Hi Mark, I just wanted to say that I’ve really been enjoying all the recent magic content. After not being someone who thought they’d like UB I’ve really enjoyed the LOTR and Assassin’s Creed sets and Bloomburrow might be my favorite plane now! That all being said, I’ve been trying to get a friend of mine back into magic after he took a hiatus for school and I know he’s a big Sliver fan and would instantly come back to the game if they were to present themselves again. I know you wouldn’t be able to share much, but is there anything about slivers in the pipeline so I can try to re-engage him?

I can’t talk about the future, but we are aware of the popularity of Slivers.

It's worth noting that Mark is of the old school, where Ra's Al Ghul is an ecoterrorist first, political assassin second. Batman Begins made him more focused on political manipulation, so more recent viewers/people who know Batman more from mass media releases and not older comics will bias towards that lens. (it's also worth noting that his insistence on finding the strongest/fittest heir/successor is *super* green)

This is correct.

Hi, Mark! I know you don't play a lot of Commander, but (I do and) you've said you design with it in mind. I have a weird request: At least in terms of Commander-design, can we see less "legendary matters," please? In 60c, it's neat to see how designs work when you only get the one, but in singleton format, it just means you're playing with above-rate cards, a "restriction" that isn't fun once players get a game out or at all for their opponents.Strangely, it's also one of the weaknesses I feel UB has. Because you all are trying to cram entire franchises into single products, there are an overabundance of named, legendary cards. As such, we see a lot of "legendary matters" themes (WHO and ACR quickly come to mind). I really do think that UB products would benefit by being "deckmaster" products with multiple sets to allow full exploration of the IP and give them more time to breathe (though I'm sure there are issues with that proposal I haven't yet considered).Thank you for answering our questions honestly, informatively, and kindly!

We are trying to be more carful how often we go to the “legendary matters” well.

Do you have any insight as to why the team for ACR went with "freerunning" as the mechanic vs using "prowl" and making the spells "kindred instant/sorcery - Assassin"? Obviously with the commander clause its different, but they've talked about how that was added later on.

We use kindred very infrequently.

"Yeah, we showed cards from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, the next set, but everyone wanted to talk about Bloomburrow." Not to give you too hard a time, but this is simply not true. Going back to the Chicago preview panel. the four sets you previewed cards from got the following time: Bloomburrow: ~9m (2:20-11:10), Assassin's Creed: ~11m(11:10-22:00), MH3: ~15m(22:00-36:40), OTJ: ~15m (36:40-51:00). Today, Bloomburrow got 5 total minutes compared to Duskmourn's 25.

So, Bloomburrow got even less time at Chicago and was 95% of what people online wanted to talk with me about the panel.The messages we got from people was they didn’t understand what Duskmourn was, so we spent some time on that to help people understand. The reason we have to do it early is so stores understand how much to order, which is key on having a sense from their players if they’re interested.

I'm really struggling to understand this:Assassin's Creed didn't get Commander precons and instead got two 60-card starter decks to introduce them to 60-card formats.While Modern Horizons 3, a set that is dedicated to possibly the most popular 60-card format, got Commander precons?

Universes Beyond can function as a good entry for new players, so we made starter decks for them. Modern Horizons sets are for players who like high complexity and nostalgia. Many Commander players fall squarely into that audience.

We know non-draftable small sets have been shelved for Magic lore based sets after the failure of Aftermath. If Assassin's Creed does really well, do you think WotC might do more non-draftable small sets for UB releases? If Assassin's Creed does really, really well would you possibly reconsider them for in lore sets?

We do market research, so we can learn whether or not people like non-draftable sets exclusive to how well an individual set sells.

Why do a starter deck for assassins creed? The starter decks are intended for players just starting out but the assasins creed cards are modern legal so the complexity and power level should be for more advanced players. You didn't do commander decks for this product when they made way more sense than mh3

Beginners can play cards that are Modern legal. : )

i've waited years for more Assassin typal support, and am disappointed that probably all of the design space for that type has been eaten up by a product I have zero interest in ever playing. Will some of these AC cards be reprinted as real Magic cards at some point? I remember that was originally the plan with UB content.

That’s the plan with Universes Beyond Secret Lair products with original designs.

Oh, Hi Mark, I just wanted to say as an Assassin typal EDH player, I think, having commanders included in Free Running is great design and makes cards that otherwise have only 1 use case, in assassin decks, worth a second look for any aggressive EDH deck (in appropriate colours).

: )