We spend so much time at the bar or around tables with friends analyzing new sets, debating mechanics, or complaining about the power of certain cards that we sometimes forget the entire process before a card ends up in our booster packs. In his latest article, Making Magic, Mark Rosewater, the Head Designer of Magic, opens the doors to the Wizards studios to explain in detail the process behind the trial and error of the early stages.

To help us understand these steps, which span nearly two and a half years, Mark, aka MaRo, uses a simple metaphor: building a house. Here's what you need to know about the four main stages of creating and testing an upcoming set.

1. Finding the Foundations

Even before drawing up the plans, the exploration team seeks to understand what is possible. She will therefore primarily categorize new mechanic ideas into three bins:

• The good bin: Solid mechanics that deserve to be explored.
• The bad bin: Things that don't work at all.
• The bin to rework: Ideas that have potential but need adjustments.

To test all of this, the designers will create small decks of 30 to 40 cards, in two colors, filled with vanilla cards to avoid skewing the results, and where the mana base is simplified to the extreme to avoid ruining games due to a lack of lands. Once this is done, the team will transfer their results to the team in charge of the set's vision.

2. Architecture and Concept

This is where the foundations are laid. The team will create the very first card pack and begin sampling tests. Members will go through several funnels that will help them determine how to classify the cards.

The designers begin with Sealed playtests, where colors aren't assigned to give everyone the chance to test all the mechanic archetypes. Then, the team assigns colors to ensure equal visibility for each color combination. The cards remain at a very similar power level to encourage players to try them all and thus gather maximum feedback.

Around the third month, the team begins drafting and invites outsiders to provide fresh perspectives on the various changes made up to that point. The Vision Design process concludes with a special draft for the heads of Development and Research, allowing them to initially validate the findings. Next, they gather the entire production studio for what they call the Vision Summit, where the ten pre-constructed decks representing the set's ten archetypes are presented.

3. Building the House

Once the plans are approved, the Set Design team takes over to build the set itself. They replace the prototypes with actual cards, adjust the mana costs, and accelerate the testing process by increasing to several meetings per week.

It's at this stage that Wizards' internal community begins testing the set under real Draft conditions and in Casual Constructed, where they simulate Limited decks that replicate a typical casual player's collection. The feedback becomes much more precise for evaluating how the cards interact with each other within the set's ecosystem. All of this is done concurrently with Play Design, which ensures the game is balanced.

4. Balance

This stage itself is divided into two branches to ensure the cards meet a viable standard in the two main spheres of the game: competitive and casual play.

Competitive Play Design

They run the Future Future League (FFL), a testing environment where they play the Standard format a year ahead of the real world, giving them time to tweak problematic cards before they're released publicly.

Casual Play Design

They run the Casual Play League (CPL), which focuses primarily on the Commander format and preconstructed products to ensure cards are enjoyable in multiplayer formats.

The Cards in Your Hand

Between the initial ideas and the moment a booster pack arrives on our store shelves, there are nearly three years of development, tweaking, and production.

When you open a booster pack or prepare your next draft play, you'll certainly have a better idea of how those cards got into your hands! We'll be waiting for you in-store to conduct our own playtests around one of our tables!