神河当時 - 色の役割変更：《縮小/Shrink》効果

An Ability Without a Home
ne ability that was not listed anywhere in the document is what we most commonly refer to as “Shrink,” named after a green common from Homelands.
This ability—reducing a creature’s power only—has showed up in many places over the years. During Magic’s early years, it was something that showed up primarily on artifacts:

（中略）

Finding It a Place to Live
During early design for the Ravnica: City of Guilds set, I made a pair of cards that were mirrors of one another—the black one gave target creature -0/-X, and the green one gave target creature -X/-0. At some point one of my coworkers made the comment that “both of those abilities are black.” Hmm. I suppose he was right.

That got me to thinking… why was Shrink black? I mean, sure, black is the best color at giving thing minuses, but why would it ever want to lower a creature’s power when it could just lower its toughness—and kill it—instead?

In my mind black shouldn’t have the Shrink ability because it could do better than Shrink. Why give a creature -2/-0 when you could just give it -2/-2 instead for about the same cost? (Compare Despondency and Echoing Decay, for example.)

I started looking at how we handled giving creatures “pluses” for inspiration. Green—the best plus color—can give creatures +X/+X pretty easily. White gets a little slice of that, generally by giving very small bonuses, like +1/+1. White also gets one half of that ability—the +0/+X toughness bonus. And red is now the “Howl from Beyond” color, and can give +X/+0.

So the three permutations of “+X” were divvied up across three colors, yet the three permutations of “-X” were all in one color. I made it my mission to get that changed. It was clear that -X/-X was going to stay black. Black could also keep -0/-X for two reasons—one, it doesn’t play that much differently than -X/-X; and two, we don’t really ever use it (check out Spirit Shackle, Essence Flare, Takklemaggot, and Ironclaw Curse for some very old-school cards that just give minuses to toughness). So the idea was to put Shrink somewhere else.

The Tuesday Meeting
Each Tuesday from 1:30 to 3:00, all the R&D people that work on Magic convene in a big conference room upstairs to talk about anything and everything that has come up over the last week. We’ll discuss everything from how the Prereleases went to the progress of upcoming sets in design to how we want certain abilities to be worded. Any pending changes to the color pie are also discussed in that meeting.

I raised the point that Shrink should get a home outside of black, and people generally agreed with me. There was much discussion about where it should go, however.
White was ruled out, thankfully, because it can simulate “Shrink” via damage prevention. If our 3/3 creatures collide and I prevent three damage to mine, I essentially gave yours -3/-0. Red was ruled out quickly as well because red doesn’t make creatures lose power or deal less damage—in fact, that’s the opposite of red’s philosophy.

It came down to green versus blue, and I honestly expected green to win. But it was pointed out that green is very much about growth—not shrinking—and that it has recently lost the ability to “Fog,” which removes a lot of the flavor justification for minuses to power in that color.

Blue started to win out when it was pointed out that blue lacked any real combat tricks, and that the flavor for blue reducing power could easily be concepted as the target getting confused, slowed, or shapeshifted into something less dangerous. And just like that, Shrink was put into blue.

Immediate Implementation
I went back and altered my Ravnica cards (neither of which actually made it out of design), and I expected that set to be the first one to debut Shrink in blue. But lo and behold the Saviors of Kamigawa development team had some holes for blue cards, and they implemented the change right away.

Blue now has its combat trick, and it is a potent one. The Envoy is a near-bomb in limited, and the Cage could end up showing up in Constructed.

So for those of you that were confused by seeing that ability in blue cards, there’s your explanation. Be assured that you’ll be seeing more blue cards like these in the future.

引用元
HONEY, I SHRUNK THE BLUE CARDS Posted in Latest Developments on May 27, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/honey-i-shrunk-blue-cards-2005-05-27

『ホームランド』に《縮小/Shrink》という、パワーだけを下げる効果の緑のカードがありました。
それ以降、緑、無色（アーティファクト）、黒、白とさまざまなカードに、時々登場していました。

後に、『ラヴニカ：ギルドの都』のデザイン時に、緑の-X/-0と黒の-0/-Xの対となるカードを考えたところで、「両方とも黒じゃないのか？」と言わました。
そこから、-X/-0のはどの色の効果であるべきなのか、という考察が始まります。
プラス修整は、緑が+X/+X、赤が+X/+0、白が+0/+Xで、すんなり納得行きました。
マイナスの場合は-X/-Xと-0/-Xが大差ないので、どちらも黒と考えられました。
-X/-0は、黒はバランス的にこれ以上役割と与えるべきではないし、白はダメージ軽減系と実質的に同じだし、赤はまず色の哲学的に正反対だし、ということで緑か青の役割だろうと筆者は考えました。
最終的に会議で議題に上げたところ、筆者の予想に反して青に決定しました。
緑は成長の色であり、フレイバー的に近い《濃霧/Fog》効果が失われていたこと、青はコンバットトリックが少なく、フレイバー的に撹乱や変質効果で脅威に対処すること、と言ったことが理由のようです。
そして、開発中の『ラヴニカ：ギルドの都』で、それらの効果を持つカードをデビューさせる予定でした。
しかし、『神河救済』の青のカードリストに空きがあったことから、デビューカードはここで登場することにまりました。
それが、《朧宮の特使/Oboro Envoy》と《精神の檻、迷心/Meishin, the Mind Cage》です。
単純にパワーを下げる効果、というだけでなく、ムーンフォークや知恵カードなどの神河要素とも絡めたデザインになっています。


補足
記事として取り上げることはありませんが、神河のことが触れられているものについて、付記しておきます。

神河のドラフト
THE WHOLE HAUL Posted in Limited Information on May 24, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/limited-information/whole-haul-2005-05-24

《春女/Haru-Onna》、《分霊の確約/Promise of Bunrei》デッキ構築
NEURON, NEUROFF Posted in Feature on May 24, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/neuron-neuroff-2005-05-24

《留まらぬ発想/Ideas Unbound》デッキ構築
IDEAS UNBOUND Posted in Feature on May 25, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/ideas-unbound-2005-05-25

《上位の大峨、苦御/Kuon, Ogre Ascendant 》デッキ構築
I THINK I KUON, I THINK I KUON Posted in Serious Fun on May 25, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/serious-fun/i-think-i-kuon-i-think-i-kuon-2005-05-25

《夢捉え/Dreamcatcher》のアートにスリヴァーがいる
DREAMS OF RATH Posted in Arcana on May 26, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/dreams-rath-2005-05-26