> Magic may be the best game ever devised ... [basic strategy plus] ... stochastic ... hidden information ... [self-extending ruleset] ... asymmetric ... meta-

> Magic may be the best game ever devised ... [basic strategy plus] ... stochastic ... hidden information ... [self-extending ruleset] ... asymmetric ... meta-game Magic was incredibly innovative but I think just having this list of characteristics was not so revolutionary in the early 90's. A number of wargames and RPGs that predate Magic have most of them and a few have all of them.