Mark Rosewater has been a household name for many longtime Magic: The Gathering players. He’s had his hand in the design of almost every set in the trading card game’s decades-long history, and his vibrant and animated personality has quickly earned him a great reputation as not only one of the great game designers in the TCG space, but as a passionate and ambitious person. Today, Wizard of the Coast and Secret Lair have revealed Mood Swings, a new simple and fast-paced card game that Rosewater has been working on as a passion project since 1998.
The basic idea is this: what if you took all the strategy of a trading card game and got rid of all the complicated mechanics that create an intimidating barrier to entry to those new to TCGs. Mood Swings forgoes a resource system, the idea of constructing your own deck, and intricate rules and interactions that may require you to call a judge for an explanation for are a thing of the past.
Designed for two to four players, each game consists of players playing a card on their respective turns. Then at the end of each round, you tally up your score (represented by a D6 value in the upper right corner). Whoever has the highest score wins that round. The first player to three round wins is crowned the victor. A two player game should take roughly 10 minutes total, so there’s plenty of opportunity to replay and see different cards.
The official Magic Companion will be updated to keep track of your score for each turn starting today.
What Is Mood Swings?
Rosewater intends for Mood Swings to be played straight out of the box. So no other accessories, like dice or a life counter, are necessary. And the term “trading” in “trading card game” is taken quite literally here. Mood Swings is available as a 45-card deck out of the box. But what cards you get is completely random. The full set is made up of 133 cards, broken down as follows:
- 48 Commons
- 40 Uncommons
- 30 Rares
- 15 Mythics
When you open your deck, you’re given a random of assortment of different rarities. You’ll get 23 commons, 14 uncommons, 6 Rares, and 2 Mythics in each deck. If you want to change your deck around, you’ll have to find other players with Mood Swings decks and offer to trade cards.
The catch? Mood Swings is exclusive to Secret Lair. You can only purchase the game (which will run you $24.99) there, meaning no buying singles through an online storefront to power up your deck. And while this isn’t a Magic: The Gathering product, sketch art of existing Magic cards is what you’ll see on Mood Swings cards. And like Magic, there are multiple ways to play. It’s designed for two to four players, but you can play more by adding more cards to the deck. There are even team and draft configurations available from the start.
Get Your Hands On The Game
Why’s it called Mood Swings? Rosewater cites his love for emotions and the human experience. The idea is that all the cards represent emotions, similar to how the color pie works in Magic: The Gathering, and each card is named after a certain emotion. It’s also intended to be accessible and understandable for people who may not be into games at all, trading card or otherwise.
Mood Swings is set to release exclusively on Secret Lair on June 1 for $24.99. But if you’re going to MagicCon in Las Vegas this weekend, you’ll have the chance to play by signing up for the Secret Lair Presents: [REDACTED] (UPDATE: The Redacted events are now sold out). But if you’re around Sunday, Rosewater is hosting a talk where he’ll talk about the long history of getting this game made.
All images courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.
