Have you ever wondered what goes into the creation of mechanics for Magic: The Gathering?
It's not as straightforward as one might think. And it's a team effort, to say the least.
"We have a veritable army of professional game designers who create all the wonderful mechanics that you see in sets and the boosters that you open and all the new cards that are out there," says Matt Tabak, Principle Editor at Wizards of the Coast.
Mechanics creation starts early in design when WotC is trying to find the identity of a set.
"What is a set trying to accomplish? What is the world in which it takes place? What is the sort of mechanical identity that a set is trying to portray?" Tabak lists as examples.
Once an idea for a mechanic is formed, from there it goes into practice and playtesting. That's when and how the designers and developers figure out if it's going to work or not for the set. And, if it doesn't work out, there's a chance that it might be shelved and saved for a future Magic release rather than discarded altogether.
Watch: How MTG Mechanics are Made - Talkin' MTG with WotC's Matt Tabak
"Nothing exists in a vacuum," states Tabak. "Even a mechanic that is beloved may not be the right fit. There's always the opportunity to shelf something and find a good home for it."
An example of this would be the Learn/Lesson mechanic from Strixhaven, which was an iteration on a mechanic from Kaladesh called "inventions."
"We didn't end up using it because there was too much going on [in Kaladesh] -- energy was really complicated and, basically, the development team at the time said you can have energy or you can have inventions," says Mark Rosewater, Magic: The Gathering's head designer.
There have also been times where a mechanic feels right, but for one reason or another it just never made it into the final set as published. There are a variety of reasons as to why that happens.
"Sometimes it comes from rules and templating, sometimes it's we have finite space on a card and so mechanics not only have to play well, but we have to clearly communicate to players -- we only have so many words to communicate to players what it does -- and also it has to work," explains Tabak. "Everything has to play within the rules of Magic as they exist and they have to synergize with how other cards play, so often something is too complex or can't be communicated clearly."
Sometimes, though, that complexity gets hidden. That's where reminder text comes into play.
"We can summarize in reminder text and sort of hide the complexity in the rules," says Tabak. "Sometimes that's not accomplishable, so things move around."
And, in the jest that all mechanics are just kicker (but with a twist), that joke isn't exactly that far off.
"It's an opportunity to iterate," Tabak expands. "Magic loves taking old ideas and iterating."
After all, as the adage goes, imitation (or, in this case, iteration) is the highest form of flattery.
