Alison Luhrs is a creative writer and worldbuilder for Magic The Gathering. She was also the creative lead for Baldur's Gate 3, and is currently the narrative director for Destiny 2. 0:00 Intro 1:00 Doing improv 6:49 Improv's learning curve, embracing failure 12:23 Connecting with the audience 15:37 "Book Club" 19:21 Getting into the games industry 21:46 Career at Wizards of the Coast 24:25 Ixalan 25:38 Magic storytelling evolution 29:27 Writing the Thunder Junction epilogues 32:29 Why Alison left her name off the Ixalan stories 38:12 Subverting expectations 39:50 Research and writing frameworks 43:23 Magic storyline starter kit 46:13 Collaborative writing with friends 49:30 Advice for folks entering the games industry 54:56 Living through the COVID era 56:53 "Badass wilderness woman" (and "Lost" commentary) 1:03:25 Alison's friendship philosophy 1:10:11 Legendary Kaladesh PAX improv event 1:13:15 Being the Baldur's Gate 3 creative lead 1:21:54 Lightning round Q&A Patreon: patreon.com/humansofmagic

Andrea Mengucci is a Magic The Gathering content creator and player. 0:00 Intro 1:27 Interview start 3:14 Content evolution, new YouTube channel, logistics 8:32 Connecting with audience, making it fun 13:02 Magic content innovation 16:29 Why Mengu isn't making Commander content 17:56 Modern format bans 20:35 Tournament and Pro Tour mindset 23:00 COVID changed EVERYTHING 26:04 The REAL life of a top Magic content creator 35:38 Surrounding oneself with strong players 38:01 Competitive Magic is in a weird place 39:02 CovertGoBlue's big impact on Mengu 43:31 "I have a bad relationship with Magic Arena" 49:21 The Karnies podcast 54:36 Content creator vs. pro player lifestyle 1:01:12 Mengu's legacy Patreon: patreon.com/humansofmagic

Victor Adame Minguez is an artist and illustrator for Magic The Gathering. Victor's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/victoradameart/ 0:00 Intro 1:00 Beginning of Victor's creative journey 5:53 Making art a viable career 6:38 Artistic ability vs. practice 9:30 "I don't have any other skills" 15:32 Magic art guidelines 17:06 Advice for aspiring Magic illustrators? 20:18 The Grist that sold for $35K 26:09 Early days of working with Wizards of the Coast 29:05 Moving from digital art to oil paintings 35:42 Experiencing creative burnout 41:45 Developing the grind mindset 44:44 How Victor met his wife, Carley Hart 50:17 Magic artist celebrity 57:50 Magic Con Chicago 1:02:39 Fun fact about Victor (that nobody knows about) 1:06:39 Favorite illustration / favorite artists 1:10:23 Value of original paintings 1:12:19 Illustrating for different card rarities 1:14:41 Victor's new passion project Patreon: patreon.com/humansofmagic

Evart "Aspiringspike" Moughon is a Magic player and streamer. He is best known for his deckbuilding innovations in the Modern format. 0:00 Intro 0:50 Streaming Dark Souls 6:02 Personal off-stream projects 7:58 Value of effective practice 13:45 Viewership drop when variety streaming 15:53 Deckbuilding process 23:17 Innovating (and breaking) the Modern format 27:50 The Crokeyz tweet 31:30 Right place, right time 36:01 Talking about success 37:42 What Spike learned from Kai Budde and Reid Duke 46:59 Level-up - Pro Tour deck selection process 53:01 Questioning assumptions, intuitive learning, stream feedback 58:28 On expressing negative emotions on-stream 1:01:55 Working on the Lord of the Rings set 1:15:34 Making a tabletop RPG with TCG elements 1:19:12 Boundaries of creative output and personal life 1:22:06 Five questions with Aspiringspike (lightning Q&A) Patreon: patreon.com/humansofmagic

Javier Dominguez is a Magic pro player from Spain. He won the 2018 Magic World Championship. 0:00 Intro 1:24 The language of Magic 3:43 Repeatable decision-making 5:23 Leveraging poker skills, studying the game 10:20 Frustrations 12:49 Being competitive vs. having fun 16:46 Choosing Magic over poker (and Hearthstone) 24:57 Was the old Magic Pro Tour ACTUALLY good? 34:42 The love of the game 37:42 Nature of competitive games 42:43 How Javier wants to be remembered 43:15 Becoming World Champion - did Javier change? 49:40 Preparing for Worlds (work-life-happiness balance) 59:33 Javier's climb to greatness 1:01:49 Hitting a ceiling and starting over 1:05:54 "You can be wrong" - a healthy approach to doubt 1:08:16 Goals and process for 2024 1:10:31 Lightning round Q&A Patreon: patreon.com/humansofmagic

Foil Bug is committed to serving the MTG community by sharing shiny content, creating premium merch, and guiding players to amazing stores around the world. 0:00 Intro 1:16 What is FOIL BUG? 3:55 Spicerack.gg integration 5:22 Split player bases across two stores 10:31 How the FOIL BUG Store Locator helps new players 12:47 FOIL BUG content for foreign language cards 17:32 James loves German language cards 18:54 Helping players track down hard-to-find cards 24:03 Features - today vs. future 28:22 Shout-out to folks who helped along the way 32:42 Entrepreneurial challenges - and how to overcome them 44:01 Giving it your all 51:38 How to join the FOIL BUG movement Patreon: patreon.com/humansofmagic

Kyle and Terren Huck are the owners of Apex Gaming, a Magic The Gathering card shop and tournament organizer in Caldwell, Ohio. The Apex Gaming documentary is now on the Humans of Magic YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@humansofmagic 00:00 Intro 01:49 Kickoff 02:35 Kyle and Terren self-intros 03:48 Apex origin story 07:39 Apex business principles 11:07 Starting a Magic business - managing risk 13:18 Attracting a player base - local & otherwise 17:03 Working with WOTC for WPN Premium store status 20:56 Working on getting Pro Tour invites from WOTC 23:42 The wonderful world of Magic retail 30:33 Any recent customer trends for Magic product? 33:47 Impact of Lord of the Rings, Dr. Who and Universes Beyond 39:36 The craziest Magic purchase...by an employee 42:21 Make the customer experience great 45:26 Carrying Magic product vs. other games 47:39 Lorcana - why it's worth paying attention to 50:37 How Apex started streaming tournaments 54:39 Key focus areas for a solid streaming production 58:02 Tournament storylines & stakes 1:05:10 Deck techs and supporting content 1:07:18 Vision for what's next Patreon: patreon.com/humansofmagic

Mason Clark is a Magic pro player and coach. Show notes: humansofmagic.com/ Patreon: patreon.com/humansofmagic

Vincent "Deathsie" Chu is a Magic The Gathering Twitch streamer specializing in the Limited format. Sorry gang, the audio quality wasn't great in this one! We recorded it on a whim with ONE microphone on my table :( Have tried to fix and clean it up, but that's the best I could do. Hope you'll still give it a go, because the conversation was GREAT. Thanks for understanding! Show notes: humansofmagic.com/ Patreon: patreon.com/humansofmagic

Ryan "Tronisbad" Nicholas is an Asian-American Magic content creator from New Jersey, USA. Show notes: humansofmagic.com/ Patreon: patreon.com/humansofmagic

Piotr "kanister" Glogowski is a Magic pro and streamer from Poland. Show notes: humansofmagic.com/ Patreon: patreon.com/humansofmagic