Helvault

Aftermath of War of the Spark

Might be some difficulty in Nahiri and Ugin meeting after War of the Spark, since Ugin sealed himself in the Prison Realm with his brother, planning to wait until he died of old age (which would be a long time off for a dragon), and I think Nahiri's as mortal as any other kor now.

Several years ago, Ugin was dead and Nahiri was trapped in the Helvault. It’s a story. Things happen. : )

Aftermath Dragon Helvault Humor Kor Prison Realm Sealed Format Story / Lore War of the Spark War of the Spark

Critique of Helvault Promo Thing

Why was the Helvault promo thing for Avacyn Restored so unpopular? Everyone got something cool, why are they upset that other people randomly got something cooler? I'm a relatively new player going through old Blogatog posts, so I wasn't there to see people's reactions at the time.

My best guess was it was an expectation thing. If someone gives you a hamburger, but you were expecting a steak, you might be unhappy with the hamburger even if in another circumstance, the hamburger might make you happy.

Avacyn Restored Beginners Helvault Promos

Artifact and Enchantment in Future Story

Hi Mark, hope you and your family are safe these days. Gotta little questoin about magic story. Most of the time, planes feature important Artifacts of great power, that are relevant to the overarching story of magic, liker the Helvault, the Immortal Sun, the Planar Bridge, or the Chain Veil. May I request more important Enchantment (like Calix or The Great Aurora) for future magic stories?

You may.

Artifacts Enchantments Helvault Planar Bridge Planes Story / Lore The Chain Veil The Great Aurora The Immortal Sun

Planeswalker Power Levels

Question about the timeline - so Sarkhan traveled back and saved pre-mending Ugin; and he was cocooned through the Mending. Is current Ugin still wielding the power of a pre-mending walker? And is Nahiri still a pre-mending walker? If not, how did she survive so long - did the Helvault keep her from aging while she was inside?

The nature of planeswalking changed, so no old school planeswalkers (of that power level) exist any more.

Helvault Planeswalkers Power Level The Mending

Oversized Card Ruling

Pretty sure I know the answer, but figured I’d ask anyway: Can spike grab oversized magic cards, such as the oversized griselbrand from the helvault promotion?

Technically, no. This ruling came up years ago with Chaos Orb shenanigans.

Chaos Orb Griselbrand Helvault Orb Shenanigans Spike

Tamiyo Lore Insights

Today is my birthday, so I was wondering if I could get lore on my favorite planeswalker, Tamiyo

This is a fuzzy memory, but I think Tamiyo happened in this order. The Helvault existed as we needed Avacyn trapped somewhere. We liked the idea of the Helvault being a piece of the moon. When looking for a new planeswalker for Avacyn Restored, we liked the idea of a planeswalker scientist that studied moons as Innistrad had a strange moon. A moonfolk from Kamigawa seemed like a good fit for someone who studies moons.Happy Birthday!

Avacyn Restored Birthday Helvault Innistrad Kamigawa Moonfolk Planeswalkers Scientist Story / Lore

R&D Room Names

I always here about the Pit and Helvault, R&D sounds like a magical place. What other names do you guys have for rooms?

The R&D meeting rooms: - Ivory Tower
- Mishra’s Workshop
- Eye of Ugin
- The Helvault
- Danger Room (the only nonMagic reference - it’s the X-Men, based on the “office” that Richard got that he let people use to play games)

Eye Eye of Ugin Game Design Helvault Ivory Tower Mishra The Pit

Conference Room Name

What's the conference room's name where you had Gavin's birthday presentation? Was that the Helvault?

No, it was Ivory Tower.

Birthday Helvault Ivory Tower

Helvault Trivia

Hi there MaRo. My birthday just recently passed. With the season being all about the goings on of Innistrad, I was hoping you could provide some trivia or insight on the Helvault.

There is a meeting room in R&D called Helvault and also one called Eye of Ugin. I ask why we keep naming our conference rooms after places where people or things were trapped. : ) Happy Birthday!

Birthday Eye Eye of Ugin Helvault Innistrad Mark Rosewater

Liliana and Helvault

This may be a Doug question, why couldn't Liliana destroy the Helvault herself? Was it "magic"?

Black magic is bad at destroying artifacts. Also, Liliana is a necromancer.

Artifacts Black Destroy Helvault

Thalia Trivia Request

Hey Mark, my birthday was yesterday and i was wondering if I could get some trivia on my favorite card and character; Thalia?

Thalia is the one who actually destroyed the Helvault. Okay, she was being blackmailed by Liliana.Happy Belated Birthday!

Birthday Helvault

Helvault Room History

is "the hellvault" a new conference room, or did it lose an old name? were there other name changes?

The Helvault has been a meeting room for a number of years. It used to be an office.

Helvault

Thalia's Lore

Hey Mark. It's my birthday and I was wondering if you could share trivia my favorite white legendary: Thalia

Many people think Liliana opened the Helvault on Innistrad but actually it was Thalia. Okay, she was kind of forced by Liliana, but still she is ethnically the one that freed Avacyn and the others.Happy Birthday!

Birthday Helvault Innistrad White

Wizards Office Themes

So a lot of the offices/meetings rooms at Wizards are themed and named after the theme. Could you share pics of some of your favorites?

wizardsmagic:
There actually aren’t a ton of names in here named directly after MTG lore. We recently named the new downstairs common area Dominaria (with conference rooms Waterdeep and Ravnica attached). Other favorite rooms include…City of BrassThe Command TowerSerra’s Sanctum (formerly the CEO’s office)Hall of GuildsEasy Bake OvenTHE DANGER ROOMChicken CoopWayne ManorMain EngineeringThe BridgeThe Wampa CaveThe AbyssThe MatrixBermuda Triangle
If you listen to “Drive to Work” I mention a few of these meeting rooms from time to time.She forgot some Magic themed ones:Ivory TowerMishra’s WorkshopEye of UginHelvaultNote the last two are places people were imprisioned.

Blogatog / Tumblr Caves Chicken City of Brass Command Tower Dominaria Drive to Work Eye Eye of Ugin Helvault Ivory Tower Mishra Story / Lore The Abyss Two Color

Liliana vs. Helvault

is that true Liliana couldn't destroy the Helvault by herself even she has the power to destroy all the people of Thraben because she is Mono-black and black cannot destroy the artifact?

Yep.

Artifacts Black Destroy Helvault

Hero's Path Approval

In contrary to the other guy, I loved the hero's path. Actually went to a Hawaii FNM (on vacation!) during a rainstorm to beat xenagos. Loved the experience over anything else I've experienced, beating out the last top spot of the helvault.

Just because I tend to address the naysayers, I don’t want to make people feel that the Hero’s Path wasn’t popular. A lot of people got involved and had a great time.

Helvault

God Packs Strategy

Thanks for doing the God packs in a way that caused everyone to be ecstatic if they got one, but not disappointed if they didn't. How much was the Helvault discussed when deciding to do this?

We didn’t talk about the Helvault in particular, but we were conscious of wanting to make it a special moment when you opened one.

God Helvault

Complaints on Promos

Mark, I hope you seriously reconsider doing promos like the SDCC ones again. It's very frustrating for people who aren't going to have access (beyond having to get in first at a website that may overload when they go on sale) and you've recreated the Helvault situation in some ways. In addition, it's a "The Rich Get Richer" situation, as people who can't afford to fly out to conventions get left in the cold.

As I stated above, we’ve done exclusives of different kinds in different regions over the years. I think the SDCC ones are just more known than most.

Conventions Conventions Helvault Overload Promos

Event Prize Dilemmas

Based on your answer about the Foil Plains, it sounds like you guys got the wrong message about why people were upset about the Helvault. It's not that people cared that expensive cards were handed out, I loved getting Wurmcoil Engine and Sun Titan and the GameDay BSZ. It was that not EVERYONE got the premium helvaults. I had no chance of getting a foil Griselbrand token because I didn't live somehwere, and people who this is their first magic event had a shot.

It’s not just one event, it was many events. If we give away something that’s too desirable, we get complaints that there was a reason someone couldn’t attend and they missed out on this “one time thing”. The feedback has been “make it relevant, something I can put in my deck, but not so good that I get real upset if I’m unable to attend”. We try very hard as a company to listen to our playerbase and, like it or not, that is the message that has been conveyed very clearly over time.

Foils Griselbrand Helvault Sun Titan Tokens Wurmcoil Engine

Prerelease Event Advice

Mark, as someone who works at a gaming store and plays Magic, the AVR, RTR and GTC prereleases were some of the most fun I've had as a player. But, they were very difficult to organize. I'm worried that the Dragon's Maze prerelease is going to be even harder to work with as it has all ten guilds and a component like the Helvault to deal with. Is there any advice you can offer to a store manager who really loves these types of events, but dislikes the preparation required to set them up?

I don’t know the details, but I know we are working hard to help enable the stores to run the best prereleases possible.

Dragon Dragon's Maze Helvault Limited Prerelease Two Color