8) Samurai of the Pale Curtain
As Champions of Kamigawa Standard began shaping up in our internal league, a few things were evident. Skullclamp was insane. Eternal Witness was everywhere. Kamigawa had its own share of annoying stuff going on, including soulshift and the “death” triggers on the Dragons. We wanted an elegant way to stop people from being able to abuse their graveyards willy-nilly. We quickly came up with “Planar Samurai,” a 2/2 with bushido 1 that had a static ability similar to the old card Planar Void. By making the ability a replacement rather than a trigger, it allowed us to keep Skullclamp from drawing cards, Disciple of the Vault from triggering, and modular from working at all. The original version prevented cards from going to the graveyard from anywhere, not just permanents in play, so it really weakened Eternal Witness. And the best part was that, for all it did to dampen the powerful cards from Mirrodin block, it had a real part to play within Kamigawa as well, keeping soulshift and Dragon triggers in check.
We ran into problems with the original wording because it still allowed tokens to go to the graveyard, even though cards did not. This mattered a lot with Skullclamp still around, especially because of interactions with cards like Genesis Chamber and Beacon of Creation. Fearful that this subtlety would go unnoticed by most players and lead to a lot of arguing, we toned it down a little to just affect permanents.
引用元
TOP 10 CARDS FROM DEVELOPMENT Posted in Latest Developments on October 29, 2004
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/top-10-cards-development-2004-10-29
デベロップメントの視点で選ばれたカードのトップテンです。
《薄青幕の侍/Samurai of the Pale Curtain》は死亡・墓地関係のカードへの抑止力として開発されました。
『ミラディン』ブロックでは《頭蓋骨絞め/Skullclamp》《永遠の証人/Eternal Witness》《大霊堂の信奉者/Disciple of the Vault》「接合/modular」のように、この時期にはその手のカードが活躍していました。
また、同じ『神河物語』内の「転生/soulshift」や伝説のドラゴンサイクルなどへの抑止力になっている点が特に高評価だったようです。同じブロック内で、ブロックのテーマへの抑止力というと、同じくミラディンが舞台の『ミラディン包囲戦』での《忍び寄る腐食/Creeping Corrosion》を思い出します。
ただ、これはまだ親和が禁止にはなっていないころの話です。信奉者や接合に効くとはいえ、結局のところ親和を抑えきれなかったことが分かった今となっては、この評価も変わるのでしょうか。
発想は良かったが、それ以上に親和がおかしかっただけ、と言ってしまえばそれまでかもしれませんが。
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