Dragons of Tarkir

Upcoming Card Tutor Observation

Re: upcoming card tutor:Renowned Weaponsmith from FRF tutors up Vial of Dragonfire from DTK.

Ooh, I forgot that one. Good catch.

Dragons of Tarkir Fate Reforged Tutoring Renowned Weaponsmith Vial of Dragonfire

Dragon-themed Sets

As a big fan of dragons and medieval themes what upcoming and previous sets should I look in to?

The most Dragon-y set we’ve ever made was Dragons of Tarkir, and Ultimate returns to Tarkir.

Dragon Dragons of Tarkir

Faction Packs Prerelease

If/when: another set with separated faction packs in prerelease kits like Phy/Mirran from Mirrodin Besieged, or a facton set prerelease with a seeded faction pack like Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Khans and Dragons of Tarkir?

If. We’ve pulled back a bit from specialized prerelease packs. The game design is optimized for the normal play pattern, and we want the prerelease to show off the best the set can be.

Dragons of Tarkir Factions Game Design Gatecrash If/When Mirrodin Besieged Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease Return to Ravnica Sealed Format

Kindred in Dragons

Do you think, in hindsight, Kindred would've been good to utilize in Dragons of Tarkir?

No.

Dragon Dragons of Tarkir Kindred / Typal

Tarkir Clan Color Logic

If the Sultai were created through the “wedge” combination by combining green with the enemy colors black and blue, then why are they black-dominant and not green? The same goes for the other clans of Tarkir. Does this have some kind of color pie significance?

Khans of Tarkir, at the start of the block, had wedge clans. Dragons of Tarkir, at the end of the block had ally clans. We wanted each clan (the core concept, not the exact colors) to exist in all three sets of the block. The only was to do that was by having a color that wasn’t the enemy color be the center as the enemy color was the color that dropped out.

Ally Black Blue Color Pie Colors Dragons of Tarkir Green Khans of Tarkir Sultai (B/G/U)

Creature Focused Sets

can i request a sphinx or hydra focused set like avacyn restored or dragons of tarkir?

Sphinx and Hydra are a lot less popular than Dragons and Angels. But maybe if we found the perfect world for it.

Angel Avacyn Restored Creatures Dragon Dragons of Tarkir Hydra Sphinx

Narset's Unique Colors

Hi Mark, hope you're having a good Saturday. When making Dragons of Tarkir, why was Narset chosen to be the only Khan from the original timeline to be two color?

We wanted a two-color planeswalker.

Colors Dragons of Tarkir Planeswalkers Two Color

Dragon Change Trivia

I WOULD LIKE TO INVOKE BIRTHDAY TRIVIA BECAUSE I FORGOT ABOUT IT ON MY ACTUAL BIRTHDAY MARCH 8TH! My birthday wish is an update to the FAQ, but failing that, can I have some trivia on descent of dragons from DTK?

The card is a bit of a bend, but turn a bunch of creatures into Dragons was too cool to pass up.Happy Birthday!

Bend / Break Birthday Creatures Dragon Dragons of Tarkir The FAQ

Timeline Speculation

"Poisonous didn't work the way we wanted and it was on only two cards, future-shifted 'maybe one days these cards might exist' no less."
Maybe the future All Will Be One set those poisonous cards were supposed to be in was also lost when the timeline switched from Khans of Tarkir to Dragons of Tarkir?

: )

Dragons of Tarkir Humor Khans of Tarkir Poisonous

Tarkir Timeline Status

Does the Khans of Tarkir timeline have a different number on the Rabiah Scale from the Dragons of Tarkir Timeline?

The Khans of Tarkir timeline no longer exists. Tarkir is the Dragons of Tarkir timeline.

Dragons of Tarkir Khans of Tarkir Rabiah Scale

Megamorph Design Potential

What are the odds of the "Pay 4, play face down with a +1/+1 counter" version of megamorph that didn't get used in Dragons of Tarkir going into a future set? I'd really like to see that version get played.

Hopefully, one day. I really liked how it played.

Dragons of Tarkir

Descent of Dragons Thanks

The story is too long and sad for your blog, but to make it short, magic saved my life. Please thank whoever designed Descent of Dragons from DTK.

Will do. I’m glad you’re here to tell me.

Dragon Dragons of Tarkir Story / Lore

Design of Tarkir Clans

The three-colored factions of Alara and New Capenna seem to have been centered both mechanically and creatively around a single "anchor color" with the other two colors corresponding to that color's allies (like Grixis/Maestros being "base black"). With that in mind, why was Tarkir not designed the same way? i.e. Abzan/ WBG being centered around white and not black.

Because the clans lost the enemy color between Khans of Tarkir (a wedge set) and Dragons of Tarkir (an ally-color set) and we wanted the clans to feel connected, thus we wanted the same central color, so the enemy color wasn’t an option.

Abzan (W/B/G) Ally Black Colors Dragons of Tarkir Factions Grixis Grixis (U/B/R) Khans of Tarkir White

Megamorph Mechanic Expectations

I think the lesson with megamorph was don't create expectation of something you won't do, doing a time travel set, showing the previous form of the same "magic" made everyone expect something different on Dragons of Tarkir. But even if the play pattern is different, the effect of megamorph can be done with morph, while manifest was something unique, people expected another twist.

I really tried to make it “Smorph”, 4 mana for a facedown 2/2 with a +1/+1 counter.

Dragons of Tarkir Mana Manifest Mechanics Morph Morph

Strixhaven Allied Color Pairs

Hey Mark, is it possible for us to get a set like Strixhaven for the allied color pairs? By which I mean, a set that offers some different interpretations on their philosophies, as well as dipping toes into some new gameplay strategies? (Like how Lorehold was 'graveyard matters' and Witherbloom was 'lifegain matters', both new for their respective pairs)

Both Dragons of Tarkir and Unstable did this.

Boros (R/W) Colors Dragons of Tarkir Game Play Golgari (B/G)

Praise for Kamigawa Story Team

I would also like to put forth a good word for the story team. I had no real ties to Kamigawa, but upon reading the story, I haven’t been as excited for a set since Dragons of Tarkir. I was uninterested in purchasing any of the set, but upon reading the story, I now intend to buy vastly more product than usual. They did an excellent job!

I’ll pass along the kind words. For those interested in the story, I recommend reading the final story before our previews start (which is soon).

Dragons of Tarkir Spoilers Story / Lore

Occurrence of Allied Color Sets

Hey Mark, it seems like it's been ages since we had a truly allied color set. Not like Innistrad, I mean like Strixhaven, that had no allied colors cards. Also, if I'm not wrong, we had no shard sets since Alara, and 2 wedge onesmore recently. Will the pendulum swing back to allied collors in any moment?

2017 had Unstable, and 2015 had Dragons of Tarkir.

Colors Dragons of Tarkir Innistrad

Mechanic Similarities: Training versus Mentor

In your teaser you mentioned that a faction mechanic is returning. This is presumably Exploit, DTK Sultai mechanic. Cleave is great, but I'm pretty disappointed in hiding under the name "Training", a new name for a mechanic, "Mentor" mechanic from Boros. It's written the other way around, with target "taking" from higher power instead of higher power "giving" to lesser, but the actual effect is exactly the same in most cases. Conserving mechanics is a good idea, but do not sell them as new.

While training is similar to mentor, it actually plays out very differently in how it plays. It’s not just a renamed mentor.

Boros (R/W) Cleave Dragons of Tarkir Exploit Factions Mechanics Mentor Sultai (B/G/U) Teasers Training

Thematic Influence on Set Names

Wouldn't Innistrad: Rise of the Dead or something similar make more sense than "Midnight Hunt" given the larger number of zombies that werewolves? It feels like "Dragons of Tarkir" (Birds of Tarkir) all over again.

There’s more to defining the theme than the raw number of cards that have that theme.

Bird Dragons of Tarkir Innistrad Zombie

Quantity of Werewolves Analysis

So Midnight Hunt has 19 Werewolves. Dragons of Tarkir (which was criticised for having too many dragons) had… 26 Dragons. So for the crowd who want more werewolves - given that Dragons are the most popular tribe, and don’t require their own sheet, and that 26 was too many, just how many Werewolves would be the right amount? Would a Werewolf token generator create the idea of having a board full of Werewolves?

Here’s the tricky part. The audience is not a unified group mind. Each player reacts differently to each set. Just because some players feel a certain way doesn’t mean all players feel the same way. To some Midnight Hunt had not enough Werewolves. To others it has the right amount. And to a third group, it has too many. Nothing we do will make everyone happy. Our goal is to make as many as happy as we can. The reason I’m talking to all of you is to help understand where we steered people in a way we didn’t need to. What were errors we could avoid in the future?

Dragon Dragons of Tarkir Tokens Werewolf