Hi Mark,Why did it take so long for full-art lands to make a comeback after original zendikar? What changed to make you want to do them for almost every set now?

A change in philosophy in how we wanted to use them.

When making a cycle of cards, does Design prefer to be able to commission one singular artist for all of the cards?Examples being Rob Alexander doing art for all the shock lands, Wayne England doing the Command cycle, ect.

We like to have one artist do cycles when possible.

I had a Maro dream once. You'd hire me on if I completed a scavenger hunt quest around Seattle. I had to find and take pictures of various land marks such as Pike Place but it was closed that day. Then somehow we rode a mono rail over the bay and you gave me until the end of the ride to design 5 Commons for an upcoming set, but your critique was I designed rares. :(

Thanks for sharing.

Hi Mark, Is there an Article or Podcast about how exactly Richard Garfield came up with the ideas? Especially basic lands, one Land per turn rule or the idea of tapping things for use? I mostly like the idea of having 5 colors and the more colors you play the harder it is to cast the right cards on time, that is the perfect system of keeping people out of playing all the best cards in the same deck most of the time.

Here’s the podcast with Richard where I ask about decisions he made in Alpha:

https://media.wizards.com/2020/podcasts/magic/drivetowork737_richardgarfield_Y83uI3oO.mp3

Is there a rules reason Omo cannot give all creature types to land creatures? Was that too confusing? Did it break something on arena? I’ve been pondering this and can’t figure it out.

You can’t give a subtype of a specific card type to a different type (with the exception that instants and sorceries share subtypes).

In the absolute hypothetical where River of Tears were to get a full land cycle, because of the unique way it works do you think it would get a 10 card cycle (one for each color pair) or a 20 card cycle (one for each permutation, so for each color pair there would be a land that tapped for color A if you had played a land and color B if you hadn’t, and there would also be one that tapped for B if you had and A if you hadn’t)

Or a 5-card cycle.

"The issue is many players enjoy the higher powered designs of the straight to modern sets." I think there is a larger issue, but its impossible to capture given the character limit. There is an article from 2019 by Jeff Cunningham called "Lands and Spells" I would love if you could read just the section that starts with "I asked Randy Buehler once.." and ends with "Taking in the big picture.." ...Does the game designer have any business designing beyond what the most customers want? I think yes

I went and read the section in the article you mentioned. My primary goal as Head Designer is to make Magic the best game it can be. Market research (along with talking with all of you here) helps inform our choices, by giving us a better understanding of what the players want.Good game design isn’t just doing what the players want though. We need to surprise you and push the game in directions you don’t expect, but I am, and the rest of R&D, are negligent in our duties as game designers if we don’t have a good understanding of what the players interests in the game are when we plan out future designs.

In the Fallen Empires DTW (which I loved by the way), you mention that Fallen Empires had almost no flying or other evasion. Do you think that might have been the result of building the set “too top down,” meaning they had great ideas about the factions and simply forgot to include evasive creatures because the factions they came up with were all land and sea armies? This feels like a good lesson that could be useful to anyone designing a set without a design skeleton.

The East Coast Playtesters just weren’t super fond of flying. Most their sets had a smaller percentage of fliers than average (at the time).

In regards to the winter basic lands not being Snow type: I like to think that it’s just regular snow, not *magic* snow. Does snow mechanically fall under the same umbrella as kindred? Where is you started using it everywhere it would get out of hand?

Yes. Showing snow in the art shouldn’t automatically mean the card has the snow supertype.

Is there anything in the rules stopping Ward costs that give opponents (ie the controller) something instead of paying a cost? Like "Ward - Each other player draws 2 cards". Or "Ward - Each other player searches for a basic land. It enters tapped and then they shuffle."

Yes. Wards, by definitions, have to be costs.