Conniving and Designing for Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes

The Mana Forge Digest

Senior designer Jeremy Geist shares insights on his role in designing Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes, focusing on the connive mechanic and its application to villainous characters.

Key points

• Geist was a runner-up in Great Designer Search 3 and worked on Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes
• Connive was inspired by the Villain-only mechanic from Streets of New Capenna, bringing back an Eldritch Moon mechanic
• Connive helps balance power levels among color groups in Magic

What you get

• Connive allows for strategic card discard and counter placement to smooth draws
• It offers mechanical benefits such as balancing power levels across colors
• The mechanic is featured on cards of intelligent, scheming villains like Doctor Doom and M.O.D.O.K.

Why it matters

Geist explains the design process behind connive in Marvel Super Heroes and its impact on gameplay balance.

Details

Connive was initially inspired by the Villain-only mechanic from Streets of New Capenna

The mechanic is designed to be challenging, requiring players to decide between keeping powerful cards or discarding non-land cards for counters

White, red, and green colors have additional effects like scry to compensate for connive's lack in these color groups

Good to know

• Connive was a flavor mechanic that also provided strategic gameplay benefits
• The set features many intelligent villains with connive mechanics, such as Doctor Doom, Kang, M.O.D.O.K., and Baron Zemo

Read the original on Wizards (https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/conniving-and-designing-for-marvel-super-heroes) • Source: Wizards of the Coast