Oust

White's Excommunicate/Oust Style Effects

Can white still do Excommunicate/Oust style effects? Unexpectedly Absent is one of my favorite cards but it seems like it's been years since we've seen a new card with this effect in mono white.

That ability is no longer in white. White can shuffle cards into the library, but not place it N cards down.

Excommunicate Oust Shuffle The Library Unexpectedly Absent White

Improving Equipment

Y'all seem to be getting better at making Equipment lately. Pirate's Cutlass and Jousting Lance were both fun cards that were strong in their limited environments without being oppressively good. Any chance on getting somebody from Play Design to write an article on how you're approaching Equipment these days?

I’ll suggest the topic to Melissa.

Equipment Jousting Lance Limited Pirate Pirate's Cutlass Play Design

White's Library Interaction

So, white can't put things on top of a library. What about the bottom, a la Condemn? Or second from the to, a la Oust?

We let White delay things by putting it several cards down. We chose to stop putting the cards on top of the library in white as that’s a blue thing. As is often the case to differentiate colors, it’s a thin line.

Blue Colors Oust The Library White

Color Pie Mechanics

Is there a spot in the color pie for putting things under the top X cards of a library? I know white does it with Oust, and Enigma Sphinx does it in Epser, but I'm curious if that's a specifically white thing or if it could be a tool in any color.

Blue can do it.

Blue Color Pie Colors Enigma Sphinx Oust Sphinx The Library White

Oust in Color Pie

Maro, I read your article today and noticed that Oust wasn't mentioned. Where does that fit in the color pie? Specifically, putting something into it's owner's library N cards from the top.

That’s still in white.

Color Pie Colors Making Magic Mark Rosewater Oust The Library White

Oust Effect Shift

Not that I disagree with shifting the Oust effect to blue, but isn't it just an upgraded bounce effect? I liked the effect in white because, to me, it felt like white was saying "hey that's a big monster, how about you give me some time to assemble my army so that we can have a fair fight."

The problem was it felt like blue got weak bounce and white got strong bounce which was odd when blue was supposed to be king/queen/ruler of bounce.

Army Assemble Blue Fight / Bite Oust White

Magic Color Rules

In your Rise of the Eldrazi podcast about Oust you said the "super unsummon back to deck" effect has been decided to be blue and not white anymore. Seeing that Journey into Nyx just printed Quarry Colossus, is there more subtlety in this rule or was this decision made rather recently?

Just remember that I live two years in the future.

Blue Card Printing Drive to Work Eldrazi Journey into Nyx Nyx Oust Quarry Colossus Rise of the Eldrazi Rules Unsummon White

Flavor Text Authorship

Were you responsible for Grim Roustabout's flavor text?

No. I haven’t written any flavor text since the original Ravnica block and even then I only did a few.

Flavor Grim Roustabout

White’s Temporary Removal

Do unsummon effects, as a way to temporarily move something from play, fit white, which uses nonlethal 'removal' effects? I'm thinking in the vein of oust, for example.

White can unsummon its own things and that has been used as an additional cost before.

Oust Unsummon White

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