Sengir Vampire

Birthday Trivia on +1/+1 Counters

Hi Mark. It was my birthday yesterday, so could I get some birthday trivia on +1/+1 counters?

The first three cards to use +1/+1 counters (in Alpha) were Sengir Vampire, Rock Hydra, and Fungusaur.Happy Birthday!

Birthday Fungusaur Hydra Rock Hydra Sengir Vampire Vampire

Sengir Vampire Strategy

Sengir vampire abilities can work well with lure effects or fight mechanics, while most opponents might ignore the creature combatwise, isn't it my job as a player to create interaction using some predesigned strategy?

There’s a line for how much effort it takes to make a card’s text relevant. At higher rarities, we’re more willing to make narrower cards.

Creatures Fight / Bite Mechanics Sengir Vampire Vampire

Sengir Vampire's Rarity

Why doesn't effects like Sengir Vampire's happen a lot? Sengir Vampire was a great card both in flavor and mechanics and would love to see more like it.

Because the effect almost never triggers. It just becomes a wordier “can’t be blocked”.

Flavor Mechanics Sengir Vampire Triggered Abilities Vampire

Level Up Flavor

For flavor reasons Level Up really should have occurred when the creature with it kills another creature through combat damage.

As Sengir Vampire demonstrates, that doesn’t happen a lot.

Creatures Flavor Level Up Sengir Vampire Vampire

Zurgo Helmsmasher Trivia

Mark, the 16th was my birthday and I think my ask may have gotten lost in the shuffle. Can I get some trivia on Zurgo Helmsmasher? He's my favorite commander. Also, thanks for all you do!

In Alpha, Richard made Sengir Vampire. It had an ability, since dubbed by R&D as the “Sengir ability”, which made the creature bigger when it kills things. The ability has proven hard to use as players either avoid blocking it or make sure to block it with enough creatures to kill it, meaning that it doesn’t often get counters.
Zurgo was designed to try and make the “Sengir ability” actually relevant. It has to attack, it’s powerful enough that it’s hard to ignore and it has indestructible on attack so it lives through combat. It’s probably the most success “Sengir” creature to date.
Happy Belated Birthday! (You share your birthday with my twins, Adam and Sarah.)

Alpha Birthday Blocking Commander Creatures Indestructible Sengir Vampire Shuffle Vampire Zurgo Helmsmasher

Keywording Vampire Ability

Okay, but if you were to keyword the sengir vampire ability, what would you call it?(so I can call it that instead of saying the sengir vampire ability)

You can call it Hunger. : )

Keywords Sengir Vampire Vampire

Keyword Potential

Hey mark, I was wondering how you felt about the idea of key wording the sengir vampire ability; if it did get keyworded, what colors would you put it in?

We don’t use it enough to keyword.

Colors Keywords Sengir Vampire Vampire

Common Downshift

Could air elemental or Sengir vampire ever be downshifted to common in a masters set?

Unlikely, but anything’s possible.

Air Elemental Elemental Sengir Vampire Vampire

Homelands Creative Process

What was the creative/design process that led to Homelands being so bad? It was the first top-down set, or am I wrong about that?

The first top-down design is either Alpha or Arabian Nights depending on how you define it. Homelands creative was based around taking the perceived popular creative elements from Alpha (Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire, Hurloon Minotaur, etc.) and building a world around them.

Alpha Angel Arabian Nights Homelands Hurloon Minotaur Minotaur Sengir Vampire Serra Angel Top Down Vampire

Elegance in Rules

Two things that seem inelegant ruleswise are damage being redirected to planeswalkers, like Earthquake hitting either a walker or its controller, not both, and delayed triggers for creatures killing other creatures, like Sengir Vampire blocking a Catacomb Slug, which you then hit with lightning bolt two phases later. By any combination of new abilities on future cards, rules changes or errata, could either of these be made simpler / more elegant?

The Planeswalkers rules would be more elegant if the card type had started when the game began as things like Lightng Bolt would just say “deals 3 damage to target creature, player or planeswalker”. But we’ve passed that window and don’t want to throw away fifteen years worth of direct damage cards (among others), so we have to live with slightly sub-optimal planeswalker rules.

Blocking Card Types Catacomb Slug Creatures Errata Lightning Bolt Planeswalkers Rules Sengir Vampire Slug Triggered Abilities Vampire

Bushido Mechanic Insights

I'm surprised Bushido gets so much consideration. My experience with it is that it's like Sengir Vampire's ability, it just never matters. Either my creature wins the fight and we play normally, or my creature loses and the bushido guy is either a weak unblockable or a decent defender.

Bushido functions a lot like First Strike. It discourages blocking early on but eventually the opponent can’t handle taking damage and has to starting blocking and then the mechanic starts helping your creatures win in combat.

Blocking Bushido Creatures Defender Fight / Bite First Strike Mechanics Sengir Vampire Vampire

Classic Cards Relevance

What's the reason to keep printing cards like Serra Angel or Sengir Vampire when they don't have very much to do with current storylines?

Serra Angels and Sengir Vampires still exist in the multiverse even if their creators (Serra and Baron Sengir, respectively) aren’t actively part of the story.

Angel Baron Sengir Card Printing Sengir Vampire Serra Angel Story / Lore Vampire

Repentant Vampire Design

Repentant Vampire is kind of confusingly designed, because he doesn't get +1/+1 counters from the creatures he destroys with his ability.

He’s not a Repentant Sengir Vampire. : )

Creatures Repentant Vampire Sengir Vampire Vampire

Alpha Iconics Identified

I would consider Sengir Vampire, Serra Angel, and Shivan Dragon the Iconic Iconics. Do you agree? What would the other two be, for Green and Blue?

Those are the Alpha iconics. The others are probably Vesuvan Doppelgänger and Force of Nature.

Alpha Angel Blue Dragon Force of Nature Green Sengir Vampire Serra Angel Shivan Dragon Vampire

Old Cards Revamp

Being a long long time fan of Magic, it bums me out to see staples of the earlier years (Shivan Dragon, Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire) so underpowered under today's standards. These are the key cards for veteran players. Has there ever been the consideration of redoing them or updating them to be stronger for today's standards? These are the pioneers of magic!!!

Magic creatures were just overcosted in the early days. I’m not sure how you want us to redo them. The names are stuck to the old versions. We could make an Angel of Serra but I feel that would only confuse players while not truly satisfying the old timers.

Angel Creatures Dragon Experienced / Enfranchised Players Power Level Sengir Vampire Serra Angel Shivan Dragon Vampire

Maro Uncommon Potential

Could Maro be reprinted at uncommon? I'd love to see it in a future core set hanging out with the once rare iconic Serra Angel and Sengir Vampire.

It’s an interesting idea.

Angel Card Printing Mark Rosewater Rares Reprints Sengir Vampire Serra Angel Uncommons Vampire

Vampire Wardrobe Mystery

Mark, I have an extremely important question: How did Sengir Vampire put on that suit, with those fingernails?

Very carefully. : )

Sengir Vampire Vampire

Creatures vs Spells

Thanks for replying to my spells/creatures question. I don't think the power disparity was THAT large.. See Arabian Nights' creatures, Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire, Mahamoti, Shivan, Hyppie, LoA, etc. They're bad by today's standards but I think they're what creatures should be in terms of cost-power ratio (too late to go back now though). I think spells offer the most opportunity for tricks/fun. Bolt, Portent, Dark Ritual etc. are not overpowered and offer a lot to MtG

As someone doing this for seventeen years, I strongly believe Magic is a better and more fun game when creatures matter. That doesn’t mean spells shouldn’t also matter, and they do, but I don’t think having lots of decks without creatures leads to fun Magic. And be aware in the early days there were multiple times, that basically you were in the wrong to have creatures in your deck, so we do have a bunch of experience on what that world is like.

Angel Arabian Nights Creatures Dark Ritual Portent Sengir Vampire Serra Angel Spells Vampire

Homelands vs Innistrad

Was there consideration given to the idea of returning to Ulgrotha, from Homelands, instead of creating a new plane with Innistrad? The settings are similar, and I think it would have been a great way to tie in earlier Magic history with the present. Plus, Sengir Vampire just came back in M12 and the Sengir family could have been represented again.

We actually talked about whether Innistrad wanted to be Ulgrotha. The were several problems: 1. It limited our freedom to define what was in the world. The whole point of the set was to do all the horror tropes. Using a defined world would cut some of them off. 2. Last year we returned to Mirrodin. While we are up to returning to other previously visited planes, we didn’t want to do it back to back. 3. Homelands, unfortunately, has a bit of a stigma associated with it and Return to Homelands doesn’t really have the pop we would want.

Homelands Horror Innistrad Limited Mirrodin Planes Sengir Vampire Vampire