Hello! Today is my birthday! Do you have any birthday trivia for my favorite Ravnica guild, Azorius? Thanks!

When we first put out Dissension, where the Azorius premiered, white and blue where dominating Standard, so we were asked to play down the control aspects of the guild. On the return to Ravnica, that wasn’t a problem, so we could play it up.Happy Birthday!

I am really dissapointed that my zombies didnt get a 2 mana lord, but all the other ones did. Dis you know why clerics was the choice? They are more WB thing

Look up all the Zombie lords we’ve made. Then look up all the Cleric lords. They needed it so much more.

Palliation Accord (DIS) mentions shield counters.Will this card be subject to an errata?

Yes, they are going to change to palliation counters in the errata that comes out with Streets of New Capenna.

“Part of doing a return, especially after so many years, is updating the creative to modern standards.” From my Vorthos perspective, for whatever that’s worth, I think maintaining a cohesive visual identity between visits is more important. I wouldn’t want to return to a Lorwyn where all the Merfolk suddenly had legs for example. Citing the fact that it’s been 1200 years, when none of the other mortal races on Kamigawa have changed that drastically (I will concede kitsune have mouths now, but that’s it) is a handwave. The idea that the Orochi HAD to be updated feels like the current team thumbing their nose at the original designers, in a “we know better than you” sort of way.

I want to make it clear that I’m not advocating for keeping everything the same forever. If there’s a strong Watsonian reason to change something, go for it. The perfect example of this would be how the Simic changed between Ravnica blocks. The original guild was all but destroyed at the end of Dissension, so bringing in a new faction (the heretofore unseen merfolk) to rebuild the guild as a “animal-splicing” guild from a “cytoplasts on everything” guild worked. But when the Doylist reason for changing something amounts to “we didn’t like it”, I do have an issue with that. I guess to put it another way, any given in-universe reason for the morphological change to the orochi would follow from an out of universe desire to change them, rather than the change arising from an in-universe need. (For what it’s worth, I had the same issue to a lesser extent with how the Wolfir in Innistrad were so quickly dumped; although the in-universe explanation for that worked well, it was clearly motivated by a need for werewolves to return, although I think they could have coexisted.)

Our primary goal is making the best possible product. On a return, we will look at aspects, mechanical and creative, of the original product and update them if we feel there’s a way to improve upon them. We’re not beholden to the people who made the original product to keep it the same for their sake (and oftentimes that people includes me). If it can be improved, we will improve it. The present is not held hostage by the past. Also, there is an in-universe reason for the change. It’s just not my area of expertise, so I don’t know it. I was giving you the peel behind the curtain answer, not the thoughtful explanation in-world.

If or when: Another hand-matters set, like Saviors of Kamigawa or Dissension. Not necessarily caring about number of cards in hand, but with an increased focus on what cards you have in your hand or activations from the hand

It’s a tricky theme to do. We have a lot of Magic to make though, so odds are we’ll do something in that vein again.

How long till a WUBRG artifact?

Negative thirteen years if you’re talking about a five-color artifact (Transguild Courrier from Dissension) and negative eleven years if you mean an artifact you can cast for literal WUBRG (Reaper King from Shadowmoor). Sphinx of the Guildpact from Ravnica Allegiance is also a five-color artifact.

Do you know Teysa Karlov's skin-care routine? She looks pretty much the same as she did 70 years ago at the dissolution of the Guildpact! Dissension wasn’t seventy years ago (in world). Guildmaster's guide to Ravnica says the events on Guilds of Ravnica/Ravnica Allegiance happen on year 10,076, that's 76 years after the Decamillenial (aka Ravnica block). So YES, we need Teysa's secret for eternal youth.

Yes, it turns out my knowledge of Ravnica time lapse is poor.

Hi Mark! It’s my birthday today, so I wanted to cash in my birthday trivia coupon. Can you give me some juicy facts about the Simic? Thanks in advance and have a wonderful day!

Because the previous block (Kamigawa) had a lot of animal humanoids, we held back from doing too much of that in Simic in Dissension, but on their in Gatecrash we ramped it up. Happy Birthday!

Finally it is time Maro... My birthday! :D Can i have some new Trivia about the Cult of Rakdos please? I already know about Paincast so some other new Trivia about the Rakdos would be apreciated. If there is none, then any Trivia about Curses will do :)

Hellbent, the simplest of the three mechanics in Dissension, was actually the one that took us the longest to create. Happy Birthday!

Are the new and old Ravnica guild watermarks considered separate? If so, wouldn't the example description you gave in the FAQAWASLFAQPAFTIDAWABIAJTBT ("It's the Azorius guild symbol") not be specific enough?

All Azorius watermarks are considered the same despite small tweaks between Dissension and Return to Racnica.