Magic: the Gathering Head Designer Mark Rosewater Explains Why You Should Be Excited For Modern Horizons

Wizards of the Coast

Yesterday, Wizards of the Coast announced this year's innovative Magic: The Gathering product, Modern Horizons, a set that includes new cards and reprints that will be legal for the Modern format. Only a few details have been revealed and a couple of new cards from the upcoming set and it won't be released until this June but Magic head designer Mark Rosewater is already teasing fans with some interesting details about the upcoming supplemental set.

When a fan asked Rosewater what makes Modern Horizon innovative and exciting, he revealed that the product was pitched with a focus on Magic's creative and mechanical history and not the "direct to Modern" concept. Here's Rosewater's full response from his Blogatog:

"I think the best way to explain why this set is applicable to more than just Modern players is to go back to where the set began. When Ethan and I first pitched this set in the Hackathon, here's what we said, "One of the cool things about a supplemental set is that we can focus on ideas that we're unwilling to do in a Standard-legal set. What if we took off the shackles and just made a set full of cards that we know players would love, but are hard to do with all the limitations that come with a normal Magic set. What if we dove deep into the creative and mechanical elements of Magic's twenty-five year history and just had a blast designing cards? We could make something really awesome." It took us the week of the Hackathon to put together our proof of concept, but once everyone saw it, we were given the green light. And then we had a lot of fun making a very interesting set. You don't have to be a Modern player to love Modern Horizons just a Magic player."

It sounds like they had a lot of fun designing powerful cards without the limits of a Standard-legal set. Last month, Rosewater said that Modern Horizons will make an impact in the Modern format so the set will probably contain a significant amount of cards that will be playable in competitive Modern.

When another fan asked if Modern Horizons will have a limited print run, Rosewater said that it won't. The details Rosewater revealed just adds to the excitement for the upcoming innovative Magic set, and we can't wait to find out more cards that will be coming for Modern Horizons when the official previews begin this May.

Modern Horizons will be released on June 14. Prerelease events will take place on June 8 and 9. The prerelease events will be Draft, not Sealed. Previews will begin at the end of May.

Related:MTG Artist Tony DiTerlizzi Reveals The Faces Behind Some Old School Cards