Curious what you perceive to be white's unique abilities/identity? I'm just curious what white's strengths are that aren't as good (if not better) in green.

Effects primary in white: (green isn’t strong in current color pie in things that are bolded)

• +1/+1 counter (creation and caring)
• Animating Enchantments (Target/all non-aura enchantment(s) you control becomes an enchantment creature.)
• Banisher Priest-like effects (When this card enters the battlefield, exile target creature/permanent until this card leaves play.)
• Bring back creatures/permanents that went to the graveyard this turn
• Can’t be attacked. (Creatures can’t attack you.)
• Can’t lose the game and opponents can’t win.
• Destroy target attacking or blocking creature.
• Destroy target creature. Its controller gets compensation.
• Destroy target creature that damaged you or a creature you control this turn.
• Destroy target tapped creature.
• Destroy target creature with power ¾ or greater.
• Destroy all creatures.
• Destroy all creatures with power ¾ or greater.
• +N/+N (on Auras)
• -N/+N (on spells)
• -N/+N (on Auras)
• +0/+N (on creatures)
• +0/+N (on spells)
• +0/+N (on Auras)
• +N/+N to your team, one-shot
• +N/+N to your team, ongoing
• Damage prevention (Prevent the next N damage that would be dealt to target creature/player.)
• Damage redirection (Prevent the next N damage that would be dealt to target creature/player this turn. If damage is prevented in this way, this card deals that much damage to target creature/player.)
• Defender
• Deal N damage to target attacking or blocking creature.
• Double strike
• Enchantment destruction
• “Enchantress” ability (Whenever you play an enchantment, draw a card.)
• Exiling cards from graveyard
• First strike
• “Flicker” (Exile target creature/permanent, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control—occasionally the creature/permanent returns at the end of the turn.)
• Flying
• Friendly to artifacts
• Friendly to enchantments
• Friendly to legendary permanents
• Friendly to low mana value cards
• Friendly to planeswalkers
• “Gaseous Form” (This creature neither deals nor receives damage.)
• Indestructible
• Life gain
• Lifelink
• “Meddling” (Name a spell. That spell can’t be played as long as this card is on the battlefield.)
• Pacifism-like effect (Enchanted creature cannot attack or block.)
• Preventing actions (Your opponents can’t cast spells this turn.)
• Protection
• Putting enchantments from hand onto the battlefield
• Putting planeswalkers from hand onto the battlefield
• “Reanimate” permanent (Return a permanent card from a graveyard to the battlefield.)
• “Reanimation” (Return a creature card from a graveyard to the battlefield.)
• Return target artifact from graveyard to hand.
• Return target enchantment from graveyard to hand.
• Rules setting
• Tapping creatures
• Taxing
• Token generation
• “Tutor” for an enchantment. (Search your library for an enchantment card and put that card in your hand.)
• “Tutor” for a planeswalker. (Search your library for a planeswalker card and put that card in your hand.)
• Vigilance
• Ward (for mana)
• “Warlord” (This creature’s power and toughness are equal to the number of creatures you control.)

Could Blue do a banisher priest style Pongify effect?

It’s not something we’ve done yet, but maybe. The key to blue’s transformations now is they’re temporary or undoable.

With "Out of Time" in mind, how do you feel about phasing vs exile for Banisher Priest–like effects?

We’re experimenting with phasing. They each have different strengths.

Hello Mark! Has the question of Banisher Priest effects in Green been permanently shelved? That seems to me a much better realisation of 'creature-dependent creature removal' than ETB Fight effects, which can often feel like a straight-up kill spell

I lost that fight with Big Bad Wolf.

Many of the colored artifacts of Eldraine would make sense as enchantments, such as glass casket. Did you consider making them enchantment artifacts or is that status reserved for Theros?

The point of Glass Casket was to make a Oblivion Ring/Banisher Priest that played in different space (and matched the flavor). We’ve done it as an enchantment and a creature. We were interested trying it as an artifact.

"jchinnjr asked: Hi Mark! What was the reason for Banisher Priest effects being canceled in Green?" "I was trying something I thought was very flavorful in Throne of Eldraine. I prematurely put it into the Mechanuc Color Pie article, and it never gained traction in R&D and got changed." So they don't think green needs/should have that mechanic? I'm curious about what sort of hang ups it met with and how it differed from white banisher priest as you tried to implement it.

I’ll try to talk about it when Throne of Eldraine is all public.

Speaking of the Mechanical Color Pie article, you had Banisher Priest effects as secondary in Green. I don't think we've seen any Green creature do that since you wrote it, so is it safe to assume we'll be seeing this it soon?

No, it’s not happening. I was a bit premature and it got cut.

Related to the question about keywording the Banisher Priest ability, there are currently 10 cards with a variant of it in Standard, compared to 16 that mention Fighting. It's a fairly common mechanic, I think you could word it as something like "When X enters the battlefield, trap target nonland permanent". I feel that gets the meaning across fairly well.

Keywording fight saves a lot more text.

Is the ‘Green is Secondary in Banisher Priest effects’ experiment something that never materialized, just something we haven’t seen yet, or something else?

It’s still a work in progress, but things aren’t looking great.

In your Mechanical Color Pie article, you say that Green is Secondary in "Banisher Priest-like effects". I can't seem to find any example of cards like this and was wondering how it fit into Green's slice of the pie?

It was a bit future looking.