since people are sharing Maro dreams, I figured I'd share the dream I had a few weeks back (recorded in a place of honour in my drema journal) where I baked you a delicious apple pie, gave it to you at a convention, and when you bit into it you were horrified to find it full of foil copies of doubling season. you banned me from playing magic forever and i was thrown in the secret WOTC dungeons for my crime.

My dream self didn’t like Doubling Season pie?

Hey Mark! I'm wondering, why do you allow yourself to reprint color-breaking cards? It gives players, especially newer players, the wrong idea about the color pie. Instead of reprinting Chaos Warp, why not either (A) print a different, non-breaking card that achieves whatever it is Chaos Warp achieves for red, or (B) change the color pie so Chaos Warp isn't a break?

The problem is players want access to the cards. The compromise was to not add them to formats that they aren’t legal in. That’s why color pie breaks won’t get reprinted in premier sets (not counting bonus sheets that don’t change card legality).

Hey Mark, I just wanted to say you've always seemed like a really cool guy. I've played magic for over 4/5ths of my life, since the early 2000s when I was only five years old, I even met most of my long time friends through it. But I think I finally feel alienated enough by it to drop it entirely.I always enjoyed every aspect of this game, from the deckbuilding, to the flavor, to the color pie and the possibilities it presented. I loved the fantasy of it, of planeswalkers and wizards, dragons and castles.Universes Beyond really was the end of it, all the way back then. When i heard the announcements I was terrified, I knew where it would lead even then. I loved the world of Magic, and it feels silly to say about a card game but I truly felt immersed in the world when I played, even with the different planes, everything cohered to an internal set of rules that seemed unbreakable.For a while I continued, our local scene created a variant format that banned Universes Beyond cards so I was able to ignore them, but then came Neon Dynasty. It felt strange to me, like it was breaking what I had come to expect out of the game. Most people disagreed, said it was still Magic enough, but I wondered just how far it would be pushed before Magic lost any identity of its own, anything that separated it from Fortnite or any other crossover soup known entirely for the things it borrows rather than the things it is.When I saw the first spoilers for Duskmourn, I think that was the straw that broke the camel's back. When I play at the table with my friends, I enjoy the fact that all the cards feel like part of one larger universe. And when I see cards with televisions and smartphones in them, with modern clothing and internet references, I just can't fit them together in my mind. It seems like a cool world, much like a lot of the crossovers are cool worlds, but I play Magic for well... Magic. If I wanted to play Fallout or Warhammer 40k, or watch Insidious or Walking Dead, then I would. But when I play Magic, I want to see magic.And it's canon, just as canon as Innistrad or Alara. We can't excise it like we can Universes Beyond, and if we can't, then what's even the point of trying to "protect the tone" with those bans? What tone are we protecting, that's already been shattered from within?More and more it feels like the game just isn't for me, doesn't want the kind of player that feels strongly about cohesion and immersion. And that's fine, it doesn't have to cater to me, and the current approach seems to bring in more people than it drives away. But it still just makes me sad, on a deep personal level, to give up on what has been such a major part of my life.In all likelihood, I'm an outlier, and you could easily say that Magic getting even broader in what it covers is only a positive thing. Take my critiques only as the lamentations of a single person. But when you can put anything in a piece of media, when there's no unifying idea of what is and isn't possible, then it just starts to feel meaningless.I'm sorry, I know you'll probably never read this, I mostly just needed to get it off my chest- and you're the closest thing to a human face Magic the Gathering has. Thank you for all the work you've put into it over the years, and I'm sorry that I can't enjoy it anymore.

Thanks for writing. From a big picture, Magic excels at creating variety and does poorly at consistency. The core idea of a trading card game is we make lots and lots of pieces you can play with and then you, the player, customize your game as you see fit. History has shown us, the wider we spread the potential of what Magic can be, the more people find something they enjoy and are attracted to the game. Think of it this way. Each player has a different sense of what Magic is to them. There’s no cutoff point where we make the majority of players happy. In fact, for many players, it’s the ever-expanding quality to the game that they enjoy most.This does mean though that we might make choices that don’t connect with what you personally enjoy, and I respect that. If Magic isn’t providing what you want out of it, that’s okay. My only recommendation is don’t get rid of your cards. Many Magic players rotate in and out of the game, and the number one complaint I hear from players who rotate back in is them having gotten rid of everything when they rotated out. Magic might not be what you need right now, but maybe a few years from now you’ve changed in ways which makes it something you will enjoy. Or maybe Magic will evolve in a way that speaks to you. The only constant I know is you and Magic will both change. Just leave yourself the possibility of reconnecting. Thanks for playing all these years, and I hope to see you again.

Based on lessons from the last Un set, do you think the next Un set is likely to repeat the "some cards are legal in tournament play" thing, or will they all be acorn/silver border?

The data makes the question complicated. It both frustrated some players and made others buy more packs.

Set B "obsoletes" set A is a strong word, but let's focus a moment on pioneer, not very old vintage cards. I have a database of "top playables" in pioneer, restarted after every banning. Cards get into list based on certain number of appearances in goldfish's tournament winners, but criteria is equal to all cards. 9 OG Theros cards are on the list, 5 KTK cards. 4 RTR cards (+ shocks) 21 MKM cards are. 20 LCI cards. 13 OTJ. New sets have vastly more cards in list, thus are stronger.

The switch for a Standard-focus to an Eternal-focus forced us to up the overall power level of premier sets in Throne of Eldraine, so yes, Throne of Eldraine and sets after do have an overall high power level. That wasn’t set by set creep though, but a conscious one-time adjustment.

Amid the endless positivity I have towards MH3, I do have oThe presence of Commander cards in play boosters. Its a bit soul crushing when I buy a pack that is more expensive than a regular standard pack, and it has a card in it I can't even use in my Modern deck. I've not hidden the fact I dislike that Modern Horizons has Commander precons attached to them. But its also really frustrating when the Modern Horizons packs themselves have cards in them that you can't even use.

It’s a fine note. How do others feel? Do you only want cards in the pack that are legal in Modern, or would you like access to all the new designs in the product suite inside the booster?

"Reprints become legal the day the set comes out."Follow up question: Does this mean the new cards in Modern Horizons 3 will be legal from the pre-release, however the reprints won't be legal until the official release the next week?

I went and did some research. I was incorrect. All cards from a set, which includes reprints, become legal in the formats they enter the day of the prerelease.

The future of mankind is at stake! You’ve been selected as our champion in the Galactic Magic Tournament, and the Bergggs are your final opponent. They say if they lose they will recognize our right to exist, but if you lose, they’ll invade and Berggg-form earth. Rules of the tournament dictate that all Magic cards printed are legal, but you can only play one color and lands that produce mana of that color on your deck. The sideboard is all cards of that color ever made. Decks are minimum 60 cards and maximum 4 of each card except basic lands (no limit). No banned or restricted list exist. Which colori would you chose?

These rules seem to imply that you can play colorless cards. If that is true, blue is the correct choice. If you can’t play colorless cards, you might think about black.

It seems wild to me that WotC cannot print cards directly to commander, without using the “this is legal in this other format, but banned from competitive play, but and if you want to play it in a casual format that includes 99 cards and an apart legendary creature you could wink wink”. It is the most played format of the game! It would seem good for business (and the format) that you could work something out and be able to support it by creating cars exclusively for it. No? I assume there’s a factor I’m not aware that is stopping this to be a thing or complicating matters . If you have any insight about this, I’d appreciate.Thanks!

Commander wasn’t created by Wizards, so we’re trying to be respectful of the group that has overseen it from the early days.

We don’t put legality in rules text. Except you do. That’s what “your deck can contain any number of cards named…” is

That’s not legality. If a card is not legal in the format, that line doesn’t make it so. Note that rule is format agnostic. It applies to all formats.