#1338: The History of Mood Swings
Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast
Wizards of the Coast
4.7 • 802 Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
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Summary
In 1998, I came up with the idea of a more accessible trading card game. That game is called Mood Swings and goes on sale starting June 1 on MagicSecretLair.com. This podcast talks about my 28-year journey to get it made.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for their drive to work. |
| 0:06.5 | Okay, so today I'm very excited to be talking about the history of mood swings. So what is mood swings, you say? |
| 0:15.0 | It is a trading card game. What I've always referred to as a mass market trading card game, but a trading |
| 0:22.1 | card game that's a little more accessible. Magic is an awesome game, but complicated. And so I made |
| 0:27.7 | a simpler trading card game. And I first came of it back in 1998, we're going to talk about that |
| 0:34.5 | today. And it took me 28 years to get it made. |
| 0:38.0 | So how did it take me 28 years? |
| 0:40.0 | What exactly was I doing for 28 years? |
| 0:42.5 | That is today's podcast. |
| 0:43.7 | Today's podcast is literally the history of me trying to get this made. |
| 0:48.6 | So let's start from the very beginning. |
| 0:50.9 | So magic comes out in 1993. |
| 0:53.7 | I start working for magic part-time in |
| 0:56.0 | 1994, doing freelance work. I start working full-time for magic in 1995. And then in 1998, I have the |
| 1:03.4 | following idea. Often when I talk about Richard Garfield's inventing magic, I say there are three |
| 1:10.2 | genius ideas, what I call the golden trifecta. I talk about the color pie, which I love. I talk about the man the system, and I talk about the concept of the trading card game. And I spent a lot of time talking about the collar pie and some about the manned system. I talk less about the trading card game. I talk some, I guess. But I really, really believe trading card games were awesome. |
| 1:30.7 | But one of the things that dawned on me was that trading card games did cool things that I believed lots of players might enjoy. |
| 1:39.3 | But some of the, like, magic, once again, magic best game in the world super fun but it's complicated and my idea was |
| 1:48.0 | I think we could introduce trading card games we were the trading card game company right we could |
| 1:52.7 | introduce trading card games to a wider audience that was my original idea like I was thinking about |
| 1:57.7 | sort of the complexity of games and like magic sits more on the complex side. |
| 2:02.1 | What exactly is a simple trading card game? And once again, something that's fun and compelling, |
... |
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