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Magic introduced a new card subtype, âsiegeâ, on a card type that itself was also new, âbattleâ. You can attack battles and try to defeat them. Sieges are special in that you play them on the opponentâs side of the table so youâre attacking your own sieges.
They got the power level just right and that they deserve major kudos for that, that canât have been easy đđ»
Another compliment they deserve is that they were a very good way to represent all planes (together with a couple of other cards from each plane) truly making MOM feel like it spanned all the planes.
But overall Iâm not too fond of them.
Flavor-wise the sieges are weird. So you play a card named Invasion of Segovia (for example). What would you think such a card would represent? It represents⊠the Segovians fighting back at the Phyrexiansâboth sides of the card are flavored as Segovians doing Segovian stuff vs them.
OK, so itâs called a âsiegeâ. Like Helmâs Deep. And itâs a pro-Segovia, anti-Phyrexia card. So youâd think youâd want to defend it and defend it and defend it, like the Segovians in the story defended agains the Phyrexians. Siege. Simple. But no! You are trying to attack it down to release the sea tyrant Caetus whoâll help you fight the Phyrexians.
So when your opponent plays a Siege, that means you are suddenly forced to represent someone who is invading Segovia (Phyrexians, presumably, whether or not youâd ever put any Phyrexian cards in your deck) and trying to defend theânot defend Segovia, but defend the invading force so they canât release the sea tyrant or whatever.
Battle of Helmâs Deep - Wikipedia
The play patterns are fun (and, importantly theyâre fun on either side of the table), I just wish the flavor had made more sense. Sieges, for example, would make more sense as âquestsâ, like âwe wanna go find the sea tyrant Caetus and free himâ or something.
âBut it had to make sense in MOM, a set about the planes successfully defending against the Phyrexians in battle, a bunch of quests wouldnât make sense thereââexactly! They donât make sense! Theyâre not about successfully defending anything. âBut double-sided cards are all about âbefore and afterâ stories, we needed the flipped-to-side to represent the Segovians victorious because thatâs what happened in the story!â Not sure why weâre even playing a game if the outcome is set, but thatâs a story for another day.
MOM has many cards that transform into corrupted, compleated versions of themselves. Those are also awesome but what wouldâve made a lot more sense wouldâve been if the backsides of the battles had been flavored as phyrexia victorius. Your opponent plays a siege set on Theros and if you canât defend it, theyâll get a phyrexianized version of Polukranos or something. Really putting you in the shoes of desperately trying to defend against Phyrexia.