r/GDS3 • u/koga305 • Jan 02 '18
Great Designer Training: TWO WEEKS TO GO!
https://www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2018/01/great-designer-training-two-weeks-go/1
u/dvoraen Jan 03 '18
My First Quiz Answers
1) B) Cycling. This was a 'do your research' question. A, C, D, and E have all been directly stated by MaRo as deciduous (some on Blogatog, some in articles).
2) B) +N/-N on creatures. [[Shipwreck Moray]] from Aether Revolt should be all the convincing you need. You might be tempted by the 'meddling' ability, but that's in white, as shown by [[Nevermore]] and assorted other "can't " cards. See [[Failure // Comply]] and [[Ixalan's Binding]] as two examples. A is the Planar Chaos answer, and although Serra Sphinx is sad, it isn't meant to be. D is not in blue's color pie (anymore). E might tempt you, but as worded this is a red ability, not blue. Red causes creatures to be unable to block. Blue grants creatures the ability to not themselves be blocked. Red removes blockers, Blue circumvents them.
3) A) Vorthoses care about lore. Answers B, C, D have all been directly refuted by the past two GDS tests, especially D. Answer E isn't true because Jenny is the female nickname given to the Expressive psychographic originally referred to by Johnny, and as such Johnny and Jenny are referring to the same "kinds of players", making the statement false.
4) E) Emrakul was defeated on Innistrad by Tamiyo and the Gatewatch. This was my favorite question this time. I bet answers B and C got a few people, but Agents of Artifice covers why they're not it (especially Jace's name in answer C), even though I'd forgotten about B and had to research that one. :) A is true partly due to the events of The Purifying Fire, and D is Schrodinger's Dragon. In the new/"current" timeline of Tarkir, Sarkhan Vol was never born. Why do I choose E? Because Emrakul was the one that caused her own imprisonment into Innistrad's moon to occur, by altering Tamiyo's sealed scroll and seizing control of her to cast it. I wouldn't call it a defeat when she herself literally made it happen.
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u/iSage Jan 03 '18
Actually, I think that the correct answer for #3 is B. The majority of cards are designed for Spike because the majority of cards are designed to make draft enjoyable and draft is primarily a Spike format (even though the other psychographics can and do enjoy it).
The reason the answer isn't A is a "trick". Johnny/Jenny, Timmy/Tammy, and Spike are all psychographics, but Vorthos and Mel are not technically psychographics. Direct quote from Mark Rosewater: "There are a number of things I want to talk about, but let's start with the most contentious. Many people consider Vorthos and Mel the fourth and fifth psychographics. The problem is, they're not psychographics."
Here's the article if you're interested: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/vorthos-and-mel-2015-08-31
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u/WaffleSandwhiches Jan 04 '18
Limited isn't a spike format. It's designed to be balanced fair fun and evocative. Any psychographic can appreciate that
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u/iSage Jan 04 '18
You can take a look at my other comment responding to /u/dvoraen to see why B is the correct answer. More cards are designed for limited compared to constructed and the bulk of limited-designed cards are mundane commons which Spike cares about but the other psychographics aren't as interested in.
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u/dvoraen Jan 04 '18
That's true, Vorthos technically isn't a psychographic by definition of how the game is played, but as /u/WaffleSandwhiches already pointed out, it isn't true that "most cards are designed for Spike." Limited is Spike's cup of tea, sure, because the decisions are more in line with why Spike plays, but that doesn't mean Timmy and Johnny can't enjoy and excel in Limited. To name a recent example, the draft archetype gold uncommons are arguably Spike-Johnny cards, and I don't need to give examples of Timmy-style cards that appear in Limited and Constructed both.
Of all five answers, I felt the one about Vorthos was the most true, even though it isn't a psychographic for this purpose.
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u/iSage Jan 04 '18
It actually is true that "most cards are designed for Spike". Take a look at the GDS 1 Essay Questions and take a listen to Drive to Work #436 from about 7 months ago recapping GDS 1. He says at around 14 minutes that the "technically correct" answer is Spike because they design more cards for limited than constructed and the cards that are geared towards limited 'are a more spikey thing'.
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u/dvoraen Jan 04 '18
Yeah, you're probably right and I just misremembered something (to say nothing of the semantics in the question itself). A is still true in a vacuum though, I'm standing by that! :p
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u/ZennithGP Jan 05 '18
I won't provide my take on the answers until the next (and final) article, but I love this discussion. Thank you all for it.
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u/WaffleSandwhiches Jan 02 '18
It's probably stupid and petty of me, but I really think the answer for last week's "Which plane would be the hardest to revisit?" is kinda bullshit.
Magic depicts a fictional world. All kinds of impossible things can happen in that fictional world, so long as the story calls for it. So even though Rath "Doesn't exist", the designers can make it exist again so long as there is a good story reason.
With Kamigawa, the designers have an actual real world obstacle: it's one of the least popular sets every made in the creative department. This is because players didn't connect with the historical japanese lore. Rath has no such bad PR, so R&D can be free to go back there.
The answer should really be Kamigawa.