The world is still hollow
March 31st 2010 03:32
“Are you telling me you don’t know what this means?”
-- Grant Morrison, The Invisible Kingdom
Some Magic cards reward you for being clever, and seeing what other cards they interact with. Some reward you for being canny, and able to judge their power level in relation to others. But some reward you for being perceptive, and for understanding why they are what they are and why they aren’t what they aren’t.
Do you know what this means?
This expansion symbol relies on you knowing that that there was another Mirrodin block way back in 2003. It relies on you knowing that the old Mirrodin block was set on a metal world with four suns – white, blue, black, and red – and a hidden green sun that lay dormant until unearthed by an elf named Glissa, at which point it burst through the surface and joined the others, leaving a huge gap or lacuna in the surface of the world. That’s also why the new block is called Scars of Mirrodin – the world itself is scarred, and the inhabitants’ conception of that world is scarred.
Consider why Wizards of the Coast would do this. It doesn’t really help or hinder game play – they can put whatever mechanics they want on any new or old world they want, since they are (largely) designed separately. What it does do is enhance the set’s immersivity, and encourage you to feel like a planeswalker returning to a former haunt rather than someone sitting at a table playing cards. This is precisely the kind of sentiment Magic needs to survive the 21st century.
The Pro Tour and minutiae of card design still take up a disproportionate amount of column space on Wizards of the Coast’s website. But all the pro plays in the world don’t add up to a single moment of the wind on the Razor Fields blowing through the jasmine of your mind.
-- Grant Morrison, The Invisible Kingdom
Some Magic cards reward you for being clever, and seeing what other cards they interact with. Some reward you for being canny, and able to judge their power level in relation to others. But some reward you for being perceptive, and for understanding why they are what they are and why they aren’t what they aren’t.
Do you know what this means?
This expansion symbol relies on you knowing that that there was another Mirrodin block way back in 2003. It relies on you knowing that the old Mirrodin block was set on a metal world with four suns – white, blue, black, and red – and a hidden green sun that lay dormant until unearthed by an elf named Glissa, at which point it burst through the surface and joined the others, leaving a huge gap or lacuna in the surface of the world. That’s also why the new block is called Scars of Mirrodin – the world itself is scarred, and the inhabitants’ conception of that world is scarred.
Consider why Wizards of the Coast would do this. It doesn’t really help or hinder game play – they can put whatever mechanics they want on any new or old world they want, since they are (largely) designed separately. What it does do is enhance the set’s immersivity, and encourage you to feel like a planeswalker returning to a former haunt rather than someone sitting at a table playing cards. This is precisely the kind of sentiment Magic needs to survive the 21st century.
The Pro Tour and minutiae of card design still take up a disproportionate amount of column space on Wizards of the Coast’s website. But all the pro plays in the world don’t add up to a single moment of the wind on the Razor Fields blowing through the jasmine of your mind.
He was supposed to be dead. He is not dead on here. He was an artificer. Mirrodin is a metal world. You do the math.
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