January 9, 2002 Q: I’ve noticed that Legend cards don’t always “fit” into the story … Their power/toughness, abilities, and creature types don’t always mesh from the novels to the cards. Why is that? --Billy O’Reilly, Wheaton, MD A: From Rei Nakazawa, Magic creative text writer: Bet you’re thinking of the fact that the Tsabo Tavoc card could beat the Gerrard Capashen card in combat any day, while the opposite is true in the story, right? That’s probably the most stark example of the sort of discontinuity that you’re talking about, but those who work in Magic R&D and Continuity believe that we’ve done a fairly good job overall in keeping the link between cards and characters. There are a few factors that come into play. The first is that R&D’s involvement with (and knowledge of the finer points of) the Magic backstory has fluctuated over the years. This was especially true with the Urza block, when Wizards’ book publishing department began contracting novelists to create Magic plots and characters. So that from that point on, R&D has depended on the story writers to communicate plot points. For example, Vhati il-Dal, a legend from Tempest, was reduced in power and toughness because Greven il-Vec kills him in the story. The aforementioned Tsabo Tavoc and Gerrard issue might have turned out differently if the outcome of the Tsabo/Gerrard battle had been communicated to the developers in time—which it wasn’t, due to the very different schedules R&D and novel writers have. Another fairly obvious factor is that gameplay has to come first. If a story point makes a legend too powerful to be an accurate card, the card’s abilities have to be toned down, even if the character it represents is godlike. Finally, remember that R&D might just have different points of view than the players. Some players expected Gerrard to be a Soldier Legend, but many members of R&D just didn’t think of him as a Soldier, which is why he is just a Legend. January 29, 2002 Q: We’ve had this discussion about this card. Is Nemata male or female, or neither? Since none of us knew much about treefolk reproduction (who does?), we turn to you. Please answer! --Henrik Jonsson, Sweden A: From Rei Nakazawa, Magic creative text writer: Unfortunately, Magic flavor text is somewhat contradictory on the point of treefolk reproduction. On one hand, the flavor text originally used for Ironroot Treefolk reads: “The mating habits of Treefolk, particularly the stalwart Ironroot Treefolk, are truly absurd. Molasses comes to mind. It’s amazing the species can survive at all given such protracted periods of mate selection, conjugation, and gestation.” That obviously implies that there are different genders of treefolk. Under those criteria, we would guess that Nemata is probably female, given that a name ending in “a” is usually feminine. On the other hand, the Urza’s Saga version of Treefolk Seedlings has flavor text that reads: “The year that the brothers landed on Argoth, the trees produced five times as many seeds as normal.” That implies that treefolk produce like normal trees, with seeds, and thus are genderless. Of course, the contradiction can be explained with the differing regions, times, and/or types of treefolk, but in Nemata’s case, since we don’t know which type of treefolk she/it is, there’s no definitive answer. So Nemata is either female or neuter; as for which it is, I’m afraid you’d have to ask her … or it. January 31, 2002 Q: When will we see more elves? --Brian Hughes, Vancouver, BC A: Obsolete February 4, 2002 Q: Will the Odyssey story run through several blocks like Gerrard and the Weatherlight did? --David Leung, Ontario, Canada A: Obsolete February 6, 2002 Q: Magic has a number of cards with names that begin with “Ll.” In Spanish this is pronounced like a “y” (like tortilla), so Llanowar Elves would be pronounced “Yanowar Elves” and Llawan would be “Yawan.” How is a leading “Ll” pronounced in Magicese? --David W. Burhans, Columbus OH A: From Brandon Bozzi, creative administrator Words in Magic that begin with “Ll” are pronounced like “Lloyd” or the English pronunciation of “llama”—just like a single “L.” For example, in the sentence, “Llawan told Lloyd to ride his llama through Llanowar,” all the “ll” words sound the same. February 7, 2002 Q: Is there any particular reason to have a Masticore in the art of Deep Analysis? Does it have something to do with the Torment storyline, or is it just for the bad pun in the flavor text? --Nathaniel Stevens, Philadelphia, PA A: From Doug Beyer, web developer and Magic flavor text writer: The bad pun is mine, but that text was based on the art concept, not the other way around. During a card’s development, the creative team decides the concept for the card art first, then sends the concept, along with the card’s tentative rules text, to a group of flavor writers. We, the flavor writers, offer several flavor text suggestions over a period of time, and the creative text team selects one to end up on the card. In this case, the art concept for Deep Analysis described scientists examining an ancient (read: no longer in Standard) artifact. When I read that it was going to be a Masticore on the scientists’ table (chosen simply because it’s so recognizable), I couldn’t resist poking a little fun. I was happy to find that the team liked my little joke. February 15, 2002 Q: What is up with Tahngarth’s double pictures? On some cards, like Sleeping Potion and others, he’s brown with long horns, but on Tahngarth, Talruum Hero and others, eh has white and red patches of fur and wacky curved horns! Will the real Tahngarth please stand up? --Andres Solano, Trenton, NJ A: From Rei Nakazawa, Magic creative text writer: Actually, there are two answers to your question! First of all, not all minotaurs are made equal. Some of them, like the one on Sleeping Potion, are not Tahngarth, but other members of his Talruum minotaur tribe (see Talruum Minotaur, Talruum Piper, and Talruum Champion for other examples). Secondly, as you probably already know, during the Tempest storyline, Tahngarth was captured and exposed to Phyrexian mutation rays that turned him into the form you see on his card (check out Tahngarth’s Rage for what he looked like before, and Torment—the card, not the expansion—to see his reaction). Volrath was planning to put a spinal graft on him, in order to control him and make him Greven il-Vec’s new first mate, but fortunately, Gerrard rescued Tahngarth before this plan could be put into affect. March 4, 2002 Q: Why did you make cards for all the heroes from the books like Captain Sisay and Karn, Silver Golem but never an Urza card? --Justin Sheppard, Pennsville, NJ A: From Rei Nakazawa, Magic creative text writer: Well, we have, in a way. Vanguard cards were oversized cards which started in play and gave you additional abilities, as well as hand size and starting life adjustments. These cards were used as part of the Arena League a few years ago. They were represented by a wide variety of characters, including Urza and Mishra. But the main reason why there were no actual Magic cards depicting Urza is that Urza was a planeswalker. Since players themselves have historically represented planeswalkers in this game, any Urza card in Magic would be way too powerful; it would basically have to represent another player. Of course, there was Blind Seer, who was Urza in disguise, but he powered himself way down in this form so no one would recognize him. March 8, 2002 Q: I’ve been curious about this card ever since my brother stumbled across one in a Chronicles pack: Does the name Palladia-Mors derive from a phrase used by the Roman poet Horace (1st century BC) in his Odes I.4? He refers to Pallida Mors, or Pale Death in translation. If so, congrats to the R&D department on the reference. --J.P. Spear, New York, NY A: From Steve Conrad, Legends designer The Elder Dragon names are a close approximation in “mortal speak” for their real names. Only dragons can understand their true names (Chromium is a nickname and is not his actual dragon name). Yes, we borrowed heavily from Latin sources but didn’t pull directly from any specific location. It’s not a surprise to find a near-match in some literary work. I once received a letter from a Latin expert who’d researched each name and was impressed with the scope of our knowledge (only one name befuddled him). I didn’t have the heart to write him back to tell him that all the names were just made up! April 10, 2002 Q: I recently bought a booster box of Torment and opened both Ambassador Laquatus and Laquatus’s Champion. Now, I knew what both cards were but never noticed the names. Other than the names, I don’t see how the champion is in any way related to Laquatus. Laquatus looks like a fish … what’s the deal? --Landon Doane, Knoxville, TN A: From Brandon Bozzi, creative administrator In an effort to strengthen the alliance between the Cabal and the underwater empire, the Patriarch orders Chainer, his best dementia summoner, to create a new familiar for Ambassador Laquatus (the Ambassador’s original familiar, Turg, had died in a battle with a giant squid).