Dominaria United

R&D Secrecy Protocol

How much is R&D allowed to lie? If I specifically asked, say, "is Liliana of the Veil being reprinted in Dominaria United" prior to the set's spoiler season, could you say no even though it's true? Or is *that* why you have you signature maybes?

That’s a big part of the maybes. I have to answer questions without using the knowledge I have, because I don’t want to give away the future.

Card Printing Dominaria United Game Design Liliana of the Veil Reprints Spoilers

Dominaria United Monocolor Themes

Hi Mark! I would like to request some birthday trivia please! Specifically, in Dominaria United, each monocolor was assigned a mechanical theme (e.g. White = Go Wide, Blue = Sorceries and Instants matter). I was wondering if you could please elaborate the monocolor themes in Throne of Eldraine as I believe they aren't explicitly stated anywhere on l'internet.

Each of the five courts had a virtue which we built the color around mechanically, as well as flavorfully:
White Court (Ardenvale) – Loyalty
Blue Court (Vantress) – Knowledge
Black Court (Lochthwain) – Persistence
Red Court (Embereth) – Courage
Green Court (Garenbrig) – Strength
White leaned into “go wide” with creatures helping one another.Blue leaned into control with card drawing.Black leaned into graveyard recursion.Red leaned into aggression.Green leaned into caring about creature size.Happy Birthday!

Birthday Black Blue Card Draw Colors Creatures Dominaria United Green Instants Monocolor Red Sorceries The Graveyard Throne of Eldraine Throne of Eldraine White

Legends Retold Future Possibilities

I really liked the Dominaria United Legends Retold, is there any chance the remaining legends characters might get new designs at some point in the future?

People liked those cards, so yes, there is a chance.

Dominaria United Legendary Creatures

Enlist's Storm Scale

I like Dominaria United. I really like Enlist from Dominaria United. I like the Storm Scale. What is the Storm Scale for Enlist?

A 5.

Dominaria United Enlist Storm Scale

Corrupted Cards Opinion

I understand that MH3 wants to reference famous cards (and that's great!) but I'm getting a bit tired of the "Old card/character but corrupted" trope (referring to the Eldrazi versions). Maybe it's because we just had DMU, ONE *and* MOM do it just last year, or maybe I've played Magic for too long and I still remember SOM and SOI blocks doing that as well. What's the general opinion on this kind of cards?

They’re very popular.

Corrupted Dominaria United Eldrazi Modern Horizons 3 Scars of Mirrodin Shadows over Innistrad

Rabiah Setting Potential

In prep for your upcoming Rabiah scale article, I wanted to give mad props to whoever decided on putting a Rabiah reference in Dominaria United! My question: Has Rabiah been pitched as a setting following the success of Neon Dynasty? Such references seem like a good sign of Magic’s willingness to acknowledge it.

Rabiah’s biggest issue is it’s based on an outside property (one in public domain) and was done at a time where very little world building was done by Wizards. If we wanted to redo it, it’s not far away from doing a brand new world. There’s very little to salvage.

Domain Dominaria United Rabiah Scale

Shared Mechanic Idea

Given the thematic overlap between a villian/crime set and a murder mystery set, and with MKM and OTJ being next to eachother, was there any thought in having a shared mechanic between them? For example, back introducing a crime card or two into MKM similar to how DMU had one powerstone card.

It wasn’t discussed at the time. With hindsight, I think we could have done something.

Dominaria United Mechanics Murders at Karlov Manor Outlaws of Thunder Junction

Special Basic Land Cycles

I love the new design within the last couple of years of making a special full art basic land cycle for every set. It gives me something relatively cheap to spruce up my decks with, like Dominaria United stained glass BLs in my Sidar Jabari deck, or making my favorite Pauper deck a little more splashy!So much flavor for free!

Glad you’re enjoying it.

Art Cycles Dominaria United Flavor Lands Pauper Sidar Jabari

Theme Tone Shifts

There's been a lot of talk about how this year's premier sets have been light or even silly in tone. Is this a deliberate choice to swing away from the dark themes of Dominaria United through March of the Machine?

We do like to have the pendulum swing. I do think Murders at Karlov Manor wasn’t as light as people seem to be implying it was.

Dominaria United March of the Machine Murders at Karlov Manor Premier Sets Premier Sets

Slivers and Typal Lords

hey mark! With regard to the sliver conversation is there any reason why it couldnt be done like the typal lords in Dominaria United? Lords at rare which only have about 3 other type members at common and 1 or 2 type members at uncommon (and thus their lord abilities didn't really matter in draft.) The cards seemed to be a big hit with players and didnt effect the format much, is there a reason im not seeing for why dont we see this with other types?

Slivers, unlike most creature types, are all typal. That makes their use a bit trickier than most creature types.

Creatures Dominaria United Draft Formats Kindred / Typal Rares Sliver Uncommons

Staying on Planes

Hi Mark. One of the concerns I have had for future sets is that there aren't any sets that take place on the same plane i.e. a plane that takes place over multiple sets. This makes it feel like the planes don't get enough time to be fleshed out and that it feels too much like we're jumping back and forth between planes too quickly. Is this a common concern or do most people prefer the variety of moving between a lot of different settings?

The message that we got loud and clear during the block era was that players generally don’t like staying on the same plane. We do on occasion though stay on the same plane for two or more sets (Guilds of Ravnica/Ravnica Allegiance/War of the Spark, Innistrad: Midnight Hunt/Innistrad: Crimson Vow, Dominaria United/The Brother’s War).

Dominaria United Guilds of Ravnica Innistrad: Crimson Vow Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Planes Ravnica Allegiance War of the Spark War of the Spark

All-Colors Card Info

Re the person asking for a keyword meaning ""this object is all colors". While it's not a keyword, 3 cards like that exist. Transguild Courier from Dissension, Sphinx of the Guildpact from Ravnica Allegiance and Fallaji Wayfarer from the Painbow Dominaria United Commander deck.

FYI

Colors Commander Decks Dissension Dominaria United Fallaji Wayfarer Guildpact Keywords Ravnica Allegiance Sphinx Sphinx of the Guildpact Transguild Courier

DMU Deck Theme Choice

You may not be able to answer this but why wasn’t domain matters chosen for the five color commander deck’s theme in DMU? It seems the deck focuses on more of a colors matter theme rather than domain which was the main set’s choice for multicolored theme.

I had nothing to do with the design of the decks, so this is my best guess. There might not have been enough domain cards to make a domain-focused deck (and by “enough” I mean that worked well in the deck).

Colors Commander Domain Dominaria United

Mana Base Control

There seems to be a staunch lack of mass nonbasic hate in standard & pioneer. Targeted land removal like demolition field, field of ruin, or Boseiju are good for dealing with individually powerful lands; but they don’t meaningfully punish greedy mana bases. Domain has been a tier 1 standard deck since DMU came out, and it’s only ever gotten more options. 4 color omnath dominated standard when it was legal, and multicolor decks in general have access to tons of fixing just with the land-base. Modern at least has blood moon, but standard and pioneer don’t have any mass nonbasic hate. Is this intentional? If so, why?

Hating on greedy mana bases, but not messing up non-greedy mana bases is a challenge.

Blood Blood Moon Colors Demolition Field Domain Dominaria United Field of Ruin Four Color Lands Mana Modern Pioneer Standard

Love in Magic Cards

Howdy Mark! For my Birthday Trivia, could I get some trivia on Love in Magic?Also, thank you once again for making Unfinity. I'm gonna treat myself to some packs for my gift to myself

There are only three cards with Love in their name: Love Song of Night and Day (Dominaria United), True Love’s Kiss (Throne of Eldraine), and Tunnel of Love (Unfinity).Happy Birthday!

Appreciation Birthday Dominaria United Love Song of Night and Day Pop Culture Throne of Eldraine Throne of Eldraine Tunnel of Love

Design Stages Overview

Let's say WOE starts exploratory design today. In what stages of design are MOM, ONE, BRO and DMU?

Premier sets are roughly three months apart.

Dominaria United Exploratory Design Premier Sets Premier Sets The Brothers' War Wilds of Eldraine

Domain Keyword Impact

Was there ever any thought about making the domain keyword make the color identity of a card all 5 colors? There are the four uncommon legendaries with domain from DMU which can’t ever function optimally as a commander.

We don’t control how color identity is defined.

Color Identity Colors Commander Domain Dominaria United Keywords Legendary Creatures Uncommons

Carthalion Trivia

Hiya Mark! It was my birthday a couple days ago, I wanted to ask you some trivia about the Carthalion cards (Jared/Jenson/Carth the Lion) or, failing that, something about my favorite color combination, GUR! Have a magical day! :D

Jared Carthalion is one of only two five color planeswalkers. That had been a request from the players for a long while, so I made Urza, Academy Headmaster in Unstable. The players then asked for an eternal legal one and that ended up being Jared Carthalion in a Dominaria United Commander deck. My gut is we’ll make another one one day (five-color planeswalker, that is).Happy Belated Birthday!

Birthday Carth the Lion Colors Commander Decks Dominaria United Eternal Jared Carthalion Planeswalkers Urza Urza, Academy Headmaster

Nod to Banding

Hello Mark! If/when/already happened: card with an ability that is a very obvious nod to banding for those who know, but won't confuse the general player base?

Already happened. Enlist from Dominaria United was basically a “fixed” banding.

Banding Dominaria United Enlist If/When

Recent Bottom-Up Set

Your Lessons Learned on Crimson Vow reminded me of something - what's the last premier set that you would describe as primarily bottom-up? The only one I can think of since before War of the Spark is Strixhaven being themed around instants and sorceries, unless Dominaria United being an Invasion throwback counts.

Phyrexia: All Will Be One was built bottom up. Solving poison was way more a mechanical problem than a flavor one.

Bottom Up Dominaria United Flavor Instants Invasion Phyrexia: All Will Be One Poison Premier Sets Sorceries War of the Spark War of the Spark