Pattern Recognition #11 - Volvers
Features Opinion Pattern Recognition
berryjon
5 January 2017
1430 views
5 January 2017
1430 views
Hello everyone! Welcome back to Pattern Recognition! It's been a quiet December on this front, though I can tell you that real life has been quite the headache. But I'm back, and you can all rejoice at the knowledge that I will fit mentions about Time Spiral into everything that I can.
For those of you who are just now joining me, my name is berryjon, an Old Fogey who will take you down my memory lane and I show you how the present of magic grew out from the past.
Or whatever crosses my mind, really. I'm quite casual about that.
Today's subject wasn't based around a formal request. Rather, it came to me through the Card Creation Challenge thread in the forums. One of the participants, legendofa, asked for the creation of an alternate Volver cycle, one that was based on the Wedges, not the Shards. I came up with an idea for the challenge, and noted that this would actually make for a nice chat about multi-coloured cards and decks.
So, what is a Volver? Well, they were a cycle of rare creatures from the Apocalypse set, the last of the Invasion block that all shared the Kicker mechanic introduced in that block, and combined it with the aggressive multi-coloured aspects to the whole thing.
I present to you the Degavolver, the Cetavolver, the Necravolver, the Rakavolver and the Anavolver.
I will now give you a moment to appreciate the utter beauty of their design.
((Checks Watch))
((Humms Songo di Voare ))
Now you're confused, right? Well, let's step back for a moment and look at the whole of the Invasion Block to show why I love these guys.
Invasion was meat to be the capstone of Magic's story at the time. The culmination of Urza's blocks-long, millennia long war against Phyrexia through the narrative lens of the Han Solo-esque Gerrard Capashen and the crew of the Skyship Weatherlight.
The first set in the block, Invasion, showed the initial stages of the invasion - and the ad hoc defence being put up by Dominaria as Urza's plans began to come together. And no one could stand alone. So Invasion became the block of alliances. No, not the set. but of Colours Red reached out to Black and Green, Green to Red and White....
Dominaria would not Bend or Break. They would not Do or Die. It would not be a measure of Death or Glory. There was no choice between Fight or Flight. This was the moment when you separate Fact or Fiction. They would Stand / Deliver, they would Assault / Battery the Phyrexians back with all their Spite / Malice. They would feel all the Pain / Suffering as their fortunes Wax / Wane.
Why yes, the Invasion block is either my favourite or my second favourite, why do you ask? I mean, it's not like Ravnica, Zendikar, Alara and Tarkir all struggled and failed to match this set, right?
You see, Invasion was the first set in almost two years to include Gold cards. The modern staple of every set, the conjoining of colours? Was a dead idea before Invasion rolled back around, and it hit like a Pain Train. Magic changed with this set. Gold or Multi-coloured cards became the rule, not the exception (even as the sets immediately following dropped the idea for far too long).
Remember, Ravnica was 5 blocks away. And the sets between held a large dearth of gold cards.
Then came Planeshift. This was the Small Set in the block, a third the size of the other two. And it served as a transition, where Phyrexia's invasion advanced, and fault lines began to form. Multicoloured cards were toned back, and a lot of them came with drawbacks. Perhaps the most (in)famous of these were the bounce creatures. Silver Drake, Shivan Wurm... You may recognize this as very similar, thematically, to the Ravnican Bounce Lands, and worked in the same way.
There was now a cost to work together. Would you pay it?
It even showed in the 'scape Battlemages. This cycle of five would be the prototype of the Volver cycle - Sunscape Battlemage, Stormscape Battlemage, Nightscape Battlemage, Thunderscape Battlemage, and Thornscape Battlemage. These cards all had allied coloured kickers for an Enters the Battlefield effect.
And with the Apocalypse, even those bonds were broken. The original notion of the colour pie, that allies and enemies existed was gone. White couldn't reach out to Green or Blue for help, so they had to find strength in their enemies - Dega Disciple, Dega Sanctuary and finally Degavolver. And they too reached back - Desolation Angel and Desolation Giant.
The Volvers were the pinnacle of this. A complete cycle of creatures that utilized the kicker costs to show that they could, and would become more than what others thought they could be by their colour
And it worked. Without the ground broken in this set, this block, Ravnica would never have been, nor would the tri-coloured factions of Alara and Tarkir.
Actually, funny story. Before Alara, the tri-coloured decks took their names from the Legendary Dragons of Invasion - Naya was Rith, Esper was Dromar, Jund was Darigaaz, Grixis was Crosis, and Bant was Treva. Of course, the Alaran names are more recent, and a lot easier on the tongue. I don't blame people for using them. If I did, I would have to blame myself.
And before Tarkir? The 'Wedges' of a colour and its foes? They were named for the Volvers. Mardu used to be known as Dega, Temur was Ceta, the Abzan were the Nerca, Jeskai came from the Raka, and lastly, the Sultai used Ana's colours
You can see why people took to the new names, right?
Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about. The Volvers themselves formed a cycle with their abilities. The Rakavolver and the Necravolver both shared the same White Kicker:
If (Name)volver was kicked with its kicker, it enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it and with "Whenever (Name)volver deals damage, you gain that much life."
And this went around the whole cycle. Everyone shared their opponent's Kicker in an interconnected cycle that was a true cycle, and not a set of five cards that did something similar and was called a 'cycle' for ease of identification.
But there is still more than that. You see, I ran this idea by the owner of my FLGS as I recognized that this was something I wanted to talk about yet wasn't sure I could go full-length on it. He pointed out that as part of the renaissance that Invasion heralded, the entire Block was the first one designed from the ground up to be used in Drafting or Sealed.
Lo there, did the light open up before me, and things made sense.
Because of the nature of the two limited formats - specifically in how you have a limited card pool to draw from, and you can't always get what you want, you tend to be forced into two colours. And not always allied ones. While I admit to the possibility of reaching into a third colour as a splash, that isn't always the case, or the option.
Side track here, but I want you guys to look up the gold cards in Magic Origins and Kaladesh. Where am I going with those two searches? Well, I want you to look at how Wizards has been treating Gold lately, and compare to how it was treated in the past.
In Origins, these ten cards were descriptive. I sold people on Magic Origin's multi coloured cards on this exact logic - that the creatures that represented what the intent behind the colour combinations was. That worked on global bonuses and could show up at any time, or that cared about your creatures while punishing the enemy for them. That sort of thing. It worked. But Kaladesh took that too far. You could look at the card and see for yourself how the combination synergized.
But how did Kaladesh go further? The multicoloured cards became prescriptive. They didn't so much as show you what you could do with the combination as tell you what you were doing in those colours. As awesome as Depala, Pilot Exemplar is, she is a problem. You play her, and your entire deck is set out in front of you. You're playing Red/White, and you're running Vehicles. End of story. Wizards is telling you, through this card and through similar ones in the set that "this is what you have to do".
And that's wrong.
The Volvers and their ilk succeeded in being an enabler where other sets turned them into limitations. It's something that Wizards has actually taken a step backwards in over time. Ravnica, City of Guilds (hah! Bet most of you didn't know that was the full name for the set!) began a theme, or simply a concept in the game where every time multiple colours are working together as part of the theme of the set, they have to have a mutual mechanic.
And hoo-boy, did Rav make a mess of it. You see, the ten guilds were separated into the three blocks, in a 4-3-3 pattern, and because of that, limited decks at the time were very samey. Constructed was different, but when you were forced by the nature of the set into three or four archetypes, it didn't do the format or the set any good. Lorwyn/Shadowmoor ran into a similar problem, but was more lax about it. The Tribal focus, while good, also meant that you had to play Tribal or go bust.
Alara and Tarkir, the other two major 'color themed' sets that I give recognition to, still had this problem, but tried to make it so that each segment of the colour pie was represented in each set of the block. Of course, this didn't stop those two blocks from throwing their hands up in the air and giving up part way through the block. Alara Reborn's set was entirely gold, and brought back Hybrid mana in order to make things work, while Tarkir stepped back from the wedge orientation for the Dragons of Tarkir set to allied color pairings.
But Invasion through Apocalypse? The Volvers let you go either way with their combinations, and at the same time said it was alright to go it alone, or even with all three. Not so with more recent sets, where they try to pigeon-hole you into certain styles of playing by your color choices - and while that's not wrong, it's not right either.
The Volvers opened up the game, and showed the way to a more interesting future. That's why I love them and the entire block. I just hope those lessons are remembered.
Thank you all for joining me after my break, and I hope you'll come back next time for when I talk about a problem that Magic has had since the beginning, one that there is no good answer for.
Pheardemons: Because the person who is supposed to set these to public isn't anymore, and I need to find out who.
January 12, 2017 6:44 p.m.
TheRedGoat says... #3
Personally speaking, I know that when Kaldesh came out I wanted to use Glint-Nest Crane and Night Market Lookout both in vehicle centric decks. I've never really tried to test the idea out on there, but I feel there is some great potential for it just from those two low drops being available.
Also berryjon, had you really ever tried to make those other five "volver" creatures in the cycle? There is a section of tapped out for doing just that.
January 13, 2017 11:13 a.m.
TheRedGoat: Yeah, we did the whole cycle in the Card Creation Challenge thread weeks ago. I couldn't tell you what page they were on, sorry to say.
January 13, 2017 6:37 p.m.
Show me another set/block with Vehicles.
Go on.
You can't. I have to treat Depala as I do because there is literally nothing else she is good at. Elvish Champion works because you get Elves in a multitude of blocks. Vehicles aren't. Dwarves aren't. And the last time they were printed seriously was Lorwyn. Correction - they got four cards in the Shadowmoor half of it. Before that? Odyssey and Onslaught.
Depala is a bad card because she is too tightly locked to Kaladesh/Aether Revolt. She's emblematic of the problem with those sets and how they treat multicolored decks - which is to say "this way or bust". Look at Built to Last and Built to Smash as additional data points.
I would enjoy being proven wrong by TheRedGoat if he decides to go through with the deck concept he talked about up thread. People who break patterns like that earn respect. And their decks get added to the Pattern Recognition deck folder. ;)
January 13, 2017 10:23 p.m.
NOW I understand where you're coming from! You're coming at this from the completely opposite side of where I started.
You're viewing my critique of Depala as a critique of in totality, whereas I am critiquing her as a case of Wizards forcing colours into certain design paradigms for whatever format they may be in.
I argue that the Volvers are good designs because they are open in nature, and Depala is not because she is closed. I wouldn't depend on her in any limited format, and in constructed she's a fixture for the archetype. You can't separate her from her narrow focus. That's the problem. As far as Kaladesh/Aether Revolt is concerned, is Vehicles. Limited or Constructed, it makes no difference. That's a poor design decision on the part of Wizards.
I am fully aware that is more than just Vehicles. I've built enough decks in that color combination and seen enough that I haven't built to know that it can do Control/Aggro/Combo like any other combination.
Kaladesh and Aether Revolt are poorly designed from a multi-colored perspective. I chose to use Depala as my example. You keep trying to focus on the card when I am trying to take up the bigger picture - she's bad, and will slink away into obscurity as the set grows older.
January 13, 2017 11:47 p.m.
TheRedGoat says... #7
@coltron815 I would first point out that little of your ranting in the above comment is necessary, just mean. It cannot be truly argued that Depala, Pilot Exemplar is not a niche card that is made to go with a very specific playstyle. That style can be done without her, but she cannot be used outside that style of play.
And I suspect that is why berryjon sees her as a bad card in the sense of her affect on any deck build that involves her being shoehorned into one style of play. And, WotC didn't make any other W and R cards to support a different style of play for those colors, which can leaves players with the idea that those colors shouldn't be used in any other manner.
When comparing Elvish Champion, it is a lord like Depala, but playing elves around it is not so niche a playstyle due to the massive number of elves available to choose from and even the colors they appear in.
Comparing her to other multi colored cards within her same block also doesn't help Depala's case, as at best some of the others require you to play energy centric effects, but those are arguably more versatile in their build design than any card deck running Depala.
January 15, 2017 12:58 a.m.
TheRedGoat says... #8
As an additional aside, I can attest to having passed up playing Depala in the recent pre-realease because i didn't have the cards to support playing her, and I didn't feel like having her take up that slot.
January 15, 2017 1:03 a.m.
TheRedGoat says... #9
Okay, coltron815, firstly, please start spacing out your comments. A little bit of effort goes a long way in helping people read what you're saying and be able to respond in kind.
Secondly, I think you're missing mine and berryjon's point. Or if you're not missing it then you may just be ignoring it in your comments, but regardless, you do realize what your last statement means right? About Depala being mandatory for a RW vehicle deck because she's so strong? That's what we were talking about that would be considered "bad" about her. If she is so good you can't play RW vehicles without building her, then that removes the card choice a little bit from the player when deck building. That right there is the "problem" with Depala.
That is also why playing Elves is not so niche a playstyle anymore as there are a huge number of options of cards for Elf players to pick from. They're not punished with a worse deck by playing Elvish Champion instead of another card, or by leaving it out. For now at least, you can't say the same of Depala and a vehicle deck.
January 15, 2017 11:44 a.m.
SSJ_Weegee says... #10
Berryjon is trying to say that Depala is bad because she has a parasitic mechanic and can't be used in any old R/W deck. She is limited in that she can only be used fully in vehicle decks, while cards like Rashmi, Eternities Crafter and Kambal, Consul of Allocation are not bound in the same way. Just about every deck wants to cast spells which will trigger Rashmi, and just about every deck casts noncreature spells, triggering Kambal. 99% of decks do not play vehicles or dwarves, drastically reducing the amount of deck styles Depala will be played in.
"Build around me" cards don't belong in drafting sets. They are much better in commander premades and other supplemental products like that, where there in no chance they will be dead cards.
January 16, 2017 8:42 p.m.
GoldenDiggle says... #11
As an EDH player, dual-color, tri-color (and now quad color) identities are important to me, as they are what I build decks around.
I wasn't around for a lot of the older sets, but I started playing in Shadowmoor, so multicolored permanents have never been strange to me.
I have noticed that gold bordered cards are becoming more and more linear. I think it was excusable in Ravnica, due to the Guilds having mechanics that they were based around, but even so, they lock you into doing what the specifications of what the colors require to operate under.
January 19, 2017 5:13 p.m.
""Build around me" cards don't belong in drafting sets."
Yes, but the same sets, must set up all the other formats.A pure draft experience would be Cube.
Pheardemons says... #1
Not sure how no one has commented on this one already. This was incredibly intriguing. I'm roughly new to Magic in comparison to the 20+ years it has been running, and this is always fun to see the setup with it that lead to later creations that I know by heart. Definitely keep up these articles.
January 12, 2017 6:09 p.m.