Nom nom.ĭouble Strike, First Strike – These abilities have to do with the timing of damage, which sounds pretty mechanical-yet the fact that they've been treated with strong flavor throughout their lifetimes make them winners. I love how Conflux has innovated on devour with cards like Hellkite Hatchling. Do we rename it to bring the ability back in settings not inspired by Japanese myths and history?Ĭonvoke – The word is unusual, but the flavor of your creatures working together to help you cast spells really resonates for me, and is perfect for the feel of the Selesnya guild.ĭevour – Devour is one of the great wins of flavorful keywords in Shards of Alara block. Yet it's attached to a very simple ability that we'd like to reuse. If we use it again on a creature that isn't a Samurai, it feels weird. The word is very flavorful, but it's also so tied to the flavor of Kamigawa that it's sort of stuck. Some of them are tied to specific factions within the setting, such as guilds or creature types, which helps create a particular mental image around their mechanics.īanding – It's incredibly complicated in the rules, but once you get the hang of it, it does capture the flavor of your creatures ganging up and attacking as a group.īushido – Bushido comes up a lot in discussions in R&D. They usually have a specific flavor, a resonant fantasy idea behind them, and a good name. Many keywords nail the flavor just right. Now, it's time to go through the keywords (and ability words) looking for delicious flavor-starting with the tip-top! Highly Flavorful Enjoy the hunt, and keep your eyes peeled! If you see a particular symbol show up somewhere on the site, click it, and you'll be led to more information. In case you hadn't heard, there's a little scavenger hunt going on on right now, and it ends at the end of this week. It's hard to beat a funny piece about destructive goblins-congrats on your Vorthos Award, Goblin Razerunners (and congrats to our very own Kelly Digges, who penned that piece)! Many of you sent in other flavor text favorites from Conflux, which I'll share in another column. Best Flavor Text – Goblin Razerunners Vote for the Best Flavor Text in Conflux. Best Obscure Vorthosian Reference – Sigil of the Empty Throne Vote for the Best Obscure Vorthosian Reference in Conflux.Ĭongrats, Sigil of the Empty Throne! I love this card (and this category), so maybe someday I'll have time to elaborate on the story of Asha and the lonely, floating throne that marks the archangel's absence. The card's art shows Nicol Bolas's claw closing in on the five-color power of a reunited Alara, and the mechanic lets you bring together the mightiest magics from all five shards-not too shabby for one sorcery. The card Conflux was kind of a shoo-in due to the name, but I actually think it's well-deserved. Best Conveyance of Set Themes – Conflux Vote for the Best Conveyance of Set Themes in Conflux. As a bonus, now Progenitus knows which half of you not to eat. He's got a great backstory, amazing art, a hilarious mana cost, and of course he has protection from everything (which includes all the other cards in the category!). Most Flavorful Legend – Progenitus Vote for the Most Flavorful Legend in Conflux.Ī landslide for the Hydra Avatar. It's not a flashy card, and it had a hard time fighting for its inclusion in the set just to tell a little flavor story about a nasty fire and a drop of blue mana-I'm happy that many of you enjoyed it. Nice! Congratulations, Quenchable Fire, on your Vorthos Award. Then we'll finish up with the clunkers, where the mechanics are useful but the flavor just does not come through.īut first, I want to get to the voting results of last week's Conflux edition of the Vorthos Awards! Thanks everyone for voting over the last several days! Top-Down Design – Quenchable Fire Vote for the Best Top-Down design in Conflux. Then we'll move into the middle zone where flavor is there, but is diminished for various reasons. We'll start with the keyword mechanics that drip with flavor, the end of the continuum where Vorthos is happiest. Today we take a look at the keywords (and ability words)-yeah, all of them!-from the perspective of where I believe they fall on the flavor continuum. There's a continuum of keywords from the mechanical cogs to those that drip with flavor, and while we love to tie mechanics and flavor close together, there can be tradeoffs to doing so. Like nonfat ice milk, some keyword mechanics have only a wisp of flavor, and are there just to make the game go. The Simpsons, "Home Sweet Home-Diddily-Dum-Doodily" Ned Flanders: Who's up for a big bowl of nonfat ice milk?
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