Unstable

Unstable
Set Information
Set symbol
Themes and mechanics	Contraptions Watermark matters, Flavor text matters, Die rolls
Keywords/​ability words	Assemble, Augment, Crank, Combine, Switch and others
Set size	216-ish
Expansion code	UST

File:Order of the Widget.jpg

Order of the Widget

File:Agents of S.N.E.A.K.jpg

Agents of S.N.E.A.K.

File:League of Dasterdly Doom.jpg

League of Dasterdly Doom

File:Goblin Explosioneers.jpg

Goblin Explosioneers

File:Crossbreed Labs.jpg

Crossbreed Labs

Unstable is a booster-based card set for Magic: The Gathering that can not be used in legal Magic tournaments. It will be released on December 8, 2017 as a standalone set. This is the third of the silver bordered Un-sets and is designed to be drafted.

Set details

Unstable contains "216-ish" cards (5 basic land, TBA common, TBA uncommon, TBA rare, and TBA mythic rare) and 20 foil tokens, and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. The set explores new areas of Magic game design and continues the tradition of bending the conventional rules of the game in a fun and whimsical way. Unstable was designed to both be drafted alone and be mixed with other sets: according to Mark Rosewater, however, the best experience is probably when it's drafted alone. The expansion symbol is a wrench with an acorn-shaped hole.

The set features 'modern design sensibilities' and a is built around a 'cohesive creative vision'. It includes fun legendary creatures that can be utilized in the Commander format and some cards designed for Cube. Like its predecessors, Unstable features 5 full-art basic lands, but borderless instead of black-bordered. Every pack contains one of the five lands unless it is replaced by a Steamflogger Boss, which replaces 1 in every 121 basic lands. The set also features foil tokens, both for tokens produced by cards in the set and for popular tribes outside the set.

The set contains some cards at common which are functionally identical to existing black bordered cards or possibly "blackborderable". These had be included for limited gameplay purposes.

Unstable is only published in the English language.

History

Mark Rosewater had to wait 13 years after Unhinged before Unstable could be printed, as Unhinged had been considered a commercial failure. However, Rosewater and senior brand director Mark Purvis argue this wasn't because of poor sales, but because of overprinting. At the time, Wizards of the Coast didn't regularly create supplemental sets, so Unhinged was treated as a small expansion. Actual work on the set took six years. When design started, one of the goals, as proposed by director of product design Mark Globus, was to explore what new printing technology might allow: however, none of these proposed ideas were feasible at the time the set was printed.

The design of the set was finished in 2014. It was originally scheduled for summer of 2015, but was pushed back a year to make room for Modern Masters 2015. It was then scheduled for summer of 2016, but the concern that its steampunk influence made it too similar to Kaladesh, pushed it back yet another a year. It was then scheduled for summer 2017. After Conspiracy: Take the Crown got squished in, its release was pushed back to December.

Marketing

Unstable is sold in boosters and Draft Packs. The first details of Unstable were revealed by Rosewater at San Diego Comic-Con 2017, who also heavily promoted the set on Blogatog.

A booster contains 16 cards: 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 8 commons, 2 contraptions, 1 basic land and 1 foil token. The boosters feature art from Willing Test Subject, Three-Headed Goblin and X.

Promotional cards

• Draft Weekend Launch promo: Earl of Squirrel
• Judge promo: Rules Lawyer

Tokens

Unstable features 20 foil tokens, one per pack. Half of them are tokens from Unstable, with humorous fake ads on the back of each.

• 0/1 Goat creature, for Urza, Academy Headmaster.
• 1/2 Bird creature with flying called Storm Crow, for Crow Storm.
• 1/1 Faerie Spy creature with the S.N.E.A.K. watermark and with flying, haste, and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to an opponent, draw a card," for Faerie Aerie.
• 2/2 Rogue creature with the S.N.E.A.K. watermark and with menace, for Dispatch Dispensary.
• 1/1 Brainiac creature, for The Big Idea.
• 1/1 Goblin creature, for Box of Free-Range Goblins and Gift Horse.
• 1/1 Squirrel creature, for Chittering Doom and Earl of Squirrel.
• */* Construct artifact creature, for Rapid Prototyper.
• 1/1 Gnome artifact creature, for By Gnome Means and Gnome-Made Engine.
• gold 4/4 Dragon creature with flying, for Sword of Dungeons & Dragons.

The other half of the tokens are for non-Unstable cards, and has full borderless art of the same token on the back faces instead of advertisements.

• 4/4 Angel creature with flying
• 1/1 Spirit creature with flying
• 1/1 Thopter artifact creature with flying
• 2/2 Vampire creature with flying
• 2/2 Zombie creature
• 1/1 Elemental creature
• 3/3 Beast creature
• 1/1 Saproling creature
• */* Elemental creature with "This creature's power and toughness are each equal to the number of creatures you control."
• Clue artifact

Flavor

Unstable is set on Bablovia, a steampunk 'mad scientist world' with 5 factions:

• The Order of the Widget faction () are cyborgs that use technology to constantly improve themselves. They have no self control.
• The Agents of S.N.E.A.K. faction () are really bad spies with cool toys.
• The League of Dastardly Doom faction () are super villains scheming to take over the world. They're constantly at odds with each other.
• The Goblin Explosioneers faction () are steamfloggers and tinkerers that experiment with lots of crazy ideas, many of which explode. They breed fast enough to not wipe out their race.
• The Crossbreed Labs faction () are creature hybrids that have used their inventions to create a perfect society where everyone is their true self.

Themes and mechanics

• Contraptions — One of two flagship mechanics of the set.
  • There are 45 different Contraptions (nine with each faction's watermark), or roughly one-fifth of the set.
  • Contraptions are artifacts that start the game shuffled into a separate "contraption deck." When an effect assembles a Contraption, that player takes the top card of their contraption deck and puts it into their first, second or third sprocket slot. (Any number of Contraptions can exist in a single sprocket.)
  • During each of your upkeeps, if you control a Contraption, you move the CRANK! counter onto the next sequential sprocket of your Contraption deck (sprocket 3 looping back to 1), then crank all Contraptions in that sprocket. Each Contraption has a different ability that triggers upon being cranked.
  • All creatures that can assemble a Contraption are Riggers.
  • Each pack of Unstable contains two Contraption cards.
• Host creatures and augment — The other flagship mechanic of the set.
  • Host creatures all have abilities that trigger on their entering the battlefield, as well as art and name divided by a vertical line. Creatures with augment have no mana cost (but have a color indicator), have plus or minus symbols in their power and toughness (ex. +2/+2 or -1/-0), and each have the first half of a triggered ability.
  • Augment appears on creatures without casting cost. When a host creature is on the battlefield, its controller can augment it with a creature from their hand: those two creatures are then combined into one until they leave the battlefield. The augment creature overlaps the left side of the host creature, such that the arts align.
  • If an augment creature is on the battlefield not combined with a host, it goes to the graveyard as a state-based action.
• Combine — A subset of cards (ex. Do-it-Yourself Seraph and Grusilda, Monster Masher) can combine the text boxes of cards in unique ways.
• Switch — To switch two cards means to exchange their respective game states. Cards that switch do not trigger other abilities, as they do not transition between states.
• "Watermark matters" — To emphasize the individual factions, there are a number of cards (ex. Hammerfest Boomtacular) that care about the watermark printed on a card.
• "Outside assistance" — Cards that require you to find a person not playing in your current game and ask them to do something, usually making a choice or choices about something that will impact your game.
• "Border matters" — Cards that care about the color of the card border.

Unstable also has a number of one-off mechanics that play on other black-bordered mechanics:

• Blurry, a riff on Evasion abilities
• Last strike and triple strike — A riff on first strike and double strike, creatures with last strike deal damage after creatures without last strike. Creatures with triple strike deal both first-strike, regular and last-strike combat damage.
• Undeathtouch — A riff on deathtouch, creatures with undeathtouch exile a creature card if they would otherwise deal damage to it.
• Just a second — A riff on split second, spells with just a second prevent players from moving cards on the battlefield while they're on the stack.
• Squirrellink — A riff on lifelink, creatures with squirrellink create that many Squirrel creature tokens whenever they deal damage.

Unstable also features a number of returning mechanics.

• Existing un-mechanics that return include wordy, "flavor text matters," "art matters," subgames, dice rolling and dexterity cards.
• Existing non-evergreen mechanics that return include storm, frenzy, and Phyrexian mana.
• Trample also appears on non-creature spells for the first time (Super-Duper Death Ray).

Color

Gold joins brown, hazel, and pink as exclusive silver-bordered color.

Supertype

• Host is a new supertype.

Subtypes

• Contraption is a new artifact type.
• Urza is a new planeswalker type.
• Riggers, first featured in Future Sight, are now expanded upon.
• Beebles and Gamers are featured for the first time since Unhinged.
• Ninjas appear for the first time since Betrayers of Kamigawa and the Night of the Ninja deck of Planechase 2012.
• Squirrels form a minor theme.
• New creature types are:
  • Beaver (Eager Beaver)
  • Brainiac
  • Deer (Druid of the Sacred Beaker)
  • Cyborg
  • Hatificer (Goblin Haberdasher)
  • Kangaroo (Mother Kangaroo)
  • Killbot
  • Racoon (Squirrel Dealer)
  • Scientist
  • Vampyre (Old-Fashioned Vampire)
  • Wrestler
• Reintroduced creature types are:
  • Spy (previously existed on Stromgald Spy, before receiving errata)
  • Villain (previously existed on Spinal Villain, before receiving errata)

Cycles

• Faction leaders: Five mythic multicolor permanents that each represent a leader of a faction — The Grand Calcutron (), Phoebe, Head of S.N.E.A.K. (), Baron von Count (), Ol' Buzzbark (), and Dr. Julius Jumblemorph ().
  • The Grand Calcutron was supposed to have "This artifact can be your commander" as rules text, but there was not enough room. Mark Rosewater has stated in his blog that he officially errataed The Grand Calcutron to be legal as commander in silver-bordered EDH games.
• "Watermarks matter:" Five uncommon spells, one for each faction, that care about watermarks of the respective faction — Knight of the Widget (), S.N.E.A.K. Dispatcher (), "Rumors of My Death..." (), Hammerfest Boomtacular (), and Druid of the Sacred Beaker ().
• Dice hosts: Five common host creatures, each with an enters-the-battlefield effect that rolls a die and gets an effect based on the result — Adorable Kitten (), Numbing Jellyfish (), Big Boa Constrictor (), Feisty Stegosaurus (), and Mother Kangaroo ().
• "Outside assistance" spells: Five common spells that require the casting player to consult a person outside of the game — Sacrifice Play (), Defective Detective (), Subcontract (), It That Gets Left Hanging (), and Squirrel Dealer ().

Trivia

General

• Mark Rosewater joked that his toaster did most of the design.
• Originally, there were supposed to be 50 Contraptions (10 for each faction), but Dawn Murin, the art director for Unstable, decided to connect all the Contraptions for each faction, leading there to be 9 Contraptions for each faction, with each piece of artwork on each Contraption card making up a single section of a 3x3 grid.

Cards

• Amateur Auteur's flavor text references the plot of Dragon's Maze.
• GO TO JAIL is a direct reference to Monopoly, a Hasbro brand.
• Rules Lawyer holds the record for the longest reminder text on a given single card, and is also the first card to refer to a specific Magic rule (in this case, rule 704) anywhere in its text.
• Animate Library is the first aura to enchant a library.
• Crow Storm and its token are a play on the meme that Storm Crow is the best card ever printed, due to its ability to be exiled to pay the cost for Force of Will.
• Novellamental's art and flavor text reference Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre.
• The mechanics and art of Hazmat Suit (Used) both refer to Vile Bile, a card from Unhinged.
• Spike, Tournament Grinder logically follows up on Timmy, Power Gamer (Unglued) and Johnny, Combo Player (Unhinged).
  • In a deliberate effort to promote diversity and representation, Spike is portrayed as a female.
• Party Crasher's flavor text is a direct reference to Akroma, Angel of Wrath.
• Steamflogger Boss is reprinted from Future Sight, and is the only creature card printed on the land sheet. This makes it the only black-bordered card in the set that isn't a basic land.
• Super Duper Death Ray is the first card to combine direct damage with trample.
• Really Epic Punch's art and mechanics are direct references to Savage Punch and Epic Confrontation.
• Shellephant is the first card to use "and/or" in the type line.
• Better Than One allows players to add a teammate to existing games, the first card of its type to do so.
  • This effect has previously been templated by the Richard Garfield Celebration Cards Splendid Genesis and Fraternal Exaltation, made to celebrate the birth of each of his children.
• X is the first card that can enter the hand of a player that doesn't own it.
• Sword of Dungeons & Dragons references Dungeons & Dragons, another Hasbro brand.
  • Although D&D has heavily influenced the creation of Magic (e.g. Legends), this is the first time the brand itself is referenced.
  • This mash-up card was previewed with a different graphical design as a HASCON-promo.

Functional reprints

• Amateur Auteur is a functional reprint of Felidar Cub, Kami of Ancient Law and Keening Apparition, save for creature type and border color.
• Novellamental is a functional reprint of Vaporkin and Welkin Tern, save for creature type and border color.

Gallery

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  Borderless Plains

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  Borderless Island

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  Borderless Swamp

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  Borderless Mountain

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  Borderless Forest