Magic lead designer to launch new game, will be a Secret Lair drop

Mark Rosewater, the lead designer for Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering, teased that a new card game, created by himself and Wizards, will be released soon. The game, jokingly called [NON-MAGIC REDACTED] in a post on Rosewater’s blog, will be presented at MagicCon Las Vegas, taking place on May 1-3 of this year.

According to Rosewater, known colloquially to fans as MaRo, the new card game will be “a fast, experimental play experience.” Fans are speculating that this will be Mood Swings, a casual game created by Rosewater, which he mentioned many times over the years. Games of Mood Swings apparently only last five minutes, so it fits the description of Wizards’ new mysterious product.

Making a fast game that’s easy to pick up and play seems to be the fixation of many designers, and it’s easy to understand why. While Magic: The Gathering is a great card game, playing it can take a lot of time (unless everyone is a terrible person and brings a mono-red deck). It also requires a significant investment to build a competitive deck, and mastering the game’s nuances takes years.

There’s a catch, however. The mysterious new game will be sold exclusively as a Secret Lair drop, which might displease Magic fans, who have long expressed complaints about Secret Lair’s availability. Wizards recently confirmed that it’s not going to switch back to a print-on-demand model for Secret Lair, so if you want to get your hands on Rosewater’s mysterious game, you’ll have to hurry.