Mark, I found your animal mega-batch discussion thrilling and charming, and I am sorry it did not convince others, but I guess I do see the downfall already in the list you gave us: it includes serpent typing as an 'animal', but as a biologist/paleontologist I'm not sure there has ever been a real 'serpent' other than very large snakes...

In normal English is “serpent” not a synonym for “snake”?

So Outlaw is a grouping (Warlocks, Pirates, Rogues, Merceneries, Assassins), along with Party (Wizard, Rogue, Cleric, Warrior)If/When do we get Sea Monsters for Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, Serpents as a grouping?

If, but small if.

Hi Mark, Will we see more retroactively established creature type "groups" like we've seen with party and outlaws already? Looking at sea creature types that are commonly grouped, like "Leviathans, Krakens, Octopuses, Merfolk, Serpents". Can you add whale if you do? Thanks.

I assume we’ll do more creature type batching. If we did sea creatures, would people people like Whales added

The "parties" that have appeared in the past and now the "outlaws" are an interesting experiment!
Kiora asked when Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, and Serpent would become "sea monsters."

Tell her it’s possible in the right set.

While I understand many people enjoy the KLOS batching, I appreciated the opportunity to build decks around commanders that cared about Serpents and Krakens specifically. May I request similar cards for Leviathans and Ocotopodes, please?

The more we subdivide things up the harder it becomes to make enough cards to support deck strategies. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but it’s a limiting factor.

A bit of trivia for you and blogatog readers, Mark. It's not the first time Magic got a two words creature type. It's the first time in English, but in French "Serpent" is translated with "grand serpent" (literally "Great Snake"), because "serpent" already was the translation for "Snake"! 🙂 I don't think French players have had any issue with it.

FYI

I would like to second Hydra feeling less iconic, and would even say the same for Sphinx. Hydras play well in green, but flavorwise they feel like Dragon's cousin. With Sphinx, the knowledge theme works, but it feels like the 4th flying iconic. My picks would be kraken/serpent and treefolk/elemental.

We tried all those for blue and green and neither did as well as Sphinx or Hydra.

Hello Mark, It is my birthday and I wanted to thank you for a) the typal coupling of serpents, octopuses, leviathans and krakens becoming a recurring theme. It’s led to one of my favorite, most effective decks (and an EDH deck that’s, well, getting there). And b) switching from tribal to typal, even if primarily internally. It’s very cool of you all to take that into consideration. I hope you have a good day. ^_^

I will. Happy Birthday!

I’m curious from a design perspective regarding characters that do and don’t get cards in sets, specifically using Koma as an example.Story-wise, we know that the Kaldheim serpent was phyrexianized through flavor text in MoM. Obviously not every character can be represented in the set, but as with such a prominent character on its plane, what ultimately led to their exclusion from the set and supplemental content such as the commander decks? Was Koma originally in MoM but then later cut? Or was there simply not a place for it given it’s potential colors and rarity? Again, I’m mainly curious regarding the choice to exclude a card/character that is referenced within the set, and simply using Koma as the example talking point.

The flavor text was written after the set was finalized. That might have been the first time it was known that Kona got Phyrexianixed.

"We batch things that are all in the set." < This defeats the thing that was most exciting about batching, honestly. If you won't reference something from Mtg history, then batching would hardly ever be called for, as you're not likely to have 2 things in a set that compete for the same thematic space. I guess if you made a snake tribal card in standard, you still wouldn't batch it with Naga and serpent... 😔

You’re missing the most important thing about batching. Historic, as an example, now encourages you to make decks that care about artifacts, Sagas, and legendary permanents. Two of those three were backwards compatible at the time, meaning it was a theme that a Commander deck could build right away and not need to wait until new cards got created that could meet the necessary threshold (a problem with a new mechanic like energy).