A judgment call
September 7th 2009 02:32
Day of Judgment is better than Wrath of God.
“Jose, you’re insane. If I’m unfamiliar with Magic, they’re mostly identical. If I am familiar with Magic, it’s strictly worse.”
Here’s the problem: Wrath of God never really fit in, at least not after the Limited Edition core set. I’m not talking about the so-called “God problem,” the issue that it supposedly references the Judeo-Christian god in a multiverse that doesn’t have such a thing. “Wrath of God” is a set phrase in English, and there are theist individuals and religions in Dominaria – if we know that the objects of their worship are actually nature spirits like Gaea or planeswalkers like Freyalise, it’s not their fault.
Try this. Scroll back up and look at the images again. Look at Wrath of God first, then go up a little bit more and check out Day of Judgment. If you’re like me, you’ll start on a low and end on a high, because you can almost hear Sorin’s voice quietly recounting destruction that was extreme even by the standards of a planeswalking vampire. The difference between these cards is made by the fact that Day of Judgment has flavor text and Wrath of God doesn’t. One is bare, sparse, and functional. The other is functional, but engaging and alive. One has very cool art, but also the conflicting feeling that it’s a playing card doing a job for you. The other has equally cool art, but has no conflict, instead drawing you into a moment in time, a snapshot of a hypothetical universe of infinite possibilities.
This is why it is important to write to Mark Rosewater and other Wizards of the Coast designers to register your disapproval of reminder text. The game is mana costs and rules keywords - but every game ends. Life is in the flavor.
“Jose, you’re insane. If I’m unfamiliar with Magic, they’re mostly identical. If I am familiar with Magic, it’s strictly worse.”
Here’s the problem: Wrath of God never really fit in, at least not after the Limited Edition core set. I’m not talking about the so-called “God problem,” the issue that it supposedly references the Judeo-Christian god in a multiverse that doesn’t have such a thing. “Wrath of God” is a set phrase in English, and there are theist individuals and religions in Dominaria – if we know that the objects of their worship are actually nature spirits like Gaea or planeswalkers like Freyalise, it’s not their fault.
Try this. Scroll back up and look at the images again. Look at Wrath of God first, then go up a little bit more and check out Day of Judgment. If you’re like me, you’ll start on a low and end on a high, because you can almost hear Sorin’s voice quietly recounting destruction that was extreme even by the standards of a planeswalking vampire. The difference between these cards is made by the fact that Day of Judgment has flavor text and Wrath of God doesn’t. One is bare, sparse, and functional. The other is functional, but engaging and alive. One has very cool art, but also the conflicting feeling that it’s a playing card doing a job for you. The other has equally cool art, but has no conflict, instead drawing you into a moment in time, a snapshot of a hypothetical universe of infinite possibilities.
This is why it is important to write to Mark Rosewater and other Wizards of the Coast designers to register your disapproval of reminder text. The game is mana costs and rules keywords - but every game ends. Life is in the flavor.
Next post: vampires!
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