The Spoilers from Innistrad keep on coming. Check out the previous article for more on these spoilers and take the jump for the ca-raaazy new mechanic (along with my thoughts on it.)
The new mechanic, Transform (yes, the one I had already talked about, I jumped the gun a little bit on it) is represented by what they are calling double faced cards.
yes, a card that has no “back” no “Magic: The Gathering, Deckmaster” flip-side. A card that is a permanent on both sides.
How does it work?
One of two ways, if you’re using sleeves, then you can just put the card in and flip it within the sleeves when the card triggers.
If you don’t then you get yourself a checklist card:
you check which card the checklist represents (ahead of time, of course) and then shuffle that into your deck. The checklist card has a normal cardback.
Ok, calm down, take a deep breath, let’s talk about this.
Is This a Good Idea or a Bad Idea?
Well, it’s new and strange that makes it somewhat exciting, but I can’t help but feel that this just adds an unnecessary level of complexity to the game. This new mechanic is going to necessitate a change to drafting rules, for example.
The guys at Wizards assure us that they’ve thought of every potential problem regarding double-faced cards. And I believe them, but my real concern is that this feels gimmicky. I’ll withhold judgement until I see how these cards actually play, but for now I am quite weary.
If you’d like to see a full treatment of this (and the other Innistrad rules) you can visit Magic: The Gathering’s official site.
8 Comments
………….. what?
*head explodes*
I only have one question here, why not just use the flip cards/mechanic from Kamigawa block?
that’s what a lot of people are asking, I think it comes down to wanting to do flip cards with more text space
I love creatures that evolve through the game (Threshold, Flip, etc.). They are perfect for representing lycanthropes. I am worried about the precedent the ‘checklist card’ creates though.
At first I was a bit negative about it, but the article on new mechanics makes it sound reasonable and interesting – http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/157a . Still, I am not too crazy about the design of checklist cards (a Magic card with no artwork whatsoever?), but they have probably done the best they could.
I’m looking forward to playing it!
This looks overly complicated as a mechanic. As someone who doesn’t buy deck sleeves the idea of having to search for a checklist card also sounds annoying.
Though looking at the mechanics list I am glad to see flashback coming back into play. Also after so many good rare and uncommon zombie cards in 2012 I’m hoping to see some more good zombies and less Vampires.
Even if the cards are really good, even if the idea is really creative, it sounds like a gimmick.
The other mechanics are pretty cool. I like the reintroduction of arena as the fight mechanic. I dunno if it will be too good. It will limit decks where there are weak dudes that have high mana cost.
Been playing a werewolf deck since release. It’s fun, but since I use a lot of the set’s flip cards, I soak up a lot of my friend’s flip cards they’ve pulled, and just set up a pile of my flip cards near my deck. Not the easiest mechanic to deal with, but I like the flavor.