Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #501: 200 and Counting

Episode Date: January 12, 2018

This is Part 2 of my look back. Note that while there will eventually be a Part 3, it won't be for a while.

I'm pulling out of the parking lot. We all know what that means. It's time to drive to work. And I dropped my youngest daughter off at school. Okay, so today's the second in my series of what I call 200 and counting. My series is, I don't know, 100 and counting. But where I go back and look at old podcasts I did and sort of walk through them and talk about what they're about. So I can encourage people because not everybody's listened to my podcast since the very beginning. So this is a resource for people that might not know some of the stuff I've done. I walk through, I talk about all the, so I'm going to talk about basically 101 to 200 today, although I think I

hit 101 in my first of the series. And then just sort of share a few stories and talk a little bit about making of this. So it's sort of behind the scenes, but sort of filling you in on what podcasts I've done. So when last we left, previous in the series, I'd gone to 101 because Torment took place. 99, 100, and 101 was about Torment. So we're up to 102. So 102 is about evolution.

So one of the things about magic that is a key element of it is that it's constantly changing. It is a game always in flux. And so this podcast kind of talks about that element of game, that quality of the game, that it's important to understand that when you're designing something, you're not making a game that's a static game. Most games sort of, they are what they are, and then they always are the same thing. And this is talking about how that's not a quality that's true. That this is a little bit different. That this is something in which you are you know, how do you design something that's constantly evolving? I talk about that in this podcast. Okay, number

103 is Maro. So Maro is a creature in Mirage that I designed that was named after me. The super short version is I designed the card to fill a hole, and Bill Rose, who was leading the set, didn't know what to call it, so he typed in what he typed in to get me in our mail system, which was the first two letters of my first name and the first two letters of my last name. And then it just kind of stayed. It ended up becoming my nickname. So Maro holds a personal place in my heart. So this podcast is all about the card Maro. You might not think I can talk

for 30 minutes about a single card, but I do. There's actually a lot of interesting stories about this card. The art is a very interesting story. Sort of its design. Anyway, I tell the whole story. Everything there is to know about the card Morrow, I tell. Drive to Work 104 is Meet My Mom. So, in the first hundred, we had Meet My Dad. Well, my mom wanted to get in on the action. She said, if they could meet my dad, they should meet my mom. I said, okay.

So she joined me on my trip to work one day. I think she was borrowing my car. But anyway, if you ever wonder who my mom is, you get more stories. My dad is more responsible for sort of the gamer aspect of me. But my mom is definitely very responsible for the creative part. So my writing and a lot of that, that comes from my mom. So anyway, here's your chance to meet my mom. So Drive to Work 105 was 1997. So I guess fifth in the series of the 20 years, 20 podcast series, although that's not, I've made more than 20 of them. So the name is not particularly great. Drive to Work 106, games with R&D. So one of the things I talk about is

when I first got to Wizards, one of the things that was really interesting is I got an education in games from Richard Garfield that when I first got to Wizards, there was a lot of game playing. I mean, there still is a lot of game playing at Wizards. I just, I do things like go home and spend time with my family. But before I had my family, when I had all the free time in the world, I played a lot of games with R&D, and I learned all about games. And I talk about not just games we

played, but kind of games that R&D, there were some meta games that we played. I think I talk about The Game in here, which was a series, something that Scaf had brought from Princeton, I think. There was a whole bunch of series of rules and stuff. But anyway, it is, this talks about, if you kind of enjoy behind the scenes, some later side, it's just me telling some stories about R&D, some of which are on the sillier side.

But anyway, if you enjoy sort of behind the scenes talk about R&D, that's what this column, that podcast is about. Okay, Drive to Work 107, Design Skeleton. So I have a series that I do in my column called Nuts and Bolts, where I give advice about building your own set. And I've been doing it for about 10 years now. Anyway, probably the one that got the most positive response was when I described what a design skeleton is.

So I decided that I would bring that to my podcast. So this is me talking about a design skeleton. It's a tool when you're building a set to help understand what you're putting together. And it's a pretty valuable tool. So I walk all through it. Driver work 107. Oh, I'm sorry, that was 106.

Oh, did I? No, design set 107, sorry. 108, I can't. 108 is the fourth part of the Invitational. So the Magic Invitational series, I basically talked about each Invitational. I think I talked about two Invitationals per podcast. So this would be, let's see,

this would be after Cape Town was the last one. So this would have been two ones that were in LA, after Cape Town, Magic King, or I'm sorry, the first one would be in Seattle, and the second one would be at LA at, what is it called? It's a big event in LA. I'm really not going to name of it. But anyway, the short version of this is we kind of lost our funding and I had to get creative and we ended up doing an event at Wizards.

lost our funding and I had to get creative and we ended up doing an event at Wizards. And then the next year we went down to LA for, what is it called? It's an expo. Oh, E3. For the Electric Entertainment Expo down in Los Angeles. So I talk about that.

And once again, when I talk about The Invitational, I talk about all the different formats we played and there's a lot of formats we make up about that. And once again, when I talk about the Invitational, I talk about all the different formats we played. And there's a lot of formats we make up for that. I talk about any stories and things that happened during it. I talk about who won. I talk about what card they got made. So if you're at all fans of the Invitational, this series is a fun one. Okay, 109, 110, and 111.

So the next three were Judgment. I was doing the Odyssey blocks. I'd previously done Odyssey and Torment. Now I'm doing Judgment. So I talk about the design of the set. Judgment was the white and green set because Torment was the black set. So the one time that we,

the one block where we made uneven color distribution. We don't do that anymore. We learned a lesson from this one. But anyway, this is the time we did it. And Judgment, Torment leaned toward Black. Judgment leaned toward White and Green, Black's enemies. So I talk about it, and I talk about different cards in it. I talk about, I think, are the wishes from Judgment.

So I talk about a bunch of the highlights of different cards that come from it. Okay, number 112 is a day in the life. I'm sorry, no, no, no. 112 is 1998. So 112 is next in the series of the years where I talk about everything that happened that year. So 1998, there's a lot of fun things that happened that year. And I'll talk all about them. Drive to work number 113 is a day in the life. So people often ask me, what is it like to work at Wizards?

So this podcast, I walk through it. I talk about, oh, well, what is it like to work at Wizards? And so I start in the morning. I walk through my morning routine, including, you know, producing all the content I do in the morning. And then I talk about making my podcast on the way to work. And I talk about all the different things I do at work. And I sort of talk about different kinds of things I'll do.

So I sort of, it's not one day as much as it's, here's the different kind of things that could happen during the day. But anyway, if you enjoy sort of understanding, if you enjoy understanding sort of what works or how we make things behind the scenes, this is another sort of behind the scenes podcast. So 114 and 115 are the 20 things that were going to kill magic. So I wrote an article for the 20th anniversary, I think it was for the 20th anniversary,

about an article about the 20 things that sort of caused the most controversy. Things that were going to kill magic is a little bit tongue-in-cheek. This is just things where the players were really upset about something, and it's like, oh no, this is the worst thing ever. So I talked about a lot of that and sort of where it came from. Some of them turned out to be not so bad. Some of them turned out to be actual

problems we fixed. But it's kind of the history. I mean, it's talking about controversies, the history of controversies. So I talked about 20 of the biggest controversies. Okay, drive to work 116, pro tour coverage. So one of my many jobs, one of the many hats I wore, is for eight years I ran the coverage of the pro tour. I ran all the video the final day. And in the beginning I did, I used to do commentary and then I would, I was more the producer. So I talk all about that experience and things I learned about it and things have changed. Back when I did it, we weren't streaming content, for example. And we weren't doing content constantly all day every day like we do now. But once again, it's more Pro Tour history. I get to use some

of my communication school training. I talk about that. But this is sort of a behind the scenes of the Pro Tour thing. So if you enjoy that, that's what that podcast is. So 117, 118, 120, and 121 were Zendikar parts 1, 2, 3, and 4. I skipped 119 because I try to give a break when it's three or more. So Zendikar was me talking all about the Zendikar set. There were a lot of challenges getting Zendikar made. Oh, I think I had done an original Zendikar set. There were a lot of challenges in getting Zendikar made. Oh, I think I had done an original Zendikar early on,

and this probably is me more talking about the cards of Zendikar and some individual card stories. Because I did, I had done early on a sort of here's how Zendikar got made. So I think this was more focused on the cards of Zendikar.

And one of the things I realized is early on I would do podcasts in a single podcast. And some of my series, like, well, I have a lot more to say in 30 minutes' worth. So I went back and I sort of covered some more stuff, and I talked a lot about the cards. Okay, Drive to Work 119, which is in between Part 2 and Part 3,

is 1999, where I continue my 20 years and 20 podcast series and I talk about what happened in the year 1999. Okay drive to work 122 is repetition. So one of the things a lot of times people are very focused on the fact of what's new what's different and every set tries to make be new and different but one of the things I sort of come clean in this podcast is a lot of our job is not doing things you've never clean in this podcast is a lot of our job is not doing things you've never seen before. In fact, the majority of our job is doing things you have seen before. And so I talk a lot about the importance of repetition and how it plays in a design and sort of, I mean, there's a lot of repetition in magic design, a lot more than

there's new design. And so I talk about that role of that, how it works, you know, and kind of giving a sense of the general idea of what, I mean, how repetition is not necessarily a bad thing. I know a lot of times there's certain qualities, you go, repetition, why would you want repetition? But as you remember, comfort is one of the things that people crave. And repetition is very much about comfort and make people, we want you to sit down when you play to play a game of magic. And so it's important that we do things so it feels like magic. Okay, DriveWorks 123 is my first of a who's who in R&D.

So I did a who's who. I think I've mostly done R&D. One of these days I will do some non-R&D ones. I just, I know the people who have R&D because I've worked with them better than I do. No, but not R&D. So this is wave one. So this is the initial people who were hired. I was part of wave two. So this is

talking about people like Richard Garfield, Scaf Elias, Jim Lynn, Dave Petty, Joel Mick, Charlie Cattino. Most of these people are people that worked with Magic through, were early playtesters for Magic and then ended up coming to work for Wizards. Most of these people are people that worked with Magic through... were early playtesters for Magic, and then ended up coming to work for Wizards.

And so I talk about all the people. I think it's important to know, you know, when you're learning about history, I like this column to be a history column at times. I want you guys to know the people. So I introduce you to some of the early people in R&D. DriveDroid 124 is on creature types. So I talk all about sort of what role creature types fill. I talk a little bit about tribal, you know, how we use it as a theme.

So it's me talking a lot about sort of the role the creature types play in design. So 125 and 126 are about lenticular design. So these are based on a column I wrote online. This is a term that I invented talking about design that to the beginners looks simple and easy and to the more advanced players is deeper, meaning it's a way to hide complexity so that people who aren't ready for it yet don't see it. Anyway, if you're into game design, this is one of my game design series, I really think it's an interesting concept

and an important part of how we make Magic. The idea of layering things so that different people see different things in your game and different complexity levels in your game is super important, and I talk about that here. Okay, so number 128 and 129. I'm sorry, 127, 128, and 129 were Worldwake 1, 2, and 3. So now I'm going through Zendikar block.

So I talk about the making of Worldwake. I think it was Ken Nagel's first lead design. And I talk about sort of how we made things. You learn about Multikicker. It was actually originally in Zendikar. Talk about sort of just different things we made. I go through a bunch of cards. But everything you'd ever want to know about how Worldwide was made.

Okay. Drive to Work 130. The year 2000. Another one of my 20 Years 20 podcasts. I talk all about the year 2000. Drive to Work 132. Story through design. I think this was... I did a, I went to Walt Disney Interactive, and I did a speech there talking about how we do story.

And then I wrote an article about it, and I think this is based on the speech and article, talking about, well, how do you tell story through design? What role can design play? Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. 131 is Story History, where I talk about the history of how magic did stories. So 131 is me talking about the different ways we've told story. I'm not telling the story of magic. I'm telling the history of how we've told the story.

And we've told the story in many different ways, and I walk through the different ways we've told the story. Then in 132, I talk about how we communicate the story through design. That's based on the talk I had at Walt Disney Interactive. So I talk a lot about sort of what roles and what tools does design have to help tell the story. Next, Drive to Work 133 is part of a new series about rarities. So this one is Designing Commons. So I talk about sort of the challenges of commons, what was supposed to be a common.

Each rarity has its own sort of definition of what kind of stuff we do there. I help define it. I talk about what makes a card a common. And then I talk about what restrictions and rules there are on making commons. I touch upon New World Order, which hits commons quite a bit. And I just talk about sort of what are the challenges of designing commons. Once again, this is the first part of the series. You'll see more coming.

Drive to Work 134 is art. I talk all about sort of how art works on the game and the role of art in the game. I would many, many years later do one on artists, but this one's more on the art and sort of the role of art, how we make the art,

how we design with the art and the relationship between the art and the design. But I talk all about sort of the role of the art and how the art gets made. So let's see. Number 135, 136, 137, 139, and 140 were Rise of the Eldrazi parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

I had a lot to say on this one. I was not part of the design team. I was part of the development team. And this was a really different design. This was... Brian Tinsman did it. And it was... It is one of those weird sets that is beloved by some.

And the set didn't particularly sell well at the time, but has a reputation being one of the best limited environments of all time. So it is a very... Definitely a set that pulls different opinions. And the Eldrazi themselves, this was the introduction of the Eldrazi, who we met again

in Battle for Zendikar, obviously. Anyway, we learn about it. I talk about making the set. The set went through a lot of changes and there was a lot

of components to it. Because I was on the development team, there's a little more development stories than normal just because that's my vantage point in this set. I do talk a bit about the design team, there's a little more development stories than normal, just because that's my vantage point on this set. I do talk a bit about the design team and what they were up to,

but I also talk a bit about how we developed the set, because that was a big part of this set. So Drive to Work 138 is on playtesting. So I talk about how we playtest. I go into the details. Now, once again, I'm talking more about how design playtests, or at this point, vision design, but the, as you get later on,

it changes how you design. So I'm talking more about the early part, how we do the playtesting. I talk about stickers. I talk about a lot of, I talk about a lot of nuts and bolts, a lot of the nitty gritty

about how we playtest. So once again, this is another behind-the-scenes sort of podcast. Okay, DriveWorks 141 is the year 2001. So it's another 20 Years 20 podcast series. I talk about 2001. DriveWorks 143 is Invitational Part 5. So I believe that's the next two Invitationals. I think they were also held at E3.

Yeah, there were 11 invitationals. I don't know. I might have gotten... Do I have an invitational part six coming? I think this might be the last one. I think I might have covered all three. So the last three, I had two more at E3, and then the last one was at Essen in Germany, which was really cool to get to finally go to Essen. I think this is

the last in the series. So anyway, once again, I go through all the formats. I talk about people, I talk about stories of the event, I talk about who won, I talk about the card they made. So anyway, The Invitational, if you're not familiar with The Invitational, it was a really fun series. It was the all-star game. I miss it.

And anyway, it was pretty cool. Okay, Drive to Work 144 is on a concept called red flagging. So red flagging is a side effect, something that came out of New World Order. Basically, it is a means by which, at Common, we say, this breaks a rule. Well, not breaks a rule. There are certain things that if you do at Common, you get a red flag on you. And what that means is, this should not be kept in the file

unless you are consciously choosing to do it. And I talk about the red flagging and sort of the technique of red flagging. I talk about what the rules are, what gets red flagged, why those get red flagged. So this is a really granular sort of look at design crunchiness. And it's very technical. I talk a lot about... And in it, I kind of explain...

You learn a little bit more about New World Order and sort of the philosophy behind red flagging. And you also learn that we are allowed... Red flagging doesn't mean it must go. It means it must be justified. And there's a certain amount of sort of red flags you get in common. And so the idea is learning to concentrate what you're doing. But anyway, this is a good chance for you

to sort of get a general sense of how we do that. Okay, DriveWork145, getting a job in R&D. The most common question I get is, I would like to work in R&D. How can I work in R&D? So I answer that question. I've answered, I've been giving over the years. This is well explained, sorry, I go in depth on how exactly to get a job in R&D. So if you ever want to know, this is me explaining it

in probably the most amount of detail you will hear. Drive to Work 146 is on restraint. I talk about in this thing how there's a lot of desires to do things. There's a lot. One of the cool things about working on a game you love is you get to work on a game you love. But I talk a bit of part of the learning how, when and where and why to restrain. And that there's a lot of what I call design decadence that can get you in trouble if you sort of don't curb some impulses that you have. And here I talk about sort of what those impulses are

and the importance of restraint. This is another one of my game design. This is really good for any game designer. It's really game designery. So it talks sort of about dealing with something that most game designers feel with, which is there is a lot of impulses to do things that feel good when you do them, but aren't fundamentally good for your game.

Okay, 147, 148, 149, 151, 152, 153. I'm sorry, 152. So 147, 148, 149, 151, 152. It's Unhinged Part 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. I think what I did with Unhinged is I might have gone through all the cards or if not, I go through a lot of the cards. I actually think I might have gone through every card

because there's not that many cards in Unhinged. And there's a lot of stories. There's a lot of jokes. There's a lot of references. So I go in deep. If you like the unsets, this is me going in deep. This is the deepest dive you'll find for probably any, I mean, I've written some articles on Unhinged, but

this goes, you know, this is two and a half hours plus of just Unhinged goodness. So if that's something you enjoy, give it a listen. Drive to Work 150 was 2002, another in my 20 Years 20 podcast series. As you will see as I progress, they get more complex because there's more going on. In the early days, there was not that many things that came out, so I shared a little more stories and stuff. But as we start moving along, just more and more things happening. So as we get closer to modern day, I'm just rattling to try to get through all the different things that are going on. Okay, Drive to Work 153 is another who's who.

So this is about R&D the second way. This is what I was part of. So this is me, Bill Rose, Mike Elliott, William Jockish, Henry Stern, Rob Guccera. Most of these names mean nothing to you probably, so go listen to this. So I'll tell you who those people are. There's a lot of people. Magic is a collaborative effort. There's a lot of people. Magic is a collaborative effort. There's a lot of people that have worked on magic. And I just want to sort of share with you who all these people are

so that you can sort of learn a bit of history that, you know, these people played a role in magic history. So I think it's important to know who they are. Drive to Work 155, Keeping Secrets. So one of the, probably, how do I get a job in R&D might be the number one question. But another question that comes up really often is, what's the worst part of your job? And the worst part of my job is keeping secrets,

is knowing things, is making things that I know the players will really, really enjoy and then not being able to talk about them for months and sometimes years. That is very frustrating. So I talk all about sort of, and I talk about, I think a few almost flip-ups I had, and you know, I talk about sort of the challenges of not being able to tell people the things, and what it's like, and it's kind of some of the secrets behind how we keep secrets. Okay, DriveRule 156 is on Vanguard. So Vanguard is a product we made many years ago. They're oversized cards. You pick one, and then it informs how many cards you get to keep in your hand,

or I'm sorry, how many cards you start with in the game and your hand size, and how much life total you start at. And then it gives you an extra ability. And hand size or life can go up or down. You can start with more than normal or less than normal. And then you also get an ability that affects you all game long. And it's a format we made way long ago. It was played on Magic Online for a while.

Anyway, it's a fun format. I talk all about it. Also, it uses the characters from the Weatherlight Sagas. I also sort of go into some depth on who the characters are from the Weatherlight Saga. So not only is Vanguard about this format, it's also kind of about the Weatherlight Saga. Okay, 157, San Diego Comic-Con. I go to San Diego Comic-Con every year, and every year I do a podcast talking about what

it's like to be at San Diego Comic-Con. This was in 2014, so this would have been San Diego Comic-Con 2014. So I talk all about it, and you can hear about sort of what it's like to run a panel and other things I did at San Diego Comic-Con. Okay, 158 and 159 are block plans, part one and two.

So I talk about sort of how we design blocks, and then I think I go through all the different blocks we had done to sort of talk about how did that block get made? What was the kernel that we built that block around? So I talk about all the different blocks, starting with Mirage, which was the first block, and all the way up to whatever was modern day in 2014. We're talking September 2014, so it would have been right before Battle for Zendikar, I think. But anyway, if you'd like to know how we put things together, this is another sort of behind-the-scenes how we put things together.

160 is 2003, another 20 Years 20 Podcast article. Number 161 is design space. So one of the things I have to figure out when we make a new mechanic is how many cards can you make out of that mechanic? It's called design space. And that's something that's important to understand. And so I talk a lot about design space in this podcast, about how do we figure out how much design space has? How does it affect things? What does it mean for when we use things and where we use things? It's a pretty important concept that I don't talk very much about. In fact, I don't think I've even written an article about it. So if you want to know about design space, this is

how I figure out design space. Number 162, enchantment World. Oh, World Enchantments? Is that how World Enchantment World? Oh, no, no, no, no. I think that was... Okay, I think this one was Theros Must Have Just Ended. And maybe I was talking about the challenges of making an enchantment world. A lot of people wanted Theros to be something that ended up not being quite, and so I was sort of talking about making an enchantment matters world. There's some challenges there to doing that. So this is one of those podcasts where I talk about something people want, and then talk

about some of the challenges of making it. challenges of making it. Okay, number 163, 164, 165, 167, 168, and 169 was Onslaught parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. I talk about the design of Onslaught. I talk about sort of where it came from. There's a lot of story to Onslaught. What it started out being and what it ended up being are radically different. You know, the strong tribal component, more of the return of cycling. None of that stuff was there in the super early version of the design. And so it went through a lot of changes, more than the average set goes through. But anyway, I talked about that.

I talked about all the mechanics in it, a lot of the cards. Once again, very in-depth. If you enjoy my in-depth things, this is me going really in-depth on the Onslaught set. Drive Your Work 166 is Design and Development. I talk about the difference between Design and Development. Obviously, that has changed, so Design and Development are no more. But if you want to understand

what Design and Development are all about, this is me going in great detail on what is the difference between Design and Development. Magic for many, many years, for 20-some years, used that as means for doing our design. This is me going in-depth explaining it. Okay, Drive to Work 170. This is 2004.

This is another of my 20 years, 20 podcast series. I chug along. So once again, by the way, if you enjoy that series, that's the kind of thing you might want to listen to consecutively. I didn't record them, secondly, just so I wanted people, because if people didn't want to hear it, I didn't want to have to listen to 20 of them in a row. But it's the kind of thing that you enjoy. I've been told that they're fun to kind of listen to back-to-back. There definitely is some continuity between them, obviously, and I explain how the years

relate to the years around it, so there is some advantage to listening together. Okay, lesson one, I said Drive to Work 171 and 172 was Lessons Learned, part five and part six. So I still continue, I think I'm still at the point where I'm doing multiple lessons per thing. I think once I stop doing that, I name them. I say Lessons Learned, I name the one I'm talking about. This is a cool series because it's me sort of figuring out what I did right and wrong and going through sets that I led and sort of walked doing this. The Lessons Learned series is another one that you might want to listen to all together in that there's a lot of evolution of our lessons you can see.

There's a lot of, in some ways ways this series is watching me grow as a designer and me sort of learning things and applying them. And I keep learning new things. And so it's a very interesting series. Okay, Drive to Work 173, white blue. So I think we were back in Ravnica. That's what this sounds like. And I was, I was talking about

the color pair. So this is me talking about, so I had done a series on each of the individual color philosophies, and now I was talking about how the colors relate to one another. So this is white and blue. What relationship do they have to each other? What happens when you put them together? What's the sort of white-blue identity? I talk all about... and this is a series of... this is a 10-part series where I talk about each of the color pairs. I start... I think I go in order the way we write them. So white-blue is first. 174 is meeting expectations. So this is me talking about four is meeting expectations. So this is me talking about one of the challenges of your job of making games, or doing any art really at some level, but specifically making games, is understanding what the expectations are, because you don't want your audience to expect one thing

and not deliver on what they expect. I talk a little bit about when we pick themes, like there's a lot of different things we have to do when we're trying to figure out how to match expectations of the players. This is another very game designer-y podcast. But I kind of talk about, well, how do I figure out what the expectations are? And what do we do to do that? How do we match it? And when aren't you supposed to match expectations? There are actually times where there's reasons you won't match expectations. So I talk all about sort of what it means and why you do it and what the relevance is and how it applies to how we design. Drive to Work number 175 is exploratory design. It's a tool that we made for Concept Arc here. So, oh, okay, this must have been

So, oh, okay. This must have been 2014 memory concept talk here. Anyway, I'm talking about sort of the existence of exploratory design. I think cons must have came out because that was the first set that had exploratory design. So I think I was introducing the concept to people. And so I'd written an article about it. And I think this is the follow-up to the article I wrote. But anyway, I go in great detail about what exploratory design is, how we use it,

and talk a lot about sort of the role it plays. And it is a big change in how we made, how we design magic. Drive to Work 176, Tales from Europe. So this is another of my Pro Tour videos. This is me telling stories about various Pro Tours held in Europe. I know there was Pro Tour Paris. There's stories from Pro Tour Rome. There's a lot of different stories to tell. And so this is one of those ones where I'm just sort of sharing behind-the-scenes Pro Tour stories. So if you enjoy the Pro Tour, my stories are from long ago because I was in the Pro Tour in the early years. So this is kind of historical Pro Tour stories rather than modern Pro Tour stories. But there's a lot of fun stuff, so I would listen up. Okay, number 177 is 10 things every game needs.

A goal. So I had done the series based on my... So I did a speech for my daughter's class, sixth grade class, turned it into a column, turned it into a podcast, turn it into a podcast series. So I take the 10 things, each one gets broken up into its own podcast. So I go in order of the 10. So this first one is talking about why a goal, the reason a game needs a goal and why a goal is so important.

I will say if you are listening to my podcast for game design purposes, the 10 things every game needs is required listening. It is me really getting to the nuts and bolts of how games work and what games need. And if you're all interested in game design, I would hardly listen. You could listen to the first one, which is me encapsulating all 10. Or you can just listen to me going through one by one for the 10. If you have the time, I listen to the individual ones. If you don't, you can just listen to me going through one by one for the 10. If you have the time, I listen to the individual ones. If you don't, you can just listen to the one. Okay, 178, tribal. So I think what happened was I had done every car type and then realized, well, I technically didn't

do every car type. So I finished it up by talking about the tribal car type. It's a car type we no longer support. So not only do I talk about sort of how we use it, I talk about the story of how it came to be and how it came not to be, why we don't support it anymore. So if you ever wondered why we don't make tribal enchantments or tribal sorceries, I explain it here. Number 179 is about banding. So banding was a mechanic that showed up in alpha that was probably the first evergreen mechanic we discontinued. It is very complex and confusing. I explain how it works. I actually go into decent detail on how it works. And then I talk about sort of the problems it created. And I talk about sort of how it came about and why it went away. But everything you ever want to know about the banding mechanic.

180 is 2005. That's another of my 20 Years 20 Podcast series. Okay, so 181, 182, 183, 184 were all about legions. So I had previously talked about Onslaught, so I'm continuing the block. I talked about legions. Legions was a set of all creatures. I think lead design by Mike Elliott. Anyway, it was an interesting, there's some fun stories about it. How do you make a set that's all creatures? What

are some of the challenges? And then I walk through a lot of individual designs. I think both a chroma and fade show up here. So there's a lot of fun card by card stories as well as me just talking about sort of how legions came to be. Next is 185 is blue black. So that's number two in my two color series. So I talk about sort of what blue and black have in common, what they don't have in common, what happens when they get together, what's the feel of a blue black card. I talk about all that in that series. Divert number 186 was portal. So Portal is a product we made. Actually, there were three of them.

That was to teach people how to play Magic. There was Portal, Portal Second Age, and Portal Three Kingdoms. I think in this one, I'm not sure if I'm just talking about the first Portal or all three. I think I mentioned all three. I don't think there's enough on the podcast to do for each of the individual ones. So I talked about sort of the Portal line, sort of what Portal did, why we made Portal. Portal ended up being not

that successful for us, so I talked about why it wasn't a success, some of the mistakes we made on it, and I did share some stories about the making of Portal. Next is 187 is Mailbag with Matt, number two. So people would enjoy the Mailbag column.

So when Matt and I were carpool, sometimes I'd have people send in questions, and Matt and I would answer questions. So this is my second Mailbag column with Matt, obviously. Number 188 is Matt's Job. So Matt Cavada had worked at Wizards, then left, and then came back. And he and I had previous podcasts where we talked about his original job doing names and flavor text,

but now we talk about Matt's new job. Matt does a lot of graphic design work, has a lot to do with packaging, with logos, and all sorts of stuff. So Matt's carpooling, and I tell him, if you want to understand what Matt does and sort of a very different aspect of magic, Matt's job is very different than my job. You can learn all about it. So if you want to understand what Matt does and sort of a very different aspect of magic, Matt's job is very different than my job.

You can learn all about it. So if you want to understand that, come listen to that. Drive to Work 189 is another 10 Things Every Game Needs, the second one, all about rules, why your game needs rules. And I go into the detail of sort of not just why it needs rules,

but how to make rules and traps of making rules and a lot of tips about how to make rules. Drive to Work 190 is a card being made. Oh, what I did for this one was I said, okay, let's take a card and go through from the very beginning to the very end of the process. And I walk you through all the different people that would get their hands on a card. So I tried to show you the life of a card by walking through an individual card. Number 191 is world building. So world building used to be once a year,

then twice a year, now two to three times a year. We make new worlds or we make worlds. Sometimes we go back to existing worlds and that requires some world building as well, by the way. But I talk about the process by how we build worlds. We bring people in. There's a whole process how we do it. And it's about making new worlds and then rediscovering old worlds. Because a lot of times we'll go back to worlds and get new aspects to explore. But I talk all about how we do that. How we do the world building. How we make worlds. It amazes me how many worlds we've made and how often we make them that the worlds are as good as they are because it's a very neat process and I walk all the way through it.

Okay, 192, 193, 194, and 195 are about Scourge. So me continuing the Onslaught block. Scourge was led by Brian Tinsman. It deviated a little bit from the two sets before on the block. It's definitely one of those third blocks that kind of go off on its own place and do its own thing. I talk about kind of why that happened and what the themes are. And then go in detail on just a lot of the cards from Scourge.

Okay, Drive to Work number 196, 2006. So this is another one of my 20 years, 20 podcast series. I talk about all the things that happened in 2006. Number 197, playtesting. So this is the first time I think I repeated myself, not realizing I had done this. So I don't know the difference between this playtesting podcast

and the previous one I talked about. Obviously, there's a lot of different components to playtesting. So I might hit on some similar stuff. I'm not sure the difference between the two. One of the problems I run into is when I do so many podcasts that sometimes I forget I did a podcast and then I do it. And then afterwards, someone goes, hey, you did that podcast. So this is my first. There's more than one.

I repeat myself a couple different times. Next is 198 holiday cards. So I talk about sort of every year for the last I don't know 10 or so years

we've made a silver border card for the holidays and we it's usually something that's silver border

because it's not meant for normal tournament play it gets sent out to our partners. It's kind of our version of a... I mean, we call it the holiday card, but it's kind of our holiday card. And it's something we send out to some partners and people we work with, and it's kind of a fun, lighthearted thing.

We normally show it to the audience so they can see it. It usually has a bunch of humor to it. Another reason it's kind of silver-bordered. And anyway, I walk through all of them, at least all the ones that have been made up through that point, and I talk about each one's design and how we made them and sort of the thought process behind them. So it's about a bunch of card-by-card

stories about the holiday cards. I obviously go up through where are we? Okay, so the podcast was in 2015, so I probably go up through the 2014. I don't remember which one that was. But I go up through whatever holiday card we had at the time.

Drive-thru number 199 is feedback. That's where I talk about the importance of getting feedback. I talk about how people can provide feedback and then how that feedback affects what we do. So I talked sort of about how it's very important to us that we involve you, the audience. I'm sure in the podcast, I talk about how one of the keys to success is iteration with lots of feedback, a lot of iteration and a lot of feedback. And so I talk about the importance of feedback and I talk about how we get the feedback. And then number 200 is black-red. It's third in my series on two-color pies.

I talk about what black and red have in common, what they don't like about each other, what they do like about each other, what a black-red card feels like. And so I talk all about that. Anyway, it worked out just fine. I just arrived at work. So anyway, that is the next 100 cards in Drive to Work. So I hope you guys enjoy it. But anyway, I'm now at work. So we know what that means.

This is the end of my Drive to Work. So instead of talking about magic, it's time for me to be making magic. See you guys next time.