The Hidden Way Magic: The Gathering and Elden Ring Are Related

Lore things put together to make a strong deck? The Urza lands in Tron. 1+1+1=7

You're describing my very dumb INT/STR build and his journey to wield The Almighty Delete Key (or as the uninitiated call it, "The Ruins Greatsword").

Singposting is also very important to many roguelikes. Slay the spire has a lot of singposty cards(first one that comes to mind is Body Slam), and I'd say some Hades boons are very much like that, too

Re: the lore leading to gameplay in Magic, it’s more subtle but it really works in a rotating environment like standard. Looking at the phyrexian arc, they were introducing praetors on planes they weren’t supposed to be on all the way back in Kaladesh. In a more paper-dominant environment, this gives the Vorthos players an advantage in understanding what archetypes will be powerful and what cards to prioritize collecting early

Ever since Elden Ring has come out I've not stopped saying that Elden Ring is the perfect IP for a Universes Beyond set. Not a series of commander decks (I'm absolutely sick of those at this point) but a full on booster set similar to Lord of the Rings. Magic is one of the major inspirations for Miyazaki but Elden Ring just feels sooooooo much like magic, from all the color coding of areas, items and clothes to the presentation of item desctiptions to the way you literally have things that feel like llfe gain, burn damage, enchantments and equipment. You also have summons. It's just perfect.

Perhaps signposting explains the popularity of commander. “Take a cool card and build a deck around it.” (I understand you could not have brought this up in the video because it would have implied that commander has positive qualities)

Another great thing about the "lore excavation" kind of design is that you can have a rich lore/story without imposing it on those who simply enjoy the gameplay. You get to choose what you want to engage with.

This kind of design is the sort of thing that would benefit more games. Where you are given plentiful options and the idea of "the possibility of the thing" (as Gavin so eloquently stated), and it works as an incentive to come back to it again and again! Using Videogame comparisons : Legend of Zelda- Tears of the Kingdom does incentivize players to explore the world very well.. but it "fails" at what Magic and Elden Ring provide, a new way to experience the journey by making a few tweaks to the way you approach things and what goals you impose on yourself. Link will always be Link and your move-set and abilities don't differ (nor does it demand you to). Storytelling being hidden between the puzzle pieces is also something I've learned to appreciate more. Where it is not necessary, but it provides so much more for those invested in it (the only difference here is that Magic's story isn't worth following).

There was pro tour eldritch moon where liliana the last hope beat emrakul in the finals just like in the story at the time which was kind of neat that happened irl at the same time

When I see 2 untapped blue mana I am remembered about counterspell. That’s a signpost if I understand the vocabulary correctly. But now as far as lore is concerned I know that open blue mana can be used to counter spells in one way or the other. I don’t need to know exactly what cards can counter me. So it’s a mix of lore and heuristics.

I appreciate the way yall strike a balance between talking about game design more broadly and magic because it's what really took off in the algorithm.

Lore-to-strategic-advantage in Magic: There are a handful of cards in Magic that reference other cards which share a theme/lore/naming convention (i.e. the Urzatron lands) and to some extent that tells the player to find the other cards with similar flavorful properties to get the mechanical synergy. The personalities of the colors and multicolor factions do a lot of suggesting how a deck built around that theme is likely to play out and gives the player some hint as to whether they will enjoy the style of gameplay as well as encourage them to play in a way aligned with the theme. Tribal strategies: Goblins are depicted as numerous and overtly disposable. Spells like Goblin Grenade clearly show that individual goblins aren't meant to be held dear so the player feels safe in playing aggressively, making a lot of goblin tokens, and then sacrificing them for various effects. Elves on the other hand often have art and flavor text that implies they are a collective and that could encourage gameplay built around cards that count how many elves you have or simply playing a lot of "lords". That's the best I could come up with :)

I think the fact that you can't have hidden info on a card makes the difference. Cards tell you exactly what they do, the game doesn't work otherwise. One I really like that feels similar is Emrakul and the delirium mechanic.

I would have never thought to compare Elden Ring and MtG, the associations you made are so spot on and so interesting. I'm not a lore person at all but love the fact that it is there. Particularly with FromSoft games I only pay minimal attention to the deep lore connections while I play but I LOVE VaatiVidya, who is kind of the lore king of FromSoft games. I would never be able to make all the connections he does, but his videos explaining the lore are so interesting and it shows the passion FromSoft has for painting the fabric of the lore. Everything is intentional and connected. Great stuff.

I never undrestood why people buy boosters outside of draft/pre-releases. To me it was always: Shops opens lots of boxes. You go to a shop and get the cards you want.

I think Magic's equivalent to Margit/Mohg's shackle and the item that lets you parry Maliketh's destined death attack could be something like 'Protection from X thing'.

Flavor as gameplay: Using Cabal Therapy to sacrifice Academy Rector to tutor Yawgmoth’s Bargain into play.

For lore combos in mtg they do exist but are more set based. The best example of this are urza playing the might/weak stone on the battlefield. Which if you then pay 7 mana can combine them into a very powerful plainswallker.

Card flavour does matter a lot for what Rosewater calls modular set design. The contrast, linear design, is like using keywords, or types, or a common trigger or resource. Their synergies stand out obviously, and you just want more of the thing they are all doing or interested in. With modular design, the mechanical interactions are not so obvious. But when you see that they involve a common art direction or flavour theme you can be inspired to think about how they might work together, which they usually do as part of a Limited archetype colour pair. Actually, in Limited, this can lead you towards hidden "mini-archetypes" which are usually something like splashing a third colour being easier and having better synergies than you might expect.

This was an amazing episode 👏 🙌