In a special Wizards of the Coast press release today, Magic: the Gathering spokesman Mark Rosewater unveiled a new feature to appear on the card face of upcoming Magic cards. Starting with Magic's next set, Champions of Kamigawa, Magic cards will include a new "Limited Box" on the bottom of the card.

"Here at Wizards our number one priority, among other things, is making our games appealing to new players," explained Rosewater. "As such, we are constantly surveying newer players to find out what they like and don't like. When surveyed, an alarming 93% of new players said that they find drafting to be too hard and/or confusing. This is a stat that we at Wizards cannot live with."

"We have tried many things to remedy this problem," Rosewater continued. "For example in the Mirrodin block we made artifacts a strong theme so that it was virtually impossible to end up with a draft deck that cannot support its own colors. But alas, the newer players continued to draft poorly, no matter how easy we made the environment. We tried every other possibility, but Fireballs were still going twelfth pick in our test drafts."

"So, we at Wizards have made the executive decision of creating the 'Limited Box'. This box, found right at the bottom of the card's artwork, will help players who are having trouble drafting. Strangely enough, in testing it also allowed Zvi to make even more outrageous picks."

"You see, we gathered together many of your favorite Limited Magic pros, such as Ken Krouner, Mike Turian, and others, and had them evaluate every card in Champions of Kamigawa. And now you can find their advice, right there on the card! The 'Limited Box' will tell you which pick to take the card, and categorize it as 'Bomb', 'Highly Playable', 'Playable', 'Barely Playable' or 'Unplayable'. In our tests newbies were easily able to draft decks that would not disgust God himself."

With that, Mark revealed a few pictures to show what the change would look like:



Young players are overwhelmingly in support of this change. "Before the 'Limited Box', I would try very hard to make logical drafting choices, but I would always end up choosing based on the picture or the just take the strongest monster," Timmy Mathews explained. "Now I just need to look at the numbers and choose the biggest one."

"Um… actually you're supposed to take the one with the smallest number," Rosewater interrupted, shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

Players committed to Magic flavor have voiced their opinion against the change, claiming that the change will take away a huge portion of the artwork. "Maintaining our current player base is Wizards' number one priority," Rosewater responded. "If anyone has something to say about new ideas, they can submit their opinion online, where we may eventually review it."

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!

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In a special Wizards of the Coast press release today, Magic: the Gathering spokesman Mark Rosewater unveiled a new feature to appear on the card face of upcoming Magic cards. Starting with Magic's next set, Champions of Kamigawa, Magic cards will include a new "Limited Box" on the bottom of the card.

"Here at Wizards our number one priority, among other things, is making our games appealing to new players," explained Rosewater. "As such, we are constantly surveying newer players to find out what they like and don't like. When surveyed, an alarming 93% of new players said that they find drafting to be too hard and/or confusing. This is a stat that we at Wizards cannot live with."

"We have tried many things to remedy this problem," Rosewater continued. "For example in the Mirrodin block we made artifacts a strong theme so that it was virtually impossible to end up with a draft deck that cannot support its own colors. But alas, the newer players continued to draft poorly, no matter how easy we made the environment. We tried every other possibility, but Fireballs were still going twelfth pick in our test drafts."

"So, we at Wizards have made the executive decision of creating the 'Limited Box'. This box, found right at the bottom of the card's artwork, will help players who are having trouble drafting. Strangely enough, in testing it also allowed Zvi to make even more outrageous picks."

"You see, we gathered together many of your favorite Limited Magic pros, such as Ken Krouner, Mike Turian, and others, and had them evaluate every card in Champions of Kamigawa. And now you can find their advice, right there on the card! The 'Limited Box' will tell you which pick to take the card, and categorize it as 'Bomb', 'Highly Playable', 'Playable', 'Barely Playable' or 'Unplayable'. In our tests newbies were easily able to draft decks that would not disgust God himself."

With that, Mark revealed a few pictures to show what the change would look like:



Young players are overwhelmingly in support of this change. "Before the 'Limited Box', I would try very hard to make logical drafting choices, but I would always end up choosing based on the picture or the just take the strongest monster," Timmy Mathews explained. "Now I just need to look at the numbers and choose the biggest one."

"Um… actually you're supposed to take the one with the smallest number," Rosewater interrupted, shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

Players committed to Magic flavor have voiced their opinion against the change, claiming that the change will take away a huge portion of the artwork. "Maintaining our current player base is Wizards' number one priority," Rosewater responded. "If anyone has something to say about new ideas, they can submit their opinion online, where we may eventually review it."

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!

Related Stories

• Fifth Dawn to Feature Animated "Super-Premium" Cards
• New Card Face Doubleplusgood
• "The new designs will grow on you," says Mark "Bling-Bling" Rosewater