Restoration Angel is one of, if not my favorite Magic card, so can you give high fives to the people involved in making Salvation Swan.

Can do.

I would like to invoke the rite of birthday trivia to request something about my favorite character, Avacyn!

From time to time we have what we call “brain to print” cards where a cards gets to print in the exact form it was designed. Avacyn, Angel of Hope was one such card. I made it in early vision design, and it never changed (I think they tried different mana costs, but ended back at where I started).Happy Birthday!

Wizards has introduced almost 30 black angels, even though they're usually described as manifestations of white mana. I don't have a problem with this except yall have only made 5 white demons, 3 of which are from New Capenna! Any thoughts on why, and can I get a maybe on more white angels in the future?

I can promise more white Angels.

If/when Angels without flying?

If. It needs a strong flavor reason.

Apparently losing your wings wasn’t enough. : )

Concerning power creep, there may be a comparison and distinction to be made between distorting a format and adding relevant cards to a format. If a card is relevant, it shows up in decks, right? Maybe even a lot of decks. That's good for a format-relevant product. Otherwise, why even make the product?But then what is the delineating mark between format change (good) and format distortion (bad)?One could argue that Serra Angel is an example of format change. Arguably obsolete, nobody is really objecting to the card's irrelevance in eternal formats.So. What is that dividing line? Is formst chsnge just 'distortion over time'? I would argue that healthful change is oft misperceived as power creep, but it took a lot of cards in Commander before we figured out that '2 MV ramp and repeating value' were the prime culprits in accelerating the casual format beyond its 'battlecruiser Magic' roots.I'm not making a big argument one way or another, just trying to stimulate a brain or two..

For starters you’re not using “power creep” as I use it on this blog, but for the sake of saying the same thing for the tenth time, I understand you mean the increase of cards impacting older environments. You bring up the other thing we haven’t been talking about. Card influx talks in neutral terms. Add N relevant cards and impact the environment a particular amount. The faster you add N, the quicker it changes. The sets designed for older formats aren’t adding in cards neutrally though. They are adding in suites of cards built around particular mechanical themes. Adding in whole suites of cards changes environments more quickly as the threshold to make a deck theme relevant gets hit more quickly. That’s the other big impact of designing for a format. It causes you to impact it faster as you are designing whole swaths of mechanical pieces, not just cards. That’s very relevant to the topic at hand.

Hey Mark, can I get a maybe on Changeling (the mechanic) in Bloomburrow?

Maybe. : )

Does Bloomburrow prove that a typal-themed set doesn’t need changeling to work? Or will Changeling stick around for typal sets with heavier creature type emphasis?

The as-fan of typal themes is a lot lower than sets like Lorwyn or Ixalan. “Here’s a snippet from my article today that touches upon this:To give you a sense of what I mean by a sprinkling, here are the typal rewards for Frogs:

• A common that costs less if you have a Frog
• An uncommon sorcery with a rider if you have a Frog
• An uncommon land with an effect that helps Frogs
• An uncommon land and a rare creature that cares if a Frog entered the battlefield this turn
• An uncommon creature and a rare creature that grant Frogs an ability
• A rare creature that cares about casting Frogs

The number of typal cards can vary slightly, but that will give you a rough idea of the as-fan I’m talking about.”Here’s a link to the whole article:

The Bloom of the Burrow, Part 1

If/when: nontoken card with usually-token subtypes (such as Army, Blood, or Role)

We’ve made artifact cards that are Clue and Food, so Blood could happen. Army wants to stay only on tokens made by Amass as it causes balance issues if we start making Army cards. (I realize Changeling exists.) Roles probably want to stay on tokens as it conveys token-ness.

Has it ever been considered to reword ability granting lords to say "CARDNAME and other creatures get..." instead of the current system of saying its effect twice? So say Lyra Dawnbringer would say "Lyra Dawnbringer and other angels have lifelink"

I don’t think that has been considered.

Will we ever get an Angel themed commander precon? I have gotten my hopes up every year since the Ur Dragon Precon released.

I assume one day.