Hi Mark,

Is there anything that is a color pie break about the card Avacyn, Angel of Hope?

If not, can you please make more mono white creatures that have very high power like her. I feel that in Commander, there aren't that many white creatures that are really big threats and win conditions in the form of combat. I want to see more really big white creatures where if you get hit by them just once or twice, it's really back breaking.

I mention this because I notice that when I build mono White decks in Commander, I sometimes have difficulties coming up with combat oriented win conditions that don't involve going wide with tokens or relying on colorless equipment.

So for this reason, can you please make more creatures like Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Serra's Emissary or even Moonshaker Cavalry?

Thank you.

Avacyn’s in color pie. We don’t do a lot of big white creatures, but we can do a few from time to time.

What's the reasoning behind cards that have "X, other permanents you control have X" instead of justing printing "permanents you control have X"? Kinda like Avacyn, Angel of Hope could just say "permanents you control have indestructible".

We have found over time that players process the former better than the latter.

Hi Mark, today is my birthday. Can I ask for some trivia about my favorite MTG character Avacyn?

I designed Avacyn, Angel of Hope pretty early in design and, other than the mana cost, I don’t think the card changed between the initial design and print. That doesn’t happen all that often. Happy Birthday!

Was the hard "no" for a 7 black mana Grislebrand because R&D wanted to keep the same CMC as Avacyn, Angel of Hope or some other reason? I would think such a question would normally fall under your usual "not a developer" clause.

Development looked into making it seven mama and it wasn’t feasible.

Hey Maro, can I have some birthday trivia on either of my favorite two cards, Bitterblossom or Avacyn, Angel of Hope?

When I made Bitterblossom, I was inspired by the card Phyrexian Arena. The Tribal - Faerie was an afterthought when I realized it made Faerie tokens. Happy Birthday!

Did you guys ever consider making cards during Innistrad/Dark Ascension that referenced "Avacyn, Angel of Hope" by name in order to accentuate the fact that Avacyn being gone had severely weakened the power of the Priests?

I thought we had.

Why do cards nowadays, such as avacyn, say "Avacyn, Angel of Hope and other permanents are indestructible." instead of saying the much cooler and more terse "Permanents you control are indestructible?" Wouldn't that be cool?

Perhaps cooler but harder for players to parse. We’ve tried it both ways and the data’s pretty clear.

Can you confirm that Avacyn, Angel of Hope will be in the next set?

Yes, yes I can.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope seems like an awesome design. Very splashy and flavorful. Just curious, is there a reason she is mono-white rather than B/W like her creator, Sorin?

She was created to preserve law and order in Innistrad, a very white motivation. The reason she isn’t black is that she has no black-ness to her. Just because Sorin made her doesn’t mean she is exactly like him.