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
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211
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Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

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