Rares

Exile-Trigerring Cards

abzanhouseguest asked about cards that trigger off things being exiled. We already have a few! The War Doctor being probably the strongest example. A couple Eldrazi too. It's a very rare thing but you've done it before.

Fine point.

Doctors Eldrazis Rares The Exile Zone The War Doctor

Dream Job

I had a Maro dream once. You'd hire me on if I completed a scavenger hunt quest around Seattle. I had to find and take pictures of various land marks such as Pike Place but it was closed that day. Then somehow we rode a mono rail over the bay and you gave me until the end of the ride to design 5 Commons for an upcoming set, but your critique was I designed rares. :(

Thanks for sharing.

Commons Lands Mark Rosewater Rares Seattle Scavenger Hunt

Balancing Creature Types in Bloomburrow

Hi there Mark!I know previews for Bloomburrow aren't quite over just yet, but one thing that I've noticed that I'm a bit sad about is how some of the creature types seem to be more favored than others in terms of number and rarity. This seems especially apparent when you look at Frogs vs. Bats.I was REALLY into the aesthetics and world building given to the bats of Bloomburrow, but looking at the spoilers so far, Bats have 50% fewer spoiled cards than Frogs (10 vs. 15), as well as only 2 rare bats revealed thus far compared to Frogs having 5 rares and 2 mythic rares.

The ten main animals are not exact in number, but they are in the ballpark of one another.

Bats Bloomburrow Creatures Frogs Mythic Rares Rares Rarity Spoilers Rarity

Distributing Card Rarity Per Set

How does the team decide how many rares and mythics or just overall cards each color gets from set to set?

Colors are always balanced in common and uncommon, and often rare. Mythic rare is the only rarity where there’s usually never a totally even split.

Colors Mythic Rares Rares Rarity Uncommons Rarity

Rare Variance in Full Art Basics

What was the thinking behind making the full art basics have different rarities based on the season? There's a pretty big margin between 10% and 40% chance here?

Part of making things collectable is having variance between the versions. Some should be easy to find, while others require more work.

Art Basics Rares

Value Boosters Rare Guarantees

Why don't the value boosters guarantee a rare?

The point of the booster pack is to be a low cost alternative. Having rares show up in some boosters was how we were able to do that.

Boosters Rares Value Boosters Value Boosters

Value Boosters in Draft Formulation

Why not support a draft format using value boosters? Combine 2 value boosters for each round of the draft. If value boosters are priced reasonably, this should provide a cheaper way to draft. It might even end up being a better format due to fewer rares.

Value boosters, on several vectors, aren’t designed for that, nor easily could be given their constraints. Also, the places they’ll be sold and the places drafts happen have little overlap.

Boosters Draft Formats Rares Value Boosters Value Boosters

Changeling Role in Typal Sets

Does Bloomburrow prove that a typal-themed set doesn’t need changeling to work? Or will Changeling stick around for typal sets with heavier creature type emphasis?

The as-fan of typal themes is a lot lower than sets like Lorwyn or Ixalan. “Here’s a snippet from my article today that touches upon this:To give you a sense of what I mean by a sprinkling, here are the typal rewards for Frogs:
A common that costs less if you have a Frog
An uncommon sorcery with a rider if you have a Frog
An uncommon land with an effect that helps Frogs
An uncommon land and a rare creature that cares if a Frog entered the battlefield this turn
An uncommon creature and a rare creature that grant Frogs an ability
A rare creature that cares about casting Frogs
The number of typal cards can vary slightly, but that will give you a rough idea of the as-fan I’m talking about.”Here’s a link to the whole article:
The Bloom of the Burrow, Part 1

As-fan Bloomburrow Changeling Creatures Exploratory Design Frog Ixalan Kindred / Typal Lands Lorwyn Rares Sorceries Spoilers Story / Lore Uncommons

Pack Card Order Standardization

May I request that more effort be done to standardize the order of cards in a pack? I understand that different printers may have different requirements but it really hurts the enjoyment of opening packs when I can't tell which end has the commons and which has the rare.

It’s a much harder request than you might imagine due to the number of printers we use.

Commons Rares

Half-sized Booster Possibility

Do you think we could ever see boosters with half the amount of cards in it for half the price of the usual-sized boosters?

In Japan, we make boosters that have only five cards in them (with a lower price point). Rares aren’t in every pack. I don’t know if we’d ever bring something like this to another market. Japan interacts with trading card games in a very unique way (there’s a lot more of them and they skew younger).

Boosters Japan Rares

Rare Use of 'Kindred'

We use kindred very infrequently. Could you please explain why this is?

It’s just a slippery slope to putting a lot of extra words on cards for minimal mechanical gain.

Kindred / Typal Rares

First Rare Card

What was your first rare(s)?

Stasis.

Rares Stasis

Silver Border Problem Explanation

Can you explain how the "silver border problem" differs from format legality? Like, if you can use a Rare card in Pauper because it was at one point printed as a Common, why can't you use a silver border card that's also been printed in black border?

It just creates confusion. Silver border has loudly been not for tournaments for so long, that it would cause arguments.

Black Border Card Printing Format Legality Pauper Rares Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets

Errata Excitement for Kenessos Deck

Hi Mark,I've seen that some people are upset about the whole cephalid are octopus errata but as someone who plays a Kenessos deck I am pretty excited! "Sea creatures" are 4 pretty uncommon types so it's rare I get any fun pieces for that deck, this errata brought a lot of new (old) cards into the fold that I am excited to play. Bonus points the flavor is still perfect! So it seems like a great choice to me, please pass along many high fives.

Will do.

Cephalid Creatures Errata Flavor High Fives Octopus Rares Uncommons

Reserve List Cards' Oracle Text

What do you think about reserve list cards that have a different oracle text than what is printed on the card. They can never be reprinted in paper with the correct text so there will always be cards that are different from what is printed? Is that a concern or is that fine?

The bar to acquire Reserved List cards is high enough that it would be rare for players who can acquire them to not have a greater awareness that they are not up to date Oracle-wise.

Card Printing Rares Reprints The Reserved List

Slickshot Show-Off's Abilities

Slickshot Show-Off really didn't need +2/+0 for every noncreature spell for being a cheap creature with flying and haste. And what happened to abilities triggering only once each turn? This is ridiculous. Just give cheap creatures prowess and give something like this to more costlier creatures. We're past the Phyrexian arc, can we get back to a level of normalcy please?

It’s a rare costed for constructed formats. It gets to be very good in limited.

Constructed Creatures Flying Haste Limited Non-creatures Once Per Turn Phyrexian Prowess Rares Slickshot Show-Off

Impact of Play Boosters

Does the fact that play boosters have the opportunity for more rares impact what cards you print at rare and mythic for limited purposes? One of the MKM packs I opened for a draft recently had 4 different blue rares in it.

We’re designing sets such that common and uncommon have more answers to the rares and mythic rares.

Blue Boosters Card Printing Draft Formats Limited Murders at Karlov Manor Mythic Rares Play Boosters Rares Uncommons

New basic land possibility

Now that we have snow-covered wastes which fills the only obvious remaining gap, if or when: a new basic land card

If. We really only want the five basic lands (with Wastes being a very rare exception).

If/When Lands Rares Snow-Covered Wastes

Renaming scales likelihood

which scale is mostly likely to need a rename first?i guess this is, absurdly, asking for a Scale Scale.

Scales are named after 10’s in the scale. We, on rare occasion, do 10’s. If we do one of the things the scale in named after, I’m not changing the name of the scale.

Rares

Emrakul and Brisela Decision

Why wasn't there a Meld Emrakul in Eldritch Moon, though?

There was only one rare/mythic rare Meld pair and the story strongly wanted it to be Brisela. (It was two known creatures that literally melded together to make a new creature.)

Creatures Eldritch Moon Meld Mythic Rares Rares Story / Lore