Recently at MagicCon: Chicago, I did a talk called "The 20 Best Mechanics of All Time," which you can watch here. This podcast covers part one of that talk.

#1116: Top 20 Mechanics, Part 1

In this podcast, I talk about my time at last weekend's MagicCon: Chicago.

#1115: MagicCon: Chicago

Ten years ago, I released a podcast on playtesting, but a lot has changed. In this podcast, I look at how we playtest today.

#1114: Playtesting in 2024

In this podcast, I talk about the importance of synergy in Magic design.

#1113: Synergy

We spend a long time designing sets, constantly improving on every aspect possible. But how and when do we decide to step away? In this podcast, I explore the subject of perfectionism.

#1112: Perfectionism

In this podcast, I talk about the basics of designing puzzles.

#1111: Puzzle Design

In this podcast, I look back at the advertising of the first ten years of Magic.

#1110: Early Advertising

In this podcast, I sit down with Andrew Brown, co-lead set designer on Murders at Karlov Manor, to talk about the making of the set.

#1109: Murders at Karlov Manor Set Design with Andrew Brown

In this podcast, I pay tribute to longtime Magic designer Erik Lauer who recently retired.

#1108: Erik Lauer

In this podcast, I sit down with designer and puzzle-builder extraordinaire Mark Gottlieb to talk about the making of the puzzles for Murders at Karlov Manor.

#1107: Murders at Karlov Manor Puzzles with Mark Gottlieb

In this podcast, I tell the design story of Murders at Karlov Manor.

#1106: Murders at Karlov Manor Design

In this podcast, I talk about many of the products we've introduced to help teach people how to play and walk through how our philosophy about it has changed over time.

#1105: History of Learn to Play

In this podcast, I define the R&D expression "strictly better," discuss its history, and talk about why it's a thing we have to care about.

#1104: Strictly Better

In this podcasts, I talk with Rules Manager Jess Dunks about how we go about making mechanics work that do things we've never done before.

#1103: Making Things with Jess Dunks

I talk a lot about all the changes cards go through early in design. In this podcast, I interview Play Designer Ben Weitz to talk about the types of changes the Play Design team makes to cards late in the process.

#1102: Play Design Changes with Ben Weitz

In this podcast, I go through the process from start to finish of designing a Universes Beyond set.

#1101: Designing Universes Beyond

Most of the time, we create the card design before we commission the art, but not always. In this podcast, I walk through when art comes before design and when we have to design to the art.

#1100: Designing to Art

In this podcast, I talk all about Magic's fourth expansion.

#1099: The Dark

This podcast is dedicated to mana cost. I talk about its history as well as the design space it offers designers.

#1098: Mana Cost

Sometimes it can take a while to get a particular idea to print. This podcast shares some stories of things that took a while to get out to the public.

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