Game designers of Magic: The Gathering Mark Rosewater and Mike Turian addressed community concerns over Play boosters on Oct. 17 through MTGWeekly, while dropping a teaser of big changes in the works for the new player experience.
Play boosters coming to MTG were the hot topic of conversation during the Oct. 17 episode of MTGWeekly. The booster pack that will eventually replace Draft and Set boosters with the launch of Murders at Markov Manor is meant to simplify products from a retailer’s and consumer’s perspective. Limited gameplay will change the most because of MTG Play boosters, and a question was asked during the MTGWeekly stream if the new booster and its effects on Limited, would affect the new player experience, as well.
This question led to Blake Rasmussen dropping teasers about big changes that are in the work when it comes to the new player experience. The WotC team acknowledges that “the new player part of Magic could use some extra work,” Rasmussen said.
Starter packs were made purposely designed without too much complexity, potentially keeping gameplay simple for new players. But simple isn’t always the right answer, as WotC eventually figured out. And now that the light bulb has gone off, changes for the better are potentially on the way.
“The thing that makes people want to play Magic, is not low complexity—is excitement,” Rosewater said.
It’s a new philosophy at WotC, according to Rosewater, that will lead to a new Magic product the team wasn’t willing to reveal at the time of writing. But it did leave many in the MTG community questioning if Starter decks are getting a rework or if they will get retired like Draft and Set boosters will be with the release of Play boosters after the first of the year.
No timeline of changes getting applied to the MTG new experience was revealed at the time of writing. Play boosters will launch with the set release of Murders at Markov Manor.
