Hi Mark, what colours do you think Hawkeye is?

Red/white.

If or when: Vampire typal as a red/white archtype.

If. Vampires are so core black, it’s hard to imagine a color combination without black.

You've mentioned that Lorehold would have psychology, but would Silverquill as well?

Silverquill is more geared towards communication than psychology.

"Since strixhaven is founded on the contradictions between subjects which side do you fall on in each of the 5 conflicts?
White/black -> whiteBlue/red -> redBlack/green -> blackRed/white -> whiteGreen/Blue -> blue"I'm curious if you answered this specifically as regards the strixhaven school conflicts (e.g., "is art emotional or intellectual", "is math natural/discovered or created") or more broadly?

More broadly.

Since strixhaven is founded on the contradictions between subjects which side do you fall on in each of the 5 conflicts?

White/black -> whiteBlue/red -> redBlack/green -> blackRed/white -> whiteGreen/Blue -> blue

What makes Boros as a color pair so unattractive for the majority of players?

Their main synergy is not super effective in the most played tabletop format.

So last week, iirc, you mentioned that today's making magic article explains why energy moved from temur into jeskai. But the article makes no mention of the color shift. Can you explain why it had to move colors?

I believe I said my podcast with Erik Lauer on the topic talks about it. That goes up this Friday. But maybe I misspoke and said my article.I’ll give you the short version. The set had to divvy up the core themes and Eldrazi worked better in green/blue/red as it wanted to have more ramping elements and wanted green more. Energy went into blue/red/white because it had more of an aggro component and played better in those colors.

Hi Mark! I have more of a game design for new players type question. My mother has expressed interest in learning to play Magic, specifically Commander, and I'm going to build her a RW deck using very simple cards so I can teach her. She really likes angels. I'm debating now whether to build her an angel typal deck, or a deck with very few angels but commanded by an angel. In your experience in onboarding new players, do you think it's a more memorable, exciting experience to have a few creatures you really like mixed in with other creature types, or is it more exciting to have an entire deck full of the types you really like? On the one hand, I think it would be cool to have her really like every card in the deck, but on the other, it may be more evocative to have Anya or Aurelia flying above her other creatures. I would ask her directly, but I want this to be a surprise. Thanks!

I think picking one theme that you play up strongly has the best chances.

One of the first things that got me and my brother into magic was buying two commander precons in 2015 - I got the new Boros one and he got the 2013 Marath commander deck. We were both very happy to see that with OTJ, we finally got an official X/X green elemental token for Marath's ability. Not sure if this is a "FYI" or "thank you" ask - probably both.

You’re welcome. : )

Hey mark. Y’all in R&D infamously “avoid doing two-colour creatures which could be done in a single color”, like a creature with flying and vigilance, for example. I am not rehashing that argument, because I fully understand why the answer to that question is GB (although since vigilance is allowed in blue now that means that the UB option that was wrong at the time now is also a correct answer). That said, I do have some qualms with the premise of that question. We see multicolored cards that don’t need all their colors CONSTANTLY. Just in Thunder Junction, we got:- Wylie duke, which can be in white or green, and doesn’t need to be both- Vraska joins up, which can be done in mono green and doesn’t need black- Selvala, which can be done in mono green and doesn’t need white- Seraphic steed, which can be done in mono white and doesn’t need green- Rakdos joins up, which could be done in mono black and doesn’t need red- Miriam, which could be done in mono green and doesn’t need white- Marchesa, who can be done in blue or black, and doesn’t need to be both, and DEFINITELY doesn’t need red- Lilah, who could be done in red or blue and doesn’t need to be both- Jasper flint, who can be done in Black or red and doesn’t need to be both- Jem, who could be done in mono blue and doesn’t need white- Form a posse, which could be done in red or white and doesn’t need to be both- Breeches, who can be done in mono red and doesn’t need blue- At knifepoint, which could be done in mono red and doesn’t need black- Obeka, which could be dimir or izzet and doesn’t need to be grixis- Vihaan, who could be done in boros and doesn’t need black- Kirri, which could be in mono green, and doesn’t need red or white- Yuma, which could be done in mono green (and maybe mono red?) but definitely doesn’t need white- Olivia, which could be boros or rakdos and doesn’t need to be mardu- Pest control, which could be mono white and doesn’t need blackI don’t really know what I’m asking, but I just wanted to bring up that unnecessary colors appear on multicolored spells VERY frequently; and I wanted to know if you have any thoughts about this.

That’s why I say “we try” and not “we always do”. When a multicolor card doesn’t have abilities of two colors, we’ll tag it in the Council of Colors pass, and the lead designer will see if hey can find an elegant solution. It’s not a mandatory thing though, as it’s hard to do without making cards extra wordy and clunky. Again, that’s why I say “we try” to do it as it’s something we do when we can, but often don’t do.