Woodweaver's Puzzleknot - Magic the Gathering

How much wood could a woodweaver weave...

So Aether Revolt is on the horizon, and while I could rush out reviews of the preview cards, I prefer waiting a week for the entire set to be revealed instead of me mass speculating. Until then, I am going to turn back and look at the set's big brother, Kaladesh.

First, the name. Woodweaver's Puzzleknot is a better name than, say, Tresspassin'. For one thing their are no weird spelling issues, but also the former uses much more intriguing, yet familiar words. One trick Magic has learned to do is make up its own compound words. In this case we have two: woodweaver and puzzleknot. Our brain recognizes the individual words, but when it sees the two together it raises our curiosity. It makes us stop and think, which also makes us pay attention to the card. There is also a little alliterative appeal with the first word, "woodweaver". As for the second word, this card is part of cycle (a group of cards that share a similar design). There are five Puzzleknots in the set, so the second word identifies it as part of the cycle.

The art is also much better. The colors are bright, contrasting golds and greens. No ugly brown filter here. Then we have the object itself. The entire thing reminds me of one of those wire games where you have to move a rod through the entire track without touching the sides. Can't tell if that's the case with this, but it does include some kind of stylus. I love how intricate the whole thing is, and how the shapes manage to look both artificial and organic. I also love the background, which mimics the pattern, and the clear space that forms a sort of halo around the puzzle, making it stand out. And of course there are the hands. There are two reasons for including hands in the art. One is it works like the scaling birds, that is they give you a sense of the size of the object. Two is they just make the piece more interesting and less like a still life.

But now we get to the mechanics. As I mentioned, this card is part of a cycle. The way the cards worked were you got an enters the battlefield ability, and then you could pay a colored cost and sacrifice the card to repeat that ability. I'm guessing the second ability is meant to be you solving the puzzle, but I'm less certain how the first ability works. I have no idea how this card gives me three energy and three life, though I appreciate the little symmetry within the effect.