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It's amazing what we get
here at Pojo. It's not too often, but from
time to time we get a card that no one has ever seen
before. I card that even some of Wizards R&D
never got to test. These are commonly referred
to as "test cards". What happens is this.
The lead game designer will come up with a lot of
different ideas for a set. Some of these ideas
get refined and changed. Some of these ideas
get discarded along the way and never even make it
to playtesting. "Zig" is the story one one
such card's journey. It is neither the
beginning, nor the end. It is merely a
roadstop on the highway of Magic creation.
Come with me - come hear this fascinating tale of
Wizards R&D and how a card is really made.
It's time to get ready
for Mirrodin block. R&D was ready to pull out
all the stops. Ever since Urza Saga, Mark
Rosewater has dreamt of this set - the ability to
make a whole bunch of kick-ass artifacts and stick
them all in one set. It would be his pride and
joy. Unfortunately, not ALL the artifacts were
to be outstanding. As with any set, you need
sluff. According to WotC, you need
approximately 92% sluff and 8% good stuff. Not
like the mistake of Visions where you had 25% goods
and 75% sluff. Now coming up with the good
cards is easy and fun. Coming up with crap is
hard. You have to make cards that might be a
little playable. Maybe this will have some
limited use. Maybe some whack job might find a
way to use this card in a random Japan PT at the
block Pro Tour (Reference - me - PT-Osaka 2002 -
the ONLY guy in the field to have Twigwalker
anywhere in the deck - 3 in the board - good against
Mutilate and R/G Aggro/burn). So.
Where do you begin?
Well, most crap cards
generally start a bit better. So, I give you
the first incarnation:
"Zig"
Cost Four Mana
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped Creature Get Fly. Equipped Creature
get 2 bigger attack. Equipped creature get 1
smaller defense.
Two Mana Equip
The theory was that a
higher-cost equipment would throw a suicidal flier
in the air and smack the opponent around.
Unfortunately, when Mark found himself getting beat
upside the head with a Zigged-up Lumengrid Warden,
he knew something was wrong. How on earth
could this 1/3 that should never see play in any
environment ever be bashing my skull in. If
Lumengrid Warden could be a beatstick, something was
wrong....terribly wrong.
So, back to the
drawing board. There had to be a way to tone
this down. Next we had this:
"Zig"
Cost Four Mana
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped Creature Get Fly. Equipped creature
give points life controller damage all deals.
Two Mana Equip
This was quickly
scratched. Life gain was clearly being left up
to the elephants in this set, and with Loxodon
Warhammer so loved already, it was too much to let
Ziggy have this. Quickly, they tried this one.
"Zig"
Cost Five Mana
Artifact - Equipment
Choose upkeep two. Fly, friends with attack,
hit first, 2 Bigger Attack, 2 Bigger Defense, 2 Mana
Tap - Make hide.
Three Mana Equip
This card went WAY
overboard. First of all, banding and phasing
aren't even mechanics used anymore. Thirdly,
this was so ridiculously confusing that no one
understood what the hell it was saying, including
Mark. This one quickly got chalked up to too
many Vodka tonics while sorting through some old
Mirage cards.
Finally, we had the last incarnation before Zig.
"Zig"
Cost Three Mana
Artifact - Equipment
Equpped Creature Get Fly. Equipped creature
get 2 bigger attack. Equipped creature damage
deal die turn end.
Two Mana Equip
This is a classic
example of a card that probably would have been
fine. It makes it bigger and flies, and dies
at the end of the turn. Lucky for all of us,
they design sets in blocks, not just sets.
They knew about Darksteel and knew that you put this
on an indestructible creature, it would be
mercilessly bad.
Finally, at his wits
and bottle's end, he realizes something.
Something very important.
"Screw these guys!
THEY made Forgotten Ancient and no one is even
playing with it. You think THEY know anything
about card construction? HELL NO!!! They
get what they deserve!"
Now, we get Zig.
I'm sure most of you know the story from here.
Of course, the rest of R&D went to the top of that
building to see Mark holding a kite in his hand,
yelling, "ZIG! ZIG! I FLY! I FLY!"
With that he jumped of the buidling. Luckily,
the other building was right next door, and the fall
was only about 2 feet. They picked Mark and
his kite up, and felt they had to put him out of his
misery. Using the kite as their inspiration,
they made "Zig" a better card, reducing it's casting
cost by two, upping the equip cost by one, and honored this wacky moment by
forever calling it "Neurok Hoversail".
Zig, is nothing more
than history - a part of Magic Arcana forever lost
in the ages. This story and a photocopy of the
card is all that remains of a time when a card
almost drove a man mad.
And now you
know........the rest of the story.
Scott Gerhardt - good
day!
Constructed
- 1.5
Limited - 2
Current Price - priceless |
