'New cards or mechanics. Basically, new Magic mechanical design. Have fun doing it (Magic design is fun), but I can’t see it.' I wouldn't dare try it. It's just clarification for future requests like a Mardu-partner-with vampire pairing or a card called 'Mock Exam' for the upcoming Strixhaven set.

That stuff is fine.

So what's exactly unsolicited material?

New cards or mechanics. Basically, new Magic mechanical design. Have fun doing it (Magic design is fun), but I can’t see it.

Do you ever encounter issues where a mechanic that you want to be core to a set is too niche in its slice of the color pie? Like, food was a big theme in both Eldraine sets, but it is a mechanic that can only appear WGB, so you were limited somewhat in just how much you could use it compared to something disguise, which is a completely color-pie agnostic mechanic. When designing full custom sets I often have ideas for mechanics that seem to be total slam dunks, but are actually kind of limited in how much I can use them.

It happens from time to time. It’s why vision design checks in with the Council of Colors.

Hi Mark! It was my birthday recently :) do you have any fun trivia about the Devotion mechanic?

The devotion mechanic was the redoing of chroma, an ability that first appeared (unnamed) in Future Sight and then (named) in Eventide. Aaron Forsythe originally pitched chroma on a single card in Future Sight, but I held it back because I thought it was a whole mechanic. We had high hopes for chroma, but the audience wasn’t too excited by it. Then when we were making original Theros, we needed a mechanic showing a connection to the Gods, and design team member Zac Hill pitched bring back chroma. We cleaned it up (now only caring about the mana cost of permanents on the battlefield) and renamed it, and it went on to be a beloved mechanic. It goes to show how much execution of a mechanic matters. Happy Birthday!

I seem to always find lots and lots of discourse about block sets. Two sides of the same argument every time.
Side 1 says something like:"I hate all these random sets, I miss block sets."
To which, Side 2 says; "Well block sets never sold as well at the end, players attention span's are better suited for one and done blocks."
My problem with this response is that it essentially ignores the initial statement. Rather than clarifying what they mean, they assume and answer.
Personally, I miss block sets, but ONLY from a story perspective.
Basically, do sets exactly the same as you're doing now. Draft is better now than blocks were, standard with Foundations sounds fantastic. The only thing I'd like to see is a set of setup, and a set of payoff.
MKM was a set based on a murder mystery with the big twist ending basically included in the release, as an example. It could've benefitted from a real, but delayed, payoff. Set up the consequences for each suspect, then reveal and give different consequences that were hinted at in other ways. Bam. Improved.
The last time we visited New Phyrexia, it was a block, I remember ubiquitous speculation over how the story would wrap up. There were factions events at local game stores, branded posters and packs for the factions at play, etc. I had a friend get the New Phyrexian emblem tattooed on themselves. The story felt *Important* and so much less divorced from magic than it does today.
Usually, in my experience, when someone asks for blocks, they're asking for the story to matter. There are lots of mechanically interesting card games out there, and mechanics are only part of what makes magic, magic!
All I would ask is that writers get the opportunity to do setups and payoffs with magic's evolving story with multiple sers, and that story related sets have *some* play synergies. They don't need to share mechanical themes just to share story themes, but it would be a nice little florish if they had mechanical synchronisets,
Hell, a REALLY good idea (in my opinion) would be to do these sets in a different order than the old method. Modern fantasy novels swap POV characters and follow different stories. Why not set up multiple stories in a row, then start to alternate resolving an older, established plot line, and then starting a new one or swapping to another established one. This really gives players time to get interested and speculate (and making the story FEEL present will likely also boost novels and comics numbers, etc., if you need a monetary reasoning.)
What do you think Mark?

We already do a lot of what you’re asking. Each Magic “year” does have a larger connected story, often with different POV characters.

Hi Mark - please settle a question. My opponent has a 1/3 with an enchantment aura giving it 2/2 and flying for a 3/5 flier. On a later turn I make it a 1/1 frog losing all abilities. Is it now a 1/1 without flying or a 3/3 without flying. Thanks for your help, we couldn't find a good internet amswer!

It depends on how the card is making it a 1/1. If it’s changing the base stats, the aura boost would still apply.

Could the gift mechanic work as a triggered ability instead of something solely done on cast? Such as "when this creature attacks, you may Gift a Food."

I don’t know if the current version of gift can do that, but as it’s a cost, I assume we could tweak things to make that work. Just a hunch though. I’m not the Rules Manager.

Considering the readability of Reach and Flying, do you think if magic started from the beginning it would try and tie mechanics and abilities to Symbols to help with readability accross the table?

Or do you think there would be to much a risk of consuming text space and the text box becoming poluted.

Symbols quickly get overwhelming to beginners.

Wazzzaaaaap, Mark da Shark,Just wanted to send kudos and share my excitement about so much of Bloomburrow! It's gonna be my first prerelease in a long while, since M20, I think, as well as there's so many things to love about it. I've been a big fan of Doug Beyer since Kaladesh, glad he was the lead designer on this set. Also super pumped to be getting both a revisit to the Heroic mechanic in Valiant, one of my favorite mechanics from Theros, and the amount of rabbit typal support. My Cadira commander deck is gonna go through a major redesign when the set is properly out. Hope you have a lovely day!

I’m glad you’re so excited. I can’t wait to hear all the prerelease stories.

How late in the design process were badgers replaced with raccoon? Was the decision to make Gruul's mechanic expend already made by the time the swap was decided on? Or did market testing show the audience's preference before any of that was locked in?

The change was made mid vision design. I’m not sure when expend first got added. It was there at the handoff, although unnamed.