Pattern Recognition #61 - Set out of Time
Features Opinion Pattern Recognition
berryjon
22 March 2018
1310 views
22 March 2018
1310 views
Hello everyone! My name is berryjon, and I am TappedOut.net's resident Old Fogey and part time Smart Ass. I write this series, Pattern Recognition, as a means to entertain, educate and something else that starts with an E. Apparently, that's supposed to be ... checks dictionary ... expound. Wait. Didn't I use that one already? Eh, I can live with that.
Today's article is partly the result of my editors 'suggesting' that I start to work on Dominaria. But at this point, I don't want to quite talk about the information we learned from the unfortunately released early Release Notes. And I certainly don't want to talk about Time Spiral block yet, despite its importance to the game and to the backstory of Dominaria.
So instead, I'll talk about a different set, one that was printed far out of order. Enough so, that it had to be designed with several different formats in mind.
But first, a little bit of history. The Ice Age 'Block' is a only a 'Block' in the current sense through dint of definition. It consisted of three sets that were printed consecutively, namely Ice Age, Alliances and Homelands.
Ice Age was released in June of 1995, and was the sixth expansion in the game. It told the story of the continent of
This was a very Norse-themed set, thanks in part to the then-current idea that sets could draw on real-world cultures for inspiration and design. But unlike Arabian Nights, or the much later Theros, Ice Age didn't simply draw wholesale from the source mythology, but rather attempted to invoke the themes of it. This worked out better for the set in the long run as players new and old (though I suppose every player was still new at that point) could draw and make the connections for themselves, rather than having it shoved in their faces.
The set introduced three new mechanics into the game, that being Cumulative Upkeep, Cantrips and Snow. The former was an escalation on the already-established Upkeep mechanic, where a cost would be paid each turn to keep the card, lest it harm the owning player in some way, either by sacrificing it or, as was the case of Lord of the Pit, doing even more. By making the mechanic Cumulative, the cost would increase each turn, setting a soft limit on the ability of a player to keep th card in play as they balance resources.
Cantrips, I have talked about previously as being a card that included the rider of drawing a card as it resolved, effectively replacing it in your hand for the low cost of or .
And then there was Snow. Snow is a supertype, like Legendary. But unlike that one, it has no immediately inherent rules applied to it. Rather, it is a descriptor that interacts with other cards that look for it. However, the mechanic was only applied to the basic lands, meaning that a lot of those interactions boiled down to 'Snow-Covered (Basic Land Type)-walk'.
Ice Age did well, being developed as Alpha was ending, so there was a certain amount of continuity between the two - there were quite a few cards from the initial set that got carried forward into Ice Age, helping to cement the idea of reprinting cards in future sets as the norm, rather than the exception.
The next set was Homelands. Developed concurrently with Ice Age, or near enough, this one was completely unconnected with Ice Age, set on the plane of Ulgrotha. It gave us the ever-loved Baron Sengir, and was the set of Victorian horror before Innistrad came along to take that title away. Of note, Homelands was also the last set to be published as a 'stand-alone', meaning it was designed by itself, without the support of a full block or companion sets until the publication of Dominaria!
Then came Alliances. This was a set designed to follow up on the set Ice Age, describing the developing conditions of the world after the end of winter and the coming of spring and summer. It was designed by the same team that did Ice Age, so they already knew what they wanted to do, and were going to do going into it. And that involved dropping the under-developed Snow mechanic.
Fast forward nearly ten years. In that time, Magic had grown. Design lessons were learned, and cards simply got better on average.
Ravnica had arrived to thunderous applause, and the next block - Time Spiral - was announced, setting off a massive hype machine in the fandom that has only been rivalled by the hype surrounding Dominaria.
Hrm, I wonder if there's a theme going on here? Nah.
But between those two, there was an announcement by Mark Rosewater. Or rather, by
Total malarkey of course. Coldsnap was developed properly after Control/Alt/Delete (the codenames for the Ravnica block) and before Snap/Crackle/Pop (Time Spiral block).
Coldsnap was interesting as it filled in a gap in the first real 'block', pushing Homelands out in the process, yet it had to incorporate design elements from Ice Age and Alliances while at the same time, being a set that could work within the frame of the sets before and after.
To that end, Coldsnap brought back Snow as a supertype, but this time applied it to more than just basic lands. Dark Depths, Boreal Druid, Glacial Plating, Coldsteel Heart... In addition, it added a definition to mana that is unique in the game. Mana produced by a source with the 'Snow' supertype also has the quality of 'Snow', and when you required Snow Mana to activate an ability - like say, on Diamond Faerie, it had to come from that source! for the win!
It also brought back Cumulative Upkeep as a mechanic, but unlike the previous versions, this one experimented with alternate costs, as well as the creature giving out a boon when the cost was no longer paid. I've talked a bit about this subject before as well, so there's no need to repeat myself here.
Thematically, Coldsnap included the fact that the Ice Age itself was over by framing the story of the set as the Cult of Rimewind, seeing the breaking of the ice, thinking that this wasn't the best of things, so they cast magics to artificially extend the winter, the titular Coldsnap. An allied force, first under the command of Lovisa Coldeyes, then by the forces of Yavimaya to finish off the magics themselves.
They also fought old Phyrexian war machines, but that's just a side note really.
Coldsnap was a very interesting set, and not just because there's enough throwbacks to make it an honourary part of the Time Spiral block. It reaffirmed Snow as a legitimate mechanic, rather than being a (yet another) half-cooked idea that lacked support. This in turn is a very solid data point for bringing back any old mechanic with new twists to it.
And yes, it was a litmus test for Time Spiral. How would the player base react to these old mechanics coming back? Pretty well, it seems!
Of course, this set also brought out some pretty neat and powerful cards. Counterbalance is an amazing control card that helped ban Sensei's Divining Top in Modern, while Dark Depths wasn't that bad originally, but with the combination of Thespian's Stage or Vampire Hexmage, made for quick and brutal finishers. Karplusan Minotaur is a personal favourite of mine when combined with Chance Encounter.
But there is also Thrumming Stone. When I worked at my FLGS, I had a guy come in looking to build a Relentless Rats deck, and I asked him if he had all of the Thrumming Stone's he wanted. He didn't know that the card existed until I pulled out our Coldsnap binder and showed it to him. One of the easiest playset sales I ever made. :)
Zur the Enchanter is a very solid Voltron-styled Commander, one which I haven't used myself because I'm a filthy player. ;)
Coldsnap also helped, thanks to its distance from the other cards in the block, prove that the idea of the expansion-outside-of-a-block could work, which I think Wizards is banking on with the new Three-and-One paradigm.
I like this set, I really do. But then again, I am a self-professed Old Fogey, so that may have something to do with it. Coldsnap was more than just a way to 'finish off' a block that didn't need fixing, it was also a way to celebrate the history of Magic, and to remind people that this is where they were, and where they could yet go.
I mean, it's not like Centaur Omenreader may yet be a fulfilled promise of things to come.
That's all for this week. Join me next week when I work on a subject designed to not talk about the impending GREATEST SET SINCE TIME SPIRAL!
Sorry, I think I let myself get away there. What I meant to say was that I will choose a subject, and discuss it in a rational, well-reasoned manner while not bowing to the pressures of my peers.
Totally.
Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream, and you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!