You said in a recent ask: "[UB] isn't Magic to you. And that's a fine stance. You get to define what Magic is to you. Play with whatever Magic cards you feel embody Magic. But you don't get to define that unilaterally. To many people Universes Beyond cards are Magic."You also compared UB cards to Un-cards, but that is not really a fair comparison.I only have control over my decks, I do not and cannot control what other people put in their decks (which is a good thing!). I can choose not to put UB cards in my deck, but in a tournament my opponent could have a deck with only UB cards and if I was adamant about not playing with them, I'd have to just drop out. Silver boarder cards are different because you do get to choose to participate in a game with them. Before the game, the person who wants to play with silver boarder cards has to ask if the other players are ok with that. That is not the case with UB. You either put up with UB or you don't get to play.

There are many things in Magic that players don’t like, yet encounter in other people’s decks. For example, there are many players who don’t like horror imagery. There are ones than dislike things that pull too far away from fantasy. There are ones that don’t like when cards get too cutesy.Part of playing Magic has always been that you craft the kind of deck you want and your opponent does the same. And if they play things you are unhappy with, that’s part of the communal experience. If you care enough, you can play with people who share your sensibilities. But the idea that a player is protected from the parts of the game they dislike has never been true since the game premiered 31 years ago.

What other worlds besides Eldraine have a big enough mono color theme where Adamant could be a fit?

Shadowmoor. : )

With our impending return to Eldraine, I'd like to go to bat for my favorite mechanic from the plane: Adamant. I never saw it get much attention from the player base, and I noticed the ability only appeared on commons and uncommons. Is that regular, for a new mechanic to not get expressed at rare? What were Adamant's problems at rare/mythic?

It was a tricky mechanic, in the environment at the time, to push for constricted.

I didn't like adamant, but it wasn't because of the mechanic in a vacuum, just that almost all the cards that had it felt worthless; most of them were merely okay if you made the requirement and absolutely awful if you didn't. It could have been pushed a bit more.

If you only like a mechanic if it’s pushed, you don’t like the mechanic, you like the power level.

Love your storm scale article! Just wanted to say that I'm one of the players who adore Adamant; I find mono-color to be an incredibly thrilling challenge to build and like when I am rewarded for meeting the challenge.

I think Adamant could return, but it will require the set where it’s the right fit.

"Likewise, we’ve done numerous Hackathons to create new product ideas that we scrapped because we didn’t think they were viable." This is very interesting. Are you able to share a tidbit of an example where this happened?

For example, we tried a version of Legacy Magic where cards get stickered and permanently change for future games. We did some market research, and players were pretty adamant about not wanting to permanently “harm” cards.

I'm going to cheat and ask two questions at once! Blasphemy! 1. Are there any plans on making any cards from Unglued, Unhinged, Unstable and Unsanctioned eternal legal to follow the example of Unfinity? 2. Do you think this might work: An entire set where the base cost of cards is generic mana, but utilizes color in the rules text (à la kicker, adamant, overload, activated abilities, etc)

1. We’re not doing it in conjunction with Unfinity, but if Unfinity does well, it’s something we might consider for the future.2. It would require the right set, but sure, it’s a possibility.EDIT: For #2, I believe it could be a theme. I doubt the whole set would be that as we don’t do “everything is ______” gimmick sets any more.

Maro, I'm curious about some of the things you've said about Tarkir. You're very adamant that the clans still exist, yet the stories showed that the "clans" are now ruled by the dragons, to the point of changing their colour identities (Removing Ancestor Worship from the Abzan, slaughtering all the dragonslayers of the Jeskai). From the point of view of the players, it feels like the clans are dead, destroyed a thousand years ago and replaced by draconic lineages.Is it actually true that the clans live on on modern Tarkir, or are they just draconic lineages that have clan members in them?

The knowledge of the clans exists in the new timeline. Will anyone act on that knowledge to rekindle the old clans as we know them? We’ll have to wait and see.

I've noticed that we see very little of mechanics like Devotion or Adamant being played in Standard. Is "mechanic playability" something Set/Vision design actively considers, or is that more of a Play Design thing?

That’s more play design. Vision design has zero control of that. Well, other than there is some general pressure to push some theme/cards of the set for constructed formats.

Is feedback on Eldraine still useful now? I want to commend Golden Egg for being a 10/10 Mel card. It supports SO MANY draft archetypes at the same time. Enchantments and Artifact matters, draw 2nd card, Food and Adamant!

Feedback on any set is always welcome.