Quick Highlight:
Mirrodin Besieged from a Design Perspective
What is a Phyrexian other than a Mirran when seen through a corrupted mirror? This mirroring between the factions is important. Since the creation of Red Elemental Blast and Blue Elemental Blast, mirrors and cycles have played a long, important part of Magic’s history. No set, however, has had the same level of mirroring than Mirrodin Besieged. Here’s some of the mirroring you’ll find:
- Affinity / Metalcraft: Affinity was broken and Wizards knows it. But how to play with the same style of keyword, without reprinting the keyword itself? Metalcraft was based on the keyword Presence. It allowed artifacts to matter without allowing them to get onto the battlefield for free, an important distinction.
- Equipment / Living Weapons: Mirrodin was the first set to introduce equipment. Mirrodin Besieged takes equipment one step further with the idea of Living Weapons. Living Weapons are a riff on germ warfare, which harkens neatly back to the idea of the Mycosynth that infected the original Mirrans. Living Weapons neutralise the downside of the need to Equip weapons onto anything by providing their own 0/0 body , a particularly elegant way of marginally improving the card type without necessarily breaking it.
- Finishing Cycles: Two unfinished cycles are being completed in Scars – the Tower cycle and the Swords cycle. While the Tower cycle is relatively uninteresting, the Sword cycle is pretty thrilling. Again, it appears Wizards learnt their lessons and are pushing the power level of the swords down somewhat.
- Internal Mirroring: One only has to look at the design of Phyrexian Crusader and Mirran Crusader to see it in action. The two halves of Mirrodin – the pure Mirran half and the corrupted Phyrexian half – are embodied in these two cards. Anyone looking at the two side by side can quickly see the elements both factions embody and what their chief colors are. It also demonstrates how, for the moment, blue is sitting by the sidelines, playing both sides of the fence, a typically blue thing to do.
- New Versions of Old Cards: The original Spellbombs made a great appearance in the new Scars Spellbombs, as do the Replicas. The stations have turned into foundries. Some exciting examples are Troll Aesthetic as Thrun, the Last Troll and Tezzeret, The Seeker as Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas is a particularly interesting mirror design. The original’s +2 is gone, and it’s -X has moved to the new +1. Its -5 ability has moved to the -1 slot, and a new ultimate has been created. This is extremely neat and elegantly done.
- Infect Versions of Old Cards: This is the area of the greatest concern with the design of Scars, and in particular Mirrodin Besieged. The automatic response it to claim the technique is lazy design – sticking Infect on Darksteel Colossus (Blightsteel Colossus), Giant Spider (Blightwidow) and Viridian Shaman (Viridian Corrupter) does not smack of innovative design. However, in the context of the set, it helps reinforce the storyline of the biological warfare, allowing players to look at a card, half-recognize it, and then realize the effects Infect and the Phyrexians are having on the plane of Mirrodin. This reinforcement of the themes is certainly worth a few pseudo-reprints.
Find the whole post here: http://www.mananation.com/mirrodin-besieged-thoughts-from-down-under/
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