a common should make it clear we weren’t trying to sell Unfinity packs to Legacy players (except those who also have fun with casual play elsewhere).

Bannings Casual Play Format Legality Giant Legacy Rules Stickers

Creature Traits

with various type of creature having common things, like goblin being red, spider having reach and other similar aspect either on the design or the flavor side, what would be the common ground ( if there's one ) for giant and vampire ?

Giants tend to be bigger, 3/3 and up. Vampires often have flying and/or lifelink, but we make too many for them all to have it.

Creatures Flavor Flying Giant Goblin Lifelink Lifelink Red Spider Vampire

Moa Representation Issue

Hi, Mark. I looked at some records of giant moa and it would be good to see this already extinct bird with more presence in future sets.

The problem we have with moa is they are flightless birds, but not enough people know what they are, so the lack of flying in a Bird throws people.

Bird Blogatog / Tumblr Flying Giant

Beeble Scale Ranking

Hey, big fan of some of the more "monstrous humanoid" types here, particularly around Red, and I was wondering where in the Beeble Scale would Ogres, Trolls, Cyclopses and Giants be?

Giants are a 1, Ogres a 2, Trolls a 3, and Cyclops a 4.

Beeble Scale Cyclops Giant Ogre Red Troll

Token Creature Type

I saw the question about amassing without an extra creature type, and you said that it needed an extra type for the token art. If we saw an army like the boros legion (comprising of multiple creature types) would you make the armies second type something like soldier? Thus allowing the token art to feature, for example, a goblin, giant, angel and human all on one token?

The question was about having no type, not no second type.

Angel Army Art Boros (R/W) Creatures Giant Goblin Human Soldier Tokens

Loot's Creature Type

Hey Mark. First let me just say that I'm really loving OTJ so far. It walks the line of being just a bit too silly but the dad in me appreciates the puns. I also want to say thank you for your fantastic work on this blog. You are the living embodiment of patience.
As for my question. Can you tell us whether or not Loot is a Fomori? The story and the flavor text seems a bit vague on the subject and with only two art samples, and those of adults, it's hard to be certain. If you can't answer that question, how about this one. Can age play a part in the creature type. Would a baby giant still have the creature type of giant?

I can’t answer the first question.Age doesn’t really play a part as far as race creature types. A baby Giant is still a Giant.

Appreciation Art Blogatog / Tumblr Creatures Flavor Text Giant Humor Outlaws of Thunder Junction Story / Lore

Villain Roster Considerations

Hi Mark! You're probably gonna get a lot of questions on why X villain wasn't in Thunder Junction, so apologies, but I'm gonna ask anyways if my favourite diabolist Davriel Cane was considered for Thunder Junction :P

I know the creative team made a giant list to consider. I don’t know if Davriel made the list, but I assume he did.

Giant

Mystic Type Status

on the subject of creature type errate, can i request that 'mystic' be officially retired? there are a lot of famous "mystic" cards but basically none of them are actual mystics. it's right up there with "giant" for how often the term is used but not represented in a creature's type line. it only appears on 7 cards and it hasn't been used in over 20 years.

It’s what we call semi-retired. We still support it, but don’t use it on new cards.

Creatures Giant Mystic