Typal decks are one of the cornerstones of Magic: The Gathering. They’ve been part of the game since the beginning, and have pretty much always existed since. With their simple synergies and straightforward game plans, these decks provide excellent on-ramps for new players. Over time, we’ve seen the card design for these strategies evolve. We’ve even, on occasion, seen some multi-typal support that covers several MTG creature types at once.
Such cards aren’t super-common, but they do exist, and they represent a welcome expansion on the established typal formula. Many players enjoy the unique edge these cards offer, and it seems Wizards is right there with them. In a Blogatog post earlier today, Mark Rosewater made it clear that more multi-typal cards are coming in the future. Fans of wacky creature type combos: your moment has arrived.
More MTG Multi-Typal Support In The Pipeline?
“Thaeta: I love cards like Deeproot Historian that are kindred effects for multiple tribes. Can we expect more of these in the future?
Mark Rosewater: You can.”
Via Blogatog
Rosewater’s statement here is brief, but definitive. He rarely gives solid answers like this on Blogatog, often resorting to the ‘if/when’ structure or “Maybe :)” instead. Here, however, he just says yes with no caveats. We’re getting more multi-typal support in future MTG sets, and that’s the end of that.
For those who enjoy this kind of deck, this is fantastic news. In the comments, Zorroaburrito said “+1. Several of the typal cards in that batch were for both types on the card, and it was a fantastic idea.” The “batch” they’re referring to here is the selection of multi-typal cards from The Lost Caverns Of Ixalan Commander decks, like Master of Dark Rites and Skeleton Crew. While small, this is one of the more significant multi-typal packages we’ve seen to date, as we’ll get into shortly.
Technically, Wizards could print new multi-typal cards in pretty much any upcoming set. We already know Spider-Man will include Spider-Ham, Peter Porker, for example, which supports no less than 18 distinct types. Where this idea is really likely to be revisited, however, is in next year’s Lorwyn Eclipsed. Lorwyn has always been a typal plane, and this new version will undoubtedly carry on that tradition.
Looking ahead to Lorwyn, Cursedereaper added the following in the comments: “would love this even more if it works as the kindred mechanic “that share a creature type with this” to allow changing creature type shenanigans as in OG Lorwyn.” This is a reference to the Kinship mechanic, which was an early take on multi-typal from original Lorwyn. Seeing it return would be a nice nostalgia hit, and a way for Rosewater to make good on the promise he’s made here today.
Past Partnerships
For much of Magic’s history, multi-typal cards have been one-off novelties. Cards like Death Baron made flavorful sense, and we’ve had scattered legends like Aegar and Rin and Seri. These were interesting experiments, but ultimately no more than that.
Lorwyn was the first time Wizards pushed multi-typal as a theme in earnest. The kinship mechanic was an obvious example, encouraging you to try out two-type decks to hit your triggers consistently. The abundance of Changelings in the set really helped take this idea further. Smoothing out your creature base with these all-type cards greatly boosted consistency.
As we mentioned above, Ixalan was also a great proponent of multi-typal cards. As another heavy typal set, this makes a ton of sense. While it didn’t go as far as Lorwyn, we saw the support cards in the Commander decks, as well as one-off wild cards like Throne of the Grim Captain.
One of the best multi-typal examples is actually the most recent: last year’s Bloomburrow. With 10 different Animal factions to support, Wizards made the smart move of including a number of multi-typal pieces to help bridge the gaps. The ‘Caller’ cycle at rare, Valley Questcaller, Valley Floodcaller, etc., all supported four types each. These proved to be very useful synergy pieces, particularly in Limited.
That brings us to today. While we now know we’ll be getting more cards like this, Rosewater’s response is about as vague as they come in terms of details. We could see multi-typal develop into a proper full-on set theme, or it could maintain the low-key trajectory it’s on right now.
A Well-Considered Strategy
Ideally, it’ll be the latter. Multi-typal support is a great feature for MTG to have, and it solves a lot of long-running problems with typal decks in general.
First of all, it helps counter a common complaint about typal decks: their linearity. Whether you’re building or playing them, typal decks are often very simple. You run a lot of creatures of your chosen type, and you run the cards that reward you for doing so. By adding more types into the equation, multi-typal decks get around this issue. You need to think a lot harder when building to balance everything out, and you need to consider your plays more carefully.
Multi-typal also alleviates the very common situation where a specific type just doesn’t have enough support to see play. We see this all the time, particularly with new types, or ones Wizards hasn’t focused on before. Just look at Bloomburrow, for example. Other than Mice, none of the other 10 types have really done much in competitive Magic. By creating cards that support multiple types, the chances of each seeing play increase significantly.
It’s also worth noting that the idea is fantastic for Limited. It’s hard to get a full typal deck together in Draft or Sealed, but multi-typal ‘bridge’ cards make it much easier. We saw this already in Bloomburrow, but Wizards could take it even further in future sets.
Whether it will or not remains to be seen, but I, for one, am excited to see the results either way. Typal decks scratch an itch nothing else in Magic does.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!