Ian Duke

Principal Game Designer at Wizards of the Coast Magic R&D - Set Design & Game Balance

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@ChrisKMooney @oldmanhooch I knew before clicking there'd be some old school Jaya Ballard in there somewhere.

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@AliasVEDH The playtest name of this card was something like "All the Blue Things". If you love it, maybe blue isn't your least favorite color after all!

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@Murk_Lurker Classic 0/1/2/3/4 quickpointing card

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@Smdster ...hard to balance costing +1/+1 versus potentially +5/+5 or whatever (via removing the cursed role). Important for context we tried out 10+ different roles. One per player per creature played best, prevented loading up multiple on an evasive creature, and let cursed do its thing

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@Smdster That was the first way we tested it. It made games much swingier and especially snowbally when trying to rely on cursed role when behind. You're right that it better matches player intuition, but the game play was enough worse that we made a change.

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@BenS_MTG We used adventure to add to the set a bunch of effects that are interesting, but too weak or low impact to be stand-alone cards. Opens up space for more unique/unusual effects that actually make it into your deck instead of last picks.

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@CubeApril This was a favorite discussion of @ReidDuke and I to fill the time driving to PTQs and GPs in the 2004-2012 era. Love how close the poll is!

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@mtg_ds @maro254 ...and adventure creatures need pretty short text boxes, part of why we prioritized simple, useful, functional over highly directional.

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@mtg_ds @maro254 ...which I noted during set design, but we had fun and functional designs in place so we stuck with them. One thing I focused on was making sure the creature part was solid as a mono color card, so they wouldn't float around the draft table if no one was in that exact pair.

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@bsweitz123 Totally agree, my biggest regret with the format (which I poured a ton of love into). Goal was "vehicles are new, let's have a good common one to show them off", but ultimately not worth the tradeoff.

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@PhaedaMTG I played through Disco Elysium recently and found it to be amazing. Definitely an acquired taste though. If you like non-action roleplaying games and aren't offended by open-minded social/political commentary and drug/alcohol use themes I would highly recommend trying it.

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@bsweitz123 @Ajelenbogen @InsayneHayne Intentionally froze my elo while I was ahead, but trust me I've been farming @Murk_Lurker and @donaldwsjr ever since for 1 planeswalker point at a time

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@donaldwsjr Who?

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@rcsaxe @zdch And ofc you can take the griefing up the max with Nether Void, Smokestack, Trinisphere, Chalice of the Void type stuff. Maybe requires more support to not be throwaways. Stifle/Trickbind, if you can swing enough proactive + disruptive stuff to do with them.

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@rcsaxe Depending on tastes, mana denial stuff can be fun when tactical (auto low density, since cube). Pillage, Sinkhole, Winter Orb. Meltdown for "fair" decks v broken. Kolaghan's Command? Agree w @zdch efficient 1-for-1 hate. Mind Harness low key, maybe not a fit depending on cube.

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@KatDucDuk No problem just scan it and fax it in

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@Murk_Lurker Are you asking how powerful the cards are, or the quality of game play?

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@EthanFleischer @donaldwsjr Working on Magic has given me a new appreciation for Slaughterhouse Five

[Ian Duke @mtg_ianduke]

@donaldwsjr Yeah, somehow.