NaGaDeMon #07 — Reassign

Bradley Rose
Nov 8 · 2 min read

Previous NaGaDeMon 2019 Devlogs:
#01 — Scope
#02 — Tribal
#03 — Archetypes
#04 — Reprints
#05 — Finishing
#06 — Revision

With the Planeswalker choices shaken up and the decision to align archetypes with them — it’s time to revisit the Limited color pairs.

As a refresher, here are the Planeswalkers in this Core Set:

WB — Kaya
UR — Ral
BG — Vraska
RW — Nahiri
GU — Kiora

So now here are their archetype strategies:

WB — Spirits
UR — Noncreature spells
BG — Destroy permanents
RW — Equipment
GU — High CMC

And here are the ally-color complements:

WU — Auras
UB — Mill
BR — Sacrifice
RG — Ramp
GW — Tokens

And here was my scratch work to arrive at the above:

UR — Noncreature
UR + RW = Equipment are noncreature spells
UR + WU = Auras are noncreature spells

UG — High CMC
UG + UR = High CMC noncreature spells
UG + RG = Ramp into high CMC

RW — Equipment
RW + WB = Spirit creatures that provide or care about Equipment
RW + BR = Equipment can be sacrificed (ensure black-red can’t sacrifice Auras, only creatures and artifacts)

GB — Destroying permanents
GB + GU = Ensure there are green creatures with deathtouch, fight effects, entering the battlefield to destroy artifacts or enchantments, etc.
GB + UB = Mill reward cards checking for cards hitting the graveyard so that killing and milling both trigger it.

WB — Spirits
WB + GB = Spirit creatures that can die or destroy thing easily
WB + GW = Spirit tokens (not all Spirits will be tokens, and not all tokens will be Spirits, to ensure differentiation between white-black and green-white)

What this means is that there will be some monocolor designs that can go into one of several decks. But there won’t necessarily be an even overlap across archetypes.

For example, WB Spirits and WU Auras may share the color white, but there may not be a card that supports or rewards Spirits and Auras simultaneously. But maybe — first priority are the overlaps defined above. If room left over, would be nice to have even overlap!

That’s all for now. Let me know on Twitter, Discord, or as a comment here if you have feedback or card suggestions for the two-color pair Limited archetypes defined here.

Catch ya next time.

Milling for 53

Magic: The Gathering game design

Bradley Rose

Written by

Magic: The Gathering and card game design.

Milling for 53

Magic: The Gathering game design

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade