Of course, some people try to save time in other ways. We still make changes directly on cards within a deck, but we don't need to turn one deck into another any more just to ration blanks. Then cross that out and change it to Laquatus's Champion. Cross out Basking Rootwalla, change it to Rorix Bladewing. This Magic Arcana shows what happened then, and was not pretty. For a while we were really low on blank cards and had to reuse them. (He probably made four new decks since I started writing this article.) We tried to persuade him to use real card names for a while, but he ended up writing “Glaivemaster” for Auriok Steelshaper and “Voltron” for Auriok Glaivemaster, which was worse than whatever he was doing before. Paul is very particular, Matt a little less so, and Brian is all substance-over-form. I'll let the (cool) cat out of the bag: Developer A is newly anointed Magic Lead Developer Brian Schneider, Developer B is Matt Place, and Developer C is Paul Sottosanti. I'm sure I spend more time than is necessary on my proxy decks, but it really increases my own play experience. I, like many developers, keep a wide range of colored pens at my desk at all times. While this is not a proxy that I made, it is close to how I try to create them. The real name (for which the creative team thanks him dearly) is written neatly in the center, and the mana cost and P/T are also very readable from across the table. The green Sharpie clearly indicates that the card is green. The third proxy is by Developer C, and it is a thing of beauty. He also was kind enough to write the creature's power and toughness, so that if it gets into combat, the math is easier. Developer B has bigger handwriting, so at least you can tell it's called “Cool Cat,” and hopefully you'd remember what card Cool Cat was as well as what its abilities were. But his system does allow him to make and edit decks at breakneck speed. If you play against Developer A, be ready to ask him what his cards are five times per game.
But many playtest names just stick and R&D never stops using them. MTG Proxy Maker scrapes details of magic the gathering cards from the game from, and saves them to a pdf for easy printing. Developer A's proxy contains the bare minimum information he needs to play the card: a mana cost and the name he knows it by, “Cool Cat.” If you were wondering, this proxy was made long after Darksteel had gone to press and Cool Cat was given his real name. The card was known as “Cool Cat” during early development. All three are proxies of the same card, Darksteel's Viridian Zealot.