Q: Let's say the world is about to end and you want to leave the legacy of Magic behind in a world-destruction-proof box for possible future generations to see, but the box can only hold 10 cards to ensure their protection. Any more or less and the integrity of the box is compromised. What ten cards would you include and why?
–Eric, Southern California, USA
A: From Mark Rosewater, Magic Head Designer:
Eric,
This might just be the hardest Ask Wizards question I've ever received. After thinking about it, I realized that my task would be to include ten cards that would allow gamers of the future the best ability to backward design the game. This means I would want to make sure to include all five colors and all six card types (for the purposes of this exercise, I'll assume that neither of those numbers will change). I would make sure to get as many basic keywords in as well.
Because of my desire to communicate the game, I would probably restrict my cards to the base set, as the reminder text is crucial to my plan. The only exception is that I would probably look for one card that mentions all five colors by name and one that mentions all five basic land types by name.
If that wasn't a complicated enough puzzle, I also would need to have to make sure that my card pool hints at things like combat and mana. Of course, if I was in a cheaty mood, I'd design a new card whose art is the relevant parts of the rulebook and whose rules text was "This is a game called Magic: the Gathering—one of the best games ever made. The rules are on this card. Help us, future man—You're our only hope."
I'll leave the exact card choices as an exercise for the readers who don't have any pressing deadlines (such as the design of the next set).So I thought to myself, "Myself, why don't we give it a try?"
The very first card was an easy pick:
Naked Signularity. That covers the basic land types, and the mana symbols, and probably gives you enough information to sync up that lands produce mana and what types they produce. I'd like to choose
Dominaria's Judgment, too, to name the colors and sync
them to lands. So now I have all the land types, and the mana symbols, all the colors, an Artifact and an Instant, and I get 8 more cards.
Cataclysm (White, Sorcery, Types of permanents)
Pegasus Charger (White, Creature, Flying, First Strike, hints at combat)
Rootbreaker Wurm (Green, Creature, Trample)
Blaze (Red, Sorcery)
Goblin Chariot (Red, Creature, Haste)
Cowardice (Blue, Enchantment)
Souls of the Faultless (Multicolored, Creature, Defender)
Razortooth Rats (Black, Creature, Fear)
Swamp (Basic Land)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
