Unfinity/Trivia
Mark Rosewater gave a special mega-teaser with the following hints.
First up, here are some things you can expect:
- a card that can become over five hundred different cards for the turn — Standard Procedure
- a card that enchants your graveyard — Animate Graveyard
- a card which requires you to use pantomime — Ticking Mime Bomb
- an enchantment subtype appears on an artifact for the first time — Saga, for Greatest Show in the Multiverse
- a new subgame card in a color that’s never had one — Tug of War (green)
- a card that can make one of five different artifact tokens that each don’t do anything — Goblin Cruciverbalist
- an outside assistance card where the person assisting doesn’t even know — Phone a Friend
- a common command — Command Performance
- Over ten new named abilities including best in show, gear up, and parade! — Alpha strike, Best in show, Gear up, Gobble, Jump, Open an attraction, Parade!, Prize, Rangeling, Space sculptor, Sticker kicker, Visit
- a card that can make multiple Storm Crow tokens — Attempted Murder
- a cycle of “fill in the blank” cards — Knight in ______ Armor / _____ Bird Gets the Worm (), Make a _____ Splash / _____ _____ _____ Trespasser / Wizards of the _____ (), Last Voyage of the _____ / Wolf in _____ Clothing (), _____ Balls of Fire / _____ Goblin (), Fight the _____ Fight / _____-o-saurus () and _____ _____ Rocketship ()
- multiple cards that let you win a prize — Prize Attractions
- a creature ability gets converted to a land ability — Nearby Planet (Changeling into Rangeling)
- a planeswalker that doesn’t do what you say — Comet, Stellar Pup
- a card that makes flying Cat tokens — Katerina of Myra's Marvels
- a cycle of cards that care about certain objects you can see from your seat — Now You See Me ... (), Super-Duper Lost (), Questionable Cuisine (), Amped Up (), Mistakes Were Made ()
- another spell that lets you open a booster pack — Opening Ceremony
- a card that gives you a resource to pay costs that no card has ever granted before — Sole Performer (tap actions)
- a card that asks an outside person to rate something on a scale from 1 to 5 — Art Appreciation
- between cards and stickers, over twenty-five nonevergreen/nondeciduous mechanics are returning — Adventure, Affinity, Afflict, Battle cry, Bolster, Bushido, Exalted, Hellbent, Heroic, Horsemanship, Infect, Landfall, Magecraft, Metalcraft, Mentor, Morbid, Monstrosity, Outlast, Partner, Persist, Proliferate, Provoke, Shadow, Skulk, Threshold and Undying
Here are some rules text that will be showing up on cards:
- “An opponent tells you a statement about themselves and secretly notes whether it’s true or false.” — Blufferfish
- “Each player in an Un-game who can hear you may bid life.” — Exit Through the Grift Shop
- “where X is the greatest number of stored results on it of the same value.” — Centaur of Attention
- “except by creatures with flavor text” — Plot Armor
- “for each item in its art that’s not touching CARDNAME, another item, or the card frame.” — Juggletron
- “As long as CARDNAME remains tapped, that effect doesn’t end.” — Grand Marshal Macie
- “As CARDNAME enters the battlefield, choose a word with five or more letters.” — Nocturno of Myra’s Marvels
- “target non-Brushwagg creature” — Embiggen
- “Ask a person outside the game to choose which of them is most like a rock band.” — Rock Star
- “using the first letters of the names of permanents you control,” — Goblin Cruciverbalist
- “As long as three or more hands are touching CARDNAME,” — A Real Handful
- “first strike and a sword, vigilance and a shield, menace and mean eyes” — D00-DL, Caricaturist
- “with the same artist and different names” — Greatest Show in the Multiverse
- “with #GuessThatMagicCard and no other text.” — Photo Op
- “any number of printed Clown Robot tokens that aren’t touching each other, that you hid on the battlefield” — Surprise Party
- “Choose A through M or N through Z.” — Main Event Horizon
- “If the cracks in CARDNAME’s art are completely covered,” — Astroquarium
- “An opponent chooses ‘the fastest’, ‘the scariest’ or ‘the weakest.’” — The Superlatorium
- “As CARDNAME enters the battlefield, choose a named Magic character.” — Vorthos, Steward of Myth
- “When you draw yourself, you win the game.” — Form of the Approach of the Second Sun
Here is some reminder text that appears in the set:
- “Anything with two or more capitalized words in its name that begin with the same letter is alliterative.” — Treacherous Trapezist
- “A top is an outerwear garment worn on the upper body.” — The Big Top
- “the card, not your head” — Get Your Head in the Game
- “They can’t be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.” — Merry-Go-Round
- “Align the tops of both cards to check.” — Bar Entry
- “Don’t explain anything else. You choose targets.” — Phone a Friend
- “This creature has first strike as long as it’s blocking or being blocked by a creature that comes after it alphabetically.” — Jetpack Janitor
- “The vowels are A, E, I, O, U, and Y.” — _____ Bird Gets the Worm (), Wizards of the _____ (), Disemvowel / Wolf in _____ Clothing (), _____ Goblin (), and _____-o-saurus ()
- “This spell costs 1 less to cast for each Clown you control.” — Omniclown Colossus
- “It has their total power, total toughness, combined mana costs, all text boxes, names, art, and so on.” — It Came from Planet Glurg
- “Something is hot if it has hot things in its art, like fire or explosions.” — Don't Try This at Home
- “CARDNAME divides the battlefield into alpha, beta, and gamma sectors.” — Space Beleren
- “Each time you gobble, take a bit of food or sacrifice a Food token.” — Pie-Eating Contest
- “You can have two commanders if both have partner.” — Ignacio of Myra's Marvels, Katerina of Myra's Marvels, Fluros of Myra’s Marvels, Hardy of Myra's Marvels, Ignacio of Myra's Marvels
- “It becomes 2/2, then 1/1, ½ / ½, and so on.” — Octo Opus
- “about 0.3 meters” — Cover the Spot, Trapeze Artist
- “Creatures in a log together can’t be blocked unless they’re all blocked.” — Log Flume
- “Don’t touch other people’s phones without permission and be careful if you do.” — Mobile Clone
- “Places everyone! The first creature in line gets +0/+0.” — Starlight Spectacular
- “They continue to exist after they leave the battlefield.” — Claire D'Loon, Joy Sculptor
And finally, here are some creature-type lines you’ll see:
- Creature - Rat Rogue — Rat in the Hat
- Creature - Alien Insect — Spelling Bee
- Artifact Creature - Clown Robot Mime — Ticking Mime Bomb
- Creature - Dog Employee — Carnival Barker
- Creature – Beeble — Bamboozling Beeble
- Creature - Frog Guest — Croakid Amphibonaut
- Creature - Human Hatificer Assassin — Haberthrasher
- Creature - Alien Squirrel — Xenosquirrels
- Creature - Minotaur Child Guest — Wee Champion
- Creature - Porcupine Performer — Treacherous Trapezist
- Creature - Dinosaur Employee — Resolute Veggiesaur
- Creature - Zombie Coward Guest — Scared Stiff
- Artifact Creature - Plant Mutant Food — Vegetation Abomination
- Legendary Creature - Devil Performer — Devil K. Nevil
- Legendary Creature - Human Gamer — Vorthos, Steward of Myth
- Legendary Creature - Alien Ooze — It Came from Planet Glurg
- Legendary Creature - Human Pilot Employee — Captain Rex Nebula
- Legendary Creature - Elephant Mouse Performer — Tusk and Whiskers
- Legendary Creature - Human Clown Artificer — Pietra, Crafter of Clowns
- Legendary Artifact Creature – Robot — D00-DL, Caricaturist
Cards
- Aardwolf's Advantage references Johnny, Spike and the 1996 World Champion card. An Aardwolf is a type of hyena.
- Animate Graveyard is the first Aura to enchant a graveyard, taking after Animate Library.
- Attempted Murder plays of on the meaning of a Murder of Crows
- The infestation of Beebles (Bamboozling Beeble) is reminiscent of the Tribbles of Star Trek.
- The flavor text of Bioluminary refers to Gargantikar.
- The Blue Ribbon is an American symbol of high quality.
- Centaur of Attention is the center of attention.
- The name of Claire D'Loon, Joy Sculptor is a play on Debussy's Clair de lune
- Decisions, Decisions spoofs Hamlet's "To be, or not to be"
- The name of Dee Kay, Finder of the Lost is Decay.
- The name of Devil K. Nevil references the stunt performer Evel Knievel.
- The Discourtesy Clerk draws attention to the fact that Commander tax is not included.
- Disemvowel is a play on Disembowel.
- D00-DL, Caricaturist's name references doodles.
- The characters in Exchange of Words wear suits of Ajani Goldmane and Angrath.
- The characters in Finishing Move wear suits of Nicol Bolas and Liliana Vess.
- Form of the Approach of the Second Sun is a play on cards like Form of the Dragon and Approach of the Second Sun. At 26 characters, which is near the upper limit of character names, its name has the longest name of another card within it.
- Gallery of Legends depicts Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Phage the Untouchable and Polukranos, Unchained. All three have “un” in their epithet.[1]
- The child in Get Your Head in the Game is made up with the Mask of Yawgmoth.
- Grand Marshal Macie's name may be a nod to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and she is leading an Assembled Ensemble.
- Gray Merchant of Alphabet refers to Gray Merchant of Asphodel and its nickname Gary.
- The Goblin Cruciverbalist is a lover of crosswords.[2]
- Goblin Airbrusher's promotion refers to Goblin Piker's flavor text, with identical stats.
- Greatest Show in the Multiverse gained the artifact type when the designers realized that the commissioned Saga artwork wouldn't fit in a colorless card frame, as the frame is normally translucent and hence require a much wider art.[3]
- _____ Goblin's flavor text while nominally a nod to the Lorwyn Boggarts, could refer to the producible memetic phrase "Mind Goblin".
- Hat Trick harkens back to the original meaning of the Hat-trick.
- Impounding Lot-Bot references the Daleks of Doctor Who.
- Icing Manipulator is a callback to Icy Manipulator.
- It Came from Planet Glurg was inspired by the popularity of Grusilda, Monster Masher, being a different way to make a creature be a combination of multiple creatures.[4]
- Jetpack Janitor's birthday flavor text refers to Davvol on Carnival of Souls.
- In Killer Cosplay, the Bear Cub is dressed up as a Tarmogoyf. Both cost .[5] Its flavor text refers to the original Lhurgoyf.
- The Merry-Go-Round makes use of a Slow-time bubble.
- The name of The Most Dangerous Gamer comes from the short story The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell.[6]
- Night Shift of the Living Dead references the Night of the Living Dead film series.
- Omniclown Colossus is the second card to use π after Just Desserts
- Opening Ceremony is the first card to add .
- Pair 'O Dice Lost is a reference to the epic poem Paradise Lost.
- Phone a Friend depicts Urza's Head.
- Robo-Piñata is the first English card name to include a tilde diacritic ("~").
- For a while in design, Souvenir T-Shirt had “branding” with the reminder text of banding.[7]
- Space Beleren is a throwback to Jace Beleren and its mechanic Space sculptor is a throwback to Jace, the Mind Sculptor
- Early in design, Step Right Up opened three Attractions and was therefore initially called Park Ritual.[8]
- The Space Family Goblinson is a parody of the Space Family Robinson, an original science-fiction comic-book series loosely based on the 1812 novel The Swiss Family Robinson
- Spelling Bee conflates the insect with the spelling competition.
- Tchotchke Elemental uses a Jewish-American word for small curios or promotional items.
- Ticking Mime Bomb is a play on the Ticking time bomb trope in movies.
- Minotaur de Force's name is a play on a Tour de Force.[9]
- The art and flavor text from ________ ________ ________ Trespasser and Busted! form a two-card mini-story.
- Vorthos, Steward of Myth asks the player to "choose a named Magic character". However, its flavor text makes reference to the planeswalker formerly known as Nicol Bolas, who currently has no name.
- Well Done plays with the concepts of rare and Well done.
- Wizards of the ________ is a play on Wizards of the Coast, and mentions Magic in its flavor text.
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (October 7, 2022). "This Attraction was modeled after the Hall of Presidents.". Twitter.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 30, 2022). "The R&D slang for big words in names most players don’t know is “$.25 words”.". Twitter.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (June 21, 2024). "Why is Greatest Show in the Multiverse an artifact?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (October 17, 2022). "Can I get any info about It Came from Planet Glurg?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 29, 2021). "Killer Cosplay was originally an aura, but we realized it would be cool to represent cosplay". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 9, 2023). "Trivial Pursuit: What's in a Name?". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (October 7, 2022). "If you ask me, the biggest miss with D00-DL is that having a musical instrument doesn't give the token banding.". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 28, 2022). "Early in design, this card opened three Attractions and was called Park Ritual.". Twitter.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 28, 2022). "I turned in "Her performance was a minotaur de force." as flavor text for this card.". Twitter.