Singleton

Request for Less 'Legendary Matters'

Hi, Mark! I know you don't play a lot of Commander, but (I do and) you've said you design with it in mind. I have a weird request: At least in terms of Commander-design, can we see less "legendary matters," please? In 60c, it's neat to see how designs work when you only get the one, but in singleton format, it just means you're playing with above-rate cards, a "restriction" that isn't fun once players get a game out or at all for their opponents.Strangely, it's also one of the weaknesses I feel UB has. Because you all are trying to cram entire franchises into single products, there are an overabundance of named, legendary cards. As such, we see a lot of "legendary matters" themes (WHO and ACR quickly come to mind). I really do think that UB products would benefit by being "deckmaster" products with multiple sets to allow full exploration of the IP and give them more time to breathe (though I'm sure there are issues with that proposal I haven't yet considered).Thank you for answering our questions honestly, informatively, and kindly!

We are trying to be more carful how often we go to the “legendary matters” well.

Appreciation Assassin's Creed Card Backs Commander Singleton

Assassin Viability in Commander

You could make freerunning usable in commander by printing more assassins. Thus making assassin based decks viable in the format possibly.

Assassins Creed adds a whole bunch of new Assassins (the vast majority of new creatures are Assassins), and the Outlaw batch also encouraged sets around it to add more Assassins. With all that done, there’s still just not that much to choose from for a singleton 100-card format. (The database I just looked at had 119 Assassins. In contrast there are 602 Elves.)

Assassin Batches Card Printing Commander Creatures Elf Freerunning Singleton

Hedron Alignment and Singleton Commander

If/when: A commander playable Hedron Alignment style wincon?

I’m not sure exactly what you’re asking for. Hedron Alignment’s win condition, having multiples in certain places, seems to directly contradict the singleton nature of Commander.

Commander Hedron Alignment If/When Singleton

Claire's Rule-Bending Functionality

If. It’s hard to do a need multiple copies win condition in a singleton format. See, this is why we need the rules to support Claire. Then hedron alignment would work in commander by using token creation effects combined with her ability.

Claire is acorn because, she doesn’t work in the normal rules. It’s not even close.

Commander Hedron Alignment Rules Singleton Tokens Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets

Commander Playable Hedron Conversation

If/When: A commander playable Hedron Alignment-esque wincon?

If. It’s hard to do a need multiple copies win condition in a singleton format.

Commander If/When Singleton

Understanding Outlaw Mechanic

I don't dislike outlaw, but I don't see how it makes sense as a single-set mechanic. For Limited, things would be a lot cleaner if you just added a new Outlaw creature type. For Constructed the backwards compatibility is useful, but a single set's worth of payoffs isn't enough to make it worth building around.
So I think batches like outlaw would work more effectively if you intend to use them regularly rather than as single-set mechanics which might possiblysee a return several years later.

For 4-of, 60-card formats, there are plenty of Outlaw mattering cards. You don’t need that many when using four copies.For 1-of, singleton formats, there are four legendary creatures that care about Outlaws.Both have 31 years of creatures of the five relevant creature types.

Batches Constructed Creatures Legendary Creatures Limited Mechanics Singleton

Set Playtesting Process

Hi Mark! Firstly, thank you for the Nuts & Bolts articles. They are enormously helpful, and I've been referencing them for months now. However, there is a detail I feel I may have missed. When you playtest a new set, what process do you use to build the decks? I'm in the all-commons testing phase right now, and I've mainly been testing singleton decks or max-two-of decks, but picking whatever cards I want. What does the process look like for you? Simulated sealed, draft, etc., or something else?

I did a podcast on how we playtest: https://audio.transistor.fm/m/shows/21454/356fdaa0bf1eda59eab0c0903b919cf4.mp3

Appreciation Draft Formats Drive to Work Playtesting Sealed Format Singleton

Discord EDH Rules

Hi Mark! Lets say I'm playing Discord, Lord of Disharmony in edh, and I pull a random card that is already in my deck, what's your ruling as the silver-bordered rules manager: Should I re-roll to respect the rules of edh (only one card of each per deck), or should I keep (Discord lives in silver bordered land and can do what he wants!). Thanks!

I think the singleton rules are merely a deckbuilding thing, and Discord doesn’t involve that. I say keep the duplicate.

Commander Discord, Lord of Disharmony Disharmony Lands Rules Rules Manager Singleton

Mechanics in Constructed Play

I was reading a reddit thread where a new player was asking why X theme/mechanic in a recent set was not something he could build a competitive standard deck around. The responses in the thread was ENTIRELY set mechanics and themes are MEANT for limited not to build decks around. Is it a design problem that the player base feels set mechanics and themes are not meant for constructed 60 card formats? They did bring up how cards like Tenacious Underdog might have a set mechanic on them but them seeing play was because they were a strong card that happen to have it on them. Also it was brought up that Underdog could have the text just spelled out on the card and still function with out the "set mechanic" on it. Do set mechanics and themes matter outside of limited?

I’m not quite sure how to answer this. Clearly cards with mechanics are played in constructed formats, so yes, they matter. It’s harder to build solely around mechanics as you start getting into formats with larger deck sizes and singleton rules, but there are Standard decks where the main theme are based around using newer mechanics.Also, I should point out that high-level tournament constructed is a small portion of constructed play. Many Friday Night decks are built around mechanical themes. As you get more competitive, the very nature of it pushes you towards playing the strongest collection of cards which makes pure build-around theme decks lower in number.

Beginners Competitive Play Constructed Limited Mechanics Rules Singleton Standard Tenacious Underdog Underdog

Keyword Action Complexity

For me, I've been having trouble with the new keyword actions that are kind of just groupings or names for existing mechanics, like descend or commit a crime - the lack of "novelty" in their actual mechanics, makes it harder for me to remember what they are. They feel like the kinds of thing that would've been ability words only a few years ago, rather than their own named actions.

One of the challenges in designing new mechanics is wanting to create backwards compatibility. If new mechanics only work with other cards from the same set, it limits how they can be used. That issue is exacerbated by Commander with its 100-card singleton requirement.I do hope that once you grok what crimes are (targeting an opponent or their “stuff”) that it becomes easier to process. It was designed to be something that felt natural with a little bit of play.

Ability Words Commander Keyword Actions Mechanics Singleton

Legendary Lands Impact

If or when: two color legendary lands? It's a niche I'd like to fill in my Lara Croft deck, at least.

If. Dual lands usually want to be run in multiples (in all formats that aren’t singleton).

Colors Dual Lands Dual Lands If/When Lands Singleton Two Color

Mechanics Reappearance

Mark, the current single set model has a problem: We get awesome mechanics like incubate, backup and now discover, and then there just aren't enough cards to build decks of or support those in cubes. Would there be ways to have those mechanics reappear sooner?

Cubes don’t have to be singleton. The window for mechanics returning has gotten smaller, but it still is a long time comparatively.

Backup Incubate Mechanics Singleton

Singleton vs Unlimited Copies

Hi Mark! Thought experiment. :) If Magic suddenly changed, which do you think would be better for the overall health of the game: all formats become singleton or all formats allow any number of copies of legal cards (i.e., more than 4)?

Allowing four cards. Commander can handle singleton because of the commander which allows you a component to build around.EDIT: I misread this as singleton or four-of. If the choice is singleton or no restriction, obviously singleton.

Commander Singleton

Future of Battles

"Not every card type need be evergreen. Even when we regularly used tribal it was still treated as deciduous, not evergreen." Thanks for clarifying, I was under the impression that card types were evergreen. Anyway, I really enjoyed Battle cards from March of the Machine and I'm very eager to see more in the future. As a Commander player, I would love to build decks themed around the Battle mechanic but because it's a 100 card singleton format, a high number of Battles is required to make deck themes work so I guess it might take sometime before I can built that vision but I'm willing to wait if that's what it will take.

Battles went over well, so I do anticipate us making more.

Battles Card Types Card Types Commander Deciduous Evergreen Kindred / Typal March of the Machine Mechanics Singleton

Legendary Drawback Discussion

I play Magic daily, and respectfully, I cannot recall the last time the Legendary drawback was relevant to me. EDH is singleton, so it rarely matters there. In Constructed, you build your deck, so you build with the Legend rule in mind. In Limited, you rarely have multiple copies of a Legend at all, even at uncommon. So, I'll reiterate, it feels to me that 90% of the time, the drawback isn't relevant. I know you may disagree, but I'd still like to hear more about WotC's perspective on the shift.

When you play non-singleton formats, do you play less than four copies of legendary creatures? If you do, then it’s mechanically impacting your play. Also, if we want you to play multiples, we specifically don’t make it legendary. Third, if we put them at uncommon, we have to adjust the set to accommodate for it, so the legendary drawback matters less.

Commander Constructed Creatures Legendary Creatures Limited Reiterate Rules Singleton Uncommons

Legendary Mechanic Impact

What's the difference between having 30 Legendary creatures in a set and having 30 non-Legendary creatures in a set? They are mechanically identical in 99% of cases.

Legendary has a drawback that comes up in all non-singleton formats. And in the most popular singleton format, it determines what can be a commander. So, 99% is incorrect.

Commander Creatures Legendary Creatures Mechanics Singleton

Commander Mechanic Difficulty

Commander being singleton makes it hard for us to build decks around new mechanics, some there usually aren’t enough cards with the new mechanic in a set to use in a deck. Is there any good solution to this problem?

We’re doing more things like batching where new themes involve existing elements. The Ninja cards also care about Rogues or Modified caring about all auras, equipment, and counters. We’re also trying to return to popular mechanics in more places to up the number.

Auras Batches Commander Equipment Mechanics Ninja Ninjas Rogue Singleton

Legend Rule Views

Is there anything the Question Marks can do to help? I'd sign a petition in favor of scrapping the legend rule. The formats that care about legends are already singleton and for competitive formats like Standard, Modern, and Pioneer that are focused on Spikes all it does is increase variance. As a Spike, I'd like the legend rule scrapped for any tournament format.

Sadly (for people who want this change), the majority of the players also want to keep it as is.

Competitive Play Legendary Creatures Modern Pioneer Question Marks Rules Singleton Spike Standard

Mechanic Card Allocation

What goes into the process of how many cards a mechanic gets to feel right? There are some mechanics where from the jump you could make a full deck focused on it (Blood tokens, mutate, etc.) and others that just dont have enough cards to work with imo (Foretell comes to mind). Do you just go with what feels right, take into consideration how many cards are needed for a commander deck, etc.?

A single set usually can’t make enough cards to make a “build around me” mechanic for a Commander deck. It takes six and half times as many cards to work in 100-card singleton decks than for a 60-card 4-of deck. Note that a lot of mechanics can be splashed and don’t need a volume to work. How many cards we want to make is based on lots of factors, but the biggest two are design space and room in the set.

Blood Commander Decks Design Space Foretell Mechanics Mutate Singleton Tokens

Sticker Sheets Setup

one of my main issues with stickers is that you need to present them before the game begins, so even if you're playing a 100 card singleton deck with just one sticker card, or if you are playing a theft deck against your friend who always runs a handful of sticker cards, you need to pull out your 10 sticker sheets and randomly select them before every game. this adds an entire step to game setup for very minor payoff. i'm looking at the sticker sheets more than any other card in my deck.

In everything save a sanctioned tournament, you don’t need to randomize your stickers until the first time you need to use them. If you never draw your sticker card in a game, you never need to look at your sticker sheets. Also, in most casual settings, you can use the stickers of the person who owns the creature you’re stealing (obviously with their permission), so you don’t need to bring your own.

Casual Play Creatures Singleton Stickers