Pointed Discussion

What Chaotic said. Maybe it should be 1/1 or 1/2 or something.

Should've gotten something extra, like flying or something. A 3/3 vanilla that requires 3 mana is nothing more than OK, but requiring 3 differently colored mana puts it below OK.

Fist of Suns can make this a 5/5.

worst myr ever

@ applecorn: that's way overthought and awesome.

Yes, I had already thought about making a Sunburst deck with Fist of Suns, but there simply aren't enough burst cards.

@ ChaoticDarkness: In the right deck, playing 3-5 colors is easy. But the deck has to be built around that theme.

Being an artifact is another weakness. Also, even if you're not playing green, there's always Cathodion.

4x City of Ass and it is a 5/5 too ;)

Aaron's Random Card Comment of the Day #22, 10/26/10

This most-vanilla sunburst card gives me a great excuse to talk about the mechanic in general.

I designed the sunburst mechanic; it was one of the first I ever made. I was still working as the website editor for MagicTheGathering.com at the time, and Mark Rosewater asked me to be on the Fifth Dawn design team because he figured the experience would let me generate a few interesting articles. Little did either of us know I’d be competent at design!

My thought process for sunburst went something like this: “By the time this set comes out, players will be able to make a deck entirely of artifacts, including 24 artifact lands. That deck will be able to produce all five colors of mana, especially if you played a bunch of Myr. Wouldn’t it be neat if that meant something? Also, in limited, having a card pool full of artifacts often lets you be a little loose and free with your colored mana and play the best cards. How can I make that open-ended mana matter on some of the artifacts?”

The latter half of that thought was probably a bit too “Spiky,” as I believe the default for most players when handed a pool with tons of artifacts is to play as few colors as possible, not as many. But as far as a third-set mechanic that shook things up and fit into the block’s flavor goes, I rather like sunburst.

I mentioned in my post on Vedalken Engineer that the Darksteel team helped out sunburst by allowing that card to produce colored mana. Very nice. But the biggest barrier to sunburst working well in draft was also in Darksteel--the cycle of “affinity for basic land” Golems (Razor Golem, et al.). I’m not sure why these cards were so important--they were the only affinity cards that referenced anything other than artifacts in the entire block--but the Darksteel team was committed to printing them even once the problem with sunburst was explained. Personally, I’d have ditched the Golems to let the next set shine, as the Golems weren’t pulling a ton of weight anyway. But I’m biased.

So players ended up drafting these powerful Golems highly and playing one- and two-color decks, and then had little interest in drafting sunburst in pack three, which made the set feel really tangential to the prior sets instead of integrated. And thus, block planning was born.

Even now in R&D, sunburst is kind of maligned, I think unfairly. Personally I think it can come back; it doesn’t even necessarily have to go on artifacts.

I also think that if the recent change to drafting last-set-first was in effect during MD5, sunburst could have been a killer archetype and not something that you gambled/lucked your way into. Fifth Dawn was certainly on my mind as we discussed implementing that upcoming change.

Oh, as for Suntouched Myr specifically, it was submitted at 2 mana. Both versions are interesting in limited.

Keep the myrs in mirrodin blocks! What a poor attempt....

This card would actually be better if it cost 2 more and did not change in any other way. It is possible unique in that regard. I don't think you could ever say that about anything else, with the possible exception of other very small Sunburst cards.

I would ask who thought it was a good idea to put a five-color theme in an artifact block, but I guess we know.

Not even rated 2 stars. I guess we expect more for our multicolor these days. This just can't compare to Sprouting Thrinax and the like. The 2 cmc version would have been more interesting in my opinion.

@Aaron_Forsythe
If you plan on reintroducing the sunburst mechanic what you need to do is make it very good if all colors are spent to play it. ie it gets added evasion (flying, landwalk, etc) or a power boost in another way. Assign some form of sunburst counter( maybe even a charge counter for interesting casual/commander play) for all colors being used, or a maximum amount of colors being used. then assign it a base creature statistic so that it doesnt die from counter removal. i can honestly say i loved the concept of sunburst. i have always loved five colored decks because they are challenging yet rewarding to run. however there were no commons or uncommons with sunburst that even remotely warranted running in any deck. a mana specific 3/3 for 3 is incredibly undewhelming. where as a 3/3 or even a 2/2 that if i payed 3 specific i would instead get a 5/4 or 4/4 trample would have been much more exciting as a player. giving the cards a "sunburst counter" would leave them open to counter removal, this is a strong balancing point for the mechanic, your oppenent can potentially depower your cards which some players may not like but would make slightly more powerful, all color mana "suggested" cards more printable. with sunburst it was a big let down to have 3 creatures in play that were all extrememely vulnerable to a single erradicate (sorry if this is the wrong card name, its darksteel 3BB remove all counters from all permants and tokens from the game) no one likes getting hit with a 5 mana one sided board sweep in limited. the only cards with sunburst i even recall being entertaining or useful were over costed immensely for what they required or did. namely solarion with his ability to get huge fast and sun-crusher with his creature slaying ability.

People are rating this card strictly on a power basis, which is idiotic. For a common in an artifact set, this was a very interesting and well balanced card, which I played in numerous limited games. With regard to comparisons to spouting thrinax, these cards would rarely be considered in the same format, and besides, spouting thrinax is only useful in a R/G/B deck, whereas the sountouched myr is potentially useful in any multicolored deck. WOTC can print more powerful cards easily; printing creative and balanced cards is a much more interesting challenge, and much better for the game in the long run.

Would he not have been much better if he cost X? With a limitation to only need to spend 3 on him?

Also my other problem with a card like this is that he doesn't have 'synergy' with Myr Reservoir and Palladium Myr which is a shame.

Maybe he should be 3 casting cost with sunburst giving a bonus if 3 different colours are spent casting the creature.

Really? This card isn't that bad.

Should have been 1/1 instead of 0/0. Would have been a cool, efficient beater.

Basically its a centaur courser that has to be cast with 3 colors. Not only is it considerably more difficult to cast, but it also can be destroyed with smelt. Even for a "limited card", I always felt this was terribly weak. It needed some kind of static ability, or even start off with some base P/T.

Edit: Also aaron, I started playing around mirrodin. I did not like seeing this card in my boosters and it left my impression of the sunburst mechanic as rather terrible. I feel if he was stronger it would have done wonders for the card and for your mechanic.

And where did the sun touch you?

I really wish the Sunburst mechanic was better... at best here, you get a 3/3 for 3 with a tri-coloured cost. Compare that to things like Woolly Thoctar or Sprouting Thrinax...