Last updated on May 13, 2026
Daydream | Illustration by Nia Kovalevski
If you've been drafting any of the sets so far this year, you may have noticed a trend of sets having five draftable archetypes instead of the normal ten. Mark Rosewater, head designer of Magic: The Gathering, answered a question about this topic on his blog yesterday, but his reply raises just as many questions as it answers.
The Statement
On Mark Rosewaters blog, someone asked him the following question:
Mark Rosewater had the following reply:
source: tumblr.com
This is an interesting reply for a few reasons. First of all, it confirms what we thought to be true about The Hobbit set, and it also obviously confirms that Marvel Super Heroes, Reality Fracture, and Star Trek will all be normal sets, both in size and in number of playable archetypes. But that's not the only interesting thing about this response.
The Disconnect
Aether Snap | Illustration by Kev Walker
Mark Rosewater claims that Lorwyn Eclipsed and Secrets of Strixhaven both had ten draft archetypes, not five. But if you've played either of these sets, you would know that that really wasn't the case. In Lorwyn Eclipsed, there were a handful of cards in the unsupported color pairs, such as Reaping Willow and Voracious Tome-Skimmer, but these off-color pairs were far from supported, and you had to actively work against the design of the set to play them. So, while yes, there were cards that did not fit into the supported color pairs, that does not mean that there were ten archetypes as much as five archetypes and several trap cards.
source: magic.wizards.com
But at least with Lorwyn Eclipsed there is an argument to be made in Mark Rosewater's defense. The same cannot be said about Secrets of Strixhaven. I would like to know which set he is playing with, because it's certainly not this one. There are only five supported color pairs in this set–there are no multi-color cards in the unrepresented color pairs at all. If you want to be generous, you could say that there are six archetypes in the format if you want to include converge strategies, but those often feel more like variations on Prismari or Quandrix decks rather than their own separate entity.
source: magic.wizards.com
At any rate, a claim like this feels a bit absurd, as it's not only denying the reality of the player experience, but also the reality of the set design itself. These draft archetype guides are officially released by Wizards of the Coast inside of booster boxes and are available on their website. This makes it pretty clear that these are five archetype sets. If there were ten archetypes, then there would be ten archetypes. It's as simple as that.
5 vs 10
Better Than One | Illustration by Alex Konstad
Okay, we've established that we've had a lot of five archetype sets and that we're going to have more ten archetype sets going forward. So what? Well, if you play a lot of draft you probably already have your own opinion on this, but five archetype sets can cause some issues in terms of drafting and gameplay.
Having half as many archetypes means about half as much deck diversity, which detracts from a set's replayability. It also reduces player agency, as you may want to play a deck that simply will not work because the cards aren't there to support it. Agency is a huge part of what makes drafting fun, and less agency can often mean less fun. There's a reason ten archetype sets have been the norm for the past several years. Ten archetypes means that every color pair is supported, which means it's far less likely that you get stuck in an awkward position where you can't play your good cards because they don't match up with what the set wants you to do. It means greater diversity of strategies, and it means more replayability.
Going Forward
Karn's Temporal Sundering | Illustration by Noah Bradley
None of this is to say that five archetype sets are always bad and ten archetype sets are always good. Secrets of Strixhaven is a five archetype set, and yet it's still been a lot of fun. These are just generalities that reflect a broader trend. And it seems like thankfully that trend will be changing soon. However, if Mark Rosewater says that Secrets of Strixhaven and Lorwyn Eclipsed are ten archetype sets, then I can only imagine what his definition of that is. Hopefully Marvel Super Heroes, Reality Fracture, and Star Trek are all true ten archetype sets.
At the end of the day, five archetypes or ten, the only thing that matters is that it's a fun play experience. If one of those is more conducive to that, then it should be prioritized when possible, and I have faith that the folks at Wizards of the Coast designing sets will attempt to make them as fun as they can. The only thing I'm worried about is the disconnect between Mark Rosewater's perception and the community's perception, and hopefully he will realize that negating the player's reality and experience is not what inspires confidence in his stewardship of the game.
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