Zach Barash

@ImproPhilo

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Tell Me Your Problems

Game designers tend to respond much better to problems than to solutions, even when the solutions seem obvious.

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Design of a Card: Mnemonic Sphere

How many designs can you name that led to Mnemonic Sphere? There are plenty more than just Courier’s Capsule.

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Managing Complexity on Kamigawa

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty manages to squeeze more text onto its cards than any other set, and yet it works.

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Mechanics in Review: Ikoria

Mechanics in Review goes back to spring 2020, a time many of us would rather have forgotten, but like Companion, we’re still living with.

Card Kingdom

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Design of a Card: Ecologist’s Terrarium

The latest descendent of Braidwood Sextant humbly impresses by doing things we’ve seen hundreds of times before in a never before seen package.

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Design of a Card: Moon-Circuit Hacker

Moon-Circuit Hacker is powerful, nuanced, and a microcosm of current Magic’s strengths and weaknesses.

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Design Callbacks in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is chock full of mechanics hiding in plain sight without their identifying keywords.

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2021 Mechanics in Review—Kaldheim

We finish out our series on all the new premier mechanics of 2021 with the set that started it all: Kaldheim.

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2021 Mechanics in Review—Strixhaven

There’re Lessons to be Learned as examine the inner workings of Magecraft.

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Design of a Card: Key to the Archive

Zach finally got to play with Arena’s newest mechanic—spellbooks—thanks to Arena Cube.

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2021 Mechanics in Review—Crimson Vow

Blood, Training, and Cleave go under the spotlight.