Why isn't Karn an Artifact Planeswalker?

Planeswalkers supersede other qualities in both types and subtypes. It’s why Ajani isn’t a Cat creature type. The behind the scenes reason is a power level one.

How long has Pioneer been in the works behind the scenes? How soon will we see standard sets designed with pioneer in mind?

We’ve been aware of Pioneer for a while. Note that our knowledge of Pioneer grows the more it gets played.

Hi Mark, I loved today's behind the scenes article on the Bolas arc! Looking forward to the next one.

Happy to hear you liked it.

Should I take the existence of mouse tokens as a sign that squirrels are on there way back? Just saying if 15 mice can kill Emrakul surely 15 squirrels could with out it being any sillier

Behind the scenes, I think we making traction on Squirrels, but Eldraine isn’t it.

So many people send you "I want to express my displeasure with X, people dont like X..!" asks, it's a bit tiring. Mostly because the simple and professional responce is "my dataset is non-anecdotal, people acctually do like X." My ask is twofold: could we please see fewer such asks on the blog and How donyou deal with people who think their isolated oppinion is that unflinchingly correct in the face of having no where bear your department's expertise? Your indurrance astounds me. ✌🏾

It is natural to assume that the interests of you and your playgroup are mirrored in the playerbase. I answer these types of questions so that I can share the knowledge of the data we’ve collected. People who write in (mostly) mean no ill will, they’re just surprised by some piece of information. Informing you all about how we make decisions behind the scenes is a big part of Blogatog.

Players don't draw the lines, creative does. We were given the rules for planeswalking and Jiang Yanggu broke those rules without explanation. Nothing in MtG canon said telepathy, time magic, and transformations couldn't happen. Just some perspective.

Normally a person can’t turn into a dragon, but magic allows one particular planeswalker to break that rule. Every rule we give in universe is “as a default, this is the rule”. Behind the scenes, we are careful when we break the rules to make sure we’re not undermining the reason for the rule existing in the first place. So where does the “only planeswalkers can planeswalk” rule come from? It’s built as a means to make our core characters special. If anyone could planeswalk then it lessens the uniqueness of planeswalkers. Early Magic had this problem and it’s one of the reasons we changed things with The Mending to shut down things like portals.Does Yanggu having his dog planeswalk with him undercut the speciality of planeswalking or does it help give him a defining trait that makes him unique? We felt the latter so we allowed him having a power that breaks the default rule.

I loved R&D Tales! But is it possible to have them a little closer to the set's release? You talked about Guilds of Ravnica, but Allegiance was just released.

I recorded the videos back in October. Weird behind the scenes shenanigans kept them for getting released for a while. Note the videos were originally streamed on Black Friday on Twitch.

I was about to ask you a question about bad cards and I stumbled upon your articles "When Cards Go Bad" and "When Cards Go Bad Revisited". Not only did they answer my question but they are a great insight into game design. I also enjoyed the Lion's Eye Diamond being used as an example of a bad card!

I’m coming up on my eighteenth year of writing “Making Magic”. There’s a lot of content there for players who are interested in game design or behind the scenes of Magic design.

May I ask for more variety in MTG villains? I had "eldrazi fatigue" after Zendikar+Innistrad. Then, I got Bolas fatigue after Kaladesh+Amonkhet+Ixalan+Ravnica. MTG has other interesting villains that I'd like to meet up with, like garruk, phyrexia, nahiri, and even Tibalt. I hope I do not come across as rude, but I've grown tired of two years of bolas.

While Bolas has been the villain behind the scenes, he’s actually appeared only twice, Hour of Devastation and very briefly at the end of Dominaria. Every set other than Hour of Devastation has had one or more villains that weren’t Bolas. If you want to argue for less connected stories (which thematically ties Bolas to other villains), that’s fine, but a lack of villains hasn’t actually been an issue.

I too, as a commander player, wish for the removal of the legend baggage so that we may get a tremendous number of new legends per year. Two questions however; Will it lead to weaker legends overall And how is the battle going, behind the scenes?

At worst, minimally weaker. Most of the time, no weaker. It’s not going well behind the scenes. I do not have a lot of allies on this topic.