Mark Rosewater's Comments on the Game Focusing on the Battlefield
General forum
Posted on Oct. 20, 2024, 7:05 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
In this post, Mark Rosewater addresses a fan who is fond of cards that heavily interact with the stack, but Rosewater stated that most players prefer to play with permanents on the battlefield, so WotC shall be focusing more strongly on the battlefield, and I dislike that, because, while creatures are my favorite cards in the game, I enjoy using other cards, as well, and I believe that other players who enjoy interacting with the stack should be allowed to indulge themselves, as well.
What does everyone else say about this? How do you feel about Mark Rosewater's comments, on this matter?
sergiodelrio says... #4
Since board states already can become complex very quickly, I believe the stack, as a zone, needs to be explored more to add strategic depth and design space at some point. Be it with new card types that only work on the stack, or other shenanigans that are stack-only. Not more-of-the-same, but rather actual new real estate on the stack. (My humble opinion anyway)
I understand why WotC are hesitant, but we will eventually get there, just in the same way they were hesitant to go evergreen/deciduous with hybrid and cycle at some point, but later realized how much it helps their design environments.
October 21, 2024 5:07 a.m.
FormOverFunction says... #5
Here are a few quick “I just woke up and barely know where I am” comments: (1) think that The Stack is still the biggest hurdle for new players, so I can see why they’d be hesitant to do more with it (2) one could argue that there have been a number of sets devoted to the stack, with all of the spell copying and whatnot of Strixhaven as an example (3) with all of the creatures now having at least one ability… it seems like The Stack is being used as much now as ever, even when you’re ignoring counterspells.
October 21, 2024 8:14 a.m.
I feel like Rosewater often gives his opinions a lot of the time in the context of "wotc is following this train of thought" but is it always true? Like, remember "we understand that energy was a mistake" and now there is a dominant meta energy deck in modern. I mean, I think he has a lot of ideas on how the game should look, I'm just not sure how much of that translates into what happens. He's often seen by us players as the voice of wotc, but it really seems like at wotc he's just a voice. And that's okay, they need a public persona, but I do think it does player/fans of magic a bit of a disservice because you never have any idea if the ideas Rosewater is stating to the public will pan out into actual design or not.
October 21, 2024 7:38 p.m.
Bookrook That's kinda in line with split second, which shows up once in a while. I wouldn't expect too much more, though.
wallisface says... #2
Imo tgere’s nothing to indicate wotc are going to reduce their quantity of stack-interaction - just that there’s no intention to explore further in this domain. Note that the only cards that directly interact with the stack at the moment are counterspells (you could argue instants and abilities can also interact with the stack, but they’re generally more of a timing-thing and less of a stack-interaction-thing).
What do you think we’re missing out on? How do you think the game could be improved by moving focus more towards the stack (and, by extension, away from the easily-representable boardstate of the game)??
October 20, 2024 7:27 p.m.