Because each Magic set is designed a couple of years in advance of release, the designers get to have some fun with foreshadowing. Sometimes this is subtle, in the case of cards that play well with future mechanics. Sometimes less so, in the case of cards that explicitly reference future cards and types such as Tarmogoyf and Atraxa. You might not expect to see this kind of thing in Mystery Booster Playtest cards, which are effectively a self-contained Un-set for most purposes. That’s exactly what we saw in Mystery Booster 2, however, thanks to the new MTG Afraid mechanic. As has now been officially confirmed, this was originally intended as a new mechanic for Duskmourn.
Are You Afraid Of The Dark?
For those who haven’t seen it, the MTG Playtest card that uses the Afraid mechanic is Creepy Crawler. Upon seeing this card back in August, many players immediately pegged it as a sneaky preview for Duskmourn: House of Horror. We already knew the set had an enchantment theme and featured face-down creatures. A mechanic that cares about both, and also horrific creature types, therefore seemed like a shoo-in.
Turns out, the players were right on the money with this one. Afraid was planned as a new mechanic for Duskmourn, and according to Mark Rosewater “existed for a while in Vision Design.” Ultimately, however, it wouldn’t make it into the final set. In his Duskmourn: House of Horror Vision Design Handoff: Part 2 article, Rosewater covered this mechanic and the intentions behind it.
“Afraid is what we call a glue mechanic. You take disparate parts of the set and find a way to tie them together. Afraid made use of batching. Caring about enchantments was the most important part. The big issue was what to connect them to. The low hanging fruit was scary creature types. Horror and Nightmare seemed like the obvious choices. Both were being used elsewhere in the set.”
Mark Rosewater
As a way to tie together multiple ideas under one new mechanic, Afraid makes perfect sense. It echoes both the Outlaw and Crime mechanics from Thunder Junction. Players were expecting Nightmare and Horror support in Duskmourn and Afraid delivered both, with extra in-set synergy to boot. It also pushed the set’s Limited environment in a more aggressive direction, since it cared about both entering and attacking. Unfortunately, some issues with Afraid meant it wouldn’t make it into Duskmourn proper.
“In the end, the Set Design team decided they could make cooler cards if it triggered less. Also, the set wanted the Horror and Nightmare creatures to be enchantment creatures, so calling them all out felt repetitive. Once the Horror and Nightmare synergies were removed, triggering from unlocking Rooms got added to make sure this didn’t just feel like constellation.”
Mark Rosewater
All of this reasoning makes perfect sense, but I can’t help but wonder how Afraid would have played if we had gotten it. As Rosewater pointed out in his article, it would’ve been the first MTG mechanic to apply a negative state to an opponent. The design possibilities of such a mechanic would be endless.
At The Crossroads
Afraid could’ve also been a better MTG mechanic than Eerie in other ways, too. For starters, the fact that it cares about creature types would’ve made a lot of players happy. Players were eagerly expecting new Horror and Nightmare typal support from the set. In fact, the Blogatog post we referenced above was in response to a question on that very subject. In the context of Duksmourn Limited it makes sense to remove that aspect to avoid redundancy, but in the wider context of Magic as a whole, this feels like a net negative.
Afraid also feels like a mechanic with more depth than Eerie, for the most part. Putting your opponent in a negative state is more interesting than a simple triggered ability. Especially one, by Rosewater’s own admission, so close to Constellation from Theros. It definitely would’ve resulted in more complex Limited games, and possibly Standard ones too if any Afraid cards broke out. For many players, this kind of complexity is a good thing. It opens up new skill ceilings for the game, which results in more compelling matches overall.
Of course, considering the bigger picture and Magic’s primarily casual player base, it makes sense that Afraid was ultimately scrapped. It may make a return in a future set, however. As Rosewater put it in his article:
“This is another example of Set Design finding a place to trim back complexity. It is a cool concept though, so we’ll put it in our back pocket for future use.”
Mark Rosewater
Whether this means we’ll see Afraid in its current form or another mechanic that grants a negative status to your opponent remains to be seen. It’s great to know that this unique piece of design isn’t gone for good, however. Creepy Crawler: your legacy will live on another day.
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