Richard Garfield

My favorite Magic card is Shaharazed (sp?) I really like the flavor and the surprising metagame affect of the card. I like cards that break rules you don't realize you can break.

Magic's success shocked me and continued to surprise me for years. Very early on it was clear it was a huge success - which I wouldn't have bet on - I knew lots of excellent games that weren't huge successes. Many people thought it was a fad though - which I didn't believe, because I knew the game was excelling on its game play and game play never gets old - games that pass a certain point are better and better the more you play them...

Originally I saw the series going Magic: The Gathering Magic: Ice Age Magic: Menagerie (Became Tempest)

I am not a fan. That said - I think they are pretty exciting and fun to play with. I don't like them because I see every game as having a complexity budget - you can add complexity to your game but you have to make sure it is work it - and planeswalkers blew what I would have seen as several expansions worth of complexity. The investment wasn't worthless - there was a lot of playvalue that emerged from the investment, but for that investment I expect more.

That is a trick question. Goblins are the best AND greatest tribe.

When I gunsling at conventions I bring a handmade deck with mechanics I want to see but think are impossible to make in Magic (except perhaps an unglued version). Cards using dice was one expansion. My favorite however, are cards which steal your opponents cards and put them in your deck - and put cards from your deck in your opponents. For example, 'letter bomb, which is shuffled into your opponents deck and when drawn does damage. And enchantments that give you life every time you draw a card that didn't start the game in your deck. Etc. Etc.

I wish it was cheaper, but am not super unhappy with it, In the early days when there was lots of card speculation I >was< super unhappy until the market crashed and players could afford to play.

For casual players it really isn't a problem - they don't need a lot of cards, I know play groups that get a box of boosters for the group and draft them again and again, then incorporate them in their decks and that can last a long long time. To be a high level player is expensive - but when you compare it to other hobbies - like skiing say, it is doesn't compare poorly. It seems ok that games which are taken that seriously are in the category with skiing rather than monopoly - which you play every once in a while.

Probably Ultra Rare cards. Other nominees are legends (can only play with 1 in play) and planeswalkers.

I stil don't like some of these, but none are as bad as I thought - for example, I don't like ultra rares because I want the game to be affordable for players and I gauge that by the cost of the highest level decks. Ultra Rares are expensive - but their existence also brings down the cost of rares, so... I still don't like it but I do see the appeal for some players, and it isn't as bad as I anticipated.

The changes to Magic are a mixed bag - but more good than bad. Early on I decided the best policy with a game as big as magic was to empower lots of people to help, and that means being supportive and giving advice but letting them make their own mistakes. This has lead to some mistakes in my opinion, but some changes that I didn't realize were right - and a very very talented set of designers running it.

For specifics - one change I didn't like was ultra rare cards. One I did was two sided cards (though inconvenient for draft :-)

My favorite Shahradaz deck was from back in the days where there were no card limits. It was something like 25 Shahradazs, 25 plains and 25 mox pearls.

I'll let you figure out how it works but it takes a LONG time to defeat your opponent.

I am playing (in the last few days...) (Electronic) Card Hunter (of course), TF2 (7 years old still amazing), Quadradius, Solforge (paper) Nations, Blood Bound, Masquerade, Coup And always - some games I am working on...

Yes I did play with it - what a headache - but fun...

I did have a say in it - in fact if memory serves I was asked to create one and had several that I wasn't happy with when that one was proposed.