If you have ever bounced off Magic: The Gathering because the rules felt like a part-time job, this one might be for you. Mark Rosewater, the head designer of Magic for nearly three decades, has released Mood Swings, a tiny standalone card game he first dreamed up back in 1998. It's a light strategy game for two to four players, and a two-player game wraps up in five to ten minutes.
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Find events near youRosewater calls it "my love letter to trading card games", and the whole pitch is accessibility. Instead of mana, lands and stacks of rules text, you play cards representing emotions, things like Hope, Anger, Curiosity and Melancholy, spread across Magic's familiar five colours. Each box comes with everything you need to play: 45 cards drawn from a 133-card pool that runs from commons up to mythic rares, with art pulled from sketches of published Magic illustrations. Rosewater has said he spent years playtesting it over lunch with his wife Lora as his only opponent, which tells you how long this idea sat in a drawer.
Mood Swings is sold through Secret Lair, Wizards' direct-to-fan storefront, rather than in shops or booster packs, and it went on sale on 1 June 2026 for about £19 ($24.99), with more reveals promised at MagicCon: Las Vegas. UK players can order it straight from the Secret Lair site. It's the sort of quick filler that's easy to teach and easy to drop in front of a table that doesn't normally touch Magic. Tempted to put it in front of your group? Find a game night near you.
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See how it worksSources: Wizards of the Coast | Secret Lair | Gizmodo
