I managed to snag an interview with a top R&D developer, codenamed “RaMos.” Yep.

Musteval: So, do you have any top-secret Betrayers of Kamigawa cards to reveal to us today?
RaMos: Of course I do. Now, this first card is a fine one for use as pure creature advantage in Red-Blue decks. It may take a while to play, but when it does, it can deal twenty or more damage to a creature in one fell swoop! This may seem like it could have some repercussions for combo decks, but nobody in R&D could think of a single card that would let you turn twenty damage to a creature into twenty damage to a player. I mean, really!

M: Well, of course not! Imagine if there was one! Ha ha!
RM: Ha ha! Yes. Anyway, here it is.



M: Wow. That’s certainly a powerful card.
RM: Yes, yes it is. One funny side note: The artist inserted an amusing “easter egg” into the art. Can you find it?

M: Nope.
MR: One of the pirates is a mogg! An insane mogg is standing on the bow and looking at the falling man, despite the fact that moggs no longer exist (just Akki)!

M: Yes, that’s certainly all that you can read into THAT.
MR: Yes.

M: Anyway, what’s the other preview card you have for me today?
MR: Well, this isn't such an exciting card per se. It is more a way to show off our newest "scheme" (so to speak): tokens in every booster pack! This is in combination with the new rules change that requires that all tokens be official DCI sanctioned ones of the correct creature type.

M: And I'm sure the casual players appreciate it.
MR:Actually, in a recent focus group, only FOUR of the casual players surveyed disagreed with the change, out of the entire group!

M: And how many members did that group contain?
MR: And here's the card!!



M: Well. That's certainly ... new...
MR: Yes. You may notice our innovative new set symbol, triggered by the late-night realization that - get this - Magic™ players are idiots who would be happy with just a random word.

M: Well, I like it.
MR: Yes, I figured you would.

M: Can we talk about something else now?
MR: How about the theme of the set? Pirates!!!

M: Alright. So how did you decide to do pirates? I thought this was going to be a Japanese-themed block ...
MR: We were originally going to make the whole block Japanese themed, but then we realized that the only good thing about Japan was the art. Unfortunatley, this was after CoK was finished, but the other two sets were still not done. So we fired Ittoku, kicked out all the Japanese people, and put the cool art on completely unrelated cards. We did some work with Photoshop to make it slightly more relevant, but if you pay attention and have half a brain, you'll see it. Fortunately, nobody has noticed yet, despite strategic leaks to MTGNews.

Musteval: Okay, next question: What was R&D thinking when it designed Arcbound Ravager and Skullclamp???
MaRo: Um, I have to write my column now. Bye.

So there you have it. An interview with RaMos. Yep.