Erik's Random card 6/8/2011 This is part of a cycle of Mimics in Eventide. Design and Development each took its time trying to figure out what this cycle should be.
It started off in design as a hate card:
1(r/w)(r/w) First strike Whenever CARDNAME is the target of a blue or black spell, draw a card. 2/2
Then it became a reward for your colors
1(r/w)(r/w) First strike Whenever CARDNAME is the target of a red or white spell, draw a card. 2/2
Then there was an attempt at linking it to the mutual allied color in the color wheel:
Whenever you play a green spell, you may pay 2 to draw a card.
That was nice with SSE drafts, since Shadowmoor had both Green White and Red Green cards and decks. However it did not make a lot of sense in Eventide packs.
At that point it entered development. Matt Place, the lead developer of the set, wanted to try something simpler at common:
3(r/w)(r/w) When cardname attacks it gets +3/+0 until end of turn. 1/5
However hybrid cards can be played in a deck that only has one of the colors. You could have no red at all, and your card is 3WW 1/5 When cardname attacks it gets +4/+0 until end of turn; a 5/5 attacker for 5 as a white common. Maybe that is the right card, but it was unpopular. The next try was:
2(r/w) Whenever you play a spell that is both red and white cardname is a 5/2 and gains first strike until end of turn. 2/1
We tried tweaking it, and ended up very close to that. If I were working on the set now, I would suggest something a little different. Eventide was in my first year at Wizards of the Coast, so there was a ton to sink in. This card is great for a casual build around that tells you about a cool deck you could build; the red white deck, full of hybrid cards. I like sets having some obvious decks to build. That isn't to say they should be the only decks to build, or the best decks to build. However some straightforward decks that work is a good idea.
However we also need decks that work right in draft. I wasn't thinking about this back then, but our draft format had 2 Shadowmoor packs, and 1 Eventide pack. The Shadowmoor packs do not have any Red/White cards in them at all. The Eventide packs have about 1.4833 per pack. The whole draft opens 8 Eventide packs, for about 11.8667 per draft. Lets say the draft has 12, including one of these. You get half of them, including this one. That means you have 5 other ones in your pool. In a pretty long game, you might draw 17 cards, say this and about 2 of the 5. If this 2 mana creature lives the whole game (and it probably doesn't), you would get 2 triggers, which is pretty cool. However, that is assuming you get a lot of good cards from Eventide; you typically play about 8 cards from each booster set. Here we are assuming that, before you look at what red or white cards you are playing, you are playing 6 of the Red+White cards. That will happen some times, but not frequently.
This card works great in EEE, but doesn't trigger much in SSE drafts. That's fine; some cards work that way. But I think the set has a bit too many cards, especially at common, that work that way. I would consider changing one of the commons. Maybe it would be this one; maybe another. The change could be to make it uncommon, and move a card that works better with Shadowmoor cards down to common. Another approach would be to give you some reward when you play a Red card, and some reward when you play a White card. It would still be great in a RW deck, but would work reasonably well in a deck that is 2/3 Shadowmoor cards.
Maybe after playing with the cards, we would decide to stick with the current version of the Mimic. It is hard to know; that is why we play test. However I would bring up the analysis of why this type of card won't trigger very often. It seems like something design should know, before handing the set off to development.
Comments (4)
This is part of a cycle of Mimics in Eventide.
Design and Development each took its time trying to figure out what this cycle should be.
It started off in design as a hate card:
1(r/w)(r/w)
First strike Whenever CARDNAME is the target of a blue or black spell, draw a card.
2/2
Then it became a reward for your colors
1(r/w)(r/w)
First strike Whenever CARDNAME is the target of a red or white spell, draw a card.
2/2
Then there was an attempt at linking it to the mutual allied color in the color wheel:
Whenever you play a green spell, you may pay 2 to draw a card.
That was nice with SSE drafts, since Shadowmoor had both Green White and Red Green cards and decks. However it did not make a lot of sense in Eventide packs.
At that point it entered development. Matt Place, the lead developer of the set, wanted to try something simpler at common:
3(r/w)(r/w)
When cardname attacks it gets +3/+0 until end of turn.
1/5
However hybrid cards can be played in a deck that only has one of the colors. You could have no red at all, and your card is 3WW 1/5 When cardname attacks it gets +4/+0 until end of turn; a 5/5 attacker for 5 as a white common. Maybe that is the right card, but it was unpopular. The next try was:
2(r/w)
Whenever you play a spell that is both red and white cardname is a 5/2 and gains first strike until end of turn.
2/1
We tried tweaking it, and ended up very close to that. If I were working on the set now, I would suggest something a little different. Eventide was in my first year at Wizards of the Coast, so there was a ton to sink in. This card is great for a casual build around that tells you about a cool deck you could build; the red white deck, full of hybrid cards. I like sets having some obvious decks to build. That isn't to say they should be the only decks to build, or the best decks to build. However some straightforward decks that work is a good idea.
However we also need decks that work right in draft. I wasn't thinking about this back then, but our draft format had 2 Shadowmoor packs, and 1 Eventide pack. The Shadowmoor packs do not have any Red/White cards in them at all. The Eventide packs have about 1.4833 per pack. The whole draft opens 8 Eventide packs, for about 11.8667 per draft. Lets say the draft has 12, including one of these. You get half of them, including this one. That means you have 5 other ones in your pool. In a pretty long game, you might draw 17 cards, say this and about 2 of the 5. If this 2 mana creature lives the whole game (and it probably doesn't), you would get 2 triggers, which is pretty cool. However, that is assuming you get a lot of good cards from Eventide; you typically play about 8 cards from each booster set. Here we are assuming that, before you look at what red or white cards you are playing, you are playing 6 of the Red+White cards. That will happen some times, but not frequently.
This card works great in EEE, but doesn't trigger much in SSE drafts. That's fine; some cards work that way. But I think the set has a bit too many cards, especially at common, that work that way. I would consider changing one of the commons. Maybe it would be this one; maybe another. The change could be to make it uncommon, and move a card that works better with Shadowmoor cards down to common. Another approach would be to give you some reward when you play a Red card, and some reward when you play a White card. It would still be great in a RW deck, but would work reasonably well in a deck that is 2/3 Shadowmoor cards.
Maybe after playing with the cards, we would decide to stick with the current version of the Mimic. It is hard to know; that is why we play test. However I would bring up the analysis of why this type of card won't trigger very often. It seems like something design should know, before handing the set off to development.