Did Bloomburrow ever have more Equipment that it does right now? Between Blacksmith's Talent and the Valiant mechanic, I'd imagine it would be easier to drop a few more Equipment in the set for increased synergy.

The set had a lot to fit in. There’s a good chance set design tried a larger as-fan of equipment at some point.

What was the goal behind the hybrid commons in bloomburrow? This set doesn't seem to have either the strong multicolor focus or the strong monocolor focus that tends to necessitate that kind of thing in limited

It gets the as-fan of creature types up.

If/when: A set with a 'basic evergreen keywords matter' theme? Like "creatures you control with Lifelink get +1/+1" or "gets +1/+0 for each creature you control with haste", that sort of thing.

If. The as-fan of most creature keywords (with flying being the big exception) is just too low to mechanically care about them in limited.

Have you received or seen any feedback on the power level of rares/mythics in OTJ and their high as-fan?

I get feedback on most everything.

Hey MarkHave the mechanic development group ever considered developing a set around enhancing the card pool for under-supported mechanics? Riku of Many Paths has caused quite a stir and realization that, while modal is a pretty broad reoccurring event among Magic cards (it's an evergreen design for sure), there's a lot of mechanics that aren't even deciduous that people loved that could use some increased card support.

We reuse mechanics when they make sense and when reusing a mechanic we can make cards that mechanically care about it (if it makes sense). I don’t see us caring mechanically about keywords that aren’t at a high enough as-fan in the set. What caring about modal cards shows is we can mechanically care about things that are a normal part of most sets, if there is enough definition for the game to identify them.

Hi Mark! Thanks for the “Nuts and Bolts” article today, it was very informative!I have two questions:1) Is this the skeleton that was used for MKM? Has there been changes to the skeleton for the following sets?2) Now that the as-fan of cards has changed, and we are expected to see more uncommons and rares than before, does the phrase “if your theme is not at common, then it’s not your theme” still apply as strongly as before?

1. This is the current skeleton, not what MKM used.
2. You’re theme more has to be at a high enough as-fan.

"It varies mechanic to mechanic, but they don’t score any lower as a group against other mechanics. Some, like Monarch, are quite popular."People are criticizing the helper card mechanics because they are very complex, require specific varied tracking and they are virtually impossible to play with unless you constantly refer to helper card (compared to most cards that you can understand by simply reading its oracle text or reminder text).The Monarch doesn't have any of those issues. It's an elegant and masterfully designed mechanic.

The Monarch is very simple and straightforward, so much so that the oracle text from The Monarch token could fit as reminder text on several monarch cards. That can't be said about Day/Night, The Initiative, Venture in the Dungeon, Rad counters or Tempted by the Ring.

I've probably looked at the double sided Tempted by the Ring helper token over 100 times and I can't confidently tell someone exactly how the mechanic works if I don't have the helper token to read from. It's an extremely complex and multifaceted mechanic. I would say more complicated and wordy than 98% of other Magic mechanics. Can you please make more "outside of the game" helper card style mechanics that are easy to comprehend and intuitive?The Monarch and Ascend are examples of mechanics like this. More of that please!

The more complex mechanics that create outside of the game elements are intimidating (i.e. Venture into the Dungeon, Tempted by the Ring, The Initiative, Day/Night) and in my experience, they slow down the game because players can't understand them easily.Lastly, I'm offering this feedback as a major Magic enthusiast and long time veteran player who also plays with experienced players regularly. I can't even begin to imagine how daunting these types of mechanics must feel for novice players!

I talk a lot about how different players enjoy different aspects of the game. What I talk far less about is different players struggle with different aspects. Some can’t handle excessive processing; some have issues with sequencing; some don’t understand the nuances of the rules; some aren’t good with memory. My best guess with you is you internalize (aka work from memory) card abilities most of the time, so cards which exceed your ability to memorize cause you issues.Because players see the game through the lens of their own experience, the feedback they tend to give is “stop doing thing X” because thing X is the element that they personally struggle with. The challenge is there are players that don’t struggle with that element of the game and thus enjoy thing X. For example, my biggest note on this blog about dungeons isn’t they’re too hard to process, but there aren’t enough of them. So, it’s a balance. We need to understand the ways in which people struggle and help accordingly where we can. I agree that we need to be cautious how complex and wordy we are on elements off the card. And we have to be careful how often we use that tool. Now there is a threshold where enough players struggle, that we have to question if a particular aspect is worth it. I don’t think we’re there yet with external game pieces, but I do loudly hear the note that we have to be better with as-fan of the helper cards showing up. The note that we need to auto-include more helper cards in the prerelease kits is also a strong one.So yes, I’m aware that outside game pieces come at a real cost for a certain type of player, and it is something we have to keep in mind when designing them. I personally think we could have simplified Tempted by the Ring a bit, for example, but I do think it was right to include in the product. Thanks for your feedback.

Do you think it’s possible to execute a set with BFZ’s as-fan of Eldrazi well? Suppose we one day visit the Eldrazi’s home plane, if such a thing exists. I know the current conclusion is that they’re best in small doses.

I’m skeptical.

While I definitely understand reducing the as-fan and amount of legendary creatures since its been fairly high for a long while I will say making the signpost cards uncommon legendary creatures tended to make it immediately obvious what the signpost cards were which helped a lot when drafting a set for the first few times or for inexperienced drafters so a bit sad to see that communicative tool being set aside somewhat.

The uncommon gold signposts still exist.

Would it be viable to make a set where the mechanical identity is card types mattering? I imagine the most obvious way to make this happen would make 5 factions that each take a card type. Instant and sorcerys would probably have to share a faction.

Making the as-fan work would be problematic. You need a high enough volume to make “______ matters” work. Doing multiple non-creature types is tricky.