Working through GDS3 Trial 2 - Multiple Choice Quiz (Part 1)

I was one of the 7,000 applicants who signed up for GDS3, then one of the 3,000 who actually wrote the essays, and now, am one of the 94 who passed the much-discussed multiple choice test. While my content typically tends more toward the comedic, I’ve been quite busy with Trial 3, which requires us to....wait a second..... You thought you were clever huh? Well I’m not one to break an NDA, so you’ll have to wait just like everyone else to see what the exciting Trial 3 consists of! And all that on top of my grad school work. So instead of a clever humorous article, I’m going to show off my knowledge of Magic design. (Alongside my ability to guess correctly on the hard ones.)

(Note: The numbers you see are the responses from the Google poll that was posted around social media. 80% of respondents did not participate in the actual GDS3 Trial 2.)

#1 What is the most appropriate color for this card?

Scrappy Survivor [CMC 6] Creature - 5/5
Menace, prowess 

1,741 responses

White 7
Blue 13
Black 34
Red 1,679
Green 8 

Menace is primary in red and secondary in black. Prowess is primary in blue, secondary in red, and tertiary in white. Because the options are monocolored, the only option that makes sense is Red.

#2 What is the most appropriate rarity for this card?

Scrappy Survivor [CMC 6]
Creature - 5/5 Menace, prowess

1,732 responses

Common 211
Uncommon 1,323
Rare 188
Mythic Rare 10 

R&D does not like to put multiple keywords on the same card at common, with the exception of Flying combined with something else because Flying is so intuitive. As such, that knocks out common. Mythics have to have incredibly splashy, evocative effects or an extremely high power level. R&D wants people to feel something when they open a rare. Rares tend to have the highest complexity. This card is not strong enough, complex enough, or emotionally evocative enough to be a rare. With two keywords and a reasonable power level, this is a perfect uncommon card.

#3 You are changing one of Scrappy Survivor’s keywords to another one. Which of the following combinations would result in a card that couldn’t be monocolor?

1,718 responses

Menace, vigilance 1,347
First strike, prowess 48
Lifelink, menace 241
Hexproof, prowess 82

Working from the bottom up: blue has access to both hexproof and prowess. Black has access to lifelink and menace. Red has access to first strike and prowess (as does white). Menace and vigilance is not accessible by any one color, as White and Green (vigilance colors) don’t have access to menace and Black and Red (menace colors) don’t have access to vigilance.

#4 What is the most appropriate color combination for this multi-color card?

Come Work for Me Temporarily[CMC: 4]

Sorcery

Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap it. It gets +1/+1 and gains haste, hexproof, and trample until end of turn.

1,705 responses

Red-Green 1,532
White-Black 1
Blue-Red 155
Red-White 6
Black-Green 11

Act of Treason effects are red, as blue permanently gains control of permanents. Haste is Red, Green, and Black, hexproof is Blue and Green, and Trample is Red and Green. As such, the only answer that fits the set of abilities is RG.

#5 What rarity is most appropriate for this card?

Come Work for Me Temporarily [CMC: 4]

Sorcery

Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap it. It gets +1/+1 and gains haste, hexproof, and trample until end of turn.

1,695 responses

Common 57
Uncommon 983
Rare 626
Mythic Rare 29  

Once again, this card is too powerful and complex for common and nowhere near splashy enough for mythic. Could be uncommon, but some felt the power level was too high. Imagine actually opening this card in the rare slot; what do you feel? More importantly can you imagine any kind of player that would be excited by this card in the rare slot? No; it’s a glorified Act of Treason. Act of Treason effects have recently appeared at common, so a more powerful one is reasonable to expect at uncommon.

#6 If we aren’t planning to change the color combination, which change are we least likely to make to this card?

Come Work for Me Temporarily [CMC: 4]

Sorcery

Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap it. It gets +1/+1 and gains haste, hexproof, and trample until end of turn.

1,689 responses

Change “trample” to “this creature can’t be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.” 132
Change “+1/+1” to “+2/+2” 47
Change from “hexproof” to “this creature must be blocked this turn if able.” 187
Change “haste” to “double-strike” 816
Change “sorcery” to “instant” 507

People fixated on the color constraint on this question, when, in fact, the correct answer is “change ‘haste’ to ‘double strike’” because if you did, the card literally does nothing except take a creature for a turn and let it sit there. Without haste, no attacking.

#7 Which of these phrases is a follower of white’s philosophy least likely to say?

1,675 responses

Sometimes the individual suffers so the larger group can thrive. 106
Violence is never preferred but is occasionally necessary. 41
A system without structure is a system asking to fail. 28
Nothing can go wrong if you act from your heart. 1,456
Evil must be preemptively stopped. 44 

White is allied with Blue, which is a logical, rational color and enemies with Red, who believes you act from your heart. As such, White would never say to act from your heart. White believes you act from some sort of set of laws, moral code, or belief system.

#8 Which of these phrases is a follower of blue’s philosophy least likely to say?

1,668 responses

You are shaped more by your genes than by your experience. 1,436
Every person has the ability to become anything. 90
Tools are an important part of any society. 36
Actions should only follow thought. 15
A fear of change is dangerous. 91 

Blue believes in tabla rasa, that people are born blank slates and, through work (and usually education), individuals can become anything they desire. As such, Blue would absolutely reject that genes are the dominating force shaping an individual, which is a Green idea, and Blue is an enemy of Green.

#9 Which of these phrases is a follower of black’s philosophy least likely to say?

1,663 responses

The difference between success and failure is a willingness to do what needs to be done. 20
The weak serve a purpose; they are a resource of the strong. 9
I didn’t create the system, I just understand how to take advantage of it. 16
Only I choose what path I walk. 35
Sometimes you have to put others ahead of yourself. 1,583 

Black is selfish and prizes the individual above everything else. Black would never put others ahead of itself; that’s a White idea, and Black is an enemy of White.

#10 Which of these phrases is a follower of red’s philosophy least likely to say?

1,666 responses

The fewer rules, the better. 11
Mistakes should be avoided at all costs. 1,614
The greatest regrets are about things you didn’t do, not things you did. 14
A life without passion is a life unlived. 14
Life is messy. 13 

Red believes in taking action. Mistakes are the best way to learn (or not). Blue believes mistakes (real mistakes, not trial-and-error in a lab) should be avoided, whereas Red fully expects and embraces them.

#11 Which of these phrases is a follower of green’s philosophy least likely to say?

1,664 responses

 Adaptation is a slow process. 196
The key to happiness is accepting the world is as it’s meant to be. 81
Killing for sport is just part of life. 1,297
You are born into your role. 77
All life is interconnected. 13 

Green does not kill for sport; Black does, and Green is an enemy of Black. Green kills only to feed/clothe itself out of necessity. Green basically views people as animals, and animals kill to eat.

#12 If we were to bring back the battle cry mechanic in a Ravnica set, which guild would be the best match for the mechanic?

1,661 responses

Selesnya 33
Rakdos 42
Boros 1,524
Gruul 55
Azorius 7

Battlecry wants you to attack with lots of creatures. Boros’s last mechanic, Battalion, wants you to do the same. Flavorwise, Boros is a milita/police force and plays out as an aggressive go-wide strategy. Selesnya goes wide, but isn’t aggressive. Azorius doesn’t go wide or attack. Rakdos and Gruul are both aggressive, but Rakdos is more about sacrifice and going all-in whereas Gruul is more about big creatures as opposed to multiple small ones.

#13 Which effect is usually seen on more instants than sorceries?

1,664 responses

Land fetching (Getting a land out of your library) 22
Direct Damge 1,599
Discard Effects 28
Reanimation 6
Land Destruction 9 

A Gatherer search will confirm that it is Direct Damage.

#14 What is the biggest problem design-wise with this card?

Long-Acting Giant Growth

2G Sorcery

Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of the turn. At the beginning of your next upkeep, that creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. At the beginning of your next upkeep after that, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

1,658 responses

The spell is too cheap. 26
The spell should get bigger over time, not smaller, to build in excitement. 14
The spell requires you to track things for three turns without any way to mark it. 1,573
The spell should let you target different creatures because the first one might die. 35
The spell should be an instant so that it can work in combat. 10

This is a design question, not a development one. As such, it is less concerned with power level, so the first option is out. While the other options would be cool, the fact that you need to track things without a way to mark it is a far bigger problem than anything else. People would absolutely mess up this card in Limited matches. That’s why we use +1/+1 counters for “long-acting giant growths.”

#15 If this card was a hybrid creature, what colors would it be?

Mysterio [CMC: 4]

*/*

Flash

CARDNAME’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.

1,656 responses

Blue-Black 80
Green-Blue 1,349
Blue-Red 86
Black-Red 4
White-Blue 137 

Hybrid means that both colors must be able to do everything on the card. Blue and Green have access to Flash, and Blue and Green also have access to the Maro ability. I’m gonna take a gander here and say that the answer is Blue and Green.

#16 What is the most likely rarity for this card?

Mysterio [CMC: 4]

*/*

Flash

CARDNAME’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.

1,656 responses

Common 13
Uncommon 247
Rare 1,346
Mythic Rare 50 

The Maro ability has never appeared at any rarity aside from Rare.

#17 What ability could be added to this creature without changing its colors? Use your answer from question 15.

Mysterio [CMC: 4]

*/*

Flash

CARDNAME’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.

1,652 responses

 CARDNAME can’t be blocked by more than one creature. 33
Whenever CARDNAME deals damage to an opponent, draw a card. 1,478
At the end of your turn, untap CARDNAME. 89
Whenever a creature dies, put a +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME. 29
CARDNAME must be blocked if able. 23 

In order to keep the card hybrid, you need to add an ability that both Blue and Green have access to. Curiosity is the only ability on the list that both colors can access (recently too; Sixth Sense and Curious Obsession), so it’s definitely card-draw upon damage.

#18 A player finishes their first game of Magic. Which of the following do we care most about?

1,653 responses

They have a favorite card. 8
They understand the cards in their deck. 14
They want to play again. 1,599
They see the potential depth of the game. 27
They have seen most of the card types, and most of the evergreen keywords. 5 

Without players wanting to play again, Wizards would go out of business. It’s by far the most important thing.

#19 When designing a card for Spike, which of the following is most important?

1,654 responses

The card is very open-ended. 128
The card tells the Spike what the deck is about. 47
The card produces card advantage. 180
The card lets Spike feel they outplayed their opponent. 1,240
The card has a low casting cost. 59 

Spike wants to win because they want to prove something. Usually that something is that they’re better than they’re opponent. Because they fundamentally want to prove something, the answer must be that the card allows Spike to feel like they outplayed their opponent.

#20 Design considers a card “too slow for tournament play.” What does that mean?

1,651 responses

The card will cause problems for coverage, as it will require too much commentary devoted to it. 18
The card will make games take more than fifteen turns. 205
The card will make too many matches run over time in tournaments. 1,157
The player with this card will monopolize too much of the play time in tournaments. 251
The opponent will call the judge too often with the request of “slow play”. 20 

If Design is talking about a card being slow for tournament play, they’re talking about it from the perspective of the game itself. The game is progressing too slowly within the 50 minutes allotted, which means that time will be called before it finishes. Option 1 is a hard scenario to imagine for any card; it would have to be incredibly complex, but not necessarily slow. Option 2 is arbitrary; 15 turns or 14 turns or 16 turns don’t matter. Control decks regularly go to 15 turns. Option 3, as we said, is correct. Option 4 could certainly be a concern, but Second Sunrise was banned out of Eggs predominantly for making matches go to time, not because one player is “taking all the turns.” While this is certainly problematic, it’s not the primary concern when talking specifically about tournament play. Option 5 has nothing to do with a card being slow; players slow play, cards don’t.

Conclusion

This concludes my walk through the first twenty questions. We'll tackle the remaining questions in Part 2, and Part 3. 

I’m very excited to be participating in Trial 3 and look forward to sharing my work with you when I’m allowed to! Which questions did you find the trickiest on from this part of the second Trial? Any answers you disagree with? Share in the comments!

Ryan is a grinder from Boston with SCG & GP Top 8’s and a PT Day 2. His fragile self-esteem is built on approval from others, so be sure to tell him what you think of his articles on Twitter @RyanNormandin and in his Twitch chat at twitch.tv/norm_the_ryno.