Imagining a world where Netrunner came out first and all trading card games were asymmetric by default. Imagining a world where red, white, blue, black and green in MTG each had completely different decks, game rules and win conditions.
Magic: The Gathering is a little problematic in this regard, because the big thing its games are "about" are spells and magical effects, but because the world that they affect has so little definition in comparison, the spells have little explanatory grounding as a result.
Land cards (and their antecedents in other "dudebasher" TCGs like Legends Of Runeterra) are interesting to think about in Netrunner terms because they are simultaneously credits, clicks, AND basic actions – bearing the weight of basically the whole game's structure.
Thinking about the Magic: The Gathering "golden trifecta" of game ideas that were vital to its success:
• The concept of a "trading card game" in general
• 5 colours, to force specific builds
• Land cards, that make games volatile (arguably useful when the card pool was small)
To me, the "golden trifecta" of Netrunner, as Richard Garfield designed it, would be:
• The asymmetry
• The basic actions (that you can always use without needing a card)
• Clicks (as a second, constant resource that loosely constrains how many actions a turn can contain)
Right now both Netrunner and Magic: The Gathering are running pro tournament streams on their companies' respective Twitch accounts, and it's a real jarring contrast of two different kinds of quality.
Lands……………
It's kind of wild to think about how Netrunner decks only allow 3 of each card name, AND random discard is a major mechanic in almost every matchup, and it still has fewer blowouts than standard MTG.
Magic: The Gathering put all the weapons from Clue in a recent set… pretty sly, Hasbro.
*opens Microsoft Word with every single toolbar enabled and starts typing* One of the oldest, most resilient, and most consistently popular Magic: The Gathering decks is "Tron", named in honour of Mega Man Legends character Tr
*I hear that Magic: The Gathering is doing a murder mystery themed set* Okay, uhhhhhhhhh……………… um…………… err…………………… uh…………………hmm………………… um………………………………………………………when, uh……………When my spell is red, it can't be countered??????
Competitive Magic: The Gathering is a game that embraces the maxim "it doesn't matter who wins or loses, as long as it's skillful and entertaining", mainly because the actual winning and losing is definitely not entertaining >:)))))
Just watched a live Magic: The Gathering tournament finals stream and, as expected, it consisted of four two-minute games and one very close twenty-minute game.
I like how, when Wizards Of The Coast invented withdrawing cards from the premier tournament-legal card pool, they called it "rotation", as if to implicitly promise that the departing cards were ever going to return, instead of consigning them to the game design dustbin.
Reading the Magic: The Gathering subreddit
The three Magic: The Gathering "player archetypes" (Timmy, Johnny, Spike) are actually pretty good at describing versus puzzle game designs.
Pochi & Nyaa, for instance, is a peak Spike game. You only play it if you want the joy of outplaying your opponent.
Ever think about how "Little Timmy" (Mario Maker level design archetype) and "Timmy" (Magic: The Gathering deck design archetype) are named after the same hypothetical six-year-old boy
"Versus puzzle gamers can't count" is the "Magic: The Gathering players can't read" of versus puzzle games