A couple of years ago, in your podcast, you mentioned how Frozen Solid (SCG) is a complete break of the color pie. Why is a card like Dwindle (M19) okay, whereas Frozen Solid is not?

Dwindle is a bit of a bend, but the creature’s controller has the choice when the creature dies, not the blue mage.

A lot of people saying that the control mirror in the Pro Tour doesn't count because the metagame is so different. I'd like to remind them that Jeskai control that got 2nd at an SCG after the PT, UB Metallurgic Summons that lost a win and in at Denver, and Ari Lax’s 12-3 finish at Denver. Control isn’t top tier, but it is still very good.

A good point.

Are you allowed to write articles for other websites like Channel Fireball or Star City Games? If not, why?

I am not. Wizards does allow me to do a weekly column, a weekly podcast (with two episodes each week), a daily comic, a daily vote-off, numerous social media interactions and this blog (that just passed 60,000 posts). What more are you looking for me to do? : )

idk if there's much you can do about it seeing as they're a store and all but Today's Star City Games article about Women in Magic made me, and more importantly a lot of women who play magic uncomfortable. I thought you should know as "the mtg community guy"

I very much want to start a dialogue about what the Magic community as a whole can do to make women feel more comfortable. Thirty-eight percent of Magic players are women. I would love if we can start figuring out how to make in store representation closer to the larger number. 

Can you elaborate on why Wizards has chosen to deliberate restrict the flow of metagame information by not releasing all MTGO results and asking SCG not to release their full metagame results? Is it really that bad if spikes analyze the data?

Yes, it is. The technology exists to process that amount of data. We don’t want formats cracked too fast.

Will Wizards ever make Legacy a supported format? As of now, if SCG didn't support, it would be almost a dead format.

We do support Legacy. It is sanctionable. We have events like Eternal Weekend. What you are asking for is Pro Tour/Grand Prix support. The problem is the limited availability of the cards created an unbalanced playing field for a world-wide supported organized play system.

Of the Top 8 at the SCG Open in Philadelphia recently, 6 of the decks had black in them. How exactly is black having trouble showing up in competitive constructed decks? Honestly, I don't understand why it's believed there's a problem with it.

You have to look at the bigger picture than one top eight of one tournament.

You forgot to mention Timbermare as a card named after someone. I thought that was a really nice move by you guys at WotC and worth sharing. (SCG has an article about it)

There are actually a bunch of cards named after people. The question was about cards named after R&D folk I believe. I forgot Mons, by the way, of Mons’s Goblin Raiders fame. Mons is an old friend of Richard Garfield.

I just want to chime in that I agree Spike does seem to get all the attention when it comes to competitive Constructed. Non-Spikes like competing, too, even if it's just for the social environment. (All my local FNMs are filled with the same decks as one would see in an SCG event or a Pro Tour; it's not a less competitive event in terms of cards played.) It would be nice to see a Standard in which Timmies, Johnnies, and Spikes could all play decks they preferred with equal viability.

There are Timmy and Johnny cards that show up in constructed. Note though that Spike determines what he likes by what is playable in competitive environments, so by definition Spike is always going to have more cards in tournament play.