Unstable

Unstable
Set Information
Set symbol
Themes and mechanics	Contraptions Watermark matters, Flavor text matters, Die rolls
Keywords/​ability words	Assemble, Crank, Squirrellink, Just a second, Combine, Switch
Set size	216-ish
Expansion code	UST

File:Order of the Widget.jpg

Order of the Widget

File:Agents of S.N.E.A.K.jpg

Agents of S.N.E.A.K.

File:League of Dasterdly Doom.jpg

League of Dasterdly Doom

File:Goblin Explosioneers.jpg

Goblin Explosioneers

File:Crossbreed Labs.jpg

Crossbreed Labs

Unstable is a booster-based card set for Magic: The Gathering that can not be used in legal Magic tournaments. It will be released on December 8, 2017 as a standalone set. This is the third of the silver bordered Un-sets and is designed to be drafted.

Set details

Unstable contains "216-ish" cards (5 basic land, TBA common, TBA uncommon, TBA rare, and TBA mythic rare) and 20 foil tokens, and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. The set explores new areas of Magic game design and continues the tradition of bending the conventional rules of the game in a fun and whimsical way. Unstable was designed to both be drafted alone and be mixed with other sets: according to Mark Rosewater, however, the best experience is probably when it's drafted alone. The expansion symbol is a wrench with an acorn-shaped hole.

The set features 'modern design sensibilities' and a is built around a 'cohesive creative vision'. It includes fun legendary creatures that can be utilized in the Commander format and some cards designed for Cube. Like its predecessors, Unstable features 5 full-art basic lands, but borderless instead of black-bordered. Every pack contains one of the five lands unless it is replaced by a Steamflogger Boss, which replaces 1 in every 121 basic lands. The set also features foil tokens, both for tokens produced by cards in the set and for popular tribes outside the set.

History

Mark Rosewater had to wait 13 years after Unhinged before Unstable could be printed, as Unhinged had been considered a commercial failure. However, Rosewater and senior brand director Mark Purvis argue this wasn't because of poor sales, but because of overprinting. At the time, Wizards of the Coast didn't regularly create supplemental sets, so Unhinged was treated as a small expansion. Actual work on the set took six years. When design started, one of the goals, as proposed by director of product design Mark Globus, was to explore what new printing technology might allow: however, none of these proposed ideas were feasible at the time the set was printed.

Marketing

Unstable is sold in 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card) and Draft Packs. The first details of Unstable were revealed by Rosewater at San Diego Comic-Con 2017, who also heavily promoted the set on Blogatog.

Tokens

Unstable features 20 foil tokens, one per pack.

• 1/2 Bird with flying called Storm Crow for Crow Storm.
• 4/4 gold Dragon with flying for Sword of Dungeons & Dragons

The following tokens notably are for non-Unstable cards, and have full borderless art of the token on the back faces instead of advertisements.

• 4/4 Angel creature with flying
• 1/1 Spirit creature with flying
• 1/1 Thopter artifact creature with flying
• 2/2 Zombie creature
• 1/1 Elemental creature
• 3/3 Beast creature
• 1/1 Saproling creature
• */* Elemental creature with "This creature's power and toughness are each equal to the number of creatures you control."
• Clue artifact

Flavor

Unstable is set on a steampunk 'mad scientist world' with 5 factions:

• The Order of the Widget faction () are cyborgs that use technology to constantly improve themselves. They have no self control.
• The Agents of S.N.E.A.K. faction () are really bad spies with cool toys.
• The League of Dastardly Doom faction () are super villains scheming to take over the world. They're constantly at odds with each other.
• The Goblin Explosioneers faction () are steamfloggers and tinkerers that experiment with lots of crazy ideas, many of which explode. They breed fast enough to not wipe out their race.
• The Crossbreed Labs faction () are creature hybrids that have used their inventions to create a perfect society where everyone is their true self.

Themes and mechanics

• Contraptions — The flagship mechanic of the set. There are 45 different Contraptions (nine with each faction's watermark), or roughly one-fifth of the set. Contraptions are artifacts that start the game shuffled into a separate "contraption deck." When an effect assembles a Contraption, that player takes the top card of their contraption deck into the first, second or third sprocket slot. During each of your upkeeps, if you control a Contraption, you move the CRANK! counter onto the next sequential sprocket of your Contraption deck (sprocket 3 looping back to 1), then crank all Contraptions in that sprocket. Each Contraption has a different ability that triggers upon being cranked.
  • All creatures that can assemble a Contraption are Riggers.
  • Each pack of Unstable contains two Contraption cards.
• Last strike and triple strike — Creatures with last strike deal damage after creatures without last strike. Creatures with triple strike deal both first-strike, regular and last-strike combat damage.
• Just a second — A riff on split second, spells with just a second prevent players from moving cards on the battlefield while they're on the stack.
• Squirrellink — A riff on lifelink, creatures with squirrellink create that many Squirrel creature tokens whenever they deal damage. The set also has a minor squirrel tribal theme.
• Combine — A subset of cards (ex. Do-it-Yourself Seraph and Grusilda, Monster Masher) can combine the text boxes of cards.
• Switch — To switch two cards means to exchange their respective game states. Cards that switch do not trigger other abilities, as they do not transition between states.
• "Watermark matters" — To emphasize the individual factions, there are a number of cards (ex. Hammerfest Boomtacular) that care about the watermark printed on a card.
• Existing un-mechanics that return include "flavor text matters," "art matters," and subgames.
• Existing non-evergreen mechanics that return include storm and Phyrexian mana.

Creature types

• Cyborg, Killbot, Villain and Wrestler are new creature types introduced in Unstable (Villain having previously existed on Spinal Villain before being errata'd).
• Riggers, first featured in Future Sight, are now expanded upon.
• Beebles are featured for the first time since Unhinged.
• Squirrels form a minor theme.

Cycles

• Faction leaders: Five mythic multicolor permanents that each represent a leader of a faction — The Grand Calcutron (), ?? (), Baron von Count (), ?? (), ?? ().
  • The Grand Calcutron was supposed to have "This artifact can be your commander" as rules text, but there was not enough room.

Trivia

General

• Mark Rosewater joked that his toaster did most of the design.
• Originally, there were supposed to be 50 Contraptions (10 for each faction), but Dawn Murin, the art director for Unstable, decided to connect all the Contraptions for each faction, leading there to be 9 Contraptions for each faction, with each piece of artwork on each Contraption card making up a single section of a 3x3 grid.

Cards

White

• Rules Lawyer holds the record for the longest reminder text on a given single card, and is also the first card to refer to a specific Magic rule (in this case, rule 704) anywhere in its text.

Blue

• Crow Storm and its token are a play on the meme that Storm Crow is the best card ever printed. The reason that the joke exists is because storm crow was first printed in Alliances, the same set as Force of Will. At the time, FOW was the best card in Magic and blue the best color. By proxy, any blue card was also the best card in Magic because it could be used to pay the alternate cost.

Red

• Steamflogger Boss is reprinted from Future Sight and is the only creature card printed on the land sheet.

Green

• Earl of Squirrel is a squirrel lord that is not legendary.
• Ineffable Blessing makes use of anchor words ("flavorful" and "bland").
• As usual in Un-sets, the set features a subgame card (The Countdown Is at One).

Artifacts

• Sword of Dungeons & Dragons references Dungeons & Dragons, another Hasbro brand.
  • Although D&D has heavily influenced the creation of Magic (e.g. Legends), this is the first time the brand itself is referenced.
  • This mash-up card was previewed with a different graphical design as a HASCON-promo.

Gallery

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  Borderless Plains

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  Borderless Island

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  Borderless Swamp

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  Borderless Mountain

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  Borderless Forest