Magic the Gathering has a new casual development team to make Commander and other formats more fun, well, that’s the idea at least.
Do you like creating the best decks the world has ever seen? Are you the friend that has remained undefeated after years of sweat and turmoil? Well, if that’s you, avert your eyes! There is a new team at Wizards focused on just making the game more fun for casual players. Which, if that makes your blood boil, don’t worry too much as it seems like they will leave the other versions alone.
This is mainly focused on Commander and because there are so many cards and so many players, it is not going to be easy. Still, for the majority of players, we think this is good news. It’s a game after all and meant to be fun, so why not actually have fun when playing? Let’s check out the announcement and the AMA.
Magic the Gathering Going Casual in Newest Update
I am leading the new MTG Casual Play Design team at Wizards, and I am doing and AMA today at 4pm Pacific on MTG’s official discord server. I’ll be answering most of your questions there, but for now here is a little info on what our team is doing.
— Melissa DeTora (@MelissaDeTora) October 21, 2021
Let’s hear a little more from Melissa about what the new team is about:
Our team is responsible for making Commander and other casual formats fun and balanced. Balance means something different for casual play than competitive play because of how much more diverse the experience is from player to player…
…so our team will not focus on balance in the same way that Competitive Play Design does. Our primary focus will be finding rates and play patterns that makes the format most fun for everyone.
Hey, nothing wrong with more fun for everyone, but even as they said, it’s hard to balance a game where everyone has more fun. This feels when they say everyone, they mean casual players.
Wizards also did an AMA about how they will be balancing the game, which you can join the Discord for here.
What Type of Changes to Expect
– How likely is the card to show up? Is it fun if it does shows up in high quantities?
– How much fun is this for the table (net fun)?
– How easy or difficult is it to include this in your deck?
– Does the card have enough interaction points and counterplay?— Melissa DeTora (@MelissaDeTora) October 21, 2021
These are the criteria that they are looking at when making changes. Overall it does seem like they are looking at the right things.
We’ll have to see how the changes actually start affecting the game, but giving a more casual experience for players to enjoy on the weekends is usually never a bad thing since they aren’t messing with constructed.
Are you excited about the changes coming for Magic the Gathering?
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
