#magic design

✨ Glass-Bound Worlds: Where Magic Meets Design ✨

Fun fact! It turns out that, if a deck can cut corners on paying mana, it will! While spells like Force of Will may seem to hold Legacy together, it actually speaks for a major problem with Magic the Gathering's faster formats, to the point to where it's now even a concern in Modern; are free spells keeping fast Magic in check, or are they enabling it in the first place? The popular take is that free spells are healthy in fast formats, especially free interaction in Vintage and Legacy. However, outside of Vintage, these free spells tend to be better at protecting and enabling fast strategies than they are at stopping them.

Many people would say that it goes both ways, that protecting and enabling your strategies just so happens to be a consequence of stopping your opponent. However, the simple matter is this; busted strategies don't get acted on as much nowadays because of spells like Force of Will or Daze stopping T1-2 kills. But what If you're deck can't run these spells? This is a very valid concern; some free spells are situational and offer no benefit to certain decks, while cards like Force of Will are unconditionally good in basically every deck that runs at least a few blue cards. The most unconditionally useful run wild, while the less conditional rarely see use at all. Here's my observation; free spells are allowed in most formats because it's less work to make more (and keep old ones unbanned) than it is to ban free spells, then ban the problematic cards free interaction no longer "keeps in check". This is WotC's ban philosophy, but those in charge of making the ban calls see what overwhelmed playtesters and stats on a chart say about gameplay patterns. They aren't playing at the table at local events and tournaments. They aren't spending their money to invest in Magic as a hobby, nor are they playing MTG Arena and experiencing problematic play patterns as the player. The problems that unbalanced cards create are much more serious when you're the one playing the game, and this especially holds true for players who want to play more diverse strategies outside of a "safe zone" with friends that Rule Zero cards they find problematic.

From a gameplay standpoint, here's the biggest problems free spells create:

They lead to disappointing endgames. No one wants to spend the entire game waiting for an opening against their opponent's interaction, only for to be punished for trying to win after their opponent has exhausted their mana.

They incentivize overly swingy plays and speed up formats as a result. Decks don't have to strategize around how they spend their mana if they can cast important spells for free.

The best way to keep up with the advantage free spells give is to play free spells yourself, which keeps metagames from becoming more diverse.

Free spells tend to warp formats around them. Most recently, Rakdos Scam has emerged as an archetype in Modern thanks to Fury and Grief, the former of which had to be banned. This extends into the past as well though, as Izzet Delver used to oppress the Pauper meta far worse until Daze was banned. Lastly, Leyline of the Void and Leyline of Sanctity frequently see play in decks that can't play them normally, with players even mulliganing down past 5 cards if it means having one against the right opponent.

If you want to design free spells, you should take the following into account:

Free spells, even conditionally, must have heavy care taken into their balance, and should generally only be introduced to Legacy, Vintage, and Commander.

When a free spell is made, its benefits shouldn't be too great and/or versatile. If many decks can run it, many decks will.