Fog

Universes Beyond and Color Pie

When making Universes Beyond sets, would you say that the team is more lenient about breaking color pie rules in favor of flavor? Or do you tend to stick with the color pie identities, even if flavor-wise it would make sense to break from it a bit? I.E. like a thematically appropriate fog effect in black or tapping down a creature in red.

When Aaron first pitched Universes Beyond to me, the one thing I stressed was that we could never print color pie breaks for flavor reasons. Aaron agreed.

Black Card Printing Color Pie Creatures Flavor Fog Red Rules Universes Beyond

Black's Fog Effect Availability

does mono black still get fog effects?

No. It shouldn’t even when it got it.

Black Fog

White's Fog Adjacent Effects

You said that white doesn't get Fog effects anymore, but we just got two white cards in the last year that prevent you from being damaged as part of their effect, Everybody Lives and Flare of Fortitude. They technically aren't fog in the mechanical sense, you still get poison and commander damage, but they largely play the same. The fact that we got two of these means it feels less like an outlier too so I'm curious what is happening with these two cards.

White goes get damage prevention, so it is Fog adjacent.

Commander Flare Flare of Fortitude Fog Fortitude Poison White

Fog Effects in Colors

Are fog effects still in white?

No. Fog effects are still green. We just don’t do them much any more.

Colors Fog Green White

Color of Fog

Why is fog green?

Tradition. It started there as it’s a natural occurrence.

Colors Fog Green

Fog and Multi-Blocking Future

unless I'm mistaken, from what I Saw, fog and multi block ( one Can block many ) didn't showed much or even at all in the recent set ( at least standard legal ) will those show up again at some point or is it unlikely ?
Also, which colors might get the ability to block multiple creatures with one ? From what I Saw it was a white thing, is it specific to it or can other expect to see this effect ?

Fog is something we use pretty sparingly these days, especially in play booster world. Multi-blocking is something we stopped many years ago due to digital concerns. We already were making so few of them, and they didn’t play all that great, so giving them up wasn’t a big deal.

Boosters Colors Creatures Fog Play Boosters Standard White

Intense Mechanic Concentration

Would it take a bus hitting R&D for a set where Black leans heavily into hand destruction and tutors, for Blue to lean very heavy into counters and extra turn effects, for White to lean into taxing and global destruction effects, Red to lean into land destruction and multiple attack step effects and Green leaning into Ramp and fog effects?

With time, we’ve learned certain effects work better when we’re careful how much we do of them in any one set. The set you’re suggesting is simply messing with many of these themes in a volume I’m skeptical we’d do. But as I like to say, I never say never. Although all these themes, at the same time, seems like madness.

Black Blue Fog Game Design Green Lands Madness Mechanics Red White Your Hand

Jokes in Card Design

The Akrome article raised me one question: how often do cards get changed in the file as a joke? It felt as if someone took "all keywords" too literally and gave tons of unused keywords to make Akroma look like Old Fogey

It seldom happens today. Back in the day, it happen with some frequency.

Humor Keywords Old Fogey

TurboFog Strategy Evolution

Hey Mark! Its once again my birthday, and I'd like to invoke the Rite of Trivia! What can you tell me about TurboFog?

In the early days, R&D thought Fog was a harmless effect. Turbo fog decks forced us to rethink that. That’s why you don’t see one drop Fogs anymore. Happy Birthday!

Birthday Fog

Black's Fog Exception

Why did black get a fog in the 40k decks? Is that something in pie for black now?

It’s a bend. Black can get “all creatures get -N/-0”.

Bend / Break Black Creatures Fog

Fog in Standard Request

may i request Fog in Standard / Draft again?

I believe original Fog is considered too good for Standard these days.

Draft Formats Fog Standard

Question on Green's Treasure

Mark, while I do understand that Green is the color that excels at mana production, I question myself (and you) if it NEEDS to be also good at making Treasures. Let me explain: White is best at damage prevention, but it doesn't get Fog because it don't need it - as it gets other and stronger varieties of the effect. Using this same logic, Green have so much redundancy in mana production it doesn't need to get the best cards for this effect. How about letting Red get the best ones of this particular subset of temporary mana production? (:

Red is best at it, and as past sets have shown will be the color that does it the most often. The reason it’s also in green in Streets of New Capenna is that green (or more accurately the red/green draft archetype) required it. We did it here in green because of a set desire. So, in this case, it “needed” to be here.

Colors Draft Formats Fog Green Gruul (R/G) Mana Red Streets of New Capenna Treasure White

Old Fogey's Eternity

Hi Mark! Would Old Fogey be eternal if printed in Unfinity?

Probably. It does have a few weird interactions, but I think the rules can handle them.

Eternal Old Fogey Rules

Color Pie Break Assessment

I thought you said digital only cards had to pass trough the council of colors, Tome of the infinite is a color pie break no? it generates non blue cards and lets you cast them for whatever, effectively giving you access to effects that are not available on blue, discard, ramp, direct damage, fog, lifegain, doublestrike, unconditional exile.

Blogatog / Tumblr Blue Color Pie Colors Council of colors Discard Fog Lifegain The Exile Zone Tome of the Infinite

Inquiring Fog’s Legal Status

A request for you to pass on as appropriate: Could we have Fog be legal in Historic? It already exists on Arena, as a card you can get from Tome of the Infinite.

I’m not sure what the line is for Historic, but I do know play design considers G too strong for the effect in Standard.

Fog Format Legality Historic Magic Arena Play Design Power Level Standard Tome of the Infinite

Understanding Black Color Break

Is Darkness a break for black? Is there a difference between a break and something a color just doesn't do anymore?

No, a break is a break even if it wasn’t a break when it was printed (although Fog was never a black effect - the early days weren’t very color pie wary).

Bend / Break Black Color Pie Colors Fog

Fog Standard Return

If or when: Fog makes a return to standard?

If. Play design currently believes Fog is too strong for Standard..

Fog If/When Play Design Power Level Standard

Potential Fog Reprint in Standard

It's been about 8 years since Fog was in standard. Can we get a reprint, in a standard set?

I don’t think play design wants to print straight up Fog in Standard right now.

Card Printing Fog Play Design Premier Sets Reprints Standard

Draw and Damage Prevention

If Fog was eventually taken off the #1 damage prevention color because green needed it more, any chance draw hosing could meet the same fate and be taken out of the #1 draw color? White certainly needs it more.

Fog started in green. We tried it in white and realized that white didn’t need it, but green did, so it went back to where it started. That is not at all synonymous with draw.

Colors Fog Green White

Color-Coded Abilities

Didn't white have Holy Day, a 1-mana fog identical to Fog, except in White? Is that no longer in White's colour pie? (Worth noting that Black also had an identical fog in the same set, Legends, I think)

Fog is currently in green’s slice of the pie. We did experiment with it being white for a little while. Despite Darkness, it was never part of black’s slice of the color pie.

Black Color Pie Colors Fog Holy Day Legendary Creatures White