The Hat

Before he designed anything, Satoshi Nakamura broke things.

In the mid-1990s, when Magic: The Gathering arrived in Japan, Nakamura became one of the country’s elite competitive players. He won the 1998 Asia Pacific Championship. He earned the nickname “Hatman”—coined by Chris Pikula for his signature colorful hats—and “Wazashi,” The Trickster. His competitive philosophy was specific: find the abnormal cards, the ones with steep costs and steep drawbacks, and build decks that negated the drawbacks while exploiting the power. He played in the margins of game balance, probing where the system was most vulnerable.

Adrian Sullivan, a Pro Tour competitor and writer, called Nakamura an early inspiration as a deckbuilder. In the Duel Masters manga, the character “NAC” was explicitly modeled on his likeness and competitive philosophy. He was famous enough that Richard Garfield’s creation had made him a fictional character in someone else’s story.