If there’s one thing you have to give Magic: The Gathering credit for, it’s for always trying something new. Over its three decade lifespan, Wizards has taken the game in all manner of directions. Some of these experiments have worked out nicely, Universes Beyond being the biggest recent example. Others, not so much. The ‘You Make the Card’ event was once a regular fixture in the world of MTG, for example, but we haven’t seen it return for 11 years. according to Head Designer Mark Rosewater, it’s likely to stay that way, too.
In a recent Blogatog post, Rosewater responded to a question about the event with skepticism. For those who enjoyed the event, and the cards that resulted from it, this is a crying shame. All is not lost, however: Rosewater’s response also leaves the door open for a possible revisit in the future, perhaps under a fresh coat of paint for the modern era.
MaRo Speaks On ‘You Make The Card’ MTG
“fehtc: Hey Mark! How likely are we to see community design a card again?
“Mark Rosewater: “You Make the Card” was a huge amount of work on our end, and it didn’t seem to do much from a marketing perspective, so I’m skeptical that it will be redone. Possibly there will be another way it could happen.”
Via Blogatog
For Magic: The Gathering players who joined the game more recently, this post raises more questions than it answers. It’s been over a decade since the last time we saw the ‘You Make the Card’ event in MTG, after all.
For a while, this was a regular event. From 2002-2005 Wizards invited players to submit ideas via its website, which were then collated and eventually formed full card designs. 2002’s event led to the creation of Forgotten Ancient, 2003’s to Crucible of Worlds, and 2005’s to Vanish into Memory. A revamped version of the event also took place in 2013, leading to the creation of Waste Not.
Unfortunately, we haven’t heard a peep out of ‘You Make the Card’ since. As Rosewater explains above, in short, the event demanded a lot of work for very little return. The event being a lot of work on Wizards’ end makes total sense. Figuring out a way to process player input into cohesive card design sounds like a mythical feat on paper, never mind in practice.
As for the return, again this makes sense. While community design is exciting for enfranchised players, the average player likely doesn’t care much at all where their cards come from. It’s an initiative that targets a small subset of players, and as such it doesn’t have the kind of widespread reach needed to really sell cards and sets.
Based on these two points, Rosewater’s skepticism about the event returning feels fairly justified. The fact that it’s been absent for 11 years and there hasn’t been much demand for another iteration hammers this home further.
Adapt And Survive
That said, I think it would be a tragedy if MTG never saw ‘You Make the Card,’ or some variant of it, again. For one thing, the event produced some pretty great card designs. While Vanish into Memory has, aptly enough, done exactly that, the others are all notable in their own ways.
Forgotten Ancient is a classic green scaling creature, beloved at the time and still relevant in counter-based Commander decks today. Crucible of Worlds is a true multi-format all-star, showing up everywhere from Modern to Legacy and even Vintage. Waste Not isn’t quite that good, but it did establish its own Pioneer deck. For a time, this was one of the best decks in the entire format.
The community designs are pretty great, in other words. It would be a crying shame if we never saw players get a shot at crafting one of these again. It would also be unfortunate to see ‘You Make the Card’ cancelled completely because of how good the last iteration of it was.
Beyond Waste Not, which used the traditional community design paradigm, Magic 2015 also expanded ‘You Make the Card’ by involving a number of guest designers. These were generally famous game designers, such as Minecraft’s Notch or George Fan of Plants Vs. Zombies. Their designs all reflected their own work and games, while still decidedly feeling like part of Magic: The Gathering.
The result? Magic 2015 ended up having a very unique vibe. With 15 total guest designs in the set alongside the community design, it felt like a real coming together moment for fans of Magic. This idea, of celebrating MTG for what it is with cards that appeal to deeply enfranchised fans, is something we could use now more than ever in the age of Universes Beyond.
Limitless Potential
Thankfully, the door isn’t totally closed on ‘You Make the Card’ for MTG just yet. In Rosewater’s response above, he notes that “Possibly there will be another way it could happen.” While this is hardly definitive, it does imply that it could return at some point in the future. With how much has changed since 2014, there are a number of new directions it could take too.
“Social media really opens doors for things like this, though I’m not sure that makes it less work for WotC or more satisfying for us when we see the output.”
yuleooze
Yuleooze makes a great point here. While Magic: The Gathering has always had a strong social element, its online presence has never been bigger than it is now. An event that asks for community input on card design would almost certainly draw a bigger crowd now than it did back in 2014. With the advent of streaming, it could also be much smoother to run.
Instead of a series of forms, Wizards could host a kind of card design live stream. This would give players a peek behind the curtain at what goes into the making of a card, as well as the opportunity to provide live input and guide the design. While still logistically challenging, something like this would probably be a lot less hassle than the multi-stage forms of the past.
Another factor in the event’s favor is the prevalence of Magic personalities these days. There are more MTG streamers and YouTubers than you can shake a Beamtown Beatstick at, most of whom would jump at the chance to help design a card. Enlisting the help of these community figures could create a multi-week schedule of streaming content.
Of course, these are merely possibilities. Whether Wizards decides to revisit ‘You Make the Card’ down the line remains to be seen.
