Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #500: 100 and Counting

Episode Date: January 12, 2018

I took a page from my column and decided to take my 500th podcast to look back at all the podcasts I've done. It turns out 500 is way too many to do in one podcast, so I just talk about my first 100 podcasts. This is a good chance to hear about some of my early podcasts to help figure out which ones you might want to listen to. There's also a bit of behind-the-scenes information about making them.

I'm pulling up my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. And today, guys, is my 500th podcast. 500. That's a lot of podcasts. I'm amazed I still have things to talk about. Okay, so one of the things I do in my column is every 100 articles, I do something called 100 and counting, where I go over all the different articles I've written. And I've never done that for my podcast, and I thought for my 500th podcast,

I will do the equivalent of that, where I go back and I talk about all the different podcasts. Because not everybody's heard all 500 of my podcasts. So I'm going to walk through all the different things I've done and talk about them and share some stories and stuff. I have no idea how this will play out. So this is me trying something new. But I'm going to go back to the very beginning and we'll see. This might be more than one podcast. I'm not quite sure how long it takes to cover 500 podcasts. Some I have a bunch to say. Some I have very little to say. So we shall see.

Okay. So in the beginning, when I started. so my very first podcast, Ride to Work number one, was actually the one I did as an experiment to see if it would even work. I had this idea that I wanted to do a podcast, and I realized that I wanted to be about half an hour, and it took me half an hour to get to work, and so anyway, one day I just experimented. I said, hey, let me just try this. What happens if I do it? And so Drive to Work number one was on Tempest, which was my very first set I ever did or ever led. And so I decided to start like my first podcast would be my first set. I thought that would seem apropos. And so I talked about it. And I remember what happened is I recorded it and then then I took it in, and I said, I think

I told them I was just going to be posting on my blog. And then Wizards was like, oh, no, no, we want to put it up on our site. And so ever since I started, it's been a Wizards thing. But anyway, Tempest, the first one is really raw. The reason to listen to some of the early ones more than anything else is to see how far the podcast has progressed

what happened early on was early on I thought I was just going to be talking about designing sets never really clued in on me that A. I'd be doing it this long or that I would like I just wouldn't be able to

like I couldn't just only talk about sets like I'd run out of sets so I the early ones as you will see are about sets but I couldn't just only talk about sets. Like, I'd run out of sets. So I, the early ones, as you will see, are about sets. But I didn't start, I realized pretty quickly I have to start extrapolating out. Also, in the beginning, I only did one podcast a week. But what happened was I was having so much fun doing the podcast, I just kept doing them. And then I

was getting way, way ahead of myself. So then for one month I did, like like a special month where two per month. And then I realized that I can keep up the pace and do two. So that's what I've done. I now do two a week.

It's proven to be about right. Doing two a week allows me to occasionally take some weeks off because sometimes I'll do more than two in a week so I can get ahead. But anyway, so Tempest,

my very first one. So Drive to Work number two is Zendikar. That's another set that I led. And, you know, Zendikar, we had gone back to Zendikar. So this was back in October of 2012. So this is before Battle for Zendikar came out, I believe.

So probably at the time I was doing this, I was making Battle for Zendikar while talking about Zendikar came out, I believe. So probably at the time I was doing this, I was making Battle for Zendikar while talking about Zendikar. One of the fun things about this, by the way, about this podcast is Zendikar went on to be very popular. But one of the fun things about the story was that when I first tried to make it,

nobody wanted it to be made. Or very few people. It ended up being a lot more difficult to make than one would imagine for a set that ended up being so popular. The making of it was really hard. Okay, drive to work number three. I don't know whether or not this is my first guest. I talk about planeswalkers.

Early on at some point, I had Matt Cavada. He would carpool with me. He's since moved farther away, so he and I don't get the chance to carpool all that often. Every once in a blue moon we do, but not very often. We used to carpool a lot, and planeswalkers might have been his first one. I'm trying to remember. The reason it might have been Matt that I did planeswalkers with is Matt was the one that came up with the idea for doing Planeswalkers during Future Sight Design. And so I thought it'd be fun to talk with him about how Planeswalkers got made.

I think he's on that one. I'm not 100% on that. But anyway, this is the first podcast where I didn't talk about making of a set. I instead talked about a card type, which is still design-y, but a little bit different. I instead talked about a card type, which is still design-y, but a little bit different. Next, also, the story of Planeswalkers is an interesting story because Matt came up with the idea during Future Sight. We were originally going to make them during Future Sight as a nod toward the future, with the idea that ultimately it would just become something Magic normally did. And the evolution took a while. We ended up not putting them in the future site

because we weren't quite happy with them yet. They ended up coming out in Lorwyn. So anyway, the history of how Planeswalkers came to be is kind of interesting because it wasn't just like we had an idea and boom, the first version of it was the perfect version. We made a whole bunch of different versions. For a while, it was kind of controversial in R&D because people didn't quite like how they worked. But anyway, that podcast talks all about that. Drive to Work 4 is about invasion. So that's the first podcast I did about a set design that I did not lead. I was on the set. And in Invasion, I talk about sort of how we made it. The fun story of Invasion is that this team was three people. It was me, Bill Rose, and Mike Elliott. Bill Rose was the lead designer of it. And we went off to my dad's house in Tahoe and spent a week there. And sort of the basic

structure of it got made during this trip to Tahoe to see my dad. Okay, drive-thru number five is Ravnica. It's gone on to be one of the most popular sets we've ever done. I talk a lot about Ravnica. Ravnica, the reason that this story is kind of interesting is that how we got to the guild structure, how we got to guilds, we didn't start there. In fact, I started going to some other places first and kind of finding the guilds is the thing that really cemented the design. And once we realized we had that, we built everything around it. But I talk a lot about sort of where we started and what we did. And I think we had the play test that R&D called the most challenging play test they've ever done. So all that is in the Ravnica talk. Number six is gold. So I talk about designing

gold cards and I talk about the challenges. I think this one's based on an article that I'd done that the structure is based on an article I had done. From time to time on my podcast, I'll talk about articles. I'll use articles as jumping off points. And I'd done an article on gold design that I'm pretty sure is what I used to structure that. But anyway, in it, I talk about sort of how gold cards get designed and what are the requirements if you have two or more colors in the card and what are the challenges. And there's different kinds of cards we make, so I break them up into categories. Anyway, I just talk about the challenges of making gold cards.

If you like gold cards, there's that. Drive to Work number seven is about alliances. So this includes one of my favorite stories of all time, which is alliances was the first set that I did development on. I wasn't a designer on, I was on the development team. So this is also the first set I talk about in which I talk about the design, but I wasn't one of the designers. I was on the development, it was the first team I worked on when I got to Wizards.

And there's a great story about customer service didn't have faith in the set, and they, especially the pitch cards, and there was a big sort of, R&D had to sort of stake its ground on what we believed, that we believed in the set, and there's a good story about that, that I tell, one of my favorite magic stories. I go into pretty big detail, because it's a long story,

but if you ever want to hear, if you haven't heard the story of the Alliance's story, it's one of my favorite magic stories. And like I said, it's a good chunk of the podcast because it's probably a 10-minute story. But it talks all about how customer service didn't believe in the sad and convinced Peter, who was the CEO of a time, to lower the print run. And R&D had to go back and convince him to raise it. And anyway, it's a fun story. If you've never heard it, give it a listen to.

Okay, drive-to-work number eight was on cycling. So that's my first drive-to-work on a mechanic. Cycling is, we've done a whole bunch of times. In fact, we've done cycling since I've done the cycling mechanic. I'm a kid who's cycling. But anyway, a lot of people joke that I've showed a bicycle to work while doing that podcast, except I would be dead now, so probably that would not be a great idea.

But anyway, this is the first, I've been doing more mechanical podcasts, but this is the first one of me doing a mechanics podcast. So if you want to hear, it's kind of fun to go back to the early ones, to listen to me and hear me try to do it. And just, I'm still sort of finding my way. The other thing you'll notice from the early podcast is I think I'm pulling on my driveway. I did from the very first podcast, I believe.

But my ending, it took me a while to sort of get to the ending that I do. You can hear me trying out a bunch of different endings, some of which are kind of comically bad. But you can listen to those. So Drive to Work number nine was on the psychic graphics, a.k.a. Timmy, Johnny, and Spike. Or psychic graphics, aka Timmy, Johnny, and Spike.

Or Timmy, Tammy, Johnny, Jenny, and Spike. I talk about what they are. I go in great depth. If you don't, I mean, I've obviously wrote articles about it too. I go into even more depth than I do in my articles just because I have the time. So if you at all

want to know more about the psychic graphics, probably one of the best things I've ever done as far as going into detail on the Psychic Graphics was this podcast. It really, I really got at it and talked about it. And in some ways, there's things you can do when you talk that's harder to do when you write. And this was one of those podcasts where kind of hearing it

helps a lot because there's a lot of sort of, I don't know, a lot of subtlety to the Psychic Graphics. And so anyway, if you've ever wanted to know about psychographics, haven't, this is a really good chance to do that. I go in really good detail, probably the most detail I've ever done. Drive to Work number 10 is on Time Spiral. So Time Spiral, Brian Tinsman led it. I was on the team.

I was head designer at this point for Time Spiral. I started with Ravnica. So anyway, I'm just sort of talking about the challenges of Time Spiral. Time Spiral was a blast to make. It ended up dividing the audience. The established audience really liked it. The less franchise didn't get it. But it was a really fun make.

And I share a lot of stories about some of the fun things we did in making it. Okay, next. 10 Things Every Game Needs. So this was based on a podcast, I'm sorry, this podcast was based on an article I did from my daughter, her fifth grade class. I got invited in by her teacher for the American Revolution. Their assignment had to be make a game. And so he liked bringing teachers in to do, not teachers, the teacher liked bringing in parents to talk about things that had to do with what they did.

Once he found out I was a game designer, he's like, oh, it's perfect. I have a thing where kids make a game. And I said, okay, well, I'll come in and I'll talk for an hour and I'll talk about how to make a game. And so this, I wrote an article about the 10 things every game needs.

And then I ended up doing 10 individual podcasts. We'll get to those. But I did, this is the overview talking about all of them. But I then broke them up and did one podcast per thing where I go into great detail. So if you are a game designer or a game design wannabe, this is definitely something to listen to as well as the whole series. There are a bunch of podcasts to me that are very game designery. And this is probably the first of my really game designery podcasts. Next, Drive to Work number 12.

Great designer search. So I've done two great designer search. The first one, Alexis Jansen won. Ken Nagel came in second. The second one, Ethan Fleischer won and Sean Main came in second. And all those people

came to work for Wizards. In fact, well Sean no longer works for Wiz. And all those people came to work for Wizards. In fact, well, Sean no longer works for Wizards, but the other three still work at Wizards. In addition to Scott Van Nesson, who came in third, who was in the first one and came in third in the second one. Mark Globus, who came in fourth in the first one. Graham Hopkins, who came in third in the first one. So there's a lot of Wizards people who originally

came into the Great Designer Search. There's been two of them. This, I believe I'm talking about the first one and this one. But I'm kind of talking about what it's like and how it runs and how it works. Did I... At some point I have... Ethan comes and does a podcast

with me. It's possible that this one had Ethan in it. Ethan Fleischer. I think that he... The reason maybe we talk great design research is I had Ethan Fleischer on the show at Carpool. He drove to my house. He actually lives in Issaquah, which is where I live. Not as close to me as Matt once did.

So I think this is one that had Ethan Fleischer on it. Okay, next. Drive to Work 13 is Unglued. Well, obviously, Unstable hopefully has come out by the time you've heard this. So Unglued was the very first silver border set. I talk all about its design. There's lots of fun stories. And so if you care about silver border sets or, like, the story of the history of Unglued,

how it came to be, basically, Joel Mick and Bill Rose had this idea of a set with a silver border that wasn't tournament legal. And that's really all they had. And I was the out-of-the-box designer guy, so they came to me. And really, how I came up with Unglued and how it came to be the set that it did, I talk all about it in this.

Driver number 14 is the Pro Tour. I spent eight years working on the Pro Tour. I went to every Pro Tour, almost every Pro Tour for eight years. I think I missed one for my daughter's birth, which was good. I did want to miss my daughter's birth. But anyway, I talk all about a whole bunch of Pro Tours, and I share stories, and there's a lot of fun if you guys have never heard it. I have a couple different podcasts where I talk ProTor stories. This is one of them. Next, Thrive for Work 15, Codenames. So this is the one where I talk about the evolution of how we name sets. This one is, I know it might sound dry, like really, Codenames?

But it's been my job for a long time to make the Codenames. And they've been through a lot of different changes. The funny thing, this is back in 2013. I've since made another big evolution on the code name. So maybe one of these days, I got to figure out how to do follow-ups where I don't have a half hour's worth, but I have interesting little tidbits.

Maybe I'll do a tidbit one, right? Just sort of, I follow up on a bunch of old ones. That might be a cool idea. Okay, Number 16. Drive to Work 16 says, Talking Urza's Saga. I don't know why it's called Talking Urza's Saga. I mean, obviously

I'm talking about Urza's Saga. I don't know why it's not called Urza's Saga, but Talking Urza's Saga. Anyway, this is me talking about the design of Urza's Saga. That is a set that was... I mean, there's an argument

whether the most broken set in all of Magic is Urza Saga or is Mirrodin. Depends how you want to... I think Urza Saga is the most broken, but I think Mirrodin might have caused more people to leave the game,

so it depends how you want to count it. Anyway, it's me talking about Urza Saga, including, I believe, the story of us getting chewed up by the CEO. So if you want to hear about how Urza Saga came to be so broken and the ramifications of it being broken, you can listen to that. Drivebook number 17 is on The Duelist. So I talk about The Duelist, The Duelist magazine.

It's kind of how I got my start at Wizards. I did freelancing, did the puzzles for The Duelist. And then I started, the very first thing I did freelancing, did the puzzles for The Duelist. And then I started, the very first thing I did at Wizards was freelancing for The Duelist and writing articles. And so this is kind of about me getting my start at Wizards, but it's also me talking about the history of The Duelist. And a lot of people don't even know what The Duelist magazine is anymore because it hasn't been around for so long.

So a little bit of history, both sort of personal history and the history of the game. Number 18, artifacts. So I think I dedicated a podcast to each car type. Obviously I done planeswalkers first. So this is me talking about artifacts. It's me talking about how artifacts get designed and the challenges of artifacts. And ironically, I just did a podcast talking about my lessons learned from Kaladesh and there's more on the topic there. But anyway, this is me talking about how we design artifacts and the challenges of artifacts. Okay, next. Drive to Work 19, 20, and 21 is Innistrad Part 1, 2, and 3.

So this is the part where I figure out that I don't need to do everything in a single podcast, that I can actually do multiple podcasts on the same topic. So Innistrad, which I think is either the best set I've ever designed or in contention. I think it probably is the best set I've ever designed. I'm really, really proud of Innistrad. It came out great. I led the design. Eric Lauer led the development.

And it just was really an amazing set. I'm very happy with the set. And the players also liked the set. Obviously, we went back there in Shadows over Innistrad. So this is me talking in great detail about Innistrad. I think what I start to do is I will talk about sets, and then

sometimes I'll also talk about the cards in the set. So I do the set design, and then I talk about cards in the set. Sometimes I just talk about design. Sometimes I just talk about cards. The fact that this is three podcasts long makes me think that I'm talking about design. Sometimes I just talk about cards. The fact that this is three podcasts long makes me think that I'm talking about cards in addition to just talking about the design.

Next, oh, okay. So DriveWord 22, 23, and 24 is the Golden Trifecta series. So it is my belief that Richard Garfield made three amazing creations when he invented magic. One was the trading card genre. One was the color pie. and one was the mana system. So I spend a podcast on each

of them, talking about why they're amazing and what sort of, you know, what exactly Richard made. And I talk about why they're important. So, probably the one, the mana system, number 24, a lot of people really diss the mana system, so that's a really,

I mean, the trading card game, I talk about all the challenges making a trading card game, all the innovations you had to come up with, what it meant to be a trading card game versus not a trading card game. The color pie. I go off on why the color pie is important, structurally what it does, like, I talk about sort of why I obviously love

it, but I talk about why it's so crucial, and why it's kind of so innovative, and why it really kind of so innovative and why it really defines the game and why it's the heart of the game. And the mana system, I defend the mana system. People love to pick on the mana system. Everyone seems to think the mana system is like the great weakness of magic. And I believe it's one of its strengths,

not one of its weaknesses. So if you want to know why, you can hear about it there. So Drive Door 25, I talk about homelands. Let's set homelands. Now, homelands, I guess I play-tested it. I was one of the play-test team, so we did play-test it. But other than that, I wasn't on any design or development team. It was before my time.

But I do talk about Homelands. I've gone on record calling Homelands the worst design set in the history of Magic. I explain that in this podcast and talk about a lot of the challenges. There also is a really interesting story about a fight in R&D between R&D and Peter Atkinson. So there's a kind of cool behind-the-scenes story there as well. And I talk a lot

about the set. I talk about sort of it was trying to do some stuff with story. There is some things it did for the first time. It might not have been super successful, but it was something that it did try. And it is a good historical podcast. Okay, DriveWorks

26 is white. So white is a podcast on the color white. I think I did five podcasts, one in each color. This is where I talk color philosophy. What does white believe? One of the cool things about this series is I'm able to go into really big detail.

I mean, I have a half an hour to talk, all about one color. So it's me really going detail on what the white means. Number 27, bad cards. So this was based on a very famous article I wrote called When Cards Go Bad. That was like one of the earliest articles I wrote. It was like the ninth or tenth article I wrote. It really sort of made me understand the kind of articles I want to write. But anyway, I talk about bad cards, why they exist, why we make them, and the structure of this is my article.

So in my article, I talk about reasons why we make bad cards. And in fact, I did an article, and then I did a new article that sort of, I revisited the article, and those articles went into this bad card podcast. Next, Drive to Work number 28, Planar Chaos. So I talk about one of the more controversial sets we've ever made, me messing with the color pie in an alternative reality present, part of the time spiral block. So it's me talking about it.

The fact that it's only one podcast means I don't know if I went in detail on cards. I think I mostly talked about the design of the set. One of the cool things about this set was it's the set the closest we've ever come to making a sixth color. We didn't get that close, but we did playtest cards. We made cards. We figured out how the color pie would work. So anyway, I talk about that in this one.

Okay, DriveWorks 29 is my podcast on creatures. So it's part of my series on car types. I talk about how to design creatures and the challenges of creatures and what we've learned. And creatures have gone through a bit of an evolution through magic. They really were kind of misunderstood early on and way underpowered. So I talk about that. Okay, Lesson 30 and Lesson 31 are Lessons I've Learned, Parts 1 and 2.

So I had this idea to do a podcast series about lessons that I've learned. Eventually, I would realize that I could do one per set I led. These early days, I actually go through a bunch of sets. So I don't remember. It's only sets that I led. So I start with Tempest, and then I go through things that I learned. I can, I still, like I just recently did thepest and then I go through things that I learned. I can, I still, like I just recently did the one on Kaladesh. I still do lessons learned. I now spread them out a little bit

and do an entire podcast on just a single, the lessons of a single set. But these early ones, I think I go through like three sets each time in the early ones. So the first three sets I led would have been Tempest,

Urza's Destiny, and Unglued, which is I assume lessons learned. We'll talk about that. And I led would have been Tempest, Urza's Destiny, and Unglued, which is, I assume, Lessons Learned. We'll talk about that. And then it would have been Odyssey, then Mirrodin, and then Fifth Dawn, I think. So anyway, lessons I've learned are early stuff. Okay, Drive to Work 32, 33, and 34 are on FutureSight. I call this my art house set. It's a set I did that has lots of nuance. I'm super proud of the

design, but it was really complex and very confusing. And for the people that can enjoy the nuance of the set, there is a lot of nuance. It really is a very cool set. I was exploring things of the future. I did mix and match where I mix and match mechanics from the past. I did all sorts of cool things. It is super complicated, but it is much beloved, and the people who were able to appreciate it really appreciate it. That's why I call it my art house film, which is, it wasn't a popular set,

but it was critically acclaimed among the people that got it. And so I talk about it. The fact that it's three podcasts long, I might, I'm not sure whether or not I talk about cards from it. There's a lot going on at Future Sight, so maybe just me talking about Future Sight took up the full time. Okay, DriveWorks number 35 was on

blue, the color blue. So the second in my color podcast where I talk color philosophy. By the way, if you at all love the color pie, I would listen to the whole series on the color pie. I really, really go in great detail and it is fun. I love talking color pie philosophy, so it's kind of fun to let me dig deep, and so this series is fun to listen to. Project number 36 is Tales from the Pit. So I started a comic strip, which I still run. In fact, I just I'm in my 1600-somethings. I think today I did 1647, I think I did today. Anyway, it's a comic strip that I started. This podcast talks about kind of

how the comic strip started and just tells some stories along the way. The very first strip I ever did got censored. I talked about that. But anyway, talk about, if you want to sort of, it's me talking about social media and me talking about my comic

and a little bit about my writing days and talking about comedy. But anyway, it's a nice... Sometimes I like going deep on a thing that's very personal to me that is not... It's a lot of words on a very small topic, and that's this one. So Drive to Work 37 is Lessons Learned Part 3, which would have been... At this point, I'm doing two or three per thing still.

So, assuming I did 5th Dawn, I'm guessing here. After 5th Dawn, my next set would have been... After 5th Dawn... Would have been Ravnica. Would have been Ravnica, and would have been... Shadowmoor and Eventide?

So, it's roughly around there. DriveDrip38 is about Unglue 2, the obligatory sequel. Unglue 2, the obligatory sequel. Unglue 2 was the set I made that never got released. I've written two articles about it called Unseen 1 and 2, where I show off some of the art and some of the cards. It's a really interesting story. It's not often we make a set, and we design a whole set,

and we get art for it, and then it gets pulled, and it never gets released. In fact, this might be the only set in Magic that got that far. I mean, there's stuff we had done that got stopped

much, much, much earlier. This got stopped way later. Like I said, the art was done. It's not often we kill things after the art is done. But anyway, it's an interesting story

and, I mean, especially if you've never heard about sort of the behind the scenes. Anyway, it's interesting. Number 39 is on randomness. I joked that I should have just kept rolling dice and just talked about random things. But no, I talk about randomness in gaming.

It's based on a very popular article I did talking about randomness. It gets quoted a lot by other games. When other people want to argue about randomness in their game, they quote my article a lot about randomness. So I talk a lot. There's a lot of lessons I learn. And this is the podcast version of my article. The thing that's really cool about it is there's a lot, you would think that randomness, there's a lot of details of randomness. There's a lot about how randomness works. So anyway, it was a pretty cool podcast. It was a cool article. Also read the article if you want.

Okay, Drive to Work 41, 42, 43 is Mirage Part 1, 2, and 3. So I'm definitely now in the thing where I'm stretching out when I talk about sets. I think I'm talking about cards from the set in addition to the set. Mirage was the first set that I was on

the development team the whole time. I showed up in the middle of alliances, so I was there for part of alliances. But Mirage was the first set that I was on the development team the whole time. I showed up in the middle of alliances, so I was there for part of alliances. But Mirage, I was there from the beginning. Mirage was the first. I mean, I got a few cards in alliances, I guess. But Mirage was the first set I got a whole bunch of cards in. It's where Maro shows up. Anyway, and it was fun.

Like I said, I was a developer on this thing, not a designer. But I was very, very actively involved in the development. I also did flavor text. I think I talked about that a little bit. But I go in deep. If you like Mirage, Mirage was the first set made for limited play. Like really where we thought about limited play in development. So I talk a bunch about that.

So anyway, you can hear that. Number 45 is Meet My Dad. So my dad is named Gene. I had to drive him somewhere to the airport or something. Or he needed my car. For some Gene. I had to drive him somewhere to the airport or something, or he needed my car. For some reason, I had to drive him to work. And I said, hey, why don't we just do a podcast? And he said, okay. And so I just did a podcast with my dad. You can meet my dad. And we talk a bit about sort of what I was like growing up. And my dad really was the gamer in the family that taught me to fall in love with games. We talked about that.

And he talks a little bit about being my dad. And there's a fun story about, or a couple of stories, I think, about him meeting people who, you know, him being a celebrity because he's my dad is a fun story about that. But anyway, if you're curious what my dad is, who my dad is, you get a chance to meet my dad.

DriveRook46 is on Instants and Sorcery. So this is another in my podcast. I think I combined them because they're very interconnected. So I had done planeswalkers. I had done creatures. I had done artifacts. Well, it's time for instants and sorceries. So I talked about how they're designed.

I talked about the challenges of them. I think I also talked about when something should be an instant versus when it should be a sorcery. DriveRogue47 was lessons learned. versus when it should be a sorcery. Drive to work number 47 was Lessons Learned. So Lessons Learned was... Lessons Learned was part four, so the next... I don't know. At this point, I'm losing how many things I talked about.

I think I started to realize that I didn't need to do as many, so I think I started talking about less per. The fact that it doesn't say the name of it means it's at least two, but this is my fourth of the lessons learned. Okay. Drive to Work 48, 49, 50, and 51 was Scars of Mirrodin. Um, the Scars of Mirrodin, if you don't know, was a really, one of the hardest designs they ever did.

I kind of lost my way a little bit. Um, it's, it's the one set that Bill Rose basically, he was my boss, well, he's still my boss, but he was the head designer at the time, and he sort of said that if I couldn't find my way, he was going to give the set to somebody else. I got lost for a while, and in the end, I was very happy with what we ended up with,

and I talk a lot about how originally Mirrodin was going to be New Phyrexia, the first set, not the third set, and Scars of Mirrodin was going to be New Phyrexia, the first set, not the third set, and Scars of Mirrodin was going to be New Phyrexia. Anyway, there's a lot going on here. There's a lot of interesting mechanics. I talk about, I think I might spend an entire podcast talking about the road of poison,

of getting poison into magic. I love poison. But anyway, the Scars of Mirrodin is a four-parter. I start going into more in detail and such. Drive book number 52 is on Black. It's another in my color pie

philosophy. This is on Black. Once again, all I can say is if you haven't listened to them, they're some of my favorites. Number 53 is Tales from the Boat. So this is another of my pro tour stories. These are all about stories that took place on the Queen Mary.

For many, many years, PT Los Angeles took place on the Queen Mary. And there were so many things that happened there that I talk about it. I talk about having the wrong top eight and having to find the guy and tell him he's not in top eight. I talk about the riot where a player got DQ'd in the finals. Anyway, there's a bunch of fun stories. And when I ask people what their favorite podcasts are, this is one that comes up a lot. It's just a favorite.

Just me sharing stories about the Pro Tour days. It's a lot of fun, and there's some fun stories. I think I also get a story about Mark Justice and I doing like 10 to 12 hours of commentary in a phone booth. Anyway, it's a fun one. Listen to it. Number 54, Flavor Text. I'm pretty sure this was a podcast with Matt Cavata in the car.

He had been in charge of Flavor Text for many years. He actually worked with us two different times. His first time, he was in charge of names and Flavor Text. So he and I talked Flavor Text. I've written a bunch of Flavor Text, and there were a few sets I was in charge of Flavor Text. Odyssey, Ungluten, Unhinged. So we talk about what it's like to both write flavor texts and be in charge of flavor texts.

DriveWork number 55 is about land. So this was about my, this was about, this is another of my podcasts on the car types. I talk about challenges of making land. I talk about sort of the rules about land. And I just talk about everything there is to talk about. Project number 56 is about Drive to Work. I've done a couple different podcasts about Drive to Work. This was my first one.

This one was about the history of Drive to Work, how it ended up getting made, and what I learned, sort of the route to me getting a podcast. Okay, number 57, 58, 59 is Champions of Kamigawa. So this is me talking about Champions. This was a set that I was not on the design team for. Instead, I was on the development team for. And that set had a lot of issues.

I've called Chame... Chame... Chame... I've called Chame... Okay, why can't I say this word? I've called the Kamagawa block the worst designed block in history. It had a lot of challenges.

And I became head designer in the middle of this block. But it was kind of... Ravnick was the first block where I really had control of what we were doing. Kamagawa kind of was off, was already sort of out of control. And I sort of tried to rein in a little bit, but

not super successful. It really, we made some fundamental decisions early on that I think were, that were hard to undo and caused all sorts of problems. But anyway, I talked about champions, I talked about cars and champions. Okay, 60, 61, and 62 are one of my favorite three. A series, so 60 is on comfort,

61 is on surprise, 62 is on completion. So this is on the communication theory. I did an article on this, and then this is me breaking it up into three different podcasts. In communications theory, there are three things the audience seeks out, which is comfort, surprise, and completion. It is what drives the idea of what do people want through communication. I apply it to story. I apply it to card design.

I really go in great detail. So much so, like I said, I spent a podcast on each of the three. It's a really interesting thing. This is one of my favorite series I did. It's actually interesting even if you don't know magic.

It's really not a magic-centric one. Although it applies to magic. It applies to magic design. But if you're at all interested in creativity at all or making designs or writing it really is a really cool series so dry drug number 63 was 1993 so i did a series called 20 years 20 podcasts in fact it's a series i haven't really finished yet. I had done a video at Worlds one year where in 20 minutes, I summed up 20 years of magic on its 20th anniversary. And then I decided that instead of doing a minute per year, I would do a podcast per year. So this series, I talk through each year, everything that happened that year,

all the products that came out that year, all the main events that happened that year, and I tell stories. The early ones, I have a little bit more room for stories because less happen, so I have more time to extrapolate. Some of the later ones, I'm just so busy saying everything that happened that I have less time to share stories. But anyway, this is 1993. It's the year of Magic's release, and there's a lot of me talking about the magic coming out because there wasn't not that much happened in 1993 so there's a lot more

detail me talking about magic's origins on 64 walking the plains so that was a series that Nate and Shawn do or did they now do a different series but they did a whole bunch of series at the Pro Tour, sort of filming the Pro Tour, and there's a lot of comedy sketches they would do. Whenever I was in town with them, I would do stuff, so I was on a bunch of different walking

the planes. I talked about all my different appearances and the funny sketches we did and sort of behind the scenes. So, if you're at all a fan of that series, I go in depth about talking about that series. Okay, next. Red.

So this was the fourth in the series of the Color Pie Philosophies, me talking about red. Drive rule number 66, development. This is me talking about all the things that development do. This obviously was back in the day when we had design and development. I talk a lot about sort of design, so it's me talking about all the stuff that development do. Because obviously it was back in the day when we had design and development. I talk a lot about sort of design,

so it's me talking about all the stuff that development does and what development does. And then 67 was creative. It's me talking about the creative team and all the work they do. So 66 and 67, although not technically a series, is me talking about different sections of the company and how design works with development,

how design works with the creative. Obviously, we've revamped some of the stuff, which I talk about in a later podcast. But this is a really good insight. If you don't understand the difference between the different parts of R&D, I mean, this is the old school version of it, but you can listen to it and we talk about it.

68 is me talking about piggybacking. So this is a concept. In fact, I do a piggybacking episode here and then I do a different one as part of my GDC series. But this is based on my article that I wrote on piggybacking. It's a concept where you as a game designer can, by choosing how you represent things and playing with resonance, you can teach people through your examples of what you choose. Interestingly, it's the one game where I choose a different game to explain the concepts, is I choose Plants vs. Zombies. George Phan,

the creator, is a Magic fan. I've had a chance to meet him a couple occasions, and I had a great discussion with him about where Plants and Zombies came from, and it inspired this article, which, by the way, is a very popular... The column is very popular among game designers because it talks about a concept that I was the first person to talk about, at least the name, I guess. I mean, it's not that other people didn't do it. I just named it first, I think. So it's a popular article.

Next, 70, 71, and 72 is Odyssey. Oh, I'm sorry. 69, 70, 71, 72 is Odyssey, part 1, 2, 3, and 4. Odyssey was a set that I ran. I talk about it. There was a lot in Odyssey. It was a point in my career where it was early

on. I was still kind of overdeveloping things and I just would make more than possible to fit into sets. So there's a lot of stuff in Odyssey. Not all of it made it. I obviously talked about a bunch of cards in it. But there's a lot of cool stories about Odyssey Not all of it made it. I obviously talked about a bunch of cards in it. But there's a lot of cool stories about Odyssey. It definitely was a set that I was really proud of. It's a weird set.

It wasn't particularly popular by the audience, but it has become a favorite sort of among the spikes because it's a super, super spiky set. Probably the most spiky set I ever made. And there's a big lesson I learned while designing Odyssey that I obviously talk in Lessons Learned,

but I also talk about here in this podcast. Okay, number 73 and 74 is about the Magic Invitational. So I used to run an all-star game. It started as a thing for the Duelists. The early ones were called the Duelist Invitational, the magazine that I'd worked on, that I was editor-in-chief of for a while.

And I go through, I would later go in more detail than Magic Invitational. I think this was me doing a podcast, sort of talking about it at whole, and then I realized

that I could go into more detail, so I think I later do a series of Invitational where I go Invitational by Invitational. And I might talk about two per. But this is me talking about how the Invitational came to be.

And there's a lot of things that came out of the Invitational. There was formats that came out of the Invitational. So there's a lot of fun stories about sort of how that came about. DriveWorks 75 was Enchantments. So this was another in my car type series. Was enchantments the last one? Well, I've done planeswalkers. I've done creatures and artifacts and instant sorceries and lands.

I don't do an interrupt one or anything. I think I might have done one where I cover all the car types I don't cover at some point. But anyway, this was the final one, I believe, of that. Enchantments are an interesting case. There are some challenges to designing enchantments. In some ways, artifacts and enchantments are very similar, and I talk about how we

things we do to make them feel a little bit different. And anyway, I talk about auras, and I talk about all sorts of things with enchantments. Drivework number 76 is 1994, so the second in my 20 years 20 podcast series, where I talk about magic second year. And there's a lot

that goes on that year. Not as much, I guess, not as much later, but the early years I really, really go in depth of a lot of sort of the nitty gritty of some of the early things that magic did. There's a lot of firsts in the early years. DriveWorks 77 is on creativity.

It's based on an article I did called Connect the Dots, which was an article on creativity that I wrote on my theory of creativity, which is a really interesting article. It gets linked to a lot. It gets read a lot. And it's me talking about it. So it's me talking about my beliefs on creativity. This is another one that stands alone. I mean, I mentioned magic in it, but it's really if you're into game design, it's another, this is me talking about creativity, I guess you don't even need to be into game design. If the concept of creativity is interesting to you,

it's my take on creativity. Drogic number 78 was on the PT1 video. This is a funny story. I was asked, kind of last minute, to direct the video for PT1. But the, when I say last minute, I mean after the event happened. direct the video for PT1. But the...

When I say last minute, I mean after the event happened. So, anyway, it's a very funny story. It talks about how this thing came to be. We have it on... You can go on our website, and Henry Stern and I have done commentary on it. Anyway, it's a funny, funny story. It is kind of a crazy story, which I guess makes it

why it makes such a funny story. But me going into detail, and if you like me, if you enjoy the podcast where I tell stories, this is just one long, giant, crazy story. Drive-thru number 79 was green, so it was the fifth in my Color Philosophy series.

80, 81, 82 was Theros 1, 2, and 3. And then 84, 85, 86 was 4, 5, and 6. What I started doing was when it was more than three things I would break it up. So number 83 is rarities. I'll get to that in a second. So 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86

is a six-part Theros podcast. I led the design for Theros. I talked about how Theros was originally something completely different. It wasn't going to be Greek mythology,

but that got killed by the creative team. And I talk about the making of Theros and I go into the nitty-gritty of it. I talk about a lot of cards from it.

If you at all like Theros, I go into extensive... Oh, wait! There's even more. It's not a six-part. It's an eight-part. So Drive to Work 88 and 89 were Part 7 and 8. So,

it's not all consecutively, because when I do one series, I break it up if it's longer than 3, so that... because not everybody necessarily wants to hear that series. But anyway, I did an 8-part, one of my longer series. I had a lot to say about Theros. Drive to Work 83 was on rarities. That's where I talk

about common, uncommon. The interesting thing about it is, A, there's a lot more rarities than you realize. I talk about that in the podcast. And I talk about a lot of the challenges, what it means, what different rarities mean. But I go into great detail and sort of, kind of the nitty-gritty of how rarities work.

DriveWork 87 is on 1995. It's my third in my 20 Years 20 podcast series. 1990, I talked about the stages of design. I think at the time there were only five. So I talked about the first five stages. There later is a sixth stage that comes up at a time

that hadn't happened yet. But I talked about the first five stages of design. I talked about what it means, how each one is declared, what's the first stage, when is it, how is it defined, what's different between the first stage and the second stage. If you like magic history about design,

this is like chock full of it. Number 91, I talk about names. I think this was another podcast with Matt Cavada. I think this was another podcast with Matt Cavada. I think that he I think he and I did one on names because he had done names.

We talk all about the challenges of naming cards and things you don't think about and that naming is a resource that actually is one of the most valuable resources we have and something we have to be very careful with. Top of 92 was my first mailbag with Matt. So that's when you guys write me questions, usually on have, and it's something we have to be very careful with. Top of 92 was my first mailbag with Matt. So that's when you guys write me questions, usually on Twitter,

and then Matt reads them, and he and I answer them. So you can hear Matt and I answering questions. Number 94, oh, I see. Number 94 is Invitational Part 3. I think what happened was, 73 and 74, oh, I get it. So I started doing a series on the Magic Invitational. 73 and 74 were the first two parts, which I think I talked about two invitationals per.

And then this is three, so I talked about two more. So the first one would have been about Hong Kong and Rio. The second one would have been about Barcelona and Kuala Lumpur. That's the one, the Chris Pakula one, by the way. So Hong Kong was won by Ula Rade. Rio was won by Darwin Castle. Barcelona was won by Ula Rade. Rio was won by Darwin Castle. Barcelona was won by Mike Long. And then Kuala Lumpur was won by Chris Pakula.

Then the third part would have been about... The Kuala Lumpur story of Chris Pakula is a great story, by the way. The third one would have been about Sydney, which is... John Finkel won. And Cape Town, which Kai John Finkel won, and Cape Town, which Kai Buda won. So this part three is about two of the greatest players to ever play Magic, back-to-back won the Invitational,

and me talking about those Invitational's. I talk about all the formats, I talk stories about where we're at, there's some fun stories from being in Sydney and being in Cape Town. Number 96 is New World Order. So what is New World Order? This is a big innovation that Matt Place and I came Cape Town. Number 96 is New World Order. So what is New World Order?

This is a big innovation that Matt Place and I came up with. I talk all about it, sort of how it came to be, what it means and how it affects magic and how it affects magic design. It's something that still has an impact till today. Number 97 was Blogatog. So I talk about the making of my blog. And so it's kind of fun of kind of the history

of where the blog came from and how it evolved. You can learn the original name. It wasn't originally called Blogatog. I talk all about sort of how it came to be. Number 90... Oops. Sorry. Number 98 was on 1996. That's my

fourth in my 20 to 25 series. And then number 100 and 101 were on Torment. torment oh so i started doing this thing when i went over series i would go through whole blocks so i talk about um odyssey so now i'm talking about torment um so torment oh it's a torment is 99 100 101 it's a three-part series so i talk all about that um but anyway i had no idea how long this would take today so apparently i had it right in my column that a hundred things

is about right so I don't I gotta think about how often I want to do these but um this is the first hundred hundred podcast so I

I assume I will do more of these the idea of these is to help people understand sort of what is in the early context and so people can know that and there's a resource to go back

um hopefully I've encouraged you to go hear some of these because it's some fun stories. But anyway, 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 about magic and talking about talking about magic,

it's time for me to be making magic. I'll see you guys next time. Bye bye.