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!

"I’m just not a big fan of politics in my Magic." I'm not sure what Commander has can be called "politics". With most players there are no alliances, no favor trading, and no grudges. There are just people you have to take out sooner, people you'd prefer to tackle later, and people who offer a rolling stream of symmetric effect benefits that make them more useful alive than dead (until you realize their mostly unmolested board is unassailable). It's not politics, just multiplayer competition.

Multiplayer competition *is* politics. Decisions are influenced by what people say to one another. That’s what “politics” in gaming means.

What colors get "Target player shuffles their library?" Thanks for answering our questions sir

That’s not an effect we want to do anymore. Red did it on the one card with just that affect (Alliances’ Soldier of Fortune- one of my earliest designs, by the way).

With regards to Simian Spirit Guide, the card it’s a riff of, Elvish Spirit Guide, was from Alliances. Alliances had a heavy Ape theme in red, so it’s an Ape because if it had originally been printed in Alliances, that the type it probably would have been.

Good point.

Hey Mark! Long time Blogatogger and MTG Player here (playing since Alliances! Never quit! :) ). I’m reading the recent Ninjutsu/Ninja posts and would like to ask you guys to please print new ninjas. If possible, an UB Legendary one. They are among my favourite creature types of all time and I keep hoping seeing new ones since forever.

I think we’ll eventually make more Ninjas. Also, I call Blogatog followers Question Marks rather than Blogatoggers.

In the beginning, a lot of set were designed by playtesting team. East Coast playtester; Antiquities + Ice Age Bridge Club; Mirage + Visions Peter Adkison rpg friends; Legends + Homeland What's the context behind Fallen Empire? Was it rushed like Arabian Night? It feel so weird and different than the other sets of its time. It is also very cohesive in flavor.

Fallen Empires was designed by the East Coast Playtesters (Skaff Elias, Jim Lin, Dave Petty & Chris Page), the same design team that did Antiquities, Ice Age & Alliances.

You keep calling Dominaria a return set. We didn't leave Dominaria for a number of years after Magic started. When did we finally actually "return"?

Alpha was in Dominaria.Left in Arabian Nights for Rabiah.Returned to Dominaria in Antiquities.Left again in Homelands for Ulgrotha. Returned in Alliances.Left again in Tempest for Rath.Returned in Urza’s Saga.Left again in Mercadian Masques for Mercadia.Returned in Prophecy.Left again for Mirrodin.Returned in Time Spiral.Left again in Lorwyn.

Hey Mark, I got engaged over the weekend. Any chance I could get some wedding advice, or some wedding related MTG trivia? : )

The Alliances card Exile was almost called Marriage of Convenience (with different art).Happy Birthday!

This complaint is probably a few years too late. But I really hate the multiple arts in alliances/homelands/fallen empires. Especially when the art is EXTREMELY similar. Anaba shaman for instance is almost the exact same art, just facing the other direction! Thanks for not doing that anymore.

We consider it an important experiment because we learned how much (most) players hated it.

What were the first cards you designed that saw print?

Three cards in Alliances:Gustha’s ScepterLibrary of Lat-banSoldier of Fortune