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This week Gabe’s bringing the Mark Rosewater’s State of Design 2025 article to the pod. We’ve picked our favorite points from the article and talk through the implications and lessons. Some of these sets aren’t that old but feel ancient now! It was fun to re-live these sets and find some takeaways now that we have some distance.
The article: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/state-of-design-2025
The Sets:
- Bloomburrow
- Duskmourne
- Foundations
- Aetherdrift
- Tarkir: Dragonstorm
- Final Fantasy
Points discussed:
Article Intro
- We found a lot of valuable design space in tweaking known things.
- We’re getting pretty good at making Limited environments.
- We need to be better at supporting our themes downstream of our designs.
Bloomburrow
- The mechanical animal themes were beloved.
- There wasn’t the right mix of animals
Duskmourne
- The overall feel of the plane was big success.
- The 80’s horror theme was forced into the set in a way that distracted from the overall vibe.
Foundations
- Foundations was what a core set should be.
- The set has great card choices.
Aetherdrift
- Players enjoyed having Vehicles as a mechanical focus for a set.
- Start your engines! created an interesting Limited environment.
Tarkir: Dragonstorm
- Players really wish we had found a way to get the Dragonlords in the set.
- Omen spells looked too much like Adventure spells.
Final Fantasy
- The mechanics were evocative and fun.
- The Limited environment was super fun, even for players who weren’t fans of the video games.