ABOUT MARK

As a product of the 80’s, I played a lot of board games, card games, and Nintendo.  As an only child, I spent countless hours in my room sorting my collections of baseball and basketball cards.  I’d spread the cards across the floor – categorizing, analyzing, and comparing individual cards or the groups I created.  I’d save the groupings in cardboard boxes or slide them carefully into binders – labeling and noting gaps to fill.  I’d find ways to close the loops and found much satisfaction when complete.

One day in 1994, 12-year-old me made a routine visit to my local card shop to buy some Upper Deck basketball packs.  The wise shop owner who knew I loved gaming introduced me to a life-changing discovery called Magic: The Gathering.  With over 40 million players worldwide, Magic (the Gathering) has been the most popular, most advanced strategy card game since its creation 30 years ago. 

He gifted me a couple booster packs and loose single cards, henceforth ending my fling with sports cards.  I was instantly hooked.  Magic offered the best of both worlds;  Now I had collectible cards I could play with!  When I first joined, there were nearly 1,000 unique cards with unique abilities and synergies across different sets, with new sets of cards printed every 3-4 months, changing the ever-evolving metagame with each new release.  Now there are over 23,000 unique cards, offering millions of combinations and gameplay variations

Mark Auratog Pose
Auratog (character on t-shirt) eats enchantments for boosts of strength.
1999 World Championships Finals handshake
1999 World Championships - Finals handshake

“I’d save the groupings in cardboard boxes or slide them carefully into binders – labeling and noting gaps to fill.  I’d find ways to close the loops and found much satisfaction when complete."

Footage from the 1999 Magic: the Gathering World Championships Finals
Footage from the 1999 Magic: the Gathering World Championships Finals

My second best pro tournament finish was 3rd place in Rome where I piloted a deck called “High Tide” – named so because of the card, High Tide – a card whose only purpose is to multiply your resources. When chained together with subsequent cards in the right order (Mind Over Matter, Time Spiral, more High Tides, and Strokes of Genius), the wizard who cast the High Tide would eventually “go off” generating enough resources that channel together into one powerful blast for the game in a most uncommon way. There are two ways to win at Magic – bring your opponent from 20 “hit points” down to 0 or less – or force your opponent to draw cards from his or her deck when no cards remain. 99+% of games are decided when one player drops from 20 to 0.  Less than 1% end by forcing the opponent to draw cards with none in deck. High Tide “went off” in Rome taking the route less traveled, but it placed some of the top finishers and was extremely fun.

Okay that’s nice! But how does Magic and High Tide relate to your business?

The goal is to help your business “go off” – otherwise known as scaling up – by developing streamlined methods with supporting technology to increase efficiency, productivity, quality, and win rate.

Magic has taught me countless skills and lessons to improve many areas of business. Learned skills include resourcefulness, anticipation, attention to detail, decision-making, creativity, curiosity, strategic thinking, teamwork, fun, and the ability to remain calm and calculated in high-pressure situations. I still continue to challenge myself by learning new Magic mechanics, combinations, and themes to this day that help my mind stay active and progressive.

My team can help scale your growing company by combining these skills and my 15+ years of professional experience facilitating process improvement, technology implementation, and the change management required to pull it all together in a fun, meaningful, and profitable way.

GET STARTED TODAY

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