Month: August 2019

Hey there! I’m Scott from the top four of last year’s Great Designer Search 3. Welcome back to another installment of Deadly Designs, where we talk about Magic card design from an outsider’s perspective.

Last time we talked about new cards that could’ve been printed in Modern Horizons, but now it’s time to bring it back to a single-card discussion, specifically about one reefy boy.

You can’t spell “hUG of death” without “UG!”

There were a lot of surprisingly powerful cards that came out of the M20 Core Set, and Risen Reef is near the top of the list. But my question is: is it too good?

It’s easy to jump on an answer to that question. Something like: “No, of course it’s not too good, it dies to literally everything!” or “Yes, of course it’s too good, just look at it!”

But what I want to do is break down the card by (1) comparing it to other similar cards, and (2) creating some new cards as a thought exercise. So let’s get started!