Mark Rosewater

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Mark Rosewater
 
Blogatog FAQ (original)
 
Blogatog FAQ (edited)
 
Mark Rosewater
General Information
Born May 25, 1967
Status Active: Alliances to present

Mark Rosewater (born May 25, 1967 in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA) is head Magic: The Gathering designer for Wizards of the Coast and is one of the more influential and renowned card designers and employees at Wizards.[1][2][3]

Early life and education

Mark Rosewater was born on May 25, 1967, in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA,[4][5] to a family of Jewish ancestry.[6][7] He has a younger sister, Alysse.[7]

Rosewater attended Orange High School in Pepper Pike, OH and, later, Boston University in Boston, MA, whereat he earned a Bachelor of Science in Communication.[8]

Career

Hollywood

Prior to his work at Wizards, Rosewater was a Hollywood "runner"[9] and a writer for the television sitcom Roseanne, having written the episodes "Vegas, Vegas" and "Take My Bike, Please!".[10][11] After being fired, he ended up working in a game store called The Game Keeper. About the same time that Alpha was making its first big explosion at Gen Con '93, Mark was being introduced to this new "trading card game".[12][13]

Wizards of the Coast

Before Mark got a full-time job at Wizards of the Coast he still lived in Los Angeles, and made Magic puzzles for The Duelist.[14] At GenCon 94 he played at the World Championships. There he introduced himself to the editor of the Duelist, became a freelance writer first and later the chief editor.[15][16] Because of this official capacity, he was banned from sanctioned play, and got into judging.[17] At Wizards of the Coast R&D, he first was a developer and later became part of numerous design teams. In December, 2003, he got promoted to Lead Magic Designer.[18] In 2004 the title was changed to Head Magic Designer so as to not confuse the title with the lead designer of each individual expansion.[19]

Designing

Developing

Non-Magic: The Gathering products

Writing

Rosewater is known for his high visibility and level of interaction with fans, communicating publicly in multiple formats, including official articles, a blog, other social media, and a podcast.

Making Magic

Main article: Making Magic
See also: List of Making Magic articles: 2002–2010, 2011–2020, 2021–present

Rosewater writes a weekly column, Making Magic, every Monday on magicthegathering.com. These articles give players insight on the design process of cards and sets.[29][30] During spoiler seasons, a few weeks are spent introducing the set's design team and telling the story of how its mechanical themes were chosen. Once a set is released, additional articles are spent on card-by-card design stories.[31] Rosewater often publishes an annotated copy of the set's Vision Design handoff, an internal documents written for the transition from Vision to Set Design.[32] Other regular Making Magic installments include the annual State of Design, explanations of the color pie, mailbag columns, and a column targeted at hobbyist Magic designers. Every hundred weeks, Rosewater indexes his most recent articles and grades them on a five-star scale.[31]

Blogatog

To cite Blogatog articles on this wiki, use Template:EzTumblr.

Blogatog is a blog run by Rosewater where he answers questions submitted to him. The blog also regularly features a series of Magic related one-panel comics entitled "Tales from the Pit" (also the former name of the blog), and allows him to promote new installments of his Making Magic column and Drive to Work podcast.[33] Some of the concepts which Rosewater eventually writes about in his official column originate here, such as the Storm Scale.[34]

Recurring characters

There are some recurring characters featured in some of Rosewaters's less serious posts:

  • Sally, the legendary squirrel
  • Englebert, the planeswalker least likely to return
  • Rosewater's toaster
  • Evil Maro

Blogatog's law

If I mention something that doesn’t exist as an example, no matter how silly, players will want me to now make that thing.

— Mark Rosewater [35]

In 2025, Mark coined "Blogatog's law" in response to Question Marks asking for the "Blort" faction.[35] The "Blort" were an entirely fictional faction Mark had created to answer a previous Question Mark who asked about faction markers that could be identified by the Comprehensive Rules.[36] While the responses to Mark's initial use of the "Blort" were often joke questions themselves, they continued a long tradition of Question Marks asking about minute details in Mark's Blogatog answers.

Drive to Work podcast

Main article: Drive to Work

This podcast is recorded by Rosewater as he drives to work, starting in October 2012. It blends the informality and free range of topics of his blog with depth found in his Making Magic columns.

Storyline

Weatherlight saga

Rosewater was co-creator of the original Weatherlight Saga and the plane of Mirrodin.[37] In addition, he also was responsible for writing flavor text and overall flavor of sets (most notably during Tempest block).

Rosewater and his friend Michael G. Ryan plotted the original Weatherlight Saga, with additional help from Bob Kruger, Kij Johnson, and Pete Venters.[38][14][39][40] The plot lines were based on universal themes as recognized by the famed scholar Joseph Campbell.[41] Ryan and Rosewater also created all members of the original Weatherlight crew (except for Captain Sisay who was an already existing character).[42]

Ryan and Rosewater were removed as the people in charge of the story during the end of Tempest block (during Exodus) and that event created a schism between R&D and the creative team for a number of years.[43][44]

Unstable

For Unstable Rosewater provided a storyline article.[45]

Pro Tour

Rosewater was also heavily involved in the creation of the Pro Tour, which he attended regularly until 2003 and made it a point of visiting at least once a year.

Personal life

Rosewater married Lora Montrose in a Jewish ceremony.[46][47] They have three children; Rachel and twins Adam and Sarah.[48][49] Lora used to work the night shift at the Game Center of Wizards of the Coast, and that's how they had met.[50]

Awards

In 2023, Rosewater was inducted in the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame.[51]

Miscellaneous

"MaRo"

One of Rosewater's nicknames is "MaRo", an abbreviation of his name. When he designed a card to fit in an open rare slot in a Mirage development meeting, Bill Rose wrote "Maro" as a placeholder name of the card because it was what Rose typed into the Wizards email system to get Rosewater's name.[54] The creative team was aware it was named after him, but thought it sounded okay and left it. This predated R&D’s no vanity rule. Rosewater later purchased the artwork himself. Today, creatures with power and toughness equal to the number of cards in the controller's hand are commonly referred to as Maros. Fans of Rosewater sometimes claim to belong to the "Cult of MaRo", a play on Mark Gottlieb's "Cult of MaGo".

Literature

In-game references

Associated cards:
"All Things Maro":

References

  1. ↑ Mark Rosewater (October 10, 2005). "Twenty Questions". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  2. ↑ Evil Mark Rosewater (February 25, 2008). "Rogue Operative". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  3. ↑ Mark Rosewater (April 19, 2019). "I made a list of all the mechanics I had a hand in creating.". Twitter.
  4. ↑ Mark Rosewater (June 1, 2015). "The (Not So) Secret Origin of Maro". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  5. ↑ Mark Rosewater (March 6, 2006). "Life Lessons, Part II". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  6. ↑ Mark Rosewater (August 27, 2007). "Topical Blend #3: Sessions". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
  7. ↑ a b Mark Rosewater (July 30, 2012). "Celebrity". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12.
  8. ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 07, 2009). "Playing With Blocks". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  9. ↑ Mark Rosewater (March 05, 2007). "Tales of a Runner". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  10. ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 26, 2011). "A Roseanne by Any Other Name". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-18.
  11. ↑ Mark Rosewater (February 16, 2009). "25 Random Things About Magic". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  12. ↑ Mark Rosewater (August 23, 2004). "An M:TGer at Gen Con". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
  13. ↑ Mark Rosewater (June 01, 2009). "Once Upon a Time". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2019-11-02.
  14. ↑ a b Mark Rosewater (December 3, 2007). "Weather(light) Report". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  15. ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 28, 2005). "A Different Worlds". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  16. ↑ Mark Rosewater (October 11, 2004). "Forgotten Lore: 10 Mental Locks of Magic". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-09-26.
  17. ↑ Mark Rosewater (February 14, 2005). "Land of the Rising Fun". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  18. ↑ Randy Buehler (December 12, 2003). "News from the World of Magic". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
  19. ↑ Mark Rosewater (August 23, 2004). "Odds and Ends". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-08-05.
  20. ↑ Mark Rosewater (April 5, 2004). "Unhinged or No?". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  21. ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 22, 2020). "I’m not officially listed on the design team for Onslaught even though I’m the person who pushed for the tribal theme and convinced R&D to do morph and bring back cycling.". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  22. ↑ Mark Rosewater (April 29, 2016). "Could you reveal all you're allowed to about Mood Swings?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  23. ↑ Mark Rosewater (May 13, 2002). "Through the Riftstone". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  24. ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 16, 2024). "Neopets (the game) just turned 25 yesterday! I just recently found out Wotc made the original Neopets TCG!!!!". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  25. ↑ Mark Rosewater (February 24, 2016). "Other than Star Wars and Duel Masters, what other properties did you help with?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  26. ↑ Mark Rosewater (March 14, 2018). "Did any MTG staff work on the upcoming Transformers ccg?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  27. ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 23, 2018). "May I please have some trivia from any board game you've worked on?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  28. ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 17, 2024). "How many non Magic games do you think you've designed/designed for during your time at Wizards?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  29. ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 07, 2002). "A Nightmare To Remember". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  30. ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 4, 2006). "Making "Making Magic"". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
  31. ↑ a b Mark Rosewater (February 24, 2025). "One Thousand Two Hundred and Counting". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  32. ↑ Mark Rosewater (July 21, 2025). "Edge of Eternities Vision Design Handoff, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  33. ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 25, 2016). "No Two See the Same Maro". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  34. ↑ Mark Rosewater (February 29, 2016). "Storm Scale: Khans of Tarkir Block". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  35. ↑ a b Mark Rosewater (March 31, 2019). "... I'd really like to see more of the Blort.". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  36. ↑ Mark Rosewater (February 15, 2025). "Regarding regular Magic being unable to care about watermarks, it seems to me like there are a few options.". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  37. ↑ Mark Rosewater (March 21, 2011). "Looking in the Mirrodin". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
  38. ↑ Insider Trading, by Mark Rosewater. The Duelist # 16, April 1997, p.17
  39. ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 19, 2018). "Face Cards, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  40. ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 3, 2018). "Face Cards, Part 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-03-01.
  41. ↑ Making Wine of the Grapes of Rath, by Rob Dalton, The Duelist # 23, March 1998, p.44-47
  42. ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 6, 2014). "Could I get some cool trivia on Captain Sisay or the Weatherlight?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  43. ↑ Mark Rosewater (February 17, 2014). "Being Inspired, Part 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-03-01.
  44. ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 16, 2013). "Can you give us some idea of what the Weatherlight story was supposed to go?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  45. ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 29, 2017). "World Class". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  46. ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 22, 2008). "Cosmic Encounter, Part I". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2022-11-30.
  47. ↑ Mark Rosewater (October 27, 2008). "Cosmic Encounter, Part II". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-11-01.
  48. ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 26, 2004). "Special Delivery". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  49. ↑ Wizards of the Coast (January 22, 2004). "The Rosewaters design a new split card". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-12-02.
  50. ↑ Mark Rosewater (March 07, 2005). "Topical Blend #1 – To Err Is Human". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2019-12-21.
  51. ↑ Jeffrey Dohm-Sanchez (February 2, 2023). "Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame Class of 2023 Announced". Icv2.com.
  52. ↑ Magic Arcana (December 1, 2004). "Mark Rosewater Makes an Ass of Himself". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2019-10-11.
  53. ↑ Mark Rosewater (June 28, 2012). "Framed copy of the original artwork for Look At Me I’m the DCI.". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  54. ↑ a b Mark Rosewater (July 8, 2022). "On the note of maro the story you have told was...". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  55. ↑ My 62 Secret Magic Playtest Cards! (Video). Good Morning Magic. YouTube (February 20, 2023).
  56. ↑ The Gavin Unknown Playtest Cards of MagicCon Chicago! (Video). Good Morning Magic. YouTube (February 28, 2024).

External links

Retrieved from "https://mtg.wiki/index.php?title=Mark_Rosewater&oldid=546030#Blogatog"