is there a word that means "the feeling you get when you come across wonky, terrible Homelands and Fallen Empire cards, and suddenly feel a yearning for those innocent days when you would get excited when your big brother would buy you m:tg cards from the vending machine at the hockey arena that would dispense wonky, terrible Homelands and Fallen Empire cards"?

I’m sure there’s a word for that in German. : )

Hi Mark, it's my birthday today. Might I ask for some trivia about the 'original' Serra Angel and/or maybe a specific question? Was Serra as a planeswalker as we know her today part of the concept from Day 1? I started playing when Revised was just out and cannot recall any such info available back then. Keep up the good work and cheers to the team, Heiner

When Richard Garfield made Serra Angel, the word Serra came from “serrated”, as in a blade, as the creature was a warrior. I don’t believe there was any intent that it was specifically referencing a person, let alone a planeswalker.I believe Serra, as a planeswalker, first came about in the story for Homelands. The set borrowed a lot of inspiration from popular cards in Alpha which included Serra Angel.Happy Birthday!

hi mark! I was wondering if weapons rack was in any way a callback to serrated arrows from everyone's favorite set, Homelands? (my friend and I made a cube for it) :D also could I get an update on koth's position on the venser scale?

It wasn’t a conscious inspiration.

What is Homelands called Homelands. I believe it is the only set that is not second or third in a block that does not reference the plane it's set on

It was at a time when we weren’t doing tons of sets in other worlds, so we hadn’t really hit on the “put the plane name in the first visit” idea. I think the name represented that Serra and Feroz we’re making a safe zone. I’m not sure though.Tempest is another example and one could argue Arabian Nights.

With Warlock and Noble new creatures types, will we see older cards get errata? Like Dread Warlock from 2010, or Faerie Noble from Homelands?

I know they’re going to errata a bunch of old cards with Noble. I’m not sure about Warlock as that’s harder to understand what gets it without the words to guide you.

"Return to Kamigawa is a challenging sell, but possible. If I attempted Return to Homelands, they’d assume I was joking. : )" Don't ell it as 'Return to Homelands'. Sell it as 'Ulgrotha'. Make it it's own thing. You recently asked people here how they would feel about returning to a plane if the mechanics were different. I can understand not wanting to go back to Rabiah in any way. You can go back to Ulgrotha and make it better. It's been established Sengir's bloodline goes beyond Ulgrotha.

Kamigawa has a pretty loud contingency. Ulgrotha does not.

Can the next Un Set be Homelands 2: Unexpected Unreturn or something?

If I’m able to do a fourth Un-set, my hope is to swing a little bit higher than that. : )

What would you say is the best example of a good mechanic from a bad set? Does anything from Homelands, Kamigawa or Prophecy hold up?

Ninjitsu from Betrayers of Kamigawa is a good mechanic.

you sometimes mention that success breeds repetition. but isn't it sometimes true that non-success breeds desire for a re-do (e.g., Homelands, Fallen Empires, Kamigawa)?

Failure breeds change. The feeling of a need of a redo plays into my lesson about not doing things to prove you can. It comes from designers’ egos, not from a sound place of business.

What was the biggest success of Homelands?

It helped upper management learn to trust R&D on gameplay decisions. (R&D’s recommendation was not to release it.)