State of the Game 2024

Andy and Anthony reflect on the Mark Rosewater’s reflection on the past year in Magic. Every year, Magic’s lead designer shares lessons learned and strengths from each booster set. This year’s felt lacking a bit of thematic focus, but maybe the lack of focus is emblematic of this last year in Magic.

View all cards mentioned in this episode

Discussed in this episode:

• Mark Rosewater’s State of the Game 2024
• Episode 163: State of the Game 2023
• Episode 109: State of the Game 2022
• Episode 206: The Joy of Gaming with Richard Garfield
• Episode 211: Book Club: The Beauty of Games by Frank Lantz
• Drive to Work Podcast
• Drive to Work: Designing for an Eternal World
• Blogatog
• Lucky Paper Events Page
• Polar Bear Encounter
• Frostbite by Nicola Twilley

Timestamps

0:00 - Introduction

3:32 - Is this even for us? How invested are we in Magic these days?

10:30 - Is this year’s ‘State of Design’ article more shallow than previous years?

12:57 - 2024’s Theme: Lack of Focus

17:43 - Lesson: Magic was too on the nose with its tropes

26:53 - Lesson: Some individual mechanics were too complex

32:09 - Lesson: More mechanics were polarizing than previous years 

49:41 - Does R&D drive Magic these days?

51:43 - Our favorite thing from Magic this year: grassroots Cube events

Check us out on Twitch and YouTube for paper Cube gameplay.

You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:

• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

If want us to do a pack 1, pick 1 from your cube submit it on our website. You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord. Send in questions to the show at [email protected] or our p.o. box:

Lucky Paper

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Musical production by DJ James Nasty.