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.

I’d just like to say the art direction for the horror aspects of Duskmourne is incredible! The art for New Phyrexia is my all time favorite, and the vibes from what we’ve seen so far is the closest Magic’s come to it in decades! I for one am loving this set already!

Happy to hear that.

"The design for Scars of Mirrodin was my most stressful point in my career." Can you elaborate?

The short version. Scars of Mirrodin was originally New Phyrexia. We would visit New Phyrexia for the block and only at the very end would we learn it was Mirrodin.I had real trouble making the original New Phyrexia. Bill was so unhappy with the progress that he threatened to take me off the design. I had a month to fix it.I eventually had the realization that we needed to end on New Phyrexia. The block wanted to tell the story of Mirrodin falling to the Phyrexians.Bill came up with the idea that we wouldn’t announce who won the war in the middle set until the third set came out. We advertised it as Mirrodin Pure or New Phyrexia.

Hey Mark! I've been steadily making my way through your Drive to Work podcast. Just finished up episode 926 ("Myr") and it means the world to me. The Myr in New Phyrexia block are what got me into magic. Just wanted to pass along a big thanks, I love the Myr so much, and I was excited to learn about their design origin. :)

Happy to hear you’re enjoying the podcast.

Regarding the "Doom and Gloom" for UB from some people: While I don't think it's likely that original Magic settings are going away, I am a bit saddened that Wizards doesn't seem to be willing to actively build a deeper original IP over the long term anymore. Yes, there still are original sets. But most sets are one-offs built on tropes. Blocks are gone. Books are gone. As someone who would like original MtG lore and story to be stronger, this is pretty disappointing.

In 2023, we returned to New Phyrexia and expanded on the lore. We returned to Eldraine and expanded on the lore. And we returned to Ixalan and expanded on the lore. The whole last year was us expanding the breadth of our worlds.

A curiosity about Duskmourne. It's supposed to be a really creepy set. In the last State of Design, you mentioned that one of the lessons for ONE was that it was too bleak and "icky". Now you want to do a set just as gruesome, if not more. How are you going to deliver on the set expectations without upsetting people?

Horror, as a genre, is quite popular, and there are a lot of Magic players who enjoy it. The trick with horror is that there’s also a portion of players than can be turned off by it if the images get too graphic, so there’s a balance we have to do with any horror set. Note that the Phyrexian style of horror leans more into some of the more disturbing images than gothic horror, which is why we can do more Innistrad sets than New Phyrexia sets. The team working on Duskmorne wanted to make it a nod to the proper slice of horror while still being sensitive to what types of images creep people out.

Hiya, I've been loving LCI and surprised at how much I enjoyed the gnomes and it occurred to me to ask if there was ever a point where they were myr? Now that New Phyrexia/Mirrodin is phased out, I feel like having myr on another plane could be interesting (if multiple planes can develop ornithopters, why not myr?) and the Ixalan gnomes felt to me pretty similar (small useful guys). (I still want more gnomes! And waiting for more Runes like Kaldheims too)

The Gnomes were Gnomes from the first version of the file.

Fun trivia fact! In the flavor text for blue suns zenith from mystical archive, zimone is quoted as wanting to calculate the orbital mechanics of New Phyrexia and the 5 suns. This means 2 things. First, it means mirrodin is one of the only planes confirmed to have an outer space. And second, this flavor text shows that zimone has solved the n-bodies problem, making her a better astrophysicist than every astrophysicist ever in the real world. I just think that’s neat.

: )

Do you think there's an amount of life that would make phyrexian mana as originally used in New Phyrexia that would've made it balanced?

I don’t think life alone can balance it.

Would you mind elaborating on why Scars was hardest? I am curious

I have a whole “Lessons Learned” podcast on it as well as part of a “Lessons Learned” article. (Could someone link to these two in the comments; I can’t do it right now. Thanks.)The short version. It started as New Phyrexia, and it took a while for me to realize the block should end with New Phyrexia, not start with it.