Gift Mechanic

Consideration on Gifting Fish

Was it considered that "gift a tapped fish" makes it more difficult if design wants to eventually gift someone a 2/2 green fish? Or is that so unlikely to be necessary for a future set as to be not worth thinking about?

It’s pretty unlikely.It does prevent the following card for a potential Dr. Seuss Secret Lair:Gift a 1/1 Fish.Gift a 2/2 Fish.Gift a red Fish.Gift a blue Fish.: )

Blue Fish Gift Mechanic Green Humor Red Secret Lairs

Potential Gift Ability Tweak

Could the gift mechanic work as a triggered ability instead of something solely done on cast? Such as "when this creature attacks, you may Gift a Food."

I don’t know if the current version of gift can do that, but as it’s a cost, I assume we could tweak things to make that work. Just a hunch though. I’m not the Rules Manager.

Creatures Food Gift Mechanic Mechanics Rules Manager Triggered Abilities

Feedback on Gift Mechanic

Mark, no question. Just wanted to express that I really really really really like the Gift mechanic. I'm assuming there's a lot of design space for it too??

It’s not as easy to design for as one might assume at first blush, but there are a lot of cool things to do with it.

Design Space Gift Mechanic Mechanics

Gift Mechanic and Win Conditions

I'm curious, in the development of the gift mechanic (or the set as a whole) did you experiment with creating an alternate win condition based on how much you help other players?

We did not.

Gift Mechanic Mechanics

Gift a Token Variations

"Gift a tapped Fish" creates a tapped 1/1 blue Fish creature token.If a card says "Gift a Human" or "Gift a Vehicle", would those tokens have different power, toughness, and color?

They could. It would be defined (most likely in reminder text).

Blue Colors Creatures Fish Gift Mechanic Humans Tokens Vehicles

Concern Over Gift Mechanic

I believe that ask about gifts being optional was asking if you believe some players will think it is NOT optional, due to the cards just saying "Gift X". I don't think the asker thought it was mandatory.

We’ll have to wait until the prerelease to see if there’s confusion. I don’t anticipate confusion.

Gift Mechanic Mechanics Prerelease Question Marks Sealed Format

Investigating Card Distribution

Does giving the opponent cards have a specific place in the color pie?I only took a cursory glance through a card database to research this question, so I could be very off, but it seems like white most often lets an opponent draw a card as a 'compensation'. Red traditionally has wheel effects, and blue has a bunch of "everybody draws" effects. Black and green have little to nothing.Despite that, any color seems to be able to "gift a card" in Bloomburrow. Is that just an exception because it's a set mechanic?

We found the best gift options and then made sure each color had gift(s) that made sense for that color.

Black Bloomburrow Blue Card Draw Color Pie Colors Gift Mechanic Green Mechanics Red White

Rules Distinction in Gift

First of all, LOVE Bloomburrow! Especially the otters, frogs, and rabbits. Re: Gift a tapped fishGift is like Haunt in that the instant/sorcery version and permanent version do different things. The spell gifts the fish before other effects. The permanent gifts when it enters. I see this having similar challenges with Haunt. Also the rules text doesn’t specify a 1/1 blue fish. Reminder text isn’t technically part of the rules. Can I gift my opponent other kinds of fish? I see the “gift a tapped fish” as being potentially “rules-challenging”.

Rules text has meaning beyond what’s on the card. Reminder text is telling you relevant information. That is real information that has rules weight. Reminder text just isn’t written in technical Magic templating.

Bloomburrow Blue Fish Frogs Gift Mechanic Haunt Instants Otters Rabbits Rules Sorceries Templating

Gift Mechanic Wording

I also find the wording of Gift a little strange in that it doesn't explicitly define the "cost" like Ward does. "Gift — Create a 1/1 blue Fish creature token," doesn't sound as nice, I suppose. And maybe that's a good enough reason.

We could have written it more in “Magic-speak”, but we preferred making it sound more like normal English. It mechanically works just fine.

Blue Creatures English Fish Gift Mechanic Mechanics Tokens Ward

Formatting of 'Gift'

Is there a reason Gift wasn't formatted like Ward to remain a generic keyword? It seems like the kind of keyword that could become evergreen if it wasn't specifically tied to hardcoded options like "Gift a tapped fish." For example:Gift - Draw a card (As you cast this spell, you may choose an opponent. If you do, they draw a card before the rest of this spell's effects.)

We can say Gift a _________ a do whatever gift we like. It’s not very restricting.

Card Draw Colorless Evergreen Fish Gift Mechanic Keywords Ward

Keyword Nuance Explanation

Question in regards to your comments on gift a tapped fish; why not stop the keyword at gift, to offer further versatility if you wanted to reuse the mechanic?

Much like protection has a general meaning and a specific meaning when attached to other words, so too does gift.

Fish Gift Mechanic Keywords Mechanics Protection

Mechanics of Gifting Explained

With regards to "Gift a tapped fish" being a single 'keyword', are the rules being written in such a way that Gifting in general can be referred to by other cards?

I.e. Something like "If a player gives another player a gift [do this thing]."Or will they have to refer to SPECIFIC gifting effects?Like, will "Gift a tapped fish" "Gift a Card" "Gift a Food" all technically be a different as First Strike, Trample, and Flying from a rules point of view?

They’re connected like protection connects protection from red and protection from instants.

First Strike Fish Flying Food Gift Mechanic Gift Mechanic Instants Mechanics Protection Red Rules Trample

Details of New Card Mechanic

The new card "Parting Gust" has "Gift a tapped Fish", which creates a tapped 1/1 blue Fish creature token.Is the "1/1 blue" part tied to the Gift mechanic, like how "0/0 black" is tied to Amass?

“Gift a tapped Fish” is a keyword, so we can offset someone of the information into the reminder text. All future “gift a tapped Fish” have to create a 1/1 blue Fish creature token

Amass Black Blue Creatures Fish Gift Mechanic Gift Mechanic Keywords Mechanics Parting Gust Tokens

Designing Alania, the Divergent Storm

Hi Mark! Bloomburrow looks amazing from the previews we've seen, hope you're all feeling pleased with the reactions. I had a question about Alania, the Divergent Storm - was the card originally designed to give "gift a card" to your spells? The wording for it feels really similar.

That’s where we started, but the rules/templating didn’t allow it, so we had to use slightly different rules text.

Bloomburrow Gift Mechanic Rules Spells Spoilers Templating