We’ve often shown you the process of how an artist’s sketch becomes final card art. In most cases, the final art ends up being pretty similar to the initial sketch, but in some cases, there’s more of an evolutionary process.

Occasionally, an artist will submit multiple rough sketches of a subject, each with a different perspective or direction, and have the Magic creative team choose the direction they most want to see. Here are a few samples from Betrayers of Kamigawa in which the artist submitted multiple sketches for the card. Click the art to see what Betrayers card it became, and to see which direction was selected.

Card 1
Yomiji, Who Bars the Way
Sketches by Hideaki Takamura

Card 2
Kyoki, Sanity’s Eclipse
Sketches by Paolo Parente

Card 3
Genju of the Fens
Sketches by Tsutomu Kawade

Interestingly, the last one here took an entirely new direction before it went final. But it ended up way cool.

引用元
BETRAYERS SKETCH CHOICES Posted in Arcana on February 28, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/betrayers-sketch-choices-2005-02-28

『神河謀叛』のスケッチについての記事です。スケッチについての記事は時折ありますが、今回は、複数のをまとめています。

What is tempo?
The non-musical definition of tempo is something like: “A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace”. In Magic it’s basically a term that refers to your ability to utilise various aspects of the game, such as mana and life totals, to your advantage. Imagine a theoretical game of Magic where each player had a deck full of lands and 2/2 creatures that all cost 2 mana, but that can’t block. If you go first, (assuming you draw a reasonable number of lands and creatures) you win. You attack for 2 on turn three with your first guy. Your opponent attacks you back. You attack for four on turn four with two guys. Your opponent attacks you back. You attack again on turn five, and you kill your opponent on turn six, the turn before you die. Why did you win that game? Obviously, it’s because you went first. But in terms of tempo what did that gain you? Quite simply, you had access to two mana the turn before your opponent did. That enabled you to establish tempo over your opponent, and with those theoretical decks there was nothing they could do to get it back.

I’m sure many (if not all) of you have lost a game of Magic the turn before you would’ve killed your opponent simply because you lost the coin-flip and were forced to go second. That was a loss to tempo. The above example illustrates perfectly why it is almost always correct to go first in a game of Magic, and certainly in the Kamigawa limited block. There are some limited formats which are slow enough that card advantage is more important and in those formats you might choose to draw first, but those formats are few and far between, and the Kamigawa limited block certainly isn’t one of them.

引用元
TEMPO AND YOU Posted in Limited Information on February 28, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/limited-information/tempo-and-you-2005-02-28

テンポアドバンテージの解説記事です。神河ブロックのリミテッドがアドバンテージよりもテンポ重視の環境、ということで、引き合いに出されています。もっとも、（少なくとも当時は）リミテッドは大体がテンポ重視なので、ことさら神河に限った話でもないのですが。

また、テンポアドバンテージについても、その重要性ゆえか難解さゆえか、解説記事は公式・非公式問わず、多数存在しています。今更、このような古い記事で学ぶ必要性は薄いでしょう。

ただ、当時のリミテッド環境を、テンポアドバンテージという観点からみた話を知るのには良い資料になると思います。

The Top Artifact By Set
Champions of Kawigawa: Imi Statue
Betrayers of Kawigawa: Umezawa’s Jitte

Top 16 Artifact Related Personalities
14 Konda
16 The Last Kappa

Top 10 Rings
Nine-Ringed Bo

Top 16 Head Gears
Uba Mask

引用元
THE TOP 50 ARTIFACTS OF ALL TIME Posted in Feature on February 28, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/top-50-artifacts-all-time-2005-02-28

当時、存在していたアーティファクトのランキングTop50を発表した記事です。残念ながら、神河のカードはランクインしていません。集計時期の問題かもしれませんが。

ただ、それ以外のランキングでは、いくらか登場していました。

各セットのトップアーティファクト、では当然ながら神河も出てきます。『神河謀叛』の《梅澤の十手/Umezawa’s Jitte》は当然としても、『神河物語』の《忌みの像/Imi Statue》と言うのは、今から見れば違和感を覚えます。今であれば、《師範の占い独楽/Sensei’s Divining Top》でしょう。ランクインしたのは、当時の親和に対するヘイトのためでしょうか。

アーティファクトに関わりのあるキャラクターとして、今田はともかく、最後のカッパが入っているのはなんとも笑える話です。カッパでなくても、先述の独楽の《水面院の師範、密/Hisoka, Minamo Sensei》や、その名を冠した装備品《伍堂の大槌、天鎖/Tenza, Godo’s Maul》とセットでデザインされた《山賊の頭、伍堂/Godo, Bandit Warlord》など、伝説のクリーチャーはいたでしょうに。

Q: If my opponent plays Blessed Reversal, and I use Ninjutsu to return my two unblocked creatures, will he gain 3 life for each of the creatures I returned to my hand? --Offer Z.

A: No, he won’t gain life for those creatures. However, he will gain life for the Ninja that show up. There are multiple results possible…
You could Ninjutsu one unblocked creature for another and have the same number of creatures attacking. The life gain will be the same.
You could Ninjutsu one unblocked creature and respond by revealing the same Ninja to Ninjutsu another creature (you’ll have to spend the Ninjutsu cost twice). The Ninja will be put into play by the last ability, and the first ability will "do nothing" since the Ninja is already in play, but you have one fewer creature, so your opponent won’t gain as much.

*Extra*: If your opponent wanted to make sure you don’t pull Ninja tricks, he or she could play Blessed Reversal before declaring blockers. Since blockers have yet to be declared, you won’t be able to use Ninjutsu yet.

引用元
ALMOST GONE Posted in Feature on February 26, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/almost-gone-2005-02-26

恒例のQ&A記事です。

対戦相手の《幸いなる逆転/Blessed Reversal》に対応して忍術を複数回起動することで、その効果を減らす、というテクニックについての質問がありました。忍者らしい、テクニカルな動きでとても面白いと思います。

戦いに確実な成果などというものは決してありえない。
――― 南の聖騎士.

引用元
《幸いなる逆転/Blessed Reversal》のフレイバーテキスト

Red deck wins? That is what I have been told. From even the earliest days of Magic, Red has been one of those archetypes that always manages to pop up in the current formats, regardless of other factors. Why? Well, didn’t you hear? Red deck wins! Although it sounds a bit silly, the facts are the facts, and red always puts up impressive numbers. Also, red is a very fun color due to its aggressive nature, thus is has many supporters. Are you a member of Red Mages Anonymous? Don’t be ashamed…burning people out is good times.

The deck for this week takes a look at what red can do in Champions of Kamigawa. Champions is not a very aggressive set when it comes to red’s favorite children, the Goblins. They all seem to be 4 mana 1/1s or something of that nature. I guess the little guys are getting slower in their old age. However, there are a few key aggressive cards combined with some of the most wonderful burn spells devised in a long time.

BUILDING ON A BUDGET: RED IN THE EAST (LESS THAN 30 TICKETS)
Creature (26)
3 Zo-Zu the Punisher
4 Ronin Houndmaster
4 Hearth Kami
3 Ember-Fist Zubera
4 Battle-Mad Ronin
4 Akki Coalflinger
4 Akki Avalanchers

Sorcery (4)
4 Lava Spike

Instant (10)
4 Yamabushi’s Flame
2 Hanabi Blast
4 Glacial Ray

Land (20)
20 Mountain

60 Cards

引用元
RED IN THE EAST Posted in Building on a Budget on February 25, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/building-budget/red-east-2005-02-25

いつもの安価デッキの記事です。

安価デッキの定番、あるいは王道とも言える、赤単色デッキです。小型クリーチャー、ブロッカーを除去＆トドメの火力は、（色の役割上）コモン・アンコモンでも枚数があるので、安価で構築しやすい傾向にあります。

もっとも、どこまで通用するかは、別ですが。フォーマットである神河ブロック構築では、残念ながら成果は残せなかったようです。こればかりは他のカードとの相対的な強さの問題なので仕方ありません。

Better Than Aspirin
One of the best parts of the mystery of life dealie, which is surprisingly long and contains a startling amount of legalese, is the whole spiritual peace, absence of pain thing. Pain is a natural part of life, of course, but once you learn to accept it and channel it appropriately, the pain doesn’t hurt you anymore. And that’s exactly what Shehzad Ahmed was going for with his Opal-Eye, Konda’s Yojimbo deck.

Invincibility combos whereby you set up a white simulacrum that absorbs all damage intended for you have been done before. Pariah on Cho-Manno, Revolutionary comes to mind. This new Standard version reverses the role of the damage redirection and the invincibility between the creature and the enchantment. Put Heart of Light on Opal-Eye, and you’ve got a creature that taps to divert damage that would be dealt to you, yet can’t be damaged itself. Put Aura of Dominion on Opal-Eye as well, and you can untap it to prevent more and more damage each turn.

OPAL ESSENCE
Creature (23)
4 Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch
4 Kami of False Hope
1 Keiga, the Tide Star
2 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
4 Opal-Eye, Konda’s Yojimbo
4 Tallowisp
4 Teardrop Kami

Artifact (7)
4 Lightning Greaves
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 That Which Was Taken

Enchantment (6)
2 Aura of Dominion
4 Heart of Light

Land (24)
9 Plains
9 Island
4 Coastal Tower
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge

60 Cards

引用元
ALL FIGURED OUT Posted in Feature on February 24, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/all-figured-out-2005-02-24

デッキ特集です。《無情の碑出告/Heartless Hidetsugu》+《猛火煽り/Overblaze》のような意図したものをはじめとして、《星の揺らぎ/Sway of the Stars》と一時追放のコンボや、《生紡ぎ/Lifespinner》でスピリットをサーチするデッキなどがあります。

ここでは、《今田の用心棒、乳眼/Opal-Eye, Konda’s Yojimbo》に《光の心/Heart of Light》をつけることで、無敵になるコンボを引用しています。《最下層民/Pariah》と《革命家チョー＝マノ/Cho-Manno, Revolutionary》の古典的コンボの役割を入れ替えたようなものです。また、同じ神河のカード、同じ色であるのが、魅力的に思います。

余談
《今田の用心棒、乳眼/Opal-Eye, Konda’s Yojimbo》のMTG wikiには「2017年現在まで唯一の、防衛を持つ伝説のクリーチャー」とありますが、『統率者2019』にてようやく、二番目の例である《天空塁壁、プラミコン/Pramikon, Sky Rampart》が登場しました。特殊セットなので、スタンダードで使えたカード、という点ではいまだに唯一を守っています。

また、《今田の用心棒、乳眼/Opal-Eye, Konda’s Yojimbo》は、神河からキーワード能力になった防衛をもち、神河のメカニズムの武士道を持ち、神河のテーマの伝説であり、神河の主要部族の狐である、という点で象徴的とも言えます。

またまた、こう言ってはなんですが、意外にもアニヲタwikiに項目があります。いじり倒されているので、素直に喜んでいいかは微妙ですが。
https://w.atwiki.jp/aniwotawiki/pages/38751.html

The color green is home to many creature-pumping effects. The flavor of these pump effects is often the literal growth of the creature in question -- the creature becomes giant-sized and is thereby better equipped to stomp things into oblivion.

《Giant Growth》

《Might of Oaks》

In some cases you might actually recognize the Magic creature being super-sized, as in the case of Betrayers of Kamigawa’s Unchecked Growth. See below how artist Tsutomu Kawade’s art of Unchecked Growth was tied to his Champions piece, Dripping-Tongue Zubera.

In the art of Dripping-Tongue Zubera, that zubera is surrounded by trees of the Jukai Forest. In Unchecked Growth, note that the same zubera wears some of those trees on its head. That’s a big spirit.

引用元
AN UNCHECKED ZUBERA Posted in Arcana on February 15, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/unchecked-zubera-2005-02-15

緑の呪文は、クリーチャーを大きく成長させるものが多数あります。《巨大化/Giant Growth》はその名前の通り、典型的な例です。そのイラストにおいては、通常は小さな生物を大きく描くことで、その効果を分かりやすく表しています。

神河ブロックにおいては、《野放しの成長/Unchecked Growth》がその1つです。ここで描かれているのは、《よだれ舌のずべら/Dripping-Tongue Zubera》です。元の姿は、樹海の中を彷徨っているのですが、成長したあとは、その樹海を体に乗せているほどなので、いかに大きくなっているかがよく表現されています。

JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY AND MULTIPLAYER MAGIC STRATEGY
Today, in deference to this week’s illustrious theme, I am presenting small, rice-cake-sized portions of multiplayer Magic strategy. Each portion will come after a brief moment of Japanese mythology. If you haven’t read much Japanese mythology, I highly recommend it. I’ve read books and studied a bit under my aikido sensei in the past; but a simple scan of the Internet provided some excellent reminders of the more colorful stories. You can read about the examples I use below here and here. I would also recommend books such as Myths and Legends of Japan by F. Hadland Davis and The Japanese Fairy Book by Yei Theodora Ozaki. Spellings vary on some of the gods’ and heroes’ names from source to source.

While I poke a bit of gentle fun at some of these tales and the characters within, I hope it’s clear that I deeply respect the culture responsible for this mythology. I would love to make a trip to Japan sometime in the future, and I’m horribly jealous of those who’ve had the pleasure. I hear nothing but wonderful stories from these visits.

引用元
GETTING TO KNOW YAO-YOROZU-NO-KAMI Posted in Serious Fun on February 15, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/serious-fun/getting-know-yao-yorozu-no-kami-2005-02-15

日本神話の紹介をして、それにちなんだ多人数戦の戦略を語る、という一風変わった記事です。

例えば、要求した生け贄を用意しなければ襲いかかる山男、不用意に山に入ってきた旅人を襲う山女を、多人数戦におけるガラガラヘビ戦略やスパイダー戦略と似たようなものだと説明しています。後者については、以前（※１）、忍者と絡めた話を取り上げたことがあります。

強引といえば強引ですが、こういった視点もなかなか面白いものです。日本神話に対する、WotCの見方というのも少し伺えますし。

天照大神・閻魔大王・お盆といったメジャーなものが出てくる一方で、日本人でもあまり知ってないような、藤原秀郷による大ムカデ退治伝説も出てきます。それだけ日本神話・民間伝承を詳しく調べていたということでしょう。


※１
神河当時 - 多人数戦の忍者
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202103262159429918/

The Shichifukujin Dragon is one of only two unique Magic cards in existence (using the original definition of unique, meaning there’s only one copy in existence). The other one, if you’re interested, is the 1996 World Champion card given to, you guessed it, the 1996 World Champion (Tom Chanpheng of Australia). For those that enjoy useless Magic design trivia (and if you don’t what are you doing reading this column?), I designed both of the unique cards. As a quick aside, here’s how each was made.

Shichifukujin Dragon – To commemorate the opening of the DCI Tournament Center, Wizards was asked if they could design and draw (just as I designed both cards, Chris Rush illustrated both of them – back then he was a full-time Wizards employee) a card called Shichifukujin Dragon. Shichifukujin is the name of the Seven Deities of Good Fortune in Japanese mythology. The card was very symbolic as it was supposed to bring good luck to the DCI Tournament Center. Chris Rush drew a lovely picture. And just as it was about to go off to press, it occurred to someone, “Hmm, perhaps it might be cool to put actual rules text on the card.”

So they came to me. They needed a cool mechanic that matched the name and art. Oh, and I had an hour. As the art had to be a seven-headed dragon, I looked for a mechanic that played into the card’s seven-headedness. That is where I came up with the idea of the seven +1/+1 counters. Somehow seven heads got me thinking of hydras and I came up with the idea that it could grow new heads. But to do so it had to make itself more vulnerable for some duration of time. As I played around with the card I came up with the idea of losing two +1/+1 counters to get three… at the end of the turn. I quickly had the rules text templated (by a trained professional – I know better than to get involved in templating) and handed off the card.

引用元
LAND OF THE RISING FUN Posted in Making Magic on February 14, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/land-rising-fun-2005-02-14

当時、日本特集ウィークでした。そこでマローは、日本旅行の話をしています。直接的に神河の話が出てくるわけではありませんが、気になった部分を少し取り上げてみます。

ここでは、《Shichifukujin Dragon》が話に出ました。日本にDCIトーナメントセンターが設立されたことを記念して送られたカードであるため、このような記事ではもってこいでしょう。

「七福神/Shichifukujin」が日本神話で幸福をもたらす存在だということで、カード名がまず決まった上で、イラスト、それに合わせた能力がデザインされたようです。

日本神話ということで七福神が出てきましたが、神河で同様のモチーフを使う予定はあったのでしょうか。このドラゴンとの重複を避けるため、あえて作らなかったのかもしれません。ただ、神河にはすでにドラゴン・スピリットサイクルという重要な役割を担うドラゴンはいますから、そもそも必要なかったのかもしれません。

昨日の記事の続きです。

Card-Name Quick-Hits
Kodama of the Center Tree - Champions of Kamigawa brought you the Kodamas of the Kodama of the North Tree and Kodama of the South Trees. As you may recall, though, five Kodama trees exist in Kamigawa (or at least I hope there are five, since the “Poem of the Five Trees” in the Kodama’s flavor text would otherwise be confusing at best). When Betrayers cards started rolling through Namebase, Brandon asked me to keep an eye out for any that looked liked they might make good Kodama. Body of Jukai had the right stats, but wasn’t exactly legendary, which was also true for Forked-Branch Garami and Scaled Hulk. That left only this card as a possible Kodama, and we thought the Center Tree was appropriate enough given the thing’s mechanics.

Pus Kami - Every now and then, I think it’s fun to test the boundaries of what makes an acceptable card name. I wasn’t sure if the word “pus” was too gross to use in a Magic name, but when Bile Urchin was selected in an earlier wave of writing, I thought it would be cool to have “bile” and “pus” both make their Magic debuts in the same set (little did I know that Bile Urchin would get pre-empted in Unhinged). Ew.

Stir the Grave / Clash of Realities - I mention these cards only to point out that I’m a sucker for wanting Instants and Sorceries to have names that invoke verbs, while also wanting Enchantments to have names that invoke nouns. In other words, Magic permanents tend to be “things” in my mind, while non-permanents tend to be “actions.” These aren’t perfect distinctions (Roar of Jukai and the Shoals, for example), but I’ve found myself becoming increasingly persnickity the longer I’m a creative writer.

Mark of Sakiko / Horobi’s Whisper - Similarly, I’ve become more and more aware of when I think it’s okay to attach a character’s name to a card. On one hand, I subsribe to the Dungeons & Dragons convention of naming a spell after its creator, a la Bigby’s Crushing Hand (for better or worse, I think of Urza’s Rage as less a moment of the story and more a powerful spell he invented). More commonly, though, I look for cards that a) have a block-specific mechanic so that they’re not likely to be reprinted in future sets, and b) seem like the sort of effect the legendary character would use. Horobi’s Whisper and Mark of Sakiko are two good recent examples. If an artifact, enchantment, or land is legendary and tied to a particular character--such as Umezawa’s Jitte--this is obviously also fair game for proper nouns.

引用元
A FLAVORFUL VIEW OF BETRAYERS Posted in Feature on February 14, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/flavorful-view-betrayers-2005-02-14

フレイバーテキストの話が終わり、カードのネーミングの話に変わります。

個別のカードの話が色々あげられている中でも、私が気になったのは、《さき子の印/Mark of Sakiko》《崩老卑の囁き/Horobi’s Whisper》についての話です。これらのように、伝説のキャラクターの名前をカードにつけることは何度かあります。その一般的な傾向というのが、

(a) ブロック固有のメカニズムを持っていて、今後のセットで再録される可能性がないこと

(b) 伝説のキャラクターが使いそうな効果を持っていること

ということです。実際、例に挙げれられたカードは、セット固有の連繫を使ったカードに、《夏の母、さき子/Sakiko, Mother of Summer》の能力を模したカードです。

オリジナルカードを作る際にも参考になる話でした。

昨日の記事の続きです。

Goatrider Extraordinaire

R&D Card Name: [Chuk-Rok, Akki Marksman]
Mana Cost: o1oR
Spell Type: Legendary Creature —
Creature Type: Goblin Warrior
Power/Tough: 1/1
Rules Text: Whenever an opponent plays a Spirit or Arcane spell, [CARDNAME] deals 2 damage to that player.

Art Desc.:
Color: Red
Location: rocky, dusty mountains outside of goblin cave complex (upper left of styleguide p. 17)
Action: Show a goblin shaman sitting on a small mountain goat, swinging a sling over his head, getting ready to let the bullet fly at an out-of-frame target. The sling bullet is ablaze and throwing off magical sparks.
Focus: the akki goatrider
Mood: kinda funny, but that bullet will really hurt somebody pretty bad.

My submission for [Chuk-Rok] (a brilliant R&D name if there ever was one) followed the same sort of cadence as my submission for Kyoki. This time, though, the idea was to make the list of titles more funny than intimidating. You’ve probably realized by now that Goblins tend to have jokes in their flavor text more often than not, which usually means that Goblins receive more flavor text submissions than any other sort of card. [Chuk-Rok] , for example, received almost thirty flavor text submissions!

For some reason, I thought the funniest thing about [Chuk-Rok] was that he rode a goat. Goats are funny, at least to me, and riding a goat is funnier still. Here are my three contributions to the pile of [Chuk-Rock] submissions:

"Astride his faithful goat Yuki, [Chuk-Rok] vowed to make the mountain kami fear his battle cry: AIAAAAIIIIKIKIKIKIIII!!!" -- Observations of the Kami War

"I tell you this, goat dung is the most miraculous substance in Kamigawa. It is fertilizer, kindling, breakfast, and a flaming weapon of terror!"

"Here fell [Chuk-Rok], King of the Flaming Pebbles, Scourge of the Mountain Kami, Lover of Goats. May his shell never burn." -- akki cave inscription

It’s nice for me that both Kyoki, Sanity’s Eclipse and Ishi-Ishi, Akki Crackshot’s flavor text appear in the same set because, side by side, I think they make good counterpoints to one another. Speaking of which... I wonder what the heck Kyoki, Sanity’s Eclipse rides?

引用元
A FLAVORFUL VIEW OF BETRAYERS Posted in Feature on February 14, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/flavorful-view-betrayers-2005-02-14

ゴブリンのフレイバーテキストと言えば、面白いものが恒例になっています。それゆえに、《悪忌の撃ち手、イシイシ/Ishi-Ishi, Akki Crackshot》のフレイバーテキストにはたくさんの応募があったようです。また、ヤギに乗っているイラストが気に入った筆者は、ヤギにちなんだフレイバーテキストをいくつも考案しています。

最終的にできたフレイバーテキストは、《蝕まれた正気、凶鬼/Kyoki, Sanity’s Eclipse》のように、二つ名を並べたものとなっています。鬼とゴブリンでこのような共通点があるのは珍しいでしょう。もっとも、最後に「実は死んでいた」とオチがつくのがゴブリンらしいと言えますが。

昨日の記事の続きです。

Those Chanting Ogres

R&D Card Name: [MS Mind Blanker]
Mana Cost: o4oBoB
Spell Type: Legendary Creature —
Creature Type: Demon Spirit
Power/Tough: 6/4
Rules Text: Whenever you play a Spirit or Arcane spell, target opponent removes a card in his or her hand from the game.

Art Desc.:
Color: Black
Location: doesn’t matter
Action: Show a really big, truly terrifying oni (Japanese demon) of your design. Must have the oni horns and vertical third eye.
Focus: the demon
Mood: You’ll go insane with fear just looking at it
Notes: Oni are spirit-world creatures, so they should have strange objects orbiting them. There are all sorts of oni. Attached are a few good examples.

Once again, you see the difficulty in figuring out a name for Oni based on the art description. Having it be legendary, though, made it a bit easier since I could play around with titles, actions, and other sorts of “legend tags” that often define legendary cards. (Note by the way the "MS" in the R&D name... Arcane was first known as "Mystic" during design, so "MS" refers to Mystic/Spirit.)

In fact, it was precisely this card’s name that led me to its flavor text. I tried [Dogu], Eater of Minds as a way of describing the card’s mechanics. Then I thought maybe [Dogu], Corrupter of Thoughts sounded cooler. Sometimes I think of discard as inducing insanity, so I then went with [Dogu], Bringer of Madness and tried [Dogu], Lord of Fear. I then experimented with the idea that this Demon had somehow aided in the destruction of the Minamo School, leading me to [Dogu], Scourge of Minamo. That was a lot of submissions for names, and as I looked through the other submissions I thought some of the others were cooler and might get picked. For fun, then, I combined all of my name submissions into one slice of flavor text:

"[Dogu], Eater of Minds, Corrupter of Thoughts, Bringer of Madness, Lord of Fear, Scourge of Minamo. Return, by our blood, and walk again." -Ogre chant

In a block focused on legends, I figured this sort of flavor text was acceptable if used sparingly. Besides, I have a thing for ogre chants (I wrote the flavor text for both Painwracker Oni and Gutwrencher Oni), and apparently so do Brandon and Brady since they selected this “title heavy” piece to represent Kyoki, Sanity’s Eclipse (see? cooler title).

引用元
A FLAVORFUL VIEW OF BETRAYERS Posted in Feature on February 14, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/flavorful-view-betrayers-2005-02-14

昨日の記事では、鬼の名前を考えるのが難しい、という話がありました。

しかし、伝説のクリーチャーでは、いわゆる「二つ名」をつけらて個性を出せるため、少し楽だったようです。

その「二つ名」をいろいろな人が考えて、応募してきました。どれも良いと思えてきた結果、それらを全てフレイバーテキストに入れる、というアイデアに辿り着きました。

凶鬼、精神の食み手、思考の堕落者、狂気の運び手、恐怖の君、水面の災い。 我らの血によりて、戻れ、そして再び歩め。
――― 大峨の詠唱.

引用元
《蝕まれた正気、凶鬼/Kyoki, Sanity’s Eclipse》

伝説テーマのブロックでは、このようなフレイバーテキストは使っても問題ない、とのことです。

これを聞いて思い出したのが、ベルゼンロックです。要塞のエヴィンカー、闇の末裔、愚者滅ぼし、荒廃の王、漆黒の手の主、陰謀団の永遠総帥などを自称していました。同じく伝説テーマのブロックですから、こうした二つ名・称号をフレイバーテキストにしようとしていたかもしれません。

昨日の記事の続きです。

The Green Samurai

R&D Card Name: [Yasahiro Kubota]
Mana Cost: o2oG
Spell Type: Legendary Creature —
Creature Type: Human Samurai
Power/Tough: 2/1
Rules Text: [CARDNAME] can’t be countered. Bushido 2 (When this blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +2/+2 until end of turn.) {o2}: Regenerate target Samurai.

Art Desc.:
Color: Green
Location: Green forest location of artist’s choice
Action: Show Yasahiro Kubota, a human warrior. Yasahiro was born a samurai and trained in kendo, but decided to turn away from bushido and Konda’s court at age 16 and fled to the forest, where he seeks communion with the kami. He has since continued to train and has become the embodiment of an enlightened warrior. He wears no armor and fights with a magical katana of your design (preferably with a blade made of stone or gem).
Focus: Yasahiro Kubota, the samurai-turned-nature-warrior
Mood: I’ll show you the true path. Either that or I’ll kill you without breaking a sweat.

It’s inevitable as a Creative Writer that you sometimes fall in love with a card, working extra hard on its name and/or flavor text as a result. Isao, Enlightened Bushi was such a card for me. I thought the idea of a Green Samurai was cool, especially the samurai-turned-nature-warrior angle. I also thought the mechanics were pretty darned kick-ass, and envisioned it being a card I would enjoy playing. No wonder, then, that Isao is one of the only two cards in Betrayers I both named and flavor texted (yes, I’m making up verbs now).

Interestingly, Isao, Enlightened Bushi is one of those cards where the other writers’ submissions helped me figure out my own angle. Here were some of the submissions for the card already entered into Namebase before I arrived on the scene (note that some of the names are different than Yasahiro or Isao... we never believe a name in [] is real, so you see writers often trying out their own names):

引用元
A FLAVORFUL VIEW OF BETRAYERS Posted in Feature on February 14, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/flavorful-view-betrayers-2005-02-14

「緑の侍」というコンセプトを非常に気に入った筆者は、名前とフレイバーの両方を作成しました。

とは言っても、いきなり筆者が全て作ったのではなく、他のライターも色々なフレイバーテキストの候補を提出していたようです。そこから、「他のキャラクターが勲雄をどう見るか」というアイデアが気に入ったようです。

この戦にて忠誠を尽くすかどうかなど知ったことか。 やつを見つけよ、武野。
――― 君主今田.

引用元
《悟りの武士、勲雄/Isao, Enlightened Bushi》のフレイバーテキスト

そして、《永岩城の君主、今田》が、自分の軍を捨てた、偉大な戦士を必死に探している、というフレイバーテキストが完成しました。

こういった、ネームドキャラ同士の関係性が見えることは、フレイバーに深みを増していルト言えるでしょう。

昨日の記事の続きです。

Poor, Poor Numai

R&D Card Name: [Dependant Demon]
Mana Cost: o3oB
Spell Type: Creature —
Creature Type: Demon Spirit
Power/Tough: 4/4
Rules Text: At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 2 life if you don’t control an Ogre.

Art Desc.:
Color: Black
Location: your choice
Action: Show an evil, badass oni (demon) of your design. It must have two horns and a third eye in between its other two, but the rest is up to you.
Focus: the oni
Mood: I want to mutilate everything I see.
Notes: Oni are spirit-world creatures and therefore need orbiting objects around them of your design.

Man, I love sowing misery! The Reito Massacre from Champions’ flavor text was such a complete slaughter of humanity that it spawned its own kami (Horobi, Death’s Wail), and now I set my sights on crippling an entire town with demons! Muhahahaha ha ha ha ha heh... ha... hee... wooo...

Ahem.

It was always my belief that the rotting muck of the Takenuma Swamp expanded during the Kami War, swallowing up the surrounding terrain. Certainly the Takenuma became darker and more dangerous, as described in the flavor text of Pull Under and Swallowing Plague, and Oni ran rampant, as described in the flavor text of Blood Rites and Deathcurse Ogre. Well, I mused, what would happen if the swamp engulfed an entire town at its edge, corrupting it with its vileness? Thus came about the idea behind Scourge of Numai’s flavor text...

"Where a once-proud human city once stood, now only the ruins of Numai remain, deep amidst the rotting bamboo and crawling with oni." -- The History of Kamigawa

Betrayers of Kamigawa style guide image

By the way, I found the Oni to be some of the hardest cards to name in Kamigawa, largely because their art descriptions were almost identical. Since we as Creative Writers didn’t see the artwork when writing, it was always tough to figure out what made a particular Oni distinct over its brethren. The tactic here, as you see, was to tie the Oni to a particular place, the ruined city of Numai.

引用元
A FLAVORFUL VIEW OF BETRAYERS Posted in Feature on February 14, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/flavorful-view-betrayers-2005-02-14

『神河物語』時点で起きた「霊都の虐殺」は、定命の住民が大量に死んだ大事件です。それにインスピレーションを受けて、竹沼で鬼が暴れ回り、その腐敗した泥が周囲の街へと広がっていくことを考えました。

その様子を表したのが、《沼居の災い魔/Scourge of Numai》のフレイバーテキスト、ということです。

かつては人々の街があった沼居も、いまや腐った竹に埋もれ鬼に穢された廃墟が残るだけだ。
――― 神河史書.

引用元
《沼居の災い魔/Scourge of Numai》のフレイバーテキスト

余談として、鬼はカード名を付けにくいことが語られています。というのも、イラストを見ないで作成していたため、鬼ごとの個性を出すのが難しかった、とのことです。今回のカードのように「沼井」という地名を付けたのはその差別化のための方法でした。オリジナルカードを作るときにも、少し参考になる話でした。

以前、ふと考えたことのメモです。

和風（ファンタジー）と言えば城や神社や寺などがあります。それを表現するのに、城砦を使ってはどうか、という考えです。城砦の名の通り、「城」を表すにはもってこいでしょう。

持たせる能力としては、クリーチャー化が有力候補です。

フレイバー的な面で言えば、神河の場合はその建物にまつわる神が顕現する、とできます。

メカニズム的な面で言えば、神河の場合は土地をクリーチャー化するオーラ、源獣サイクルのリメイク、とみなせます。また、クリーチャー化は装備品ではまずやらない効果なので、装備品との差別化が可能でしょう。

マローのコラムでは、城砦について以下のように語られたことがあります。

再録機会：ありうる
《ダークスティールの駐屯地》

城砦は装備品をもとにして、クリーチャーでなく土地につくようにしただけのものだ。これは私がもっともよく質問されるミライシフト・メカニズムの１つである。最大の問題は、土地をエンチャントするオーラと城砦の間にそれほどの差がなかったことである。装備品とクリーチャーにつくオーラの最大の違いは、装備品はクリーチャーが死亡しても戦場に残り、他のクリーチャーに移すことができるということである。そのどちらも、土地につけられている場合にはそれほど魅力的ではない。土地はそうそう破壊されないし、城砦を別の土地に動かそうという理由もそれほど多いわけではない。それらにも増して、土地に持たせたいと思うような効果がそれほどないのだ。土地の機能によるものからも、土地を破壊しやすくしたくないという理由からも、強力なエンチャント系効果には制限がかかることになる。ふさわしい実装とこれらすべてが一体となるようなふさわしい世界を見つけることはあるかもしれないが、それは大穴と言わざるを得ない。

引用元
Making Magic -マジック開発秘話- 2020.8.4 バック・トゥ・ザ・『未来予知』（フューチャーサイト）
https://mtg-jp.com/reading/mm/0034247/

これについても、クリーチャー化であれば、土地のままであるよりも破壊されやすくなるので、付け替えや再利用できる城砦での意味がでて来るでしょう。

以下は、考えたカードです。

否命の社　　(１)
伝説のアーティファクト — 城砦
城砦化している土地は「(Ｔ)：(◇)を加える。このマナがスピリット・クリーチャー呪文のために使われたなら、あなたはあなたのライブラリーからスピリット・カードを１枚探し、それをあなたの墓地に置いてもよい。そうした場合、あなたのライブラリーを切り直す。」を持つ。
(１)(黒)(緑)：城砦化している土地は、ターン終了時まで、「このクリーチャーのパワーとタフネスはそれぞれ、あなたの墓地にあるスピリット・クリーチャー・カードの枚数に等しい。」を持つ黒であり緑であるスピリット・クリーチャーになる。それは土地でもある。
城砦化(１)

ちなみに、以前考えたネタを今になって唐突に記事にしたのは、Astral Guildのオリジナルカードスレのお題『サブタイプを持つアーティファクト』で、思い出したからです。

昨日の記事の続きです。

The Fate of the Order
Time of Need As I said in my Champions article, I was the fellow who created the Order of the Sacred Bell and the Battle of Silk as seen in Time of Need’s art and flavor text. The nice folks at Wizards even let me explore both in my web-story on Jugan, the Rising Star. In the story, I described the outset of the Battle of Silk and the siege upon the Order.

Emboldened by my contributions in Champions, I found myself wanting to explain the rest of the Battle of Silk in Betrayers’ flavor text. I intended to write a small handful of pieces recounting the Order’s fate, sprinkled throughout the set. The problem was that, by chance, not a lot of green and artifact cards had space for flavor text, so the opportunities to do storytelling with characters from the Jukai Forest were few and far between. I jumped at what I could find, including this card from Namebase:

R&D Card Name: [Gnarled-Root Kami]
Mana Cost: o1oGoG
Spell Type: Creature —
Creature Type: Spirit
Power/Tough: 3/3
Rules Text:

Art Desc.:
Color: Green
Location: deep forest
Action: Show a kami that represents deeply set roots. This spirit-world creature is rooted deep in the earth and can’t move across the ground. It’s like a living, animate barrier that reaches high into the sky.
Focus: the kami of roots
Mood: the forest as a living barrier
Notes: All kami have strange objects orbiting them. See your styleguide for Kami references.

Gnarled Mass is the only card from Betrayers with any mention of either the Order or Battle of Silk in its flavor text. Right in line with Betrayers’ story themes, the Order’s situation is a desperate, hopeless one. It seems Rokuan’s fears were well founded, and that Kazuki’s months of bell-ringing may have brought on more harm than good. Bummer, eh? If there is one glimmer of solace, it’s that we know from Time of Need that the Battle will last six years so I guess there’s a small hope the monks can pull it out in the end.

引用元
A FLAVORFUL VIEW OF BETRAYERS Posted in Feature on February 14, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/flavorful-view-betrayers-2005-02-14

『神河物語』の《昇る星、珠眼/Jugan, the Rising Star》に関する掌編小説「龍の盾」（※１）において、神と聖鐘の僧団の戦い「絹の合戦」が描かれていました。その続きを描きたかったが、なかなか枠が取れず、《節くれ塊/Gnarled Mass》の１枚だけになったということです。

絹の合戦の五十七日目、死すべき者たちの助けを求めて鐘が再び鳴らされた。 しかし、この時その呼びかけに答えたのは、新たな神の蜂起だった。
――― 神河大戦記.

引用元
《節くれ塊/Gnarled Mass》のフレイバーテキスト

昨日の部分では、『神河物語』から新しく変わった部分が少ないので困った、ということでした。その一方で、『神河物語』から引き続き描きたいものもあるのに中々上手くいかないのも、難しいものです。

※１
MEET THE CHAMPIONS UPDATE: JUGAN, THE RISING STAR Posted in Arcana on October 13, 2004
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/meet-champions-update-jugan-rising-star-2004-10-13
龍の盾
https://web.archive.org/web/20070831000058/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/chk/jugan,,ja

Oh. What? You thought I was talking about what the cards do? Do-shmoo, bucko... I’m talking about flavor text!

In my first article on Magic names and flavor text, I introduced the process behind how cards get their names and flavor text via my experience as a Creative Writer for Fifth Dawn. In my second article, I looked at how that process applied to the new and wonderful world of Kamigawa, paying particular attention to some of the stories in the flavor text.

The hard question for me was, what now? The creative process was the same for Betrayers of Kamigawa as it was for Fifth Dawn. The world for Betrayers was the same as in Champions of Kamigawa. In fact, that world hadn’t changed significantly, just spiraled from bad into worse, plunging forward into the Kami War. Unlike, say, the second-sets of Planeshift or Darksteel, there wasn’t a particular event that marked Betrayers as distinct from Champions, or at least one that was communicated to the Creative Writers (ninjas were cool, of course, but they didn’t constitute a story development). In many ways, the experience for me as Creative Writer for Betrayers was a further exploration of Kamigawa, not something wholly new.

As a sidenote, I only now realize a missed opportunity in Betrayers for me as a writer. I see now that the set’s overall flavor was about blurring the well-defined sides of the Kami War established in Champions. In the first set of the Kamigawa block, we are dropped into an epic war between the mortal world and the world of the kami. Betrayers, as the set’s title suggests, allows us to (among other things) peek in on those kami who may be fighting on the mortal’s side and vice-versa. This distinction wasn’t clear to me at the time, though I see its evidence in the sorts of names and flavor text that Brandon Bozzi and Brady Dommermuth selected.

Anyway, in looking back on the response from my Champions of Kamigawa article, it seems people are most interested in the stories behind the cards’ flavor text. As a result, my tactic today is to dive into a few of the cards with my flavor text on them, explaining why I wrote what I wrote.

Keep in mind that several people contributed to the flavor behind Betrayers. In addition to Brady and Brandon, there was Rich Amtower, Doug Beyer, Rei Nakazawa, Brian Tinsman, Alex Smith, Justin Webb, and myself. Today you’ll only get stories from my perspective on cards with my writing on them. No doubt that rich stories exist from all of the Creative Writers, all weaving together into the tapestry of what makes Kamigawa such a flavorful block.

引用元
A FLAVORFUL VIEW OF BETRAYERS Posted in Feature on February 14, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/flavorful-view-betrayers-2005-02-14

『神河謀叛』にクリエイティブとして関わり、カード名やフレイバーテキストを作成した時のエピソードです。

まず、『神河物語』から大局に変化がないのが、作成する上での困難なポイントだったようです。メカニズム的には忍者が鳴り物入りで登場した一方で、背景世界的には、確かにこれと言ったものは見当たりません。神との戦いは神が圧倒的に優勢だった訳ですから。そもそもの力の差を考えれば当然ではありますが。

Q: I have a Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and Horobi, Death’s Wail. If I control both will I be allowed to choose which replacement effect occurs, or will Horobi just overwrite and my creatures die? --Randolph E.

A: "Whenever" is a trigger word, not a replacement word (that would be "instead"). With Kira and Horobi, both abilities will trigger, and the creature will be sacrificed regardless of what order the triggers are stacked in. Countering the targeted spell or ability doesn’t stop Horobi from having seen it.

Q: With the Glasskites (except the Legendary one) the wording seems to imply that while the spell is on the stack, it will counter the first counterspell to target it. Is this the correct interpretation, or am I reading it wrong, or is there a rule about that kind of ability on spells that become permanents? Is this intentional? --Bob Q.

A: The Glasskite ability only applies while they’re permanents.
Are wording choices like this intentional? Yes, very much so. In Research and Development, the very technical scripting of cards is called "templating".
In templating terms, we write triggered abilities of permanents using "When/Whenever/At…" An ability of a spell that stops it from being countered is written as "CARDNAME can’t be countered."
A counter-resistant Glasskite would read something like "CARDNAME can’t be countered by the first spell or ability that targets it." This would be Decidedly Weird, so please don’t mention it to Mark Rosewater, or we might wind up talking to the Magic editors about how it actually should be worded.

In general, if an ability doesn’t say what zone it applies in, but it would be meaningful when the card is in play, then it only works while the card is in play.

引用元
THE YEAR OF THE RISING SUN Posted in Feature on February 12, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/year-rising-sun-2005-02-12

恒例のQ&A記事です。

玻璃凧サイクルの質問が目に止まりました。『ストリクスヘイヴン：魔法学院』で、新しい常磐木メカニズム「護法（ごほう）/Ward」が登場したことを思い出したからです。「自身を対象にした呪文や能力を条件次第で打ち消す」という点は共通しています。もしかしたら、玻璃凧サイクルの能力が新しい除去耐性の定番メカニズムとして検討されたことはあったのかもしれません。

Chapter 2: Standard
One format that is a little lacking in the “wacky grandeur” department right now is Standard. In my eyes, Standard is currently everything that Extended is not. Standard is stale. Standard is not fun. Standard does not contain a representative cross-section of all the blocks and sets that are currently legal. Standard does not currently reward innovation, and Standard is not really anyone’s format of choice at the moment.

Ravager Affinity continues to exert its chokehold on the rest of the format. It has gotten absolutely out of control despite the efforts of determined players and worried R&D and DCI officials. Banning Skullclamp didn’t stop it, nor did printing subtle hosers in Champions of Kamigawa like Samurai of the Pale Curtain, Night of Souls’ Betrayal, Horobi, and Imi Statue. As many of you now realize, the “answer” to Affinity was not in Betrayers of Kamigawa either.

I just got out of the quarterly Events Team meeting that handles the management of the Banned and Restricted Lists, and we’ve finally decided to put our collective feet down. On March 1st, we will be announcing major changes to the Banned List that should finally correct what has been an egregious problem with Standard over the past year.

引用元
THE TALE OF TWO FORMATS Posted in Latest Developments on February 11, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/tale-two-formats-2005-02-11

『神河謀叛』後のスタンダードについての評価です。残念ながらというか、当然というか、評価は芳しくありません。言わずもがな、親和デッキを止められないからです。

『神河物語』で対策カードが作られたとはいえ、不十分でした。『神河謀叛』に至っては、
そのようなカードすらろくに見当たりません。それらの対策カードが機能すると思っていたのか、ここまで親和が強いと思ってなかったから作らなかったのか、スペースの都合なのかは定かではありませんが。前述の状況で追加の対策カードなしとなれば、結果は歴然です。

There is one Wizard in particular that I have been very impressed with: Azami, Lady of Scrolls. This wizard can allow you to draw a lot of cards and get ahead in the game from the very first turn it comes into play. The reason for this is the way the ability is worded: summoning sickness won’t stop you from using it right away, meaning that you will at least get X cards for your troubles, where X is the number of untapped Wizards you have at the time.

Other great Wizards are Puppeteer, Trinket Mage, Daring Apprentice, and the all-powerful Meloku the Clouded Mirror. That, combined with the small amount of reasonable countermagic that has crept back into Standard in the form of Mana Leak and Hinder, makes for a pretty spicy looking Wizard deck. Let’s take a look at it close up:

BUILDING ON A BUDGET: WIZARDS OF THE MOON (ABOUT 30 TICKETS)
Creature (23)
4 Puppeteer
4 Thought Courier
4 Trinket Mage
2 Soratami Savant
1 Steel Wall
2 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
3 Soratami Rainshaper
3 Azami, Lady of Scrolls

Instant (8)
4 Mana Leak
4 Hinder

Artifact (6)
1 Viridian Longbow
1 Leonin Bola
4 Aether Spellbomb

Land (23)
23 Island

60 Cards

引用元
WIZARDS OF THE MOON Posted in Building on a Budget on February 11, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/building-budget/wizards-moon-2005-02-11

安価デッキの記事です。今回は、《巻物の君、あざみ/Azami, Lady of Scrolls》の強力なドロー能力に目をつけた、ウィザードの部族デッキを組んでいます。

ドロー能力で圧倒するもよし、ムーンフォークで飛行ビートするもよし、強力なフィニッシャー《曇り鏡のメロク/Meloku the Clouded Mirror》を守って勝つもよし、といった複数プランのあるデッキです。今までの安価デッキに比べると、ややテクニカルかもしれません。