Magic: The Gathering head designer reveals Mood Swings, a new card game 28 years in the making

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Magic: The Gathering's publisher has revealed a brand-new prototype, and it's aimed squarely at anyone who finds trading card games too complex.

Created by Magic: The Gathering head designer Mark Rosewater, "Mood Swings" is a card game 28 years in the making for 2-4 players with matches that should only last 5-10 minutes when played head-to-head. Despite using the same five-color system seen in MTG and many of the best card games, it's also far more straightforward and can be played right out of the box.

While Mood Swings is described as a "love letter to trading card games," Rosewater admits in the announcement that TCGs can be complicated – so this is his attempt at making something simpler. Indeed, he makes it clear in the announcement video that it's modelled after mass-market card games you can just pull off a shelf and start playing right away.

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However, no two packs will really be the same. Each one contains a ready-to-go 45-card deck, but the contents are randomized. There are 133 Mood Swings cards in total (48 commons, 40 uncommons, 30 rares, and 15 mythic rares), so everyone will literally bring something different to the table.

In terms of how it works, each card in Mood Swings is based on an emotion or mood. These feature sketches from published Magic art across the iconic MTG mana spectrum (red, blue, white, black, and green), and your aim is to get the highest score by adding the value of all cards in play. Win three rounds to claim victory.

We don't have a release date yet for Mood Swings, but it's apparently "coming soon." Watch this space, in other words.

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Benjamin AbbottTabletop & Merch Editor

I've been writing about games in one form or another since 2012, but these days you'll find me managing GamesRadar+'s tabletop gaming and toy coverage (I spend my time here handling everything from board game reviews to the latest Lego news). I've also been obsessed with Warhammer since the 1990s, and love nothing more than running tabletop RPGs like D&D as a Dungeon Master.

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