Play Design

Balance Issue in 1GU Cards

New 27 Jul 2024 Asked by rynosaur94 2 Comments

I know you're not on play design, but maybe you have some insight on a pattern I'm sure I'm not the first to notice. Why is it that cards costing 1GU seem to have so many balance issues? Oko, Uro, Nadu are the recent ones everyone knows, but Shardless Agent and Risen Reef were also power outliers though at a lesser scale. Is this a bigger problem with Simic color identity as a whole?


I don’t think it’s a problem endemic to the color combination.

Balance Between Creativity and Feasibility

New 23 Jul 2024 Asked by gevth 3 Comments

Part of Vision Design is pushing the boundaries of Magic (I believe). Sometimes, that means brainstorming wild successes like double faced cards or morph , but other times there are mechanics like the Animal batch or LCI’s gem resources that get killed by set or play design. Does vision design have limits on what they can propose? how do you foster outside-the-box creativity while keeping unfeasable ideas in check?


Part of pushing boundaries is doing things that end up being too far, but you don’t know the line if you never test it.

Potential Issues with Ixalan Setup

New 23 Jul 2024 Asked by moochiballs 6 Comments

Original Ixalan is still the only set with the draft archetypes being two 3-color and two 2-color archetypes. What (didn't) work with that setup, and do you think we'll ever see it again?


It caused a lot of play design issues, so I’m skeptical of its return.

Biased Towards Single Color

New 21 Jul 2024 Asked by anactualcaveman 6 Comments

Hi mark, would you guys ever consider doing supplemental sets biased towards a single color again, like torment?


It causes major play design problems (we learned that from doing Torment), and I am skeptical of us doing it again.

Card Balancing and Playtesting

New 21 Jul 2024 Asked by samuel-the-blonde22 2 Comments

So, how do you balance cards before you release them? Do you playtest them?Were there any cards that you thought of and realized they were too powerful to be printed?


There’s an entire team named play design (which I am not on) that balances the cards, working in conjunction with the set design team. There is a *lot* of playtesting.

Asymmetric Color Groupings Future

New 21 Jul 2024 Asked by labira75sui 5 Comments

I really like the asymmetric color groupings of Ixalan with some factions being three-color (Brazen Coalition, Sun Empire) and other being two-color (River Heralds, Dusk Legion). Is this something Ixalan specific or can we expect to see similar asymmetric groupings in the (near) future?
And how different is the design process compared to a symmetric plane like New Capenna or Alara?


Play design is not a fan of asymmetric factions. It makes it super hard to balance.

Pioneer Format Boundary Decision

New 16 Jul 2024 Asked by j-waffles 4 Comments

How was it decided for RTR to be the cutoff point for pioneer? I think around that time period was probably about right in order to achieve the intended goal of the format, but I’m curious why/how it was decided to be RTR block specifically as opposed to innistrad or theros or something else around that time


Play design spent a lot of time looking at all the options. Return to Ravnica ended up being their first choice for what it allowed and what it kept out.

Storm Scale Changes

New 10 Jul 2024 Asked by mysticleviathan 25 Comments

I know we’ve seen some mechanics rise and fall over the years, but going from a 9 to a 4 on the storm scale is a pretty substantial drop. What changed from R&D’s perspective to have it go from it would need a minor miracle to return to more likely than not to return?


For a while play design preferred eight cards, so I thought threshold was done.

Bloomburrow Gameplay Expectations

New 10 Jul 2024 Asked by themartiangeek 79 Comments

I really love the flavor and art of Bloomburrow. (I haven't read the story yet, since I'm still several sets behind on MTG story, but will definitely get to it at some point.) But I am worried that it will end up being a relatively weak set in terms of gameplay/card usefulness outside of limited, especially after today's previews,


We have a whole play design team who works to ensure every set has tournament relevant cards.

Decision Behind Threshold Return

New 09 Jul 2024 Asked by krobat 32 Comments

I'm really surprised to see straight-up Threshold return since this blog has talked about how play design doesn't think 7 is the correct number. How did it happen??? That's got to be a story!


I think getting to use the word threshold was enough to tip the scales from eight to seven.

Abbreviation of Design Stages

New 04 Jul 2024 Asked by su92 4 Comments

I've got a very specific questions. "Exploratory Design", "Vision Design", "Set Design", "Play Design" are all two words and sound like the kind of thing that could be abbreviated. I can imagine you guys talk about "Exploratory" or "Vision" just like that... but how do you abbreviate "Set Design" or "Play Design"? Do you always say the full name?


We will say “set” and “play”, although more often the former than the latter.

Article Request to Play Design

New 01 Jul 2024 Asked by iamthedagan 6 Comments

Hi Mark, I’d be interested in an article from Play Design about how they selected cards for Foundations and how that ties into their long-term vision for Standard. Could you pass on the request?


I can.

Detailing Land to Spell Conversions

New 30 Jun 2024 Asked by livbrazilian 4 Comments

if/when: we have spells that are land on the back, how about the other way around? lands that are spells on the back?


Putting lands on the front introduces play design concerns as it let’s you use land tutoring to get spells. It would force us to greatly lessen the power of the card to balance it.

Lost Caverns Set Development

New 27 Jun 2024 Asked by snivy1245 6 Comments

Hi, Mark. I just wanted to say that I find it astounding that Lost Caverns being set on Ixalan was a late decision, as one of the reasons it drew me into Magic was how interesting I found the factions of the plane, and how well I saw them represented in the cards. I suppose it just goes to show how much a set can change in Play Design, huh?


It changed in early set design, just after vision design handed the file off.

Two-Color Medallions Cycle

New 25 Jun 2024 Asked by zackdes44 9 Comments

If you were two do a cycle similar to medallions, but for two colors, would you do "Green spells you cast cost (1) less, White spells you cast cost (1) less", or "Green and/or white spells you cast cost (1) less"? I'd like to see the former printed.


The former makes green and white multicolor cards cost 2 less which would probably have play design concerns.

Concerns about Assassin’s Creed Set

New 19 Jun 2024 Asked by realkamina76 6 Comments

Dear Mark,Is everyone in R&D/Play Design doing okay? Because the Assassin's Creed cards are radiating (at least to me, and several of my friends) "severe burnout" vibes. It reminds me of custom sets I used to see floating around on forums, with a hyper-focus on a specific creature type, and a disregard for other formats it might impact.I know you don't like answering overly "negative" posts, but I haven't met anyone, in real life or online, that's actually excited about this set. Everyone's basically waiting for Bloomburrow, and that kind of worries me.


I’ve mostly been getting excitement (the game has a lot of passionate fans), but it’s absolutely fine if this set is something you’d rather pass on. Bloomburrow previews aren’t too far away.I don’t understand what you mean by “severe burnout”. A game called Assassin’s Creed focusing on the creature type Assassin is low hanging fruit, but it’s what matches the video game we’re capturing. Sometimes the correct design choice is the obvious one.

Design Process Insights

New 28 May 2024 Asked by thunderweb 2 Comments

It looks like your "Making Magic" articles for a new set is made of two parts: vision design (part 1) and set design (part 2). I wonder if there can be "part 3: play design".


I tend to hit the play design highlights in the set design article. A lot of final design choices come from set design and play design talking.

Commander Precon Colors

New 27 May 2024 Asked by marlin4812 4 Comments

Hi! How do y'all determine what colors the commander precons are going to be? I'm really excited about the upcoming precons especially Tricky Terrain and Graveyard Overdrive - those look like they're going to be a ton of fun. Thanks for all that you do and please send those that designed those precons my compliments.


There’s a whole casual play design team that spends a lot of time on those decisions.

Constructed Play Predictions

New 23 May 2024 Asked by bloodyqueerfrenchman 5 Comments

I was wondering how you design specifically for constructed 60 card formats. How do you predict whether a card sees constructed play?


First, play design does this, not me.Basically, they make educated guesses at the percentage chance of a card making it in Standard. They then make enough cards with enough chances that mathematically the cards will hit at the rate we’d like.

Set Development Roles

New 19 May 2024 Asked by tiwaztyrsfist 13 Comments

Do you have an article that goes into (at least moderate) detail on what the different design teams do during the development of a set? I.E. What does Vision design do, Set design, and Play design (and any teams I might be missing) and how they are different from one another?


It’s from 2017, so a few things have changed:


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