Wizards of the Coast announced Mystery Booster 2 at Gen Con last week, and then immediately gave Magic: The Gathering fans the chance to play it in a draft. As a result, images of this product’s experimental, hand drawn ‘playtest’ cards have been doing the rounds on social media.
From a card that just targets a permanent and does nothing else to one that pokes gentle fun at strategy board games, there’s been lots to laugh about – and some genuinely interesting designs to coo at too. But it appears now that a pattern is starting to show up: a cycle of cards that reference other trading card games.
Perhaps the most fun of these references is ‘Heart of a Duelist’, based on a common phrase from Yugioh. It refers to the idea that you can come back from an impossible position if you just believe (in the heart of the cards). It appears to work in the anime, where the heroes constantly draw just the tool they need, but in real life the results seem less reliable.
This blue card’s effect is super flavorful. It lets you draw cards from anywhere, not just the top of your deck. You can’t look at them beforehand though, so you’ve really got to use your finely-honed instincts to find the card you need.
Next, we have a red playtest card, Snap Judgement. It’s a little bit subtle, but from the name and the effect, we think this has gotta be a reference to Marvel Snap. After you cast Snap Judgement, whoever wins the current game wins the (BO3) match overall. It’s a reference to the risk/reward mechanic from Marvel Snap that pays you off if you wager you’ll win the game.
In this MTG version, you have to contend with the five mana cost for playing this card, so it’ll be hard to find room to cast it unless things are going very well for you, in which case your opponent can concede in response. It’d be a baller move to play this when a match is still anybody’s game, though.
Finally, we come to Lich’s Duel Mastery. This is a more straightforward reference to Duel Masters, effectively switching your life total for the shields mechanic from that TCG. Duel Masters is also published by Wizards of the Coast (in case you didn’t know) which perhaps explains why the reference in this case is able to be so on the nose. We actually prefer the more
We’ve got a blue, a red, and a black entry to this cycle, but will Mystery Booster 2 have the full five? Surely there’s got to be a reference to the Pokemon TCG somewhere, and after that who knows? Hearthstone? Slay the Spire? Perhaps a relative newcomer like One Piece?
For more Magic: The Gathering content, check out this list of every MTG set, and our guide to the best MTG commanders in the game.
Source: Wargamer
