So, when do you think the first card designed by Magic: The Gathering Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, first came out?

So, when do you think the first card designed by Magic: The Gathering Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, first came out?

For early Magic: The Gathering folks such as game progenitor, Richard Garfield, it's an easy answer.  After all, he invented the game. For others, though it's not quite such a clear-cut answer.

For Rosewater, who was just a Wizards of the Coast newcomer at the time, 1996 would be the year a card made by him would make its debut.

During the final playtests of Alliances, playtesters found that one specific artifact was just a tad too powerful. Frantic, playtesters looked everywhere for something new. Luckily, Rosewater had been tinkering around with cards that had a mechanic to keep putting cards underneath it for the sole reason of, well, he liked the idea.

He suggested it and, just like that, we have Gustha's Scepter. 

As Rosewater would later say, " I always liked the mechanic of a card that put cards underneath it. While thinking about the neat things one could do with this, I came up with the idea of a card that could store cards for you. During Alliances development, we had to change an artifact late in the process (playtesting had shown the first version was broken beyond repair) and I suggested this card. Thus, Gustha's Scepter was created."

The card itself wasn't all bad either, as it provided a means as to protect cards in your hand from things such as discard effects.  Really, it's a rather neat card for a zero-drop artifact.

Sure, the card isn't exactly groundbreaking, but it did wind up as the earliest card designed by Rosewater to see print. Plus, the card is just another one of those that came about through a roundabout way.

Unplanned cards don't happen as often as people think, and Gustha's Scepter is one of those that just puts it all askew.