If Cabal Coffers/Stronghold effects aren't black anymore... Didn't Modern Horizons 2 putting Cabal Coffers into Modern violate the "don't put existing breaks into formats" rule? Surely that rule doesn't postdate MH2...

It’s more bend than break. It doesn’t undermine a weakness of black.

Could a wall have a secondary type based on what it’s part of/who is behind it? For example, could the wall of a goblin stronghold which is built by goblins and has goblins on the battlements be a Creature - Goblin Wall?

Creature types are what things are not what they’re made by. Avacyn, for example, isn’t a Vampire Angel.

With Balloon Stand being a legal card that creates Balloon tokens, will we get an errata on other cards to make them balloons (Goblin Balloon Brigade, Kinsbaile Balloonist, Talas Air Ship, Rishadan Airship, Stronghold Zeppelin, etc)? Would Lita's tokens also become Balloons?

The balloons on those cards aren’t the focus of the card.

Hey Mark,it was late summer '98 when I started to pick up on something my friends already had done. I wanted to collect an entire set of Magic. While they did Tempest, Stronghold, Urza’s Saga (later that year), I chose Unglued.Almost 24 years later, I flipped through the old binder and decided to buy the final handful of pieces. My son’s watchful eyes flashed over my shoulder. We had played before and I had to explain to him that these were funny cards.I had to translate them to him, a weird twist on me learning English through their flavor text.I told him a new set would be coming out this year and when I showed him pictures he grinned and asked whether we could play these cards.Now I just looked and they will only be available in English. Sadly. And he won’t be able to play them any time soon without a lot of help, which is a big downer.In a time where Magic aims to support a wider audience, where acceptance and diversity in topics seems to be held in high regard, I am once more baffled that certain sets still restrict their audience in such a way.My son is now asking: Why do they do this? I want to play.While I could answer there are a lot of financial reasons, it is no secret that Magic is doing great. That answer feels hollow to me.Can you please shed some light on this?

I can’t really explain Unfinity until you can see it. I can say we did some things that don’t quite work in every language. I do think there’s the potential for a multi-language Un-set, but it would come with a bunch of mechanical limitations.

404.2. Each graveyard is kept in a single face-up pile. A player can examine the cards in any graveyard at any time but normally can’t change their order. Additional rules applying to sanctioned tournaments may allow a player to change the order of cards in their graveyard.From the Comprehensive Rules (June 18, 2021—Modern Horizons 2)Did I not even deserve the simple respect of a Google?

I think you needed to keep Googling. : )The comprehensive rules are the totality of the rules, but the tournament floor rules can override them based on the needs of individual formats. Here’s the ruling from Magic Judge Resources: In formats involving only cards from Urza’s Saga™ and later, players may change the order of their graveyard at any time.The set Stronghold has the last cards that care about graveyard order. Urza’s Saga is the set following that, so in any format that only includes later sets players may change the order of their graveyard.The most common formats for which players cannot change a graveyard’s order are Legacy & Vintage.In short, what I said in my original post was correct. Graveyard order only matters in formats where cards pre-Urza’a Saga are legal.

What is the "spike mechanic" and why is it so controversial?

It’s a mechanic from Stronghold (it premiered on one card in Tempest). Spikes are creatures that enter with some number of +1/+1 counters and have an activated ability that can move them to other creatures. Most the Spikes also had an activation that required spending +1/+1 counters as a cost. We haven’t redone them because they add a lot of board complexity. I wouldn’t call the mechanic controversial though.

Long-time player - 10 year old fantasy fan me got into the game with a pile of Stronghold commons and an Avenging Angel from Tempest. One thing in Magic that really stood out to me was the lack of two very common fantasy races - Dwarves and Orcs. Their lack made Magic feel more special, breaking the stock rota of races. Do you, or your followers feel a similar way?

I think the majority of Magic players want to see Dwarves. What do you all think?

Hey Mark, missed my birthday on Wednesday and would like to get some triva on Spikes (the creature) plus a maybe on their return?

I originally designed Spikes in Tempest design, but we pushed them back to Stronghold, save the one teaser, to separate them from the Licids.Happy Birthday!

Any advice for drafting Tempest / Stronghold?

Figure out early if you’re trying to win quickly or slowly and draft accordingly.

Mark, it's my birthday! And this is my first ask on blogatog. Could I get some trivia on 5-color design?

The first five-color card I was ever associated with was Sliver Queen in Stronghold. We wanted to make a Sliver lord and Slivers were all five colors, so making her five-colored seemed like the only right choice. I worked her into the story and she and Karn had a touching scene (she was guarding the Legacy and Karn talked her into letting him have it).Happy Birthday!