Time Stop

Time Stop Trivia

Last few moments before I go to sleep on this, my day of birth, I must ask for the Sacred Rite™ of Birthday Trivia.Do you have any trivia on either Time Stop, or Discontinuity? I love the Temporal Control style cardsThanks!

When Time Stop was first designed, there was a lot of talk about it. Could it work in the rules? How do you template it? Would players understand how it works? In the end, we thought “end the turn” was so cool a line of text, we decided we had to make the card.Happy Birthday!

Birthday Discontinuity Rules Templating Time Stop

Time Stop Request

May I request more time stop effects?

It’s not something we want to do very often, but I believe we will make more over time.

Time Stop

No Flavor Text Templating Issues

I might be late to the party on the flavor text discussion, but I really loved the set where the foil/premium cards had no reminder text, and the regular versions kept it. I think it was a core set, long ago. I remember Time Stop just said "End the Turn" in foil, and it was pretty sweet compared to the normal one, which has (an often needed) paragraph of text, explaining what happens to spells etc. Might we see more "no flavor text" templating on Showcase cards, or even on the foil/premium versions? Is that too much additional work?

Unfortunately, it’s a huge amount of extra work. From the production side, it’s like making an entire other set.

Flavor Text Foils Spells Templating Time Stop

Room for Time Stop Effects

How much space is there for Time Stop effects?

Not a lot.

Time Stop

System Return Query

Would R&D ever consider returning the system where normal cards had the reminder text, but foils did not? Tenth edition Time Stop comes to mind first, and I'd love to see that feature return, especially for cards like Throes of Chaos or Glorious End that have short rules text but very long reminder text.

It requires the layout people to double their work. It didn’t turn out to be worth the huge work increase.

Foils Game Design Glorious End Rules Tenth Edition Throes of Chaos Time Stop

Suspend Mechanic and Upkeep Trivia

I'd like to invoke the Birthday Trivia clause, please. :) Any trivia on Suspend or the upkeep in general? Big fan of the cycle of sorceries that re-suspend themselves after being cast and I always try brewing decks with upkeep triggers with Paradox Haze. hahaha Also please high five whoever designed the M21 Time Stop! Thank you!

Suspend was originally designed for a small set, but I told them it was too big a mechanic for a small set and saved it. It was the mechanic that inspired the idea of a time-themed block (aka Time Spiral black). Happy Birthday!

Appreciation Birthday Black Core Set 2021 Cycles High Fives Mechanics Paradox Paradox Haze Sorceries Suspend Suspend Time Spiral Time Stop Triggered Abilities

Premium Text Challenges

There is precedent to changing nonessential card text for premiums- for example, premium Time Stop removes all reminder text to simply say "End the turn." (and looks really really cool while doing so)

That ended up being a huge amount of work for our graphics team. The time investment was judged not worth the splash it got.

Time Stop

Premium Card Challenges

Whatever happened to having premium cards without reminder text? Foil 10th Edition Time Stop is still a very elegant looking card.

It turns out it took our CAPS department, the people who have to make the cards, many, many extra hours to do it and was judged not worth the significant extra time and expense.

Foils Time Stop

Magic Card Birthday Trivia

Hey, maro its my birthday tomorrow and I was wondering if I could get trivia on either of my favorite cards, Arcanis the Omnipotent or Time Stop?

Time Stop has the greatest ratio between rules text and reminder text at 14:1. Happy Birthday!

Arcanis the Omnipotent Birthday Mark Rosewater Rules Time Stop

Skipping Turn Card Color

If you did make a card that forced a player to skip their turn, what color might it be? Blue like Time Stop?

Most likely blue. It’s the color that most often messes with time.

Blue Colors Time Stop

Designing Time Stop

how did Mark Globus design Time Stop given that it was in Kamigawa and he didn't enter until after that point?

That’s a fine point. I think he was a big fan of Time Stop and made the Sundial as a tribute to it.

Kamigawa Time Stop Tribute

Sundial Infinite Trivia

It is finally my birthday! I've waited patiently for this, so my question is: Can we please get some awesome trivia about my favorite card, Sundial of the Infinite?

Mark Globus (he came in fourth in the first Great Designer Search and is now the producer for Magic in R&D) created Time Stop. The spell went over well so he did again with Sundial. Happy birthday!

Birthday Search Sundial of the Infinite Time Stop

Time Stop Text History

Re: Time Stop. The reminder text is about six lines long...

That used to be the rules text.

Rules Time Stop

Time Stop Fun Fact

Hey Maro, it's the week of my birthday! Can I get a fun fact on one of my favorite cards of all time: Time Stop

The original text for Time Stop was six lines long. It’s a good example of us being more willing to template creatively.

Birthday Mark Rosewater Templating Time Stop

Flavorless Foils Feedback

Dear Maro, out of curiosity, how did the "Foils without flavour text" cards that were in 10th edition, such as time stop, get received? Where would this sit on the storm scale?

The players liked them but they proved *a lot* of extra work on the production side and were deemed not worth the effort.

Flavor Foils Keyword Abilities Mark Rosewater Storm Scale Time Stop

Foil Text Decision

The lack of reminder text on Tenth Edition foils was a very nice touch (and makes Time Stop look VERY impressive). What was the reasoning behind the decision, and why wasn't it reused?

It was something we tried because we thought players would like it. And they did. The reason we didn’t repeat it was that it ended up being a lot more work than we realized for our production department. Every set has different costs we have to balance (time as well as money) and in the end it wasn’t worth the cost to repeat it. That doesn’t mean that we’ll never do it again but we didn’t want to establish it as a regular thing.

Foils Tenth Edition Time Stop