June 29, 2005
Q: "In Saviors of Kamigawa why only make two new Zuberas instead of five as you did in Champions of Kamigawa?"
--Alexander
Copenhagen, Denmark

A: From Brian Tinsman, Magic R&D:
"Alexander,
"Early in the design of the entire Kamigawa block we played around with an unconventional set structure. One aspect of this structure was that we radically decreased the level of five-card cycles and increased the levels of ’pairs.’ Many of the cycles you see throughout the Kamigawa block were originally just two opposite-color pairs instead of five cards in five colors. One example is the Kirin, which were originally just the white and black versions. In the end we decided that this structure felt too strange and hindered our focus on the more important set themes. But some of the pairs we liked enough to keep just as they were, and thus we kept Iname, Life Aspect / Iname, Death Aspect, Hand of Honor / Hand of Cruelty, and Rushing-Tide Zubera / Burning-Eye Zubera, among others."

引用元
ASK WIZARDS - JUNE, 2005 Posted in Feature on June 1, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/ask-wizards-june-2005-2005-06-01

WotCに送られた質問に答える記事"ASK WIZARDS"の2005年6月分です。

この中から取り上げるのは、「なぜ『神河救済』の新しいずべらは５枚サイクルでなく２枚だけなのか？」という質問です。
元々、神河ブロック全体で型破りな構造にしようという発想がありました。
その１つが、５枚サイクルを減らして、対抗色２枚ペアを増やそう、というものです。
最終的には、違和感が大きくなったため、５枚サイクルにされました。
例えば、麒麟サイクルは元々は白と黒の２枚ペアだったそうです。
一方で、２枚ペアのまま残ったカードもあります。
《死相の否命/Iname, Death Aspect》《生相の否命/Iname, Life Aspect》や《名誉の手/Hand of Honor》《残虐の手/Hand of Cruelty》などがそうであり、《寄せる潮のずべら/Rushing-Tide Zubera》《燃える眼のずべら/Burning-Eye Zubera》もその１組という訳です。

対抗色２枚ペアのカードというのは時折みられます。
先述の《名誉の手》《残虐の手》の元祖である《白騎士/White Knight》《黒騎士/Black Knight》はその典型でしょう。
ずべらにしても、最初から２枚ペアで登場しているならともかく、先に５枚サイクルが出ただけに、違和感を覚えるのも無理はありません。


補足
神河のことではありませんが、同記事の質問で興味があったものを載せます。

2005年6月28日の質問
Q.色付きアーティファクトを作ることは考えないのか？
A.やらないと決めている。エンチャントと差がなくなる。

2005年6月20日 補足：部族・人間は作られるか？
Q.人間のロードは作られないのか？
A.わからない。開発部内でも賛否両論。

当時と今とで考えが変わっていく様子が伺えるのも、過去の記事を見る意義です。

Cranial Extraction
Champions of Kamigawa rare. This card was inspired by trying to find a way to make a tournament-legal version of the Unglued card Look at Me, I’m the DCI.

引用元
CARD OF THE DAY - JUNE, 2005 Posted in Feature on June 1, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-day-june-2005-2005-06-01

《頭蓋の摘出/Cranial Extraction》は、銀枠『Unglued』の《Look at Me, I’m the DCI(UGL)》を黒枠で使えるようにしたことが着想となっている、という話です。
元ネタのカードは、特定のカードをその場で禁止カードにしてしまいます。
さすがに全く同じ挙動で再現という訳にはいきません。
相手のライブラリーや手札から追放すれば、余程のことがなければ使えないので、実質的に同じ、という訳です。
《頭蓋の摘出》から秘儀を無くした《記憶殺し/Memoricide》がのちに登場し、その後も亜種が多数登場して、定番の１つになったと言えるでしょう。
神河ブロックは反省点ばかりが話題に上がりますが、こうして定着した要素もあることを覚えておきたいものです。

補足
記事として取り上げることはありませんが、同記事で触れられている神河のカードについて、付記しておきます。

《一なる否命/Iname as One》
《留まらぬ発想/Ideas Unbound》
《憤怒の炎の道/Path of Anger’s Flame》
《常在精神/Evermind》
《仇麻呂の凝視/Gaze of Adamaro》
《氷河の光線/Glacial Ray》
《肉体の奪取/Rend Flesh》

Twincast
Saviors of Kamigawa rare. R&D had actually decided six or seven years ago that Fork would make sense in blue. Versions of this card were submitted for many sets over the years, but it wasn’t until Saviors that “the blue Fork” got its shot at the big time.

引用元
CARD OF THE DAY - JUNE, 2005 Posted in Feature on June 1, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-day-june-2005-2005-06-01

スペルをコピーする効果は、黎明期の《Fork》以来、長く赤の役割でした。
しかし、開発部は青の役割であるべきだろう、と考えていました。
《Fork》を青にしたバージョンは、さまざまなものが提案されたものの、なかなか実現はしていません。
『神河救済』になって、ようやく実現するに至った、ということです。
この役割は数年続いたものの、再び赤の役割に戻り、『基本セット2011』にて《余韻/Reverberate》が収録されました。
かといって、赤だけの役割、という訳でもありません。
青単色でも《腹黒い意志/Insidious Will》や《練達の魔術師、ナル・メハ/Naru Meha, Master Wizard》のようなカードは作られています。
赤が第１色、青が第２色、という扱いのようです。

Choice of Damnations
Saviors of Kamigawa rare. During design this card (at a different cost) was actually a 5/6 monster as well. During testing the effect was so popular that the creature part felt like a distraction and was dropped so that the card could be costed lower.

引用元
CARD OF THE DAY - JUNE, 2005 Posted in Feature on June 1, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-day-june-2005-2005-06-01

日替わりで1枚のカードを取り上げるコラム「CARD OF THE DAY」の2005年6月分を見ていきます。

《滅びへの選択/Choice of Damnations》は、かつては5/6のクリーチャーでした。
開発中、人気があったのですが、クリーチャーであることが余計に感じられました。
結果、現在のようにスペルとなり、コストも下がったとのことです。
どのようなクリーチャーであったか、サイズ以外は明言されていません。
しかし、秘儀であることや、カード名、ライフか生け贄を要求する効果から、デーモン・スピリットであったことでしょう。


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。

赤単デッキ高築
FLAMES OF THE BLOOD HAND Posted in Feature on June 1, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/flames-blood-hand-2005-06-01

A KAMIGAWA GLOSSARY, PART 3 Posted in Arcana on May 31, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/kamigawa-glossary-part-3-2005-05-31

『神河物語』（※１）『神河謀叛』（※２）でもあった、神河独自の用語を解説した記事です。

日本語の解説部分はともかくとして、固有名詞、特にキャラクターの解説は日本人が見ても面白いのではないでしょうか。
以前（※３）、麻呂サイクルは神河の過去の偉人の霊だと推測していましたが、この解説記事ではそれが明言されています。
例えば、《初めて立ったもの、清麻呂/Kiyomaro, First to Stand》は神河の初代大名であったり、《初めて生きたもの、増麻呂/Masumaro, First to Live》は初めて神道に生きた人物であったり、などです。


※１
神河当時 - 神河用語集その１『神河物語』
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202005022023119676/
※２
神河当時 - 神河用語集その２『神河謀叛』
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202103092020051030/
※３
神河当時 - 『神河救済』のストーリー冒頭
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202109191934122446/


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。

デッキ構築
OH, HELL Posted in Feature on May 31, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/oh-hell-2005-05-31

『神河救済』のドラフト向けカード　白・青・黒編
SAVIORS: FIRST LOOK Posted in Limited Information on May 31, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/limited-information/saviors-first-look-2005-05-31

『神河救済』のドラフト向けカード　赤・緑・無色編
SAVIORS: FIRST LOOK PART II Posted in Limited Information on June 7, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/limited-information/saviors-first-look-part-ii-2005-06-07

Question 6 of 9
We need a keyworded card. Which one do we keep?

A
[Sucker of the Blood]

Creature - Human Ninja
1/3
Ninjutsu
Whenever CARDNAME deals combat damage to a player, that player loses 3 life and you gain 3 life.

B
[Purge Sinker]

Creature — Spirit
1/1
: Counter target spell unless its controller pays .
Purge — , Discard CARDNAME: Counter target spell unless its controller pays .

C
[Possessing Demon]

Creature - Demon Spirit
2/2
Possess : (Pay : Target creature becomes possessed. CARDNAME can’t attack, block, or activate abilities until its target leaves play.)
Possessed creature deals 3 damage to its controller during your upkeep.

Correct answer: [reveal answer]

B - We need to make the channel, sweep, and epic mechanics robust rather than spend card space on past mechanics or new ones that don’t fit as well.

This question is about how many keywords to put in a set. The basic choice here is A) Keep doing keywords introduced in the previous expansion (ninjutsu), B) introduce two or three new keyword abilities while still supporting those from Champions, or C) introduce even more keywords in addition to sweep, channel, and epic.

This was a tough choice to make since we could easily have done more ninja or additional keywords like “possess” (which would fit the set mostly based on flavor reasons.) It’s a judgment call what the right level of keywords are in a given set. Too many old ones like ninja and you won’t have enough room for interesting new ones. Too many in general, and each one starts to seem less important to the set. Too few keywords and players start to feel cheated. During Champions design we had a big debate about whether we should have keyworded the ‘whenever you play a spirit or arcane spell…” trigger that appears on so many cards. Maybe we should have. In the end we decided that channel, sweep, and epic were the correct new keyword abilities for this set and ninjutsu and other new keyword abilities would have to step aside to make room for them.

引用元
SUPPRESSING FIRE: HOW WE DESIGNED SAVIORS WITH AN AXE Posted in Feature on May 30, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/suppressing-fire-how-we-designed-saviors-axe-2005-05-30

『神河救済』の個別カードデザインを解説した記事です。
「〜の役割に相応しいのはどれか？」という三択クイズ形式になっています。

９問もあるので、全てを詳細に取り上げることはありません。
箇条書きにすると、以下の通りです。
Q1. 白のコモン生物には？→シンプルな《鳥居を見張るもの/Torii Watchward》
Q2. 知恵カードには？→手札が多いと報酬がある《増麻呂の末裔/Descendant of Masumaro》
Q3. 青いレアには？→転生や伝説とシナジーのある《Twins Convention》（製品化せず）
Q4. 黒のアンコモン生物には？→青以外にも手札を増やす方法が要るので《頭蓋骨の収集家/Skull Collector》
Q5. どれがいい？→PIGとのシナジーがある《御霊の足跡/Footsteps of the Goryo》
Q6. どのメカニズムがいい？→新メカニズム魂力を持つ《Purge Sinker》（製品化せず）
Q7. どれがいい？→定命の生物が団結するフレイバーに合う《大軍の結集/Rally the Horde》
Q8. 知恵カードには？→既存のカードより明確に悪いカードを除くと、《内なる火/Inner Fire》が残る
Q9. カスレアには？→酷すぎる《空虚自身/One with Nothing》。筆者は《Unwelcome Guests》（製品化せず）だと考えていた。

この中で面白かったのは、Q6です。
正解以外の選択肢は、旧メカニズムの忍術と新メカニズムのPossessでした。
前のセットで出たメカニズムが継続して出ることもありますが、『神河救済』では忍術を入れるだけのスペースがなかったようです。
あれだけ人気だった忍者が１セットだけだった理由は単純でした。
一方、新メカニズムのPossessは、戦場で起動する能力で、コストを支払うことで対象のクリーチャー１体を、それが戦場を離れるまで攻撃もブロックも能力の起動もできなくする、というものです。
名前のPossessは「憑依」という意味がありオルゾフを連想させ、その効果は留置に近く、アゾリウスを連想させます。
これはこれで面白いメカニズムですが、全体のテーマに沿わないことから外れました。
また、スピリットクラフトを能力語にするか議論があったようです。
ただ、メカニズムは多すぎても少なすぎても問題ということから、当時の結論は、魂力・掃引・歴伝だけを残して他は不採用、という物でした。
ただ、今となってはやはり能力語にするべきだった、と考えているようです。

それ以外だと、Q9のカスレア議論も面白いです。
他の選択肢はコストパフォーマンスが悪かったり、メリットを活かしにくかったり、というカードです。
一方で、《空虚自身/One with Nothing》はデメリットしかないカードであり、何もしない《蒼ざめた月/Pale Moon》よりひどいと言われました。
しかし、これはこれで「どうやって使ってやろうか」とジョニーに思わせる効果があります。
また、ピンポイントなメタとはいえ、実際にサイドボードに採用された実績もあります。
「ただのデメリット」のはずのカードが、「何もしない」カードより面白い結果を生んだと言えるでしょう。


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。

恒例のQ&A記事
SAVIORS ON THE WAY Posted in Feature on May 28, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/saviors-way-2005-05-28

リリーストーナメントについて
SOMEBODY SAVE ME Posted in Feature on May 30, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/somebody-save-me-2005-05-30

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

Channel Surfing
I’ll begin by playing a little game. What one card was the impetus for the Channel mechanic? (By the way, if you’re ever playing this game for money and you don’t know, always guess Plague Rats. It’s the equivalence to answering Benjamin Franklin in Trivial Pursuit.) I’ll give you five clues. See how few it takes for you to get the answer. (You can click below to see the card.)

Clue #1: The card is pre-Mirage.
Clue #2: The card is green.
Clue #3: The card is a creature.
Clue #4: The card had an ability that could be activated in the hand. (At least it does in the latest Oracle wording.)
Clue #5: The card rhymes with Smelvish Fear-It Ride.

Alliances is filled with single cards that touch upon giant chasms of unexplored design space. Elvish Spirit Guide is one such card. It’s a creature and a spell all in one. This was the concept that intrigued Brandon. What if there was a mechanic that allowed you to have cards that doubled as creatures and spells? Brandon’s initial suggestion: (it’s interesting to note that the guy formerly in charge of names failed to give his design card or his mechanic a name.)

Creature - Spirit
2/3
R:+1/+0 until end of turn.
Keyword 2R: (Discard this card and pay 2R) target creature gets +4/+0 until end of turn.

The team liked the idea and started exploring the mechanic. Here are the key lessons they learned:

The two pieces had to be interconnected – Having a Grizzly Bears that could also be a Naturalize just felt wrong. Aesthetically, the two halves of the card wanted to feel connected. So the team decided to make a rule that said that the channel ability had to grow organically from the card. After some experimentation, they found three variations they liked. I should quickly note that these aren’t the only ways that could work. The Saviors design team was conscious to leave some open design space to allow R&D to bring the mechanic back at a later time.

Variation #1 – The creature has a keyword ability that the spell can grant to all creatures. These became the Shinen (of Fear’s Chill, Of Flight’s Wings, Of Fury’s Fire, of Life’s Roar and of Stars’ Light).

Variation #2 – The creature has a mana-activated ability. For one more mana the spell does twice the effect. These became the Ghost-Lit creatures (Nourisher, Raider, Redeemer, Stalker and Warder).

Variation #3 - This last variation is a combination of the first two. The creature has an activated ability that affects one creature that the spell can use to apply to all creatures (that fit the criteria). This became Arashi, the Sky Asunder and Jiwari, the Earth Aflame.

The channel creatures wanted to be spirits – This is true for two totally unrelated reasons, one mechanical and the other flavorful. The mechanical reason was to tie the cards into soulshift. By being spirits, the cards could be brought back when soulshift creatures were put into the graveyard. As all the channel effects work at the speed of an instant, you could even use the spell in response to the effect that’s putting the soulshift creature into the graveyard. The flavorful reason has to do with explaining how a creature can also be part spell. The answer rests in the nature of Kamigawa spirits. The idea behind the channel cards is that these are creatures made of magical energy. A mage can summon them or “channel” their magical energies into a spell.

Many of the creatures needed to be small – Other than the two legends and one of the shinen, no creature with channel cost more than three. The reason for this was to increase the synergy with soulshift. The cheaper their cost, the easier they are to get back.

The channel portion of the card didn’t want to actually be a spell - By making channel an activated ability rather than an alternate mana cost, the Saviors team allowed the channel cards to do several things. First, they became uncounterable. Second, they allowed players to play them at times spells weren’t allowed (think epic spells). And third, they delved into a much unexplored design space.

引用元
CHOOSING A CHANNEL Posted in Making Magic on May 23, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/choosing-channel-2005-05-23

歴伝のデザイン（※１）、知恵・麻呂カードのデザイン（※２）に続いて、魂力のデザインを解説する、マローの記事です。なお、開発中は魂力/ChannelはPurgeと呼ばれていたようです。

マローが『神河救済』のデザインに関わる頃にはすでにこのメカニズムは完成していました。それをデザインしたのが誰かを探る話が前半にありますが、ここでは省略します。

魂力のメカニズムの発端は１枚のカード、《Elvish Spirit Guide》です。これは、クリーチャーでありながら、マナ加速呪文のようにも使えます。そこから、クリーチャーとスペルを兼ねたカード、という発想が生まれました。魂力の評価はあまり良くなかったようですが、「クリーチャーとスペルを兼ねる」という発想自体は悪くなく、後の濫用や出来事に繋がっています（※３）。

試作する中で、クリーチャーとスペルでの関連性を持たせることにしました。《灰色熊》に《解呪》をつけることはできても、面白いデザインとは言えません。また、関連づけるやり方も色々あります。この時点では、後のデザイン空間を残すため、「キーワード能力の付与」「起動型能力の２倍の効果」「単体への起動型能力を全体に広げた効果」の３パターンに絞りました。後の『モダンホライゾン２』で登場した《霊光の流れ者/Ghost-Lit Drifter》は新パターンと言えるでしょう。この１枚をのぞいて、魂力が再登場することは皆無だったため、デザイン空間を残したことは生かされなかったことは残念ですが。

魂力を持つのはスピリットだけです。メカニズム的な理由は、転生で回収できるシナジーが発生するからです。そのため、魂力を持つスピリットは意図的に軽量でデザインされました。フレイバー的な理由は、神河のスピリットが魔法エネルギーでできているため、魔法に変換できるからです。前者はともかく、後者は他のセットで使いづらくしてしまった一因かもしれません。この点、出来事は、どのクリーチャーでも持つことができるフレイバーになったのは、改良点でしょう。

「クリーチャーとスペルを兼ねる」というコンセプトですが、正確にはスペルではなく起動型能力です。これも理由があり、「カウンター不能にする」「スペルを唱えられない時でも使える」「新しいデザイン領域の開拓になる」という３つです。１・２つ目はメリットとしては限定的なものなので、個人的には魅力に感じません。３つ目はまだ納得できます。魂力そのものは再登場がほとんどなかったものの、湧血や補強といった類似のメカニズムが生まれているからです。

魂力の評価は良くないものの、「能力語」「クリーチャーとスペルを兼ねる」といった部分は現代までも長く受け継がれているため、挑戦した甲斐あるデザインだったと言えます。


※１
神河当時 - 《不朽の理想/Enduring Ideal》のプレビュー
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202109212040546156/

※２
神河当時 - 《初めて苦しんだもの、影麻呂/Kagemaro, First to Suffer》のプレビュー
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202109272016397561/

※３
神河資料 - 平行デザイン
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/201912182218319272/
神河資料 - 魂力から生まれた出来事　その１
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/201912191946504568/
神河資料 - 魂力から生まれた出来事　その２
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/201912202042161638/
神河資料 - 選択カード
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/201912212240139764/



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。

公式スポイラーの発表
SAVIORS OF KAMIGAWA SORTABLE SPOILER Posted in Feature on May 23, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/saviors-kamigawa-sortable-spoiler-2005-05-23

Channel No. 5
Let’s go over the Channel ability, shall we? First of all, it’s not a keyword per se in that it has no reminder text, it is in italics, and it won’t get an entry into the Comprehensive Rules. So what in the heck is it then?

Astute readers will remember an article of mine from the time of Unhinged previews, “The Spoken Word”. That article explained that Unhinged’s “Gotcha” mechanic wasn’t really a keyword, but rather an “official nickname” that we put on the cards to link them together. And in the very last sentence of the article, I said we’d be introducing “pseudo-keywords” later on in the Kamigawa block. Mark Gottlieb showed you “Sweep” in his Barrel Down Sokenzan preview on Tuesday, and you get to see “Channel” here.

Channel isn’t really a keyword because once you spell out the cost of using the ability (pay mana + discard this card) and then list the effect, there’s no need for any kind of reminder text. It’s all right there! So instead of mucking up the wording just to get it into a more standardized keyword format—something like “Channel (X)(G)(G) (You may discard this card and pay (X)(G)(G) to get the Channel effect.)”—we decided to keep it simple. The card uses well-known understandable wording, and just has a little pseudo-keyword tacked on at the beginning.

The burning question seems to be, “Why ’keyword’ these abilities at all?” The answer is for ease of communication. It’s easier to talk about and understand cards as a group if there is some verbal link that ties them together. Sometimes the link is in the cards’ names—if I say “Shoal,” you immediately know that I’m talking about an X-pitch card from Betrayers. Sometimes the link is in creature type—the word “Moonfolk” should evoke images of blue fliers with abilities that require you to return lands to their owners’ hands. Sometimes it is in a “regular” keyword—“Soulshift” lets you know the creature in question is (most likely) a Spirit that can regrow one of its fallen kindred when it dies. And now with our “pseudo-keyword” technology, there is another way to verbally link cards together. “A creature with ’Channel’” is a lot easier to say than “one of those creatures that you can discard like an instant.”

We regret not labeling “Spiritcraft” in such a way in Champions. Better late than never.

引用元
THE SKY IS FALLING Posted in Latest Developments on May 20, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/sky-falling-2005-05-20

《空を引き裂くもの、閼螺示/Arashi, the Sky Asunder》のプレビュー記事です。先日の掃引カードのプレビュー記事（※１）では、能力語について解説されなかったのを残念に思いましたが、ようやくここで解説されました。

能力語の起源は『アンヒンジド』のメカニズム「ゴチ/Gotcha!」にありました。これは、キーワード能力ではなく、カードを関連づけるためにつけた「公式ニックネーム」と説明されており、このような「擬似キーワード」は『神河救済』で導入されると予告されていました。ある意味では、銀枠・ジョークセットのアイデアが黒枠化したと言えます。

能力語は、キーワード能力とは違って、コストも効果も省略しません。従って、掃引や魂力（やゴチ）の言葉を付けなくても、問題なく機能します。

では、なぜわざわざこのような単語をつけるのか？それはカードをグループ化して参照しやすくするためです。「群れ/Shoal」と言えば、『神河謀叛』のピッチスペルサイクルを指します。転生や忍術などのキーワード能力でもグループ化はできますが、コストや効果が異なる場合でもグループ化できる手段が新しくできたことに大きな意味があります。そして実際、現代に至るまで能力語は何度も何種類も作られてきたことが、その有用性の証です。

その点で、「Spiritcraft」を能力語としなかったのを後悔しているそうです。仕方がないと言えば仕方ありません。もっとも、『コンフラックス』で登場した能力語「版図」は、それ以前のインベイジョン・ブロックのカードにも遡って与えられたので、同様の措置をすることもできたでしょう。ただ、そのような発想が当時にはなかったのかもしれません。

なお、《空を引き裂くもの、閼螺示》は当初、《燃え上がる大地、地把離/Jiwari, the Earth Aflame》と全く同じコストとサイズで対称的に作られていましたが、それだと後者の方が強力であるという格差が生じます。ファッティ最強色が緑であるべきという考えから、緑をより大きく、赤をより小さく調整されました。昨日の記事（※２）で取り上げた、《名誉の手/Hand of Honor》と《残虐の手/Hand of Cruelty》の場合は完全に同じスタッツでした。基本的には白の方が小型クリーチャーは優秀でありながら、黒にも同じスタッツが許されたのは、黎明期からの伝統だったからこそでしょう。

※１
神河当時 - 《霜剣山の逆落とし/Barrel Down Sokenzan》のプレビュー
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202109282024221493/

※２
神河当時 - 《残虐の手/Hand of Cruelty》のプレビュー
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202109301914464967/

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。

恒例のQ&A記事です。新カード・新メカニズムについての質問が多数あります。
SAVIORS OF SATURDAY SCHOOL Posted in Feature on May 21, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/saviors-saturday-school-2005-05-21

Hand of Cruelty is likely to be a popular card in constructed. His peer the Samurai of the Pale Curtain made an immediate splash in Extended, with standout players like Jelger Wiergsma, Neil Reeves, and Gabe Walls all attacking with the veiled Fox back at last year’s PT Columbus. Now Hand of Cruelty joins Samurai of the Pale Curtain, breaking that creature’s monopoly as the only 2/2 Bushido creature for two mana. Legendary creatures like Kentaro, the Smiling Cat and Sensei Golden-Tail are fine, but they don’t exactly live through altercations with opposing two-drops, with or without combat abilities themselves.

Hand of Cruelty is essentially Black Knight with the Kamigawa Block flavor. Instead of First Strike, he gets Bushido. Bushido may be a little worse than First Strike when combined with Red removal (many players in ages past, including US National Champion Dennis Bentley coupled Black Knight with Lightning Bolt to take down huge monsters), but the newer ability is often better when going toe-to-toe with creatures without any frills or add-ons. For all its ability, Black Knight could be held off by a Rogue Elephant or even Trained Armodon, but few players will want to trade two cards or their three drops in the early game with a two drop like Hand of Cruelty; look for foolish players to lose 2/4s to Lose Hope in upcoming tournaments.

Because the most recent Black decks in both Standard and Extended have been control decks, it isn’t certain that Hand of Cruelty will be headlining a tier one list immediately. Even with Affinity gone now, Standard gives players a lot of incentives to play either slow Black decks with Death Cloud or beatdown in other colors. However, along with Bob Maher’s new card next fall and key role players like Nezumi Graverobber on the lineup, look for Black’s more aggressive creatures to make a comeback before too long. When the beatdown does return, you can bet that Hand of Cruelty will be one of the vicious threats making that happen.

引用元
REBIRTH OF THE VILLAIN Posted in Feature on May 19, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/rebirth-villain-2005-05-19

《残虐の手/Hand of Cruelty》のプレビュー記事です。

《白騎士/White Knight》と《黒騎士/Black Knight》を始めとして、白と黒の２マナウィ ニー向けクリーチャーは定番の１つでした。
もっとも、最近ではあまり見られません。
２色だけにこのようなカードを作るよりも、５色のサイクルを作る傾向にあるからです。

また、当時の白ウィニーと黒ウィニーの状況を比較しています。
黒ウィニーは、白よりも パーツが不足気味だったのですが、このような優良クリーチャーが加わったことで復活す るだろうと予想して締めくくっています。
実際、神河ブロック構築において、黒ウィニー が台頭できた一因なので、この予想は当たったと言っていいでしょう。

PREVIEWING RUSHING-TIDE ZUBERA
I’ll tell you, when Betrayers came out with no zuberas, I began to feel a bit…well, betrayed. After all, with a full cycle of five zuberas in Champions, this new creature type had some interesting potential. But of course, Wizards can’t follow up on every "interesting" start, and so zuberas (whom so many fondly call "zebras") looked like they would die off completely.

Well, not quite yet.

So That’s It?
My readers depend on my honesty, and I’ll give it to them this week, as in every week. When I first looked at Rushing-Tide Zubera, my reaction was, "so that’s it?!" After all, it doesn’t have "epic" or "legend" written on it.

Then I thought about it a little, and I understood.

The central lesson today is much more useful than a whiz-bang card. The central lesson today is about understanding subtlety in your Magic game. Subtlety wins you games. It draws you cards, deals damage, and outlasts the opposition. The best multiplayer decks do have a whiz-bang card here and there. But they spend the first three or four turns building to that point, and supporting the player to the point where something more flashy can happen.

Rushing-Tide Zubera, by that standard, is one of the best support cards you’ll see in multiplayer decks, for years to come. Don’t build a deck around it. Put four copies into that other deck that’s looking for something solid around turn four.

Once you understand why that works, you’ll understand Magic a great deal more. And you’ll also understand why Wizards – and this writer – is excited about this preview card.

All that said, I’m still gonna try to build a deck around it!

引用元
LET THE TIDE RUSH IN Posted in Serious Fun on May 18, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/serious-fun/let-tide-rush-2005-05-18

《寄せる潮のずべら/Rushing-Tide Zubera》のプレビュー記事です。

『神河物語』で登場したずべらが『神河謀叛』で登場せず、がっかりしたプレイヤーもいたことでしょう。それが、『神河救済』で復活、しかも新しいバージョンになりました。

ずべらの死亡数を参照しなくなった分、安定した効果が見込めるようになり、サイズが向上したことで、戦闘でも頼れるようになっています。

能力を生かすべく、デッキのアイデアも書かれています。新旧両方のずべらを並べて、全体火力で能力を最大限誘発できるようにしています。また、『神河救済』の新メカニズムである魂力をもった《燃え上がる大地、地把離/Jiwari, the Earth Aflame》も早速採用されているのも特徴的です。

Clean Sweep
What’s Sokenzan? That’s the mountain range in Kamigawa. Each of the oddball “cycle” of sweep cards has the same naming convention; all will become clear when the rest of them are released.

What’s an oddball “cycle”? There are more cards with sweep, obviously. But there aren’t one per color. Some colors have none, some have one, and some have two.

What’s sweep? It’s a mechanic that has you return any number of basic lands of a specified type to your hand as part of the spell’s resolution. The number of lands you bounce determines the magnitude of the spell. Bounce a lot for a big spell, bounce a few for a little spell. You determine the number of lands to return—and actually return them—when the spell resolves, so if Barrel Down Sokenzan is countered, or you realize damaging the creature is useless (perhaps it regenerated in response), then you return no Mountains and you haven’t hurt your board position.

Sweep Under the Rug
As a burn spell, Barrel Down Sokenzan is functional and versatile, but not spectacular. It only hits creatures, so that limits its usefulness right there. For , you typically get to deal 3 damage, plus have the option of hitting players, plus get an extra benefit (see Carbonize, Yamabushi’s Flame, and Urza’s Rage). In this case, you have to bounce two Mountains to gain a comparable effect, which sets you back a little (but not too much) in your board development. Of course, the variable damage amount sets it apart from these fixed-number spells; Barrel Down Sokenzan can burn out creatures that Yamabushi’s Flame barely singes.

Blaze and its ilk are next in line for comparison. The amount of damage Blaze deals is also related to the number of lands you have, but the differences between these spells are so great that they’re hardly in the same ballpark. Blaze makes you tap lands, not bounce them. Blaze keys off of any lands (not just Mountains), as well as other mana sources. Blaze lets you hit players. Barrel Down Sokenzan has a fixed (and low) mana cost, meaning you can play other spells on the same turn that you throw a huge Barrel. It deals damage equal to double the number of bounced Mountains. No, they seem similar on the surface (number of lands translates to amount of damage), but they don’t mesh.

The closest card to Barrel Down Sokenzan is Spitting Earth. Spitting Earth also only hits creatures, and it also cares only about Mountains. It’s one mana cheaper and it’s not Arcane, but the main difference is that it leaves the Mountains on the table in exchange for dealing half of Barrel Down Sokenzan’s maximum damage. Both are good, with each one being better in different situations.

So there you have it. Barrel Down Sokenzan is a playable but mediocre Limited card. The end.

Right?

Wrong.

Oh, so very, very wrong.

In any other set, that might be right, but in Saviors of Kamigawa, this card does much, much more.

引用元
BARREL OF FUN Posted in Feature on May 17, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/barrel-fun-2005-05-17

《霜剣山の逆落とし/Barrel Down Sokenzan》のプレビュー記事です。土地を手札に戻すことで効果が変化するメカニズム、掃引のカードを紹介しています。

カードとしてはクリーチャー限定の火力であり、効率は《猛火/Blaze》や《大地の飛礫/Spitting Earth》と比べて一概に上位とも下位とも言えません。しかし、このカードをプレビューする趣旨は単なる火力の１つ、というものではなく、他のメカニズムとのシナジーにあります。

これまでのプレビュー記事で語られた通り、『神河救済』のテーマは手札であり、特に手札が多いほど報酬が得られるものです。一方で、ここまでプレビューされたのは、手札が多いと〜というものであり、手札を増やす手段はあまりフォーカスされていません。そこで、このカード・メカニズムによって一気に大量に手札を増やすことが可能である点が輝いてきます。

なお、掃引（と同時収録の魂力）は、MTG史上初の能力語メカニズムなので、その点についても何か語って欲しかったところですが、特にこれといった話はありませんでした（※１）。


※１
後の記事で解説されました。
神河当時 - 《空を引き裂くもの、閼螺示/Arashi, the Sky Asunder》のプレビュー
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202110012011155731/


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。

《初めて苦しんだもの、影麻呂/Kagemaro, First to Suffer》のアートについて
SKETCHES: KAGEMARO, FIRST TO SUFFER Posted in Arcana on May 17, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/sketches-kagemaro-first-suffer-2005-05-17

リミテッド視点から、コモンカード《死面の鼠/Deathmask Nezumi》《霊的な訪れ/Spiritual Visit》《螺旋形の燃えさし/Spiraling Embers》のプレビュー
PRERELEASE PREP Posted in Limited Information on May 17, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/limited-information/prerelease-prep-2005-05-17

Give Them a Hand
So how did a cycle of Maros end up in the set? Explain that Mr. “I Swear I Didn’t Do It”. All right, here’s how the story goes. The Saviors design team (Brian Tinsman – lead, Brandon Bozzi, Devin Low, and Brian Schneider – see last week’s column for their bios) was looking for ways to extend the Kamigawa block without merely repeating what had been done before. They began by taking a look at the block mechanics: splice, soulshift, the arcane/spirit triggers (that so should have been keyworded by the way), bushido, ninjutsu, and the “pitch” cards. After a little examination, they realized that most of the mechanics had an interaction with the hand.
Splice stayed in the hand after use. Soulshift returns cards to the hand. The arcane/spirit triggers make you constantly monitor what is in your hand. The ninjas surprise-attacked from the hand. The “pitch” mechanic required pitching cards from the hand. And bushido? Okay, not everything cares about the hand, but then again bushido is not exactly the most block-defining mechanic. The team noticed that Kamigawa block made you more conscious of your hand than the average block. And that is when Brian dug into the “war chest”.

One of the constant worries I hear about as a designer is from people concerned that we’re going to run out of ideas. I find this quite funny because the exact opposite is closer to the truth. I’m not sure if I’ll even find a way to use all the mechanics we’ve already come up with over the years. You see, for every mechanic that works we have ten others that don’t. Now often times it’s because the mechanic falls apart under scrutiny. It sounds cool so you make a few cards. But just a few playtest games show quite vividly that the idea sucks. But other times, the mechanic is good but the timing is wrong. It’s too close to something we did recently. It has bad synergy with the other mechanics. It requires more playtesting that we have at the time it was thought up. There are all sorts of reasons why we don’t use good mechanics. So where do they end up? The war chest.

The idea of the war chest is simple. Don’t throw a good idea away simply because it’s no good now. Save it for the future. The time will come eventually where it’s the perfect fit. What tends to happen with the war chest is that over time ideas start to clump together. Certain mechanics start to attach to others. Eventually enough merge together that we have an idea for an entire block. One such clump was simply known as “hand” cards. These were cards that had some interesting interaction with the hand.

One day, Brian and I had the following discussion:

Brian: So what are you planning to do with the “hand” mechanics. Is there enough for a block?
Me: In theory there is.
Brian: In theory?
Me: There’s enough of them to fill up a block. But I’m not sure that it has the weight to carry an entire block. The multi-color block people get. The artifact block. Fine. The tribal block? A little trickier, but it worked. The hand block? I just don’t know if it’s something that we can maintain for three sets.
Brian: How about one set?
Me: Yeah, it’d be cool for one set. But all the mechanics wouldn’t fit in one set.
Brian: What if you didn’t do all of them. What if you concentrated on one aspect of it?
Me: Which part?
Brian: The Maro part.
Me: Ah you’re buttering me up. But you’re doing it well, so continue.
Brian: The idea of hand as a resource. That there’s a reward for filling up your hand instead of playing every spell as soon as possible.
Me: That’s cool.
Brian: Would that be an interesting theme for a single set?
Me: A small set sure.
Brian: Maybe a small set like Fire? (Fire was the codename for Saviors. I quite enjoyed asking team members, “Are you on Fire?”)
Me: Are you on Fire?
Brian: I’m leading it.
Me: I know. I just quite enjoy asking team members that.
Brian: So what do you think?
Me: You had me at Maro.
Brian: The team was actually thinking of doing a cycle of Maros. Completely independently of any input from you. I’m not sure why I felt compelled to say that.
Me: It’s called dramatic license. Anyway, sounds like a good idea. Why don’t you have the team give it a try?

And give it a try they did.

引用元
THE SUN’LL COME OUT TO MARO Posted in Making Magic on May 16, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/sun%E2%80%99ll-come-out-maro-2005-05-16

《初めて苦しんだもの、影麻呂/Kagemaro, First to Suffer》のプレビュー記事です。『神河救済』において知恵メカニズムを導入した経緯も語られています。

まず、『神河救済』のデザインチームは、第三セットでメカニズムをどのように拡張していくかを考えるにあたって、神河ブロックのメカニズムを振り返りました。そこで気づいたのが、連繫、転生、スピリットクラフト、忍術、ピッチスペルなど、武士道以外は手札に注目するメカニズムが多いということです。手札テーマはブロック全体で使うほどに大きいテーマではないものの、小型セット１つで使うには十分だと判断されました。さらに、手札の使い方を「手札が多いほど報酬を得る」ものに絞ったことでセットに収まるようにしました。

今回プレビューされる麻呂サイクルも、こうした流れの中でデザインチームからアイデアが出されたものであり、マローのアイデアではありません。この点は、この記事において何度も書かれるほどに強調されています。

麻呂サイクルが作られるにあたっては、プリズムの道(the prism path, マローの命名)というデザイン手法が用いられました。簡単にいうと、セットのテーマに沿った古いカード（この場合《マロー/Maro》）を見つけ、それをただ１枚だけ再録するのではなく、５色５枚のサイクルとしてリメイクすることです。５色のサイクルにするにあたり、色ごとの差別化をどうつけるかがポイントになります。そこで、「手札の参照方法が異なる（赤と緑）」「手札枚数に応じて能力を得る（白）」「起動型能力を持つ（青と黒）」といった手法が使われました。

元ネタの《マロー》との関連性をどう持たせるか、も考えられました。直接参照するにしても、《マロー》のクリーチャータイプはエレメンタルであり、マローではありませんし、神河では使いません。そこで、名前にMaroを入れることにしたのです。幸い、日本語に麻呂/Maroという言葉があったので、和風セットの神河にはフィットすることになりました。

こうしたエピソードとともに紹介されたのが、《初めて苦しんだもの、影麻呂/Kagemaro, First to Suffer》です。奇しくも、歴伝における《不朽の理想/Enduring Ideal》のように、サイクルの中でもっとも活躍したと言っていいカードの紹介となりました。




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。

構築済みデッキ「鼠の巣穴」のアップデート記事３本
RAT’S NEST: RATIMATION Posted in Building on a Budget on May 16, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/building-budget/rats-nest-ratimation-2005-05-16
RAT’S NEST: JITTE VERSUS THE QUEEN Posted in Building on a Budget on May 23, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/building-budget/rat%E2%80%99s-nest-jitte-versus-queen-2005-05-23
RAT’S NEST: THE MANY FLAVORS OF RAT Posted in Building on a Budget on June 6, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/building-budget/rat%E2%80%99s-nest-many-flavors-rat-2005-06-06


『神河救済』のプレリリース記事２本
SAVIORS OF KAMIGAWA PRERELEASE PRIMER Posted in Feature on May 16, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/saviors-kamigawa-prerelease-primer-2005-05-16
SAVE KAMIGAWA? I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IT WAS IN TROUBLE Posted in Feature on May 16, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/save-kamigawa-i-didn%E2%80%99t-even-know-it-was-trouble-2005-05-16

Send your rules questions to Magic Rules Manager John Carter. Can’t find the answer to your question somewhere else, like the Magic Comprehensive Rules? Maybe he’s already answered it! Try the Saturday School Searchable Rules Database.

The Kamigawa block constructed Pro Tour is one week behind us, and next weekend is the Saviors of Kamigawa prerelease. If PT Philadelphia was any indication, the rest of Kamigawa will be populated with a wild array of colorful characters and giant monsters. What new twists does the conclusion of the Kami / Human war bring? Look no further than today’s preview for just one such twist. May I present, Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant:

Sasaya is a legendary permanent in both of its forms-- a legendary creature that flips into a legendary enchantment. And since the base form is a legendary creature (unlike previous flippers), you can indeed Time of Need for Sasaya. Also unlike previous flippers, flipping Sasaya will make some enchantments fall off-- specifically "enchant creature" enchantments such as Cage of Hands. Things like Confiscate, which is an "enchant permanent" enchantment, still stay on Sasaya regardless of form.

Also notice that revealing your hand is a cost. Revealing things usually waits until resolution, but costs are done on announcement. So what’s to stop you from revealing seven lands and then Brainstorming to put some back before the ability flips Sasaya? Revealing cards as a cost means the cards stayed revealed until the effect resolves or leaves the stack-- this is a new update to how "reveal" works (specifically for costs). If you remember ninjutsu, this is the same idea (the Ninja is revealed and stays that way until it hops into play), except now the idea can apply in other areas. So if you activate Sasaya, and the contents of your hand change while the ability is on the stack, your opponents will be able to see what’s in your hand. Once the ability resolves or leaves the stack (Time Stop, Squelch), your hand will stop being revealed. If you do something that requires looking at cards in your library such as Sensei’s Divining Top, those cards won’t be revealed because they’re not actually in your hand. What’s to stop you from using the ability repeatedly just to waste time? The ill will of your friends and the ire of judges who will be forced to penalize a player for being unsporting (wasting time is not sporting).

So we’ve got the first form out of the way, what about that second part? Yes, that is a mana flare gone wild. If you control five Forests and tap one for mana with Sasaya’s Essence, you’ll get from the Forest, and Essence ability will give you . That’s 25 green mana from five Forests. And we’re not talking about just basic lands-- you tap one of your four Urza’s Towers, you’ll get or from the Tower based on whether you also have both Urza’s Mine and Urza’s Power Plant, but you’ll also get for the other Towers-- so or from the land and more from the Essence-- potentially from the one tap. Of course, this only counts lands in play. Knowing you have four of something in the deck doesn’t mean you get a bonus; the lands must be in play for the Essence to kick in.

What about lands that produce multiple colors? It depends on how they’re producing multiple colors. Mossfire Valley makes both and at the same time. You can choose either or for each of the other Valleys you control-- mix and match is fine. But if it’s a land like Brushland, that makes only one color at a time-- you only get more of the color you just made without the option of the other colors (or colorless) the land could make.

引用元
THE ASCENSION BEGINS Posted in Feature on May 14, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/ascension-begins-2005-05-14

《上位の大蛇、ささ弥/Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant》のプレビュー記事です。恒例のQ&A記 事の冒頭に付け加える形なので、レビュー本体は短めとなっています。また、早速、歴伝 についてのQ&Aも書かれています。

ルール記事に付随する形のレビューだけあって、ルールの観点からの解説になっています。（これまでの反転カードと異なり）反転前から伝説であること、反転することでカードタイプが変わること、などです。特に、「手札を公開する」というのがコストとして扱われていること、が気になりました。忍術ではコストの一部だったのですが、《上位の大蛇、ささ弥》は、それのみをコストとしているのが特徴的です。後に予見や《原初の死、テジマク》といった例もありますが、それらもマナコストが必要なので、手札公開のみがコストというのはかなり珍しいケースと言えます。デザイン空間を掘り下げる余地があるのではないでしょうか。

It’s Friday the 13th, kids, but luck is on your side. After all, you get to see this spicy little nugget:

In the words of Shawn Carnes from the original Pro Tour I videotape, “That’s Armageddon, baby!” We’ve made several variations on that old favorite 3W sorcery in the past few years (Anyone remember Global Ruin? Epicenter? Myojin of Infinite Rage?), but here’s one that can finally claim to be in the same league as the original. And in some ways, it’s even better. Somewhere, Zo-Zu is drooling.

Every third set needs a new twist—Mark hinted at this on Monday and will expound further this coming Monday—and Saviors’ is that “hand size matters,” a mechanic we’ve nicknamed “wisdom” (as in the iconic Weatherlight uncommon Gerrard’s Wisdom).

There were a lot of issues with getting this theme into shape, most of which were centered on bad or annoying play experiences. It’s easy to keep track of how many creatures or permanents your opponent has in play—just look at the table. Your opponent’s life? Just keep track of it yourself on your scorepad. But the number of cards in your opponent’s hand? That’s usually difficult to determine without asking him directly (unless you play on Magic Online, where these issues don’t really apply).

When we played with Saviors during development—especially in limited games, the following exchanges were often heard.

Player A: “How many cards in your hand?”
Player B: “Four.”
[Player A attacks.]
Player A: “How many cards?”
Player B: “Dude, still four.”
[Player B blocks.]
Player A: “Hmm… Four cards?”
Player B: “What do you think? Seriously.”

With all this somewhat irritating information-gathering going on, we had to make sure that hand size mattered enough to be worth it. In other words, the cards had to be interesting enough to counterbalance any negativity generated by suddenly having to micromanage the number of cards in hands all over the game. To that end, there are several of each of the following types of cards:

* Permanents that care about the number of cards in your hand.
* Permanents that care about the number of cards in your opponents’ hands.
* Permanents that care about the relative sizes of both players’ hands.
* Spells that care about the number of cards in your opponents’ hands.
* Spells that care about the number of cards in your hand.
* Spells that care about the relative sizes of both players’ hands.

Thoughts of Ruin falls into group number five on that list (spells that care about the number of cards in your hand), which is my favorite. You never need to ask anyone anything when playing with this card. You know how many cards are in your own hand, and that number only matters once. You never need to suspiciously ask the dreaded “Cards in hand?” question.

The card started out in design with your hand sizing in a very different way. Originally it forced each player to sacrifice all lands except for a number equal to the cards in your hand. From Multiverse:

bs 6/7: supposed to be "sacrifice down to"
RB 6/10: No, team prefers to maintain the stance of always rewarding you for having lots of cards in your hand.

As you can see, designer Brian Schneider commented that the card’s original intent was to replicate Armageddon once your hand was empty. The problem with that card, as lead developer Randy Buehler noted, was that just about every other “wisdom” card in the set rewarded you for having many cards in your hand. The original version just didn’t fit into that scheme.

Design’s original version rewarded what I like to call “pants-down” play. You’d deploy a stream of permanents early in the game, probably cheap creatures and maybe some mana artifacts, and then once Thoughts of Ruin was the last card in your hand, assuming you had actually managed to get superior board position, you could simulate Armageddon. You’d end up no lands and no cards in your hand—hence “pants down”—leaving you pretty vulnerable if your opponent had been anticipating this play.

That card sounds kind of fun, but that wasn’t what the set was after. Cards in hand are good in this world, and the block already has plenty of stuff to enable that, such as the Moonfolk and Ninja, as well as individual cards like Sensei’s Divining Top, Gifts Ungiven, and Sosuke’s Summons. The newer (printed) version of “Hand Size ’Geddon” is a lot more complex and subtle card than the “pants-down” version.

The idea with Thoughts of Ruin is to craft the perfect setup. Either get more lands in play than your opponent and ’Geddon for a number equal to his lands but less than yours (similar to playing Wildfire), or hold extra lands in your hand and ’Geddon for a number equal to your opponent’s lands but hopefully significantly more than yours. Either way, the goal is to cripple your opponent and leave yourself in a much better position to recover.

引用元
TALK TO THE HAND Posted in Latest Developments on May 13, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/talk-hand-2005-05-13

《荒廃の思考/Thoughts of Ruin》のプレビュー記事です。

《世界の荒廃/Global Ruin》《震央/Epicenter》《激憤明神/Myojin of Infinite Rage》に続く、《ハルマゲドン/Armageddon》のバリエーションの１つと紹介されてます。途中で色が変わっているのは、色の役割の変遷を表していると言えるでしょう。

また、『神河救済』のテーマである、知恵カード（手札の枚数を参照するカード）でもあります。このテーマが導入された理由の１つは、第三セットであることから、これまでのセットとは違った方向性を打ち出すことでした。無色のアーティファクトがテーマのミラディン・ブロックで、第三セットの『フィフスドーン』では真逆とも言える多色テーマ（烈日）だったのもそれと同様でしょう。神河・ブロックの流れで、手札の枚数に着目した経緯は不明ですが、ムーンフォークや忍者や転生や連繫など、手札の枚数を維持・増加させるメカニズムは少なくないので、相性がいいのは間違いありません。この点では、先述のミラディンにおける多色テーマとは対照的です。

さて、手札の枚数を参照するメカニズムを作るにあたって、参照するのは自分か対戦相手か、枚数は多い方がいいか少ない方がいいか、あるいは差がある方がいいか、など参照の仕方は多数ありえます。《荒廃の思考》は元々、自分の手札が少ないほど効果を発揮し、特に０枚の時にハルマゲドンと同様になるようデザインされていました。しかし、自分の手札が多いと効果を発揮する方が好まれるだろう、と言う意見の方が優勢だったようで、現在のようなデザインになりました。

手札が多いほど嬉しいのは確かでしょう。しかし、最も《ハルマゲドン》を使いたいであろうアグロデッキは、なんなら手札を捨ててでも攻めたいものです。そういう点から、あまり噛み合っている効果とは言えません。初期案通り、手札が０枚でハルマゲドンの方が、噛み合っています。しかし、それは、条件を満たしやすく強すぎるとも言えるでしょう。実際、この調整されたバージョンであっても、構築において実績があります。マナクリーチャーやドローエンジンのあるクロックパーミッションのシー・ストンピィ、ドローエンジンを積んだ土地破壊デッキのオウリング・ボアなどです。噛み合っていないようで、いい調整だったと言うのは面白いところです。

The Predecessors
A White card that produces four 1/1 token creatures is nothing new. As far back as the very first Pro Tour, then-Canadian National Champion Eric Tam made the Top 8 of that inaugural event with a four-color Green deck utilizing, among countless other strange and mismatched cards, Icatian Town as a finisher.

You probably notice that Eric’s deck looks to be a mess... Part of that is because deck design wasn’t at that point what it is now, and partly because the tournament format of the first Pro Tour was a modified "Home-dicapped" Standard where each player had to run five cards from each of the then-legal Type II sets. Icatian Town was probably included solely due to its representation of Fallen Empires… but that doesn’t explain why Eric played it main deck as well as sideboard other than he wanted to. Nevertheless, Tam seemed to have something going on with his unique selection of Icatian Town; I know I tried to build countless decks utilizing that expensive sorcery, just to see if I could get it to work.

Several years later, Tomi Walamies ran an impressive 6-0 during the Block Constructed portion of Worlds 2002 with a deck that defied the field. Even though most players thought of Odyssey Block as a U/G or B format, at least until the appearance of three- and four-color Wake decks late in the PTQ season, Walamies cruised to a perfect record on the strength of Battle Screech.

So why drag out old deck lists with obsolete white creature producers? Icatian Town and Battle Screech aren’t exactly Kjeldoran Outpost and Decree of Justice, after all... They aren’t even “Processor for one.” Yet these cards were played in highly successful decks for their eras.

The Savior of Kamigawa
As far as token creature generators, Promise of Bunrei produces at a significantly cheaper cost than both Icatian Town and Battle Screech. However, the card comes with a catch. Unlike its predecessors, Promise of Bunrei does not produce creatures immediately. It is an enchantment that has to be triggered by the death of a creature in order to put its tokens into play. Promise of Bunrei’s trigger condition slows the card down but can also be very helpful. Traditionally, the worst cards for White Weenie are global sweep effects like Pyroclasm and Wrath of God. Because especially mono-White Weenie decks need to win via creature damage, big creature defense can put a real bend in the aggro plan. But if you think about it, getting your creatures killed is the perfect setup... That Wrath of God might take out your Lantern Kamis, but Promise of Bunrei will ensure that you have a small army of follow up threats in what otherwise might have been your worst case scenario.

引用元
PROMISING NEWCOMER Posted in Feature on May 12, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/promising-newcomer-2005-05-12

《分霊の確約/Promise of Bunrei》のプレビュー記事です。

まず、1/1のトークンを４体出すカードの前例として、《アイケイシアの都市/Icatian Town》や《金切るときの声/Battle Screech》を紹介し、それと同様の効果として《分霊の確約/Promise of Bunrei》を紹介しています。ただ、特にそういうカードの系譜が確立しているというわけではないでしょう。

用途としては、白ウィニーの全体除去対策、というのも触れてはいますが、本題は生け贄に捧げるカードで能動的に誘発させるコンボです。実際に活躍したのも、《ナントゥーコの鞘虫/Nantuko Husk》や《オルゾフの御曹子、テイサ/Teysa, Orzhov Scion》との生け贄シナジーデッキ、ゴースト・ハスクでした。

ドラゴンスピリットサイクルの《明けの星、陽星/Yosei, the Morning Star》も、《よりよい品物/Greater Good》でよく生け贄に捧げられていたのを思い出します。

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。

『神河謀叛』の《道を塞ぐ者、黄泉示/Yomiji, Who Bars the Way》は、『神河物語』の《祝福の息吹/Blessed Breath》のイラストで先行登場していました
YOMIJI’S BREATH Posted in Arcana on May 12, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/yomijis-breath-2005-05-12

Ecology of the Cloudhoof Kirin
Here’s what Cloudhoof Kirin looks like:

First off, take a previously good card (in this case Air Elemental) and then simply make it better in pretty much every way. Obviously the fact that the card is a Legend makes Cloudhoof Kirin an entirely different beast, but there’s a lot more in the equation than that.

There is an almost silly kind of tension between the milling ability of the Cloudhoof Kirin and the fact that it is a cheap, big flier. Usually when you have a cheap evasion creature that can beat down, the fact that it can pretend to be a Millstone is largely irrelevant. I know that I generally am hoping that my opponent will just die from damage when I have a 4/4 flier early in the game. In Sealed Deck or draft, it certainly is possible that you could be able to mill someone’s entire library away. The Cloudhoof Kirin could sit back and play defense while your opponent’s 40 card deck (likely down to at most 28 cards by the time you play the Kirin) gets knocked into the grave, but it’s far more likely you’ll be doing something trickier with the milling of this Kirin.

引用元
CLOUDHOOF KIRIN Posted in Feature on May 11, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/cloudhoof-kirin-2005-05-11

《雲蹄の麒麟/Cloudhoof Kirin》のプレビュー記事です。

ようやくスピリットのプレビューです。《大気の精霊/Air Elemental》が伝説になったことで、スピリットクラフトの切削能力がつきました。この、土台となるカードに伝説というデメリットをつけることでメリット能力をつけるデザインは、《永岩城/Eiganjo Castle》サイクルを思い出します。

後は、このカードを使ったデッキの考察です。誘発条件がスピリットや秘儀で、その効果がマナコストに比例するのですから、構築の方針はわかりやすいでしょう。




補足
以前の記事（※１）でも触れた通り、麒麟は日本神道とは関係ありません。ただ、このように機能面からプレビューしていることを見ると、そもそもフレイバー的な部分はあまり気にされていなかったのかも知れません。
また、通常、緑単色のクリーチャーは飛行を持てません。ドラゴンサイクルはその数少ない例外で、タルキールなど他のブロックでも同様の例がありました（※２）。この麒麟サイクルはさらに希少な例外です。ドラゴンほどのメジャーな存在ならまだしも、麒麟という新規のクリーチャー・タイプでわざわざそのような例外的措置を行なった理由を知りたいところです。

※１
神河資料 - 中国混じりの世界
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202003182052279930/
※２
神河資料 - ドラゴンサイクル
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202001311831162466/

People sure did like the Donate-Illusions of Grandeur combo. It’s an evil pair: a card that will kill you and the means to give that card to your opponent. Pass the ticking time bomb. Well, what if both halves of that combo were on the same card? Of course, it’d be way too simple if it were an immediate game-winner, so the loss of 20 life would have to be softened by, say, a factor of 0.4. And if you can donate it, then I suppose your opponent can donate it back to you as well. Yup. We can do that.

There are two words that most accurately describe this card: hot potato. Or maybe hot hand grenade. Get rid of it! It’s going to blow!

引用元
MEASURE FOR MEASURE Posted in Feature on May 10, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/measure-measure-2005-05-10

《悪意の度量/Measure of Wickedness》のプレビュー記事です。

ストーリー上で重要なキャラクターである《真実を求める者、今田魅知子/Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker》や、伝説テーマに相応しい＆新メカニズムである《不朽の理想/Enduring Ideal》と違い、神河ならではというカードではありません。いわゆる「デッキを組んでみようカード」であり、どうやって活用するかを考える記事となっています。この手の話のお約束として、最後にはデッキも紹介されています。こうしたカードの紹介もまたプレビューにはつきものでしょう。

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
ADVANCED CONCEPTS Posted in Limited Information on May 10, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/limited-information/advanced-concepts-2005-05-10

《墓場の騒乱/Stir the Grave》のアートに描かれている他のカード
STIR THE GRAVE SCENE Posted in Arcana on May 10, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/stir-grave-scene-2005-05-10

An Epic Story
Now that I’ve gotten the design team out of the way, let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this column – the epic mechanic. For starters, I can tell you that the epic mechanic is a single rare cycle (meaning there are five of them, one in each color). Each one works the same. Once you play the spell, it will repeat itself at the start of your upkeep every turn. The drawback? It’s the last spell you’ll ever play in the game. Because once you play it you are no longer allowed to play every spell. Don’t worry though, the epic spells were designed to have a lot of game. As Enduring Ideal demonstrates, the gameplay isn’t over once the spell is played. In many ways, the game is just beginning.

So where did the epic spells come from? The answer is not what you might expect. Where did epic spells come from? Legends. Or rather I guess I should say legendary creatures. You see, for those of you that don’t bother to look at your rares, the Kamigawa block has a little legendary theme. (Oh, that’s why all the rare creatures are legendary.) And while we started with creatures, other card types jumped into the fray. Legendary artifacts and lands started appearing. Even legendary enchantments made their premiere. All this made the Saviors design team ask an important question: where are the legendary instants and sorceries?

Brian Tinsman seemed compelled to crack the riddle of the legendary spells. The problems though were plentiful. Legendary permanents made sense. What does it mean for an instant or sorcery to be legendary? At first they explored the idea that only one could be on the stack at any one time. The idea turned out to be just as lame as it sounds. Next, they tried making the spells only playable once per game. The first incarnation could only be played if no copies of the card where in any graveyard. Second, they tried having the card remove all copies of itself from the library when played. Nothing was working.

What does it mean for an instant or sorcery to be legendary

The problem the team realized was that legendary meant two different things. Mechanically it was an object that couldn’t exist in any number greater than one. But creatively, it represented a person, item or place of great historical context. The first definition seemed out of reach, but the team still thought there was hope for the second. So they scrapped the idea of the legendary label and instead decided to create a series of spells that felt like they were legendary in spirit.

It was this idea that led them down the path to spells that stopped all other spells. A spell so mighty that it would always be the last spell you played. But a spell had to be pretty powerful to have this kind of handicap. They experimented with effects but realized that the spells needed something more. This led to the idea that the spells would keep going off every turn. The player would be giving up playing all other spells to get a guaranteed (and free) spell every turn. The team liked it. It felt special and was definitely venturing into virgin design territory. Only one problem remained. What would these spells do?

This is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. Here are a number of things the spells had to do:

* the spell had to have an interesting effect; something this grandiose couldn’t just do some bland effect that gets done every set
* the spell had to have play value; that is, it needed to do something that created interesting game situations turn after turn
* the spell had to allow the caster to win without guaranteeing victory; this is a very gentle balance; the team had to make effects that would lead to winning but not instantly win
* the spell had to be worth its cost; not being able to play spells is a huge drawback; the spell’s effects had to measure up
* the spell had to allow the player ways to interact with it; just because you’re done playing spells doesn’t mean there’s nothing left to do; there’s activated abilities, creatures that can attack and possibly even new keywords that get around the restriction

Yes, the epic spells were an epic challenge. Interestingly enough, Enduring Ideal was one of the first effects the team came up with. You’ll have to wait for Saviors to see the other four.

Once, Twice, Three Times a Set
There’s not too much more to say about the epic mechanic, so I thought I’d take a little detour to talk about one of the biggest challenges of Saviors of Kamigawa, what I’ll call the “third set identity crisis”. For those of you out there that have done any reading on childcare (which I’m guessing is a minority), you’ve probably run across the birth order effect. The idea behind it is that birth order has a huge impact on a child’s development. Being the first child, for example, is a very different experience than being the baby or being a middle child. Why do I bring this up? (Not to talk about childcare, I promise. Hmm, great design mistakes as seen through parenting snafus? Nah.) Because I think set order has a lot to do with expansion identity.

The first set is always shiny and new. It introduces the theme(s) for the year as well as the block mechanics. The second set gets to expand upon the work of the first set makes all the obvious twists (and some of the less obvious ones) on the mechanics. But the third set has a bit of an identity crisis. It can’t just expand on the themes. The second set did that. But it’s still part of the block so it has a certain responsibility to keep the feel of the first two sets. In the end, the set has to always find a new twist to add into the block that feels like an extension of the earlier themes but still feels new. This was the challenge of the Saviors design team.

How did they solve it? What theme did they choose? That sounds like a wonderful topic for next week when I introduce another cool Saviors card and dig a little deeper into what you can expect Saviors to add to the Kamigawa experience.

引用元
EPIC STRUGGLES Posted in Making Magic on May 9, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/epic-struggles-2005-05-09

《不朽の理想/Enduring Ideal》のプレビューです。
もっとも、話のメインはカードそのものよりも「歴伝」メカニズムです。
特に、メカニズムが「残りのゲームの間、この呪文だけを唱えることができる」というものだとザックリ説明した後の、その開発経緯が本題と言えます。

神河ブロックは伝説がテーマなので、伝説のクリーチャーをはじめとして、伝説のアーティファクト、伝説の土地、伝説のエンチャントなど、さまざまなタイプで伝説カードが作られました。
そこで、「伝説のインスタントやソーサリーはないのか？」という疑問が浮上しました。

「１度に１つしかスタックに置けない」「１ゲームに１回しかプレイできない」「１度プレイしたら他のカードをライブラリーから追放」など、試行錯誤されましたが、どれもうまく行きませんでした。

そこで、伝説の意味を改めて考え直したところ、上記のような「１つしか存在しない」以外に、「歴史的に重要なもの（人物・道具・場所）」を表しているとの考えに至ります。そこで、伝説という特殊タイプを与えるのではなく、伝説的な呪文というフレイバーを表す方向に変わりました。

このアイデアから、「他の全ての呪文を使うのを止める、最後の呪文」という発想から、「毎ターン同じ呪文をタダで唱え続ける」というメカニズムに至りました。
後は、そのような呪文にふさわしい効果を探し、そのバランスを調整する段階です。
これはプレビューなので、その結果どのようなカードになったのか全てを明かすことはありません。
ただ、この《不朽の理想/Enduring Ideal》の効果は、歴伝メカニズムができてから最初に思いついたものです。
新メカニズムのプレビューカードに選ばれるのに、相応しいと言えるでしょう。
しかも、このカードは歴伝サイクルの中でもっとも活躍したと言っても過言ではありません。
理想的なプレビューと言えます。


補足１
この記事の主題ではありませんが、第三セットのデザインに苦労することについても軽く触れられています。
それをどう克服して行ったかはその後のお楽しみ、ということですが。

補足２
このような開発経緯の歴伝ですが、その評判はよくなかったようです。
そこで、伝説をテーマとした『ドミナリア』で伝説のソーサリーというメカニズムが登場しました。
この点については、過去の記事で取り上げています。

神河資料 - 伝説の呪文
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/201912272150307305/

昨日の記事の続きです。

And so we come to the Saviors card preview. You may have noticed a pattern with my past cards: Konda, Lord of Eiganjo in Champions, Toshiro Umezawa in Betrayers. There are plenty of characters to choose from, and though I could discuss Mochi (I won’t, but I will say that he mimics the ability of a classic artifact), the storyline demands that Michiko get the honor this time around. It’s a neat progression, one that might not have come about had original plans to have all three top tier characters in Champions gone through (just as Kentaro, the Smiling Cat was originally Toshi, so Masako the Humorless – or at least her ability – was originally Michiko). I could go on and on about her character: her independence, determination, and skill. But I know you all want to see the actual card, so without further ado, here it is.

Now this is what Karmic Justice should’ve been! Michiko, as we’ve seen her in the novels, is a woman with a lot of strength, but one who never uses that strength in an aggressive fashion unless forced to. Her card is a perfect reflection of that aspect of her character. She just sits on the table as a 2/2 white creature, unless your foe makes a move against you. Then the gloves are off!

Obviously, Michiko puts a big hurt on a weenie strategy that needs few lands. Those decks will only get to hit with its small creatures once, then they go bye-bye, or else lose some of its precious lands. But observe that her ability triggers off of any damage, not just combat damage! That means “pingers” like Frostwielder become a less attractive option in a stalemate, and cards like Honden of Infinite Rage lose a good deal of their effectiveness. Those annoying damage-dealing permanents will probably be Michiko’s first victims! There are plenty of decks and strategies out there that depend on dealing small amounts of damage many times over. Michiko quietly puts a rather big kibosh on those plans.

Michiko may be a purely reactive card, but that doesn’t limit her general usefulness nearly as much as other, similar cards. Even if your opponents don’t play the decks she’s best against, her mere presence can make them think twice about counterattacks and direct damage. Making foes doubt their next move is always a good thing, and Daimyo Konda’s daughter does that in spades. Play her in your next game and watch your enemy start to think a little harder!

There are so many twists, turns, and surprises in the Saviors of Kamigawa story that it’s hard to go into too much detail without ruining something. But trust me: you’ll be amazed at what both novel and cardset have in store. The folks in R&D have made Kamigawa’s third act one to remember, so make sure you have a front row seat for it.

引用元
SAVING GRACE - TAKING A LAST LOOK AT KAMIGAWA? Posted in Feature on May 9, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/saving-grace-taking-last-look-kamigawa-2005-05-09

《真実を求める者、今田魅知子/Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker》のプレビューです。

ダメージを与えられるたびにパーマネントを生け贄に捧げさせる能力は、ストーリーでの彼女が、強大な力を持ちながらも、必要に迫られない限りはそれ攻撃的に使うことがない、という性格であることをよく表しているとのことです。
また、こうした受け身な破壊効果は白らしいでしょう。

プレビューにおいては、《霊体の正義/Karmic Justice》と比較されています。
能力的には「あなたがコントロールするクリーチャーでないパーマネントを破壊される」が「あなたにダメージが与えられる」に置き換わったようなものだと言えます。
比較するカードの名前は、なんとも皮肉ではありますが。


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。

安価デッキ構築向けの、『神河物語』『神河謀叛』の優良コモンカード
INTERLUDE: KAMIGAWA’S COMMONS REVIEW Posted in Building on a Budget on May 9, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/building-budget/interlude-kamigawa%E2%80%99s-commons-review-2005-05-09

マローのブログより。神河に対するネガティブな評価の１つが、スピリットが奇抜で不気味に見える、ということでした。
https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/662894222685388800/was-a-negative-review-of-original-kamigawa-block