Clown

More Clowns in Magic

"Duskmourn is trying to tap into a lot of more modern fears." Does that mean we might finally see more clowns?

Maybe : )

Clown Humor Modern Tap / Untap

Unleashing Infinite Clowns

Re: clowns. So now that we've discovered everyone naturally arrived at the same conclusion about how these cards interact, we're ready to allow players infinite clowns in black-border, right? :)

Once you let the Clowns out of the Clown Car, it’s not easy to get them back in.

Clown Clown Car

Infinity Clown Rule

re: infinite clown cards in the library: Previously you've ruled (unless I'm mistaken) that a player with infinite life who is attacked by Infinity Elemental will still have infinite life after taking infinite damage. Infinity minus anything, even infinity, is still infinity.

It seems to me that the infinite clown ruling should parallel that. Once you "shuffle" infinite cards into a library it is only possible that a clown card is on top no matter how many you draw. One card minus infinite clown token cards would still leave infinite cards above whatever discrete unique card was in your finite library. Infinite draws would still leave infinite clown token cards above because (in Magic specifically based on prior ruling as I recall it) infinity minus infinity is infinity.

If I'm incorrect about that prior ruling then this doesn't stand, but to me this seems like the consistent ruling to make with regard to infinities in Magic. It's not a mathematical truth or ruling and I think players trying to approach it like that are bound to get tripped up.

I said you’re just drawing Clowns.

Clown Elemental Infinity Elemental Rules Shuffle The Library Tokens

Infinite Deck Shuffling Details

About the clowns: it’s impossible to say whether a non clown card would ever be drawn because the question is under specified. With an infinite deck of cards, it’s not sufficient to simply say you “shuffle” them as you would a finite deck. Normally, this implies a uniform distribution, which is impossible with infinite cards. Therefore we must define some asymmetric distribution over the cards. So yes, with some distributions you would expect to never draw a non-clown (as an aside we also bump into the axiom of choice here: with infinite identical clowns, is it even possible to identify a specific one?). But we could also pick a geometric distribution while shuffling, with a probability p that each card (in order drawn) is a non-clown. Then we would expect to see a non-clown in just 1/p draws!

It still happens with great infrequency.

Clown Shuffle

Infinity Concept in Gameplay

Countably infinite does NOT mean finite. If you shuffled an infinite number of Clown tokens into your library, you would never draw another kind of card in that game. Infinity plus however many cards were in your library is still infinity. Imagine if you didn't shuffle. How many cards would be on top of the first real card? Infinite cards are on top, so you'd never draw the card. If you shuffled the deck, that would still be the case. There would be an infinite number of Clown tokens before and after each real card, because the chance of getting a Clown token between any two cards while shuffling is 100%. Not 99%, not 99.999...%, just 100%. Infinity divided by the cards in your library is infinity. You can never draw any real cards, because even if you took off the top card, infinity minus one is still infinity.Grenzo, Dungeon Warden would always hit, since there are an infinite number of Clown creature token cards on the bottom of your library. Since tokens have 0 mana value, you can't cascade into any real cards. You could mill out if you got hit by Tasha's Hideous Laughter. If you chose Land for Abundant Harvest, you would get one if you had a land in your library. However, if you got hit by Cut Your Losses, you would only mill Clown tokens, and no cards from your library. Infinity plus the number of real cards in your library divided in half is infinity, so you'd never get to the first real card, and you'd still have an infinite number of Clown tokens on top. Finally, if you happened to play Braingeyser with X equal to infinity, you would STILL not draw any real cards. Infinity minus infinity is infinity. You would have an infinite number of Clown tokens in your hand, and an infinite number of Clown tokens on top of your library.It's easier if you think of infinity as a description or a quality rather than a number. Treating it like a number infects whatever math you're doing with odd-looking results.

FYI

Abundant Harvest Braingeyser Cascade Clown Creatures Cut Your Losses Game Play Grenzo, Dungeon Warden Hideous Laughter Lands Mana Value Mill Shuffle Tasha's Hideous Laughter The Library Tokens Your Hand

Infinite Clown Tokens in Deck

Your deck has infinite clown tokens, so basically you do nothing but draw clown tokens for the rest of the game.But the thing is it’s countably infinite. Which means each card can be matched to a whole number. Which in turn means that each of my original cards is guaranteed to be a finite number of cards below the top (scince it is guaranteed to be able to be assigned a whole number) which means that I will draw them at some point if we treat their position in the deck as properly random. Which means the deck you described isn’t properly shuffled

While you can theoretically draw them, it’s hard to practically draw them. For example, let’s say your chances are 1 out of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (which is but a tiny fraction of infinity), you and everyone on planet Earth could play a game every hour for the rest of your lives and the chance of anyone ever drawing a non-Clown card are still astronomically low. It is technically possible, but improbable.

Clown Tokens

Clown Kindred Possibility

If/when clown kindred?

Let’s get back Clowns first. : )

Clown Humor If/When Kindred / Typal

Infinite Clown Tokens Scenario

If I have infinite clown tokens (thanks to combining mox lotus with clown car.) and Claire on the field. And then a board wipe is used followed by me discarding emrakul to shuffle my graveyard into my library. Then what happen?

Your deck has infinite clown tokens, so basically you do nothing but draw clown tokens for the rest of the game.

Clown Clown Car Mox Lotus Shuffle The Graveyard The Library Tokens

Unconventional Deck Fun

Happy birthday! 🥳 ✌️ My birthday trivia is I’m making an acorn/silver boarder Pietra EDH deck 🤡 never made an un deck before but I think it’ll be pretty fun Ps I could use an amass clowns at some point…🤡 🤡 🤡

Get a good collection of jokes. : )

Amass Birthday Clown Commander Humor Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets

Clowns in Duskmourn

hi mark, i'll be the first to admit when you announced that duskmourn would include a "clowns matter" theme, i was a lil skeptical. as a fan of clowns, i was really happy with your decision to lean away from the "scary clowns" trope in unfinity, so their inclusion in the horror set got me a lil worried. that was until the preview cards, anyway! i don't know whose stroke of brilliance it was to include them in the set as a... dare i say, a dash of colour, but please relay my thanks!

The scary clowns show up in Bloomburrow. Scary animal clowns. Oh, that Dartboard of Destiny.

Appreciation Bloomburrow Clown Colors Dash Horror Spoilers

Magic Con Etiquette

Hey Mark! I’m very excited to be going to Magic Con Chicago with a group of friends and looking forward to the panels. I’m sure you’ve said it before, but are there any best practices if we happen to see you around to say hi to be respectful of your time? As an aside, I’d love to have a copy of whatever you would consider to be your favorite red-white card you designed to get signed (whatever favorite card that might be when you read this).

You can just approach me if you see me, provided I’m not in the middle of doing something. I’m always happy to interact with players. My favorite red/white card is either Comet, Stellar Pup or Pietra, Crafter of Clowns, both from Unfinity.

Boros (R/W) Clown Comet, Stellar Pup Conflux Conventions Pietra, Crafter of Clowns White

Amass Clowns Consideration

I need a maybe on amass clowns 🤡🤡🤡

If we ever get another Un-set, I’ll consider it. : )

Amass Clown Humor Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets

Elder Clown Possibility

If/When Elder Clown?

If. Let’s get Clown into a premier set first. : )

Clown Elder Humor If/When Premier Sets

Clown Advisor Possibility

Could we ever see a clown advisor creature type line

Potentially.

Advisor Clown Creatures

Clown Creatures Possibility

If/When Clown creatures showing up in non un-sets? The Cult of Rakdos is full of clowns, after all.

I think when.

Clown Creatures If/When Rakdos (B/R) Un-sets

Sci-Fi Creature Types

I love the designs of the UB Dr.Who set. But I really really dislike science-fiction or modern age creature types. I know you mentioned that WOTC might create an in-universe creature type to represent them. What are the chances because I will be honest. I LOVE un-sets but stayed away from the last one because of clowns, robots and aliens. I'll be staying away from this set as well, but im sad because the designs look amazing. I just can't reconcile putting them with my fantasy cards. Too weird

As we venture more into science fiction, we are expanding our creature types. There are also no immediate plans for Magic Within versions of Doctor Who cards which means, I’m sorry to say, that there aren’t any plans in the work to help you. I’m sad you skipped Unstable (because of the Cyborgs) and Unfinity, because I believe they are the two best designed Un-sets, and both are a lot of fun.

Alien Clown Creatures Doctor Modern Robot Un-sets Wizards of the Coast

Acorn Rules Question

Acorn Rules Question: Is folding token allowed if my opponent is playing with surprise party?

It has to be a Robot Clown token and the folding token is an Octopus.

Clown Octopus Robot Rules Surprise Party Tokens Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets

Clowns as Creature Type?

What are the odds of Clowns being a creature type in a non-un set?

It’s a matter of being a good creative fit. It’s not off limits or anything.

Clown Creatures

Clown Trait Integration

If Clowns do make the jump to a non-un- set would older cards like Spike Jester get erratad into them, like what happened with Noble, or is the MtG idea of a 'Clown' the distinct aesthetic of the red nose and make-up kind of idea we see on Pietra that would differentiate them from Rakdos' whole deal?

Clowns would probably have to typally matter in a premier set to have us do errata.

Clown Competitive Play Errata Noble Premier Sets Red Spike Spike Jester

Un-cards Impact

First just wanted to say I'm one of those people ruining magic who like Universes Beyond and legal Un-cards (Except maybe stickers I'm still iffy on those). Having said that, do you feel Robot and Clown being added for Un made them more likely to appear in future sets? As in do you feel the thought of using them is more likely than if a Legal unset hadn't happened?

I think if we make a set where they make sense, we would consider them even if it had only been used on Un-cards. Raccoon started on an Un-card, for example.

Clown Raccoon Robot Stickers Universes Beyond Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets