Some Magic-inspired stories, all about bonding with my son, who is now 7-and-a-half: I don’t remember what I did first to get him interested in Magic, but it was probably playing with my friend Max, who taught me and my now-wife how to play - but I know Duels of the Planeswalkers on Xbox 360 helped get my son into the game with the effects and music but especially archenemy variant and a Nicol Bolas final match.In the years since then, he and I occasionally get to talking about his favorite creature types and characters, and after quite some time, we have slowly narrowed down his choices to 4: Spiders, Zombies with Liliana, Nicol Bolas, and Niv-Mizzet. Not surprisingly, two of Magic’s most common dragons in that list. I don’t know what it is with dragons but I’m glad WotC had realized their appeal so they’re prominently there for my son to enjoy, and with quite a few options so he may get a Nicol Bols dragon deck that’s much different than any dragon deck I have tried to make myselfThanks to War of the Spark, I finally created a Horde Magic deck and he loved hearing about the storyline of Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation leading up to the actual WAR set, as I explained those stories using key cards before we started the game, to establish the setting. Coincidentally, it was my son with his Gideon that ultimately dealt the final blow - no need to sacrifice himself the way it played out in our match! My son will still reference this game and it’s nearly been a year.Also since that time I learned that the classic Planeswalker webcomics had been bundled as graphic novels, so I got those and our nighttime routine for a bit was to read about Garruk’s corruption by Liliana and that build up to Rise of the Eldrazi and Mirrodin Besieged; coincidentally we finished as March of the Machine previews were going on, and my villain-loving son is now waiting for me to build a Phyrexian horde so he can battle Elesh Norn. We look forward to many more years with the game, and especially learning what comes next for some of our favorite still-active villains: Ashiok, Oko, and Tezzeret!

Thanks for sharing.

I know the whole set hasn’t been revealed yet, and I know story reasons why, but I’ll just note that it’s a bit odd to have a Villain set that doesn’t have Nicol Bolas in it.
I am keeping an eye out for Tezzeret.

Nicol Bolas “takes a lot up of the oxygen” of any set he’s in.

In october of 2012 Mark Gottlieb wrote in an article, that a combination of Magic and Clue couldn't be done, because it was "always Nicol Bolas, with Murder, in Wherever He Damn Well Pleases." Was the entire purpose of War of the Sparks to get Bolas out of the picture, so a Clue crossover could be made? :)

You figured it out. : )

The mention of how Steamflogger Boss was reprinted has me wondering, how was Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // the Arisen printed? As the only DFC in the set, did he have to go on the token sheet or something?

He was on his own sheet.

What is "a backdrop set"?

It’s a set on a world we’ve been to before, but with a different mechanical focus. The first backdrop set was War of the Spark. (I don’t count early Dominaria sets as they predated our mechanical theming of worlds.) It was an expansion set on Ravnica, but it wasn’t about the guilds and multicolor, but rather an event set about the conflict between Nicol Bolas and his army versus a sea of planeswalkers. I used the term at the preview panel at MagicCon last week because we were talking about The Lost Caverns of Ixalan as it’s a backdrop set. The set started as a top-down underground set, originally planned on a new world. We eventually realized that it didn’t have to be a new plane, that it made sense being on Ixalan. But to set expectations, I wanted players to understand that The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is not “Return to Ixalan”. It’s not a faction set built around four creature types. Yes, those creature types will be there, as they’re from that world, but it’s not a typal focused faction set like original Ixalan.

What's the minimum number of DFCs that would need to be in a single set to warrant using them?

Core Set 2019 had one. It was very key to the set’s theme - the history of Nicol Bolas.

Are we one step closer to the return of nicol bolas?

If Bolas ever returns, every set is a step closer. : )

It's my birthday! If you have anything, I'd really like to request a bit of trivia about that first Sorin Markov card, it was the focus of the first deck I ever built by myself, back when it was new. :)

The first Sorin’s ultimate (the Mindslaver effect) was originally designed, interestingly by me, for Nicol Bolas, but they ended up going with one that referenced his original card from Legends. Happy Birthday!

Hello Mark! Is Nicol Bolas (also known as the nameless one) entry on the Venser scale still up to date? Last entry made him a 3 or would you say his position shifted. Where would you put him now?

I’m confident we’ll see Nicol Bolas again, but most likely not as a planeswalker (due to the events of the Bolas Saga), so yes that raises his Venser Scale rating. I’ll call him a 9 (not 10 because he’s so sneaky).

Nicol Bolas was magically stripped of his name by Ugin.Therefore we cannot name Nicol Bolas on the new Vorthos card without it being a total flavor fail.

Luckily, you’re allow to name characters from any point in time (as many of the characters on cards aren’t alive in the present timeline). So, when choosing Nicol Bolas, make sure you choose it from a time when he still had his name. : )