Tom LaPille (born August 27, 1985) is a former ''Magic: The Gathering'' developer at

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidia ...

. He led the development on Magic 2012, Dark Ascension, and Masters Edition III, Modern Masters 2015, and Eternal Masters. He also wrote the Dailymtg.com Development column Latest Developments for nearly four years.

Mark Rosewater Mark Rosewater (born May 25, 1967) is the head designer for ''Magic: The Gathering'', a position he has held since 2003. Biography Rosewater grew up in Pepper Pike, Ohio. In his youth, he worked as a professional magician. Rosewater has descr ...

considers him part of the fifth generation of Magic designers.

Biography

Lapille grew up in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, where he attended

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

Career

Magic: The Gathering

Tom LaPille played ''Magic: The Gathering'' professionally throughout his time in college, making top 8 at Grand Prix Charlotte in 2005 and playing in four Pro Tours. In 2007, Tom created the website http://playmagicwith.tomlapille.com with the stated goal of obtaining a job with Wizards of the Coast, the company which makes ''Magic: The Gathering'' within one year. The website and its extensive focus on the "Cube" format garnered Wizards' attention, eventually leading to his hiring within a year. Tom believes that showing Wizards how he could construct a set through his Cube design was crucial for obtaining the job, stating, "Carefully crafting a cube means taking cards as given and using them to build a coherent and fun play experience so it's about as close as you can get to actual Magic development without being able to adjust the actual cards." While employed at Wizards of the Coast, Tom worked on

Magic 2011 Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

, Innistrad, Masters Edition III, Masters Edition IV, New Phyrexia, Worldwake, Mirrodin Besieged,

Magic 2010 Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

Return to Ravnica Return to Ravnica is a '' Magic: The Gathering'' block, consisting of ''Return to Ravnica'' (October 5, 2012), ''Gatecrash'' (February 1, 2013), and ''Dragon's Maze'' (May 3, 2013). It is the second block set on the plane of Ravnica, after th ...

, Magic 2012, and Dark Ascension. Tom also wrote the Dailymtg.com weekly Column on Magic Development, Latest Developments, from January 9, 2009 through December 2, 2012, leaving to pursue more work on

Dungeons and Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

. He still writes Latest Developments on occasion.

References

External links

All Tom LaPille articles on magicthegathering.com

All Tom LaPille articles on StarCityGames.com

Tom LaPille's Blog prior to joining Wizards of the Coast

Tom LaPille's Magic-focused Twitter account
{{DEFAULTSORT:LaPille, Tom Magic: The Gathering 1985 births Living people