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Managed to check Ghalta Trophy off the FRA bucket list. Started the draft by just trying to force with p1p1 Ghalta p1p2 Traxos. #wotcstaff

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That's all from me today. May you find your own Way in the Reality Fracture Drafts! #wotcstaff

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We really wanted one Way to grant a plus ability, because that is a very clear, exciting dream for your Jace tokens. Putting it on a cheap Way was a bit risky, but the dream curve of Way of the Pyromancer->Chandra->Ajani in Constructed was too tempting.

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We knew people would want to draft the all-Way deck (even though they're not that synergistic) so we made them combo when we could. Mind Sculptor used to grant -3: Draw two cards, but we made it synergize better. Paradox picked up lifegain specifically to combo with Mentor

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Not every Way could be strong in Limited, some of them just had cool designs. But because they come in pairs, we tried to ensure that every pair has at least one Way that does something generic in Limited. We didn't want some packs to have a bunch of Limited junk uncommons.

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Way of the Wildspeaker and Way of the Mind Sculptor were the two most important Ways: They directly supported the UG Empower Jace archetype and were clear rewards for drafting other EJ cards. We spent a lot of attention making sure they were in the upper echelon of uncommons.

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Because the Ways were deeply related to the key mechanic of the set, Empower Jace, we thought it would be fun and unique for the set to make them strong. We steadily upped the EJ numbers as we went, though we avoided EJ6 since that's typically just drawing two cards.

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Creatures are by far the easiest card type to develop, because they have two extra knobs to turn: power and toughness. Buildaround enchantments are some of the hardest. They often don't impact the board immediately, and so can play out weaker than intended.

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The Ways were made just before I first joined the team. We weren't sure if there was enough design space for a full 10 slots, but I remember arguing for their inclusion. Having noncreatures appear in the Paired Legend slot would make packs feel more different and increase variety

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Jeremy Geist @jeremygeist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Reality Fracture has been out for a few days now, and I hope you're all having as much fun as I am (my most recent draft I named "assassin" with Kindred Judgment to instantly kill with Massacre Girl). Today I figured I'd talk about the Way enchantments! #wotcstaff

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Reposted by Ben Weitz

Today's #mtgfracture post is about the set's colorshifted rares! #wotcstaff

The Magic: the Gathering card Hexhaven Invigorator

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Ben Weitz @bsweitz123.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

10-2-1 and Best-of Vex acquired :). Happy with my play overall (I won some really tight and crazy games), though my losses were preventable. Needed a better Kennen plan, all my non-wins were to the rat. Riftbound fun game.

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Jeremy Geist @jeremygeist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Good evening! Would you like to learn some of useless minutia about #mtgfracture 's mirrored pair sheet? I mean of course you would, who wouldn't? #wotcstaff

The Magic: the Gathering card "Chandra, Torch of Defiance"

The Magic: the Gathering card Chandra, Chill of Compliance

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Ben Weitz @bsweitz123.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

WOTC internal prerelease was today and I drafted this RW masterpiece in Reality Fracture. Molten Tide+Ajanis Anguish finished a few games for me nicely, and I also cast Kiora on turn 4 with it. #wotcstaff

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Ben Weitz @bsweitz123.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

… getting both Chandras is hilarious. No Red Ajani tho :(

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Reposted by Ben Weitz

Jeremy Geist @jeremygeist.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Now that all of #mtgfracture has been revealed, I am excited to go in depth on Empower Jace! I am very proud of it. #wotcstaff

The Magic: the Gathering card Mindseeker Oculus

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Ben Weitz @bsweitz123.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I have so many decks on my bucket list to draft

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The two winters care about a bunch of different card types between them and that just felt right :)

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That's all from me for today. I'll probably start talking about Constructed cards soon. Hope you find these peeks behind the curtain interesting! #wotcstaff

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Traxos went through a ton of changes, but I quite like where we ended up. Feels transgressively powerful when discounted, but doesn't attack for a ton. The game has some time to breathe. Ideally Traxos is better in controlling UR/UB decks, but still playable in aggressive ones!

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By contrast, Ghalta is just doing his own thing not related to the 10 color pairs. Ghalta should add a fun quest to chase in the draft for players who have drafted enough to get bored of the "normal" decks, or who prefer to look for wackier decks.

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One of the hardest aspects of the paired legends was balancing how many were bespoke buildarounds vs. tying into set themes. Saheeli used to be purely top-down oppressive with a Kismet ability. But caring about surveil still felt evil-Consulate, and we needed more support for UW.

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Loot is ... a very strange magic card. It is hard to grok just what the first ability makes possible, so we wanted to give him another ability that teaches the player a little about what you're supposed to do. Once you know to look for -N/-0 effects, you can find some crazy stuff

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It was important to us that characters with a popular Commander get a card that is plausible in the 99. Hapatra isn't super powerful, but she synergizes well with her AKH card. Normally we avoid mixing -1/-1 and +1/+1 counters, but felt it was fine here since the target dies 99%

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Today I decided to talk a little bit about the mirrored legends of FRA. These cards were very difficult to design and develop: They have loads of constraints and high expectations. We were up to the challenge though, and I think they turned out really sweet! 1/N

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I'll post some more when I feel like it. Probably next week sometime. Excited to watch early access and see what people start doing! #wotcstaff

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I could write many threads on the paired legends in FRA (and I probably will). They were incredibly hard: They want to be mirrors, but also resonant, but also standalone interesting but also combine in cool ways but also tie into set themes. You can see a chain of synergies here:

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When I joined the team, set lead @yoniskolnik.bsky.social told me the BG archetype was Deathtouch+Trample. I told him that wasn't a real archetype. I got converted at some point because there's a lot in the set! We wanted FRA to feel cubey and "comboing" commons this way was great for that.

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Big Green Doofuses are difficult to design. They shouldn't suck into removal spells but also shouldn't kill people too uninteractively. I LOVED Karakyk Guardian, so I decided to run it back for a flavorful legend. Having some Anti-Blue cards felt appropriate for the setting too.

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Empower Jace was a neat mechanic to balance! We decided EJ 2 was clearly the most fun number: you have to combine it with another EJ card to get the full draw, so there's a lot of those. But there are other neat tricks, like making sac fodder or giving Concentrate a downside

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Alison Lührs @alisontheperson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Alright, full FRA spoiler is out so it's time to deliver on some inside stories from design. I was on the Set Design team for a long time, but I was also the lead Limited Developer for FRA, so today I wanted to talk a little bit about some commons and uncommons! #wotcstaff

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Reposted by Ben Weitz

Roy absolutely killed it. If you enjoyed Reality Fracture PLEASE give him a well-earned congratulations. Planning an arc from start to finish is a huge accomplishment, and his direction made it possible! Amazing job Roy!!

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Roy Graham @grayhaem.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

And that’s a wrap on the story we started three years ago, with Wilds of Eldraine. This one had a special place in my heart—it’s the end of the first arc I had the honor of planning start to finish. So thanks, if you’ve been reading all this time (or even if you just came in at the end)

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Ben Weitz @bsweitz123.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I haven’t posted about Magic Design in a long time but I worked really hard on #mtgfracture and I’m very proud of the set (especially limited) so I might be a bit insufferable and post a bunch of fun facts about the cards once we get the full spoiler. #wotcstaff

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I think the t8 one is double-counted. They gave that to the t8 but I also got one for the draft that qualified me

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For someone who prefers 1v1 Magic, I strongly recommend anyone on the fence to go next year. Madison is a bit hard to get to but it’s absolutely worth it. Really drives home how much everyone loves playing Magic and how many different ways there are to play. #wotcstaff.

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The CubeCon tournament itself is also incredibly well run. Ranking cubes can be a little tedious, but we were at a sweet spot of number of cubes and I felt like there were lots of options while not being overwhelmed. The available experiences are diverse, casual and competitive.

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The creativity at CubeCon is amazing and the unfiltered love for Magic that overflows the room makes me really proud to help design the game. Someone will find a use for every card we make, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of spotting personal favorites sneak into cubes.

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It was much easier to find if people were playing my cubes this year (maybe there were fewer in the main event?). I really enjoyed birding, and it looked like players were having a blast, even at Combo Cube (I was worried people would just draft nonfunctional decks).

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Last year @gavinverhey.bsky.social beat me in the Retro Foil cube to end my tournament. I enjoyed the cube though so I wanted to run it back and I ended up redeeming myself and trophied to make top 8. Watching Collective Restraints hold back 14 creatures (even with gaeas cradle) was awesome.

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