Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #1384: Concurrency 2026

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

Four years ago, I recorded a podcast episode where I talked about all the things we were working on at the time. Everything I talked about has been released, so it's time for a new concurrency podcast where I talk about things we're working on right now.

I'm pulling my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time to have to drive to work. Okay, so four years ago, back in September of 2022, I did a podcast called Concurrency, where I talked about everything we were working on at the time to give you a context of how many things we work on any one time. People like that podcast,

and I guess it got pointed out online that four years in, all the stuff I talked about is now come to print. And so I've gotten some requests for a new concurrency podcast. So I will do that. A couple of caveats, I guess I should explain.

I only give away code names for in Magicverse, you know, in multiverse sets up to the point of where we're working. If I refer to anything beyond that, I just use the letter. And then I currently do another ability

to give away code names for for universes beyond sets, even sets that are already out. I am working on that but I don't currently have that. I do not have permission to do that just yet. It's a little more complicated. So,

I will talk about I can talk a little more in concrete of named things, code names and stuff, on the Magic Universe side. But the Universe is beyond, I can talk in larger things. I can't talk specific code names. So I will

explain the best I can. Okay, so the idea is, so let me, for those that haven't heard my previous concurrent podcast, let me explain the premise of a concurrent podcast. In order to sort of get the scope of what we are doing, of how many things at one moment in time are being worked on, I'm like, okay, it's September, 2006. I'm going to walk through every single set. And I'll try to mention some other extraneous things. I'm going to try to talk about everything in a larger context of what we're doing. And it is a lot.

Okay, so, the set that is about to come out next is reality fracture. That had a code name of ziplining. So for the in-multiverse sets, what we do is we have an alphabetical series of code names that are all in one theme. Ziplining was the final code name in the sports theme.

We started with archery, did basketball, we did cricket. Anyway, we did it A through Z. We skipped X, but we did A through Z. And now we have to go to the next one. The newest one is cities around the world. So as I start going through those, that begins with Amsterdam and I'll get into that. Okay, so let me give you some... context of sort of where we're at. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to start,

I'm going to start with the most recent thing we're doing and then walk you through the state of each of those things. So I'm going to first do, I'm going to first do in multiverse sets. I then will do universes beyond. Like I said, I'd be a little vaguer with universes beyond. I can give you numbers and things, but okay. Okay, so the set that is just about to come out,

is reality fracture. Like I said, code name ziplining. Right now, I've been writing preview articles for it. In fact, my preview articles are done

as of September, because the articles come out in September. I wrote them in August. In fact, I just finished my, I did a three-part article about the vision design

handoff because it was a big vision design hand-hand-off document. So all that is done. I'm not quite sure what I'm writing past that. But anyway, so I've, I've written the preview articles. I've put up my teaser for reality fracture as of recording this. There is going to be, I have to come on. The day we do the previews,

I've been asked on to do the streaming show. So I'll be doing that. I haven't done that yet. Probably by the time you hear this, I've done that already. And probably, you might have read some my preview articles by the time you've heard this podcast. I mean, I record these a few weeks ahead of time. It depends. I might push this up one a little bit on timing. But anyway, so right now I'm about to do my public end of reality fracture, which means one of the interesting things about my job is I'm in charge of the very, very, very early

stuff. And then as sort of face of the game guy who writes everything, I'm also in charge of the later stuff of communicating everything to all of you. And so I really work on things. So what happens is I work on something. I hand it off and occasionally I peeked my head in. I played some playtests. But then I don't really get going deep on it until it's time for it to come out.

Then I have to get the Godbook, make my teasers. The Godbook is R&D code for all the digital cards from the set. It comes from way back in the day, the way we used to do it is we would literally on a sheet of paper, three by three, print up every card in the set on paper that we didn't get handed out to people. So if you needed to reference things, it was there to reference.

Now we do it digitally, so now I have digital cards. But the same idea of, I just have all the cards I need to look things up or understand something. It's the actual physical, or not physical, but digital version of the final cards. I can do what they look like. So if I need to reference things,

I have those. So anyway, I'm right now in the... I have to sort of interact with all of you. Once the set comes out, you'll be lots of questions and I have my blog. I will write articles. I will record podcasts. In fact, I've recorded, I had a podcast with, well, I recorded a podcast when I handed off the set back in December of 23. And I also had an interview with Yanni, who was the set lead. So I've recorded some podcasts. I don't know if you've heard those yet or not.

But anyway, I've done a lot of prep work. And then once the same, that comes out, then there's more the reactive. Okay, you guys see things and wonder how things work and ask me questions. I do all that. Okay. Then, next up in the multi-vis is Amsterdam. So Amsterdam is Noctus. You guys actually know the name of it.

Noctus is the underground world. It's the set I led the Vision Design for. So we have already preview, well, sorry. We first announced the next three sets of the in multiple sets of 2007 at Magicon, Amsterdam. I was there actually doing my preview stuff for reality fracture with Roy, and then Jackie and in Zakel walked through next year's schedule. So we are on the early parts of figuring out what we're doing with all the marketing and everything, or not marketing, but all the preview planning for Amsterdam. So we will I have to

For example We have to figure out where we're announcing things and what we're doing And I'm usually involved in a lot of that And also I have to pick What preview cards I want So when I start writing my articles yet for Amsterdam But when I do I got to say

Oh I'm talking about this aspect Can you please give me a Like I'm going to talk about this aspect of the set So could you please give me this card that represents that aspect and such But Amsterdam for all intents of purposes, it's done. I mean, it's done. There's nothing we could change about it.

I don't know if it's actually printed yet. First off, lines might have happened, I'm not sure. But anyway, Amsterdam is, I mean, there's nothing we could change. That is done. Berlin is Kamagawa Titan Breach. That is another set we announced in Amsterdam. We're returning to Kamagawa, and thanks to, thanks to

what's it called pocket holes in the clicking the name of it on things from Icori have been bleeding into Kamagawa, monsters and bleeding into Kamagawa. Omand Pass is what it is. Because of the Omen Pass, monsters

from Ikori are bleeding into Kamagawa and they have a problem. It's Bex versus monsters. Anyway, so that said is also basically done. it is a little bit earlier. Like I said, Amsterdam might be printed,

might be, what's the word of right? They currently might be printing Amsterdam right now. I'm not 100% sure, but it's very close. We're not quite there with Kamagawa Titan Bridge yet, but it's past the point where we can make any changes. So, okay, then next is C is Cairo. Cairo is Zulfier. Also, we announced that in Amsterdam.

Zulfier was the section of Jemora, which is a continent on Dominaria, Teperi's hometown, essentially, that he phased out to save them from the Phrexians, but then couldn't phase back in, finally got phased into March and the Sheen. They overwrite Mirdin, so the new Frexians are now stuck in limbo,

and Zulfier is now on Mirdin. what's that like? What's going on? You're going to learn about that next year. Cairo, I think Cairo right now is probably in layout. I mean, it's past editing. So in general, the way it works is once we hand off a set, the set then goes to editing. Once editing hands off the set, then it goes to layout. They have to physically make all the cards. Once they're done with that, eventually it goes to the printer.

and then the printer prints in and then we have to distribute it on the world and such. My guess right now is Cairo is out of editing, my guess. I'm not 100% sure. This is nothing I have... But my guess is that

it's trying to be laid out. I think we're... So right now, for example, the three sets of 2007, I don't know if we could change anything of those sets. For sure we can't change Amsterdam or Berlin.

Maybe, maybe, maybe in an emergency we could change something in Cairo. The thing in general to be aware of is the later something goes in the process, the harder it is to change. Up until the end of editing, there's just one, like, there's one version of the file, which editing control. So up until it leaves editing, we can change things easier because, I mean, now editing needs time to edit.

So editing does need hands down at some point so that it can do its editing. But if we have a special, special emergency, while it's in editing, it still can be fixed. That's easier to fix. once it's left editing, if it's in layout, and while layout is happening, they have to put it into other languages, they have to translate it, and so once,

and they have to turn it into different versions, so there's booster fun and like that. Once it gets outside of editing, there's now many things you have to fix. If we want to change a card, there's not one copy of the card, there's many copies of the card, between all the translated versions

and the booster fun versions, so it becomes much, much more dangerous to change things. It's not that we can't, but the fact of a change could introduce some new mistakes into the system. So it has to be a big, big, big deal to change something past the editing handoff. It has happened. Sometimes things, you know, there are a few things that we've caught and do change, but it's very infrequent that we do that. Okay. After Cairo is Dublin.

Dublin is out of set design. I think, well, sorry, it might be in late play design. There's still, I think, there's no longer team meetings on it, but there's still somebody in charge of it that's looking in and making sure everything needs to be what it is. It is pretty far along. I think it is out of set design, I believe. Then E is also, I think in late set design, I believe. or it might be just out of set design.

At some point, so real quickly, Exploratory design is about two months, two to three months. Vision design is usually four months. And then set design is about a year. Play design is three to four months, although some of that overlaps with set design. And so there's a period of time

where something is out of set design, play design is messing around with it, I mean, set design is not done with it necessarily, but play design, the teams are not meeting because mostly play design is interacting with it. And then post that, there's final changes that get made. We have a slideshow when we're very, very late in the thing, when we're very close to being done,

that we show everybody to get kind of final notes on it. We've already had the slideshow for Dublin. So it's in editing right now, is my guess. E, we've not had the slideshow yet. So I think it's still in set design slash play design. Then there is Fuji. Fuji's in set design. Then there is Giza.

Giza is in set design. And then Havana just starts set design this month. It was in Vision last month. We had the Vision Summit meeting. We got a lot of notes on it. So basically the way it works is you work on Vision for four months. at the beginning of the third month, usually. You have what's called the vision design.

In the vision design, we show off the set to more people. We get notes on it. The team, the design team makes some of the changes, and the notes get passed along the set design. They can make the rest of the changes. Right now, so Havana just started. I think this month, this will change soon.

This month, there is no set in vision design of the multiverse sets. Istanbul is an exploratory design. And so that, so exploratory design, I mean, I've talked to through this. Basically, it's early on, we're trying to figure out,

we have our basic theme, you know, we know what the set's trying to be, and we spend some time sort of working in different areas of figuring out what we could do. It's kind of the time what we call blue sky design. It's a lot of riffing and saying,

it's about this theme and what kind of mechanics to do this theme and what mechanics have done this theme and what mechanics could do this theme and what could we do and so exploratory is us really sort of mapping out the space and then vision design is us actually making the blueprint if you will

of our metaphorical house we start making the file in vision and we start starting making a proof of concept we start making mechanics we start making an actual file not that those all individual cards necessarily become cards in the final set It's more proof of concept.

But some of the cards usually stay. And it's the first sort of looking at the set as a whole. Exploratory is more mapping that out. So the farthest out we are right now is in Istanbul. So just to give you sense of just in multiple sets, right now, we are of sets that are not on the door yet. I mean, there's some amount of work on some level that somebody is doing in the building.

We have reality fracture, which was zip lining. Then we have Amsterdam, Berlin, Cairo. which is Noctus, Kamagat Titan Breach, and Zulfier, Dublin, Edmonton, Fuji, Giza, Havana, Istanbul. Okay, so now let's get into Universes Beyond. Right now, I don't believe we have any in Exploratory. We have three in Vision. We have one in set.

and one, two, three, four, five, six, six-ish, play design and or post-set design. Also, Star Trek is coming out later this year. So after we finish reality fracture, we have to do Star Trek. In fact, I have to write my preview article, I think, this week for Star Trek, because license properties, we have to do early because we have to send them everything we do, including all the articles have to go by the licensors to make sure that they're happy and that we're not misrepresenting

anything. So in fact, I just finished all my reality fracture stuff. I'm immediately going to do my Star Trek stuff because I've got to do it early enough that they can do it. But we're also working in early stages of starting to figure out, just like we're figuring out Amsterdam. We're also figuring out reality for, I'm sorry, figuring out Star Trek. As it gets closer, once again, I'll have to record, I've done this yet. I'll record a podcast with probably Gavin, who led the set design. And I will do some stuff. I will make all the stuff I need to make for Star Trek.

Then we've announced there are three sets next year in 2007. We've not said what they are, and I'm not allowed to say code names. So there's three unannounced universes sets next year. And then, like I said, we work a little farther ahead because when you're doing universes beyond, And there's a period of time after you're done, once you've sort of laid everything out, or actually, there's different, every section that you finish, it then goes to the licensors. There's actually a couple points where it goes to a licensure. But you want to make sure that they're happy and they sign off and everything.

But that just adds extra time, so we have extra time into that. There are a few things that we are also working on. I've not named, there are sets we are working on that don't quite follow. easily in buckets. You know, there's things. We're always working on something that if something falls through, we have something we have something

we work in the background on. And there's a few other sets that don't easily fall in nice, clean categories of things we are working on. And the other thing to keep in mind is that every, every, or most sets these days,

at least the ten pole sets, usually also have commander decks. So for each of the things we're talking about, like reality fracture had one commander deck. And there's some commander decks for Star Trek, and next year they'll be commander decks.

So not only are their teams working on the individual set designs, the commander teams are a separate team. Normally the way that works is when we finish when we handoff from vision design to set design, usually that is when the

commander team starts. In vision design, we do a rough outline. We want to make sure we have themes for our commander deck. So we have a rough idea and we talk it through a little bit in vision. It doesn't really get signed off, though, until commander design actually starts. And that's when they sort of commit to what exactly the themes are going to be. Sometimes the themes are just following up things that the main set are doing. One of the things we've learned is sometimes there's themes the mindset doesn't want to do or has trouble with.

But we know that players might want the theme, and so we will use Commander decks sometimes to capture a theme that was harder to capture in the main set. Sometimes there's just cool new things that it's just more of a multiplayer aspect that we make specifically for the Commander Deck. Sometimes it's the theme that's being introduced to a Commander Deck, we just thought it would be fun for Commander. So there's a bunch of different ways, but we have to make the Commander themes.

There also is a lot of different versions of, and there's a lot of other products. We make Jump Start. We jumpstart our 20-card boosters that you mix. Each pack is a self-contained half-deck. You mix any two packs together, and you can play magic. We just had one come out last year, or earlier this year, for Marvel Superheroes. We have what we call a beginner box, which is a way to teach people. we have like turtles showed off a multiplayer where multiple people are playing against one person or I think I'm not sure if the person or whether it's a system but the idea of a multiplayer play that's sort of introductory we have that as well

you know there's there's a lot of um there's a lot of things that we do alongside oh there's like welcome decks which are decks we give away at stores to teach people how to play. There are a lot of different component of things that we can do. And on top of everything else, there are also our collectors. We have an entire team that does all the collecting stuff

and does all the booster fund. But they consult with R&D. We have meetings. So, for example, one of the things we tend to do in Vision is have the very first meeting to brainstorm on ideas for the booster fund. and that happens near the end of vision design.

We're like, okay, you've been working on the set of while, you have the themes. What are the cards you might be? Are there certain mechanical themes maybe Booster phone wants to do? Nothing gets signed off until set design, but we start doing preliminary exploration of that. And then we also, there is, you know, we have to work with organized play. If anything we're doing, we think might have some introduction and cause organizing. organized play any issues. We have to consult with digital because obviously the cards have to turn to digital and maybe we have one card that is not that important to us but because of major headaches

for digital. Maybe we can revamp so it doesn't cause problems. We also have to talk with, like I said, play design, there's a construct, um, there's play design that's competitive and there's casual play design. Competitive play design is more looking at standard and booster draft and modern where the casual play designers are more looking at like commander. And so we have to run paces through that and get notes on that. Also, in addition, there's like projects for Secret Layer. Sometimes Secret Layer will do original content. When they do that, we need R&D gets involved.

We get different projects. I haven't done a Secret Layer in a while, but I mean other than moon swings, I guess. But back in the day, for example, like I did, like Walking Dead. I actually was the one who designed the Walking Dead cards, for example. So that is something else that comes up, other projects. So there is, and like I said, on top of that, also, and maybe this is tied to the end part of it, but not only are there previews to do, there's also, we'll call it, public relations. So when a new set comes out, there's a lot of media that wants to report on that.

And so I will do a lot of interviews. Gavin and I do a lot of interviews. And then also, depending on who said it is, the set lead made to do a bunch of interviews. And there's different types of interviews. We have what we call sort of the core press, which is the people that report on magic all the time that are magic people. And those were much more likely to have the set lead do those interviews. Like, oh, well, you want to get the nitty grid in the set?

Here's the person who's in charge of putting the set together. And then there's more mass market stuff, which is, okay, hey, we want to sort of, we're doing an article about magic, but it's much more, it's not as in the weeds as the core presses. Because the core presses, look, we know magic. We want to learn the nitty-gritty, but this new magic set.

The math market is more about, hey, the people we're talking to might not even know what magic is. And so I and Gavin do a lot more of those type of interviews, a lot more of sort of explaining what magic is and stuff like that. Yeah, so the idea of this, the reason I like doing the concurrence things is just to kind of talk about how many different things that are going on at once. So for example Let me count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22. There's somewhere between 22 to 25 active sets being worked on right now.

And I'm not, that's not talking about commander product, that's not talking about beginner product, that's not talking about, I mean, that is, that is, that is just things that somebody somewhere in the building has to pay attention to that there is, you know. Now, once again, the R&D portion of it, there is a period of time where R&D is kind of hands off. Technically editing's in R&D, so that part's still in R&D, but the layout is outside of R&D, and so there is that. Okay, but wait, we go beyond that. I is the set currently in, we are in design, Rames-Forto-Doy design.

But we actually know another year beyond that because I work on a team called the advanced planning team and the advanced planning team figures out what sets we're going to do. So the way it works is we sort of walk through things, we figure ideas we like, we do market research, we sort of talk to focus groups and get ideas of themes people like, and then we have to plan out each year of magic. And then once we think we have a year, we then have to pitch it,

First, we pitch it to all the, you know, the powers that be. Then we pitch it to people in the, in R&D. And then we pick, you know, like so, and then eventually it gets solidified. And then once it's solidified, then we can announce what it is. So we're working on the next, the next year is, sorry, the next year is solidified after that. Then we are working on solidifying the year after that. And we are within a month probably of solidifying, or at least solidifying on the team what that is. then there's a lot of meetings we have to have to sort of walk through the paces.

Sometimes in walking through the paces, things will change. And we're having conversations for the year past that. So part of planning this year is trying to start a planning the year we're working on, which is many years in the future. We are also working on years beyond that. Also at the same time, we have our business teams working with other companies to get other properties for universes beyond. And that works very far ahead

because we have to get contracts. And so we're working on that. And so even though like right now we're actually, there's like 25 sets that are in some version of us working on, we are also doing stuff beyond that, ahead of that, of planning for what's upcoming. And that's another whole bunch of things.

And once again, R&D hasn't started on those yet other than sometimes in advance planning, I do a little bit of work. Oh, also sometimes in advance planning, we will have teams sometimes little mini teams that will test things out. We call it incubation where we have an idea, we're not sure if it'll work,

and we'll make a little mini team of some designers and some creative people and say, hey, look, take this idea, you know, check out the tires, kick the tires, like, we want you to give us your best take on what this set could be, and they spend a couple weeks to maybe a month at most, sort of getting a sense of what they think the set could be,

and then they come back and they sort of pitch what they like. And then advanced planning can take that and either roll it in or maybe we learn something from it. But the idea is we're constantly working on things. So that's the tricky thing. And the reason I like to do the concurrence things is we are working. Like I literally, so right now, reality structure Z, zip lining,

I have in advanced planning talked about how far have talked about. I think I've talked about T or you maybe. Like, we talk way far out. Like, you guys haven't even seen A yet,

and I'm talking about maybe what T might be. Just to give you an idea of, like, we are almost done with the second alphabet. I mean, we're talking about near the end of the second alphabet. You guys have even seen

the beginning of the second alphabet. That is sort of the nature of what we are doing. And all of this, the other thing to remember is all of this is happening at the same time. Not all the same people. I mean, the general rule of thumb in R&D is I normally work on, my norm is, I'm often on four sets. Right now I'm just on three sets, which is, actually, I'm on three sets, but there's an advanced planning mini team I need to do, so probably I'll be on four sets.

I'm normally on four sets. most people aren't in four sets. That's kind of abnormal. Because I'm trying to oversee everything. I tend to be on a little more sets than normal. Most people are on two to three sets, depending on, like, if you're in charge of a set, then that's almost like being on two sets. So normally if you're in charge of something,

that should remain responsible. Maybe you're on one other set. But anyway, there's a lot going on, and that I'm in a unique situation where I peek in on most things. Although even the Universe is Beyond, Ethan Fleischer, who I work with, he was the winner of the Secondary to find search.

He oversees the Universe's Beyond Design, and then he reports to me, and he and I will chat once a month, or once a week. I don't know. We have a once-a-week meeting that seems to get canceled half the time. But anyway, we'll meet and walk through what's going on, making sure that everything's happening.

Well, in Universe is Beyond. I'm on all the In-Universe sets. And these days, I'm on about half of the Universe's Beyond set, so in vision. But anyway, there's a lot going to be. on. That's the whole point of this podcast, the concurrency podcast, is their magic does a lot of stuff and we work many, many years ahead of time. So we are working on three to four years worth of sets. And that's not talking about advance planning. We're talking three to four years of

sets and we're actively working on. And that's lots of people working on lots of teams and lots of different stuff going on. And anyway, just to sort of get the sense of what it's like making magic, there's a lot going on. And magic, I've been doing this forever. As we made more, now given, we did staff up. We have a lot more people than we used to. Back when I first got to Wizards, okay, we made less things a year,

but we had a lot less people, so. So we are staffed up to do this. But anyway, guys, I hope that gives you a set of all the different things we're doing. And I promise, when we eventually start working on Jay, I'll let you know.

But anyway, guys, that is concurrency. 2006. I hope you enjoyed it. But anyway, guys, I'm here at work, so we all know what that means. It means the end of my drive to work. Instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. I'll see you all next time. Bye-bye.