Rekindling New Magic
Opening up Once Upon a Galaxy's new set feels like the best parts of my early experiences Magic: The Gathering
Lots of people have spent lots of writing talking about how rough Magic: The Gathering feels right now, and how the Wizards of the Coast response feels so sad and shallow. But needless to say the… erhemm… magic is gone, as it were. And I don’t think it’s coming back anytime soon (if ever).
I’m old enough to have some of my primary experiences with trading cards be from the feeling of ripping open packs at a prerelease having no idea what anything did and trying to piece it together on the fly. That act of discovery and problem solving was enchanting and engaging. There are a lot of very good reasons (mostly the internet) why recreating that specific experience is impossible. Card lists are known well in advance, players practice optimal strategies and a set of mechanics get solved very quickly now.
That said, it also feels like the goal of creating that sense of wonder and joy has disappeared just a little bit too. It’s been replaced by a focus on recognition and association. Instead of finding something new you might like, it’s about finding something you already like in something you already know. And it makes Magic feel just a little bit smaller. There’s a disappointment not from the novelty, or from the idea that other IP are “invading” Magic, but from the way that the specialness of it all feels like it got lost, just a little bit.
Instead, I’d like to spend some time shining on a different game. A game that I’ve already spent some time talking about,
but is worth highlighting further: Once Upon a Galaxy.
Once Upon a Galaxy is a quick asynchronous autobattler where you draft and upgrade a set of 5 cards across 10(ish) rounds to out duel your opponents. It’s got all of the interactive combos of strategy of a trading card game in a bite sized (and phone sized) package.
Now available across Android, iOS, and Steam, Galaxy just released it's first major set, Candylar. And that signifies a milestone for a game that is trying to make a name for itself, answering questions about whether or not it can evolve and explore new ideas while still keeping a solid underlying core.
Evolving from Magic
It feels like an evolution of the trading card game design that’s been iterated on for decades now, and it’s designed by Magic pros and game designers. So while I’m not trying to evaluate the games against one another it is interesting to look at how each of them has responded to general trends in player interactivity and lore design. It’s hard not to see these decisions at least somewhat in conversation with one another.
For me, the most important part of a card game is the way that the abilities of any individual card make you feel. Does each card feel like a new possibility space opening up in front of you? Does it feel like its own universe? Or just another component to be dissected and categorized.
The Candylar cards spark that same level of imagination and wonder that Magic used to for me. It’s been awesome and exhilarating to experience each run and see how the new cards and abilities interact with each other, and how the themes of the set play out both in the mechanics and the artwork. It has the fresh feeling the way that Magic used to when a new set would come out. Each round feels like a new experience where I get to try something out or explore something new.
The Comparisons
Galaxy builds upon the drafting mechanism that Magic popularized but it wraps the entire game around it, so that every run is a unique experience. Magic attempted something similar with it’s “Pick Two” variant that hasn’t seemed to catch on. Galaxy is built around drafting so every run becomes a unique experience. Magic has to deal with all of these messy things like deck-building and round construction.1 What’s exciting about the draft construction for Galaxy is that it solves a bunch of problems that trading card games generally have.
Because you have to start by building up a “deck” of common cards first, you routinely have to interact with them and understand them, instead of discarding them for something more powerful (or lamenting their existence). And playing this way makes the later stages of the game, when you finally get to draft the heavy hitters, even more special, with every card feeling like it might have maximal impact.
Secondly, remix culture (to name drop a 2000’s term) is fully part of making stuff now. And Galaxy has that at its core. The IP that it relies on is a combination of fables and mythical storytelling along with references to pop culture like “Battered Star Galactica”. Magic has also tried its hand at its own IP blends with ever increasing Universes Beyond crossovers that attempt to craft entire sets out of a single IP.
The tongue-in-cheek references that Galaxy makes gets to feel like it retains its own identity, whereas Magic’s attempts feel more like wholesale shipping out the identity of Magic in order to capture new markets. What Galaxy ends up doing is having a card like “Battered Star Galactica” sit alongside “Chubby Cheap”2. The experience of having these cards work together feels fun, playful, and silly, rather than like anachronistic clashes between competing visions.
Design and Markets
None of this is really meant to be a critique of the design of Magic. It’s easy to understand why someone would look at Magic and also look at how the media landscape is and see that it has to evolve in order to survive. It feels like there’s a choice in there where Magic could still retain some of its… again… erhemm… magic, and what makes it unique and special, instead of trying to attach itself to other properties.
I’m not trying to say this is an either/or decision where you have to pick one game or the other. But right now, Galaxy shows is how it is possible to create a new experience that has deeply considered design craft, that fits within shorter attention spans, and that still has the strategic depth and interest without trying to find gimmicks or stapled add-ons. But from a company and vision perspective, it’s both hard not to feel like Magic has at least somewhat lost its way, and also not to feel a little bit happy that some spark continues to exist in the world inspiring future iteration and design innovation.
The joy of discovery and the joy of recognition are both powerful driving factors for experience and interest, and both have roles to play. But the joy of discovery is something personal that you get to explore and experience for yourself and then connect to other people’s experiences and discoveries. The joy of recognition is fun but is less robust, I think. It comes with a bunch of ideas that are predetermined. When I recognize something I get to transfer a bunch of ready built opinions on top of it. And while both are important, it is often too easy (especially in our current brand driven culture) to let recognition drive the discovery all the way out.
Recognition can and should lead to discovery and it is amazing to see Once Upon a Galaxy pick up the baton and continue to push game experiences forward by blending old with new.
This isn’t really a critique of Magic as there are lots of reasons that Magic’s formats are really wonderful and joyful. But it is a reason why simply “making it snappier” won’t actually make it more competitive with modern games coming out.
It feels all too similar to how baseball has managed to evolve to make games quicker and eliminate some of the elements that reduced fun (like the shift) without destroying the fundamental elements that made the game fun. And it feels like Magic could try to do something similar.
Statistically speaking given their relative rarity I’m sure that’s somewhat unlikely… but work with me here.