![]() By attending to these sorts of tensions and the opportunities for inquiry that they create, we can better understand not only how to involve ourselves successfully in complex protocological systems but also how to articulate such involvement so that others, too, can navigate similarly complex systems. The possibilities for such interactions to occur cannot always be anticipated, but how they operate (e.g., which card’s rules get priority or how players can determine that) and how they come to be understood to operate are inherently rhetorical activities. Maybe several times over the years, as the rules get readjusted. People had to sit down, presumably in a conference room in Renton, WA, and figure out how Opalescence and Humility interact. But I can’t help loving it Magic contains genuine mysteries, in the original, religious sense of the word. Any sane designer would call this a problem, a rough edge, an unfortunate artifact of Magic’s age, complexity, and less-than-rigorous rules in its earlier days. I can look up judge rulings online to see what happens under those circumstances, but it would take about an hour to explain why. Magic will happily let you have Opalescence and Humility-two enchantments that read "every enchantment is a creature with power equal to its mana cost" and "every creature has 1 power"-next to each other on the table. As Bruno Dias (2017) noted regarding the simultaneously confusing and exciting nature of complicated Magic mechanics interactions and the protocols that inform how they are resolved: ![]() Importantly, the development of rules and the emergence of protocols for dealing with points of tension keeps rhetorical potential emphasized during the playing of Magic. This sort of mechanism works in the artifact-focused decks in the block, which takes place diegetically during an inventor’s fair and a rebellion against a totalitarian government with strict control over magical resources and artifact development. ![]() For example, Ovalchase Dragster from the Kaladesh/Aether Revolt block involves a vehicle artifact type that can temporarily function like a creature, and thus engage in combat, when another creature card (with certain power threshholds) is tapped to serve as the vehicle’s crew (for more on the vehicle mechanic and the rationale behind its development, see Gavin Verhey, 2016). This attention to experimentation allows Wizards of the Coast to maintain and grow interest in the various modes of game play, from Standard to Legacy to Commander. Wizards of the Coast has continually experimented with new approaches to the game, from adding new mechanics, removing unpopular or unhelpful mechanics (e.g., those that might considerably slow down gameplay), and responding to player feedback in timely and, often, public forums. The game of Magic continues to develop with new releases, new cards, new mechanics, and new worlds. A player considers their options during a game of Magic.
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