Bye, bye, Miss American Pie
November 15th 2010 01:19
You might think that discussing Magic’s colors and their philosophies would be interesting. The original design of the color system was one of Richard Garfield’s most ingenious moves: the fact that there are an odd number of them makes for very interesting tension, and while they weren’t as equal as he would have hoped, they were more balanced than is sometimes suggested.
And yet, discussions about the colors usually end in frustration, because it’s all too easy to end up talking across each other, trapped in separate conversations in the same physical space. This is because there are two ways to approach the color pie: from the point of view of flavor or of mechanics. For example, Mark Rosewater says that he believes Path to Exile should not have been printed because he approaches the color pie from the mechanics side.
His view of what white “should” be allowed to do is grounded in game mechanics – since black usually gets more powerful “kill target creature” cards, Path to Exile is too good. But if your view comes from the other side, flavor, then the card makes more sense, especially viewed in a holistic manner that considers its art and name as well as its abilities.
The holistic view was touted as part of the new core set paradigm, but comparison of M10 and M11 reveals inconsistency already. The former contains more cards that are outside the strict mechanical definitions of the color pie than the latter, and M11’s flavor-based designs remain mostly within the mechanical view of the color pie. As you know, I tend to favor the flavor point of view in everything, but this inconsistency has unfortunate implications for the mechanics-first interpretation as well. In particular, it is an obstacle in Wizards of the Coast’s stated objective to correct imbalances in the color pie and make every color viable; specifically, two of the most powerful abilities in the form of counterspells and “draw N cards” appear exclusively and near-exclusively (respectively) in blue.
It’s worth noting that blue came to be considered unfairly overpowered not in the early years, when everything was designed by flavor and blue got its share of “bad” cards by modern standards, but in the middle years when rigid mechanical definitions of each color became fashionable. In this light, it is possible that M10’s flaw was not in fact tilting towards flavor, but not tilting towards flavor enough.
Green may be weaker than blue, but this card has been restricted for almost as long as Ancestral Recall.
And yet, discussions about the colors usually end in frustration, because it’s all too easy to end up talking across each other, trapped in separate conversations in the same physical space. This is because there are two ways to approach the color pie: from the point of view of flavor or of mechanics. For example, Mark Rosewater says that he believes Path to Exile should not have been printed because he approaches the color pie from the mechanics side.
His view of what white “should” be allowed to do is grounded in game mechanics – since black usually gets more powerful “kill target creature” cards, Path to Exile is too good. But if your view comes from the other side, flavor, then the card makes more sense, especially viewed in a holistic manner that considers its art and name as well as its abilities.
The holistic view was touted as part of the new core set paradigm, but comparison of M10 and M11 reveals inconsistency already. The former contains more cards that are outside the strict mechanical definitions of the color pie than the latter, and M11’s flavor-based designs remain mostly within the mechanical view of the color pie. As you know, I tend to favor the flavor point of view in everything, but this inconsistency has unfortunate implications for the mechanics-first interpretation as well. In particular, it is an obstacle in Wizards of the Coast’s stated objective to correct imbalances in the color pie and make every color viable; specifically, two of the most powerful abilities in the form of counterspells and “draw N cards” appear exclusively and near-exclusively (respectively) in blue.
It’s worth noting that blue came to be considered unfairly overpowered not in the early years, when everything was designed by flavor and blue got its share of “bad” cards by modern standards, but in the middle years when rigid mechanical definitions of each color became fashionable. In this light, it is possible that M10’s flaw was not in fact tilting towards flavor, but not tilting towards flavor enough.
| 47 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
