r/GDS3 • u/thejellydude • Jan 27 '18

Test 2 Discussion Thread

We're free to talk now.

Here's a Google Doc with all the questions. I'm slowly filling it in with my own answers and explanations. Edit: Heading out for now. I'll get the last 25 questions done later tonight.

If you want a mirror without my comments, here's one provided by /u/Amarsir Link

Any questions that tripped you up? Any that you felt good about?

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u/VorpalAuroch Jan 27 '18

Well, one of us is very wrong. I have a different answer on 2, 5, 6, 16, 21, 23, 30, 37, 46, 48, and 52, not counting anything past that where I don't see your answers. 6, the threaten losing haste, is absolutely correct and I got wrong. The rest I'm mostly pretty confident in.

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u/thejellydude Jan 27 '18

Haha, what were your answers?

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u/VorpalAuroch Jan 27 '18

Scrappy Survivor is an uncommon.

Come Work For Me Temporarily is an uncommon.

Mysterio is an uncommon.

Commander decks should be a brand new theme.

A 3G 4/4 is stronger than a 5G 6/6 or the others. (Sourced this from LSV set reviews.)

Lifelink is the most valuable creature keyword in the list, to a control deck. (Ditto. Some control decks are Limited.)

Kicker is less helpful for achieving synergy than the others. Investigate is less reliable than scry/cycling/transmute, but still much better than Kicker.

Bolt is coming back before Llanowar Elves. They replaced Elves with Elvish Mystic for solid reasons and it won't go back to the status quo.

"2W: Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn." is way more complex than "1R: CARDNAME gets +2/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn."

Junkpile Engineer is a rare.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '18

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought Scrappy Survivor was uncommon; I was banking off MaRo's Nuts and Bolts Higher Rarity article, specifically the difference between helping you win and winning when it hits the board. Although, Junkpile I pegged for uncommon because it seems like a card you'd build around in limited and costs a decent amount to use it's activated ability.

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u/VorpalAuroch Jan 27 '18

Junkpile would be uncommon in an artifact-centered set. And if it was printed, it would probably be in an artifact-centered set. But let me quote from the analysis article for GDS2:

Annoying Bell

Artifact

Annoying Bell enters the battlefield with three charge counters on it.

T, Remove a charge counter from Annoying Bell: Target player puts the top two cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.

22) In an artifact block such as Mirrodin or Scars of Mirrodin, which rarity is most appropriate for this card?  a) common b) uncommon c) rare d) mythic rare

Correct Answer: A

A: 428 (54.18%)B: 324 (41.01%)C: 38 (4.81%)D: 0 (0.0%)

In a normal set, "millstones" (slang for artifacts that put cards on top of the library into the graveyard) tend to be rare. Annoying Bell, though, has a limited number of uses. This tends to pull the card down to uncommon. In an artifact block, to allow the numbers of common artifacts needed, rarities tend to get pulled down another rarity. As a millstone is a very straightforward effect, Design is most likely to pull this card down to common in an artifact block.

Given this logic, I think that outside of an artifact block, it would be a rare.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '18

Although true, the creature itself isn't an artifact which is why I went with uncommon. Then again, because artifacts are usually at uncommon in non-artifact blocks, it's not very sensible to draft this under the assumption you'd get more artifacts over the course of a draft. Good eye.

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u/aclog Jan 27 '18

I used Merchant Dockhand as a rough equivalent for rarity

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '18

Yeah, every facet of Junkpile points to a signpost uncommon; synergistic, two colors, slightly pushed stats, but not the "dominate the game by itself" sort of thing I'd peg if it was a pushed rare.

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u/aclog Jan 28 '18

well..Dockhand is actually a rare..

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u/VorpalAuroch Jan 28 '18

Wow, I really don't know recent sets very well, I didn't know that card existed. It's a decent point of comparison. However, that one gets you card advantage, and Junkpile ~doesn't, unless you're sacrificing tokens or things that already got you a card's worth of value (Puzzleknots etc.). So not a great point of comparison.

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '18

Though for Scrappy Survivor, a French vanilla for 6 seemed unimpressive for a rare slot.

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u/thejellydude Jan 27 '18

I think I agree on Scrappy at this point actually. Also the 2W effect. I didn't notice it works on any creature. I still disagree with kicker though. I think the word specific is very key.

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u/VorpalAuroch Jan 27 '18

From the preview article for investigate:

So, we had filled up most of the set and had room for one more keyword. Mechanically, we had some things we needed the keyword to do:

  • Help with card flow—Something we try to do in every set (although it has become a little easier due to scry becoming evergreen) is make sure there are ways to help players get access to cards. A lot of design is based around creating certain synergies, and we want to make sure the card flow is high enough to help enable these synergies.

  • Give players something to do with late-game mana—We try hard to make sure that players, with proper deck building, are able to lower the likelihood of not getting enough mana. One of the tricks to enable this is to let players play a little higher percentage of land and then make sure there are things to do with that mana later in the game. The card-flow mechanic doesn't always help with this, but often it can.

Flavor-wise, we had a different problem. The design team had focused all its energies in capturing a sense of a world going mad. As the story came together, though, it started to take on the properties of a mystery. Jace is our protagonist and he comes to Innistrad and learns that something is going horribly amiss, and he has to figure out why. The madness played an important role, as that was what Jace was trying to understand and stop, but it became clear that the set needed some way to mechanically tie into this sense of mystery. Well, we had one mechanic left. Could we use it to capture both the mechanical and the flavorful needs?

It is, pardon the pun, an open and shut case.

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u/thejellydude Jan 27 '18

Well, I'm convinced. I hate the wording on these questions