![]() Then, in leading up to the Two-Block Paradigm, they decided to move to a much more interconnected form of storytelling, meaning they wanted each block's story to naturally flow and connect with the ones around it. However, they would've had one problem implementing this - the "happy ending" that undid all the cool parts of Innistrad in Avacyn Restored. ![]() Rosewater says everyone loved it so much they immediately marked this down as the way to handle an Innistrad return, so they would've had this in their minds already. Design team member Adam Lee, at a time late enough to be years after Innistrad but early enough to be before Tears block was in pre-design, proposed a return to Innistrad where the Gothic Horror was inflected by Lovecraftian horror and all-pervasive madness. Rosewater's article gives us the missing piece. That was the question before: why another return right after BFZ? Why Innistrad now when people were expecting it in a couple years? We know that Innistrad was the very first year, and it was on the list as an "experimental" block, with a theme that there was strong resistance to - so we know there wouldn't have been a return to this world already penciled in as part of the same seven-year plan. We know that BFZ block was the fifth "year" on this list, so there were two still to go. We know that after Scars block, they started on Rosewater's "Seven-Year Plan" - a list of seven block ideas he wrote up all at once and got approved from the head honchos at WotC. Like, actually, I think with Rosewater's article today we can pretty much reason out why this set is happening now, and why it's Emrakul. If your goal is to prove that it could be something besides Emrakul it could work, but it's hard to imagine a scenario where the actual creative team would ever come to this conclusion naturally. Thopter Spy Network is a very powerful card, so I look forward to hearing what you think about its place in the upcoming standard meta.I mean, sure, but then you're still introducing a second, distinct race of Cthuloid monsters, and doing so by hearkening back to a plotline that 98% of your current playerbase weren't around for the first time (and probably 80+% weren't for the second), and you're retconning that old storyline to do it. Hoogland also set precedent for Thopter Spy Network in a control shell alongside Artificer's Epiphany, which may be another option. I tested some games on Cockatrice last night with a tokens list that I threw together, taking advantage of Gideon and the Secure the Wastes+Westvale Abbey combo, and it felt like it had potential. Surrounding that, I'm not sure of the best shell. That said, Stoneforge Masterwork is another cheap artifact that could be better as a way to simply end the game faster. I was testing 2x Captain's Claws to round out the artifact package to ten, and I really liked equipping them to thopter tokens for an extra point of damage and another token on the board every turn. LSV called Thraben Inspector the white Elvish Visionary, and Hangarback has seen some play since it was released, so I'm confident that those cards are worth it in any Thopter Spy Network list. I've done some testing myself, and the best base that I can put together is 4x Thraben Inspector and 4x Hangarback Walker with anywhere from 0-4 other artifacts. With this post, I want to discuss ways to make Thopter Spy Network playable. Playable artifacts are still pretty low, but artifacts being stapled onto other spells could open the door for an artifact strategy. When I saw Investigate spoiled as a mechanic in SOI, I hoped that Thopter Spy Network would be able to see a resurgence. It's a blue Bitterblossom that occasionally draws you cards instead of always costing you life what's not to like? The card had its day in the sun with Hoogland's UW Steel Control deck from SCG Chicago, and it saw play as a top end of some of the artifact lists that ran rampant at the end of THS-KTK Standard, but BFZ sent it packing. Since Thopter Spy Network was spoiled, I've wanted to play it.
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