Zvi Mowshowitz

Zvi Mowshowitz is a former Magic: The Gathering professional player, columnist, and Magic R&D intern.

Professional play
Zvi made Top 8 at 4 Pro Tour events, winning PT Tokyo 2001. He also made Top 8 at 8 Grand Prix events, winning 2 of them. His wins were at GP New Orleans 2003 and GP Pittsburgh 2003 (as part of the team Illuminati). Zvi has 236 Pro Points, amongst the Top 20 all time, and was voted into the Magic Invitational in 2004. His most notable decks include TurboZvi and My Fires. Ben Bleiweiss once said that Zvi "has broken more engine cards than any other player in Magic history". These include Yawgmoth's Bargain and Dream Halls. For his efforts, Zvi was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.

Columnist
Zvi wrote for Brainburst from 2002 through 2004, for Star City Games, mostly during 2005 and The Play's The Thing column on magicthegathering.com from July 2005 through April 2006. The column addressed game situations which were often complicated.

R&D Intern
Zvi served an internship with Magic R&D from August 2005 through April 2006. He worked on the Time Spiral block and argued that Damnation was a "mistake". He would later explain that he greatly regretted not being able to "build the deck or find the argument that would convince those with the power to pull this card that it should not have been printed."

He chose to quit R&D in April 2006, a decision explained on his blog: "I woke up and realized: I wasn't having any fun. I was having fun talking to my coworkers. I was having fun playing board games with them after work. I was having fun going to lunch with them and talking about stuff. But when it came down to the nuts and bolts of making a game, the same tasks that I'd dedicated myself to for years on end were not something I looked forward to. I was played out. When something went badly in a game of Magic I'd be sad, but when it went right I wouldn't be happy. Every deck and match seemed like another boring chore I had to get through. I was feeling tired all the time without doing anything outside of work beyond wind down, but I still felt I wasn't putting in the kind of work that I was capable of. Finally I realized: I'm just going through the motions. I aint got that swing. I don't want this job."

Designing

 * Future Sight

Developing

 * Coldsnap
 * Planar Chaos