Alexander Hoffman - During spoiler season, while we were busy bringing you the latest Worldwake coverage, we also had a few other things on our plates. One of those things was getting an interview with one of the biggest names in Magic: the Gathering. Mark Rosewater is the Lead Designer at {Wizards} of the Coast R&D, and he's answering a few questions for us this week.

Alexander Hoffman [AH] - Mark, thank you for giving me the time to ask a few questions.

Mark Rosewater [MR] - No problem. I’m always happy to give interviews.

AH - First, I would like to look at the Magic: the Gathering as a complete product line. We've seen a lot of releases this year; Planechase format multiplayer decks, two new additions to the Duel decks line, From the Vault: Exiled, and the addition of Premium boosters and the Premium Slivers deck to a product line that is already making a release of new content every quarter. We're also hearing news that Magic is doing the best it has in quite some time. How do you think these new product initiatives are involved in that?

MR - One of Magic’s strengths has always been that it is many games to many people. I believe a lot of our new product lines were designed with us being more proactive in responding to that fact. No matter how you play Magic, we want to create products that help enhance that style of play. The positive reaction to this decision is definitely one of the factors that’s led to the success of the last year.

AH - We've seen a lot of effort being put into alternate formats lately. Archenemy was just recently announced, and many casual players are already talking about its release. Planechase seems to be a fairly big hit. On the home front, the R&D folks must also have some favorites - what kind of Alternate formats get played in the Pit?

MR - The most popular current alternative format is probably EDH. There’s also a number of Pit dwellers that are very into offbeat drafting formats. Every large set, for example, they run a Rotisserie draft. That is a draft where six to eight people draft the contents of an entire large set. They start by laying all the cards on a table. Magicthegathering.com has covered a few of these if you’d like to see pictures. Planechase and Archenemy have also seen quite a bit of play in the Pit.

AH - Magic 2010 and Zendikar were both sets that generated a lot of buzz in the community, Magic 2010 for being the first Core set with brand new cards, and Zendikar for its "Deadly Perils, Priceless Treasures" marketing campaign. The marketing for Zendikar was genius, and players loved being able to pull cards from the game's past out of new boosters, or at least the chance to. How did the treasures initiative come about?

MR - Let me talk about promotions in a larger sense. Day to day, R&D’s job is to make sets, but it’s just a piece in the larger act of making Magic. We aren’t just creating a product as much as we’re making an experience. This means that we have to come up with ways to surprise the audience. We have to create themes that intersect not just with the cards but with the play experience be it at a tournament or around a kitchen table. Zendikar, as an example, wasn’t just about landfall but about a world of adventure. Whenever we create a promotion we want to do something that enhances our theme and our messaging. Our ideas come out of us finding ways to reinforce the themes we’ve created for the set or block in question.

The reason I’m not giving specifics about any one promotion is that a key part of promotions is surprise and a key to surprise is not letting your audience in on how you do it. A good magician (and perhaps Magic-ian) never reveals his tricks. This is one of the biggest differences between design and promotion.

AH - Zendikar as a whole is something new and different - the third set, Rise of the Eldrazi, is a large set, and has completely different flavor and mechanics. From a play standpoint, the set will be drafted by itself, without Worldwake or Zendikar. Speculatively (and I say speculatively because Worldwake is brand new, and we haven't had any measures of Rise of the Eldrazi's success) do you think that a large third block is going to be a trend, or a unique instance?

MR - At its core, Magic is a game about discovery. To constantly keep that sense in the game, we have to keep exploring what things about Magic we can change. The last few years was a result of us coming to the realization that the block structure isn’t set in stone. If we can come up with compelling reasons to change the model, we can and we should. We did with Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block and we did with Zendikar block. Will we do it again? I believe we will because now that we’ve opened the door we’ve allowed ourselves to find interesting things we can do with different block structures. Some doors once open don’t close. Will we change from the default every year? No. In fact, I’m sure the default will still be a popular choice. Moving forward, Magic block structure can change but it won’t always change. It will be something for all you to discover each year.

AH -We're starting to see a little more flavor creep into the design of cards - we've seen it with Lorthos in Zendikar, and Urge to Feed in Worldwake, to name a few examples. This most recent drive seems to have originated in Magic 2010. Has a design paradigm changed? Is flavor more important to design than it was in years previous?

MR - There is a current push towards what we call resonance. That is, we have found that the game is more enjoyable if some amount of the concepts on the cards are already recognizable by the audience. Magic 2010 and Zendikar both play into that. Note that not all sets will be equally resonant. For example, “Lights”block , the 2010 -11 block, plays more with things known to Magic players than things known to people outside of Magic. It’s a little more nostalgic than resonant. So yes, I would say there has been a shift in the design paradigm in that we think about flavor in a slightly different way. Note that the design paradigm is constantly shifting so change is not unnatural to the process.

AH - Speaking of flavor, flavorful design was one of the hallmarks of Magic 2010, and players ate it up. Now that Magic 2010 has done well and players are expecting Magic 2011 to be just as good, what kind of pressure is there in designing and developing another "new" core set that maintains that flavor and that cohesiveness?

MR - Whenever we do something successful, it sets a bar. We are constantly striving to keep up the level of excellence in design (and development and creative; I’m the Head Designer so I tend to worry about design). Is that pressure? Yes, but a good kind in that people tend to excel when they are challenged. Magic 2011 definitely has to exist in a world that knows about Magic 2010.

AH -Taking a look at the metagame for Standard and Limited - Currently it seems the Standard and Limited formats have been far more aggressive than in the recent past. Was the intent to design an aggressive Limited format like Zendikar intentional?

MR -Design doesn’t tend to think in that manner. Zendikar was about “lands matter” which led us to landfall. Landfall naturally led us to aggression so the environment with Zendikar is more aggressive. Was that the design intent? No, but I firmly believe that the game kind of goes where it needs to go. Part of constantly “pushing the pendulum” (our term for keeping the game always moving in new directions) is making the game embrace different aspects. Trust me, the aggression will not go on forever.

AH -Cards in Worldwake have caught a lot of attention so far, but the Planeswalker Chase was a huge part of the start of spoiler season. Jace, the Mind Sculptor looks to be quite powerful, but my question has to do with his design - Up until this point, we've only seen Planeswalker cards with three abilities. Is four abilities part of the natural flow of design? Will we see more Planeswalkers that stray away from the customary three abilities in the future?

MR - As with any part of the game, design is always looking at how to evolve planeswalker design. The big difference between planeswalkers and most other card types is that we make very few planeswalkers. As such, we’ve tried to slow down their evolution to maintain as much design space as we can. You will see us innovate with planeswalkers, such as the fourth ability, just slower than you will see with other types of cards. Will there be other planeswalkers with fourth abilities? Someday, yes.

AH - Bonus Question: What is your favorite card from the current Standard format?

MR - I would have to say Harrow. I made the card in Tempest design and fell in love with it. (It was interestingly originally called Crop Rotation.) I love how every time we bring it back it has a new use.


AH -Thanks for your time!


MR- Thanks for interviewing me.

Let me end by reminding everyone that I am always seeking feedback. You can write to me through my “Making Magic” column (on Mondays at the Magic web site). I am on twitter at @maro254. I read all the forums to my columns. If you have something important (or not so important) to say about Magic and want the ear of the Head Designer, you’ve got it. I don’t respond to everything I get, but I promise I read it all.

Once again, thanks for the interview.

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