The Dark had a slight colour imbalance in that some colours had more monocoloured cards and others had some gold representation (it amounted to very little difference overall however). Do you think design would be more willing to lean slightly into "imbalance" like this if it served the set's function?

We do it all the time at high rarities. I don’t see us doing it at common like The Dark though.

I'd argue that Batman's desire to 'save' Gotham from crime comes way more from Black reasons. He doesn't want to do it to help people, although he'll sometimes pretend as such, he does it because of an obsessive complex born of his desire to avenge his parents. It lets him pretend to have power in a world gone mad. There is certainly some White to him, but to say he's non-black kinda misses a large part of the point of the character in modern times, that he's just as broken as his foes.

He dips into the dark side of white - he’s obsessive, he takes dramatic steps because it’s what he thinks is for the greater good, he assumes that the worst is going to happen and plans accordingly often violating the trust of others, but none of that comes from a place of putting his needs above that of the city/worldHe wants to keep offers from suffering they way he has suffered and yes, the job gives his life purpose, but seeing Batman as being driven by a desire to do what is best for himself at the cost of what is good for society is a very untraditional read of the character, and this from someone who’s read Batman for forty plus years.

Hey Mark - I'm yet another enfranchised minority player who is really, really disappointed that the golden standard for MTG storytelling is Batman repeatedly locking up the Joker. I would hate for MTG to become an IP where the card game repeats the same story over and over because that's what worked in the past. There's been a lot of backlash at Marvel and DC for leaning into that strategy for the comics in favor of other media (movies, TV, etc) being where the innovation is.

We’ve never repeated our story, but we have had villains show up again. That’s pretty standard for any ongoing story. And while it’s fine if comics aren’t your personal media of choice, they are very popular with a lot of people, myself included. Please remember that different people might enjoy things you personally don’t. You not liking them doesn’t inherently make them of less quality. Many excellent stories have been told in the comics medium, a large number using Batman. The Dark Knight Returns, for example, is in my person top 10 of comic stories. I recommend Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics if you want to get a better understanding of comics as a storytelling medium.

Innistrad was popular but I’m not a goth person. And Lorwyn was great to draft, with Tribal (type) being the part that excited me. But seeing the art for Throne of Eldraine- now that’s exciting. It’s got the comedic relief of an UN-set with the dark of Innistrad and the faerie/mystical of Lorwyn all rolled into one. +1 Mark and Team Sincerely, Fan of 21 years

I’m so excited for you all to finally to see the whole set.

I need a promise from you that if we every have a set with Nissa or Kiora as the antagonist, it will be named "War of the Bark" or "War of the Shark".

I make no promises, but maybe. : )Liliana would be “War of the Dark”.

Could Preacher (from The Dark) be printed as a R/W card, given that the creature stealing is a Red ability but the card concept is White? In general, could ability/flavor be a source of multicolored cards?

Preacher was out of color pie for white when it was printed. The concept doesn’t justify any whiteness if we made a new version.

Hey mark, been readying your blog for a while. Its now my morning ritual while travelling to work. Ive opened my 1e tumblr account just To ask you my first rime question! Old school player here (The Dark). Its about Arabian Nights. Youve stated that Rabiah will likely never be revisited in a Standard-legal set, due to the fact that it is not Wizard's own intellectual property. How come is a wizard product is not owned by it? Bonus question : Taysir of Rabiah : an if or when? Love your work !

All the Arabian Nights material is in public domain. It’s just a matter of us wanting to use our own creative in our sets.

How come Lili of the Dark Realms was taken as a lesson to preserve PWs mechanical identity, but the recent Jace was a complete departure from his usual schtick? Is it acceptable as long as it's strongly in flavor?

Jace in Ixalan had amnesia and only figured out his illusion powers so his planeswalker card reflected that.

We are only 4 months away from having a brand new set released and still don't know anything about it. Is that a new direction to wait this long in the dark? We knew about Rivals - which released in January 2018 - as early as June 2017 with the 25th anniversary announcement. When will we learn information about the Fall set?

The information is coming pretty soon.

Hi Maro, I found the card "Preacher" from the Dark and realized it had the same effect than "Evangelize" from Time Spiral, "gain control of target creature of an opponent’s choice he or she controls." Could this be a white way of stealing creatures? Could we see it on other future cards? It can be immensely rewarding, feels like a puzzle (find a way to kill the other creatures before) and works particularly well in EDH. I like it a lot.

Evangelize was us doing a throwback reference to Preacher. Time Spiral, celebrating the past, did a few things we didn’t do in the present at the time. It’s not a white ability.