Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast

#738: Donald Smith Jr.

May 08, 2020 14:05 - 30 minutes - 20.7 MB

Donald Smith Jr. is a member of the Play Design team, and I talk with him about what Play Design does.

#737: Richard Garfield

May 08, 2020 14:00 - 33 minutes - 22.9 MB

For years, this has been the number-one request for a carpool guest for the podcast, but as Richard doesn't live near me, nor work at Wizards anymore, it's been an unobtainable goal. Thus, he seemed like a great guest for my at-home edition where I could call him on the phone. Richard and I talk about the design of Alpha.

#736: Matt Place, Part 2

April 30, 2020 14:05 - 29 minutes - 20 MB

Matt Place had so much to say, we had to do a second podcast.

#735: Matt Place, Part 1

April 30, 2020 14:00 - 30 minutes - 20.9 MB

In this podcast, I interview Matt Place, a former pro player and Magic R&D member.

#734: Chris Mooney

April 24, 2020 14:05 - 32 minutes - 22.6 MB

I also interview Chris who is another GDS3 alum and another person I work closely with on the Vision Design team. As with Ari, we talk about what it's like being a Magic player from the outside who became an insider.

#733: Ari Nieh

April 24, 2020 14:00 - 32 minutes - 22 MB

In another of my interview series, I interview Ari Nieh, winner of the Great Designer Search 3 and someone I work closely with on the Vision Design team. We talk about his early days of Magic, GDS3, and what it's like to work in R&D.

#732: Annie Sardelis

April 17, 2020 14:05 - 30 minutes - 20.8 MB

In this podcast, I'm interviewing Annie Sardelis, one of the members of the Creative team.

#731: Aaron Forsythe

April 17, 2020 14:00 - 30 minutes - 20.9 MB

In this podcast, I'm interviewing my boss and longtime Magic collaborator, Aaron Forsythe.

#730: Michael Ryan, Part 2

April 10, 2020 14:05 - 35 minutes - 24.5 MB

This podcast is part 2 of my interview with Michael Ryan. We continue talking about the making of the Weatherlight Saga.

#729: Michael Ryan, Part 1

April 10, 2020 14:00 - 32 minutes - 22.3 MB

I've started recording "Drive to Work" from home due to the pandemic, so I decided to use the opportunity to do something that's hard to do in the car, interview people over the phone. This podcast is part one of a talk I have with Michael Ryan, my fellow co-creator of the Weatherlight Saga. We talk about how we made the story, including many of the characters.

#728: Theros Beyond Death Cards, Part 5

April 03, 2020 14:05 - 31 minutes - 21.5 MB

This is the fifth part of a series (of five) of card-by-card design stories from Theros Beyond Death.

#727: Theros Beyond Death Cards, Part 4

April 03, 2020 14:00 - 29 minutes - 20.2 MB

This is the fourth part of a series (of five) of card-by-card design stories from Theros Beyond Death.

#726: Blue-Red

March 27, 2020 14:05 - 36 minutes - 25.3 MB

This is another podcast in my two-color philosophy series. This time, I talk blue-red.

#725: Theros Beyond Death Cards, Part 3

March 27, 2020 14:00 - 31 minutes - 22 MB

This is the third part of a series (of five) of card-by-card design stories from Theros Beyond Death.

#724: Theros Beyond Death Cards, Part 2

March 20, 2020 14:05 - 40 minutes - 28 MB

This is the second part of a series (of five) of card-by-card design stories from Theros Beyond Death.

#723: Theros Beyond Death Cards, Part 1

March 20, 2020 14:00 - 47 minutes - 32.8 MB

This is the first part of a series (of five) of card-by-card design stories from Theros Beyond Death.

#722: Top 10 Blocks

March 13, 2020 14:05 - 33 minutes - 22.9 MB

In this podcast, I talk about what I consider to be my top 10 Magic blocks.

#721: White-Black

March 13, 2020 14:00 - 39 minutes - 27.4 MB

This podcast is another in my two-color philosophy series. This time, I start talking about my first enemy color pair, white-black.

#720: What Was in Alpha

March 06, 2020 14:05 - 34 minutes - 23.8 MB

This is another trivia podcast. I ask about elements of Magic and see if you can identify whether it was part of Magic at the start of the game back in Alpha.

#719: Broadwaycon 2020

March 06, 2020 14:00 - 40 minutes - 28.2 MB

My eldest daughter and I traveled to New York City to attend Broadwaycon. This podcast talks all about it and how it made me rethink how I do Magic design.

#718: Green-White

February 28, 2020 14:05 - 49 minutes - 34 MB

This is part five in my ten-part series on two-color philosophies. In this podcast, I talk about green-white.

#717: Making Un- Cards

February 28, 2020 14:00 - 54 minutes - 37.2 MB

In this podcast, I talk about the challenges of making silver-bordered cards.

#716: Unsanctioned, Part 2

February 21, 2020 14:05 - 44 minutes - 30.3 MB

This is part two of a two-part series on the design of Unsanctioned. In it, I walk through the designs of all sixteen of the new cards.

#715: Unsanctioned, Part 1

February 21, 2020 14:00 - 49 minutes - 33.7 MB

This is part one of a two-part series on the design of Unsanctioned. In it, I walk through the designs of all sixteen of the new cards.

#714: Red-Green

February 14, 2020 14:05 - 50 minutes - 34.4 MB

This podcast is another in my two-color philosophy series.

#713: Head-to-Head – Commander, Part 2

February 14, 2020 14:00 - 33 minutes - 23 MB

This podcast is part two of a two-part series on a Head-to-Head I did on Twitter about possible changes to the Commander format.

#712: Theros Beyond Death

February 07, 2020 14:05 - 37 minutes - 25.7 MB

In this podcast, I talk about the design of Theros Beyond Death.

#711: Head-to-Head – Commander, Part 1

February 07, 2020 14:00 - 43 minutes - 29.8 MB

This podcast is part one of a two-part series on a Head-to-Head I did on Twitter about possible changes to the Commander format.

#710: Success Paralysis

January 31, 2020 14:05 - 53 minutes - 36.8 MB

In this podcast, I talk about a phenomenon known as success paralysis where being successful can discourage you from embracing change.

#709: Black-Red

January 31, 2020 14:00 - 35 minutes - 24.4 MB

This is another in my two-color philosophy series. This time I talk black-red.

#708: Tempest Cards, Part 4

January 24, 2020 14:05 - 43 minutes - 30.1 MB

This is part four of a four-part series of card-by-card design stories from Tempest.

#707: Tempest Cards, Part 3

January 24, 2020 14:00 - 42 minutes - 29.4 MB

This is part three of a four-part series of card-by-card design stories from Tempest.

#706: Blue-Black

January 17, 2020 14:05 - 38 minutes - 26.2 MB

This is the second, of ten, in my two-color philosophy series.

#705: Tempest Cards, Part 2

January 17, 2020 14:00 - 37 minutes - 25.4 MB

This is part two of a four-part series of card-by-card design stories from Tempest.

#704: Tempest Cards, Part 1

January 10, 2020 14:05 - 34 minutes - 23.4 MB

This is part one of a four-part series of card-by-card design stories from Tempest.

#703: Trivia – Top 50 Creature Types

January 10, 2020 14:00 - 39 minutes - 26.8 MB

What are the top 50 creature types in order of how often they show up on Magic cards? In this podcast, I give listeners clues for guessing as I go through the list.

#702: White-Blue

January 03, 2020 14:05 - 42 minutes - 29.1 MB

This is the first in a series on the two-color pairs. I begin by examining white-blue.

#701: Collecting

January 03, 2020 14:00 - 37 minutes - 25.6 MB

In this podcast, I talk about an aspect of Magic that's core to trading card games and can influence how we design sets—collecting.

#700: Plane Diversity

December 20, 2019 14:05 - 47 minutes - 32.5 MB

In this podcast, I talk about a popular topic from my blog about why Magic worlds aren't all as diverse as Dominaria.

#699: Maria & Meghan

December 20, 2019 14:00 - 39 minutes - 27 MB

This is my first podcast of a new series where I talk about various members of the Magic community that produce content. I'm going to start by talking about Maria and Meghan of the "Good Luck, High Five" podcast.

#698: Reusing Things

December 13, 2019 14:05 - 47 minutes - 32.3 MB

Part of Magic design is reusing things you've used before. This podcast talks all about when and how we reuse things in design.

#697: Planeswalker Evolutions

December 13, 2019 14:00 - 40 minutes - 27.5 MB

In this podcast, I talk about the many different ways we've evolved the planeswalker card type since its introduction.

#696: When to Change

December 06, 2019 14:05 - 52 minutes - 35.8 MB

This podcast talks about when you have to change what you're doing in a design. I give numerous examples of designs where we ended up making big changes.

#695: Core of Planes

December 06, 2019 14:00 - 36 minutes - 24.8 MB

In this podcast, I examine all of our major planes and talk about the most important part of the plane from a design and flavor perspective.

#694: Trivia – Top 50 Words

November 27, 2019 14:05 - 46 minutes - 31.9 MB

What are the 50 words that show up in the most Magic card titles? In this podcast, I go through that list and talk a bit about how we name cards.

#693: Food Cluster

November 27, 2019 14:00 - 42 minutes - 29 MB

I'm trying something new, what I'm calling a cluster podcast, where I pick a topic and talk about a whole bunch of little topics in that category. For my first cluster podcast, I have chosen to talk about food.