You Make the Card run off, a consideration

If you're reading this, chance are you're into Magic: the Gathering.
And if you're into Magic: the Gathering, chances are you're aware that Wizards is running the fourth "You Make the Card" promotional contest event thing.
And if you weren't;
Hey. You.
Wizards is running the foruth "You Make the Card" promotional contest event thing.
Which is pretty neat.

Basically, YMTC is a recurring thing Wizards has been doing irregularly since Onslaught block, wherein the hand the reigns of design over to us, the unwashed masses who don't have the fortuity to work at Wizards of the Coast for a single card.

Over the course of many weeks, a variety of polls are held to narrow down the focus of the event and ultimately decide what shall be printed.

Last week, the vote was for what card time would be considered; everything sans Planeswalker was up for vote.
The vote was close.
Like really freaking close.
Like 25 votes out of several dozen thousand votes close.

So, this week, they're doing a runoff between the top two contenders;
enchantment and land.

And here I am, as a half-arsed writer and would be designer who occasionally remembers that he has a blog on blogspot to tell you my opinion.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love me some enchantments.
Statisically, they are the hardest to remove card type and they've historically lacked the attention that some of the other card types have had giving them a wide berth of potential effects left to print.

But I'm a lands kind of guy

#TeamLand

Here's why I'm voting land (again) and why you should, too!
1. It's a challenge to design. Lands can't be countered. Any deck can play them without reprecusion. Land destruction has been nerfed to the point of irrelevance. There's a lot of valves that need to be very carefully adjusted to make them compelling and safe. And that makes me excited~
2. They need more love. It took Wizards until Prophecy to build a set around the theme of lands, and it took them until Zendikar to do it in a way that most people don't speak of in the same way that most of us speak of infectious diseases. There is SOOOOOOOOOOOO much untapped design space left for lands that no matter what kind of player you are, there is definitely something a land can do for you.
3. It's something for everyone. Simple enough; anyone can run lands. They have fewer restrictions towards gameplay since they don't compete for spell slots.

I'd love to hear your own opinions on the matter and don't forget to vote yourself!

Brewing Tibalt

I'm in a bad place right now, readers.

A dark metaphorical hellhole from which there is no escape. A midnight black quagmire of despair and woe that threatens to consume my very sanity and leave me but a wretched husk of what I once was.

I want to brew a Tibalt deck.

I don't know why. Maybe it's because he's a Planeswalker that is cheap, affordable and easily acquirable because no one wants any. Maybe its exactly because no one wants any and some Magic players latch onto things that are unique and unappreciated. Maybe I want to satiate myself on someone's tears when I beat them with a deck built around the worst Planeswalker printed to date. Maybe I've fallen off my meds and you'd best call the police before I hurt someone.

Whatever the reason, I've had Tibalt on my mind a lot lately, and I'd like to share with you some ideas I've had.

First of all, I am in no way saying that Tibalt is good, merely that he is playable. That his downside is one that can be built around.

There are two ways that I can tell to build around that wretched line "discard at random".

Firstly, make sure that your deck is highly redundant. Have lots of cards in your deck that accomplish nigh identical functions. If you pitch a burn spell you want to have lots of other burn spells of similar scope to replace it with. Same with creatures, token makers, draw spells. Whatever you're filling your deck with.

Secondly, ideally, you want most anything Tibalt pitches to be something you would want to pitch. Things with madness that you cheat out with Tibalt. Things that you want in the graveyard in the firstplace like Unearthers, Flashbackers, reanimation targets, etc. Things that you can bring back with recursion outlets.

Or if you can manage, both.

Here's a list I came up with yesterday.

4 Stomping Ground
4 Rootbound Crag
2 Kessig Wolf Run
6 Mountain
6 Forest

4 Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded

4 Wasteland Viper
4 Boneyard Wurm
4 Dawntreader Elk
4 Lightning Mauler
4 Splinterfright
4 Slaughterhorn
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Zhur-Taa Swine
3 Kessig Cagebreakers
1 Ghoultree
You see the battleplan, yes?
I get a Boneyard Wurm or Splinterfright, or if the game lasts long enough, a Cagebreakers into play, and go to town! The whole deck is creatures and most of them have ways of getting into the yard whether by saccing themselves, or being bloodrushed, or by way of Tibalt.
Then I bash face my my graveyard fueled monsters.

I have yet to test this and there's probably ways to optimize.
A green-based creature deck in standard usually wants to run Rancors.
This many creatures, maybe Domri is worth including.
That many things in the yard, Garruk Relentless' ultimate would be handy.
Faithless Looting or Mulch to help fill the yard?

I'm not sure, but I look forward to finding out.

Glorious

Sedemir fell to the ground clutching his chest. Correction: What was left of his chest. An sizable portion of it had been rather unceremoniously removed from him; rather, it had removed itself. His various cytoplasmic grafts had torn themselves off his body. He heaved, breathing was difficult. He was missing a lung and one of his hearts. It was only by the marvels of Simic biomancy that he had survived the ravages of Simic biomancy.
His sight was failing him, not because of his missing eye, but rather the blood loss and the not insignificant part of his brain that had left him. But he faintly heard some great and terrible beast rampaging in the distance. ‘The Eksperiment must have been successful’ he thought to himself ‘he looked down at the pool of fluids leaking from his mutilated form ‘not quite how I might have imagined it…’ The rest of his senses began to fail him. He rolled over on his back. He could not feel three of his arms and either of his legs below the knee, when he tried to breathe out of his gills he choked and blood spat out instead. This was Master Vig’s greatest work evidentially; birthing a guild of butchered cripples.


Despair and rage began to overwhelm the usually stoic vedalken mage. ‘How could he do this. To me? To all of us?’ he thought, speech was beyond question at the present. ‘How is this, any of this, what you promised?’ He choked on rage and blood ‘The years of service and dedication. The trials and experiments and surgeries. Crafting my body into a more appropriate form for your grand plans, and this is what I receive for my tribute?!’ Sedemir’s blood pressure was inching him ever closer to death. He gurgled a curse through his agony “YOU’VE RUINED ME!”


Sedemir’s sight gave out. As did his hearing, his touch, his taste and smell, and his other 37 senses. They gave way to madness. Colors swirled around him into smells that tasted unlike anything he had ever heard. Everything. Nothing. Nowhere. Anywhere. Too much. All at once. Sensory overload. And then nothing. Sedemir fell hard on his back. “What in the hell?!” Sedemir turned to see who had suddenly joined him. A human man, in simple leather tatters, a look of shock plastered across his face. With what he had left, Sedemir cast the strongest stasis spell he could manage upon the man, and lept upon his frozen form as it fell backwards, stiff as a statue.


He cast a similar, though less dramatic spell upon himself, and held his remaining arm up to his remaining eye. He concentrated as hard as he could, channeling mana with all his might. His fingers elongated into blades. Transpecies organ transplants were tricky, especially without a proper lab, but Sedemir would not allow himself to be a victim of Momir’s deception. He got to work, removing organs from his patient and suturing them into place upon himself best he could. Doing this upon himself, in his condition, was beyond excruciating; but nothing he couldn’t handle.


After some amount of effort, Sedemir had himself a full body of organs again. He had managed to replace two of his missing arms and both of his legs. As luck would have it, his patient was of a similar build. The ham-looking flesh stood in stark contrast to his own turquoise hide, but pride meant nothing before his own survival. He fixed everything but his brain, he didn’t dare mix that with someone else. He would simply have to culture new tissue and program the missing data with what he had written in his logs.


He stood, tenderly upon his new legs. Human flesh was so unappealing looking. It resembled ham. Sedemir was not fond of ham. He wiggled his hammy toes and twisted his face in disgust. He looked at the grass between his toes and. Grass? It just dawned on him that he was most certainly not in the Simic science hall he had been in when his organs had revolted against him. He looked around. Very few buildings anywhere around, lots of rolling sandy hills, with tufts of grass growing upon rocks, simple stone huts with red banners flapping in the breeze. Sedemir did not get out of the lab as much as perhaps should have, but he was no fool. This was not Ravnica. It was simply not possible to stand anywhere on Ravnica and not see a skyscraper piercing the horizon in some direction. What had happened to him? How had he come here? Who was the man who had saved his life?


He looked down at the man who had saved his life. Correction: The remains of the man who had saved his life. He was still under the lingering effects of Sedemir’s stasis spell, but it was beginning to fade. Blood ever-so-slowly oozed from his body like tree sap. If at all possible, Sedemir would have attempted to save his life in return, he did not enjoy being indebted to another, but it did not seem possible. Without his lab or proper materials he did not have that which would be necessary to replace what he had taken, and he needed it more. A noble sacrifice. Sedemir applied an enzyme to the corpse. Nothing would be left in an hour but fillings and belt buckles.


Sedemir gazed upon the puddle that used to be the man who had saved his life. ‘What now?’ he thought to himself ‘What does a man do when everything he has ever built has become torn down? Pick up the pieces? Start over?’ What was the point, so much had been lost.’ He clenched his fists. ‘No.’ He had worked too hard to be an annotation on Momir’s journal. He would carry on. No longer a parasite to someone else’s vision, but the progenitor to his own. And it would be glorious.

Gatecrash experiences

Real talk?

Return to Ravnica block limited is some of the most fun I've had playing limited. Each guild has lots of little nuances, synergies, strategies. Each guild has lots of ways to play, and cards that interact favorably not only with their own guild, but a bunch of other guilds as well.

I've played a lot of Gatecrash lately, so I'll highlite some nice interactions I've noticed.

Agoraphobia - A nice little card that's well worth the price because it renders a creature completely worthless as anything other than a blocker. But it has a few other nice tricks. It is an extort enabler. Becuase it can bounce itself, you can use it and an extort outlet to bleed your opponent out of a stalemate. It is also an evolve enabler. Stick it on one of your better evolve guys and let it get buffed up from a few other critters. Once it's sufficiently big enough, bounce the aura and go to town with your newly biggified beastie.

Gatecrash has tons of evasive things at lower rarities, things such as Way of the Thief. Now, I played a good deal of M13 limited, and let me tell you Tricks of the Trade was always a beating. Well worth it just for how badly it would screw up your opponent's calculations of your game clock. This does that, but even worse. How scary is an unblockable dude when you're in Bloodrush colors, or once you've stuck a cipher spell or two on it? Plenty.

Act of Treason - Clears a blocker, and gives you a third trooper for your Battalion battle plan.

Alpha Authority is in the same limited environment as Ripclaw Predator and Madcap Skills. Just sayin'

Encoded spells become cast, so you can extort off of them.

There's just so much to do, and there will be even more in Dragon's Maze when the guilds cross streams, so to speak.

Scavenging onto Dimir's multiple unblockable critters. Detaining blockers away for an enormous Bloodrush beating or another cipher trigger. Blistercoil Weird getting a free untap from those cipher triggers. Moving counters off of your Simic Fluxmage onto your opponent's Unleash dude.

I can't wait.
What's the coolest experience you've had so far playing Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash limited?

A Day at the Circus

A Day at the Circus

              Zlato was a well-to-do man, doing well. A prominent banker within the Orzhov Syndicate, he had managed to pull himself high enough in the organization to have actual power. Power enough to be more than a pawn. He was now a mid-level investment agent, tasked with appropriating funds and determining where money was to be made in the organization. He was feeling good about himself; he had received an invitation from a Rakdos entertainment troupe. They were one of the troupes about legitimate entertainment not some subversive snuff performances, framed as a thanks for his continued investment and well-being between their two guilds. Things were going well for him.

 

            The invitation was for the Rowdy Rioteers, one of the more renowned circus troupes within the Rakdos Cult. While on the dangerous side (this is the Rakdos, after all) their shows were said to be some of the most entertaining around, and getting admissions was a chore in and of itself. Zlato had been a go-between for this particular troupe going on three years now. They would pay him for whatever goods, equipment, training or any other necessities the troupe requested for their maintenance, and he would provide. They hadn’t even seem to noticed or cared when he started skimming off the top sixth months back. They should be fortunate to even find a financier that would dare to do business with the Cult openly; he was too valuable for them to let go.

 

           This would surely be a night to remember. He had spent hours going over a wardrobe that would be appropriate. Nothing too ostentatious, he didn’t want to get robbed on the way there; but nice enough to let everyone else there know that he was better than them, that he was a guest of honor. He had chosen a suit of the finest pelts of beasts hunted in the forgotten wilds those stupid Gruul troglodytes called home; embroidered with silver and pearls in the shape of the Orzhov sun. Nothing too fancy.

 

           The night’s entertainment took place in the outskirts of the district, just far enough from prying eyes that the Rakdos need not fear regular scrutiny from the Azorius inspectors or the Boros patrolsmen. They liked it better when the entertainment was on their terms and not according to some prudish standards of safety or decency. Entertainment was supposed to be shocking and subversive after all! The show would be performed in an old Simic holding facility for some of their nastier beasties, abandoned with the Vigean ways when the Guildpact fell. The Rakdos had appropriated the facilities and made good use of the wide open space that had formerly accommodated monsters. Small and subtle were not things Rakdos entertainment specialized in. He made his way to the theatre, guard thrull in tow, can’t be too careful with these street urchins.

           It was never a trouble finding the Rioteers; this wasn’t one of those depraved debauchery clubs, they had nothing to hide. The place was always well marked. Lots of signs and arrows painted into the wall with what looked like blood but what Zlato always figured was just paint playing into the edgy dangerous look the Rakdos liked to cultivate. They weren’t all cannibals and rapists, Ravnica wouldn’t tolerate them if they were. It was a calculated image to increase their interest and prestige. He made It to the show; bold black and red colors and decorations halfway between a circus and a slaughterhouse. “All part of the act” Zlato told himself as he sauntered in.

 

        The building was quite a bit bigger on the inside than one would have thought. Surprisingly careful consideration had been given towards converting the facility to a performing arena. The center of the building had been dug into to provide more room for some of the larger performers and high wire acts. The back half of the complex was hidden behind makeshift walls and curtains, likely where they stored the props and dressing rooms. All manner of strange spectacle covered every inch of the warehouse. Rakdos grunts performing simple parlor tricks; juggling, breathing fire, artsy magic spells to impress the manaless commoners Several cooks had kiosks selling meat, and only meat, of various flavors. Several of the signs boasted that they were people who had slighted the Rakdos, but Zlato kept telling himself, that only happened in the slummier districts; these were well-to-do honest performers.

 

          Zlato found his seat, near the center of the ring in the third row. Close enough to vividly make out all of the spectacle, but far enough to avoid being lit on fire or splashed with ‘blood’. He found himself people watching until the show began. Though proud he may have been, there was still something oddly inspiring about seeing so many people from different guilds and even the guildless together in one place in spite of their differences. He might have to try to do some business after the show. Several of the lanterns strewn about the facility began to dim, and everyone rushed to take their seats.

         “Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadies and gentlemen!” a magically enchanced high pitched voice boomed throughout the room. “I bid you a welcome to the Rowdy Rioteers pyrotechnic, acrobatic, trip fantastic, dynamite show extraordinaire!” An explosion of indescribable color occurred in the center of the ring and when the smoke cleared, Zlato clearly recognized the form of Zikki, the Rowdy Rioteers’ ringleader. Zikki was a goblin of average frame but above average ambition. Most goblins that Zlato had ever known were little more that petulant, short-sighted children, but Zikki was special, with an ambition and forethought that made him stand out amongst his species. He wore a clearly fake set of devil horns and forked tail to make him resemble a devil (an even more brainless lot than the average goblin). He had a patchwork red and black-checkered pants, a rather slick black leather vest and a comically oversized tophat. “It is an honor to have you all as our guests! I hope you’ve all up to date with your insurance, you’re gonna need it!” Zikki made note of Zlato and gave him a wink. Zlato couldn’t help but chuckle given the amount of insurance the Church dealt with.

 

           The show went off largely without a hitch; with a Rakdos show its hard to tell when something is scheduled, if they’re faking an accident for shock value, or someone legitimately got hurt. There was little difference to most Rakdos. There was a duel of flame-throwing elementals, fed all manner of strange minerals to make their flames unusual colors. There was a bit where they launched several explosive thrulls out of cannons as makeshift fireworks, there was a zombie clown that kept “accidentally” cutting his own head off.  All spectacular and visceral. Say what you will, but the Rakdos were excellent showmen. Then came the finale.

 

        “Folks, you’ve all been a most wonderful audience, but I’m afraid too many of our performers have been mutilated to continue” laughter rolled through the audience, “but we do have one final trick up our sleeve; Mungo the Magnificient! Let’s give him a hand folks!” Roaring applause rose from the audience, Zlato included, he had heard the reputation of this particular act. THOOM. The ground shook. THOOM. Again, it was getting closer. THOOM. It sounded like a thundercloud had become trapped in the earth. Suddenly the largest curtains, easily several stories tall, parted as a giant made his way towards the center of the ring. This was Mungo. A well-built giant that must have stood at least fourty feet tall stood in the middle of the ring. He wore simple tattered rags as a loincloth and was adorned with a variety of strange armaments that appeared to have been out of use Izzet piping and machinery, even a helmet with a visor. He brought his arms above his head as if to say ‘ta-da!’ “AYM MAGNIFISHENT!” he slurred. The cheering intensified.

 

        This act was legendary in this district. Mungo would pick up various performers, and sometimes reportedly, audience members; and would juggle them through the air. In and out of flaming rings of razor wire or other hazards. Three rather menacing looking thrulls covered in blades walked towards Mungo’s feet, and he reached down and picked them up, and with a delicate touch unexpected of such a creature, began juggling them in elegant sweeping arcs. Sometimes they would pass near each other midair, and clash their blades against one another, creating a shower of sparks. The audience vocalized their awe.

         “Now folks, I think we can do better than this, don't you?” Zikki queried. “Mungo, lets find out who our lucky ‘volunteers’ are tonight shall we?” “YEPYEPYEP” Several spotlights were lit up from near the ceiling, tracing arcs through the audience unti they came to rest on a well-dressed Azorius woman on the far left side of the stands. She clearly didn’t expect to become part of the show and began to protest. “Oh no, ma’am, we insist.” Mungo shifted all of the thrull to one hand, and with his spare, picked her up and included her in the act. Screams of fear eventually subsided into joy “It’s like I’m flying!” she could be heard screaming.

 

        “Next victim!” More spotlights. This time, they came to rest upon an extravagantly dressed Izzet mage. He was more accepting of his role in the performance. It was most impressive how Mungo managed to go from three things in the air to five with seemingly little effort. “Not bad, Mungo, not bad. But I think you can do better.” Another spotlight, this one eventually came to rest on Zlato. Shock to turned to smugness, “Of course they would pick me” he mused. He was plucked like a fruit and soon he too was flying through the air like a drunken griffin. Zlato had once ridden with a Wojek roc-knight to clench a business deal, and this was so much more exhilarating than even that.

          This continued for about a minute before Zikki chimed in “Folks lets give a round of applause to our volunteers!” More applause. A spotlight shone on the Azorius woman “Sveta here is an Azorius permit taker person thing, I don’t know the terminology. Anywho, she processes our various request forms for merchandise to be transferred from one place or another.” Still more applause. Then Zikki's smile faded into a menacing toothy smirk “Cept last month when she denied a request for a new cannon cuz we had reached the permitted limit of artillery for’a organization despite us not actually using dem as artillery.” Mungo’s hand suddenly jerked on the downswing and rather than being caught, Sveta rolled of the back of his hand and fell to the floor with a sickening thud. The audience gasped. Zlato’s eyes grew wide in horror. “Oh no, Mungo look whatcha did!” “HURRRR?” Mungo glanced down and shifted his weight, stepping on Sveta in the process. KERRUNCH. A scream from the audience. “Bad, Mungo, bad!”

      

         The giant lifted his foot away revealing the sickening mess on the circus floor. As Zlato bobbed up and down, still part of the act, he caught a first-hand glimpse of the scene as it darted in and out of his twisting vision. “D’oh well, the show must go on, right folks?” The audience was mostly silent. Some people murmured to their neighbors, and Zlato was sure he heard at least one child sobbing. The spotlight shifted from the smear on the floor to the Izzet man being juggled, whom Zlato was sure was wearing an expression similar to his own. “Plamen here is a chemister for the Izzet where he comes up wit new neato explosives and stuff. Couple month back he provided us wit’a experimental new propellant ta use for one’o our cannon tricks. I say experimental, cuz dere’s no way dat stuff was tested. Killed 20 o’our crew on our first test run.” Plamen rose in the air, and all three of the juggled thrulls intercepted him in midair and promptly eviscerated him. He let out a guttwrenching scream, and then the tangled mass of blade and man and thrull landed with a wet crunch on the floor. “Oh whatever will we do wit dose thrull. Dey’re so hard ta train!” More screams from the audience and a lump was beginning to form in Zlato’s throat.

           “Finally! We come ta Zlato here.” Zlato was blinded for a moment as the spotlight began to trace his arcs through the air. We was more scared than he had ever been, but could think of nothing to say, nothing to do. This whole experience was too surreal to process. He was going over the whole evening in his head. Had it all been a trick? A ruse to trick him and others that had slighted this troupe into a public spectacle? Every horrid little thing he had ever heard about the Rakdos seem magnified a hundred fold in his mind. “Zlato izza investment banker. Wat dis means iz dat we gives him money, and he gets us stuffs we asks for. After he pockets somes first, right Zlato?”

 

        Zlato stammered, tried to think of something to say, an excuse, an apology, anything, but the words died in his mouth. “No hard feelings, iz just business right?” Zlato was thrown higher than usual as Mungo stretched his arms out to the side. “And iz been a pleasure doin business witcha.” As Zlato fell, Mungo slammed his hands together with the sound of thunder. THWOOM. Zikki straightened his hat and cleared his throat“Thank you all for coming folks! We hope you’ll all consider what exactly it iz you want when you do business with the Rakdos in da future!”

         

Golgari Unearth

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

 

Picking up where we left off; What if the Golgari had Unearth?

I started a contest to find out, and now I'm writing an article.

Unearth is basically Flashback for creatures as we know, but it offers considerably more versatility because of how many more things you can do with creatures.
Attack, block, sacrifice, equip, trigger, et cetera.

Unearth was pretty groovy the first time around, but I'm convinced that there's a lot more design space for it, especially were it to be bled into a new color.

As far as limited was concerned, Unearth gave you access to varying sizes of Ball Lightning variants; one free beefy swing. Kind of dull design space, but a necessary utility since limited is very much a big deal.

Plus if nothing else, we get an Unearth hydra. Hydras are cool.

 



 Another way to make use of Unearth is to consider that all Unearth creatures have haste by default. To me this would indicate that Unearth creatures with tap abilties would be a neat trick, but we didn't see much of that the first time around, which I consider to be a shame because of all the neat things you can do with that sort of functionality.

We didn't see many tappers the first time around because a lot of the higher level unearthers were built around enter the battlefield or leave the battlefield triggers, and I really can't blame them. The design space is so obvious, and with Magic mechanics, you generally want to go for the obvious designs first, because otherwise you'll have insufferable know-it-alls like me asking the designers "Why didn't you do this totally obvious thing?!"

 



One thing I am surprised never happened was that we never got any cards that gave you a bonus for unearthing them, which is to say that when you Unearthed them you got something you didn't the first time around.

 And finally, we didn't see much of things that were built around Unearth. Oh sure, there were a tad more than usual discard outlets at lower rarities, but nothing that called out Unearth explicitly. I'm surprised we didn't see the token "uncommon red enchantment that deals damage when you do a thing" or just *something* that would incentivize players to build unearth theme decks.

 



Whatever happens, I know that Unearth has enough resonance and design space that they'll definitely bring it back in the future, and I can't wait to see how my predictions pan out then!

What do you think about the possibilities of Unearth or how it would have fared for the Golgari?
Let me know and feel free to join my contest!

I don't have any clever wordplay for this; Absorb designs

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

 

Picking up where we left off yesterday; What if Azorius had absorb?

 

I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. I've tried coming up with some designs and it's harder than I would have guessed. I'll give you a hint why; absorb is a lot more powerful than it reads. Every creature with it is effectively X toughness higher than usual 90% of the time, and this leads to costing them higher than the default.

 

Another quality about Absorb that makes it tricky to design for is that there's just not a whole heck of a lot you can do with it design wise.

"Creatures you control can take more damage". Woo, really pushing the boundaries there.
Yes, should they bring back absorb, a lot of it will be as limited workhorses (see how most of the Detain cards were very simple, straight forward effects).
I think there's primarily three tricks to using absorb in unique ways.

1. Absorb triggers (ie; do BLAH for each damage prevented this way)

2. Big damn numbers. This creature is going for a Order of the Stars sort of thing.

3. Giving you, the player, absorb. This can run the gamut from utility effects,

cantrips tacked on to other effects,

Or whatever this thing is.

What do you think can be accomplished with absorb?
Please let me know!
Or better yet, participate in the contest I'm hosting!
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29532921/Return_to_Ravnica,_returning_mechanics,_part_3_-_Absorb