Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #778: Evergreen Origins

Episode Date: September 24, 2020

This is another of my trivia podcasts. This time I look at all the current evergreen keywords (all 35 of them) and have you guess whether they were used and named in Alpha, started but not na...med in Alpha, or started and named after Alpha.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm not pulling out of my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another Drive to Work Coronavirus Edition. Okay, so it turns out there are 35 evergreen keywords right now in Magic. So what I'm gonna do is play a little game where I'm gonna introduce each one of them and we're gonna talk about whether or not they appeared in alpha. Actually, there's two things. Did they first appear in alpha or not? And did they first get referenced in alpha. Actually, there's two things. Did they first appear in alpha or not? And did they first get referenced in alpha or not? So some keywords showed up in alpha. Some keywords essentially showed up in alpha, but didn't get labeled till later. And some keywords did not
Starting point is 00:00:36 show up in alpha. So we're going to throw all the keywords and I'm going to talk about what does and doesn't qualify. One of the things I've been trying to do is do some podcasts that I can't do in the car, and this one requires me filling with the database while we talk. So this is something that I think will be a little bit fun. Okay, we'll start with activate. Did the term activate show up in alpha? Well, did it show up and did it get used? Did the actual term get used and did the concept get used? So the answer is the turn itself didn't show up until 6th edition, but there were, let's see,
Starting point is 00:01:09 14 cards. Channel, Clockwork Beast, Cyclopean Tomb, Disrupting Scepter, Dragon Whelp, Drain Power, Gloom, Illusionary Mask, Instill Energy, Jade Statue, Nettling Imp, Personal Incarnation, Rock Hydrant, and Word of Command that did use activate. Okay. Attach.
Starting point is 00:01:28 When did attach first show up? Well, that one's pretty easy. You attach equipment. Equipment first showed up in Mirrodin, so it first showed up in Mirrodin. Were there any alpha cards that attached? No, there were not. Okay, next. Cast.
Starting point is 00:01:41 When was the term cast first used? So, alpha is correct. Next, cast. When was the term cast first used? So, Alpha is correct. So, there are actually 17 cards that use the term cast. Berserk, Blaze of Glory, Camouflage, Crystal Rod, False Orders, Fireball, Gloom, Guardian Angel, Illusionary Mask, Iron Star, Ivory Cup, Sacrifice, Siren's Call, Throne of Bone, Verdant Enchantress, Wooden Sphere, and Word of Command. So the... What do they call it? The cycle of artifacts that care about when you play a land that you gain life off of. The Lucky Charms, I think we call them.
Starting point is 00:02:14 But anyway, yeah. So Cast was something that showed up very early on. There was a little mix and match between Play and Cast. We've since cleaned that up a little bit, but the word Cast did show up. Okay, how about the word counter? So the funny thing is, counter means one of two different things. So let's talk about each of those. So how about counter as you counter a spell? Well, obviously,
Starting point is 00:02:35 counter spell showed up in alpha. So, interestingly, there are the word counter shows up in four of five colors. So there's blue elemental blast, counterspell, power sink, and spell blast in blue. Black has death grip. Red has red elemental blast.
Starting point is 00:02:54 And green has life force. So one of the things was black and green were enemies of blue. Or still are enemies of blue. So death grip and life force were using, countering against blue, because it was countering blue. So Deathgrip and Lightforce were using countering against blue because it was countering... Oh, I'm sorry. They were using it against... Actually, it's weird. Black and
Starting point is 00:03:12 green. Deathgrip and Lightforce were using things against each other. So it allowed green to counter black and black to counter green, which was kind of weird. And then Red Elemental Blast and Blue Elemental Blast were mirrored as well. So all the non-blue countering came from mirrored spells, which is, I don't know, interesting. Okay, next.
Starting point is 00:03:32 Oh, sorry. Now, there's another kind of counter, which is like a counter you put on a card. So did that kind of counter show up in alpha? Yes, it did. Okay, so first off, there were plus one, plus one counters. There's three cards that use plus one, plus one counters. That started in alpha. Yes, it did. Okay, so first off, there were plus one, plus one counters. There's three cards that use plus one, plus one counters. That started in alpha. So, Fungusaur, Rock Hydra, and Sanger Vampire all use plus one, plus one counters. There also was a card that used plus one, plus zero counters, which is Clockwork Beast, which you sort of wound it up, and it was a zero four that started
Starting point is 00:03:59 with seven, plus one, plus zero, and it slowly winded down as you used it. But there were also some cards that used counters. Now, there were no named counters in Alpha. So, Cyclopean Tomb, Living Artifact, Scavenging Ghoul, all used, like, you would reference things with counters. Instead, use a counter. Like, Cyclopean Tomb, for example, turns things into Swamp and just said, you know, use a counter to represent them.
Starting point is 00:04:24 Or actually, I think in Alpha, technically in Alpha, Cyclopean Tomb said mark it with a token, not a counter. But, like, Living Artifact did say put a counter on it, and Scavenging Ghoul did say put a counter on it. So counter did get referenced in Alpha. Okay, next.
Starting point is 00:04:40 Create. So was there any token making in Alpha? There was. So the term create didn't show up to Kaladesh. But there was a card that essentially created something, meaning there was a token maker in Alpha, which was the Hive.
Starting point is 00:04:55 I've talked about the Hive before. It was a very popular card back in the day, only because it was a one-of-a-kind. It made creature tokens. And in Alpha, there was only one card that made creature tokens. So that was very unique. It now is considered a pretty weak card. It's five mana artifact that costs five in tap to make a 1-1 flyer.
Starting point is 00:05:13 So we do a little better than that now. But Create did go all the way back. Okay, so how about Death Touch? Did Death Touch show up in Alpha? And the answer is no, it did not. So Death Touch first showed up in Future Sight. Now, that said, there was two cards in Alpha, which was Cockatrice and Thicket Basilisk.
Starting point is 00:05:36 They don't technically have Death Touch, in that the way Thicket Basilisk worked, and Cockatrice, was if it is blocked by a creature, it destroys creature, or non-wall creature. If it's blocked by a non-wall creature, it destroys it. Because walls, I guess, turning a wall to stone doesn't really stop a wall. So it is there in spirit, meaning the kind of card that could kill any other card was there in Alpha, but technically Death Touch itself didn't show up until Future Sight. And what happened in Future Sight was we had had the basilisk effect
Starting point is 00:06:07 as of alpha, and we were just trying a way to clean up. So Death Touch was us cleaning it up, but that execution of it, which we now know is Death Touch, didn't really happen until we keyworded it in Future Sight. Okay, next. Defender. Was there any Defenders in Alpha? So, the term Defender did not show up until Betrayers of Kamigawa.
Starting point is 00:06:32 So it was, but Alpha did have 11 walls, all of which said wall. So there's Animate Wall, which allows you, well, Animate Wall lets you have a wall attack, so it removes Defender. But then there's Living Wall, Wall of Air, Wall of Bone, Wall of Brambles, Wall of Animate Wall lets you have a wall attack, so it removes Defender. But then there's Living Wall, Wall of Air, Wall of Bone, Wall of Brambles,
Starting point is 00:06:51 Wall of Fire, Wall of Ice, Wall of Stone, Wall of Swords, Wall of Water, Wall of Wood. So it's interesting. Defender shows up in all five colors in Alpha. There's only one black wall and only one white wall. There were two blue, two red, and three green. But anyway, and then one artifact wall and living wall. Okay, next.
Starting point is 00:07:11 Destroy. Does destroy show up in alpha? And the answer is, it does. So destroy first showed up in alpha. The interesting thing is, so it's on 28 cards now. But, for example, like,, let me read this off. So all the cards that destroyed Nelfo were Armageddon, Berserk, Blue Mental Blast, Chaos Orb, Cockatrice, Demonic Hordes, Disenchant, Dwarven Demolition Team, Flashfires, Ice Storm, Kutsu,
Starting point is 00:07:55 Nettling Imp, Nevrall's Disc, Northern Paladin, Realm Mental Blast, for example, say Disenchant. The text on Disenchant said, Not removed from hand. Actually, we'll get to discarded in a second. But the funny thing is, disenchant, not everything that destroyed something said that it was destroyed. A lot of cards did. The word destroyed definitely did show up. But not everything that destroyed necessarily said destroy on it. Okay, which gets us to the next one. Discard. Did discard show up? So I just said that the word discard showed up on disenchant. But discard, as what we now know, yes, in fact, was show up. So I just said that the word discard showed up on disenchant, but discard
Starting point is 00:08:26 as what we now know, yes, in fact, was an alpha. So it is weird that one card says to discard a card, and that means in play, and other cards say discard, and it means from the hand. Now, there were seven cards that actually made you discard. Balance, Contract from Below, Disrupting Scepter, Hypnotic Specter, Library of Lang, Mind Twist, and Wheel of Fortune. Hypnotic Specter, Library of Lang, Mind Twist, and Wheel of Fortune. And the interesting thing here is that, yeah, it did say discard. It's really interesting in that just the idea that in Alpha there would be words that mean one thing in one place and one in another was the example where some of the terminology and templating, you know, wasn't really where we'd eventually get it. Like right now, if we say certain words,
Starting point is 00:09:05 every card that uses those words means the same thing. Alpha wasn't quite there yet. Okay, next is Double Strike. Was Double Strike in Alpha? No, it was not. So Double Strike showed up in Legions for the first time. Interesting thing, we did a thing called You Make the Card. The very first You Make the Card was a green creature.
Starting point is 00:09:26 Forgotten Ancient is the actual card. Its playtest name was Mr. Baby Cakes. And we asked people to turn in abilities for that card. Somebody turned in Double Strike. Green doesn't have First Strike, so it didn't make sense it would have Double Strike. But we liked the ability so much we used it, and it showed up in Legions,
Starting point is 00:09:42 which was a set with nothing but creatures in it. So that's the first time Double Strike showed up. Legions, which was a set with nothing but creatures in it. So, that's the first thing Double Strike showed up. Okay, so next, Enchant. So, did Enchant show up in Alpha? It did, it did, although Enchant creature, as we
Starting point is 00:09:58 know it, as an ability sitting in the rules text, that doesn't happen until 6th edition. What happened in Alpha, and there were 40, I won't read them all because they're a lot, but there were 40 cards. What happened in Alpha, and there were 48 cards, I won't read them all because they're a lot, but there were 48 cards. All the auras, and there were a lot of auras in Alpha, would say enchant something.
Starting point is 00:10:14 Although I should point out here when I say 48 cards, there were 48 cards that now say enchant something on them. Not all of them are at the time. The cool thing about the enchantments in Alpha was, it would say, if they were in Aura, it would say enchant and tell you what it enchanted. So here's some different things. So, Animate Artifact said enchant
Starting point is 00:10:36 non-creature artifact. Animate Dead was enchant dead creature. Earthbind was enchant flying creature. So there were some interesting things. And also, there were enchant lands, enchant enchantments, there were enchant artifacts. So Alpha had all sorts of different types of auras. So anyway, it is interesting to see. Okay, next up, Equip. Well, this one's pretty easy for you. Equip also goes with... Well, I was talking earlier about Attach. So, let me see.
Starting point is 00:11:13 Actually, I realized when I said Attach, it was Mirrodin. Did Attach show up? Was there anything that now would attach? Oh, so Animate Dead and Kutsu in Oracle actually do attach. Animate Dead has to attach itself. So earlier when I said attach didn't show up in alpha, technically there are things that did attach. So I was misinformed here. But Equip, which is only used for artifacts, I'm sorry, for equipment, Equip only shows up in Mirrodin forward.
Starting point is 00:11:41 Because it doesn't, Equip isn't a thing. So I'm checking here. I'm checking my little database. So did Equip show up in alpha? I don't think it did. No, it doesn't equip isn't a thing. I'm checking here. I'm checking my little database. Did equip show up in alpha? I don't think it did. No, it didn't. Okay, next. Exchange. Did exchange show up in alpha?
Starting point is 00:11:58 It did! It did. Although, the funny thing is here's the funny thing is the term didn't show up until 6th edition, but there was a card in alpha, Dark Pact. So Dark Pact costs three black mana, remove Dark Pact from the deck before playing, if you're not playing for ante,
Starting point is 00:12:14 you own target card of the ante, exchange that card with the top card of your library. So exchange cards in ante. So exchange was a concept we would later play around with where it changes the positioning of two cards. But it's interesting that exchange did technically show up. Not worded. That wasn't six edition, but it did show up. Okay, next. Exile. Did exile show up in alpha? Okay, well, the term itself did not. The term exile doesn't show up until Magic 2010. But there are two cards. Back in the day, we called it remove from the game.
Starting point is 00:12:43 So disintegrate and storage of Plowshares in Alpha both did exile things just we didn't use the term exile yet and Swords of Plowshares was really the ability to put this on the map Disintegrate was also played a lot but
Starting point is 00:13:00 Swords of Plowshares was a very very played it probably was the best creature kill in Alpha. And so it got played a lot. In fact, it's one of the things that got... It and Armageddon and Balance and Wrath of God were a lot of why White got played early in Magic. Okay, next we have Fight.
Starting point is 00:13:18 So did Fight show up in Alpha? Okay, well, the terminology for sure did not, because that showed up in Innistrad. The first card that actually did what you think it was fighting happened in Visions. So, the first card that did something equivalent to fighting was Visions, but the term itself did not show up to Innistrad. Okay, next, First Strike. Did First Strike show up? Yes, it did. First Strike actually was a keyword in alpha. So, it was on four cards. It was on Black Knight and White Knight, which were two uncommon reflected knights. It was on Lance, which was an enchantment
Starting point is 00:13:52 that granted First Strike. And then it was on Elvish Archers, which was a rare card that actually got misprinted. It was a 2-1, but got misprinted as a 1-2 in Alpha. But anyway, so First Strike did show up in three colors, actually, in Alpha. Okay, next. Flash. Did Flash show up in Alpha? And the answer is it did not. Flash first showed up in Visions
Starting point is 00:14:17 on Benelish Night, I think it was. And then Time Spiral, which had a time theme, is the set we finally actually keyworded it, was in Time Spiral. Okay, next. Flying.
Starting point is 00:14:33 Did Flying show up in Alpha? It sure did. In fact, there are 30 cards where Flying, either it has Flying or it references Flying. There's a lot of cards. I don't need to name them all. But, yeah, flying was a, of the keywords that started in alpha that are still in the game, flying is probably the biggest.
Starting point is 00:14:52 I mean, there's more, of every keyword, there's more creatures that are flying than any other keyword. I always, when people ask me what the best key, sorry, what the best ability is, I always say flying because it's very intuitive and flavorful and super important to the game. Okay, next was there haste in alpha. So this is a fun one. The word haste did not show up until 6th edition, but there are two cards with haste in alpha. Interestingly, neither of them are red. It's instill energy and nether shadow. So Instill Energy allowed you to, you can enchant a creature,
Starting point is 00:15:28 and it did a couple different things, let you untap it, but it also gave it haste as one of the things it did. And then Nether Shadow popped out of the graveyard, but in order to be able to attack, it essentially had haste, so it could attack the turn it came out. So the haste ability did show up, but it did not,
Starting point is 00:15:40 it was interesting that it did not show up in the ability that you people equate with being the color that it shows up in. Okay, next. Did Hexproof show up in Alpha? Okay, well, the term clearly did not. The term first shows up, interestingly, in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012. And it's funny.
Starting point is 00:16:02 Shroud showed up in Future Sight. And it's funny, Shroud showed up in Future Sight, and then we ended up changing it a few years later because everybody was playing it as that. Interestingly, the first card, it was first, sorry, it was first keyword in Duel of the Planeswalkers. It first showed up in Portal 3 Kingdoms, which was one of,
Starting point is 00:16:20 Portal was an introductory set we made to introduce people to magic. And then we made one, there was Portal, people to magic. And then we made one, there was Portal, Portal Second Age, and then we made one specifically for the Asian markets, which was called Portal Three Kingdoms,
Starting point is 00:16:32 used the legend of the Three Kingdoms, which was a popular sort of Chinese story. But anyway, that is where Hexbrook first showed up. Okay, so Indestructible. Does Indestructible show up in Alpha? This is a good one. So yes or no. Okay, so now the terminology does not. The terminology doesn't show up until darksteel.
Starting point is 00:16:52 Darksteel introduced indestructible. Originally, darksteel, by the way, was just a special ability for darksteel, but it became so useful we brought it over and ended up making it evergreen. But anyway, there's a card called Consecrate Land that essentially enchants the land and makes the land indestructible. So there was a card in alpha. So Richard did introduce indestructibility. Not really.
Starting point is 00:17:15 This was not... The card did see a little bit of play. There was a period of time where there were some lands that were crazy broken and there's a little bit of tech of using consecrate land to save your crazy broken lands. Okay, next up. Lifelink.
Starting point is 00:17:32 Did Lifelink show up in Alpha? It did not. Lifelink, okay, so the ability was keyworded in Future Sight. It's interesting, right here. Mirrodin was the first set to have a card that does exactly what Lifelink does.
Starting point is 00:17:51 Legends had a card called Spirit Link that was the spiritual precursor to Lifelink. In fact, we called that ability Spirit Link up until we named it Lifelink. So technically Spirit Link was an aura you put on a creature that whatever damage that creature did, you gained the life for. But if you put it on your opponent's creature, you also gain the life for it, which is different than Life Link. If I put Life Link on my opponent's
Starting point is 00:18:15 creature, my opponent gains life for it and not me. So that's why technically Spirit Link is not Life Link. Okay, next. Menace. Are there any Menace creatures in Alpha? And the answer is, there is not. So, Menace first showed up in Magic Origins, keyworded.
Starting point is 00:18:37 It first showed up in Fallen Empires on, what was it called? Goblin Wardrums. It was an enchantment that granted this ability to all your creatures. In fact, we called it the Goblin Wardrums ability for quite a while, because that was the first card that did it. But anyway, Menace was not there. Okay, next up, recently added keyword, Mill. Did Mill show up? Well, clearly the word didn't show up, because we just keyboarded it.
Starting point is 00:18:58 So, of course, that 2021 was where it came up. Was there a card that milled an alpha? There was not. Not close. Millstone, where the term mill comes from, first showed up in Antiquities, which was the artifact themed
Starting point is 00:19:12 the first, the very first expansion was Rabid Knights that had a top-down theme of Rabid Knights, and then the first with a mechanical theme was Antiquities, which had an artifact theme. Okay, next. The term play. Did the term play show up in alpha?
Starting point is 00:19:31 It did. It did. There are, listen, 56 cards. But 56 cards is cards that have oracle text that say play on them. Let's see. I'm looking at the actual alpha cards here. Did any of them actually say the word play? It tells me here. My notes say
Starting point is 00:19:50 that it did show up in alpha. So let's see. Okay, okay. Earthquake says this is what Earthquake says. Does X damage to each player and each non-flying creature in play? It doesn't deal damage. It does. It does damage. I like reading early. So the play does show doesn't deal damage. It does damage. I like reading early. So the play
Starting point is 00:20:05 does show up a little bit. But not a lot, actually. I mean, like I said, a lot of cards now with Oracle text have it. But it does show up. The term play does show up. So, yeah, it definitely does. Okay. Next up, after
Starting point is 00:20:23 play, is Protection. Does Protection show up in Alpha? Yeah, it does.. Okay, next up after play is Protection. Does Protection show up in Alpha? Yeah, it does. That's another ability that started in Alpha. So Protection showed up on Black Knight and White Knight. So Black Knight's the only black card with Protection. And then it shows up on the white, blue, black, green, and red ward. So there's five wards, and there's two knights.
Starting point is 00:20:47 By the way, that's the only protection in the set. There's that one cycle of white cards, and then there's the two knights. So that's the only protection. And I will note that in alpha, protection's only from colors. But all five colors do show up because of the ward. So protection, and then protection from white and black show up a second time because of the knights. Okay, next. Reach. Does reach show up in alpha? The term does not. The term is another one that showed up in future site. So future site is, what happened in future site was I felt we didn't have enough everyone keywords or
Starting point is 00:21:19 enough named keywords. And so what we did was because we were doing the future shifted sheet, I had them show up in the future shifted sheet, and then we had them show up very soon thereafter. So you will see for the very first time Reach and Death Touch and Lifelink and Shroud, I think were the four that showed up there. The reason Reach got keyworded, by the way, real quickly, was not, I hadn't asked for it to be keyworded. We don't, you know, can block flyers is not that long. But the reason that it was asked for was asked for by the rules manager because it made
Starting point is 00:21:51 flying's reminder text much, much shorter. Because now flying says a flying creature can only be blocked by creatures with flying or reach, which has made it a lot easier to write. Anyway, there were two cards in alpha that used Reach, Giant Spider and Web,
Starting point is 00:22:07 which was an Enchant creature that granted the creature Reach. Giant Spider, by the way, is known for being the card that won what I called Magic Survivor. So every time there's a new core set, we knocked out everything that hadn't continually been in it since Alpha. And the card, so Giant Growth and Giant Spider were the last few cards to be in every set. And then the next
Starting point is 00:22:31 set, one of them made it, which was Giant Spider. And it won. It was an ongoing thing. I did my column for a while. Okay. Next, after Reach, is Reveal. Did Reveal show up in alpha? So the term reveal, no.
Starting point is 00:22:47 First shows up in 6th edition, and there's no cards that have you reveal anything. So that was not in alpha. Okay, next is sacrifice. Did sacrifice show up in alpha? Okay, so sacrifice, the term sacrifice did not show up to revised edition. So that, in fact, might be
Starting point is 00:23:08 the only term of the evergreen terms that showed up in revised edition. 14 cards in alpha did involve some kind of sacrifice. Meaning the Oracle text now has the word sacrifice. So real quickly, Animate Dead, Balance,
Starting point is 00:23:24 Black Lotus, Conversion, Demonic Horde, Dragon Whelp Lich, Lord of the Pit sacrifice. So real quickly, animate dead, balance, black lotus, conversion, demonic horde, dragon whelp lich, lord of the pit, pestilence, phantasmal forces, pirate ship sacrifice, sea serpent, and stasis. Okay, but yeah, so that was the kind of thing where, one of the things that's
Starting point is 00:23:40 very interesting in early magic is there's concepts that we had that Richard had introduced to the game, but we didn't necessarily assign words to them. Much like the tap symbol didn't show up in alpha, but eventually the tap symbol was there. Okay, next is Scry. Did Scry
Starting point is 00:23:56 show up in alpha? It did not. No, Scry first showed up in 5th Dawn. Well, sorry, the term first shows up in 5th Dawn, but it's telling me here that the first card that Scry was in alliances. Um, what card was that? Um, I'm not sure. Um, but I guess the first card that ever had you do that showed up in alliances. So that is interesting. Okay, next search. Does search show up in alpha? Uh, it does. It does on one card. Demonic Tutor.
Starting point is 00:24:28 You may search your library for one card and take it into your hand. Reshuffle your library afterwards. That's the alpha text for Demonic Tutor. The thing that I find endearing is there's lots of fun, like, take it into your hand. Obviously, now it's put into your hand. But I enjoy the little stuff like that but anyway, demonic tutor was the only card that actually had search
Starting point is 00:24:50 in alpha okay, next up okay, this one's not hard since I just read a card but shuffle yeah, shuffle for sure, it's up in alpha okay, there are three cards that shuffle one is demonic tutor, which I just said because it looks at your library one is natural selection you look at the are three cards to shuffle. One is Demonic Tutor, which I just said because it looks at your library. One is Natural Selection.
Starting point is 00:25:07 You look at the top three cards of a player's library. You may opt to rearrange those three cards or shuffle the entire library. So the card just lets you shuffle a library. And then Time Twifter, where you set aside in a new graveyard pile, shuffle your hand library and graveyard together into a new library, and draw a new hand of seven cards, leaving all cards in play where they are. Opponent must do the same.
Starting point is 00:25:30 So Time Twister basically had you you shuffled, you set aside your hand, I'm sorry, you put Time Twister in a new graveyard, and you shuffled everything together, and then you drew a new hand. So anyway, there were three cards that actually had you shuffle.
Starting point is 00:25:47 Interestingly, only one had you shuffle because you looked through your library, which is Demonic Tutor. Okay, next, the term tap. Does the term tap show up in Alpha? It does, it does. So while the tap symbol did not appear, tap did appear.
Starting point is 00:26:17 Now, the interesting thing is, a lot of cards, like all the artifacts that tap didn't actually have a tap symbol or even say tap. Although, Icy Manipulator lets you tap somebody else's thing, so at reference tap. And there definitely are cards, like Life Tap talks about things being tapped. Or Mana Barbs talks about things being tapped. And there's things like, you know, like Borg's Prodigal Sorcerer. Prodigal Sorcerer... Oh, Prodigal Sorcerer isn't listed here. So Prodigal Sorcerer didn't actually...
Starting point is 00:26:41 Oh, I see, I see. These are all cards... I'm using a database. These cards are all cards that say tap, but the tap symbol... Oh, interestingly, so that, I see. These are all cards... I'm using a database. These cards are all cards that say tap, but the tap symbol... Oh, interestingly, so that's very interesting. So here, let me go back and look at Prodigal Sorcerer. Because Prodigal Sorcerer in Alpha says tap to do one damage to any target.
Starting point is 00:27:03 So that's interesting. There are lots of cards that now, through Oracle, say tap that did not say tap in alpha, but all the cards that have a tap symbol did not have a tap symbol in alpha, just said to tap. So it's interesting. There's cards that have been errated to add tap, and the cards have been errated to remove tap.
Starting point is 00:27:20 Okay, how about untap? Did untap show up in alpha? It did, it did. So, like, for castle, you're untapped creatures, so that's referring to an untapped state. And then twiddle lets you tap or untap things. Most of the use of untap... Oh, smoke talks about the untap phase.
Starting point is 00:27:41 Or is that... Did alpha actually... Hold on a second. Did alpha actually say that in... Yeah, it did. It said untap phase. Is that... Did Alpha actually... Hold on a second. Did Alpha actually say that in... Yeah, it did. It said untapped phase. Okay. The rulings and how the rules worked with phases and stuff,
Starting point is 00:27:56 steps didn't come to later, and it was a little vaguer. Okay, next. Trample. Did Trample show up in Alpha? It did. Yes, there were cards with Trample. In fact, there were five cards that had or granted Trample. Berserk, Force of Nature, Lord of the Pit, Two-Headed Giant of Four Eyes, and War Mammoth. So it was in green, black, and red. Three of which are in green, which is Trample's main color. Final one of all the evergreen keywords is Vigilance.
Starting point is 00:28:25 Was Vigilance an alpha? It was on one card, on Serra Angel. In fact, for a long time, we called Vigilance the Serra ability. Interestingly, the term did not get, it wasn't until Champions of Kamigawa that it got actually called Vigilance. So the interesting thing here, one of the things that I've tried to do today is just show up of how all of the things that are evergreen, a lot of them, so let's go through real quickly. So here are all the things, okay, so here are all the keywords that were in alpha and are still evergreen keywords, was cast, counter, destroy, discard, first strike, flying,
Starting point is 00:29:10 play, protection, search, shuffle, tap and untap, and trample. So those are all the things that still exist and were in alpha. Things that were in alpha but weren't named yet were activate, defender, Things that were in Alpha but weren't named yet were Activate, Defender. Oh, by the way, I missed Enchant. It was in Alpha and still is in.
Starting point is 00:29:35 What else here? It was in Alpha but was not named until later. Indestructible. Reach. Sacrifice. Okay, so there are a bunch of things that were in Alpha. reach sacrifice okay so there are a bunch of things that were in alpha but not named a letter and there are a whole bunch of things like attach oh create was also in alpha and not named a letter
Starting point is 00:29:58 things that weren't in alpha that are now evergreen keywords attach double strike equip fight flash that are now evergreen keywords. Attach, Double Strike, Equip, Fight, Flash, Hexproof, Lifelink, Menace, Mill, Reveal, and Scry are all things that are now evergreen that did not start in alpha. So anyway, I hope that was a fun little look through the evergreen keywords and when and where they started. And anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed that. But I'm now at work.
Starting point is 00:30:34 So we all know what that means. It means it's the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. See you guys next time. Bye-bye.

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