"Is "Artifactfall" something realistic to expect considering how many Treasures, Clues and Food makers exist these days?" "It would have to take artifact token making into account." It seems to me that, regardless of how aggressively or unagressively you costed it, the "smart" way to play such an effect would be using tokens rather than actual artifact cards, since they're cheaper. Correct me if I'm wrong. Assuming I'm right, wouldn't it be better if the mechanic specified "non-token?"

We did Alliance and didn’t feel the need to say nontoken, and we make more creature tokens than artifact tokens.

Mark, is Garruk in on some plan that we'll see soon? It would be interesting for an alliance between Garruk and Liliana to investigate what Jace is up to... 🤔🤔🤔

I believe we’ll see Garruk again.

For your top 20 (non-evergreen) mechanics I noticed none were from this decade. What would you say is the best new mechanic from this decade so far?

Note that I would pick the mechanic that started a trend. Foretell is an awesome more recent mechanic, but Morph is the first to use face down as a resource, so I chose that for the talk.Amass, while not technically from this decade, is only five years old. Mechanics I really like from this decade include: alliance, backup, collect evidence, connive, corrupted, decayed, enlist, escape, foretell, incubate, learn/lesson, magecraft, mutate (although it has its complexity issues), party, prototype, reconfigure, role tokens, and shield counters.

Hey Mark, where does Alliance sit on the storm scale? I really enjoyed it and would love to see it again :)

It’s a 4. I expect to see it again.

On one of the Trivia Contest Attraction variants: what all fits in the category of “named mechanics”? Would things like Alliance and Pack Tactics count? Or keyword abilities like reach or double strike?

Keywords and ability words all count.

Does WOTC consider Samut Gruul or Naya-aligned?

She’s red/green.

When you cut a keyworded mechanic like Smuggle or the "two creatures enter the battlefield" version of Alliance, how often do the old designs stick around in a slightly modified or keyword-spelled-out form?

It varies. It has to do with how much gameplay that variant enables.

May I please have some birthday trivia on apes in Magic?

For a long time all Simians were creature type Ape, but a few years ago we added Monkey. All the playtest cards in Alliances, by the way, had the word “Monkey” in the title. They were rebelling against the story having sentient gorillas in it. Happy Birthday!

On the topic of a visual identity for allies: Would it be possible to give them some kind of banner or logo (à la rebel alliance). A watermark would be ideal to highlight them, but it could also show up on card arts.

Locking it in art is tricky because then it prevents play design from adding or subtracting the Ally creature type as a means to strengthen or weaken cards and balance play environments.

I know your hands are red and blistered at this point, but could i get one last round of high fives for the team? I was able to play with the Draw 2 deck today at the prerelease after opening 3 Improbable Alliance, and this is the first time ive ever enjoyed a non constructed format so much. Truly just an awesome expirience.

Sure. Ow. Ow.