[7:43:11] ORC_Tomorrow:
Smoofer - T-minus 17 minutes!
[7:43:17] WotC_TomLaPille:
Hello!
[7:43:19] Smoofer:
Sweet, can't wait.
[7:43:23] WotC_Microbless:
Hey Tom!
[7:43:37] WotC_Microbless:
Is Zac here? I want to run a quick test before we get started.
[7:43:46] Fellfire:
i think id better run. nice to see ya monkey.
[7:43:57] WotC_TomLaPille:
No idea. I am not at the office due to snowpocalypse
[7:44:01] WotC_MattT:
I want to know what WotC's official position on all this snow is. What are they doing about it?
[7:44:09] WotC_TomLaPille:
working from home?
[7:44:27] WotC_Microbless:
We've got calls out to Chandra & Kiora. If the fire doesn't work, the salt water will!
[7:44:36] Lysithix:
I hope they have an expert team of pyromancers to deal with the excessive expanse of frozen water.
[7:44:42] WotC_Microbless:
Tom - I went to the office, but then NO ONE was there. So I came home.
[7:44:46] WotC_TomLaPille:
heh
[7:44:52] ORC_Tomorrow:
The sheets are scrying as fast as possible.
[7:44:58] Fellfire:
its a grand conspiracy to keep all the gamers inside gaming theyv seeded the clouds with nanobytes
[7:45:00] Polendino:
Call Chandra and not Jaya = WotC will never get de-snowed.
[7:45:01] WotC_MattT:
Did you ski to the office? Snowmobile?
[7:45:25] WotC_TomLaPille:
My parking lot is destroyed
[7:45:26] WotC_TomLaPille:
haha
[7:45:33] WotC_Microbless:
All I know is, the years of training on racing games had me SET for all the drifting and sliding!
[7:45:44] WotC_TomLaPille:
I was joking with my colleagues that I was going to playtest our cold weather mechanics later today
[7:45:58] Lysithix:
Well, at least there is plenty of frozen mana.
[7:46:13] JqlGirl:
Snow land is returning!
[7:46:23] Hexy:
You all heard it!
[7:46:25] Lysithix:
Would Seattle count as a Snow-Covered Island?
[7:46:28] Hexy:
Spread the rumor!
[7:46:48] WotC_Microbless:
Ha!
[7:46:50] Smoofer:
Trust me; if you have ever lived in Seattle, snow land never left
[7:46:59] WotC_Microbless:
ok guys, gonna run a test real fast.
[7:47:02] Ffancrzy:
This is the room that the Live chat is in?
[7:47:07] Smoofer:
YEp
[7:47:08] Scudmarx:
I didn't have time to revise...
[7:47:23] JqlGirl:
Snow-Covered WotC / Legendary Snow Land / T: Add 1 Ice Age block set to your card pool.
[7:47:44] WotC_Microbless:
Test!
[7:47:49] WotC_Microbless:
Tom type something.
This room is moderated.
[7:48:44] WotC_TomLaPille:
hi
[7:48:50] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm having browser problems
[7:48:57] WotC_Microbless:
Oh? What's going on?
[7:49:12] WotC_TomLaPille:
the user list is between my chat bar and the log
[7:49:17] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm going to try IE (shudder)
[7:49:31] WotC_Microbless:
for some RANDOM reason, sometimes you can't click away from the open window.
[7:50:09] WotC_Microbless:
I'll be the one pushing messages through and you can just answer! When you're finished you can type something like
"done" or "next" or whatever.
[7:50:19] crazy_monkey:
Tom, quick interjection, the chat room appears jumbled with certain themes. Try switching to the Magic 2012 theme.
[7:50:33] WotC_TomLaPille:
where do I do that
[7:51:00] crazy_monkey:
Go to your profile, then click select theme.
[7:51:10] crazy_monkey:
You'll need to leave the chat room and come back.
[7:51:42] WotC_TomLaPille:
ding!
[7:51:46] WotC_Microbless:
did that work?
[7:51:47] WotC_TomLaPille:
Thank you, random person!
[7:52:00] WotC_TomLaPille:
although now everything is very large
[7:52:11] WotC_TomLaPille:
I guess once everything is moderated, this will be fine
[7:52:22] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm going to go get my DKA GTD notes from a year ago. Be back in a second.
[7:52:24] WotC_Microbless:
whoa.
[7:52:57] crazy_monkey:
You're welcome (I'm actually one of Mike's minions).
[7:55:05] WotC_TomLaPille:
I seem to be receiving questions. I'm assuming other people are doing the question-pushing?
[7:55:31] WotC_Microbless:
Yeah I will do that.
[7:55:33] WotC_Microbless:
[7:55:39] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'll just ignore that then
[7:55:42] WotC_Microbless:
yeah.
[7:56:17] WotC_Microbless:
For everyone just joining us we will be starting soon. All your questions will be pushed directly to me, and I will
select them and move them forward in the chat!
[7:56:33] WotC_Microbless:
so don't worry if you don't see your questions coming up in the chat room.
[7:57:40] WotC_Microbless:
As a reminder, I will be the one pushing questions, and we're keeping them related to the development of Dark
Ascension!
[7:57:50] Chats:
Hi all! ::waves:: This is Magic Developer Zac Hill. Everyone else has an all-official-looking username, which makes me
jealous. I'm just "Chats," because, well, I like to chatter. Howdy
[7:57:52] WotC_Microbless:
Gonna make a quick tweet/fb post and we'll begin soon!
[7:58:28] WotC_TomLaPille:
I am Tom LaPille. I led Dark Ascension development.
[8:00:13] Chats:
I was on both the DKA design and development teams. For the most part, that meant helping Tom and Lead Designer Mark
Rosewater do their jobs.
[8:01:58] WotC_Microbless:
Ok welcome everyone! Looks like Zac & Tom have done their intros! I'm your friendly neighborhood Community Manager
Mike Robles! Let's get started:
[8:02:17] WotC_Microbless:
This question comes from the forums: Looking at some of the previews, I've noticed a number of lord-type creatures
being issued as uncommons (as opposed to rares). Besides being awesome, is this indicative of a shift in rarity to
make cards that are more casual-oriented easier to obtain?
[8:02:45] Chats:
How are we deciding which one of us gets to tackle each question?
[8:02:45] WotC_TomLaPille:
I wouldn't call it a permanent shift in rarity.
[8:02:50] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'll take this one!
[8:02:53] Chats:
yay!
[8:03:24] WotC_TomLaPille:
The lords were my idea. Innistrad has lots of tribal stuff in it at low volumes, and horror has many iconic tribes of
monsters. Dark Ascension is all about monsters, so I thought it was important for the tribes to get cool lords.
[8:03:54] WotC_TomLaPille:
I took inspiration from the Onslaught Warchiefs, although I chose to make them gold because our tribes were cross-
colored.
[8:04:18] WotC_TomLaPille:
They are at low rarities so you can draft around them, and because we push things down in rarity when they are more
important to a set's identity.
[8:04:24] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:04:41] WotC_Microbless:
We're getting A LOT of questions about one card in particular.
[8:04:44] WotC_Microbless:
From mtgcolorpie: Grafdigger's Cage was clearly made by Development. Is is the second block in a row where you printed
a "safety plug" in the 2nd set of the block. Is this something we're going to see regularly now after not seeing it?
2nd part: Was it printed to change up older formats?
[8:04:56] Chats:
Can I nab this one?
[8:04:58] WotC_TomLaPille:
sure!
[8:05:09] WotC_Microbless:
(you can also share the spotlight guys)
[8:05:18] Chats:
yay spotlights!
[8:05:20] Chats:
::basks::
[8:05:23] WotC_TomLaPille:
I blame Birthing Pod.
[8:05:52] WotC_TomLaPille:
We had some Birthing Pod decks we thought were really strong, and we wanted something pretty reasonable against them.
[8:05:56] Chats:
So I'm actually writing a Latest Developments about this right now. The short answer re: Cage is that, with the
increasing virtual 'speed' of Standard formats due to independent tournament circuits and more GPs, we can't afford to
wait around a year to print cards like Great Sable Stag
[8:06:36] Chats:
What this means is that we have to 'hate' pre-emptively on more archetypes that are doing well in testing, which means
the nature of our target is going to be a little harder to hit
[8:06:54] Chats:
Pod and Reanimator were both *very* strong in testing, as was Snapcaster, so we wanted a card that hit all of them.
[8:06:58] WotC_TomLaPille:
What Zac just said is also true. I think three years ago putting the Titans into M12 would have been unambiguously
correct, but now that there are so many more tournaments things need to change faster. Grafdigger's Cage is paart of
that.
[8:07:11] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:07:26] Chats:
We were obviously aware of the tremendous implications of the card for older formats, but to us that was viewed as
upside, mostly. Because these formats don't rotate, you have to work a lot harder to shake them up.
[8:07:36] Chats:
That needs to happen periodically.
[8:07:50] Chats:
(done--until next Friday's column, anyway )
[8:07:54] WotC_Microbless:
From Cubey42: Question: Zombies felt underwelming for the most part in Innistrad. When developing Dark Ascension, did
the team felt this way as well, what were some of the ways the team thought about making zombies more exciting to
play?
[8:08:35] WotC_TomLaPille:
For Constructed, often all a tribe needs is a few sweet cards to push it enough. Dark Ascension has two Zombies that I
think have a shot, and you've only seen one of them so far.
[8:08:55] Chats:
Printing more sweet Zombies! I designed Gravecrawler, which I think you guys have seen already, and I think it's safe
to say there's another pretty sweet one (courtesy of Tom) that Zombie lovers will enjoy.
[8:09:14] WotC_TomLaPille:
I didn't actually make that second one. I think that came from a combination of Erik Lauer and Steve Warner.
[8:09:18] Chats:
Oh really!
[8:09:21] Chats:
I stand corrected
[8:09:30] Chats:
::stands::
[8:09:41] WotC_TomLaPille:
In Limited, I tried to make the new zombie cards play into the same grind-you-out kind of thing that Innistrad had.
[8:10:03] WotC_TomLaPille:
The uncommon lord in particular helps with that kind of thing, as do a few of the commons.
[8:10:29] WotC_TomLaPille:
We'll see if that's enough to push it over the top.
[8:10:32] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:10:44] Chats:
Zombies excel at resilience, so the more of a problem having all your guys killed becomes--the more, for example,
removal-based control decks tend to dominate--the more a zombie strategy is going to be well-positioned for an
environment
[8:10:49] Chats:
Done!
[8:10:52] WotC_Microbless:
speaking of zombies.
[8:10:58] Chats:
Brains!
[8:11:00] Chats:
Braaaaaain!
[8:11:04] WotC_Microbless:
From Ffancrzy: I have heard many questions about Zombie Apocalypse , Why wasn't this card a Mythic Rare when it
certainly feels like one, and why does it return the Zombies to play before killing the Humans instead of Vice Versa?
Flavor-wise the Zombies have to come from somewhere!
[8:11:20] WotC_TomLaPille:
But something has to kill the humans too!
[8:11:21] Chats:
All you Tom
[8:11:44] WotC_TomLaPille:
As to why it wasn't mythic rare, that never occurred to me. The card is actually a combination of two cards that were
once rare
[8:12:15] WotC_TomLaPille:
The first card was 2BB Sorcery Destroy All Humans, full stop. The second was the "return all zombies" card. The day I
realized that was supposed to be in one text box was a happy one.
[8:12:41] WotC_TomLaPille:
We only have so many mythic rare slots in each set, and I think the black mythic rare in the set deserved the status
more.
[8:12:47] WotC_TomLaPille:
Done.
[8:12:59] WotC_Microbless:
This one comes from our forums
[8:13:06] WotC_Microbless:
"One of the things we saw with Scars block was the fact that it always seemed inevitable that the Phyrexians would win
from Besieged onward and that Phyrexians seemed to get the better and "cooler" cards. With Dark Ascension being the
set where things "get worse" for the Humans, how did the team go about emphasising the peril the Humans were in,
without it seeming utterly hopeless, alongside balancing things to make the Humans the side in trouble, without giving
the more powerful cards, both mechanical and flavourwise, to the non-Human populace of Innistrad?"
[8:13:37] WotC_TomLaPille:
We have a certain amount of "power points" to spend in each set.
[8:14:00] WotC_TomLaPille:
Mark Rosewater talked this week about what he thought the set was about--that being how screwed humans were--but all I
really did was just spend more of my power points on sweet monsters.
[8:14:07] WotC_TomLaPille:
Zac, do you have any thoughts on this one?
[8:14:21] Chats:
Regarding the 'peril' part, we tried to do that with one of our mechanics. "Fateful Hour" was originally called
Desperation, and I came up with it in response to a Rosewater assignment that involved making a mechanic where
humanity seemed 'Desperate'
[8:14:30] Chats:
The idea was that
[8:14:52] Chats:
a) You understood that they were in danger, because you were on the verge of death, but b) that was *precisely* how
that power you refer to came about
[8:15:12] Chats:
We humans are good at that--'showing up' when situations demand the most of us
[8:15:37] Chats:
So it's not just an issue of a power--it's the circumstances by which that power comes about
[8:15:39] Chats:
(done)
[8:15:42] WotC_TomLaPille:
Fateful Hour was much louder at the design handoff, and it kept shrinking in size as the set developed further. I
think the "roar monsters" feel is more satisfying than angsty negative space tragedy, so I just made cool monsters.
[8:15:45] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:16:06] WotC_Microbless:
From Sikyanakotik: For the "Fateful Hour" mechanic, how did you build the environment to prevent cards like Lava Axe
from making the mechanic irrelevant?
[8:16:07] Chats:
(Tom is right about the 'Roar Monsters' thing, btw. It was important to do a lot of that)
[8:16:23] Chats:
Tom, that's mostly your question I think
[8:16:39] WotC_TomLaPille:
As far as I know, Brimstone Volley and Devil's Play are the only cards that can just kill you for doing that.
[8:16:53] WotC_TomLaPille:
I certainly didn't put any five damage spells in my own set.
[8:16:58] Chats:
Bump, Bump It Up!
[8:17:40] WotC_TomLaPille:
Many of the Fateful Hour cards let you do a ton of damage, though, so probably the best way to not worry about that is
to just kill your opponent soon after they activate.
[8:17:45] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:17:58] Chats:
(But right, you just have to be diligent in playtesting that the situation where you get to five only to die
immediately just doesn't come up a lot. A lot of development isn't like coming from the top-down and saying, 'this
environment shalt not kill thine opponents'. It's playtesting iteratively and making sure situations don't occur)
[8:18:02] Chats:
((done))
[8:18:03] WotC_Microbless:
Going back to Grafdigger's Cage (because EVERYONE is asking about it)
[8:18:04] WotC_Microbless:
From Polendino: When Grafdigger's Cage was handed to Development, what did it look like? What changes were made?
Thanks for making DKA <span class='status-icon status-happy'></span>
[8:18:25] WotC_TomLaPille:
It was never handed to development. We made it late in the process to solve a problem, right down to late-
commissioning new art.
[8:18:26] Chats:
It wasn't handed to Development. It was made *during* development to solve problems!
[8:18:45] WotC_TomLaPille:
That's the sort of thing we only get to do once or twice per set, and only to solve FFL problems. Grafdigger's Cage
was mine.
[8:18:51] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:18:55] Chats:
donesies
[8:19:05] WotC_Microbless:
From Smoofer: Without spoiling any specific cards, is Undying as important a theme in this block as it was in
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor?
[8:19:21] Chats:
It's hard to say. I wonder what 'important' means?
[8:19:38] WotC_TomLaPille:
In terms of sheer numbers, not at all.
[8:19:50] WotC_TomLaPille:
Undying cards are difficult to develop, because they often lead to natural card advantage.
[8:20:21] WotC_TomLaPille:
We started with high number and high power of Undying cards, and that quickly showed to be a terrible idea. You can
see what my team tried to use to solve this problem soon by looking at the set.
[8:20:53] WotC_TomLaPille:
That made the idea of extending Undying as a theme any significant amount further less and less appealing over time.
[8:20:57] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:20:59] Chats:
Do we expect it to do work in Limited *and* Constructed? Of course! But right, numerically there isn't nearly as much
of it. We wanted it to be something that we could judiciously apply, not something that defined every game you played
with the set. Tom's right--any mechanic that just says "Card advantage! Yay!" is hard to make. So we tried to be
conservative. Plus there are some tricks of the trade that make it trickier to, um, trade. You'll see what those are
soon
[8:21:03] Chats:
done
[8:21:11] WotC_Microbless:
From Nich: Could you comment of the blue Zombies. I loved the idea that they were Frankenstein's Monster in concept,
but was bummed that they don't talk or feel or any of the other tropes of Shelly's book. Was there any conversation
about them being intelligent or having flavor text attributed to them?
[8:21:41] WotC_TomLaPille:
With regard to flavor text, that doesn't happen in development.
[8:22:19] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'd say that the creative team went more with "constructed zombie" than "intelligent zombie", which is why we have
things like a 6/9 trampler running around.
[8:23:04] Chats:
As you can see from things like Jenna's article this past week, there is a certain 'elitism' ascribed to the blue
zombies--the 'Skaabs' are far more heavy-hitting than Gisa's generic corpse-balls. But inside the horror genre, it's
difficult to stray too far from one another without raising cognitive dissonance. Grimgrin is kind of a 'general' and
he's a Skaab, so there's clearly some degree of intelligence there. But no, there wasn't much desire to produce
erudite Frankenstein-like corpses from our end. From creative's? Well, I don't know
[8:23:06] WotC_TomLaPille:
The secret thing about Magic cards is that most players prefer things that are awesome and badass to things that are
subtle and narrative. It's easier to make a badass enormous 6/9 trampler than a badass self-aware angsty humanoid
zombie.
[8:23:25] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:23:26] Chats:
We only have so much real-estate to tell the story, and the Zombies had to be mostly congruent.
[8:23:37] Chats:
The point Tom just made is very salient, yes.
[8:23:38] Chats:
Done
[8:23:39] WotC_Microbless:
Not sure if you can answer this one, but:
[8:23:41] WotC_Microbless:
From Ownedu369: what was the "BIG" problem you had that you needed to correct it with grafdiggers cage?
[8:23:43] WotC_TomLaPille:
Zac, I like how your answers are so much more subtle than mine
[8:23:54] WotC_TomLaPille:
From my perspective, it was Birthing Pod.
[8:24:11] WotC_TomLaPille:
Some of you may have noted that Birthing Pod and Undying are kind of good together.
[8:24:20] Chats:
Birthing Pod mostly. Secondarily the 4B/3W Sorcery that reanimates things from Innistrad.
[8:24:24] WotC_Microbless:
It always comes back to Birthing Pod.
[8:24:29] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:24:33] Chats:
Done
[8:24:40] WotC_Microbless:
From Lysithix: What was the focus mechanics-wise on giving cards opposite colored flashback costs? Was this because
the flavor of the cards fit both colors of the cost, or was it to encourage it's use in creative ways?
[8:24:53] WotC_TomLaPille:
That idea came from Ken Nagle in Innistrad development very early on.
[8:25:09] WotC_TomLaPille:
Off-color flashback cards make you do cool things like splash black into a blue-red deck, which we saw in Time Spiral
block.
[8:25:34] Chats:
More the latter I'd say. Yeah, it was Ken. We try to have cards in environments that enable you to play the ten
different color combinations. The off-color FB costs were an elegant way to do this, while also taking flashback in a
different direction
[8:25:46] WotC_TomLaPille:
Ken suggested we do that again with Flashback here, and I suggested that we also add Lorwyn's mana fixers (Wanderer's
Twig and Shimmering Grotto) to help that.
[8:26:05] WotC_TomLaPille:
I just indulged my pattern-completion instinct and went the other direction with mine.
[8:26:05] Chats:
Grotto does *so much work*!
[8:26:13] Chats:
Done
[8:26:17] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:26:35] WotC_Microbless:
From ffang: Is there a particular role you wanted for Curiosity and Fling to play?
[8:26:53] WotC_TomLaPille:
Magic has a lot of cards that do simple things that have great names.
[8:26:56] Chats:
All you bruh.
[8:27:21] WotC_TomLaPille:
It's often better to reuse a card that has a great name than it is to come up with "Fling But More Complicated And
With Worse Name."
[8:27:41] WotC_TomLaPille:
Curiosity has a great name because curiosity often gets people in trouble in horror movies.
[8:28:01] WotC_TomLaPille:
I reused Fling because Dave Humpherys asked me for "a card like Fling I can play with Undying cards", so I just put
Fling in the set because I was a bit low on reprints.
[8:28:41] WotC_TomLaPille:
Expect to see us do that more often in the near future. If we have a card that we need to be a workhorse, we've
already done it, and it has a good name, we aren't afraid to just reprint.
[8:29:01] WotC_TomLaPille:
Well, I assume they still aren't.
[8:29:09] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done : )
[8:29:19] WotC_Microbless:
From JonHearn: Did you notice the flavour error of having a one-eyed scarecrow die on a board with a jar of eyeballs
when you designed it?
[8:29:28] Chats:
Actually yes
[8:29:38] Chats:
Also happens outside of the block with Cyclopes
[8:29:43] WotC_TomLaPille:
One-eyed scarecrow? There are so many worse offenders!
[8:29:46] Chats:
(which I hope is the correct plural?)
[8:30:00] WotC_TomLaPille:
Spiders have tons of eyes, and god knows how many eyes there are on something that has an Ocular Halo.
[8:30:06] WotC_TomLaPille:
Xantid Swarm also has like, hundreds of eyes.
[8:30:30] WotC_TomLaPille:
We can't cover every base when it comes to that kind of thing, so we try to make the card make sense in a vacuum.
[8:30:35] Chats:
We design cards to work most of the time in most situations, mostly. But yeah. There are always exceptions and because
we are insanely OCD about our sets, we almost always notice them, and almost always get at least somewhat irritated.
But when you have a hit, you have a hit, and it's worth it most of the time to deal with the weirdos.
[8:30:54] WotC_TomLaPille:
I can't count the number of games I won with a Birds of Paradise equipped with Sword of Fire and Ice. What is the
Birds doing, swinging it with its beak? You just have to accept some of these things.
[8:30:57] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:31:02] Chats:
Done
[8:31:23] WotC_Microbless:
From Playerhurp: I'm wondering about the theme of 13. It's clear over these two sets 13 is an important number. How
did that come up, if there will be 13 mythics this time around, and how it might play into the set later.
[8:31:36] WotC_TomLaPille:
Thirteen is an unlucky number.
[8:31:40] Chats:
13's an unlucky number!
[8:31:45] WotC_TomLaPille:
Innistrad used it in several places. I just found even more.
[8:32:02] WotC_TomLaPille:
There's a card that has two instances of 13 in the text box that I don't think has been revealed yet.
[8:32:09] Chats:
It sort of induces a queasy feeling among people raised in (largely) the Western world, and a lot of Innistrad is
about a general feeling of uneasiness.
[8:32:30] Chats:
it turns out you can design a lot of cool 13-themed cards, and so we thought it was a neat feature to keep returning
to
[8:32:31] WotC_TomLaPille:
The -13/-0 card originally just set power to zero, but why do that when you can write another 13 somewhere?
[8:32:37] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:32:51] Chats:
Especially when -13/-0 ACTUALLY succeeds at reducing the creature's power to 0 more often!
[8:32:51] Chats:
done
[8:32:55] WotC_Microbless:
From Kirblar: There are 666 cards in this block. Coincidence, or intentional?
[8:33:13] WotC_TomLaPille:
Coincidence, unless there's someone really clever running around somewhere.
[8:33:23] Chats:
It won't let me make a winky-face
[8:33:25] Chats:
But um
[8:33:27] Chats:
Winky-face
[8:33:30] WotC_Microbless:
[8:33:34] Chats:
[8:33:36] Chats:
There we go
[8:33:43] WotC_Microbless:
WHA?!?!
[8:33:44] WotC_TomLaPille:
Maybe Zac is the clever one!
[8:33:50] WotC_Microbless:
*mind blown*
[8:34:05] WotC_TomLaPille:
I thought I was just making the amount of cards I could make given our printing technology, but I appear to have been
manipulated!
[8:34:08] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:34:13] Chats:
Done
[8:34:15] WotC_Microbless:
From Lysithix: I've noticed that there are quite a few high cost creatures in Dark Ascension as opposed to Innistrad,
did you come across this in testing, or did it seem natural to place these cards at higher costs?
[8:34:41] WotC_TomLaPille:
Big scary badass monsters sometimes need to cost a lot of mana to do their jobs believably.
[8:34:42] Chats:
This is all Tom
[8:35:05] WotC_TomLaPille:
I find that cards work best when you let them do what they want to do, and many of my cards just drifted up in price
over time.
[8:35:28] WotC_TomLaPille:
There are plenty of low-cost creatures in the set that you will learn to fear just as much as the ones that look huge
and scary now.
[8:35:36] WotC_TomLaPille:
(ominous music)
[8:35:48] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:35:56] WotC_Microbless:
From Ownedu369: So ive noticed with DKA there is a large push with tokens specially W/B tokens is there a specific
reason why?
[8:36:07] WotC_TomLaPille:
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad is why.
[8:36:32] WotC_TomLaPille:
Creative asked for a black-white planeswalker. This challenged us, because there wasn't any black-white deck to build
before Dark Ascension.
[8:37:00] Chats:
I was trying to find a clever way to link to an image of Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, but failed
[8:37:01] Chats:
But yes
[8:37:05] Chats:
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
[8:37:17] WotC_TomLaPille:
Erik suggested that I think about what deck I wanted Sorin to push people toward. I had fond memories of the Pro Tour
Paris black-white token deck, so I decided that this was a natural place to look. Also, planeswalkers that make tokens
tend to be stronger.
[8:37:27] Chats:
done
[8:37:51] WotC_TomLaPille:
We needed enough motivation for people to build Sorin decks, so we made some cool token cards.
[8:37:54] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:37:56] WotC_Microbless:
From Lysithix: Are there any mechanics that, while they seemed great, didn't fit the set flavor-wise? Or in relation,
are there any mechanics that we've been currently introduced to that had to undergo changes in order to fit the set
more appropriately?
[8:38:29] WotC_TomLaPille:
Fateful Hour changed significantly if you think about it in terms of where it lives in the set and how much of it
there is.
[8:38:53] WotC_TomLaPille:
There were once nonwhite cards that had it, but that is no longer true.
[8:39:06] Chats:
Right. There are lots of ways to change a mechanic. We didn't change around very much what any of the mechanics did in
terms of their game-text, but we changed a lot about where they lived, how much real-estate they occupied, and what
their role in the set was
[8:39:17] WotC_TomLaPille:
There was also once a weird variant on flashback in the set, but we ended up deciding that flashback's big twist
should live at rare, not at common.
[8:39:31] Chats:
Morbid used to live in all five colors, for example, in high densities, but was pushed to black and green for
archetypal and to a lesser extent flavor reasons
[8:39:37] WotC_TomLaPille:
Yeah, that too.
[8:39:48] Chats:
done
[8:40:09] WotC_TomLaPille:
Small sets don't give you as much room to spread mechanics around. I had to think carefully about where to spend each
mechanic.
[8:40:11] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:40:17] WotC_Microbless:
From Kaoss: Do You Thibk, Considering How Powerfull His Final Ability Is, That The New Sorin Will Become Banned In
Competitive Play?
[8:40:37] WotC_TomLaPille:
I hope you can trust that because I chose to print it that way, my answer is no. : P
[8:40:40] Chats:
I Like Writing Like This. It Lends Gravitas To Every Claim.
[8:40:52] WotC_TomLaPille:
William Shatner Would Approve.
[8:40:59] Chats:
BRB Climbing A Mountain
[8:41:02] Chats:
No seriously
[8:41:29] WotC_TomLaPille:
We don't make cards that we think will get banned. We push boundaries occasionally to keep things interesting, but in
a perfect world we never have to ban anything in Standard.
[8:41:41] Chats:
We think it's at a suitable, but exciting, power level. We usually intend for PW ultimates to be very, very powerful,
so usually we assume that when you use them you for all practical purposes win the game
[8:41:56] Chats:
So I doubt there will be too many PWs who are too powerful in Standard because of the power level of their ultimate.
[8:42:02] WotC_TomLaPille:
Realistically, maybe something banned every 10 years is a happy medium. Not having to do so means we probably aren't
making exciting cards.
[8:42:18] WotC_TomLaPille:
The first ability on Sorin is the one that scares me, not the ultimate.
[8:42:26] Chats:
Agree with Tom
[8:42:27] WotC_TomLaPille:
And by scares me, I only mean a little bit. I did play it an awful lot!
[8:42:34] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:42:54] Chats:
Haha. Yes, I have created many an emblem in my day. The *rael* fun game is: what will you use as your emblem? Drink
cups? Rubber dinosaurs?? The possibilities are endless!
[8:42:55] Chats:
Done
[8:43:02] WotC_Microbless:
From JqlGirl: How is developing a very top-down set like Dark Ascension different from developing a "normal" set?
[8:43:05] WotC_TomLaPille:
I suggest the physical token emblem card!
[8:43:29] WotC_TomLaPille:
If I had my way, every set would be top-down and flavor driven, and "normal" sets wouldn't be normal.
[8:43:40] Chats:
JQL: That's an interesting question, because increasingly we're trying to make 'very top-down' and 'normal' become the
same thing!
[8:43:41] Chats:
Yeaha
[8:43:44] Chats:
Exactly
[8:43:55] WotC_TomLaPille:
While I was in Magic R&D, I would claim that I was the most flavor-sensative developer.
[8:44:14] WotC_TomLaPille:
For me, there was no difference between Dark Ascension and any set. If I saw something that struck me as dumb in
flavor, I usually made a comment about it.
[8:44:25] WotC_TomLaPille:
When I'm the lead, though, I just get to change the card instead.
[8:45:03] WotC_TomLaPille:
I can't say that I know what developing a "normal" set is like. My only other leads are Magic 2012, which on a card-
by-card basis was top-down, and Masters Edition 3 and 4, which were top-down hilarious and bizarre nostalgia.
[8:45:04] Chats:
To me, Magic existed for a long time with its 'creative' layer applied to justify a level of inherent abstraction and
render it coherent. We now feel like all of a card's available 'rhetorical devices'--name, cost, mechanics, creature
type, function, etc.--are in service of crafting an overall experience. So creative concerns carry a lot more weight
than they used to, and top-down coherence is a primary goal.
[8:45:40] WotC_TomLaPille:
Making a set in which Rolling Earthquake can take down Nicol Bolas (not the planeswalker) is definitely a top-down
statement, it's just a weird one
[8:45:44] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:46:09] Chats:
What Innistrad block represented to me was in many ways an 'excuse' to jump over the hurdle for good; by forcing us to
consider the top-down sensibility of every card, it let us know that we really could succeed at making a set that way
[8:46:22] Chats:
Done
[8:46:30] WotC_Microbless:
From Serialrobinson: The mythic rares we've seen are all very powerful, but also need to have specific strategies
built around them and have more subtle applications than some of the other mythics we've seen in the past. Has there
been a concerted effort in R&D to move away from the "hit you over the head strong" mythics we have seen in the
past?
[8:46:47] WotC_TomLaPille:
We need different mythic rares for different people.
[8:47:25] WotC_TomLaPille:
I've heard people tell me that Vorapede and Mikeus the Unhallowed are hit-you-over-the-head strong, and I think they
likely are in different contexts.
[8:48:01] WotC_TomLaPille:
I may have gone further to show range than we did in Innistrad, but I wouldn't consider Dark Ascension to be a major
change or anything.
[8:48:11] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:48:31] Chats:
Agree with Tom. I think the INN/DKA mythics are templates for how we intend to make Mythics generally-speaking. To me,
there's not that much of a substantive difference between the two sets.
[8:48:35] Chats:
Done
[8:49:12] WotC_Microbless:
Sorry everyone!
[8:49:17] WotC_Microbless:
power went out at my house.
[8:49:20] WotC_TomLaPille:
ah jeez
[8:49:24] Chats:
Big daggers
[8:49:40] WotC_TomLaPille:
Are you still capable of pushing questions?
[8:49:55] Chats:
Can Tom and I say clever witty things until the chat resumes?
[8:50:10] WotC_Microbless:
all my questions left. :/ BUT! BUT! I still have forum questions.
[8:50:10] WotC_TomLaPille:
I can see the questions, so i could push things if you need me to for the rest of the time
[8:50:14] WotC_Microbless:
oh yeah!
[8:50:24] WotC_TomLaPille:
Let's take turns
[8:50:27] WotC_Microbless:
that would be great. if you want to push one
[8:50:29] WotC_TomLaPille:
okay
[8:50:31] WotC_Microbless:
chat's almost done anyways.
[8:50:32] WotC_TomLaPille:
From Ffancrzy: I know Mark Rosewater has stated in the past that Zombie have never "felt" like Zombies before and that
I'd agree with that, However he went on to say the last time there was a Zombie deck it was a fast Black deck using
lots of cheap zombies in an aggro deck. While I DO think that you guys have done a lot to change this, why did you
literally do the exact same thing in Printing cards like Diagraf Ghoul and Gravecrawler?
[8:50:41] Chats:
Sweet. So Tom you choose, then I choose?
[8:50:45] WotC_TomLaPille:
sure
[8:50:48] Chats:
Cool
[8:50:53] WotC_TomLaPille:
I wouldn't say that we did the exact same thing.
[8:51:11] WotC_TomLaPille:
Gravecrawler may be a fast creature, but it is also a fast creature who keeps coming back in a very zombie-like way.
[8:51:24] WotC_TomLaPille:
That was the key for me. Rotlung Reanimator fits well into a fast creature deck, but also behaves like a zombie.
[8:51:41] WotC_TomLaPille:
The zombie I had in mind that you have yet to see behaves somewhat like that, but in an even more aggressive way.
[8:51:47] Chats:
Yeah. First of all, there are different environmental considerations. In casual Constructed and Limited, the Zombies
of onslaught were all about killing you with cards like Shepherd of Rot and Undead Warchief. In Limited in INN/DKA,
however, it's a lot more about Gravecrawlers and their ilk.
[8:52:06] WotC_TomLaPille:
Fast creatures can still feel as relentless as proper horror movie zombies.
[8:52:08] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:52:11] Chats:
In Constructed--right, it's a matter of degrees. Gravecrawler is fast, but he's not principally good because he's a
Savannah Lion with a drawback. The resilience is key.
[8:52:30] Chats:
looking at questions
[8:52:47] Chats:
From JqlGirl: Why are all the powerful green creatures in the set so color-intensive? Did you want to not make them
splashable in Limited or were you afraid of them overpowering Standard or what?
[8:53:17] WotC_TomLaPille:
I think that happened on a card-by-card basis. They're all also very green-feeling, and just felt right to me with
more green mana in them.
[8:53:31] WotC_TomLaPille:
I wanted Strangleroot Geist to be two mana, and the only way we could do that was GG.
[8:53:58] WotC_TomLaPille:
I also wanted Vorapede to be a reward for being pretty green, so I did what I did there.
[8:54:25] Chats:
We were also very conscious of having Birds of Paradise, Avacyn's Pilgrim, and Llanowar Elves in the one-drop
accelerator slot. Adding green-intensivity made Avacyn's Pilgrim harder to use outside of GW, which is something I
think we were concerned about at the time.
[8:54:30] WotC_TomLaPille:
I played plenty of Strangleroot Geists and Vorapedes in decks that weren't monogreen, but they all had significant
green components.
[8:54:39] WotC_TomLaPille:
Avacyn's Pilgrim was definitely part of it.
[8:54:54] Chats:
Right. Green tends to be the best at fixing its mana, so correspondingly there will be times where you have to make
more of a commitment to green to get paid of.
[8:54:57] Chats:
off.
[8:55:00] WotC_TomLaPille:
I propose we take a forum question.
[8:55:07] Chats:
Love it. All you, since I don't know how to do that.
[8:55:15] WotC_TomLaPille:
Mike?
[8:55:17] WotC_Microbless:
Got it!
[8:55:24] Chats:
Err. Yes. Mike
[8:55:39] WotC_Microbless:
With so many great group-type creatures in this block (Mobs of humans, packs of wolves, cults of worshippers, covens
of vampires, and hordes of zombies), why was Banding not considered for this block?
[8:55:46] WotC_TomLaPille:
Oh my god Banding.
[8:55:58] Chats:
Do you remember Turian's reminder text for Banding, Tom?
[8:56:00] WotC_Microbless:
(all other posts in the thread are about Grafdiggers btw)
[8:56:06] WotC_TomLaPille:
I've got one more good question
[8:56:07] WotC_TomLaPille:
after thsi one
[8:56:13] WotC_TomLaPille:
no, but I'm about to go get the oracle text
[8:56:15] WotC_Microbless:
we've got time for about 1 more so that's good.
[8:56:19] Chats:
It was something like (all my guys live, all your guys die)
[8:56:37] WotC_TomLaPille:
(Any creatures with banding, and up to one without, can attack in a band. Bands are blocked as a group. If any
creatures with banding you control are blocking or being blocked by a creature, you divide that creature's combat
damage, not its controller, among any of the creatures it's being blocked by or is blocking.)
[8:56:47] WotC_TomLaPille:
We can't print that on ten cards, and definitely not at common
[8:57:05] WotC_TomLaPille:
I cut banding from ME3 and ME4 because I didn't think the Magic Online user interface for it was good enough.
[8:57:12] WotC_TomLaPille:
I can't imagine making people figure that out in paper.
[8:57:16] WotC_TomLaPille:
One more?
[8:57:17] Chats:
Seriously it's nightmarish to comprehend and deceptively powerful in all the wrong ways. A terrible, terrible feeling
is when your opponent informs you of rules that you don't understand, and then you have to pick up your board and
place it into the graveyard. As you can see from what Tom posted, that happens a lot with Banding.
[8:57:19] Chats:
done
[8:57:26] WotC_TomLaPille:
From Noctisincendia: Why does SOrin, Lord of Innistrad's ultimate destroy things, then bring them back? That seems
more zombie than vampire to me.
[8:57:29] WotC_Microbless:
Yeah, let's make this our final question.
[8:57:56] WotC_TomLaPille:
There's plenty of Vampire fiction out there in which to create a vampire, another vampire must actually kill a mortal
before beginning the transformation process.
[8:58:02] Chats:
All you, Leady-poo
[8:58:23] WotC_TomLaPille:
Also, killing stuff and then bringing it back feels white and black, while gaining control feels blue.
[8:58:34] Chats:
Yep.
[8:58:37] WotC_TomLaPille:
I pitched "gain control" on that card, but everyone reacted poorly to it not being a blue card.
[8:58:53] WotC_TomLaPille:
I was sad until I realized that plenty of other IP's require the vampire to drain a victim dry before they become a
vampire.
[8:58:59] WotC_TomLaPille:
So Sorin does that instead.
[8:59:06] WotC_TomLaPille:
I'm done.
[8:59:17] Chats:
Can I post one more? I think it's important to answer
[8:59:19] WotC_TomLaPille:
okay
[8:59:21] WotC_Microbless:
sure.
[8:59:23] WotC_TomLaPille:
I can stay for a second
[8:59:26] Chats:
From kujabuja: How restrictive has having snapcaster already be in existance been as far as testing DKA/future cards
to be released in standard?
[8:59:35] WotC_TomLaPille:
That's all Zac : P
[9:00:37] Chats:
Haha. Okay. Yes, Snapcaster is very restrictive. We have made a conscious effort to avoid empowering Snapcaster more
than he already is across the block, and multiple sets have changed because of him. We're keenly aware of how powerful
he is, and while of course he's going to have more tools to work with with every set release, we're trying to ratchet
down the power level of those tools dramatically.
[9:00:45] Chats:
Done, and done
[9:00:48] WotC_Microbless:
I'd like to thank Tom & Zac for taking time out of their days to come hang out and answer questions. Guys, anything
parting words? Anythingyou want to plug? Twitter? Tumblr? Etc?
[9:01:17] Chats:
Any more question you have, please let me know @zdch on Twitter! Your feedback is essential to ensuring that we do a
good job!
[9:01:46] Chats:
Thanks so much for your questions!
[9:01:48] WotC_TomLaPille:
Rock on guys!
[9:01:52] WotC_TomLaPille:
I hope you like Dark Ascension!
[9:02:03] WotC_TomLaPille:
I also hope you like the game I'm working on now when it comes out in forever! : )
[9:02:06] WotC_TomLaPille:
haha