Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #408: Replies with Rachel 3

Episode Date: February 10, 2017

This is another episode of "Replies with Rachel," where my eldest daughter and I answer your questions.

I'm pulling out of the driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the Drive to Work. Okay, so today is another episode of Replies with Rachel. Hello. So this is number three, I think. Number three, yeah. Okay, so here's how it works. We asked you guys to send in questions, which you did on my Twitter, and then Rachel and I on our Drive to Work today are going to answer the questions. And I think people got in the spirit.

There's a lot more questions for Rachel today. Okay, so the way it works is Rachel has a list of questions. She can ask any question in any order, and then we will answer them. So, Rachel, what is the first question? Okay, first question is from George Merrow at VoxPVoxD. Ask, what's the best piece of advice you ever got from your father? Okay, what is the best piece of advice I ever gave you? I don't know, because you typically don't, like, like sit down and be like here's the moral of the story

so i don't know i think that's something i gotta pull out like i don't know i mean today um like this probably isn't going to show up in december but right now it's currently december and i'm having a holiday party so i've inherited your party planning genes. Yes. With, you know, getting all, like, the food and the decorations and planning things so, like, you know, precisely. I've gotten that. You have my over-preparation skills. Over-preparation skills. I feel like that's, like, the number one thing that's coming to mind right now. Okay, fair enough.

Okay. And then Josh Davenport at Sage of Carrow Keep said, Follow on, what's the worst piece of advice you've ever received from your father? Okay, what's the worst piece of advice I've ever received? I don't know if there's ever been a time that you told me something that was so bad that it, like, screwed something up. So what you're saying is my advice in general is pretty good? I mean, of the advice you give, which, I mean, I don't know how often you give it. It's pretty decent when you do.

I think we're crushing people's ideas that every day I go, Rachel here's a tidbit to think about that'll do that not not really no just kind of things you do when i just kind of like pick up on them i don't know like i guess like trade wise yeah like i guess joke making because i enjoy joke making but like when you if there's a difference between when you say a pun and when you hear a pun because when you say a pun it feels like the best thing in the world when you hear a pun you're like oh my god don't don't lose that saying a pun is awesome feeling well not just hearing a pun like we hear your puns and we're like oh my gosh when i say the same pun and i'm like this is the greatest pun ever so i have that okay okay so let's move on okay next question. Brian Dale at J Tempkin asks,

what about magic will change the most in the 10 years after you retire? Man, they're looking ahead. Looking ahead. Okay, we're talking many, many years from now. When would you retire, though? No time soon, but someday. I mean, someday I'll retire.

Someday. So I guess the question is, what influence do I have on magic that the lack of me being there would keep it from being true? I guess the question is, what influence do I have on magic that the lack of me being there would keep it from being true? I guess so. The thing is, a lot of the stuff I think I've done for magic is I've changed how we function,

meaning even when I'm gone, I expect us to function that way. I guess that's how I probably want your reign to be, because you don't want to be when you leave things fall apart, it's when you leave things continue the way that it would be if you were there. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely things I enjoy that I push toward. Like, I like sets high in synergy.

And, you know, I definitely like counters and tokens and doubling things. And, I mean, there's definitely some influence you can feel me in the game where there's certain areas that I tend to push to. there's definitely some influence you can feel me in the game where there's certain areas that I tend to push to. But once again, yeah, my goal is not to do things that I want to do because I want to do them. My goal is to sort of find different ways to express stuff and then create, like, I hope most of my changes are changes

that are better for the game, not because personally I like them. So I don't really know what happens when I go, like when I retire, what changes. I mean, here's the biggest change that will happen. It's not So I don't really know what happens when I go, like when I retire, what changes. I mean, here's the biggest change that will happen. It's not that I won't be there and things I do will stop happening. I think the biggest change will be somebody new will be making decisions and they will have things that they introduce that I didn't think to introduce. And so I think when you finally get a new head designer, there might be things that I've never prioritized they do prioritize or ideas they come up with that I never had that they introduce.

And I think that's what will be the most different is just, you know, a different person will introduce different things. Not that things I introduce will go away. I think a lot of my changes are sort of things that I change R&D, not that I just personally change things. Okay, what's the next question? All right. John Fairley at Jay Fairley asked Rachel, if you could grant one wish for your dad in 2017, what would it be? Okay. I think, oh, I know, I know, I know. You, my wish for you would be to get invited back to Disney because they invited you once and we keep on inviting you back. Yeah, so what happened was, I don't know, three years ago at this point?

I think so, yeah. I got invited to speak down at Walt Disney Interactive. The R&D department of Walt Disney Interactive invited me down to speak. And in exchange for me speaking, basically my family got a vacation at Disney World. Disneyland. Disneyland, sorry, Disneyland. I went down to California. And they loved it, and they're like, you should go back and speak again, so.

Aulani. We want to go to Aulani. You want to go to Aulani? The Hawaiian region. If only Hawaiian game designers could learn more about it. Okay. Okay. Sean Neal at neal__down__before__me.

That's a pretty cool name. That's what I would do for my last name. We're Neal. All right. He asked, what is the most memorable road trip you've taken without your dad? We're not a family to take road trips. What road trip have you taken? Like, with me, what road?

You don't take road trips. Yeah, because you won't go in an RV. I don't want to go in an RV. Oh, my gosh. Everyone in the family is fine with an RV except for you. You have to take a trip to, like, the Grand Canyon. I think it'd be fun. We don't need to go in an RV to go to the Grand Canyon.

Aw, we're going to fly in a plane? What? Okay, well, I mean, we're not... I mean, we've gone in some car trips. We don't go that far, though. Like, we've gone to, like, Portland and Vancouver. Yeah. But we're not, like, a pile in the car and drive for 20 hours.

You're not a pile in the car. I'm not a pile in the car. I at least want to try it. Like, I can't, like, diss it unless, like, I've tried it. Like, I don't know. Like, the most memorable trip, like, I remember going to Hollywood for a Girl Scout filmmaking camp, but that was without the entire family. So that's still the trip I've taken the entire family. What's your favorite trip you've taken with the family? Trip with the family? How many trips have we gone on? It's typically been like

Disney World, Disneyland, Vancouver, Portland. Where else have we gone? Kind of gone. We've gone to Salt City, We've gone to Lake Tahoe. I guess. I don't know. I feel like. We've gone to Florida a bunch of times. I mean, Disney's always a hype for me, so I always like going to those. You like going to Disney? I always like going to those.

I mean, like I said before, I like going to Disneyland when you got invited because we had a VIP tour guy. Her name was Stephanie. She was the nicest person ever. Oh, yeah. Wanted back. So part of that, because I gave a speech there, one of the things they gave us is they gave us a VIP tour for six hours one day.

Yeah, that was so cool. And I ruined Disneyland for my children and my wife. Yes. Basically, the way it works, for those who don't know, is a VIP tour is you have someone who's like an expert that can just take you wherever, and you get to go to the front of the line, and we did 18 rides in six hours. We have been spoiled. Anyway, it was very fun.

So thank you, Stephanie. Thank you. Okay, you know my favorite trip of 2016? Oh, we're doing trips in 2016? What trips did we take in 2016? Well, I'll tell you my favorite trip of 2016. All right, fire, tell me. I went to California to VidCon.

VidCon. Oh, yeah. The convention I did was all by ourselves this year. I forgot. So Sarah's coming with us next year. Sarah's planning to come with us. Yeah, next year we got by one. But it was just me and you.

That's the first trip you and I ever took in a plane or anything. That was fun. Yeah, it was our first convention. It seemed overall pretty decent because, then again, I don't plan to go to Comic-Con. That was Rachel's first convention in my 108th convention i was only shut out by like one panel because it was overfilled but otherwise not i got into every panel i wanted to go to so i figured it'd be pretty decent job yeah no it was it was very interesting those don't know vidcon is uh actually i is, actually, I did a whole podcast on VidCon. Oh, yeah, I guess so. Go listen to my podcast on VidCon.

But, no, it was fun. It was a fun trip. Okay, next question. Let's see. Okay, Ben Vandegrift at Cientier said,

if Mark Rosewater would dye his hair the colors of Rachel's choice, what colors would she choose? What color would look good on you?

Because you already have gray hair, but I don't know if, like, silver hair would, like, help you more. Like, what do you think of, like, silver hair? Have you ever seen, like, silver hair? Is silver that much different than gray hair? We're like, we're like, we're like, it's gray, but, like, it's more, like, a little bit more, like, shiny. It just looks a little more, like, nice.

You're just like, my choice for my dad is to make his hair a little shinier. I don't know. You could, uh, well, you never saw me. I mean, you have white people. People dye their hairs. You never saw me with anything but gray hair. You probably know me with gray hair. Well, I mean, I see some people who are like, blonde hair, but then again, you could, uh, you never saw me. I mean, you have white people. People dye their hairs. You never saw me with anything but gray hair. You've only known me with gray hair. Well, I mean, I see some people who are like,

you were a kid with, like, blonde hair, but then again, you look really different with, like... Yeah, when I was a kid, I had, like, bright, bright blonde hair. Why do you have gray hair? Why do I have gray hair? Because I'm old. That's why I have gray hair. No, I actually...

You're, like, almost 50, isn't it? I actually grayed very young. Oh, okay. So, um... But I don't know, like, I mean, I've dyed young. Oh, okay. So, um... But I don't know. Like, I mean, I've dyed my hair purple, pink. I had it blonde. Well, I had it blonde because, like, when you have color, you have to bleach your hair

and all the color just, like, washed out. And then I dyed my hair back to brown. I'm probably dyeing it, like, a darker color. Probably not black, but, like, dark brown. But I don't know what would look good on you. Maybe brown. I don't know. I mean, I've lived all of my life seeing you with, like, gray hair. So, darker brown. But I don't know what would look good on you. Maybe brown. I don't know. I mean, I've lived all of my life seeing you with, like, gray hair.

So it's like, I don't know. I like my hair fine, but, uh... I mean, I don't know. More white, more gray. Maybe I would do something different, like red. Like a redhead or something, you know? Ooh, red. I have seen this guy at my school.

And he had, like, this sort of, like, darker, like, red hair that was sort of, like, the color of, like, Mars soil. That looks really cool. That would be kind of cool. That's what you go through for red Mars? That's the closest I can think of. It's some kind of space thing. It's super red, but I forgot what it was. Okay.

Next question. Let's see. Oberon at Oberon underscore MTG asks, what's the best advice you can give to someone starting out after college with a new career? What's the best advice you can give to someone starting out after college with a new career? That's the best advice I can give to someone starting a new career. I mean, clearly what I would say is take a job that you can find passion in. It's not that every job is going to ultimately be your dream job, but try to find jobs in which there's something exciting to do.

Because I really feel that being happy in life is doing things you enjoy doing. And so part of that is finding jobs, at least aspects of the job you really enjoy. I'm not saying when you start off there will be things you have to do that you don't necessarily enjoy. But I think my advice basically is don't prioritize money when choosing your first job. Prioritize something you will enjoy doing. Because, as they say, you can't buy happiness. And the other thing is think long term. Because the idea is your early jobs are going to lead to later jobs.

And try to think of where jobs can lead you. And take jobs that you think you will enjoy that will take you ultimately, like, long-term. You want to end up in a job you truly, truly love. And how do you get there? Figure out where you want to go and aim that direction. That's my advice. As someone who has not been to college yet but is currently a junior

and spending all their time prepping for college, I don't know, some kind of prestigious advice about, like, opportunity. Because I'm going to be like, open, you know, when one door closes and the other one opens, opportunities, and just, like, I don't know, some kind of prestigious advice about opportunity. Because I'm going to be like, when one door closes, another one opens. Opportunities. And just doing as much as you can. Okay, next question.

Let's see. Another question from Oberon. A quick one. It says, how do you balance the individual needs of three small children? You're going for all the non-magic questions. Okay. I'm sorry. Hey, hey, my three small children are no longer small. Rachel's 16, and Adam and Sarah, my twins, are 12.

Almost 13. So how do you balance the needs of three children? It's kind of like how you balance the needs of all these different players that want different things out of your game. I mean, part of it is finding things that they all like. Part of it is making sure that each one has their, you know, not everything has to be for every kid. And I try to make sure that different kids have things that they want.

You know, like this last year, you know, it was, Rachel, go to VidCon. So we went to VidCon. And, you know, you want to make sure that you have moments with your kids and you do things that the kids can remember and enjoy. And you also want to find common ground where you can do things where all the kids can, you know. And sometimes you do something where one of your kids loves it and the other kid's like, you know, they're okay with it. But it's not the thing they love. It's a matter of mixing it up.

Typically your time is going to conventions with us. Like you went to VidCon with me last year. You're going to go with me and Sarah this year. And Adam, you take him to BrickCon and Emerald City Comic Con, and you took me and Sarah to Geek Girl Con. Like, you take us to a lot of conventions. We do a lot of conventions. That's your way of bonding. Well, that's a lot. That was more a one-on-one type thing. But, yeah, I mean, in general, like I said, one of the challenges of both making magic and having a

larger family is, um, different people want different things and it's, it's, the key is not making sure

that everybody loves everything, but making sure everybody loves something and that, you know, giving people their moment and their chance

to really connect and bond. That's my advice. Okay, give me a magic question. This is a magic vlog. Oh, you talk magic all the time.

What's the point of your magic podcast? I don't mind mixing in non-magic stuff, but we should have, Alright, question. This is a magic vlog. You talk magic all the time. What's the point of your magic podcast? I don't mind mixing in non-magic stuff. All right, all right. It is a magic. We should have some magic questions. Okay. Brian Dawes at MTG Lord of Leaves.

I think it's Leaves. Asks, what is your favorite tribe in Magic Together? What's my favorite tribe? What tribe? So in magic, there are different creature types. Like you can be an elf or a goblin. I mean, Like you can be an elf or a goblin. I mean the creatures can be an elf or a goblin or a human or you know a merfolk.

What is my cod? Human men. You can be human. So they're asking me what my favorite tribe is. Now the funny thing is I did a whole podcast where I picked my top 20. Do you remember what your first one was? Yeah my first one was zombies. I like zombies a lot.

Oh, zombies. So zombies hold a place near and dear to my heart. Followed closely behind by oozes, I think. Griffins and dragons seem the most, like, cool choice. Dragons are the most popular overall. Dragons are pretty cool. Aren't there griffins? There are griffins.

Griffins, what are griffins? They're like something of a lion, something of an eagle, something of like a... It's head of a lion, body of an eagle, something like that. Huh. I thought it was like head of an eagle, body of a lion. something of an eagle, something of like a... It's head of a lion, body of an eagle. It's not that. Huh. I thought it was like head of an eagle, body of a lion. Well, they can fly. I thought it was like three animals. What's it not like three animals?

Actually, I'm confusing griffins with... I think you're on the right track. But griffin is some mixture of animals. It's really cool when you look at it. Yeah. And magic has griffins, but they're not... Dragons are the most popular creature type, followed by angels. What's the number three?

Is it goblins? But anyway, my favorite... For some reason, I really like zombies. I don't know why I like zombies so much. Are they like fast zombies or like slow zombies? Slow zombies. I don't like fast zombies. No death for me.

I'm not that sick. No, I mean, I've talked about this like to me what makes zombies this cool sort of villain or creature is that they're it's only in mass that they're scary

that any one individual zombie you as a human can take but you know a mass of zombies just overwhelms you so the hordes

yeah the hordes of zombies just tire you out so imagine like one zombie you're like oh man but anyway if you haven't listened to my podcast

on my top 20 creature type you can go listen to the episode okay next Warren Smith at the Warren Smith asked

what do you two get in trouble from mom the most what does mom not like when we do what I feel like puns as a unit

mom gets mad at us or individually mom gets mad at us individually and as a unit what do we do as a unit to make like

we make a lot of puns, but like not together. Yeah, I've worn her down. She's used to puns. You have watered her down. I've worn her down. What do we do? I don't know. You forget stuff.

We got a concept that I'm like posting on Twitter. Yeah, I forget stuff. She's very forgiving of me forgetting stuff. She gets mad at me. I don't mean it. I'm a small child of 16. I don't know. Everything.

I don't know. I'm trying to, I don't know, nothing we do together is going to make me mad. There's nothing specific. We're like a team duo. I mean,

sometimes, I don't know. Yeah, I don't think as a group in particular she gets mad at us for. I mean, she,

sometimes we goof off a little bit and I think she's okay and then we carry her a little too far and then she gets mad. Like for. I mean, she, sometimes we goof off a little bit and I think she's okay and then we carry it a little too far and then she gets mad. Like, I'll do this thing where I'll start making up rhymes and, like, she'll handle the second or third one,

but by, like, fourth or fifth one, then she just goes, Oh, yeah, she's done. She's like, she's done. So, I've learned, I get, like, two, three rhymes and then I gotta stop, so. That's funny.

Okay, next question. All right. Robert Gross at rgross82 asks, I own a new game store and I'm gonna. That's funny. Okay, next question. All right. Robert Gross at rgross82 asks, I own a new game store and I'm gonna have a baby soon. I need some advice on living your passion and making a good home life.

Um, okay. So my big advice on having a balance, I did a whole podcast on work-life balance. See, you talk about everything already. Um, well,

I grew up to like, we're in the 400s, so I've had a lot of podcasts. Um, my big advice is this, which is, is, and this is a quote from that podcast, is, priorities aren't priorities unless you prioritize them. Which means that make sure you make time for the family. Make sure you allocate time. Having a job that's passionate is great, but you can't let it eat up all your time

and allocate your time correctly. So make sure that you're getting out of work at a regular time and that you're not there. That if you want to enjoy your family and be part of your family, you've got to be there, so make the time for it. The number one rule to me of just having a good family life is being there and being there for your family. Okay, next question.

Rafi of the many at, I think it's RMDCB, asked, how big is the design space for gods? How big is the design space for gods? It is not huge. I mean, one of the questions is we did gods, well, we did the god subtype in Theros. We did 15 gods. And Kamigawa did five gods, although we didn't quote-unquote call them gods. They were kind of gods. And then in Shadowmoor, we did five creatures that were kind of gods, or god-ish. I mean, it depends on, one of the things we've got to figure out as we make more gods is what defines gods.

Like, if you're a god creature type, what do you have to have? In general, they've got to be pretty big and splashy, meaning it's not like we have little tiny gods or anything. What is a god? Like a creature type. Like we were talking about zombies before. Oh, yeah. We went to Theros, which is a Greek mythology-inspired world, and we had 15 different gods, like Zeus and Poseidon,

but they were magic gods. But, I don't know, but my take on it is because it has to be big and splashy and we want to have some continuity to our gods, I think the space is limited, but not... I think from time to time we can make gods. I think we have the ability to, in worlds where it makes sense that there are

gods, we have enough design space to do that. But it's tricky and I'll be honest with you that designing gods is really hard. So, I mean, not that we can't make more but it's one of those things that every time we do it, it's going to be a lot of work because we've got a lot of iteration and stuff.

So I would say there's some space, not a lot of space. Okay. Next. Chris Colwell at... I think it's Colwell. I think it's Colwell. Okay. We have a printing issue.

Chris Colwell at GM Crates asks, What book did you read for the first time this year that each of you would recommend? Oh. The book that I read this year. I know my answer. You mean the book of your life? Yeah, yeah. Tell them about yours.

There's a book called Creativity, Inc., which is by the, I think the CEO, I forget what the guy's name is, the CEO of Pixar. It's Ed something, Ed Aswell. Oh, Ed, uh, Katz. Aswell? I thought it was Aswell. Aswell? I apologize.

It's the CEO of Pixar. And it's a book all about sort of managing the people at Pixar. And it has a lot of stories about how Pixar came to be and different issues that they've dealt with. And, you know, I don't know, it's fascinating. I thought it was really cool. If Pixar is something you're interested in, and management or sort of how companies function is something you're interested in it's a really interesting book

what did I read this year I remember I did read a Walt Disney biography recently that was pretty good I mean his life because he started really poor and then he got to a point where just like everything kept going and kept failing and it just got really sad and then he became happy because all of a sudden he started doing really well

and then it came like a little bit more sad and then it just kind of like more like depressing because then all of a sudden he like started getting cancer and you know, dying because he smoked.

Okay, so that was a very much like rollercoaster. Sad, happy, sad. It was a very like rollercoaster of stuff like I don't really know. Yeah, I know. A lot of people don't know the details of Disney. It was a very, like, rollercoaster of stuff. Like, I don't really know. Yeah, a lot of people don't know the details of Disney.

He was an interesting man, and he definitely had a lot of challenges, right? Yeah, he did. And I also read, my friends and I, we were really obsessed with the Flowers in the Attic series just because of how weird it is. Like, you look up any Virginia Andrews book, any V.C. Andrews book, all their books are, like, really morbid. She's made, like, 20 different series, and they're all morbid. Like, no matter what you read.

It's really funny how morbid things are. You sell millions of books about morbid. Yeah, look at B.C. Andrews. Like, she just makes really, like, morbid books about, like, really creepy things. But it's kind of funny. I don't know. That's a lot of stuff that I read for, like, school assignments. I don't know, for, like, fun, but I don't know. I kind of read on the daily. I feel like those would be my two. Okay, next

question. Oh, Ricky, let's take a look. Okay, The Booze Cube, at The Booze Cube, asks, how do I convince my wife to let me name our next daughter due in May, Liliana? I think it's pretty. Yeah, here's what I would say. I know it's a card, but it's really pretty. Rely a lot on the prettiness of the name and make sure she doesn't read stories about Liliana. That's your best bet. What happens to Liliana?

Well, Liliana in Magic is, she's a black mage and she's not the best role model. So if you're trying to get your daughter named Liliana, the less your wife knows about the character Liliana, I would say the better for you. It's a pretty name. It's a very pretty name. So hopefully bank on the prettiness of the name. I know a girl in my school named Lillian. That's a pretty name.

Yeah, it's a very pretty name. I like Liliana. It's pretty. Just focus on the prettiness. I also like the character. She's not something to emulate, that's all. She's a cool character. Okay, next question.

Let's see. All right. Patrick, just Patrick, at Miss Nufflegum has asked, what is the Rosewater family's favorite family movie? We watch movies like every Saturday night. Yeah, the thing we're doing right now is, Saturday night is Rosewater movie night, we watch Rosewater movies. The thing we're doing right now, we've been doing for a little while, is we're trying to watch as many best pictures as we can. Yeah, we've probably gone through like a fourth

of them or something. Yeah, we've watched quite a bit, so let's see. What was our favorite of those, though? I don't know, what was your favorite of those? Around the World 90 Days was super long and super weird. Like, there were funny points in it, but I wouldn't know, what was your favorite of those? Um, Around the World in 90 Days was super long and super weird. There were funny points in it, but I wouldn't have those as my favorite. It's kind of weird. Let's see, we watched Around the World in 90 Days. If you've ever seen Around the World in 90 Days, my favorite part is when they're talking about him going over the mountains because he's like an air balloon. And they're like, which mountains?

I don't know, he could be over the Appalachians or something. And then one of them goes, check your globes! And he just tips his hat and it's so funny what other good movies have you seen? oh Slumdog Millionaire, I love Slumdog Millionaire it's so sad, Slumdog Millionaire it's so sad

the way my mom described it to me it sounds really happy but it's not happy, it's so depressing we watched Kramer vs. Kramer we watched oh Kramer vs. Kramer. We watched... Oh, Kramer vs. Kramer. Oh, that was sad. We watched Casablanca. Argo was thrilling. Casablanca.

That was kind of weird. What was the silent one called? The Artist? We watched The Artist. Oh, we watched The Artist. That one was weird, too. I thought someone died at some point. I was like, oh, I'm tired. We watched Oliver. Oh, yeah. Oliver was strange. I did not expect Oliver to be that dark. It's as dark as I remember it.

Yeah, no, it's interesting. I mean, some of these movies I've seen before and some I haven't. Rachel's not seen any of them. So, it's interesting. I mean, yeah, I watched Spotlight because, like, near Oscar time. And, I mean, we watched that, and I think that was pretty good because I guess the best picture. That was good.

That one's more, like, deep. There's some of them that are very happy. Some are very like deep. What is the Rosewater's favorite film? I don't know. I know my favorite film. What's your favorite? Harold and Maude is my favorite film.

What's your favorite film? I don't know what my favorite film is. I know because it's near Christmas time for us at least while we're making this podcast. So I'm excited to watch Elf again because my sister is in a production of Elf. And I love everything about Elf. Sarah's in Play Elf. I love the musical I love the movie

I can correctly take the BuzzFeed quiz I got 10 out of 10 so I think I do really we watch Elf every year um I don't know I mean

there's a lot of movies we like I'll say Elf for now I don't know the proper answer okay next question Steven I think it's

Conafell I'm sorry we're having a lot of difficult trouble here yeah I'm a printer with're having a lot of difficult trouble here. Yeah, I have a printer with that too. Yeah. Ask, what are your favorite color or colors in Magic?

Well, one of the things, there's no way to do my job and do the amount of design I've done without me falling in love with all the colors. I actually like all five colors. I really, really do. I find each color to be really interesting, and so I don't really have a favorite. do. I find each color to be really interesting. And so I don't really have a favorite. It's kind of like if you said, you know, which of your kids is your favorite? I'm like, I like all my kids. I don't have a favorite kid. I don't have a favorite color. Well, maybe you do have a favorite, but you just love all of us.

I don't have a favorite. I honestly don't. I mean, the point is, I love each kid for what the kid is. I love each color for what the color is. And I really, really am a fan of all five colors. Just like I'm a fan of all my kids. So, I mean, it's... I think when I first came to work, I definitely leaned toward probably blue and red because those are the colors I had the most affinity towards. But since I've been here, I've really come to realize that, I mean, I write tons of articles

and do tons of podcasts about the colors because I really get passionate about the color bias, the thing I love. So it's neat to dig in deep on the colors. So I love them all. I will not choose. Okay. Okay. Michael Farkasin, Mike underscore Farkasin asks, how do you personally get people to overcome the fear of looking dumb and speak their minds?

So like for public speaking, I guess he's asking. I guess so. I mean, I was thinking more of like when someone's talking to them and they ask for questions and you're like, I got a question. I mean. I don't know. Just anything. Here's, I guess, I'll give, since I don't give lessons to Rachel, I'll give it to you guys. Here's, I guess, since I don't give lessons to Rachel, I'll give to you guys.

Here's one of the things that I think is important is, I think people give way too much credence to what other people think. I'm not saying that you shouldn't take the people who you value, people that mean something to you, and listen to what they have to say. But the people that aren't, like, too much people take the opinion of people that don't matter to them and make changes based on that. And the point is, do what is right for you. Don't let the opinions of others shy you away from what feels right. And part of it is, you know, if you're going to speak and you have passion for speaking about it, speak about it. I don't care if other people like my topic. You know what I'm saying? I want to be passionate about

my topic and I'll find others that share my passion. And, you know, if I try to live my life trying to make everybody else happy rather than make myself happy, I'm going to be miserable. So do things that make you happy and the people you love and you care about that mean

something to you will love the fact that it means something to you and they will enjoy it. And confidence is the key. Confidence is key. That's fine. All right. Nice from Rachel. Okay.

James Tartridge. I funded James. That's another good name. I like his creativeness. What do the other Rosewater family members think of Maro's aversion to bananas? Well, let's see. Let's see. I know my mom eats bananas.

My brother eats bananas. My sister, Sarah, sometimes eats bananas. I only eat bananas if they're in smoothies. Like, I can't eat a raw banana, but if it's in a peanut butter banana smoothie, like, I'm all for it. Okay, we were saying on the banana index. Okay, banana index. I'm at one extreme. The other extreme is...

I'm at, like, four. Like, you put it in a smoothie and I'm chill, but, like, otherwise, I'm not. I'm saying, but from the bananas to bananas, I'm at the bananas side. Probably the person that loves bananas most in our family is either my son, either Adam or my wife, Laura. They both really like bananas. Sarah's like, eh, I feel like Sarah would if she wants to. No, I feel like Adam and mom are at one end of the spectrum.

Sarah is a little farther down. You're further down than that. And then I'm at, wait, you know, the other end. I'm the only member of our family that won't eat bananas. And, in fact, what I say to my wife is that one of the signs

that I truly love my family is there's bananas in the house. Okay, next question. All right. Andy Moore, AJM, and Mooreland Haunt ask, if you didn't work Wizards of the Coast,

what do you think you'd be doing by now? Well, my plan before this, before I became a game designer, AJM at Moreland Haunt asked if you didn't work Wizards of the Coast what do you think you'd be doing by now? Um, well my plan before this before I became a game designer was I was going to

write television which I did a little bit. Um, I think I'd still be there. I'd like to believe I'd, I'd, I'd have a hit TV series

maybe a couple hit TV series and, and you guys would all know my name but not as a magic designer as a, the creator of awesome TV shows. Universes. And you guys would all know my name but not as a magic designer as the creator of awesome TV shows.

Oh, to the universes. Yeah, awesome. So, let's see. Actually, the best thing I ever wrote was the pilot I wrote. The best thing

I ever wrote. My one sadness of the life path I've taken is that that show is not a show on television. Wait, what show was this?

It was called Tech Court. What is this? It was a science fiction courtroom drama and it was awesome. Oh, my goodness. Wait, what show was this? It was called Tech Court. What is this? It was a science fiction courtroom drama, and it was awesome. Oh, my goodness. It does sound interesting. I'm a little, like, confused because there's never been a sci-fi courtroom drama. Yes. Well, there was one for a very short period of time, but not a successful one.

Okay. Okay, go ahead. Time underscore Elemental asks, what traits has Rachel inherited from you? That's basically her family. It's just like, I am like a girl version of you. Adam's like a boy version of mom. And Sarah's kind of somewhere between because mom was adopted.

So it's like, we think she inherited some traits from her biological parents. Because like her nose, we don't know where her nose came from. She's like super skinny than the rest of us. So we don't know where that came from. She also is the jock that exercises all the time. Yeah, so I guess progressing to biological parents.

Part of it might be her constant exercise rather than genes. But she's also very skinny. Not even the fact that she exercises. She's just also skinny. Even if she didn't exercise, she's just skinny. She's small. She's small. She is skinny because she constantly exercises.

She is small because she is skinny. I mean, I've inherited from you, like, geekiness and just, like, puns. Geekiness, puns. Yeah, your organizational style is similar to mine. Party planning and games. But I was. You act a lot like I did when I was younger. When I have time, I over-prepare everything.

I've gotten out of the habit because I don't have time anymore. I have so many things going on. prepare everything. I just, I've gotten out of the habit because I don't have time anymore. I have so many things going on. But, uh. Well, typically the weird thing is, is that I over plan things that don't really need like planning for. It's like, if we're going on a vacation, like I remember we went to Disneyland, I organized the rides by how much we paid. I used to do that. Back when I had time to do that, I did it. I ran out of time. It's for, it's for things that I don't normally like do. Like if it's schoolwork, it's like, eh. But like if we're going to like, you know, disneyland I'm like I'm all for playing

I'm on the research team I think when you're interested you get you get invested in I've seen you do that school work when you're interested in the thing you're doing yeah traits stubborn all my kids are stuff I think for mom I know I've gotten like you know cooking I see a lot I see a lot of've gotten like, you know, cooking since like, no children. Yeah, I mean, I see a lot. I see a lot of you, of me in you, so. Is there anything else besides?

Is there very any like, minute things? Like, very like, small things? There's just a lot of little things. Just the way you speak and... I mean, for example, you like writing. I do, yeah. You enjoy comedy. You definitely like the geekier side of things. You enjoy reading. You definitely like the geekier side of things.

You enjoy reading. You do a lot of things that I did. And some I still do. But back when I had time to just do things. Okay. Yeah, I guess so. Final question. We're almost to school here.

Oh, no, I am not. Give a good... Oh, no. Oh, I was not prepared to play. Okay. James Traversa at Dark dark nazora asked what would it take to reach or play magic i have played magic i was like eight and then i was like nah i'm good what would it take to get you back into magic back into magic that's a good question i want

to know the answer to this i don't know like i know they have a magic club like at my school like there's so much to it now that thing before i was like eight or whatever that's like the game that keeps building on itself like i'm already confused by pokemon and i like play pokemon go and that was fun because it was like easy but like even like the chart like the trading card game is like i can't handle doing that i don't know money or something like money if someone paid you you play like you're saying like maybe i mean if someone would be like to join like one game like if it's a if it's a person that i really enjoy spending time with and they're bugging me about it, I'm like,

okay, maybe I'll sit, but I'll definitely lose or something. I don't plan on winning. A friend. Okay. A friend, a family member. It doesn't matter

if your dad cares about it. It's just maybe a friend played. Well, I would lose. If you want to actually play against someone who's going to win, don't pick me

because you know you're going to win because you know the game. I'm a teacher beginner. I expect I will win more than they will. They've never played

and I've played for 20 years. There's just a lot. I have a lot. I focus on all the TV shows you watch. I have a lot of games and books and

stuff. There's a lot of things going on that I have. I don't know. Money. Final answer. Money.

Money. Money would make me play. Okay, so we answered a bunch of questions. So thanks, everybody. I know we didn't get to all the questions,

but thanks for sending questions. We will do more future replies with Rachel because I drive her to school every day. Sorry, I ask so many magic questions. I like the more creative questions because, you know, I don't talk as much. One of the questions was, what do I do when you're doing podcasts?

It's I listen to music. I don't do that much. I just sit in the car. Yeah, she just listens to music. She ignores me is the answer. Yep. Okay, so anyway, guys, thank you very much for joining us

for our third Replies with Rachel. But we are now at Rachel's school, so we all know what that means. What does it mean? It means the end of the drive to work. So, what does that mean? Instead of talking magic, it's time to be making magic.

Ah, she is listening. No, because I keep hearing you mix up, and I keep telling you that you were wrong and you're like oh no no no and you're like mistake it

so anyway she's hearing something okay thanks guys for joining us and we'll see you guys next time bye bye