Mark Rosewater Reveals Mood Swings, His 28-Year-Old TCG Pet Project

Mark Rosewater, head designer of Magic: The Gathering, has finally pulled out the card game he's been chasing for 28 years. Mood Swings hits MagicSecretLair.com on 1 June for $24.99 (about £20), and it's the most stripped-down trading card game Wizards of the Coast has ever published. Two to four players, five to ten minutes per game, and a single rule card.

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The setup is unusual. There's no mana, no life points, and no deckbuilding. Each card is an emotion (Ambition, Patience, Rage, Triumph) with a number value and a one-line ability. You play a card, your opponent plays one, highest value wins the round, first to three rounds takes the game. Ambition lets you play two cards. Wrath wipes your score but cancels your opponents' plays.

Rosewater first came up with Mood Swings in 1998, three years after Magic launched. "I came up with Mood Swings in 1998 and for 28 years I've been trying to make this game," he told Wargamer, describing his superpower as "persistence-slash-stubbornness." He says emotions made better universal hooks than fantasy settings, since everyone has felt rage or triumph but not everyone connects with elves and dragons.

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The card pool covers 133 unique cards, split across the familiar Magic five-colour wheel and rarities (48 commons, 40 uncommons, 30 rares, 15 mythic rares). Each $24.99 deck gives you 45 randomised cards, so chasing the full set means buying multiple boxes. Art comes from sketches by published Magic artists, but the game stands alone with no ties to MTG's multiverse. First public play happens at MagicCon Las Vegas before the 1 June Secret Lair drop.

If you've ever taught Magic to a friend and watched their eyes glaze over by turn three, this might be the entry point you've been waiting for. Five-minute games and one rule card make it ideal filler between heavier games. Time to round up the group, find a game night near you and put a few decks on the table.

Sources: Wizards of the Coast | Wargamer | Gizmodo | Game Informer