Gavin Verhey used today’s episode of Good Morning Magic to talk about the origin of Foretell and its previous iterations.
The foretell mechanic we are seeing previewed in Kaldheim started out many years ago and went through different names and functionality. Originally, Mark Rosewater pitched a version of the mechanic called “layaway” based off a gameplay mechanic in the Star Wars TCG at the time. It got shelved, but later on reappeared when they were working on Amonkhet.
In Amonkhet, the design team wanted a mechanic to play along with the scheming of Nicol Bolas, so they had a previous version of foretell called “plot.” While it didn’t quite make the cut in Amonkhet, the mechanic didn’t end up changing that much when it was brought back for Kaldheim. Though the team changed the name to play along with Norse themes, foretell was the product of more than a decade of planning and work.