Hi, Mark! In 2017, you wrote an Odds & Ends article for Amonkhet. In that article, someone asked why a Desert-typed Evolving Wilds wasn't made and the short of it was it didn't occur to the designers. Now that OTJ brought back deserts, it appears that card also didn't make it. Do you think there's a chance we could one day see a Desert Evolving Wilds? Thank you!

I’m not sure how much space Evolving Wilds have for added value.

Some Magic-inspired stories, all about bonding with my son, who is now 7-and-a-half: I don’t remember what I did first to get him interested in Magic, but it was probably playing with my friend Max, who taught me and my now-wife how to play - but I know Duels of the Planeswalkers on Xbox 360 helped get my son into the game with the effects and music but especially archenemy variant and a Nicol Bolas final match.In the years since then, he and I occasionally get to talking about his favorite creature types and characters, and after quite some time, we have slowly narrowed down his choices to 4: Spiders, Zombies with Liliana, Nicol Bolas, and Niv-Mizzet. Not surprisingly, two of Magic’s most common dragons in that list. I don’t know what it is with dragons but I’m glad WotC had realized their appeal so they’re prominently there for my son to enjoy, and with quite a few options so he may get a Nicol Bols dragon deck that’s much different than any dragon deck I have tried to make myselfThanks to War of the Spark, I finally created a Horde Magic deck and he loved hearing about the storyline of Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation leading up to the actual WAR set, as I explained those stories using key cards before we started the game, to establish the setting. Coincidentally, it was my son with his Gideon that ultimately dealt the final blow - no need to sacrifice himself the way it played out in our match! My son will still reference this game and it’s nearly been a year.Also since that time I learned that the classic Planeswalker webcomics had been bundled as graphic novels, so I got those and our nighttime routine for a bit was to read about Garruk’s corruption by Liliana and that build up to Rise of the Eldrazi and Mirrodin Besieged; coincidentally we finished as March of the Machine previews were going on, and my villain-loving son is now waiting for me to build a Phyrexian horde so he can battle Elesh Norn. We look forward to many more years with the game, and especially learning what comes next for some of our favorite still-active villains: Ashiok, Oko, and Tezzeret!

Thanks for sharing.

Why are Embalmed/Eternalized seperate mechanics? I understand for lore reasons the Eternalized are Embalmed infused with Lazotep, but it is a bit confusing to play with, not to mention the weird scarcity of each card's corresponding token.When/If a return to Amonkhet, will both mechanics still be used? Or would there be a redesign of the mechanics, ala Morph/Megamorph > Disguise?

They weren’t quite the same, so they needed different names. I’m not sure if either returns, as the world the represented is fundamentally changed.

Hi Mark,
How many players ask for more stuff to be set on existing (or different) planes, but the stuff is different to what the hat of that plane is?
Like the wild wasteland/crime set could have been possibly retooled to fit on New Capenna outside the city.
I really enjoyed that Caverns expanded the world of Ixalan. I would also like to see one of the other continents/new locations on Innistrad, or Ixalan, or Arcavios, or some ancient ruins outside the (former) Hekma on Amonkhet.

We’re experimenting with new mechanical themes on old worlds. It worked well with The Lost Caverns of Ixalan and less well in Murders at Karlov Manor. We’ll do more.

With the return of deserts was there any consideration to making desert a super type like snow? And does it being a land type instead present a hurdle to deserts with the basic land types being printed? I would have been over the moon with the Amonkhet cycling lands having the desert type and still feel they should have.

There was no consideration of making Desert a supertype. Deserts and basic land types can commingle.

Hi Mark, I hope you're well. I was wondering, can we expect a return to Amonkhet any time soon? It was the current set when I started playing, and it was awsome to see it, albeit briefly, durring the phyrexian invasion.

If the right set comes along, we’ll consider it.

Is there a reason that in the past few years almost every new plane we’ve seen has been top-down? I think you said at some point that New Capenna was bottom up, but even that still CLEARLY was going for and was inspired by a specific flavor. When I think of that set I see it as just “outside in” not bottom up or top down. In the past decade, the new planes we got full sets for were, in order: Fiora(bottom up), tarkir(I thought bottom up but I saw something recently that said you had initially started with the idea of clans that represent the different traits of a dragon so I guess topdown?), Kaladesh(seems topdown), Amonkhet (topdown), Ixalan (top down), Kylem(I think I remember Gavin saying this was topdown at some point but it seems bottom up to me), Eldraine (topdown), Ikoria (seems bottom up but honestly I’ve got no clue), Kaldheim (topdown), Arcavios (bottom up), Kamigawa (I know it’s technically not a new plane but it’s so radically different from old Kamigawa that I’m counting it. Also this was topdown), and New Capenna (previously mentioned). Seemingly more topdown sets than bottom up ones. And when you look at all the returning planes in those years, it’s the same pattern. Even if the plane’s design originally wasn’t topdown, like dominaria or ravnica, the returns felt as though they were focused on “look at this plane!” As opposed to “look at this design space!”. Even when the return isn’t focused on the plane, like the recent set murders at Karlov manor, it’s still feels more focused on flavor than function. That’s not to say that topdown sets are bad or poorly designed, just that it feels like more and more planes and sets are “how do we mechanically represent this flavor” and fewer and fewer seem to be “how do we flavorfully represent this mechanic”. I don’t really know what my question is, but I just wanted to hear what you have to say about that

Top down vs. bottom up is a design term talking about what part of the design you start with. Every set has flavor and mechanics, and by the time it goes to print, they’re interconnected, so you, the audience, shouldn’t know whether it was top down or bottom up if we’ve done our job well. Which apparently we have as many of the sets you listed as top down were bottom up. : )

Do you think a return to amonkhet is possible? Most of the world was destroyed even before March of the machine

I do think it’s possible.

I've been reading this blog for so very long and come to the conclusion that I rarely like the things most enfranchised players like (ravnica, innistrad, squirrels, etc) and the things I really do like (devoid mechanic, homarids, amonkhet, etc) tend to be rarely embraced by the masses. I just want to thank the designers and you for consistently making new fun weird stuff for the weirdos like me to enjoy. (Francisco, Fowl marauder recently) so thank you. And happy new year. Magic is doing well.

You’re welcome. Part of making Magic is making a whole swath of designs so everyone gets stuff they love.

"Zombie feels like a when," - I think Amonkhet was your Zombie set -> every color had access to zombies via Embalm and Eternalize; with most being White/Green/Blue (and black of course having normal zombies.)

Zombie Apocalypse seems such a staple of pop culture, that I assume one day we’ll do our spin on it.