Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #1134: Alphabet

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

In this podcast, I talk about how R&D uses the alphabet to design Magic cards. I walk through the alphabet, explaining how we use each letter.

I'm pulling my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for drive to work Okay, so I drive to work four times a week and I only need to produce two podcasts a week So sometimes I'll rerecord things. I'll try to different temps of the same thing to find the best version Sometimes I just try Quirky topics and if it pans out I put it up if it doesn't I don't so this is one of try quirky topics and if it pans out, I put it up. If it doesn't, I don't. So this is one of those quirky topics. I don't know whether you guys will ever hear this,

but I'm recording it, I hope you do. Well, I mean, if you're hearing this, obviously I put it up, so. Anyway, so today's topic is the alphabet. Okay, so the English alphabet has 26 letters. We in Making Magic use a lot of letters for codes for things. We have not used all 26 letters yet, but we use a vast majority of them. So today I'm going to walk through the alphabet and talk about how we use each letter. Now first off let me get into a

little background on one of the major things. So card codes. So when we make a magic set we have to make a file and then it's important when we make our file that each slot sort of is designated. Now, cards can change. So the idea that any particular card, that could change as we do design. But the slot is sort of locked in. And so we have codes that we use, our card codes, that sort of say, and it's so that when we're talking

about something, because names can change, mechanics can change, you know, we wanna make that when we're talking about something, because names can change, mechanics can change, you know, we want to make sure when we're communicating to people downstream that we're all talking about the same sort of slot in the file. So in order to have that slot, there are, there's a code that goes with it. And the way the code works is there is the rarity, then there is the frame, and then there is a number. It starts at 01 and goes as high as we need. But for example, we go in what we call a Wuberg order,

white, blue, black, red, green. So the very first thing in the file, if there aren't colorless things, although artifacts, interestingly, colorless stuff goes front, artifacts that are candy colorless things, although artifacts, interestingly, colorless stuff goes front, artifacts that are candy colorless go at the back, a quirky system. But normally the first card in the file is CW01, which stands for common white 01. Anyway, I explain card codes because a bunch of the letters I'm doing today are card codes.

For example, first up is A. So we can play a little game. If you think you know R&D well enough, before I tell you what the letter is, you can see if you can guess what the letter is. I gave you a little clue in this one because I talked about card codes. So A is part of our card code for artifact.

Not every card type has its own card code. For example, enchantments don't. The reason that artifacts do is that artifacts has its own frame. In the card code, when I say CW01, C stands for common, W stands for white. What we really mean for white is not just

that it's a white card, is that it's a white frame. That the card code is sort of telling us what frame it needs. And as we'll see today, we get into some exceptions and there's, the card codes don't always tell you all the information about the frame, but they at least give you a hint at the frame. So A is for artifacts, artifacts is its own frame because it, I mean, artifacts gets its own letter because it's

its own frame. Now, interestingly, when Magic first started back in Alpha, there was one artifact frame, or sorry, two artifact frames technically. There was a artifact creature frame and a non-artifact creature frame. The artifact creature would have a power toughness in it, where the non-artifact creature would not. But when Magic first started, all artifacts had generic costs and were colorless. We over the years have learned that artifacts get pretty dangerous if any deck can play

them, and so we've started doing more colored mana. Colored mana, so the interesting thing about colored mana is when we make our card codes, if I make, let's say a blue card that's also an artifact that doesn't go in the artifact frame, I mean, it doesn't, we don't list it with an A, we list it with a U, with a blue. And the reason for that is the blueness is more important than the artifactness.

But if you're a blue artifact card, you do have a blue artifact frame. So there still is an artifact frame, but right now A, sort of in the way we use it for cardcode purposes means a colorless artifact. For some reason, I do not know why, we have an order to our files which is white, blue, black, red, green. If you take the first letter as we use it in the card codes, we call it WooBurn. Interestingly if we make a colorless card that is true colorless but not an artifact, it is the beginning of the file. And if we have something that's a colorless but an artifact, that's at the end of the file and if we have something that's a colorless

button artifact that's at the end of the file so a quick system. Okay next up is B what does B stand for? B is for black so we use it in two ways one is the card code for black is B the second is is if we want to talk about black mana, either the cost is black mana, the activation is black mana, it's producing black mana. Whenever we want to make a black mana symbol and we're writing it out, we use B.

So B is both the card code for black and black mana. So if we need to use that, we use B. Now in printing, I told the story infinite times but I guess I should tell it while I'm talking about letters, in printing usually B represents blue and black is a K. So if you've ever seen printing colors, Richard did not know this when he made the original Magic Set. And when he was making the original cards, the reason that we have letters for mana symbols is we don't have the means to make the mana symbols on a keyboard. So when we're making files, we need something that takes the place of mana and that's why we're using letters. Because Richard did not know that K is black in printing, he didn't know that convention,

he said okay well obviously other than blue and black the other colors have a unique letter, white could be W, red could be R, green could be G, but blue and black both started with B. So he went to the second letter. The second letter for both blue and black is L. We use L for land, which I will get to. The third for blue was U and for black was A. A is artifacts. So essentially blue ended up being U

because that was the first letter not used or blue had a letter not used faster than black did so we used B for black and U for blue that's how that came to be okay next is C um so C has two uses in a card code it is for common I type like CW01, that means common white. So we use it in a card code for common. Or if I'm ever shorthanding, like let's say for example, I'm figuring out our sheets or something and I wanna talk about how many commons are on the set.

I'll shorthand, whenever I wanna shorthand common, I will use C for common. Also, C is colorless mana. For example, if I have a soul ring, it taps for C, C. C is equivalent to what the diamond in a circle symbol is, the colorless mana. Now it used to be back in the day that we would use C to represent a colored mana. The reason that might, let's say you're making a cycle and like, oh, I want a tight cycle. So I want all of them to be two C, which would mean two and the correct color mana.

White would be two W, blue be two U, black be two B. Once oath of gate watch came along and colorless became its own manna symbol we ended up deciding that C would be the colorless manna symbol. So the term that we use for any color would get moved. I'll talk about that when we get there. But anyway, C is for common and colorless. D, so far there is no D. One day we will use D but there's not been used. E, E is the code for energy. So when we made energy in Kaladesh, actually energy originally got made in original Mirrodin. There was too much stuff, I had to take it out. It took me 13 years to find a home for it. But even back in the original Mirrodin, we liked the idea that it produced a counter. And so we needed

a way to represent that counter. And we knew we wanted to be a symbol. We knew we wanted to, I mean, it wasn't, it was a symbol that generated a counter, but we knew we wanted to do that. It was energy. So we did E. Sometimes when you need to represent something, the letter is open. In that particular case, E was open, so we could use E. As you will see with some other letters, sometimes the letter isn't open, and we have to end up using a different letter. Okay, next up is F. F does not have anything yet. That's, it's funny, when I was making this list, I

was, a lot of this was from memory. So I was going through like, okay, is D anything? Is F anything? So, um, it is quite possible that I forgot one or two things. I, I didn't forget the major stuff, but, um, okay, next is G. G is green. Um, might wonder by the way I'll try to answer individual questions as we go along the way. When we talk about Wohlberg which is white, blue, black, red, green, why is it in that order? Well it's following the colors around the color wheel. Why did Richard start with white? That I don't know. I mean I think white might be at the top of the Magic Card. So you stop with the color at the top and then go clockwise around. My guess is that's

why it happened. One of the side effects of working in Wuburg is oftentimes you do a file pass. You start at the beginning, which means you start at white. And so you're always fresh looking at white. And the time you get to green, that's when you're tired by the time you get to green. So some set designers sometimes when they do passes, won't start in the same place. Just so different parts get as much focus. Okay, next up is H. H stands for hybrid mana. So basically what happens is, sometimes we're talking about if you actually write out a

hybrid mana, for example, let's say I have a white blue hybrid mana, the way we actually write it out in a card file, in a cost would be parentheses lowercase like W, backslash, lowercase second color, U U for blue and then parentheses. So whenever we write it out in any document that's how we represent a hybrid mana and that represents it tells you which of the like each hybrid mana has its own representation so I can look and go oh this is blue is blue, black hybrid mana. Oh, this is red, green hybrid mana. But sometimes, for example, when you're talking about a cycle, you might want to talk about hybrid mana in the,

much like a colored mana. Hybrid mana just, let's say, for example, I'm doing a cycle and I want the whole cycle to be too generic and then too hybrid mana. I would write 2HH to be representative of that's how the cycle is going to work. H represents any hybrid mana. Not specific hybrid mana, because we actually have code for that, which is a little longer.

But H is just used for any hybrid mana. Okay, I, J, and K do not have letters. Although, interestingly, I just tried something in a brand new set that didn't work out, but I did use K. We were messing with a new mana symbol, which didn't, it didn't work out. We're not doing it, but I was using K.

Interestingly, not because it started with K, I just, what I would need to start with was already taken, and K was the closest thing that made sense. Not that it made a lot of sense, but it made some sense in my fever brain. Okay, next we get to L. L is for land.

Once again, that means in a card code, land is its own card frame. Often land also is on its own sheet, like basic lands. These days there always is a basic land sheet. Sometimes we'll put other lands on the basic land sheet. If there's a land, the land sheets from the land slot. Sometimes that land slot is just basic lands. Sometimes it is some basic lands and some non-basic lands.

But anyway, we use L for land. Okay M. Okay. So M has two different meanings. One is its card code meaning and one is its outside of card codes. In card codes, M is for mythic rare. So one of the great questions about is talking about how many rarities are there? I just got the land. Let me explain land is a quirky one Land is not just a frame, but it can also be a rarity for example LL01 means land rarity land

Frame the reason there's land rarity is let's say we do a basic land sheet. The basic land sheet is not, it's more common than common. So we can't put a C on that. In the early days we did, in the early days we just would call lands common, but then it caused some confusion only because what it meant is different than what other common things meant. So we change it to land rarity. So when people talk about how many rarities are there, it's very funny that there's four basic rarities as far as what we put on the card, which is there is common, uncommon,

rare, mythic rare. But there are other rarities, some of which I'll be getting to land is one of them. I have other letters coming up that are other rarities, some of which I'll be getting to. Land is one of them. I have other letters coming up that are other rarities though. Okay, another reason we use M is kind of what I talked about C, but we moved it to M. Meaning I want to represent colored mana. There's two ways we'll do this. One is we're making a cycle or something and like, oh, well every kind of cycle is 2M, which would mean 2N and the appropriate colored mana.

The other place we use M is, let's say I'm making a file, an early design, and I know it's supposed to be colored mana, but I'm not quite sure of what the cost is. I will use M to just mean colored, it has a colored mana activation cost. I don't know what it is yet. So sometimes if I don't know,

M just stands in for this will be colored mana, which gets us to N. N has two functions. One is whenever we have a number that we don't know the number for, N can stand for number. So let's say for example, I have an activation and I don't know what the cost is, but I know

it doesn't have colored mana in it. I could use N there. Sometimes let's say I want to tap up to N creatures. I'm not sure what N is supposed to be. N means number I will fill in later. So we use N sometimes when we're making something that we don't know the number yet. Oftentimes what happens is we're designing a card. Look, I need to talk to a play designer, someone to understand the balance.

So I'll just put N in to say, well, some number we'll figure out the right number. N can also be when we're talking about any colored mana. Let's say for example, we have a cycle. Now let's say we have a cycle that's a multicolored cycle and it's too generic and then one of each color We will use M and N So that cycles to MN and means any color mana and means a second color mana That's not the first color mana to M M would be oh It's a cycle in which it's too generic and two of the same color to MN would mean it's two different colors

and too generic and two of the same color. Two MN would mean it's two different colors. And a lot of this stuff might sound like how often do you need this? So a surprising amount of time. For example, when you're working in a multicolor set, it comes up quite a bit. Okay, next is O. O can mean a third color. If we're making a generic cycle that's three colors,

it would be M and O. Also, another quirky thing, if you've ever seen, sometimes I'll post cards out of our database. I do card-by-card stories, I'll show you how the card evolved over time. Sometimes what you'll see is, you'll see the mana symbol, like you'll see a W for example, and before or after it are small O's. And so it looks like, like not like an uppercase, but like a lowercase o, lowercase o, W lowercase o. What that means is when we have to tell our printer what to print, the technical symbol to say white mana symbol

has the little circles before and after that's sort of showing, oh, it's the white in a circle. The reason we need that code is there's a lot of reasons why a capitalized W might appear in a file. We have words that start with W. Well, we don't want, and early magic had this problem. If you ever saw alpha, some of the miss prints in alpha have letters that are supposed to

just be in words being man assembled. So the fix for that, the actual technical fix is I'm not sure what they're called, but the little brackets, not parentheses, but the brackets. Left side bracket, small o letter, small o right side bracket is how we technically write a mana symbol so that the computer that's printing things knows that that is a mana symbol and not, for example, you know, we don't, if I'm saying that whenever the, that whenever, the first letter of whenever is a capital W, I don't want that to come out as a white mana symbol. One of the funny things is that when we,

we have a tool to play digitally. When we play, sometimes the way that thing parses, it will turn capital letters into mana symbols because it's not as sophisticated as our printing thing Okay next up P P is used for for x in mana Now we use that in two different ways one is that

Well, I mean it's for x mana if we want to say I'm using Phyrexian mana and I don't know what it's going to be, oh it's a cycle but they're all going to be two and a Phyrexian mana, we would say 2p. When actually writing out Phyrexian mana, it's similar to the way we write out hybrid mana. It is lowercase letter slash but lowercase p that's how we said so if I want to go white frex in mana it would be lowercase W slash lowercase p and if we were going to write that in our thing so it could be parsed by the computer to print it it would be left side bracket small o lowercase W backslash lowercase P small o right side bracket

anyway all the all the codes okay next is Q okay so in Shadowmore we use the untapped symbol the untapped symbol basically is like a tap symbol, but in order to act to use it as a cost, you have to have a tapped card and untapped it. So that meant you either had to attack with it or by some other means tap it. We didn't, I didn't want to use you because you is used for blue and for uncommon. So we just needed another symbol We just picked a symbol that existed. I don't remember why we picked Q It was something and maybe because it looked a little bit like a tap symbol, maybe I don't know Whenever we have to pick a new symbol

We just look at the ones that haven't been picked yet and then pick the one we think that logically makes the most sense. The other thing about Q was, Q was very unlikely to be something we would need. Like a word starting with Q is as much less so. Okay, next is R. R means two things.

It is a rarity of rare for card codes and it is the color of red for mana symbols and card codes. So for example if you saw RR01 that means red rare 01 in a card code. And once again we also use for all mana symbols if a card costs you know two know, too generic in a red mana, then it's two R's, how we write it out. Okay, next is S. Here's another one of those rarities you might not know exists. So we have common, we have uncommon, we have rare, we have mythic rare, we have land. We also have special. A good example of special might be TimeSpiral had a bonus sheet and it had its own rarity on it. What is that rarity?

Well, special represents some quirky case that's not one of the main ones. We use the land rarity enough that it gets its own thing. But special is kind of like, well, it's not one of the normal rarities. And instead of making up a new one for every time we have one that's different, we just have S for special. So if you see in that card code, if you see S that just means, okay, this is not one of the normal ones. It's something a little different.

You have to go figure out what it is. Okay. Next is T. T has two functionalities. One is the tap symbol. In fact, it's one of the few symbols that once upon a time literally was on the card. There was a small period of time where a tap symbol was a T.

It was like a T in a circle, but it did exist as actual letter on a card. The reason we moved away from T is we started printing in other languages and the word tap does not start with a T because not every language even has a T. So that's when we moved to the little arrow, the little curved arrow.

Well, first we had a card that was like slightly askew and then we had the current one, which is sort of an arrow that shows you the direction that it turns or can turn, I guess. T also, there is one other rarity. I guess if I asked you how many possible rarities there are, you might not have guessed seven. So we have common, uncommon rare and mythic rare.

We have lands, we have special. We also have token. So let's say we're making tokens for a token sheet or something. We want tokens have their own frame. So we want to represent the token frame. Token frame is T. So in a card code, if you saw a T, that represents that it's a token. Next up, U. So U again has two functions. One is uncommon for rarity and the other is blue. It's our blue symbol like I explained earlier. It is the odd one when you first start playing magic and start seeing like R&D speak. U for blue is the weird one in that like you have someone has to explain it to you.

It's very I mean you might figure out from context guess, but it's very hard to figure out. T is tap is not that hard to figure out. I mean, Q for untap is hard to figure out, but blue is the thing that most throws people when they first start learning. V is nothing. W, so W is white, obviously, at the beginning of a Wuburg. Okay, then we get to X. X has two different uses.

One is in card codes for split cards, we use X. So if you saw CX01 or UX01, I don't know if they're common split cards. We have common split cards, I guess. So if you saw a UX01, that means it's the uncommon split card. It's the first split card. The other reason we use X, and this one is actually literally on cards, is variables. If there's a variable in the game, the most common place you'll see it is in costs. So a cost might be X in blue or X in X.

That means it's generic, you can pay as much as you want, and then something in the card cares about that variable. Usually there's an effect that cares. Sometimes you use X within effects. You know, when Cardam enters, tap X creatures where X is, X can be a variable there as well. I think there was a short tiny blip of time where X was used in power toughness, but it was used very, very briefly. Mostly stars are usually what's used now for variables in power toughness Next is Y

So Y is used as a second variable Now Y has appeared on cards a couple times I think there's like a handful of cards Fireball one of the versions of Fireball used XY and its cost There's a card. there's actually a card in unglued that uses XY and Z because it's the official nightmare of Wizard of the Coast customer service where I just try to make a card as confusing as possible. We have used Y a couple times. There was a card that gave a creature plus X plus Y where X was the power and Y was the toughness that Ken Nagel made. Anyway, we use

Y every once in a while. Sometimes we'll use it when we're talking about cards. Sometimes we'll write X and Y because we're trying to explain the variable. Let's say for example I'm trying to do something and I don't know how to explain the second variable. Sometimes when I write it out I'll use Y. Knowing that we don't tend to... What we've learned is X is one of the more confusing things we put on cards. Variables confuse people.

Back when customer service was like... Customer service used to track all the questions they get and X as a variable was really high. We try not, for example, to put X at common when we can help it. We just know that X as a variable is confusing. Y as a second variable, if you think X as a variable is confusing, Y as a second variable is mighty confusing. The only time we ever use Y these days is there literally isn't a way to write it without Y, but that's such a tiny percentage of the time we often don't need it. But when I'm sometimes on designing cards, Y, I mean, R and D has no problem with X and Y. So if I'm sometimes when I'm designing cards why I mean

R&D has no problem with X&Y so if I'm just trying to shorthand I am aware that when I use Y usually it won't end up a Y on the card Okay, the final we get to Z. What does Z mean? Z and I don't know how this came about Z is used for multicolor So for example, let's say I'm making a card that's more than one color. The card code for it, let's say I'm making a common multicolor card, would be CZ01, CZ02. The weird thing about multicolor is even though, well I think what happened was when we first made a multicolor frame, it was the same frame for everything, meaning it was just a gold frame. Eventually what happened was we realized it was hard to tell what colors it was.

So the funny story is a bunch of us, I think I spearheaded it, was trying to change two color cards instead of having the gold frame to have half was one color half was the other color we actually mocked it up we pitched it the decision was gold was popular enough not to change it so we ended up putting pin lines on the card so you could tell the difference so a red green card would have a red pin line and green pin line those frames we made that were half and half when I made hybrid mana I remembered Hybrid Mana, I remembered those frames and I said, hey, we have those frames, how do we use those for Hybrid Mana? And we ended up using those. So the frames that are on Hybrid Mana were the ones we pitched

for multicolor. So even though there are not pin lines on the card, meaning the frames are a red-green frame and a green-white frame are not technically identical because of the pin frame. We still use Z as it. When making the file you put the cards in what we would say it's sort of collector numbers, mana, cost order. So for example that is white blue, blue black, black red, red green, green white, white black, blue red, black green, red white, green blue. Basically it's WU Berg with the letter that happens right after it and then WU Berg with a letter 2 away from it. And so that is that is how easy. So anyway, like I said, this was an experimental one. I don't know whether knowing all the letters we use

is something people find fascinating or not. But anyway, that is today's podcast. So if you're listening to this, I decided it was interesting enough to listen to. So anyway, guys, I'm now at work. We all know what that means. Means the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic,

it's time for me to be making magic. See you all next time. Bye bye.