神河当時 - おまけのエピソードの真偽

I hope the segment of you that actually got to play in a Betrayers prerelease this past weekend enjoyed it. I was planning to have a discussion with my brother (a relatively casual on-again, off-again player) about his experiences with the new set in this article, but because Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was in the “blizzard zone,” he didn’t get to play. Maybe next time.

The good news is that there will be supplemental Prerelease events at several locations across the Northeast and Midwest this weekend! So if you didn’t get to play the first time (heck, even if you did), check the schedule here then head out for a second chance! The ninjas await!

Paul’s Betrayers Tidbits
Two weeks ago, Paul Sottosanti put a list of “true or false” statements about the development of Betrayers of Kamigawa into his preview article. Let’s take a look at them and see which were true and which were savage lies.

1) A card nicknamed “Plan B” entered development at four mana and made brief stops at six, seven, and eight mana before going to ten due to the efforts of a couple determined playtesters.

True. Paul and Mons Johnson (two of the more notorious Johnnies of the FFL) kept playing “Plan B”--now known as Sway of the Stars--and kept winning games with it. Most of their decks used Heartbeat of Spring and Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro to help generate tons of mana.
The problem wasn’t that they’d start the game over fairly by playing Plan B--that would have merely been annoying, and not actually good. Their plan was to start the game unfairly by floating extra mana. For instance, when Plan B cost six, it was pretty easy for Paul to get 11 mana, play Plan B with five mana floating, draw his new hand a put a Molder Slug or some other nasty creature into play. That’s hard to stop when you have no permanents and only 7 life. It was kind of like Tooth and Nail and Obliterate all rolled into one.

After much testing, the card was proving unsafe at any reasonable mana cost, but was still cool enough to make. So ten mana it was.

引用元
TRUE, FALSE, TIDBITS, AND TRICKS Posted in Latest Developments on January 28, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/true-false-tidbits-and-tricks-2005-01-28

以前（※１）、コラムのおまけを取り上げましたが、その各項目の真偽について、発表されました。そのときは、すべてが事実だと思ってコメントしていましたが、勘違いだったようです。

特に、赤の忍者が冗談だった、というのは、「そりゃそうか」とも思う反面、残念な気持ちもあります。最初から青黒と決められていたとのことですが、そうなると今後の特殊セットにおいても、忍者が別の色に出てくることはないのかもしれません。忍者は何度も再登場する割には、そこはまったく変わっていませんから。



※１
神河当時 - おまけのエピソード
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202102082019017422/

2021/08/27追記
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本当と嘘と裏技と裏話――神河謀叛の話の続き
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