CultivateCultivate | Art by Billy Christian

Last week, Space Cow Media, EDHREC's parent company, celebrated our partnership with Women+ in Magic for Women's Equality Day (Aug. 26), while also shining a spotlight on some of the staff working to bring you the tools and content from EDHREC, Archidekt, and Cardsphere.

Today, we're asking that same staff and our partners at Women+ in Magic even more about how they interact with the game during their day-to-day, and what makes them want to support Magic and its diverse community of players.

Lize Korpershoek and Myrna Hendrickx of Women+ in Magic

Lize

I’m Lize, she/her, a documentary filmmaker from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, who you may know as mtg.Lize. I first saw my friends play Magic in 2019, and the moment I saw Vampire and Zombie cards fly over that table, I was HOOKED.

I wasn’t going to leave that cafe before I knew how to play this game. Jump to 2026: most days I’ll get a game in, watch Magic YouTube content and/or yap about it in our Women+ in Magic (WIM) Discord server. No hobby has ever grabbed me like this one: It’s brought me so many friends, a distraction when I need it, and a ridiculous amount of joy.

Myrna

Hi! My name is Myrna, but you can find me on the internet as Arty Myr! I’m an Event Marketer from Arnhem, The Netherlands. 

One of my best friends introduced me to Magic at the end of 2022 and I fell in love with the game and have been playing ever since. My favorite way to play MTG is Commander, from casual to cEDH. My current favorite decks are: Fleem, Etali, Ob Nixilis and Megatron.

Emily Hann

Emily is a Software Engineer at SCM, primarily working on Cardsphere for the past few years. She started on the team back in October of 2021, working on the frontend side of EDHREC and FABREC, before moving to do full stack for Cardsphere, which she adores.

What got you into Magic, and what keeps you coming back? (If you don’t play: What is something you’ve learned and/or your favorite thing you’ve seen or experienced related to Magic in your time with SCM?)

Two of my friends, Alex and Andy, were already Commander players, and during a particularly grueling review session for a college class, they suggested we take a break and visit a local card shop to pick up some precons. They taught me how to play, and I’ve been playing and brewing up decks ever since. I love the community it naturally creates, and how kind everyone tends to be.

What’s the best part about working on Cardsphere?

I get to work on tools for a hobby I already love — every day. This company is filled with kind and talented people who are all getting to work on the things we love — and it shows at every level with a depth of care and understanding that I’ve not witnessed elsewhere. My coworkers are my friends (I miss them when I go on vacation) — and Cardsphere is a website I genuinely love using and want to see succeed. I delight in coming up with new ideas and little optimizations.

What’s one thing you want users to know that they probably don’t?

How much we strive to involve ourselves in the community — we’re all active in our community Discords, and keep an eye out for up-and-coming content creators that would be a good fit to sponsor or just support!

Julia Maddalena

Julia is SCM’s sole data scientist and is affectionately referred to as the Duchess of Data. She works on creating new data-oriented features for the website (such as hot cards, commander popularity over time, and lift scores), as well as data-informed contributions to content. She helps the team and the community at large understand trends that we observe in our data that can help them make the game better. 

What got you into Magic, and what keeps you coming back? (If you don’t play: What is something you’ve learned and/or your favorite thing about Magic in your time with SCM?)

I am in awe of how complex the game has become (31K+ cards and 3.3K+ commanders!), and of the community that is intelligent enough to make sense of it all. I have great respect for the Magic community and how they support each other and stand for things they believe in because of how much they love the game. 

What’s the best part about working on EDHREC?

Working as a data scientist on EDHREC’s developer team has been really rewarding, as the team is full of extremely bright and motivated people. Everyone communicates thoughtfully, and I have always felt supported in my role. Beyond the dev team, folks in the greater SCM community are so kind and caring and willing to help each other out, and it makes for a very safe and rewarding work environment.

What’s one thing you want users to know that they probably don’t?

I want users to know how much effort and intention goes into making EDHREC the site that it is. We are constantly striving to improve upon existing features and expand beyond them, and we take feedback from the community seriously! What we have built is far from simple, and if people could truly understand the complexity of the decisions that we have to make every day, they might better understand why things are the way they are on the site and beyond. 

Lauren Shillinger

Lauren is the Executive Admin and Community Engagement Manager at Space Cow Media. She plans and coordinates all SCM travel, conference logistics and corporate retreats. Her role also covers our corporate giving/charitable donations for the community. She is also on the marketing team which includes aspects of our SCM swag, social media engagement, and Community Corner work.

What got you into Magic, and what keeps you coming back? (If you don’t play: What is something you’ve learned and/or your favorite thing about Magic in your time with SCM?)

This job got me into Magic and it has been such an amazing experience all around! I have absolutely loved getting to create my deck and play the game, learn the history of MTG, meet so many new people in the industry, and the card art is AWESOME! I also love the nostalgic card releases…my first set was from “The Princess Bride.” Not to mention I have the support of a phenomenal team of co-workers at SCM who teach me something new about the game every single day.

What’s the best part about working at Space Cow Media?

Getting to engage and work with so many amazing MTG community partners and organizations that are doing such meaningful work in the community. Creating such a welcoming environment and an inclusive space for all who want to play MTG. It is so nice to see how many users/community members love the game and how they provide so many ways for others to engage and join in!

What’s one thing you want users to know that they probably don’t?

To be able to be part of what we do at Space Cow Media and see how we are putting the magic in paying it forward is so rewarding, and allows us to be a part of the community in a different way. Sometimes this is through our Community Corner articles, making charitable donations, sending swag to an event, participating in unique opportunities…the options are endless and so unique. I can see firsthand how we are helping the community and making a positive impact! 

Morgan Sanchez

Morgan is VP of Marketing Operations at Space Cow Media. She first started on the team back in 2023 as an assistant blog copyeditor on EDHREC, moving to editor-in-chief, content operations, and finally marketing.

What got you into Magic, and what keeps you coming back? (If you don’t play: What is something you’ve learned and/or your favorite thing about Magic in your time with SCM?)

I first played Magic when I was eight years old at my school's daycare, called Adventure Club. I loved the old border card art (Blastoderm and Mirari were so OP to my eight-year-old brain) and foils for Odyssey and 7th Edition, and loved the creatures in general. I started playing Commander in about 2013 with my Oloro deck and have been an Esper girlie ever since! I also have a 75% complete foil collection of the Odyssey set! I just need a few of the bigger money cards like Tainted PactTainted Pact and EntombEntomb (yikes!).

What’s the best part about working at Space Cow Media?

Being able to see our work have an impact, on socials and in real life. When people see an EDHREC shirt at cons the first thing they ask is “Do you work there?” and I’m able to tell them we’re a real team of players who are members of the community and interact with it in so many different ways. And we always want feedback! One of my personal favorite things is when people who enjoy our articles email us asking to pass along kudos to the author. This is a real source of dopamine for me after all these years even though my colleague and friend Nick Wolf handles the day-to-day content arm nowadays.

What’s one thing you want users to know that they probably don’t?

Just how much cross-property product communication we have. A majority of our time is spent balancing the priority development of our sites and what would be best for our users based on the data we see. We want our tools to appeal to the cEDH player looking for Bracket 5 recs just as much as the newbie who needs help making a really cool deck from the new Hobbit cards.

For more about the who's who in making Space Cow Media tick, you can find more details on our company website.