Amateur Auteur

Silver Border Card Reprints

Could some silver border cards like Amateur Auteur and target minotaur be made eternal if they got a reprint?

If either card was in Unfinity, it would have been eternal.

Amateur Auteur Eternal Minotaur Reprints Target Minotaur Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets

Silver Border and Black Border

If Silver Border sets had always allowed black-border cards, do you think cards like Target Minotaur and Amateur Auteur would've been black border? What about Crow Storm?

Yes. Storm Crow could have been black border, but we would have most likely raised the cost.

Amateur Auteur Black Border Crow Storm Minotaur Storm Crow Target Minotaur Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets

Functional Reprints and Borders

Functional reprints don't care about creature subtypes, but do they care about silver-border vs. Black border? Is Amateur Auteur a functional reprint of Felidar Cub?

No, border matters.

Amateur Auteur Black Black Border Card Printing Creatures Felidar Cub Reprints Subtype Un-sets

Universe & Magic Fiction

With Amateur Auteur being a thing, does it mean that the Magic fiction is also a fiction in Bablovia and the un-iverse?

Not all the Unstable cards take place in Bablovia. Spike, as an example, doesn’t live there.

Amateur Auteur Spike Unstable

Enchantment Removal

You said that cards like Amateur Auteur were added for limited. Given that most of the space that might normally be used by enchantments is used by contraptions and augment, I have found Auteur to rarely be useful. What's it's role supposed to be?

White needs enchantment removal for threats like Hazmat Suit.

Amateur Auteur Contraptions Enchantments Limited White

Graveyard Attack Rules

Mark, I need help. If a creature in a graveyard is attacking via Over My Dead Bodies, can it be sacrificed? An opponent tried to sacrifice their blocking, dead Amateur Auteur tonight to destroy the enchantment and we couldn't figure out if that works.

While attacking or blocking, dead creatures are treated as if they are on the battlefield, so yes, it can be sacrificed during combat assuming it attacks or blocks.

Amateur Auteur Attacking Blocking Creatures Destroy Enchantments Over My Dead Bodies Sacrifice The Graveyard

Theatre Trivia Celebrations

Hey Mark! One of my plays was selected as a semi-finalist for a conference next year, I was wondering if I could celebrate with some trivia on one of Magic’s nods to theatre? Amateur Auteur, Thespian Stage, or even a personal anecdote involving theatre.

Amateur Auteur almost has a different name - A 2/2 By Any Other Name. It looked awkward in the rules text so we changed it. Congratulations!

Amateur Auteur Appreciation Birthday Rules

Un-verse Musical Lore

Hey Mark, very important lore question about the un-verse! The people of Bablovia seems to have several musicals about major events in magic's regular storyline. Are they that? In other words the people of Bablovia knows about the Muti-verse magic's regular story takes place, OR are said musicals about the un-version of those events?

Amateur Auteur is one of the cards that doesn’t take place on Bablovia.

Amateur Auteur Story / Lore

Urza's Dramatic Scripts

Did Urza write the scripts for the Amateur Auteur's musicals?

Possibly. He does have a flair for drama.

Amateur Auteur Urza

Planeswalker Status

Is Amateur Auteur actually a planeswalker?

Maybe. : )

Amateur Auteur Planeswalkers

Amateur Auteur Location

Is Amateur Auteur on Bablovia? How does he know of the events of Magic's story?

Only about 85% of the cards are actually on Banlovia. The rest are elsewhere in the Un-inverse. Amateur Auteur is one such card.

Amateur Auteur Story / Lore

Appreciating Cryptic Command

Mark, I have to give it up for Very Cryptic Command, and all the variant cards. I thought VCC was a miss when it was spoiled, now it might be my favorite card in the set. And the Amateur Auteur versions are all hilarious! Amazing work.

Thank you. I thought you’d come around. : )

Amateur Auteur Appreciation Very Cryptic Command

Unstable Design Choice

In Unstable you have a few creatures like Amateur Auteur that are perfectly reasonable black boarder cards, other than maybe the name. What lead to the decision to let black border usable cards in an Un set?

It’s very hard to make simple silver-bordered cards, so I allowed myself a handful of black-bordered cards with silly creative to make limited work.

Amateur Auteur Black Black Border Creatures Limited Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets Unstable

Unstable's Black-Bordered Cards

Hi Mark. Some of the Unstable previews are slightly confusing to me. I thought the rule for un-cards was that they had to do something you couldn't do in black border, but Crow Storm, Curious Killbot and especially Amateur Auteur (which dosn't even have an odd creature type) are all very doable (and in some cases have in fact been done) in black border, Has the "rule" been relaxed for the sake of limited play?

Yes, making limited work required us to use a few simple black-borderedable cards at common.

Amateur Auteur Black Black Border Creatures Crow Storm Curious Killbot Keyword Abilities Limited Rules Spoilers Un-sets Unstable

Drafting Necessity Choices

I'm kind of disappointed to see cards like Amateur Auteur and Curious Killbot in Unstable, which are functionally identical to existing black-bordered cards. Am I correct in assuming these kinds of things were done to make the set more draftable? Was it something you tried to avoid but determined was necessary?

It was a necessity for limited play. There’s not a lot of them.

Amateur Auteur Black Curious Killbot Limited Unstable

Amateur Auteur Query

Amateur Auteur seems not-very-silver-bordered. Is there something I'm missing? I see the joke, but this is the first spoiled card to miss the bar for me.

We had to put in a few simple common cards for limited gameplay purposes. We gave them fun creative.

Amateur Auteur Game Play Humor Limited