Multiverse: Civilized Scholar

2011-09-19 10:24:35: Alex created the card Civilized Scholar

2011-09-19 21:32:45: Alex edited Civilized Scholar:

add card image

on 19 Sep 2011 by L2i0n0k7:

Is this a test for Multiverse, or to see how this worked on a flip card?

on 19 Sep 2011 by Alex:

Mainly to see how this (the new Civilized Scholar from Innistrad) worked as a flip card. I've linked this page from a discussion thread as a demonstration of the way that the restricted text box size of flip cards are actually perfectly sufficient for most of the common and uncommon double-faced cards. (The "image" tab works better than the mockup to demonstrate that point.)

on 20 Sep 2011 by L2i0n0k7:

It's true, though not for cards like Garruk Relentless or many of the werewolves.

on 20 Sep 2011 by dude1818:

On the other hand, the art would suck due to its shrunken size; what sort of detail would you see in the tiny art box on a flip card?

2011-09-20 08:14:47: Alex edited Civilized Scholar:

add card art

2011-09-20 08:15:52: Alex edited Civilized Scholar:

add card art

on 20 Sep 2011 by Alex:

I think in cases like this, you can see enough. I'm no artist and not even a Photoshop artist, but you can get the idea of transformation pretty clearly from the card as presented here.

Garruk and some of the more complex werewolves are pretty clearly just designed to take advantage of this Thing they've decided to allow themselves to do. I think MaRo said as much on Tumblr or somewhere, to the effect that once they'd decided to do DFCs, they wanted to make a transforming planeswalker, and then Creative said Garruk was who that should be. I'm pretty sure the flip card format would work for the common and uncommon werewolves too, and if they used keywords they could abbreviate the werewolf ability enough to have interesting rares with this layout.

Just for clarity: I do think that the DFC format lets the art stand out a bit more, and allows flavour text - not that most of the DFC cards actually have very good flavour text. I can even believe there's some subset of players somewhere who tap their cards the opposite way to the way the {t} arrow says, and so would get confused about whether a tapped flip card is flipped or not, an issue that doesn't arise with DFCs. I just don't think those benefits are anywhere near worth the fiddliness, logistical nightmares and dexterity issues that the DFC "solution" brings.

2011-09-20 10:16:09: Alex edited Civilized Scholar:

credit where credit's due

on 20 Sep 2011 by L2i0n0k7:

People that tap their cards the wrong way are so annoying.
Also, I hope that, if there's another un-set, it has a doubled-faced flip card that has a level-up creature on the back side that exiles itself for a planeswalker token.