Rosewater Says Replacing Mana Across a Set Is a Poor Idea

Mark Rosewater answered a question on Blogatog on November 3 about a set where magic and its mana system work differently. He called abandoning mana “seldom a good idea” because it means abandoning Magic’s core resource system.

Rosewater left room for experimentation on “a handful of cards,” while saying most cards need to use mana. He gave no fuller explanation for why leaving the core system behind would be a poor idea. The post answers a hypothetical, not an announcement; the available Wizards announcements contain no announcement of a set that replaces mana.