Surrakar

Desire for More Kavus

I want to throw one in for more kavus. With Magic's unique/original IP big monsters like Kavu, Surrakar, and maybe Sliths (and now Varmints), I'd love to see them show up on more different planes, with reinterpretations and fitting into different settings.

Omenpaths will help this goal a bit, at least as far as seeing them more places. Them adapting might take time.

Kavu Omenpaths Planes Slith Surrakar Varmint

Return to Lorwyn/Shadowmoor

Out of curiosity, what would be a high level approach for a return to Lorwyn/Shadowmoor? Integrating Shadowmoor doesn't seem to be too much of an issue with just using a bit more hybrid and adding Scarecrows as a tribe. However, Eventide seems a bit harder. It has notable amounts of Dwarves, Noggles, Hags and Spirits as half the creatures aren't the eight Lorwyn tribes. Would they just go the way of the Surrakar even they take up a notable amount of one set?

I have a real cool idea how to return to Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, but I don’t want to share it here because I hope to actually do it one day and want you guys to be surprised if I manage to pull it off.

Creatures Dwarf Eventide Hag Hybrid Lorwyn Noggle Scarecrow Shadowmoor Spirit Surrakar

Unique Creatures Production Frequency

"1) There are also a bunch lower down on the scale. We have a lot of unique things to Magic.2) A bunch you have listed aren’t unique to Magic (like noggle or ouphe)." Which unique creatures are lower on the scale besides Slivers? And even those are only in supplemental sets at this point. I didn't know those weren't unique to magic, but the point is still the same; you guys seem to produce the more interesting looking and less generic creatures less often.

The original Magic creature types: Aetherborn, Assembly-Worker, Atog, Azra, Beeble, Blinkmoth, Bringer, Brushwagg, Camarid, Cephalid, Eldrazi, Fractal, Graveborn, Homarid, Inkling, Kavu, Kithkin, Kor, Lhurgoyf, Licid, Masticore, Metathran, Myr, Nightstalker, Orgg, Pentavite, Pest, Phelddagrif, Phyrexian, Praetor, Rigger, Saproling, Slith, Sliver, Soltari, Spellshaper, Spike, Surrakar, Tetravite, Thalakos, Triskelavite, Vedalken, Viashino, Volver, and Zubera.A bunch of those have appeared on new cards in the last five years.

Aetherborn Assembly-Worker Assembly-Worker Atog Atog Azra Beeble Blinkmoth Bringer Brushwagg Brushwagg Camarid Cephalid Colorless Competitive Play Creatures Eldrazi Fractal Graveborn Homarids Inkling Kavu Kithkin Kor Lhurgoyf Lhurgoyf Licid Masticore Masticore Metathran Myr Nightstalker Noggle Orgg Orgg Ouphe Pentavite Pest Phelddagrif Phelddagrif Phyrexian Praetor Rigger Saprolings Slith Sliver Soltari Spellshaper Spike Surrakar Tetravite Thalakos Triskelavite Vedalken Viashino Volver Zubera

Absence of New Surrakars

Hi Mark! As a fan of wacky tribes, is there a reason we didn't get any new Surrakars in Zendikar Rising?

Space. Party ate up a lot of creature type space.

Creatures Surrakar Zendikar Rising

Nonhumanoid Planeswalkers

On average, how many new planeswalker cards do you intend to print in a non War of the Spark year? ( Including planeswalker decks) Then rationalize to me why 1 of those a year cant be a Sphinx, or Hydra, or Spider, or Ooze, or Fairy, or Surrakar, or Khenra, or Viashino, or Cephalid, or Nantuko, ect. I’m not trying to be rude, I just legit don’t understand why 1 or 2 of something weird a year is so problematic when you make so many.

We get somewhere around twelve planeswalkers a year in Standard-legal sets (barring outliers like War of the Spark). They need to be the characters from our story. Most will be existing planeswalker’s as that’s who is in our stories - our cast of characters. That means we only get a handful of new characters. Some of them have to be certain new characters that are part of the story. Our next priority is to hit our diversity goals. We want to figure out groups that aren’t represented by our planeswalkers and give them representation. Those tend to be human or at least humanoid. After that, there’s not much left, many years that fills up all our slots. So it’s not as easy as you think. And that’s not even getting into our market research that shows most players aren’t interested in nonhumanoid planeswalkers.

Card Printing Cast Cephalid Human Hydra Ooze Planeswalker Decks Planeswalkers Sphinx Spider Standard Story / Lore Surrakar Viashino War of the Spark

Banisher Terminology

You say you wouldn't have named a creature that unsummons other creatures "Banisher." I think you forget that, since Dark Banishing back in Ice Age, a host of cards have used "banish" with the flavor of either bouncing or putting the creature back into the library. Examples of bouncing include Banishing Knack and Surrakar Banisher.

Three wrongs don’t make a right.

Banishing Knack Creatures Dark Banishing Flavor Ice Age Surrakar Surrakar Banisher The Library