Over the years, the philosophies that guide Magic: The Gathering’s design process have changed considerably. That’s to be expected when a game runs for over three decades, of course, but it’s still wild to look back and see the difference. The way cards are designed is totally different now, and the balance of power between the card types has tipped fully in favor of creatures. Another element that used to be central to MTG but has since fallen out of favor is downsides on cards.
For a long time, powerful cards in Magic often came with drawbacks and trade-offs that made them riskier to play. In the modern game, however, this idea is rapidly falling out of favor. While it doesn’t sound like a big deal, this trend is pushing Magic in what could well be an unsustainable direction. With the power level of individual cards at an all-time high, we need downsides back now more than ever.
The Move Away From Downsides In MTG
You don’t have to look far to see that downsides aren’t a big part of MTG anymore. New sets contain barely any cards that make use of them. In fact, usually the opposite is true and cards come stacked with multiple upsides instead.
This change is down to a shift in attitude towards the idea at Wizards. As Mark Rosewater has mentioned many times on Blogatog, including just yesterday, downsides just aren’t that popular among players. Feedback on different sets has clearly convinced Wizards to stop pursuing downsides overall.
Honestly, this position is understandable, as downsides can lead to unsatisfying gameplay scenarios. While cards with them are often fairly powerful in order to compensate, nothing feels worse than losing because of something on your own side of the board.
When there are less risky options available, players will generally take them to avoid the potential feels-bad moments. This gets more and more true with every new set, as more efficient options in each category are printed. The upshot of this is that cards with downsides tend not to see play for the most part, other than particularly powerful examples.
Downsides on creatures create a bit of a ‘what if?’ scenario, where players feel disappointment over what could have been if the card didn’t come with any. In some ways, this can be worse than the card not existing at all. It’s a strange psychological element of design, but a very valid one.
A Case For Designs With Drawbacks
There are plenty of arguments for Wizards’ current stance on downsides in MTG, but I also think it’s a big mistake to cut them out of the game entirely. Downsides have a ton to offer, both during deckbuilding and in actual games.
At their very best, cards with downsides are mini puzzles for the player to solve. They offer the potential of great power; if the player can overcome the hurdle they present. Phyrexian Dreadnought is the poster child example here. You can have a ridiculous 12/12 Trampler for just one mana, provided you can solve the puzzle of that enters ability.
The best part is that there are multiple solutions. You can leverage cheap creatures with high power-to-toughness ratios, or you can use ETB-cancelling artifacts like Torpor Orb. Either way, you’ll need to alter your deck in a specific way in order to make use of Dreadnought, which is exactly how it should be for a card so powerful.
Cards like these shift the focus of deckbuilding from jamming a bunch of generically good cards to finding strong synergies between cards. You have to really think about your cards and how to get the most out of them, which, in my opinion, is what Magic should be all about.
In-game, cards with downsides are similarly interesting. Generically good cards can often be played out on curve with little thought, but cards with downsides need to be carefully considered. They’ll usually need to be specifically timed for the best results, and, at their very best, they’ll make you reconsider your usual play patterns, too. Edge of Eternities’ Sunset Saboteur, one of the rare recent examples of cards like this, makes you think about combat more carefully, for example.
How Long Can This Go On?
Given where MTG design is at the moment, I believe we need cards with downsides now more than ever. With the introduction of the FIRE design philosophy back in 2019, we saw the game’s power level start to spike rapidly. We also saw a noticeable increase in what I’ll call “Self-Contained Cards.”
These are the total opposites of cards with downsides. Rather than asking you to build your deck in a specific way, these cards serve as enablers for their own abilities. Modern Horizons 3’s Six is the perfect example of this trend. Not only does it give noncreature cards in your ‘yard Retrace, but Six fills it too when attacking. These synergetic abilities mean Six doesn’t even need support, further removing potential downsides.
There are a ton of other recent designs like this, from Zurgo Stormrender in Tarkir to Sephiroth in Final Fantasy. Rather than make deckbuilding and gameplay more interesting, these cards make it more streamlined and obvious. It’s exciting to get to play with powerful cards, sure, but the satisfaction of figuring out how to maximize them is gone. Power creep concerns aside, this kind of design is bad for the game long-term.
As the game gets more powerful overall, it becomes less and less likely that we’ll see more cards with downsides. I hope we do; however, as Magic is a much more interesting game when they’re in the mix.
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