Magic: The Gathering Designer's Response to Product Fatigue Sparks Debate About the Deluge of New Cards

There are a lot of Magic: The Gathering cards coming out these days, and there are a lot of Magic players who think there are too many. But fans don't need to pay attention to every set — according to Magic game designer Mark Rosewater.

Last night, Rosewater posted to his Tumblr to answer a question from a fan about the product fatique players feel from having six Magic sets every year. He replied: "We did some research on this. It turns out a very small minority of Magic players feels a need to track every newly released card. Obviously, this audience tends to be very enfranchised, so they’re over represented online."

"The game already has over 33,000 unique cards," he added. "We’re well past the mark where any one player can mentally track everything."

And it doesn't seem like Wizards of the Coast plans to slow things down any time soon, even if some enfranchised players — myself included …