Hey Mark, I’m really stoked about the new take on Ixalan. I was not originally especially looking forward to this set, but the respectful take on Mesoamerican culture was a very pleasant surprise. After Amonkhet, I had thought that WoTC had chosen to avoid deep cuts that are not commonly known. The Mesoamerican fantasy setting that highlights what makes its source material great feels really fresh and exciting.However (and perhaps I’m just ignorant of the source material), I’m finding the Gnomes to be pretty jarring inclusion - and I love MTG Gnomes. I was probably the target audience for them. I had the Mirrodin Bottle Gnomes art as my desktop wallpaper for several years. I would have still preferred a creature type that was a little more authentic to the source material, or even just Construct or Robot. The degree to which Lost Caverns of Ixalan is referencing its source material is kind of making the Gnomes more jarring by contrast. At least the feathered Dinosaurs kind of have the tangential link to Quetzalcoatl. It kind of feels like if Theros had had some elven philosophers.

Is it the look of the Gnomes or just the fact they are called “Gnomes”?

Big fan of the Bottle Gnomes/Bottle Golems cards. Do you think we could one day see another member of the Bottle family?

I do.

Would it be in white for a card to grant all your creatures [Bottle Gnomes ability], for example? Or is that using flavor to justify a mechanical break?

Yeah, that’s just using in-color tools to make a break.

Hi, Mark! It was my birthday on June 30th. I love both Squirrels and nonartifact Gnomes (i.e. the only one to exist, Quarum Trench Gnomes). May I have trivia that is true for both Squirrels and flesh Gnomes? ...Besides the fact that Q was the last letter to have a card's name start with it. ;) Alternate request: which of the two tribes (Squirrel vs. nonartifact Gnome) is more likely to have new cards printed in a Standard-legal Magic set?

The first set to have Squirrels appear in the art was Urza’s Legacy. It was also the first set I did card concepting for. Happy Birthday!

It's my birthday today! Any triva you can share on the cards winter orb, dueling grounds, bottle gnomes or hedron crab?

The original flavor text of Bottle Gnomes from Tempest is one of my favorite. The writers were each assigned characters and I wrote Ertai and Karn. I decided I wanted Karn to be a fan of parables. Happy Birthday!

May 4th was my birthday, and I forgot to ask about trivia for Bottle Gnomes.

Bottle Gnomes were in early Mirrodin designs back before Gnomes turned into Myr. Happy Birthday!

Re: nonartifact Gnomes, let's not forget about Quarum Trench Gnomes! Sure, they're about 22 years old, but they still exist!

Fair enough. Quick Quarum Trench Gnome trivia. With the release of that card, something was complete. What was it?

Maro I keep expecting snow lands to come back in every set is R&D going to meet this expectation?

The last letter to have a card name starting with it was Q. It happened with the Legends card Quarum Trench Gnomes. Happy Birthday!

I missed last year's opportunity for some birthday trivia so finally I remember! Any chance I can get some trivia on my favorite tribe, Myr? Thanks for being awesome!

Before creative made the myr, the artifact creatures in Mirrodin were gnomes (a la bottle gnomes). Happy Birthday!

"What card was the last to be printed such that a Magic card existed with an English name that started with each letter of the alphabet?" Not sure if I understood the question right, but was it "Quagmire" from Legends?

The correct answer was either Quagmire or Quarum Trench Gnomes, both from Legends. Q was the last letter. X had been done in Antiquities with Xenic Poltergeist.