Where is Gamer on the Beeble scale? 🤓

I’ll call it a 9.

Why is The Most Dangerous Gamer Black-Green? I understand the Black, but I can't see how it represents the values of Green.

He is trying to fulfill his destiny of being the best carnival competitor in all the universe.

Having read your answer to a question about removing mana screw, this is my response to you. Being a big fan of both MtG and riot games' Legends of Runeterra, and having played Mojang's Scroll (may it rest in peace) I've found that resource generation and designing around the cost of creating that resource can be interesting. I find that LoR's system, by also using a region system similar to the color pie, but maxing out with 2 regions means it's more about resource management of cards in hand, and tools to use to advance the game plan of reducing your opponent's life to 0, and Scrolls was unique in that you had to give up scrolls to add to your mana cap to generate a resource, so it was interesting design. Overall, I've found that in games that use a universal mana system in which everyone gets an additional mana to spend each turn, it becomes a challenge of "how do we maintain a level of variance that ensures the game doesn't get stale?" I think that magic as it is designed now could never be changed to prevent mana issues. The game was always designed around the variance that lands provide. Games like hearthstone and LoR went with deck building restrictions and other systems to ensure enough variance is maintained. If a game is designed to provide mana to each player each turn, other design choices must be made to ensure variance is maintained. I personally think each system has its pros and cons, and each game I've played has done well to design around the pros and minimize the cons.

I think I forgot to make an important point in my answer. I was talking about making a trading card game that was designed to appeal to both enfranchised and non-enfranchised gamers. If you’re aiming at a more enfranchised gamer, like yourself, you do have more options open to you because that type of gamer is much more comfortable handling complex decision trees and tension. That style of gameplay though can drive away less enfranchised gamers. One of the big reasons players exit a game early on is being overwhelmed by it. They get too caught up in the choices they’re asked to make to enjoy the fun of the game. This gets into what I call lenticular design, where you create your game in such a way that the more complex decisions are hidden to the less experienced player. The mana system does that really well. I hope this clarification helps.

If there's ever a chance to print new black border attractions, I'd like to request that you try, if able, to make sure some of them are common so that pauper can use attraction cards (since currently it only has 8 and needs 10). And on a related note, I'd also like to request more black border claim the prize attractions for The Most Dangerous Gamer, though since commander has a bit more freedom for houseruling in acorn cards, that's not quite as important (to me).

Just play with 8 Attractions (with your play group). If I had realized the impact on Pauper, that would have just been the rules.

The Most Dangerous Gamer made me really appreciate having a devoted legendary creature that enables attractions. Is it possible to get a devoted contraption legendary creature? My biggest struggle would be asking what color combination it should be. I don't want to be greedy and ask for a 5-color one, but I don't know which color or colors to skip.

If I had Unstable to do again, I’d make a legendary creature that could repeatably assemble Contraptions.

Can I request some lore on the most dangerous gamers?

Ari and I are doing a part 2 of our Unfinity lore podcast and we’ll get to him.

Hi Mark! Today is not only Unfinity's birthday, but mine as well! Did the team try making Melvin or was Vorthos the first choice? Can I get some trivia on the Gamer cycle? Thanks! <3

Vorthos was the first choice and one of the earliest designed cards. She’s purposefully not a 2MM 1/1 as she’s not a psychographic profile, but an aesthetic one. Mel will be treated similarly. Happy Birthday!

Hey Mark,

I want to thank you for giving Unfinity Collector Boosters a "list" slot. This is going to help me in my dream of making a fully foiled all un-card Commander deck (to get the best use of Super Secret Tech). I would like to request foil printings of: Timmy, Power Gamer; Strategy, Schmategy; Bronze Calendar; Jack-in-the-Mox; Checks and Balances; Common Courtesy; Free-for-All; Cheatyface; and Underdome.

In addition the following are really hard to get a hold of in foil and could use a reprint: Johnny, Combo Player; Who/What/When/Where/Why; Gleemax; Mox Lotus; City of Ass; Super Secret Tech.Thank you for all you've done for silly magic!

You’re welcome. I wish you the best of luck in your mission.

Hello Mark! I love Vorthos, but why is she a 1/3 creature with a 1R cost, unlike the other Gamers who are 1/1 creatures that cost 2MM (each with a 4-cost activated ability)? Will Mel be a 1/3 creature with a 1W cost to balance it out? Thanks!

Timmy/Tammy, Johnny/Jenny, and Spike are all player psychographics while Vorthos and Mel are aesthetic profiles, so we purposefully made Vorthos different.

Do you think we could ever see a reprint of Timmy, Power Gamer or Johnny, Combo Player but with the name changed to Tammy/Jenny respectively? Using a similar tech to the Universes Within cards or the Godzilla/Dracula nameplates?

I hope so. It almost happened in Unsanctioned.