Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #379 - Top 20 Creatures

Episode Date: October 21, 2016

Mark's mailbag podcast with his daughter Rachel.

I'm pouring on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay. Well, today is another episode of Replies with Rachel. Yay. Say hi, Rachel. Hooray.

Okay, so we're back. I'm back to driving Rachel to school. And that means we get to do another Replies with Rachel. So for those that don't know what this is, I used to do a series with Matt Cavada when I used to drive him where you guys would send in mail and he would read me questions and then we would answer them. So Rachel's picked up mailbag with Matt has become replies with Rachel. So this is the second one. So anyway, here's what's happened. On my Twitter, I asked people for questions. I then printed them out,

gave them to Rachel. She's going to pick whatever question she wants, and we're going to answer it. So go ahead, Rachel. Ask the very first question. All right. The first one is from David Brink at My Hands Are Blank. What is it like having a father that makes magic? Is your household distinctly magical, or is it just something that exists? Okay, Rachel.

What is it like having a dad who makes magic? Well, if you can make actual magic like you know like wizard stuff like that'd be pretty cool but i mean you mean you make a card game i think the only way it's like affected us is only it's kind of like only in the land of game stores like once you walk into game stores it's like oh hello my girls what how are you and all of a sudden it's like you're getting like bombarded and we have to go and, like, do, like, something else. Like, everything pretty much changes when we walk into any kind of game store. Like, I don't know.

I forgot where it was. But remember, I love the store where it was one time. It's called, like, The Castle or whatever. It was, like, this game store. And we walk in. This guy's, like, flipping out. Like, the most I've ever seen. And I just thought that was, like, hilarious.

Because, like, you're my dad. So, it's like, I don't flip out really. You don't flip seen and I thought that was like hilarious because like you're my dad so it's like I don't flip out really you don't flip out that I don't flip out no so okay so that's not not too much different no I mean we got we got some magic stuff ish um like that's mostly in the den though like when we like walk in like I mean if we're talking about anything that's yours you got the gigantic gigantic, like, mini-made collection, like, on the wall, people are like, oh, what is that? And you're like, funny story, you, like, pop in, you just, like, here's everything, it's, like, on the wall, and then you have, like, other, like, artworks, and all the photos and stuff, so. Okay. I think it's magic, but there's a lot of things that are yours. Sure. Okay, okay, okay, let's move on to

the next question. Alright, Stephen or Stephen or Stephan, I don't know which one, add Stephan or Stephen, Konefal. K-O-N-E-F-A-L. I'm trying my best here. Okay, you're doing good. When are we going back to Jamora?

Jamora? Jamora. So what does Jamora sound like? Do you know what Jamora is? Like Jamaica? Uh, no. So Jamora was from a set So what does Jamora sound like? Do you know what Jamora is? Like Jamaica? Uh, no. So Jamora was from a set called Mirage from long ago. And it was a set that had sort of an African-inspired theme to it. That makes sense. And it was from... So Jamora is in Dominaria.

So kind of what he's asking is when are we going back to Dominaria? I do believe we'll eventually go back there. Is it after like Jamaica and like the Dominican Republic or something? I do believe we'll eventually go back there. And you named it after, like, Jamaica and, like, the Dominican Republic or something? I don't know how I got its name. Okay. I mean, I think it was trying to be an African-sounding name

just because the whole set was inspired. Here's a tricky thing, by the way, about Dominaria is really what we like about planes is having a nice, crisp, clear definition. Like, Innistrad is the

gothic horror plane and Theros is the greek mythology plane you know Ravnica is the city plane that we like having nice clean crisp and Dominaria is sort of like part of it is was Ice Age and part of it was African inspired Mirage

and part of it was I mean I believe when we go back to Dominaria, there's a good chance we'd see Jamora. Like, if we went back to Dominaria, but not even if, when. I do believe eventually we'll get back there. We do have to solve the problem of, for those people that don't know, Dominaria was the setting of Magic for, like, 40 sets. for those people that don't know, Dominaria was the setting of magic for, like, 40 sets.

Some huge, like, early, the first, like, 10 years of magic, most sets were set in Dominaria. And so it, there's some tricky things to solve. I believe we can solve it, but we have to solve that first, so. Okay, next question.

All right. Boo at the Space Hamster asks, what do you think is the best age to start magic? Like, when did you teach him magic? Like, when did you teach in math? Like, when did you,

like, you try to, like, teach it? I think it was, like, I was, like,

eight or something. Yes, I think I taught all you guys when you, when you turned eight. Um, Okay.

Adam's the only one that still plays, so, obviously, it didn't, it didn't keep too much, but, uh,

I tried it, and I was, like, a little bit, I was like, alright, this seems kind of cool, but then,

obviously, like, I went through, like, middle school, and then you're like, who am I? And you have to go through this whole phase of just, like, figuring out, like, alright, this seems kind of cool. But then obviously, like, I went through, like, middle school, and then you're like, who am I? And you have to go through this whole phase of just, like, figuring out, like, what, like,

is kind of, like, your thing. Magic is not my thing. It's not your thing? So, it's not my thing. So, I'm still trying to figure all of it out. But, I mean, we, our family does play a lot of games. We do play a lot of games. We don't play a lot of magic. Like, games like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh, like the trading card kind of games or whatever.

Like, you collect a lot of things. Like, that seems to be more of, like, my brother Adam's thing. So, uh... Okay, so not your thing. Yeah, we play board games and card games, but never really trading card games. Because that one you kind of have to keep on playing. You have to keep playing it over and over and over again with, like, different stuff. It's also not a good five-person family.

I mean, I guess... Not really. I guess there's some multiplayer formats in theory, but... There are. Okay, what's the next question? All right, Mike M. adds Sped X111, which... What's that in Roman? It was, like, eight.

What is it? X and then three, like... That's 13. X1111 is 13. Oh, okay. Oh, never mind. V is five. V is like, eight. What is it? X and then three, like, ones. That's 13. X, one, one, one, one is 13. Oh, okay. Oh, never mind. V is five. V is five, yes.

Okay. I, for one, like Roman numerals. Oh, yeah. I told you that. I know. That's a funny joke. All right. Who designed the module cars, and in parentheses, animation, decoration, fabrication?

Okay, so... Wait, wait, wait. Just try saying that three times fast. What is it? Animation, decoration, fabrication. Animation, decoration, fabrication. Okay, so in... Wait, wait, wait. Just try saying that three times fast. What is it? Animation, decoration, fabrication. Animation, decoration, fabrication? No, it's like really fast. So there's three cards in Kaladesh

that have those words in it followed by module, I believe. So like a fabrication module. So what they do is each one of them is a little engine card, meaning you have an input and an output, and the input gives you a different output. And it allows you to convert one resource into another.

And then they loop, meaning that if you get all three and play together, each one will feed the next one. And a lot of people have said, hey, those are kind of like the stations from Fifth Dawn. They're exactly like the stations. They were inspired by the stations. Who made them? I made them. Because I made the stations, and I exactly like the stations. They were inspired by the stations. Who made them? I made them. Because I made the stations and I really like the stations. So back during Fifth Dawn, I really liked the idea of making this infinite machine. And so we made them during Fifth Dawn. Because one of the goals of Fifth Dawn was

I wanted to make a lot of sort of goofy, fun builds around the artifacts. So if you have an artifact block, well, guess what? Kaladesh is also an artifact block. I also wanted to have some silly build around stuff. I really liked the stations. Um, there were four stations. So when I set out to first make this, um, I was trying to see if I could do four again. But what I realized was there were just, there were less, I don't know.

It worked better with three. I knew I wanted to interact with energy. I knew I wanted to interact plus and plus with counters, because that's a big part of Fabricate. We ended up interacting... In fact, the middle module, which now triggers off a creature entering the battlefield,

used to trigger off an artifact entering the battlefield, but it ended up developmentally being a problem, and the card that fed it made servo tokens, so the fact, they could be triggered by either creatures or artifacts, because you know, the idea is each one does something, and then its output

triggers the next input. But anyway, I guess this is a long version of the answers. I designed them, that's a long answer. One of the things I did in Kaladesh, in fact, of the stuff I made in Kaladesh, in fact, of the stuff I made in Kaladesh where I made the card and it just ended up making the print pretty much like I designed it are mostly

wacky artifacts. I made a whole bunch of wacky artifacts. All in one big pass, too. Sean recognized we needed some more wacky artifacts, so I did a wacky artifact pass. And I think the vast majority of the cards that I have in Kaladesh that are like, you know, mostly my card came from that pass of wacky artifacts.

Okay, next question. All right. At OGOKemojiman at Foil Island asks, do you think hot dogs are sandwiches? Okay, Rich. Do you think a hot dog is a sandwich? I think it's a wannabe sandwich. It's a wannabe sandwich? it's a wannabe sandwich It's a wannabe sandwich? It's a wannabe sandwich

Like, you don't, like, when you say, like, when you say Okay, like, give me, like, give me, like, three different types of sandwiches In, like, five seconds, go Like, your first thought isn't, like, hot dog Because hot dog's kind of in its own, like, category Like, it would make sense Like, if someone said it's a sandwich, you're like It's got bread on both sides

The bread just happens to be connected at one side so maybe but like hot dog isn't it typically the type of meat that you would really put in sandwiches i think of like here's here's here's what i call the sandwich test this is to me whether or not this is whether or not something to me is a sandwich if let's say for example there's a plate and there's some hot dogs sitting on it. And I said to someone, hey, hand me a sandwich. Would anybody go, oh, he means the hot dog? Almost no. Barring one or two very quirky people, no. They'd go, oh, there's no sandwiches.

Would you like a hot dog? So it's not a sandwich. I understand it's meat in between bread. But I think there's more to a sandwich than just the there's a quality there's a sandwichness that is important but what if someone put a hot dog in between two pieces of normal bread

I don't know I believe doesn't it take a hot dog and you slice it in half or take two hot dogs and slice them in half and layer them on a normal piece of bread and put another piece of bread on it okay you're starting to get more sandwichiness there, and maybe someone feels that's a sandwich. But a traditional hot dog, a hot dog in a bun, I say no. I say not a sandwich.

Is it a wannabe sandwich? Yeah, it hangs around sandwiches. It really wants to be accepted by the sandwiches. It wants to be in the inner circle. It does. It's the main group. But at the sandwich table in the cafeteria, they're like, hot dog, sorry, this is just for sandwiches, so.

And then they cause a rising rebellion. Yes. New movie, Hollywood, here we come. Okay, next question. All right, Drigo Owls at Radamadrug, trying to say that, has said, have you told Rachel about Melt? I have no idea what Melt is, so I'm presuming no. Have I told you about MeltD? What is MELD?

Here's what they're talking about. You and I did a podcast at the end of last school year where I gave you vocabulary words for magic. Oh, yeah. And you defined them. Okay. Did I define MELD? No, no, no, no. So it turns out that there's a I asked you about a mechanic called

MORF. And you made about a mechanic called Morph. And you made up a mechanic that you thought Morph was. And it turned out to be a mechanic that we, about a month later, put out. So a lot of people were like, oh, is she aware, it's called Meld. Was she aware of Meld? And I'm like, no, Rachel had no idea Meld existed. So you, completely on your own, came up with MELD being prompted by the word morph. What did I say?

I forgot. So what MELD cards are, they're two cards that you put together. They're double-faced cards, meaning there's two sides to them. And you flip them over and put them together and make one giant-sized card. But what's morph again? Morph are cards that you can play face down, and you don't know what they are. They're just two creatures, But then you can pay a cost at any point and turn them off and go, ha ha, it's really this. Ha ha. Yeah, and you have to say that.

You have to go, ha ha. I guess so. Ha ha. That's my rule of thumb. Melt, I guess, would be similar. But melt is kind of one of those words, like, if you keep saying it, like, multiple times, it doesn't really sound like a word. Kind of like, you know.

That's all words. Cat doesn't sound like a word if you say it enough times. I know. I know. So it reminds me of... Because I watched How I Met Your Mother, and there's one where the main character, Ted, he has a bowl, and he just says over and over again,

bowl, bowl, bowl, bowl. And it simply doesn't sound like a word anymore. That's true of all words. Any words. And like yacht. Like a yacht makes more sense. Well, yacht doesn't sound like a word in the beginning, so... Okay, what's the next question?

All right. Martin Walsh Sigalow at M Sigalow asks, which of you is nerdier? I think you as like an overall statement. But you really have to be like, if there was a nerd about a particular thing, then that would be either like one of us or none of us. Okay, so first I want to make the following point that I am a geek more so than a nerd. What's the difference between a nerd and a geek? The difference between a nerd and a geek is, geek is people who obsess on, who obsess on topics that are sort of, that's how they define their sense.

Where nerd is more intellectually based and sort of more acquiring knowledge. And I'm a little more geeky than I'm nerdy. But the fact that I know the difference between them makes me also nerdy. So, I'm more nerdy than you. Well, the fact that you also, I mean, you've told us a lot of stories where Mom basically laughs at you

because you didn't skip on Senior Skip Day. I did not skip a senior. And Mom just called you, like, a loser or something. She did not call me a loser. I thought she did. No, no. I think she typically like, a loser or something. She did not call me a loser. I thought she did. No, no. She said, well, I think she technically called me a loser. But she was ashamed for me, I think she said.

Oh, yeah. Because she skipped in school. Ah, look, I was a goody two-shoes. I wasn't going to skip on skip day. And even though, didn't you get, like, a scholarship or something? But, like, you turned away because, like, you wanted to give it to someone else who didn't have, like, the money for, like, a scholarship or something. Yeah. Well, my parents were wanted to give it to someone else who didn't have the money for a scholarship or something? Yeah.

Well, my parents were able to send me to school, and yes, I had the opportunity for something that I didn't apply for, and my guidance counselor thought I would get it, but I didn't want to take money away from someone who really... The difference between them going to school and not going to school was needing that, so I didn't apply. But I didn't know you knew that story. You told me that story. I told you that story? You so I didn't apply. But I didn't know you knew that story. You told me that story. I told you that story?

You told me that story. Well, I didn't remember telling you that story. Okay. Okay, but I mean, nerdy in this sense is just like, here's the thing. Everyone's a nerd, but for different things. Like, athletes are sports nerds, and white girls are basic nerds. You really have to define this. Like, if we're talking about, like, anything that's, like, Marvel and DC and comics and magic,

and almost anything you found at PAX yesterday is pretty much almost you. Like, for example, for me, like, I like bands a lot more. Like, you have no idea. That's true. You are more band nerdy than I am. Yeah, and more of, like, music in a sense and, like, book, depending on the type of book. If it's, like, young adult, like, novels, like, Hunger Games and The Divergent, like, The Divergent, that's all me. That's all you. John Green, all you. John Green books, all me. Okay, so we admit we're both nerdy in our own ways, but overall, am I nerdier

than you? Most likely, yes, because if we went to PAX, I bet you'd probably point out more things than I could. How many numbers do you know pi to? 3.14159, just because of that year where it happened to be 3.14159. Oh, that's cool. Okay. Yeah, they do have a contest at my old school, Issaquah High School, where you get to recite pi as far as you could, and the winner got a prize. Did they get a pi? I don't know if they got a pi.

If they didn't get a pi, somebody was doing it wrong. I think they did try to do it with pie. I think it was like flying pies at the beginning or something. Right. I mean, if you didn't win a pie, I mean, fine, a pizza pie. But if you didn't win a pie, then someone just did that wrong. Okay, next question. Gabriel Frassi, I don't really know, add the same name.

Is she proud of look at my DCI art that you made? Or thar you made? Okay, so do you know? I made a piece of art from Magic. One piece. It's in our den. It hangs on the wall. Oh, which one?

You have a lot of them. Well, okay. One of them is a beautifully drawn picture of a creature in the forest called Maro. The other one is someone who's blindfolded who's tossing darts. Yeah, one of them is a crayon drawing. See if you can pick out which one your father did. The crayon, yeah. Yes, I did the crayon drawing.

Have you seen it? Have you looked at the crayon drawing? Yeah, it's you tossing darts. At a dartboard, right? Yeah, at a dartboard. It has stuff on the dartboard. What did you think of that art? That's what we're asking.

It reminds me of this skit that I saw about George R.R. Martin where he is like spinning a wheel or like throwing darts at somebody to figure out what his book's going to be

for Game of Thrones okay I thought that was funny because it was quite accurate so I was like that kind of reminded me of that when people like

they make fun of people who have like the most random plots they like spin wheels or they throw things at darts they throw darts at the dartboard

trying to figure out what they're like so on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is there's no artistic quality whatsoever, and 10 is like, oh my god, that is a piece of art. Call it Picasso. Picasso, okay. If it wasn't 10. Where does look at the DCI in your range fall on the

scale of 1 to 10? I mean, I'll say level with my art ability in which my art ability is probably similar-ish. So I would say probably about like like a four or something. Like a four? I will take a four. That is...

You could probably like... It's one of those art pieces that like if a kid drew it, the parent would be like, oh that's great, honey. They put it like in a box and then they probably like save it for a couple years and then they look back at it and be like, hmm. Yes. Well, and then they'd look back at it and be like, hmm. Yes. Well, it was designed to look like a child's drawing, for what it's worth.

That makes sense. Like, I don't know if that's what you're proposing. The reason it came about was, the original art description was, make this look like a child's drawing. And I said, wait, wait, wait. I can make it look like a child's drawing. I don't even have to really make it look like, I'll just draw it, and it'll look like a child's drawing, so.

Okay, so, next question. Jacob Johnson at MTD underscore Jacob said, what is your biggest design regret whether missed opportunity or something executed poorly from the last five years? My biggest regret of the last five years is Battle for Zendikar block.

What happened there? Well, what happened was A, it was a very hard block to begin with and then in the middle of it we just completely changed how we did magic sets, and it just overwhelmed me. How long ago was this? I mean, it came out last year, but it was three years ago that I did it. And like I said, there were a lot of balls in the air, and it's the set that I'm least proud of of the last five years,

in that it just didn't quite come together. And Eric Lauer, who was the developer, tried really, really hard to pull it all together, and he did a great job, but really it was faulty at the design level. So anyway, that's my biggest regret, is that I wasn't able to make the adjustment to the new system and keep all the balls in the air as well as I normally do.

For once, it wasn't your best juggling set. wasn't my best juggling for using the metaphor okay next uh next question george maro at vox pv repeat vox d okay when did you most embarrass rachel uh okay when did when did i most embarrass you that's i don't really know like kind of like i said before with things like embarrassing moments, it's like there's so many, like, mess-up points in my life that I think I just repress the memory so much that I just forget it. So I embarrass you constantly, but your mind keeps you from remembering? Is that what you're saying? Perhaps.

I mean, this is just, like, even with me, like, with anything that happens, I just kind of repress it. But let me think. I don't really know, because you're doing better at your white dad skills. Like, you kind of cut down the darts a little bit. You grill every so often. I don't know how much dancing we've done so far. Oh, I dance.

I don't dance in public that much. I don't dance in public that much. But still, to a minimum. But I do know when I dance, I can embarrass you. Probably. That's one of my go-to embarrassments if I need to. Yep. And if I'm wearing a George, just it's better.

More embarrassing. But I can't think of like a defining moment where it's like you messed up so badly that like I remember to this day like I don't I don't remember anything

do you remember any time? I remember being when you were little you got more embarrassed by me somehow if you've gotten older you've gotten less embarrassed by me

I'm not sure how that's possible I think as I was older I keep going to the logic more of you're dancing weirdly people look weird at you and not as weird as me because I'm not the one who's dancing. Oh, okay.

See? You're maturing. I like it. Okay, so let's move to the next question. All right. Okay. Freddie the Third asks, what is Rachel's favorite piece of art that the Rosewater song? I don't know.

I kind of like that superhero one that we got, like, in the, like, when we walk, like, right in. Oh, yeah. In the hall. Yeah. We got, like, this, like, superhero piece that's got, like, Superman and Wonder Woman. Right. Yeah.

Mommy, she got that for me. You might have been real little and shit, but she got it for my birthday one year. And what it is, is it's a bunch of old school superhero it's a pastiche of comic book figures from like the 40s and 50s that are sort of checkerboarded

kind of a pop art when did underdog come out? underdog is 60s 50s 60s underdog is 60s I was going to say

superman is like 50s yeah it's an early superman underdog is like 60s right it's early versions I mean it's an early Superman. And the underdog is like 60s. Right. It's early versions. I mean, it's sort of a pop, you know, sort of pop part. Why aren't they making like a new Superman show, like next to Supergirl or something

on like CBS? They make lots of Supergirl stuff. Why are they doing this? They're adding on Superman. I'm like, let's Supergirl have her shiny moon. No, they're not. I think Superman's going to show up on Supergirl. Is he showing up?

Okay. But it's still going to be called. I thought it was like take the moon and stuff. It's still called Super. No, no, no. It's not changing the name show up on Supergirl. Is he showing up? Okay. But it's still going to be called... I thought it was like take the movie Supergirl. It's still called Super... No, no, no. It's not changing the name of the show or anything. It's still Supergirl. All right.

Okay. If you're not, it's still Supergirl. Okay. Next. Okay. Mark Walker at Markov Walker says, what was your, in parentheses, design team, single biggest stroke of genius in the sets of 2016 and your single biggest mistake? Biggest stroke of genius, biggest mistake.

That's hard. Biggest mistake, I will say, was we should have kept Investigate between Shadows and not carrying on Investigate to Eldritch Moon was, I think, our biggest mistake. Biggest stroke of genius? I kind of only cried for vehicles.

Vehicles, like, that was something we've been trying to solve forever. And the fact that we, not only solved it, but, like, I feel like found the perfect implementation for it. So I would say vehicles is the biggest. You guys made vehicles, right? We did, for New Kaladesh. Like the wizards ride the vehicles or like the creatures? The creatures can ride the vehicles. That's cool. It's a skyship

or it's a car or train or whatever you can hop in. Trains, planes, and all of them. Planes, trains, and all of them. Okay, next question. Alrighty. MTG Diversity at MTG Diversity diversity says for Rachel do you think magic should happen with squirrels do you guys not do squirrels because of a specific

reason or did you guys I want you to first answer the question without any I think personally yes because squirrels are kind of one of those creatures like they're very cute but you know they can mess things up if you like they're kind of like geese like that's why they call it like duck duck goose because if you, like... They're kind of like geese. That's why they're called duck-duck goose,

because if you bop a duck on the head, it just kind of smiles at you and goes, like, oh, hello, and just, like, quacks. But if you bop a goose on the head, it'll chase you and bite you. Okay, I've never heard the squirrel-goose connection before. Well, I mean, I feel like squirrels, if you mess with squirrels, like, squirrels can, like, fight back. Like, rainbees is a thing.

My line on squirrels is I believe squirrels are rats but with better PR. Yeah, they also have great tails. First of all, you should have flying squirrels. You should have squirrels and flying squirrels. I am a big fan of squirrels, and I believe magic should have more squirrels in it. Do we not have more squirrels? The creative team does not like squirrels. Why?

Can they not draw squirrels? No, I think they think they're a little too silly. But every time somebody... You gotta make them flying squirrels, like teeth or something. Right. Well, I mean, we've done badass squirrels, if you will, in the past, but... You should do ones like rabies and whatnot. Rabies squirrels. Every time...

By the way, what happens maybe once a year is like a jogger in New York City or something gets attacked by squirrels, and then someone will cut out the article and send it to me. They start attacking squirrels. They are deadly. To me, squirrels are what green loves, which are things that seem harmless but really aren't. To me, that's like green sense of humor. Okay, moving on.

They really should. They should. We're in agreement. Two rosewaters agree. All right. They really should. They should. We're in agreement. Two Rosewaters agree. All right. Shivam Bhaiya. It's S-H-I-V-A-M and the last name B-H-A-T-T

Alekshado. I feel like a really bad substitute teacher. It says, how does an idea get on the seven-year plan? What is the seven-year plan? So basically, we plan out where we're going. For the next seven years?

It's not always seven years, but I refer to it as a seven-year plan. I mean, we plan out. It can vary between five to seven years. The five to seven-year plan. The five to seven-year plan. I mean, really what we want to do is we want to figure out where we're going. And sometimes, like we know we're going back to some place, we want to figure out, like, oh, how long before we go back to this place or that place? We want to map it out. So what's

the question? The question was, how does someone get on the list? Yeah, how does an idea get on the seven-year plan? Usually what happens is, every once in a while while we have a meeting where we add a couple more years of blocks on. So you add them like a year, like a time? We add a couple years

at a time usually. But usually it's like, well, we'll go, okay, let's talk about the next bunch of blocks. And part of it

is figuring out the story and part of it is figuring out kind of where we're going mechanically because we want to make sure we're pushing the pendulum around. So it might be, oh, you know, we haven't done artifacts in a while, this could be an artifact block,

and it could be said, and oh, what if it's steampunk, stuff like that. And so we sort of figure out the environment and mechanics and basic story ideas. But yeah, every once in a while, probably every couple years, we add a couple more years on to the end of the plan. Okay, next. All right. Daniel Curzine at D Curzine asks, what's the strangest way you've tried to jumpstart your creative process? That is an interesting question.

Usually if I decide I just want, like, I talk about this a lot. The key is your brain tends to use the same neural pathways if you give it the same input. If I just do the same thing I always do, my brain will kind of follow the same path and I'll end up usually with a similar answer. So sometimes if I want a different answer, what I do is I just try to start from a place that I've never started before. And usually what I'll do there is I'll just pick some random factor. So it's just place that I've never started before. And usually what I'll do there is I'll just pick some random factor. So it's just like, I've never tried a start idea with this.

So I say sometimes like the yellow pages, I'm assuming people can get their hand on the yellow pages. You know, something in which you just randomly pick. You can sometimes do Google and just do like random searches. And like just, for example example sometimes I'll say okay I want an idea and the idea is going to be inspired by the circus

okay I come up with an idea and then I'll just pick a random thing and then I see what I can come up with and the key is just giving yourself some nonsensical different thing just get your brain to think from a different way you know like I've been thinking circus and I'm like okay maybe I'm thinking about my problem about clowns or a ring physical different thing, just get your brain to think from a different way. You know, like I've been thinking circus, I'm like, okay, maybe I'm thinking about my problem, but a

clowns or a ringmaster or a lion tamer, just something that I'm not normally thinking about and oh, lion tamer, wait a minute, that's a new way we do a leonade or something, you know, and I somehow get to the problem solved in a different way. So I like doing that. That's part of the strangest thing I do is I'll just take things that seem to have nothing to do with what I'm doing and use that as a jumping off point. Okay. Tony Lesque. It's L-E-V-E-S-Q-U-E

at M-T-E-G underscore Tony asks, when the kids go off to college, will you travel like you did before they were born? Do you know what? Before you were born, how much traveling I did? A lot. A lot. A lot of traveling.

Well, actually, here's how my travel worked. When I first got to Wizards, basically, they let me travel as much as I wanted. Wizard at the time did a lot of traveling. So I went all over the globe. I went everywhere. And then I met your mom, and we started dating and then we got married and we got married. I said, okay, you know what? I'm going to cut back a little bit. I'm married now. And so I didn't travel quite as much. And then you were born and then I

cut back even more. I think I just went to Pro Tours once you were born. And then Adam and Sarah were born. I'm like, okay. And then I cut down to two times a year. So I only travel twice a year now. Comic-Con. I usually go to San Diego Comic-Con and then one other thing. Like this year I went to GDC, for example. But here's the plan. I'll let you guys in on the plan. So, by the way, Rachel is in 11th grade, Adam and Sarah are in 7th grade. So I'm a little away from being childless in the home. Yeah, you're like... But, anyway, five years from now, six years from now, when all the kids are off in college, or you'll be out of college

by that point, here's the offer I will make is I'd be much more willing to travel, but to people who are offering me travel opportunities, if you bring my wife along, you'll have much better chance of getting me. Because Laura will...

I think Laura is interested in traveling too once the kids are off the counter. So that's a heads up for five years from now. Because I keep talking about traveling abroad and my mom is like, why are you going so far? And I'm like, how many places have we gone with five people in our family? The farthest we've gone, I've gone to Australia, but I was six months old. I can't remember that. The farthest place I can pretty much remember is like the Bahamas which is where we went on the Disney cruise we've got Canada and the Bahamas

and like edges of like Mexico where we're on that cruise still like the Bahamas and like the Caribbean and like yeah sure we've not done a big abroad we have not done that much I'm like I want to go and I want to like explore and stuff yeah well you will you're young I will I will I'm like, I want to go and I want to, like, explore and stuff. Yeah, well, you're young. You'll get some opportunities. I will. I will. I'm just saying, because, like, this mom, because I was seeing mom, and just, like, she's happy for me that I'm going, but she's also very sad. And she's like, it's like, you're going, you're going to school.

Yeah, I think your mom, I mean, you're not leaving just yet, but your mom needs some time to prepare for you going to college. I'm sorry, how, I'm saying, do you feel, like, as, like, anxious as she does? Or are you a little more chill? I mean sorry, do you feel as anxious as she does? Are you a little more chill? How do you feel? So when I got dropped off at college, I went to school in Boston, so we drove to Boston so we could take all my stuff with me, and my parents dropped me off, and I remember Grandma Lynn, my mom, was quite sad. Not that she wasn't happy for me. I was really excited for college.

I was all packed up for college like three weeks before we actually left. And she, I mean, I wasn't unhappy or anything, but she was just sad. It's sad to see your kid go off and I mean, not that we won't ever see you again or anything, but, you know, not having you around all the time. That'll take a little getting used to, so.

Why did you do it when, like, Elise went? Your sister might. Oh, when she went to college? Yeah. I think she was sad, too, but I think your first kid is just the hardest. Like, once you have one kid go to college, like, at least you've learned to adapt to your kid being in college. So I think when Annalise went, it wasn't quite as bad for her. Although I'm sure my mom cried. My grandma cried, I'm sure.

Okay. Next question. Okay. Booze Cube McCraw. It's like cube and then like apostrophe. M-R-A-Q-U-L at the Booze Cube. Okay. Does your family

share your hatred of bananas? are bananas allowed in the house? Well, who loves bananas? I know. Did you say you're an Adam eat bananas? Adam loves bananas. Adam loves bananas. Yeah.

I eat bananas only in smoothies cause I hate raw fruit, but I will only drink bananas in smoothies. Yeah. So here's the order of banana loving in our house. I believe. Um, mom and Adam really, really like bananas. I'm not sure between them.

I think Mom slightly more than Adam. So I would put Mom first and Adam second. But they both love bananas. We eat raw bananas all the time. Next is Sarah. Sarah likes it on certain things. She'll eat it in cereal, and I think once in a while in ice cream she'll do that. I only eat it in cereal and I think she, once in a while in ice cream, she'll do that. I only eat it in smoothies.

Right. Then your fourth. Or banana flavored like things. Right. You'll eat bananas but you don't like the raw texture of it.

which is probably happening in smoothies. So you're four. I'm like ten. Like there's imaginary people in between me and I hate bananas.

I mean, the readers, I mean. When did you learn that you hate bananas? Was there one day where you just liked bananas? I've never liked bananas. I've never. I mean, the readers, I mean. When did you learn that you hate bananas? Was there one day where you just liked bananas? I've never liked bananas. I've never.

I mean, the smell of bananas drives me crazy. I do not like bananas. I don't like their smell, their taste. Not even like. I don't like artificially flavored banana things. I don't even like the color yellow. Just because it associates to me with bananas. I like banana ice cream.

We went on a cruise that one time. And they had chocolate banana ice cream. That was the dopest thing. They had ice cream. It on a cruise that one time and they had chocolate banana ice cream that was the dopest thing they had ice cream it was based on Mike Wazowski and they had so much ice cream

it was it's the thing with cruise it's like free ice cream because you pay for it all in advance it ain't free but for you it's free

yeah but still just having as much chocolate banana ice cream as you want that was the coolest thing I thought yeah I do have there is one piece of respect I have for the banana Still, just having as much chocolate banana ice cream as you want, that was the coolest thing I thought.

Yeah. I do have... There is one piece of respect I have for the banana, and that is I respect the banana peel as a tool of comedy. That is the one nod I will give toward bananas. You mean, like, the fact that, like, it's skin? It's slippery. Like, in comedy, people will eat a banana and throw the peel, and the people will flip on the peel.

It's a comedy staple. So, it's like a slight, slight lip collapse. Okay. Nathan Thomas at Ann Thomas asks, do colors exist lore-wise? Or does that mean does Jace know that he's blue? Yeah, so that's a big discussion we have, the creative team

has all the time, which is how cognizant is the people of the world of the colors of magic i will give my opinion but this is not this is not canon or anything it's my opinion i believe that people who study magic understand there's five like jace for example who's mr information yeah yeah he knows he's blue he knows there's five colors of magic i believe that people who study it know it. And I believe that there's some general sense of, even if you don't know the colors per se,

you understand there's kinds of magic. Like, even the person that doesn't specifically know the colors gets the, oh, you're that kind of wizard. You know, you're that kind of planeswalker. You're a blue wizard. A blue wizard, yeah. So, I do think that some people are cognizant, but I don't believe it's like the average person of an average plane goes, oh, red mana.

I don't, not the case. But I feel like if you're someone who studies magic, who you understand magic, look, there is five kinds of magic, and you would understand that, and probably the way you delineate them is a colored thing, but I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure when we say blue magic, like I know when you picture it, it literally is blue most of the time when you picture

someone using blue magic, we tend to tint it blue. But I, anyway, there's a lot of debate. There's extremes on the creative team from yeah, yeah, people know, to nope, not a thing people are aware of. I'm in the camp that some people are aware of, but it's not common knowledge.

All right. Cool, cool. To Rachel. Actually, it's from Michael Martin at MAMartin87. To Rachel, which game is your dad worst at? Why do you think it does so poorly? I know the answer to this one. Okay, what game am I worst at?

Any game with drawing in it. Any game with drawing. That is true. I remember we played a game called Luck of the draw where it's like you have to like draw something and then guess like who's his blood and we could obviously tell that it was yours

because it was a baguette. Sarah was like why did you make yours like flat? I wanted to just We're like it's a baguette. For the record. My art is graded by you

on a scale of one to ten it was a four. Yeah. This is also comparing it to me like I wasn't the best either but you drew a baguette on a hamburger sandwich. It wasn't a baguette. It was a four. Yeah, this is also comparing it to me. Like, I wasn't the best either, but you drew a baguette on a hamburger sandwich.

It wasn't a baguette. It was a baguette. It was longer than it was higher. It was like, it was like, horizontal more than horizontal.

Yeah, hot dogs are longer than they're higher. Hamburger, that hamburger. Hamburgers are longer than they're higher. Yeah,

but not so wide as a baguette. Like, you literally drew like a whole like shape, looks like a tiny, like, football. Okay, so drawing games. Drawing games are my weakness. Yeah, actually, there's games I'm even worse at, by the way, than drawing games. I would.

But we don't play this game a lot. I'm so bad at it. What possibly are you good at? So, there's a game called Humble where you have to hum. You have to hum tunes. Oh, I love Humble hum tunes yes and I cannot hum a tune that you I mean I hum and to me it sounds like something and literally I think if you ever played this game with me every time every time you go like

everything is like hmm okay Try having the Superman theme song. The Superman theme song? Sure, I'll do something in your ballpark. Oh, yeah, but that's a harder one. But now people know what it is. You don't have the Superman theme song. If you know I'm saying Superman, you go, well, I guess that's the Superman theme song. Okay, here, try doing one. I'll try and guess it.

It's got to be something I know. I'll have you a Superman theme song. Okay, here. Try doing one. I'll try and guess it. It's got to be something I know. I'll have you correct it. Yes. He tried to be super easy. I had to go real simple. Very, really easy. If I did anything higher level than that, it would have been no idea.

But I'm particularly bad at that. I think I'm decent at humming. Like for singing, it's like I can carry a tone, but I'm not like the best singer either. Okay so let's have one final magic related question. Alrighty. We've had a few non-magic related questions today.

Okay. I like this one. What written works of literature I'm sorry Nick. This is from Nick at Nick Murphy 13 asks what written works of literature inspired you to better your job? Mine is Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Yeah.

I mean, I've talked about this. My favorite book as far as nonfiction is a book called A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger Von Eck. And it talks about how to be creative. It's the best book I've ever read on creativity. If the subject of creativity and being more creative is at all interesting to you, A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger Van Eck. There's a sequel called

A Kick in the Sleeve of the Pants that's not quite as good, but it's still well worth reading. So that's the book that's inspired me most as far as what I do. As far as fiction, I think the book

that inspired me most was a book called Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Oh, yeah. Which is a book all about irony. That's so confusing. And I don't know, it really spoke to me. I love, I guess I love irony and it was a book full Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Oh, yeah. Which is a book all about irony. And I don't know, it really spoke to me.

I love, I guess I love irony, and it was a book full of irony. But those are the two books that have most inspired me, both fiction and nonfiction. But we are driving up right now to your school. Yay. So, did we get through most of the questions? We had a lot of questions.

We got through, we didn't get through all the questions. Not the questions. Okay. Well, I want to thank everybody who sent in questions. I believe there will be a reply to Rachel's three at some point because why not?

Anyway, thank you, Rachel. This was fun. You're welcome. So normally I do a podcast and Rachel's listening to music and ignoring me. Yeah. But today you didn't ignore me.

I'm always having headphones for some reason or another. I enjoy these times because you don't ignore me. Anyway, thank you, Rachel. So have a fun day at school and so guys I'm here at Rachel's school

so we know what that means means the end of my drive to work so instead of talking magic it's time for me to be making magic I'll see you guys next time bye bye