After MaRo – Even a Blind Squirrel Finds an Acorn Sometimes

Squirrel?

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re new to the After MaRo series (I haven’t done anything like this in a while so you might be), I sometimes have “conversations” with Mark Rosewater. These conversations AREN’T real; I make them up in my head. I know I’ve been posting some info lately that has been more “journalistic” and I wanted to re-visit this column again. If/When I do have real information about something like this, it will be done in a serious manner. Sorry for the confusion.

It’s been a while since I called MaRo. Let’s see what he’s up to.

(Picking up phone) Hello, Mark Rosewater.

Hello Mr. Rosewater, this is Robby from MtG Color Pie.

No comment.

But, I’m not the press.

No comment.

What’s going on?

I’m not talking about Priceless Treasures.

Okay… I wasn’t calling about that.

(Surprised) Really?

No, I wanted to talk to you about your article on Monday, how you said no one liked Odyssey.

Yeah, people didn’t get the point of the article and think that I don’t like Odyssey. I love Odyssey. I have a shrine in my house and write Odyssey love letters every week.

You do?

(Beat) No. But a majority of people didn’t like it.  Research shows.

And what is this research?

Microchips in every card.

I knew it!

After MaRo – Meeting the Man Himself

Actual photo of me and MaRo

If you follow me on Twitter (twitter.com/mtgcolorpie), you knew that I was at the Zendikar pre-release in Seattle. And you also know I met Mark Rosewater (or MaRo for the uninitiated) who is kind of a big deal (he smells of rich mahogany). Let me say that (mono-tone voice) Mark Rosewater is the smartest man alive. He can do no wrong. You are unable to stop him and his tyrannical reign upon Magic. (Yelling, shaking head violently) Ah, free from that mind control serum he gave me. I’m on to you sir.

We were having a conversation with Brian Tinsman (another high-profile R&D member) and another player (sorry, I forgot your name). And out of this conversation, I learned some things about Mr. “I’m the face of Magic to the internet crowd.” I’m willing to share these things with you, out of the goodness of my heart. Plus, if you ever meet  him either at an event or somewhere else, you can have a hand up on him.

1. He reads all his tweets, e-mails and threads. This isn’t something he says, he actually does it. He really wants to know what you’re thinking. Sometimes when there’s a controversial topic he’s going to talk about (Mythic Rares) he knows he’s going to get people pissed off. Thinking that there’s a certain group of players out there who hates everything he does, MaRo knows he’s going  to get that mail. He has yet to name said demographic (may I suggest a Jason, who created the much beloved Web Comic “UGMadness” and his character Fanboy). If you want to tell him how you’re feeling about something, do e-mail or tweet him (twitter.com/maro254).

2. Four young children walk ahead of MaRo ripping up Power 9 cards so his feet never touch the ground. After he walks by two more children walk after him to clean up the ripped up cards so that no one can use them again.

After MaRo – The 2009 State of Design Response

MaRo from UGMadness.net

This is the 5th State of Design that MaRo released since his tenure as Head Magic Designer who is the mouthpiece of Wizards. But this is quite an important one as now, after this amount of time, he has developed a pattern. Before we look at the present (and the “future”), we must look at the past.

MaRo always has goals that he wants to do for design for the upcoming block. This is always an easy task because *shock* they have already designed and close to printing the future block that MaRo is wanting to make goals for. It’s easy to make goals for something you’ve already done. Maybe goal in the traditional sense (the act of throwing, carrying, kicking, driving, etc., a ball or puck into such an area or object), should be replaced with another definition (Synonyms: 1. target; purpose, object, objective, intent, intention. 2. finish). Um, let’s use intent. It’s their intent (goal) to do hit these marks and make them go over well.

Taking a look at the past year’s “goals” there is a pattern going on here (MaRo says humans like patterns). Let’s take a look at them for each year and see what the goals were with what they accomplished:

2005 – Ravnica: City of Guilds Block

1. Institute block design (Have colored pairs throughout the block rather than one set)

2. Design between blocks (Don’t have Ravnica beat up Champions, let them work together)

3. Design and create integration (Create more Spirits!)

2006 – Time Spiral Block

1. Continue with the past goals (Past-present-future, cards that work with multicolor, mix dredge/hellbent with flashback)

2. Embrace the tools of the past (Use old mechanics)

3. Find ways to surprise (Surprise! Psionic Blast is back! Surprise! Wrath of God is now Black! Surprise! Magic is making contraptions!)

2007 – Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Blocks

1. Go back to our roots (Creatures smash and Blue/Black get the best spells)

2. Find innovation that doesn’t shock (Besides that four sets a year thing. Two/two blocks (race-class, friendly hybrid/enemy hybrid))

3. Be all inclusive (Spikes got Faeries/Cryptic Command, Johnnys got hybrid and Timmys got the entire Lorwyn block)

You gotta diversify your bonds!

2008 – Shards of Alara Block

1. Give things more time and space to breathe (The middle set? No new mechanics)

2. Embrace Flavor (5 shards each with their own keyword/theme)

3. Don’t be afraid to diversify (We about to go to war, invest in some nuclear bombs)

2009 – Zendikar Block

1. Explore new areas of design (No set around lands yet? Brilliant!)

2. Bring more resonance to the game (It’s a Trap!)

3. Continue to challenge expectations (Third set? Yeah, it’s big)

What does that mean? Do MaRo’s goals actually mean nothing then just big giant spoilers for the whole block? Is the cake a lie?

After Maro – Lies! Lies and Slander!

(Editor’s Note: Not all of you get my references to jokes in titles and other areas of my posts.  I understand, so I’m helping you out in this one.  Watch Futurama, Season 3, The Route of All Evil.  That’s as far as I’m going to help you here.  Also, there’s spoilers to what Wizards have deemed alright to show on their page.  If you don’t want spoilers, come back after the set has been released.)

Hello, Mark Rosewater’s desk.

Mr. Rosewater, it’s me, Robby from M:tGColorpie.

Sigh.  What is it this week?  Are you going to tell me you don’t like Exalted?  Because I just don’t…

No, I do like Exalted.

(Beat) Excuse me?

At first I was like, “Wow, that’s kinda dumb, only one creature attacking.  That’s not White, especially White Weenie.”  Then I was like, “Wait, this all makes sense.  All of the creatures are helping out one creature.  That’s like totally White.”

I was waiting for the explosion and the “Bew bew sounds” but it sounds like you like it.

I totally do.

Good.  (Beat)  I’m sensing a problem.

Ah, the Force is strong in this one.

After MaRo – The 2008 State of Design Response 2: Electric Boogaloo

If I mention politics, her pic goes up

Editor’s Note: Other possible titles of this post include: After MaRo – The 2008 State of Design Response 2: Electric Boogaloo or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love WotC, Take 2, and Stop Me If You’ve Heard this Before.  If you don’t get this reference to the actual title, see here.

Just like in MaRo’s Type 1, Take 2 article (the Take 2 Link in the above aside) I want another shot at this article.  What happened the first time was that I read MaRo’s State of Design and wanted to throw some stuff that I had been thinking about or things that were bothering me, mostly about the number of cards being printed at a time.  Sure, I love creating different decks, but I made my point last time and I’m not going to do it this time again.  I felt I was a little too political with how things should be handled (though being political got me to put Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin’s picture on this site because we need to beautify it here) and I didn’t really focus on the design of the past year (Note: I’m not supporting any ticket, only that Palin is the most attractive VP in the past 20 years (With apologies to Dan Quayle)).

Keep in mind that with my suggestion (and with the hard working people at Organized Play, alright, mostly their work), States/Champs are coming back.  I am excited and now if Wizards would continue to include things that I talk about, maybe then I’ll get an overinflated ego that I think I’m making a difference.

Now, to the bulk of this post (again,a long post, but I’ll make it up to you).

Magic R&D: You guys are doing an awesome job.  I like the cards that are seeing print, and except for a few of them, couldn’t be happier.  Bringing us back to a tribal block and making it feel different was a great success.  Thoug it isn’t being run by Goblins is a great feeling, but only to have them be run by Faeries is meh.  When I was gunslinging at PAX last weekend, I played against Aaron Forsythe.  He just sat down and played against me: his being a Greater Gargadon while mine was a Zur the Enchanter that just didn’t get going (Yes Aaron, that’s what I was playing).  As I sat and looked at his suspended Gargadon while playing a Sower of Temptation to steal one of his tokens, I joked that I wish it had flash in hopes of taking said Gargadon.  Aaron looked at me and said, “Well, in testing it did.”  Maybe because I was being beaten horribly or just because I was a smart ass, I replied, “Oh, good thing it didn’t, because you didn’t want to make Faeries too good, did you?”

After MaRo – The 2008 State of Design Response

(MaRo art by UGMadness.net (I don’t think I use that much bandwidth, though WordPress helps me out there)).

Lady(ies?) and gentlemen, the great master MaRo talked to us yesterday about his thoughts and opinions about the past year in Magic design.  He told his his highs, his lows, and what he wants to do in the next year.  Most of us play the game as well as junior designing, so some of their non-design decisions have been on our minds rather then if the past block worked well together.  We’ll get to that in due time while some of that will be sprinkled in as well (this is a long post, be prepared).

Highlights of 2008

The Planeswalkers. Players were really worried when there was an announcement of a new card type, especially one that could break the game in half.  Using the hybrid of a creature and an enchantment, cries were heard that they wouldn’t be different enough to see print.

Yeah, we players were wrong.

After MaRo – Never Gonna Give You Up

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rolled

If you don’t remember, I call MaRo every week to talk about his article of the week, or talk about anything that comes to mind.  I’ve got 500 anytime minutes, I use them as I please.

Hello, this is Mark Rosewater speaking.

Hey, this is Robby ********* from M:tG Color Pie.

Oh yes, I remember you.  I read that you’re back now.  And Congratulations on the marriage and house.

Well, thank you.  I don’t have the high paying job the lets me focus on Magic all the time like you do, but I try and get by.

Well, the come and join us here in Renton.

(Excited) Seriously?

(Laughing) No.  People fall for that all the time.

Yeah, I bet they do. (I sigh)

What’s on your mind today?

Well, since you’re doing your annual State of Design column next week, I won’t tell you what I’m thinking right now.  I will tell you that I’m still playing, no matter if my blog is updated or not.  I guess you can say that I’m never gonna give up the game of Magic.

Never gonna let the game of Magic go?

Correct.

Never gonna run around and desert it?

Uh, sure I guess you could say that.

(Laughter)

Wait…  Damn it.

After MaRo – Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

I love the fact that R&D is pushing the Race/Class model.

Quick aside: If you don’t know what the Race/Class model is, pick up a creature card, let’s say um, Coiling Oracle. Let’s take a look at it (Hint: it’s to the right). For the card type line we see: Creature – Snake Elf Druid. That creature is all of those types (A snake, an elf, and a druid) for every card that cares about creature types. Elvish Harbinger can search him up, can trigger Sosuke’s Summons, and can tap to Seton, Kroasn Protector. Its race (what the creature actually is) is a snake and an elf, and its class (what’s its role in its society is) is a druid. While not every creature has a class, every creature has a race (except Nameless Race, which was updated with the first creature type clean up). But remember, everything on the card type line is the creature type. Remember to check Gatherer for updates to old cards (Creature type update 1, update 2).

Why is this a good thing? Why do we need the Race/Class model in Magic? In the beginning there was “Summon X” and all was good. But over the past 15 years, Wizards have changed it, and some people think that it loses some flavor when it looks a little more structured. Sure, it’s much cleaner for rules, but it lost it’s fantasy flavor. But this is where it can make up with the fantasy fans. I’m not into D&D or WoW (don’t shoot me, I’ve got my one addiction), but I know that those fantasy games have the same race/class markup. Wizards pushed this so they could fit more with those fantasy games, something that Magic didn’t have at the beginning of the game. It added the flavor back into the game, which I love, as long as it doesn’t ruin mechanics (sorry, I’m more of a game interaction than flavor fan).

After MaRo – Rejected Lorwyn Promos

A funny thing happened yesterday: it snowed in the Seattle area. Drivers who aren’t used to the snow (you know the kind, the ones with the four wheel drive SUVs that think they can handle everything and goes 90 down the unplowed highway) seem to have it out for people who drive carefully. The smart people who didn’t have to be anywhere yesterday, telecommuted from home.

Why do bring this up? When I called Wizards yesterday to talk to MaRo about his Warriors column, they told me he stayed home because of the weather. I said yeah right, there’s no snow, it never snows in Seattle. That’s when I looked outside. Sigh, fine. And, of course they wouldn’t give me his home phone number; something about privacy and harassment, whatever, I wasn’t paying attention. But I wasn’t going to let some frozen water get in my way.

As I was sitting on my couch last night watching TV when I saw one of those Morningtide Promos on Adult Swim for the release event happening this weekend. If you haven’t seen them, here’s one they had for Chanrda Nalaar (I can’t find any Morningtide ones on YouTube yet).

This made me sad, as I had produced those type of ads for Wizards before. Yes, I did ads in that very same style for the Lorywn release dates. Wizards asked me to make some “Adult Swim” type promos, and after the snafo they had with the Time Spiral ones (Scroll down to the Akroma picture to get that story), they wanted something more edgy. After showing them mine, they rejected them as they thought it was too “Pop-culturey” and “Made Wizards look bad” and “We’re a family company.” Whatever. You guys decide for yourselves. My last one is my personal favorite.

This first one is the card Hurly-Burly:

After MaRo – The Definition of a “MaRo” Lie

It’s time for my weekly call to Wizard’s Headquarters to talk to Mark Rosewater (MaRo). Good thing it’s a local call, or my phone bill would be pretty bad. As always, this is a parody. Or a good ribbing; I guess you could call it that.

Mark Rosewater speaking.

Hi Mr. Rosewater, this is Robby…

Yeah I know who you are. You call every Monday now. I know your voice. What is it this time?

You like movies, right?

You bet I do. You know I worked in Hollywood writing for Roseanne, right?

Yeah, I almost forgot since you haven’t mentioned it since the beginning of April (Tropical Blend 3 voting doesn’t count (and yes, I searched that fact up)). That’s pretty cool. I’ve got a ton of ideas that I want to make either as TV shows or movies, so I’m wicked jealous that you had the chance.

Since April, hunh? I’ll get right on that. But I love my job now, it’s one of the best jobs ever.

I can imagine.

So, yeah, I like movies. Why do you ask?

Did you see the card that you previewed today? I mean really look at it?

Why, is there something obscene in it?

No, they look like E.T..