Avatar DestinyAvatar Destiny | Image credit: Iwamoto05

If you're lucky, Chris Mooney, a Senior Designer for Magic: The Gathering, is one of the coolest people you'll ever get to speak to. Wizards of the Coast contracted them in 2019 after they finished third in the third official Great Designer Search a year prior. Now, they act in the role of Senior Game Design and are on the Council of Colors, repping black.

Furthermore, Mooney was the Design Lead on Avatar: The Last Airbender. We had the chance to interview Chris Mooney about their time working on this illustrious collaboration!

Our Interview With Chris Mooney

First off, can you identify yourself? What's your role at Wizards of the Coast, and specifically, your role with Avatar: The Last Airbender?

I’m Chris Mooney. I’m a senior game designer on Magic, and I was the design lead for Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Within a game that uses five colors as its core system, how hard was it to design a complete tentpole set after a property that only uses four aspects (like the elements of Avatar)? What had to change in Magic for you to accomplish this?

Thankfully, the world of Avatar is full of a very diverse range of characters and creatures for us to pull from, so it wasn’t very hard to fill out all five colors. The show is full of non-bending characters as well as adorable hybrid animals that flesh out the world beyond just four elements.

For you and readers interested in the finer details, I go more in-depth on how we approached designing for all five colors in my articles about the design of the set here.

What sets the efforts in designing for an IP like Avatar apart from previous Universes Beyond sets?

On previous Universes Beyond projects I worked on, like Doctor Who and Fallout, we were handling decades of characters and stories. This meant we had to do a lot of picking and choosing what would get to be on cards. By contrast, Avatar is only 61 episodes long. This meant we could focus less on what to represent and more on how to capture it best.

Additionally, the world of Avatar was a very natural fit for our game. Factions with shared powers and color-coordinated outfits are right at home with many of our original Magic settings, so we could take a very traditional approach to building the set that felt familiar to our long-time players.

How important is it for a designer to hew closely to the source material? How did this affect the mechanics for each element?

Magic players are a discerning audience, so it’s important for Universes Beyond sets to capture the essence of the source material through gameplay. We generally try to choose design leads who are subject matter experts in the property they’re working with, and we do a lot of research throughout the process to make sure we stay familiar. However, we also make sure each team has a good number of designers who aren’t as familiar with the source material to make sure things stay fun and appealing for everyone. Inside jokes and references are great in moderation, but too many can make the set unapproachable.

The final bending mechanics are a good example of how Magic design is a balance of both flavor and gameplay. For example, at first, we tried firebending as dealing damage (which seemed obvious from a flavor standpoint), but every version of that we tested felt repetitive and not very fun. Generating red mana still captured the vibe of firebending with a big burst of short-lived energy, but it allowed for more creativity and dynamic gameplay. Our final version of airbending was actually created by one of our designers who had never seen the show; he only knew how it worked from our descriptions. It goes to show that finding the best mechanic isn’t just about matching the show but about creating an experience for the audience.

With all that being said, I am the biggest Avatar fan that I know, and there are many other designers who are also massive fans. Many specific show callouts like Sokka's HaikuSokka's Haiku and Secret TunnelSecret Tunnel come from our fond memories of specific scenes. So, while being a fan isn’t the only thing that matters, it certainly helps a lot!

What are some examples of cards that had their design directly inspired by the show?

Everything in the set was designed to match the show from the top down, but the cards that probably capture the show strongest are some of our legendary creature cards. Cards like Zuko, ConflictedZuko, Conflicted and Toph, the First MetalbenderToph, the First Metalbender do a great job of capturing specific moments from those characters’ journeys.

Personally, I’ve always been a fan of telling simple stories on common cards, like Messenger HawkMessenger Hawk, which delivers you a clue, or Path to RedemptionPath to Redemption, which pacifies an enemy creature and eventually can turn them into an Ally. While these cards may be a little less exciting than splashy rares, they help to make sure that every game of Magic is full of flavorful moments.

Were there any design ideas left on the cutting room floor?

It takes us almost two years to fully finish the design work on each Magic set, so there are always tons of ideas left over. There are more shows, comics, and upcoming future projects in the Avatar world that I know I’d be excited to take a crack at in the future if the opportunity came up!

Waterbender Ascension. Illustrated by Takeuchi Moto. Image credit: Wizards of the Coast and Viacom

A huge thanks to Chris Mooney and Wizards of the Coast for allowing us this delightful interview opportunity!

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