The Rosewater Rumble

The first match-up was close but Shadowmoor defeated Dark Ascension with 60% of the vote. The reason I believe Shadowmoor won is that I feel large sets have a huge advantage. Not only do they have more cards but they also come with all-new mechanics. Most of the mechanics of a small set, especially a middle set like Dark Ascension, are using those first seen in the large set that preceded it.

In the end, I think the love of hybrid overcame the love of "more Innistrad."

The second match-up was equally close with Gatecrash defeating Scars of Mirrodin with just 60% of the vote. After looking at all the results (I asked players to explain why they were voting the way the did), Gatecrash's victory seemed to hinge on people voting against Scars of Mirrodin. With multiple controversial mechanics and an oft-criticized Limited play, Scars of Mirrodin is a very polarizing set. Also, Gatecrash enjoyed the boost of being the set currently on everyone's mind. And to be fair to Gatecrash, the set also has proven to have many popular mechanics.

In the end, both sets had a lot of fans but the current set had just a little bit more.

Future Sight was not only the first upset of the competition, but it also defeated Unglued soundly, taking 80% of the vote. The silver border of Unglued, making it unplayable in tournaments, proved to be a huge handicap, especially when its competition was an equally crazy set printed in black border. Future Sight was also home of the future-shifted cards from potential futures of the game, including such fan favorites as Tarmogoyf, Narcomoeba, and Steamflogger Boss. (On the list of requests I get, contraptions is still in the top five.)

In the end, black-bordered silly defeated silver-bordered silly.

Mirrodin defeated Urza's Destiny with 65% of the vote. Urza's Destiny had lots of things going against it. It was a small set up against a large set. It was an older set going up against a newer set (I mean "newer" as less old). Urza's Destiny was the weakest set in its broken block. Urza's Destiny also had a less coherent theme.

In the end, the set with the record for being "the best-selling set of all time" the longest takes the victory.

For a second time, the silver-bordered set was smashed in its pairing, with Zendikar defeating Unhinged soundly with 80% of the vote. While many voters appreciated the silver-bordered set, they didn't feel they could vote for it over a solid and popular black-bordered set. Many stated that landfall was their favorite mechanic of all time and that they loved the adventure world flavor of Zendikar.

In the end, the less popular silver-bordered set never stood a chance.

It was a pretty close match-up, as each set had its fans, but in the end Tempest managed to defeat Odyssey with 65% of the vote. What I think gave Tempest the edge was that Odyssey was a very Spikey set (the most Spikey set I've ever designed) and turned off many players who didn't enjoy card advantage being turned on its head. ("You see, the correct play here is to dump your entire hand to give this creature first strike even though it doesn't need it.") Also, Tempest was the beginning of the Weatherlight Saga (with the Weatherlight expansion being the set-up), a storyline beloved by some older fans.

In the end, Gerrard and company took down Wild Mongrel and company.

As we get to the top seeds, the match-ups begin to be more of a smashing. Innistrad handily beats Eventide with 85% of the vote, the largest defeat yet. Innistrad was the lead set of one of the most popular blocks of all time, while Eventide was a lackluster follow-up to a less-enjoyed world (although, to be fair, there are many who loved the dual world of Lorwyn and Shadowmoor).

In the end, the horror set proved to be a far scarier competitor.

Ravnica proves its top-seed position with the strongest victory in the Top 16. It defeats Fifth Dawn with a whopping 90% of the vote. Fifth Dawn had its fans but nothing could stand in the way of the guild-city juggernaut,Ravnica, which spawned the current Return to Ravnica block.

In the end, Fifth Dawn never had a chance.

Zendikar came out swinging to defeat Mirrodin with 70% of the vote. Mirrodin's downfall was twofold. First, Zendikar is one of the most popular sets in recent years. Second, some players associated Mirrodin with the degenerative Standard environment it created, causing many to leave the game.

In the end, landfall defeated the set responsible for Standard's downfall.

Future Sight continued its path of upsets (the only set thus far in the competition to have an upset) by defeating Tempest with 70% of the vote. Tempest is considered to be a groundbreaking set, but as the oldest set in the competition, it was both unknown to some and considered a bit stodgy by others. Future Sight has proven to be a much-beloved set by the more enfranchised players (and players who follow me on Twitter, on average, tend to be more enfranchised).

Innistrad had another blowout, defeating Gatecrash with 85% of the vote. Gatecrash is popular, but being so new it really hasn't had time to find its footing yet. And it was competing against Innistrad, which some argue is the best Magic set ever made.

Ravnica won this match-up pretty handily, winning 75% of the vote. Shadowmoor has its fans, but as we haven't done Return to Shadowmoor yet, it's pretty clear that Ravnica has more.

Up until this round, Ravnica was winning by huge margins. All that ended when we had the closest match-up yet. Ravnica eked it out with a mere 52% of the vote. Zendikar had lots of fans and made a good run at beating Ravnica, but in the end it just wasn't able to overtake the #1 seed.

Nope. Future Sight is beloved by many, but not as much as Innistrad, which takes the match-up with 57% of the vote. Future Sight was overflowing with cool concepts but it didn't have the overall cohesion of Innistrad.

Ravnica had some of the best win records of the tournament but, in the end, it couldn't take down the popularity of Innistrad. Innistrad takes the ultimate battle with 60% of the vote.

Now that we've seen how the Rosewater Rumble went, I want to do this one more time, except with a voting audience of one—me. I want to go through the match-ups, picking in each case which set I thought was the better designed. Being that I did them all, it's easy to remove the ego and just make an honest assessment as to which set I thought was the better design.

This first match-up is a pretty easy one for me. Shadowmoor was a groundbreaking design. It was the one that took the large/small/small block model—what up until then had been not just the default, but the only, option—and smashed it with a hammer. It showed that we could reevaluate how a block was put together. I also was proud of both wither and persist as mechanics and I think the draft environment was an interesting one that allowed a huge amount of freedom of choices.

Dark Ascension built nicely on Innistrad but nothing was too revolutionary. The best new mechanic of the set was undying, which was a riff off persist from Shadowmoor. I'm proud of Dark Ascension, but to be honest with myself, Shadowmoor was a better design.

I'm happy with Gatecrash but most of the design was derivative (on purpose, mind you)—some from original Ravnica block and some from Return to Ravnica. I feel I added my own twist and I believe the new guild mechanics are all strong, but none of it I feel tops either infect or proliferate, both of which fall into my top ten favorite mechanics of all time. I'm also proud of how the mechanics helped shaped the flavor of the set and the conflict between the two sides. I think a lot of what I was able to do with Innistrad came about because of lessons I learned on Scars of Mirrodin.

This is probably my most controversial pick, especially when compared to the fan vote, so let me explain. These two sets might be the two most difficult sets I've ever designed. Unglued started with an open-ended request to make a silver-bordered set (where silver-bordered was merely defined as "not tournament legal") while Future Sight had the daunting task of "hinting at the future of Magic." Both sets paved the way for what future sets would do. Each was experimental and allowed me to explore new design space.

Both sets have gone on to have a cult status with diehard followings. The reason I lean toward Unglued was that its goal was to be a niche product. It wasn't designed with a mass audience in mind. Future Sight was. It was meant to be an expert expansion with wide appeal. In that regard, Future Sight was a failure. It sold poorly because the majority of the audience couldn't follow it. Yes, those who understood it loved it, but that was a minority of the intended audience (although a possible majority of those enfranchised enough to follow me on social media).

I know it angers some of my audience every time I call Future Sight a failure, because it was such a success for the segment that got it. I refer to Future Sight as my "art house picture." It got rave reviews from all the critics and had a terrible opening weekend. If I have to judge my design I have to take into account the target I was aiming for. Yes, Future Sight ended up this wonderful thing, but it wasn't what I was supposed to be making and, to be blunt, I missed with a giant segment of the audience. I can't just look at the reactions of its fans, I also have to look at the reaction of the many players who just didn't understand it.

Another stark contrast was that Future Sight was extrapolative design—that is, it was designed to be what players expected the future to be, whereas Unglued was true blue-sky design. Both were difficult but if I'm honest with myself as a designer (an ongoing theme in my rumble), Unglued was a lot more challenging. I know this pick will result in the most criticism, but this exercise is me being honest with myself as to which design was stronger and, in my opinion, it was Unglued.

Urza's Destiny is the set I designed all by myself. Of all the sets I've done, it has more build-around-me cards percentagewise than any other set I've done (i.e., it's the most Johnny-friendly design I've made). I'm very proud of it. That said, it doesn't hold a candle to Mirrodin. Mirrodin is the first truly cohesive world I did where the design mechanics helped define the feel of the world. It introduced Equipment, which became an instant evergreen mechanic. It had affinity, imprint, and entwine, all of which I think are good mechanics. (Affinity had some power issues but I do still believe in the mechanic.) It was chock full of a bunch of iconic cards like Mindslaver and Platinum Angel.

Urza's Destiny was good but I feel Mirrodin was better.

While there are a lot of individual cards in Unhinged I am proud of, I feel the set as a whole was a bit of a letdown. In particular, I now believe that gotcha was one of the worst mechanics I've ever designed and it sucked the fun out of what was supposed to be an extra-fun format. Zendikar, on the other hand, is a contender for one of the best sets I've ever designed. This pick was clear.

This is another blowout. I consider Tempest to be one of my best and Odyssey one of my worst. Odyssey proved to be the set I learned the most from, but that is because I did so many things wrong. The biggest error was to make a super-Spikey set that alienated much of the audience because they didn't want to do what the set made them need to do.

This match-up is an easy pick for Tempest.

The high/low seed pairings are pretty predictable. Innistrad is a contender for my best design ever and Eventide was full of mistakes, the biggest being the choice to switch over to enemy hybrid. The 180-degree turn was hard for players to adapt to. There are pieces of Eventide I like but the set as a whole doesn't hold together.

This was the biggest sweep in the public vote and probably the same in my personal one. Ravnica is one of Magic's highpoints and introduced all sorts of cool things (the guilds, hybrid, lots of iconic gold cards, etc.). Fifth Dawn was a crazy third-act turn (necessitated by earlier mistakes in the block) that wasn't properly set up. The best thing I can say about Fifth Dawn is that it made us realize the value of Aaron Forsythe and got him into R&D.

Ravnica by a landslide.

Choosing between one's babies is inherently difficult, but this match-up really made me think hard. Both sets introduced cool new things to the game. Both sets set up a cool world using mechanics to help give it the proper feel. Mirrodin's mechanics (affinity, entwine, Equipment, and imprint) had a higher quality average, but Zendikar has landfall, which is tied for my favorite keyword mechanic that I've designed (the other being flashback).

Each set was me proving something different as a designer. Mirrodin was trying to show how the mechanics could be an extension of the world. Zendikar was me trying to show that we could maintain a high quality while also making New World Order work. In many ways, it was trying to do much of what Mirrodin did but with a more restrictive set of tools. I'm happy with how Mirrodin turned out (remember that power level is a development issue, not a design one) but I was happier with Zendikar.

It was a squeaker but Zendikar pulls it out.

Man, the quarterfinals are hard. I love what I did with Unglued and I do believe it is some of my best individual card design, but it's going up against a set that historically redefined design for Magic. Mirage introduced blocks to the game, but Tempest shifted how we made them. It was the first set to really interconnect story with mechanics. It was the first set to start to tie together the different mechanical components synergistically. It was a big leap forward. Yes, it looks stodgy by today's standards, but then, so does the Model T.

As a historian of design, I have to give it to Tempest.

I'm happy that we got back to Mirrodin. I love how we reshaped the world; how we reintroduced Magic's big bad, the Phyrexians; and how we managed to finally get poison back into the game. But Scars just can't hold a candle to Innistrad. Scars of Mirrodin started the fifth age of design but Innistrad took a big step up. It redefined how we could make a Magic block and put top-down block design in a whole new light (previous attempts had always gone a bit sour).

Many of the quarterfinal match-ups have been hard but this one was not. Innistrad easily wins.

This one wasn't close with the public and it's not close for me. I adore many things that Shadowmoor did, but it's just up against one of the most groundbreaking sets I've ever done. This isn't a fair fight and is one Ravnica wins without breaking a sweat.

Ravnica again by a landslide.

This match-up makes the quarterfinals look like a cake walk. Both of these sets are among the best I've ever done. Which is better? It's not an easy choice to make. Each has one of my all-time favorite things I've done—hybrid for Ravnica and landfall for Zendikar. Both are worlds where the mechanics are an integrated part of the flavor. Both are chock full of lots of fun individual card designs. In the end though, Ravnica has the guild model, which is a step slightly above of what Zendikar created.

Ravnica squeaked by in the public vote and does the same in my personal one.

This is the altered semifinal round where I get a different vote than all of you. It's one of my latest and greatest against my first design. Both of them were original and both influence all the designs that follow them. In many ways, this isn't a fair fight because I've learned so much since designing Tempest. Innistrad is the result of years of design technology improvement and it results in a superior product—one which I believe will also be shined upon by history.

You never forget your first, but I have to pass it by to pick what I think is the better design: Innistrad.

Of all the match-ups this was by far the hardest. When we seeded the sets, I kept going back and forth on what was supposed to be Seed #1 and what was supposed to be Seed #2. I guess even then I knew this was not an easy decision.

Both sets introduced amazing things and came together to make memorable blocks. In the end, I made my choice with this decision with the following question: How close was this set to the best I could do? When I looked deep inside and was as bluntly honest as I could be, the answer was clear. Innistrad was closer to perfection than Ravnica. I consider radiance to be a mistake. The design didn't have enough of a city feel. The synergy between guilds was uneven (for example, Golgari overlapped beautifully with Selesnya but not as well with Dimir). Ravnica had much go right but I believe I made more mistakes.

That's not to say Innistrad couldn't be improved, but it was closer to the bull's-eye. Innistrad does have six more years of design technology and six more years of experience, so maybe it's not the fairest fight, but then the rumble was all about forcing comparisons between sets.

So when the dust settles, in the Mark Rosewater Rumble, just as in the regular Rosewater Rumble, Innistrad is the winner.

The Fight Is Over

Whew! I'm tired, so let's call it a day. I'm curious, as always, to hear your take on my take. How do you think my rumble went and how did you feel about the public one? Let me know in my email, in the column's thread, or in any of my social media (Twitter, Tumblr, and Google+).

Join me next week when I look at Dimir.

Until then, may you have the chance to see people fight passionately over your creations.