New Mechanics, Depending On Where You Look

Eldritch Moon is out now, and with it come new cards and new ideas. This is a routine we're all familiar with by now. New set, new mechanics - try to learn them and figure out how to break them with old cards Wizards has forgotten about. What do we have this time around?



Meld cards

Well, this is certainly... novel. Two okay creatures can combine into one super creature. Sounds impractical but interesting. That said, it also sounds... familiar. Where do I remember that from?

Oh. OH.

Okay, so they both shared an idea. Nothing strange there. It's not even a super-creative idea, just an impractical one. This was a matter of inevitable coincidence, that's all. Let's move on, shall we, and see what other new ideas Magic innovated in the latest set...

Emerge

Mm, another neat one. You have these big, powerful creatures who can be easily summoned if you sacrifice a creature already in play. Spiffy, isn't it? And it's definitely an orig-

...oh yeah.

Okay, so maybe Magic went and cribbed both 'fusion monsters' and 'tribute monsters' in the same set. It's been 23 years now, and after all this time the game's bound to be a little short on ideas. Its age and constant need for new ideas make it inevitable that there may be some overlap with other card games. Anyways, this is all a recent trend! It's not like this has ever happened before...

...huh. Okay. I guess there was that, yeah.

All right, so it borrows some abilities now and then. As the first CCG, though, it is an unprecedented innovator.  It may have taken a few gimmicky ideas on how to play certain cards, sure, but it of course would never stoop so low as to take an entire card type, like...

...trap cards? You had almost forgotten about that one, hadn't you?   Okay, so that's fusion monsters, tribute monsters, flip effects and trap cards. That, and miracles are basically "Heart of the Cards." Let's just get this all out in the open: anything else Yu-gi-oh made that I should be aware of?

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