Hi Mark! It was my birthday recently :) do you have any fun trivia about the Devotion mechanic?

The devotion mechanic was the redoing of chroma, an ability that first appeared (unnamed) in Future Sight and then (named) in Eventide. Aaron Forsythe originally pitched chroma on a single card in Future Sight, but I held it back because I thought it was a whole mechanic. We had high hopes for chroma, but the audience wasn’t too excited by it. Then when we were making original Theros, we needed a mechanic showing a connection to the Gods, and design team member Zac Hill pitched bring back chroma. We cleaned it up (now only caring about the mana cost of permanents on the battlefield) and renamed it, and it went on to be a beloved mechanic. It goes to show how much execution of a mechanic matters. Happy Birthday!

Can I please request that we replace Ravnica with Bloomburrow as the go to two-color plane. I don't think I've been this excited for a magic set since the end of the weatherlight saga? Maybe Shadowmoor/Eventide?

I know its fleeting and we have a lot I'm going to dislike next year so I'm going to enjoy the heck out of this set. But PLEASE consider making this a soon return.

Success breeds repetition.

Hi Mark! It's my birthday! I hereby invoke the sacred rite of Blogatog Birthday Trivia! What is some awesome and preferably previously untold trivia about Rhys the Redeemed? (I think one story you told was about how the card came from experiments of "how do we make a 1 mana legendary creature," so I guess something beyond that)

The Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block was a bout a world that completely changes, so most legendary creatures in Shadowmoor (and Eventide) were new versions of characters you’d already seen on a card in Lorwyn (and Morningtide). The Elves were black and green on Lorwyn and green and white on Shadowmoor. We wanted both Rhys cards to play in the same deck, so we made both castable in a monogreen deck, but then game them elements that showed their second color. As Shadowmoor’s main theme was hybrid, that was the tool we used for Rhys the Redeemed.Rhys the Redeemed’s first ability was aimed towards an Elf deck, something we expected in limited and constructed. The second ability was grander in scale and encouraged a different style of deck, although one that would still work in just the Elf deck.Happy Birthday!

Have you guys ever considered remaking a set? Like take a good look at where you went wrong, where you went right, and make the set again? Cards would probably need name changes but what's stopping you from making some kind of "Eventide Re-Imagined" set?

The isn’t a big market for it.

Hi Mark :D I'm reading a lot of questions about a "return to Lorwyn", but does this include the Shadowmoor+Eventide (loved it sooo much !!) set in the discussion, or just the Lorwyn+Morningtide part ?

Let’s ask. Would a return to Lorwyn include Shadowmoor?

How about some birthday trivia about the noggles of Lorwyn/Shadowmoor?

When making Eventide, the creative team needed creatures that made sense being enemy colors, so they turned to Celtic mythology. R&D liked to joke about Noggles because one of the designers was Ken Nagle. Happy Birthday!

Another Vorthos, Steward of Myth Question: Does 'The Seer' from The Seer's Parables which is quoted in all of the Shadowmoor/Eventide spirit avatars count as a character which can be named? Also, the lore article for The Seer's Parables is not migrated, sadly. Thanks, Mark, and have a good Christmas.

Sure.

Hello Mark! As today is my birthday, I would like to request some trivia on my favorite set artistically, Eventide. Thanks!

Eventide is the only set in my history as Head Designer where I offered someone the job of lead designer for a set and they turned me down (technically, they accepted, had second thoughts, and then turned me down). Not having another good candidate that was free to do it, I ended up leading the design for the set. (This predated vision design/set design/play design, back when it was design/development.) Happy Birthday!

I’ve seen your reasons before for why you wouldn’t be proud as a whole of Unhinged, Eventide, or Battle for Zendikar, but I don’t think I’ve seen your reasons for Ixalan. Card to elaborate (or link to where you’ve elaborated before)?

I just made a lot of structural mistakes. Not having glue in a creature matters set, for example, is a huge mistake.

Out of curiosity, what would be a high level approach for a return to Lorwyn/Shadowmoor? Integrating Shadowmoor doesn't seem to be too much of an issue with just using a bit more hybrid and adding Scarecrows as a tribe. However, Eventide seems a bit harder. It has notable amounts of Dwarves, Noggles, Hags and Spirits as half the creatures aren't the eight Lorwyn tribes. Would they just go the way of the Surrakar even they take up a notable amount of one set?

I have a real cool idea how to return to Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, but I don’t want to share it here because I hope to actually do it one day and want you guys to be surprised if I manage to pull it off.