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I've got a backlog of cards I want to talk about, so I'm going to try to post one a day until I get through them all. To start: Field of Souls Certainly not a pushed card, but I'm wanting to test it as an engine card in an aristocrats-style value deck or as a way to maintain gas in a weenie...

Shadows of the Past was a great control finisher when I played Duels after it first launched. It's hard to remove and provides stability and inevitability if the game goes long enough without feeling overpowering.

If you stretch the definition of synergy-based cards to include Flametongue Kavu, then the term is basically meaningless. FTK's strongest draft and deckbuilding synergies are your opponent using creatures or removal spells, heh. Next thing you know, someone will be saying that Thragtusk has...

If I'm understanding Grillo, the idea lies in chopping off (or at least heavily curating) the top end of the traditional "good stuff" power curve so that the new peak is made up of synergistic cards that inherently nudge in you in a direction without outright screaming "You Are Now in the...

Here's an article on the mothership about how madness was developed for SOI that dovetails a bit into what you're talking about. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/fond-memory-madness-2016-04-01 The key takeaway is that WotC's intention was to make essentially...

I think there are a couple different axes to view power of removal: Instant vs. sorcery Narrowness of target Total costs (generally just CMC, but things like discarding for Lightning Axe or the sacrifice for Angelic Purge also count here) In general, I try to make each removal spell good along...

Ulvenwald Mysteries is an amazing design because it's a fun build-around with strong synergies for two different decks, U/G clues and W/G humans.

In that case, a new name like "Archetype Incubator" or "New Archetype Testing Zone" might help as the current one seems a bit more general than your intended topic. I also think these kind of discussions could probably go in CBS until there's a critical mass to put them in their own individual...

The more I think about it, I really like the idea of self-mill as a soft "combo" archetype/theme/package. It seems much less parasitic than trying to do something like storm where not only the payoff but much of the enabler cards only work in that deck. Even without repeatable recursion back to...

I mostly listen to comedy podcasts. These are the ones I probably listen to the most right now: Comedy Bang Bang: The weird child of traditional radio interview shows and longform character-based improv. To start out, I'd look for guests you recognize from other things or the annual best-of...

Intimidate was a really weird design. Deciding that the problem with Fear wasn't that it was somewhat arbitrary in effectiveness but that it was only swingy with respect to black decks seems like a major goof in hindsight.

Epitaph Golem Junktroller Reito Lantern Mistveil Plains I am listening to the latest episode of Limited Resources and LSV is talking about Epitaph Golem of all things being a key card in a G/W self-mill Delirium control archetype as letting you essentially Demonic Tutor every turn once you've...

If I ever do custom errata, changing all instances of Fear and Intimidate to Menace is at the top of my list.

I didn't know that Mo Rocca played Magic.

I just don't like buyback as a mechanic. It either does nothing or leads to really repetitive gameplay.

It's a better Ashmouth Hound, a card that has been a decent roleplayer in peasant cubes since the original Innistrad. The Hound is probably outclassed now that WotC seems okay with giving red better limited creatures in place of efficient burn spells and printed lots more exciting 2-drops in the...

I'm wanting to support werewolves more explicitly with my next update. First, I'm going to make it more of a midrange than purely aggressive as the top end werewolves are more likely to flip profitably as people run out of gas. Additionally, I plan to increase the ways for Gruul to "play spells"...

Nice Bob Ducca reference. That's a deep cut!

Epiphany at the Drownyard is my favorite Mindsculpter album.

How does Descend compare to Sunblast Angel?