As someone who loves Universes Beyond and the Princess Bride, I can’t emphasise enough how little I want the Secret Lair drop. If you make a UB card, I want something mechanically representative, not a skin of a card that was designed for something else. I love that Battle of Wits is in there; but the rest of the lair… Vizzini has nothing to do with the character. Maybe I could get on board if he was a reskin of Atris since he makes you pick between two piles, one face up and the other face down but… Inigo is Samut?I don’t want these cards because they don’t feel like the characters they represent. I understand that people don’t want “mechanically unique universes beyond cards” but those people don’t want universes beyond cards. They want MtG canon equivalents. So doesn’t it make sense to make them unique and then make mtg versions of ones in demand?I know you’re trying to appeal to two diametrically opposed groups but for me, I’m sorry to say this is a big miss.

How do others feel about “reskins”, aka existing Magic cards reskinned for elements of another property?

I was reading an old Daily MTG article ("The Magic Style Guide Part 1) and I found a quote from a 2005 style guide that I think you'll find interesting: "Magic is a head-to-head battle of wits in which two spellcasting warriors fight to the death with magic and armies of bad-ass creatures. Every card illustration should work in that context: active, aggressive, cool, wicked, “edgy.” The word “magepunk” works for us. Remember, your audience is BOYS 14 and up." Goes to show how MTG has evolved.

I remember those days. The brand team was worried Squirrels weren’t “bad-ass” enough, so I made this art description:

May I request Battle of Wits be reprinted in a future core set?

Sure.

Hi Mark! My birthday question got lost in the many asks you received yesterday. What is your favorite alternative win condition card?

Probably Battle of Wits if I had to pick a single card. Poison is probably my favorite alt-win condition.

Hey Maro, for my birthday could you give me some trivia about your favorite alternate win condition?

Battle of Wits was originally part of an alternate win condition cycle that ran through Odyssey block.Happy Birthday!

Yesterday (Today in your time) is my birthday. Can I get a trivia for Approach of the Second Sun or alto-wincon in general?

Odyssey block had a cycle of alternative win conditions that ran through the entire block. Battle of Wits was the blue part of the cycle. Happy Birthday!

Can we please have the official rule that constructed decks must be exactly 60/15 cards total? As a humble Mill planeswalker I find it very unfair that every other "resource" is clearly defined alongside thousands of other rules... except how big your deck can be?! R&D play-testing is done with 60 right? And if a player attempts to mill a card from an empty library it should be a loss immediately. Burn doesn't give you an extra upkeep to try and regain some life, and mill is hard enough as is!

That’s just something you have to deal with as a mill player. Just hope you never face a Battle of Wits deck. : )

Any plans for say an Amusement Park style set with alot of alternate win condition cards in the set?

Odyssey had a cycle run through the block (what R&D calls a mega-cycle) of alternate win conditions. Battle of Wits is part of that mega-cycle.

Hey Mark, today is my birthday and I was wondering if you had any trivia on my favorite card, battle of wits.

Most people don’t realize that Battle of Wits is part of a cycle. The five cards were spread across the entire Odyssey block.

Is there design space in "deck size matters?"

Not a lot. I am proud of the design of Battle of Wits.