Please pass my thanks to whomever decided otters should be a thing in Magic.I've carried an otter plushie around with me to events through my entire Magic playing career, so almost 15 years. Ive had an otter along for the ride from pretty much every FNM to PTQs to traveling everywhere I could drive within 8 hours to play Legacy for several years or even trips to the other side of the US for large events a couple of times.I was screeching and immediately tried building an otter deck when Lutri and Theving Otter came out with Ikoria. I was literally babbling with joy at the otters in Wilds of Eldraine for MONTHS. To say I'm beside myself with excitement for Bloomburrow would almost be an understatement.My favorite thing to build or play in Magic are tribal-based decks. I built an angel one as my second ever deck (Shards of Alara/Zendikar standard) so I could teach my mom to play before she passed. I was known for a knight/Sword of _____ and _____ deck for years. I've even played Merfolk and Tribal Lightning Bolt (burn) decks a time or two. But I can now have my beloved otters as a theme for my deck.Literally the only way that it could be more perfect for me would have been if there was an Otter Knight named Rora for my little tournament companion.So thank you for making my love for Magic even stronger by adding otters.

I like making otter people happy. : )

For folks unclear on what "warps the format" means, consider that in Modern and Legacy, any creature with cost 3 or more and power 3 or less is basically unplayable (Unless it has a strong ETB or similar upsides). There are just too many people playing lightning bolt and your creature is extremely likely to be cheaply removed by the game's best (and perhaps best-balanced-for-its-early-power-level?) common card.

Correct. Lightning Bolt prevents a lot of creatures from seeing tournament play.

RE: powercreep. i find it odd that people think cards are getting too strong when many of the best cards are still those from the original set. not even just the moxen and black lotus, cards like lightning bolt have simply never been outclassed and still see play in the most powerful formats.

I asked R&D what was the most powerful card I ever designed. As a group, they agreed Tinker. That came out in Urza’s Saga back in 1998, which means I designed it in 1996 or 1997. I’ve been designing Magic cards for twenty-nine years, and my most powerful one was designed just under thirty years ago. : )

Is there a term for these type of cards? "(Type) cards that don't have any (type) subtype"- creature cards without any creature subtype (such as "Go-Shintai of X", Legendary Enchantment Creatures - Shrine)- artifact cards without any artifact subtypes (such as "Greatest Show in the Multiverse", an Artifact Enchantment - Saga)- other type of cards without respective subtypes (such as "The Wanderer" for Planeswalker, "Evolving Wilds" for Land, "Lightning Bolt" for Instant, etc.)

There is not a term for it, as it’s not something we need to talk about in design.

In the last 10 years or so you guys have been slowly improving on the concept of "Shock + Conditional Upside" or "Bolt + Minor Restriction" in Standard sets, and while I think this experiment has been doing well, do you think we could reach a point where reprinting original Lightning Bolt in Standard again could be a possibility?

It’s not off the table, but it’s a hard constraint to build Standard around.

If or when, Bolt getting reprinted in a Standard/Pioneer legal set?

If. Lightning Bolt really warps environments.

When designing a card for a new set, how often would you say you look back on a past card and play around with modifying different aspects (mv, p/t, types, etc) to fill a similar role? (Like lightning bolt led to a lot of reds' cheap damage)

We look back and adapt old cards all the time.

When or if: Lightning Bolt returns to standard?

If. It really warps the environment.

If or WhenA lightning bolt reprint into a standard set?

If. It really warps the environment in a way that makes other Standard-legal sets harder to make.

Re: Rare-B-Gone, couldn't it work in black border the same way Apocalypse Chime and all the other expansion matters cards do, by caring about the original rarity a card was printed at? That way reprints don't impact its effect.

That requires too much knowledge. For example, without access to a database, do you know the rarity of first printing of cards? Does counter target common spell stop a Disenchant? Or a Counterspell? Or a Lightning Bolt?