Innistrad – Double Faced Cards

Each new Magic set always has something that makes people squeal with delight.  In case you haven’t heard, Innistrad has double-faced cards.  These cards have two “front” pictures with different attack/defense stats.  Kruin Outlaw transforms into Terror of Kruin Pass.  (You can read about the new rules here and the official Innistrad card image gallery is here.)

At first I was very excited because I thought Wizard’s was doing something radically different.  Before reading the rules article I guessed what the rules would be.  I thought that you would hold the double-faced card in your hand, thus revealing the information to your opponent.  Then my mind starting racing and I started to think about how Magic Online would show this new type of information. 

After my initial rush, I read the rules article and it explained that you could use card sleeves or an official checklist card (which is shown below).  The checklist card feels very forced and unnatural.  Where exactly are you supposed to keep you double-faced card secret?  In your pocket?  Obviously this problem is more pronounced in casual games, which are less likely to use sleeves, versus tournaments where most people probably use sleeves.  

(My previous statement about card sleeves is just a guess because I don’t have much experience playing Magic.  In real-life I’ve only played three games with one guy, no kidding.  Of course that was all that was needed to get me hooked.  Magic Online taught me the many intricacies of the rules which the rulebook couldn’t quite explain.  Magic Online helped me to instinctively understand the rules.  And as a side note, I’ve read that Magic Online really helped Magic explode because everybody learned to play the game with the exact same rules.)

In conclusion, I think Wizards could have radically changed the game of Magic with double-faced cards but instead they chose the easy, boring solution.  If your opponent knew that you had a double-faced card in your hand that would have profoundly changed the game, it might even strike fear into your opponent.  Obviously Wizards has hundreds (and maybe thousands) of hours of playtesting and I have exactly zero. 

And any good trading card game should be strenuously playtested, much like software.

Keep on forging,

mtgrares

p.s.

--I don’t play Magic Online anymore because although it was fun, it cost too much money.  Now I exclusively play Forge and other freeware programs.  Long live open source!

--The latest version of Forge doesn't have any Innistrad cards.  I'm sure that the next version will probably have 20-30 cards but that is just a guess.

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