Ravnica rare. As formats include more cards, quirky interactions become more likely. Flame Fusillade has been making a splash in the Legacy format because it creates a repeating combo with Time Vault. (As a side note, Time Vault is remarkable because activating its ability involves paying something you don’t have yet! Because you “pay” with turns from the future, Time Vault is one of very few Magic cards to have a cost that basically gets paid on credit!)
Ravnica common. There are many ways a creature’s effects can be adjusted for power level. Creatures that draw cards only when they go to the graveyard are somewhat less powerful than creatures that draw a card when they come into play. Having the choice between both gives designers options when coming up with new ways to combine creatures and abilities. The ability to draw a card when creatures perish is one R&D has been experimenting more with lately.
Ravnica rare. This card was created during the final stages of Ravnica design. Several holes remained to be filled at the rare slot, so a cycle of auras with unusual and powerful effects was created to complement the set’s aura sub-theme. The cycle originally included one aura for each color, but only Followed Footsteps made it into Ravnica. (The green one, however, will make its appearance in Dissension.)
Ravnica common. The most important reason for dividing up design and development is to allow set designers maximum creative opportunity. It???s a good system, but sometimes leads to amusing changes as cards move from the design file to development playtesting. The first version of Scatter the Seeds actually cost three mana in an attempt to see just how good convoke was. That version of the card was insanely good, particularly when drawn in multiples!
Odyssey rare. Part of Odyssey block’s design involved changing up which creature types got first billing for their colors. In any other block, it’s likely that the flavor of this card would be associated with Goblins, but while the Odyssey block sports 17 dwarf-related cards, there isn’t one card with “Goblin” on it.
Homelands rare. In the earliest days of Magic, there was a running joke on Usenet of a super rare card named Throat Wolf. What the card did always seemed to change. The only constant was that it always had Firstest Strike. For many years R&D always named one card Throat Wolf in design out of a nod to that joke, and even printed Heart Wolf as a wink to the running gag.
Homelands rare. An optional damage ability that only works during the end of combat step is a rare effect mostly found on very old cards. The idea behind this restriction was to give the ability to harm opposing creatures but still allow them to deal the damage they were going to deal for that combat. (Another example is Desert, from Arabian Nights.)
Homelands common. Dwarves are a pretty skilled group. Of the 32 printed so far, this is the only vanilla card (slang for no abilities) in the entire bunch. Thanks to Goblins of the Flarg though, even Dwarven Trader kind of has an ability. Well, if you control both that is.
Mercadian Masques uncommon. The ability to use creatures to tap other creatures typically shows up in blue or white. Though it’s only a loose guide, as you move forward in Magic’s history blue is often more likely to have temporary or one-time tapping effects. White is more likely to have repeatable effects that allow its creatures to tap other creatures. (But there are certainly exceptions, even among modern cards, such as Puppeteer.)
Urza’s Saga rare. It’s humorous that a card with “stack” in the name was at its best when abusing “the stack” - which hadn’t been invented yet! (Haven’t seen the card in action? The trick is for the controller to put the soot counter effect on the stack, and then put the sacrifice effect on the stack, which lets the controller sacrifice one fewer permanent each cycle.)
