Retrospectives, part 6: Shards of Alara
August 3rd 2010 07:55
“Flowers gathered in the evening,
Afternoon they blossom on;
Still are withered by the evening:
You can be me when I'm gone.”
-- Neil Gaiman, The Kindly Ones
Shards of Alara was the first block with a focus on multicolored cards of what I like to call the post-modern era of Magic. It was also released only a year after Ravnica, which was the last multicolor block of what I like to call the modern era of Magic, rotated out of the Standard tournament format. This meant that it never really got the credit that I thought it deserved. From the point of view of the strategic, tournament-focused, powergaming mindset that dominates the internet, Ravnica is an impossible act to follow.
“Lorwyn block and Ravnica block, while fun, have too much mana fixing for how I like to build decks—I want some challenges and restrictions.” – Aaron Forsythe, director of Magic Research and Development
Of all the reasons to forget about a card, tournament legality is by far the worst. Still, there is a new block and the promise of a new world of adventure on the horizon, and since Standard is the most emphasized format, Shards of Alara’s press and column time will inevitably decline very soon. As such, this is a fine time to look back on what Alara has given us the last two years, and what lasting effects it has had on the game.
Mythic cards. Love them, hate them, or pay $80 for them, the mythic rarity has changed how we play and collect Magic. It extended the flavor elements of the world beyond the card frame, providing a place for creatures and characters that we “shouldn’t” see in too many booster packs. It even made the game more like what it was originally intended to be, more so than it was originally possible for it to be, because mythic cards that turned out to be very powerful in gameplay are present in very limited numbers at most tables.
Flavor gaming. Bloodbraid Elf only has red and green mana in her cost, which means she can be technically played in any deck with access to those colors. But if you look at her costume and her war paint and the backdrop, she clearly lives in Jund. You can make the same identification for almost every card in the Shards of Alara block. You can build a deck using only cards from one of the five shards, and play them against each other, pretending that you are a patron planeswalker of each one in turn.
Scoff if you like (plenty of people have), but this much is the same premise used for the development of Planechase and Archenemy. And, for that matter, Sarkhan the Mad, the first card whose rules text refers to “himself.” The effects of flavor gaming are subtle, and may take years to be fully realized, but Shards of Alara was the first step towards a Dungeons and Dragons-style world where the flavor is bigger than the game.
Creatures at the center. A good fantasy novel (or card set) is made by an interesting setting and interesting characters, much like any other genre. A setting is often defined largely by its inhabitants; Lord of the Rings, for example, is remembered as one of the first novels to use the modern type of elves and orcs. In the case of Magic, when faceless, overpowered sorceries and instants defined play as they did at various times in the past, you could sometimes find that the guy sitting across from you was using the game to try and feel like a big man by denying you the opportunity to do anything.
Former Magic developer Randy Buehler commented that Shards of Alara block constructed’s top decks seemed to have no instants in them. While there is and always will be a place for counterspells and spell-based strategies in Magic, Alara showed what the game could look like when it was reasonable to expect a majority of cards in decks to actually have an impact – and it looked good.
Alara was not, as might have been the case with some past sets, developed to Magic’s norms. Alara is Magic’s norms. The game is dead. Long live the game.
Afternoon they blossom on;
Still are withered by the evening:
You can be me when I'm gone.”
-- Neil Gaiman, The Kindly Ones
Shards of Alara was the first block with a focus on multicolored cards of what I like to call the post-modern era of Magic. It was also released only a year after Ravnica, which was the last multicolor block of what I like to call the modern era of Magic, rotated out of the Standard tournament format. This meant that it never really got the credit that I thought it deserved. From the point of view of the strategic, tournament-focused, powergaming mindset that dominates the internet, Ravnica is an impossible act to follow.
“Lorwyn block and Ravnica block, while fun, have too much mana fixing for how I like to build decks—I want some challenges and restrictions.” – Aaron Forsythe, director of Magic Research and Development
Of all the reasons to forget about a card, tournament legality is by far the worst. Still, there is a new block and the promise of a new world of adventure on the horizon, and since Standard is the most emphasized format, Shards of Alara’s press and column time will inevitably decline very soon. As such, this is a fine time to look back on what Alara has given us the last two years, and what lasting effects it has had on the game.
Mythic cards. Love them, hate them, or pay $80 for them, the mythic rarity has changed how we play and collect Magic. It extended the flavor elements of the world beyond the card frame, providing a place for creatures and characters that we “shouldn’t” see in too many booster packs. It even made the game more like what it was originally intended to be, more so than it was originally possible for it to be, because mythic cards that turned out to be very powerful in gameplay are present in very limited numbers at most tables.
Flavor gaming. Bloodbraid Elf only has red and green mana in her cost, which means she can be technically played in any deck with access to those colors. But if you look at her costume and her war paint and the backdrop, she clearly lives in Jund. You can make the same identification for almost every card in the Shards of Alara block. You can build a deck using only cards from one of the five shards, and play them against each other, pretending that you are a patron planeswalker of each one in turn.
Who will be her when she’s gone?
Scoff if you like (plenty of people have), but this much is the same premise used for the development of Planechase and Archenemy. And, for that matter, Sarkhan the Mad, the first card whose rules text refers to “himself.” The effects of flavor gaming are subtle, and may take years to be fully realized, but Shards of Alara was the first step towards a Dungeons and Dragons-style world where the flavor is bigger than the game.
Creatures at the center. A good fantasy novel (or card set) is made by an interesting setting and interesting characters, much like any other genre. A setting is often defined largely by its inhabitants; Lord of the Rings, for example, is remembered as one of the first novels to use the modern type of elves and orcs. In the case of Magic, when faceless, overpowered sorceries and instants defined play as they did at various times in the past, you could sometimes find that the guy sitting across from you was using the game to try and feel like a big man by denying you the opportunity to do anything.
Former Magic developer Randy Buehler commented that Shards of Alara block constructed’s top decks seemed to have no instants in them. While there is and always will be a place for counterspells and spell-based strategies in Magic, Alara showed what the game could look like when it was reasonable to expect a majority of cards in decks to actually have an impact – and it looked good.
Alara was not, as might have been the case with some past sets, developed to Magic’s norms. Alara is Magic’s norms. The game is dead. Long live the game.
| 121 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
