on the other hand, transformers crossover Magic: The Gathering’s latest Universes Beyond collaboration is a set of four Warhammer 40,000-themed Commander decks.
Including brand new art from the Warhammer 40,000 universe for every card you can see in the video above, you’ll have to open up all four of these fancy new decks to see exactly what’s in each box. We also asked Ethan Fleischer, senior game designer at Wizards of the Coast, about the design of the deck, whether it was meant to play against each other, or whether the shiny Allfoil Collector’s Edition is the new normal. I heard the story.
“We wanted to open up Magic’s gameplay doors to a new audience: Warhammer players,” Fleischer tells me, and that was the main reason for putting themed art on every card. I was. Fleischer also explains that the card’s early designs “explored mechanics that reflected the types of weapons used by Warhammer 40,000’s armies”, but the idea was more closely related to Magic’s more traditional fantasy setting. It was something you don’t normally see. Focus on factions instead.
One common sentiment I’ve seen regarding these decks is that they plan to leave the decks with consistent art and leave them completely unchanged in order to pit them against each other in groups. is a player. When asked if that was actively considered in the design, Fleischer, who always tested new preconstructed decks against each other, said this time, “I want the decks to be fun to play and balanced with each other. We have taken great care to ensure that ” Just in anticipation of that.
Special collector’s editions are also being talked about.From the shiny new ‘Surge Foil’ treatment, it sold out quickly in most places before its release, unfortunately report Some are slightly bent in the package. We couldn’t talk about that last point, but Fleischer does say that there may be more precons of such editions in the future, but “the Collector’s Edition is just an experimental version of Wizards of the Coast.” Whether it’s a data point or just an experimental data point depends on how the audience reacts.It’s business as usual.”
Watch our unboxing in the video above and read the full interview.
IGN: With 42 new cards in each deck, were you designing that many exciting or intimidating precons? Whatever the deck is missing in theory? Since you can create, did you have to limit yourself, or did you indulge in that freedom?
Ethan Fleischer, Senior Game Designer: Most of the 168 new card design ‘slots’ were used to best represent the core of Warhammer 40,000’s intellectual property. This is a great miniature made for tabletop wargames. These correspond to Magic’s creature cards in a very satisfying way. Some of the 216 reprinted “slots” were used for non-core Warhammer 40,000 IP concepts such as lands, but also for cards suggesting cool rethinks in the dark future. My favorite of these is “Swords to Plowshares,” which shows a futuristic tank converted into a farm tractor.
The ability to create so many new cards allowed us to build entirely new deck archetypes from scratch with Necron Dynasties Decks. A mono-black artifact recursive deck? This was almost unheard of in Magic.
Now that you can play with futuristic weaponry and sci-fi tropes, were there any card design spaces that you felt you could explore for the first time?
Early in the design process, we explored mechanics that would reflect the types of weapons used by Warhammer 40,000’s armies that aren’t typically found in Magic’s more traditional fantasy settings. None of these mechanics offered enough novelty to justify the space occupied by the many new cards. Ultimately, we focused on mechanics that reflected the identity of each faction represented in each deck, relying on Warhammer 40,000’s rich and feature-rich arsenal to use traditional Magic mechanics to I decided to express the concept of each type of creature. Deep world-building that inspires player excitement.
How important was it to your goals to create all the cards with Warhammer 40,000 art (including basic lands) in these decks?
Creating art depicting the war-torn galaxy of Warhammer 40,000 was an established goal from the early stages of design. We wanted to open the doors of Magic’s gameplay to a new audience: Warhammer his players. To do that, the cards had to be firmly and consistently rooted in the setting, so there was no question that I understood and appreciated Warhammer. For long-time players, the look and feel of the cards provided an aesthetically consistent experience that no Commander preconstructed deck could ever provide.
Is the All Foil Collector’s Edition just an experiment, or do you have more planned for the future?
I believe the Collector’s Edition is an extension of recent innovations such as Booster Fun and Secret Lair Drops. Many of our players are eager to express themselves by collecting, customizing their decks, and choosing which versions of the cards they play with. Whether it’s just an experimental data point or the new normal business depends on how your audience responds.
I know a lot of people planned to leave the decks completely as is and pit them against each other in pods, but was that the intention behind them? did you try?
Our normal playtesting procedure is to playtest decks from a given release against each other. With the thematic cohesion of the Warhammer 40,000 decks, we expected more players than usual to want to keep these decks as they were rather than tearing them apart and moving them to another deck. As a result, we took great care to ensure that the decks were fun to play and balanced against each other.
Do you have a favorite combo or synergy in one of the decks people should know about?
The Ruinous Powers deck is fundamentally chaotic, but smart players can find ways to subvert its themes. For example, you can attack with Aspiring Champion and use Brainstorm to put a powerful demon like Lord of Change on top of your library. This ensures that your Aspiring Champion is exactly what you intended, with the most powerful results. But be careful! Necron players have the tools at their disposal to mill the top card of your library into your graveyard, so they might sabotage your carefully planned plans!
