<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cultivate|M21|317" href="#" target="_blank">Cultivate</a> | Art by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/billcreative/?hl=en">Billy Christian</a>
Last week, <a href="https://spacecowmedia.com/">Space Cow Media</a>, EDHREC's parent company, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7498402831784361985">celebrated our partnership</a> with <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/improving-the-gathering-with-women-in-magic">Women+ in Magic</a> 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, <a href="https://archidekt.com/">Archidekt</a>, and <a href="https://www.cardsphere.com/">Cardsphere</a>.
Today, we're asking that same staff and our partners at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/women_in_magic/?hl=en">Women+ in Magic</a> 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.
<h3>Lize Korpershoek and Myrna Hendrickx of Women+ in Magic</h3>
<a href="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/myrnalize.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-192171" src="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/myrnalize.png" alt="" width="1080" height="1350" srcset="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/myrnalize.png 1080w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/myrnalize-240x300.png 240w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/myrnalize-819x1024.png 819w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/myrnalize-768x960.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" /></a>
<h3>Lize</h3>
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.
<h3>Myrna</h3>
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: <a href="https://archidekt.com/decks/19996158/norman_fleem_osborn_green_goblin_lootielootie">Fleem</a>, <a href="https://archidekt.com/decks/16544601/etali">Etali</a>, <a href="https://archidekt.com/decks/18526497/ob_nixilis_cedh">Ob Nixilis</a> and <a href="https://archidekt.com/decks/24120900/megatron_pew_pew">Megatron</a>. 
<h3>Emily Hann</h3>
<a href="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/emily.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-192172" src="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/emily.png" alt="" width="1080" height="1350" srcset="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/emily.png 1080w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/emily-240x300.png 240w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/emily-819x1024.png 819w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/emily-768x960.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" /></a>
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!
<h3>Julia Maddalena</h3>
<a href="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/julia.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-192173 size-full" src="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/julia.png" alt="" width="1080" height="1350" srcset="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/julia.png 1080w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/julia-240x300.png 240w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/julia-819x1024.png 819w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/julia-768x960.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" /></a>
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 <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/from-synergy-to-lift-the-math-behind-edhrecs-new-era">lift scores</a>), as well as <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/author/juliam">data-informed contributions to content</a>. 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. 
<h3>Lauren Shillinger</h3>
<a href="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lauren.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-192174" src="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lauren.png" alt="" width="1080" height="1350" srcset="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lauren.png 1080w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lauren-240x300.png 240w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lauren-819x1024.png 819w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/lauren-768x960.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" /></a>
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 <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/tag/community-corner">Community Corner</a> 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 <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/tag/communitycorner">Community Corner articles</a>, 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! 
<h3>Morgan Sanchez</h3>
<a href="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/morgan.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-192175" src="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/morgan.png" alt="" width="1080" height="1350" srcset="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/morgan.png 1080w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/morgan-240x300.png 240w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/morgan-819x1024.png 819w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/morgan-768x960.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" /></a>
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 <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tainted Pact|ODY|164" href="#" target="_blank">Tainted Pact</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Entomb|ODY|132" href="#" target="_blank">Entomb</a> (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 <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/author/nick-wolf/">Nick Wolf</a> 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.
<hr />
For more about the who's who in making Space Cow Media tick, you can find more details <a href="https://spacecowmedia.com/about">on our company website</a>.

See Who's Helping Build Magic's Tools and Its Diverse Spaces

Andy Grimm Cassidy | photo by Nick Wolf
MagicCon Atlanta 2025 promises to be another smash hit for industry professionals and Magic players alike. This year, Space Cow Media CTO and Archidekt founder <a href="https://mcatlanta.mtgfestivals.com/en-us/experience/panels-and-events/panel-information.html?gtID=909459&amp;panel-name=Solving-Spellify-The-EDHREC-Guessing-Game" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Andy Grimm Cassidy will be on stage alongside JMarGameDesign to talk Spellify</a>, EDHREC's card guessing game, and plans for future games coming to EDHREC.
I interviewed Andy at MagicCon Vegas 2025 to get his perspective on working alongside friends to create <a href="https://archidekt.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Archidekt</a>, a premier deckbuilder and collection tracker, as well as integrating into the <a href="https://spacecowmedia.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Space Cow Media</a> company galaxy.
<h2>The Beginning of Something Magical</h2>
LAS VEGAS - You wouldn’t know Andy Grimm Cassidy is the founder of Archidekt, a deckbuilding platform for Magic: The Gathering, if you walked by him at a MagicCon. But you know his site, and most recently, you know Archidekt’s banners posted at the event’s artist area, promoting the most recent of a litany of new features added to the site regularly.
But Grimm Cassidy, 29, has had an influence on how the greater Magic community conducts deckbuilding; and that influence is something he and his team take very seriously.
Grimm Cassidy hails from Buffalo, New York, a city he describes with affection. “Buffalo is the City of Good Neighbors,” he said. “A lot of that comes from digging each other out from piles of snow.” He might not outwardly acknowledge it, but there’s a Rust Belt, Midwestern mentality that puts community first, and it has shaped Grimm Cassidy's approach to Archidekt from its nascency.
His first Commander was <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rhys the Redeemed" href="#" target="_blank">Rhys the Redeemed</a>, converting a nostalgic 60-card Elf deck - the first deck he piloted that actually managed to beat his older brothers in the early 2000s - into a beloved Commander deck he still has to this day.
 “We got back into it, I was like, ‘oh, Rhys is a legendary creature. I used to love this card. I'll just make this into an Elf deck,’” he said. “I just remember the first Commander game we played, we just had this board state where everyone had so much stuff, and I had 18 Elves on the board. And I was like, ‘this is the best format of Magic possible.’ Like, this is beautiful. And that's what got us hooked again.”
<h2>Building Archidekt</h2>
But Andy isn't only a Magic player. He's also a builder, in every sense of the word. Archidekt started during his college years at the University of Buffalo, following conversations between him and a group of software-engineering peers who were dissatisfied with existing deckbuilding websites. 
“We (had) just graduated, so everyone had a bunch of free time, and obviously we wanted to share the decks online and stuff. Our big option at the time was TappedOut,” he said. “Now we have a bunch of fresh software engineers with new ideas looking at this relic of a website, and the tipping point was one of my friends had found a bug. He had reached out to the TappedOut folks, and they had been (dismissive). So a bunch of us got together and were just talking about the possibility of making something better.”
That interaction inspired Grimm Cassidy and his friend Mike Drewitt to create their own alternative.
Initially, he considered Archidekt merely a personal tool. 
“In my brain, I was just building it for our friend group,” he said. “Mike said he always had the sense from the beginning it could become a business. I don't know if that's revisionist or not, but I definitely didn't suspect it would be a business until we did our official release on Reddit.”
The public launch brought both humbling critiques and a rush of enthusiasm, with commenters pointing out aspects of the platform that could be improved. But the positivity far outweighed the criticism, giving him and Drewitt the momentum needed to keep going. 
“The big things that I didn't have a lot of experience with before Archidekt were UI design and user experience,” he said. “Maybe some time we’ll dredge up the original code, to look at the original iteration of Archidekt. There are a lot of unintuitive things. We were just green software engineers that just got out of college.”
<h2>Community-Forward</h2>
While Grimm Cassidy and Drewitt learned on the fly, the site quickly gathered a dedicated user base. They found managing community feedback rewarding, yet demanding. “We very quickly added a forum and a Discord so people could provide feedback. It adds a level of work,” Grimm Cassidy said. “But that's exactly what we wanted; we wanted to have this community-driven development.”
Andy attributed Archidekt’s growing popularity to its unique appeal: a tactile, visual approach. “What was important to us was to give it the feel of laying out your cards on a playmat,” he said. 
This tactile experience has become the platform’s defining trait, deeply resonating with Commander enthusiasts who look for their deckbuilding platform to mimic the feeling of constructing a deck on a desk or kitchen table.
<h2>Finding the Space Cow Media Galaxy</h2>
A crucial turning point came with their integration with EDHREC, a symbiotic partnership beneficial for both sites that began as a data-sharing association. EDHREC founder <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldminer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Don Miner</a> even approached Grimm Cassidy early on in Archidekt’s life, offering to buy the burgeoning website outright. 
Fresh out of college and living with his parents, Grimm Cassidy turned down the tempting offer. “I could wait him out. I was having fun, so I could just continue on with that. And Don was obviously very understanding,” he said. “His policy is always just to help everyone in the Magic community out. It builds (the community) up, and you end up with these partners that have good will towards you.”
His patience paid off. Archidekt grew steadily, gaining popularity and financial viability. When the COVID pandemic hit, after a brief uncertainty, the site experienced significant and rapid growth as people turned to Magic, and specifically Commander, as an outlet during lockdowns and social distancing.
 Eventually, Grimm Cassidy and Miner revisited their partnership, merging Archidekt with EDHREC under the Space Cow Media banner. “The sign of a good merger is that when you look back, everyone's happy,” Grimm Cassidy said. “And everyone's happy.”
<h2>Archidekt's Future Past</h2>
Grimm Cassidy’s long-term vision for Archidekt remains community-focused. “It’s just a matter of responding to the community and constantly improving our craft,” he said. For him, the project embodies dedication and continuous evolution.
Some of the more broad-reaching impacts on the community Archidekt has had weren't things he expected when beginning to craft what grew to become the site today. “The way Magic players now interact as a community has so much to do with how they brew decks and how they share decks,” he said.
And with the recent implementation of <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/edhrec-guide-to-commander-brackets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Bracket System</a>, there's an increased need for documentation - of Commander decks and the cards each deck contains.
 “There now needs to be an understanding of ‘What combos are in my deck?’ You know, ‘How many <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/game-changers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Game Changers</a>? How many extra turns?’ There's just this increasing need for documentation as the game grows larger,” said Grimm Cassidy. “There are just so many cards to search through. It’s tough to build Commander decks without tools now. So it's interesting that now we've become a part of this community. In a way, it's gratifying, for sure, and also sometimes humbling, because there's some responsibility.” 
Nearly a decade later, Grimm Cassidy reflected on seeing the Archidekt banner at the largest Magic event of the year. “That logo is something that I just made in some image editor eight years ago. That font is just a Google font that I picked, that I thought looked good. But that's not something anyone walking by would know,” he said.
<div id="attachment_165481" style="width: 516px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/archidudes-BA3ja1kd-1.jpeg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-165481" class=" wp-image-165481" src="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/archidudes-BA3ja1kd-1-300x214.jpeg" alt="The &quot;Archidudes&quot; with their banner at MagicCon Vegas 2025" width="506" height="361" srcset="https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/archidudes-BA3ja1kd-1-300x214.jpeg 300w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/archidudes-BA3ja1kd-1-1024x731.jpeg 1024w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/archidudes-BA3ja1kd-1-768x548.jpeg 768w, https://cloudflare.edhrec.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/archidudes-BA3ja1kd-1.jpeg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px" /></a>The "Archidudes" with their banner at MagicCon Vegas 2025</div>
 “It's a weird disconnect to me; this is something so personal. I personally dragged the lines to make it, but it’s now something that people just walk by at a convention, and it's just another thing.” 
The banners bring up a mixture of emotions for Andy. “It's gratifying, it's humbling, and also has that weird kind of disconnect. There’s a lot of personal connection and a lot of personal meaning behind these projects. They're not just like faceless websites,” he said. “And that's one of the most gratifying things about this job. You are not often, as a software engineer, both the user and the developer. But for pretty much everything we work on at Space Cow, we are both, which is so much fun.
<h2>Spellify at MagicCon Atlanta 2025</h2>
And now, Andy Grimm Cassidy's work alongside Archidekt developer Ben helped launch an addicting card guessing game, Spellify. At MagicCon Atlanta, you'll get all the details on Spellify's launch, tips and tricks, and be able see inside the mind of one of the best deckbuilders and gamemakers in the business (and no doubt there will be a few surprises thrown into the mix).
And of course, you can always <a href="https://edhrec.com/games/spellify" target="_blank" rel="noopener">go play Spellify now</a> if you just can't wait.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

staff

See Who's Helping Build Magic's Tools and Its Diverse Spaces

An Interview With Archidekt Founder Andy Grimm Cassidy