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.

I can only be okay with colored artifacts if you promise you'll still make some generic ones for my karn, silver golem edh deck.

There will still be generic ones made.

Sorry, I meant why did you decide to make Karn silver in the first place?

We wanted him to be a golem and golems are made out of a single substance. We thought silver would look cool.

Will we ever get ace walkers that arent literally a robot? Sort of reinforces bad stereotypes, tho I know wizards didnt do that on purpose

Karn is not some emotionless robot. He’s a golem with deep emotions and is one of the most sympathetic and popular characters in the game.

Karn has been consistently referred to as male throughout his history. See his Vanguard card, Pacifism, Thran Golem, Power Matrix, Energy Flux, Corrupted Conscience, Distant Memories, and Praetor’s Counsel.

Karn has no gender. Karn looks more masculine than feminine so people refer to Karn as “he”. It’s not an issue Karn focuses on so Karn just lets people do what’s more comfortable for them. The reason we use “he” when talking about Karn in flavor text and articles is that when Karn was created gender identity wasn’t a big public thing yet, and we’ve chosen to be consistent. We’ve talked about whether Karn is supposed to care, and it’s possible one day Karn will. If that day comes, we’d revisit how we and characters refer to Karn.

Mark, you've said before that you greatly prefer humanoid planeswalkers because you feel the audience needs to connect with them... How's your market research on nonhumanoid 'walkers? I personally vastly prefer video games in which I can play something non-human and ideally nonhumanoid, and I NEVER play as humans if I have the chance to be something else. In MTG, Vraska, Bolas, and Ugin are the coolest walkers just because they're "not just another human". PLEASE start branching out more. ~20%?

Ajani is a Cat.
Kiora is a Merfolk.
Karn is a Golem.
Daretti is a Goblin.
Sorin is a Vampire.
Arlinn Kord is a Werwolf.
Ob Nixilis is a Demon.
They’re not all Human.

I see a lot of facts being asked today and thought I'd throw my hat into the ring! Today's my birthday and I was wondering if you had any cool facts about Karn Silver Golem or Sorin Markov (cards with huge personal value)? Thanks for all of the work you do for us and I love your blog!

Karn got his name from the word “Cairn” which is a human-made pile of stones. Happy Birthday!

You seemed afraid that Karn would die if you said he was your favorite, but can Karn die? I assume if the plot wanted him dead, it would find a way, but is he 'mortal' in the traditional sense?

Karn is not mortal but things could clearly happen to the golem.

RE Tezzeret as a Vedalken: The asker was asking about Tezzeret being a Vedalken in species, the same way that Tamiyo is a Moonfolk, Ajani is a cat, Tibalt is a Devil/Human hybrid, Kiora is a Merfolk, Karn is a Golem, Nicol Bolas is a Dragon, Nissa is an Elf, Sorin is a Vampire, Vraska is a Gorgon, and Xenagos is/was a Satyr.

That is a Doug question.

Some quick stats on 'walkers based off of Doug's article: there are currently 24 Planeswalker characters with cards. 16 are male, 7 are female, and 1 is Ashiok. 13 humans, 1 half-human, and 10 non-humans, counting Ashiok as non-human. (Not entirely sure on Ashiok, but face-have is generally a human trait), 1 is dead, 2 are dead*

Karn, by the way, is actually not gendered. People refer to him as “he” but Karn is a golem and doesn’t have boy or girl parts. EDIT: Sorry. Let me be clearer. Karn does not have a gender identity because he does not associate as either male or female. Above I was actually trying to state that he is not biologically male or female. I apologize if I offended anyone.