I'd like to point out that if Chatterfang, Squirrel General is now from Bloomburrow, that would be a retcon, because his bio in "The New Legends of Modern Horizons 2" mentions him fighting drakes and orcs, which apparently don't exist in Bloomburrow.

I do not know where Chatterfang is from.

I would like to gibe many thanks and dish out high fives to the reveal of Grist, Voracious Larva/Grist, the Plague Swarm in Modern Horizons 3. It was my favourite card from MH2 and I'm happy that it was well received enough that we got another iteration. I'm also looking forward to learning more about the character, so here's hoping we get more Lore accompanying this set!

Glad you’re excited.

Do you guys track if certain products within a set do better than others? I.e. if the Lord of the rings commander decks were also the best selling commander precons, or if modern horizons 2 sold the most draft boxes?

We do. We track a lot of things.

Wait, Strixhaven surpasses Modern Horizons 2? Or did you mean second best premiere set? In this case, what would be the first?

I was talking about when it came out. Strixhaven came out before Modern Horizons 2.

Hey Mark,

"Market research shows again and again that one of the biggest draws to new sets is new mechanics."

Can I push back against this notion a bit?

Nowadays, Magic very rarely introduces new sets without new mechanics but I'm not sure why you're so confident that doing more sets that make use of the existing 30+ years of mechanics rather than introducing new ones wouldn't be well received?

Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons 2 are extremely popular sets that didn't include any new keywords or mechanics. Additionally, Magic has made several new Commander deck products that have been very successful that didn't include any mechanics along with micro releases like The Walking Dead and Street Fighter cards that were very successful without relying on new mechanics.

I understand that the Modern Horizons series is a very unique product, but would Magic ever ever consider making a large premiere set that doesn't include new mechanics?

To be clear, I don't mean a Core Set product. Core sets are mostly reprints and are lower power level than Masters sets, I believe that is the reason they are less successful rather than because there aren't any new mechanics. After all, doesn't market research indicate that players like nostalgia and are constantly asking for you to revisit and expand upon existing ideas in Magic?

We do extensive market research on what players want, which means we’re constantly asking. New mechanics was high on the list twenty years ago and is high on the list today. There’s something linked to new product and new mechanics. I’d be happy to just do repeat mechanics if we thought the audience would be happy with it. Note that while Modern Horizons doesn’t use new mechanics, it uses a *lot* of old mechanics, including mixing and matching them, creating many things that feel very new. Note that the higher complexity allows us much more freedom to make newer feeling things.

I just want to say that I don't mind the high amount of products released each year.My main gripe is the fact that cards don't get reprinted often. The evoke elementals from MH2 were released over 2 years ago and have yet to recieve any reprint.The ally fetchlands are in desperate need of a reprint.These cards see use in a similar degree as Sol Ring in Commander, but don't get the dame reprint treatment.

We work two years ahead, so it takes time for us to reprint recently printed things.

"We make the full range from simple to complex. The issue is the design vein for new simple mechanics is just a lot lower. Thirty years in, we’ve discovered the majority of the simple ideas."

Hi Mark,

Why do you feel that Magic needs to keep exploring virgin mechanical design space at a rapid pace?

MH2 is the best selling set of all time and it didn't include any new mechanics or abilities. That indicates to me that players can be enticed and excited by some new products that don't have new mechanics. But it seems like this is something you're very rarely willing to explore more which I find interesting because often success breeds repetition in Magic.

Surely it's possible to make a few new dynamic premier sets without having to make and introduce new mechanics? Or maybe a few more sets where the only mechanics that are introduced are workhorse mechanics primarily for Limited play.

So we do constant market research. We’re very interested in what drives players to want to buy new sets. The number one driver - new content (of which a big part of it is new mechanics) We’re not constantly making new mechanics just to entertain ourselves. The audience has spoken very loudly that it’s a huge driver for them. We also track what social media and media talk about when a new set comes out and new mechanics is almost always the top spot.Modern Horizons is an exception, but it does have access to every mechanic we’ve ever done, so it’s not a fair comparison. It has an increased complexity that no other sets get.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but while Tribal was also deciduous, appearing only in Future Sight, Lorwyn, Morningtide, and Rise of the Eldrazi before being retired (it eventually showed up again on Altar of the Goyf in MH2).

The Tribal card type was deciduous when it first appeared.

In general does the creative team find making set wheres every card is set in one world (such as Wilds of Eldrain) more challenging than sets that are not bound to one world (such as Modern Horizons 2), or possibly the other way around?

More time is usually spent on the former than the latter.

If/when: a set focused on tokens – or does WOE count as one with foods and roles?

I would argue that many sets already have had tokens as a major theme. Modern Horizons 2 even had lots of different tokens as a theme which is something tricky for a premier set to do. Although, as you point out, Wilds of Eldraine does have six Role tokens and Food tokens (not to mention numerous creature tokens), and a whole mechanic, Bargain, that lets you sacrifice tokens, so it’s a pretty token-y set.