Home Orb of Insight: Creature – 110

To begin with, let’s talk about some of the things that you won’t see in the set. To give any set a unique feel, you have to make some tough choices. There have been a lot of sets printed so far and it’s tough to keep any one set from running into another. What’s that, you say? You don’t have that hard of a time remembering which set a card is from? Well, there’s a good reason for that. You see, if you don’t decide what the limits of your set are, it’s going to look like every other set instead of standing out on its own. But Wizards has done an awesome job of giving each set a feel of its own. If you see some random artifact that looks like it’s a little too occupied with colored mana, it belongs in fifth dawn. If you’re pawing through a pile that contains no spells, they might be Legions cards. Can’t pronounce the card names? See Kamigawa block. The things you choose to leave out create the context in which the set is unique and memorable. It’s easy to overlook when a player sees the set, but a designer can’t neglect it.

There are no gold-bordered cards in Wastelands. There are multicolored spells, but true cooperation between the colors is not the thing that should define the look of this set. Today’s final leaked card shows the “topped off” mechanic. No pun is intended with the “top card matters” mechanic. Topped off cards reward you for playing the extra colors of mana and give you something special for your efforts. (Topped off comes from the border color, with the base color you have to play at the bottom and the optional mana at the top.) But roaming too freely and allowing gold-bordered cards would have detracted from the significant amount of exploration done with hybrid mana.

There are no legendary permanents in Wastelands. This decision will disappoint some people, but you know what they say about pleasing all the people! Legends are amazing, awesome and unique. The Wastelands is a place where it’s amazing that you survived another day. The Wastes aren’t producing heroes that the rest of the multiverse has to take note of. The decision to not have any legendary permanents has let the flavor of the characters come across over multiple cards. No one card represents a character. Illinia, from Wednesday’s story, has at least four cards that represent her. Also, each card can represent more than one person. A Woescribe could be any number of people over the history of the Wastelands, and there have certainly been more serpentine autarchs besides Hesthet. Without legends, every card has the potential to be a key player. Even an uncommon artifact(Enlightened Stonerune) might be an individual central to the unfolding (or undoing) of the Wastelands.

There are many other things that are not in the set (like the fact that none of the snakes are anthropomorphic, but many of the elementals are), but these are the most notable. Together, the limits of a set define its ultimate flavor and feel. This set should evoke some of the feeling of earlier sets, like Homelands, Fallen Empires, or Ice Age. Mechanically speaking, it should feel like a mix of the modern sensibilities of mechanics with an older approach that let the mechanics have a little more room to run free.

And speaking of exclusion (seamless transition), let’s talk about racism in Magic. No, not racism between players or judges or anything like that. But racial tension does exist in magic, just take a look at this awkward specimen, brought to you courtesy of Chessek’s investigations.

This particular being is a bit confused. He’s opposed to his own nature (and he’s the colors that oppose nature). He has tasted the contradictions inherent in the void, and lost himself in it. Humans don’t have much of a place in the Wastelands, and so they end up doing just about anything to survive. Sometimes that doesn’t work and they end up dead, converted to sand, or like this guy, something worse.

So what does the racial makeup of the Wastelands look like? The serpentine are the dominant race on the plane, and though time has forgotten it, their first ruler was the one who struck the bargain that led to the cataclysm. He wanted to increase his power and influence, so he consulted an oracle, who told him that the future held one of two possibilities. In the first, the Wastelands became a ruined place, lifeless and unprotected, at the mercy of the powerful heavenly forces. In the second, the Wastelands would flourish into the hub of the Multiverse and become the center of every plane’s dealings. So the first serpentine autarch, seeking to bring about the second possibility, contracted with a planeswalker and tied all of the Wasteland’s inherent mana to him. When that planeswalker died, the plane collapsed and became the void that it is today.

The Serpentine have trolls in their employ, whose hardy nature and lack of scruples make them useful servants. Humans are mostly nomadic, but a few set up cities and try to maintain them against the heavy opposition that they inevitably face. The elementals of the plane are truly mindless. They are as unintelligent as forces of nature, and have no allegiance. But they are crucial to the survival of mana on the Wastelands. They are the only part of the Wasteland’s nature that survived the cataclysm. The fae are extra-terrestrial beings who live among the stars and heavenly bodies. They are largely above the misery of the Wastelands, and seldom visit. So they are little help to the suffering their natures let them be above.

Chessek is rumored to have been a human at one point, or perhaps he is an elemental. You see, elementals are often found in more or less human-like forms. But Chessek is unlike any elemental in that he thinks and plans. The Wastelord seeks union with the void. He wants to enter the nothingness and emptiness that embodies the Wastelands. His reasons for doing this are unknown. Perhaps he seeks to rule the wastelands even more completely, or he could be seeking the void for religious reasons. If he was a human, perhaps he thinks that transcending into nonbeing is the only way to escape the Wastelands.

The Serpentine serve Chessek, who is clearly the most powerful force on the Wastes. But if the Serpentine’s trolls are unthinkingly loyal, the Serpentine themselves balk at service to Chessek, even as they reap the benefits. Some follow Chessek as a religious leader, and some view him as a powerful ally. But all of them would betray Chessek and surpass him, given the chance. The call to power that inspired the first autarch to ruin the Wastelands still runs in the Serpentine blood.

So, is that it for previews? Well, that’s the last of the articles and the leaked cards are finished, but there are some more things to look for. You’ll get the FAQ soon enough, and after my playgroup has had a whack at playing Wastelands limited, I’ll post the spoiler. There will also be some more arcana articles as time passes. Thanks to everyone who enjoyed looking at this previews week. It was a lot of work, but it was very rewarding. I feel like I’ve grown as a designer by having to explain what I did in the set. And the message boards will always be open for comments!

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