Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #858: Vanity Cards

Episode Date: August 6, 2021

In this podcast, I talk about what a vanity card is and walk through all the ones, that I could remember, in Magic.

I'm not pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another Drive to Work, Coronavirus Edition. Okay, so today I'm going to be talking all about vanity naming. So, basically what vanity names are is when the name of a card or a character is named after something that's referencing something that applies to a person who helped make the game or connected to a person who helped make the game or connected to a person who helped make the game. But it's things that are named after real world people. Now, vanity cards are something we stopped doing many years ago. I will get into that after I talk about the vanity cards. I'll talk a little bit why we don't do vanity cards anymore. But mostly what I wanted to do today is just sort of tell you about the vanity cards. I'll talk a little bit why we don't do vanity cards anymore. But mostly what I wanted to do today

is just sort of tell you about some vanity cards and share some stories behind the vanity cards or some fun stories that go into the vanity cards. Most of these cards, the vast majority of them,

either were made in the first five years of Magic's life or they're a term that got made there and then got reused later. Because we don't... Vanity names can get reused once they're sort of reused later. Because we don't... Vanity names

can get reused once they're sort of part of magic, but we don't make any more vanity names now. Okay, so to start my story, I'm going to go all the way back to Alpha. So the first one I want to talk about is Mons' Goblin Raiders. Mons is

a goblin character that first shows up on that card. I think Mons shows up... He shows up... The card that it's named after, Mons P a goblin character that first shows up on that card I think Mons shows up he shows up the card that it's named after Mons Pachelik shows up later also in Unhinged we made Mons' goblin waiters as a nod to that

Pachelik Mons is the character he showed up in I think one of the Modern Horizons sets I think where does he show up? Pachelik M He showed up in, I think, one of the Modern Horizons sets, I think. Where does he show up? Pashaluk Man shows up in Modern Horizons. But anyway, Manz Johnson

is a friend of Richard Garfield's and a longtime Wizards employee who works at R&D. So Manz loves goblins. Loves, loves, loves goblins. And so Richard decided to pay homage to his friend by making one of the goblin cards in... Alpha didn't actually have a lot of goblin cards.

I think it was only a handful of goblin cards. But he decided to make one of the goblin cards a reference to Mons because Mons loved goblins so much. Okay, also in Alpha, there's a card called Nevenrall's Disc. So Nevenrall is the words Larry Niven spelled backwards. Larry Niven is a writer that Richard Garfield likes. And I think one of the...

The Nevenrall's Disc itself is kind of inspired by some object in one of the Larry Niven stories that I think that destroys everything. So he was just kind of doing a riff off that. And because it was sort of a nod to Larry Niven, he named the card after Larry Niven. The funny thing is Nevin Rall has now become a character

in Magic, and so we have Nevin Rall showed up in Nevin Rall, Ur Nevenrall showed up in, um, Nevenrall Urborg Tyrant showed up in Commander Legend. So, uh, Nevenrall is, uh, just a part of magic lore. Um, but yeah, yeah, that, so that was just, uh, uh, as you'll see, a lot of these nanny cards are just, whoever names them, they're, they're, it's a nod to something that inspired

it or, uh, something related to them. Okay, next up in Alpha, Jam Day Tome. So, Jam Day Tome is an artifact that taps for mana. I'm sorry, it taps to draw a card. And

it was named after, so it's like four mana, four tap, draw a card. It was named after J.'s like four mana, four tap, draw card. It was named after J. Michael Davis. Mike Davis is famous for a couple things. One of the things he's most famous for is he was a good friend of Richard's.

He's the one that convinced Richard and went with Richard to pitch RoboRally, a game of Richard's, to Wizards of the Coast. Obviously, Wizards of the Coast ended up not being able to make RoboRally because it was too expensive a game for them to make. But Peter Atkinson, who was the CEO of Wizards, said,

here's the kind of game we could make. Here's the resources we could make. We could make a game, for example, on cards. And that inspired Richard to go back and come back with Magic. Mike was the head of Magic R&D for a while. And, in fact, he was the head of R&D when I got hired. He was the person who hired me. So Mike was the person who brought me into Wizards at full time as an employee.

Anyway, Mike has sadly died, but he has an important role in the history of magic, and Richard wanted to make Nod his friend in in Alpha, so J.M.D. Tome was made to be a Nod. Now, that started a little tradition. There's a few follow-ups to that. So, in Antiquities, there's J.L.M. Tome, or J.L.M. Tome. That is a reference to Joel L. Mick. Joel was the co-lead designer of Mirage and Visions. He actually was on the Antiquities design team. The East Coast Playtexters designed it, but Joel actually joined them. So Scaffoli, Jim Lynn,

Dave Petty, Chris Page designed Antiquities, but Joel Mick actually joined them to design it. Anyway, the card is a reference to him. We later in Unhinged made a card called Gelem Grifter, which was also a reference to Joel. He, in fact, posed for the art.

So there's two different Jalem references to Joel Mick. The third tome we made was in Tempest. Emesee Tome. Um, so MSC Tome, uh, was, uh, or MSE Tome, um, was another reference, uh, to a magic designer. This time, um, Michael S. Elliott. So Mike Elliott, who you guys might know of, I had him on my podcast. Um, he is a longtime, uh, designer. And this was the first set that he worked on, was Emacy Tome.

And we decided to give him the same sort of... Like, all the tomes were named after game designers. So Emacy Tome, which is four mana, five in tap, draw two cards, and discard a card, was named after Michael. So all three of our tomes were referencing different designers. Okay, I think that's all the ones in Alpha. I'm loosely going in a rough order here, but I'm jumping around a little bit, so I apologize if I go a little bit out of order.

Next, I want to talk about Arabian Nights. So Arabian Nights has a bunch of... Richard had to make the card, and I think Richard named the cards. One of the things nowadays is the people who make the cards, people who name the cards. One of the things nowadays is the people who make the cards, people who name the cards, usually they're a different set of people. I mean,

sometimes InDesign will name a card in the name sticks, but usually there's a naming team that goes through and usually renames a lot of the cards. But Arabian Knights, the story behind Arabian Knights, real quick, is Magic came out, they had printed what they thought was a six-month supply, sold out in a couple weeks, then they made Beta, which they thought a six-month supply, sold out in a couple weeks.

Then they made Beta, which they thought was another six-month supply, sold out in a week. And so they realized that Magic, there was a hungry audience there. They did work to get out Unlimited, which came out in December, I think, of that year, 93. But they also said to Richard, okay, we've got to get an expansion out. And so Richard very quickly

put together an expansion, which was Arabian Nights. And I both have done a series of podcasts on Arabian Nights. I did a series of podcasts with Richard Garfield talking about Arabian Nights. So if you're interested in Arabian Nights, I've done a whole bunch of podcasts on it. But anyway, in Arabian Nights, there's a bunch of cards where Richard

is just... because Richard had to make the cards quickly and he got to name them, so there's just a lot of references to people he knows in Arabian Nights. So first up is Wailuli Wolf, which is a little common wolf. Or actually, I think it was... Was it rare? Wailuli Wolf was this little tiny wolf

that ended up getting reprinted later. I think in Arabian Nights... Was it a rare in Arabian Nights? No, it was a common... Oh, I see. Right. Wailuli Wolf's one of those weird cards where it is shown up in both common and rare. I think it was common originally in Arabian Nights? No, it was a common rare. Oh, I see. Right. White Lily Wolf's one of those weird cards where it is shown up in both common and rare. I think it was common originally in Arabian Nights,

and then when it got reprinted later on, like in 6th edition, it's a rare. In 5th edition, it's a rare. So, anyway, there's not a lot of cards in Magical that are both common and rare. There's some. A bunch being Arabian Nights commons that later came back as rare.

Anyway, White Lily Wolf is an anagram of Lily Wu. That was the maiden name of Richard's first wife. And so he named the card after her. Next is If Biff Afrit. So If Biff Afrit... Let's see. If Biff Afrit is a creature from... it's two green green, three three flying, and you can spend one green mana to do one damage to every creature that's flying and every player,

but any player can activate it. So if Biffafreet was named after Richard's, well, okay, here's the story. Richard has an older sister named Elizabeth. When Richard was little, he couldn't say Elizabeth's name. It was too hard to pronounce. So when he was little, he called her Ifbif. That's how he said Elizabeth. So when he made a card as a sort of a nod to his sister,

he called it Ifbif, so Ifbif Afrid, as a nod to his sister. So that was a reference. I think a lot of... There are a bunch of gins and a freets that Richard named after different people. Another one is Ernim Jim. Ernim is an anagram of Herman. And so Ernim Jim is, in fact,

a card that we reprinted a bunch of times. How do you spell Urnum Djinn? So Urnum Djinn is three and a green for four or five. At the beginning of your upkeep, target non-wall creature on opponent controls gains force walk until your next upkeep. So the idea is it's a very powerful green card,

at least powerful at the time, but since you probably were playing force, it gives one of your opponents force walk. Although you can be clever and try not to play force. So the idea is it's a very powerful green card. It's powerful at the time. But since you probably were playing Forest, it gives one of your opponents a Forest Walk. Although you can be clever and try not to play Forest. Anyway, Earnham was named after Herman. Herman is Elizabeth's husband. Next is Idwin Afrit and Mijay Jin.

Idwin Afrit costs red, red, red. It's a 3-6. Whenever you're attacked, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, Idwinafreet can't block this turn. And then Mijajin is kind of the opposite. Mijajin is red, red, red, 6-3. It's a jinn, obviously. Whenever Mijajin attacks, flip a coin.

If you lose the flip, remove Mijajin from combat and tap it. So one's a 3-6 that you have to flip to block, and one's a 6-3, they have to flip to attack. So Idwin is an anagram for Windy, and Mijin is an anagram for Jamie. Windy and Jamie got married sometime around Arabian Nights happening. There was a wedding, and as sort of a nod to them, he named cards after them.

I think those are the Arabian Night cards that I know that are named after specific people. There are a whole bunch of Rabindite cards where Richard's sort of riffing after things from, you know, the Rabindites and stuff, but those are the ones that are specific actual vanity cards. Okay, next up, let me talk about the Weatherlight Saga. So here's a few cards that were named by Michael Ryan and myself. So Michael Ryan and I created the Weatherlight Saga. I've had numerous podcasts talking about it. I've had Michael on for numerous podcasts talking about it. So if you're interested to hear more about me and Michael making it,

there's numerous things to listen to. So we had to make a lot of characters. In fact, every single character in the story we named. Most of them were just cool names that we thought was fun. A few of them were riffs off words and things. But a couple of them, four of them in fact, were actually named after something pre-existing. So first up is El Adomri. He's Lord of Leaves.

He's the King of the Elves. So El Adomri is Irma Dale, spelled backwards. Irma is Michael's mother, and Dale is his stepfather. And he wanted to make a nod to them, because they're his parents. And so he ended up...

The funny thing is, Michael pitched me the name. What's interesting is, Michael didn't tell me at first that this was the name. And so he pitched me the name, and I remember, I'm like, oh, I like it, I like it, and I'm like, oh, maybe, maybe it won't be Eladonri. Like, I was trying to change letters in it to make it sound slightly different, and it's like, no, no, no, I want it to be Eladonri, and finally he said, look, it's my, you know, it's Irma Dale, and I said, oh, okay. Once I understood what he was doing, I'm like, fine, that's fine, but it's funny that before I knew, I was actually trying to tweak the name a little bit.

When Michael named his mother, a card after his mother, so I decided, I actually named a character after my mom. There has been a Vanguard card of it, but I think Vanguard's the only card. So Lena Soltari Emissary,

she was named after my mom, Lynn. Lynn is my mom. So my mom spells her name L-Y-N-N-E. But so Lynn is L-Y-N-A. So the Lynn part is with a Y. One day, one day I have to make a Lynn a card. A, because it's a character we haven't made a card out of yet. We did make a Vanguard card with her.

She grants creatures shadow because she herself is a shadow creature stuck in between worlds. Um, okay, another character that we sort of named after somebody, although more accidentally than on purpose. Uh, the character Oram, who's the healer of the Weatherlight crew. Um, she was actually a pretty minor character early on, but we knew we needed a healer. And we liked the idea of having a Samite healer that felt very magic-y. And we didn't know what to call her, so I just put down Oram, A-R-A-M, which was this Maro backwards, as a filler that wasn't intended to be her name. But one of the things you have to be careful of in creative when you name things, people get attached to names. And at some point, we're like, oh, we kind of like Oram.

So we changed A to I to kind of hide that it was Maro backwards. But that's where that name came from. Another one was there's an angel named Selenia. Selenia Dark Angel. So Selenia Dark Angel is three white black for a three three. Legendary creature angel, flying, pay two life, return

Selenia Dark Angel to its owner's hand. Anyway, Selenia interestingly was named after Michael Ryan's, return Selina Dark Angel to its owner's hand. Anyway, Selina interestingly was named after Michael Ryan's cat, Selina. And Selina the cat was named after a character that Michael had played in a role-playing game. So Selina has

two references, both Michael's cat and Michael's character. Obviously they're tied together. But his cat and character was Selina, not Selina. Obviously, they're tied together. But his character was, his cat and character was Selina, not Selina. Oh, by the way, I don't think Michael played Selina. I think somebody, someone Michael knew played Selina. But anyway,

it was something that the cat got named after, and then the character got named after. Okay, next up is Leshrac. So in Ice Age, there was a card called Minion of Leshrac, and there's some other, Leshrac's right, Leshrac's single, Herod of Leshrac. So in Ice Age, there was a card called Minion of Leshrac, and there's some other, Leshrac's right, Leshrac's single, Herod of Leshrac.

So Leshrac is the middle name of Chris Page. Charles is his name. So Leshrac is the anagram of Charles, so it's a nod to Chris Page. I just had Chris Page recently on a podcast talking about Ice Age, so if you want to meet Chris Page and learn more about who he is, I just had him on. You can go listen to that. But anyway, that was

just a nod to Chris and his middle name, Charles. Okay, next up, Talim Tor. This is from Mirage. Okay, so the story is Mirage had a whole bunch of designers, Bill Rose, Joel Mick, Charlie Cattino, a whole bunch of designers, Bill Rose, Joel Mick, Charlie Coutinho, Don Felice, Elliot Siegel, Howard Kallenberg, I think those were the six people that designed Mirage and Visions. Anyway, one of them, Elliot Siegel,

they were playing one day, they were playtesting or whatever, and Elliot's references, there's a football player named William the Refrigerator Perry, who played for Chicago, I believe. And so he was just commenting on how they should have cool nicknames like William the Refrigerator Perry. And so somebody, I'm not sure who, said, okay, Mr.

Toilet. And that became a nickname for Elliot, said, Okay, Mr. Toilet. And that became a nickname for Elliot, that he was Elliot Mr. Toilet Seagull. And it just became a running joke with them, with that group. So when they were making the set, they decided, they took Mr. Toilet and they anagrammed it. So Mr. Toilet anagrams to Talimtor. So there's Talimtor's darts, Talimtor's edict,

and then Talimtor himself. But anyway, the character there was just them having fun. Okay, next up. Another person from Mirage, a card named after them. So there's a guy named Don Felice, who's one of the designers of Mirage. So Don was friends with the East Coast Playtafters, Scaf, Jim, Dave, Chris, and so they had made a card named after him in antiquities.

It was called Felden's Ice Cone was the name of the card. You all might know it better as Felden's Cane, which is a pretty famous card. It's a zero-cost artifact that you can shuffle your graveyard into your library. Or, sorry, shuffle your graveyard into your library. It ended up seeing a lot of play in early Magic. Anyway, I don't know why the ice

cone became a cane. I don't know whether the art came back and it was a cane, or the people who just thought that an ice cone wasn't as cool as a cane. But anyway, Felzin's ice cone became a cane. So Don lost his reference. So they ended up making Deluf's cone. The same team

made Fallen Empires, the East Coast playtester. So they ended up making a different card for Don Feliz called Deluf's cone. A little less familiar than Felzin's cane, sadly, for Don.ice called Deleth's Cone. A little less familiar than Felton's Cane, sadly, for Don. But Deleth's Cone costs zero. Tap, sacrifice it. If target creature

you control attacks and is not blocked, you may choose to gain its power and life. If you do so, it deals no damage to opponent this turn. So you can trade. Instead of doing damage, you can gain life. Not a particularly powerful card. But it is referenced. It is named after Don Felice. Okay.

Next up. Okay, so there was an editor named Darla. Darla was the lead editor of Magic. The first lead editor of Magic was Beverly. And then the second lead editor was Darla. And then Mike Ryan, who was

my co-creator, was the lead editor for a little while. And then I think eventually was Darla, and then Mike Ryan, who was my co-creator, was the lead editor for a little while, and then I think eventually Del took over, and Del now has been lead editor forever. But anyway, Darla did a lot of the flavor text for Ice Age, and there's two things she did, two references she made. One was the character of Jaya Ballard, who originally was just a character in flavor text.

Obviously, she later became a planeswalker. We made a legendary creature in Time Spiral of her. We made multiple planeswalker cards of her. There are other cards referencing her. She's been in infant flavor text. So her last name is Ballard. So the reason she's named Jaya Ballard is Ballard is where I believe

Darla lived. Ballard is a city in Seattle. And I don't know why she named her Ballard. Most of the names in the set are very Scandinavian. Ballard isn't really, but I mean Jaya is, named her Bowerd. Most of the names in the set are very Scandinavian. Bowerd isn't really, but... I mean, Jaya is, but Bowerd isn't.

So anyway, that's where Jaya Bowerd got her name, named after Darla's... I think it's where Darla lived. Another character that Darla named then was a character named Anna Kennerud. Anna Kennerud was a Keldoran Sky Ranger, I think. Anyway, it was a character that got referenced a lot.

I don't think the character appeared in a card name, but there's a lot of flavor text that references her. Kennerud was... Darla is now Darla Kennerud because she was dating a man who that was his last name,

and she ended up marrying him. And so Kennerud... I think at the time she named it, they weren't yet engaged, so he just was her boyfriend. But she did use Ken Arood as a last name in flavor text. Okay, another reference. A Darkar Sentinel, a Darkar Unicorn, and a Darkar Waste, which are all in Ice Age. I believe Aditya Adarkar was a friend of Skaf,

and I believe he just thought it was a cool name, and it sounded cool to Skaff, so he just named some characters after it. Just a friend of Skaff's. Once again, Ice Age, for those who don't remember, Ice Age, when Richard first made Magic, he had his playtest teams all design expansions that he felt like one day maybe we'll need it. So the East Coast playtesters made

Ice Age. Joel and his group made Mirage. Barry Reich ended up making Spectral Chaos. Elements of that got used in Invasion. So anyway, a lot of these names go way way back to early Magic. Next up, in Homelands, way back to early magic. Okay, next up.

In Homelands, we get a couple references. Okay, so Joven, both of Joven's ferrets, Joven's tools, and just Joven, was a nickname of Kyle Namvar. Kyle Namvar, he and Scott Hungerford were the two designers of Fallen Empires. And so Joven was just a reference, a nickname reference to Kyle. And then also they made Rysorian Badger. Rysorian Badger was another Homeland Guard. Rysorian Badger

is a reference to Raius. Raius Hall, who was a longtime employee at Wizards. Raius might have had a badger? I'm trying to think whether or not that, like, I don't 100% know this. My guess is that Raius might have had a badger. I'm trying to think whether or not that, like... I don't 100% know this. My guess is that Raius might have had a badger,

and this is making reference to Raius' badger. Now, it might have been a real badger. Maybe it was a stuffed badger. I don't know, but I think she had a badger. Anyway, that's the best I know of that one. Okay, and the final one that I know is a reference, and I will say that I think this is a pretty exhaustive list. I'm sure I'm missing something.

But this is all the ones that I... Oh, did I even talk Morrow? Okay, let me talk about this last one, then I'll talk about Morrow. I just realized I missed the big one. I missed the one that was me. I'll tell that story in a second. I almost did a Vanity Card episode and didn't mention Morrow. That is ironic. Okay, the last one I'll tell that story in a second. I almost did a vanity card episode

and didn't mention Marrow. That is ironic. Okay, the last one I'll talk about before I get to Marrow is Timbermare, which was in Planter Chaos.

Let me tell you Timbermare. It is three and a green for five, five. Has haste, echo, five, green. Beginning of your upkeep, if this came under

your control since beginning of your last upkeep, sacrifice it unless you pay its Echo cost. When Timberlare comes into play, tap all other creatures. So Timbermare, interestingly, was a green version of a red card.

What's the card called? Hold on. I will tell you in a second. It was a red card. What was it called? Oh, Thundermare. Thundermare. Thundermare. So it basically was...

Sorry, it was similar to Thundermare. Thundermare was five red for five, five haste when it comes and taps all the creatures originally from... Oh, first from Portal, and then in Weatherlight, interestingly enough. And it was a riff on that card,

so it wasn't exactly that card. It was kind of that card plus Echo, I guess, because that card was quite strong. Anyway, this was by the way, interestingly, during Portal Chaos, when haste wasn't a green thing, but we imagined a world

where haste was a green thing. Ironically, years later, haste became a green thing. So, maybe a nod toward the future. Anyway, this was a sad vanity card. There's a man named Jamie Wakefield, who in the early days of Magic was a very prolific writer, wrote a lot about Magic, much beloved member of the community.

His wife, her name was Mare, sadly died of cancer. And this card was kind of a nod to Jamie's loss and to Mare, to remembering Mare. I know she loved horses. And anyway, the flavor text and the name and the art and everything was a nod to Mare. So anyway, a little nod. So let me get into a little happier story than that.

The story of Morrow. So I me get into a little happier story than that. The story of Maro. So I had designed... So Maro is an elemental, a star-star elemental. Ironically, when we first printed it, it was in nature spirit. Now it's just an elemental.

So it's two green-green, star-star. Maro's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand. I had made that card, and I was in a design meeting for Mirage, sorry, a development meeting for Mirage. We made a hole at Green Rare, and I said, oh, I got a card for it. And everyone liked

it, so they put it in. And at the time, the way our email system worked was, you could type in certain letters that would fill it in if the letters you type were unique. And so Bill had figured out for me that if he typed in M-A-R-O that it recognized it was me

and it would populate with my name. So that's what he typed whenever. So he just put M-A-R-O because that was his little code that Mark made this card. It wasn't really Bill's intent that it became the name of the card, but it kind of stuck

and we got used to it and the creative team was like, okay, sure. became the name of the card, but it kind of stuck and we got used to it, and the creative team was like, okay, sure. And then once it came out, it became sort of, obviously, my namesake. That's what people call me. So it is a reference to me. And one of the things about Vanity Cards is the Vanity Card effects, once they exist

in Magic, they're sort of grandfathered in. So Maro is a creature type in Magic. I mean, it's a creature in Magic. Not a creature type. It's a creature in Magic. They're sort of grandfathered in. So Marrow is a creature type in magic. I mean, it's a creature in magic. Not a creature type. It's a creature in magic. And so Multani is a Marrow, and Molimo is a Marrow, and there's a cycle of Marrows in Champion's Block. And anyway, there's been a bunch of different Marrows. So it's just

kind of part of magic now. It's kind of fun that that is a little nod to me. I do appreciate, now that we can't generate new Vanity Cards, I guess I appreciate the one Vanity Card I got way back when. But anyway, I will say this. As somebody who's the benefit of a vanity card, it is super fun to be part of the game.

So let me get, before I end today, why did we stop doing vanity cards? I will say, personally, I like vanity cards. But the problem with them is that they become a little extra personal. Like, one of the things when you're making a card set, you kind of have to, there's some ego separation that has to happen. Like, you're trying to make the best card you can. And what we found was when people started getting things named after them, like, hey,

if the card's named after you, hey, you want it to be a decent card. And so, like, it just created weird incentives for people. And we decided that just it was a bad idea. And so many years ago, we said, you know what? Let's just, vanity cards, it makes bad incentives. It makes hurt feelings. Let's just stop doing it. So we made a conscious decision to stop doing vanity cards.

Oh, I realized, by the way, there's one last vanity card that I completely forgot that I'm going to I should mention. So in Unhinged, I made a card called Richard Garfield PhD, which is literally Richard Garfield. And ironically,

I think that is the last vanity card that we made. I think the rule for vanity cards, I think I got special permission to card that we made. I think the rule for vanity cards... I think I got special permission to make a Richard Garfield card when they made Unhinge. So ironically, I think Richard Garfield PhD might be the last vanity card, which is probably apropos since Richard started it all.

And if you didn't know, literally it's Richard's picture on the card. I mean, it's Richard's name, Richard's picture. And we did the PhD thing didn't know that literally it's Richard's picture on the card. I mean, it's Richard's name, Richard's picture. And we did the PhD thing because the same reason that it's Garfield PhD on Feldergrif. Anyway,

that, my friends, is in great detail. Oh, the one thing I did forget, the one other thing where there is vanity, and then the one thing we still do, I started the Magic Invitational many years ago. The winner of the Invitational got to make a Magic card.

Because the very first card that got made, which was Darwin, which ironically was for the second Invitational, not the first, I was in charge of card concepting. I asked him to put his picture on it, and that just became a thing. So for all the Magic Invitational cards, the cards were designed, or some were designed

by the player. We would help them. But the picture always appeared on it. Then the Magic Invitational stopped. That went away. We recently decided a couple years ago that the World Champion... We designed the card. They don't design the card. But we decided to bring back putting them on the card. And so, for example,

Paulo just got his image on a card in Strixhaven. So we do do that. So that is a vanity thing, I guess, Paulo just got his image on a card in Strixhaven. So we do do that. So that is a vanity thing, I guess, that we do do. If you win the World Championship, you get your image on a card. So we do do that. So I guess vanity's not completely dead.

You just gotta win the Magic World Championship in order to get there. So anyway, guys, I hope this was enjoyable. I hope you had fun. This was, like I said, I was trying to go deep in depth. Looking at my notes, I hope this was enjoyable. I hope you had fun. This was, like I said, I was trying to go deep in depth. Looking at my notes, I think I covered everything.

It was fun looking back. There's a lot, I mean, because the Van Der Kerk cards happened so early that I have a lot of association with a lot of these. So, anyway, it was fun reminiscing. But, anyway, that is today. So, I can see my desk. So, we all know what that means. It means it's the end of my drive to work.

Instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. So anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed today's show. And I'll see you all next time. Bye-bye.