I seem to always find lots and lots of discourse about block sets. Two sides of the same argument every time.
Side 1 says something like:"I hate all these random sets, I miss block sets."
To which, Side 2 says; "Well block sets never sold as well at the end, players attention span's are better suited for one and done blocks."
My problem with this response is that it essentially ignores the initial statement. Rather than clarifying what they mean, they assume and answer.
Personally, I miss block sets, but ONLY from a story perspective.
Basically, do sets exactly the same as you're doing now. Draft is better now than blocks were, standard with Foundations sounds fantastic. The only thing I'd like to see is a set of setup, and a set of payoff.
MKM was a set based on a murder mystery with the big twist ending basically included in the release, as an example. It could've benefitted from a real, but delayed, payoff. Set up the consequences for each suspect, then reveal and give different consequences that were hinted at in other ways. Bam. Improved.
The last time we visited New Phyrexia, it was a block, I remember ubiquitous speculation over how the story would wrap up. There were factions events at local game stores, branded posters and packs for the factions at play, etc. I had a friend get the New Phyrexian emblem tattooed on themselves. The story felt *Important* and so much less divorced from magic than it does today.
Usually, in my experience, when someone asks for blocks, they're asking for the story to matter. There are lots of mechanically interesting card games out there, and mechanics are only part of what makes magic, magic!
All I would ask is that writers get the opportunity to do setups and payoffs with magic's evolving story with multiple sers, and that story related sets have *some* play synergies. They don't need to share mechanical themes just to share story themes, but it would be a nice little florish if they had mechanical synchronisets,
Hell, a REALLY good idea (in my opinion) would be to do these sets in a different order than the old method. Modern fantasy novels swap POV characters and follow different stories. Why not set up multiple stories in a row, then start to alternate resolving an older, established plot line, and then starting a new one or swapping to another established one. This really gives players time to get interested and speculate (and making the story FEEL present will likely also boost novels and comics numbers, etc., if you need a monetary reasoning.)
What do you think Mark?

We already do a lot of what you’re asking. Each Magic “year” does have a larger connected story, often with different POV characters.

Do you think you would have enough material for a Drive to Work on "hand matters" themes like amplify, Saviours of Kamigawa, and reveal from hand effects? It feels like a subject similar to four-colour factions or vanilla-matters that would be interesting to explore its pitfalls and problems.

Let me think about it.

Could we see a faction plane where instead of a faction being Blue-Red (for instance) we refer to it as a ‘Purple’ color?

Let’s call it unlikely. : )

following up on the question about color imbalanced faction sets, what about faction sets that mix ally and enemy color pairs? is that a ravnica only thing, or could we see it on other worlds? might we ever see a three-color set that uses this approach?

It could happen with the right world.

Hey Mark, I've been wondering: Looking at the success of Universes Beyond, how likely are returns to the same franchises? Warhammer 40k only featured a subset of factions, for instance, so there's potential for more cards. I'm curious if this is something that's been explicitly considered by market research and how heavily recurring IP collaborations are weighed vs new IP collaborations?

Basically, looking back, how do you decide if the well has run dry when UB seems to set sales records every time?

Going back to popular properties is not out of bounds. We did a second D&D set, for example.

In the Fallen Empires DTW (which I loved by the way), you mention that Fallen Empires had almost no flying or other evasion. Do you think that might have been the result of building the set “too top down,” meaning they had great ideas about the factions and simply forgot to include evasive creatures because the factions they came up with were all land and sea armies? This feels like a good lesson that could be useful to anyone designing a set without a design skeleton.

The East Coast Playtesters just weren’t super fond of flying. Most their sets had a smaller percentage of fliers than average (at the time).

We've seen very few cards as of yet, but are the following mechanics exclusive to their faction: Valiant (Mice), Thresold (Rats), Expend (Racoons), Forage (Squirrels)? Or can we expect to see at least a little of (some of) them in more colors?

Those four mechanics are unique to one animal archetype.

"Both Rath and Mirrodin were made, neither too long before they first appeared." While true, by the time players got to these places, there were already defined factions and beliefs and lore. What they were asking for is more of a world before those things. The world is so fresh that factions haven't formed, beliefs are still being defined and lore isn't any deeper than 'yesterday we survived' and such. A truly new and still primal world.

A lack of definition does not tend to lead to a good Magic world.

How much of developing a new plane (specifically in the earliest parts you do as Head Designer) is original and specific world building, vs adapting inspirations? Ixalan is my favourite plane and it seems to do a great job adapting the faction/setting inspirations, while also being original and unique, and it feels like Bloomburrow is doing the same so far with the right mix of familiar animal fantasy tropes and new unique worldbuilding, but do planes usually start with more of one than the other?

It varies a lot by what the world is.

So, bloomborrow will have 10 factions. I remember in the past, doing 10 factions didn't as well (thinking of Dragon's Maze) and most faction sets stick to 5 factions. But that was over a decade ago, what are some lessons/tools have the team developed to handle 10 factions in a set?

I have a lot of preview content coming your way for Bloomburrow.