How do you feel about having scry and surveil in the same set? I feel like I mix them up at least once per draft

I, and many other R&D members, prefer them not to be in the same set, but some set design leads disagree.

Have you ever thought of formatting card draw as a keyword action like scary and surveil? ("Draw 1" as an analogy to "Scry 1?") Why or why not? Thanks for answering our questions sir.

It’s not necessary and would make it harder for new players to understand.

Im just gonna say I know my community is beyond sick of all these new keywords and actions and whatever you wanna call them. Like all excitement for Thunder Junction was sucked out the window when we read the phrase "commit a crime". Because we knew it was gonna grind another dozen games to a halt as we were going to have to look up the exact phrasing, because somebody was going to make some weird play. The same as its been with discover, and historic, and reconfigure. I've even had to stop and explain surveil. Even playing a precon took way longer because I had to essentially keep one card in my hand to make sure I was doing disguise right. And keep explaining it. And while I am it, ward. We had to reiterate all weekend what ward did, so people knew "cant be countered" got around it. And these are tournament players Mr. Rosewater. Some of us have been playing since 93. You cannot get more ingrained than our community. And we are so ingrained we know nothing can change for years. We know how design works. But we are begging you. Soon, please. Stop with the keywords. Just put the text on the card. None of us like having to pull out our phones to add more text to the effects.

The text for all non-evergreen mechanics *is* on the card, with the sole exception of a few high rarity cards where the reminder text doesn’t fit. And that’s been true for decades.

Hi Mark. Would it be possible for colours other than blue and black to Surveil through a token (similar to how red, white and green can draw cards through clues)?

Sure, white’s the one to watch as it isn’t supposed to be good at filling up the graveyard.

Now that we have Scry and Surveil everywhere, can we get a few cards with Fateseal?

It’s just so mean.

If you make another faction set on Ravnica, would you avoid using surveil on non-Dimir cards since it was a Dimir keyword originally, or would it be available to all guilds since it's evergreen now?

It’s available to all as it’s evergreen.

Hey mark. I haven't bought any new cards lately (since brothers war) but looking at murders at karlov Manor it looks awesome. Can you please apply gift fives to whomever designed those surveil duals. My EDH decks are very happy. Also I like the facedown support because I have an Ixidor deck, just waiting to see how much of it is in Blue haha.

Will do.

Changing exert to stun counters would be a large change since it stops working with untap effects and being able to use those, such as Vizier of Tumbling Sands, is an intended feature of the mechanic. Same is true of persist/undying using finality. It is a feature, not a bug, that you can sac a persist/undying creature twice, reanimate it, then do it twice more. Also, changing old effects to use scry or surveil was largely a buff and these changes would be nerfs which generally upsets players.

Fine points.

Do you think it's a good idea to put both scry and surveil in the same set? Does it ever lead to confusion because the two abilities are so similar?

I personally wouldn’t put both in the same set, but not all designers share that opinion.

Bonsoir, Mark! When new keyword mechanics are made, we sometimes see old cards with identical text errata'd to have the keyword (like Surveil, recently). Is the reverse possible? For example, could Investigate on old cards be replaced with "Create a Clue token" if the designers felt it was the best approach?

I think we’re going to continue with investigate for creating Clue tokens.