Hi! This is sort of a random question about the reskins we've seen with universes beyond cards vs. functional reprints to change the flavor of an in-universe card to another in-universe card (like llanowar elves vs. fyndhorn elves). I could run Paths of the Dead (from LOTR commander) in a standard deck, since it *is* cavern of souls. I could not, however, run fyndhorn elves in place of llanowar elves in one of the formats where llanowar elves is legal but fyndhorn elves isn't. The tradeoff to this is that in commander, I can run one fyndhorn elves and one llanowar elves, since they're not the same card, but I can't run a Paths of the Dead and a Cavern of Souls from another printing (ex. LCI), since they're the same card. Would it be possible to print in-universe cards as reskins instead of functional reprints to change the flavor? For example, say you're designing a faction set with tri-color factions, and you want to use the triome lands with cycling, but you're not on Ikoria/New Capenna, so the names don't really fit. If you did a functional reprint to change the flavor, then players in eternal formats could double the number of triomes they run. Is reskinning the card an option you have at your disposal for this kind of situation?

Reskinning is an option, but a resource we want to be careful with.

Would Wizards ever consider doing a "great land type update" errata for older lands? For example make Command Tower a Land - Tower, Cavern of Souls a Land - Cave or Crystal Quarry a Land - Mine.

We consider lots of things, but the bar for such a thing is high.

You’ve gotten a couple asks about making cavern of souls a cave, and have said there were discussions of potentially changing a group of lands to caves. What were some of the other lands you were looking at for possible caveification?

Lands with Cave or Cavern in their name.

Will any lands be getting errata to make them retroactively caves? Gemstone caverns, maybe? Cave of Temptation? Cavern of Souls?

I don’t believe we are currently planning to do that.

If/When: A "rainbow/wubrg" mana symbol for cards like Cavern of Souls, Ancient Ziggurat, Birds of Paradise, etc.?

If. We are wary to add new symbols, so they gave up carry a lot of weight.

Almost all tribal cards work best with with token makers or other swarmy strategies. Why do we see so few cards like Cavern of Souls, Steely Resolve, or Contested Cliffs that reward more of a Go Tall tribal deck?

The simplest strategy with tribal themes is “play a lot of the creature” which tends to lean towards a go-wide strategy.

Hi Mark! It was my birthday a couple days ago. Can I get some trivia on one of my four favorite lands: Cavern of Souls, Dryad Arbor, Boseiju, or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth?

I believe if the Rules Manager had to make a Top Ten list of the cards that have caused then the most headaches, Dryad Arbor would make the list. Being both a land and a creature at all times in all zones causes issues. Happy Birthday!

I enjoy "special mana" like from Hall of the Bandit Lord, Cavern of Souls, and Opal Palace. Could we see more of that in the future?

It’s tricky and causes no ends of headaches for Magic Online, but I’m sure you haven’t seen the last of it.

Why not just put "target non-basic land" on cards like slaughter games, non-basic has been used for years on wasteland and ghost quarter, so if you put it on slaughter games it can now be a awnser for all kinds of things like cavern of souls or valakut

Do you mean any card whatsoever but a basic land or a land but only one that’s non-basic? See the ambiguity?

Was there any thought of making Cavern of Souls legendary? With all the issues involving it now do you wish you had?

We try not to make lands legendary because we don’t like the gameplay. The legendary supertype works especially bad with lands. We do it very infrequently and only for strong flavor reasons.