Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #1222: Top 20 Most Influential Designs, Part 3

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

This is part three of a three-part series going over a talk I gave at MagicCon: Chicago 2025.

I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time to let her drive to work. Okay, so today is part three in my three part series, top 20 most influential designs. So so far I did starting from number 20, Mindslaver, Form of the Dragon, and Johnny's Pride Maid, Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Ball Lightning, Factor F fiction, Mishra's factory, a chroma angel of wrath, shock lands, panharmonic con platinum angel, miss from Altavis and Doran the siege tower, which brings us to number seven, the 2011 Titans. So this is from core set 2011.

And for those that somehow have not listened to the first two episodes of this podcast, this is a talk I did in Chicago, Magic Con Chicago 2025, talking about the 20 most influential designs cards that were a big hit when they came out. Players really liked them. They did something new and different and we, because of that, started making a lot of cards based on them. So that, that is the criteria. Okay. So the, the Titans for each of these, I lot of cards based on them. So that that is the criteria. Okay.

So the the Titans for each of these I'm talking about who designed them. So Aaron Forsythe designed the Titans. So the idea was Aaron started with he wanted to make a mythic rare cycle in Core Set 2011. And not just a mythic rare cycle a mythic rare cycle of creatures so his inspiration Was he decided that the word Titan? While magic had used the word we hadn't really we hadn't sort of like we hadn't done anything exciting with it You know we made a few Titans, but that in pop culture like Clash of the Titans like Titans He felt like really have

some cache from a pop culture standpoint and that magic never really made them as exciting as they could be so he was excited by I'm gonna make a cycle of Titans that's what he was going to do so the real question was what how do you make the Titans exciting and so what he decided was he wanted these to be constructive cards he wanted these to be something that were relevant and constructed. So he said, okay, for starters, I'm gonna make them six, six creatures for six mana. So that's pretty efficient. That's pretty good. And then he said, look, I want these to have an effect when they're on the board, but I also want them to have an effect when you play them. So that they, you know, because one of the things we've learned

about just general play balance is cards that don't do anything for a turn are a lot harder to make relevant in constructed. If I play a creature and nothing happens to turn I play the creature and it's not until the next turn when I can attack with the creature that I get any value out of the creature it is not easy making that relevant enough and And there's a bunch of different tricks. You can give them haste so they can catch the turn they play. But one of the things that we also do is we do what we call enters effects. We used to call them enter the battlefield

before that comes into play. The idea that some creatures have sort of kind of a spell effect staple to them. So when you play them, they do something. And that way you get utility on them right away But Aaron was trying to make something exciting. This is like mythic rare, right? So it's like, okay So the two of the things that we tend to do one is we do enter the battlefield effects Another thing we tend to do is attack triggers, right?

like every time I tap with my creature I get a benefit and These were six mana six sixes So, you know one of the issues about having attack triggers is sometimes the creature can't survive the attacking. Like, yeah, you get to do something when you attack, but the opponent can block and kill it and then you only get the effect once. So Aaron was like, okay, I have six sixes, they're pretty hardy and they're, you know, they're six mana.

So they come out about as aggressively as six sixes can come out. And I would give them an enter the battlefield effect and an attack trigger and just for ease of simplicity he combined them he puts them together so the idea is okay when I either enter or attack I generate an effect and then he found an effect that was something that made sense for the colors because there's a cycle of five colors and he said I want something that's just useful something that gives you Enough reward that something you want to do every turn because another problem Sometimes we can pick effects is the effect is good or once or twice But is it good as a repeated effect that happens every turn?

So Aaron did that and they were quite popular The the idea that something has an impact when it enters and when it attacks The idea that something has an impact when it enters and when it attacks is I consider the legacy of these cards. It really went on to become the thing that they really influenced. I think there's over a hundred cards now that have both an enter and attack triggers. And anyway, that was sort of Aaron was just trying to make something exciting and in trying to address a lot of answers he ended up making a utility of something that we really realize is very valuable and play design has made great use of this thing.

So that is number seven the 2011 Titans. Okay number six force of will this was from. This is designed by Chris Page of the East Coast Playtefters. So those are the people that made Ice Age and alliances and fallen empires and antiquities. Anyway, so this story begins in the Duelist magazine. For those who don't know, Magic used to make a magazine called The Duelist. In fact, The Duelist magazine was my entry into Wizards. Basically the first Duelist came out, Duelist number one, and this was in January of 1994. So Magic comes out the summer of 1993.

Six months later, The Duelist comes out in January. Now at the time there was just so little written about magic that I was very excited about magic but other than like a few random articles and some small like small gaming magazines there wasn't much about magic and so the idea of an entire magazine dedicated to magic I was so excited. In fact my memory of this is I had a date, I think I had a date, and I got there way too early because I got very excited about the fact that I had a date.

Anyway, and while I was waiting for my date, I read, I remember reading the Duelist magazine. Anyway, I read the magazine, I was enamored with it, but I felt that it was light on advanced content. Meaning for someone who was sort of an advanced Magic player, it's a little light. So I came up with an idea for a puzzle column that I called Magic of the Puzzling. So I ended up, I met Steve Bishop, who was in charge of organized play at the time at a Magic convention in Los Angeles. He gave me the name of Catherine Haynes, who was the editor

in chief at the time of the dualist. Uh, and I ended up sending her a letter with my idea for a puzzle column. Um, the funny story that just funny is I just don't hear back from her and eventually I call to sort of talk to her and say, Oh, did you see this? Um, and she's like, Oh yeah, I finally get her on the phone. Oh yeah, yeah, it's in the next issue. They then told me they just put it in. So in issue one and a half, because there's a gap between issues one and two,

they put my puzzles on the last page inside the magazine. And that started my puzzle column, which became a very popular part of the due list. So popular in fact, that at some point, shortly before I moved to Seattle to start working at Wizards full time, I got, we did a puzzle book, Magic the Puzzling Book. It's my one book that I've done.

So anyway, I had two editors for my puzzling book because one of the challenges of the puzzles is you have to make sure that A, that they work, and B, That there's not easier answers that are better solutions than what you have. So Beth Morrison who's a longtime judge and was the rules manager for Wild Wizards and Chris Page were my two editors. So one of the things that Chris Page noticed that I did in my puzzle is I always tapped out my opponent because the idea was I didn't want them messing with me. I'm trying to solve this. So I tapped them out so that they couldn't do anything.

And it made Chris realize that in the game of Magic, you can't do anything if you're tapped out. And obviously, Magic's a game that breaks its own rules. So Chris said, well, what if you could do something? So he got inspired, and he made what are called the pitch cards. The idea of a pitch card was you don't have to spend mana to cast it, but you have to pitch or discard a card of the same color.

A few of them, like Force of Will, also required you to pay a life payment of one life. But anyway, there was a whole cycle of pitch cards, but clear, clearly, head and tails above all of them was force of will Which by the way a little a little bit piece of treatment force of will I did not design force of will because Chris page did But I did name force of will it had another name. I remember what it was. It was a lame name I knew that this was like the premier card of the set and so I went to them and said I think it needs a better Name and the people who did the naming of the time said, well, come up with a better name. And so I did. I spent a lot of time and I came back with force of will. They changed it.

So anyway, my contribution to force of will is I named force of will anyway. Okay. So Chris makes these, they, the, the East coast play testers, they like them. They put them in the set. So my story of this set is so we're're going back into to 1995. I've just started at Wizards in October of 1995. I started at Wizards. And what happens is, so there was a gap. Magic for the first couple years had things coming out. There was something every couple months. And then there was something every couple months. And then, Homeland comes out in, I think, September of 95, September, October 95. And then alliances is not scheduled till June of 96. So it was like eight or nine months. So it was the largest gap magic it ever had. And for those who don't know, Homeland had some issues.

So, Homelands had some issues. Basically, it was not a well-received set. Regular listeners might know that I think it's probably the worst design set in Magic history, but anyway, it wasn't a great set. It was also a small set and there were all sorts of issues with it. The biggest issue was people just weren't super happy with it. But anyway, so there was a lot of a line for magic magic had to put a set out in eight nine months So there's a lot riding on it a

Lot of people believed that if alliances taint that that could be maybe the end of magic Like it would be a big big problem and I just caught I just moved to Seattle to work on a wizard So like it was important So we spent a lot of time and energy on alliances I mean, I believe every single person in magic R&D was on the alliances development team. I When I joined when I came to Wizards I joined it and we spent a lot of time on it a lot a lot a lot of time on we want to Make sure it was as good it could be. So anyway at the time

There was a group called Customer Service. If you remember in UNGLEWED, I had also been a nightmare of Wizard of the Coast Customer Service. There's a card. I was referencing Customer Service. So, Customer Service came to, or I'm not sure whether they, I think they wrote a note first, but then they came to talk to Peter Ackerson, who was one of the founders of Wizards and the first CEO, President of Wizards.

And they come to him and they say Pete Peter We think that this set is specifically specifically the pitch cards are a horrible mistake That magic like it's important that when you're tapped out that you know your opponent can't do anything But this is a fundamental element of the game and we are breaking a rule we should not be breaking. And we think this is so egregious that we believe the audience is going to respond poorly to it. And we are customer service. We are the people that interface the most with the public and we are telling you we think this is the problem. And they were, I mean, heartfelt, very serious. So Peter, not wanting to make a big error, chops the print run in half.

He says, okay, we'll just make less of it. He didn't want to have the problem we had before with homelands where they have extra stuff they printed, but no one wants to buy it. And it's like, okay, we'll pull back. Now, R&D, we've spent a lot of time on this, making sure it's the best that it could be. So we end up sending Scaff. Scaff created the Pro Tour. He was the brand manager for a while. One of the early play testers. He's one of the East Coast play testers. So Scaff goes to talk to Peter. Because okay, Peter, R&D is discussed and

we have a plan for you. Here's what we're gonna do. R&D is gonna put together the money. We are gonna pay for the second half of the printing. And then we will split the profits with you 50-50. So there's no risk to you. If the second half doesn't sell, you don't lose any money. And if it does sell, you still make a profit. I mean, you'll split it with us because we're the ones putting the money up,

but you know, it's a no lose for you. That it's nothing, there's no risk to you. And Peter heard that and when he realized that R&D was willing to put our money up, he put it back to the full percentage of the printing. Which I remember the time like, oh, we could have made a lot of money. Anyway, so that is Force of Will ended up coming out to huge, huge, huge successes. The customer service was incorrect. The pitch guards were not only not disliked by the players, they were loved by the players, especially Force of Will, because who doesn't like Conron spells for no manna?

Anyway, Force of Spells has become a staple in a lot of any format in which it's playable in, and it inspired a whole series of cards that you can tap while tapped out. There's a whole variety of pitch cards. You can pitch a card of the color, you can pitch a land, you can pitch two cards of the color, you can pitch a card to care about the mana value, you can pitch as many cards of the color. You can pitch a card to care about the mana value You can pitch as many cards of the colors you want We've done infinite versions of them and we've done lots and lots of different you can cast this for free You can sack lands or creatures or check certain conditions. I listed them in the talk. There's infinite of them But one of the important lessons here is magic has to break boundaries and do new things

And whenever we do something new there will be people that like oh, but that's a rule The important lessons here is, magic has to break boundaries and do new things. And whenever we do something new, there will be people that are like, oh, but that's a rule, you can't break that rule. But one of the cool aspects of magic is that we break our own rules, and that is important. And so it is crucial that, I mean, the lesson here was, what Chris did, saying, hey, magic's never done this,

but let's do it, is important. So that's why number six is forced away Number five the hive from alpha. So a lot of people don't remember the hive I remember when I put it up to like what does that card do? So it was an alpha it allowed you to tap to make hornet tokens, but in alpha it was the only card to do that So that the story behind it is Richard was trying to figure a way to do a top down hornet's nest, which he called the hive. And the idea was he didn't want just one insect, he wanted a hive of insects.

So he made use of stuff he'd learned in other games he played. Remember he played with glass beads and stuff. And he said, okay, what if this card can make other components and then you just track that with something like a glass bead? Obviously later we would make token cards. But anyway, the story behind this, which is funny is, so Magic comes out in 1993. And when Magic came out, it sold out right away.

That stores could not keep it in stock. And then, not even stores could keep it in stock. I mean, stores didn't have any. They didn't have packs, they didn't have individual cards. They had nothing. So if you wanted to get a card that you did not own, you had to trade for it. But the problem with the Hive, and most people don't realize this,

was the Hive wasn't really, really, really popular when it came out. Like I said, it was the only card that made tokens, and players loved tokens. And I remember that I tried to get a Hive, but no one would trade it for me. And so I actually, I honestly remember the day that I opened a hive in a booster pack.

I was so excited, because I knew it was the only way for me to get the hive. And anyway, sometimes I like to talk about early magic. There's a lot of things that like, some cards that were popular, stay popular. Forced of Will was popular then, popular now. The hive has been outclassed. I mean, we just make tokens so many different ways, so much better. That's been like four

mana for a one-one flyer. We've done a little better than that. But the point was in its day it was revolutionary and to meet my criteria, really popular. And it definitely led the path down us doing tokens. I mean the very next set, Arabian Nights had tokens, Antiquities had tokens, Legends had tokens, Fawn Empights had tokens, Antiquities had tokens, Legends had tokens, Fawn Empires had like all, like so many tokens we had to punch out things in the duelist. So tokens is something we embrace. We really realized that something players loved. And so the Hive went on to be a very inspirational card. That's why number five is the Hive. Number four is the, by the way, the Hive was made by Richard Garfield,

if I did make that clear. Number four, the Mirage Charms. So these were made by, mostly by Bill Rose, but with some support from his Mirage development, or sorry, design team, which was Charlie Coutinho, Joel Mick, Howard Kallenberg, Don Felice, and Elliot Siegel. Anyway, so what happened was, Bill made some cards and he made some effects

and he realized they were just too small. The effects weren't worth a mana. And he's like, oh, there's some cool effects you could do, but it's not worth putting on a card. It's just not worth, like, you can't do less than a mana. So how do you do effects that aren't worth a full, that are worth less than a mana? And he finally you do effects that aren't worth less than a mana? And he finally got a cool idea, he said, well what if I make a card where I give three different

little tiny things, but the reason it's worth a full mana is the flexibility. Each one of these are pretty niche, but in the right circumstance could be very useful. And so they made the first charms. The charms are very popular right out of the gate. They made five in Mirage and then five more in Visions. And it just became, I mean, it was such a popular sort of structure that we copied it. We got to a set that had three color cards.

We made three color charms, which we made before two color charms, which I always find fun. And then we got to, I mean, I remember to return to Ravnica. So the story of return to Ravnica is I was in charge, I did Innistrad and Dirk ascension, and I had, I had Ken Nagel do return to Ravnica. He'd never done a large set before.

And normally when I have someone do a large set for the first time, I like to do returns if I can, just because Moore's already spell dodged, a little bit easier. But anyway, he was doing return to Ravnica and I was doing gate crash. I was co-leading it with Mark Gottlieb. And I decided that we really should have,

that made sense to do charms in Ravnica, we had never done two-color charm. So I went to Ken and I go, okay, here's what I'm doing in gate crash. I'm gonna do, I'm doing two-color charms in gate crash. Now, if you want, you know, you could do them in Return of Ravnica, because okay, okay, so you put them in Return of Ravnica.

So it's not often the second set does something and the first set responds to it, but I put the charms in Gate Crash. So anyway, charms have been something, a go-to. They inspired commands, which were four choose two that Aaron Forsythe made. They inspired, what are they called? The confluences, where there's, you have three things

you can pick up to three things so that you can repeat the same stuff. We've made a lot of cars that while not technically with Charm in their name, we've done a lot of pick threes, we've done pick twos, pick fours. We've done a lot of cards that sort of you pick over time. But the idea, the flexibility of the charms really hammered home. The audience liked it right away.

And it just become, it really sort of really talked about the importance of modality and the power of modality. And so the charms really had a heavy influence. And like I said, with each one of these, it's not only that it did, like obviously we made a lot, a lot of charms. At bare minimum, it made us make a lot of charms. But more so than that,

it really made us rethink how we think of modality. And we really just use modality in a lot more ways. And the popular charms have just changed how we make magic in general. So that is why number three is, or I'm sorry, number four is Morage Charms. Number three is a figure of destiny from Eventide. This is Brian Tinsman. So Brian was trying to figure out, so for those that don't figure destiny, it costs one mana, it's hybrid, and then you can

spend mana, it starts as a 1-1 Kithgenken and then there's three activations and each activation can only be done If the creature certain creature type so every time you activate it you it gets bigger and you add a creature type So it's like Kithken and I think I can't get warriors. Anyway, it keeps getting better up until the end It's like an 8 8 flying first striking thing So the idea is Brian was really interested in progression How do you show things change? And now we had done things like Kamal who like he was red, but then he changes philosophy became green. You saw Urtai who was like a normal thing got twisted. We

showed characters dying. We showed characters getting evil. We showed characters getting more powerful. We showed characters growing up that we had done progression between cards. But Brian was really interested in showing progression on the same card. So we had done a mechanic called threshold where the creature had two states. In my talk I showed Kroshen Beast for example. It was a squirrel that became a big beast, like a 1-1 that came in 8-8. But that we only had one piece of art so we just, we showed the more impressive thing which is the 8-8 beast but we never show the one one squirrel

the only reason you know it's a squirrel is in its creature type it's squirrel beast that's the only hint you know that it started as a squirrel we did try flip cards in champions kamigawa where we sort of had two pieces of art we sort of rotated the card 180 and then there the art had two different versions showing face up so sort of have two pieces this music art They were put together in the same art box though But anyway Brian was like look I want to show progression on a card And he came up with a very clever way to do it

So much so like I said that structure we've used again We the idea of two or three different activations to show the creature upgrading that uses the creature type as a grounding to show when you upgrade it. In inspired the level up mechanic, inspired classes and that's talents. Just the idea of, in fact, it really was one of the things that helped, helped convince us to do double-face cards. The idea of having progression on a card is very compelling and very powerful. And the fact that he made one card

and it got so much attention really hammered home how much important progression was. And like I said, there's a lot of different ways we show progression. We love the idea of having multiple pieces of art, of having multiple pieces of name. I did a whole podcast on an article as well on what I call the two and one cards that are cards that have two names on them. Stuff like the rooms, the articles inspired by rooms.

But anyway, there's a lot of ways to show this and a lot of that was based on Brian's desire to show progression. Okay, number two, Plague Rats from Alpha. This is also Richard Garfield. So when Alpha came out, there were no deck construction rules other than it was 40 cards, not 60 by the way. We later would make 40 limited and constructed 60. But anyway, you could play as many cards as you wanted. There were no restrictions. And so the most popular deck, I believe, in the early days was 16 Plague Rats, 8 Dark Rituals, and 16 Swamps. And the idea of just, it was the most popular early deck, just lots and lots of Plague Rats.

And there was something so compelling about Plague Rats. And the reason I put it here, by the way, the top five, I could swap any of them around. None of these are like particularly more so than the others. The only reason I did my number one number one is because I had done number 11 and it showed progression. But anyway, I'll talk about it in a second. Anyway, plague rats was originally going to be my number one. Maybe it should be my number one. The thing I love about plague rats, it just inspired so many different things. Inspired us. number one, maybe it should be my number one. The thing I love about Plague Rats, it just inspired so many different things. Inspired us, I mean, it put rats on the map and really made rats a popular thing in Magic.

It made explosive cards that really, you know, I think I said exponential in my talk and it's like, it's not. It's a math person said, I used the wrong word, but it's sort of explosive stuff where things get very powerful, very fast. It made us made the Relentless mechanic, which is a mechanic where you can have as many cards in your deck as want. Relentless Rats was literally made to recreate the experience of Plague Rats and was the first Relentless card. That's an unnamed thing, but was what we call, Relentless is what we call, you get as many copies of the card in your deck as

you want. Or in some cases like Seven Dwarfs, we tell you how many you can have, like seven. your deck as you want or in some cases like seven dwarves we tell you how many you can have like seven. It led to the kindle mechanics that I made in Tempest where kindle like sexual recall not sexual recall um acquired acquired knowledge um there's one when you draw cards uh anyway the idea of kindle is each each version of the card when you cast it gets more powerful because it looks at other cards that you cast and I I wanted to make a play, it was actually called Plague Bolt. I was trying to make like a lightning bolt that acted like plague rats. And the idea was it got more powerful

as you played more of them. So you looked in the graveyard. And probably the biggest influence of plague rats was the slivers. So Mike Elliott made a set called Astral Waves, which was he made on his own. When he got hired at Wizards, Wizards ended they ended up

buying the rights to the set. So when I put Mike on the team for Tempest, he brought along Slivers and we ended up putting them in Tempest. The Slivers were inspired directly by Plague Rats. Mike's idea was what if you had a Plague Rat but instead of just sharing stats, it shared other abilities. It could grant flying or first strike and Slivers themselves have had a huge influence I almost put slivers on this list and ended up putting I left him with plague rats

But slivers themselves really I mean not the typo wasn't already popular, but it really showed how popular typo was and It really showed how popular typo was. And like the populace of slivers really helped us convince us to do, most sets have a typo theme, usually in an archetype. Just the way we structure like a lot of the lessons from how we build slivers. There's a lot of different mechanics that are inspired by slivers,

either in directly how they work or in sort of how we develop them based on how we figured out how to make slivers either in directly how they work or in sort of how we develop them based on how we figured out how to make slivers work. So Plague Rat is super super influential. It's just one of those cards that it spoke to people and people loved it and just it inspired so many things that followed it. Okay which brings us to number one, doubling season. So this was my design from Ravnica. So by the way, once again, in my talks,

I say that this is my list based on my influence. And so you can see some influence. I don't know if doubling season is number one. I know that I love doubling season. The reason I put it in number one is number 11 was Panharmonicon. And this was the only card in the talk that inspired another card in the talk. So that's why I ended up putting it in number one is number 11 was Panheumonicon and this was the only card in the talk that inspired another card in the talk so that's why I ended up putting it number one maybe maybe

flagrace was the number one I'm not sure anyway um the other secret here is the list is more about me having a chance to do a cool talk so the order is not crazy important but anyway so doubling season was in Ravnica so what happened was I was making a rare mono green card and there were two different factions I had to care about. There was Selesnya and there was Golgari. Selesnya is green white, Golgari is black green. Selesnya was go wide and cared about tokens. Golgari was go tall and cared about plus one plus one counters.

So I wanted to make a card that overlapped the two. How could I care about those two things? Well I flash back back to early magic. So when magic first came out, I first found magic at a convention. I bought alpha, I bought a starter and three boosters. And then I went into the store to get more because it was so amazing and it was sold out. So the day that beta came out, I went to the store

early sat in line and then I bought two starters of boosters and two starters of two boxes of starters two boxes of boosters. The reason I did that by the way was I knew I was going to sell out that day and I knew if I wanted friends to play with I would need to provide them with the magic. So I bought extra stuff that I could sell to my friends. Interestingly, I did sell a bunch of my friends, later realized that none of them really got into the game of magic and went back and bought all of them back for my friends. So a little tidbit of early magic. Anyway, one of the things I used to do because I had multiple boxes is I allowed myself each day to open up one booster, which was really interesting, by the way, because it really

made me savor every single card. We only get open up one packet, which was really interesting by the way, because it really made me savor every single card. We only get open up one pack of cards a day. I just poured over the cards. So one of the cards that really spoke to me was a card called Berserk. So I remember reading Berserk. It says, double the power of target creature. Like what? What?

And then I kept reading like, oh, the creature gets destroyed at end of turn. That was less exciting. But I really love the idea of doubling that is really exciting me So when I got to wizards and I could start making cards, I started making Dublin guy I think the first one I made was furnace of wrath in tempest I just started making doubling cards whenever I could have made a doubling card double this double that a lot of times The word double was in it. Um And R&D used to make fun of me because I liked doubling so much.

And I mean, they let me put them in because they're like, I was allowed to make cards, but they would tease me that I can't make another doubling card. So anyway, I was trying to make this card. I had to care about counters. I had to care about tokens. And I'm like, what could I do? How could I combine those things? And then I remembered Berserk and I'm like, I could double them so I actually made a card the word I remember the card has the word twice

twice on it I was very proud of that and the thing I always said about doubling season which is really interesting is one of the cool things when you make magic cards is a lot of the time you're designing cards not for yourself but for other people the goal is to make lots of players all the magic players happy but every once in a while you make a card that is for you. And this card really, I will be clear, I mean it did fit the criteria. It did work with Selesnya. It did work with Golgari. I knew that it was functionally useful. So I knew that it did fill the function it needed to. But I designed this card solely, solely because it was a card that I wanted to will into existence. I thought it was really

cool. It's my favorite, by the way way my favorite personal design that I've ever done I mean Maro has a soft spot my heart like emotionally but as far as just a design that I'm proud to stop it is doubling Season which is probably why I put it number one because it's my talk I guess but anyway I made doubling season and a holy moly. I mean a was very popular when it came out It inspired all sorts of things. I think what happened was, so one of the interesting things about my time at Wizards is I will be very, I will find something I'm excited about

and then I push it. And since I'm making Magic Cards and I'm the guy writing about Magic Cards and writing articles about Magic Cards and podcasts, and eventually the new people that got hired by Wizards are very influenced by me because I'm, you know'm one of the loudest communications to the public. So a lot of times what happens is my love gets shared with other people.

And so, and players really, really liked Doubling Season. And so we started doubling tokens and Goblin counters. We broke them apart and did different cards. And then we just started doubling things and we started doing additional things and times things and twice things and and We just started making a lot. I mean the funny thing is I know I mean not that I never make Cards that copy or cards that double or whatever. I do but it is it is

so like for example at um in at Las Vegas in 2024, Magic on Las Vegas, Gavin runs a thing called the Unknown Event. Gavin had to go out of town for a wedding. So I met Tabak and I ran two of them. So I made seven cards because there's little stickers that go in it. So I made seven cards which were the seven stages of magic because I had done an article about the seven stages. We're currently in the seventh stage.

So for the seventh stage of magic, the one we we're currently in the effect of it was double everything Because I was making commentary there But anyway, it has gone on Doubling is something that people really enjoy and we we double lots of things we give you a we do additional triggers We do double this and twice that and anyway, like I said, I probably, if I had to do this again, probably like Plague Rats deserves to be number one, maybe high, but I don't know. Anyway, I don't know if Dublin Season deserves

the number one slot, but emotionally it does to me. It deserves to be in the top five. I feel like the top five are all in the top five. But anyway, Dublin Season is my number one pick. It definitely is a card that has spawned many, many other cards. So once again, let me recap. So it was at number 20, Mindslaver, number 19, Form of the Dragon, number 18, The Johnny's Pride Mate, number 17, Gonti, Lord of the Electry, number 16, Ball Lightning, number

15, Factor of Fiction, number 14, Mistress Factory, number 13, The Chroma Angel of Wrath, number 12, Shocklance, number 11, Panoramicon, number 10, Planet of the Angel, number 9, Mist from Ultimus, number 8, Durian and the Siege Tower, number 7, 2011, Titans, number 6, Force of Will, number 5, The Hive, number 4, Mirage Charms, number 3, Figure of Destiny, number 2, Plague Rats, and number 1, Doubling Season. That was my list of the top 20 most influential designs. Once again, I'll stress this talk is online if you want to see me do what you're hearing now but slightly some slightly different stories and with way more graphics than you'll get

on a podcast. It is on YouTube now. You can go watch it. I think previously when I recorded this it wasn't up yet but it's gone up since I've been recording early episodes. So anyway it is now up. Go watch it. Anyway if you were ever at a Magic Con that I'm at,

I don't go to all Magic Cons, I always do a talk when I'm at them. They're super fun, lots of slides, lots of pictures, and I get to share fun stories like this. So if you ever add Magic Con, and I'm doing a talk, come join me. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this jaunt through the top 20 most influential cards,

but I am now at work, so we all know what that means. This is the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. I'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.