Why did older Magic make Lord effects global like Elvish Champion? Who advocated for that and what were the benefits they presented ?

Early Magic leaned into flavor. It turns out global effects both weren’t intuitive and didn’t play great, so five or so years in we (mostly) stopped doing them.

Milling!

Just learned in a podcast you're somewhat the "father" of the mill mechanic!
Was sad there was no new tools for dimir mill in MH3, are there any incoming for mill decks (not self-mill) in Duskmourne? The mechanic would be fitting with the setting...
thanks!

I can’t talk to the future, but we will be doing more mill effects, even if I can’t say when or where.I should stress that I did not invent mill. Millstone, the first card to mill cards, was in Antiquities and was designed by the East Coast Playtesters (Skaff Elias, Jim Lin, Dave Petty, and Chris Page) with help from Joel Mick.I was a champion of milling and made a lot of cards with it.

The future of mankind is at stake! You’ve been selected as our champion in the Galactic Magic Tournament, and the Bergggs are your final opponent. They say if they lose they will recognize our right to exist, but if you lose, they’ll invade and Berggg-form earth. Rules of the tournament dictate that all Magic cards printed are legal, but you can only play one color and lands that produce mana of that color on your deck. The sideboard is all cards of that color ever made. Decks are minimum 60 cards and maximum 4 of each card except basic lands (no limit). No banned or restricted list exist. Which colori would you chose?

These rules seem to imply that you can play colorless cards. If that is true, blue is the correct choice. If you can’t play colorless cards, you might think about black.

Hi Mark! In your two-part article Looking Back (and I think on a recent podcast too) you mentioned Mistform Ultimus as the inspiration for Changeling, but it's not a legendary creatures from Champions of Kamigawa, it's from Legions (I noticed because I started playing MTG on the Onslaught block).

It was a mistake.

Mistform Ultimus deffinitely isn't from Champions of Kamigawa

Yeah, it’s from Legions. I’m not sure why I keep messing that up.

Given that UW of non-SL UB is "not something [WotC] are trying to do", what should those of us for whom our Magic experience would be greatly repaired by that do to encourage it? Do we have any champion(s) within WotC? Is there any hope at all?

It is something we’re gathering data on. If there is a large enough group of players that wants it, we’ll explore doing it. I do want to point out that preliminary data suggests it’s a smaller group.

"Masterpieces essentially morphed into booster fun and bonus sheets. Masterpieces just happened too infrequently."

Hi Mark,

You used to frequently champion the mantra of "if everything is special then nothing is special" but it feels like Magic has been moving away from that perspective in recent years. Is that fair to say? If so why?

The scarcity and rarity of the original Masterpieces were a big part of their luster and desirability. It meant that while it was very unlikely to happen, you could encounter a Masterpiece in Kaladesh Draft or just when cracking a pack for fun. Because it very rarely happened, when it did happen, it was extremely special.

Foils used to be scarce, but now because they are guaranteed in Set Boosters and Collector Boosters, are they really special anymore?

You used to say we don't do Full Art Basics all the time because us doing it on occassion generates much more enthusiasm and hype for them. I think this is true and I find players get way less excited when full art lands are previewed because they aren't special anymore.

Cards used to get special promo art on occasion, but now numerous cards have several different art printings so it doesn't feel special anymore. Every rare has a pre-release promo version (which wasn't always the case) is another example.

For years, rares and mythic rares were substantially more scarce than uncommons and commons because the overwhelming majority of cards were printed in draft boosters where the odds of encountering specific rarities were consistent for years but now rarity doesn't mean anything outside of Limited.

Foils used to feel "special" but now there are several different types of foiling so it feels like they none of them are particularly special.

Thoughts?

All of this is a response to us making more decisions based on data. Instead of us guessing what we think the players want, we both ask them and watch their behavior. We then analyze all the data to match player desire.Let me take full-art lands as an example. The data said players want more access to them, but they would feel less special if they were the default, so we’ve incorporated them into booster fun.I’ll note that we keep trying new things, which can result in new data that changes how we do something. It’s an ever-evolving process, much like the game of Magic itself.

Unrules Question: For Hardy of Myra’s Marvels ability, if a piece of flavor text is a quote and the quoter is on its own line (e.g. “Elvish Hymn” on the flavor text for Elvish Champion) does it count as an additional line?

It does.

Which plane (as the setting, not the card) took the longest amount of time from original conception to seeing print?

An Egyptian-inspired plane was the back-up choice for Champions of Kamigawa block.

Hi Mark! By the ancestrall right of birthday trivia, may I request some obscure knowledge about Spirits or old Kamigawa?

An early version of Champions of Kamigawa had a mechanic representing martial art moves. It didn’t really fit with the rest of the set and was removed. Happy Birthday!