Embalm

Token Creation and Design Validity

I remember during GDS2 one of the designers had a mechanic that created a token that was a copy of the creature with swapped P/T. One of the complaints was it meant too many tokens would need to be made.
Now we have offspring, embalm, and eternalize. Does that make the complaints for the design less valid?

The bar to do so is high, but lower than it once was.

Creatures Embalm Eternalize Mechanics Tokens

Tokens and Counters in Bloomburrow

Does Bloomburrow have more unique tokens and counters in total than Fallen Empires? Seems really close.

Offspring, embalm, and eternalize create a unique token for each creature with the mechanic, so it pumps up the number of tokens. It wouldn’t surprise me if it passes Fallen Empires.

Bloomburrow Creatures Embalm Eternalize Mechanics Tokens

Reason for Tokens Keeping Mana Costs

Why was it decided that the tokens created by offspring would keep their mana costs, unlike the tokens created by embalm/eternalize?

It was a templating decision to lessen the word count, I believe.

Embalm Eternalize Mana Templating Tokens

Type-Specific Abilities Viability

Hi Mark, since you aren't doing abilities linked to types (the old "Walls can't attack" rule), what do you think about types linked to abilities? (things like Embalm & Eternalize granting the Zombie type or a rule saying "Mutated creatures are Mutants")

I’m not against the concept, but it has a pretty high bar to clear.

Creatures Embalm Eternalize Mutant Rules Wall Zombie

Creature Flashback Likelihood

Does the flavor baggage of embalm make a finality counter version of "creature flashback" more likely?

Yes, I guess.

Creatures Embalm Flashback Flavor

Keyword Templating Discussion

Embalm and escape are no different than unearth or flashback. What flavorful word you drop in for a particular alternate casting cost or activated ability doesn't change the structure of how the ability is written. Commit a crime and collect evidence are uniquely templated and warp the text box around them. They stick out like a sore thumb compared to every other keyword

But they aren’t uniquely templated. Collect evidence, as an example, is templated like any other mechanic that uses the graveyard as a resource.

Casting Cost Collect Evidence Embalm Escape Flashback Flavor Keywords Mechanics Templating The Graveyard Unearth Unearth

Aesthetic Mechanics Critique

I just listened to your episode about designing MKM. Your comments about capturing the aesthetic of the genre crystallized why I don't like mechanics like commit a crime and collect evidence. I like the aesthetic of how Magic cards are written, and these violate that. Normal keywords and ability words still follow magic-ese, but these throw out the normal magic-ese to try and be cheeky, and it breaks my immersion

Can you give me more detail? Embalm or escape doesn’t break immersion, but collect evidence does? I don’t understand.

Ability Words Collect Evidence Embalm Escape Keywords Mechanics Murders at Karlov Manor

Future Zombie Theme

"Zombie feels like a when," - I think Amonkhet was your Zombie set -> every color had access to zombies via Embalm and Eternalize; with most being White/Green/Blue (and black of course having normal zombies.)

Zombie Apocalypse seems such a staple of pop culture, that I assume one day we’ll do our spin on it.

Amonkhet Apocalypse Black Blue Colors Embalm Eternalize Pop Culture Simic (G/U) White Zombie Zombie Apocalypse

Tokens Without Mana Cost

It's been a while, but why did Embalm and Eternalize make the tokens with no mana cost?

We didn’t want to put mana costs on the tokens as we thought it would create confusion.

Embalm Eternalize Mana Tokens

Color Allocation for Reanimating Mechanics

Wait, if black/green are the self reanimating colors and Eternal Dragon is a break, then why does white get mechanics like Embalm, Eternalize and Disturb, on high volume even?

White can reanimate other creatures. It’s number two at reanimating. It’s not supposed to be on creatures reanimating themselves as that’s black and green (and red on Phoenixes).We let mechanics do it which is why the three above mechanics did it, but we don’t let white do it on individual cards much like blue got Embalm but doesn’t get it on individual creatures.

Bend / Break Black Blue Colors Creatures Disturb Dragon Embalm Eternal Eternal Dragon Eternalize Golgari (B/G) Green Mechanics Phoenix Red White

Mutate in Modified Action

Any chance mutate gets in on that modified action? If keywords, rules text, etc are trending toward more easily comprehensible at face value, it makes sense to allow keywords like modified to be inclusive to mutate, which could use the support.

Why don’t we just include every old mechanic that flavorfully could make sense with modified? We could include mutate. And threshold. And amplify. And exalted. And augment. And embalm. And haunt. And emerge. And transform. And soulbond. And hellbent. That’s the problem. The game’s almost thirty years old. We’ve made a lot of mechanics. If every new mechanic tried to include every old mechanic that possibly could apply, we couldn’t fit the reminder text on the card (and it starts getting a lot more complicated).What we do is pick the most common and available mechanics (ideally ones in the set) and count those. Every aura, equipment or card that adds counters to creatures is a lot of backward compatibility.

Amplify Auras Creatures Embalm Emerge Equipment Exalted Haunt Hellbent Keywords Mechanics Mutate Rules Soulbond Threshold Transform

Reprinting Plane-Specific Mechanic

Is it possible to reprint a plane-specific mechanic like embalm under a more generic name in another plane, like innistrad? With day/night, disturb, and embalm, we now have 3 out of 4 mechanics that turns human into the major innistrad monsters (with only vampire missing). It'll be interesting to have an innistrad set where the theme is human fighting previous-human.

That’s the theme of every Innistrad set.

Colorless Day/Night Disturb Embalm Human Innistrad Mechanics Reprints Vampire

2-Set Blocks Preference

I agree that the 3-set block structure often made things feel stale, but I would like to see 2-set block structure be the norm. Seeing mechanics evolve (embalm/eternalize) or just exploring more design space than a single set could (energy/disturb) provides more ability to build around a mechanic we like.

We did try two-set blocks for a couple years, without great success.

Design Space Disturb Embalm Eternalize Evolve Mechanics

Thoughts on 'Disturbed' Mechanic

My thoughts on Disturbed: it's an interesting mechanic in a vacuum, but it's hampered by the fact that this is like the fourth or fifth time we've gotten "Flashback... But for Creatures!" (Unearth, Embalm, Eternalize, kind of Escape) and it shows up alongside actual Flashback, which saps a lot of the excitement because it feels like a rehash. Add that to it eating up DFC space that feels like it could have been spent on resonant tropes and it seems lackluster in my opinion.

Why is people dying and coming back as ghosts not resonant?

Creatures Dual Faced Cards Embalm Escape Eternalize Flashback Mechanics Unearth Unearth

Embalm and Mummies Future

Could embalm and mummies (white zombies) be used on another plane or is it tied to Amonkhet?

It would need the right world, which is a big ask.

Amonkhet Embalm White Zombie

Token Pack in Bundles

Good morning Mark. I hope things are well with you. I have a request, one that I assume is not under your control but that you could pass on to those who do control it. Specifically, would it be possible to include in the bundles a packet of all the tokens created by the cards in the given set (as was done with Amonkhet's and Hour of Devastation's Embalm and Eternalize tokens)? As a token lover & user, it is often nice to have more but it can get difficult to collect. Many thanks.

I’ll pass along the request.

Bundles Embalm Eternalize Tokens

Favorite Mechanics or Cards

I feel like a lot of people who say you’ve only done bad for the game don’t realize you’re probably behind some of their favorite mechanics or cards too. For a change of pace, can you list some beloved mechanics or cards you’re responsible for?

Here are the Magic mechanics I’ve had a hand in creating: Absorb, Addendum, Affinity, Aftermath, Aura Swap, Battle Cry, Bolster, Champion, Changeling, Cipher, Companion, Contraptions, Crew (Vehicles), Dash, Deathtouch, Delve, Dredge, Embalm, Energy, Entwine, Evoke, Exert, Exploit, Fabricate, Fateful Hour, Fateseal, Ferocious, Flashback, Flip, Forecast, Fortify, Frenzy, Gotcha, Graft, Gravestorm, Heroic, Hexproof, Host/Augment, Hybrid Mana, Imprint, Infect, Intimidate, Kicker, Landfall, Lifelink, Living Weapon, Madness, Manifest, Mentor, Modular, Monstrosity, Morbid, Morph, Multikicker, Mutate, Ninjitsu, Phyrexian Mana, Poisonous, Populate, Proliferate, Prowl, Raid, Rally, Reach, Recover, Reinforce, Retrace, Ripple, Shroud, Soulbond, Splice, Split Cards, Split Second, Suspend, Transfigure, Transform, Typecycling, Undying, Unearth, Vanishing and Wither.

Absorb Absorb Addendum Affinity Aftermath Aura Swap Battle Cry Battle Cry Bolster Champion Changeling Cipher Companion Contraptions Crew Dash Deathtouch Delve Dredge Dredge Embalm Entwine Evoke Exert Exploit Fabricate Fabricate Fateful hour Fateseal Ferocious Flashback Forecast Fortify Fortify Frenzy Graft Gravestorm Gravestorm Heroic Hexproof Hybrid Imprint Infect Intimidate Kicker Landfall Lifelink Lifelink Living Weapon Madness Mana Manifest Mechanics Mentor Modular Monstrosity Morbid Morph Morph Mutate Ninjitsu Phyrexian Poisonous Populate Proliferate Prowl Raid Rally Rally Recover Reinforce Retrace Ripple Shroud Soulbond Splice Split Cards Split Second Suspend Suspend Transfigure Transform Undying Unearth Unearth Vanishing Vanishing Vehicles Wither Your Hand

Birthday Trivia on Embalm/Eternalize

Hi Mark. If/when day seems to have buried my ask, but can I get birthday trivia on Embalm/Eternalize?

To do Embalm we had to get permission to have a unique token for every card with the mechanic. Happy Belated Birthday!

Birthday Embalm Eternalize If/When Mechanics Tokens

White Graveyard Mechanics

Could White get small creatures that it can cast from the graveyard, like black does occasionally?

Black and green are the two colors with creatures that can get themselves back from the graveyard. The closest white has gotten was embalm. I could see white maybe doing it in a graveyard focused set.

Black Cast Colors Creatures Embalm Green The Graveyard White

White's Graveyard Return

"White doesn’t bring itself back from the graveyard." - Does this mean that Eternal Dragon is a bend? What about the white Embalm creatures?

Embalm creatures were a conscious bend. Eternal Dragon was an outlier when it was printed.

Bend / Break Card Printing Creatures Dragon Embalm Eternal Eternal Dragon The Graveyard White