Design Trends We LOVE | EDHRECast 310

A subtle design change I've been appreciating is that a lot of cards that create treasure tokens have them coming in tapped so that you can't immediately take advantage of them.

I really like them doing more of “combat damage to a player” text, it rewards attacking and spreading damage around so games move forward but no one gets targeted as fast

I would like to sum up this episode as, "We like cards that take Magic in a simpler, more traditional direction." Sorcery speed, encourages combat, triggers once per turn, slower mana rocks, bigger commanders, mono-colored decks... it just sounds like you want to play more casual, less pushed MTG, and I couldn't agree more.

I appreciate sorcery speed being a way to control a powerful ability we would otherwise never see printed on a card. I personally don't think playing at sorcery speed creates more interesting decisions compared to playing at instant speed, I think the exact opposite, but I still enjoy playing with cards designed this way.

14:38 as someone who enjoys building mono color decks, I love seeing more color pips in a casting cost. Nykthos goes ham with them and you get effects that are so uniquely that color. One of my favorites is Cavalier of Flame in my Neheb the Eternal deck

One thing I've seen that I'm not sure is a trend but I like anyway is lower CMC commanders being restrictive in the colours needed to cast them. We've had a lot of 3CMC legends lately that are just one of each Mardu colour to cast, or one of each Naya, etc. It means you can't just plop down a Sol Ring on turn 1 and guarantee a turn 2 commander.

Gala Greeters and Ledger Shredder are multi-format stars even with the restriction. I think my favorite new design is Firemane Commando, where you get a card for attacking with 2+ creatures, and your opponents also get a card for attacking (not you) with 2+ creatures.

My electric toothbrush makes a noise that sounds just like the first note of your intro music. You guys literally live rent free my head.

I want to talk about the Sorcery Speed and the Once per Turn" clauses. In some cards, they are necessary to prevent them from going crazy, combo off too easily or making the strategy they are in too broken. The Tenth Doctor's activated ability is completely understandable at Sorcery Speed. So far I understand it and share your thoughts. Just as it happens with the "Once per Turn" clause. But there are other cards, like the new Olivia, where I disagree. When what you need to activate an ability is several resources (in this case sacrificing two treasures and paying three mana) to only put two +1/+1 counters on all your creatures, it feels deficient at Sorcery Speed. That's my problem with a lot of "Once per Turn" or "Sorcery Speed". Some cards need it for cutting power creep, but others are made worse for no reason. Another thing I'm not liking at all is that, instead of analyzing card by card (because Commander has been the most popular format and the reason why so many products have been released for at least 5 years), the new cards they release for the Commander format specifically, like the Precons, are usually limited in a stupid and boring way. Wizards is catching the trend of "if you want it to be more than once per turn" or "if you want it to activate at instant speed" it has to cost five or more mana. And that's laziness when it comes to design. The card Old Gnawbone is just the perfect example of this. They talk about how Professional Facebreaker is a much more moderate version, but come on, it cost three, while the dragon cost seven. Ofc is going to be nerfed. They are both good cards (Facebreaker being amazing) but they cannot be compared by any means.

Absolutely agree on the "triggers once each turn" restriction. The amount of people I saw who thought that the new Gisa, the Hellraiser card was useless when it was first spoiled because her crime ability only triggers once each turn was baffling to me. Like, if she didn't have the once per turn restriction she would immediately go infinite with at least 4 or 5 different cards. I wonder how different they would feel the first time they got hit with infinite mill with Altar of Dementia, or had their hands stripped apart with Sadistic Hypnotist

tapped treasure tokens is definitely a positive change in design for me atleast

I do like the mono color support. My favorite set (all of Zendikar block) loved to reward mono color, and I appreciate mechanics and support that encourage me to reduce from 3 color decks to 2 or even 1. I especially like how they design the support so it only suggests being mono colored instead of requiring it. A 2 color deck could use Throne of Eldraine or Scepter of Eternal Glory, but mono color decks get to use them more efficiently.

small correction at 40:00, back when returning to the command zone was a replacement effect rather than a state based action, Elenda players weren't worried about having Elenda bojuka bogged, that would just return her to their command zone again. The real fear was having your reanimation spells countered, leaving her stuck in the graveyard

Printing a few more cards like Tale's End and Tishana's Tidebinder- especially outside of blue- would be another solution to activated and triggered abilities getting out of control.

The reason I dislike once per turn is because so many of them were placed in white cards and playing boros or mono white back then before wotc decided to let white have less horrible card advantage. It was tough back then.

I will say, I don't mind commanders that can 'solve' themselves, although inefficiently. Like Slimefoot the stowaway. It deals damage whenever a saproling dies, and you can pay 4 colorless to make one, but ultimately your gonna want to find better ways to make saprolings.

Mandate of peace is an amazing challenge! I found it a few months ago and its been an absolute bomb. Especially since my buddy's Ulamog has been the bane of my existence.

Personally, I like the once per turn clause as someone who used to play Yugioh a lot. Though, there is a caveat to that. I want them to use it more sparingly than yugioh does. Specifically for the really powerful and flashy effects. This type of restriction can be really stifling and hurt the game in the long run if they overdo it.

I've been a fan of Wizards pumping the breaks by making more Treasure tokens come in to play tapped. Seems like that was the whole point of switching from Gold to Treasure but hey! Now they're finally using that lever.

I agree completely with your take on the partner mechanic. I'm holding out hope that there will eventually be some 2 color backgrounds and background commanders.