Does the math on imbalanced factions change if it's just five two color factions with two of them being the same typal/theme. Something like Izzet Weirds, Simic Elementals, Golgari Squrrels, and Mardu (Boros and Orzhov) Vampires?

Five two-color factions isn’t “imbalanced”.

Does every Wedge have a draft theme in MH3? Jeskai has Energy, Temur has Eldrazi and Abzan has Modified. I wonder if Sultai and Mardu have something too.

There’s connective tissue, but not a full named mechanical theme.

Hey mark. Y’all in R&D infamously “avoid doing two-colour creatures which could be done in a single color”, like a creature with flying and vigilance, for example. I am not rehashing that argument, because I fully understand why the answer to that question is GB (although since vigilance is allowed in blue now that means that the UB option that was wrong at the time now is also a correct answer). That said, I do have some qualms with the premise of that question. We see multicolored cards that don’t need all their colors CONSTANTLY. Just in Thunder Junction, we got:- Wylie duke, which can be in white or green, and doesn’t need to be both- Vraska joins up, which can be done in mono green and doesn’t need black- Selvala, which can be done in mono green and doesn’t need white- Seraphic steed, which can be done in mono white and doesn’t need green- Rakdos joins up, which could be done in mono black and doesn’t need red- Miriam, which could be done in mono green and doesn’t need white- Marchesa, who can be done in blue or black, and doesn’t need to be both, and DEFINITELY doesn’t need red- Lilah, who could be done in red or blue and doesn’t need to be both- Jasper flint, who can be done in Black or red and doesn’t need to be both- Jem, who could be done in mono blue and doesn’t need white- Form a posse, which could be done in red or white and doesn’t need to be both- Breeches, who can be done in mono red and doesn’t need blue- At knifepoint, which could be done in mono red and doesn’t need black- Obeka, which could be dimir or izzet and doesn’t need to be grixis- Vihaan, who could be done in boros and doesn’t need black- Kirri, which could be in mono green, and doesn’t need red or white- Yuma, which could be done in mono green (and maybe mono red?) but definitely doesn’t need white- Olivia, which could be boros or rakdos and doesn’t need to be mardu- Pest control, which could be mono white and doesn’t need blackI don’t really know what I’m asking, but I just wanted to bring up that unnecessary colors appear on multicolored spells VERY frequently; and I wanted to know if you have any thoughts about this.

That’s why I say “we try” and not “we always do”. When a multicolor card doesn’t have abilities of two colors, we’ll tag it in the Council of Colors pass, and the lead designer will see if hey can find an elegant solution. It’s not a mandatory thing though, as it’s hard to do without making cards extra wordy and clunky. Again, that’s why I say “we try” to do it as it’s something we do when we can, but often don’t do.

Did Sarkhan's appearance (with the back spikes) influence the overall look of the Mardu Horde? Or was he designed knowing that he was going to be from Tarkir?

We didn’t know specifically what plane Sarkhan was from when we designed him.

Why do you think Anakin isn't White? I've consistently run into people arguing he's Mardu.

His third color is white if you make him three-color, but he’s way more black and red.

"They are in WUBRG order. Note that doesn’t mean W is always before U" Can you explain how this works? I'm confused.

Let’s start with allied color pairs. The way we do them is we start with the color and the go clockwise around the color wheel. That means they are: White/BlueBlue/BlackBlack/RedRed/GreenGreen/WhiteNote that means green and white are green/white, the order in which they are consecutive rather than the order of WUBRG. For enemy color pairs we get: White/BlackBlue/RedBlack/GreenRed/WhiteGreen/BlueIn this case two color pairs, red and white, and green and blue, are not in WUBRG order, but in the order where they are closest around the circle.This order makes it so each color is first two out of four times, and last two out of four times.Shard/arc three color trios are done the order that they appear together in the circle:White/Blue/BlackBlue/Black/RedBlack/Red/GreenRed/Green/WhiteGreen/White/BlueRed, green and white, and green, white, and blue aren’t in WUBRG order.Wedge three-color trios, are written such that the shared enemy color is in the center, with each color appearing with it as it appears when it’s written as an enemy color :White/Black/GreenBlue/Red/WhiteBlack/Green/BlueRed/White/BlackGreen/Blue/RedOnly white, black, green is in WUBRG order.Four color quartets appear in the order they appear consecutive in the color wheel: White/Blue/Black/RedBlue/Black/Red/GreenBlack/Red/Green/WhiteRed/Green/White/Blue Green/White/Blue/BlackAll but the first two aren’t in WUBRG order.Five color us in WUBRG order:White/Blue/Black/Red/Green

Is there a reason certain highly desired or very clear archetypes don't get commanders built for them? For example, abzan lifegain is something a ton of people want and it's the perfect colors for it, yet we haven't seen a dedicated commander for it. Additionally there's mardu spellslinger that can combine the burn from boros with the drain from black. A personal desire of mine is to get a creature "force feed" commander to give opponents a bunch of tokens and hit em with massacre wurm. Jund pls

Two issues:

1. There are a lot of moving parts when making Commander decks (aka different needs that have to be addressed).
2. There are a lot of different Commanders players want.

We will eventually get to the ones that a lot of players are asking for, but it can take some time.

Can you elaborate on why Doom Blade would be Esper? The effect seems to fit better in either Mardu (B and W destroy creatures and R has damage, which is close to destroy when it's a big ammount) or Grixis (Nonblack clause: Black + its allies)

Not Doom Blade, Doom, as in Doctor Doom, Fantastic Four villain.

Hey Mark! I noticed something that got me curious... I'm used to the WUBRG color sequence in Magic, and thought every card followed this pattern, but I noticed that's not true! Speaking about the 3-color cards, Grixis, Esper, Jund, Temur and Abzan cards follow the WUBRG sequence in its mana cost, but Jeskai, Naya, Mardu, Sultai and Bant cards do not, and I have to ask... why?

All ten three-color pairs do actually follow a WUBRG pattern. The central color, the one with two allies in arcs and two enemies in wedges, is in the middle. Then the colors follow the two-color order. For example, we use WU and GW, so the arc mana is GWU. Likewise, we use WB and RW so that order is RWB.

Hey Mark, I was wondering what the rules were re: the order of mana symbols in cards that require multiple different mana types to cast? I was thinking about it recently and assumed that it would always be in WUBRG order, but when I went looking at some revealed cards I noticed Tamiyo, Compleated Sage put the green mana symbol before the blue, and Asari Commander has red before white.

There are official orders for each color combination: WUUBBRRGGWWBURBGRWGUWUBUBRBRGRGWGWUWBGURWBGURWBGURWUBRUBRGBRGWRGWUGWUBWUBRG