Goal - Face Commander card which should be splashy and mechanically exciting. It must be all 3 colors of the deck, work with creature tokens, and be low mana cost to contrast against the other Commanders in the deck. Greyfax represents the Imperium of Man, so flavourfully capturing "seeking out Heresy" while being faithful to her Datasheet in the miniature wargame would be big wins. 

Design Story - Design Lead Ethan Fleischer had selected the characters to be the face cards, and I was delighted to create the flavor words (the words in italics) for this card and many others in 40K. These were very effective in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, so I advocated strongly for their use here.

Iterations - Keywords and two abilities is a good rule for max complexity on a single card, and as a splashy and exciting face Commander, I chose to push her up to that complexity ceiling. This meant a lot of iterating (about 20 versions!) to communicate her buffing her team as a leader, while also investigating heresy as a member of the Inquisition. Vigilance in particular works for both sides of this radical heresy-seeking coin.

Outcome - This card had many hats to wear, which was challenging to satisfactorily fulfill all those promises. Cards should generally "Tell a single story", but as a face Commander and known character from an existing IP, Greyfax (the card) can be a bit more multifaceted and complex, since Greyfax (the character) is. I'm proud of the outcome, and happy with the role she plays in the Warhammer 40,000 Commander Deck biodome.

Design Lead - Ethan Fleischer

Goal - Represent both flavorfully and mechanically the character Ryu from Street Fighter, a traditional martial artist who achieves greatness through intense training, and has an iconic "Hadoken" move broadly recognizable beyond just Street Fighter fans. 

Design Story - I made Ryu and Ken in tandem, as they had to be mirrors of each other. The thousands of hours I'd spent playing these characters casually and semi-professionally (hey, I made money!) compelled me to do them justice by expressing fighting game chracters as cards. The training keyword was in a future design file, and it was so perfect for Ryu I proposed bringing it forward. Before you create something, you need to know both how things got there, and where it's heading. Training is Ryu's ikigai, and it works nicely (slow and permanent) compared to Ken, Burning Brawler's Prowess (fast and brief).

Iterations - Once I landed on Training & Hadoken for Ryu, and Prowess and Shoryuken for Ken, their mirrored shape locked in pretty fast. I love the word "excess",  and Matt Hodgins proposed the untap symbol to represent the quarter circle input for a Hadoken which was genius, and the best part.

Outcome - While being a fairly complex card, Ryu has a decent shape and a good curve, learns from combat (by increasing power and drawing cards), and either he or Ken can win in a fight. But that's up to the player, just like at the arcade. I was thrilled to have been on the design team for an IP so important to me. I'm honored by the opportunity, and glad the Magic the Gathering audience loved the set too. 

Design Lead - Glenn Jones

Goal - Celebrate the four Customer Service Departments at WotC when we were recognized for the Heroes of the Realm award. HotR cards are made only for employees, and not "regular playing pieces of a commercial game" so we can bend the rules a bit more. They are more important to look at, than to play, being more akin to memorabilia.

Design Story - In Magic, Dragon and Angel are mutually exclusive card types, so creating a Dragon Angel was something fun we could only do here!  I'm always thinking about unique ways to present Commanders and the games they start in, so "upgrading" a nonlegendary creature was where I started (Let's go Shivan Dragon!). Sol was a unique case of employing both bottom-up design with mechanics (We need to represent all 4 CS teams) and top-down design with flavor (A Dragon Angel should support).

Iterations - The team could contribute ideas, which is when the Dragon Angel creature typing originated. I started with that, but leaned in the "4" theme to give the support ability shape, along with the "Teamwork" flavor word. A HotR card had never been full art before, so I inquired why. Turns out, just nobody had asked before. So I asked!

Outcome - This version was relatively elegant with only 2 line breaks and the "4" theme, and I'm proud of my backronym flavor text. No, it's not a cry for assistance, but just what the CS team does on a daily basis!

Design Lead - Ken Nagle

Pokémon TCG Live

• Role & Goal: I managed the event design, asset direction, quest creation, point-earning logic, marketing plan, and communication to drive DAU, and cosmetic adoption.

• Outcomes: Highest usage of Cosmetics to "vote" in PTCGL's lifetime, along with 3rd highest CTR for a marketing article in the game's history. Surprised and Delighted users with 2 sets of rewards, since Eevee won, but Umbreon was the highest rated "Eeveelution".

MTG Arena

• Role & Goal: I led redesign of MTG Arena's New Player Experience. Created Spark Rank, Starter Deck Duel, the Codex of the Multiverse, and rebalanced the Color Challenge to set players up for success in teaching them the world's most complex game through tutorials, gameplay, and incentives.

• Outcomes: Increased D1, D3, and D10 player retention, reduced churn, and allowed new players to more easily find their relationship with the game after bridging the gap between "new player" and "enfranchised fan".

Magic Online

• Role & Goal: As Business Lead for Magic Online, I designed or partnered with the community to design ~30 new events for player currency sinks. These celebrated new releases, as well as leveraging what the client does the best, while hitting internal goals and objectives and keeping player promises.

• Some Selected Outcomes:

  • Free Vintage Cube Holiday Entry: Drove seasonal engagement spikes, reactivated lapsed players, and converted free/novelty runs into repeat paid sessions while sustaining healthy queues between set releases.

  • Cube Spotlight Series: Variety-driven engagement and healthy player engagement between releases; stepped in as cube designer when needed to build/tune lists and keep cadence.

  • Treasure Chests: Better reward feel and economic stability. EV aligned to targets, smoother price signals, and sustainable entry/prize loops across formats.

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Playtesting