MTG is full of unique and intriguing mechanics. Every time a premier set is on its way, the design team at Wizards of the Coast has to go deep in the tank to try to make new keywords that are exciting for the players.
Obviously, not all mechanics become hits. Nonetheless, most take some time to be developed. Mechanics have to mesh well with the set they are in, both from a lore and gameplay perspective.
As such, it’s understandable that some designs require a lot of tinkering with in order to end up with the best final version possible. But did you know there’s one mechanic that was actually designed by Mark Rosewater in his sleep?
A Peculiar Outcome
That’s right. MTG’s head designer supposedly invented the Entwine mechanic while dreaming. Bill Rose, the head of R&D at Wizards of the Coast, gave a few notes to Mark Rosewater during his design of the Mirrodin mechanics. Originally, Mark Rosewater was asked to scratch one of Mirrodin’s major mechanics in development, as it “took up too much space.”
A little later, though, Mark was given a new mission: come up with one final mechanic, but it needed to be smaller. It also needed to be something that was less synergy-driven. The goal was for it to function easily on its own, without a player needing to focus on it too much thematically.
One night, Mark Rosewater went to bed and managed to come up with a mechanic that met all of Bill’s requirements while dreaming. Mark Rosewater claims this was a lucid dream, an instance where he knew he was dreaming but could recall his own thoughts well enough to get them on paper the second he woke up. Frantically, he got up, wrote everything down, and the Entwine mechanic was born!
A Brief History of Entwine
All things considered, Mark Rosewater seems to have delivered on his promise of a small mechanic not bound by synergy. Entwine is a very simple mechanic printed on a variety of modal cards. The idea is that you can either choose to pay the card’s traditional mana cost, or you can pay the mana cost plus the Entwine cast in order to get the benefits from all the modes on the card.
Interestingly, the only premier sets that have featured cards with Entwine are Mirrodin, Darksteel, and Fifth Dawn. Outside of Mirrodin block, new Entwine cards have only shown up in Modern Horizons, Modern Horizons 2, and Commander 2019.
Prior to Entwine’s return in Modern Horizons, every single card with the mechanic specifically gave the player two modes to choose from. Modern Horizons opened up the design space a little bit with the release of Kaya’s Guile, which is an instant with four modes. This time around, players had the option between paying three mana for two modes of their choice, or six mana for the full four modes.
This is an interesting way to create modal cards, but it does limit a player’s options a bit. For instance, there’s no way to choose exactly three modes.
Additionally, Entwine cards are likely limited in design space, since each mode needs to be valued at the same mana cost. You also need the Entwine cost to be low enough that players will want to utilize both modes sometimes, but high enough that players won’t choose to Entwine the card 99% of the time.
Take Tooth and Nail, for example. With a tiny Entwine cost of just two mana, EDH players will almost always choose to Entwine Tooth and Nail and get a huge payoff out of the deal. After all, the gap between seven mana and nine is small and the upside of utilizing both modes is huge.
Back in 2020, Mark Rosewater gave Entwine a six on the Storm Scale, meaning its return in a premier set is rather unlikely. Luckily, there are a range of similar mechanics that accomplish a similar task in arguably a cleaner fashion.
Similar Mechanics
Unsurprisingly, many players have joked that Entwine is just a glorified Kicker variant. While this is a bit hyperbolic, we’ve seen even kicker cards with more than two modes be structured very similarly to Entwine.
Take a look at Inscription of Ruin from Zendikar Rising. Inscription gives you three modes to choose from, but if you pay the kicker cost on top of the card’s mana cost, you can choose any number of modes instead. In many cases, this will function nearly identical to Entwine. The difference is that the player can choose to forgo a mode (perhaps there are no creatures worth destroying).
As such, Kicker covers Entwine’s bases while offering more options for the player casting it. Similarly, both Escalate and Spree give more flexibility to in design space and gameplay.
Cards with Escalate, like Blessed Alliance, allow players to pay an extra cost for each extra mode they want to use beyond the first. Spree takes this same idea to the next level, letting players choose any combination of modes they want, but they have to pay specific costs based on the modes they choose.
When casting Final Showdown, you can use it as a two-mana Dress Down variant, a two-mana protection spell, or a six-mana board wipe. Further, you can combine modes, perhaps paying seven mana to give one of your creatures Indestructible and then wipe the board.
For reference, Spree was only given a four on the Storm Scale, with Mark Rosewater stating his optimism for the mechanic’s return. So, while it’s amusing that Entwine was designed in Mark Rosewater’s Dream, it’s possible the mechanic has simply been improved upon in the meantime.
