Conqured Lands
4/4/07
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Is it Wednesday already? I hope Monday’s preview got you excited for Conquest, because today I will be reviewing the first of the four permanent types that are the focus on the set. And if you haven’t already guessed, the type is Lands.
When I started breaking down the numbers for the new set I realized I’d have to figure out exactly how many cards of each permanent type I was going to include. It would seem a little weird if the set revolved around artifacts, creatures, enchantments and lands, but there were a whole lot more of a certain type over another. So in a 143 card set I was hoping to create 25% of each type. It didn’t take long to see why this wouldn’t work. Why? Well most simply, you can’t take creatures away from four of the five colors. The game isn’t the same without creatures and most sets go 60% - 75% creatures. If I reduced that number to 25%, each color would only get 6 or 7 creatures at most. And that doesn’t work.
Another thing I could do would be to double up on types and cheat, like Artifact Creatures or Creature Enchantments, and there is a little of that, but I found that to be tedious, overly complex and not in the spirit of the theme. So I went with the tried and true method of A.) Making cards that care about cards of those types and B.) making a higher number of those types that really matter and will get played. This leads nicely to our first preview card of the day, the land I promised in Monday’s article.
This is a card from the first category. It’s a land that helps you reach the goals of your particular color’s type focus. Most often cards phase out or in during the untap step and this mana production won’t trigger until your upkeep. Which means you’re really only able to use it to play activated abilities and instants. But luckily Blue in this set doesn’t mind playing activated abilities or instants, because that fits with its small board presence goal. The “May” clause in the triggered ability also helps you to control just how much mana you will get to use.
Here’s another land that delivers for its color. Unexplored Wilderness is a basic land, meaning you can put as many of them as you want in a deck. Each of them has a built in Wild Growth, but at the price of being able to use them each turn. This is not something you can choose; If you tap an Unexplored Wilderness, it will provide 1G and not untap them next turn. But truly great things can be done with any land that taps for more than one mana. For more information on the new basic land type, Node, you can read This. As a small note, this card represents a vast uninhabited expanse of the Plane that gives the Plane its name. Only about 30% of the Plane has been tamed and cleared. Basically take the Earth, and replace the oceans for forests.
Another thing I wanted to do was expand what each card type does within the game, expand concept space. One of my biggest successes, I believe, is with a cycle of five uncommon lands called Strongholds. Each one has a mana ability that costs mana to use, as well as an activated ability. Because they can’t produce mana on their own it will be interesting to see how players use them in a deck. Here’s one of them, the green aligned one:
With this Stronghold in play, you can filter any amount of green mana into any color, something which is fair on a land that doesn’t tap for mana. Also the ability to beef up a blocking creature is narrow, too narrow to put on a card you’d pay mana for. Here you’re only paying with your land drop. It’s a nice trade off. I think these five lands will divide players. Some will hate them and others will love them. A real debate could take place as to whether these could actually be enchantments rather than lands, but my argument would be that they do provide mana, and skipping a land drop to play one makes them better and more desirable than slapping a mana cost on them and calling them enchantments.
Let me know what you think of Strongholds in the forums.
One last card to share and this one may also prove controversial. In the past Wizards of the Coast has sparingly made lands that are strictly better than a basic land. I see their point, but I went ahead and made a cycle of Rare Legendary lands that are each strictly better than a basic land. Its been done so rarely that I think its healthy for the game to have spikes in power-level. Plus, with the set's focus on permanent types, this is an appropriate place for such a cycle. So here's Rom, Forsaken Harbor.
I know. Nothing needs to be said. Comment on the forums and I'll see you on Friday.