After 30 Years In Development, Magic: The Gathering Legend Reveals His Next Card Game
Overview & Key Takeaways
For over 30 years, Mark Rosewater has been leading design teams for some of Magic: the Gathering's biggest sets, and continues to do so with his role as lead designer on the upcoming Marvel Super Heroes expansion. However, while he's been exploring the Magic multiverse, he's been developing his own game on the side, with the hopes of one day sharing that side game with the world. Today, on the official Magic: the Gathering Secret Lair website, Rosewater has finally unveiled that game, Mood Swings, and players will be able to order it soon.
Mood Swings is a game played with a single 45-card deck, though there will be over 100 cards available for the game at launch. Each card is named after a mood--Patience, Hostility, Cheer, Bashfulness, etc.--and comes with a corresponding power and point value. Each player in the two-to-four-player game will play one mood from their hand per turn, and once all of the powers resolve, the player whose board has the most points wins the round, and first to three rounds wins the whole game.
Rosewater released a blog on the MTG website, as well as a tutorial video on the official Wizards of the Coast YouTube, diving deeper into the game's rules and some of the cards players will find in their decks. "About 28 years ago, I came up with an idea for a more accessible trading card game called Mood Swings," Rosewater says in the blog. "The idea behind it is simple. Trading card games are a lot of fun, but Magic, while amazing, can be complicated. Mood Swings is my attempt to make something simpler."
For over 30 years, Mark Rosewater has been leading design teams for some of Magic: the Gathering's biggest sets, and continues to do so with his role as lead designer on the upcoming Marvel Super Heroes expansion. However, while he's been exploring the Magic multiverse, he's been developing his own game on the side, with the hopes of one day sharing that side game with the world. Today, on the official Magic: the Gathering Secret Lair website, Rosewater has finally unveiled that game, Mood Swings, and players will be able to order it soon.
Mood Swings is a game played with a single 45-card deck, though there will be over 100 cards available for the game at launch. Each card is named after a mood--Patience, Hostility, Cheer, Bashfulness, etc.--and comes with a corresponding power and point value. Each player in the two-to-four-player game will play one mood from their hand per turn, and once all of the powers resolve, the player whose board has the most points wins the round, and first to three rounds wins the whole game.
Rosewater released a blog on the MTG website, as well as a tutorial video on the official Wizards of the Coast YouTube, diving deeper into the game's rules and some of the cards players will find in their decks. "About 28 years ago, I came up with an idea for a more accessible trading card game called Mood Swings," Rosewater says in the blog. "The idea behind it is simple. Trading card games are a lot of fun, but Magic, while amazing, can be complicated. Mood Swings is my attempt to make something simpler."
One notable inclusion on the game's official Secret Lair page is a symbol not seen from Wizards of the Coast in 24 years--the Mood Swings logo includes a First Edition logo reminiscent of those that used to be first on first-print runs of Pokemon Trading Card Game expansions when WOTC handled the game. This could indicate that, while the game will eventually see wider release, the cards in decks sold via Secret Lair next month will include this long-retired symbol.
The first edition of Mood Swings will be available exclusively on the Magic: the Gathering Secret Lair website on June 1. More information about the game will be revealed at a special MagicCon panel this weekend.
