The History of Two-in-Ones, Part 2
Last week, I began telling the story of "two-in-one cards," cards that represent more than one card on a single piece of cardboard. They're defined by the fact that each card has its own name and often, but not always, its own art. I ended the story last week in 2015 with the set Magic Origins and its creation of flip planeswalkers. Today, I will continue that story.
Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon
In 2016, we returned to the plane of Innistrad in the set Shadows over Innistrad. Double-faced cards had been the most popular "mechanic" in original Innistrad's market research, so it was obvious we needed to bring them back for the return. The set had its own double-faced card sheet, this time with 33 TDFCs. The set pushed what could be a TDFC by having front faces that were an enchantment, a land, and a sorcery. We also introduced the first werewolf planeswalker with
The following set, Eldritch Moon, continued the trend with more TDFCs, fifteen in all. Fourteen of them transformed into colorless permanents, representing the mutations caused by Emrakul after she'd been lured to Innistrad. The biggest innovation was on three sets of cards that used a mechanic called meld. These came in pairs, where both cards were permanents. If you got both onto the battlefield at the same time, you would exile them and then return them to the battlefield on their back face "melded" together to make a giant creature card. There was a common, rare, and mythic rare pair of meld cards.
Meld was an offshoot of Unglued's B.F.M., the very card which inspired the split cards. Those were the first of the two-in-one cards. The two sides of B.F.M. had been the most popular cards in Unglued, and R&D had experimented with how to do something similiar in Eternal-legal Magic. Designer Ken Nagle took it upon himself to find an answer to that problem. He originally tried a mechanic called link in New Phyrexia where there were creatures that could connect to other creatures, the idea being that they would come together to make a single creature that combined elements of each card. We couldn't figure out the proper rules to support it, so Ken had to let the design go.
The very next block after that was when we introduced double-faced cards. That got Ken's mind churning. What if the key to making an Eternal-legal B.F.M. wasn't about having two pieces in your hand but rather the back faces of two TDFCs? Ken didn't figure this out until after Innistrad and Dark Ascension were out the door, so he had to wait until the return of Innistrad to try it out. Luckily, Eldritch Moon had a theme of Eldrazi mutation, which creatively lent itself to the idea of meld.
It turned out it isn't easy to get two specific cards on the battlefield at the same time, so Ken ended up focusing the mechanic on just three pairs, each in a different rarity. The meld cards were quite popular, especially the two Angels that became
Meld, from a design-history vantage point, demonstrates that DFCs offer designers resources they previously didn't have access to. It opens up innovation and allows new design work to happen.
Amonkhet and Hour of Devestation
In April of 2017, Amonkhet came out. It was influenced by Egyptian mythology and history. One of its themes was the graveyard, so we designed a new mechanic to play in that space. The mechanic, called aftermath, was inspired by split cards. The one tweak was that you didn't have a choice of which side to play. You cast the top card from your hand and the bottom card from your graveyard. This gave you access to both spells but in a specific order. These cards got a brand-new frame, with the top card being upright and the bottom card being sideways, the idea being that you could turn it sideways in your graveyard to remind you that you had an active spell you could cast. While players generally liked the gameplay of aftermath, the layout was a big miss for most of the audience. There were fifteen aftermath cards in Amonkhet, a cycle of ally-color uncommons and two cycles of rares, one with both cards being the same color and one with the two cards being enemy colors.
There's a recurring theme with two-in-one cards, seen on flip cards and aftermath: how we mess with the frame. To accommodate a second card, frame design can often go wrong and make things that don't look aesthetically pleasing or cause confusion in gameplay.
Aftermath showed up in two more cycles in the next set, Hour of Devastation. There was an uncommon cycle of ally-color cards and a rare cycle of enemy-color cards. Aftermath would show up with new designs two more times, each time as a one-card cameo. It appeared in Modern Horizons 2 and Streets of New Capenna Commander.
Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan
Each time we'd used TDFCs, they'd been a big hit with the audience. So, R&D realized that we had a valuable resource at our disposal. We decided it was something we could use with a bit more regularity. Double-faced cards became what we call "deciduous," meaning that they were available to any set that wanted them, with the caveat that not every set could use it. There are a lot of logistical issues that come with DFCs, so we need to be careful when and where we use them.
In June of 2017, Ixalan came out. It was a set about exploration. We wanted it to have some exciting lands but knew that powerful lands were hard to balance. This is because they don't have a mana cost. The poster child for this exploration was
This is an example of R&D getting more tactical with how to use DFCs as a tool. The land TDFCs in Ixalan were more about splash than consistency, following the precedent of the planeswalkers from Magic Origins. As time went on, we learned more and more about how much design space DFCs held.
Rivals of Ixalan, the set that followed Ixalan, offered seven more "landmark TDFCs, our name for TDFCs that represent finding special lands. Six appeared at rare, and one appeared at mythic rare.
Core Set 2019
In 2018, core sets returned with Core Set 2019. We labeled these sets a year ahead since theyd be on shelves in the coming year. One new thing we tried involved giving each set a stronger overall theme, like we had done with the last core set, Magic Origins. For Core Set 2019, the theme was Nicol Bolas. The set had a lot of cards representing characters from his life. To make Nicol Bolas himself as exciting as possible, the design team made him a TDFC, much like the cycle of planeswalkers from Magic Origins. The quirky thing about this card was that it was the only TDFC in the entire set. We dedicated an entire printing sheet to just one card, demonstrating the excitement factor we knew a properly designed TDFC could have.
Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance
Later in 2018, our third trip to Ravnica, Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance, had two ten-card cycles between them, one uncommon and one rare, of split cards where one card was a hybrid, two-color spell and the other was non-hybrid, two-color spell. The hybrid spell tended to be cheaper spell than the non-hybrid spell.
Throne of Eldraine
In 2019, Throne of Eldraine was released. Eldraine, the plane, was inspired by Camelot and European fairy tales. One of the concepts that we spent a lot of time on was the concept of adventures. Vision Design tried some stabs at it, but it was Set Design that came up with the idea of a mechanic that went on creatures, allowing you to first cast an instant or sorcery. The card was similar to a split card in that you had two options, one always an instant or sorcery and the other always a creature, although the mechanic only required thatthe other card be a permanent. Adventures started taking in elements of other two-in-one mechanics that we'd be playing with. Like fuse, it allowed both spells to be played. Like aftermath, it dictated the order in which youd play the spells.
If you cast the instant or sorcery first, you got to exile the card and play the creature later. There were twelve Adventure cards, two monocolor cycles and an extra two, one in white and one in green. These were the two colors with the draft archetype built around Adventures. There were nine uncommon Adventures, five rare Adventures, and two mythic rare Adventures. Adventure was used as a spell subtype on the instant or sorcery portion of the card to allow other cards to mechanically care about them.
In market research, Adventure was the highest-rated mechanic in Throne of Eldraine. This is another running theme with two-in-one cards: they tend to be well received by the players.
Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim, and Strixhaven: School of Mages
In 2020, Zendikar Rising introduced a new type of double-faced cards: modal double-faced cards, or MDFCs. Where TDFCs require you to always cast the front face and allow you to transform it into the back face, MDFCs have a mana cost on both sides. You cast one face, and it stays that face for the rest of the game. In Innistrad design, when we first were playing around with TDFC designs, we stumbled onto MDFCs.
They were obviously inspired by split cards but allowed us to do some things split cards could not. Split cards were restricted to instants and sorceries. MDFCs could be any card type. We didnt want any MDFCs that could just be a split card. So, we made the rule that at least one side was always a permanent. Theoretically, there could be two instant or sorcery spells with text too long to fit on a split card, but we haven't run across such a design yet.
MDFCs were originally made for Strixhaven: School of Mages, but Aaron Forsythe was interested in understanding their designs better. He asked me to lead a mini design team to explore the possibilities of MDFCs. That exploration led me to see how much design space there was, so I decided to have all three non-core sets from that Magic year make use of MDFCs but in different ways. It was also part of an experiment to have more visible cohesion between sets of the same year. This experiment wasn't as successful as I'd hoped because the lack of mechanical cohesion made it feel disjointed, a feeling provoked by how wed recently retired the block structure.
The MDFCs of Zendikar Rising all had a land on their back face that tapped for mana. There was an uncommon cycle and a rare cycle of spells with a land that entered tapped on the back. There was also a dual land cycle at rare where each face entered untapped. At mythic rare, there was a cycle with a spell on front and a land that tapped for mana on back that you could pay 3 life to have it enter untapped. All the MDFCs with a spell had the spell on the front face to prevent players from fetching the spells with land tutors. These MDFC lands were a huge hit with the players.
For the next set, Kaldheim, the MDFCs were used (almost) exclusively on the twelve Gods. It also completed the dual land cycle started in Zendikar Rising. Each God was a legendary creature on the front face and a permanent that flavorfully connected to the God on the back face. These Gods were done only in rare and mythic rare. Players liked them, but they didn't quite hit the excitement of the MDFC lands, partly because the lands were generally more useful and partly because they were simpler.
Strixhaven, the third non-core premier set of that Magic year also used MDFCs, with sixteen in total, eleven at rare and five at mythic rare. Their main function, to match the sets instant-and-sorcery focus, was to have MDFCs that had a permanent on one face and an instant or sorcery on the other face. The set also had a cycle of Deans, which were a monocolor legendary creature on each side, forming an enemy-color pair. Additionally, there was an MDFC planeswalker representing the twins Rowan and Will and a second MDFC planeswalker, Lukka, with his animal companion on the other face. The Deans provided a good learning experience for R&D. It turns out that MDFCs work best when the back face has a limited amount of information, something you can easily remember when looking at the front face in your hand. This is another throughline with two-in-one cards, keeping the complexity in check, as having two cards is inherently harder to track.
Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Innistrad: Crimson Vow
In 2021, we returned to Innistrad once more in Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. As TDFCs were introduced on Innistrad and were a huge part of the settings identity, it only made sense that they'd return. Original Innistrad had the Werewolf mechanic that appeared only on TDFCs, but it wasn't a named mechanic. Midnight Hunt introduced not one but two new mechanics that only appear on TDFCs. The first, daybound and nightbound, finally put a name to the Werewolf mechanic, making it a designation that can be used even on non-Werewolves.
Daybound and nightbound had a lot of execution issues. Originally, we had baked into the mechanic that Humans transformed into Werewolves and vice versa, meaning it would force the transformation of any Human or Werewolf, not just the ones in Midnight Hunt. When we dropped that element, the plan was to revise the old Werewolves, but that didn't end up happening, which made combining old and new Werewolves an odd experience. We also made the choice to remove the daybound and nightbound tracker if you have no cards that care about it to minimize rules text, creating situations where you have to track it without any mechanical reason to do so.
The other mechanic was disturb, a use of MDFCs that mimicked aftermath from Amonkhet. You cast the front face from your hand and the back face from your graveyard. Disturb was the "ghost" mechanic tied to white-blue Spirits. In Midnight Hunt, the front face was always a non-Spirit creature and the back face was always a Spirit creature.
Midnight Hunt also had a few individual uses of TDFCs to play into other dark transformations. The set had 10 TDFCs at common in two cycles, 23 at uncommon, 11 at rare, and 5 at mythic rare.
Innistrad: Crimson Vow was the next set, also on Innistrad. Because we were staying on Innistrad for two sets in a row, we treated TDFCs like we had back when we were making blocks. There was continuity between them, as the Werewolves continued to have daybound and nightbound. There was also an evolution, with the disturb mechanic going on Spirits that became Auras. Like Midnight Hunt, Crimson Vow also had its share of one-off TDFC designs. Crimson Vow exactly matched Midnight Hunt in the number of TDFCs at each rarity.
Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
In 2022, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, the set after Crimson Vow, used TDFCs. The set originally didn't have any, but the Set Design team realized that a concept handed over from Vision Design worked best as a TDFC. All 23 TDFCs in the set were Sagas that, instead of going away when the last chapter happened, transformed into a creature. The Sagas played into the half of the set focused on tradition, which was centered in white, black, and green with the flavor of the stories bringing creatures to life. There were six at common (a cycle plus an extra white one), eight uncommons (a cycle plus extra white, black, and green ones), four rares (only in white, black, and green), and three mythic rares.
Commander Legends: Battle for Baldurs Gate
In June of 2022, Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate released, the second Dungeons & Dragons set. Adventures seemed like a perfect fit for the flavor of D&D. This set introduced Adventures that weren't a creature but rather an artifact, representing treasure you might find on your Adventure. The set had 30 Adventure cards in all, 13 common, 10 uncommons, and 7 rares.
The Brothers' War Transformers Cards
In 2022, as part of the set The Brothers' War, we released a series of Universes Beyond cards featuring Transformers characters. These cards were a cross between TDFCs and MDFCs, making use of a new mechanic called More Than Meets the Eye. Each card represented a Transformer in its Robot state and its Vehicle form. Mechanically, you may cast either side, as well as change from one face to the other. Double-faced cards were the perfect tool to capture the dual nature of the Transformers. I should note that these cards technically use "convert" rather than "transform," although the two abilities work the same.
March of the Machine
In 2023, March of the Machine made extensive use of TDFCs by having two TDFC slots in each booster. One was dedicated to battles, a new card type. Battles, at least the Siege versions we introduced in the set, all have a front side that gets protected by an opponent. It has a number of defense counters that can be removed by attacking it. When the last defense counter is removed, it is defeated and exiled, allowing the back face to be cast. Battles are the first permanent with a landscape orientation.
We have publicly said they are deciduous, but no new battles have yet shown up in a printed product. I can say there are sets in design that are considering using them, although not necessarily as Sieges. There were twenty uncommon battles (two cycles of monocolor battles and one ten-card cycle of two-color battles), eleven rare battles, and a cycle of five mythic rare battles.
Another use of TDFCs was to show native inhabitants of different planes of the Multiverse with a back face that represents them being compleated and turned into Phyrexians. These cards all have an activation cost using Phyrexian mana of a second color to transform. The back faces are designed like hybrid cards in that they have the feel of the activation color while technically being in the color pie of the creatures mana cost. These cards were used to show the consequences of the Phyrexians attacking. The transforming Phyrexian creatures had five at common, ten at uncommon, and five at rare, all in monocolor cycles. The four monocolor versions of each color use each of the other four colors in their activations once.
The final use of TDFCs is in a mythic rare cycle of the five legendary Phyrexian Praetors, all of which were monocolor. Each has an activated ability that allows it to transform into a Saga. When the Sagas last chapter ability resolves, it transforms back into the Praetor.
Wilds of Eldraine
In September of 2023, we returned to the plane of Eldraine with Wilds of Eldraine. Since Adventures were the most popular mechanic during the first visit, we knew it had to return. Throne of Eldraine's Adventures were all put on creatures. Battle for Baldur's Gate Adventures introduced artifacts. Wilds of Eldraine introduced Adventures on enchantments. The set had the most Adventures of any set to date with 51 Adventures: 14 at common, 17 at uncommon, 13 at rare, and 7 at mythic rare, which included a cycle of monocolor enchantments. Adventures have proven to be a popular mechanic to do in small doses. They would also appear in Unfinity, Magic: The Gathering® – Doctor Who™ Commander decks, The Lost Cavern of Ixalan, Murders at Karlov Manor, Magic: The Gathering® – Fallout® Commander decks, Modern Horizons 3, and Bloomburrow Commander decks.
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
In 2023, we returned to Ixalan in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Since TDFCs were in previous Ixalan sets, we ran back their execution from the previous visit, that being permanents that transform into lands. This time, we made some uncommon ones, three in total. The set also had thirteen rare TDFCs, making for a total of sixteen TDFC landmark cards.
The set introduced a new keyword unique to TDFCs called craft. The craft mechanic has a mana cost and requires the exiling of a specific card or cards as additional payment. All cards with craft transformed into artifacts, flavored as items you'd construct using various components. This added to the flavor of the underground setting. There are five at common (a monocolor cycle), nine at uncommon, four at rare, and one at mythic rare.
Murders at Karlov Manor
In 2024, on our fourth visit to Ravnica in Murders at Karlov Manor, we had another version of split cards. Both cards on these split cards were hybrid spells. The left side was a cheaper instant, and the right side was a more expensive sorcery. The two cards each had a different color combination but overlapped on a color, using a wedge combination of colors.
Modern Horizons 3
Modern Horizons 3 was the first Modern Horizons set to make use of double-faced cards. It is the first set to have both TDFCs and MDFCs, making use of the most-popular execution of each. For its TDFCs, the set had flip planeswalkers, making a new mythic rare cycle of legendary creatures that transform into planeswalkers. Players have been asking us to make more of these for years, so we used this set as an opportunity to do so. The broad range of Modern Horizons allowed us to pick a group of popular planeswalker characters.
For its MDFCs, Modern Horizons 3 used MDFCs with a spell on the front and a land on the back, much like the MDFCs in Zendikar Rising. There were twenty total, all at uncommon. There were two monocolor MDFCs and a ten-card hybrid cycle.
Duskmourn: House of Horror
This brings us to the mechanic that inspired me to write these articles: Rooms. Duskmourn is a haunted house that encompasses the plane. We knew as far back as exploratory design that the set wanted to capture the concept of a room mechanically. Early designs tried a lot of wacky ideas, from separate decks and meeples that represented the player to cards with multiple Rooms on them. That last one stuck around. The set needed Rooms, and one Room per card didn't seem like enough.
The solution goes all the way back to the very first two-in-one mechanic: split cards. What if we had a permanent on the battlefield that was made up of two cards? We had never done split permanents, although MDFCs are similar. The biggest issue was that the two cards are physically connected. We didn't want one moving without the other. Even more importantly, we couldn't have either side tapping. Luckily, Duskmourn's main card type was enchantments, and enchantments don't tap.
Rooms let us do something thats tricky to do with split cards, although it is something weve done with other two-in-one cards, which involves allowing you cast one now and one later. With the concept of locked doors, we created a mechanic that lets you interact with each half of the card separately. We then adapted our "enchantments matter" mechanic, eerie, to care about unlocking doors so that your Rooms could trigger it twice.
Duskmourn has a total of 23 Rooms. There are seven commons (one monocolor cycle and an extra blue-red card, the colors of the Room archetype), seven uncommons, five rares, and five mythic rares in a monocolor cycle. While most of the Rooms have both cards in the same color, there are three in different colors, mostly focused again in blue and red. The Duskmourn Commander decks have five additional Rooms.
The most interesting thing to me looking back as I wrote this article is how two-in-one mechanics have ramped up over time. It took seven years for the first one to show up, and then another four for the second one to happen, and another seven years for the third one. But after that, they start showing up with regularity.
The reasons for this are threefold. One, they're popular with players. Two, as the game has progressed, we've been more proactive about using frames as a design tool. Three, we're over 30 years into making Magic, and the desire to find untapped design space has expanded where we're willing to look. Two-in-one designs are an area I expect us to continue exploring and innovating on.
Two to Tango
That's the end of my look back through the history of two-in-ones. I hope you enjoyed this two-part look at a piece of Magic's design evolution. As always, I'm eager for any feedback on today's column or any of the two-in-one designs I've talked about. You can email me or contact me through any of my social media accounts (X, Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok) with feedback.
Join me next week for the start of Magic: The Gathering Foundations previews.
Until then, may you enjoy your cards that have multiple uses.