In the summer of 2020, we ran a contest, inviting fans to design original Unmatched decks. The winning designers and their decks are:
- Adil M. Geresu, “The Genie of the Lamp”
- Sam Crane, “Harry Houdini”
- Jonathan Guberman, “William Shakespeare”
- Chet Dudick & Charles Peters, “Rosie the Riveter”
We originally intended to select only four winning decks and had planned to feature them in a single set. However, due to the overwhelming response to the contest and high quality of the submissions, eight additional decks were chosen as unofficial “runners-up” and will also appear in future sets. Those additional entrants and their decks will be revealed when the sets are announced.
Rob Daviau, our “Chief Restoration Officer”, commented on the surprising results: “We were stunned at the response we received to the contest and impressed by the thought and effort put into so many of the submissions. We quickly realized we had more than four good decks, and we were excited that additional heroes meant we could be flexible in designing cohesive sets with strong themes.”
The first planned set from the winning entries will be Unmatched: Houdini vs. The Genie. Geresu and Crane have been working to further develop their decks with many of the other entrants in a private Discord channel with feedback from the Restoration team. “This whole experience has been a delight,” said Brad Dilley, one of the runner-up designers. “Everyone involved has been really encouraging and insightful. It blows my mind seeing all that goes into getting just one character published and I’m excited to share what we’ve all been working on.”
In addition to their winning submission, Dudick, with his design partner and dedicated tester, Peters, managed to pull off an amazing daily double: Their second entry was one of the other runners-up. Guberman has already made a name for himself in the Unmatched community with his web app at unmatched.cards, featuring a robust fan deck creator and more. More information about the winning designers and their decks will be revealed over the next few days.