I’ve thought it over for a bit before messaging you: I think that spoiling Tamiyo so early was a misstep. I believe it would have hit much more effectively if it was spoiled at the tail end of spoiler season.

The only way to do that would have been to postpone the end of the story to the end of the previews, which contradicts the feedback we’ve been getting about having the story before the previews.

Don't you think that Unstable "setting a new precedent" in tone and execution is a pretty big disappointment for those who rallied in support of it for years? I'm liking the set just fine, but I think it was a huge misstep to not give vanilla/black bordered cards trinket text at the least: This doesn't feel at all like an un-set to me--just a new way to play the game (contraptions).

Cards that have been revealed so far: - Card you toss
- Card making you throw dice on the table
- Card that cares if it’s dark outside
- Card you sneak into play
- Cards that make you involve people not playing in your game
- Card that turns half the game into a Two-Headed Giant
- Card that lets you name keyword abilities from throughout history of Magic
- Card that moves a creature to another game
- Card that changes between two different cards in any zone
- Card that changes numbers on cards
- Card that destroys players
- Card with a subgame
- Card that staples creatures together
- Card that copies whole text boxes
- Cards that care about watermarks
- Card that stops state-based actions
- Card that cares about capital letters
- Card where you play Hangman
- Card that lets creatures in graveyards attack or block
- Card that lets you open a booster pack and bring cards from it into the game
- Card that attacks during another player’s combat
- Card that mechanically cares about flavor text
- Card that cares about what’s in the art Not to mention a major mechanic that uses a separate deck and another one that overwrites text by covering it up. How in the world is this not a wacky expansion?

SOI has been a great return to form after the misstep of BFZ block, but has it sold well? I hope it hasn't been punished for BFZ's mistakes.

Shadows over Innistrad (and Battle for Zendikar) is selling well.

Was the idea of Phyrexian mana a bad idea, or just certain implementations of it (Misstep et al)?

The color break stuff was a mistake for sure.

im a fairly new player and i was searching on gatherer through the cards that cost phyrexian mana and i came across mental misstep, what was the thinking behind the card?

I tried to stop that card and failed. I think the thought behind it was development trying to make an exciting Phyrexian mana card.

I understand that it is already generally considered a mistake, but why print Mental Misstep? Countering spells doesn't seem like something "an artifact could do".

It was a mistake I tried to stop and failed.

What's your opinion about mental misstep?

Not a fan. Tried to stop it and failed.

Hey MaRo, I was just discussing Magic's fantastic track record as of the last handful of blocks, and I was wondering what you might consider the last real blunder or major misstep for Magic was. I've been struggling to come up with one since things in Kamigawa (which while not ideal, was not a disaster IMO).

Coldsnap was our last major blunder in my mind.

I was a history major in college, so few things in Magic interest me more than Magic's history; and for whatever reason, I am endlessly fascinated by the Kamigawa block (I think because it was a valiant misstep). Ever consider casting a few more pods about the subject, perhaps touching on Betrayers and Saviors?

I will get there eventually.

You said, "Countering things without paying any mana is very powerful." I agree. Did Mental Misstep solidify this thinking or did you know this prior to printing Mental Misstep? (I'm thinking ya'll didn't intend to make a card that would get banned from all the eternal formats before it even rotated.)

I tried very hard to keep Mental Misstep from being printed. I obviously failed in my task.