Concerning power creep, there may be a comparison and distinction to be made between distorting a format and adding relevant cards to a format. If a card is relevant, it shows up in decks, right? Maybe even a lot of decks. That's good for a format-relevant product. Otherwise, why even make the product?But then what is the delineating mark between format change (good) and format distortion (bad)?One could argue that Serra Angel is an example of format change. Arguably obsolete, nobody is really objecting to the card's irrelevance in eternal formats.So. What is that dividing line? Is formst chsnge just 'distortion over time'? I would argue that healthful change is oft misperceived as power creep, but it took a lot of cards in Commander before we figured out that '2 MV ramp and repeating value' were the prime culprits in accelerating the casual format beyond its 'battlecruiser Magic' roots.I'm not making a big argument one way or another, just trying to stimulate a brain or two..

For starters you’re not using “power creep” as I use it on this blog, but for the sake of saying the same thing for the tenth time, I understand you mean the increase of cards impacting older environments. You bring up the other thing we haven’t been talking about. Card influx talks in neutral terms. Add N relevant cards and impact the environment a particular amount. The faster you add N, the quicker it changes. The sets designed for older formats aren’t adding in cards neutrally though. They are adding in suites of cards built around particular mechanical themes. Adding in whole suites of cards changes environments more quickly as the threshold to make a deck theme relevant gets hit more quickly. That’s the other big impact of designing for a format. It causes you to impact it faster as you are designing whole swaths of mechanical pieces, not just cards. That’s very relevant to the topic at hand.

Would you ever do a podcast specifically on the Black Green Serra Angel question and what you think it communicates about design ability that is worthwhile? I’m a teacher and tutor, I think a lot about question design, and I feel like it has driven so much discussion there might be a cool 30 minutes on the question and the principles behind it.

I can add it to the list. The big question is is there a 30 minute talk about it?

Hello Mark! Reading an article on the set “Power Lunch”, it was mentioned that the baseline for creatures was fireball (e.g. Serra Angel was a 4/4 for 3WW). Is there any similar rule of thumb today to keep power creep in check? Thank you and wish you Happy Holidays!

The idea behind “Power Lunch” was the baseline for spells was Ancestral Recall. Note it was never a real product, just humorous musings.

Has anyone at WOTC cracked the joke that now blue having vigilance mucks up the infamous Great Design Search 3 "GB Serra Angel" question?

It still doesn’t make white/blue the correct answer. : )

May I request a Black-Green colorshifted Serra Angel?

You may.

In one of your podcasts, you said something about Hurloon minotaur sending a letter to Serra angel saying something like "You're cut from the 5th edition while I'm still in.". Today, some redditer showed us a holiday card with both illustrated. Is this holiday card is a letter you were talking about?

No, I was talking about an ad, that we never ran, for fifth edition. That was an illustration from an early holiday card.

Hi Mark, it's my birthday today. Might I ask for some trivia about the 'original' Serra Angel and/or maybe a specific question? Was Serra as a planeswalker as we know her today part of the concept from Day 1? I started playing when Revised was just out and cannot recall any such info available back then. Keep up the good work and cheers to the team, Heiner

When Richard Garfield made Serra Angel, the word Serra came from “serrated”, as in a blade, as the creature was a warrior. I don’t believe there was any intent that it was specifically referencing a person, let alone a planeswalker.I believe Serra, as a planeswalker, first came about in the story for Homelands. The set borrowed a lot of inspiration from popular cards in Alpha which included Serra Angel.Happy Birthday!

Maaaaark! Segovian Angel! You're gonna need a Handy Dandy Clone Machine to make you 2 new hands for high-fiving the one responsible

The card started out in the Hackathon as part of a cycle I made of little versions of iconic creatures. I think I called the white one Wee Serra Angel and it was a 2W 2/2 flier with vigilance. (Making common, but nostalgic, French vanilla designs was hard.) In vision design, Kelly Digges came up with the idea of making it Segovian and Ethan shrink it to a 1/1 in response.

RE: The new standard for multicolor cards. Is this policy new within the last year or so? I'm asking because I remember the big debate about what multicolor combination Serra Angel would be due to one of the multiple choice questions in GDS3. Thanks for your time!

It got established as we were making Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance. Note that the GDS Question was about seeing if the test takers could find an answer within the given constraint.

It's my sister's (11th) birthday, can I have some trivia on her favorite card, Serra Angel?

Serra comes from the term “serrated” as they are rough, battle angels. Happy Birthday to your Sis!