Hello Mark! I would like to invoke the rite of Birthday Trivia (a day late) with a request for Amonket, since I was an Ancient Egyptian Mythology kid growing up.

I'd also like to make an animal request... my partners' favorite animals (a duck and ferret respectively) have appeared on cards (Decoy Duck playtest card and Joven's Ferrets), but my favorite animal, the noble flamingo, has to make do with only a sticker as far as I can tell. Can there be a card with a flamingo someday? Even just a reprint of "Uncage the Menagerie" or similar? Or a variety of Aven?

Thank you for all the work you do for us, both on the cards themselves and demystifying and discussing the hobby.

Amonket and a flamingo, got it. They probably won’t be in the same set. : )Happy Birthday!

Why isn’t Sliver Queen a Noble? 🧐

The term “Queen” mirrors the phrase “queen bee” to signify that she birthed the Slivers (at least the ones on Rath), not that she’s a noble in charge of politically overseeing them.

Hello Mark! I humbly request the birthday trivia: my favourite PW is Quintorius Kand (hf for your teams btw), have you got any Boros-elephant data related thing for me? Thanks~

The first creature to be printed with the creature type Elephant wasn’t in Alpha (War Mammoth was a Mammoth), but Arabian Nights with War Elephant. The second card printed with the Elephant subtype wasn’t until 1996 (three years in) in Mirage. (There were three: Iron Tusk Elephant, Noble Elephant, and Wild Elephant.)Happy Birthday!

If Clowns do make the jump to a non-un- set would older cards like Spike Jester get erratad into them, like what happened with Noble, or is the MtG idea of a 'Clown' the distinct aesthetic of the red nose and make-up kind of idea we see on Pietra that would differentiate them from Rakdos' whole deal?

Clowns would probably have to typally matter in a premier set to have us do errata.

Hey Mark, does it ever bum you out when a certain card doesn't make the cut in the competitive scene, or doesn't show up in a deck that it was clearly designed for? Thinking of things like Ignoble Hierarch not appearing in Jund, for example.

Power level of individual cards is far outside the realm of my responsibilities. I focus much more on if players like the larger themes, mechanics, and structure of a set.

If/When: Creatures that have the opposite personality. For example, a stupid Sphynx, a cowardly Dragon, a smart Beast, a noble Demon. Would they still be in color?

Colors cover a range of possibilities. You can be blue and not be intelligent, for instance.

In recent years, when you introduce new creature types (dinosaur, phyrexian, noble, etc.) you add that type to a bunch of older cards. In the case of noble it was little more than flavor, but phyrexian being added to glistener elf and blighted agent was a huge blow to infect decks. Is this not an example of major functional errata?

The cards were always Phyrexian in flavor. That was the original intent. We just didn’t have a way to signify it or cards that cared. Once we did, we felt it was important that it matched the original intent.

Ah, birthday trivia time. How often do you have to reconcile a character's personality colours with their mechanical colours (such as a noble scholarly character (WU) who is also a life-draining vampire (WB)), and do you find it difficult?

When we’re making up the character, we have a lot of control to match them up. When we’re drawing from a real world source, there’s a balance. Usually, you have to get a sense of what component is more key to the card as a whole. Art can help a lot in making something feel right.

Since we’ve had some fun with creature types recently, can I ask why Spike Rogue is not a Rogue? And why Noble Elephant is not a Noble?

The reason is simple. Spike Rogue is not a rogue, and Noble Elephant is not a noble.

Noble Tribal: If/When

Is not all tribal noble? : )