Fiend Hunter

Gameplay Mechanic

What is the "trick" people keep mentioning with Fiend Hunter and Oblivion Ring?

If you remove Fiend Hunter from the battlefield before his ETB trigger resolves, the creature he exiles never comes back.

Creatures Enter The Battlefield Fiend Hunter Oblivion Ring

Design Intuition

"We tend to avoid tricks that don't intuitively make sense to the majority of players". But the cards in question (Fiend Hunter, Oblivion Ring, etc.) still have a clear, obvious use that requires no knowledge of timing or the stack. It's a neat trick for experienced players and most inexperienced players won't even notice it. Isn't that just an example of lenticular design?

Not when it’s used against beginning players.

Fiend Hunter Lenticular Oblivion Ring The Stack

Fairgrounds Warden Design

Not a fan of Fairgrounds Warden. Why did you template it like Banisher Priest and not Fiend Hunter? I like tricks to permanently exile stuff.

We tend to avoid tricks that don’t intuitively make sense to the majority of players.

Banisher Priest Fairgrounds Warden Fiend Hunter Templating The Exile Zone

Green's Creature Interaction

"Green’s answer for creatures needs to involve its creatures. Green does have some ability to change its own creatures." Could this mean that green can have creatures that behave like Fiend Hunter/Banisher Priest, where another target creature is negatively affected as long as the other creature is in play? Or does this refer to specific mechanics like Fight or "Lure" and just being bigger creatures?

The latter.

Banisher Priest Creatures Fiend Hunter Fight / Bite Green Mechanics

Preserving Unintended Uses

Recent "improvements" in card text make them do only what Design intended. For example Oblivion Ring->Fiend Hunter->Detention Sphere->Banisher Priest. This removes "unintended" uses as tricks, combos, and clever play decisions. As a Johnny I love these "holes" and feel forced into intended interactions. I want to do unintended things the designers didn't dream of - please don't take them away!

What we’re trying to phase out if things that are non-intuitive and make other players think you are cheating (or at least doing things that feel inherently wrong making them argue with you) when you explain what you’re doing. We definitely want players to have the abilities to do things with cards that we don’t intend and make sure such opportunities still exist.

Banisher Priest Detention Sphere Fiend Hunter Johnny / Jenny Oblivion Ring

White's Creature Removal

Have you considered moving White's "answerable answers" entirely to creatures(think Fiend Hunter)? I think that would alleviate a lot of the perceived problems with White removal. All the colors have a way of dealing with creature-based removal (black has creature destruction, blue has bounce, white has flicker or more answerable removal, green has fight, and red has burn). If this were the case, white would have cheap, universal answers but with the drawback that every color can answer it,

I don’t mind moving some to creatures (and we’ve started to). I think having some that red and black, white’s enemies, have trouble with is actually pretty flavorful.

Black Blue Colors Creatures Fiend Hunter Fight / Bite Flavor Green Red White

White Removal Philosophy

On White removal: I like the idea that White has to trade something or somehow make the exchange 'fair'.. Where does that trading aspect come into play for cards like Oblivion Ring, Journey to Nowhere, or Fiend Hunter, though? Is it simply because White offers a way for you to get your permanent back?

White has several different types of removal. Another popular one (and my favorite) is the I have an answer to everything but my answers have answers. White doesn’t kill you, it puts you in jail - that is until you get broken out.

Exchange Fiend Hunter Journey to Nowhere Oblivion Ring White

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