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Kobolds in Magic: the Gathering. Let's thread this! 1/9
In 1994, Wizards released Legends, the first "large" expansion to the game. The designers based the set heavily on Dungeons & Dragons. So, of course they included kobolds, which are basically the weakest monsters you can encounter in the game. 2/9
These were basically joke cards. We'd already printed Ornithopter in Antiquities at the same mana cost, but with one more toughness and flying. Still, Legends contained some Kobold tribal rewards to help you make an actual deck. 3/9
And one card that specifically pumps Kobolds of Kher Keep, but not any other Kobolds. 4/9
Fast forward MANY years to Time Spiral, which contained a card called Kher Keep that made Kobold tokens NAMED Kobolds of Kher Keep! Cool! 5/9
When we (for I was working on Magic by this point) designed Commander 2013, we designed this sweet BRG legendary Dragon that made 0/1 tokens. What should they be? Plants, I guess? "You know what would be cooler than Plants?" I said, "Kobolds of Kher Keep tokens!" 6/9
I came up with the idea for a new legendary Kobold when I was on the Dominaria design team. What about a 0-mana legend, playing off the original Kobold joke? The card didn't make it through the crucible of design in the end. It was too strong, or too weak. One of those. 7/9
But I kept the idea in my back pocket and trotted it out again for Commander Legends. I thought it should be 0/1, just like its ancestors, and I piled a bunch of keywords that were useless when combined with 0 power, to sell the joke and to imply some deckbuilding direction. 8/9
The original design had double strike, but Play Design said that was too strong. First strike is only half as funny as double strike, but it's still pretty funny, IMO. Anyway, that's the story of Kobolds in Magic (so far, anyway!). 9/9
