Footprints in the Sand 
Fading In
This week, Wizards of the Coast revealed that the second set of the Scars of Mirrodin block, codenamed “Camera”, will be released before Christmas this year, two months earlier than the anticipated date.
In his “Making Magic” column, head designer Mark Rosewater hinted that that the set will also represent another first in Magic history. We tracked him down to learn the reason for all the fuss.
“Designing Magic all comes down to innovation,” he explained in a phone interview on Friday. “Ninety percent of what we designers do boils down to determining what we’ve never done before, and then doing that. We set a high bar for ourselves With Rise of the Eldrazi: a large third set, big-mana limited format, and colorless spells were all significant innovations.”
“When developing Scars, we needed something to make the block really pop. We decided that the second set of the block would need a twist. I spoke with [M11 lead designer] Aaron Forsythe about ideas he and his team were pursuing for the next core set. They were examining what it was that made M10 so successful. The large number of functional reprints we introduced in M10 proved to be extremely popular with players.”
“I was unimpressed. Printing the same cards with new names hardly seemed groundbreaking at all. Then all of a sudden, a billion tiny creative flashbulbs went off in my head all at once,” described Rosewater. “Functionally reprinting an entire set was the natural evolution of that idea.”
The new set, which will be named Halberd of the Thopterlord, will contain all 143 cards originally printed as part of the Nemesis expansion. As with functional card reprints, players will have a chance to rediscover the cards in a whole new context.
Rosewater elaborated: “the set will play completely differently this time around. Previously forgettable
cards like Kill Switch and Complex Automaton may turn out to be the most relevant ones of this block,” he gushed. “And forget everything you thought you knew about Air Bladder.”
“This is going to revolutionize Magic,” he said.
Designing the set took more effort than you’d expect, Rosewater explained. “Though the cards are the same, the set is completely new. Halberd will have a brand new back story, a new expansion symbol, and updated Oracle creature types.”
“We’re even going to have a new prerelease card. Rathi Assassin was pretty crappy.” MaRo paused. “Granted, Assassin will also be in Halberd. But it won’t be as terrible this time. Well, it probably won’t. In any case it won’t be the prerelease card,” he emphasized. “The prerelase card will be Mossdog.”
If the set is a success, wizards will consider functional reprints of other sets. “I suggested that we should reprint Alliances next, and this time, call it Dalliances,” confessed Rosewater. “We’re still workshopping that one.”
Halberd of the Thopterlord will be available in 15-card booster packs and goes on sale December 21st.
“We also have an idea for an exciting new trading card game in the works”, he said.
