Hi Mark! It was my birthday recently :) do you have any fun trivia about the Devotion mechanic?

The devotion mechanic was the redoing of chroma, an ability that first appeared (unnamed) in Future Sight and then (named) in Eventide. Aaron Forsythe originally pitched chroma on a single card in Future Sight, but I held it back because I thought it was a whole mechanic. We had high hopes for chroma, but the audience wasn’t too excited by it. Then when we were making original Theros, we needed a mechanic showing a connection to the Gods, and design team member Zac Hill pitched bring back chroma. We cleaned it up (now only caring about the mana cost of permanents on the battlefield) and renamed it, and it went on to be a beloved mechanic. It goes to show how much execution of a mechanic matters. Happy Birthday!

Hi Mark, I'd like to invoke the sacred rite of birthday trivia. If possible, I'd love a tidbit about my favorite creature type, elk.

There was much talk when we first made Elk whether or not it should be Deer. The majority thought Elk sounded better.Happy Birthday!

Mark, it's my birthday this week, and I'd like to thank y'all for timing Bloomburrow prerelease to nearly occur on my personal day of celebration, a set I have been very jazzed about since it was announced. I really love the possum druid in particular.

For my question though, where is Xerex on the Rabiah scale? I really enjoyed the glimpses of surreal Escher geometries and the alien beings that live there.

Xerex is a 9. “World that’s hard to comprehend” is not an ideal premier setting.

Before my birthday is over, I would love to invoke my right of trivia!Anything about my favorite part of Magic's world, the Love Song of Night and Day? Or if not, Mirage in general? (I fell in love with Magic when I found my parents' old collection of Mirage and 4th Edition, making me probably the youngest grumpy old magic player to ever shake their fist at these new confangled planeswalker cards)

The Love Song of Night and Day was a poem written by Jenny Scott when she was an editor on Magic. Pieces of it were used on flavor text in Mirage block. I would later read the poem at a wedding at a Magic Grand Prix. We would also eventually making a Saga that referenced it.Happy Birthday!

Hello Mark, I wanted to use my birthday ask to ask if a mechanic like Sole Performer could work in black border? I would also like to request Garruk come back to the story soon

Sole Performer is nowhere close to working in black border. Garruk should return one day. Happy Birthday!

Mark! Is birthday for me! I want to use my valuable birthday right to extend my extreme appreciation for whoever is responsible for Arcbound Condor. Such a wonderful card, definitely my favorite from the set and probably the year even. It fits in multiple decks I have and I'm just so happy it exists. So, for my birthday, cab you make sure the responsible party knows how appreciated they are? And if you want to share some arcbound/modular trivia that would be nice too.

The modular mechanic was inspired by the Chimeras from Visions. Happy Birthday!

Hey Mark, it's my birthday! Can I get trivia on DOM or ELD? They were both significant milestones in my MTG journey and are dear to me.

Dominaria was originally going to be a small block (one larger set and one small), but the small set got changed into a core set just before it was about to begin design.Happy Birthday!

I would like to invoke the power of birthday trivia! I am turning 30 this year and would like to know if you remember any trivia about Ghave, Guru of Spores from the first official commander precons!

Or alternatively, of my favorite pair of Magic characters, Gisa and Geralf.

Thanks, and have a great summer!
Give the story team high fives from me.

When we originally designed Innistrad, we were tickled by the idea that blue and black created different kinds of Zombies. Blue built them out of parts, ala Frankenstein, where black was more about necromancy. To capture this distinction, we made two characters, brother and sister, that represent each type of Zombie making, and made their core conflict about which is better.Happy 30th Birthday!

Hi Mark! I am invoking a special birthday trivia as I turn 30 tomorrow! I would love to know more about Sarkhan, if possible the journey of his color identity.

Sarkhan is not the name he was born with. He gave it to himself. Happy Birthday!

Hey Maro for my birthday could I get some trivia about the minion creature type? What did that mean and why don't we see it anymore?

It represented creatures that served other creatures. The creative team stopped supporting it because they felt it wasn’t necessary, and was covered by other existing creature types.