Re: The "cycle or discard a card" wording--this isn't the same as "when you cycle a card" as it works off things like Wild Mongrel or Merfolk Looter. "Cycle or discard" is the same was "when you discard a card", which makes sense in Amonkhet when you have graveyard mechanics fed by discarding through other means, less sense in Ikoria when cycling is the only major discard effect.

A fine point.

Say I tap Merfolk Looter. Am I able to play an instant between drawing and discarding a card?

No.

Do you have any insight on why red's looting (discard-draw) is costed worse than blue's superior looting? Rummaging Goblin v Merfolk Looter hurts to see!

Red is supposed to be worse at card filtering than Blue. It’s also worse at large ground creatures than Green. That’s how the color pie works.

In regards to red looting, you said mana would be the great equalizer, making it balanced against blue looting by making it cost less. Why then does Rummaging Goblin cost three and merfolk looter cost 2? I would think goblin would cost one.

That’s not what I said. I said that looting is naturally stronger in red because red’s all-in strategy often just needs a card or two to finish the job. This means that red’s looting will usually cost a little more.

In regards to red's looting ability, you said d"Weaker effects get to cost less. The mana system - the great equalizer" Why then does mad prophet cost 2 mana more than merfolk looter

A) Merfolk Looter is very powerful.  B) Looting is very synergistic in red.

Now that the card faithless looting has been spoiled, can you explain the change to the color pie. Will there be a red merfolk looter now?

Looting is stretching to also include red. We did figure out how each color is going to interact with looting. Each color has its own niche but there is some overlap. As to what exactly those roles are, I’d prefer for the cards themselves to reveal what we’re doing.