Magic the Gathering expansion sets always have a hook, something that separates them from every other set or at the very least their contemporary expansions. Some times this hook is merely a theme that runs throughout the block using unique mechanics and flavor. However there are times when a simple them is not enough and WotC attaches a full on gimmick. There are a few subtle differences between a theme and a gimmick. A gimmick is less about the gameplay and more about the collectability of a set. Themes are much more subtle while something extreme like Alara Reborn’s golden hue is a gimmick. Finally, themes are important for establishing character and flavor in every set. Gimmicks are best used sparingly else fans will tire of them.
There is an obvious benefit of the gimmick as it pertains to MTG. If the hook is strong enough, people will buy the hell out of a set. The end goal (one would surmise) of Wizards of the Coast. On the other hand, a terrible gimmick can ruin a sets popularity, even one with better than average cards. So what makes a good gimmick? To better answer that question let’s take a look at nine of the most notable gimmicks in MTG history. As we are want to do, let’s break these down Clint Eastwood style.
Time Spiral – An ode to old cards and mechanics with a return to Dominaria and time-shifted cards included in each booster.
As as hooks go this is the gold standard. A perfect balance between playability and nostalgia. Among other virtues, cards like Ancestral Vision gave players the chance to dabble with power nine cards (sort of). Planar Chaos and Future Sight also hit a home-run gimmick wise with a mushing of the color-wheel and a glimpse of what MTG could be. Why was it so successful? For one thing the cards themselves remained very playable. For another, the time-shifted cards felt like a bonus for anyone buying a booster. Surprise, fans of MTG loved a set based on MTG lore.
Zendikar – Full art lands in booster packs, and ‘priceless treasures’ inserted randomly.
The most recent expansion of MTG has done a great job of marketing itself. Full art lands have been something players have sought since the days of UnGlued. Now they can attain them without the hassle of novelty Magic cards. The beauty of Zendikar is similar to that of Time Spiral, these lands are an extra. They were something cool and useful on top of the 15 regular cards already in the pack. The lands didn’t change the playability of the set in any way and neither did the ‘hidden treasures’, but they helped shoot Zendikar boxes from about $90 at release to more than $120 a week later.
Legends – The first ever ‘gold’ cards and the first ever legendary creatures.
Every set was re-inventing the wheel when this expansion was released in June of 1994. But Legends makes this list for two big reasons. First, most gold cards (including the Elder Dragon cycle) instantly became desirable regardless of competitive quality. Gold cards have remained so popular that WotC decided it would be a good idea to make an entire set multi-colored. Second, legendary cards have been a staple of the Magic universe since inception. As an expansion gimmcik Legends worked because, quite simply, it was a great idea.
Torment – Almost 30% of cards in the set were black and a strong graveyard theme throughout.
Players apparently loved black decks and black cards back in 2002 because WotC went overboard with them for Torment. So why didn’t this work? For starters, the number of duelists who care about the color-wheel appear to outweigh the fans of any single color. When the balance of the game is compromised intentionally people are going to be upset. Also, fans weren’t getting anything out of the set that they wouldn’t normally get except more black cards. Many of which seemed forced through R&D and just weren’t very good. Waste Away anyone? As if Wizards understood the mistake, they over-corrected and made Judgment white/green with similar results.
Shadowmoor/Eventide – Hybrid mana in allied and enemy colors.
Probably more of a theme than a true gimmick, Shadowmoor makes the list because it now seems universally disliked. The reason for this distaste is easily apparent: don’t mess with the color wheel. This type of thing causes a quick flash of interest before release but leaves many players shrugging afterwords. Why? Because the hybrid mana doesn’t make flavor sense (Boggart Ram-Gang is not green and red, its green or red) and the color pie is wrecked. Ravnica got away with a similar theme because it had the guilds to explain mana-muddling. Shadowmoor’s duality is contrived by comparison.
Coldsnap – Long-awaited end piece for the Ice Age expansion more than a decade earlier.
One question above all – Where did this come from!? Was there a clamoring for the conclusion to Ice Age? Were planeswalkers rioting in the streets? Why can’t I stop using question marks!? Coldsnap made a fatal flaw in understanding the average players love for the mid-nineties golden era. The key difference between Time Spiral and Coldsnap was that the former paid homage to all of MTG, while the latter only to one set. On top of that the actual Coldsnap cards were disappointing.
Legions – The all-creature set.
An entire set without a non-creature spell. I’ll let that sink in for a minute. . . We could go on, but I’m starting to get angry. Not even the return of Slivers could save this expansion.
Alara Reborn – The all-gold set.
Amazing that one of the most effective gimmicks (Zendikar’s lands and treasures) was released less than six months after one of the least effective. Alara Reborn highlighted the biggest faux pas of the MTG expansion hook – ‘all-anything’. Like Legions before it ARB vastly altered the way people needed to use the individual cards. Duelists who intended on playing with them needed to change their entire mana base. Not to mention, if one played a less popular build like Izzet or Simic, playable cards were almost impossible to find. Instead of offering a great set with some additional value like Time Spiral and Zendikar, all-sets actually offer less than usual. Even with amazing cards like Bloodbraid Elf and Maelstrom Pulse coupled with an excellent tournament build in Jund-aggro, it doesn’t work.
Fallen Empires – The first true tribal set.
Fallen Empires is not the bottom of the barrel because the cards are perhaps the weakest in MTG history. Nor is it in with the Ugly because a tribal-based stand alone was a bad idea. The reason Fallen Empires is laughed at, literally to this very day, is because it was executed so poorly. (Go ahead and make a Fallen Empires joke at FNM or on twitter, people will laugh. Trust me.) The breakdown of tribes was bizarre. White was citizen tokens, blue had giant crabs and black left zombies and vampires in favor of thrulls! And the aforementioned lack of quality cards didn’t help.
We need each expansion to have a theme. Something that ties that cards together or gives us incentive to purchase the product. And every so often a well-thought-out gimmick should come along and generate some outside-the-box excitement. Therein lies the problem. Thus far WotC has a poor hit ratio with expansion set hooks.
Looking at what these nine sets have done well and done poorly it is apparent what makes a great MTG gimmick. Fans love to see cards and mechanics they remember and feel nostaglic about. Even spells like Damnation that only remind us of the past become chase cards. However it is important that WotC not delve too deeply into specific facets of Magic history when designing a new set. Coldsnap more than proves that. All-in sets like Legions and Alara Reborn are also a bad idea. Limiting what a player can do within a certain set seems like an obviously poor choice. But that has not stopped WotC from doing it twice this decade! Most importantly we need to feel like we are getting something extra and unique. Be that an bonus cards, prettier lands or a chance at something even better. Each new block is a chance for Wizards to capture our attention. Hopefully Worldwake developers will take a closer look at what has worked and what hasn’t.
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As someone who did a brief return to MTG around the time of Odyssey block, I have to say, I liked it as a whole. Your criticism of Torment is valid, but I really thought threshold was a fun mechanic, even if it is, as MaRo and some other guys say, sort of a pain in the butt (to constantly check the state of your graveyard, and the cards in it, etc.) The smaller sets in the block I don’t mind because a) I liked that they experimented with “uneven” sets, even if it didn’t necessarily work, and b) there were a lot of good cards. And the return of Ernie!
Similarly, I like a lot of Shadowmoor cards (even the hybrid ones), but think you are right on the money there. It doesn’t necessarily make sense. Glad they exist overall, but they were way overdone.
Coldsnap? Yeah, thanks WOTC, for the the useless answer to a question no one was asking. Next. Legions was similarly a flop, as far as I’m concerned. Lorwyn did a much better job of that. Alara Reborn is similar – I understand your criticisms, but given that it was a) more than just creatures, and b) seems to have a reasonable card quality, I’m willing to overlook it.
Now, Fallen Empires I think has an unnecessarily bad rap. I recall playing Fallen Empires sealed when it first came out, and my god, it was fun! My biggest gripe about it is all the loose change I needed for fungus counters! It also has some truly fantastic artwork. The cards aren’t all totally weak; let’s be honest – Homelands still wins that prize!
And I really liked the Time Spiral stuff, too, as someone who has taken many, multi-year MTG hiatuses. I just wish I didn’t have to sift through the other 14 cards to get to that Timeshifted one
Planar Chaos I think was a good way to show dedication to the color wheel. Zendikar’s landfall is fun, and I think WOTC has done a very good job overall. Most of the rough spots are behind us..
I have to agree fallen empires is one of my fave sets thallids n thrulls were awsome dont remember much more though. the art was definately amazing but make a lack of actual cards i’d prefer 2 arts to a card rather then the overboard 4 xD Also lorwyn block has some pretty kool effects that ive fallen in love with like wither & Persist Id like to see more combat oriented ability’s rather then more Lightning Bolt’s of every color. More and more I see that MTG will end up making a all non-creature expansion considery alot of ppl were i live only play 3 to 5 creatures in an entire expansion and roughly 8 to 12 in the deck the rest is removal and control. I hate alara it was stupid and I find it funny that so many ppl dis it becouse i didnt like it from the begining. Same goes for Lorwyn I loved it all and so did every1 else untill alara came out. it seams everyone is just folowing the order of joining the bandwaggon at insulting things that 1 person pointed out. Everyone hated cascade for a long time then 1 kid made a bloodbraid deck and guese what? Jund is biggest baddy on the block and everyone loves it. watch in a few months everyone will hate jund EVERYONE. just like how everyone hates lorwyn. Well Im off the perform a Crab Battle.
At the beginning, you said a good hook is responsible for getting people to “buy the hell out of a set.” But many of the examples don’t match that. Time Spiral block (while my favorite) under performed heavily at retail and is the reason why print runs were reduced. But you don’t mention Mirrodin, which is the best selling Magic set of all time at all.
I’ve talked about this one my blog (http://jestergoblin.com/?p=187) about how “Priceless Treasures” is just a continuation of the timeshifted theme presented in Time Spiral.
A good list overall, but you seem to jump between gimmicks and hooks without really thinking about the implications or the differences between the two. This seems to be more of sets you like because of their gimmicks, not which gimmicks actually worked for the game.
That is actually very interesting.
I searched high and low for sales information about each Magic set and came up completely empty. Where did you get your info from if you don’t mind me asking?
Because I had a lack of hard data, I relied on message boards and polls from the MTG community (including our own) and even responses on twitter.
But I agree there could be some revisionist history going on with Time Spiral’s popularity. Although I still hold it had a very good gimmick. Perhaps if it was released today the retail sales would back that up.
The mention of Mirrodin being the best selling came from Maro back last month: http://www.wizards.com/MagiC/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/59
The stuff on Time Spiral is mentioned in the 2007 State of Design. I loved Time Spiral, but it really only appealed to players playing pre-2002. As for actual numbers, none of that is ever released to the public with the exception of print runs for Alpha (2.6 million cards), Beta (7.3 million cards) and Unlimited (40 million cards).
Through the years I’ve liked alot of MtG’s gimmicks. I actually kindof wish they’d do a nice smaller scoped expansion like Ice Age or Omigawa again. I like the tightly focused flavor and feel it makes playing exclusively in the block (draft, sealed) more enjoyable. Cascade is seen as the most broken mechanic but I feel Landfall may end up being a bad idea in the future. Knight of the Reliquary is one card still in Standard that obviously isn’t balanced with Landfall. Future cards will have to be carefully worded and I bet they’ll let a few breakable ones through. As much as I hated Shards I love Jund and it just wouldn’t be very good without that set. Praise to WotC for fixing the color wheel. Mono-black, mono-white and to a lesser degree mono-red being tournament viable in just 2 set releases is nothing short of miraculous.
I like how you started what your saying I’d also like to see more REAL themed sets rather then “lets make a set around mana ramp” or “A set around gold” Maybe MTG should be more invested in its story rather then the cards affects why who wouldnt love a Flavorfest expansion over a Gold expansion? I know I would maybe better depict the world as 2 sided like BRG vs WUG it’d be kinda kool. Sure I did enjoy Ravnica but it still lacked pure cards it diversified too much. either sets need to get bigger tocompensate each color’s spectrum or less themed army’s who wants to play a say Hellion deck if their are only 3 in that set?
Well what im saying is I want more themed and more legendary’s wich are the back bone to flavor. also planeswalkers should be
Planeswalker Legenday jace
seriosly are they saving it for something stupid~?
Legendary Planeswalker Yawgmoth?
Now that I’ve finally read the novels I can be “that guy”!!
Yawgmoth isn’t a Planeswalker
I had to do it!!
I cant say im interested in any more X Color factions… individual cool gold cards?.. sure.. but the guild color thing has been done, what?.. 3 times now?
Hahaha, if you hadn’t of said it, I would have.
Big question: where’s Karn now?
Again, I have to compliment the writer of the article. Gimmicks are something I talk about constantly in the game. I always complain about them but you pointed out to me that they can be good (I fully agree with the good ones, though I believe that Time Spiral’s is a theme.)
Hybrid mana in Shadowmoor was a GIMMICK, GIMMICK, STUPID GIMMICK! (The theme was color matters) I don’t read many MTG forums but, when I do, I hear praise for Shadowmoor. Shadowmoor is my most hated block. It encouraged what I called ‘Lazy deckbuilding’, that is you could build a powerful deck with the strength of all colors with just one type of basic land. It was the block that almost made me quit. Thank you for telling me that others are starting to dislike it as well.
I believe Coldsnap should end up in the Ugly section, though, because it was a great idea that just wasn’t executed well. I would like to see more small sets devoted to a previously seen plane (Say, once every other year).
I agree with revisiting planes. I think a small set in between each block that sort of “checks in” with the state of previously visited planes would be great. Maybe they could do that instead of all the other products that could be cool, but seem thrown together (duel decks, anyone?) in an attempt to make money.
In regards to Shadowmoor/Eventide, I was just annoyed that Lorwyn fell apart so much. I thought when it came out, not only was it one of the best worlds that Wizards had created in a long time, it was, using MaRo’s terms, one of the most fantasy resonant sets, ever. I liked how they did tribal, including the addition of the “tribal” mechanic. Then Morningtide came out and didn’t support what they had done in Lorwyn tribally very well. Then Shadowmoor and Eventide ruined the whole feel of the plane and provided an excuse to throw sickeningly overpowered cards into decks that colorwise shouldn’t have them. What Ravnica got right with hybrid was the sparing use of it. Shadowmoor, as mentioned above, promoted laziness.
This is a bit of a tangent, but yeah, all the preconstructed deck products (Duel decks, etc.) are poor and the decks aren’t well designed. Even a deck returning to an older plane with a couple of new cards would be a better buy. Imagine a Lorwyn faerie deck coming out in a couple of years with a card called General Endry (From the novels). I would buy that in a heartbeat just to have that card.
I feel like this list is as much your personally liked and disliked sets as it is really a marker of which gimicks were exciting.
A big part of the divide comes from the fact that sets which are exciting to new players are not the same as the ones that are exciting to older players. Time Spiral was a great nostalgia set (and helped get me back into the game) but failed to appeal to new players and lacked an effective mechanical theme.
In contrast, the all-gold set was cool and exciting, just because opening a booster pack and having every single card be gold is awesome. More serious players were bored by the restrictive nature of the set, but for casual players it was just plain cool.
And for the record, I’ve been playing since Mirage, and Shadowmoor was easily one of my favorite sets, largely due to the use of hybrid mana to create interesting effects. Sealed decks that are simultaneously mono-black and five-color? Yes please!