As noted in the Rules Primer, some cards introduced in Future Sight
involve a delayed trigger ability (DTA) worded like this:
"At the beginning of your next upkeep, pay {mana cost}. If you don't,
you lose the game."


A player who forgets to properly resolve that DTA will, according to our
current Penalty Guideline procedures, lose the game:
"If the trigger has an instruction that specifies a default action
associated with a choice (usually "If you don't ... ") resolve the
default action immediately without regard to the timing rules for that
particular game." (Game Play Error - Missed Trigger)


The June 1st rules update will change UTR 37 (No game markers of any
kind may be placed on top of or in a location that obscures a player's
deck.); beginning with the prerelease, we will allow players to use a
visual reminder - on top of their library - and we recommend an
announcement, before deck construction, similar to this:
"If you resolve one of the Pacts and you could lose the game on your
next upkeep, please place a non-game item on top of your library as a
visual reminder. Please don't use a card or anything that might obscure
the library - use something small like a coin or a bead, just so you'll
remember to handle the delayed trigger ability."


And, if a player still manages to forget this DTA, despite your efforts
at education, then they will indeed lose the game - and probably gain a
valuable lesson.

Lego the Gathering
A review of the distant future of Magic
---------------------------------------
(At least, people from denmark will read this?)


Perhaps you know Lego? Its a children's toy. Kids
can use the Lego bricks to build their fantasies.
And somehow, I just can't figure out why, I thought
that Magic: the Gathering is about the same - a 
game of fantasy with some elements that the player
combines to build a deck.


Lego exists since 1967 and had various expansions
since then with 'stand-alone' expansions that intro-
duced completly new bricks that have very less in
common with the standard 'duplo' brick of the late 
sixties. And todays topsellers don't have the stan-
dard brick either, though you could still combine
it with the modell.


Lego has several strategies to avoid plagiatism. On
the fairs, they seek for similar products and close
their stands (Lego is copyrighted). And today, the
third generation is playing with those bricks. 


What does Lego have to do with a card game? Other 
than that the combination of certain game/play
'elements' makes the toy/deck I'd say that the mark-
eting of both corporations is going to be the same.


Especially, Lego does not follow the numberous ideas
they get from their customers on new 'expansions'.
Their law agency assumes that by producing such ideas,
Lego would lose its independence of rights (of third
parties) and rather like to invent those sets by itself.


And I thought that this is like the 'new cards'/'new
expansion' threads in this newsgroup and on some home-
pages. To take it to the extreme - every card proposed
will kill Magic a bit. I would suggest NOT to mail
these cards to wizards and not to claim your 'copyright'
on these. Then, this is for sure, these cards never get
printed.


But what is Magic going to be like in 30 years? All I
can say right now is completly my point of view, as
I have no timemachine to check it out (and if I had one,
I'd buy myself some displays of Beta!)


While Lego is in the buisness for 30 years, will Magic
even last so long or is it going to die in some few
years? Logically I would assume that Magic can survive
for 30 years, having your kids play it and even their
children too.

The reason I have is that the Lego system was innovative
and teachs children a certain system on how its elements
can be combined. It covers physical stability and 
mechanic engineering.

Magic, on the other hand, is a game of strategy and 
mathematic and its elements allow for variations. Like
chess, you have a set goal (kill the king).


Magic can only survive if WotC does the right marketing.
One step to come closer to Lego ;-) was that they got
the patent on trading card games. They could now sue
plagiats (but have not yet) like Legos lawyers do.
The right marketing would include to put out themes
like the stand-alone sets and expand them if the play-
ers love them. In this understanding, the Weatherlight
Saga is one theme and the expansions underneath it are
just like the packs you get for one Lego theme (like
Space). 

I expect that if the Weatherlight saga is accepted, 
WotC will put out further themes like this one. I'd
just sketch some ideas very roughly: Timetraveling,
Planetshaping, Knights Quest or even JRR Tolkiens 
Rings might give ideas, but this is not my topic right
now.


Gameplay in thirty years would differ from today's 
gameplay. You would still have 20 life, but the decks
would be larger. A single card would have several uses
and noone would consider putting a disenchant or 
Incinerate in a deck because it's too narrow. Creature
abilities would be various and noone would know them
all. Banding would be a thing of the past, not even
be mentioned in the rulebook, and Retreating would be
very popular (though I won't give a description of
Retrating here - I want that Wizards print it, it's
really very cool).

Not even naming all expansion sets is an easy task...


The secondary market, not a great deal for Lego, would
not be different from todays, the 20th edition rares
(printed since Apr 2038) would go for around $2, while
all cards previous to 10th edition would be banned,
and few cards of the  earlier editions even exist,
since so many got lost over the time. There are only
twenty known owners of an Alpha Black Lotus, much like
those that have a 1912 RR Silver Shadow are very rich.