I’m curious why MH3 uses manifest instead of cloak?

I’m not sure of the timing. Murders at Karlov Manor overlapped its design. Possibly, we weren’t 100% about the state of cloak, or possibly it hadn’t been added yet.

Why every set needs to introduce so many new keywords? I believe there are already enough. Stuff like Disguise, Cloak, Collect Evidence, Suspect, are born (and I believe dead) within Murders at Karlov Manor. LCI had Craft, Descend, Discover, Explore. OTJ has Crimes and probably more. I understand that it's fun to draft with new mechanics, but I hate when I am playing any format and have to search online what a specific new mechanic does.

We make new mechanics because players tell us it’s the number one factor of why they buy new sets. Disguise and cloak are just us updating Morph and Manifest, which I do expect us to use again. Collect evidence played well, so I assume it will return. Suspect is the mechanic I’m least sure we’ll use again, but I’ve said that about plenty of mechanics that went on to come back.If an excess of mechanics is frustrating for you, you might want to try a rotating format, like Standard, which greatly limits how many mechanics are available at a time. Non-rotating formats are just going to continually go up in mechanics. It’s their nature.

Is there a reason why there were so few disguise/cloak cards in the set?

So few? There are a lot of disguise and cloak cards in the set.

Hi Mark! I really liked KTK’s 5 mana rule for flipping morphs that will eat other morphs, but this set seems like it can’t have something similar because of cloak being around. Was this a concern for the design team?

The rule is in place for disguise. Cloak happens far less than disguise.

Some really cool cards have been previewed today! I especially liked A Killer Among Us. My question has nothing to do with that card, though. I see disguise, suspected, cases, cloak, and they all seem very complicated mechanics. Even investigate puts a lot of complexity for a single action. Were there any apprehensions about this set’s complexity?

The set, as a whole, is less complicated than you think. Disguise/cloak is probably the most complicated mechanic, but a lot of players have experience with morph, and this version is a little simpler due to the ward as there’s less spell interaction with facedown creatures.

Do the Council of Color members ever attend meetings in-costume? Maybe not full cosplay regalia, but I can’t not imagine each member wearing at least a big wizard hat of the appropriate color

There are some members that have come in costume (usually in appropriately colored cape/cloak and/or hat).

Could Cloaked Cadet have been printed as a White card instead of Green?

Colorpiewise, yes. We do tend to put the stronger Human tribal cards in green in In instead sets as the monowhite Human deck is already strong in larger formats.

If somebody made and sent you a WUBRG cloak, would you wear it?

Sure. : )

Since sitting members of the Council of Colors wear color-coordinated cloaks, what kind of cloak does the colorless representative get?

Currently a clear, see-through one.

Hi mark, it's been over a month since my birthday, and I've been asking almost daily... But I understand these get buried/exiled! Please can I get some belated birthday trivia about Alexi Zephyr Mage and her cloak?

Alexi was part of a rare creature cycle in Prophecy where we made Spellshapers that had bigger effects but required discarding two cards. I don’t have much trivia beyond that. Sorry.Happy Belated Birthday!