Hi Mark! You've said that card text without relevance to the format its printed into ('can be your commander' on standard set planeswalkers, for example) is unlikely to appear to avoid confusion. We are now getting one off mechanic returns at high-rarity, like rebound on the blue Ojer which has relevance for standard and limited even though it isn't a set mechanic. However, The Mycotyrant references Saprolings despite them not being in the set- does this not fall more into the first category?

We treat references to creature types differently than we treat references to formats.

Is Ciphers design space that much less than other instant or sorcery keywords? I feel like it could work with nearly any effect as just a bonus way to reuse the spell. A bit tougher to guarantee than rebound or buyback maybe, but I would've thought it'd be in a similar boat to those sorts of abilities.

It has to be an ability that’s meaningful post-combat. That shrinks thing’s significantly.

With white getting its once per turn draw, I understand divinations are out of the question. But what about an instant for 3W with draw a card, gain 2 life and rebound? Would that be in pie, a bend or a break?

I think a rebound “draw a card” could be done in white.

When designing Khans of Tarkir, did you deliberately avoid impulsive draw for red since it is a nonbo with Rebound?

I don’t think we did impulsive draw yet as of Khans of Tarkir.

Why was Rebound the mechanic for the Oujtai clan in a flavor sense?

They’re really into basketball. : )

Just listened to the podcast on izzet and while i think jumpstart is a great fit did r&d ever consider rebound? It seems like a natural connection for the "spells matter" guild theme as well as being flavorful. And as jeskai showed in khans it wouldve made a decent bridge between izzet and boros. Though i while admit it wouldn't have played as closely with dimir, when it came to surveil and jumpstart. Rebound would fit great with the card advantage route that dimir and izzet share.

We talked about rebound. It wasn’t as synergistic as we wanted.

Can an ability word appear on a planeswalker?

It can and it has. A few examples: Garruk and Arlin had Transform. Narset had Rebound.

Why doesnt embalm work like persist/undying? Just bring the creature back with an embalm counter and make the embalm counter have the exile part.

The same reason Flashback isn’t just Rebound. Because the payment is an important part of the cost.

Where does Narset Transcendent have a non-loyalty ability?

She uses a keyword mechanic (Rebound).

Here are some keywords and ability words that are also card names: Vigilance, Lifelink, Exile, Fear, Overload, Rally, Rebound, Channel, Unearth, Provoke, Vanishing, and Recover. I'm sure there are more, too.

FYI