Magic is, without a doubt, one of the greatest games in history. It’s easy to feel as though Magic dominates the discussions and interests of its players. But that experience is wholly untrue.

Magic draws on a rich history of cultural influences, and it has likewise influenced games and gaming culture. It’s even recently made it as the central feature of an absolutely not safe for work episode of South Park. But as awesome as our favorite game is, it’s far from the only cultural draw we share.

Before Magic and video games and blockbuster movies from stories originally written by J.R.R Tolkien, there were comic books. The heroes and stories that started over sixty years ago are still relevant, engaging, and popular today. The shared adventures of our original heroes are tales we still talk about today. Through all the modern reboots and retellings, it’s easy to forget that all these stories started somewhere.

New stories are still being written today.

That’s where people like Brian David-Marshall come in. As longstanding member of the Wizards coverage team for Grand Prix and Pro Tours and writer on DailyMTG.com, you might only know him as one of “the faces” of Magic. What brought him to help create a new creative universe and game Emergents: Genesis? It’s a story he’s shared with us.

Gathering Magic: For those who may only know you briefly as one of the faces of Grand Prix and Pro Tour coverage, share a little bit about yourself.

Brian David-Marshall: When I am not playing Magic, talking about Magic, and thinking about Magic, I actually make games and tell stories professionally. I am coming up on the twentieth anniversary of running my first Magic tournament, but the reason I found out about Magic in the first place was through my involvement in the comic book industry. I used to write, edit, and publish comic books when I was starting out professionally.

I have created a mini-series for Marvel with characters I created called The Craptacular B-Sides. One of those characters is called Mize, who was very much an homage to Magic culture. I also had a chance to write a Captain America—one of my favorite all-time characters—story called Relics.

On the game side, I have designed licensed board games for Twilight, Alice in Wonderland, and The Walking Dead. I have also designed a handful of digital games and have worked in the digital game space as both a Lead Designer and Creative Director.

That is all out there in the public, though, so I’m not sure how much of a share it really is . . . I also collect hardcover first-edition books with an eye to the Mystery and Hard-Boiled genre—my most prized piece is a first-edition copy of Butcher's Moon by Richard Stark. I am also putting the finishing touches on a pilot for a web series that encompasses cooking and gaming.

GM: How did comic books and super heroes come to mean so much for you?

BDM: I was a weird kid who grew up in Brooklyn and did not always identify with the people I grew up with. Wandering into a comic book store and meeting people who shared my interests and offbeat view of the world was life-affirming. I met all my closest friends—and even my best friend, and my wife of twenty years, Karla—through my involvement in that industry.

That is just the comic medium and industry, though, and not specific to superheroes. I have always found the idea of young people coming to grips with their tremendous abilities to be a compelling place to start telling a story—a bottomless well of potential. Spider-Man, The Uncanny X-Men, Teen Titans, the works of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and so many more all made me want to tell stories in that genre.

And the artwork! I have always had a special place in my heart for sequential storytelling. Give me a Jack Kirby splash page over most so-called fine art any day of the week.

GM: So what is Emergents: Genesis?

BDM: It’s the culmination of two of the great passions in my life: superhero comics and gaming. I created the Emergents Universe—which has more than seventy original heroes and villains at last count—to live in both worlds. The characters span generations of the superhero genre with classic, old-school heroes, grittier crime fighters who harken back to the heyday of the genre in the late ’80s, and modern characters who defy classic labels.

Emergents are what we call superheroes in this world, as their powers tend to manifest—or emerge—as teens. Powers fall into four basic classes, which can all be traced back to the original four emergents in this world: Professor Helios, Moxie, Billy Stopless, and The Abyss. Professor Helios is a Sculptor who can manipulate fire to take on whatever form he can imagine. Other sculptors can use their powers with water, metal, people's nightmares, or even candy.

The Mad Confectionist is a terror to more than just children.

Moxie is the strongest human on earth, and her class of character is called a StrongHarm (no, that is not a typo—her motto is “Rage Before Beauty!”) Billy Stopless has the ability to teleport through spaces at high speed, and his class is called Non-Stops. Their powers can include super-speed and even time travel. The Abyss has harnessed the full power of his mind, can manipulate people to do his bidding, and can access people's darkest secrets. His followers are called simply acolytes.

You can play with all four of these characters—as well as with some of their most successful protégés—in an interactive deck-building game that pits you against the other players. While many deck-builders have been point races with little interaction between players, you cannot win this game without beating the snot out of the other players. If these emergents are going to be ready to defend the earth against all manner of threat, they need to be able to practice against the best: each other.

GM: If I already love Magic, what will I enjoy about Emergents: Genesis?

BDM: If you enjoy multiplayer game play—like Commander or Grand Melee—this will be a great game for you. Because you are building your deck on the fly, each game from an assortment of random cards, it should also appeal to fans of Draft formats who love thinking on their feet and solving the puzzle of what their decks are trying to do each game.

GM: How would you describe the pace of play of Emergents: Genesis? Is it accessible for first-time gamers?

BDM: We have demonstrated the game for experienced and inexperienced gamers alike. Obviously, players who are familiar with deck-builders will grasp it more quickly, but the game is very accessible. One of the nice things is that you can flavor-draft to build your deck, and it should work out okay. If you are playing Professor Helios and see a card with his art on it . . . you probably want to buy that card. There is a lot of depth to the deck-building and gameplay, though, and learning when you want Non-Stop cards in your Sculptor deck is a big light-bulb moment for new players.

GM: What are the challenges of telling a super-hero story and sharing new creative through a deck-building game?

BDM: The biggest challenge for me is wanting to jam all the story in there because I have a lot of it to tell. I know so much more about this world than I will ever be able to fully tell.

What is kind of cool about this project is that a lot of the artwork for the game was done in sequential narrative—drawn as complete pages of comic story—so the story really starts to come through from the art on the cards. For the majority of the artwork, I worked with Steve Ellis and his Bottled Lightning studio, which was one of the most rewarding collaborations I have ever experienced.

GM: What are the some of the biggest influences on the design and world of Emergents?

BDM: I really tried to reflect the different eras of modern superhero comics in huge world, so the influences go back to the Fantastic Four of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Claremont/Byrne era X-Men, The Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans, and on through current titles like the Fraction/Aja collaboration on Hawkeye.

Again, Steve Ellis is a huge influence as well. He and I speak a common language when it comes to comic books and superheroes, and his art just makes me want to keep creating more and more characters.

GM: We’re in a renaissance of gaming and “nerd” culture. As a longtime gamer and comic book fan, how do you feel about the current prominence of the stories and influences you grew up with?

BDM: I knew it! I love that there are so many shows and movies based on comics and that games have become such a commonplace way of socializing. It always felt that was the way it was supposed to be when I was growing up, and I never understood why these things that are created, supported, and consumed by smart and creative people were stigmatized at all.

GM: Where does a new creative universe, like that of Emergents, fit into the mix of classic and rebooted comic book creative appearing everywhere?

BDM: I would not be sad if this ended up appearing everywhere! Ideally, I would love to tell some more stories with these characters through versions of this game. We have a group of heroes called The Upstarts that will fun to play with, and there is the riddle to unravel of how Emergents came to be in this world.

While I would love to dream of seeing these characters on the big screen or on a game console, I will be content with a few more releases of this game system, a new digital game, and some graphic novels . . . for now.

GM: What is your favorite game that came out in the past few years that you didn’t have a hand in making?

BDM: I am always surprised that I don't hear this game mentioned when people are talking about deck-building games, but my answer is that the Bandai Star Trek: The Next Generation game was super-fun, and I loved how it could be played cooperatively, combatively, or as teams. I think the game was really hampered by an incredibly obtuse rule book that was a real hurdle to gameplay. Once someone solved it all for us, it turned out to be the perfect fusion of flavor and gameplay.

GM: Is there anything else about Emergents: Genesis you’d like everyone to know?

BDM: Just that I am grateful to everyone who helps take this across the finish line. This is a deeply personal project for me, and I just want to be able to keep telling stories with these characters.

GM: Thanks, BDM. We wish you the best finding Kickstarter success!

Content Manager Adam Styborski and Associate Editor Alex Ullman collaborated for this interview.