Design, Commentary - Combating Into the Future

It’s easy to tell when a plane is at war in the Magic Multiverse: there’s a combat mechanic in the block.

Combat related mechanics always get a bad wrap. They have several things going against them: the creature has to be alive, you have to be willing to attack/block with it, and they mostly stick to three colors. Now each of these can be spun into a positive, but for the most part players are still kinda lukewarm about the idea of a combat mechanic.

For the sake of argument, we’re only going to be looking at non-evergreen keywords. We’re going to let Firebreathing, First Strike, Flying, and the like slide this time. Unless something like “Slow Strike” gets invented, there’s not going to be too many areas of increased development (And don’t get me started on Shadow).

Click through for more! And a nod to Banding, of course.