MTG DESIGN SPACE: ARTIFACTS

Based on feedback via Twitter I'm keeping up this series of articles. This is my third attempt at exploring design spaces in Magic the Gathering. This week, as requested over Twitter. I'll be exploring artifacts. Feedback is always appreciated. You can either e-mail me or catch me on twitter.


I wanted to muck around with artifacts today. Lately there have been a fair few artifacts with great upsides. I, however, wanted to explore the downsides as well. This led to the first card:

Vile Serum



The thinking behind this card was giving a temporary boost with a terrible downside. +3/+3 can swing a lot of games. But -2/-2 will kill a lot of creatures. So it's the kind of card that's really going to test your skill.

On the plus side, if you have a 3/3 creature or greater, it'll simply give a +1/+1 boost ongoing, which is not the worst boost you could give a creature.

But then I got distracted thinking about the briefly seen Future Sight ability, Fortify. I wanted to explore it a little. Firstly, I came up with this:

Temple of Hoqas



Originally I had a casting cost of 4 and a Fortify cost of 2, then realised for very little mana you could make a hell of a lot of angels. So I swapped it around to even up the cost a little. With mana burn no longer in existence, it's a simple matter of tapping the land to make an angel. But it will still cost three more mana to attach it to a second land, and that land need to be untapped as well, meaning it's a practical 4-mana expense for your second angel of the turn, which is not unfair.

Then I started to think how I could push the artifact line further, and tried a gamble with Tribal Artifacts. Here's one I showed a 'beta' of last week:

Restless Graveyard



I think this is a pretty elegant card. It's not overpowered, as it only triggers when you have no zombies on the board, but it's still a pretty mean card advantage machine. I also like the flavour, endless zombies coming out of a graveyard you control, and that you have to 'build' the graveyard first. Braaaaiiinnnsss.

Did I even mention I love zombies?

Here's another tribal artifact:

Firemount Warren



I think it's an interesting question; would you rather have these stats on another Goblin (eg. Goblin Chieftain) or on a spell that won't die to Doom Blade? I guess this gives another option for Goblin decks that try to play around certain cards.

Then I got to wondering, okay, if artifacts can fortify a land, can artifact creatures? And I came up with this:

Lorthan, The Walking Fortress



Lorthan is one of those great-in-limited-sucks-in-Constructed cards. But I love the flavour - a giant fortress that's unstoppable when resting, but vulnerable when moving? Mmmmm, Vorthosful. One thing the card needed was a way to detach itself from a land, so I invented the keyword Unattach. I think it's pretty self explanatory. If I were to design Lorthan again, I'd probably give it trample.

Then I thought, well, if an artifact creature can attach to a land, why not another creature? And came up with this:

Symbiotic Graftwurm



And I've come full circle - an equipment with upsides and downsides, a creature, and an artifact, and an equipment. Graftwurm gives a nod to Grafted Wargear. A question, rulesmeisters - could Symbiotic Graftwurm equip itself?


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As usual, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the cards and ideas, so be sure to comment on the post, or e-mail me or find me on twitter. I'd also like to hear on what next weeks article should be about.