With the introduction of Racoon as a relevent type will we see the 2 Tanuki cards from NEO erratad to Raccoon Dog?

I’ve been told by experts in the topic, Tanuki aren’t Raccoons, even though they are sometimes referred to as “raccoon dogs”.

Hi Mark,I brought this up before but I have been seeing Magic getting much more comfortable with modern technology and how much of a disconnect that is (to me) seeing it on the table. I am not talking about advanced technology, but rather mimicking directly our real-life technology. New Cappenna, Kamigawa, even Karlov and thunder junction touched this, but the high tops are tv sets from the duskmourn previews make everything feel mundane and not "magic" to me. Is this type of world building direction something we are going to see more often? Do you think that UB living in more modern settings has allowed sets like this to be made, where previously they wouldn't have? I think people are excited I think the set is going to be loved, I think design and art has been amazing this year, but again for me every has been feeling less magical.

Magic does what it always does, push boundaries. Magic is not inherently tied to any time period. You can have modern settings where Magic plays a big role in the world.We’ve been testing how modern Magic can be. Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty was very modern and it was beloved.But if the overall feedback is modern things are too much, we can pull back. Duskmourn is definitely pushing into new area.What do you all think?

Hey Mark, I was reading the Rabiah scale article and was a bit sad to see New Capenna had a low popularity among players. It's my favorite plane, so I have a bit of a bias. I was wondering if you knew what players disliked about it? Was it because of the limited environment? Were the cards just weak overall in the set? Or did players just not like modern concepts in magic lore? (That last one I struggle to believe because of the popularity of NEO, but that could just be because of Japanese culture)

I can’t always explain the why of the data.

Hey Maro, how’s it going…which is more likely to happen first: another return to Kamigawa or a return to Amonket?

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty doing so well, greatly raises the chances of going back. Amonkhet, with what happened to the world in the last visit, is the trickier return.

All this talk about sets that sold well has got me curious: what was the best selling premier set of all time?

Right now? I think Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty holds that record.

I'm sure this isn't helped by the extra year added on to standard, but UW has 4 kindred synergies its trying to support currently within standard (spirits, soldiers, knights, detectives). It feels like soldiers and knights could have at least mentioned each other to help cross set synergy out, as right now, these decks are very much locked into their own sets when looking for support. Has it shown to be a problem per your data? If so do you have ideas on what could be done different?

There are no Kindred cards in Standard, but my guess is you’re talking about typal themes. The philosophy is the set that cares makes the typal cards that mechanically matter and then other sets will make more creatures that share the type. We will batch on occasion, but only if both types are relevant in the set the card is in. (Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty had Ninjas and Rogues in it, for example.) We will mechanically return to more popular creature types over time, but that usually isn’t relevant for Standard.

I thought Bushido played okay? Wasn't that part of why it was the prime example of a decent mechanic with a name that was way too specific to reprint in most sets?

When I was working on Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty vision design, I went to the play design team and asked them if they liked the game play of bushido. They said no.

Could the rules find a way to handle a ninjutsu-like ability where everything attached to or targeting the returned creature will also be targeting the replacement creature once it arrives?

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty explored this exact thing and it has a lot of rules issues.

I heard Neon Dynasty wasn't confirmed to be on Kamigawa at the beginning (even though you wanted to.)Does it make NEO a backdrop set as well? If not, what makes a return set (such as THB, ZNR, DMU, BRO, ONE, and WOE) a "non-backdrop set"?

NEO is more a rebuild than a backdrop set. THB, ZNR, DMU, ONE, and WOE all keep the same mechanical core. BRO is the closest to a backdrop set in that Dominaria was more a setting than a mechanical core. The odd part is Brothers’ War mechanical core was copied from Antiquities which was set on Dominaria.

Did the Warhammer 40K and Doctor Who sets help in convincing people that Volleyball‘s space opera setting would work? Or is this another “we’ll discuss that closer to release”?

We started working on Volleyball before either of those two sets came out. It was more the success of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty that pushed us in that direction.