An Interview with Evan Erwin

by Bill Stark | posted at 2010-01-26 23:58:00
tagged: MTG, Magic, Magic the Gathering, StarCityGames, StarCity, SCG, Worldwake, Spoiler, Preview, Evan Erwin, Interview, Magic Show

 

Bill: First of all, why don't you explain to us the new position that you've been hired for and what it is that you'll be doing.

 

Evan: The official position is "community manager." What the mans essentially is that I get to make the Magic Show full time, which is great, and do some of the other things I wanted to do but didn't have time because I was working a 40+ hour a week full time job. Overseeing stuff like forums, Facebook, Twitter, and doing some more journalistic type activities such as producing videos to get people excited about [StarCityGames.com] Open events, much like I do for the Pro Tour. I'm excited to do that stuff as well.

 

Bill: Sure. So, are we going to be seeing you at more events like the StarCityGames Open events?

 

Evan: I can imagine so. At this point I'm just trying to, you know I've got the new baby and I'm not feeling great at the moment, but at this point I am trying to get situated for a large move and then once I'm actually in Roanoke I can imagine I would be going to many more StarCity Open events and covering them accordingly.

 

Bill: So you are going to relocate to the home of the StarCityGames main offices?

 

Evan: That is correct. I am moving to Virginia, currently in March. 

 

Bill: How do you feel about relocating?

 

Evan: It's...the only real negative is that I'll be separated from my daughters, my other two daughters, Annie and Abby, and that's kind of painful. But I have worked it out with the ex-wife to have ample time with them and worked it out with StarCity to have enough time to spend with them to be able to be an active dad in their life. Otherwise it'll be great to be there at the epicenter. There's instant messenger, and then there's walking across the hall to talk to Pete [Hoefling] about something. It's a little bit different when you have everyone at arm's length.

 

 

Bill: Is this a position, something that you've been talking with to Pete and the StarCity crew for a while, or did it come up out of the blue?

 

Evan: It's a position that Pete basically had been describing to me for a while and he had been like "Are you interested? I need someone to do this." I was like "well, yeah" because for me The Magic Show started with a random email about let's do some videos with some desktop recording software and over the course of the years between the Invitational, Wizards sponsorship, the readers sponsoring me to things, it's sort of grown into this lifestyle.

 

It was sort of a double job, I was working two jobs essentially for I would guess a couple of years now where I really put that much time into it. He [Pete Hoefling] was like "Would you like to do this full time?" Would you like to take all these ideas that you have that you can't implement when you're working full time for somebody else and make StarCity awesome because StarCity has been nothing but good for me and I'm sort of excited to join the team and make the business as good as I can, to make everyone excited about Magic.

 

Bill: You've often done some of your own promotion for Mister Orange and your video production company. Are you going to lose some of your identity doing videos exclusively for StarCity or will the show keep its flavor as it is right now?

 

Evan: Pete was 100% clear about this: he wants no change to the Magic Show.  He doesn't want any sort of influence. Pete has never...unless it's kind of a topic in which he wants me to sort of specify I don't represent StarCity, something that's really controversial, and that's happened in the past even when I was only on a contract basis making the show. He does not want it to change, he wants me to keep the show the way it is, he likes the fact that I bring both my opinions and my excitement along with it. Honestly for me, I wouldn't be able to do it if I couldn't show my raw enthusiasm and at the same time be upset.

 

It's kind of funny, because it's actually just happened where today, Mike Flores previewed essentially a Signet. Really? Mike Flores gets big Constructed monster cards and you gave us a Signet? It's boring. It's not a bad card, it's a great card. It will be played instantly in control decks and control players will love it.

 

But I'm like "Maelstrom Pulse, Lotus Cobra, and...a Signet." This is what you guys follow up with? And everyone is reeling saying "It's a great card!" I'm not saying it's a bad card, it's just one of those things were if it were completely PR controlled, I had to go through some type of filter, they wouldn't want me to say that. They wouldn't want me to say "Oh, you're not happy with this? You're not happy with this preview? Change this." No no, I've still got all my opinions and he wants to keep it that way.

 

Bill: Will we be seeing you at more Pro Tours, Nationals, Grand Prixs, events like that? Or will you mostly be working with the StarCity events?

 

Evan: The Pro Tours are absolutely guaranteed. The Pro Tours and the World Championships I will be at with or without Wizards' sponsorship. Ideally with, just because I like working with the Wizards crew. Just generally I think they're great people who work really hard at getting people the most information possible about any particular event. That said, I did make sure that even if that weren't in place, I would have a way to get there to sort of get the Magic community, or the Magic professional community to the kitchen table because I think that's important. I think that's part of why The Magic Show is as successful as it is because I can speak to the kitchen tabler and the guy who just won the Pro Tour.

 

Bill: You mentioned Mike Flores' preview card from his article series this week. Let's talk a little bit about Worldwake. It's just about a week away from the Prerelease. What are some of the cards that have you really excited or surprised to see?

 

Evan: Let me pull up the spoiler so I can better base my comments. I'll talk about some current ones, not non-official ones.

 

I think Explore is brilliant. I think Explore breaks open Jund in a way that Rampant Growth didn't because it's fantastic to be flipped over with Cascade no matter what point of the game you're at. To turn Bloodbraid Elf into a cantrip or Bituminous Blast or what have you and play a land is great.

 

I think Urge to Feed is just ridiculous. Like, Wizards really, really, REALLY wants Vampires to be good. They're serious, no joke. They want it to make an impact, and they're not playing around anymore.

 

I think Anowon [the Ruin Sage] just shows that Ken Nagle makes a hell of an EDH general. Anowon, the Ruin Sage and the Locus, what's the Locus? Omnath, Locus of Mana. He's just nuts. Both of those are fantastic EDH generals, and they know exactly who they're designing for. I think Abyssal Persecutor could be just as good as it's hyped to be. This could be the Lotus Cobra of the set. Abssal Persecutor is the reverse Platinum Angel and everybody's excited about it. Everboyd's like "hat if I go turn four Abyssal Persecutor, turn five Baneslayer Angel, 11 damage in the air and I just Path him when you're at negative life?" Or I just Wrath him away or whatever. I think that's just brilliant.

 

You hear a lot of people complaining like "This idea has been in the custom card creation forums for generations" Well, you know, R&D doesn't read those because they can't. When Aaron Forsythe Tweets about how he just came up with it during lunch, you know, I believe that. I think that's just R&D trying to fill a hole with something cool and unique and they come up with those ideas that other people had but that haven't been fully realized.

 

I'm really excited about the lands, I think the lands are great. I think Raging Ravine is brilliant, the 3/3 that turns into a 4/4 for four mana again, like, do Jund decks really need more help? But I think...R&D can't exactly figure out metagames a year in advance, they're kind of stuck with "Well, we've got to make everything good and we've got to make foils so we might as well push the envelop."

 

I think Chain Reaction, which was your spoiler, is brilliant. I think it's fantastic. It's as close to red Wrath as we're ever going to see. Currently can't believe it's two and a half bucks. That card is worth more than two and a half bucks and I think over time it will prove that because a lot of people say you have to work too hard to make it good. I don't really see that. I see a lot of creature decks in Standard and that's the card that will crush them, essentially. It obviously doesn't crush Baneslayer based decks or Wall of Denial or what have you, but that's not its purpose, that's not its goal.

 

Bestial Menace. Probably my favorite card. Conley Woods is telling me it's incremental dudes. That's what his play group has deemed it. Cone of Creatures, a card that's been around for, what, seven and a half plus years? That they just couldn't make work until they started putting tokens in every pack and all of a sudden, differentiating tokens is a bonus, not a drawback or memory issue.

 

I think Kalastria Highborn...I love how it splits players. I'm like "This card is obviously good." Again, it's almost like Vampires don't need any help, the deck is fantastic by itself, but here's another great two-drop that you could use to give you reach.

 

Dragonmaster Outcast I think is just fantastic. Could we make Ranger of Eos better? Every time I see a one-drop I think "Man, this one-drop is so much better." A year or two ago, particularly three years ago, one drops were just worthless. You wouldn't play any of them in Limited. And now one-drops have sort of become a barometer of design space. What can you do with a one-drop to make people excited about it? Wild Nacatl, Dragonmaster OUtcast really shine. I could keep going if you want.

 

Bill: It is an exciting set. How do you feel that Worldwake stands up at this point in the spoiler season compared to your excitement level with previous sets? 

 

Evan: It doesn't hit Zendikar because...you know, Zendikar had fetch lands. There's something magical about fetch lands. I think there was also something magical about the way Warren Instigator was given to me which, I know is a horrible example because it didn't pan out. At the same time, I was super excited about that card. I thought the way they spoiled it to me was fun. I thought that the end ability was great, it just was almost there. You know, also Zendikar had the buzz. People were really excited about the priceless treasures and they were going to buy everything and then the box price went insane and Wizards couldn't talk about it so it was this cool underground community thing that everyone knew about but you couldn't have an official word on. One thing led to another and everybody needed it and everybody wanted it. 

 

Drafting has been fantastic where Worldwake is great and I'm excited about the design so far, but it doesn't have that "Wow, we've been waiting for this card forever." I think it also doesn't have that problem that like Alara Reborn had where it was kind of top heavy. You had Pulse and some cascade spells and not much else. I think Conflux was just...looking back, Conflux was probably the worst set to come out in a couple years. Five color didn't really pan out, it was horrible in Draft, I think it had six or seven maybe Constructed worthy cards and other than that was really disappointing.

 

With that said, I don't see this [Worldwake] being a Conflux by any stretch of the imagination. I love how doing this for so long, and personally knowing R&D members, you can almost see personalities of individual R&D members come out. You can see so much of Ken Nagle's love of griefing, his love of green cards, his love of creatures, how green cards in Worldwake are so much better than everything else. I love being able to see that out of a set and I've become accustomed to being able to pick up on that. "Oh, that looks like a Mark Rosewater card. Oh, that looks like a Ken Nagle card." I think that's fun.

 

For me, I feel like Worldwake is going to be...I'm very excited because I love the cards. I try to temper myself so I'm not over hyping but, you know, some of that does happen. I don't feel it's a Conflux. I feel it's legitimately bigger and better and has continued themes but at the same time doesn't have the Lotus Cobra oh my god and the fetch land oh my god and the priceless treastures oh my god that Zendikar had.

 

Bill: Let's conclude with a final summation. You're excited about Worldwake and when does your new position with StarCity start officially?

 

Evan: I have already officially started. I officially started on Monday and so with my new baby, you'll see that my Twitter is usually active somewhere between 4 Eastern and 8 or 9 a.m. the next day. I have this sort of gap because I've taken the night shift with the daughter. With that said, I've already started working behind the scenes doing a lot of R&D stuff you know? Things that I can't talk about that I'm really excited being able to put time into. Does that make sense?

 

Thoughs and ideas and documents that sort of go over the ideas that I've sort of been wanting to do for years now. Now I've got the time and the means and I've got Pete backing me up and I've got a great staff at StarCity whenever I need something, they're happy to help.

 

Bill: Well, we appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. Good luck with the new job and with the newborn, and we look forward to hearing from you more and more in the future!

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