Aoret
Developer
For certain cards, the overall context of your cube is very important. To put it generally, we make implicit assumptions about the contents of a given format when we evaluate cards. There are other cards which really don't care about context and will shine regardless: huntmaster of the fells, hero of bladehold, bloodbraid elf, etc. Now, obviously context affects all cards to a degree, but this is much more true of a select handful of cards. We can call these cards Context Dependent cards. Within this umbrella, there exist cards with both Implicit Context requirements and cards with Explicit Context requirements.
There is perhaps no more canonical example of an Implicit Context card than Brainstorm. When this card is brought up, most experienced players assume they'll be able to crack fetchlands post-brainstorm to shuffle useless cards away. The card is clearly good even when that play isn't possible and, of course, even with a fetch on-board there are times when you really do just want to keep all of your cards. The salient point, though, is that Brainstorm is markedly less powerful in an environment with less access to shuffle effects.
Another great example of implicit context is Entomb. Again, before I even bring it up, most readers will naturally think about Grave Titans or some other fatty being jammed into play on turn two. But the card doesn't actually say that it does that. Our context says that it does.
On the other hand, Explicit Context cards shout their context dependency right in the oracle text. There are thousands of examples of this, but a simple case is Ajani's Pridemate. If you have lots of incidental lifegain, he's really good. If you don't, he's just a bear. You might still want him, but he won't be awesome. Gravecrawler is another simple example. If you've got something like Jason's zombies archetype supported, he's really good. If not, still a decent dude, just not insane.
Context Independent cards largely don't care what else is going on the format. Generally speaking, these cards are finishers or value spells. Technically, they do care about context, but the context they care about is always present in a (normal) game of Magic: players always have 20 life, and having more cards or permanents than your opponent is always an advantage.
It is important to be aware of which cards are heavily context dependent and which cards aren't. This allows us not only to tweak the power level of certain cards to our liking, but also allows us room to utilize cards in different ways. Many designers already do this with explicit context cards; you often see these referred to as "build around me" cards or "archetype anchors". We can unlock a lot of cool possibilities when we start paying more attention to the subtler, implicit context. If nothing else, we should be aware of it when we make changes to our cubes.
We can tweak power level by understanding the fundamental mechanism which influences how a card performs. In the case of Entomb, the mechanism to examine is "well, what can I do with stuff once I have it in the 'yard?" essentially we're asking "entomb, then what?" The more things you can do, and the more powerful those things are, the more powerful entomb gets. In the case of Brainstorm we ask "what kinds of resource manipulation are possible when I cast this card?". If all we're getting is the ability to dig into our deck to grab some thing(s) right now, the card is still great, but not as good as it could be. We have a great deal of control over the quality of these cards in our environments!
We can utilize cards in unique ways when we understand these mechanisms. You can turn a card like Entomb on its head when you remove our preconceived notion of what it does. Generally speaking, this means removing the most degenerate use of a card from the realm of possibility within your cube. I saw mentioned on the forums recently that without any reanimator cards, entomb is basically a tutor for decks that care about the graveyard (eternal witness, gravecrawler, bloodghast, etc).
Astute readers may have noticed my careful avoidance of which cards lend context to others. In our Brainstorm example, there are a vast array of cards which care about instants being cast, or being in the graveyard, etc. It is worth bearing in mind that every card we include in our format contributes to the overall context of that format. The result is a complicated mesh of interwoven dependencies between all of our cards.
So, what interesting Implicit Context cards have you found? What cards can you totally turn on their head by altering the environment in which they're played?
There is perhaps no more canonical example of an Implicit Context card than Brainstorm. When this card is brought up, most experienced players assume they'll be able to crack fetchlands post-brainstorm to shuffle useless cards away. The card is clearly good even when that play isn't possible and, of course, even with a fetch on-board there are times when you really do just want to keep all of your cards. The salient point, though, is that Brainstorm is markedly less powerful in an environment with less access to shuffle effects.
Another great example of implicit context is Entomb. Again, before I even bring it up, most readers will naturally think about Grave Titans or some other fatty being jammed into play on turn two. But the card doesn't actually say that it does that. Our context says that it does.
On the other hand, Explicit Context cards shout their context dependency right in the oracle text. There are thousands of examples of this, but a simple case is Ajani's Pridemate. If you have lots of incidental lifegain, he's really good. If you don't, he's just a bear. You might still want him, but he won't be awesome. Gravecrawler is another simple example. If you've got something like Jason's zombies archetype supported, he's really good. If not, still a decent dude, just not insane.
Context Independent cards largely don't care what else is going on the format. Generally speaking, these cards are finishers or value spells. Technically, they do care about context, but the context they care about is always present in a (normal) game of Magic: players always have 20 life, and having more cards or permanents than your opponent is always an advantage.
It is important to be aware of which cards are heavily context dependent and which cards aren't. This allows us not only to tweak the power level of certain cards to our liking, but also allows us room to utilize cards in different ways. Many designers already do this with explicit context cards; you often see these referred to as "build around me" cards or "archetype anchors". We can unlock a lot of cool possibilities when we start paying more attention to the subtler, implicit context. If nothing else, we should be aware of it when we make changes to our cubes.
We can tweak power level by understanding the fundamental mechanism which influences how a card performs. In the case of Entomb, the mechanism to examine is "well, what can I do with stuff once I have it in the 'yard?" essentially we're asking "entomb, then what?" The more things you can do, and the more powerful those things are, the more powerful entomb gets. In the case of Brainstorm we ask "what kinds of resource manipulation are possible when I cast this card?". If all we're getting is the ability to dig into our deck to grab some thing(s) right now, the card is still great, but not as good as it could be. We have a great deal of control over the quality of these cards in our environments!
We can utilize cards in unique ways when we understand these mechanisms. You can turn a card like Entomb on its head when you remove our preconceived notion of what it does. Generally speaking, this means removing the most degenerate use of a card from the realm of possibility within your cube. I saw mentioned on the forums recently that without any reanimator cards, entomb is basically a tutor for decks that care about the graveyard (eternal witness, gravecrawler, bloodghast, etc).
Astute readers may have noticed my careful avoidance of which cards lend context to others. In our Brainstorm example, there are a vast array of cards which care about instants being cast, or being in the graveyard, etc. It is worth bearing in mind that every card we include in our format contributes to the overall context of that format. The result is a complicated mesh of interwoven dependencies between all of our cards.
So, what interesting Implicit Context cards have you found? What cards can you totally turn on their head by altering the environment in which they're played?
