Only tangentially related to Magic, but today I was reminded of Mythgard. I enjoyed the gameplay as well as the urban fantasy theme, which seems rare in TCG/CCGs. A bunch of solid design choices imo, like the often suggested turning cards into lands, as well as a HS-like power system for fewer nongames, among others. Of course the game died out within a couple years, as most do. Seems like it's a doomed genre, either you've already made it decades ago and can coast along, or you're just fucked. Even games based on big IP backed by big studios like Riot or CDPR or Bethesda don't last. Last I heard, even HS is dying out. I'm not that familiar with what goes on in Japan but it seems like stuff does better over there, idk if it's because of gacha or just weebshit. It's definitely not due to the art like anons keep trying to claim, Mythgard was throwing cheesecake at everyone, there was art for the men, the women, the furries, even the monsterfuckers. See picrel. It just didn't matter, because the market today expects you to pump out new content nonstop, and a smaller studio isn't going to be able to release six sets per year with hundreds of cards each like wotc does, so they're just fucked. Then people stop playing because they get bored, and then people stop joining because nobody is playing. It's like the MMO subscription model but for a less popular niche, the most popular monetization method is lootboxes, and you have to choose between having viable f2p or making money at all. It's sad to think that if Magic suddenly disappeared tomorrow, I don't believe there would be anyone to fill the gap, the genre would just be smaller. It's not a saturation issue, it's inherent flaws of the genre.