I'm pulling on a driveway. We all know what that means. It's time from the drive to work.

Okay, guys, today is all about returning mechanics. So I'm going to talk about the history of

returning mechanics and then try to do a somewhat exhaustive look at return mechanics.

I'm sure, let me start by saying, I'm going to be throwing a lot at you today. I'm sure I missed a few. So bear with me. I'm sure, let me start by saying, I'm going to be throwing a lot at you today.

I'm sure I missed a few. So bear with me. I'm sure people will let me know what I missed.

Anyway, okay, so we go back to Alpha. Richard Garfield makes Alpha. Alpha has some mechanics in it.

Mostly what we now would think of as evergreen keywords,

flying first strike, trample and such.

And it's not until the first large set.

So magic comes out as alpha.

There's a Raby Night's small set, antiquity small set.

The first big set is Legends.

And Legends doesn't really introduce new mechanics, but it introduces new tools.

It has gold cards for the first time.

It has legendary permanence for the first time.

So it introduces new concepts and what I would think of as new tools, but not really new mechanics.

It's not really until Ice Age, which is the next big set,

that there start to be some actual, like, new mechanics introduced.

For example, cumulative upkeep was introduced.

That's where you have to pay a cost, and then every turn the cost increments, and so it gets harder and harder to pay the upkeep costs.

Now, in the early days, when you introduce something new to magic, one of two things would happen.

Either it just became what we call evergreen.

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