Am I the only one who finds it strange that there are no blue wizards in M10? I'm not complaining (and no, I'm not clamoring for Fugitive Wizard[/CARD] to return) - I just think it's odd that one of blue's most iconic creature types/classes only shows up in black, white, and red. Especially since creature classes are so flavorful, and they're obviously pushing white soldiers, green druids, etc.
I guess M10 Blue isn't very co-operative. You're the wizard, as we see with the weird spells. No one is going to mistake that (plus there's the reference to the crafty "merfolk magic" or something). But this is major; it has to indicate a change to subtypes from here forward.
Consider trying to force a few more Wizards into the set. What cards would have swapped out (I don't see "Wizard" being added to to many of the type lines).
Maybe.... maybe it's both. Both of, I mean: (1) It was an unavoidable scenario for the design of this set, but then looking at that fact, perhaps Dev caught that (2) having Wizards was keeping Blue design back.
I'm not claiming 2 is the case, I'm just speculating.
(1) is a possible explanation for why there are no Wizards, and on its own implies that the shortage was "unintended". (2) would say that the lack is nonaccidental. But maybe it's even both - they were in situation 1, but then took this as an insight; i.e., they asked "what if this difficulty is itself nonincidental? What if it's a symptom of a problem?" and then specifically left Wizards out.
If forcing Wizards into Blue has held back Blue's design in sets, dropping it would be a good move.
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I personally think wizards aren't defined enough... most magic creatures that are intelligent can be wizards. Wizards cast spells, which appear as abilities.
I think Merfolk, Fairies, and Illusions are much more flavorful.
Agreed. I'd be happy to cast no humans at all. That's why I loved Shadowmoor block. The fantasy is best without humans. Plainswalkers are fine as humans.
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I am a wizard. Why would I want to cast more wizards? I want dragons, goblins, elementals, fairys, spells, artifacts. I don't want to summon people unless they are planeswalkers or are really cool.
What is also interesting is that both Coral Merfolk and Merfolk Sovereign are both blue merfolk without a class. Given the great creature type update, when most sentient creatures were given both a race and a class, this is also important. Especially because Merfolk Sovereign feels very much like it could be a wizard.
That said, a lot of the apparent lack of blue wizards in M10 could just be explained by the fact that generally only sentient races get classes, and about half of M10's blue creatures have flying. Aside from the rare and mythic Djinn of Wishes and Sphinx Ambassador, none of blue's flying creatures have sentient creature types, (Okay, Air Elemental and Zephyr Sprite can be debated too.) and, frankly, both of those cards would lose some of thier inherent coolness if thier creature types lines read "Creature - Djinn Wizard" or "Creature-Sphinx Wizard" instead of how they read now.
So, is the lack of blue wizards in M10 odd? Yeah. Conserning? No. We'll have to wait till Zenikar to find out if this is a new design philosophy or an odd quirk of the set.
I am a wizard. Why would I want to cast more wizards? I want dragons, goblins, elementals, fairys, spells, artifacts. I don't want to summon people unless they are planeswalkers or are really cool.
I thought you were a planeswalker? I want to summon a wizard to do my bidding while I take a nap in my hammock.
The lack of wizards in Core does worry me. But then, I seem to be the only person alive that wants to see Human Tribal effects in the game, so I'm not sure my opinion counts for much.
I personally think wizards aren't defined enough... most magic creatures that are intelligent can be wizards. Wizards cast spells, which appear as abilities.
I think Merfolk, Fairies, and Illusions are much more flavorful.
There have been Merfolk Wizards before ... the Merfolk Sovereign, for instance, could've been a Wizard without any real drawback, and keeping at least one "Wizard" in blue.
Even Red has some Wizards ...
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I just opened a Planar Chaos booster and pulled an Extirpate and a Damnation in the same pack.
Actually, there are a total of 4 wizards in the set, period. Considering wizards do need to do something (IE, cast spells, right?) that's not hard to fathom. After all, the white wizard casts a light spell, the red wizards cast burn spells, and the black wizard casts a spell that makes him frightning.
Actually, the black wizard should have been a zombie, so WTF.
At any rate, what blue magic would you reasonably put onto a blue wizard? Merfolk Looter's ability comes to mind, but that's a rogue, and a great card that everyone loves. Maybe you could do an untap thing, but those never see play; in fact, I hardly ever see them in casual (caveat: they could've, y'kno, made a new one?). Bouncing and countering is too powerful to put on a stick unless it's something like a one shot, and a one-shot wizard doesn't make sense. So I just think there's no design space in this set for a blue wizard.
The lack of wizards in Core does worry me. But then, I seem to be the only person alive that wants to see Human Tribal effects in the game, so I'm not sure my opinion counts for much.
You're not alone. I personally can't wait for "Sacrifice a human: ..."
At any rate, what blue magic would you reasonably put onto a blue wizard? Merfolk Looter's ability comes to mind, but that's a rogue, and a great card that everyone loves. Maybe you could do an untap thing, but those never see play; in fact, I hardly ever see them in casual (caveat: they could've, y'kno, made a new one?). Bouncing and countering is too powerful to put on a stick unless it's something like a one shot, and a one-shot wizard doesn't make sense. So I just think there's no design space in this set for a blue wizard.
"Unblockability" isveryWizardly. They could have stuck the Wizard type on Merfolk Sovereign and fit it perfectly in the color pie... The only problem being that it would then have two creature types but only care about one of them.
"Unblockability" isveryWizardly. They could have stuck the Wizard type on Merfolk Sovereign and fit it perfectly in the color pie... The only problem being that it would then have two creature types but only care about one of them.
The flavor behind Merfolk Sovereign is as a lord (hence, sovereign). I, for one, wouldn't have liked a Lord as a Wizard; why would a wizard lead you into battle?
Today's MaRo article is pretty good proof on its own that this was just incidental.
But then it still remains... that the set came together without blue wizards. Thus, what we have is that these four big names in WotC don't find wizards core to Blue: not enough to force one into the set, and not even to put the type on any file other than a Looter's in the first place.
So the intrigue remains.
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Now theres very few wizards and alot of Merfolk. I remember when 8th came out, Maro said something along the lines of Merfolk not making sense because they couldn't be out of the water too long and they werent flavorful enough for the core set. I'm not qouting him or anything but there was some dumb excuse for cutting back the merfolk. Thats why we had Thought Courier in 9th and not Merfolk Looter. I think R&D does whatever they want at the end of the day then tries to feed us some crap about why its a good choice. Then contradict themselves later.
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Squee: I sees a horsey, an’ a piggy, an’ a...zombie!?!
They had logical reasons for removing merfolk, but the bottom line is nobody gives a damn about vedalkens or cephilaphids or anything else. They did the "market research" and discovered the obvious, that Merfolk are the only blue race that have ever mattered to people (well fae but I don't think they are exactly popular...) I mean there are reasons we get goblins and elves till we are ready to puke, people just gobble them up.
I am just happy that in MG's article about Blue today he says,
"Negate obviously made it in. Mana Leak was bandied about, but in the end development thought it was stronger than we wanted for a two-mana counterspell in the current environment. To all the control lovers out there, don't worry—the pendulum will swing like it always does."
They had logical reasons for removing merfolk, but the bottom line is nobody gives a damn about vedalkens or cephilaphids or anything else. They did the "market research" and discovered the obvious, that Merfolk are the only blue race that have ever mattered to people (well fae but I don't think they are exactly popular...) I mean there are reasons we get goblins and elves till we are ready to puke, people just gobble them up.
I really wish wizards hadn't decided to make gnomes mechanical critters, because I think they would have made a pretty damn cool blue race.
I find it surprising that there are no Wizards in Blue... probably something they missed.
Dread Warlock would have been better as a Rogue than a Wizard. (Well... its a Warlock so we ended up with wizard)
Having said that, I feel creature types has always been a very arbitrary thing in Magic. So sometimes it sucks we cannot put Merfolk Sovereign in our Merfolk Wizard Deck, and sometimes cavern Harpy randomly works with Wirewood Savage. In a way this unpredictability, for me, adds fun to casual deck building.
This is huge.
I guess M10 Blue isn't very co-operative. You're the wizard, as we see with the weird spells. No one is going to mistake that (plus there's the reference to the crafty "merfolk magic" or something). But this is major; it has to indicate a change to subtypes from here forward.
Consider trying to force a few more Wizards into the set. What cards would have swapped out (I don't see "Wizard" being added to to many of the type lines).
Maybe.... maybe it's both. Both of, I mean: (1) It was an unavoidable scenario for the design of this set, but then looking at that fact, perhaps Dev caught that (2) having Wizards was keeping Blue design back.
I'm not claiming 2 is the case, I'm just speculating.
(1) is a possible explanation for why there are no Wizards, and on its own implies that the shortage was "unintended". (2) would say that the lack is nonaccidental. But maybe it's even both - they were in situation 1, but then took this as an insight; i.e., they asked "what if this difficulty is itself nonincidental? What if it's a symptom of a problem?" and then specifically left Wizards out.
If forcing Wizards into Blue has held back Blue's design in sets, dropping it would be a good move.
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I think Merfolk, Fairies, and Illusions are much more flavorful.
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That said, a lot of the apparent lack of blue wizards in M10 could just be explained by the fact that generally only sentient races get classes, and about half of M10's blue creatures have flying. Aside from the rare and mythic Djinn of Wishes and Sphinx Ambassador, none of blue's flying creatures have sentient creature types, (Okay, Air Elemental and Zephyr Sprite can be debated too.) and, frankly, both of those cards would lose some of thier inherent coolness if thier creature types lines read "Creature - Djinn Wizard" or "Creature-Sphinx Wizard" instead of how they read now.
So, is the lack of blue wizards in M10 odd? Yeah. Conserning? No. We'll have to wait till Zenikar to find out if this is a new design philosophy or an odd quirk of the set.
I thought you were a planeswalker? I want to summon a wizard to do my bidding while I take a nap in my hammock.
There have been Merfolk Wizards before ... the Merfolk Sovereign, for instance, could've been a Wizard without any real drawback, and keeping at least one "Wizard" in blue.
Even Red has some Wizards ...
GIVE ARABIAN NIGHTS THE COLDSNAP TREATMENT!
Actually, the black wizard should have been a zombie, so WTF.
At any rate, what blue magic would you reasonably put onto a blue wizard? Merfolk Looter's ability comes to mind, but that's a rogue, and a great card that everyone loves. Maybe you could do an untap thing, but those never see play; in fact, I hardly ever see them in casual (caveat: they could've, y'kno, made a new one?). Bouncing and countering is too powerful to put on a stick unless it's something like a one shot, and a one-shot wizard doesn't make sense. So I just think there's no design space in this set for a blue wizard.
This is a Shivan Ampersand
You're not alone. I personally can't wait for "Sacrifice a human: ..."
"Unblockability" is very Wizardly. They could have stuck the Wizard type on Merfolk Sovereign and fit it perfectly in the color pie... The only problem being that it would then have two creature types but only care about one of them.
That would be awesome...
The flavor behind Merfolk Sovereign is as a lord (hence, sovereign). I, for one, wouldn't have liked a Lord as a Wizard; why would a wizard lead you into battle?
This is a Shivan Ampersand
But then it still remains... that the set came together without blue wizards. Thus, what we have is that these four big names in WotC don't find wizards core to Blue: not enough to force one into the set, and not even to put the type on any file other than a Looter's in the first place.
So the intrigue remains.
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WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
I really wish wizards hadn't decided to make gnomes mechanical critters, because I think they would have made a pretty damn cool blue race.
Dread Warlock would have been better as a Rogue than a Wizard. (Well... its a Warlock so we ended up with wizard)
Having said that, I feel creature types has always been a very arbitrary thing in Magic. So sometimes it sucks we cannot put Merfolk Sovereign in our Merfolk Wizard Deck, and sometimes cavern Harpy randomly works with Wirewood Savage. In a way this unpredictability, for me, adds fun to casual deck building.