Creating new cards are often a pastime of many players. But a part of the process isn’t only designing them, it’s iterating until you find the perfect compromise between design (the creation of a card) and development (the balancing of said cards). Wizards of the Coast publishes “The M-Files”, which show cards from the newly released set and their iterations.
Some cards are simple, such as Loam Larva being changed to fetch basic lands with the intention of finding Wastes. Others are… changed for the better. For example, you could have swung into a Matter Reshaper on turn 3 or 4 then have to deal with a Kozilek on the swing back — initially, there was no converted mana cost restriction!
Check out the rest of the article for some insight into WotC’s minds (such as Kozilek forcing Cascade on all of your opponent’s spells!). This article is part two — for part one click here.