With every set, a document is created during the design process called the “Vision Design Handoff Document.” Mark Rosewater, the lead designer for Magic: The Gathering along with the set’s Vision Design Lead will release that document as the release date draws near. Yesterday, Rosewater and Mark Gottlieb, the Vision Design Lead for Lorwyn Eclipsed released part 1 of the Vision Design Handoff Document. That document is available at Daily MTG.
The Vision Design Handoff Document is prepared by Vision Design to help assist the Set Design team in creating the final product that hits shelves. For Lorwyn Eclipsed, the Vision Design team had an idea to try a new keyword that they describe as “companion-adjacent.” Fans of Ikoria will remember that Companion created a deck-building restriction to allow a Companion card to be brought into the game from the Sideboard.
Ultimately, this was creating broken constructed formats because decks were being built almost like 60-card Commander decks that only cared about that one card. It wasn’t long before many Companions were simply being banned in competitive formats. The Vision Design team for Lorwyn Eclipsed, however, attempted to bring a version of the broken mechanic back into Magic with a keyword called “Leader.”
Where Companion required you to fit a specific deck building restriction, Leader would have required you to meet a specific game state. An example of how Leader could work in the design handoff document was included — “, Tap any number of untapped Faeries you control with total power 6 or more: Put this card into your hand from outside the game. Activate only one leader ability each game and only as a sorcery.”
The keyword was scrapped during set design but would have included 8 leaders, one for each of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor’s creature types. Rosewater states in his notes on the document that Leader was a new approach to companions to give players a goal to meet instead of a deck-building rule to follow but ultimately it did not make it into the set.
Part 1 of the Vision Design Handoff Document is already available at Daily MTG with Part 2 still on the way. Lorwyn Eclipsed releases worldwide on January 23rd.
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