In General: A New Paradigm for Core Sets

As you might have noticed, I am a fan of Magic 2015. It has juice, it has story lines, it has nostalgia, it has the 'new', and it has sparked more conversation than any core set I can remember...which is all of them. I love it. Plain and simple. But that doesn't mean I think it is perfect...

In the modern game, core sets behave more like expert expansions than the core sets of yore. It is strange to me that core sets now seem to contain more new cards than reprints. When I picture core set limited, I picture a very low power cube. It has basically everything you would expect and only a few new things. The mechanics would be restricted to the most basic, most common elements in order to keep the experience easily digestible. This is the version of your game that anyone can play, right when they pick it up. If a person has played Cube, but never played YOUR Cube they wouldn't need to much training to get into the swing of things. That is the goal for core set.

Somewhere along the line that all changed. Core sets are now just slightly more nostalgic expert sets. They can't produce a completely new mechanic, but they can freely print previous expert-level mechanics. Side note: does anyone still use the beginner, intermediate, expert terminology when referring to Magic sets?

I am thinking of a different model for core sets; for what an introductory product would look like. Instead of using core set as an avenue to produce new things that you want to see get made, or instead of using a rotating card pool to control what gets played in Standard;  make periodic updates to the SAME SET trying to hone it until it is perfect for the game of Magic. At least as far as an introductory product goes. Obviously that changes slightly, but consistently over time, so you will have to make up-dates and release a new version of the product every so often to hit those moving targets.

You know, that sounds kind of familiar. That is what core set USED TO BE. Here is THE GAME. There are other parts of it, but those are just modules that you fit onto this basic set.

I have some unsubstantiated thoughts of my own. Here is a completely unsorted, unregulated, unrestrained stream of hypothetical questions I have that could help re-imagine the core set as a product for beginners.

• Perhaps it should be on an as-needed basis instead of on the yearly model. Smaller, less frequent updates would help build consistency. This could help all players establish the same foundation for understanding the rules and basic strategies.
• What if you had set releases specifically designed for constructed and limited separately? Limited adds a new layer of complexity to an already difficult-to-understand game. Maybe we don't have to use one product to accomplish both of these goals.
• Expanding on that, you could market them differently. Bomb rares wouldn't ruin limited. Worthless commons wouldn't clog up your packs when you are looking for tournament quality cards. 
• What if, like Richard Garfield originally imagined, you played with these sets of cards independent of other sets, or in a modular fashion, instead of treating them as part of one giant mass?

This isn't a diatribe about how core sets suck. This isn't a rallying cry that they need to change. Ever since this Magic 2010 thing Core Sets have been getting a little...awesome. Instead, this is an inquiry: what does it do? Is that what we want it to do? How can it do that thing better?

Starter 1999, 2000, and the Portal series were attempts at this concept, but they ended up being too similar to a 'normal' set. They changed the rules instead of just changing the format. They didn't prepare you well enough for 'real Magic'.

All of this got me thinking. The game is hard to learn and hard to teach, but what if we had a tool to facilitate that? What if we had like a...Beginner's Cube. A small, tightly focused play environment where all the decks are pre-constructed. Specifically designed to easy to be use, but also to allow you to progress to higher difficulties. Sort of like the 40-card promo 'decks' that Wizards gives away at certain events, but with much more design work and much more potential for expansion.

This lead me to two possible designs for a prototype.

1. A very small set, less than 360 cards for sure. Each color would have maybe 3 rares 8 uncommons and 10-15 commons that would showcase the most common themes and mechanics in the game. This is for the real first timers. A kiddie pool if you will.
2. The second model would be large, 1000 cards or less, with only a few cards being printed in multiples. This would include every mechanic, in every color, for the ENTIRE history of the game. This is like the encyclopedia. The living, playing history of the game. You get to see it all, but just a few bites at a time and the cards that are shown are the simplest to understand. These are the hooks, the cards that get you into playing and designing with these mechanics. This would give you a small taste of what Magic has to offer, while showing you a little bit of everything there is to find out there in the game. You could really engender a sense of the game's rich history by including popular cards that have significant design choices or historical anecdotes.

Wouldn't that be great? If the flavor text on a card wasn't just some vapid nonsense, but instead told you something about why the card exists, how and when it was used, and how it fits into the larger picture of the game I would be just BESIDE MYSELF with joy. 

So here is my challenge to you, Zoners! Do you ever teach new players the game? Don't you wish it were a littler easier to get them to understand the nuances? Design a set for them. Make the Beginner's Cube and try it out. See if you can improve the translation of your experience into their learning. And of course, let me know how it works out! Feel free to share your designs here on the blog. In a few months, after I have spent some time building and refining my own, I will circle the wagons to discuss my experiences. Until then let us do our best to make the game that we all love as appealing and inviting to new fans as possible.

-GG