Please pass my thanks to whomever decided otters should be a thing in Magic.I've carried an otter plushie around with me to events through my entire Magic playing career, so almost 15 years. Ive had an otter along for the ride from pretty much every FNM to PTQs to traveling everywhere I could drive within 8 hours to play Legacy for several years or even trips to the other side of the US for large events a couple of times.I was screeching and immediately tried building an otter deck when Lutri and Theving Otter came out with Ikoria. I was literally babbling with joy at the otters in Wilds of Eldraine for MONTHS. To say I'm beside myself with excitement for Bloomburrow would almost be an understatement.My favorite thing to build or play in Magic are tribal-based decks. I built an angel one as my second ever deck (Shards of Alara/Zendikar standard) so I could teach my mom to play before she passed. I was known for a knight/Sword of _____ and _____ deck for years. I've even played Merfolk and Tribal Lightning Bolt (burn) decks a time or two. But I can now have my beloved otters as a theme for my deck.Literally the only way that it could be more perfect for me would have been if there was an Otter Knight named Rora for my little tournament companion.So thank you for making my love for Magic even stronger by adding otters.

I like making otter people happy. : )

Hello Mark,
The time span between the First Planeswalkers being released (in Lorwyn) and the Second set (in Shards of Alara) was almost a full year (by scryfall, 9 days short of a full year).
Do you think it will be as long before we see more Battles, or do you expect them to show up in sets again sooner than that?
Thanks!

We’re being extra cautious with battles.

Mark, if I may: I understand that this Phyrexian Arc actually started back in Scars of Mirrodin, just as the Bolas' Arc kinda started back in Shards of Alara, but the "ignition point" of the Bolas' Arc felt for me something around Magic Origins, which give us like 4 years of stories, while the ignition point of this Phyrexian contlict feels like Kaldheim but it had a pause until Kamigawa came out, which gives us like 1,5 years worth of stories. Maybe if we had like 2 years of development of this part of the arc things wouldn't feel that rushed.

The Phyrexian storyline has been subtly building for many years. Maybe it was a little too subtle.

Compared to the Shards of Alara or Khans of Tarkir sets, it seems to me that New Capenna has way more dual colored cards. Is this a new way to design shards and wedge sets?

I don’t think the numbers are too far from Khans of Tarkir.

I would just like to say I am both saddened and excited by the early reveals about New Capenna. On the one hand, I truly started my MtG journey with Shards of Alara, so seeing a full return to the shard combinations is exciting. Even if it’s not the actual Shards, it still feels like a return to my beginnings in the game. On the other hand, after seeing so many returns to Ravnica (which I love) and reading a lot about R&D’s design principles (and some previous questions to you), I can’t help but feel disheartened that if New Capenna is successful as a product and a setting, I will never get to see another Standard release set in Alara. Neon Dynasty and The Brothers’ War have shown that, at least for narrative sake, Magic can now go either into the past or future, partially eliminating the need to follow where previous sets left off. All this is to say that, while i understand design constraints and the need for freshness, I am sad that we will never see a true return to Alara…

A return to Alara is not off the table.

Before Shards of Alara came out, the color combination of a color and its two allies were commonly referred to as "arcs," after the shape you get if you draw a line between the three colors on the card back. "Wedges" got their name for a similar reason. I assume the reason wedges hung around as a slang term was because there was such a long time of them having no name that the functional term stuck.

Some people still call the allied combinations arcs.

Salutations Mark! It's my birthday and I was wondering if I could get some trivia on Geyadrone Dihada or the Grixis color combination in general?

The original Grixis mechanic in Shards of Alara was a mechanic that triggered whenever a creature died. That mechanic got de-keyworded and moved to Jund. It appeared on a handful of cards. It was replaced by Unearth, a mechanic I called Flashdance of the Dead when I created it.Happy Birthday!

May I redeem my birthday trivia for a fact about Alara reborn?

Shards of Alara design started with the question, “How could we make an all-gold set?” The whole block structure was created to allow us to get to Alara Reborn.Happy Birthday!

Going for 3 years in a row. I got the Counsil of Marks working on Esper and you also being on Bant and Naya design teams but still designing Unearth for Grixis Is there anymore trivia on Alara, its Shards or is cards for my birthday so that I may know everything there is to know about it?

Shards of Alara had more designers in its design team than any other set. This is because Bill liked to rotate through team members to get lots of fresh blood and the set have a mini-team for each shard.Happy Birthday!

Was there ever a time you wanted to go with watermarks on cards but decided not to?

Numerous times. Shards of Alara is the one that jumps to mind.