Creature Powercreep

You mentioned that you think of powercreep in Magic as a matter of newer sets being more powerful than older sets. When I think of powercreep in Magic, I tend to think of individual cards being more powerful than older cards.For example, when Savannah Lions was first printed, it was a rare, since having a vanilla 2/1 for 1 mana value with no downside was considered good (I assume). Nowadays, there are seven 2/1s for 1 mana in standard alone, most of them are uncommons, and they all have abilities that aren't downsides. (That list is: Ascendant Packleader, Cheeky House-Mouse, Cult Conscript, Embereth Veteran, Falkenrath Pit Fighter, Hotshot Mechanic, and Recruitment Officer.) Furthermore, Savannah Lion's recent reprint in Dominaria Remastered puts it at a common, meaning that its relative power over Magic's lifetime has seemingly decreased.Is this idea of powercreep something that comes up during your design process, and if so, how does it get addressed?

The power level of creatures in Alpha was pretty weak. There is not, for example, a single Alpha creature we couldn’t reprint today for power level reasons. In contrast, there are a lot of noncreature cards we couldn’t reprint today for power level reasons.We have made a lot of creature cards. Many of them are below the top tier of what we can print. Making a card better than an existing card is not power creep. Making creatures above the top line of what’s acceptable is.

Ascendant Packleader Card Printing Creatures Cult Conscript Dominaria Embereth Veteran Falkenrath Pit Fighter Hotshot Mechanic Mana Mana Value Mechanics Non-creatures Power Level Rares Recruitment Officer Reprints Savannah Savannah Lions Standard Uncommons Vanilla