Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #786: Oozes

Episode Date: October 23, 2020

Magic has 32 Oozes. (I'm not talking about you, Changelings.) I talk about all of them. ...

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm not pulling in my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another Drive to Work, Coronavirus Edition. Okay, so today, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite creature types, oozes. So it turns out there are 32 oozes in magic. My podcast is about 30 minutes, so I'm going to see if I can talk about every ooze in magic. That's my goal today. Okay, so we're going to start with primordial ooze. I'm going chronologically if I can talk about every ooze in Magic. That's my goal today. Okay, so we're going to start with Primordial Ooze. I'm going chronologically, by the way.
Starting point is 00:00:28 So Primordial Ooze is the very first ooze. It showed up in Legends, which was the third expansion, the first large expansion. So Primordial Ooze costs a single red mana for a 1-1. Clearly, it's an ooze. Primordial Ooze attacks each combat if able. At the beginning of your upkeep, put a plus one, plus one counter on Primordial Ooze. Then you may pay X, where X is the Oracle text and not the actual card text, just because...
Starting point is 00:00:56 It is fun sometimes when you look at the original text. The original text, real quick, and this one, I'm not going to do this on all the cards, but... The original text real quick in this one. I'm not going to do this on all the cards. But must attack each turn if possible. Gain plus one, plus one at end of your upkeep. Use counters. Then pay one per counter.
Starting point is 00:01:14 Or ooze deals one damage to you for each counter and becomes tapped. So this, interestingly, if you had asked a trivia question, where did the first ooze show up? I don't think someone would, I think red is not what people would guess. There's a lot more green. Oozes show up in green, black, and red, primarily. In fact, all the oozes are at least one of those colors
Starting point is 00:01:32 other than Handweird the Writhing Township, but we'll get to that. But anyway, other than that, they're all red, green, or black. I mean, some of them are multicolored, or more than just red, green, or black. But, anyway, so Primordial Ooze was definitely playing into the trope of crazy out-of-control ooze, a la, like, The Blob or something.
Starting point is 00:01:51 I know that Steve Connard, the man who made Legends, was a big, big fan of Dungeons & Dragons. And there are lots of oozes in Dungeons & Dragons. So I believe this was inspired by some monster they faced in a dungeon somewhere. So, okay. Next, Mwanvali Ooze. So, this is from Weatherlight. So, Mwanvali Ooze costs a single green mana. It's one plus star, one plus star.
Starting point is 00:02:20 Not a lot of creatures have that stat. Cune of Upkeep, two. So, at the beginning of your Upkeep, put an Age Counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay two for each Age Counter on it. Monvali oozes power and toughness at each equal to one, plus twice the number of Age Counters on it. Aye, aye, aye. We would not make this card anymore. Okay, so first off, Cune of Upkeep was first introduced in Ice Age.
Starting point is 00:02:45 It was made by the East Coast Playtefters, and for a while, it was just something... Magic for a while, just like it was an evergreen ability, Cumin of Upkeep. And the idea is, it just makes you keep paying more. It was loosely based. Richard had made... What card did Richard make?
Starting point is 00:03:02 Richard made a card that essentially had Cumin of Upkeep. Stasis, by the way, kind of has cumulative upkeep because the lands don't untap. So the fact that each turn you have to pay one more is kind of like it's an extra cost if the lands don't untap. Anyway, so this is Weatherlight. I think they were playing around with the idea of something that just gets very big.
Starting point is 00:03:24 So it's Power of Tu of toughness is one plus its last paid cumulative upkeep. Oh, I see. So, you pay two, and then you pay four, and then you pay six. So, the Oracle text is to say, well, it's double plus one. Anyway, this card was a lot cleaner. The original card was a little cleaner looking, but it's definitely complicated in sort of tracking what it does. This was made... So Weatherlight was one of the first...
Starting point is 00:03:54 So technically, Tempest started design first because it was a large set, but it came out after Weatherlight. But Weatherlight was probably the second set made inside of R&D that wasn't made external. Up until Tempest and Weatherlight, all sets were made by outside groups and we just worked on them inside. Weatherlight was the first
Starting point is 00:04:13 released set that we had worked on internally. And anyway, once again, it's just kind of an ooze going out of control. And the idea with this one, the community of Upkeep, is you gotta keep paying for it. Okay, next. Chaotic Goo!
Starting point is 00:04:28 This is the first ooze I made. Chaotic Goo is two red red for a 0-0 creature. Chaotic Goo enters the battlefield with three plus one plus one counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may flip a coin. If you win the flip, put a plus one counter on Chaotic Goo. If you lose the flip, remove a plus one plus one counter from Kaataku. So I was playing around with the idea that whether it shrank
Starting point is 00:04:50 or grew was random. That's why you're flipping a coin. And the idea is it starts as a 3-3, so you have to sort of lose, you have to lose three more than you win for it to die. So that can happen, but it doesn't happen a lot, statistically speaking. But one of the things about it was oh, you never know how big it is. And this is me really playing into
Starting point is 00:05:11 sort of the unknown nature of it. Obviously, it's in red and it's coin flipping. Interesting note that at this point, we're three in and there's two red ones and one green one. So oozes early on a little more. I think that we liked playing in the chaotic nature of them. But oozes will soon become more of a green-based thing. But anyway, I made this. Tempest was my first set that I... I both led the design team and was the first design team I was on. And I made this just because I liked the idea of...
Starting point is 00:05:42 I've always been kind of a coin flip fan. I like a little more randomness, and so that was me just trying to make a random ooze. Okay, next. In Scourge was Consumptive Goo. So black, black for 1, 1. Creature ooze, of course. 2 black, black.
Starting point is 00:05:59 Target creature gets minus 1, minus 1 until end of turn. Put a plus 1, plus 1 counter on Consumptive Goo. So once again, you'll notice that a lot of the oozes are really playing in the top-down ooze space. So this is black, and the idea that the ooze eats you. And so it eats you, and it gets bigger as it
Starting point is 00:06:15 eats you, is sort of the flavor going with it. It's our first black ooze. And this is fun. I like that one of the fun things about magic is you can take a lot of different concepts
Starting point is 00:06:27 and just play around with them differently like I like that oozes can be kind of wild and out of control or random or corrosive there's a lot of different
Starting point is 00:06:35 ways to do that which I think is cool okay next up is Ancient Ooze from Scourge also from Scourge Ancient Ooze
Starting point is 00:06:43 is five green green star star first power toughness it's an ooze they're all oozes I guess I don't have to say that it's an ooze, also from Scourge. Ancient ooze is five green green, star star, first power toughness. It's an ooze. They're all oozes. I guess I don't have to say that it's an ooze. Ancient ooze's power and toughness are each equal to the total converted mana cost of other creatures you control. So,
Starting point is 00:06:58 the idea is, well, for starters, is it to say other, each other? Okay, so it's a seven drop. It doesn't count itself, but it counts other things. So the idea is by the time you get a seven drop, and then, because it's counting Converted Manacost, look, the thing can be pretty big.
Starting point is 00:07:13 That's why it's a seven drop. It could be a really, really big creature. So this is definitely playing in kind of the super giant ooze sort of flavor. So Scourge, if you had the trivia question, is what was the first set to have Ooze with Legends? The first set to have two Oozes was Scourge. So I don't know how many people will get that trivia question right. Okay, next up in Darksteel, Mephitic Ooze, four and a black for a 0-5.
Starting point is 00:07:43 Mephitic Ooze gets plus one plus black for a zero five. Methodic ooze gets plus one plus zero if each artifact you control. Whenever methodic ooze deals combat damage to a creature or destroy that creature, that creature can't be regenerated. Okay, so this is prior to Death Touch being a thing, although one of the reasons we made Death Touch in Future Sight was every time we wrote it,
Starting point is 00:08:01 we'd write it slightly differently. I destroy nine walls. I destroy one unblocked. And we wanted to tighten it up. The reason this cares about artifacts is we're sitting in the middle of original Mirrodin block. Mirrodin block had an artifact theme, obviously, and black just kind of liked having artifacts as one of the themes we played up in black. And so the idea here essentially is I get bigger for sort of the things I eat,
Starting point is 00:08:24 the artifacts I have, the artifacts I have. But then I'm also deadly. You know, I'm a black ooze, so I'm poisonous to stay out of my way. I think I made that one. So, so far, we're six in. We have two red, two green, and two black. Next up, we have Vile Bile from Unhinged. So Vile Bile costs one and a black.
Starting point is 00:08:47 It's a two and a half, two and a half. You heard me. Uh, this is Unhinged. Uh, whenever a player's skin or fingernail touches Vile Bile, that player loses two life. Um, so one of the interesting rulings, so this card was made in Unhinged. Uh, the idea that was funny is it's an ooze that's caustic. So, touching, literally physically touching it causes
Starting point is 00:09:07 you damage. I had to make a ruling on this card that you only lose life if you touch it, not if it touches you, because people were chasing people around game stores with it, and I was trying to say, okay, that's not the intent
Starting point is 00:09:23 of the card. But anyway, I was just trying to, this is very much a top-down ooze. And I'm like, what? I'm in Silver Border World. What fun things can I do with that? And so the idea of it harming you if you touch it, it's kind of fun. Okay, next up, Snot. Okay, so Snot is also from Unhinged. Green. So it's star squared, star squared. I think that's the first card to do that. You may have Snot enter the battlefield, stuck to another creature named Snot.
Starting point is 00:09:56 If you do, all those creatures form a single creature. Snot's power and toughness are each equal to the square of the number of cards named Snot stuck together to form it. And then Reminder Tech says one is a 1-1, two are a 4-4, three are a 9 cards named snot stuck together to form it. And then reminder text says, one is a 1-1, two are a 4-4, three are a 9-9, and four are 16-16. If you manage to get minus one snot stuck together, it's a 1-1. So anyway,
Starting point is 00:10:16 oh, that extra reminder text was not on the original card. They just added it on the Oracle. Not often do we add extra reminder text on Oracle. This card does that. So the cool thing about this card was I was trying to riff off of BFM. So rather than make two cards that you have to play together, it's one card, but you can play
Starting point is 00:10:33 the one card with itself. And the art was made so the right side goes off the card but links to the left side. So you can literally put them together and it makes a thing. If you look at the art, it's a lot of fun. There's a lot of references to Unglued and other unhinged it makes a thing. If you look at the art, it's a lot of fun. There's a lot of references to Unglued and other Unhind cards in this thing.
Starting point is 00:10:49 The ooze is eating things from other Un cards, so it's kind of fun. This card, by the way, is one of the earliest cards to mess with kind of where Meld went. This is kind of BFM and Snatter kind of early Meld experiments going on in the of BFM and Snatter kind of early Meld experiments going on in the Unsets.
Starting point is 00:11:08 Okay, next. Necroplasm. So Necroplasm is from Ravnica City of Guilds. It's one black black for a 1-1. At the beginning of your upkeep, put a plus one plus one on Necroplasm. At the beginning of your end step, destroy each
Starting point is 00:11:24 creature with a converted mana cost equal to the number of plus one plus one on Necroplasm. Dredge two. So this is a creature where it's slowly destroying things as it grows bigger. So basically, we had made a card similar to this before that was an artifact. And this was playing in similar space, but as a black card. Also, in Ravnica, the oozes showed up in Golgari. So the other one is Bioplasm. So these were made, I'm pretty sure they were made
Starting point is 00:11:54 as mirrors of each other, although they cost different things. But Bioplasm's three green green for 4-4. Whenever Bioplasm attacks, exile the top card of your library. If it's a creature card, Bioplasm gets plus X plus Y until end of turn, where X is the exiled creature's
Starting point is 00:12:10 power, and Y is its toughness. There are not a lot of magic cards that have plus X plus Y. And in fact, this might be the only one. But anyway, the idea is it's sort of kind of eating things and getting bigger based on what it's eating. And the two oozes are in the Golgari color, since those are the it's sort of kind of eating things and getting bigger based on what it's eating. Um,
Starting point is 00:12:25 and, and the, the two oozes are in the Golgari color since those are the, um, oozes are at most at home in, um, most at home in, uh, Ravnica.
Starting point is 00:12:37 Okay. Next from dissension, experiment, crotch, two green, green, blue, blue,
Starting point is 00:12:43 ledgering. It's a legendary creature. Ooze mutant. So it's the, the first ooze that blue. It's a legendary creature ooze mutant. So it's the first ooze that is something in addition to being an ooze. It's a 4-6. Experiment Crosh has all activated abilities of each other creature with a plus one, plus one counter on it.
Starting point is 00:12:55 Tap, put a plus one, plus one counter on target creature. So there's a mechanic, the Simic mechanic extension is called Graft. They're cards that come with plus one, plus one counters on them, and then you can move them to other cards. I think this started as a Graft card,
Starting point is 00:13:12 and then it just became easier, instead of trying to do Graft, just, you know, it was splashy and it was a rare legendary creature. So we just changed, instead of having Graft, it just, it could tap to put counters on things. I think the earliest version of this card also
Starting point is 00:13:27 got all abilities of cards but it turned out you can't just get all abilities of cards it gets wonky and causes problems so it got it ended up getting
Starting point is 00:13:35 all activated abilities what we could do I know we keep working on the terminology we're getting better at finding different ways to copy things but at the time
Starting point is 00:13:42 we made this you it was problematic to copy more than just activated abilities. We have since copied a few other things. But anyway, this is a very popular card. It's a lot of fun. I know a lot of people play this in Commander and it's a goofy fun card
Starting point is 00:13:58 from Dissension. Okay, next. Earthen Goo. Two and a red for a 2-2. It's got Trample and Cune of Upkeep, red or green. This is from Cold Snap. So, interesting. This card came out after Ravnica, meaning hybrid existed.
Starting point is 00:14:20 Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't... Real quickly. Trample, Cune of Upkeep, red or green. Earthen Goo gets plus one, plus one for each age counter on it. So, as you put cumulative upkeep counters... I mean, age counters is what cumulative upkeep...
Starting point is 00:14:30 But as you pay more, it grows with time. So, once again, this is the... The ooze that gets out of control. But it's interesting to note the cumulative upkeep, red or green. Ravnica had come out, and Hybrid Man existed. And we talked about putting Hybrid Man on this, because that's what it is.
Starting point is 00:14:47 But, this was a throwback. This was the lost Ice Age set, and Ice Age didn't use that technology, so we chose specifically not to put Hybrid on this, even though the option was available
Starting point is 00:15:02 to us. Okay, next. Manipl us. Okay, next. Maniplasm. Okay, this is from Shards of Alara. Maniplasm, two and a green, ooze, one, one. When you cast a spell, Maniplasm gets plus X plus X until end of turn where X is that spell is converted to mana cost.
Starting point is 00:15:16 I made this card. So this must have been on Naya, I think. So Shards of Alara, the world is split apart into five shards. Each one has a color and has two allies, and it's missing the enemies. Naya is the green one, where everything's growth has kind of grown wild.
Starting point is 00:15:35 So I'm pretty sure this was from Naya. But it's fun. And one of the things we were riffing off, like obviously oozes want to grow, and how do they grow? And so this is us like, oh, well, it keeps temporarily going based on when you cast spells. It's just a different play pattern.
Starting point is 00:15:48 But it's kind of fun. Okay, next, Bloodhall Ooze from Conflux. 1-1. At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control a black permanent, you may put a possible counter on Bloodhall Ooze. At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control a green permanent, you may put a possible counter on Bloodhall Ooze. At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control a green permanent, you may put a possible counter on Bloodhull Ooze. So the idea here is, Conflux was trying to get you to play more colors. In fact, Conflux was trying to play as many colors as possible.
Starting point is 00:16:17 But there are a bunch of three-color stuff in the set. So this is one where I'm a red card. It's a red card that gets better if you have a black card and gets better if you have a green card. The reason, by the way, it doesn't say black or green, why it writes it twice is, if you have a black and green card, it gets two counters. That's why it's written out as two different things. And this is just, this was part of a cycle, I believe. We had a bunch of cards that sort of cared about
Starting point is 00:16:38 if you have other cards, there's some bonus to it. This was this version of it. They didn't all get bigger, but this was the Ooze version. Next, Gledonus Slime, Conflux. So Gledonus Slime, 2 in the green. Creature Ooze, Flash, Devour 1. As this enters the
Starting point is 00:16:56 battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature enters the battlefield with that many plus 1, plus 1 counters on it. So it's a 2-2. Okay, so Devour was the mechanic for Grixis, which was the black
Starting point is 00:17:10 in its two allies, so blue, black, red. And we went through a lot of testing to try to figure out what was supposed to be... Oh, was that Grixis or was that Jund? No, no, it was Jund, because Grixis was unearthed. Grixis was unearthed. So it was the Jund? No, no, it was Jund, because Grixis was on Earth. Grixis was on Earth. So it was the Jund mechanic.
Starting point is 00:17:27 So Jund is base red. So red, green, and black. And anyway, Jund was sort of survival of the fittest shard. And once again, like I said, we like the idea that oozes can somehow get bigger. So this is something where, well, the ooze can come and eat things, and it gets bigger. Note that it has flash, so you can sort of surprise people and
Starting point is 00:17:47 eat things and make a really big ooze to block. Okay, next. Acidic Slime. Three green green. This is from Magic 2010. Three green green. Ooze 2-2. It has Death Touch, and when Acidic Slime enters the battlefield, destroy target artifact, 2, 2, it has Death Touch, and when a Sinic Flame enters the battlefield, destroy a target artifact
Starting point is 00:18:05 and enchantment or land. So we had already made, green already had the effect of destroying a target non-creature. Sometimes we spelled it out and sometimes we said non-creature. At the time it didn't matter because Planeswalkers wasn't a card type yet. But green can't destroy creatures, but it can destroy
Starting point is 00:18:21 artifacts and enchantments and lands. The idea of this card was, this was made for Magic 2010. That's the set where we kind of revamped the core set, added new cards to the core set for the first time since Alpha, and they really were trying to make a, they wanted to do a lot of top-down stuff.
Starting point is 00:18:37 So the goal here was, how do you do a top-down ooze that doesn't, that's not too complicated and doesn't use plus one, plus one counters. So the idea is, well, it's an ooze, so it's got death touch. It kills you if it touches you, and it can destroy something, so it can eat something when it comes into play. So this card has seen
Starting point is 00:18:54 a lot of reprints. It's a pretty fun card, and like I said, it's the first ooze that, it's probably the simplest ooze we made, at least up to that point. Okay, Metodic Slime from Magic 2011. Four and a green creature ooze, four, four. When Metotic Slime dies, create two two-two green ooze creature tokens.
Starting point is 00:19:16 They have, when this creature dies, create two one-one green ooze creature tokens. So this card was inspired by a card in the Star Wars trading card game. So this card was inspired by a card in the Star Wars trading card game. It was a game that Richard had created. I was on the design team with Richard that made the game. And anyway, there was a card made in, I think, The Empire Strikes Back called, like, Meteor Storm. And basically what it was was it was one big meteor that when destroyed broke into two small meteors
Starting point is 00:19:46 and when those were destroyed broke into two smaller meteors. And we just liked it. I think I'm the one that brought it. I think I made this card. But it's like, oh, I like this card in Star Wars. So that would be if one of these days maybe we'll do some trivia where cards inspired by not
Starting point is 00:20:02 magic and where they came from. But this card was inspired by Star Wars and where they came from. But this card was inspired by Star Wars, the trading card game. Okay, next. Necrotic Ooze from Scars of Mirrodin. So two black, black for a four, three. As long as Necrotic Ooze is on the battlefield, it has
Starting point is 00:20:17 all activated abilities of all creature cards in all graveyards. Okay, so I definitely made this card. I remember making this card. I liked the idea of something that sort of fed off the dead. I think when I originally made this, I didn't make it as an ooze to start
Starting point is 00:20:34 with. I think creative change... Like, I made the card, and I love oozes, but I don't think I made it as an ooze. I think I made it as a wizard or something. But anyway, it ended up being turned into a ooze. But it's a fun card, and I really like...
Starting point is 00:20:50 Once again, note it doesn't copy everything because the Black Border rules have an issue with that. But it copies all the activated abilities. Okay, next is Scavenging Ooze from Commander 2011. So Scavenging Ooze is one and a green for a 2-2. Green, exile target card from Commander 2011. So Scavenging Ooze is one and a green for a 2-2. Green, exile target card from a graveyard.
Starting point is 00:21:08 If it was a creature card, put a plus counter on Scavenging Ooze and you gain one life. So this was made for Commander set. My assumption is that there was some graveyard mechanic going on and they needed to answer the graveyard mechanic and this was a clever answer to that.
Starting point is 00:21:23 That's my guess as to how it was made. But it is a cute card that sort of eats dead things and grows bigger, answer the graveyard mechanic, and this was a clever answer to that. That's my guess at how it was made. But it is a cute card that sort of eats dead things and grows bigger, so the flavor's pretty cool. I like it. Okay, next. The Mimeoplasm. The Mimeoplasm costs two black, green, and blue. It's a legendary creature. It's a noob, obviously.
Starting point is 00:21:41 Zero, zero. As the Mimeoplasm enters the battlefield, you may exile two creature cards from Graveyards. If you do, it enters the battlefield as a copy of one of those cards with a number of additional plus-and-plus encounters on it equal to the power of the other card. This is a very popular Commander.
Starting point is 00:21:55 I think it was made by Ken Nagel. And I believe it was set on the world of... What's it called? Not Miranda. Miraganda. Miraganda. Which is like our prehistoric world that has shown up in...
Starting point is 00:22:12 It showed up originally in Future Sight and I think it showed up in Plane Chase. But anyway, this card I think is set there. And anyway, everyone loves the ooze with the dinosaur for the hand. So that's why I think it's beloved. And it's a really cool card. Okay. How are we doing on cards here?
Starting point is 00:22:30 I... It's taking longer than I expected to talk about oozes. So I've got through... Okay. Let's zoom along here. I'm going to speed up. Predator Ooze. Dark Ascension. Predator Ooze. Green, green, green. It's a 1-1 indestructible. When Predator Ooze attacks, put a possible counter on it. When a creature dealt damage by Predator Ooze's turn dies, put a possible counter on Predator Ooze, Dark Ascension, Predator Ooze, Green, Green, Green. It's a 1-1 indestructible. When Predator Ooze attacks, put a possible counter on it.
Starting point is 00:22:46 When a creature dealt damage by Predator Ooze's turn dies, put a possible counter on Predator Ooze. I made this originally in... I originally made it for Innistradic. I pushed back to Dark Ascension, but I led both teams, so I pushed it back to myself. Anyway, this was top-down the blob. I just wanted the blob,
Starting point is 00:23:02 so this is us doing the blob. We're in Horror World, so I did the blob, which is a movie monster that is an ooze. Next, from Return to Ravnica, Goblin Ooze. Four and a green for 3-3. Green. Sacrifice another creature. Put a plus one plus counter on Goblin Ooze. This was designed
Starting point is 00:23:18 because it's a cross, but one of the things we try to do on monocolor cards is make sure they fit different archetypes, and so I believe the fact that it can sacrifice creatures worked well with Golgari, and then the fact that it got bigger,
Starting point is 00:23:35 I don't remember all the mechanics, but this was designed to overlap two guilds. It was made both for one thing cared about big creatures, and one thing cared about sacrifice and graveyard, so this sort of overlapped those two things. Okay, I'm going a little faster
Starting point is 00:23:47 since I realize I'm trying to get done. Okay, Experiment 1. This is from Gatecrash. Green for a 1-1. Evolve. Remove two plus encounters from Experiment 1.
Starting point is 00:23:59 Regenerate Experiment 1. So Evolve was a mechanic that Ethan Fleischer designed in the second Great Designer Search. They had to design their own worlds one. So Evolve was a mechanic that Ethan Fleischer designed in the second Great Designer Search. They had to design their own worlds, and his major mechanic was Evolve. During the...
Starting point is 00:24:14 They were making the same world from week to week, so we gave a lot of notes. And Evolve evolved a bit from all our notes, but it ended up being a really cool mechanic. I knew I wanted to do it, and so when I had Gatecrash, and I knew I had Simic, I knew it was perfect for Simic.
Starting point is 00:24:28 So it was day one, I think Evolve was on it. And then this one, we wanted it to have some means by which you could use the counters. And so we ended up doing Regeneration because Regeneration was still a thing back then. We don't do Regeneration anymore. Inexorable Blob from Shadows over Indusrod.
Starting point is 00:24:45 2 and a green for a 3-3. Delirium. Whenever an inexorable blob attacks, if there are 4 more card types among cards in your graveyard, create a 3-3 green ooze creature that's tapped and attacking. So this is the first ooze that starts replicating itself. You'll see, we did have the one that was a 4 that broke into 2s and broke into 1s.
Starting point is 00:25:02 But this is the first one where, like, it makes a copy of itself. You'll see this pops up a few more times. But the idea of oozes splitting and now you have two oozes is a trope we hadn't done before. So we did it here. Okay, next. Handware, the Writhing Township.
Starting point is 00:25:18 So it is a... Oh, is it the backside? It is the backside. Oh, that's funny. It just showed me the backside. So it's from... Hold on a second. Let's see if I can...
Starting point is 00:25:33 I'm going to search real quickly for Hanweir. Okay, well, show me if I go here. No, it's not. Oh, was it not? Oh, I was like, maybe it's not. I'm thinking of the backside. Maybe it's not a backside. Is it just... Oh, I was like, maybe it's not. I'm thinking of the backside. Maybe it's not a backside. Is it just... No, no, it is.
Starting point is 00:25:48 It's the backside of a double-faced guard. So the backside is Hanwar, the Writhing Township, legendary creature, Eldrazi Ooze, 7-4, trample haste. Whenever Hanwar, the Writhing Township, attacks, create two 3-2 Colossal Eldrazi Horror Creature tokens that are tapped and attacking. So this starts as a town that turns intoal Eldrazi Horror Creature Tokens that are tapped and attacking. So this starts as a town
Starting point is 00:26:05 that turns into an Eldrazi monster. So... Hold on a second. So I'm going to put Hanwear. Oh, yeah. Hanwear. Is it Hanwear Battlements? No.
Starting point is 00:26:23 I'm not sure. Okay, so this is the backside of Double-Faced Card. I don't have this is the back side of double-faced card I don't have access to the front side but anyway the flavor we wanted to go to is get really the whole flavor here
Starting point is 00:26:33 was El Adrami at Com or it was drawn there by Nahiri and it was warping and changing the world and the idea that this whole town itself
Starting point is 00:26:41 morphed into this monster this Eldrazi Ooze was anyways it was kind of cool. Okay, Spitting Slime. Okay, from Conspiracy, Take the Crown, the second Conspiracy.
Starting point is 00:26:54 Three green green, three three, four green green, Monstrosity three. So if this creature isn't monstrous, put three plus four counters on it, and it becomes monstrous. So it's a three three that can turn into a six six. When Spitting Mind becomes monstrous, create. So it's a 3-3 that can turn into a 6-6. When Spitting Mind becomes Monstrous, create a token that's a copy of Spitting Slime.
Starting point is 00:27:10 So obviously, we're now getting the path of Slime starting to copy themselves. So the idea here is that it's a 3-3 that becomes a 6-6, but when it becomes a 6-6, it makes a new small 3-3 that can keep sort of replicating itself, which is quite cute. Corrosive Ooze. This is from Dominaria. Corrosive Ooze, one green, 2-2.. Corrosive Ooze. This is from Dominaria. Corrosive Ooze 1 green
Starting point is 00:27:28 2 2. When Corrosive Ooze blocks or becomes blocked by an equipped creature, destroy all equipment attached to that creature and end combat. Once again, like I said, Oozes have a... Like, sometimes they grow, sometimes they split, sometimes they destroy things. This is playing into that sort of corrosive thing, but
Starting point is 00:27:43 you see, Oozes definitely have a bunch of places to play, but it's fun watching what we do with them. Okay, next, from Commander2010. Ravenous Slime. Two in the green, one one. Ravenous Slime can't be blocked by a creature with power two or less. What R&D calls Daunt. That's our nickname for it.
Starting point is 00:27:57 If a creature an opponent controls would die, instead exile it and put a number of possible components equal to the creature's power on Ravenous Slime. So the idea here is it eats anything that dies and sort of gets bigger. And then trample, we put, we use daunt in places where trample's a little
Starting point is 00:28:14 too much, so daunt makes it harder to trample on with small things, which is what this card, this card kind of wants bigger things to die so it can sort of eat them. But this is another in the eat and get bigger sort of slimes. Next, Biogenic Ooze from Ravnica Allegiance.
Starting point is 00:28:30 So Biogenic Ooze is three green green. It's a 2-2. When Biogenic Ooze enters the battlefield, create a 2-2 green ooze creature token. At the beginning of your end step, put a plus or minus counter on each ooze you control. One green green green, so four mana total, three which is green. Create a 2-2 green ooze creature token.
Starting point is 00:28:47 So the idea is, oh, so this came about because I said to Sam, I realized that I had twice worked on sets that had Simic on it and had not made an ooze lord. And like, if ever there was a place for an ooze lord,
Starting point is 00:29:02 I love oozes. So when I handed the set over to Sam, I led the vision design. Sam led the set design. I said, Sam, I ask one thing. Please, please, please make an Ooze Lord. I put one in the file. I'm not saying you don't need to make the one I made. Just please have an Ooze Lord.
Starting point is 00:29:19 And so, he is kind of the one, he riffed off my version. My version, this is close to my version, but he riffed off my version. My version... This is my... This is close to my version, but he riffed on it and made it better. But the idea is it sort of makes oozes and the oozes keep growing.
Starting point is 00:29:32 And the idea also is it puts counters on not just its ooze tokens, but all oozes. So if you play it with... You know, you play it as an ooze lord, it's good for your oozes because it makes them better. And most oozes are already built in.
Starting point is 00:29:44 In fact, they get bigger, so that the Pulse of Conquerors mean something to them. So it works well. But anyway, I'm happy we finally got an Ooze Lord. Prime Speaker Vanifar, also from Ravnig Allegiance. So it's an elf ooze wizard. So we've had ooze mutants,
Starting point is 00:29:59 but this is the first elf ooze wizard. I'm not sure why they're in that order. So 2-4, and she's a legendary creature. Tap, sacrifice another creature. Search your library for a creature card with Converted Mana Cost equal to 1, plus the sacrifice creature's Converted Mana Cost. Put the card onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Starting point is 00:30:16 Act as if you're building it only any time you can cast a sorcery. It's interesting. This card, I don't think it was made to be an ooze. Like, this card was made to be a creature version of an artifact that people like. I think it got made an ooze in creative, just because it's kind of funny that, well, she's part elf, part what? You know, because we're talking Simic. And I think the ooze was because it grows and changes. It felt oozy.
Starting point is 00:30:43 So that's why I think she was an ooze. This is also another fun commander. Okay, next. Umori the Collector from Ikoria, Lair of the Behemoths. Two hybrid black or green, hybrid black or green. Legendary creature, ooze. It's a companion. Each non-land card in your starting deck shares a card type.
Starting point is 00:31:01 If this card is your chosen companion, you may put it into your hand from outside the game for three, anytime you can cast a sorcery. That's obviously with Fiorada. As a more of the collector enters the battlefield, choose a card type. Spells you cast of the chosen card type cost one less to cast. And it's a four or five. So this was one of our, we had ten
Starting point is 00:31:18 companions in Ikoria. I think once again, we just wanted to make fun like, the whole flavor of the companions was you got a little beast buddy that you're you and your monster are fighting together and I think yeah so this one was playing around
Starting point is 00:31:36 with the idea that you picked a card type and everything's that card type and then it got spell reduction of that card type so the reason that what companions like to do is say, here's a restriction, build your deck around it, but then we'll help you for having done that.
Starting point is 00:31:51 And then they're all hybrid because the whole cycle is hybrid. They're all two-color hybrid. It's a ten-color pair of which every hybrid pair is done. Okay, finally, the last ooze from Zendikar Rising. So we finished up with Zendikar Rising. So two and a green. Two, two. When Oran Reef Ooze
Starting point is 00:32:08 enters the battlefield, put a plus one counter on target creature you control. When Oran Reef Ooze attacks, put a plus one counter on each attacking creature with a plus one counter on it. So this one's a little weird in that it can grow. Obviously you can put it on itself and every time it attacks, it gets bigger. But instead of putting it on itself, you can
Starting point is 00:32:24 put it on something else and make that get bigger. So this is a little bit different. It's an ooze that can share its ooze-iness with other things. But anyway, that is my final thought. I managed to fit in all 32 oozes. So I do love oozes. I don't know why it's a creature type I like so much. Like I said, I've made a lot of oozes, a lot of oozes today. I made a number of these oozes. But it's fun to see. So anyway, I hope
Starting point is 00:32:51 you guys enjoyed my ooze fest. One of the things that I can do when I'm home, I can't do on the road just as easily, is I can open up a database and look at all stuff. And it's easy for me to do podcasts, a little easier for me to do podcasts like this. So anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it and if you'd like to see me cover a different subject subset, let me know. What else would you like? This is oozes. What other subsets would you like me to cover? Anyway, I now
Starting point is 00:33:16 see my desk. 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. I'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.

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