Will this video do poorly because I wanted to use a cool, artistic single word name for a title instead of something long with a bunch of search terms for SEO? Well, I guess we're about to find out together!
Got my attention. Great video! Also, you can tell Rock Love that the advertising worked. I ordered my Mox Amber before I was done watching your video. 😅
Great video but this also makes me sad. It brings to light that magic will never again have that "magic" it had in its early years. It was such an experience for a middle school kid to build a deck of mostly commons to battle his friends. These cards (Moxen, Lotus, Ancestral Recall etc) were what dreams were made of but at the same time you would see at game nights at your local store. Wizards will never go back to a simpler time to try and recapture some of that lightning in a bottle nor would it ever be that magical again. Im so grateful to have experienced Magic at its infancy and wish that Wizards would have stayed away from Hasbro and kept it shareholder free. As they say "all good things must end" but we will always have nostalgia and memories.
I'll never forget stories like getting a Mox Diamond for a quarter or how Mox Opal let me jump into Standard, Modern, and Legacy all at once with Affinity and Tempered Steel variants. Always love these cards so much. At this point, I almost feel like Moxen are so much more iconic than Lotus cards, which feels weird to say. Loving these deep dives Gavin!
Fantastic video, truly amazingly well done! My first exposure to Magic was when my little brother randomly got Inquest magazine issue 12 (1996) from the grocery store and we were looking through it. He didn’t care much, but I was absolutely enthralled by the beautiful Magic card artwork and borders. The original Mox are some that caught my attention the most thanks to those fantastic entrancing backgrounds and lifelike jewelry look, and got me hooked on MtG for life!
Awesome video Gavin. Those redesigned moxes shown at the end were incredible. Never seen those before. As you said though, those original moxes are so iconic.
Love that poison mox idea. I wonder if there's design space for a mox that has the line "you lose the game" on it. Maybe like, Demonic Mox. Very powerful but it'll cost you the game if you're not careful 😅
I love the Moxen. As someone who has played with them as a kid and in Shandalar, I think they are interesting powerful pieces which play like “mana drop” (a way people played around my home town where you drop all lands in your opening hand onto the battlefield) which allowed for a kind of gameplay I don’t think can be replicated. I’m still holding out hope for a set of the original Moxen printed as Legendary for another generation to experience the unique feeling of Serra Angel on turn one.
Great stuff as always! Really telling a great story about some iconic cards from the game's history. I'm glad you highlighted the Championship art ones also; they are so good!
As a proud owner of the OG Moxen I am always amazed of how strong and iconic these have always been (I've started in 95 and they were already legendary). Though the burning question is: old frame Dan Frazier illustrated Mox Opal when??
My favorite is Mox Opal. It’s a really fun build around in my cube because it supports artifact aggro and my cube uses the mh2 bridges for fixing, so it creates a mini game where you have to decide if the fixing and access to a mox is worth it over taking spells. You have to draft a lot of bridges to make it work.
Seeing this video after the Historic tournament last weekend, where Kethis combo, in which Amber is essential, was one of the more prominent decks, and taking into account that this combo (I believe) is why Kethis is banned in Pioneer, I was surprised to hear Gavin describe Amber as a low-power level card. I think it is personally my favourite Mox, though I haven't actually played with Diamond or Chrome before.
I remember reading in an article about the original names of alpha card that mox came from "moxie" or "energetic". It was the same article that mentioned that "serra angel" was originally "serrated sngel, like the serrated sword that it should carry. Shivan dragon came from goddess shiva.
Rocklove Jewelry would be nice if they were affordable for more folks. Glad you like your fancy trinkets though. Moxen are awesome, hope to see some more in the game in the future. Thank you for your Magic design stories Gavin! 🌞💧👻🌋🌳
I got the RockLove Mox Diamond a while back. #381/1000. Took me a while because I didn't jump on it, so I was surprised it was still available when I got it. Happy I did though.
I found a mox diamond in a bulk collection I found in a storage unit a few weeks ago. It was such a rush especially as the card is older than I am. That bad boy went straight into my cube for boros signet
Mox Diamond tends to bait me into playing some lands matter midrange stuff when drafting vintage cube, I love that card so much! I do agree that Chrome Mox is probably the best one in terms of power and tradeoff. The fact that it can't imprint artifacts stops it from going into just any artifact soup deck like Mox Opal, you have to think a lot about that card when playing with it which is great.
I like the idea of a mox that has to exile either a random card or two cards in general, but could tap for any color. Still, I always thought a lotus that sacrificed for two mana with some downside would be way cool.
Chrome mox is a really fun card! As you said in your video, it creates so many interesting decisions. What powerful card do you want to exile to get an extra boost? It's very skill-intensive in a fun way, and is a classic CEDH card :)
I actually didn't know that about the Mox art getting used on Enlightened Tutor, that's really cool and does help that art make a whole lot more sense now.
Awesome video! I really think you're underrating Mox Amber as a design, though, I would put that #1, keeping everything else the same. When designing cards that have as much risk to them as the Moxen, your first goal should be designing cards that are fun, as always, but a close second is not breaking anything. Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox were/are banned, and for a reason. Mox Amber has the deck building considerations of Mox Diamond, where you need to contort your deck a specific way to play it, as well as the play pattern considerations of Chrome Mox, where you need to figure out your sequencing to get the best use out of it, all while being potent enough in the decks that want to use it that it sees play. Maybe not a ton of T1 play, outside Kethis Combo, but Emry affinity decks love it! Power level is obviously not design, but it is a component of it, and if a card needs to be banned (most Moxen) or is completely unplayable (Tantalite) that is a mark against them. If those cards were made as straight to Legacy (or the equivalent) cards and never needed to be banned, they would be above Mox Amber, but they weren't. All in all, if you asked me "If you open a pack of a new Standard set and you saw a Mox like Mox Amber or Mox Diamond, which would you rather see?" I would answer "Mox Amber" pretty easily, and that makes it an easy #1, I think!
I have Mox Opal in my Alela EDH deck (artifact synergy) and need to grab a Chrome Mox for her as well. Mox Diamond I'm a little torn on. I want one, but being an RL card, it might be more prudent to grab Mana Crypt and Mana Vault first. Mox may be hard to balance, but they feel good when you get one in a deck.
Nice I have an Alela deck too. It’s my favorite EDH deck, I don’t play much EDH anymore though. I have all of those accelerants besides Mana Vault in my Alela and I would rather get Crypt first even though it’s not RL because it’s still always going to be expensive, and it’s a much better cost to effect ratio than Diamond anyway. For long term investment though, I would bet that Diamond only appreciates in value whereas the future of Mana Crypt’s price is more unknown.
@@Luke_Powers Yeah, I was thinking Crypt was better from a gameplay side than Diamond, anyway. In any case, Chrome Mox has higher priority, though I've seen 4th edition Mana Vaults aren't hard to grab.
Great video! I’ve always wanted to see a mox where you have to exile a card from your graveyard on etb to tap for mana of that colour because it would be a little slower and only work well in decks built for it
I find the design space around these cards to be fascinating. Thanks for delving into the development and impact of these cards and others like them, Gavin. The video did have me wondering, though: were ideas of temporary or other resource-dependent moxen ever seriously considered? For instance, using mechanics such as fading, charge counters, energy, etc.
I would rank mox amber higher than chrome mox in terms of good design based on my experience in edh/cEDH. It requires you to jump through a few hoops which makes deckbuilding interesting and it is not broken because there’s situations where you cannot use it in decks it is made for. Definitely the right design space for me
I agree with the ranking, but that doesn't stop me from running Mox Tantalite. I love Suspend, despite it being so messy. The theme of time as a resource is such a unique identity. Yes, the color purple would be fun.
In my opinion the best designed mox (including power level), is Mox Amber. Though I may be biased since I got one in the first pack of Brothers War I opened.
I’d be interested in a mox that can only be played after a certain number of turns, kind of like Serra Avenger. Mox Tantalite is unplayable because of the suspend, not because it only ramps in later turns. Plenty of decks could likely use, or at least try, a mox that can’t be played before your third turn.
I honestly prefer Mox Opal over Chrome, design wise, because of its polarity - it is powerful but you have to build your deck in a right way to use the synergies. Chrome Mox is just something you can basically slap into any deck and it's gonna be good enough, which is not a good direction with powerful cards, in my opinion.
I think Mox Tantalite would've been very cool with Suspend 1, instead of 3. I think this makes sense from a flavour perspective, because unlike the lotus a mox will "only" grant you one mana. From a gameplay perspective it would obviously be a lot stronger, but not that strong actually, considering you have to wait a turn for your free ramp. So it at least does not support super busted turn 1 or 2 plays too much as other Moxes do.
The original moxen hold a special place in my heart compared to all the followups, even if I never actually owned a Mox Jet (the only P9 I've never had). I did sell off my entire physical collection not too long after Ice Age since I was strapped for cash at the time. I did grab some Unglued boosters and pulled a couple of Jack-in-the-Mox, so that would have to be #2 for me.
Brainstorming Design time Here multiple design legendary mox (not balanced yet) Delirium Mox Madness 0 Mox (have no casting cost) Tap for B or R only 3 basic land with the same name mox that produce the mana of that type T: Add one of any color and mox deal 1 damage to you, Activate only if you have 25 life or more Enters tap T: Add one mana of any color and put a stun counter on mox Learn / Lesson Mox ''This card can't be in your main deck'' T: Add one mana of the last learn card color you have cast. Otherworldly Mox Legendary Artifact T: Add one mana to your mana pool. You can only use this mana to cast spell from beyond universe of Magic. ''My precious'' - Yoda
So with Mox Diamond shifted off to Stronghold and Enlightened tutor obtaining the artwork, when it was originally slated for Mirage, is that where Lion's Eye Diamond came into play for Mirage (pun intended), and also how the Mox Diamond got its name or vice-versa?
I think it's interesting that every mox comes from Dominaria or Mirrodin (which is an artificial plane created by a Dominarian) was this intentional design?
I guess I understand why... but I've noticed how Moxen after the original series tap for any colour, as opposed to the original Moxen that tapped for one colour only. (Chrome Mox being a bit of an exception because it tapped based on whatever was imprinted on it.) Do you think WotC would ever consider trying the original style and printing Moxen that tapped for a specific colour as a cycle?
Gee sure would be cool to own or even be able to print them for the magic players of the world. Maybe the reserve list should be amended to only apply to art, frame, or both. and you could get them in to the hands of players and not have formats curtailed by impossible to find staples.
I wonder where the power level would be for Twin Mox. T: Add 1 mana of any color. Target opponent creates a tapped Treasure token. Ramp for you, matched with ramp for your opponent (coming into play tapped so it can't fuel the immediate counterspell for the card you're attempting to play.) I could see a range of outcomes from this being far too beneficial to being essentially a non-factor, just not sure which would actually end up being the case.
Mox idea: 0 cmc ETB tapped artifact Pay 3 life Tap: adds one mana of any color. Other designs for this can be it enters untapped but it costs more life to use the same turn it enters, it gives colorless mana rather than any color, or the mox etb's and you name a color like coldsteal heart and it taps for that color. There are many ways to do this but simply a mox where you have to pay life to activate with no deck building restrictions. Thoughts?
Too many decks would gladly spent some life to ramp for this to be a viable design I think. It would probably need to both cost health AND have another reasonable restriction to work.
Mox Opal seems like a nice skill testing card, it's very easy to look at it and say 'I've got lots of artifacts in here!', but if you don't have 3 artifacts out, it's worse than an Ornithopter, I'm always astounded to see high power EDH decks that run it with (what I feel is) way too few artifacts, and I've playtested enough of those decks to know that it's easy to overestimate how many artifacts you'll have out early, when one more mana means a lot more. I very much liked the Legendary aspect of Opal, I think it's a good bit of design but it's unfortunate that it was way too good for most formats. I think Legendary mana bases are a nice piece of complexity to use in moderation, it lets you print cards that are 'too good' and then let the Legendary aspect balance them in 4 of formats. In general, I was very surprised to realize how bad most fast mana is without you explicitly building around it, if all you do with Channel is cast a Craw Wurm turn 1, you're probably not even going to win an Alpha game, but technically you could. Moxen are different than Rituals I understand, but cards that do nothing but make mana tend to be traps, there is a reason people try to shave lands when making a deck more competitive, an extra land drawn can easily cost you a close game, drawing more than 1 extra is almost certainly a disaster. At least Moxen you can straight up cut lands for, cards that can backfire on you if your opponent is prepared are a design space I like, it helps the game feel more puzzle-like. While I'm deeply tempted to make a 'social media for nerds failed?! I'm shocked, SHOCKED I say!' joke, I feel like we're at the point where you're not stuck with online 'social misfits' playing, WotC could probably figure out something that would be more successful now, at least you've got a small army of content creators that you can wrangle up to make it look exciting, and tbh if WotC didn't try to make extra money on it (hahahaha) they might find success merely by offering a product that doesn't try to ruin your existence for profit. Dingbat elon killed twitter, facebook has been dying a slow, tedious death for awhile, Instagram/youtube have been desperately trying (ineptly I might add!) to steal TikTok's lunch, and there are a bunch of other ones with their own issues. Just having a platform that lets you do 'social media' type stuff without painfully milking us for every bit of data they can sell could go off, even without a gimmick like being 'the gamer safe space'. On the downside I was very much alive when that whole Gamergate thing started going down, and I more or less stopped playing new games until significant changes have happened to the industry, so I know that there is a huge (and hugely toxic) group that identifies very strongly as 'gamers', and feel that gaming is 'theirs' for whatever insane reason (people are stupid fits though). Mox Amber is a design success IMHO, I think you guys are way too hard on yourselves if you think it was a mistake. Mox Tantalite is even worth some $$, I thought about it in a deck but the price was just too high for what that deck was trying to do. I think it'll have it's moment some day, but not having an alternate cost (so you could force it out) does sink it 99% of the time. Tantalite sees almost no play, but Amber definitely sees play in various formats, and it hasn't broken any of them in the slightest. If you want a good topic to discuss, what about mana storage effects? I love to fiddle with the Fallen Empire cycle of Storage Lands (Bottomless Vault for one), and the Mercadian (Subterranean Hangar) ones are probably good enough to see significant Commander play, yet we also have 'probable failure space' like Mana Batteries from good old Legends, and Ice Cauldron rounds out some of the early examples I can think of. We don't get cards like this very often, there was the cycle of dual Storage lands that was awful IIRC, did that sour the space so to speak? Mana storage is incredibly strong in actual practice, is it the difficulty in costing it fairly? Cool video, thanks for posting it!
R&D may really have been out of touch on how Modern was actually being played thinking that a mox with suspend 3 will see play where ramp needs to cost 2 or less to be remotely playable. Nowadays, even Commander wouldn't touch a Mox Tantalite.
I think it speaks to something fundamentally wrong with the MTG community that the original Mox Cycle would become so much more iconic than Enlightened Tutor. Tutor would have taken a lot more thought and effort from Dan so it's a tragedy that it wouldn't be more elevated than pieces literally thrown together.
My thoughts on Mox Poison: 2 poison counters is to much imo. If we have lands like City of Brass that deal 1 point of damage in or to use it I think a fair cost for Mox Poison would be 1 poison counter. Also the name could use work if it ever would end up getting printed. Toxic Mox? Phyrexian Mox? Mox Ichor?
Mox Tantalite should have had suspend 1 or 2. I think 1, but concede that may have been pushing it a bit. Like you said, three is just unplayable, and I suspect two maybe as well.
Will this video do poorly because I wanted to use a cool, artistic single word name for a title instead of something long with a bunch of search terms for SEO? Well, I guess we're about to find out together!
I clicked on the video because of the simplistic title tbh
Yeah same
Got my attention. Great video!
Also, you can tell Rock Love that the advertising worked. I ordered my Mox Amber before I was done watching your video. 😅
didnt you already say the same thing for Lotus
Simple title caught my attention too.
Commenting and liking to help with the algorithm 👍🏼.
Love the videos!
The fact that Mox Opal fuels it's own metal craft is probably what makes me think it's the strongest ones
Great video but this also makes me sad. It brings to light that magic will never again have that "magic" it had in its early years. It was such an experience for a middle school kid to build a deck of mostly commons to battle his friends. These cards (Moxen, Lotus, Ancestral Recall etc) were what dreams were made of but at the same time you would see at game nights at your local store. Wizards will never go back to a simpler time to try and recapture some of that lightning in a bottle nor would it ever be that magical again. Im so grateful to have experienced Magic at its infancy and wish that Wizards would have stayed away from Hasbro and kept it shareholder free. As they say "all good things must end" but we will always have nostalgia and memories.
I'll never forget stories like getting a Mox Diamond for a quarter or how Mox Opal let me jump into Standard, Modern, and Legacy all at once with Affinity and Tempered Steel variants. Always love these cards so much. At this point, I almost feel like Moxen are so much more iconic than Lotus cards, which feels weird to say. Loving these deep dives Gavin!
Great history tour. It does make me crave a Dan Frazier Mox Opal and Mox Amber...
Loving this longer in-depth videos about certain cards, thanks Gavin!
This has to be one of my favorite GMM episodes
Glad you enjoyed it :)
i think the Tantalite should be Suspend 2 to be playable and not broken. Ramping you from 3 to 4 seems completely fair
Fantastic video, truly amazingly well done! My first exposure to Magic was when my little brother randomly got Inquest magazine issue 12 (1996) from the grocery store and we were looking through it. He didn’t care much, but I was absolutely enthralled by the beautiful Magic card artwork and borders. The original Mox are some that caught my attention the most thanks to those fantastic entrancing backgrounds and lifelike jewelry look, and got me hooked on MtG for life!
The work of Dan Frazier is beyond words
Pity so many other people were shouting over him in that interview!
Chrome mox will always be a nostalgic favorite. That was my first mox
Awesome video Gavin. Those redesigned moxes shown at the end were incredible. Never seen those before. As you said though, those original moxes are so iconic.
Original Moxen #1. Set the stage for all the ones to come and enables exciting, opening starts.
As someone who came to magic around Eldraine, its nice to see the history of magic!
The fact that Thorn Elemental and Mox Diamond saw play in the same deck at one point is hilarious to me.
Love that poison mox idea. I wonder if there's design space for a mox that has the line "you lose the game" on it. Maybe like, Demonic Mox. Very powerful but it'll cost you the game if you're not careful 😅
I think it'd be interesting to talk about time walk and other extra turn spells
Maybe timetwister and wheels as well?
Shufflers! Yes please!
I love the Moxen. As someone who has played with them as a kid and in Shandalar, I think they are interesting powerful pieces which play like “mana drop” (a way people played around my home town where you drop all lands in your opening hand onto the battlefield) which allowed for a kind of gameplay I don’t think can be replicated. I’m still holding out hope for a set of the original Moxen printed as Legendary for another generation to experience the unique feeling of Serra Angel on turn one.
"Nice job Mirrodin design team"... Said nobody ever 😂. Nice video
Thanks for sharing as always Gavin!
Great stuff as always! Really telling a great story about some iconic cards from the game's history. I'm glad you highlighted the Championship art ones also; they are so good!
Seriously hoping the medallion cycle gets a reprint this year
Me too
As a proud owner of the OG Moxen I am always amazed of how strong and iconic these have always been (I've started in 95 and they were already legendary).
Though the burning question is: old frame Dan Frazier illustrated Mox Opal when??
I think there are lots of design possibilities for Moxen. One example I saw was a mox with no casting cost but had escape
would probably be fucked up tbh, sounds fun
Glistening Mox made from phyrexian oil. That will cost a tiny piece of you( 3 life) each tap. Or 1 poison counter
My favorite is Mox Opal. It’s a really fun build around in my cube because it supports artifact aggro and my cube uses the mh2 bridges for fixing, so it creates a mini game where you have to decide if the fixing and access to a mox is worth it over taking spells. You have to draft a lot of bridges to make it work.
Seeing this video after the Historic tournament last weekend, where Kethis combo, in which Amber is essential, was one of the more prominent decks, and taking into account that this combo (I believe) is why Kethis is banned in Pioneer, I was surprised to hear Gavin describe Amber as a low-power level card. I think it is personally my favourite Mox, though I haven't actually played with Diamond or Chrome before.
I’m a big fan of legendary tribal so naturally I love Mox Amber! It’s a genuinely fair card that doesn’t lose me a card so I enjoy it
I remember reading in an article about the original names of alpha card that mox came from "moxie" or "energetic". It was the same article that mentioned that "serra angel" was originally "serrated sngel, like the serrated sword that it should carry. Shivan dragon came from goddess shiva.
Rocklove Jewelry would be nice if they were affordable for more folks. Glad you like your fancy trinkets though. Moxen are awesome, hope to see some more in the game in the future. Thank you for your Magic design stories Gavin! 🌞💧👻🌋🌳
They need to either be cheaper or have more value to them. Too many look like they belong as rewards at a county fair rather than at a jewelry store
This video is a testament why the reserved list is so toxic for the game.
Mox opal is my favorite card. So many good memories playing tempered steel and now I can use them for affinity.
I got the RockLove Mox Diamond a while back. #381/1000. Took me a while because I didn't jump on it, so I was surprised it was still available when I got it. Happy I did though.
Amazing video Gavin - thank you!
I found a mox diamond in a bulk collection I found in a storage unit a few weeks ago. It was such a rush especially as the card is older than I am. That bad boy went straight into my cube for boros signet
Mox Diamond tends to bait me into playing some lands matter midrange stuff when drafting vintage cube, I love that card so much!
I do agree that Chrome Mox is probably the best one in terms of power and tradeoff. The fact that it can't imprint artifacts stops it from going into just any artifact soup deck like Mox Opal, you have to think a lot about that card when playing with it which is great.
Loving the new style of videos you’ve been putting out!
I am quite looking forward to when a late-night-comedy-show-style compilation video is made of all of the times you say "totally bananas."
Wow those are pretty sweet, especially the Mishra’s Bauble!
I remember being able to recognise cards from across the room! Now there's 10 versions of everything, including the awful Secret Lairs
I agree with your list, but I like Diamond over Chrome :)
Those two were close for sure. I just love the versatility of Chrome, but they're both great!
I like the idea of a mox that has to exile either a random card or two cards in general, but could tap for any color.
Still, I always thought a lotus that sacrificed for two mana with some downside would be way cool.
I am engaging with the algorithm to help this video perform because I had fun with it
This is a reply thanking you profusely, to know that means a lot to me and also showing engagement to encourage other people to engage
Chrome mox is a really fun card! As you said in your video, it creates so many interesting decisions. What powerful card do you want to exile to get an extra boost? It's very skill-intensive in a fun way, and is a classic CEDH card :)
That Bauble looks amazing!
I actually didn't know that about the Mox art getting used on Enlightened Tutor, that's really cool and does help that art make a whole lot more sense now.
IMO, Amber is the best one.
Usable in a few decks, but not meta changing is amazing balancing!
Awesome video! I really think you're underrating Mox Amber as a design, though, I would put that #1, keeping everything else the same.
When designing cards that have as much risk to them as the Moxen, your first goal should be designing cards that are fun, as always, but a close second is not breaking anything. Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox were/are banned, and for a reason.
Mox Amber has the deck building considerations of Mox Diamond, where you need to contort your deck a specific way to play it, as well as the play pattern considerations of Chrome Mox, where you need to figure out your sequencing to get the best use out of it, all while being potent enough in the decks that want to use it that it sees play. Maybe not a ton of T1 play, outside Kethis Combo, but Emry affinity decks love it!
Power level is obviously not design, but it is a component of it, and if a card needs to be banned (most Moxen) or is completely unplayable (Tantalite) that is a mark against them. If those cards were made as straight to Legacy (or the equivalent) cards and never needed to be banned, they would be above Mox Amber, but they weren't.
All in all, if you asked me "If you open a pack of a new Standard set and you saw a Mox like Mox Amber or Mox Diamond, which would you rather see?" I would answer "Mox Amber" pretty easily, and that makes it an easy #1, I think!
I have Mox Opal in my Alela EDH deck (artifact synergy) and need to grab a Chrome Mox for her as well. Mox Diamond I'm a little torn on. I want one, but being an RL card, it might be more prudent to grab Mana Crypt and Mana Vault first.
Mox may be hard to balance, but they feel good when you get one in a deck.
proxy you fool, you are the reprint
Nice I have an Alela deck too. It’s my favorite EDH deck, I don’t play much EDH anymore though. I have all of those accelerants besides Mana Vault in my Alela and I would rather get Crypt first even though it’s not RL because it’s still always going to be expensive, and it’s a much better cost to effect ratio than Diamond anyway. For long term investment though, I would bet that Diamond only appreciates in value whereas the future of Mana Crypt’s price is more unknown.
@@Luke_Powers Yeah, I was thinking Crypt was better from a gameplay side than Diamond, anyway. In any case, Chrome Mox has higher priority, though I've seen 4th edition Mana Vaults aren't hard to grab.
Great video! I’ve always wanted to see a mox where you have to exile a card from your graveyard on etb to tap for mana of that colour because it would be a little slower and only work well in decks built for it
I find the design space around these cards to be fascinating. Thanks for delving into the development and impact of these cards and others like them, Gavin.
The video did have me wondering, though: were ideas of temporary or other resource-dependent moxen ever seriously considered? For instance, using mechanics such as fading, charge counters, energy, etc.
Very beautiful
I don't wear jewelry or things like that but I can appreciate it for those who do
Bro I need the Commander Sphere!
I would rank mox amber higher than chrome mox in terms of good design based on my experience in edh/cEDH. It requires you to jump through a few hoops which makes deckbuilding interesting and it is not broken because there’s situations where you cannot use it in decks it is made for. Definitely the right design space for me
I agree with the ranking, but that doesn't stop me from running Mox Tantalite. I love Suspend, despite it being so messy. The theme of time as a resource is such a unique identity. Yes, the color purple would be fun.
Gavin's shirt giving me heads i win, tails you lose secret lair vibes
Gavin! Why don’t Wizards creates a Legacy Advisory Committee as the one on pauper?
In my opinion the best designed mox (including power level), is Mox Amber. Though I may be biased since I got one in the first pack of Brothers War I opened.
Love your vids Gavin!
1) Diamond
2) Chrome
3) Amber
4) Opal
5) Tantalite
Any plans to make a video about the newest official mtg format Oathbreaker?
Chrome mox and Mox Diamond were the best two. Most balanced and fair.
Regrets making Arcane Signet. And then buys an actual Arcane Signet haha I kid. Looks fun to have those!
I’d be interested in a mox that can only be played after a certain number of turns, kind of like Serra Avenger. Mox Tantalite is unplayable because of the suspend, not because it only ramps in later turns. Plenty of decks could likely use, or at least try, a mox that can’t be played before your third turn.
In December 2016, Gleemox was actually mistakenly playable (I won't say 'legal') on MTGO for a short period.
I honestly prefer Mox Opal over Chrome, design wise, because of its polarity - it is powerful but you have to build your deck in a right way to use the synergies. Chrome Mox is just something you can basically slap into any deck and it's gonna be good enough, which is not a good direction with powerful cards, in my opinion.
Random thought: If there were someone actually named Musk Ox, it’d be formally abbreviated as “M. Ox”.
When Toggo creates the Mox Rock we're all doomed
I think Mox Tantalite would've been very cool with Suspend 1, instead of 3. I think this makes sense from a flavour perspective, because unlike the lotus a mox will "only" grant you one mana. From a gameplay perspective it would obviously be a lot stronger, but not that strong actually, considering you have to wait a turn for your free ramp. So it at least does not support super busted turn 1 or 2 plays too much as other Moxes do.
I've only pulled Jack in the Mox once in my cube and immediately rolled 1.
And here I thought he made another moxen
Mox Bismuth legendary artifact - enters tapped, doesn’t untap on upkeep, tap two other untapped permanents you control: untap it🤔
The original moxen hold a special place in my heart compared to all the followups, even if I never actually owned a Mox Jet (the only P9 I've never had). I did sell off my entire physical collection not too long after Ice Age since I was strapped for cash at the time.
I did grab some Unglued boosters and pulled a couple of Jack-in-the-Mox, so that would have to be #2 for me.
Nice work
Brainstorming Design time
Here multiple design legendary mox (not balanced yet)
Delirium Mox
Madness 0 Mox (have no casting cost) Tap for B or R only
3 basic land with the same name mox that produce the mana of that type
T: Add one of any color and mox deal 1 damage to you, Activate only if you have 25 life or more
Enters tap T: Add one mana of any color and put a stun counter on mox
Learn / Lesson Mox ''This card can't be in your main deck'' T: Add one mana of the last learn card color you have cast.
Otherworldly Mox
Legendary Artifact
T: Add one mana to your mana pool. You can only use this mana to cast spell from beyond universe of Magic.
''My precious''
- Yoda
New Mox confirmed in March of the Machine
I acutally run mox tantalite in my Vega, the watcher commander. It is a mox that draws you a card!
So with Mox Diamond shifted off to Stronghold and Enlightened tutor obtaining the artwork, when it was originally slated for Mirage, is that where Lion's Eye Diamond came into play for Mirage (pun intended), and also how the Mox Diamond got its name or vice-versa?
I think it's interesting that every mox comes from Dominaria or Mirrodin (which is an artificial plane created by a Dominarian) was this intentional design?
I'd love to see a video about the boon cycle.
I like your shirt!
I guess I understand why... but I've noticed how Moxen after the original series tap for any colour, as opposed to the original Moxen that tapped for one colour only. (Chrome Mox being a bit of an exception because it tapped based on whatever was imprinted on it.) Do you think WotC would ever consider trying the original style and printing Moxen that tapped for a specific colour as a cycle?
You don't sac to the legend rule. You simply move it to the graveyard.
Noticed the spark in your eye is gone, hang on Gavin.
Will you be showing off the Magic LoveSac as well?
Mox opal helped my johnny quest deck steamroll caw blade back in the Zendikar-SoM standard season :) good times!
Gee sure would be cool to own or even be able to print them for the magic players of the world. Maybe the reserve list should be amended to only apply to art, frame, or both. and you could get them in to the hands of players and not have formats curtailed by impossible to find staples.
I wonder where the power level would be for Twin Mox.
T: Add 1 mana of any color. Target opponent creates a tapped Treasure token.
Ramp for you, matched with ramp for your opponent (coming into play tapped so it can't fuel the immediate counterspell for the card you're attempting to play.) I could see a range of outcomes from this being far too beneficial to being essentially a non-factor, just not sure which would actually end up being the case.
The poison one could have been Lead mox, haha
Mox idea: 0 cmc ETB tapped artifact
Pay 3 life Tap: adds one mana of any color.
Other designs for this can be it enters untapped but it costs more life to use the same turn it enters, it gives colorless mana rather than any color, or the mox etb's and you name a color like coldsteal heart and it taps for that color. There are many ways to do this but simply a mox where you have to pay life to activate with no deck building restrictions. Thoughts?
*storms you to death*
heh... nothing personnel kih
Broken. Ever heard of Phyrexian mana?
Too many decks would gladly spent some life to ramp for this to be a viable design I think. It would probably need to both cost health AND have another reasonable restriction to work.
@@mrknarf4438 Well what if it was 5hp, in a 20hp format (not commander that is a heavy tax)
@@RasmusVJS Rather than 3 hp what if it was 5hp, 1/4 of your health is a ton
would tantalite be bonkers with suspend 2?
Mox Poison? Definitely should have been called Mox Pox.
Mox Opal seems like a nice skill testing card, it's very easy to look at it and say 'I've got lots of artifacts in here!', but if you don't have 3 artifacts out, it's worse than an Ornithopter, I'm always astounded to see high power EDH decks that run it with (what I feel is) way too few artifacts, and I've playtested enough of those decks to know that it's easy to overestimate how many artifacts you'll have out early, when one more mana means a lot more. I very much liked the Legendary aspect of Opal, I think it's a good bit of design but it's unfortunate that it was way too good for most formats. I think Legendary mana bases are a nice piece of complexity to use in moderation, it lets you print cards that are 'too good' and then let the Legendary aspect balance them in 4 of formats.
In general, I was very surprised to realize how bad most fast mana is without you explicitly building around it, if all you do with Channel is cast a Craw Wurm turn 1, you're probably not even going to win an Alpha game, but technically you could. Moxen are different than Rituals I understand, but cards that do nothing but make mana tend to be traps, there is a reason people try to shave lands when making a deck more competitive, an extra land drawn can easily cost you a close game, drawing more than 1 extra is almost certainly a disaster. At least Moxen you can straight up cut lands for, cards that can backfire on you if your opponent is prepared are a design space I like, it helps the game feel more puzzle-like.
While I'm deeply tempted to make a 'social media for nerds failed?! I'm shocked, SHOCKED I say!' joke, I feel like we're at the point where you're not stuck with online 'social misfits' playing, WotC could probably figure out something that would be more successful now, at least you've got a small army of content creators that you can wrangle up to make it look exciting, and tbh if WotC didn't try to make extra money on it (hahahaha) they might find success merely by offering a product that doesn't try to ruin your existence for profit. Dingbat elon killed twitter, facebook has been dying a slow, tedious death for awhile, Instagram/youtube have been desperately trying (ineptly I might add!) to steal TikTok's lunch, and there are a bunch of other ones with their own issues. Just having a platform that lets you do 'social media' type stuff without painfully milking us for every bit of data they can sell could go off, even without a gimmick like being 'the gamer safe space'. On the downside I was very much alive when that whole Gamergate thing started going down, and I more or less stopped playing new games until significant changes have happened to the industry, so I know that there is a huge (and hugely toxic) group that identifies very strongly as 'gamers', and feel that gaming is 'theirs' for whatever insane reason (people are stupid fits though).
Mox Amber is a design success IMHO, I think you guys are way too hard on yourselves if you think it was a mistake. Mox Tantalite is even worth some $$, I thought about it in a deck but the price was just too high for what that deck was trying to do. I think it'll have it's moment some day, but not having an alternate cost (so you could force it out) does sink it 99% of the time. Tantalite sees almost no play, but Amber definitely sees play in various formats, and it hasn't broken any of them in the slightest.
If you want a good topic to discuss, what about mana storage effects? I love to fiddle with the Fallen Empire cycle of Storage Lands (Bottomless Vault for one), and the Mercadian (Subterranean Hangar) ones are probably good enough to see significant Commander play, yet we also have 'probable failure space' like Mana Batteries from good old Legends, and Ice Cauldron rounds out some of the early examples I can think of. We don't get cards like this very often, there was the cycle of dual Storage lands that was awful IIRC, did that sour the space so to speak? Mana storage is incredibly strong in actual practice, is it the difficulty in costing it fairly?
Cool video, thanks for posting it!
Do you think Paradise Mantle could be a mox? if so, where would it fall in your rankings?
R&D may really have been out of touch on how Modern was actually being played thinking that a mox with suspend 3 will see play where ramp needs to cost 2 or less to be remotely playable. Nowadays, even Commander wouldn't touch a Mox Tantalite.
As he said, they were intentionally being conservative.
Definitely wouldve gotten one if it was a codex shredder
I think it speaks to something fundamentally wrong with the MTG community that the original Mox Cycle would become so much more iconic than Enlightened Tutor. Tutor would have taken a lot more thought and effort from Dan so it's a tragedy that it wouldn't be more elevated than pieces literally thrown together.
Why is Arena constantly bunching cards? Why does the opponent or myself have multiple copies of cards constantly within the first 12 cards?
My thoughts on Mox Poison: 2 poison counters is to much imo. If we have lands like City of Brass that deal 1 point of damage in or to use it I think a fair cost for Mox Poison would be 1 poison counter.
Also the name could use work if it ever would end up getting printed. Toxic Mox? Phyrexian Mox? Mox Ichor?
Mox Tantalite should have had suspend 1 or 2. I think 1, but concede that may have been pushing it a bit.
Like you said, three is just unplayable, and I suspect two maybe as well.
Sooo.... are we getting a new mox?