Long story short --> I started thinking about this project again in December, put some work into improving the mechanics, and I feel very good about the general feel of the set and about some of the set mechanics. I'm trying to figure out what the last mechanic should be, and I think it needs to feel centered in Black. Criticism and feedback on these other mechanics is also welcome.
EtherealWUBRG FocusWUBRG MelodiousRGUW FlickerUW (Don't know whether to count keywording common language as a mechanic, but here it is)
Ethereal N [This enters the battlefield with N reality counters. When it attacks, blocks, or activates an ability, remove a reality counter. When the last is removed, sacrifice it at the end of turn.)
Focus(To focus this spell, exile it from your hand and pay its mana cost. When you do, you may cast it during your next turn without paying its mana cost. Focus only at sorcery speed.)
Melodious(This permanent's triggered abilities trigger whenever you cast an instant, sorcery, or enchantment spell.)
Flicker [TARGET] (Exile it and return it to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step.)
Rhymnir is a dreamworld, created by Ashiok in her own mind. As a dreamworld, this is a set about imagination and possibility, about experiencing the surreal and reaching into the infinite, as Coleridge would say. Wendigos (UB or UBR) inhabit Rhymnir. In North American folklore, Wendigos are cannibalistic and greedy creatures that are always hungry, always gaunt, insatiable, starving no matter how much food they eat. They are a fitting creature type to include on Rhymnir because they can represent the mind's restlessness and thirst for new stimulation. I've been trying to use them as inspiration for a mechanic.
Here are some I've created:
1) Feast -- At the beginning of combat, you may sacrifice a permanent. If you do, [EFFECT].
2) Consume N -- Exile N cards from your graveyard. *keyword action*
3) Consume [Mana Symbols] -- Exile [Mana Symbols] from your graveyard. *keyword action*
4) Vivid [Mana Symbols] (You can make this spell vivid by exiling [mana symbols] from your graveyard when you cast it.)
5) Insatiable(When this creature attacks, you may exile two cards from your graveyard. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
6) Insatiable(When this creature attacks, you may exile two cards from your graveyard.)
7) Insatiable [Mana Symbols] -- At the beginning of combat/When this creature attacks, you may exile [mana symbols] from your graveyard. If you do, [EFFECT].
8) Consume (When this enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice a nontoken nonland permanent.)
9) Consume [COST] (When this enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you exile a permanent that costs [COST] or greater. When this leaves the battlefield, return that card to the battlefield.)
10) Consume -- Whenever a counter is removed from a permanent you control, [EFFECT].
11) Consume -- Whenever a permanent you control leaves the battlefield, [EFFECT] or [put a +1/+1 counter on this].
12) Consume -- Whenever a nontoken permanent you control leaves the battlefield you may exile it. If you do, [effect].
I'm having trouble determining which of these is best, or which, if any, is a great mechanic. One thing to keep in mind is that whichever mechanic I ultimately go with should work well with at least one of the other mechanics. But at any rate, I think I've hit a mental roadblock. Let me know what y'all think about this, or if the setting/set inspires a different mechanic I haven't yet thought of. All feedback and criticism is welcome. Thanks!
So, first, looking at your current mechanics, you have three named mechanics across all 5 colors and want two more on top of that. You should concentrate those down to where, at least primarily each only shows up en masse in 2-3 colors
Flicker could be a mechanical sub-theme, but it doesn't need to be keyworded. Even as a major gameplay theme in WU, it wouldn't save so much text that keywording it makes sense, but it will probably work better as a mini-theme. You might want to consider self bounce instead though, as that would synergize better with Melodious since you could re-cast enchantments.
Melodious, as its written, doesn't make sense. If you mean you want that to be an ability word like landfall or heroic, though, it will work. I'd suggest concentrating it in Bant at most, as it doesn't feel very red.
Melodious - When you cast an instant, sorcery, or enchantment spell, do X.
I'm assuming Focus will have a kicker like aspect, where when you cast the spell off focus it will have a bonus of some sort? This would work in all colors, but you should probably build a draft theme around focusing in a color pair with Blue
Ethereal is a bit complex, i'd suggest cutting the reference to activated abilities and having it only trigger off attack/block. This feels like Red/Blue and possibly White, but you have a lot of Blue feeling mechanics, so I'd put this in Black instead.
As to the Black mechanics, I would go with
Consume (When this creature attacks, you may exile 2 cards from your graveyard)
When this creature Consumes, do X.
This would be a mechanic best shared with Green.
So, your mechanical distribution could look like
CONSUME BG
FOCUS UR (appears some in all colors)
ETHEREAL BRW
MELODIOUS GWU
So, first, looking at your current mechanics, you have three named mechanics across all 5 colors and want two more on top of that. You should concentrate those down to where, at least primarily each only shows up en masse in 2-3 colors
I'm comfortable pushing this set in a Theros direction where most colors can access most mechanics, and in which the mechanics synergize with one another. Also mulling over whether one or two mechanics should be accessible to all colors and then you have three mechanics that are more color-specific that engage with the 1-2 mechanics in different ways.
With that said, the color schema you came up with works, as it gives each color two mechanics (sort of like SOI, where each color got a mechanic and a creature type). So it's definitely something I'll give some thought to.
II.
Quote from rowanalpha » »
Flicker could be a mechanical sub-theme, but it doesn't need to be keyworded. Even as a major gameplay theme in WU, it wouldn't save so much text that keywording it makes sense, but it will probably work better as a mini-theme. You might want to consider self bounce instead though, as that would synergize better with Melodious since you could re-cast enchantments.
Yea, that's a good point. Simpler to just have things bounce back to your hand or just write out the flicker wording. And you don't need a ton of cards to put that theme into place (Kaladesh had the same UW theme). I had Ethereal/Vanishing in mind when I picked flicker out as a theme, but I hadn't even thought about how tweaking the theme could make it work both with Ethereal and Melodious. Good catch!
III.
Quote from rowanalpha » »
Melodious, as its written, doesn't make sense. If you mean you want that to be an ability word like landfall or heroic, though, it will work. I'd suggest concentrating it in Bant at most, as it doesn't feel very red.
Melodious - When you cast an instant, sorcery, or enchantment spell, do X.
Why is that the case? Do these not work as I intend them?
Consider these four cards:
Dreamdusk Satyr1G
Creature -- Satyr Shaman (U)
Melodious
When Dreamdusk Satyr attacks, mill two and return up to one land from your graveyard to your hand.
2/2
Whisp of Blossoms2GG
Creature -- Plant Whisp (R)
Melodious
When Whisp of Blossoms enters the battlefield, draw a card if you have four or fewer cards in your hand.
2/3
Sandborn Crackler2RR
Creature -- Elemental Shaman (R)
Haste, Melodious
When Sandborn Shaman enters the battlefield, it deals one damage to target player and one damage to any target that player controls.
4/3
Firstly, do these work as intended? (I intend for instants, sorcieries, and enchantments to trigger as if the creature were attacking or entering the battlefield). Secondly, I'm conflicted on which I prefer. Obviously there's more design space for the ability word -- an alternate version of prowess. But there's something both weirdly dissonant and exciting about this version of melodious.
IV.
Quote from rowanalpha » »
As to the Black mechanics, I would go with
Consume (When this creature attacks, you may exile 2 cards from your graveyard)
When this creature Consumes, do X.
I think this is one of my favorites of the ten I presented as well, in part because it is straight forward and in part because it is a combat-oriented mechanic in a set that doesn't yet have one.
So, if that was your design intent, Melodious probably works, but its a very round-about way of doing what you want. Each of those creatures can be re-written:
Whisp of Blossoms 2GG
Creature -- Plant Whisp (R)
When Whisp of Blossoms enters the battlefield or you cast an instant, sorcery or enchantment, draw a card if you have four or fewer cards in your hand.
2/3
Melodious would not save space because it would take up its one text line event without the reminder text. Also, the fact that each Melodious card triggers to the same three things and then a fourth, different thing also makes this a bit unintuitive. Look at constellation here as an example of how to use Melodious, and I think that will be a cleaner template
There's also an interesting idea of making melodious a "batch" like Historic
Whenever you cast a melodious spell, do X. (Instants, sorceries and enchantments are melodious.)
Return target melodious card from your graveyard to your hand.
Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a melodious card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Whisp of Blossoms 2GG
Creature -- Plant Whisp (R)
When Whisp of Blossoms enters the battlefield or you cast an instant, sorcery or enchantment, draw a card if you have four or fewer cards in your hand.
2/3
Melodious would not save space because it would take up its one text line event without the reminder text. Also, the fact that each Melodious card triggers to the same three things and then a fourth, different thing also makes this a bit unintuitive.
I prefer my templating to this one. Aesthetics and memory issues lead me to want to keyword it. If I want it to be merely a variable Prowess effect, I'll use the Constellation wording you mentioned in your last post, or the "historic" wording you mentioned in this one.
I agree that the mechanic is a bit unintuitive, or schizophrenic. I do think it's flavorful once you play with a melodious creature once, and easy to remember (the creature does more of what it wants to be doing when it 'hears' a melody --> it becomes more of itself). It lets you design some interesting things you couldn't do otherwise. I'm not sold on using it though.
In general I feel like I'm stressing out too much about deciding on what mechanics to use.
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I think I'm with rowan on Consume. My own experience with graveyard-devotion suggests that counting mana symbols in gy is cumbersome and isn't going to add a lot to gameplay.
Ok, so....this mechanic might seem a bit wonky, but I'll share it anyway and see whether we think it's "cool" or "gimmicky". Also if you think a tweak or variation of this could be better, suggest it.
Several names work: Lore, Indelible, History, Tale, Song, Inscribe, Inscription.
A) Lore (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand)
B) Tale (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, you may cast this card from your graveyard. If you do, exile it.)
C) Tale (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid you control becomes tapped, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand).
D) Tale (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid you control becomes tapped, you may cast this card from your graveyard.)
G) Indelible (As long as you control a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid, you can cast this card from your graveyard.)
Tale of Two Wolves3GG
Sorcery -- Lore (U)
(Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand.)
Create two 2/2 green wolf creature tokens.
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Ok, so....this mechanic might seem a bit wonky, but I'll share it anyway and see whether we think it's "cool" or "gimmicky". Also if you think a tweak or variation of this could be better, suggest it.
Several names work: Lore, Indelible, History, Tale, Song, Inscribe, Inscription.
A) Lore (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand)
B) Tale (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, you may cast this card from your graveyard. If you do, exile it.)
C) Tale (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid you control becomes tapped, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand).
D) Tale (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid you control becomes tapped, you may cast this card from your graveyard.)
G) Indelible (As long as you control a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid, you can cast this card from your graveyard.)
Tale of Two Wolves3GG
Sorcery -- Lore (U)
(Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand.)
Create two 2/2 green wolf creature tokens.
I like the mechanical space this explores a lot better than recover did in Coldsnap. Though whenever playing around with getting spells back all mechanics can be reduced to either a buyback or flashback derivative. Not anyone's fault, Magic just happened to jump on those notions early. So the question really becomes: Does this version enable fun gameplay in the environment it's being featured in?
I like "Lore" as the best flavor name to mechanical connection. I like the natural world of indigenous people vibe that lore gives. An Oral recitation of knowledge of the world. Good stuff.
Nuts and bolts on the Lore mechanic as templated with Tale of the two wolves:
To balance Lore, it should require some kind of hoop, beyond needing a creature to ETB. Mana costs are always a good way to craft balance. There are so many cast from the graveyard variants, i like this one returning to hand. The other part of that, since it's going back to hand, can be looped (hopefully not as degenerately as buyback) you may want to add a clause to ensure only one spell gets to go back to the hand with each ETB trigger.
Lore - 1G (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, If no other card with Lore has been returned to your hand this turn, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand)
obviously this would disrupt if you want multiple spells to return for different ETB's in a turn. In that case if you want to maintain that functionality you could write it as such:
Lore - 1G (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, You may pay the lore cost of a card in your graveyard. If you do, you may return that card from your graveyard to your hand)
In theory that should cap it to a single card returning per ETB activation. I might be wrong about that templating. One last thought, To clean up the template, for this environment you may want to create a new creature type. Since it's lore you could go with something along the lines of 'Orator'. Creatures could be a Human Bard Orator, or just Human Orator. Depends on the individual designs. But it would clean up your template. Only downside is it becomes a parasitic mechanic. So what formats you're designing to will affect this decision for you.
Lore - 1G (Whenever an orator enters the battlefield under your control, you may pay the lore cost of a card in your graveyard. If you do, you may return that card from your graveyard to your hand.)
Anyways hopefully those suggestions help you to keep moving forward.
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Long story short --> I started thinking about this project again in December, put some work into improving the mechanics, and I feel very good about the general feel of the set and about some of the set mechanics. I'm trying to figure out what the last mechanic should be, and I think it needs to feel centered in Black. Criticism and feedback on these other mechanics is also welcome.
Ethereal WUBRG
Focus WUBRG
Melodious RGUW
Flicker UW (Don't know whether to count keywording common language as a mechanic, but here it is)
Ethereal N [This enters the battlefield with N reality counters. When it attacks, blocks, or activates an ability, remove a reality counter. When the last is removed, sacrifice it at the end of turn.)
Focus (To focus this spell, exile it from your hand and pay its mana cost. When you do, you may cast it during your next turn without paying its mana cost. Focus only at sorcery speed.)
Melodious (This permanent's triggered abilities trigger whenever you cast an instant, sorcery, or enchantment spell.)
Flicker [TARGET] (Exile it and return it to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step.)
Rhymnir is a dreamworld, created by Ashiok in her own mind. As a dreamworld, this is a set about imagination and possibility, about experiencing the surreal and reaching into the infinite, as Coleridge would say. Wendigos (UB or UBR) inhabit Rhymnir. In North American folklore, Wendigos are cannibalistic and greedy creatures that are always hungry, always gaunt, insatiable, starving no matter how much food they eat. They are a fitting creature type to include on Rhymnir because they can represent the mind's restlessness and thirst for new stimulation. I've been trying to use them as inspiration for a mechanic.
Here are some I've created:
1) Feast -- At the beginning of combat, you may sacrifice a permanent. If you do, [EFFECT].
2) Consume N -- Exile N cards from your graveyard. *keyword action*
3) Consume [Mana Symbols] -- Exile [Mana Symbols] from your graveyard. *keyword action*
4) Vivid [Mana Symbols] (You can make this spell vivid by exiling [mana symbols] from your graveyard when you cast it.)
5) Insatiable (When this creature attacks, you may exile two cards from your graveyard. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
6) Insatiable (When this creature attacks, you may exile two cards from your graveyard.)
7) Insatiable [Mana Symbols] -- At the beginning of combat/When this creature attacks, you may exile [mana symbols] from your graveyard. If you do, [EFFECT].
8) Consume (When this enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice a nontoken nonland permanent.)
9) Consume [COST] (When this enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you exile a permanent that costs [COST] or greater. When this leaves the battlefield, return that card to the battlefield.)
10) Consume -- Whenever a counter is removed from a permanent you control, [EFFECT].
11) Consume -- Whenever a permanent you control leaves the battlefield, [EFFECT] or [put a +1/+1 counter on this].
12) Consume -- Whenever a nontoken permanent you control leaves the battlefield you may exile it. If you do, [effect].
I'm having trouble determining which of these is best, or which, if any, is a great mechanic. One thing to keep in mind is that whichever mechanic I ultimately go with should work well with at least one of the other mechanics. But at any rate, I think I've hit a mental roadblock. Let me know what y'all think about this, or if the setting/set inspires a different mechanic I haven't yet thought of. All feedback and criticism is welcome. Thanks!
Flicker could be a mechanical sub-theme, but it doesn't need to be keyworded. Even as a major gameplay theme in WU, it wouldn't save so much text that keywording it makes sense, but it will probably work better as a mini-theme. You might want to consider self bounce instead though, as that would synergize better with Melodious since you could re-cast enchantments.
Melodious, as its written, doesn't make sense. If you mean you want that to be an ability word like landfall or heroic, though, it will work. I'd suggest concentrating it in Bant at most, as it doesn't feel very red.
Melodious - When you cast an instant, sorcery, or enchantment spell, do X.
I'm assuming Focus will have a kicker like aspect, where when you cast the spell off focus it will have a bonus of some sort? This would work in all colors, but you should probably build a draft theme around focusing in a color pair with Blue
Ethereal is a bit complex, i'd suggest cutting the reference to activated abilities and having it only trigger off attack/block. This feels like Red/Blue and possibly White, but you have a lot of Blue feeling mechanics, so I'd put this in Black instead.
As to the Black mechanics, I would go with
Consume (When this creature attacks, you may exile 2 cards from your graveyard)
When this creature Consumes, do X.
This would be a mechanic best shared with Green.
So, your mechanical distribution could look like
CONSUME BG
FOCUS UR (appears some in all colors)
ETHEREAL BRW
MELODIOUS GWU
I'm comfortable pushing this set in a Theros direction where most colors can access most mechanics, and in which the mechanics synergize with one another. Also mulling over whether one or two mechanics should be accessible to all colors and then you have three mechanics that are more color-specific that engage with the 1-2 mechanics in different ways.
With that said, the color schema you came up with works, as it gives each color two mechanics (sort of like SOI, where each color got a mechanic and a creature type). So it's definitely something I'll give some thought to.
II.
Yea, that's a good point. Simpler to just have things bounce back to your hand or just write out the flicker wording. And you don't need a ton of cards to put that theme into place (Kaladesh had the same UW theme). I had Ethereal/Vanishing in mind when I picked flicker out as a theme, but I hadn't even thought about how tweaking the theme could make it work both with Ethereal and Melodious. Good catch!
III.
Why is that the case? Do these not work as I intend them?
Consider these four cards:
Dreamdusk Satyr 1G
Creature -- Satyr Shaman (U)
Melodious
When Dreamdusk Satyr attacks, mill two and return up to one land from your graveyard to your hand.
2/2
Whisp of Blossoms 2GG
Creature -- Plant Whisp (R)
Melodious
When Whisp of Blossoms enters the battlefield, draw a card if you have four or fewer cards in your hand.
2/3
Sandborn Crackler 2RR
Creature -- Elemental Shaman (R)
Haste, Melodious
When Sandborn Shaman enters the battlefield, it deals one damage to target player and one damage to any target that player controls.
4/3
Satyr Lute 2
Artifact -- Equipment (U)
Equipped creature has Melodious.
Equip 3
Firstly, do these work as intended? (I intend for instants, sorcieries, and enchantments to trigger as if the creature were attacking or entering the battlefield). Secondly, I'm conflicted on which I prefer. Obviously there's more design space for the ability word -- an alternate version of prowess. But there's something both weirdly dissonant and exciting about this version of melodious.
IV. I think this is one of my favorites of the ten I presented as well, in part because it is straight forward and in part because it is a combat-oriented mechanic in a set that doesn't yet have one.
Whisp of Blossoms 2GG
Creature -- Plant Whisp (R)
When Whisp of Blossoms enters the battlefield or you cast an instant, sorcery or enchantment, draw a card if you have four or fewer cards in your hand.
2/3
Melodious would not save space because it would take up its one text line event without the reminder text. Also, the fact that each Melodious card triggers to the same three things and then a fourth, different thing also makes this a bit unintuitive. Look at constellation here as an example of how to use Melodious, and I think that will be a cleaner template
There's also an interesting idea of making melodious a "batch" like Historic
Whenever you cast a melodious spell, do X. (Instants, sorceries and enchantments are melodious.)
Return target melodious card from your graveyard to your hand.
Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a melodious card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
I prefer my templating to this one. Aesthetics and memory issues lead me to want to keyword it. If I want it to be merely a variable Prowess effect, I'll use the Constellation wording you mentioned in your last post, or the "historic" wording you mentioned in this one.
I agree that the mechanic is a bit unintuitive, or schizophrenic. I do think it's flavorful once you play with a melodious creature once, and easy to remember (the creature does more of what it wants to be doing when it 'hears' a melody --> it becomes more of itself). It lets you design some interesting things you couldn't do otherwise. I'm not sold on using it though.
In general I feel like I'm stressing out too much about deciding on what mechanics to use.
Several names work: Lore, Indelible, History, Tale, Song, Inscribe, Inscription.
A) Lore (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand)
B) Tale (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, you may cast this card from your graveyard. If you do, exile it.)
C) Tale (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid you control becomes tapped, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand).
D) Tale (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid you control becomes tapped, you may cast this card from your graveyard.)
G) Indelible (As long as you control a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid, you can cast this card from your graveyard.)
Sorcery -- Lore (U)
(Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand.)
Create two 2/2 green wolf creature tokens.
I like the mechanical space this explores a lot better than recover did in Coldsnap. Though whenever playing around with getting spells back all mechanics can be reduced to either a buyback or flashback derivative. Not anyone's fault, Magic just happened to jump on those notions early. So the question really becomes: Does this version enable fun gameplay in the environment it's being featured in?
I like "Lore" as the best flavor name to mechanical connection. I like the natural world of indigenous people vibe that lore gives. An Oral recitation of knowledge of the world. Good stuff.
Nuts and bolts on the Lore mechanic as templated with Tale of the two wolves:
To balance Lore, it should require some kind of hoop, beyond needing a creature to ETB. Mana costs are always a good way to craft balance. There are so many cast from the graveyard variants, i like this one returning to hand. The other part of that, since it's going back to hand, can be looped (hopefully not as degenerately as buyback) you may want to add a clause to ensure only one spell gets to go back to the hand with each ETB trigger.
Lore - 1G (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, If no other card with Lore has been returned to your hand this turn, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand)
obviously this would disrupt if you want multiple spells to return for different ETB's in a turn. In that case if you want to maintain that functionality you could write it as such:
Lore - 1G (Whenever a Bard, Cleric, Shaman, or Druid enters the battlefield under your control, You may pay the lore cost of a card in your graveyard. If you do, you may return that card from your graveyard to your hand)
In theory that should cap it to a single card returning per ETB activation. I might be wrong about that templating. One last thought, To clean up the template, for this environment you may want to create a new creature type. Since it's lore you could go with something along the lines of 'Orator'. Creatures could be a Human Bard Orator, or just Human Orator. Depends on the individual designs. But it would clean up your template. Only downside is it becomes a parasitic mechanic. So what formats you're designing to will affect this decision for you.
Lore - 1G (Whenever an orator enters the battlefield under your control, you may pay the lore cost of a card in your graveyard. If you do, you may return that card from your graveyard to your hand.)
Anyways hopefully those suggestions help you to keep moving forward.
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