So last week, iirc, you mentioned that today's making magic article explains why energy moved from temur into jeskai. But the article makes no mention of the color shift. Can you explain why it had to move colors?

I believe I said my podcast with Erik Lauer on the topic talks about it. That goes up this Friday. But maybe I misspoke and said my article.I’ll give you the short version. The set had to divvy up the core themes and Eldrazi worked better in green/blue/red as it wanted to have more ramping elements and wanted green more. Energy went into blue/red/white because it had more of an aggro component and played better in those colors.

So far Temur, Bant, Esper, Naya and Grixis have been previewed. Can we expect all 10 three-colour combinations in OTJ ?

No, all ten are not there.

When designing a Commander product, do you approach each deck/commander as a faction? Do you look at potential archetypes from tearing the decks apart and putting them back together (e.g. RUG in WHO) as a faction? Finally, would you consider a podcast on Universes Beyond design?

Designing Commander decks is partially about how the deck plays in a vacuum and partially about how it plays against the other decks that come out with it. The latter is extra important in Universe beyond decks. Usually each deck is looking to have a new theme or a new take on an old theme. It also thematically ties itself to the product it is released with. Universes Beyond design has been added to the “short” list.

Hi Mark, I wanted to ask your opinion on this, because its a hill I'm willing to die on and no body else I talk to thinks it even makes sense really. Do you think Werewolves based in Temur could exist? Not that we will see them or anything like that, but do you think the idea behind them is feasible: That blue wants perfection, and what could possibly be more perfect than the body and ferocity of a beast fused with the brilliance of inventors? Does that make sense within Temur to some degree?

I think the natural third color for Werewolves in a vacuum is black, but in the right world with the proper creative creature types can make sense in other colors. White Zombies on Amonkhet are a good example.

Hi Mark, I was looking at the ONE cards, and I noticed that a lot of the mechanics seem to fall into 3 color pairs, specifically the enemy color wedges (Temur has oil counters, Sultai has proliferate, Abzan has toxic, and Jeskai seems to have some artifact synergies). I was curious if this was intentional, and if it was, if it means that ONE was a wedge set at some point in design, or if this was a result of some other part of the way you design sets.

It was purposeful that certain themes show up in three colors, but it wasn’t because the set was ever a three-color set. It just lets us have some nuance with draft color pairs. For instance, white, black, and green are the toxic colors, so it lets us do three different draft archetypes that are each distinct from one another.

Hi Mark! Today is my 22nd birthday. Can I have some trivia relating to my favorite wedge Temur? Also, if you don't mind asking a bonus personal question or two, what is your favorite three-color combo and triple color card? Feel free to ignore those last two, those are just me being curious. Thanks in advance Mark!

Temur plays into an aspect we don’t often see in blue, a quest for physical perfection. I don’t have a favorite trio. I personally am Jeskai (blue/red/white), if labeled as three colors. I’ll choose a card I just designed as my favorite three-color card. I’m really proud of it. : )

About this time last year, I asked you what creature types you felt like needed support (either for EDH and you allowed your readers to weigh in. I was wondering if you'd be interested in doing again. I would also like to ask how R&D feels like they have done over the past year in terms of expanding tribal support to tribes that need it. It definitely seemed like there were a few creature types (Assassin and Archer for example) that definitely got some needed assistance over the past year. Here's hoping for Temur Dinosaurs in Return to Ixalan!

Answer away everyone.

Hey Mark! Just wanted to say thanks for answering a question I asked before! It means a lot to me, even though its small. Anyways, this is a question that I'm not sure you'll actually know the answer to or not, but where do the names for factions come from? Like, does anyone you know (yourself included) have a method to create the names? Like, Maestros. How did that come about? Temur? Izzet? Thanks for any answer you give!

It’s the creative team’s job to generate those names. There are a lot of tricks they use to make them.

Hey Mark! I noticed something that got me curious... I'm used to the WUBRG color sequence in Magic, and thought every card followed this pattern, but I noticed that's not true! Speaking about the 3-color cards, Grixis, Esper, Jund, Temur and Abzan cards follow the WUBRG sequence in its mana cost, but Jeskai, Naya, Mardu, Sultai and Bant cards do not, and I have to ask... why?

All ten three-color pairs do actually follow a WUBRG pattern. The central color, the one with two allies in arcs and two enemies in wedges, is in the middle. Then the colors follow the two-color order. For example, we use WU and GW, so the arc mana is GWU. Likewise, we use WB and RW so that order is RWB.

I love the three color commanders we got with this set, but why no Temur or Azban when the other wedges got representation?

It wasn’t designed as a cycle. Each card just ended up being the colors that made the sense for it.