Bloodghast

Reprint Considerations

Hi Mark. Was the possibility of reprinting Vengevine and Bloodghast in BFZ considered during development? If so, why did you choose not to reprint them? Their power level is quite high relative to the rest of the set, but the proper enablers to make them playable aren't present so it would've been perfect for Modern players looking to get into playing Dredge

Both were, in fact, considered, but ended up being too problematic.

Blood Bloodghast Card Printing Dredge Modern Power Level Reprints Vengevine

Zendikar Vampires Insight

It's my birthday! Can I get some trivia on Bloodghast, Kalastria Highborn, or just general trivia on Zendikar's vampires?

Because I wanted a tribal component, I needed the Innistrad Vampires in two colors. Black was a gimme, but the second color proved harder. I could make a case for Vampires in any color other than Green, so I decided to leave them until I made other tribal decisions. Zombies ended up in Blue and Black. Blue was chosen because we wanted Frankenstein’s monster-style zombies as well as traditional Zombies. Werewolves ended up in Green & Red because that was where they made flavor sense outside Black (each color only got two tribes). Blue was out because two tribes couldn’t be Blue & Black. Green was out because Green Vampires didn’t make sense (yes, I’m sure people in the comments will explain why they would be awesome). White was out because I wanted all the White creatures to be benevolent and that didn’t make sense for Vampires. That left Black & Red for the Vampires. I needed a more aggressive tribe and blood-hungry impulsive Vampires sounded cool so that’s how they ended up in Red. Happy Birthday! EDIT: Oops, You said Zendikar not Innistrad. Zendikar Vampires were when we finally decided to stop using Vampires as an iconic race and start use them as a characteristic one (instead of infrequently and splashy at rare, frequently and less splashy at common and uncommon). Zendikar Vampires will return in Battle for Zendikar.

Battles Birthday Black Blood Bloodghast Blue Colors Creatures Flavor Green Innistrad Kalastria Highborn Kindred / Typal Rares Red Uncommons Vampire White Zendikar Zombie

Card Color Controversy

Mark I am very upset with Marang River Prowler from fate reforged. Can't block or be blocked is black(see Tormented Soul) and self recursion on a creature that can't block is black(see Bloodghast or Gravecrawler). Why is this a blue card? You don't even have to be playing black with it, you could run green instead.

Returning from the grave to the battlefield is a Black and Green thing thus the requirement of a Black or Green thing. Blue gets cannot be blocked all the time. Yes, cannot block is a bleed but a minor one.

Black Blood Bloodghast Blue Creatures Fate Reforged Gravecrawler Green Marang River Prowler Tormented Soul

Bloodghast Trivia

Hey MaRo! It's my birthday today, so I was hoping I could get some trivia about my favourite card Bloodghast.

Bloodghast got designed because we were trying to find some quirkier things we could do with landfall. Originally, it just had the landfall ability but it was too good defensively so we added “cannot block”. Development added the conditional haste in development. (The whole “10 or less life” thing was added in development.) Happy Birthday!

Birthday Blood Bloodghast Haste Landfall Mark Rosewater

Bloodghast Design Insight

I just want to say that whoever was responsible for putting "can't block" on Bloodghast is really smart, it makes for a lot better gameplay.

We use “can’t block” (in black) when we want the creature to be offensive and not defensive.

Black Blood Bloodghast Creatures Game Play

White Race Selection

You say white's iconic race isn't Cat/Fox/Kithkin/Loxodon because they weren't well received. But are you sure they weren't well received because you didn't make them splashy enough? The very first thing you did when you "mainstreamed" vampires in black was to give them cards like Vampire Nocturnus, Vampire Nighthawk, Bloodghast, etc. I don't see cards of that caliber in any of the white races above, and then you wonder why people weren't clamoring for them? Pardon my french, but duh!

We also secretly masterminded the Twilight phenomenon. : )

Black Blood Bloodghast Cat Duh Fox France Kithkin Vampire Vampire Nighthawk Vampire Nocturnus White

DotP Encounter Design

I'm loving DotP on the iPad, thanks for that. Back around Tempest, the legendary Aaron Forsythe built a deck that was all Muscle Slivers and Kindles. Some of the encounters really feel like that. (Especially the all-Bloodghast/Day of Judgment deck). Who designed the encounters?

The decks and encounters were built by Magic R&D mostly the developers.

Aaron Forsythe Blood Bloodghast Day of Judgment Sliver Tempest